A/N: I'm sorry about the long delay before this chapter this time... but I guess it's like I said in the A/N of chapter 1: I sometimes take long like that... hope you enjoy anyhow :P and please, let me know what you think, it helps me a lot! Thx in advance.

3 - Time alone with the champion

It was extremely cold out there, on the roof, but I couldn't go inside immediately. First, I had to quietly sit for a few minutes and make sure I wouldn't have to shed any more tears, because I didn't need to have Shigure or Tohru asking me any questions right then.

The house was already full of life when I went back inside, with all three of them hanging around having breakfast. Tohru looked at me worriedly as soon as I entered. "Kyo-kun, you slept outside all night? Daijoubu?"

"It's okay," I told her with a mental sigh. "Thanks though."

She was content with that, for the moment at least, though surely she was still worrying about me. She must have noticed my behavior being different from normal for the past few days. I kind of felt bad about how I acted, but it couldn't be helped, really. I think I kind of felt the way that I felt right before I met Tohru, before she changed me. It didn't feel too good.

Yuki seemed friendly that morning. He even greeted me with a kind 'Ohayo' and I repeated it. Sometimes, it was refreshing to not fight with him for a while.

"Kyo-kun, do you want to eat breakfast?" Tohru asked and handed me a bowl of miso soup.

"I do," I said and took the bowl from her. "Arigatou."

Drinking from the bowl of miso soup, I decided I wouldn't go to Haninozuka after school today.

For the whole day at school, I was still wondering whether I should stick to my 'decision' or not, but in the end I knew that I probably would. And indeed, afterwards, my body went home on autopilot and I couldn't find the will power or even the conviction needed to stop it and still go to Haninozuka.

The farther I was from school, the more I became insecure again. Passing through the woods, I stopped dead in my tracks, halted by a particular thought that had crossed my mind. If I really believed it was the best decision to make, the one that I had made, then... why does it feel so bad? Why do I feel so bad about it? The sadness I had felt had only increased as the day passed.

Flashes from last night's dream came back to me and I saw Haninozuka's dark eyes directed at me again, wide open, questioning; his blonde hair gently flopping up and down as he looked up at me and his cute, hopeful smile as he asked me to join the host club. Frustrated, I leaned against the nearest tree with my left hand and hit it hard with my right.

Kuso... that really hurt. That made me even angrier, and I hit the same place again with my same fist, with a feeling like 'that'll show it!' Of course, the tree still stood and my hand only hurt more. I put it over my eyes for a second and took a deep sigh before continuing.

At home, a new problem showed up in my mind. I figured not going to Haninozuka today was one thing, but doing so unannounced was quite another. Once again, I realized that I had forgotten to think about how Haninozuka was going to feel about my decision and I was reminded of how careless I could be.

I thought about it. I wanted to tell him, but I was really worried that he would try to convince me to come over anyhow. What if he asked me why I didn't want to come over? I'd have to lie about it, for sure. Maybe I should just tell him that I wouldn't have any time the coming days, or weeks even. That couldn't lead to too many difficult questions, could it? Then why didn't I want to tell him that either?

"Kyonkyon!" Shigure cooed from next to me, all of a sudden.

"What!?" I snapped back at him.

"Hana-chan and Uo-chan are here for Tohru and they asked about you. I think they want to play Dai-hin-min with you again. Shall I tell them you're too busy?"

"No! If it's a challenge, I'll accept!"

Surely, it had been Uo that had asked for me specifically ("So where is carrothead? Cowering off somewhere again?") and Hana just going along with it, but Hana always did play along with the game (rather well, I might add), so it was a worthy challenge. Especially if it meant being able to show to that Uo just what I was worth.

Uo, Tohru, Shigure and I especially dramatically lost from Hana again, which was pretty annoying, but at least it was a good distraction from my other thoughts. When later that day, they left and Yuki and Tohru went to clean while Shigure wrote, I was once again alone with my thoughts.

Haninozuka had to be wondering why I didn't show up by now. Would he be angry, or even worse, disappointed, maybe? Or, worse still, did he just not care?

I was greatly tempted to just pick up the phone and call him up - if I even had his number? I wasn't even sure - to apologize to him and still come over. I would have invited him here if I could have been alone with him, without the disturbance of the other three inhabitants of this house.

The ambience of that evening inspired deep thoughts so much, that it reminded me of Christmas somehow. When I sat up on the roof, pretty soon a few cats joined me and I sighed as they rubbed themselves against me from all sides and planted themselves on the most impossible parts of my body so that I could hardly move for fear of making one fall off.

Looking at the largest one of them all, a fat white cat that had installed itself on my lap as I sat with my legs crossed underneath each other, my eyes unfocused. I guess I could admit at that point that I missed him. Quite a lot, actually. I felt awful about not going over to him that day and leaving him hanging like that, but I still thought it was the best thing for me to do. Even so, I kind of wished he would ignore my silent hint and come over to me right now, maybe come sit up on the roof with me like Tohru and even Yuki had done sometimes.

I fantasized about it a little. If he came over right then, what would we do? He probably wouldn't allow for a single uncomfortable silence to occur, and he'd keep the conversation going effortlessly. I'd soon find myself talking along with him like I didn't have a care in the world, smiling with him and looking at him. Maybe if I made it seem like it was nothing, I could touch him a little as well, maybe something simple, like a friendly pat on the shoulder. Or maybe something a bit more, like petting his velvety soft hair, or a hug perhaps. And then...

Suddenly, I felt very weird about my thoughts. What the hell was I thinking?? It made no sense at all to have these thoughts, or to feel these feelings, and it needed to stop, quickly. I had made my decision, the decision that I shouldn't see him again, at least not today, and thinking these thoughts wasn't something that fit with that choice.

"Kyo-kun!" Shigure called, leaning out of the door so that he was just in sight for me. "There's someone on the phone for you! It's Mori-san!"

'Oh my,' I thought with a sigh. "Okay," I said and put the cats that were on top of me next to me on the roof, standing up before they could climb back on me again. I jumped off the roof and went inside.

Morinozuka-san... what would he want from me? I was worried, since he was so close with Haninozuka and I hadn't shown up today without telling anyone anything. He would probably be angry with me, protective as he seemed to be of Haninozuka. I really didn't want to answer that phone call, but I didn't quite want to be so rude as to not answer it either.

"Moshimoshi," I said after picking up the phone.

"Hi." Morinozuka-san's deep voice had a dark undertone to it, or so it sounded. Immediately, he asked me straight out. "Why didn't you come to Ouran today?"

"Eh... ano..." I was lost for words. Someone asking me as directly as this really didn't help me in my ability to answer. Yet again, I felt terrible.

Luckily, Morinozuka-san continued, making it seem like his prior question was really more of a way to introduce the subject of the phone call than an actual question. "Could you go see Mitsukuni tomorrow at eleven AM in front of Ouran?" he asked.

Although tomorrow was Saturday, there was no school for Kaibara. Apparently, that was the same for Ouran.

I was aware that it was hardly possible for me to say 'no' to him at this point. It felt now like he had asked his first question to make me think twice about telling him I wouldn't be able to visit tomorrow. I didn't think about it much more and simply said, "Yes, that wouldn't be a problem, I guess."

Afterwards, I realized that Morinozuka-san's convincingness was a good excuse for me to be able to say 'yes', but in the end I wanted to say it anyway, because I was kind of glad to be able to see Haninozuka despite my earlier decision not to.

That didn't make me any less nervous, I recognized the next day at ten AM, the time at which I got up. Only Shigure was around and he had already had breakfast and was busy with other things, so it was quiet around, always a good way to start a day for me. Luckily, since it was early and I was still just a bit sleepy, I didn't have too much trouble keeping my mind from driving me crazy with anxiousness.

The day was beautiful. The sun stood in a clear blue sky, with not too many clouds in it. The temperature was just not high enough to make the rays of the sun unpleasant and there was a very soft wind.

Shigure had asked where I was going, and I hadn't lied to him, saying simply that I was going to Ouran, at which he nodded and told me to have fun. Tohru and Yuki still weren't back by the time I left, so that was all the interaction I had that day before leaving.

I got to Ouran at exactly eleven o'clock with my heart beating in my throat. Haninozuka wasn't there yet and I wondered if maybe Morinozuka-san had meant 'in front of Ouran' as 'in front of the entrance directly' rather than near the street before that long walkway between the bushes, behind the big gate, in front of which I was waiting. However, just as I decided I should walk up there for a bit to see if he was there - I thought I didn't see anybody there but at this distance, I couldn't be sure - Haninozuka came running around the corner. It was only three past eleven and though I knew he was coming, he caught me unprepared. Unfortunately, he looked just as cute as I had remembered him to be. Seeing him for the first time again after that dream was a tad unnerving. Fortunately, he was alone and Morinozuka-san wasn't with him today.

He was panting, trying to catch his breath after having run really fast. I briefly wondered why such a rich boy couldn't have been brought by car by one of his family's drivers or something - the people at Ouran struck me as being that rich and so did the interior of that place - but didn't let my mind rest on it for very long.

When he had caught his breath only for a little bit, he looked up at me, still breathing deeply, irregularly, and told me, "Souma-chan, I'm sorry I'm late - I overslept..."

Somehow the concept of that boy oversleeping made him seem even cuter and more innocent in my eyes. "I was here for only a few minutes yet anyway."

I'm glad it was true, because usually I tell people straight away if I've been waiting for a long time for them, and though I wouldn't have wanted to do that with him, it might still happen by mistake if I wasn't careful. I realized it after I said it because I'd been truthful without thinking.

He smiled broadly. "Ah, yokatta!" He was silent for a while and looked down. I was quiet too, looking at him, waiting for him to say something else. Wondering what he wanted to talk to me about. At least he didn't seem to be angry, so I was already feeling a bit better. Then, he looked at me again, not quite smiling but definitely happy. "I'm glad you came over today too," he told me.

"Sure," I said. 'Sure' didn't sound exactly right since I hadn't come the day before, even while I had said I would, but it seemed okay with Haninozuka.

"Souma-chan?" he asked and walked a little closer. Only then did I perceive how far away we had stood from each other. He stopped at four feet away from me or so.

"Yes..?"

"You still want me to train you... right?"

I had to hold my breath for a little while before I could carefully, consciously, let it go again. The look he gave me was just like the look he had given me in my dream, and it was like I was living it all over again. I just couldn't remember if in my dream, his eyes had also sparkled this beautifully, and if his cheeks had also been such a lively color of reddish pink.

"Y-yeah, sure," I said and looked away, already giving up on my earlier decision not to see him anymore. If I was truly honest, it wasn't what I had wanted anyway, sad as I had been for that one day that I had lived with the idea. Remembering how glad I was when I realized yesterday, after Morinozuka-san had called me, that I could go see him again, I knew it was kind of the only thing I could do. I guess I couldn't have said 'no' to these eyes anyhow.

"Really?" he insisted.

I looked right at him and said, this time with much more convincingness, "Yeah. Really." I was actually looking forward to his training already, so that we could finally actually get to the point. I wonder if I still would've so easily told him it was okay if I hadn't believed I wouldn't again change into a cat when he was there, but to be honest... I think I would have.

"Great! Because I really like you!" He said, smiling happily. He 'really liked' me? I blushed slightly, averting my eyes. But although worried, I was happy too.

There was another short silence. Just before it got uncomfortable, I told him I should probably go, and he said something like, "Oh... okay..." He sounded like he had wanted me to stay a little longer. I also wanted that, but I was too nervous and had no idea how to compose myself. Surely, I felt a bit weird that I had just been so happy to realize I could see him again, and only seconds later I decided to leave, knowing that I'd feel bad about it for the rest of the day. It still felt natural to me, though.

However, when I was just walking away, he stopped me by calling out my name. "Souma-chan!"

I turned back around and looked at him inquiringly, silently urging him to continue.

"I... I know you were a cat on Wednesday," he said.

I froze, and I knew there was a petrified shock in my expression. He did know? "I..." I said, but I really didn't know what to tell him. That he knew I turned into a cat was really bad, but all I could think of was how happy I was that apparently he hadn't cared enough, before, to stop wanting to see me.

He continued. "Remember? I threw you over my shoulder and when I turned around, I didn't see you anymore. I thought you had disappeared at first, but then I saw a cat, buried in your clothes. Afterwards, I guess it was kind of obvious."

I remained silent still. I suppose it should've been obvious to me that it was obvious to him. He wasn't stupid, after all.

"Is it okay? I wasn't supposed to know, right?"

I ignored his question. "Who else did you tell?"

"Just Takashi, when he told me that he had seen an orange cat with your clothes, too."

I had already sort of guessed Morinozuka-san knew, so I wasn't too surprised about that. "And you're sure he didn't tell anyone else either?"

"Yes," he nodded. "I made sure of that." I wondered what I was supposed to think of that.

"Well," I said, but I didn't know what else to say so I paused, thoughtfully looking in the distance. It was the old question of whether or not this posed a threat to the wellbeing of the family. I, for one, trusted Haninozuka to not tell anyone and I thought Morinozuka-san could be trusted too, but if Shigure or Yuki found out, they'd definitely want to tell Akito - well, at least Shigure would. But now, I couldn't hide anymore behind the excuse that I hadn't really thought they'd noticed, so Akito would definitely be upset with me if he were to somehow find out about it and discover that I hadn't told him while I knew. I sighed.

"Is it bad that I know?" Haninozuka asked.

"I don't know," I told him. "Others will think so. It will be a problem if they find out."

"So... do you need to tell them?"

"Not really," I said, not being entirely truthful. "Actually, I think it'll be okay if I don't tell them at all. It won't be that much of a problem if the two of you never tell anyone else."

"Oh..." he said softly and thought for a second. Then, he looked up at me happily. "But I don't see why it's a problem at all! I mean if it's just that you change into a cute cat sometimes, I don't think that it's so bad at all!"

I smiled weakly at him, wishing everyone would think about it that way and also wondering if he would still feel that way if he knew what other form I could take.

"Ano ne! How does it work?" he asked.

"How does what work?"

"You know, 'it', you changing into a cat... when do you change?"

"In general..." I said with a slight pinch of doubt, "I change whenever I get nervous or when I get hugged by a girl. With girls, it's if they get hugged by a boy." By saying that, I kind of hoped he wouldn't ask about whether I had gotten nervous, but he'd rather continue about...

"Eh? There are others that change into cats also?"

"Iie," I said, "But some other members of the Souma family change into other Jyuunishi animals."

"Ah, really? So there are others too! Do they know about you?"

"Yes, the thirteen of us all know about each other."

"Thirteen? Would that be... one for each Jyuunishi animal?"

I nodded. "That's right. Although the cat isn't really a Jyuunishi animal at all."

He kept asking more questions. "And if you're changed, how do you turn back human?"

"Just by waiting a while. It varies how long it takes."

He thought a little longer. "Is Tohru also one of the people who change into Jyuunishi animals?" He finally asked.

"No," I said, "But she does know about it." I figured I might as well be completely honest, now that I had started it.

"That's why she took you and your clothes out of the room back then," he said.

"That's right," I said, smiling vaguely at the weirdness of the situation.

He stared into the distance, thinking about it all, with a dreamlike smile. It seemed he took it all extremely well.

"You know," I told him, "Shigure and Yuki are also Jyuunishi animals."

"Ah, that's right," he said, "Is Yuki the person you wanted to defeat?"

I looked at him in surprise, wondering how he could tell. "Yes, he is." He was quite perceptive if he could see that from the way we acted while he was there, because I think we barely interacted at all and even when we did, we didn't fight or anything like that.

A little later, at twenty past eleven, after having answered a few more of his questions, I made to leave again. However, he stopped me again. "Souma-chan..."

"Yes?"

"Don't leave yet? I didn't just want you to come here to tell you that I knew... isn't it okay if you stayed a bit longer?"

He gave me the cutest, inviting smile and once again, I couldn't really say 'no' and mean it, so I decided not to try in the first place. I smiled back at him, a little nervously. "Okay then..."

He looked really happy with my positive reply and appeared to be attempting to contain his smile for a while before he asked me another question. "Wanna come over to where I used to train a lot? We can watch tv there, too?" he asked.

It was one of the best places for training I had ever seen. The main building was a huge, rectangular shaped building. It was white outside and white, green and beige inside and there were decorations of trees on the lower part of the walls inside. It was huge from the outside, but seemed even bigger when we got in. Haninozuka kindly asked me to take off my shoes and took them off himself as well. He picked up both pairs of shoes, put them on a mat near the entrance and shut the room with a sliding door.

It felt extremely luxurious, being in this huge area with just him. I looked around enthusiastically, thinking with a grin that this was a kind of place I could be comfortable in.

Haninozuka had barely shut the room when the loud sound of thunder rushed through the room, a sound that was immediately followed by the gentler, more consistent sound of rain falling on the roof. The cold shudder that seemed to be the automatic bodily response to that noise ran up my spine through my body. I licked my lips. I seriously hated the rain, but the sound of the rain falling on the building like that, out of my reach, I didn't quite hate. It was actually comforting for me to realize that the rain couldn't directly harm me, even though it still pretty much got to me always. It was the association with the rain in principle that made me dislike the sound even though I also liked it. It was a very double feeling that always made my mind tired somehow.

I was also surprised that it would rain on a day like this; it had seemed to be such nice weather just minutes before, when we were outside.

"Ah, we're in just in time!" Haninozuka cheered and he walked over to a wall, near which several white karategi were attached on a standing clothes rack. "We should wear these in here," he said. "I always wear them even if I'm not training, though when I'm here I'm actually always training..."

He looked back at me. I was still standing near the entrance of the room, indecisive of what to do. "Souma-chan, ano ne! Do you want to wear one?" He held up the karategi and moved it a few inch through the air in my direction to emphasize his words. "If you want, you could change in there." He gestured the uniform at the door next to the clothes rack. "Then I can change in here!"

"Okay," I agreed. I walked over, took the karategi from him and passed through the door. I stumbled upon a much smaller room that was square shaped. There were more clothes racks in there, a rack with different kinds of food, and there was a couch and a luxurious television. The walls were decorated with simple drawings of bunnies and sweets, mostly cakes, and they were filled up with other decorative figures, consisting of curly lines and extensive color usage. It was definitely Haninozuka's own corner of the building.

The soft but violent clattering of the raindrops falling on the building from the outside was beginning to give me a headache and the hunger I felt also seemed to be a direct result of the wetness outside. I briefly shook my head to get rid of certain feelings and hoped to be able to keep just the sensation of excitement in my stomach and the happiness that I felt. It was hard to seperate the feelings like that and I didn't quite succeed. I ended up still feeling tired, hungry and a bit sore in the head.

I took off my shirt, socks and pants and slipped on the white robe-like piece of clothing. It felt soft and smooth against my skin, but wasn't warm enough to prevent me from getting goose bumps at first. I kicked my clothes away a bit more so they lay in a corner and looked around to take a last look at the room with all the white, pink, red and yellow colors. Then, I went back out to the larger room.

Haninozuka just pulled the robe around him and tied it up quickly. I was startled by the sight of his nude skin, only covered by his underwear, for the half second or so that I saw it before the white of the karategi covered it. I couldn't be entirely sure, but I think his underwear was blue. His chest looked kind of... touchable.

He looked up at me and his eyes widened up and sparkled as he saw me. "Ah, Souma-chan, you look good in that!"

"I don't think so," I disagreed quickly, remembering the few times I had previously worn one of these things and seen myself. White wasn't my color at all, if you asked me, it just didn't fit. I did own some white shirts, but these were mainly for training purposes. I don't know why I liked to train in white, but I had always felt I did.

The rain intensified a bit in strength and as it did, the sound increased in volume. It started to seriously work on my nerves and I restlessly looked around the room.

"Cold, isn't it?" Haninozuka asked and looked around the room as well. He moved over to the other side of the clothes rack and pressed a few buttons on a small device on the wall that he said controlled the room's temperature.

He turned to look at me. "You want a coke?" He walked over to the door to lean through it, grabbed something and got back out. In his hand, he was holding two coke cans. They barely fit into his hands and he had to stretch his fingers to hold them both until he took one of them into his other hand.

"Sure," I said.

He walked over to me and handed me one of the cans. It made me notice he was almost a foot smaller than I was as he held his hand up at me. He then opened his own and drank a bit from it. He asked me something, but through the rain, I couldn't understand.

"What did you say?"

"What do you want to do," he asked again.

I shrugged. "Nothing, really." It was true enough; when it was raining like this, I never really felt like doing anything.

Haninozuka took another sip from the soda can. "Well," he said, "There's really not too much to do here at all... there's only a television around here and a few movies... and a phone."

When I looked at him, he pointed at the far side of the wall, where if you looked well, a phone could be seen hanging on the wall.

"Let's watch a movie then," I suggested.

Haninozuka nodded affirmatively and told me it was in the room I had been dressing in. "Did you see the television yet?"

"Yeah," I said.

We went in there and he immediately plopped himself down on the sofa. Then, as if he had forgotten, he turned around and leant over the back support to open a small closet that I hadn't seen before and that was only just in his reach. Tens if not hundreds of films could be seen in it, neatly piled and sorted. "You can pick one, Souma-chan!"

"You call this 'a few movies'?" I asked him sarcastically and positioned myself in front of it to choose one. There were a lot of famous titles, but also a few movies I hadn't ever heard of before. The sound of the rain suddenly sounded a bit better to me, and I slowly felt a bit more comfortable again.

"Ah, Souma-chan - I'm gonna throw away this coke can, ne?" He got up and walked out of the room, leaving me alone with all these DVDs to pick from. In the end, I picked a movie named 'Ginger Snaps' about werewolves.

A second or two later, Haninozuka came back and beatifically spoke to me, saying, "Ooh, it smells just like Christmas outside! Come too!" and pulling me by the white sleeve to persuade me into coming out with him.

"I don't like rain," I stated, but he insisted.

"You don't have to come outside, just stand in the door entrance! It's really nice!"

I sighed and allowed myself to be led by the hand to the sliding door that he slid open. I stood near the entrance and looked at him a bit strangely. "What are we looking for?"

"Just smell! Don't you smell Christmas too?"

"I'm not sure what Christmas smells like," I told him doubtfully.

"Just smell!" he said again.

I did as he asked and tried to detect any kind of scent in the air that resembled Christmas in any way, staying at a considerate distance inside so as not to get wet as the raindrops hit the floor and splattered in all directions. If it would never rain again, I would gladly go to Yuki's little garden daily and water his plants myself, I thought.

Although I noticed nothing at first, after a while I started to think I did smell something a bit like the scent of Christmas, whatever that may be. It could've been just my imagination, but even if it was, it was kind of cool.

"Yeah..." I finally said, "I think I do smell it. A ltitle bit."

He smiled magnificently at me again and I felt my throat dry out from the inside, swallowing in an attempt to get rid of the sensation.

"Let's go inside and watch the movie," I said.

"Ah, yes - which movie did you pick?"

In a trice, we were sitting on the couch in the small room with the television. I was waiting as Haninozuka was setting the language to English and the subtitles to Japanese so we could follow, though I think we could both comprehend it in English as well - and I noticed that the couch really was kind of small for the two of us. I don't think it was used by two people simultaneously a lot.

Thinking of something, I asked him, "Hey, why didn't you just take me to your home?"

He sat back with the remote control in his hand and looked up at me to answer. "I just thought it would be quieter in here," he said. "People don't get here often on Saturdays."

"'People'?" I repeated.

"Well, mainly just my family. But when I'm in here, nobody comes in anyway. It's my own little room, you know?"

"I thought so," I mumbled, thinking I wouldn't have believed it if he had told me otherwise.

"Are you ready for the movie?" he asked. When I nodded, he put it on and soon, we were both leaning back, watching it. I lay against the comfortable support, away from Haninozuka but not blatantly so.

As the movie, which was quite fun in itself and contained some very humorous jokes, progressed, I saw Haninozuka sit more and more defensively, with his knees up against his chest and his arms wrapped around it. He seemed to be really living the movie and getting kind of scared. It was awkward to me, because I somehow felt like I wanted to comfort him a little, but couldn't think of a decent way to do so. He seemed to be alright though, so I didn't worry about it too much. Even so, it was hard for me to focus on the movie, because his leg kept brushing up against mine and he'd keep making these striking, soft little noises when he was startled about something, along with a few other things that drew my attention to him all the time.

When the movie was over, he actually crawled over to lean against my right side. His hair slightly tickled in my neck, but it wasn't uncomfortable. He lay like that for a bit, relaxing to get the stress he seemed to get from watching the movie out of his head. He sat back up straight and we talked a bit about the movie, and what we thought of it.

Then, he jumped up suddenly and looked at me enthusiastically. "Ne, ne, Souma-chan! You think we could train a bit more now? I still want to practice karate with you!"

"Karate?" I asked.

"Un, un! We did judo last time, remember? We're in this dojo now anyway, so it's okay right?"

"Well... yeah, sure, why not? That'd be fun."

Not too long after that, we found ourselves once again on opposite sides of a mat. "I don't know if you noticed," Haninozuka said, "But you're wearing a white belt now. I gave you that not because I think you're a beginner, but because you're probably still unranked, which also means you get a white belt at first."

I nodded, eyeing the black belt that he was wearing. I didn't care all too much about the belt color system; as long as I was trained well, it was fine with me.

"How much do you know about karate?"

"Not too much, but I think what I was trained in before was mostly karate..." The way Yuki and I fought and the way shishou and I trained, it was always with a lot of punches and kicks, dodging and blocking. I thought that was what karate was mostly about.

"So, do you know what the basis for improving in rank usually is?"

"No," I told him.

"First is the stance, then comes the balance. Speed and power are a bit less important." He put his feet directly next to each other and stood straight up, arms lined up with his body. It was cool to see how it seemed so natural to him, to stand that way, and he still appeared so firm and controlled. "This is the simplest stance in karate, called Heisoku-dachi." He moved his feet a bit away from each other and took a stance that seemed a bit more comfortable, though still an obviously thought out stance. "Ah, I know! A good stance for you!" He exclaimed. "Try this..."

He stood besides me and led me onto the mat. "You're right-handed, right?"

I nodded.

"Put your right foot in front of your left." I put it directly in front of it. "A bit more to the right," he said, "And turn your left foot leftwards so that it is at a ninety degree angle with your right. Then stand on your toes."

I did as he said, and he made a few more adjustments by saying, "Place your right foot a bit more to your left... that's right, and bend through your knees a bit." He was holding me by the waist now to keep me balanced and I enjoyed the feel of his touch. "Now, move your hips as if you're facing the direction your left foot is facing, but keep your head directed at me." Since he was standing in front of me, that meant I would still be looking where my right foot was directed at. I tried to keep up with him, but it was hard to keep my balance when tip-toed like I was.

I finally got it right, although apparently I kept moving my right foot too far to the right, and he assured me the heel of it should point at the heel or middle of my left foot. Still a bit unable to keep my balance perfectly, I looked at him inquiringly. "Why is this a good stance for me? It doesn't feel good at all!"

"They call this nekoashi-dachi," he giggled. "The cat stance."

I immediately stood up straight again, comfortably, frowning at him, though I couldn't help but smile a bit too. "You're weird," I told him. "You stand in that stance."

He nodded and took the stance in less than a second. He was still at least six inches shorter than I was even when standing on his toes. He stood perfectly still, his hands fisted in front of him. It looked really easy, the way he did it, and I found myself wishing I could do it like that too.

"Anyway," I said, "Teach me something for real, now."

"Okay," he said happily, also standing more comfortably again. "Usually, I'd start by teaching students kata, which are patterns of moves that are performed in the air for practice, you know? But I think you'd rather start with something more exciting, ne? Sparring or something?"

"Sparring would be cool," I said.

He told me a little bit about what I needed to know to spar, but pretty soon we moved on to the practical side of it: the actual sparring. I was extremely nervous to be fighting the national champion, worried that I would make a fool of myself by not being anywhere near his league. It was true that I wasn't, but in the end, it didn't turn out as badly as I had feared. Whenever Haninozuka was able to land a blow on me, he held back just a little, so that I was hit, but not badly. I don't think he wanted me to notice, but it was pretty clear, especially considering his talent. That's not to say he didn't make it look natural, cause he did, very well. I didn't mind much, it was actually rather sweet.

After a while, the raining outside clearly became less, gradually, until it finally died down completely and didn't come back again even after we stopped our little 'match'.

We had started sparring at a few minutes past half past two and went on until four PM, at which point we decided to stop for now and rest a bit. At least, that's what we said, but the training for almost ninety minutes seemed to have energized Haninozuka greatly and he could barely sit still next to me on the couch in front of the television, that was now turned off.

"Why are you so energetic?" I asked him.

He laughed cheerfully. "Karate and judo always make me energetic like that. That's why I never do it right before I... go to sleep."

To me, the next few minutes felt a little weird. Though we were talking and everything, it felt like some small talk, a movie and martial arts were all we could do for now. It didn't really get uncomfortable to the point where we had nothing to say to each other and silences would creep in, but it was definitely 'less' somehow from the rest of the day. After a few minutes, I decided that this probably meant that it had been enough for one day. I was enjoying myself, and I kind of felt like I wanted to stay with Haninozuka for a bit longer still, but even so I told myself and him that I should be going. He was disappointed, but not too badly.

"Okay," he said and told me he was happy I came along in the first place.

Soon after that, we were both standing outside, each with out regular clothes on again. Though it wasn't raining anymore, the wetness of the floor under me and the dripping of the plants' leaves were still present and they aggravated me a bit. Thankfully, it wasn't cold at all and the sun was breaking through again, the sky already blueing.

He showed me off the terrain and on to the road. "You know the way from here, right?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Souma-chan?" He asked for my attention. When he saw he got it, he said, "Thanks for coming today. I had fun."

"You're welcome," I said. "I had fun too." I swallowed, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. I decided to just come right out and say it. "And... I'm sorry I didn't come over yesterday." A made-up excuse almost automatically followed, but I gulped it down, not wanting to lie to him about something like that. Instead, I just left out the explanation.

"Aww, it's okay," he said, seemingly honestly. "We'd seen each other every day since we met until then, so it's okay to have one day as a break, right? I wouldn't want you to grow tired of me already."

He smiled cutely at me and I managed a smile back. "I... don't think that'll happen very soon," I said.

He was silent for a second. I had just wanted to say something nice, but it came out so stupidly that I had to blush a little. All I could do was silently curse my nervousness and hope he'd say something soon.

Instead of saying anything he just kind of started moving, jumping into my arms without warning. In a reflex, I closed my arms around his back and pulled him against me to prevent him from falling back down. Startled, I could do little but stand there as he lay his head on my shoulder and affectionately hugged me against him.

Without listening to what my mind said about it all, my eyes closed at the feel of his sandy hair brushing against my cheek, and I sighed a deep sigh that made me realize I was loving the feeling way more than I was supposed to. I didn't fight it, though, and simply pressed him even a little tighter against me, drowning myself in the softness of his clothes and arms. The hug must have lasted for all of thirty seconds, before he unwrapped his arms from my neck again and stood back on the ground after I removed my arms as well. He looked up at me.

"Next time, we'll continue where we left off with avoiding damage, okay? Remember?"

I was hoping the serious redness on my cheeks wouldn't show. I nodded quickly. "Yeah, that'd be cool. Erhm... when?"

"Uhh, well, whenever you want. You can call me to ask if it's okay, okay?" I wanted to reply, but he continued, speaking a bit louder as he thought of something. "Ah, you do have my phone number don't you?"

I had still been wondering about it, but I finally decided that I didn't have it. If he had given it to me before, I'd remember. "Well, no, I guess not. That makes me think of it, why did you, or well, Morinozuka-san, have mine?" I had wondered earlier, but I hadn't wanted to ask Morinozuka-san. Actually, I had wondered about them knowing my address as well, but I had been too distracted to ask them about it then.

"Ah..." He suddenly grew a bit quieter. "Well, Takashi asked Kyou-chan. Kyou-chan always knows everything about everyone. I told him it was okay to call you... I'm sorry..."

When someone told me they were sorry, my first response wasn't to tell them it was okay, but with him I did tend to do so. When I realized I really didn't mind, I did tell him. "Oh, that's okay, no problem... hm, is that how you got my address too?"

Haninozuka nodded. "Ne, you want my number?"

I nodded as well. He took a pen and note bloc (one that was considerably smaller than Kyouya's) from his pocket and penned something down on it. He gave it to me. On it was his number, with underneath that, 'Hani-chan'. It made me smile - as if I'd forget it was his number. His handwriting was neat, readable at first glance.

"Call me when you want to continue our training, or just do something else with me," he told me again, friendly.

"I might call you tomorrow." For some reason, I couldn't stop smiling at him stupidly. My stomach was making a fuss again and wouldn't listen to my mental commands to quiet down.

"Cool!" he said and I turned to walk away, looking around a few steps later while still walking on to wave at him. He waved back.

Tomorrow I was gonna call him for sure, and maybe invite him over or something, or maybe go again to where we were today, or to his actual home. If he had so many movies in that small room and called that "a few movies", I couldn't imagine what his place would look like. Ouran would have been cool too if it wouldn't have been Sunday. Maybe we could also watch Ginger Snaps 2, a movie I had noticed in his collection too, and this time maybe I wouldn't lean away from him when we were sitting on the couch, but possibly even towards him a little bit. Would he hug me again when he saw me? Or just when I left? Then when we were done watching the movie, or maybe before that, he could teach me how to fall without taking damage. Before the movie would be nicer, so we could use the movie to rest and relax afterwards.

My mind continued to go in all directions randomly like that for a while. When I was about to turn a corner, I looked around once more to see him still standing there in the distance. He waved again as he saw I looked at him, and I actually thought about running back there to spend some more time with him still.

I sighed as I looked back in front of me and kept walking. Geez... okay, denying it any longer now would just be ridiculous. I admitted it to myself... I was definitely in love with that boy.

A/N: That's it for now... hope you all liked it... if you read all this, or even part of it, it would be nice if you could review ) I really appreciate it and it helps me to keep writing.