A one-shot. This one just purely makes me happy on the inside. I have no idea why.

I'll never get tired of these one-shots. They're just pure happiness to write, and they're so simple, and yet they make me just as delighted as chaptered stories. I plan on having a lot more, trust me.

I hope you enjoy this! I didn't plan on submitting anything today, after another chapter of When I Close My Eyes, but I just couldn't resist writing this.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. I do own Dominic, though. Tee hee.

Have a lovely week!

Love, Sadie

--

Amidst the bantering among the school halls, there floated many different tones that spilled between the lips of gossiping teenagers. Malicious, envying, praising, disgusted, all of them in the air and swirling around each other and turning the hallway into a market of secrets.

Down the line of lockers, around the corner with the chipping paint, there laughed a group of them that had turned belittling in their smirking glee. They surrounded another teenager who had a paper clutched tightly in his hand, wrinkling the red letter that was scrawled furiously across the top. His eyes were burning holes into the floor, searing through the layers so that he might sink into the ground.

"Seriously, Beetles? Everyone passed that test. It was like the easiest one."

"You're going to have to make that up, you know."

"I've never known anyone who was so completely stupid, Beetles. You take the cake."

His mouth was pressed tightly together as he listened to the bantering around him. Maybe they weren't aware how cruel they were. . . but then again, maybe they did. Each word took another blow at his rock-solid ego, trying to chip away bits of it with constant hammering. Although his mind was a constant source of mockery among the students, there was a point when it got tiring.

"Alright," he murmured, giving them a gaze of flames. "Ya made your point."

"Come on, Wally." His supposed friend, Dominic, grinned widely, showing the dimples that girls often swooned over when he stalked down the hall. "You know we're just teasing. Even if you are dumber than a log."

"Guys." A reproving tongue clucked behind them, and Wally felt his spirits lift at the sight of the object of his affection. She slid among the group of guys and let her arm slid around Wally's waist, resting loftily there without any hesitation. Her confidence of late when it came to Wally was astounding, and he rather enjoyed her ease around him. "Be nice."

"We are." Although it had taken some convincing, Dominic and Wally's group had now accepted Kuki as part of them. She seemed to fit in easily with the boys, with her light sense of humor and the way she could laugh as loud as the best of them. "You know it's true."

"Sure," Kuki said. She fiddled with a water bottle in her hands, and Wally noticed her actions and thought them strange. The only time that she ever busied her hands was when she was in thought, and there was no reason for her to be thinking deeply at the moment right now. She brought the bottle closer to her eyes and examined the clear contents as thought something was bothering her.

"I'm thirsty," Dominic declared, and teasingly snatched the water bottle out of her hand. His habit of mocking the girl was easily ignored by everyone around him, for they knew it was just in his nature. But as he raised the bottle to his lips, her eyes widened in horror.

"Wait, Dominic, no!" she cried, reaching to take it back. He smirked at her and took a long drink, consuming at least half of the bottle by the time he pulled it away. Kuki looked absolutely terrified as she snatched the bottle back, her face going a few shades paler.

"That was for my chemistry class!" she told him worriedly, clutching the bottle with tight fingers. "You just drank dihydrogen monoxide, you need medical attention immediately!"

Upon hearing this, Dominic's own face looked fearful, and he coughed slightly before choking out, "S-seriously?" At Kuki's frantic nodding, he whirled around and took off down the hall toward the nurse's office, followed by most of the group, who were spitting suggestions at him that made no sense whatsoever.

Wally watched them leave with an expression of slight confusion. "Isn't. . . isn't dihydrogen monoxide. . . just water?"

Instead of answering him, Kuki leaned over and pressed an affectionate kiss on his cheek. "And that, love, is why you're the smart one."

--

p.s. Yes, for those of you who are asking, that is the chemical name for water. :D H2O, baby.