Disclaimer: I do not own Kaichou wa Maid Sama, I just like to play with the characters in between waiting for chapters.

Around your neck

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Successful," Misaki scraped the remnants of her customer's food off the plate, and added it to the pile of dirty dishes back in the kitchen of Maid Latte. Usui was leaning casually over the food prep counter, his eyes never leaving her form, though she steadily avoided his gaze. He was wiping his hands clean on his white apron, the kitchen counter already cleared as he prepared to finish his part-time shift for the day.

"Just the answer I have come to expect from the Prez," he smirked at her as he pulled the apron up and over his head, taking it halfway off. He hadn't been scheduled to work; he never was really, but they had been hit by an unexpected rush and the kitchen hadn't been able to keep up. Lucky for Maid Latte that Usui had been occupying his usual table in the corner of Misaki's section when the rush began. He had graciously offered his services in the kitchen, much to the delight of both the Maid Latte manager and staff, but the customers as well.

Misaki rolled her eyes as she finally turned to face him. "You think you know everything about me don't you?" she walked by him on the way to the break room, her shift for the night having ended as well. She stopped to wipe her hands on the front of his apron currently dangling down the front of his waist. Usui stood taller at her actions, a small hint of a blush creeping onto his face at Misaki's actions. Trying too hard to think of a comeback, Misaki didn't realize the implicated intimacy of her current action. Having untied only the top portion from around his neck, the apron was now dangling low around his waist, still tied up around his back.

"Not yet Prez, you still manage to surprise me," Usui choked out, coughing slightly as he slid his hands behind his back and untied the rest of the apron. He pushed the remainder of the garment into Misaki's outstretched hands, revealing to her exactly just where her hands had been in relation to his lower body.

Misaki froze as Usui put the rest of the apron into her hands and walked away towards the break and change room. Her entire face lit up red, and she fisted the apron until her knuckles turned white.

"Pervert," she cursed him under her breath as she stalked after him into the changing room.

She tossed the apron at him, hoping to blind side him while his head was in his locker extracting his school uniform. She was too late. Usui caught the apron in one hand without looking as he backed out of his locker. His school shirt was unbuttoned still and his red tie was draped around his head like a bandana, the tie tangling down the side of his face.

"Idiot Usui,"

He smirked at her as he closed the locker. He looked back and forth from the apron she had tossed at him to her.

"What's the matter Prez? You want me to put my apron back on?" he teased, stalking towards her. He looked like an idiot version of Rambo with his tie up around his head like that and his chest all...exposed. Misaki fought back a blush and forced herself to meet Usui's somehow intense gaze, despite the red tie hanging down the side of his face.

"No, I want you put it away." She held her hands out to push it back towards him as he stopped directly in front of her and held it out to her.

"You're the maid," he dead-panned. Misaki rolled her eyes and pushed past him to get to her own locker.

"I'm off the clock," she retorted as she opened her locker and dug through it to pull out her bag and change of clothes.

"You're still in your uniform so that means you should still be doing your duties," he dropped the apron directly between them so it landed at her feet. Misaki looked from the apron to him, a certain coldness creeping up into her glare that she reserved for him and him alone.

"I wouldn't be in my uniform if it weren't for a certain perverted someone," She said as she slowly she bent to pick up the apron, fisting it in her hands. Suddenly she stood and launched it at Usui's face as fast as she could.

"Who won't get out and let me change in PEACE so we can go home!"

Usui shot her a smirk as he dodged the flying apron swiftly, turning his back on Misaki in one fluid movement. He took a few slow, deliberate steps towards the exit before stopping.

"We?" he dead-panned back to her without turning around. "What a presumptuous president...what makes you think I would be walking you home tonight? It was very busy and I'm fairly exhausted from picking up all of your slack tonight you know, I was hoping to just rush home and be on my way, but a certain slacking maid kept trying to make me ..." he continued on his relentless teasing way, just waiting for her to snap.

Suddenly, he found himself forcefully turned around by Misaki pulling on the tie still hanging down the side of his face. Tugging on it, she pulled him down to her face level, having already changed into her regular clothes.

"Make you what?" she asked through gritted teeth, an angry glimmer in her eyes.

"It would seem she keeps trying to make me lose control of myself," Usui told her calmly, moving in just a fraction closer until Misaki realized just how close to her he really was. Her face erupted into color but she refused to give in to him and back away. She averted her eyes without moving her head.

"Idiot Usui," she muttered. "I've never tried to make you do anything you don't want to do..." she turned back, gently pulling the tie down from around his forehead onto his neck and fussing with it, her fingers fumbling against his exposed chest.

"I know Prez..." he allowed, a gentle smile appearing on his face for a brief moment, before Misaki looked up and caught sight of it, her face erupting into an even fiercer blush and she tightened her hands on his tie even more so. Usui's smile broadened.

Misaki continued to mess with his tie, knotting it, undoing it and re-doing it until the flush on her cheeks lessened, with Usui silently accepting her ministrations with no further teasing until finally it was Misaki who broke the companionable silence.

"What are you going to be?"

Usui backed away a bit at her question, his tie slipping slightly from her grasp. "What do you mean?" he asked, as he brought his hands up to try and button his shirt. Misaki flushed, in irritation this time and slapped his hands away, buttoning his shirt herself.

"Like what you asked me earlier, what do you want to be when you grow up?" she began buttoning the lower buttons on his shirt. Usui stilled her hands with his own hands around hers.

"What do you want me to be?" he asked her, his green eyes smouldering. Misaki flushed again and tugged her hands free from his, wringing them together nervously.

"Idiot, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He chuckled and pushed his hair back out of his face.

"Exactly what I said," He told her with a grin. "I'll be whatever president wants me to be,"

"That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say," she told him irritably, avoiding his eyes. She could never tell whether he was being serious or not and she didn't even want to try and figure him out on this one. "Letting someone else decide what you should do for the rest of your life,"

"I trust the president." Was his only response. Misaki shook her head, in confusion and to try and settle the ever present blush on her cheeks.

"How about being your personal chef?" he suggested, tilting his head to look at her better. "I think Ayuzawa likes me in an apron." He teased, a smirk lighting his features.

"No aprons." She responded gently, her hands finding their way back to his tie. As she carefully tied it, properly this time, she thought about it, about what Usui should do with his future. He had always said that cooking was more of a hobby than a job to him. And there was no way in hell she was going to be picking up his cooking aprons for the rest of her life. The trouble with Usui was, she just couldn't see him in a serious light, doing a serious job, as a serious adult.

"What about a personal bodyguard for a certain female president?" he suggested, a quick twitch of his lips betraying the smile he wore into a smirk. Misaki smiled slightly, biting back a chuckle in response.

"I'm not going to be president forever you know," she chided him softly, finally finished tying his tie and preparing to tighten it for him. She paused to look up at him, only to find him already looking down at her, having never looked away to begin with. "Idiot,"

"Maybe not of Seika," Usui told her, "Maybe a country or a company,"

Misaki shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe, I haven't really thought of it yet," Usui straightened up taller as she pulled his tie down, tightening it up, but not too tight so it hung loosely around his neck but still looked neat.

"Then it's settled. You will be a president, and I, your handsome, capable, and ever present bodyguard and advisor." He informed her with an air of finality in his voice, mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Advisor?" Misaki's head snapped up, the red on her face back, from anger this time. Her hand on his tie turned into a fist as she pulled him back down to her face level. "Why would I need to take advice from my bodyguard?"

"You would need advice on certain matters that the president lacks sufficient knowledge on," he informed her very matter-of-factly. Her fist only tightened and the glare on her face lit up as she smirked menacingly at him, the expression of her face alone indicating her message 'tread carefully Takumi'.

"Like what?" she demanded through gritted teeth.

"Dress code, for instance," he told her politely. "Such as how to properly button the buttons on a man's shirt," He nodded down to his shirt, which she had attempted to button for him, but was horribly mismatched and dishevelled. "Also no more ties,"

That caught her attention, confusing her even more so than his words usually did. "Why no more ties?"

"Ties present a certain personal safety liability for a bodyguard, especially one working for a president who has a nasty habit of grabbing the ties of said bodyguard and dragging him around by the neck,"

The hand around his tie tightened even further that her nails threatened to tear through the red fabric, as it shook with indignation.

"Well it might just be my imagination, but I thought that a bodyguard should be more concerned with the safety of his president than his own," she told him, her voice dangerously low, eyes blazing.

"I can't protect you if you kill me Prez," he stated so blandly that something inside her snapped.

The mischievous glint in his green eyes, the slight twitch of his lips curved up into that arrogant smirk that he only ever showed to her. Her chest swelled up, so full of indignation and...Something else she couldn't quite put her finger on, but both feelings filled her to the brim, and she was shaking so hard she couldn't stand it any longer, couldn't decide whether she wanted to throw her hands around his neck and throttle him, or perhaps her arms...

With the hand that clutched his tie, shaking so violently, she yanked him suddenly, the sudden movement having caught him off guard, his eyes widening in surprise as she pressed her lips to his.

The initial shock faded quickly for Usui, as he closed his eyes and returned the kiss, allowing the president, his president, to pull him closer to her by the tie around his neck that she held with one hand, the other hand splayed softly on his chest, right over his erratically beating heart. Usui, ever the obedient bodyguard, let her set the pace, for it was her who had initiated and he sure as hell was not going to be the one to stop it.

A few more precious moments longer, she broke away from him, only a small flush on her cheeks that he knew from experience was not caused by neither her anger or embarrassment, but from something else, perhaps, breathlessness?

With a surprising and uncharacteristic sigh, she laid her forehead against his own and closed her eyes.

"Idiot Usui," she admonished him in barely a whisper. She felt his returning smile against her skin rather than see it.

"So..." he began softly.

"You agree? No more ties?" he suggested.

Her answer was a resounding roar that shook the lockers around them. "IDIOT!" she hollered as she grabbed her bag from off the bench beside them and headed off toward the exit, refusing to relinquish her grip on his tie, dragging a grinning, idiot Usui behind her.

Ties are sexy. And I just love the way Misaki is so preoccupied with Usui's tie, always touching it and grabbing it and she doesn't even know it.

Review if you like it, Review if you don't.

Deceptress