A/N: Hey, back again with another TPS chapter! I won't be updating weekly but I told myself I'd update near the end of October. Close enough, eh? Thanks to ZainR for the review! Ah, their first bridge scene... I was so tempted to make it happen there at the end that I may have typed up a kiss scene and backspaced it (stupid slowburns). But something sure as hell flickered, didn't it?

Now that it's NaNoWriMo, I think I should do a little work on this fic. For now, you can at least expect a couple more chapters between now and Christmas.

Enjoy!

[Chapter 32]: Branching Out

The Monday after the festival, Yuri met Ayato at the fork in the path like she used to. And they walked to school like usual.

But as it happens, two friends couldn't wave a raw, thorough, reconciliatory heart-to-heart like a magic wand over their friendship and expect everything to go one hundred percent back to normal.

They'd been chatting aimlessly on their way through town, about this and that. He'd explained his mother's stress baking while sharing one of his monaka with her. Yuri had mused over how and when she could get a recording of the play to show to her parents. Idly he nodded along, thinking her parents ought to at least make time to watch a recording. But then his thoughts drifted to drama club. It occurred to him that although she'd joined him on their ritual walk to school, he would still not have her company after hours.

His gaze flicked to Yuri as she took a happy chomp of monaka, and another concern arose.

"There's something we haven't discussed," Ayato said, turning his eyes back to the road ahead of them. He stared into space, not wanting to seem too affected. "Where will you be eating now?"

Yuri made a small confused sound and swallowed her bite.

"Huh?" she asked, cocking her head like she hadn't heard him correctly. "Where will I be eating…?"

"Lunch. What's the lunch situation." He side-eyed her, noting her look of gradual understanding. "You've been having lunch with Ami and everyone for the past few weeks, isn't that right?"

"Yeah…"

"So…" he said, drawing out the word awkwardly. While he'd made it a goal, after Saturday's revelations, to be more respectful of her extroverted tendencies, this was where things might hit a rough patch.

He was willing to part with their walks home. It was a sacrifice he could handle. For their remaining chances together, he wasn't feeling all that altruistic. But that matter was up to Yuri.

"So…?"

"So what's your plan?" he finished, and cast a careful glance her way. "I don't suppose you're going to stop sitting with Ami altogether, just because we're friends again."

Are you?

She became wildly interested in her shoes, and the pavement, and the Maeda coffee shop's window display they passed after the crosswalk. Her frown deepened, and her bottom lip suffered quite a bit of abuse for a minute.

Guilt gnawed just as tempestuously at his chest for having given her a subtle ultimatum. Him, or Ami and her beloved dimwits. Admittedly he was rather offended her choice would take this much thought. But it did have to come down to this. After all, what other option was there?

Yuri looked at him hopefully.

"Oh no," Ayato said when he was sure he'd accurately read the gleam in her eyes. "Absolutely not. I'd sooner sit in the locker room and eat gym socks."

"Hejjiguchi's gym socks?" Yuri asked sweetly, and he glared at her. She sobered but elbowed him. "Come on, it wouldn't be that bad."

"You know how I feel about getting dragged in with them," he said, keeping his voice stern but not spiteful.

"Masuda will be there. He's cool, he's sort of the mediator in the group. I think you'd get along with him," Yuri reasoned – a point he begrudgingly found no way to dispute. "And, I'm sure you've noticed, Hejjiguchi and Kurimu were fighting for a while but I think they're not anymore. So they might not be a problem—"

"Oh yes. Thank you very much for breaking them up, by the way." He squinted at her, still unimpressed and baffled by that one. "What on earth possessed you to tell him he'd been tricked?"

Yuri shrugged exaggeratedly. "He was being annoying!" she said, as if that explained it.

Then again, it was a solid explanation.

"Hmm, compelling argument. I'll ask him to save me a seat." He rolled his eyes, then spotted an opportune fallen leaf and mercilessly crushed it under his shoe. "Remember your little girls-only lunches last week? I've paid my dues with that idiot. I should have been paid for couples counseling!"

"Oh God, you were left alone with him?" Yuri snorted into her fist, discreetly covering a grin, then considered this as the school campus came into view. "Well, look at it this way. Now you've probably already seen him at his worst."

"I'd not like to find out," he told her.

Yuri was still pondering as they walked through the gates together. She'd gone back to worrying her lip again, and looked to be solving equations in her head. Again, he regretted putting her in this situation. But he wasn't ready to yield just yet.

"You know," Yuri said thoughtfully, resting her chin on her thumb, "if he got too annoying, Ami could just put him in time-out again."

Although he secretly liked the idea, Ayato scoffed. "For my sake? Unlikely."

"She might," Yuri argued. "And if she doesn't, you and I will just have a lot of material for when we make fun of him later about all the stupid stuff he's said." She threw him another hopeful glance.

He squinted back at her, doubtful. Damn her – that was actually almost tempting.

"I'll think about it," he said gruffly. Yuri looked happy.

The tree-danglers were gathered under their trademark spot as he and Yuri approached the school. Nezumi looked at the pair, then glanced up and knocked against the trunk with his fist a couple of times. Shiruba dropped from a branch and trotted up to them. Ayato and Yuri exchanged glances before the three of them met in the middle.

"So," said Shiruba, trying to be casual, "word is, you two are friends again." He folded his arms at them, eyes darting back and forth between the two. "When… when did that happen, huh?"

Ayato stared. "Saturday. After her performance."

What did he care?

"Right. Yeah, I think I heard about that." Shiruba nodded in that strange continuous head-bobbing way, but eyed Yuri unsurely. "Hey, unrelated question. Did either of you two know about Horigoshi's issue with strawberries?"

"I knew after Saturday," Yuri said cheerily.

Ayato, getting a feel for where this was going, merely blinked at him.

"That sounds like something his friend ought to know," he said wryly, fixing Shiruba with raised eyebrows and a measured stare. "Fairly important information if you're going to bake for someone."

Nezumi and Fujimoto laughed and hooted in the background. Shiruba's cheeks went very pink.

"Heh, good point," he said, and stuck out his hand. "No hard feelings?"

"Sure." They shook. The fool hadn't noticed he never answered the question; Ayato was still vaguely amused by this.

"Anyway, Ami's not even mad at me or anything," Shiruba went on with a smile. He paused, turning to Yuri expectantly this time. "She's not mad at me, right?"

Yuri shrugged and made a noncommittal noise. Hirohashi could be faintly be heard near the tree uttering an exasperated yes.

"I mean, you got to go onstage thanks to me," said Shiruba, puffing up proudly. "Who knows? Indirectly, I probably helped the two of you make up. That's what Nezumi says anyway."

"Couldn't have done it without you," Ayato said dryly.

"Hey, man, happy to help—"

"Shiruba! Does Ami have competition or something?" Nezumi hollered, leaning against the tree. "Let the poor guy go to class, ya big flirt!"

The boy looked pained for a second before throwing an irritable glare over his shoulder. Privately, Ayato thought that already this guy seemed ill-equipped to deal with Ami's high maintenance.

Not that it wouldn't be entertaining to watch him try.

"We'll tell her you said hi," he said amiably, possibly lying, and he and Yuri went on their way.

In class, he didn't get much time to think about Yuri's proposal. The trio behind him kept to themselves, yes, but there was an annoying buzz of whispers here and there from many corners of the room. It would hush when the teachers cleared their throats or intervened, but then Ayato's thoughts still couldn't trail off because they were saying something important. About the exams next month, or the upcoming parent meeting (which Kimito never went to), or a potential school trip in January. Diagonal from him, Ami squealed something about skiing and resorts being romantic.

"Ideally, Kawata, we're hoping it's the mountains you'll fall in love with," said the teacher, a little desperately. "But alright, bonding with your peers – that's important too."

That had gotten a laugh from the class – even Ayato, who'd initially rolled his eyes at Ami's sentiment. Surely she didn't think she was going to curl up with Hejjiguchi by some fireplace. He and Kurimu were on decidedly better terms this morning; the poor girl would have to keep looking. Or she'd just end up obliviously interrupting their secret mountaintop interludes, which was kind of an amusing thought.

Then lunch came, and he waited for everyone else to pile out of the classroom. He didn't want to keep Yuri waiting, but he also – wasn't keen on feeling like he was following them somewhere, like a shadow.

Ami had given him a look before they left. Unsure, from across the room, like she wanted to ask him a question. Then she'd changed her mind and started tapping away at her phone like it could give her a speedier answer. Masuda had looked too, especially after Ami accidentally bumped into him while she was texting. He turned away to politely laugh along with Kurimu at a joke Hejjiguchi just cracked (something about a cheese factory).

Ayato stared out the window and frowned anew. It was sunny and mild outside, but wouldn't be for much longer; the old spot was beckoning to him. They could so easily go back to where they were, sitting outside under the tree and sharing things no one else knew or needed to know. Letting it be just the two of them.

But then…

When Yuri came up to him that first day, so many Mondays ago, she had taken a chance. A step forward, not back.

She could've gone back to where she was. She could've accepted their momentary alliance in Kimito's shop and left it at that. She could've just gone on keeping to herself, and then they never would've been friends.

Instead, she'd reached out to him, and now here they were seven months later. If she wanted to branch out some more, who was he to stop her? It was brave of her to grow as she did, to change before his eyes, to go out on that stage on Saturday. He thought of the hallway outside the drama club, where she'd glowed and preened as a sizable crowd of people congratulated her.

Seeing her there, grinning and confident before an enamored group… it was almost natural.

But was it worth another 45 minutes with the fools he was already shackled to?

He found Yuri in the hall by the vending machine. She handed him a thing of almond crush pocky – his favorite – and eyed him expectantly. An obvious bribe, the temptress…

"Fine," he said with a sigh, taking the snack and digging into it. "Take me to your idiots."

"That's the spirit," Yuri said joyfully, looping her arm through his and tugging him towards the cafeteria. The pocky almost spilled in her fervor.

Their alone time for now would have to be reserved for their walk to school, and he would take that. Maybe they could bring back nightly walkie talkie conversations if need be.

For now, as long as Yuri was branching out, he might as well go along for the ride.

"Whoa, look who's here!" crowed Hejjiguchi when they arrived at the table, as if he hadn't just seen him five minutes ago.

He was seated next to Ami at the end of the table, with Masuda on her other side. There were two open chairs next to Kurimu, who'd positioned her seat in a way that let her be across from Ami and Hejjiguchi at the same time.

Kurimu turned around to look, juice straw between her teeth. It fell out in surprise, giving her the freedom to beam at them.

"You brought Naoi!" she said, happily dumbfounded, like this was an incredible feat and Yuri might as well be showing her a ball of fire she'd conjured in the palm of her hand.

"It's not a problem, right?" Yuri slid into the spot next to her, graciously saving him from a possible lunch-long staring contest with Ami.

"Not at all," said Ami, as Ayato joined Yuri at the table in the seat across from Masuda. She added sadly, with a little pout, "Now that you two are friends again, I wasn't sure you'd be sitting with us anymore. That's why I asked a few minutes ago." She gestured at him. "So this is what you meant by 'we'll see.'"

He closed his eyes – for Yuri's sake he was going to behave himself, but he wasn't about to gloss over the fact that he was very put-upon by the circumstances. "I suppose we'll just have to share her from now on."

"I'm just happy you two are friends again," Kurimu said blithely, sipping away at her juice. "You were so sad without each other."

Yuri immediately became fascinated with her lunch, while Ayato cut his eyes to the side and felt his face grow warm. Did the girl have to be so blunt about it? Also, he hadn't really been that obvious. Had he?

When he looked back up, Masuda gave him a knowing grin. He glared back, regretting his seating choice already.

Kurimu started to color in her sketchbook – did she always bring that thing to lunch? – but thought better of it. Brightening, she turned aside to them (holding an orange colored pencil in midair) and added, "I still can't believe you stood up for her like that!"

"You heard about that?" Ayato frowned down the table at her, feeling a little like an eccentric art piece on display.

"Ami told us!" Kurimu said glibly, still smiling.

What? He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Ami Kawata, passing on some positive information about him? That was interesting.

Masuda picked at his lunch thoughtfully. "Hard not to overhear, besides."

"Yeah." Hejjiguchi, who was leaning back in his chair, casually nodded towards Yuri. "Everybody's talking about how Hisakawa went off on you."

"Oh, great." Yuri smiled tightly. She took an aggressive bite out of some broccoli.

Ayato shot him an unimpressed look over the top of his drink. Didn't he have any sense of decorum? Why would Yuri want to be reminded of Saturday's incident, let alone know it was Akuma High's hot gossip? Thoughtless idiot.

Ami seemed to share his sentiment, and elbowed Hejjiguchi in the arm. "Souma-kun!"

"What?" he said, shrugging. Ami looked helplessly to Masuda before sending Yuri an apologetic wince. Hejjiguchi still didn't clue in, and went on, "It's kinda weird, though. Did she really scream at you? I can't picture it. She's always seemed pretty chill." His eyes crinkled in deep consideration, and he gave another shrug. "Intense? Sure. But not 'yelling' intense—"

"Stop talking," Ayato said severely. Hejjiguchi threw him a miffed look but obeyed.

Good boy. Maybe he should give him a treat? His fingers briefly grazed the pack of almond crush pocky.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I think I know her a little better than you," Yuri told him – more nicely than Ayato would've delivered it, but her tone was still crisp enough to get the point across. "And I don't want to get into this."

"That's fair," Masuda said on Hejjiguchi's behalf. "I admit, I'm still curious about the situation. But we shouldn't pry."

"What? What kind of talk is that?" Hejjiguchi peered behind Ami's back to throw Masuda a look. "Aren't you studying to be a private investigator or something? Detective?"

"Shell out the money first; I don't snoop for free," Masuda said loftily, and bit into an apple. Ami and Yuri shared an amused half-smile across the table.

At first, Ayato eyed the three of them with slight suspicion. The drama club members, of course – did they already have inside jokes? It seemed like there was more to Ami's smile, something he was being left out of.

He shook his head of the thought. He was reading too much into things again. On second thought it read simply as a special smile between girls. Besides that, they could have their own secrets and shared looks. But her most important truths, she'd already entrusted to him.

"If she says she doesn't want to get into it, just drop it," Ayato said importantly, with a wave of his hand. He enjoyed the sudden silence that had befallen the cafeteria. It might've been coincidental but it was certainly a power trip. So were the gradual attentive expressions that had crossed Hejjiguchi's, Ami's, and Masuda's faces. "It's in her past. Hisakawa is behind her now."

Hejjiguchi lifted his head, along with his piqued brows.

"No kidding," he said with a grin, nodding over Kurimu's shoulder. "Speak of the devil."

Yuri tensed in her seat, crunching her fist around her drink can. Nicely, Ayato checked over his shoulder for her in time to see Hisakawa coming towards their table in long strides. She stopped at the end of their table, hovering between Hejjiguchi and Kurimu and looking distinctly like a confused swan. Her gaze swept over the table, taking in her audience, before her eyes settled on a target.

"I just want to say," Hisakawa started, very begrudgingly Ayato might add, and cast a dour glance over her shoulder at someone before continuing, "I'm sorry for yelling at you in the hall. And for making a big scene."

Yuri sipped her drink very loudly. She attempted to make eye contact with anyone else, but it was difficult when most of their group was looking back and forth expectantly between the two former friends.

Hisakawa heaved a sigh. She took a sparkly silver-and-turquoise clip from her hair and clicked at it restlessly.

"I," she said, and closed her eyes for three seconds. Click-click, click-click, click-click. And yet Ayato could still hear Yuri grinding her teeth. "I was so busy yapping at you that I forgot to say… well done on the play. You were really good." She flashed a wry grin. "Should've known you had a flair for drama."

Unimpressed, Yuri flicked a brief glimpse at the sparkle in Hisakawa's hands. "Unless you're about to pick a lock with that thing, put it back in your hair."

Hisakawa paused, regarding the clip thoughtfully. Then she clicked it twice more for good measure before snapping it back into place. Although he smirked at the childish pettiness, Ayato silently wondered who taught whom how to pick locks.

Probably Yuri, if either of them. That was the feeling that he got.

Seeing that she was getting nowhere with Yuri, Hisakawa turned and nodded in Ami's direction. "Seriously though, it was a great story. I liked Hanazawa a lot as a character, and the disembodied voice guy gave me chills."

"Thank you," Masuda said leisurely, conjuring up said voice, and Hisakawa looked at him with interest.

"Hm," she said, mildly impressed. Then she tapped Kurimu's sketchbook, briefly admiring some patterns she'd drawn, before flashing a cool smile. "Well, later."

Kurimu preened a little bit after the girl had gone. She remembered who she was sitting next to, though, and gave a demure cough.

"She seems kind of nice," she said innocently. "All she did was come over, apologize, and compliment the play."

Ayato rolled his eyes. He recognized that tone from his mother – the lilt of hopeful reconciliation. The wholehearted hope that bygones could be bygones and they could all hug it out as good friends. She was probably mentally planning a flower crown for the girl at this very moment.

"And hit on Masuda," he added for derailment's sake. The interaction between the two had been oddly funny to him.

Ami threw him a weird look, like he'd answered a math problem horrendously wrong. "Don't be silly, she wasn't hitting on him!" she said. A ruffled Masuda frowned at the indignation in her voice, wondering if he should be offended.

Ayato didn't care for her snooty tone either, or the way she'd said it like he was an idiot.

"What was that about?" he challenged. Just because he had to share Yuri with her now didn't mean he was going to sit here and be disrespected!

"I think what Ami means is that she was just being nice," Kurimu said quickly, although he'd seen her blink her own confusion at Ami a moment ago. Then she seemed to remember something, and added, "And Hisakawa doesn't flirt."

"Well," Ami amended, "she flirts, she just doesn't date."

"Why not?" Masuda asked, sounding curious. Ami's chopsticks halted in mid-air and she side-eyed him in a suspicious bewilderment.

Hejjiguchi grinned, waving his juice around leisurely. "She's a free spirit! Like me."

Ami stopped mouthing something to Yuri (who'd shaken her head and kept picking at her food in disinterest) and turned to Hejjiguchi with more incredulity. "No, she's a commitment-phobe like you." She elbowed him in the arm.

"Heh," said Hejjiguchi, rubbing where she'd hit him. He and Kurimu shared a secret glance.

Right. So that was still going on while Ami was blissfully unaware, which was – well, just about as interesting as this conversation. Ayato turned to Yuri, who was still picking at her food and pulling a bored face. Considering the topic at hand, she had to be even more annoyed than he was.

Leaning to his left, he muttered aside to her, "Are you sure you want to sit with these people?"

"You started it," Yuri said, miffed.

Hejjiguchi, who'd been jabbering back-and-forth with Ami, nodded over at them with expectant curiosity. "Yuri, you know her better than we do. Which is it?"

Yuri rolled her eyes, but looked considering for a moment. Maybe she was thinking the same thing as him: hey, whatever would shut them up.

"A bit of both, honestly," she told them. And then, with a derisive, knowing half-smile, "She thinks boyfriends turn into husbands who might want to keep her from doing her dream job."

"EMT, right? A first responder?" Masuda inquired. When Ami gave him a frosty stare, he held up his hands in surrender. "What? I'm going into the police force. Our paths are occasionally going to cross."

"I thought she wanted to work at her family's aquarium," said Kurimu, starting to trace happy starfish on her paper.

Hejjiguchi shrugged. "She changed her mind last year. Now—"

"Don't you all have anything better to discuss?" Ayato interrupted. The awkward looks he got in return were nothing compared to the range of expressions he'd witnessed on Yuri's face in the last minute. An old wound had reopened and he would not have these idiots poking needles into it. "Listen to you, you sound like you've got shrines built for her in your closets. Show some discretion!"

Frowning, Hejjiguchi started to open his mouth. But Ami held up a hand to stop him.

"He's right," she said, to Ayato's surprise. "We're being rude to Yuri. It's disloyal."

Kurimu and Masuda immediately looked apologetic, while a sheepish Hejjiguchi scratched at his hair. As they changed the subject to other things, like the parent meeting and the end-of-term exam, he begrudgingly came to an unsettling conclusion: Ami wasn't all that bad. At least when it came to Yuri. And she did have a real knack for scolding her group into a reasonable quiet, which was… useful.

He glanced at Yuri out of the corner of his eye. She had relaxed by now, and was joking with Ami and Masuda (something about the latter's roommate going to the parent meeting disguised as his mother). Hejjiguchi reverted to a less annoying state, drawing orca whales and seagulls on Kurimu's sketchbook to go with her starfish. He even came up with the not entirely brainless suggestion that Yuri come eat in their classroom with them if they wanted to have a study session this month.

And while Yuri, Masuda, and Kurimu dragged him into the conversation from time to time, he was strangely… perfectly content to kick back and watch Yuri command the table as she did. Her eyes took on a special gleam that captured the table's attention, her tone cool and knowing with the occasional passionate quiver that made each word sound important.

How had someone so powerful ever gotten so lost? This was where she belonged. Wherever that strength took her, he'd follow if he could. Even here, with Hejjiguchi giving him a stupid grin while waggling his eyebrows in her direction.

Though… sitting here with all of them, it felt like it could be almost normal. It wasn't perfect, comfortably familiar in a not quite right way like a couch instead of a bed. But it was good, and he could even get used to it.

For Yuri, he would branch out too.

A/N: Okay, too much chatter about Hisakawa. But I bet Yuri would agree, which, hey, is kinda the point! Also, let me just end with the cheese factory joke Hejj told (even though I doubt it translates into Japanese the same) (let's just call it the cheesy English dub version, yeah?)

"There was an explosion at the cheese factory! De brie went everywhere."

(Yep. Definitely an English dub joke.)

Preview:

"Hey, tell me a joke."

"Is your dad always so mean to you?"

"I don't see myself ever leaving this business."

"Have you been slacking off?!"

"Everyone just focuses on the negative."

"Better start giving me ideas!"

"Why are you making such a big deal over this?"

[Chapter 33]: Coming Closer.