I'm really sorry for being so late, but I just finished my exams last week (extra subjects = non-existent holidays D:), and I got stuck writing the first part of this chapter. -.- Ah well~ at least now I have a bit of the next chapter written as well. XD
My beta and I were both very tired, so please forgive us for the pure crack in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to give me a poke if you're still reading, 'kay? ^_^
P/S: And thanks for all the reviews~ Every single review really makes my day! *huggles all readers* ;)
Recap from previous chapter
Tennis.
Fuji.
...Maika.
His pencil lead broke.
"..."
It was going to be a long night.
------------------------------------------------------------
Tawako Kamaika was currently very, very annoyed.
"But darling, why don't you want to? It's just for one week! Your dad and I are going out of town, and you have school the next day – you need to stay somewhere..."
Now, this was very sound logic, and she wouldn't normally have kicked up such a fuss about such a trivial thing. And she wouldn't have – if her mother had not chosen to dump her at the Atobe residence, of all places.
And of course, anything which involved the Atobe household was a ominous sign of terrible, terrible horrors to come – usually in the form of Atobe Keigo.
"Kaa-san, can't I just stay at home? I'm almost an adult now, and it's not like anyone's going to come in and mug me..."
Her mother huffed in frustration. "What's wrong with staying with Atobe-san? It's not like you don't spend a lot of time there anyway – it's almost like a second home to us. I really can't understand why you're being so difficult about this!"
And the worst thing about it was that her mother was right – she didn't have a reasonable excuse to offer.
Because the last time I went there Atobe Keigo told me he liked me and I freaked out and -
Definitely not an acceptable answer.
"He was kind enough to offer to let you stay, so you're jolly well going to be thankful and stay. Do you understand?"
She scowled. "Yes, kaa-san."
What she didn't know, however, was that her mother had insisted on dragging her husband out of town for a week-long retreat just so the two patently unsuccessful matchmakers could throw both teens together for a few days. After all, if nothing else, they could always count on teenage hormones to take care of the job for them...
The elder Tawako grinned to herself in anticipation of the fail-proof plan. Atobe-san was in charge of logistics, and it was safe to say that she had quite a good idea of where exactly in the Atobe mansion Maika would be staying for the next few days.
She cackled gleefully. Oh yes, life was good indeed.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"...and this is your room." The maid opened the door to a palatial suite that could only look at home in the Atobe estate. "If you need anything, please ring the bell."
She thanked the maid and walked into her room, stashing her luggage away in a random corner of the suite. This was one of the rooms she had never seen before – but then again, she usually only saw the wing reserved for guests.
Huh. So the rooms the Atobe family lived in were even more opulent than the guest quarters. Go figure.
Oh well. First things first. Homework.
Now... where on earth do I do my homework?
She scanned the room, finally spotting what she had originally thought to be some random art sculpture but which turned out to be a supremely elaborate writing desk and chair. So she crossed over to the other side of the room, and made a very important discovery.
Not only did the chair look like it was made of solid marble, it also apparently weighed as much as solid marble.
"You – idiotic – pant – stubborn – pull – stiff-necked – heave – piece of wood! Just come OUT already!"
The chair remained smugly in place, and she felt a sudden urge to kick it – hard.
Which she did, and immediately spent the next two minutes hopping about on one foot, trying – and failing abysmally – to stifle the howls of agony that erupted from her mouth.
"You," She informed the chair frostily, with as much dignity as she could muster while nursing her poor, injured foot, "are going down."
Thus ensued a frantic tug-of-war with the chair, in which the chair was clearly claiming a very one-sided victory despite her best efforts to dislodge said artefact.
Why is everything remotely connected with Atobe Keigo so infuriatingly stubborn?!
She gave one final, forceful pull, and promptly lost her balance, landing unceremoniously on the hard, cold floor.
"Do you happen to hold a grudge against me?" She glared at the chair, which remained maddeningly silent. "Don't even try to deny it."
All the same, she knew how to pick her battles, and headed towards the bed instead, giving the chair up as a demon-possessed piece of furniture whose sole purpose in life was to annoy her.
Which was why Atobe found her sprawled all over his bed when he came home from tennis practice, surrounded by what looked like a mountain of books and papers - and very, very much sound asleep.
---------------------------------------------------------
"You were drooling on my pillow!"
"How was I to know it was your pillow? It doesn't have your name written on it, does it?"
He eyed the offending object with equal parts horror and revulsion. "It's contaminated! Germified! How do you ever expect me to sleep on it again? And it was my favourite pillow too..."
She rolled her eyes. "Believe me, if I knew it was your pillow, I wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole."
They both paused, and the sheer absurdity of the situation began to sink in.
"What were you doing in my room anyway?"
"Your room?!"
"Well, yes." He looked at her as if she was crazy not to spot it immediately. "My room. The one I use during the daytime."
"...you have two bedrooms?"
He blinked. "Don't you?"
"Atobe." Maika was sorely tempted to smack him. "Nobody has two bedrooms."
She glanced at him, and then amended, "Well, nobody in their right mind, at least."
A moment of deceptively peaceful silence passed until...
"HEY! I resent that statement!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
They finally settled it by Maika shouting Atobe down and telling him that it was going to be a learning experience for him to cope with just one bedroom for a few days – just in case he ever had the misfortune to stay in a holiday villa that despite having tennis courts, a gymnasium, swimming pool, jacuzzi, a seaside view and state-of-the-art facilities, could only afford him a single bedroom.
Oh, the horror.
Maika was just about to point out that she would be very happy to go in his stead if he thought it beneath himself to stay in such a beautiful, seaside villa simply because it couldn't offer him two bedrooms when Atobe suddenly started.
"You didn't touch anything, did you?"
She looked at him blankly.
"...You do realise you were just accusing me of drooling on your pillow."
He shook his head impatiently. "Not the bed, the drawers. You didn't... go through them or anything like that, right?"
A mischievous grin crept across her face. "And so what if I did?"
"You didn't!" His face was scandalised.
"What? It's not like you have pictures of nude women in there..."
He flushed. "Of course I don't!"
"What is it then?" She looked suspiciously at him. "Nude men?"
There was a sudden, profound silence, in which Atobe miraculously lost all ability to speak or form a single coherent word.
"Oh my... IT'S TEZUKA, ISN'T IT?!!"
If there was ever a time to have an apoplectic fit, this was it.
"...WHAT?!"
----------------------------------------------------
Tezuka was supremely unamused.
He had taken five hours to do his homework last night.
FIVE hours. Almost three times longer than it should have been.
His concentration was shot to bits, and with it went whatever little semblance of good temper he might have had. And it was all Fuji's fault.
He glared at the floor, imagining the tensai's grinning face painted under his feet - and immediately saw the shockingly pink glossy magazine page lying innocously on the floor. Which, of course, did absolute wonders for his mood.
Not.
Really, some students had absolutely no civic consciousness at all. Was it too much to ask people to throw things in a rubbish bin, where such offending articles obviously belonged?
As he leaned over to pick it up, the sparkly lettering caught his attention.
10 Ways To Know If You're In Love With That Special Someone
He did a double take. Surely that didn't say what he thought it said...? He frowned at it, wondering if there was even any point in trusting such a dubious-looking resource.
No harm done, I guess...
He picked it up, setting it gingerly on his desk.
---------------------------------------------
Outside the classroom, a certain redhead shared muted high-fives with a honey-haired boy.
"You were right, Fujiko! He picked it up!"
-------------------------------------------
"Say, Tezuka, could I borrow your book? Please?" Maika wheedled.
"You haven't done your homework." It wasn't even a question.
She frowned. It wasn't even her fault... how could she possibly finish her homework when Atobe threw her out of the room with an injunction never to defile his brain again with such horrific images? (How was she to know what he kept in there anyway? Besides, it was his fault that she was thinking so much about Tezuka... what with his "It's Tezuka, isn't it?" question... of course Tezuka's name would pop out! What did he expect?)
Oh well. If Tezuka wasn't going to give it to her, she'd just go and get it herself. After all, he hadn't exactly forbidden her to take his book...
She grinned, and reached out a hand to pinch the prized book.
Just then, a gust of wind blew into the classroom.
A bright pink piece of paper fluttered to the floor, and Maika promptly forgot all about the book. Before Tezuka could reach out a hand to snatch the paper away, she bent down to retrieve it. She took one look at it – and very nearly died laughing.
He flinched, resisting the overwhelming urge to bury his head in his hands. Today was most definitely not his day.
"You – you – " She giggled helplessly, looking between his dumbstruck face and the offending sheet of paper she was currently clutching in her hand. "Tezuka, why – snort – why on earth are you – giggle – doing love quizzes torn from a trashy magazine?"
Permission to crawl into hole... granted.
"I – " He opened his mouth to save whatever shreds of dignity he had left, and closed it again. Really, what could you say to such a question? The truth?
No, it was entirely too humiliating, and that would bring a confession of a different sort altogether. Something else. A lie, then.
It's Fuji's. Say it's his. He hadn't quite forgotten the PMS comment yet – nor the kiss.
...definitely not the kiss. Either way, this was a perfect chance for revenge.
Go on, tell her it's Fuji's, and he left it when he stopped by our class.
Except that Fuji hadn't, of course. And Maika would know, since she sat beside him. Trust Fuji to foil the most devious plan he had come up with in his life by pure inaction. So, the truth it was.
Glancing as impassively at Maika as was humanly possible – she was wiping away tears of mirth, for goodness' sake! It wasn't even that funny – he started on an explanation which was sure to humiliate him further.
"I was – the encyclopaedia said I liked y – someone – " Thank God for quick saves! " – but I didn't believe it, and I found this on the floor, so I just – "
But Maika had stopped listening to him after the fifth word or so.
"You - checked the – encyclopaedia?!" If she had been giggling before, she was quite literally howling with laughter now, clutching at her stomach in merriment.
" The encyclopaedia – can't breathe – need air – "
He was utterly mortified.
And feeling completely helpless, he fixed her with the sternest Buchou Glare(TM) that he could muster.
She promptly burst into laughter again.
After taking refuge in the relative sanity of mathematical equations for a full five minutes, he finally composed himself into some semblance of normality and glanced back up with a little more dignity than before. Maika, he was thankful to note, had managed to sober up somewhat – although she still broke into occasional cackles of glee.
"So you think you like someone..."
He nearly groaned. Just as he thought she might be tactful enough to drop the subject - although knowing Maika, he shouldn't have been surprised. Tact was simply not a word in her vocabulary.
"But who are you in love with?" She twinkled at him mischievously, and he had the sudden thought that Maika and Fuji might be long-lost cousins twice removed. "I never thought I'd see the day Tezuka Kunimitsu fell in love..."
"I'm not, I just thought – wait, who said anything about love?!"
"Is it Rin-chan? Akiha-chan?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose. Must. Not. Bang. Head. Remember, it kills brain cells.
Resist.
RESIST.
"Or perhaps Keiko? All the guys fawn over her, but ugh, I simply can't stand her..."
...actually, brain damage didn't sound too bad at the moment.
"Is it Mei-chan? She's really sweet, though I didn't think you'd like someone so docile – "
In fact, the prospect of injury was starting to look more and more attractive every passing second.
Her attempts to reel off the name of every single girl in their form suddenly halted, and he looked up to find Maika staring at him in what looked like – enlightenment?
Oh dear.
He suddenly had a very, very bad feeling about this.
"It's a boy, isn't it?"
His pencil lead broke.
"WHAT?!"
"Aha! I thought as much," She nodded her head wisely, as if she had just discovered gravity. "You can tell me, you know. I won't tell anyone. Is it Fuji?"
She thought he was gay.
She thought he was gay and in love with Fuji.
...she was so, so dead.
-------------------------------------------
How was it? *waits nervously* XD
Review? =)