Monopoly
By: Shozetsku
Disclaimer/Warnings/Authoress Notes:

-I do not own Juvenile Orion, Sakurako Gokurakuin does, nor do I own "If Only She Knew" by Michelle Branch but I suggest listening to it while reading this, it's very fitting and the initial inspiration behind this fic. The monopoly bit was just an 'add on' I thought of later, but I don't own that either.

-ItsuKana, KanaMana, cursing, one sided love, threats of suicide and shonen ai. -- Don't approve of some of this? Don't read, but don't worry I'm religiously adverse to character death and don't think I have the stomach to write such a thing.

-So far the only pairings I have are listed, I'm open to put in others you need only ask me and I'll see what I can do. Enjoy the ficcie!

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And he really wanted to jump.

Haruna looked up from her notes, her brother did not just think that, did he? He wasn't really going to jump was he? Haruna stood up, feeling actually sick. The teacher turned at the sound of her chair scraping, "Yes, Itsuki?"

Haruna refused to answer in words; she clamped a hand to her mouth and mimed throwing up with her other hand. "Well, don't just stand there! Get out of here!" The teacher said frantically. She did as she was told and headed to the nearest way up to the roof. She burst through the door, "Naoya! If you do I'll never forgive you!"

He turned; his eyes were so full of tears that she was amazed he could see. "H-h-h-Haruna?"

She rushed towards him and yanked him away from the edge, which caused him to stumble into her, and they both fell. Luckily for her she tripped into something that was high enough to use as a chair and he fell crying into her thigh high socks. Naoya couldn't stop crying, so Haruna stroked his hair and whispered comforting words. Naoya couldn't speak; though he made half-hearted attempts that Haruna couldn't make sense of through his sobbing. So he told her through their mental connection. Haruna was a little surprised when he told her he had had a relationship with Kaname but knew that Itsuki had never really had any interest in girls anyways. She let him cry in her lap, she shed a few tears herself, he finally got the energy to get up and sit next to her. Neither wanted to return to class so they went home instead.

X-X-X-X

The next day the Itsuki twins were one short of a pair, Nakaura-sensei directly questioned Haruna about Naoya's absence, Haruna assured him that Naoya was incapable of attending school even if he wanted to. He took her at her word, though slightly misinterpreting her words. Mana, dragging Kaname asked if they could visit Itsuki after school, Haruna said no and told her, "He will barely talk to me, and I don't think he wants to talk to you either, no offence. But I'm sure there's someone who could help him." Kaname raised an eyebrow; she was being very discreet for a reason he realized.

"Mana, get to class I'll be right there, I have something in my shoe locker for Itsuki and you don't need to be late too." Kaname said. Mana nodded, stood on her toes and gave Kaname a quick kiss before heading to class. Kaname's cheeks darkened slightly. And the two headed for the shoe lockers.

When they got there they stopped in front of Kaname's locker Haruna spoke "Since there's nothing in your locker for my brother why don't we get down to business?" They both knew that he had lied to their master. "Fine. Why is Itsuki skipping school really?"

"Manic depression," She answered simply and firmly. "He's not even at home. He's at the EGO institute I was at because he keeps trying to commit suicide with his powers."

Kaname's eyes widened, he felt the bottom of his stomach drop out, his heart clenched; he felt so dizzy...

"What would you say if that were true?" Haruna finished. Kaname took a steadying step backwards. "Don't scare me like that. I thought you were serious." Haruna narrowed her eyes at him, "Who says I'm not serious? I wanted to know what your reaction would be."

"What's this really about? Did Itsuki put you up to this? I told him already I'm going out with Mana now."

"No, he didn't put me up to this, but what I told master was true. He won't talk to me, I think it's you he wants, save him."

"From what?"

"From himself! He really did try to kill himself, I can't bear to think of what might have happened if I didn't arrive on the roof when I did." Haruna started to cry.

"I won't give in just because he feels bad he got dumped!" Kaname shouted, getting angry now, "He'll get over it! I was in love with Mana first." To Haruna it sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her.

"First isn't always best." Haruna told him quietly, "I couldn't even begin to tell you the number of failed attempts Naoya made to get me out of that place. And after he met you, that's all he could talk about. You keep saying 'Master this' and 'Master that' I've yet to hear what you want, who you want to be with Kusakabe-kun."

"You must not be listening then." Kaname retorted a bit bitterly.

"I am! And don't call me a liar! Yes, I hear you! You're screaming it in your head, how could I not? You're pushing something down with all your might, like you're afraid of it... or...or ashamed..." Haruna's eyes widened. "You are..." She said quietly, "You're ashamed of loving my brother because he's a guy and Mana's a girl! You think you're supposed to love Mana because she's your mind breaker and your childhood friend."

Kaname couldn't look at Haruna, whose features so resembled the one person he longed to see. Every word she spoke rang true and each one drove into his chest making it harder and harder to breathe. And when she told him he was ashamed of loving Itsuki he felt ashamed of being ashamed in the first place. Everything was falling around his ankles as his plan of breaking up with Itsuki and falling back in love with Mana and forgetting about Itsuki backfired in ways he'd not foreseen. Had Itsuki loved him so much that the thought of not being together would drive him to consider suicide? Why didn't he realize that he never wanted to be with Mana but to be there to protect her, as an older brother would do for a sister? Were he and Itsuki so similar? Why didn't he recognized the way he forced himself to share those kisses with Mana and the empty feeling in them?

Why was he such a moron?

"And now that you've had a lesson in the game of life go have one in history, we're both soo late it's not funny." Haruna said in a way that violently reminded Kaname of Itsuki, his chest tightened, "How do I apologize for doing that to him?"

Haruna thought for a while, "I think I'll go with mom on her business trip tomorrow. Make it up to him over that weekend." Kaname thought back to the more mundane part of his life, they did have a three day weekend and today was Thursday. He smiled.

"Thanks, Itsuki-chan."

"Just don't do it again or there'll be hell to pay, you moron-darklore." She said with a wink.

"Yes ma'am, you crazy-EGO." He said giving her a salute.

And with the atmosphere around them considerably lighter then when they started talking, they departed to their respective classes to be lectured on punctuality.

Kaname had much to apologize for over that three day weekend. But first, there was Mana to deal with.

X-X-X-X

As it turns out Mana was a bit of a shonen ai fangirl. She didn't take it half as bad as he thought she might and even gave him a small peck on the cheek for good luck. Kaname's head was buzzing and he found he couldn't concentrate on anything that day. This was bad news indeed for poor Amou-kun, (who is my bishie! I love that sexy Eraser!) who was his lab partner in science class that day. Let's just say there were explosions from the chemicals and from Nakaura-sensei.

And, still in a daze, Kaname made his was home to try to figure out how to make everything all right with Itsuki again. So out of it was he that he never realized he was being watched. This was only good news for his observer but would prove unfortunate in later events to come.

X-X-X-X

Chapter 2 End!

Who is the observer you ask? Honestly, I dunno! I'll figure it out though! Next chappie, Yumminess! Yatta, Yatta! I get to write EGOxDarklore Yumminess! Wait for me for the next chappie!

-Your writer,

Novelist the Moronic; I-I mean crazy... I mean both!