Shadowed Light, Darkness Bright

Summary: the four guys force a wager that makes Sunako have to face the idea that she may not have the labels of "creatures of Light" and "creatures of Dark" to use as an excuse any more

Disclaimer: Not mine, but not yours to take.

Author's Note: This takes place RIGHT after the end of the fourth manga, so it almost, but no quite ties in with the fifth. Also, bewarned of spoilers, in the roundabout sense. First fanfic I'm posting on here... i really hope you enjoy!

Prologue

Kyohei put down the telephone receiver with a click, a grim look on his face.

"Fine," he said, as Yuki, Ranmaru, and Takenaga looked on in horror.

"K-Kyohei?" Yuki asked hesitantly, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "Was the landlady really serious? She's coming in three days for a formal dinner party?"

"And she expects to see you and Sunako-chan together?" Takenaga added.

"Together, with Sunako-chan acting like a Lady ," Ranmaru corrected with a moan.

"Or the rent triples," Kyohei confirmed.

There was a moment's silence between the four handsome guys, then all four, suddenly in chibi form, began wailing.

"We're doomed …. Really, really doomed!" Takenaga said. "And it's all Kyohei's fault!"

Yuki paused in his wailing, thinking. "You know, you're really right. It is all Kyohei's fault."

"Hey!" Kyohei roared. "How are you blaming this on me!"

"Think about it," Ranmaru said reasonably. "Sunako-chan won't come out of her room because she and her pumpkin are too busy watching Halloween movies. She's doing this in the middle of November because she slept right through Halloween. She slept right through Halloween because someone had to hypnotize her into pretending to be your girlfriend, and never bothered to snap her out of it. Thus, if you don't get her to cooperate and do this, it'll all be your fault."

"And since you started it, you can pay however much the difference in rent is if it goes up," Takenaga added as Yuki nodded happily.

"Misers!" Kyohei shouted. "You should at least be thankful the Halloween party put her in a better mood! She may even be more open to the suggestion now, you jerks! And this was after all of you got too scared to pretend dating her. Besides," he muttered, "making up the Halloween party was Noi-chan's idea. If this plan tanks, I say Takenaga should pay for it."

"No deal," Ranmaru shook his head, while Takenaga shouted denial from behind him. "It's your act, and if you don't prove us wrong, the rent's all yours."

"You know, Ranmaru seems… different," Takenaga mused.

"He's currently wrecking the home of a no-nonsense business attourney," Yuki explained knowingly. "I think she's rubbing off on him."

"Ahh…."

"Fine," Kyohei growled, and stomped to the door of Sunako's room and pounded on the door. "Come on! We need to leave for classes soon!"

It took a moment, but soon the door creaked open, then Sunako, blinking at the brightness for a moment, came out of her room humming a song from "The Nightmare Before Christmas," a content smile on her face.

"You've moved on to Christmas now?" Kyohei asked her, rolling his eyes. He wasn't sure if it bothered him that he accepted her creepiness as normal now. At least it saved him the problem of always shuddering every time she brought out Josephine or Hiroshi-kun. She just nodded happily and moved to the door, her dark hat pulled down low.

"Er, Kyohei?" Takenaga asked. "Don't you think you should bring up the…"

"Don't you want to eat a decent meal tonight?" Kyohei snapped back. Pretend to be a couple with Sunako? It only worked last time because he hypnotized her, and he had been desperate. His housemates wouldn't let him get away with it that way this time… and Sunako-chan was probably even more adverse to it than he was. He couldn't bring it up with her yet, not until he had an idea how. "You know how she gets when we bring up her having to act like a lady. If I bring it up now, she'll lock herself up in her room, and it'll be Yuki's cooking tonight."

"…That's a good point," Ranmaru admitted. "But the two of you have to agree to this tonight. We'll help in any way we can."

"Though we won't try to steal her horror movies for you," Yuki shuddered. "We barely escaped with our lives last time!"

"Fine," Kyohei grumped, and the four boys left for classes, all worried about what it would take to avoid the rent this time around.