I accidentally deleted this chapter once. And had to write it again. This delayed it for like a further two weeks. Cause I have such a hard time re-writing things. Enjoy!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kare Kano.

Warnings: You've made it this far…

Not Permitted

Chapter Ten

            The day after they had gotten together, most of the waiting roommates and non-roommates had fallen asleep on the couches. Groggily, they rubbed the sleep from their eyes and started going about their daily business. People began making breakfast, people began playing games of tag that seemed as though they were only created so people would have an excuse to start making out in the middle of the living room, and people watched TV, waiting for someone to make them breakfast or hoping someone who made breakfast sat next to them so they could "share."

            Then Arima came out.
            Everyone looked at him expectantly; after all, they just had to know. What happened with him and Yukino last night? Arima was grinning like an idiot, something they didn't see all that often, so they knew it was something good. He didn't say anything so the others had to watch in anticipation.

            He was whistling as well. Finally, Asaba could not take it anymore.

            "What happened?!" Asaba asked. Arima turned towards him, the big goofy grin on his face growing ever wider.

            "We're together." Arima told them.

            "You are?!" Tsubaki jumped up and Arima nodded in his blissful state. "Wow…you guys are like…monogamous…and stuff…"

            "Good morning." Yukino yawned as she came out of the bedroom. She was wearing what was obviously one of Arima's shirts and a pair of his boxers. She looked around at the others. "What's with you guys?"

            "You guys are a couple, you guys are a couple!" Asaba sang, dancing and prancing around the room like there was no tomorrow.

            "Yeah, we're together." Arima informed them all again. Maho rolled her eyes; she didn't think Arima was going to recover from this for a while.

            "Ariiiiiiiiimaaaaaaaa!" Yukino glomped him as though she hadn't seen him in three years.

            "That's great that you guys are together." Aya put in before lighting a cigarette.

            "We're all happy again!" Asaba kept on singing. "We have to throw a party tonight!"

            "Yeah, yeah!" Tsubaki agreed. Then she looked at the cuddling Arima and Yukino. "I think I'm gonna need some booze."

            "We're together." Arima told them all helpfully. Yukino giggled.

            "Lots of booze." Maho agreed.

*                                              *                                              *

            Eventually, Arima and Yukino came down from their cloud and stopped annoying the others with constant "cutesy stuff" as Tsubaki started to call it. Everyone was happy for them, but at the same time, everyone began to get annoyed with constant cuteness. However, just when everything had returned to almost normal, (meaning everyone had gotten used to Yukino and Arima, who weren't acting quite as silly) other problems began to arise.

            Not amongst the happy couple, of course, but others began to notice that something strange was going on with Tsubaki.

            Tsubaki was pretty predictable. And then suddenly, she wasn't. She wasn't constantly found in the 'Party' room as they had dubbed it. She wasn't running around with Asaba like they were joined at the hip. (One of the many jokes the group liked to make for obvious reasons.)

            She was suddenly a little withdrawn, like she was distracted by something else. In fact, Tsubaki had become downright secretive. The first person to point out the changes was Asaba.

            "You're never around anymore!" Asaba whined one day.

            No one really understood it. They sat around guessing, making up theories that ranged from realistic to the completely unbelievable. No one had nailed it until Shibahime came forward and spilled the beans.

            "Tonami is constantly in Tsubaki's room and I don't think they're playing Scrabble in there." Shibahime informed the others.

            Everyone was shocked by this. Oh sure, Tsubaki had slept with him once, but it wasn't like Tsubaki to sleep with the same person over and over again. Unless it was someone in the group. Asaba was not taking it well at all.

            "Oh hello." He said coolly to Tsubaki when she came in one afternoon.

            "What's with you?" Tsubaki asked him.

            "Well, you wouldn't know, you're never here." Asaba flipped through the channels on the TV looking irritated.

            "Oh geez, I'm here now." Tsubaki punched him in the arm. "What's up?"

            "Do you wanna go get some party supplies with me later?" Asaba asked her pleadingly. "I can't go with anyone else, its tradition."

            "Well…" Tsubaki looked hesitantly at the clock. "I've got a lot of homework." She lied. Asaba turned off the TV huffily.

            "Fine." Asaba said, obviously upset. "Fine." He got up and stalked over into the kitchen.

            "Asaba?!" Tsubaki stood up. "What's the deal with you today?"

            "What's the deal with me?" Asaba asked her, his voice rising in pitch. "What's the deal with me?! You're never around, and it's because you're screwing stupid boy!"

            "It's not that big of a deal." Tsubaki defended herself. "You're just overreacting."

            "Oh, am I?" Asaba asked her. "Well, he takes up all your time, it's like you're involved with him! Exclusively!" And between the two of them, this was considered a grave insult.

            "Fine, you know what? If you're gonna act like this, I'm going to my room!" Tsubaki stalked out, startling Yukino and Arima who were coming in at that moment.

            Thus the two began to discuss the problem between the two of them, because it was obviously getting out of hand. Asaba could be seen moping and snapping at anyone who asked about Tsubaki.

            No one dared mention Tonami, because every time somebody did, Asaba went into a bit of a rant, and was known for never actually calling Tonami by his name anymore, usually replacing it with something that referred to how fat Tonami's head was.

            The subject was only brought up in whispers whenever Asaba wasn't around.

            "Him and Tsubaki have been best friends forever." Yukino explained to Arima. "And I don't think I've ever seen them really get angry with each other."

            "He's probably having a hard time dealing with this because he's not used to Tsubaki keeping things from him." Arima theorized.

            Arima even tried to talk to the usually hyperactive boy, but it didn't really make much of a difference.

            "I don't want to talk about Tsubaki and what she does with Fathead." Asaba turned over on his bed so he was facing away from Arima.

            "Well, it seems like it's bothering you." Arima pointed out.

            "It's not." Asaba snapped.

            Gods, he's acting just like I was.

            I'm surprised no one shot me when I was like this.

            "You know, you're the one who kept telling me to not hide from my problems, but you aren't doing a spectacular job of facing them yourself." Arima told him.

            "That was completely different." Asaba replied quickly.

            "How so?" Arima asked.

            "Because you and Yukino were just being dumb." Asaba explained. "If you guys would have realized how stupid you were being, it would have worked out so much quicker."

            "Gee, thanks Asaba." Arima said wryly.

            The next day, Arima told Yukino that he wasn't going to try to talk to Asaba again for a little while.

            On the other side of it, Tsubaki wasn't exactly thrilled with her situation. Yes, she slept with Tonami a lot but found that unless they were having sex, he was really damn boring. In fact, she kind of zoned him out whenever he started talking, and instead thought about more important things. Like how she made doodles in French class instead of actually working.

            But today, Tonami was going to attract her attention when he spoke.

            "I don't think you should hang out with Asaba anymore." Tonami informed her. Tsubaki looked at him strangely.

            "That's nice." She went back to staring at the ceiling.

            "He's a bad influence on you—" Tonami was cut off by Tsubaki.

            "Um, Tonami, shut up." Tsubaki told him. "I can hang out with whoever I damn well want to."

            "Well, it's just that I think we should be…monogamous." Tonami finished. Tsubaki hit him with a pillow.

            "Get out, just go." Tsubaki groaned. "You're being stupid."

            Tonami left and Tsubaki was sure that she had nipped that in the bud. No way was Tonami going to do anything stupid or bring up that subject again around her. No siree.

            Unfortunately, Tsubaki thought wrong.

            Tonami's logic was that he knew Tsubaki and Asaba slept together and in order for Tsubaki to be in a relationship with him (which was his goal) he had to separate the two of them completely. Tsubaki wasn't about to cut herself off voluntarily. So Tonami decided that he would make sure that Asaba got the message to stay away from Tsubaki.

            Asaba was still bitter about the whole thing with Tsubaki, and the other people in the group were forced to discuss it amongst themselves.

            "Personally, I think that Asaba needs to go out and have sex." Aya told the others. "He doesn't go out at all anymore, and he hasn't brought anyone home, has he?"

            "No he hasn't." Arima shook his head.

            "He's probably backed up." Shibahime agreed.

            "Wow, it's hard to imagine Asaba so upset that he can't even have sex." Yukino shook her head, amazed at such a thought.

            The next day was Thursday, and Asaba was walking back to the room after class when he was stopped by Tonami. Tonami stood in front of him, and when Asaba tried to step around him, Tonami stepped in that direction as well, making it impossible for Asaba to avoid him.

            "Okay, what do you want?" Asaba finally asked, getting sick of Tonami not letting him go by.

            "I want to talk to you about Tsubaki." Tonami told him.

            "That's nice, but I've got places to see and people to do." Asaba tried to wave merrily and walk on by but Tonami blocked him.

            "Stay away from her." Tonami said in a warning voice.

            "Stay away from her?" Asaba raised his eyebrows.

            "Yeah, don't hang around her anymore." Tonami told him. "She doesn't need you."

            "Does Tsubaki know that you're talking to me like this?" Asaba inquired. "Because I think that if she did, she'd be down here kicking your ass."

            "She won't listen to me because of you." Tonami accused him. "You're the one who makes her hate me."

            "Actually, that would be you and your fat head." Asaba replied coolly. "Now stop holding me up."

            "Not until you promise to not go near Tsubaki." Tonami demanded.

            "Tsubaki's my best friend and I'll go near her all I want." Asaba told him defiantly. "Are you going to stop her from seeing all her friends?"

            "I should!" Tonami shouted. "You're all a bunch of whores and—"

            Tonami stopped speaking abruptly. This was due to the fact that Asaba had reached back his fist and hit Tonami as hard as he could, knocking the blond boy over.

            "You can call me whatever you want, but if you make fun of my friends, you're going to have to own up." Asaba rubbed his knuckles.

            "I'll call them whatever I want!" Tonami lunged at Asaba. Soon a free-for-all developed between the two. A crowd of people gathered to watch, most of them cheering for Asaba, who was much more popular then Tonami.

            This was until a teacher came along.

            "You TWO!" The teacher yanked Asaba away from Tonami and another teacher came rushing in to keep Tonami from lunging at Asaba. "You will stop this display this instant!" Soon, she had them separated, and they had to give her their names so she could fill out detention slips. Then they were sent to the nurse. Asaba had only a few minor scrapes and a cut lip. Tonami had obviously been losing, and sported a black eye as well as a bloody nose.

            Asaba didn't think it was fair that he got detention for a fight that Tonami had so clearly started.

            Then he went up to the room where he was greeted by the sight of Yukino and Arima looking like worried mother hens.

            "What happened to you?" Yukino gaped at him.

            "Is it that bad?" Asaba joked.

            "Really, what happened?" Arima asked. "You look like you were in a fight."

            "I was. Loser McFathead started it." Asaba told them right away in case they had any doubts.

            "But…you never fight!" Yukino looked confused by this revelation. "I mean, I've never seen you in a fight before like this."

            "I'm okay, but you should see Tonami." Asaba shrugged. "I'm going to my room now." And with that, he went inside Arima and his room.

            Tsubaki came bursting in five seconds later.

            "I heard that Asaba got into a fistfight with Tonami!" Tsubaki announced. "Is it true?!"

            "It is." Yukino informed her, pointing to the still firmly closed door. "He's in the room."

            "What?"

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            Omigod, I am so done. And I'm saving the chapter this time.