Okay! I'm back! So let's just sit down like good little authors and write chapter fourteen okay? In this town we call home, everybody hail to the pumpkin song! I've been reading manga translations for HYD and I thought of like a billion more stories to write so yeah, looks like I'm never going to stop writing stories for this section just because it's so much fun!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: Lights! Camera! Action! (You'll see.) Teresa, another challenge well met! You'll know when you see it as I don't think you've ever fully forgotten about it.

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Fourteen

            I groaned as I woke up. My head was throbbing painfully. I needed about a whole bottle of aspirin. My body was sore too. It hurt slightly when I moved my legs. That's when I began to notice something odd about where I was. For one I could not remember going to bed. Actually now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember the party all that well. In my mind this was a small detail compared to other observations.

            I was completely naked.

            I realized this one and my eyelids flew open immediately. They widened to the size of dinner plates when I saw that I was sleeping right next to someone. They were snoring away as they probably had no grasp on the situation.

            It was a very naked Doumyouji. My face went bright red as I realized one of his arms was draped across me. I could only guess as to why I was naked in the same bed as Doumyouji who was also naked. My clothes seemed to be all over the room as if they were thrown. So were Doumyouji's.

            I decided to get out of bed very quietly. Maybe I could keep this a secret somehow. I put on my clothes quickly and silently as I could. My head was still throbbing though. I needed some aspirin. I walked out of the room, taking one last look at Doumyouji before leaving. Thoughts began to spring up in my head. Each thought was worse and worse.

            What if Doumyouji…took advantage of me?

            I shook my head. There was no way that was possible but yet in my mind I still suspected it. That was it. No more parties for me. I'd become a recluse and live out my days studying in my room. It would work. I had to go downstairs to get the medicine but Soujirou and Akira stopped me.

            They were settling down to watch a movie. I had no idea what it was until Soujirou spoke.

            "Hey Tsukushi!" Soujirou held up a bottle aspirin and shook the bottle. "You looking for these?"

            "How did you know?" I asked irritably.

            "You've should have seen yourself last night. Of course now you can!" Akira gestured towards the TV as he pressed the play button on the VCR.

            "We made a tape!" Soujirou announced with a grin. "You have to watch it!" The living room was a mess but deciding not to worry about that right then, I plopped down on the couch and took the aspirin. I did remember Soujirou with a video camera but it was vague and felt long ago.

            "Shhhh! It's starting!" Akira hushed us up. The camera seemed to suddenly turn on.

            "It's working." Soujirou's voice said as the camera looked up at Akira who was looking at the fruit juice concentrate and frowning.

            "I'm not sure we used enough water." Akira shook his head. He took a spoonful and tasted it. "No one will drink it."

            "It would be a shame after all this hard work." Soujirou's voice commented. "Maybe we could add to it…"

            "Like what?" Akira asked the camera.

            "Like maybe…" Soujirou's camera turned away and he opened a cupboard and started to rummage around. He seemed to find what he was looking for. "Like this!" He threw a bottle at Akira who caught it. I gasped as I realized it was a liquor bottle of some sort.

            "Where did you get this?" Akira asked him, not looking very surprised.

            "The usual." Soujirou answered. Akira nodded as if he knew exactly what Soujirou was talking about.

            "Yeah a few sips of this and everyone will think our punch is awesome." Akira joked before opening the bottle. "How much do I pour in?"

            "I dunno." Soujirou replied shrugging a little so the camera moved slightly. "Just pour the whole thing in."

            "Um okay." Akira began to pour the liquor. "Hey you know Doumyouji's going to be pissed."

            "Well how will he know it was us?" Soujirou asked with a superior tone.

            "You're filming it all." Akira said pointedly. "I think we're all bound to watch this tape and then everyone will know."

            "Oh well. You never know, they could end up thanking us." Soujirou remarked before the camera seemed to turn off for a little bit.

            "I am going to kill you guys!" I started angrily. "You guys put alcohol in the punch?"

            "We thought it would be funny." Soujirou defended himself. "Why are you so upset?" I opened my mouth to tell them what had happened when I realized that I couldn't because they didn't really know what was going on. I wanted to just

hit my head against a wall a few times.

            We watched more of the tape and it was sort of monotone at first. In fact, Soujirou and Akira started to fast-forward to the "good part." The camera focused on Tsubaki and Shigeru who were giggling uncontrollably.

            "Are you two drunk?" Soujirou asked the two of them.

            "Shigeru is so drunk." Tsubaki began, slurring slightly. "I've only had a little though."

            "Oh really?" Soujirou asked from behind the camera.

            "Yep!" Tsubaki giggled so hard that she knocked over her cup of punch. "Oh…whoops!" This caused more laughter from the completely inebriated duo.

            "Tsubaki's drunk! Tsubaki's drunk!" Shigeru sang in some sort of weird melody. I had to admit, it was kind of funny. Well it would have been more than that if I still wasn't inches away from strangling Akira and Soujirou.

            "Who's drunk?" Akira asked as he popped up on camera. Tsubaki giggled some more.

            "Shigeru." Tsubaki answered promptly.

            "No, Tsubaki is the drunk." Shigeru fell out of her chair. Tsubaki started to get up to help her friend but fell backwards into Akira.

            "Akira…" Tsubaki turned and put her arms around his neck. "You are pretty sexy tonight." Akira's eyes went round.

            "Go Akira." Soujirou cheered for his friend.

            "Kiss me pretty boy!" Tsubaki practically tackled him; they both fell over onto the floor.

            "Ahhh! Tsubaki! Calm down!" Akira told her. "Your brother would kill me…"

            "Tsukasa's not in charge of me." Tsubaki informed him before covering his mouth with her own.

            "Tsubaki, you are drunk." Akira began, pushing her away slightly. "I really don't mind but I…"

            "Shigeru!" Tsubaki seemed to lose interest in the longhaired boy. Shigeru was running around wildly through the crowd. "Wait up!" Funny how Akira had morals for girls but none whatsoever for not telling anyone about the alcohol in the punch.

            "Man, that was great!" Soujirou laughed. "The look on your face when Tsubaki tackled you!"

            "Shut up!" Akira crossed his arms as they turned the attention back to the TV screen.

            "Sou-jir-ou!" A girl's voice sang out. Makiko popped up. It was pretty obvious from the way that Makiko kept almost falling over that she was probably drunk. She bumped her head on his camera though.

            "Makiko, do you need to go home?" Soujirou asked her seriously.

            "No, I'm fine." Makiko told him before she finally tripped over her own feet. Soujirou helped her up.

            "Come on, let's go." Soujirou told her setting down the camera. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

            "Your so nice." Makiko giggled as the camera was shut off. I was glad that Makiko had gotten home with no damage done. The camera came back on though.

            "Did you get Makiko home?" Akira appeared on camera.

            "Yep." Soujirou answered. "She was really drunk."

            "Speaking of which…" Akira gestured off camera. "Check out Shizuka over there." Shizuka was sitting on a couch looking very prim and proper.

            "Hey Shizuka! How many have you had?" Soujirou asked her, bringing the camera over. Shizuka smiled a huge smile at the camera.

            "Not any!" Shizuka exclaimed. "May…be…one." It seemed to take a lot of effort to get that last word out. Then she fell over a little.

            "I'm tired." Rui seemed to fall on top of her. This caused Shizuka to laugh a little.

            "You are…dwunk." Shizuka didn't seem able to say that last word right. Not that she didn't try. "Dwunk…dunk…dwunk…"

            "Your drunk too." Rui informed her.

            "As long as we're both in the same boat." Shizuka giggled a little before putting her arms around him.

            "Let's go to bed." Rui suggested in a rather blunt way.

            "Oh let's!" Shizuka agreed before Rui picked her up and off they went.

            "You know," A voice made us all look up from the TV. Rui was standing there without a shirt on. "We didn't end up doing anything. We fell asleep as soon as we found my room."

            "Is Shizuka still sleeping or something?" Akira asked him.

            "Yeah." Rui sat down next to me on the couch. Then someone else came down the stairs. As soon as I caught sight of them I turned towards the TV, determined not to look away in the slightest.

            "Where's the aspirin?" Doumyouji asked. "You guys got me drunk AGAIN!"

            "Hey, it was funny!" Soujirou protested. "Besides nothing bad happened to you right?"

            "Well…" Doumyouji paused and I knew he was probably wondering how he woken up naked. "I'm not too sure about that."

            "Are you okay?" Soujirou's voice from the tape brought us back to the TV. Doumyouji sat down on the other side of me on the couch. I did not look at him at all. I studied the screen. Sakurako looked miserable as she sipped punch and Kazuya was sitting next to her.

            "It's all my fault!" Sakurako wailed. "She'll never forgive me if I told her!"

            "Sakurako…" Kazuya patted her hand. "If you'll just tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help." Sakurako threw her arms around him and began sobbing into his shoulder.

            "It's all my fault…" Sakurako sobbed. Soujirou turned the camera away muttering to himself.

            "I wonder what's wrong with her?" Soujirou asked himself.

            "Hey, yeah, what was wrong with Sakurako?" Akira asked us all.

            "I don't know." I answered truthfully. "She seemed kind of out of it lately. I didn't realize her and Kazuya were such good friends." The others shrugged; well I don't know if Doumyouji shrugged because I was not even daring to look at him. Then the camera came to Doumyouji who was smiling with a huge grin on his face and drinking his punch.

            "Hey Doumyouji." Soujirou greeted him.

            "Have you seen Tsu…Tsu…?" Doumyouji seemed to be having trouble saying my name.

            "Tsukushi?" Soujirou supplied helpfully.

            "Yes." Doumyouji nodded his head. "That's her. Have you seen her?"

            "Not for a little while. I'll keep my eyes open for her. But talk to the camera about her." Soujirou shouldered the camera a little.

            "I use to hate her…but now…" Doumyouji trailed off a little.

            "Now what?" Soujirou asked.

            "Now I love her." Doumyouji told the camera. My eyes went round. My mind was frantically coming up with explanations for everything.

            He was drunk! He was so drunk! He didn't know what he was saying!

            "Oh, there's Tsukushi over there!" Soujirou's hand came on camera pointing to me bobbing my head to the music. Doumyouji hopped off the chair he was sitting and went over to me. He put his arms around me and Soujirou was too far away to hear what we were saying. I was laughing though. Then he started to pull me towards the dance floor.

            "Dude Tsubaki keeps trying to jump me." Akira informed the camera. "I mean, I don't have any problems with it but she's completely drunk. I'd feel really bad."

            "Not to mention Doumyouji would kill you." Soujirou added in.

            "Oh hey!" Soujirou turned to Doumyouji who was sitting on the couch. "We need to go back so you can watch all the parts you missed!"

            "Like the one that proves you two tricked everyone into drinking?" I asked my eyebrow twitching.

            "Hey Tsukushi! Don't be mad!" Akira waved his hands in front of him as if to ward off my anger. I pursed my lips.

            "Oh this part is so funny!" Soujirou exclaimed as I looked up at the screen. Soujirou was zooming his camera into the crowd of dancers. That's when I realized what he was really zooming in on. My face went bright red as I saw Doumyouji and me dancing. Well if it could be called dancing. If I had to describe to you I suppose it was sort of like humping on the dance floor. I covered my face with my hands, hoping it would all go away.

            "Omigod…" I murmured as I sat there shaking my head.

            "Look at the two of them go!" The Akira on camera laughed. "It seems alcohol has an interesting effect on those two."

            "Yeah they don't act like dorks around each other." Soujirou turned the camera away from the two of us for which I felt incredibly grateful. I knew that if I looked at Doumyouji now, I'd probably die.

            "And that's not a bad thing!" Akira exclaimed. "Hey where did the two of them go?" Soujirou whipped the camera around the room looking for the two of us. Then he spotted us tripping our way up the staircase.

            "Hey! Their over there!" Soujirou started to come towards us with the camera, though he had to make his way past the barricade that looked like a very drunken conga line lead by Shigeru.

            "Should we be following?" Akira asked him.

            "Um, this is for documentary purposes." Soujirou told him in an important voice. They followed us to Doumyouji's room and my stomach clenched a little, as I knew what must be coming. "Shhhh!"

            "I bet my breath smells like puke." I heard myself saying to Doumyouji, slurring so that it was obvious that I was drunk. Doumyouji kissed me and my eyes widened once more while watching. But the me on tape didn't seem to mind that much.

            "Doesn't taste like puke." A drunk Doumyouji informed me. I couldn't believe this was happening. I kissed Doumyouji.

            "Ha! I win!" I announced victoriously. I decided I might be able to plead insanity to this whole thing. Then there was more kissing as me and Doumyouji fell over on his bed. Then Soujirou turned the camera away and shut the door.

            "That's enough of that!" Soujirou exclaimed. "Let's get back to the party." I stood up at this time. Everyone looked up at me.

            "I don't…" I clenched my stomach and ran out of the room. I couldn't face anybody right then. It wouldn't take long for Doumyouji to put two and two together. At least I knew Doumyouji hadn't taken advantage of me or anything. We had both been drunk.

            "Tsukushi!" I heard Doumyouji call after me, coming up the stairs. I quickly closed my door and slumped against it, sliding towards the floor. I was so confused and angry that I decided I better just sit this out in my room. "Tsukushi let me in." I kept silent. I didn't want to answer right then.

            He didn't go away of course. No not Doumyouji, Mr. I-Can't-Take-A-Hint-To-Save-My-Life.

            "Please let me in." He started to open the door but I threw my weight against it and the door closed. "I think we need to…um…talk." That was an understatement.

            "What's there to talk about?" I asked him. "We were both drunk!" There, that settled it. Now he wouldn't need to come in at all.

            "Let me in!" Doumyouji insisted. "I'm coming in there." I felt the door move and I pushed my weight against it. This would have worked spectacularly if Doumyouji weighed less than me. But he didn't. So he opened the door and I almost got squashed between the door and the wall. Luckily I managed to squeeze out between the space. Of course now I was forced to face Doumyouji.

            I found myself frozen as I stared up at him. He had a completely unreadable expression on his face. We just stared at each other.

            Wow, this is going somewhere…

            "Tsukushi, I-" Doumyouji cut himself short by swallowing. "I think that maybe we could erm, discuss what happened."

            "There's nothing to discuss!" I put my hands on my hips defensively.

            "Of course there is!" Doumyouji insisted. "We just had sex for crying out loud!" Hearing the actual action being spoken about outloud took me a little off guard.

            "Well what are we supposed to talk about? You know it's not like we can go back and change anything! So what is so important?" I asked him.

            "You can't just pretend it didn't happen!" Doumyouji told me.

            "Of course I can! So can you!" I replied. I was aware that this was becoming somewhat of a yelling match.

            "Is that what you want?" Doumyouji asked me. "You want me to pretend it didn't happen?"

            "What the hell does that mean?" I threw my hands up in frustration. "Isn't that what you want?"

            That's it. I'll never drink ever again.

            "Do you really think that's what I want? Don't you know?" Doumyouji questioned me as if I knew something but just wasn't giving.

            "You're just trying to drive me insane right now! Why can't you just let it drop? You always drag things out!" I threw back at him.

            "I always drag things out? Well you know what?" Doumyouji grabbed my shoulders.

            "What?" I yelled.

            "I'm glad that we did it!" Doumyouji told me firmly. I froze in my place.

*                                                          *                                                          *

            HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Cliffhanger!!! I bet you can't wait for chapter fifteen can you? I feel so evil. I can't even begin to explain. Oh well. I have to say though that this was a really funny chapter to write. I mean it was just fun at parts. (The last part was kind of fun too.) So what will happen in the next chapter? CAN WE HAVE A FRIGGIN CONFESSSION! Gah, sometimes it's like I'm not even writing the story. The characters are just deciding for themselves what they want to do.

Favorite Line For This Chapter: "I use to hate her…but now…now I love her." (You have to be Teresa to understand.)