Started: February 12, 2005
Finished: February 24, 2005
Revised:
Disclaimer: I do not own FANATICA, which is owned by CORE (orbit), and I do not intend for any animosity or profit to come of this piece of entertainment, for I am merely writing this for my pleasure and the pleasure of others; nothing more. ( http: www. orbit-soft .com /core ) (just get rid of the spaces)
I do not know very much Japanese; not enough to have a long, deep conversation with. I apologize in advance if anything in Japanese here is incorrect in some way, shape, or form. (I plan to take classes to correct this, so please bear with me.)
This story is Shounen Ai! Male/Male stuff. Don't like it, don't read it. Simple. I'll leave the pairings for you, the readers, to figure out.
This is my first FANATICA fanfic. I apologize for inconsistencies, but this is an Alternate Universe fic.
Also, I only placed this fic where it is because it has an anime-style of drawing, and there aren't any "miscellaneous game" slots.
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Blue Butterfly – a FANATICA fanfic
Chapter One: Welcome to FANATICA, Part 1
by Kurohi Tatsaki
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A young man walks through the crowded hallways with a calm air about him. Perhaps he doesn't care about the many kids that run about, trying to get to class on time, and brushing up against his shoulders by accident. Perhaps he doesn't care because he doesn't understand?
Someone bumps into him head-on. Perhaps on accident; perhaps on purpose. He didn't know; didn't care.
He only flinches slightly at the hit; so does the one that bumped into him – but he stumbles backwards a few steps to regain his footing – and said person does care, apparently. "Oh, man! I'm sorry! You okay?"
"I am fine."
The young man gets a good look at the other boy. He has short brown hair that seems a dark sort of blonde. Honey eyes glitter within slightly drooped eyes that seem rather jovial on default. Perhaps he was intelligent as well? After all, only the best could attend Fanatica. His dark green uniform is pressed very neatly, and just seeing that told the young man that he was very orderly and, perhaps, a bit anal as well, but who knew? He is only a mere centimeter taller than he, and, perhaps, a chord of jealousy struck at him, but if any at all, it wasn't much to fuss over for long, and it didn't show on his face and within his icy blue eye.
Just as quickly as the jealousy played a chord, it passed, and so did the sound.
"Again, sorry... Hey, what class do you have next?"
"... ...Ms. Wong's Calculus class."
"Oh yeah...? I'll walk you." He then steps alongside the blonde, matching him stride for stride. "What's your name?"
"Calme," replies the icy-eyed man.
He grins. The name fits him like a glove. "I'm Rodney. Rodney Warren Graham. Nice to meet you."
"... ..." Doesn't this guy ever shut up?
Ever-perceptive, the honey-eyed man asks the obvious, "You don't say much, do you?" Hmm...
Calme frowns and tugs a spiky strand of hair out of the wide, dark blue eye-patch he wore over his right eye. "Not much to say to begin with." Moron.
"I'd have to disagree."
The blonde looks at his somewhat-brunette acquaintance, arching his one visible eyebrow, silently asking, "Why?"
Noticing the look, Rodney replies rather accurately – and stopping their walk to the classroom in the process, "Why? Because there's a lot to see; to speak about, to a new person. After all, I know nothing but your first name and you know my whole name. That's kind of not fair, wouldn't you agree?"
"Hmph." One blue eye rolls and he marches a little faster than earlier on his way, shifting his backpack to his right shoulder, so both straps are in place. Secretly, his heart pounded roughly in his ribcage. How did he know what I meant just by a look? That's messed up... .
Of course, Rodney, walking alongside Calme's right side, couldn't see the eye roll, and didn't particularly care what the other man thought... or did he? Looking at such a serious – though muffled – expression, he wasn't given much incentive to care, because the other simply hadn't much to say.
But Rodney had more questions. As such with a person of his interest, of course. And, currently, Calme held Rodney's fascination. "So, Calme, why are you here, in Fanatica?"
A strange sense of "okay" had been around him for this entire transaction – despite his pounding heart, which was slowly calming down. He felt it safe to say what he was doing here, because, hell, only a super-clever maniac could use his interest against him and live. Or something like that. "I'm training to become an officer, or an assassin-for-hire. Something along those lines; dealing with guns. You?"
The brunette/blonde smiles at Calme, realizing that he gets such a lengthy answer and rejoices, and mentions about himself, "I'm a journalist, but I'm also pretty good with a gun. Maybe we can practice at the shooting range, sometime?"
"Maybe," rumbles Calme's deep voice. So that's why he asks questions. He writes a lot.
Rodney scans through the slowly-growing crowd in Ms. Wong's classroom after entering, and spots someone with long silver hair braided down its back. He grins. "Oi! Cartis!" he calls.
The other man turns around and looks up before waving slightly before bending back down again at the book in front of him. Calme manages to glimpse a flicker of violet-blue eyes before they had flicked back down. There is also a childish brunette with large green eyes looking at the board below him, since the seats were raised as they went back toward the wall, and a little pout set upon his lips as he tried to discern the chicken-scratch called numbers and letters and other what-have you that was Calculus.
Calme glances at the board and receives a vague understanding of what was to come. He looks forward to the lecture.
"I HATE lectures!" shouts the brunette in his softly-toned voice, tugging in frustration at his curly hair. "That's all those teachers do! Blah blah blah blah! I can't stand it! It's so booooorrring! I can't ever learn ANYTHING from just hear them go blah blah blah blah blah blaaaaah!"
Rodney smiles and sits down next to the "child." "Don't worry, Arshile. I'll let you see my notes so that maybe your understanding of today's subject will increase. How does that sound?"
Arshile grins back. "Thanks, Rod'!"
Calme chooses that moment to study Arshile. His face was heart-shaped; he looked like a girl. The boy's long hair was very wavy and fairly dark in color, but not very dark so that it turned black; it was just a sort of "dirt" shade. His emerald green eyes were very wide and childish, belying his intelligence. He was almost one-hundred percent certain that Arshile loved calculus – or perhaps just the idea of playing around with numbers and variables – but just couldn't stand the lectures. He probably preferred to DO something rather than just sit around like glazed donuts in a box. One thing was peculiar about Arshile's uniform – he wore a thin, green bow at the collar – the shirt he used was a button-up, so the folded-over collar hid the circle of ribbon around his neck – letting soft the ends dangle down to his stomach and the bow somehow stayed fairly upright.
Oh well. Each to his own.
The one known as Cartis takes this moment to look up from his book and murmur, "Arshile-"
For some reason, Arshile shivers slightly.
"-It isn't very polite for you to keep on taking Rodney's notes every night when he needs them, too."
Before Arshile can respond, Rodney waves him off amicably. "It's fine, Cartis. I let him copy them at lunch. I get them back before five every night, so it's no problem at all."
Cartis seems unsure. Calme once again takes the moment to study the man.
Cartis had long silvery hair tied into a loose braid that reached a bit past his shoulder blades. He had calm blue-violet eyes that seemed a bit feline, and quite crafty, too. His green uniform was prim and proper, like Rodney's, and had nothing overly extravagant. He seemed like he at least somewhat cared about others, but Calme couldn't quite tell. This man was certainly a mystery.
"...Oh, Rodney, who is that with you?"
The other man blinks and looks at Calme. "Oh, yeah. This is Calme. Calme, these are my friends, Cartis..." he gestures to the man, who simply nods in response. "...and Arshile." Arshile grins and stands up, offering his hand.
The blonde hesitantly takes it, looking down at the other boy. He's short... ...
"It's nice to meet you, Calme."
"...You as well." It's surprising... . Such a small man to have such a firm grip, but one must expect such things... . As an afterthought, he thinks, Why isn't anyone asking about my eye?
"Oh, um, Calme, I was kinda curious," murmured Arshile after releasing Calme's hand. "...what happened to your eye?"
...I spoke too soon. "Just an accident with a BB gun a few years ago, when I was out with a friend." It isn't a complete lie or anything. He just omitted a few things. Things that seemed blurry to his memory, and why that was, he didn't know.
"Oh..." As Arshile walks back to his seat, Calme takes a seat next to Rodney, who sits next to Cartis.
The bell rings, and Ms. Wong makes her entrance...
"Oh, shit I'm gonna just DIE...," mutters Arshile, slamming his head on his desk with a dull "thunk". "I hate lectures... ."
Time passes.
"'Ttaku, that lecture was boooorrrrrraaaaaaannnnnnguh!" yawns Arshile, stretching his arms above his head.
'Ttaku? silently questions the blonde, but he understands what it means without really knowing.
Cartis smiles and shakes his head. Rodney laughs. "Don't worry, kiddo. I've got all the notes." He passes his notebook to his friend, who grins happily.
"Sankyu, Rodney!"
".../Sankyu ?" asks Calme. "That's an odd way of saying /Thanks/."
Rodney shakes his head. "Arshile has a little bit of Japanese in his blood, though even I first couldn't tell just by looking at him. If anything, it's his accent – he tends to pronounce vowels evenly, if you've noticed?"
"Oh..." Thinking back on it, yeah, it DID seem kind of odd how each word was pronounced as it was. "Hn."
The really-dirty-blonde man laughs softly. "Anyway, it seems that my friends like you."
Calme shrugs.
"I like you."
Calme catches himself before he shrugged again and stares, slightly wide-eyed, at his friend, his heart pounds in his chest and his throat seems to not want to release sound. "W-What...?"
Rodney thwaps him on the back jovially; the moment passes. "Okay, friend! What class do you have next?"
Finding his bearings, Calme answers quietly in his rumbling baritone of a voice, "Free hour."
Rodney pauses mid-pat and looks at his friend, seeming disappointed. "Oh. Well, then... I'll see you at break."
"Hn."
As the slightly-taller man left, Calme blinks once and then makes his way to the courtyard outside, deep in thought. What could he have meant by saying that? I mean, not that I care that he likes me... . Ah, shit, it won't get me anywhere by denying myself truth. So what if I DO care, even a little? I don't have to show him that. Besides, I don't even like him "like that." Once outside, he sits on a bench and looks at the blue, clouded sky with his good left eye. That Cartis guy is kind of strange, too. He seems professional, somehow... or not, but he has this air about him that I can't quite decipher just yet... .
Fanatica is mainly a high school for the gifted. About half of the people who attend have some sort of supernatural power or other, and the others are just... normal humans.
Normal like Calme. Sure, he had a very high accuracy and reflexes with a gun and just about any part of his body, but who was to say that he was inhuman? He couldn't heal quickly, he didn't have super-strength and defense, and he didn't have cat-ears poking out from the sides of his head. He was just... missing an eye, from a wound in the eyeball that refused to heal. The eye was permanently sealed shut, and could never see again. It wasn't rotting behind his eyelids because it had been removed before the lids were sealed up, of course.
Hence the eye-patch across his face.
He closed his cold blue eye and rested it, a soft sigh passing through his lips. Shit, I'm bored... Oh well, at least I get to catch up on that lack of sleep... . Slowly, he succumbs to slumber, the warmth of the sun in his face, his mind a quiet whirlwind of thoughts and predictions.
Time passes...
"Hey! Hey, c'mon! Wakie-wakie-time!"
Calme hears the energetic male voice before he feels the hands shaking his shoulders. His good eye snaps open and he glares at the person, immediately gripping the man's wrists in his hands.
He was wearing the green uniform, but his neck and pointy ears were decorated with golden jewelry. His face is of a healthy tan, and he has short silver hair and has the most intense, happy crimson eyes Calme had ever seen. And what is with the red dot between his silver eyebrows, anyway?
The man isn't fazed by the quiet lashing-out of the other man. "Oh, don't look so surprised to see me, Calme. We've met before – remember?"
"Excuse me?" How did he know I was surprised at all!
"We used to live next door, dingus! It's me! Arya!"
"YOU!" Recognition graces Calme's face and he immediately becomes angry.
Arya does the sensible thing. He runs for his life with a playful grin on his face.
Calme gives chase. "Oh no you don't!" shouts the normally-quiet and calm boy. "GET BACK HERE!"
"NOT IN YOUR LIFETIME! I'M TOO PRETTY TO DIE!" he retorts, wrenching open a door and running inside the building.
Calme follows, lips twisting into a snarl. You ASSHOLE, Arya! GET BACK HERE! He chooses to keep quiet, lest Arya pick up his pace. While Arya runs in one direction, Calme backtracks and goes toward a possible interception point. He waits a few moments, and as Arya enters the point, he pounces, pinning the younger boy beneath him with ease. He smirks at Arya's terrified expression, which screams in silence, "Oh SHIT I'm gonna DIE!"
"CALME GAZMAHOB!"
Calme stiffens and looks up at the approaching principal. Arya grins and whispers in a sort of sing-song voice, "Ha ha ha...! You're SO BUSTED!"
"You IDIOT!" he mutters under his breath, glaring down at his captive. "If you hadn't woken me up in the first place !"
"You would be late for class, dipshit."
"Don't call me that, old man!"
"I'm not an old man you Cyclops!"
Calme growls and gets off of Arya before he can punch the other man. "Get away from me before I seriously hurt you, you stupid little...!"
"Gazmahob! Arya! I expected better of you!" exclaimed the female principal, standing in front of them. "Arya! I thought you promised to grow up! That you'd stop your incessant shenanigans!" She takes a breath and looks at Calme. "And, you, since it's only your first offense, and it seems that Arya instigated it, I'm letting you off with a warning... Just don't let it happen again, or you will be in some SERIOUS trouble! Arya, come with me."
Arya bows his head and follows the woman, more than aware of his fate.
Calme sighs and rotates his neck, popping it, and looks around. No one is paying any attention. It seems that it is normal for Arya to be playing tricks day in and day out of one sort or other.
At least he got what he fucking deserved... But I'd better keep a better eye on myself from now on. He looks around for his backpack, and remembers that he left it in the courtyard. He runs outside to go get it.
...I can't believe I forgot about Arya... Maybe he changed so much that I couldn't recognize him anymore? Or maybe I paid no attention to him to begin with to even recall him later. Quickly finding his bag, he slings it over first his left shoulder and then his right, and marches on to his next class.
One thing hasn't changed, though: he certainly still likes to stir up mischievous shit. After all..., how else did my eye get blown out, eh? A wry grin touches his lips before it fades as quickly as it came. ...This is turning out to be a pretty interesting day... .
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Phew! Mostly introductions, obviously, since not many people I know even know that this game exists. I'll let you readers infer on how each person acts by showing them how I think they would if they were thrust into these situations. (I'm trying to keep the characters in-character despite this story being AU.)
Obviously, Calme seems to be my favorite character, but I'm going to try to give out at least one chapter that stars each character's perspective of things. I wonder whose next... Because I plan on playing with every single character! Not even all of the characters have been introduced yet!
Also, even though I have a vague idea on where I'm going with this, the details and the path are still unclear. The second chapter is soon on its way!
Important: Um, I hope you tried to forget about the spaces between punctuation - I can't get multiple exclamation points and other things to appear if they were side-by-side - even the link at the top of this chapter!