AN: Huge delay! Sorry :s

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"Ready, Set, Go!"

Chapter 4

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He was a cookie-baking God.

Or at least his students would think so tomorrow when their first lesson was, easily guessed, baking 101.

Rikuo could bet that Kazahaya would burn his first batch.

But today, unfortunately, the class was dismissed early so that the students could attend the club activities where many would sign away their afternoons to mundane activities like sewing or cooking, as the case may be. Rikuo resigned himself to at least one cooking club activity a month.

Kazahaya would be much luckier. He just had to run. Run as fast as his long, lithe legs could go.

With not so much as a smirk, Rikuo let his favorite student leave the classroom. Kazahaya threw him a dirty look before slipping out of the room with the other students. Surely he thought Rikuo would keep him after class for further taunting. But he hadn't and Kazahaya made his way to the track field where varsity runners and fresh meat were all chatting about the quality of the track itself and what kind of shoes and uniforms they would be wearing this season.

"You know, I think this is going to be one of the hottest summers on record. What a pain."

Kazahaya whipped around at the voice directed at him. Sato Hideki grinned and rolled his wheelchair to a stop next to Kazahaya. He looked at the group of runners and sighed. They had already noticed him and some were making their way to him. He got in a measly sentence, "Here we go," before they swamped him with handshakes and friendly banter. Kazahaya listened to their conversation in silence for a few minutes before he finally understood why Sato was so popular.

First, his father was the principal and the head of the board of education for the district.

And second, he used to be the top runner in his class.

"That was all before the accident," a teammate said to Kazahaya later. The runners had all met with the coach who gave them a pep talk before sending them for a few laps. As they changed in the locker room, Kazahaya overheard some of the boys talking about the accident Sato was in only months earlier. They whispered how his father had been drunk while taking him home after a meet. The rain had been so hard and it was very, very dark...why hadn't his father let him drive?

"I hear Sato-sensei is abusive to his family." He had overheard that when Sato left the track.

Abusive? It put a sour feeling into Kazahaya's stomach as he ran practice laps with the other boys. The sun was setting when they finished, though it only seemed like they had just started. How could that be? His legs burned terribly like he'd ran for hours, yet that heat made him feel more alive and energetic despite the awkward position he was in—bent over with his hands on his knees, lungs gasping for air, queasy and light-headed; he knew this was going to be quite an experience.

"You look like you're having fun, Kudo-kun!" Kazahaya peered at Yamada Ai from between his sweat soaked bangs. He inhaled a gulp of air and walked with her to the bleachers nearby. They sat and she waited until he caught his breath before striking up a conversation.

Kazahaya swore some of the other runners gave him dirty looks…other gazes were directed at Yamada.

"I don't think I could run like that," she said cheerily. "I only signed up for the cooking club."

"Oh. Where you watching?"

She nodded, exclaiming, "I sure did!" Kazahaya chuckled self-consciously. He hadn't considered how he would feel with an audience watching him run and he certainly hadn't thought how Rikuo would judge his every move; undoubtedly the bastard would come to every meet.

"Did you try for a sports club?" he asked to divert his mind from the unpleasant thought.

Yamada laughed loudly and punched Kazahaya's shoulder. He grimaced (not that it really hurt) and listened as she explained her rather pitiful attempt to join both the volleyball and tennis teams. Apparently they could tell she was not physically inclined just by looking at her! She took the news lightly and with a grin and made her way to the cooking club. There she met, of course, Himura-sensei and the president of the cooking club, whose name she could not remember because she was too enthralled with her teacher's good looks. She wasn't the only one. Rikuo's fangirls could wrap around the earth end to end several times over.

Kazahaya tolerated her rant because it was so naive. If only she knew how much of an ass Rikuo was then she definitely would not be praising him so liberally. The starry look in her eyes frightened him.

"Well, I better get going. I have an after-school job so—"

"AH! Where do you work?"

Green drugstore, he replied; although she had never heard of it, he promised he would show her one day.

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Back home, Kakei put Kazahaya straight to work until the store closed. He hadn't seen Rikuo since the end of class, but since it was his night to cook, he would at least be welcomed by a hot meal. Kakei dismissed him for the night and added with a grin, "By the way, I've relieved Rikuo of all his duties at the store for a while. I don't want anyone connecting you two outside of the school."

"But what if someone finds out that we live together?"

"Oh, they won't. Now go to bed. You have a long day tomorrow."

Kazahaya sometimes wondered if he put too much faith in Kakei's clairvoyance.

Rikuo greeted him with a very offhanded hello when he entered the kitchen. The food had just been cooked and they ate in silence until Kazahaya slammed down his empty bowl.

"Okay! What are you planning, Rikuo?"

Rikuo looked particularly annoyed by the interruption and he snorted a half-reply, saying he wasn't planning anything and, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Home economics? I know Saiga-san was helping you with something, but...but that?!"

"Don't be so self-involved, idiot." Rikuo threw down his evening paper and began cleaning up their dishes. "The only reason I'm doing that class is because Saiga can help and it's the easiest thing I can do. I'm not a real teacher. What did you expect? Math? Science?" Kazahaya shrugged in defeat. Rikuo was right. Maybe he had expected more from Rikuo, who always held himself like he was intellectually superior; he probably was, Kazahaya admitted, because he had never finished school and knew already that he would fall behind in his class work.

Kazahaya was shaken by his thoughts by a loud yawn and a sudden tiredness in his body. He hadn't run so much in a long time and it had put his body in shock.

"Well," he said softly, "thanks for dinner. Guess I'll go to bed." Rikuo looked over his shoulder from the sink but didn't say anything. He finished the dishes (and his paper) before going to bed. Almost an hour had gone by. Kazahaya was definitely asleep, so Rikuo had no hesitation in peeking at his roommate while he dreamed. He looked so cute and harmless, like a little child, and for a moment, Rikuo considered not being mean to him during class. He didn't know why he wanted to torture him like that.

No, he knew why. It was the angry reaction that made Rikuo excited, that cat like growl and expression on his face that made him so primal…

Really, Kazahaya deserved everything that was coming to him.

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tbc.