Chapter 2

Whatever happened after I said all that was a blur. The bell rang, and Kano left wordlessly to open the door.

Momo, Ene-san, Konoha-kun, Hibiya-kun and Hiyori made their way into the hall, Kano following behind them.

"Since onii-chan, and Ayano-san are away on a vacation, maybe we should have a break of our own", Momo explained, smiling at me.

Shintaro-kun and onee-chan had been dating for a year now but Momo was bothered by the fact they hadn't made any 'progress'. So she sent them away for a two-day, one-night trip to an onsen.

I grinned at her, trying to hide the fact I really wanted to cry then. "Sure. Seto and Marry are out though, they'll probably be gone for an hour or two."

Ene-san plopped down next to me. "Did something happen?"

I really didn't want to look at Kano but if I didn't then they might guess something was wrong. So I turned and nodded at Kano, shaking my head at him when he answered with a grin.

Hibiya-kun scowled. "Now what did he do?"

"I read out the beautiful poem she wrote", Kano replied, almost proudly.

"Do you still have it?" Ene-san asked, now intrigued. But when Kano shook his head at her she groaned. "Couldn't you wait till we got here. Man, I missed the fun."

"I hope they get back quick", Konoha-kun said.

"Like really quick, no one else here can cook besides Ayano-nee-chan and Seto-kun, and I'm starved", Momo whined.

I smiled while Ene-san and Hiyori rolled their eyes and Hibiya groaned, "Can you two think of something besides your stomach."

Momo nodded. "We also think of what we're gonna fill our stomach with."

I broke down laughing with the rest, but then Kano caught my eye. He wasn't laughing like the rest of us. Since no one was looking at him, he stared straight at me with a blank look on his face and my heart skipped a beat.

But then he looked away.

Now what am I going to do?

They decided to stay over for the night. Which is why I was squeezed between Marry and Ene-san. Hiyori and Momo took my and onee-chan's beds, and me Marry and Ene-san were forced to the floor.

Since Marry had come, she'd always be sleeping between me and onee-chan, so I guess she'd be more comfortable with me. Even though with the beds joined there was place for one more person, Ene-san chose the floor.

I had a rough idea why.

When I was sure everyone was asleep, I debated on whether to call her out first or wait for her to start. By the time I decided, she spoke up. "Kano was really moody today wasn't he?"

Of course it surprised her. In fact everyone was caught off guard by Kano's temperamental attitude today. I've never seen him like that before. For the first time, he didn't try to hide he was upset for too long.

So of course Ene-san would suspect me if something happened. She didn't have an intuition like Seto's but she wasn't an idiot. Unlike the rest, including Seto too.

"Hm", I didn't really know what to say to that.

"And does it have anything to do with you by any chance?"

When I started to protest, she stopped me. "Don't even try. All of us know there's a little something going between you two, and he's obviously angry about something. Since none of us have done anything I can only assume it was you. Well either ways it'd be you, you're the only one he's so sensitive towards."

"Sensitive? Towards me?" Okay, honestly that caught me off guard.

Even if I didn't see her do it, I could feel her roll her eyes. "Yes, you. I'm not really stupid, ya know. I've noticed how Kano reacts differently if it's you. Yea, most of the time he's indifferent, but he's definitely different with you. More genuine, I guess. More open. Normally he doesn't even try to hide his expressions with you, unlike how he has a mask around with us."

Oh so she noticed.

"We had a fight", I admitted.

"And he's pissed."

"I'm not sure if he's pissed or upset."

"Then you should find out and make up already", she said and then yawned, stretching. "It's not the same with you two giving each other the cold shoulder."

"Yeah."

"Well then, 'night."

"Hm."

I waited for a while and when I was sure she was asleep I sneaked into the kitchen to see if Kano was there.

He wasn't.

The next morning, the door bell rang while we were all having breakfast. It wasn't onee-chan for sure, they were only going to get here in the evening.

Kano left quietly to open the door. Unlike yesterday's subdued show of the fact he was upset, it wasn't so subtle anymore.

Whoever was at the door, Kano clearly didn't like them. He came back in almost stomping his feet, with a woman in suit following him.

Ah, her.

The organization that took care was us want directly the government, but an organization that worked under it. So we haven't ever actually been in contact with the government officials but the ones from the Future Organization do come in frequently. It was probably a new training regimen.

Ever since mom and dad's accident, Kano became really bitter toward them. Whenever they'd show up he'd be in a much-too obvious bad mood. At first he hid it behind sarcasm and back-answers, and then it got more prominent. Now he doesn't even bother to hide his dislike for them. Kano isn't really the type to be so open with his feelings so at first it was a surprise for us.

Though I think I get why he does it. He isn't trying to be open with his feelings and I know he wouldn't even if someone were to try to force him into it. I tried it once, didn't work. He's doing it because he wants them to know something, and in an unspoken way, to tell us something about them. I don't really know what but I know there's something he knows and if he's giving this sort of an attitude to them, he also knows that there's nothing they can do about it. Something obviously happened that day he saw mom and dad die, but he chose to keep it to himself; or maybe he was forced to.

I never trusted these people myself. Every proof they have that they're doing this with government consent could have been forged. And while we had no reason to doubt them, we had no reason to trust them either. But mom and dad did, they took us in because of these people, so I never said anything about it.

"Kisaragi-kun and Tateyama-san seem to be away", the official started.

"It's a weekend. Don't tell me we need to give you a detailed entry of what we do and where we go on holidays", Kano snapped.

She shot him a cold look.

Even if it we had vacations, they were only from school. Though no much, we still had to do stuff during the week days leaving us only free during the weekends.

"Of course not. I believe there's nothing wrong with a bit of curiosity is there?"

Oh god, why were they turning this into one of their cold fights?

Since Tomaharu-san was the official who mostly came to us, Kano aimed all his hostility towards her. she never held back either. So our eager wait for them to leave would just keep dragging. Normally, I shut him up, I didn't know what to do now. He made it very clear that he was mad at me, I didn't want to make it worse.

Ene-san wacked Kano at the back of his head. "Shut up, will ya', idiot?"

He snorted and folded his arms against his chest before turning and giving me a cold look as if challenging me. My heart almost skipped out of my chest.

I turned away from him and looked towards Tomaharu-san, pretending to focus all my attention to her while trying to fight back a blush.

"No, I guess not." He snorted, "Though please, it's kinda gross when people like you get 'curious' about our where-abouts. Kindly keep the curiosity to yourself."

What was this guy trying to do? No wait, I already knew. He wasn't picking a fight with her this time, he was picking one with me.

"Kano, please", I told him, hoping my voice dissolved in air before it got to him.

Tomaharu-san cleared her throat, before Kano came up with some reply. I sneaked a glance at him. His expression was a mixture of surprise and hurt.

I knew I shouldn't have said anything.

"For a week from tomorrow, you all will be headed to the capital. Unlike your other regiments, I suggest you take this one seriously", Tomaharu-san said.

"And why? Why to Tokyo even? Why not just here?" Kano butted.

"Even if you have a few years to go, you need to be comfortable with every situation you're all put in. With how all of you are now, individually you're all excellent but as a group you all might lag. Group work isn't something you can improve in just some time, so from now on, every month, you will be heading to some other part of the country, to familiarize yourselves with both the place and yourselves."

"What about school?" Momo asked.

"And here I thought it'd be the greatest relief to you", Ene-san smirked at her.

Momo grinned. "I am happy of course. And I guess I won't even have my idol work then?" Tomaharu-san nodded. "Even so-" Momo went on, "won't it seem fishy? If we all disappear together at the same time every month?"

"That will be taken care of, you don't have to worry about it", Tomaharu-san said. "When Tateyama-san and Kisaragi-kun get back, I hope you all explain this to them. Wouldn't want them to be clueless the next morning, would we?" She gave Kano a smug look.

Kano didn't say anything. He just made a foul face and walked out of the room. I wanted to go after him, ask him what was wrong, and even if he didn't answer console him.

But I didn't.

Oh lord, I'm so sorry I didn't update for like three weeks. I have no excuse, I was just lazy so yea, I'm really really sorry. And bout their fight, I promise it won't continue for long and I'll try to update every week. XD