Jade sighed as she watched her brother and all his lame friends start towards her again for the sixteenth time this week, like for real do these guys have anything better to do? Hobbies, boyfriends, girlfriends, knitting, anything else but being a pain in the butt to her?

She shook her head as she was thankful that she managed to deliver that note to Naoto as well, she had been getting frustrated with her lack of progress not for lack of trying, but for the fact that every single time she tried to shoot her shot with Naoto one of the gang would suddenly appear out of nowhere and give her a look that she could feel down in her soul and she did not have a single clue as to what she did, she racked her brain running thru the past few weeks and even months but she still came up blank, she swore feeling trapped and panicky.

"I swear I haven't done anything to them." she thought to herself in desperation, then her mind flashed back to that lecture they had all given her, the look of absolute disappointment on each and every face that looked at her as they all lectured her about her 'bullying' of Naoto Tachibana, Hina's little brother and Hina being Takemitchi's girlfriend, of course the rest of them didn't like that Jade was supposedly bullying him.

All Jade had done to the cute nerd was call him names, granted they were names of fictional detectives, and occasionally point out when he missed a detail in something, she wasn't quite sure how that counted as bullying him.

Jade squirmed in her soul, it's not like she wanted to bully him, but he was so cute whenever he got heated that she couldn't help the snark that always came out when she spoke with him even if she also couldn't help the butterflies that erupted in her tummy or the blush that threatened to appear on her face each time she was near him or when he looked at her or talked to her, she was just not gonna admit that to ToMan, she sighed, she wouldn't hear the end of it if she admitted that she only picked on him because she had a crush.

She cringed and speaking of her brother's stupid lame friends. There were five of them just hanging out, and she just happened to run into them, she cursed her luck sometimes, but if these five were here, where were the others?

Jade soon got her answer in the form of another six body's coming from behind her, she cringed hoping she wouldn't be noticed, "Man, where were you guys?" She heard one of Takemitchi's friends ask one of the guys who passed Jade, a small blonde with piercing gray eyes who looked more childlike then Jade did, "The library" the blonde, Mikey, Jade's brain supplied, replied easily "had to grab something."

Another one of the guys, long black hair with an almost arrogance to him, Baji, grinned his canines gleaming in his smile, "Was almost too easy, all Mitchi there had to do was distract him, and we snagged this" Baji said in triumph, pulling a single lavender colored envelope out of his pocket.

Jade felt her stomach drop, she knew that envelope, spent hours agonizing on how to accurately express her emotions for the adorably nerdy little dork who had captured her heart, now she had to somehow either grab that envelope, and maybe burn it, but she would have to rewrite the whole damn thing.

She made a face when Takemitchi glanced up and saw her there, "There she is," Takemitchi said in a cold tone, a dark look in his eyes, "maybe we should all have another talk with her, maybe read what's in this as well, before deciding what we do." making Jade gulp, quickening her step as she heard the rest of them start to move.

Jade broke out into a sprint running faster then she had ever run before, was she gonna make it?, probably not, but she was going to try. She sprinted her feet going as fast as she could dare to go, she could hear the rest of them behind her trying to catch her, she prayed that she could get away from them, she couldn't handle all of them reading the contents of that letter out loud, especially with her present.

She grimaced again, a look of unease crossing her face as she crossed the street and heard the rest of the feet that were behind her stop, she glanced behind herself quickly and saw that they were all stopped at a light but surely she could make it right?

Right?

Wrong.

Jade kept running only to suddenly slam into something solid, and heard a voice that made her blood run cold, "Gotcha Tiny!" Boomed from above her head, she squirmed, trying to twist away to run again, only to feel both arms constrict around her as she felt her feet leave the ground, at only five foot two inches, she was small and it's exactly how she found the nickname of Tiny amongst the gang.

Jade let out a little shriek of surprise, "Put me down!, Put me down! Put me down!" Jade whined, sounding more like a spoiled brat then a semi-mature girl of thirteen. Draken, who was holding her, scoffed "Nah, I think I need to bring you back to the others for a little chat about bullying again" before going to hold her over his shoulder like a disobedient sack of flour.

"Draken, if I tell you the truth of what is in that envelope, will you put me down?" Jade asked, trying for a negotiation, anything before the rest of them caught up to her.

Draken's eyebrows rose quickly, "Start talking." was all the taller man said, Jade sighed in irritation. "Fine" Jade felt herself starting to blush, "it was a um a con-confession note." Draken looked at her and smirked at her stutter. "Hell, here all of us are ready to lecture you and instead it looks like we need to have a different talk." Jade tried to run again "No no no no no!" Jade squealed in mortification.

Jade felt her face burn anew as the taller man threw her over his shoulder while saying "Wonder what Mitchi will have to say about this?

Hmmm?

Wittle bitty baby Jade with her first crush, all grown up and in love, It's too cute" the taller man cooed, smirking, sounding almost like his girlfriend, Emma, his voice usually deep and gravelly, pitched higher as he teased the young teenager.

"This is why I didn't want to say anything," Jade whined, "this is so embarrassing."

"Yes, yes, sometimes life isn't fair." Draken drawled rolling his eyes,"but none of us will be expecting to hear this, I mean, we probably should have seen this coming, you don't treat anyone else like that, not even Hanma" he pointed out logically even with her on his shoulder.

"That's different." Jade protested, "I hate Hanma."

Draken chuckled "Yeah,I hate him too, but you'd think that trying to get someone's attention in a romantic sense you'd go about it in a better way, not by being mean to them and calling them names." the older male told her.

Jade pouted, her cheeks still a bright pink. "Not my fault that feelings are hard, I just kinda didn't want to put a label on it and also have you guys find out about it, no offense but I dont think I'm ready for that level of teasing yet." the young girl confessed, a red blush now staining her cheeks at the thought.

Draken chuckled, "You'd think that hanging around us, you'd be a little less easy to embarrass."

"I'm not embarrassed, I just didn't want you all to butt into my private life." Jade scoffed with false bravado

"Uh huh, and that's why you're as red as you are right now, then right? So you won't mind telling the rest of the gang what you told me, I mean, if anything even just to avoid the bullying lecture." Draken told her sternly.

Jade shifted from her spot on Draken's shoulder, mouth opening and closing but unfortunately for her, he had a point. "Okay, you've made your point, you can put me down now."

Draken snickered, "Yeah right, like that's gonna happen Tiny, I put you down and you're gonna try and run again, besides there's Takimitchi doesn't your big brother look so worried?"

Draken asked sarcastically,mainly because Takimitchi looked angry as hell and if they were in a private area, Jade was sure she would've ended up over Mitchi's knee, the thought didn't help her blush.

Takimitchi sneered at her, "So what's going on? Cause Jade your choices are you will read this letter out loud or one of us will read it for you and we will ask questions. Personal questions. Deeply personal questions."

Mikey looked at her and sniggered, "She looks like she'd rather die than do either of those options." Indeed, the young girl looked ghost white, except for two bright red spots on her cheeks, her eyes wide, "You you want me to do what?" she croaked.

Takimitchi's features softened a little bit when he saw how nervous his baby sister looked but he didn't back down, he wouldn't have been a member of ToMan had he backed down."Your choices are, either you will read this letter out loud or one of us will read it for you. You choose."

Jade gulped " An-and if I refuse to choose either option?" she stuttered a bit, "Then one of us will read it for you anyway." Mikey replied easily as the rest of the gang watched this byplay play out.

Baji deciding to open the envelope, making Jade jump at the sound of rustling paper as the older male then shook out the letter with a flourish

"Are we sure Baji can even read?" Jade asked incredulously, trying to keep a nervous laugh out of her voice.

"If you're asking that question, it's a good way to get him to read it out loud on purpose just to embarrass you even further," Kazutora whispered to Jade seriously. "remember Baji doesn't have shame."

Jade gulped, feeling as if she just swallowed down a bunch of snakes, her stomach felt squirmy at the thought, as the consequences of her actions were catching up with her.

Baji looked at her "Do you want to read this or can I?" He asked, grinning, Jade glared at him. "You act like I would want to read it." Her nose crinkled in disgust, even as her stomach rolled with shame.

"You wrote it" was all the long haired arsonist said in a cheerful tone, grinning at her outraged face, as he held the paper and started to read, his voice up in a higher range, obviously making fun of her.

"My dearest Naoto, wow you sound so nice here Tiny" Baji said in a teasing coo as he continued to read out loud, "this is starting to sound like one of those letters I get from the girls at school, you know the ones, the "I really love you" letters."

Jade groaned and just blurted out, "That's because that's what it is!" she shouted in mortification, her face feeling like it was on fire.

There was a stunned silence.

Then…

The whole gang cooed at her.

She did not just say that out loud.

"So cute"

She did not just say that out loud.

"Awww, Wittle Jade has her first crush!"

This couldn't be happening.

"This is too cute"

Jade felt her mouth going dryer as heat crept up her neck, going into her ears, even the tip of her nose felt warm.

"Awww she's blushing"

She groaned, the butterflies in her stomach working in overtime,this couldn't be happening.

The young woman went and leaned against a wall in defeat, knowing that if she tried to run again, she'd just get caught again and teased even worse.

"You know we only tease you because we care right?" Takimitchi said, coming up and leaning next to her on her left side.

"Doesn't make it any less embarrassing." Jade moaned, her face was still feeling warm.

"But still have you tried talking to him?" Smiley asked

"No, cause each time I would go up to him to talk to him, you guys would show up and glare at me."

"Oh" was all Smiley could say to that, "we thought you were bullying him not awkwardly trying to flirt." Angry tacked on.

Jade blushed even worse

"What made you think that I would've wanted you to know that I was flirting with him?!" she shouted feeling embarrassed and trapped, "maybe I didn't want anyone to know that I am in.. in that... that with him" she couldn't even bring herself to say the word, it was way too embarrassing, it felt like admitting a weakness she didn't want others to know about.

"In what?" Mikey drawled, a teasing note to his voice, "In love with him? Come on, you can say it.

Your.

In.

Love." Mikey said, enunciating each word with a poke to her blushing cheeks.

Jade flushed even hotter, the blush almost making a light of its own.

Baji snickered, "She can't even say it without blushing, that is just too precious." he cooed, reaching out to pinch her still red cheek.

"What? It is," Takemitchi said, snickering at her, "It is just too cute, you can't even say the words, can you?" He teased her.

"Shut up" Jade grumbled, embarrassment still apparent in her body language, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

Even Mitsuya chuckled at her, "So wanna let us all know when you're done planning our demise and go back to confessing your love?"

Jade glared at him, but the effect was slightly ruined by her blushing cheeks and the pout on her lips.

"I think she's still planning our demise, and unless we say something for her, I don't think she's gonna be confessing her love anytime soon." Draken said, grinning when he caught sight of her face, she looked like she was facing down a firing squad. "Relax Tiny, I'm not gonna go and tell him, but I make no promises for the rest of these assholes."

Jade squirmed at the thought of the gang telling Naoto that She was in love with him, and vowed to not let that happen.