Chapter 2

This Is The Story Of A Girl

Rukawa grimaced as he tugged off the smoke-filled clothes he was wearing – a dark blue dress shirt and beige slacks that Miyagi had insisted he put on. If Rukawa had his own way, he would have turned up in a jersey and sweat pants.

"And get thrown out on your face before you even get past the door," Sakuragi had hollered with laughter as the three had arrived at Rukawa's house to pick him up.

Mitsui had snickered quietly, patting his striped button-down with satisfaction. He had looked damn good that night and he knew it.

Trust a girl to bring a confident man to his knees.

Said girl was now in his bathroom. The sound of running water could be heard and Rukawa's face flamed as he started to imagine what she was doing inside. He cursed her and then cursed himself, violently pulling on a faded cotton shirt and shorts. Rukawa tossed his used clothes in a heap at the corner of the room, his nose wrinkling. He hated that smell.

Maiko reappeared then, freshly scrubbed, her small body wrapped in a large, fluffy towel. Her eyes were shy as she muttered, "I don't have any clothes to wear."

Rukawa picked out some of his smaller clothes for her and huffily threw them at her. She caught them with one hand, the other still clutching on to that damned towel. Maiko smiled in gratitude and disappeared back into the bathroom.

It was only then Rukawa dared to draw in a rattling breath.

Girls were all evil. Evil.

How else could he explain the crazy effect she had on him? Two erections in one night. It was a record, thus far.

Rukawa roared with frustration, his face pressed into a pillow, muffling the sound. What the devil had gotten into him? He wasn't normally like this. He was Rukawa Kaede, for pity's sake. He was cool, calm, collecte–

"I'll sleep on the floor."

Maiko's voice shocked him and he recoiled with a startled grunt. Maiko was watching him with an amused grin, her raven hair damp. Rukawa blinked as he took in her face, stripped of its makeup. Her heavy use of black eyeliner and blood-red lipstick had morphed her into a vampire, but she had still been eerily attractive. Now though, she was striking in an elfin way, small and pointed.

Rukawa's gaze trailed further down and he shut his eyes. Kami-sama, she looked even better in his clothes than he did.

"You can't sleep on the floor. It's hard," Rukawa spoke harshly.

Maiko lifted an eyebrow. "Toss me a blanket and I'll be fine. Don't see you complaining, and it's your house. You should be sleeping in bed."

Rukawa snarled. Why was she so damned stubborn?

"You. Bed. Now."

Maiko's lips twitched and she drawled, "Why, I didn't know that's what you had in mind. Should've warned me we were going to have mad, passionate sex when you asked me to stay."

Rukawa – there was no other word for it – sputtered.

Maiko giggled as she slid under the covers.

"I'm kidding, love. Sleep here with me. Your bed's large enough. You take one side, I'll take the other. Everyone's happy."

Rukawa reluctantly pulled the quilt over himself. It was strange to feel the bed sagging under two weights, and warmth radiating from an unfamiliar body.

Ten minutes later, Rukawa wished he had chosen the floor. He was still wide awake. He couldn't sleep. How was he supposed to fall asleep when Maiko was holding his hand?

And why in all stages of hell was he letting her?

"Can't sleep?" Maiko's voice suddenly pierced the silence.

Rukawa grunted.

"I can't either," Maiko confessed. She rolled on her side to face him. "You know, you haven't told me your name."

Rukawa's head turned to face her. "It's Rukawa. Rukawa Kaede," he replied stiffly as Maiko's thumb danced circles on his palm.

"Kaede? Pretty name. Almost as pretty as your face," Maiko murmured, her eyes mischievous. Rukawa cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I'm Maiko," she continued.

Maiko. How apt. Dancing child.

Rukawa shrugged. "I figured as much when Mitsui said your name. Maiko…?"

Her eyes were frosty as she coolly replied, "Never you mind my last name. It's not important."

"So what's the deal with you and Mitsui?"

Rukawa berated himself when the question flew off his tongue. He turned away from her, aware that she had dropped his hand like a hot potato.

"I'm sorry. It's not my business, I know."

Quiet settled over the room. When Maiko finally spoke, her voice was soft. "How do you know Hisashi, Kaede?"

"We go to the same school. He's my basketball team-mate."

Maiko laughed, and it was a short, sharp sound. "No kidding? Hisashi plays basketball? Hang on – you said you're in the same school. How old are you exactly?"

Rukawa considered her question. "Sixteen."

"You can't be serious. I thought you were at least eighteen, maybe nineteen. You're awfully young, love," she said incredulously.

Rukawa shrugged his shoulders. Girls talked a lot. "How old are you then?"

There was silence again. Rukawa sighed. This was a girl who did not willingly share her personal details. Enigmatic. Secretive. Mysterious. Funny, he actually admired that about her.

Maiko shifted under the quilt. Her eyes glittered in the moonlight as she gazed at Rukawa.

"You asked me about Hisashi…"

Rukawa observed Maiko's slumped shoulders as she began to speak again.

"I met him almost a year ago. I was a sophomore then, same as him. He was hanging out with his friends – Tetsuo, Ryu, Hotta, all of them. I knew Ryu since we attended the same school. He was the one who introduced me to Mitsui Hisashi."

Maiko closed her eyes. "I thought he was … special. Tall, handsome and so cool with his long, blue-tinted hair. I could tell he wasn't really one of us. He was always so guarded. Always gazing off into space, like he was longing for something else, something other than our life. All we did was cause trouble, look for fights, get wasted."

"'I was sick of that life, too. We were two loners on the fringe of the group – me, the only girl; Hisashi, the closest thing the group had to a gentleman. I fell for him. Stupid me. Too young to know what real love was and mistook infatuation for it.'

'One night, I called him and told him to come over to my place. My parents were on a business trip and in my silly mind, I had it all set up. I was going to seduce Mitsui Hisashi that night. Get it? Girl falls for boy. Boy sleeps with girl. Boy falls in love with girl. And they lived happily ever after. The end.'"

Rukawa cleared his throat. "So you were lovers then?"

Maiko let out a short chuckle, but this time it was bitter.

"'If you call a one-night stand that. The next morning, Hisashi took out his wallet, peeled a couple of notes and handed them to me. Then he asked me if it was enough. If I usually charged more since I could afford to stay in such a nice place.'

'There I was, head-over-heels for the boy I'd just spent the night with, and he was treating me like a common whore.'

'I tore up the money he had casually tossed at me. Told him to go fuck himself. And told him to get the fuck out of my house.'"

Rukawa didn't know what had possessed him to do it, but his arm had slipped around Maiko's smaller frame halfway through her reminiscing. The uneasy grip he had on her was discomfiting, but she didn't seem to care as she huddled closer to him, her wet hair soaking into his thin cotton shirt.

"'I never saw him again after that. I never saw any of them, actually. I left it all. I went to classes, got good grades. I avoided Ryu, which wasn't difficult since he hardly showed up for school anyway. Still, I couldn't leave the late-night dancing behind. I enjoyed it too much, and that was where I bumped into Tetsuo.'

'He told me Hisashi had tried to leave the gang. Tried to do what I was doing – picking up the pieces of our squandering lives. Trying to forget the past we both shared. Ryu had tried to break Hisashi's fingers for that. Said Hisashi had messed up everything for the gang. Somehow, the whole story came tumbling out. Apparently, Ryu had suggested to Hisashi that I was nothing more than a cheap slut who got her kicks making money off her body. And Hisashi, fool him, believed Ryu's nasty stories about how I'd "serviced" the rest of the gang already.'

'Turns out Ryu was just jealous of Hisashi. Hisashi just dropped in one day, and that was that – everything seemed to come to that boy on a diamond-encrusted platter. Powerful, sexy, suave … Everything Ryu was not. It was Ryu's way of getting his own back.'

'I thought I'd put it all behind me … Then I had to go collide with Hisashi tonight. I may have forgiven him, but it's not that easy to forget how I used to feel. But at least I picked up something good along the way.'"

Is she talking about me?

Maiko breathed deeply and when she exhaled, she had bounced back into the impish creature Rukawa had first met. "That's my boring life story, Kaede. Satisfied?"

Rukawa kept quiet, not knowing what to say, not trusting what he might say if he tried. Maiko grinned before sobering again, "Still, I'd like to think Hisashi liked me well enough back then. And that his apology was sincere."

"Stupid boy … He never even figured out that I was a virgin that night," Maiko finished wistfully.

Rukawa's hold on her tightened and she smiled, drawing strength from his tentative offer of comfort. "You're a good listener, you know that, Kaede?"

Maybe it was the colour of her lips without her lipstick, all bubblegum pink. Maybe he was just sympathetic and didn't know how else to show it. Or maybe it was the way she breathed his name the way no one else did.

"Kaede…"

Rukawa kissed her.

It was an awkward fumble, his first kiss. Nothing more than the brush of lips against lips but it was enough to get him hard again. He kissed her again, and again, and again; never venturing beyond her lips.

Maiko sighed and gently pulled his face closer, her lips moving against his as she whispered, "You're too young for me, you know."

And then she kissed him back.

Open-mouthed.

Rukawa thought he would implode from the blood rushing within him.

AN:

I don't know just yet who Maiko should end up with. Suggestions?

To:

SlamDunk160: Aww, you're sweet. Thanks for being my first reviewer for this fic:)