Hello again. Thanks for last chapter's reviews and stuff, you're all awesome. Sorry this chapters a bit late, I meant to update exactly a week after the last update but I was watching AnoHana and when I finished it I spent the next few days moping around (when I first finished it I was just bawling my eyes out on the sofa).

This chapter has serious perverting.

Read with caution.

"I can't believe you blamed it on us," Takumi grumbled.

Gerald chuckled. "You didn't think I would let myself get fired. Like I would miss out on seeing my little brother and his cute little fiancée at school."

"She's not my fiancée."

"Alright, alright," Gerald said with an amused smile playing on his lips. "Also, I love your new outfit. The orange matches you hair."

Takumi scowled. He didn't like their new uniforms much. They were giant and saggy and orange, just like a criminal in a prison. And they were itchy. Itchy as hell. A thousand other boys must have worn it before him, and it smelt like the school had never bothered to get it washed.

"I'm blonde," Takumi told his brother flatly. "And you owe me. You owe me a lot. And I need you to get me something."

Gerald sighed. "It's not drugs, is it? It's not easy to find weed in this country."

"I don't do drugs."

"Our parents think you do."

"Evidently, since I'm in this school," Takumi said glaring. "Which says a lot, since they still like me better."

"Let's not go into this again," Gerald snapped. "What is it that you want? I can smuggle it in for you, if it's not big. Or drugs. Or alcohol. I mean, weed isn't exactly the easiest thing to find in Japan, but I guess alcohol won't be too hard to find, they sell it everywhere and I'm old enough to buy it easily, so if you want to get drunk on tequila shots with your fiancée and do things you hopefully won't regret, that's absolutely fine, because I guess you're going to do it sooner or later when you get married anyway so -"

"Pads," Takumi said.

"Pads?" Gerald said.

"Pads," Takumi repeated, pointing downwards.

"Oh," said Gerald, his face paling. "Pads."

"Yeah," Takumi said. "Pads. And some tampons would be good too."

"Okay?" Gerald said.

"Okay," Takumi said.

"That won't be much fun buying," Gerald said awkwardly.

"I know," Takumi said with a small smile.

"You know, me, as a guy. With a banana."

"The donut-banana analogy is only for Misaki," Takumi said with a flat face. "It's just stupid, talking about it with you."

Gerald looked daggers at Takumi. "What do you want with pads, anyway?"

"They aren't for me," Takumi told him. "They're for Misaki."

"Oh?" Gerald said, raising an eyebrow. "She didn't bring any?"

"They got confiscated."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

The conversation between the two brothers quickly spiraled into awkwardness, so he nodded at Gerald stiffly and they turned in different directions and Taikumi hurried towards the other side of campus to their room. That was where Misaki was most likely to be, since it was already past midnight. Takumi expected her to be snuggled up on her uncomfortable wooden bed with her short choppy dark locks of hair sprawled out all over the pillow, sleeping peacefully, silently.

She wasn't there. But her old school uniform was neatly laid down and folded on her bed next to her new orange jumpsuit, and her scent was still all over the room. It was a fresh scent, no longer full of coconut shampoo, but just Misaki.

Takumi wasn't in love. He was certain of it. She just smelled good, and she had pretty hair. He would never fall in love with someone his parents told him he had to love, simply because he considered his parents to be complete and utter idiots, and that he decided that he could never trust their judgement on anything. But he knew deep inside that it was probably a bit more than liking someone as a friend. But it wasn't like every hour of the past few days he couldn't stop thinking about the adorable way she smiled or talked or laughed and all the other thousands of little things she did or the expressions she made. Nope. Nope. Nopity-nope.

Takumi wasn't in love, but he broke Rule #1, crossed the line, and picked up her old crinkled school shirt. He wasn't going to be that one creep who would lift it up to his face and sniff it melodramatically, but he held it for a second and felt like he was holding her. Not that he wanted to.

He had a tugging feeling that she was probably in the lake washing up, since she hadn't washed in days. He started running in that direction, ducking into a bush every time a guard strolled past. He finally reached the other side of campus, on the dirt road leading to the muddy lake, and his jaw dropped.

She was naked. Very naked.

It wasn't like he could see anything in detail, but you could see her silhouette in the light of the giant full moon. She was leaning down, scrubbing her legs with water, and then she stood up suddenly and looked at the sky.

Huh, so she wasn't flat-chested.

Takumi shook his head. It was one thing acting like a total pervert in front of her, but acting like a total pervert behind her very-naked back was another thing. Misaki would laugh or blush about his perverting usually. But if she knew that he was here right now she would murder him slowly, or at least stab him with a pair of baby scissors in the eye a couple of hundreds of times while kicking him in the stomach and pinching his nose.

Anyway, it wasn't like he was going to be that super creep who would hide in a bush and watch her with binoculars while eating popcorn. Mostly because he didn't have binoculars and popcorn.

He was, however, going to hide in a bush.

He didn't know quite why he couldn't just go back to his room and get some rest, but he couldn't. He didn't want to, his legs didn't want to move, and he didn't feel like sleep anyway.

Takumi was only there for about ten seconds before he heard some low laughing from a few metres away.

His head whipped around to find where it was coming from. He squinted in the darkness, and then he saw.

Apparently, Misaki had other admirers.

Takumi didn't even bother being discreet. It made him so mad – so mad, that other people were looking at her like that. Unlike him, they didn't know her. He pushed through the bushes to where the sound was coming from, grabbed someone's hair, and kicked him in the gut.

Someone gave a muffled cry.

"Dude," one the boys hissed. It looked like there were three of them. "She's going to hear you."

"I don't care," Takumi snapped. "Don't you know it's kind of disrespectful to be looking at her like that?"

All three of them turned to look at him with a glare. "Hey, don't act like you weren't doing the same."

"I wasn't. I don't have binoculars."

One of the boys shrugged. "Hey, it's not often that you get to see a real-life mermaid."

Takumi gaped at him. "What are you on about?"

"She's got to be a mermaid," one of them said.

"She can't not be a mermaid."

"Mermaids aren't real," Takumi said. "I'm not a little girl."

The same guy sighed and gave him a patronising look. "Mermaids are real, dude. Have some faith in the magistical world. She's got to be some kind of mermaid. Only Class Fs use this lake for washing, and there are obviously no girls in our school."

Another boy nodded. "And man, no one looks like that and isn't one."

"Though she would look better with longer hair," the third one went.

"I like her short hair," another one said. "It means you can see her back more clearly."

"But long hair is more feminine -"

"Short hair is perfectly feminine -"

"Not when it's that short -"

"Well, I think it's very pretty -"

"I think she's very pretty but -"

"You're all idiots," Takumi said. "Can't you see she's got legs? Besides, mermaids aren't real. Humans, on the other hand, are."

"Some mermaids have legs when they aren't in water."

"But she's in water."

"She's not human," one of them said persistently.

"She can't be human," another nodded.

"She's not human," the last one agreed.

The second one considered. "Then if she isn't a mermaid, and she isn't human, then she might be an angel." The others nodded in agreement.

"To be honest, she definitely could be an angel," Takumi said, and then thought about it seriously. He thought of how she had duct-taped him to a lamppost only a few days ago, and thought about how she ranted and yelled at people and screamed like a banshee or a demon or something wicked. He smiled without meaning to, but it was impossible not to when you realise how cute she really was. "Actually, no, I take that back. She is 100% not angel. She can't be. Nope."

"Dude," one of them snapped.

"What?"

"What if she hears you?" one of them hissed. "And then sends God's wrath on you?"

"Why would God be angry at me?" Takumi asked. "Everyone loves me."

"But you know…" the one that looked like he had blonde hair said uncomfortably. "Well, I guess God probably wouldn't be angry because it's none of God's business, but if the angel knows we're talking about her in a negative way, she would be angry, wouldn't she?"

Takumi glared at him. "I think she'd probably be angrier about the fact you've been staring at her from a bush while she's naked."

"Aren't angels always naked, though?" one of them said. "You know, in those old paintings and stuff."

"Yeah, so they're okay with it," another said.

Takumi shook his head. "Yeah, but they're all male too, so you can't really say that. You know. They're always painted with their tiny little bananas and stuff."

"Bananas?" one of them asked.

Takumi pointed down.

"Dude," someone said loudly. "You're not meant to look at that. It's UNHOLY."

"Yeah," one said. "But, so, if she's not a mermaid or an angel or a human, she's got to be a nymph or something, don't she?"

"Well, she can't be a dude. She's hot."

"Too hot."

"Super-hot."

"Whatever she is, I haven't seen a chick like that in years."

They started laughing. Takumi stared at them, for once frightened for the future of humanity.

"You know what I should do…?" one said and then whispered something into another's ear. The two other guys chortled with laughter and nudged him forward.

A shadow started moving towards to Misaki, grinning.

Takumi punched him.

He didn't mean to, but the anger just got the better of him. His fists were suddenly clenched and moving upwards and towards one of their dark shadows and collided with what looked like a head. A shout echoed in the air.

And then he mentally asked why he hadn't thought of punching him before. It felt good as hell.

"Stay the fuck away from her," Takumi snarled.

"Dude," one of them said, kneeling down to help his bleeding friend, "chill! She's gonna hear us."

"I don't care."

"Don't act like you're better than any of us," the other guy spat. "Don't act like you've actually got a chance with a nymph."

"You don't understand," Takumi smirked, thinking about how they were literally engaged already. "I really do."

"Do you really?" a new voice said. It was higher than the others, feminine, smooth, confident. Angry. Takumi looked sideways, and saw a pair of glowing, furious amber eyes. Misaki was so angry that it was like a black demonic aura was surrounding her. "Because I really don't think you do."

Takumi didn't flinch back, because he was Takumi. But he did grab one of the three boys by the collar and pushed in front of him.

She kicked two of them to the side violently, ignoring their cries of pain. "Takumi," she said, smiling so sickly sweetly that it was unnerving. "What do you think you're doing?"

Takumi pointed down. "I was found them."

"You found them?" she said, cocking her head to the side and smiling even more sweetly.

"I found them," Takumi repeated, "in a bush. And I was talking to them about how wrong it is to look at a naked people." He noticed that she was no longer naked and was now completely dressed in her scratchy cotton plain pajamas, and was annoyed that he hadn't noticed her getting dressed beforehand.

"And what were you doing before you found them?"

"Looking for you."

She stomped on his foot.

"What were you saying?" she said just as sweetly.

"I was looking for you," he said. "And then I got distracted."

"Was this before or after you saw me?"

"Uh. After."

Misaki kicked him.

I'll virtually send cupcakes to all reviewers :)

Also, just a really, really really important question: would anyone kill me if I wrote a ToraMisa fanfiction?