Ayano hated Yui's poker face. She absolutely despised the near constant mask of indifference that the taller girl wore. She hated it for no reason other than she couldn't replicate it herself. It would only take her a second's consideration to sell her soul for the ability to control the violent blush she had when ever she held Kyoko's hand. Honestly, the heat in her cheeks could probably warm a soup at this moment, but damn it, there was no way anyone could make her let go of the blond right now.

Even if that meant eating her lunch one handed.

Kyoko didn't seem to mind either, just happily sitting their with their fingers interlocked and clumsily trying eat from her bento with her left hand. And yes, a few passing students gave them funny looks, and Kyoko did look a bit funny with some rice stuck to her cheek, but screw them!

I have been waiting too long for this not to make the most of it. Besides, the rice on her cheek just gives me the opportunity to do this.

Ayano leaned across and quickly pecked the rice off Kyoko's cheek, before returning to her normal spot with her blush making travelling all the way to the tips of her ears. The blonde startled for a moment and held a hand to her cheek, before grinning at Ayano happily.

Yui raised an eyebrow at their antics, still managing to look indifferent though. "You two are adorable." After a second she added, "It's kinda making me feel queezy."

The purplette shot her a glare, which only intensified as Yui smirked right back in her first real expression since sitting down. "Sh-shutup." Ayano stuttered before jabbing at her bento with her chopsticks."

"Don't worry about Yui." Kyoko said with an annoyed look at her friend. "She's just jealous."

This drew a snort from the raven haired girl. Chitose's hand went to lift her glasses off, but Yui grabbed her hand as quick as a snake.

"Don't." Yui warned.

"Why not?" Chitose pouted. "I've been waiting for this so long, why can't I-"

"Because I don't want your blood in my bento." Yui cut over her, moving her lunch box away from the potentially explosive fount of blood. "And it'd probably kill their mood anyway."

"I'm with Yui on this one." Ayano quickly added. "Are you sure you don't want to go to a bathroom before you take your glasses off, Chitose? You know, stand over a sink for a while?"

Oh wow, she actually looks tempted. After a moment she shook her head. "Then I might miss out on all the cute things you two might- no, will do."

"You'll die from that one day." Yui warned, taking a sip from her can of black coffee as she did. "Sure, it'll be with a smile, but then you'll really miss out on the cute things that happen."

"Aww, you don't have to worry about me Yui." Chitose smiled. "I'll just watch from heaven."

"Perverts go to hell." Was the curt response.

She blinked at that. "Eh? That's mean, Yui."

"Even if you do go to heaven, do you think they'll let you bleed everywhere?" Yui continued like she hadn't been interrupted. "Think about how confused all the new arrivals might get when they see your blood everywhere. They might think they've been sent to the wrong place."

Chitose pouted as Kyoko as tried and failed to stifle her giggles, while Ayano kept her face down so her friend wouldn't see her smirk.

Yui drained the last of her coffee, before standing up. "Anyway, I've gotta go to the bathroom. I'll see you next period, Kyoko." She tilted her head.

"'ee 'ou!" Kyoko answered around a mouthful Ayano's food.

Chitose and the purplette said goodbye, and watched as Yui left the room, throwing her can in the bin as she did.

Yay for cancer, Yui's nose wrinkled as she took in the scent of cigarettes and stupidity, the telltale smells of juvenile rebellion. Delinquents were one particular brand of idiot that Yui didn't have a lot of experience with. In her younger years she was something of a punk, but she'd never grown out of it fairly quickly so she herself had never traveled very far down this particular road of stupidity, thank god.

It was really easy to find them, three scrappily dressed 'cool guys' who hung around behind the gym during lunch. From where she stood she could see them snickering over some tasteless joke she had the fortune of not hearing, tiny trails of chemical smoke rising over their heads. She couldn't fight the urge to grimace as one of them fussed over his ridiculous swept hair with more concern and attention to detail than Yui ever took with her own hair.

With a sigh, she braced herself and approached them, part of her wishing for a disguise, but knowing that was probably a bad idea. She didn't want too many people to see the blue haired disguise she used last time going around school and start wondering about her.

As she approached, one of the three idiots nudged his friend and pointed towards Yui. The other two both turned to watch her, and Yui very quickly dropped any expression in favor of her neutral mask.

"What do you want?" The biggest of the three asked, hands in his pockets as he stood in front of her.

He was tall enough that Yui had to look up to match his gaze. "Are you Jun?"

"Who wants to know?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Pausing for a moment to consider how to formulate her request, Yui shrugged and answered. "I'm looking for help breaking into the school."

He blinked, his eyebrow raising and a smirk covering his face. "And what does a good little princess like you want to do that for?"

"I don't really think that's your concern." Yui replied calmly.

All three of them chuckled and leered at her. "Princess has some bite to her." The biggest one smirked, and leaned down so they were face to face. Yui fought the urge to grimace at how bad his breath was. "What if I make it my concern?"

She shrugged uncaringly in response. "If you're not interested, I'll walk away and take my money with me."

"Money you say?" He smirked and crossed his arms. "How much we talking about?"

"10'00 yen." Yui answered.

His eyes flashed greedily and he smirked. "That's all?"

Yui snorted. "Not like you have a job to get more from."

"20'000." He demanded.

"10'000," Yui answered firmly. "And you don't even know what I want."

"What do you want then?"

"Mr Ishii confiscated my phone, and I want it back." Yui lied smoothly. "I have things on it that I need."

"What sort of things?" He smirked.

"Things that aren't your problem."

Taking a step back, Jun stuck his hands in his pockets and leered at Yui. "...Alright, I'll get your phone back, but I don't just want your money."

"What else do you want then?" Before he could answer, Yui raised a hand to forestall him."I will not have sex with you."

He blinked at that, before smirking. "I was just gonna say I'd get the phone if you'd go out on a date with me, but if that's what you were thinking of…"

Rolling her eyes, she turned to walk away. "Get the phone in my hands and we can go on one date." Which will be difficult given that there isn't actually a phone.

"What does it look like? Ishii will probably have more than one." He called after her.

"White, with a black battery cover and anime stickers!" Yui called back, choosing a specific description that she doubted any phone Ishii had would match.

"Be sure to wear something cute for our date!" He shouted after her.

"Moron." Yui muttered to herself as she left. Oh well, with any luck, he would get himself caught. With some breaking and entering lessons from Chinatsu, her plan would be able to enter its next stage.

She allowed herself a small smirk. "This is actually kinda fun…"

Ayano was never sure if she should be grateful for paperwork or not. On the one hand, it was painful and boring, and being in the Student Council meant there was always so much of it. But on the other hand, she was good at it, she could handle it rhythmically and effectively, and it was so easy to slip into a trance-like state of peace and zen while she was doing it.

Right now, she was glad to be able to give her mind a while to sort itself out. It was nice to have a break from the hormones currently raging through her system at the merest thought of what she could do to Kyoko. And knowing the blonde, anything Ayano wanted to do would probably be consensual too.

Of course, there was the bridge of working up the courage to ask the blonde about such things, but still! That was a bridge that she would… could… eventually cross at her leisure.

Whoops, blush level 6, Ayano thought to herself with a sigh as her face heated up.

"Watcha thinking about?" A voice suddenly asked in her ear.

Yelping in shock, Ayano barely managed to control herself from jumping up in surprise. Turning around in surprise, she found her blush only getting warmer as she came face to face with the redheaded treasurer.

"Sayako," she breathed out, putting a hand to her chest. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry," Sayako apologised insincerely. "But I didn't mean to sneak, I think you were distracted by your fantasies there."

Ayano's eyes widened and she shook her head quickly. "No, I swear I wasn't getting-"

She was interrupted by the treasurer. "Relax, I'm only teasing." Then a slightly devious smile came over the girl. "But a little bird tells me you're finally together with a certain little blonde slice."

"I-I'm not sure if that's your business." Ayano murmured.

"Oh, relax." Sayako waved a hand. "We're in the Student Council, aren't we? Which is basically a club. We can gossip a little can't we?"

Still blushing, Ayano turned back to her paperwork. "I still have work to complete, senpai."

Rolling her eyes, Sayo sat down in one of their chairs. "Please, you do more work than all the other assistants we have combined. And you do it better too." Putting both her legs up on the desk, she added, "'Sides, I'm bored and I wanna talk to you. Consider taking a break a request from your 'senpai'."

Ayano debated whether or not she should disobey her senior's orders for a moment. Eventually, she decided that even if it did get her out of some teasing, it wouldn't be a good idea in the long run to make an enemy for no good reason.

"So, how did it happen?" Sayako asked with a smirk. "I want all the juicy details."

Blush level 8. Warning: approaching critical stages. "She uh, asked me out. After some... misunderstandings, I went to where she was and we… talked it out."

"That's all? Lame. Come on, what was the first thing the two of you did together?"

"N-nothing!" Warning: Level 9 reached. Body Temperature rising. "We-we didn't do anything."

Sayo grinned evilly. "Me thinketh she doth protest too much." Stretching, cat-like, she twisted in her chair and gave Ayano a re-appraising look. "That far already, huh? You Nanamori girls sure move fast, don'tcha? What did it taste like?"

The purplette blinked at the implication. "No! What do you-" Blush capacity reached. Warning: Critical system overload. Stuttering levels reached. "W-w-we h-haven't- N-n-no! W-why would you th-th-think that?"

Sayo stared at her for a moment, before a guffaw of laughter escaped her. "Oh god, that reaction was priceless. Do you always turn into a stuttering mess over this? Can you do it again? I wanna record this."

"N-no! Shut up." Ayano crossed her arms and turned away. "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

"Oh, Come on Ayo, I'm sorry." The other girl protested. "Please, we're just having some fun. If it makes you feel any better, if you've kissed her that means you've officially gone further than I've ever gone."

Ayano blinked at that, before looking at her. "Really?"

"Yeah," she answered with a sigh. "Most I've done is some hand holding in middle school."

"Really? I'd made it to second base by Middle School."

Sayo blinked in surprise. "Second base is what, fondling?"

"L-let's not get caught up in the details."

"Now I'm curious, who with?" Sayako stared at Ayano incredulously. "I thought you only had eyes for blondey."

Ayano blushed and averted her eyes. "It's… uh… L-look, let's just say Nanamori's reputation is completely deserved, and add that not everything I experienced there was entirely voluntary, so I'm not some kind of… of… play girl or hussy or…"

"No, no." Sayako cut her off. "I wasn't gonna suggest anything like that, I wouldn't judge someone for something like that. I mean, I might be, you know, inexperienced, but I'm hardly 'pure' if you catch my drift."

Huh, really? But she's so… confident. Before Ayano realised she'd done it, she'd reappraised Sayako, running up and down the girl with her eyes.

"Did… you just check me out?"

Ayano was so sick of turning red, as she looked away. "Sorry- I mean, no I wasn't- I-I… I didn't mean to."

This was followed by about a minute's silence, before Sayo asked, "So… how do I rate?"

"W-what?"

"I mean, like, from one to ten, how am I?"

"...Six and a half, maybe seven."

"...That's not too bad I guess. For reference, whose a ten?"

"...No one I know, but… Kyoko and Yui are both about an eight."

"What about you?"

"I-I don't know." Ayano frowned. "Can we please stop talking about this?"

"Alright, sure." Sayako chuckled. "So you're friends with Yui Funami?"

Ayano nodded, grateful for the change in topic. "It's hard to be friends with Kyoko without being friends with Yui."

"What do you mean by that?"

"They've been friends since before they were in elementary school. Their parents were friends and they lived really close to each other, so they practically grew up together."

"She went to Nanamori too, then? Are you worried she's gonna try and steal Kyoko from you?"

Ayano snorted. "No, they're more like sisters than friends."

Sayako tilted her head. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that… Yui loves Kyoko, but she doesn't like her."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean, loving someone isn't just a more extreme version of liking them. I think it's a completely different emotion. You can love someone and hate them at the same time, but you can't like someone and hate them. Yui loves Kyoko, but she doesn't always like her, if that makes sense."

Shrugging, the treasurer gave nod. "I guess I can understand that. You've thought about this a lot?"

"Not a lot!" Ayano protested. "Just… I mean, you know, I might have pondered it slightly on occasion when I had a spare moment and couldn't find something better to distract myself with."

"Obsessively, then."

"No!"

"I was just curious, 'cause I've heard some rumors about her."

"Who? You mean, Yui?"

"Yeah, a few different sports clubs have scouted her, and she's turned them all down. You ever watch Azumanga Daioh? Well, basically she's been acting like Sakkaki."

Ayno blinked. "Huh. I hadn't noticed, but that makes sense."

Sayako smirked. "Does she have a hidden cute side?"

"Not that I know of, no, but Kyoko would know a lot better than I would. Yui's really great at keeping her emotions off her face, so it's kinda hard to any side of her that she doesn't want you to."

"Some of the rumors about her are a little crazy."

Ayano raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Like she has the exact same look on her face when she's drinking tea, having an orgasm, or killing a man."

Despite herself, Ayano giggled at the idea. "She's not that composed."

"I dunno. Every time I've seen her, she looks disinterested and vaguely annoyed."

"Well, that's how she usually feeling, so…"

Sayako chuckled to herself. "Great friendship. Anyway, maybe you should talk to her and tell her to smile a little more, or things might get kinda out of hand with all the rumors."

"Yeah, I think she deserves to know about it. Not sure she'll care too much, though."

"Anyway, I better get back to work. I'll talk to you later."

Ayano gave her a polite smile and nod. "Another time, then."

With that, the treasurer returned to work and Ayano put her head down once more.

AN: I wanted to have the Chinatsu bit this chapter, but I've decided to try and separate the comedy and serious parts into different chapters so the tones don't clash too much. This chapter was mostly just foreshadowing and building things up, but hopefully next chapter will be worth a giggle.

Also, there's gonna be a bunch of OC's in this story, mostly in supporting roles, but also as antagonists. I hope that won't turn anyone off my story.

Till next time.

-Y1