Title: Stumble and Fall

Author: Avelynn Tame

Disclaimer: I do not own Gokusen.

Summary: A new teacher has arrived at Shirokin, and he's not bothering to hide his attraction to the homeroom teacher of a certain delinquent class. 3-D greet him with their usual kindness and warmth, but Yankumi is far more interested in the reaction of one Sawada Shin…

Author's Notes: Wow, this is so incredibly late. Nearly three months late, in fact. The only excuse I can offer is that I have been insanely busy with my studies (I am a medical student, for those who don't know). I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and to those who said 'please continue with this' – you guys kept me motivated!

A quick note about Chapters 7 and 8: basically, I wanted a little manga-esque adventure where Yankumi discovered a problem and set out to make it right. But the character of Ryu serves a slight double-purpose, as you will see in later chapters. In fact, eagle-eyed readers may notice a slight hint as to how Ryu might pop up again in this chapter.

Anyway, onwards and upwards …

Chapter Eight

Ryu had struggled all the way up the street, but Sawada's grip had held firm, and eventually he'd given in, throwing his ass into a chair in the café and sitting at the table with a sullen expression while Kumiko went to order.

When she returned, she had the impression that Sawada had been talking to the kid, but they both shut up pretty quickly when she sat down.

Ryu glared at her. "This is like kidnapping, you know that, right? Maybe I should call the police and tell them there's a crazy bitch loose in the neighbourhood – ow!"

Sawada had cuffed him sharply around the head. "Don't call her that. She's trying to help you."

The kid looked at Sawada. "Hey, I thought you said you weren't her – ow! What was that for?"

"Just shut up," Sawada muttered crossly.

She tried to get the situation back on track. "You are Ryu, right?"

His eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Who the hell told you?"

"Your brother is worried about you." She frowned as she gave him a stern look across the table. "And he told me that your parents are, too."

Ryu sat back, his lip curling with disgust. "That idiot? What, just because he doesn't get to be part of that crowd, I have to stop having fun? That's pretty pathetic – ow! Will you stop hitting me?"

"No," she said sharply, since she had been the one to deliver the blow this time. "Your brother is hardly pathetic. Who's the one trying to act like a big man, hanging around with kids like that who spend their time vandalising property, huh? Who's the one whose so-called 'friends' ran off and left him at the first sign of trouble? You, that's who. The only pathetic one around here is –" She broke off abruptly.

Ryu looked like he was about to cry. He was staring fixedly at the table, his little face crumpling miserably.

Great. Another thing to add to the resume. 'Able to use a complex mixture of insults and injuries to reduce children to tears.'

"They said they'd look out for me," he said bitterly. "They said we were all in it together. They weren't supposed to just run off and leave me."

The waitress arrived with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a black coffee for Sawada, who was also treated to a flirtatious wink on the side, free of charge. Kumiko watched to see if he would reciprocate, but he didn't so much as glance at the woman. Instead he turned to Ryu and said, "They would have done it eventually. Bastards like that aren't worth your time, so don't even think about it anymore."

The waitress stalked off, irritated, and Kumiko bit back a smirk. Then Sawada looked straight at her, his gaze locking with hers, and she felt as though she'd been pushed backwards. He nodded his head pointedly in the direction of the waitress and smirked knowingly.

She kicked him under the table.

"Easy for you to say," Ryu was muttering darkly, oblivious to the way Sawada's face was contorting with pain. "At least when I was hanging around with them, no-one messed with me. It was like… I was someone, you know?"

"You think that's gonna matter in five years, or ten?" She leaned forward. "Was that your plan for the future – to be in a gang? How long were you planning to keep it up? What, at sixty-five years old you'll still be hanging around in parks at night?"

The kid slammed his mug down onto the table, hot chocolate sloshing over the sides. "I don't have an alternative, okay? I'm no good in school, I don't have some job all lined up for me, or family connections… what was I supposed to do?"

"You're seventeen," she said earnestly. "What you're supposed to do is talk to your family and your teachers, not drop out and join a gang. Your brother told me that you didn't even stick it out for a year at Meibi High."

"I told you, I'm no good at –"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, no good at school, I heard you the first time. You know how many times I've heard that? It's a lousy excuse – always has been, always will be." She drained her mug, savouring the bittersweet taste as it clung to her throat. "When you say you're 'no good', what you mean is, you don't want to make the effort. Well, tough luck, kid, cos you have to whether you like it or not, and so does everyone else. Of course…" she glanced at Sawada, "a few people have to make a little less effort than the rest, but they're pretty rare, so you won't run into many of them."

Ryu was staring at the table. "Even if you're right, and I just need to put more effort in… I don't like anything. None of those subjects are interesting." He made a face. "Science, bleurgh. Languages, bleurgh. Yadda yadda yadda."

"You want to know a secret?" she asked casually, scraping a fingernail over the stripy pattern on her mug. Sawada's head snapped sharply in her direction, and she bit back a smile.

"I'm a maths teacher," she went on, "but I pretty much hated maths at school. I just knew I wanted to be a teacher. I might have hated maths, but I got average marks – and when I'd finally decided that I wanted to teach high school, I knew I had to settle on something, and I couldn't see myself teaching anything else. But once I'd made that decision, I started liking it a whole lot more. You'd be surprised how much you can change your mind about something once you realise that you actually need it."

Sawada looked a little disappointed. Most likely hoping for a juicier secret than that.

Ryu was gazing solemnly at her. "And what if I don't know what I want to be?"

"I promise you that I'm not just saying this because I'm a teacher," she told him, "but your best chance of figuring that out is to stay in school."

Ryu scoffed, but he was smiling. "You really know how to drive a message home, don't you?"

She grinned. "What can I say? It's a gift."

They walked the kid back to his house – where, it turned out, he'd been sleeping on an old couch in the basement, which was easily accessible from the back yard through a small, low window.

Kumiko rolled her eyes. "Your poor brother's been out of his mind thinking you were sleeping rough on the streets. And I don't even want to know what your parents thought."

Ryu scuffed his foot on the ground. "They're gonna kill me." He gave them a reproachful look. "You realise you're throwing me to the wolves, here?"

Sawada glanced at her, half-smiling. "It's not as if you were hanging around with fluffy bunnies before. "

He scowled. "Yeah, yeah, whatever…" Ryu might be playing it cool, she thought, but she could see the respect in his eyes when he looked at Sawada.

She cleared her throat. "Okay, kid – tell me again what's going to happen tomorrow."

Ryu sighed painfully. "I'm going to haul my sorry ass to your dump of a school and fill out an enrolment form."

"That's right." She clapped him on the back. "And if I go to the office at the end of the day and I don't see that form, I'm going to come over here and drag you all the way there myself. Not to mention kick your ass while I'm at it."

Rather than complain, as she had expected, Ryu gave Sawada a pitying look. "You seriously want to inflict this on yourself for the rest of your life?"

From his tone, she deduced that by 'this', Ryu was referring to her. She was pretty sure that it hadn't been a complimentary reference, either, even if she didn't really understand what he'd meant.

Sawada gave Ryu a dark look. "Are you going inside, or what?"

"Okay, okay, I'm going. Jeez…" He started to shuffle away from them. The lights were on inside the house; it looked warm and inviting. Halfway to the door, he stopped. "Thanks," he said, over his shoulder. "I guess."

"You guess –" she started to reply, on the verge of addressing his ingratitude, but stopped when Sawada's hand clapped over her mouth.

"Leave it," he advised. "He was being sincere and you know it."

His hand was pressing firmly against her mouth and skin. She could smell the scent that was normally masked by foreign aromas like ink, earth and cologne – this scent was underneath all of those, a scent that was human and masculine and uniquely Sawada Shin. If it had been anyone else, she would have stuck her tongue out and waited to see how quickly they would yank their hand away and cry, "Ewww!"

But it wasn't anyone else. She had a feeling of clear certainty that if she licked Sawada Shin's hand, she would get an altogether different reaction. But her doubt as to what that might involve was too great to ignore.

So she didn't do it. She let him withdraw his hand by himself. He did it slowly, and she fought back a shiver as his fingers slid over her lips. He didn't shove his hand in his pocket, as she'd expected; instead, he curled it into a fist and covered it with his other hand. Watching him do that made her feel weird, as though she'd uncovered a closely-guarded secret without meaning to.

They lurked out of sight, watching as the front door opened and Ryu was dragged over the threshold into the arms of a half-screaming, half-sobbing woman. The door slammed shut and they could still hear the faint strains of, "… you have any idea how worried we were?" accompanied by, "Ow, mom. Get off me," as they walked away.

"Right," said Sawada, his hands now in his pockets. "So, we saved the kid. You know that if you're going to do this every time someone comes crying to you, you'll basically end up taking responsibility for every kid in our school… and their relatives."

"Naturally." She tossed him a grin. "I want every kid in Japan in school by the time I hit thirty."

Sawada's mouth twisted with amusement. "I guess you don't have long, then. Better get to work."

Her hand moved so fast he didn't have time to duck, and she clobbered him heavily on the side of the head. "That was far too easy, Sawada," she grumbled as he staggered and cursed. "Shame on you."

He complained about possible brain damage until they reached his neighbourhood. "Wait a sec," he said, as they were walking down his street. "I should have walked you back."

She gave him a stern look. "If you're even trying to suggest that I can't take care of myself, so help me, Sawada, I will –"

"Choke me to death with your bare hands, I know," he finished. "Shut up, that's not it. But it's weird for you to walk me back."

She laughed, inadvertently snorting. "Like a reverse date!"

It was dark, so she couldn't tell for sure, but she thought she could see a faint tinge of pink to his cheeks that hadn't been there before. Even worse, she thought she had one to match.

And – oh, crap – he'd seen it.

Embarrassment slipped into interest. "Don't you think that's a little inappropriate, Yamaguchi-sensei?"

Crap, crap, crap. Her heart thumped harder. He was right. Of course he was right, of course it was inappropriate, what the hell had she been thinking…?

Wait.

She'd made tons of comments like that in the past. 'I'm the amazing teacher that he adores', 'Have you fallen in love with me?' and so on. Not once had any of his smartass comebacks ever bothered her before. How dare he make her feel bothered!

Sawada was giving her a weird look. "Earth to Yamaguchi," he said, waving his hand in front of her face. "Come in, Yamaguchi, do you read me?"

"Shut up," she snapped irritably. She turned and walked away, keen to put some distance between them. "Go inside, Sawada. I'll see you in the morning."

She didn't hear a reply and she scowled, increasing her pace. She hadn't walked him back for kicks, she'd done it to make sure he got home safe, and what did she get in return? Annoying comments about being inappropriate. She couldn't believe she'd let him get away with that.

Exactly why she had let him get away with it was another matter.

Truthfully, she'd been so flustered when he suggested that her 'reverse date' remark was improper that her main thought had been to get out of there. She wished she'd never said it. It felt like, over the last few weeks, her relationship with Sawada had gone down a road she could never have imagined, and too quickly for her to stop it. Suddenly he was there all the time, making her thoughts drift to him, making her think about things she shouldn't even consider…

Twice he'd almost kissed her.

Once he had kissed her, albeit briefly on the cheek.

Numerous other times he'd touched her and invaded her personal space.

He was the one doing this, he was making all the moves – but she had never lifted a hand to stop him. She'd never even brought it up.

That had to change. Tomorrow, she decided – tomorrow she would talk to him, end this bizarre… thing once and for all. Then it could stop, and she could have her mind back again, her sanity restored. She nodded decisively, her mouth set in a grim line, and tried her best to ignore the fact that this resolution didn't make her feel as good as she'd hoped it would. In fact, it seemed to have had the opposite effect.

She kept up a brisk pace all the way home, cutting a good twenty minutes off the time it would have taken her on a normal day. She slowed as she approached the heavy wooden gates, the familiar sight pulling her back to reality.

The faint sound of a footstep some distance behind her caught her attention, and she realised that she'd been an idiot by letting herself get distracted by her thoughts. She turned on her heel swiftly, fully prepared to defend herself, but was faced with an empty street. She frowned, surveying the area for potential hiding places… and sure enough, at the end of the street, where the high stone wall surrounding her house curved left onto the intersecting road, she could see a foot sticking out from around the corner.

She scowled, and stalked quickly and quietly towards her attacker, keeping close to the wall. She held her breath as she got near, flexing her knees and preparing to spring out and give the guy a good ass-kicking. At the last possible second, she caught a flash of red hair in the shadows and instead of a smooth, well-timed spring, she managed to execute a clumsy stumble.

"Sawada?!" she shrieked, having recovered. "What the hell are you doing?"

He looked half-surprised, half-exasperated. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm walking you home."

She didn't know whether to be please or annoyed. "W-Well… you shouldn't have! I told you before, I can take care of myself."

He shrugged. "I know."

She narrowed her eyes. "If you know, then why –"

"Because I wanted to, okay?" He grimaced. "You weren't supposed to see me. Although, you looked pretty distracted most of the way here – did you know you almost stepped out in front of a bus?"

"No I didn't!" she protested, although truthfully she had no idea.

"Yeah, you did. I was going to grab you but you stopped in time." He frowned. "It's not like you to be so out of it. Are you okay?"

Now. She should tell him now, get it over and done with.

But the words wouldn't come. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said instead. "You want to come inside?"

"Nah, I'll head back now. Say hi to your family for me." He lifted a hand in the air as he walked away, a nonchalant goodbye. "See you tomorrow."

She cursed herself for not taking the opportunity that had been offered to her. But it at least strengthened her resolve to get it done tomorrow – and this time, she would not back down.

As it happened, she spent the better part of the following morning avoiding Maruyama, who apparently – according to the other teachers, at least – was looking for her. That was another thing she knew she couldn't put off any longer; she just wished she knew how to say 'no'.

This wasn't like saying, 'no, I don't want another bowl of rice', or 'no, you can't beat up my students' while grinding someone's head into the floor. This was romantic rejection, and the last time she'd had to do that, it had been by way of a challenge to a fight.

Somehow, she didn't think she could apply that strategy to Maruyama.

In any case, she was running out of time to think it over. Maruyama caught up with her in the faculty office at the end of the lunch break, just as she had been about to go to her next class.

"Kumiko-san!" he exclaimed, delighted. "I've been looking for you."

"Sorry, I've been really busy," she lied. "In fact, I'm on my way to another class now."

He gave her a determined look. "There's something we need to discuss – you know what I mean, right?"

Crap. She obviously couldn't feign ignorance when he was being so straightforward with her. "All right," she said boldly. "We should discuss it – but I don't feel comfortable doing that here. Can you meet me at the end of the day?"

She'd hoped that her serious approach might give him a clue about what her answer would be, but if anything he just looked pleased. "Of course I can – I'll see you then!"

She fought the urge to groan loudly as he walked away. Great. Now there were two conversations pending. Could this day get any better?

3-D was in a cheerful uproar when she walked into their classroom for the last class of the day. "Quiet!" she yelled. "Jeez. What's got you guys so excited?"

"Chikamatsu got a girlfriend!" Shimazu announced, giving the boy in question a forceful slap on the back.

Chikamatsu looked both pleased and embarrassed at the attention. "Shut up, you guys…"

Their unrestrained happiness was like an instant anti-depressant, soaking through her skin and soothing the tension from her body. Who could be miserable in the face of this?

"That's great, Chikamatsu!" she enthused, grinning as his face turned bright red. "Where'd you meet her?"

He ducked his head. "She goes to Meibi High. My sister goes there too… she came round to our house a few weeks ago, and…" he trailed off.

"And the rest is history!" Kumiko finished, feeling genuinely thrilled. She usually heard her class complaining that girls wouldn't look at them because they went to Shirokin.

"I hate to ruin the mood," she teased, "but I have to start teaching you stuff now. So climb down from your desks, okay?"

They complained good-naturedly, settling into their seats.

As with all Maruyama-free lessons, 3-D were relatively well-behaved and co-operative. She even managed, with no need for threats and intimidation whatsoever, to get them to form a line to come up to the board and solve one problem each. "Wonderful!" she exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet as Noda finished his with a flourish, signing his name as though it were a piece of artwork. "You guys are really getting this! I'm so proud."

Sawada was next; she had deliberately given him a much more complicated problem in order to test his abilities. As expected, he sailed through it as though it were as basic as two plus two. He gave her a cocky grin and she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you're great, we know," she muttered with a smile.

His arm brushed against hers as he moved back to his seat. She ignored the tingle in her skin, focusing all of her thoughts on the next student.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but she thought she could feel Sawada's eyes on her for the rest of the class. If anything, it served as an uncomfortable reminder of the task she would have to do later.

The end of the class came sooner than she would have liked, and it was with a knotted stomach that she gave Sawada a pointed look and gestured to indicate that he should stick around after the others had gone.

"Hey," he greeted her amicably when the classroom was empty. "So, did that kid fill out the form, or are we going back there tonight to, and I quote, 'kick his ass'?"

"No, he filled it out," she replied, her back turned to him as she rubbed the board clean. "I'm going to speak to the principal about it and make sure he gets accepted." She brushed her hands together a few times to get rid of the chalk dust, and turned around.

"So… what's up?" He was leaning against the desk, his fingers curled around the strap of his bag.

She bit her lip, stalling for time by shoving papers haphazardly into her bag. She found she couldn't meet his eyes. "Eh… Sawada… I think I need to make something clear."

Unexpectedly, he growled and slammed a hand down on the desk. "If you're about to tell me to back off, you can forget it." He leaned across the distance, thrusting his face close to hers. "I know what I want. You can't do anything about that."

She swallowed thickly, feeling confused and off-balance. "B-Back off," she repeated. "Back off what? What do you mean?"

He stared at her, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You really are an idiot," he muttered, shaking his head.

"Hey!" she protested. "Look, I – I'm just trying to say that… that maybe I've allowed our relationship to become too … too… well, anyway, I haven't acted appropriately, and I just wanted to tell you that –"

"You've acted inappropriately?" he cut her off, his eyebrows climbing up into his hairline. "Well, look, it doesn't matter," he said dismissively. "Like I said, I know what I want. I'm not going to stop –"

He broke off at the sound of a light knock at the door. Maruyama hovered just outside the classroom. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

"Yes," they said together. Kumiko cleared her throat. "Um, I mean – Sawada just wanted some career advice."

"Okay," he nodded. "I'll wait, then."

She sighed, her heart sinking. This wasn't going the way she'd planned. "You're going to turn him down, right?" Sawada said in a low voice.

She blinked. "Uh… yes – but, look, Sawada, this is exactly what I mean. It's not appropriate for a student to know things like that, or to discuss them with a teacher. If anyone heard us talking – "

He pushed away from the desk. "I'm going," he announced, ignoring her. "See you at home."

"Sawada!"

She felt a mixture of shock and anger. Maybe this was meaningless to him, but it could cost her her job. She started to go after him, but an echo of something he'd said brought her up short. "See you at home."

'At home.' Did he really think of her house as home?

She groaned. Yet another example of how improper their relationship had become. What the hell was she going to do?

Maruyama's head popped through the door again. "Everything all right?"

"Yes, fine," she sighed. "He's just… stressed, I think." And so am I, she added silently.

He approached her, looking expectant. "You know what I want to talk to you about, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I do." She rubbed a hand over her face. "Maruyama-sensei, I –"

"Please, call me Takumi," he pressed. "'Maruyama-sensei' sounds so formal. We're friends, aren't we?"

She seized the opportunity. "Yes! Yes, we are friends – we're good friends, and that's why I think it'd be a mistake for us to go out, Maru – uh, Takumi-san. I don't want to ruin our good relationship."

"Kumiko-san…" He sighed. "Won't you at least give me a chance?"

"Maru – I mean, Ta – "

"One date," he persevered. "Just one date. That's all I ask."

She squirmed uncomfortably. "I really don't think it's a good idea – "

"If you still feel the same way after one date, I promise I won't push this again. And we can go back to the way things were. Come on, what do you say?"

She wanted to be firm. She wanted to say 'no' and refuse to negotiate. But when he stood there looking so unhappy, with just the slightest glimmer of hope in his eyes, she couldn't help but wonder whether an outright rejection would do more harm than good.

So she relented. "Okay. One date – "

His eyes sparkled. "Great! You won't regret this, Kumiko-san – "

" – but," she continued, interrupting him, "I should warn you that I don't plan to change my mind. I still think this is a bad idea."

This did not sober his mood a great deal. He was still grinning when he left, promising to let her know when he'd made arrangements for the date.

Kumiko sank down in her seat, sighing despondently. Of the two things that she had set out to do, neither had gone as she'd planned.

So not only was she weak-hearted, but apparently she was useless as well.

Great. Just great.

The house was busy when she got back – Kyou was talking shop with her grandfather, Tetsu was slicing fish expertly while Minoru kept an eye on the rice, and Wakamatsu was apparently giving Shin tips on how to fight dirty.

"If you try to teach him about sashigoro, I will kill you," she warned Wakamatsu as she kicked her shoes off.

Wakamatsu backed away warily, and Shin eyed her curiously. She could tell that he wanted to say something – probably about Maruyama – but was holding back while there were other people around. Good, she thought. She wasn't in the mood for that kind of conversation, particularly after the way he'd spoken to her at school.

Thankfully, she was able to postpone talking to him at all for several hours on account of an extended sparring session with Kyou, followed by dinner, and then the lot of them settled down in front of the television to watch 'Yakuza Passions' – a completely unrealistic drama, but one of their favourites nonetheless (tonight, Takuya found out that Seiko's baby wasn't his).

Of course, she couldn't avoid him forever, and when the show had finished the others began to leave – they had their own things to do. Eventually only she and Shin remained, and an awkward silence permeated the room.

Shin broke it. "Let's go outside." He wrapped his long fingers around her wrist and tugged.

She pulled her arm away, levering herself up from the floor and walking past him without saying a word.

Outside, she settled into a comfortable position on the veranda, leaning against one of the wooden posts. Shin plopped down next to her, apparently unperturbed by her cold attitude. "So," he said, "what did you say to Maruyama?"

"I've already told you," she said firmly, "I can't tell you this kind of stuff. It's not appropriate. I need to draw a line."

Shin scoffed. "It's not like anyone's going to find out."

She stared at him. "Can you promise that? This is serious, Shin – I could lose my job. And I like my job. I like teaching. If I got fired for something like this, I might never be able to teach again." She sighed, pulling off her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "Can you please try to see where I'm coming from, here?"

He at least had the decency to look contrite. "I'm sorry," he said genuinely. His eyes slid up to meet hers, and his apologetic expression smoothly transitioned into one of almost dangerous curiosity. "You called me Shin." His voice was silky. She felt a shiver slide over her skin.

She shrugged, trying to sound casual. "Well, that's your name."

"But you always call me Sawada."

It was true. She didn't know how to reply, so she changed the subject. "I said I'd go on one date with him."

The change in his face was so rapid and threatening that a few stray tendrils of fear wrapped around her heart. His glare was stormy and he didn't bother to keep his voice low. "You did what?!"

"Shin, calm down!" She heard the slip of his name again, but at that point she no longer cared. "Look, I just needed to get him off my back – "

"You said you were going to say no," he reminded her heatedly. "And now, somehow, you're going out with him."

"He said that if I still didn't want to go out with him after one date, he'd back off," she explained desperately, the words sounding weak even to her own ears.

"Are you stupid?!" he roared. "Don't you have any idea how men think? This is just going to make him worse – if he thinks he's got one date, he'll use it to seduce you!"

"First of all, he's not the 'seductive' type," she shot back, "and in any case, even if he did try, he wouldn't succeed."

Shin got to his feet, looming over where she sat. "Call it off," he demanded.

"What?"

"I'm serious." His stare was firm. "Tell him you're not going."

"Shin, I – "

He reached down and, gripping her arms, hauled her to her feet before she could react. She was trapped between his tall body and the wooden post behind her, the edge of it digging painfully into her back. She could fight him off if she wanted to. She knew she could. She just… didn't seem to want to.

"You're an idiot," he told her, for what felt like the millionth time, "if you think that I'm just going to hand you over to him without a fight."

One moment, her eyes were widening with surprise, the next –

His mouth was on hers.

Author's Note: Dun dun duunn!

Mwahaha. My God, this chapter is 11 pages long in MS Word. My word count is ringing in at 5326 (although that includes author's notes, etc) and spellcheck is going crazy with all the Japanese names! (Interestingly, the spellchecker does not recognise the word 'spellcheck'. It is underlining it in red.)

My plan is to have the next chapter up soon (although, I have said this before, and it did not happen) – this time, the next chapter is almost sort of done, it just needs looking at and finalising, and then we'll see.

Thank you for your patience!