Why did it happen the way it happened? No. The correct question was why did IT happen at all.

I guess I should blame it all on the crazy things that have went on on that day. Let me start at the beginning.

I woke up early that morning eyes wide open, surprised at myself that I was awake at that hour, let alone being awake without anyone to pull me forcefully out of bed for school. Have you ever felt something bugging your mind when you don't know what it was that's bugging you? Well, I was feeling that way that morning - feeling totally odd and making me restless as if I know somehow that something was going to happen.

It did happen. From the moment I stepped into the kitchen.

My mother was sitting there, her smile brighter than I have ever seen on her face and beside her sat a man who I knew from her workplace.

"Ohayo, Hanamichi-kun," he greeted.

"Ohayo," I mumbled. I was paying little attention to him than to my mother because she was still smiling even though I was less polite than how she would've wanted me to be.

She looked back at me and somehow she knew that I knew she has something important to say.

"Hanamichi-kun. I have something to tell you. Okinzaki-san and I have been close since a few months ago...."

So I noticed. But I did not say it. Instead I merely nodded.

"You know he has helped us whenever we need help..."

I nodded again. Yeah, I noticed that too.

"He cares for me as I care for him. And he cares for you too..."

My nod stopped halfway this time as I blinked down at her in puzzlement.

"He asked me to marry him..."

Uh...

"And I said yes..."

Uuuuuh......

"He's going to be your new father, Hanamichi-kun!"

..........

"Well, what do you think?" she asked me, standing up with a hopeful look in her eyes.

I didn't know what I said to that but I assumed stunned silence followed by a dazed walk out of the house just about covered it.

I didn't realise that I reached the front gate of the school until I heard the bell ring to signal that it was time for attendance registration. I guess I was too occupied in trying to seep in my muddled-up brain about how my life would change with a new step-father that I did not notice I had walked listlessly to school without anything in my hands. Not even a pen.

I was standing in front of the door, cursing at my carelessness when the sensei suddenly pushed open the door to glare at me from behind his bottle-thick glasses.
Huh.... I must've cursed to loudly.

Instead of yelling at me like I expected him do to especially with me clearly coming to school empty-handed, he looked at me up and down critisizingly and groused, "You'll do."

Before I could ask what he meant, he answered by thrusting a paper under my nose, saying that he was giving me permission to help an art teacher conduct a class. And before I had anything to say to that he shut the door as quickly as he opened it, without a doubt happy to be rid of me for an entire morning.

It wasn't a biggie for me - that was before I was told by the art teacher that I was to become a model for their human body sketch. I was thankful that I only had to strip from neck to waist but I still blushed under the studious gaze of the senior students as they sketched on their art pads.

When the one hour was done I breathed a sigh of relief and practically scrambled to put my uniform back on. I didn't return to class after that however. I loitered behind the gym building, thinking about what has happened - from my mother's announcement of her marriage to me being a model for the senior art class - when the bell rang for breaktime. I went to the canteen, hoping to hang out with the gang but only found Yohei who was sitting alone with his lunch tray on an empty table.

"Where's the rest?" I asked.

Yohei looked at me in surprise. "Didn't you know? Takamiya, Ookusu and Noma have been enrolled in a military school by their parents."

I stared at him in disbelief. "No way."

He nodded. "Yes, way."

Military school. I shudder to think how they can cope in a place like that. Thinking about them I instantly imagined them trying to set up a small gambling activity but .... in a military school?? I heard that the drill sargents there were so strict that the students need permission to sneeze.

I sighed. This day was beginning to get crazier by the minute.
"As long as you aren't planning on becoming a monk and living in a monestary, I can live with them not being here."

The silence I got from Yohei made me turn to regard him in anxiety.
"Yohei?"

"Well..... uh.... something like that..."

"N-Nani?"

"I'm planning on visiting an uncle of mine who's living in Tibet. He's a practicioner of natural medicine and I have been interested in what he's been doing, so I'm taking a leave off from school to become an apprentice and continue to stay there until the end of this semester's school holiday."

Ok, so the day was not done in giving me all these surprises.

"When are you leaving?" I asked.

"This weekend. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I just got the letter from my uncle and I made up my mind the day after about accepting his offer to allow me to stay and learn from him."

I laughed then, patting him on the back cheerfully, saying that I didn't mind and wishing him the best of luck, but as soon as I finished my lunch, I put away my tray and excused myself to go to the toilet where I locked myself in a cubicle to try and sort things out in my mind which came from this mad morning. Not only have half of my gang (with Takamiya it certainly was more than half) went away to become recruits molded by autocratic authority, my bestfriend has decided to leave me to become a hermit.

When the bell rang to call us back to our classes I reluctantly dragged myself to class before I realised that I still don't have my textbooks. I was lucky that I wasn't called that day to solve any of the problems in class and I managed to scrimp a piece of paper and a pencil from Yohei to make it look as if I'm truly into what the sensei was trying to teach us.

When school was over I waved Yohei goodbye and jogged towards the gym, hoping that basketball practice would help lighten up my mood. Alas, it was not to be when Haruko stepped up to me for a talk. I was floating on clouds as she pulled me aside to talk to me privately but that changed when I found out what it was that she wanted to tell me that was so secretive.

She has met the love of her life.
That in itself was heartbreaking. The fluffy cloud that I was on condensed and I was left on the ground with cold rain pouring over me.
But when she told me that the love of her life was a girl I felt a new level of shock that I thought I would not recover as the metaphoric cloud began to create a storm, zapping its thunderbolts onto my sorry life.

I could not remember what I actually said but I think I managed to say some congratulatory message or the other. I was back at court still feeling my second attack of shock and only felt my life turning back to me as soon as I held the ball in my hands. I was less than the child I was when I played that day, not trading insults with Micchy, Miyagi or even Rukawa; playing efficiently and grimly as if I've learnt it from the Kitsune himself. After practice I did not notice the puzzled glances sent my way as I trundled along with the rest of the team to the locker-room to change out of my sweaty gym clothes.

I was still sitting there on the bench, holding my school uniform throusers in my hand and staring at nothing while trying to comprehend how my life has changed in less than 24 hours, when I heard someone speak, "If you played as efficiently as you did today, we might have a chance of winning this coming game."

I looked up and to my surprise it was the kitsune who was looking down at me with his bag slung over his shoulder.

"Wh-What did you say?"

"What I said. And I'm not going to repeat it," said Rukawa monotonously.

I shook my head and laughed. "You're crazy."

Rukawa arched an eyebrow in reply.

"In fact you're all crazy!"
Standing up I began to ramble, projecting to the kitsune of all people of my pent-up frustration. "This has all been a crazy day, y'know. I find out that I'm going to have a step-father; Takamiya, Ookusu and Noma is in military school; Yohei's leaving for Tibet and Haruko just told me that she's gay! Chotto... I don't think I was supposed to tell you that about Haruko..."

Instead of looking stunned like I thought he should, his expression was of the same as if I just told him that my hair was red.

"....And now not only are you talking to me, you praised me! Don't you feel that it's all weird?"

Rukawa hesitated for a second before replying, "Iie."

I growled and suddenly I lunged at him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt to demand, "Don't anything ever phase you, Rukawa?"

Rukawa did not bat an eyelash though his hand did grip mine, threatening to twist it away if I did more than just hold his shirt.
"With what has happened to you? Hardly. You're a crazy aho, anyway."

I grit my teeth, but then an evil idea popped into my head.
"Oh yeah? Then I guess I'm crazy enough to do this."

That was when IT happened. I kissed him. Not a manly smooch on the cheek but a hard, bruising kiss that meshed our face together by the lips. The hand that gripped mine tightened and when I released him his blue eyes were wide and his red bruised lips were open in shock. Perfect. I didn't think I could get a better reaction than that if I just merely punched him in the face.

However, he punched me when he got his wits back and as he walked out of the locker room, rubbing his lips with the back of his hand, I just sat there on the floor in silence before I began to giggle and then started laughing like a loon.
Oh wait, I'm already crazy. I just kissed Rukawa for Kami's sake!

I walked home alone after that. Not even Yohei was there to wait up for me outside the gym. After taking a shower I just dropped off to sleep, exhausted by the day's events and when I woke up that odd feeling I was having the day before was gone. I felt as fresh as a daisy, optimistic with the world again and when my mother broached the subject about her marriage I said that I'd give her my full support and left the house happy seeing her happy. When I reached the school this time with my books in my hand I was welcomed by the ugly faces of the Sakuragi Guntai and Yohei, sitting at the front steps of the school building apparently waiting for me to show up. To my amusement and also a bit of relief without any guilt, the three stooges were kicked out of the military school the first day they enrolled. I guess even the military could not handle the three clowns. I know them as if they were own my brothers - not that I have any. They don't respect authority if they don't like it and I can't blame them if they made an uproar by hitting a sargent because they hated his guts.

Yohei was still going to Tibet, though, and as I thought about it it wasn't such a big deal. I mean, he would be coming back after the semester holidays, right? He wouldn't be gone for good. I hope. When that possibility hit me I suddenly had an armlock over Yohei's neck to make him promise to come back. That he agreed to quickly. I know he couldn't leave us forever 'cause we're his true friends since the day we met.
Or maybe he was just saying yes 'cause he was turning blue.
Anyway, he would be coming back and that's that.

As I was walking to class I met Haruko in the corridor with a gorgeous girl by her side. Everyone around them would contribute their closeness as a girl thing but I knew better. Feeling cheeky I gave her a wink and Haruko smiled and blushed prettily as she took a bold move to hug the arm of her companion. Still, no one took notice. It was still a girl thing after all.

Classes were normal. I did not get sent into any art classes and I stayed at my desk trying not to fall asleep to the sensei's boring drone. When school was done I went to the gym and there Akagi began a competition between the year threes and year ones with the year twos making up the balance in the teams. It was a gruelling game since Akagi and Mitsui refused to let their guard down for one bit and in addition with Miyagi and Kogure in their team Rukawa and I were hard pressed in maintaining our position. It was during the last ten seconds when I found myself and Rukawa pitted against Akagi and Miyagi for the last score to their basket. Ever since the last game with Sannoh, I have become more in sync with Rukawa's movements and with two fake moves and a swift throw from the kitsune I managed to squeeze past Gori's defence with the ball in my hand and score the goal. Ayako's whistle blasted in the gym and I knew Rukawa was just as tense as I was in the game because he grabbed me by the shirt and hugged me tight.

This was a definite improvement in our relationship because unlike that game with Sannoh, we only gave each other high fives but now here we were hugging and slapping each other on the back as if we were the best of buddies. But what surprised me more was the state of his body. He was aroused. I leaned back and looked him in his eyes and he blushed, reddening his already flushed face.

"It's the game," he said immedietly to defend himself.

"Aa," I shrugged but I was not convinced.

We tolerated each other more often after that and everytime after a game something between us would happen. True to what Rukawa said, he would get aroused after every victory and he would become amorous towards me that I needed to remind myself not to touch him back as much as I wanted to. That all changed when a particularly tough match between Toyotama was won and I allowed him to pleasure me in the empty shower room before I did the same to him with curious but confident hands. He walked me home after that and as I lay here on my bed wondering what the kitsune was doing at the moment I shook my head to clear myself of those ecchi thoughts and decided to think about my life now.

Rukawa and I probably wouldn't be more than fuck-buddies. Strangely, I didn't care. I have a soft spot for him now but I couldn't yet imagine him and me sharing a house with a white picket fence and two and a half children. I mean, c'mon, we're still teenagers and we've got our whole life to explore and I don't doubt Rukawa is thinking about the same thing.

I think both of us are mad to have this thing going on between us. But we need each other in this crazy world or else we'd be going crazy on our own. It's great to have someone you can be crazy with. But what would happen if we are caught? Or what if one of us can't let the other go?

Oh well, we'll cross that hurdle when we get there but for now we'll be our own crazy teenage self.

Or maybe we're just horny.

Nah, I think I'll just stick to us being crazy.

~Owari

The lyrics are taken from Matchbox 20's "Mad Season" song ^.^