Chapter One
"Hey Atsuki, you're looking extremely handsome today…anything I can do for you?" Atsuki, one of the most highly sought after men in the village was sitting at a bar with his three childhood friends, Jin, Minoru, and Misuke, taking in the sights of Mariko, the village pass around. She'd had her eyes on Atsuki for a while and she knew full well he was looking.
"Well you can get me and my friends another bottle of sake, warm, and if you don't mind you can walk by us just one more time." He smirked as he said the last part. Mariko was all smiles and ass shakes as she went to retrieve the sake from the old man who ran the bar. All four pairs of eyes followed as she went. But in the distance another highly sought after member of the village saw the entire interaction between Atsuki and Mariko and she was none too happy about it.
Arisa, Atsuki's girlfriend, had known each other since childhood also and she knew all too well about his wandering eyes. They'd had a longtime on and off relationship since their teens.
"That bastard! He's flirting with her right in fucking public! He..." Mariko leaned over put her lips right onto Atsuki's mouth, but she didn't care about the fact that he backed away it was the fact that he still grinned like it was the most fantastic kiss that he'd ever received. Arisa gasped and her eyes welled up with tears. She ran back to their home and decided that that was the last straw. Mariko had known that Arisa was there, that's why she'd pulled the stunt. She wanted them to break up. Atsuki was like a prime cut of meat, he was the best and she always deserved the best.
"Looks like you're girlfriend caught us."
"What!" He jumped off the stool and took off for home. When he saw her inside through the window collecting her things his stomach dropped.
"Oh shit, I'm in trouble now..."
He busted through the hut's cloth covered opening before pausing and quieting his footsteps.
"Arisa?" He spoke softly looking around cautiously. He'd been hit upside the head before with heavy objects when she was this pissed and he didn't want it to happen again. He ducked quickly when a clay jaw came flying towards his head. It smashed into a million useless pieces against the wall and fell to the floor. He looked at the spot where it hit then turned from the area of it's origin, staring directly at a highly pissed Arisa standing in the doorway to their bedroom.
"What the fuck was that for!?"
"Don't even act like that Atsuki! I fucking saw you!!" She threw another jar at him, he caught it this time.
"Arisa! The girl meant nothing to me!!" He walked towards her to the door until he was standing in front of her.
"Obviously she did if you were kissing her!" She slapped him hard across his face leaving four long claw marks along his left cheek. He paid no mind.
"She kissed me!"
"You could have stopped her!" He sighed heavily.
"I tried…Mariko is a tough woman to handle.." Arisa rolled her bright red eyes.
"Whatever Atsuki.." She went back into the room and grabbed a large bag. It was full of clothes and other items that she would need. She walked past him and out of the house, he followed.
"I can't do this anymore…" Atsuki stared at her back, grunting in anger.
"Can't do what? Try not to jump to conclusions and get jealous every time another woman looks at me!? What!?" She turned sharply to him, her hair whipping dangerously about her face.
"YES! I can't take it!! I can't continue to sit around wondering where you are and who you're out there screwing! IT'S OVER!!"
"Over!? It's been over since you became a jealous wreck! And for your information I haven't been screwing anyone or anything, I'm just trying to avoid you and your freaking tirades!" She shook her head.
"Whatever Atsuki…I see the way you're always looking at the other girls. I can't even talk to you without your head turning to look at the ass of some girl walking past! See? You're doing it right now!"
Atsuki's head turned back to the angry girl. He was busted and he knew it.
"It's fine as long as I look and don't touch! I try to touch and get close to you and I get burned..literally."
Arisa had the ability to control fire and usually when Atsuki got too close she would grab his wrist or whatever happened to be closest at the time, and greatly raise her body temperature causing a burn. This was highly effective as Atsuki was able to create ice.
"Because you only want to touch me after you've been staring at someone else! If I'm not enough for you Atsuki then you're now free to go to them..I don't care anymore…" She started walking towards the hut she stayed in before he'd asked her to move in with him. She still had things there. Again he followed her.
"I never said you weren't enough for me damn it! Listen, you need to trust me, not think I'm always trying to cheat on you."
"That's the problem Atsuki…I can't trust you." She unlocked the door and went inside.
"If you can't trust me then you'll never be able to love someone fully and..and I'm just tired of defending myself every time. If you don't think I love you as much as I should then maybe you should just leave." She walked out, her bag heavier than before.
"That's what I was planning to do…" She walked past him and towards the forest surrounding their village.
He sighed heavily.
"You're making a mistake."
"Goodbye Atsuki.." She continued to walk.
"Arisa!" He ran up behind her and turned her around pressing his lips to hers and kissing her deeply. She allowed him to kiss her for a moment before pushing him away. He looked down at her, his gaze gentle.
"At least let me leave you with that…" She shook her head and walked away, her only response,
"It means nothing…" She turned and continued walking. At that statement, it seemed that his heart crumbled into pieces. He tried to get her to see the truth but it seemed that she couldn't. He'd known that one day his "lover-boy" persona would cause him to lose something but he just never thought that he would ever lose Arisa.
He felt defeated and weak, all he could do was go back into the home that they no longer shared and sleep, hoping when he woke up some of his life would be normal.
Two days later a group Atsuki was walking by and noticed a group of men going in and out of Arisa's home. He ran up to them and noticed they were taking larger items such as her bed and various boxes she used for storage. He noticed they were taking them into the forest in the direction in which she'd left. When he saw this he knew she was serious about leaving and this made him angry.
"Fine! Just..just take everything!! I don't need it!!" One of the men walked over to him and gave Atsuki a box full of his things. Things that he'd given to Arisa or left at her place before walking away with the others. Atsuki growled loudly and threw the box on the ground earning curious stares from his fellow villagers. He rounded on them angrily.
"What the hell are you lookin at!?" The villagers jumped and went back to their business.
