Chapter Twenty-Two. The First Step

Young hands traveled through short blonde hair, mussing the strands to an almost irrefutable point. An annoyed scowl was set on an attractive boy's face as he observed the crowd that was growing steadily in numbers before him.

"Tora."

Knowing all too well that the way his mother just said his name was some sort of warning, Tora uncrossed his arms from over his chest and alighted his face with a charming, beaming, smile.

Behind him, his mother scoffed, reaching down to settle a hand over the messy strands of his hair. "Don't mess up your hair like that. We're at a party- you should make yourself look presentable."

"I am curious," replied the fourteen-year-old, ignoring his mother's words. "as to why I am here with you. I still have work to attend to."

Mrs. Igarashi patted his shoulder a little too harshly. "Do not be inconsiderate. You should be grateful I convinced your father to allow you some pause from your work. You are still young, Tora. Enjoy your youth."

The young boy gritted his teeth. "I do not enjoy socializing unless there is a purpose behind it."

"And there is."

As his mother spoke the words, the crowd seemed to magically part as a tall, impressive looking man stepped through with someone close to Tora's age stepping just beside him. The two looked similar- both were males with somewhat softer, more boyish features, glinting brown eyes, and nutmeg-colored hair. While the young boy lacked sharp angles and an appropriate business stature, his father proudly carried both of those things.

"Who's that?" Tora asked, eyeing the figures approaching them as his voice took on a slightly-interested tone.

His mother, standing behind him, smiled. "The boy's your age. I wish for you two to become good friends."

Tora turned rigid.

"This is for no benefit at all," His mother urged when she saw how he had responded to that. "I simply want you to have a true friend in your life."

"That makes no sense." Tora insisted instantly, acting the part of his father all too well. "What importance is there in a simple friendship that holds no promise for benefit?"

"...This is more important than you know, Tora." Mrs. Igarashi sighed, avoiding her son's intelligent, quizzical gaze.

In that moment, Tora knew. His mother was hiding something from him.

But before he could ask her to reveal the true purpose to this set-up meeting, and if she was really the one who had set it up, two figures were upon them and she gave her brightest smile, ignoring her suspicious son.

"Hello, Mr. Fuirutsu. I hope you have been well."

"Likewise." The man stated in a echoing deep tone that even startled Tora a little. Then, the man turned to Tora and addressed him properly. "Hello, I am Fuirutsu Tatsuo."

"Igarashi Tora." Tora offered back, taken aback when the man, unlike others, did not reach forth for a handshake as greeting.

"And how have you been?"

Everyone's eyes turned to the young teen standing in front of Tora. Mrs. Igarashi smiled and responded with her usual pleasant response, to which he nodded politely. The father stayed quiet and watched on. Meanwhile, Tora studied the other boy with a blank look on his face that gave none of his thoughts away. The boy was Tora's height- which was actually a very impressive feat, since Tora was considered much taller than the normal height of any other teenage boy. He was handsome- like Tora himself- but in a different sort of way. Rather than having unique features that stood out, like Tora's golden eyes, the other young teen had a much more casual look about him... casual, but boyishly good-looking.

As Tora studied his new company, he looked on in the way a challenger might notice his opponent. He counted all the differences.

Where Tora supplied an obvious stance of confident strength, this other boy oozed polite charm.

While Tora had an air of intelligence, the latter held the promise of mischief.

Tora seemed much more pragmatic and thoughtful, while the other young man was acting open and playful.

Both appeared to be very convivial, but Tora was more elaborately so, while the other boy was exuberant.

Tora had a sharp, decorative sort of light about him that made him seem grand and unapproachable, while the other boy was as generic as an open book, which made him both pleasant and accessible.

Tora had social grace, the other boy had social enthusiasm. The first was patient, the latter was eager. One was independent, the other easygoing. One was reserved, the other communicative.

In short, they didn't match up... and yet, they did somehow... it displeased Tora to see someone that could quite possible oppose him because of this fact. He had never met a person who could be so correlative to himself- but yet had a slightly tweaked way about them that made all the difference.

It seemed as though Orochi was a mimesis of Tora's character- and the little differences they had between them, Tora noted, were differences that seemed to point out all of Tora's flaws. What he lacked, this other boy had, and that went both ways between them.

The Fuirutsu boy had everything Tora had, but slight differences in his personality made him more easy to like than the Igarashi heir.

This, annoyed Tora to a very high extent.

"Tora-kun?"

Tora smiled at the other young man, though his eye was withholding a twitch at the casual way he had just been addressed. "Yes?"

"My name is Fuirutsu Orochi- but you can call me Orochi-kun if you want." The boy said, with a pleasant grin that Tora had to admit he lacked. He also lacked the dimples the other boy was showing with that smile.

It was strange. Tora had never lacked anything before.

"As you've taken it upon yourself to call to me so casually, I suppose I'll do the same with you." Tora replied, trying to out-match the other boy with an attractive smile of his own. "Orochi-kun."

If the other teen had noticed the way Tora seemed much less cheery about their acquaintance than he was, he didn't show it. He simply laughed and began to talk more, something about his home, about school, about business (though he only stayed on that particular topic for a very short time), about his family.

Throughout the rest of the conversation, it became apparent that, while Mr. Fuirutsu was a man of very few words, as Tora's mother was finding out as she desperately tried to keep her somewhat awkward conversation with him going, his son was one who was all smiles and laughter. He made jokes and winked often, much to Tora's chagrin, though the blonde played along with the other boy because he had to. After all, his mother had forced him into this.

Like I could be friends with this idiot! He thought sourly. She knows me well enough to know that... what ulterior motive is there to all of this?

Tora couldn't rethink the situation at the moment though. Not when his ear was being talked off by the hindrance standing next to him.

Even fourteen-year-old Tora was patient beyond compare, but there was a point where even he began to loose himself to the other young man's insistent chatter.

"Do you ever stop talking?" Tora suddenly interrupted the other boy, placing a palm to his forehead as he tried to make the world revert to a time where words weren't overflowing inside of his brain.

Orochi had stopped completely, his puppy-dog eyes wide and as brown as ever. In that moment, he looked so innocent that Tora almost wanted to apologize. Almost, though he wasn't that sympathetic a person.

"Ah, jeez, you finally stopped." Tora sighed, moving his hand back to his side. "I thought my brain was about to explode due to the nonsense you've been spouting for the past half an hour."

"But- it's only been around ten minutes." Orochi explained.

Tora locked eyes with the other boy, a scowl set on his youthful face. "See what you've done? You even screwed up the time."

Orochi looked quite offended, if only for a moment, and then he was smiling as cheekily as ever. Tora backed up a step in outright surprise at the other's reaction to his harsh words.

"I-" Orochi started. And then he was cracking up laughing, right in the middle of the large crowd of people.

Tora glanced around himself, reddening around his neck slightly as he felt a tad embarrassed. "Eh?! Stop laughing, people are going to think you're laughing at me!" He spat.

"Well," Another bout of laughter. "I am laughing at you!"

The young Tora was stunned. "WHY." He demanded of the other kid, arms folding across his chest in a stubborn manner.

That's when Orochi's eyes met Tora's with a very different look from before- the look of a serpentine mastermind in disguise, his brown eyes no longer warm but hinting to the blonde of the many dangers he was to be promised.

"Because, it's laughable," The other commented in a harsh tone. "how hard you try to cover up what a weak link you really are."

A pair of golden eyes widened, but Tora didn't get any say in this conversation, even when he opened his mouth to tell off the other boy, he was shut right up with the next words he heard.

"I will break down your defenses." Orochi grinned, those dimples no longer seeming to apply to the boy an air of innocent charm. Now, he had a completely different, darker aura surrounding him. "One. By. One. Until you have absolutely nothing left to protect yourself."

As the boy was turning back to his father, who had wandered to the side a bit, conversing with Tora's mother and now three other people, Tora had the time to snap out of his lapse of silence. He reached forward, gripping the other young teen's shoulder and effectively turning him around to face him again.

Tora sent out a signature smirk, his eyes burning like sunlit embers in a golden fire. His bright look clashed staggeringly with Orochi's own dark, soulful sepia gaze.

"I do love a good challenge," His smirk only grew with his next and final words. "but I'm afraid I can't partake in something so silly as this little idea you have. You see, you don't have anything to use against me. I don't have any weaknesses."

Currently, back outside of the world of dreams and memories, the present-day Tora was sitting to himself alone, confined by his thoughts not for the first time.

After the party at the estate, the young man had seemed to slightly withdraw himself from the world around him, acting rather lackadaisical, and it was showing in his current state. Absent-mindedly he disturbed his bangs in between his fingers, his golden eyes hazy and distant as he became even more so entrapped by his stirring reflections.

"Tora-kun," His mind then showed him that damned kid's face againwith those shining brown eyes and that stupid, dimpled grin that was both evil and good-natured at the same time. "we'll just see about that. Somewhere along the lines, you'll slip up, and I'll be right there to ruin you."

Sighing, Tora stood and shook himself from his memory-bound stupor. Well, it certainly was ruining him- thinking of that dirty deceiving bastard stealing Akari away from him.

It actually... hurt.

Like hell. It hurt to think of them together.

"Shit..." He hushed at himself, heading straight for the coffee table, where his phone lay.

He had finally slipped up. But he'd be damned if he wasn't going to figure out a way to fix it.

Five... six... seven times.

SEVEN TIMES.

If he was restless even after the first try with no answer, Tora was really starting to build up large amounts of worry and stress now- and the worrying was one thing he wasn't used to. Stress- he could usually handle.

Usually.

"I'm starting to think she's doing this on purpose..." He mumbled to himself, turning to stare out the window, where rain was pattering lightly outside.

Without further ado, he made up his mind, grabbed his coat, and dialed for his driver immediately.

It was wrong to say that Akari was shocked when she saw the object of her rapidly growing crush standing just outside her bedroom door, his blonde hair shining with tiny, wet droplets of rain.

It was right to say that she was absolutely and completely one hundred percent down-right astonished.

"Igarashi-" She started.

"Can I come in?"

She looked down at the wet coat he held folded up in his arms. "Don't you want to hang that back in the entry ha-"

Before she could finish, he had rolled his eyes, pushing past her smaller frame and into her room. Akari blinked twice, one of the veins in her head bulging slightly at his usual high-and-mighty, self-superior attitude, and then she shut her bedroom door lightly and turned around to face him. Her blood started to boil when she saw he had already made himself comfortable on her couch, with his dripping coat making a slight puddle on the floor as it hung over a chair, as if carelessly tossed there.

"First time I was greeted by a maid at the door," Tora started to talk while gazing around her room with miniature glances of interest. "Where's your family and that slime your father insists is good service?"

Akari sighed out a long breath. He's in a bad mood.

"Attending a meeting. All of them went together. I'm-" She stopped herself as the realization hit her. She was alone in the house! With Tora!

"All alone?"

Akari carefully sat down on the couch opposite where Tora sat, picking up the tea cup that she had been sipping at before the knock on her door had came that signaled Tora's unexpected visit. She did not like the way his voice lowered with those two words he spoke, but a part of her also became very giddy and anxious by it.

"Yes. I just made myself some tea- do you want some?"

Tora leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he spoke. "I didn't come here for tea, Michiyo-san."

She raised an eyebrow at him, trying with all her will power not to lean in herself, closer, so that she could feel his warm breath on her face. Instead, she strongly withheld and laid back, sipping noiselessly at her tea.

"Why the formality, Mr. Igarashi?"

Tora's eyes flashed brightly in the dim room. (Really, the lighting in this estate was ridiculous!) "Mr. Igarashi is my father, but I suppose I should get used to that title since I will take his place someday."

Akari purposely slumped, her teacup now left empty in her hands. "So why are you here? And why are you calling me Michiyo-san?"

Tora sat back in his seat, crossing his legs and resting an arm on the armrest beside him. His smile was dashing as he replied; "A young man must be formal when he's asking a girl out on a date."

Though most girls would freak out at this statement, Akari had (more or less) grown out of that stage of her crush on Tora. She had moved on (more or less) now from needy, helpless, confused and girlishly outlandish, to a more mature, think-before-you-act type of way. Though the infatuation with him was obviously still inside of her, and so nonetheless, her breath caught in her throat, and she was glad she had finished her tea off, because if she had been taking a sip she might have choked.

The two youth's eyes met, each gaze level and in control, though Tora didn't miss the way Akari straightened her back at his words, and Akari did take notice of the quirk in Tora's mouth, as one corner of his lips lifted in the slightest of sneaky grins.

"Did you not hear me?" He heaved a sigh, standing up and smoothly walking over to her. He bent down, resting one hand on the seat beside her as his head dipped low and his breath tickled her ear. "I'm asking you to go on a date with me, Michiyo-chan."

Akari's face reddened in anger and at the warmth of his body hovering beside hers now. The teasing chan added on the end of that sentence made her cringe and start to act. She shifted, about to push him away, but he had already left her side, walking around her room and over to her bed. She stood up, placing her tea cup back on the coffee table before speaking.

"You came over in the pouring rain to ask me out?" She was blindly looking for a reason, trying to be patient and wait for him to explain himself to her.

"And to talk." Tora walked from her bed to the large window behind it, his hand brushing an ebony drape with his fingers as he gazed outside at the rainy evening. "By the way, it's hardly pouring out there. More like, a light drizzle."

"Forget about the weather," Akari stood, uneasy and confused. Damn, was this a trick? If so, she didn't know quite how to play along. "ask me that again. And this time, I want to see the look in your eyes when you say it."

Tora was slow in turning around, and slow in pacing back over to where she stood. He kept a comfortable distance, to her surprise, and looked right at her with a serious, stunning gaze.

"I want you," He practically purred the words out. "to accompany me on a date."

She stared hard into his eyes, and he stared proudly and unflinchingly back. "To accompany you? Do you mean, what, you just want me to come with you to watch you woo some girl?"

Tora raised an eyebrow. "Have you become stupider since leaving the estate? I mean you will be my date."

"Why?!"

Both of them jumped at her sudden yelp, but she couldn't help but let it escape. She had become incredulous at his serious attitude towards this idea.

"You need a reason?" Tora recovered more quickly than she, and he reached out to brush a stray lock of her hair back behind her ear. Though the gesture was meant to comfort or seem romantic, Akari was growing more and more pissed by the minute.

"Look," She said loudly, then sighed, taking a step back. "Look. I've been acting... well, stupid, like you just said, lately. I can't focus because of you. It's like, ever since we- had sex- I've haven't been myself and, I can't stop thinking about you."

Although Tora was taken aback that she would confess such a thing, he simply nodded. "I often have that effect on women." He smirked.

"Well, I don't like it. And," She suddenly stopped herself. And what? She wasn't going to tell him she had feelings for him, that would make her look all the more ridiculous! Right? "And I think I-" Shut up shut up shut UP! "I think I- that it's made me weak. And I don't like being weak, Igarashi." She frowned at him, waiting for some sort of answer to this. "So yes, I want to know every bit of the reason why you suddenly want to court me so badly, so I actually have a solid answer to proces-"

"Maybe you've been like that all along."

Well she wasn't expecting that. "Excuse me?"

"I think," Tora took a step closer, closing the small distance between them. "that you have been weak since the beginning."

Akari huffed, clearly offended, but he simply kept her there by placing a hand at her waist. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"No." She declared, chin lifted in the defiance he had missed so much.

"Think through it." His other hand took one of hers, and he stared at their conjoined palms as he spoke quietly, slowly. "Perhaps you were born a stubborn, defiant idiot, but you grew up having that taken away from you."

Akari turned her face away, unable to deny nor confirm this.

"You had it suppressed, and you were thrown about by a family who doesn't love you." Tora was stating all this in a flat, but knowledgeable tone. "You couldn't speak for yourself, unless you wanted to be punished harshly for it. You couldn't be you. You became a weaker version of yourself, slowly, as the time passed."

"Oh, and I suppose you know all this because you've been with me all my life? Baaaka!" She tried to get away from him, but he still held her hand tightly in his.

"I didn't catch it right away, it wasn't until recently that I noticed it." Tora stepped closer and made sure she was looking directly up at him. "Your resistance is just a mechanism you put up to save yourself. Your defiance is just an act, it's something you use to protect yourself. And that just shows, how weak you truly are."

Akari opened her mouth to object, to say she was stronger than that, but she herself was stopped by the voice deep within her.

He's right.

"Though," Tora let go of her suddenly, but stayed there in front of her. "I'm the same way, in some sort."

She blanched at his admittance to having some sort of weakness. "Wha-?"

"I've had who I could be suppressed by my family as I grew up. I've become someone I don't know. I'm seemingly perfect," He paused. "but I can have weaknesses that I never would have thought would bother me- but then I met you..."

"So, where is this all going now?" Akari was becoming impatient. This conversation had flown to new, unexpected heights, and it was beginning to make her feel the need for something to steady her- any solid answer from him would do.

"Well," Tora placed his palm on her cheek, lightly, but his eyes held a possessive glint to them as his face neared hers. "since you're the girl who's effected me, and I'm the man you're always thinking about," He smirked as he copied her admitted words to him. "I say we go on a date. That said," He suddenly let go and stepped away from her, grabbing for his coat before walking for the door. "I'll pick you up at six tomorrow. Be ready by then."

She stared at him, with his hand at the door, as he slowly opened it and took a step out. What was she supposed to say now? That was- he was- WHAT?

At the last moment, Tora turned his head, sending her a mysterious look with a very small smile.

"And I know you won't try to back out of it. I think it's time for you to realize now, that you need me just as much as I need you."

And he closed the door with a soft, final, 'click'.

He thought he had handled that well, but needless to say, he had been nervous.

The strange fluttering in his stomach was really beginning to annoy him now, as he sat calmly in his limo, going over in his head about how he wished he would have kissed her before he left.

Also, he really should have spoken to her about her lack of answering the calls she received. Really, it was annoying when he couldn't get a hold of her. Though he did enjoy seeing her in person with no interruptions.

And then, there was the fact that he had told her that he needed her at the end of it all, practically admitting his own weakness aloud.

Tora sighed, heavily and rather dramatically.

At least he'd gotten to the first step of this 'friendly competition' before Orochi had.

Akari lay on her bed, absolutely abashed by what had just taken place.

Tora wanted to take her on a date? Would it be just one date, or would there be more?

And wait, what about his parting words to her?

'you need me just as much as I need you.'

The girl scoffed, rethinking the words and their meaning all over again as she flipped over and placed her face in her pillow.

He needed her? Why did he need her? Did he feel something like she did- something sort of like... love... almost?

No, that can't be it. This is TORA we're talking about. Her mind objected, but her heart was doing little dances inside of her chest.

Also, she couldn't help but recall everything he'd said about her, and know it was true. She knew she really was weaker than she wanted herself to be. She knew she let people push her around- that is, until, for once, she had stepped outside of her family and lived with the Igarashi's. When she was living there, she felt... free. And a more true part of herself came out then. She had been just like her mother then, and she had been happy there because of it, even despite Tora's constant manipulations, she was happier there, she was herself, her true self.

But it had disappeared as soon as she was placed back where she 'belonged'.

She flipped over again, now staring at the ceiling. She didn't want to 'belong' here. Because the memories inside these walls made her weak, they stole her energy... and the people sucked the life out of her as well. Here, she wasn't who she wanted to be. Here, she allowed herself to be settled back into the old, previous habits of being bossed around, hit, yelled at, and attacked in any other way possible. Here, she wasn't free. She wasn't like her mother. And now, as it all dawned on her, she found herself missing that brief time of being able to actually live her life more than anything.

She wanted to be back living with Tora at his estate.

If it was true that he needed her, then she would admit it now. It was also true that she needed him.

A/N: This is kind of a shorter chapter. But, it is the catalyst chapter, we'll be calling it that, okay? The catalyst for Tora and Akari's romantic relationship.

An actual, legitimate one.

All he had to do was start by asking her out. Well it took the guy long enough, and (no surprise) he had to be pushed over the edge by the threat of rivalry in order to do it. But at least it happened now!

"Review me!"

Did you hear that? The chapter wants reviews. ;)

P.S- who wants Akari to move back into the Igarashi estate? Ehh? I DO, I DO!

hmm, wonder what'll happen... I'm getting excited to start typing up some blossoming romance!

CK :*