Sorry for the last update but thank you to everyone who reviewed.

To pieces

- Misaki -

XX

The doorbell is ringing. It must be urgent because whoever is at the door is pressing it really hard and not stopping. I'm partly pissed off, partly worried as I hurry to answer it. I know Usagi-san won't since he's cooped up doing his work.

I reach the door but the ringing doesn't stop until I finally open it. "Hello - "

"BAKAHIKO!"

I clasp my hands over my ears to protect myself from that raging scream. As soon as I recover, I look up but Kamijou-sensei is already marching in, looking around wildly for Usagi-san. What's he doing here? What does he want in the early afternoon?

Quickly, I hurry after him, though in his anger he doesn't see me.

"Hey, Bakahiko, where the hell are you? Get down here and explain yourself!" he yells. Finally, his eyes light upon me.

I open my mouth to ask him what he thinks he's doing but he reaches out and grabs me, one arm snaking around my waist, the other holding both hands behind my back. W - What the hell? What is going on? Or did I just wake up in one of Usagi-san's twisted BL fantasy novels.

"Listen, Bakahiko!" Kamijou-sensei roars. I can feel his hands shaking as they hold me. "I'm giving you to the count of ten to get your butt down here before I violate your little boy-toy! One!"

"Ehhh?" I scream. This can't be real! This definitely has to be one of Usagi-san's BL novels. Only he could think up something this sick!

"Two!"

I can hear the door to Usagi-san's room fly open.

"Get your hands off of Misaki!"

In a flash, he's here, and before I know it I'm being wrenched from Kamijou's grip and into the safety of Usagi-san's arms. Safety? That's a word I never thought I would associate with Usagi-san.

"What do you want, Hiroki?" he glowers at Kamijou-sensei. I think that little trick of his put Usagi-san in a foul mood. I can feel the waves of death coming from him!

Admirably, Kamijou-sensei is not scared by this. Perhaps he's grown used to it after years of knowing Usgai-san.

"What do I want?" he spits back just as angrily. Then he shoves a small book into Usagi-san's face. I never noticed that he had it on him before. "I have had the displeasure of pursuing every one of your literary works, did you really think I wouldn't notice this piece of crap?" he asks, straining to reduce his voice to a level one.

I wriggle out of Usagi-san's grip and retreat to a safe distance. As I do, my eyes gloss over the thing in Kamijou-sensei's hand. It's a BL novel.

Please don't tell me, Usagi-san…you didn't…

Kamijou snaps the thing away. He's holding it between his thumb and forefinger as if he does not want to touch it any more than absolutely necessary.

"Listen, Akihiko, I could put up with the lewd crap you wrote about before! I could just about stand the total bastardisation of my character up until now but I won't stand for this!" he cries. "Is this some game to you? Do you want to broadcast my pain all across Japan?"

Even I can sort of understand his anger at this. It was really unreasonable, and really insensitive to boot, for Usagi-san to just go ahead and publish something like that without permission.

Usagi-san looks calmly from Kamijou-sensei's livid face to the copy of his book then back to Kamijou-sensei again. He draws a deep breath and sighs with exasperation. "That wasn't the idea." He's totally indifferent.

"Then what was the idea?" I can hear the cynicism just dripping out of that reply.

Usagi-san shrugs. "Well, the general consensus from my fans is that, though they enjoy the angst, they dislike the current pairing."

This time, Kamijou draws a long, shuddering breath. I'm beginning to have visions of the apocalypse right now.

"Akihiko…" he replies through gritted teeth, "you do realise that there's a reason why people call me Kamijou the devil, right? Because I'm thinking of the best way to send you to hell right now!"

"U - Usagi-san!" Those visions are getting more vivid!

"Shut up and listen, will you?" Usagi-san replies sharply. He takes out a cigarette and lights it, for a brief moment just watching the smoke trail into the air. "Generally, when something bad happens, people go to others for advice, right?"

"…Yes, so?"

"Well, the more advice the better and it's good to get a lot of different opinions on the subject," he explains. "So I thought that the general Japanese public would be good. If such a wide fan base with such varied tastes are generally saying 'I don't like this pairing!' doesn't that say something to you?"

For a moment, both Kamijou-sensei and I are speechless. The only sound, aside from the birds twittering outside, is the sound of Uagi-san's BL novel falling out of Kamijou-sensei's hand and limply hitting the floor.

I want to dig a hole in the floor and hide. Usagi-san, why does your logic fail every time?

I think this declaration was a little bit too much for Kamijou-sensei to handle because he stumbles back, his legs hitting the feet of the couch and falls into one of the seats. He bows his head, slumping. I don't think this can be good.

I was right. This is not good at all.

Just when I think Kamijou-sensei is contemplating suicide, he suddenly throws his head back and explodes into laughter; loud, gasping fits of hysterics. I've never seen Kamijou-sensei laugh before, but the way he's doing it now sort of scares me.

"So that's it!" he pushes back his hair with a hand, gasping for air between his laughter. "God, you crack me up, Bakahiko! You're so damn backwards! This is hilarious! This is really hilarious!"

I back away. Slowly.

Apparently, this behaviour is not normal for Kamijou-sensei because Usagi-san is looking pretty unnerved too. His eyes soften and he stretches a hand to pat his head.

Kamijou-sensei bats him away but he does not stop laughing. I'm afraid that he'll die if he doesn't stop soon but I also don't want to get too close to him when he's in hysterics so I make up any excuse to quickly flee the house as soon as possible. As soon as I excuse myself, I make a dash for the door to sanity.

XX

Once again I've rushed out without remembering to bring any money. As I walk aimlessly around the neighbourhood, I sigh and wonder how long I have to wait before I can safely crawl back to Usagi-san's place.

Honestly, although Kamijou-sensei can be intolerable, I wonder if he'll be okay. It looked as though he was seriously losing it back then.

However, I find I don't really have time to wonder about my literature teacher's mental well-being because I can feel the presence of people, several people in fact, rather close behind me.

"Hey!" someone calls me from behind. Out of habit I turn around to see who it is…only to find myself backed into a corner facing several rather unpleasant looking men.

"You look like you've got something on you."

Ah, I see, these people are the kind Usagi-san hates the most.

"N - not really! I'm dirt poor actually!" I reply, waving my hands about innocently. Obviously, they don't believe me since I feel a hand grab my shoulder and slam me into the wall. Damn, that hurts! Why do people like this operate during the middle of the day? It makes no sense!

"No really! I might get even evicted any one of these days!" I try to reason with them again, which isn't exactly a lie because who knows what Usagi-san's whims will lead him to do.

Just as I think they're going to show no mercy and tip me upside down to search me - I really hate being this height - my ears pick up on yet another person shuffling behind us.

"Hey!" someone suddenly yells from behind. "Trying to rob someone in broad daylight! Are you stupid or something?"

A boy is standing there, he looks about my age, scowling challengingly at the group of men.

"Who the hell are you?" they growl. Suddenly, I am forgotten and all their attention turns to this strange boy.

The boy meets them glare for glare without showing any signs of fear. "Why don't you tell me who you are? Or better yet tell the cops, I already called them," he lifts his phone to show them. The bright screen has the police's number on it.

"Damn brat!" one of the men snarls and charge at him. I want to cry out but my voice hitches in my throat.

In a flash, the boy is thrown against a wall, his wrist is caught between the man's hand and the hard brick and I can tell from that grimace of pain that it's probably been squeezed painfully, nails digging into skin, grinding flesh into the brick.

The boy grits his teeth and refuses to cry out in pain. I watch on, stunned. I know I should help but I'm too shocked to move.

"What are you doing? Let's get out of here already!" one of his friends taps the man.

Finally, he lets go of the boy and they run away, pushing past the people in their way as they run. I turn my attention back to my saviour, who has stopped looking annoyed and only wears an expression of boredom on his face now.

"A - are you okay? I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"What are you apologising for? You didn't do anything wrong," he stoops, picking up his bag.

"Yes but because of me…ah, thank you anyway. Oh, but you're hurt!" I notice the nasty red mark on his left wrist. It looks painful.

"It's nothing," he turns to leave but I grab him by his good arm.

"At least let me bandage that up for you! My place isn't far from here. I'm Takahashi Misaki by the way, and thanks again for your help!" I gush. Nii-chan always said one good turn deserves another.

"Takatsuki Shinobu," he mutters. It takes me a while to realise that he's given me a name. I smile in a, hopefully, warm manner and invite him to follow me.

We walk in silence. He doesn't seem the talkative type so I take it upon myself to strike up a conversation. He can't be worse than Usagi-san, surely. "I - it sure was lucky for me that you were around," I say, laughing.

He shrugs without much care. "I guess. I was just looking for someone."

"A friend?" I ask.

"My rival in love," he replies without any hesitation.

"Ah, I see," I nod. It must be nice to have normal, romance troubles. "So you're in a spat over the same girl then."

"Guy," he corrects me. What? Why is it that, ever since I met Usagi-san, everyone I meet seems to be from this AU country called Gaypan? "He's thirty-five years old," he adds. Seriously!? Thirty-five?

Wait, this guy looks about my age and if Usagi-san is ten years older than me and he's twenty-eight then this guy must be ten…fifteen…at least sixteen or seventeen years older than him! Is that usual? Heck, is telling someone you just met all of this even considered normal?

"Takatsuki-kun," I begin, though I'm not exactly sure how to go about this.

"Shinobu is fine," he says bluntly.

"Shinobu-kun," I correct myself, "is this something you should be telling someone you just met?"

Shinobu-kun just shrugs. "It's fine, isn't it?" he seems to have a permanent frown on his face. "Because you're a stranger I don't have to care about what you think, and if we do ever grow closer or something then you won't judge me because you'd be my friend, so it's okay," he says simply.

That isn't the kind of logic a normal person would use.

"Ah, I see," I grin and try to hide the fact that I'm sweating. "It'd be nice to be friends with you, Shinobu-kun."

"Then it's settled," he replies automatically.

I think I manage a sort of stupid "Eh?" sound because that's about all that my brain can process at this time.

"We're friends," he declares.

"Just like that!?"

People on the street turn round to stare as I yell and I have to clamp my hands over my mouth in order to stop anymore violent attacks of disbelief from escaping.

Oh, why is it that everyone I meet fails to be normal? Except maybe Kusama-san. Oh, Kusama-san you are my one pillar of normalcy in this crazy world Usagi-san has warped me into! No wait, if Kusama-san was once going out with Kamijou-sensei then he can't really be normal either! I've been tricked this whole time! Tricked!

Shinobu-kun marks me with an intense stare. "Is there a problem?" his gaze is crippling and I shrink back. It's not an unfriendly glare exactly, it's just that his eyes are so…forceful, I suppose, it feels like I'm withering every time he looks at me like that.

"N - No!" I stutter, quickly changing the subject. "Um, we should probably get you bandaged up," I say and he nods.

I think I can feel myself breathing a sigh of relief when I finally manage to strike up a semi-normal conversation until we reach Usagi-san's apartment.

Suddenly, Shinobu-kun stops, staring up at the condo where Usagi-san lives with a critical eye. He makes a vague 'hmmm' sound under his breath, which makes my nerves prickle. Is something wrong? I know this neighbourhood is full of rich snobs but…

"This is an expensive neighbourhood. I thought you said that you were dirt poor," he says, returning that intense gaze to me.

I laugh a little. Oh, so that was all! "Well I do live here but I don't pay the rent with money. I do chores for my landlord instead."

He accepts this explanation and we hurry into the building, taking the lift all the way up to Usagi-san's floor.

I always have a spare key so I don't bother knocking. Instead I let Shinobu-kun and myself in, leading him into the main room. I hope Kamijou-sensei has calmed down by now…and hasn't broken anything expensive.

"Usagi - I mean, Usami-san - sorry to interrupt," I change the way I call him in front of Shinobu-kun. I'm sure if I called him Usagi-san, Shinobu-kun would just probe into why I'm calling my landlord with such a cutesy nickname. Argh! It wasn't my fault! It was Nii-chan! It was all Nii-chan's fault!

"You!"

Shinobu-kun's sudden outburst startles me enough to make me jump. So does Kamijou-sensei. He jumps to his feet and comes round the side of the couch, staring at Shinobu-kun in disbelief.

"Takatsuki! Are you stalking me?"

Misaki chapter part two coming up, after which we're finally back to Hiroki!