"I, uh, don't see how you could've drawn him," Taro said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes while Anzu shut the window behind her. In the soft pink light of dawn outside the window, Hiro noticed for the first time how curvy Taro was under his hoodie. "The man's a stranger—er, I think so, anyway. I thought he was Kimiko's brother at first, but, um, he's way too old, so—"

"Listen, 'Ro, I care way less right now about who this guy's related to and a lot more about what the hell he's doing in—wait, did you say Kimiko?" Anzu's cheeks grew a shade of red that matched her hair; Taro gave Hiro a knowing smirk as if to say, I told you she had a crush on her.

Taro glanced over at Hiro, who was still staring at Anzu's "femme" top. "Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't mention," he said, hitching his thumb at Anzu. "We're, uh, roommates."

Hiro joined the other two at the window and sat down on the bed just as Taro rolled out of it, stripping off his hoodie to reveal a chest binder beneath it. His eyes met Hiro's for a moment, and he looked terrified that Hiro would comment, but Hiro said nothing. He had a couple of trans friends, and honestly, Taro being AFAB spared Hiro the awkward question of why he was roommates with a girl. What it didn't explain, though, was why Anzu was presenting as femme.

"Dude, quit staring at me like that!" Anzu snapped, giving Hiro a shove. "I guess Taro didn't fill you in on this, but I'm gay," she added more calmly, leaning back and folding her arms across her chest somewhat defensively. "I so don't have a thing for Kimiko, though. Don't believe a thing 'Ro says."

"Oh, really?" Hiro said innocently. "Because I talked to her recently, and I think she likes you."

He hadn't had any concrete plans when he'd decided to go back in time, but he was starting to formulate one now. It might not end up affecting things in the present, or it may even change them for the worse, but Hiro intended to put things back to the way they had been in the timeline where Kimiko and Ando hadn't gotten together. Hiro could see now, after seeing firsthand how good the two women were for each other, that his real sin in altering the timeline wasn't that it had been a selfish act. It had been keeping Kimiko apart from Anzu.

A hopeful expression flashed across Anzu's face, but it vanished as quickly as it sprung up. "Boy, I wish," she grumbled. "But Kimiko is straight."

"Or even if she's bi or a closeted lesbian, I don't think that Masahashi dumbass is going anywhere anytime soon," Taro put in. Pulling a T-shirt with a faded picture of Spock on it over his head, he muttered, "God, I hate that guy."

"Now, Taro-kun, don't be rude," said Anzu. Hiro nodded forcefully in agreement until Anzu added, "You're right, though; he's totally the worst. I'll never understand what Kimiko sees in him."

Although Hiro very much didn't want to blow his cover, mostly because he couldn't trust college-age Anzu and her roommate to keep a secret nearly as much as could trust present-day Anzu, insulting Ando was drawing the line as far as he was concerned. "What's not to like about him?" he countered, pushing up his glasses with a pout.

Anzu barked out a laugh. "Don't tell me you like the dude. He's so… mundane."

"He's got that standard cishet personality," Taro added. "Kimiko says he's planning on coming here when he's done high school. I for one hope he fails his entrance exam."

Well, for one thing he's pan, not cishet, Hiro thought. And for another, he's a smart, talented, supportive, wonderful man without whom I wouldn't be alive right now! He kept his mouth shut, though, and let Anzu and Taro carry on with their little repartee. There was someone else he needed to find in order to put his plan into action.

In quite the stroke of luck, he found her immediately upon exiting Taro and Anzu's dorm room. Down the hall, there were a few tables set up, presumably for students to study at. The only person there right now was Kimiko, who had a paper laid out in front of her and appeared to be trying to draw as perfect a circle as she could.

Kimiko didn't notice Hiro as he walked up to her, which was probably good, since she certainly would have recognized him. Hiro felt guilty about invading his sister's privacy, but he needed to find something out, so he drew in a breath and froze time.

Upon closer inspection, the circle Kimiko was trying to draw was the base for a drawing of a face; faint pencil lines marked where the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth would be. Kimiko was wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the university's logo, and her hair was parted on the opposite side from how she normally parted it. She looked just how she did in Anzu's drawing of her—except that she wasn't wearing the strawberry earrings.

Never mind that part, though—she was doing her own assignment! But Taro had said he and Anzu did Kimiko's art assignments for her… had Taro lied, or had Kimiko finally decided to do her own work?

Well, there was only one way to find out. Hiro was still afraid of being recognized, but he'd gone back in time before and not had his family members recognize him, and besides, stopping time so he could snoop around always felt bad. Taking a step back so it wouldn't look like he'd just come out of nowhere, he resumed time and then walked back up to Kimiko's table, doing his best to seem student-like.

Kimiko didn't notice him standing over her shoulder, and she didn't look up even when he awkwardly cleared his throat. She must have been pretty deep in concentration, which made Hiro wonder even more about Taro's claims of her lack of an artistic side. Hiro did need to get her attention, though, so he spoke up in hopes of initiating a conversation.

"You're drawing that circle very nicely," he said, and wanted to smack himself as soon as the words left his mouth.

Kimiko jumped a little; putting down her pencil, she glanced up at Hiro, putting on a strained smile. "Th…thanks?"

"You're friends with Anzu Noguchi, right?" Hiro asked. He tapped the drawing on the table. "Is she drawing a picture of you too, or are each of you only doing yourselves?"

"We're supposed to do self portraits, but Anzu has this idea that I can't do art, so she and her roommate have been—" Kimiko broke off, narrowing her eyes and sliding the paper closer to her so Hiro wouldn't touch it. "Hey, I don't have a clue who you are! You can't just jump in and start interrogating me."

She was completely right, of course—Hiro really hadn't thought a single thing through. "It's because… it's because I'm an art student!" he lied. "I could help you with your technique."

Kimiko looked down at her drawing, which still consisted of nothing more than a circle with a few lines sketched on so lightly they were barely visible. Then she looked up at Hiro, and then down the hall, then at her watch, and finally back to Hiro. She hummed in thought, chewing on the end of her pencil—the eraser had already been gnawed off. Hiro glanced up and down the hallway as she mulled it over, keeping an eye on the door to Anzu and Taro's dorm room.

"Thank you very much for the offer, whoever you are," Kimiko said at last, "but I'm not really interested in improving my art skills. I still try to do my own assignments, but…" She sighed, motioning at the paper in front of her. "The only reason I took art was because Anzu was taking it," she admitted, cheeks growing pink.

That blush told Hiro all he needed to know. Kimiko had still taken art so she could share a class with Anzu. Not only that; Kimiko, even in the version of events where she'd already been in a committed relationship, had had a crush on Anzu. Whether she knew it in this timeline or not, the feelings were there—she just wasn't able to act on them.

"Anzu really likes you, you know," Hiro said. He knew he was stepping way out of line, and the incredulous look Kimiko gave him only reaffirmed it, but he felt it needed to be said. Maybe if Kimiko knew that Anzu returned her feelings, she would do what she should have done to begin with—what she would have done if it weren't for Ando—and gone out with Anzu. If the attraction was there, and it was mutual, it was only right for them to act on it.

Pursing her lips, Kimiko shook her head slightly as if to say no way. "Anzu is dating Taro, isn't she?" she asked.

"What? No!" Hiro was puzzled; how could Kimiko not know Anzu's sexuality? She certainly wasn't one to hide it; Hiro couldn't think of a time he hadn't seen Anzu wearing a rainbow pin or wristband. "Taro is a boy," he added, in case that had been Kimiko's point of confusion. "I know you don't usually have coed dorms here, but—"

"N-no, I know all about Taro," Kimiko said. Folding her hands in her lap, she stared down at them intently. "I just thought—oh, who am I kidding, I know Anzu likes girls. She told me herself just the other day…"

For reasons unclear, her eyes flitted over to her shoulder bag, which was lying on the floor propped up against the leg of the table to keep it from falling over and its contents from spilling out the top. The bag was bursting with papers—not in an unorganized sense; there were simply too many papers and books inside the bag to all fit neatly. When Hiro followed her gaze, trying to figure out what relevance the contents of her bag may have held, she frowned, blushing, and prodded it with her feet so it was out of Hiro's line of sight.

Just then, the door to Taro and Anzu's dorm room swung open with a bang, and the two students burst through, cackling hysterically. Anzu's raucous laughter reverberated down the hallway as she grabbed a frisbee from Taro's hand—why Taro had a frisbee on his person, Hiro had no clue—and flung it down the hall. Thankfully, Anzu threw the frisbee in the opposite direction from Hiro and Kimiko, but Kimiko still flinched when Anzu laughed.

"Whoa-ho, nice arm!" Taro cried in delight as he ran to catch the flying disk. He missed by a long shot; the frisbee ended up coming to a skidding halt a few metres down the hall. "Hey, Zuzu, are you, uh…" He paused, leaning against a wall to catch his breath. "Do you, um, plan on using that arm to, y'know… impress the ladies?"

"You betcha, 'Ro," Anzu replied, wiping sweat off her brow. "Arms like these'll turn a straight girl gay. Speaking of which—hey, Kim!"

Turning to look at Kimiko, Anzu waved, grinning with a flush in her cheeks Hiro knew wasn't just from exercise. Kimiko blushed heavily and looked away; Anzu's broad shoulders drooped and her grin faded. She had changed into a T-shirt and jeans, which looked a lot more like something that present-day her would wear, meaning Hiro felt a lot less off-put looking at her now. Taro was too far away for Hiro to tell, but it looked like he was still in his paint-stained hoodie and sweatpants.

Paying no mind to how obviously flustered Kimiko was, Anzu strolled over to her table and plopped herself down right on top of Kimiko's sketch. "Yo yo yo, it's Kimiko!" Anzu singsonged, laughing at the shy smile and barely audible "hi" Kimiko gave her in response. "Class is gonna start soon, Kim. You oughta hurry up. I'd…" Anzu faltered, her voice dropping a few decibels as her already pink cheeks darkened into a bright red. "…I'd really hate for you to fall behind."

"Oh, Anzu-chan, that's so sweet," said Kimiko. She gave Anzu a cheesy grin. "You really have a soft spot for me, don't you?"

"Uh—n-no, I— well I d…" Anzu sputtered, drawing her knees up to her chest; Hiro was sure he could actually see her hair bristling like a cat as she metaphorically stumbled over herself. If she weren't situated firmly on top of the table, she probably would have literally stumbled as well. "I don't think that means anything," she managed. "You'd probably hate for that Masahashi boy of yours to get a poor mark too, right? Ah—not that it's the same or anything…"

"Ando's grades could be better," Kimiko admitted, deflating a little as if she'd just remembered that she had a boyfriend. "I think Hiro is a bad influence—they both spend too much time playing video games instead of studying."

"Well, that's—" Anzu began, but she was interrupted by Taro, who had made his way back down the hall, frisbee in hand.

"Uh, hi, Kimiko-chan—oh, I'm sorry to interrupt…" said Taro. "I, er, see you've met my, uh, my fellow DS9 fan? Oh, um, this dude here's got the same name as your little brother, doesn't he?"

"Well, Hiro isn't that unusual a name," Kimiko said. "And Nakamura is quite a common family name." However, she glanced Hiro over, brow furrowing, as if she were thinking, although now that you mention it…

"So, yeah, Zuzu's probably right," Taro said, glancing at his watch. "We've, uh, gotta get to class. Er, see you around, Hiro? I, um, I don't know if we actually will, but—"

"We'll keep an eye out for you," Anzu supplied, hopping off the desk. For a moment she looked like she wanted to grab Kimiko's hand, and Kimiko looked like she wanted the same, but Anzu shook herself and headed off down the hall with Taro, leaving Kimiko to her own devices.

Kimiko stared wistfully after Anzu as she walked away. "You could go after her, you know," Hiro told her. "If you like her, you should tell her."

"I wish," Kimiko sighed. "But I'm seeing this guy—we've been together since junior high, and he's best friends with my little brother, so if we broke up now it would just be so awkward."

"Well… maybe you and Ando aren't as right for each other as you think," Hiro said. He wanted to say more, but anything else would suggest he knew more than he had any excuse to.

"Well…" Kimiko tucked her pencil behind her ear, grabbed the unfinished sketch, and balled it up in her hand before jamming it in her shoulder bag. "…Maybe."

She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. When she did, something slid out the top as she walked down the hall in the opposite direction from Anzu. Kimiko kept walking without stopping to pick it up, but she did hesitate for a split-second, so Hiro knew she'd noticed.

Well, if Kimiko didn't mind losing it, hopefully she wouldn't mind if Hiro took a look. He bent down and picked up what had fallen—a note written on pastel pink cardstock in bright purple gel pen. The note read:

"Hey, Kim, about yesterday in art… I'm sorry. I thought I felt something there, and I was totally out of line, and I'll never try to ask you out again. Anyway, in case you haven't guessed, I'm gay! Figured you should know. But you're obviously straight, and that's totally cool, and I hope you and Blando have lots of fun together. Hey, sorry, that was mean. Ando's a great guy, I'm sure. I just really like you, and you don't like me, and whatever, y'know? It's all cool.

XOXO (Except not really 'cause you're not into that)—Anzu Noguchi."

On the back of the note, Hiro's fingers brushed against something plastic. Curious, he flipped the card over. Taped to the back was a pair of earrings shaped like strawberries, still in their package.