Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers apply. I am too sick and miserable to apply my usual wit. If you'd call it wit.

Here is another installment of "Playing the Long Game". I hope you enjoy it. Sorry, I caught a terrible cold and am spending the first days of my 10 day holiday sick . . . yay? I am going a bit stir crazy in fact.

On another unrelated note: One of my friends mentioned that everything seemed to be measured in Saitous. It was in response to some serious fangirling. I thought it was pretty funny and rather liked the thought.

Ok! Enough of that! Here's my story:

"Are you mad at me?"

Tokio turned to look at her friend, and frowned. Why would he think she was angry? "Only if you did something stupid that I don't know about."

"So, you're not mad because I didn't hang out the other day?" Saitou raised an eyebrow, and Tokio hated how he could show so much with such a simple action. Saitou continued to look down at his friend from where she sat.

"I don't care what your girlfriend lets you think," Tokio rolled her eyes, "the world does not revolve around you."

"Then why are you out here?" Tokio usually hung by the boys before any kendo match for as long as she was able to. Today however, she barely wished them luck and then wondered off to sulk apparently.

"You should be preparing for your matches." Tokio leaned forward in her seat and looked at her feet. She rather not look him in the eye, she always had the unsettling feeling that he saw through her.

"Tokio," Saitou's voice was sharp and crisp letting her know that he was losing patience. He was not Okita that would have baited it out of her. He watched as she started to snap the hair band on her wrist, a nervous habit.

Tokio let out a long sigh, and stopped snapping the hair band around her wrist, "I did something stupid that you don't know about."

"Obviously."

Tokio glared, finally looking up at her much too tall friend. "That's all I am going to say."

"Fine, but know I won't ask you again." As Saitou turned to leave he heard Tokio's whispered confession, and wish he hadn't.

" . . . I told Souji that I liked him."

There it was.

She had said it. She had said it to Souji, and she had said it to Hajime, and no one could unhear it.

Saitou was glad that he was partially turned away from her, he wasn't sure he could hide the shock. He had known, but he had not been expecting it. He really had not been expecting the ugly feeling that settled in his chest.

". . . Hajime?"

"I see . . . What did he say?" He heard Tokio stand up and come and stand behind him.

"That we are just friends." There was a pause before she said, "I don't want to see him right now." Tokio was heartbroken, but as heartbroken as she was, she was afraid of losing her best friends. Right now it seemed that she may lose both, and the sudden tension was too much for her. "Hajime?"

Saitou gave a sharp nod, because that was all he was really capable of right now. He cleared his throat hoping it would dislodge the uncomfortable feeling, and finally said, "I have to go."

"Right." A long pause, and then finally all Tokio could think to say was, "Good luck. I'll be cheering for you."

"And for Souji?"

"Of course. I won't pick one over the other." Tokio said it with some of her usual bravado, eager to prove that nothing had to change.

Saitou knew she meant in the competition, but he couldn't help thinking "But you just did".

Saitou breathed in, and breathed out. He had managed to put Tokio's confession out of his mind throughout the competition. Until now that is, Okita stood across from him, his eyes twinkling with the excitement of their up coming match. Saitou breathed in.

Okita shouted, "May the best man win Hajime!"

Saitou breathed out and smirked, a little forced, "I intend to."

Saitou breathed in again. "Focus," he thought and breathed out just as the signal was given to begin the match. With a yell Okita and Saitou faced off.

It was a good match, Saitou had strength and Okita had speed. If Saitou's swings were a little heavier, no one noticed. If Saitou's movements weren't as sharp as they usually were, no one noticed. The two boys, however, knew something was off. Then it was over, all too quickly, as Okita landed the winning point.

Saitou tore off his mask, and stared at Okita. Okita too looked on in amazement, and then Saitou turned and stalked off. Okita frowned; he had known his friend long enough to know something was going on. It was something that was ruining his victory.

Saitou stormed off to the lockers, pushing everyone out of his way. If he was lucky he'd make it to the lockers, change, and be out of there before everyone else even thought about changing. Unfortunately he wasn't lucky. Aioi and Tokio were waiting for him by the lockers.

Aioi had her arms crossed, and she simply said, "You'll win next time."

Saitou glared, and just managed to keep from saying anything. She didn't get it. Of course she didn't understand, to her Kendo was just a waste of time. But this wasn't her fault, so he ignored her.

Tokio looked worried, and sheepish, ". . . Hajime?"

"I don't want to talk right now," with that he continued walking hoping they would get the hint and leave him alone.

Tokio refused to get the hint, she ran after him. "Hajime, what happened back there?" While it had looked like a good match, Tokio knew that Hajime had not been up to form.

"It's not like you to lose focus like that."

Saitou kept walking.

"What is going on with you?!" Tokio shouted, and she had to stop short when Saitou suddenly turned around and particularly snarled.

"This is your fault."

They had fought before, but this was the first time Tokio had ever seen him good and truly mad at her. "My fault?! What did I do?"

"Why did you tell me that?" Saitou took a step forward. He kept his voice low but that did not hide the extent of his anger.

Tokio crossed her arms, and also took a step forward. "You made me!"

"I didn't make you do anything!" Somewhere in the back of his mind Saitou knew he was being stupid. He felt stupid. He felt humiliated, and somehow he wanted Tokio to understand it was her fault. He wasn't exactly sure why.

"This isn't my fault!" Tokio was so angry. How dare he? He was supposed to be her best friend. Instead he was being big fat stupid jerk.

Saitou's golden eyes were ablaze as he said, "Believe me. It is." He then turned around and slid the door so hard it slid back open, but Saitou refused to turn back around and shut it. It would have ruined his whole angry departure.

Tokio stood there, staring into what she could see of the locker room, before going and sliding the door shut. Hurt and sad, and missing her friends – even if one had rejected her and another was a huge jerk.

With her hand still on the door, Tokio puffed up her checks and then blew her breath out. Then giving into an impulse she slid the door open, and shouted into the room. "JERK!"

Saitou's fight with Tokio had only been the first act. In true Okita fashion he had walked into the locker room and demanded a rematch. When Saitou had not only refused to acknowledge him or tell him why he had not fought to the best of his abilities an actual physical fight had broken out. Hijikata was forced to break them up, and threatened expulsion if they ever did that again. That had been act two and three.

That had been two days ago, since then he had been ignoring all their calls. Not avoiding, just ignoring.

He was angry. What bothered the 18 year old was that he wasn't quite sure whom he was really angry at. He was angry at Souji for hurting Tokio, and making her sound so sad. That wasn't like Tokio. He was angry at Tokio for having a crush on Souji in the first place, which they should have been expecting. He was angry at himself for being annoyed at it all, and for being hurt. He was in the middle of stewing in his own anger and thoughts, when someone knocked on his bedroom door.

"Mom, I said I was fine," he let enough annoyance color his voice to let her know he did not want to be bothered, but not enough to offend. It was his mother after all.

The door swung open, forcing Saitou to sit up and level it with a glare, but his mother was not standing on the other side. It was Tokio, with a glare of her own.

"Oh yea, you sound fine alright." Tokio rolled her eyes and let herself in, taking a seat on the floor before his bed.

"Feh." Saitou threw himself back onto the bed and glared at the ceiling. "Why are you here?" He silently cursed his family for letting her in. Traitors, the whole lot of them . . . even if they didn't know he was annoyed at Tokio.

"Hi Tokio, how are you?" Tokio said in her best impression of Saitou, it was so bad that he almost smiled. "Oh I am fine, thank you for asking," she finished.

Saitou turned his head to look at his small friend. "You're so weird."

Tokio stretched her legs straight out in front of her and tried to touch her toes. "You're calling me weird? Hm…"

"Tokio." Saitou snapped out. "Why are you here?"

Tokio continued to stretch for her toes, but before he lost patience she answered him. "I am here for my apology. I deserve one." She finally looked up at him, challenging him to throw her out.

They stared at each for a while, before Saitou turned to look at the ceiling again without saying a word. It was silent, and he wondered how long Tokio would stand it.

"Look at me."

Four minutes, and inwardly Saitou grinned. He did not look at her though.

"We're friends," and he heard the uncertainty in her voice and it was enough for him to sit up and look at her.

Tokio gave him a small smile before continuing, "but you can't treat me like that. I won't allow it."

Saitou was just about to say something when the door to his room flew open again to reveal his older brother.

"Hey! No closed doors if you have a girl in your room!" Hiroaki grinned and was about to make a lewd comment when saw just who the girl was, "Oh, it's just you Tokio-chan . . ."

"Just?" Tokio looked up at the older boy. "I wouldn't say it's just me."

Hiroaki laughed, "Nah. You're alright. I thought it was Aioi."

"You've had girls in your room Hajime?" Tokio could not help herself.

"GET OUT!" Saitou growled as his brother just as Tokio laughed at his reaction.

Saitou's older brother invited himself in instead, plopped down beside Tokio, and rested his head on top of hers for a second in affectionate greeting. "Yea. My little brother is all grown up." He said this with a mock sniff and dramatic wipe of the eyes.

"Hiro," Saitou's voice was low and full of warning. "Shut up!"

Despite his cold voice Tokio could see that Saitou was flustered and embarrassed, and it was too delicious to let go. "They grow up so fast!"

Hiroaki could not help himself from letting out a deep and hearty laugh, "Apparently Dad walked onto quite a sight . . ." He didn't finish as a pillow hit him square in the face, and before he knew it his younger brother had him by the collar and was dragging him out of the room.

"No one wants to hear your perverted lies!" Saitou growled and shut the door on his laughing brother, breathing in and out hoping that his face wasn't red.

He whipped around and glared at Tokio, "he's lying."

Tokio grinned, wolf whistled, and winked. "Sure . . ."

Saitou glared at her, and accidently knocked Tokio over the head with the pillow he had thrown at his brother not five minutes ago. "Idiot."

Tokio simply laughed. She grinned as she asked, "So . . . have you and Aioi . . . you know . . ."

"Idiot," Saitou repeated, threw himself onto his bed and turned on his side facing away from Tokio. "You can leave now."

There were a few moments of silence before he heard Tokio shuffle across the floor. He frowned, wondering what she was going to do.

Tokio pushed against his back, "Oi! You still owe me an apology."

"Feh. For what?"

"For being an asshole," Tokio gave him a particularly hard shake. "More than usual that is." Her friend was being stubborn and she wasn't having it. She also knew that it was rare, unicorn rare, for him to apologize, but she really wanted them all to get back to normal.

Saitou closed his eyes, and smirked as he heard Tokio huff. "You're wasting your time."

Tokio surprised Saitou by throwing herself onto him, and then crawled over him to lay down facing her stubborn friend. He raised an eyebrow at her antics.

"Look." Tokio gave him her best no nonsense look. "You had no right to yell at me, it wasn't my fault you lost the match and that it put you in a bad mood."

Saitou snorted, and made to turn over and he would have had Tokio not blown air in his face. "Oi! How old are you?!"

"Really? You're going to talk about maturity to me? You won't even take responsibility for your actions."

Saitou reached over and flicked Tokio's nose, "You think you're so smart."

She swatted his hand away, "Hajime! At least I am smarter than you! . . . emotionally!" Then in a quieter voice she said, "I messed up, ok? I shouldn't have told Souji that I liked him." She bit her lip, "I just want us all to be friends, and I really don't want us to be weird too."

Saitou sighed and sat up. He watched as Tokio also sat up. "You can't help who you like. That's not your fault." Then after a moment's pause he said, "And, we're fine."

Tokio gave him a halfhearted smile, and hugged him around the neck. "Everything is awkward."

They should have guessed. Tokio was 16 after all, and it wasn't unusual for feelings to develop between friends . . . but Saitou did not like it. That didn't matter though. So, he awkwardly returned her hug. "Tokio . . . I shouldn't have yelled at you."

Tokio squeezed. "That's not an apology."

"It's better than an apology." He dropped his arms, but Tokio kept her hold on him. He didn't mind, not really. That did not stop him from trying to peel her arms away though. "I acknowledged that I did something wrong."

"Look at you showing some emotional maturity," she laughed when he gave her hair a tug and grunted in response.

She finally let go and sat back, "Do you think it'll ever go back to normal?"

"No, but you two will get through this."

Tokio rolled her eyes, and then laughed. "You really don't know anything about lying just to be kind."

"That wouldn't have helped you."

"Or maybe you're just not kind." Tokio grinned.

"Feh, what good is kindness?" Saitou rolled his eyes, and stood up to stretch.

"Oh, I don't know . . . it helps one make friends." Tokio watched Saitou stretch his arms above his head, and she started to feel warm.

Saitou snorted, "I have enough friends and you're a handful."

Before Tokio could say anything, Hiroaki yelled up the stairs. "Baby brother! Your girlfriend is on the phone! Should I tell her you're busy with your other girlfriend?"

Tokio laughed as Saitou threw up the door and pounded down the stairs promising his older brother a world of pain. Tokio wasn't quite sure what to make of the odd feeling she got over Aioi ruining their time together. It was probably just her confused feelings about the state of her friendship with Saitou and Okita. She hopped Saitou was right, and that she and Okita would figure it out. In the end there was nothing for her to do but wait and see. She sighed, that wasn't exactly her kind of strategy.