Rei found himself walking along a graveled path through a garden of sorts, seeing an unfamiliar boy sat down. His legs were crossed and his eyes a piercing teal color that scanned over the book he was reading, his red hair falling slightly in front of his face. Despite not knowing who the male was, he felt a sense of courage as he made his way over to the boy.
"H-Hi," he said nervously, holding his hands behind his back in an attempt to distract him from his nerves and shaking, "My name is - "
"I know your name," the boy said, callously, almost viciously and yet without much emotion in his words, "Rei Hoshino. Or is it Rei Hirasi today?"
The small blonde, stood shocked, not expecting to be known of by this complete stranger. Even his mother had told him that they were visiting a family friend of hers, but he had heard that there was a boy around his age. He figured this would be a great place to start over and make friends. Yet, it seemed his hopes were shattered by the cold tone present in the redhead's voice.
"How...did you know?" the boy asked, rocking on his heels.
For once, the unfamiliar boy's eyes snapped up to the blonde and sneered, observing the blonde with his distant azure pupils. He lost interest quickly, returning to his book without a second thought.
"You're infamous," the red-head growled, "Your name gets mentioned more than mine in my own house. How could I not know?"
"Have I upset you?" Rei asked, looking into the surface of the fountain, seeing his reflection stare back disappointedly at him.
There was a crash from the book that the boy was reading as it closed harshly by command of the antagonistic youth. He let out a belittling scoff before walking away from the blonde, leaving him on his own in an unfamiliar garden. Even when his mother had him properly introduced, he still received a cold reaction.
It wasn't outright unfriendly, but the boy put on a mask to hide his true intentions. Being used to wearing his own, Rei saw right through it as an attempt to look amiable for his parents who wished him to get along. Afterward, he was even more ruthless than before and snapped at the male more than once.
"I don't understand," Rei cried, "Why do you hate me?"
"Because you're perfect!" Shota shouted, throwing the book on the ground.
As it hit, the cover ripped right down the middle, sending papers of the book shooting up and falling to the ground. All the while, the red-head refused to look away from him, making him anger himself. When all the pages of the book were on the ground, he looked at them softly, his expression changing as if that book were the most precious thing he owned.
It crossed his mind to pick it up, but he refused to crawl on his hands and knees to do such a thing. The humiliation kept him from doing so, stomping away instead, before Rei grabbed his wrist, pulling him back to face himself. He had enough of the appalling treatment toward him.
"Explain!" Rei demanded, putting his foot down.
"You're perfect!" Shota growled, almost mockingly, "You're perfect. That's it! How can't you be satisfied with that?! I would love for my mother to say that to me! But all that comes out of her mouth is you, you, you!"
"But - "
"No, shut up!" the boy said, his mannerisms dropping, "I hate you! I try so hard to be perfect for her, but you show up and take everything away! She goes on and on about how brilliant you are, and how I should be more like you! You don't even try and you're perfect at everything! I would kill to be able to have that! Get out! Get out of my house! Out of my life! Go!"
The boy began to clench his fists, tearing up at the sight of the blonde. He'd never felt so useless than when Rei was mentioned. Even thinking about him made him run away from the male, his tears flowing out of pure spite for him.
. . .
Rei looked over to the more friendly redhead. Although he had changed, using a different act with (Y/n) to earn her affections, he was still very cruel to others and especially hated the blonde. That's why Rei couldn't seem to figure out why Shota acted toward (Y/n) so kindly. She was perfect, too, so why wasn't she treated the same?
"Haru," the blonde spoke calmly, "Make rice, will you?"
"Me?" the brunette asked, pointing to himself, "I don't cook my own food. What do you take me for, a commo - "
He paused as his eyes landed on the girl, realizing that using "commoner" as a word against those who weren't as privileged as him would be upsetting to the female. So he quieted his insult and stopped complaining, trying to figure out how to make rice. He sat with the bag of jasmine rice in front of him, looking out the window as if the clouds would give him instructions on the subject.
"Do you not know how to make rice?" (Y/n) chuckled.
The boy blushed and clutched the rice, determined to make himself more attractive to the female. In all the dating games he'd played for the past week or so, he'd noticed that cooking always seemed to draw girls' interests. He took some water and placed it in the rice cooker, expecting something to happen as if it was a magical artifact from an RPG. Perhaps it would transform into rice unlike any other. The brunette smiled happily while staring at the rice cooker with an eager expression.
"Here, I'll help," (Y/n) smiled, reaching for the rice, "Measure out how much you want to make with this measuring cup."
Haru nodded, settling for 2 cups of rice. Then he looked up to watch the girl point to the rice cooker. He poured them in, expecting some explosion to happen. When it didn't, he smiled in victory and poured in some more water to combat with the amount he'd put in. Then he hugged the girl, snuggling into her shoulder.
"I did it!" he said, feeling the girl hug him back, "Thank you! I've never cooked before."
"We noticed," Rei spat, giving himself an amused laugh.
Dinner was soon prepared and some women came into place down a long table and set up some chairs along it. They draped it with a red tablecloth and put a bouquet of freshly cut flowers in the center of the table, putting plates on every seat's place. Then they bowed and scampered away as if not to bother them.
"Dinner!" Rei called out.
Yamato came in a few moments later, his hair still slightly wet. Then he began to sit down in a random chair, letting out a sigh as he leaned his head back. Shota gave him a strange look before sitting down beside him, leaving a seat beside him, hoping (Y/n) would make the decision to sit next to him.
"You were gone a while," Shota said, directing his comment to Yamato.
"I felt...dirty," he sighed, "You know I hate that."
"Dirty?" Rei said, trying to hide his smirk, "Interesting, considering your hot shower."
Akari had then walked into the room, looking at the food placed on the table. He sat down opposite of Yamato and scooted his chair in, touching his hair as he looked at the girl. Then he blushed and shook his head almost violently, putting his hands in his lap.
"Why not a cold one? You could've used it," Shota said, crossing his arms.
"He's fine," Akari said quietly, "I can tell you he got it out of his system. He could've done it quieter though...He was so loud."
"Loud?!" Shota said, almost spitting out the water he had drunken, "I never would've guessed. How uncharacteristically vulnerable of you."
"Shut it!" Yamato growled, punching the table, "That's none of your damn business."
While he said it rather intimidatingly, his reddened cheeks were a dead giveaway that he felt humiliated about his private affair with himself. He cleared his throat and helped bring silverware to the table, earning an appreciative smile from (Y/n).
"Rei cooked, right?" Akari asked, looking at his friend.
"(Y/n), too," the blonde answered before noticing a brunette glaring at him, "And Haru made the rice. With great difficulty. But he did. Let's give him a round of applause."
Haru stuck out his tongue at the boy before smiling as (Y/n) sat between him and Akari. The others were displeased, but they tried to keep their jealousy under wraps. Yusei chuckled at their reactions. He'd been silent for most of the time, simply observing their behaviors, something he did quite often.
"Almost forgot you were here," Yamato said.
"A bit creepy, huh? But I guess we're birds of a feather," Shota pitched in, used to the behavior, "Well, let's begin our meal. Thank you for making it for us, everyone."
Everyone began to dig in, enjoying the food thoroughly. It was mostly silent, aside from the clinking of a glass or two. Then there was a sudden boom of conversation, that mostly demanded her attention. It was nice to have so much conversation at dinner. Usually (Y/n) just sat by herself after cooking a simple meal. Her parents weren't around much so it was nice to have so much affection from others.
She smiled innocently, making the boys' hearts pound. Haru couldn't resist hugging her tightly and rambling about how adorable she was. The others were jealous but didn't show it, trying to keep their minds off of it. They often felt this way, now. If any of them touched or made the girl smile, they began to get unjustly possessive. Sometimes their minds wandered to violent and dark places.
"Would you consider staying over for the night?" Shota asked, taking a bite of rice, "I wouldn't want you to be alone again with a murderer on the loose."
The girl raised her eyebrow, finding his idea somewhat frightening as if he was trying to lure her to an isolated spot. She hadn't erased the idea that Shota was the culprit, but she didn't want to give it away. So she thought of what she could say to decline his offer, but the reaction she got was much worse.
"No, it's alright, I'll just stay over with Narahashi. His family has a lot of security, so I think I'd be perfectly safe there."
Rei began to get angry and smashed a plate on the ground as he stood up, glaring down at her. He looked angrier than she'd ever seen him. It was almost like he was going to kill her for saying anything. The blonde grabbed her collar and tugged it, bringing her closer to him. The others only watched in support.
"You're not going there," he said through his teeth, "You'll stay here."
"But - "
"Period," he snarled, throwing her back in her chair.
Shota largely agreed with his reaction, as did the others. Implying that Narahashi would make her feel safer than they could. Of all of the males, it was Yamato that felt the most aggravated with her comment. She didn't mean to make them upset, it was just the way it happened, but she sat in her chair, terrified of what had just happened.
(Y/n) remained silent, not touching her plate any further. There was this uneasy fear in her that if she so much as breathed, she'd be yelled at by the blonde. This wasn't true, as long as she didn't mention the bluenette again, but she didn't know that. She only viewed him as being extremely infuriated by everything and anything.
So she sat for the rest of dinner, unmoving and uncaring of the other's pleading for her to eat. After, some maids came in to clean up and haul the table away, bowing to Rei before leaving. They were oddly silent about it, looking at their employer with disdain and terror, making (Y/n) even more uneasy than before.
"What now?" Takuya asked, "Are we going to do anything fun? What do people usually do at a sleepover?"
"Too many questions at once," Rei sighed, "We can do whatever, really. I didn't come up with a plan to spend time with all of you. What do you want to do, (Y/n)?"
The (h/c) female was not prepared for a question from him and only whimpered in response, hiding her face behind her hand and hair. Takuya noticed and comforted her, hugging her with a large smile, happy to help. Of course, it was only his thinking that he was helping since whenever she had done so, he'd been cheered right up.
"I have a feeling that you aren't particularly taken with my attitude right now," Rei said, directing his comment to the girl, "I don't take you mentioning any other man's name well. Especially not him. But I would never hurt you, and I'm sorry if I've made you feel uncomfortable. It certainly wasn't my intention."
"It's alright," she stammered quietly, hugging Takuya tightly.
The white-haired male was thrilled to be able to have such contact with her, especially receiving affection back. Haru put his hand between the two of them, giving an innocent smile toward the girl and his companion.
"That's enough of that," the brunette smiled, a little too happily, "Wanna play video games?"
"You know what?" Rei said, thinking to himself, "Now that I think about it, I didn't show you my motorcycles. Would you like to see them, (Y/n)? I can show you how to drive one of them."
"O-Oh, I don't th-think - "
"Come along," he said, taking her hand in his.
He touched her so gently that she forgot about his anger, following him willingly. She couldn't help but rest her eyes on his features, her eyes softening the longer she looked at him. He felt his eyes on himself, making him smirk. Haru threw a fit, yelling at the blonde that he was taking away his time with the (h/c) haired girl.
He and the others watched, following them as they peeked around the corners of the halls. While they were clearly obvious to the girl and Rei, it seemed the others felt they had no choice but to stalk around, bashful. Even Yamato joined in it, despite the embarrassment he felt from it. Something about tailing her despite her knowing all about it made him blush in shame.
As the boy opened the door, the girl saw all kinds of vehicles, some motorcycles, and some cars, although the majority was of the former. They were sparkling clean and drew the eye easily. Rei stuck out his chest, boasting silently.
"Like them?" he asked, leaning against one of them and running his hand along the seat, "I'm kind of a collector of expensive things like this. What's your favorite?"
She walked around a bit, observing them closely. They were also so glisteningly clean and delicately treated as if they were a part of the blonde. She stumbled upon a beautiful purple motorcycle, reminiscent of Rei's eyes. She put her hand on it and gave him the small hint of a smile.
"That one, huh?" he asked, "Very well. Catch."
He had thrown her a helmet, the color light blue, and instructed her to put it on. She slipped it on over her head and was hoisted in the air only to be placed on the motorcycle as Rei climbed on it in front of her.
"Hold on, (Y/n)," he told her.
She clutched around his torso, bracing for the acceleration to push her back. He pressed a button and the garage door opened, allowing the sunlight to flow in and light up the room even further. Before they left, Rei gave a little wave back to the boys, winking in victory as he drove off with her clinging to him.
"Branleur!" Haru shouted, waving his arms, "Give her back!"
"I'll kill you, bastard!" Yamato yelled, making sure his voice was heard.
Rei did indeed hear the others, and began to smirk at the angry state he'd made Yamato be in. It gave him no further satisfaction than to mess with the quick-to-fight male. As he rode off with the girl, he began to feel better than ever. Normally when he went on rides like these, he felt free, but that was it. With her behind him, enjoying it as much as he did, he felt not only free, but proud in a strange way.
The wind rushed past his face and he put his hand up, feeling it cut through the almost liquid-air with ease. He smiled with excitement bubbling up in his chest and yelled out at the top of his lungs in joy. The girl did the same, chuckling afterward. It seemed a strange way to bond, but it certainly worked.
It took a long time before either of them had any sort of desire to head back to the house and took their time coming back. All the while, they angered the others further, making them become easily agitated, even starting fights with one another.
"Where the hell were you?!" Yamato growled, eyeing (Y/n).
"Having fun," Rei giggled, giving a wink and sticking out his tongue.
"And you're back to your capricious self," Shota sighed, "Honestly, Rei, can't you just pick one, already?"
The blonde stuck out his tongue again and grabbed (Y/n), picking her up and carrying her like a princess. The others began to chase after the mischievous boy, yelling at him heatedly. The girl only threw her hands up in joy, savoring the strange experiences that she embarked upon with them. All the while, one male stayed behind, frowning at the others, disappearing behind a corner of a wall.
"No, mother, I'm with (Y/n), I won't be home tonight..." he said softly, "I'm sorry...I know...Please forgive me."