By my time, it's 8:47, which is just before midnight on the east coast, which where most of y'all are (I think) SO I WIN.

It happens to be the tenth chapter, so it's a... special update, i'll just say.

Even though it took a while, I'm really happy I got to ten.

Thank you, for sticking with me through the hiatus! I LOVE YAAA.

"And a toast for Tsuchiya Kouta, who single handedly managed to take out Class D's invading party." Sakamoto's voiced boomed, seated at the head of the table.

Minami beamed, lifting up her drink with the rest of Class F, cups clinking together. Tsuchiya blushed slightly, but smiled, clinking his glass with hers and his other friends.

Today was a really, really awesome day.

They had won the last battle of the year- of course, they'd declined an equipment switch again, for some strange reason Sakamoto didn't share. It didn't matter much though, as they only had a few weeks left. Winning felt amazing. And she was happy to see Tsuchiya getting all this well earned praise.

But every time she looked at him, she remembered the feeling of wrapping her arms around him and laughing.

She quietly sipped her soda, face heating at her embarrassment about embracing him in front of the other students.

…Or at least, that's why she thought she was blushing. Minami stared down at the table, turning her straw with her index finger. Mizuki was sitting next to her, a healthy distance from Akihisa. They still hadn't made up, apparently. Her best friend's hair hung over her face in curtains, and she hadn't looked up since the toast.

Not everyone was in a good mood, apparently.

Minami gave Akihisa a cautious look over. It was strange, staring at him without the butterflies and heart pounding feelings that normally came with it. Now he was just… Yoshii Akihisa. A stupid jerkass she hated dealing with for the most part, but her friend. Sort of.

Her feelings weren't very friendly towards him at the moment, though, seeing as he had made her best friend turn into an emotional zombie lately. He was laughing with an increasingly uncomfortable looking Kinoshita, but he kept sending Mizuki quick glances over his shoulder.

Minami sighed. Really, all she planned to do tonight was hang out with friends and drink soda until she threw up But she hated seeing Mizuki looking so depressed, and it would be the good thing to do…

"Mizuki," She hissed. The pink haired girl turned to face her, eyes owl like. "We need to talk. She nodded, pushing out her chair and striding across the resteraunt. When she left, the eyes of all the boys followed her. (except Kinoshita, who was scooting his chair farther away from Akihisa)

But of course, no one noticed when she walked away. She rolled her eyes, following her best friend.

Minami pushed open the door to the girl's bathroom. "Yeah, not the best place to talk, I know, but it works."

Mizuki just glanced around, still looking gloomy. "What do you want to talk about, Minami-san?"

"You've been depressed for the past couple weeks." Mizuki flinched a little, but nodded. "Did you break up with-"

"No!" The other student said quickly, shaking her head. "It's not that!"

Minami had to turn away so she could roll her eyes in peace. Seriously? It was so obvious, and the fact that she was lying to her…

"It's not that," Mizuki repeated quietly. "We're just… distant, right now." She leaned against the wall, and sighed, her pink curls squished. "I'm a really, really horrible girlfriend." Her voice gradually grew softer as she said it.

Minami raised an eyebrow. "No way. If anything, Yoshii is a horrible boyfriend."

Mizuki shook her head fiercely. "No, he's not! It's me." She swallowed. "I lie to him all the time…"

Now she was really confused. The Mizuki she knew didn't lie. Ever. "About what?" She ventured.

"Everything." She sighed. "Pretending to be someone I'm not." She pushed back her hair with one hand, glancing at Minami. "You've got it so easy, you know. You can just…be you, and no one cares. But when I got to Class F, everyone thought…"

She dropped to the ground of the bathroom, head buried in her knees. Her voice came out muffled.

"That I was some… some perfect little flower. Delicate and girly and flawless."

Guilt hit Minami hard. If anyone had ever made her describe her best friend, those were pretty much the words she would use.

"I mean… I look it, don't I? With the hair, and the frailness…" She sighed. "But I can't cook, can't sing, can't sew… Can't do a single girly thing."

Minami settled herself down next to her. "Screw them," She said loudly, "If they think girls need to do girly things."

Mizuki glanced up at her, smiling. "Yeah, I guess. But I feel like Aki only likes me because of… the girly things."

"You've given him some of your cooking before, right?"

"Yes?"

"Pretty sure he knows that you can't do that, then." She grinned. "And he's probably guessed the other things by now. He can be a real ass sometimes, but I'm pretty sure he genuinely likes you, Mizuki."

She almost added that she was lucky for that.

But she didn't.

"You think so?" She ran her thumb across the bottom of her eyes, wiping away tiny tears.

"Of course. I was getting kinda jealous of your perfection, so this helps." She laughed.

Mizuki stared at her in surprise. 'Really?"

"Well… a little." She added quickly, not wanting to get into the whole Akihisa thing. "The grades, mostly, though."

Her best friend laughed. "Yeah, but I have to study all the time for them! You probably don't have to try for math at all."

"Are you kidding? Every week, I have to study with…" She froze, catching herself. "With Hazuki."

Mizuki gave her a look over. "You weren't going to say that."

She cleared her throat. "I help her out with her math, that's it."

Her best friend just kept staring at her with a strange look on her face, then finally shook her head.

"Whatever you say, Minami-san."

She could sense it was time to change the subject. "Anyway, you should go back in there," she mimed walking, "Slap him across the face, and tell him you want him back. Gets everything sorted out, and people will stop thinking you're just a fluffy haired weak thing!"

Mizuki gaped at her, stifling a laugh. "No way!"

"Do it!" She stood up, walking towards the paper dispensers. She pulled out a paper towel, and wet it in the sink, wadding it up in a ball. Raising it with a giant grin, she turned towards Mizuki.

"D-don't you dare!" Mizuki squeaked, bursting out into giggles.

"Go confront him, then!"

"I can't!"

Minami gave a fake sigh. "You can't say I didn't warn you." And with perfect accuracy, she chucked a paper towel at her.

Mizuki shrieked, getting up and heading to a sink of her own. Dodging more bombs from Minami, she began constructing her own.

They continued their war for twenty minutes, until some woman walked in, giving them both a dirty look as she noticed the clumps of wet paper scattered around the bathroom. It was just as well. Minami had almost run out of paper towels.

They walked out laughing loudly, partially soaked, too engaged with giggling to notice the activities of the Class F students.

So it wasn't until they were just in front of the table that they saw that the entire group was singing, and drinking from some very suspicious looking cups and bottles.

"Oh dear." Mizuki said quietly. "Is… is that?"

"….Yeah."

Apparently, when leaving to have their chat, they missed someone breaking out the alcohol.

Kinoshita was surrounded by guys, though he didn't look uncomfortable at all, contrasting to earlier in the evening. Sakamoto was on the phone with someone, most likely the class rep. And Akihisa…

He was looking at Mizuki, eyes practically glowing.

Laughing loudly, he grabbed for her arm. "There you are!" He chirped, cheerfully. "S'was looking for ya. Couldn't find." She flinched slightly before letting him take it, shooting Minami an embarrassed, helpless look. All her best friend could do was shrug.

Minami settled into the seat, sighing. There was some unattended alcohol on the table, but she was very firmly against taking it. Her parents could tell if someone was drunk simply by smell. It was a doctor thing, apparently.

Didn't mean she couldn't watch everyone else act like idiots, though. Kirishima was probably pleased; drunk or not, her boyfriend was murmuring very sweetly into the phone, voice soft. It would probably be nice to have someone talk to her like that, though she'd vastly prefer them to be sober.

Several of the boys, who's names she was unaware of, were singing a song about failing tests and never giving up, loudly and off key. They seemed to be having fun, however.

Mizuki, to her credit, was trying to talk to Aki, sitting across from him, but all he was doing was playing with her hair and laughing way too loudly. On the side of the table, Minami was very close to busting in and separating Kinoshita from the other guys. She swore one of them just tried groping his chest- to find nothing there.

It was difficult, being the only responsible one in a group. Part of her was hoping that Tsuchiya had enough brains in him to hold off, but one look at him loping back to the table, practically turning over every seat in the restaurant crushed that. She slapped a hand to her face and groaned. Standing up (everyone was far too inebriated to notice this gesture, she reassured herself) she walked towards him, guiding him back to the table. Tsuchiya smiled at her gratefully.

"You're here now? I was wondering where you went. I mean, you were here, and then you weren't…" He drifted off, blinking his long lashes at her in confusion. She was momentarily stunned. She had never heard him string so many words together before. And he hadn't hesitated before he spoke, either. It was… bizarre.

"Look." He handed his camera to her quickly, almost dropping it. "Pictures." She guided him to a chair while sitting in another.

His tutor decided to humor him, clicking the camera on and checking the recent photos. She winced, looking at them. They were… not up to par, to say the least. Completely blurry, and half of them were upside down. The other half was all slanted. He had taken pictures of everything- doors, random people, other students, his shoes.

"…Why are they all slanted or upside down?"

"It's supposed to be artistic," He said, suddenly glaring at her. He then sighed. "But I guess you really wouldn't understand."

Minami was having more trouble understanding who exactly had taken over Tsuchiya's body.

"I think," she said carefully, "You need to go home." If he was drunk enough to be acting like a completely different person…. Yeah, she definitely did not trust him to walk home by himself.

"But," he gave a sad puppy look. "Nobody else is leaving, Shimada. Can't we just stay?"

She tried to not flinch at the way he said we. "Yeah, but everyone else isn't a super light weight like you." Even Kinoshita seemed to be keeping better composure of himself. "I don't think you can walk home alone. Let's go."

She helped him off the seat, and he leaned on her heavily.

"I'm helping this idiot home. See you guys later." Thank God they didn't have school tomorrow.

Several of the Class F mates boo'd her, though most were working on comforting the one sobbing in the corner.

"Bye bye!" Aki grinned, winking at Tsuchiya. Next to him, Mizuki raised an eyebrow. Damn it. She was really not being careful today…

"Let's go," She repeated, walking the blue haired boy out the door.

Minami opted out on taking the bus, assuming that the driver would not be pleased to see someone obviously under 18 so drunk. Plus, Tsuchiya's house was close. She half listened to him tell a story about one of the Class F guys with a fake ID getting drinks for all of them, focusing on locating his house. It was only nine or so, which meant that her parents wouldn't be home for a while, thankfully.

It was probably good that he was only slightly taller then her, otherwise the leaning wouldn't work out too well. She sighed in relief when she saw his doorstep.

"Your mom isn't home… right?"

He gave her a look, which was much more like the Tsuchiya she was used to. "No. Never is."

"Well, there we go, then. You're an idiot, and any respect I had for you today has completely gone down the drain." She grinned at him. He just nodded, too drunk to actually take in her words. He put his hands in his jeans pockets—and searched for a minute for his keys.

Minami found that it was difficult to turn away from someone so obviously struggling.

"…Other pocket."

"Oh, right." The photographer pulled the keys out, and started for his doorknob… where he proceeded to fumble again.

Something broke inside Minami.

"Just hand them over." She muttered, frustrated. Upon receiving them she pulled the door open in one quick motion, and ushered Tsuchiya into the house, getting increasingly annoyed.

He swerved towards the couch- and she dragged him away, to spare the sleeping cat already on the cushions.

"We're going to your room."

He gave her a look that made her ears burn. "I didn't mean it like that," she hissed. Dragging him through the house, he gave her helpful instructions like "turn that way" and "no, not here."

Finally, she pushed open a door that looked, for all intents a purpose, to be his bedroom.

He yawned, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "…Thank you, Minami." Like the good morning he gave her ages ago, it was barely audible- and he had moved right up next to her ear.

Surprised, she swallowed hard. "D-don't call me that." Even though the sound of her name in his voice hadn't been strictly unpleasant.

"Most people wouldn't," he said, ignoring her comment. "So thank you."

He looked at her for a while, and then suddenly leaned forward, his head under her jaw. Everything froze for a moment, and Minami found herself waiting for her disgust to kick in, pushing him away.

Nothing.

His hair tickled her chin. "You're the best," he said, lips moving against her throat, a distractingly pleasant feeling. He shifted, slightly, and kissed her collarbone with the softest brush she could imagine.

Her skin burned, and she could felt her heart get ready to burst out of her chest. It was obvious that he could hear it as well, thudding in a way she was pretty damn sure it never did for Akihisa. The room was dark, masking her blush, but doing nothing to hide the way she wasn't breathing.

Tsuchiya straightened, giving her eye contact, like they had when they hugged, just a few hours ago.

It felt like decades.

Hesitating- it was weird, how that made her feel like the old Tsuchiya was back- he touched her waist, like he was waiting for her to stop him.

If she wanted him to.

She wondered for a moment, if she had somehow gotten drunk on the atmosphere. His hand lifted up her shirt with the up most delicacy, and when his fingers tips brushed her bare skin…

Minami jumped back, suddenly awake, heart pounding and head reeling. "I can't. I can't, not if you're like this." The words fell out in a rush, and it was far too late to take them back.

He looks her over, a slow stare that makes her shiver, and then nods.

She bolted out of the house, skin burning, collarbone and waist singed by his touch.