A/N: All righty there folks! Irish here, just for those of you who haven't read any of my stories before. Just so you know, this story is written for my own amusement because I had an idea in my head that just wouldn't go away. I'm not sure how long this is going to be, or even maybe how short, but never fear, I will update. I have two kids that demand much of my attention, so I say ahead of time: "gomen nasai" for any huge break between updates. Please enjoy, and if you wouldn't mind clicking the little review button at the bottom, that'd be awesome.

Xx

Irish

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Keisuke Takahashi drove down Akagi's mountain pass lazily, the spring weather perfect for a long drive to nowhere. Since Project D had finished, and he and Takumi had started their own team, the pressure to dominate had lessened. He would be the first to admit it if anyone asked, but he was getting slightly bored. Takumi was still the only racer he couldn't beat, and all of the other drivers that challenged them just wanted to try and beat the team members that took the top spots in Japan. Their skill level wasn't worth his time. He needed something fresh, something unexpected to happen before he decided to bash his head off the steering wheel a few times.

The RS-X was handling well today, even for just a pleasure cruise. Keisuke sighed as he approached the first of the S-curves on the downhill, wishing that he was racing the course instead. His mind wandered to the blow-out he'd had with Kyoko last week. She persisted in pursuing him, even after his initial "no" concerning Project D.

"Keisuke, you aren't in Project D anymore, so you don't need to dedicate yourself quite so much. Why are you still turning me away?" Kyoko had pleaded.

Keisuke had sighed, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck. "Look Kyoko, originally it was because of Project D, yes, but now, I'm not sure that I even want to date anyone. I have yet to accomplish my goal, and until I do that, I really can't focus on anything else."

"You're just making up excuses, Keisuke! If you don't want to be with me, tell me up front, because excuses will just make me wait for you. It's unfair! Tell me the truth!"

"I don't want to date you, Kyoko."

"I hate you."

"I know." He couldn't tell her that it hurt him too.

Kyoko wouldn't have understood his reasoning. Yes, he liked her, and she was a good racer, but she was the same as any other Japanese girl. She would soon get sick of his impatient personality and he would tire of her neediness. He resurfaced from the memory and shook off the thoughts of the girl who would have given him everything. The sound of a turbo caught his attention and he glanced in his rearview mirror.

Keisuke's eyes widened in surprise as he took in the vehicle behind him. It was a Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T, nineteen ninety-six if he were to gamble. Good thing he never gambled unless he knew he would win. The car was painted a lilac color, a design on the hood in a darker purple that he couldn't quite make out yet. He snorted. Definitely a chick car. No self-respecting man would own anything in that color. She was gaining on him fast, and Keisuke wondered idly if she would be the next person to challenge either himself or Takumi. Either way, he'd give her a little taste ahead of time. Nothing ticked him off more than getting passed.

He stepped on the gas, downshifting and swinging into the corner. Too slow for a true drift yet, but the power slide worked well enough for now. The next corner came quicker, and Keisuke threw himself at it, the Eclipse only seconds behind. To his surprise, when she was about only fifteen centimeters from his bumper, she stopped gaining. What was the point in that? He knew it wasn't that she couldn't catch up, as he was only going at about seventy percent, so what was she thinking? Keisuke sped up slightly. The Mitsubishi stayed with him, still that aggravating fifteen centimeters separating the cars.

They drifted the rest of the way down the hill like that, side-by-side in the drifts, perfectly in sync. At the bottom of the mountain, the GS-T flashed it's headlights at him. Keisuke assumed the driver wanted to talk to him, so he stopped at the next pullover. The GS-T pulled up next to him and parked, Keisuke got out, curious despite himself. What he expected though, was totally blown out of the water by reality.

The young woman that emerged from the car was petite, possibly topping off at 157 centimeters, but that wasn't what caught his attention. Her skin was the palest he'd ever seen, like porcelain, and her hair light auburn waves to the middle of her back. The girl had large almond eyes, possible Asian ancestry there, but were a brilliant shade of blue. Was she a foreigner?

"Ohayo gozaimasu," she greeted with a short bow. "You have a wonderful drifting technique, may I ask your name?"

It took Keisuke a second to respond. Her speech had a slight accent to it, although fluent, he was sure Japanese was not her first language. "I am Keisuke Takahashi."

She smiled at him. He noticed her teeth were brilliantly white and straight, probably due to cosmetic dentistry. His brother was better analyzing people than he was, but he had some observance skills. "My name is Suki O'Malley. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Keisuke murmured the appropriate response before he asked, "Are you a foreigner? Your accent is strange, and you don't look Japanese."

Suki laughed lightly. "And mother was always telling me about how reserved the Japanese were. Isn't that question kind of rude according to Japanese society?" Keisuke blushed lightly, she was right, but then again, he had never exactly been polite. She continued before he could respond. "I'm half-Japanese. My father was Irish American and married my mother while in the military. He died last year, so Mom decided to move back here to Gunma where she grew up. I'm not very reserved myself, since I grew up in America. I hope you'll forgive my forwardness."

Keisuke nodded, but was secretly refreshed with her brazen attitude. Too many girls would have blushed and looked away, rather than leaning on the hood of their car with an amused smile on their face. Hadn't he just been think about this before she showed up in his rearview mirror? Strange coincidence.

"Sorry to bother you, but I hope I see you up here again sometime!" Suki jumped into her car and sped off into town, Keisuke standing where she had left him and feeling slightly shell-shocked. What a strange girl, he thought. But if she was going to be living here in Gunma, it would be hard to miss that unique GS-T.

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Suki sang along with the radio as she drove through Gunma at a reasonable pace. When her mother had told her a month ago that she was moving to Japan, Suki had been devastated. First her father died, and then her mother was moving across an entire ocean. Being an adult had seemed horrible for the first time since she turned eighteen.

That first night after her mother left, Suki was at her apartment, sorting through her clothes to store her winter sweaters when the idea had struck. The next day, she had drained her bank account, called her uncle in Gunma, and put all her belongings in storage. All but her car, which she had shipped to her destination. She had bought it from someone in Japan anyway, as well as paying for it to be imported and street legal, so getting it back into it's original country had been a piece of cake.

So now, here she was, working in her uncle's shop, living in a one room apartment and almost totally broke. But she liked her new town, and her mother was close by, so Suki was content. Pulling up in front of her uncle's shop, she pulled the emergency brake and slid noisily into the parking space beside the building. Her cousin must be out with his car.

Entering the shop, she called out, "Uncle! I'm back from the delivery! What else do you have for me to do?"

Her uncle came through the doorway separating the shop from the living area. "I heard you pull in," he grunted. "America wasn't such a good teacher in subtlety, I guess."

Suki laughed and grabbed an apron, tying it securely around her waist. "It's because I'm so enthusiastic about my car. I've been like that since I bought it. You can't blame a girl for liking to drive, can you Uncle Bunta?" He just grunted in answer, lighting a cigarette and exiting the front door.

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Dum dum dah! Next chapter up soon!