A/N: guys, i replayed the ssl game on my vita and fell in love again. Heisuke has the best route. Fight me on it.

…

" NO...FREAKING...WAY."

The tone in which Osen said that, paired with her cherry glossed lips widening in that tell-tale 'o' shape made Chizuru's entire body freeze. Her hand was still hovered over her carton of fries as her mind raced to answer a question she knew was directed to her.

Kozusu however, was still naively unaware. "What? Did someone post something weird on LINE? Is Kimigiku-chan okay?"

Osen waved a hand, dismissing the thought. Her eyes were laser-focused onto Chizuru's profile, the smaller brunette now finding enough courage to at least swallow thickly and complete the process of pulling fries. She chewed on them slowly. Can't talk with a mouthful.

Osen was not deterred. "Yukimura Chizuru-san," she said, all officialism placed in her voice. "Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe I see what looks like a hickey on your neck?"

"-Oh my god!" Kosuzu exclaimed in a high-pitched trill, nearly knocking over her own soda as she barreled across the table for the scarf. "No way! Lemme see, lemme see!"

Chizuru recoiled away from Kosuzu's reach, but the action made her swallow her chewed food in surprise. It was so deliciously salty, but now she had a bad taste in her mouth. Her brown eyes darted nervously between her two friends as they waited with bated breath for her response.

"...It's not." Chizuru murmured, sinking into the booth seat with deflated shoulders, and a bright red face. Osen clicked her teeth at her, disappointed by the excuse.

"No?" Osen responded, grasping the unsuspecting girl by the neck in a deftly tight grip, pushing into where she knew the pulmonary artery would make Chizuru turn her head for a better look. It worked reflexively, and now Kosuzu could get an eye-full, too. "What's this then?"

"N-Nothing….aah, Osen-chan, don't-" Chizuru was blushing hotly now, remembering. Thankfully Osen was willing to slack her grip after making said point, and put only a tiny breath of distance between them.

She cleared her throat. "Spill."

Chizuru blanched. "What? I can't-I mean, it's not-"

"It so is 'that', Chizuru-chan! You finally have a boyfriend, and I'm so happy for you!" Kosuzu squealed, as ever the optimist. She leaned back into her seat on the opposite side of the two and clapped her hands together loudly. "I knew you were seeing someone but I had no idea that you two were like that."

"Like what?" Chizuru murmured, fidgeting with her bowtie in a futile effort to lift her collar over the bruise. She lamented the fact it was too warm out for a scarf because even the same change in her usual wardrobe brought unintentional dd-she still should've at least asked Saito for his. Anything to escape this embarrassment and the devilish glint in her best friend's eyes. They both reminded her of hungry wolves.

But still, despite herself, the memories of the event came rushing back into her mind. She tried again. "It's really isn't-"

"Spill." Osen reserved this voice for when she performed her student council president duties, typically. It was the kind of voice that you didn't have to second-guess whether she was asking or directing you. It was a non-negotiable command. Chizuru heaved a frustrated sigh, resigning to her fate. If the blush on her face were anything to go by, the story ought to be good.

Her brown eyes narrowed first, locking onto her best friend, Osen. Then at Kosuzu. "Not a word of this can leave this table...okay?"

"Swear!" They both chirped in unison, eyes sparkling with interest and intrigue that only made Chizuru even more nervous and embarrassed. Osen grabbed her soda for an object to occupy her quivering lips as her closest friend sighed and opened her mouth to share the secret behind this mystery hickey.

Nagakura-senpai made no little show of his grand entrance into the teacher's lounge, slamming the door open so loudly Hijikata nearly half-jumped out of his chair and made sure to swear at the brunet profusely for it, too. But it fell on deaf ears, the jumpsuit-clad teacher marched right up to Harada's desk and snatched the redhead up by his dark grey tie, yanking towards the door.

"We need to talk. Now."

"Hey-" Sanosuke's eyes flashed dangerously as she yanked Shinpachi's hands off of him before looking around them. There was something oddly serious in Shinpachi's tone, something that wasn't usual for him, and Hijikata's cursing died immediately.

Violent eyes narrowed as he glanced between the two. "Whatever it is, it won't happen here. Take it outside."

Sanosuke took another look at the room of surprised and silent teachers, Sannan's dry-frown, Ito's smirk, and when Shinpachi snatched him up again and began yanking him toward the door, he only half-resisted. They turned a corner down the nearest hall before Shinpachi shoved the other man against the wall, the force of it only pushing Sanosuke back a full step instead.

"What did you do to Chizuru-cha-I mean, uh, Yukimura-san!" His eyes were narrowed in anger and worry. "She's been acting all strange today, and walking around with a goddamn scarf in April, Sano."

Sanosuke glared, then faltered immediately after. He couldn't deny that when he saw her enter the homeroom that morning he was nervous seeing her so poorly bring attention to the very thing he had advised her to conceal. And watching Heisuke and Okita prod her with questions had left him so unsettled that he had excused himself right away after lunch period was announced. He thought it was better to keep his distance for the day. Wasn't that fair enough? It was already a bitter pill enough to swallow not being able to-

"Don't you dare look at me like that, Sano. I know you-I know what it means when some girl you're talking with shows up looking obvious like that."

Sanosuke turned his head. Bit his lip. "Chizuru's not 'some girl'".

Shinpachi stared hard into his friend's profile, teeth grit together in frustration, pity, worry. Eventually he shoved the other man who barely moved an inch and quickly turned his back, swearing hotly under his breath.

"Then what the hell, man?! Why are you being so careless?" Shinpachi craned his neck to look at Sanosuke admonishingly. "This isn't like you."

Sanosuke's eyes dropped to the ground then, finding it harder to look his best friend in the eye as easily, because it was hard to deny that loudly spoken truth. It wasn't like him. Nothing like this, nobody before her, had ever managed to change the way he was the way she had. How would Shinpachi understand something like that? Chizuru was on his mind 24/7-she was not just a girl to him. She was the one-why should something so minor hold him back from doing something that felt so utterly natural?

"Talk." Shinpachi crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. "What the hell have you done this time, idiot." And his voice left no room for complaints.

Sanosuke looked around the hall to ensure there were no students around, and then sighed angrily as he began to recount the tale.

"Oh-Harada-sensei, what's this?" Chizuru asked for what had to have been the fourth time now, bent over at the waist and rummaging through the teacher's stand in the homeroom she had been present in for months now. The new perspective thrilled her.

But Sanosuke, head in hand and seated not too far away at his desk, was only thrilled by the view.

"Hm? Oh, that's just a time zone clock." He said absently, with a half-smile as she picked up said wood block design gingerly. It was a simple design, three small analog clocks lined in a row and en-fixed in a traditional pale wood block rectangular design.

She read the titles beneath each clock aloud. "Zuhai, Busan, Phu Quoc…" Dark lashes fluttered twice as her face twisted in comprehension. Looking up she smiled at him, still half bent over. "Why are these all foreign cities?"

He sank further into his hand, a smile morphing into a teasing smirk. "I find the idea of time zones interesting, and I find those places interesting as well."

"Why?"

"Why do you think so?" He countered, smirk broadening as Chizuru flinched in response, and then grew silent for a moment as she gathered her thoughts, gaze falling to the block art in her hand, ticking away ever so quietly. When she returned his gaze, her eyes were full of confidence.

"These are all foreign shore towns….like port cities?" She pouted in response, but not unkindly. "You really do like the ocean, don't you, Harada-sensei?"

Sanosuke was only briefly upset that she stood upright again and made his oh-so interesting view now reduced but she began sauntering towards himself slowly. He leaned back in his chair and swallowed.

"I do."

When she finally approached him, her standing pressed thighs slipped easily into the wide entrance his legs made in the chair. He closed his legs on either side of her, squeezing gently until she giggled. His body was muscular enough to hold her steady locked between his own thighs like this, and she was pleasantly supple to the touch.

She giggled, wobbled a little with her fidgeting. Both hands grasped onto either of his broad shoulders to steady herself as she stood, bringing their faces a little closer together.

Chizuru was already beginning to blush when she replied cheekily, "Now I know one of Harada-sensei's secrets."

"Do you?" He echoed in a deep voice, patting one of her hands and on his shoulder softly. "One of many, I guess, yeah."

His hand reached up to stroke her warm, red cheek. She closed her eyes to his touch, and Sanosuke gave himself a quick look around the classroom and the view of the hallway before he leaned forward a bit and closed the distance between them with a chaste kiss. It was reckless as ever to be doing it so openly, and somehow that made it all the more sweet. So he did it again. And then once more.

Chizuru's eyes blinked hazily as he pulled away, still focused on their concentration as though her teacher hadn't been nibbling on her bottom lip only a few seconds ago.

"How many?"

"Huh?"

"How many secrets?" She smiled against his lips.

He sighed impatiently. "Many." When he tried to lean in again, face angled for another measured kiss she pulled back a bit and shook her head, unsatisfied with his answer.

Sanosuke was having a hard time finding the right words to get past this little obstacle. "Well-everyone has secrets, right? Someday I'll be able to tell you all about mine in better detail." He swallowed the end of that sentence carefully and thankfully so-his next words would've definitely ruined the moment. When I was your age.

Chizuru smiled again, a tad darkly for her sweet face. "I want a secret too."

You already have one. He moved his hand from her cheek to her hair, tucking loose strands beyond her ear and petting the top. She shivered, leaned forward this time, asking. After another long, open-mouthed kiss, he answered her. "What kind of secret?"

"...One between the two of us." She paused for a moment, then slapped him on the chest playfully from the silent implication. "Not this, I mean. Something else I can remember.."

"Something else?" He repeated, chuckling. "What does that even mean?"

"I mean….I want you to give you a secret to remember about me, too." Chizuru giggled again. "I already know yours, so I'll make one with you and then you'll know one of mine. It's fair this way."

"Are you trying to be intentionally suggestive here or…?"

She slapped him across the chest again. "Don't do that! I'm trying to be serious here." She kissed him again, chastely. "Take me seriously, Harada-sensei."

I'll take anything, at this point. "Yes. Okay, yes. Let's make a secret." His eyes scanned the area again. No noise outside the room. Good. "What were you thinking?"

She bit her lip, already plumped pink full of blood from her, making her look even lovelier. "I've never gotten a hickey before."

He paused. "And...you want one?" Something in him jumped up. "You're telling me this because-"

"-Yeah." She gave him a peck to silence him. "Is that okay...?" Then another. Teasing.

It was clever to say the least, the redhead had to at least give her that much as he yanked her body out from between his legs and onto them, holding her steady in his lap as he tried to quiet these thoughts by kissing her senseless. Every few seconds he'd remember to look up, look around-just to be sure. It was late afternoon after school on the day before the weekend. It wouldn't be very likely for any students not in a club to just be wandering around the halls. He still should be more careful though, he thought inwardly, but letting Chizuru make soft noises was driving him mad with possessive thoughts. She was so small in his arms he felt like he could break her if he used too much force. Would she like it if he was a little rough with her?

Oh, probably since she wants…"Tilt your head-no, a little more to this side so-yes. Yes...now hold still…"

His lips latched onto her neck with graceful ease, and Chizuru made a strange noise in her throat and began blushing fiercely as he ground her into his lap to hold her steady. Now off of her feet, she was free to moan and leaned back her head to give him more access. Sanosuke's lips formed a small 'o' for suckling that went hard and fast, purpling the skin underneath his lapping tongue as his student struggled to stifle her surprised gasps and groans. It was hard to keep her still, even harder to keep his focus and remember where he was.

He pulled away, admiring the path of saliva on her now marred skin, and in the center a nice ugly bruise. I haven't done something like this since high school. Sanosuke had never been prouder of something he had created. With a red, blushing face she nodded softly and began prying herself out of his grasp much, much too soon.

"I-I didn't think you would actually…" she poked at it gingerly. "It kind of feels funny, but…"

"Did you like it?" The skin around his eyes wrinkled in the corners along with his lascivious grin.

"W-What?" She was smoothing out her skirts, eyes still wide with pleasure as she tried to dodge the question. "Um, Harada-sensei….?"

He realized that he had taken too long to respond back, his body stiffening up from a stray noise coming from the hallway-but he couldn't see anyone. Strange.

"Y-you're grabbing me kind of tightly…"

"Sorry," he smiled reassuringly, pushing her back a bit so he could stand with eyes focused on her again. "I think I was asking you if you liked it-for the first time, I mean. With someone like me."

Her eyes closed as she rubbed at the blue-black mark now resting on the left side of her neck, just up above the crevice of her collarbones. He tried to keep it in a relatively concealable place this way, and made note to instruct her on how to do so properly, later. The sun was bleeding golden yellow and orange hues, and he didn't want her out that late if he couldn't freely make sure she arrived home safely. At least for now, anyway.

But Chizuru was nothing but shy smiles as she blushed and nodded. "Yes….thank you, Harada-sensei."

"You don't have to-" he cut himself off with a groan. "-look. Just keep this a secret between you and I like you said, okay?" He sighed again when she nodded quickly, and then kissed her once more before he let her go off to the home she lived in more days by herself than not. Unbeknownst to her, Harada Sanosuke went back to the ungraded paperwork he had told Hijikata he'd have finished by now with a calm and happy smile.

Like the perfect teacher.

"Guys...guys…?" Chizuru's pleading voice was weakening to a whimper. "Someone say something, please."

Osen was the first one to close her gaping mouth and swallowed thickly, her face beet red as though she were there to witness Chizuru's tale firsthand. "W-well….that is quite the-"

"R-Right…" Kosuzu added shakily, fanning at her face as she tried to school her expression. Another silence ensued that made Chizuru sink lower and lower into the cushioned seats out of pure embarrassment.

"Well," Osen tried again, fighting off a mischievous smile towards Chizuru. "Who knew you had it in you?"

"Noooo," Chizuru moaned, tightening the pink scarf she wore to school all day around her neck. "It's not that-!"

She had barely managed to fight off Okita-senpai's constant pulling and teasing that she was dressing too much after his raven friend, and that was nearly all throughout lunch. It was harder to keep a secret than she imagined. She'd have to ask Harada how he managed it so well, later.

"Can I read your messages with him!?" Kosuzu laugh-shouted, leaping across the table to snatch at Chizuru's phone. Osen burst into giggles as Chizuru's thrashed out of her friend's grabby hands until someone knocked over a soda and the giggles turned into gasps and the conversation was soon forgotten. Chizuru made sure to keep her phone silenced after that until she got home though, just in case. And took the long way for the sake of it, her thoughts were absorbed in her memories and the color of the afternoon sun's blaze that seemed dull compared to the golden eyed stare of her forbidden lover.

:3

hope you guys liked it - i'm not sure exactly how long this is going to be but i think maybe next chapter will be more drama and less...yeah. Leave a note if you liked!