Anthy smiled, standing back to look at her work. The roses looked absolutely stunning, as always, and it was all thanks to her. She was about to move onto the next bush of roses when she heard the handle on the door of the rose garden turn. Hastily, she set down her materials in an out of the way place, and picked up the watering can.
As she started watering, Touga walked in, holding the door for a man she had never seen before. Her curiosity was slightly piqued, but she didn't dwell on it, and continued watering the roses.
"Well, what do you think, Muraki?" said Touga, extending an arm towards the roses.
Muraki's eyes lit up and he reached out to touch the petals of a pink rose. He smiled, running his fingers over the soft petals.
"This is absolutely gorgeous! How do you get your roses so healthy and radiant?" Muraki said happily.
"That would be thanks to Anthy Himemiya. She volunteers to tend the roses," Touga replied, gesturing towards Anthy, who was still watering the same bush.
Muraki grinned and looked over to Anthy. He said to her, "You've done a good job with these roses. I'm impressed."
Anthy smiled and nodded, moving onto the next bush.
"Um…" Muraki said, confused, "Is it all right if I have that pink one?"
Anthy smiled and nodded, continuing on her bush. Muraki stared at her, and carefully plucked the pink rose.
"She's not very talkative," explained Touga, moving to stand nearer to Muraki.
"Oh…" said Muraki.
Then Muraki put a finger to his lips, as if pondering something. Finally, he said, "I didn't even knew roses grew in these colors…" Muraki pointed to a rose with green petals.
Touga sweatdropped. "That's our little secret. Yes, school secret. Can't give you the seeds, I'm afraid."
Muraki raised a questioning eyebrow, but didn't pursue the matter further. Instead, he changed the subject. He turned back to Anthy and asked, "I'm looking for someone named Akio. He looks a lot like you."
Anthy didn't say anything.
"Are you related?"
Anthy nodded.
"Do you know where he is?"
Anthy spoke for the first time, "He's normally in his planetarium, but I'm not positive he's there at the moment."
Turning to Touga, Muraki asked, "Maybe I should go to the planetarium. I do have to meet my real E-partner."
Touga was a little disappointed. This Muraki person seemed nice. But before he could say anything, Muraki continued.
"But, I could use a good guide to help me get there…"
Touga smiled, and led Muraki out of the rose garden.
As soon as the two men had left, Anthy let out a sigh. Touga had helped keep the secret of the Ohtori roses. For now at least. Making sure no one was looking into the garden, Anthy retrieved her paint bucket and brushes, and continued her work.
Hey, who said roses naturally grow green and purple?
******
"WHY AM I STILL IN THIS CAR?! Please let me out… PLEASE!"
"Oh, c'mon! No one gets out of the car until AFTER they've seen Ends of the World!"
"I have already seen more than I ever wanted to, and I don't intend to see more. Not the Ends of the World, not ANYTHING!!"
"Oh, be a sport… heheh…"
"SOMEONE HELP!"
******
Touga and Muraki walked around the campus and back towards the planetarium. The white-haired man tucked his rose neatly into a buttonhole on his coat as he walked, following Touga as he pointed out the various sights.
"Now just past the Duel Forest are the gates. This is the main hall. A little crowded at this time of day, but there's not much we can do about that… some of the freshman classes…" Touga gestured to the students and the classrooms, giving detailed descriptions like a seasoned tour guide. Muraki listened intently, becoming interested. This Touga person was quite intelligent, besides being fairly good looking as well.
"And here's the stairs to the planetarium," Touga said finally. Muraki looked up and felt his stomach drop. Touga cheerfully started climbing, motioning to Muraki to follow.
"It's not as high as it looks; it's only about seven stories up!"
"ONLY about seven stories?!" wondered Muraki, clinging to the rail. Touga climbed up the steps effortlessly, only pausing a few times to look back and check on Muraki, who was taking each step carefully as if it might be his last. Touga shook his head and grinned, going ahead as his counterpart followed at his heels, albeit slowly.
******
"Here we are," Touga said triumphantly, throwing open the door to the planetarium. Behind him, Muraki slumped against the doorframe, his legs weak, taking huge breaths. Never before had he climbed such a stairway. It had to be one of the most horrible experiences in his life. Well, second to Tsuzuki running off all the time.
"Akiooooo," called Touga, stepping into the room. Light filtered through into the room and lighted upon two white couches and a small end table with a bowl of roses on it. Muraki studied the furniture with interest as Touga hunted about, looking for any traces of life.
"Do you see anything?" Muraki asked. Touga shook his head.
"Nope. He's not here… But where—OH!" Touga suddenly smacked himself in the forehead. "I forgot. Akio ALWAYS takes the Akio-car out sometime during the day… I bet that's what he's doing! He's usually gone for quite a while, and—"
"Great," Muraki muttered, sitting down on one of the couches with a muffled thump, "I come all the way here, get mixed up, and he's not here?!"
"Well, it's not that bad being with me, is it?" asked Touga, slightly huffy.
"It's just rather frustrating how everything's working out. At this rate I would have been better off staying home torturing someone."
Touga sat down on the opposite couch and dropped his rose, sighing.
"I guess we could just go back downstairs…"
The look on Muraki's face told him that that wasn't an option.
"Well, what do you expect me to do?!" Touga asked, miffed. Muraki didn't look at him, but pretended to be busy with his rose, annoyed.
******
"Oh God, tell me this isn't happening."
"Why do you keep saying that?"
"Because I'm wishing this is all a bad dream. You, your shirt, being here…"
"And the Akio-car?"
"Especially the Akio-car…"
******
There were a few moments of silence between Touga and Muraki. Finally Touga spoke up.
"We could stay here and enjoy the comfort of Akio's planetarium, I suppose."
Muraki looked very relieved and nodded a little too eagerly.
Touga thought for a moment, then laughed.
"What's so funny?" Muraki questioned.
"You'd never cut it as a duelist, Muraki."
"Say wha-- huh?"
"A duelist. You'd never make it as one."
"And why wouldn't I make a good 'duelist'?"
"If you had trouble climbing up here, you'd pass out on the stairs up to the arena! I have experience with Ohtori's high stairs, and I still feel a bit out of breath at the top of those stairs."
Muraki gave a little "hmph" sound. "I'd just need to get used to the stairs, that's all."
Again, Touga laughed, "You don't like being told things that imply that you're weak, do you?"
"No one does."
"I know, but you take it more personally than others."
Muraki folded his arms. "You can't just assume things about people like that."
"I don't assume things, I figure them out." Touga smiled lasciviously.
Muraki slowly unfolded his arms, and took the rose from his buttonhole. He began to swish it absently, staring at the soft pink petals and gracefully curved stem.
As Muraki swished his rose, he suddenly found it blocked by another rose. A red rose. It was being held by Touga, who had risen from his seat on the opposite couch. Muraki just stared as Touga pushed Muraki's pink rose out of the way and jabbed him lightly in the chest with the end of the stem of his red one.
"I win."
Muraki turned his head down, trying to hide a blush. When was the last time he had blushed thinking about anybody other than Tsuzuki…?
******
"Oh come off it, Tsuzu! The Ends of the World won't be that bad!"
"YEEEESSSS IT WIIIIIIILLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!"
******
As the Akio-car zoomed past the secret headquarters/secret dorms of Kakumei.com, Rob looked up from his… activities in the bed he shared with Bob.
"Eh? What's wrong Rob?"
"Did you just hear an evil red car going at insanely high speeds driving towards the Ends of the World?"
"No."
"Neither did I."
******
Muraki stared at the rose stem that was poking him in the chest and slowly pushed it away from him, looking down at the floor for a minute and trying to hide a blush. Touga grinned and waved his rose around.
"See? I told you you're not much of a duelist."
"I don't think you fully realize who you're dealing with."
"Oh, I don't, eh?" Touga frowned for a moment, as if in thought. Then, before Muraki could react, Touga swiftly swung the red rose around, slicing off the blossom of Muraki's pink one with the end of his stem. Petals fluttered to the floor in a flurry. Muraki gawked at the empty stem that he held in his hand.
"…You…cut the top right off..!"
"Of course. I am a great duelist, after all."
"Oh, really?"
Suddenly Muraki rose up from his seat on the couch,
and Touga stepped back, caught off guard. As he stumbled backwards,
Muraki rushed him, knocking him backward onto the other couch. As
soon as Touga was down, Muraki stabbed forward with the rose stem and then
lightly poked Touga in the chest with it.
"Gotcha," he muttered with a smile.
Touga looked down at Muraki's rose stem, then smirked. "You're very determined. I like that. You keep coming even after you've lost."
"Lost? What do you mean?" Muraki's eyes narrowed at Touga.
"Your rose was cut. That means I won according to the rules of the duels." Touga chuckled, "You're very much like my sister Nanami that way. She won't stop until she gets what she wants. Of course, she does it much more annoyingly than you do…"
Muraki stared as Touga talked. Then a small ghost of a smile played at the side of his mouth. "How annoying is she?"
Touga sat back down, this time next to Muraki. "She puts the Teletubbies to shame."
"THAT bad?"
"THAT bad. And she seems to have a thing for me."
"But she's your SISTER!"
"This is Ohtori Academy. Around here, that
isn't exactly seen as strange…"
Muraki shuddered. "What else isn't seen as strange around here?"
"Well, we've already covered incest. What else is there? Oh yes. The duels, the Shadow Play Girls, Day-Glo pink hair, homosexuality, green and purple roses, monkey-mice, upside-down castles in the sky, overly puffy sleeves, and random spinning rose borders."
"What are random spinning rose borders?"
Touga stared at Muraki until a random spinning rose border (pink roses) appeared around Muraki. Muraki sweatdropped.
"Okay, I get the idea! Make it stop!"
Touga smiled, looked away, and when he looked back, the border was gone.
Muraki sighed, trying to think of a way to restart the conversation. "You said upside-down castles in the sky weren't strange?"
"Not at all."
"May I ask why not?"
Touga smiled. "It works better to show than to tell. Come on."
Touga rose from his seat and offered a hand to Muraki.
Muraki paled and looked to the staircase. "B-but…"
"Did I say we were taking the stairs?" Touga winked and walked over to a closet Muraki hadn't seen before. Touga opened it and began rummaging.
"Let's see… Dios costume… plush Chu Chu… rubber chic-- what is THAT doing in Akio's closet? Oh well… purple hair dye… home car maintenance kit… aha! There they are!" Touga smiled and came out of the closet carrying what appeared to be two backpacks. He handed one to Muraki and put the other one on his back.
"What, may I ask, are these for?" Muraki questioned.
"They're parachutes. Much better than taking the stairs!" Touga walked over to an open window and looked down. "This should be fun!"
Muraki thought to himself, 'This Akio guy has everything… or at least his closet does.'
"You coming?" Touga called.
"Uh, hai! Hai!"
"Now when you jump, count to ten and pull the cord. Got that?"
Muraki nodded a little nervously, and walked up behind Touga.
Touga pushed off the windowsill with a "GERONIMO!" and Muraki was right after him with a "NAVAHO!" In ten seconds, both of their parachutes opened, and they began floating down at a leisurely pace.
"Wow! The view is incredible! And the feeling of floating is wonderful!" Muraki said happily, looking all around.
"I knew you'd like it," said Touga, smiling at Muraki. Seeing Touga's smile, Muraki turned away to hide another blush.
******
In another part of the school, bongo drums started up and two shadowy figures appeared on a rose patterned wall.
"I wonder, I wonder! Do you know what I wonder?" said Shadow Play Girl A-ko, kicking off the skit.
"Oh dear girl! What do you wonder?" asked Shadow Play Girl B-ko.
A-ko lay in a large bed, snoring away. B-ko rode up on a (rather fake-looking) horse.
"Here lies the fair maiden, asleep against her will! I shall awaken her with one soft kiss!" B-ko said dramatically.
B-ko opened the glass case and leaned over A-ko, obscuring the kiss. A-ko suddenly sat up and looked at B-ko.
"Hey, you're not my prince! He's not supposed to be here for another hundred years!"
"Huh? Wait a minute, you're Sleeping Beauty! I'm looking for Snow White!"
"Hmm… well I'm awake now, and that can't be all bad. Let's make the best of the situation!"
"That sounds good to me!"
B-ko loaded A-ko onto her (rather fake-looking) horse and rode off with her.
As they rode off, they both exclaimed, "Can you make
the best of a screwed up situation? You can! You can! You really can!"