AN: Oh, I really apologize for the lateness. I've been busy. Not much happens in this chapter, it's more of a transition, but the story picks up after this.

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"Ready, Set, Go!"

Chapter 6

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So...just what kind of high school student were you, Himura-sensei?

The question was simple, but the answers long and complex. Rikuo had not considered the repercussions of answering Kazahaya's curiosity, but as he began talking he found it hard to quiet his tongue--there was something cathartic about giving his past away so freely when before it would have felt like a betrayal of his own memories of Tsukiko.

For Rikuo, every memory was laced with her voice and her face.

But what he could say, while omitting her place in his past, were small things, like how he played soccer for a while, how his grades were fairly good, then came the list of girlfriends. Rikuo liked how Kazahaya's nose scrunched up in disgust when he said they had all been really good kissers.

"That's gross," he said, actually.

"Why is it gross?" Rikuo was cooking dinner while Kazahaya did his homework at the table.

The other boy shrugged and buried his nose in a math formula. "Cause it is."

"You're only saying that because you've never been kissed."

Huffing dramatically, Kazahaya spat, "And what makes you think I've never been kissed?!"

"I can just tell. You are what they call a 'super virgin.'" Rikuo snickered as Kazahaya tried to think of a retort to the obvious. He was a virgin...maybe a super virgin (whatever that was, he thought).

"Well, I don't see what's so bad about it."

"…"

Kazahaya continued when he saw that Rikuo was paying attention without mocking him. "So what if you kissed all those girls? You were probably just using them to prove how macho you are." Kazahaya slammed his math textbook closed.

"I wasn't using them," Rikuo sneered.

"Yeah right." Kazahaya poked lazily at his food. "I'm not hungry."

"You're angry," Rikuo commented with a grin.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Kazahaya thought for a moment before continuing. "My friend likes you a lot," he began, "but I told her you were an ass and to stay away from you. I was right." Kazahaya glared at Rikuo with an animal's intensity.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to mess around with your little friend."

"Good." Kazahaya picked up his fork, obviously hungry, and began eating.

Rikuo laughed at what he thought was the obvious cause of Kazahaya's defensiveness. "Wait a minute. Do you like Ai?"

"I—I do not!"

"Yes you do. You have a crush on her."

Kazahaya crossed his arms angrily. "So what if I do?"

"Are you going to ask her out?"

Kazahaya's arms went lax in surprise, "I dunno."

Rikuo shrugged his indifference, but inside he was seething. He had not considered Kazahaya actually liking someone, especially that air-headed Yamada Ai. She was certainly very pretty and she could cook fairly well, but whenever Rikuo had encountered her, be it in the halls or after class (he was still irked that she called him on his lie) she seemed so blindly engrossed by him that he could hardly stand to talk to her.

In fact, there was very little talking to be had since she could barely utter a coherent sentence. Her vocabulary consisted of blushes, shy looks, and "Um..um…"

"What about you then?" Rikuo asked to change the subject back to that of schooling. "What's the deal with your tutors? You were home schooled?"

"Yeah. Me and my sister."

"I didn't know you had a sister."

Kazahaya nodded and added happily, "We're twins!"

"Twins. That's…weird."

"Nuh-uh. We are not weird."

"You are weird."

"Am not!!!" Rikuo decided not to draw out their "conversation" any further and opted to put away his cleaned dish.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said off-handedly, more or less as a distraction, for he chose that moment to lean down and peck the top of Kazahaya's head like a mother kissing her child goodnight. The casual kiss earned Rikuo a surprisingly silent reaction, though the incensed expression on Kazahaya's face was well worth the effort.

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The next few weeks were especially stressful for both Rikuo and Kazahaya. Rikuo had to start the sewing portion of his lessons, something he had dreaded more than cooking, and Kazahaya was readying himself for the track team's first meet. His nervousness over the first race overcame his awkwardness in being in Rikuo's new sewing class. Kazahaya remembered his mother sewing, and it didn't seem like a skill he could easily master, but he picked up the needle fairly well, enough to stave off Rikuo's harsh remarks.

Kazahaya remained quiet during class, only occasionally talking to his friend Ai, but there was never eye contact between them and Rikuo knew why; Kazahaya was trying to protect Ai…and himself. His cat-like eyes were trained on any improper looks coming from his sensei; at the same time, Kazahaya berated himself for being so paranoid.

Rikuo had never shown any interest in his friend, quite the opposite. Burning stares, given at random, were mixed with efforts to literally piss off Kazahaya. The boy was very, very puzzled. Kissing his cheek or his hand (that incident had been particularly embarrassing because he did it in front of Kakei) seemed to be Rikuo's preferred method of psychological torture. Kazahaya didn't mind the kisses so much when he knew they were teasing (seriously, he hated it), but one day, after a long session of learning how to hem pants and skirts, Rikuo made him stay after class with the pretense of arranging the threads by color.

The order was, of course, followed by a quick peck on the head after everyone left the room.

"This is stupid," Kazahaya remarked as he began sorting the blue threads. Rikuo "hmph'ed" in response and simply watched him with a focus reserved for cats hunting mice.

"You don't have practice or work today. Just think of this as 'us' time."

"I don't see what's so great about 'us' time," Kazahaya huffed. "I want to go home."

Rikuo sighed and looked at the time. Well, that lasted exactly fiveminutes. "Fine. But you cook tonight."

"Fine!" Kazahaya spat in response. He tossed all the thread back into the sewing box and replaced it in the supply closet. "I swear I'll kill you if you ask me to do that tomorrow," Kazahaya remarked as they walked down the surprisingly empty hall.

Surely, surely, no one saw said sensei give his pupil an innocent kiss on the cheek as "punishment" for being so noisy.

But…

Yamada Ai gasped and hid behind the stairwell until her friend and her teacher disappeared from the hall.

She wanted Himura-sensei alone in the classroom.

Oh, how she wanted to tell him that she loved him…an embrace…a single kiss…

She cried that night, not just because her love loved someone else, but because her best friend was the object of his affection.

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tbc