A.N.-I'm not sure how long I plan on this being right now. Currently I really only have plans to post one testing chapter. However, I do know exactly where my story is going to go plot wise, I'm just not sure if it will be worth it to turn it into a long story like that so I guess I'll see if it gets any reviews and decide then.

Hikari thinks of herself on a good day as plain (at best) but most days she sees herself as more of a shadow, always stuck behind someone and never able to take the spotlight. It was always rather an ironic joke to her dear brother that her name meant 'Light' as her greatest fear was always being in the center of the spotlight. She is determined to face her fear and become stronger in order to accomplish her dreams for the future. When she entered high school she decided it was time to work seriously to overcome her fear. She has been working diligently but like much else in her life, her efforts mostly remain in the shadows without anyone noticing..

Until Usui Takumi takes notice of her. It should've been nothing more than a passing glance really before he continued on with his normal life but something caught his attention for another second. When a second glance leads to Takumi taking notice of one of her best kept secrets, how will she handle this new obstacle in her life? This will be a challenge like no other she has faced but that's not all her secrets and how will she keep the rest of her secrets away from someone as determined and unwavering as Usui Takumi?

Note: For plots sake, in my story Misaki does not work at Maid Latte. Her father did walk out on them but when he left he did Not leave them in debt! This means they do not have a lot of money as the mother works to support the family of three by herself, however, they also aren't in grave danger money wise since they have no additional debts to pay. Because of this, Misaki is still money conscientious and attends Seika High because of the low cost as well but there is no immediate need for her to work while attending school to help support her family.

Disclaimer-I do not own Maid Sama!

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Hikari Aikawa considered herself to be a rather plain person in most ways and she firmly believed that her looks reflected that. She was rather short, even for a girl, at five feet and unfortunately no inches and a very slight petite build. Her slight build left her with also a normal size bust. Her hair remained long to her waist with bangs and was black, a very normal color that many people shared she thought. The only feature that she took special pride in was her eyes. Her eyes were a light, piercing blue inherited from her mother and she was so grateful she received that particular gift to remind her of her mother every time she looked in a mirror. Despite loving her eyes so dearly, not many people had the luck to see her eyes as she tended to keep herself hidden with her hair. She resolved once again to herself that this year she would conquer her fear of people and attention and break her shell, for her dreams sake.

That was what she resolved but it left her here once again standing behind the Student Council President, letting her take charge as Hikari stood in the background avoiding the confrontation. Hikari held a stack of papers close to her chest as Misaki yelled again and when one of the boys getting lectured tossed a hatred filled glare Hikari's way, she found herself tilting her head slightly down so her hair fanned her face hopefully hiding herself.

"And I told you to take those out!" Misaki yelled.

Hikari really didn't like confrontation but her resolve to become more outgoing really was paying off. A couple of years ago, confrontation (even one such as this) would have her near tears. She lifted her head once again, silently berating herself for her moment of weakness and hoping her face wasn't red, and watched as Misaki ripped a thug like students piercings from his ears.

Hikari's eyes went wide as she watched the three students run off. "Ahh! M-Misaki, don't you think that was a little too harsh?" she asked concerned in her normal soft voice as she finally spoke up.

"No way! These stupid boys don't understand anything until I make them!" Misaki took a deep breath, "Sorry, Hikari. I didn't mean to sound so harsh with you. You really are like a pearl among swine but you can't be so soft on them or they'll take advantage of you." Misaki bent close to her face and smiled softly at her. "I really worry that one could take advantage of your kind nature one day, so if any of them give you trouble like these guys, then please tell me immediately, ok?"

She could feel her face turn red at Misaki's sincere face. "No! Please don't worry."

Before she could continue they heard a crying and Misaki once again turned like an avenging demon stalking the hall to find the source. She really admired her friend, Misaki, and she strived to be more like her but Misaki seemed so far out of her reach. She was everything Hikari wasn't, strong, outgoing, assertive, and not afraid to stand for what she believes. Hikari sighed as she shook off her darkening thoughts and once again followed after the President.

When she caught up to Misaki, she was once again lecturing a boy student but this time Hikari recognized the boy in question. How could she not? It was Takumi Usui and everything about him shined, not like her who basically existed in the shadows. Everything from his hair color to his personality stood out which was why he was the most popular guy at Seika High but she couldn't help but feel bad for him. Just imagining how much attention would come with such a position as most popular made her shiver in fear. He must be strong because there was no way she could brush off all of that attention as naturally as he seemed to.

When Misaki was done yelling at Usui for making a girl cry, she stomped off, but Hikari hesitated to follow her for a second too long as she was lost in her thoughts. She felt bad for him. It really wasn't his fault that he didn't want to date that girl. She shook her thoughts off and noticed that Misaki was getting further away and turned to catch up when a voice broke her actions.

"So are you going to lecture me too?" Usui asked in monotone.

Her eyes went wide and she felt herself turning red once again as she found herself the sudden focus of attention. He had taken her off guard by speaking to her so abruptly. 'Curse her pale skin that always blushed about Everything!'

"Ahh! N-no! O-of course not. I-I mean everyone is entitled to their own feelings and you shouldn't be punished for not feeling the same way!" Hikari waved her hands in front of her frantically as if to ward off any anger he might have as she stumbled over her words softly. She had spoken so fast that she wasn't even sure he understood everything. She took a deep breath and held it for a second and she pushed away the feeling of looking like an idiot.

Once she had regained her breath, and with it her heartbeat, she opened her mouth to speak softly once again. This time she had calmed down and she spoke slowly. "I think I can understand how frustrating it must be to be the focus of unwanted attention so I couldn't possibly lecture you. After all, it isn't my place to lecture anyone." She gathered courage and continued softly, "Um, but a-also I-I think it takes a lot of courage to let yourself be so vulnerable. I think it's really admirable that someone could be brave enough to open themselves up and show another person what's in their heart like that s-so.." She gathered breath and for the first time she looked straight up into Usui's eyes and held his gaze as she spoke the next part with resolve. "Please don't take it so lightly! When girls are honest and brave enough to open themselves up then please don't stomp on it so carelessly, even if you don't feel the same!"

Hikari saw Usui's eyes widen slightly for a second and realized how demanding she may have seemed. Just like that, her brief courage was gone and she spoke quickly again. "I-I mean t-that's just my opinion though! I'm so sorry for taking up your time!" She bowed briefly before turning and rushing the way Misaki went hoping that she could bury herself in Student Council work to forget her flaming embarrassment. It was made worse by the fact that she realized her blush had not once receded and she hoped it would go away quickly. As she made her escape she never once noticed the eyes of one Takumi Usui following her down the hall until she went out of sight.

"Hikari, are you still working on that? Why don't you finish that paperwork tomorrow? I'm so lucky to have such a competent, hard working girl as my vice president. If only the rest of the student council could be so helpful," Misaki sighed as she packed up her school bag.

School had been over for awhile but diligent as ever, the president had chosen to stay a little later to finish up some work. Hikari couldn't in good conscious allow her to do all of the work on her own, after all, it was her job as vice president to take care of all this work so that their amazing president could focus on keeping the students in line and improving the school.

"You really take your job as president seriously, Misaki. I really admire that," Hikari whispered as she packed up the paperwork to do at home, that way the president wouldn't have to do it tomorrow on her own. It was the least she could do to help and pay Misaki back for everything she did for her and the school.

"You're so sweet," Misaki beamed at her before she seemed to fire up with determination. "But of course I take my job very seriously because those lazy boys don't care at all! They run this school into the ground before I kicked them into shape! Who knows what would happen if I slacked off. I'm going to work hard to polish this school until it shines and I'll get rid of that boy stench once and for all."

Hikari almost wanted to protest at her exaggeration but she was more used to Misaki's strong opinion of the male gender by now and all that came out was a slight giggle. She didn't agree with Misaki's harsh treatment against boys but Misaki would react so strongly that she couldn't help but find her reactions funny.

"Well, I better be off or I won't have time to help Suzuna make dinner. I'll see you tomorrow, ok Hikari?"

Hikari waved Misaki off before turning to the opposite direction, wondering if she would have time to stop by the house for long but then Misaki's words hit her again. Time..dinner.. It couldn't be, could it? It couldn't be that late could it? Hikari hurried her steps as fast as she could without running. If it was getting that late, she didn't want to be late.

It took longer than she would have liked but thankfully Hikari managed to make it to work in enough time to get ready for her shift which she was ecstatic about. One thing she hated more than anything was being late. She could list reasons such as it being unprofessional or undignified but the truth was, she mainly hated being late because it would draw attention to her.

Hikari dressed in her work uniform and did her breathing exercises that she did every time she worked. The breathing exercises did wonders for putting her in the mindset to work here but no matter how better she was getting at the job, she still got anxious every time she put on the uniform and walked out there. Out of all the jobs she could have picked, this particular job was possibly the worst choice of all.

If anyone found out that the extremely shy vice president of Seika High worked at a Maid Cafe of all places, Hikari might actually die, literally. That's right, she worked at a cafe called Maid Latte which included wearing an extremely embarrassing maid uniform every day. Not even her family knows that she works there and she wants to keep it that way but no one would ever believe it anyway.

When she wears this and walks out there, she is no longer Hikari Aikawa. She must pull on a new persona and do her job. Hikari breathes deep one last time as she reminds herself of this, chanting it to herself before she straightens her back and heads to greet a customer who just arrived. She gives a shy but sincere looking smile as she welcomes the guest and guides him to a seat. When she leaves the table she would never be able to tell anyone the man's eye color but she smiles nevertheless at a job well done; because hey, it's still a work in progress, ok?

It was close to the end of her shift for the night when she began going through the routine of cleaning up since the customers were very thinned out at this time of night. She tied up the bag of trash in the kitchen to take it out, happy that it would be one less thing to take care of when her shift was over.

Just another normal night at Maid Latte after a normal day at school. That is, it was normal until threw away the trash bag in the alley beside Maid Latte and turned to see someone beside her. Some very familiar..and blonde. Her eyes widened and she froze in shock.

"Well, isn't this a surprise, Miss Vice President," Takumi Usui's smooth voice cooly stated almost as if uninterested but his eyes were a different story. His eyes seemed incredibly intense focused on her and even with her eyes focused above his own, she could feel them boring into her.

Hikari unfroze suddenly as she unconsciously let out a distressed squeak and her breathing picked up entirely too fast to be healthy. She couldn't bare to stay and face that stare, or even worse, talk, so she panicked and stuttered something of an excuse. She couldn't tell what tried to come out of her mouth but it might have amounted to something along the lines of "trash, work, busy, go" with a lot of stutters in between. Then she ran back inside to safety and away from Usui. Any other time, she would have been proud of herself for sticking around long enough to even try to offer an excuse before running off instead of just running the second she saw him but right now she was too panicked to care.

Hikari collapsed in the corner of the kitchen where hopefully no one would see her. Her breath came out in fast bursts as her heart still pounded entirely too fast in her chest. Now someone knew and not just anyone but Takumi Usui. All it would take is one word and everyone in the school would stop to listen to him and they would all find out. Everyone would know about her job, as a maid, and-oh gods, this isn't helping.

Her heart was still pounding too fast and she could feel her stomach turn over again and again, making her slightly nauseous. It was one thing to work here as a maid where no one really knew her. She could pretend to be someone else and the thing that helped her do her job the most was knowing that even if she made a fool of herself, these people didn't really know her. But now, someone from school who knows her has found out. This would ruin everything.

She was still curled up in the corner panicking when Honoka saw her there and yelled before realizing what or who it was.

"Oh no!" cried the manager, "You look terrible! Are you sick? Maybe you should go ahead and go home, it's slow right now anyway."

The manager was always so sweet and worried about her. She was such a burden and she could have hired anyone better suited for the job but she had liked Hikari and hired her anyway. She had even been nice enough to help her in any way she could to make her feel more comfortable and helped her along every step of the way. She couldn't let her down this way. The manager gave her a chance and she didn't want to let her down by not doing her job because of her own problems.

"N-nno. Ttats alright. I-i'll be fine." Hikari was finally on her feet again, even if it was a little unsteadily. She braced herself and focused on her determination to do a good job. "I'm so sorry for the inconvenience," she bowed before rushing off to do her job.

The last part of the shift was by far her most clumsy and awkward since she had first been hired but she made up for it with her determination to finish her job and she patted herself on the back for at least not breaking anything or breaking down in tears. She had forced her stress and worries about Usui to the back of her mind and resorted to chanting to herself to distract from thinking about anything that would cause her additional stress while working.

"It's ok. Everything will be fine. I'm strong and brave," she chanted to herself softly as she changed clothes. Her shift was finally over and as stressful as it was, she was glad she could finally go home and hide in bed for the rest of the night..or maybe the rest of the week.

She stepped out of Maid Latte and sighed in relief at the cool air. She had been so stressed in there that she didn't realize how much she needed the fresh air until now. She would focus on ignoring her problem so as to avoid extra stress.

"Oh, you're back to normal," a voice spoke in front of her and someone else listening might have thought there was almost a hint of disappointment in that sentence or maybe mock disappointment.

Hikari jerked her head up in surprise and for the second time that night, saw Takumi Usui standing outside of Maid Latte, this time leaning against the wall staring at her. "U-usui! Y-you're still here!? Wh-what are you doing here?" she spoke fast as she usually did when nervous.

Usui's expression remained flat and hard to read and he began stretching out his legs as he spoke (which implied he really had been standing here the entire time waiting on her) but his voice carried a curious note. "Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to make sure for myself that our vice president cross dresses as a maid." He stared at her, never moving his eyes as he catalogued her reactions.

Hikari lost the battle with her skin again and felt herself turn red. She could almost feel herself getting angry, but why? Her embarrassment overrode everything else. "I-it's not-! I-I ddon-!" Hikari stuttered trying to put words together but every phrase got cut off as she realized it would be a lie.

"So, why are you doing this kind of job anyway?" his curiosity shone through his words. "You know, it's really surprising that you would work at a place like this." He continued to observe her.

Hikari took a deep breath. He wasn't really accusing or being rude yet and it helped calm her to talk. Maybe he would just leave her alone without telling anyone. It wasn't really that much of a stretch to think of. After all, he was known for always being apathetic and seemingly bored with everything and everyone. Hikari was torn from her thoughts as she heard voices. She really didn't want to bring attention to herself out here, especially with Usui here.

"I'll tell you but please follow me!"

They had arrived at a park close by but it was night so the park was empty. Hikari wandered for a second as she tried to gather her thoughts and what she would say. She couldn't lie so her best bet would be to just tell the truth and hope that he would agree to keep her secret. She resolved herself and took a seat on a swing. All of the stress was making her breathing hard so she sat for a minute to catch her breath.

Her voice was soft as always but surprisingly steady. "It's not like you're probably thinking. My family isn't dirt poor or desperate enough for money that I have to work at a place like that. The..the truth is, that I chose to work there myself but not because of the money."

She chanced a glance at Usui at this point and he had taken a seat in the swing next to her. His eyebrows lifted in surprise briefly and she moved her gaze and continued.

"I suppose you must have noticed but I'm dreadfully..well I, I can't handle confrontation well and I-i'm not good with people or in crowds or with anything where I'm the center of attention really." She almost struggled to explain. It was stupid, but it almost felt too embarrassing for her to just say the phrase 'I am shy'.

"You mean shy, I never would have guessed," he deadpanned.

Her face attempted to take on a small pink shade across her cheeks and nose. She could feel cheeks puff out her lip come out slightly in a pout for only a second before she controlled it.

"Well, I-" she blew air out thinking of the words to explain. "I have a dream," she breaks off and buries her head in her hands with an embarrassed groan. "Oh my gods," she murmured, "What am I saying?"

If she had looked up she would have seen Usui watching her closely with a smirk on his lips before he cleared his expression.

She shook her head to clear it and tried again. "I have a..goal. I have something that I want to accomplish one day more than anything but it won't be easy. One of the biggest obstacles in the way of that is my..shyness. If I can't get stronger and conquer my fears then I won't be able to achieve my goal. What I want to be..what I want to do with my life. I won't be able to accomplish it unless I can stand in the light without running away." She looked straight into Usui's eyes for the second time today and her eyes flashed with determination.

"That's why I took this job. Initially, you see, I thought that if I was to get any kind of job it would overcome my shyness, no matter the type of job. Getting a job where people depend on me and I have to deal with crowds, coworkers, and work I thought would be a perfect way to try face my problems and I thought if I can do that and get used to it then I would be overcoming my fears a little at a time. When I was looking for a job, I came across the ad for Maid Latte because I was looking for jobs in different towns, that way the risk of seeing someone I know is a lot less. Maid Latte paid a lot more so I visited to see about applying and it was terrifying. When I saw the uniforms and everything else, I panicked and tried to run but I ran into the manager, literally, who had just come inside the door.

I was so flustered that she brought me to the back to cool down and she saw the ad for the job that I had been holding. I told her why I was looking for a job and that I might not be very good but she took a liking to me for some reason and she hired me on the spot."

Hikari looked down at the dirt finally done with what she needed to say and she waited on Usui's response.

"So, that's how it is huh. So what's your goal anyway? Is it really that important that you would put yourself through this? Couldn't you just pick another goal?"

Her head hung even lower for a second at his words. "Everyone, they've always said I can't do it. Even all of my family except my brother, say I won't succeed so they won't give me a chance. They say I'm too weak, too meek, too much of a pushover to ever succeed, all because I'm shy."

Suddenly her head shot up and she continued firmly and more loud than he had ever heard her before. "No. This is my goal! I might be shy but that doesn't mean I'm weak! Just because I'm shy everyone overlooks me but I want to prove them all wrong!"

Usui, who had started staring up at the stars as he listened, now tilted his head down slightly and glanced out of the corner of his eye at her expression.

"Hmm. Whatever your goal is, it sounds like it'll be tough. Do you really think you can do it? Do you really think someone like you could succeed?" he said softly.

Anger rose up, making her clench her fists and glare at Usui slightly as he reminded her of everyone else who doubted her and said she couldn't do it. "I don't think I can! I know I can do it! And I'll prove it, just you wait and see!" Then she turned her head away from him as her lip pouted out a bit. She had gotten so caught up in telling someone that it had felt almost upsetting when she realized that she forgot he wasn't on her side. She forgot that this was practically a stranger, not a friend who would support her, no matter how strangely comfortable she was starting to get around him. It was odd how easy it had been to talk to him now.

"Well, good luck, Miss Vice President."