The following afternoon, Hideaki ventured past the Treasury to pick up the paperwork that Tetsuya had dropped off to spectacular result the previous afternoon. Both Shichijo and Saionji were present in the Treasury office when he entered. As usual for his Treasury visits, he looked at Saionji and - despite having spent most of the previous day sitting within arm's reach of the Treasury's other member, he utterly ignored Shichijo.

"Saionji-san," he greeted, unabashedly admiring the slender, effeminate, ridiculously pretty Second Year that was sitting behind the Treasury desk. He noted that Saionji's right fist was wrapped up. "I understand that you have some documents for the Council."

"You're right," Saionji replied. Hideaki noticed the boy shoot a quick, assessing look between him and Shichijo, who was sitting at the computer, before picking up a folder on his desk and coming over to hand it to him. "A word, Nakajima-senpai." He walked out of the office, "I'll be back in a bit, Omi."

"Yes, Kaoru-kun."

Curious, Hideaki followed the younger boy up the stairs and onto the deserted roof. There, Saionji turned to look at him. He was frowning.

"It was good of you to buy Omi's lunch yesterday," he said curtly.

Hideaki raised an eyebrow. This was what Saionji wanted to talk to him about? "Is that what he told you?" he asked.

"Reluctantly, yes."

Interesting. Hideaki smirked and readjusted his glasses. "I picked the restaurant," he offered. He resisted adding that he was aware that Shichijo didn't have a lot of money. Saionji was smart enough to know that he knew about Shichijo's single neurotic mother/estranged rich foreign father/multiple step siblings abroad situation.

"Well, I wanted to thank you for being…" Saionji's eyes narrowed slightly as he considered his next words, "…civil to him yesterday."

Civil? I ordered dessert on a whim and he almost came at the table. Hideaki's smirk widened at the memory. For a brief while after leaving the restaurant, he had been contemplating delaying their return to the hospital and taking Shichijo somewhere private to give the pretty Dog a hand job.

"I also wanted to warn you against hurting him," Saionji continued sharply, pulling Hideaki from his daydream.

Hideaki chuckled disdainfully. "You seem to be under the misapprehension that we were on a date yesterday."

"Humph. And you weren't?" the pink haired boy challenged. Hideaki didn't respond to that and Saionji seemed to notice, the boy's chin lifting slightly. "All I'm saying is that I take Omi's life seriously because he is dear to me. So don't hurt him."

"Or what? I'll regret it?" Hideaki purred. He grinned when Saionji's frown deepened. "I'll remind you that unlike you and Shichijo-kun, Tetsuya and I were elected to our positions by the student body. If the Treasury stopped talking to the Student Council, how would the Chairman resolve the issue?"

To his surprise, Saionji did more than shut up. The boy actually paled as he faltered. Hideaki observed his reaction with great interest. If Shichijo did indeed cheat on his platinum paper, then drawing attention to how the Chairman hand picked Treasury members would definitely raise accusations of favouritism.

Tucking the folder against his chest, he put his other hand in his pocket. "I'll see you later, Treasurer." Then he turned and walked away.

NHSO/NHSO/NHSO/NHSO

Kaoru was spewing when he came back to the Treasury later. He didn't say anything, but Omi could easily tell, from seeing the tension in Kaoru's shoulders to hearing the clattering of his tea ware as he made himself a very strong cup of Assam at entirely too late a time of day, that Nakajima had pressed a very, very big button of his friend's.

"What is the matter, Kaoru?" he asked finally, when he saw that Kaoru, despite sitting at his desk, wasn't doing any work and instead glaring blankly at the table.

"It's that Nakajima," Kaoru snapped, glancing at him. "He thinks we're a joke."

"We're?" Omi echoed in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Look, it doesn't matter," Kaoru continued in an angry, sharp voice. He got up. "I'm going to my room," he said abruptly. "I'll see you tomorrow." So saying, he left the room, shutting the door with a snap behind him.

Omi stared at the door in bewilderment. What on earth had Nakajima said to him? And more confusingly, why was Kaoru not sharing the details of his complaint with him like he usually did?

But whatever it was that so bothered Kaoru, his friend's ire had died down by the following day and school life continued as usual.

On Sunday, Omi once again went to see Nakajima. This time, Nakajima was more focussed on their project than he had been the previous Sunday. Indeed, he had divided up the project into tasks for each of them to complete before subsequent Sunday meetings and computer classes. Omi was quietly impressed by how swiftly the older boy had organised and planned the whole endeavour. Intimidated too.

Four weeks passed and the pacemaker project slowly began to come together. And now, Omi was far more irritated by Nakajima than impressed. It seemed to him that Nakajima was doing everything planning-wise and Omi grated at his own under-utilisation. Nowadays, the senior really only talked to Omi when he wanted to delegate tasks and although - yes - that meant that he was doing work, all of the work he was doing was relatively easy. Even the electrical engineering challenges weren't all that challenging after Omi had finally gotten his head around the theory and spent a few hours fiddling with hardware in the academy workshop.

Nakajima hadn't really flirted with him since that slightly bizarre restaurant lunch on their day trip to the hospital. He had received a few ambiguous insinuations, true, but Nakajima gave those to everyone. However, there was the fact that every time they worked together, Omi always seemed to receive an iced chocolate or ice cream from the older boy.

Each night, he kept a look out for Nakajima's balcony light, and when he saw it flick on, he'd excitedly open his balcony door a little and lean against the door jamb to breathe in tendrils of the other's cigarette smoke and wonder if tonight, he might be privy to more than Nakajima's meditative exhalations and actually get to hear something of that deep voice that so affected him.

Rationally, he knew that he was only digging himself deeper into a bad habit. Emotionally and sexually, and especially now since he had started working with the older boy and was no longer seeing him as a rival, he was addicted. Even the faintest whiff of cigarette smoke now made him think of Nakajima's lips, and of watching those lips touching iced teas and coffees during their project meetings. As for his voice, hearing it made Omi's groin tingle and his hands shake.

Their relationship, however, was a boner-killer. Increasingly, Omi was feeling utterly useless in front of the other boy. Sometimes he thought Nakajima would prefer to work with a robot rather than him. Ironic, given the subject.

It was on the Sunday of this fourth week, after they had met and sat down in a deserted classroom to bring their work together, that Omi finally spoke up.

"Senpai," he said quietly, during a lull when Nakajima was looking at code on his laptop, "I would like to contribute more to the project."

The older student stopped typing and looked at him. The bright sunlight gleamed off his spectacles. "What's the problem?"

"I feel… under utilised."

Nakajima's lips quirked slightly, as if he found something privately amusing in what Omi had just uttered. "Indeed."

There was a brief silence. Omi sipped at his iced chocolate as he watched Nakajima's face and awaited his response.

Finally, Nakajima looked back at his computer. "You're in charge of the sensors."

"Including choosing what they will be?"

"That and positioning and designing them. Will that…" he smirked a little, "…satisfy you?"

Omi blinked. He couldn't help the flush that entered his cheeks. He lowered his eyes. "Yes, that will do."

"Tell me if you need more."

"…Yes," Omi assured him, pretending to ignore the double entendre and the knowing smirk on Nakajima's face. He was fairly certain that Kaoru - if faced with the same blatant flirtation - would have given Nakajima a piece of his mind and stormed out of the room by now. Unlike Kaoru, however, Omi was both more reticent and a little turned on by the wordplay. "I'll do that."

That night, when he saw Nakajima's balcony light turn on, he opened his balcony door and was gratified to hear voices below. Once again, Nakajima was entertaining King Niwa. Omi could smell more cigarette smoke than usual and guessed that the pair of them were at it.

"Oi, Hide, I went on the council computer today," Niwa said cheerily.

"Dare I ask why?"

"Well, whilst you were out with Shichijo-kun, I remembered that when you guys went on that date… day trip, you said there was a master file to access in case of an emergency.

Nakajima made a noncommittal noise. "What of it?"

"Heh. It has Kaoru-chan's phone number. Lucky!"

"Opportunistic of you, but didn't he block your number?" Nakajima asked dubiously. There was a pause and then he said, warily, in a low voice, "Wait. You replaced your mobile after it got damaged during the MVP battle, didn't you."

Niwa laughed. "That's right."

"Have you contacted him yet?"

"That's why I'm here. You're going to help me, Four-Eyes. I was thinking: Kaoru-chan, how about a date? Tetsuya."

"Apt," Nakajima said sourly. "However, it'd be superfluous to add your name."

"Eh? Oh, he'd know it was me from the chan bit, huh. But it suits him! Where's my phone?" There was the sound of fumbling, then a clicking keypad, and then, "There, I've sent it," Niwa announced, before laughing nervously. "I'll have another black eye tomorrow."

"You're an idiot."

Another silence. Then, abruptly, Niwa queried, "Hey, so are you going out with Shichijo or what?"

Nakajima choked and coughed for a bit. "What? What gave you that idea?" he coughed finally.

Niwa chuckled. "That bad, huh? Well, you haven't been trying to hack the Treasury computer recently. And I haven't seen any good looking juniors visiting the School Council Room to make puppy eyes at you this term. Also, you've been in a very, very good mood on Wednesdays and Sundays. You should ask him out on another date - I mean, a proper date."

Above, Omi's breath hitched. So it seemed both Niwa and Kaoru thought Nakajima was attracted to him. Suddenly, he felt a coil of excitement in his belly. And dread. Nakajima was attracted to him, but hadn't made a move on him. And Niwa was suggesting Nakajima, who had sex with many, but rarely went steady, take him on a date.

"We're project partners, Tetsuya."

Niwa chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not that dumb, Hide. Gimme your phone. Let's get matching black eyes tomorrow. See how hard the cute halfie can punch. What's your new password again? A jazz singer, right?" He yelped and there was a loud thud.

"Give. That. Back," Nakajima said in a dangerously soft voice.

There was a long silence. Then Niwa suddenly yelped and then there was the sound of someone getting up and walking into the room below.

"You fucking tease," grumbled the President from the balcony. Distantly, Omi heard Nakajima laugh.