Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Nowaki: Yay, no arguing.

Chey: Too distracted watching TV.

Nowaki: Are you actually paying more attention to your shows than your stories?

Chey: Pretty much.

Nowaki: That's a bit rude.

Chey: Don't care, I want to watch Dr. Reid talk himself silly.

Nowaki: Ugh.

Chey: Oh, before I forget, some people had some issues with Hiroki being only fifteen. I would like to remind everyone that 14 is the consenting age for minors in Japan and you are a minor until age twenty. Ergo, Nowaki (nineteen) is a minor like Hiroki. It's perfectly legal and better than Miyagi messing around with Shinobu while he was still in high school.

But, this chapter takes place a couple of years later. Nowaki is 21 and Hiroki is 17 so don't whine!

Egoist Act Two Part One

Hiroki knew ever since Nowaki had taken him in that the med student was a bit off, but then he asked that question. "Hiro-san, do you regret going out with me?"

He had no idea what Nowaki had meant by that.

It was this type of thing that made trouble for him. It made him irritated, and was that reasoning that led him to watch Nowaki at his job in a café, in disguise, across from the flower shop where he worked.

He looked at out of the window at the tall man in a bright green apron. He'd found out that Nowaki's florist's job was here after a trip to the bookstore. The twenty-one year old was just going back inside and didn't notice him. Hiroki didn't need to walk by twice, no one else could possibly be that tall.

Since he realized that this type of thing could be chalked up to stalking, he decided that every seventh day he spied on his lover, he would walk by on the pretense of having been at the bookstore. Then they would walk home together. Ergo, IT'S NOT STALKING!

For the record, he didn't spy because he wanted to watch Nowaki work… or because he looked cute in that apron! He was not one of those over zealous lovers who had to know everything about his partner. He refused to be that.

He observed several high school girls approach Nowaki. He glared angrily as if he could scare them away by glowering from across the street. Then he moaned. He was being such a stalker. He didn't want Nowaki to be working so much (especially where girls could flirt with him) because he needed to study. Medical school was hard and though he had high grades, if he started to slip… Well, all Hiroki could do was make sure he studied whenever he got the chance.

As he sipped his coffee, his mind slid back to the question his lover had asked him. He didn't know why Nowaki would even ask. Did he think that Hiroki would willingly stay with him if he regretted or possibly hated it? It annoyed him. If anything, Nowaki was the one who should regret it. He was the one keeping his lover as practically a freeloader in his house while working six jobs on top of medical school. Hiroki's hands shook around his coffee as his thoughts carried into this dark place. He was a high school student focused on passing and keeping his grades on top to keep his scholarship. He didn't have the time to properly love anybody. And all the same, Nowaki just kept putting up with it… with him. He didn't understand at all.

"Hey, your coffee's spilling."

Hiroki jerked and spun to see his best friend clutching a cup of tea. "Akihiko!" he yelped at the equally surprised man. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going for a walk."

"You walked three subway stations?"

"Is that how far I went? Wow, I'm a good walker. Come here, let's sit together." Without hesitation, he grabbed the boy's wrist and dragged him to a booth. He reached into his bag and pulled out a sheath of paper. "This is perfect timing, I need you to read this for me."

"New story?"

"Yeah, I wrote the intro for writing class. My teacher asked me if I would continue the story for extra credit."

"And you're doing it?"

"I'm flunking the class. I'll do it if it means I pass."

Hiroki rolled his eyes and started to read. His face got redder and redder with each page. "Akihiko, is there a flaming character who looks exactly like me?"

"Well, I just found out about this genre of story when I saw a similar book fall out of Sensei's bag. I figured if my intro was similar, she would give me an A. And I was correct. It's fine that I use you as a character right?"

Hiroki's eyes bugged and he stared dumbfounded.

"'Why yes you can,'" Akihiko said in his best imitation of Hiroki's voice. In his normal voice, he went on, "Why, thank you. You've always been such a good friend." He took the manuscript back and stuffed it away before his best friend could destroy it.

"Stop it. This is slander."

"I'll give you a copy when it's complete."

"I don't care about that!" he snarled.

Akihiko turned away. Hiroki roughly grasped his shoulders, as if physically trying to stop him from turning it in to his teacher.

And came face to face with Nowaki. His eyes widened as he realized what it looked like. He was meeting with the man he used to be in love with and, to top it off, he was completely in disguise. It looked like he was cheating. He could have died.

So he fell behind his bravado shield. "Ah, what a coincidence. I forgot that you said that you worked around here. He glanced around for support and found that Akihiko had pulled a disappearing act. "Ugh, where'd he go?" He looked hastily back at Nowaki and said, "I've gotta go. I have to take care of something." I have to get out of that gay story he wrote. How could a teacher possibly even like crap like that? He turned tale and ran out the door yelling, "I'll see you at home!"

…

Hiroki sat at home by the telephone looking irritated. He'd waited until Nowaki had finished his shift to call, but Nowaki hadn't picked up. On top of that, he'd been unable to catch up to Akihiko and had decided against going all the way to Akihiko's place. It was too far from here and too close to his parents' home.

Now all he could do was go home and wait for Nowaki to call or join him there. He sighed and stared out into space as Nowaki's question came into his mind yet again. Nowaki's knowledge of his and Akihiko's past made him nervous. He wondered if Nowaki was irritated by that past. He was fairly certain that Nowaki detested Akihiko. Nowaki wasn't capable of hating someone but was it possible that he was worried that his lover was cheating on him?

When he was a kid and still in love with his best friend, he thought that being able to live with a person he loved would be absolute bliss. But it wasn't. It was hard and it made him worry over everything. If anything, it was harder than not living together. It was nearing on impossible. He was so confused.

He sighed heavily. Why did Nowaki think he had regrets? Hiroki wouldn't let anyone he didn't love touch him. Two years together should have proved that. He hadn't put it into words, but Nowaki should have figured that out. Right?

He sagged. Nowaki did know that, right?

The door opened. "I'm home," Nowaki called, stepping inside.

"Welcome back," Hiroki replied, feeling very awkward.

Nowaki stood silent.

"Uh, here!" he jerked out his arm stiffly, "I got some pork buns. You want some?" Nowaki nodded and stepped past him and went to the table to wait.

Hiroki tossed them all into the microwave and stared at it while the awkward silence dragged on. Unable to stand it anymore, he broke it. "Um, listen, about today at the café… I didn't know Akihiko was coming there. And all he wanted was for me to read a story he wrote for extra credit at school cuz he's flunking." He wondered why he was explaining himself. He hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't, honestly.

"Do you two meet up often?"

"Not really, I mean, we're childhood friends and we go to school together, but that's pretty normal."

"Hiro-san, are you unhappy with me?"

Hiroki looked perplexed. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying: am I just a replacement for Usami-san?"

To be continued…

Chey: Okay, I wrote an extra long chapter because I'm nice like that so you all should be nice too and write lots of reviews!

Hiroki: There she goes, plugging for reviews again.

Chey: I should. I'm updating all of my stories every two weeks. That's a major accomplishment for me thank you very much.

Hiroki: Yeah, whatever.

Thanks for reading:)

~CheyanneChika