I. Beginnings
It was wild to think about the first time he'd met her.
Takasu Ryūji's second year at Ohashi, standing outside of class 2-C. He had been beside himself, engulfed in pure euphoria— Kushieda Minori had approached him and his best friend, Kitamura Yūsaku, with that token skip in her step. Her cerise pink tresses were bouncing, the beam on her face comparable only to the brightest of sunshines. She had remembered his name, acknowledged him as a friend... a friend-of-a-friend, anyway, and for the school's resident 'delinquent,' that was quite a flattering feat.
He had been beside himself, unable to control the rosiness of his cheeks, or how madly he stuttered. That was when he walked away, and met someone that would change his life in an incredible way. An incredibly unpredictable way.
Something had bumped him. He had bumped into something? No, someone. Students were whispering, watching wide-eyed from the sidelines, clutching the walls like they were more willing to dive out of the windows than get between the crossfire of the Delinquent and the... what was it, 'Palmtop Tiger?'
He had finally looked down. The Palmtop Tiger was a tiny, tiny girl with mousy-blonde hair that reached just below her waist in waves. At first glance, ignoring the fire in her dark, amber eyes, she looked completely harmless. It was like a porcelain doll was shaking her fist at him, rubbing her head with neat, furrowed brows.
But those fists delivered blows that were very unlike that of a little doll; probably something more akin to a master of martial arts. Despite how he towered over her, the Palmtop Tiger sent him reeling backwards, flat on the floor, with a single unexpected swing.
That was his first encounter with Aisaka Taiga last year. Now, he was rubbing his nose, staring at an open, grey locker that this girl, clad in her red-and-blue uniform, had decided to hide in.
"H-How could you say something so embarrassing in broad daylight?!" Taiga was shrieking, obstinately refusing to meet his eyes. Her burning, rosy face was stuffing itself into his abdomen, fists pounding harmlessly at his chest. "You're supposed to wait for the right m-mood or... or... s-situation!"
The right mood... the right situation... Taiga had told him once how she wished she could have had a normal life. A life as a normal girl with normal parents, where she could fall in love 'normally.' But the two of them were anything but normal. They had initially joined forces to help each other gain the affections of their respective romantic interests, but at some point, something had changed. Changed enough for the two of them to be sitting on their knees one night, confessing to their friends— former crushes included —their plans of running away together and eloping after Ryūji's 18th birthday that upcoming May. A confession to which their friends had responded with roars of disbelief. But Ryūji had been dead-set on it. It was whatever he had to do to keep Taiga by his side.
Sooner or later, she would have to accept just how unconventional they really were.
And he could think of ways to help her adjust after he got over the immense pain in his nose, where Taiga had felt the appropriate response to "I love you" was to headbutt his face. His face did certainly not agree, but he couldn't be angry, not at all. Well, maybe a little bit, but it didn't compare to the humming of his heart, and the fulfillment of a hollowness he had been coping with while she was gone. It was like a vital piece of him had been returned.
Ryūji had been waiting to tell her he loved her since that night they sat, staring each other down in freezing cold water. He had gotten interrupted twice, and Taiga had noticed, reminding him in a text shortly after she disappeared that he had never told her. Ryūji decided that he was not going to be the type of man to profess his love over a text message, so he had waited.
Finally, he had gotten those three words off of his chest, and in return had Taiga, bleary-eyed and sniffling, attached to it instead, wiping all that was coming from her face onto his school uniform. Usually, he'd have something to say about that, but the girl's arms had tired, settling around his waist and squeezing him so tightly... He and Taiga did not have many moments of physical intimacy, so he would gladly take a few snot stains on his attire if it meant he could hold her like he did once last Christmas.
Ryūji took his cupped hand off of his throbbing nose and placed it gently over her back, pulling her into him. Trying to hide her sniffing, Taiga peeked up at Ryūji, and he felt his heart jump when their eyes met. He had missed her like crazy, but he was also... unprepared. They had been unofficially engaged for two days and then dated for months long-distance, unable to communicate. In a lot of ways, no matter his declarations of marriage, he was still kind of digesting that... Aisaka Taiga was his girlfriend. His confession of love had been a long time coming, with plenty of preparing, that he could say it so casually, so seamlessly... but while his imagination had run wild, with her here in his arms... everything felt so real, and suddenly bared the weight of reality.
They had both grown in their time apart... that is, mentally, of course. Taiga was not a centimeter taller than when he'd last seen her.
This was a new beginning for the dragon and his tigress.