The Ordinary Life of Chizuru Yukimura

Disclaimer: Hakuouki isn't mine.

As she had predicted, Kaoru had been an arse all night. He kept making comments about boyfriends and laughing loudly at her. Chizuru was very tired of his bullshit. She was usually pretty shy but her brother riled her up. He'd had years of practice.

When he made a final comment as he headed up to bed, Chizuru decided her needed to be taught a lesson. She waited until he had settled in and then upended a bowl of water on to his head. Shin had been useful. She would have to thank him for the inspiration.

"What the hell?! You bitch!" It was pleasing to hear him actually annoyed and she had to barricade her door to stop him getting his revenge. It was likely Kaoru would get his payback in the morning but for now she could feel satisfied.

By the time she got up for school the next day, she had forgotten all about this. Her brain had decided to bring up the fact that she was probably about to get a bollocking from Sannan-sensei and therefore should be worrying. Just the idea of him had her in cold sweats so she wasn't sure how well she could face him.

Although feigning illness was tempting, she knew it was better to get it over with now. This didn't mean she was calm. The whole walk to school, her feet felt like they were made of lead. The worst part was that she would be facing him alone. She'd thought this anyway. Until she came to the school gate and found Heisuke standing there, looking equally as nervy. His face brightened when he saw her though.

"Thank god you're here! I thought I'd have to face the Sannan monster alone!"

"So did I…"

"I thought we could go in together and dilute it a little."

"I'm glad." Chizuru sighed in relief. With Heisuke, she felt a lot less terrified walking to her doom.

Sannan had not been happy with them. Both had received a dictionary to the head and they were yelled at for a good twenty minutes about how irresponsible they were and how they should not be led by Shin's example. He'd assumed it was mainly his fault.

"Now get to home room and stop acting like a pair of idiots." And that was their cue to escape. Once they were out, they both sighed in relief.

"Thank god that's over."

"Yeah… He's really scary when he's angry." Chizuru had never been yelled at like that before. Then again, she had been pretty boring before this. Not that she was any more interesting now.

"Ah well. It was worth it!" Heisuke did a little fist pump. "Although mum really wasn't happy…" He shuddered.

"Was she really mad?" From the way the others had fled, she imagined that the woman was quite formidable.

"I spent all night cleaning the kitchen." He sighed again.

"Sorry I didn't help…"

"I don't blame you. Though next time we should use your house."

"That wouldn't work…" She didn't want Kaoru embarrassing her.

"Would your sister not like it?"

"No."

"Shin seems to like her." She had forgotten that part but now she was reminded, the guilt returned.

"He shouldn't date her, she's kind of…" It was a struggle to find the right word.

"He's scared of women so I doubt he would. He can't even talk to girls."

"Really?" Sano had said something to that effect before.

"Yeah he goes all red and tongue tied. It's pretty funny."

"Poor Shin…" Their conversation was interrupted by Kaoru walking into Chizuru and knocking her over.

"Oops, sorry Tsuruo. Didn't see you there." Like hell you didn't! Chizuru glared at her brother's retreating back. Clearly the little bastard was getting her back.

"You ok Ruo?"

"I'll live." She couldn't stop herself from feeling annoyed

"Why did she do that?"

"She was being annoying so I tipped water on her in bed."

"Nice! You two don't get on do you?"

"We used to…" They had been really close as children but the older they got, the weirder Kaoru became. Especially recently. He had become kind of an asshole.

"I'm glad I'm an only child." Heisuke pulled her up. "We should get going before we get in more trouble."

"Agreed."

-Page Break-

It was after school; kendo club had finished and Chizuru really didn't want to go home. Kaoru had been getting at her all day and she couldn't work out why. All she'd done was stand up for herself once and suddenly he was out to get her.

Generally he was attempting to knock her things over and nudge her. The kind of thing you did in elementary school. He even threw a few balls of paper at her in breaks. Chizuru felt like she should be upset about this but she couldn't be. He needed to grow up.

After a whole day of this she had to then put up with the rage of Hijikata. He'd launched into a tirade about how they could have bloody told him they wouldn't be there so he could go and do some of the many bits of homework he had.

Because of this, she really didn't feel like Kaoru and his moods. Their father wouldn't be home so there'd be no buffer. Luckily for her, a reprieve appeared.

"Hey Ruo, you look half-dead."

"Wow Shin. You are so good at dealing with people. Really." Sano rolled his eyes.

"I was just saying!" Shin scowled. "Why are you standing around here? You look like a creeper."

"Well thanks…" As if she wasn't self-conscious enough.

"Again, there's a thing called a brain. Use it before you speak."

"Shut up!" Sano easily dodged the punch Shin aimed at him.

"Do you two ever stop?" Chizuru jumped. She hadn't seen Souji approach but now he was standing behind her. "Hey Twitchy."

"Why do you do that?"

"It's funny of course." Chizuru rolled her eyes. She might have known.

"I'm with you Ruo, he's a creepy little bastard." Souji just laughed.

"Ruo's the one staring at people."

"I'm not staring! I am thinking."

"About?"

"What to do since I don't feel like going home to my sister."

"In that case, follow me." Souji smirked at her.

"Where?"

"You'll see." Chizuru was kind of irritated by his attitude but she had nothing better to do.

Considering normally he was so laid back, he was walking quickly and she had to almost jog to keep up. Probably this was being done on purpose to bother her. At least he was giving her something to do. Though she wasn't sure she liked the way he was leading her round loads of back streets and alleyways.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"My house."

"Why?"

"I'm giving you something to do."

"Which is?"

"You'll see."

"…" Chizuru settled for scowling at the back of Souji's head and hoping he could tell she was annoyed. Probably he'd noticed and was greatly amused.

Souji's house wasn't actually that far but for some reason he had taken her an overly long route. The guy was a pain in the ass. What he wanted was very obvious when they opened the front door.

"And here it is."

"What the hell have you done?" The house looked like a bomb had gone off. There were clothes everywhere, old plates with mould on them, and rubbish bags sitting around.

"My sister went on holiday for a week and she's back tomorrow. I really need this place cleaned up."

"…How did you let it get this bad? And why did you assume I'd help you?"

"You seemed the type to be coerced into helping people." This was true but it was annoying.

"I'm not doing all of it."

"Obviously I'm helping."

Chizuru felt very sorry for Souji's sister. Clearly she had to put up with a lot from him if he kept the house in this condition all of the time. And in only a week, he'd spread stuff around the entire house. It took them hours to do it all. He was so useless. That or he was lazy.

"I can't believe you let it get to this."

"Yeah, I got kind of distracted."

"With what?"

"Internet." She raised an eyebrow. "Really. I like looking at random stuff online."

"You have a problem."

"I know. I could be more productive but…" He shrugged. "Thanks for the help by the way."

"I didn't have much else to do." She would have ended up in a library otherwise.

"As thanks I will make you some toast."

"…Is that all you can make?"

"It requires minimal cooking time."

"I see…" One benefit to spending more time with Souji was that she was starting to get used to his weirdness. Although he was very hard to read.

"Did you ever wear a dress when you were a kid?" Like when he said these kind of things.

"What?!"

"Well you're pretty feminine looking. Probably you look a lot like your sister. Mine used to put me in a dress since I had the longish hair going on."

"Really?" Wordlessly he leaned over and grabbed a photo frame. It did indeed show him wearing a dress. He actually looked kind of cute. And now she was blushing for thinking that. She had to remember he was weird.

"Something wrong?"

"No! Why do you show people this?"

"My sister would if I didn't. I take away the satisfaction." Souji smirked.

"Fair enough… And yes I did. My sister made me."

"Thought so. Pushy sisters suck, don't they?"

"Oh yes." He was preaching to the choir on that one. "Where is your sister?"

"Trip with a boyfriend. I don't ask."

"You're very caring."

"Aren't I?" He laughed at her facial expression. "You and Sano are very alike."

"Are we?"

"You're both like mothers."

"Thanks…" She did not like the comparison. It made her feel more frumpy and awkward than she already was.