Disclaimer: Spring did not come with rights to Fushigi Yugi characters in its basket. Instead it gave me rain. Bah. OCs are my creations, however, and shame on you if you use them without permission. Shame, shame.

Author's note: reuploaded chapter, because was annoying and didn't include my section break formatting.

Chapter 10

"GARAARRGH!" Crash, bang.

"What the hell is going on?"

Sigh. "Little brother is being psycho again."

"Psycho about what? This time?"

"I heard that!"

Ignoring. "That girl he's hung up about. The one that ran to Japan."

"I'm not hung up on that bitch! She cut off my fucking—"

b "Oh, her." Snort. "Again?"

"Not again. And it's not just about me. Why the fuck aren't you both still angry? Don't you remember what she did? She disrespected us! Disrespected the triad!"

"You know, he has a point."

"Sister! Don't tell me you're encouraging him."

"Older brother, that half-Jap chick did disrespect the triad, even if it just started because of Little Brother's lustful idiocy."

"We chased her out of China. Isn't that enough?"

"I suppose…though it really would be better if she were dead."

Grin. "Now, you're talking."

"Shut up, Little Brother. And Sister, what are you talking about? You know we can't trespass on the Yakuza's territory. And you can't seriously be suggesting we expend resources chasing after a girl we have already proved we can kick the ass of once."

"Of course not. But if we can convince her to come back…" Lift of an eyebrow. "Fair game, no?"

It was a week later that the fangirls had their revenge.

Yes, Tasuki indeed had a fan club. It had come as rather a shock when he discovered this on Valentine's Day, but, sadly, it was not the romance-crazed NyanNyans who had sparked it into being. He didn't know about it, of course. That was the point. It was made entirely of female college students who dedicated themselves to worshipping at his altar of wonderfulness, writing horrible love poems and self-inclusion fics, and, all-importantly, stalking him. They actually were very good at it, and never came close enough for the object of their affection to actually sense them and demand what the hell did they think that they were doing, because that would spoil everything. So, from a safe distance, they watched their love's every move and drooled over his every gesture. The daily scuffles with members of the fan clubs devoted to the other members of Suzaku House were simply the necessary price to pay.

Tasuki's even had a schedule setup, with rotating shifts that quite amazingly structure their precious 24/7 Tasuki-time around the members' classes (which, of course played secondary to Tasuki and would have been dropped altogether save for the fact that they needed to stay enrolled here in order to stalk him). They maintained a near-constant surveillance on him save for the hours between 9pm and 3:30am (none of the fanclubs watched the objects of their less than healthy affection during those times, as the battles over the best stalking spots just got too ridiculous), and catalogued his every move in little pink notebooks. To their relief, Tasuki had rebuffed every single girl that had ever tried to date him, and many more had, ahem, decided to discontinue their pursuit when the proper incentives were supplied.

Just because they were too craven to approach him themselves didn't mean that they'd allow any other bitch to have him.

So when the fan club's president began to receive reports that yet another girl was attempting to attach herself to their beloved, she thought little of it and simply gave the order that if the bitch wasn't rejected by Tasuki himself within the week, they were to…provide encouragement. However, it soon became clear that this case was not like all the others. For one, Tasuki didn't serve the anticipated rejection and instead seemed to be spending more and more time in hag's company. Then, numerous attempts to booby trap and sabotage the girl during key moments failed due to strangely unfavorable (to them) circumstances. And their search for background information (and/or potential blackmail material) came up dry. As previously mentioned, attempts to break into her room were foiled, and other crawls through the school's official records held very little information beyond her name, date of birth and what classes she was taking. They couldn't even interrogate her friends because, besides her housemate, she didn't have any and those in her classes couldn't tell them much either.

Finally, when this…interloper was spotted running away with their idol on that Valentine's Day of all days, it was decided that more direct measures were in order.

This…was Chian Mai?

Deeming this threat to their beloved idol as of utmost importance, the fan club's president and three of her highest officers themselves went to confront the harlot. They found her eating lunch with that housemate of hers. Both of them were eating sandwiches and reading textbooks. Every so often Mai scowled and turned a page. Anyone who knew her well would have thought just the sight of Mai reading was strange, but the fangirls were more concerned with their target's appearance than her actions. This was the girl who dared scheme to steal Tasuki-sama's heart? Why, she looked like she threw on whatever she found on the floor that morning (or maybe the trash): ratty, faded jeans, even rattier sneakers, and a purple tee that looked so old it had faded almost white at the seams. Her hair was a superb mess, tangled into a long braid that badly needed to be redone and bangs that cried out for a trim. She was not, unfortunately, a complete whore, and there was some potential there, it had to be (very) grudgingly admitted—but she wasn't even wearing any makeup!

Disgusting. The fanclub president sniffed in contempt and walked up, followed by her three subordinates. "Are you Chian Mai?" she demanded.

Both Mai and her friend looked up. Mai's blue eyes narrowed. "Who wants to know?"

"I assume that you are. And we, of the Tasuki fan club—"

Mai didn't move for a second, then said, "What?" To the other four's surprise, she burst out laughing. "Holy shit, the idiot's got a fucking fan club?"

"Er…" Mai's friend—Ikeda Meian, the president's memory supplied—was looking from Mai to the quartet with some bewilderment. She, at least, was someone who didn't dress like trailer trash if on the boringly sedate, quiet side. As they weren't members of the Chichiri fanclub, Tasuki's fangirls would even admit that she was pretty. "Mai," Meian said, "do you know them?"

Mai snorted. "Fuck no."

The president curled her lip and added "vulgar" to the list of Mai's faults, conveniently forgetting her own idol's less than clean mouth. Behind her, one of the officers glared at Mai and said, "How dare you call our beloved Tasuki an idiot!"

"Yeah!" said another. "You aren't worthy of him, bitch!"

Mai immediately stopped laughing. "I'll call him whatever I fucking want," she said coldly. "Now what the hell do you three Old Navy slaves want?"

They bristled. Old Navy slaves? How dare she? These outfits were from Abercrombie! "We," the president said haughtily, tossing her hair back, "want you to stay away from Tasuki. You clearly aren't worthy of him, so you might as well stop in your feeble attempts to gain his affection."

"'Gain his affection'?" Mai repeated. "What the fuck? I don't want to fucking date him, if that's what you mean."

"Likely story," the president scoffed. "Tasuki is the epitome of every girl's dream." Her eyes misted over. "That smile, those eyes, that body, that accent…" In unison, all four fan girls sighed longingly. Now Mai was beginning to get a little creeped out.

"In any case," the president continued, recovering, "you are to cease all contact with him. We will not tolerate the continuation of your relations with him any longer."

"You won't—" Mai stood up and glared down at the president. She was a least a head taller, a very intimidating fact that hadn't been apparent from their photos. "Listen stalker girl, no one tells me what to do. I already told you I don't have any sort of designs on your 'beloved' idiot. If you want to date him that fucking much, just ask him yourself. But I ain't gonna just avoid him because you tell me to."

"You have no idea what we're capable of," was the hiss.

Mai actually had the gall to look amused. "Stalker girl, nothing your little fashion clogged brains can come up with would frighten me."

She was, of course, wrong. Mai had faced bullets, knives, and all sorts of violence on all sorts of levels (some by herself), and the Tasuki fan club wouldn't threaten anything of the kind for fear of ruining their manicures. But they had everything beat when it came to sheer annoyance. Initially, Mai had no intention of telling anyone of her encounter with the fan club, deeming it too stupid for words. Nothing happened the next day, but the day after…somehow they had gotten a hold of not only her class schedule but which desks she sat at, what paths she took to get to class, where she ate her lunch, etc. And thus commenced a barrage of threatening notes, sabotaged chairs that collapsed when she sat in them, random hisses of "ugly bitch" and "stay away from him"… Like she said, it wasn't the worst she had ever endured, those first months in middle school before meeting Meian were pretty bad because damn if little kids couldn't be evil little shits, but…this was just too stupid. She was actually starting to tolerate living in this boring little suburban college shithole and this happened. Nevertheless, she did try.

It was, however, the attack by the horny squirrels on her pheromone soaked lunch that was the last straw.

Tasuki stretched his arms over his head as he walked out of the building. He stopped for a second just to enjoy the feeling of the cold but fresh air on his face—damn, if he didn't feel like a mole sometimes, cooped up in damned buildings all day. Man, but he couldn't wait to get back to the house and dump these stupid books off. Homework could wait—it was Friday, it was sunny, the weather was fucking gorgeous, like those brilliant bright snowy days back home, Mitsukake had removed those fucking head bandages this morning, and he fully intended to—

Well. It had been sunny.

Later, Tasuki would wonder how exactly he had known that she was coming for him. It wasn't as if the dark, scowling face was new, or the clenched fists, or the way those long legs ate the ground up in rapid, angry strides—wait, long legs? Since when did he start noticing her legs? In any case, he had seen Mai in a bad mood plenty of times but he was pretty sure that he hadn't done anything to make her that way about him…of course, as his sisters had been so fond of telling him as they were growing up, men were the densest creatures on the planet when it came to recognizing when they had given offense. Though he had noticed that she had been a little pricklier than usual lately. Damn. After he cracked his skull open, she had been sorta nice for a couple days.

But she was coming for him and when she reached him he could practically see the sparks flying out of her eyes. "Uhh…" He backed up a step. "I'm sorry?" he ventured, hoping that if she was really that mad at him, a pre-emptive strike might ward off the worse of the damage.

Unfortunately, Mai didn't seem to have heard him. She did, however, see him move back and grabbed a fistful of his shirt to keep him from moving back anymore. "You ain't goin' nowhere," she hissed.

And I guess that Nuriko can have my collection of sake cups, since he's the only one who truly can appreciate the art…Tasuki realized he was mentally writing his will in his head and cursed. Fuck, if his gang buddies could see him now, scared shitless because of a damned girl. Then again, they hadn't seen this girl punch her fist through a brick wall when the cafeteria cashier short-changed her.

Instead of starting the anticipated enraged maiming, Mai turned away from him and waved her free arm around. "Hey! HEY! FAN BITCHES! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, YA LIL' STALKER WHORES!"

Tasuki winced. He'd said it before and he'd say it again—Mai had amazing lung capacity. He did, however, feel relieved that she didn't appear to be mad at him. After all, she wasn't actually yelling at him but at…fan bitches? What fan bitches?

Shit, now people were starting to stare. He was about to glare at them and tell them to mind their own goddamn business, but well…shit, if some random crazy chick came running in and starting screaming like a freaking banshee, he'd stare too. And laugh, though it didn't seem very funny right now…

"ARE YOU WATCHIN' THIS? ARE YOU WATCHIN' THIS?"

Whoever they were, they had really made her angry. He could hear her accent creeping back in. Oh, and there was that crazy, insane look in her eyes and the little bite marks all over her clothes—there was even a little tooth mark on her cheek that was bleeding a little. Okay, that was weird. Why did she look like she was attacked by little tiny gremlins? He opened his mouth—

And then Mai kissed him.

Yes, that's what this was. Kissing. The act of putting your mouth on top of someone else's when resuscitation or suffocation is not the intended action. Mai had abruptly stopped shouting, spun around, slapped one hand on either side of his face, dragged him forward and…kissed him. Hard. For the first two seconds, Tasuki had been too shocked to do anything but after awhile the thought began to creep in that an angry Mai was a damn good kisser. He wondered where she had learned to kiss like that. Then he realized that he was enjoying this. Then he began to panic when the implications of that reared their ugly heads. Then he began to panic because if she wasn't going to let him go soon, he was going to suffocate.

Luckily she did, and promptly gave the flipped the finger to their entire audience. "SUCK ON THAT!" And then stormed off again, leaving the redhead to gape in her wake.

"Shut up," he muttered, as the clapping started.

His housemates seemed to take it surprisingly calmly when he told them what happened.

Not, of course, that he had intended on telling them anything but…come on. The entire episode had taken place outside, in a public area, under the eyes of probably half the student body, who all had mouths. And cell-phones, and were no doubt frantically text-ing their absent friends. And sending pictures.

Damn technology.

The only thing that moves faster than Tamahome's girlfriend at the words "all you can eat buffet" is gossip.

His friends, however, had wanted to know what had transpired directly from his mouth, and, knowing there would be no end to the pestering until he complied, told them and resigned himself to the laughter.

Nuriko, however, said nothing but, "Tasuki fan club? We were wondering when they would show up."

The redhead stared at him. "What? What the fuck do you mean by that? You knew I had a fan club?"

"Well, not so much knew as…extrapolated," Hotohori replied. "After all," and he waved a hand elegantly to include Nuriko, Tamahome, Chichiri and Mitsukake, "we all havek4j one, and we wondered when yours would appear."

Tasuki still stared at them. "You…all have fan clubs."

"Of course." Hotohori flipped his silky brown hair over his shoulder as if to say "well, if you were as sexy as me, why wouldn't you have a fanclub?"

"Hotohori's and mine followed us from our high school, though I would guess that they picked up more members on campus by now," Nuriko continued. "Tama-chan, Chiri-chan and Mits-chan's probably popped up here though."

"You all have fan clubs. We all have fan clubs."

"That's what he just told you, Fang-Boy." Tamahome gave him a weird look. "Man, I knew you were dense, but didn't you notice all those screaming girls on Valentine's Day?"

"I thought the NyanNyans drove them crazy. Didn't that hag president of ours say the NyanNyans drove them crazy? And I'm NOT a—wait." Tasuki narrowed his eyes at Tamahome. "If you have a fan club, what does little Miaka-chan think? Does she know?"

"Of course not," Tamahome huffed. "Besides, whenever one gets near, I just tell Miaka that they have a cream cake in their pocket. That way, she either stares at them until they go away or—depending on how hungry she is—tackles them."

His other housemates blinked. "Dude…that is evil."

Tamahome shrugged. "Whatever works."

"Anyway…why didn't you fucking tell me that I, we, whatever, had a fanclub?" Tasuki demanded.

"Well…it's not exactly the sort of thing you like to tell people, no da," Chichiri replied, rather sardonically. "I doubt any of our birthday wishes were "I wish I could have my own, my very very own fanclub" no da. Anyway, excepting last week, most of them are relatively harmless. They just want to sigh over us in quiet, no da."

"Actually," Nuriko looked thoughtful. "We were wondering why it was taking so long for yours to show up. I mean, you and Mai have been spending a lot of time together—"

"We have NOT—"

"—and ours always got super violent about that…you wouldn't believe what I went through to convince them that Kourin's my sister… Well, maybe not Mits's. They seem pretty peaceful."

"…" Mitsukake said.

Then the laugh he had been waiting for came. Well. It was more like a snicker. "So she got so mad that she kissed you, huh?" Tamahome said. "Rather a strange reaction, don't you think?" Pause. "Did you like it?"

"Shut up."

On the other hand, Mai's housemate fell off the couch.

"Hahahahahaha—oof, ow! Ahahahahahahaha—"

"It's not that funny, goddammit!" Mai's face was red with both anger and embarrassment. "STOP LAUGHING!"

Meian tried. "I'm, heehee, s-sorry, ha, I'll—" She gave up. "Hahahahahahaha!"

Mai could only watch, fuming, as her friend dissolved in laughter. In any other situation, she would have been amazed—Meian, being an extraordinary placid young woman, was not given to extremes of any emotion, but here she was practically exploding with laughter. When she had explained to Meian why exactly she had such a wild look in her eyes, she hadn't expected her to go off like this…

It took a few minutes (or an eternity, in Mai's opinion) for Meian to finally calm down, but eventually she managed to get her laughter under control.

"Oh my…" she gasped, wiping her eyes. She got up and sat back on the couch.

"Are you done?" Mai asked icily.

"Hee…y-yes, I think so." Meian looked up at her friend and patted the cushion next to her. "Do you want to sit and explain to me what happened?"

Mai scowled at her and sat. "I already told you what happened. And you turned into a fucking laugh-machine and fell off the couch."

"Oh. Eh." Meian turned red. "S-sorry. But do you mind telling me why you kissed him?"

"…I don't know." Mai's scowl deepened.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I said, I don't know." Mai slouched further into the cushions. "I was so mad I wasn't thinking straight. All I thought was that the one sure way to piss all those stupid, idiotic fan bitches off was to…to…." She turned red. "Well, I said I wasn't thinking straight, didn't I? And would you be, if some crazy psychos were stalking you and bugging you all week to stay away from their precious little redheaded idiot? Would you?"

"M-mai…could you back up a little bit?"

"Oh… sorry." Mai had jumped up in the middle of her rant and leaned forward so hard into Meian's face that she had pushed her friend halfway into the couch. She backed up until Meian could sit more normally.

Meian looked down and smoothed her skirt. "I think you should apologize." She closed her eyes and mentally counted down.

One, two, three…

"WHAT?" Mai never did disappoint. "Why the FUCK should I apologize to that redheaded asshole? It was his fucking fan club that did this, he should be apologizing to me!"

"And why did you automatically assume I was talking about Tasuki? I didn't mention any names. Or use any pronouns, even."

Mai's mouth worked but nothing came out. Funny, that.

Meian took full advantage of the silence. "I think you should apologize to him because, well, none of this was his fault. I doubt that the 'crazy psychos' after him actually told the object of their affection their plans. At the very least you should explain to him exactly why you were screaming like a banshee about fangirls and why you decided to snog him in front of half the student body. No doubt he is very confused right now."

"I do not scream like a banshee." Inwardly she was thinking, Snog? Meian's really watching too many of those Brit romance comedies…

Nevertheless, late that night (or early that morning) Tasuki woke to loud tapping at his window.

"Whuh?" The redhead whipped a hand out from under his pillow, thrashed in his sheets and fell to the floor. "Who the—"

"Oh for—psst! Fang-Boy! Over here, dumbass!"

Tasuki got to his feet and angrily yanked the window open. "Mai, wha' th'fuck're you doin' here? It's," he glanced at his watch, "3am in the fuckin' morning!"

Mai, for indeed it was she, perched on like a monkey on the tree branch outside his window, cast a significant look at the knife in his hand. "And what are you doing sleeping with a knife under your pillow? Lose your teddy bear?"

"Oh, and like you don't do the same."

"What? Who the fuck told you that—you know what? Never mind, just let me in, it's fucking freezing out here."

"Hmph." But he yanked the window open a little wider and stood to one side as she clambered in. He closed the window, watched as she rubbed her cold arms, and threw a blanket at her. "Idiot. You'll catch a damn cold again." He crossed his arms and glared at her. "And you never answered my first question."

She wrapped the blanket around her. "What question—oh, that." She looked a little embarrassed. "I, uh, came to apologize."

"Huh? You? Apologize?"

"You know, that slack-jawed look of surprise really doesn't do anything for you," Mai told him acidly. "Your fangirls wouldn't be very happy with you." When he continued to glare at her, she sighed and leaned back against the window frame. "I came to apologize for what I did this afternoon. You know, that whole…uhh…"

Tasuki lifted an eyebrow. "When you kissed me, you mean."

"Y-yeah." Damn. What she stuttering? Shit, she was—and was she blushing? Fuck. "J-j-just so you know, I didn't mean to do it! Or, er, obviously I meant to, because I did, but I didn't want to, you know in that way. Those damn stalker hags made me just had bugging the hell out of me for the past week that I got so damn mad that I wasn't…wasn't thinking straight. That's why I kissed you, no other reason."

He rolled his eyes. "Gee, I'm glad we got that whole mess straightened out," he said sarcastically.

Mai blinked at him. "You mean…you didn't start having…weird thoughts?"

"No, I didn't start having 'weird thoughts.'" That wasn't strictly true. For the eternity of time it seemed to take for him to get back to Suzaku House, he did have "weird thoughts" about what Mai's kiss could potentially mean but then realized—"You don't like anyone. Except for Meian and that giant guy back in January—"

"Shan," Mai corrected automatically.

"Yeah. Mountain man. Whatever. Anyway, the point is, besides those two, I have yet to see you feel anything toward anyone other than irritation, contempt, or, at best, tolerance. You sure as hell don't like me, and definitely not in that way. So no, I didn't start having weird thoughts. Besides, you were screaming insanely the entire time. Hardly being fucking romantic, don't you think?"

"…" Mai sank down on the floor and hugged her knees. "I feel like an idiot," she said quietly.

Tasuki looked at her, and then sat in front of her. "Well, you were kinda being one."

She glared at him. "Stop being so fucking supportive of me, thanks," she snapped.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were being bothered?"

"Because I thought it was too fucking stupid for words, that's why," she replied, looking up at the ceiling and blowing her bangs out of her way. "Besides, it's not like you even knew they existed to do anything about them anyway."

"Point. Nuriko only told me—hey, how'd you know I didn't know?"

This time Mai looked at him like he was being dense. "You think I didn't try to get them to leave me the hell alone? I told them that I didn't want to fucking date you and to go ask you themselves if they loved you so fucking much. Repeatedly. Hell, I even told them that you must be fucking flattered they worshipped you so damn much—"

"What?" Tasuki squawked.

"--but they just gave me those 'nobody's home' eyes and said the whole point of their fanclub was that you didn't know about them, and must never know about them or else the 'purity of their love' would be sullied." She curled her lip. "Or some shit like that. So I knew that you didn't know."

"Hmm. So do you think that they'll leave you alone now?"

Mai shrugged. "Dunno. I just wanted to piss 'em off. Told you, wasn't really thinking straight at the time when I k-kissed you."

Tasuki gave her an amused look. "God, I never knew you were such an innocent. C'mon, you can say it: kiss."

"Shut up." Damn, she was blushing again, wasn't she? "I am not an innocent."

"With a mouth like yours, I suppose not." He looked at her curiously. "How the hell did you learn to kiss like that anyway?"

She was most definitely blushing now. Good thing it was dark in here. "What? What the hell do you know?"

"Look, just because I ain't hooked up like Mitsukake, Tamahome or Hotohori doesn't mean I've never been out with a girl," Tasuki retorted. For some reason, a lot of people always assumed that just because Tasuki didn't melt into a puddle of hormones or leer at everything in a skirt that he was sexually naïve. He grew up with five older sisters, and spent most of his teenage years in a gang, around guys whose relations with opposite sex typically consisted of hookers or one-night stands. He knew about girls, and was most decidedly heterosexual. But he had gotten through that awkward horny phase that lusted after everything with breasts and, unlike most of his age, found it a waste of time and energy to pursue them. So he opted out of the game.

"Hmph. Well, Ureshii 'taught' me." The name couldn't have been spat with more venom.

"Ureshii? 'Rainbow'? Weird name. Girl or boy?"

Mai had that dangerous look in her eyes, and Tasuki almost regretted asking. "Boy," she snarled. "I thought he was my boy, but he had different ideas. Motherfucking bastard."

Ookay. Mental note: do not become one of Mai's ex-boyfriends… But then, he wasn't even one of Mai's current boyfriends—not that she had any. "Right. The one who stole and fucked around on you last year."

"How the hell did you—"

"You told me, remember? When we were…uh…stuck in that closet."

"Oh. Yeah. I'd forgotten about that. So. Uh. Yeah. I'll just wanted to explain things."

"Okay. You did, thanks."

But she didn't move.

"You're wrong, you know," Mai said

"About what?" Tasuki said, covering a yawn. He glanced at his watch again. Damn, but he just wanted to get some sleep…

"I do like you."

"What?" That got his attention.

Mai stood up, and Tasuki followed. "You said, with very few exceptions, that I don't like anybody and certainly don't like you. While I definitely didn't when we first meant, you have since proven not to be as much of an ass as I thought. So I do like you. Now. I think. Don't expect chocolates."

"Thank you so very much," Tasuki said, every word dripping with sarcasm. Though actually, for Mai to have said that she actually liked someone was high praise.

She shrugged, either ignoring or not noticing his tone. Climbing back out his window again, she grabbed the tree branch and started climbing down.

He watched her. "Mai?"

"Hmm?" She stopped and looked up.

"I think that I might like you too. As annoying, sleep-depriving chick as you are."

She smiled. "Good night, Tasuki."