A/N: I know I said I wasn't going to do an Akihiko chapter, but the story just didn't seem right without one, even if it's brief. Here's my best effort.

Chapter 4: The Price of a Paradox

Despite his bold claim that he was sure Hiroki and Takahiro would get along just fine, Akihiko had been anything but certain of how their meeting would go.

Hiroki was kind of an asshole, and Takahiro was probably the nicest person on the planet.

He'd wanted Hiroki's opinion on the Takahiro issue for a few reasons, the main one being that he had shamefully terrible gaydar for someone so—well, so gay.

The second reason was that, deep down, he'd wanted Hiroki's approval.

When they had first met, long ago in the woods, Akihiko had just finished convincing himself that he didn't need the company of humans and didn't need anyone to understand him. He detested his life and everyone in it, but there was no need to be dramatic—a pen and paper were all he needed to purge his rampant loneliness.

Then Hiroki had stepped onto the scene. Akihiko had been at a time in his life where virtually no relationship followed the normal pattern it should have, so he didn't quite know how to act around his new neighbor. Hiroki pissed him off with his hysterics over the most trivial things, but with all the dramatics came quiet, simple moments of companionship and understanding.

Akihiko had come to both love and hate Hiroki at the same time, and while he felt a certain amount of attraction to the other boy, he was clever enough to realize that it wouldn't work. They often brought out the best in each other, so it was occasionally tempting to think of their relationship as something more than friends. However, they also brought out the worst. Akihiko knew he would eternally be frustrated by this paradox, so he let it go. He'd assumed that Hiroki had come to the same conclusions.

Regardless, Akihiko cared very much about his neighbor's opinions. That was the real reason why he'd wanted Hiroki to meet the one boy who brought out the very best in him—Takahiro.

Predictably, Takahiro had been nothing but courteous and kind during their walk around the lake, asking Hiroki all the right questions and listening intently to his responses.

Akihiko had been nothing short of shocked, however, when Hiroki had responded in kind. True to his nature, he'd still been kind of an asshole, but it was very subtly different—there was a challenging, flirtatious undertone to his snipes. Akihiko obviously would have been irked at his friend, but he knew that this was the unintentional product of Hiroki genuinely attempting to be nice, and it had gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion. At this point, it was such an ingrained part of Hiroki's behavior that he highly doubted his friend even noticed he was doing it.

Akihiko was about to roll his eyes in exasperation, when suddenly, an alarming thought occurred to him. He'd seen many a straighter man drawn in by Hiroki's rare looks and clever tongue like a moth to a flame...was Takahiro in danger?

He thought about Takahiro's good-natured smile. No, Hiroki was probably right. He really was just a nice person.

A/N: Get ready for some more Hiroki angst in the next chapter!