Thanks to nekoashi I could write this fic for Kurobane's birthday.

DATING…?

There must have been something wrong. Or at least I couldn't remember getting such looks from others before. Then I noticed Saeki among them, he was obviously going to go outside.

"Oi Saeki! Wait for me!"

"What is it?" He turned around and looked at me. But before I reached him we heard another voice.

"Bane-san! Sae-san! Are you going home?"

Now that Davide had shown up, I might not get the chance to talk with Saeki. At least not seriously enough. How much longer would I have to wait? I sighed when I walked up to them both.

"Bane-san, is something troubling you?"

Well, damn it. It must have been written all over my face.

"Davide…" I sighed but didn't manage to say anything else.

"Sae-san, I think we should do something to cheer him up," Davide suggested and I noticed how Saeki was nodding.

"Can we come over to your place?" Saeki asked me before I could interrupt them two.

"Why do you wanna do that?"

"Because I sense something baneful," Davide replied and naturally I kicked him.

"Ha ha," Saeki laughed. "But Davide's right. Something's bothering you. We're ready to help you, right, Davide?"

The redhead rubbed his head and nodded with a grin on his face.

"Whatever," I mumbled and began to walk towards the door. Both of them followed me as though they were my dogs. The thought made me smile for a second.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

In the end I didn't get to talk with Saeki alone. And I couldn't tell Davide to leave us. He was trying to cheer me up so hard. So tenacious with his stupid jokes and a little too energetic at times. Especially after he had eaten something sweet. But the smile on his face was the proof of how much he could enjoy such tiny things as a bit of chocolate. Whatta weird guy.

However, I had other things to think about, not Davide. He was big enough to take care of himself. I was certain of that.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

A few days after that, the things at school were getting even weirder. It was difficult to tolerate it. Even though I tried to get rid of all the irritation during practice, I didn't feel any better. I might have been seeing things but even the kids who came to see our matches had those looks on their faces. Damn, I was seriously pissed off.

"Bane… I can't find any words to describe your expression but…"

It was Shudou from my class who was also one of the regulars in our team.

"Those kids," I said and pointed my finger at them.

"Yeah, they've been here for quite a while today."

"That's not what I meant. Those smirks on their faces…"

"Ah, I get what you mean. Usually they're different."

"Right, Shudou. But why do they look like that? Why are they doing that? To tell you the truth, it's as though they're making fun of our practice or something like that. It annoys me like hell."

"Bane…" Shudou sighed and patted my shoulder. "I don't think there's any reason for you to be so uptight. If you wanna talk about it, I'll hang out with you after practice."

Somehow his words made me feel a little better and I nodded, but then I noticed someone who had obviously heard what we had been talking about.

"No can do! Shudou promised to hang out with me today." Kisarazu shot draggers at me with his arms akimbo. At least that was a different way to look at me so I didn't really mind.

"Some other time then," I said with a weary smile on my face before I left them two behind me. There was no need to bother them any longer and, moreover, I didn't want to hear the continuation of that conversation.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

The feelings and thoughts were piling up within me. Any time soon I just might explode and then I couldn't be responsible for anything that might happen because I wouldn't be able to hold back any longer. Why the hell everyone was acting so strange around me? And why the hell weren't they showing any interest in replying to that question?

"Bane," I heard someone saying behind me. When I turned around, I greeted Ittchan by lifting my hand up. "You haven't been yourself lately. You haven't even kicked Davide that much, you know."

He was right. But that wasn't the real problem, now was it?

"Bane, does that mean that you and Davide aren't dating after all?"

"HUH?" I let it out much louder than I thought. But I was very surprised. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Everyone knows it. But lately it has seemed more like you've split up."

Everyone knows that I'm dating Davide? What the hell?

"As if we've ever been dating!" I shouted back at him even though he wasn't the one I was angry with.

"Really? It's certainly been like that. Especially after Davide came here and joined the club… I think," Ittchan continued so calmly that I was nearly becoming helpless before him and his words.

The students, who had been chatting near us, were staring at us a little too closely and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I wanted to run away as soon as possible. And find Davide.

"Thanks. I'll talk to you later," I mumbled and left Ittchan standing alone where we had met each other. As I ran through the corridor, which by the way wasn't allowed in our school, I had the feeling that Ittchan already knew why I had taken off so quickly.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

I ran all the way to the classroom where Davide was supposed to be. Some teachers told me to stop running but I was in a hurry. This thing should be taken care of as soon as possible. I didn't want to live with that vexing feeling, it was about time it would disappear.

"Davide!" I shouted from the doorway.

"Bane-san?" He looked very surprised but that wasn't everything. His classmates were staring at me but I couldn't have cared less now that I knew why they were looking at me like that.

"Come here for a sec," I asked as he was already getting up and began to walk towards me. The others must have had unnecessary assumptions of what was going on between us but the hell with that.

"We need to talk," I said at once and grabbed Davide's wrist when he was close enough.

"Ba… Bane-san…"

"I'm not angry with you," I had to add because I noticed that I might have acted too roughly. "There's just something very important…"

"Okay then," Davide said with a grin on his face and didn't seem to be bothered even though I was holding on to his wrist all the way until we had walked up to the rooftop. The next lesson was going to begin and no one was going to be around that time. Now we could be alone and talk.

"Bane-san, is it okay to skip the lesson?"

I couldn't look at him even though I probably should have.

"There is something important…"

"It must be because you repeat that. So tell me, Bane-san."

I walked to the rail, leaned my arms on it and stared into a blank spot. Just something that was far away, something that I couldn't even see with my eyes. There hadn't been any time to think how I would talk about this kind of a matter with anyone. Damn, no one had confessed to me, I hadn't done it, either. So how could such a lie grow in everyone's minds?

"Bane-san, are you ill?" Davide stood by my side but I still couldn't look at him.

"No," I replied honestly.

"That's good then," he said with a voice that showed how relieved he was. Why was he suddenly so worried about me?

"Davide… No matter what anyone says but we…" I sighed before I could continue. "We aren't dating. Right?"

"You don't think that I'm dateable?"

Just because it sounded so foolish, I had to slap the back of his head.

"Is that all you've got to say, huh?"

"There is a possibility that we could date. Or isn't there?"

What was that grin all about? I couldn't understand Davide at all. Did he believe in that lie as well?

"Moron. We're guys. There's no way…"

"Bane-san. Guys can date, too. Even if we haven't dated to date, we could start dating from now on, right?"

"Aaah, just stop it!" I slapped him a little bit harder. He might have been asking for a kick but it might have been too dangerous for us both. At least I didn't want to fall down on the ground, this was above the forth floor after all.

"But Bane-san, we are close. And we already have a special relationship. It wouldn't change much even if we began to date now. Everyone's more or less approved it, I think." Once again Davide was being tenacious. This time I just couldn't quite understand why he wasn't giving up.

"The hell I care who's going to approve it or not." From my point of view it was more about us, not the people around us. "Is there a single reason why you and I would start dating anyway?"

Before I realized it Davide had cupped my face with his hands and stared into my eyes. He was looking at me the way that I knew I wouldn't be able to close my eyes. Everything I could do was to look into the blueness of his eyes.

"Bane-san, I like you. Isn't that enough?"

I was too shocked to utter a single word and thus he continued.

"And if it isn't, then I'll kiss you right now."

An obvious blush rose on my cheeks, it must have reached my ears, my whole head felt hot. And not just that, my body had begun to feel a peculiar heat.

"You're cute." Davide smiled and stroked my cheek with his fingers before I pushed him away.

"You're out of your mind, Davide," I said hoarsely but he was still smiling and had begun to fix his hair by passing his fingers through his thick red hair. He was the cute one over here!

Since he didn't do anything but fixed his hair and chuckled, I had to do the talking. After all he had said much more than I could have ever expected to hear from him.

"Hmph. This's not the place or time to decide such things. If it's going to happen, it happens." Those might have been meaningless words but we both knew that even if I hadn't accepted Davide's request, I hadn't rejected him, either.

Since it was too late to go back to the lesson, I took Davide to the convenience store nearby and bought him some of his favourite chocolate. Best friends could do such things even if they weren't dating, was what I thought while I looked at how happily Davide munched the sweets.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

The first time we kissed was enough. It affirmed the fact that we were going to start dating. For the meantime we were going to keep it a secret from the others - all I had to do was to promise more kisses to Davide and he was ready to stay quiet about the renewal of our relationship. Therefore we could both be happy, and above all be happy together.

-the end-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BANE-SAN!