" You bastard!  This is all your fault!"

Mitsui retreated a few steps, his hands held up appeasingly as Hanamichi advanced slowly towards him.  The look on the redheads face made Mitsui sure that whatever the guy had in mind for him once he got a hold of him wouldn't be very pleasant.  " Calm down, Sakuragi!  I don't even know what you're talking about!  I haven't done anything!"

" What did you tell Sendo?  Huh?  Tell me what you told Sendo!"

Mitsui blanched as Hanamichi grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him closer towards him.  From the couch Kogure looked at them with a slightly panicked expression on his face.  For his boyfriend's benefit, he forced a shaky little smile on his lips.  " It's all right, Min-kun!  I'm okay.  I'm-"  His words were cut off as Hanamichi began to shake him violently.

" You won't be okay for long if you don't tell me whatever it was that you said to Sendo!"  Hanamichi corrected him.

" Hanamichi-kun!  Please!  Let go of Hisa-kun!  Please."

Grudgingly, Hanamichi did as his senior asked.  He had always liked Kogure and besides, he didn't really think it would be a good idea to murder Mitsui in his very own living room with his little baby brother  and sister sleeping peacefully in their bedroom upstairs.  " Talk, Mitsui.  What did you tell him?"

" Only 'bout Rukawa and all those stupid lies that he's been telling you about Sendo..."  Mitsui scowled, vowing to himself that he would never again attempt to help out Hanamichi Sakuragi in any way at all.  He was getting to be too much like Kogure what with all the time that they were spending together, not that he minded that much.  But he was becoming just another little bleeding heart in this sick, sad world, trying to help ingrates like this redhead before him who had just tried to throttle him to death after he had set a love struck fool straight for him.  This was gratitude for you.  Made you wonder how it was that Kogure had managed to keep himself from turning all bitter and hateful..." And they were all just lies, in case Sendo hasn't managed to straighten things out with you.  I just thought that he needed to know, that you need to know.  You're so clue less after all..."

Hanamichi tipped his head thoughtfully to one side.  He hadn't really thought about the fact that it was Rukawa that had convinced him that Sendo was making a move on Haruko, but now that Mitsui mentioned it, what had Rukawa done that for?  Of course, the Kitsune was really just a troublemaker, but Hanamichi didn't think he would do such a thing without a reason, heinous bastard that he was.

" Sakuragi, Sendo really likes you..."

" Hisashi..."  Kogure didn't think it was such a good idea to say so much to Hanamichi.  They didn't even know if Sendo even wanted the redhead to know about that yet and Kogure didn't want to ruin everything for their new friend since it was so obvious that Hanamichi truly meant so much to him.

Mitsui brushed away his protests.  " He needs to know about this, Min-kun.  That stupid Sendo obviously won't do anything to help himself and we can't let this idiot go right on believing all the crap that that Rukawa fed him, can we?"

" Actually, that stupid Sendo cornered me this afternoon and he put me straight." Hanamichi informed them, his cheeks heating up slightly as he remembered the events that had occurred just a few hours ago.

The scar faced boy's eyebrow flew up at this pronouncement.  " Really?"

" Yeah, really."

" So everything is okay with the two of you?  You guys are friends again?"

Hanamichi debated inwardly with himself whether he should even mention this but he had to, he guessed, if he wanted some advice about the predicament that he was in.  Since this was the precise reason that he had come by here, knowing that Kogure, the source of all the greatest advice, would be there, he decided that he would do so.  " He asked me out for a date."

If Mitsui had been seated on the couch, as Kogure was, Hanamichi was sure that he would have slipped right off it in his astonishment, as Kogure had.  As it was, the expression on Mitsui's face was priceless.

" Run that by me again?"

" He asked me out.  On a date."

Grinning from ear to ear, Mitsui curled his hand into a fist and punched the air the way he usually did after throwing a successful three pointer, a strange habit of his that Kogure found simply adorable.  "Yosh!  I can't believe that spineless idiot finally worked up the guts to do that!  What did you say?  You better have said yes or I swear to all things good and holy that I will kick your ass in!"

" Correct me if I'm wrong but as I recall it, the last time the two of us fought, I was the one who kicked your ass."  Mitsui was in such a good mood that the let this comment pass without any protest.  Shyly, his voice lowering, Hanamichi added, " And I said yes..."

" Finally!"

" But I'm still not finished with you, Mitsui!  Don't think that just 'cos I'm really happy about all of this..." Hanamichi's face reddened as he realized what he had just said. " Er...Don't think that I'm going to forget about all that stuff!"

" What stuff?"  Mitsui asked, puzzled.

" You know perfectly well what I'm talking about!"  Hanamichi moved in closer and lowered his voice, not wanting Kogure to overhear what he was about to say.  " Why did you tell him about all the stuff that happened before?"

" What about the stuff that happened before?" Hanamichi made desperate shushing gestures.  Mitsui was getting more and more mystified at his friend's strange behavior.  " What is it, Hanamichi?  Dammit!  Just spit it out!  I don't understand all your gesturing!"

Finally losing his temper, Hanamichi bellowed. " Why the hell did you have to tell Sendo about the two of us going out together before, huh?"

Mitsui raised an eyebrow, surprised.  You would have thought that Sakuragi would have been in a better mood than this, having just been asked out by a gorgeous guy like Sendo.  Not that he would ever trade his beloved Min-kun in for the guy.  " It wasn't me.  It was my Min-kun..."

Hanamichi's brows knitted together in thought.  " Min-kun?  And how the hell did Min-kun find out about this?"

" I told him about it."

" What the hell for?"

" Because we don't believe in keeping things from each other.  Sides, Hanamichi.  I had a pretty nice time back then..." Mitsui shrugged, giving him a lopsided smile.  " I don't regret it or anything and I'm not ashamed of the time that we spent together like you seem to be..."

The redhead began to shake his head furiously.  " I'm not ashamed of it!  I had a nice time too!"

Kogure cleared his throat, thinking that maybe his presence had been completely forgotten.  " Should I be getting jealous by now?"

" No, no, Min-kun!"  Mitsui put in hastily.  As much as he had enjoyed what he had had with Hanamichi before, Kogure was his present love, and the one that he knew, deep down in his heart, would remain his love indefinitely.  " I'm just trying to find out a few things here..."

Hanamichi sighed, shaking his head slowly..."  Look...I'm not really angry about anything...  It doesn't really matter to me who told Sendo what...I just...Well, you know...I just really need some advice right now...I don't know..."

" You don't need to come raging up to us, threatening Mitsui's life if you need advice, Hanamichi-kun..." Kogure told the younger boy with a smile.  " You can just come right up to us and tell us what the problem is.  Just like that..."

" Yes...The problem..."

" The problem..." Mitsui urged, raising an eyebrow expectantly...

Hanamichi's shoulders slumped..." The problem is that I can't see a problem...The problem is that I sort of like the idea of Sendo and me...The problem is...That I'm scared that I'll completely mess things up when this means such a lot to me..."

" Trust me, Hana-kun."  Mitsui flashed him a reassuring smile as he plopped himself down onto the sofa and draped an arm around Kogure's shoulders.  " Those are not problems.  You can do no wrong in Sendo Akira's eyes.  The one with the real big problem right now is Rukawa once Sendo gets a hold on him..."
 

~**~

" You're really lucky you know, Rukawa." Sendo commented as he walked into the room that he shared with his younger stepbrother and pulled off the plug to the T.V set so that he could get his attention away from the NBA game on the screen.  " A while ago, I was just about ready to kill you for all the stunts that you pulled.  But I'm in a better mood now and I've decided that I wont murder you.  Just hurt you.  Very, very badly."

" I'm very scared."  But Rukawa's tone of voice indicated otherwise.

" You really don't like me, do you?"

" If you only figured that out now then you're even stupider than I thought humanly possible."  Rolling his eyes, Rukawa gracefully got to his feet to try and plug the T.V back on, but Sendo pushed him right back down into a sitting position on the bed.

" Tell me, Rukawa.  Why did you pull that stunt?  Why did you tell Hanamichi all those things about me?" Sendo demanded, taking in a few deep breaths to try and quell his anger.  He had to keep himself calm.  After all, he didn't want to accidentally strangle the guy to death without even getting some answers.

" You want to know, Sendo?" Rukawa's voice was low, dangerous.  His eyes flashing angrily.  Sendo Akira had already stolen everything that he used to hold dear.  The privacy in his room, his family, everything.  What difference would losing Hanamichi to him make?  But it made a very big difference to him.  " You want to know?  It's because I love him, all right?  It's because I love him!  And I can't bear the thought of losing him to you too!  Sendo, you've taken everything from me.  Do you really have to take Hanamichi too?"