Disclaimer: *Sleepy*

Nowaki: …

Hiroki: That's just pathetic.

Chey: What? I'm doing research for a big paper and this is getting worked on during my break. Quit your damn whining.

Hiroki: I won't.

Chey: God damn it, fine. I do not own Junjou Romantica!

Hiroki: There you go.

Chey: Bastard, just go back to being an isolationist-y brat.

Egoist Act Four, Part Two

At school, Hiroki was a total wreck. He couldn't focus, couldn't work, couldn't find anything that Takatsuki Kyouji was supposed to leave out for him. When the professor asked for copies of a paper that he had been looking for, for the past fifteen minutes, he finally snapped. "Can't you keep anything organized in this place?" he yelled.

Takatsuki merely raised an eyebrow under Hiroki's furious glower. Then he turned back to his work. "I'm a teacher. You're my assistant. Keeping track of things is your job."

Hiroki had to try very hard to resist strangling the man who was only an inch shorter than himself. He gritted his teeth and turned back, prepared to tear the office apart in search of that damned paper. "What the hell are you doing anyway? I mean, since you're not helping me."

"My little sister recently came home culinary school in France. She's planning to work as a teacher in a culinary school once the details of her arranged marriage are settled and she needs a guinea pig to practice her teaching skills on, so I'm researching basic cooking techniques so she doesn't cry when it turns out she can't teach."

Hiroki raised an eyebrow now. "A bit pessimistic, no?"

"Well, her fiancé apparently wants nothing to do with it, so I'm doing it."

"Oh."

"Anyway, did you find that paper yet?"

"Of course not. You're the one who hid it."

"I find that unlikely." The utter blasé of Takatsuki's words only incensed Hiroki further.

"Of course it was you!" he snapped, throwing papers off of shelves in his search, too irritated to remember that he would just have to pick them all up again later.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Shinobu asked finally, his annoyance at all the noise finally getting to him. "Did something happen?"

"No."

"Well, that's a pathetic lie. Does it have to do with the person who wrote that lame note that I found on the floor?"

Hiroki flinched and tried uselessly to find the stupid paper.

"So that's it. Look, you friend or whatever sounds like a bad communicator. So either make him explain himself better or get out. I mean honestly, what type of Professor has a student with more wrinkles than him?"

"What?" Hiroki growled, spinning around. Only to have the shorter man stab him in the forehead. "Wrinkles."

Hiroki jerked backward. "I'm going to the bathroom." Then he stormed out.

Shinobu returned to his desk and pulled out a drawer to grab a pen. The first paper in the drawer was the one Hiroki had been looking for. "Oops." He hastily got up and left the office to find a copy machine.

Hiroki stalked out of the bathroom dripping after he'd washed his face. He heard students talking around him but ignored them until one voice cut through. "Hiro-san!" Hiroki spun and saw Nowaki standing beside one of his female classmates who was pointing in his direction. "Hiro-san."

Hiroki turned tail and took off.

"Wait!" he cried out. He caught up easily and came astride the student. "Why aren't you answering your phone? And why did you move out?"

"New phone," was the short reply.

"And the rest of it?"

Hiroki ignored that and picked up his pace. Nowaki met it. "Cut it out," he growled. "You're making a scene."

"Talk to me then."

"No, I work and go to school here. I refuse to mix business and personal situations."

"But Hiro-san—"

"No, go away." When they reached the door to Takatsuki Sensei's office, he swung it open, threw himself inside and slammed it shut, bracing it against Nowaki.

"Hiro-san," he called through the door. "Let me in."

Hiroki ignored him, his heart pounding. He needed this to end. He needed a clean break. This had to be over because otherwise…he would never be free from this ridiculous relationship.

"Meet me at our favorite restaurant," he said loudly, then backed away from the door just as Takatsuki Sensei approached it, his hands filled with paper.

"Oi, what are you yelling at my door for? I'm out here. What class are you in?"

"I'm not," Nowaki sounded sharper than usual. He stalked off angrily. He paused when he heard the small man yell through the door.

"Oi, Kamijou, let me in." Nowaki looked back to see the door opened from the inside. "You look awful. I thought you left the room to clear your head. Now you just look worse." He started to step inside then saw the guy still staring at him. "What do you want, brat?"

Nowaki bit his lip and turned away before he could cause an even bigger problem for Hiro-san.

…

After school, Hiroki got a phone call. "Hello?"

"Hiroki." It was Akihiko. "I need a hand, can you meet me at the Sensei's apartment?" Akihiko's class schedule was completely different from the literary major. He was studying law so they had only a couple of electives together and neither of those was today.

"Uh sure," he said, thinking he had several hours before the meet with Nowaki…assuming he actually wanted to go.

"Great, see you there in a few minutes."

Hiroki sighed at the way his best friend was dragging him around, but since he was living there, it didn't really matter. He glanced at his watch again and trudged toward the massive apartment complex. Once there, he found his onetime crush surrounded by a ton of journals and loose paper. "Welcome back," he called absently, not looking up from his work.

"Yeah, I'm home," Hiroki replied. "What is all this?"

"I had inspiration for a new story but now I'm stuck." He reached out and grabbed a page off the top of one pile and consulted it.

"Does Takahashi Sensei know you've destroyed his house?" Hiroki asked bluntly as he came in and brushed aside papers to sit on the floor.

"He finally finished his deadline and went to go drop off his work for inking."

"Oh."

"Anyway, help me out. I'm writing a story about a young woman who holds an unrequited love for her sister's male best friend. This friend is in love with her sister who is clearly uninterested, but now I'm stuck." Akihiko glared at a page filled with notes.

"I see." Hiroki began to think about ways for that to go. "Do you want the main character to end up with her sister's best friend?"

"I don't know. That's the thing of it. I've been bouncing back and forth about making them a couple. Her attraction is clear and…and the best friend seems to have some interest in the main character, but not sexual."

"What, like she's a kid sister?"

Akihiko frowned. "No, more like a student. He tutors her sometimes."

Hiroki nibbled on his lip. "Hmm, what if the sister gets a boyfriend and the best friend ends up being comforted by the main character?"

Akihiko winced for some reason unknown to Hiroki. He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Finally, Akihiko said, "Suppose that works. Then where would…" They started bouncing more and more ideas off of each other.

When he finally realized he had a kink in his back and got up to stretch, he glanced casually at his watch and yelped.

The reason being: It was a quarter to nine.

To be continued…

Chey: Wow, that one ran long.

Hiroki: You forgot to check word count, didn't you?

Chey: No, I was originally going to stick to the manga plot and have Hiroki wait, but that was too easy…and I got inspired to do it this way twenty minutes ago.

Hiroki: Of course you did.

Chey: Damn straight. Now readers, please review and let me know what you think of the twist. Especially since hardly anyone reviewed the last chapter.

Hiroki: Whiney whiney whiney.

Chey: Shut up.

Thanks for reading:)

~Cheyanne