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A/N: Oh, yes, this is the final chapter. The last one, ladies and gentlemen. And this one...hear this, is one of my personal favorites. It took me a hard time figuring out how to end the story, and all I could wish for is that I hope you folks would like it! xD

Ok, then, here it is!

P.S.

THanks for even bothering, Enjoy! :D

Chapter 6: Another Deal, the Beetle, and His Pictures

"Oh, no." Ruka Nogi muttered to himself, feeling the chilly breeze as if it's nothing to the cold shiver running down his spine. "Oooh, no."

"Stop it, Nogi, or I'll hit you."

Looking around them, Ruka did have the right to panic. It was 12:05, and they were very, very, late. The Academy's men-in-black would've flagged red alert by now, and they're officially fugitives. Worse, the whole school might just have their hottest rumor of the summer—Bunny boy and Ice Queen just eloped.

Hotaru glanced at her watch for the third time now since they arrived, and couldn't help but hiss under her breath. Just when she'd been sure of her plans, a complication would occur. How cooperative could fate get?

"Uhm…", the blond beside her mumbled, "d-do you really think they'd already abandoned us?"

Finally looking up to him, she flashed her sharpest daggers and stared him down. "I honestly don't think so. Now shut up, Bunny boy."

Ruka was about to open his mouth to retort—as much as she's been really close to him though it was just one whole day, she still never fails to get into his nerves—when a beetle flew right in front of them.

"Uh…" he muttered under his breath after a few seconds of staring, unconsciously leaning closer to her ear as they both stared at the beetle in front of them. "Is that…the same one we've—?"

The Ice Queen practically glared at the beetle. She knew it. She just knew it!

Stealthily stepping forward while pulling out a strange-looking device to her hand, the Ice Queen attacked the beetle. Yes, she attacked the poor beetle quietly 'resting' on the bush in front of them. Zapping an electromagnet on the beetle's 'horns', it writhed once and fell on her palm. Ruka was about to yell a really big 'no', and run for the poor beetle's life when Hotaru held the it to his face, and his knees almost buckled when he saw that it had a two-inch diameter lens instead of giant beetle horns. And he'd seen lots of lenses his entire life not to recognize this one.

"You see that?" Hotaru said, still holding the beetle to Ruka's flustered face. "The same one we've been seeing the whole day."

He nodded, his disconcerted face turning to flushed anger. "Th-that's a camera!"

Indeed it was. As clear as day, Hotaru knew what it was. But, well, she couldn't blame him if that's how he'd react toward seeing one. She nodded, and then examined the unmoving, wireless, clever, device on her palm. She knew it. How could she have even doubted it in the first place?

"A-and that's been following us!" Ruka pointed out, in panic again, and his face was flushed. And by the look of it, Hotaru had a hunch that he wasn't just worried about the beetle following them all day, but more about the beetle televising everything that's happened all day.

"I really have the urge to hit you now." She muttered, and when he met her calm but fierce eyes, his shoulders dropped helplessly, his eyes looked tired and kind of pleading.

"Tell me that's not a camera."

She raised an eyebrow. "It is a camera."

His face fell, and then suddenly went hard as he paused. "And that's not yours, I suppose?"

She raised another eyebrow at him, hearing something else in his voice. "Don't even think about it, Bunny boy."

Ruka stared at her, challenging and simply trying to be brave, but knowing that she was telling the truth—though she really didn't say anything yet but stare at him—he shrugged, convinced that it wasn't her camera. Besides, it wasn't exactly about the issue of whose camera it was; it's more about the fact that that beetle sort of seen everything that's happened today—things that he really thought wasn't for anybody else to know.

It was quiet again, and glancing down to his watch, he sighed again and turned to the Ice Queen who was impossibly calm beside him. "And h-how are we supposed to get to the Academy again?"

Hotaru looked at him and held the beetle up to his face again that he had to lean back slightly. "This, Nogi, is a tracking device—with a built-in GPS and high-quality camera that can zoom ten times that of a normal digi-cam, a HD video recorder, wireless and Bluetooth installed." She paused, and then wiggled the beetle in front of him as if taunting a poor child. "I happened to have invented it." Ruka frowned and opened his mouth to…well, yell, maybe, or anything; but she cut him off again. "It never gets lost, that's why it's been able to follow us until we got back here. I know it's annoying, and as much as you…love your animals, you'd want to destroy this one. But we'll get back to the Academy because of this."

A couple of seconds passed, and with Hotaru's eyes boring down on him, Ruka opened his mouth to speak. "I-I d-don't get it…H-how is that going to—?"

Finding that she couldn't help it, Hotaru rolled her eyes. "I did say it's a tracking device. And whatever reason they used this…for us, then I'm pretty sure they'd use it now to try to find us."

He blinked, and then it finally hit him. "Oh."

Hotaru tilted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing insultingly at him before looking away. "Finally."

Ruka rolled his eyes and looked away, ignoring the Ice Queen's sneering. Note to self, he thought as he looked at the now clearing night sky above them; don't act dumb, 'cause you're most definitely not.

It was dark, and with just the two of them standing in the side walk, the cold penetrated their clothes harder. And if the men-in-black won't come and find them, they'd definitely freeze; Well, unless they'd start to hold onto each other…literally.

Hotaru was fiddling with the beetle, pretty much engrossed by it, and seemed amazed and scornful at her own invention all at the same time. He was about to say something when yellow light blinded him. She looked up too, and found herself wincing when the headlights didn't shut off. It was the Academy's sleek, black, car. Not the limousine, to Ruka's disappointment, but it was—no doubt—their ride home.

Despite herself, Hotaru smirked and elbowed the guy beside her, who was pretty close to her, she noticed, when she hit him in the gut playfully. "Let's go, Bunny boy."

Feeling excited and tired and happy and all the emotions all at the same time, Ruka simply shook his head and smiled, following the Ice Queen to the car.

"So sorry we're late." He said to the men who were practically glaring at them as they approached.

Sitting close to each other, sleep started to claim its triumph. A good five minutes passed since they started to head back, and suppressing a yawn, Ruka propped his elbow on the door handle and rested his head on his fist. It was quiet, warm, and he was tired. He knew the ride wouldn't take long, but his lids were dropping already. But then when he thought he was about to pass out, he felt a light head bump on his arm and onto his shoulder.

Looking over, he froze, flushed, and panicked all at the same instant. Then it all left him as quickly as they came when he suddenly calmed down, a ghost of smile dancing on his face. Now he really shouldn't sleep, he figured, or at least he shouldn't just move his shoulder away from her head—the Ice Queen's sleeping.

12:30 A.M.

Ruka yawned for the third time, no longer caring if she would even mind. Walking beside her, the Academy seemed to breathe quietly, as if welcoming them back. It was dark, no longer evening, he noticed, but dawn was still far away. He could hear scattered greetings from his nocturnal animal friends in the woods near them, and he quietly smiled and greeted them back in his mind.

They were making the last turn for the High School department when he noticed her kind of frowning to herself—not much with the expression, he noticed, but her eyes looked like she'd just lost a hundred dollar bet.

Oh, no. he almost stopped on his tracks. The bet!

Ruka Nogi gulped, bravely trying to push away all the hideous things he'd just imagined the Ice Queen would be making him do if she'd remember their bet about her camera and taking his pictures. So, desperate for anything, he cleared his throat and turned to her. "Uh, are you alright?"

Lame, yes, but as far as desperate goes, that's the best he could do without sounding nervous at all.

Her face seemed to soften a bit when she glanced at him before looking straight ahead of her. "I just figured…" She paused, then there came that slight frown on her eyes again, "When I zapped that beetle invention, I was pretty sure I kind of…disabled it."

Ruka blinked, trying to catch up. "Ookay. So…" He muttered, looking up only when they reached the high school dorm's entrance. "…h-how then were those guys able to trace us?"

Hotaru shrugged, she really hated it when she couldn't just grasp the answer. She knew it was near them somewhere…or attached somewhere…or to someone… She blinked, and looking around her, she was slightly distracted by that smile on his face when they both entered the dorm. The bright light made her wince a little, but her eyes adjusted in a few moments, as well as her body that's already started to get warmer thanks to the building's heater.

She stopped by the staircase—the spot that actually divides the dormitory to girls' and boys'—and faced him completely. Ruka yawned again, and as she stared at him, he reminded her of a really, really, cute yellow chick. It took him awhile to notice the staring, and when he did, he blinked and involuntarily flushed again.

"I want to try something." Hotaru cut him off.

Either the manner in which she said it, or the fierce look on her face when she did, Ruka gulped, his heart beating furiously despite all the exhaustion from beating this way all day. "Wh-what—?" He started, and then faltered when the Ice Queen's pale, soft, and now warm hands touched his face.

"Don't move." She whispered, her hand pulling his face down gently, closer to her.

Ruka gulped back the erupting hysterics and waited, though for what, he had no idea. If she's going to kill me, he thought wildly, desperately, she should do it now. But then deep down, he was thinking of something else. That maybe the Ice Queen was going to—well, kiss him maybe?

He opened his mouth to say something, then found himself closing it again when her hand gently moved to the side of his head; and it felt like it was groping for something, if not for the exquisite calm and soothing feeling it had against his skin. Suddenly he felt the hand waver, and just when he thought she would let him go, her other hand went up too.

Now she was cupping his face in her hands, and if he was already blushing, he felt like anytime now he'd explode like an oversized thermometer!

Both hands gently moved on his face, touching, gently moving here and there, as if groping for something. He closed his eyes when one hand gently combed through his hair; he just couldn't bear it! A couple of seconds passed, and when both of her hands suddenly stopped, he surprised himself with the intensity of how he snapped his eyes open to stare at her.

Hotaru was holding a piece of metal—a circular thing that looked more like a watch's battery—dangling it in front of him like candy to a child. "See this?"

He blinked and then shook his head, shrugging off the clouds she'd caused in his head in that brief moment. "Wh-what's that?"

"The tracking device." She replied stoically while staring at the thing, and then she smirked when Ruka's mood heated up again. "The second one, I guess."

"S-so—I-I really had that behind my ear?"

"No." She said and gave it to him for a look. He took it and practically glared at it as she spoke. "It's somewhere on the side of your head; concealed by your hair."

He gaped at her, absolutely nothing to say at that. When she opened her palm, he stared at it and put the metal thing on her hand. Hotaru stared at it for a moment, and then her hand suddenly moved with a master's efficiency Ruka's eyes couldn't follow. The next thing he knew, she was holding it back to him. "I've disabled it." She said, her face perfectly unreadable now. "Keep it."

He was about to scoff and say something really polite during an erupting bickering like this, but he stopped himself, noting the faint color on her cheeks. Come to think of it, that almost-microscopic, metal thinks she's holding out kind of proved itself to be special; or at least a reminder of something—or someone—special.

Shrugging, Ruka took it, and for some other reason smiled at the metal thing on his hand. "Thanks for today."

She raised an eyebrow, her face still indifferent. "I didn't do anything."

He waved a hand at her and his smiled kind of became a little more sheepish than usual. Looking at her pale but warm face, her calm but now unreadable purple eyes, he thought that he could never be able to look at her the same way he did before.

"If you don't have anything more to say, I'll go now."

That was enough to make him panic again, and clearing his throat, he nodded. She turned her heels and held on the railings as she started to go up the steps. He was staring at her back while she went up the stairs, only self-conscious of his doing when he got pushed back to reality as he yawned again.

That's when he remembered it again—to his disappointment.

"W-wait!"

He really didn't need to shout, she thought. Turning back to him, she found him going up the steps to her. The poor blond practically inhaled and exhaled before finally facing her as if he was going to be executed or something. "Y-you forgot this."

Looking at the rectangular-ish thing in his hand, Hotaru raised her eyebrows. Wow. She actually forgot all about that. Taking it to her hand, something else crucial hit her. "Ah." She smirked, and by the way Bunny boy shrugged and rolled his eyes helplessly, she knew that he knew perfectly what she was meaning to say. "So I guess I won."

"Yeah, yeah." Ruka shoved his hand on his pocket and glared at the carpet. "You lasted a day without taking my pictures, alright."

"And?"

He sighed, looking back to her face tiredly. "And I'll be your slave…"

"Good." Hotaru muttered, putting her camera away to her bag. "You'll start tomorrow."

Ruka shrugged, obviously putting himself in the hands of fate—which didn't make him feel any confident at all because all that's fate been doing is putting him in the Ice Queen's hands instead. "Like I have a choice…" He muttered under his breath. But deep down he wished that when she said 'tomorrow', she meant Monday—since it's already the dawn of Sunday, and he perfectly knew he wouldn't be able to see the sun in the sky this day for he'd gladly pass out on his bed the moment he'd get to it.

Hotaru looked at him for a moment, noting the now dark circles under his tired but still beautiful blue eyes. His hair was dry now, and even by simply looking at its natural messiness, she kind of felt like wanting to run her fingers through them again. "I'll go now." She muttered, half-heartedly turning her heels to proceed upstairs.

She was already on top of the staircase when she heard him again.

"Y-Your dad said that I...that I should call you by your name."

The Ice Queen blinked, and then looked down at the blond guy looking up to her from the bottom of the stairs. Her heart was obviously trying to get her attention by beating furiously fast, but she ignored it as she raised an eyebrow at the guy, daring him to elaborate.

Ruka inhaled sharply at the sight of her calm face, and surprising himself for not stuttering so much, he managed a weak smile. "Can I call you H-Hotaru?"

A cold shiver ran down his spine as he squinted against the bright light of the chandelier, his tired eyes protesting now for straining to look at the Ice Queen, who was still quietly staring him down from the top of the stairs. So when she spoke, all the exhaustion seemed to go down the drain in that same instant.

"Then I get to call you Ruka."

Despite the thundering sound of his pulse against his temples, and the coldness behind his neck, Ruka managed to smile. "Deal."

Epilogue

Hotaru Imai flicked the light switch on her desk on. Sighing, she sat down on her work desk and thought about the whole day. Her room was dark except for the fluorescent lamp she just turned on. It was quiet—too quiet, actually—and in normal nights she would've been able to accomplish lots of things at this hour.

But it wasn't a normal night. It wasn't even night already; it's near dawn. And her whole day wasn't the one she could ever call normal—noting the fact that she didn't use her Baka Gun in full twenty-four hours and more. But it was more than that, actually. And she didn't bypass all those other reasons. Number one was Bunny boy—Oh…Ruka.

Hating that she couldn't help it, her lips tugged into a small smile. But knowing better than getting herself started with the thinking—which, she knew, would last for hours if she wouldn't stop herself—she opened her bag and pulled out the uncanny beetle.

Sitting on the chair, she put the deactivated device at the center of her workspace, the lamp illuminating it perfectly. Even with tired eyes, she could make out the connections and tiny details the device had.

If her assumptions had been correct, and the Academy's engineers didn't change her original prototype of this invention, then she would certainly find it somewhere… Her hands moved to work on the beetle, groping and pulling and analyzing, then stopped on one section…here.

She smirked, her spirits perking up. Pulling up the familiar black, thin, chip into the light, Hotaru couldn't help but chuckle in triumph.

Oh, well, Bunny boy. She thought, reassembling the beetle without the tiny chip she just found, my conscience is clear.

She rose up to her feet and took her camera out from her bag almost too excitedly, and then accurately slipped the tiny chip—which turned out to be a memory card—on its side and turned the camera on. Her knees almost buckling, the Ice Queen couldn't help but bite her lip in childish guilt and amusement as she flicked through the photos taken and stored by the beetle.

Their train ride; Ruka sleeping in the terminal while they waited; their little 'hike' around her hometown; the two of them looking down at her mother's grave; him and her father talking in the living room—which, she had to admit, kind of surprised her—their 'stupid' dinner; the two of them walking in the rain.

It wasn't just Bunny boy; it was the two of them—a full documentation. And upon looking at the high quality, perfectly zoomed, photos, Hotaru Imai patted herself in her mind for being so good.

Turning off the camera and putting it safely aside, she couldn't get rid of all that's she'd just seen on the photos. She usually wasn't the one with the sentimental hang-ups, but this one's quite different than anything she'd ever experienced. So it ought to be an exception, all she's been feeling and acting.

She was definitely going to sleep now, but not before a hot bath, of course. That heavy rain sure wasn't a joke; she hated getting sick. Specifically, she hated feeling weak. Then maybe she'd think about things again, when she'd finally reach the comfort of her queen sized bed.

But she certainly didn't need to pray that the happenings of that day would come flooding back to her as if happening again, unlike how love songs usually goes; because that beetle sure did the job for her.

The video would be watched later when she'd wake up, she decided, knowing that it would take most of her time than anything else. The photos…well, they won't be for sale, of course. Ruka looked exceptionally gorgeous that day in his old school shirt and jeans; Hotaru thought that that ought to remain as something exclusive.

She smirked at that. Exclusive…

~owari~

A/N: Sniff! I can't believe I pulled it off! lol.

This is probably the longest fanfiction I've ever written-including the ones I didn't upload here in -and I have to say, I'm proud of it.

How about you? If you're reading this one, you might've read the whole story! lol. What do you think? Too much? Flames? Go ahead!

Click the review button below and fire away!

P.S.

THanks to all those who stayed tuned for the chapters, and for those who reviewed. Thanks! :D