A/N: The following is an excerpt from a play I WISH I owned, but alas, (DISCLAIMER) I do not own Shakespeare's play Othello. I also (2nd DISCLAIMER) do not own Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Iago: "Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss

Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,

But, oh, what damnèd minutes tells he o'er

Who dotes, yet doubts— suspects, yet soundly loves!"

Othello: "Oh, misery!"

-Interpretation-

Iago: "Beware of jealousy, my lord! It's a green-eyed monster that makes fun of the victims it devours. The man who knows his wife is cheating on him is happy, because at least he isn't friends with the man she's sleeping with. But think of the unhappiness of a man who worships his wife, yet doubts her faithfulness. He suspects her, but still loves her."

Othello: "Oh, what misery!"

I picture Iago talking to Othello, as Maki talking to Tora. It fits, huh?

Chapter Eleven. The Green-Eyed Monster's Four Eyed Rival

Well Akari wasn't talking to him. In fact, she was making a clear point in avoiding him.

Let the record show that this had never before happened to Tora Igarashi. Woman don't avoid him, if anything, they flock to him like moths to a golden flame.

And the fact that this one girl in particular was very fixedly shunning him, both made him more attracted to her, and pissed him off as well.

The only glimpse he had caught of her in the past few days had been Monday night, when she had come home from school and they had just so happened to pass each other in the hallway- though he had only been able to eye the many marks still portrayed on her neck before she bolted, the last he ever saw of her being her swinging ponytail as she rounded the next corner.

Now, when he saw those marks on her skin again, he had seen red (both literally- the love bites had indeed taken on a shade of light red- and also in the figurative sense). Old feelings had started to strike out at him again, the feelings he used to feel whenever he would see Usui paired together with Misaki. Anger, a strong sense of possessiveness, irritation.

Envy.

Tora shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts and emotions. Work. He had to focus on his work.

But suddenly, a knock on the large double doors just ahead of him met his ears, and as soon as Tora said for whomever it was to come in, a boy with long black hair and slanted eyes walked into Tora's student council office. Kanade.

"Maki." Tora said, a little surprised but not showing it. Instead, he stretched back in his leather seat and crossed one long leg over the other, the folds of his white uniform flashing in the fading sunlight coming from the window behind his desk.

The other young man bowed, and when he rose up his smile disappeared. He knew something Tora didn't and he knew that Tora wouldn't like it- this, Tora could see all over his face. His golden eyes narrowed but he did not frown, or show any emotion. He simply sat back and waited for the information to spill.

"President, I'm afraid I have some unpleasant news." The Vice President said, standing still as a statue, his voice polite and light despite the bad news he had swarming in his head.

"Alright, tell me." Tora said, staring expectantly at the other young man.

He watched Kanade take a deep breath.

"Well, I would guess that you are still interested in that- prize- of yours?"

"You can't call it mine quite yet, since I haven't won her over. But yes, I'm still deeply interested. Actually," Tora smirked as he stared to the side a little bit, his gaze leaving the other boy's. "even more so recently..."

"Well, I've done some researching like you asked. Though, you already know about her family situation, correct?"

"What, with her mother dead and her father being... the way that he is?" Tora asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, so you are aware. But, I have some new information from my team that you might want to look into."

"What is it?"

"There are other young men involved."

Tora remained stoic with a passive, uninterested look on his face. However, his hands that had been resting along with his arms on the arm rests of his chair, suddenly clenched, gripping at the fabric and whitening his knuckles.

"I see."

"Should I, tell you more?"

"Go ahead."

"Well, apparently there were a few suitors in the past, but that's not what you should have to be concerned with anymore."

"Get on with the point."

"Recent information shows that she's been casually seeing other young men in your absence."

Tora snorted derisively. It was just past the middle of the week now, Thursday, and she hadn't talked to him since Saturday when he had had her confined to her room. How many young men could a woman seduce in that much time? Especially when all she did was attend school.

"Casually?" Was all Tora said, quirking a brow and examining the far clock on the wall. It was getting later into the evening, Akari's school was probably out, even the after school clubs, by now, as his was. Tora had stayed afterwards for a long while in his office in order to catch up on his work. The clock read 5:00 exactly.

"Yes, as in, merely engaging in simple activities with them. Sometimes with another girl there as well."

"Who knows if it's as casual as you suggest? They could very well be double dates."

"...I suppose so. Might I ask, is this bothering you at all?"

Tora flashed a haughty, obstinate look at Maki.

"Do you want me to be bothered by it?"

"Of course not. I was just expecting some sort of reaction from you."

Tora suddenly stood from his chair, and walked around the desk, clasping his hands behind his back as he walked about the large room, pondering to himself silently. Maki stayed still where he was, but his head turned to watch Tora with a perplexed look.

"If," Tora started, his hand reaching up as he stopped walking and stood still in front of a small picture nailed into the wall at eye level. The hand reaching up glanced across the surface of the picture- a picture of a girl dressed up in elegant attire, her cinnamon-colored hair pulled into complicated style of braids and curls, her silver eyes flashing kindly into the camera with a hidden look of uneasiness behind them, the look of an animal trapped in a cage. Trapped in a place that she secretly didn't want to be. As his fingertips flew across the face in the picture, he continued to talk. "If, she is interested in someone else, then we'll just have to get him out of the way."

As he stared at the picture and Maki remained silent behind him, Tora thought back to when the picture pinned into the wall used to be one of Misaki in her maid latte outfit, instead of one of Akari in her elegant attire. Again, how had he gotten over one girl and started chasing after the next so easily? Was it the defeat in realizing he simply had lost completely to the Walker Prince, or was it that Akari, like everyone else she affected with her charm, made Tora feel real for once?

"Thanks." Akari said, grabbing the hot beverage out of Kanou's hands as he handed it to her.

School had been absolutely boring today. Nothing interesting had happened, classes were surprisingly quiet, as Aika was absent and Seiji was, once again, back to being Seiji (THANK GOD). So she hadn't had a melodramatic girlfriend to talk to, and she hadn't had an overly-perverted Kai to chase her around. Though the thought was pleasant, the complete boring-ness that resulted from the lack of drama had really gotten to Akari. Hanging out with the real Seiji for once seemed to be the only plus to it, but he had after school clubs to attend, so she'd expected to go home and be even more bored than before.

Kanou had somehow noticed it, her unpleasant aura had probably given it away, and he had politely offered that they take a nice walk to the park nearby their school together, which then resulted in him buying her some hot chocolate from the shop across the street. Even though it was cold outside, it was bearable weather, with no freezing ice winds and no snow falling from the sky. In fact, the sun was beating down on them in a comfortable way, and the fallen snow was melting slightly as a side effect of the heat.

"Hmm." Kanou responded, and took a seat beside her on a separate swing.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Akari asked, taking a sip of the burning drink. This resulted in Kanou warning her too late and her burning the tip of her tongue.

"Um, you can really talk about whatever you want. I'll just listen."

"No, I was taught better than that. How about- tell me about your life."

"My, life? There's not much to really say..."

"Your past? Your family?"

Kanou went thoughtfully silent for a moment. The sunlight glinted off of his glasses, creating a sheen so that she couldn't quite see his eyes anymore.

"I..."

"How about, I'll start. But you have to agree to tell me some things about yourself when I finish."

Kanou nodded, and then, for a moment before she started to talk, he looked as if he wanted to say something.

"Just so you know, I already know about you... living with the Igarashis."

She stared at him, and he took a sip of his own hot chocolate as she did so.

"Er, how?"

"Not to sound creepy, but I'm pretty observant."

"I'm not creeped out, just surprised is all."

"Oh. Good."

"Well, is that all you know?"

He gave her a look, and a nod. Then he took another sip of his beverage. She wondered how he wasn't burning his tongue like she did.

"Well, I come from a wealthy family. I guess I'll just tell you about my family? My mother's- dead... And uh, I'm not an only child, but I kind of count myself as one."

"How many siblings do you have?"

"Oh, just, one. An older brother. Well, technically, he's my half-sibling. He's only related to me through my father."

"Just your father?"

"My uh- my father was a good man. He never had an affair, in fact, he was very loyal to my mother when she was alive- his favorite person was her, and only her. I'm not all that important to him. Anyway, he found out he had another kid before he married my mother. The mother of that kid died, and so, when my father found out he kind of took him into our family. My half brother was always so much better at being rich and elegant than I was... he warmed up to it fast."

"How old is he?"

"Oh, Hayate is... twenty now. Not much older than me."

"And so, you said you don't really get along with him?"

Akari looked down at the ground sadly, and shivered, but not because of the cold, no, not at all. It was for an entirely different reason.

"Another thing," Kanou said, and she was glad that he was bypassing the other question. "You said your father was a good man. But, he's not dead."

"Wow, once you get into a conversation with someone, you really don't stop do you?" Akari mumbled to herself, taking a sip of her drink and then drawing back when she burned her tongue again. Dammit that hurt!

"My father was a good man. He is still alive. All I'm saying is, he's turned out to, not really be a good man anymore." She pulled her scarf down and scratched at her neck nervously, and then pulled back sharply when she realized how sensitive to the touch it was still. Kanou took notice as well.

"What happened... to your neck?"

"Take a lucky guess." She grumbled, pulling her scarf back up to conceal all the marks.

"Oh. That's... hmf." He almost sounded angry, but instead he seemed to settle for uncomfortable and swung his seat a little away from hers.

"I'm not that easy to hurt, you know. I've put up with worse things than being sexually taunted. I'm stronger than I appear!" She said, her tone growing in it's urgency for him to understand.

"Worse?" Kanou looked horrified.

"You know, I've said some stuff. Now it's your turn. Why are you so scared of girls?"

"I don't want to hurt them."

"How can you live in fear of hurting them, how did that even start?"

"My father's an ex-pro wrestler." He said out of the blue.

"...Um, alright."

"When I was little, he beat my mother."

Akari opened her mouth in silent shock. She was unsure of where to go from here, after she'd pushed him towards talking about it.

Kanou sighed.

"When I was four she left us, me and my father. She was sick of him treating her like that. But I was too little to really understand. My father told me, he said, that nobody can be around women, because they're so fragile that you have to keep away. That's why... I've always kept my distance, and I've always been afraid, because I thought that if my dad could break my mother, then I could just as easily break any other girl. I was taught they're fragile... so fragile it's unsettling, and that it's dangerous to interact with them."

He stopped, taking a sip from his steaming cup. Apparently, he was done after that, because he said nothing more and the park was slowly filled with the silence of the fading afternoon.

"Sorry I asked you to say all that."

"You didn't ask me to say all of that. I just told you. You only asked for one simple answer, I gave you the whole back story. I guess, I should be sorry."

"No, if you want, we can equal it out. I'll tell you about my past, too."

He glanced at her, the sheen in his glasses disappearing as the sun dipped at a lower angle in the sky. His large eyes were open and ready to receive her words, so she began.

"My father was emotionally abusive to me. My half brother was... physically, abusive towards me."

Kanou said nothing.

"I didn't like it when my father's company started up, and we suddenly became very rich. That happened when I was around ten years old. After we first moved into our mansion and I started having elegance and rules shoved down my throat, I became very... er, stiff. I greeted our guests too harshly and started giving my father a hard time. He would yell at me so much that I was often surprised he never once lost his voice. Both he and I knew my mother would never stand for that, and that she would leave him if she found out how he treated me, so when I was twelve and my half-brother first moved in and became apart of our family, my father, after yelling at me, would have Hayate threaten me, so that I wouldn't tell my mother what was going on."

Akari took a deep breath as images of herself at twelve years old, and Hayate at fifteen, began to flood her mind. Old memories of her defiant nature causing her to snap back at him when he warned her about telling her mother, and then him smacking her across the face. He only hit her when she was stubborn and resistant, which was, well, most of the time. For a moment, Akari felt she may pass out, but then realized Kanou was watching her and that would probably freak him out, so she got a grip and continued.

"Anyway, that continued for years. At some point, my mother, though oblivious to how I was being treated behind the scenes, got sick of the rules and the fame and the fortune. She had always been a hard-working, earnest woman who wasn't very materialistic like my father had become. She would always teach me that I could chose between staying in the family, when I was older, or leaving and becoming simple and ordinary again. She said if she were me, she would chose the latter. Though she could never leave my father, she loved him so much despite his new-found greediness, so she and I stayed with him. I gradually started controlling my behavior, so that I wouldn't be yelled at and hit, but when I started to behave a little too well, by that time I was fifteen, just a couple years ago, and Hayate had grown into a strong, unpleasant young man. He was eighteen, known as a fine bachelor, though he's honestly not all that attractive, he knows how to be charming. But when I started to outshine him, as he put it, he started to beat me up just for doing what I was supposed to, smiling, waving, posing for pictures in fancy outfits, all the like. So I'd get screamed at and beat up for defying them, and beat up for listening to them."

"Akari, you can stop now-"

"And then my mother died."

"Akari-san..."

"That was I think a few months ago now... it seems like it's been longer."

"You really don't have to-"

"Anyway," She suddenly perked up, smiling at Kanou the best she could. "On a lighter note, I'm happy right now in this moment and that's all that matters."

Kanou was silent for a little bit. She thought she might have been too lost in her memories and taken it too far, but then he stared at her and gave her a small smile as well.

"I'm glad you're okay now."

Akari felt unnecessary heat rush to her cheeks, and then she looked away and took a sip of her drink. For once, she didn't burn herself as she swallowed it with a delicious slurp.

"Enough of this seriousness," She said, standing from the swing as Kanou stared at her, his long legs spread out far in front of him as he rocked slowly back an forth. She stretched and watched him out of the corner of his eye as he spoke.

"I'm amazed by your grit. You're unlike any girl I've ever encountered..." Kanou looked down at his feet dug into the wet wood chips, kicking aside some of the frozen ones with a shoe. "You've been through so much..."

Suddenly, he was sent backwards, falling into a snowbank that was just behind his swing. He collapsed into the soft powder with a surprised grunt as his glasses slipped off, his half-drunk beverage spilling out over the wood chips as he dropped the cup.

"You're so serious. And you aren't very care free- it's like you think over your words too much, calculating them like a math problem, before you say anything."

Akari stood just beside his swing, and then she noticed his glasses that had slipped into the snow and reached for them right as he did. Their hands brushed, and she looked at him closely for a moment. As if afraid, he pulled his hand away and sat up abruptly, shaking out his damp hair and gently taking his glasses from her and putting them back on. After that he just sat there, staring up at her, almost curiously.

"Still afraid of me?" Akari asked, smirking slightly at his reactions.

And then Kanou started chuckling. His laughter started to increase, dark and somehow still serious, though it sounded happy enough. He threw back his head, his eyes squinted shut, and just had a small moment to laugh, wiping at his bangs and shaking his head, smiling softly to himself.

"You know, you don't scare me at all." He said, standing up and suddenly towering over her.

Akari took a split second of a moment to realize just what type of build he had. He was tall and he was muscular. Not overly muscular, but not exactly completely lean. Well, now she knew that he was the son of an ex-pro wrestler though. So maybe it was just the genetics from his father. But he made her feel very small, standing before her like that.

Suddenly, he became shy again, and looked away for a moment. Then he looked back down at her and barely, just barely, held out his arms. He inched closer and she wasn't sure what he wanted until her face was in his jacket and he was holding her close, but not too close, like some sort of test hug.

"You didn't have to push me off of my swing to prove something." He said pointedly. She shoved him a little, and he pulled back from the slight embrace to look down at her again.

"I was trying to get you to loosen up a bit. And anyway, we were talking about some serious things."

"Did it make you feel uncomfortable?"

"...Of course it did. But I wanted to say something. It's good to tell someone."

"Yeah, I guess so." He said, looking up at the sky and nodding his head in agreement.

"Akari."

Both she and Kanou jumped a little bit, though Kanou didn't really act surprised by the third voice that joined them. As Akari turned her head, just a few feet in front of her, she saw Tora standing with his hands in his coat pockets and his eyes sharply glinting in the fading afternoon light.

As Tora stared watching the two interact, he suddenly remembered what it all felt like.

It was just like watching Misaki with Usui.

First, Tora was getting involved for the reactions from the girl, maybe for the rivalry as well. Then, he became fairly interested with the girl, and just wanted to see if it would be easy to win her over like he could with all other women. The whole time, of course, he had wanted to have sex with said girl. It was all just for fun- fun and games, because he got bored too easily, he needed something different, some excitement.

And then something had gone and changed, Misaki had chose differently, she didn't want his money or himself. She wanted to stay at Seika with her precious prince and her simple friends. And then after that, Usui had left the country, and Misaki had come to him, Tora, for help. And he shouldn't have helped her, but he did anyway. And he taught her how to act properly, he laughed at her, he danced with her, he fell for her. He even confessed to her while they were in Europe. And of course, she chose the Walker boy over him. Then set in the slight pain and confusion, the puzzlement at what he was feeling, the resentment towards Takumi... and he wanted to make the other boy feel the same. So he had kissed her, in front of him, and finally got to see that resentful face of the other blonde's... though even after that, it wasn't enough. He felt restless, he couldn't be satisfied with just any woman...

And it was all coming back to him now, in this moment, as he watched the taller boy embrace Akari, watched them pull apart, speaking comfortably with each other.

What was this returning feeling?

"Akari."

The two in front of him jolted, though the boy looked unusually calm and stayed very quiet. He was strangely observant as he watched Akari's reaction to Tora's sudden presence.

"What... the... why are you here?" The girl demanded, her face scrunching up in dissatisfaction.

Tora could have laughed right then, and he wanted to. He wanted to just laugh at her childish, girlish face. How could a girl act so tough and be so, well, for lack of a better word, cute.

"I'm picking you up. Your driver told me you'd be here."

"Well I don't want to be picked up by you. Go get my driver for me."

Tora scoffed.

"Now, that's hardly fair. I came all this way, and I was busy with work, too."

Tora thought back to what he had done back at the school and felt a sudden pang of guilt. He had been discussing matters about Akari with Maki, and he had lost his temper...

"Instead of going to the trouble of getting other men out of the way, why not forget her?"

Tora's hand stopped stroking the picture on the wall. He seemed to be frozen for a moment, and then slowly, his hand fell down and rested at his side. His back was still turned to Maki, so the Vice President couldn't see the dark look that shadowed Tora's face.

"Forget her?" The blonde said, his tone lost of all meaning.

"Yes. From an outsider's point of view, I'd say these things tend to tear at you a little. You're losing your focus again, just like you did while pursuing that maid. You can't do your work properly, and you're never happy anymore."

"Perhaps I was never quite happy to begin with, Kanade."

Maki made a surprised noise, his eyebrows lifting as Tora turned around and faced him. Tora stood up tall, his shoulders squared and stiff, and his face raised to level with the other boy's. It was a face so serious, anyone would have run away. But Maki stayed where he was, as all he was trying to to was help his President and wanted to snap the sense back into him- even if it meant facing his an Igarashi's wrath.

"I'm never satisfied." Tora continued, standing as still as the four walls around them. "I can never be satisfied, because I don't fully know what satisfaction is. I'm the most eligible bachelor in the country, and I'm unsatisfied. What does that tell you?"

"That you... are missing something, President?"

"I have endless access to money, woman flanking me right and left, a big expensive home and all the elegant, beautiful things I could want. How could I possibly be missing something?"

"I'm unsure of what it could be, myself."

"Well then you're just like everyone else." Tora snapped suddenly.

Maki lowered his head slightly. He didn't want to push Tora over the edge, but it would seem he had stepped out of line.

"Nobody understands-" Tora turned around, unable to face the other boy anymore. How many disappointed faces had he seen? People afraid of him, intimidated, put down by his actions and his words. He didn't want to see it.

"I apologize for my misunderstanding of everything, but all I wanted to tell you is that a simple girl isn't worth-"

Kanade was cut off when Tora slammed his fist into the wall next to him, hard, making almost the entire room shake from the force.

"Get out."

"You can't expect me to go with you!"

Tora shook his head, coming back to reality. He stared at the girl standing across from him for a moment, and then, realizing her words, shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

"You need to. It's getting late."

"Akari, maybe you should just go home."

Tora looked up at the other boy, but he was looking down at Akari. Was this one of the boys Maki had been talking about? Tora had pictured the multi-personality blonde, not... whoever this was supposed to be.

"I- he..." Akari looked down at her feet, and then suddenly she looked back up and marched past Tora. "Hmf."

It was an unexpected move that no one was prepared for, but then again, Tora had to remind himself that this was Akari. He stood still for a moment, turning slightly to watch her stalking quickly towards the limo settled at the street, and then there was an uncomfortable clearing of someone's voice, and he turned back to eye the boy still standing in front of him.

"Uh, so..."

Tora sneered at the boy.

"I would stay and introduce myself, but I have to escort a lady back to my home." He said, sizing up the boy in front of him, with a competitive look in his eye.

The other boy stayed silent, just blinking at him behind his glasses. Tora, completely uninterested in the fool, turned on his heel and headed back to the limo himself, his long legs getting himself to the door to open it right as Akari was reaching for the handle.

"Hey-"

"I was brought up as a gentleman and as lady you have no write to refuse my gestures." He said stiffly.

Akari shot him a resistant look, but got into the car as he opened the door for her anyway.

Tora smiled in his head, but it didn't quite reach his face as he sat down, once again, across from her in the nice leather seats. She turned her head away, avoiding his gaze. A cup sat in her hands, hot air rising from it and making the car smell like chocolate and sugar.

"I'm still furious with you."

Tora stared from the cup to her face, watching as she met his eyes. He almost wanted to reach forward and force her into a kiss, (though that would, at the time, just make her hate him more) her cheeks were flushed pink, her hair lightly cupping her face, and her silver eyes were shiny and bright, the pupils slightly enlarged, probably from the dim atmosphere in the car and the sugar she's been drinking. She was giving him a defiant look, but that was one of the best ways she could stare at him.

"I'm well aware."

"Well, do something already so I can forgive you!"

Her eyes were looking at him with only accusation, and yet, just behind that, he could swear he could see something else.

"I've already tried to apologize-"

"Really. Sending flowers to my room is not the same as an apology."

Tora thought back to yesterday, Wednesday, when he had finally gotten too sick of her attitude, and sent her a polite gesture with a card and some roses. Now that he really thought about it, most women would be pleasantly surprised, even Misaki would, as she didn't receive things so elegant because she didn't come from a rich family. But Akari lived part of her life being rich, and she's probably accepted too many bouquets to count. It was only obvious she'd be unimpressed.

"You really want me to swallow my pride and say something so stripping of power?"

Her gaze was steady and it didn't let him look away. She didn't say a word, as the answer was all too obvious. Tora sighed to himself, rolling his eyes, and then his golden eyes found her silver ones again. He gave her a steady look.

"Akari. I apologize wholeheartedly for my unpleasant and ungentlemanly behavior. Please accept my apology, as I wasn't in my right mind to have unsettled such a beautiful young woman."

Her gaze didn't lighten, and then he was promptly taken aback when she glared, and sharply looked away from him, as if disgusted.

"What?!"

"That's an overused line if I've ever heard one! Do you think I'm some sort of idiot? That may work on most other women, but only a fool would try that memorized apology on someone like me."

Tora was just about ready to jump out of the car. The nerve of this girl! What was her problem, couldn't she just accept an apology and forget about what he did? It's not like it was all that hard to do!

"Act more like a woman. You're acting like a child." He said, leaning back in his seat and crossing one leg over the other.

"Take a look at yourself!" She said, eyeing how he folded his arms and turned his face away, almost in a pout.

"Grr... alright!" Tora sat up, catching her attention when he grabbed her free hand in both of his, and scooted forward on his seat so that he was looking closely straight into her eyes.

"N-nani?!"

"I'm sorry," He started, staring deeply into her eyes with the sincerest look he could muster. Suddenly, an image flew into his mind of her helping him on the night his mother collapsed, her reassuring him, holding his hand. Another image, of her face when he had danced around with her, and just before that, when she had cared enough to wrap up the cut on his hand for him. He wanted to see that face again, not her angry at him or resentful of him like she was now.

"Are- are you actually-"

"I'm sorry, Akari." Tora said firmly, though his tone held some sort of softness to it as he remembered what she had done for him, the kind acts that she never had to do. "I know I've upset you. I know I shouldn't have just taken charge and locked you in your room like I did. Now that I think of it, I'm..." He looked away suddenly, trying to swallow his pride. "Ashamed."

That was all she got from him. Letting go of her hand and pulling back just as quickly, he leaned back in his seat and looked out the window, his mouth set in a firm line as he tried to put a bored, uninterested look in his eyes in order to save some of his ego from it's downfall after that type of apology. His tongue felt strange, like the words he had said were so foreign that they had burned him.

"Igarashi..."

He just stared out the window, determined to stay like that for the rest of the ride. Whenever he did choose to act humane, he preferred that people didn't realize it. Just like when he had offered Kanade a place to put his butler cafe.

"Tora."

Tora made a slightly surprised noise, his eyes widening and his mouth opening slightly as he felt something cold brush against him. He turned his face back to the girl sitting in front of him, and noticed that she was looking down, her hand touching his knee as she leaned forward slightly. She caught his eye as she slowly turned her head up to look at him, and he saw her smiling- just barely- but it was still a smile.

"I accept your apology."

There was that face. That soft, caring look. Tora felt blood rush up his neck and around his ears as they locked eyes for that moment, his eyes wide and shocked, and hers accepting and bright as her smile widened a little.

He was quick to look away sharply, jerking his knee away and crossing his legs again, getting rid of her touch. His face still pinkening slightly, he stared hard back out the window, trying to ignore the way she shook her head and leaned back in her own seat.

After awhile of silence, he glanced back at her. Her scarf had slipped down a little bit, and again he caught sight of those fading marks on her skin. Blood rushed to his face again, but this time it was for a whole different reason. He grit his teeth and an image of the blonde attacking her in front of his mansion came to mind. Then an image of her with that glasses boy popped into his head right after that, and he clenched his fists, his grip tightening on the fabric of his shirt sleeves.

What was this feeling?

Oh, and it felt like misery.

A/N: I love my viewers~ if you reviewed my story I'd SUPER love you though!

warning: lemon chapter coming up!

or not...

TEASE! ;D

CK :*