A/N: I really wanted to write a Lovecom fic for Valentines Day- of course I'm kinda late, but hey. I hope you enjoy!

A Sticky Situation

It was one of those accidents you see in a slapstick comedy movie- she was almost at the top of the stairs leading to the subway when her foot slid on some sort of wrapper on the ground and the next thing she knew she was pitching backwards, arms flailing wildly- and then there was a soft "pop" sound and the back of her head connected with something rather hard- although, it didn't feel as hard as she'd imagined concrete would. She realized suddenly that if she'd landed on the stairs, she'd be upside down… and she wasn't. She also noticed there were arms around her waist, and when she blinked open her eyes, Otani's concerned face swam into view.

"O-Otani?" she said, and he reached forward to grab her shoulders. Hold on- if Otani's hands were on her shoulders, then whose hands were-

Otani had barely pulled her upright when she whirled around to face whoever had caught her from behind.

It was a man- a tall man- a tall handsome man. Striking black hair swept across his forehead, his dark eyes sparkled and he offered her a smile that would melt any maiden's heart. Well, any maiden's but Risa's- her heart had been stolen a long time ago by a certain midget.

But even so, she could feel herself getting a little red in the face.

"I-I-I-" she stuttered. "Thank you, uh, for c-catching me- I'm sorry I was- I just- so clumsy, right?" She trailed off into an awkward chuckle.

The man still smiled. He had a nice smile, but there was something odd stuck to the one corner of his mouth- pink, kinda rubbery looking-

"I'm glad I was there to prevent your fall," the man said graciously, but then his smile fell a bit. "I'm afraid I should apologize to you as well, miss. Ah, you see-" he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Huh?" Risa said, bewildered.

It was Otani who cleared things up. "Your hair, Koizumi," he said, still behind her.

"My-" Risa began, but Otani stepped down beside her and grabbed her hand.

"Thanks for your help, sir, but we'd better get going."

"Ah, of course. I'm-" his handsome face twisted further into sadness- "really quite sorry about your hair."

"Don't worry about it," Otani said, and he tugged Risa up the rest of the steps and away down the street, while she called out another hurried "Thank you!" over her shoulder.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Risa demanded as Otani doggedly walked onward, pulling her along. "Is it- do I have a bedhead? Is it falling out? Is it turning grey? Or is it-"

Otani snorted.

"This really isn't funny!" Risa would've stamped her foot, but they were walking too fast and her shoe just sort of skidded on the pavement. "Tell me!"

"You really didn't notice?" he asked, glancing back at her for a second. His expression was a mix of humour and concern- never a good sign. "That guy- he was blowing a bubble when your head konked him in the face. Now the gum is-"

Risa's heart plummeted as realization struck her like a baseball bat. "Nooo!" she wailed, reaching her free hand to the back of her head to assess the damage. Sure enough, her fingers made contact with a mess of gooey, rubbery gum- in fact, it felt rather wet… and still warm.

"Urrllggh." She shivered convulsively.

"Don't touch it," Otani scolded, glancing back at her. "You'll only make it worse."

She made some more noises of disgust, which gradually evolved into moaning and groaning at the unfairness of the universe. "Oh, what am I gonna do?"

"We're going to my house."

"Huh? But what about-"

"Do you really wanna walk around town with a wad of gum in your hair? Besides, the sooner we deal with it the easier it is to get it out."

That gave Risa pause. "Huh? How would you know?"

"I just know," Otani said unhelpfully. Before Risa could question him further, he added, with a resentful note to his voice: "And why'd you get all flustered when that guy was talking to you, anyway? Turning red and stuttering like that…"

Risa found herself turning an even deeper red. And annoyance had already gotten hold of her tongue before she realized- too late- that it was a typical Otani-style avoidance tactic and she'd already taken the bait-

"Well it's only natural that I'd be flustered, I was just rescued by a handsome and charming young man! You could learn something from someone as classy as him!"

Otani snorted loudly. "Learn something? Like how to spit bubblegum all over a girl's hair? Yeah, Koizumi, pretty classy."

"Why you little-"

Just like that they fell back into the usual pattern of arguing. And Risa was so busy being annoyed she almost forgot about her ruined hair.

"What are you looking for?" Risa asked gloomily as she languished over the kitchen table. Her previous annoyance had evaporated, and now the grim state of her hair seemed like it might just be pretty close to the end of the world. What if they couldn't get the gum out? What if-

"Just a second," Otani muttered, totally ignoring her question. He was rummaging through the top cupboard, standing on his tiptoes in order to reach. It looked like a bit of strain, and under normal circumstances Risa likely would've either poked fun at him or offered to help- both actions would earn her only a glare of supreme disdain, of course. At the moment, however, she was too busy wallowing in self-pity to try anything.

"It's hopeless," she lamented. "I'll have to cut it off." She ran her fingers through a section of untainted hair and sighed morosely. "All of it, to keep it even. And then-" here she covered her face with her hands. "-I'll look like a boy!" she wailed.

She peeked through her fingers to see if Otani was paying her any attention. As she suspected, he wasn't.

"Don't you feel just a tiny speck of pity for your girlfriend who is now going to look like a guy?" she demanded.

"Nope," Otani answered easily, finally pulling something out of the cupboard.

For some reason, his lack of pity did more to lift her spirits than commiseration.

"So cruel," she complained, but her heart wasn't really in it now and he could probably tell she was just acting.

"Yep, that's me," he said. "C'mon over to the sink."

She did as he asked, curious now as to what he was gonna try to remove the gum. He was holding a bottle of olive oil, which she eyed with suspicion.

"Lean over the sink," he instructed, and she was about to obey, albeit confusedly, when something struck her.

"Um, Otani?"

"Yeah?"

"You know… you don't really have to do this. It's really nice of you, but- I mean- I can deal with this myself."

Otani rolled his eyes. "It's not going to hurt you, I promise. You can trust me."

"That's not it! I mean- I just mean… you shouldn't have to trouble yourself with this," she said, cheeks starting to flush.

"What are you on about now?"

Yeesh, Otani was so thick sometimes. "It's not your fault this happened, so I should deal with it myself. What kind of girl makes her boyfriend help with her hair problems anyway?" Her face was completely flaming now, but she was annoyed enough that she didn't care.

"Now you decide this?" He looked a little miffed. "Look, Koizumi, I'm helping cause I want to. Come on." He tugged her so she was bent over the sink, and hair fell over her face, obscuring her view of him.

"But-"

"Besides, I know how much it sucks to have gum stuck in your hair," he muttered. "And it's not like I want you to cut off your hair anyway. It looks better long."

That was the closest thing to a compliment she'd gotten in a while, and she couldn't help the smile that snuck onto her lips. It disappeared pretty fast when he started pouring oil over her head though.

"How exactly is oil supposed to get rid of the chewing gum?!" she demanded.

"Maybe if you'd paid attention in chemistry class, you'd know," he sniped, and she glared, except he couldn't see her expression so it was kind of pointless.

"Well, why don't you explain it to me then, Mr Oh-So-Intelligent University Student?"

There was a brief pause. "It's not like I paid attention in chemistry either!" he shot back finally.

She snorted. He'd stopped pouring the oil and begun to run his fingers through her hair, spreading it around. They stood for a few moments in comfortable silence, until Risa's back started to feel a bit sore from her bent over position. She shifted- and brushed against Otani's chest.

It was then that she abruptly noticed how close they were, and a warm, tingly feeling spread through her from head to toe. It wasn't exactly romantic, what with her leaning over the sink, oil dripping from her head and strands of pink gum coming loose, but as his fingers worked through her hair in silence, gently tugging out more gum- she felt more awkward with every passing second, and her face grew so hot she thought she might spontaneously combust on the spot.

"Otani!" she burst out, and his hands froze for a moment. "Um-" she searched for a topic, something to distract her from the current situation, even another argument would be okay- "Tell me about the time you got gum stuck in your hair!"

Perfectly distracting- plus she really did want to know.

He shot her down. "Uh, no."

"But-"

"No." He continued to work the gum out of her hair.

"Come on!"

"No way."

She had another flash of inspiration. "If you don't tell me, I'll ask your mom."

He froze again. "I'm sure she'd be happy to tell me the whole story," Risa continued smugly. "Plus I bet she'll let me see that photo album with all your baby pictures agai-"

"Okay, okay, you win! But don't even think about encouraging my mom, alright?" His fingers combed through her hair again, perhaps a tad less gentle than before.

"Fine," she said, and Otani- reluctantly- began to share his story.

Apparently when Otani was five years old his younger neighbour Mimi had planted a wad of gum right on the top of his head- even then, she was taller than him. It was apparently because he'd made her cry by refusing to play dress-up with her. He didn't really go into detail on that part- but Risa's imagination was plenty entertaining enough.

Anyway, when he came home, his older sister- not quite ten at the time- decided to help him out, by hacking away at his hair with a pair of safety scissors. Poor Otani looked like he'd had his scalp mauled by a wild bear, and by the time his mom returned from work… Risa could imagine her shriek of horror echoing through the neighbourhood. At that point Otani's hair was pretty much too far gone to be saved, but his mom showed them how to use cooking oil to get out the last bits of gum, and then valiantly attempted to even out the haircut. It didn't do much good.

"I had a bald patch for weeks!" he complained, and by that point Risa was shaking with giggles. "Oh, stop moving," he scolded. He'd finished getting out the gum and was just rinsing her hair with water under the tap. "You're just lucky I know how to do this or the same thing might've happened to you!" he grumbled.

She tilted her head just enough to see his face out of the corner of her eye- getting some water splashed on her nose in the process- and noticed with a sense of smugness and endearment that his cheeks were rather red.

"Okay, I'm done," he said, a few moments later. He brought a towel and she stood up straight at last- her back was kinda sore now- and wrung out her hair.

"You'll probably wanna wash it again when you get home, just to get out all the oil," he said, looking at his shoes. When she finished with the towel and handed it to him, he stepped past her, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Come on, I'll give you a bike ride to the train station."

"Hey, Otani?"

He turned back slightly, face still tinted pink.

"Thanks for your help," she said. "And… sorry for ruining our date today."

"It's fine." He waved a hand.

"I'm serious. Thanks. For everything."

"Yeah, whatever." He was about to turn away, looking distinctly uncomfortable, but she leaned over again- ignoring the slight twinge in her back- and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"If I ever have hair problems again, I know who to go to," she said, smiling.

He rolled his eyes, but smiled back nonetheless.

So what if this date hadn't gone as planned- it was more than enough just to spend time with Otani, talk with him, argue with him, laugh with him- or at him.

And to hear such a hilarious confession as his childhood misadventures- it might even be worth it to get gum in her hair again.

FIN