Filum Fatalis

Summary: Threads have always been used to sew and patch ruined clothes. In the case of one prideful boy and one gluttonous girl, invisible threads have always been sewing them, patching them, drawing and pulling them close together, no matter how much others have tried to put them apart.

A/N: To inkquill: OAO Thank you so much! I've worked hard to find a style that would suit me, and to improve the way I write out scenes. So this coming from the readers is quite too much for my little heart to take. XD *cries tears of joy*


Chapter Nine: Consuetudo


"So you knew she was there the whole damn time and you didn't tell me?"

"What. I thought you knew?"

"Ugh. You know quite damn well I don't act like myself every time I have just woken up. You dummy did that on purpose."

He chuckled, "I did that for our sake."

She scoffed, nudging his arm as she ate her sundae with a pout, "How?"

He took a stick of strawberry pocky from her bowl, and, ignoring her wail, he smiled, "It's to know who you belong to, of course. With her knowing it, it should serve as a warning, to her and to anyone who will try to come near you. And besides, I've never heard you complain about it. Have you remembered the way you whined when I pulled away?" The blush on her face rivaled the color of the cherry topped on her ice cream, seeing it was enough proof on how much she had craved for the contact of his lips on hers.

Oh, he was so proud of himself!

"Don't say such embarrassing things."

Neuro smiled, and was about to tease her again until his phone vibrated in his pocket. He ignored its incessant silent rings.

Yako happily ate her five bowls of sundae, smiling widely as she did so. She had asked him about Kanae seeing them on the roof, and the damn prick had said an affirmative as though it was the most normal thing to say. She couldn't get mad at him, though. What has been seen, can never be unseen—Kanae would have to deal with it, Yako supposed. Seeing a plate of wafers in front of the grinning male, she poked his arm, "Neuro, are you going to eat that?" He hummed, and shoved the chocolate wafers in her face.

The phone continued to vibrate in his pocket. Yako wolfed down the wafers. He smiled.

That call better be from Zera.


Shinobu huffed as he stomped on his cigarette on library's fire exit. Shrugging his shoulders and crushing a mint in his mouth, he made his way to class—which he attended once in a blue moon—he scratched on his head, fingers careful not to touch the burn on his scalp. It still hurt even after five days. Damn green-eyed freak.

He slowly opened the door, eyes scanning the room. It didn't seem like anyone noticed him. Good. It was break time, anyway. Now if only he could just—

"Ah! Godai-san! You finally joined the class!"

Crap.

He turned his head, and was not surprised to see the "strange little lady" excitedly waving at him from her chair at the front, with a half-eaten curry bread in her mouth. It's always food with'er, isn't it.

He also noticed that her shoulders were heaving a pair of sock-clad feet.

He scowled and groaned and sat on his chair at the back, his feet now angrily placed on the desk.

"Mind yer own business, missy."

He glared at her—she smiled at him, nonetheless (she didn't seem to take it as a threat at all)—and black eyes slid to her left. A familiar mop of blond and black moved. Shinobu gulped.

That mop of blond and black hair turned, and he was met with a wide grin and a pair of almost gleaming eyes.

"Oh, hello, Burnt Flesh."

Shinobu twitched, "Tch. Hello, Monster."

Yako was sure she could feel invisible sparks flying between their stares. One amused and one annoyed.

"...What's with the sudden change of mood?" she asked as she chomped on her third curry bread. Neuro's socked feet rested on her shoulders, Yako didn't seem to mind, and the behavior made Shinobu cock his head. Scratching his chin, he quipped, "Why are ya like that?"

In unison, Neuro and Yako blinked, "We don't understand what you mean."

Shinobu sighed.

"Say, Godai-san," Yako began as she swallowed her last bite, "This is the first time I've actually seen you enter class willingly."

He looked away, a lopsided smirk planted on his face as he chortled, "'Ch. I need attendance, too, ya know. I jus' dun' wantta see Tubulik's face. His face irritates me."

At this, Neuro laughed, green eyes concealed behind crowed eyelids as his sock-covered toes curled on Yako's scalp, "Hah! We have a common enemy, then!"

"Geh? Y'mean the bearded lady failed ya, too?"

Neuro stopped laughing and hummed, his face suddenly thoughtful as he leaned on his chair. His toes curled from within the confines of his white socks. Yako shifted her shoulders a bit, the twiddling sock-covered toes not bothering her the slightest. In fact, it was a relief from the usual weight on her poor bones. He must have learned his lesson from the last time, Yako mused.

"You mean you're a repeater? And no. He didn't fail me. He doesn't have a reason to do so. If he did, I would suggest that everyone should evacuate the school immediately, unless they, too, would like to feel my wrath."

Shinobu paled, opting not to answer his question instead. He didn't want to know what exactly this person—Freak!—was thinking.

"Just make sure you don't blow up the cafeteria," Yako happily piped as she wrote her notes for next period. She hummed as she turned a page of her binder.

Shinobu almost slapped his forehead for that comment.

"What's up with you two?"

"Nothing!" they chirped in unison, both smiling as they did so. And in that moment, he was sure that the two of them combined will result in the torture that will be his high school life.


A slice of cake was put in Yako's mouth, "Mutsuki-tan seems happy today!" The aforementioned girl giggled as she drank her chamomile tea, smiling at the girl, "It's because my grandfather will be released from the hospital today! I'm going to spend the whole day with him after school!" Yako hummed, fork poised in the corners of her lips, "You really love your grandfather, huh? It must be nice to spend time with him. It seems like you're having fun with him! I need to spend with my family more. Haha!"

Mutsuki smiled as he put down her cup, "I do have fun with him! He always plays games with me and he always has little girls surrounding him! He touches them all the time, too!"

Kanae and Yako, who were both listening to her story, gaped. Neuro simply ate his food—sushi and tempura drenched in wasabi—without a care for what the girl had just uttered.

Kanae remained silent as Mutsuki told her story—of little girls and her grandfather's strange way on interacting with them. Yako ate her last piece of cheesecake, mustering the courage to ask the unspoken question, "What does your grandfather do to the little girls exactly, if I may ask?"

"Um, he collects their bloomers and puts them in his drawer in his office."

Yako and Kanae twitched. A pedophile! How does he even do that?

As Yako was about to ask another question, the rooftop door creaked, and in came Yukinori, with Shinobu trailing behind him, that familiar scowl etched on his face.

Stopping his tracks in front of Kanae who was sitting on the cloth-covered concrete, he huffed.

"We need to talk."

Kanae simply turned her head away, nose stuck in the air.

Yako looked at Yukinori and Shinobu, and she mustered a small smile. Shinobu simply nodded. Yukinori simply raised his eyebrows and tipped his head. Neuro, who had just finished eating his meal, had now leaned his back on Yako's, bright green eyes closed and lips curled in a barely there smile as he rested his hands on his torso. He ignored the two other males and opted to make himself comfortable on her back, instead.

"We have nothing to talk about. Go away. You're interrupting my lunch," Kanae finally said when she realized that Yukinori was not going anywhere without an answer. Stubborn man.

"We need to talk."

"We are through."

Yako wanted to back away from the stare-off between her best friend and her boyfriend—"number two", as Neuro had dubbed—but she couldn't, not with that painful weight on her back.

Yako gulped. Mutsuki simply looked at the intruder. Neuro slept on Yako's back. Shinobu glowered at all of them.


There were many things happening lately. Yuuya suddenly appearing and working in school—which Neuro loathed. Kanae having an argument with Yukinori—which Yako was curious about.

Jennifer Ewing and Jody Tubulik having a scandalous rendezvous in an empty classroom—Neuro wasn't surprised about that.

The day started strangely for both of them, but then again, it didn't have to end up strangely, too!

Yako had fetched her homework from one of the teachers in the faculty room, with Neuro following closely behind her as he had always been. They had passed by one of the dark rooms, its door slightly ajar. Nothing seemed out of place at first, and the two of them ignored it as they passed—

—but the sound of something clanging from the inside made Neuro think twice about ignoring it.

Letting his paranoia (and morbid curiosity) get the best of him—if it's that perverted piece of crap again, I swear I'll strangle him—he peeked inside, Yako being pressed closely to him, her back facing the suspicious room and her face flushed against his chest, as he did so. She didn't complain.

It was not Yuuya, much to Neuro's relief. But it was not what he had been expecting to see, either.

In between the small gap of light shining through the shadowy room, his wide eyes saw the Scottish student and the Turkish teacher, madly making out in the blanket of darkness.

What the hell is this.

Neuro looked and stepped away from the scene, his steps as silent as the wind as he slightly lifted Yako off of her feet—you have too noisy footsteps, piglet. She didn't utter a word of complaint. She trusted him enough on the things that she should see and what she should not see.

So with her hands wrapped around his torso, and his arm curled beneath her skirt-covered thighs, he lifted her away from the scene that his little kitten should definitely not see. It was not worth to look at, anyway. Stupid hag looks like a clown with that smudged lip paint.

Once they were a decent distance away from the unspeakable scene, and once Neuro had placed her on the ground—carefully, for once—she immediately asked questions that Neuro should not even bother to answer.

"What happened in there? Was someone hurt?" she asked with those wide, doe-like eyes of hers, and Neuro couldn't help but to pinch her cheek with a grin. It was fun seeing her like this.

"No one's hurt, I assure you," he said with a smile. "But it was something to pass the eyes on. Nothing to see there."

Yako pouted as they walked back home. At the end of the day, she felt a little elated, though she didn't know the reason why. She supposed it was because of the man currently holding her hand.

"Is that really so, I wonder," mumbled Yako as they walked. He said nothing else, opting to smile instead as they neared the Katsuragi home. She idly wondered out of the blue on what they might have looked like in other people's eyes as they passed by. Do we look like a couple to them?

Haruka greeted them as soon as they entered. And Neuro, over time, had habitually muttered to the members of the household, "I'm home." He had been saying it for years, and truthfully, saying the phrase somehow didn't feel awkward. A member of the family, as Seiichi once said, and yet the meaning had lost its thought in his confused mind. He always failed to ask Yako what it felt like to have a family. Does it give you knowledge? Strength? Power? Why do some people sacrifice their lives for this thing they called a family? Is it really that important? Those were the questions that often plague Neuro's mind every time he eats over at Yako's house. Dealing with emotions and human behavior had always been Yako's field, not his. And yet, sometimes he would dare to think that something was missing in his intellectual mind.

They ate and they slept. The routine was something that Neuro welcomed. Over the years, he realized that he treated Yako's home as his home—even moreso than his own. He wondered why.

Yako thought about what Neuro was thinking of these past few days. Something was bothering him, she could tell. And she blamed the phone that kept vibrating in his pocket. He had thought that she couldn't notice anything strange about him. But she knew. And at the back of her mind, she wanted to pry and ask him what was going on. She worried for him, just as he worried for her—after all these years.

Yako wasn't the type who spies on other people's things, she deemed it as rude (and it was). But for once, she felt a dying urge to pry into his stuff. Rolling over to his side and looking at him through the blessing of the moonlight bathing her room, she smoothed her fingertips onto his baby soft hair, she smiled.

I am—

Neuro hummed in his sleep, that familiar ghost of a smile painting his marbled face. A grin broke through her lips. He could be adorable at times—and without exerting effort, too!

Forest green eyes slowly shone behind a curtain of hooded eyelids and black eyelashes. And a rare smile bloomed on his calm face.

—falling—

"Something wrong, ragdoll?" he asked, voice gruff and hoarse from sleep. He let that tiny hand caress his hair. It was night—midnight, to be exact (and Yako couldn't sleep). And he was calm. Neuro could clearly see the smile that she tried to hide. It was useless, in his opinion. He could always look through her façade—even if it's dark. He croaked a laugh. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong," she replied with a tinkling laugh of her own. And he closed his emerald eyes, smile still in place. Those fingers were warm on his scalp; and the warmth emanating from her petite body was soothing his currently agitated soul.

"It would be nice," he suddenly uttered with a barely audible sigh, eyes still closed as he spoke. "If we could have a family of our own. Just to experience how it feels like," he said, his tone a cross between that of being playful and curious. Yako's breath almost stopped. There was something in Neuro's tone that she couldn't quite place, and it made her curious. She always thought that he would always set his sights on what was important—and he would get it, no matter what the consequences are. Still, hearing him talking about having a family—it was something that Yako had never once pondered about.

She bit her lip, "Why do you say that?" It was barely a whisper, but he heard it all too well. This was very much unexpected of him. Never in a million years had she thought of the sadistic and pride-filled Nougami Neuro would ask her—of all people—to suggest something as marriage to her.

She told him her doubts, of words stating that they were still too young to discuss something as serious as marriage. He shrugged. It was only a thought, he said. Yako hummed. And yet, she stored that thought of his in the recesses of her mind.

"Yako. You will be my wife."

for this person.

Simple words. And yet, he said it with much emphasis. Too serious. It made Yako feel doubt. And at the same time, she felt flattered.

To experience how it feels like, he says. I wonder why he said that.

Even if her mind swam in numerous questions that she wanted to ask him about, she didn't. There was an appropriate time for everything, as he once said to her. Now was not the time, she observed. Besides, there was still that disturbing round of incoming calls that Neuro never answered.

His phone was vibrating on her dresser, its white light blaring warnings to her eyes. She ignored it. She wouldn't want to pry. He respected her—that much she can tell. I should do the same to him.


Yako had been thinking lately. It involved a certain someone with green eyes and a broad, evil smile. That certain someone was currently on the blackboard solving a—ridiculously insane—difficult equation. Fumio's class had always been fun, but it always comes with a price.

Neuro solved the problem with ease. A new record for him. Thirty seconds.

Fricking parabolas.

She chewed on her pencil as she looked at her notes. I will never be as good as him, she thought. Caramel eyes scanning the neatly written numbers and lines on the board—even his handwriting is damn perfect!—she groaned. Too difficult.

A smiling Neuro made his way to back, ignoring the awed stares he received—Neuro-sama is really great!—and as he sat, Yako felt a familiar hand gliding over her head.

She hid her face in her fingers.


It was rare for them to eat at the school grounds. Neuro, for one, kept on shaking his head every now and then because of the leaves and occasional sakura petals that stubbornly find their way on his hair. Yako laughed at him as she ate. In retaliation, he shoved her food―inari zushi―down her throat.

It was for a change of scene! Yako had said earlier, and the two other girls happily agreed with her. The sole male in the group, on the other hand―

"...Stupid petals. They keep on falling on my food."

Smiling at the annoyed face that Neuro had, she picked a stray fallen flower that ended up on the edge of his bento box with her chopsticks, and―brazenly―put it on his hair.

His face morphed in surprise.

Kanae stifled a laugh and clamped her lips shut. Mutsuki simply covered her mouth.

Yako giggled, "There. Now it's better!"

Neuro pinched her nose with his chopsticks in response. Painfully.

"Want me to dip your snot-filled nose in this chili sauce?"

"Nonono! HavemercyletgoofmeNeurooo!"

"Ahahaha! Such a funny little piggy! Wouldn't you agree?" Neuro cheerfully asked as he turned towards a laughing Mutsuki and a (horribly) poker-faced Kanae.

The flower that had been on his hair was plucked by spidery fingers, and was put―slammed―in her right ear.

He still hadn't let go of her poor nose.

"That tickles, you ass!"


"I didn't know you had to buy all of them."

Leaning on the headboard and turning a page of his newly-bought books, courtesy of an unwilling Yako, he smiled, "Heh. I can read them just fine even if it's in English. The books really are nicer than the movie adaptations. Though I think they wouldn't compare to our own version of a dystopia. Ours is more brutal. The descriptions in the book, I mean."

Yako hummed and removed her hair clips and bracelet and placed them near Neuro's phone on her dresser. She knew what he was talking about, and she had read her fair share of that―too brutal for her taste―novel, "I still think that the Western one gains more points to me because of the food. The only thing I saw in our own dystopian novel is that, well―the exploding brains and the watermelon-colored blood. And don't get me started on the manga version. And the ending of the second movie sucks."

"Oh? I didn't know you read books! I thought you were too stupid to even read a syllable!"

Yako sighed and brushed her short hair. His insults sometimes managed to pierce her heart, no matter how much she blocked his words. She just won't admit it, though, "Whatever, Neuro. You made me spend thirty-thousand yen on those three books alone. You could have at least bought me some food in return!"

"Bah! You have more than enough fat in that hippo body of yours. Burn that cellulite first."

Yako's face flared as she snapped her head at his direction. "C-cellulite! Why, listen here, you―"

Even if she knew very much that what he said was only meant as a joke―

I'm still a young lady that has pride and I have insecurities about my body, too!

Finally turning his eyes momentarily away from his book, he faced her with a blank smile, oblivious to her rage, "You said something, fish-breath?"

Clenching her fists and trying hard not to hit him in the face with her hairbrush, she stomped her tiny feet and puffed her cheeks, standing near the bed as she did so. Today will be the day that he'll hear a piece of my mind! "Neuro!"

And suddenly, his body stiffened, and clamped his palm on her lips. A slim forefinger hovered on his own. A serious face. Frowning lips. Tightly-drawn eyebrows. Yako knew that gesture all too well. Her eyes slid to her right, trying to turn her head―

Neuro slid off the bed and left his book on the mattress, his hand still covering her mouth. Green eyes narrowed. His sharp sense of hearing never failed him even once, and he was quite sure that someone―an unfamiliar sound of footfalls, not from one of the Katsuragi residents, he assumed―was leaning their head on that door.

He inched closer to the door, his hand still on her mouth, and silently gripped the doorknob―he let go of Yako.

Neuro smirked.

And opened the door.

"Hello."

The person leaning their head and ears and palms on the door almost slipped to their feet.

Yako blinked, "Eh? Kanae-chan? Why are you here?"

The―eavesdropping―girl awkwardly laughed as she carefully regained her balance (and her shattered dignity). Standing on her feet proved to be quite painful since this morning. And she hid her discomfort well from her friends. Running away from that person―Yukinori the Inferno―the whole day had been tiring, and without a second thought, she had ran straight to Yako's house. The Katsuragi couple welcomed her, of course. And she had led her way to her best friend's room as soon as they had let her in.

She never expected to see Neuro standing beside Yako—in her room, no less!—as soon the door opened, though.

She remembered to close her mouth as she tried not to stare at those tempting collarbones and those bare, lean arms.

Nougami-san is wearing an undershirt―an undershirt! Inside Yako's room!

"Kanae-chan?"

At the sound of Yako's voice, Kanae hurriedly fumbled with her fingers and laughed, willing her mind to steer clear away from that all-too-attractive (and almost bare) man standing beside Yako, "Ah, yeah. Sorry for intruding. I just―um―wanted to talk about things, you see. Haha!"

Yako blinked. This was the first time she ever came to her room—and unannounced, too. And Kanae had nevered intruded on someone's house unannounced.

"You could have called," Yako suggested with a laugh as she moved away from the door to let her in. Caramel eyes glanced at black-green ones. Neuro shrugged at Yako as he returned to his book lying on the bed, a small frown present on his face as he walked away. Probably annoyed that we got intruded upon, Yako thought with a smile. Kanae, who was standing in the middle of Yako's room, pursed her lips and her eyebrows raised as she saw Neuro jumping into the bed and resumed reading. He looks like as if he's quite at home in this house.

She turned towards Yako who was now making her way to her. "Have a seat!" and she offered the chair near the dresser, all annoyance now gone from her earlier banter with Neuro. She could never get mad at him for a long period of time, anyway.

Yako sat on the edge of the bed, smiling at Kanae in her typical Yako fashion―

―speaking of which―

"Hey, isn't that Nougami-san's costume at the―"

"Hm? Oh. Yes, yes it is. He was planning to throw it because of the frills, but I liked it, it's soft and thin. So I um―"

"―stole it."

"I didn't steal it, Neuro! You gave it to me when you almost burned it here in my room!"

Kanae paled as she watched them bicker once again―she couldn't even begin to fathom on how Yako seemed to be very much at ease on wearing another man's clothes without an ounce of shyness. And their bouts of provocation seemed to be a part of their daily routine. Like a married couple.

―wait―

"...You―you wear his clothes? And―um. Why is Nougami-san here?"

Without batting an eyelash, she tilted her head, "But Neuro's always here. Except for the times when he rarely gets home."

Kanae blinked.

Get away from the inappropriate thoughts, self!

"Um, why is he―" she paused and pointed a crooked index finger towards Neuro's direction, the words suddenly leaving her lips. Yako hummed and jutted her lip. "I'm not following," she said.

"Un-under―"

At this, Neuro stopped reading and looked at Kanae, an eyebrow raised at her. Yako blinked, not sure what her friend wanted to say.

Yako and Neuro looked at each other, the former blinking and the latter sighing. Yako's stupidity is contagious, he mused. I already told her we sleep on the same room on the same bed. What more does she want to know?

After trying hard to utter a single coherent sentence that involved Neuro in his undershirt, Yako decided to ignore what she really meant to say.

"Kanae-chan, I think you need a break."

The aforementioned girl still tried to say something. Her eyes looked at the petite frame being engulfed in the too-large and slightly thin shirt she donned. The hems reached her knees. Her shoulders were showing. The top two buttons of―his―shirt on her torso were undone. She couldn't see Yako's hands beneath those wide cuffs as she moved.

―And she's okay with this!

Kanae simply nodded. She wasn't sure on how to comment on Yako's clothes―Nougami-san's clothes―at the moment.

Yako clapped her hands once, her face breaking into a happy grin, "I know! How about we eat some snacks first before we talk? There's nothing better than talking over things while eating good food!" She then looked for her schoolbag―which was constantly filled with said snacks―and, seeing it wasn't where she thought it would be (at the bottom of the bed), she turned to the now calmly smiling man.

"Neuro? Where did you throw my bag this time?"

He hummed, a thin eyebrow slightly raised as he read his book, "Beneath the bed." The scoff he heard from Yako amused him.

Kanae leaned back from the sudden close distance of Yako's short hair whipping as she contorted her body to the edge of the bed, leaning on all fours as she groaned. Yako stretched her hand, "It's on your side! Help me get it!"

"Hmph. I'm too lazy. Do it yourself."

She quickly sat back on the bed with an annoyed huff and glared at him, "Ugh. Then move."

"Why don't you move, then?"

"The bed is too comfortable!"

"Then I won't move, either."

Mustering a sigh of defeat, she got on all fours and crawled over to his side, unmindful of the pair of wide brown eyes watching their every move.

Yako's hands and torso came in close contact with his lean legs as she, again, tried to get her schoolbag beneath the bed. Neuro didn't seem to mind the sudden proximity, Kanae observed―though she didn't fail to see those evergreen eyes looking over his book and glancing a couple of seconds too long on Yako's writhing bottom. She also noticed that he now sported a smile that he only wore whenever her best friend was near. A wide, almost predatory grin. Yako―oblivious to the stares she received from both Neuro and Kanae (each staring at her for different reasons)―whooped in victory as she swiped her bag off of the carpeted floor and flung it on the mattress. Trying to regain her balance as she kneeled on the springy bed, her hand accidentally palmed a part of Neuro's body that she should nevereventouch.

He merely turned a page of his book, though―as if he never felt that contact at all. As if he had never felt that a tiny hand had just slammed onto his private parts. His face remained passive. Yako heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly removed her hands from any part of his body. Then she realized―Maybe I'll be bad at those intimate kinds of things if he couldn't even feel anything.

Willing her thoughts away from wayward directions, she turned to a slightly pink-faced Kanae and beamed, "Here's the snacks!"

Looking at her now, Kanae noticed that Yako also noticed what her hand had done. She coughed. They don't seem to be too body-conscious of each other.

"Uh, thanks," she mumbled with a smile as she caught a triangle sandwich wrapped in tissue. She ignored the fact that her schoolbag was brimming with sandwiches and meat buns and hamburgers and cheeseburgers. How Yako managed to stuff all of that in there without being squished remained a mystery to her. Biting into it, she hummed and beamed at the taste filling her tongue. Trust Yako when it comes to anything that involved delicious food.

Yako bit onto her snack as well, a pork meat bun drenched in sauce, and squealed, "This is scrumptious! I should buy more of these tomorrow!" She opened her mouth for another bite, and yelled when another mouth had swooped in and bitten on her food.

"Neuro! Get your own pork meat buns!"

Chewing on the said pork meat bun and eyeing her with amusement, he simply flicked a middle finger to her forehead. She whined. He grinned. Kanae stared at them.

She wondered how they got along so well despite their large differences.


"...Maggot. You've been dizzying yourself for the past hour. Go to sleep already."

"But what Kanae-chan said earlier kind of bugs me. Higuchi-san doesn't know anything about her two-timing on him. And now she's feeling guilty for giving Higuchi-san false hopes when it's quite clear to me that she wanted Yukinori-san. Did you see how much emotion she put into saying Yukinori-san's name? It's like she was saying a holy name!"

"And that vile, slimy, four-eyed, lower than a lowlife and voyeuristic boy toy of hers never told her about the rape he tried to do to you. It's a fair game for them. Don't trouble yourself over the problems of others. They have their own lives."

"...Neuro. That wasn't even a rape. He never touched me. And she's my friend, she should get a shoulder to lean on sometimes."

"Feh. And this is coming from the piglet who had been insulted by the thoughtless action of her so-called friend in front of people she barely knew on the beach last summer. And don't argue with me. It is rape to me. You told me you felt his hair. That's close enough to be considered as rape to me."

Yako frowned. He might never show it, but she knew he was worried for her―as he had always been. She had always been aware of those pair of eyes that always followed her every move. She deduced that it was his unspoken way of telling her that he cared for her―even if he hurt her through his painful ways of speaking to her. What an oxymoron.

She smiled. He blinked as she closed the distance between them, her thin arm draped loosely on his rising and falling torso, the top of her head nuzzled beneath his chin. He smiled―she could feel it through her hair―and that was enough to tell her that their argument was over. If only they could be this way all the time―

"Falling asleep?"

She buried her head on his thin shirt, "Maybe."

And she felt it again, that familiar pair of lips that smiled and kissed her scalp. A spidery hand soothed the back of her head, the touch very much welcomed on her flesh. She beamed in glee. Every time the night comes into view, he would always transform into a sweet and almost romantic man; and when morning comes, he would revert to his normal, abnormal and sadistic self. She often wondered why, and in the end, she would assume it was because of the calmness that the night brings. She deemed it as an acceptable reason.

A light kiss on her forehead suggested that he was in a good mood―like a purring, contented cat. She giggled at the thought. Neuro could be adorable when he wanted to be―why can't he be like this all the time?

A fervent kiss to her lips. Oh. Their hands twitched. Take it a step further, the demons screamed in their heads. She gasped in his mouth, and Neuro could feel her getting restless in his hold. He himself quelled his thoughts. Not now. Too early. He hummed in her mouth, and he felt her smile. Yes, this would be the one thing that he will never regre―

She broke the kiss just as she heard a familiar sound.

"Ignore it," Neuro growled as he attacked her neck instead, arms coiling around her waist. Yako sighed at the contact―he's warm―and closed her eyes. A distraction. He needed one. Winding her hands on his hair, she decided to let him do whatever he wanted for the night.

He was shaking in her hold.

The phone continued to vibrate on her dresser. She swallowed a groan and a grimace. Mood killer.

Whoever it is on that phone better be having a nightmare tonight.

Limbs touched and kissed, the soft and soothing shuffle of cloth tickling their ears and flesh. Neuro glanced at the clock. One in the morning. School starts at eight. Glancing at Yako who was too busy devouring his mouth with her eyes closed, he figured it will be a tiresome night for her―and an eventful one for him.

He grinned as he turned her over on her back. Yako merely arched her back at the movement.

A stray bead of sweat appeared on her neck, and his tongue greedily lapped on it. She moaned as he bit her earlobe.

Oh, screw it.

Until three in the morning will do.

Hovering on her on all fours, he grinned at her seemingly exhausted form. Oh, how tempting! "Shall I reap my reward for the promise you made, little slave?"

Yako only exposed her neck further, face now flushed and eyes still closed in the moonlight as she sighed. Her arms then fell limp on each side of her head, her dusty brown hair splayed on the soft pillows. Her small bosom heaved through the confines of (his) her clothes that were now slightly rumpled, its first two buttons remained undone as his eyes gleefully roamed on the two, small and cloth-covered mounds of flesh that Yako had. Good thing I gave it to her, then. Suits her better. Plus, the fabric is thin enough. I wonder if I can make that shirt wet. Heh. The things I would see!

He licked away the drool that was about to drip down his chin.

It was as though she were inviting him to just engulf her whole! Oh, the succulent temptation of Eve! You will bring me my fall someday, you know that, Yako?

He chuckled.

"I'll take that as a yes, then."

And he dived for her lips.

The echoes of their moans felt like the beatings of a drum to Yako's ears―the hushed sounds of cloth and the gasps of their breath seemed loud enough to wake up the whole household. The thrill of the two of them being discovered in the middle of the night by her own parents―the thought alone sent shivers down her spine in excitement. Adrenaline. The trickles of liquid heat dripping to her crotch went noticed by Neuro who had one knee pressing close to the warm flesh there.

"Getting wet, are we? I can feel it through that flimsy underwear of yours."

A moan and a harsh tug on his hair was her only response. The act made Neuro moan as he breathed near her ear, "You're getting feisty, kitten."

Yako, in return, bit and sucked on his neck. Cautiousness and shame had long been thrown out of the window the moment he had first kissed her, them being replaced by impishness and boldness for this irresistible young man. He had made a malicious demoness out of Katsuragi Yako―a being that only Nougami Neuro alone could draw out. And for some reason, it made her feel powerful.

He's going to be the death of me someday.

The phone on her dresser stopped vibrating and glowing in the dead of the night―yet neither paid no attention to its silent plea―

―their choked gasps resonated through the cold walls.


"Let's see... He's been with her for nine years―well, ten years, to be exact, if I count the months, since they have the same birthday and all (how coincidental is that?)―and he's been, um, literally sleeping with her for the past, um, five or six years. They haven't slept like the figurative way I thought they would be doing―though they seem to be too steamy when it comes to the French-kissing thing―and yet they're clearly not body-conscious of each other. I mean, he's practically all over her everyday and he gets to hold her hand everyday and she seems fine about him seeing her underwear and she wears his clothes as her sleepwear and he also gets to stay over her house for as long as he like and he probably takes a bath in her house and her parents don't seem to mind at all that their only child sleeps every night with that smoking hot piece of man-meat and―why am I saying this again? Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that―my friend gets more action than me! Ugh."

Kanae tossed and turned on her rather spacious bed. She thought of how Yako had been completely at ease upon having him over. 'Neuro has always been with me, you see,' she had said earlier with a broad smile. Kanae hugged her pillow.

"...I want someone like that, too..."

Sighing, she rolled over, yet again, and realized it was nearing two o'clock. She whined.

I guess I should be happy for her. And I am!

She twiddled her nail on her teddy bear's nose―given to her from one of her past boyfriends―"I want Hi-kun to be like that. But he's not like that, and... Ha-kun is... Well, um―what do you think, Kuma-chan?" And Kanae blinked as she stared at the beady eyes of her stuffed toy. It was her habit whenever she would be upset—talking to inanimated objects. She preferred talking to animals, too. But since their family never had one, her plush toys would have to do. She rather liked doing all the talking. There were also times where she would just want to be heard, not criticized on what she said all the time. Yes, inanimated objects seem to be the perfect choice―as long as no one sees you doing it, then it's fine, was what Kanae thought.

"...Ha-kun or Hi-kun. Who do you think is right for me?"

The teddy bear looked at her still, its black and beaded eyes boring into her brown ones. Kanae sighed. Her bear would never talk, anyway.

I guess I have to talk to Yako again.


Yako had awoken to a very amused-looking Neuro this morning—and that had never been good. She had started the day with a pair of hands pinching her unprepared cheeks to the limit, and his morning greeting to her—a painful dose of scalp-grinding.

That was Yako's interpretation of his normal way of saying, "Good morning, Pig!"

She sighed as her fingertips idly touched the places that tingled on her nape. He left too many marks again... I think I'll have to buy another pack of concealer for this.

"Worried about your marks?"

She sharply turned around and yelped as her poor ear was attacked by a soft nibble from Neuro's pointed teeth, "Neuro, not no—ow!" She whined as a tongue laved on her lobe. He's been doing that lately, she thought.

He stopped and leaned back on his chair, his socked feet now propped on her shoulders like they were meant to be there. She groaned at the weight on her shoulders, "No, I am not worried about those—those marks. I just scratched my nape, that's all." His right foot lightly nudged her cheek, grinning at the way Yako had puffed her cheeks as he did so. She looked almost—adorable. But he wouldn't really say that to her. Who knows what words she would spout?

"Foolish kitten. You know you're dying to drench that neck of yours in salve."

She scoffed, her eyes trained on her bracelet, "And who is to blame for that? You made me stay up until three in the morning." She groaned as his (perfectly odorless) feet started to rub circles on the back of her head, and oddly enough, it felt good. A weird way of doing a massage, I guess. Maybe this is his way of apologizing?

Savoring the rare moments of Neuro doing her a strange form of comfort, her gaze drifted to her right where Kanae sat. A spaced-out and sleepless-looking girl greeted her. Yako blinked.

"Kanae-chan? What's wrong?"

Slowly craning her neck from the coldness of her desk, Kanae looked at Yako with a tired smile, "Oh, hi, Yako. Good morning. You too, Nougami-san."

Yako's eye twitched at the sight of her friend. Blotty lip gloss. Uncurled eyelashes. Unconditioned hair. Gray eyebags. Sans powder on face. Unpolished and unmanicured nails.

"...Are you all right?" she asked, her head still not moving an inch. Those toes on her scalp were doing great things to her and she would not let this rare Neuro-kindness pass her by.

A deadpanned, "never better" reached her ears.

Yako sighed, "Kanae-chan, that sarcasm of yours won't work on m—oh! Godai-san! Good morning!"

Shinobu grumbled a gruff "meh" before making his way to his seat at the back. "Is it Noma's class yet?" Yako tried to shake her head, but the feet stuck on her cheeks prevented her from doing so.

"It will be her class in ten minutes. Why―"

"No reason."

Silence stretched on as she waited for elaboration from the scowling—did he just blush?—man toying with his pencil. None came. Yako hummed and turned to Kanae, who groaned and buried her face in her desk once again. She frowned and looked at the blackboard.

She realized her shoulders suddenly felt light. Yako turned around to see Neuro standing up and putting his shoes back on his feet. She blinked, "Where are you going?"

"I saw an ugly cockroach down the hall that needs to be squished," and with that, he left. Yako looked at the wall clock, it was unusual for him to leave the room when class was about to start. She glanced at Neuro's retreating back.

Strange...


Frankly, Neuro never had the need to urinate in public stalls—the sight revolted him every time he passed by a public stall. Their unseen dirtiness on the cubicles was enough to repel him from such places. It was the first time he ventured in such a place, and it was in school, too. Filthy mongrel.

The door—which was probably teeming with bacteria on the edges—was silent as he opened it, and there, on the far side of the row of urinals, was the "cockroach" he had been looking for.

"Hello, H-tan."

The bespectacled man whipped his head around, and his black eyes widened at the sight of Neuro, "Nougami―"

"You don't have the right to utter my name with that lecherous mouth, you filth."

Yuuya winced at the insult and faced him. It was a good thing he had already finished when he entered.

Narrowed dark green eyes looked down on his sweaty form. Whatever he had been doing before he entered the restroom, Neuro could care less—although he had a pretty good idea what he had been doing.

It was at times like these that Neuro was proud to have been born tall, he could stare down on anyone and he would feel powerful. Grinning at the flustered male, Neuro loomed on his face, his eyes wide and his teeth bared.

Oh, how he loved the petrified look on Yuuya's face!

"You're here again?"

"L-look, Nou―um. I didn't get a job here just to get into a fight."

"You scum started it."

He gulped as his black eyes looked away from the now terrifying man. Yuuya had always seen him smiling broadly and talking kindly―at her―and he had never thought that he could be this scary when mad.

He remembered the crazed look on his face from last time―with his head almost smashed on the rocks below the heated waters no don't think about that now―and he was sure that this gigantic man was killing him in his mind right now.

"I didn't know you were here, okay―"

"Lie through that teeth of yours and you'll be losing that hideous face."

He backed away. Neuro leaned closer, both hands now placed on his hips, his eyes wider than ever. His hands were itching to just shove that paler-than-death face of his in the toilet bowl and put cement on his head, just to keep him in place.

Yuuya had been silent for some time now, and he was sure that he was about to take a―

"It was you, wasn't it. The one who spied on us on graduation day. No form of disguise could mask that foul stench of yours."

Yuuya's lower lip trembled as he finally spoke, "I just came there to look for a―"

"You still won't confess? Hah! Shall I make you reacquainted with the rocks again? I knew I should have had let you drown in the hot springs that day. It would do me a lot good, not to mention I would have my little maggot to myself. But seeing as you've been giving her the eye, you have given me a perfect reason to decapitate that sorry little head of yours. Let me make myself clear to your crust-filled brain―Yako is my property. I own her."

He paled.

"I didn't―I just―" Why is he so damn scary!

Neuro growled, and his hand dived in on Yuuya's neck, squeezing it a bit tighter than necessary, "I would have none of your petty lies, you voyeur."

Just as he was about to make his fantasy a reality―a head floating on a toilet bowl would do―there was a faint knock on the door. Neuro immediately glared on it. No one was to interrupt them―but that knock―

He easily swung Yuuya to the wall with his hand. Ignoring the distinct crack―no doubt from his back―and the pained cry behind him, he opened the door and got out.

"What now, louse."

"Class is about to start, and I figured you wouldn't want to miss a minute of it. You know how Noma-sensei is. What were you doing in there?"

"What do you suppose these restrooms are for, you imbecile?"

Yako laughed as they walked back, "But you never go to any public restroom. It irritates you."

"Hm? How did you know that?"

"Every time we eat at restaurants, you complain about the 'stupidly foolish human men who bathe their reproductive organs in filth'. And I figured that maybe you don't like going to those kinds of places."

"Hmph. So what made you think I was in there, then?"

"By instinct."

"Tch. Foolish crap," he huffed and he looked back at the closed restroom door as they walked back, smiling when Yuuya's pale face carefully peeked into view. Good thing Yako was facing the other way.

Neuro then felt a tiny hand slowly enclosing around his, and without hesitation, he swatted his hand away.

"Eh? Neuro?"

"Do you have a hand sanitizer? I just touched something that smells like rotten meat."

Yako laughed, "Silly Neuro. It can't be that bad."

He shoved his fingers down her throat as he cackled.

Afterwards, she finally managed to remove those painful fingers down her painful throat. "Hold out your hands," she instrucsted, and when he did, she poured a dollop of the cool liquid on his large palms.

Too bad she didn't see it when he rubbed his palms on her face.

"Too cold!"


Um, this chapter's kind of short. D: