A/N: Again, not edited. It's even worse than last time, I dont have my glasses, but please enjoy!

Thanks to the following for reviewing:

Ryukei

Shelby98

Yaoifangirl89

Finderlov

Gundamzbd36

To answer Yaoifangirl; Takaba's mother hasn't left him yet.

Chapter Two

In the morning, Takaba awoke to find his mother on the couch, snoring peacefully, and his parent's bedroom door open, signaling his father had left long before he'd waken. He went into the kitchen and started some rice for the morning. In the cupboards was a clay pot full of sugar which he sprinkled on the rice once it was finished.

On the couch, his mother stirred in her sleep, murmuring vaguely about the color amber and her trips to the liquor store. Takaba sighed and ate his rice. His mother would occasionally come home the days she wasn't holed up at a one-night stand's home or drinking herself to death under the lampshades at night.
Takaba couldn't remember when his parent's union had started to become rocky. Perhaps it was before he was born, but they had grown very distant during these last five years of his life, soon to be six.
Pictures of them both decorated the walls in every room except his own and the basement. Akihito knew they were still on the walls so that when they had company, they could be portrayed as the perfect family.
Otherwise, they would be of no use to him, besides the fact that he married his dream trophy wife, a woman about five feet and six inches to his father's six feet and three inches.
She had beautiful brown hair that reached the small of her back, and blue eyes like no other. She was the daughter of a trading company's CEO. Was being the key word until her father, his grandfather, was put under bars for human and drug trafficking.

The rice was sweet, a dirty pleasure of his that he had a limited time to indulge in every morning. Sweet treats were a sin, or that's what his father said. He would talk for many hours on how mankind was made for suffrage, not pleasure, and so suffering the Takaba men must endure.

Gathering his homework, he thought about school, vaguely. It was not a terrible thing, school, that is. But it wasn't his favorite past-time of the day. But the private school he attended was only five blocks away, so he would always be able to make to school on time, early if he ran.

The Takaba's lived in one of the richest neighborhoods in Shinjuku. While they didn't live in a mansion, the house was big enough to serve as your average homeless shelter. What took up most of the space was the basement which acted as the den. Akihito never went down there, it was the place where his father kept his office at home, and there was a lock on the door too.

"I'm leaving," Takaba announced to deaf ears, he frowned, knowing she wouldn't have heard him anyway. "Bye."

The walk to school took less than fifteen minutes. At the front gate was a machine that all students had to enter their student ID's in to gain access to the academy campus.

He grimaced at the picture of him taken earlier in the year. It was when acne decided to take a major role in his life. He looked butt ugly, not to mention that it was also taken while he had braces. That picture was the absolute bane of his existence. Even today Kou and Takato still make fun of him for it.

"Hey man!" An overly enthusiastic Kou yelled. Several students behind Takaba winced at such a sound early in the morning. He slumped his shoulders and apologized to the students, Takato wrapped his arms around Akihito's shoulders.

"Quiet Kou, we don't have time for your nonsense today. Did you remember the reflection paper for our seminar today?" Takato asked his friend. Takaba visibly blanched and squatted, hands on his head. "Ugh," he whined. "I forgot, I was preoccupied with Murasaki Ida. She's on this awesome new drama. I was going to do it, but then my dad came home and I just wanted to get away from him as soon as possible."

Takato flicked Kou in the ear and turned back to his friend, "Hm? What was that?"

Akihito laughed. "Nothing man. I didn't do the paper, too lazy. I heard the summer festival is coming up soon. Are you guys gonna be on the committee?"

Kou shrugged. "Probably not." The other boy looked baffled. "No way Aki, I've got baseball, and the committee is boring. Plus all the girls will be drooling over the student government president. I don't need the competition."

The teen chuckled. "Feilong is pretty good-looking." He said without thinking. He froze and looked back at his friends who seemed completely unaffected by his comment. For the rest of the way, they walked to the main building in silence, the sun was rising above the horizon, shedding light on them. Takaba smiled and sighed. The morning sun felt good on his body, like a giant fuzzy blanket.

When they got into the building, the three of them made conversation for about an hour, greeting other students who were passing by, and hitting on a couple of girls. As time passed the bell rung, signaling that classes were starting. Kou and Takato headed over to class B-2 while Akihito made his way into A-2.

He sat at his desk, dropping his bag to the space on the floor by his feet, and rested his head on the sleek and soft surface of his desk. The air in this room was stale and made his nostrils flare.
Takaba listened to the chatter of the students and the gossip that flowed around like a sneeze. It was amazing, the things you would hear, if you only stopped to listen. Takaba learned this a long time ago.

Kisaragi Emi, the class president, walked in after the teacher. All the students, who were sitting, rose from there seats to bow as the room became silence. Their homeroom teacher called attendance, and then Kisagari took the podium.

She listed all the events and fundraisers going on this weekend, and asked for volunteers. Half the class had signed up for the bake sale and friendly class rivalry challenge where each year and class create a team of five people that represented their best athletes. The teams would then compete and whichever class won got free lunches for the students for the rest of the semester, and bragging rights.
Last year, class E-3 won, but it wasn't that big of a surprise. Sure all the other classes may have their school athletes, but all the thugs and delinquents were in the E class.
He watched Kisaragi move her lips but he zoned out and soon she became nothing but silence to him.
After a couple minutes of staring at her, Kisaragi looked at him and smiled. Takaba broke out of his daze to see most eyes were on him.

"Ah..." He said, unsure of what to say. Kisaragi beamed.

Some of the students snickered. "You've been nominated to be on the summer festival committee!"

Takaba balked. "Wait, what? I didn't even sign-up for it!" Kisaragi giggled. "I know silly! You've been nominated! Isn't that great? This will count as an elective credit and setup is usually three weeks, so it won't take that long.

You'll be able to work with Fei-kun, Mikhail-kun and the rest of the group too. I'm so jealous!"

If you're so jealous, why don't you volunteer? Takaba sneered at her in his mind, but smiled and accepted it. This would count for something since he didn't have any electives beside the photography club which was cut last year because there weren't enough members. "Thank you for this opportunity." He rose and bowed his head, then sat down. After a few more words she sat down at the front of the class.
The teacher, Hishiwa-sensei, began the lessons.

Takaba zoned out for the rest of the day, watching the clouds reshaped and stretched along the sky, the blue background turning darker as other colors mixed in within a couple of hours. His notebook was blank by the end of the day, to which he hid from the eyes of his homeroom teacher.

Kou and Takato were waiting for him outside as he slipped his outdoor shoes on and ran up with them.
"Hey guys," he yawned. Kou looked really tired, and he yawned too. Takato smiled in response and asked about the reflection paper for the seminar, but Takaba replied that class A's was next week.

Takato began to whine. "Ugh, that's not fair! Class B had it with our third years, and I was selected to speak. But when I went to get it, I didn't have it. Kou didn't even write his and he still got full credit 'cause they didn't know. I swear I wrote it too!"

"Yeah, well somethings aren't fair. By the way, how's baseball? Don't you have to practice tonight?" Takaba asked.

His friend shrugged, "No, we do on Friday though. Ah –" he suddenly stopped talking. "This is where we part, see you later Aki!" Kou and Takato waved as the three split up.

It wasn't until half an hour advanced that he arrived to an empty house, a sense of relief with boldness washed over him. He took his bag into his room, throwing it on top of his bed.

He thought about school and what being on the committee would be like. He'd get to meet Feilong, and the vice president Mikhail Arbatov, which would be exciting. Maybe he could befriend one of them, that would be pretty good.

"Ah..." He sighed in relief. Takaba laid on the sofa, and closed his eyes.

His mind was blank, completely void of any thoughts or worries. He soaked in the silence and freedom while he still had it. The air here wasn't stale, it was sweet with the scent of his mother's expensive perfume, mixed in with an unknown alcoholic tinge.
With his hair, falling onto his face, Takaba sat up and relax his muscles. There was a small pile of homework in his bag, along with the reflective paper for the seminar next week with the third years.

Their was a pang of anxiety in his chest at the thought of seeing the third years. He would get to see Feilong and Mikhail, as well as...

He gulped, whispering the name into nothingness.

"Asami."

Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

Akihito jumped up from the couch, momentarily frightened by the sound and went to answer the door, hoping to God it wasn't his father. He was surprised when he saw Ishikawa fidgeting with a giant gift bag, his own school bag still in his hands.

He opened his mouth, voice wavering, "Hey." And Takaba smiled telling the other boy to come inside.
Ishikawa returned the smile. "I've brought you something, some gifts because of what you did yesterday. Please take it."

Wow, Takaba thought. "Uh, thank you, but this isn't necessary." He replied with a grin, taking the bag and putting it on the kitchen counter-top. When he turned around his heart almost sprang from his chest to see Ishikawa so close. "You scared me for a second there. Would you like to... uh... share some of the candy here?" He motioned towards some of the chocolates in the bag.

Ishikawa nodded his head and went to sit at the kitchen table. Takaba took the candies out and sat with Ishikawa, who only took one of the chocolates and refused anymore.

"Thank you for these, they're really good!" Akihito beamed, because the chocolates tasted wonderful, absolutely amazing. The sweetness melted on his tongue like ice cream, it had been a while since he'd anything this good.
Ishikawa gave a bashful smile and stood up, grabbing his bag. Takaba had never really realized how tall Ishikawa was, even though he had been attacked by Asami and his lackeys, this guy was a couple inches taller than himself.

"Come by again, after school, maybe we can hang out. I'm on the summer festival committee though, so who knows. But stop by anyway, eh?" Takaba asked. Ishikawa smiled and nodded, and without another word, walked out the door.

It never occurred to him how Ishikawa found out where he lived.

*~*CW*~*

"What are you doing this weekend, Aki?" Takato asked, hands folded on the back of his head. Kou and Takaba walked beside him eating squid and onigiri. Takaba took the pickled plum from one of the onigiri in the square plastic container he carried from his lunch and plopped the delicious morsel into his mouth, savoring the favor as it was the perfect combination between sour and sweet.

Takaba ate the rest of the riceball before speaking. "Home, doing homework. I'm not allowed to leave the house without my father's permission, you know that. And he's never home so..." He trailed off, looking down at his feet as they moved along the pavement.

Kou wrapped his arms around Takaba's shoulders. "If he's never around then he should never miss you! Just come with us, one time, please?"

Akihito sighed. "I just.. I can't Kou, Takato. You both know that. I can't stress it enough, so can we please stop talking about it?"

Kou let go of his friend and pouted. "Sure." He answered for both him and Takato. Neither one attempted to pursue the matter for the rest of the day. It was Friday, the end of the week, the beginning of the weekend. And all Takaba would be doing correlated with being under house arrest.

"Oh, Aki," Takato suddenly said out of the blue. "I saw an ad the other day. The local newspaper is hiring photographers for some freelance work. You might be able to apply."

Takaba laughed. "I appreciate the thought man, but there is no way I'd be able to land that. I'm pretty sure they're looking for experienced photographers and when would I have the time for such a job?" He handed Kou a riceball and chuckled to himself. Inside his head he couldn't help but think of what would happen if he applied? Would they accept him? Would they liked his work? What if they didn't like what he had to offer or ridiculed him? What if they told his father about it? What would he do?

Takaba's thoughts immediately went to the basement and he shivered, unsure of everything. "I... I'm sorry Takato. Thank you for the thought, but I wouldn't be able to do it." With that he ended the discussion, dismissal bold in his voice as he told them he was leaving now.

"Bye Aki, see you next week." His friends said, departing with a conversation of their own, to which they both were entranced by. Akihito watched from the sidelines as his two best friends in the world were so deep in conversation that they didn't notice him. Jealous ate away at his heart, he too wished to have that same bond with someone else. Not later in life, but now. He wanted to be loved and touched, to be able to laugh and smile with someone, to have a meaningful conversation with somebody whether or not the topic at hand was even serious.

"I'm lonely," Takaba mouthed the words. Not daring to bring them to life. He still had his mom and dad, he had them until they decided to leave him.

And then, he would truly be alone.