Really sorry for the long wait! But like I promised a reader, I would get it up before school started and I did! Yaay!

There probably won't be an update for awhile since this is my last year of school and I need to really concentrate to get a high end of year mark. Maybe half way through the year I'll release a chapter if we're lucky~

Really hope you enjoy this chapter, I actually wrote a full plan for this (it was 3 pages long, golly! Which I admit that I didn't always follow...) and please like always drop a review of your thoughts of it :) There's less fluff in this chapter because it's basically leading up to the climax (maybe. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do next D:)

Special kudos and shout out to Alice4.0! She has been an inspiring reader, helping me overcome my writers block to be able to plan and write this chapter (perhaps one of my longest chapter!) I credit her for the idea of Ringo having to sleep in some other room (for example, with the boys) which makes Ikki angry and also for a jealous Emily (although I changed the case of the jealousy, it still stems from the same base: Kazu-samaa!). Sorry I didn't get to use your first idea Alice4.0! I only now realised I should've put it in somewhere in this chapter to add to the growing closeness of a certain pairing! But thank you never the less. :)

ALSO SINCE THIS STORY WAS STARTED A LONG TIME AGO BEFORE MANY RECENT CHAPTERS OF AIR GEAR CAME OUT, PLEASE IGNORE EVERYTHING THAT DOESN'T FOLLOW SUIT WITH THE MANGA/ANIME.

ie. Kururu as a character is stronger in recent manga chapters however I still portray her as docile, gentle, and meek; most recent couple revealed in the manga (not spoiling anything!) are still not together in this fic; and my characterisation is probably reallyreally off and over exaggerated like Simca! Also I have no bloody clue what Kanon is like zzz.

Just looking back the genre I set, I'm not sure if it should be classified as Drama/Romance rather than Humour/Romance. Things are starting to get heated up, there's less humour and I'm not as dorky as I was when I first started writing this! (Okay, I lie. I'm still dorky as ever just my sense of humour is horrible and I'm now down-right lame. Not saying that I ever wasn't, but you know...)

Also considering changing the summary because I'm not really sticking with the whole 'Kai-chan' case thing anymore \;A;/

I've also opted for horizontal line breaks instead of the previous '-' because it looks cleaner and makes one of the scenes in this chapter a bit easier to understand/read.

Enough of that;

ENJOY!

xKairix

P.S. FANFICTION(dot)NET PLEASE CONSIDER FIXING THE PROBLEM OF DISAPPEARING HORIZONTAL LINES WHEN UPLOADING A WORD DOCUMENT. ;A;


Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War

Chapter 9: The Beginning of War

"Hello Kairi," Kevin smiled. "I don't remember seeing you back at the table after I went to get us drinks at the beach yesterday."

Kairi smiled nervously. "Ah… Gomen, I –"

" – was with me."Agito came up from behind Kairi and wrapped a possessive arm around her. "Now if you don't mind white boy, we've got some shopping to do," he scoffed.

Kevin's eyes brightened up as he clapped his hands. "Wonderful! I was thinking of going shopping as well! Perhaps I'll join you guys, if it's not a bother to you," he directed at Kairi.

"It's a very big bother," Agito muttered under his breath. Kairi was too nice to reject him so she smiled and shook her head. Agito felt like slapping the girl and screaming at her lack of brain cells. WHY? DON'T ENCOURAGE THE FUCKER.

"Anyway, we're going to go change now," he said suggestively. "See ya white boy. Don't get lost with all the lack of brain cells!" He span on his heels and pushed Kairi along.

Kairi turned around and waved at the blonde behind. "Bye!"

This irritated Agito.

"Can you not?" he stopped them in front of their door with narrowed eyes.

"Huh?"

"Argh!" Agito tugged at his hair and stormed into their room, slamming the door in her shocked face. He opened it again with a glare and stuck his head out. "By the way, you're going to have to wait outside while I change," he snapped before promptly slamming the door once again. He turned around and stared at the empty room. He yelled and kicked his suitcase in frustration, only to realise it was a pretty stupid thing to do because, damn, those things are hard.

That's what she said.

"ARGHHHHHH!"

Akito laughed inside his head and Agito felt like today was not his day. At all. Period.

Stupid fucking white boy, stupid (Okay, maybe not) fucking Kai-chan (Hmm, fucking her wouldn't be too bad…FUCK!).

"Shut up!" he snarled to the giggling boy. Akito stopped before pouting.

Ne, Agitoooooo? Don't you think you were too harsh on Kai-chaan? Stop taking your anger out on her~! Kai-chan is an innocent bystander~! Innocent~!

"Don't tell me what to do!" Agito hissed, throwing his suitcase open and glaring at its contents which stared back innocently at him. Speaking of innocent, Akito called Kai-chan 'innocent' and white boy was probably trying to defile her. He scowled as his thoughts once again drifted to the girl and stormed to the bathroom.

I need a shower to cool off…FUCK!


"Mou, Agito-kun is taking too long!" Kairi huffed. "And he complains that I take too long… Geez! What a hypocrite! I'll just get a spare key from the reception; it'll be his fault if I walk on him undressed because it's his fault for being so slow! Ah… Agito-kun undressed…"

"Snap out of it!" Kairi hit herself on the head before huffing angrily. "Whatever! Who wants to look any him anyway?"

Me…

Kairi messed up her hair in frustration. "Geez! No more thinking about him!" She paused. "I wonder if he's still mad at me… Actually, why was he mad at me? I didn't do anything wrong! Hmph!...But still…Ahh, this is too confusing…"

"Miss? Excuse me miss? Can I help you? Excuse me?"

Kairi jumped in surprised and realised that her feet had dragged her over to the reception while she had been arguing with herself. They probably also heard her talking to herself – ahh, this wasn't good.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I – "

Kairi suddenly felt faint and a great tightness in her chest and stomach. She stumbled and was luckily caught by Sophie who was walking pass.

"Shit! Are you okay?" she asked.

Kairi felt the pain and dizziness start to fade. "Y-Yeah, sorry," she smiled weakly. "I'm fine now," she said, getting to her legs.

Sophie watched on with a concerned gaze but said nothing.

After getting a spare key, Kairi walked back to the room and opened it. "Excuse me for intruding!" she mockingly called out into the room as she stepped through. She closed the door and turned around to see Agito in only a towel staring right at her with the same surprise in his eyes. Water dripped from his spiky blue hair and down his hard chest – Kairi suddenly felt herself go hot and knew her face was burning.

"A-Ah! Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she blabbered.

"F-Fuck!" Agito yelled, quickly regaining his senses and pulling clothes out of his suitcase whilst Kairi dug for the warm cover on the futon they forgot to put away earlier this morning. He paused and raised a brow at the small bump in the covers. "Kai-chan?"

A meek "Hai?" came through the covers.

"Don't look okay? I'm changing now. The towel's going off," he smirked cheekily which was followed by the plop! of the wet towel hitting the floor. He allowed himself a smile of self-satisfaction when he saw the covers jump. He made sure he was fully dressed in neat dark blue jeans, white t-shirt, and an opened black dress shirt before turning back to the girl huddled under the covers.

"You can look now," he smugly said. When no reply came, he frowned. "Oi, Kai-chan, I'm fully dressed." But still, the covers stayed still and no reply came. He leaned forward and pulled the covers off. His eyebrow twitched.

She's asleep? What the fuck!

Aw, Kai-chan is so cute, Akito laughed, to which Agito replied with a scowl. His features softened as he continued to look at the sleeping girl, oblivious to his annoyance and the world.

He sighed. Whatever, let her sleep. I just got dressed as well. Fuck.

He settled himself on the other side of the futon and pulled the covers over both of them. He stared at the soft features of the girl, taking in her long dark lashes, small nose, and pink lips on her fair skin. A thought struck him.

Maybe I should tell crow that we're staying back?


"Hey, Ikki?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are Kairi-chan and Agito/Akito…"

"FUCK, THAT STUPID PERVERTED BRAT! TRYING TO SEDUCE MY LITTLE KAI-CHAN WHILE WE'RE OUT SHOPPING, HUH? I'LL GO TEACH HIM A LESSON! JUST YOU WAIT; I'M GOING TO BEAT HIM UP SO BAD THAT KAI-CHAN WILL NEVER LOOK AT HIS UGLY FACE AGAIN! I'M GONNA – "

"CALM DOWN, YOU FUCKING CROW!"

"LET GO OF ME! LET ME KICK HIS PUNY ARSE! LET ME – ARGHHHHH!"


"Hey, Buccha? Can I talk to you for a second?" Sophie asked with concern written all over her face.

Buccha placed the book down he was reading in the hotel's lobby and indicated to the seat in front of him. "What's wrong?"

Sophie frowned as she sat down. "It's about Kairi… Today at the reception when she was getting a spare key, she had a sudden dizzy attack and fell. She was holding her hand to her chest and stomach and seemed to be in great pain. Is everything okay?"

Buccha pondered over her words. He sighed. "I don't know what is happening to her but thank you for telling me, Sophie. I know that Kairi-chan would never tell any of us because that's just the kind of person she is and it's relieving to hear so we are aware. She's been through a lot…"

Sophie smiled weakly. "She's a good kid."

"Yeah."

Sophie smoothed her skirt and stood up with a smile. "Well, now we can look out for her and make sure she's okay. I'll see you later, Buccha."

He smiled back. "Sure. Until then, Sophie."

After she was gone, he put his head between his hands and closed his eyes. His eyes snapped open and he got up. "Crow," he called out.

The spiky haired boy turned around at his name and nodded in greeting, a scowl gracing his features because a certain two were noticeably absent at their shopping trip in town. "Sup?"

Buccha went straight to the point. "Sophie saw Kairi collapse from a dizzy attack earlier today at the reception and seemed to be in pain."

Crow's eyes widened a fraction before he scoffed and regained his irritated expression. "Che, it's still no excuse to miss shopping to spend a day with the brat. I'm going to tell her off now." He scratched his head before nodding at the other male in thanks and goodbye.

Outwardly, he swaggered and wore a controlled face as he walked down the corridors of the hotel. In the sanctuary of his mind, he was anxious. Kairi was fainting around the place again. It didn't happen often, usually they kept things under control (he blamed the vacation for their slackness), but Ikki knew it was no good when she did start to. Honestly, could his father be any crueller? Placing such a large burden and, dare he say it, a monster inside a young girl knowing the scarring side effects? The Heartless inside Kairi was acting up again, and when Kairi started to faint, he knew it was nearly time.

Play time.

And Ikki was going to be there to stop it, he decided. He would be there for her this time, for the little girl who was close enough to be a sister, perhaps even closer than his adoptive Noyamano sisters.

Speak of the devil.

"Hey Ikki," the Crazy Apple smiled at him, coming from her room. Although Ikki was usually good at keeping a composed face, having been with Ringo for so long has allowed her to see past his façade. He guessed something must've shown on his face (either that, or she knew him too well) because the next question she asked was, "Do you need to talk?"

This girl was too good.

"Let's go AT," he calmly suggested with a hint of cockiness. "Let's see if you've been slacking off."

She grinned, but in her eyes was worry. "Well you might be surprised to know I've been ATing every early morning," she boasted jokingly.

But it was true. Ikki had woken up countless times during their stay by the familiar and reassuring whiz of AT wheels winding and winding until the release – the shot towards the sky. Sometimes the temptation to join her cutting through the forest seemed too great, but he always reminded himself that if he ever asked to join he would come off as a stalker who followed her at 4AM in the morning. Yes, something the great Ikki would rather avoid.

But Ikki found himself in a good situation: they were in the forest with their ATs without him coming off as a stalker. Ahh, such genius.

Ikki winded his wheels and the whizzing noise surrounded the air.

"Run type battle. Last to reach the hotel treats the other to food," Ikki announced, kicking his heel on the ground.

He released. Ringo was hot at his heels.

"Kairi's in danger. Heartless is acting up, and causing her to faint," he said to Ringo, acting as if they were having a casual conversation. The intentional reckless way he slashed his way through the forest caused enough noise to fend off eavesdroppers. "Soon Heartless will take over and go on a killing spree," Ikki continued.

"For blood," Ringo finished with a nod. She saw a path in front of her and smirked as she pushed off to the tree to her right and kicked off upon landing on it, twirling in the air and narrowly missing slicing Ikki's nose who she cut across. He scowled and sped up.

"I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen," he said seriously.

Ringo stared at him, the boy who breathlessly twisted his way through a small gap between tree branches as if it was nothing special compared to his worries. His hidden words:

"I'll keep an eye on her," she reassured him.

Ikki nodded before smirking. "You better have enough money to pay for my meal, 'cause I ain't gonna hold back when you treat me to sushi train."

Conversation over. The real race begins now.

Ringo scoffed and landed on a branch. She bent her knees before releasing and leaving a broken tree behind. As she flew past Ikki she trailed a finger on his cheek and threw him a cheeky smile. "Crows should learn to walk before they learn to fly." And she was gone in the blur of trees ahead.

Ikki blinked before shaking his head in disbelief. "Damn woman."


Simca was walking on the porch of the traditional Japanese style inn connected to the forest when she heard the familiar whiz of an AT. From the corner of her eye she saw a flash of pink and orange in the forest before hearing a familiar voice and deciding to hide around the corner.

"I'm gonna beat ya!"

"No you're not!"

From the bushes burst a pink faced Ringo, who fell on the ground when another figure came stumbling after her. Simca felt a pang of jealousy when she saw it was beloved Ikki-kun in the orange shirt who collided into the girl, wrapping his arms around her and twisting them so he was on the bottom to cover their fall. The spiteful feeling inside her heightened when they both started to laugh, Ringo still on top of Crow.

"I guess you owe me to a meal then," Ringo smiled cheekily at the boy below her, rolling off him to sit by his side.

"Tch, I guess," he replied, sitting up whilst scratching his head, causing stray leaves and grass to fall out in the process. Ringo laughed.

"Silly, let me help you." She reached into his hair and Ikki bowed his head to give her better access. "There, all done," she said, giving his hair one last cleaning. She paused then smiled teasingly. "Sooo, when are you taking me out for a meal?"

"Huh. So eager for food; you're going to get fat- Ow! Hey! Stop hitting me! Fine, fine! I'll take you out tomorrow for dinner or something. Geez, women and their body image issues."

"Okay!"

Simca tuned out for the rest of the conversation to replay the information in her head.

Tomorrow? I'll need to think of something to prevent them from going… Ah!

She dashed to find Kevin. When she found him, she approached him with a flirty smile. "Hey Kevin-kun~ Do you think you could get me and my friends tickets for a full day tour tomorrow or something? Until after dinner please~"

Kevin smiled back with his own lady-killer smile. "Sure thing, sweet thing. But it's going to cost money, hm?"

"You can charge it onto our hotel bill," Simca slapped his arm. Her smile dropped slightly. "Ah, what about Kairi-chan? Have you talked to her yet? Gotten anything sweet out of her about Ikki-kun?"

"Nope," Kevin replied back without so looking as disappointed as Simca. "The schizo is always around her."

"Agito/Akito?" Simca blinked before shaking her head. "You'll keep trying though, won't you? Kairi-chan is quite cute, ne?"

"Hmm, she doesn't seem interested," Kevin mused. "And it seems she already has a man."

Simca narrowed her eyes at the American. "Doesn't matter, she's just playing hard to get ne? And don't worry about the boy; someone already has her claim on him."

Kevin shrugged. "If you say so, love. Excuse me; I need to go pick someone up. I'll get those tickets to you in the morning."

"Thank you darling~" Simca cooed happily. She walked into the ladies' bathroom and stared at her reflection with a small smile.

"Ringo is being a bad girl~ Trying to take away Ikki-kun~"


"Emily! Kairi! I need to tell you guys something!" Ringo beamed, tugging them close to her as they walked out of the dining hall.

"We can talk in my room," Kairi offered. She turned to look back at Akito. "Akito-kun, don't come into our room for a bit okay?"

"Okay~ I'll be back in an hour so be warned!" Akito chirped, twirling towards Kairi to hug the girl before skipping away ("Ne, ne, Ikki-kun! Want to hear a joke?" "No, get lost kid." "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "I said get lost. STOP HUGGING MY LEG!" "Wrong! It's to get to the other side~").

Kairi quickly opened the door with her keys before Emily pushed them inside and closing the door with her hip – "Tell, tell, tell!" she cheered.

"Quiet!" Ringo hissed, settling herself on the futon. She paused and looked at both of the girls before breaking out into a grin. "Ikki is treating me to a meal tomorrow!"

"Ooh! A date? Oh my god, it's a date right? Did he ask you out? Or did you ask him out? Are you guys official? You are, right? I mean – "

"Shut up for a second Emily!" Ringo scolded lightly with a wide grin still plastered on her face. "But no, it's not a date. We made a bet that the loser had to treat the winner to food. I won," she smiled coyly.

"Ooh, nice going there you little minx! Get in there!" Emily nudged the blushing girl.

Kairi took Ringo's hands into her own. "Do you have something to wear?"

Ringo blinked at the girl. Seconds ticked by, until:

"OH MY GOD! I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR? WHAT, WHAT, WHAT AM I - ?"

"Calm down!" Kairi hushed the girl. "We'll find something!"

Emily smiled wickedly. "We've already found you something." And from out of nowhere she pulled out a black dress that she had shown Ringo earlier. "Reeeemember this?"

"I can't wear that!" Ringo gasped in horror as she stared at it. "It's too good! It's too revealing! It's too… sexy," she mumbled sadly. "I'm not sexy; I can't be sexy if I tried!"

"Oh sure you can, just hurry up and change into it! Then we can match shoes and accessories… Oh hurry up and put it on! Geez, I'll put it on you if I have to!"

"NO!"

"THEN HURRY UP! WE ONLY HAVE AN HOUR UNTIL AKITO COMES BACK! WE STILL NEED TO DO A TRIAL OUTFIT!"

"STOP TOUCHING ME! H-HEY! MOU, STOP IT!"

"NO! HURRY UP AND STRIP!"

Kairi sweatdropped as she stared at the two bickering girls.

"This is going to be a long night…"


"Ne, today's the big day, are you excited?" Emily grinned deviously, surprisingly cheery in the early morning, and nudged Ringo. Ringo stumbled from the sudden topic and her tray with food tipped dangerously.

"M-Mou! Emily, be careful! I nearly spilt my tray!" Ringo scolded the girl, her face matching the colour of her hair.

"She's blushing!" Kairi gasped, forgetting for a moment that she was also carrying a tray of food. She collected herself before grinning at Ringo who was being jabbed at by a smirking Emily.

"You're so cute!" Emily laughed loudly.

"Who's cute?" Ikki questioned, butting his head in between Emily and Ringo. He continued, oblivious to the red face of Ringo, "You mean Kai-chan? What are you talking about, she's a monster!"

"You're so mean, Kiki-chan!" Kairi cried. "I guess it won't matter if another boy calls me cute then-"

"No boy is going to call you cute when I'm around!" Ikki yelled back protectively. He caught himself and quickly got his 'badass' act together again. "Of course no boy will ever call you cute when I'm alive. Even when I'm dead, you're going to be some old fart, still as ugly as you are now," he coolly said, taking Kairi's tray with his right hand in one clean sweep.

"H-Hey! Kiki-chan! Give that back!" Kairi yelled after him in frustration, pounding her small fists against his back. "Mou! You're so mean!"

Emily and Ringo stood back and watched the exchange in amusement.

"They're so cute!" Emily squealed. "They're like brother and sister, don't you think so Ringo?"

Ringo smiled back. "Hai."

"Ooh, and then when you get married to Crow, Kairi will be like a sister-in-law!" Emily fantasized. "And then when you guys are out on a date (or getting down in funky town hehehe), she can stay home and look after your seven kids! Oh! And then when-"

"S-s-seven kids?" Ringo exclaimed. She felt like her face would explode. "I-I-I'm not having seven kids!"

"Oh? Really?" Emily stopped her spiel mid-way. "Wow, aiming high, aren't ya? Fine, then Kairi-chan can stay home and look after your ten kids!"

"T-T-TEN?" Ringo nearly fainted. "T-T-This is too much…Emily, please calm down…"

"Hai, hai," Emily pouted. "You're so fun, Ringo-chaan! Why don't you let your imagination run for a bit, huh? Ooh, scared you're gonna fantasize something naughty like-"

"Emily!"

"Okay, okay. I'll stop…but you know, that's really kinky of you-"

"EMILY."

"Shutting up now…"

"…Thank you."

A sigh. "Party pooper."

"Glad to be of service."

"Tch."

"Yo!" The girls saw Kazu at a nearby round table, waving his arms around. "Over here!"

Emily beamed. "Kazu-!" She stopped herself as she remembered the beach incident. She coughed and turned her head purposely away to look at Ringo. "Anyway, like I was saying…"

Ringo caught Kazu's face fall for a second before it snapped back into his neutral expression. She half-smiled back at Emily as the girl attempted to continue on some non-existent conversation.

"Yahoo! How are my favourite people doing?" Simca cheered, making a dramatic entrance at the table. Everyone greeted her back with less enthusiasm. "Why are you lot so unhappy, huh? Not to worry, not to worry! You will all love what I'm about to say next! We can only go today, but not to worry! I got us all tickets for a whole day tour to the mountains and a nearby local village! Don't ask me for the name though, because I have for-got-ten~!"

"When you say 'whole day', do you mean just the morning and afternoon?" Ikki questioned casually, sharing an uneasy glance with Ringo across the table.

"Nope! These are very special tickets! We are going to be having dinner up there with the locals!" Simca replied back with more enthusiasm – Yes, now Ikki-kun can't go on a date with Ringo-chan~!

"Well, we haven't planned anything else for today, have we?" Buccha inquired the rest of the group.

"No, we haven't!" Simca confirmed in their place. "And I put a lot of effort into getting these tickets which have to be used today! You don't want it all to be wasted, do you?" she pouted.

"Tch. Sounds boring, count me out," Agito scoffed.

"Eh? How does it sound boring?" Kairi gasped at the boy. "I want to go; it sounds like fun! Plus I've never been on a mountain before."

Agito grumbled. "Fine, whatever I'll go. Only to prove to you it's boring," he quickly added when he saw Kairi's shining eyes. He raised a brow. "Don't give me that look. Fuck."

Kairi giggled.

"Hey," Ikki leaned over from Kairi's right, putting his arm around her. "Trying to hit on her, punk? I still haven't forgiven you for staying back with Kai-chan when we were meant to go shopping. You didn't do anything to her did you?"

"No. Fuck off, Crow," Agito dismissed him indifferently.

Ikki made hand gestures. "I'm keeping my eyes on you," he leered with narrowed eyes.

"Kiki-chan!" Kairi scolded.

Yayoi huffed at the exchange. Why was Crow insinuating that Agito would even hit on Kairi? "I'm in!" she told Simca.

"Good, good!" Simca sang. "Anyone else?"

Kururu raised her hand shyly whilst Emily waved hers around wildly.

"Ooh, me, me, me!"

Kazu glanced at Emily before half raising his hand. "Yeah, I'm in."

Emily glanced at the laid back boy, lounging back in his blue hoodie and his usual white beanie with his tousled blonde locks peeking from underneath. Her heart thumped wildly and she willed herself to look away – Idiot, you still haven't forgiven him!

The pig readily agreed, ranting on about beautiful, local Japanese girls with big breasts and cute innocence, but no one paid much attention to him.

"Well, it's down to you two," Simca said to Ikki and Ringo. Ikki stared with nervous eyes at Ringo, who looked down at her lap after she realised why he wasn't replying.

He's letting me decide whether to go or not! Mou, so hard. It'll be suspicious if I don't agree… But I really want to go out with Ikki!...What should I do?

"Y-Yeah, I'll go," Ringo slowly replied back with an unsure smile. Seeing this, Ikki leaned back and shrugged coolly.

"Me too."

Simca beamed. "Great-o! I'll tell Kevin-san that we're all going! Eat up your breakfast, we're going to have a fu~n da~y! You won't regret this!"

Ringo grumbled bitterly. She dared a glance at Ikki, blushing when she found he was also looking at her. She poked at the sunny-side-up eggs on her plate with new found irritation.

Ie, Simca-chan. I'm already regretting this.


The group had just come back from the local village and were taking turns to shower. Currently everyone was in the recreation room, lounging around or playing pool, whilst Kururu and Simca were in their room. Kururu had just finished her shower and next was Simca's turn.

"Ne, Simca? Can I talk to you?" Kururu squeaked, making sure no one else was in their room.

Simca beamed and patted the space next to her on the bed. "Sure thing, darling~! What's up?"

Kururu awkwardly shifted to place herself on the edge of the bed. She tugged on the edge of her dress and hastily stopped when she realised. "U-Um, has Kevin-san… found out anything? A-About Ikki and Kairi-san I mean!"

Simca blinked before the edges of her lips tightened. "Don't worry, Kururu-cha~n! He knows what his doing, I'm pretty sure he's trying to act cool by not telling us anything," she winked, "ne?"

Kururu's face dawned with understanding and she nodded rapidly. "Hai! Sorry for doubting! I'll be on my way! Thank you, Simca-chan!" she skipped her way out.

As the door closed, Simca turned to look down at her hands and a frown appeared on her beautiful face. She sighed tiredly. In actual fact, Kevin had been useless and he did nothing but chatting up other girls after realising that it wasn't worth the effort – he didn't even try separate Agito and Kairi to talk to her!

What a player.

She groaned as another problem came into her mind. The Crazy Apple was getting a little too close with her Ikki-kun and it wasn't like she was blowing it out of proportion either. No, she hadn't personally talked to Ikki-kun for two days. So maybe she's being a bit dramatic but seriously, this was her Ikki-kun that she was separated from. What could she do to get rid of Ringo? Their pact never said anything about betraying each other, only to go up against Kairi-san…

A boy with dirty blond hair and snarky eyes came into her mind.

The boy would be perfect, she concluded. Although he was a lazy and messed up arsehole, he was just as wicked, snarky and vindictive as she was and the only thing that she respected him for was their shared ruthless and unforgiving nature. Oh yes, he would be perfect. He and Ikki-kun never got along, and to invite him to the resort when Ikki-kun and Ringo-chan are at such a friendly relationship would cause the blond's blood to boil and crave for vengeance. Oh, did she forget to mention? He was very possessive, not a whole lot different from her. Ringo would hardly get a chance alone with Ikki!

She paused. What about Ringo-chan? The spiteful boy would most likely punish her in some way for getting too close to Ikki-kun, and to pull her apart from Ikki-kun would probably break her heart. She liked Ringo-chan – no, loved her as a friend – however… She loved Ikki-kun far too much to hand him over to anyone, and if she had to hurt her friend in the process, then so be it.

She felt a monster inside her roaring and, honestly, she felt sick to her toes. She suppressed the tears forming with thoughts of Ikki-kun.

No, it was wrong, Simca argued with herself. Besides, she didn't know how she could contact the blond boy! She would just have to try get Kevin (with a bit of bribery perhaps) to focus on his new mission of separating Ringo-chan from Ikki-kun! Mission Kai-chan can wait!

There was a shriek outside.

Simca's head snapped up and she raced to the door – That was Ringo-chan's voice!

She looked to her left and saw the girl awkwardly in someone's arms. Several small (and noticeably male) travel bags were scattered around her and it looked like she had bumped into someone and had nearly fallen.

"A-Ah, gomen! I didn't see you there, I-" Ringo babbled as she turned to look up at her saviour.

She saw the pink head stumble away from the boy.

"K-Kanon?" Ringo gasped.

The blond smiled wickedly.

"Yo, Ringo-chan! Did you miss me?"

Inside Simca's head, she began plotting a million schemes to divert Ringo from Ikki with Kanon. A little part of her felt like she was doing something bad, but she shrugged it off.

All's fair in love and war, right?


Ringo was turning the corner into the breakfast hall the next morning when she came face to face with a blond.

"Yo!" Kanon greeted cheerily.

Ringo eyed him suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm having breakfast," he replied innocently.

"No, I mean in this hotel!"

"I'm visiting relatives in the town nearby," he answered back coolly. His smile turned snarky. "Why? Thinking I followed you here?"

Ringo huffed and turned away. "No."

Kanon followed her to the buffet with his hands in his jeans pockets, laughing. "Ne, Ringo-chan, you're so fun to tease!"

Ringo muttered something under her breath and hurried to find Emily. She found her in the queue for food, intentionally and obviously ignoring Kazu who was behind her with a look of desperation and dejection. Ringo thought to herself that she would see if Kazu wanted to talk later. Not that they were close friends, no never. They knew each other through common friendships with Ikki in high school, but once the Gram Scale Tournament started, they never once talked nor found the need to. But now Kazu was Emily's boyfriend and Emily was Ringo's best friend and Ringo wanted Emily to be happy. Emily was currently obviously not happy with the way things were in their relationship and so Ringo was going to help them so they could be happy again.

After Ringo got her tray of food (with much disturbance from Kanon trying to play the boyfriend figure and get food for her), she headed towards the table. She saw Ikki there, already gulfing down several plates down in a short time. He glanced up and their eyes met. His head nodded the slightest bit, so little that people that weren't watching him wouldn't notice that he was. Ringo repeated the gesture, him going back to his food as soon as she did, and she sat down in her seat smiling.

Tonight, he would take her out for dinner.

"Everyone~ I found us another whole day event again!" Simca cheered, popping out of nowhere.

Ringo slapped her head.

Or maybe not… Stupid Simca-chan!

"There's a massive sale in town today! There will also be a live band at night, doesn't it sound mar~velou~s?" Simca sang.

A series of cheers erupted from the table whilst Ringo felt the need to dig herself into a deep hole.

Just my luck…


Despite her earlier moping, Ringo found herself strangely refreshed after a few hours of shopping, feeling new feelings of hope and assurance that they still had a few days for Ikki to take her out. She sighed happily in content. Gotta love retail therapy, she thought to herself. It was a real bonus that everything was so cheap too!

She glanced behind her at all the guys tailing the energetic girls. It was a good thing that they dragged them along to carry all their bags! It was really bothersome to try search through racks and racks of clothing when you already have ten shopping bags hindering your search.

Whilst the other girls around her were debating where to shop next, Ringo checked her wallet to find it was nearly empty.

"I'll be right back! I just need to get some more money!" Ringo pointed towards a nearby ATM. "Don't leave okay?"

She hurried to the ATM, not bothering to wait to see if they had heard her – because they had heard her, right? She saw Kairi had nodded from the corner of her eye. She inserted her bank card, inputted her PIN and drew out the desired amount of cash. She half turned only to find Kanon lazily leaning on the nearby wall. She jumped.

"K-Kanon?" she squeaked. She slapped his arm. "Don't scare me like that! Geez."

Kanon smirked lazily and propped himself off the wall. "Sorry, Apple."

"Don't call me that," she threw him a glare.

He shrugged. "It's cute. Or would you prefer Crazy Apple?"

Ringo scoffed and walked away from him to head back towards the others, only to find they weren't there. "Ne, Kanon. Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know. I was following you and when I turned around, they were gone," he said, not bothered by the situation at all.

Ringo panicked. "Huh? B-But- Oh, I can call them! Oh wait! I left my phone at the hotel! Ringo, you idiot… I could try a public phone! But I don't know their numbers… Ahh!"

Kanon took her hand and lead her to an ice-cream shop. "We'll meet them back later at the hotel. In the meantime, we can have fun without them."

"B-B-But-!" It's 3 o'clock now and everyone is going back at 8! That means 5 hours alone with Kanon!

Kanon turned around to place a finger on her lips with his other hand. "Just listen to me."

Ringo fell silent and let him drag her around. She vaguely heard him cheerfully order them ice-cream as she lost herself in her worries.

Mou…What will Ikki think? Will he think I'm dating Kanon? Then maybe he won't take me out for dinner anymore… This sucks!

"Oh, by the way Ringo," Kanon interrupted her from her thoughts, "let's have dinner at a restaurant in town later. It's my treat. Ah, I heard there will be a live band later tonight. We can also watch them."

Great, this sounds like a date with Kanon… Now Ikki will definitely think we're dating and that I chose dinner with Kanon over him!


"Hey, shouldn't we wait for Ringo?" Emily questioned the others. There were a few murmurs of agreement. "Oh! And Kanon-san as well! Not that anyone really knows why he's tagging along…"

"Nope!" Simca chirped. "Let her have some alone time with Kanon-san!" she winked.

The others 'oh'ed in dawning understanding around her, a few being crude enough to whistle suggestively. Ikki, however, stayed silent and felt something inside him boil in irritation.

Fish eyes? Tch. Why would she want to be alone with him?

Both Emily and Kairi played along, but once the topic had moved on, they looked at each other worriedly.

"Did she bring her phone?" Kairi asked quietly.

"No, I remember her leaving it at the hotel because she thought she wouldn't need it," Emily replied back anxiously.

Kairi frowned and turned away. "Let's hope we run into her then." She 'oof'ed as she felt something warm collide into her back.

"Waah, why are you so serious, Kai-chan?" Akito sang as he pulled her cheeks teasingly, trying to rearrange it into a smile. "Smile! Smile!"

"Akito-kun, that hurts!" Kairi cried through her stretched cheeks. She tried to swat his hands away but he was too strong. She stumbled as she felt a sharp prick in her head. She saw black dots fill her vision and she fell forward as it consumed her.

"A-Ah! Kai-chan!" Akito cried as he quickly caught the girl.

Fuck! Kairi! Agito growled from within.

"Kai-chan? Ne, are you okay? Hello? Kai-chan?" Akito whimpered, trying to reposition the girl better in his arms. Kairi slowly and awkwardly pushed away from him and stood up, still wobbly from the black dots.

"A-Ah, I'm okay, just tripped," she mumbled.

"Like hell you did!" Agito growled. Kairi jumped at the loud voice and looked at him in surprise.

"You came out…" she muttered. She shook her head. "I'm fine, don't worry about me," she blandly said as she pushed his desperate reaching hands away. She huffed when he resisted but shoved them away harder before walking towards the stall where everyone else was.

Agito grumbled under his breath as he watched the girl wobbled away. "Stupid bitch. Fuck! I'm leaving." He pulled the eye patch across as switched with Akito. Akito was unfortunate enough to tolerate with his constant grumbling inside their body for the remainder of the day, not that he paid much attention to the whinging brat.


Ringo found herself jumped on by the other girls when she walked back into their room later that night after dinner.

"Ne, Ringo? We're friends right? We can tell each other things right?" Kururu asked timidly. The other girls sat around them in silence. To Ringo they all seemed like they were about to jump on her once they had permission.

She nodded. "Of course."

"Well," she trailed off, before leaning forward and beaming. "So what's going on between you and Kanon?"

"Are you guys dating? You two did wonder off alone today…"

"Ooh, you guys are so cute together!"

"Yay! Another couple among us!"

"A-Ah! No! Kanon and I are just friends, there's nothing between us!" Ringo answered.

Simca smiled wickedly as she observed the situation. Things were going right to plan…

"But Ringo-chan," she interrupted innocently, "what about Ikki-kun? I thought you liked him…"

Yayoi gasped. "Now that I think about it, what's going on? You like Ikki but you go off alone with Kanon-san? Oh, do you like them both? Isn't that…"

"Bad?" Kururu supplied meekly, with a hint of disgust.

"Oh please!" Emily scoffed, wrapping her arm around the nervous Ringo. "Ringo is too innocent for that! Her feelings for Crow are real! She will never two time him! Besides, how can she like someone like him, I will never know!"

Laughs filled the room.

"Hey, Ikki-kun isn't that bad!"

"Yeah, he's quite… good looking…"

"You mean hot, Kururu? Huh?"

"M-Maybe...!"

"You're so cute Kururu-chaan! Look at you, blushing so hard! I just wanna hug you, aww!"

Simca bit her lip and frowned slightly. No, this wasn't how it was supposed to turn out. They weren't supposed to dismiss the issue so quickly but gang up on Ringo. How did this happen? Her eyes flickered over to a laughing brunette.

"Aww, look at you Kururu! So cute! I definitely don't know how someone as sweet as you could like Crow!"

Emily needed to go, Simca decided. Emily defended Ringo and easily turned the conversation around. Either Emily had to go or she had to leave Ringo's side. Her thoughts flashed to the memory of Emily yelling at Kazu at the beach. Their relationship has been rocky ever since then. Then she remembered Ringo pulling Kazu aside after breakfast earlier and asking if he wanted to talk about Emily later tonight.

To make Emily hate Ringo…

Simca smiled wickedly.

She had just the plan…


Emily found herself happily humming later that night when she stumbled across a letter with her name addressed on it on her bed. Her heart soared when she read that it was from Kazu-sama who wished to meet her later that night in the garden to apologise to her among other things which made her heart soar. She felt like she was in middle school again, meeting with first crush. She felt giddy and girly. Hell, she even bothered to change her clothes – which took her 20 minutes before she found an outfit she liked.

She walked out of the room in denim shorts and a yellow flowing singlet. She giggled.

Silly Kazu-sama was pretty slow to realize that he needed to apologize!

She was mid-way humming a happy tune when she saw Kazu sitting on a stone bench in the garden. She beamed and was about to run over and hug him from behind when she saw someone from the corner of her eye. She crouched among the bushes and flowers, thinking to herself how stupid she must be – It's probably some stranger innocently walking in the garden, nothing to do with Kazu-sama! – and was about to walk up to him when her eyes widened as the other person stepped into the light.

R-Ringo?

She pushed her doubts away but they all came crashing back when she saw the pink-haired girl sit next to him, placing a hand on his back and rubbing circles.

No, Emily thought to herself, maybe it wasn't Kazu-sama…

But it was unmistakably the boy in her heart: the lax curve of his back; the Adidas sneakers which she had bought him last summer; the jumper in which he stuffed his hands in with the hood down; the blonde flecks of hair; and above all, the white beanie.

Okay, so maybe Ringo was having a friendly chat with Kazu-sama… Ringo was her best friend and wouldn't be secretly meeting up with Kazu-sama behind her back, right? She was obsessed with Crow as far as she knew and this was all some coincidence.

A voice inside her head yelled. What kind of friendly chat is that, when Ringo is putting her hands all over Kazu-sama?

Emily wavered.

No, her best friend wouldn't do this to her. She wouldn't betray her like this!

She saw the boy lean forward with his head in his hand, which spurred Ringo to put both hands on his back, continuing to rub circles. Her heart broke and all doubt was lost when she saw Ringo tilt her head to rest on the boy's shoulders and the boy slightly lean into the girl's warm touch.

She tore herself away, tears streaming down her cheeks as her chest clenched painfully, not wanting to watch anymore. And in doing so, she missed everything and anything she should have stayed to watch.

She missed the tears running down the Thorn Queen's face.

She missed the growing shake of the Flame King's body as he racked with silent sobs.

She missed the quiet, soothing words of the Thorn Queen as she comforted the blond.

And she missed the Flame King's strangled cry for the girl he loved the most, the girl who held his heart in her hands.

"EMILY!"


Ringo felt exhausted after comforting the poor heartbroken Kazu. Somewhere inside the boy, she saw herself, wandering around lost and being separated from the one who holds her heart because of damn misunderstandings. Part of her worries washed away as Kazu cried on her shoulders, but most of them stayed as she still had to figure how to help them – and sort out the misunderstandings created with Ikki because of stupid Kanon.

Of course, the latter would have to be discreet; if Ikki didn't really like her and didn't mind that she was supposedly 'dating' Kanon then Ringo would probably have to kill herself right there and then on the spot in pure humiliation and embarrassment.

It didn't make things any better when she passed Kanon in the hallway, only to be asked out. She was so tired she couldn't give a fucks worth so just told him 'whatever' which, thinking back on it now, wasn't such a great idea as he would probably take it as a yes.

Damn misunderstandings.

Ringo sighed and opened the door to her room. The air was tense and she suddenly felt anxious and jumpy. The other girls (minus Kairi who was probably off somewhere with Agito or Akito, whichever one) were sitting around a hunched Emily and glaring profusely at her.

She slowly closed the door and treaded lightly over to them in caution. "Are you okay, Emily?" she asked quietly, kneeling down and reaching out to comfort the girl.

"Don't talk to her!" Yayoi hissed, causing Ring to jump back in hurt surprise. "And don't even think of touching her!"

"Wah?"

"What kind of best friend are you?" Yayoi continued.

"I don't understand…" Ringo articulated slowly with pure confusion on her face.

"You were secretly meeting up with Kazu-san!" Kururu blurted out in her small voice.

"Huh?" Ringo blinked. She frowned as she regained herself. "Yes, but-"

"I can't believe you did that! Kazu-san is Emily-chan's boyfriend!" Simca cried in horror. The other girls agreed.

"What? No, no, no! You're all misunderstanding! I wasn't going behind Emily's back to-"

"Yes you were!" Kururu bit her lip.

"Okay, so maybe I did go behind her back to talk to him, but there's nothing to it, I swear! Nothing is going on between us-!"

"Just like you and Kanon, huh?" Yayoi bit back bitterly. "Not to mention Ikki. Are you trying to go after every boy you lay eyes on? Doesn't that make you a bit of a… slut?"

"W-What? No! I'm not…! I didn't…! I…!" Ringo yelled in frustration. She felt tears prickle in her eyes and she suddenly felt too exhausted to defend herself and try tell the truth. All she wanted to do was curl up in her warm bed and sleep this horrible nightmare away, hoping to wake up with all abnormalities gone.

The room was silent for a while, save Emily's sobs, until Kururu ended it with her quiet voice. "Mou, that's horrible of you, Ringo-chan… I can't believe you did that to your own best friend…"

Ringo felt the words trying to come out of her mouth but it was too hard through the tears, the clenched throat, and overwhelming feeling of being too drained and sore to care anymore.

No, I was trying to help them! I was helping Kazu with how to fix things with Emily! Believe me, I swear! Please believe me!

"Come on, Emily," Simca cooed, "let's get you to bed."

Yayoi and Kururu also helped the shaking girl to her bed, saying words of comfort and sympathy, before climbing into their own. Ringo continued to sit in the middle of the room, not moving an inch, shadows dancing across her pale skin as the moonlight peeked in through the blinds. It wasn't until it was all silent and the other girls were fast asleep that Ringo could finally force the words out of her lips.

"Please believe me…" she whimpered croakily. A few seconds passed by when she wearily dragged herself into her own bed, not bothering to change out of her clothes. Sleep hit her as soon as her head fell on the pillow, commencing nightmares of the earlier events to replay.

Lying in the darkest corner of the room, Emily was still wide awake. She mused over Ringo's words and felt torn. In her heart, she knew her best friend would never do something so horrible to her, but her mind logically pieced together the evidence and replayed the events of what she saw and came to the conclusion of her best friend's betrayal.

Her heart ached. Two betrayals in one night.

Life was a bitch.


Kazu drifted aimlessly around the hotel. Emily wasn't talking to him for some reason – again. He could never understand girls, they were such complicated creatures. One minute they're acting all cutesy, the next minute they're yelling at you, and then come the deathly silent treatment. Ah yes, Kazu was not unfamiliar with a la silent treatment. He never understood why he was given such harsh treatment anyway; if the silent treatment was to make me think about and realize what he has done wrong, then it obviously was not working at all because Kazu had no fucking clue what he had done wrong each and every time.

He ran a hair through his sun-kissed blonde hair and sighed in exasperation for the nth time that morning.

Breakfast was horrible. No, worse, it was like a mine field waiting to explode. He was so scared of taking a treading wrongly and causing the whole situation to blow out of hand – and he was glad that many of the other guys felt the same way. The atmosphere was so tense and deadly, most of the girls chatted with fake cheeriness and screechy laughs – Kazu noted that Ringo sat with her head down, poking and rearranging her food the whole time. Kairi had tried to talk to her, only to get a small shake of the head. The guys had all opted to stay silent; nothing could go wrong if nothing came out of their mouths right? Girls always take everything said out of proportion and misunderstand. Times like these, Kazu wished he were gay. Well, not really. Boobs made everything worth it.

Kazu sighed again for the nth plus one time that morning. What he would give for the world to be happy and forgiving so he wouldn't be wandering aimlessly around the empty halls because Emily decided to through a bitch fit.

Though it was strange, he noted; Emily usually took her anger out physically by either option a) yelling at poor, innocent Kazu or b) maiming poor, innocent Kazu. Not that he minded the change of course, his ear drums were quite content without all the yelling and his body was just as glad that he didn't need to soak himself in cold water tonight to try stop the swelling from Emily's punches. God, that woman could hit.

Kazu sighed and decided that he really ought to stop sighing and counting in 'nths plus whatever'.

Women.

Well, at least on the bright side his day couldn't possibly be worse because of the confusing and troubling stirring gender, right?

Kazu stumbled across a crying Ringo on the porch.

Spoke too soon.

Kazu sighed (and cursed himself that he had sighed again; adding to the sigh count which was now nth plus three) and plopped himself next to the girl. He scrunched up his face. What the hell is a guy supposed to do when a girl is crying right in front of him?

"U-Uh… Are you okay?"

Yes, yes of course she's okay Kazu, I mean – GOD, HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET? SHE'S CRYING, DOES SHE LOOK FUCKING OKAY?

"H-Hic!... Hic! Hic!...I'm fine…Hic!..." Ringo sniffed, furiously wiping away her tears.

Kazu leaned his head down to massage his temple with his right hand. What to do, what to do, what to do…

Tissues!

"Oh, here. I forgot they were in my pocket from breakfast," Kazu said, handing her napkins. Somehow, he realized that bringing up breakfast wasn't such a great idea because she started to cry harder.

You're a real charmer, you know that? I mean, trying to comfort her and only making her cry harder. Wow, good one.

Kazu gave himself one more chance to redeem himself and try help (third times the charm, ain't it?) before running away with his tail in between his legs and calling Kairi to handle the sobbing girl. That stupid brat Agito better not be clinging on to her though.

He hesitated before awkwardly putting a hand on her shoulder. "Want to talk about it?"

Ringo cried harder and leaned her head on his shoulder. Kazu felt confusion, shock, and panic run through him. What to do, what to do, what to do!...

"I got kicked out!" he heard the girl blurt out in between hiccups, sobs, and chokes.

"Um, hey calm down. Could you repeat that?"

"…T-The othe-ther girls m-made m-me leave the ro-oom," Ringo sniffed. "Th-Th-Th… They think I'm a-a-a s-s-s-slut!"

Warning bells went off in Kazu's head when Ringo began to wail louder. One wrong move and…

"H-Hey, calm down! Calm down, yeah? Take deep breaths. Come on, in" – Ringo painfully took a deep breath in, struggling not to choke on her sobs – "and out" – she let it out shakily. "Another one. In" – breathe – "and out" – exhale. Kazu studied her before asking, "Better?"

Ringo nodded silently, biting on her quivering lips.

"So, what's this about getting kicked out?"

Ringo took a few more deep breaths to collect herself. She scrunched up her face in disgust. "They're angry because I told them I like Ikki but then in the other day was in the city alone with Kanon the other day – which," she added quickly to him, "was not my doing. It was an accident. I was getting money out of the ATM and when I turned around, everyone but Kanon was gone."

Kazu nodded for her to continue.

Ringo looked down at her hands and sighed. "Emily defended me," she gave a small smile as she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, "so I didn't give it much thought. I wasn't careful enough. She saw us," Ringo looked dead straight into Kazu's eyes now. "Yesterday, when we were having our 'deep and meaningful conversation' which was about you and her," she laughed in poor humour. "She got jealous and jumped to conclusions (obviously since your relationship has been so rocky lately) so when I arrived back in our room she had all the girls jump me and tell me off for pursuing after more than one guy (one of which was already someone else's boyfriend) and for being a… a slut," she spat like there was something sour tasting on her tongue. She smiled bitterly and shrugged. "That's all there is to it. Now I'm homeless," she laughed half-heartedly.

Kazu attempted a half-smile. "I would offer you a place to crash at the guys' room but that would just make things worse, wouldn't it."

Ringo shook her head and scoffed. "World war three would start."

Kazu grinned. "Well, we're going to have to do everything we can to avoid that, now won't we?"

Silence settled between them as the two newly found friends slash allies stared out into the forest ahead.


"Ne, Kairi-chan…" Ringo smiled nervously. She trembled in front of Kairi, shifting her weight from one foot to the other whilst holding her luggages in front of her. "A-Ano… do you mind if I stayed in your room tonight? I-I…"

Kairi put her hand in front of the girl to silence her. She dropped it before giving the distressed girl a small smile. "It's okay," she said gently, "I don't need a reason why. We're friends, aren't we? Friends help each other out without a reason."

Ringo felt tears surface and bit her quivering lip. "H-Hai," she nodded. "Thank you; thank you, thank, thank you…"

Kairi smiled softly before happily grabbing the other girls hand and tugging her to their room. "Sorry there isn't much space… Um, you can put your stuff here," Kairi offered.

Ringo smiled in gratitude before gasping when an idea came to her mind. "Ne, Kai-chan! I brought along some chess! Want to play?"

Kairi blinked. "C-Chess? Um, what's…'chess'?"

Ringo gasped. "Come on! I'll teach you! It's really interesting! You see, there's tactics involved and not just luck, you need to know some moves and now to move around the board… just like A.T.! Here, I'll show you show you how to play it…"

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll go get it," Kairi said as she hopped up and went to open it. Before she could even invite whoever it was in, Ikki barged in and stormed over to the unsuspecting Ringo, nearly squishing Kairi against the wall with the door.

"Huh, I'll just leave you two alone then…" Kairi muttered. "Don't be an idiot, Kiki-chan," she gave him a hard look, but he waved her off with his hand, never taking his blazing eyes off the fidgety pink head in front of him.

Once the girl was out of the room, Ikki swiped his hand across the chess board, causing the chess pieces to fall onto the ground. Ringo had cried out ("What are you doing?") but he remained oblivious in his rage.

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

Ringo stood up in anger. "What do you mean by that? I don't believe I have done anything wrong!"

"Why are you staying in another room is what I'm asking," Ikki hissed with slitted eyes.

Ringo wavered but kept her resolve strong. "I don't need to tell you," she said stubbornly.

"W-What? You – I don't even – !" Ikki threw his hands into the air and paced around the room. He glared at the pink head and pointed a finger at her. "Is this to do with fish-eyes? Are you trying to make him jealous by staying in another room with a guy?" he sneered.

"Kanon?" Ringo blinked. "I don't see how – Oh why are you so stupid? Can't you see anything that's right in front of you?" she shouted back. Why hadn't he noticed her feelings for him (and not Kanon) all these years? Stupid crow!

Ikki scowled. "I'm not blind. So? Why?"

"I don't see why me being here is bad –"

"Well, I wouldn't put it pass the brat to try pull a move on –"

"Oh stop being to blind! He's far too infatuated with Kairi-chan! Besides," Ringo glanced at boy nervously, "why do you care?" Hope swelled in her chest when she saw hesitation in his eyes. But it was gone in an instant.

Ikki shrugged it off casually. "I don't," he scoffed.

Ringo felt something cut her heart and turned to hide the brimming tears. "Well, if you don't have anything else to say, then I should be getting ready for my date… with Kanon."

Ikki scowled before storming over to the door. He paused as he touched the doorhandle. The thought of Ringo and fish-eyes on a date together really didn't settle well in his gut. "Ringo, I – " He turned around to see her hunched form before rethinking his words. He scowled at his hesitation. "Whatever. Have fun on your date," he hissed.

Ringo turned around in rage. "I WILL!" she cried.

SLAM!

Ikki stood on the other side of the door. He could hear her wretched sobs through the thin walls. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh of frustration. "You're such a bastard," he said to himself.

"You are," came a quiet voice beside him.

Ikki jumped. He glared suspiciously (How much had she heard?) at the small raven haired girl beside him. "What are you doing?"

Kairi was quiet. "Kiki-chan should treat Ringo-chan better. Ringo-chan is very nice to Kiki-chan and cares very much for him." Her blue eye flashed dangerously at the boy. "The least you could do is support her through her problems."

Ikki was startled. "What problems – ?"

"Goodbye."

The door shut on his face.

He grimaced and grumbled to himself on the way back to his room.

But seriously… What problems?

Simca watched from around the corner and giggled in joy at the results of her scheme. "I've separated Ringo-chan from Ikki-kun and also made Kairi-chan angry at Ikki-kun~! Wah! You're so smart Simca!"

She turned around and hummed her way back to her room. Next target: the poor innocent Kururu who would probably faint before trying to make a move on Ikki.

"Ikki-kun will be mine~" she sang happily.

TBC…