Japanese Words Okay To Use in Fics: honorific(-san, -kun, etc.) Hello, Good bye, welcome home, I'm home, attacks and any sort of reference to family as these often cannot be properly translated
I swallowed heavily, standing outside what would be my home for the next year, suitcase clutched tightly in my hands.
'What if they don't like me? What if they expected a boy? What if they think I'm a freak and kick me out? What if they absolutely hate me!' I paused a moment in my mental rant
">And what if the sky were green and the grass were blue?>" I asked myself, this time aloud, berating myself for thinking these thoughts and putting even more pressure on myself. ">If they don't like me, so what? If they expected a boy who cares? If they hate me I'll tell them to shove it up their ass and get a new host family. If they think I'm a freak…well, I can't lie, if they think I'm a freak then they're right in their assumptions,>" I smiled to myself, and took a numb hand off my suitcase to ring the intercom.
"Yes?" A woman's voice asked, coming through the intercom, in Japanese.
Switching over to Japanese, I answered. "My name is Kelly Nicole, I'm the exchange student who will be living with you for a year."
Her voice suddenly became excited, and through the intercom I could swear she was grinning. "Oh yes, of course! You're just in time! Hold on one moment,"
"Uh, um, OK," I said uncertainly. My brow furrowed. ''Just in time'?' I wondered, 'What could she mean?'
I was unable to ponder this, however, when the door was abruptly opened.
A woman in her mid-thirties bowed in front of me, and, surprised, I hastily and ungracefully bowed back, stumbling over and falling to the ground.
"Ow…" I moaned, looking up at her. She was pretty, with her short curled black hair, and her carefully applied light makeup.
She smiled at me in a motherly way and helped me up, ushering me inside as she took the smaller of my bags. "I'm Touya Akiko,"
Akiko-san made a few turns as she led me through the halls of the traditional Japanese house, chatting me up as she did so.
"Here we are," the older woman said as we stopped outside what I could only assume was going to be my room. "My son's room is right down the hall; my husband's and I on the other side of the house."
I entered the room with an appreciative sigh, placing my suitcase neatly in the corner before allowing my book bag to slide lazily off my shoulders with a loud plop as it landed on the polished wooden floor.
I looked idly about the room, noting the futon in the corner and the small wooden dresser diagonal to it. It would be fine; I wasn't going to complain, the room was only slightly smaller than my one at home.
"Keruri-chan,"
Mentally I winced at how she butchered my name, "Yes, Touya-san?"
"Would you like to wonder around the neighborhood for a bit? Dinner won't even be started for another hour or so, and neither my son nor my husband will be home until it's ready."
I pursed my lips, considering it. "Sure, why not?" I shrugged, and almost unconsciously set my hair in a low ponytail.
"OK, then, I'll just show you to the door. Be back in about an hour and a half."
I nodded. "OK,"
She walked me to the door and I slipped my shoes on, trying to balance myself within the genkan without sitting down or leaning on the wall.
Touya san giggled. "Make sure you don't get lost,"
I grinned, right eye closed and left hand up in a symbol for peace; a classic anime pose. "No worries. My sense of direction's keener than a rabbit's eyesight."
"Tadaima!" I called cheerily, stumbling in through the door. I'd lied earlier; my sense of direction sucked. I'd gotten lost, and was just now coming in, 20 minutes late, probably more-but my watch broke when I tripped and was sent rolling down a slope. Luckily for me I'd run into someone who was able to help me back (not that I wouldn't have been able to find my way…eventually). It was the most fun I'd ever had, exploring the neighborhood like that, acting as if I were one of Charlie's Angels and tripping and rolling down things more than once.
My hair band had snapped at some point, probably littering the ground on one of my slopes, leaving my hair down, random twigs and maybe a leaf or two stuck in my hair. I knew my face was probably as dirty, if not more so, than my hands. I'd had fun but as I lay on my back, face flushed from laughing, having forgotten about the genkan and tripping over it, all mirth was diminished as I opened my eyes and saw the flashing turquoise-blue ones of Touya-san.
Suddenly self-conscious, I stood, blushing, now out of embarrassment as opposed to joy, pulling a twig out of my hair and sticking it in my pocket, afraid of being reprimanded if I allowed it to fall to the ground. "U-um…" I stumbled over my words, looking ashamedly at the ground. "T-tadaima…"
Her firm glare melted into a warm smile and she giggled, shaking her head slightly. "Come on, my husband and son are just in the dining room. They'll just love meeting you, I'm sure."
I blushed, looking down at my grass-stained jeans and dirt-smudged white tank. "A-ano, Touya-san…shouldn't I clean up a bit first?"
She continued to smile as I slipped off my shoes, replaced them with the provided house slippers, and followed her down the hall. "It'll be a refreshing change," she stated, "my husband and son are always so neat and tidy."
Hesitantly I smiled back, and Akiko slid open the rice paper door.
Two heads snapped up and pivoted towards us, immediately followed by four eyes widening.
"Akiko-san," a man whom I had never met but was disturbingly familiar said, addressing his wife, "I was not aware we were having company."
My eyebrows furrowed, and I wondered if I had heard correctly. He didn't know I was coming? I looked towards Akiko for confirmation, but my eyes landed instead on her son and I paled-I could literally feel the color draining from my face.
I reached up and removed my glasses before rubbing my eyes and sliding them back on my face before looking at him again. He still had the same chin-length raven hair, the same turquoise-blue eyes-he was still Touya Akira.
">Okay…>" I said slowly in English, beginning to babble, " I'm gonna go back out side and throw up and then I'm going to pass out. " I laughed to myself a bit nervously. ">I mean, I've just been thrown into one of my favorite manga's and am living with Touya Akira, there's nothing odd about that.>"
I wavered a bit on my feet, becoming dizzy. ">Why couldn't it have been InuYasha?>" I asked myself as my vision darkened and I passed out, thankfully skipping parts one and two in my previous plan.
Tadaima- I'm home