Title: Hot Messes and Mornings After
Author: RicepaperDoll (teaspeak at LJ)
Pairing: Undecided. Tentatively Takaomi/Mafuyu.
Rating: T, but will go up in later chapters.
Warnings: Profanity, angst, mild suspense, drama, violence, sexual tension and references as of now; more to come.

Disclaimer: Applies for all chapters. Oresama Teacher is not mine. If it was, Mafuyu would have experienced an incredible amount of unresolved sexual tension with everyone multiple times by now.

Summary: Introducing Mafuyu, the college graduate. Having had no contact with Saeki for the past three years and living a rather mundane life, it gets shaken up again with a "crash into hello," a single bed, and a new set of Saeki Takaomi's problems.

Note: AU future-fic, after the manga's expected ending. This takes place three years after Mafuyu's graduation from high school. In this fic, Mafuyu attended and graduated from a three-year junior college program (basically, a local college that offers an undergraduate degree, especially for women in Japan).

Chapter One
Idle Summer Days

A soft summer wind gently rustled the cheap linen curtains.

On other days, like when she first got them from the flea market, their yellow hues would make her smile and remind her of the sun. But today, it was just one of those days...

The sun was too bright and streams of light were filtering intrusively through the curtains in the rather plain apartment. Humidity made the air moist and wet, and the air conditioner from the inside of the apartment managed to give a feeble breeze that left condensation collecting like beads of sweat in the corners of the window. The light chirping of cicadas was heard outside and a precarious arm wriggled out from under the covers of a futon.

Smack.

The alarm clock flew to the other side of the wall, cracking in several places as it rebounded against the white plaster.

Stupid alarm clock...

Hand resting over her eyes, Kurosaki Mafuyu at twenty years old did not know what the hell she was doing with her life.

She rubbed her face, slapping her cheeks until she was fairly awake. It was the fourth time this week that she had woken up so early in the morning in such an agitated state.

"Ugh. What time is it?"

Brown eyes squinted blearily at the digital clock to check out the time in the dim room. Her eyes rolled back in exasperation as she plopped back in bed. 7 in the morning in the middle of August. It was one hundred degrees outside; she had nowhere to go. Rolling in the sheets, Mafuyu wiped her brow with her night shirt's sleeve. "Ah, it's too hot to think."

Getting up and shaking off her drowsiness, Mafuyu made her way to the kitchen and found yesterday's newspaper. Sunlight from outside illuminated the room in soft hues. The lights remained off as she took a seat at the low table in the living room. She flipped the newspaper open to the employment ad pages.

"...I need a job."

It was a little over three summers ago since she had completed high school at Midori Ga Oka Academy. Graduation was now a distant blur filled with goodbyes and good lucks, and from the few years she spent there, the ride she had was a wild one. The Disciplinary Club flourished with Saeki-sensei's unconventional tactics and in the end, they finally managed to succeed in reinstating Saeki's position as chairman of the school.

Student body president Hanabusa Miyabi was probably his sparkliest that day as he stood by his father during the negotiation plans in the chairman's office. Smiling his deadly enigmatic smile, his cunning eyes caught Mafuyu's as she stood outside the office eavesdropping. She could have sworn she heard a "That was a fun game while it lasted, eh, Kurosaki-san?" as he turned to follow his father complacently at the door, a small, graceful wave in her direction on the last day of classes. His real alliance was never made clear, even at the very end.

As for the club itself, the group had slowly disbanded, but remained close, despite the infrequent meetings and the difficulty of keeping in touch over long distances. Hayasaka passed his entrance exams for college and made it into a nice university in Osaka, while Mafuyu herself decided it was best for her to enter a local three-year junior college around the area. Hayasaka never did find out about Usa-Chan Man and Natsuo's real identities, and during the last week of school, Mafuyu had to do a lot of running around to make his final wishes and farewells come true.

Mafuyu didn't realize it had already been about a year since she last saw Banchou either. Apparently, Okegawa Kyoutaro worked a couple of part-time jobs and made ends meet while he got around to completing his college work. Nekomata-san still remained his favorite character, and more and more, she thought that he would want to quit his part-time shifts to chase after dreams of becoming a romance novelist or a screenwriter for the Nekomata series. Shinobu Yui was the same as ever as well, remaining unwaveringly serious as he divulged his secret shinobi techniques. He eventually went off to follow his beloved President to a university in Tokyo. And from the last time she heard from him, Shibuya Aki finished his final year at Midori Ga Oka and passed his exams to go to a vocational school overseas.

Last but not least, there was that guy...Saeki Takaomi.

After receiving the chairman position at the school, he passed it on to his grandfather, who managed the school for a few months until his final days. The last time she really saw Takaomi-kun was about three years ago when she paid her condolences to his family at the funeral. Since then, he mysteriously left. The apartment next door that was once his remained unoccupied, completely untouched.

Busy with her own life, she hadn't even had the chance to get in contact with him since that day. She was just starting college at the time.

Takaomi-kun. She had to wonder...

What was he doing right now? Where had he gone? Is he still fulfilling his duties as the school's chairman after Ojii-san?

At the funeral, despite his inability to reach out to anyone, Takaomi-kun made an effort to be his normal self around her that day. Ruffling her hair affectionately with a brash grin, Takaomi said to her his last message as she was about to leave to go home. "Mafuyu. Next time I see you, I want to be impressed by how much you've grown. Good luck in college."

Good luck.

Good luck in...

Her eyes reduced themselves to unimpressed squints.

'Good luck?' What the hell was that? And what did he mean 'by how much I've grown?' By how much...

She looked down at her chest reflectively. Grabbing her boobs unceremoniously, she squeezed.

Eh. Not quite a B-cup anymore, but not quite a C-cup? Was that right?

B...and a half cup?

Mafuyu snorted, slapping herself mentally for trying to understand. Ugh. Perverted old man.

While it had been a heavy atmosphere during that time, Mafuyu found that last message rather troublesome, irritating and heartwarming all at once. Why he was trying to look out for her and wishing her good luck, she could understand. But the fact that she hadn't received any messages from him after that, or hadn't even seen him since the funeral, was cruelly unsettling to her.

When was 'next time' going to be?

She had even tried calling him for help on numerous occasions and had gone to the school to ask for the chairman a few times, but after a while, she stopped calling. After all, there had been no activity inside his apartment next door since then...

To put it simply, Saeki Takaomi was missing.

Or rather, he did not want to be found.

During the three years of his unexplained absence, she had gone from being confused, to being worried, to being angry, to being frustrated, to being hurt and depressed, and back again. Now, her emotions had finally settled into a quiet sense of indifference, one that was close to her current mellow temperament, a far cry from her days of delinquency. And despite her efforts to reach Takaomi-kun, and her strong desire to search for him at the school, there was something that stopped her.

The times she had thought of him over the three years had decreased dramatically since she got involved in her school work, but it was only now since she graduated and had all this free time that he started to plague her mind...

"Next time I see you...I want to be impressed."

Impressed? What did he mean by that?

She looked at her current state now. A student recently graduated from a junior college program with no job and barely enough to pay the rent. Ah yes, that's right...

Because of a few financial mishaps in the family business she worked for, the part-time job that she held on to had been terminated, and these last few weeks, she had been downsizing her living expenses so she could pay off next month's rent. The ramen and bento boxes alone were to account for her sad state of living. Well, this is where her college degree came in, isn't it?

Setting aside her newspaper, Mafuyu downed the rest of the water in one swoop with a determined glint in her eye. Looking through ads, waking up at ungodly hours, ruminating like a sad old man...she had to put a stop to this pitifully slow existence. It had already been two months since college graduation.

"Ah...alright. Time to impress."

Gathering her materials and circling a few of the ads, she made her way to her apartment's balcony in a loose t-shirt and sat in a chair, facing the sun to mull over various employment positions.

About three years of wanting to see him again, of finally getting back to thinking about him, she was going to make herself into quite the impressive force when he finally came to see her. And if he did not return from his absence by the time she achieved her goals of getting a good job and steady pay, well...she was going to pull his dirty pervert ass out of the hole he was hiding in and bring him back into her life.

Even if he was the Takaomi-kun whom she respected and was terrified of at times, she had grown up to be a lady all by herself, and he would see that. Right?

BANG! BANG!

Startled from her dazed reverie, Mafuyu sat up from the sudden noise. She jerked around. Knocking at the door?

BANG!

The knocking continued. It sounded like it was from outside of a neighboring door. Instead of knocking, it was more like someone trying to break in...at 7 o'clock in the morning. Geez. Pulling on a pair of shorts, Mafuyu did not know whether to feel excited or irritated by the noise. It totally broke up her monotonous day, but really? 7 in the morning? Whatever. Pattering to the front of her apartment with bare feet, Mafuyu yanked her door open and stuck her head out to face the direction of the noise.

"YAH! WILL YOU PLEASE BE QUIET—"

Mafuyu froze mid-sentence, her mouth wide open. She could not understand the scene before her. In fact, it was absurd.

A tall man in a surgical mask and sunglasses momentarily stared back at her, with his arm ramming against the old door of Saeki Takaomi's abandoned apartment. He was dressed in nothing but a thin tank top and jeans, displaying his towering and lean muscular physique.

He momentarily paused to look at her. After a few moments, he continued on his way to breaking down the door.

Obviously, he didn't see her as a threat. Mafuyu took a deep breath before making her next move. She wasn't going to regret this.

"YAH. Just what the hell do you think you're doing, you creep?"

Mafuyu made her way outside, clenching her fists sporadically. She could feel her heartbeat ringing loudly in her ears. Beads of sweat from the oppressive heat started to collect at the crown of her head. "It's early in the morning and people are still sleeping. If you don't stop what you're doing, I'm going to call the cops—"

As soon as she had spoken these last words, the assailant's fist flew up to hit her in the face. Mafuyu's eyes widened. Her left arm flew up reflexively as she deflected the blow. Her arm wavered. It had been a while since she had finally mellowed out her yankee roots, but this fight—it made her mind spin and her blood boil in a way all too familiar. There was something foreboding about the man in the mask. His aura was dark and oppressive. Truthfully, she had never felt such power to this degree in her life. She was stunned beyond all expectations.

Fighting him was another story. The strange man's fists came up at her at odd angles, and the only thing she could do to protect herself was to dodge his attacks. Her arms and foot movement were too sluggish against this man. Was it perhaps too long since she had done this? Or...was this man simply too strong for her to beat? Her journey of trying to become a reformed young lady of society had finally paid off, but now, when she needed her strength the most...

Well, enough of that.

Pulling back, Mafuyu charged toward the man with a roundhouse kick, who parried the attack instantaneously. Damn. Better to move to the offense. She could feel her breath getting quicker and more labored as she dealt blows to the assailant's shoulders. She wasn't one to let up in this type of situation.

Slowly but surely, the man was moving back. Yeah, that was it. Just a little bit more...

Mafuyu could see herself winning this fight. His movements were growing lax, and his coordination was starting to fall apart...

There, an opening!

Mafuyu drew back her fist to land a blow to the man's face. This would be it. In a blind fury, she sent her arm sailing.

It never connected. She looked up.

A large hand had flown up to effortlessly catch her fist.

Then the man did something completely unexpected.

He chuckled.

Mafuyu trembled involuntarily at the sound. Swallowing, she cringed at how dry the back of her throat felt. Her voice cracked as she spoke. "Oi, that's it. I'm going to scream—mmfph!"

Without warning, a large hand went up to her mouth and an arm wrapped around her small frame. In response, Mafuyu thrashed around violently, hoping to free herself from the man's clutches. The man's grip only got tighter, threatening to crush her abdomen. He is too strong, dammit...

Mafuyu was pushed into her open apartment door, the man landing on top of her as they lay sprawled on the hardwood floor. A sharp pain shot up in her leg as they collided together, causing Mafuyu to let out a muffled yelp. The wind was knocked out of her completely. In their awkward position, the man took the opportunity to kick the door with his foot, slamming it shut.

The apartment was dim and silent, only the sounds of their heavy panting permeating the silence as they caught their breath. Occasional rustling of clothes and muffled protests broke the monotony of their breathing as Mafuyu continuously struggled in vain to free herself from his grasp. As the man lay close, Mafuyu could smell the scent of sweat and musk on his skin. The sweltering darkness of the room coupled with the strong scent of sweat was making her dizzy. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Damn it...my eyes haven't adjusted yet...

Trying to get a bearing of her surroundings, she glared warily at the man, trying to find an opening. A fear that she had never felt before started to sink into her bones. Pressing his hand more forcefully against her mouth, the man lowered his lips to her ear. A deep, smooth voice broke the silence.

"Don't speak and don't move if you know what's good for you." Hot breath tickled her face as he spoke.

Mafuyu could feel the beads of sweat running down her forehead increase.

Holy shit.

A strange man in a mask on top of her, in her apartment, early in the morning. No one to hear her. She strained to listen to the cicadas chirping outside and compared it to the deafening heartbeat resounding in her ears.

She took a deep breath through her nose before her next action...

"Mmmmfphhh—AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Mafuyu screamed as she doubled her efforts to free herself. Tears started to form in the corners of Mafuyu's eyes. She did not want to remain in a situation like this!

According to the dateline criminal television shows she had been watching late at night, situations like this only meant two things: either you were about to be raped, or murdered by a serial killer.

This was not how things were supposed to end!

Not this way, for Kurosaki Mafuyu, legendary banchou and former delinquent!

Flipping their positions, Mafuyu sent her and her captor flying into the side of her low dining table, hitting her shin against a table leg in the process. Ignoring the pain, her hands flew to the table for an item, any item that would allow her to gain control somehow...

Her hand found the glass she was drinking from earlier.

SMASH.

Fragmented glass littered the floor as the cup burst into a million pieces next to the strange man's head.

Shit, she missed.

But at least it was enough to let her get away. Scrambling up to gain distance, Mafuyu stumbled over to the other side of the table to stand in front of her living room couch, picking up a vase sitting on the drawers. Looking up, she raised her arm and hardened her gaze.

"Don't come any closer," Mafuyu spoke in a deadly tone. She managed to eradicate the waver in her voice.

The man dusted himself off and carefully stepped over the shards. He ran a hand through his hair, revealing small cuts from the glass along his temple and ear.

"Maa, Mafuyu, I wish you wouldn't make this harder than it already is..."

In the midst of struggling to maintain her threatening demeanor, she blinked.

Mafuyu...? He knew her name too?

Mafuyu shivered at the alarming leniency the man displayed towards her. The bastard was totally playing with her. She started to tremble violently again. At this point, it really looked as if she were about to be raped...

The man advanced on her slowly, swaggering as he closed the distance between them in the living room.

Slowly, he took off his sunglasses.

Then the mask was peeled off.

Eyes widening, Mafuyu stood silently, shell-shocked at the incomprehensible event that was taking place in front of her.

Finally, the man stopped a bare inch away in front of her frozen body.

Mafuyu didn't even realize her knuckles bleaching from the immense pressure as her fingers involuntarily tightened around the vase she was holding.

Sharp, dark eyes remained locked in a gaze with hers. A warm, large hand moved to grasp the vase, gently prying off her fingers one by one to set down the glassware on the low table. A soft clink was all that was heard in the dark apartment. Mafuyu and her captor remained in silence for a few minutes, until her knees gave and she fell back into the sofa, staring blankly.

There stood Saeki Takaomi, the man whom she had not seen or heard from in three years, handsome face set into a smirk as he looked down at her.

Saeki Takaomi, who was breaking into his own apartment on an August morning.

Saeki Takaomi, that bastard...

"..."

Brushing off the extra glass from his left shoulder, Saeki Takaomi took in the image before him.

Kurosaki Mafuyu, twenty years old and a college graduate. Her short brown hair plastered in thin threads around her rosy cheeks, a light sheen of sweat giving her a lively glow. She had the same wide brown eyes, staring at him with an emotion akin to wonderment and bewilderment. Thin frame as always. Lanky. Petite. Small but powerful hands clenched into tight fists. He reached down, drawing up the wide collar of her loose t-shirt that was slipping off her shoulders to cover her tenderly.

Heaving between breaths, Mafuyu struggled to form a sentence. She reached out a finger to point at him.

"Y-you—"

"Ah, Mafuyu...you've grown." He immediately cut her off, letting out an exasperated sigh and a light chuckle. A hand ran through his hair once again, revealing a soft grin on his face. "But did you really think you could beat me even now?"

After a few long moments of silence in the room, he broke the gaze and silently turned around to clean up the broken glass on the floor.

As he knelt down, he suddenly stopped in the midst of what he was doing, and threw a weary glance at her over his shoulder.

"Ah, yeah. By the way, put on a bra. I can see everything."

A/N.

So, I come bearing a gift to our beloved Oresama Teacher fandom...I'm starting a multi-chapter fic! I haven't written fanfiction in years or posted anything publicly before, so here is my attempt to get back into it. I don't know how long this story will be yet, but it will hopefully have about ten chapters or so, depending on how well this plot takes off.

The characters are a little different from their in-manga personalities, since this takes place about five years after the current time in the series, so I apologize if there are any characterization issues while I write this fic. Also, I have a few possible options for where I'm going with this fic, so I'd like your opinion—do you think I should include romance or not, and if so, what pairings are you most interested in seeing? Please let me know what you think!

Anyway, I really hope you liked it. Next chapter will be up hopefully in a week or so.

Reviews, constructive criticism and suggestions are appreciated always! :D