Bonjour! Don't you just hate it when a writer doesn't update for...ever...then starts the next chapter with an apology and explanation about why they randomly disappeared?

Me too! (And I really hope it's obvious why a teenaged, working girl sharing a computer with two porn-obsessed brothers would be unable to write.) So in light of that, I will be starting out this chapter with a Haiku entitled 'Bio Teacher'

Bio Teacher

My Bio teacher

is Korean, not Chinese.

He is a strange man.

Kayashima's hand shook as he struck the match and brought it close to his face, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. His every movement echoed in the small shower stall, and he grabbed the shampoo shelf as his foot slipped out from underneath him. He swore as the match singed his fingertips and wondered if there was a better way to do this.

'I have to do this. There isn't another way.'

He exhaled and dropped the match on the pile of bloody sheets, watching intently as they went up in flames. It was quick work; they were ashes in seconds. Kayashima quickly turned the shower on, putting out the fire before it had the chance to burn him.

He sighed in contempt. The proof was gone. Nakatsu had bought him a set of bright orange sheets for his bed (which Kayashima had only accepted because the color had reminded him of Nakatsu's aura) and hadn't even asked him about his shirt. If he really tried, he could deny that the incident had ever occurred.

'Well, except I have to see him every day. And he'll probably sit by me in all my classes, all our meals. Might even follow me back here again...'

Kayashima shuddered. He wondered, briefly, if he should just tell Nakatsu what had happened and be done with it. (Ryoto may have been bigger and stronger than Kayashima, but Nakatsu still towered over him, and, having serious muscles from weight lifting, could probably kick his ass.) But he knew, really, he could never tell Nakatsu anything like that. It was far too...revealing. He felt naked just thinking about it.

His stomach twisted into knots. 'I have to tell someone, don't I? I don't want it to happen again. And what if he has a disease? If he does, I could pass it along to Nakatsu...'

He bit his lip. Nakatsu couldn't know. Nakatsu could never know.

It wasn't that he wasn't comfortable around Nakatsu. He just always had to have his buffers when interacting with people, his roommate being no exception. It made him feel safe. Less vulnerable.

But having all his walls up wasn't working when it came to his roommate. Since Kayashima had begun feeling normal again Saturday morning, they had hardly touched at all. Noe had given Nakatsu all the notes and assignments from the day they had missed and Kayashima had been hard at work studying and copying notes. Nakatsu had spent most of his time inside their dorm, working on his own incomplete homework or simply holding a book (sometimes upside-down, much to Kayashima's amusement) and worriedly staring at his roommate over the top.

Nakatsu wouldn't push him past what he was comfortable with, but Kayashima could sense Nakatsu's patience was running thin.

Kayashima pushed open the bathroom door, turning the overhead fan on to clear out the smoke. Nakatsu hadn't come home yet, so the room was still empty. Kayashima ascended the narrow staircase to his own floor and laid down on the bed, breathing in deeply.

Tomorrow would be Monday. Tomorrow, he'd have to get up early, get dressed, and sit in a classroom with twenty other boys. Including Ryoto.

Kayashima shivered and pulled the covers over him, curling up on his side. Part of him still felt like throwing up when he remembered what had occurred on his bed, but then the bright orange of the sheets would catch his eye, and he'd feel...safe, almost. Like a blanket of Nakatsu had settled over him.

He hadn't realized he had fallen asleep until he heard a door bang shut, followed by the sound of Nakatsu's humming.

"I got donuts! Kayashima, can you hear me? I have freaking DONUTS!"

In spite of his earlier mood, Kayashima smiled. Nakatsu was always looking out for him, apparently this time with donuts.

"Kayashima? You here?" Nakatsu banged up the staircase, stopping when he reached the top and seeing Kayashima, sitting up in bed. "Shit! I'm sorry! Were you asleep?"

"It's fine." Kayashima waved his hand at his room as he slid his legs out of bed. Nakatsu, however, bounded over and pushed him back.

"Stay in bed. I can chill here."

Nakatsu unabashedly plopped down at the other end of the bed, opening the crinkly paper bag and sorting through the wax paper to pick out two donuts. He handed Kayashima a chocolate one, biting into a jelly filled one himself.

"So, are you feeling up to going to school tomorrow?"

Kayashima kept his blank expression firmly glued onto his face and nodded. "I'm fine. I've had all weekend to get better."

"Yeah, but you were really sick." Nakatsu commented, sucking the rest of the jelly from the donut. "I thought I was going to have to take you to the hospital and get your stomach pumped when I found you. I was freaked out."

Kayashima nodded absent-mindedly, his eyes roaming around the room. "Yeah..."

Nakatsu cocked his head, reaching out to touch Kayashima's hand. His voice shook as he spoke, looking down. "Why'd you do that? Overdose, I mean."

Kayashima bit his lip. Both halves of his conscience fought for control, and neither really won.

'I have to tell him.'

'He'd flip. He'd kill Ryoto. Slit his throat.'

'He has to know. I could give him a disease.'

Kayashima swallowed. "Just...I was overwhelmed. I didn't think I was taking that much."

"Bullshit!" Nakatsu yelled suddenly, jumping to his feet. Kayashima sat back, startled. "You skip school, which you never do, and I come back here to find you nearly comatose and spouting some crap about wanting to die, and-"

"I said that?" Kayashima whispered, trauma seeping into his voice. Nakatsu stopped abruptly. "I mean...I didn't mean..."

"I just...I..." Nakatsu raked his hand through his bleached hair, blinking. "I can't help you, Kayashima. I'm an idiot and I can't..." He covered his face with his hand for a moment, looking tired when he pulled it away. "I want to be the one here for you, Kayashima. But if you're suicidal, or-"

"Wait. Just wait." Kayashima held his hands up, sitting on the edge of the bed. "You're getting way too far ahead of yourself. I'm not suicidal, I'm not depressed. I just..." He scoured his mind, trying to find some explanation that would satisfy his roommate. "I just get like that when I'm drugged up. Which doesn't happen anymore."

"Except for last week." Nakatsu pointed out. "Are you seriously going to tell me you don't think there's a problem here?"

Kayashima crossed his arms, doing his best to look defiant. "I have a problem now? With what, drug abuse? That was the first time I purposely overdosed in almost three years."

Nakatsu stared, an incredulous expression on his face. "Wait. So...you actually have a drug problem?" He raked his fingers through his hair again. "Unreal. If there was anyone I thought was least likely to be addicted to something-"

"Okay, I am not addicted to anything." Nakatsu folded his arms, staring at Kayashima accusingly. Kayashima fidgeted slightly, but held his stare. "I used to overdose, a lot. Never bad enough I needed the stomach pump, but..." He bit his lip, looking away. "Bad enough. My parents got me into treatment, and I've been clean. Well, until last week."

Nakatsu sighed, expelling the air loudly. He cracked his neck, avoiding looking at Kayashima. "Fine. But from now on I keep all the meds you have to take."

Kayashima's eyes opened, surprised. "But-"

"No buts, Kayashima!" Nakatsu yelled. Kayashima shut his mouth. "I do not want to see you like that ever again. And if that means taking your pills from you, then that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Kayashima sighed, exasperated. "Fine." He sat up. "But you have to stop telling me what to do like I'm an incompetent five-year-old."

"When did I-"

"All weekend!" Kayashima threw his hands up in the air. "You've been driving me crazy, between telling me-"

"Excuse me!" Nakatsu rocked back on the balls of his feet, his hands curling into fists. "You've been sick! I've just been trying to take care of you!"

Kayashima stood up, madly gesturing with his hands. "How, by treating me like a-"

Nakatsu grabbed his roommate's slim hands, his long fingers wrapping around them easily. He took a deep breath, a strange peace settling over him as he felt the air circulate through his lungs. "Stop. Look, I don't...I don't want to fight."

Kayashima looked down, his eyes glassy. "I'm sorry." He pulled away. "I'm just going to go to sleep now."

He turned around, moving the donut bag to the floor and pulling back the covers. Suddenly, Nakatsu's stomach dropped and his hand shot out, wrapping around his younger roommate's waist. Kayashima gasped as he was forcibly turned around, the surprised sound swallowed as Nakatsu crushed their lips together.

Kayashima inadvertently relaxed as Nakatsu pulled him in closer, his hand running up and down his back. The other hand reached up to tangle in the other boy's dark hair, gently pulling on the back to more easily reach Kayashima's lip. Nakatsu opened his mouth, letting his tongue snake over Kayashima's perfect bottom lip.

"Don't be mad..." He whispered as they broke apart, gasping for air. The two stood in stoic silence, their foreheads resting against each other.

Kayashima sighed, breaking apart from Nakatsu. The blonde looked on, crestfallen, disbelief coloring his face.

"I'm sorry, Nakatsu..." Kayashima brought one hand up to scratch at his head, looking down. "I'm just...not comfortable with this right now. I'm sorry. I hope you understand."

With that, the psychic boy turned around and crawled into bed, ignoring Nakatsu's obvious aura change.

Nakatsu stood there, feeling like a complete idiot, watching Kayashima adjust his sleeping position until he found one that was apparently comfortable.

"Kayashima?"

Kayashima raised his head to look over at his whiny roommate.

"Can I sleep here?"

Hesitantly, Kayashima nodded. He laid back down, listening as Nakatsu laid down beside him and turned off the lamp. Inside of wrapping his arms around Kayashima, Nakatsu simply turned the other way, so the two were back-to-back.

Kayashima bit his lip. He knew he shouldn't have even cared, but he felt like crying.

Um...so you're all probably wondering what excuse I have for not updating this time.

The answer is nothing. I don't have an excuse. I've been lazy and tired. Sorry.

And with that, I give you a crappy chapter. It was actually longer and 'cough cough' contained an actual sex scene. Don't mean to give anything away or anything. But it just didn't really work with this scene and I felt like this needed to be in here...not just for character development, but story progression...or else stories would just be like, 'this happened, that happened, she turned out to be a duck and he died in a slipper factory explosion. The End.'

You guys need to tell me what you want! I just might follow your suggestions...maybe.

So expect nothing from me for about a week. I'm going on a choir trip to South America and will have no internet access. (at least, I assume not.) I'm going to burn! I've been told I won't since I'm Asian...but I burn. Badly. Like the ginger I somehow am. I think it has something to do with the fact I don't actually LOOK Asian...Taiki got all the Asian genes. So he'll just get really tan and me and all my European-ness will fry. (WHAT is the point of being Japanese if you LOOK like that 1/8 Italian or whatever the heck I am? The other day some old lady thought I was dating my brother...because 'he looked so oriental and you look so American!' What the hell?)

Um...so yeah. Review. I love you all. Bye now.