Title: Antiphonal
Author: MK
Pairing: Sawada Shin x Yamaguchi Kumiko
Fandom: Gokusen
Theme: #16, Invincible, Unrivaled
Disclaimer: I don't own Gokusen, but I made a yankumi LJ theme. Well, most of 
one, anyway.

Antiphonal is a singing term referring to when one side sings and then the other.

	"Kampai!" The glasses they knocked together over the center table 
contained no alcohol, Yankumi had made sure, but that didn't lessen their spirits 
any.  

	"Congratulations on graduating highschool!" she cheered, and they 
clanked glasses together again while Minami chose the next song.  They had 
rented a karaoke box for the evening, and she was having a fantastic time.   Shin 
of course looked mildly uncomfortable on her left.  

	Come to think of it, Kuma looked awkward, too. "YankumiÉ" he said 
slowly, and the others turned to look at him, set down their glasses.  "Why didn't 
you tell us you were Yakuza?"  She choked, coughed, breathing in melon juice and 
air as if they were one substance before her lungs settled.

	"SinceÑwhÑhowÉ?!"  She had lost all coherence.  It had drained out of 
her, right out her feet and through the floor and into the room below. Gone. Pouf.  
No more.  She turned to Shin, remembering him talking to Kuma the day they 
had helped him move.  "You told them?"

	"Of course not. They'd have to be blind not to have noticed Kyo."  That was 
true.  She sighed and slumped back in her seat, sliding her legs forward.  

	"It's not the kind of thing I can tell people," she mumbled.  "I could get 
fired."  

	"But Shin knew, right?"  Shin snorted at Uchi.

	"She was weird, and I saw her do a lot of things you didn't."  Well, there 
was that.  Either he was remarkably intuitive, or her costumes really did suck. 
(But she thought the mask with her sweatsuit had been the perfect disguise for 
stopping on-grounds bullying. The other students had certainly bought it.)  

	"But man," Uchi laughed, "It's still hard to imagine! Yankumi a Yakuza 
boss? It's impossible!"  He continued to laugh ridiculously and she felt that 
familiar slow burn inside her as he trailed off.  "OiÉYaÉYankumi, you're making 
that face againÉ" Shin knocked his shoulder against hers and she snapped out of 
it.  

	"Eh..heh heh.. Sorry~" Some things, she was sure, would never change.   

	"So invite us over sometime, Yankumi!" Noda was actually somehow 
excited.  "Who else knows?"

	"Just Shin and the Principal, really."

	"Old Baldy?!" 

	"Well, yeah.  He hired me, after all."  There were sounds of disbelief before 
Minami lifted his head. 

	"Okay! It's gotta be Hiki-chan's 'A.S.A.P'!"  Kuma nodded enthusiastically.  
Everyone else groaned.



	They stayed much later than they would have had they still been her 
students, but they had graduated, they were no longer hers to guide or mould.  
Now they were simply friends.  "Oi, you're going with Yankumi, Shin-chan?"

	"I live there," he replied simply and they gaped at him for a moment.  He 
shrugged; Yankumi felt a little warm.  

	"He's a live-in!" She added on quickly.  "Grandfather and Kyo are training 
him!"  But the brat had that smirk on his face again, like he knew something she 
didn't, and the others continued to gape at him a moment longer.

	"ShinÉ he's finally becoming a man!" Uchi sounded like someone's 
mother. 

	"Wa ha!" they rubbed his hair a little, crowded around him and he 
shrugged them off, embarrassed. Yankumi was confused.

	"Eh? But he already lived on his own?"  Minami grinned at her.  

	"We'll get together again soon," he promised, "Take good care of Shin for 
us, eh, Yankumi?"  They were good kids, and she grinned.

	"You bet!"