A/N: A gigantamongous thank you goes out to Lyssa, Chrys, and Chu, who talked me through the 20 questions when I was ready to spork this fic to death. Also to anyone else who helped me at all with the questions. And then another thank you for Chu for betaing this piece of junk and for giving me the idea for an ending that doesn't suck quite as bad. I'm sorry that it's still terrible ;.

"So," Nokoru said, opening the door to the office and staring straight at Suoh. The tone of voice combined with the expression on his face tipped Suoh off that Nokoru was very focused on something, which nearly always meant trouble for him. "Would you like to explain?"

There were a good half dozen things that Nokoru could have been referring to, so Suoh didn't look up from his work and replied, "Explain what?"

"Nagisa," Nokoru said shortly, and Suoh winced. Oh. That.

"Look, it was a mutual decision. She suggested it. She's fine."

"Just because it was her idea doesn't mean she wasn't putting on a brave face to-" Nokoru started.

"If you didn't know about it before now, then she obviously didn't set off your damsel in distress radar and the decision was obviously mutual," he said shortly.

"Ohhhh, touchy subject," Nokoru said, almost smugly. "Why?"

"Of course it's touchy, we only broke up two weeks ago," Suoh sighed. "Look, we've been going out for a long time. We both grew up, changed a lot."

"So? So did Utako-san and Akira-kun."

"They're not us," Suoh said, smacking his hand on his desk and finally looking up. "Why are you judging me? I expected you of all people not to get on my case."

Nokoru sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I know it's hard…" he walked over and perched on the edge of Suoh's desk. "I'm just trying to understand. I thought you were happy."

"I was, for a long time. I don't have any regrets. But it was time for both of us to move on."

Nokoru looked down briefly, and then said softly, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Suoh flipped through his papers idly and began filling one out that didn't take much concentration. "Because I thought you had enough to think about with the Seals living on campus, and the earthquakes, and everything else that's going on. By the way –" he glanced up, but didn't hold Nokoru's gaze for long. "How did you find out, anyway? I thought Nagisa and I were both keeping it a secret, so even with your sources-"

"Nagisa-san tells Utako-san everything, and even though Utako-san promised not to tell anyone, she told Akira-kun, because she tells him everything, and Akira-kun told me."

That figured. "Ah," Suoh replied. "Well, I suppose now that everyone knows there's not much point in keeping it a secret."

"Indeed," Nokoru said, crossing his legs. "Akira-kun also relayed another interesting piece of information." He raised both of his eyebrows at Suoh and a rather mischievous expression crept over his face. "He said Utako said that Nagisa thinks you're in love with someone else."

Suoh groaned, his head thudding against the desk. "That barely makes sense, Rijichou."

Completely undeterred, Nokoru clapped his hands. "So she was right! Tell me!" He beamed. "I can help you two out, goodness knows you're so shy when it comes to relationships." He tried to ignore the clenching of his heart. It had been hard enough to let Suoh go the first time…just because Suoh was his bodyguard didn't give him any right to keep the man from dating people. Other people, that is.

"It's fine, thanks," Suoh replied. He wasn't about to tell Nokoru how he felt. Things could never be the same after that.

"Aw, come on," Nokoru pleaded, after it became clear that Suoh was not about to tell him. "A hint? A clue? I won't tell anyone…Oooh, I must know her, or you'd tell me."

Suoh shook his head. "No, Rijichou, though I thank you for offering. This one is doomed to be unrequited, I'm afraid."

"Oh, how do you know that until you ask?" Nokoru replied, still wheedling. "You know if you tell me, I might know whether she likes you. Please? Answer one question about her. What's her favorite color? When's her birthday?" When he saw that Suoh was not about to answer him, he put on his best puppy eyes and decided to push Suoh a little. "Are you scared to tell me?" Nokoru said, too innocently. "I promise I won't laugh if she's too scrawny or she's a goth or something."

"Rijichou!" Suoh almost laughed, looking up, and then got caught by the puppy eyes. "I'm not scared," he nearly pouted. Nokoru just continued to use the puppy eyes on him.

There was a pause. After a moment, Suoh sighed and gave in. "All right, I give up. Here are your terms. You get twenty yes or no questions. I'll answer them all truthfully, but once you run out, you have to let it drop."

"Sounds fair," Nokoru agreed. He wasn't a master detective for nothing. He could do this without a problem. "Do I have a time limit?"

"I suppose not," Suoh replied. "As long as this does not go on excessively." He wasn't sure his heart could take that kind of strain.

Nokoru's eyes twinkled. "Oh, don't worry, it won't take me that long."

Suoh's head made another hollow thunk against the desk. "All right then."

"Hmmm…" Nokoru thought. "Does she have long or short hair?"

"Yes or no questions!" Suoh reminded him.

Nokoru frowned. Right. "Does she have short hair?" he rephrased.

"Yes," Suoh replied, immediately. Nokoru beamed. That was a big clue. It had to be quite short or Suoh would have had to ask where the cutoff between short and long was.

"Curly or straight?"

Suoh cleared his throat. "Rijichou…"

"Right, right. Is it curly?"

Suoh nodded. "Well – I guess I'd call it more wavy."

Nokoru's fan snapped open, then shut. "All right, I'll have to think about those answers." He beamed cheerfully. Suoh groaned and buried his face in his arms, totally dreading the whole process.

"So. Does she live on campus?" Nokoru asked, a day later.

"I'll answer when you finish your paperwork," Suoh returned sweetly, adding another stack to the seemingly endless supply of paper on Nokoru's desk.

"No fair…" Nokoru complained, staring at it balefully. "That wasn't in the terms."

"But I also never said I couldn't refuse to answer immediately," Suoh replied sweetly. True to his word, when Nokoru raced through the paperwork (though he was still careful of mistakes) and set the last one in the outbox, he tilted his head to the side. "Now the question was-?"

"Does she live on campus?" Nokoru repeated.

"Okay, that's what I thought. The answer is yes."

Numerous frustrating questions (for Nokoru) later, he was bored and frustrated, which meant that he was thinking, which always lead to something that Suoh didn't like.

Nokoru's face took on a mischievous expression as he nudged Suoh in the ribs with the fan. It was surprising to him that he couldn't for the life of him figure out who Suoh was talking about. Suoh wasn't close enough to many people to be willing to say he was in love, so Nokoru had expected to be able to eliminate them one by one at some point, but somehow he'd gotten down to none without him realizing it. So if he was going to lose this, he might as well horrify Suoh as much as possible in the process.

"Yes?" Suoh said, with a long-suffering expression.

"Does she have big breasts?" Nokoru asked with a completely straight face.

"NO!" Suoh burst out, clearly flustered, before he realized that Nokoru was mostly messing with him. "Rijichou! Such a question…"

Nokoru threw up his hands, vaguely frustrated, but still amused. "Is it not a girl?" he asked, half-joking until he caught the expression on Suoh's face. His fan snapped open quickly to hide his surprise, and he pretended that had been a serious question from the beginning. "Ah, so I was right," he said, fanning himself.

Suoh nodded, looking a little pale. "You were right," he murmured.

Something snapped into place into Nokoru's brain. The real reason Suoh wouldn't tell him, when he'd never been a big keeper of secrets before – at least not from Nokoru. Could he get his hopes up? Could he dare to dream that Suoh really feel the same way about him?

He needed to think about that. He frowned and bit his lip, deep in thought, and went back to his paperwork, though his mind was miles away. All of the answers to the questions he'd asked so far were not at all inconsistent with the final solution being him….

So-- he wanted to confirm his longing, and suspicion. That it really was him that Suoh loved. But he didn't want to be obvious about it because if he was wrong, he'd feel silly. More than silly. So he'd have to formulate his questions carefully from here on out -- not that he hadn't before, but…

He set his paperwork aside for a moment and looked up, to where Suoh's head was bent over his desk and he was scribbling something. "Suoh-san? I'm almost done, how about you?"

Suoh muttered agreement, writing furiously.

"Can we go get some dinner when you're done?" Nokoru asked hopefully. Akira was out of town for the week, forcing them to fend for themselves. After several meals of spaghetti, Nokoru had decided it was time to eat out. It wasn't like he couldn't afford it or anything.

"Okay," he muttered. Nokoru wondered if he was even listening.

"And then maybe we can go meet the aliens that landed on campus earlier," he added.

"Sounds fine," Suoh said. Nokoru held in a snicker and went back to his paperwork.

"Done," Suoh said with a sigh, setting aside the rest of the work about the same time Nokoru finished up his.

"Oh good, now we can go get dinner," Nokoru said.

"Er-- but I was gonna go home--" Suoh started.

Nokoru batted his eyes innocently. "But you already agreed!" he objected.

"When?" Suoh looked rather confused, like he was wracking his brain, trying to remember when he'd agreed to go out with Nokoru.

"When you were doing your paperwork," Nokoru informed him. "You also agreed to go see the aliens that landed on campus." His fan snapped open to hide his smile.

"Sorry," Suoh said, now sheepish. "Dinner sounds fine." He stood, pulling his suit jacket from the closet and shrugging it on, holding Nokoru's so he could slide into it. Nokoru smiled at him and opened the door, trusting Suoh to follow him out.

Once they were settled in the restaurant and had ordered, Nokoru smiled slightly at Suoh. "I have some more questions for you."

Suoh looked alarmed. "More than one?"

Nokoru nodded. "I think so. This man you're in love with –" he thought for a moment and reversed the question he was going to ask. Instead of asking whether it was someone that Suoh had known for a long time… "Is he someone you met recently?" That made it sound like Nokoru himself thought it was the latter.

"No," Suoh answered, not meeting Nokoru's eyes. Nokoru knew Suoh well enough that he could read a lot of his body language, and the man really wasn't very good at hiding things, especially now that Nokoru was on to him. He had a million little tells in voice tone and body language that Nokoru was now picking up on.

"Hmmm…" Nokoru said, and pretended to think, digging in silently when the waitress brought their food. Suoh seemed to respect that and remained silent himself.

About halfway through the meal, Suoh raised his eyebrows. "No more?"

Nokoru waved his hand. "Shhh, I only have four questions left, and an entire gender I overlooked before. I have to be careful." Nevertheless, a minute or two later, he came up with, "Does he know how to fight, like you and Akira-san?"

Suoh shook his head. "No, he doesn't."

Hmm. Those questions were okay, but he needed something that would eliminate all the traces of doubt from his mind. Suoh, predictably, insisted on walking him home to ensure his safety, but left him to his thoughts, as he tried to come up with something else. He'd asked Suoh whether this man was someone whom he'd met recently, but there was still the gray area of having met someone a few years ago - not a short amount of time, but not really ages, either. And then a better phrasing came to him. "Have you known him around as long as you've known me?"

Bingo. Suoh's eyes flickered to the side slightly, as he obviously wasn't sure how to answer that- since the person in question now obviously was Nokoru. The eye flicker was something Nokoru had caught onto a long time ago as a clear tell when Suoh was lying. It was more reliable than Old Faithful. Finally, Suoh appeared to decide on a simple nod, and the soft answer of, "It's been a long time now."

Nokoru sat down on his bed, mischief now on his mind. "Have you ever known him to date anyone?" Everything but his eyes hid behind the fan he was waving gently.

Suoh, startled by the somewhat off-the-wall question, answered without thinking about it. "Well, no, not really-" he stopped and blinked at Nokoru, wondering exactly how much he'd figured out. "You've – ah – got one question left," he said, his mouth feeling a little dry.

"I know," Nokoru replied, snapping his fan shut. He, himself, was feeling rather calm, all things considered. He suspected, though, that it was only because his emotions had completely detached from his brain, because they were jumping all over the place, from incredible hope to the fear of being wrong. "Come here," he ordered, patting the bed next to him.

Suoh looked nervous, but didn't disobey, moving to sit next to Nokoru – though Nokoru noticed he sat a little further away than was possibly strictly necessary. Nokoru took care of that problem quickly, though, sliding closer to him and, before Suoh could protest, cupping his face between both hands, bringing Suoh's head around to meet his eyes. Suoh looked confused, but Nokoru didn't give him long to worry about it. He leaned over just far enough to press his lips over Suoh's in a rather inexperienced kiss, and then backed away, snapping his fan open to hide his smirk. "Last question. Did you like that?"

Suoh looked like he was still in shock, but slowly nodded. "When did you figure it out?" he asked, beginning to move towards sheepish. He moved his hand to Nokoru's cheek. "And…? You feel the same way?"

"I do," Nokoru murmured, nuzzling Suoh's hand. "And right after you admitted you liked a man."

"Oh," Suoh replied. "May I kiss you again, then?"

Nokoru's smile reached into his eyes. "Of course," he said, tugging Suoh towards him. "And then you may do other things, too."

Suoh gulped. What had he gotten himself into? But the answer was that in the end, it didn't matter, and he didn't have to know what was coming. The best part about Nokoru was the surprises he brought with him.