Chapter Six. A Masochistic Gemini. Prizes and Gifts.

In class the next day, things were a little more than interesting.

When Akari had walked in, she had been early, and there were only a few people in class, one of which was Seiji.

But he looked... different.

As she approached her desk and set her bag down, she eyed him carefully before taking her seat.

His long blonde hair was taken out of it's ponytail atop his head and now settled down to his shoulders in slight waves. His posture was dramatically different from how he had sat yesterday- instead of sitting up straight and politely, he was leaning all the way back in his seat, legs splayed out to both sides, arms pulled behind his head with his hands folded at his neck, and his head was leaning backwards, his eyes closed.

On top of that, when he popped open an eye as she passed by and sat down, his gaze was different. Less friendly and harboring more on an edge of arrogant. His clothes were also interestingly transformed- his uniform shirt was untucked and half of the buttons were undone, showing a glance of the skin of his chest underneath. His tie was loosened almost as far as it could be, and his sleeves were rolled up onto his biceps.

"Um..." She said as she just sat in her seat, and he unfolded his hands and settled his arms down on his desk, turning just his head to look at her with those blue-green eyes of his.

Except... now that she stared harder, his eye color also looked different. They were darker, not much of a sea-green but now more of a murky, dark, swampy-blue color. They glinted with a haughty air as he looked back at her.

"Hey."

She nodded, unsure of what this was all about.

"Yeah... how are you doing today?" She asked him in a light tone, though her brow was creased in worry and confusion.

He grunted, and then his gaze traveled down and stopped momentarily below her collar. Noticing his gaze, she gripped at the low V of the collar of the grey sweater she had on over her uniform shirt and pulled it up slightly- even though she was sure there was nothing to see there. It was like he was searching her and he could see through her clothes- his stare was really making things uncomfortable.

"Seiji, what the hell is up with you today?" She asked and his eyes traveled to hers again. She watched as he smirked, the grin on his face holding nothing of the smiles he'd cast to her yesterday.

"Sorry? Who's Seiji?" But he looked as if he knew, yet she could tell he really didn't.

Was this some kind of joke for the newbie? Did they think she was that stupid?

"Baka!" She returned his grin with one of her own. "Do you really take me for a fool?"

He eyed her, eyes narrowing.

"No, but I'll take you for a date sometime." He said, his mannerisms too self-assured for this to possibly be the same guy she met yesterday.

"Hmf. Quit it, Seiji-kun, the joke's not funny."

He gave her a serious stare. "But I'm not joking about that. And who the fuck is this this Seiji kid you keep calling me? By the way, my name's Kai."

She blinked at him, honestly perplexed. He sounded serious about this.

"Are you Seiji's twin or something?"

He gave her a blank stare, and then he started laughing. His laugh, which yesterday had been open, light, and contagious, had turned into something annoying and a bit too loud. She frowned at him as he looked back at her, his laughing fit over.

"I get it. This is some weird way of flirting with me, you know?"

"But I'm not-"

"What's your name?" He interrupted her, looking over her with his murky gaze.

"You know it already."

"I don't and if I did, I wouldn't be asking you, obviously."

"Fine. You know what, I'll play along. My name is... Mana." It was the quickest thing she could come up with and frankly, she didn't care to come up with anything more creative because she wanted this game to play out and be done with sooner rather than later.

But he looked so damn serious she had to start doubting he was lying at this point.

"Nice to meetcha', Mana-chan. I'm Kai, but I already said that..." He leaned forward slightly, and she scooted back in her seat, unsure of what to think of his closer proximity. "You wanna know a secret?"

"Not really, Seiji."

"It's Kai."

"No it's not." She rolled her eyes.

"Never mind. I'm telling you my secret anyway."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO."

"You turn me on. That's the secret."

And that's when she smacked him.

"Psst, Akari."

Akari looked up from her scribbled-on notebook, and glanced to her right and into a pair of serious chocolate-caramel eyes.

"I wanna talk to you after class." Aika said, and before Akari could nod her consent or ask any questions, the girl leaned back into her own seat and re-positioned her ear buds, beginning to nod her head again to music.

As Akari was looking up from her work, her eyes traveled across the room and settled on Seiji's back. He had been moved to the other end of the classroom when the teacher caught him harassing her again in the middle of the lecture, and her complaining finally came to some good use.

Suddenly his eyes found hers as he turned his head, and he gave a triumphant little grin. She did the immature thing and made a face at him before looking to stare back at her notebook, her brain filled with question marks. She thought back to last night and what she let Tora do with her... things she normally would try and stop him from doing before it even started. She thought about how Seiji was a completely different person today...

Had she somehow entered an alternate dimension between the time after dinner last night and now?

The two girls were in some shadowed corner outside on school campus, somewhere between the track field and the locker rooms. Kids were walking past them without noticing them at all, apparently the corner they were in was an easy place to go unnoticed. She wondered why they had to go unnoticed, though.

Watching as Aika took a deep breath, pulled out her ear buds, and opened her eyes, Akari was taken aback by what the other girl said next.

"Seiji has a dual personality." Her look was sharp and clear. "Do you know what that is?"

"I think I know what that is..." Akari thought about what the words meant, about what she had witnessed with Seiji, and nodded.

"He gets these things- triggers. They're specific things that cause him to... you know, switch back and forth. In the beginning, when I first met him, it was really nerve-recking- but you get used to it."

"What are all the triggers?"

"I don't exactly know. But something must've happened at his house today before school, or maybe he's forgotten to take his pills or something. Anyway, don't ask me how to change him back either because I don't know what triggers his regular personality."

Akari was quiet for a moment.

"So, how was meeting his polar opposite? Was 'Kai' pleasant to be around?"

She looked up and shot Aika a look that bordered on sarcasm.

"Him? Pleasant? He was trying to hook up with me in the middle of class, I swear..." She shook her head, sighing. "We have got to get Seiji back. How does this sort of thing happen to a person anyway? Was he born with it?"

"I dunno if you can be born with it, but Kai resulted from something that happened in Seiji's childhood."

Their eyes locked, both of them serious.

"He was almost killed."

Silence followed in their dark corner. And then, the whole story unfolded, Aika telling Akari all about her childhood friend and how he had come to be a victim of his personality complex.

Tora was just getting dressed for the day. It was noon and he was still tired, somehow, as if he didn't get enough sleep last night. And he didn't, so he guessed that made sense.

He flipped open his phone and dialed a number as his other hand opened a drawer to grab some pants.

"Maki. I need to talk with you." He said when he heard the voice of his trusted Vice President answer on the other end.

"Of course."

"Be here in no more than five minutes."

"I will do that."

And Tora hung up. He eased on his pants and thought for a moment as he then began to then search around for a shirt.

He was glad that he had Kanade in times like these. Actually, he realized he had Kanade at pretty much all times. The other boy was respectful and highly trusted by Tora- he knew that if he gave his Vice President any task it would be done, and it would be done shortly in almost no time at all and with great results. And sometimes, though Tora hated to admit this, the other boy could be more level-headed and rational that even Tora himself. It was annoying but a helpful notion in its own way.

He paused, now having a shirt on as well, and walked over to check his appearance in the mirror.

Damn his busy thoughts with it's jumbled mess of feelings and ideas getting stuck in his head, distracting him! He was wearing casual jeans but with a fancy silk dress shirt that didn't match with it at all. Normally, he could at least get himself dressed without trouble!

"This is-" He pulled off the shirt and threw it, not caring how nice the fabric was, he always had more. "So annoying!" He gritted his teeth in increasing irritation.

His cell phone rang and he answered it with a growl.

"Igarashi?"

"Yes?" He sounded angry and failed to dial it down.

"I'm here at your house, as you asked of me."

Tora wasn't in the least surprised about how impossibly fast the other boy had arrived.

"Stay in the car. We're going for a drive."

And with that, he hung up the phone. He admired his half-naked body in the mirror for a moment with a smirk of satisfaction with himself, trying to replace that with his anger at his seemingly growing absent-mindedness. Then, he turned back to his dresser, being more careful this time as to what he would be wearing.

"How are you do-"

"I honestly don't know, Maki."

That was how their conversation started after Tora had entered the car and sat down with his trusted adviser.

"I told the driver just to travel around town aimlessly for a while. You sounded like you had a lot on your mind when you called me."

Tora frowned, showing truthfully on his face how upset he was. In the presence of someone he trusted like Kanade, it didn't matter for him to keep up his barriers. At least not all of them.

"Do you know what it's like to get over a fetish you have?" He suddenly asked, not being very clear about what he was talking about.

"I don't have any fetishes to get over, I'm afraid."

"Well I do. Did."

"You got over her, didn't you?"

Tora looked up at his companion, visibly a bit shocked.

"Yes, I did, and I know you're happy about it, but I don't know what to do with myself."

Maki sighed, looking, indeed, relieved about Tora's release of interest in the unimportant maid. She was distracting his friend from what was more important- his work. And also, she had been the cause of Tora's constant sighing, his sneering in the middle of classes, his heightened irritation. It had been an unhealthy obsession.

But now, looking at Tora, he could see that there was another obsession pouncing in after the first.

And Tora knew the guy all too well to not notice the way he seemed to be disapproving of how Tora was acting.

"I'm not trying to make myself like this, you know!" He suddenly barked at the other highschooler, and Maki just smiled in return.

"I think you should tell me what it is you're feeling." He suggested. He sounded like a therapist.

Tora scoffed, but said nothing. He was thinking of what to say.

"I don't know what to tell you." He finally admitted, his brow creased in frustration.

"Perhaps you got over your first obsession, because another made its way into your life?"

Tora looked up, his golden eyes alert and fierce.

"What are you hinting, Kanade?" He asked, wishing the other boy would just tell him how that worked.

"In other words, perhaps there is a different girl that strikes you as a worthy prize?"

"Prizes? Woman aren't prizes... normally, they come as gifts."

Maki opened his eyes in the utmost feature of shock.

"What... I mean, excuse me. But did I hear that wrong?"

"Pleasurable gifts for me and me alone." Tora added, thinking to himself and smiling slightly.

"Come again?"

Tora turned his head and looked his companion in the eye sharply.

"Sex, Kanade. Every woman gift wraps herself in nice lingerie just for me to unwrap later on in the night." He pauses, thinking again. "Or morning, or mid day... the time varies depending on if I'm in the mood for it."

Maki looked visibly relieved. For a second, he thought Tora had possibly gone soft on him, but now he realized that he was stupid to think that. He knew that deep down the blonde had a heart, and kinder thoughts too, but he was never going to turn into anyone soft or poetic.

"But you're right," Tora suddenly remarked. "Some woman are prizes. A rare, rare few of them..." He looked out the window at the streets and cars passing by. "Those are the kind that interest me."

"Some, as in the maid girl?"

Tora waved a hand dismissively.

"I believe that was just a faze, Maki. She was a gift disguised as a prize."

"..."

Tora turned to look at the other boy.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm curious as to what differentiates women who are prizes and women who are gifts."

"It's simple." Tora gazed back out the tinted windows. "Gifts are given to you, but prizes, you have to win."

"Are you referring to the fact that women give themselves up to you so easily?"

"I am." Tora watched the huge white sky outside. It looked about ready to begin snowing. "That's what I mean by 'gifts'. And those few woman who are the prizes... well, they're harder to obtain. Because the whole point of a prize, is that you have to win it, you don't just receive it as you do gifts."

Maki seemed to be catching on quickly, and out of the corner of Tora's eye he saw him nodding.

"So who is a prize to you, Sir?"

Tora closed those electric-golden eyes of his and leaned back in his seat, sighing.

"That's the problem. I'm having trouble deciphering things lately..."

"There is a girl living with your family now, if I recall correctly." The other stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Tora opened one eye and peered at him.

"So?"

"Is she a prize, or is she a gift?"

"Neither." Tora was quick to reply, closing his one eye again.

"How's that?" Maki asked in a curious tone of voice.

"...Both." Tora changed his answer, eyes still closed so that he could focus better on his thoughts.

"Both? I don't understand, are you receiving her as a gift or are you chasing after her as a prize?"

"Neither."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"You seem to be struggling with your thoughts on the matter."

"...So what?"

"So even though you still haven't told me the point to this sudden arranged meeting, I'm beginning to figure it revolves around your thoughts on this particular girl, and how you've been reacting to her. It would seem she's gotten you confused."

"I don't get confused."

"Now let's try to have you be honest with yourself, President."

"..."

"I apologize for my misconception, if I am wrong..."

"No," Tora sighed and opened his eyes to look at the other boy. "You're hardly ever wrong, Kanade."

The black-haired boy smiled.

"I appreciate your high opinion of me."

"As do I appreciate this little talk we've had. Are we anywhere close to that tea parlor that you like? We can discuss the progress of your new shop over a cup."

"It would seem we are, actually."

Tora smiled, a smile that was still very fake, but his eyes showed that he had found a friend in Maki. Though he never used that word- friend.

"Then let's have some tea, Kanade, before the snow starts falling."

School was just ending and with a tired expression Akari picked up her bag and slung it over her head and onto her shoulder. It had been a considerably long day today...

Mainly because dealing with this new Kai fellow was absolutely exhausting her of all her energy. The amount of times she had to slap his hands away? Surpassing thirty. The amount of times he touched her hair, sniffed it, rubbed it between his fingers, commented on it? Well that number was into the hundreds now. And how many times he had made sexual comments about her, she didn't even know.

He was so god-damned annoying and all she wanted was for him to change back into Seiji.

"Bye Aika-san!" She patted her friend on the back but before the other girl could speak Akari was already out of the room and speed-walking down the halls. (She couldn't run because she had seen Misaki yelling at a group of boys about running in the hallways earlier and it had sort of... scared her) Her goal was to get off of school grounds and into the limo that would pick her up before Kai could find her and harass her again, this time without any teachers to tell him to stop.

But no sooner had she thought his name in her mind then she turned the next corner and slammed into a broad-shouldered, green-blue-eyed, personality-disordered young man.

"Dammit Kai!" She through her arms in the air and went all chibi-form on him, slamming her fists here and there dramatically, waving her arms around, her mouth breathing fire as she spoke unintelligible curses at him, all the while with himself in his chibi form making a quiet v_v face.

Suddenly, in the middle of her rant he grabbed both of her arms, and she looked up, surprised out of her rage, to see his face. But all she could see was his mouth, because his hair was covering over and casting a shadow onto the rest of his face, and she watched in open-mouthed fear as a slight, meniacle grin slid across his features.

"It's after school hours, Mana." He said quietly, that smile still there. For a moment, she wished she could see his eyes but knew it'd be far too frightening if she could. But this was also frightening as it was already.

"I- jeez, Seiji, I told you already that that really isn't my name. It's Akari."

That grin widened. She tried to pull her arms out of his grasp but he was just as strong as he looked.

"Sorry, Mana-chan, but you continually call me another boy's name anyway, so I'll call you by the wrong name too." That's when he looked up, just barely enough for her to see his eyes, and his gaze was dangerous and glinted with a certain evil light in them. "To even things out."

"Oh, I did call you Seiji again and I'm sorry. Kai, your name is Kai, I'll definately remember that now WILL YOU LET ME GO?"

No sooner had she told him to leave her be then he did the opposite and dragged her after him into a nearby supply closet. (A/N: Oh dear, and we ALL know what happens in the supply closets... O_O)

"Why are you so nervous around me, Mana-chan? Do you like me?" He asked, pressing her body up against a rack with miscellaneous supply closet items arranged on it.

She made a -_- face, back in chibi form once again, and reached a hand back behind her, throwing a roll of toilet paper at his face.

Her shook his head, his long hair flinging around magically, like a dark prince's. Then he leaned in really close to her, his hips brushing against hers, and held onto both her wrists so that she couldn't throw any more toiletries at him.

"Ya know, your resistance is what makes you all the more appealing. Maybe I should kiss you as a reward?"

"What a masochist, you enjoy when I inflict punishment on you?"

He whispered into her ear, his breath hot.

"I'd enjoy for you to punish me with your body now, not just throw things at me."

"Are you a rapist?"

"Probably."

She sweat dropped, her eyes widening.

O_O;

He winked and grinned like a psychopath.

;)

"HEEELLLLLPPPP! I'M BEING RAPED BY OUR HIGH SCHOOL RAPIST! AAAHHHH!"

After that little outburst he was quick to pull her away from the door which she had proceeded to throw herself against and then he brought her against the rack again, and forcibly kissed her. Not that she was enjoying this, in fact she was probably going to issue a restraining order against him when he got his hands off her, but his lips were INCREDIBLY soft, it was like being kissed by someone with freaking marshmallows for lips.

"Gerroffo me!" She half mumbled into those lips, and then she kicked him in the shin and he momentarily cried out and let her lips free. She struggled but he didn't release her hands, so she wiped her mouth on her shoulder as best she could.

"You sicko! I don't like you like that! We're just friends!" She yelled at him, and struggled even more in his tight hold.

"What the hell are you going on about?! I haven't even met you until today!"

"Yes you have you just don't know... UGH! This Gemini Masochist..." She mumbled to herself, shaking her head angrily.

Suddenly he was smiling down at her red, enraged face.

"I'm so turned on by you."

"I'm so put off with you."

When he bent his head down again, she thought he was going to kiss her once more but he surprised her. Swiftly, deftly, one of his hands reached up and pulled her collar back. His lips found an area on her neck and she half gasped, half shrieked as his lips clamped on, his teeth nipped and pulled at the skin, giving her one hell of a love bite. She knew that her skin was a red and irritated mark where he was attacking her with his mouth without her even having to see it. Half annoyed and half turned on by the gesture, she placed her fists to his shoulders, an attempt to push him off that failed because she couldn't make herself move, and he was holding onto her too tightly to let her anyway.

In the middle of him still sucking at her neck like that, the door swung backwards, opening and letting in the faint light from the hallway.

A tall figure stood there as the two people in the supply closet turned their heads to look, and a pair of glasses gleamed malevolently on the person's features as they stepped forward. When they took that step into the closet, Akari could see them more clearly and she recognized the Kanou boy that sat behind her in her class.

"Kanou-san!" She exclaimed, and then, before either boys could do anything, she turned on Kai as she realized he'd suddenly let her go. And then she slapped his face so hard, he could probably see stars.

"I should have done that to the guy who assaults me at home, too... Felt good..." She mumbled, and she thought it went unheard but Kanou looked at her, the sheen in his glasses still there so she couldn't see his expression, but she could imagine that he was a bit shocked.

No one yet knew about her living conditions with the Igarashi's. And she would keep it that way.

"Oh, nothing, it's nothing, Kanou." She told him, and then she reached up and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him with her out of the supply closet, leaving behind a young man who was whining, his face still smoking slightly from the slap.

"How'd you find us?" She asked the boy she was dragging along with her, pulling him around the corner and up a set of stairs before Kai could come after them.

"Uh... I thought I heard someone yelling..."

They had reached the door to the roof, and she was huffing from the flights of stairs, though he seemed to be perfectly in tact with his breath.

"Well... *huff* thanks for that."

"I didn't really do anything, you did."

She turned around to face him, standing just beside the unopened door. He was so tall, she noticed as she looked up at him, even maybe taller than Igarashi.

"Well I couldn't have done anything without you finding us and distracting him."

His blue eyes were seen behind his glasses now, staring at her neck. He blushed a little bit, and averted his gaze to the side.

"Did he... uh... did he hurt you at all?"

"Just my pride." She laughed, and was surprised when she looked up at him to find him smiling at her. Him, smiling at her? That was new. Normally he avoided her as if one look would poison him.

"You're a strong type of girl... kind of like the President." He stated, his eyes roaming her face. She couldn't quite read the look he was giving her, but he seemed to be calculating something in his head.

"Um. Well I wouldn't say I'm all that much like Misaki, but..." She trailed off, unsure of where this conversation was going.

"Are you really okay?" He suddenly sounded very worried, as if he was second-guessing his earlier statement about her being strong.

"Of course I am. He's just a boy, that Masochistic Gemini..." She grumbled, and Kanou smiled again.

"You sound like the President when she talks about that Usui Takumi. Except they love each other, and you probably hate the guy who sexually harassed you... although, Misaki doesn't hate Usui and he's constantly sexually harassing her..."

"Shh. You're talking too much right now, what's up with that? Forget about whoever I may hate, I thought that you hated me."

The boy shook his head at her.

"Do you wanna sit down?" He asked her, and when she thought about it, and then nodded, they both sat down on the top set of stairs.

"I don't hate you. I just don't like girls." He stated for her, looking at his hands lying in his lap.

"You don't like girls." She sounded redundantly amused.

"To better explain- girls are weak, therefore they get scared away easily, therefore you cannot form a healthy relationship with them, be it an intimate relationship or a friendship."

"Well I think that that's a little unfair of you to assume. What brought this way of thinking on?"

He looked up into her eyes. She noticed, not for the first time- he had shamelessly pretty eyes hiding behind those glasses of his.

"I grew up thinking that. I've slowly come to realize that that isn't the correct way of thinking, but after living my life in fear of hurting women it's stuck with me that I should keep away from them. I try to do better..."

Without thinking Akari suddenly reached over and wrapped him up into a hug, her arms pulling around him in a soft, sincere sort of way.

"I don't know why someone would grow up thinking like that, but you don't have to tell me the experiences that might have been painful for you. Just know that you don't have to be afraid of me and we can be good friends, okay?"

She wasn't entirely sure why she hugged him, but she did know that his words had brought out her rare, affectionate side. A boy who was afraid of hurting girls- that was so sweet... maybe a little pathetic, her forthright side of herself told her, but still sweet.

So she held him like that, in the darkened top of the stairs sitting on the steps there, trying to hold onto him until he hugged her back, or at least said something.

Slowly, and very very carefully, his arms raised on their own accord. When she felt warm hands pressing into her back, long arms encircling her as well, she somehow felt a calm, refreshing peace with things. She blushed when she realized just how he had hugged her- his hands had settled themselves down with extreme care, his arms around her holding her as if she was the most fragile object in the world- it was an interesting, adorably cautious sort of embrace, and they stayed like that until the bell rang, signalling that the after school clubs had now started.

Their goodbyes were short and simple after the sweet hug, and she couldn't help but smile as she turned away from him and left to get in the car and drive home.

When she got there, all she wanted to do was go to her room and take a nap. The day had been rough for her, despite how the end of school had been more on the pleasant side, she was still utterly worn out.

A nap. It was a simple thing to ask for- it truly was. That's all she wanted... but god was cruel and sent the devil her way.

"Dear me, you look..." He didn't finish his sentence, but merely stood across from her in the hallway looking her up and down in disapproving glances.

"Shut up Igarashi."

After that unequivocal statement she tried to push past him, but he simply stopped her by placing one hand elegantly on the wall, leaving her no space to get around him.

"What's that?" Tora asked, leaning in and peering at a mark that was half-hidden behind the collar on her neck. A smirk began to spread across his face when he realized it might be a hickey he'd given to her the night before- except that train of thought left the station as soon as it arrived when he saw the look on her face.

Something wasn't quite right.

"What? Let me go to my room." She avoided his question and his gaze, looking as if she was remembering something. Her face was slowly turning a shade of red as whatever thought she was thinking of traveled through her brain.

"What happened at school today?" He asked, eyes narrowing at her.

"I learned a new equation in my physics class..."

Ah, how cute of her to avoid him. Though she must know by now that nobody could ever avoid Tora Igarashi.

"I'm not talking about what happened in class."

"Then I don't know what else to tell you."

"Akari."

She looked up at him then. His gaze was so serious that it stung, golden and bright. His lips were pressed together and he was just giving her... that look. Yes, he certainly knew the look he was currently giving her. It was the look his father always seemed to be giving him- and he knew it was working on her. It was an unsettling and superlatively stern type of look that could leave a person completely unhinged.

"What is it that you want to know exactly, Tora?" She addressed him with a steady gaze, and that's when he pressed her up against the wall, holding her hands away from herself and pulling down her sweater and the collar of her shirt.

"I want to know what this is, and I also want you to tell me who gave it to you."

She blinked, and when the innocently blank look on her face faded, it gave way to a look of determined protection. Whether the protection was meant for her or the person that did it to her, he didn't quite know.

"I'm entitled to my own privacy, Igara-"

He cut her off with a hand on her mouth. His gaze was still going strong and heavy and completely serious.

"Tell me or I'll find out for myself."

She somehow turned her wrists in his grasp and then she was the one grabbing his wrists in a firm hold. He could have easily gotten out of it and she knew that, that's why she was quick in confronting him.

"Get off already, and keep yourself away from me. I'm not interested in you and I should have never let you take things so far that time... So," She gave him a hard stare, one which he returned with his own mildly shocked features. "I'm going to my room. And you're going to stop bugging me and go read a book or something. I really don't care."

And then he was watching her retreat down the halls, and she disappeared so swiftly he could barely manage a sound of complaint.

He wanted to be infuriated and yet, he smiled. His mind couldn't come up with one good reason as to why he was enjoying their little fight, her little outburst, but he didn't have time to think about it as he pulled out his phone and dialed a number he had dialed earlier that day.

His voice was secretive and hinted at mischievous when he spoke.

"Kanade, I want you to help me win a prize..."

A/N: boobs. haha, you weren't expecting that, were you? My older sister came into my room and yelled that at me and then walked away, so I figured I'd do the same to you guys.

Yes, I do come from a verrrry strange and somewhere along the lines of eccentric, family.

So I wrote this whole chapter with a head ache and my cat going 'Mrrow mrrow?' at me, trying to get me to play with her. Or feed her. Or just acknowledge her- sheesh, cats always have to have the attention on them, don't they? But my cat's thee most adorable thing that you'll ever set your eyes on (besides red pandas- red pandas are fucking AHHHDORABLE- go google them right now!) so it doesn't matter in the end.

I hope that you're enjoying this story, because I'm workin' hard! *holds up determined fist* And I won't stop until my viewers are satisfied!

Btw, have you guessed who Tora's new rival is? Some of you may have thought it was the character of Seiji/Kai that I made up, but, YOU'RE WRONG! It's Kanou! :3 I loved his and Akari's fluff moment, didn't you? Seriously, I know some might not find him all that interesting, but is it not adorable that he's so careful with women? It is. It is adorable. Plus, if he were your boyfriend, he could hypnotize people into giving you their chocolate. :) Yes, NOW you want him... don't you?

Thank you, thank you very much! You guys totally rock, just like Elvis did back in the 20th century. Reviewing/Following/Favoriting me is recommended if you want to be considered some of my favorite people everr!

Bye 'til next chapter~

CK :*