Author's Notes: Well... time fell away from me yesterday. I was in work early and then some of the girls I work with asked me to go out for "a glass of wine" which quickly became "a bottle and a half of wine", so I came home suuuuuper drunk and fell into bed.

And all before 9pm. I'm such a good girl.

Thanks so much for all the follows and faves so far :3. You guys are awesome.

It was an incredibly romantic gesture and if it were anyone else, Yukari probably wouldn't have taken them seriously. But Akihiko looked so serious when he put the jacket around her shoulders and told her not to worry about it, and so... intense when he was fixing the collar that he caught her by surprise and she was blushing like an idiot.

"It's... crazy. I can't believe that guy in Hagakure thought we were going out..." she said absent-mindedly as they made the short walk to the station.

Akihiko laughed brokenly and stuttered out; "Y-yeah... I mean, th-that's crazy right?"

They walked on in silence, the streets were completely deserted and the breeze was chilly and crisp. It was a cloudless night, not even the birds were out.

"I-I mean... I'm so much older than you are... it wouldn't be very appropriate," he said, though Yukari got the feeling that he was saying it to himself rather than to her. He'd been acting strange since she starting giving out to him about the whole "I'm a girl" thing. There were only two years in the difference anyway, was that really so bad...?

Was she honestly thinking about dating her senpai?

In hindsight, it didn't sound like such a bad thing. He definitely knew how to treat a girl well, even if he said he didn't have a clue what he was doing. The thought made Yukari smile despite herself; he had no clue yet he was as chivalrous and calm and gentle as the best of them and any girl would be lucky to have him treat them like that.

Yukari was lucky...

Once they arrived at the station and punched in their tickets, they just about made the last train and silently entered the near-empty cart. Making a face at the broken seats and graffiti, they chose the seats that didn't look as worse for wear as the rest and Yukari sat next to the window, Akihiko was a comfortable warmth beside her.

The people were few and sparse, some of them looked a little shifty but surprisingly, she didn't feel too worried about them. The train wouldn't take more than a half an hour to bring them back home, and Akihiko wouldn't let anything bad happen to her-

She felt a prickle run down her spine as her senpai's arm went around her shoulders, pulling her body in to rest comfortably against his frame. The gesture was so... so intimate and so sudden she looked up as if to question-

Akihiko wasn't looking at her. His mouth was set in a hard line, his eyes narrowed on someone in front of them. She looked across just in time to see a an older man in a thick, dark green trench coat standing at the end of the isle. What was a lecherous grin fixed on her was quickly swallowed up by fear as he looked between her and the very-pissed-off-looking-senpai with his arm around her.

The man got off at the next stop and Yukari let out a sigh of relief as Akihiko's grip around her shoulders relaxed, but didn't move.

It was... pretty romantic, and she wondered if perhaps he wanted to put his arms around her. She certainly wasn't going to complain.

He was so warm, and it was late and she was exhausted from the day, so she gently rested her head in the juncture where his shoulder met the corner of his collar; without even thinking her hand went to rest on his knee, only because to be absolutely comfortable there was no where else to put it. He stiffened considerably at the contact. With a contented sigh, she let her eyes slip closed until she felt the boxer move his head to look down at her, and she looked up slowly-

To see the most beautiful, terrified grey eyes in the world.

Uncertainty pooled in them, and she was worried she may have crossed a line by putting her hand on his knee – after all, he didn't have much experience with women – but there was no going back from it now.

Their gazes locked, the train shook a little as it travelled from stop to stop but she felt like time ground to a halt completely. There was no one else in the cart...

With each shake of the train they ended up closer to each other, until she was so close his face started to blur and his perfect, angular lips were just a short distance from hers. Her mouth started to tremble – she wanted him to kiss her, she could feel him angle his body so they could be comfortable, and when his eyes slipped shut she had enough information to know that he wanted to just as much as she did. His breath was warm and short, and her heart started pick up beats just as she dared to move closer-

Just as the announcer on the train called out the name of their stop, the spell was broken. They both snapped out of their daze and pulled away in unison; his hands were shaking through the leather gloves as he helped her out of her seat, her lips thrumming strangely and her legs wobbling as the doors slid open and they stepped back into the cold night air.

He wasn't looking at her, just picking at a thread in the strap of his gym-bag and looking like a kicked-puppy.

The cloudless evening was almost too perfect, almost too beautiful. Outside of the Dark Hour she never really saw the streets when they were deserted and the moon was hanging high. And she thought then of the perfection of the night, of having her life saved, of being treated to dinner, of a chivalrous gentleman protecting her on the train, of their almost-kiss...

It was too perfect, too romantic, and despite her better judgement it was pulling her in until she was totally lost in it.

It was so cold without him, so cold she almost couldn't stand it. They were just a few turns from the dorm, and as they rounded a corner between two large houses, Yukari reached out and grabbed on to Akihiko's leather bound hand.

Author's Notes: In other news, I've been toying with the idea of teaching English in Japan for a year. My boyfriend isn't too happy about the idea, but screw it, IT'S FUCKING JAPAN 'YO.