Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. And most likely never will. This story is merely for entertainment purposes.
Working Class
By: LokiGirl
Summary: On the fateful night in the rain when Tsukushi told Tsukasa that she didn't love him and left the Doumyouji mansion to fulfill her bargain with Doumyouji Kaede to save her friends, Tsukasa decides to take matters into his own hands. No longer the Doumyouji heir, Tsukasa has to make a living as part of the working class. Manga AU TxT
Chapter 1: I am no longer Doumyouji Tsukasa
The rain was falling heavy as Doumyouji Tsukasa was making his way home. He was in a good mood, so much so that he was chatting agreeably with his chauffeur. His girlfriend, his standoffish girlfriend, Makino Tsukushi, had of her own free will kissed him only that afternoon. His lips still tingled at the remembrance. From the corner of his eye he saw a person standing by the fence, soaked from the rain. "Hey! Stop the car!"
He exited the car and immediately ran towards the soak figure. "Makino?! What the hell are you doing out in this weather?" He stepped into a puddle to reach her, ruining his shoes. "You're completely soaked. Idiot! Hurry up and come with me."
He reached to grab her hand and she pulled away. "I have... I have to talk to you." She turned her head away and cast her eyes down at the ground. "I can't see you anymore."
Tsukasa backed slightly away. He was absolutely stunned. "What are you saying?"
"I'm leaving your house today."
"Wait a minute," Tsukasa said, not believing what he was hearing. "You're acting really weird. What's this all about?" He looked at her pleadingly. "We went to Usagi-ya and that game center together just this afternoon! You said you wanted to be on equal footing with me so I shouldn't leave home, didn't you?"
Tsukushi lowered her head even more.
He remembered the kiss Makino had given him and pressed again. "Didn't you?"
"I did..."
The fire within him suddenly gave out. "When you said you didn't want to be protected by me, was that just because you wanted to separate yourself from me?" His voiced sound broken and lost.
"No, no! That's not it!" Tsukushi insisted, raising her head for the first time. "I was serious then about what I said about the two of us!"
"Then what is this? Tell me why this is happening!" he demanded loudly. "How can you expect me to agree to this so suddenly?! Tell me!"
Tsukushi lowered her head as tears threatened to come to her eyes. "Your, your mother said that she would get Kayuza-kun and Yuuki's fathers fired unless we split up."
Tsukasa turned to storm into his mother's office, but Tsukushi grabbed his arm. "W...wait, wait! I've decided already. I'm going to cut all ties to the Doumyouji family." He stopped dead in his tracks. "I've already decided..." she said pausing, her voice becoming soft, "to say away from you."
The world around him became cold. "That's not a good enough reason. It's not. What kind of a reason is that? Makino..."
Tsukushi remained silent.
"Have you ever thought of me as just a man? Not a part of my household or in relation to my mother, but just as an ordinary man, even once?"
The silence was deafening. Finally Tsukushi spoke. "If I loved you, I couldn't leave like this. Goodbye..."
Tsukasa, standing in shock, was torn between debilitating sadness and anger. The anger won. Grabbing Tsukushi's arm, Tsukasa spun her around and drew her towards him. "Tell me that to my face Makino."
The rain streamed down her hair like rivers of water. Her head cast down, Tsukushi repeated herself. "If, if I loved you, I couldn't leave like this."
"Look at me," he commanded as he lifted up her chin.
"If I loved you, I couldn't... I couldn't leave like this." Her eyes were full of tears.
Tsukasa pulled Tsukushi against him and placed his head on hers, oblivious of the rain still pouring down upon them. "Makino, don't say things you don't mean."
"I do mean it," she pleaded, trying to free herself from Tsukasa's embrace, "Doumyouji!"
Holding her tightly, Tsukasa backed away from Tsukushi enough to lean down and kiss her. Her lips were wet from the rain and her salty tears, but they were just as soft, warm, and inviting as he remembered them. He heard her gasp quietly before those said lips began to kiss him back. Her hands, which had been pushing against his chest now curled tightly around the soaked material of his suit jacket.
When he pulled back from the kiss and opened his eyes, he was greeted with a forlorn look on Tsukushi's face. "Doumyouji..." He pulled her to him again. "Please," she begged, "Doumyouji... I can't. I have to protect them from your mother because of me--because of us. I can't be with you."
"Yes you can," he said into her hair.
She shook her head which was pressed against his chest. "I can't. I've already struck a bargain, and she's already made good her part of the deal. Now I have to keep up mine, and that means that I can't be with you."
"No it doesn't," he said, gripping her shoulders. "It means that you can't be with Doumyouji Tsukasa." Letting go of her he began to march towards the mansion.
Tsukushi stood rooted in place. His words had made no sense. He was Doumyouji Tsukasa, and nothing could change that, right? "Doumyouji! No, wait Doumyouji!"
She ran as fast as she could to the office in which Doumyouji Kaede was still sitting in behind a desk, but the mad dash she had done less than a half hour ago was taking its toll and her wet and squishy shoes didn't have much traction. She managed to catch up with Tsukasa just as he opened the door to his mother's office.
Kaede looked up from the papers on her desk surprised, but she held onto her cold appearance. "What is it Tsukasa-san?"
He strode directly to her desk. "I am no longer Doumyouji Tsukasa."
"What do you mean my son?" his mother asked as her eyebrows narrowed.
Tsukasa stood up straighter. "I am no longer your heir or your son, Doumyouji-san."
Kaede looked coldly at Tsukushi who was standing at the door before returning her glare towards her son. "Do you realize what that means?"
"Yes."
"You will lose everything that the name Doumyouji has bought you."
"I don't care," declared Tsukasa. He slammed his hands onto Kaede's desk. "I don't want it."
Kaede studied her son carefully before speaking. "You might not want it, but how long can you live like that Tsukasa-san? How long will you be able to live like common trash, without a yen to your name?"
Tsukasa clenched his fist in anger. He didn't know how long he could live like that. He didn't know how to live like that, but it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was being with Makino Tsukushi. "As long..."
Kaede lifted her hand to silence him. "In time you will regret this, but I see that you need to indulge in this fantasy. You will be dead to this family, privately. Publicly you will remain the Doumyouji heir and continue to go to Eitoku. I will not allow you to jeopardize your future for this childish rebellion. In all other accounts you will no longer be a member of this family until you admit the error of your ways." Her eyes hardened further. "Any monetary help from your friends will be considered an admission of defeat."
Tsukasa looked his mother in the eyes. "I will not be defeated." Spinning he grabbed Tsukushi's hand as he exited.
A half an hour later with the mansion well out of sight, Tsukasa finally stopped walking and dragging Tsukushi behind him. "Doumyouji, what have you done?!" Tsukushi gasped as she tried to regain her breath.
"I saved myself."
"'Saved yourself'?" she asked is disbelief. "Where do intend to live? How are you going to eat? How are you going to pay Eitoku's monthly fees?"
Tsukasa looked at Tsukushi oddly. "My monthly fees were paid in full at the beginning of the year."
"But you don't have the Doumyouji money anymore!" insisted Tsukushi.
"If Doumyouji-san doesn't want what happened tonight to become public and have me continue my enrollment in Eitoku, she won't pull my monthly fees. That was her condition, not mine."
"I suppose," Tsukushi admitted, "rich heirs don't scrap together school fees month by month. But that still doesn't solve the problem of where you're going to live or how you're going to eat."
"I'll get a job and learn how to live like a commoner from the best I know."
Tsukushi was taken aback. Looking at her asking for help wasn't the boy who had red-tagged her in a childish temper tantrum, nor was the boy that had continuously proclaimed his love to her; instead, before her was a man who was determined to do what he felt he needed to do. It made her feel jumpy and hot for some reason.
"Oi Makino!"
The manly visage gone, Tsukushi retorted back, "What Doumyouji?!"
"What do we do now?"
Tsukushi sighed and pulled Tsukasa over to the guardrail and sat down. Tsukasa followed her lead. Sighing again she looked up at him. "How much money do you have?"
He bristled. "I don't have any remember? I just gave it all up to be with you!"
"I didn't ask you to do that for me! I said I didn't want you to protect me," Tsukushi retorted angrily and stood up.
"I'm not protecting you!" he yelled in return, standing up as well. The few pedestrians on the sidewalk walked quickly away from the strange angry couple.
"Then what are you doing?"
Tsukasa looked ready to explode. "Being an ordinary man, not the son and heir of Doumyouji Kaede--millionaire!"
"Oh," Tsukushi sat down again. It was hard to think of Doumyouji wanting to be an ordinary poor man, let alone actually being one.
"Now will you help me?"
"I never said I wouldn't Doumyouji. Now, how much money do you..."
Tsukasa's face went bright red in anger. "I already..."
"I mean cash in your wallet, Octopus-head! Even ordinary men need money."
Feeling contrite, Tsukasa sat down without a word while taking out his wallet. He carefully counted the yen. "Three hundred and fifty thousand, I just got my allowance for the month."
She nearly chocked in shock. Three hundred and fifty thousand for a monthly allowance! "Well, at least that will cover security and rent for a couple of months before you can get a steady paycheck," she said, hoping to sound casual. Hopping to her feet Tsukushi turned around to look at Tsukasa. "Come on, we have to get you an apartment before it's too late."
Tsukasa grabbed her hand. "Wait, where are you going to live? Your apartment's floor caved in."
"I was thinking of going to live with my parents at the fishing village. I have enough for the train ticket."
He gripped her wrist tighter. "You're going to leave me?"
"I... I have to. I don't have the money for security or rent."
"But you said that I did--for a few months." Tsukasa stood up and pulled her into his body, her lips dangerously close to his. "Live with me Makino."
Tsukushi's face was hot. His proximity was doing strange things to her body and he was acting all manly again. "I, I can't live with you, you pervert!"
Tsukasa's face suddenly turned a dark red. "I didn't mean it like that! We can be life-mates."
"What!" screamed Tsukushi appalled. "I'm not going to be your life-mate. We're just barely dating!"
He looked at her confused. "So? You've shared a room with me before. We'll have our own sides of the room if you want."
"Oh," she said calming down. "You meant roommates, not life-mates," corrected Tsukushi.
"Same thing," Tsukasa said in disregard.
"It's completely different," she mumbled under her breath.
"What?" Tsukasa asked, his lips still only centimeters away from Tsukushi's. He had forgotten about how close he was holding her during their little argument, but now he could only think about how her warm breath felt on his face. He leaned down to kiss her.
Although nervous about their location Tsukushi didn't fight against the kiss. It was sweet and gentle. It was soft and warm. It was everything she had somehow come to expect from a Doumyouji kiss.
Tsukasa was the first to pull back for air. Happily he licked his lips as Tsukushi's eyes slowly opened. "We should get going before business hours are over," Tsukasa said reluctantly.
Tsukushi nodded in agreement.
"Do you know where we can get an apartment?" he asked, suddenly worried.
Tsukushi smiled. "I have an idea or two."
Tsukasa smiled back. "Alright, lead the way then."
Pulling away, Tsukushi grabbed his hand and did just that.
A/N: The story line is manga based but everything else will be influenced by both the manga and the jdrama. Long live Hana Yori Dango!