On With The New
to all those supporters of Narumi/Misaki, self-inserts and stupid original-female-characters.
prologue - introduction - tiny little first chapter
xxx
"Maybe he likes you," said Kata.
Serina nodded wisely, and sipped her tea.
Misaki stopped mid-sentence and looked at them.
Kata looked mildly confused. The she continued with, "What? Don't you think it's like totally obvious?"
XXX
Time for a rewind.
The scene: a nice and normal Monday morning, with the added interest of being the new Chemistry teacher's first day (rumoured to be very attractive and therefore quite exciting to the Middle School boys) as well as the deadline for report writing.
Misaki, being part of the Science department, as well as an organised person who had finished this term's reports, had been asked to show her around.
"Hi! So great to meet you, I'm Takana." said the new teacher enthusiastically. Very enthusiastically. "But you can call me Kata. Please do! You know, it comes from my other nickname Katakana, 'cos my name's like katakana but it's not, it's actually Takana. But Kata's short for katakana. Get it?" She giggled.
Misaki groaned inside. She sounded like a female version of Narumi – actually, make that just a regular version of Narumi.
"Hi," he said, or rather, muttered grumpily. "Do you know where the Chemistry labs are?"
"Nope! Are you meant to be showing them to me? Yes? No? Do I get to meet all the other teachers? Are they nice? How about the children? When's my first lesson? Aren't you, like, hot in that tracksuit? Are you single? Is there any hot gossip I should know about?"
This was not going to be a good day.
XXX
"She is the most annoying person I have ever met in this school," growled Misaki at morning break.
Narumi grinned. "I thought that was me?"
Misaki could imagine the heart on the end of that sentence (every sentence) only too clearly, and winced slightly. "… Yeah, it is you. But I'm making a point here! Have you met her yet?"
"Didn't you introduce me, hmm, ten minutes ago?"
"Did I?"
"I think so."
"Oh, yeah, I did. Don't you find her annoying?"
Narumi considered this for a moment, and thought about Takana Sakamoto. Cropped and shiny black hair, blue eyes, and a Water Alice. Not exactly ugly, and cute in a wide-eyed, innocent way (although he was definitely prettier, thought Narumi smugly). Oh, and a personality that just managed to grate upon every single person she came in contact with.
Mikan would love her.
"… actually, you know, you two would probably get along wonderfully, or at least…" Misaki was saying.
"I think she's… Well, I can see why you'd get annoyed," Narumi interrupted. "Hey, are you going to Central Town today?"
"Maybe in the afternoon. I can't believe she has to teach next door to me for the next twenty years or however long I'm going to stay in this place or however long she-"
Narumi got up, put a reassuring hand on Misaki's shoulder that could easily be mistaken for a suggestively flirty move – completely intentional, of course – and said, "Don't worry about it! I'm sure she's a lovely person!"
"No no no no," said Misaki, shaking his head vigorously.
XXX
Central Town was usually the perfect place to relax after a stressful day of school, teaching or otherwise. The key word, Misaki thought sourly, was "usually". In Alice Academy, the usual never happened. Ever.
The afternoon had started promisingly. He had gone to the gardening store just outside the town centre, and there he had met a rather sweet shop assistant. She had told him she had just arrived at Alice Academy a few weeks ago, and was looking to improve her Japanese (which wasn't actually all that bad, she being a foreigner) as well as her Alice. He had just been about to ask her what her Alice and her name was, and then maybe, hopefully, with some luck, bond over their shared interest of plants.
Or not, as the case may be.
At that exact moment, Narumi had (coincidentally, obviously) been passing by and had recognised Misaki through the greenhouse-style windows of 'Plants And More'.
"So, um, yes, my name… er… is An-" started the girl, and then noticed Narumi. "Hey, a thingy! A cus-customy? How do you say it?"
"What?" said Misaki, turning around while the girl talked to herself in some foreign language.
"Good morning – sorry, afternoon!" said An-something in Japanese, waving at Narumi. "Can I help you?"
"Great," muttered Misaki. Narumi beamed.
"I just came in to say hello to Misaki here," said Narumi, blowing him a kiss as well as what could only be described as an imaginary triple-heart-deluxe-with-25%-extra-sparkle attached to it.
"You said hello, now stop being a nuisance and get out!" growled Misaki under his breath as Narumi came closer.
"Sorry? Didn't quite catch that last bit," said Narumi, with a few more imaginary hearts. "My boyfriend gets a bit, you know," he said to the shop assistant with a flamboyant hand wave that almost seemed to match his flamboyantly wavy clothes.
An-something didn't know, but she nodded anyway. "Are you two… uh… together?" she said, wondering how to say "gay" in Japanese.
This was one of those times when Misaki wanted to shoot himself. He was just about to protest very loudly and very violently when a wave of sweet pheromones washed over him, derailing his plan of action.
"Something like that," said Narumi, kissing Misaki on the cheek and dragging him out of the shop. "See you later, An- what was your name again?"
"Um, Angela," said Angela as the door closed. "Damn it!" she said in English, turning around to water the plants. "Why are the hot guys always gay?"
XXX
Narumi managed to keep up his carefully directed pheromones for about a hundred metres before getting bored. Then he waited to see what Misaki's reaction would be, ignoring the more sensible half of his brain which was telling him to run away as fast as possible.
Sure enough, that half turned out to be right.
"What the hell was that for?!" yelled Misaki as soon as he regained his senses. Actually, there were some more profanities than that, but never mind.
Narumi cringed. "I was ju-"
"What was the point in that?!" Misaki continued. "Why do you have to interfere with my life just to have your fun?! Can't you see that I actually wanted to talk to that girl in the shop?!"
There might have been a little more of this, but Narumi wasn't around to hear it. He had run away.
Misaki swore very loudly and vehemently, causing the surrounding shoppers to turn and look at him with varying expressions of disgust and amusement.
XXX
"So, like yeah, is there anything else I need to know about teaching at this place then? Any cool secret passages or whatever that only the teachers can see? You know, it is so weird being back here again," said Takana to Serina as they walked down the corridor. Well, Serina was walking. Takana was jogging behind her and trying to keep up.
"No," said Serina wearily. She didn't like talking.
"Who was the Chemistry teacher here before me? What was he like? Did Fujimoto-sensei leave? He taught me here, you know! That's was, like, five whole years ago. Or was it six? Anyway, uh yeah. Totally awesome, that guy."
"Fujimoto-sensei," Serina said pointedly, "was a very quiet man."
"Omigosh, tell me about it! You know, in our lesson he once just sat down, and didn't talk for the whole lesson. So weird. And then once-"
Takana, to Serina's relief, was interrupted mid-flow by Misaki storming past them looking as murderous as Serina had ever seen him.
"Is he okay?" said Takana, looking after him and picking up the papers that had fluttered to the floor.
Serina bit back her retort of, "What do you expect; he had to look after you for the whole morning!" and instead said, "I'll go and ask him."
"So totally coming too," said Takana excitedly. Serina closed her eyes and thought happy thoughts.
XXX
"Yo, dude," said Takana as she sat down opposite Misaki.
"What?" he snapped.
"What's the matter, Misaki-sensei?" Serina said, coming to sit down with them. She poured herself a cup of tea.
"Just the usual things," Misaki said, looking up. "Narumi decided it might be fun to embarrass me in front of the general public again."
Serina made a mental note to watch that scene in her crystal ball afterwards. For now, she just nodded sympathetically.
"Oooh, what happened?" said Takana, leaning forwards.
"Takana-"
"Call me Kata!"
"Whatever, just, please don't go there," Misaki growled.
"Where? What? All I want to know is why you're so upset!"
"I'm not upset, I'm angry!" said Misaki (with a few more vulgarities than that).
"Same thing," said Kata with some authority. "Isn't it, Yamada-sensei?"
Serina looked at her, and decided not to reply. "Have you tried telling him that you find him irritating?" she said to Misaki, who looked ready to glower a hole in the armchairs.
"Well, yes," he said. "Not that he ever listens, but I do try."
"But what did he do?" said Kata. "Maybe it would help us help you if we knew exactly what happened!" If she had been slightly more honest, she would have said that she just wanted to be in the know with the staff gossip.
"It really doesn't matter," said Misaki. "Seriously, it doesn't."
"But you seem so… annoyed!" Kata said, throwing herself back against the headrest of the armchair.
"Sakamoto-"
"Kata's totally fine."
"Whichever," said Serina, sighing. "Why don't we just leave Misaki-sensei alone for now, and then-"
Naturally, being one of Misaki's more terrible days, another terrible thing happened – Narumi skipped into the staffroom and noticed the group.
Kata sat up and said, "Hi!" with a wave, Serina looked up and inwardly groaned, keeping her face neutral, and Misaki's glower became even more impressive. Narumi tried to remember the new teacher's name, but his thoughts were distracted by the ever-present Plan To Cause Misaki's Suicide (or at least, that was the impression it gave Misaki).
"Hi, guys!" Narumi said. He sounded absolutely delighted. Oh yes, and with the hearts. As usual.
"What did you do to Misaki-sensei?" Kata asked curiously. Misaki got up and tried to stride away in a dramatic cloud of bad temper, but was held back by something holding his hand as well as a familiar mind-clouding scent.
Oh, great.
"Nothing!" said Narumi with an air of wounded innocence, plus an underlying tone of "Try me and I'll do it again" which only Serina and Misaki caught. "What has he been telling you, hmm?"
"That's what I wanted to know, duh," Kata replied. She leant back into the armchair.
"Oh, he was probably just been melodramatic, weren't you, darling?" said Narumi, pulling Misaki back. Misaki mouthed something that could have been very rude if it had been heard, and Narumi's grin grew wider.
"Narumi, stop that," Serina said.
"Stop what?" said Narumi.
"Is this what you meant?" said Kata to Misaki with some interest.
"Uh, hey, um, Narumi-sensei?" a voice panted from the doorway. Narumi stopped attempting to molest Misaki and looked around.
"Huh?"
"Um, er, Jinno-sensei sent me to get you… he, er, said you were late for our next lesson? I'm, er, in Middle Class C," said the nervous-looking boy.
Narumi looked back at the group of teachers and briefly wondered if this was all a nefarious plot to get him away from Misaki. Seriously, making him do classes? Where was that substitute with the hair when you needed him?
"I think you should totally teach that class," said Kata. "That boy seems so, you know, teachable."
The boy himself looked a little taken aback forward-slash scared by this comment, and backed out of the room. Narumi reluctantly went with him.
Misaki experienced a brief moment of woe as the incredibly attractive person who had just been feeling him up a second ago left the room, and then another moment of angry realisation and shaking his head to try and clear the pheromones out of his system.
"See, that is the reason why I'm so angry!" shouted Misaki after he had finished. "Why that idiot thinks he can just do-"
"Maybe he likes you," suggested Kata.
Serina nodded wisely, and sipped her tea.
Misaki stopped mid-sentence and looked at them.
Kata looked mildly confused. Then she continued with, "What? Don't you think it's like totally obvious?"
And here we are.
TBC.
XXX
A/N: So yeah. The prologue/tinylittlefirstchapter to the so-called Epic NaruMisaki Fic Of Awesome, which is not really as epic or as awesome as I would like. Pity. I'm not happy with this at all, but I'm so busy right now that if I pause for editing, this will never get posted. I was originally planning on a oneshot and so the splitting seems rather... disruptive, but now that I've done more than 7000 words and it's not nearly finished... ideas, people? Ideas?
For anyone who doesn't like OFCs, me included: None of the teachers are loud enough or active enough - apart from Narumi - to give any real triggers or drama. The completely blatant self-insert - plant-shop girl - is because I want to do a completely blatant self-insert once in my life.