A/N: Thanks you to those veery few people (Like, three)who reviewed chapter five

A/N: Hi again peeps! Ok for those who have been asking about International Survivor, it will start when Survivor Africa begins, (October 11th?) and it will hopefully be out the day after every episode. Hopefully Li will stop beating on Sakura then huh?

P.S. I realize that there's probably something wrong with the date/season aspect of this story so please don't bug me about it. I'm not claiming to know anything about Japan so leave me alone!!! ~*Curls up in a ball in the corner of the room whimpering*~

P.P.S. I wrote three versions of this chapter, this being the tamest of them. If you want to read the version where they actually capture a card, you'll have to venture into the R rated section, but it won't matter if you don't want to. I really don't think it's bad enough to be R but it goes to the deep end of PG-13 so I just wanted to be safe.

The third version is ~*blush X1000 -_-*~ my first attempt at Citrus type thingy so if you're interested in that…go for it. Just look for them on my profile page. If anybody I know reads it I'll die…

Chapter 7

One…two…three…four…Zachary counted the snowflakes that fell from the sky and landed in his eyes as he walked to school. It was wet snow and there was already a layer of slush on the ground, turning everything into a grubby mess. Just the way his brain felt sometimes. 'What a great November,' he thought, not in a sarcastic way. His watch beeped to signify that it was eight o'clock.

"Crap!" He began to run, and after running for about three minutes, He collided with somebody at the corner who was also running and they both fell on their butts.

"Zachary!"

"Huh? Oh, Torako! You're late too for once eh? So much for being the model student."

Torako shook her head. "Come on, let's just go." Zachary held out his hand to hoist her up but as soon as he started to pull his centre of balance was knocked off and, slipping on the icy slush, he fell over on top of her. "AH!"

They both sat there for a minute and eventually started laughing at each other. They repeated this action about four times before they finally gave up.

"Torako, do you believe in fate?" he asked, still laughing.

"Sometimes. Why?"

"I think that it's our fate not to go to school today. Somebody up there wants us to be someplace else today."

"Really? What makes you think that?" Torako said with a chuckle.

"Well, what are the chances that on the same day we would both be late, we'd crash in to each other on the corner of the street, and fall on our asses five times in a row in one inch of slush, and still be sitting here talking about it instead of bootin' it up to the school?"

"What are you suggesting?" Torako quirked a curious eyebrow.

"I am suggesting, dear lady, that we skip school today."

"Zachary no, I-" but he interrupted her.

"Come on. Who's going to get you in trouble, your brother? He's probably skipped a gazillion times. What's one little time? To celebrate our truce. Come on, you know you want to." He sang.

"Well…" She mulled it over, "Okay!" Her eyes glittered with excitement.

"Great! What will we do today?" they struggled to their feet.

"Yech. Well first of all, I want to go home and change into something dry." She squeezed some icy-cold water out of her skirt, which had enough water in it to drown a herd of prairie dogs and was sticking to her behind uncomfortably.

"What about Saruko? Will he be gone yet?"

"I thought you weren't worried about him?" she teased. "Anyway, you're right. He doesn't leave for another hour and a half. What do we do?"

"Hmmm, I guess we could go to my house. But we'll have to be careful and make sure my mom has already gone to work."

Torako nodded and followed Zachary back towards his house. They walked for about five minutes and then Zachary let out some weird noise, grabbed her and dove into a hedge.

"What?" she whispered.

"My mom just drove by. I guess that means the coast is clear." He poked his head out of the hedge, waited for the car to turn the corner, and then they started walking again. "Pretty exciting, huh?"

"Yeah." Torako said breathlessly. Her heart was beating so fast she couldn't believe it. She had never done anything like this before. Her mother wouldn't allow it, and punishment by her mother was harsh.

"Here we are." Zachary rummaged through his backpack for a minute and found his key, unlocking the side door.

Torako followed him inside and he shut the door behind her, kicking his shoes off so far that they hit the wall.

"Nice shot ace." She commented, and stepped out of hers without untying the laces.

"What a pro, eh?"

"Your feet smell horrible." She waved her hand in front of her nose.

Zachary shrugged without a care and led her up a small staircase that led to the main part of the house. Everything was decorated in blue and white. They came in through the kitchen.

"Hungry?" He skidded to a stop in front of the fridge on his soggy socks and opened the door to survey its contents.

"Not right now. Just really wet." She held her skirt out at the sides and let gravity pull it back down with a dull 'Floop!' against her legs.

"Oh, right. I wonder how I forgot. Come on, I'll get you something to wear." He took her to the laundry room where there was a basket of his mother's clothes and held up a pair of pants. Torako looked at them sceptically. They were maroon dress pants about a foot too long. Zachary's mother was a tall, very lean woman by the looks of it.

"Erm, I don't think that will work for me, in case you haven't noticed." She took them and held them up to herself.

"I guess not." He surveyed her curvy figure, then jogged up the steps with her following and went into his room. When he opened the door you could hear faint snoring from inside his closet, which is where Quan slept.

Torako looked around his room. She expected that Zachary would be a bit of a slob, but except for a pair of pyjama pants on the floor and the unmade bed, it was actually pretty clean. "Bat man bed sheets?" she giggled.

"Wha-at? It's not like it matters." He blushed a little bit in spite of himself.

"True, true." She trailed off.

"Here." He handed her a stack of clothes. "You can change in here."

She took the clothes and motioned to the closet where the snores had turned into mutterings of "Cupcakes! More cupcakes!"

"Oh, don't worry about him. He won't be awake until Jerry Springer comes on."

"The Guardian Beast watches Jerry Springer?" She wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, well, that's Quan for you." He got some dry clothes for himself, walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

When she finished changing she took her clothes to the laundry room and threw them in the dryer, and went into the living room to wait for Zachary, looking around the place. A huge China cabinet stood on one side of the room with (obviously) all the good China in it, and a bunch of collectable figures. Sliding doors led out to the back porch. The couch was against the wall closest to the kitchen and their TV was against the opposite wall with two shelves full of DVDs on either side, and the front window was between the couch and the TV.

Torako curled up on the couch and waited. If his mom's clothing was too small, his was exactly the opposite. The sleeves of his sweater drooped over her hands and the pants were a bit too long and wide, hanging on her hips, but she didn't really mind. It was warm and dry, even if it did belong to Zachary, which she somehow found herself admitting that she didn't mind either. She never wore clothes that belonged to a guy before, not even Jared's.

"Comfy?" Zachary poked his head through the door and she nodded. "Be right back. She heard him stomp downstairs to throw his own clothes in the dryer and then start it, and then run back upstairs.

"Know what I just realized? If any of the neighbours see us I'll be in a lot of trouble." He proceeded to shut all the blinds, leaving the room fairly dark. "Now, what do you want for breakfast? I haven't had mine yet, so I'm going to make it really good. How do pancakes sound?"

"Good."

"Great. You can turn on the TV. I don't think there's much on at nine A.M though." And he went into the kitchen and started banging pots and pans around. The first thing Torako saw was Pokemon. "Dumb show." She flipped through all the channels twice, and finally ended up watching a rerun of Dark Angel. When it was half over, Zachary brought out two plates of chocolate-chip pancakes and gave one to her.

"Mmmm, my god Zachary those are SO good!" she took a huge bite.

"Yeah, I know," He teased.

They ate the rest of the time in silence.

When they were done Torako turned to him.

"What are we going to do now?" she wondered. Their celebration wasn't going to be too great. They couldn't even go out of the house.

"I don't know. I guess I never really thought about it."

"You haven't skipped before?"

"Neither have you."

"I thought you did."

"I didn't."

"Oh. Well, we could…um…play…truth or dare?"

Zachary wrinkled his nose. "That's a girl's game."

"What are you, twelve? I don't here any better ideas from you."

"Okay fine. Who goes first?"

"You. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"You're boring. Ummm, okay, how about…boxers or briefs?"

"I'm boring? Boxers. Truth or dare?"

"What do you need all that extra room for? Truth."

"Hey, that's not cool! Do you have your eye on anybody at school?"

"Nobody in particular. You?"

"Well, I did like Chelsea."

"I could tell. Don't you anymore?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because she doesn't like me for who I am. She always shuts me down, and when I told the truth for once she wouldn't believe me, and it's been weeks now and she still won't believe me."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

"Are you a virgin?"

"Are you?" Torako made a weird face and they both started to laugh.

"I get it, I get it."

"Truth or dare?" Torako asked him.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm, dare." He finally settled on.

"Oooh, adventurous. Okay, I dare you to…crank call the school."

"Done." Zachary picked up the phone, found the school's number, dialled it, and waited for the secretary to pick up.

"Hello?"

Zachary put on a really phony accent with a high-pitched voice. "Allo? Ees theese Tomeda Distreect Aye School? Dees is Meesees Vander tramp callink. Yeas, mye son Jeb will nat be comeink. He has da diarrhoea today. Okay bye bye honey. I told you already dees is Meesees Vander tramp! Buh bye."

He hung up the phone and Torako finally got to let out the laughter that had been making her eyes water the whole time Zachary was on the phone. When the two finally stopped laughing Zachary sat up.

"Okay, now it's your turn."

"Oh no, you're not getting me to do something like that. She stood up and walked to the window, peeking between the closed blinds.

"Okay Torako, here's your dare. The first guy you see, you have to pretend to be trying to seduce him like your life depends on it."

She made a sound like air escaping a beach ball. "No way! What if it's…some homeless guy?! What if he smells like pee?!"

"Too bad. Are you going to back out of it? Chicken? I don't think you can do it." he teased, stood up and crossed his arms smugly.

"That's not a fair dare. I should have known you'd come up with something like that."

"It was your idea to play this. A dare is a dare."

Torako seemed to be thinking it over for a minute, and then she walked over to him and stood beside him. He looked at her a second, and then she threw her arms around his neck and started playing with his hair, which if you think about would be a very funny scene, considering how far her sleeves hung over her hands.

"Torako?" he quirked an eyebrow.

"You said the first guy I saw." She pouted.

"Riiight. Um, okay." He looked down at her as she leaned against his chest.

"Ooh, you smell so good." She sighed.

"I didn't mean ME." he pulled away from her touch and slouched down on the couch just as Xena: Warrior Princess came on the TV.

"A dare is a dare." She mocked, and snuggled beside him.

"Did you loose your mind somewhere in the past five minutes?" he looked at her seriously.

"You're better than a homeless guy."

"Gee, thanks." He plastered on a fake grin.

"Oh come on Zachary. Just play along."

"What do you mean play along?" he lost his grin.

"Go…with…the flow." She said slowly, tracing the line of his jaw.

"Where is this flowing?" he asked her as she re-applied her shimmer lip-gloss.

"Why don't you tell me? Upstream maybe, if you get my meaning?" something changed in her tone. Zachary couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it was very sexy. Maybe it was the feeling of her warm breath on his neck. Maybe it was the way she was whispering now. He was determined to put up a fight and not let her know how good she was.

"Nice Torako, real nice. I wouldn't have even guessed you would be the type of girl…"

"Mmmm, like that do you? How about this?" she put an arm around his neck and tickled him lightly behind his ear and across he back of his neck, her fingers barely touching his skin but still sending shivers down his spine.

"Okay, I have to admit, that was first-rate." His voice wavered a little. With her spare hand she reached across him and grabbed the remote control, turning off the TV and then the lamp beside her.

"There. Now that I have your full attention…" she trailed off.

"What?"

"How do you feel about this?" She pushed him over gently and straddled his hips, her behind sticking up in the air as she leaned over him. "Oh, it looks like I was mistaken earlier. It seems you do need all that extra room." She breathed in his ear.

"Mmmhmm, you know it girlfriend." Zachary said in his best normal voice. "Nice move."

"And this one?" she came within an inch of his lips, her hair brushing his face lightly as its golden ringlets fell from her shoulders. "Well?" she looked into his eyes from under half closed eyelids in the dim light, and then kissed his neck softly.

"My God…" now he was whispering too.

"Ahhh, I knew it. I suppose you'll like this then." Torako went in for the kill with a sweet brush of her lips on his. Zachary very nearly whimpered. "Once more?" she asked.

"Please."

"Forget it." She sat up and flipped on the light with a grin.

"Not cool." He sat up too.

"I believe I am the master." She raised her hands in victory.

"You weren't that good." Zachary felt embarrassed.

"Not that good? Zachary I had you begging for more. You were talking to God for Pete's sake, like you were going to die waiting for my next move. I had you wrapped around my finger."

"No! I was just…yeah. Just…just no. Whatever."

Torako giggled at the way he said that.

"I don't like this game." He said.

"Sounded like you liked it to me." She trailed off, neither of them looking at each other as Torako flicked the TV back on.

The rest of the day they watched movies and listened to music until Jerry Springer came on. When school was over and Torako went home, Zachary was left to himself with some very wicked fantasies going on inside his head.