It's the end of the week, and senior year is proving to be more of a nuisance than Eiri thought it would be. He's surviving no thanks to a pink haired brat. His gaze finds Shuichi talking with Hiro and Suguru. He's as good looking as ever wearing, short, very short gym shorts and a white t-shirt tied up to show that belly button piercing that's been haunting him.

The coach blows the whistle and tells everyone to find a partner they are comfortable working with. Eiri turns and finds Tatsuha already with Ryuichi and he starts to panic a little. A group of fan girls are already stomping in his direction, and the leader of the pack is Stacy a girl Eiri would rather forgot. Seeing Shuichi looking around for a partner Eiri swiftly walks twords him and wraps an arm around him.

He looks suprised at first but when he sees it's Eiri he calms. "You're my partner okay." Eiri says resting an arm around his shoulders, in clear view of his fan girls. "You sound a little desperate there Blondie, you okay?" Shuichi asks with a giggle.

"Shut up or I will smite you. "

"Hey get off of Eiri Shindou, right now! He's my partner,"screams Stacy in a rage. "I'm the only girl who he's dated twice so I'm special, all the girls think so! Eiri is just shy is all."

Eiri is about to deny her but Shuichi speaks instead. "Eiri is my partner obviously, you know absolutely nothing about him, and yet you pin for him. You and your little posè are pathetic and shallow. Quite frankly you make me sick. You should learn to respect yourselves more."

Shuichi holds his arm out and flicks his fingers at them in dismissal. "Now run along, I'm done talking to you." Eiri stares at Shuichi in shock. Stacy stutters.

"How d...dare you talk to me t..that way you..." Shu cuts her off. "Are you deaf? I said go away, and I won't repeat myself again." Fear flashes in her eyes, and finally she storms off, pose in tow.

Eiri looks down at Shu. "Has anyone ever told you that you're scary and sassy at the same time brat?" Shu smiles and hugs Eiri's arm.

"I may have heard it once or twice. Has anyone ever told you, you know how to pick em?" Eiri chuckles, "I may have heard it once or twice."

"I hope that keeps them off you for awhile anyway let's go. Whatever we're doing I wanna win!"

"Alright listen up kiddos so you won't be confused later!" Our coach bellows. "We've never done this before but our school's athletes do this for fun, so I thought we'd try it this year. In the end only one team will win, a gift card will be given to each of you, and a free period which you can cash in at any time on your gym period."

Shu's eyes light up. "Oh hell yeah we're sooo gonna win. You better bring your A-game Blondie." Eiri rolls his eyes. "Don't worry about me brat."

"Basically this will be a four staged race. Now for each stage you will have one runner and one thinker you're both allowed to help each other with the puzzle you will have to solve, but only one of you will be performing the physical activity after you finish said puzzle. For the first stage you only have 15 minutes to solve your puzzle and get a yay or nay and do the physical activity if you do not finish within 15 minutes your team will be eliminated and the other stages will follow similarly. In the final stage we will have two teams left and they will have only 5 minutes to solve the final puzzle and complete the activity for that stage."

"This is gonna be so much fun, it's a good thing we're partners I suck at puzzles but I work out regularly. So I'll be the runner Kay?"

"Yeah, yeah sure let's just get this over with." Eiri can't help but smirk at the competitive edge in his bright eyes.

"Suguru is really smart though, and Hiro stays in shape as well so this we'll be a little tough in the end." Eiri nods coming to the same conclusion. "We'll give em hell before we let them win though. Let's do this!"

Once everyone has the first puzzle, the 15 minutes start. "Alright it's an actually puzzle you got this blondie." Eiri is nearly done when he sees Suguru finish. "Crap," Shu exclaims, Ru is as fast as ever, Hiro is already running his three laps.

"Get ready to run." Eiri gives him the go ahead and Shu takes off. Gotta catch up with Hiro. Hiro is suprised when Shu does just that. "You'll have to do better than that Hiro if you wanna beat me. Hiro shakes his head. "Me and Ru got this Shu."

"Yeah right we'll see."

The next stage is more difficult, because the puzzle part is three math word problems. "Blondie my head hurts just looking at them."

"Well it can't hurt that bad, considering the size of your brain."

"Hey shut up, you're so mean! Can you solve them or not? "

"Yeah, yeah I got it hold up." The competition remains fierce, but as expected Hiro, Suguru, Eiri, and Shuichi make it to the final.

"Alright you four great work now it's time to crown the winners. This field will be used for the final stage. Now here are two locked boxes. Inside contains a bow and three arrows. I lied about only having five minutes to complete this stage, sort of. You get five minutes to solve the lock, and another five minutes for your runner to get a bow successfully on the target. The rules are you only get three arrows. It must be your runner that shoots but the runner will also be blind folded."

At that point Eiri is ready to throw in the towel. There's no way the brat will be able to hit the target blindfolded. He turns to tell him so but pauses. He looks as confident as ever.

"You know how to shoot a bow?"

Shu smiles, "I do, though I've never tried it blindfolded. You'll have to guide me Eiri."

Eiri tries not to shudder at the double meaning and the way his name rolls off of those pink lips is so enduring. He smirks instead, "I'll guide you."

Neither say anything about the shameless flirting, they've got a free period to win.

"Good luck to you two, but Ru and I got this."

"Oh we'll see about that."

Alright thinkers you've got five minutes to unlock your boxes. If one of you fails to unlock it in five minutes then the other team wins. If you both get your boxes open then your five minutes will reset and which ever team hits the target wins. Are you ready?" Suguru and Eiri nod "Your time starts now!"

Hiro and Shuichi hold their breath as their partners work hard on the lock puzzle. After about two minutes Ru solves it. "Great work Ru." Exclaims Hiro happily. Ru blushes and smiles sheepishly. Eiri curses but doesn't quit. "You got this blondie no sweat." After another minute or so Eiri solves it. "Yasss we're still in this!"

Once Shu and Hiro are both blindfolded and put in place. Coach re starts the time. Eiri moves behind Shu, way to close. But neither mentions it. He situates the bow and arrow in Shu's hands. "How do you wanna do this?" Eiri whispers in Shu's ear.

"Hot and heavy." Shu whispers back. "That can be arranged brat." Shuichi giggles. "How far away is the target do you think?"

"No more than 40 meters."

"And how high is it off the ground?"

"About a meter."

"Alright that's all I need."

Eiri steps back to give Shu space, but his hands fall to Shu's hips. He shouldn't, but he can't help but to gently caress the soft exposed skin with his thumbs.

Shuichi takes a deep breath, relishing in the feel of Eiri's hands, and pulls back the arrow. "Let if soar." And Shu does.

Everyone is stunned. "You did it." At the sound of Eiri's stunned voice. Shu drops the arrow and takes off the blindfold. He got a bull's-eye. Turning in Eiri's arms Shu hugs him. "Yeah we won!" Cheers and applause go round, minus Eiri's fan girls, still in a jealous rage.

"I probably will never say this again, but good job brat." Shu beams at him and it is absolutely breathtaking. "You weren't so bad yourself blondie." Shu moves to brag to Hiro. And Eiri watches him. He's uneasy because for the first time in a long time, he had fun. Bickering and flirting with the brat, is certainly a change, but not entirely unwelcome. Give me all you got Shuichi.

-

White Walls, white walls, white walls. That's all Taki has known for this past year. But it won't be long now. He still dreams of pink. His smile, and his laugh. His love. He grieves. He will never have that again. All his life , Taki has been weak. No more, he can't take it. His eyes begin to drop, when he hears his cell being opened. "Taki Aizawa you are free to go." He isn't suprised. The only person he knows , that has the power to turn his 5 year sentence into a year one, is none other than...

"Ah it's good to see you kept in shape in there. We've got work to do, come my son."

"Yes, father."

-

Ah, and the plot thickens a little.