Chapter 10:

By the time the art show rolled around, Sou-chan had finished five beautiful paintings in only seven hours. That's pretty impressive for Sou-chan to work that fast. The professor must have threatened him with something big. After about five hours of staying up with Sou-chan, I went to bed, but I had fallen asleep in his room. I don't know why I even went to Sou-chan's room in the first place. Maybe it was the smell that drew me to it. Whatever the case, I fell asleep in his bed.

The next morning, as I rolled over in my sleep, my hand landed on something that hadn't been there the night before. I opened my foggy eyes and glanced over at my hand. I rubbed my eyes, attempting to get a better view of my new bed guest. I fumbled for my glasses, and I shoved them on my face. My hand was on Sou-chan's hip! I gasped in surprise and scrambled to get out of bed. My feet got caught in the sheets and I fell to the floor. Trust me, I was sore for a while after that one. My head hurt the most, probably because my glasses were pressed against my face. I heard Sou-chan murmured in his sleep, and I sat up.

"Sou-chan," I whispered. Sou-chan had sat up, and he was rubbing his eyes.

"Did you sleep well, Kio?" he mumbled. Heh, Sou-chan was still half-asleep. He probably didn't even realize that I fell from the bed and that I was even there before he woke up.

"Yeah," I yawned. I heard the sound of fingers striking a lighter, and then the sweet smell of Seven Stars floated around the room. "It's kinda early for that, isn't it, Sou-chan?" Sou-chan exhaled, a small plume of smoke escaping his lips.

"We need to submit our work today," he said, a little less groggy that before.

The professor was very pleased with the drawings I brought in. I was a little disappointed that he disliked my portrait of Sou-chan, but he liked my other drawing I did of a girl I work with. She's very beautiful. In fact, her beauty rivals that of Sou-chan's. I was kinda disappointed that Sou-chan wasn't standing with me and looking at all my pieces. He stood back against the wall, contently smoking his cigarette.

When Sou-chan showed the professor his submissions, I stood by in case the professor got pissed off again. Sou-chan proudly displayed his paintings. I had already seen three of them, since I was awake when he painted them, but the other two I didn't recognize. The fourth one Sou-chan showed was a beautiful painting of a lily with beautiful blue butterflies. I told Sou-chan later that day that that one was definitely going on the wall in our apartment. The fifth painting, though, was of a person, actually of two people. On one half of the painting he had drawn me standing by the window with a sucker in my mouth and a sketchbook in my hands. The other half was a not-so-familiar face. Who ever it was still had her ears, and she was really young. Then, I realized that she was a he. She looked exactly like Aoyagi Ritsuka! Damn, he looks really girly!

The professor took our pieces and kept them in his office, promising to set them up for us at the exhibition. We were both excited to go. Sou-chan wanted to drag the Aoyagi kid with us. I had no complaints. As long Sou-chan didn't try anything kinky with him, I was fine with his coming.

But, we didn't attend the exhibition like we planned months before. The night before we were going to go, Sou-chan announced that we were going to Yokohama.

"But, Sou-chan, I wanted to show you my art," I protested, attempting to grab hold of his sleeve. I had been waiting for months to show my drawing to him, and now he wanted to go somewhere else! Sou-chan smiled and waved my hand away.

"I've seen your art," he said. "It's very beautiful, Kio." My cheeks burnt bright red again, like when Sou-chan told me he wanted me for a nude model. Had he really seen my portrait of him? I wanted to show it to him myself, not the other way around.

So, as Sou-chan had planned, we went to Yokohama. But, we ran into the real reason why Sou-chan wanted to go in the first place.