"H-hey, um, you alright?"

She turned and glared at him, and he flinched. Touko Fukawa wasn't intimidating because of how she looked – no, she looked totally average, really – and Souda hadn't even thought of her as intimidating before, until she'd glared at him like that. He swallowed.

"Why do you care?" she snapped.

"Ya just look… kinda sad, I dunno," he said, shrugging and wondering how he'd gotten caught up in this. "All alone, over here…"

He trailed off, unsure of how to continue. She just looked at him, chewing furiously on her thumbnail, and he shifted restlessly from foot to foot. Really, she looked like a girl version of himself a year or so ago. Maybe that was why he'd come over here. Maybe he wanted her to have a friend, or something. Sure, she hung around behind the Heir all the time, but he didn't really seem to pay much attention to her. It was kind of sad, really.

After a few more moments of silence, she spoke. "Are you really that determined to make a fool out of me?" she asked. "I know I'm ugly and annoying, you can leave now and go talk to your friends about how horrible of a time you had over here."

"N-no, that ain't it at all!" he said, running a hand through his hair. "You're just so alone all the time, I thought you might want a friend, or somethin'."

"Well, I don't," she snapped, hugging herself. He reached out hesitantly, touching her shoulder, and she jerked away from him. "Go away."

"You sure?" Souda asked after a brief pause. She hesitated, and nodded. "You don't look very convinced-"

"Yes!" she said. "Go away. You're just in the way. I need to find Byakuya-sama, anyway."

"Alright," he said. "If you really want me to leave."

She looked less convinced, especially after glancing around and seeing nobody to speak of apart from Souda. "Do you know where he went?" she asked, voice low.

"Nope," Souda said. "I don't really keep an eye on him, y'know. But you could always hang out with me instead. I mean, I won't ignore you or anythin'. I was gonna hang out with Hinata, but now he's busy and I've got nothin' to do."

"So I'm a last resort," she said, going back to murdering her thumbnail. "That's exactly what I thought."

"Wait, no, that's not it!" Souda said. "I mean… I mean… look, coulda just maybe come to the gym or somethin' with me so we could hang out? It'll be fun. I promise. C'mon, Fukawa."

He hooked an arm through one of hers and pulled her along. She seemed to be completely frozen, face burning bright red, and he wondered if he was the same. Probably, except he could move. But he wasn't about to be standing around in the hallway talking for hours, partially because that insane hall monitor would probably show up sooner or later and ask them why they were loitering in the hallway.

Souda got that being a hall monitor was the guy's thing, but… seriously.

The gym was fairly empty, with Oowada and Kuwata playing a quick game of one-on-one basketball on one side, Asahina, Maizono, and Koizumi bumping a volleyball back and forth on the other, and Hagakure sprawled out on the floor, probably asleep.

"Why are we here?" Fukawa asked, and Souda shrugged.

"Dunno," he said. "Closest place, I guess. We can just… sorta sit down over here, I guess."

She didn't object when he led her over to a wall and sat down with his back against it – actually, she only stood for a few moments, and when he patted the ground next to him she sat down, drawing her knees to her chest and looking at him suspiciously.

"So, you write romance books, right?" he asked. She nodded. "Any chance you could tell me how to get better at getting a girlfriend?"

"They're all fantasty," Fukawa muttered. "There's no way any of that would ever happen, unless you were as perfect and wonderful as my prince."

"Togami, right?" Souda asked. Fukawa nodded, a silly, sort of cute smile spreading over her face. "Yeah, he seems pretty popular with the ladies. What about you? You have a boyfriend?"

She froze. "Of course not!" she said, after a few minutes of Souda wondering if she was okay. "Who would want to date me, I'm so ugly and horrible and unlikeable-"

"I'd date you," Souda said.

"You're lying. You just want to lure me in so that you can make fun of me-"

"No, no, really," he said. "I would. I mean, if you don't mind, I'd take ya out this weekend. We could… we could go out to eat, or somethin'. That sounds nice, right?"

She scowled, but she did look sort of excited. "I don't believe you," she said, still sticking to her idea of him wanting to lure her in to make fun of her. She didn't sound so set in it this time, though. "You don't really want to-"

"'Course I do!" Souda said. And while Fukawa wasn't his first choice when it came to girls at this school, she definitely wasn't horrible. She definitely ranked above Saionji, that was for sure. He was starting to get a little nervous, too, thinking about a date with a girl, any girl, and he was pretty sure his face was bright red at the moment. "Ya wanna go? Out, I mean? This weekend?"

She stood up faster than he could have anticipated, muttered "I'll think about it," and raced off, leaving him staring after her, dumbfounded.

Someone clapped him on the shoulder and he jumped, turning to face Hagakure, who had apparently woken up and inched his way over to where they were. "You have a seventy percent chance of getting some action," he said, totally serious. Souda, more than a little freaked out, nodded.

"Good to know," he said, getting to his feet and leaving the gym in a way very reminiscent of the way Fukawa just had.

This was requested by mexicancat-girl on Tumblr, who wanted a Souda x Fukawa – and

I don't think it turned out too bad! Sometimes I think I sort of overdo Fukawa, but either way I think it turned out OK. Just another one of those random-seeming pairings I get requested on Tumblr~