Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Outlaw Star characters. If I use something different that was on the show, please tell me, so that I might fix it so the real author just the credit deserved.

Always but Never

By: Shattered Alchemist

1

Melfina hurried around the living area of the shop, picking things up from the night before, when the group had stayed up until the early morning hours, but still, she was up early getting things ready. It was a Monday and growing close to six o'clock when Jim would be awake and up ready to leave for school at seven thirty. Melfina and Gene had enrolled him in school after they returned from the Leyline, and now he was going regularly, just for the fact he was finally around people his own age. Gene being twenty-two, Melfina twenty, and Jim was graduating this year after turning eighteen, though currently he was only seventeen.

Hearing the timer, Melfina jogged into the kitchen and fixed Jim's plate setting it down before letting the rest sit just stay warm for when Gene finally woke up. Jim was late that morning, hopping into the kitchen tied his shoe, jacket tossed over his arm, and bag slamming onto the floor in a mess as Gene slowly walked downstairs himself watching Jim's disorganization in glee. He sat down as Melfina sat his plate in front of him and bent down fixing Jim's bag before brushing out his hair and helping him out while he ate quickly. It was passed seven thirty and he had to be in class by eight, he only had fifteen minutes. Jim tied his other shoe and grabbed his goggles pulling them over his eyes running out before back in poking his head in the kitchen.

"You guys are coming to that thing after school, right?" Jim questioned as Melfina nodded and he gave them a sloppy grin before racing out of the warehouse and jumping in his car, throwing his bag in the passenger side, his jacket finally around his shoulders as he sped to the school, running through the halls with only a second to spare as he sat in his seat.

"Late again I see Miss Luo," the teacher stated as the bell rang and a young woman tumbled into the classroom blinking, she wasn't always late, sometimes she didn't even come, but Jim liked it better when she did come. She was sixteen, she'd been bumped up in all of her classes because she was smarter than the average sixteen year old. She was to turn seventeen four months after Jim was eighteen, but Jim had a crush on a girl that as unattainable to him.

"I'm sorry Mr. Limburger, I was trying to make it on time," she apologized before the teacher pointed to her seat next to Jim in the back of the Chemistry lab.

"Week's worth lunch detention Miss Luo, maybe you'll finally learn that you don't need to drag your feet to make it to class on time," he snapped before starting the day's lecture, the sixteen-year-old angrily flopping in her seat crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

In the middle of the class period, after they'd been assigned lab partners, Jim saw just how hard she was struggling to keep from knocking things over. He tried not to laugh before deciding to help, he was her partner and he'd gotten over his shy stage a while back due to Aisha. Walking beside her she suddenly knocked some chemicals on the floor, but Jim caught the beaker, though the chemicals went everywhere. Grabbing the cleaning kit, they cleaned it up, The girl blushing looking down as Jim let out a small laugh.

"I'm-"

"James Hawking," the girl said looking at him before moving some hair from her eyes as he blinked getting cut off.

"That's right, how'd you know?"

"You work for my uncle, Fred Luo. Name's Kagami, Kagami Luo."

"Nice to meet you Kagami," Jim smiled as they shook rags before finishing cleaning everything up. Then the two spent the rest of the time seeing what they were doing, Jim helping her out as she laughed at his jokes, it was more flirting than working, though they were getting a lot done. After the bell rang, Kagami was packing her things into her bag, Jim pulling his over his shoulder before being bold.

"I was wondering, Kagami, if you needed any help with any subjects, you want a tutor?"

"You know one?"

"I'm not half bad at the classes you have, seeing as their almost the exact same," Jim smiled as Kagami looked up before nodding.

"Alright, tomorrow after school, I'll come to your place, if that's alright?" Kagami questioned as Jim nodded and they both left the Chemistry room to their separate class. Jim had a mandatory architecture class, which was easy, but Kagami had a different class in whatever she was graduating for. Jim spent the class sitting their drawing a simple sketch of Kagami with his appliances. He admired her beauty, especially to be a Luo, because it had been said any female born to a Luo had no right to be called beautiful.

Kagami was the exception to that rule, she had Fred's classic long ebony hair, though hers had texture to it, curls, natural spiral once that bounced around off of her head, shimmering like glitter was in it. Jim knew her hair was soft, regardless she always had it pulled back out of her eyes for the most part. Her skin was like Gene's but softer, with a golden tint and no scars, the golden bronzed tone set her eyes out from everything else. Her eyes were amazing, they were a bright metallic gray and shone light steel in dim lights. She was Jim's picture perfect of beauty, though he did wonder about the times when she left her hair more down than up and he'd catch a small glimpse of a bruise, though he wasn't going to ask, it wasn't really his business.

His next class was easy enough, though he had to sit in the dance class with the other boys in weight training, because they were working on something in the weight room. He wasn't complaining though, no one was, all the girls in rather revealing clothes, then he saw her… Kagami Luo wearing almost nothing, he gripped inside his pockets seeing her walking in with a group of girls. She was in the center, curled ebony hair pulled into a tight bun, thousands of curls still falling out of it reaching her shoulders, her straight bangs tucked neatly behind her ears, her eyes fully visible. She'd worn inside a pair of tight black track pants that flared out at the knees, white sneakers, and a gray tank top with the bottom cut off about two inches below her bust, if the top didn't cut down low enough. Her abdomen was slender but well toned, a small piercing visible in her navel, something she was obviously not trying to show off too greatly.

"Alright ladies you took a little too long getting ready today, are some of you having difficulties?" the male teacher questioned, he was like Fred and liked men, the female teacher favoring men as well, but they were the examples of the class, so they had to keep everything professional. "Okay, now get in the groups we assigned last week, we have to have this perfect, you only have this class and forty five minutes from your last class to get ready. So let's try this in your comfortable clothes first, then I want you all changed in five minutes and up here in your outfits to go through it again."

The groups were male and female, each girl getting paired up with a guy from the class, Kagami near the back with the world's favorite guy in school. He was consistently reaching for places he didn't need to, but Kagami was easily handling the situation. When the song started, it was obvious to Jim that the best dancers were the boy in the center and Kagami, that was when the song suddenly stopped. The teachers seeing the same thing, and making haste to change it.

"I know this is last second, but Tracy go to the back with your boyfriend, Jamie, Kagami, you two know the moves better than anyone else, and you two are in the front from now on, okay?" the teacher questioned as they nodded, Kagami taking a drink out of her water bottle before the song started again and Kagami saw Jim smiling bigger than she had before. The dance was intimate and not all at the same time, but still something about it just drew Jim in, the closeness of how Kagami was against the other boy but they still weren't touching. The dance was mainly focused on them, and after seeing it run through twice Jim could imagine himself with her.

That afternoon, the final bell rang and all the students filed into the large arena in the back of the school, their families already there, Jim jogging down the stairs to the front and flopping down with Gene and Melfina, Melfina smiling seeing him. He was ready for the show and was sure to get front and center seats to see Kagami dance. He heard a familiar voice before turning his eyes a few inches behind him to see Fred and a young woman sitting there chatting. Obviously Kagami's mother, then another man sat down by the woman, father, it seemed she'd pulled her whole family into coming. After everyone was in they went quiet when the lights searched out of everyone, the stage still dark. Then the song kicked on, but the first one was something different, something Jim hadn't got to see, Kagami and another girl were standing on the stage.

Kagami was wearing a pair of black shoes, skin tight black pants, studded belt, her top was black like her pants, she had on a pair of black leather gloves that mirrored Jim's showing her long slender fingers, her nails painted black, her silver and diamond necklace glittering with the K pendant swinging around. Her curly black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, the curls falling just above her butt where her belt started. The other girl wearing more jewelry and more revealing clothes. Kagami's pants flared at the knees leaving her black sneakers slightly visible, the two were acting out, like they were going to fight, the other students in the dance class running out in their outfits. Then Jim saw it wasn't an act, it was real, Kagami balling her fists letting the leather groan and tighten around her hands. The other girl wasn't ready to fight, but if she landed a punch she'd cut Kagami's face wide open. The beat started as Kagami ducked barely dodging the girl's loose punch before she came up under her using her shoulder slamming it hard into her stomach knocking the girl flat on her back, Kagami rolling on the floor.

The boys in the class were on Kagami's side keeping the other girls behind them, everyone in the audience in shock before Kagami flew backward on the stage skidding to the other side, spitting on the floor, her right cheek cut open from one of the girl's rings. Kagami jumped up before getting a little too serious, she stopped short in her run flipping backward landing on her hands kicking up at the other girl's chest purposely getting thrown on her back. Kagami moved before the other girl hit her scissor locking her legs making her tumble flat on the stage. Then Kagami used, what they thought were sneakers and turned out as boots kicking the girl straight in the face.

The other girl was bleeding and tears were falling form her eyes before she pulled herself to her feet, Kagami finally fed up with it kneed her in the stomach, grabbed her by the hair jerking her face up before flipping around kicking her square in the jaw throwing her into the group, the girls standing there catching the other girl, who was out for the count. Kagami's arms held dozens of scratches from the other girl's nails, but she wasn't nearly as hurt as the other girl. After they cleaned both of them up and covered the cuts both girls walked back out finishing the show with the dance everyone had been practicing for.

At the end of the show, Gene and Melfina saw Fred and the others walking over, Jim with them, Gene talking to Fred while Jim looked around before Kagami walked out of the theater with a four-year-old trailing behind her, his black hair straight and ruffled up, but his eyes were brown, and skin pale. Kagami had changed into her school uniform with her hair pulled in the same bun it had been in, in her dance class. She didn't have a much make-up on now, and looked like the quiet Kagami Luo from Chemistry again. Her mother was furious and it was visible when the two walked up.

"Kagami Kyoko Luo what has gotten into you!" the woman shouted grabbing Kagami's wrist before she pulled it back getting a nice set of scratches from that.

"Can it Kaoru, I could care less what you thought, just 'cause you married my dad and had a baby with him doesn't give you the right to talk to me like you're my mother. Hey Leon, I'll race you," Kagami said as the four-year-old ran off, Kagami chasing after him, the young woman shaking her head, Fred and his brother excusing themselves before leaving. Jim walked outside and looked seeing Fred get into his car Kagami following after before they drove off.

Author's Note: Yes, I changed Jim's age, but I wanted to give my character a fair chance. There will be stuff between Gene and Mel, no worries, just it's more on Jim and Kagami than them, 'cause I think it's Jim's turn to have somebody. I wrote this while I was listening to Girl fight by Brooke Valentine, Scandalous by Mis-Teeq, and the Outlaw Star series music. I needed a girl fight, I'm having my own problems with other girls, so it's helping unleash my fury through writing. - Shattered Alchemist