A/N: As with most of my recently introduced fics, this one had chapters already written that I decided to post slowly over a time. For this fic, this is the last chapter I've already written out, so from here on, it's probably gonna be a lot slower to update than this was. I've got so much to worry about right now, I'm just not going to have a lot of time.

Movie Night
Chapter 2

Sleep cleared away most of that sorrow, and the next morning was kind to her... until she realized it was world history day. She would have to see Shuuichi again, and she wasn't certain whether or not she wanted to be near him today. She needed time to sort out her feelings first before she developed any more, though it was likely she wouldn't get that opportunity.

She was being silly, she decided before class started. Shuuichi had not yet arrived, and Toki felt bad at being grateful for that. Up until then, she had hoped to see him sooner; now she almost wished she had skipped class that day. Yesterday weighed heavily on her still, even after a calming night's rest. She knew she was in love with him, but she thought he liked her too. He seemed to be kinder to her, more considerate than usual where she was concerned. It occurred to her that perhaps that was the case, but perhaps he didn't want to tell her in front of everyone. She could understand that. They wouldn't get a moment's peace for months if he'd told Mia they were dating the day before.

It might also be maybe he wasn't certain she felt the same, Toki guessed. Maybe he was afraid or embarrassed to ask her out. With a smile, Toki decided then and there that, no matter what, she would find a way to tell Shuuichu how she felt about him. Someone had to drop the ball, wherever it might land, and if that someone had to be her, then she would do it.

But, she admitted to herself mentally with a sigh, she never had been good at that sort of thing. Class started before she could delve any further into it, and she tried to clear her mind for it. She didn't want to think about trying to confess herself to the most beautiful, most well-mannered person she'd ever met anymore for the moment.

Shuuichi was never late for class, not since the first day Toki met him, but despite her inner turmoil, she began to worry when he still had not shown up twenty minutes later, well after class had already started. The roll sheet was making its way down the rows and finally, it came to her, but she held on to it for a while after signing it. If Shuuichi didn't arrive to add his own signature to the list soon, she would have to pass it by him and he would receive his first tardy... or worse, an absence, if he waited too long.

The sheet couldn't stay in her possession forever, and with a guilty sigh, Toki finally gave it to the next person. Class went on and ended at 11:30 as it always did, but Shuuichi never came. For all the relief it brought her, Toki barely noticed it through an onset of worry. What had happened to her friend, she wondered. A rumble within her stomach interrupted her thoughts, and she hoped perhaps she would find him in the cafeteria.

Toki had only just left the classroom when she spotted the green eyed boy jogging through the entrance down the hallway. She didn't know what, exactly, to think when she saw him - hug him or chide him, both and neither seemed appropriate. He stopped suddenly as he saw students leaving class, gave a defeated sigh, and looked absolutely terrible, as though he knew he'd done something wrong and had been caught red handed. He met Toki half way to the doors, offering an embarrassed smile. She smiled back and, despite her better judgement, turned to teasing him.

"Oooo, bad boy, Shuuichi," she scolded playfully. "You missed an entire class today. What would your mother say to you if she knew that?"

"So it would seem," he laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "She'd kill me, I think."

"What's your excuse this time? Hangover? Totaled the car? Got thrown in jail for stealing?" They both laughed a little as they headed back out of the building, knowing Shuuichi would never put himself in such situations.

"Actually, I got into a street fight." When Toki gave him a feigned glare, he smiled a little more. "No, I didn't really. The truth of it is I didn't sleep too well last night... I had a test I forgot to study for, and it's today."

Toki gave him a look of disbelief, but she was still smiling. In her mind, however, it didn't add up. She knew Shuuichi, and Shuuichi never forgot about things like tests. Behind her smile, she wondered what was really going on, but kept it to herself.

"Would you mind letting me copy your notes from class today?" he asked, knowing full well she would oblige him. Toki considered letting him have her notebook for the night, but then paused a moment to think about it. They were headed to the cafeteria, no doubt where their friends would be, and confessing to Shuuichi in front of her friends would definitely NOT go smoothly. For one thing, most of her friends had a crush on him. For another, no one, least of all Mia, would stop talking about it for at least a year. Not that anyone having feelings for Shuuichi was anything new or that it wouldn't cause chatter anyway.

No, she wanted to tell him in privacy, in a time and place where she was certain they would be alone... and now was a bad time for that, as they were almost to the cafeteria. But Shuuichi was still waiting for her to answer him, so she took out her notebook and held it out to him. As he took hold of it, thanking her, and went to put it in his bag, he found her grip had not loosened and turned to look at her curiously. Toki bit her lip, uncertain about anything she was about to say.

"Only if... you'll help me with my algebra again." It sounded like a lie, even to her, but Shuuichi didn't seem to catch it... and there was something wrong about that. "I don't understand half my homework and I hate it."

He flashed her one of his grins. "Sure..." His words trailed off for a moment, and Toki turned away, certain he would say nothing more, and started to the cafeteria again. "But you'll have to come to my place after your other class today for help. I won't have time until then anyway."

Toki looked back at him as he caught up with her, closing his bag as he went. She wasn't certain whether or not he had a hidden purpose in his meaning as well, though she wished it. Shuuichi was pretty smart for his age, but she was certain he wasn't psychic. She wiped the startled look from her face, smiled back at the redhead and nodded.

The second and last class of the day came and went, and Toki left it feeling both anxious and giddy at the same time. Butterflies in the stomach was one thing, but if they flew any faster in there, she worried they might tear holes in her. She took her time walking to the edge of the gardens, where she and Shuuichi normally met to walk the distance to their dorms together. A few students passed her as she traced the familiar sidewalks, but she barely noticed them. Her eyes were trained on the sky, the trees, the grass, anything except what lay ahead of her. Once she saw the boy again, she knew the uneasiness would only get a little worse, but it was something she wanted to avoid as long as she could. She'd already made up her mind to confess to him when they got back to their campus homes, and that was hard enough just thinking about it.

Shuuichi was standing when she finally saw him as she rounded the corner of one of the math buildings, which was a first. He was always sitting on the bench when he waited for her on these days. Toki thought nothing of it when she came closer and he noticed her. He smiled when he saw her there, and once she caught up to him, he started up their normal conversation. Mostly it would revolve around her class, but that was always short lived... and today, it lacked one question: what would she be doing afterward? For this, they already had the answer, and as they slowly approached their dormatories, Toki stopped suddenly.

"I just realized I've never been to your room before," she stated with a shy smile.

Shuuichi gave a soft laugh at this, seeming to pick up on her thoughts. "It's not a nightmare, I promise. I keep things clean."

It wasn't exactly what Toki had in mind, but it would have to do, she decided. She didn't know where she was going with that anyway, but it left them with nothing to say in its wake, and she wasn't certain if saying anything at all had been such a good idea. They made the rest of the trip to Shuuichi's room with a silence between them, though he greeted almost everyone they ran across on the way there. Toki began to feel more and more nervous on the inside the closer she got to that actual location; outwardly, she seemed fine, and Shuuichi never noticed anything was wrong at all.

Perhaps that did her more good than she first worried. Once Toki was inside the room, she discovered Shuuichi wasn't lying about his cleaning habits. While he wasn't exactly Mr. Perfect about everything, the room still looked nice. The bed wasn't made, but the sheets were over on one side as though he had just gotten out of it and left them wherever he had shoved them to, not all over the floor. The desk had a computer that sat a little to one side; a roughly neat and small stack of notes sat next to the monitor. A laundry basket sat in one corner, by that time half full, but the trash bin next to it was empty. Strangely enough, there was no evidence of a roommate, and Toki wondered over that for a moment.

"You live alone?" she asked idly, turning to watch Shuuichi set up a spot with two pillows in the middle of the floor for the both of them. When they studied together, they normally sat or stretched out on the floor. There was only one chair that he tried to insist that she use if the pillow wasn't enough for her comfort, but Toki never used it and Shuuichi refused to sit in it while she was there. The bed would have sufficed, but neither of them could concentrate while they were there. More and more so as of late, Toki belatedly realized, and she stood, thinking it over curiously.

"Yes," Shuuichi replied, bringing her back to the present. "I requested this so I could find peace and quiet if I needed it."

"Mm." Toki plopped down on her pillow and splayed her body out behind her as she positioned herself on her stomach. As she opened her backpack to get her notes, she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that Shuuichi was watching her from the other side of the room. She said nothing; she did nothing. She simply pretended not to notice, but in her mind, she was beginning to wonder if she would be able to concentrate on her homework at all now that she'd seen him looking at her again. She took some relief when he quickly turned back to the open drawer and pulled out a calculator and a few pencils. At least he didn't know she'd seen him looking.

Toki already had her book and notebook open when Shuuichi came to sit on his pillow beside her. "So, what's giving you trouble?" he asked, and she pointed numbly to a section. He bent down a little closer to get a better look at the problems and smiled. "These are easy," he stated, stretching out on the floor beside her. When he asked her for specifics, Toki pointed out a set of problems, not even realizing the randomness of her choice - when she looked again, she realized it was something she knew well.

Shuuichi looked into her notes and after a moment, a curious expression fell over him, and Toki couldn't figure it out. He glanced back up at the book, then at the notes again, then to her, one eyebrow arched in curiousity.

"Are you sure this is right?" he asked, a hint of humor in his tone.

"Yeah, why?" Toki blinked at her friend, somewhere on the bounds of confusion.

"This isn't the same section." To prove his point, the redhaired boy pointed to the top of the page, his fingertip resting just under the words "Chapter 7." "It's not even the same chapter in your notes." Again, his hand moved, his finger stopping in her notes beside "ch 4."

Toki stared at the accusing scribble beside Shuuichi's finger for a moment, then sighed heavily, brought a hand up to rub against her temples. It crossed her mind then that she could use this opportunity to confess everything. Her mouth opened, the words right on the tip of her tongue, and she sighed...

"I guess I'm just a little stressed is all." ... And faltered. Mentally, she kicked herself like mad. She had the words right there, the confessions right on the brim of her mind. The statement repeated itself in her head until she felt she would either blurt it out or hate herself for not doing so, but she knew then she could not manage one and/or the other. She still did not have the courage to tell Shuuichi how she felt about him, and it embarrassed her deeply.

"Is that so?" Suddenly, Shuuichi smiled at her. "I know this might be a little sudden-" Toki's heart leapt, unbidden. "-but since you mentioned it, my friend from high school is having a movie night this Saturday with all of our old buddies. He told me I could bring a friend if I wanted, so I was going to ask you when we got here anyway, but... would you like to come with me?"

Toki smiled at him and nodded, the feeling that had suddenly risen within her dashed away.

"I'll have to warn you though, it is a sleepover."

Toki shrugged, saying it was alright with her. She had no plans for the weekend, and she needed to get off campus for a while anyway. Stress had been taking a toll on her, however small that was. Perhaps a little getaway was just what she needed. It never occurred to her just how much she was asking for in agreeing to tag along this outting,

That had been Thursday night. Now it was Friday, pending the end of Toki's classes for the day. Tomorrow was the "big day," and only after she saw Shuuichi standing where he normally met her at the end of her last class for the day did she realize what she might have just landed herself in.