A/N: Got bored again, as we can very well tell. THis idea was driving me nuts for weeks, and I really wanted to get it onto paper. Anyway, I hope you all like this first chapter. The story is going to be an emotional roller coaster...I'm warning you all of that right now. If you wanna ride the waves so to speak, read on...but, if you're a soft, hopeless romantic...be warned this is one of those sappy, dramatic, lovey-dovey, passionate things that you'll likely either love, or hate... I hope out of the two, it's the former...but you know know how I get with fictions like this.

This chapter is Natsuki POV heavy...after this chapter, it's no so much from her point of view and there's more character interaction. Though, I do like POV additives to the things I write, it won't be quite so one sided later on.

Anyway, onward to the first chapter!

I don't own Mai HIME.

White Fence:
Chapter One
(Natsuki POV)

Pale, soft lips that glisten ever so slightly in the morning sun.
Her laugh, something full of melody, even at my expense.
The serenity that follows her around, as if she were a goddess, astounds me.
The way her eyes darken with the hints of lust, whenever I whisper her name, calls to me.
It's her trembling voice.
Her monotone that calms me.
Her mind that inspires me.
It's a woman that plagues my thoughts, and invades my dreams.

No longer, can I rely on the faithful methods of my past. Closing my eyes, and trailing my hand lower down my body does nothing. Even though my essences is heated and moist, even though I long to be held...to be touched, to be loved by another...I find that she is a fleeting soul that I can't possibly understand, and I will never have such a chance in hell to win her affections. It's futile...another lonely night in bed, more desires that will never see the light of day.

What pulls me to her? I'm sure, that it could only be considered fate. Even if it wasn't, I will accept that life has once again given me a gift...yet it taunts me, showing me, what I ought not to have.

They say a woman is like a flower, and that, she only blooms once, if at all...perhaps that's true. I don't really know, to be quiet honest. I've had a busy life, filled with plenty of things, people...and even different kinds of love. The love of friends, and family...just never romance. I've kinda taken this stubborn pride about myself, that I can take on the world as a single woman. I've been around the block a few times, had a few brushes with something that I thought might be love...turned out, it was just lust...or teenaged confusion.

I can understand that, now, upon reflection.

As a teen, I even had a boyfriend, though, we mostly just fought. We wanted to be friends more than lovers, so that didn't last at all. I has a few girlfriends too, but when I took them home, well my idea of home...so they could meet my idea of what a family was...well, let's just say I scared away what few dating prospects that I had. Now when I say that to most people, they start laughing at me. What could be so bad after all? Well firstly, I hung around a bad group of people anyway...there were a few decent friends that I've kept over the years, but most of the teens I grew up with were jerks.

That had the largest part to play.

The second thing is, most people didn't think like me. Teens, they don't often have this sense of responsibility for those around them. Most of my friends back then, they held out their hand, waiting for bills to walk into their palm. I'm sure I would have at least tried to do that too, but I didn't have anyone to ask. I never had any parents either, so that was the first problem. The second problem, was that my idea of family, well, it was a makeshift ideal, and the only understanding of the world that I had.

See, when I was sixteen, there was this...incident...of sorts. For lack of a better way to say this, I kinda turned into a parent over night. Yes...I do realize how completely idiotic it sounds. Hell, if it hadn't been me, I wouldn't have believed it either. Anyway, leaving the facts of how that even happened aside, lets just say most people don't want to date a teen mom. I didn't get that, and yeah, that was poor planning on my part. I didn't think about it, the ramifications were lost on me.

I would bring perspective girlfriends to meet what I would call family. They would expect something really exciting, I'm sure...but then, they'd walk into whatever rundown place we were hiding in, look inside of it, and see kids...very young children stumbling around, and they'd frown at me...they'd break up with me a few days later, if they hadn't on the spot. I never really understood it, because it seemed so natural to me, but again, I'm not like everyone else.

I can still remember the first day that I'd met them.

The rain was soft on the cool autumn day...I remember that, because I was trying to put duck tape on a leaking part of the roof. A buddy of mine, her name was Nao, she'd been bitching about some idiotic thing that was going on in home room class. I always skipped school, and she did too, when she thought class was absolutely worthless. So, there I was, trying to patch part of the roof, when we kept hearing this odd sound coming from outside of the building. Now the warehouse wasn't in a safe district, hell, it didn't even have running water, or lights. The only reason I used to hide there, was so that no one would catch me.

Though, when the area got bad, I ran away from it. We thought it was another street fight or something, and since I didn't really want any part of that, we decided to leave the hiding spot alone for a while. That was our usual way to deal with things. The funny thing about that, is after I'd met the babies, we never actually returned to the warehouse ever again. In fact, sometimes, I really think this was fate.

Anyway, perhaps that's just the years of memories talking.

There was an old chapel not far from where we were. I would hang out there occasional, but mostly I left it well enough alone. See, it was smack dab in the middle of town. Uptown, was safe...downtown, well, it had it's places of safety, and it's slums. We thought we would crash there for a while, and rest in the church pews. Honestly, looking back, I should have given more thought to it. We stayed there until nightfall, and Nao, being the constant runaway that she liked to be, never went home.

It was late into the night, when we heard crying coming from the front of the building, but we were in the back, near the old rooms for the convent. After we heard the door knocking a few more times, it finally stopped. Nao and were thanking the gods for peace, until it had started on the back door, near to where we were. I'd looked out, trying to see what was happening, but the streetlamps were shoddy in that part of the town. All I could see was a shadowed figure holding something. She seemed to circle the building a few times, confused I think, since Nao and I were making a ton of racket.

I thought to open the door, I really did...but Nao and I had thought better of it.

The streets are a dangerous place, and even though I knew it was just some girl, she was too pretty to not have a home. Her pale lips glistened just ever so slightly, I noticed, when she'd gone around, back to the front door. Walking in constant circles. I wondered what a girl like her was doing in a place like this. I didn't find out until a few hours later, when daybreak was just touching the sky. I'd slept like shit, and when I finally opened the back door, the girl that had been there was hiding behind the corner.

I didn't think of it back then, it didn't put the pieces together...if I did, I would have ran after her when she began to run. Instead, I felt guilty, looking at my feet. If I'd have opened the door sooner, if I'd tried to take the girl in, they wouldn't be alone. I remember thinking about that type of thing for the longest time. I always wanted to kick myself, because I knew from the look in her eyes, that she had loved them. You can never really forget that type of gaze, and I, being the person that I was...felt completely responsible for what my life had put in front of me.

I figured, we were all orphans at that point...me and those two defenseless babies.

The only difference was that I was older...I knew what it was like, being without a family. I didn't want them to know the same thing...so, I decided they would be mine...I would raise them as my own. I never knew their real names, but then, I realized, these kids, they didn't have much. I went to a few offices, but they didn't even have a family register. So, as a stupid sixteen years old, I sighed away on the dotted line...gave everything up, for these two little shits in my life.

At the time, they were infants, only a few months old.

My friends told me I couldn't do it...others told me I was crazy...but I didn't care. I didn't want to put them any place else. I wanted them to be safe, and protected by something. I dunno, maybe it was pity, or, just that I was lonely too. Either way, it didn't matter. I wanted them to be happy...I wanted to fill the void. So, I did...the how's and why's of back then...well, they're lost to me now. That was so long ago...

As I watch these teens that they've become, I can't help but smile. My son and daughter, walking forward into such a sate in their lives, I see every misgiving, and every triumph.

My daughter is a second year in middle school, she was held back for a year. She got suspended several times for fighting, and failed most of her classes...I wonder, oddly enough, who she could learned that from. My son is a third year, right where he should be. They both pick up my bad habits, they've both skipped class, and it's a fight to get them to even turn in their homework. Though, in all honesty, I have more of a problem with my daughter, who seems to talk back to every teacher in the building.

Hell, I did the same thing...I can't blame her, I'm not a hypocrite like that.

I love them both, with all of my heart...dear gods...there are times I reflect on that, and the things I realize, only make me love them all the more.

I realize how as a teen, I always thought I'd be without love...you know, those breakups were hard on me, but I would go home and I'd see those little eyes. There's nothing like that, seeing people who really need you. Not just for food, and changing diapers, but for comfort. It's funny how every little murmur, or cry, actually means something, and you never really know what it is, until you shut up, and actually listen...

It was like, all of those girls I dated, they didn't want that. They didn't care about others, and only wanted what was convenient for them at the time...but, life isn't about convenience...it's about love, and hardship...struggling to find one thing that can make you happy...the babies taught me that.

I never really knew how important family was, until I has this crying infant in my arms, and no real idea what to do with it. I still have the old bassinet they were left in. The paint has started to chip, but when I look at it, I can almost hear the sounds of them crying again. Those were the times I felt the weakest. The nights they wouldn't go to sleep, and I would pace back and forth all damned night. Sometimes, Nao would help, she would take the boy, I would take the girl, and together, we'd walk back and forth along the rows of pews.

I did it so much back then, that I could actually do it with my eyes closed.

It was nights like that, when I'd considered several times, to leave the babies with the convent down the road. If it wasn't for the support of a few people, I just might have abandoned them myself. Instead however, I decided that I'd find their mother. I kept trying to track her down, but I could never find her. She was gone, just like that, she was out of our lives.

Time went on, and one thing led into another. First steps, and words, things I always took for granted, seemed so different in their eyes. I never understood how scary the night could be, until I had some pain in the ass kid screaming at me, saying there was a monster under the bed. Life just continued each passing day, like this one.

Me with two teens, who look nothing like me, sharing in a morning before they go off to school, and I, off to work...it's funny, because today will seem like forever, but tomorrow, is really only a scant few hours away.

…

It was another morning right before the start of school. Lunches were made, school bags were packed, and once again, the war zone in the kitchen commenced. Today, Natsuki found herself at the ends of her rope. Kane was out late again, and without a phone call to let her know. He'd walked in the door only an hour before, and when scolding him elected little in the way of a response, she finally relented. "Damn it, Kane, don't make me worry. If you're going to be out all night, at least call me." Amidst the flying piece of toast that she tossed across the room and into the trash, her eyes found her son, and sighed at him, lost for any constructive words. "And one last thing..." She pass a box across the counter, and watched as his eye grew wide. "I don't care if you do it, but if you are doing it, be safe...and you can bring her here, if you have no where else to go, you know."

Kane shoved the box of condoms into his coat shyly enough that he didn't dare meet his mother's gaze. "We're going to a movie tonight, after school, we're meeting up at a buddy's house." The admittance earned him his lunch bag as Natsuki sighed. He looked up at the only mother he'd ever known with his chocolate brown eyes. He bit his lip, almost afraid to push the topic. "How did you know?"

Natsuki shook her head. "It doesn't matter." In truth, she hadn't the slightest clue, but she didn't let him know that. "I bought them for you." It was a precaution, a way to open up later conversations. A way to keep him safe if he didn't talk. She was always afraid they wouldn't tell her. That she wouldn't have a hand in protecting them when it mattered most. "Just use them, Kane. I'll buy you more if you ask." He nodded, but true to her fears about him, his quiet nature won over. "I won't pry." Natsuki finally said, yet another conversation with him about sex closed without even a pep.

With that, she glanced at her daughter again. "And as for you, I don't care what the hell you wear out in public, but cut the crap when you're in school." As she said this, she pointed at the skirt the teen had on. "No more suspensions." She all but smirked as her daughter frowned at that, likely to suppress rolling her eyes. "Try to make it through the year without beating someone's face in...even if they deserve to be clobbered." The skirt was short, and it would be a good way to get into trouble. "Go get changed into something knee length, now."

"Why can't I just wear this?" Aki's voice, like that of a soft melody, was so unlike that of her appearance. Her hair colored in a rainbow of pinks and blues, with a few strips of black mixed in. Her lips were never without the darkest of lipstick, and her nails always seemed to be a different color, just as vast as the ways she dyed her hair. Contrary to her outward appearance, Aki was not the rebel she proclaimed herself to be. Natsuki knew what a real rebel was. Aki was just afraid of a lot of things, she was a mommy's girl through thick and thin, even in the worst of attitudes. The skirt she had on, was one of Natsuki's old fashion statements from several years back. "The professor is as blind as a bat anyway."

"He's a pain in the ass." Natsuki sighed out. "That's good enough of a reason to stay on his good side."

"The dude's a total stiff, mom." Aki grumbled crossing her arms. "Even if I do change my outfit, the next thing he'll do is bitch about my hair."

Natsuki could fully agree with the statement. "I don't doubt it." She thought that to be the truth on several occasions. "I'm not telling you this to encourage bad behavior, but that old fart hates anyone with our last name." She found herself without any morning toast, having burnt most of it. She sighed, forgoing her normal routine. "When I was your age, he was a new teacher, his first year in. Nao and I, we really hated him, so we kinda slashed his tires." In truth, that was the least of the trouble they caused, but she wasn't about to tell them the more colorful stories.

"What? No wonder he hates us." Kane started laughing then as he scarfed down the last of his meal, trying his best to keep his mouth closed as he chewed. "Just accept it sis, you're screwed until next year."

"That may be so, but she still has to abide by the rules." Natsuki looked at the clock, as her daughter grabbed a pair of jeans from the wash room. "You'll be late, get a move on." Her son didn't need to be told twice, heading out the back door and jumping over the fence. She shook her head, watching the strands of blond hair waft in the wind as he started running for the bus stop. It wasn't a few moments later when Aki also went running out of the kitchen, slamming the front door behind her. Out front, a friend of Natsuki's waited in a car to take Aki, and her own child to school. Car pooling was a wonderful thing.

With the house quiet, she sipped on the last bit of soda she had in her bottle. It was still early, and she didn't work until the afternoon. With nothing better to do, she stepped outside, her newest neighbor tending idly to her flower garden. Natsuki paused and bit her lip, the green paint on her front door seemed so much more interesting at a time like this. The woman was so beautiful, even with the white hat on, to protect herself from the early morning light. Her pale skin was delicate, and always silky smooth.

"Hey." It was a response Natsuki wished she could make into something more, but she simply couldn't. "Nice day out, isn't it."

"The weather is normally so beautiful this time of year." Shizuru's voice was chipper in the early morning hours. It seemed fleeting often times, but that was because most people who knew Natsuki, knew her family weren't morning people. Natsuki smiled a bit at that, as Shizuru's soft humming made music to their ears. "Kane went running by a few moments ago, he won't be late for school, will he?"

"Who knows?" Being late was an on going occurrence. "I'll find out Monday morning. They're gone for the weekend, so I'm free to do what I please." Natsuki's home was often quiet and lonely without her kids around to cause a commotion. "Kane will be with his girlfriend all weekend, and Aki will probably stay over at her friend's house. They're both so independent, it's like they don't need me around anymore." Natsuki shrugged, ignoring the pain she felt at saying that. "It was bound to happen sooner or later, though, I must admit, sometimes, it gets a bit lonely when they aren't around."

"You're a silly woman, aren't you? Always so foolish. You shouldn't be lonely, Natsuki." Shizuru said then. "Not while I'm here." Shizuru's eyes met Natsuki's as she stood up, licking her lips as she smiled softly. "I won't kiss you out here in the open, or tell you how I really feel. When you come home tonight I'll be waiting for you."

"You're too good to me." Natsuki said softly, taking that hat off of Shizuru's head, to give them some cover. "I don't mind, as long as no one's looking." With that, she pressed her lips gently to Shizuru's, just for the tiniest moment, sharing in a grin afterwords. "I'll see you later?"

"I'll be looking forward to your arrival." Her words, always so neat and eloquent, seemed to drift easily between them. Even when Natsuki placed the hat perfectly back atop of those flaxen tresses, Shizuru seemed to glow. "Don't keep me waiting long, I'll make a roast."

"I'll be there with bells on." Natsuki grinned, then her phone alarm went off, telling her she better start her day.

…
(Natsuki POV)

Now, this is a newer neighborhood.

We moved in just a few years back. Up until then, it was rental after rental. The twins had to share a room all the time, in fact, they shared a bed too, until they were about ten. I was trying to save up to get us a decent home. A three bedroom house that I could afford finally hit the market. It's small, yeah, but it wasn't like we had a bunch of things. Besides, going from a one bedroom, one bath apartment, into a three bedroom, two bathroom household was a huge jump for us. At first, the other families seemed to trickle in...but most of them were older people, or families with rather young children.

The house next to us remained vacant for several years, mainly because it was the smallest house on the block. We never thought anything of it until the sale sign was ripped from the grass several months back. That's when my life turned upside down.

I remember when I'd first met her. She pulled into her driveway and when she stepped out of the car, I couldn't breath for a moment. I saw the look in her eyes, and something hit me...hard. The woman was beautiful, but that wasn't why I was fixated.

It was her...she was the one that sobbed into the night. I knew that instantly...and at first, I didn't know what to think about it. It was so obvious to me, so much so, that I almost fell flat on my ass.

She looks just like my daughter, Aki...that same accent that wafts so easily in the wind, and those eyes shimmer with unique simplicity. Aki would be her daughter, and Kane would be her son...I know this, for many reasons...but, the most damning piece of evidence came along when offered to help her unpack the boxes from the moving truck. She had photos of them...it could only be them. Aki has a birth mark at the bottom of her foot, and the baby in the photo had the exact same one. Kane is iconic, he has this way about him. As a baby, he always seemed to scowl out of interest. Furrowing his brows for him, was the same thing as Aki trying to see if she could chew on things...or at least dismantle them...for Kane that always came later...that baby boy had his scowl.

When I asked her who those children were, I saw the tears that she tried to keep hidden. I could see, what she didn't want me to see. "They were once, the most precious thing in my life...but that was long ago." That's what she'd said, and I took it for what it was. It was a confession of a women who'd let her children go. For the first time ever in my life, I felt my heart stutter at that. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but, I couldn't. I didn't have the strength at the time. It might have been selfish, but I was afraid that my family would be taken from me.

I had no idea who this woman was, or why she had even decided to leave them alone in the first place. Part of me wanted to hate her...the other part wanted to cry for her. The girl from so long ago, had become my neighbor. Over these few weeks that she's been here, we've been friendly. Still, I feel something that I never thought I'd feel...again, I feel rejection bubbling up within me, as if, she will hate me...I don't like that feeling, because as much as I want to hate her, I can't. Weather she meant to do it or not, she gave me the best gift in the world.

I can't ever hate her, simply because of that.

Friendship came easily for us. At first, we would just banter in the idle moments before I went off to work. She would ask questions about the area, and once, had inquired if she could borrow a few cups of milk, and an egg for her breakfast. I may have just been a bit too friendly, when I invited her into my home to join me. I had the day off that day, and I had made the two of us a rather large meal. We talked away most of the afternoon, shared a bit of our personal lives...things just sort of went on from there.

I'll admit, I'm not exactly the prize catch in the world, and I don't always know what I'm doing, but with Shizuru...it comes naturally, well...mostly at any rate. Still, there are times when fear lingers in the back of my mind, and I remember the truth about Kane and Aki...how those two babies I took care of, how in truth, they're really hers. Her children...her babies...and yet, I think of them as mine...they were her little bundles of joy, but now, they're my whirlwind of hormones and worry. I'm the one who stays up late, hoping they come home safely. I'm the one who tries so hard to protect them, even if I don't know the best ways to do that.

In my eyes, they're old enough to be on their own...so, the longer they stay by my side, the longer they look for my guidance, the more I realize, I was just a kid myself. The term 'babies raising babies' let's just say, it finally makes sense.

One day, I'll have to tell her...I know that, and it'll have to be soon. I just worry. I wonder how everyone would take it. That's my greatest fear.

And there we have our chapter one...hope you all liked it...