O Cleansed Soul, Awaken

[Those who have clean hands and pure hearts

who do not lift up their souls to what is false,

and do not swear deceitfully

They will receive blessing from the Lord

and vindication from the God of their salvation.]

Teito Klein found himself lying stiffly awake in an unfamiliar bed. At first he couldn't remember exactly why he couldn't sleep, but then he remembered.

Today had been his first day of school at Barsburg National Private Academy, a school for young academic and athletic stars. His former foster parents had told him that any academy would do, as long as he stayed in the dorms. In other words, they had been getting rid of him—but Teito was quite used to the feeling, as he'd been passed down from many foster parents before that particular pair.

In all actuality, he was glad that his "parents" had let him go to private school. He felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders—those two wouldn't expect anything of him anymore. He could live out life in this academy like a normal teenager.

But strangely, he doubted that as he remembered his strange encounter from the evening.

"Hello, I'm your new roommate, Mikage! Nice to meet ya!"

Teito couldn't help but stare blankly at this blond-haired fellow. What the hell was he doing, being so flashy for their first meeting? Before he could even open his mouth to snap something back in reply, he felt a strong arm wrap around his shoulders.

"Woah, you're so frail! You look like you need something to eat. Have you even eaten anything yet? It's past dinnertime, but I bet I could find some spare yakisoba in the lunchroom, what do you say?" the guy, Mikage, rambled. Teito was both annoyed and relieved he had said "frail"—he wasn't a doll, but at least he hadn't called him short.

However, Teito quickly shrugged Mikage's arm off him. "You…stop being so overly-familiar. You don't even know my name, yet you're inviting me to eat dinner with you. You're definitely strange," Teito said, crossing his arms and tilting his head upwards to meet the taller boy's warm gaze.

"Well, that's true that I don't know your name…but you're a good person, I'm sure of it!" he replied, grinning stupidly. At that moment, Teito noticed a slightly faded crisscrossing scar on the boy's chin, and for a second he wondered what might have happened to cause someone to do that to this guy—but he decided that it simply wasn't any of his business. "But you made a good point—what's your name? I forgot to check the roster when they announced our room numbers. Sorry!"

Teito sighed. He was never good at dealing with these types of people…no. He was simply not good at dealing with people at all.

Averting his gaze, he ignored the question and placed the suitcase that contained his few belongings onto one of the two beds that resided in the plain room. It was a small room with eggshell colored walls that were stained red from the light of the sunset filtering through the single window the space had to offer, evoking a warm feeling throughout the expanse. The carpet was dark gray, not complimenting the walls well, but Teito supposed that interior design was the least of the academy's worries. The beds were also a plain white, which Teito didn't mind at all—the simpler, the better, since there was less room to get attached to these plain things. A nightstand sat next to each bed, equipped with an automatic lamp and alarm clock.

Teito had been told at the opening ceremony, where the school welcomed newcomers into their prestigious program, that the lamp and alarm clock were automatic and very essential. The lamps would go out at exactly ten o'clock, suggesting that this time was curfew and everyone should be back in their rooms by then, in bed. The alarm clocks rang at five o'clock each morning, regardless of whether it was a weekday or not. Though Saturdays and Sundays were days of rest from the normal school week, there was still work and studying to be done. For the athletes, there was still training on the weekends, as well.

Reading the clock, Teito saw that the time was almost a quarter until nine, so there wasn't much time to explore the campus to become familiar with it. He sighed when he decided that it'd be better to just stay in the room with Mikage.

"What's with the long face?" the other boy asked, frowning for the first time. "Are you sure you're alright? You're not gonna pass out or something? I have some snacks with me if you want them—"

"Teito."

Mikage blinked. "What?"

"Teito Klein. My name." Teito wanted to slap himself. What was he doing? Well, not that Mikage wouldn't find out his name at some point, but what was he doing just saying it out-of-the-blue like that? He tensed as he waited for a reply.

Surprisingly, he felt a hand slap him gently on his back as Mikage replied brightly, "Teito, huh? That's a nice name, you should be proud of it! Anyway, I really do have snacks if you want them. Like yakisoba bread…"

Teito sat and listened at Mikage listed the many yakisoba-related snacks he had tucked away in one of his three suitases, but in the end declined the offer to eat anything. At that point, it was a half hour until curfew, surprising Teito. Time had flown by, talking with Mikage.

"Well, I guess we should prepare for bed, huh?" Mikage asked when he noticed Teito looking at the clock.

Teito nodded. "We have to get up early…"With that, he headed through a door tucked away in a corner of the room that led to a small bathroom with just enough room for a toilet and a sink. There was a room on each floor that was used for showering—simply a large room equipped with showerheads, knobs for temperature, and drains. Everyone bathed together whether they liked it or not—this was, after all, an all-boy's academy, so what did it matter?

After he had washed his face and changed into the required nightclothes, Teito exited the bathroom to let Mikage have his way with it. He was already in bed with five minutes to spare before the lamps went out when the other boy finally made his way out and leapt onto his bed.

"These beds aren't comfortable at all, but they'd be fun to jump on, don't you think, Teito?" Mikage laughed, turning around to gaze at Teito from across the room.

Teito sighed again. He just didn't get Mikage's thought process at all. Who would ever want to jump on beds? They were for sleeping, simple as that. No need to get creative with such a trivial thing.

After a slight pause, Mikage laughed yet again. "I guess you're tired. Well, see ya in the morning, Teito!"

The lights went off a few minutes after Mikage's bid of good-night, and Teito found himself in his predicament of trying to digest the events of the evening—meeting this weird guy that was his roommate, and realizing how different the academy was from how he had imagined it. He shuddered at the thought of what awaited him tomorrow on his first day of school.

Waking up to the sound of beeps going off in rapid succession was never pleasant, but Teito couldn't complain. After all, he was awake now, so that was all that mattered. He shut the alarm off quickly before swiftly pulling himself from the warmth of his bed sheets and picking up his black and gold uniform, heading to the bathroom to slip it on. After he had done so, he brushed his teeth and washed his face before exiting the bathroom.

By that time, Mikage was rubbing his caramel-colored eyes blearily, yawning. Teito walked over to his still-beeping clock, slapping the "off" button irritably to shut it up.

"Get up or you'll be late," Teito mumbled, walking over to his bed to remake the sheets. Mikage complied without saying anything for once, but instead of going to the bathroom to change, he simply stripped down in the middle of the room to put his own uniform on. Teito, after getting over the initial shock of the boy's boldness, couldn't help but notice how well-defined Mikage's muscles were. He was probably here on a sports scholarship, and enrolled in the athletic as well as the academic course. Teito was the same, but that particular type of student was rare since both courses were so strenuous, so he was surprised Mikage was doing both.

Strangely, Teito found himself feeling a sense of companionship, but he tried to blot the thought out of his mind. He couldn't go around getting attached to things…they'd all just end up hurt or abandoning him, anyway.

Of course, Mikage wasn't a thing, and people were different than objects. Teito's thought process was sure to change with the coming year…

Teito wasn't expecting an extremely tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed man as his teacher, but that's exactly what he got. As the man spoke, Teito felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance different from what Mikage had caused the night before.

"I'll be your homeroom teacher, Frau. I don't care what call me, I don't need any formalities or any of that crap from you kids…"

This guy is our homeroom teacher?! You've got to be kidding!

"So I'll be calling roll now." Well, so he said, but everyone in the room save Teito and Mikage had already assumed Frau as a pushover and were invested in their own side conversations. Surprisingly, though, Frau wouldn't have that. "EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND SIT YOUR ASSES DOWN, NOW." He demanded, his tone completely authoritative and seemingly in control. When his frightened classmates complied, Teito couldn't help but puff out a disgusted sigh. These people had no respect for their elders—even if this guy didn't seem like the type to be respected. He was still their teacher…

…Or so Teito thought until a flashy magazine slipped out of the tall man's long sleeves, landing on the floor in front of another blond boy.

"Oh, so Professor is into these perverted magazines too?" the boy asked slyly, grinning at the man.

Frau blinked a few times before bending down to whisper something to the boy, who grinned hugely before nodding with intense enthusiasm that didn't match his features.

Teito felt the tiny shred of respect he had for the man slip away from him. This man could not be their teacher at a prestigious academy such as this.

"Well," Frau continued, shoving the magazine into a drawer in his desk, "I don't usually curse since I'd get reprimanded for it, but try not to piss me off. So, I'll be taking roll now. Luke Anderson…"

Teito gasped quietly as a small finger poked him between his shoulder blades. He snapped around, focusing a sharp jade glare on soft, golden eyes. "Teito! What do you think of Professor Frau?" Mikage whispered, pointing at the tall man taking roll.

Teito narrowed his eyes. "He's a disgrace to the academy…bringing porn in and cursing in the middle of class, who does he think he is?"

"Oh, and I'm sure you've never read that kind of stuff, brat."

Teito's eyes widened and he whipped back around to see the very subject of their conversation looming over him and Mikage. However, stubborn by nature, Teito's glare returned and he retorted, "As a matter of fact, I haven't. It's disgusting."

Frau raised a blond eyebrow. "Ah, I see…Teito Klein, right? Well, I want you to write me a ten page essay on why porn is so disgusting by the end of class tomorrow. How does that sound?" Teito couldn't believe it. This teacher was grinning at him evilly like a child.

Teito's pride kicked in, and he didn't avert his gaze. "Yes, sir," he replied in mock respect.

"Then I'm looking forward to it, damn brat. Now, back to roll call…"

What Teito didn't notice beyond his bubbling frustration was that Frau's gaze had lingered on the boy a few seconds after their short conversation ended, and throughout the day. There was just something about the boy that made you not want to leave him alone…

"Alright, dismissed. Teito Klein, you stay."

Teito froze, halfway out of his seat, before recovering and sitting right back down. Mikage sent him a worried look before calling, "See you in a bit, Teito!" With that, he trailed out of the room behind all their classmates.

The room was deathly quiet, and Teito could feel his irritation begin to fizzle up again as seconds ticked by with not a word uttered from Frau. He was just sitting there, why did he have to be there too?

"If that's all—"

"I was just…kidding about the essay. You don't need to do it," Frau interrupted, standing up and walking over to sit on top of a desk next to Teito's. The small mahogany desk didn't seem like it could support Frau's weight, but it did. "You're just the first student I've had that's been completely repulsed by it. I mean, c'mon, we're all guys," he continued.

Teito huffed. "Well, if you want to see those things, you should decide on it with your wife or something…" He didn't really realize what he was saying until after he'd said it, and Frau barked out a laugh as Teito's face erupted into bright red flames.

"You're surprisingly pure! Interesting, ya damn brat," he said, reaching out to ruffle Teito's brunette locks.

"My name isn't damn brat!" the small boy spat back before shoving himself out of his desk and storming for the door. Unbeknownst to him, Frau was silently chuckling to himself, still atop the desk and watching as Teito flung the door open before slamming it shut behind him. The boy was certainly entertaining in a strangely endearing way—yes, he certainly wasn't one to be left alone, no matter whether or not he wished for solitude.

Headed to his next class, Teito felt his blush return. He shouldn't have snapped like that…but that teacher was intentionally infuriating him. He shuddered when he realized that he had to go back to that class after his elective, lunch, and athletics periods.

Winding through the maze of darkly-colored corridors that made up the school, complete with regal pillars and high ceilings, Teito found his next class: art. He steeled himself, ready for a harsh lecture over just why students at Barsburg National Private Academy could never be late, and opened the door. Surprisingly, a pair of calm dark eyes met his own emotionless emerald ones.

"Hello, Teito Klein. I've already been informed of your reason of being tardy," the man, supposedly the art teacher, said. "Please, sit. I'm your art teacher, Castor—you may call me what you like."

Again? Why don't these teachers care what we call them? Is it some sort of rule?

"Why don't you take that open seat by Shuri Oak?" Castor suggested, pointing in the direction of the blond kid who had spoken with Frau earlier that day after the teacher's "incident."

The boy, Shuri, huffed as he crossed his arms at his chest. "You don't expect this penniless excuse of a student to sit next to me, do you, Professor?" Shuri sighed, casting a contempt look at Teito.

The smaller boy frowned but said nothing, subconsciously scanning the room for Mikage. Before he knew what he was doing, he was walking towards the boy and sitting down in the conveniently empty seat next to him without saying a word. Mikage grinned at Teito before calling to Castor, "Teito'll sit next to me, Professor Castor!"

Castor's face warmed into a faint smile before he began talking about their first art project. They were to sew a stuffed animal from scrap, using materials from around the room.

"You will all calmly—" Castor eyed each and every kid in the room before continuing, "—calmly make your way around the room to gather the things you will need before returning to your seats and beginning the brainstorming process. Make these creative, I don't want every other student to craft a bunny rabbit. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir!" every boy answered in unison.

"Good then. Get to it." Castor snapped his fingers, and at that, Teito shot up to quickly shuffle around the room, grabbing cloth, thread, stuffing, and other little tidbits he might need to create a stuffed animal—something he never imagined he'd do at a private academy such as this.

Mikage joined him back at their shared two-person desk a few moments later with his own things. "So what are you thinking of making, Teito?" he inquired, sounding genuinely curious.

Why do you care? Oh, well. "I don't really know yet…" He glanced out of the room's giant window from across the room, staring into a perfect blue sky. Not a cloud was in sight, and Teito could draw no shred of creativity from a solid azure sky, so he turned back to the objects he had picked up.

"I'm gonna try to make a deep-sea fish," Mikage announced to the shorter boy.

Teito cocked his head to the side. "Do you even know what a deep-sea fish looks like?"

"Of course I do! Well, my dad used to read me and my brothers books about creatures like that. But my sister would get scared and wouldn't want to go to the bathroom when he read about scary sea creatures, so we eventually stopped when my brothers lost interest…" Mikage sighed for the first time since Teito had met him, but it wasn't a melancholic reaction to his memories…more like a small laugh.

Before Teito could ask Mikage to go into more detail, Castor tapped an index finger lightly on the wooden surface of their desk. "Teito, Mikage, if you have time to talk, you have time to come up with ideas. I have high expectations for the two of you," he said, his voice even. Teito snapped his head up to meet Castor's gaze before giving a few fervent nods, then returning his thoughts to stuffed animals. Had he ever had anything like a stuffed animal before?

Think, Teito, think!

"Jeez, thinking about that stupid project got me hungry!" Mikage admitted as he followed Teito on his way to the lunchroom.

Teito shrugged. "So you didn't come up with an idea?"

"Nah. You?"

"Me either…"

"Well, we can talk about it tonight, right?" Mikage asked, and when Teito turned to look at him, his eyes were shining with hope.

Why is he so excited about just talking to me?

"I…guess…" Teito replied, before turning back around and accelerating his pace. Mikage gave a yelp before hurrying to catch up, rambling about how it was mean to ditch people but he'd forgive Teito anyway.

Somehow, Teito managed to escape from Mikage, and he made his way to a secluded area to eat his nutrient supplements and down it with milk. He had heard that drinking milk would make him taller…

Ignoring his still-hungry stomach, he threw away the now-empty carton of milk before making his way back to the dorms. His athletics clothes were probably ready and waiting for him by now, as they weren't in his room that morning—they had probably been delivered to each athlete's room during the day.

He finally made it to his room and closed the door, before deciding to shed his clothes in the open expanse of the room instead of the bathroom. Sure enough, his athletics uniform was on his bed, and Mikage's was on his own respectively. He was just then slipping on the top of his athletics set when the door swung open with Mikage mid-greeting before he realized what was going on.

"H-HEY!" Teito screeched, kicking a foot out to slam the door on Mikage before flinging his clothes into the bathroom, then following them in and locking the door.

"T-Teito? You alright?" Mikage asked, reopening the door. Obviously, Teito had fled to the restroom.

He wondered if the other boy had seen it. No…I'd been too fast, there's no way—

"What was that thing on your back?"

Shit!
"N-Nothing, Mikage, you're just imagining things…"

"Hey, you said it!"

Teito blinked. "Said what?"

"My name! You said my name for the first time! It sounded so cute coming from you, too!"

At that, Teito's eyebrow twitched and the bathroom door flew open. "It sounded what?"

Mikage stared at Teito for a few seconds before planting his palm firmly over his mouth. After he started having what looked like something of a seizure, Teito realized he was laughing.

"What's so funny? Teito asked, bewildered.

"Y-Your—pfft—" Mikage could barely say a word without another bout of laughter interrupting himself, "Your uniform is completely backwards!"

Teito froze. My uniform…? Looking down, he realized that Mikage was correct. His uniform was indeed backwards—and inside-out.

"Wh-what the—" Teito felt his cheeks warm into a steady blush, and he quickly ripped his shirt off to put it on the correct way. Unfortunately, the moment his back was revealed, Mikage was at his side, touching the mark that resided on his lower back.

"This…" Mikage began, his carefree smile gone and his tone serious.

Teito slapped Mikage's hand away. "Don't touch me!"

Mikage turned a worried gaze to Teito. "What happened? Please, tell me! I won't tell anyone, I swear it on my life!"

Teito's eyes widened at Mikage's complete and utter concern. Could he really trust this guy? Seeing Mikage's honey-colored eyes fill with tears did it for him, and Teito sighed as he sat down on his bed, already knowing he'd be late for the athletic period.

"I…I'm an orphan," Teito admitted, and before Mikage could say anything about the fact, he continued. "I've lived with many foster parents, and…one of the foster fathers I had…" Teito bit his lip. He didn't want to continue. This person, Mikage, was so good to him…he felt tears of his own prick his eyes as he thought of what would happen when Mikage learned the truth. "He...was sick. Mentally. He didn't see me as a son, he saw me as something…something he owned, and…" Teito took a deep, unsteady breath before finishing his short, watered-down story. "He put this brand on my back to make sure I knew I was his." I can't tell him any more than that…I just—

Teito gasped when he felt two strong, reassuring arms wrap around him. "Teito…!" Mikage cried, and the smaller boy felt fat, warm, wet tears soak into his uniform. "Teito…Teito…Teito!" He couldn't help but blush at the open display of affection by Mikage.

"O-Okay, Mikage, I'm alright," Teito assured the blond boy before pushing gently on his chest to break their embrace.

Mikage relented and turned back to his bed to get himself dressed. "We're gonna be late now, Teito…"

Teito sighed, holding back a knowing smile. "I know, Mikage."

Once outside, Teito and Mikage separated—Mikage was on the swim team, as Teito ran track. The track coach, Lance, was not as accepting as Castor had been for Teito's tardiness.

"Five laps around the track in under eight minutes.* Go," Lance had ordered, mercilessly staring as Teito worked himself quickly around the track five times. He was pretty out of breath when he finished, but his time had been a couple seconds under eight minutes, so he was safe from further punishment.

The rest of the athletic period was spent on conditioning for the track team, and Teito was pleased to see that he could run faster for a longer amount of time than the best—but he'd need to keep training, since his irritatingly shorter legs weren't as long as his teammates'.

After the period was over, Mikage met him as all the athletes made their way back to the dorms. There, they would shower before going back to class. Teito's eye twitched when he remembered that he'd be going back to see that frivolous pervert of a teacher for the rest of the day until school was out. He'd saver the next thirty minutes of cleaning up before then.

He had also realized some time before that other people would see the mark on his back, but at that point he didn't care what they thought—he had just been extremely bothered over the fact that Mikage might have abandoned him for being different, for having a murky past. But since Mikage had since accepted him, he didn't mind what other people might say, as long as they wouldn't lump Mikage into the same group as him.

Mikage and Teito joined the other bunches of boys who crowded the shower room, looking for an unoccupied showerhead. Finding one, they both stripped, save their waterproof undergarments, placing the rest of their clothes on a counter under the head and turning the knob to an almost scorching temperature.

Suddenly, Mikage poked Teito's abdomen. "Wow, I didn't notice before, but you actually have abs!" he remarked, that stupid grin plastering itself on his bright face again. Teito crossed his arms. He didn't have muscles nearly as well-defined as Mikage's, and that sort of pissed him off.

At that, Teito took the soap first while Mikage began washing his hair with shampoo, and washed his body of the sweat and dirt that had accumulated from running outside for an hour.

"Well lookie here. Teito, what's this?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously when he felt fingers at his back and a disgustingly familiar voice ring in his ears. "What the hell do you want, Shuri?"

Without turning around, Teito knew the blond rich kid was smirking. "So, little Teito here was a prostitute? Who would have known. Should you even be in this shower room? Doesn't the sight of all these guys around you turn you on, Teito? It's no wonder you went to an all-boys academy, huh?"

Mikage blinked and muttered under his breath, "Prostitute?" But after a moment, he recovered and slapped Teito's offender's hand away before the small brunette could do it himself. "Get the hell away from him, Shuri."

Teito finally turned around to face Shuri, who met his gaze. "Ah, what do we have here? Did you seduce Mikage? It hasn't even been a full day, yet you're pushing your nasty habits onto other people. Some of us like girls, you know." His smirk grew, and Teito wanted to roll his eyes. This guy thought he was so clever.

But more than wanting to roll his eyes, he wanted to punch this idiot for saying that Mikage would ever be seduced, or whatever he wanted to think. With these negative thoughts spinning to create a whirlwind in his mind, he sprang forward to wrap his hand around Shuri's exposed neck, and the boy gave out a sharp yelp. "H-Help! The prostitute is—"

Before Shuri could finish, Teito was pulled away from him by a set of familiar arms. "He's not worth it, Teito. Just ignore him, I'm not listening," Mikage whispered, bringing Teito back under the warm spray of water still spouting from their showerhead.

Shuri coughed a few times before recovering, then spat a few curses at the pair before returning to his group of friends at the other end of the shower room. Mikage didn't let go of Teito from behind until he was sure Shuri wouldn't return, then relaxed his grip and allowed Teito to slip from it.

So now he knows… Teito thought miserably, not turning to look at the other boy. How can I even face him now?**

A/N

So. Hello everyone *^* I have reawakened my love for 07 Ghost and shipping Teito with everyone is so much fucking fun :3 Anyways. Like my other gakuen-themed fic, there will be little canon points from the manga and anime added, even if it's kind of an AU.

*Can you even run five laps in under eight minutes? I suck at running so I wouldn't know ._.

**Just to clear things up, Teito was NOT a prostitute, that's just how "that man" branded him, with the mark of a prostitute. I'll clear that stuff up next chapter, but it'll be a while, so I'm just saying it now. Our pure little Teito wouldn't willingly sell himself off .-.

So. This is indeed ending up as a ship-Teito-with-everyone-cause-everything's-canon fic, so if you're an adamant FrauxTeito, MikagexTeito, HakurenxTeito, IDGAFxTeito shipper…still read this cause I love you *^* Kidding. But Teito will probably end up having yaoi moments with everyone, and keep in mind…this IS an M fic. Sex will ensue because asdfghjk how could anyone resist Teito Klein.

Ayanami plus others will appear next chappie~

Ja ne~!