Title: The Virtues of Being Selfish
Series: CLAMP School Detectives
Pairing: Nokoru/Suoh
Theme: "No matter what, you're gonna break my shell." (Written for the LJ com album(underscore)mix)
Rating: PG-13

The morning of Imonoyama Nokoru's fifteenth birthday started the same as any other birthday in his memory. He woke early and ate an elaborate breakfast with his family before rushing off to school to be met with a room full of presents. The sight of cheerfully colored boxes and feminine bows brought an appreciative smile to his face. He made his way to his desk through the towers of gifts and sat down.

Noticing several stacks of his personal stationery and envelopes piled on his desk along with a pack of new pens had him looking over to his secretary's desk, the gesture making his heart stumble in his chest. He ignored the sensation, annoyed with himself.

"Good morning, Suoh." He said in a perfectly joyful tone while reaching for his first present. "How early did you get here?"

The ninja acknowledged the greeting with a nod before replying "Early enough. I think you get more every year."

"The ladies here are quite generous." Nokoru responded, already writing as he spoke. Suoh, being his normal tacit self merely nodded again, continuing his paper work.

Akira came in sometime later, a decadent masterpiece of a cake in tow. Nokoru was appropriately excited and hyper about it, even getting his secretary to eat a small piece. After that, the day settled into the normal birthday routine. Nokoru opened presents and wrote out polite, personable thank you notes which would be hand delivered the next day and Suoh sat quietly at his desk across the room, doing his and his kaichou's daily paperwork. This was one of the only days of the year that the secretary never said a word about paperwork, a sort of birthday present in itself.

Over the course of the day, the blonde had truck loads of opened presents delivered to his house. At nine o'clock, he finally signed his name to his last note. Rounding up the last load of gifts, he went with his hired crew outside to load them up.

"I'm finally done!" he announced as he returned to the student council office.

"I should help you next year." The bodyguard said as he glanced up. Nokoru waved the offer away as he replied, "They went to all the trouble of picking those gifts out, and wrapping them, and writing a card. The least I can do is spend my time writing them thank you notes."

"Yes, yes." Suoh replied, having heard variations of that answer every year. "Get your things, I'll walk you home."

Nokoru sailed to his desk and began to gather some papers when he noticed a plain envelope lying innocently in the center. It had his name written in Suoh's perfect script. Grinning, he tore it open. Suoh watched as his kaichou read the note inside, inwardly amused by the look of irritation that spread over the blonde's face before it was carefully masked.

"I don't get it." Nokoru said, looking up.

"It's a coupon. You know, a voucher. For you to do one selfish thing this year." The ninja replied, coming over to lean on the desk.

"Yes, I read all that, but I don't understand." Nokoru said quickly, rereading the paper in his hands. The entire thing was absurd! They both knew that an Imonoyama had too much responsibility, too much power to ever be anything other than selfless.

Suoh sighed, knowing exactly where his kaichou's thoughts had turned.

"You're wrong." He told Nokoru quietly. "Doing something for yourself wouldn't make the world end. No one would be upset about it except for you."

Nokoru was silent for a long time, gazing at the paper in his hands. He knew Suoh; there would be no end to this. The ninja never gave up on anything he'd put his mind to and it was worthless to try to dissuade him at this point.

"Absolutely anything?" he asked finally, sighing in defeat.

"Absolutely anything." The darker haired boy reassured as Nokoru stood and faced him.

"Then I'd like to redeem it now." Nokoru said softly, avoiding eye contact and laying the voucher on the desk. Before the ninja could reply, Nokoru took Suoh's face in his hands and kissed him soundly on the mouth.