Chapter 16 – And so it Begins

In which hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Dawn was a little unsure of what was happening. One second she had been changing in her room, and then a certain red-head had been barging in. She wasn't sure whether to be absolutely furious at him, or semi amused at the way he had lit up as red as a cherry. She settled with being fuming. Of all the idiotic things...he was certainly lucky she hadn't used the self defence lessons she had taken against him.

What was considerdably more confusing though, was the fact that she had no sooner stormed out of her room, this time full dressed, before she found herself whisked out of the apartment and into a limo. Odder still was now she found herself in a large and ornate home, sitting across a table from Kaoru Hitachiin, with math work spread out between them.

Surely things couldn't get weirder could they?

There is no way things could get any weirder, Kaoru was silently thinking to himself as he sat, awkwardly tapping his fingers on the dark wooden table. So far, Dawn hadn't uttered a single word as he took her to his home, leaving his brother with her sister.

He glanced at the math work between them and held back a sigh. He hadn't even started it yet and already he was getting a head ache. It must have shown on his face because suddenly Dawn seemed to snap out of the la-la-land she was in and looked at him.

"What areas in the unit were you having problems with?" she asked, focusing on the material between them. He looked up and met her blue eyes, concealed by the ridiculously thick lenses.

"Well...I suppose..." he groaned softly "All of it."

He expected her to laugh, or to scoff or even roll her eyes at him. Even Hikaru did at times but never seriously of course. What he didn't expect was for her to nod quietly before sorting through the papers. She was quiet, and he could hear the drapes across the room ruffle in the draft that always seemed present. It seemed too long before she finally looked up once more.

"Then I guess we start at the very beginning don't we?"

Kaoru wasn't sure what to say, so he just found himself nodding mutely. He swore he saw the slightest smile tug at the corner of the girl's lips before he spoke once again.

"Okay then. Lesson one..."

Dawn wasn't too sure why Kaoru seemed to having so many problems with the math work. Math was all about rules. 1+1 always equalled 2. It was how the world worked. But Kaoru's mind seemed to just want to toss out all those rules and reign free, which showed in his math work. He was far from stupid she could see that much. But he was making stupid mistakes. And he couldn't remember any of the rules for how to solve certain equations. As she sat him down working on simple triangle proofs to get him used to it, she watched him. Each character was carefully formed. His handwriting was not the untidy scrawl she had seen so many other males possess. If anything, it seemed much too elegant. Then again, an elegant hand as his...it seemed to suit it.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and returned her eyes to the work. Frowning, she quickly corrected several of the smaller mistakes he had made, but was pleased that there were far less this time. Eventually she worked him up to the trig.

Kaoru felt his brain melting. Seriously...it was going to ooze out of his ears soon. All the numbers and word were floating around in his mind. Why on earth did something like math have to have so many rules? It was so constricting and suffocating. This number could do this when here, but you move it here and it does this. And why on earth did anyone care what x was? Obviously the person who made the stupid question up knew what x equalled so why did he have to figure it out? And what was the point in isolating a variable? Why wasn't the question just phrased that way to begin with? No matter what he did, it just never made sense in his mind.

But slowly, he found himself able to concentrate. Dawn was forever correcting him, but she seemed to being doing so less and less. He focussed on each number and letter as he wrote them out and tried to make sense of the rules in his mind. It was always at this point when he finally started showing some improvement that his brother would let him off on his own. And he always slipped and fell back into that state of confusion and jumbled up rules once again. But this time it didn't see like that was going to happen. Dawn showed no signs of leaving his side. Not even as she announced that he had earned himself a ten minute break.

He sat back, sighing in relief as his mind was allowed to calm itself. He found himself looking over at his tutor. Despite his break, she was still working, writing out more questions and exercises. Despite everything about her that screamed at him to stay far far away, he could not help but be intrigued.

She seemed far too at ease hiding behind the disguise she had given herself. But he suspected that was not the only way she hid. He had never actually seen her mad. Not even when he had walked in on her changing had she appeared to be mad. He was positive she was, but she didn't show it even for one second. And there was also the fact that she had won his game. A game no one had ever won with the exception of two people. Haruhi and Tamaki.

"Why are you staring at me?" her tone had no emotion behind it. But the words were on more familiar ground at least. His was something he could deal with, instead of letting his mind wander to things that he had no business in.

"Oh just wondering why on earth you would choose to wear such hideous glasses. They really are a crime you know, even for a little bookworm such as yourself."

Her eyes rolled slightly. He was making some progress out of his much too deep thoughts. "And too be honest, I'm wondering how you kept such a body hidden," he finished with the lightest smirk. He was pleased to see a slight flush creep up her neck, despite her obvious attempts to curb it. What he didn't see was the soft flash in her eyes. But he couldn't miss the way she suddenly stood up.

"You...you..." her words didn't seem to know how to come out, but her body certainly knew how to express itself. He could only watch in shock as her hand came flying, and landed with a resounding sting and echoing slap across his cheek.

Dawn wasn't sure what possessed her to do it. She really wasn't. She had been keeping her anger carefully sealed the whole time, and ignored the awkwardness of the situation. But then the idiot just had to go and make a stupid remark. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was on her feet, and his cheek was bright red. But what she noticed the most was his eyes. They were shocked and he looked as though she had slapped all sense out of him. She highly doubted he had ever seriously been slapped by a girl in his life. Well he deserved it. But she knew, deep down, it was not him she had just slapped. It was another face entirely. But that didn't matter.

"You will never ever speak to me like that again. Do you understand Hitachiin?" her voice was deadly quiet. It reminded Kaoru of a snake, quiet and poised, and just waiting to strike out with toxic venom. Her blue eyes were stormy oceans, filled to the brim with hatred and hurt. And he knew it wasn't all directed at him. But he stopped himself from pursuing that thought.

Why should he care about this girl? She clearly could care less about him or anyone for that matter. Let her hide behind a pair of glasses and cold shoulders. It wasn't any of his business and he wasn't about to make it. It was her choice. She could isolate herself from the world if she wanted.

"I apologize," the words fell from his mouth in a cool sarcastic tone that would have made Hikaru proud. "I forgot I was talking to a poor commoner who lacked the sense to take a joke. It won't happen again." It was almost worth seeing her close up again, when he saw the slight flash of anger cross her face so quickly he might have missed it. It may have only been for a second but he knew he had gotten past her wall and to her, and that satisfied him for some reason. She wasn't the only one who could toss words.

"..Forgiven. Now work on these problems." Her voice had lost the edge and was now indifferent once again. It was going to be a long night.

Abby plopped on her bed. Outside her door she heard Hikaru seething. After a few moments, she heard her sister's door open and a soft squeak as footsteps were made to the door which was opened then closed, leaving her in a blissful silence. But still, she didn't move. Instead she stared at her ceiling for several minutes before she determined it was safe to go out. She slid out of the bed and unbarricaded her door. The hinges creaked in protest as she opened it and strode out. She glanced around and saw no one. She was alone.

A hand grabbed her wrist and she found herself pinned to the wall, with a pair of unamused golden eye boring holes into her. Apparently she wasn't as alone as she thought.

"Funny, really. I can't keep my laughter back." His cold sarcasm cut through the air.

"Did you try holding your breath and counting to a million?" she shot back easily. Hikaru surveyed her. She really didn't seem to notice the situation she was currently in or maybe she just pretended not to notice. He was sure he could feel an increased heart beat from her wrists which he was holding above her head. But she showed no signs of cracking. He almost smiled a little as he leaned in teaching this insolent commoner a little lesson would be extremely satisfying.

"Why bother doing that when I could be doing something like this hmm?" his hot breath wafted down her exposed neck, causing goose bumps. He heard her breath hitch slightly. "If you don't want my help in math...well I'm sure there are many more things I could teach a little girl like you while we're all alone." He pulled back from her, just in time to see her blue eyes widen. Smirking at her, he finished, "but I think we'll stick with the math. I do have standards after all." With that he took great satisfaction in the look of pure fury that flashed across her face. Before it could explode, he cut her off. "Save it for the math. I have a feeling you'll need all your energy." With that he walked into the living room where he had set up the math work already.

Abby glared at the ginger's retreating back. Her wrists were red from his grip. He clearly wanted a war. Well it was a war he was going to get.

A/N: so...ummm hi. Just...wow. I don't even know where to begin to be honest. Let's see, if you are still reading this story then wow. That's pretty wonderful. If not, I'm not surprised.

I don't really know why I started thinking of this story again but I decided I needed to write and I remembered I hadn't ever finished this. Life has been a lot of ups and downs these last two years since I posted anything. I went back and reread all of my previous chapters. Some of them are honestly awful but I don't really feel up to going and rewriting them so from here on I will just make them better.

Not sure how often I will post but I hope to post some new chapters soon. I wrote this nearly 9 months ago and I'm slowly working on the next one now, just trying to get my flow back. Hope you enjoyed this chapter