A large group of school students slowly worked their way to the bus that was sitting in the parking lot. The students found that the bus wasn't big enough for everyone to be able to sit two to a seat like it was designed, but instead had to seat four people to each seat, making things very cramped. Meimi and her fellow students excitedly worked their way onto the bus, chatting with each other out of nervousness, seeing as this was their first school trip in an incredibly long time. Mostly the conversation centred around who sat where and with whom, what seats were saved and who they were saved for, and in the confusion, in addition to the fact that neither were paying much attention to the other at the the time, Meimi and Asuka Jr found themselves sitting next to each other, or rather finding that they were crammed into a seat near the end of the bus next to each other. Trying to keep the physical contact to a minimum didn't prove to be very easy seeing as they shared a two- person seat with four people. Thankfully the other two people were Seira and Lina and not, say, Sawatari or one of Asuka's other freinds.

Lina had been being much much nicer lately for some reason, and Meimi was happy enough that she didn't want to kill her anymore, so she left it alone. She thought that it might have to do with the fact that Lina hadn't been on a caper with asuka for a while, and that she was starting to give up on her Haneoka-chase because of it. Being so close to Asuka made her so happy, and so nervous at the same time, she couldn't bare to be so close and not talk to him, as soon as she was about to turn and start a conversation, she noticed that he had already decided to go to sleep.

"Before we even get out of the parking lot, weirdo", Meimi said as she turned back to her window.

She was finding that she was quite content where she was as the bus started to roll out of the parking lot and then onto the highway. Outside of the window she could see hundreds of trees and other cars passing them, or rather that they were passing on their way. Humming to herself quietly to keep her mind occupied and away from the thoughts about Asuka that threatened to overcome her if she wasn't careful. She shrugs and submits to them, it's her mid after all and no one knows what she's thinking but her, still humming she drifted off into a daydream about her green-eyed love.
"The day is going to be beautiful.", she had thought this morning as she was getting ready for her trip. In her own thoughts, though, she was kind of down that she would be spending such a gorgeous day inside a bus and not outside, and soon the hypnotic affect of her surroundings slowly put Meimi to sleep. She laid her head onto Asuka's shoulder as he was also asleep and thought "I really hope he doesn't mind, but I can always say that I didn't do it on purpose", then smiled as she fell into an even more comfortable position on Asuka. With a smile on her face and a blush on her cheeks, she thought as she drifted off, "This trip is going to be the best ever, I'm finally going to tell him" ~~~~~~~~~~

The cramped bus swayed gently as it travelled quickly acros the smoothness of the highway, passing every now and then a streetlight and a few other cars, bringing a little bit of light to the traveller's small dark bus. Meimi was slowly becoming aware of the world around her again, waking up from her sleep as she remembered where she was, she also remembered who she had been sleeping on and flushed a deep red, a good thing it was dark too, because she would have never heard the end of it from the two girls sleeping on the other side of the seat.

"How long had I been sleeping on him? I hope he didn't wake up and see me, I don't want him to be mad at me", she grins at her next thought, "especially when I have something planned for this trip."

Meimi turned back to the window kind of reluctantly, thinking it best to move off of Asuka so that when he does wake up he won't see her on him. It was really dark outside and there were some clouds forming on the horizon, she guessed that there might be rain later, but that was ok. More time to spend with Asuka. The stars were bright in the sky and the moon even brighter, she turned again to glance at the boy next to her, who was still asleep.

The moonlight was coming through the window at just the right angle to light up his face, and Meimi thought that for a second he had opened his eye, but then figured that it was just the light playing tricks on her. For a moment she thought about kissing him, but didn't want to wake him up, so she just sat there and looked at him, her sleeping angel. The shade of his hair had changed slightly, but not so much that someone who doesn't admire it from all angles all day in school would notice. Meimi sighed and followed the semi-curls of his hair, watching them sway along with the bus' motion, thinking of twirling her fingers through it, wondering what he would do if he awoke with her next to him in the morning.

"Too bad he isn't mine, and I doubt he ever will be", she muttered to herself as she returned to her window, and finding the moon again she started to gaze at it as if she'd never see it again, it seemed so beautiful that if she stopped looking at it, it would never be there again. Without her knowing, her hand was slowly making it's way to Asuka's, and as it made it's way to his hand Meimi started to hum/sing a song she had heard he father sing once.

"Ha dee do ha dee do ha dee dae

Ha dee do ha dee dae dee

He whistled as he sang until the green woods rang

And he won the heart of a lady

The gypsy rover came over the hill

Then into the valley so shady

He whistled as he sang until the green woods rang

And he won the heart of a lady

She left her father's castle gate, She left her own fond lover, She left her servents and her estate, She left them for the gypsy rover."

Just then, as she was about to start up the chorus again, she noticed that her hand was resting firmly on Asuka's, and as if his hand were suddenly a red hot coal she pulled her hand away and sat on it. Her face was blazing red, almost so much so that it was redder than her hair, but not quite. Not only did she sit on the offending hand, she also sat on the other one, just to make sure that it would never happen again, not on her watch.

She glanced around the dark cabin of the school bus, her eyes catching the movement of sleeping students, of tired and almost alseep teachers, and of the exhausted-looking bus driver. She smiled as she though about the destination, and tried as hard as she could not to release the squeal of excitement that quelled up inside of her everytime that she thought of the trip and the places they would visit, how much time she would get to spend with Asuka, and almost as important as Asuka, she wouldn't have to worry about missing any lost lambs, or any of her responsibilities as Saint Tail. She finally has the chance to be a normal schoolgirl on a field trip with her school, no jumping from rooftop to rooftop, no catching bad guys, no stealing. It was really a vacation to her, not just a school trip, no it was much much more important.

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how was it? not too terrible i hope, anyway, read and review please, i'd like to know if i should keep writing this story or not ^.^ thank you ~Asermine by the way, the song is called "Gypsy Rover" and it really is a folk song that i learned from some old man while i was on a backpacking trip, it's a great some, email me if you want the whole thing. (although i intent to have it all on here at some point...whenever the story fits it.