Hello everyone! Sorry that I've been out for a while but I've been juggling fanfics. I managed to get back to this one before I hit the 30 day mark haha.

To jemxmarcial: You're killing me with this review! I'm so honoured that this is your favourite fanfic and I'm so glad that I made you happy. And don't be sad about where this is going, the story is longer than you think. ;)

Anyway, for all the people who've been waiting...

Enjoy!

Chapter 5

It was the alarm that Seijuro woke up to the next morning at seven on the dot. It was an ungodly sound that penetrated eardrums, a noise so obnoxious that he couldn't help but pull the covers over his head. It was playing for a good ten seconds before he couldn't take it anymore.

That alarm was a type of default ringtone of some sort set to maximum volume guaranteed to annoy whoever heard it, and Seijuro was most definitely annoyed. But it certainly did its job, which is why he didn't change the sound of the alarm to something less unpleasant, otherwise, he'd never wake up.

Seijuro awoke and opened bleary eyes, trying to look around for his phone, taking three tries to grab the device off his table and shut off his alarm. It was only when the alarm was shut off that he sat up and began to stretch out his body.

"Your phone is noisy," a voice muffled.

Seijuro looked down and found two heterochromatic eyes glaring at him from under the duvet.

"Good morning to you, too," Seijuro replied drily. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did until your phone went off," said Bokushi.

Seijuro rolled his eyes. "I get the message, my phone is loud. But that's what an alarm is supposed to be. I'm afraid you'll have to bear with it until the end of the week."

He heard what he imagined to be a moan of disapproval before shaking his head and standing up from the bed.

"Come on, you have to get dressed too."

"Perhaps some other time," Bokushi said, curling further in on himself under the covers. "I don't do mornings."

"So I've heard," said Seijuro. Regardless of which personality was in control of his body, there was one characteristic about him that never changed. He was always weak in the mornings. It would take something pretty important to get him out of bed in the morning, and whenever there were no impending duties to tend to, he was most likely sleeping in order to make up for all the time he spent staying up late to do something.

This would not have been an easy task had Bokushi been the same size. But he was much smaller now and much lighter, so whether or not he complied with him, he could easily just lift him out of bed and take him to the closet to choose what to wear, which is exactly what he did.

Bokushi was not happy.

"Put me down this instant," he commanded.

"I refuse," said Seijuro. "You can sleep all you want after you get dressed, brush your teeth, and eat something."

"Ugh..."

Reluctantly, Bokushi went along with the whole ordeal, pointing to the clothes he wanted to wear before joining Seijuro in the bathroom to brush his teeth. Then, Seijuro went to bring some breakfast for the both of them. It had to be eaten in his room of course because Seijuro was trying not to risk anyone seeing him still, even though most times no one was in the kitchen so early in the morning, but Seijuro just wanted to be safe.

They spent most of breakfast conversing with one another. Well, it was just more of Bokushi complaining about how small the bed was and how Seijuro left him virtually no space, and Seijuro was pondering whether or not he should inform Bokushi of his rather interesting sleeping habits. Of all the people who should be complaining, it should be Seijuro and not him. However, there was something endearing about all of it, and it was nice, almost reassuring, to know that even his supposedly perfect other self had quirks of his own.

When they finished breakfast, Bokushi sat on the bed while he watched Seijuro adjust his tie and put on his school blazer.

"How long are you going to be gone for?" Bokushi asked.

"Well, there's not many things on my schedule for today," said Seijuro, eyeing his planner on his desk. "So I should be back around three. Will you be alright for that time?"

"That depends. What is there to do?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Seijuro said. "You can't leave the room, so you'll have to find some way to entertain yourself until I get back."

He looked at his wrist watch and his eyebrows shot up. "Hm? Is it that time already?" he said to himself. He turned to Bokushi. "I should be going, classes will start soon, and I don't want to be late."

He grabbed his school bag from next to his bed and put a hand on Bokushi's shoulder. "Are you sure you'll be alright for today?"

"I'll be fine," Bokushi answered. "Stop with your excessive questions and go to class."

Seijuro was slightly skeptical, but he shrugged it off and sighed. "Alright, but only if you're sure..."

"Goodbye, Seijuro-nii."

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving now."

He walked over to the door and opened it. "Please behave while I'm gone. I'll see you at three."

With that, he was gone after giving Bokushi a brief wave and shut the door, leaving him sitting on the bed.

...

It had been a good hour since Seijuro had left his dorm. It was almost nine o'clock in the morning and Bokushi had just finished his tenth game of shogi. He was about to start on the eleventh, but halfway into resetting the pieces, he lost interest and put the board away altogether. When he finished, he sighed and looked around the room. Everything was neatly in order from the alphabetized bookshelf to the organized notes on the desk. Just from this one look, Bokushi came to an important conclusion.

Seijuro was dreadfully boring.

There must be something remotely interesting in here that I can do, he thought. He went over to the bookshelf to examine the selection of books Seijuro had on display. Some were novels, some were revision guides, and he could spot a Japanese-to-English dictionary. But amongst all of those, there was another thing that caught his eye. There was a book that looked somewhat out of place on the bookshelf. That book was an origami book.

Sliding it off the shelf, Bokushi examined the front cover. It was rather vibrant in color, giving off illustrations of several origami creations. Bokushi vaguely remembered receiving this not too long ago. It was a birthday present from Hayama. At the time, Bokushi had no use for something such as making origami, so even though he accepted the gift, he left it on the bookshelf to collect dust for the past several months. But in the face of boredom, suddenly origami didn't sound so bad after all. So with that in mind, he opened the book to the table of contents and decided on something to make.

...

Seijuro tiredly rubbed his temples as he entered the dorm building. School was pretty rough today and he had yet another pile of assignments to complete that night along with whatever revisions he needed to make to the training menu for tomorrow's basketball practice. He hoped he could finish everything tonight.

Traveling up the stairs, his mind wandered over to Bokushi. Was he alright without him? Had he eaten anything since this morning? Did he manage to keep himself busy? All these questions began to flood his mind as he finally got up to his floor and entered the corridor in which his room resided. Taking a moment to loosen his tie a bit so he could breathe, he felt slightly more relaxed and opened the door to his room.

"Bokushi, I'm back," he called, stepping into his room. He was ready to just sit down somewhere, but as soon as he stepped in, he stopped in his tracks. There on the floor was Bokushi sitting in the center of at least twenty paper cranes with a paper crown on his head and various pieces of paper scattered around.

Bokushi looked up from the paper he was cutting and set the scissors back down on the floor.

"Good afternoon, Seijuro-nii," he said politely.

Seijuro was still trying to comprehend the situation. "Bokushi, what on earth are you doing?"

"That's King Bokushi to you."

"Pardon?" Bokushi pointed to the paper crown that was on his head, and Seijuro just fell silent, not sure how to respond.

"Of course... my mistake, King Bokushi," Seijuro said, still slightly confused. "I hadn't noticed the crown."

"Do not make the same mistake again, lowly subject," said Bokushi. "Next time you will do well to recognize authority."

Seijuro sighed and shook his head. Bending down, he went and picked up the book that was next to Bokushi and read the cover.

"I wasn't aware you liked origami," he said.

Bokushi shrugged. "Well, I had nothing to do since your room has virtually nothing entertaining."

Seijuro held his tongue. He knew that Bokushi was correct in saying that, so he had no one to blame but himself. He picked up a paper crane from the floor and turned it every which way.

"Where did you get all this paper from anyway?" Seijuro asked.

Bokushi looked off to the side. "I have my sources," he answered.

Seijuro chuckled. "That's awfully mysterious of you to say... hang on a second."

He squinted at the paper the crane was made from and noticed the text on it. The characters formed a sentence. 'The Edo period lasted from 1603 to 1867.' Suddenly his eyes widened in horror. He recognized that sentence. It was from one of the pages of his Japanese History textbook.

Oh. Dear. God.

Bokushi blinked in confusion as he watched his brother sink to the floor and put his face in his hands as he let out a pathetic groan of despair.

Bokushi huffed and folded his arms. "If you didn't like the paper crane you could have just put it down, there's no need to be so rude."

Seijuro still didn't look up. "No... that's not it..."

"Well then, what is it?" Bokushi replied.

Seijuro took a deep breath to ensure he didn't implode right then and there. "Bokushi..." he began. "Under any circumstances, you do not touch my school books. Those are important. If you want paper, then ask for some."

Bokushi stared before going back to his paper. "If that is what you wish."

~O~

Not wanting a repeat of the day before, Seijuro decided to take some extra precautions. First of all, he gave Bokushi a lecture on what he could and could not touch in his room since he was not ready for yet another one of his textbooks to end up as origami and paper confetti. (Not to mention that his Japanese History textbook was school property and he had to pay for it now that it was already damaged.)

Second, and most important of all, he gave Bokushi his own cell phone before he left for school and told him that if he needed him for an emergency, he should go into his contacts and call one of his teammates, and they would hand the phone over to him. After he had discussed the ground rules, he felt that Bokushi would be alright without him, and so he left.

Seijuro didn't realize how much he would regret his decision until he began to get various phone calls throughout the week during school from Bokushi about the most insignificant things. Sometimes he'd ask Seijuro how to spell a certain word in a foreign language, or what flowers were growing outside his window, and Seijuro would have to remind him that phone calls were for emergencies only. He had a lot to think about already such as schoolwork and basketball. Not to mention he now had to buy another train ticket for Tokyo this weekend now that there was an extra person to take care of. Not that he couldn't afford it (because God knows he could), but it was a lot to ask for in such a short amount of time, considering that on top of all this, he had to make sure that Bokushi didn't turn his room upside down when he was gone. All this was most definitely not good for his blood pressure. He could already feel it spiking with every minute that passed.

In the middle of the week during his morning break, he was in the hallway when Mibuchi came up and sauntered over to his locker.

"Sei-chan..."

Seijuro paused in grabbing a notebook and looked up. "Mibuchi, to what do I owe you the pleasure?"

Mibuchi held up his phone with an amused grin. "Guess who wants to talk to you."

Seijuro sighed wearily.

"Alright, hand the phone over."

Mibuchi put the phone in his hands and watched as Seijuro held it up to his ear.

"You called?"

"Ah, Seijuro-nii. I was hoping to get a hold of you. I would like to tell you something of utmost importance."

Seijuro raised a brow. "Oh?" he said. "And what would that be?"

"Were you aware of the fact that Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system?"

Seijuro felt like screaming into the void.

He immediately facepalmed and dragged his hand down his face in an effort to cope with his overwhelming exasperation.

"Bokushi. Emergencies."

"This is an emergency," Bokushi replied. "I wanted to show you my vast knowledge of planets."

Mibuchi, who could hear the conversation, was stifling a few snickers that threatened to escape his mouth, and Seijuro shot him a tired look. Eventually, he ran his fingers through his hair and readily accepted his fate.

"Alright, you have five minutes and then I'm hanging up the phone."

From there Seijuro had to submit to a lifetime worth of facts about Jupiter. He recognized most of them, and so it occurred to him that Bokushi must have tapped into the astrology book on his shelf. Nevertheless, he powered through them, rolling his eyes when Bokushi managed to trip on the pronunciations of several of Jupiter's moons (yes, he named all sixty-seven of them.) He hadn't realized how much time had gone by until the bell rang.

"Bokushi, I have to go."

"Wait, I'm not finished yet," said Bokushi.

"I know, but I have to go back to class," Seijuro said, looking back at his classmates shuffling back into the room.

Bokushi grumbled on the other line. "You aren't going anywhere until I finish."

When Seijuro next walked back into his classroom, he had to explain to his rather disappointed teacher why he was ten minutes late for class.

...

It was finally lunchtime and Seijuro was glad that he could have a bit more time to himself before basketball practice that afternoon. He was ready to pack up his things and head over to the cafeteria when right before he was about to stand up from his desk, Mibuchi came in again.

"Oh, Sei-chan~" he calls to him. He holds up his phone again, which makes Seijuro groan before reluctantly grabbing the phone.

"What is it now?" Seijuro heaved.

There was a pause on the other line. "Hypothetically speaking, if you flooded the bathroom floor, how would you clean up the water?"

Mibuchi just barely caught his phone that was tossed to him as Seijuro made a mad dash to the dorms at the speed of light, every student who passed him down the hall vaguely wondering why he was playing basketball and not running track. When he got there, he ran up the stairs and flung open the door to his room, only to find Bokushi sitting on the floor, book in hand, and the room completely dry.

"Seijuro-nii, you're back early," he said.

"What are you talking about?" Seijuro panted. "I only came over because you said that you flooded the bathroom."

Bokushi looked just as confused as Seijuro. "Hm? What are you talking about?" he retorted. "I told you I was only speaking hypothetically."

Seijuro took his cell phone back after that.

~O~

The next day was Thursday, and as Seijuro and his teammates sat down in the cafeteria at lunchtime, they all noticed his slight dishevelment.

"Woahhh you've got dark circles under your eyes, Akashi!" Hayama said in amazement.

Seijuro tiredly blinked and began to rub at his eyes. "I'm exhausted," he said.

"Rough night?" Mibuchi inquired.

Seijuro nodded. "Yeah. It's a lot of work taking care of another person."

"What's with the scratch marks on your face?" Nebuya asked.

Akashi fingered the three red lines on his left cheek before grimacing. "Bokushi wasn't all too keen on bath time yesterday."

"What is he, a cat?"

"Don't worry about it for now, Sei-chan," Mibuchi said. "You're going to Tokyo tomorrow, right? So you won't have to keep him a secret anymore."

"I suppose," Seijuro sighed. "I just hope that there are no more complications this week."

Later that night, Seijuro was finishing some work in his room. He began putting away his books and his notes and got his things ready for the last school day of the week.

The clock on his phone read almost midnight. Bokushi was long asleep, Seijuro thankful that he didn't put up as much of a fight that night. He must have been tired. Not like he had any reason to be, anyway.

When he put his things away, he made a final check to see if there was anything he forgot to do. The train tickets were purchased, his bag was packed already and he should have no impending assignments left. The train for tomorrow was meant to leave for 4:15 in the afternoon and he prayed there wouldn't be any hiccups in the plan. He could only hope. But he dismissed all these thoughts because his exhaustion was finally starting to catch up to him. So, shutting off the lamp on his desk, he trudged over to his bed and finally climbed in. It didn't take him long to drift off to sleep, and soon his mind was in other places, passing time in wait for the next day.

Thank you for the wait! I'll try and update soon, so until then, you know what to do...

Read and review please!