Um, so I ate my potpie. It was tasty. Then I drank cranberry juice. As we all know, cranberry juice is the drink of choice for writing. So now I can bring you my new chapter of this Fanfiction, which was left on a cliffhanger. (Due to budget cuts…Ehehehehe!) Hope you like it!

ATTENTION To Holly Who Is A Web mistress: Hotmail is being evil and refuses to let me send you a reply back about putting up my fanfics on your site. Of course you can! I'm really honored that you want to put them up. Thanks for the compliment! It makes me feel all special! So go ahead and put my fanfics up, your totally welcome to. Well actually the readers should be thanking Hotmail for being evil because other wise I was going to put up this new chapter tomorrow…eheh.  

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: Cussing and things that have pretty much been in the other chapters. (With a slight twist.) Teresa you should spot something in this chapter…Heehehehehehehe. Basically, some revelations.

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Fifteen

            Okay to say the least, I was a little shocked by Doumyouji's last comment. I mean it had come a little unexpectedly. So naturally my mind had to think of something to say back. I mean, that's just the way it worked. However, my mind was having a bit of a difficult time with the task.

            "Um…" I trailed off slowly. Durrr…Great, my own mind is making fun of me. "What?" I decided that it was possible (okay maybe this was just wishful thinking) that I had misheard Doumyouji.

            "You know what I said!" Doumyouji shook me slightly. "It's what I've been trying to say all along!"

            "What are you talking about?" I asked. Doumyouji kissed me. It was so sudden I didn't even think to push away or anything. He pulled away.

            "I'm saying that I love you." Doumyouji told me. My mouth must have hit the floor. I was so stunned that I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to move my face again. There were three hundred other things he could have said. Never did I think he was going to say something like that. I mean come on; it was Doumyouji we were talking about.

            "Now I love her."

            That could have been passed off as just alcohol talking. Now Doumyouji was sober. Nothing interfering with his thought process at all. My mind wasn't helping at all. In fact it was being just about the most useless tool I owned.

            "D-Doumyouji…" At least I said something. I felt as though I was getting somewhere.

            "I've been trying to tell you." Doumyouji explained. "But something always got in the way! Of course this wasn't quite the situation I had in mind…"

            "I need to sit down." I said before sitting on the couch still in somewhat of a daze. "Why is everything so complicated?"

            "It doesn't have to be." Doumyouji sat down next to me. He put his hands over mine. "Think about it…" Of course I realized that there was truth to this.

            The real question here is…am I in love with Doumyouji? …This question is hard…

            So if I was in love with Doumyouji than we could be the couple we had been pretending to be for a while now. If I wasn't than I would be in quit the position. Getting paid to go out with someone who wants me to go out with them. How many people can say that? No one could. That was the problem. I had no clue as to what I was supposed to do. And my mind seemed unable to decide if I was in love with Doumyouji or not. That would have been helpful.

            "I-I don't know." I turned away from him. "I'm not sure how I feel."

            "I don't care how long it takes you to decide." Doumyouji told me. "I just wanted to tell you…" Doumyouji got off my bed and walked over towards the door.

            "Doumyouji," I began. "What if I-" He cut me off.

            "Don't worry about that." Doumyouji told me. "I don't think you'll disappoint me." With that he left. I guess I sort of expected myself to have an epiphany at this point. Some magical solution was supposed to fall out of the sky.

            I guess the sky wasn't sending mail today. But really, wasn't the situation a huge mess? Now I was really stuck plus I was still pissed off that I had sex with Doumyouji even if we were both drunk. Oh sure, why be mad you say? Because dammit, I'm a woman and I'm allowed to get mad about these sort of things. But right now, I had a score to settle.

            Marching down the stairs, I think they realized what was going to happen because suddenly instead of watching drunk people over and over again, Soujirou and Akira were trying frantically to hide. I watched Akira trip and go crashing over the coffee table. Then Soujirou tripped on Akira and went sprawling over too.

            "So," I let it crack like a whip. "Did you guys have fun at the party last night?"

            "Yes." Akira said slowly looking slightly afraid as he picked himself off the ground.

            "Good…" I trailed off making it seem like I was not angry with them.

            "So, your not mad?" Soujirou asked hopefully.

            "I'm pissed as hell! And I have the perfect punishment!" I announced. I had to admit, those two looked pretty scared, I think they knew what their punishment was going to be. At least that's what I came to think after they responded.

            "No…not that!" Akira's eyes grew round in realization.

            "Oh yes, that!" I was trying really hard not to start laughing at the two guys who were scared out of their wits at this point. You know, the punishment wasn't painful or at least not in some senses.

            *                                                                      *                                                                      *

            "Can you refill my lemonade?" I asked Soujirou, not bothering to take my head away from the pinball machine that I was playing. "It's getting sort of empty."

            "I'm not your slave…" Soujirou muttered.

            "What was that?" I asked sharply as I turned towards him. "'Yes Tsukushi, right away?'" My ball slide down into the bottom past my flipper thingies. Soujirou took the glass away before going into the kitchen. I could hear him and Akira complaining. Those two really needed to learn how to talk without being overheard.

            "I'm tired." Akira whined, he was probably still scrubbing the floors. They had gotten pretty bad because of the party and I felt it was only fair to set them to the task as they were responsible for The Incident.

            "She's a total slave driver. What does Doumyouji see in her?" Soujirou grumbled as he poured lemonade into a glass.

            "Doumyouji's the same way!" Akira complained. "I went to him and he said that I had to."

            "Life sucks doesn't it boys?" I called from the living room. "Get me my lemonade, Soujirou. Akira after you finish the kitchen you two can play video games, alright?"

            "Woohoo!" Akira and Soujirou cheered from the kitchen. Those two were waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy to please. The whole house was a lot cleaner than it had been so I felt pretty satisfied with their good work. Though they got the floor down pretty fast because Soujirou actually helped Akira out, they had to reconnect everything because they had put most of the stuff up for the party. We all ended playing video games.

            "So where's Doumyouji?" I asked. I hadn't seen him all day since the love confession. Which was weird to think back on. With his eyes all intense like that, it was very hard to think so I don't think my mind processed it all the way. It felt like it happened to someone else even though it was just this morning.

            "In his room I think." Soujirou shrugged. "Did something happen between you two? Did you have a fight?"

            "Um…no…" I answered slowly. I couldn't really tell them anything as it was so I just decided to not answer the question fully. It would have been a funny conversation though.

            "Well, Doumyouji confessed his great love for me." I'd say. "So he wants to know if I'm interested."

            "Huh?" Akira and Soujirou would ask together with twin expressions of bewilderment crossing their faces.

            "Yeah, what should I say?" I'd ask just to confuse them more so I could keep laughing.

            "She's weird." Akira would tell Soujirou who would nod his head in agreement.

            Well, it would have been at the very least mildly amusing. Rui came down from his room so that he could sleep on the couch instead of his bed. Sometimes I wondered if maybe Rui was awake and was somehow just gathering information about all of us. You know, like a robot. I had no idea why Rui chose to come down to the couch where he knew he would be bothered by us playing video games as opposed to sleeping in his room where it would be quieter. That's just the way he was.

            "What are you guys playing?" Doumyouji came downstairs at last. We both looked up at each other at the same moment and I'm telling you we both went about as red as a human possibly could and looked away from each other. Okay, I just had a hard time looking at him in the face without remembering that he had just said he loved me.

            GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT TSUKUSHI!!! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER GIRL!!!

            "Mario Kart." Soujirou answered. "But if you want to play you can't sit next to Tsukushi. We already know your going to cheat."

            "I'm not gonna cheat!" Doumyouji told him indignantly. Somehow, I seriously doubted that.

            "Yeah suuuuuuuuuuure." I rolled my eyes. Of course part of me was wondering if it was okay to poke fun at him like this because of what had happened. But that part was getting over ruled because it was so much fun to make fun of Doumyouji.

            "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Doumyouji said wryly. Pretty soon he had joined us and was sitting next to me even though Soujirou had laid down that one ground rule. Our knees touched and I swear to you we both flew away from each other. Now logically one would say that since me and Doumyouji had sex that we wouldn't be so jumpy, but we were. In fact, I think more so then usual.

            "Dude Doumyouji, you picked Donkey Kong, that's like committing Mario Kart suicide." Akira informed the curly haired young man.

            "Yeah Doumyouji, everyone knows that." Soujirou told him in a superior tone. I shook my head.

            "I wanna play." Rui stated from the couch. I got up and set my controller down.

            "You can have mine. I'm going for a walk." Call me crazy but I swear to you that since Doumyouji had appeared in the room, there was this slight tension in the air. I decided a good walk was in order. The sun was setting anyways and probably was pretty.

            "Tsukushi's leaving us with these two amateurs." Akira scoffed.

            "Oh wah wah wah." I mocked them as I left the room. "Get a life you two."  I took my coat with me as I stepped outside, it was still pretty chilly outside. I walked around the house to the back were the park was. I heard footsteps behind me and I turned to see Doumyouji standing there.

            "Hey." Doumyouji greeted me even though we were just in the same room like two minutes ago.

            "Hey." I waved a little with a weird look on my face. I think it was suppose to be a smile but I wasn't sure. It probably looked even worse in the dark.

            "Can I join you?" Doumyouji grinned at me.

            "Okay." I shrugged. "Were the boys sad that you left?"

            "Nah, I'm an amateur remember?" Doumyouji joked as he caught  up with me. "It's just…"

            "What?" I asked.

            "Nothing." Doumyouji finally said after a long pause. He was obviously not telling the truth but oh well. Like I really should be the one prying into it.

            "So…" I tried to think of a good conversation to start up. Obviously the tension was not going to get any less. Nothing was coming to mind.

            It's just getting worse as the time goes on. DO SOMETHING!

            What should I do?

            Anything. Just go with your gut instinct or something.

            What are you going to do?

            I don't have to do anything, I'm just the voice in your head. Haha! You have to do all the work!

            Okay the conversations with myself really needed to stop. They were not helping. Suddenly I opened my mouth and out of the blue came out, "How much is that doggy in the window? Woof woof the one with the waggely tail?"

            The singing, it needs to stop.

            I looked over at Doumyouji to see what damage my musical interlude had caused and saw that he was laughing. He finally stopped after a few moments and I felt pretty stupid about the whole thing.

            "I'm sorry that was just…funny…" Doumyouji cleared his throat nervously. The tension had lessened though which had been the desired result.

            "Hehe." I laughed nervously.

            "Do you want to go for dinner of something?" Doumyouji asked. "It's my treat."

            "Oh boy." I crossed my arms. "Your pretty sure of yourself, asking me to dinner and all."

            "Please," Doumyouji snorted. "I know your just holding out on me."

            "Holding out? Excuse me?" I asked him.

            "Come on, let's go get dinner." Doumyouji offered me his arm.

            "Okay, I shall take advantage of this opportunity to go out to eat and not pay but don't get any funny ideas." I amended.

            "Too late." Doumyouji took my hand before leading me to his car.

            "We going to McDonald's?" I asked jokingly.

            "Do you want to go there?" Doumyouji actually looked seriously. Yeah, someone offers to pay for my dinner and is a kabillionaire and they actually think I would want to go to the grease factory known as McDonald's? I don't want to sound snobby or anything but I don't think people really choose to go there. They just go there.

            "Not particularly." I shrugged.

            "We can go anywhere you want." Doumyouji offered.

            "Anywhere I want? What about you?" I asked him.

            "I'm the one that wants something from you, do you think I would care where you picked? You could want to eat out of a dumpster and I'd be right there with you." Doumyouji told me as if it were completely obvious.

            "So it's like bribery?" I started to laugh. "I wasn't really think about eating out of a dumpster although it is very economical and fast."

            "Well that's good." Doumyouji turned the corner. "So where to?"

            "To Izzy's!" I pointed forward with my arm extended as if leading a charge. "I feel like going to a buffet!"

            "Okay then." Doumyouji laughed at me a little. I was feeling pretty silly for some reason unbeknownst to me.

            "Yes!" I cheered. "But you know…"

            "What?" Doumyouji asked as he pulled into a space in front of an Izzy's.

            "Would you really want someone who agreed to be with you because you could pay for them to eat wherever they wanted? That's basically like loving someone for their money." I explained.

            "Well I was hoping you would fall for my charming good looks." Doumyouji grinned at me. "I know that you wouldn't be with me for my money."

            "How do you know?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

            "'Cause I can tell." Doumyouji answered simply. "You're too beautiful a person." My jaw probably dropped to the floor at that comment.

            Yep, I'm blushing. That was soooooooooooo nice and un-Doumyouji-like! I mean a few compliments are one thing but to say something like THAT!

            I felt kind of drunk for some reason. And I can say that with my knowledge because I had been drunk just last night. I was kind of dizzy and had a hard time thinking straight. Me and Doumyouji entered said restaurant which was full of college students. In fact, not too far behind us in getting a table with Soujirou, Akira, and Rui. I was a little surprised that they had torn themselves away from their video games. Oh well.

            "Hey you guys!" Soujirou immediately slid into our booth followed by the other two. Our table was meant for not that many people but we all squeezed in just fine.

            "What are you guys doing here?" I asked.

            "We heard Doumyouji's car leave and we decided we were hungry. But he had already left so we had to take Soujirou's car." Akira pouted.

            "Hey, my car is cool." Soujirou defended. I had gotten a glimpse of Soujirou's car. It was an okay car but it was rather dented and beat up. Although it was probably no where near the same class as Doumyouji's he was very overprotective of said vehicle.

            "So is Doumyouji paying?" Akira grinned at Doumyouji.

            "Um…not for you guys." Doumyouji answered. "I'm paying for Tsukushi and me."

            "Cheapskate." Soujirou muttered.

            "Mooch." I fired back in Doumyouji's defense.

            "And what are you then?" Soujirou asked.

            "A mooch." I shrugged as I stood up but found my way blocked by Rui, who looked as though he were about to start sleeping in the middle of the Izzy's. "Come on Rui, wake up, I need food." Rui moved and I went to go load up a plate full of food. Pretty soon we had all come back to the table where we had big plates of food. Well I thought I had a lot food until I saw Soujirou and Akira's plates. This guys really put that stuff away. I guess it's 'cause it was an all you can eat buffet so there was no way that Soujirou or Akira were not going to go all out. In fact, it was becoming some what of a contest between those two.

            "So who do you think will win?" Rui asked as he picked at what was probably his last plate of food.

            "I dunno…Akira is a whole plate ahead." I pointed out.

            "Do you guys have to do that?" Doumyouji whined from his place at the table.

            "What were you guys going for a romantic evening at an Izzy's?" Soujirou asked, looking up from his food for a moment. Rui chose that moment to throw a cherry tomato at him. Which was probably a good thing as it caused all of us to start laughing. It was odd how he could unknowingly help out in a situation. But after all, it was Rui.

*                                              *                                              *

            This time, I was going to beat Soujirou's freaking top score on the pinball machine. Rui had the top score for a long time until after grueling hours of frustrated swearing, Soujirou had beaten it. Now, I wanted all that work to go to waste so that I could be King of the Pinball Machine. Well I guess Queen of the Pinball Machine but really it's the thought that counts.

            "Come on Tsukushi!" I cheered for myself as I hit the ball with one of the flippers.

            "Hey Tsukushi, you have visitors." Akira announced as two people followed him into the room. I turned to see them and suddenly pinball was forgotten. It was a slightly miserable Sakurako and pretty darn serious looking Kazuya. I winced at the sound of the machine telling me I had lost.

            "Hi you guys. What's up?" I asked as I gestured for them to sit down on the couch before plopping myself down in an armchair facing them.

            "Well…" Sakurako trailed off looking even worse.

            "Sakurako has something she wants to tell you." Kazuya explained. "It took a lot for me to get her to come here though."

            "What is it?" I asked curiously. I tried to think if Sakurako had done anything bad to me. Well, nothing really came to mind.

            Sakurako swallowed. "See before you came to Eitoku…I was in love with Doumyouji."

            Soooooooooooo? Wait a sec, what? In love with Doumyouji? Geez, I kind of figured that out before I mean…she's kind of obvious.

            "Well I already figured that one out." I wondered if Sakurako thought I was extremely stupid. But that still didn't explain why she looked so upset.

            "But then you came along. You showed up one day and then all of a sudden you and him were going out." Sakurako looked a little angry. "I didn't think it was fair. Not at all. But I had a plan."

            "A plan?" I cocked my head to one side.

            "I had this friend, well we've known each other for a while but that's basically because our moms use to force us to hang out with each other because nobody really ever liked him." Sakurako explained slowly, it looked a little hard for her.

            "This is the first time I've ever been out with a friend…"

            No…No…It's just a coincidence…she didn't…

            "Junpei." The name escaped my lips almost without me realizing it.

            "That's right." Sakurako nodded glumly. "I told him to win you over. Of course it was a stupid idea and until I realized that I might actually accomplish it. You kept spending more and more time with him. But something happened. Junpei's never had any female attention before, not like the kind that he received from you. He didn't understand how to deal with it."

            "So then he…" I began to put two and two together.

            "But I never would have told him to do that!" Tears began to fall down Sakurako's face. "I never would…I would never want that to happen to anyone…not anyone else…"

            Anyone else? What does that mean?

            "Sakurako…you were raped?" I finally got out. Sakurako looked up from her lap with her big eyes full of tears and I knew the answer to my question.

            "It wasn't Junpei. It was someone else in high school." Sakurako told me. "Believe me, I would never want that to happen to anyone, not even you who took something that I wanted."

            "I believe you." I murmured. "But I can't believe that it was you behind this the whole time."

            "I wanted you out of the way…" Sakurako confessed. "But I can't stand walking around and not telling you anything."

            "It was really brave for you to come and tell me this." A small smile graced my features. "I mean that. You could have gotten away with it, scott free too."

            "Are you saying you forgive me?" Sakurako's jaw dropped slightly.

            "Yes, I do. It's not your fault things got out of hand, even if you were the one who started up the whole business. So I guess it wasn't you who shoved me into that glass was it?" I shrugged. "It was probably Asai. Now she is someone I'll have a little trouble forgiving." Sakurako unexpectedly jumped up from the couch and ran and hugged me. I patted her on the back, having a much better understanding of her at that point.

            So Sakurako was behind that whole Junpei thing. Well now that I think about, it does make sense! I mean that day when I saw Sakurako yelling at Junpei after the whole thing happened at the party. And when Tsubaki said something about him being one of Sakurako's friends…Damn! I should've figured this out ages ago!

            I looked up at a slight movement at the door but then decided I imagined it or it was just someone walking by. Kazuya and Sakurako soon made their way home, leaving with a few more hugs from Sakurako. I decided I wanted to think about this latest development. I needed a nap.

            After getting up the stairs, I opened the bedroom door to see someone sitting on my bed. It was Doumyouji. He looked kind of weird. Not angry or anything but sort of…lost. I don't really know how to describe it. He looked like he was trying to make a tough decision though what about I had no idea.

            "We need to talk." Doumyouji stated outloud, surprising me slightly with the noise.

*                                              *                                              *

            Ehehehehe. NO MORE FOR YOU! That's like two cliffhangers in a row! They kill people for that in some countries. This chapter was kind of weird. I dunno…Next chapter might be kind of short…Once again, I really don't know. Well R&R cause it's the cool thing to do.

Fun With Typing:

What I originally wrote:

            "Please," Doumyouji snorted. "I can tell your five seconds from totally jumping me."

            ~_^. How's that for smart?