PLEASE READ:

I'm thinking of raising the rating of this fanfiction to an M rating because I'd like to later add a detailed lemon scene. I need your feedback to let me know if you, as my readers, are okay with this. Otherwise, I will just keep it as a T reading and omit my little sex-scene I had planned. But just let me knowww((:

Enjoy!3

CHAPTER 3: Long Awaited.

"Erika, what the hell is your problem?" Koki was sitting back in a leather chair positioned in the corner of his bedroom. He watched, annoyed, as his fiance was pacing the floor and spewing nonsense and just being pissy in general. It was quickly putting him into a foul mood; little did he know, it was about to get much worse…

She stopped her pacing and turned to face him with an extremely tense facial expression," you seriously have no idea that, that little whore is hanging all over your brother?"

Koki was stunned," Yoji?"

"No, your other brother whom you've never met- YES YOJI!"

"Erika, Jesus, calm down. How do you even know this?" He now leaned forward giving her his full, undivided attention.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes trying to explain this calmly," I was walking by that little tart's apartment tonight, on the way here, and saw them eating together on her balcony," she paused to snort in disgust," she was practically throwing herself all over him!"

Neither of them would admit it aloud, but the situation disturbed them both deeply- for the same reason. Koki slammed his fist into the armrest of his chair which, in turn, caused Erika to slightly jump in surprise.

"What the hell!"

Erika let a dark smile break out onto her visage; no matter who he was planning on confronting, the outcome would all be the same: it would push Tanpopo even further away from her man.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Tanpopo looked around to see if anyone was watching as she hurriedly fixed her skirt while making her way towards the carpool of their high school. She was hoping to avoid Koki considering he'd been giving her the nastiest of looks throughout the entire school day. She picked up her pace speed walking on the sidewalk that snaked around the outside of the campus buildings towards the front of the school. Tanpopo hoped that Yoji would already be there waiting for her; he'd promised to meet her there after school today to drive her home. She felt as though she were being followed, and sure enough, about a hundred feet behind her was Koki trying to break his way through the crowded sidewalk to get to her. She bit her lip nervously.

"Tanpopo!"

She squinted her eyes shut, please, go away! She was so close to the carpool now and she believed that she could see Yoji's car not too far off from her, but before she could quicken her pace even more, she felt a strong hand catch her arm painfully.

"Ow!" The brunette whirled around to come face to face with Koki," please, let me go! That hurts!"

Koki, instead, just tightened his hold onto her arm," just what the hell do you think you're trying to do, Tanpopo?"

She tried to yank her arm free from his grip, but ended up unsuccessful. She furrowed her brows," what do you mean? Koki, just leave me alone!" A car door slammed loudly in the distance.

"Just who do you think you are? Acting like a little whore and hanging all over my brother?" His anger rose when she just shut her eyes and started crying," Have you been seeing him behind my back?"

"I haven't! And how dare you, considering you've been with Erika this entire time- ahhh!" She winced and sobbed even harder as her arm throbbed in intense pain.

"Enough! Let her go, now."

Koki, stunned from hearing the familiar voice, released Tanpopo's arm and turned to face his brother. Both of them greeting the other with an extreme look of aggression; meanwhile, Tanpopo scrambled over to Yoji. Once she was closer to him, he ignored his brother to gently take her hand of the arm that Koki had touched so harshly. He gently lifted up her uniform sleeve to inspect her arm. He frowned apologetically at her when he saw the dark bruises on her arm, he must've grabbed her incredibly hard for it to bruise so quickly… Yoji lowered her sleeve back to it's original position," I'm so sorry, Tanpopo." He whispered just before giving her a quick, soft kiss on the forehead and then he shifted to where he was in front of her in a protective stance. He regarded his younger sibling with a look of disgust.

"Koki, explain yourself!"

His brother scoffed," I think you're the one who needs to do some explaining," he realized now that they were starting to draw a crowd, but he kept on," stealing Tanpopo away from me. Tell me, brother, how long were you two sneaking around behind my back?"

"Check yourself, Koki, Tanpopo and I have never done anything behind your back, whereas you have done plenty of things with Erika it seems." Yoji was so filled with rage and disgust directed towards his brother. He was normally very easy going and wouldn't care if something were done to himself, but anyone, including his own family, who dared to hurt Tanpopo, would pay the price.

Koki growled before he launched himself towards his brother, catching Yoji off guard with a punch to his jaw.

"Yoji!" Tanpopo cried out as Yoji stumbled backwards towards her.

"Don't worry about me Tanpopo," he smiled," I can handle much worse, especially when it means defending your honor." He turned back towards his brother and jumped towards him, fake throwing one punch- which Koki easily dodged- to land a knee into his gut. This caused Koki to fall to the floor coughing and trying to catch the breath that was just knocked out of him. Yoji stalked over to where his brother was laying on the ground curled up into a ball. He looked down at him with darkened features. "Koki, if you ever touch Tanpopo again, I will see to it that you will suffer ten fold what you inflict on her."

Tanpopo rushed over to Yoji's side and lightly touched the cheek where he'd gotten punched and she looked up into his eyes with a sad expression," I'm so sorry… I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

He leaned into her touch and smiled warmly down at her," I'm fine, don't worry about me. Now, let's get you home and get some ice on that arm." He noticed the crowd that had circled around the three of them," besides, I'm not liking this attention. We should get out of here before a faculty member comes to investigate…"

Tanpopo nodded as they both headed over to his car.

It was a short, quiet ride to Tanpopo's apartment. Mostly because she didn't know how to really apologize for the situation, but how had Koki found out that she and Yoji had been hanging out recently? She frowned. It didn't rub her the right way that he'd been so aggressive while questioning her, when he himself was fawning all over Erika.

Her companion looked over to her every so often while driving, this wasn't exactly how he'd planned today to go with her surprise that he wanted to present her with. He looked forward to the road with renewed determination- he'd try his best to lift her spirits and save what he had planned for today.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

After climbing up to her apartment floor and feeding Poplar- who seemed concerned about the humans as they entered- Tanpopo had Yoji seated on her couch. "I'll get some ice for us both, just sit tight." She smiled back at him.

He was amazed- even after such a stressful situation that went down in front of her school's student body, she was still able to smile so sweetly. It made his heart melt, and any pain he felt in his jaw from being punched had subsided at the moment. He greeted her with a smile when she walked out of the kitchen bringing him an ice pack. He noticed that she'd already wrapped a bag of ice to her arm by tying it with an ace bandage she kept in the freezer.

The girl kneeled down in front of where he was sitting and applied the bag filled with ice to the man's face," thank you again for standing up for me, nobody has ever done anything like that before," she said quietly while blushing and turning her focus down and away from him.

Yoji softly cupped her hand that held the ice bag to his face and lifted her chin with his other hand, forcing her to gaze into his eyes. He leaned closer to her face," It's not even an option for me, my dandelion, if anyone were to ever cause you trouble, I'd be inclined to help you any way possible." He leaned in and closed the distance between them, capturing her lips for a sweet kiss.

He loved that she always tasted of honey, but he'd almost forgotten what he had intended to give her today until she moaned lightly into the kiss they shared. Hesitantly, they broke the kiss off; panting as they tried to catch their breath.

"Tanpopo, my sweet dandelion, I wish this moment wasn't tarnished from what happened earlier, but I have something to give you." He reached back into his pocket pulling out a little velvet, black box.

She looked up at him from her kneeling position on the floor and lowered the ice bag she'd been holding to his face. She blushed an intense shade of red," Y-Y-Y-Yoji, what is that?"

Yoji laughed, seeing as her eyes were practically bulging out of her head," well, it's certainly not what you think. Tanpopo…" He opened the box showing a silver ring with a small green gem surrounded by even smaller white diamonds," this is a promise ring- I want you to know that I'm always here for you. As a friend, someone to talk to, have your back, defend you, and as your man- if you would kindly consider me so… I'd like you to be my girlfriend, Tanpopo."

She gasped and blushed even deeper. She couldn't believe today's events but the look on Yoji's face was all she could see. Everything else seemed to drift away as she looked into his eyes, which seemed full of passion and being incredibly sincere. She had butterflies swirling wildly in her tummy as she leaned forward to kiss him quickly. She pulled back and put her forehead against his and looked into his eyes. "Yes, Yoji!" She was so happy she had small tears of joy.

He leaned forward and down to hug her," you know, it's times like these I wish I had my camera, so I could remember this moment."

"No way! I look awful and you have a swollen cheek!" He smiled a goofy grin which caused her to giggle.

Gently taking her right hand into his, he placed the ring on her 'ring finger' and smiled warmly at her," it fits perfectly! Sweet!" He exclaimed in triumph; proud he had guessed her ring size.

She laughed even harder," Why don't I fix us some dinner, and you keep that ice pack on your face or I'll have to beat you up myself!" She scolded playfully.

"Yes ma'am!" He winked. Yoji watched his girlfriend enter the kitchen and smiled as he watched her get some pans and other provisions ready.

Not so bad. He decided he'd get punched in the face for Tanpopo any time if it meant that he got to enjoy her company. She was well worth it.

Hey, I know this chapter is super short, and pretty all over the place, but I wanted to update this story SO BADLY, that I couldn't wait. I'm so beyond sorry. I have every intention of finishing this! :D I hope you enjoy and prepare for another chapter next week! Thank you, readers, so much!