THESE THINGS SHOULD ONLY HAPPEN IN STORIES DAMN IT!

“"How many ways can you describe the sky and the moon?”

—Toni Morrison

…

The walk to her car–or rather, a sleek SUV, was quicker than their walk out of the store, what with the bodyguards surrounding her car (seriously, how did she even get this kind of mini-army in such a short span of time?) but the shouted questions, the rush of words and lights still made his ears ring and his eyes hurt.

When Lunamor dragged him inside, it was somewhat bearable when her driver immediately closed the door behind them, effectively cutting the noises from the commotion outside.

Still, Hiro couldn’t quite tear his eyes away from all the people standing on the sidewalk. They were crowding Lunamor’s car, eagerly trying to peer into the tinted windows, still shouting questions and taking pictures after pictures even after everything, despite the line of bodyguards blocking them.

“What are we going to do now?” Hiro asked, nervously, a bit pleased that the car began to move, “If this keeps going, losing my job is going to be the least of my concerns…”

“Deal with it,”

Hiro turned to her, “Do you imi desu ka?!”

Lunamor gently pulled her shades off of her face and leveled him with her usual piercing gaze, not at all put off by him raising his voice.

“You heard me.”

“That’s easy for you to say!” Hiro fumed, peeling the mask off of his face as well, “We can’t just let this keep up, Lunamor. We’re not even dating and I–!”

“Then let’s make it real,” Lunamor interrupted sharply.

While Hiro… was completely stunned by such a response, even coming from her, “They want a story? Fine, then let’s give them one they’ll never forget.”

“Are you serious right now?! Hey–is the stress finally catching up to you? Just... please, tell me you’re joking,” Hiro demanded, weakly.

When Lunamor stayed resolutely silent, just staring at him, her expectant expression unchanging, he let out a short, bark of laughter in disbelief, “No. No way. You’ve got to be kidding! Ms. Lunamor, I don’t think you understand but I’m your professor... I can’t and I won’t date my students!”

“Last time I checked, you’re not my professor anymore,” she so unhelpfully pointed out, arching an eyebrow as she crossed her arms.

“Now that may not be so much of a big deal to you at all, but for me it is! Think, Lunamor. Just think about what my workmates would say, what my students will think–worse, what would the academy do! Oh, maybe now they’re thinking that the reason we could tolerate each other is because something’s going on behind the scenes?” Hiro mockingly asked, his tone filled with spite.

Because even if nothing’s happening like that between the two of them, Hiro didn’t know if he could still face the rest of his students and the other professors after all of this is said and done.

“That’s none of their concern.”

“But to me it is!” Hiro snapped, his voice rising into such an angry shout that even Lunamor minutely tensed beside him when he knocked off his cap in favor of tugging at his still-damp hair, “No matter how you look at it, being with involved with you, student or not anymore is wrong, it’s unprofessional, it’s indecent… what do you think others will say? I’m still a professor. I could still get fired for this–my reputation in school could go up in smoke all because of some petty rumors between us! AND IT WASN'T EVEN REAL!”

“Do you really think I haven’t thought of that?” she hissed, pushing her hair off of her shoulder, “And can you please calm down? You’re overreacting. You’re not getting fired anytime soon.”

Hiro scoffed, shaking his head at her, feeling a bit miffed that she called him ‘overreacting’ as he pointedly looked around them, at the annoyingly sleek and plush seats. Well, what about this then, what she did? Isn’t this over the top? Isn’t this what you would call overreacting?!

“What? Because Collins is so scared of you… oh please, I’m definitely losing my job right now,” he sulked, as he buried his face in his hands, slouching on his seat.

“I’ll fire that moron myself before that could even happen,” she spat venomously, making Hiro turn to glare at her. She frowned at him in return, “I told you before that I have already thought about this, didn't I. You don’t have to lose your job, Akihiro–”

He gritted his teeth, “Please don’t call me that.”

She ignored him, “…but I can’t stay in AST.”

“What?”

“I’m getting online classes,” she told him, releasing a pent-up sigh, “I don’t care what Color says, I don’t want to stay there for another second if I’m going to be harassed by people who doesn’t even know how to mind their own business.”

For a moment, Hiro felt himself deflating.

No more Lunamor in AST should mean his old peaceful life at school was going to come back. He should be glad to see the last of her, right? But… but at the same time, Hiro had been so used to talking to her more often than he was used talking to anyone in the academy.

It'll be like losing a friend he never really had.

He shook his head at himself, angrily.

Idiot. We were never friends in the first place...

“Then that should have–”

“That doesn’t change anything, though. It will not fix anything,” Lunamor leaned in further to her seat, rubbing her gloved hand, not looking at him as she explained, “At this point, the press wouldn’t believe that we’re not involved with each other, especially with what just happened today.”

“So maybe you should have left me alone?”

She clenched her eyes shut, “No,”

And Hiro resisted the urge to let out a frustrated groan–Lunamor has never been so good at conversations. Seriously, how the hell does she even entertain her brother’s business partners? Or in social gatherings? She’ll make for a terrible host, that’s for sure… “Then how about you should have told them ‘no, I’m not dating my professor’ or posted something like that on the net?”

“I already tried that, and they wouldn’t believe a word from me, they think I’m just protecting your identity back then. That’s why I told you earlier that we should just keep this going now that I have personally become involved.”

He can’t believe he’s actually saying this: “You… you really wanted us to pretend that we’re dating? Are you serious right now?”

“Does it look like I’m joking?”

He shrugs, “Well, yeah. Kind of…”

Lunamor turned her gaze to him again, brows furrowed. And Hiro was almost worried that he may have actually offended her when she said nothing to that for one good minute.

Hiro quickly back-tracked, “Uh, not that I have something against you at all, Lunamor–I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re pretty and smart and all. You're a total package! 11 out of ten and uh... a-any guy would be seriously lucky to have you as a girlfriend but…”

The next words died immediately inside his throat:

You’re too young, you’re a student, I’m also your professor and I don’t like children that way seemed like a pretty harsh way of telling someone to back off.

“…You don’t have to agree if you don’t want to, I’m not forcing you,” she finally said, her words becoming slow and measured as she continued to stare at him. “But the press will not stop pestering you until then and I just wanted to keep you safe and in line so you wouldn’t do something remarkably stupid that’ll be reflected or used against my family.”

Hiro gave her a flat look. And here he thought she honestly had good intentions. “So… in the end, you just wanted to save face?”

She shoved his arm, “Says the one worried about his reputation.”

He chuckled, “…Touché.”

…If only you knew.

“If you agree, my brother gave me the green light to do any means necessary to keep you safe from the press or any threats made against you or your family. They won’t decide what to post about you or our faux relationship. We will. They’ll get pictures and information about us on our terms or not at all.”

“But there’s no ‘us’ here,” Hiro pointed out.

He had meant it as a joke but apparently Lunamor seemed to be not in the mood because as soon he said it, her lips slowly curved into a tight-lipped frown and Hiro began to seriously think that some of his words may have actually offended her somehow.

“You don’t have to… pretend to actually like me,” she finally said after a moment of awkward silence, her voice low and overly controlled, “We just have to play along until the fires die down.”

What if it never did?

What if the flames turned into a wildfire?

...he didn’t want to be burned alive in the end.

“Can’t you just get a stand-in boyfriend?” Hiro finally asked, “I don’t know? Someone who could play the part as your man? I’m sure there’s a lot who’d love to volunteer to be with you…”

It was the truth now that Hiro thought more about it. There are lots of men (or maybe even women) who’d just love to get involved with someone as rich and pretty as Lunamor: he’s not that dense, he can tell how much some of the students in class admired her, though they are mostly kind of intimidated and rightfully so, considering that Lunamor had a bit of a bad reputation of verbally roasting people she didn’t like…

Not that Lunamor seemed to actually like anyone in the academy; she’s impartial towards anyone she didn’t outright dislike from what he can tell.

She frowned, “I don’t do romance.”

“Then tell that to the press!”

“They don’t believe me.”

“Then do something about that!”

“What do you think I’m doing?!”

“Uh, I don’t know? Maybe you’re just fanning the flames?” Hiro mocked, causing Lunamor’s glare to flare even more but he pointedly ignored it as he hammered on, “Because seriously speaking–why on earth do I even have to pretend to be your boyfriend?”

Her eyebrow twitched, now looking just as frustrated as him, “Oh I don’t know, maybe because you’re the one they’re shipping on me?”

He squinted at her.

'Shipping'...?

He’s kind of surprised she even knows that word.

“Well, do you have any idea just how risky and illogical such a move is?” Hiro demanded, “Lunamor, I don’t know what kind of person you think I am, but hasn’t it ever occurred to you that I don’t want to play along?”

“You’re right. You don’t have to,” those eyes of silver narrowed, the same calculating glint in her eyes coming to life again and Hiro instinctively braced himself, “…but my family’s name is now linked to you–and nonno amato is so going to be furious if the family name is stained.” something dark and malevolent swirled within those eyes, like the primordial moon unveiling itself from the clouds before the witching hour, “Or maybe I just really don’t want to hear about your bullet-addled corpse in the evening news.”

Hiro didn’t like what that means.

Still, he glared back at her, strangely feeling more annoyed than freaked out at the implication of such words, “Are you threatening me, Lunamor?” he asked, his voice growing dangerously soft.

“No, professor… I act upon them.”

They glared at each other.

And for a long while, no one spoke.

His eyebrow twitched.

“…alright, fine, let’s just say for the sake of discussion that I do agree to this bout of insanity, what’s in it for me?” Hiro finally relented, feeling the tension simmering in such a locked space.

Lunamor smirked.

“…Now we’re talking.”