Marina graciously returned the murderous look, taking its vileness level up a notch. How dare you look at me naked?!!!

 She frowned. Ok, so she wasn’t entirely naked…

 The good news is… He’d only seen her without her top…

 The bad news is….

 He’d seen her without her top!!!

 Marina gritted her teeth. And he still had the guts to fume there like someone had ripped out his innocence or something!… As if he still had some…

 Marina shook her head, trying to banish perverted thoughts about a certain raven-head. ‘Ok, back to matters at hand…’ she thought, focusing.

 How dare he?!

 If there was someone who should do the fuming, it should be her! Only her! That Polka-Dot-Underwear blunder was nothing compared to the damage he’d done to her. Except for her parents, no one had seen her naked and lived to tell it. No one…

 Marina narrowed her eyes. She got out her pen and almost clawed at the paper she was writing on, unable to keep the pent-up anger any longer…

           You piece of scum!!!

          You perverted piece of horse dung!!!

          You won’t live long enough to lose your virginity after I’m done with you!!!

          How dare you lust after my perfect innocent body like that?!!

          Wait till I get my hands all over you, you big lump of dog puke!!!

Marina angrily folded the crumpled piece of paper in her hands. Adding the finishing touches, she drew a heart on top of it and wrote “Rukawa” in beautiful cursive. She turned towards her seatmate and smiled at him graciously.

"Could you please pass this to Rukawa-kun over there? It’s really important,” she said to him sweetly. “And he’s really gotta read this,” she added, batting her eyelashes at the poor unsuspecting boy.

 “Of course, Akagi-san,” the boy named Hikaru responded, before taking the paper from her outstretched hand, making sure that his touch lingered over her poor appendage.

 Marina’s glaring match with Jaba the Hut’s reincarnation aka Kaede Rukawa was interrupted as she frowned over to where this Hikaru guy was… touching her. She grimaced and tried to pull her hand away. But the boy’s grip was firm and unyielding.

 “Akagi-san, I’ve been longing to tell you this…” he said firmly, finally imprisoning her entire hand in his.

 Marina cringed at that sickeningly determined look in the boy’s eyes. She had a terrible hunch where this confrontation was leading to…

 She laughed nervously. “Ah, you know, Hikaru-san, sensei is coming over and he might see you—!”

 “No, it is better that way,” the boy said solemnly, shaking his head. “All the better for the world to see my undying devotion to you,” he said, looking deep into her eyes, his voice dead serious. Suddenly, he frowned. “And I don’t want you continuing to fancy that pathetic Rukaw—!”

 He was unceremoniously cut off as a heavy object embedded itself painfully on his skull. The thing was a leather-bound book whose spine could turn possibly deadly once used the proper way. The next scene was inevitable. With the force of the blow, Hikaru lay on the floor in a twitching heap, all sense of humanity knocked out of him.

 Well…he was knocked out cold… plain and simple.

 Marina suppressed the impolite urge to sigh with relief.

 She need not turn her head to verify who looked guilty enough to have done that to the poor boy nor to verify how beautifully engraved in gold the Rukawa’s family crest was on top of the murder weapon.

 Hikaru sure was a pain in the neck, but he was a good friend and classmate. He didn’t deserve to be put to sleep in such brutal way… The blow could even result to permanent brain damage such as insanity or mental retardation… Not that the boy wasn’t all that already…

 Déjà vu hit and overwhelmed her, like a powerful wave crashing against the shore. She’d seen this scene already, but only, she had been in the basketball court and the victim had been a certain ex-gangster… Her eyes lit up with understanding.

 So it was him after all…

 She sent the guilty party one last murderous look before turning to her other still-conscious seatmate and passing on the letter of love to her dearest Blockhead.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaede yawned for the fifteenth time in the last hour. He tried rubbing off the sleepiness in his eyes, but it was no use, his eyelids seem to feel heavier than lead. This new resolution of turning over a new leaf with his studies sure was a pain…

But then, two new notes arrived at his desk simultaneously. He suppressed the next urge to yawn.

‘Another one,’ he thought in disgust as he recognized the handwriting of the girl who had been proposing marriage to him on regular basis all throughout the school year. He tossed the letter unceremoniously in the trash can, unmindful of the poor girl’s reaction when he did.

She really had to stop this nonsense if she didn’t want to get hurt…

Kaede was about to throw out the other one instinctively, but stopped abruptly when he recognized the nice handwriting on it…Wait a minute…

He did a double-take.

With the current state of war he was in with its owner, he knew better than to be deceived by that beautiful cursive way his name had been written… He cringed… and that heart… It was making him sick!

He mentally smirked. The owner of the letter was really angry alright…

He unfolded the letter, his eyebrows raising a notch higher as he read through each line.

          You piece of scum!!!

          You perverted piece of horse dung!!!

Kaede frowned. She seemed to be so intent in comparing him to… animal waste, nowadays huh?

          You won’t live long enough to lose your virginity after I’m done with you!!!

Kaede’s eyes gleamed evilly. And what about his virginity? He will certainly live long enough to lose it. That’s for sure… And she couldn’t do a thing to stop him… Well, if she wanted, he’d be more than willing to lose his along with hers—hey!  

Kaede shook his head at that ultimate perverse thought. Stop lusting over the same sex, for cryin’ out loud! … Because that’s exactly what she was… ‘a man in disguise…’ he thought, remembering her brute unlady-like ways and her powerful right hook. He shivered but continued on reading.

          How dare you lust after my perfect innocent body like that?!!

Kaede cringed in disgust. And what perfect body was she talking about?… She looked like a sack of potatoes, for heaven’s sake! With that built, he wouldn’t be surprised if someone mistook her for a cow!

He frowned. ‘Ok, so maybe he was exaggerating a little…’, he thought, remembering the voluptuous curves she’d been hiding underneath those baggy shirts and sweaters… In reality, he absolutely hated to see all of those go to waste…

          Wait till I get my hands all over you, you big lump of dog puke!!!

‘What perfect conclusion!’ Kaede thought, mentally smirking. ‘Wait till I get my hands all over you…’ he vowed mischievously, casting an evil glance in her direction.

Wait a second…

He shook his head vigorously in an attempt to completely clear it of such absolutely scandalous, perverted, foul, demented, and twisted thoughts she had triggered in him since that fateful incident at the men’s changing room.

He glared at the back of her head.

How dare she put all those foul thoughts in his head?!

If this is what she wanted, then he was willing to play fire with fire, he thought, as he wrote all his previous thoughts to answer her pathetic ramblings.

And she better pray she was a worthy opponent for Kaede Rukawa!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

By the end of the class, Marina’s eyes were blazing.

 'She was way beyond pissed… She was seething… No…She was mad!’ she thought as her hands fisted at the numerous pieces of torn paper which had gone back and forth between them.

 She couldn’t even stand looking at them… especially stomach reading them! She never knew any member of the male species could say such foul, rotten and indecent words! And she was just dying to get out of class to face him and tell to his poker face how she exactly felt about him and his hormone-enraged gonads! The lecher!

 And as soon as the last parting words escaped from the teacher’s mouth, she jumped to her feet and abruptly whirled around. Sure enough, he was already behind her, staring down at her with those expressionless eyes of his.

 Marina smirked and glared up at him, satisfied at the sight of him getting pissed too.

 Buddy-Building had one advantage to it... Now, she wasn’t completely immune to his very surprisingly intense and frequent mood swings. She was shocked actually when she’d almost perfected the art of reading his mind through that glassy surface.  She wasn’t master of the art yet, but given more time, she’ll soon be… but, to her regret, it will probably be at the expense of losing her own sanity.

 Her smirk became nastier. Enough with the intellectual ramblings…It’s time to get down to business.

 “Look here, you King of Lechers—!”

 “Akagi! Rukawa! You two stay after class!” the teacher’s stern voice interrupted her.

 Momentarily forgetting the blockhead, Marina whirled around and charged at the teacher. “Sensei! Why?!” she asked, slamming her fists against the table.

 “It is obvious that you two have not been paying attention and merely passing around love notes—!”

 “Love notes?!” she scoffed, almost choking on the words. Boy, if this teacher only knew… “With him?” she asked incredulously. “I’d never!!!”

 Kaede cringed.

 “Well whatever it is that you’re passing around, you had been misbehaving Ms. Akagi, Mr. Rukawa.”

 “B-but, I wasn’t the one who started it,” Marina lied. Sorry, blockhead, not today… I have something important to do this afternoon…

 The teacher raised and eyebrow. “No amount of appealing can get you out of this, Ms. Akagi—.”

 “It’s true sensei,” the raven-head interrupted, clearing his throat. “I was the one, I mean, I merely provoked her. So all the punishment has to be dealt on me.”

 Marina’s jaw dropped at the totally unexpected reaction from him. She’d expected him to rant though… Now, she felt guilty as hell.

 Damn him.

 The teacher’s eyes widened at the boy’s confession. That was basically the longest set of words he has heard him utter… And if he so insisted for that to happen… and knowing Ms. Akagi’s perfect, model student profile…

 Marina smiled innocently. You can’t blame her for having a dual personality, can you? Being the model student by day… and being the rotten schemer by night…It all works to her advantage..

 The teacher sighed in exasperation. “Very well, Mr. Rukawa. I hold you responsible for you and your classmates’ misbehavior. And you shall spend 5 hours today of school service—.”

 “Wait, sensei.”

 “What is it Ms. Akagi?” he snapped in irritation.

 Marina gulped. “I deserve to be punished too.”

 “But I thought it was Mr. Rukawa’s—!”

 “No, I’m partly responsible for everything,” she said with determination, at the same time, guilt pricking at her heart. She nervously glanced at him, this time completely unsure of what he was thinking.

 The teacher held his chin. “Well, Mr. Rukawa would surely need your help—.”

 “Wait a minute,” Marina interrupted. “What’re you exactly making us do?” she asked heatedly, silently appealing to the raven-head to help her negotiate their way out of this. But he never said a word.

 The teacher smiled. “It’s really simple. You’ll see…”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 "Have I really turned myself into a slave of this school?” Marina lamented as she hoisted yet another heavy box of papers and books onto the growing pile.

 “Quit complaining. You’re not the one doing all the actual carrying,” Kaede snapped, as he collected another pile from the stack.

 Marina raised an eyebrow. “My, my... Aren’t we talkative all of a sudden? That would’ve come in handy if you helped me negotiate our way out of this awhile ago!” she retorted pointedly at him.

 He ignored her and continued to clean up all of the faculty and student’s paper works from the previous year. The teacher had ordered them to tidy everything up and bring them to the basement. So far, for the past hour that they had been working, they hadn’t even come close to accomplishing a quarter of the work.

 But, actually, Kaede had no complaints about that. There was no basketball practice today anyways. Basically nothing to do… and he had no valid reason to be around her so…

 He glanced nervously at the brown-haired girl beside him as they walked to the basement for their tenth load that afternoon. He just wished she would quit whining about it already.

 “Rukawa-kun?”

 He froze at the unexpected sound of his name on her lips. He wanted savor more of the moment but he couldn’t deny the fact that that mischievous tone in her voice had an underlying motive to it. He sighed in exasperation and decided to retaliate.

 “Yes? What is it…” he asked, gritting his teeth, “…Akagi-san?”

 It was Marina’s turn to cringe upon the mention of her name. Not her real name. But her name nonetheless…

 She cleared her throat and tried to sound as convincing as possible. “My arms are sore from all that dribbling you made me do yesterday and I don’t think I still can—.”

 “Ok, ok…Just put them on top of this,” he said with a defeated sigh, nodding towards the high pile of books in his arms.

 “You mean it?” she asked hopefully.

 Kaede rolled his eyes. “Yes.”

 “Really, really mean it—?”

 “Are you going to add them here or not?” Kaede asked in his deadpan look, an effective sign that he was getting impatient.

 “I never knew you could get so reasonable sometimes, Rukawa-kun!” Marina said sarcastically, eagerly dumping her load onto his before he could change his mind.

 He glared at her as the weight on his arms doubled.

 Finally relieved of the load, he watched with amusement as she skipped ahead of him to the basement’s entry, opening the door for him with a flourish.

 He shook his head in exasperation.

 The things he’ll do just to be with this lunatic… He couldn’t believe it either… But as much as they’d like to deny it, they had already become friends and the mortifying ordeals that had happened to them served to strengthen that bond…Now, if they could just get down to business and start admitting it…

 With the heavy load in his arms and with the basement’s poor lighting, Kaede took the steps carefully, one step at a time. As he reached the last one, he heard the basement door behind him, slam shut with a loud bang. And soon enough, Marina came thundering down the steps and then--THUD! THUD! THUD!

 Kaede unceremoniously dropped the heavy load and whirled around at her pained cries.

 The stupid girl had fallen from the stairs.

 “What happened, baka?!” he demanded, kneeling in front of her and prying away the hand she had stubbornly clamped over her sore knee.

 “I tripped and then I—!” she said tearfully.

 “Then be careful next time!” he hollered, blowing furiously at the new bruise and scratch on her abused joint.

 He glared at the stairs. “Damn, this school. Couldn’t they get their facilities fixed?!” he mentally fumed, unaware that he was already saying them aloud. “My parents donate a lot to this! I wonder where all the money goes!”

 “Stop sounding like that!” Marina huffed. “You’re scaring me!”

 He turned his gaze back to her then gave her a puzzled look.

 “You sound awfully like my father,” she explained, sniffing back the tears. “…who cares so much about money…But he’s a good man and I miss him a lot.”

 He smirked. Actually, money was the last thing on his mind right now… “Well, then let’s get you back upstairs. That wound doesn’t look too good.”

 Kaede quickly rose to his feet and expected her to do the same. He raised an eyebrow when she didn’t. He figured why as he saw that expectant look in her eyes. “Honestly, you don’t expect me to… carry you, do you?” he asked grimly.

 She demurely batted her eyelashes at him.

 “Well, don’t expect me to coz I know you weigh like a cow,” he added dryly. “Besides looking like one, that is…”

 Marina’s jaw dropped. That was the worst insult anyone has ever said to her in her entire life! Why this embodiment of pure ungentlemanliness!

 To preserve what was left of her dignity, she tried getting up on her own. But she hasn’t even straightened up yet when he swiped the back of her knees with his left arm and supported her back with his right.

 Marina beamed as her entire weight got transferred away from her sore legs and onto his arms. She clapped her hands in delight.

 Kaede grimaced at yet another burden he had to lug around. This time though, it was a lot heavier. “What’s Gori been feeding you these days?” he snapped in irritation. “Hog boosters?”

 From her perfectly blissful position, Marina pinched his nose, refusing to be agitated by the sour-graping of her miserable buddy. “Stop complaining and just bring me to the clinic, will you…” she asked sweetly, giving him a radiant smile, “…Rukawa-kun?”

 Kaede cringed at the name-calling and at the intimate touch.

 He shook his head in exasperation as he carefully proceeded up the stairs, concentrating on ignoring the fact that they were at a very close proximity to each other.

 ‘What are you complaining about?’ a small voice inside his head asked. ‘This is what you’ve been asking for all along wasn’t it?’

 What?! Definitely not! An intimate moment with this… cow? You’ve got to be kidding!

 No. Way.

 They reached the top of the stairs and he gave her a grim look. “Well, you lazy bum, the least you could do is open the door for us,” he said through gritted teeth. “You think you could do that? Or your brains gotten numb too?”

 Marina jabbed him on a ticklish spot on the ribs. He abruptly cringed to one side, almost dropping her. “Hey, if you don’t wanna have a concussion, you better stop the nonsense!” he snapped. “I’m already abused as it is!”

 “Alright, alright!” she obligingly said, chuckling. “I’ll be ignoring that… for now,” she said in threatening voice.

 However her blissful state of mind instantly vanished when she tried turning the knob. Marina’s eyebrows wrinkled in a frown. Funny, it won’t budge…

  Kaede frowned when the door refused to open. “Wait a minute… Have you also forgotten how to open a damn stupid door?” he asked as if talking to a 5-year old.

 She ignored his comment and cried out the first thing in her mind, “It won’t budge!”

 “What?” Kaede asked, setting her down on her feet. He yanked the knob, he pounded and kicked at the door…

 Nothing.

 Dread slowly seeped into them. It was obvious that they were in a horrible situation. Marina had heard of stories that people going into the basement have never been found again. Of course those are just rumors, weren’t they?

 She turned towards Kaede to illicit some support, but the look in his eyes confirmed and served to worsen her fears. She gulped. If they couldn’t open this damn stupid door, the question was: when will they be found?

 She clutched fretfully at his sleeve. “Rukawa-kun?”

 “Relax,” he said in a calm even voice. “I’m sure the teachers will notice that we are missing and will come to check up on us here.”

 Marina thought for a while. Ok, that sounded quite reasonable…

 Kaede smirked. “A pathetic door can’t possibly hold Kaede Rukawa down!” he vowed underneath his breath. It was an absolutely used and absurd idea! He’d wreck this door down if he had to! He wasn’t going to let this whole predicament scare her…

 Speaking of the little devil… Where was she? Kaede frowned when his companion was nowhere to be found.

 “Don’t worry Rukawa-kun!” she hollered from where she stood down the steps. “You won’t be stuck here for long!” she said, he eyes flashing with determination. “Not when you’re with the genius Marina Akagi!” she exclaimed, holding her chin as she studied the old intricate plumbing that ran above their heads.

 ‘Somehow I feared that…’ he thought, as the bottom from his stomach dropped. Wait…

 Kaede frowned. The girl can walk? And she made him carry her???

 The angry retort he was about to throw at her got caught in his throat when he saw her start climbing the old pipes. “Oi! What do you think you’re doing?” he retorted instead.

 “Busting outta here!” she said as if it were the most obvious thing on earth. She pointed towards the little window above. “See that! That’s our doorway to freedom,” she declared.

 He watched grimly as she stealthily maneuvered herself up the tangle of old pipes, wood and metal. Then, it occurred to him… “Hey, watch out! You might fall!”

 As if on cue, Marina’s foot slipped, sending her plummeting to the ground, butt first.

 “Baka!” Kaede called out from above the stairs, starting to confidently descend, a smirk on his face. “You can’t do it that way!”

 Marina’s eyes flashed dangerously at his words. “Just watch me, you useless bum!” She got back to her feet. But thankfully, she just stood there, figuring out another route to her main goal.

 With her mind so intent over the ultimate task at hand, she hadn’t noticed it. But he did… The pipes which she had pulled and climbed over now creaked and groaned with protest. The noise they were creating announcing impending doom. It wouldn’t take a scientist to figure out that the whole damn thing was about to collapse! Over her!

 “Akagi!” Kaede shouted at the top of his lungs, taking the steps down two at a time. “Get out of there! That whole thing’s gonna come down!”

 “That’re you talkin’ about?” she asked him, puzzled at his frantic behavior. “That’s a stupid—!”

 She was cut-off in mid-sentence as he reached the place where she stood, just in time to push her out of danger as the whole mass of pipes, metal, and horrible plumbing crashed above his head… above him… crushing him…

 Marina stared in utter shock, her voice temporarily leaving her…

 ‘Rukawa-kun… Rukawa-kun… Rukawa-kun…’ her mind seemed to chant…

 No, it can’t be…

 Everything went silent. The only audible noise was the frantic beating of her heart.

 No…no… no… no…

 Her mortal enemy…Her buddy… Her mentor… Her friend…

 He was gone… in less than a second… in less than a heartbeat…

 And she hadn’t even apologized and thanked him for everything he had done for her.

 It was then that the sobs over took her.

 “NNNOOOOO!!!!” she cried, all her strength leaving her as she crumpled into a bundle of nerves on the floor. How dare he do this to her? How could he?

 “Kaede!!!”

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

All the screaming and the quiet sobbing knocked him back into his senses.

Akagi…

She was alive… and safe... But he had to see for himself if she was indeed alright…

That thought gave him the strength to rise to his feet and free himself of all the debris around him.  He ignored the heavy spinning of his head and sickening smell of blood as it trickled down the side of his face. “Baka, where are you?” he called out in his weak trembling voice.

The quiet sobbing abruptly stopped, apparently stuck in her throat.

She was kneeling there, a good distance away from the wreck where he had emerged from. Thank god…

Marina continued to stare at him in disbelief, as if she was seeing a ghost or some kind of  illusion walking towards her. But no, it was him… ‘He is alive!’ her mind rejoiced as her tears of sorrow turned into happiness.

He knelt heavily in front of her, feeling her face, her shoulders, her arms for any injuries… when it was so obvious that he was the one who needed medical help badly.

“Akagi, are you alright? Are you injured? Did I hurt you? Where does it hurt? Please tell me!…”

Marina stared at him in shock, wondering if the wreck had taken away all his sensibility. Because of his confused state of mind and incoherent ramblings, Kaede had been oblivious to the fact that her eyes had bled scarlet…

“I’m sorry if I hurt you. I’m sorry if I—!”

He was sorry??? Sorry??? Was he out of his freakin’ mind?! What was he talking about?!

Marina’s eyes flashed.

He was the one who almost died!!! And he was asking if she was alright?

Marina gritted her teeth as her tears of joy turned into rage. “Don’t give me that crap, you freak!!!”

She didn’t get to hear the rest of his senseless ramblings as her anger spilled over the edge, the resounding slap she’d landed on his right cheek effectively silencing him… and miraculously, it cleared his head of the confusion.

Kaede stared, blinking several times before his brain cells started functioning again. With his incoherent ramblings dying away in his throat, he held his hand over the stinging blow… The girl hit him…Again!…And for no apparent reason!

It was effective, alright. He was now back to his senses… to his old uncaring self… or was he…?

“How dare you pull that stunt on me, you idiot?” she hissed as her hands fisted tightly on his collar, drawing him closer.

How dare he scare her like that? He should’ve stirred clear out of harm’s way. But what did he do? He went to it directly…

The damn fool.

She never would’ve forgiven herself if something worse than this happened to him. Wasn’t he aware of that?

‘No he’s not,’ a small voice inside her head snapped, ‘…because you never bothered telling him how you feel!’

Marina gritted her teeth as she tried to subdue the annoying thought.

That is not the point.

He should’ve followed this thing called ‘self-preservation’ which is supposed to come above all human feelings… not that she was already admitting that he was indeed human…

But he didn’t! And that’s what pissed her off so much!

Kaede was silent as he watched the girl’s mental turmoil reflect in her eyes.… He shifted his gaze at the far distance, unable to bear the anger in her eyes.  But when she drew him closer again, with that dangerous gleam in her eye, he started to panic.

 He cringed, preparing himself for her next blow that was sure to come…

 “Don’t you EVER do that again, Rukawa…” she seethed, sneering onto his face, their noses inches apart…

 He was about to make a bitter retort, but before he even knew it and before she could even control herself, she flung her arms tightly around his neck, burying her face onto the soft material of his shirt.

 Kaede did not object… He could not… He didn’t want to.

 They knelt there in front of each other, just savoring the warmth of the brief impulsive moment, forgetting all inhibitions momentarily, letting down the barriers… well, at least long enough to let the great relief sink in.

 ‘Please, just for this short while…’ Marina prayed to no one in particular as she felt the frantic beating of her heart slow down to a steady rhythm. Against his.

 They both knew that this simple moment of silence and togetherness was precious… So they hung onto it… knowing that tomorrow they’ll be back to being the mortal enemies that they were.

 But were they really, truly enemies?

 Deep down inside they both knew the answer.

 But for now they just wanted to be true to themselves.

 “You scared me to death,” she whispered quietly against him when she finally found her voice. That was the understatement of the century actually… She almost had a nervous breakdown back there!

 “I’m sorry,” he whispered as he tentatively wrapped his arms around her shaking shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.

 “Stop doing all these stupid things, will you? Or else I’ll die of heart attack at the age of 17,” she scolded playfully as she buried her face onto the side of his neck.

 “If you stop getting yourself in trouble,” he said, his eyes twinkling, “I probably will.”

 “Stop putting the blame on me, you dimwit,” she huffed, poking him on his sides.

 “And stop making me feel like I’m the idiot in this duo,” he countered, tightening his hold on her, pinning her arms in between them.

 “That’s because you are,” she said stubbornly, blowing softly into his ear.

 Kaede’s brow furrowed. “I was perfectly sure you were the one—”

 “Oh, just shut up,” she whispered in his ear, shifting her arms tighter around him.

 “Ok,” he agreed. He never would’ve heard a nicer suggestion as he brought her deeper into his embrace.

 Silence… It seemed to stretch for a few minutes before Marina spoke up.

 “Rukawa-kun?”

 “Hmmm?”

 “Why do hate me?”

 “Hate you?” Kaede raised an eyebrow.

 ‘What was she talking about?’ he mentally scoffed, ‘He wouldn’t even bother risking his life for her if he hated her…”

 But he answered the stupid question anyway. “Because you’re stupid.”

 She squirmed violently in his arms, “What did you—?”

 Kaede sighed in exasperation before slightly drawing away, “Baka, you know exactly what the answer to that is.”

 She settled down, chuckling nervously, “I guess I do.”

 ‘I hope we’re thinking of the same thing…’ she thought hopefully as she looked up at him.

 “But you like torturing me,” she complained, softly pounding on his chest.

 Kaede smirked. “That is far from being torture,” he answered curtly. “Maybe one of these days if you really piss me off…” he said, trailing off with a slight threat in his voice.

 Marina shivered. “I wouldn’t want to be within a 25-mile radius from you when that day comes…”

 “You really wouldn’t want to be,” he assured her.

 Marina smiled, lazily twirling her finger around his stray raven lock. “You know you really look funny up close…” she said, her eyes roving around his rugged, shaken profile.

 Kaede raised an eyebrow. “Well, you don’t look so good either…” he scoffed, taking note of her ruffled hair and puffy eyes. “You look more human from afar.”

 She glared up at him. “Oh just shut up.”

 “No. You shut up!” he scolded, drawing her closer once again.

 The silence stretched on for a few minutes before he finally spoke up.

 “By the way, what did you just call me awhile ago?”

 Marina’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Baka?”

 “No. Before that… I was positive you even shouted it.”

 Marina froze, absolutely mortified of herself as she realized what he was taking about… And with the way his arms were imprisoning her, she suddenly had a strong urge to become an axe murderer… besides that…

 The bright red blush spread across her face.

 Wait a minute! This was getting quite off hand!

 How dare he take advantage of her?!

 He’s not even her boyfriend, for heaven’s sake!

 She pushed against him, trying to escape the pressing situation, but her efforts were futile. His grip was simply too strong. “You’re not getting away until you tell me what I want to hear,” he teased.

 A few more futile attempts and she agreed. “Ok,” she said, finally giving up to her embarrassing fate.

 “Now, what did you just call me a while ago?”

 “Kaede,” she squeaked in her puniest voice, blushing to the roots of her hair.

 “I didn’t quite hear that,” he said into her hair. “Could you repeat that? Louder this time.”

 “K-Kaede,” she squeaked, this time in her less punier voice. “Now, could you just let go of me because I’m going to scream like hell if you don’t, you pervert,” she threatened in her normal voice.

 “Of course,” he said, the teasing still in his voice.  But, the strong arms around her suddenly tightened. “But since you’re already calling me by my first name… I might as well call you in yours…” he said mischievously, breathing into her ear, “…ne, Marina?”

 She shivered at the feel of his breath on her ear. It made all the hairs on her body stand up, but she took a deep breath and tried to retain her cool, refusing to reveal the turmoil inside her that the simple gesture had triggered. “Suit yourself, baka.”

 He slowly drew away from her, finally letting go.

 The moment of confusion… of letting down all guards…it was over…

 They were back to being Kaede and Marina, the mortal enemies…

 But were they?

 Somehow her heart sank, but the promise in his eyes when they finally stood face-to-face would be forever engraved in her memory. Everything was back to normal… Honestly, she didn’t know how to feel… but he did it again…

 Saved her life…Again…

 The least she could do was offer him her friendship.

 “So are we friends now?” Marina asked, offering her hand.

 Kaede gladly accepted. “Friends,” he gently confirmed, shaking her hand firmly in a tight pact of truce…. ‘Friends?’ he mentally scoffed, ‘Who’s she kidding? They were more like…’

 ‘So what are you now, hmm?’ a small voice inside his head taunted.

 Damn. Honestly, he didn’t know…

 Ok, so they’ll be friends… for now…

 Time will tell.

 Their moment of silence was interrupted by a loud commotion outside and of the basement doors suddenly opening with a loud bang.

 “Hey are there people in here?” came the voice of their teacher, his eyes widening at the huge wreck, a huge mass of pipes and wooden beams, in the middle of the basement. “Oh my god, what happened here?!”

 Kaede and Marina both launched an all-out explanation of how they got locked in, how they tried climbing the old plumbing pipes, and how the rotten structure suddenly collapsed.

 The middle-aged professor ignored them momentarily as he turned to face the head janitor beside him. “Fred, did you tell these children that the basement door, actually opens the other way around?”

 The absolutely haggard, shaken Marina and the bone-weary, bleeding Kaede stared in utter disbelief as Fred, the great dumb head janitor, scratched his balding head and merely shrugged his shoulders.

 Their jaws dropped.

 The brown-eyed girl turned to the blue-eyed boy, “Did you bother to check if the door actually opened the other way around?”

 Like the dumb head janitor, the blue-eyed boy merely scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders. He had been too caught up in the moment to actually pay attention to such small details…

 Small details which may have probably saved them from all this trouble…

 The brown-eyed girl gritted her teeth as she suppressed the urge to murder somebody, her fists having a hard time in deciding whether to mangle a certain head janitor or to strangle a certain dumb basketball star.

 She chose the latter.

 “Kaede Rukawa, I hate you!”

 Kaede cringed at the high-pitched battle cry.

 Well, friendship sure felt good while it lasted…

To be continued…