I know, it's been a while since I have updated. A lot of stuff has happened between the last chapter I posted and now. I forgot that I had this chapter finished and therefore forgot to upload it. The next chapter has been started but I'm encountering an insane amount of writer's block... ANYWAY, so, here it is! Hope you enjoy! AND I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS HEY BELONG TO PEACH-PIT!

Rima shut her mathematics textbook and shoved it into her bag hating the fact that she had math homework on the first day back and of course the English homework from earlier.

Amu sighed, "I thought high school was going to be a breeze." Amu had to go to Rima's class for math and she decided to stay there as everyone else didn't seem to mind and whoever had the seat beside her probably was eating their lunch in another classroom.

Amu and Rima both took out their bento boxes.

"It is high school…idiot," Rima said to her. Amu only rolled her eyes before blinking and turning to look around at everyone.

"Where's Nagi?"

"He has Phys. Ed. with Tadase. He said he would be coming back right after—expecting so since he would be hungry being the athlete he is." She said nonchalantly. Amu looked at her quizzically. The both of them did look at Nagihiko's schedule, but it was strange that Rima would know exactly when he had Phys. Ed.

"He told me." Rima shrugged it off picking at her sticky rice although Amu noticed the slight pink to her cheeks but dismissed it hearing a familiar voice at the door.

"Nagi!" She called him. Nagihiko strolled in just his black dress shirt and pants and was carrying his jacket behind him with his bag as well.

He smiled, "Amu-chan...how was math?" he smirked. Amu rolled her eyes hitting him gently as he sat back down in front of Rima.

"Hello Rima-chan," he said to her. She looked up at him, "How was soccer?"

"Great actually I scored—wait, how do you know we played soccer?" he asked her as his lips curled into a smug grin.

"Our classroom has the view of the field." She pointed next to her to reveal the window that did indeed have a clear view of the soccer field.

"Is that why you were looking out of the window for the whole class Rima?" Amu asked her smirking. As Nagihiko heard this he arched his eyebrows, however, that quickly changed so that he was smirking like the rosette in front of him.

"No! It was a coincidence! I just happened to come across purple-head and the Hotori playing soccer outside on the field. That. Is. IT!" she yelled at Amu flushing. Amu's eyes widened scared of this petite girl who was giving her one of the famous death glares. This one, was a tad more ferocious compared to her usual glare.

Nagihiko snorted, "whatever you say Rima-chan."

Rima glowered at him before eating her food silently. Nagihiko looked at her slightly before turning his attention to his own food which he started gobbling down the second he opened it. Amu snorted, "Rima was right Nagi: you are hungry." Nagihiko looked up at his food briefly to turn to Rima to find her shying away and decided not to comment. He was concerned about her but didn't bother making more friction between them.

"Well we did play for more than an hour. I just can't wait until art this afternoon." He smiled.

Amu let out a breath, "I suppose. I just want to know what we're doing first…"

"Oh, I know what we're doing, I just can't say." Nagihiko smirked.

"Why not?" Rima glared.

"It's nothing embarrassing if that's what you're worried about."

"Since when have you and Kukai been so close?" Amu noticed this after yesterday. Nagihiko shrugged and didn't bother mentioning what he and Rima talked about this morning. Rima realized this and smiled to herself secretly enjoying that his supposed best friend didn't know anything about his revelation that Tadase was merely naïve to his surroundings.

"It's almost time for class." Rima said as she put her bento box away, "the art room is in the basement. We should get going unless purple-head has to taint his record of always being on time for class."

"I didn't know you cared so much for my reputation Rima-chan." Nagihiko smirked. This earned him a glare from the blonde chibi before she started walking out of the classroom.

"Wait, Rima!" Amu went after her.

Nagihiko snorted before placing his now empty bento box back in his bag and followed the petite blonde with the rosette best friend in tow.

Thankfully, their art teacher was normal…enough.

As Nagihiko was told by Kukai, they would be painting plaques with their names to express their true and inner selves, or some type of mumbo jumbo sort of thing. It was their first 'project' that they would be working on.

Nagihiko smiled gently as the dark blue base paint on his plaque dried. He would now add a light purple border and add a couple of different shades of blue and purple later, he planned to write his name in gold once it dried. He noticed Rima across from him and her white plaque base and there were red, orange and green polka dots in different sizes. He smiled gently.

"Kusu Kusu?" He asked her.

She looked up with a shrug but smiled.

"You shouldn't be the one to talk with Temari and Rhythm on your mind." She referred to his colour scheme as well. He chuckled before he noticed Tadase finally walk over with his light blue plaque with gold crowns already painted on it.

"Where's Amu?" he asked.

Nagihiko smirked at the mention of Amu and pointed in the corner where Amu was furiously working on her plaque.

"She couldn't take criticism when we tried to give her tips."

They were diabolical as a team. It was a little scary to how the two of them became friends, Rima thought. They both find similar tactics to work against their friends. She hated to admit it but she likes that about Nagihiko. He's blunt, egotistical and a genius of a madman almost but he's also in a weird way nice and genuine as well—it's hard to find a person with all these qualities who is sane.

"Rima-chan?" Nagihiko looked her as she stared into nothing lost in her train of thought.

"Yes?" she asked absent mindedly. He smiled, "Good, you're back to normal."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she gritted through her teeth as red paint splattered onto the resting plaques next to her, she paid no mind to them though.

He smirked, "Yeah, she's fully functioning."

"I'll show you fully functioning…" she glared at him secretly enjoying this conflict. He saw that spark in her eye that he knew too well and smirked.

"Oh really?"

"C'mon you two…it's only the first day." Tadase's voice echoed through their conflict, turning their heads toward him. They blinked before laughing out loud in response to his worries.

Tadase heaved out a sigh, "really you two? You were enemies in elementary school, neutral in middle school and now you two could qualify as being boyfriend and girlfriend." As if on cue the both of them gagged.

"You two really are ridiculous." He rolled his eyes before continuing on his plaque.

Finally, the day was done. He slid the door to his room and collapsed on his bed with subtle laughter. He was glad his mother didn't interrogate him further on the events this morning, even more so considering Tadase hinted something he's been trying to hide. He smiled at the thought though, Rima being his girlfriend.

He hated his stupid teenage hormones his mother continued to convince him about. She did catch on to his feelings to a degree, he just escaped any sort of talk with her whenever she brought it up because he knew what would happen if he told her. Trouble and that was trouble for Rima more than it was for him.

His phone rang a tune and answered the phone without looking at the ID, "Hello?"

"So, did you tell the shrimp yet?"

He snorted knowing exactly who this was. There was only one person that referred to his love interest as a 'shrimp', and for some off reason he didn't really mind him calling her that.

"No. why should I? I'll tell her when I feel like it's appropriate," he responded.

"And when will that be Romeo? Another two years?" the older male said back to him.

Nagihiko rolled his eyes, "You can't judge my tactics Ikuto, you told Amu again after 5 years and disappearing for 3 of those years."

Ikuto chuckled, "Touché." Nagihiko smiled before turning to his clock and arched his eyebrow noticing the time.

"…aren't you at university?"

"I'm taking night courses. I thought you were the smart one of the group."

"Shut up, I've had a long day." Nagihiko mumbled to him.

"What's wrong with you? You usually have long explanations for things and stupidly long words from your extensive vocabulary. What's going on with you?" Ikuto said with concern in his voice.

Nagihiko chuckled to himself before responding to Ikuto after a couple of seconds.

"Tadase decided to point out to Rima and I about how similar we were and mentioned how we should date." Nagihiko started sitting up on the covers of his bed, "personally I loved the idea but she seemed more than disgusted at it… I just…I'm not letting go but, I just want one chance with her. "

"Just take her on one of the unconventional parfait dates you always do," Ikuto said lazily.

Nagihiko blinked at the suggestion. It was so simple that it was so perfect.

"You're brilliant, you know that?" Nagihiko rhetorically stated to Ikuto. He heard a low chuckle on the other end.

"Oh I know. It just takes a while for people to notice because they're too focused on my undeniable good looks to realize how smart I am."

Nagihiko had no idea if Ikuto was being serious or not. Regardless of that, it's not like it mattered. He just chuckled in response.

"Ugh I have to go Utau's going crazy. I'll see you later." Ikuto groaned.

"Mhm," Nagihiko responded before hearing the tone. He placed his phone on his bedside table before closing his eyes, just lying on his bed.

He would take Ikuto's word for it, besides he usually did take her on a parfait 'date' twice a week. Maybe tomorrow would be their first one for the week. He decided to call her rather than texting as it seemed more, he didn't know how to describe it actually, he just preferred it this way. Dialing the numbers into his phone he held it up to his ear to hear the ringing.

"What do you want Nagihiko?" her voice sounded less that happy.

"I'm sorry are you busy?" Just great, he thought.

"English homework." She replied simply.

"What about it?"

"'Write a paragraph expressing who you are'. What type of BS is that?"

"So clearly you think this homework assignment is difficult." He smirked not being able to contain it. He found this completely hilarious, smirking was the only way he could contain his laughter.

"It's not difficult! It's just infuriatingly stupid!" she yelled at him through the phone. He winced before he turned down the volume just in case she yelled at him again.

"It may be stupid but he's marking it," he reminded her.

She fell silent before sighing, "Fine, but…." She went quiet again.

"What is it?" he asked worrying slightly. He wasn't used to the quiet Rima, it was strange.

"….because you are one of my good friends and Amu isn't here, I'll admit that I don't really know who I am. That's why I'm stressing out. I know I'm not a cliché dumb blonde (AN: this is simply a cliché! I do not mean to insult people that have blonde hair!) and I'm short, that's pretty much it." she said.

To his regret he let out a soft chuckle.

"So this is a joke to you?"

He practically heard her glare. He froze.

"I didn't mean it like that. I just find it funny that you're forgetting your most important qualities. One of them being is your talent at comedy. How do you forget that?" He heard her pause, she was probably jotting this down he thought and he was right. Soon enough he started spilling to her qualities that he found in her that she never took notice to.

"You're a protective person Rima-chan, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. You stand up for those who you care about, it's actually pretty admirable. Anyone would be lucky to have you as a friend because you're just so damn blunt," he heard her snort and he smiled, "and on top of that, you're the most attractive girl in the school." He nearly bit his tongue after he said that.

Did I really just say that? He thought. He face palmed.

She was quiet on the other end.

Did he just say that?

With the phone pressed to her ear those words echoed in her brain. She's been jotting down a few qualities about herself that Nagihiko noticed, but she didn't expect that last one to slip out. Her pencil rolled off of her finger tips and she literally just sat there frozen. She noticed he got quiet as well.

Maybe he didn't mean it…

Maybe he was just saying that to cheer her up? That is what Nagihiko did, right? She perhaps heard him wrong and he said one of the most attractive girls in the school. That was something that he could say, he was nice to every girl in the school. Of course he wouldn't treat her any different.

"U-uhm," was all she could sputter out at this moment. She was still stunned.

"Rima you're just a good person," she heard him say quickly as if he nervously said it. He continued though, "there's a reason you have friends right? You're genuinely an intelligent yet crazy and sometimes too honest for your own good brilliant blonde chibi devil."

With every word she heard himself slither back into his brain cells.

She rolled her eyes but smiled playfully now twirling the pencil in her fingers.

"And you're an insanely athletic narcissist who has a knack for being too nice and always too tall for any given occasion that needs a purple-headed maniac."

"Now, now Rima-chan, keep those lovely words for another time," he chuckled.

She scoffed, "I hate you so much." She heard him laugh before responding.

"I love you too Rima-chan."

She figured that he was only joking around with her as that could never be true. For some reason this made her heart sink.

"Save those words for a girl who you actually feel that for. I have to go write this damned paragraph now, I'll see you at the same time tomorrow Nagihiko." And with that she hung up her phone not leaving any time for his reply.

He sat there on his bed leaning on his head board smiling at himself as he realized she'd hung up the phone. He looked out his window to see the setting sun.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't save it for as long as you would have wanted me to, Rima-chan."

He flipped a look at his schedule which he found on his bed side table. He no longer had use for it but just to remind himself he had first period Home Economics with her tomorrow. Home economics took up two period of the day. This semester it would be textiles and food/nutrition. He chuckled gently knowing those who were the two classes he and Rima were competitive in. He looked up at the ceiling and chuckled at how competitive they both could be.

"NAGIHIKO!"

His mother. He groaned getting up tossing the paper back on the bed side table and slid his bedroom door open again. She was probably going to force him to eat something she had experimented with. He gulped—why didn't his mother ever ask the servants to try her concoctions of recipes?

So, here it is, the FIFTH CHAPTER! I hoped you enjoyed it! The sixth chapter…well…it will take a while but not as long as it took from last chapter to this one. Please remember to REVIEW!