" Hey.  Are you still listening to me?" Hanamichi's expression hovered indecisively between one of mirth and one of anger as he looked down at his slightly shorter, dark-haired companion.  The frown won out when he got no reply.  He reached out and gave the boy a gentle shove.  " Oi!  Kitsune!  Answer me!"  The next moment he found himself reeling, his ears ringing from close contact with the Kitsune's fist.

Rukawa watched, bleary eyed as Hanamichi's face underwent several unusual contortions, one hand was raised to his right ear as he cussed up a storm.  " Hmm...?"

" Hmm?" The redhead repeated disbelievingly.  " You are one fucked up guy, fox-boy!"  Rukawa noticed that he had gone an interesting shade of red.  He liked red.  He liked the red uniform of Shohukan, but most of all, he liked a certain redhead whose face had just gone the said color.  He reached out to run his hand through Hanamichi's crowning glory only to find it unceremoniously slapped away.  " Not now."

Not now?  What was with his Hana-kun?  He usually loved to have his hair played with!  If it wasn't for the fact that his beloved was a guy, he would have thought that it was that time of the month..." What did I do?"  He asked mildly.

" Besides just hitting me upside the head?"

Rukawa raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.  " I never did that, Hana-kun."  All right, so maybe in the past he might have given the tall red head a knock or two when he had been particularly annoying, but he rarely felt the need to do that these days.

" Don't you Hana-kun me!"  The red head barked, pulling his arm back to give the red head a taste of his own medicine.  Even after nearly a year of being together, their relationship was just as tempestuous as ever.  " You were sleeping again!"

Rukawa scooted as far away as he could get from him on the sofa.  He wasn't in the mood for one of their brawls, although he always enjoyed the making up sessions afterwards.  When he had gotten to what he felt was a safe distance, he shrugged.  " I always do..." He pointed out.

" That's right!  You always do!  And whenever  someone tries to wake you up, that someone always ends up with a bloody nose or a mild concussion!"

" Oh." Rukawa paused to consider this.  " But if you already knew that, why'd you wake me up then?"

" You and your twisted reasoning!"

" You're getting all upset.  Let's just drop this..." He suggested hopefully.  He hated confrontations.  And besides, the sooner he fixed this little situation, the more time he and Hana-chan had to enjoy themselves, what with the parental units gone and all.

" That's it.  I've had enough of this..." Hanamichi declared through gritted teeth.

Complacently, wanting his beloved to be in a good mood, Rukawa dug the remote out from the side of the couch and clicked the telly off.  " We don't have to watch T.V anymore if you don't want to."

" I want out."

" Out?  Out of what?  Your shirt?  Your pants?..." He was hot and ready, but the dark haired boy's words trailed off when he saw the look on his lover's face.

" I want out of us."

" Huh?" Was Rukawa's intelligent reply.  He refused to believe what he had just heard.

" I'm sorry, Kits-chan..." Hanamichi told him as he got up to gather his things.  " I tried.  I really did.  We've dragged this relationship on as far as it can go, I think.  I'm sick of your Ice Prince act.  I'm sick of you drifting off to sleep whenever you bloody well feel like it and I'm sick of getting bashed up whenever his Royal Highness, the Ice Prince Rukawa, is awakened by me!"

" But Hana-kun!"

He pressed on before he lost the heart to go through with it.  " Do you know how it makes me feel every time you just roll over onto your side and fall asleep after we make love?"  Hanamichi demanded.

Rukawa's eyes narrowed slightly.  Was the guy questioning his manliness?  " Hey, look, Hana-kun.  I'm not some sort of Viagra driven sex machine!  I'm an ordinary guy that needs his rest between gos..."

" I know that.  All too well."  He was disappointed when this little barb failed to bring on any reaction from the guy whatsoever.  That was another thing that bothered him about Rukawa.  How the hell could a guy stay so cool and composed all the time?  " But how come you never talk to me in between anymore?  You just sleep and when you feel like it again, you just breathe into my face or toss around in the bed until I wake up!"

" So I'm not the talking type.  You knew that before the two of us started out."

" Yes.  I did.  That's not the point.  The point is that you always manage to make me feel like some object..."

" Object?"

" Yes.  Like some sort of..." Hanamichi's face reddened as he forced himself to blurt it out, " some sort of sex object..."

" And what's wrong with that?"

" I'm going to punch you..."

" I'm sorry." Rukawa put in hastily.  He didn't get the best grades in Shohukan, how could he when he basically slept through all of his classes, but he was definitely smart enough to know when his Hana-kun had had enough.  " But I really don't see why you're insisting on all of this talking thing.  Who put this idea into your head?  Was it that Youhei?  You're not really the type who craves intellectually stimulating conversation, I don't think.  I mean, I almost never hear anything intelligent coming out of your mouth!"

" That's right, Rukawa.  Just keep on opening your trap.  You're really helping the situation out here."

The dark haired boy scowled.  " See!  This is why I don't like talking!  Talking just leads to all sorts of stupid arguments like this one!  Who gave you this stupid idea, huh?"

" Kogure says that he and Mitsui do it all the time."

Rukawa wrinkled his nose in disgust at this little piece of information.  " I really didn't need to know that..."

" I meant that they talk to each other all the time, you hentai."

" Oh." Rukawa made a mental note to pulverize the glasses boy later on.  " Yeah, but Kogure's the smart type and you're..."

" What?  Stupid?"

He directed his icy blue eyes to the ceiling.  He had never, in all his years of living in this house, noticed the crack, right smack in the middle of the ceiling until this particular moment.  " You said it.  Not me."

" You think I'm stupid!" Hanamichi fumed.  " Is that why you fall asleep on me all the time?  Do I bore you with all the stupid nonsense that I spout?"

Rukawa shrugged, seemingly as unaffected as ever.  " Oh, no.  Don't worry.  You don't bore me!" He reassured the furious red head, " I just stop listening." And before he knew what was happening, Hanamichi's fist had crashed into his jaw.  It was obvious that that was not the right answer.

" Good bye, Rukawa."

He watched Hanamichi walking away, torn between the old Rukawa, who would have just let him go rather than to plead and reason with him, and the new one, that insisted that he do just that.  Whatever it took to keep the do' aho his.  The new and improved Rukawa won out.  " No!" He dashed out into the hallway and blocked the main doorway with his body.

" Look.  It's been fun but it's over now."

" Nothing is over until I say so."

" Get out of the way!"  Hanamichi raised his fist threateningly.

" No." Rukawa said softly.  Finally.  He wasn't going to let his Hanamichi go.  " I love you."

For a while, there was a slight softening in the tall red head's features but that was soon gone.  " That's the first time you've ever said that outright, you know that, Kitsune? But it's a little too late for that, I think.

" Give me another chance."

" I don't think so."

He didn't know what the guy was getting so upset about, really.  So he fell asleep while he was telling one of his stories.  Big deal.  He had done that plenty of times before and Hanamichi had never reacted this way.  He was about to launch into his ' But-I-Always-Fall-Asleep' defense when Hanamichi spoke.  " Please let me go."

His tone was soft, sad but commanding all at once.  " Is this what you really want?"

Hanamichi nodded tiredly.  " This is what I really want. "  He affirmed.

" I guess I can't really do anything about this then, if you've already made up your mind and all." Rukawa mumbled.  " I don't see why you have to blow your top just because I happened to fall asleep..."

" You don't understand human emotions, period." Hanamichi told him, pushing him out of the way of the door.  " And this isn't just about you and your weird sleeping habits, though that is a part of it.  This has been coming on for a long time.  I just didn't want to admit it.  Lately, Kitsune-chan, you and I haven't been having as much fun as we used to.  We haven't been seeing as much of each other as we used to either.  You just keep disappearing after school without any explanation at all and-"

" I can change."

The tall red head smiled sadly.  " The thing is that I doubt that."

" I'll prove it to you.  I'll give you a proof of my love."

" And your idea of a proof of your love would be what exactly?  A tattoo of my name across your chest?"

" Would you like that?" Rukawa asked seriously.  He wasn't exactly keen on the thought of all that pain but if that was what it took...

" And you call me the do'aho..."

" Fine.  Whatever it is that you want."

" What is it that you love most in the world?" Hanamichi demanded.

Rukawa was slightly taken aback by this rather unexpected question, but after considering this for a while, a devious smile formed on his lips.  He knew the right answer to this one!  " You, Hana-kun."

" Stop trying to butter me up!"

The enticing image of Hanamichi all slathered in butter ran through Rukawa's mind.

" Seriously."

" But I was being serious!" He insisted.

" Rukawa!"

" I was."

" Fine then.  What is the second thing that you love most in this world besides me..." After a few moments of consideration, he added, " And basketball."

" Sendo Akira..."

" Sendo Akira?!?"

" I was just testing you." Rukawa explained, seeing the outraged look on Hanamichi's face, " You can't not care for me anymore if you get that jealous at the mention of the guys name!"

What a time for Rukawa to decide to be exasperating!  " You love to sleep.  Right?"

" Well...Yes." Rukawa agreed cautiously.

" I want you to give up your sleep."

 " All of it?" He asked disbelievingly.  No.  Even Hanamichi couldn't be that cruel.  " Hana-"

" Not all of it.  Do you think I'm that sadistic?"

" Well...Yes.  I mean, all those times we played those games of yours..."

Hanamichi pressed on, flushing slightly at the mention of his little fantasies.  " I want you to give up your little school time naps.  No napping in class, no napping in the gym, in practice.  In the cafeteria.  Anywhere."

" Oh."

" If you can do that for two whole weeks, I'll come back to you." Hanamichi told him as he pulled open the door.  " This little experiment will benefit you too, you know.  You'll get less detentions and you won't sleep through all of the lectures! So, Kitsune-chan.  What'll it be?"

" If this is your idea of proof..."

" It is."

" Then fine."  If this was what it took, then he was all for it.  Hanamichi was well worth it after all.