Women were weird. Ryuuji had spent his life in with Yasuko, who...actually, he'd rather not say anything unkind about his mother, but anybody who knew her could probably guess the odd things Ryuuji could point out. Over the course of his life, further contact with the female gender had given him some insight into the fairer sex (now who came up with that term?), and made him conclude that perhaps women weren't all that odd.

He was having one very interesting year. He looked to Taiga, who across the room was doing something pretty weird. He sighed. Ryuuji's life could be so must simpler if he preferred men, but alas his genetics had not been programmed that way, so he was stuck with..."Kitamura...mmm."

Stuck with the very odd things women did. He sighed again. "You gonna do that all night?"

Taiga opened her eyes, sitting up and staring down Ryuuji. "Shut up, mutt." In her hands she held a white shirt, the kind all the boys at school were required to wear...in gym class. "That magazine said an important part of a good relationship is your partner's smell. If you don't like it then the relationship will fail." She raised the shirt to near her nose, inhaling deeply with a smile. "Kitamura smells good." She gave Ryuuji an annoyed look. "I bet you'd sniff all over Minorin if you could, dirty mutt."

Ryuuji shook his head. "Hypocrite."

Taiga wasn't paying attention any longer. He turned his thoughts back to the article, which Taiga had literally shoved in his face when she announced her plan to steal the shirt she was holding. Ryuuji was pretty sure the subject of smell was about pheromones, which meant Taiga was likely getting turned-he shook his head. He was not thinking about that! He forced that particular line of thought out of his head.

She might have had a point though, now he forced himself to think on it. The few times he'd been close enough to catch Kusheida's scent were far from unpleasant. Maybe the magazine had been right, but stealing shirts? That seemed a bit much. He shrugged. "To each their own I guess."

He wished she'd indulge herself in her own apartment though.

Inko-chan looked closely at Taiga, who was muttering many things, all of which involved Kitamura. He blinked. "Kitamura. Danger. Kitamura. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger!"

"Shut up! You damn ugly bird! Kitamura wouldn't hurt a fly, he's the greatest guy ever! No one else even begins to compare to him!"

Ryuuji's eyebrow twitched. "And yet I'M the one who feeds you!" He blinked, confused. "Where did that come from?"

"In danger. Kitamura in danger! Kitamura in danger!"

"Shut the hell up!"

Inko-chan squawked, and quickly took the order. He turned around. Taiga turned to her prize, caring nothing for the world once more.

Ryuuji shook his head. He was going to have to wash that shirt tonight. He'd return it to his friend in the morning. Ryuuji just hoped Yuusaku would believe that he'd simply put his shirt in the wrong bag. Ryuuji stood up, speaking of shirts...

He made his way to his room, recalling today's session had been particularly strenuous. Their muscle-bound monster (as he today had proved himself) of a Gym Teacher had come up with a new training routine, and insisted on testing it on the male students. Ryuuji's body was still aching, though thankfully the monster had decided his students were not yet "manly" enough to handle it, so he wouldn't be putting them through it again anytime soon.

Though he'd decided he was going to make them ready for it, starting next week. Between Gym class and Taiga, Ryuuji's body was either going to break down or become completely immune to pain. Ryuuji quickly found his bag, determined to remove his gym clothes. He didn't want his bodily fluids stinking up his school supplies. He unzipped the bag. "Hm?"

There were his shorts, but where was his shirt? He rummaged through his bag, quickly determining his shirt was gone. He sighed. Now where the hell had that gotten too? He definitely put it back in here. Had somebody stolen it? He sighed, so much for his scary face. Somebody actually dared to take something of his. Looked like there were two thieves around now. Maybe Taiga saw the other one when she was stealing Kitamura's shirt. Good thing she didn't mix up the bags this-

He froze, in body, in blood, in his very soul. He froze in fear. "She-she couldn't have! Not again! Not even her!"

Slowly, his neck almost creaking, he turned towards Taiga. Who at this point was...he gulped. She was wearing the thing, giggling to herself happily. He slowly stood up. "Please no, please no, please no!" His mind ran though the million ways this could go very, very badly for him, with one slight glimmer of hope among the ocean of darkness. He could not tell her. Just let her believe it really was Kitamura's shirt for now. What was the worst that could happen?

He shuddered. His mind giving him a gruesome, and very believable vision of "worst". That would be in his nightmares for quite a while. He slowly advanced on Taiga. Taiga was oblivious, smiling to herself as her eyes were on the TV. He looked at the back of "her" shirt, fortunately, he marked the tags of every piece of clothing he (and Yasuko) owned. Please, oh please, just let someone else have stolen his shirt. He reached down, his hands passing through Taiga's locks, and her attention was suddenly on him. "What the hell are you doing?"

He tugged on the tag, looking for the-"Crap!"

Too late he realized he'd said that out loud. "What?"

He pulled back, his hands in front of him. "N-nothing, it's nothing! I er, errr, it's n-nothing at all!"

She rose to her feet, staring down Ryuuji with that glare that promised pain. "Tell me." Ryuuji took a step back, Taiga took a step forward, her eyes flaring. "Tell me, now!" Ryuuji gulped, saying nothing. Taiga's knuckles cracked, her claws raising up to tear out his-

Ryuuji covered his eyes. "That's not Kitamura's shirt!"

She froze, her eyes showing she was briefly stunned. The air around grew colder, and colder. Ryuuji took one step back, and so did Inko-chan. "Danger! Danger! Danger! Run!" Ryuuji hesitantly lowered his guard, finding a shaking Taiga.

Taiga growled. "W-whoooose?"

Ryuuji's mouth opened before he could stop it. "Mine." All Ryuuji saw was a flash of wild hair, heard the sound of a primal scream, and felt the intent of a thousand murders.

Ryuuji would only realize much later that he lost conciousness.