Author's note: this chapter was not meant to be so long, pt2 got away from me. I'm not completely satisfied with how Oga shows Furu the pics, but being too 'touchy-feely' doesnt really suit their characters, so I hope it still reads ok. and just for clarification this is set some time after the current arc, but the boys are still in 1st year.

Thanks to all the people who left reviews, i'm glad to know people are enjoying this, I hope it continues to please... and I'm aware that dom!dream furu is very OOC, but he is a dream and the differences between fantasy and reality will be addressed in following chapters.

As he closed his front gate, Oga silently swore that he would look anywhere but at his friend. However, as his very angry friend was waiting right behind him as he turned around, this resolve didn't last long, nor did Oga's feeling of awkwardness around him.

Oga could have kissed him, except that he found he really didn't want to. He didn't want to kiss his furious blonde friend, who swung between hitting on Hilda and complaining about Oga's behaviour. He might have wanted to fuck the dream-fairy Furuichi, but real Furuichi was just his friend, and a less erotic person Oga had never met (excluding Toujo... and Himekawa...).

Oga would have happily let Furuichi continue ranting, but after a few minutes Hilda snapped.

Grabbing hold of Oga's collar, she drew his face close to hers and growled, "when will you ask him about the pictures of the master!?"

Furuichi paused his complaining, "what pictures?"

There were very few things Oga would have liked to do less than show Furuichi the link in his phone, but Hilda's anger reminded him that this wasn't just about Oga feeling awkward. Someone got close to Beel. And considering Beel had Hilda, Furuichi was probably more at risk than the baby.

Opening up the link, Oga passed his phone to Furuichi. "Misaki showed me these yesterday, that's why I left."

"Misaki took these?" Furuichi asked excitedly, looking at the first few images, feeling flattered.

"No. A friend showed them to her. We were hoping you knew who took them," Hilda answered.

Furuichi didn't speak for a while, just kept clicking through the images. When he finally looked up, his face was tense, "You really don't know who took them?"

Hilda, Oga and Beel shook their heads.

Furuichi forwarded the link to his own number, before passing the phone back to Oga smiling, "sorry, I've never seen these before."

Oga blinked in surprise. He had expected hysterics or something, but his friend seemed fine.

Hilda held onto Beel as they walked the rest of the way to school, but her head swivelled everywhere, watching out for anyone suspicious. Oga and Furuichi walked on talking. "Oi, idiot, you ok about this?"

"Hm? It's just some pictures taken on the street, isn't it? Not like someones coming to my house or anything," Furuichi replied shrugging. Oga thought that might be true, most of the pictures had all been taken out in public. Something about that seemed wrong to him though, but he couldn't remember why... Something about Furuichi's house, or room...

Oga forgot about the towel image as Furuichi grabbed his arm to stop him just outside the school gates. Looking up at the school building he said, "just, don't tell any of them, about this, the photos, ok?"

Furuichi waited until Oga nodded to release his arm, the turning back to Hilda with a smile he walked into the grounds, Oga following them. His friend was obviously not happy about the pictures, but Oga was relieved that he wasn't panicked. He felt his phone in his pocket. He was especially relieved that his friend was behaving like the real Furuichi and not the dream one.

The idea of two Furuichis began to appeal to him. Kind of like being attracted to his best friend's twin brother. A twin that didn't bitch constantly, or harass the girls, or get kidnapped every other Tuesday, or cheat at video games, or steal his manga volumes... a twin who used his mouth for things other than complaining.

Oga spent the next few hours lost in thoughts of The Other Furuichi. The classes he usually skipped or didn't pay attention in seemed to go much quicker as he day dreamed the hours away, but as lunch drew near, he realised that thanks to his fantasies, he needed to quickly slip off to the bathrooms and handle his problem.

Leaving Beel with Hilda, he scurried to the toilets at the end of the hall, feeling very grateful that the new Ishiyama High had bathrooms close enough to the classrooms that he wouldn't get shocked by Beel while in the toilet. Locking the stall door, he pulled out his phone and spent the next 5 minutes alone with The Other Furuichi... and then another 10 minutes after that just to be on the safe side.

The lunch bell had rung by the time he had finished, so with as close to a smile as he ever came, Oga headed up to the roof. He practically skipped up the stairs, wondering if this was how people who fell in love with anime characters felt, but as he opened the door to the roof he froze, staring.

The Other Furuichi, the dream fairy Furuichi, was standing at the edge of the roof, looking down at the school yard. The breeze moved his hair and shirt, and he seemed on the edge of floating off, as if his grip on the wire fence was the only thing holding him down. He turned and looked at Oga, whose stomach was doing flips, frowned and said "Well it's about fucking time! We thought you must've fallen in."

Oga blinked in confusion. That was the Real Furuichi. Not the Other Furuichi, but the real one. His friend. His best friend. His best friend, who Oga had just masturbated over in the bathrooms. Who he had been fantasising about all day. Who he had had the wettest wet dream ever about last night.

The only one.

"Oh, shit."

Standing outside a convenience store that afternoon, Furuichi typed out a message.

[To: Miki Hisaya]

[Are we still on for tomorrow?] [SEND]

While he waited for a reply he opened up the web link he'd sent himself from Oga's phone that morning, clicking on the first image that loaded on his screen. Earlier that day he'd decided that he would go through each picture until he could figure out some pattern or a clue to who the photographer was, certain that he could narrow it down to a few blocks at least. However on clicking through the images he was forced to admit that locations were too varied; some were taken in the shopping districts, some in the park, and some on his route to Oga's house.

When Miki replied a few minutes later, he was relieved he had a reason to stop looking through them. The pictures embarrassed him. He knew he was one handsome devil, but he didn't like how the pictures seemed to see through him, exposing the side of himself Furuichi tried to keep hidden from the delinquents around him. He had to admit that they were really beautiful pictures, and the ones of Beel playing made him smile... but looking at the pictures of himself, he felt as if someone was looking into his soul. He'd had more than enough experience with that previously, and hated the idea of being exposed so publically... just thinking of all the people who could see him like this made his skin prickle as he imagined invisible eyes watching him. Shuddering he opened the message;

[From: Miki Hisaya]

[Yep, picking up supplies as we speak]

There was image attached of a basket full of lollies and red bull. Furuichi grinned. This was one image he was glad to see. Since returning to Ishiyama High, he and Miki had made a point of meeting one afternoon a week to study. But every so often they had a weekend marathon: video games all Friday night, then studying Saturday and Sunday. They held them at Miki's house so Oga wouldn't crash- sometimes literally – the party. Furuichi's parents had only let him attend the same high school as Oga as long as he agreed to keep his grades up, which was nearly impossible with so many demons and delinquents in his life, so hiding at Miki's to study had seemed the perfect solution.

[To: Miki Hisaya]

[Awesome... just got new Mutant Sailor Zombie Scout... I'll bring it and chips] [SEND]

Slipping his phone into his pocket, he headed into the convenience store to grab the chips. Gaming and studying were the most normal activities in his life, which, thanks to Oga, made them the most unusual activities too.

Furuichi frowned, thinking back to lunch. Oga had been very odd. He'd seemed twitchy ever since he arrived on the roof, and had fumbled when Furuichi had passed food to him. It quickly became obvious Oga was thinking about those fucking pictures - he seemed to be expecting Furuichi to have some sort of meltdown, as partway through lunch break Furuichi had started to catch Oga watching him; just thinking back to it made Furuichi throw the chips into his basket a little harder than he should have. He had eventually snapped and gone back to the classroom alone.

It annoyed him when Oga worried about him. Furuichi knew he was weaker than everyone else, but he had said he was fine, even if he wasn't, and it still irritated him when his friend thought he couldn't handle this.

Feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket snapped Furuichi out of his thoughts, and he realised he had been strangling a packet of chips. Checking the store clerk hadn't seen that, he put them back and pulled out his phone.

[From: Miki Hisaya]

[NO SOUR CREAM AND CHIVES!]

Looking at his basket sheepishly, Furuichi put one of the two packets back... he loved the flavour but apparently few people could stand his breath after, so walking alone was his best chance to eat them.

[To: Miki Hisaya]

[ ok... :'( ] [SEND]

Grabbing a few more packets of differing flavours, he headed up to the counter. He was blissfully walking out of the store eating the second bag of chips when the reply came.

[From: Miki Hisaya]

[You're eating them now aren't you -_- ...you disgust me]

[To: Miki Hisaya]

[I regret nothing] [SEND]

Laughing around his chips, Furuichi put his phone away and headed home. It felt inordinately good to have one normal friend. Even though Miki was as likely to get into a brawl as all his other friends, he was still more concerned with grades and entrance exams than demons and spells.

He was tipping the last of the crumbs out of the bag into his mouth as he closed the front door behind himself, trying to swallow before calling out "I'm home," and heading into the kitchen, where he dumped his bags full of bags of chips, fending off his little sister's interest in them with his chive breath- Miki be damned, those chips could do no wrong.

He gave his mother a quick kiss and a "hello" while looking over her shoulder at the dinner she was preparing. Before he could even ask "what's for dinner?" Mrs. Furuichi sternly told him that it "wouldn't be ready for a while and don't you have homework?"

Furuichi sighed. Grabbing his school bag, he headed up to his room. Despite what most people thought, including many of the students, the Ishiyama High teachers did occasionally set homework. Tonight however, he had more pressing concerns, so when he entered his room, he opened his laptop instead of his textbooks and searched for the website that had posted the pictures. It didn't take long, and after bookmarking the address, he began browsing the images. He didn't like them any better on a larger scale.

He clicked through image after image of himself - smiling, frowning, sitting, walking, so many different pictures but somehow all of them with that same look on his face. Fragile, weak and vulnerable. He hated them, but he kept looking, trying to spot anything that would help him figure out who this photographer was.

In one of the picture he was looking straight at the camera, and Furuichi found himself staring into his own eyes, and for one surreal minute he was sure that wasn't him. He'd certainly never looked at a person like that... the feeling of being looked into was so uncomfortable, that people would have told him if he did that. He shook his head as he clicked onto the next image, wondering if this was starting to mess with his head, and as the image opened up, he ran for the nearest toilet.

Head held over the bowl, he threw up everything he had eaten that day, coughing and heaving as bile and food gushed out of his mouth. He could still feel his stomach heaving even after it was empty. After resting a moment, he rinsed his mouth, thinking that Miki had been right about the chips- they tasted awful the second time around.

Afterwards, he went downstairs and watched tv with his sister until dinner was ready. He smiled at his dad's jokes although he wasn't listening, complimented his mother on the food although he couldn't taste anything, and then helped his sister wash up.

Sometime later, after his father and mother and sister had all bathed, he headed to the bathroom to take his own. As he undressed he very carefully did not look at the mirror, certain that if he saw himself right then he would be sick again. Once undressed he set about scrubbing every part of his body that he could reach. He soaped and lathered and scoured every inch of himself again and again, and it wasn't until his skin started to sting and turn red that he stepped into the hot bath, where he stayed submerged up to his nose until he started to shiver from the cooling water. Finally forced to get out, he carefully dried himself, wrapped his towel tightly around his waist and walked to his bedroom. He had left the door open when he ran out, and could see that it was near pitch black inside, the only light coming from the hallway. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into his room and in the darkness, crossed to his window and drew the curtains closed, returning to shut his door before finally turning on the light.

Not looking at the window, he quickly put on his pyjamas, turned off the light and slipped into his bed. Then he lay awake staring up into the darkness, trying to think of anything but the image of himself on the computer screen, coming into his room wet and dripping from the bath... and of who ever had been watching him through his window.