The redheaded woman lay back upon her bed, her eyes watching the light from the window dance across the darkened ceiling in a pattern that was as familiar to her as the room was in the daytime. She knew she should sleep, after all, tomorrow was going to be a very long day, but for now she just couldn't. It was like the night before christmas, the excitement, the anticipation. However, there was one slight difference. She was nervous, anxious as well. A bit scared if she was completely honest with herself.
Turning her head she looked at the stack of boxes and the few suitcases that sat beside an almost empty dresser. This was her last night in her childhood room, at least for awhile. Tomorrow she would be leaving her home in Southern New Mexico and moving to Japan. She was going to be an exchange student there in Tokyo. She smiled, her prominant fangs showing. She couldn't believe it when she had gotten accepted into the japanese college. It ranked slightly higher then NMSU, but she didn't care that it wasn't the top school. She just wanted a chance to visit one of the two places of her fascinations, finally.
As long as she could remember, she had been fascinated with Japan and ancient China. She had even taught herself to speak Japanese and a few forms of Chinese, modern and ancient. It had caught her parents by surprise, as she never really had shown such interest in studying and school before. Heck, she had spent alot of time getting into fights and in detention. Her grades had been passable. She had passed all her classes with A's and B's, but she would not stand down to anyone.
There were just certain things about her personality and appearance that had caused the other students to make fun of her. Her wild hair, that shot up in the front was one. Her fangs were another. Amber eyes narrowed and she rolled over, smirking as she thought of some of her more interesting encounters in high school.
Sleep quickly came after that, and without realizing it she woke to the sun in her eyes and her mother knocking on her door, telling her to get up.
Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, her mind's eye still holding the image of a man with blue hair smiling at her. For as long as she could remember, she had dreamed of this man, plus others. She never had met them, but she had dreamt of them so often that she could easily sketch them and describe them. In fact, she did have many sketches of them. One that she kept in a frame. She never could explain it, a group of 8 gathered and posing. A young girl in a japanese style outfit in front, giving a peace sign. The blue haired monk, a young boy with pink hair, the purple haired man/woman (she never could figure out if the person was man or woman, it changed from dream to dream), the regal looking figure dressed like an ancient chinese emperor. The redheaded man with the fanged cocky grin who reminded the girl of herself. The dark blue/purple headed man and then the one with what looked like a half turbin on his head. She had even named them. Miaka, Chichiri, Chiriko, Nuriko, Hotohiri, Tasuki, Tamahome and Mitsukake. Where she had gotten these names, she didn't know.
Due to a lack of friends, she did once in awhile, when she needed to talk, imagine the blue haired monk, Chichiri, was with her and she would talk to a sketch she kept of him alone in another frame. The frames were now packed and ready to ship, although the sketches were in her travel bag, that she would take on the plane with her. She didn't want them damaged in the shipping. Her parents were sending the boxes that afternoon after she got on her plane, they would be arriving within a few weeks.
Rising and quickly dressing, she threw on a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt before slipping sandles on and running downstairs to see what her mother had made for breakfast. She hoped it was going to be chocolate chip pancakes. She almost gave a girly cheer when she got to the kitchen and realized it was, but she held it in. No one would ever call her girly. She was as much tomboy as she could get without going through a gender change. She had even thought of breast reduction, although she couldn't be called large with a B-cup. She had no wish to change her sex, she was straight. She just didn't like being a girl. She figured in the end it would be easier to be with a guy if she was a woman, public opinion and appearances and all that. What was really the point of the pain of a sex change to become a gay man anyways, eh?
The morning flew by quickly, quiet conversation with her mother, her father hiding behind his paper. Her younger brother giggling like a schoolgirl, which she just assumed he would be if he could. She hadn't been very surprised when Tad had come outta the closet earlier that year, although it took some getting use to when your younger brother's head would turn to look at the same person that caught your own eye, but she dealt with it.
Eleven thirty came by quickly and the family piled into the minivan to go to the airport in El Paso, Texas, the closest city with an airport. The good byes on the lower section of the airport were long and exhausting and not just a little bit embarrassing. The girl was still flushed with embarrassment as she waited to go through security at the way her mother had tried to insist she accompany her "baby girl" to the gate. She whispered a quick thank you to which ever God was listening as she waited in line. However, the little brat ahead of her making faces and the screaming baby a few people back were starting to get on her nerves. She had held her temper, and language, in check all morning, to keep arguments with her parents to a minimum, but she didn't know how much longer she could last. She finally got up to the security station and found herself muttering "Thank Suzaku" as she made it through without any mishaps and was able to move to her gate finally.
The greatful feelings she had though, could not match the one she experienced in walking off the plane in Japan so many hours later. Tired and exhausted, and more then a bit grouchy, the redhead walked outta customs and scanned the gathered crowd for her name. She had been informed that a representative of the university would be there to pick her up and take her to her new school.
Taking a few tentative steps forward, she almost slumped with relief to see her name on a sign. Not taking any time to notice the man holding it as she approached, she looked up into the face of one she had named Tamahome, the words "Hi, I'm Smi..." escaping her lips before she stopped in the middle of her name to stare at the face so familiar only in her dreams.
The man was staring down at her, a slightly shocked expression in his face before he quickly recovered and put on a neutral face. The girl shook her head, thinking her exhaustion was playing games with her and restarted. "I'm Smith Genevieve." She gestured to the sign. The man blinked, probably at her flawless Japanese and then bowed to her. "Welcome. I am Sukuname Taka. I am a history teacher. Are you ready to get your bags and go to see your new school?"
Genevieve, Gen to all who knew her, glared slightly at the man before her. It was one of the most annoying things to her. She was short, and on the thin side, but she was not some childish delicate flower that most tried to treat her like till she taught them different. It would seem this teacher was thinking the same. "I guess so. I do have three other bags." She raised an eyebrow to him and when he made no move to show her the way to baggage claim she muttered under her breathe in english "Useless" and moved past him, looking for signs of a baggage claim. She heard and felt him move behind her and smirked slightly, her fangs showing. She made it to the end of the hall and looked both ways before turning with a sigh to the teacher. "Oi, where is the baggage claim?"
The look in his eye caught her by surprise. She knew her brash and more then slightly rude manner tended to turn people off, but this man seemed more amused than annoyed and he pointed to his left and she turned and marched that way, knowing he was following her.
Taka had watched in amazement as the Tasuki female look alike had falteringly introduced herself and to cover his surprise he had spoken very formally to her and angered her somehow. Now she stormed ahead of him, very Tasuki like down the cooridore. He could see the slight surprise in her eyes when she had turned to face him at the end of the cooridore to ask about baggage claim. He had to admit as she walked off again that her grasp of the language was astonishing, especially from an american student who had barely managed to pass their entrance exam with her previous school's scores. To find one that could speak like a local was very curious to him. As he followed he wondered if she spoke chinese also.
He collected her luggage, three overstuffed suitcases that made him grunt when he grabbed two. He noticed that she lugged one off the belt and carried it without a problem, even looking at him and asking if he could carry both of those without problem. Something in her voice and mannerisms had irked him, much to the way that Tasuki had and he had hefted them with a glare at her, which caused her to smirk at him, giving him his first glimpse of her dominant fangs.
During the drive to the university, where he would help her get to her dorm and then give her instructions on how to get to orientation, he slowly became more and more convinced that he would be able to tell Miaka that he had finally found their last Seishi.
Gen rode in silence, finally glad to be away from the hustle and bustle of airports, planes and people. A growing headache from her long flight, most of it sleepless thanks to the large foreheaded child behind her, and the change in climate and temperature caused her to glare slightly out the window on their drive, not really saying much to the teacher driving beside her. Still getting use to the view out what would normally be the driver's side window, she watched as buildings went by, trying to keep the panic that she felt rising at being driven down the wrong side of the street, although she knew this was how they drove over here. Backwards.
They made it to the university in good time and she climbed from the low car and stretched slightly, still feeling cramped after the flight. She turned to look at the teacher as he opened the trunk and pulled her luggage from the back. Shouldering her backpack, which served as her carry on, she grabbed a suitcase in each hand, feeling a bit calmer at the weight of it and the familiarity of her cases. Sukanami-sensei seemed a bit surprised at her carrying three bags, but did not comment, or try and weedle the "delicate female" from her self induced load. He grabbed the last bag and lead her to her room.
The door of her room was opened, after a quick knock to make sure her roommate was not within. Given no answer, Taka unlocked the door and turned and gave her the key, but stopped short of speaking as he took in her look of horror. He turned back with trepidition to the room, thinking the roommate must be inside and in various stages of undress, but a roommate empty room was all he saw. He took in the flowered bedspread on one bed, the cute little feminine touches that would have Miaka squeeling. He looked to the exchange student as she pushed past him and gave him one final hint that she was their Tasuki.
"Fuckin' great. Damn girly girl and all her pretty little flowers. Might as well sleep in a fuckin' flower shop. I hate girls." With that she threw her bags on the empty bed and turned to look at him, glowering. She was once again surprised to see amusement in his eyes. This just seemed to irritate her more. "What's so frickin' funny?" He shook his head and put her suitcase inside of the door. "Not a thing, Smith-san. Let me show you to freshmen orientation, which is scheduled to start in 5 minutes and I will let you alone." She just glared at him, flipped her bag off her shoulder, reached in and grabbed a folder and then followed him out of the room, remembering to grab her key off the dresser just in time, and with a reminder from the teacher.