Disclaimer: I don't own the Gawl boys, although sometimes I wish I did so they could help me with my homework!
AN: Okay. I apologize in advance, some of these parts might come out a little slowly because I don't have tons of time to work on this one. But here's the first part, let me know what you think!
Obedience
Part 1
Ryuko Saito stood at the railing, her slender fingers wrapped around the cold black metal as she looked up at the wonder of biological technology before her. The cool orange glow of the tank's lights reflected off her face, making her features look softer than the sharp, dark lines that they truly were.
She heard Kanae come up beside her; she felt his warm hand fall on her shoulder and heard his soft chuckle in her ear.
"You've really outdone yourself this time, my dear Ryuko," he murmured to her as she glanced sideways at him, a feral grin dancing across her thin red lips. His glasses flashed brightly in the orange lights, hiding his sharp brown eyes from her.
"Haven't I, though?" she laughed back, taking a step away from the railing and eyeing the tank once more. "She's beautiful. And she's mine."
"Oh yes," Kanae agreed. "All yours. I believe she will perform wonderfully."
"We'll see, now won't we?"
* * *
"You! How could you do this to me?!"
"Oh, that was easy!"
"Well next time you decide to 'take my bag to school for me', TELL ME!!"
The brown schoolbag went flying through the air, hurled in Gawl's direction.
"That's it! That's the last time I'm nice to you -!"
"Oh, come on you guys." Ryo looked up at Natsume, surprised at the exasperation in her tone. Apparently the two students quibbling had noticed as well; both Gawl and Masami turned to look at the pink-haired girl as she stopped walking and immediately began blushing, her pale cheeks growing rosy.
"Oh… I didn't mean it… to sound so…" she stammered, her voice soft and uncertain once more. She clutched her schoolbag in both hands, staring at her feet.
"Oh, Natsume! Don't worry about it," Masami replied loudly, waving her hand at her quiet friend. "It's all *his* fault anyway –"
"It is not!" Gawl protested.
Masami opened her mouth to protest, but just before she could speak the school's warning bell rang out over the group, which was standing a good 3 minutes away from the Ohju grounds yet. Masami's eyes went wide as she turned, grabbing Natsume's wrist and dragging her friend off down the sidewalk towards the looming structure of the ring tower ahead.
"Come *on*, we're gonna be late!"
Ryo looked up at Kohji to see his eyes following the bobbing pink curls as they disappeared over the hill. He saw Kohji's mouth pull down into a pensive half-frown.
"Hn. Well, we'd better get going before we're late, too," he observed, starting off down the sidewalk behind the girls; Ryo followed, jogging a bit to catch up with Kohji's longer strides as Gawl fell in behind them, reluctantly dragging himself the rest of the way to class.
* * *
The classroom was oppressively loud, students talking in excited voices as the three boys entered, noting that Masami and Natsume were already seated at their desks, the latter looking rather smug. Gawl, Kohji, and Ryo made their way through the noisy students to their own desks, taking their seats just as the last bell signaling the beginning of the class period rang. The professor walked into the room a moment later, amidst the hushed whisperings of his students. He went to the front of the room, and the last of the whispers fell silent as he held one hand up, peering over his wire-rimmed glasses at the teenagers assembled before him.
"Class," he began, voice businesslike and commanding, "today before we begin I would like to introduce our newest student: she is a transfer student from Kyoto and has come here to study at our prestigious school. Class, may I introduce Kamamoto Kumiko."
The classroom door slid open without a sound, and a girl walked to the front of the room. Her Ohju uniform was crisp and new, the blue shirt swishing almost dutifully about her pale legs as she stopped before the class, hands folded and eyes flashing over the room.
Ryo shivered. Then he looked at her – he *really* looked at her, and had to push down the urge to whip his head to the side to make sure that the tall figure of his friend was still sitting beside him, and hadn't instead gotten up to address the class himself. The resemblance was that striking.
Because this girl – Kumiko, the professor had said – looked too much like Kohji Suzuki.
Her hair, the exact deep green color as his, was chopped shorter, falling smoothly to just below her chin and framing her sharp face. Deep brown irises looked at the class through narrowed eyelids as her small mouth tightened.
No, he thought, she didn't look *exactly* like him – where Kohji was tall, she was much shorter, more likely 5 foot 3 or so, closer to perhaps Ryo's or even Gawl's own height; she also had a delicate look about her that reminded him more of Nastume than anything else.
But her *face*… Even her expression was one that he'd grown used to, so often was it on his partner's face. Cool, calm, unreadable.
Now he did turn to look at Kohji; his tall friend was staring back at the girl, sitting at his desk as cool and calm as ever. If her appearance struck anything in him at all, he was hiding it well. But Ryo knew Kohji, and he knew just how good his friend was at hiding things.
A quick glance to his left showed that Gawl was sleeping, as usual – and perhaps that was just as well. All they needed was for the… less reserved boy to loudly point out just how much like Kohji the new student looked.
"You may take your seat now," the professor was saying to her. He pointed to a desk in the back, behind Ryo and off to the side, near the window. She nodded curtly and began making her way soundlessly toward the directed location.
Something in his stomach churned as she passed him. Something just… wasn't right. And it wasn't only her appearance.
He saw Gawl's eyes crack open as she stepped past him as well; he saw the black-haired boy's frown and heard his shift in his seat. But the Generator only put his head back down.
Good, Ryo thought. Maybe he thought he'd only had a bad dream. For some reason, he just didn't want Gawl to… notice this yet. Not before they'd talked, and definitely not before they could come up with a plan.
* * *
Class went by as slowly or quickly as it ever did; Ryo was barely listening to the professor, however, droning on about some Shakespearean play or other. He was more concerned with the growing uneasiness in his stomach – a feeling not only begun but fueled by the pang of… something that he'd felt when Kumiko had walked by him.
Gawl had woken up later into the class period and glanced around; Ryo had seen the frown and furrowed brow when those green eyes had fallen on the new student, but – thankfully – Gawl had said nothing. He only sat up in his chair, body stiff – no, tensed, as if to pounce, Ryo thought – and actually paid attention in class. An action for which Masami was now giving him the usual grief. She was blaming it all on the new student as well, but very thankfully she was doing it for the wrong reasons.
"Oh come *on*, Gawl! You can't tell me you were paying attention today just because *she* was there! You *never* pay attention! You were trying to impress her! Just admit it!"
"I was *not*, Masami, now just layoffit before I use that thing on your head for a nice long game of KICK THE CAN!"
"It is *not* a can!"
"Hmph. Sure looks like it to me."
*Thwap!*
"Ow!"
"You deserved that!"
"I did not!"
Ryo sighed as the two resorted to chasing each other down the hall toward the cafeteria. Natsume stood for a moment, looking worriedly after the scrambling pair as Ryo and Kohji caught up with her.
"They shouldn't be running in the halls," she said, her voice tinged with worry but her tone oddly… absent-minded. She sounded as if her mind wasn't on her proffered worries over Gawl and Masami, but rather something else.
Ryo had noticed that same sort of look on her face earlier, before class. She'd looked preoccupied. He wondered what the reason was, and whether or not he should ask about it. Natsume was a very quiet person; he didn't know that she would tell him if he asked.
"I don't think you have to worry about them," Kohji said curtly; to Ryo's trained ear, he also sounded just like Natsume did – absent-minded. But Ryo knew the reason for that, at least – he knew Kohji's mind was most likely on their new classmate. And on the meeting the three boys were probably going to have in the bathroom after lunch.