Title: Gang Wars

Summary: I decided to go a little nuts, crossing over my two favorite anime series (for this purpose, it's going to be the simple titles and names.) So, Saint Seiya and Ronin Warriors meet for the first time, in a high school setting. It's a partial-AU, meaning they do have powers and crap (maybe!), but they live in Japan and they don't use their powers often. Bear with me, it'll get better. Also, as per my usual, there is a fun OC thrown in for color because, let's face it, a story about ten guys, ten straight guys, isn't all that interesting.

It was a school day like any other in that it started the same way, with a bell that's very sound was depressing. And as Ryo Sanada hurried through the swiftly emptying halls towards his first class, he prayed, again, that he wouldn't be late...again. Unfortunately, as usually happened, fate wasn't with him. Turning a corner too fast without looking plowed him straight into one of the last people he wanted to see, especially with thirty seconds left, max, before the tardy bell rang.

Shun offered him a hand up, green eyes amused when Ryo simply stared at it. True, he and Ryo would probably never be friends; being on opposite sides in a toned-down gang war would do that to people. But Shun was the nicer of his group of five, and saw no reason to promote hostilities. So he was gratified when the other boy took his hand and let himself be hauled up. "Thanks," he muttered as he hustled around the smaller boy and on to his class. Shun merely smiled to himself and hurried in the opposite direction to his own class.

The bell jangled obnoxiously when Ryo had but one foot inside the door. He sighed and continued in, hurrying to his seat and hoping that his homeroom teacher would be distracted enough not to notice for once. From their seats in the back, the other four Ronins, as they called their gang, smirked at him. He cast one look around, saw no teacher, and blessing his good luck, practically ran back to his seat. Dropping down between Seiji and Kento, he let out a sigh of relief.

"That was a close one," he commented under his breath as the door opened and the teacher walked in. His friends nodded silently, attention focused on the person who trailed their sensei, rather than on the man himself. Because it wasn't every day that the teacher brought a new girl to class. A not wholly unattractive girl, either. Ryo let out a low, almost inaudible whistle of appreciateion through his teeth, causing Seiji to snort into his hand and fake a sneeze when the evil glare of Mizu-san turned his way.

"You will all welcome Merodi-san to our class," he wheezed, his accent thick even in his native language. A general murmur of what was supposed to be welcome filtered through the drone of the overworked fan above, but the girl didn't seem to hear or even care if it was indeed forthcoming. She was still staring at her shoes, as if searching for the secret of life in their tops. "Very well, girl, take an empty seat."

To do so, she had to look up. At the same time, Rowen realized where the only empty seats were located and his smirk widened as he nudged Seiji and indicated the empty row with his head. The other students had learned long ago to give both the Ronins and the Saints their space. It was intimidating for anyone to have to sit right in front of them, feeling five pairs of eyes (whether real or imagined) boring into the back of their heads. The girl bore no such intimidation and strode directly to the seat in front of Ryo. She sat down and dropped her bag to the floor next to her, casually sliding it under her desk with one foot and brushing her long red-brown braid over her shoulder so it hung down the back of her chair.

"Very good. Now, take out your books and NO TALKING!" A rustle of activity followed the command, but very few people obeyed the rest of it as Mizu-san left the room. In anticipation of the confrontation, several people tried to turn discreetly in their seats to view the back of the room. Others abandoned any attempt to be subtle and turned full around to stare. The five Ronins shared significant looks and grins.

Melody seemed to be the only person actually obeying all of the teacher's command. She had her legs tucked under her seat, a book flat on the desk, and she appeared to be deeply engrossed in whatever it is she was reading. Ryo cleared his throat loudly, starting a ripple of excited murmuring to run through his classmates.

The new girl...did nothing.

He blinked and cleared his throat again, louder. Her only response was to tuck a loose wisp of hair behind her ear and to turn a page. The other Ronins were staring fixedly at the back of her head, almost willing her to turn around. Ryo looked at them and shrugged, trying once more, his loudest yet, to get her attention.

She turned another page and marked her place. But she didn't turn around. Instead, she grabbed the strap of her bag and pulled it out from under her chair, picking it up to set it in her lap. Then she rifled through it for a moment as the entire class stared at her incredulously.

Apparently finding what she was looking for, she turned and placed it on his desk, then returned her bag to its spot under her chair and went back to her reading. Ryo looked at the object she'd placed on his desk and started to grin. He picked it up to show his friends and Cye started to laugh.

She'd given him a cough drop.

As the whole room, believeing it was safe to do so if Cye was doing it, started to laugh too. No one saw Melody tuck a small smile of satisfaction away. She continued to read as the laughter died down, knowing that the next attempt to garner her attention would probably be even less subtle and harder to ignore.

Sure enough, Ryo leaned forward and tapped her shoulder. She sighed, marked her page and turned slowly, again hooking loose hair behind her ear. "Did you want something else?" she asked. The sparkle of amusement in his eyes took on a speculative twinkle and she hurried to steer him away from those thoughts. "Another cough drop, perhaps?" His smirk became a real grin as he shook his head.

"You're sitting in our space," he commented. She cast a slow, deliberate look down the row of desks, then brought her eyes back to his face.

"And your point is...?" she asked blithely. Ryo blinked.

"You must not have heard," Seiji said, his voice silky, almost a purr. His friends recognized it as the voice he used when flirting shamelessly with women. "We're the Ronins. We have our space and people stay out of it. We don't go invading your space, you don't go invading ours. Sit somewhere else."

"Where would you rather I sit?" she returned easily. "The floor, perhaps? Or in the teacher's desk? These five are the only available seats. This is the one I have chosen. Get used to it." Her smile remained polite throughout her speech, and when she was finished, it widened.

"Something funny?" Kento demanded.

"No. But I've never enjoyed a first day more than I am right now." She shot a wink at Ryo and turned around, leaving the five Ronins speechless in wonder at her cheek. Mizu-san returned soon thereafter and seemed amazed that she was still seated where he'd left her, reading silently.

Then his look of shock turned to a smile. "I appraud you, Merodi-san." She glanced up.

"Thank you," she replied, then cast her face downwards again. Curiosity blazed in the eager faces around her, but she didn't notice them as she read, absorbed completely in her book. She twitched slightly when the bell rang signalling the end of homeroom and the beginning of the second class of the day. In one smooth motion, she stood, pulling her bag out from under her seat and swinging it onto her shoulder, tucking her book into her hand.

Striding out of the room, she exuded confidence. Inside her head, she felt anything but. Her ribs and legs ached; fortunately, the bruises were invisible, covered by her long skirt and tall socks. She wore the long-sleeved shirt, buttoned at the wrist, instead of the short-sleeved one meant for the balmy summer weather. She sighed and pushed the pain away, dimming her awareness of it for the time being.

She absently tucked more loose wisps of hair behind her ears as she walked, not really paying attention to where she was headed. The crush of humanity saw to it that she didn't wander too far off course, and she yanked herself back to reality.

In time to slam full-force into a hard body headed in the opposite direction. The oomph of air leaving lungs as their owners hit the floor effectively masked the whimper of pain that escaped her throat from the impact on her sore ribs. She blinked, dazed, at the hand held out to yank her to her feet. She followed the hand up an arm to the owner's face and accepted it warily, allowing herself to be pulled upright.

Cool blue eyes regarded her steadily, yet warmly from beneath a fringe of golden blond hair. "You should pay atention to where you're going," he said. Movement beyond him caught her attention and her eyes shifted to a navy-haired boy wearing a scowl as he helped up an emerald-haired boy from the floor.

"Second time today!" the latter said breezily, waving off concern from his friends. He smiled warmly at her. "No harm done, right? Are you okay? I hit you pretty hard." His question caused pain to spike through her side and she hissed as her eyes dilated, but she forced a smile onto her face.

"I'm fine, thank you." Faint traces of her heritage trickled into her accent, telling them she was American.

"Hear that, Shun, she's fine. Can we get to class now?" The emerald boy rolled his eyes, winked at her and allowed himself to be hustled down the hall.

"Those are the Saints. One of the two gangs who rule this school and the surrounding neighborhoods. I hear you've already met the Ronins. Big job for your first day." Melody turned and smiled at the smaller girl leaning against the wall, watching down the hall after the five boys, two of which kept shooting glances back over their shoulders at her. "Ronins and Saints. Neither is a bad choice, Mel, but either means big trouble form the other. Just do what everyone else does: keep your head down and stay out of their ways. Both of them."

Melody sighed and looked off after the receding Saints. "I'm not sure I have a choice in the matter," she pointed out. "Whether I avoid them or not, I've caught their attention, and they will find a way to...well, to follow me around, if it comes to that. Don't worry, Shin," she said, shorteneing her friend's name affectionately. "I can hold my own."

Shinzui grinned. "I know you can, Mel. I know you can better than probably anyone else." Melody laughed, despite the pain in her chest. She hoped the bruises healed fast; she didn't want to be in pain every time she was happy. And the long, heavy winter uniform was hot!

She watched as Shinzui too disappeared into the mass of students that was slowly thinning as the moments passed. She shook her head and hurried off to class, arriving just in time to slip into an empty seat. Several curious glances were thrown her way, but no one commented as the teacher began taking roll.

"Aurora?" Melody stood and bowed, as had the three students called previously, then sat again. This class was English, her first language, so she should have no trouble in it. As soon as the sensei had finished, the class began, with a handing out of a playbook and an assigning of parts. Melody smiled and flipped open to the indicated scene, glad she could listen for a while before she had to speak.

Even though many of her fellow students stumbled over some words and paused when they shouldn't have, it was still fun to listen to. She delivered her own few lines flawlessly and went back to daydreaming, her eyes moving along the lines, but her mind not really focused on them.

When the bell rang, they handed back their plays and trooped out in a single file line. Once again, Melody tried to stay on the fringes of activity in the corridor, this time with one arm wrapped around herself in the hopes of preventing another painful collision. Successfully, she entered her third class of the day as the bell rang, and nearly groaned aloud when she saw that she was the last one in and the only available seats were the whole second to last row. The last row was filled by the five boys Shinzui had called the Saints.

Sighing and shaking her head at herself, she walked back to the row and chose a seat in the dead center, to the surprise of all, especially the teacher, who actually paused in his recitation of the roster to stare at her. She stared fixedly back, begging him not to comment. "Ahem," he said, pulling himself back to the paper in his hand. "You must be Aurora Melody."

"I am." He nodded and returned to calling out names. She struggled to ignore the tingles on the back of her neck as all the little hairs there rose under the onslaught of their stares. She resisted mightily the urge to turn around and ask 'What?' to their faces. Instead, she counted slowly to twenty under her breath.

The counting helped, and once the lecture began, she could focus on that; needed to, actually, because math was her worst and most detested subject. She made it through and was somehow the first one out of the room when they were dismissed by the bell. One more class, European History, and she could have a break.

Time for lunch, thankfully. She sighed as she walked down the hall towards the massive lunchroom. Shinzui, watching the doors, stood up and waved madly from a table along one wall. A group of her friends, whom Melody had met previously, smiled and beckoned. She waved back, grinning, and started towards them.

She was brought up short by sudden, firm grips on her arms that pulled her around to stare at a chest. She tilted her head back as she was released and took one step backwards, meeting Ryo's blue eyes. She blinked in surprise. "Come eat with us," he said.

"Bossy, aren't you?" she asked rhetorically, slightly amused, but mostly annoyed.

"Maybe." He put a hand to the small of her back and steered her out of the room. She twisted her head around, met Shinzui's amused gaze, and shrugged, a gesture which her friends echoed before resuming her seat. She relaxed and allowed herself to be pushed along, ignoring the fact that she was being flanked, that his hand was uncommonly warm on her back, and that the pressure hurt.

"Please," she said, stepping to one side, away from his hand. He raised an eyebrow. "That hurts." His other followed into his hairline, and she sighed, sparing a glance for the other four. Ryo was clearly the leader of this outfit, so she addressed herself to him. "I was in anaccident. My injuries haven't healed completely yet. The pressure is painful."

"Oh." Then, almost an afterthought, "Sorry."

"You didn't know," she waved away his apology. He took her arm gingerly, and when she sighed and didn't shrug out of it, he tugged. "I'm not going to bolt for safety or anything," she said pointedly. "Though why you couldn't just ask I'll never know." Cye snickered behind her, making her smile up at Ryo. "Are you going to ask?"

He sighed gustily and opened his mouth. "Molesting girls now, Sanada?"

All six spun to look at the speaker. Melody heard growls coming from her five companions and sighed. Shinzui hadn't been kidding when she'd said these two groups were mortal enemies. Ryo's hands balled into fists. "What business is it of yours what I'm doing, Seiya?" he shot back.

"Oh, honestly!" Melody burst out. "You're acting like opposing dog packs!" She ignored the discomfort their focused attention gave her and shook her head, causing her braid to sway back and forth. Then she turned and stalked off down the hall back towards the lunchroom. Suddenly, she stopped and turned again. "Next time, just ask," she added firmly before disappearing around the corner, leaving the ten boys to do whatever it was they were going to do to each other.

Shinzui looked up with a grin when Melody flopped into a chair. "Enjoy being abducted by five of the hottest guys in school?" she teased. Melody shot her a glare and crossed her arms over her chest.

"What five?" she asked dryly. "The Ronins who kidnapped me, or the Saints who came to my rescue?" Shinzui's jaw dropped. Melody grinned and nodded. "Left them all in the hallway to battle over it if they wanted. Are all the good ones around here complete morons?"

"Hey!" protested Taiki playfully, sitting to her left. She grinned at him.

"You know what I meant," she flapped a hand at him and turned back to Shinzui. "Honestly, all of them are insufferable, yet they all seem to want me to notice them. As odd as that sounds, Melody Aurora having ten good-looking guys vying for her attention..." She trailed off, thinking of how truly odd that statement was in terms of her past romantic history of absolute zero. She shook her head. "I don't want to notice them. I want to keep my head down, study hard, and go back home once this year is over."

Shinzui propped her elbows on the table. "You miss them, don't you?"

Melody looked at her, eyes dreamy. "Of course," she replied. "Especially Mom. She was the hardest to convince that a change of scenery would be good for me. It has been, but physically, I'm still in pain and emotionally...emotionally, I might never heal. It hurts so much, both inside and outside, you know? I can go home and see Mom and Dad and Lydia again, but Luke will never sweep me up and lift me in the air just to prove he can. Harmony will never whisper across the room to me again." Melody sighed and swiped a hand across her eyes. "My best friends, and I'll never see them again." She dropped her face onto her arms, hiding her wet eyes in the crook of her elbow as Shinzui smoothed her hair down her neck.

"I wish I could say I know how you feel, Mel, and that it will all feel better someday. But I can't. I've lost my grandparents, but I was never as close to them as you were to Luke and Harmony." Melody barked a laugh that was somewhat muffled, but she sat up, eyes sparkling, but remaining tearless.

"I didn't cry at their funerals. It was almost...surreal. We were three of a kind, triplets, and we could read each others' minds sometimes. Now, there's nothing there, like a void. No one knows how I managed to walk away from the crash with little more than a few cracked ribs and bruised bones." She shook her head and sniffed.

"There has to be a reason, Mel. You didn't die because you weren't meant to."