Chapter 14

"Unbelievable!" Ranka grumbled

"What's wrong dad?" Haruhi asked turning her gaze from the window to look at Ranka.

"We have made so many turns and diversions that we are almost out of fuel" he motioned to the fuel gauge that was teetering rather close to empty.

"There's a gas station around here somewhere" Hikaru spoke up from the backseat.

"How sure are you?" Ranka asked, peering in the rear view mirror as Hikaru looked at Kaoru.

"Really sure, our driver had to stop once because of a flat tyre, it's just down the next street" Kaoru nodded.

They'd been driving around nearly all afternoon, having to take all kinds of detours and they were nowhere nearer to the estate than they had been two hours ago. Ranka turned down the street in question, the gas station coming into view, a grin on his lips.

"Looks like you were right Kaoru" Haruhi smiled as Ranka pulled the car onto the forecourt.

A few streets over…

"It's no good Kyoya" Tamaki whined "We are lost"

Kyoya sighed "we are not lost Tamaki… we just need to find a road that isn't blocked"

"Yeah Tama-chan… it'll be okay" Honey smiled

"Mm" Mori nodded as he turned down another road.

"I wonder if Nana-chan and Kasanoda got there yet" Honey mused, peering out the window.

"They were on a motorcycle; chances are they haven't had the same problems with maneuvering through pileups like we have" Kyoya nodded "Chances are they are the only ones there right now"

"What?!" Tamaki squeaked "you mean to tell me my darling little Nanako is alone with Kasanoda?! What if he tries something?!"

"Pipe down Tamaki" Kyoya rolled his eyes "somehow I don't think Kasanoda would try anything with Nanako… he gets embarrassed at the mention of anything other than friendship with a girl, she'll be fine"

"Oh look! A gas station!" Honey bounced in his seat a little "and… is that Haru-chan and Hika-chan?"

Mori pulled into the gas station to see Haruhi and Hikaru standing by the car, while Kaoru and Ranka seemed to be inside the shop.

"Hey guys" Honey opened his door and climbed out "what's going on?"

"Honey-senpai?" Haruhi blinked "you guys low on fuel too?"

"No, we are finding it difficult to find a route that isn't blocked by cars" Kyoya spoke up, having climbed out of the car too.

"Well dad and Kaoru are trying to work out how to get the pumps to start" Haruhi turned to face Kyoya

"And apparently grabbing some snacks?" Tamaki blinked, watching as Kaoru and Ranka began stuffing snacks into a couple grocery bags.

"I dunno about you guys but I think we need to go the rest of the way on foot" Hikaru looked miserable at the idea.

"I think so" Kyoya didn't like that plan much either but they'd tried nearly all the routes out and everything was blocked off.

"You mean we gotta walk all the way there?" Honey frowned.

"Yes Mitsukuni" Mori watched his cousin deflate a little at the idea of walking all the way there.

"Oh! Kyoya!" Ranka beamed as he and Kaoru "You guys get low on fuel too?"

"Ah, Ranka… no we didn't, we ran out of roads to follow that weren't blocked" Kyoya sighed "we are going to have to walk"

"But that will take hours" Kaoru wrinkled his nose "and we'd be open to anything that decided to come at us"

"We don't have much choice" Kyoya look round at the group "if we keep driving around, eventually we are going to run out of fuel and have to walk anyway and if we just stand around, we'll get spotted so let's go"

The two groups removed the bags from the two cars and split them between the group so everyone was carrying at least one bag. They didn't have gps to fall back on since there was still no data signal so it all came down to map reading, which Ranka was well versed in.

"We didn't have gps when I was young" he chuckled as they walked down a narrow street "maps were all we had and wouldn't you know it? It came in handy for once"

Ranka lead the group down a side street just in time for a small group of zombies to go ambling past. This was going to be a dangerous walk for sure since the zombie population was growing the further they moved towards the more populated areas.

Nanako's POV

The place was empty and that was no surprise at all to me. The only time there was staff here was when there were guests to serve and since family weren't due to visit until next month, there was nobody here to welcome them. It didn't stop me and Ritsu from going through each room carefully to make sure nobody was going to pop out on us.

"I think we are the only ones here" I confirmed as I joined Ritsu in the entrance hall.

"I think you might be right" he nodded, looking everywhere else but me

"Everything okay Kasanoda?" I blinked, unsure of what to make of his body language right now

"I'm fine…" he turned and headed into the living room.

Scowling, I followed after him, watching as he flopped down on the couch. I was going to find out what his problem was one way or another.

"Don't give me that Kasanoda" I crossed my arms as I came to a stop in front of him "something is wrong… talk to me"

"It's nothing" he'd closed his eyes and I could see his leg bouncing a little.

"It's something, don't lie to me" I was standing firm on this one. He wasn't about to get out of this… if something was bothering him that much, I'd rather we talked it out before the others got here.

"It's nothing" he repeated, though the tone of his voice was far from friendly.

"Clearly it isn't, or else you wouldn't have an attitude right now" I could feel myself getting angry because he was getting angry.

"I don't have an attitude right now!" his eyes snapped open before focusing on me.

"Yes you do! You're doing it now!" I stared him down.

"I do not" he stood up abruptly, pushing past me to storm off.

"Oh no you don't!" I grabbed his arm "don't walk away from me when I'm talking to-"

Before either of us realised it, Ritsu had spun round and pulled me against him his lips pressed to mine. We both froze for a moment as we tried to register what was going on.

Was this really happening? Was Kasanoda kissing me?! Well… this wasn't so bad actually… quite nice really…

My lips moved of their own accord, the kiss was soft, tender but with a bit of spice and honestly I could think of faaaar more worse things in the world right now than kissing Ritsu Kasanoda.

When the kiss broke we sort of just stared at each other for a long moment before Ritsu's hand shot up to his nose in an automatic reaction.

"Oh... oh god… Kasanoda are you okay?!" I squeaked

He slowly moved his hand away from his face and to both our surprises, there was no blood!

"I uh… think so?" he looked at his hand and then at me

"What… what was that?" I blinked a little, confused by the whole thing.

"I kissed you, what did it look like?" he grumbled

"No no… I know what it was but… why? Where did that come from?" I couldn't take my eyes off him.

"I… well…" he paused and then of course, it came out in his usual angry tone "because I like you Yamada, isn't it obvious? God I wish I hadn't if that's how you're going to be about it"

"You… you like me?" I blinked, feeling a bit like a rabbit in the headlights of a truck.

"And this is why I wasn't planning on telling you" he threw his hands up in the air, anger clear in his voice "if you're going to reject me just do it already!"

"I uh… I wasn't going to reject you…" I bit my lip softly.

"Thank you for making it quick and letting me make a fool of myself… wait what?" his voice trailed off at the end.

"I said I wasn't going to reject you" I repeated myself

"You… oh" Ritsu went bright red and hung his head "I'm sorry… I really thought you'd reject me… you know on account of my yakuza background…"

"Firstly no and secondly, it doesn't matter to me" I shrugged "You've spent the last few days protecting me… so I know you aren't a bad guy Kasanoda"

"Yea well, what was I meant to do? Leave you to get eaten?" he huffed a little but I saw that smile start to twitch at the corners of his mouth.

"Okay, before we get all sentimental, let's check the supply situation" I nodded, turning and heading back to the entry hall.