Outer Courtyard - 5:10 pm

"Yuji!" Yuji turns at the sound of his name being called.

"What's up?" The question leaves his mouth before he's finished turning, then he groans inwardly when he sees who it is running toward him.

Here it comes... He thinks ruefully to himself.

"You walked out before I could ask; since Yui-senpai and Ui-chan are already home... do you mind.. Walking home with me?" Oh real nice Azusa, make it sound like he's a last resort, so stupid! "I-I mean, if you're not too busy.. I'd like to walk with you..."

Huh, not what I was expecting at all... so either she's not as smart as I give her credit for, at least in regards to feelings and stuff. Or... she actually likes me... well, only one way to find out;

"Sure Azusa, I'd love to walk you home." Yuji smiles at Azusa and sees her face practically explode with the brightest smile he'd ever seen.Whoa! I'm blind... He thinks to himself, mentally noting that next time he should shield his eyes or something when she smiles like that.Having said that, it does make her even cuter...

"Awesome... Oh crap, I forgot my notebook again!"

"That's alright, I'll wait here if you want to go get it."

"No it's fine, I'll just text Mio-senpai and ask her to keep a hold of it for me 'til Monday."

"You sure? I don't mind waiting..."

"Nah, already done." Azusa puts her phone back in her pocket as she responds. That was fast...

"Alright then, let's get going."

The two head off in the direction of Azusa's house.

Ten minutes later they're standing on Azusa's doorstep, Azusa gazing nervously at her hands.

"U-umm.. Did you want to come in for a drink?" She asks, her nerves showing in her voice.

"Your parent's won't mind?" She shakes her head.

"They're out of town 'til next week." Yuji looks a little concerned at her comment.

"You're alone here 'til next week? Is that safe..?"

"I don't know, but I don't mind it. It's a little quiet sometimes but my parents got a cat recently to keep me company so that's nice. Anyway, do you want to come in?"

"Sure, I want to meet this famous cat." Yuji holds the door open for Azusa who enters with a chuckle.

"Not sure if she'll come out, is tea ok for you?" Azusa calls out on her way to the kitchen.

"Tea's fine Azusa, but you don't need to trouble yourself..."

"It's no trouble Yuji. Have a seat, I'll be out in a minute."

"No rush." As Yuji says this, he reaches into his guitar case and pulls out his Gibson L-00 3/4 acoustic.

Azusa walks into the room with a tray in hand, only vaguely noticing Yuji tuning his guitar.

"You tune by ear too? Yui-senpai does that, I can't believe that girl has perfect pitch I mean she's so musically... well, dumb..." Azusa looks slightly ashamed at phrasing her statement like this, probably because she's just insulted her senpai.

"Yeah, I don't always get it perfect, and it's easier for me to do with my acoustic then my electric guitars, obviously."

"Wait, guitars.. As in plural? How many do you have?"

Yuji counts contemplatively on his fingers before answering; "Three, my Gibson Explorer, you saw that at the club on our first day, my Gibson L-00 that's this bad boy right here." He pats the guitar resting on his lap, resulting in a dull hollow sound being given off by it.

"And for performances I have a Fender Stratocaster. Matches with Hideyoshi's 3/4Stratocaster Bass he has for performances."

"Why do you have a different guitar for performances and rehearsal?"

"Because that way if one of them craps out we can still use the other one.. We just prefer to use our Stratocasters for stage shows because they're a pair whereas our rehearsal guitars are different manufacturers. Now, where's this cat you mentioned?"

Azusa looks around for her cat (Azu-nyan #2) and can't seem to find her anywhere.

"She must be asleep upstairs."

"A shame.. So Azusa, what sort of music do you like?"

"Well, I like jazz, obviously... but I also like ballad-y music.. Y'know bands like Creed and all them... I like the way their vocalists sing, I can't seem to sing like that."

"It was called crooning back in the 90's but I don't know many people that still like it, besides myself..." Yuji calmly looks to the neck of his guitar, placing his fingers in certain positions he begins playing a gentle rhythm.

"This is a work in progress, so y'know.. Don't be surprised if it sucks." He smiles up at her when he says this and as she smiles back he starts to sing;

"Like a gift from the heavens,
it was easy to tell,
it was love from above
that could save me from hell."

Azusa's face turns from one of surprise to one of admiration as she hears his intro verse, realising that he's mastered the "crooning" singing style flawlessly. He must really like that style of singing... She thinks to herself, realising it to be the only reason for him to be so good at it.

She realises as he continues that his eyes haven't left hers since he started singing, his next words cause her to feel that he's singing not only to her but for her.

"You got a fire in your heart and it's easy to see,
how the devil himself can be pulled out of me,
There were drums in the air as we started to dance,
Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands,
And we sang;

Ey oh ey oh ey oh ey,
and the voices rang let the angel sing,
we're singing...
Ey oh ey oh ey oh ey,
and we danced on into the night,
Ey oh ey oh ey oh ey,
and we danced on into the night..."

Yuji slows his playing to a stop and looks at Azusa with an expectant look in his eyes, his whole face asking; "What did you think?"

Azusa exhales a breath she didn't realise she was holding, letting it out as a gentle sigh. "That was... breathtaking! Yuji, that was awesome. I can't wait to hear the rest of it, when did you start writing it?"

Yuji scratches the back of his head nervously. "Umm... on the way here..."

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah, I guess when you've got something to write about it just flows.. y'know?" He responds with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense... wait, so what were you singing about?"

Yuji chuckles and leans forward to take up his teacup, replying; "You really have to ask?" before sipping his tea and pulling a face.

Azusa's face drops. "What's wrong with it?" her voice sounding hurt, as if his face pulling is a criticism of her tea making ability.

"Nothing, it's just that while we've been talking it's gone cold..."

"Oh... I could make some more if you like?"

"No it's okay, I'll just put some sugar in it, that'll make it nicer. Like iced tea." Yuji replies with a small smile.

"So... you were singing about a person..?"

"Yeah..."

"A girl?"

"You're two for two."

"So... was it... Yui-senpai?"

Yuji sighs while glaring slightly at the small yet somewhat dense girl seated opposite him.

"No Azusa... it wasn't the girl that acts like a hyperactive puppy 24/7."

"Not 24/7... She sleeps sometimes..." Yuji laughs at Azusa's joke, causing her to smile. "Besides, since she met Kitano we barely hear from her but after today I just thought..."

Yui had met a boy in her class a week after the boys started classes, his name is Kenji Kitano and the two started dating two days after meeting. Yui stopped attending club meetings a few days after that and only rarely attends, normally when dragged there by Ritsu or Mio.

"No, I don't like Yui-senpai that way. The reason I did what I did today wasn't Yui-senpai it was Kitano. Hideyoshi, Mikeru and I went to middle school with that guy... he's bad news... And if you ask if that song's about Mio or Ritsu I'll hit you in the face with this cushion," Yuji says this in a deadpan voice, causing Azusa to giggle slightly.

"Well that only leaves three or four people as far as I know, I didn't think you had feelings like that for Mugi-senpai." Azusa's smile doesn't leave her face as she's glad they avoided a potentially dark/depressing topic.

"Really! So far you've guessed wrong twice, there's not too many options left..."

"Well just tell me than!"

"You should already be able to work it out Azusa... after all there's only one girl in class I call by her first name..."

Azusa's eyes widen as she finally realises that he was in fact singing to her, and about her...

"Yuji I..."

"You don't need to say it Azusa, I already know that I've got no chance with a girl like you..."

Azusa frowns slightly in confusion at that.

"What do you mean by that?" If anything it should be the other way around... Azusa thinks to herself.

"You're incredible Azusa, you're smart.. Like top of the class smart, you're funny, kind, sweet and you're cute as hell..." Yuji smiles a little depreciatively as he continues. "I on the other hand... well, the only thing I've got going for me is my mind... and I'm not sure if you've noticed yet but that's a little broken sometimes..."

"Funny I was going to say the same about you... Yuji you're literally at the top of the class, you're way funnier than I am.. But you still laugh at my jokes, which is nice..." Azusa looks away coyly as she mumbles her afterthought. "Plus, you're the nicest guy in school, well as far as the ones I've met go... most guys in our school are total perverts, I'm pretty sure one tried to put a hand up my skirt last week! But you, Hideyoshi and Mikeru are genuine good guys. Of the three of you though, you're the best..."

Yuji looks confused at her somewhat open ended statement so she decides, with a sigh, to elaborate; "First day of the new term; you weren't even officially attending the school yet and yet you still offered to walk me home. Even though you live in almost completely the other direction.." She looks at him with a face that says "That's right I know you were fibbing that day."

"And don't you remember what happened last weekend?"

Yuji shakes his head with a shrug, silently asking her to refresh his memory.

"Ui-chan and I were out shopping last Saturday... those three big guys followed us down an alleyway and.. one grabbed Ui, one grabbed me and the third guy tried to rob us... I don't know where you came from or how you saw it but you seemed to come out of nowhere.. You scared them off, remember?"

Yuji chuckles at the recollection of the three, all smaller than him although to Azusa they were big... "Right, I remember now... good times."

"Well it wasn't for us, 'til you showed up... you saved our wallets, maybe even our lives..."

"Oh I doubt they would've killed you two, they barely had the guts to face me..."

"Well... you do have a bit of a bear-like appearance... but I think it was your eyes that scared them away..."

"I guess it was. I mean I'm not very good at hiding my emotions, and when someone does something like that to a girl, doesn't matter what girl... It just pisses me off y'know?"

"Yeah."

"And when I recognised you and Hirasawa, well.. They're lucky I didn't give chase..."

"See what I mean, you're the most caring guy I know.. Including my dad and that's saying something..."

Yuji laughs at that. "Not sure if comparing my compassion to your dad is a compliment or not..."

Azusa giggles softly. "Maybe not, but you get my point?"

"I do, and I guess I am a little too hard on myself sometimes when it comes to my qualities... but I suppose it's better than being an overconfident ass... and even if I am the best guy in school, I'm still no match for you..." He smiles up at her with a lopsided grin, causing her to blush.

"I'm not that great... Jun-chan's smarter than I am, and Ui-chan's way nicer than me..."

"Suzuki-san's not smarter than you, she studies more than you there's a difference, if anything that makes you smarter because you can match her test scores without studying all month before the test. And Hirasawa-san's not nice she's submissive..." Yuji realises after he says it that he's just insulted her friend.

"I mean..." He sighs. "She's nice.. Obviously. But the thing that makes her seem nicer than you is her submissive nature... brought on, obviously, by Yui-senpai." His last line is muttered under his breath but Azusa still hears it.

"I guess you're right... but I never thought I was that nice..."

"Okay, my turn to give you some examples; First day of classes, well for the guys anyway.. Who was it that offered the seat next to them for me to sit in when the teacher suggested boy-girl seating?"

"Me... but that was only because I was the only girl you knew..."

"And who was it that told Suzuki off when she tried to use me as her go-between to pass you notes in class?"

"Me, but who else was going to do it?"

"Why did it need to be done? I don't mind playing mailman, I did it all the time in middle school for Mikeru and Yoshi."

"But that's different they're your friends..."

"So are you."

"But Jun's not.."

"She's your friend though, I might not be close enough to call her by her first name, but it's not like I dislike her... she's a friend of yours, and any friend of my friend is also my friend... that sounded less zen in my head..."

Azusa giggles as Yuji thinks of what example to use next. By this point in the conversation Yuji's put his guitar back in its case and Azusa has moved from sitting across from him like an enraptured audience, to sitting beside him.

"Do you remember yesterday in the club?"

"Umm, I remember being in the club yesterday.."

Yuji sighs. "And I thought my memory was bad." Azusa playfully swats his shoulder when he says this.

"Yesterday in the club room, you were there later than anyone else.. You stayed back to keep me company while I changed my strings after practise..."

"I-I would have done that for anybody..."

"Exactly, I doubt any of our senpai would have, even Yoshi didn't stay to keep me company that day.."

"Well, actually..." Yuji cocks his head in curiosity.

"What?"

"I kind of asked him to go on ahead... I wanted to spend some time alone with you..." Azusa's face turns bright red when she says this.

"Well, well, well... looks like little Azu-nyan, has a crush."

Azusa groans when Yuji uses her "nickname."

"Please don't call me that... I can't stand that name..."

"I know, I was just teasing you Azusa.. Sorry."

Azusa smiles, and shuffles a little closer to him on the couch.

"That's ok, you can make it up to me somehow I'm sure..."

"Oh, what do you suggest?"

Azusa hums thoughtfully. "Stay the night?"

Yuji's shocked at the underlying suggestion in her request. "Really? I mean it's already nearly dark, you sure you want to go to all the trouble of setting up a futon and what not?"

"It's fine the couch folds out, it'll take like five minutes to set up. You don't have to stay if you don't want to, but..."

"But what?"

"Well.. I want you to." Azusa looks at her lap nervously as she says this.

"Well, if you don't mind then... I'd love to stay the night. I'll just have to call my folks and let'm know." Yuji gets up and pulls his phone out of his pocket, walking into the entrance hall to call his father.

After a few minutes on the phone, Yuji comes back to the couch with a smile on his face.

"Dad's fine with me staying the night. He did ask what we were planning for dinner but I blew it off by saying we'd already eaten.."

"Well, I don't mind cooking, but I'm not that skilled, mum usually cooks and she hasn't taught me very much in the kitchen yet."

"That's fine, I'll cook. I don't mind in the slightest, in fact I like cooking."

Yuji hops up off of the couch once more and wanders into the kitchen, looking through the fridge he pulls out an assortment of ingredients; Rice, what looks to be a chicken breast, some bok choy and a carrot.

Moving to the cupboard he starts looking through it in search of something, not finding it he decides to call out to Azusa.

"Hey Azusa, where do you keep your soy sauce?"

Azusa comes into the kitchen with a look of recollection on her face. "I think it's in this cupboard over here." She walks over to the cupboard and takes out a small bottle of soy sauce.

"Here you go..." She sees the collection of ingredients he's gathered. "What on earth are you planning on making?"

"Well, I'm going to stir fry the chicken and vegetables in a little bit of soy sauce and stock." He holds up the packet of stock cubes as he says this, setting the kettle to boil.

"Then I'm going to accompany it with a serving of rice, I was thinking of just putting the stir fry over the rice on a plate, y'know, to save on dishes."

"Good plan, I'll get the rice going for you." Azusa makes her offer with a smile.

"Thank's Azusa, saves me from looking for the rice cooker." Yuji flashes a cheeky grin her way.

Fifteen minutes later the duo had finished with their cooking and was sitting down to eat their dinner.

"Wow, Yuji this is really good. Where did you learn to cook so well?"

Yuji's hesitant to tell her the cause of his culinary skill, he decides a half-truth is better than a full blown lie.

"My mother. She gave me a bunch of recipes to learn when I was 11 and I've gone from there, experimenting and such with certain flavours and ingredients."

"So you're mother taught you to cook, she sounds like an amazing woman."

"Yeah..." Yuji feels a slight pang when he hears this. She certainly was, he thinks ruefully.

The rest of the meal was enjoyed in a pleasant silence.

7pm

Azusa's finishing up in the shower and getting ready for bed, Yuji had gone for a shower first at Azusa's insistence (since he was the guest.)

Yuji's folding out the couch when he realises he doesn't know where Azusa keeps the spare blankets. Making his way upstairs he knocks twice on Azusa's door and opens it, poking his head in the door a little.

"Hey Azusa, where do you keep the spare-..." His face turns bright red as he sees Azusa, standing in the middle of her bedroom in a pair of cotton shorts, holding a white tank top over her head, hanging overhead like a little cotton halo.

Azusa turns at the sound of his voice, then, seeing him looking at her and realising she's still bare-chested she drops the tank top, her hands falling to cover her bare breasts in embarrassment.

"GET OUT!" She cries out, turning her back to the door.

"S-sorry..." He stammers, closing the door behind him he turns away from her room and leans against the handrails to the second floor landing.

You've blown it now Yuji, she's going to think you're a total perv...

He hears the door behind him open and turns to see a red faced Azusa trying to avoid his gaze.

"Azusa I.."

"Stop, I know you didn't mean to peek in on me Yuji.. But you knew what I was doing, what were you thinking barging in like that?"

"It was just habit... I didn't mean anything by it, really. It's just me and dad at home so I don't think before I go into a bedroom... I mean it doesn't really matter if I see dad getting dressed, he's a guy too so it's not like I'm seeing anything forbidden..."

Azusa picks up on something when she hears it; "It's just me and dad at home..." So, his mum doesn't live with them?

"Wait, I thought you said your mother taught you how to cook?"

Yuji sighs. I hoped she wouldn't pick up on that...

"She did... Like I said she gave me a bunch of recipes when I was 11, she left me a recipe book in her will..."

In her will... wow, he lost his mother that young... Azusa's face drops as she comes to that realisation.

"Yuji I..."

"Please don't say you're sorry Azusa. I didn't tell you to get pity from you, I told you to explain my actions, nothing more. Also, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this... It's as much dad's secret as mine to keep so..."

"Of course I won't tell anyone Yuji, what was it you were looking for?"

Yuji looks confused for a moment before remembering he actually came upstairs to ask for a spare blanket.

"Oh right, where do you keep the spare blankets?"

"In the linen closet, where else?" Azusa says this with a cheeky grin, knowing full well he doesn't know where the closet is.

"And that would be...?"

"Right there." Azusa points at a door across the hall from her room.

"Thanks, sorry again for... y'know."

"I-it's fine. I mean it's not fine, don't even think about doing it again! B-but... I forgive you for it, this time." Yuji grabs a blanket from the closet and bids Azusa a good night, heading back downstairs to sleep on the now folded out couch.

"Goodnight.. Yu-kun..." Azusa whispers as she closes the door to her bedroom, leaning against it with a sigh. When did my social life get so darn complicated?

A/N; hope you enjoy and I know the development might feel a little fast but try to remember these characters are hormonal teenagers, and it's been a month already so they've had time to develop opinions and feelings towards each other.

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