Working Class
By: LokiGirl

Chapter 6: Kissing and Money Troubles

Whether he liked it or not, Tsukasa's school life had become one of rules and regulations. He was lectured every morning that his tardiness would no longer be overlooked and that any new infraction would result in a detention. No one bothered to note that he hadn't been late once since the new rules had been enforced. Along with the lectures came the uniform inspection every period. He was expected to be wearing it neat and tidy, although it was his option to wear the blazer or hang it on the back of his chair. The tie was not an option, much to Tsukasa's annoyance. The one thing the teachers didn't remind him about was the 'no fighting' policy, secretly hoping that his legendary temper would flare and they could punish him severely in revenge for all the bloody incidents, apologies and cover-ups they had made over the years.

Of course Eitoku beginning a school for the wealthy elite there were special rules beyond those of an ordinary school and the teachers each had their own favorite. Suzuki sensei was determined he would have correct posture during math class. Itou and Honda sensei required that he answered them in full proper polite sentences. But of all the new requirements placed on Tsukasa, the one that irked him the most was Haruka sensei's 'special' rule, which wasn't even a rule at all.

When he had found out a week and a half ago with Tsukushi as they were dissecting every rule in Eitoku's Student Code of Conduct he had every intention of calling Haruka sensei on it. She had let him complain and stomp angrily around for ten minutes, knowing that he needed to blow some steam before calming reminding him that such an action could be considered insubordination. And Tsukasa couldn't risk being insubordinate. So no matter how much it set his teeth on edge Tsukasa pulled out and pushed in every girl's seat in the class.

The students, after being initially shocked thought nothing of the new discipline regiment set upon Tsukasa. They each had their own theory, some more outlandish than others, but none came close to the mark. Most thought it was either some sort of punishment for continuing to date the commoner Makino Tsukushi or that it was a tightening down on the behavior of the Doumyouji heir as he was sure to become a more public figure in the company after his college graduation, if not his high school one.

None of the school's speculation made a difference to Tsukasa. He didn't care what silly ideas popped up in the minds of the air headed females around him as long it didn't physically involve him. But with his new subdued attitude some had become quite bold in their attempt to gain his affections.

Angrily Tsukasa slammed the door to the Makino apartment.

"What's wrong Tsukasa?" asked Tsukushi as she picked up their mail. The biweekly letter from her family had arrived, and for once she didn't care if it only contained a note of love and seaweed.

He kicked the table.

Tsukushi put down the mail and looked directly at her 'husband'. "Tsukasa, stop trying to damage the apartment and tell me what's wrong."

"Ugly bitch kissed me."

She blinked. She hadn't been expecting that. "Someone... kissed you?"

"While I was being oh so gentlemanly pushing her chair in, ugly goes and presses her greasy, disgusting flavored lips against mine." Angrily he kicked the air. "I wanted to kill her."

"Now you know how I felt."

Tsukasa whipped around to stare at Tsukushi in disbelief, still fuming. "What do you mean?" He didn't remember anything like this happening to her.

Tsukushi placed her hands on her hips. "You stole my first kiss."

"You ran into me!" he argued back, forgetting about the other girl. "The lights go out and the next thing I know my mouth is being sucked off by something."

"It was my first kiss! I wanted it to be special, and soft," she said with a dreamy lilt. "It was supposed to be with the guy I loved."

"And what..."

Tsukushi cut him off, heat once again in her words. "Instead some stupid arrogant octopus head stole it from me!"

"Octopus head!" He indignantly strode towards her. "And what about me, huh?" he asked in a demanding voice. "The lights come on and I find out I had been slobbered my some poor girl who wasn't even grateful she had gotten my first..." he blushed red and turned away from Tsukushi. "That she had gotten a kiss from me," he stuttered out awkwardly.

"Your first?" Curious, she sidestepped Tsukasa to see his blushing face. "Was it your first kiss too?"

Flustered he searched the room as if he was looking for an escape route. "You haven't opened your letter yet."

Tsukushi smiled. "That's okay. I can open it latter." She tip toed up next to him. "Was that really your first kiss too?"

"Of course not," he replied gruffly.

"Really?" Tsukushi wasn't convinced. There had to be a reason he was blushing so much. "Then when did you have your first kiss?"

He backed up in an attempt to get away from her. "I don't have to tell you."

"Okay"

"Huh?" Tsukasa's jaw dropped. He didn't believe his ears. Tsukushi didn't back down from a question that easily.

"I'm sure Nishikado and Mimasaka will be more than happy to tell the story about the day your lips lost their virginity."

"I never told them, and they weren't there," he protested crossing his arms. "Akira and Soujirou don't know everything about my life."

Tsukushi raised her eyebrow, now even more convinced Tsukasa was bluffing. Tsukasa didn't keep things like that quiet; he announced it to the world. "They don't know, or it didn't happen?"

"It happened," he insisted.

She stepped mere inches from Tsukasa and tilted her head up so she could look directly into his eyes. Eyes that at least to her couldn't lie. "Prove it."

In response he bent down and kissed her. A sound that might have been an attempt to protest was muffled by his lips.

Tsukushi didn't know what to do; or rather her mind didn't know what to do. He always seemed to kiss her randomly and without warning. Her brain just didn't have the time to process what was about to happen before it was already happening. Her body on the other hand had no problem following the lead of Doumyouji's lips. They were soft and warm and utterly kissable.

His kisses never failed to invoke a fluttering feeling from deep within the pit of her stomach. It had always been there, right from their very first kiss. But it had been small then, and easily tossed aside as revulsion or nervousness. The fluttering now however wasn't small or dismissible. It was encompassing her entire being and it felt wonderful. Her fingers tingled with the sensation, and it dared her, compelled her, to touch his hair.

Giddily he brought his hands to her shoulders before gliding them up her neck and into her hair in response.

Tsukushi gasped as he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. He tasted of the seaweed and plum onigiri she had made for their lunches, and she was helpless and unwilling to stop his advances.

It scared her. He was getting too good at catching her off guard and kissing her. She was letting herself get into situations were he could kiss her far too often. He was getting far too good at the whole kissing business. And she was enjoying it far too much!

He pulled back from the kiss feeling quite pleased with himself. Tsukasa had known she had enjoyed the kiss, but as he looked at her flushed face and heaving breaths, he couldn't stop the smirk that appeared on his face. "So," he began huskily, "did I prove it well enough for you?"

"No..." she said shaking her head.

"No?" His question was soft and gentle. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, confused. Doumyouji was acting odd. "I'm sure."

"Then what did it prove?" he asked, whispering into her ear.

Tsukushi shivered. "It didn't prove anything."

"Nothing?" He kissed her jaw line. "It must have proved something."

She trembled again, her thoughts jumbled. What had happened to Doumyouji? Before her was a guy wooing her as if he belonged in the romance mangas Yuki forced her to read. And it didn't make any sense. Doumyouji was not romance manga material, not like Mimasaka, or Nishikado, or Hanazawa Rui. Doumyouji was far from it. He was gruff, and forceful, and commanding, and conceited, and... Her thoughts derailed as he kissed her again.

His lips lingered before he pulled back. "Did that help?"

"No"

Tsukasa looked at her skeptically, but playfully. "Are you sure?"

Tsukushi bit her lip. Would it really hurt that much to play along with his game? It wasn't like he was asking her to marry him or something inane like that, and he seemed so happy.

His smile widened, instinctively knowing he had won. "It did prove something."

"I guess it did prove one thing."

"Well then?" he asked, his eyes sparkling, "what did it prove?"

"That..." She bit her lip again. "That you should eat plum onigiri more often."

Tsukasa's hold on Tsukushi loosened. His kisses proved that he should eat plum onigiri more often? It didn't make any sense, and it certainly wasn't what he was expecting or hoping for her to say.

Tsukushi slipped out of his arms as he thought about her comment and made a dash to the letter from her family. She needed to be busy before he figured out what her cryptic words had meant. Kneeling down at the table she opened the letter and began to read.

"Tsukushi, what did you mean by..." he paused as he saw the look on his girlfriend's face. It was one that he knew well, having had it directed at him on more than one occasion. Tsukushi was angry and highly disappointed.

"I can't believe them!" she cried as her fingers tore into the paper. Crumbling up the letter she threw it angrily at the wall. "Have they no pride? No shame?!"

"Tsukushi?" Tsukasa watched her nervously. He had never seen her so angry at her family before.

Furiously she growled. "Sometimes I wish I could disown my family as easily as you got rid of yours Doumyouji," she answered in a deceptively level voice. Her gaze, although pointing towards Tsukasa seemed to look through rather than at him.

"You wouldn't do that Tsukushi. You love your family."

Tsukushi sniggered. "Don't tempt me Doumyouji Tsukasa. Don't tempt me. There's only so much even I can take. Putting on airs and forcing me to attend Eitoku when everyone knows we can't afford it, gambling what little money we have away in some cockamamie scheme to pay the bills and ending up in trouble with the yakuza, living off my wages from my part time job, moving from smaller apartment to smaller apartment, being told to live off of seaweed and make due. I can't do it." She looked ready to cry.

He knelt down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. Gently he placed her head on his chest. "It's alright Tsukushi, it's alright."

Her hands clenched on his uniform blazer. Holding back tears she buried her face into his shirt and tie. "I'd disown them, except I have nothing to disown myself from besides debt!"

Tsukasa kissed the crown of her head and held her tighter. "It's alright. Let it all out Tsukushi. I'm right here."

Nodding, she began to cry.

Tsukasa pulled her closer for a third time. It hurt to see her cry. She was the strongest girl he knew--stronger than many of the boys he knew. It hurt to see her proud and strong spirit so broken. Yet at the same time it felt good to soothe her battered will. The knowledge that she instinctually needed the comfort of his arms sent his soul soaring.

That night after he was certain Tsukushi had fallen asleep, Tsukasa snuck out of his futon and picked up the crumpled letter from the floor. Sitting down in front of the single window to their apartment, he began to read.

Tsukushi-chan,

I hope that you are doing well, especially with that young handsome Doumyouji-san. Without us there we're all worried that you won't properly catch that nice young man. Papa still gets horribly seasick whenever he goes out, and as such has yet to catch a single fish. The fishermen have given up teaching him how to fish and instead he's being taught to repair the boats while Susumu and I dry seaweed. But papa still isn't skilled with the tools and he hasn't been allowed to touch a real boat yet. In other words, he still hasn't earned a single cent and my friends are demanding back the two hundred and fifty thousand yen papa borrowed and hasn't paid back yet. It's getting ugly here, and they're threatening to kick us out, but they haven't after they heard that you're dating Doumyouji-san. Ask that rich boyfriend of yours for the money would you? We're counting on you Tsukushi-chan.

Love,

Mama

Tsukasa crumpled the letter in a vise like grip. He knew Tsukushi's parents, especially her mother, were gold diggers. He had known that the first time he had ever walked into their home. There was no other way to explain there behavior. With one look of their drunken daughter they had been ready to kill him, until they saw his Armani suit that is. When they heard his family name, yen signs had rolled into their eyes as if they had just hit the jackpot.

Of course that hadn't bothered him, and truthfully he couldn't complain. It wasn't as if he didn't shamelessly use their gold digging desires to get close to Tsukushi when she had wanted nothing to do with him, for he certainly had.

Angrily Tsukasa forced the letter into a tight ball. He was sure their money grubbing ways were what had infuriated Tsukushi, but that wasn't what was sending his blood boiling. As odd as it might seem, Tsukasa had become rather--fond of the Makino family. Susumu seemed nice enough, and he was somewhat excited about the idea of having younger brother. Tsukushi's mother was the most blatantly obvious gold digger he'd ever met, but he could somehow sense that her desire for money wasn't solely for the sake of having money. She wanted Tsukushi well provided for and taken care of. She wanted her daughter to not have to worry about the money issues she faced while raising her family. Wasn't that what he wanted for Tsukushi too? And sure, Makino's father was a loser, but he tried his best, as little as his best was. Tsukasa couldn't fault him for that.

But it was his fault he couldn't help them. He wanted to, and he couldn't. What used to be pocket money was now held tightly by Tsukushi as food, clothes, and rent money for the next couple of months. Tsukasa sighed and stared at the drawer where the money was hidden. They still had more than enough to pay off the loan her father had incurred at the fishing village, but he knew Tsukushi wouldn't stand for it. She would adamantly insist that it was his money and therefore couldn't be used to help her family.

Suddenly he ran to the money and began to count the bills. It was his money, and that meant he could use it any way he wanted, which included sending it off to her family to pay off their debt without her knowing until it too late for her to do anything more than yell at him. Smiling, he sealed the envelope Tsukushi's mother had so conveniently sent, preaddressed

A/N: I know that in the manga the kiss on the boat at Atami wasn't Tsukasa's first kiss, but I loved the way the jdrama had Tsukushi be his first kiss and I decided to leave the mangaverse for just that little bit. If you say that Tsukasa kissed Shizuka on the cheek inside of the lips in the manga there'd be no way of knowing if the first Tsukasa/Tsukushi kiss was his first kiss or not. Besides it definitely was his first kiss with a girl he liked.

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. My back has been better for awhile but I haven't felt like writing recently. But the writing craze is back with me so you can probably expect at least a few more chapters soon.

I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed the story and/or have it on alert, or fav. Every email from ffnet kept reminding me that I had a story to get typing. Thanks!