A/N: Not mine.

A week later Naoki was surprised to see a bleary-eyed Kotoko at the breakfast table. "Good morning. You are normally not such an early riser."

"Don't be so polite." She took a large swallow of tea. "I'm usually still comatose from having stayed up late talking to my friends on mobile."

He tried to conceal a chuckle with an overdramatic throat clearing but not to any avail, judging by the glare he received. Trying to mollify her temper, he asked, "Do you have plans, then?"

"Yes," she growled, "plans with you."

"Me?" His eyes opened wide. "But you're not on the tennis team."

"Then consider that the team just acquired a cheerleader." She rubbed her face. "Your mother–dear woman that she is–does not understand the purpose of the summer holiday. She has all these activities and projects that she wants to do with me."

"You must admit that she welcomed you so eagerly because she felt outnumbered by us men in the house," he pointed out.

"I do understand that," she allowed, "but I barely finish two questions of my summer homework before she is in my room, talking about shopping and redecorating and cooking. Now, I like shopping and changing things around as much as any girl, but even Dad told her that my cooking skills are nonexistent."

"She disagrees then?" he asked, not even trying to hide the smile this time.

"Does she ever! So, since the only thing that gets her even more excited than those topics is your love life, I'm tagging along with you so that I can get more than a page done in my booklet before we go back to school. The bleachers may not be comfortable, but at least I won't be wasting perfectly good food."

"I'll see if Coach can set up a folding table and chair for you in the shade," he offered before tilting his head. "You're not falling in with her scheme of happily ever after, are you?"

Kotoko snorted. "Maybe, once upon a time," she admitted, "but your obnoxiousness when Otosan and I first moved in killed that feeling dead."

"Oh," he blinked, "I was not aware that you held me in such disgust."

"Don't worry about it," she waved, "you're perfectly fine now, and sometimes fun to be around. It's just that your 'I'm so perfect and far above you in every way' attitude can put people off when they're used to admiring you from a distance."

She once admired me? He thought back to the first time he saw her. 'What a klutz,' I said, right to her face, practically. And then Yuuki and I insulted her when she arrived at the house. Oh, man, I hope Mother never finds out about her feelings back then.

As he was lost in thoughts on his previous shortcomings, Kotoko had continued talking. "…and while Satomi and Jinko knew that I was living with you–I mean, your family–somehow we managed to keep it from Kin-chan. He seems to think that he and I are an item, although we've never dated. He really hates you, especially since he never found out that I don't feel that way about you any more."

"Kin-chan?"

"Oh, that's Kinnosuke. He's the self-proclaimed leader of Class F."

"Wait, is that the loud one who's always showing off?"

She snapped her fingers and pointed to him. "Got it in one. I guess it's lucky that the tennis courts are on the other side of the school than Class F, or he'd think something is going on when I show up with you."

Unfortunately, Tonan High School had air conditioning issues that summer, so all remedial classes had been moved to rooms overlooking the athletic facilities. Using his usual level of volume, it was surprising that the windows did not shatter when Kinnosuke yowled that his Kotoko 'was consortin' with that bastard Irie'.

While the teacher shouted at him to "Sit down and be quiet!", Satomi and Jinko managed to wrestle him away from the window. Hakamada, upon understanding the situation, immediately assigned him a desk on the opposite side of the room. Unsurprisingly, that action did not prevent the aggravated student's immediate exit from the room once the break began.

Kotoko was engrossed enough in the English comprehension assignment to miss the sound of the approaching youth. Not so Naoki, who let a ball fly past his head when he espied the train wreck nearing the court. He made his way quickly to her side.

"You get away from her, ya stupid egghead!" Kinnosuke opened fire upon him.

"Isn't that insult rather contradictory?" At the blank expression, Naoki explained, "'Stupid' and 'egghead' are generally thought of as antonyms and would cancel each other out."

"I'll cancel you out if you don't let my Kotoko be!" he growled.

"For the thirteen thousand, four hundred and twentieth time, I'm not yours," she argued, carefully closing her homework packet. "Nao–Irie-kun is my tutor."

"I'm helping her make grades high enough so she doesn't have to spend most of her summer at school," he informed helpfully.

"Wot? She's at school now," Kinnosuke pointed out.

"But I'm not in class," she said slowly and clearly. "I'm almost one quarter of the way through my packet, and you have to do yours in the week left after summer school lets out."

"Let's see if you did that quarter correctly," Naoki muttered as he picked up the folder.

"Leave her stuff alone, ya bastard!" He futilely attempted to snatch it away from the other boy.

"His parents have been married for over twenty years, you dolt!" Kotoko stood and forced him to back up as she poked him repeatedly in the chest. "You've come over here, butting into what's none of your business and full of bullshit insults."

"But– But–"

"That's what I said, 'butting', you butthead," she snapped. "And you can just turn around and leave us alone."

"Not on your say-so!" he protested.

"But you will on mine," stated Hakamada seconds before he clamped one strong hand on Kinnosuke's arm. "Tardy from break, and detention as well for disturbing others." He nodded at Kotoko, Naoki and the entranced tennis team. "Sorry for the interruption. I'll keep a closer eye on him in the future." He hesitated then added, "Good work, Aihara."

As sincere as the educator's intentions were, Kinnosuke proved to be a slippery rascal. At least every other day he interrupted Kotoko's work on her makeshift desk (not noticing that the bookmark was proceeding rapidly towards the back of her booklet), but the real fireworks began when he managed to crawl through the door out of Hakamada's eyesight and find his quarry waiting at the bus stop with Naoki.

"Oi!" He pointed." I gave you leave to use his brains to help you–not that you'll need any of that crap after we graduate–but what're ya doin' spendin' extra time with him? I didn't give no permission for that, so, back off, Irie!"

Kotoko sighed, "Kin-chan, you never gave any sort of permission because you have no authority over me. And I am waiting here with Nao–Irie-kun because–"

"No, allow me." Naoki had reached his limit of how much idiocy and how many insults he could endure. He placed his free arm over Kotoko's shoulders and grinned maliciously at the Class F boy. "Kotoko and I are–how shall I phrase this?–very close."

Stifling a snicker as she quickly understood what he was doing, she chimed it, "Yes, we found out how well matched we are, so now we're practically living together."

"No-o-o-o!" howled the boy. When he attempted to snatch Kotoko's arm, Naoki quickly swung his equipment bag and knocked him down. Shaking his head on the sidewalk, Kinnosuke looked up. "But what about our children?" he whined.

The other two looked at each other in confusion before Naoki asked with a smirk, "Kotoko, dear, have you been holding out on me?"

"Kin-chan, you idiot." She kicked his legs, causing him to scramble away to protect his most sensitive area. "I never said I liked you, I never dated you, and I never did…that with you! Stop creating rumors that no one actually believes."

He took a deep breath, ending with a noble sniff, before stating solemnly, "I am sure that you will come to your senses and realize how much better I am than that asshole is. At that time, I'll be gracious and forgive you."

Naoki rolled his eyes. "Deluded ape. Come on, Kotoko, our bus is here." As they ascended the steps he commented, "I sure hope that hitting his hard head didn't break my racket."

"Sorry about that, Naoki." Kotoko cast an apologetic look at her companion after they were seated. "He just never gets the message."

"Understood." He nodded. "I've witnessed you trying the past few weeks, so I believe that this has been going on for years."

"Ever since we arrived as freshmen." She huffed before growling, "And now he's going on about 'forgiving' me when you and I finish our fling or whatever he thinks is going on."

"Well," Naoki pointed out, "if you're going to be forgiven, you might as well give him something to forgive."

"Huh?" she asked, perplexed.

"He thinks we're dating," he explained. "If that's the case, maybe he'll leave us alone until you throw me over for someone else."

"It's more likely to be the other way around," she groused. "Besides, we don't feel that way about each other."

"You admitted that you once had an infatuation for me. Apparently Bozo still believes that."

"Fake him out, you mean?" Kotoko's eyes started to sparkle. "Because I wouldn't put it past him to go all stalker on us."

"That does seem likely," he agreed.

"But wait!" Her face fell. "We'd have to hide it from your mother. You know, with all her matchmaking ideas about us."

"Why?" Naoki bluntly asked. "She's going to be a pain either way, and, honestly, the news would make her summer."

"That sounds sort of…devious."

"But fun, right?" When she nodded, he informed her, "Mom has been shoving us together for months, from that tuition scheme to the seating arrangements at dinner. Besides, with you along, I'll have another set of eyes to keep watch on Yuuki when I take him to the water park next week."

She squealed, "The new one with the Cyclone of Doom? Oh, yes, please!"