'Ai Kotoba'

By L. Adeline

00: 'Once Upon a Me (Us) ' 1/2

Green.

An eerie shade of pale green fermented that one hazy April night. Winds were blowing elfishly around the area; its whisper was the only thing that prevented silence to ever blind that one night. Ghostly Nothingness; it clouded the streets of Port Island like a heavy blanket. Motion ceased, and every living thing seemed dead and nothing more but a mere myth. The time then, was exactly midnight; however, never did it seem to even exist at that moment, time was not of the essence at that time, and gave off ideals that the world was a home of nothing but stillness and that every human being was lost to death. Well, perhaps not all.

Just then, just a few minutes after midnight, a figure is seen roaming the streets. Never hesitant to walk past the ghostly coffins that stood up on the streets, never beckoning to stop, it just continued to stride, almost oblivious to the events.

Strangely enough, it didn't seem to be alone. Far behind it, a few meters perhaps, another shadow flickered against the eerie green glow of the atmosphere. However, unlike its predecessor, this one had more fear in its steps. Dainty and yet filled with inconsistency, much different from the other, which was much calmer and bolder.

Their distance was not a matter of time; they came together, on the same train. But as said, they were two completely different from the other. If it hadn't been for the first's pace- perhaps from its endurance that kept it away from its growing drowsiness- it should have never reached its position, in truth, if it was too pay attention to the nagging tiredness in its body, then it were to be no different from the second lone figure that fell behind. But its fate was decided by itself, and no one could interfere with that.

But enough of this conspiracy, let's move on deeper, deeper into the two.

The first lone figure was a boy of 16 (?) known from birth as Arisato, Minato, who seemed unbothered by the current display of menacing events, seemed too preoccupied with his destination to even pay much attention towards the coffins and the way the moon glowed and how silent it was (Though he noticed it, mind you). A junior in reality, orphaned yet keeps a very distinct outlook on life; calm, relaxed, and almost too laid-back.

The second was not much different from the first. Her birth name is known to be as Shujinko, Minako ;(?) Quite a relevance no? The sudden similarity doesn't only apply to their names, it goes further: to their age, to the school both will soon be attending, their loss, and even their destination. However, there are the striking differences that are much more inevitable than any similarity given. On their general appearance, Minako was a natural brunette; her brown ponytail was a big contrast to Minato's obvious blue bangs. His eyes were a relaxing pair of cobalt; hers were a dazzling shade of bright red. Their mentality, had also a very big role on the two's antonyms. In this, you could easily distinguish who was the calm, laid back, silent (with a dash of laziness and humor) blueberry, and who was the bubbling, ecstatic and cheerful (yet sometimes stayed silent and only spoke when needed to) ball of hazel joy.

If such matters were to fill a book, the antonyms would greatly out-number the synonyms. But who's to say we've learned everything?

On the far end of the current road he took, Minato could catch a glimpse of the Iwatodai Dorm. The supposed place where he was to be staying for the time being, or that's what it says on his admission pamphlet.

The dorm itself wasn't much of a surprise, it seemed like a regular dorm from where he stood. So there wasn't much to observe from that point, aside from the green glows and how useless were his earphones at that moment (he was fairly sure that he had already took them for a few fixes before boarding the train, perhaps the batteries have gone dead?). The boy quickly took the initiative to enter as soon as he reached its entrance, conscious of how tired he was from the exhausting trip. His was about to grasp it, until a prickly feeling started to gnaw his insides. A sense of presence; the bluenet was fairly certain that he was being watched.

Minato strained his eyes a bit, trying to keep them open as much as he could to further distinguish his surroundings. Nothing but the trees that moved against the winds were there, could it have been his imagination all along? He chuckled at this, "...Guess my drowsiness caught me" deciding that it was only a figment of his already tired mind, he proceeded to open the doors.

Until of course, a sharp pain from the head stopped him entirely. It was followed by a screech, sounded like a very feminine voice. But it was strained, almost if its owner was struggling to make such a noise. Unfortunately for the young fool, the blow that he just received was enough to him fall back, causing him to hit the door head first, making him stumble for a few minutes before finally landing wearily on the ground. He could feel the cold cement of the steps against his lower regions, and the feeling of hard wood rubbing the back regions of his cranium and back. Suddenly, the feeling of blacking out didn't seem so bad, as though he could finally rest from a hard day. Nothingness, he could feel it inside him. Minato felt light, almost too light as he finally gave into his drowsiness and fell unconscious.

The very last thing he was certain off before his vision went black, was a voice. Its tone surprised him; laced in worry and regret.

"A-are you ok…?"

How the tension started to bubble inside her; it was overwhelming and so sudden. Like committing a crime, and never in her life did she experience such events. This was all very much new to the young brunette, from the very moment she stepped off the train to the point where she was walking around town fallowing the address given to her.

And now, her she was, standing beside an unconscious blue haired teen. Her blood started to rush out of panic, and her mind was already conjuring up ways to try to wake the boy up. Thoughts of being arrested or even suspended started to lace her imagination, it made her sick, made her question why? Why did she even slam the roll of newspaper on the boy's head? Why did she even consider the thought of him being a criminal trying to rade the dorm she was about to reside her year in? Why must all the street lights go useless and leave nothing but the green light from the eerily gigantic moon the only source of light?

Minako's heart started to race uncontrollably, almost as if she was running against death itself. Causing her mind to become hazy, only useless ideas were coming out of it, and none seemed to comply to having him wake up (because he was blocking the door with his body, and she wouldn't dare push the door open while he was there). Crouching down to his level, the brunette began to assault his cheek with her finger, "H-hey, could you…uh…wake up so I can…open the door?" she whispered, as if it could even make a difference.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

The silence made her tingle in defeat, "Ugh…why did I have to come so late…? This wouldn't happen if arrived earlier!" the base of her palm landed on her head with a small smack, and in frustration, she began to mumble a few curse words, though she was fairly certain it was out of ear shot. However, that did not stop her from trying other options (which I leave you to think you off).

Regardless of the time she spent, the perseverance never faltered, and it just kept spinning in the things she did to wake the blue-haired stranger up. Finally, after a few tries of what seemed to be useless acts, Minako decided the best thing she could do in such a situation was drag the boy into the dorm herself. She was certain he himself was a Gekkoukan student, perhaps going home late from doing things, and she briefly considered not to push the limits of her imagination towards that matter, instead, she proceeded to pull the other fool into the dorm.

"…Hmm…he's actually lighter than I imagined, even if he IS a dude" Minako could only shake her at that; it was no time to worry about useless topics at that time. To her surprise though, said male began to shift a little. His head suddenly falling into place on her shoulder, his loose bangs swiftly swayed to the side a bit, and suddenly, he was mumbling things incomprehensible, but Minako was fairly sure it was about an admission pamphlet, a train, and about getting his money back from some-type of merchant.

Regardless, Minako couldn't help but tinge her cheeks a cute shade of light pink as she stared at the sleeping blue-haired male. The boy was in fact, very admirable. No, he was far more than that, he was handsome, to say the least, and Minako started to wonder why she hadn't realize his features earlier.

Oh joy, another why question.

She lets out a heavily forced sigh, "Hnngg…I need to get to sleep soon…I'm going to collapse if I don't…" the brunette started to slowly pry the doors open, one hand on the knob, the other on her waist… wait, she was sure she had her other hand supporting the boy's back…then why did she feel…?

The revelation hit her like a brick.

That time, the heat that reached her cheeks weren't tinged pink, it was tinged bright red. The edges of her conscience were screaming; nagging her to slap the blue-haired boy then and there. But was the point? He was clearly asleep, unconscious; oblivious to the things his body was doing. She'd have to console him later on, and then she'll feed the long awaited slap.

For now, she'll let the matter fester.

Strangely enough, as soon as Minako was able to enter (only having one of the doors open), the other teen began to shift in motion. His weight caused a collision between them, and BAM, Minato's body fell onto the floor, with Minako toppling not long after. Said brunette could only groan in the immense pain that started to shoot throughout her body.

Their legs were in a mess; tangled and crossed in an untidy way.

His hair was sprawled out the floor in every direction.

Her clothes were rumpled like crazy.

He hand his right hand circling his waist…

She had her fingers laced with his…

And their faces were dangerously close to each other…

And just when it couldn't get any worse, the boy started to stir from his unconscious daze; a sharp pain gnawing his head and back, and no sooner did he notice their position.

Cold cobalt clashed with fiery red.

Both fools started to stutter.

"Uh….uh"

Just then, the night was as silent as it could ever be. Green, green, green, it was the only light you could ever distinguish. It was almost dark, alluring to say the least. No one was conscious…only two bright red fools that cluttered themselves on the dorm's floor. Really, who knew a simple mistake would conclude to this?

"Um…c-could you get of me…? You're crushing my innards…"

End of part one

[A/N]:

Whoo~ so cute ^_^ I really had no idea what I was writing a while back…But I guess it came out good. Anyways, this would be my new project (as you might have guessed) since I just love Minato x Minako/ Hamuko~ It's my second actually. The first one would be Aki x Mina x3 This will probably end up a fluffy love story, but I just rated it T for some reasons. Mmm, I dun no really. D: Maybe I'll be writing up some dark chapters...so lets just put that for safety measures.

The main pairing in this story would be Minako x Minato as you can see, but there will also be a few hints of other pairings too. I guess you could call it an AU fic for having both Minako and Minato here. So anyways, R & R please ^_^ it's gladly appreciated.

? – Is Minato really 16..? I'm not really sure with that o – o please elaborate it if you have the time.

? – I believe they used Shujinko for the Japanese version, correct? I didn't really like the sound of Hamuko, I like Minako better…errr... yeah..Its sounds better...for me at least.

[ P .S. I'm sorry if either characters were OOC, I tried-! T ^ T hnnngggg]