Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from the anime or manga Toradora, I'm just borrowing them for awhile. Like my other 'Altered Destinies' stories I am genderflipping the lead character and making everyone lesbians. If that sorta thing is not what you're into, I suggest hitting the back button.

Toradora: Altered Destinies

Taiga Aisaka would freely admit that the collision was partially her fault for not looking where she was going. She had been going into the classroom, the other girl going out, and she ran right into the taller girl's cushion-like boobs. "Jeeze!" she growled as she reared back a bit, "Don't you have any manners? When you bump into someone, you're supposed to apologize!"

Ryoko Takasu, however, sealed her fate when the black haired girl looked down at her in confusion and murmured "Palmtop tiger...?"

"What?" Taiga said dangerously. Moving swiftly she demanded, "Who are you calling palmtop tiger?" She threw a punch without thinking, swinging up at the girl with what was usually a unstoppable punch.

Yet shockingly, Ryoko caught the punch in her hand, grunting from the impact. "Settle down," she started, her usual gangster glare softened a bit in surprise.

Taiga was similarly surprised. With her rep people usually either got out of the way or took the punch and ran. It was kind of impressive, really. Still, she couldn't let this pass. Swiftly she kicked out and swept the girl's legs out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground.

"Watch your manners," Taiga ordered as she strode past her.

Still, Taiga found herself rather... intrigued by the other girl. She apparently knew the guy Taiga was crushing on, and she had a worse reputation than Taiga. Well, okay, not WORSE, but at least pretty much the same. It seemed Ryoko had inherited the deadly glare she had, and wasn't intentionally doing it. Seemed she was a nice girl, really.

Taiga found all this out talking to Minori, her best friend and a generally cheerful ball of sunshine. "But you think everyone is nice," Taiga noted teasingly.

"Well, yeah," Minori agreed willingly enough, the redhead smiling as she added, "but she really is that nice."

"Huh," Taiga mused, looking over to where Ryoko was talking to her crush, Kitamura. She sighed dreamily, he was so CUTE in his glasses and starched boy's uniform. Not like Ryoko, who looked messy even in a girl's uniform, her long hair swinging down to her ass.

Things went straight into the pot after class, of course. Taiga was attempting to slip a love letter into Kitamura's bag when Ryoko came in after finishing classroom chores. Worse, Taiga realized that she'd put the note in Ryouko's bag by accident. And worst of all, Ryoko refused to give her the bag for the five seconds it would take to remove the damn note!

Taiga went home and stewed about it in her messy apartment as she tried to decide what to do. (Well, after going to the school office and getting Ryoko's address. Just in case.) Her seeing the note was bad enough, and if she told their classmates about it? Disaster! After some thought Taiga came to one conclusion: homicide.

Breaking into Ryoko's apartment in the rundown house was damn easy. And it was just crazy that it was DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM HER ROOM in the apartment building. What, were they living in a anime comedy or something? Anyway, she snuck in with her wooden sword around two in the morning, crept up to Ryoko's bed and swung...

And Ryoko actually managed a barehanded blade block! Right out of the movies. The young woman caught the blade between her palms, even as she looked up at Taiga in confusion. Taiga would have been impressed if she wasn't so pissed off.

"Daaa!" Ryoko yelped, struggling to keep the blade from descending.

Involuntarily Taiga sneezed, stumbling backwards getting tangled up in the sheets and falling on her ass. Ryoko flipped the light switch on as Taiga fumbled for something to stop her runny nose. Ryoko blathered on about something as Taiga stood, regaining her balance.

"I'll give it back," Ryoko said, "I haven't opened it, I swear!"

"Not enough," Taiga growled out, "just giving it back is not enough... you know it exists, therefore die!"

They ended up chasing each other around the room, with her either trying to concuss the other girl into forgetting about the love letter or killing her, whichever was easier. Ryoko dodged around like some kind of cat, her annoyingly large breasts bouncing in the t-shirt and shorts she slept in, Taiga finally had her pinned, ready to deliver the killing blow, when Ryoko stopped her again.

"It's not as bad as you think!" Ryoko yelled. "The envelope was EMPTY!"

Taiga froze, blinking as her brain reviewed the whole day. YES, she didn't remember sticking the letter in the envelope! Writing the note, yes, addressing the envelope, yes. But putting them together? No. Ryoko dug through her bag and passed over the still sealed envelope, indeed without any note inside.

A mixture of relief, tiredness and severe hunger hit Taiga at the same time. She swayed in place, her eyelids drooping suddenly, then almost bonelessly let herself collapse to the floor as Ryoko watched with alarm.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

To be continued...

Notes: A experiment in writing Taiga's POV. Not entirely sure it works. Was originally half a longer chapter, but the next bit is giving me fits. Will be up soon though.