Hi! Thanks for the reviews from last chapter! This chapter is pretty short but I didn't want it to drag it on even further because it's already got enough bickering in it (I think?) and any more and it would get boring. Unless it's already boring, I don't know.

Obviously Misaki was going to go back to class sooner or later, but something about Takumi being in a room alone with Gerald worried her. It would be obvious to anyone that they knew each other some way or another, and it was obvious that they despised each other too. But who was Gerald?

They could be some kind of enemies, but it didn't fit together. If they were proper enemies, why did Gerald always look amused, especially when looking at Takumi? Maybe something more casual?

Well, they did kind of look similar. Their noses and jawlines were the same, and their ears were pretty similar, and their eye shape was identical to each other's, although they had completely different eye colours. Now that she thought about it, their faces were pretty much identical, although she had never really noticed it much because she had never seen them right next to each other. So maybe they could be cousins? But no cousins looked that similar.

Brothers?

She shook her head. No brothers could hate each other that much that they were now throwing chairs at each other, she thought, peering into the door window. But she had always been abnormally close to her little sister Suzuna, so she couldn't really judge how normal siblings would act.

Misaki sighed and banged on the door a couple of times. "Takumi," she called. "Are you done?"

There was no answer except for an ear-splitting crash. "Wait, no one's dead yet, right?" she shouted. "Just making sure. I need to know if a doctor needs too called or something."

She waited for about ten seconds for someone to say something. "And no one's listening…I'm talking to myself, right?"

Still no answer.

Misaki's eye twitched in irritation. "Well this is just great," she muttered to herself. "USUI TAKUMI," she screamed. "WILL YOU STOP SHOVING A PENCIL IN YOUR COUNSELOR'S EAR AND JUST LISTEN TO ME?!"

The noise stopped instantly.

The door slowly swung open and Takumi appeared with an embarrassed expression on his face and his hair even more disheveled than usual. "Um," he said. "Sorry. It didn't mean to get that far."

Her eyes darted around the room. A minute ago it had been neat and orderly, but now all the books from the bookshelf were on the floor, the chairs had no legs any more, and Gerald was on the floor clutching his ear.

"Takumi," Gerald muttered. "Mark my words – one day I will shove you into our lake and drown you slowly as the ducks pee on you and the geese eat you alive. And I will watch this and laugh."

"That's not going to happen," Takumi replied with a satisfied smirk. "Mum and Dad will kill you if you do that, because they like me more."

Gerald shook his head. "That's not true. You're illegitimate. Dad definitely doesn't like you more than me."

"Then why did he tell me that I'm better?" Takumi replied in a monotonous voice.

Gerald frowns. "That's definitely not true. He said he likes me more."

"I get better grades than you," Takumi smirked.

"But you never talk to anyone. I do."

"But you're crappy at sports."

"No one likes you."

"You can't cook to save your life."

"But at least I can get my fiancée to marry me," Gerald shot back.

Takumi's eyes flashed and he would have lunged forwards and grabbed Gerald's throat, had Misaki not grabbed the back of his school shirt collar. "Calm down, calm down," she snapped furiously. "You know you two are the weirdest brothers ever?"

"How did you know we're brothers?" Takumi said, looking astonished.

"How did I not know you're brothers?" Misaki sighed. "You're identical."

"Except I'm hotter," Takumi added in.

"I'm way hotter," Gerald snarled.

"I said you're identical," Misaki said. "That means you're equally not hot."

"Not hot?" Gerald said, scrunching his nose upwards. "That's impossible."

"I value intelligence above everything else," Misaki told them. "And you're both idiots."

Takumi pouted like a little puppy. "But I'm blonde. Everyone's into blondes," he said, sounding so disappointed that Misaki wanted to smother him in a hug.

Misaki blushed. "But I'm not into blondes."

"I thought Mitsu-chan liked me."

"I do, just not like that -"

Takumi straightened his back and crossed his arms. "Now, this is just insulting."

"I meant it in a good way!" Misaki exclaimed. "I love you. Kind of. Like a friend."

He looked confused for a second before his eyes shone, all big and round and adorable. Totally huggable.

"What?" Misaki said.

"I don't think anyone's ever said that to me before."

Misaki's brow furrowed, confused. "That you're a friend?"

"No. Before that."

"I love you?"

He chuckled. "So you do love me." He looked excited. !Say it again."

"Um, I love you?"

"Say it again!"

"You're weird."

"Well," Gerald glared, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to break up this incredibly touching moment to inform you both that the curtains are on fire."

"What are you on about – OH MY GOD, THE CURTAINS!" Misaki screamed.

"Hmm," Takumi said. "How did that happen?"

"I'm guessing it was the lamp we smashed," Gerald replied thoughtfully.

"No, it couldn't have been," Takumi said shaking his head. "The lamp didn't go anywhere near the curtains. Besides, I think they're made of wool, and that doesn't really burn well."

"Well, they're obviously burning right now," Gerald said, gesturing at the other side of the room. "They're probably cotton, then."

"But who gets cotton curtains?" Takumi said, frowning. "They're so ugly."

"True, but no one gets wool, either. I prefer velvet. It's very elegant."

Takumi made a face. "Silk is better. And it hangs nicely."

"Hmm, I suppose you're right. Faux silk does look great."

"I feel like we're excluding Mitsu in this conversation," Takumi considered. "Mitsu-chan, what do you think?"

"WE'RE ABOUT TO DIE IN HERE," she yelled. "AND YOU'RE TAKLING ABOUT SILK."

"And velvet," Gerald added.

"Then what would you like to talk about?" Takumi asked, putting a hand on Misaki's shoulder as she fumed.

"I WANT TO GO," she yelled.

Takumi waved his hand nonchalantly. "It's not like we're actually going to die. It's a fire. Nothing we haven't seen before."

"ARE YOU DONE?" Misaki screamed.

Takumi patted her on the back. "If you're really that worried about it, we can go."

"Thank you," Misaki huffed.

Takumi chuckled softly. "You could have run away ages ago, but you waited for me," he said, almost gleefully.

"Well done, you've finally made a friend," Gerald said glaring at his brother.

"While you still have zero," Takumi shot back.

"I have Cedric."

"You pay Cedric."

"SHUT UP," Misaki yelled, grabbing the door handle.

"Do you think I'm going to be fired?" Gerald sighed, looking wistful.

"Hopefully," said Takumi.

A second after he said that, the fire alarm began to wail and the water sprinkler started to spray and spit everywhere. Misaki squinted through the rain-like sprinkler and grabbed the door handle and pushed; she rushed out, Takumi right behind her and Gerald going to save some stuff from his room before following not far behind. The hallway had the same kind of uncontrollable downpour, going all over the receptionist's desk and all her tidily organised pots of pens and stacks of paper, all over the leather couches and neat coffee tables, all over the school's expensive prestigious paintings. Misaki stopped to watch the paint drip down onto the gold frames and down the old red wallpaper, and for some reason, her anger slipped away and she couldn't help but be slightly amused. It was something about the destruction of this place she hated so much, over something so pointless, that was funny for some reason.

At that precise moment, she knew that she wasn't going back to that obedient little girl she had always been. She wasn't going back to that naïve girl who just would accept her fate. She wasn't going back to that girl who threw away her childhood years for work. And for what? The reason she had always wanted to work hard was so that she could support her whole family on her own, not so that her parents would set her up with a stranger so that she would never have to work. From the moment she refused to marry Whatshisname Walker, she was a new person. She felt free, like she was flying, and she felt awesome.

"Because of that fire, you're both now labelled as Dangerous Students," the principal explained to Takumi and Misaki, "And you have to wear these." He held up two large orange jumpsuits.

"Screw this," Misaki muttered. "I want to go home."

So, in other news, I am now FOURTEEN! Yay. My birthday was on the 27th (like Takumi, which is pretty awesome). Well, it's not that exciting. Some (or most) of you reading this will probably be older than me. But it's good because with every year I get older it's less awkward writing romantic fanfics XD

Anyway! On this chapter, you get triple chocolate chip brownies if you review :)