Everybody watched as the bottle slowly turned towards Souma Kyou. Not soon after, he gotten violent pats on the back, stifled chuckles and teasing from his male classmates about how fate wouldn't let him escape from the grasp of the inevitable.

He felt a rush of joy as his anticipation had been fulfilled but at the same time he was nervous; he knew his classmates and they wouldn't let anybody get any easy dares, especially him. Of course, any emotion that he was feeling was masked by his cross face. He slapped away Kakeru's hand from his shoulder. Kakeru had been squeezing his shoulder too hard.

He didn't feel jealous anymore; the bottle had finally turned to him. All this time, that he had been sitting with the boys, not once had the bottle favored him and he was forced to hide his disappointment time after time when the bottle turned to someone else. While he had reluctantly joined the game after a lot of persistence from his classmates, he felt glad to be a part of the game. It made him accepted and wanted. Of course, he wouldn't admit this to anyone or anything for that matter.

After a lot of giggles and 'sshhh' s from his classmates, it seemed that they had finally decided the perfect dare for him.

Kyou inwardly snorted. Like, he wasn't man enough to accept a simple dare. Yet, a part of him couldn't help but feel unsure. It wasn't as if he was afraid of this 'perfect dare' but it was just that dares were things that once accepted and done caused a lot of embarrassment. But Kyou was a true man and nothing in heaven or hell couldn't frighten him. Well, almost nothing.

Manabe challenged him with the perfect dare and Kyou accepted. His classmates smiled at him. He closed his eyes for a moment and turned his face away from all of them. He slowly rubbed his temples and let out an inaudible sigh.

So this was the price he had to pay for being a 'man'(or macho for that matter).

The price of accepting this dare wasn't too high and it wasn't as if he was losing his virginity or anything. He wasn't sappy or anything but yet he couldn't stop himself from wondering why he had to give his first kiss to someone he didn't know. Also, he wasn't going to be allowed see her before giving her a kiss. A voice in his head informed him that he wasn't being fair to himself.

He didn't care; he kicked the grass. Most of the students were out of the buildings, some of them were still inside but they were getting out slowly. He saw, a couple walking nearby hand-in-hand. This was not what he needed to see right now.

"Excuse me," a girl asked from the back.

He was slightly annoyed. Where the hell was Manabe? He had been waiting for him. 5 minutes seemed like an eternity to him. And couldn't this girl find a better time or position to talk to him?

"Yes?"

"Have you seen Souma Yuki anywhere?"

What was he, Souma Yuki's receptionist?

"No, I haven't seen the Prince anywhere." He replied curtly.

There was about very no-nonsense about her face. She did not happily sigh at the mention of his arch-rival's name nor did she have a stupid gin on her face.

"Oh, alright, will you do me a favor then?" She looked blankly at him.

He didn't know why but he had a sort admiration for her.

"Shoot." His motions were rather jumpy and he looked around. His heels slowly thrust his lower body up and down. It gave the impression that he was busy. Of course, some of the students thought he must have been really wanting to use the bathroom.

She gave his feet a suspicious glare.

"Tell him that the meeting for Wednesday is cancelled. Manabe is going to be a bit tied up since we're going to have to attend a wedding."

"Oh."

She turned to walk away.

"Matte," he yelled.

She turned to look around indifferently.

"Ah, I didn't get your name. Well, actually I don't remember it. I know that you're in our class and all …"

He suddenly realized that he sounded like he wanted to get this girl's number.

Just then she replied.

"I'm Kuraki Machi."

"I don't see the similarity."

"We're … never mind." She shook her head.

He looked around.

"Souma-san?"

"Yes, be careful. I don't know what my brother's got planned for you but he's a very evil prankster." She sighed. "You do know what your dare is, don't you?"

"No."

"Well, be careful then." She almost started to walk in the other direction.

"Thanks." He said. He wondered if his word gratitude was inaudible.

Surprisingly, she turned around to look at him. He could have almost sworn that she had smiled.

He saw Manabe approaching him from a distance.

His took his hands out of his pockets.

He walked calmly as Manabe's hand guided through the hallway. Well, it was supposed to be the hallway, right? How would he know for sure? After all, he was blind-folded.

All he could see was darkness but when Manabe stopped he could sense a deep darkness enclose him. He heard what he thought was a stifled giggle.

"Okay, you two," Manabe proclaimed. "Your faces are opposite each other, you may kiss."

Kyou leaned his head and reached out for his partner's lips. Well at least he hoped it was his partner's lips.

When his lips felt funny when they touched his partner's lips, it felt like his partner's lips were covered with something.

Kyou moved away and removed his blindfold.

His eyes burned once they met his blind-folded partner who had removed his own blindfold.

Kyou's first reaction was shock. Then he felt anger.

"Manabe, you SOB! Come here, so I can kick your ass!"

If Kyou had stayed shocked for a minute longer, Yuki would have probably said the exact same thing.

"This is all your fault." Kyou pointed his finger at Yuki accusingly. Kyou viciously chew on the cabbage in his stew. "And that stupid bastard Shigure can't even cook."

Yuki was far too angry for words. In between bites, they exchanged vicious glares. They hadn't been able to find Manabe anywhere. They supposed that cackling bastard had run off to somewhere where no student had ever ventured. Kyou had the mind to check the janitor's closet but he was too hungry.

Kyou was annoyed at Tohru. He couldn't believe that the girl hadn't thought about coming home earlier. Kagura had insisted on making Tohru stay with her for a while. He had never figured out why she hadn't come home earlier.

"I can not believe that you Prince Yuki can hang out with cheap, trash like Manabe."

Yuki snorted. "Please, Kyou spare me. I don't need this crap from you."

"Yeah." Kyou slurped the last bit of stew. "After the stunt Man-abe pulled with you, I don't suppose I can give you any crap."

"I didn't know you had a speech impediment." Yuki sneered.

He knew this was childish but damn, this felt good.

"What are you? 9?"

Yuki laughed. "If I'm 9, then you're 6. After all you started it." Yuki mocked Kyou with a childish pout.

Kyou snorted.

"You know," Kyou stuffed his mouth with cabbage pieces. "You really haven't grown up. I suppose it's from all the pampering especially from mother dearest."

"We all have such lovely mommies, don't we? You in particular." Yuki had instantly regretted his words.

"Kusou nezumi," Kyou cursed him, looking straight into his eyes.

"Baka neko," Yuki snorted.

"Too bad, your fangirls aren't here, they would be so disappointed in you."

"It's always with the fangirls. Do you always have to bring them up? What do I do? Live off of you? It's not like I enjoy a bunch adolescent morons going ga-ga over me?"

"Oh, don't you Yuki, don't you?"

Yuki shuddered at the mention of his name. Yuki finished his soup and he and Kyou reached the basin where they put the empty bowls.

"Did you eat the piece of potato that was floating around in the stew?"

Yuki gave Kyou a mocking glance.

"You want to start fighting over a stew you didn't even like? Nice."

"You always took everything away from me."

"What?" Yuki glared at the other boy's figure and moved away from him.

"Don't 'what' me."

"You always think that you can talk crap and get away with it, don't you?"

"Lovely insight into my oh-so-screwed-up head. I suppose the fanclub will have another thing to rant about- your perceptiveness."

"I'm not even going to listen to this," he breathed out, rushing past his relative's shoulder.

"Who's stopping you?"

Kyou leaned against the frame of the kitchen door. Yuki stopped in his track.

"I can't believe that you're still holding grudge against because of that stupid incident." Yuki turned back to look at him. "I did not ask Manabe to get me to kiss you. Heck I didn't even kiss you. I had scotch tape over my lips thank God."

"Me, hold a grudge against Souma Yuki?" Kyou glanced at Yuki innocently. "No, no, I could never hold a grudge against you. I mean being the outcast of the frickin' clan, I can only respect the God' favorite."

Kyou couldn't even blink. He felt his back slam the door frame harshly. He felt his face harshly tugged towards his opponent's, and he could feel Yuki's knuckles press against his sternum.

"You want to be the God's favorite so badly? Tell you what, you go lock yourself up with Akito in that dark room and have him fuck with your head. Oh wait, Akito already did that. But of course, to really be the favorite, you'll have to spend hours and hours with bastard at your mom's request." Kyou's ears hurt, Yuki was yelling at him loudly. A bit of spit had spattered on his face but for all he cared, Yuki may have been spewing acid out of his mouth. "And of course, you can also be treated to a little irony by our oh-so-dear clan. You can be the favorite and not have anyone to talk to, except for Akito but you know how the bastard son of a bitch loves to hear himself talk. You know what, I'll also ask the fanclub to start making you the target of your attention. Hey, maybe they can ruin all of your privacy and leave me alone. Of course, I'm used to being isolated all the time so I'll be okay." Yuki literally fumed. His anger must have also affected his breath. He let his grip on his arch enemy's collar loosen. He hung his head down and his hands slipped down to Kyou's chest. He slowly moved away.

"Don't even say another word about Manabe, he may be a total bastard but at least to him, I'm a person." Yuki's words were serious.

"You bastard!" Kyou violently pushed Yuki away. He supposed Yuki had lost his control over himself. "You took everything away from me. Akito was right. A respectable position in the family, everything! I had to hear my father talk about you all the time. Jesus, even my mother loved you more than she ever loved me. All because of that stupid curse. You even had to take Tohru away from me. I loved her so much."

Yuki stared at Kyou, with a hurt look in his eyes. "I didn't really know …"

"Sure you didn't."

"I love her too. Not the way you do, but I do love her. And she loves you." Yuki had something stuck his throat, he couldn't speak properly. "You have to blame everything on me, don't you? I can't believe you listened to Akito."

"We all listen to Akito," Kyou interrupted.

"Why do you have to blame everything on me?"

"Because you're the rat."

"Stop, giving me that shit about what some low cheat did to some moronic creature, I'm sick of listening to it. And if I've ever deprived you of anything, then you should know that you deprived me of something too."

"Yeah, right."

"You must have the worst memory ever, you moron. We were probably 7 and you refused to play with me and you told me you hated me. Thanks for being my first."

Yuki looked at the floor. There was nothing interesting on it and he could see no dirt on it. Tohru was an excellent housekeeper.

Kyou couldn't bear to look at Yuki. He stared at the ceiling. He felt an odd sense of liberation and humiliation. He spoke after what seemed a difficult eternity.

"Let's just pretend …"

"That this never happened agreed."

They could hear footsteps approaching eagerly and they keenly looked to the makers of those footsteps.

"Hi," Tohru came in smiling with Shigure behind her. "I'm so glad to see you all."

Kyou and Yuki thanked her inwardly for being at the right place at the right time.

"We're glad to see you too. I'd hug you if I could." Yuki smiled as his eyes softened at her sight.

"So would I." Kyou agreed.

Tohru felt a sense of peace. She knew that a few things had been resolved between Kyou and Yuki, of course she didn't know how. She had politely asked Yuki to go to the roof and give Kyou some spicy rice-cakes which she had just made.

She knew that they were making all efforts to avoid each other and Shigure teased them over how they wouldn't fight with each other anymore.

She smiled as Yuki frowned and went upstairs.

"Who told you that you could come up here?" Kyou glared at Yuki who was holding the plate of rice cakes.

"Greetings to you too. Tohru made these for you." He handed him the plate to Kyou.

"For me?" Kyou slightly coughed and he tried not to blush.

He looked at Yuki's figure slipping away. "Ah … thank you …"

"Yeah, you're welcome."

Yuki didn't want an invitation to sit down with Kyou but he suspected the current odd situation to make him do so.

"I want to go back to hating you, it was much comfortable then. Why couldn't things just have stayed normal? I don't know how to deal with this and I certainly don't want to talk about this with anyone. God, I so need to get a grip over myself."

"I know. Maybe later." Yuki turned back to look at a surprised Kyou. "You know for the sake of making peace with ourselves. Heh."

"'Kay." Kyou looked at the statue that was Yuki. "You can go now," Kyou suggested in a helpful tone.

"Tscch. Like I would want to stay here." Yuki smiled to himself and Kyou looked away smiling to sky.

Kyou would stay where he was and Yuki would go down. And life would somehow continue and for a while Kyou Souma would be okay. He wouldn't be burdened.

He took a bite out of Tohru's deliciously cooked rice cakes.