Kiyotaka Ishimaru sat down heavily at his desk, letting out a huge breath as he did so. Rusty bounded around his feet, barking excitedly, and Oowada sat down beside him with the look of a man who wasn't quite sure if he should be here. Ishimaru glanced up at him, but Oowada didn't look back. He was glancing around, a little nervous-seeming.

"Are you alright?" Ishimaru asked, and Oowada's head jerked around to stare him in the face.

"Yeah," he said. His voice was a little louder than was entirely appropriate, but then he nodded – a bit jerkily, and his face was kind of red, but he nodded, and Ishimaru figured that he might as well just be satisfied with that. He wondered if they could perhaps get the dog to be quiet when there was a knock on his door. He sighed, got up, and headed over to answer it.

It was Naegi.

"Naegi-kun!" Ishimaru said, brightening immediately. Naegi was a good person – maybe a bit of a slacker sometime, if he was being completely honest, but a good person overall. "What a wonderful surprise! What do you need?"

"Well, I heard from – a few people, actually," Naegi said slowly, scratching at his cheek while he spoke. "That you and – Oowada-kun are kind of, you know, together. And the others they're kind of… wonder if that's true?"

Ishimaru frowned. "That is none of your business, Naegi-kun."

"Well, maybe not – definitely not! But everyone else was… wanting to… wanting to know…"

"And it is none-"

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Oowada said. He sighed, and he stood up, and he headed over to the door. He put a heavy hand on Ishimaru's shoulder and stared at Naegi, who flinched a little and took a few steps back. "What do they want?"

"They want to know what's up with you two," Naegi said. He seemed to find his courage and stood straighter. "A few of them said that you kissed."

"We did," Ishimaru said. He frowned again. "I had thought that that was public knowledge by now. Several people I know to speak of their classmates an inappropriate amount were there. People such as Kuwata-kun, though he was a bit preoccupied with banging his head against the wall."

"Wh-what?" Naegi asked. Then he shook his head and sighed. "Never mind."

"Where are all these people askin' you to pry into our shit?" Oowada asked. His hand tightened on Ishimaru's shoulder and Ishimaru winced, but didn't say anything. Oowada kept talking. "If they want to know so bad, they should ask themselves! Fuck their cowardly asses!"

"Well, they're all down at the dining hall," Naegi said, shrugging a little. "If you guys wanna come, I mean."

"That would be nice, Naegi-kun," Ishimaru said before Oowada could get anything else out. "We will be there in a bit. Let go of my shoulder, Oowada-kun, I believe that you may be dislocating my arm if you do not stop squeezing it."

"Oh, shit," Oowada said. He let go of Ishimaru's shoulder.

Naegi gave them an awkward smile and hurried off, his shoulders hunched and his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Your posture is lacking, Naegi-kun!" Ishimaru called after him, and Oowada pulled the door shut.

"What the hell was that? Now we've gotta-"

"We have to do it sometime," Ishimaru said. Oowada scowled and shuffled his feet, looking a bit like a small child who has just been asked if he broke the window. "And they are all wondering now. I do think that it is none of their business, but they have made it their business, and I have a feeling that they will not be quiet about it until we settle things. So we shall."

"Whatever," Oowada said. Ishimaru grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the bedroom, still wondering what he was going to tell his parents. He decided to remember that high school relationships rarely lasted, and it wasn't like he exclusively liked men, and so by the time he was to marry, anyway, he would probably feel this way about a girl.

It seemed like everyone that Ishimaru had ever spoken to in his life was in the dining hall. That was, of course, an exaggeration – but nearly everyone was there, if in various states of distress. Kuwata's forehead was bruised from his wall encounter, and his lower lip had been cut open – Ishimaru glanced over at Souda, and Souda very clearly avoided his gaze. Hinata was there, but Tsumiki hovered around him, making sure that his hamster-induced injuries were not too severe. Junko Enoshima was slumped in a chair, and nothing that Ikusaba was saying was making her look better.

"They are holding hands," Hanamura said, rubbing his chin. "Who knows what those hands grip once they get behind closed doors? I-"

"You shut up!" Souda said. He pointed at Hanamura with one trembling finger and shook his head violently. "I don't even know why everyone's here, I just wanted to get something to eat, but I'm not going to listen to you while I do!"

"He is certainly one to talk," Sonia muttered. She looked at Ishimaru then and smiled. "Hello, Ishimaru-san. Oowada-san."

Ishimaru nodded jerkily, feeling his face flame, and then pushed his way to get some food. He hadn't really been planning on eating, but perhaps the whole thing would be better if they would sit down and just eat. Oowada's hand was sweaty in his, and it was quite uncomfortable, actually, but it did make it quite easy for him to slide his hand out, and so he did. He did and he went to go get his food and then he sat down at the table he ate at when he ate in the dining hall. Oowada sat down across from him, his movements even jerkier than Ishimaru's.

It was quiet for a few moments, and Ishimaru began to relax. Sonia joined them, and Oowada immediately looked worried – either because he thought she would steal Ishimaru away or something else, Ishimaru wasn't sure – but she just smiled. In fact, it appeared that Naegi had been wrong. Nobody was dying to know the nature of their relationship… either that or they'd gathered the information they needed. Everyone was doing their own thing, and it was quite relaxing, honestly. If he ignored the blatant disregard for the rules that always plagued this school, which was quite hard to do sometimes.

"May I sit here?" she asked. She stood up and waved someone else over, too – Gundam Tanaka. Ishimaru watched him as he approached and frowned.

"You don't have your hamsters on you, do you?"

So, there's nothing really more I can do with this fanfiction… so I bid you adieu! This is finished now! About 50k, which is decent, I think.