Kayashima was sitting on the floor of their room, studying a textbook on the low table and Nakatsu was pacing around aimlessly when he decided to pop the question.

"Hey, Kayashima... what would you think if I was... g-gay?" Nakatsu looked terribly nervous, it must've taken a lot of courage to ask a question like that to his best friend. Kayashima just blinked slowly like he did when he was deep in thought or conversing with spirits.

"Um... Nakatsu... I thought that was already old news. I mean, with Mizuki and all." he droned. Nakatsu flushed, shook his head, and flailed his arms.

"It's not...! Mizuki isn't...!" His voice trailed off weakly. Kayashima seemed to notice his lack of aura spike when he thought about the girl, but didn't say anything.

"Of course Mizuki isn't gay, but we're talking about you, right? Pay a little more attention to your own conversation, Nakatsu." Kayashima cocked his head to the side bemusedly and Nakatsu spluttered some more. "Besides, when you're around Mizuki, your aura..." Nakatsu squeaked and lunged forward to cover the other teen's mouth. Now he really wished he had asked someone else the question! Kayashima wasn't afraid to give him the cold, hard facts and sometimes it didn't help Nakatsu's problems.

They were disturbed by a knock on the door. Sekime popped his head around the door to peer in. "Hey, Nakatsu...!" Sekime's voice died, he had chosen the worst time to come in. Nakatsu was near straddling Kayashima, hand clamped over his mouth, faces a mere inches apart, blushing furiously as Kayashima just smiled under his hand, eyes twinkling merrily. Sekime flushed in embarrassment as he slammed the door shut.

Nakatsu was on his feet before the door had even closed. "Sekime! It's a misunderstanding, I swear!" He ripped the door open and dashed after his classmate. Kayashima just cocked his head again. He knew that when Sekime made his mind up about something, he wouldn't change it so easily. He sighed and tried to return to his studies.

"Oh, yes, I forgot, Ashiya borrowed my notes..." he mumbled aloud as he hopped up to his feet and made his way to Mizuki and Sano's room. He knocked. "I'm coming in! Mizuki, I need my notes..." He blinked blankly. "Oh..." Mizuki and Sano were napping on Sano's bed. Sano had his arm bent, cradling Mizuki's head comfortably. Kayashima had to think that there was a whole different disadvantage for Nakatsu to Mizuki not being gay.

Kayashima scratched the back of his neck and closed the door. He'd come back for the notes later... preferably when they were awake.

He glanced at a noise down the hall and saw Nakatsu gripping tightly to Sekime's arm as the other teen frantically tried to bat him away with his free arm. They were both shouting loud enough to be heard clearly. Naturally, with Nakatsu's great gift for absolutely murdering his sentences, Sekime was far from convinced.

"Grey-blue aura... I'm guessing you couldn't convince Sekime?" Nakatsu groaned and threw himself onto his bunk. He looked tired and confused about something.

"Kayashima, don't even ask." He turned himself onto his side, propping his head up on his hand to watch what his roommate was doing.

Kayashima had a book of ghost stories in his left hand that he was reading but the rest of his body was twisted into various painful-looking knots. Nakatsu couldn't help but stare in fascination. He never payed much attention to Kayashima's yoga, but it was a mesh of contradictions, he thought. The form was gruesome to watch but it held such grace and Kayashima would have a serene expression when Nakatsu was sure that everybody else on the planet would have distorted expressions... or be at least grinding their teeth against the pain.

"You know..." Kayashima's mellow voice shook him out of his reverie. "... I don't think there's anything really bad about being gay." It was just his simple opinion but Nakatsu knew for certain that Kayashima wouldn't lie to him, even if it was a white lie.

"Oh..." Nakatsu's voice trailed off for a second. "... So, you don't mind?" Kayashima shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm an existentialist, Nakatsu." Nakatsu looked at him like he was speaking an alien dialect. Then he shook his head to get back on the subject.

"Are you...?" Kayashima shrugged his shoulders again.

"Not sure." It was true, Kayashima could see that other people were attractive but he didn't think much about it. "I like people's auras." Nakatsu blinked. As usual, the uncomfortable silence was Kayashima's loyal friend.

"Hey, Nakatsu?" Nakatsu hummed to let Kayashima know that he was listening. "Since when did you fall out of love with Ashiya?" Nakatsu blinked again and sighed. Kayashima felt, more than saw, his nervous aura.

"I don't know." He watched as Kayashima untangled his limbs and bent backwards, nearly touching his socked feet with his head. He slid off his bed and planted a chaste kiss on Kayashima's soft lips.

"Maybe it was when I fell in love with you."

Kayashima froze for a moment in surprise but slowly melted into the kiss and smiled sofly against Nakatsu's lips. "I'll have to thank Sekime for knocking some sense into you, won't I?"

The End

Extra: "But Sekime is so mean!" Nakatsu moaned when Kayashima had given up his yoga in favor of sitting on Nakatsu's bed with him, shoulders touching comfortably.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"For every excuse I gave him, saying there's no way we'd be an item, he'd give me two excuses saying that we were! I couldn't say anything!" Nakatsu frowned. "It kind of felt like he was happy about us." Kayashima hid a smug smile behind his hand.

He had been aware that Sekime and Noe were more than a little worried about Nakatsu's gender since Mizuki transferred so he had put up the idea that if Nakatsu got together with someone, they wouldn't have to worry. Because Kayashima will always pose as a detached third party.

Nobody would know they had been played.

Extra2: "Crap!" Sano squeezed his eyes shut and wished he had at least locked the door before falling asleep. Kayashima caught sight of them and blinked impassively like always. He had a look on his face that practically shouted that he knew Sano was awake. Then, Sano heard the door close. "Is it safe to move now?"

One of Mizuki's eyes cracked open. "Is he gone?" Sano shot a slightly annoyed look at her. "Yeah, I should go give his notes back, shouldn't I?"