(***)

Masato glanced up from the book he was reading in a dark, lonely corner of the library. He took a careful sip of his tea before reacting to Tokiya moodily sitting down across from him.

"Masa, are you doing anything important right now?" Tokiya asked, tapping impatiently on the table.

"Hmm, not really. I might go wander around and see if I can spot Ren anywhere later, but that would be after I finish my tea and fix my hair." He replied, glaring over his teacup when Tokiya smirked.

"Still after Ren, then? Even though he's still got all the unimportant female students fawning over his every breath?" Tokiya asked, lowering his voice rather unnecessarily, since the collective student body avoided going anywhere near them without some kind of explicit permission. Masato flipped his hair indignantly, bangs flying backward in a shower of dramatic sparkles.

"I'm trying to be patient; he's still having some issues." He said quietly, watching steam drift off the top of his tea. "Not like you can talk, isn't Otoya still being stupidly oblivious?" Tokiya sighed, thumping his head down on the desk. Masa raised an eyebrow and continued to sip from his cup.

"He thinks I'm secretly pining after Haruka." Tokiya muttered against the table. "I'm so far past being amused. I get that he's straight, but how dense can he be? Every other flipping person noticed."

"Ren, Syo, and I are not 'everyone,' Tokiya. And didn't we all tell you that Otoya was obviously gay? He's a bit slow on the uptake, but it's obvious." Masa calmly explained, ignoring Tokiya's muffled snort. He glanced over to his left when he heard a noise far too loud and interesting to have come from anyone but a relevant character. His teacup was slammed down on the table, spilling several drops across the assortment of seemingly random textbooks, when he spotted Ren pinning some random female against a bookshelf, one of his hands lazily running through her hair as his mouth ghosted over her ear. Tokiya looked up when his chair scraped across the floor, following the line of his glare towards the bookshelf. Tokiya sighed, reaching out to tug on his sleeve.

"Leave him, you know he's just doing it out of denial."

"That doesn't make it any easier." Masa snapped, insistently tugging his sleeve away. "He knows how I feel, and yet he goes on pretending." Then he sighed, slumping in his chair and turning away from the sight of silky, golden hair being touched by someone else. Someone unworthy.

"Well, I'm off to go find a quieter spot to work, want to come?" Tokiya asked, running a hand through his hair. Masa shook his head, turning back to his tea and pulling a seemingly random book out of the stack in front of him with a glower as some distinctly feminine giggling was heard from the direction of the bookshelves.

(***)

Tokiya glanced up from his sunny spot by a window when Ren walked in, comb and fashion magazines in hand. He sat down without greeting and began to fix his hair, glaring at some poor piece of stonework on the other side of the room.

"Any reason you aren't in your room doing this?" Tokiya queried, raising an eyebrow as Ren pulled a mirror out of his pocket.

"I am up here, gracing you with my presence, because my roommate is being insufferably crabby." Ren sniffed, snapping his mirror closed and picking up his magazine. Tokiya sighed, scribbling a last character in his notebook before slowly turning his head towards Ren with a long-suffering expression.

"Is there any point asking the identity of whatever random female that was in the library? Did she happen to 'sweep you off your feet?'" Tokiya asked, ignoring the intense scowl that crossed Ren's face.

"You implying something, Ichi?" Ren narrowed his eyes, clenching his fingers around magazine tightly.

"Please, we're all getting sick of this string of girls that are never enough."

"You've been talking with the Little Lamb, haven't you?" Ren accused, biting his lip. "She keeps trying to… tell me things." Tokiya gave an exasperated sigh and felt an immense pang of pity for Masato.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that." He said,

"Oh, just… That thing you said about a string of girls. She was asking why I haven't thought of… dating… guys." Ren finished quietly, shrinking back against the stone. "Which is totally ridiculous, I might add." He added quickly, glancing away uncomfortably.

"Maybe you should try listening." Tokiya said, rolling his eyes and returning to his notebook. Ren remained silent, staring off somewhere above his magazine.

Tokiya peered out of a window, watching Otoya dance and flip his hair, accompanied by many shimmering sparkles. Dance. Prance. Lance. Pants. Pants. Tokiya blushed and muttered under his breath. He watched the small group finish their routine, Haruka clapping and saying something to them. Otoya's face lit up with her cooing words of praise. Tokiya snapped the tip of his pen against the paper. He glanced down at the useless writing implement with a resigned expression, tossing it aside and bringing out yet another from his pocket. He made a note to invest in more durable pens. The sound of a large group of nameless females giggling drifted in through the window, causing Tokiya to peer out with interest. The sight of Masa grinding his teeth and clenching his hands into fists could only mean Ren was approaching, little else could produce any kind of emotional reaction from him. Tokiya watched Ren predictably saunter up and step in-between Masa and Haruka, presenting the latter with a rose and flirtatious wink. Tokiya sighed, watching Masa scowl and say something scathing to his roommate. Ren stiffened, giving a short reply before turning away to talk to Syo. Tokiya shook his head, turning back to his notebook.

A few minutes later, Masa stormed in angrily, slamming the door closed behind him and standing the center of the room, glaring daggers at the floor as he gritted his teeth. Tokiya raised his eyebrows expectantly, wondering if this would be the moment Masa finally let out all those years of pent up emotions he kept hidden behind his normally cool composure. Then Masa breathed out slowly, unclenching his jaw and moving forward to sit by Tokiya.

"What did Ren do this time?" Tokiya asked, casting a curious glance at the now-empty courtyard out the window.

"He gave a rose to Nanami. He drags that gang of fawning females around. He flirts with anything that moves, but not me." Masa sighed, glaring coldly at the large grand piano that was in the room for no apparent reason and was always left unattended. Tokiya reached out to awkwardly pat his shoulder.

"Well, at least we can brilliantly use all these conflicting emotions to make stunning pieces of music." Tokiya said, attempting a rueful smile.

"I thought you were incapable of letting any outward emotion show unless you were dressed up like a grinning circus idiot?" Masa asked, raising an amused eyebrow when Tokiya sighed.

"Thanks for the reminder of how stupid I look with eyeliner and a fake smile." Tokiya groaned. Otoya chose that moment to poke his head through the door.

"Hey! So is this where you hide all day, Tokiya? And what was that about eyeliner? That's a pretty funny mental image. Next you'll tell me you style your hair to look like that." Otoya laughed, missing Tokiya self-consciously reaching up to touch his hair.

"Er, right. What an outlandish notion. I think now would be a good time to go do some moonlit wandering. It's only the fourth full moon of the month, after all." Tokiya rose from his spot by the rapidly darkening window, tucking his notebook away and leaving Otoya asking Masato if he wanted to help bake a cake for Haruka. Tokiya sighed for about the hundredth time that day, taking out his blue cellphone and checking his text messages.

Tokiya~! Want to come bake a cake? :D –Otoya 3

Tokiya smiled, tucking the phone away. He should probably get someone to show him how to reply to text messages. He kept putting it off, because Otoya continued to send him little messages despite never receiving any replies.

AN: Review. . All I have to say. Even if it's one character, it means a lot.