Chapter II
Patch Up

Gao pulled away, his hands coming off the ground, holding them up like he was surrendering to a police officer. Ironically he was. And the crime he committed wasn't going to come off easily, especially with the scene nationally broadcasted worldwide. Whoever was watching probably had their eyes popped out of their sockets. He couldn't say the opposite for himself. Either Tasuku's fans beat him to it or Tasuku himself. "Sorry," he yelled, hands flailing wildly. "It was a mistake. I tripped and—"

Paruko was in front of him, screaming through the microphone. "What do you mean that was a mistake? That was totally a move you made!"

"No, I did not!" The crowd was coming alive again, their gobsmacked faces morphed something akin to anger and resentment, others were tossing sideways glances at each other, murmurs muffled by the shouts and loud talking. Paruko didn't bother to control the crowd when she was busy interrogating him. If you could call it interrogating with this one-sided screaming-fest.

By the stands, Kuguru had her face covered behind her hands, but he could make out the blush decorating her cheeks. Baku was beside her, mumbled 'idiot' before chewing on a bar of chocolate. Hanako was staring confusedly at the flow of atmosphere. A second ago everyone was cheering for her brother until negativity had rolled in, every expression was dead-set to kill. Most of the girls were glaring daggers at his direction. Noboru's jaw was hanging opened, much like most of the frozen ones.

If he didn't do anything, people were going to misunderstand, not that they weren't doing it right now.

Paruko pushed the mic to his mouth. "Mikado Gao, what do you have to say for this? You practically took every chance a girl out there wants!"

"It was just an accident! And a kiss! It doesn't mean anything!"

"You stole his first kiss!"

"How would you know?" Gao bit back. "Besides, a first kiss doesn't mean anything! Sooner or later, you gonna get a second and a third!" He saw Tasuku sitting upright out of the corner of his eyes, eyes hidden beneath his bangs, lips pressed into a thin line. Gao pushed passed Paruko who wasn't ready to be ignored that easily. He tried to sound remorseful, but his mouth wasn't obeying with the words pouring out. "Tasuku-senpai, my foot caught on something and I tripped and I'm really sorry for what I did to you. It was an accident, an accident. It doesn't mean anything unless it was genuine, right?"

Tasuku seemed to relax at the apology, Tasuku's bottom lip fell opened to say something.

"Hey, if that was Ryuenji-san's first kiss, does that mean he belongs to Mikado-kun?" The question slit through the voices of shouts. A girl in the stands was shouting it over the wave of voices to her friend across her.

Gao was ready to retort back when a blur of movement caught his eye, the silence claiming the stadium. Tasuku was on his feet, anger flashed in those ruby orbs, tears brimming at the corner, teeth gritting, the card Gao gave him was in his fist. Gao knew from that reaction he was so dead. "What the heck were you thinking k—kiss—kissing me?" His cheeks were flushed pure red, his voice high-pitched. Tasuku began to approach him in slow, purposeful paces. "Just because you think you were brave and arrogant enough to have won me in a buddyfight, but that doesn't give you a right to do that!"

Gao stumbled back one step. "No—I wasn't—that—that was—"

"An accident?" Tasuku said mockingly, stopping in front of him. "Do you think that excuse is going to help you in this situation! You're making a fool out of me, right? If that was your real intention from the start, that's fine!" He shove the card toward his face. "I swear I'll win in our next fight. You'll regret to ever make an enemy out of me, I'll make sure of that!"

His declaration brought cheers upon the crowd. Gao was speechless of his behaviour, too startled to response.

"Jack!" The said dragon turned to Tasuku. "We're leaving!"

"Now?"

"Now!"

Tasuku didn't wait for Jack as he flew off, leaving behind wisps of sparkling emerald vapour. Jack glanced between Gao and the direction where Tasuku had took off, his eyes staying longer than necessarily on Gao, feeling the cold gaze burning into his soul. He took off, the force of his wings flapped powerfully, a gust of wind pushed everyone back on their spots, Paruko panicking helplessly as her saucer lost control.

Kuguru was running with Baku and Hanako, she extended out a hand and caught him by the shoulder, dragging all of them away. Drum didn't complain and followed. "Hey, what's going on?" Gao was answered by the chaos erupting from the stands. He saw a horde of people descending from their seats, balls of flames in their eyes, fists waving in the air like a mob of villages with pitchforks.

"It seems the crowd has come out from their seats in order to pursue Mikado Gao for stealing Tasuku-sama's first kiss. With the circumstances at hand: Mikado Gao's bold move on claim and Ryuenji Tasuku declaration of denial, how will this end for both of them and for the whole world? Will Gargantua Punisher stay in the hands of Mikado Gao or will Ryuenji Tasuku reclaim the card back rightfully as his?"

The news depicting a solid image of them running away, a rainbow of colours giving chase from behind. Paruko's alarmed face, still in her saucer suspended above the madness, was saying about the true meaning behind this predicament, until Mikado Suzumi lowered down the volume, eyes bemused. "Gao-chan, you didn't tell your mother you were interested in this boy," she said, gesturing to the TV. "Next time make sure to tell us everything, got it?"

"It was an accident! Didn't you see the clip? And stop adding 'chan' to my name!" Gao should have known better than to walk right into the living room acting like nothing had particularly happened. It had slipped his mind and his mother had started questioning him as soon as he'd stepped through the threshold. He didn't even have enough time to think up an excuse, and Drum wasn't support anyway when he was helping himself into a bowl of pudding.

Suzumi clicked her tongue in disbelief. "No, Gao-chan, you cannot say things like that. Love always comes with a spark and a spark always comes from miracles. Remember, a person's heart is really fragile. What you're saying sounds hurtful."

"It's true! I didn't mean to do what I did. I did apologize and said it was an accident..." He trailed off, running a hand through his hair.

"And how did it turn out in the end?"

Gao cringed. "Not good...?"

"Exactly," Suzumi said, nodded sternly. "Obviously you have got to set things right between you two."

Gao shot her an annoyed look. "How am I going to do that?"

"Follow your heart, Gao-chan. Eventually you'll find the answers." The next thing he knew he was thrown out of the house, his mother's face poked out, her smile only made her look deadly. "THAT'S WHY NO DINNER UNTIL YOU HAVE MADE UP WITH HIM AND DON'T COME HOME BEFORE THAT!"

"He makes me so mad..."

Akari nor Jack didn't know how long this was going to go on. For the past hour, they had been sitting in one corner, listening to Tasuku's ongoing tantrum, quietly watching his ministrations on his room, which made the place slightly messier than they thought. Tasuku would keep muttering the same sentence over and over again with a kick or a punch to the wall, occasionally climbing on the bed and slamming a pillow onto the mattress, sometimes tossing books around and littering the floor with done assignments and projects. In a fit of anger, he had resumed his daily activities with the atmosphere getting heavier by each second.

Akari had been called over—more like she was already halfway toward his house. She had a feeling he would be needing more patience than Jack's advices, not that they weren't good. She wasn't all that astonished to see Jack keeping his mouth shut, lying down on one corner of the room, merely watching him.

There was a loud thud; the History book colliding against the wall. Akari winced; Jack's wings fluttered uneasily. Tasuku settled himself on the bed, hands fisting the edge of the bed sheets, the same look flared in his features, but there was one more thing she couldn't put her finger on. Somehow she knew Tasuku wasn't just angry, but confused and as lost as a pup abandoned at an alleyway. He was masking them pretty well. Anyone else would have been fooled by a simple smile or a small manipulation in sentiment. He was good at acting, the barrier was flawless to the point of perfection. It took one simple stolen kiss for it to have a dent, a mistake that should never exist, yet here was his true self out in the open, and Akari was seeing it for the first time.

"That guy makes me so mad!" Tasuku felt eyes on him and directed his glare at Akari. "What?"

"Besides watching you freaking out for the first time without a major issue about criminals, I don't see there's another reason to answer your question."

"What's the problem with seeing someone freak out?"

"The problem is that someone is you," Akari said. "You never really care much about cheesy things that others take into account, much less care about the drama centering the first kiss subject. The only time you were ever that of a drama queen was when Jack's card had fell into the river."

"Will you forget that?" cried Tasuku. "It was an accident! I didn't see and some guy knocked into me and—"

Akari held up a hand to silence him. "Just trying to make a point here. What I'm trying to say is you never pay much attention on someone before. This is a first for me to see, even Jack."

"Because he's a jerk! And a show-off!" His eyes turned stormy. "It's true that his strategy was good and well-thought, but he doesn't need to make a show over it! Why would you even bet on things like predicting someone's cards in their hands, anyway?" He grabbed his pillow and flung it across the room, knocking over a stack of books. "And then he was so sure that the match would end his way so I didn't mind having a rival, but he had to do something as ridiculous as humiliate me in front of a crowd!" He grabbed another pillow, not to throw. He hugged it, his chest pressed into the cushion. "Jeez, he makes me so mad!"

Akari pulled out her LCD panel, a transparent screen glimmered into existence. There was various of taps and drags. She stood from her makeshift seat, went over and sat down beside him, sliding her LCD panel onto his lap. "Are you sure you're even telling me the truth about this?" She pointed. The video was playing over the match he had with Gao. "Or," she added, closing the window and tapped the next video, displaying Gao locking lips with Tasuku. "Is this the real difficulty you're worried about?"

Tasuku's cheeks reddened at the photo. He turned his head away sharply, trying to avoid looking into her eyes. She could see into your soul just by one look in the eye, it was maddening for him to accept her consumptions were hundred percent spot on.

Akari exhaled deeply. "I figure that much," she said, her face starting to take on an uncomfortable look. "How did it feel?"

He was caught off guard. "What?"

"I mean—" She bit her bottom lip. How was she supposed to explain something when she herself didn't understand? There was a lot of ways to explain, but which one was the suitable one? Usually her style involved bluntness and direct approah, but not on this matter though. "I don't know," she said helplessly, throwing up her hands. "I'm not an expect in this area. I have never dealt with this before! Forget about this shit!"

"It's harder than you think."

"Not that, I mean this! Just hear him out for once, okay? He may look like a show-off to everyone, but that was because you didn't hear the end of his story. Give him a chance to explain. Tell me, Tasuku." She grasped his shoulders. "If you were in his place, what would you do?"

This time, his eyes met hers. There was a battle met with intense eyes on each other. There was no going back on this one. Whoever loses admits defeat, that was the main rule. Unfortunately for him, Akari's eyes had always been one of the things to avoid and he was faltering. The moment was broken by a chime of a bell. It was from the door. Someone was outside. They broke eye contact. He left his bedroom door opened, took two steps at a time down the staircase. Not bothering to check who was it because he was planning on turning down any request to go back up his room and face Akari, but he wasn't prepared for this, he realized as the door swung open.

It was Gao.

Gao thought his mother's instincts were blowing the wrong direction at that time. Instincts could only go so far as the human mind desired, but the world never worked that way. Imagined putting two of the same person together, if fate was kind enough to fulfil each of their wishes, but where would it side in the end? The thought disappeared along with the annoyance in Tasuku's face, his expression softened tremendously and he looked tired. Tasuku was holding a deadweight on his shoulders, his responsibilities as the youngest and the strongest fighter in Japan's Buddy Police force, the world wasn't satisfied of his actions and the press wouldn't let him go on another day unless their questions were answered. No matter how Tasuku was adored by the world, if people had jobs to do, he wouldn't be all that lucky to make it out alive.

"Gao-kun..." he spoke softly, almost as if he had forgave him. "What did you come here for?" he asked, his voice reserved, the usual coldness was back, but without the aura of wanting him dead. That was a start.

"To talk." That sounded really lame. He wouldn't blame Tasuku slapping him for it. Tasuku scrutinized him, frowning. Gao felt the nerves prickled in his stomach, twisting in fury knots. He was never this highly strung before, maybe it was because of the consequences that came with if he messed up. He felt no perspiration on his hands. Weird he would get anxious in his stomach, but no sweaty hands or cold feet? Wasn't that a bit too out of order. He realized too late he was actually hungry; a growl came from his stomach. Tasuku stared. Damn it. Dinner had slipped past his conscious and his mother was too concentrated on the subject to feed him. He rubbed his nape, laughing nervously. "Sorry about that, I haven't had dinner yet." This is a bad time to act so casual, Gao, he thought to himself, keeping on his act.

Tasuku tore his eyes away, glancing back into the room. He turned back with a sigh, stepping back, his hand holding the door for him. "Come in. You'll catch a cold if you stay out there any longer. We can talk from there."

Gao obeyed without questioning.

Tasuku's house was simple yet different at the same time. Past the threshold was the living room. Three steps down to the right was a square piece of velvet flooring, in the middle of couches that surrounded the three sides of a low glass table was a vase sizing up a bouquet of lilies, irises and orchids, a flat-screen TV on the wall across it. There were several doors to the left—likely it was the guest room or bathroom. Deeper on the right was the kitchen area. On the left was rows of shelves containing books from the thinnest to the thickest, a round table and a dozen of armchairs placed around it. In the middle of it all, a staircase made of glass steps and silver handles spiralled to the top floor.

The houses around the neighbourhood were big and spacious. He had seen a lot of interior designs through the windows of homes, none of them could be compared to this.

He followed Tasuku to the kitchen area and was asked to be seated by the dining table. There were countertops, stoves, an oven, a fridge, cabinets above, untensils organized around. By the way Tasuku worked his way around the kitchen, pulling out ingredients, closing the fridge with a small push from his hips, handling the knifes, the smoothness in his movements. It seemed natural to him that he looked like he was dancing over the place, gracefully taking care of everything with precision.

He noticed how bright his eyes were, like a pair of rubies in their glory. Dressed in a loose T-shirt and shorts, Gao found it very disturbing for Tasuku to be showing skin. His work clothes and school uniform usually covered over those areas, even the entire length of his arms and legs were sealed away by the fabric. Now he saw the skin under the sleeves and pants were milky white.

"What are you looking at?" Gao snapped back to attention. Tasuku was looking at him with a dash of mistrust, a pot boiling on the stove. Gao realized he was staring too much, quickly peered away, finding himself blushing in embarrassment for being caught doing something inappropriate. Drum would laugh at his expression if he was here.

"You're cooking for me?" he asked lamely, trying to direct the conversation away. It would have been too awkward for both of them to continue. He didn't want to give Tasuku the wrong impression, anyway. It had to do with a lot of explaining, and he didn't see any good outcome from it.

The plan was a success, but it only stirred up another pinch of rage. "Why? Do you have a problem with that?" Tasuku's hands were on his hips, leaning most of his weight on one foot, his eyebrows knitted together, bringing his eyes sharper. Gao shook his head at a breakneck speed, the last thing he needed to do was pissed him off. Tasuku stared at him for a minute longer—Gao hoped the panic didn't show in his face—before deciding it wasn't worth it. He washed and wiped his hands on a paper towel.

"I have company upstairs," he said, ascending the steps. "I'll be back in a minute."

As Tasuku disappeared upstairs, Gao slumped back on the chair, thinking he was getting nowhere delaying their confrontation, it only served as fuel for the fire. Sooner or later, the fire would spread. "Maybe I should have gotten some more advice from Kaa-chan," he mumbled.

He whirled back on his seat when he heard footsteps. He saw a foot taking the first step down. His immediate thought was Tasuku, but instead he found a girl with snow-white hair reaching past her waist, wearing a set of last week's fashion. At the bottom of the stairs, she regarded him calmly, emotionless, but her eyes spoke otherwise. The corner of her lips curved up slightly, as if she was considering him as an amusing experiment. She waggled a warning finger at him. Somehow he understood. One mistake, or else. He nodded mutely. She smiled at him that he discovered was far more terrifying than sweet. Could a girl be more menacing than her?

By the time Tasuku came down, the girl was already by the threshold, putting on a pair of boots. "Have you got everything, Akari-san?"

"Yeah." Her voice said everything. Despite her casual tone, it expressed great authority to control an empire. "I'll be fine. You should be worrying more about yourself," she said, indicating her head his way. "Try not to get pounce on easily. I don't think I would want to hear your next words to be 'not alone did he steal my first kiss, but he also took away my—'"

"Okay, that's enough!" Tasuku interjected. The girl named Akari darted her eyes between the two boys. "Really, it's fine. See you tomorrow."

The door clicked shut. Tasuku moved to the kitchen and began piling the table with an assortment of dishes. Gao's mouth watered at the lamb chop in barbeque source, a bowl of salad with potatoes and coated in mayonnaise, mashed potatoes in gravy and a bowl of steaming chicken soup. Lastly, Tasuku placed a bowl of rice and a cup of green tea before him. He went back to kitchen to clean up, not that there were anything messy about his work aside the utensils. He dug in. The food was amazing.

Gao didn't stop until he swallowed the last grain of rice. By then, Tasuku had sat himself across him, his face on his hands, elbow pressed on the table, his gaze softened. He didn't know why he was mad at the first place, Akari's explanation had made perfect sense. There was no grudge to hold between them. It might have been mortifying, but watching Gao enjoying his meal, it swept all the irritation away. "Ne, Gao-kun."

Gao perked up from his meal, then he went into defense mode, his hands flailing in the air much like the time back in the arena. He stood up; the chair made a protesting squeak as it skidded back, nearly toppling back. "Anyway, what I wanted to say is—"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tasuku feigned confusion, putting on his best baffled look.

"I'm not trying to make a fool out of you or anything—"

"Let's forget this, please?" he tried again, this time shutting Gao up. "It's an accident, right? There is no need for you to apologize." He never thought he would forgive someone so easily. The nightmares were the cause of this mess, and he wanted no part in it nor was he going to start comparing him to Gao. Gao was different.

Gao broke into a huge grin. "Why don't we start this over again?"

Tasuku blinked. "Start over again?"

Gao held up a hand. "The name's Mikado Gao. Call me Gao."

Tasuku took his hand. "Ryuenji Tasuku. Tasuku's just fine."

For the first time in two weeks, there was no nightmare.

Tasuku laid on his back, the covers reached up to his chin, his half-lidded eyes stared unblinking at the darkness that blanketed his room. Everything was identified by shapes and shadows, the humming from the air-conditioner breathed soundlessly, a patch of moonlight making its way past the drawn curtains. The numbers from his digital clock by his nightstand read around midnight.

He wanted to go back to sleep, to make the remaining hours useful. He should be taking advantage of the luck he had been granted with, but he was also afraid that sleep wouldn't stay put for him, afraid that the nightmares would come back again with another place, another catastrophic event, but mostly, the same face. Another part of his hopeful mind whispered rest, peace, and the kiss. The kiss had been a good distraction, the fog was thick enough to cast away the bad things and bring up the embarrassing ones. He could feel his cheeks heating up just thinking about it.

He rolled onto his side, fixing his gaze on the only source of light. He allowed his mind to drift back, the red outline of the moon, a burning village, a run in the darkness, the boy. It was his recent one from yesterday night. Before that the dreams had been more concerned on showing him destruction, himself trapped, alone, and the only comfort he had to confide was the boy. The only human being that appeared at every last moments, before he would wake up panting from exhaustion, realizing his head was being screwed.

He closed his eyes, sat back and watched as the front bangs of the boy's short silver hair grew spikier and longer and red, the back darkening into black, the eyes that were so empty were suddenly filled with a bright gold from the afterglow, the menacing smirk replaced by a goofy grin.

He drifted off with the image burned into his mind.

Author: I have one question for everyone. I did say that this is a canon-AU, but how far am I going to go, that's the problem. Should I follow the canon plot, replace the enemies or should I just stick with a new plot, keeping to the canon. I don't know. I'm a little confused, but I'll see if which one works better.

I'm sorry that Suzumi and Gao's interaction was short-live, but I wanted to save Suzumi for the future where there will be a talk with Tasuku. About Gao and Tasuku's fight being short, well, that one will have to wait. I have a big plan install for the both of them.