Hey everyone long time no see! I know it's been about three years since my last upload, but I had an itch to start writing again. So, I started out fresh with a new story and hopefully my writing skills have improved since my last upload (if not then shit, I'm screwed). Just a quick tidbit about my writing style for newcomers (and some of the people that actually favored me) before my writing somewhat rushed. I re-read most of my work that was actually posted on this site and perhaps it's my nagging voice of perfection talking, but I wasn't too impressed. Most of my stuff wasn't nearly as fleshed out as I intended in my head. So, with this new story I plan to correct that error and flesh out all of the characters with their own personalities. They'll have their quirks, both good and bad, so I hope some of them you love and some of them you hate. (Or hate to love)

I'm hoping that some people like this chapter and if that ends up being the case I'll continue to write more. So, assuming people don't utterly hate it, this means that I'll need another beta reader as well that could help me with my grammar and punctuation (because I don't always catch them, especially when I write half of this stuff at 3 am in the morning). If the story kicks off and you're interested, lemme know by the comments or shoot me an invite on MSN (let me know before you invite me though, you know how it is)

So without further adieu, I present the first chapter of a fic that was three years in the making (at least in my head it was).

Rated: T for language, sexual themes and crude humor.

Disclaimer: I don't own Mai-Hime or any of its characters.

They say that karma exists throughout all our lives. If you're terrible to everyone, something shitty will happen to you. If life is shitty and you're a good person, something great will end up coming your way. I pretty much fall into the latter category, and to be honest, I'm still waiting on my karma return. I wasn't necessarily blessed with any redeeming genetic traits and most of my life is consistently mediocre. That chick with glasses seemed to be my only identifier. My parents fought all my life, so instead of getting a divorce they simply decided to move the one thing they argued about most, which of course would be me. As soon as I became old enough, they shipped me off to Fuuka Academy declaring how it was "the best boarding school in the country" and how I was "so lucky I was even accepted". The truth of course is that having a child is difficult for them (it always was) so although they really couldn't afford it, they were damn sure to save enough money to ship me out of town the moment my birthday came.

At first I was an optimist. I saw this as a great opportunity to meet some new friends and come into my own without having to listen to my parents fight every night. Although Fuuka Academy ended up being a real nice school (the credentials on any resume is enough for anyone), the people there were, to put it bluntly, a bunch of rich snobs. My family wasn't wealthy and I certainly didn't have the personality to convince anyone elsewise, so it's safe to say I had a hard time fitting in. Now this is when karma gets a little weird, because then something great did happen to me. One day while I was still in middle school, I met a girl named Nao Yuuki. It wasn't a real magical encounter; we just ended up being paired up as lab partners for biology but to me it was like finally seeing sunshine after years of slugging through rain. As young as I was, I immediately knew I was so gay for her. The way her eyes looked through me or the corner of her mouth tugging upwards into her famous smirk did some weird things to my stomach. I loved everything about her, from how her hair always seemed to be messy because she never felt like toying with it, or how she laughed really loud at some of the dumbest things. I felt like I had known her my entire life, yet every time I got near her I got really nervous and tried to avoid eye contact.

I'm not sure she really noticed. If she did, she never said anything because that's how she was. She was always carefree, easy-going, and always ready to make you laugh when all you wanted to do was cry. So it's safe to say my little middle school heart was head over heels for this girl. We became close almost immediately. She'd sneak into my room and we'd end up talking and laughing throughout most of the night (making Natsuki, my roommate, pretty much pissed all the time). I remember one night just lying there, watching her chest fall with each breath. She opened her eyes and I tried to shift my gaze elsewhere, but my eyes were hopelessly caught in hers. Then she smiled. It seemed to me that she felt exactly how I felt, that somehow our souls, or whatever, were completely engaged in one another.

The next day I finally got the courage to confess. I figured I'd pay my shitty dues, and I'd finally get the karma return that I've been waiting for. I didn't make too big of a deal about it, I just assumed she felt the same way because she always seemed to have that special smile or laugh or look that always seemed to be reserved just for me.

I tried to be smooth about it.

"We should go out sometime," I said casually one night in my room when Natsuki was out. Nao was reading a magazine and didn't even look up at me.

"We always go out," she said with her eyes flickering back and forth on the page.

"Not like that," I took a breath and all the courage I had with it. "Like on a date. You know, somewhere nice."

Her eyes were still focused on the page.

"That's disgusting, Chie," she turned to the next page. I wasn't even worth the eye contact.

That's disgusting.

That was that. We never talked about it again. She didn't freak, or yell, or even batted an eye. That was that and we continued with our lives. Or well, she did.

That's disgusting.

Even three years later the phrase still haunted me. Each time I thought I was over it and moved on she'd smile at me again, making my stomach churn, and the first thing that pops in my head is that very same phrase.

That's disgusting.

Karma's a bitch, right? We stayed best friends of course, as if it never happened. Now in high school she's fairly popular and goes through boys like tissues. She had that charming way about her that would get any man to do anything she wanted. Whether it was high school boys, teachers, or anyone else for that matter, she'd always get her way.

So here I am sitting behind her watching her foot slowly move up the calf of the boy sitting in front of her. This latest model was called Rei. He was the Vice President of the student council and known to be a cool collective guy that quite a few of the girls wanted. Right now with her foot stroking him he squirmed like a little bitch. That was Nao; she was able to turn even the "coolest" of people into putty. Now I'm not usually a violent person but I have to admit I was really jealous so the thought of shooting a pencil at high velocity through his skull may have crossed my mind once or twice. I wondered how I'd react if she did it to me. Well I definitely wouldn't be on the verge of visibly creaming my pants in my seat. I'd probably respond back or…

That's disgusting, Chie.

I shifted my gaze back up to the front of the class. One of the more popular girls was presenting her student project about the decimation gas-powered vehicles had on the world. I never really registered her name although I've seen her around a lot. She definitely was well kept and spoke well in front of a crowd. She probably watched rich Mommy and Daddy do it all the time at their high executive meetings.

She finished her presentation and bowed to the class.

Professor Kao (whom we call "The Dinosaur" based on an estimation of his age) thanked her (called her Senou which is a pretty strong family name) and she smiled at him and took her seat. She had a fairly kind and honest way about her. Perhaps I was too judgmental.

In the corner of my eye I caught Nao sticking her tongue out at me stating her obvious opinion of the girl. She was never a huge fan of any of the other popular girls. I chuckled and shut my notebook. At least I wasn't the only judgmental one.

The Dinosaur dismissed us early for lunch, so I packed the rest of my things and headed over to Nao's desk.

"You heading to the cafeteria?" I asked, trying real hard to seem like I wasn't staring at her or mentally threatening her boyfriend the entire class. She shook her head and clung to Rei's arm.

"We've got some private plans to attend to," and with that she gave me her famous smirk. Rei's face went completely red. I'm pretty sure I responded somewhat neutrally, although that whole stabbing him in the face with a pencil scenario popped in my head again. So I ended up leaving the class alone.

I always figured that after I confessed a part of me seemed to die. Sure I was always pretty cynical and not the type of person you invited to a party but when I was around Nao I always felt seemingly happy. Or well, at least what I thought might have been happy. After the confession, that part of me died with the prospects of us getting any closer than being "friends". Sure I felt the loss at first, but after each day of constantly seeing her with the word "disgusting" ringing back in my ears I ended up being numb to the pain I felt.

So, numbingly, I walked into the computer lab and logged in. Nao's been pretty "active" with her boyfriends since we got into high school, and every now and then she gets an itch during school hours that she scratches on our lunch break. Whenever that happens, I find myself in the most comfortable place in the school, which happens to be what Nao calls "the land where the nerds hide from the real world". She had a point seeing as how I was hiding from the real world. I surfed a couple of my usual sites when someone walked in. Usually it's just me and maybe some random nerd playing World of Warcraft, seeing as how most of the "cool" kids wouldn't get caught dead in the computer lab outside of class. Imagine my surprise when that Senou girl from The Dinosaur's class came walking in. She smiled at me and took her seat in the station next to mine.

I shifted my focus back to my computer. I was scanning some auctions that I had some bids on when she reached over and tapped my hand. My arm jerked a little from the sudden touch.

"Oh, sorry," she smiled at me. She had a kind smile. "It's just, well, I was wondering if your internet works."

I refreshed my page to make sure.

"Yeah looks like it does."

"Could you take a look at mine? It's not connecting to the page." I nodded and rolled my chair to her station. As I was checking some of the settings I caught her staring at me instead of the computer. She was probably laughing inside about how much of a dork I was to be here on our lunch break. Then again, she was here too but that didn't make me any less nervous.

"Looks like someone accidentally tried to re-assign the DNS server," I fixed it and sat back in my chair. "There, should be fixed."

Her eyes went back to the monitor and then back to me, still smiling.

"Yeah that seemed to do the trick." I nodded and rolled back to my station. I figured that would be the end to our riveting conversation, but she followed me back. "I took a few computer science courses but you seem to know a lot more than I do," she chuckled.

Computer science at Fuuka was laughable to any normal tech school standards. They pretty much teach you how to turn the computer on and how to not electrocute yourself.

"I build computers outside of school as a somewhat hobby," I replied. Nao would always crinkle her nose and call me a geek whenever a new shipment came in for the project I was working on. I didn't really care what people thought, it was something that I enjoyed doing and I wasn't about to let that go.

"That's really cool," I expected this Senou girl to laugh at me. Perhaps maybe she just had the decency to keep a straight face and laugh with her friends later. Instead she kept talking.

"It's Harada right? Chie?" She asked. I actually made eye contact with her. She had kind eyes too.

"Yeah, and you're Senou? From Kao's class?" She nodded.

"You can call me Aoi though." Aoi. I still didn't understand what she wanted. Most people really didn't talk to me much unless they were Nao's friends and forced to make polite conversation.

There was a little bit of an awkward pause.

"So uh," I thought of something a normal person would say to make conversation. "You did really well on your presentation today." Although I was only paying attention to the end of it, I figured I shouldn't tell her that.

She sighed.

"Oh damn I was so nervous! I'm REALLY bad at talking in front of people," she covered her face out of embarrassment. That made me even more awkward, so I tried to fill it with babble.

"Nah you couldn't tell. Definitely better than most people in that class. Especially that Tate kid that seemed like he was going to wet himself up there," I couldn't tell if that was too judgmental but I didn't have a lot of practice talking with total strangers.

"Yeah he's a friend of mine," she stated. Crap. I just insulted her friend. Before I could say sorry she read my mind and added to her original statement. "Although he probably was. The night before, he was practicing his speech on the phone with me for hours. I'm shocked he didn't pass out when the time actually came." She gave me that smile again. I think I actually laughed.

The warning bell rang for class so I took that as my cue to log off and pack my things.

"Oh before you go," she grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. "Let's exchange numbers and do lunch sometime." She scribbled down some numbers and handed it to me.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Right. Real smooth there, Chie. She smiled at me again.

"Want to give me yours? Just in case I have another computer issue and the whole world depends on it," she handed the pencil to me. Going with it, I scratched down my name and cell number.

She thanked me and hopped out the door, with her bronze hair bouncing as she left. I looked down at the paper and her loopy handwriting and couldn't help but wonder:

The hell?

Nao caught me in the hallway on my way to the next class.

"Hey where were you? I was looking for you," she looped her arm around mine as we walked. Immediately I had to try to seem like it didn't send a thousand bolts of lightning through my skin.

"What happened to your 'private plans'?" I asked. She let out an exaggerated groan.

"Rei is a quick shooter. I swear to God if he wasn't so hot he'd be a goner after the first day," she sighed and I couldn't help but laugh. "Seriously though, where were you?"

"Land of the nerds," I muttered trying to focus on keeping my poker face. She crinkled her nose as if I was hanging out in a dumpster or something. To salvage some pride I tried to make it seem like I wasn't there for me. "That Senou girl from The Dinosaur's class had some computer issues."

Nao chuckled at that.

"Of course SHE hangs out in the land of the nerds. I always knew something was off about her," I almost felt bad for using Aoi as a cover. Almost being a key word, because it was hard to feel anything when all my senses were concentrated on her touching me.

We finally got to my class so she hugged me and we parted ways. A fantasy popped in my head that I would tug her back towards me and kiss her before she left. I shook my head hoping the "disgusting" thoughts would fly out if I shook hard enough. I took my seat and before class began I felt my cell phone buzz in my pocket.

Curiously, I flipped it open.

I know this is pretty sudden. Sorry! D: But want to have lunch together tomorrow? :) –Aoi

Immediately I was suspicious. I knew this girl was one of those popular girls that had plenty of friends to eat lunch with. The only plausible explanation is that Nao slept with her boyfriend and this Senou girl might be looking for ways to get back at her. That's happened before and since Nao is so tough herself the girls would sometimes come after me, scared of a conflict with Nao herself. I'm fairly certain I've been yelled at for Nao's discretions more than Nao herself.

With a sigh I decided there was only one thing I could do to know for sure.

Sure. Meet me in the computer room. –Chie

I closed the phone and dozed off the rest of the class, hanging onto that numb feeling. Hopefully, tomorrow wouldn't be a big deal.

Hopefully.

The next day I was pretty worried about my lunch with Aoi. I asked Nao if Rei was seeing anyone when they met and she rolled her eyes at me.

"No of course not. Judging by his tenacity in bed he was probably a virgin for all I know."

I doubt that she was sleeping with anyone else; usually she would tell me in passing. When she juggled more than one guy she usually boasted about it like a badge of honor. Once, she had five boyfriends at a time. That was not a good week for me.

During The Dinosaur's class I stared at the back of Aoi's head, contemplating what she was going to try and pull during lunch. Once during Kao's lecture she glanced back and me and smiled. It was still a kind smile. I didn't even so much as glance at Nao throughout the entire class.

After the Dinosaur dismissed us for the dreaded lunch period, Nao came over groaning.

"Ugh he wants to do it again today and honestly I doubt I could go through that one more time without laughing," she gave me her smile. "So, where do you want to have lunch?"

I glanced at Aoi as she left the room.

"Sorry, I have plans for lunch today," I said. I didn't want to give out any other details so I could protect Nao if this Senou girl really was planning something.

"Oh." Nao looked at me puzzled. I don't blame her, I never have plans. Ever.

"Sorry," I mumbled again and left the room to head towards the computer lab.

I took in a deep breath before I opened the door. This won't be so bad. If it really is about Nao she'll just yell and threaten and it'll blow over in a week or so.

When I entered she was standing and waiting for me. The room was empty.

"Hey," she said seemingly nervous. Oh God. I hope that she wasn't in love with Rei or something and is now going to break down and cry saying my best friend stole him from her. I think I'd rather her yell at me than her cry.

"Hey," I replied. "Is something wrong?"

"Uhm, there's been something I've been wanting to say to you but I don't really know how to say it so," she stepped closer to me.

Shit here we go. I tried to mentally brace myself for any lashing she was going to give. I was sure this was about Nao. It had to be.

She got really close and I was prepared for her to start yelling or crying or something. She placed her hand at the back of my neck and pushed my face down closer to hers and for a second I might have blacked out. I opened my eyes and felt her lips against mine. For a moment she felt incredibly soft and fragile, just like her eyes.

And smile.

At first I was ready to panic. I thought maybe I blacked out and in some fit of insanity kissed her. Perhaps all my lesbian tendencies suddenly overflowed and this poor girl with these soft lips was in my path of lesbionic destruction.

But no. She was pressing against me.

She broke away and her eyes searched mine. She chuckled, probably at the fact that I looked like Bambi caught in headlights.

"There. I said it," she said with her small, soft smile. Her voice was in a whisper. "Want to go out with me sometime?"

It was weird having that question being echo'd back.

My heart was pounding and my stomach was doing flips again. I felt something and I couldn't quite put my finger on it, although I'm sure I felt it before.

Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting .Disgusting.

I shut my brain off and allowed my lips to move with the pounding of my heart.

"Sure," I said. With that, I leaned in and kissed her again.

Phew. Hoped you guys liked it! Don't forget to post a review if you liked it (or even if you hated it. I love to improve). Until next time!

-Lillium