Standard Disclaimers Apply

*Kazama
*Hijikata
*Math (jk)

She was late. Hella late. It was sort of an unspoken thing for the student council to meet up after school everyday. Usually within half an hour, the party would have assembled and would already have started doing whatever their daily tasks were. She was late though.

She hoped she was sneaky enough as she crept in through a tiny slip in the doorway. Kazama was sitting on the couch, body turned away from her. She quietly tiptoed over to her station to get to work. She heaved a sigh of relief as she finally reached her work area, a desk right by the library of documents, when a shadow loomed over her. Before she could even swallow nervously, she felt herself pushed onto the tabletop. A hand had steadied her head onto the table before stationing itself directly beside her face. Nothing hurt, but that didn't mean it wasn't uncomfortable.

"And where have you been?"

Kazama's voice was oddly calm. So calm that she was scared for what was to come. Angry Kazama, she could deal with. (She would just yell right back.) Angry but calm Kazama though…she had no idea what to expect.

"I was…busy."

"Hmm, I see." His expression seemed to tell another story though.

When a few more moments passed and she still hadn't spoken a word, he began to lean in. "So you won't tell me, Chizuru." It wasn't a question. "Then I will just have to find out myself."

She was about to ask how when he abruptly brushed his nose against her neck, inhaling deeply. A trickle of fear, of raw excitement, she didn't know of what context it was, but a shudder ran down her back nonetheless. She was embarrassed to know he felt it too. After all, she had unwillingly pressed her body against his when that happened. If this was any other moment, Kazama may have smirked, but he was much too displeased for that right now. He made no comment as he moved outwards towards her shoulder, the shoulder that Sannan-sensei had touched.

With one whiff, he knew.

He pushed himself up and watched her. From that tiny interaction, Chizuru had lost her wits. Her eyes were glazed over as he continued to stared down at her. Under other circumstances, he may have smiled at that but right now he could care less.

"Did I not warn you about him?"

"Y-you did." Her voice was weak. She swallowed and repeated. "You did."

"Then why did you disobey?"

Disobey? That snapped her out of her haze and suddenly her brain was functioning again."You can't tell me what to do. Besides, that was a warning, not an order." She placed her hands on his chest to push him out of their position, but he didn't even budge.

Grabbing ahold of her hands, he forced them back down. "It was to protect you."

"From what? Sannan-sensei's perfectly innocent!"

"Not when he could go insane any minute. I will admit he's intelligent and a valuable asset to the academy, however his research is dangerous. He works with sick rats, to start with."

She gasped. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew. There's nothing that goes on in this school that I don't know of."

She ignored his arrogant declaration. "Then why didn't you tell me? The whole time I thought he was in some shady drug dealing business or something!"

"He is technically concocting a drug," Shiranui cut in.

"Oh come on! You knew too? Am I the only one?" Chizuru cried.

"We thought it best to keep it from you," Amagiri answered calmly like the gentleman he was. "Kazama-sama was doing it for your sake. Please don't blame him."

At that heartfelt response, Chizuru turned to look at Kazama again. His eyes hadn't strayed from her face, and she was surprised to see how focused he was. The whole time, this man had been looking out for her. "You…how is keeping me in the dark supposed to help me exactly?"

Judging by her tone, Chizuru had already given up being angry. All she wanted were answers now.

"The less you knew, the better. Being ignorant of these heavy matters suits you." She felt slightly insulted at that but kept her mouth shut. "There's nothing you can do anyway. Just forget about it and avoid him. Don't get involved. Please."

"He used 'please'…what a rare occurrence. Why not just listen to him and stop being so stubborn, huh Princess?"

She ignored Shiranui's crude remark.

"I won't get involved with his research."

Amagiri and Shiranui both felt relieved at that. Kazama knew her better than that though. He knew there was a catch.

"That doesn't mean I'll stop talking to Sannan-sensei though. He's a teacher here. Avoiding him will be difficult. I don't think he's a danger to me, so you can rest assured."

Kazama glowered, eyes growing darker by the millisecond. She placed her hands on his cheeks and stared him straight in the eye. "Stop it Chikage. I don't like that look."

Amagiri and Shiranui looked shocked by her words. Who knew Chizuru had it in her to reprimand their president like that? They weren't the only ones surprised though. Kazama himself was astounded. Slowly, his shock turned into amusement as his lips pulled into a smirk. "Fine. You win." He finally pulled himself off the desk but not before pecking her on the forehead for a job well done. "Go finish your task."

Proud and relieved to be off the hook, she smiled and teasingly saluted. "Yessir!"

"What do you mean Sannan-sensei isn't all that bad?" Heisuke questioned as he munched on a piece of fried shrimp.

"Talk or eat. Don't do both," Saitou sighed, hitting the boy lightly on the head. "But I'm curious too. Do elaborate."

"We can't tell you the details. It's a really personal matter to him," Chizuru started. "But he really isn't all that bad."

"What she means is we can trust him. He won't hurt anyone. In fact, his intentions are the absolute opposite," Yamazaki provided easily, filling in the gaps Chizuru was leaving out.

She nodded in hopes that her friends would be understanding. "He's hiding things for a good reason, and he hopes we can all respect his privacy about that."

"That really doesn't satisfy my curiosity but if Chizuru-chan doesn't want to share, then we won't nag on about it anymore," Okita said, leaning back by supporting his weight with his hands.

"The rest of the school won't be as easy to appeal to." As always, Saitou was the logical one of the whole group. What he said was true. Sannan-sensei could get their group to stop investigating, but his natural creepiness really did not help with convincing the rest of the school. Those rumours have been flying about for far too long. It would take a lot to stop them at this point.

"What should we do then?" she asked.

Yamazaki thought about it for a bit. "Nothing. Assuming Sannan-sensei doesn't carry out any experiments at school, then the rumours will stay as rumours. He's still the school doctor and despite everything, his reputation is still very high. He's never hurt a student before either. On the other hand, if we interfere we may risk doing more harm than good."

"He mentioned…" Chizuru started, but was unsure of whether to continue or not. Only the two of them knew about Sannan's history. She didn't want to reveal too much. Looking around at her other friends, she saw their unyielding expressions and understood that they could be trusted. She decided to continue. "The obsession. He may be getting obsessed with his work. I think we should do something about that."

"I can keep tabs on him. I'm his assistant anyway. I have more interaction with him than any other student or faculty member."

"He seems lonely," she added. "Maybe I'll check in on him once in a while, ask him how he's doing or something."

Yamazaki nodded and smiled. "As long as Kazama-san doesn't flip the school upside down for that, I'm sure Sannan-sensei would appreciate it."

She was at home finishing up an assignment when she received a call on the phone Kazama had gotten her.

"Chizuru-chan?" The voice on the other line was soft.

"Shizuka-chan? Hi, how are you?"

Shizuka seemed to be in a rush as she ignored her greeting. "Your parents are back. Tomorrow 8pm, in the cafe you used to work at. Don't tell your brother. Ok?"

She was caught off guard by her quick sentences. "Ok, that sounds good. Thank-"

The line went dead.

That was strange. She seemed to be in such a big rush over the phone. She hoped everything was okay with her friend. However, the excitement of meeting her parents after so long overrode any concern and she nearly bursted out in tears at the idea of finally seeing them again. She had forgotten to ask Shizuka since the phone call was so rushed, but she wondered if Kaoru was coming as well. If he was, it would be a family gathering with the four of them.

Well, Kaoru had been living with them the whole time so it probably wouldn't be as exciting for him. For her though, it would be heaven. She quickly sped over to Kazama's room to let him know of her plans for the next day.

"Your parents?"

"Yep! Shizuka-chan just called me," she chirped excitedly.

"Want me to come with you?"

Normally she would have felt butterflies in her stomach from the warm offer, but she was much too happy to feel them today. "No thank you. It's a family gathering. You would just ruin it," she teased.

"Will Kaoru be there?"

She didn't notice the glimmer in his eyes as he questioned her. "Probably? I would assume so."

"I see," he trailed off. "Stay safe."

She smiled genuinely. "I will."

As she left Kazama's room, she finally had time to ponder over the phone call a little more. Don't tell her brother, Shizuka had said. Don't tell Kaoru? But why?

Nothing could ruin her happy mood right now. When Kaoru walked in through the classroom door, she had to stop herself from running up to him and asking him about tonight. "Don't tell your brother." She had to repeat Shizuka's words over and over again in her head to stop herself. She opted out with smiling brightly at him instead.

Kaoru knew something was up immediately. His head turned sharply in Shizuka's direction.

Had it been that obvious? Shizuka swallowed with difficulty. This wasn't going to be good.

At least Chizuru thought nothing could ruin her mood. That was until a certain math teacher stepped into the room, saw her carefree smile, and glared at her.

What was that for?!

The tension in the classroom seemed that much higher that day. She tried to calm herself, convincing herself that there were a few more hours left to go before she would get to meet her parents. She could do this. She could handle a little math class with the meanest teacher on the whole campus. Nothing scares her, not math, and definitely not the math teacher himself.

After class, she was about to make a dash for the door when Hijikata-sensei did the most evil thing he could possibly do and called her over to his desk.

"Yes, Hijikata-sensei?" She tried her best to give a smile.

"You're slacking."

I am?

She studied him hesitantly. He had his elbows on the table, fingers linked as the back of his hands supported his chin. That meant that his full attention was on her. His eyes narrowed as she fidgeted under his gaze, but she wasn't about to back down. "How so?"

"Take out your test that I just handed back."

And she did. She checked the mark, even double-checking it to make sure she hadn't read the mark wrong. 95%.

She didn't see an issue with that.

"You've never gotten lower than a 98% before."

Wait...was he serious?

She continued to stare at his face for any changes, any signs of him joking. There were none. He wasn't joking.

"Is 95%…bad?"

"Yes."

Behind them, a student who had received 20% on the test collapsed. His friends had to pull him away, excusing themselves and waving goodbye to Hijikata. He ignored them.

"Why are you going so hard on me?" she asked him, frustrated that she was getting lectured on getting a 95% while no one else seemed to be getting the same treatment. The happy mood from earlier was long gone by now, and math had ruined it.

"I have high expectations for you."

"Shouldn't you have the same expectations for everybody else too?"

"You're different."

"And how so?"

He broke their eye contact for the first time. "You're Yukimura."

She hated it when people used her family name as a reason. She had a lot of respect for her family but she disliked being defined solely by that name. "What does being a Yukimura have to do with anything? Sure, my family used to be prestigious. That doesn't mean I have to get 100 on every single assignment though!"

"I made a promise."

"To who?" For all she knew, he's never made a promise with her.

"Your family. I said I would look after you, make sure you succeed. So make my job a little easier and stop slacking."

"I wasn't slacking!" Wait, that wasn't the point. "And you are looking after me just fine. Math turned out to be one of my best subjects. If that doesn't say something about you, I don't know what does."

She thought he looked constipated for a moment, but then she realized that was just how he looked when he was flattered and had no idea how to react. "Why did you make such a promise though?"

It was a promise about her yet it wasn't made to her. She thought that was strange. Did he owe her family for something they had done? If that was the case, then she would have to quickly clear up everything and tell him he didn't have to do so anymore. Her parents were not the type to hold grudges. They were very accepting of everything. They offered help for the sake of offering help, not for people to be in debt to them.

"They treated us well. We were from the rural side and were complete idiots when invited out into the city. Many would laugh, but your parents never did. They respected us and welcomed us. While others scorned at what we did for a living, they supported us wholeheartedly."

"What did you do for a living?" She was surprised. She did not expect him to tell her his backstory at all, but now that he had, she had grown curious.

"We own a farm. It's not the biggest nor does it have the most variety, but every crop we produce is of the finest quality. Instead of mass producing them, we focus more on putting our effort into each plant so they turn out fresh and healthy. That was what we went by."

By this time, everyone had already left the classroom. It was just the two of them. Perhaps that was why he felt comfortable sharing his story with her. He looked up to see what she would say, whether she would laugh at him or not.

She was smiling understandingly at him. "I would like to try some one day."

That came as a surprise to him. "You would?"

"Definitely! I'm sure they would taste much better than what we can buy at the supermarkets here."

Appalled that she would even compare his family pride to a stinkin' supermarket, he scoffed. "Of course they're much better. I'll bring some for you the next time I go visit them."

She laughed and made her way to the door. Before she stepped out, she turned back to look at him. "And I am not slacking. I was lacking sleep that day." And she knew just which student council president was to blame for that.

Hijikata sighed as he supported his chin on his palm. Playful yet kind, that was how Chizuru was. She took after her parents in the most pleasant ways possible. They had raised her well.

Turning back to his work, he began plotting for his next evil math test.

Her plan was to walk to the cafe right after school and wait there until the meet-up time. She would have to wait a while, but she knew the staff there so it wouldn't be awkward or uncomfortable for her.

Upon entering the little cafe, she immediately spotted her old friend.

"Risa!" Her friend looked up at the call of her name and quickly ran over to give her a hug.

"Chizuru! It's been forever! Are you here by yourself?"

Her friend hadn't changed at all. If anything, maybe her make-up got a little heavier?

"Yep, for now. I'm here to meet my parents later at 8," she smiled. "How's school?"

"Aw, I'm so happy for you!" she cooed. "School's been busy! I have so many projects that are just piling up on me yet no inspiration to work on them. Here, let me get you a nice seat by the counter so you can catch up with everyone." She led her over to a seat by the bar. "How's school been for you?"

"I got lectured for getting a 95 in a math test." At her friend's expression, she sighed. "I know, right? Crazy."

"The one that's crazy is you. 95? That's like all my math marks added together!"

"Oh, so your final cumulative mark is 95%? That's very good, isn't it?"

"No. I meant a 20% in unit 1, a 35% in unit 2, 15% in unit 3, and 25% in unit 4. I meant it like that."

"Oh…" Chizuru didn't know what to say to that. "At least…you can add?"

Her friend didn't look impressed. "Let's not talk about school anymore. It's making me sad. What can I get you?"

After finishing the snack and tea Risa had recommended off of the limited edition menu, she went over to pay for her bill. She greeted her old coworkers, catching up with them to kill some time. It was now approaching 8 so she went over to the seats by the window to wait.

She was so excited. She had mentally prepared a list of topics to talk about, one of which included Hijikata's promise to them. She would fill them in on her experience at school, how she was in the care of Kazama now, and how she had made so many friends in the past years. She would then ask them how living with the Nagumo's was like, finishing it off with getting their contact information and agreeing on a time, date, and location for their next meeting.

However after 10 minutes had passed with no sign of her parents showing up, she grew worried. They were probably just taking long to get ready. She brushed off her concerns and patiently waited for another 10 minutes.

"I'm going home now, Chizuru!" Risa called out to her as she approached her.

"It was nice seeing you again!" Chizuru got up to give her friend a warm hug.

"Don't stay out for too long. Call that boyfriend of yours to pick you up when you're done, okay?" she winked.

She blushed at that but didn't deny anything. They were dating after all. "You be careful too."

It was already 8:40 yet there was still no sign of her parents or Kaoru. "Where could they be?"

Just then, she received a text from Shizuka.

Go home.

There was no explanation or anything following this message. Chizuru texted her back asking why but even after waiting for 5 minutes, she still didn't receive a reply. She decided to call her.

Someone picked up.

"Hello, Shizuka-chan?"

"Chizuru?" The voice on the other side was lower. "It's Kaoru. Unfortunately we can't make it today. They found out last minute that they were busy. I'm so sorry Chizuru!"

"Oh, it's okay."

"Are you okay by yourself? I can come pick you up if you'd like."

She was about to decline his offer when someone snatched her phone out of her hands. She turned her head to see who had the nerve of doing such a thing when she saw Kazama putting the phone against his ear.

"She's fine. Mind your own business," his deep voice murmured. Without another word, the man ended the call and returned the phone to her.

"Chikage? What are you doing here?"

"We're going home now." He didn't wait for her to speak before pulling her out of the chair and guiding her to the car.

"Were you here the whole time?"

He shook his head. "I came about an hour ago."

"Oh."

They were almost home when she suddenly spoke up. "He said my parents were busy." Looking down, she awkwardly folded her hands in her lap.

"You don't believe him." It wasn't a question.

"I don't mean to…but something feels off. Shizuka-chan's rushed phone call yesterday…how she seems so on edge all the time…I don't know what's going on anymore."

"That's good," he commented solemnly.

"What is?"

"You're beginning to suspect Kaoru. You shouldn't believe everything he says so easily."

"You don't trust him either?"

His eyes were hard as he stared off distantly. "I've never trusted that brat."

He sat back and ran a hand through his locks. This should be a good place to stop for tonight.

On top of school work and student council work, lately he has been studying on how to be the president of his family business. His father had handed him some tips and documents to look over, including newspapers regarding the fall of other companies. He had handed them to him one by one, adding little comments here and there: "They did well in terms of this, but failed in terms of that…et cetera et cetera." When his father had gotten to the Yukimura's page, he stopped.

"Father?" he called. When he saw the name printed on the article he was holding onto, his eyes narrowed. "What is your analysis on this one?"

"This one…this one was too successful, too loved. That was both their strength and their weakness."

"What do you mean?"

His father took on a grave expression. "Jealousy is a dangerous thing, especially in the upper classes of society. Take care of her." And that was all his father told him that day.

That just made him all the more suspicious behind the fall of the Yukimura family. There was so much to think about but for now, he was exhausted and in dire need of a certain girl to be in his arms.

He swiftly made his way over to her room. Shutting the door quietly behind him, he stalked over to her bedside and observed her. She was already asleep and a part of him really didn't want to wake her up, but he desperately needed to hold her right now. He carefully slipped into the covers and wrapped his arms around her in a firm embrace.

"Mmm…Chikage?"

"Sorry," he apologized as he nudged his nose into the crook of her neck.

"You're being weird," she giggled softly but didn't complain. She let him stay there, sensing his breath even out and his head become heavier on her shoulder.

She would be sore the next day but understanding that he was tired, she would let it slip for tonight.

A/N: Thanks for reading!