Disclaimer: FoR is not mine. Neither are Tokiya or Fuuko. I'm only here to play with them.

Author's Notes: Thanks so much to abubi-chan, Shenhui and loujane14 for their reviews! Here's chapter two of the fic. Chapter three should be up within the week. Again, no betas and all mistakes are mine. PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! AND THANKS FOR READING!

Chapter Two: Caring is Creepy

Accidental.

That was the word he finally decided upon after gazing at her for almost an hour, eyes carefully hidden behind the curtain of his fringe this time.

She was accidental.

As if God, Allah, Kami, or whatever deity there was that was responsible for her creation, had truly meant her to be plain, maybe even ugly. They gave her an oddly shaped nose, too full lips, eyes too big for her face topped off with the unruliest of hairs. But somewhere along the line the plan backfired because they ended up creating something so complex and unique that it couldn't help but be beautiful...more than beautiful even; she was luminous.

Of course, he was quite certain they meant her body to be perfect and they definitely outdid themselves in that aspect. So much so that the fates always seemed to find an opportunity to strip her of her clothing, as if flaunting their creation to the world. And he wondered if perhaps heaven was filled with a bunch of perverts.

"Mi-chan," she said with a dreamy expression.

"Yes," he replied, successfully hiding the excitement in his voice, a reaction he had when she said his name (or should it be her name, as somehow 'Mi-chan' sounded natural coming from her lips) with such a soft twang.

"How long til the end of class? I'm hungry," she confessed with a sheepish grin. Gods must be working overtime to keep her in shape, with the way she ate, by all logic she should be the size of a pregnant cow at this point.

"Half an hour more, Kirisawa." He masked his amusement with a scowl. He reached for his breastpocket and pulled out a lemon mint candy. "Suck on this first, should get you through til the end of the day."

Somehow the words sounded dirty to his ears. He wondered when he had become such a lecherous pig. But she did not seem to take any notice of this and gratefully accepted the candy and practically inhaled it.

"Owe you one," she said with a wink, candy still lolling between her tongue.

"Owe me three, you senile monkey. You drank my soda at lunch time and proceeded to eat MY cup noodles. Speaking of which, I haven't had any form of nourishment since this morning, Kirisawa. If I die of starvation it will be on your head. I will sue you from beyond the grave," he threatened rather convincingly.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Drama queen."

"I am no queen, monkey."

"Princess then?"

"Bite your tongue." And then he did something he had never done before. He reached over the table and flicked her nose. It was a spur of the moment thing. But the thing is Tokiya Mikagami never had spur of the moment things. He quickly withdrew his hand stuffed them in his pockets. He looked like a kid who just got caught watching porn by his mother. He sincerely hoped that she would just disappear.

He could hear Fuuko's laughter permeate the little shell he had retreated to. But she was not mocking him. He spied a glance at her face and she looked genuinely amused.

"Mikagami, don't look so guilty. You were bound to lose your cool at some point. It happens. Just be thankful it was a very soft flick to the nose and you did not whack me over the head with a steel pipe," she managed to get out between snorts.

Tokiya gave her a smile that did not reach his eyes. Because he knew that his intention was not to engage in any sort of physical sparring, like she and Recca would have, no matter how minor; he really just wanted to feel the skin of her nose against his pinky.

Fuuko dragged Tokiya inside the first Ramen house they passed. Apparently the second one's chef was notorious for not washing his hands after doing some dubious activities in the lavatory. They sat at a table by the window and Fuuko immediately motioned one of the servers to them. She ordered for the both of them and he thought it was refreshing. He was tired of women who always expected their male counterpart to order for them, as if they're completely incapable reading off a menu and then deciding which one they would like to eat and relay that message it to someone in a penguin suit. But then again, he wasn't exactly Fuuko's male counterpart. He shook off the foreign feeling forming in his chest and focused once more on the chatty monkey in front of him.

"My treat Mikagami-sempai," she said with little bow of her head, "hopefully you will not die as I do not fancy being sued by corpses."

"Then you better hope the chef here actually washes his hands. I have a very sensitive digestive system," he drawled.

"I didn't know you were so fragile Mi-chan," she said with an exaggerated gasp.

"I'm not fragile," he said testily, "I'm easily susceptible to food poisoning when it is not prepared hygienically."

He grew slightly red at his mini-revelation. He was supposed to be a warrior not a pansy assed prep kid who couldn't eat street food.

Fuuko also seemed to flush but as it would appear for entirely different reasons. "Sorry, Tokiya, I didn't know about that."

She only called him Tokiya when she was unsure of herself. He wanted so much to launch his foot up his own ass. The girl was being extremely kind and he couldn't stop himself from acting like a complete jerk. A fresh wave of guilt hit him at seeing her squirm a bit in her chair, perfect teeth biting reddened lips uncertainly. Once again he did something unexpected. He reached over the table and held her right hand in his.

"Thank you, Fuuko-san. This is a lovely treat." He gave her a rare smile. "But if I start vomitting you're taking me to the hospital and you're paying for the bills." He couldn't very well let her think that he had a soft spot. Especially not when the soft spot was meant for her.

She did not seem to hear his last remark though as she was staring at their still clasped hands. He made no move to let go. The feel of her hand, so small and delicate within his, was comforting. And he wanted to relish that elusive feeling...just a few seconds more of her skin touching his and perhaps he will survive until the next lifetime.

"Your order's here."

Fuuko jerked her hand away and Tokiya felt that vague sensation of loss, a black vacuum deep within the recesses of a non-existent heart eating every last inch of his being.

"Arigatou!" she said politely.

Fuuko might as well have dunked her head in the bowl of Ramen noodles with the way she was eating. Tokiya found her lack of any form of grasp of proper dining etiquette oddly endearing. He looked dainty eating next to her.

He was barely halfway through his bowl when he heard Fuuko snort the last drop of cola in her glass and followed it with a small burp. Her cheeks reddened, giving her a healthy pink hue and whispered a "Gomen."

Tokiya merely raised an eyebrow and continued eating, proper dining etiquette and all that jazz.

"Do you eat this slow all the time? Or is it just for my benefit?" She had her elbows on the table while her chin was propped up on her conjoined hands. She looked as if she was studying him thoroughly and Tokiya felt naked beneath her gaze.

"I eat at a normal pace, monkey, for humans anyway. Your mouth, that's where the problem lies, it acts like a Hoover vacuum whenever around food," he said.

She just nodded, as if she understood where he was coming from. "So my mouth, that's the problem."

Tokiya fisted his hands under the table. "Kami, let's not talk about your mouth..."

He spoke without emotion. "Yes, it is much too huge." Not that he minded this in the least bit.

She laughed at his answer and he quirked his eyebrows in askance. "When Recca and I were kids, he used to tease me about how my mouth will eventually take over my body. If you think they're huge now, you should've seen me when I was wee."

The mere mention of the ninja's name...he just had to ask. "Did you ever like him, Kirisawa?"

"Didn't we clear this up the other night? You know, with me throwing up a little in my mouth and all?" she retorted with a bemused smirk.

"But you had wanted to be his Hime," he said. Yanagi had a penchant for telling stories.

Fuuko rolled his eyes at him as if he was an impertinent twelve year-old. "It was a title for me, Mikagami. There was nothing romantic about it, I just wanted to beat him, because he had always been the best. And the title of 'Princess' was just arbitrary. Beating him was my main goal."

"You're a strange creature, Kirisawa."

"So I've been told."

She linked her arms in his as they walked home. Usually Tokiya would have wriggled away as if she had fungal growth on her forehead. But this was an unusual night so he let her. He wasn't sure what had changed. Was she more than a monkey now? Well, he'd never really thought of her as a monkey. Tokiya prided himself in his ability to categorize people without pinnace. Kagerou was part of the elderly, Yanagi was of course in the 'Precious' box right next to his sister and Ganko was somewhere in the corner. Then there were the evil men he wanted dead and evil men he just wanted maimed. Everyone else, monkeys. But she, she refused to be categorized. She's not old enough to be part of the elderly. And he was certain she would in no way appreciate being called precious and if the box weren't proverbial, she'd probably end up wreaking havoc in the 'Precious' box. And he definitely did not want her dead or maimed.

y all respects, she was female but unlike other females in his life, she did not need nor want to be saved. She'd probably kick you if you tried. Nor was she a martyr, sure she'd save your ass but she wouldn't die doing so, because she'd always find a way to get you both out of danger; in her eyes there was no other way. But she was never cruel like the females of the Uruha clan. Despite the rough exterior, she had always shown heart and kindness...too much sometimes. She easily got irked at the tiniest things but her patience with him never wanes. And even with the tomboyish haircut, decidedly male brazenness and apparent aversion to make up, there was something seductively female about her, so seductive that he was certain there would be a number of boys in school who would sign over their souls for an hour with her in a dark secluded area. But even with such a sinful body, she remains such an innocent. She baffled him so much and he concluded that it would be much easier to dismiss her as just another monkey than to think any more of it.

But it was hard to dismiss her as just another monkey when she was pressed so close to him and he could smell that unique mix of vanilla and mint coming from her hair. She could easily be just another girl, but he knew that was one big fat lie not even denial would buy.

"Between the two of us, who do you think would win in a fight?" she broke the silence, perhaps it was getting to her.

Tokiya spent a minute pondering before coming up with an answer. "It'd be a draw."

Fuuko turned her head towards him to watch the shadows on his face. "Draw?" she asked stupidly.

"Yes, draw. Because you wouldn't have it in your heart to actually mortally wound me," he said confidently.

"Really, now? You think I'm that fond of you, ne?"

"You are, Kirisawa. Don't try to deny it," he said and sent a smirk that would've made a lot of girls and some boys in their school swoon, her way.

"And what about you?" she asked.

"I suppose I wouldn't want you mortally wounded either," he replied.

She kept quiet and he thought he heard her say that that wasn't the questions she was asking. Whether or not he had imagined it, he decided to answer.

"That must mean I'm that fond of you too."

Her head shot up and a rose of red crept upon her cheeks. He smirked again and threw his arm around her shoulder, pulled her against his side and turned them left, down the street to her home. His arm stayed where it was until they reached the red gates of her house.

She was already a few hundred feet away from him but he could still smell vanilla and mint, lingering in the air as if taunting him to even try and not think of her. And think of her he did.

Tokiya remembered the first time Fuuko said yes to Domon's pleading for a date. The Hokage team were having picnic at a nearby park on a clear Sunday morning. He had no plans of going even, not until a certain violent monkey showed up at his house at five thirty in the morning and threatened to cut off his testicles and feed them to the ducks in the pond if he did not come with her. The woman comes up with the most unusual threats.

Fuuko was sitting on her calves, the green grass a direct contrast to her dewy legs. She had on these denim short 'booty' shorts, as she liked to call them, and a plain white T-shirt that stretched evenly at her breasts. She had her headphones on listening to one of them classic rock bands she loved so much. He knew it was Led Zeppelin. She bangs her head a certain way when she listened to Zeppelin.

Domon stole his way to her side and for the fifteenth time that morning, asked if she would have dinner with him the next night. It was almost as if she didn't register what he said as she took off her headphones and turned to Domon looking a little lost. But she had shocked him and everyone else when she said a small but firm, "Okay."

Needless to say, Domon was ecstatic.

But Tokiya could only think that she could do much, much better than this gorilla who's even more obtuse than Recca.

Then her words rang in his ears. "He was a good guy."

He always wondered why she was immune to his charms, never acting like a simpering idiot around him. She didn't swoon or fawn over his good looks and his icy exterior that made other women took for mystery and machismo, she only saw as obnoxiousness and an annoying hindrance to any form of friendship. He finally figured out why.

She looked at people with her heart.

He smiled as he imagined the ghost of her form flushed against his side, the way she had fitted perfectly within the nook of his arms, as if she was made to be there, as if he was made to coddle her. And she gave no signs that she wanted to move away. She looked at people with her heart. Perhaps she saw something good in his.

TBC

A/N: The next chapter will contain wedding plans and more hormonal teenagers.