A/N: Sorry, this chapter ended up being kind of long. Haha, I couldn't help myself; the ideas just flowed out. xD Anyway, loved the suggestions you guys gave me and tried to incorporate a few of them in one chapter. ;)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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D is for Distraction

n. 1) a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else

2) extreme agitation of the mind or emotions; great mental distress

.*.*.*.

Few things distracted a busy Hyōdō Aoi.

He always made sure that once he began working on another one of his creations, nothing was allowed to interrupt him or pull his attention away. Focus was integral at those times. Without it, he'd be a mess, a pile of fabrics and buttons lying about an untidy room.

Without his precious focus, he'd be lost.

Pencil gliding over an off-white sheet of paper, the navy-haired boy sketched out his latest design. A few frills here, ribbons over there, a line of rhinestones along the hem. The dress was the usual, flamboyant type of thing Aoi normally made.

He only wished he was still able to pull it off.

Thanks to puberty, however, Aoi had to settle with designing rather than modeling, as his height and broadening shoulders did not help his net idol image, nor did the fact that he possessed none of the curves of a woman.

And thankfully, too.

He was a former cross-dresser.

That didn't mean he wanted to be an actual girl.

At that very moment, it dawned on him. He turned his head around to glance at the pile of dresses sitting on his bed, kneading his eraser thoughtfully in his hands.

These dresses—what was he to do with them?

Force them on to the employees at Maid Latte? He wasn't too sure if they'd appreciate it, as they were always criticizing something about his dresses—it was all just idiocy, of course—they weren't the best at fashion, either. If anyone, Ayuzawa Misaki was probably the most tolerant of his whims, though he was not stupid and could sense that even she didn't take much of an interest.

He tapped his pencil against the paper.

Then again, Misaki-chi's younger sister could…

No!

Shaking himself from the thoughts, Aoi put his pencil and sketchbook down on the desk and ran a hand through his navy hair. There it was again with those stupid distractions. He could hardly concentrate now that such a dilemma had entered his subconscious. He desperately needed a solution.

His head made contact with the surface of the table.

A groan escaped him.

Why did he have to think about this now?

The line rang once, twice, thrice—

"Moshi moshi?"

Aoi jumped out of his chair at once, palm slamming against the table, excitement written across his features and visible in his jumpy form. "Misaki-chi!"he blurted, surprised by his own enthusiasm.

The voice on the other end was hesitant. H-Hai. Aoi-chan, is that you?"

"I need you to come over and try on something right now!"

"Eh? Right now?"

"Yes, right now!"

A nervous laugh sounded through the receiver. "Well, actually, I'm kind of with someone else right now," Misaki explained, trying not to outwardly reject the demanding boy's invitation. "So, I can't—"

"You're with Usui, aren't you?"

Aoi could literally hear the blush that rose to her cheeks at his comment and fought back the snicker that threatened to escape him.

"Um, n-not by choice, of course! He just made me go out with him today! I-It's definitely not a d-date, or anything!"

Another voice joined the mix.

"Misa-chan, are you in denial again?"

"Shut up, you perverted alien!"

Rolling his eyes, Aoi allowed only a hint of a smirk appear on his lips. Ayuzawa Misaki really was such a mess with her emotions when it came to her love for Usui Takumi, or the 'perverted alien' as she preferred to call him. It was amusing, but at the same aggravating. Why couldn't she just accept her feelings for her boyfriend?

Then again.

It wasn't as if he was any better at all that.

Sighing, the boy slumped down into his chair, one hand holding his navy fringe away from his forehead and the other holding the phone against his ear. "Gah… What should I do?" he muttered, more to himself than to the attentive older girl on the other end.

"You know, Aoi-chan," Misaki began, and Aoi could hear something weird slip into her voice. "I think my sister would make a good model for you. She'd look pretty in your dresses!"

There was a short pause.

"Plus, she likes you."

His attempt at a composed disposition failed. Aoi's fingers clenched around the phone, eyes widening, sweat drops forming on his forehead. He was sure that his heartbeat had suddenly sped up for whatever reason, blood pounding in his ears, and was only thankful that she wasn't able to hear something like that.

"W-What? She said that she liked me?"

To his chagrin, Misaki laughed heartily on the other end. The smile was evident in her voice and it ticked him off.

"Not exactly. But I know Suzuna. And I know that you like her, too."

Fumbling with his words, the navy-haired boy angrily denied the ridiculous claim. "Of course I don't, idiot woman! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! I don't like weird girls like her!"

Misaki seemingly ignored his protests. "Anyway! Stop by our house if you still need someone to try on your dresses—I'm sure that Suzuna wouldn't mind."

"Don't tell me what to do, you old hag!"

"Ja. See ya, Aoi-chan!"

The call ended without another word. Aoi simply stood there, body slowly unfurling from its stiff defense position. His accelerated breathing returned to normal and his cobalt eyes hazed with the thoughts that raced through his mind.

Sucking in a deep breath, the boy closed his eyes.

He dialed her number again.

"Can you ask her for me?"

His plea sounded strained from the other end.

A knowing smile.

"Nope. Ask her yourself."

Misaki snapped her phone shut again. Pretty features danced with contentment and she held back the urge to giggle out loud, wary of the perverted alien beside her.

However, the glint of amusement in his grass green eyes mirrored her amber ones.

"Ah, young love, ne, Ayuzawa?" Takumi playfully murmured.

She rolled her eyes.

"Knowing the two of them, it's probably more complicated than that."

Good luck, Aoi-chan.

Her phone did not ring a third time.

Aoi sighed dejectedly as he stuffed his cellphone into his pocket. He had half a mind to dismiss the conversation he had just suffered through and return to his sketches, but a distractive notion like this was far too difficult to just brush aside.

He groaned.

What a stupid idea.

Misaki-chi really did give the worst advice.

How did I get here…?

Of all the places he could have gone and people he could have met that morning, the Ayuzawa household was at the bottom of his list.

And yet.

That was exactly where Hyōdō Aoi happened to be.

A bag of fabrics and sewing materials was slung around his shoulders, dresses piled high in his arms, and a signature scowl placed naturally on his features.

He rapped on the door.

It opened and standing there was none other than the petite dark-haired girl he had come to see. She seemed only momentarily surprised, but the look had washed off her face as quick as it had appeared.

"Good morning, Hyōdō-kun."

"'Morning," he replied in terse manner. Suzuna watched him from the doorway passively. He was growing impatient by her lack of response and shifted from one foot to the other. The dresses in arms were getting heavier by the moment.

"Can I come inside?"

Aoi had tried to say it calmly but irritation still somehow seeped into his voice. Unblinkingly, Suzuna nodded and moved from the doorway, giving him the room to step inside. Regardless of the weight he was carrying, he managed to get himself through the entrance, slipping his shoes off in the boxed area below the wood of the floorboards.

Unfortunately, one of the planks broke beneath his foot.

"Gah!" Aoi cried out, nearly stumbling in the process. He looked down to see that his foot had sunk down into the floor. Struggling to get himself out, he suddenly realized that the load in his arms had disappeared.

Suzuna was standing in front of him, the pile of dresses she took from him blocking her face from his view. He could only see two arms clasped against the folded fabric before she turned around and moved down the hallway. Her black pigtails swished against her narrow shoulders and he automatically let his eyes fall down to the rest of her petite body.

Growing warm, he looked away.

She had put the dresses down on the floor, much to his dismay.

"Hey, don't put them there! You'll get them dirty!" Aoi chided, trying to pull his leg out of the hole in the ground. Suzuna turned to face him with a blank expression.

"You're stuck," she deadpanned.

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed," he growled back.

The sarcasm seemed to be lost on her as she tilted her head. "I see. Well, you are."

A vein throbbed in his forehead.

"A little help?"

Suzuna nodded and walked past him. At first, Aoi thought she had abandoned him and was about to shout out angrily for her when a sudden warmth engulfed his body and left him motionless. He glanced down to find that two slender arms had wrapped themselves around his waist—she was holding him. He sharply turned his head to take a glimpse of the black hair that brushed his shoulders as Suzuna bent down to yank him out of the hole.

His ears burned.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Helping you, like you asked."

"This isn't what I meant!"

He felt her breath against the skin of his neck and shivered slightly.

"Loosen up, Hyōdō-kun. I can't get a good grip."

Aoi truly wished to die from the humiliation at this point.

Somehow, Suzuna did manage to get him out of the hole, and somehow, he did manage to not die from the humiliation, although the last part was something that could be easily changed. After a quick and flustered explanation as to why he actually ended up visiting her, Aoi tossed Suzuna a couple of the dresses he had designed for Misaki, knowing full well that they probably wouldn't fit her.

Nevertheless, the apathetic dark-haired girl did what he asked—rather, demanded.

Glad that she was finally out of sight, Aoi sighed. This was far too much trouble for one morning. He could have been at home designing dresses quietly and peacefully, the air around him full of focus and concentration.

Not trying to get the splinters out of his feet.

Jeez… This is stupid! Maybe I should just go home…

"I'm done."

Ears perking up at the voice, Aoi turned around to find Suzuna clad in one of Misaki's dresses. It was a blue one with pink ribbons decorating the cuffs and a bow tied around the waist. He would have thought she looked cute if it hadn't been for the ingrained idea that claimed that Ayuzawa Suzuna could never be cute, when he noticed, with exasperation, that something was off.

The dress was too big for her.

It literally hung from her petite frame, the waist and hip area drooping down to her sides and her chest was undeniably flat against the extra fabric up there. The neckline also ended up sagging further than he hoped, giving him a rather revealing review of her underclothes.

Lowering his gaze, Aoi felt his face heat up.

"That looks awful on you," he muttered, crossing his arms.

"Hm?" She glanced down at herself in acknowledgement, pulling at the chest area with a small pout. "It's quite spacious."

"Go take it off. I need to get your measurements."

She blinked. "You made this dress, Hyōdō-kun?"

He tensed.

"So what? Is it weird for a boy to make clothes?"

Before Suzuna could open her mouth to reply, he interrupted her.

"Hurry up. You're wasting time. I need to go home and sew it when I'm done with your measurements."

"Oh, I have a sewing machine in my room! You are welcome to use that."

Tea-colored eyes watched him intently.

His focus ebbed away from such a deep look, and despite his inward protests to such an idea, Aoi found that he simply could not say no to Ayuzawa Suzuna.

"Hold out your arm higher," he chided, placing the measuring tape against her shoulder. "I can't get a good measurement if you keep moving!"

Suzuna's expression remained blank as she adjusted her body to his whims.

"Hyōdō-kun is very talented."

"Huh?"

"Making dresses doesn't seem like an easy task," she explained. "You must have been doing it for a while, now, no?"

Aoi lowered his face from her view. "You better not be making fun of me, Suzuna."

"Why would I make fun of you?"

He proceeded to measure the length of her waist, taking note of the curve of her hips. For some reason, a tingly feeling grew in his stomach and he had to pause for a few moments before continuing. How odd… He never acted this way with any other person he measured, including Ayuzawa Misaki.

Hyōdō Aoi was not easily distracted.

And yet this strange dark-haired girl's proximity swayed him.

Hastily, Aoi handed her the measuring tape and made her to measure her own bust size. He was not willing to touch her in such an intimate area, despite the fact that it was only for her dress and nothing more, as even the thought of it made a dark heat flush across his neck and face. The effects of adolscence were probably the worst things Aoi had to go through and she certainly did not make it any easier for him.

"I like cute things, okay?" Aoi reluctantly admitted, scratching down her measurements on a notepad. "I like to design dresses and see people in them…"

He took a deep breath. "I used to wear them and post pictures on the internet, too, but now…"

"You are Aoi-chan, the famous net idol."

It was a statement, not a question.

Looking up at her, Aoi was surprised to find that she did not seem disgusted or repulsed. A small smile was placed on her pretty features, tea-colored eyes brightening in realization.

"Well, yeah—"

"I entered many of her prize contests in the magazines back then," Suzuna continued. "But I never won anything. I think the mailman got tired of delivering so many things to our house."

She's not…

Surprised?

"You know," Aoi irritably spoke. "That means that I was a cross-dresser."

"I see."

"And I made a lot of men fall in love with me."

"It couldn't have been hard; Hyōdō-kun is very cute."

Aoi blushed. That was not the reaction he was going for! Why couldn't this girl just act like she was supposed to when finding out his secret?

Why couldn't she just let him hate her?

"You must have many friends."

Moving to sit in front of the sewing machine in her room, Aoi pulled out the spare roll of fabric he brought with him. He began to outline her measurements with a white crayon, very aware of Suzuna's gaze from her bed.

"Nope. I have a bad personality so I don't make friends," he said at last, purposely avoiding her watchful tea-colored eyes. "I don't like anyone and nobody likes me."

That's right.

I don't like anyone and nobody likes m—

"I like you, Hyōdō-kun."

—Eh?

A…

Confession?

Aoi whipped his head back to look at her with a puzzled expression, pulse racing, voice trapped in his throat, only to find the apathetic girl staring back calmly and passively. Her amber eyes danced with amusement towards his reaction—he knew he must've looked like an idiot.

No, not a confession.

His heart dropped.

Wait… why was I so excited, anyway?

This was much too random to be something like a confession.

Then again, Ayuzawa Suzuna was the epitome of random. The girl could go from talking about the amount of yen she saved on a new pack of paper towels to the lost cat she fed last week to the color of her teeth after eating pomegranate seeds.

Regardless.

"Hah? You do?" he scoffed, incredulous. He furrowed his eyebrows at her in suspicion. "Even though you know I like girly things? That I make dresses? That I used to cross-dress?"

He had expected her to shrug, or turn away, or even allow some witty comeback to roll of her tongue at him—teasing of any sort.

And yet—

"Even if Hyōdō-kun does all of those things, I will still like him."

Unbelievable.

"Why?"

A quirk of the lips; it was an odd smile, but it somehow suited her. He suddenly realized just how much he was drawn to that particular aspect of her pretty features, whether he cared to admit it or not.

It was so rare that he found himself anticipating it often.

"Because I just do," Suzuna replied simply.

Aoi was too surprised to flush red with embarrassment at her words, something the hot-headed boy would usually do in such an awkward situation. Instead, he glared intently at Suzuna's blank expression, trying to figure out what exactly she meant by such an open-ended statement.

He found nothing.

Was she toying with him?

"Well, I don't like you," Aoi confidently declared, arms crossing over his chest. "In fact, I hate you."

To his dismay, her smile did not falter.

"I know."

Huh?

The navy-haired boy did a double-take. She was staring at him with those large, enigmatic tea-colored eyes that held all the secrets he wished to reveal. Upon losing himself in them, Aoi felt his gaze unconsciously travel down to the rest of her face—those smooth pale cheeks, alluring rosy lips, silken-black hair, long slender neck—she was a beautiful Japanese doll to him, suddenly delicate seeming and sensual and oh, so soft.

His face colored. Ayuzawa Suzuna? A Japanese doll?

What am I thinking?

She is not attractive!

Aoi forced himself to remove his eyes from the mysterious girl and returned to his work.

"You're just like Misaki-chi. She said the same thing when I told her I hated her," the navy-haired boy muttered with a needle between his teeth. He glared down at the fabric and stitched along the seams of the cuffs. It was strangely difficult to concentrate with Suzuna in the room, despite the fact that she hardly possessed a presence at all.

And yet, the very thought of her existence was distracting.

How bothersome.

Suzuna didn't look up from the magazine she was reading, carefully snipping out another prize contest. She hummed lightly in response as she opened up an envelope.

"But you don't hate her, do you?" she questioned with an aura of thoughtfulness. "Truthfully, Hyōdō-kun has a crush on Onee-chan."

E-Excuse me?

Ignoring the heat that had crawled up his neck from the comment, Aoi snorted.

"Came up with that all on your own, huh? Well, you're wrong. I don't like that old hag at all," he declared self-assuredly. "Besides, she has Usui."

"Are you jealous?"

She was watching him intently now.

Well…

Am I?

"…No."

His voice had suddenly shifted from irritation to an odd tone of contentedness.

"Misaki-chi is cutest when she is with him, after all. That part of her, when she is so happy and angry and shy at the same time… I don't hate that part about her."

He noticed the knowing smile that had spread across the dark-haired girl's features at this point and frowned.

"Why are you smiling?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

Aoi grumbled out as he clumsily stitched a button into place.

Wait.

Since when was Hyōdō Aoi, master at making clothes, clumsy?

He raised an eyebrow.

What's happening to me?

"Tsundere."

A vein appeared in his forehead. Twitching, he reluctantly turned around to glare at the owner of the quiet, emotionless voice.

"What the hell are you talking about now?" he grumbled, annoyed to have been interrupted from his momentum once again. He was never going to finish with all of these disruptions!

Suzuna was flipping through the pages of a manga with little regard to him. At last, she gestured to a panel of an angry-looking girl with lines scratched over her cheeks, symbolizing the Japanese cartoon way of blushing. The character was crossing her arms with her head lowered in a seemingly obvious pose of humiliation and disgust.

"You remind me of a tsundere character in this manga," she apathetically explained. She did not seem to notice Aoi's blistering fury as she glanced back down at the page, bringing a finger to her lip in thought.

"Hmm… But, Hyōdō-kun is much cuter than this girl."

At that moment, Aoi wanted nothing more than to throw a pair of scissors at a certain dark-haired imp. He was sure by now that his face was the color of tomato that had been dropped on the pavement, a deep red, and it took all of his willpower not to shout and give her the satisfaction she wanted.

Hyōdō Aoi was most certainly not like a tsundere manga character.

And he'd prove it to her.

"Hyōdō-kun."

Silence.

He tried to ignore her.

"Hyōdō-kun."

A low sigh.

Placing his foot on the pedal, he diligently sewed the dress in an attempt to block out her voice.

"Hyōdō-kun!"

A yelp.

The button slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor. Even at his last straw, he willed himself not to give in to the distraction. He was not going to give in, he was not going to give in, he was not going to give in…

"Hyō—"

"What?"

Crap.

Aoi certainly was not making this easy for himself. Even so, Suzuna didn't seem to mind the aggravation that slipped out into his voice; the apathy in her own tone made it difficult for him to deduce anything about her at all.

She watched him quietly for a few moments before uttering a single sentence, void of any emotion.

"Can I call you 'Tsundere-kun'?"

Cobalt eyes blazed.

"Hell no!"

Amber ones seemed to glimmer.

"Got it, Tsundere-kun."

There it was; that blasted smile. Groaning, Aoi's palm met his forehead in exasperation.

Damn her.

A loud thud resonated from downstairs.

"I think Onee-chan is home," Suzuna suddenly exclaimed, hopping off the bed. She gave the boy a blank stare. "I'll come back in a few minutes."

He grunted. "Please, don't."

Suzuna hadn't seemed to have heard him, already out the door. With her gone, Aoi finally had a chance to breathe freely. Since when had it become so suffocating being in the same room with someone else? This was not normal. Nobody should have been able to pull his attention away from his work so easily.

It wasn't because of her, was it?

He was just having a bad day…

Right?

"Aoi-chan!" Ayuzawa Misaki exclaimed brightly as she entered the room. "I knew you'd be here!"

Settling for a quick nod of acknowledgment, he continued to work, paying the older girl no mind. He was left a little confused. How could he easily ignore Misaki when he could barely think straight with her younger sister in the room?

It simply didn't make sense.

The sound of a door opening entered his ears once again.

"Onee-chan," a familiar feminine voice spoke.

Aoi stiffened.

"Okaa-san is back from shopping and is asking if you'd like something to eat."

"Thanks, Suzuna. I'll go talk to her."

Now that Misaki had gone and left the two alone, Aoi was painfully aware of the fact that the apathetic dark-haired girl had turned to stare at him. It took him all his strength to continue concentrating on the dress. Somehow, with her presence back in the room, all his focus faded away like the wind.

How did she do it?

"Hyōdō-kun?"

He flinched.

No, he would not give her the satisfaction of his attention. He was busy right now. No more interruptions. No more distractions—

"Tsundere-kun?"

"I told you not to call me that, dammit!"

Her rare tinkling laugh sent a shiver down his spine. This dress would never get done. It all became clear to him, the cause behind his lack of focus—the answer was simple one that he desperately hoped would not exist.

Few things distracted a busy Hyōdō Aoi.

He hated to admit it

But…

Ayuzawa Suzuna was one of them.