A/N: Second chapter. Only two to go. For future reference, this was written before ep 57, future chapters will probably be written before ep 58. So if you're wondering why there's no mention of Ren turning into a pink flying elephant or whatever, that's because it hasn't aired yet, and I'm unfortunatly not in possesion of a) the official script or b) psygic powers. I'll trying to keep references as general as possible.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Cardfight! Vanguard or any of it's associated materials. This is a fanproduct for fans.


Taffy

The oil was hot enough, so he threw in the chicken pieces. He stirred the chicken, but his mind was elsewhere. What had happened this afternoon had happened before. And always with Aichi. While it hadn't taken long to identify the feeling, he wasn't very happy about it.

He just rather had it wasn't Aichi. Not because Aichi was a guy. No, he would've been fine if it were Miwa or Tetsu, or even that Morikawa guy. It wasn't that he disliked Aichi either, in fact, he was really fond of him.

But perhaps that was the problem, he thought as he cleaned the leek. He cut off the outer layer of the leek and washed out the remaining dirt.

Aichi was prone to pleasing. It had become less as his confidence grew, but Kai had the ability to bring the worst out of Aichi. If Aichi would be confronted with such strong feelings, which he might not return, Kai was afraid he'd try and change himself to become someone that would return those feelings. Kai liked Aichi the way he was, so he didn't want to inspire such a change. Especially since Aichi's initial reaction to the chocolate croissants this afternoon.

He felt nauseated.

He cleaned up the food and went to bed without dinner.

The next day, he went with Miwa to the Card Capital again. He played a few games against Miwa, opened a booster pack(no interesting cards were found), and eventually resigned to nicking Miwa's magazine.

An hour later, as per standard, Kamui and his hanger-ons arrived. Kamui seemed less boisterous then usual, and Kai could almost guess how the game of yesterday had ended. A few minutes later Misaki came in, and Miwa got up to buy something for the next two hours or so. Kai observed them for a bit before returning to the magazine.

Thirty minutes after Misaki had arrived, the Morikawa guy came in with What's-his-face and Aichi. Aichi looked around the shop till he found Kai, he then smiled as a greeting. Kai felt his ears heat up again. He only held up his hand in response, before quickly looking back at the magazine.

He didn't get any reading done though. His ears kept on picking up on Aichi's voice whenever he spoke and Kai found it impossible to concentrate.

He had the urge to join them, but he didn't. Kai was well aware he really couldn't care less about what they were doing and didn't wish to embarrass himself pretending he did. Then he heard Aichi laugh and a irrational feeling of resentfulness coursed through his body. He recomposed himself quickly and decided this was getting ridiculous.

Annoyed, he got his stuff and left the card shop.

The next day after school he directly walked home. When Miwa noticed this, he spoke up: "Ah, you're not going today?"
"No," replied Kai, and he walked away.
As this repeated over the next few days, Miwa became more and more restless.

"Again?" he asked on the fourth day, "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Kai said.

"Then why are you going home all the time? What do you even do there?"

"Study."

"Study?" Miwa gave him an incredulous look. "For what? It's February."

"I'm just behind on stuff," said Kai.

Suddenly Miwa got close, very close. So close that their foreheads touched. So close he could see how the irises of Miwa's eyes were structured as they looked at their touching foreheads. It then hit him what Miwa was trying to do.

"Are you checking my temperature?" He asked.

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because you're acting weird." Miwa backed off a bit. "You don't seem to have a fever." He frowned. "It's not a depression is it? Have you been eating proper?"

Kai glared at him. He then turned around and started walking home.

"Hey, wait." Miwa started walking next to him. "So it's just only because you're behind on stuff, nothing else?"

"Yes."

"All right." Miwa slowed down. "Good luck with your studying then," he said. He turned around and headed in the direction of the Card Capital.

The week after that, Kai nearly bored himself to death. He was doing fine with his homework, in fact, he was ahead. He missed the Card Capital, with it's non-broken heating. He missed having people around him and he missed the rest of Q4. But most of all, he missed playing Vanguard.

He considered going to a different card shop, but then he remembered that since the nationals the members of Q4 gained some fame and he didn't feel like attracting attention. At the least, not before he started playing.

Going to the underground spot wasn't an option either. Miwa had cottoned on by now that Kai only went there when he was stressed out over something. So if he went there, he would undoubtedly end up with Miwa worrying about him in the near future, and he didn't want that. There was no need for anyone to get worried over a stupid issue like this anyway.

He didn't own a TV and his internet connection was shoddy at best. So he spend most of his time doing the only other thing he liked doing: Cooking. He spend his time preparing dishes that he usually didn't have time to prepare. Stews, Indian curries, sushi, he even made dumplings yesterday.

Today he was making taffy. He one made it as a kid, and he'd remembered it being fun, so he decided to make it.

He took the ball of molten sugar and kneaded it between his fingers. Pull, twist, fold. Pull, twist, fold. It was laborious work, but it had something cathartic and Kai felt himself relax.

He'd been thinking about Aichi, more-so then usual. It was probably part of the package. He didn't know what to do about this, maybe it would just solve itself.

A few days later, as he walked through the park, he saw someone near the pond. It was Aichi. He was kneeling over, his face hovering over the frozen pond. He was checking the ice with his bare fingers.

Kai got closer. "I'm not going to help you out if you fall in," he said.

Aichi looked up. "Kai!" he said, he smiled a warm smile before continuing, "How are you?"

Kai felt his ears heat up again, this was getting annoying. "I'm doing fine," he said, avoiding Aichi's gaze.

"That's great!" Suddenly Aichi's expression sobered. He averted his eyes and spoke in a softer tone: "I haven't seen you at the card shop for a while now."

The change of tone was unnerving. "I've been busy studying," he replied.

Aichi's face snapped back: "Studying?" He looked at the ground. "I thought you were angry at us for that stupid joke, I mean, you left right after and you seemed pretty angry. Sorry about that by the way." He spoke in a rush, as if he'd been bottling it up.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kai said. In truth, he hadn't at all paid any attention to the conversation that day. He hadn't realised he had looked so angry. He felt a bit guilty about it.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter anyhow," said Aichi, he seemed a lot more happy, "So, you're coming back soon?"

"Yes." He had said it before he could stop him self. "I still need to do some things, that's all."

"Great." Another smile. There was an uncomfortable silence. They both stared at the frozen pond for a bit until Aichi spoke again: "Uhm, I should probably go, it's getting dark."

"That's probably a good idea," Kai replied, he kept looking at the pond.

"Right, see you soon then." He heard Aichi shift and walk away.

He looked at Aichi's retreating back. "Seeya," he said. Aichi turned to look at him and smiled, before turning back.

Kai watched Aichi leave the park, he smiled. He turned around and then he realised that he had accomplished nothing the past few weeks and Aichi was still off-limits.

He felt nauseated again.