&&&&&

Feels Like Home

Chapter Three

She Starts The (Surprisingly Popular) Club

&&&&&

As soon as Riku opened the classroom door, a grinning boy with jet black hair jumped in front of her face. "Riku Harada! How are you today?"

Riku blinked. "What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.

When the boy stepped back, Riku noticed that a label on his shirt said 'Press'; he had to be Takeshi Saehara. "I saw you after school yesterday," Takeshi continued, and the colour drained from Riku's face, "with Dark Mousy."

"Th-that was nothing!" Riku cried, waving her hands between them in panic. Takeshi had seen? Heaven knew who else had seen or who he had told. What if he got the wrong idea? "I bumped into him, that's all! Nothing is going on between me and him!"

"Ah ha! You assumed that's what I meant?"

"N-no, of course not!"

Riku was raising her voice and attracting attention, including Daisuke. He came over and looked from Riku to Takeshi. "Saehara, you're making Miss Harada flustered."

"I'm not flustered!"

"But your face is red, Riku."

"Wha…?" The sudden, unwelcome voice made Riku jump. She turned on the one who owned it, already angry from being flustered and from the meeting the day before. "Mousy! Don't sneak up on me!"

Dark smirked, his purple eyes sparkling with mischief as he watched for Riku's reaction. "Riku, you're standing in the doorway."

He was right. Dammit, he was always right! "Argh‼" she yelled. Frustrated, defeated and suddenly very tired, Riku stormed past Takeshi and Daisuke to her desk. She collapsed into her seat and buried her head in her arms. "Why is this happening to me?" she mumbled into her skirt sleeves. "Why… why…? Yesterday… was the worst!" Riku was not about to admit that Dark's words had kept her up half the night.

"I want you."

It made her blush just to think about it. What did he mean by that, anyway? "Stupid jerk…"

"Miss Harada?"

Riku jerked her head up to see Daisuke peering at her in concern. "N-Niwa?" She mentally cursed herself; she was stuttering again.

"I heard from Saehara that you saw Dark yesterday," Daisuke told her, his brow knitted in a worried frown.

Riku's chin fell slowly back to her arms. "Oh, that. I'm fine, OK?"

"He didn't do anything to you?"

"Nuh uh." Riku shook her head as she spoke.

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Daisuke replied, "Well that's good. But you mustn't let him get to you, Miss Harada! Ever since he could talk, he's been breaking girls' hearts!"

Breaking girls' hearts? What a nasty thing to do! Those poor girls, who might never find a guy to love again… that was terrible. He was terrible. Hearing Daisuke call her 'Miss Harada' reminded Riku that Dark didn't; another terrible thing. And after she'd asked him to, as well!

But wait… how did Daisuke know how long Dark had been such a jerk? Had he gone to Dark's old school, or was it gossip that had spread around? Or maybe Daisuke had just made it up on the spot.

"Don't worry, Niwa," Riku said, smiling confidently. "I won't let him."

&&&&&

"Excuse me."

Risa tapped his desk. Unlike the many other girls in the school, she wasn't in the least nervous. She waited politely for him to look up.

"Mr Hiwatari, my friend here, she was wondering—"

Satoshi fixed Risa with one of his ice cold stares. "I'm not interested," he said flatly.

A girl with golden curls framing her face gasped. It was still registration, and Risa had volunteered to ask Satoshi to go out with this girl. It was perfect, because Risa – as she had said proudly – had no interest in Satoshi whatsoever.

"How can you say that?" Risa said calmly, as Satoshi returned to his book. She motioned to her friend. "Is she not extremely pretty?"

The girl lit up like a red Christmas light. "R-Risa!"

"Yes, she is," Satoshi replied, without glancing from the text on the pages of his book, and in the process ruining his compliment. "But I'm not interested.

Risa was about to protest but her friend stopped her. "It's no good," she said, sighing heavily. "I'll just go back to watching him dreamily and batting my eyelashes…" She did as she said for good spirit, but her large blue eyes were full of sadness.

As the girl walked off to her group of friends (who had suddenly become Risa's friends also), Risa stayed and watched Satoshi read. What a strange person – he had so many fans, but he ignored every one of them. Now that she thought about it, he was the complete opposite of Dark. He welcomed his fans, whilst Satoshi pushed them all away. Risa wondered briefly if he isolated himself on purpose.

Didn't he get lonely…?

&&&&&

Riku lifted the lid from her lunchbox. "Risa, I need to ask you a question."

The nut brown haired girl sitting opposite her in the cafeteria looked up innocently. "What is it, Riku?"

"It's really important."

"You can tell me," encouraged Risa. "Is it… is it a boy?"

"No!" Riku looked up in alarm. "It's about karate tonight."

"Oh…" From the look on Risa's face, she was no longer interested.

Riku noticed this. "I need to ask you a favour." She paused, her chopsticks tapping the rim of her box. "Could you come with me…?"

"Huh? Why… why would I do that?" Whatever Risa had been expecting, it wasn't that.

"Because you're my sister!" Riku answered immediately. "We look out for each other, it's our job!"

"But Riku…" Risa looked sad. "You never look out for me…"

"That's not true!" Images of yesterday at lunch, when Risa had announced her perfect boyfriend, ran through her mind. "Anyway, I'll be all by myself. I'll stand at the side like a red apple in a sea of pears."

Risa sniffed. "It'll be fine. You won't need me at all."

"But… but what about the people there? They might pick on me and call me names and… and…" A sudden idea hit Riku, and she smiled. "…and isn't karate a guy's sport…?"

"Oh… my goodness…" Risa's eyes sparkled as she imagined very handsome and very fit boys in karate uniforms. "That's… that's…"

The smile never left Riku's face.

"Kyah‼" Risa's hands cupped her face, a smile on her face as well. "Riku, Riku, I've had the most wonderful idea! I'll go too!"

"Where was it you were going?"

Risa blushed at the low and very male voice. A figure was behind Risa, and Riku recognised it easily. A glare replaced the wry smile on her face.

Risa turned around, still peppy from her thoughts. "Oh, Mr Dark!" she said gleefully. "It's tonight, you see, we're going—"

"You don't need to know, Mousy." Riku's sharp voice cut through Risa's dazed words.

Dark sat down in the chair next to Risa. There were fangirls, Riku noticed, crowding behind him. It made her uneasy. "Mousy again, hmm, Riku?" said Dark. "Shame."

"You jerk, you tricked me," Riku replied. "And for heaven's sake, just call me Harada."

"But your sister likes it when I call her by name, don't you Risa?" Dark said, smirking at Risa.

Risa didn't know what to say. She was as red as her friend had been earlier when Risa had said she was pretty. Two Christmas tree lights. "Um… uh…"

"That's it, we're leaving. Come on, Risa." Riku sealed her half-eaten lunchbox and stood up, ready to move to another table.

Risa, however, didn't move a muscle. Neither did Dark. He pouted. "Riku, you're no fun."

"Come on Risa," Riku repeated, ignoring Dark's comment. "Let's go."

"Er… it's not fair to leave Mr Dark on his own, is it…?" Risa fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

"I don't believe this!" Falling back into her seat, Riku gave Dark another glare.

But to her horror, Dark had put his arm around Risa's shoulders and now he drawled, "Oh, Risa. You're so sweet." She turned away; his voice was coated in so much sugar that it made her feel sick. Looking up, she saw him watching her, and slowly a lazy smile grew on his face. The intensity of his gaze made her blush.

And that made her even angrier. "Just wait until I know karate," she muttered, so quietly that no-one but her could hear her words. "Then he'll be sorry."

&&&&&

An hour and a half before karate started, Risa was struggling. She just couldn't get it right. There were too many bows to tie! "Riku!" she wailed, running to her sister's door. "I can't do it! Help me, Riku!"

After barely a few seconds, Risa pushed the door open herself. At the side of the room, Riku was checking her reflection in the mirror to a book drawing. She looked up when Risa trailed in. "Risa? Don't tell me you couldn't get it on."

Risa glared at her almost-karate-uniform-clad sister. "I don't have a book, like you do. Will you help me now?"

All Riku did was nod.

Together they managed to cross the right part over and tie it up, and then the left part over the right. Risa kept checking her reflection as much as Riku checked the book and sighing. "It's not very flattering, is it?" she said.

"You're not meant to attract boys," Riku replied. "It's supposed to be practical." They then tied white belts around the middle, Riku checking the book's pictures more frequently to get the knot right. As Risa pointed out, the belts seemed to accent their small waists.

The finished result were two girls wearing a white crisscross jacket over a normal white shirt and white trousers, a belt tied securely around the middle. Risa had put a lot of care into tying her hair back into a perfect ponytail, whilst Riku kept her hair loose. To Risa's disappointment, no make-up and no jewellery were allowed, and nails were to be trimmed short. The only thing keeping her going was the thought of older boys going; even if, in her opinion, none could match up to Dark.

"Granddad, we're ready," Riku said to their grandfather over an hour later. That was how long Risa took to get ready – Riku took less than half of it. "Let's go."

Riku and Risa arrived a lot earlier than 7:30, when karate started. Promising that the sensei of the dojo would tell them what to do, Rin drove their grandfather drove off and left the twins to walk in by themselves.

Risa was having second thoughts.

"What if they don't like me?" she said as Riku walked ahead, tears pricking her eyes. "What if I make a complete fool of myself in front of them? Riku, I want to go home…"

"It's too late to back out now. You said you'd come with me. " Riku's voice was harsher than she had meant it to be. As they passed through the sports centre's doors she walked on more quickly, and Risa hurried to catch up. The younger twin reached for Riku's hand and Riku clasped it and smiled at her, to tell her that they were in this together now.

"Miss Harada?"

Both girls looked up. Standing in the doorway of the dojo's room was a familiar looking boy with fiery red hair and ruby red eyes. "Niwa?"

"Wow, you said that together!" Daisuke walked over to them smiling. He was wearing the karate uniform, so that meant…

"Niwa, you go to this karate club?" asked Riku. To be honest, she couldn't imagine Daisuke doing any sort of martial arts.

Daisuke smiled. "Yeah. And you two started today?" The twins nodded, so he added, "That's great. Come on in!"

He stepped aside, but Riku waved him in. Risa was thinking hard behind her, you could tell when she was thinking; her eyes clouded over and she put a finger to her chin. "Riku," she said, worry in her voice. "Are all the boys going to be like Niwa?"

Turning, Riku gave her a look of disbelief. "Niwa not good enough for you, sister?"

"You know me; I need a manly guy and not a guy like that." Risa sighed and walked past Riku – and stopped. "Is that…?"

Standing on the other side of the room was Satoshi Hiwatari – there was no doubt about it. His hair was still icy blue and his glasses were still on his face. He looked bored, his arms folded and standing by himself.

"It's Hiwatari. He's a black belt?" Riku was surprised as well. She turned to look at Daisuke's belt: green. It contrasted with his hair terribly, but Daisuke didn't seem to notice.

As the twins walked in – copying Daisuke's example by bowing, paying the woman at the entrance and putting their belongings at the side of the room – a middle age man came up to them. He had a kind smile and a rather worn out belt around his waist. He bowed to them, and they bowed back. "The Haradas, I presume?" They nodded. "Welcome to our Shotokan karate dojo. I hope you two have a good time and yet learn many things."

As he left, Daisuke nudged Riku and whispered, "That's the sensei. No-one knows his true name, but you still always refer to him as 'sensei'."

There were a few other men and women and a handful of little kids, but there were a surprising amount of teenage girls. Were they all here for Hiwatari? Risa frowned. It was weird – there were more girls than boys.

Noticing this also, Riku turned to Daisuke. "Hey, why are there so many girls?"

"Oh." Daisuke looked sheepish. "Well… uh… that's because—"

The door slammed open.

"I have arrived‼"

Everyone looked over to the door to see what on earth could have happened. A boy was leaning on said door. He was smirking, his eyes half-hidden by strikingly memorable hair, and a jacket was slung on his shoulder. He wore his clothes carelessly and bowed very low, as if mocking tradition.

Riku seethed. It couldn't be him. It just couldn't be.

The boy straightened and spread his arms wide. "Your prince, Dark Mousy is finally here!"

"Kyah‼" The goal of the many girls who had attended was suddenly obvious. They scurried over, screaming and sighing almost in worship.

By now, Riku was on fire. She couldn't believe it! How could that jerk be here? He had ruined her evening of karate, and it hadn't even started yet. She turned very slowly to Daisuke, but he had disappeared.

"Hmph." Risa was glaring at the fans and just like that, Riku was back to her old self. Of course, she was still boiling but now more discreetly. "Stupid show-offs. They'll do anything for him, just because of his looks." This was pretty ironically said, as she would do exactly the same thing given the chance.

For the first time that evening, Dark noticed them. He smiled a drop dead gorgeous smile at the fangirls to keep them temporarily busy with their fantasies, and came over. "Riku! Risa!"

Risa immediately went into girly-mode. She somehow blushed gracefully, whilst Riku just stood there with the most terrible scowl on her features. As soon as he was within five feet of her, she snapped, "Don't come any closer!"

Dark wasn't put off in the least. He came right on up to her anyway. "Riku, dear, what is it?"

"Just answer my question! What are you doing here?"

"Tsk, tsk, Riku. I go karate here, of course," he replied, making Riku look pretty stupid. What an obvious answer! He was standing close to Risa to make her blush even more, and it irritated Riku to see him enjoying it.

Suddenly she gasped. He had called her by her first name so many times now! How could she have forgotten? Was she – horror of horrors – getting used to it? "It's Miss Harada, Mousy! Miss Harada!"

"Calm down, Riku, he's just teasing you." That had been Risa. Was Risa defending him?

"Mousy, you're enough work at school," Riku sighed. "Do you have to come here as well? It kind of defeats the reason I came."

Dark raised his eyebrows. "Which is…?"

"…none of your business." Riku smiled sweetly and walked away. It was only afterwards that she realised she'd just left her sister with the enemy.

"Dark Mousy!"

Another shout from the doorway. The dojo sure was a busy place, even before it properly started. A boy Riku had never seen before was leaning, hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He had platinum blonde hair that was tied back messily in the longest ponytail Riku had seen on a boy. His messy fringe covered his eyes… which were revealed to be pure golden when he straightened.

"Dark Mousy! You've done it this time."

"Uh oh." Daisuke appeared at Riku's side. "Krad's appeared."

Blinking in ignorance, Riku questioned, "Krad?"

"I thought I'd left you behind in my dust." Dark left a beetroot red Risa to wander back to her twin and smirked at the boy opposite him. "It seems you're faster than you look."

"And what's that supposed to mean? You cheated and you know it."

Daisuke shook his head. "We go through this almost every time. Those two are so competitive."

Speechless, Riku barely nodded her head.

Dark folded his arms as Krad's hands curled into fists. "Can't you take a loss, Krad?"

"You want a piece of me?" Krad rushed forward.

But someone was in his way. Satoshi had placed himself between the two in the blink of an eye, his face as calm as it had been before. He looked from one to the other. "Will you two stop bickering? You are adolescents – it's about time you start behaving like them."

Satoshi's smooth tone of voice got through to them. They turned away; Dark going back to his fans and Krad retreating to a corner. He also had some girls following him, as did Satoshi.

"And this happens every time…?" Riku stared, moving her gaze from boy to boy.

A very fake smile appeared on Daisuke's lips. "Just about."

&&&&&

What an explosive start to a karate lesson! I know I said you'd get a taste of karate last chapter, but I at least got inside the dojo, didn't I? Same difference…

Dark and Krad's fight reminded me of Fruits Basket's Yuki and Kyo. Doesn't it? Or is it just me? Since Krad always wants to fight Dark when he sees him in the manga and anime, I thought this would be a good translation into my story. Cool huh? (On second thought, don't answer that…)

I wish guys like Satoshi and Dark and Krad went to my karate… they're aren't enough older boys there. It makes me sad… but I'm happy again when I imagine this happening.

Next time will definitely be in-depth karate (as if you didn't already know). See you then.

--KK

&&&&&