Title: Nephukichi-kun
Author Maetel
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Rating: PG 13 - M 15
Summary: Nephrite's human and is meeting up with the girl he once thought of as the blight of his existence. As they get to know one another
Chapters: 1/?
Status: Incomplete
Year Completed: N/A

"All alone like that…" started the blue haired girl as she held out a new cape to the shitenou who had fallen from Beryl's graces. "I don't like it."

That memory stood out most prominently as he looked upon the dark haired girl who stood before him. He had always figured that she was pitying him, but even now, after she had been restored, she was finding some way to mock him by coming to him and doing something that he should have done himself. He wondered if the things which had fallen from the counter while he was trying to clean now rested once more in their holder. Would she do something like that?

Nephrite ran a hand through his hair as he looked groaned softly to himself.

He looked out the window at the position of the sun. He figured that she had surely left within the past hour after telling the aggravatingly incompetent fool who was obsessed with that damn "Kamekichi" that there had been a new breed of turtle discovered. Slowly, he stalked out of the room he lived in at the back of the arcade and found the timid girl still cleaning and organizing the entrance.

"Why are you still doing that?" he snapped as he walked up and grabbed the duster from her hands.

"I didn't want you to get in trouble. I wasn't sure when you were going to come out or when Motoki-kun would return, and I saw that you were upset," Ami said.

"I'm not scared of the baka," the dark haired man said as he placed the multicolored instrument on the counter.

"What if you lose your job? Aren't you staying in the back room?" she asked softly, afraid of offending him.

"I'll find somewhere else to stay," Nephrite stated.

"Oh… Ano… I should be going. It has been a pleasure talking to you," Ami said with a bow.

Nephrite blinked as the girl who he could have sworn once lived to torment him walked through the doors. He then looked down at the floor and sighed.

"She shouldn't have done that," Nephrite muttered bitterly. "She's no longer Kunzite's underling, and she continues to act like she pities me. Maybe I should have let him destroy her once she broke free… But then again, what would have been the fun in that?"

The former shitenou laughed to himself as he recalled the way Kunzite stalked around the Dark Kingdom, sulking because he had lost his best weapon against the senshi.

He then remembered the way she had looked at him after he had saved her life. Surprise. Knowing that Kunzite had lost her was funny, but the look she gave him… It was engraved on his memory just as much as the moment she had given him a mended cape.

It was the first time he had ever been so close to her without fighting her. It was the first time…

Nephrite shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his mind. He then took the cleaning supplies she had been using and took them back to the storage room before heading down the hall to his own room.

Ami stood outside of the doors to the crown arcade looking back. The new employee was strange, not to mention incredibly familiar. Something about him, about the look in his eyes, the way he had carried himself, made her want to… To what exactly? The spectacled girl wasn't sure. The feelings he inspired in her were different from those she experienced normally.

She watched him through the glass with a curious smile on her face. Maybe once everything concerning the Dark Kingdom was cleared up, maybe…

Who was she kidding? She doubted he would have much to do with her. The air he carried was one of wounded pride in the process of mending. If he was truly as proud as he seemed, why would he go near her. She was just a junior high girl who could die any day in a fight against a youma. Best not to try and get to know him.

She then felt a familiar presence and tossed the thoughts in her head aside as she raced in the direction in which she felt the youma.