Chapter 5

Ryou was in his room when he heard the door open. Knowing that Rita had gone over to a friend's and that his parents were out, he knew it was Akari returning home by herself. Thinking that she would come to his room and greet him the way she always did, Ryou found himself listening in as she took off her shoes silently. He was surprised when she didn't even bother announcing her arrival but instead walked past his door without even knocking or acknowledging him. Creeping over to the door, he opened it slightly to see her shoulders slumped as she walked to her room at the very end of the hall and closed the door behind her silently.

Wondering what could be wrong, Ryou closed his own door and bit his lip as the Kurai's words rung in his head. Help him? What had he meant by that anyways? With a shake of his head, Ryou decided to ignore the new student. Not only was this guy acting so familiar with Akari, but he seemed kind of slimy. No one that weird could possibly be trustworthy.

For a second Ryou wondered if he should go to Akari's room and ask her what was wrong. The two had never hid things from each other before; if something or someone was bothering her, Ryou knew he'd do anything to fix it. The smile dropped from the tall boy's face though as he remembered the incident before with the envelope. With a sigh, Ryou slumped against his door and slowly slid to the ground with a thud. It was killing him, knowing that someone in the school was going to get that little pink envelope. Ryou hadn't fully realized the burden of being a protective figure until middle school, when his feelings for Akari had changed. Sure, he could play the part of protective, slightly possessive best friend and big brother…but what if he wanted to be the protective, slightly possessive boyfriend?

In her room, Akari sat on her bed slowly with a stunned expression on her face. While she'd thought similar thoughts, she hadn't expected Kurai to come flat out and tell her something so heartbreaking. It was the thing she'd been trying to deny the most, but to hear it come from someone else's mouth was pure agony.

Am I just a little sister to him? Akari wondered, before glancing at her desk where a framed photo of Rita, Ryou and her sat. Rita was looking off to the side, and Akari was looking straight at the camera with a big smile while Ryou smiled down at her instead of at the lens. Closing her eyes, she pondered everything again.

It was true that the two had a friendlier bond than most; nothing else could be expected when you lived with someone. But was it really a family bond? Akari's thoughts returned to Kurai and she grit her teeth as she realized she owed him a debt of sorts. After all, if the wrong person had picked up that letter things could have gone very wrong.

Akari thought of his dark eyes, and the way they compelled her to really think of what she was doing with a love letter. Maybe Kurai was right; she'd be instantly rejected and have to live with Ryou even after knowing he only thought of her as a little sister. He was awfully protective of her, and while Akari liked it she suddenly worried that it meant he just viewed her as someone he had to take care of.

With a tired sigh, she fell back on her mattress and reached over. Holding the pink envelope up to the light, she bit her lip before rolling up and curling into a ball to sleep.

The next day, Ryou was surprised to walk downstairs and see that Akari's shoes were already gone. Turning to Rita, he opened his mouth to ask when he was greeted by a shrug. Flicking some of her breakfast away with her chopsticks, his sister said, "Don't ask me. She just rushed off this morning and barely ate a thing…"

Shooting a troubled look at the door, Ryou walked over to his sister and snatched her chopsticks. Ignoring her complaints, he took a bite of her food before heading out the door himself, waving good-bye at his frustrated sibling before heading towards where he believed he'd find Akari. Despite their fight, and despite everything that had happened, he wanted to make-up with her and understand what was going on.

Especially about that pink envelope.

Ryou's desk sat there, the very idea of the whole affair sitting tantalizingly in Akari's mind. She'd left for school early only to find that she couldn't bring herself to put the envelope in his locker. Somehow, the idea of putting it in his desk was even more scandalous to her, although she couldn't figure out why she was so afraid of submitting her feelings to him.

Kurai, who had been waiting by the doorway for the right moment, sensed her anxiety peak. With a small grin, he slipped into the classroom and feigned surprise, exclaiming lightly, "Oh, Akari! How nice to see you so early..."

Eyes darting to the pink envelope still clutched tightly in her hand, he smirked and murmured, "I see you've brought it with you again today. Didn't I tell you yesterday, that this might all end badly for you?"

"I know, I know! But still…" Akari bit her lip, before taking a big breath and looking up at the new student. "Ryou's always cared for me, so maybe this won't be such a difference to him in the end…"

Kurai laughed inwardly at her statement, already beginning to sense the doubt swirling around her. He ate up the anguish and anxiety greedily, and his eyes flared with satisfaction as Akari sat silent with a look not unlike that of a trapped animal. Looking up at the new student, she asked with a strained voice, "Would you do it?"

The question threw him off for a moment-Kurai stared at the girl blankly until she cleared her throat and asked again, "If you had a crush on someone your whole life…would you tell them?"

Kurai sat back to ponder the question, but when he sensed Ryou's presence nearby he smirked a little as an idea crossed his mind. Already the shadow was beginning to bore of his game with the two teenagers; and the idea of feeding off of Akari's emotions in the Spirit World had become all too tempting, as they would be ten times easier to sense in that state. Reaching forward, Kurai idly grabbed a section of Akari's hair and allowed it to glide through his fingers as the door to the classroom slid open to reveal a panting Ryou, who froze at the sight.

Akari sat still with shock at the sudden gesture, and as the last strands of her hair slipped from Kurai's fingers the shadow leaned down to kiss them; his dark eyes trailed off Akari to meet Ryou's, and then Kurai sat up and smirked before saying to Akari, "I'll answer that question of yours after school today. Meet me after class and let's go to a little place I've discovered, shall we?"

At lunch that day, Akari found herself captured by Ryou before either Rita or Kurai could get to her. As soon as the bell had rung, he'd all but jumped out of his seat and grabbed at her. The tall boy had dragged her off despite her protests and half-hearted complaints, and by the time the two of them made it to the safety and privacy of the lawn they were panting with exertion at having run there.

"Geez, Ryou," Akari tried to joke, "If you wanted to eat lunch with me that badly you could've just asked!" Her joke fell flat though, as she looked up to meet Ryou's serious expression. The two stood in awkward silence, and as the seconds passed by Ryou began to turn pink at what he'd just done.

With a sigh of frustration, he flew backwards onto the grass, throwing an arm over his face to hide the embarrassed blush that was beginning to creep over his cheeks. Now he had not only embarrassed himself in front of the whole class, but he was reluctant to ask Akari about the fight at all as she was joking with him and seemed to be treating him like normal again.

As Ryou lay in the grass, Akari slowly crouched down next to him before poking him lightly on the arm. When he didn't respond or move, she smiled and settled herself down, straightening out her skirt and looking up at the sky before saying aloud, "I'm sorry about how I acted yesterday, Ryou. I really didn't mean to be like that…lately it seems like we've been fighting a lot, huh?"

Peeking an eye out to look at her, Ryou mumbled low, "You've noticed it too?" When Akari didn't answer, he hid his face again and mumbled more, "I hate fighting with you. I like it best when we get along."

Akari looked down at her skirt and smiled, thinking of the pink envelope that was burning a hole through her bag.

"Yeah," she agreed, "It's best when we're together."

At her words, Ryou flew up to a sitting position, pink spreading rapidly across his cheeks as he opened his mouth to ask her what she meant by that before the image of what he'd come across that morning in the classroom interrupted his thoughts.

"Akari, what's going on with you and Kurai? Is he bothering you? We've only known him for two days now and he's getting way to close to you. I…I don't like it. I don't like it when other guys get close to you." Having said his true feelings about what was going on, Ryou immediately turned red before looking away, afraid to hear Akari's response.

Akari gazed at her friend with an incredulous expression before a shy smile spread across her face. Trying not to get her hopes up, she muttered, "Is that…is that supposed to be…"

Before she could get the word 'confession' out, the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Interrupted, she cleared her throat to say more when Kurai appeared, walking towards them with a smile on his face as if he didn't know what he had just stopped.

Ryou turned to glare viciously at Kurai, before standing up and saying bluntly, "I thought you said you could help me, not hinder me."

"Of course I want to help you," Kurai said, blinking innocently. "I told you I'd be willing to help you get the girl you wanted, so I came to get you so we could talk to her."

At Kurai's words, Akari bit her lip before standing up abruptly. Ryou turned from Kurai, reaching a hand out and saying, "Wait, Akari-"

"I just remembered that Kurai and I were going to go somewhere after school today," Akari blurted out, running over her friend's words. Turning swiftly on her heel, she muttered, "See you later, Ryou," before sprinting away with tears prickling the edges of her eyes.

In anger, Ryou turned to punch Kurai only to find that the mysterious boy had vanished. Flopping back down on the grass again, Ryou vowed to follow the two and stop Akari from associating with the new kid any further. Something about him made the tall boy's hair stand on end, and Ryou tried to shake the ominous feeling coming over him as he stood up and headed for the classroom.

My goodness it's been forever since I updated...sorry about that! Got caught up in school and then my train for this story got lost and ended up somewhere else...but it's back :) If I must be honest with you, I was considering going on hiatus over the summer but the new hayao miyazaki movies are coming out, and I got a new game system, and it's fun to write...so yeah. Back :) Mostly XD Updates will be far and few between on this story since I can't entirely remember where I was going (that first anatomy test really threw me for a loop I guess) so please don't hate me and give up on me XD

Thanks for reading!