" Did you really have to bring that along with you too?"  Rukawa demanded, his eyes narrowing as he spotted the blue shirt still tightly clutched in Mitsui's hands.  The older boy had spent the whole time that they were walking to the tiny diner that they were in now alternately staring at the picture that he had 'borrowed' from the apartment and pressing his nose against the shirt of the ' One and Only Love of His Life', who Rukawa, from his great power of deduction, took to be none other than Kogure Kiminobu.

Mitsui took no notice of the obvious scorn on his companion's tone of voice.  " This was Kimi-kun's favorite shirt to sleep in."  He told him, as though this was the most marvelous, most important piece of information that Rukawa would ever receive in his life.  As if he even cared.  " He always wore this when he went to bed.  He washed it everyday and-"

The dark haired boy, not about to sit there listening to the love struck fool going on and on about some stupid shirt for the whole night, decided to state the obvious.  " If that's his favorite shirt, don't you think he'd notice that it's missing?"

There was silence.  Then a loud, " K'so!"

" Yeah.  Didn't bother to think about that, did you?" Rukawa muttered, bringing his coffee mug up to his lips.  " Do'aho."

" Well I'm sorry, Oh High and Mighty, Ever Knowledgeable Kitsune!" Mitsui said sarcastically, " But please, take into consideration the fact that this is my first time breaking into somebody's home like that!  Not like you, whose been making it a habit to set up surveillance cameras in the houses of all the guys that you think may be making moves on your then boyfriend."

" What's more pathetic?  Me just trying to make sure that nothing will happen to my Hana-kun or you and your sick fixation with that stupid piece of clothing?"

" To tell you the truth,"  Mitsui grinned sheepishly.  " I think both of us are really, really pathetic."

" Incredibly pathetic..." Rukawa agreed.  " But nobody ever has to know about all the stuff that we've been up to except for us, right?"

" Right."

Rukawa sighed inwardly in relief.  Mitsui's cooperation in this matter was a good thing since there was quite a great chance that his activities may have been considered illegal...

" You must have found out a lot of interesting things about all the guys what with those cameras, huh?" Mitsui commented.  He was dying to hear all the dirt about their former colleagues.  And Rukawa must know a whole lot.

" Oh, yeah."

" Such as...?"  Mitsui prompted.

" Maki, Kiyota and Jin.  Together." Rukawa revealed.  He had always had a malicious streak, but this was the first time that he had shown this particular side of his personality to Mitsui.  His eyes gleamed as he went on, " Sendo and his little drawer full of sex toys for him and his Koshi-kun to enjoy.  Fujima and his obsession with an ex-Shohuku player..."

" Oh, yeah?  Who?"

Rukawa smirked.  " You." He answered.  " He has a little shrine for the Three Pointer God, the perfect example of masculinity, as he likes to put it."

" Fujima Kenji, huh?" Mitsui murmured thoughtfully, recalling immediately the very pretty face of the Shoyo captain and his soft, floppy brown hair, so much like his Min-kun's.  " He was really cute!  But I never even really spoke to that guy!"

" Hence the fact that he still considers you ' The Perfect Example of Masculinity..."

Mitsui chose to ignore this.  After all, though he had quite a temper himself, he was not as easily baited as Hanamichi was.  " So, what stuff do you know 'bout Hanamichi and Kogure then?"

" I know for a fact that their relationship isn't quite as perfect as it seems."

The scarred faced boy's eyebrow shot up at this.  From what he had seen, those two seemed to be the perfect example of two people very, very deeply in love.  " What do you mean by that?"

" They're too different, Mitsui.  We can use that against them."

" That's stupid, Rukawa.  Opposites attract, remember?"  Mitsui pointed out.  He had thought that he was finally making progress on his quest of gaining his Min-kun's love once more when he had paired up with Rukawa.  But if this was all that he had planned, then he was no better off than he had been before.

" That's what's stupid, Mitsui.  People need to have some sort of common ground for things to be able to work out and as far as I can see, Kogure and Hana-kun don't." Rukawa explained.  " I've been watching them very closely.  They can be really sweet with each other, but most of the time, they fight.  They fight over the smallest things."

" Min-kun and I used to fight too..."

" But not as much as these two do." Rukawa insisted.  He knew that he could use this knowledge somehow and he had already developed a perfect plan.  He just needed Mitsui's complete cooperation.  "They fight over the kind of food that they eat.  Kogure likes traditional Japanese food, not too much meat.  Prefers fish and vegetables.  Hanamichi prefers western food, lots of steaks and burgers.  They fight over the movies that they want to watch.  Kogure goes for those cheesy romantic comedies, Hana goes for ones with lots of gore.  Hana complains that Kogure is always too serious for his own good, Kogure says that Hanamichi is too immature and should be acting his own age."

Mitsui shrugged.  " Perfectly normal lovers quarrels."

" Right now, maybe.  But once I get through with them..." A small, chilling smile formed on Rukawa's face.  " Then it will all be over for them.  I just need your help in this..."

" What do you want me to do then?" The older boy asked.  He guessed that he might as well go along with whatever Rukawa wanted him to do since he had no ideas himself.  It was much better than doing nothing at all.

" Tell me, Mitsui.  Are you averse to public displays of affection?"

" Me?  Well...Not really..." He paused to consider this.  He and Kogure had always been demonstrative with with their affections for each other but never in a really lewd way.  After all, his Min-kun was such a goody goody.  One of the many, many things that he had thought was so cute about him.

" I used to be.  That was one of the reasons that Hanamichi found it so hard to stay with me. Because I never liked that sort of thing."  Rukawa told him, " But since it's for a good cause, I'm willing to suffer through it."

" What do you mean?"

" You and me, Mitsui.  We'll show them what a perfect couple is like."  Rukawa explained patiently, drawing a small notebook out from his back pocket.  " We'll show them just how unsuitable they are for each other in comparison to us..."

Mitsui tipped his head questioningly to one side, not really sure that he had gotten what Rukawa had said right.  " Are you saying that you want us to act like a couple?"

" Not just any couple."  Rukawa corrected him.  " The perfect couple.  The pair that never fights, always disgustingly sweet with each other.  That sort of couple.  We'll make them so dissatisfied with the kind of relationship that they have now, so incredibly insecure, so sure that they're too different to be able to stay together that they break up." He sat back on the booth, a small, satisfied smile on his lips.  He may not be good with emotions and everything but if there was one thing that he knew a lot about, it was psychological warfare.  Hence the fact that he had been able to handle Hanamichi for as long as he had done.

" Oh.  So what do I have to do, then?"  Mitsui still didn't really get it but it sounded like a good plan. A bit more complicated than he would have liked, but a good plan nonetheless.

" Just follow my lead, Mitsui."  Rukawa flipped through the notebook, a small frown of concentration on his face.  " Okay.  Tomorrow's a Friday, right?  The two of them go and do their grocery shopping at that market place round about six o'clock.  We're going to be there.  Okay?  We just happen to bump into the two and we invite them to go out to dinner with us. How does that sound to you?"

" Okay I guess, Rukawa."

" It's Kae-chan."

" Huh?  Why?"

" 'Cos we're supposed to be together now, remember?"

" Oh, yeah.  Kae-chan it is, then."  It felt sort of weird, finally calling the person he had always just thought of as either the Kitsune or Rukawa by his given name.  Thinking back to the time that he and Rukawa had spent together in the Shohuku basketball team, he suddenly realized that the dark haired boy had spoken more in this one night than he had in the whole two years that they had been in the same team.