The next day me and Nezumi presented our poster. I talked as he held the board up to the class. Since I had memorized all the facts I didn't have to look back once. Which was probably a good thing because if I saw Nezumi's face I'd probably end up messing something up.

At the end of class the teacher handed us our grade with a little note beside it.

'100% Great job guys! You work really well together'

I smiled down at the paper. Me and Nezumi worked well together? That alone made me happy.

During lunch I sat with Nezumi half the time and Safu the other. It was hard having two friends. How was I supposed to be with both of them at the same time? I didn't know how popular people could stand it.

While sitting with Nezumi we did nothing but watch the play go on beneath us. He seemed really into this Romeo and Juliet scene. But it came across pretty violent to me. Why did Romeo have to stab himself? Did love really do that to you? Being like that sounded horrible.

I sat there on the cat walk for 20 minutes, not doing anything else. I personally wanted to stay there longer with Nezumi but I knew Safu would be waiting for me.

I said bye and headed to the cafeteria.

"So how was your date?" Safu asked me as soon as I sat down.

"Huh? What date?"

Safu glanced at me with a look of pure mischief.

"Your date with Nezumi at your house of course."

I blushed at her accusation.

"Th-that wasn't a date!"

As soon as I said that I remembered our little incident on my bedroom floor. This caused me to blush even harder and become silent.

Safu looked at me curiously. "Did something happen between you two?" She read me too well.

I looked at my clasped hands, trying not to fidget too much.

"Well, I don't know if you would really call it something serious but well um something did happen."

She leaned forward with a new gleam in her eyes, only causing me to lean slightly away from her. "Really?! Tell me everything" she demanded. Everything?

"Well you see, I had tripped and well Nezumi caught me. It wasn't that big of a deal. I mean we did kinda stay like that for a minute or two but-"

"Wait." She stopped me. "What kind of position were you two in?" I looked up at her with a desperate expression. What was with her? But she wasn't backing down.

"Well we were on the ground. I was kinda sitting on his lap."

Her eyes brightened even more. Was she possessed?

"Yes, keep going, where were both of your hands?"

I stared back down at my lap. Where were our hands?

"Well mine were kinda resting on his chest and his were more resting on my back."

"How many inches were your-"

Brnnggg!

The bell.

I had never been more happy to hear it in my life.

The last class of the day ended without anything exciting happening. Nezumi and me were waking to our lockers to get our stuff.

Suddenly a girl bumped, well more pushed, into me which almost knocked me over.

"Ah-uh sorry." I said to her as she walked away. Nezumi shot her a dirty glance. Wasn't that one of the girls Nezumi had refused? Maybe she didn't like me.

"Oh yeah, Nezumi, I'm staying after school for about 15 minutes to help the principal. I think I'll just be hanging posters for the dance coming up but do you wanna help me? Then we can walk home together if you want."

We turned into another hallway, where our lockers were at.

"Sure." was all he said.

"Sounds good" I told him with a smile. I was going to walk with Nezumi again today!

We only had 30 copies to tape to the wall. This was going to be easier than I thought.

"Do you want to take 15 of these and hang them around the west side of school? I'll take the rest and do the same to the east." I asked.

Nezumi counted the sheets of paper and split them.

"Yeah, then I'll meet you outside by the stop sign?"

I nodded in agreement and we walked our separate ways. It was sometimes good to get alone time. It let me think without being bothered. Before I knew it my stack was gone. That couldn't of been 15 could it? Maybe Nezumi had taken more.

A little confused I headed outside. Nezumi wasn't by the stop sign yet, but a few other boys were. They seemed familiar. Did I know then from somewhere? They turned around, hearing me approach.

"Oh, Shion! Hey bud." The tallest of the three said. They knew me? I still didn't know where I knew them from but played along, not wanting to be rude.

"O-oh hey!"

They took a few steps closer to me.

"We have somethin' to show you, follow us?" They motioned with their fingers for me to follow.

"Oh I'm good. I'm actually waiting for someone here." I told them.

"Oh your fine, it'll only take a sec." With that one of them grabbed my arms and they started guiding me with them.

"Wh-where are we going?" I asked. Nezumi should be here any second, I didn't want to keep him waiting.

"Oh just over here." The tallest said again while glancing over his shoulder. They led me into a little alley just across the school.

"Yip!"

I looked down the dark alley way to see a box. But not just a box, it was full of puppies. So that's what they wanted to show me!

They let go of my arms as I ran to the little fur balls, squatting on the ground in front of couldn't of been more than a month old. Where was their mother?

Suddenly something kicked me in the side, sending me toppling over. The pain in my ribs blocked out everything for a second. Then I looked up. The three boys stood there with angry looks on their faces. What were they doing? That's when I remembered where I knew them. They had been in my 6th grade class. This almost exact scene had happened there too.

A foot kicked me in the side again.

"That's for my ex girlfriend!" The tall one yelled. I curled into a ball. I would of tried to get up but the pain was too much.

A foot came again, this time hitting me in the back of the head.

"And when you got me suspended for cheating!" This time it was a different boys voice from the three.

I remembered from a long time ago a teacher coming up to me with two tests that were exactly the same. One of then had been mine. He had asked me if the boy beside me had cheated, which he had. This was the boy from then?

"Stop" I whimpered. "That wasn't on purpo- Agh!"

Another kick came. Followed by two others. I curled into a tighter ball trying to escape from it. More words came from above, spitting more mean things but I couldn't really make them out anymore.

I could feel pain everywhere. I needed to get away, but how? I saw stars as another kick landed on my head. I waited for another one but never got it. Had they left? Then I heard someone get punched. That sounded painful. My mind drifted in and out of consiousness. Then I felt a hand gently shake me.

"Shion?" It whispered.

Nezumi.

I was so happy he was here. But where had the other boys gone? I opened my eyes, his beautiful face slowly become less blurry.

"Hey" I whimpered softly. The pain was slowly lessening.

Nezumi gave me a worried look.

"We need to get you home." He told me. He carefully lifted me up to a standing position. My legs were weak and I wobbled. Suddenly I felt myself be lifted off the ground. I was in Nezumi's arms being carried princess style.

"Idiot. You shouldn't follow people into dark alleys." He told me as he walked away. I lightly smiled up at him.

"I'll keep that in mind next time."

I snuggled closer in his arms, liking the mixture of pine and honey made me sleepy.

He carried me back to my house. I wondered if anyone gave us weird looks as we made our way. You didn't usually see a boy being carried down the street. He opened my front door with me still in his arms and carried me to my bedroom. Carefully he laid me down on my bed.

"I'll go get some medicine for you." He said as he smoothed some hair away from my face. Once I nodded he left. The pain was dying down but my head was still pounding and my sides throbbed. I closed my eyes, waiting for Nezumi to come back up stairs.

Nezumi's POV

Shion was really such and idiot sometimes. You don't just follow someone into a dark alley! I grabbed the bundle of supplies I had collected and headed back to his room. His skinny body laid on the bed. Was he asleep?

"Oi, Shion."

He cracked open his eyes.

"Nezumi we need to go back." He whispered.

I set the stuff down on his bed beside him. "Back where?"

I helped him sit up.

"The alley. There were abandoned puppies there, we need to go get them."

Of course. The puppies. I barely remembered seeing them but had definitely heard them barking.

"Shion" I laughed, he was so cute. "once you feel better we can. Right now let's just worry about you."

He looked very disappointed.

I grabbed a wet towel and wiped the little bit if dried blood off of his forehead. When I had seen him being beaten up I was furious. The three boys had run away as soon as I had just hit one of them. How dare they do this to Shion! Now I was mostly mad at Shion for not staying by the stop sign. I gave him a cup of water and made him swallow some Advil.

"Now arms up, I need to check your ribs."

He followed my directions and I lifted his cardigan off his torso then unbuttoned the shirt beneath it. He was quite pale. The pink scar he had wrapped around chest, taunting me to touch it. It looked quite sexy.

I did like Shion, I'll admit it. Though he was too stupid to notice. He was so innocent and never cared about himself before others. I loved those things about him.

I shook my thoughts away and focused on his injuries. There were little bruises appearing around his side. I felt his ribs for anything broken. Didn't seem like it. One or two might of been bruised though.

I made him put a clean shirt back on.

His mom would be here soon right? I would have to tell her what happened.

"Ok Shion you rest."

He nodded his head and slipped under his covers, ending up only having his head peeking out.

"Thank you" he whispered to me as his eyes closed.

I kissed his forehead softly.

"Your welcome."

Shion's POV

A few hours later I woke up. Or I would assume it was a few hours. The sun was starting to set. I sat up. Surprisingly there was barely any pain anymore. The only thing that hurt was when I touched my sides.

I remembered Nezumi's hands on me, carrying me over here and drifting down my sides to find bruises. It sent little trembles through me. Was he still here? I got up out of bed and walked downstairs.

"Shion, you're awake!" My mom said upon seeing me. She ran over to me from the kitchen. I didn't see Nezumi anywhere.

"How are you feeling, where does it hurt most? Nezumi told me everything, I can't believe three boys attacked you!" She lightly ran her fingers across me.

"Mom, I'm fine. I actually don't hurt that bad." I gave her a little hug to calm her down. She squeezed me carefully.

"Thank goodness. Nezumi left just left a little while ago. He takes such good care if you. Are you hungry? I have some soup ready"

I nodded and she led me to the kitchen.

As I ate and slurped up the soup she asked me many more questions. It was getting tiring. But I knew she was worried so I answered every one of them.

"I was actually supposed to go somewhere next week, but I need to stay with you. I'll just decline."

My head lifted at the new info.

"Wait, where were you going?"

She shook her head.

"I got a call from the city by this chef. He wants me to work with him all next week. I said yes but I'll just say no now, I want to watch out for you."

She got a call from a chef? I knew she was always hoping to learn more skills from different bakers. She would love that!

"Oh don't worry about me, you go! It would be really fun for you. We're off school anyway for 3 days next week because of teacher meetings. I can even have Safu stay over here if you want."

I could see her eyes light up a little at the idea. She really wanted to go.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Ok I guess. But only as long as someone stays with you over the week."

I smiled at her agreement.

"Yup. I'll talk to Safu tomorrow."

(warning: theres gong to be some hot nezushi action in the next chapter.)