Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Tachibana Higuchi. This story is mine.

Author's Note: This is just a short fic that I wrote on a whim. Funnily enough, I was inspired by the word Androphobia - the fear of men. The chapters will be short, no more than five hundred words long and about ten chapters in total. Happy reading everyone :)

House of Cards
Chapter 1: King of Hearts

-;-

There are days he reflects on his life and wonders if he's had a good run.

He doesn't have the cleanest of reputations.

The 'playboy' attached to his name amongst the whispers about his character are a testament to that. But he was a hormonal teenage boy when his reputation began. Could anyone blame him for the natural kinks in his human body?

Despite the disgusted remarks in front of other girls, most of his friends thought it impressive.

Some people called him disgusting and chauvinistic; others had more creative words to describe him.

He liked women. It wasn't a game he was playing. The girls he fooled around with knew what they were getting themselves into when they signed up for the ride. He never made the mistake of letting them assume and with expectations aside, he made certain to make every minute enjoyable.

"This won't last. You know this right?"

The response varied, but it didn't differ by much.

The number of girls he turned away almost rivalled how many he kept around.

Pleasure—it was fleeting, like a shy bird in the face of unfamiliar company, like the taste of watermelons after the last bite.

There was no reason to expect any more than just that. He wasn't at the Academy half the time to be interested in anyone past the superficial and if there was one thing he learnt from being with the other Dangerous Ability types, it was that getting attached could only lead to trouble.

He didn't have a problem with that. He wasn't interested in getting attached.

He was the king of hearts.

—He supposed it was only a matter of time for that logic to bite him in the ass.