Chapter 9:

"Conflict Rising"

"Okay, Yahiko, let's try this one more time," Misao encouraged, "come on, you can do this! Remember, you're doin' this for every single guy out there that has stubby little fingers! You're doing this for every guy in this entire universe that wants a second chance! You can't turn back now! You've already come so far!"

"Okay...I'm gonna do it..." Yahiko said and taking in a deep breath, he prepared himself for the worst.

Reaching around the pillow, his hand tugged gently on the bra clasp that surrounded the soft cushion and fiddled with it for a few brief but agonizing seconds. Yahiko bit down on his tongue, sticking it out to the side of his cheek as he continued with his eternal struggle between man and bra before it suddenly came off in a snap. Automatically, the purple bra fell onto the bed sheet and Misao hooted and hollered in celebration.

"Yay! You did it! You got my bra off!" Misao shouted excitedly, but immediately covered her mouth only a second later as she realized the what someone who didn't know what they were doing would think if they heard her yelling just now, "Whoops! I mean, um... woo hoo?" This time the word came out whispered and she twirled her hand around like a flag, making Yahiko laugh out loud.

"Hell yeah, I did!" Yahiko exclaimed, his voice booming against the walls and echoing through the entire beach house. He wanted to show her that he really didn't care if anyone heard them outside, even if what they thought he and Misao were doing was not happening at all, he didn't care what they thought. He wasn't embarrassed by her like he would have been if this had happened last year; now, his opinion of her had definitely changed from wanting to kill himself whenever she was around. "Yeah! I got your bra off!" Yahiko shouted again, making Misao smile, finally understanding what he was truly doing to calm her embarrassment, "Uh huh! Yahiko has got this shit DOWN! Oh yeah!"

Misao laughed. She was well aware by now that he was trying to show her that he wasn't ashamed of her and that made her happy. Besides, it was a well known fact that Yahiko had been in a whole lot more embarrassing situations than this. So pretty much, people thinking that the two of them were making out was really nothing compared to how mortified he was when he got caught with his hand glued to his crotch.

"You know what, Yahiko? I think we should take a break from lessons," Misao suggested as she got up from the bed to stand in front of him, "You've been doing really well lately, so how about we go out for something to eat as a reward? My treat for my bitch. What do you say?"

"Alright!" Yahiko exclaimed and he practically ran her over in his effort to get out the door before she did, but he paused and turned back, opening the door for her and making a polite bow in the doorway. "I mean.... Ladies first," he corrected.

"Thanks!" Misao said, walking past him and down the stairs, Yahiko at her heels, "So where do you think we should go to eat then? Burger King? Jack in the Box? McDonald's? Taco Bell?"

Misao and Yahiko stopped in their tracks as they heard the bounding footsteps coming down the stairs behind them and already knowing who it was, both stepped aside to let Kenshin speed by, his arms flailing about in front of him as he ran out the door. Not even a foot away, Saito chased after him with narrow eyes.

"Get back here, Shit-Break! Breaking your arm doesn't hurt... You'll barely even feel it!" Saito shouted as he chased after the red head, "After I break your neck that is! What the hell were you doing in Kaoru's room earlier?!"

"Ororororororororororororororo!" Kenshin shouted as he picked up his pace, flying right out the open door that Yahiko held open for him, obviously more favorable to his friend keeping some vital limbs attached to his body. But Yahiko quickly slammed the door shut before Saito could get out, causing the taller man to slam right into the door, face first. Slowly sliding down the door, Saito collapsed onto the ground from the impact and Yahiko and Misao stepped over him, never missing a beat in their conversation of where to go for lunch.

"Wendy's? Subway? K.F.C.?" Misao continued as Yahiko closed the door behind them, placing his hands in his pockets as he followed her out to the sidewalk, "Yahiko, are you listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh... Yeah, I was just thinking where we should go," Yahiko lied. Actually his mind was nowhere near food, he was really thinking about Tsubame.

Was he prepared to see her now? Did he need more practice? Would he ever be good enough? Yahiko didn't know, but he wasn't about to ask Misao, she'd tell him he'd done enough and that if there was more he could do, he'd have to learn on his own. Yahiko sighed aloud, making Misao pause in her mentioning of various restaurants and she watched his shoulders sag down towards the ground. She pouted.

"Okay, ex-nay on Denny's then," Misao said, completely unaware that Yahiko wasn't even listening to her and she turned to the McDonald's in front of them, "let's just go here then, Yahiko!" Misao frantically grabbed his arm, snapping him out of his thoughts as she practically dragged him inside the eatery to stand in line next to her.

"Hi, welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?"

"Hm, let's see... I'll have two bacon cheeseburgers, no onions, no pickles, extra cheese, but hold the ketchup, two large cokes, two extra large fries, two apple pies, and two onion rings, please," Misao told the man at the register and amazingly, he got it all down. Turning to Yahiko, Misao asked him, "And what do you want?"

"HUH?!" Yahiko exclaimed, "All that's for you?! I thought that you were ordering for both of us!"

"It is for both of us, silly! I was only kidding!" Misao said, laughing at his surprised face and she turned to the register and paid the amount due, "Thank you." Misao then took Yahiko by the arm and led him over to a table, settling down in the seat across from him with their drinks.

"Thanks for paying," Yahiko replied, laughing nervously, "I'm uh... strapped for cash right now so it was really nice of you to pay for it all. I mean, ever since the super glue thing, I couldn't exactly borrow any money from Sano or Kenshin 'cause they already paid for the hospital and the whole money plan from painting that house totally went down the drain so..."

"Yeah, lesbians are pretty moody... Anyways... so what exactly were you trying to do with the super glue anyway?" Misao asked, making Yahiko jump in surprise at the question, "Aren't there always warning labels on the sides of those things?"

"Well yeah they do, but uh... I was kinda busy watching... stuff... at the moment and I didn't see it. I was trying to use lubricant," Yahiko whispered in a hushed voice, "I accidently grabbed the super glue I used to fix the lamp instead."

"Ooooooooh!" Misao said, nodding her head in understanding, "I thought you were just using it for the fun of it! 'Cause you know, some people are pretty weird when they're horny..."

"Eheheh.... yeah... some people..." Yahiko agreed, sweat dropping in his mind as he bit his lip to keep from mentioning all the bleeping bruises he got after they had sex the night of prom. Some of those never healed...

"No one told me the details of what happened..." Misao pressed on, sipping at her extra large coke, grabbing practically everyone's attention with the loud slurping noises that came out of the straw that were completely unnecessary, "What did they do once you were in the hospital?"

Yahiko was a little reluctant to tell Misao, or anyone for that manner, about the whole 'unfortunate incident' with the super glue, but he had to hand it to her, she did pay for lunch. The very least he could do was answer her questions, embarrassing as they were. Besides, for the past few weeks, they had become so much closer and Yahiko was actually starting to consider her one of his best friends.

She was just like one of the guys, only it was perfectly okay to get lessons from her. Yahiko would rather die before he went to go ask Kenshin how to be good in bed, the guy was probably just as clueless as he was. And there was also absolutely no way he was gonna ask Sanosuke. He would only gloat and brag about what he happened to do with his girlfriend and Yahiko didn't think it'd be very appreciated by Megumi. (Tsk tsk... If only she knew the kinds of things her boyfriend would say about what kinds of um... things they would do together when he was drunk...)

Asking Saito was just plain out of the question. Yahiko cringed to even think about asking that jerk. Misao was his only safe bet.

"Well, it was pretty embarrassing... first they had one doctor come in and he was looking at it for a while, then he said that he needed a whole bunch of other doctors to come in too. Pretty soon there were herds of guys in lab coats and they were all whispering back and forth, a few of them even poked me with these weird probe... thingies.... And some weird tourist lady passed by the window took a picture," Yahiko explained, taking a bite out of his burger, not even waiting to swallow before he began talking again and bits and pieces of burger sprayed out onto the table, "they hath toh uthe shumthin toh get ith offgh. I hadf no idea whot ith wath..." Finally, Misao was able to open her eyes as Yahiko finished chewing his food and the endless drops of ABC (already been chewed) burger stopped flying at her face. "They gave me some weird blue pill that made my mouth taste funny and the rest of it, I don't really remember, but when I finally got my head out of the clouds, I saw they had me wrapped up in some huge diaper whatchamacallit."

"So if you wanted to go to the bathroom, could you just go and not worry about it?" Misao asked, leaning over the side of the table to take a good luck at his lower region, making Yahiko sweat drop for what seemed to be the fifth time that day, "Just how much of that coke did you drink already, Yahiko?" Before Yahiko could protest to Misao's accusation of him going to the bathroom in his pants, despite the diaper, a loud yell was heard from the doorway.

"Yahiko!!!" a girl yelled from the entrance, drawing everyone in the entire restaurant's attention as the girl walked over to him, a broad smile on her face, "So here you are! I've been looking all over for you! I went over to your beach house and your friends said that you went out for lunch with someone so I decided to go look for you! You still remember me, don't you?"

"Tsubame! What... what are you doing here?! I thought you were coming next week!" Yahiko stuttered as he stood up from his seat with wide eyes, staring at the much awaited girl in front of him.

If even possible, Yahiko thought she looked even more gorgeous than the last time he saw her, multiplied by a hundred! He completely forgot about the other female present behind him, who was still trying to regain composure after the initial shock of seeing the girl Yahiko was so much in love with and still trying to cover the hurt look on her face after realizing Yahiko's total obliviousness to her existence.

Misao had prepared herself for seeing Tsubame and had dutifully readied herself to understand exactly what Yahiko saw in the girl, but she was in no way prepared for her to arrive so early. Interrupting their lunch was one thing that was a bit on the unexpected side, but the fact that her time spent with Yahiko was now officially coming to an end hit her like a hard blow to the stomach. She had trained him for just this, but somehow the idea of letting him carry on with his mission to be with Tsubame never really sunk in. Misao's head lowered, her chin practically touching her collarbone and her shoulders sagged low towards the ground as she continued to listen to the new couple's conversation that initially didn't include her.

"Yeah, I know, that was the plan! But the truth is, I was able to catch an earlier flight! Isn't that great?!" Tsubame asked, a bright smile playing across her lips which pulled back to reveal neat rows of perfect shining pearly white teeth.

"Yeah, it is, but uh.... you're a little early and I'm not ready... I mean! The party's not gonna be ready until Saturday. Yeah, the party! And we've got to prepare still," Yahiko answered nervously.

If Tsubame wanted to do what was previously planned, he wouldn't be ready! Well... actually, Yahiko himself was more than ready for it, but his disgruntled groin was definitely not in the same boat as his mind was. Suddenly, his diaper started itching.

"Oh, that's okay though, right? I can just stay at the beach house until the party then! Is that okay?" Tsubame asked sweetly, not even noticing Misao sitting at the table still, her hands tightly gripping the edge of the seat as she tried to avoid making eye contact with the girl that had so easily captured Yahiko's heart.

"I guess that'd be okay... I mean, suuuuure! That'd be fine! We've got tons of room at the beach house! Uh... why don't you go meet me there and I'll just finish up lunch real quick, okay?" Yahiko suggested with a hand behind his head, a very bad habit he had developed from hanging out with Sanosuke so much.

"Okay! It was nice finally seeing you again, Yahiko!" Tsubame said enthusiastically and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking out of the restaurant with about thirty guys ogling her as she walked by.

Yahiko didn't even realize that he had been holding his breath until he let it out in an exasperated sigh. He now had a big problem on his hands, or maybe we should say in his pants, and being the full on idiot that he was, Yahiko took the whole problem in as if the apocalypse was coming. He would have gone crazy if he weren't in such a public place so he kept his dignity, as little as he had to begin with, and cooly excused himself to the bathroom.

Misao watched him go with curious eyes, the door's squeaky hinges creaking as it closed, and she heard an overly loud bang coming from inside the bathroom, followed by an exaggerated scream that nearly knocked her out of her seat.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Yahiko shrieked as he pulled his throbbing hand back from where he had pounded it into the bathroom stall, "Mother of! Holy shit! Damn you, stupid door! Damn you, weak hand! Damn you, Mr. Sticky's super glue! Damn you, you worthless sorry excuse for a penis! Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT! Now my diaper's itching again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Misao, as well as everyone else inside McDonald's all turned to stare at Yahiko as he exited the men's bathroom, his hand as red as Ronald McDonald's hair, but despite all the weird looks he received, he kept his head held high. Misao kept her mouth shut as he took his seat across from her again, his eyebrows creased together, indicating that he wasn't in any mood to talk, and he continued eating like nothing had happened. A few minutes later, everyone else followed suit.

"She's gonna wanna do stuff..." Yahiko said silently as he swallowed down his last bit of food, "and I'm not ready for it... I don't think that penis cream is working..."

"I know! I've got a great idea! You can be my boyfriend!" Misao exclaimed and at Yahiko's look of surprise, she whacked him over the head with her purse, "You dork! I meant that we're gonna tell Tsubame that! That way, if she thinks you have a girlfriend then she's not gonna wanna get in the sack with you anymore. Then, me and you can 'break-up' the day before the party and by that time the penis cream had to have worked!"

Several people turned to stare at them at Misao's more than personal information about Yahiko was revealed and she quickly covered her mouth to stop from saying anything else. Yahiko's eyes shifted from left to right and sure enough, everyone's eyes were on them. He smiled nervously, but he wasn't able to control the red color in his cheeks as he grabbed Misao by the arm and led her outside as quickly as possible.

As soon as they were outside, he turned to face her.

"Alright, it's a good idea, but do you think you could lay off the whole penis cream thing? The last thing I need is for the whole world to know about it," Yahiko whispered as they steadily walked back towards the beach house, "Just promise you won't say the words 'penis cream' in the same sentence as my name, okay?"

"Okay, Yahiko! I promise I won't tell anyone else about you and your penis cream!" Misao exclaimed, jumping in the air at her promise, not at all realizing that she had already broken her word and Yahiko fell over. A few women passing by on their afternoon jog turned to stare at them and Misao, after taking note of this, only glared back. "What?! What?! Do you have a problem with me and my friend?! We're a private conversation here, you know! What are you still listening for?! Turn around! I'll have you know that my friend has a DIAPER wrapped around his PENIS right now because he SUPER GLUED himself to uh... himself!!! But that doesn't matter to you now, does it?! Because you don't have a penis! OR MAYBE YOU DO!"

Both women hurriedly walked away from the rude girl, crossing over to the other side of the street to get away from her wrath as Misao continued yelling at them and shaking her fists.

"Yeah! Walk away! Once his dick's all better, you'll see! YOU'LL ALL SEE!" Misao shouted, making about fifteen people in their cars turn and stare at her.

While Misao continued on yelling at all the people that she was able to, Yahiko could only sigh and stand with her as her fake boyfriend. Anyway, what was a story without a good example? Even if Tsubame wasn't there or anywhere near there for that matter, Yahiko wanted to pretend they were together anyway, you know, just for fun, and he was careful not to bring it up to Misao; after all, he didn't want to interrupt her telling everyone in the world that he needed penis cream.

Mina sat down in the lawn chair on the porch, the glare of the sun shining down on her as she tried to get her summer tan in her bathing suit; maybe I should mention that it was a bikini. She knew that getting a tan was practically impossible for her pale skin, but that wasn't exactly all she was going for here.

You see, Kenshin was in the kitchen making breakfast and if Mina knew him at all, he was probably going to come outside and give everyone their food on a tray. She could only imagine what he'd think when he saw her 'tanning' herself on the front porch and she snickered at the thought of his oncoming nosebleed. However, he did seem to be taking a whole lot longer than usual to finish up making breakfast and Mina was growing tired of waiting for him. She didn't even notice Saito sitting next to her until his stomach growled.

"SHIT-BREAK! Where the hell is breakfast?!" Saito shouted at the top of his lungs. He hadn't eaten since yesterday and he was absolutely starving. It didn't really matter that he was ordering the red head around like he was his personal slave; Saito would have used the man as a foot stool if he could, but of course, Kaoru, being the softy she was, would never allow it.

'Speaking of Kaoru, where the hell is she?' Saito wondered, but he discarded the thought as his stomach let out an even louder rumble and he automatically sat up from the lawn chair beside Mina. "Shit-Break! Are you messin' around with those eggs?! You touch mine and you die! I'm serious, you lay one finger on my eggs and I'm gonna rip you apart! Shit-Break?! You hear me?!"

"Hajime! Leave him alone! He's tantring right now!" Kaoru shouted from down on the beach and she threw the volleyball at her brother's head, hitting him with such force his head bobbed up and down a few times as if it were on a spring. Cursing out loud, Saito turned around and glared at her. "Kenshin needs to concentrate right now so he can save himself up for later. In Tantra, you can save up an orgasm until it's at it's highest point! And until that faithful moment when you can release it upon the world, you need to build up temperance! He's filling up to the brim!"

"That's fucking DISGUSTING!" Saito wretched with a nauseated frown and he turned to the door of the beach house with his cheeks flashing a bright shade of green, "Hey, Shit-Break! Forget about those eggs! I suddenly lost my appetite! I think I'll just eat some grass or somethin." Slowly, Saito got up as not to aggravate the rolling food in his stomach and he walked back towards the house, trying to clear his mind of what Tantra really was.

Megumi and Kaoru giggled as they heard Saito gagging in his room and turned back to continue playing their volleyball game against Sanosuke and Aoshi. Kaoru had insisted that the game be boys against girls and at first the guys had refused. But after all the constant teases from the girls and several clucking chicken noises, they had reluctantly given in to being on each other's team.

The game was currently four to one, girls lead, and they made sure that they rubbed in that fact in the guy's faces at least every two minutes.

"Alright, Megumi, you ready to kick these guys asses some more?" Kaoru asked as she turned her attention back to the game, "Or do you think we should let them rest for a little bit?"

"Yeah, they look a little worn out... Maybe we should let them rest. Poor guys, maybe it'd have been better if you had Kenshin join you too. That way it'd be three against two and you'd actually have a chance! Ohohohoho!" Megumi laughed, her fox ears popping up from the sides of her head and Kaoru's raccoon ears did the same.

"What?! We're just getting started! Don't get all cocky now, the game's not even over yet!" Sanosuke protested. It was bad enough that the girls were winning, even though he had been so positive that it would be the other way around by now, but then they had to just go and bury their faces in the sand about it. This only made him more determined to win. "We were just holdin' back on you!"

"Yeah riiiiiiiiiiight...." Kaoru said with a roll of her eyes, "Fine then, next team that makes a point wins the game!"

"Fine!"

"Let's go," Aoshi said, his eyes transfixed on the volleyball as Kaoru raised it high over her head and hit it with the palm of her hand, sending it flying over to their side of the court.

Aoshi and Sanosuke both ran for the ball, determined to get to it first before the other did, but both ended up knocking each other down in the process as they both bumped shoulders and fell to the ground. Time slowed down as the volleyball slowly made it's way down to the ground, only inches from the sand and Sanosuke and Aoshi watched as it made impact with a loud thud.

"Yay!" Kaoru shouted as she jumped up and down, slapping Megumi a high five, "We're number one! We're number one!"

"Jeez, you guys! That's the fourth time you've bumped into each other while trying to get the ball! I thought you'd put up a better game than that! What happened to 'We were just holding back on you'?" Megumi imitated her boyfriend and she laughed again, joining in on the ranting Kaoru started of, "We're number one! We're number one!"

"Why don't you watch where you're going next time?!" Sanosuke muttered as he sat up, shaking his head to get the sand out of his hair, "This is all your fault you know!"

"My fault?! You're the one that keeps going in on my side! I thought I told you that the left side was mine and the right side was yours!" Aoshi shot back as he dusted his chest off of the grains of sand that had found their way into the hard ridges of his muscles, "You keep moving in on my turf!" Aoshi's blue eyes turned even colder as he shot Sanosuke ice daggers through his pupils, the meaning of 'turf' definitely going farther than the idea of whose side was whose in the volleyball game and the complexity behind what Aoshi really meant was as clear to Sanosuke as a raindrop in early summer.

"Stick to what's yours, Sagara, and I'll hold on to what's rightfully mine..." Aoshi said, his voice so thick with bitterness that you would have needed a chainsaw to cut through it and he got up to go congratulate the girls on their stunning victory.

Sanosuke balled his hands up into tight fists as he watched him walk over to Kaoru and Megumi, the icy glare now suddenly gone from his eyes as he spoke to them, mainly to Megumi, about how well they did at beating them. His eyes glowing an iridescent red, Sanosuke was about to knock the fake plaster smile off Aoshi Shinimori's face and permanently get rid of all his memory of ever setting eyes on HIS fox, when Kenshin decided to come out onto the deck at that moment with breakfast on silver trays, all finished.

"BREAKFAST! Sorry about the delay, everyone, the stove was giving me a little trouble, that it was," Kenshin explained himself as he set the trays down on the table beside Mina, his clothes slightly burnt at the edges. He didn't even glance at Mina's half-nude body as she had expected him to and she gave him a quizzical look from beneath her sunglasses.

"Hey Kenshin," Mina practically purred, crossing one slim leg over the other in a provocative pose, "Do you like my new bikini?" She gave him a slow smile, curving her lips back to reveal perfectly lined teeth, but Kenshin never wavered.

"Oh! You got a new one, Mina? Hm, I didn't even notice, that I didn't," Kenshin replied, completely unaware of the fumes that had escaped from Mina's ears as she fought not to bash him over the head with the plate of food he had placed in front of her, "I think you look nice as you usually do anyway, that I do. Now, I made eggs for everyone! Who wanted scrambled?"

The voices around her seemed to be in the back of her mind as she drifted into some far off world, Kenshin's words echoing throughout her brain, 'I think you look nice as you usually do anyway, that I do.'

'If he really meant that, then maybe I do have a chance with him...' Mina thought and she sighed contentedly, hugging herself at the warm thought of finally being able to hold Kenshin in her arms, completely unaware of all the weird looks she received from her friends who had all paused in their eating to stare at her.

Cautiously, Saito returned from his room, the gagging feeling finally gone, and upon setting foot on the deck, he looked from Kenshin to Mina, who was still off in another world with her arms tightly hugging herself as she rocked back and forth, a devilish smile on her face.

"Jesus, Shit-Break! What the hell did you put in the eggs?!"

A/N: So? Good? Bad? Okay? I think I'll put up a very well known advertisement. How's my writing? Dial 1-800- Review-ME! Or, to save yourself some more money from your phone bill, click the button at the end of the screen! Later!