Note: If the rated m pops up for this chapter please ignore it :)

Ruki makes his way to the front of the school, looking around to see if he spots Ms. Y anywhere. It’s not that he actually takes her seriously on her giving him detention and actually keeping her word on that. I mean come on that little woman can't force him to stay and she could keep on giving him detentions for all he cares, he wouldn't go to any of them.

On the bright side he didn’t see her anywhere but to be on the safe side he dropped his head and kept his eyes focused on the ground. Then he feels a hand rest on his shoulder. He pulls away from the touch and whips around to see who it was, thinking that Ms. Y had found him and was, somehow, going to drag him back to her class.

Uruha steps away and lifts his hands up in the air. “Whoa! It’s just me man.”

Ruki relaxes and exhales, “Sorry I thought you were someone else.”

“Well come on your girlfriend is forcing use to go to this new café with her.” Uruha says rolling his eyes. “I don’t even know why she wants me and Reita to tag along too.”

‘Because she likes the attention she gets from all the other girls around her staring at her with envious eyes being with ‘hot’ guys’ Ruki thought bitterly.

---

They walk into the café and wait for that waitress to get their table ready for them. She seats them down in a booth next to a window. Reita and Uruha sit in front of Ruki and Akako. He opens the menu the waitress handed to him. His eyes bug out for the overpriced cakes and drinks.

He looks over at Akako knowing that she expects him to pay for her. “So what are you going to get?” he asks her, pretending not to care but in reality he was freaking out about not having enough money for her expensive taste.

She looks at the menu and points to a cake, “I’ll get this.” Then she closes the menu and sits back.

He nods acting aloof and reaches into his pocket to pull out his wallet. He opens it slowly praying to anything or anyone that would listen. Someone must have been listening because to his luck he had a bit of money so he looked back at the menu to look at the price for the cake. Looking back down he counted out his money and had just enough left to buy a cup of coffee for Akako and himself.

The waitress took their order and winking at Uruha before leaving again. “Oh looks like someone is into our little princess.” Reita teased.

Uruha purse his lips an elbows him in the ribs. Right after the waitress comes back with their drinks with a big smile. Uruha grins back at her and she turns red and looks down at the table. Ruki was amazed how fast she changed from boldly winking at Uruha to becoming a shy school girl. The waitress, still a little red, leaves the table to attend the other costumers. When she was out of ear range Akako mummers into her cup of coffee, “old pig.” She said it so low that Ruki wasn’t even sure he hard it.

He brings the steaming cup up to his lips and begins to drink it slowly savoring every last drop because he wasn’t going to be getting anything to eat at home. The hot liquid went rushing down his throat. When it reaches his stomach it starts to growl. He takes a few more sips trying to make his stomach think it’s starting to get full but it still continued to growl.

The growling only gets worse when the food gets to the table. All he can do is watch everyone else eat their food. He wouldn’t bring himself to ask for a bite of her cake out of his stupid man pride.

He looks at Reita as he brings a spoon full of mouthwatering cake to his lips. “Wow this is surprisingly good.” He says with his mouth still full with the cake.

Surprisingly… that word triggers an unwanted memory to rise in his head. Well surprisingly wouldn’t be the exact word he would use for the encounter that he had with Vera that day. He would rather use the words mind boggling because he, himself, wasn’t too sure if he actually heard her speaking Japanese and perfectly at that. She’s a foreigner after all so she should know those words… unless her host family taught her these words. Was that what host families do?

“Want a bite?” Akako asks, holding up a spoon full of cake in his face. He looks down at it for what felt like forever. He wanted to say no that it was meant for her, but his stomach was pushing every thought a side and only thinking of the food in front of him. So instead of saying no he let her feed him like he was a baby not caring because the cake was like heaven had landed on his tongue.

He couldn’t help but let a moan escape. Akako giggles, “you like it?” he nods. She pushes the half eaten cake over to him. “Here you can have the rest, I’m still kind of full from lunch.”

‘I’m not.’ He says in his head bringing another spoon full of cake to his mouth.

Within seconds he wolfed down the rest of the cake and his stomach was still not content but he bears with it like he always has in the past.

By the time he finished the rest of the coffee everyone was ready to leave. So they all pushed their plates aside and go up to the counter to pay for the bill.

Everybody waits outside for Uruha because he was still flirting with the waitress. “Doesn’t she have a job to do?” Akako asks rolling her eyes dramatically.

“Why should you care it’s not like your dating him.” Reita said lighting up Ruki’s and his cigarettes.

She glares at him and then she clings to Ruki. “I know that I’m just saying she should do her job right and not flirt with the customers.”

Reita snorts, “Maybe you should worry about your boyfriend more than about a single guy and girl.” He takes a drag from his cigarette and blows the smoke in her face.

She waves her hand in front of her face. “What do you mean by that?” she asks, clearly pissed off.

He just smirks at Ruki and then turns away. “Oh it’s nothing.”

She looks up at Ruki and was about to say something but was stopped when Uruha came running up to them. “Alright let’s go.”

“I’m guessing you got her number?” Ruki asks already knowing the answer.

Uruha just smiles and pulls out a cigarette as well.

By the time they had got out the café it was already dark. They all walk in silence the only sound coming from them was their shoes hitting the pavement and them blowing out smoke. Till they reached the little river bank, that’s when Akako broke the silence asking, “Isn’t that Kai and the new girl over there.” She pauses and gets a better look at them then looks up at Ruki, “isn’t that your new target of bulling?”

Ruki squints into the darkness looking at the two dark figures lying on the grass at the bottom of the hill. When they were closer he could see that it was really Kai and Vera. So he nods, on his cig.

She grins and tightens her grip around Ruki’s arm. “Let’s have some fun with them.”

Uruha sighs, “how are we going to do that?”

Akako looks up at him. “Well I guess we can go down there and mess with them and if they try to run we can just surround them.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” He snorts. “Chasing her would be impossible.” He stops walking and looks at all of them, “but maybe we can get to Kai. I don’t think she would leave her boyfriend behind, so she might come back for him.”

Every one nods in agreement for that idea, except Ruki.

“They don’t go out.” He adds a bit too annoyed. But no one seemed to hear him because they all started walking down the grassy hill.

Even when they reached Vera and Kai, they didn’t seem to m notice them because they were still so clam and had their eyes closed they were sleeping.

Reita was the one that ruined the moment by saying, “hey Kai, is it true you got an when the boys were changing for P.E. class?”

Uruha and Ruki busts out laughing while holding their stomachs. Both Vera’s and Kai’s eyes opened to see them towering over them. In that instant they both jump to their feet and start to step backwards every time the four take a step toward them.

Then Vera, being the fast kitty that she is, grabs Kai’s hand and starts to run for her life. Akako yells out and starts to run after them but the trio stay standing there calmly smoking, already knowing that it is a waste of time run after them.

Uruha puffs out smoke trying to make an o with it. “Man she should just give up already. She’s never going to catch them.”

Ruki laughs, tapping his cigarette so the ashes would drift down to the grass. Then he sees a crown made out of wide flowers. He bends down to pick it up. He examines it as he takes a drag from his . “Yeah she is very persistent and hard headed.” He looks at the crown one more time before he tosses it into the river and watches it float away.

Reita snorts, “I’ll say.”

“Yeah.” Uruha agrees dryly. Then he pulls out his cellphone and looks at it. The light casts a white glow on his face. He takes a long drag from his cig and asks, “So Reita what time did you have to be home again?”

The tall blond looks back at him and answered, “Around eight. Why?”

Uruha says, unconcerned, “Yeah your about an hour late.” He holds up his phone to show that it’s 9:10.

Reita squeezes his eyes shut and runs a hand through his hair. “God damn it Uruha you were supposed to keep watch for me!”

“I’m not the one with the curfew. You should be the one keeping watch that’s your own on the line not mine.” He surges unmoved.

Reita runs up the hill. When he reaches the top he turns around and angrily states, “my dad took my phone away and I don’t own a watch. You know that, you ing !”

“Must have slipped my little princess mind.” He looks up at him with unchanging eyes and grins with his cig between his lips.

Reita flicks his toward Uruha and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “ you .”

Uruha jumps out the way and starts to laugh. Ruki even joins him. Reita storms off murmuring curses to himself. Then Akako comes back huffing and puffing. Uruha asks sarcastically, “did you catch them?”

Ruki coughs back a laugh and elbows Uruha in the ribs. She glares up at the honey blonde boy and wraps her arms around Ruki’s neck bring down to her face and whispers breathless, “let’s get out of here.”

He had to restrain himself from prying her off him and walking away because she didn’t look hot all sweaty and panting. But instead he looked at her with dead eyes and replied, “sure whatever.”

He unlocked her arms from his neck and starts to walk away with his hand resting in between her shoulder blades leading her up the hill. He looks back at Uruha smiling. Uruha waves over enthusiastic, “Have fun my darlings!” then starts to walk the other way.

 Ruki chuckles then taking Akako’s hand, he leads her to his house.

---

When they get to his house he tells her to go upstairs to take a shower. She nods and runs up the stairs. He watches her go up until he couldn’t see her anymore then goes to into the living room to see his mom, like always, passed out on the couch.

Not wanting to leave Akako alone in his room for too long, he walks over to his mother and covers her up and tucks a pillow under her head.

Now he goes up the stairs two at a time to his room. When he opens the door he sees steam coming out the bathroom. Closing the door behind him, he follows the steam to the bathroom and leans on the door frame with his arms crossed.

Ruki could see her body through the sliding glass door and her clothes scattered on the floor. He could tell that she was washing her hair.

Speaking up he asks, “Can I join you?”

His voice causes her to jump and turn her head towards him. He starts to take off his clothes way before she even uttered the words of approval.

Once completely she slides one of the doors open for him and steps back allowing Ruki to step under the shower head. He closes his eyes letting the hot water run down his body.

When he opens his eyes again he sees that his girlfriend was looking at him. He smiles and leans in to kiss her on the forehead. He could see that she still has shampoo in her hair. So he maneuvered her around so that she would be under the water. He starts to help her wash her hair.

She looks up at him lovingly and coos, “I love when you do this.” He grins and watches the water turn a reddish-brown color from her hair dye.

Now he picks up the conditioner. Ruki clicks the top open then the scent of it reaches his nose… the scent of strawberries. Unconsciously he his lips thinking of a smell that he would rather forget about.

He shakes his head clearing his thoughts and trying to focus on the girl in front of him. Akako looks up at him with her head tilted to one side and her eyebrows frowned. “What’s wrong?” she asks.

“Nothing just thought of something.” He says squeezing conditioner into his hand. Rubbing his hands together in quick rhythmic circles and starts to spread it through her long red hair.

When he was done she goes up on her toes and starts kissing him. As the kiss lingered he could start to taste the conditioner, but she didn’t seem to notice. But he does.

He pulls back looking down at her. She smiles up at him. But for some reason his heart didn’t react like it’s supposed to when your girlfriend is standing in front of you ready to do just about anything with you.

Ruki steps back, sliding the door open suddenly feeling trapped at the way she was looking at him. Like he would never hurt her but he knows it’s bound to happen because it always does.

He dries himself off and wraps the towel around his waist. When hears the water turn off behind him, he handed a towel to Akako and then turns around to face the mirror to clean his face.

Then he feels fingers run down his bruises on his back. He flinches in pain because she touched a fresh one. “Does it hurt?” she asked.

“No.” Ruki lies through clenched teeth. Now he feels her lips press on the bruise a little too hard. He pursues his lips and rolls his shoulders in hopes that she would give him some room to breathe.

She steps back so he gets dress and walks to the window opening it. He smells the fresh air the picks up his box of cigs and pulls one out and lights it. When he inhales it, he instantly starts to feel relaxed.

He gets a few more in before Akako comes up and takes it from between his lips. Ruki looks at her to see that she was taking a long drag almost burning out the whole thing.

He hated when she does that. She had her own pack and she knew that he was lucky to get one pack a week.

Shaking his head he looks down at her and see that she has on one of his favorite band t-shirts. He didn’t mind her putting on his shirts, he actually thought it was y… but that was one of his favorites that he didn’t even bring himself to wear in fear that it would get faded or get those annoying holes at the bottom of the shirt. So it annoys him that she just had to pick that one to sleep in.

When Akako had practically smoked the whole she gives the little bud back to him. Ruki looks down at it and says dryly, “thanks.” And flicks it out the window then closes it.

Following his lead Akako gets into bed and whines, while holding a lock of her hair between two fingers and pouting, “Ugh my hair is soo ugly isn’t it?”

He looks around uncomfortable before turning off the lights and squeezing into bed. “No baby, you’re beautiful, you’re a unicorn or some .” He answers.

She laughs and wraps an arm around him, “a unicorn huh. What type?”

Ruki smiles into the darkness, “the ones that are sparkly and pastel and that fart rainbows.”

“EW! Farting is soo not y!” she yells and hits him one the arm.

He clenches his jaw instead of growling a curse. Ruki hugs her tight, trying to control his anger and not be tempted to throw her out. Sometimes she doesn’t know how to control her own strength.

She didn’t seem to mind the bear hug because she just snuggles closer to him and releases a sigh. He loosens his hold and buries his face into her hair. Letting the scent of artificial strawberries lull him into a deep sleep.

----

Sorry for taking awhile to update, I just wanted to wait for AFF to get their together and get the site fixed.

In other news am I the only one counting down the days till The Gazette's new album to comes out?

Also has anyone seen the new PV for Plastic Tree? All I have to say is ...

Sheer perfection!