Hello guys!

Had a busy week. Exams. Sorry for the wait. Hope the one to come won't be…

Anyway, thanks for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing! I love to hear from you guys ^^

And special thanks to my beta Kishoto :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Shokugeki no Soma.

Chapter 12: When fire turns everything red

Monday afternoon, after class

Golden eyes trailed after the blonde and her secretary walking in front of them as their owner absentmindedly followed them so as not to be distanced and left behind as they traveled through the academy's corridors to whatever their destination seemed to be. He didn't even know about that since the blonde had refused to speak with him all day with the only exception of that fastidious morning call.

...okay, so maybe he hadn't played his role right but Tadokoro had been in need and he wasn't one to leave a friend in need when he could do something about it. It wasn't as if Nakiri liked to go to school with him right? And she had dozens of cars at her disposal as she had previously said. So he hadn't thought it'd turn out to be such a big deal when he had decided to take Tadokoro to school instead but apparently, he had been wrong and things had gone out of control. School was over and even now, the princess refused to so much as acknowledge his presence - much less talk to him. The only time she had - if that even counted - was when she had come by as he was talking with Tadokoro.

Thinking about that, he hadn't had the chance to reassure the girl in the end. Okay, so maybe that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't taken her to school but he didn't regret his choice. He had helped her when she needed him and that was all there was to it.

So, once again, why was Nakiri so displeased about it? And more importantly, till when would she ignore him?

It was high time he got the answer to this question. This had lasted too long already.

"...How long are you going to ignore me?"

Sōma finally asked after they passed another flock of chatting students. The hallways weren't particularly crowded but they certainly were far from being empty. If he wasn't so uncaring about his surroundings, he probably would have noticed that they were all staring at them and whispering - more or less discreetly - while making way for them to pass. But he didn't care enough to actually bother about that and all of his attention was currently focused on the blonde gracefully walking in front of him.

Even if the question was clearly directed to the heiress, she didn't make any movement or sound that could mean that she had even heard - much less acknowledged - it and steadily continued to walk as she occasionally talked with Hisako. Said girl was looking more and more uncomfortable with the situation as seconds went by but didn't dare to go against her mistress. Who knew what could happen if she did? But...maybe she should actually. The two obviously needed to talk it out and since she was always there, they couldn't - which was probably why Erina-sama was staying extra close to her today and doing her best to avoid the lad while trying not to make it too obvious that she was and remarkably failing to do so. Well, her boss wouldn't have it her way anyway. Hisako knew the man enough to know he wouldn't let it go that easily.

The purple-haired girl was brought out of her thoughts by the boy's deep voice and an unexpected movement that she noticed from the corner of her eye.

"Oi. I'm talking to you, Nakiri." Sōma stated, his voice gaining a not so subtle hint of annoyance as he reached out to the blonde and reached for her arm, effectively preventing her from taking another step away from him.

They all stopped walking in the middle of the way and curious students watched the scene with interest without actually daring to get closer.

Even then, the blonde refused to turn around to face her 'boyfriend' properly and his penetrating gaze bore itself in the back of her head as Sōma firmly held onto her arm, not too forcefully but firmly enough for her to be unable to break free from it without his consent. Feeling that, she didn't even try to and settled for staying silent, not bothering to ask him to release her. She knew he wouldn't do it until he had the answer he sought so it would have been a waste of saliva anyway.

Hisako looked nervously between the two of them as she silently prayed for it not to end in a bloodbath. Moreover, if they came to forget their surroundings and let out too much information in the heat of the moment, all of their efforts would have been for nothing and she would have to deal with a pretty irritated Erina-sama afterwards. ...Dear God, please, do let them talk it out calmly.

Sōma was steadily growing annoyed by her silence and refusal to acknowledge him. So she didn't even want to look at him? Fine! He'd make her.

In a moment of impulsivity, he yanked at her arm. The blonde who hadn't expected such a thing to happen instantly lost her balance and stumbled into Sōma's firm chest. Well, she didn't stay that way long because he immediately turned her around so that she was facing him and grabbed her shoulders to keep her there.

A second later, surprised purple eyes found themselves directly staring into irked golden ones.

Erina took a second to come back to her senses and turned her head away to avoid his fiery gaze. But Yukihira wouldn't let her and grabbed her chin with his left hand to put her face back to its original position so that she found herself staring into his eyes once again.

The princess was growing annoyed as her attempts to avoid his gaze failed one after the other and resigned herself to only look away.

"Look at me." Sōma ordered in a heated voice as his irritation escalated to a new level.

A vein pulsed against Erina's temple at being ordered around by him and she stubbornly stared out the window which was now in her sight. It was soon replaced by golden eyes once again as the lad leaned in to place himself in her line of sight once again.

They obstinately stared at each other in silence for a long time before the blonde closed her eyes and sighed imperceptibly, surrendering to her fate.

When she opened her eyes once again, she looked in front of her and unsurprisingly straight into Yukihira's golden gaze. He'd probably felt her change of disposition since he let go of her chin and shoulder - though he let his right hand slide alongside her arm until he was holding her forearm.

They held each other's gaze in silence for some more time - as if measuring each other's determination - before Erina's purple eyes gained a resigned glint. Her whole expression changed and seemed to say 'Speak, I'm listening.' to the other chef.

"How long are you planning to ignore me?" the redhead asked once again in a clipped tone, straight to the point as usual.

The blonde stared at him as if totally unfazed by his inquiry. She almost felt like denying it and playing innocent but it would have been useless and bothersome since he seemed so determined to get an answer so she only stared at him some more before opening her mouth to speak.

"Why do you care?" she asked in response and was met with an unfazed gaze.

The lad hadn't really expected her to answer from the start so her reacting this way wasn't really that surprising.

He didn't even think twice before answering with "I'm supposed to be your boyfriend." in the same clipped tone he had used before.

The heiress' eyes widened slightly at his statement. He hadn't said much - to others it'd only look like your usual lovers' quarrel - but his eyes had conveyed what he hadn't put into words 'I already agreed to be your pretend boyfriend but if you're going to be like that, we might as well call it off. I'm not the one who has something to lose here since I don't really care about the rumors in the first place.'

Purple eyes fully expressed her shock at his unspoken words before conveying back 'You wouldn't...!' to which golden eyes retorted with a steeled 'Try me.', daring her to say anything back.

The 'couple' stared at each other for a long while, silently assessing the other's will.

The onlookers were growing anxious in anticipation as they looked back and forth between the two, wondering about the outcome of this. Would they break up? Was the building up tension a good or a bad sign? Should they leave and let them finish their discussion privately in fear of being taken by the storm? Those were the questions currently circling in every mind as they looked at the arguing lovers and slightly inched away from them.

Hisako wasn't an exception as she silently wished for them not to kill each other. Her mistress's mood hadn't been good at all today and she didn't know how Erina-sama would react to this.

All of their trains of thought were interrupted by the princess's cold voice.

"So now you care about your role as my boyfriend?" she asked in a sarcastic tone, "Because it sure didn't seem that way this morning." she snapped accusingly.

Golden eyes widened slightly in honest surprise at her insinuation before they grew defensive.

"I called you to let you know I'd be taking her today." Sōma didn't say her name but he didn't need to, they both knew he was talking about Tadokoro. "She had to quickly get there for a meeting and I was the only one who was ready to go so I proposed to take her. Are you telling me I shouldn't have helped her when she was in need?" he asked in indignation.

Purple eyes almost gained a guilty glint before she recalled exactly what had been the content of their call. She frowned in obvious displeasure at the remembrance and the boy's eyes gained a defiant glint at that sight, misunderstanding the reason behind her discontentment.

"I wasn't aware that dating you meant cutting ties with my friends." Sōma said in a piqued voice.

Erina's eyes widened in indignation before she coldly replied "I never said that." in a 'Just who do you take me for?' tone.

The redhead gave her a cynical look before opening his mouth to answer "You might as well have since the way you're acting basically says that anyway."

The blonde's expression became affronted, as she asked in a low tone, "And just what is that supposed to mean?" as her eyes gained a dangerous glint.

"Exactly what I said." Sōma responded heatedly. Not backing off, he crossed his arms, finally releasing her from his hold.

Her arms shook by her side as her temper rapidly rose. Just how dare he insinuate such a thing?! Soon, her whole face was red with anger as her entire body shook with restrained fury.

The lad steadily looked at her, unfazed by her reaction. If she had something to say, then he was more than ready to hear her out.

Another moment of tense silence passed between the two as the blonde tentatively tried to calm down enough to be able to speak without exploding.

Soon enough, her infuriated voice could be heard. "I don't care what you do with your friends..."

Sōma raised a skeptical brow "Oh really now? Certainly didn't look that way. Remind me, just who was the one ignoring me until now?"

Erina sent a heated glare his way. "That's not why I was ignoring you." she stated in a clipped tone.

Sōma leveled her with a flat look. "Enlighten me."

The blonde sent him a burning glare, as her whole body expressed her reluctance to explain. The redhead didn't flinch away from it as he impassively stared at her, waiting for her explanation.

She opened her mouth but no sound exited it so she closed it. She parted her lips to try again but sounds failed to leave it. She was doing a really good imitation of a gold fish right now...

During the whole process, Sōma looked at her straight-faced, patiently waiting for her to speak up.

After a minute of silence, Erina managed to find her words once again.

"That's...you..." she trailed off, struggling to find words.

Well, at least, now words actually seemed to be able to make it past her lips. It was progress. After taking a deep inhalation, Erina tried again. With explosive results.

"You didn't even care about what I would think about it!" the blonde cried out, "You acted as if it had absolutely nothing to do with me!"

Sōma's eyes widened, his lips parted and his arms slowly fell by his side in complete surprise. He hadn't expected that and was completely at a loss.

Erina took the time to catch her breath while Sōma stared at her with eyes fully expressing the shock he presently felt. He hadn't realized she had perceived it that way at all.

Before he could even begin to think about what to say - his brain had decided to take a break the moment she had finished talking - Erina spoke again.

"You are supposed to be my boyfriend." her voice was softer this time as she leveled him with an accusing and betrayed look which conveyed what she had left unsaid 'And you were supposed to take me to school. You could have at least asked if I was okay with that before deciding on your own.'

Sōma's eyes widened even more, if that was possible, as guilt started to swell in his stomach. The fact that she threw his own words right back at him wasn't helping at all.

He was still trying to find his words - a concept he was just now getting acquainted with, he rarely was at a loss for words, not to mention it was really hard to do so when your brain decides to take a break - when Erina's sigh caught his attention.

"Forget it." the blonde said tiredly as she closed her eyes. Opening her eyes, she threw him a last weary look before turning on her heels and making her way to the exit.

The spell was instantly broken and the world around them seemed to come alive once again as the ones who had been looking from afar started to move once more.

Hisako hurried to her mistress's side after regaining her senses and soon the corridors emptied themselves until the only person left was Sōma standing there as if oblivious to the rest of the world.

The sound of fingers drumming on the desk filled the room Yami was currently occupying. She didn't get it. Why wasn't Nakiri Erina there already? She was so sure she'd come to her today! But the day was already over and there was no sign of the heiress. What could have happened to prevent her from coming to exact her revenge? She just knew that Arato Hisako had already found information about her. She knew that the girl was highly capable and there was no way they hadn't taken action after the spreading of those pictures.

Yami bit her thumbnail as she silently wondered what to do. Maybe she could go and see for herself where Nakiri Erina was? She had wanted the princess to be the one to approach her but well...if she stayed hidden, it wouldn't be a problem right? She wouldn't see her and she could come to her whenever she wished to - preferably soon.

Nodding in contentment over her decision, Yami stood up and finally exited the room she had been waiting in - it was near her classroom so she had thought it'd be a good meeting spot since it wasn't that hard to find.

As soon as she stepped outside, she heard quiet muttering and got closer to hear what it was all about. She had a feeling it concerned the blonde heiress and the reason behind her not showing up. She had been so absorbed in her plan that she hadn't really paid attention to the rest of the world today. Yes, it was definitely unusual.

Anyway, once she was close enough to the talking people, she soon learned what had happened that day. Apparently, Yukihira Sōma had showed up with another girl that morning - that Tadokoro Megumi who had passed the preliminaries of the Autumn election - while Nakiri Erina had arrived by car with her secretary. ...okay, maybe it wasn't particularly unusual but it has seemed that they had decided to go to school together when they had started to date - fairly recently at that - as they could remark last Friday. So it had been kind of weird...especially since the heiress had been in a foul mood the whole day and hadn't really talked to her boyfriend. It had smelled like trouble in their couple. They had been right since they had the chance to bear witness to an important argument between the two concerning that. In the end, the heiress had left without her boyfriend once again - who seemed to be shell shocked at the moment.

Looking in the direction they were pointing at, she saw said redhead still standing there, staring at the exit that headed towards the parking lot - which she supposed was the direction the girl had disappeared into - with empty eyes. He really had been shocked, it seemed.

After giving him one last look, Yami turned around and started making her way out of the building. She had no more business to attend to in there and it didn't look like the blonde would come back today so she'd better get moving too.

Maybe the princess would come tomorrow, when things had calmed down with her boyfriend. And when the moment would come, she'd be more than ready to receive her.

Polar Star dorm

The sound of tires screeching over the ground disturbed the tranquility of the air of the forest surrounding the Polar Star dorm on this sleepy afternoon. It was soon followed by the sound of the engine coming to a stop.

The teen put his foot on the ground before releasing his red hair from the helmet previously trapping it. He shook his head once or twice to let the air pass through it before putting the headpiece away for future use. He then proceeded to dismount his moped and absentmindedly took the way leading to the back door of the dorm.

Before he knew it, he had already reached his room and was lying on his bed, listlessly staring at the ceiling. If you had asked him if someone else was in, he wouldn't be able to answer for the very good reason that he hadn't really been paying attention to his surroundings - except while riding because it would have been dangerous - ever since he kind of came back to himself alone in the hallway.

He had been way too preoccupied by what the blonde had said to actually do that. He had been completely taken aback and shocked hence the long time he had needed to come back to his senses afterwards.

He really hadn't realized it at the time, but indeed, he hadn't really bothered about her opinion on that matter - no, he actually had since he had called to tell her about it but then again he had to call or she would have waited for him forever and probably would have been late since he wasn't confident about having the time to drop Tadokoro at school, come back for her and actually be on time for class, which was why he had called her.

But that didn't mean that he didn't care about what she thought. He had waited for an answer after all...maybe he should have phrased it differently. Though it was true that he had already decided on what to do before calling her. But if he hadn't and called her to discuss about it, would that have changed anything? He probably wouldn't have taken no for an answer anyway and an argument would have probably followed...but those were all hypotheses. He would never know if it would have actually turned out like that and so pondering over it was useless.

A sigh escaped Sōma's lips as he closed his eyes and welcomed the darkness that greeted him in response.

He didn't know what would have happened if things had taken another direction but what he knew was that he had somehow failed in his role. He hadn't acted like he should have as her boyfriend. But then again, last Thursday night, when they were discussing the details, he had told her that he had never been in a relationship before so it was normal for him to not know how to act perfectly. He always took his decisions by himself and changing that might be quite the challenge. Ever since...since his mother...

Sōma could feel tears forming under his eyelids at the direction his thoughts were taking and he took a deep breath to calm himself, stopping thinking altogether to calm himself. When he was calm enough, he opened his eyes once again and resumed his thinking.

Since that time, Jōichirō just hadn't been the same - or maybe he was but for Sōma, things had changed greatly. That event had left an open hole in his life and nothing had ever managed to fill it.

At that thought, Sōma grabbed the cloth he was wearing around his wrist. He had gotten it from her just before...suffice to say, it had a great sentimental value to him.

After that, he had grown more and more independent even though he still maintained a good relationship with his father. Though they didn't talk much unless it concerned cooking - his father rarely talked about himself so he wasn't sure he could say he knew the man named Saiba Jōichirō. He hadn't even known his original last name before coming to Tōtsuki! In a few days, he had learned more about his father than he had in 15 years. The main reason would be that they got used to speaking through their dishes, through their cooking - even if they still talked from time to time.

Maybe that was why he hadn't really felt the need to discuss his plans with Erina before coming to a decision. He never really did that with anyone before so it was kind of new for him. He never even thought that not doing that would affect her that much. It's not like he didn't care what she thought, it was just that he hadn't considered the fact that - okay, he was in the wrong and everything that he might say at this point would sound like an excuse.

But, in his defense, he had never been in a relationship before, like he had told the Nakiris that on Thursday night when they had been discussing their plans for this fake relationship, so he didn't really know what the other party expected from him. He had just acted as he usually did.

Sōma closed his eyes as a sigh escaped his lips.

He'd have to apologize.

Standing up, he traded his uniform for sports ones, a sweatshirt with a hood and sweatpants. After all that thinking, he needed some fresh air.

Okay, so maybe she had overreacted.

Erina was currently taking a walk in the gardens as she went over the day's events.

When the blonde had crossed the threshold of the front door, her white-haired cousin had been standing there, with a deep frown on her features and her arms crossed under her chest. As soon as Hisako had closed the door behind them, Alice had started with her scolding. Apparently, ignoring her 'boyfriend' wasn't good and the redhead following them in silence had been a pitiful sight. Erina had retorted with the fact that it had been his fault to begin with and explained her standpoint but then Alice had reminded her that the redhead had never been in a relationship before and therefore had probably not meant it that way.

That got the blonde thinking but she was still stubbornly refusing to admit that reacting like that had been over the top. At that Alice's red eyes had widened as if realizing something and then she had given her a 'I know something you don't' kind of smile before saying that Erina should go and make up with Yukihira-kun as she walked away, leaving a conflicted Erina in her wake.

That was when the princess had decided to go and take a walk a few minutes later. Which had led to now, Erina aimlessly walking through the gardens.

The noise of a branch snapping caught her attention and Erina stopped in her tracks to look around and try to identify the reason behind it. She was about to do just that when she noticed that she was currently surrounded by high and numerous trees.

I'm in the forest already? Looks like I wandered a bit too far.

Erina was about to turn around to go back to the manor when the sound of another branch snapping came to her ears.

Twisting towards the origin of the noise, she squinted her eyes at a dark form coming into her direction. As it grew bigger, she recognized the figure of a man - not any man, this red hair could only belong to one person.

As he came to a stop a few meters away from her, only one word left her lips, managing fully express the surprise she was feeling.

"Yukihira-kun?"

Golden eyes widened in surprise as the redhead acknowledged her presence.

"Nakiri?"

And cut! *runs and hides behind a wall* Don't kill me! XD Hope you enjoyed :D

Guest reviews' answer:

Sorina: Why, you're gonna make me blush XD Happy you liked it ^^ I guess XD Sometimes it feels like it and then I'm like, 'Wow, I've already written that much…' Lol XD …though I guess I could do longer lol. …sorry? Soon. Hopefully. Hope you liked this chapter too ^^ Thanks for reviewing :D

Irza: You're welcome ^^ Here it is XD Hope you enjoyed :) Thanks for the review :D

Anonymous: Thank you :D Happy to know you're enjoying it ^^ Well, it could turn into a pyramid if you add Ikumi in the mix XD ;) Thanks for reviewing :)

Insane: Glad to know you like it :D Sorry for the wait… Hope you liked it :) Thanks for the review :D

Thanks to the registered reviewers :D PantherSeraphin, Kishoto, raydark182, TheBaka14, Jonny Walker, Imax, xMIgBlaze, evolvelove, Seneseless, Eramis8, Ver-Rouge, Justinsj5, Erasels,Tjhunt99612, and SsinofRoses

Well, till next week? ^^'

Ja ne