Well, you won't understand 16 if you haven't gotten to the chapters about New Year's and the incident with the mochi (when everyone made food and Tsubasa put the powder in the mix that made it so whoever's mochi you ate, you got stuck to, so Natsume got stuck to Mikan, Hotaru to Ruka and Yo-chan, etc). And 18 is a continuation of #5 (re: the Christmas dance).

Key to Flying
Done for the 30 KISSES challenge
By DarkenedSakura
Themes16-20 (may put your arms around me)

16. invincible; unrivaled

Misaki was surprised that Tsubasa hadn't turned into a little charred black lump yet, after all of his encounters with Natsume. He pulled so many stupid stunts around him that it made her wonder whether he was becoming a masochist, or if he was just losing his touch.

Becoming a masochist. That was the only way to explain his comments and ridiculous pranks.

That idiot. How he managed to avoid the flaming equivalent of the kiss of death every single time, she wasn't sure. He had to be made of pure Teflon. Maybe his true Alice was invulnerability. The Shadow thing – just a side effect.

Or he was just incredibly, incredibly lucky and durable.

Later that night, when they had finally gotten Natsume and Mikan settled in one room and Ruka, Hotaru, and Yo-chan in another, she pulled him aside, sighing. "Your pranks keep getting smarter and smarter."

"I thought it'd have been funny…" he mumbled, nursing his scorched rear end.

"Uh huh. No wonder he gets mad at you so much."

"At me?" he said with an expression of innocence that she would've believed…if it wasn't so innocent. "Me? What did I do?"

"So many things," she replied, pushing him down the hallway.

No matter what those kids had to go through tonight and the next day, she'd still be stuck as the one having to put up with his antics afterwards.

She'd trade places with them in a heartbeat.

Maybe.

17. kHz (kilohertz)

With the Alice he had, he adapted quickly to being able to filter out whatever he didn't want to hear around him. Otherwise, having super-hearing would be a pain. This was why peaceful Sunday mornings were his favorite.

Except, on this Sunday morning, the atmosphere wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

"You idiot!"

"What?!"

A pause. "Nothing."

Oh. Just the school's resident married couple. Fighting. Nothing new.

He grew engrossed in his book, but that lasted for only a moment.

"So why did you call me out sso early today?"

"Well, nothing really…just thought it'd be peaceful without everyone else."

Their voices dropped to a conversational level, and he reflexively increased the power of his Alice. He wouldn't know if it was important or not if he didn't try to hear it, right?

Eh…only small talk. Things about classes, the latest escapade with Mikan and Natsume (which he had heard about already), plans for Central Town…odd sounds?

The average human heart beats at 1.2 kilohertz per second, and a calm and collected person normally doesn't need to shift more than several times per minute. And yet, unless he was wrong, the guy's heart was racing as he moved along a bench. There were only two directions he could be shifting, so it wasn't hard for him to guess what he was up to.

Kiss her, stupid. Get it over with already. Even he, a ten-year old kid, understood the situation better than that middle schooler.

It explained a lot.

"Oi, Tsubasa, what are you doing?"

"N… Nothing."

Sighing, he returned to his book. And he thought what went on in the elementary B class was amusing enough.

Some people in the world just weren't made for romance.

18. "an" ("say ahhh…")

If he ran into her today, he resolved to meet her with confidence. There was no point in running away from her, after all –

"Tsu-ba-sa…"

Oh, crap.

Then again, what happened last night at the dance…changed all of that. Well…no. No. There really was no point in running away. Right.

He was asking for a death sentence, really.

--l--

"Tsubasa?"

Strange, she thought he was here…if he was trying to evade her, he'd definitely be indoors hiding somewhere crazy. She prepared to turn the corner, but a familiar face popped out.

"And what were you looking for me for, a--n?" he drawled, signature smirk in place. "Hmmm?"

She spluttered in surprise.

He stepped forward until they were almost nose-to-nose, keeping that infernally idiotic grin. And if she hadn't lost her focus before, she had definitely lost it now.

"Wasn't it something important?" he said, moving infinitesimally closer, enough that she was suddenly aware of it.

And then the atmosphere changed, and she remembered.

His expression suddenly shifted as though he finally realized just what the hell he was doing, and he smoothly backed up and bolted. If such a thing was even possible.

There was no time to think about such things; what was she doing? "Oi, Tsubasa! Come back here!"

19. red

Tsubasa was, really, such a provocateur. As lazy as he was, he just made things happen. Like with Misaki. He always made her a little angry by just doing what he normally did, knew the 101 ways that he could definitely tick her off from (accidental) experience. Not that he enjoyed it or liked being berated or beaten for it; it just always happened like that.

Like with the whole dance kiss fiasco. It was a reminder that hell hath no fury like a female taken by complete surprise, or something.

Of course, as usual, she got him back for it. In repayment for making her see red, she kissed him so hard that he saw stars.

20. the road home

Graduation felt so surreal. She never really expected the day to come. After nine, ten years of knowing nothing other than the academy and its way of life, it was hard to imagine anything else.

And yet, here she was.

The entire gang – Mikan's group – had shown up for it. Even the little firestarter as well. How the girl managed to make him come along, she didn't know. At least he and Tsubasa got along more civilly than before. Perhaps. A little.

Mikan had asked her what they were going to do now that they had graduated. She had replied that she and Tsubasa were going to live in Central Town at first, so they could visit them whenever they liked.

You and Tsubasa? Hotaru had asked.

Well, yes.

You and Tsubasa, together? You've found a place together.

She had suddenly remembered that the girl was and had always been keenly alert about these kinds of details exactly when it was best for her not to be.

And then Tsubasa had shown up, and the real grilling began.

"Wow, Tsubasa-sempai!" Mikan exclaimed. "It's so cool that you and Misaki-sempai are going to live together in Central Town!"

"Yeah, we…wait, what?" he said, perplexed.

"You know what she means," the ones Mikan called Kokoroyomi and Kitsune-bi piped up brightly.

"Aren't you a little too young to talk about that?" Tsubasa remarked drily.

"Tsubasa and Misaki, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" the two sang.

"And aren't you supposed to be too old for that?" he groaned.

"But it's cohabitation!"

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Mikan asked quizzically.

They all exchanged a glance.

"Never mind," Tsubasa sighed, giving up.

But for the most part, they evaded their remarks pretty well. After all, they were best friends. Moving in together cut costs and wouldn't really change anything. It was just that everyone else thought very differently. Tono had a field day with it, probably as payback for all of the things Tsubasa said to him in the past.

Misaki had let those two deal with their scuffle on their own.

She was still amazed that the school was letting them, especially him, go. Or maybe it was because they were going to stay in Central Town, which was close enough to monitor. She shuddered at the thought. How far away would be far enough? Would anywhere ever be?

"…Misaki? Oi, Misaki?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

"We're at Central Town. You ready?"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I am."

As the bus pulled away, she couldn't help but feel that strange, surreal feeling once again while staring down the dusty road. How things were different, how things would change, how things would be so –

He put an arm around her shoulders, one that she did not shrug off, and kissed her on the forehead. "Let's go home, okay?"

She looked at his confident smile.

"Okay."

--l--

I, I have nothing to say about this batch. I completely don't know what I was thinking, and erk. It just didn't turn out like I wanted it to at all.

I kinda threw up most of my notes at the top, but otherwise. Missed the last deadline and got an extension, but there are only 2 more parts left of this. And all of this I wrote a long time ago, but these next parts haven't been written yet and thus will be closer to my current style. And they'll hopefully be better, too, but you know.

Thanks to Dex for prodding this with a stick, as usual, and comments are appreciated and loved. :D