Otoyan's back~! I'm glad I managed to finish this before school started or I would have never gotten this done. Hopefully, I'll some time to keep working on this story during the school year. If not, then I guess I'll only be able to update once in a while. *sob*

Enjoy!

The Story of Ittoki Otoya IV

Otoya sat restlessly on his seat in the cafeteria, nibbling on the onigiri that his mom had packed for him the night before. Tokiya and Hayato sat on either sides of him, quietly eating their own lunches. The redhead kept glancing around at the other students walking past their lunch table. Tokiya and Hayato had told him that there were two more people in their circle of friends that he hadn't met yet, and that they would usually join the twins during lunchtime. Therefore, the little second grader was apprehensively scanning the room for two people heading towards the table.

Hayato looked up from his food to see Otoya looking around nervously. "Are you scared, Otoya?" he questioned innocently. Tokiya glanced up as well.

"N-No!" Otoya denied vehemently. "I was just wondering what kind of people they are."

Suddenly, there was a loud gasp from behind the three of them. They turned to see a tall boy with golden hair and glasses staring at Otoya with his hands clasped together in front of his chest. Behind him was a much shorter boy with pale blond hair. The shorter one watched the taller one warily while the latter looked at Otoya adoringly.

The second grader met his gaze nervously. "C-Can I help you…?"

Right after he finished speaking, Otoya found himself being slowly crushed by a pair of arms. He gasped and tried to pull away, squeezing the onigiri in his hand so hard that the filling leaked out. "Help," the redhead croaked, struggling to free himself from the suffocating hug.

"You're so cute!" the tall boy squealed, squeezing Otoya even tighter.

"Oi, Natsuki! You're crushing him. Let go before he passes out!" the shorter blond shouted, pulling on the back of the other's shirt while the twins pried Natsuki's arms off Otoya. The redhead sucked in a large breath as soon as the pressure around his chest disappeared, rubbing at his ribs to soothe the ache.

"Are you okay, Otoya?" Tokiya asked, giving the redhead a napkin to wipe away the smooshed onigiri.

"What happened, Ikki?" Ren walked up to the table with his usual lazy smirk. A blue-haired boy was following him, approaching the table rather cautiously. "Did Shinomii get to you?" The fifth grader asked humorously.

"These two are Shinomiya Natsuki and Kurusu Syo," Tokiya explained, gesturing to the two. Natsuki was now hugging Syo, who was wriggling in his grasp while shouting at the taller boy.

"Nice to meet you, Otoya-kun," Natsuki smiled at the redhead as Syo finally slipped from his grasp. "I'm sorry for hugging you so hard, but you were just too cute! Well, Tokiya did say that you would be, but…"

"Shinomiya-san!" Tokiya hissed, shooting the taller male a dangerous look. Hayato snickered quietly as Otoya looked at Tokiya in surprise.

"You told them about me?" The redhead was happy that Tokiya liked him enough to tell other people about him, even though the navy-haired boy always seemed a little reserved.

"Yeah," Tokiya muttered. He glanced at the blue-haired boy, who was still standing uncertainly next to Ren. "Ren, who is this?"

"This is Masato." Ren patted the boy's shoulder. "I met him in the music room a couple of days ago."

Masato briefly bowed his head to them. "Nice to meet you," he murmured softly. Natsuki decided to give him a bear hug as well, startling him and causing Ren to try and convince the golden-haired fifth grader to let go.

Once everyone settled down, the group of seven sat down to finish lunch. As everyone was finishing up their food, Tokiya poked Otoya's arm and asked, "Where's your jacket?"

"Huh?" Otoya looked down at his seat and paled. He had been wearing a red jacket this morning when he came to school. He remembered taking it off for gym class, but he must have left it in the gym since he had been so nervous and excited to meet everyone else. "Ah, I forgot it in the gym!"

Hayato glanced at the clock. "We still have some time before lunch ends, nya. We can go get it."

The group of seven agreed. They packed up and headed for the gym, talking and laughing at Ren teasing Syo. Otoya decided to call Natsuki "Nacchan" and Masato "Masa". The latter didn't particularly care, but Natsuki looked as though he wanted to hug the redhead again. Luckily, Tokiya decided to step between the two.

They finally arrived at the gym, and Otoya pulled the door open, expecting to see his jacket draped on the bench closest to the door. However, there was nothing there. He glanced at the other benches, in case his memory was faulty, but his red jacket was nowhere to be seen.

"Eh? Where did it go?"

"Are you sure you left it here?" Tokiya asked, scanning the room.

"I'm sure!" Otoya said frantically, looking around the gym in case his jacket had been moved. "Maybe the teacher took it?"

The group shuffled to the teacher's office. The teacher apologized and said that she hadn't seen any red jackets after the last class had ended, but she promised that she would keep an eye out for it. Otoya thanked her and the group left.

The redhead sighed disappointedly once the teacher was gone. "If someone else took it, I don't know if I'll ever get it back."

"Can't you get another one?" Ren suggested, "Red jackets are pretty common in clothing stores."

"I don't really want another one," Otoya murmured, "My mom gave that to me before she...left."

There was a brief silence before Natsuki piped up, "Then we'll help you find it, Otoya-kun. We can ask other students to look for it as well."

"That's right!" Syo grinned, "We have some friends outside of this group, so we can ask them to help find it."

A familiar voice suddenly rang out from down the hall. "Oh? Did you lose something, Ittoki?"

The redhead turned to see Eiichi, Nagi, and the black-haired boy walking towards them. Eiichi smirked unpleasantly as he held up a red jacket. "It wouldn't happen to be this jacket, would it?"

"Where…?"

"It was just lying on a bench in the gym," Eiichi cut off Otoya's question, "I was going to put it in the lost and found. Then, I heard that you were looking for a red jacket, and I knew that I had to return it personally."

"What's the catch?" Tokiya asked, his voice cold and hard as he glared at Eiichi.

Nagi picked at a nail boredly, not bothering to look up from his task when he spoke. "Who knows? I guess it depends on our mood."

"You jerks!" Syo lunged forward, but Natsuki grabbed him around the waist and held him back.

"Don't, Syo-chan! You'll just get in trouble."

Nagi sneered. "Better watch it, shorty. You're not cute at all."

Eiichi tossed the jacket behind him, and the black-haired boy caught it. "Kira, it's your call. Do whatever you want with that thing," the brown-haired leader ordered.

The black-haired boy, Kira, looked at the piece of clothing in his hands and glanced up to meet Otoya's gaze. The redhead tried to put on a brave face, but was silently pleading with the other. The two of them held their gazes for a moment, but then Kira turned and walked away, still carrying Otoya's jacket.

Eiichi smiled triumphantly. "You'll get your jacket back soon, Ittoki. Don't worry." With that, he and Nagi followed Kira, leaving the dejected second grader behind.

Natsuki placed a comforting hand on Otoya's shoulder. "It'll be okay, Otoya-kun. We'll find a way to get Kira to return your jacket."

"Yeah, leave it to us!" Syo declared.

With his friends' reassurances, Otoya didn't feel as upset as he would have. However, he did spend the rest of the day worrying about his jacket. Kira had never said or done anything to him before, so he had no idea what the black-haired boy might do. He didn't cross paths with the other either, so he could only hope that one of the others might see Kira and convince him to hand over the sweater.

School ended, and the seven of them met outside. To everyone's disappointment, no one had been able to find Kira, let alone get the jacket back.

"Sorry, Ikki." Ren shrugged apologetically. "I searched the school, but I didn't see him anywhere." Masato hadn't found anything either, so the two of them left, heading for the music room.

"We didn't see him either," Natsuki sighed, "I'm sorry, Otoya-kun. We really wanted to get your jacket back, but Kira hides pretty well."

"We'll keep looking tomorrow. Hopefully, he won't do anything yet," Syo said, trying to cheer Otoya up.

"Thanks for trying, guys. I'm really glad." Otoya smiled slightly and waved goodbye as Natsuki and Syo left. When those two were gone, Otoya's face fell and he sighed, turning to face the Ichinose brothers, who watched him regretfully.

"Well, I guess I'll have to go without the jacket." Otoya shrugged resignedly and turned to leave. Suddenly, a voice called out to him.

"Ittoki Otoya."

Otoya paused and looked around, but nobody except the twins was paying attention to him, and they never called him by his full name.

"Up here."

The redhead looked up and saw Kira leaning out of a window on the second floor. The stoic boy held up Otoya's red jacket questioningly. "Can you catch?"

Otoya blinked. "Eh?"

Kira tossed the jacket to Otoya, who quickly reached out and caught it before it hit the ground. To the redhead's surprise, his jacket was in the same condition as before. Kira hadn't done anything to it.

"Take better care of your things," Kira called down, "And you should stand up to Eiichi and Nagi. It'll help get them off your back." With that, the black-haired boy nodded to them and disappeared.

"Well, you got your jacket back, Otoya!" Hayato grinned.

"Y-Yeah." Otoya clutched the jacket closer and smiled slightly. Hopefully, he would get a chance to thank Kira later. He knew he would be seeing him again in the future.