As promised, here is chapter 5! Enjoy!

Chapter 5:

He messed up.

The previous night was chaotic for Ren, but it wasn't an excuse to forget to set an alarm before falling asleep and, as a consequence, woke up late. School was starting in fifteen minutes and the boy hadn't even left the house yet. In fact, he wasn't out of bed. Rolling out of his futon, Ren scrambled towards his closet to grab his uniform and tossed his pjs to the side. After yanking his slacks on, the boy tried buttoning his jacket while also trying to brush his teeth.

Rushing down the stairs, Ren threw his lunch into his school bag and crammed a piece of extremely burnt toast–made lovingly by Ayame–into his mouth. Date asked his son if he wanted a ride while the boy was slipping on his shoes. With the shake of his head, Ren grabbed his katana and sprinted out the door. The boy was touched that his father wanted to give him a ride, but they would be lucky to arrive by sundown with how slow Date drives–even though they only lived fifteen minutes from the school by car or bike. If Ren was going to walk, it would take a half-hour–a luxury he couldn't afford at the moment. So he was full-on sprinting down the street. It was fortunate Ren's Grandfather trained him for situations like this… as Date was a repeated offender for being late in his teens.

Buildings blurred together as Ren sprinted down the road. Every once in a while, someone would gasp or streak when he passed by them and at one point he nearly tripped over a dog. Barely able to jump over it at the last second. The bridge from yesterday came into view and he ran past it, making a sharp left onto the main road to school.

The gate was already closed, but Ren jumped over it without any problems. However, that it was closed meant that there were only three minutes before the bell should ring. He was panting loudly, but there wasn't time to rest… Before starting at Raimon, Masamune Kiyoko (the sister of Ren's Grandfather) warned the boy that if she ever heard that he was late–even by a second–she would put him through a demon-level obstacle course. Again. It was a course randomly full of booby-traps, projectiles coming out of the trees randomly, pits full of snakes and being chased by the family's fluffle of rabbits (truly vicious creatures) or the herd of goats…

He still doesn't know why they own so many animals, but they have proven to be effective guard animals. Especially the rabbits.

The demon-level course didn't scare him particularly. He's gone through it at least several times in the last two years and last time Ren went through it was when he accidentally broke his grandmother's favorite vase by rough-housing with Ayaki and Kazue a couple of months ago… Of course, Ren was the only one who was made to go through the course… Kiyoko, for reasons unknown to Ren, hated the boy and actively tried to make his life miserable. A mutual feeling.

She went as far as threatening to transfer Ren to a school of her choice if she heard "anything bad" about him. He doubted his Grandfather or Grandmother would let her do such a thing, but at the same time… the woman could be very manipulative.

As his left foot touched the cool tile in the locker area, Ren kicked his sneakers off and into the air. Without breaking stride, he grabbed them mid-air, opened his locker and traded shoes. All the while heading towards the stairwell. Sprinting up the stairs–while trying to pull his indoor shoes on–he cursed quietly to himself and wished the second-year classrooms were on the first floor instead. With a few precious seconds left, Ren dashed to 2-A's slider door, pulling it open so quickly that the door ricocheted a little towards him and… tripped into the room as the bell rang.

"Ehh?" He gasped, surprised he made such a blunder. Instinctively, Ren extended his arms in front of him and tucked his head in. Upon contacting the ground, he was able to roll onto his back. However, unbeknownst to him, the student who mopped the floor the previous day used the wrong cleaning agent and made the floor slippery. Instead of stopping or rolling back onto his feet, Ren ended up sliding across the floor and his slippers Smacked the wall beside his desk with a loud bang. Groaning from the pain, Ren continued to lay on the ground and allowed himself to breath.

"Masamune-kun!" Someone shouted, "Are you okay?" With another groan, the boy opened his eyes, squinting from the bright fluorescent lights glaring from above. Three blobs hovered over him, blocking the stupidly bright lights. Blinking to clear the black-spots from his vision, Ren was able to make out Suzuki-sensei, Kazemaru, Endou and Gouenji standing over him. Each with a wrinkle in their brow and the corners of their lips pulled down.

"Did I.. *pant*… make it in time?" Ren croaked out, ignoring the other question. His body tensed, worried that he didn't and would get detention or something.

"W-what?" Suzuki-sensei stuttered, looking at the boy dumbfounded. She didn't see him hit his head earlier, but now the teacher wasn't so sure. The other students were glancing at each other in confusion as well. Ren repeated his question and Suzuki-sensei checked his head before answering. "Yes, you got here before the bell. Why?"

The tension leaving his body, Ren pushed himself into a sitting position and turned to his teacher. "Then I'm okay." He reassured her, "No need to worry." Suzuki-sensei, though confused, decided to head back to the front while Kazemaru helped the boy up. Once situated in his seat, Ren rested his head against the desk and turned towards Kazemaru.

"Are you okay?" Kazemaru asked quietly as the teacher gave the morning announcements. "You didn't hit your head, did you?" The boy scooted closer to Ren and gently brushed the raven-black strands out of the way to check for any injuries. Ren flinched from the initial touch, but forced his body to still and allowed Kazemaru to do what he wanted. Only putting up a small fuss when the blue-haired boy fried to move the bang covering the left side of his face.

Once satisfied, Kazemaru backed off a little and muttered "It looks like you're fine, but you should go to the infirmary just in case." Chuckling quietly, Ren assured the other he was fine and Kazemaru–thankfully–didn't push the issue. The blue-haired boy returned to his own desk and Ren felt the tension (that he didn't know he had) fade away from his shoulders.

Lunch Time, Third floor hallway:

At a strange turn of events, Ren was making his way to the roof by his lonesome. At the end of their last class, Endou, Gouenji and Kazemaru were called to the staff room by a teacher who Ren didn't recognize. He offered to wait, but they ushered him ahead, promising to be quick. Surprisingly, the hallway was devoid of anyone. The third-years were still in class and most of the other second-years were at the school store, fighting for a limited special food item Ren wasn't interested in… nor willing to get in the middle of.

After slowly making his way up the stairwell, Ren finally made it to the landing and casually walked to the metal roof door. His hand barely touched the knob when he heard muffled voices from the other side. It should have been unsurprising, considering the roof-top seemed to be a popular place to eat lunch, but Ren saw most of the second-years who ate lunch on the roof head down to the store. Curiosity getting the better of him, the boy slowly opened the door and peeked through.

It took him a moment to actually look around as the sun decided it wanted to blind him, but Ren was able to make two blobs. Squinting his eyes, the boy was able to make out Max and Handa, the kids he met yesterday and members of the soccer team. Looking closer, Ren noticed Max's face was flushed bright red while Handa looked worriedly at his friend.

"Masamune-kun, what are you… mmn?" Without looking, Ren grabbed the person who spoke, fumbled for the back of their head and pushed their face into the crook of his neck. He glanced out the door to watch Max and Handa for a second. Satisfied they didn't hear a thing, Ren wrapped his arm around the person's waist and pulled them flushed against his chest to help hide them from view, his focus never leaving the door.

Once he was positive the two didn't hear anything, Ren turned his attention to the person he grabbed. Although their face was obscured, the long aquamarine hair was a dead-giveaway and Ren's brain decided it was a good time to short-circuit.

What was Kazemaru doing here already? Where were Endou and Gouenji? Why is he still holding Kazemaru like this!? He should let him go… NOW! Huh… Kazemaru smells nice. Wait, stop being a creep! Oh.. his hair is pretty soft. AHHHHHHHHH!

His brain snapped back to reality when the voices on the other side of the door get louder. Ren forced his mind to focus on the other two, rather than the cute boy in his arms and turned his head to look through the crack once more. The cat-hat boy looked more nervous than before, now rubbing his hands together and looking everywhere but at Handa. "H-handa… I have something to tell you." the usually confident Max stuttered, his face flushing to an impossible shade of red. Ren idly wondered if the boy was going to pass out before he could say anything.

Handa gently encouraged Max to continue. "Handa, I… um… I like you." The cat-hat boy confessed quietly, "I've liked you since middle school."

Handa, struck silent at the confession, just stood there and did nothing. Something Ren was grateful for. If the brunet had run away after that, he could have run into Ren and Kazemaru, forcing the raven-haired boy to confess to eavesdropping. But worst of all, Ren wouldn't know how to comfort Max… who would most likely have his heartbroken.

"I…" Handa stumbled, finally finding his voice. "I like you too." Robotically, the brunet reached for Max's hand, grabbing it and slowly brought it close to his chest. Ren, who's own face was burning from second-hand embarrassment and guilt, quickly closed the door. He was berating himself for eavesdropping on an intimate moment when something frantically smacked his arm.

Ren had forgotten that he still had Kazemaru in his arms, as the other boy was quiet and hadn't put up too much of a fuss. He let his arms fall to his sides, all the while whispering apologies to his friend, who whipped his head up. Kazemaru, stumbling, bracketed his arms on either side of Ren's head to steady himself, taking a couple of deep breaths.

"What was that for!? I couldn't breath!" Kazemaru whispered furiously after a moment, his face flushed red. Ren apologized again, mentioning that he was distracted. "Distracted with what!?"

"I… um… saw Max and Handa," Ren said, omitting some details. "I thought something interesting would happen, but it was nothing." He felt more guilty lying to Kazemaru, but knew it wasn't his place to say anything. After all, Ren was still the outsider to this group of friends and even though they were super friendly to him, they've only known him for a day.

Kazemaru looked dumbfounded for a second before resting his forehead against the other boy's, arms still in the same spot. "Kazemaru-kun!?" Ren squeaked, realizing how close he was and was painfully aware how this would look to an onlooker. The blue-haired boy gauffed, asking Ren to give him a minute since he felt a little dizzy. On the other hand, the raven-haired boy's head was spinning from the proximity and he squeezed his eyes shut,

"What are you two doing?"