High Winds in the East

"Welcome home master Ruka" apprehensively greeted his grandfather's butler as he rushed to his rescuse with other maids as soon as the door of the Rolls-Royce opened.

"Please everyone do not bother, I am quite alright" hurriedly stated the blond, but the maids still carried on to take his belongings and the butler still held him by his shoulders and ushered him home.

"We all were worried sick, master Ruka" astonished the butler, Suzuki-san "particularly when you refused to come home immediately and I did my best to withhold the information from your grandfather, but I am afraid I couldn't quite lie for too long and-" just as the man was apologetically trying to tell the version of his deeds the front door blasted open, with a raging old Japanese man storming through it.

"Where is he?!" shouted Ruka's grandfather.

"He's here-" gingerly announced Suzuki-san whom was interjected and almost pushed away as the elder man grabbed his grandchild like a hippo who was trying to catch a pear from a tree.

"Fainting at school?! not coming back?! What has gotten into you?!!!" yelled the Kano-san "Trying to send and old man to his grave before time!" worriedly accused the man, as Ruka replied with a smirk that was half in amusement and half in pain from the other's grip.

"To begin with ..." calmly began the blond freeing himself "I do not think is quite possible to plan a panick attack so don't act like I spent the whole week working on this. Second, how do you know you are early, it might actually be time for you to leave us poor unfortunate souls gramps ..." finally snickered the blond.

"Funny." dryly stated the elder, watching as Ruka began to walk in the direction of his studio "how will you cope without me when I'm gone uh? What will you do?" inquired the elder in feign haughtiness.

"I'll follow you" weakly replied the blond.

"What was that you said? Don't you kid-" angrily admonished the elder stomping towards him, and turning the younger around

"I was just kidding, oh my god grandpa I was kidding" hurried the blond while heavily exhaling and giving somewhat of a weird smile, as the elder carefully scrutinized him, as if to try and catch the younger's bluff "... i swear to god i was kidding"

"You don't believe in god" swiftly replied the elder.

"Touchè? ..." merely replied the blond as he freed himself once more, the elder seemingly ready to reply with something but giving up last minute, looking incredibly concerned "... Please do not worry yourself for me gramps, cause even if i had wanted to, I am currently so weak that I wouldn't be able raise a single finger against myself. So I'm just going to crash in your office" announced the blond, he then waved.

"I wished he learned how to make use of his personal room" pointed out Suzuki-san "always choosing to sleep on that old couch, it is absolutely not healthy, in a studio which you haven't even used for the longest time Kano-dono" sighed the butler.

"Too many good memories in that old studio" resignedly stated the old man "... and unfortunately, no new once ever since" concluded the old man as Ruka closed the door of the office.

Looking around he directed himself to the spoken of couch and crashed on it. It was stupid he knew, and particularly impossible, but it felt like the couch still smelled of his mother. It did. It had to. as he rubbed his face into it, he pulled out his cellphone from the back of his pocket and began to write a message.

To: Aoi
From: Ruka
I know where you are coming from. I understand. But I still could never EVER treat the person I love in the same way you treat Kazuki. Are you truly ready for the storm? Are you truly sure you'll survive when you'll leave him?

Once sent, he collected his body at the corner of the couch assuming a fetal position and allowed himself to doze off.

"...What? Already? Are you sure?" Mally blinked curiously as Sakito shuffled past her and into their small bathroom, she frowned after a moment.

"Yeah, I'm just tired, is all. I've been tired all day, really. And I hardly stayed awake through dinner and you know how that goes. But I know how it worries mom so I don't want to cause too much trouble. If I get enough sleep I should feel better tomorrow, right? It's not like I'm sick or anything, I think I was just up too late last night thinking about things and things and... and..." Sakito stumbled on his words, knititing his brows when he went to put toothpaste on his toothbrush. He glanced at Mally for a good second before giving up on his train of thought and going to brush his teeth. He watched Mally lean on the doorframe and sigh.

"Did you finish your homework, at least?"

Sakito crooked his head in response, and after a moment of brushing, tilted it back and forth and ended with a shrug. He smiled apologetically around his toothbrush.

Mally pouted then. "Is it really bothering you so much? It's weird to see you like this, you know? I mean, you lied to me yesterday and ate half of the house and today you've been kind of quiet and didn't eat much and..." She sighed again, defeated. "Sakitoooo...." she leaned on his back as he leaned over the sink again.

"It's really childish... I know." he babbled through the foam in his teeth, "Don't worry about me...!"

"But I do... and you know it. What should I do, Kito? I just can't shake the feeling that... maybe something bad will happen," she ended softly, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift. It wasn't often that she had a chance to speak due to Sakito's habits, but this time, she just didn't have much to say. She had started to contact people all afternoon but, when only receiveing bad or hesitant responses, she had given up and turned off her phone. She got up from her brother's back and watched him floss before changing the subject. "Do you think Suzuki will be okay?"

Sakito turned to her, surprised. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, smacking his lips before going back to his grooming.

"I don't... think he has any idea what he's doing."

"I don't think Uke will take things seriously. Reita is too stupid for this kind of thing, na~?"

Mally stifled a chuckle. So Sakito did know, did he? Maybe he was picking up on being a nosy little mouse... "Yeah, I think so. Uke seemed a little self-righteous when I talked to him, but maybe we're going too easy on them. Maybe Suzuki's ready for a relationship." She suggested, raising her brows suggestively.

It made Sakito laugh, tossing his floss out and rinsing his mouth again. "Maybe our little baby's grown up... But I still think he's too soft for this, don't you think? ... Wait, when did you talk to Uke?" They made their way back to the bedroom, Sakito rolling into the bottom bunk rather unceremoniously. Mally took her spot at a desk nearby, swinging her feet and closing the book on top of it.

"I spoke to him earlier today. He told me to tell Reita... that... he demanded that everything be stated clearly between them." She made a face which was more upset at thinking back at Uke's choice of words. Sakito was silent for quite a while.

"I don't like him." he huffed and turned to his back stretching languidly. Mally shrugged.

"Well, we can't really pick who Reita likes either, right?" she smirked to no one in particular, "And it's not like we know the whole story, na? There isn't anyone to ask on their opinion on this unless we make really good friends with the PRIDE kids really fast."

Sakito didn't respond.

"Ya...! I don't mean it like that, okay??" Ah, she'd messed up, "You shouldn't get close to someone that... infamous... for any reason."

".... Mally?"

Euuggghhhhhhhh..... that couldn't mean anything good...

"Sa~ki~?" she sounded more timid than any kind of cute.

"I think I like him."

To: Ruka
From: Aoi
I'd rather have him hate me and move on, than love me be stuck. That's how much I love him.

He'd slept for a good four hours it appeared. His cellphone showed the time to be 7:43PM and the sky outside was quite close to being dark, a bit of the now past day still showing up in random light blue spots.

Lazy rubbing his hand all over his face, he turn around on the couch and looked at the studio, or what the little bit of light could allow him to discern. Everything had been left exactly how it was ever since his mother had passed away.

So many times his father had insisted in renovating the room. Insisted on taking it down. But he wouldn't, he'd pull the worst tantrums and in the end his father would be forced to just forget about it "he is absolutely not allowed to spend time in that room" he had ordered the house attendants, but the attendants primarily listened to their actual owner, Kano-san, and Kano-san had never found it in his heart to prevent his grandchild from staying close to what kept him happiest.

Pulling out his cellphone again, he read Aoi's message once more and chewed on it. How AOi had managed to get himself in such a hopeless situation he still couldn't believe. All the lies he'd been telling Kazuki to cover up the actual truth. And the fact that Kazuki might perhaps never get to find out just how much Aoi loved him, how much he adored him. Wasn't that unfair to Kazuki?

Why was loving someone so complicated. So simple and beautiful an emotion came with so much more collateral than the joy in itself that he could understand why some people quickly gave up on it. The thing though, the thing about love was that it randomly arrived and it randomly chose you and once chosen that was it.

"I love you mom ..." calmly stated Ruka as he got up to sit on the couch and once more look around "... but it seems like, I might have found a new place to be happy in ... a new happy place ... uh ... yeah" he kept talking to himself, exhaling as he rested his head on the backrest staring out the window "... ate you happy for me? I wonder ..."

"Master Ruka ..." called the voice of one of the attendants from outside the studio "... dinner is ready and your grandfather demands you come and eat, please" nervously stated the attendant, after which a sound of walking away steps could be heard.

The blond smirked at his grandfather's resolve and while getting up to his feet he walked past the desk where a picture of himself his mother and his father had been left untouched.

"... please be happy for me mom, no matter the outcome ... he stated as he walked towards the door "... I might finally love again ..." he stated opening the door "... I might finally start living again" he concluded closing the door behind himself and walking towards the main dining room.

Sakito was walking into the school with Mally in tow. She hadn't said anything all morning, and Sakito hadn't really quite woken up yet, so any attempts at conversation fell flat on their faces and were more one-sided than they normally were. Sakito's attention was pricked by a heavy sigh from Mally--the kind people emitted when they were too tired or when they had eaten too much.

"Did you think about it...? This is your last chance to tell me that you're not sure and that you're going crazy." She grimaced at him, not a cute look but something closer to the fact that she was annoyed and almost afraid of his answer.

"Mally..." Sakito pouted, averting his eyes, "I hope you were up late doing work and not because of what I said. I just..." he looked to the ceiling and glared at it, "I think he can be a good person. Let me prove it to you, okay?" His voice was hopeful, encouraging.

Mally could have mistaken him for a fool. She clenched her jaw against trying to say that she thought it was a terrible idea and that all she wanted was her brother not to be hurt. But maybe she was being over protective; maybe she just hadn't given him a chance.

... But who needed chances when every bit of evidence points to BAD IDEA in huge, red lettering?

"Mally~!" Sakito stopped to hug her catching her by surprise and momentarily letting her jaw relax, "You'll let me, won't you? That's why you're not saying anything." Sakito gave her a cat-like grin, excited and glistning like a child; like a fool.

Mally huffed a laugh, turning her nose up and walking away, heart slowly but surely melting. She couldn't really keep Sakito from anything he wanted, right? Not like this, when he was so happy and ansty over things that haven't even happened yet.

"Oooh~ Mally~ This weekend I am going to make you so many drinks, you won't even know which way is up." he said excitedly, a skip in his step. He put an arm around her, still smiling without trying to look like he was going insane.

"You know I don't drink much, Kito." her voice was soft and defeated, but there was a lazy smile on her face that told her brother that her stubborn walls had come down and just this once she'd let him slide. Just. This. Once.

"Fine, fine~" Sakito waved his hand dismissively. "You have class down there now, right?" He pointed to down the hall. "See you second period? I'm going to go find Mr. Hopeless Number One."

He could hear Mally sigh again, shaking her head. "Yeah, yeah... Be sure to behave, okay?"

Sakito only smiled at her back, eyes glistening and mind moving at full speed.

Okay, so ... "What do you want?!" "Sakito!" "When do you want him?!""NOW". or something on those lines. nodding to himself as he kept staring at his determined expression in the mirror of his bathroom he held on tight to both sides of his sink, nod in self-encouragement once more and then left.

"Breakfast?" inquired his grandfather as he observed his grandchild walk towards the entrance from above his newspaper "you are absolutely not allowed to leave this place without having eating something" ordered the elder "and what do yo think you are doing? put down those keys you are not yet fit to drive, Ruk-"

"I'll eat at school gramps, there is a cafeteria you know?" informed the blond as he whirled the keys to his Lamborghini in his index finger "and how dare you try to separate a child from tis parent? My car, my darling baby need me" he confidently stated in feign seriousness as his grandfather merely shake his head.

"Okay then, you'll have Mokomichi drive with you, while Suzuki follows behind you"

"No."

"Take it or leave it Ruka-bocchan"

"Don't call me that"

"So? Are we taking this escort or not?"

"Okay okay" quickly replied while weaving and darting out followed by his provisional entourage.

As he got to school safe and sound, Mokomichi jumped into the car with Suzuki as they bid him good-bye and instructed him not to leave as they would return to take him home in the same fashion. Ruka merely nodded, whether or not he was going to wait, only time would tell.

As he entered the school he rushed to the cafeteria where he grabbed any sensible thing he thought eatable for breakfast and sat down. Chewed on whatever it was he got, didn't really matter, the only reason why he was there was to wait and see whether Sakito would come as well.

If only all these girls didn't feel like they had the right to just sit at his table. Whatever, he couldn't even be bothered to send them away, his eyes glued the cafeteria entrance and if breakfast were to not have worked he'd try lunch and s on.

He had to see him at least once today.

Once before putting in action his plan.

I’m assuming that the one post with Sakito and Reita going to the computer room to print stuff for Mally already happened.

Sakito had given up on trying to make Reita say anything about Kai by the time lunch swung by.

"Hey now, up up..." Mally droned as she nudged her brother awake from the dead; at least, the table-on-face kind of dead. "Let's go get-- Wait, I forgot my book... Get lunch without me, okay? I'll be right back." Mally turned on her heel and strolled out.

Sakito stood to grab food, nudging Reita as well, watching the lunch line start to build up and getting an anxious feeling that he knew was silly. It wasn't like the food was going anywhere. But when the blonde didn't move and groaned instead, Sakito pouted to himself and walked to the line himself. The food line took longer than Sakito remembered, he didn't normally fidget so much. Maybe he was excited for his... new privileges.

Ah, slop again. It was starting to get a little old, really. He grabbed an extra orange for the blonde passed out in the cafeteria and walked back to see Mally returning from her venture.

"Blondie, you still look tired as shit. Chin up and get rid of that wet-dog look... stupid." Mally had dropped a book down next to Reita and fell into her chair.

"Ah, shut up," groaned the blonde, stretching out across the table and resting his chin on his arms with the smallest of frowns.

"Reita, watch your mouth before I ruin your... day..." Sakito had suddenly stopped his talking and focused entirely on the food in front of him, rolling the orange over to Reita, but still trying to focus on his bowl, not inhaling food but eating occasionally and picking furiously. Why was Ruka in the cafeteria? Did he normally eat here?

"Hoi, the two of you have been staring at that table since you've sat down. Could you give it a rest?" Mally's question was surprisingly half-hearted, but Sakito noticed Reita frown pettily over at Mally before Sakito himself ducked his head down to only concentrate on the food in front of him. There was a light sigh, probably Reita having a staring contest with Mally, "So much trouble from that group, I'm telling you. It's driving me crazy," she stopped to yawn, stretching her arms out across the table.

"It's not effecting you, is it?" Rieta huffed and slouched in his seat.

"Can I help you?" he asked adamantly, almost frowning when she smiled back up at him.

"I got all I need right here," she swept a small hand to cross Reita and Sakito, giving the blonde one more smirking wink before looking back to her book for real this time. How terrifying.

... But Sakito was still looking at that damn table, though his sister was well aware. It unnerved Reita to no end, so he pulled out his phone again, aiming this text to the nosy brunette across from him.

"Are you leaving?" She asked nonchalantly, sitting back in her chair with a smug look on her face, as if she already knew how this would play out. The look only fueled his discontent.

"What is that supposed to mean? I have better things to do than to wander around the school." he grumbled, putting his head down and wondering whether a follow-up text was a good idea or not.

"Good. Because," the brunette stood from her chair, "I have to go to the bathroom." Mally left without any attention from Sakito, but with Reita’s complete attention. Sakito could hardly tell.

Reita groaned and threw his head back, arms falling limp at his sides. Sakito spared him a moment’s glance before going back to his meal.

“Why does she do that...? Why me...?” He sighed loudly, exasperated. Slumping forward in his chair, he glanced at Sakito, a surprising amount of food still in front of him. “How do you do it?”

How do I do it? That’s not the question. What do I do? That’s what I want to know. Sakito wanted to say it, but couldn't find the words outside of his mind. Why was he so nervous now? Now that Mally had (implicitly) given him permission, how could he feel like he was still under heavy judgement?

The horrible breakfast and the previous periods he had wasted paying attention to his watch and lost in deep fruitless thought had finally turned out to have been worth every second for there he was, in the cafeteria.

Ruka made his way to the food queue and payed no heed to what was being question, mechanically choosing the first thing his brain remembered as he tried his best to eye the table at which Sakito was sitting with another blond.

Trying to not be irritated by the presence of another male Ruka kept on with his game of [i]stare don't stare[(i], cautiously, as if what he peaked at was actually some sort of flimsy vision that could suddenly disappear at any wrong move.

Once he found a good empty strategic table, he sat and properly stared.

All he had to do was get up, take a few steps and sit at the table, just to be closer. Just to be surrounded by that fantastic aura, which the brunette provided him with. Surely the brunette most have seen him, there was no way he couldn't have, in fact, if his eyes weren't playing pleasurable games with him he could have sworn that their eyes met a couple of times. But really?

Subconsciously he began to put food into his mouth, while pensively thinking through his situation when another brunette approached his table. It was that new P.R.I.D.E. kid, if he wasn't mistaken his name was Kai and by the looks of it he was also peering holes at the same table. He knew it. It was just matter of fact before anybody noticed the just how wonderful Sakito was.

And before he knew it he found himself talking about him with Kai as they both probably unknowingly, but quite shamelessly stared at the table. Ruka found himself actually paying attention to what kAI was saying, for some reason having Sakito as a subject of discussion almost making it feel as if he was there or he wasn't completely cut out of his world. But then the brunette started saying things which didn't seem to match at all with the Sakito he knew. Or at least, that much that he knew.

“Mystery? ...” confusingly inquired Ruka “... all he does is talk, even when he doesn't need to, he talks talks ...talks” endearingly smiled Ruka, while Kai furrowed his eye-brows appearing plainly confused, almost taken aback.

“You are not talking about Suzuki are you? ...” gingerly inquired Kai, at which Ruka made the most plain expression he'd ever seen anyone make. Who the hell was Suzuki? And why would he ever need to know anyone other than Sakaguchi?

“Talking about Sakaguchi” clarified Ruka.

“Oh god, really?” disgustingly replied Kai, at which Ruka wholeheartedly laughed. The look, the mere look of the brunette was pure entertainment. Ruka imagined that Kai might have had a dose of Sakito's onslaught of words and wasn't too pleased with it. Smirking with himself he realized that not too many people would be in fact thrilled at the idea, which made it easier for him to protected his territory from potential enemies.

In fact he should have been worried of the fact that he didn't mind at all, but what could he do? the heart-shaped arrow had made a through-and-through right through his heart. Meaning that he was a proper lost case.

As more table and more useless bantering started filling the table, Ruka observed Kai trying to get his way out of the table and as he did so something suddenly occurred to him. He wanted Sakito. Kai wanted Suzuki. Suzuki and Sakito seemed close. Ruka and Kai could be close.

Too much connection to just pass it up like that. They had to help each other out and if the other refused he'd just make him, after all, all was fair in love and war.

"Where are you going?" inquired Tomo as he watched the Ruka getting up and ready to bounce.

"... homework" shamelessly replied the blond, receiving a half skeptical and half-annoyed glare from the brunette "... today is just one of those days you know ... half-done homework days" explained Ruka as he walked away and out of the cafeteria towards the school's roof.

Time for some planning.

Some time between Reita's nonstop fretting over Mally's disappearance and finishing putting away the dish in front of him, Sakito saw that Ruka was gone. To where? Something made him incredibly nervous about it. Should he have followed? But how?

He had looked towards the table a few times, but had only registered Ruka's presence, not able to look long enough to see details; he'd been too bashful. Sitting back down at the table, Sakito pulled a thin hoodie back on, putting his hand on his bag.

"Maybe I'll leave to go type up a report or something..." Sakito said, staring down onto his bag, as if it would tell him where to go or what to do. The blonde across him gasped, dramatically quiet and desperately pleading.

"Don't leave me too...! I'll think myself to pieces by myself." The blonde made a grotesque face to go along with it; one between begging and pain. He threw himself onto the table in defeat. "Your sister is too much trouble--why do we keep her around?" He sighed heavily. Sakito blinked at him and stifled a snicker.

"She's very... She tries very hard," he smiled fondly, "But she doesn't trust anyone and she gossips too much... She thinks a lot about what others are thinking or plotting and doesn't think about them as people. It gets her into trouble at times, but what can we do? She is good at it, and because she's good at it, I think she likes it." He gave an apologetic smile. "Maybe one day she'll figure out how to interact well with people, but in the meantime, I think that she is okay like this. It's fun to talk to her if you know how to." He smiled again, eyes smiling.

"I know, she's useful. She's a nice person. She's innocent, but she's curious," Reita sighed again. But before he could say another line, Sakito spoke again.

"So... what are you going to do about Uke?"

The blonde looked as if he was about to get hit by a truck. Unexpected question number one.

"Wh-what do you think I'm going to do?" he frowned pettily, "What can I do?" he sighed, "I already messed things up, I'm sooooo done. You have no idea." He slouched back in his chair, staring at the table.

"Was it that bad? What could you have possibly done in order to--" the deadpanned stare Reita shoved at him made him stop, "Okay, fine. What are you going to do about it, then? It's not like people can forget things so easily. If you mess up then you have to fix it again at some point, right? Once you mess up, is there even a chance at going back? I mean, it's not like people are stupid enough to forgive and forgive again. Hell, look at Mally. She can't even-- "

"Sakito..." Reita groaned, face in his hands and elbows on the table. "I hate you."

The brunette opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the bell. He laughed instead and stood up, pulling his bag off of the table and carrying at his side. "Come on, let's get out of here before you dig yourself a grave."

Reita clicked his tongue in response, "You've already dug me one. What would I do without you?"

"Live a happy, fulfilling life without worries or trifles of any sort. Not to mention--"

"Would you just shut the hell up?!"

And there he went, the key to the master-plan.

Uke, or whatever his name was. No. Not whatever his names was. If he had to make this work he needed to act like he cared about the other parties. So ... his name ... his name was ... began with a K ... ah fuck it ... he just couldn't remember.

"Uke" he called the brunette trying to sound as less as possible, knowing he probably failed anyways.

"Ruka? Did you call me?" confusingly replied the brunette, at which normal Ruka would have turned around and just left. He didn't have much tolerance for stupid questions; unless the stupid questions pertained to another special brunette, then it all became very cute. But for his own and Sakito's good, he would endure. Yes.

"About what we were discussing before, that table you know ... how about teaming up?" thus he nonchalantly proposed. He needed to sound as aloof and normal as possible, as if what he was about to propose was the only normal plan of action two people could have taken, instead of something RATHER desperate.

"Al ... right ..." replied the brunette, quite surprisingly quick fashion. Perhaps he was just as desperate if not more.

The rest of the conversation was a stack of quite irritating, but somewhat righteous, observation which his impatience did a mighty good job in handling. Pat on his own shoulder for that. And from there as soon as they got to the same cafè he has once taken Sakito (and sat at the same table) began a massive attack of planned text messages to Suzuki all with the final goal of getting Sakito to attend at tonight party.

During the messaging ordeal, he had to admit though, or rather realized that what was going between uKE AND sUZUKI, was perhaps a tad deeper than whatever was going on between himself and Sakito. It seemed pretty serious and somewhat serious and he couldn't help envy it just a little, but he wasn't sure whether he wanted to truly know how it felt.

But finally, all these minute of sitting and being uncharacteristically calm were going to pay off. Hopefully. The text message asking of Sakito's attendance had been sent and now all they had to wait for was Suzuki's reply. Something though told him that the fact that Uke had started asking a bit edgy was supposed to worry him if even just a little.

"Can we please get this over with, so that I can go home and get ready and get it over with the whole day itself?" almost begged the brunette at which the blond grinned and reassured himself that he indeed had nothing to worry about.

"Just waiting for Reita to confirm that Sakito will be there and then you'll be once more a free man Uke" he declared at which they both sat silent staring into emptiness. Without a doubt the other was thinking something he probably shouldn't have been thinking about and perhaps the friendly thing to do would have been to ask him what he was thinking and listen to his hoes but he wasn't a therapist and he didn't get close to people like that. He had Kazuki for that anyways it seemed.

But now ... he really wanted know. He could almost say that he was dying to know.

"So, uhm, what's your name?" he inquired quite flatly and as expected the bruentte looked a thin like he had three heads.

"What do you mean, what's my name, you've been calling me by my nam-"

"No Uke, I haven't, you must pay attention to details" sighed the blond "I've been calling you Uke, that in Japanese grammar it is referred as a last name now your first name or most commonly known as name, is the one that comes right before that, which is ...?"

"Kai ..." replied the brunette looking rather dumbfound

"Ah! Kai! I knew it began with a K!" exclaimed the blond as if he had just had an epiphany, then looking at the still rather shocked expression on the brunette's face he worked on fixing it "it's all about details with me, Kai. If you ever will hope to have any sort of meaningful relation with me, be careful to details and please. Please. avoid triviality and stupidity" he stated, at which the other merely nodded "okay then ..." satisfyingly nodded the blond as well "... any reply yet?"

Sakito was on his way home with Mally, still in a good mood from their texting spree with Reita. Although Reita had nearly gotten Mally depressed from his secrecy... Mally had this paranoia that would occasionally shake her from secrets held against her.

But that was in the past now and the taller was left chuckling at Reita's last text to Mally. Something about being lonely with a loud flair of cursing at the end. It was just their style. At the back of his mind, he wondered when Reita had become so comfortable with someone who didn't know how to keep quiet and someone who didn't know their own business if it hit them like a truck. But he was glad for it, really. Their friendship wasn't anything to be jealous of, but it was enough to keep them all entertained and satisfied with it, and that was all he could really hope for, wasn't it?

The pair were just about home when Reita started to ask Sakito about Uke.

......... Oops.

Well, then. How to avoid this? barrage of texts attempting to both convince the blonde as well as stay on topic was in order.

From: Sakito
To: Reita
Uke? You think I couldn't hold my own against him? ... Why would I speak to him if it weren't about you anyways?

I mean, not like I DID or anything... Just because I talk a lot, do you think I can't keep my mouth shut?

... Because I can. Also, did you take that one pencil from my locker?? I liked that one...!

... Nailed it. And then he had a long discussion with Mally about taking his things and rummaging through his locker without cleaning up after herself. Really, she was just a pig at heart. A nasty little, filthy--

Did Reita and Mally forget about the party that he mentioned last week?? NO APPRECIATION HERE, FOLKS. NONE AT ALL.

"When did you find out about this...?" Mally nearly demanded, face turning a shade of pink due to something Sakito could only call shock with a possible dash of worry. Who knew that oblivious little Saki would remember something from a week ago.

"I heard someone talk about it when we were leaving last time," he insisted, "And I also talked about it earlier this week when we went to go do nothing at Reita's place until it got dark." He pouted when Mally gave an exasperated sigh. One day, someone would listen to him.

Hours.

A few hours was what was left separating him from the other. It was almost intoxicating if anything. He wasn't scared, but terrified. He wasn't worried, but anxious. He wasn't hopeful, but quite desperate. Th mixture of all these heavily loaded emotions paralyzing him altogether and making him wonder.

Now what?

Supposing Sakito actually did come, then what?

Would he walk to him? Would he wait for the other to make the first move? But if Sakito failed to do as much, then? He'd have to move, he'd have to do something because there was no way in hell he'd spend another week in the sole company of himself and his own depressing thoughts, wa sit? No, he didn't think so.

Holding his breath, the blond plunged to the bottom of his immense bathtub and looked at the ceiling from it. The image distorted from the water, no sound reaching him. He had no idea why he did that, he just felt like it so he did. He figured it was better than sitting in the tub and shaking in his own skin from a moment that was yet to happen.

Yet, he wasn't a merman, thus up he was again, gasping for air. He'd obviously had stayed under the sea for a bit too long a bit longer and he would have been involuntarily floating. But floating he was not, and breathing again he was, so move he had to.

No more time wasting, pondering, wondering, mentally arguing. It was time to get Ruka, the famed Ruka the cold looking love-making machine back on the game. The Ruka he knew would do him no good before Sakito, but at least, for those hours before their encounter they would protect him and keep him strong, from himself and those hours.

those long, intoxicating hours.

So... preparing for a party had never ever been so troublesome. Troublesome in the way that Mally was being extra meticulous today--Sakito wanted to blame it on Reita's negligence of (possibly) the only thing that kept her sane. Mally was fussing over her top matching her makeup, taking up all of the mirror in front of the dresser. Sakito watched silently from his place on his bed, unsure of whether to push wind herself up over nothing.

After a long moment of watching, he stood to finally get her out of the way, but she caught him first, whipping her head around, allowing rebellious strands to flit over her features.

"Now let me do yours." There was this concerned look in her eye that Sakito wasn't sure he'd seen recently. He frowned, letting his brow crease, and let his hand fall onto her head in a way that was more of a pat more than anything else.

He was tempted to ask what was wrong, decided better of it, and found himself breathing in that dry-powder smell of cosmetics not a minute later.

"What is it?" Sakito finally asked, trying not to move any features on his face as Mally swept over his cheeks with a large brush. She had always applied make up on him in a light manner that sharpened out the puff in his cheeks and made him look, in his opinion, serious and ready to take on the real world.

The real world

...

What kind of high school student honestly knew where they would end up at this point in life, anyways...? He let himself frown, grabbing Mally's attention.

"It just bothers me a little. You know how it gets. Don't get upset about it," she tried softly, continuing her gentle movements and gestures, "I'm almost done."

Sakito looked at her, surprised that she had answered at all. Did she think that his frown was directed at her? He blinked and didn't reply, a sinking feeling was twisting his insides.

"Did I forget anything?" Mally asked quietly, turning around to her things and slowly packing her things away, just in case Sakito did say something.

"What's going to happen after high school?" He looked at her, eyes searching and almost begging for an answer he wasn't sure he wanted to hear. "We're almost done, aren't we? Do you think Reita will go to college...? Can he get in? What about me? Everyone knows you will go to college but there are so many people that don't, I just--"

Mally shushed him softly, the both of them were caught in a mellow mood that didn't have either feeling the need to shout and ramble as they normally did.

"I don't doubt you will get in if you try, but if you don't, I am allowed to train you for the year afterwards, so don't fuck up, okay?" she said it with a knowing kind of smirk that showed her confidence in him more than anything she could have said.

"Let's just... finish getting ready and we'll take tonight as it comes. We still have a long way until thinking about the real world."

What Mally meant by a long way was the short span of a year... And that was probably what unnerved him the most.