Kiku Honda could be classified as a smart, honest, and reliable student. A scholar where any teacher would point at him with prideful fervor; "That's him," they would all say. "One of the best students in the entire school!" The Japanese exchange student would blush with the ease of a seasoned samurai and stammer through a few "arigotous." So, on the afternoon of an obscure Thursday, it was quite a shocker to see the Asian teen held captive. In other words, our dearest Kiku was housed in a holding cell called… DETENTION.
Ebony bangs that framed his porcelain countenance seemed to veil his expressionless features. Of course, the actions of his fair gaze gave him that "down in the dumps" look. I don't know about you people, but that completely defeated the sole purpose of the pokerfaced eyes. However, there were only two other people in the room to see his stance on the situation. It wasn't like either of the two occupants would have cared.
You see, the other two inhabitants were the art teacher and a fellow student. The professor, teaching at the school for a great number of years, was an Italian gentleman with deep auburn hair and an unwavering fascination for the opposite sex. The flirtatious Latin was also the grandfather of the Italian twins, both of whom shared the flirtatious tendencies of their greatly revered grandfather. Above all, the other prestigious families in the school, Kiku included, respected this little family unit.
Seated at another desk, situated a long ways from Kiku, was a Belarusian girl. Rumored to have romantic infatuations for her brother, the girl was often shunned and crucified by the major cliques of the school. It also did not help that she harbored numerous amounts of weapons on her person if certain enemies got in her way. (The Japanese student made sure to keep his head down and profusely ignored the icy pariah.)
With her world-weary sapphire eyes and platinum blonde hair, the general public easily labeled her as a loner and a freak. This ice princess was better named as Natalya Arlovskaya, member of the Russian adopted family and the Society of Psychopaths. (Briefly, Kiku wondered if the school offered such a club.)
Sitting primly at her desk, and a hardened determination in her eyes, the Slav did not glance or peek at the Asian. The only contact that Kiku ever got from her was a nauseating glare that could be the sole reason for global warming and a spoken threat that even Al Capone shiver in his boots. Heck, even Chuck Norris could have run for the hills if the girl gave him that piercing, withering look. Her pose suggested that she rather not talk to her fellow prisoner, or even the teacher who was famed to hold long interesting conversation in detention! (Mr. Vargas was sleeping, but who cared?)
Bored, and with no one to talk to, the raven-haired student sighed and doodled on the pages of his lined notebook. At the back of his mind, he could hear Mr. Vargas snoring his life away; murmurs and pants of beautiful women and feather beds could be heard. If Kiku concentrated hard enough, he could hear telltale growls of a demon trying in vain to burst from her imprisonment. Kiku would have done the same, if he didn't have his handy dandy notebook for manga on hand.
His sensitive ears caught a shrill sound emanating from the platinum blonde's side of the room. Disregarding the instinct to just slump down on himself to avoid suspicion, Kiku turned around and froze like water turning into ice. That girl, that infuriating little misfit of the school was nonchalantly scribbling on the wooden desks with the tip of one of her well honed knives. Mr. Honda gulped uncertainly as his dark brown eyes caught the icy blue of Natalya's.
She smirked, a sure indication that he better get back to his life of being the anime freak he was, or suffer the consequences.
"Something you want to say," she purred innocently, already knowing that he wasn't going to do anything to stop her.
Swallowing, Kiku turned back to his neat notebook; the only thing on it was a doodle of an anime that he personally enjoyed. Sighing quietly, he tried to ignore the screams of wood getting mutilated by some psychotic miscreant. Knowing the quiet young man, you readers probably know that he won't get ANY peace. Especially when he was studiously trying to draw the pectorals of some hot sexy anime detective… Not that you probably care, but still.
Seconds passed and the shrill shrieks of protesting wood against the cold metal of her beloved knives would not cease the unneeded torment. On Kiku's side of the room, a battle against the public disturbance was quickly losing against the gruesome monotone of destruction. Just what kind of sick person was she, Kiku thought as he huddled over his notebook? It was becoming quite clear, if another person in the room were to witness the event; Kiku was going to snap. Whether he was going to win against the Belarusian, was up to fate.
Screeeeeeech!
This cry that the desk emitted was loud, grating to the ears, and it lasted for a full five minutes before Natalya saw fit to remove her knife from the confines of the fine wood. Even Mr. Vargas reacted by jerking up and down as if tazered. However, it was Kiku's reaction to the unrelenting sound was the main attraction that many people would pay for. Without any thought to his brash actions and the fact that real men wouldn't strike a girl in anger, he stood up from his desk and stalked over to the sole female in the room.
With the masterful refinement of a feline, he slapped his notebook on her desk and stared at her with his soulless black eyes. If you were an overemotional Italian, you would have run for the hills, waving a white flag up to the sky. However, that was not the case. You know what that wench did when he did so? She just smirked and leaned back in her chair before narrowing her icy blue eyes at him. Her posture stated that she would pay him no mind; he wasn't worthy enough to react towards.
"Do you mind, Miss Arlovskaya," he inquired dangerously. His pale hands were curling on themselves, forming tightly bound fists. His knuckles looked as if they were about to burst through the fragile skin and his glare seemed to freeze time itself. Kiku Honda was about to have a meltdown of the century if the Belarusian did not properly behave.
"Mind what, Jappie?" The raven-haired male winced angrily as he observed the laidback attitude of his fellow classmate. Why was she even here in the school anyway? It wasn't as if she was a great student, probably only in Honors, but her reputation was too taboo to think about. Blowing a gust of wind so that his offending locks of hair wouldn't get in the way of a good scolding, the Japanese teen made sure to look imposing and sensible as he towered over the blonde.
"I do believe that we are in detention," he denounced flatly. "I appreciate your efforts as to break through the monotone that has befallen us, but we are only here because of our actions." He paused, hoping that his words would take affect on the Slavic woman. Unfortunately, she deigned to stare at her nails as she used the tip of her knife to push unwanted dirt from the desk.
He angrily sighed as he observed her, taking in her haughty attitude that seemed to ignore the situation all together and the fact that she was profusely snubbing him. Just who did this little girl think she is, he though furiously! I might as well give her a what for, he mused thoughtfully.
"Don't you understand, we're in detention!" He slammed his fists on the table, concentrating enough as to not disturb his notebook that lay there. "This one hour that may seem insignificant to you, it is not to me!" Natalya just sat there, her eyes half-lidded to look rather uncaring about the whole matter. He gestured towards himself and towards his backpack filled with books and school supplies. "I care about my honor, I care that my family is already slandering me behind my back, I care about others—"
"You care too much."
Spluttering with anger and the want to throttle the woman, he was halted by a gloved black hand…that held a nasty looking blade.
Flicking a splinter that was shaved clean from the once clear wood, her eyes met his squarely. "Forgive me, your Asian-ness, but I do believe that you should not butt into other people's business, as was eloquently put by a certain American," she rolled her eyes as she conjured an image in her head of the dopey blonde.
"Your mutilation of school property is my business," he sneered as he snatched the knife from her slender fingers. (Just what would his British friend say if he let the needless cruelty go on?) Carefully, he placed it on a desk in front of hers and glowered at her with apprehension. Slightly surprised with the turn of events, Natalya merely stared at her stolen dagger and looked incredulously at the Asian. No one had ever stared down at her like that without being cowed, much less taken her beloved treasure.
"And why, Mr. Honda," her voice perilously lowered," would that be yours or my concern for the well-being of the school?" Although she still sat in her seat like any well to do academic, Kiku distinctly felt like she was the teacher and that he was being scolded for something. "As far as I can tell, this desk was already marred from previous use by other vandals." Brushing the anime-strewn notebook aside, she pointed to a crude picture of a male external organ that was carved on the wood.
With exaggerated movements, he leaned over the desk and sucked in a startled breath. Flushing mildly at the graphic image that would be ingrained into his head, he turned to look at the girl. That was when he realized that his proximity towards the malefactor was really, undeniably…close. Natalya simply leered at the Japanese native like she won a billion dollars and had the power to knock him off the edge of the planet.
"S-shouldn't you report that?" He turned towards Mr. Vargas, as if to raise his hand and expect an answer, but Natalya stopped him.
"This is Mr. Vargas you're going to talk to; do you think he's going to do anything about it?" Carelessly, the female teen twirled a strand of silver hair around her finger, glancing at the snoring gentleman with distaste.
"Well, I'm pretty sure he'll want to…" His voice trailed off as he realized the implications of what Natalya was saying. "He's not going to do anything, is he?"
A very ladylike snorted erupted from Natalya's nose as she rolled her eyes at him. Leaning back on her chair so that the back two legs were the only two things keeping her up, she began to explain.
"Isn't that obvious? He'll just look at it and think of all the fun times he had with other people," she exclaimed. She rolled her eyes as she caught wind of Kiku's aghast expression. Laughing slightly, she set her chair back on the floor as she glanced back up at him. "You seriously did not know? For a person who is on the High Honor roll, you sure aren't observant."
"I am observant! I just have an open mind and I did not realize that…" He looked down in shame, fearing what could have come out of his mouth next.
"That he was a player," Natalya guessed.
"That is one way to put it," Kiku surmised faintly. Just who was this Natalya Arlovskaya, and why was he even considering actually conversing with her? Pinching the bridge of his nose (a reminiscent action of the school's student council president) he breathed in and out in a practiced manner. To think, he only wanted to berate her for causing a scene!
"Prude," she insulted as she got up form her desk, shoved her way past the brunette, and proceeded to grab her knife. Kiku knew that it would be fruitless to try and stop her from whatever she was doing, but he stayed back in an effort to be cautious. Seeing that he was finally getting used to her mannerisms, she nodded in approval.
"Should you be insulting me, Miss Arlovskaya? When you are the one who has the bad reputation?' He leaned back against a desk as he witnessed her sitting back in her chair. It was too bad though, the Belarusian did not want to talk to him at that instant; instead, she used her blade to open sketching notebook in the middle of its contents. "W-what are you! That's mine!" Uncharacteristic yelling and unperceived anger rolled off of him in waves. Even the mighty Ivan Braginksy would have shriveled in fear.
"Should you be making demands when I have the brute force to overcome you, Mr. Honda," Natalya asked thoughtlessly. She waved her weapon in front of her as she scanned the contents of the forbidden wealth that she snatched from Kiku.
Inwardly, the native of Asia seethed as he watched her gloved fingers mar his beautifully drawn pages that he had worked so hard on! Granted, they were all sketches, but each one of them had potential to be something more! Knowing that any second his vision would soon collapse into the hold of burgundy redness; he flexed his fingers in order to calm himself.
It was minutes before either of them spoke.
"Is this why you're here?"
Startled by that blunt statement, he could barely bring himself to nod as he saw that her eyes were focused only on him.
"You're drawings," she scrunched up her nose (in a cute, anime-like way; he noted) so that she might find a suitable word to describe his sketches," are interesting. Vile. Crude." Her eyes darkened with teacher's authority, power that made Kiku's legs turn into jelly so that he needed to catch the side of the table to brace himself. It was this power that exiled him to detention in the first place.
"Hai. They are a bit," he sucked in an embarrassed breath," inappropriate."
Gloved hands that painfully gripped her knife were slammed down on the wooden desk, eliciting a screech that made Mr. Vargas fall to the floor. Neither of them took heed.
"Do not take me for a fool, Mr. Honda," she snarled. "If there was anything in the world that would cause me undo stress, that would be it; underestimating me." She stalked towards him; it only took seconds for her to do so. "You're just like me, aren't you?"
"I-I beg to differ," he began.
"Shut up! You're a rebel; I can see it. Ever since I saw with the stupid Chinese brother of yours, I saw that look in your eyes. You wanted to be something better, greater." Kiku gulped as he felt the tip of a VERY sharp knife being thrust under his chin. "But you couldn't come out of his all too big shadow," she mocked in a faux mother hen tone. "So you drew this pictures, pictures that you knew would be confiscated and would let you become into something your brother never was." Her eyes softened somewhat as she pulled away from him.
"And what did I become," the Japanese whispered. He was scared. He was frightened. He wanted to know why he wanted to lean forward as to catch her words better, even though a knife stood in his way. He wanted to know the truth in what this girl saw in him. But most of all, he wanted to know why this little troublemaker could see through his carefully constructed veil.
"You became just like me, a nonconformist. You're protesting against the unfairness of it all." It was only a slight murmur, but Kiku froze like she had loudly declared that she had murdered his family.
Gather his wits about himself, he looked her dead in the eye and shook his head.
"You're mistaken, Miss Arlovskaya, I would never try to tarnish my reputation like that!" Seemingly proud with his answer, he stood a little straighter, wanting to regain control of the situation. He instantly deflated when he saw the self-aggrandizing look on the Slav's face.
"Seek professional help," she instructed as she threw his sinful notebook at him. "You are far into denial to be of any use talking to me," she huffed.
"Denial, Miss Arlovskaya," Kiku asked, clearly insulted. "You're telling me to seek professional help because of my denial! What about you and your brother—!"
A sharp gasp pierced the air when a sharp projectile headed his way, barely missing his hair by centimeters. Shocked that she had actually attacked him, Kiku took a few steps back. Natalya on the other hand glared at him, a volcano erupting with a fury that would make hell cold.
"You are stupid," but then her lips curved into an upward slant. "But really brave and endearing that you would try to fight me." Stepping forward elegantly, the platinum blonde made her way past the raven to pick up her fallen firearm.
Swallowing so that his throat wasn't parched, he looked towards the rebel in wonder. Should he give her a piece of his mind or something? Or should he just let it go? He narrowed his eyes at her, feeling foolish that he wasted his precious time arguing with the girl, he walked calmly to his appointed desk… Only to rise when the annoying chimes of the bell rang throughout the school.
"Hm~! Wassat! Oh, detention!" The Italian waved both students out of his classroom, proclaiming that they should have fun in private, hm?
"I hope I never see you again, Mr. Honda," Natalya stated as she walked in a separate direction.
Kiku merely stared after her and walked towards the nearest exit.
Kiku hoped that was the last he was going to hear from that troublesome woman, but he remembered that his punishment was supposed to last until next week. Aaiyah!
Maybe he should bring a weapon or two next times so he could defend himself, he thought.
…And maybe hire a professional psychologist for the deranged demon girl.