Trying to Kill Each Other Doesn't Count as Flirting (or Does it?)

Chapter 9

"Sougo's sister died last night."

When (F/N) heard Kondo say those words over the phone, her heart stopped. It was strange to think someone who'd been so full of life only a few days earlier could disappear like that, plucked from the earth like nothing more than a daffodil in spring.

Sougo-kun...

"I see," she said, fighting to keep her voice level. "Tell him he can take as much time off as he wants. I can stand to stay inside for a little while."

"That's the thing," Kondo said, "He's refusing to take any time off."

"What?"

"He says he'd rather work that wallow around feeling sorry for himself. I just wanted to let you know, and please...please go easy on him today."

"Oh, yeah, of course."

Once she hit 'end,' (F/N) slumped on the floor with her back against the wall, and her forehead resting on her knees. Losing his sister...she couldn't even imagine how he must feel...

'I don't want you to be my bodyguard. I want you to be my friend.'

'Friend?'

'Yes. That means we have fun with each other, support each other, and talk to each other as equals. Understand?'

(F/N) sighed. She'd made that promise, but she wasn't sure she fully understood it. She'd promised to support him, this was her time to do that, but how? What could she possibly do to make him feel better?

What would Sougo want?

The answer came to her, but she didn't think it was quite what Kondo was expecting.

~o0o~

Okita sighed as he trudged up the stairs of (F/N)'s ridiculously big estate. Despite having explicitly told him not to, he was sure Kondo had called ahead. He'd have told (F/N) everything, and when he opened the door to her room, he'd find her looking at him with the same pitying eyes as everyone else.

He knew they meant well, but he hated those eyes, the hesitant way they spoke to him, and the infinite chorus of 'I'm so sorry to hear that.' All it did was remind him his sister was dead. She was gone. She wasn't coming back. He would never see her again.

All it did was nudge him one step closer to breaking, and he didn't want to do that—least of all in front of her.

When he reached her room, he took a deep breath, and slid open the door. He expected to see her there as she always was, standing in the middle of the floor waiting for him, but this time was different.

This time, she wasn't there.

He frowned, and took a step inside. Where was she? Had she gone to the bathroom? Snuck out by herself? Or worst of all, had Kondo urged her to hide so he had to take time off from work—the only thing that could possibly distract him.

It was either that, or...

He looked up just in time to see her smirk, and the hundreds of kunai falling towards him from above. He dodged just in time, drawing his sword and shooting her a heated glare. There she was in all her glory, hanging upside-down from the rafters with that shit-eating grin on her face.

"Aw darn, I missed. And that's only going to work once..."

"You little..." he growled, "are you seriously trying to kill me?"

She shrugged. "Who knows? Now..." she slid a kunai out of her sleeve, "are you ready for our training today?"

He smirked. "You know I am."

~o0o~

Act like it's a normal day.

That was the answer (F/N) came up with. Okita expressed himself best with violence, after all. He wasn't the sort of person who was good at dealing with his emotions. If he wanted to keep working, that meant he wanted a distraction until he was ready to come to terms with things on his own.

So (F/N) spent the morning setting up a trap, and laid in wait until he arrived.

It had been two hours since he'd arrived. Okita was lying on his back on the floor of her room, out of breath with his uniform torn. (F/N) sat a few feet away, equally out of breath with a big smile on her face. Over the course of the past two hours, five maids had come to see what all the noise was about. (F/N) had insisted it was only the TV. Whether any of them believed it was another matter.

"Kondo-san told you, didn't he?"

(F/N) glanced at Okita. His breathing had gone back to normal, and he was staring at the ceiling with an unreadable expression.

"Yeah," (F/N) answered. "He said to go easy on you today, but I had this wonderful assassination attempt planned..."

"Yeah, that was quite a warm welcome."

She heard him sit up, but couldn't bring herself to look at him. If she'd read the situation wrong, and he really did want to take it easy, she'd well and truly cemented herself as an asshole. In fact, she should probably have kept her mouth shut, but there was still one thing she wanted to say.

"Hey, Sougo?"

"Yeah?"

She took a deep breath. "You remember our promise, don't you?"

"...Yeah."

There were several minutes of silence. No one moved. No one spoke. Then she heard Sougo get up, heard his footsteps come closer, and felt a sudden weight against her side.

"What..."

When she looked over, Sougo was sitting beside her, curled up with his forehead resting on her shoulder. She'd never seen anything like it, but before she could ask what he was doing, he muttered something under his breath.

"...Tired..."

"Um..." She glanced to the side. "I have pillows, you know..."

He shook his head, and she could no longer keep the blush from her cheeks or the smile from her face.

He's so cute...

Before she knew what she was doing, she'd slid her hand off her lap, and brought it to rest on his.

Wait a minute—what did I just do? Hey, body, what are you doing? He's going to murder me!

But before she could take it back, he turned his hand over, and slowly laced their fingers together.

Wait, so he's...okay with this?

He gave her hand a squeeze, and after a moment of hesitation, she squeezed it back, trying to pretend her face wasn't red as a cherry.

Yeah...she thought to herself, this is platonic. Completely platonic. Nothing romantic going on here...just friends being friends...

I hope.

Author's Note: Hello, everybody! Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter, please remember to vote. Thanks!

Also, I'm afraid I won't be able to update for a while. I'm going to be very busy in November, so any fanfiction I write will be on hiatus starting the first of the month. Regular updates will begin again sometime in December. Thank you for your patience, and I promise I'll be back as soon as possible!

-Marguerite Partello