Yeah, thanks for all the reviews! Seriously, I didn't realize how much I missed reviews but you guys are good about reviewing because you know I'm totally in to getting them! (Yes, I have no life.)

Teresa: Everyone knows that picking Donkey Kong is pure suicide on Mario Kart!!! (You won't understand all you other folks.) Oh by the way! Cide in suicide comes from the Latin word Caeda which means "Slaughter" and looks much like Kaede.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango! I am however the owner of the Hana Yori Dango pillowcase. (TERSA RULES!!! SHE IS THE BEST ONEE-CHAN EVER!!!!)

Warnings: KILL PAPER AIRPLANES!!! No that's not the warning, um cussing and the random boy with marble eyes…

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Five

"More time apart will give you,

More months to argue,

Is this too much to live through?

It always seemed to far to."

            -Did I stump Teresa yet again? I mean, another random song quote!

            I think that life settles into it's own comfortable routine no matter how messed up your life might be. I get up every morning; wear something nice that Doumyouji bought me because he seemed to think my other clothes were an absolute travesty or something. I'd go downstairs, Akira and Soujirou would make some comments, and I would threaten to beat the crap out of them. Then Doumyouji would drive in his car to my first class even if I could easily walk to my first class. Nice and normal everyday life.

            Today though, something seemed different. My routine went completely normal till I walked into my psychology class. Sakurako and Yuuki didn't have any empty seats by them so I was forced to sit in one of two empty seats. One seat was in a cluster of girls who were glaring at me. The other was next to a boy who looked as though he was a little apart from the others.

            In fact he kind of reminded me of Rui. He had those slightly faraway eyes and pale face. I shook my head a little. So he looked like Rui? Big deal. I sat down next to him. He wasn't chattering like all the other classmates since the teacher was still not there. He was just sitting there slightly glum. I decided to be friendly.

            "Hi, I'm Tsukushi." I introduced myself. One could say I was feeling pretty outgoing right then. For some reason lately I had an extra air of confidence, although what caused it was a mystery to me.

            "Tsukushi?" The boy turned towards me and his eyes seemed to focus into reality, much like Rui's would sometimes do. "I'm Junpei." There was a little bit of a silence as I tried to think of something clever to say.

            "So how do you like this class?" I had to pride myself for being the master of small talk at the moment.

            "It's okay." Junpei shrugged. "I prefer my music classes though."

            "Music? What do you play?" I asked him trying to keep the conversation rolling.

            "The piano." Junpei answered. "It's not too bad. Why are you talking to me?" This sort of blunt question was just the sort of thing that Rui would have done. I almost laughed at the uncanny way they were like each other.

            "You looked like you wanted a conversation." I explained. "Just being friendly you know?"

            "Oh." Junpei shrugged slightly. "Most people wouldn't talk to me."

            "Well as I'm often told," I suddenly thought of Doumyouji. "I'm not like most people."

            "Your nice." Junpei smiled at me. I could tell that he probably didn't smile that often. I grinned back.

            "Okay students, I think you've had enough time to socialize, let's get down to work." The teacher announced. For the rest of the day I was lost in my classes and I didn't think much about anything. At the end of the day though I was rudely broken out of my routine day.

            I was walking innocently along, knowing that Doumyouji would probably be waiting for me. I heard a cracking sound, like glass breaking. I ignored it however as people often break things and boys were always throwing things, laughing immaturely when they smashed. Big deal. That's when someone shoved me backwards.

            I had been looking at the ground so I didn't even realize what had happened till I was falling backwards. Landing in a pile of broken glass shards. The sharp fragments tore into my bared legs and I cried out in pain.

            I looked down at my leg where glass fragments and blood glared back at me. I looked around for the culprit but didn't see any. I winced as I tried to move my leg. It hurt way too much. No one seemed to even notice me though.

            "Here." A hand went down to help me up. I saw that it was Junpei. "What happened?"

            "Someone shoved me…there was glass broken on the ground." I tried to explain as Junpei helped me up the best he could. He put my arm around him shoulders and his hand on my waist.

            "We should get you to the Infirmary." Junpei told me. "That looks pretty bad."

            "No, it's no that bad, I have someone waiting for me." I winced a little as we started to walk. "I just need to get to the parking lot."

            "I wonder why someone would shove you like that…" Junpei was frowning. "Your so nice to everyone."

            "Well not all the time…" I thought of Asai. She seemed the likely culprit in this particular episode. Of course I had no proof. "Sometimes I have to stick up for myself." We got to the parking lot were Doumyouji saw me and his eyes widened. He ran over to me and immediately started with a barrage of questions.

            "Who did this? What happened? Whose this guy?" Doumyouji started asking me right away. He took me from Junpei, actually picking me up, off of my feet.

            "You don't have to carry me!" I insisted. "That's Junpei, he helped me walk out here. Someone pushed me into a bunch of broken glass." I explained, answering all his questions that I could.

            "If I find out who did it…" Doumyouji was shaking with anger. Him. Who would have thought? Though it could have been just common courtesy on his part. I mean Doumyouji wasn't totally heartless.

            "Thanks Junpei." I smiled at him. He waved at me as Doumyouji carried me to the car, putting me down gently on the seat.

            "We need to get to the Infirmary." Doumyouji turned the key and engine roared to life. I buckled my seatbelt, as I knew that Doumyouji was going to drive like there was no tomorrow. Well with the speed he was going, there probably wouldn't be.

            "But they charge it to the parents…" I began to protest.

            "Then I'll cover it!" Doumyouji told me as we pulled around the building to the Infirmary where people were walking in and out. Doumyouji pulled me out of my seat even when I tried to say that I could walk. Apparently he was just not going to hear reason or something.

            We walked inside and as soon as the nurse saw Doumyouji she jumped into action. I was soon letting the doctor examine my legs.

            "I'm going to pull this glass out, it's going to hurt a lot." The doctor murmured. He put on a pair of gloves and started to pull out the glass fragments. I twisted away in pain. Doumyouji started to squeeze my hand.

            "Ouch!" I cried out as another piece of glass came out. Doumyouji squeezed my hand even harder and I tried to focus on the pain of that. After what seemed like hours, the doctor finally pulled the last piece from my leg. He began to bandage my leg up.

            "You have to be careful next time." The doctor told me as he finished bandaging me up. "Though why they allow broken glass to just lay on sidewalks is beyond me! What a health hazard."

            "You're telling me." I cracked even though my leg still hurt.

            "I must say though, you two make a wonderful couple." The doctor smiled at us. "You can really see you two are close." I was a little taken aback. You…can? Maybe this doctor is losing it. Then I realized that Doumyouji hadn't let go of my hand.

            "Thank you so much." I slid off the table. My leg hurt a little but I was okay. It would take a lot more than some broken glass to take me down. Doumyouji and I walked back out to the car. "I can't believe that doctor! I don't think we make that convincing of a couple."

            Doumyouji chose to remain silent for a little bit which made me look at him funny of course. I mean isn't this the part where he says something like "Yeah that doctor sure was stupid." But he wasn't saying anything at all. He was just driving.

            "Um…Doumyouji?" I raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

            "What?" He asked me.

            "Thanks for taking me to the Infirmary." I smiled at him. "Although it was really painful!"

            "Your welcome." Doumyouji flashed me a large smile. "You squeezed my hand to death though!"

            "What? You were the one squeezing my hand!" I argued then I thought back how at times I would grip his hand so that maybe he could take away some of the pain. That was the subconscious thought anyway. "Well…you were the one who started it." I felt somewhat like that was a victorious statement. It would have been if I were six.

            "You looked like you were in a lot of pain." Doumyouji informed me. "I was trying to help."

            "That's you, Mr. Helpful." I joked. "Thanks though. It was nice of you." Doumyouji's eyes turned from the road to me. I wondered what he was staring at but he quickly looked back at the road as not to hit anything.

            "Do you need any help getting out?" Doumyouji asked me as we pulled up in front of the house.

            "I didn't lose a leg!" I protested as I opened up my door before Doumyouji could. I could tell from the way that his face fell slightly he probably was going to try to open my door. We walked inside the house we're we found Akira, Soujirou, and Rui watching The Empire Strikes Back. Akira and Soujirou were acting out all the light saber fights with the mop and broom. Rui was watching them and not really the movie.

            "So this is what you guys do when I'm not around." Doumyouji shook his head. "That's kind of sad."

            "Hey! This movie rules." Akira told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

            "It was on TV!" Soujirou took advantage of Akira being distracted to stab him in the side with the broom.

            "Ahhh!" Akira cried out before suddenly blinking at me. "Hey, what happened to your leg?"

            "I um, fell." I lied because one, I was sick of telling the story over and over again. Two, I kind of didn't want anyone to know. I know it was weird what we'll do.

            "Did you trip and fall on Doumyouji? Maybe he'll let us eat his Lucky Charms." Soujirou's mouth was twitching suggesting that he thought he was incredibly funny. I knew what he was hinting at.

            "I'm hungry." Rui finally tore himself away from the TV. "And bored."

            "Yeah if only you could be amused by fake light saber fights carried out with cleaning items." I'm sorry I had to say it. I mean I like Star Wars as well as the next person but I wasn't really into it like Akira and Soujirou were.

            "You know how many times they've watched that movie?" Doumyouji asked me. "About three million times since we first entered college!"

            "That's not true!" Soujirou insisted.

            "I'm hungry." Rui repeated himself.

            "Let's eat something so Rui will stop whining." Doumyouji sighed. Rui sat up in a sort of enthusiastic gesture when he got his way.

            "There's not a whole lot of stuff here." Soujirou told him. "Just so you know." Doumyouji rolled his eyes.

            "I suppose that means I have to go out and feed you all." Doumyouji shook his head. "We'll let's go out to eat then."

            "Can we ride in your car?" Akira asked much like a little kid. I laughed. I had been riding all over in that car and even got to drive it though not for very long so it wasn't that big of a deal. Doumyouji gave him a look as if debating it inside his head.

            "Oh Doumyouji, I'm sure they won't scratch it or anything." I had to feel a slight endearment to these boys who had become apart of my every day life.

            "See, Tsukushi thinks we should get to ride in the car!" Soujirou was obviously using that as his only argument.

            "I don't know…" Doumyouji was trying to hide a smile which meant he was just torturing the boys on principle.

            "Stop antagonizing them. Come on let's get in the car." I told everyone before turning right around limping slightly. We all loaded up into Doumyouji's car, I got to sit in the front seat even though Akira and Soujirou went on an all out shotgun war. Doumyouji told them to get in the back or they could just not ride in the car.

            We were going at a fast speed but not the maniac ones at which Doumyouji like to revert too. Soujirou and Akira were talking loudly in the backseat while Rui was kind of quiet like always.

            "Taco Bell! Taco Bell!" Soujirou and Akira chanted together as we drove right by a glowing Taco Bell sign. "Hey!" The cried out indignantly.

            "Get a life." Doumyouji told them. "I hate Taco Bell."

            "I want to go to Dairy Queen." Rui spoke up. Doumyouji suddenly turned so sharply I just knew we were going to end up flipped over but luckily we didn't. We pulled right into the parking lot of a Dairy Queen.

            "Since when did Rui get to pick the restaurant?" Akira grumbled as we got out of the car.

            "I wanted to go here anyways." Doumyouji put emphasis on the fact that it was him. Trust Doumyouji to give a little disclaimer like that. I shook my head. We walked in and ordered before Akira and Soujirou sat down opposite of Doumyouji and me. They had to scoot over so Rui could sit down.

            "Number 876." The person announced.

            "I want to get it!" Soujirou volunteered taking our ticket. He had to walk on the table though because he was on the inside of the booth. We all shook our heads. He came back with our food. We sat there separating it until Doumyouji made an annoyed sound.

            "I forgot to order a blizzard!" Doumyouji hit his fist on the table in irritation.

            "Why don't you just share Tsukushi's?" Soujirou asked him as if that was the obvious solution. Doumyouji's face went red.

            "There's only one spoon!" I protested feeling the familiar rush of heat to my face.

            "So?" Akira gave me a weird look. "Don't tell me you guys haven't done anything yet!" I would have given anything to pour Akira's soda over his head and call him stupid for suggesting that we should do anything. But Doumyouji answered before me.

            "Akira, I don't think what I do with my girlfriend is any business of yours." Doumyouji took the spoon from my hand. He ate a big bite out of my blizzard. I ground the heel of my foot into his foot. I snatched my spoon back.

            "That's my blizzard." I told him very primly eating some of it.

            "That's the closest that their going to get to frenching." Soujirou whispered to Akira, which of course we all heard. My face went bright red and choked on my spoon.

            "Shut up you guys!" I brandished my spoon threateningly.

            "Beware the mighty spoon of Tsukushi." Rui joked before eating a French fry.

            "That's right." I gave them wary looks. I dug into my food and shot a dirty look at Doumyouji when he took my spoon from me again, eating more of my blizzard. I decided not to push the subject because there would probably be some suspicions. So I kept quiet though through the looks I kept giving Doumyouji it was clear that I thought he must have some nerve. Which was exactly what I thought.

            We finished up and went back home. We went into the living room to hang out. Doumyouji sat next to me on the couch, which was what he was supposed to do.

            "You two are really weird." Soujirou pronounced. "I mean, you wouldn't even think you two are dating…"

            "What are we watching?" Doumyouji changed the subject but not without pulling yet another stunt that night. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me towards him.

            "I can't decide." Akira looked over the large collection of tapes. "Hey look, it's the tape of that New Year party we went to! I didn't know we still had that…Oh well, um…" Akira couldn't seem to make up his mind. "Screw this I'm going to kick Soujirou's ass at Mario Kart." I rolled my eyes as those two got out controllers. Rui didn't want to play so both Doumyouji and me got one too.

            "Funny, I don't remember saying I wanted to play." I muttered as I slipped a little away from Doumyouji. We quickly picked our racers. (I beat everyone out and got Toad, who was my favorite.)

            At first the racing was going quite well and everyone was having a great time. Then I felt the competition start to really take off. I was winning in a race and the only person that could possible beat me was Doumyouji. I dodged out of the way of a green turtle shell. I was going to show him that I was not easy to beat at this game.

            "She's gonna win! I don't want to be beat by a girl!" Soujirou groaned as I saw the finish line. Doumyouji then did the biggest cheat I have ever witnessed.

            He put a hand on my leg.

            I swear that I must have jumped at least ten feet in the air at that moment. I saw my car on screen wildly fly off. Doumyouji's own car past the finish line with Akira and Soujirou cheering. I was not so excited about it. I slammed my controller on the table before stomping away. I'm sorry, that was just uncool. I realize we had to act like a couple but that did not include him grabbing my leg so that I wouldn't win at Mario Kart.

            I slammed my bedroom door so hard that at first I was scared that it might come right off the hinges. Then I sat on my bed so that I could be furious without my leg hurting too much. I pulled out my Psychology book and started pretending to read it. I say pretending because I tried to read it but I realized pretty fast that I wasn't really reading it because I was pissed.

            Then I decided to pull an act of utmost defiance. I put my hair up in braided pigtails, which I knew made me look even plainer. Then I changed into my clothes. I felt much better with pants on; I can't begin to tell you. I decided to just sit there looking out my window. There was a knock at the door.

            "Who is it?" I asked grumpily.

            "It's me." I could hear Doumyouji's slightly apologetic tone even though he wasn't apologizing.

            "Go away." Was my instant reply.

            "Come on, let me in…" Doumyouji pleaded. "I'm really sorry."

            "You should be." I told him. "Now go away." My door opened and I could feel the vein throbbing in my head as Doumyouji stepped inside. I was half tempted to throw a shoe at his head, which wouldn't have been a crime in my opinion. "Did you not hear me? I said go away not come inside."

            "Why are you so mad at me? It isn't that big of a deal." Doumyouji asked me in a demanding tone.

            "Your so stupid! It is a big deal!" I stood on my feet, trying to face him down. It must have been funny looking because Doumyouji towered over me. "You grabbed me in front of everyone like that!"

            "I don't know what I was thinking!" Doumyouji shook his head. "I thought it would be…funny that's all! I'm sorry okay?"

            "Are you really?" I asked him still wary of him.

            "I really am." Doumyouji put up a hand as if swearing. I bit my lip. Should I forgive him or hit him upside the head. I was kind of proud of him for apologizing other than trying to just pass it off. Much like the kissing episode.

            "Okay, fine. I know how hard it would be for you if you didn't have me to ward off all those other girls." I rolled my eyes and shrugged trying to make it seem unimportant.

            "You think that's why I apologized?" Doumyouji's serious tone made me blink a few times in confusion. Why does he keep saying things like that? They make me feel weird…

            "That would be my first guess." I replied.

            "Well it's not." Doumyouji told me. "Are you going to bed?"

            "I thought I'd read." I pointed to my discarded psychology book. "Why?"

            "Akira and Soujirou said we have to have a re-match but Soujirou has to sit between us." Doumyouji grinned at me. "So how about it?"

            "Your on." I grinned back, feeling my competitive spirit rise.

            "Do you have to wear your hair like that?" Doumyouji asked me.

            "Well I'll just stop at the salon on my way down the stairs." I said sarcastically. "Stop whining." We went downstairs and I had my rematch. (I won of course.) It was actually a lot of fun. But still I had to dwell on certain things that I didn't really understand. Like things that Doumyouji kept saying. Maybe I was just overanalyzing things but it seemed like there was always some double meaning to some of those things he said.

___________

            I started to write the first part of the next chapter when I realized that I shouldn't be writing it on this chapter. That proves that I need to keep myself together. I finally got in touch with my oldest friend! But apparently he's taller than me! DAMN YOU! Heehee. I might have more up soon. I don't know. 

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "So this is what you guys do when I'm not around? That's kind of sad." (Thank you Doumyouji. ^_^)