Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. only the story content below.

Train Rides

She supposed it started when she began attending cram school to prepare for her college admission exams. At 6pm every evening, she would rush into the girls' locker room for a quick shower after basketball practice, yell a quick goodbye to her teammates and then race madly for the subway train that took her to a station two blocks away from the institution that offered private tuition classes for aspiring high school students. There, she would sit through three grueling hours of multivariate calculus, physics and sift through assignments upon assignments. At 10pm the grind would end, and she would hop back onto the subway, this time in the other direction, back towards her home.

It was this latter subway ride where Ayako usually let her guard down. At this point, she would be completely wiped out mentally and physically, and it was at this point, when she had no more patience for niceties and really could not be bothered with the world around her. She sat with her legs stretched out before her, head slumped against the window of the train, earphones plugged in and loud raging rock music pumping through her ears. Given her complete lack of regard for the world around her during this point of the evening, it was not surprising that she hadn't noticed him the first few times she took this train ride home at night. In fact, if she recalled correctly, it was only when he chose to make himself known that she became aware of his presence.

She remembered that particular evening. It was on one of her late train rides home. She had been pissed off, having received a lousy B on her latest English test. She felt wronged as she reasoned that there was more than one way to interpret the sentiment in a particular literary test. How could there only be one right answer? In any case, in her angry cloud, she failed to notice when a severely inebriated older male entered the carriage of her train but she soon became aware of the public nuisance he was fast becoming as he stumbled into the train and leered openly at some other females. A scowl crossed her face. There was an empty seat next to her and she sincerely hoped that the drunk older man would not sit next to her. She had a strong suspicion that his faculties were not with him and that he was likely to misbehave.

As luck would have it, he did stumble towards her and collapse heavily into the seat next to hers.

"You're pretty," the alcohol in his breath was evident and repugnant. Wary of how he was leaning towards her, Ayako made an attempt to change seats but the older man clasped a quick hand on her knee.

"That's not nice, I just complimented you" he slurred. Ayako felt her stomach turn. A feeling of disgust, rage and alarm washed over her.

"Get your hand off my knee" She hissed. She wondered if she should scream or just exit the carriage and avoid the whole situation completely. It would mean waiting for the next train which was a bother since the trains were less frequent at this time. She, however, didn't have time to think because she suddenly found herself yanked up from her seat and pulled to other side of the carriage.

"There you are, I was looking for you" Ayako found herself looking up in surprise at a familiar tall spiky haired individual.

"I saved us seats over there" Sendoh said as he pulled Ayako along with him towards the opposite end of the carriage. Ayako numbly followed him, her brain trying to compute when Sendoh had entered the carriage or if he had always been there but she had been completely oblivious to his presence.

"Sorry, I thought that man was bothering you, so I took things into my own hands" he said, once they were out of earshot. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, thanks." Ayako said and then she blurted out "When did you get here?"

Sendoh laughed. "Really, that's what you're concerned about? I've been taking the same train back as you for the last three nights"

"And always the same carriage?"

Sendoh reddened at this point. "Well, yeah, the first time was a coincidence, the last two times, I've been following you into the same carriage. We actually get on at the same stop." Then a strickened look appeared on his face as he suddenly thought about how strange and possibly stalker-like his behaviour might have appeared and he paused before continuing to say

"I did try to say hi, but you always looked so pissed off on the train"

"Oh. I'm just really tired at the end of the day"

"I see."

They sat in silence. Then Ayako spoke up.

"Thanks again for back there. I, he, ... I might have done something worse"

"Like what?" Sendoh asked curiously.

"Hit him with my book bag. He could have been hurt pretty bad. I've got three heavy duty textbooks in here"

Sendoh laughed.

"You're a tough one." He said, his eyes gleaming with amusement. Ayako smiled back. Despite her outward nonchalance, Ayako didn't feel so tough. In fact, she was still reeling from the man's audacity in touching her knee. Deep down, Ayako knew she had been afraid at that moment.

The sound of a throat clearing broke her thoughts. She turned to look at Sendoh, a questioning look writtened across her face.

"If you like, it seems, we're always on the same route home. I can sit with you. To prevent, you know, ... well, if you like, that is" Sendoh said a little sheepishly. He didn't meet her eyes as he said this and instead trained his sight on the window opposite him.

Ayako looked at him in surprise. They only knew each other from basketball matches. She wondered if he even knew her name and was surprised he was willing to offer himself as a means to prevent other unsavory company.

"I... I wouldn't mind," She said and then not knowing how to begin, she followed up with "I'm Ayako by the way."

"I know that!" Sendoh chuckled. "We've played matches before!"

"I didn't think you would know the non-players."

"Well, you're the only female on that team, so its easy to pick you out. Besides, we make it our job to know our opponents. Even the pretty ones." He said this so naturally that if Ayako had been any more conceited she might have mistaken it for a pick-up line. But staring at his sincere open face, Ayako figured there wasn't anything really behind those words. She smiled back at him and then since she didn't feel like talking any further, she offered him one of her earphones.

"Do you want to listen to Velvet Revolver?"

And this was how their nightly train rides began.

Author's note: comments welcome! I wanted to write a story about train rides and I am a sucker for the only strong female character in SD.