Chapter 9

A/N: Helloooooooo…I am SO tired. I'm just coming down from a sugar rush…I should get on another rush…It may help with my writing…Or just make it all weird and random and junk…Blagh…

And thanks to Lawliet's Girl, who caught my mistake. Sorry about that…I did mean Hydranoid there. I should have checked it over…Na. And sorry to Haine-Chan…I didn't realize…na, doesn't matter very much…guess that condition just isn't the most original…na, I already knew that. I just wanted to write about Runo blowing up over it. ^.^ Plus, it was kinda cute.

Disclaimer: Bah…I'm too lazy to try and make Masquerade say the disclaimer…or make anyone else say it…you can all deal with this. I do not own any rights to Bakugan.

"So what is this about?" Julie asked as they all settled themselves in the plush couches of Marucho's 'living room', although the more appropiate term should have been 'a ball room with couches and tables and a wide screen TV'. Shun stayed standing, arms crossed and looking the other direction

"Yes Dan, why have you called us all here?" the shorty himself asked..

"And why wasn't Runo allowed to come?" Alice asked worriedly.

The messy haired boy shrugged. "Beats me. Drago just told me to call everyone and have us meet at Marucho's place."

All eyes turned to the Pyrus Bakugan as he hopped down from Dan's shoulder onto the glass coffee table, joined by the other Bakugan.

"Well?" Shun said softly.

"Man, you guys are going to freak!" Preyus said excitedly, pratically hopping up and down. "This is major news!"

"It is, most surely, disturbing," Skyress added grimly.

"Aw, what could be so bad?" Julie asked with a cheerful smile. "I bet you guys are just trying to work us up for nothing."

"Does it have anything to do with Masquerade?" Shun asked softly, his amber eyes darkening in worry. Obviously, he was taking this much for seriously than Julie.

Drago hesitated, for just a moment. "…Yes. It has to do with Masquerade…and with Runo."

* * * * * * * * * * *

Runo's mouth dropped open in shock. "…What?"

The masked boy behind her chuckled, the breath of it tickling the back of her neck, making her more nervous with every passing second. "See? I told you that you wouldn't want to hear it…"

"What kind of condition is that?!"

Masquerade jumped slightly; the furious voice wasn't Runo's, but her Bakugan's.

"How could you…what…you…Runo! Do…something!" Tigrerra demanded, forced into incoherency by her anger and indignation on Runo's behalf. "Do not allow him to…to set…this as a condition! Masquerade, get away from her!"

Masquerade smirked, refusing to be moved. "Oh dear, the little helpless ball is threatening me. Well, Runo?" The blonde boy turned his attention back to the silent girl who's back was to him. "Are you going to accept this condition, or reject it?"

* * * * * * * * * * *

"What?!"

All the Brawlers were standing now, staring down at the group of Bakugan wide eyed as Drago finished relating what Tigrerra had told him.

"See? I knew they were going to freak," Preyus said smugly.

"What do you mean that Runo…that Runo is…" Dan could hardly talk, and instead spluttered out his shock.

"Runo is getting math lessons from…Masquerade?!" Julie spat out the last word, as though it were poison to her lips. "Why would she do that?!"

"Tigrerra said that she was hoping to get information out of him," Drago muttered, regretting that he had made the choice to reveal this to the Brawlers. "Not to mention that school is a vital aspect of human youth life, or so I am told."

"At least it explains why Runo's been acting weird, and why Masquerade has been pulling disappearing acts," Shun said thoughtfully.

Alice's face was pale and drawn as she tried to absorb this new information. "Masquerade…was in Runo's room…all that time…"

Julie suddenly gasped. "You don't think he'd…I don't know, be a creeper or something?"

The red head moaned at the thought, sitting back down on the couch heavily. "Oh my…Masquerade…and Runo…"

"You almost make them sound like a…couple," Dan mumbled, shuddering at the thought.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Hydranoid was surprised to see Masquerade back so early.

"What happened?" Hydranoid asked warily, eyeing his master carefully. The normally calm boy was out of breath and bedraggled, as though he had just finished escaping from a stampede of rabid rhinoceroses. For all the Darkus Bakugan knew, he could have been.

"Nothing," Masquerade answered quickly, almost embarrassed. "Runo just…took it a bit worse than I thought she would…but I guess I should have expected it…"

Hydranoid could have rolled his eyes if he had been able to as he watched his master walk away with a slight limp.

Masquerade stopped and looked back at his Bakugan, scowling at the looks he was getting. "She got in a single lucky kick. That's all. I did a pretty good job at evading her, I think."

"Of course," Hydranoid said with a sigh. "I hope that you now realize that you should never go back there and instead focus on your job…?"

"Oh, I'm going to go back," Masquerade said calmly, despite his protesting, throbbing leg. "I still have to help her with her homework, now don't I? Although now that I know that she really does hate me…" he added in a glum mumble, so low that the Darkus Bakugan missed it.

"Masquerade!" Hydranoid shouted in exasperation, rolling up to his master's foot. "This is silly of you! There is no explanation or reasoning that I can see for why you are doing this! Helping the enemy with their homework…What exactly are you planning?"

"It has nothing to do with you," the blonde boy said stiffly, walking away faster. "Be sure, I am not wasting my time…"

"We already have a sure and reliable source of information, so this girl is not needed with that," Hydranoid interrupted, catching his master offguard, "and you do not seem inclined to bring your brawling gear when you go there, so you can't be planning to fight her and become more powerful. I would say that you may be trying to convince her to join us, but aggravating her hardly seems to be the correct tactic, and is not usually the one you choose. Just tell me; what are you planning?"

* * * * * * * * * * *

Runo stood there, panting hard, shooting dagger-eyes at the spot where the blond boy had finally decided to disappear, barely realizing that she had somehow smashed her computer chair in her rage.

"That creep," she hissed, her hands balling up into fists. "That…how dare he…"

"Milady…"

Runo didn't move, just kept staring at the same spot, as though she could somehow cause the masked boy pain if she glared hard enough. "What?!"

Tigrerra faltered. "Well…it just seems as though…that seemed like a rather long hesitation…almost as though you were…considering his condition?"

The blue haired girl spun around, and for a moment Tigrerra feared that she would be thrown out of the window. "What do you mean by that? That I might have wanted to…to…to agree?! No I don't, no thank you!"

Runo flung herself onto her bed and buried her head into her arms grumbling furiously. It was about half an hour until she moved from that position.

"Ru…Runo?"

Runo pulled her head back up and looked backwards; Alice was just coming through the door, and was looking around the messy room in shock. In addition to the ruined chair, several papers were strewn about the floor, and books lined the base of the walls from where they had made earlier contact. "Alice?"

"Runo, what happened in here?" she asked in distress, bending down to pick up one of the splintered chair legs. "Did…did something happen?"

Now would have been a good time for an excuse, but none came as Runo opened her mouth. Her mind had been wiped blank. "Er…well, you see…there was this…um…"

"How about we just clean this up?" Alice suggested, piling up the rest of the chair carefully. "You're lucky that the café is closed today and that no one was here…"

"Yeah, lucky," Runo agreed in a monotone, following her friends example. Yes, she had been given one rare ray of good luck, but she couldn't feel the joy of it.

They worked together in silence, Runo to caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the glances that Alice kept giving her, suspicious and worried.

* * * * * * * * * * *

People aren't supposed to realize they were dreaming, right? In all of her other dreams, she had thought this to be totally real, the beach, the sunset, the lake and the boy. But now…now the beauty of it just seemed so empty, so surreal. She just sat there, shying away from her Dan and waiting patiently for this to end.

Runo was relieved when she felt herself slowly being dragged back into conciousness and out of this uncomfortable dream world.

The dream Dan, who had been silent since she had first spurned his advances, finally spoke up. She caught his whispered words just in time, and couldn't figure them out.

"…Which one?"

A/N: …Naaaaaaaaa…that was an odd chapter…yeah…food…I need food…I need…yam fries…