A/N: Thanks for reading this guys! Sorry I haven't updated this for a while, but you have to admit, I've been doing sort of okay at updating for the past two weeks :)

Chapter Six

Niou's Favor

"No."

"What? Why not Shinku-chan? You look adorable!" Niou said with an evil smirk on his face. "Anyways," his eyes glinted maliciously, "You promised that you would do a favor for me, and this is the favor I want. Do you want me to break your cello? Do you want me to get you into terrible confrontations with your fiance's fangirls and the fangirls of the rest of the regulars? There's nothing that I can't do, Shinku-chan, just remember that. Puri~"

"Don't call me by my first name," Shinku stated flatly.

"What was that Shinku-chan? What did you say? Did you say that you wanted to have terrible confrontations with the fangirls? If that's the case, I can help you right now." Niou took out his phone and started scrolling through the contacts.

"No!" Shinku jumped, trying to grab the phone from Niou's hand. However he was about a good foot taller than her, she couldn't reach when he put his arm up.

"You know what you have to do, Shinku-chan. It won't be that bad will it?"

"It will be."

"Then just suck it up, or you know what will happen. Puri~"

Niou smirked, twirling his phone around his fingers while Shinku glared up at him with a pout on her lips. She knew that she had to do it.

oOo

"I'm worried about Shinku-chan," Kirihara stated one morning in the locker rooms. The tennis morning practice was just over and the boys were all changing into their school uniforms again. "Every time I see her she looks so tired! It's like Sanada-senpai has been working her to death or something, like how he works us to death on the tennis court."

Every head turned towards Sanada who was glaring very obviously at Kirihara. "I haven't done anything to her," he stated. "Actually, I've noticed it too."

He hesitated after saying that. Sanada didn't really care too much about her or what she did, but she seemed to be getting unhealthy, and he didn't want Grandfather Hikaru to see her and think that Sanada had broken his promise. Sanada didn't mistreat Shinku, but if he wasn't nice to her, she might never break the engagement. He still didn't understand why she still didn't break up the engagement. She seemed unhappy to be engaged or to be even in his company, and she made him sleep on the couch every night because she didn't want to sleep in the same bed as him.

"So what's wrong with her?" Jackal ventured to ask.

"I don't know," Sanada replied. A frown appeared on his face as he tried to think of things Shinku would be doing. "She comes home every night at nine and doesn't sleep until eleven. She eats, does homework, showers, and sleeps. Every night it's the same and she always looks like she's about to die. At least she's smart though, she finishes all of her homework from every class in thirty minutes every day."

"Oh, is Sanada noticing his little fiancee now?" Yukimura teased.

"That's not it. I don't care about her that much, but her behavior is suspicious."

"Yeah, it might tarnish Sanada's reputation if Shinku is cheating," Marui joked.

"Wait you guys, do you think she is . . . ?" Kirihara asked suddenly.

A silence permeated the room for a minute while everyone thought, but then they all suddenly burst into laughter.

"HAHA! That little pipsqueak of a girl cheating? That's impossible! HAHA! She doesn't even like people!" Niou roared.

"I KNOW! HAHA! She wouldn't be attracted to anyone!" Marui laughed as he slapped his knee.

"Still though," Kirihara finally said as he wiped the tears that fell from his eyes from laughing so hard, "I wonder what she's up to every day from four to nine. I see her leave as soon as her club ends, she doesn't even stay waiting for us anymore. And every time I see her in the halls, she looks pale, and tired. She doesn't even listen to me when I talk."

"Not that she ever did before," Marui commented.

"Yeah, but before she would tell me to go away or shut up, but now she just walks aimlessly like a zombie while I talk to her, it's like she doesn't even realize that there are people in the halls or that I'm talking to her."

Everyone packed their clothes and books up as they thought about the things that Shinku could possibly be doing after school for five hours.

Niou, however, stays behind a bit and lets out a soft "Puri~"

oOo

Shinku was tired. It was lunchtime, and all she wanted to do was find a place to sleep. She would go to the library, but it was closed during lunch that day and she couldn't stand the thought of sleeping at a lunch table where everyone would see her and maybe even try to talk to her. Keiko still wanted to hurt her and get rid of her. She hadn't done anything yet to try to break up Shinku and Sanada, but who knew. She could do something unexpectedly to try and break them up. Shinku only noticed though that Keiko would occasionally glare at her while she walked in the halls.

Shinku kept walking on aimlessly, even when Kirihara found her.

"Shinku-chan! How are you?" Kirihara asked.

Shinku was too blanked out to even reply to Kirihara or to tell him to go away, like what she really wanted to do.

"Okay . . ." Kirihara stared awkwardly at the ceiling while still walking with Shinku. She always walked into a locker door, before he quickly pulled her out of the way. "Watch where you're walking, Shinku! You almost ran into that locker!"

"Hm."

"Shinku! You stop right now and talk to me!" Kirihara shouted as he stopped walking. His legs were spread apart and his shoulders squared—his tennis stance—as he stared intently at her. Everyone else in the hall was staring intently too.

"What?" Shinku asked coldly.

"What have you been up to every day from four til nine?"

A glaringly red blush spread across Shinku's cheeks as she glared at Kirihara for real. "NONE of your FUCKING BUSINESS, Kirihara-senpai!" Shinku quickly stormed away before Kirihara could get over the shock of Shinku screaming at him.

"Uh . . ." Kirihara was speechless as he watched her disappear around a corner. He quickly gathered his senses again and sprinted to the regulars' table in the cafeteria. "You will not believe what Shinku just said."

"Um. . . something like 'shut up'?" Marui suggested.

"Nope, not this time."

"Then what is it?" Yagyuu asked, pushing his glasses up to hide his curiosity.

"She yelled at me," Kirihara stated with a weird look on his face.

"Oh! How unfathomable," Niou said in mock surprise as he pretended to faint. "Miyaharu Shinku yelling at you, Kirihara Akaya. Oh! The shock! The disgust! The surprise!"

"Shut up, Niou-senpai! I'm serious here! You all know how quiet Shinku-chan is right?"

"Well, she doesn't like to talk," Renji added.

"Anyways, she just yelled at me in the hall. Really loudly! She just blew up and yelled at me at the top of her lungs! Aren't you guys surprised? I mean, she never talks louder than usual, but she just blew up today!"

"Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later," Jackal said.

"Wait, what? What do you mean?" Kirihara asked.

"We know she's not a loud person, but with how annoying you are Kirihara, she was going to yell at you like that sooner or later," Niou snickered.

"Not even," Kirihara said defiantly. "We're best friends."

Crickets could be heard after Kirihara spoke. Everyone gave him a disbelieving look as he stood there.

"What?" Kirihara asked. "She has no friends, and Sanada-senpai doesn't even talk to her even though they're you know. I'm the only one that talks to her, so obviously, I'm her best friend."

"That's not true," Marui argued. "I talk to her every day during morning practices. She just doesn't talk back, that's all."

"I tried slurp to ask her what slurp she was doing slurp for five hours every day," Kirihara said between slurps of his ramen noodles.

"What did she say?" Renji asked. He took out his data notebook.

"Put that away Renji!" Jackal scolded. "Geez, I knew that I was the baby-sitter for Akaya, but I didn't think that you'd be one of the people taking data on Shinku-san. She's just a young girl."

"She is pretty young isn't she?" Marui agreed. "She's two years younger than us. Just a first year. A baby."

"I can't imagine what's going to happen next year," Yagyuu added. "When all of us are gone for university and she'll be all alone. Depending on what university Sanada goes to, she either might have to move with him or she might not live with him anymore since she has to go to school here. Sanada won't be there for her anymore."

"Not that he ever was there for her," Niou smirked.

"Hey! She still has me you guys! Her best friend!" Kirihara shouted.

"What about when you leave?" Renji asked without even looking up from his notebook.

"Oh . . ." Kirihara continued to eat his noodles to fill the silence that fell down upon the table.

"Kirihara," Yukimura said with a smile.

"Yes, buchou?"

"What were you saying about what you asked Shinku-san?"

"Oh! Yeah! Anyways, I asked her what she was doing and she just blew up at me! She said it was 'none of my fucking business', and then she ran away. She was really angry this time."

"Now I'm really curious what she's doing!" Marui exclaimed. "I have an idea." He motioned for the others to put their heads closer to his as he whispered, "Let's follow her after school today. This way we can find out what she's doing!"

"Great idea," Niou agreed. He had an odd look in his eyes that was indiscernible to the others. A small smirk tugged at his lips as he watched the others discuss on how to follow Shinku after school without being caught. His eyes glittered with the thought of what would happen if they did find out what Shinku was up to, and he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Excuse me, Niou?" Yukimura asked. His smile was on his face, but the look he gave Niou suggested that he knew that Niou had something to do with Shinku's odd disappearances for the past week and a half, but he didn't say anything. Yukimura just gave Niou a pointed look.

"Oh, I was just thinking about how we could not get caught," Niou lied. "We should be in disguises. Puri~"

"You're the only one good at disguising yourself, Niou," Yagyuu stated. "We can't all be like you, and we can't all disguise ourselves as other people as convincingly as you."

"You would know that the most, wouldn't you Yagyuu. Anyways, it won't be fun if we don't go in disguises. We can pretend we're in a spy movie or something. It would be fucking awesome if we were in a movie. We would make millions of dollars."

"We would," Marui and Kirihara agreed, nodding their heads.

"So that settles it," Niou said, standing up. We'll meet after school to get in our disguises. Now if you all excuse me, I have to arrange that."

Niou walked away with a smirk on his face. He wondered what Shinku would do if anyone found out about the favor she was doing for him. She might just blow a gasket. However, the look on her face and her reaction would be way funnier and worth more than anything that she might be able to say or do (not that she could do much) to him. So he went to get their costumes from the drama department.

oOo

Shinku was extra careful after school when she was leaving. She knew that the guys had started to become suspicious of her and her behavior. If Niou hadn't threatened her into doing the favor he needed, she wouldn't have any problems and she wouldn't be embarrassed at having to look like that. She shook her head at the image and looked around to make sure no one was watching her before she started to make her way across the street.

Behind her, the guys of the tennis team had decided to follow her. They were all in their disguises as they made their way across the street too, a few minutes after Shinku had crossed. They wanted to stay at a safe distance.

"I don't understand," Niou said. He had on a black wig in a hairstyle that was somewhat familiar to the others. "I understand why Marui, Kirihara and I are going, but why are the rest of you going?"

"Because you dragged me to come along with you," Yagyuu said. He was dressed up as a red-headed nerd in a different school's uniform.

"I came along to keep Marui under control," Jackal said. He was wearing a huge rice-picker hat and a rice picker costume. "Oh, and by the way Niou, this costume really sucks ass. I thought we were suppose to be disguised and blending in, I stand out!"

"You already stand out, Jackal!" Niou argued. "You're fucking Brazilian! It doesn't matter that you're dressed like a rice farmer because you already stand out!"

"Well you're making me stand out way more! No rice farmer is going to be out in the middle of the city! This disguise would only work if we were in the country!"

"Well the fucking hat disguises your fucking face!"

"Well you two be quiet before Shinku hears us!" Yukimura whispered. His blond wig kept falling into his eyes as he tried to speak to them, and his fake glasses kept sliding off his nose. "I do agree with Jackal though, Niou. These costumes are kind of bad. My wig and glasses are too big for my head."

"Geez, everyone is a critic," Niou muttered. "It's not my fault you guys can't disguise yourself as good as how I'm disguised." He turned around to face them fully, a serious expression on his face, and for those few moments that he was serious, he looked exactly like Sanada. From his hair, to his eyes, to his expression.

"Why the hell are you dressed like me, Niou?" Sanada demanded angrily. "If we get caught, Shinku will think that I'm following her!"

"You are following her! It's just that now it looks like your body is following her too. Puri~"

"You guys are uncontrollable," Yukimura groaned. "I almost regret coming with you. Almost."

Sanada was fuming in his disguise. He wore a brown wig that reached his shoulders. Niou made him wear shades to cover his serious face. The shades covered at least half of his face, and completely covered his pissed off expression. The only thing you could see was the angry scowl on his lips.

Kirihara and Marui were dressed in the same clothes, with the exact same wigs. They were suppose to be twins since—according to Niou—they were both "short and hyper-active".

Renji followed a bit behind the rest with his data notebook in front of his face. His black wig was short, and styled like Echizen Ryoma's hair. He even wore a white cap on top of his head. "Niou," Renji started, "how did you even get this Echizen disguise?"

"I can get any disguise!" Niou said, laughing loudly. They were far enough behind though so that Shinku wouldn't hear them unless they were screaming like earlier. "Seriously though," Niou said to Renji, "You need to get rid of that notebook. If Shinku does look back, and she sees you with that notebook in front of your face, she'll know it's you. She's not stupid. She'll think guy plus notebook plus obsessive behavior with notebook equals Renji."

"At least I didn't choose an obvious disguise that will send her running," Renji retorted as he opened his eyes to look at Niou in the eyes. "You're dressed like Sanada, and that will surely make her run off. And anyways, I came because I want more data on Shinku. She may not be a tennis player, but she's pertinent in our lives since she's our fukubuchou's fiancee."

"So, why are you going, buchou?" Kirihara asked.

"I'm curious," Yukimura stated bluntly. "And if I didn't go, then Genichirou wouldn't go, and I know how much he wants to see what his little bride is up to."

"I just want to make sure she's safe and that she's not up to anything suspicious," Sanada said.

"Trust me, she's not doing anything suspicious," Niou muttered so low that no one caught it except for Yukimura, who decided to keep quiet.

They followed Shinku for about another half hour before she disappeared through the side door of a cake house. The sign hanging in front of the store had a huge strawberry cake next to the words "Honey Haruhi's Cake Shop".

"Masaharu," Yagyuu called, "isn't Haruhi your older sister's name?"

"Yeah, it is. Puri~" Niou said with a huge smirk.

"Masaharu, Haruhi. Masaharu, Haruhi," Kirihara repeated, finding the connection of the two names. "Is this the cake shop that your sister opened right after she graduated from her culinary school?"

"Yes. Puri~" Niou's smirk widened.

Everyone turned to look at Niou. He had a Chesire cat grin on his face as he looked every regular in the eyes.

"What is the meaning of this, Niou?" Sanda demanded.

"Oh, nothing." Niou's smirk stayed plastered to his face. "Didn't you guys say you wanted to check out what she's doing? We should go inside then. I'll go in behind you guys since I don't want to scare her off as anything. Sanada-fukubuchou is a pretty creepy person."

A vein popped out on Sanda's face as he glared at Niou. He took a step forward but then changed his mind. He didn't want to get into a fight with Niou, especially not out in public. He would just crush him on the tennis courts instead. The others watched to see if Sanada would blow up on Niou, but Sanada only slowed his breathing and shot one last glare at Niou before heading to the cake shop. He practically yanked the door off of its hinge when he pulled it back, slamming it against the wall. His sunglasses covered his face, and when Shinku turned to look at him, she didn't recognize him at all.

All of the regulars stood there with open mouths as they stared at Shinku. Her long, chocolate brown hair was pulled into a high bun on top of her head, held secure with a pink hair tie with a plastic strawberry connected to it. She wore a very short, puffy dress that was pale pink with tiny strawberries sewn all over the fabric. White lace edged the white peter pan collar around her neck and around her puffed sleeves and hem. A mint green waist apron with white polka dots was tied to her waist.

"Can I help you?" Shinku asked. Her voice was overly sweet, it was like she was forcing sugar down their throats. There was a strained look on her face, and her eyes cast a soft dolly innocence. It was her other look. She only had two looks, her glare and her doll look, and most of the time she chose the glare. Her smile was too wide, and her cheeks were red with embarrassment.

Niou burst into laughter at the sight of her. Shinku glanced around everyone to look at Niou. "Sanada-san?" She asked. Her face turned an even brighter red.

"Guess again, toots," Niou said. He pulled off the Sanada wig and gave a huge smile to Shinku.

Shinku gave him a very heated glare. It was his fault in the first place that she was working at his sister's cake shop. She should have never accepted his favor, but he practically threatened her into doing the job. She eyed the others in the shop and gave them a glare that would wither any plants in sight. "What are all of you doing here?" she hissed.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Kirihara bluntly asked. His mouth still hung open, his jaw almost to the floor as he took her in a second time. "You're . . . cute. You should dress like this more often." A small smile appeared on his lips as he stared at her.

"I AGREE!" Marui shouted as he jumped in front of Shinku. "I also think you should keep working here!" He gave her a hug that she struggled against. He lowered his voice and added, "Also, if you keep working here, you could give me free cake! I love cake!" He licked his lips and wandered over to the cake counter, looking at the whole cakes that the shop sold. He grabbed a menu and sat down at a round table. "The cakes in the display aren't all of the cakes you have right?" Marui asked

Shinku quickly shook her head and focused in on the regulars again. "I said, what are you doing here?" Her teeth gritted together as she spoke to them.

"We wanted to make sure you were okay," Kirihara said. "You looked so tired every day. We didn't know that Niou was forcing you to work to death for his sister."

"Hey!" Niou exclaimed. "I didn't force her. She did this of her own free will. Anyways, she owed me a favor, and this is what I wanted."

"Why ask her to work at your sister's shop?" Renji asked.

"It's December! The holiday season! My sister needed the help, and who better to do it then cute little Shinku?" Niou slyly added, "And I know that Sanada here would love to see you in such a short and cute dress." Niou winked at both Shinku and Sanada. The two stared daggers into him, but Niou just pretended to ignore the sharp looks directed his way and started to walk towards the kitchen where his sister was.

"Leave now," Shinku demanded. "Everyone."

"Oh, why can't we stay?" Marui asked. "I wanted cake!"

"No."

"Please?"

"Get out now."

"Bunta," Yagyuu said, putting his hand on Marui's shoulder, "We should be gentlemen and leave her alone. She is working hard here and we're distracting her."

"We won't be distracting her though if we actually are customers, then she'd have to serve us."

" . . ." Yagyuu didn't feel the need to reply to Marui's obvious answer.

"So how about it guys? Let's do it!"

Niou waltzed out of the kitchen with a grin on his face. "My sister says we can stay here as long as we want and that she'll give us some free food. Puri~" His smile grew wider when he took in the sight of Shinku's angered face. A demonic aura radiated around her that threatened to kill anyone within a five feet radius.

"Akaya! Get away from her!" Renji yelled. "According to my calculations, there's a 200% chance that she's going to attack someone!" Renji grabbed Kirihara's arm and pulled him away before Shinku could deliver a fatal kick to a man's area.

"Get out!" Shinku screamed at them and shoved Jackal out of the door with the silver tray she held. "Out! Out! OUT!" She pushed all of them out and slammed the door behind her. The bell on the door rang erratically as it hit the glass.

"Well, she has a temper," Yukimura stated.

"I'm making a note of it now," Renji muttered while writing in his notebook.

"I'm just glad that she talks so much more now!" Kirihara shouted. "She said like a whole bunch of words to us today! She's starting to talk like a normal person! Woo hoo!"

"This has been a day," Jackal groaned as he picked up his rice farmer hat from the ground. "We should probably return these costumes to the school soon."

"Yeah, definitely," Niou agreed. "I should probably tell you guys, I didn't ask the drama department to borrow these, I just stole them. Puri~"

Everyone stared at Niou for a second before groaning and shoving past him. Niou might once again get them in trouble. They made the long walk back to the school, and quickly returned the costumes without the drama department noticing that they were missing in the first place.

They finally were able to go their separate ways at seven at night, but before Niou could ditch out and leave, Yukimura and Sanada caught him.

"Niou, 50 laps tomorrow for your illegal stunt today," Yukimura sweetly said. A sadistic smile was plastered on his face as he watched Niou groan and kick at the trees. "Oh, and 50 more laps for defiling nature."

Niou threw a malicious glare at Yukimura before stomping away. I'll show you illegal stunts. Niou angrily thought. I'll show you all! He was just going to show everyone how dangerous he could be, and that he would never be stopped or caught. He was the number one trickster in the world after all.

oOo

And later that night, Shinku once again came home at nine at night, and crashed at eleven, not even noticing the other sleeping figure on the bed. She was just glad that she only had three weeks left of slaving herself at Niou's sister's shop.

A/N: Wow! I hope you guys enjoyed this, I feel as if this was a funny chapter. Sorry for the ending guys. Haha, I sort of lost inspiration? Sort of? Haha. It's like the ending threw me in a funk, haha, but hopefully the full chapter actually made up for the lameness :) You guys can ask me any questions about this story or chapter in your review and I would love it if you could review! :) You're all awesome, and continue to look out for this story!

P.S. Niou actually really does have a sister (and a brother), I have no idea what her name is though. But Haruhi is like Masaharu, so . . . I hope that's okay that I chose that name. Haha.