Yuki stepped gingerly out of the elevator as she looked around the brown brick walls around her and gulped a little. To be honest when Akira had asked her to come to his house she had immediately retaliated that she wasn't that type of hostess and she really wasn't…but he'd insisted this was professional only.

Of course she'd said no, or at least well she'd tried to but the mature man's marble eyes had broken her down and she had only her weak mind to blame. Now as she stood, her heart hammering away at a million miles per minute she could only wish she'd been stronger then. She stood in front of the three doors in front of her wondering which one she should knock…he hadn't told her which one was his apartment.

It appeared she needn't have bothered because a man came out of the door on the far right, isolated from the rest in a welding mask. Muscles bulging from his tight black shirt, and only the silver chain hanging of his neck with an equally silver dog tag told her that it was Akira behind the mask.

If anything her heart just beat faster as she saw his gloved hands shift his mask up his head so his face was visible. "Ah Yuki-chan! You're here! Thank you, I wasn't expecting you to be so-" He reached in his pants for his phone and she saw him chuckle. "You're perfectly on time."

"Well…you are a customer, I had to make a good impression." She mumbled a little bit, mostly because she was entirely too uncomfortable with the privacy of this moment. Yuki was pretty boisterous in front of her friends, and equally lively in front of people who paid for that part of her company but right now Akira and she were meeting unofficially, as two acquaintances nothing more. So she felt a little bit displaced in how she was supposed to behave with him and so her voice lost some of its usual tonality and found itself nervously mumbling in front of the demi-god.

"I really have to give up hanging out with my loser friends, I'm sorry I'm not really ready. I really wanted to shower too…" He wiped the sweat off his brow but Yuki just found herself tilting her head appreciatively.

"You look fine to me." And despite her careful manner, she was a little surprised that comment had slipped out of her mouth as easily as it had and Akira simply smiled kindly at her. She imagined in any other situation, Hanazawa Rui would be sleeping, Domyouji Tsukasa would start shouting proudly that he looked better than fine and Nishikado Soujiro…well…she didn't even want to think what he'd do at a statement like that.

Akira simply took it in his stride and bowed kindly towards her as he walked back towards the door and opened it up. "Let's go inside the studio, I'll put my equipment away and then we'll go to the main floor of the loft space."

Of course Mimasaka Akira would be almost painfully rich. Meanwhile Tsukushi and she lived in little bigger than a bedroom and a gas stove that was immediately put to shame but the size of his studio.

It was just a large open space, nothing fancy. Tools, masks, paint, and oddly curtain rods seemed to be haphazardly organized over the floor. "You'll have to mind the mess…I'm a bit of a pack rat and I don't really let people into this area of the house so it's never clean."

"I rather enjoy seeing it. I guess there's a mess even behind your carefully put together self." He chuckled at that and Yuki felt herself flush in worry that she'd embarrassed herself but Akira simply shrugged it off as easily as he shrugged off the gloves on his hands.

"I won't leave you in suspense for too long then…we're all messes. I think in every way you could agree there's a part of ourselves that we just refuse to clean up." He walked towards a fridge that she hadn't noticed and pulled out a bottle of water, throwing it at her but Yuki was caught off guard as she scrambled basically juggling the water bottle before she finally caught it.

When she turned around triumphantly, Akira was smirking at her under strands of his hair that had fallen loose from his ponytail. She only scowled as she opened it up. "I'm sorry not all of us are athletically inclined."

"Any time you want to play catch, I'm available Yuki-chan." He winked at her which did nothing to help calm down the existing flush on her cheeks so she decided to turn away from him and walk towards the large open French windows. How nice to be so rich and infamous.

"So you're a mess."

"And so are you." He corrected before he was left with entirely all of the blame and Yuki raised an eyebrow. "I think that it's important to have a corner of your world be like that don't you?"

"Sure…I think having everything under control could put an unreasonable amount of pressure on a person where they fall under risk of not being honest with themselves and their subconscious desires." His smile grew wider and she had to keep her eyes fixed back on the window as the sun and shadows danced around his bobbing adam's apple as he drank another gulp of water.

"Do you think that corner of our lives can get too big?"

"Depends on the client, their own thresholds- but sure. That part of ourselves we choose to keep that way could in theory become too much for us to handle. Take over parts of our lives that we've chosen to keep separate…" She felt her eyebrows as Mimasaka Akira scooted closer to her and she backed up against the wall to ensure there was a safe amount of distance between them. "What is this concerning?"

"Soujiro."

"Soujiro?" She mimicked forgetting the honorifics for a second and then caught her tongue wincing. "What does this have to do with him?"

"He's always been a fuckhead." Akira grinned brightly as if he was remembering fond times Yuki would rather not think of. "Always, he's never bothered me with it- I've encouraged it. I've revelled in having a partner in crime who could keep up with me." Yuki almost rolled her eyes but she resisted for Akira's sake he looked like he was genuinely concerned and how would that help any precarious situation she was in with the F4? "But it's getting really stupid now. He's letting it become everything he is and I can't have that. He's underperformed as the Sales Executive of his company, he doesn't do anything else he enjoys anymore, he's become angry towards all of us and uses us for our money and frankly I'm done with that shit. He needs to be slapped around and woken up. If it were up to me, I'd have beat the shit out of him three days ago when he came to me telling me that the reason I stood in front of him proud as I am is because his father saved my ass from entering jail six years ago."

"Well did he?"

"Sure he did…that doesn't mean he can go around throwing that in my face."

"Doesn't it? Didn't you give him that power over you?"

"This is about Soujiro-"

"But is it?" She questioned back just as strongly and saw a flare of anger lick his eyes and decided to back down. "You just want him back to the way he was for you…but what's good for him?"

"Don't tell me what's good for him Yuki. I've taken care of the man since I was a child myself. I know whats good for my friend. And that's where you come in. Cloyingly sweet as you are…like a cake with just a bit too much icing. You're the one thing that's gotten under his skin."

"I am?" Yuki was surprised. "Look…I'm not sure what you want me to do here but I'm not dating your friend."

"Date?" Now Akira looked confused. "Who said anything about dating anyone?"

God, could this be any more embarrassing? "Then- what do you mean- I'm good for him?"

"Your psychobabble!"

"I really appreciate it being called that by the way." This time she openly glared at him as he continued to smile back at her and now she could only find it irritating. "In case you haven't forgotten, I'm a student. I'm not supposed to be working with people. I don't have any licensing and I'm not qualified to psycho-analyze any person let alone your friend."

"Even better. He definitely wouldn't talk to a psychologist nor would I want him to…Tsukasa was enough to loose. I just want him to move past- well whatever's keeping him this angry. This vengeful." Akira crushed the plastic from the water bottle under his hands. "Look, you don't have to say yes…but you'll be paid handsomely, I'll personally make sure you're safe the whole time and you'll help my friend deal with some issues he'd never acknowledge out loud. It's a win-win."

"And you think money is everything to me?"

"Isn't it?" She wanted to say he was wrong but the words did get stuck in her throat. It was, and it would help a long way in making sure she was debt free after graduation, not to mention she'd still have to work for essentially free as a volunteer therapist at first, and then work her way to more profitable clients, and it would take her even longer to become a court designated therapist like she wanted – "If you say no that's fine, I'll just find some other doe-eyed girl who won't take his-"

"I'll do it."

"Excellent." He bowed his head towards her and walked towards the opposing door leaving her by the door. As she saw him walk away, a part of her heart deflated as he turned to look at her. "Don't just stand there- my cheque book is in my apartment."

"Why couldn't we talk about this in the hostess bar? Somewhere else? Anywhere but here really?" She wasn't shocked to see him walk back towards her and slowly he ducked his head down so that they were exactly at level.

"Because then you're not on my turf…and Yuki-chan that's the only way my family has ever made deals. It was the reason I could go to the best schools in the country, befriend the richest men in the country and have the company of a beautiful woman like you." Akira was right in front of her now and with just three more steps he'd be unbearably close. These three steps away though he was perfectly fine and so Yuki felt relief course through her body. "The real question is…what were you expecting we'd do today?" Again the innocence of his tone made an otherwise awkward question subtle and soft.

She decided this time she wouldn't answer and just shrugged and moved off towards the house. "Don't just stand there…the chequebook is in your apartment."

He laughed and nodded his hand waving towards the door in a gentlemanly dismissive manner. "After you, my lady."

Tsukushi glared up at Tsukasa who was sparkling brilliantly under the sun as he jumped off the sand in a move that looked to be defying gravity. Then he smacked the ball down on her head…again…after she'd managed to head butt it off. "Oh I'm sorry did I hurt you?" He stuck his tongue out as he celebrated another point and yelled at Susumu who was stuck doing the score keepers job. "POINT SUSUMU! Yeah…I could get used to this."

Tsukushi wanted to tell him he was already too used to winning. Something had to bring him down. "Do you know in Volleyball that doesn't count?"

"I thought volleyball was the sport where you could use any part of your body." He waggled his eyebrows mentioning when she'd used her chest and he'd tried to call foul.

She rolled her eyes. If yesterday hadn't happened right on her freaking lips she would have laughed out loudly if someone told her that Tsukasa Domyouji was interested in kissing her. Whatever illusions he'd presented in front of her last night in his loose shirt and sand soaked fingers had definitely disappeared this morning.

If she had to guess, she would say this was his retaliation for her rejecting to kiss him and then asking him to eat shit…that didn't mean she deserved to be hit in the head twice. "How would you feel if I hit your head?"

When he laughed, he sounded so demonic it made her insides turn over. "I'd like to see you try shorty." He also seemed to have forgotten any sense of decorum. Like he'd taken a vacation from being himself, or maybe this was how he always was. Regardless it was really helping her get her feelings for him in perspective. They were decidedly unfavourable she could now tell you which was better than yesterday.

She chose now to grit her teeth together and smile to ignore his height comment. "So what are your thoughts on an extended severance package?"

"Will it get your dad to stop guilt tripping me?" He tossed the ball up in the air and slammed it with his closed fist so it soared over the net. Tsukushi ran and jumped up to try to smack it back down, thankfully she was successful and it soared back over the net landing right off Tsukasa's fingertips.

The severity of the pout on his face made her burst in giggles. It was like she was looking at a three year old child. "SUSUMU! A POINT PLEASE! We seemed to have finally cracked your highness' code."

"I'd say no, to be honest at this point everything should be a no. It's a pretty fair deal."

"You mean to shut down someone's life's work. Yeah sure, not to mention emotional damage-"

Tsukasa groaned loudly interrupting her spiel before she could finish the full list of items that she could use against him in court, even though this merger would never go there. "God you're talking like a lawyer now, don't you ever take a break?"

"From you?"

"Should we go there in front of Susumu?" He snickered as her saw face frantically turn to look at Makino Susumu who was obliviously leaning against his palm, fanning himself, drowning in the summer heat and definitely not changing any of the scores.

"Shut up." She hissed and he faked an injury against his heart as he whirled through the sand. "Oh- just- grow up." She huffed and the angrier she got the lighter Tsukasa felt on his feet when he raced for the ball.

"God I love pissing you off." He admitted off handedly as he saw her blink quickly and blush. Why that of all things would make her blush he wasn't sure. He could have said a whole bunch of things he was starting to love about Makino Tsukushi, her ass for one-

"Just—god." She gave up, grabbing the ball from the air and pushing it down in the sand. "That's it, game over."

"What?" Words could not express the disappointment he felt. "Why?"

"Because I- I hate this." She walked off the beach so quickly. Susumu had begun dozing off so he didn't see his sister's anger. Tsukasa however, bounded off quickly catching up to her with his long legs.

"You hate-"

"You. I hate you." Even as she said it she knew she didn't really mean it because Tsukasa's eyes had hardened suddenly in a manner unpredictable to her…but now that she'd said it she felt the need to explain herself. "You think I'm just a big joke. You think you can fuck around with me and then what? Wipe yourself of me and family's legal issues? You have a real fucking messed up mind if you think I'd let you do that."

They stood in the summer sun, the heat doing nothing to cool off both their hot heads. "Get over yourself." He finally relented shaking his head. "What do you want me to do? Tell me."

"I hate this…so don't talk about it anymore. The idea makes no sense."

"To you." He corrected. "It makes no sense to you, it makes perfect sense to me."

"As a short-term thing?"

"Of course….but you're not that type are you?" She glanced dangerously at him so he pulled on his ears and stuck his tongue out in a manner so childishly apologetic, Tsukushi felt her anger melt just the slightest. "Would you prefer we merged in a more official way like our companies?" He just had to go say that. This was not the time for jokes. Little did she know, Domyouji was only half-joking the other part of his brain was entirely serious as he tried to wrap his head around how he'd possibly be allowed to keep the Makino princess around for longer than intended, even by himself. If that was what she wanted? Why not? That was the one thing he could give her without his mother's permission.

"You never stop. You will always be the man who wants something new. Right now its me. Later it'll be something else and for another thing - get your facts straight. You are acquiring us. And I can't let you just acquire me like another trophy in your set. Oh the bitch lawyer who was actually doing a good job at defending her family, broke her well didn't I?"

"Is there something to break?"

"You jackass."

"You've got to stop this swearing before you leave thing!" He didn't get to defend himself much further because just like last night the little Makino princess ran away.

But more and more he hated how much he wanted to pull her back because it was starting to become this unignorable tug against his chest…she was making him feel guiltier than her father had. A power it appeared only the Makino family had had so far in his longstanding career of ruining small businesses like hers.