Demon President.

That's what almost everyone in the school called me behind my back. Not that I gave a second thought on what the rest of the pathetic student body thought of me. I was a senior in a specialized high school that gave advanced training to launch your career as a pokemon trainer and it was a tradition of the school that the student with the best grades and the highest battle victory record was automatically made into the student council president. I had had the position since my second year of high school, even though I had argued for hours with the teachers that I wanted nothing to do with a leadership position like this. Rules were rules though and even though the teachers and principal were all trembling in their boots in the face of my fury, they refused to budge from school tradition. Pathetic.

"President Shinji, about the plans for the school-wide Christmas event this year..." Eiji Nakamura, the vice president, walked over to my desk and immediately froze mid-step as I leveled a glare at him.

"We're having a battle tournament, Nakamura. End of discussion," I snapped, turning back to the mountain of paperwork that I had to complete before the end of the day. Tedious stuff like approving budgets and coordinating practice battles amongst the different high school teams with similar programs to us would grind away any speck of patience that I possessed. I was not in the mood to listen to my vice president questioning my decisions.

"O-of course, President. But... I was actually wondering if you would consider allowing a celebration after the tournament ends. A lot of students have been saying that they would like to hold a dance like Kokoro High School does..."

My eyes flew open and I slammed my hands onto my desk, propelling myself up into a standing position and glowering with all the frustration and annoyance that I could muster towards my pushover of a vice president. Nakamura gulped and took a step back, glancing towards the slightly ajar door of the student council room and then reluctantly moving his gaze back to meet my infuriated expression.

"Did you say Kokoro High School?" I growled through clenched teeth. Nakamura gulped and jerkily nodded his silent affirmation. The entire room had gone deathly silent upon my explosive reaction and I glanced around the room to see that the other members of the student council were all avoiding my gaze while making unsuccessful attempts at hiding their guilty expressions.

"That infernal woman..." I snarled under my breath, stepping around my desk and marching out of the student council room before slamming the door behind me.

As I marched down the hallways of the mostly empty school, images of an infuriatingly beautiful and loud-mouthed girl came into my mind's eye. Hikari Asahina was a student who had transferred from Kokoro High School into our Tatakai High School at the beginning of my senior year. She was a year younger than me and had become a hot topic almost instantly among the students. Tatakai was an insanely competitive school and it was almost unheard of for someone to transfer into the school without having been there the first year of high school, but somehow she had done it.

The first time I had seen her I had been shocked to see her being surrounded by students, chatting with them like they were all old childhood friends without a care in the world. She had midnight blue hair that cascaded to the bottom of her shoulder blades when she left it down, and her eyes were only a few shades lighter than her dark blue hair. She was an average height, somewhere around 5'5", and even though no one could call her voluptuous, she had nice curves.

It hadn't surprised me when I would catch whispered conversations of guys trying to work up the courage to confess to her, but to me, she was the type of woman that I absolutely could not stand. On more than one occasion, she had blatantly opposed me. Even though she had a smile to share with everyone around her, whenever we crossed paths she would turn into a Growlithe-wannabe.

First, it had been cracking down on the dress code and enforcing the girls to all wear skirts that were knee-length. Too many guys had been acting like idiots during battles, trying to impress the girls rather than taking the battle seriously, so I figured if the girls covered up some more then they would get their act together and get serious. But that Hikari! She had actually rallied the girls of all three years and PROTESTED against it! And the little mongrel actually used quotes from the student handbook to show that there was an allowance to cut the skirt to a certain length. I had been furious when the teachers overturned my rule and allowed the girls to go back to wearing shorter skirts, but there was nothing I could do. Although I had noticed Hikari always wore a knee-length skirt after that and I couldn't help but think that she did it to spite me.

Then there was the time I had tried to ban students who were becoming coordinators from taking part in the advanced battle strategies courses. The woman somehow got wind of it and she signed a petition, a freaking PETITION, to keep the class open to whoever wanted to take it. She and I had gotten into a shouting match in front of the panel of teachers that would decide whether to go forward with my suggestion and I couldn't remember ever feeling so angry. The woman just didn't know when to quit! And for whatever reason, my normal intimidation tactics seemed to have no effect against the little spitfire. After listening to our back and forth arguments the teachers finally decided that instead of limiting the class to only pokemon trainers, they would only accept students with a certain battle victory record history that proved that they were ready for the class whether they were a trainer or coordinator.

All throughout the year Hikari and I had butt heads as if we were two Tauros battling to become the leader of the pack. It irked me to no end that this little girl thought she had any right to argue against what I had to say. And as the year went along I had noticed that the student body was beginning to turn to Hikari if they ever had a grievance against the way I was running the school.

Now they want to have a useless dance?! Just because Asahina-san's old school did it? No way am I giving up part of the activities budget for something so frivolous when we can use it to buy practice equipment! I raged inwardly as I stomped towards the outer courtyard.

Hikari was a member of the Coordinator's Association, which was a club for students who planned to become coordinators in the future and they would get together after school every day to research old Grand Festival competitions and attempt to come up with new, flashy moves for their contests. It made me gag to think of trainers wasting their pokemon's potential by battling for "beauty" rather than power, and only served to fuel my hatred towards the woman even more.

As I slammed through the back door of the high school, my eyes instantly locked onto familiar blue locks of rippling hair. Each strand seemed to sparkle in the late afternoon sun as she spun around, holding her arms out from her sides and laughing infectiously with her other coordinator friends. Even though it was late November, this area never seemed to dip lower than 50 degrees and today was warm enough to feel like late spring instead of early winter.

I marched towards her, not bothering to hide the fury that was boiling inside of me. Several of her friends noticed my approach and I could see the fear and panic enter them as some of them began scrambling away and others moved towards Hikari with looks of worry on their faces. Someone reached out and grabbed onto Hikari's arm, halting her spinning and pointing in my direction as I continued advancing towards her. She blinked her blue eyes at me and then to my chagrin she had the gall to smile and wave at me as if we were best friends.

"Hello, Demon President! What brings you out here?" Hikari asked, smiling pleasantly even as her friends pulled on her arm as if trying to tell her silently to run away. She was the only one brave enough to call me that stupid nickname to my face but I was already too worked up to care at this point.

"You." I stopped a foot away from her, pointing my finger into her face and glowering at her without reservation. "Stop filling the students' heads with ridiculous ideas about having a dance at Christmas," I barked out angrily. Hikari's blue eyes widened but then they slowly narrowed, hardening in a look of perturbance. To my shock, she moved her arm smacking my finger with the back of her hand to move it away from her face as she glared up at me without fear.

"What's so wrong with having a Christmas Dance? We never do anything fun in this school!" Hikari said, lowering the hand she had used to smack mine and placing it firmly on her hip as she glared up at me.

"You don't come to Tatakai High to have fun, Asahina-san," I growled, stepping a little closer to her and her infuriatingly defiant pose. "We are here to become elite pokemon trainers, there is no need to squander school resources on something as idiotic as a dance."

"Oy, Hikari-chan, just drop it. He looks super mad!" One of the girls cowering behind Hikari's shoulder whispered, loud enough for me to hear, as she tugged on her elbow. Hikari stood firm though, not once looking away from me as we glared at each other.

"Pokemon Trainers AND Coordinators, you mean," Hikari said pointedly, shaking off her friend as she continued to try and pull her away. I let out a disparaging snort and rolled my eyes.

"Whatever. Just give up on the dance because I'll never approve it," I said firmly. Her cheeks reddened in obvious anger and I thought I could see actual flames dancing in her blue eyes as she glared up at me. At 6'1" I towered over her. Even though I had gotten into dozens of arguments with this troublesome woman throughout the school year, it still never ceased to amaze me that she wasn't shivering in her boots when I glared at her.

"BAAAAKA, Baka, Demon President!" Hikari suddenly shouted, shocking me temporarily into silence. I stared down at her in disbelief and all of her friends behind her froze in fear as I tried to digest what had just happened.

Did this little upstart just called me... an idiot?! My hands clenched into fists and I felt my fury make my arms shake from the effort of standing still as I glared down at this ridiculous woman.

"Want to run that by me again?" I growled quietly, my fury making my words sound icy. Hikari reached towards her hip where her Pokeballs were kept and I felt my mouth drop in shock when she pulled one off, enlarging it and thrusting it out in the air between us.

"I challenge you to a battle," Hikari proclaimed, looking straight at me. Gasps and cries of shock spread like wildfire through her coordinator club members behind us and I blinked, too overcome with disbelief to actually respond. "It will be a double battle. The first person to knock out both the opponent's pokemon will win. If you win, I won't go against anything you say for the rest of the school year. But if I win, then we get to have the Christmas Dance."

I stared into Hikari's determined eyes in disbelief for another second but then a slow grin began to grow on my lips. With growing confidence I moved towards Hikari's small frame, reaching out and wrapping my hand around the Pokeball she had extended towards me. I pushed the ball and her arm back as I bent down, bringing our faces within inches of each other and for the first time a flicker of something other than defiance flashed in her deep blue eyes.

"You're going to regret that challenge, Asahina-san," I breathed out threateningly, staring into her uncertain eyes before releasing her Pokeball and fingers that I had captured in my own hand and pulled back from her. I strode past her, walking straight towards one of the many practice battlefields that stretched out past the courtyard. The Coordinators gathered behind Hikari scrambled out of my way, clearing a path for me as I strode confidently forward.

"Are you crazy, Hikari-chan?"

"He's going to beat your pokemon to a pulp!"

"Isn't the Demon President undefeated in battle?!"

I smirked as the flood of whispers followed me to the battlefield. But I had to admit I was a little impressed when Hikari took her position across from me and seemed completely calm, the previous uncertainty seeming to have been wiped clean from her face.

"Shall I release my pokemon first?" I called across the battlefield to her, thinking that the least I could do was give her a slight advantage. This was probably the most amusing thing that had happened to me in my school career, so I didn't mind going a little easy on her. The result would be the same no matter what.

"No need," Hikari said with a sweet smile that lit my annoyance back on fire. I opened my mouth to argue but she selected two Pokeballs from her hip without hesitation and threw them out. "Ninetales and Hatterene, Spotlight!"

I blinked in surprise and glared angrily at this overconfident blue-haired woman. Not only had she rejected my offered handicap, but I could tell with just a glance that these two pokemon were incredibly well cared for. Her Ninetales, which was a rare silver coated color, showing that it was a shiny pokemon, was taller than the average pokemon of its species and its fur was glossy with health. I had also noticed that the air had grown several degrees warmer and glancing above me it was almost as if the sun had come closer to us in the sky to shine strongly down on us.

Her Ninetales has the ability Drought? I thought to myself in surprise. It wasn't unheard of for a Ninetales to have this ability, but it wasn't common either. How did she get her hands on such a rare pokemon?

I turned my attention briefly to her Hatterene and felt my jaw clench in an unexpected flash of jealousy. This was a pokemon that could only be found in the Galar Region, which was a region that I still hadn't found the chance to visit during my school holidays. The fact that Hikari had gone there before me made me feel annoyed and any thought of taking it easy on her blew out of my mind as I pulled out two of my own Pokeballs.

"Gastrodon and Drapion, Standby for battle!" I called out, releasing two pokemon with a grunt of annoyance.

"No way, aren't these type matchups too much?" I heard someone say worriedly.

"Yah, this is just cruel," another onlooker said anxiously.

I smirked, thinking to myself that I was grudgingly impressed they could see how much of a disadvantage that Hikari was in just by seeing the pokemon I had chosen. I guess coordinators may know a bit more about battle strategy than I gave them credit for, I thought absently before turning to look at Hikari. I felt myself flinch in confusion as she smiled happily at me, seeming to be completely unconcerned with the intense type disadvantage she had from the very get-go.

The battle began and I scoffed when Hikari's first command was for Hatterene to get on Ninetales' back. Che, if it can't fight on its own then the pokemon is useless, I thought to myself before calling out my own command. I watched in satisfaction as Drapion rushed forward to swipe the Hatterene with a Cross Poison attack as Gastrodon aimed a jet of steaming hot water towards the two pokemon using the move Scald.

My eyes rolled as Hikari's two pokemon stood still, seeming to have been frozen in fear as the two attacks began streaking towards them. But then Hikari raised her left hand into the air and my mouth dropped open when a pale blue light covered both her Ninetales and Hatterene and they both soared into the sky at the last possible second. Gastrodon's Scald attack slammed into Drapion, tossing him off his legs and causing him to roll a few times on the ground from the unexpected impact.

"Solar Beam on Gastrodon, Ninetales," Hikari called out with a small smile, keeping her left hand in the air while pointing her right hand towards my Gastrodon. My eyes widened in shock and I lifted my gaze to stare in disbelief as a huge ball of light burst into existence above Ninetales' snout. Even though Solar Beam was a move that normally took time to charge, because of Ninetales ability was Drought, it was ready in an instant.

"Counter with Hyper Beam!" I roared, glaring up at the two serenely floating pokemon.

An enormous beam of yellowish-green light zoomed towards Gastrodon as he opened his mouth and tried to follow my order. By the time the concentrated Hyper Beam was being shot though, the Solar Beam was within inches of Gastrodon. I could see the Hyper Beam cut through the wider beam of destructive light at first, but Gastrodon was too large of a pokemon, and the split Solar Beam still slammed into his gelatinous body.

A feral growl ripped from my throat as the overpowered move slammed into my Gastrodon and his Hyper Beam was cut off from the force of the move. This kind of combination was nothing that I had ever seen before and I felt furious that I hadn't considered that her Ninetales might have had a grass type move, which was the only typing super effective against Gastrodon. Drapion was getting back onto his many spindly legs after being knocked over by Gastrodon and after the Solar Beam finally ended I could see that Gastrodon's body was twitching as he attempted to find the strength to get back up.

"Unbelievable. Gastrodon, use Recover. Drapion, get up there and use Night Slash," I growled out angrily. My entire body tensed when I heard a musical laugh coming from the opposite side of the battlefield. When I looked over at Hikari I could see amusement radiating from her small face as she lowered her left hand.

"Hatterene, use Giga Drain. Ninetales. Spiral Flamethrower!"

"No!" I yelled in complete disbelief.

My attention was split as I watched in shock at what was happening. The blue light surrounding Hikari's pokemon extinguished the moment her left hand lowered completely and the two pokemon separated in mid-air. Even as Gastrodon used Recover to begin gathering his energy back, Hatterene's body began to glow green and I watched in absolute frustration as sparkling green orbs began to flow out of Gastrodon's body and towards the blue and pink psychic/fairy type as it fell gracefully towards the earth. I gritted my teeth as Gastrodon's head fell to the ground, showing he was completely knocked out.

At the same time, I watched as Hikari's Ninetales began to spin as it fell face first towards the battlefield. Drapion had already leaped in the air towards it, a black dagger of power extending from his front claw. Her Ninetales opened her mouth and as it spun it released a stream of fire. I blinked in disbelief as the flamethrower somehow became thicker and fiercer the farther away it got from Ninetales even as it continued to spin in a deadly spiral. The move slammed into Drapion, completely evaporating his Night Slash. I thought I felt my jaw pop as I clenched my teeth so hard it hurt as I watched the strange and powerful Flamethrower slam Drapion onto his back on the ground.

"Get up, Drapion!" I growled not caring that Drapion was covered in burns. It was absolutely unbelievable that I would lose against a coordinator, not just any coordinator either, but the single female that had ever dared to stand up to me. "Use Crunch on Hatterene!"

Movement caught my eye and I growled when Hikari lifted her left hand and her Hatterene surrounded herself using Psychic and flew up into the air. Hatterene flew serenely past Drapion, circling teasingly between Drapion's claw and flashing teeth before flying unscathed past him. Drapion screeched to a halt, turning his large body to face Ninetales and Hatterene as she lowered herself next to her ally as Hikari's left hand dropped to her side once more.

"Dazzling Heat Wave!" Hikari called out. I blinked in confused frustration at the strange command and cursed my rotten luck. Drapion's strength was his physical attack defense, but he had taken some major hits and as Hatterene and Ninetales both lifted their faces up to the air, beginning whatever special attack that Hikari had meant with her weird command, I knew that even if I had the type advantage, I was in trouble.

"Shadow Ball on Hatterene!" I growled angrily.

I watched in shock as a wall of crackling sparks, like the red hot cinders floating in the smoke above a campfire, and pink sparkles of a Dazzling Gleam attack burst into existence and began moving steadily towards Drapion. He fired several Shadow balls in quick succession through the wall of crackling heat and sparkles towards Hatterene, but Ninetales grabbed her by the hair and leaped to the side, avoiding the attack as their combined wall of power slammed into Drapion.

My hands were already clenched into fists and I forced myself to watch as my hulking pokemon fell to the side, crashing onto the ground in a faint. Everything was silent for a few beats and in those silent seconds I looked over at Hikari. Her expression, instead of gloating, shone with excitement and seemed to be radiating a quiet happiness. The world seemed to freeze and fade away as her blue eyes slowly moved from her pokemon to meet my own. All of my anger and rage at the humiliating defeat seemed to disappear as I looked into her eyes for what seemed like an eternity and she boldly met my gaze.

Cheers and cries of disbelief shocked me out of the strange moment and I tore my eyes away from hers. I had no idea what I had been feeling or why her eyes had captured me like that, but I quickly returned my defeated pokemon without a word to them. Hikari was surrounded by her coordinator friends, all of them crowding and hugging her. I watched as she pushed her way through the jumble of people and walked over to her two pokemon, hugging and congratulating them before returning them and skipping, yes skipping, over to where I had yet to move from the edge of the battle box chalked into the grass.

"What did you think?" Hikari asked as she stopped a few feet from me, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet for a moment. I narrowed my eyes as I looked down at her, wondering how such a fragile-looking human could have come up with a strategy and move pool to render my own pokemon useless within a matter of minutes.

"I underestimated you," I forced out through gritted teeth. Confusingly, I didn't feel angry from the defeat, instead, I felt a strange... anticipation. Hikari giggled and smiled up at me with one of her thin eyebrows quirking up.

"You didn't think I'd challenge you if I didn't have a plan, did you?" she asked with a teasing note to her words and I frowned at her.

Something was different about this exchange of ours where we were not yelling at each other and I was feeling more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. Swiftly I turned on my heel and began walking back towards the school building, realizing for the first time that there was a slight chill in the air that I hadn't noticed until Hikari had returned her NInetales.

"Hey, wait!" Hikari called. I glanced over my shoulder at her as she jogged after me. "You will keep your promise and let us have the Christmas Dance, won't you?"

I nodded jerkily, turning away from her and continuing on my way. The next few weeks I delegated the planning of the Christmas Dance to Nakamura and concentrated my efforts on organizing the Battle Tournament. On Dec 23 school ended at noon and all students who had signed up for the battle tournament began their battles while the rest of the student body watched.

I had avoided seeing or even thinking of Hikari ever since she had defeated me, but I had noticed that her name had been submitted as someone participating in the event. As I easily defeated all of my opponents, I found myself keeping an eye out for Hikari to see if she had made it past each round. When she was defeated in the quarter-finals by one of my fellow seniors in the Pokemon Trainer track, I felt a strange sense of disappointment. But I quickly put that out of my mind and went on to become the champion of the Christmas Battle Tournament.

After the tournament was completed, everyone was to return home for an hour to get changed and eat dinner before coming back to the Christmas Dance. I had no desire to go to such a useless gathering. I knew my time would be better served training my pokemon... but as the time drew closer for the dance to start I found myself wondering why Hikari, who had managed to defeat ME, had been beaten fairly easily in the quarter-finals. Also, I found myself wondering how she had become so good at battles anyways when she was studying to be a useless coordinator.

For reasons I did not understand, questions about Hikari plagued my mind ceaselessly. Deciding that she needed to take responsibility for invading my mind with her ridiculous antics, I pulled on a black dress shirt, leaving the top button open, and black slacks. Black dress shoes that I only wore two or three times a year and my silver Pokeball belt completed my outfit and I left the house, ignoring my brother Renji as he asked where I was headed.

As I walked towards the large gymnasium of Tatakai High, where colorful lights and music were spilling out of all the open doors, my resolve to find Hikari and get the answers to my unending questions wavered as I saw all of the hullabaloo awaiting me. Just as I was beginning to backpedal and retreat to my waiting car, a familiar musical laugh reached my ears. Looking over my shoulder, I felt my breath catch in my throat when my eyes fell on Hikari Asahina. She was stunning.

She was wearing a dress that was so pale pink it was almost white with a sweetheart neckline and elegant off the shoulder sleeves. It had a full-length skirt that swished around her legs like water and she had pulled half of her hair back in a ponytail and then curled it all to hang in loose waves down her back, creating a striking contrast to her bare, pale shoulders.

As I felt my eyes wander from her face down to the shimmering pink shoes she was wearing, and then back up to take in the small hair clips decorated with what looked like pink pearls a little behind her ears, she suddenly came to a stop and our eyes met. She blinked with a look of obvious surprise and then to my discomfort a radiant smile split her lips and caused her face to shimmer with unfettered happiness.

"Demon President!" she said with an unhealthy dose of real happiness that caused all of the people surrounding her to jump and jerk their heads around until they saw me. I could see a collective gulp go through the group and before I could think better of it I walked purposefully towards them. Everyone shrank backward half a step except for Hikari, who I noticed was actually looking ME up and down with a strange half-smile.

"I will be taking Asahina-san for a while," I stated, glaring fiercely at the group behind her. Several of them opened their mouths, seeming to be about to argue, but they looked as shocked as I felt when small hands wrapped smoothly around my arm and I blinked down to see Hikari smiling up at me.

"Lead the way, Demon President," Hikari said with a grin that I could not quite understand. I didn't know why she had attached herself to my arm, but it seemed an adequate situation to get her alone to interrogate her, so I turned from her annoying posse of admirers and began walking away from the gymnasium.

Hikari was silent as I led her towards one of the benches outside the front of Tatakai High and I motioned for her to sit down. She swiped at the bench to remove any dirt that may be there before gingerly sitting and turning her full attention to me as I sat down next to her.

"So? How can I help you, Mr. Demon President?" Hikari asked with a teasing smirk. I glared down at her and folded my arms, not liking her familiar tone.

"I don't understand how you could beat me so easily and yet you didn't make it to the final stage of the tournament today," I said bluntly. Hikari blinked, appearing shocked, but then she chuckled quietly and leaned back slightly.

"I specialize in double battles and double performances," Hikari said with a shrug of her bare shoulder, causing one strand of wavy hair to slip forward. I blinked, moving my eyes away from the lone lock and back to her face as she continued to explain. "My preferred style is to compensate for my pokemon's weaknesses by pairing them with a pokemon that can help turn that weakness into a strength. I knew your style is to attack head on while using battle strategies to increase the effectiveness of your pokemon's attacks. By throwing you off your groove and putting you in a double battle, and then using special attacks to keep you away from my pokemon, and adding in combination attacks that you've never seen before, I figured I could throw you off enough to win."

I blinked in shock as Hikari explained her thought process. It was astounding to me that this volatile girl could actually have come up with such a thorough plan in a split second. A giggle pulled me from my astonishment and I felt a strange lump form in my throat as Hikari looked up at me with a teasing grin.

"I've been planning on this ever since you tried to make all the girls wear knee-length skirts," Hikari said with a giggle. "I figured one day there would be something that you would be so stubborn about I would have to battle you to get you to see reason."

I blinked and frowned, not sure how to feel about this turn of events.

"Asahina-san..."

"Hikari."

I blinked, feeling like my train of thought had just been ripped off the tracks by her interruption.

"What?" I snorted, unsure what I had been meaning to say and finding that to be the only word I could get out.

"Call me Hikari. We've gotten into enough arguments to start using each other's names, don't you think?" Hikari asked, tilting her head slightly to the side, causing more locks of her hair to fall over her pale shoulder. I cleared my throat and turned away from her strangely alluring position as I wondered why my brain was having such a hard time forming coherent thoughts.

"Mm," I responded noncommittally as my brain continued to move at a snail's pace.

"Was that all you wanted to ask me?" Hikari asked, her lips quirking up into a smile at the same time as I saw her shoulders droop slightly from the corner of my eye.

Drooping shoulders... isn't that a sign of disappointment? I wondered absently as I searched for all of the dozens of questions that had prompted me to come here tonight and yet only one of them came to my mind.

"Why did you fight so hard against longer skirts but then you still wear knee-length after you got your way?" The question spilled from my mouth without my consent and as I blinked in shock at the useless question I saw Hikari's mouth fall open just slightly in a look of mild shock. Her lips closed again and a small smile quirked the corners of her lips as she moved slightly closer to me. I felt the barest whisper of contact as her knee brushed against my own and I found it quite difficult to remain still as a strange shivering sensation moved up my legs and into my spine.

"A lot of my friends prefer shorter skirts and I thought it was unfair that you were bending the rules for your own purposes," Hikari said, leaning back slightly and crossing her arms under her chest, bringing one hand up to rest her fingers against the side of her cheek. "But I thought you might like the knee-length look so I kept it."

I blinked, feeling confused as my brow furrowed and I felt my eyes flicking from her slender fingers to her slightly upturned lips, to her piercing blue eyes that seemed to be trying to communicate something to me. Another lump began to form in my throat and I shook my head lightly, clearing my throat and folding my arms.

"My taste shouldn't have any effect on your fashion choice," I said gruffly, looking away from her in a dress that was completely to my taste preference. It was impossible not to flinch when I felt Hikari's hand rest on my elbow and I looked over to see her smiling up at me with a hint of pink in her cheeks.

"It does if I like you and am trying to get your attention," Hikari said, giving me a small smile before pulling her hand back and beginning to play with one of the strands of hair that had fallen over her shoulder.

My mind, which had been functioning as well as a stalled truck up to this point, suddenly went into hyperdrive and hundreds of tiny moments when I had interacted with this infuriating, troublesome woman began to play through my mind. I had despised her ever since she got here so I had never noticed, but suddenly it seemed odd that she would seek me out even though we were in different grades and different career tracks. Whenever we argued she never backed down or seemed afraid, she actually seemed to enjoy our arguments and always seemed to come insanely prepared for anything I might say to refute her points. And her calling me "Demon President" all the time with an almost affectionate air instead of an air of fear...

"You can't be serious." The words were out of my mouth before I had the time to put everything together in my head. Instead of looking offended as she should have been though, Hikari laughed. Without mirth and without guile, she just laughed as I watched in silence.

I flinched as she turned, placing both her hands on my knee and then leaned forward. My mind was so overwhelmed with this turn of events, all I could do was blink as her face slowly inched closer to mine. A gentle smell of citrus and something herbal entered my nose as Hikari levered her weight by pushing against my knee and coming ever closer to me. A memory of when I had done something similar to her when she had challenged me to a battle flashed in my mind and the look that I had thought was uncertainty I now thought might have been something a little different...

Hikari stopped, hovering mere millimeters away from me and I could feel her nose brushing lightly against mine as she looked into my eyes. At this distance, my vision was a little fuzzy, kind of warped, but I could see that there were flecks of what looked like gold around the irises of her amazingly blue eyes.

"You focus too much on pokemon battles," she whispered, her breath washing over my lips and sending confusing signals racing through my brain. "Can you see me now?"

Before I could even begin to think of an answer to that question, Hikari crossed the millimeters separating our lips as her eyes slowly closed. I didn't respond at first, too shocked by this unexpected development to react, but as Hikari squeezed my knee slightly to balance herself something in me seemed to snap into place.

My hands moved of their own accord, one slipping around the back of her neck and tracing her cheek with my thumb, and the other resting on top of her hands on my knee. I tilted my head slightly, angling myself so I could respond to her kiss more naturally. At the same time as I pulled slightly on her neck, deepening the kiss, I leaned forward, pushing her back as my left hand traveled up her bare arm gently. She let out a small noise as I pushed her up against the back of the bench, moving my hand from the soft skin of her arm to the top of the bench to anchor myself.

Hikari moved her hands from my knee and I shivered as she dragged the back of her fingers up my chest until one of them was resting on my shoulder and her other was fiddling with the collar of my shirt. One of her fingers brushed against my collarbone, raising goosebumps on my skin and a strange hunger began to grow in me. Without thinking, I slipped my hands underneath Hikari's knees and behind her back and with a quick tug, pulled her onto my lap. I was briefly surprised when Hikari cuddled up to me, looping her arms around my neck as she opened her lips and nipped my bottom lip playfully.

I wasn't about to let her get away with that. Reaching up with the hand that was under her knees, I curled my fingers under her chin and pressed my thumb down on her chin. She opened her mouth slightly after my prompting and I tilted my face even further, pushing my tongue through her teeth and began to explore. After several minutes of this, I was getting short of breath and I pulled away, breathing heavily as my mind spun from what had just happened.

Did I just make out with the single most infuriating girl I have ever met in my life? I wondered in shock even as my arms wrapped tightly around her slender waist. Her fingers were gently running up and down the back of my neck and as I looked down into her face I was surprised to see a look of complete contentment on her beautiful face. She gazed up at me with her eyes slightly hooded before she shook her head gently and smiled up at me with obvious happiness.

"Does that mean you like me too?" she asked in her usual cheerful tone. I blinked mutely, feeling her weight resting in my lap and trying desperately to decide what about this crazy girl had seemed to capture my every waking thought.

"Who'd like a troublesome girl like you?" I breathed out, even as my arms wound ever tighter around her waist, pressing her even closer against me. Hikari's eyes twinkled as her smile turned into a cute smirk. I swallowed quickly as one of her hands moved from behind my neck and gently rubbed the base of my throat, parting my collar where I had left it unbuttoned.

"I like this look on you, Demon President," Hikari said with a teasing grin. "You should forget your tie more often."

"Even if I hate it, I'm still Student Council President. I have to wear the uniform correctly," I argued instinctively, but instead of getting angry Hikari chuckled and moved back slightly.

"Will you dance with me, Demon President?" she asked with another of her radiant smiles.

I frowned as she reached down and moved my hands from her waist. She kept a hold of them as she rose from her spot on my lap and then looked down at me with a half-smile. Hikari tugged on my hands, which were much larger than hers, and I found myself rising up from the bench to stand high above her. She dropped one of my hands, wrapping my right hand into both of hers and pulled me a little more forcefully towards the noisy gymnasium.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Hikari said with a fetching smile. I had no desire to enter that crowded place and do something as frivolous as dancing, but as Hikari laced her fingers through mine and led me towards the sound of music, I found that I didn't want her to let go.

"Shinji," I heard myself say. Hikari looked back at me, blinking her eyes in obvious surprise and I cleared my throat, speeding up briefly so I was walking next to her instead of being pulled behind her. "Call me Shinji."

Hikari grinned widely, squeezing the hands she was holding and I was shocked when I felt myself smile.

"You're so blunt, Shinji. I really like you!"

My heart began to beat faster than I could believe and as I looked down at Hikari, her dark lipstick slightly smudged from our previous activity, for the first time ever I decided to let my heart lead me instead of my brain.

"You're not so bad yourself," I said quietly. Hikari blinked up at me in surprise and then burst out laughing. She squeezed my hand harder and grabbed onto my elbow with her other hand as she laughed loudly.

"What's with that? You're supposed to say you like me back, Shinji!"

She pulled me into the crowded room and I could feel dozens of eyes watching us as Hikari pushed through the crowds of students dancing to a slow song. Once she found the spot she wanted she turned and faced me, completely ignoring everyone else in the room and reaching up to place a hand on my shoulder. I felt another treacherous smile curve my lips up as I placed my free hand on her waist and began moving back and forth to the music.

"Merry Christmas, Shinji," Hikari said quietly, smiling happily up at me. I pulled her a little closer to me as we continued to move with the music and bent down to put my lips next to her ear.

"Merry Christmas, Hikari."