Positioning

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for Alena S. Anigor

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Every year, Kaihou School held a special athletic event to celebrate excellence in the area of sports. Every student could go to the event and participate in various sporting endeavors, like informal games of tennis or baseball. However, only a select few members of various sporting clubs could join in on one of the most popular parts of the celebration. That is, top members of each sporting club would meet with other top members and engage in a crash course of the others' sport.

This year, the exchange worked out beautifully. Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha were matched up. Well, to be clear, the exchange worked beautifully for those involved in the betting pool.

For the couple involved, on the other hand, it was entirely different story. Especially since they were likely to glare and shout at the person that referred to them as a couple.

Kazuha was more than a little annoyed that she would have to give Heiji (or ahou, depending on the circumstances) a crash course in Aikido. Heiji was notoriously impatient and she just knew that he would find some sort of thing to make fun of her over. Her lack of teaching experience, her lack of proper technique, her lack of…well the list went on.

Most people had bet that Heiji and Kazuha would be matched up to teach each other something. Now that it had been confirmed, many were wondering whether they'd actually get anything done. The general consensus was that they'd bicker so much they'd end up walking out on each other or…they'd finally crack and end up making out on the fighting mats. Had either of the Kansai pair discovered what their fellow students had in mind it would be fair to say that all involved would be six feet under.

But they didn't know. And they wouldn't… because several security measures had been taken.

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Hattori Heiji walked to the athletic field where his crash course would be taking place. There would only be a few spectators, random team members and a coach or two. The students' bookie would be there as well to observe the events… but Heiji had no way of knowing that.

To say that he was nervous…would have been fairly accurate.

"I just hope she doesn't get too violent. Or use that little maneuver where she twists the bad guy's arm behind their back and tosses them over her shoulder…" He muttered to himself as he reached the field. Raising an eyebrow at the crowd that had gathered, his eyes involuntarily (or so he told himself) sought out a pony-tailed young woman.

Dressed in a black hoodie, sweats and sneakers, Kazuha was smiling and laughing happily with a few of her teammates. Heiji's stomach flipped in response and he couldn't help but smile as he walked closer. As if sensing his presence, Kazuha turned and waved him over with a grin.

"Hey!" She greeted him cheerfully. "Are you ready for your lesson?"

"Well that depends…" And he grinned mischievously, ready for her reaction. "Can you tell me when my instructor is going to get here?" She did not disappoint.

Kazuha scowled. "Ahou! I'm your instructor! And you know it too. I should have known not to waste my time. You're just going to fool around and make fun of my skills." As if to strengthen her point, she placed her hand on her hips angrily.

Heiji rolled his eyes. "I'm just kidding. Lighten up, for goodness sake." He rolled up the sleeves of his sweatshirt and smirked. "What am I going to learn first, master?"

Kazuha scowled once more before giving him a sweet smile. "Well, as long as you want to learn, I suppose we can get started in a second." Tenderly reaching for his hand, giving him a look that he secretly (even to himself) found irresistible, he took her hand as well.

To which Kazuha quickly turned him sideways, twisted his arm in front of him and knocked him off his feet.

"What the-?" Were the only words Heiji had time to utter before he was flat on his back and listening to the gasps (from fangirls) and giggles (from everyone else).

"And that is what you get for doubting my talent. Now, are you ready to get started or am I going to do that again?" Kazuha stood over him, hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

Heiji glared and pouted. "Fine…fine. I'm sorry. Are you going to help me up or not?" He asked and raised a hand.

"Oh for goodness sake…" Kazuha took his hand and helped him to his feet. Heiji brushed himself off before finally standing straight. Coos of "Are you okay, Hattori-kun?" could be heard from the fangirls and Kazuha narrowed her eyes in response. Weren't teachers supposed to monitor the type of people allowed? Crazy women, sheesh.

Heiji merely shrugged at the attention before returning his focus to Kazuha. "All right then. What do I do first?" Kazuha thought for a moment before looking up with a grin. "Well, why don't I just show you how to pull the move I just did?" She asked, chuckling a bit.

Heiji rolled his eyes in response. "Fine, could probably find a use for it someday."

Kazuha ignored the rudeness and began to stretch. "All right, we'll just do a few warm up stretches first before we get started. If you're too tense, you might hurt yourself."

As Heiji began to crack his back, he watched Kazuha alternately stretch and twist a leg and then an arm. His eyes widened as she stretched backwards and he couldn't keep a blush from coming to his face as her sweatshirt climbed up her stomach. Good lord, she was flexible.

Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up! Bad thoughts. BAD thoughts.

Nearby the betting pool saw the blush and took note. Let's just say the odds were getting interesting.

Once Kazuha straightened herself up and Heiji got his blush under control (think about baseball), she began to show him basic techniques to prepare him to learn the actual throw itself. Heiji managed to keep his wisecracking to a minimum and earned himself only three swats from Kazuha. All in all things were going well for the pair.

Until they actually began the learn the toss itself.

"All right, Heiji, I'll show you again in slow motion…no, I'm not going to knock you off your feet again so don't give me that look…here, move sideways." She turned him and took a step closer. "You have to maintain a close proximity otherwise you won't get a proper grip on the person and they could break something.

"And now you take my arm, right?" Heiji asked and held out his arm for to grab. They were unbelievably close to one another but neither noticed, being far too focused on getting the technique right.

Others, however, were noticing but then Heiji and Kazuha had no way of knowing that.

"That's right. You have to twist it in front of the person, ok? See, like this." She twisted his arm slowly, but not painfully, in front of his chest. "But here's the catch, in order to complete the fall you have to twist quickly and gather your strength from your hips and legs." Kazuha loosened her grip on his arm and looked up at him.

Heiji nodded in response. "That's why you kept stressing how I stood, right?" He moved closer to her in an attempt to reposition his stance.

"Exactly. Since I know you don't want me to toss you on the floor again," She paused and chuckled at the memory as Heiji gave a long-suffering sigh. "You get to try the move on me, ok? I, at least, can brace myself appropriately for the fall." She grinned and waited for him to get ready.

Heiji pouted slightly before turning her sideways. "Ok, so I'll practice a bit first before I actually try it." He grinned and shifted her from side to side playfully. "Heiji!" She laughed.

"I'm just making sure I get every part right…wouldn't want my incredible strength to hurt you and what not." He preened before doing the same to her right arm. Kazuha scoffed. "Oh, yeah superman…didn't you just wind up on the floor an hour ago?"

"Even I make mistakes, Kazuha. I know it's shocking but try to control your surprise, please." He winked at her before repositioning himself to finally put to work what she had been teaching him.

Kazuha looked at him skeptically. "Are you sure you can do this…? Wait…no wait Heiji!!"

Heiji started well, but somewhere along the way his foot tangled with hers and they both were sent flying to the grass. Awkwardness ensued.

"Is that your hand on my—?"

"Sorry! Sorry! Ow…wait, don't move…my back."

"Get your hand off my—"

"Sorry! But I can't really move here…"

"I told you to wait, didn't I?"

"Kazuha, this is really not the time!"

Heiji did have a point. With Kazuha flat on her back, Heiji was sprawled on top of with one hand trapped over a rather awkward spot of her anatomy; however, with his legs tangled with hers and his back slightly crooked there wasn't much Heiji could do about it.

"All right, Heiji, I think we have to…let me just move my knee just a bit…ow…" Kazuha shifted her knee under his to try and escape their awkward position but that only served to thrust Heiji's face just an inch from hers.

Needless, to say their faces were beet red.

"Ah…Heiji…um…" Kazuha stammered. He was so close!

Heiji was equally, if not more mortified (after all his hand was still there) at their position but his gaze couldn't help but float to her lips, parted slightly in shock.

This is really really really not the time for that.

Or maybe…

Possessed by god-knows-what, Heiji felt his face move just that much closer to hers. The perfect position for their lips to meet.

For her part, Kazuha seemed to be possessed by that same instinct, her lips drifting to meet his—

"YES!!! Pay up, dammit!! You owe me 100 bucks Hiro-kun!"

"Not so fast! They didn't kiss…look!!"

Kazuha and Heiji turned to look at the onlookers in a mix of shock and fury. The latter emotion turning out the victor.

"What the HELL??"

"They're dead…oh my God…"

In a flash, Kazuha and Heiji were on their feet, faces red in embarrassment or anger. Or both.

The betting players began to laugh a bit nervously. "You guys heard wrong. They didn't say kiss…and there is absolutely no money involved. None. At all."

Kazuha took a step forward and adopted a sickly sweet tone. "There is absolutely no chance that you were all betting that we would kiss during this little training session, is there?"

The group of teenagers looked more than a little nervous. "No…none…gotta go bye!" Their bookie turned and ran off as the rest of the gang raced to catch with him.

Kazuha started forward before Heiji stopped her. "Wait Kazuha." She turned to look at him and he grinned evilly.

"Let me just grab my katana."

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The End.

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A/N: This fic is for Alena S. Anigor who has been unbelievably patient waiting for a Heiji and Kazuha fic to help her feel better from a cold (especially since she's already written me one). But since college was crazy this semester, I am just now getting it to her. I hope it was worth it, Alena! Merry Christmas!!!