CHAPTER 2

"Goodnight Natsume" said a smiling Mikan, and then leaned in to kiss the said boy. He kissed her back, and said his goodnights to his girlfriend. He walked down the hallway to head to his dorm, while he thought about his two friends and the events of what had seemed like a rather long day. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard loud stomps from above him, and he was pretty sure they were coming from the hallway in the third flood of the girl's dormitory. He raised an eyebrow when the stomping stopped and it was dead silent. He shrugged his shoulders and wondered out of the building.

'I hope they work things out' was Natsume's last thought about his friends as he walked through the school to get to his own special star room, and rest for his upcoming mission.

-3rd FLOOR OF GIRL'S DORM-

Footsteps could be heard along the narrow hallway. The first pair was a sort of walking/almost jogging pace while the other pair of feet were total stomps that seemed to be trying to catch up to the person in front of them.

"Would you stop so that we can talk" said a slightly pissed Ruka.

"Why should I? We have nothing to talk about" said a calm Hotaru.

"Hotaru, please, I just want to talk to you" said Ruka in an irritated tone, almost catching up to the inventor.

"Why bother, I don't need the explanations right now. I am tired and need my rest. Besides I can feel the tone of your voice; why try to talk to me when you don't even want to?" asked the Ice Queen as she stopped in front of room 345, and reached for her key in the back-pocket of her blue jeans. When she finally founded them she reached for the knob and unlocked the door. She went in, not really sure if Ruka followed her in.

She turned around and her eye twitched when she saw that nobody was there, pretty sure that Ruka had been just behind her. She reached for the door and closed it, peeking a little to see if there was anyone outside. Nothing. Sighing silently, she closed the door. Quietly, she went to her window and closed the curtains, which was usually the beginning of her nightly rituals, and then went straight to her closet, to pick out a few things for her shower, also a part of her nightly routine. She was absently going through her nightwear drawer when she groaned.

How did the game turn out so wrong? She was sure she had calculated every single detail to the dot and, of course, it would end with her being the winner, and Ruka winning too by default, showing that he has no self-control when it came to his hormones. What was he trying to prove anyways? and why did he have to call her that?

Hotaru frowned as she walked from her dark room to her lit bathroom. She undressed herself, not bothering to close the bathroom door. She went into the shower, turned the water on, and let the hot water hit her back, relaxing all the tight knots in her back.

After the water had been running for a couple of minutes a frowning Ruka came out from under Hotaru's bed and dusted himself. Ruka sighed and the thought that any person could easily get in her room right under her nose and she wouldn't notice made him irritated. Well, someone that had his skills anyways, he knew Hotaru wasn't a dumb girl to just be fooled by anybody. He sat in her bed, and looked around studying the mess that was Hotaru's room. For being a schedule type person and OCD about her inventions, she could be a very messy person. There were random articles of clothing, books, and knick knacks all over her floor and desk, and of course, her bed wasn't made, but that was like that all the time.

He laid down on the soft bed, and a small smile formed on his face as he inhaled Hotaru's vanilla scent that seemed like it was permanently imprinted on her pillows and sheets. After about 20 minutes the rapid sound of water, it suddenly stopped. The animal boy waited in the dark room for the raven haired girl, with his arm behind his head and his legs crossed. He entertained himself by watching her shadow moving around in the lit bathroom, as she finished some more of her nightly routines. After a few minutes Hotaru came out, wearing a light purple tank-top and a pair of black silky shorts, she had a towel in her hand which was gently drying her damp hair.

"Have you cooled off now?" asked Ruka calmly, not moving from his position, staring up at the ceiling.

Hotaru stopped in her tracks at the familiar voice, but quickly getting over the sudden shock, just looked at him and kept drying her hair. She then turned around and went in front of her mirror to comb her shoulder-length hair.

Not happy with silence as a response, he turned his head to the side getting a full view of her back. His gaze wondered from her shoulders, down her slender waist, to her round butt following her long slender legs. Ruka bit his bottom lip.

Will she get mad if I grab her, throw her on her bed and have my way with her. It seemed to work for Natsume when he and Mikan fought.

"Would you get out already?" said a pissed off inventor as she turned around showing her serious face, which only meant that she was not joking around, and had obviously not cooled off.

Maybe she will mind. Damn

Ruka only stared at her with a bored look. He was testing her. The nerve!

"Come on, let's talk" said Ruka as he sat up and patted the space beside him, inviting her to sit with him. She stared at the spot and sighed "I'm not in the mood to talk to you" said Hotaru not moving from her spot. Ruka fixed himself in the bed in a more comfortable position, supporting himself with his hands behind him "well, we have to talk sometime and if we don't talk right know then the problem will only get worse" said Ruka looking straight at her

She stared with as much force and stubbornness, not wanting to back down, but in her mind she knew she was going to give in because he was right. It always got worse if they didn't talk about it right away. Damn.

"Also, we have to keep our promise of never going to bed mad at each other. We've been successful so far, why ruin it?"

She looked away but nevertheless moved and sat down at the far edge of the bed, too far for his comfort. He sighed. Why did he fall madly in love with this girl again? Well… never mind, he just did and that's the whole reason why he's putting up with this. He scooted closer, glad that Hotaru didn't make a move to scoot away from him.

"Okay. Now, why is it exactly that you are mad at me?" asked Ruka looking at her.

"I don't want you calling me your girlfriend" said Hotaru straight to the point. He sweat dropped. He was glad that his girlfriend wasn't the type that, when it came down to it, walked circles around an issue, but it also hurt his feelings to hear that from the girl that had been with him for the last year.

"Umm, okay, that doesn't explain much" said Ruka while giving her a 'help me out here' look. Hotaru thought a bit and collected herself because she wanted to say things right. She looked straight into his eyes, starting her speech. She had always liked his eyes, the way they turned a beautiful shiny blue when the sun hit them just right.

Not the right time.

"The fact that you call me your girlfriend makes me mad" Hotaru started, now staring at the wall in front of her. "A girlfriend is someone that you take out on dates, hold hands with and do all the mushy crap that we do, but in public." said Hotaru with a serious face.

Ruka's gaze fell on her lap, and he wore a thoughtful expression as he processed what she was saying. It was very simple when he thought about it, and honestly, it was something that bothered him too. That's why the whole stupid game had started, because he had wanted to show her that maybe it was better if they weren't together and Hotaru said that it wouldn't work, simply because of the fact that he can't be without her. It sounded pretty arrogant when she had said it, but it was so true. His face came up to meet her annoyed expression. She was never really the touchy feely type when it came to the relationship, and didn't really like to talk about feelings.

Ruka then smirked, remembering the last thing that she had said, "you want to have sex in front of people? Whoa, I didn't know you were into that kind stuff, Hotaru. It doesn't really matter to me, though we'll have to practice in front of our friends first because, well, totally didn't expect that and I'm not really sure that I can do it in front of strangers but I think that if I can practice…should we call our frien- BAM!

"That's not what I meant!" shouted a very annoyed Hotaru, with one of her feet stomping on the back of the boy that was face-down on the floor. "You idiot" said the blushing inventor as she regained her composure and went back to her seat on the bed. How could he make fun of her when she just had to say something she considered embarrassing enough? She looked at the unmoving body and without mercy, kicked it on the side. "Come on, stand up. I know I didn't really hurt you" said Hotaru calmly.

She heard a low chuckle that was muffled by the floor and had the urge to hit him again. He got up as if nothing happened, sat next to her and pouted, "you know, it still hurts a little, I'm not superman" said Ruka. He looked at the girl beside him, who was looking at him with cold eyes and a face that didn't show a hint of repentance. Her face, she was beautiful, and frowning didn't suit her.

"Stop frowning, you are getting wrinkles" said Ruka as he pointed at her forehead. She frowned more deeply at the thought and then relaxed her face. "It's your fault if I end up looking like I'm forty by the time I'm twenty," pointed out the raven-haired girl. "Especially if you keep cutting into my much needed sleep, like you are right now, so if you need to say something, you need to say it fast."

He smirked at this, "Are you telling me that I'm cutting into your beauty sleep?"

"If you're not going to take me seriously then why don't you leave" said Hotaru as she started to get up but a hand stopped her and pulled her lightly, dragging her back down again.

"I'm sorry, you're right, and I do get what you're saying, okay?" said Ruka "but I thought you didn't mind anymore, the fact that we kept our relationship a secret." finished the boy while the Ice Queen turned around looking at him. Her usual stoic expression forgotten and replaced by furrowed brows and tight lips. "Yeah, I know, but I still don't like it when you call me your girlfriend, when nothing about this" said Hotaru while pointing at the two of them "screams 'we're a couple and she's my girlfriend'. It makes me feel like I'm in a lower place when it comes to our relationship compared to our other friends and their relationships." said Hotaru as she turned her head to focus on an invisible spot on the wall. Ruka took her chin without hesitation and made her look at him.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but remember I'm doing this to protect you, not because I don't want to parade around in central town, wearing a big sign that says 'Hotaru's sex slave and boyfriend'" said Ruka reaching for her hand and caressing it softly, "all I've ever dreamt of since we were in the seventh grade was to be able to give you your first kiss in front of the whole academy and tell every single person in this damn place that you were mine."

"Aww, cute bunny boy has loved me since he was 13. What's that? Like three years?"Said a smirking Hotaru. Ruka gave her a look, "Who's not being serious about people's feelings and thoughts now?"

"Yeah well, that was just pay back for before, and besides you're not uncomfortable with being all mushy honest with your feelings. I actually think that you thrive in seeing me cringe every time you say things like that."

"Maybe I do." smiled Ruka. Hotaru got a little irritated at the fact that sometimes he could be a little unpredictable with his reactions to things. She knew missions were making him to be the kind of person that expects the unexpected.

"Okay, getting back to the seriousness of the situation, I do understand what you are saying and you know how I feel, so tell me, what should we do about it? I can stop calling you my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you go. I already tried that, and it didn't work out well. So?"

Hotaru raised her eyebrow at the question, and instead of answering him, she crawled away and slipped into the covers on the side of the bed that he wasn't sitting on. "I don't know, you're the special star, you're supposed to be this big 'genius'. Why don't you figure it out, and get back to me with something that makes me happy." said Hotaru in her cool voice, with her back facing him. Ruka glared at her back, and then internally laughed at the fact that she's still sore because the higher ups made him a special star because he was their new powerful toy doing missions, but they passed it off as him being "too smart" to be a triple star.

He crawled into the bed and slipped under the covers next to her. Hotaru tensed up a little, but Ruka ignored it and made himself comfortable by molding his body to hers, successfully spooning her, and snaked his arm around her tiny waist. He rested his head right behind hers and breathed in her vanilla and lavender shampoo. It always made him feel better when he was stressed. Hotaru relaxed under his touch, and closed her eyes thinking how comfy and warm her position was at the moment. She really liked how Ruka seemed to be able to cover her with his broad shoulders and arms.

They laid there, in the comfortable silence of the room. Ruka's thumb tracing small circles on Hotaru's stomach, while she ran her smooth fingers through one of Ruka's scars on the arm that was encircling her.

"I hate the academy." she murmured. He brought her closer to him, as if he could protect her from those negative feelings by keeping her with him.

"I still want to call you my girlfriend." he murmured back, not really saying anything about her comment. "I know what you're saying, but this is what I'm saying. I still want to have sex with you, and I don't think that has changed for you either. Not only that, I still want to be able to kiss and hug you, and hang out with, and do all the mushy stuff because I love you. Now, knowing that, it would feel just wrong if, between us, I call you my friend, and not my girlfriend. If we really did that, then I would really feel like I'm treating you like you mean something less than what you really are to me."

Hotaru remained unmoving, taking what he said in. Then, she turned around so she was facing him and touched her forehead up to his, while cradling his head in her slender hands. She gave him one of her rare smiles, and kissed the tip of his nose. He smiled back at her, happy that she was finally happy.

"You're stupid."

Ruka's eye twitched, "what?"

"If you had just kept your alice hidden like Mikan the idiot did, then we wouldn't even be going through this" Hotaru said as a matter of fact.

Ruka's expression became sad and he closed his eyes to block out the thought that the girl he loves might just decide to leave him because the situation, honestly, it sucked, "I'm sorry. I wish I could offer you more than what I am…" Ruka stopped when he felt a single finger on top of his lips. He opened his eyes and cerulean clashed with amethyst. "Stop it baka. I made the choice to jump into the boat you were in; you didn't drag me with you. I don't want you to think that you are being 'unfair' in any way towards me, because I explode when I get annoyed with the situation we have been forced to deal with. Yeah, it was your situation first, but no matter what, I would have still ended up with you, missions or no missions. I love you, and I am telling you, we can get through this." Hotaru whispered to him with such assurance in her voice that he couldn't help but believe her, I mean, she was kind of right all the time.

"If we're going to blame someone for this, we can blame the academy. I know you don't want to hear it, but it's not like I care," Hotaru smirked but instantly sobered up, "and I do hate the academy for all of this."

"You are right, but you're also right about me not wanting to hear it." Ruka said seriously. "I have the same opinion when it comes to the academy, but they were desperate, and they weren't going to let me go, not then, and not now. The last wind alice died and the previous one graduated. The academy likes my alice, what it can do, and they want me to do missions, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it."

Hotaru couldn't help but stare at her lover's eyes and be mad that they could ruin something so good. She really did hate them.

"Besides, I'll be fine, it's not like I'm a reckless fighter or new to this like that last guy with the wind alice. I mean, come on, I can take on the famous Kuro Neko in an equals match if I ever wanted to" said Ruka proudly. It wasn't that he wanted to fight his best friend, he was just, like a boy, proud about it.

Hotaru rolled her eyes. Ruka smiled and put his hand on her upper thigh, and slowly wrapped it around his body. He smiled lazily. "Anyways, I hope that after all of this, we have reached the agreement that I want to keep calling you my girlfriend, but if that's not gonna work out for you,, then how about we just call you 'girl-I-have-dirty-sex-with" said Ruka grinning.

BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!

Did she always have that thing with her?

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