DISCLAIMER: No copyright infringement intended. All trademarks (HiME, Otome, music, movies, and all other known entities, etc.) belong to their respective owners.

WARNINGS: Rated M for coarse language, violence, and adult sexual themes. If you are not over 18 or should not be reading this type of fiction, then stop here. Otherwise, as one of my favorite songs go, Play at Your Own Risk.

A/N: This is set in an alternate universe. Everyone is basically the same age unless otherwise noted. Also, some of the personalities are going to be out of character, so fair warning. So, AU/OOC.

Italics = Thoughts

Bold = Yelling

Please let me know if you'd like this story to continue. I already have one more chapter of this story planned out, and it should be posted in about a week. But, right now, it's a toss up for me to continue past the two planned chapters.

So, on we go. Please enjoy.

How do I truly define what she means to me? I can't. Not really. Trust me I've tried. Many times. And, I'll continue to try, every day she and I are together… down to my final breath. There are just too many words to describe what she does to me. What feelings she evokes from me. How she makes me feel. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally.

Some of the words are, well, corny. Other words have too many syllables to count, especially for me. All I know is that she's everything to me. She's my heart, my soul. That movie, Jerry Maguire, with that hokey but memorable line, 'You complete me.' Those words mean as much to me as me telling her that I love her. Hey, it's still three words at least. The other three words that also let me know how much she means to me? I trust her. I know now that no matter what happens that I love her, and I always will.

She awakens all my senses. And, I am honestly grateful that she is mine, and I am hers.

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? You're probably really confused right now. I guess I should start at the beginning.

We met in college. We were both in our first year, and it was the middle of the second month of classes. Look, just to let you know, I'm not really good with people. Well, to be honest, I hate people. Most of them anyways. The ones I can tolerate for more than ten minutes ended up being my friends. Thankfully, there are only a handful of them because sometimes, even they get on my nerves.

I have only one best friend, and she's the love of my life, my soul mate. Hey, don't give me that face. I know, I know. I'm a sap. Seriously, if you knew me back then, I was a lot different. I just wasn't a people person. But I know now that I'm a better human being because of her. However, before she came into my life, there was basically only one way to describe me. Simply put, I was anti-social. A delinquent, you might say. Actually, now that I think about it, quite a few people have called me that.

Anyhow, the thing I couldn't stand the most was stupid people. It was much worse when I was younger because I thought damn near everyone was stupid. And come on, you know that most people really ARE stupid. I was just more vocal about it back then.

Sadly, there are many levels of stupidity. I even have a stupid people scale that I created with my friend Nao. We actually keep score. It's a riot that saves both of us from boredom, and it's a good way to keep our sanity. Honestly, some people should not procreate. Maybe I'll tell you about the scale sometime. I'm sure as hell not going to let Nao tell you. She'll just screw it up. Anyway, I'm rambling. Again. It's a bad habit, but you'll get used to it.

I bet you're wondering if I'm ever going to start telling you how I met her, right? I really wish she would tell you instead of me. It would be so much easier, but she made me promise that I would go first. I'm not completely sure why. She's so much more eloquent about this kind of stuff than I am. But I get the feeling she wanted to listen to me tell our story.

Look at the bright side. At least you're getting the benefit of my being better at explaining how I feel. In the beginning, I was awful at it. More than awful. And, please don't ask what's worse than awful. Hey, it's not like I'm stupid. Well, I can be a bit dense and, well, a bit oblivious to what's going on around me. But hey, I have to think things through properly. Then, once I know for sure, I'm all in. I used to be so certain that everything was black and white. No gray. That was until I met her. Oi! Stop with the look. All right? I see you're getting impatient, so I'll get on with the story.

Like I said, it started in college. My very small group of friends and I had just finished dinner at this little place we liked to frequent. Our schedules sometimes conflicted with school and all, but we did try to meet at least once a week, if not more. So, with a wave goodbye, I headed off to where my motorcycle was parked on the street. As I got closer to my bike, that's when I heard some guy yelling. With the glow of the streetlights, I then saw that the disturbance was coming from a dark haired guy who was opposite a chestnut haired girl.

Now, you have to understand that I keep to myself and try not to get involved with other people's drama. I just don't have the time, but more importantly, I seriously don't care. But the moment I saw that idiot grab the girl's arm and try to yank her into the car, I got pissed. Really pissed. Stranger or not, I just don't put up with crap like that.

As I started walking towards them, I tapped the Bluetooth on my right ear to activate it.

"Call Mai."

As soon as the call was picked up, I spoke without waiting for a response.

"Mai. Speakerphone. Record."

I then quickly closed the distance to the guy and ripped his hand off the girl's arm and shoved him away. His side hit the open left passenger car door with a slight clunk before he righted himself.

"Hey! Leave her alone."

"What? Who the hell are you?" He shouted at me.

I made sure I was between the chestnut haired girl and this lame ass excuse of a human being to provide a buffer between them. I could hear her rough breaths behind me, and it just made me even angrier.

Now, I'm not totally ignorant of the situation. This guy had about four inches in height and about fifty pounds over me. Goodie for me. A quick look at this guy's face told me that he wasn't going to back down. I really wanted to take a look back at the girl and see if she was okay. Honestly? I was worried about her. I wasn't sure what he had done to her before I got there.

The dark haired bastard was facing me from about five feet away looking a little bit psychotic and a whole lot of angry. I set my feet ready for anything, but what I really needed to know was where the girl was. If I had to dodge this guy and play defense, I wanted to make sure she didn't get hurt as well, or at least, not in the way.

That's when I felt a hand grab and hold the hem on the back of my leather jacket. I thought for a brief moment she was going to try and stop me, but her grasp wasn't firm. She didn't say anything. But, I was able to hear her start to get her breathing under control.

Now that I had some idea of where she was standing, I could really take a look at this guy. His face was scrunched up in pure rage. His hands were balled into fists at his sides. The idiot's next outburst was totally predictable.

"Get the fuck out of my way, you stupid bitch. Do you even know who I am?"

My first thought was to basically say 'Nope, don't care', but I caught myself before I could open my mouth since it wasn't just me I had to worry about. Instead, I just said, "Look, she doesn't want to go with you. Why don't you just get in your car and leave?"

My abilities at trying to defuse a situation like this are probably a negative two on a scale of one to ten. Hell, I'd rather just kick the guy's ass and get it over with, but again, it wasn't just me here. There was also a part of me that kept on wondering what on earth I was doing. It wasn't like me to get involved. Ever. I mean it wasn't like I wanted to play hero or anything like that. But, I also wasn't so unfeeling that I was going to let this jerk slide with what he had done.

Since her hand was on my jacket, I knew that the girl was still mostly behind me. I reached back with my left hand to grab hers. Her hand was soft, and it was trembling. No surprise there. Well, about the trembling part I mean, it wasn't a surprise. The soft thing? It was just something that seemed to register in my mind. I don't know why the softness of her hand was the first thing that popped into my head. The only thing I could think of to reassure her was to give her hand a light squeeze. Admittedly, I was a little bit surprised when she squeezed my hand back.

I did a quick calculation of where she was standing relative to the jerk, the car, the car door, and most importantly, me. Rule number one in my book was to consider what was in my reach as a weapon. Car door? That's an excellent weapon, and it was also good for defense if I needed it to keep him from us.

I kept my right hand slightly cupped at my side. I wasn't sure if he was going to take a swing or try something else stupid. I knew better than to use my fists in a situation like this. Having my hand open like it was allowed me to be able to block an incoming punch or kick, use the car door for offense or defense, and I could take a shot at his throat or his eyes if he got too close. React and counter, especially in the position I was in.

As much as I didn't want to lose the defense of the car door, I knew I had to start getting some distance from this idiot. I used my left hand to prompt the girl to start moving away. Fortunately, she seemed to understand what I wanted without me saying anything. We were able to move about three or so steps to the side when the guy just launched himself at her. Not me, but her.

Of all the damn things to do, I didn't expect the guy to just fly out and try to tackle her. Who the hell does that? Out of pure instinct, I did a hockey body check on his flying form using my right forearm and shoulder. The impact slammed into his head and upper torso, and I was able to send him backwards. The problem now was that I'm totally off balanced and falling forwards.

Using my falling momentum, I dipped my right shoulder down, tucked my head in, and did a forward somersault on the extremely hard, and very painful, asphalt. I rolled up onto my feet and quickly started back towards the girl.

I barely made it in front of her when the jerk was back on his feet heading towards us for round two. Using my body as a partial shield between the guy and the girl, I took on a wild roundhouse punch. I was able to deflect some of the blow with my left forearm, but his right hand ended up connecting with my face.

As I started to stumble towards the ground from the blow, I brought out my left leg and was able to trip him before he got to her. He turned his face towards me, and the look in his eyes was like that of a wild animal. I stopped myself from falling with my right hand and spun around.

Now, we had a real problem. I was on one side, she was on the other, and we had a dumbass in the middle. There was a metal taste in my mouth. I could feel the cut on my lip. Stupid bastard. Even with the pain, I had to keep his attention on me and away from her. I just had to figure out a way to do that.

You know, there are times I seriously wonder if I have a fully functioning brain. In this case, I'll use the excuse that I just got hit in the head pretty hard.

I stood up, glared right at him and said, "That's the best you got?"

Fortunately, it seemed to be enough of a distraction. He stopped moving towards the girl, and started coming right at me.

"I am Reito Kanzaki. That bitch is my property, and I'm going to kill you."

Have you ever just looked at someone and knew they were insane? In no uncertain terms? After hearing psycho guy's statement, that's pretty much what I thought.

Then, his fists started coming in fast, with one after the other. I was able to block almost all of them with my arms, or I was able to dodge some of them. The key word being almost. A few of them ended up connecting to either my head or my body. The guy was just flaying. He was swinging away out of rage and totally out of control.

Since I only concerned myself with defense. I was able to maneuver around to get positioned in front of the girl again. The few hits I did take could have been worse, but I was finally able to notice he was tiring himself out and slowing down.

Once I saw an opening, I took it. I partially blocked an incoming right fist and pulled his arm forward to use his momentum against him. I moved my body parallel to his right side, and I slammed my boot into the side of his knee. He dropped instantly. I directed my right elbow to the back of his skull, and right after it connected, he collapsed to the ground, not moving.

For some unknown reason, I didn't hesitate. I immediately went to the chestnut haired girl and folded her into my arms. I whispered in her ear, "It's all right. You're safe now. I've got you."