The Intimacy Institution

Merry Christmas, everybody! I'm sooooo sorry I haven't been able to upload, but I just got through a series of stupid tests up to the holidays, and I just hated that I didn't have time to write. Gomennnn~ It's a long chapter this time though, which I've heard you like, so I'll keep them long whenever I write too much. I'll try my best to be faster at uploading in the future, so enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 5

Curled up in a small ball in the middle of the bed, Aoba snored soundly in a deep slumber. If it hadn't been for the loud ringtone on his coil, he probably wouldn't have heard it at all. It beeped loudly, the only thing that could really get him up in the morning. He groaned loudly and turned around to reach for his coil on the bed stand, and pressed the off-button hard. He sighed.

"Today's the big day, huh?" he mumbled to himself. He sat up and scratched his eyes. He grabbed his coil and looked at it. A message had been sent to him overnight, but he didn't bother reading it at the moment. He jumped out of bed a tad more energetic than he had anticipated, and found his clothes he'd put out the night before. He pulled the gray shirt over his head, slipped into a comfortable pair of sweat pants and found a matching blue jacket. He had to say: this place's sense of fashion was spot on.

He pulled his bag over his shoulder, and felt his growling stomach. He was so hungry, and couldn't wait to taste some of that wonderful food again. As he was leaving his room, he looked at his messages on his coil. There was the one from yesterday; it was labeled "Schedule". Then there also was a new one with the label "IMPORTANT". He thought that the institution probably wouldn't send out those kinds of mails if they weren't serious, but on the other hand it was well organized, so what on earth could go wrong?

He decided to read his schedule as he walked to the cafeteria. Hopefully he'd bump into Ren, Sly and Koujaku on the way. He didn't dare to hope for Mizuki, since he seemed like he was too busy for them. But it was okay, since he liked the small quartet they'd formed. As far as he could read, none of the classes he was going to have would be with either of them, since they were all on 4 different routes. He kept his head high, hoping to meet new friends instead. That weird gasmask guy said he was on the same route, right..?

A little guy, looking around 17 with the reddest hair Aoba'd ever seen in his life, was running around on one of the floors, as if he didn't know where to go. He looked almost panicked.

"Hey, you Blue, what are you doing here?" he asked with the most annoying voice imaginable.

"I, uhm, I'm on my way to the cafeteria," he stammered a bit. That was pretty normal, wasn't it?

"Dude, haven't you seen downstairs?" he asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Aoba was about to say no, when the red-haired kid ran off, probably back to the homosexual floor.

Now when Aoba thought about it, it was kind of odd that he hadn't really seen anybody else on his way. He was starting to think that he'd gotten himself lost in the big château, until he turned the corner that led to the beautiful main hall where…

He stopped himself. "What is..?"

The first thing Aoba noticed was the smell: it smelled as if a million fireworks had gone off right in the middle of the hall. And it looked that way too.

Right in front of the door was a huge crater that took up almost half of the space in the room. It was about 4 feet deep and twice the size across. The lovely marble floor had been blown away, and was now either burnt off or scattered around the room. It was a wild sight.

Probably all the attendants to the institution were now gathered around the big hole to get a closer look. They blocked the way to the cafeteria, so Aoba couldn't even just keep going. How could this have happened?

"If I may have your attention, everybody," a familiar voice said, and everybody's eyes directed themselves towards Toue who stood on the top of the stairs. His green plaid suit was fit perfectly onto his broad shoulders, but his facial expression looked like he hadn't slept at all. Which he probably hadn't.

"Please, everybody remain calm. As you all can see right now, there is a small crater in our lovely marble floor," The crowd nodded.

"Well, I can assure you that everything is in perfect order. It was merely a test of the floor's durability. If it hasn't been for the modified marble, the crater would have been much bigger. Sorry for the unannounced disruption. Now, please continue your day without worries," Toue bowed slightly and walked back to his office without a word.

The background noise of people talking and walking now slowly came back, and little by little people ignored the crater and went around it to get to the cafeteria. Aoba sighed, not really able to comprehend the last few minutes.

"Aoba!" He turned around and saw Ren wave at him. He was relieved to find someone he knew to talk about it.

"What's with that crater?" Aoba asked. Ren took another look at it.

"Well, Toue said that it only was a test, but that would probably be announced at first, not to mention that it wouldn't be without warning and in the middle of the night,"

"You're right. It is pretty suspicious…" Aoba scratched his chin trying to remember something, but he was too hungry to think clearly.

"Why don't we go find the others so we can eat together?" Ren asked, and Aoba nodded. They walked together in a big circle around the crater.

"Man, that surely didn't happen last year," Koujaku stated. "But I did have a feeling that it would be different this year,"

"How so?" asked Ren before taking another bite of his eggs with beans.

"Well, Aoba is here too this year, which is great," he pointed in Aoba's direction, and he nodded in return.

"But also because Toue increased the price of the stay considerably in the last minute, which is odd. Why would he suddenly need the extra cash?"

Aoba leaned back. He didn't have to pay a single coin to stay here, but was invited personally. For advertisement. Not that he complained about it, but it seemed like there were a lot of other people who maybe would have gotten more from it than himself. So he wondered why exactly he was chosen for this.

"Maybe he needed to hire some hot new teachers or extras we can "practice" on," Sly added, grinning. The rest of the table shook their heads and let Sly finish his jokes.

"Maybe he needed a fixer-upper on his office. Or his wife… hahaha!"

When he was done, his natural face returned, and he got a more serious expression.

"But really, he said he needed to check if the floors were secure. Why would they need to be? This is just a school for dating for Christ's sake," he pondered.

"Well, you right about something," said Aoba. "He's up to something.

After eating the meal, their ways parted: Koujaku went with the people from the Hetero route, Ren with the Homo route, Sly with the A-route, and Aoba was left to go with the Bi route. He checked his coil one more time, assuring himself of where to go to form here.

"Ah, here it is," Aoba stood outside the door to the classroom. He didn't see many others, but he was early, so it wasn't that unusual. He opened the door slowly, and inside was a circle of chairs, a blackboard, a projector and some cushions in the corner. In the chairs sat a few people already, two pretty girls chatting with each other, and a guy with short blonde hair. By the blackboard stood a mid-aged woman who looked like your average art teacher.

"Ah, welcome," she turned around and took a good look at him through her glasses. "You must be Aoba-san," she concluded.

"Yes, I am. How did you know?" he asked, honestly curious as to if he already had rumors about him.

"Toue-san told me about you, and I also got a list of names with matching faces," she explained like it was obvious.

"I see," answered Aoba hesitantly, mostly to be nice. Although he didn't remember having any photos of him taken. He took a seat next to the single guy in the room. As he did, a few other people entered the room, and after being greeted they sat down, and the empty seats were slowly filled out.

"Hey, you," Aoba felt an elbow to his side, and turned to his right. The guy sat and tried to catch his attention. With a smirk he opened his mouth and spoke:

"You're on the right route. It'd be a shame if only one gender group got to fight over you," His voice came out sweet as honey, and Aoba almost thought he saw him lick his lips.

"I, uhm, thanks..?" He was far from sure how to answer, and just tried facing the other way. He could still feel the guy's eyes on him, weighing him from top to toe with his mere sight, but he didn't want to think about it. He'd hopefully stop soon enough.

"Good mooooooorning, everybody!" a joyful voice sang through the room at 9:55. It was awfully familiar, where'd heard it before? Eh-?!

"Oh, Master!" the voice called out again, and Aoba now knew who it was. It was that guy with the gasmask.

"Hi again, uhm…?"

"It's Clear,"

"Then hi, Clear," Aoba greeted properly. Clear clapped his hands happily together.

"I'm so glad that we're on the same route, Master! Then we can spend a lot of time together, isn't that great?"

"I guess, but, uhm…" This was something he'd wondered for a while now. "Why do you keep calling me Master?"

"Why I keep calling you Master?" Aoba nodded.

"Because Master is Master, that's why!" He rejoiced, but Aoba honestly didn't know what to answer at this point.

"So, let's begin!" the educator then said, and Clear took the first empty seat, a few ones from Aoba, and sat down. The teacher sat down on the last empty seat when everyone was there.

"My name is Laura, and I run this class, which is called "meeting and greeting". Here you'll learn how to introduce yourselves in an open way that makes you seem more attractive to other people, even to those whom you don't plan to have a sexual relation with," Aoba pricked up his ears.

"When you're done here, you'll be socially educated, and you won't have to worry about being awkward anymore," Aoba thought that actually sounded interesting. He hadn't been able to get a date for a long time, and maybe that was the problem. The next 30 minutes was spent on Laura speaking about the other things about the course.

"I will be teaching you a number of different techniques that you can practice," and so on.

"But now, I'd like for you all to know each other a little better, since we're going to be spending a lot of time with each other on a more intimate level," she began. She almost made it sound like they were going to be together forever, so dramatic.

She handed a small blue ball to a random person in the circle, and made them introduce themselves. Their name, age, occupation, and why they'd chosen to come to The Intimacy Institution, and why they chose the bisexual route. The first couple of people said things like "I wanted to try something new" or "I had nothing else to do". Then it came to Clear.

"Oh, I stay here all the time. But this time Master showed up, and it made everything so much better!" he rejoiced in his excited way. Honestly, where did he get his energy from? Aoba's cheeks flushed a deep red when everyone's eyes went to him.

A few more people were in between Clear and then the guy next to Aoba. He juggled the ball around for a second before talking.

"I'm Ryuuhou, I'm 29 years old and I'm a tattoo artist," he said confidently. Laura smiled, apparently glad that he wasn't a nervous type. "Tell us, Ryuuhou-san, why have you chosen to come here?" He smirked.

"Well, it's obviously not because I lacked human skills," he took a moment to giggle lowly. "I've come partly on work affairs, and also because you might need someone like me in this place," The rest of the class was silent. He spoke as if he owned the place.

"I chose the bi-route because, well," Aoba jumped when he felt a hand on his thigh, and began to sweat. "All kinds of company are fine to me," he finished, his voice laced with a weird lust. Some of the people in the circle looked like they were about to faint when they saw how unexpectedly sexy he was. One girl even had a nosebleed. Aoba couldn't believe it.

"Well, I think it's my turn," he interrupted, and Ryuuhou handed him the ball and took his hand off his thigh. Phew.

"Well then, hello. I'm Aoba Seragaki, I'm 23 years old, and I normally work in a junk shop called Heibon. I was invited here, so that's really the reason why I'm here in the first place," he paused for a moment to look at the others who looked at him. Then it hit him. They were all pretty attractive. Not just to him, but they were generally handsome.

"Keep going!" Laura urged him on, and he was snapped out of his thoughts. "Why did you choose this route?"

"Oh right, uhm…" he thought about it for a moment. He couldn't just tell him that he was there on accident, could he? That it wasn't his decision to be on the bi-route, but simply because his preferred route was full, so he had to switch. No, he needed to make something up. After all, it wasn't like he'd have to do something he didn't want to. Such as kissing a stranger…

"I, uhm, am new to the bisexual community, and I figured that it'd be best to join a route where I can learn to be myself," That's it, they'll buy that, he thought. "But actually… I'm not really sure,"

"Oh, I see, Aoba-san! Then let me help you," Laura began and rose from her seat. Aoba thought she was going to get something in her desk by the black board, but instead she picks two random people from the circle out, a man and a woman. She led them to Aoba.

"Now, kiss him," she said and smiled.

"EH-?!" Aoba jumped again and felt his heart race. No way, no way…

The girl, a pretty, tall blonde with green eyes, bend down to his face and kissed him gently. He struggled not to move away, but just let it happen. I mean, the teacher knows best… right? It felt nice and soft, but Aoba wasn't sure if it was because his heart almost leapt out of his chest, or because it was his first kiss in months.

Next was the man, half long dark hair that hung around his shoulders. He was introduced as one of the first, and his name was Kou. He bowed down to Aoba without hesitation and kissed his lips softly and warmly. Aoba felt like all the air in his lungs sept out, but without noticing he pursed his lips ever so slightly and met the kiss.

"Nice," Kou said when he pulled away. It didn't look like he was flirting with him, not like Ryuuhou did, but more like he wanted to boost his self-esteem. Seemed like a weird way to do it, though.

The two went back to their seats and the rest of the crowd seemed unsure whether to clap or not. Why would you even clap..?!

Aoba was almost in shock. Did that just really happen? Laura now stared at him, eagerly waiting for a response.

"Well, I…" Aoba was seriously at a loss for words this time.

"Hey, leave Master alone! He'll decide for himself, won't you, Master?" Clear had hopped right up from his seat and now stood between Laura and Aoba. She apologized quickly and sat back down, with no apparent change in her mood. All Aoba could do was send Clear a look with a mix of guilt and gratitude. Clear smiled back and sat down again, glad to be able to help.

The rest of the names in the circle were introduced, and the last 15 minutes went with small talking to get to know each other better (even though Aoba would say he knew more than 2 now very personally). He even got to talk with Kou and the girl, who apologized too, but Aoba, who now could speak again, said it was fine now. After all it was his first kisses in months, so that one of them came from another guy now didn't matter that much. Soon after, the lunch bell rang.

"She WHAT?!"

"That's right. She made two strangers go up and kiss me so I could 'come to terms with my sexuality'," Aoba replied to Koujaku at lunch. Ren's mouth stood wide open, but Sly couldn't stop laughing.

"That is so great, haha!" Sly struggled to breathe, but Koujaku was starting to get angry.

"Why do you think that's so funny? Aoba's not gay, try having a dude come up to you and just kiss you right then and there?!"

"Hehe, I'm pan, so I don't care,"

"You..!" Koujaku was getting pissed off, Sly kept laughing, and Aoba and Ren exchanged looks. Those two.

"Excuse me, Master?" Aoba heard that familiar voice, and turned around to see Clear standing on the other side of the table with a tray of food. He looked a little down compared to his usual energetic self.

"Hey Clear," Aoba wanted to be nice to him. After all, he did save him from that awkward situation back there. "Want to sit with us?"

"I'd love to!" His face lit back up, and he sat down next to Ren. "I'm Clear, nice to meet you~," The others introduced themselves, and no one else than Koujaku seemed bothered. Aoba could almost tell that he was thinking "that gasmask guy…".

Clear turned out to be good company at the table, always smiling and lighting up the mood with a funny story. Eventually even Koujaku liked having him around. Aoba thought he would take this opportunity to thank him for helping him earlier.

"You're welcome, Master. She did that last year too, and I thought I'd help you since you looked so lost," Aoba almost regretted bringing the subject back up, because he still was pretty embarrassed, but the others took it well. Clear told them a bit more about the teacher, that she wasn't all that bad, but actually was really good at her job.

They all finished eating and went to part ways again. Clear and Aoba decided to go together to the next class, which looked to be something about clothes.

"HellooOOOoo, everyone!" The teacher greeted the crowd with a song as he hopped halfway across the room in an elegant pirouette. Everyone stood speechless as he landed on one foot and bowed.

"My name is Wilson and I'll be your fashion teacher, isn't that just exciting?" he asked enthusiastically. The only person to answer was Clear.

"Yes!" he shouted. Aoba figured that being here for a long time, he knew how to handle this teacher, or whatever the hell he was. He couldn't help but wonder how he had the money to be here all the time, and why…

"So now, sit down everyone, sit down. Children of the Earth, I am going to teach you a little about dressing for success!" Aoba almost cringed at how flamboyant he was. Not that he had anything against him, at least he didn't make students kiss each other, but it was kind of hard to understand him the way he lisped.

He started the class by talking about what he was wearing himself, a shiny blue vest and black sweatpants. He told them that that was something he felt comfortable in, and that it also expressed who he was. No doubt about that. Then they took a round of what the crowd would normally wear, and they made a list of favorite clothing accessories. At 3 PM they were allowed to go for the day.

"Now what do we do?" Aoba asked Clear as they were leaving the classroom.

"Now we can just do what we want to until tomorrow. Most people hang in the entertainment rooms,"

"Then let's go there," Aoba followed Clear, who obviously knew more about the place than himself. They were going to meet up with Ren, Sly and Koujaku there, and Aoba just prayed that they wouldn't run into Ryuuhou…

How do you feel about Ryuuhou being a sex god? I figured that it fit him well, also because, well, I like him and wanted him to have a part in the story. I also had a lot of trouble figuring some of the classes out, but they turned out mostly okay. Besides, that's not the important part...
So yes, I love to hear from you guys, so please tell me what you think! I gladly take suggestions, so don't be shy. Until next time~