Not the end of the trilogy either sorry. God this came out fast. Wrote it out yesterday. You know you're bored when you think up a story in the laundromat. DP, I didn't think that at all until you told me. Wow. Sad isn't it? But at least in recent chapters it shows Akito still knows how to kick butt when necessary. Anyway, this one's rather funny, if a little sad. There are mentions of two characters in the Digimon crossover in here. Try and catch them.

Title: Prowess

Rating: T

Genre: Humor/Romance

Warnings: Swearing, injury by tennis ball, slight OOC

Summary: Ikki sucks at dating. Akito is amused.

Fragmented

13. Thought

"What the hell is wrong with her?"

Ikki shouted and slammed the door, looking slightly pouty, left cheek flaming red. His noise caused Akito to glance up from his book, pulling off his headphones. For a moment, music fluttered out into the air as Akito turned off his MP3 player. The blunette then rolled over to look at him, looking down curiously from the top bunk. They were in college now and Akito was the only one in the dorm tonight. Ikki had no idea where Kazu was, probably on a date like him. At the moment, he was too pissed to care, continuing to snarl and pace around. To Akito, it was one of the more hilarious things he had seen and heard this week, not counting Sa-chan nearly passing her job while using the GPS. That was just plain ridiculous.

"Ne, Ikki-kun," Akito asked innocently, head propped up on his hands. "What are you talking about?"

"Ringo!" the elder spat furiously, clenching his fists. Normally he'd feel bad about snapping at the younger boy but today was just way too annoying for him to worry about it. "God, I didn't even do anything and she snaps at me like a fucking tiger!"

"Date went sour?" Akito inquired, rolling back over to reach into his backpack.

"You have no idea," Ikki muttered, finally giving up on pacing and sitting down on the opposite bottom bunk. "It was fine until she decided to fucking slap me."

"What on earth did you say?" Akito sounded a mixture of amused and surprised. Ikki threw up his hands in dismay.

"I don't know! We were talking about ATs and I mentioned Kururu might be able to help with what was wrong with my Regalia and she just slapped me out of nowhere!"

Akito was perfectly still for a moment, back still facing Ikki. Then the boy sighed and rolled back over to stare at the ceiling. He clutched a metal puzzle in his hands and began fiddling with it. After a moment, he said, "You know Ikki-kun, in hindsight, I'm glad I never asked you to actually date me."

This threw the crow for a loop. "What?"

The blunette glanced at him. "I hate to be blunt Ikki-kun but you are hopeless when it comes to this sort of thing. Not as bad as Kazu-kun but you're pretty bad. Even Agito did well with Nakayama-san and he's as clueless as you." He paused for a moment and rolled his eyes. "Don't be so defensive Agito. You didn't even know about it until just before the virtual battle and that was because I told you."

Ikki decided to go in backwards order. "Okay back up a second. How the hell do you know to date? I've never seen you go out with anyone."

The smaller teen giggled. "I'm the only reason Onigiri still has a girlfriend and why Nakayama-san didn't commit suicide after Agito stopped the relationship."

I don't know whether that's pathetic or amazing. "What do you mean about Kazu? He's dating Emily."

Akito snorted, still fiddling with the puzzle. "They aren't dating. Emily just is clinging like a leech over him. He just thinks that's her normal behavior. Poor girl. I don't know who to feel bad for at the end of this."

Ikki couldn't help but sputter. "But she's been like that since middle school!"

Akito quirked an eyebrow, closing his eyes as his hands moved. "Ikki-kun, Ringo-san's been like this since you guys were six."

"Got a point there…"

"Has anybody given you dating advice?" Akito asked, doubting it highly.

This time Ikki snickered. "Like I'd trust the others' dating advice."

"True." Akito muttered as he sat up to look at Ikki. He wasn't even paying attention to his puzzle anymore, at least not consciously. "Did you ever date Sumeragi-san?"

That was out of left field. "No."

"What was the closest you've ever been with her?"

"She's my Tuner," he replied in the you-should-know-this tone.

Akito groaned, resisting the urge to put his music back on and tell the crow to leave him the hell alone. "Come on Ikki-kun. Can't you figure out what I'm asking?"

"No. I don't think like you."

The blunette really wanted to punch him, partly because that was insulting and partly because he was behaving like a grade-A idiot. He settled for throwing a tennis ball at the elder's head, hitting him on the forehead. The ball bounced harmlessly to the floor. "See, this is why I'm glad I didn't date you. You are a blind moron."

"Ow! What the hell are you on?" Ikki was about to bodily grab the boy by his throat and fling him off the bed, curiosity be damned.

Akito had given up on being civil. "The first rule of common sense on dating is that you don't talk about a potential love interest in front of your date dumbass!"

Ikki froze, mostly because of the curse word from the shyer boy's mouth. "Huh…?"

Akito wasn't done. "You mentioned Sumeragi-san in front of Ringo-san, who likes you and knows Sumeragi-san likes you. Ringo-san, being your girlfriend, is naturally jealous of Sumeragi-san."

"Why? She's my Tuner!" Agito rolled his eyes, patting the other blunette mentally on the shoulder, who was currently trying not to go and convince Ringo to dump him before she lost her mind.

Akito, don't ever call me hopeless again. This guy's fucking mentally impaired.

Agito, at this rate, Kazu-kun is looking less stupid. I swear to God, why did I crush on him?

You're the one who's called love blind, deaf, and dumb.

No offense to any of those people with that problem.

Akito forced his voice to level out. "Sumeragi-san is closer to you than Ringo-san ever will be. That's not just envying, that's painful. Kanon-san is the same way for her and you're jealous of him."

Ikki flushed. He couldn't exactly deny that. "Why didn't she just say that? Didn't have to slap me…"

"Um, Ikki-kun it was rather obvious. Plus girls think more subtly than boys, even the tomboyish ones."

"Yeah, well, I don't think like a girl."

"That has nothing to do with it but sometimes I wish you would. It might teach you some tact." Akito glanced at his hands, where the puzzle was now solved. He put it away. "Ikki-kun, next time you see her apologize and try avoiding that sort of topic next time. Might save your face, your pride, and your relationship. Just saying."

The crow was watching him. "Why are you helping me have a better romance with Ringo? You were all over me in middle school."

Akito held back a groan and settled for a sarcastic retort. "Ikki-kun, it's called a crush. I got over it."

"Somehow I doubt that." Ikki's voice was wry and Akito wondered what was with the tone change.

You're partially right. "You never liked me like that, at least not enough to start going out and even if you had, you wouldn't have understood."

"What if I had…?" Ikki had trailed off at the end, indicating that he hadn't meant to say it. He wasn't lying, not completely.

"It wouldn't change now unless you dumped Ringo-san." Akito didn't even look up as he pulled out his laptop, "If you did, I would request for a room switch because just seeing you would get me arrested for murder. I know what an inexplicable dump feels like. It sucks." He placed a headset over his ears, typing rapidly. Ikki, no matter how buried that feeling was, did feel a bit of pain at the boy's blunt refusal.

"I'm not saying don't ever dump her. I'm saying wait. Your relationship just started. You've got time Ikki-kun. If you've got more feelings for me than you do for her later on, well, who knows? Now, sorry, but I've really got to get online."

Grateful that he hadn't lost any of his reputation and hadn't been completely snubbed, Ikki stood to look over the computer screen. "Who are you talking to?"

"My friend Mi-chan."

"Wait wasn't that…?"

"Redhead who came to visit two years ago? Yep."

"But you two are dating!" Explains why he snubbed me. Explains a lot of things actually.

"Exactly. Long-distance but it works out." The voice chat activated and he grinned, saying a cheerful hello. Covering the mic, Akito stated. "You should probably go apologize to Ringo-san now, before you forget. Good luck."

Ikki nodded and left. He shut the door quietly this time. The crow didn't say thank you but Akito really didn't care. He knew it was implied.

"So, has Nii-chan asked Sa-chan out yet because I've been threatening him for a week now..."