When Risa thought back to that Monday afternoon it made her smile.

Actually, the entire week that followed made her smile too.

After they had talked, and had spent the rest of the day just sitting in Satoshi's apartment in quiet and reading, they had left on better terms, with a long hug in his doorway. That, to Risa, had been the beginning of a very, very good week.

In the days that followed it seemed as if Satoshi couldn't keep his hands off of her, literally. He was always wrapping his arm around her or holding her hand or absently messing with her hair.

He was being affectionate, and cool, quiet Satoshi Hiwatari was not affectionate.

But they were never affectionate in public, where others could see. Satoshi didn't want people to see and neither did Risa. It was their business and no one else's.

Risa remembered on Tuesday, when she had stayed with him after school in the art room while he cleaned up. She had been standing at his painting, once again amazed at how talented he was, when she felt his hand on her waist.

"Could you stand over here for a second?" he had asked, guiding her backwards a little, with a mop in his other hand. He was staring at the floor and began cleaning up where she had been standing, but Risa couldn't help but smile.

The hand hadn't been necessary. It had never been necessary. In the weeks before he had asked her to move without coming within three feet of her.

On Thursday they had gone to the library so Satoshi could go over his police files and Risa could finish the book she had borrowed from him. They sat in the back, where people rarely went because of the huge, wordy tomes that lined the shelves, and collapsed side by side into one, large armchair. Risa had tucked herself into the crook of his arm and was halfway through chapter sixteen when she felt his absent fingers twisting a lock of her hair through his fingers.

When she looked at him he was still reading a lengthy file. He hadn't seemed to notice.

Friday evening Risa had gone to see a movie with Riku. When they stopped by a coffee shop afterward so Riku could get a hot cocoa they had run into Daisuke and Satoshi. They were just sitting at a table near the window, talking and drinking something warm.

Like friends. Like real friends.

Dai and Satoshi had stood up while they all said their 'hellos'. The shop was crowded and a man holding two scorching coffee cups came walking behind Risa and Riku. Risa hadn't noticed, but Satoshi had. He reached out, took her by the wrists and pulled her close, clearing the way for the man. When the way was clear again he held her near for longer than what was needed before releasing her again and letting her take a step back.

She had tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled up at him. He was looking at Daisuke and Riku. Daisuke and Riku were laughing about something and hadn't noticed a thing.

After a while the sisters had waved goodbye and Dai and Satoshi had gone back to their drinks.

All those little things…

They had been his way of saying the things that always needed hearing. It was his way of saying 'you matter to me', 'I want you around'…'I like you'. And he didn't once have to say a thing. She saw it and felt it.

In the hints that he left her.

In the hints that he gave her.

--------------------------

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Satoshi looked up from his paperwork.

He was sitting in the classroom alone. The rest of his classmates were in gym, running in the indoor track while it continued to snow outside. Satoshi had always been exempted from gym class because:

1.) He was a college graduate and was not required to take it for school credits.

2.) He was in peak physical condition save for his low blood pressure, which was out of his immediate control anyway.

3.) He was Chief Commander of Police and the Satoshi Hiwatari, so he didn't have to if he didn't want to.

Which he didn't. So he often took refuge in the thankfully peaceful and empty classroom to read or go over any files from his office.

Today, however, someone had opted to disturb him. Some girl he could never remember meeting with black pigtails and a smug expression. She stood in the doorway of the classroom with cheeks flushed red from what could have been embarrassment, but by the sourness in her tone Satoshi doubted embarrassment could have been an answer.

"Pardon me?" he asked politely, frustrated with the interruption but still in a good enough mood to remain civil.

Black pigtails took a step into the room.

Satoshi's good mood began to waver.

"One of the Harada twins. The one with the long hair." She sat into one hip. "Is she your girlfriend?"

Satoshi stared at her, astounded by her lack of tact. He really didn't think it was any of her business.

"Why?" he asked, only because he wasn't sure what to say to her. From what Risa had described and from what he was gleaning from her tone, this was the same Black Pigtails that had tormented Risa in the girls' locker room.

Over him.

His good mood was rapidly fading.

Black pigtails didn't answer right away. She was staring at him so intensely, almost as if she were trying to soak up his image, his every detail, with her eyes. Like she'd never see him again. Her face was so concentrated, her hands tight fists at her sides. Satoshi couldn't remember feeling so uncomfortable in his life.

"She never sent you a letter," the girl finally said. "She never sent you anything. She doesn't really love you." The poor girl looked on the verge of tears.

But he just stared at her, the pen he had been holding still poised in front of him and file folder still clutched in his other hand. "I can take care of my own business," was all he said.

He did not intend to say anything more.

He did not say anything more.

Black pigtails knew this, bit her lip and then ran out the door.

Satoshi's good mood disappeared with her.

---------------------

He was on his way to the bathroom when he caught of glimpse of them outside.

Black pigtails and Risa.

It was freezing outside and Risa was only in her gym shorts and shirt. Pigtails had on a jacket. They were fighting and they were yelling.

The girl pushed Risa and she stumbled back a bit. But Risa didn't strike back.

She just turned around and walked back into the school.

Satoshi was already running to meet her.

-----------------------

"What do you want now?"

"We told you to stay away from him."

"You called me out here for that? It's freezing!"

"You can't have Hiwatari. You don't deserve him."

"You're like a broken record. Don't you have other things to occupy your time with? Something productive?"

"Don't talk down to me like you're better than I am! You're pathetic and you don't deserve anyone! I've seen the two of you together. I've watched you walking home together and I've seen you meeting him in the library!"

"So?"

"So you need to stop!"

"You're out here, whining, and you call me pathetic?"

"If you don't leave him alone you'll regret it."

"What are you doing to do, get rid of me?"

"…"

"You're ridiculous. He didn't like you before, he doesn't like you now, and even if I'm gone he still won't like you. You know nothing about him. You pretend you do but you don't because you don't really care. All you see is the face and the grades and nothing else."

"You don't know more about him than I do!"

"I know him better than anyone else! I actually care about him!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes, I do. Because I am is his girlfriend…not you."

It was the first time she had said it out loud. The first public recognition of the concept. The girl was so angry that she had actually pushed her, her face flushed from cold and anger and her shallow breathing.

Risa, shivering and bored, turned around and left her out in the snow.

------------------------

She ran into Satoshi in the entrance. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs. He had just gotten there.

He looked worried.

"Don't," she said, closing the door behind herself. "I took care of it. It was stupid."

It was the one request he would never allow her. He would always worry and she knew it.

"She shouldn't have--,"

"But she did. And she's wasting her time."

Risa looked at him and saw a strange look in his eyes. It took her awhile to figure out what it was, but when she did she was almost angry with him.

She marched right up to him and looked up into his face. He was even taller now, standing one step above her.

"Don't think that," she commanded, her voice hardened from irritation at being in the snow. "I'm not listening to them. They can't do anything to me, I don't need your protection and I'm not leaving you alone, even if you wanted me to." She pushed him lightly in the shoulder and started to walk away. "Now go back to the classroom. I'm going back to the gym and Miss Desperate out there can freeze to death."

And with that she walked away.

--------------------------

When the final bell for the end of classes tolled that day everyone gathered their things hastily so they could be the first ones to leave. The only two that didn't rush were Satoshi Hiwatari and Risa Harada.

They were in the art room together, standing at Satoshi's easel.

He was teaching her to paint.

So many girls gathered outside the closed door, peeking in through the window, whispering madly and shoving one another out of the way to get a better look.

Satoshi was standing behind Risa in front of the canvas, his hand on hers as he guided her brush strokes, speaking and explaining things quietly into her ear all the while. So innocent. So intimate. At one point Risa laughed and nearly dropped her pallet. Satoshi caught it and tried to hold her up. He wasn't laughing, but he was grinning. Actually grinning. Risa looked up at him by her shoulder and rose on her tiptoes to whisper something in his ear. He leaned attentively towards her, his face concentrated on her words and her words only.

One of the girls accidentally hit the door.

They both looked over towards the sound.

They saw all the girls in the window. Saw their wide, stunned eyes. Saw their horrified and surprised faces. Saw the jealousy and the anger and the shock and the confusion and the wonder.

And didn't care.

---------------------------

Since their conversation that last Monday afternoon it seemed as if a moment never went by when he couldn't feel Risa's touch.

When they walked she always was holding his hand. When he was standing he was always pleasantly surprised when her arms snaked up from behind him and pulled him into a hug. She was always staring at him, watching him. He had never before liked being the center of attention. He hated when people lingered on him for too long, hated when eyes followed him.

With Risa it was the first time he had wanted someone to look at him.

The first time he ever felt like showing off to impress a girl.

The first time he had been glad the attention was on him and not someone else.

She would tug on his shirt, fiddle with his glasses, mess with his collar. She would run her delicate hands through his hair, or poke him in the shoulder, or nudge him in the side.

He loved that she loved looking through his book collection or pulling out his paintings.

It was Risa saying 'you matter to me', 'I want you around'…'I like you'. And she never had to say it.

He enjoyed finding it.

In the hints that she left him.

In the hints that she gave him.

-----------------------

She was sick and tired of being picked on. Risa had never been bullied before and, now that it was actually happening, she did not like it one bit.

Yes, she was his girlfriend.

Yes, she had what every girl wanted.

Yes, she deserved it.

They didn't know him. They didn't know that he lived alone. They didn't know that he was adopted. They didn't know he was Chief of Police. They didn't know he had been Krad.

They had never tried to find out.

They had never asked about him before. The only thing they had ever asked was if he liked them or not. They didn't seem to care about what he wanted.

That's what she told them. All of them. She said every word, loud and clear for them to hear. She screamed it at them, yelled it into their faces because she was sick and tired of it all.

They all fought with her. They all screamed back. Just a bunch of girls in the hallway after gym, yelling in each others' faces. Risa told them Satoshi was her boyfriend, and nothing they could do would change that.

That was when Black Pigtails brought her palm smashing against the side of Risa's face, the crack of the slap silencing everyone in the hallway.

No one moved.

The other girls stood motionless behind their leader, too stunned for words. Black Pigtails glared hatred through her eyes, her hand still poised in the air. Risa hadn't reacted, her head still turned unceremoniously to the side, her hair thrown over her face, obscuring the darkening red mark on her cheek.

Still, no one moved.

Not even when the rest of the class filtered into the hallway and saw the scene. Not even when they all gasped and Riku ran to her sister, seeing the red mark and abruptly whirling on her heel and bringing her hand down on Black Pigtails and failing to keep her fingers uncurled, as was feminine propriety, and instead colliding her fist into the girl's head. Even when Daisuke ran forward to restrain Riku as she yelled at the girls and Black Pigtails, who was sprawled on the floor, Risa didn't move. Not even when the teachers heard the raucous and ran into the hall. Not even when all the girls, plus Daisuke, were gathered together and escorted to the vice-principle's office.

The entire time she never raised her head, never said a word, never reached to swipe the hair from her face. Even as she sat outside the vice-principle's door next to her sister and Daisuke she kept her eyes on the floor. Even as she listened as the other girls were lectured behind the door.

"Risa…?"

Riku turned to her sister and reached out to take her hand. She sounded so worried. She leaned forward and moved Risa's hair aside, staring into her face. Risa finally raised her eyes to meet her sister's, allowing her beloved twin to finally see the smile that she had been wearing all along.

Riku was surprised to see her smiling.

"Risa…why are you--,"

"I'm a little mad at you," she said quietly, so only Riku could hear her. "Because I was planning to punch her, too. Of course, you do have a stronger left hook."

Riku stared at her for a moment before the two burst out into laughter. Not hysterics or nervous giggles, but full-blown laughter. The kind of laughter friends share at 3:00 am in the morning, when everything is funny, when breathing seems impossible through the laughing. It was the kind of laughter that could make people jealous because they weren't a part of such a hilarious joke. The kind of laughter between friends. The kind of laughter between sisters.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there earlier," Riku finally said, once her hilarity died down. She reached over and pulled her sister into a hug. Risa hugged back. "You should have brought me along. It was an unfair number."

"It's not a big deal. I don't care about any of it, and she barely hurt me."

Riku let her go and held her at arm's length. "I recognized them. They're the ones that are always stalking Hiwatari, aren't they?"

Risa nodded.

"Was that what the fight was about?"

She nodded again. Riku sighed.

"Oh, Risa."

"Don't tell him," she said, pointing at her sister and then looking past her shoulder to Daisuke on the other side. He caught her attention and held his hands up in surrender. "Don't say a word about any of this."

"I won't," Riku promised. She elbowed Dai in the ribs.

"I won't either," he sputtered. Risa nodded.

"Good."