Latency: Part 1

"Cut it."

Sakuno winced as playfully but still forcefully tugged at her waist-length braids. It was another fall afternoon and they were at the water fountain; Sakuno was washing her face while he was holding up her hair. They went there to cool off as they had just finished a grueling game of tennis. had effortlessly won, leaving Sakuno feeling exhausted from her efforts to at least keep up with his pace.

"I like it this way," she replied. It was not so random for to comment on her hair. Indeed, the length of it was getting to be a hassle during matches. Sometimes, the strands would get caught in the mesh of her tennis racket and she would end up embarrassingly and vainly trying to untangle them.

"It's a bother when you're playing and you know it." had taken off the elastics and were loosening her braids. "You lose focus every time, funny as the image always presents to be."

Sakuno could hear the chuckle in his voice. 's fingers were now gathering up her hair and twisting it into loopy, intricate knots, a trick he had once declared he learned from his sister. She turned to look at him.

"Can't." She proceeded to dunk her face again in the gushing water.

"You know, in the Jewish tradition, having a haircut is one sign of vanity."

"I guess I'm just not vain." Sakuno joked.

She felt him pause. His fingers had stopped combing and he took a step back.

"I don't think that's it."

Sakuno smiled bitterly. She turned off the faucet and looked up to see with a towel in his hand. She took it and gingerly patted her face dry.

"I like it like this."

His eyes suddenly looked sharp and he reached out with his left hand, fumbling at the stray tendrils veiling her features, tucking them behind her ear. His eyes were unreadable as they searched her face, wonderingly. Sakuno cringed. What did he hope to find, looking at her like that? Then she heard him sigh, a defeated sound.

"I know, Sakuno. I know."

**********

It was strange, liking her. was never one to mince thoughts, or words, and he knew, without a doubt, that he liked Sakuno Ryuuzaki. It was just strange.

So this is how it feels. He thought. Not the liking part, for he had liked a lot of girls in his sixteen years, but this drawn-out feeling, the annoying mixture of wanting to beat up whoever it was who had broken her heart, and badly. Yet was also relieved that at least, the guy wasn't there to make his presence known.

Though it probably would not matter so much to Sakuno, he sighed. It seemed that 's feelings were really the only things that never mattered to her.

Well. She probably wasn't even aware of them. Frustrating. How many times did a guy have to play with a girl's hair, challenge her to stupid tennis matches because he liked the way she bit his lip absently while he would point out a mistake, and not have her understand that it was flirting?

He expected a blush, at least. He had never liked a girl who didn't like him back. It was not that he was boasting; it was just a fact.

She wasn't cooperating in the least.

Then again, he didn't earn the reputation of being The Heartbreaker himself, doing nothing. He never did understand why they called him as such as he never really broke hearts, just kind of made them stop.

smirked, resolute. Time to get out the big guns.

**********

"Bang! Bang! And then Horio said, 'Why do you never let me win?' and I said, 'This is not the olden days, my man, we girls kick ass now', and he said… SA-KU-NO!"

"What?"

"Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"

"You were at your Uncle's shooting range with Horio…"

"And?"

"You were… ugh. You do know I'm reading our English assignment, right? That it's due tomorrow?"

"Sakuno-chan. I'm telling you the story of a couple's defining moments and you want to study the finer points of the English language? You really need to get a boyfriend."

If one of these so-called 'couple's defining moments' involve you accidentally grazing Horio's bum with a bullet because of your reckless bickering, I'll pass. Sakuno shuddered silently, having heard the version of the story a thousand times this month. Aloud she said, "I will."

"Do you want me to catalog a list of potential boyfriends for you?" Tomo asked, excited. Sakuno could almost hear the wheels turning in Tomo's head. Or most probably, they were not wheels but green lights, incessantly blinking "Go, Go, Go." Tomo could come up with the most peculiar schemes and "Stop" had never been in her dictionary. True to form, she heard her declare, "Yes, yes. I could round them all up for you, line them up for inspection! Quick, have you got a camera phone?"

"What?"

"So we could take pictures of them when they randomly pass by, silly! What else?"

"Tomo."

"Sakuno."

"I'm reading now."

"Oh, Sakuno."

"Tomo," She replied, more patronizingly this time. She could sense her friend pause.

"You're still hung up on him, aren't you?"

Sakuno turned sharply and found herself gazing at Tomo's saddened expression. Her friend had spoken hesitantly, carefully broaching a subject that had never come up, in at least a year.

"I'm not." She closed the textbook in her hands, shutting it firmly with a loud, satisfying thud. But her hands were trembling.

" doesn't think so."

"What has got to do with his?" How could even know? He certainly never asked her intrusive questions like this. Though the way he acted around her lately–it was disconcerting. His eyes had been fraught with puzzlement the last time they talked, as if he was trying to figure something out. Something that had eluded his notice for so long. Whatever it was, Sakuno frowned, she positively didn't know anything about it.

"I know!" Tomo's previously melancholic tone abruptly segued into enthusiasm. Sakuno eyed her suspiciously. This was not going to be good.

"Go out with him!"

"What? Who?"

". Give it a go. Then I'll believe you're over Ryoma-sama."

**********

He never thought they were going to be anything but helpful, reflected resentfully as he stared at the trio plopped on his couch, but he still tried, anyway.

They were at his house and it was only a matter of minutes until Horio loudly launched into a blow-by-blow account of The Date, while Kachiro and Katsuo listened intently. The Date was actually one of many dates, all of which were also called The Date, until the christening of another one, this one presumably more thrilling and err… more romantic than the last. This time, The Date involved Horio tricking his girlfriend Tomoka into kissing him on the cheek. The imp was blushing as his two friends playfully nudged, shouting, "Well, there's your two years of experience right there!"

"Excuse me, but how exactly is a kiss on the cheek worth two years of experience?" interrupted impatiently, not bothering to mask the irritation in his voice. They were supposed to be helping him, not gossiping.

"It is, when he's been trying to ask her to do it for two years!"

Katsuo smirked, agreeing with Kachiro. He thumped Horio on the back. "Took him a lot of effort."

scoffed.

"Oh, so The Heartbreaker has something to say."

"Well, a kiss on the cheek hardly qualifies as something so good."

Before Horio's face could puff red, Kachiro jokingly replied, "By all means, teach us, master."

"Well…" hesitated. He wasn't one to brag about the girls he had gone out with. Besides, these guys were, after all, Sakuno's friends. It wouldn't do for them to think that she was going to be another one of his 'exploits', as people at school liked to call them. "Never mind that. I want to talk about something else. Though it's still related to this topic, I suppose."

"Is this about a girl?" Horio asked, glaring at him. "Because I'll have you know—"

"Yes." cut him off before he could commence ranting. "This is about a girl."

"Specifically?"

He blushed, which resulted into Katsuo raising his eyebrow at him while Horio and Kachiro exchanged wide-eyed glances. It was mortifying. never blushed. He had always been the 'cool' guy; he was more 'experienced' than Horio. He was not supposed to blush. And really, when did getting out the big guns entail pandering to these dorks? But they were Sakuno's friends and they were supposed to be useful. Embarrassing at it was, she was all that mattered to him at the moment. Determinedly, he took a deep breath and announced:

"I want to go out with Ryuuzaki Sakuno. And I've decided that you guys should help me."

**********

"No. Flowers. Preferably, orchids. Write that down."

"Lame. It must involve poetry."

"Lamer. How about a teddy bear? Or balloons?"

"You guys are so spontaneous. Really."

"Have you got something to add, ? Should we just leave you to it?"

"Fine. Flowers, it is. Katsuo, write that down."

"Horio has the pad."

"Horio!"

"What?"

"Stop daydreaming about Tomo. You're drooling. This is important."

"Aww… so this is how The Heartbreaker works. Such… a lame dork."

"Shut up, Kachiro. Horio, what are you looking at?"

"There. That's your plan! It's perfect!"

**********

Fixing her book bag and slinging it on her shoulder, she walked out of the deserted library. Her thoughts were still, as most times, on Echizen. He might as well be a dream, for all I've seen of him. Tomo's right. She sighed melodramatically, hating herself for it. Why am I wasting my time? And why, why does Echizen Ryoma always have to be only a dream?

Sakuno was still lost in her thoughts, walking, when a dark blob crossed her peripheral vision. She blinked. It was already dusk and the corridor had nary a student in sight. She didn't know what to make of the shadow. She looked around again. It wasn't there. She was probably just imagining things.

"Sakuno?"

She screamed. She had walked into a nightmare.

**********

"Sakuno!" The voice pleaded. "It's a costume."

"?"

"Uhm. Yes."

"What are you doing in a bear costume?" She recognized the voice now, overriding her panic. Sakuno goggled at him.

"Uhm. It's a long story."

"I'm sure it's a fascinating one." She giggled, and then, aware of the position they were in, carefully extracted herself from 's embrace. For some reason, getting trapped in 's arms made her feel awkward. The hug just felt a little bit too tight, his breath a little too close to her ear. It might just be because he was wearing a particularly hideous imitation of a grizzly bear and that his arms felt like deadweight. She narrowed her eyes at him now that he was a few feet away, wondering if he could make out her face through the slits on the mask. "You weren't planning on scaring me, did you?"

"No, no!" took off the bear head he was wearing and set it aside. Sakuno observed that he looked kind of glassy-eyed and his dark hair all askew. Some chunks of it were sticking to his forehead. He looked feverish.

"Are you alright?"

"I am."

"Are you sure?" His face still looked otherwise. He kept swallowing, as if a lump was stuck on his throat. He muttered, suddenly.

"God, this is all going to hell."

Sakuno's felt as if her heart stopped abruptly, and then in the same manner, began pumping blood in double time. From the way he was acting recently, she knew that she could only dread his answer. Yet, she pressed on.

"What is?"

"This. The balloons." gestured to the floating things up the ceiling, presumably released when he had tried to calm her down. They were an assortment of red and silver, candy spheres and hearts. Before she could dwell on the not-so-odd development, she noted that he was also fishing out what looked to be a crumpled note from his bear costume pocket. He opened his furred hand. "My pathetic attempt at a haiku."

"What…"

"I guess I should be reading it to you but—I'm not done, Sakuno." He was nervous, she could tell, but also determined. drew a silver-wrapped box from the other pocket . "This, too. The most expensive truffles that my allowance would allow."

"—"

"God. Isn't that pathetic? My allowance would allow? Alliteration, much. Horio must have made up that part of the script."

"Horio? I still don't—"

He stopped her once more, placing the gifts on her hands, opening her palms and clasping them tightly closed. "Wait. I'm losing my concentration. I was supposed to memorize everything. Shit. Give me your handkerchief."

"This is ridiculous, …"

"Never mind. It's okay, it's okay." He had to do it. He had to interrupt her, impede the questions, the hurtful sentences that were eventually going to come out of her mouth. Heartbreaking words for the heartbreaker. Only fitting but he didn't care. His trembling fingers were again on his pocket, producing a handkerchief. His mind reeled at what he was doing. Why did I even listen to those guys? Stupid magic tricks. I hate those guys. But first— "See?"

He had learned the sleight of hand from Kachiro and he was going to pull it off, he was going to pull this whole misguided insane plan to win the girl of his dreams. It was going to end badly but damned if he wasn't going to milk the few seconds before his descent to Hades.

"Flowers."

In place of the lacy material were three stems of white orchid. Sakuno could see tentatively reaching out for her, clutching the petals of one orchid and letting it brush softly across her face that she shivered. He took a step towards her, closing the gap. He tucked a single orchid behind her right ear.

Unexpectedly, for both of them, tears slowly slid from Sakuno's eyes.

This was her answer.

"You still can't do this, can you, Sakuno?" was smearing a teardrop with his thumb, his courting lines forgotten, his flower drooping haphazardly behind her ear. He had already taken off the furry glove of his right hand and had begun drawing circles on her cheek. His gaze followed the salt sliding down to one smiling edge of her lips and his thumb followed.

"I'm sorry, . I'm still…"

"You can't wait for him… for certain things forever, Sakuno. We only live, one day at a time."

"I know that, . I know."

"Do you?"

"You like me. You can't. He's my first love, even though he's barely acknowledged my existence."

Silence. The words stuck in 's throat were threatening to stumble one after the other after hearing her reply. Equally cruel, they were to say: You don't know love. You're hanging onto a rejected crush that you won't see beyond the childishness of it all. It's a safe dream that warrants nothing but pining, with no real emotion to act upon. No need for risks. They're funny and perhaps, also immature but what you don't realize is that my actions just now were my risks. For you. Certainly more than what you've ever done, and something he would never do. You were younger then and even now, we are only sixteen, and we are still too young to claim a first such as love.

His eyes were sparked in anger and hurt but then its flames slowly burned into a different fire when they both noted his thumb still caressing her cheek, still teasing one creased end of her lips. held his breath in abeyance. Latency. One day at a time.

It could still be inevitable, after all.

"Can I just have this, then?" Mesmerized, Sakuno saw nothing but the tangled eyelashes of 's half-closed eyelids, his face looming closer, blurring her vision that she couldn't worry over charged breaths or tight, entrapping spaces. In fact, she was beginning to understand the need of it now—could she ruin all this if she broke the silence? Could she delay all this with her mouth?

"?"

"You can claim this as another first."

##########

July 2, 2007
Written and edited by linchpin
A/N: Apologies to Kanzaki Kei for taking so frikkin' long to write this. There is a part two, but I haven't started writing it.

Latency, the title, refers to Wikipedia's engineering definition: a time delay between the moment something is initiated and the moment its first effect begins.