Disclaimer: No, if I owned Hana-Kimi, Umeda and Akiha woulda done it. And Nakatsu woulda dressed up as a monkey...and Nakao woulda sung the llama song. But I really don't know why.

Hey, thanks for reading the next chapter of Blood and Chocolate 38 Degrees Celsius! ;D So, yeah. You seemed to like Akiha. Now that he's been introduced, he's gonna stick to Umeda like...well, like when someone eats a lot of sugar and they get all sticky. 8o Yeah... Also, you seemed to like Ichijo-kun, which is good, 'cause now you meet another OC, Candice. Please be nice to her as well, she has a bio on the bottom of the page, if you wanna read that first. No...it will be easier. Do that, then read. It's in bold. OK...GO!

Ch. 8: Photographs

There was the sound of footsteps rapidly making their way through the hall.

"HEY! DOCTOR!"

"YEAH! DOCTOR UMEDA!"

Umeda winced, recognizing both voices. Seconds later, Mizuki and Candice burst through the doors of the health center. Candice was Mizuki's age and attended a nearby school. She was also one of the few kids around who knew about Mizuki's gender crisis. She often came by to visit and to annoy her favorite doctor whom she had known when they were kids. Now, Mizuki led the way in for the two teens to harass the hell out of him as they often did.

"Lookie these!" the taller girl (Candice) chirped.

"What?" he snapped, dropping a packet of winter sports physicals onto his desk.

"The pictures Akiha took—he gave me copies! You should see how well they came out." Mizuki gushed, handing him about 10 snapshots from an envelope. Judging by the look on Candice's face, she had taken part in this too. Just how many teens was Akiha abducting? Shoving the annoying thoughts out of his mind, he began to leaf through the pictures, surprised.

Akiha had actually found something he was good at. The pictures of the young teens, all of which he knew, were filled with such characteristic emotion. There was Mizuki. Damn, she looked feminine… that meant the photographer must've seen through her disguise. There was her crush and roommate, Sano. What a sex machine! The doctor took personal note of that, filing it away somewhere in his brain. Minami really jumped out of the photo. Umeda suppressed a smile at the bold looks and poses that only Minami could offer the camera. Candice was the only one who was obviously a girl. Her long hair and short skirt gave that part away. Her green eyes—'cat eyes' as Umeda called them—seemed to glow like emeralds. Finally, Mizuki's other close friend, Nakatsu evened out the entire group picture. His easy-going demeanor complimented the others around him. The pictures were being used to endorse a line of clothing, but anyone would be willing to buy pickled monkey brains if these kids were advertising it.

"Aren't they great?" Mizuki asked, still smiling from ear-to-ear. "Akiha totally changed at the studio, right, Candice?"

"Yeah," she agreed, "he got all serious and not mean—but definitely in charge! We all had such a great time, so we wanted to show these to you."

He handed them back, thoughtfully. "Yeah… I guess everyone has to be good at something, right?"

Both girls pouted. "Don't be mean, Umeda." Candice ordered.

"Yeah, Senpai." Umeda jumped at the sound of Akiha's voice. "You should be nice to me."

"AKIHA!" Umeda shouted. "How the hell did you get in here?"

Akiha looked like an idiot as he simply pointed to the window.

"Window." He responded simply. Note to self, the doctor thought, shut, lock, and barricade windows!

Both girls had turned to Akiha, unphased by his grand entrance. "Akiha," Mizuki said brightly, "I think Dr. Umeda really liked the pictures."

"Oh, did you?" the photographer cried out, lunging over to glomp Umeda. The doctor hissed and thrashed as Akiha pulled back first the doctor's coat that he always wore, then the back of his shirt, pressing his cheek against the warm skin of his shoulder blades. "Mm. I'm so glad you're acknowledging my life's passion. That is…aside from you."

Umeda continued to struggle desperately. "Great. Now allow me to acknowledge my foot's passion for kicking you where the sun don't shine!" he snarled. With a burst of strength, he jerked free and swung his leg around to kick the side of Akiha's torso. The blond photographer flew across the room and hit the wall with a thud.

"Akiha?" Mizuki and Candice cried in unison, "Are you Ok?"

"Yes…it's fine, Candice-chan. Mizuki-chan. It was worth it to be near U-Umeda-senpai." He murmured dizzily from the floor, his brilliant brown eyes spinning in his head.

"Jackass." Umeda muttered, resuming his previous task of paperwork.

Sorry, it was short, so I'll give you the next chapter too. But first...

Candice (Mizuki is her last name...aren't we creative?)

Age: 17

Hair:Brown, shoulder length

Eyes:Green

Relevance: PrinceTono and I created her a while ago. In Happy Fanfic World, she's the daughter of a doctor. Naturally, Umeda must have interned with a doctor when he was young, and he became close friends with the family...including Candice who was a little girl at the time. Now, the two are still close friends. She's Mizuki's friend too now (apparently) and has recently met Akiha. If you don't like her interfering with the real story too much, figure Akiha was doing more shoots with our buddies Mizuki, Sano, Nakatsu and Minami. For more information, feel free to ask, or read PrinceTono's Don't Let Me Go. Tono is such a baka! XP

REVIEW, PLEASE!