A/N: Almost didn't upload this today, but I accidentally convinced Zain I would, so... hey, why not? :)

I'm still a mess (why is my gastro appointment three weeks awaaaaaaay) (I want a neurologist too ffs but no one IRL will listen to me). But this chapter is completed and I actually really like parts of it, and I'm happy to be seeing my counselor soon, so here ya go!

This is going up at noon because the more TPS clues of Yuri's secret before HC Chapter 29, the better.

Enjoy!

[Chapter 21]: Romantic Repercussions

There was much to be said for Yuri Nakamura's evil schemes, because it did not take long for school to become Ayato's safe haven again.

No longer did he have a "please kill me now" eye-roll reserved especially for Yuri before going their separate ways for first period. Sometime during the weekend, Ami must've found out she'd lost her two cogs in the matchmaking system, because for three days starting Monday she moped and threw him miffed looks. Betrayed, even insulted.

He simply smirked back at her, took great pleasure in discovering she was the silent treatment type, and sat down for class.

It was glorious.

Not to say he'd eliminated all his troubles in paradise. Kimito was waking him up five minutes earlier than last term, likely a side effect of his summer spoiling. Yes, he'd noticed. It often interrupted his most interesting dreams, scrambling them like static and images on a crappy antenna-powered television.

Pro: it cut off his dream right before he got stabbed in the chest by a red-eyed version of the student body president. Con: he almost had a panic attack from Kimito jabbing him awake.

Aside from that, nothing had changed at home. Grouchy father, meek mother, nothing he wasn't used to.

But at school, he relished in the peace. It would be awful if he'd traded in his old problems for a set of new ones and had to hear lovey-dovey bullshit behind his back, but they'd been relatively quiet in that regard. The only thing he'd been subjected to was the shared looks he sometimes walked in on, Kurimu often leaning on the back of her chair and chatting merrily before class while Hejjiguchi rested his chin in his hand.

Once more classmates or the teacher entered the room, it was over. Quiet studiousness kicked into gear, and most notes passed behind his back were between Kurimu and Ami (who in good time was back to her bubbly self with her friends – she'd just graciously grown tired of him).

And that was how the next week and a half went. Undisrupted class time, lunch with Yuri, no imbeciles trying to wheedle their way into their routine.

It was… nice.

He savored the last half of September. Some days it would be warm and sunny enough for an outside lunch under their trees. Other days the sky would get almost as dark as his school uniform, and they'd retreat to the club room – but he'd keep the window open, because the humidity in the air smelled so damn good.

One Wednesday, he didn't know what to make of the weather. It had been sprinkling off and on, so he and Yuri had agreed to meet halfway between their classrooms – at a window by a staircase that led almost directly to one of the exits – and try to decide if the bench was worth it. But Yuri was a fast walker, and trotted up to him once he rounded the corner with his lunch. Once he spotted the vending machine at the other end, he understood why.

"Hey," Yuri said, popping the can's lid with a pleasant sizzle. "Hear that?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What, your drink?"

"No, the roof," she said impatiently, pointing upwards.

Apparently she had a good ear on her. He followed her finger and, upon closing off most other senses, could detect a faint but steady pelting of rain against roof. Good observing weather, not something he'd want to be caught in with the rest of the school day ahead of him.

"Club room it is." He gestured over his shoulder. "Other way, then."

Yuri took ahold of his wrist. "Nah, shortcut," she said, and led him down a different hallway.

She let go after five seconds, once he'd fallen into step beside her, and marched comfortably past classrooms and speckled windows. Ayato occasionally watched the raindrops race, but there was something he hadn't let go of from summer. Something he'd picked up on, a paranoia that apparently followed him back to the school hallways.

Chatting students obstructed his rainy day habit as they passed in front of the windows on his left. He used to look right through them in the past. Or, more recently, make accidental eye contact. To which he'd delve into his Naoi persona and silently dominate them until they averted their gaze.

But now he was seeing some… resemblance… in regards to the issue at the pool.

Guys stared at Yuri. As irritating as it was to admit it, this was inevitable. It wasn't just the swimsuit, it was probably the slender build and the long legs and the striking green eyes. Well – that wasn't the point. This wasn't about guys finding her attractive. Girls were looking too. And – okay, he wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility that she had female admirers, but the looks weren't like that.

They were passing glances. The same curious recognition he'd seen during the summer. Then reluctant distance, like they didn't want to bother her. Or them.

It always had to be something, didn't it? He could have gone through the rest of high school just fine without this underlying conspiracy theory that kept gnawing at his brain. She'd told him not to worry about hogging her, but still.

Some things are hard to ignore when the metaphorical glass shatters—

"How many hours of sleep are you on?"

"Hmm?" They'd stopped at the corner of a hallway and he hadn't realized it, but Yuri was staring at him expectantly. He shook his head. "It's not that. I just…"

Yuri snorted. "The lovely couple being too lovely?" she asked, before taking a drink.

"They've been merciful," he corrected with a grin. Truth be told, he'd rather talk about this than dwell on insecurities. "I sit right in front of them and I haven't once wanted to scalp myself."

"Oh, what a feat," Yuri said lightly, smiling back. Her smile faded a little bit when she shook her coffee can. "Eh… We may have to go back to a vending machine."

A light scoff from Ayato. "I keep telling you to wait until you start your lunch."

"Some people don't have that kind of willpower!" She jostled her drink some more, then impatiently took his sleeve. "Come on. That's like waiting until the movie starts to get into your popcorn. It simply can't be done."

He took her word for it, and followed her down another short hallway. Luckily there were less people to weed through this time around, most students having gone to the cafeteria or back to their classrooms with their lunches. While Yuri got her precious coffee, he filled her in on "the lovely couple." She took great pride in being reminded of her successful endeavor.

"I'll admit, they've still been fairly considerate," he allowed, propping himself against the wall next to the machine. "They stop making googly eyes at each other when I come in. Today, when Ami said she didn't know when she'd join them for lunch since she had to talk to a theater friend? Not one of them tried to ask me to take her place."

"Oh no," Yuri cooed as she fished a can from the dispenser. "You almost sound left out."

"I think not," said Ayato indignantly. "A front row seat to Kurimu and Hejjiguchi's romantic lunch date? That's too disgusting to think about."

"God, I can see it now." Yuri sat her drink by her feet, then turned to him with comically wide eyes and clasped hands. "Open up, Hejjiguchi-kun! I made this especially for you!"

Her sugary sweet, high-pitched imitation was so horrifically accurate he had a hard time not dying on the spot. And he wasn't sure what compelled him, but he replied in a husky voice, complete with a horrible seductive wink, "Thanks, Kurimu. But where's my dessert?"

"Right here." Yuri blew him a kiss.

That was what broke him. It started out as a snort, perhaps a girlish squeak, and dissolved into ceaseless howls, both of them desperate for breath as they tried to remain upright. He was in tears; she just about knocked over her drink.

"Don't ever—" he gasped, still wheezing, "don't ever do that agai—"

A hand clamped over his mouth as someone grabbed him from behind. Nearby, someone roughly slid a classroom door open and he felt himself being dragged in that same direction. As he wrestled in his attacker's grip, he heard similar muffled protests from Yuri out in the hall ("My coffee!"). He broke free in time to spin around and see Yuri come flying in after him – but the door quickly shut behind her.

And pressed against the wood with her grip on the handle was a very bug-eyed Kurimu Aoki.

Going by the girl's presence, Ayato had a pretty good feeling who had just manhandled him. He turned back around and gave Hejjiguchi a shove. "What the hell?!"

"You know about us?" Kurimu squeaked.

He turned back to her, but Yuri was already on it. "We kind of saw you once," she said with a shrug.

"Well, nobody can know!" Hejjiguchi said, joining Kurimu at the door. "If anybody finds out, it'll get around to Ami!"

More metaphorical glass shattering. Ayato regarded the pair with narrowed eyes. So that was why they were so well-behaved in class. He should have figured, after what Yuri told him that day about Ami liking Hejjiguchi. Truth was, he'd barely cared enough to remember after an operation well-done.

But for them, forgetting was obviously out of the question.

"Isn't Ami your best friend?" he said, still squinting. "She'll eventually have to know."

Hejjiguchi frowned, genuinely affected.

"I know, but we want to tell her on our own time." He rubbed awkwardly at his neck, which was turning pink. "So can we keep this between the four of us?"

Ayato and Yuri exchanged a look. Hers was knowing, but at the same time her arched brows silently prodded him.

What? He'd already helped the idiot get a girlfriend. Why should he do him any more favors? If he told Ami about their little relationship, the heat would be fully and forever off of him and transferred to Hejjiguchi. Which would be highly entertaining to watch.

And yet… he'd had his fill of classroom drama. Blowing their cover would crank it back up to eleven.

"Alright, fine," he conceded, which earned him two simultaneous sighs of relief. Still, he couldn't let this go without a fun guilt trip. "But Ami's going to get kind of suspicious when two of her best friends keep hanging out without her." He gave them both meaningful looks. "She might even feel left out."

He could've sworn even Kurimu's hair drooped sadly at that. She and Hejjiguchi shared a frown.

"She'll need a distraction."

He looked to Yuri just as quickly as the couple did. Yuri was now sitting on the edge of a desk, actually getting into her lunch. She didn't even bother to look up, somehow sensing their attention as she took a bite of rice.

"Something that'll keep her in a good mood," she continued. "For the time being."

Kurimu made a happy little sound of understanding. "So that she'll be in a good mood when we do tell her about us!" she gasped.

Hejjiguchi stood up straighter, crossing his arms. "What are you thinking, Nakamura?"

What indeed. Ayato looked harder at her, shifting his gaze between Yuri and the dynamic duo. He'd thought they were done meddling in their world after they'd successfully made it so the two would be content to entertain each other.

But it seemed Hejjiguchi could pick up on the same thing he did – Yuri was in operation mode.

"I've got a plan," she said, sure enough, and finally raised a glance to the two. "When do you guys have your alone time? Now? Before school? After school?"

"We still eat lunch with Ami," said Hejjiguchi. "She walks to school with us, but she stays after for drama club."

"Our alone time has always been walking home together," Kurimu added. Giving up her post at the door, she sat down at a desk with her lunch. "But now that we're together, we try to come up with excuses for why we can't hang out in the afternoons when we're really on a date." Kurimu picked sadly at her vegetables. "She's already getting suspicious."

"Alright." Yuri swung her legs in thought. "Ayato and I don't hang out in the afternoons too often because—"

He glared at her and cleared his throat. They didn't need to hear his life story.

She caught his look, but merely blinked and continued. "He has a strict schedule when it comes to pottery. My parents enforce a bit of a curfew when they're around, so I might not always be available… but they're not home very often, are they?"

She gave a decisive nod as if punctuating the thought, then hopped off the desk and grinned at her audience.

"I'm gonna start hanging out with Ami while you two go on your little dates."

Mental tire screech.

Kurimu looked up at Yuri, her chopsticks frozen in midair. "You would really do that?"

Oh, Ayato didn't doubt she would do that. There was a hell of a lot of things that he wouldn't put past her. But beyond that, his real question was why? This had nothing to do with them anymore. To willingly involve herself even further, when there were other options…!

"Hang on," he spoke up, still not liking the look of consideration on Yuri's face. "Isn't Ami really popular?"

Why do these popular girls never hang out with their other friends?!

Hejjiguchi fielded this one for her.

"Sure she is, but best friends come first," he said with a shrug. "Unless she has a brand new friend. She loves new friends like she loves new songs."

Then he turned to Yuri, sizing her up. With a stare uncomfortably similar to the ones in the halls.

"But Yuri, I've asked around, and…" He scratched his head, still looking like there were bona fide brain cells rubbing together in that empty mind of his. "I'm just saying, haven't you distanced yourself from people like her? You sure you're up for this?"

Ayato's eyes narrowed. Asking around…

He loathed the idea that Hejjiguchi might know something about Yuri that he didn't. What did he mean by all that? People like her... Most people with sense would distance themselves from people like Ami. Still, the tone Hejjiguchi used had rubbed him the wrong way.

When he looked to Yuri, she seemed for the most unaffected.

"Yeah," she said, indifferent. "It could be fun."

Fun. Not a drop of hesitation or irony in that response. Befriending Ami as a diversion and hanging out with her could be fun.

Taking her arm, Ayato pulled her farther down the desk aisle for privacy. Then, aside to her, he whispered, "Why do you want to do this?"

"We're the ones who pushed these two together," Yuri whispered back, just as seriously. "What if they weren't ready for this? They shouldn't have to date in secret."

She regarded the couple for a second, then looked back at him with a touch of guilt in her eyes.

"It was my idea to hook them up. I got them into this mess. Thanks to my matchmaking, now they have to worry about upsetting Ami because of me."

Ayato wrinkled his forehead. He didn't like seeing Yuri assign herself any unnecessary guilt. Even something so small could hover over her like a shadowy demon, and she'd just let it. He wasn't sure he wanted to enable this.

"Maybe Ami should just deal with it and learn that some things aren't her business!" he hissed.

"But Kurimu and Hejjiguchi are together because we made them our business!"

"Are we going to be let in on whatever you're whispering about?" asked Hejjiguchi, raising his hand. "I heard our names."

Yuri spun around, while Ayato threw him a brief scowl for being nosy.

"Nope!" she said cheerily, while prodding his arm. "Ayato just wondered if Ami or I should even be meddling in your relationship. But I figure it would be nice to be close friends with another girl."

This brought a smile to Kurimu's face.

"See, that's what I was thinking." She bit her lip, before eyeing the two of them expectantly. "Which was why I was really hoping you and Naoi would go on a double date with us sometime."

Hejjiguchi just about choked on his own tongue. Which would've been infinitely funnier if Ayato weren't on the cusp of reacting that way himself.

Double date! Good God, that meant… oh, of course, they still believed…

That little (no, not so little) white lie Yuri had used to lure Hejjiguchi out there with her. And then, when they both hadn't shown up, they were allegedly off having their own romantic tryst.

Honestly, even if that were true, he'd rather fling himself off the walking bridge than tag along on one of Hejjiguchi's dates.

From the grimace on Hejjiguchi's pale face, he guessed the same was true for him.

"Well I'm afraid that'll be impossible, since I'm unavailable and Yuri will be spending time with Ami," he reminded her, "…and because Yuri and I are not a couple."

"But I'd love to hang out sometime, Kurimu," said Yuri, not unkindly. "Maybe that'll be even more possible when I'm friends with Ami."

The girls shared a smile. Ayato spared Hejjiguchi an awkward glance, but the latter just gave him a knowing kind of grin that made him want to push him into another river.

Once again, he was tangled up in their silly little web.

No, perish the godforsaken thought. He'd leave this operation to Yuri.

After all, it wasn't like a lot was going to change.

"DRAMA CLUB?!"

Once the school day was over, they'd walked out the school gates into tolerable conditions. The rain had gone from cold fizz to a soothing sprinkle, something they could breathe in, and he was looking forward to walking home in it. But a couple of blocks later, Yuri had told him – in an undeservingly nonchalant fashion – why she would be going right back to school afterwards.

"What?" Yuri said innocently. "Don't you think I could pull it off?"

"Don't get me wrong, you could easily play a villain," Ayato told her, to which she made a face and bumped him. "But I feel like we're in dangerous territory here. Crossing universes we're not meant to. Are you sure you want to join drama club?"

"It's the best way to get in Ami's good graces." Yuri was very matter-of-fact about it as she led the way up the crosswalk. Then, with a laugh, "And quite possibly the most fun."

"Famous last words," muttered Ayato, picturing Ami hanging off Yuri's arm and squealing like a tea kettle.

Yuri harrumphed, but adjusted the strap of her bag. "Tell you what. If I'm in a play, you can make fun of me all you want."

He rubbed his chin. "You're bluffing, but I'll consider it."

"Anyway, I might not even have to act." She kicked at a puddle along the sidewalk. "Lights, sound, whatever. I'm pretty tech-savvy, so they could find a way to use me."

He hesitated for a second, wondering if this didn't sound a little like a pep-talk for herself. A thought from earlier in the day crept into his mind, a possible reason behind her behavior, and followed him for three minutes.

"Yuri," he said carefully, as they were approaching the fork in the road by the forest. "What did he mean when he said you've been distancing yourself from people like Ami?"

It would take someone with eyes as keen as his, but he saw a jolt in her step. A flicker of something. He could only compare to… inwardly getting hit by a ruler.

And then she said it.

"That's…" she swallowed, side-eyeing him, "part of our 'no questions asked' deal."

He closed his eyes, breathing in sharply through his nose. He'd expected her to say that, and somehow believed he could will her not to. And then she did. And somehow, pumping himself up like that, made the impact feel like a wasp sting to the brain.

She was allowed to keep things to herself. He'd give her that. But the goddamn wench had told him a lot of things on the first and second days they got to know each other. Hi, here's what my parents do. Here's how my little siblings died. My mom and dad neglect me. Let's be friends! Five months later and, what, she trusted him less with her secrets?

"Fine," he said, thinking of his mundane ceramic mug.

It was fine. Really. Not a big deal. He wouldn't start shit over it. It was just… grating against his nerves, giving him a bad vibe. But vibes could be wrong. They were when he trusted his mother.

His duty to respecting boundaries could overpower his desire for knowledge. Besides that, she'd tell him when she was comfortable.

So it was fine. And he told her goodbye, and wished her good luck on the drama club mission.

And he bit his damn tongue when Kimito yelled at him for throwing too fast and pressuring the clay into deformity.

Really, it was fine.

A/N: Like I said last time (I did, didn't I?), Chapter 22 isn't written out very much. I'll edit this chapter when I have more preview lines to add!

Preview:

"Where the hell did my recruiting skills go?!"

"Recruiting skills...?"

"I wasn't asking you to join."

"This is your operation, not mine."

"I already made a heartfelt promise."

[Chapter 22]: Drama Brewing.