Title: Valentine's Fiasco

Pairing: Frito

Characters: Frau, Castor, Labby, Razette, Jio, Bastien, Hakuren (Mentioned: Teito, Mikage, Kurena)

Timeline: Alternate Universe, American High School, TEENAGERZ

Word Count: 2,072

Other: BLAHBLAH. Author's Note at end.

It's not that Frau wanted to notice. He hadn't even been looking for it. It snuck up on him, exciting and terrifying like all good things in life.

Or something.

He knew what kind of person he was and would be by the time he entered high school, maybe even some time before then. So he never played up his character, never hid behind flashy rainbow-colored feathers, and definitely never pushed boundaries set in place. Sold as-is, his Dad explained to anyone who would listen.

Anyway, there's a point to all this. The point being: Frau never thought he'd find something that he wanted but couldn't own. That just wasn't his nature. What he wanted, he took, and he made sure to want only what he could take – this philosophy of his mainly centered around women, but that's that and this is not that.

Kinda.

He was naturally persuasive and stubborn when that failed him. But this couldn't be won with a few suave words or a forceful show of strength. He didn't know how it could be won, if he was honest with himself. And that should have deterred him completely, but he always caught himself watching, seeking, reaching out and daydreaming.

"Your pinning is suffocating, Frau," Castor airily commented as he flipped a page from the magazine he was reading with Razette. "Either open a window or take it outside."

For his smart remark at Frau's obvious distress, the pink-haired junior smacked his shoulder.

"Oh, for goodness– This cannot just be annoying me," he huffed indignantly, throwing himself back into the squeaky plastic chair. "I thought we put Frau's long-suffering sighs and lost puppy-dog looks behind us on February the fourteenth."

"My informant has told me," Labrador began, half distracted by the stack of papers he was poring over, "that our dear Teito-kun did not show up for school the following day. Thus our Frau is cranky."

"I'm not cranky!" The blond snarled, turning from the window overlooking the quad to glare at the petite teen sitting cross-legged atop their teacher's desk. The teacher in question, an aged man by the name of Jio Bishop, didn't seem to notice at all. Instead, he worked around his student as if the teen was merely an ornament displayed on his desk.

"Frau missed a whole weekend of mega epic kawaii desu-desu L-O-V-E with Teito-kun~" The light-haired high schooler sing-songed.

"Who let Labrador watch anime again?" Jio muttered as be distractedly attacked a student's test with red ink.

"I thought you were on a reality television fixation now," Castor inquired with a raised eyebrow. His tone was lighter, less snappish than before, now that Razette had cuddled into his side, her lean dancer's-legs thrown over his lap.

"Cake Boss just made me hungry."

"What happened to Bridezillas?"

"Those women are simultaneously terrifying and annoying."

"Hey," Frau grumbled, effectively gaining the attention of his two friends, the girlfriend, and teacher. "I thought we were talking about me."

"Oh, do forgive us, Master Frau!" His mocking tone made Razette giggle prettily, like wind chimes. "How could we ever be so insolent as to ignore his majesty?"

"You ass."

"Bite me."

"Cass," Frau grinned mischievously. "Not while your girlfriend's around. Don't want to make her jealous."

Castor wrapped a possessive arm around the curve of Razette's bright pink head, pulling her close to place a firm kiss to her brow. "She has no need to worry about you, of all people."

"Oh, I'm sure." Frau cast a glance towards Labrador, though the Significant Look went over the smaller teen's head. Castor caught it though. "What the hell are you reading anyways, Lab?"

"I read the words painful arousal," the literature teacher deadpanned, eyes still fixated on his correcting. "I don't think you want to know."

Castor groaned, "He's found fanfiction again."

"Lab," Frau began seriously, pushing away from his seat by the window to stalk after his friend. "We talked about this. We had an intervention and everything!"

"It's getting so much better, though!"

Frau snatched the papers from the pouting teen and shuffled through them.

"Okay, what kind of title is [Lover's Heat]?"

"A good one!"

"This shit is gonna rot your brain, seriously. You need to stop. It's not healthy. Why...why're there charts and pie graphs and...a picture of Da Vinci's flying machine smushed in here with your smut?"

Labrador smiled proudly, and snatched his papers back, giving Jio back the full use of his desk as he jumped down. "It's like this – the letters are really small, right? Unless you're holding it, you cannot make out the content very well without making it obvious that you're trying to read it, so I know who is attempting to do so easily. The charts and graphs are for teachers passing by, so they think I'm doing work and stuff."

"Opposed to reading smut, you mean."

"Exactly!"

Jio slammed his pen down, starting down his student. "Have you been doing that in my classroom, Labrador Ilyusha Krat?"

"O-of course not, Bishop-sensei!"

The man took his pen up again and stabbed it towards Labrador's general direction, attention back on his grading. "Your teachers will be told of his."

"Jio-sensei! Be reasonable!"

"So what are you going to do?"

Frau turned to Castor, who spoke, and was surprised to find their claimed little table in the corner of Jio's class littered with paper cranes made from the glossy pages of the magazine. He easily shook off their crazy, used to it already.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Lunch is almost over." The russet raised a brow, "Don't you see him next period? You're obviously upset he hasn't promptly responded to your display of affection."

"Maybe it wasn't obvious," Frau shrugged helplessly, hands shoving deep into his pockets. "Maybe he's not interested."

"The boy is most likely confused, Frau," Castor, in a rare display of concern, attempted to smooth over Frau's ruffled feathers and bruised ego. It wasn't every day the blond was rejected, much less someone the blond avidly wanted.

"Being a freshman in high school is stressful and terrifying enough as it is, and this is not including his rumored 'only friend'. To endure the social demand wrought upon entering students alone, well, it plays hell on one's emotions. And need I bring up the maid he brought to Back-To-School Night? The boy is obviously a recluse with a particular, most likely disagreeable, home life," he muttered the last bit with a certain amount of disdain.

Razette gave the varsity baseball pitcher a fierce hug because of it. Castor smiled but said not a word of it, and chose instead to continue. "He might not be used to such direct attention, or the type of attention you are attempting to give him. He might not know how he's supposed to react. Or if he should react at all. Honestly, he looks far too innocent to know what you have in store for him."

"Ya make it sound like if I'm some incubus demon hellbent on defiling his young, lithe body, marking his smooth, soft, sun-kissed skin–"

Castor cleared his throat loudly.

Frau sighed and had the decency to look sheepish. "So... I should leave him alone then?"

"Let him come to you," Castor gently stated, feeling the need to go to his best friend and smooth out the frown from his face.

"This was easier when they threw themselves at me."

Castor had to laugh at that. "It's been three days, Frau. I think the streak of celibacy will do you some good."

What Frau refused to mention was that his silent, desperately denied yearning was far older than a few days. It had time to ripen and age, to dig roots in deep. He tried killing the feeling, tried salting and burning the ground around it but to no avail. He couldn't get away.

"Bitch."

"Moron."

"Boys, language."

The bell signaling the end of lunch rang and the students said their goodbyes to their homeroom teacher, Razette smiled and waved, and they all went to their separate classes. Frau found himself in Bastien's class early, as always, but with no work waiting for him.

"Hey, Sir. Nothing for me to do today?" The blond dropped his bag and pullover on the teacher's desk, the older brunet preferring the stretch of counter that was his own personal lab space at the front of the class to settle in.

"Guten Tag, Frau. Nein, heute nicht."

Frau frowned and did his best not to outright glare at his teacher. "Wha'd I say about the German?"

"To not to if I am going to be sayink your name." He smiled kindly, his softly aged face open and sincere.

"And wha'd you just do?"

"Oh. Es tut mir leid," he responded innocently. "I did not notice."

"Sure you didn't."

"You have a particular name, mein junge. I have nefer heard Frau being used as a boy's name before."

"My parents must've been on crack," the blond muttered the same repeated phrase whenever the conversation about his name was brought up. Which was once a month, at best.

"Of course," the biology teacher smiled warmly before pulling out a bag of un-popped popcorn. "Be a dear and go make zese for me, please."

"Movie?"

"I do not feel like teachink today. I shall gife zee students rest."

"Lazy ass."

"I vill make you clean Zat Stain, bengel," the brunet teacher said with a smile.

That Stain: capitalized for a reason, it's a stain before Frau's time at the school, maybe even before Bastein's. It is an odd, clear mix of translucent white, green, fluorescent pink and brown, hairy mold patches literally [clinging] to the wall in the far corner of the classroom.

It was an empty threat, to make the blond clean something that looked so obviously like a health hazard, but he was never one to test the soft-hearted biology teacher's patience. Just in case.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry – you can put the claws away now."

When he came back from the science building's lounge, a small stretch of space huddled behind the four classrooms occupying the third floor, Frau found Hakuren talking casually with Bastien. The young blond was organizing a small stack of pages, pen dragging against the pages in a neat scrawl.

"–like someone kicked his puppy. It was adorable. I have it on tape, if you want to watch."

"Teito...," the biology teacher mused as he pressed his fingers against his temple, cheek and jaw. "Ah, zee small one zat had zee seestern attached to his face, ja?"

"I am going to assume you mean starfish, Mister Altenbirke. You are horrible with remembering your own students. Okay, here is our project."

"Teito's not here?"

Attention was turned to Frau, though the blond had eyes only for the freshman with the cat-like violet-blue eyes. He tried not to frown at the boy's cruelly satisfied smirk.

"Disappointed?"

"How're ya turnin' your report in if he didn't show up?"

"The maid dropped off his half." Hakuren sighed, obviously disappointed at Frau's lack of proper response to the bait.

"Fräulein, popcorn," Bastien interrupted briefly.

"Yeah, here."

The favorite pet name used by the biology teacher didn't even register in the blond's mind, as he was avidly paying attention to the freshman's information.

"She said, and I quote, 'The young master has fallen violently ill of the heart and mind. Punishment shall befall the barbarian that has dared to curse our lord.' It was quite terrifying, actually. She said it completely serious; I couldn't doubt that she would carry out the threat for a second."

Frau frowned. "Did she say when he got sick?"

"Ah, no. But Mikage wrote me an email saying that Teito admitted to some ill feeling on Friday night? He's worried about him, so he's given me Teito's address to go check up on the kid and relay information. Apparently he hasn't been answering any of Mikage's emails and he's worried."

Now Frau glared, appearing every inch like a man on a mission.

"I'm goin' with you."

"Shhh," Bastien cut in angrily, pointedly jutting his chin towards the projector already playing Finding Nemo while the lagging students made it in time before the bell. "Mofie. Eizeer silence, or you go outside to talk."

Hakuren smiled sweetly and brushed his ponytail off his shoulder, already turning away from the senior to find his seat. "This is the best February ever."

Fin

[A/N: REVIEWERS DEMANDED, AND I OBEYED (for once)! See? I just don't ignore you guys on purpose[hearts]. I'm just a really lazy responder to reviews ^~^;; Anyway, no Shuri in this one [/sadface]. I actually like writing him. Bastien's german was stolen from Google Translate, don't look too hard into it. Anyway, can I hear a threequel~?]