Drabble-length fic. A milestone in my personal challenge to make a true short story. Considering the fact that I left this story really open, I don't know if it counts or not.

Well. Whatever. Enjoy, read, review.

This is part of a long chain of short fics that may or may not go somewhere.

Disclaimer: is disclaimed.

And You Don't Seem to Understand

"I swear, it's not what you think it is." Izumi was scowling into a soft drink straw, sucking hard with gritted teeth.

On the opposite side of the table, her on-again-off-again boyfriend kept checking his watch. When he commented, distantly, "Fifteen minutes left," everyone ignored him. Pointedly. He scowled and shook a few stray black hairs out of his face.

The poor counselor was turning from one side to another, looking completely lost.

No one blamed her, but no one took pity on her either. It was, after all, her decision to confront the two about their 'unhealthy and dysfunctional relationship.' She was either extremely brave or extremely stupid. And now the woman was making big gestures with her hands – no one thought to tell her that she would fall out of her chair if she kept it up – trying to convince them to talk.

Tomoki fidgeted. By process of elimination, the younger boy had been strung along as a good-will ambassador, mostly because Kouji had no problems hitting Takuya and Izumi had no problems hitting Junpei. Kouichi was a lost cause either way. So it was up to poor little Tomoki, who would have preferred an hour of lecturing from his calculus professor. Really.

"-would you like to explain that, Miss Orimoto?" The smile on Ms. Counselor's face hadn't slipped even though she had obviously lost her train of thought a few paragraphs back. Tomoki suspected happy pills.

The blond blew at her bangs huffily before continuing. "He's not my boyfriend."

"But you said…" the woman started to protest gently.

"He's not," Izumi repeated, looked aggrieved. "Look. I do like him, for some reason that I can't even remember anymore–"

"Chocolate sauce," Kouji reminded her, and everyone swiveled around to look at him. Two red spots appeared on Izumi's cheeks. The black-haired teenager was still looking at his watch.

Tomoki really wanted to get out of Too-Much-Information land. Unfortunately, the counselor didn't. "Oh?"

"Nothing that you need to know," Izumi told her testily. "But there you go. I like him. He likes me."

"Sometimes."

Izumi looked like she was going to kill someone. Tomoki decided better Kouji than him, and kept silent.

However, Ms. Counselor once again proved her complete and utter lack of self-preservation skills by asking the irate girl, "Do you wish that you had a more steady relationship?"

Kouji snorted. "We've had a steady relationship as exes since freshman year. Don't think we need any help in that department."

"You're not an ex, Kouji," Izumi snapped. "We've never even gone on a date, so that's impossible."

"Study hall. St. Patrick's."

The red haze migrated from her cheeks all the way to her ears. "Doesn't count!"

The counselor seemed to sense an eruption on the way, and hurriedly moved to interfere. "And what happened then?"

Kouji opened and closed his mouth and looked away. Tomoki stared. Was he blushing?

Izumi coughed slightly, before muttering out an answer. The only words that could be heard were 'detention' and 'kissing' and 'pervert.' Tomoki decided to plug his ears; it was the only way to preserve his sanity.

Kouji apparently understood more than they did, because a fine tremor went through his hands and he snapped out, "Izumi."

"…selfish…bite…jerk…"

"Izumi." Kouji sounded so horrified that Tomoki was almost tempted to listen in on her ramblings. Almost.

Ms. Counselor's face was molded into a very good impression of a fish. The odd expression didn't even fade when Izumi stopped mumbling, which was unfortunate. Well, no, it was fortunate that Izumi wouldn't spill any more potentially scarring anecdotes for poor Tomoki to overhear, but it wasn't fortunate that what little she had spilled had apparently penetrated the older woman's brain.

There was silence. The creepy, just-before-a-zombie-attack kind of silence.

Kouji coughed. "I don't think that you can help us, Ms. Soto." Tomoki decided not to ask how Kouji knew who the lady was, considering that he didn't exactly have the best memory for names. All of a sudden, the way that the other boys had run off when they heard about the appointment made sense. At the time, Tomoki had attributed it to fear of both the kendo captain and his rather formidable vice-captain, but now…

Well, no amount of sudden revelation would get him out of it now. But he made vague noises of agreement in hopes that the counselor – Ms. Soto – would let them off.

She didn't. "Well," she said, uncertainly, "I still haven't heard your side of the story, Mr. Minamoto."

Said teenager scoffed. "Nothing to tell."

Izumi whipped around, eyebrow twitching. "Of course you would say that, you miserable son of a bitch, it's not like you've kissed me or led me on or anything! I'll just go along on my merry way since there's obviously nothing to discuss–"

"Sit down, Izumi."

She stood up instead, stubbornness glinting in the set of her jaw and the curve of her spine. "I don't think so, Minamoto."

He looked at her distantly and tapped on his watch. "Two more minutes, Ms. Soto. Make it good." For the first time today, Tomoki heard the threatening undercurrent running through his words. He was very, very glad that the words weren't directed toward him. Yet. Which was wonderful and all, but he still needed to make it out alive before it was safe to celebrate.

The counselor actually looked a little nervous, but she plunged in anyway. "How would you describe your relationship with Miss Orimoto?"

"Hard."

Izumi snorted but didn't comment, much to everyone's surprise.

"How so?"

"She's stubborn."

"I'm stubborn? Really! And when did you decide that?"

"Izumi," Kouji turned to her, reached down to her left ear, and unhooked the silvery loop earring. "Do you really want to know?"

She opened her mouth several times, but no sound came out. Kouji fished something out of his pocket and gently slid it into the empty spot. Izumi's face looked strangely unbalanced now, with one side sporting the original silver circle, and the other…a lilac feather. Her hand went to feel it and she brightened suddenly. "Really?"

"Yes."

Tomoki and the counselor stared at them blankly, feeling completely out of the loop.

Especially when both started to head for the door.

"Ah, wait–"

The door closed.

Tomoki felt a brief hint of satisfaction at seeing a specially trained adult just as thrown off by his friends' relationship as he was. It ended when he realized that he was the only person left in the office, and therefore the only person present for a thorough interrogation. The world must hate him.

Exactly one hour and twenty seven minutes later, Tomoki ran into Kouji just outside of the best café on campus, and demanded an explanation, because, well, he figured that he deserved one after all that.

His normally reserved captain actually smirked outright, which made Tomoki more than a little concerned. "Don't worry about it. She was just a little mad at me."

"What did you do?" Tomoki asked, flabbergasted.

The older teenager shrugged, but all semblance of innocence was lost when he grinned, ever so slightly.

Tomoki was sure that this very conversation was killing brain cells. Prompt termination would be preferable. "What was up with the feather?" he asked, as a last ditch effort at actually learning something from the experience.

"Late birthday gift," came the enigmatic reply. "And she said that she wanted a feather. And I thought that now would be as good a time as any to ask her."

As the junior walked out of the store with two steaming cups of coffee, Tomoki caught sight of the subject of their conversation waiting for him. He flushed, hoping that she hadn't heard. The speculative grin on her face told him otherwise, and he groaned.

Of course, from this distance, he didn't notice the secure hold that Izumi had on her not-boyfriend's arm…or the curling metal feather sparkling around her left ring finger.