A/N: This hasn't been updated in forever, I'm so sorry, after this chapter, I'll hopefully update more often! It's been a little hard to think about how this was supposed to go … because well, I lost my old files, haha, whoops. So re-writing this! Let's see how it goes…! And thank you to everyone for all your support, you're all really sweet I just died.
I'll try and reply to reviews soon…! Once I figure out what I'm doing! But to everyone reading, thank you so, so much. You're gorgeous.
When I woke up, I came face to face with the most annoying set of golden eyes and coy smile that I had ever seen. Naturally, I punched them.
The boy I punched had stumbled back a few metres, clearly not expecting it and toppled on top of Mary who squeaked and fell over. His name is Shuuya. But you usually call him Kano.
I tried to ignore the voice in my head – it sounded just like my own, but colder, and more lost - as the nurse hurried to fuss over this … Kano guy … and I apologized off-handedly since he didn't really do anything wrong.
"It's okay," He laughed cheerily holding an ice pack to his cheek. "A lot of people say I have the face of a criminal."
"Kano too…" Mary seemed just about ready to burst into tears, despite not being hurt in the slightest. Her hair had shielded most of her fall, and Takane had helped her up, seating her firmly in the chair she was in just earlier.
"You really do have a douchebag face." The older girl clipped harshly, surveying the boy's cat-like features and uneven blond (totally bleached) hairstyle. "No offence, though."
"Sorry again, Kano." I mumbled, that looked like it must've hurt.
He looked startled for a second, before laughing it off. "It's fine, it's fine! I'm flattered you care so much about me, actually!"
Before I could protest, Mrs. Tateyama smiled and put her hand to my forehead, propping up the pillows behind me. "I think you need some rest, Kido. Enomoto, Kozakura, back to class. Only injured students stay in the health centre, okay?"
Takane seemed to know this as if it was routine and she shrugged, heading out the door while pulling some form of game console out of her pockets.
The other girl looked reluctant to leave, but Mary – that's right, that was her name – eventually made it to the door, smiling back at me sweetly but shyly. "S-sorry about earlier… let's be friends, Kido."
I hesitated, considering my options.
I felt a little sorry for her to be honest; she was the type of strange girl that stood out in the crowd. A little like me, only no matter what I did, I would never stand out which was both a curse and a blessing. I thought I'd give her a chance this time… she'd probably tire of me before the week was up anyway.
"Okay, see you later."
Her smile widened.
So then it was just me, Kano, Haruka and the nurse left in the room.
Kano was, frankly, the greatest annoyance to enter my life so far. My instincts hardly ever lied, but punching Kano on first sight was definitely the right thing to do – he was the type that laughed at pain and manipulated people, teased and lied and was all-around irritating. He could be sweet at times, but the chances were often very, very slim and any victory against Kano felt like you won at life because he was just that good at getting his way.
Frankly, I wouldn't have even gone near him again after that torturous day we spent together in the health centre but as luck would have it, he was kicked out of his other class and transferred. Into mine.
"Kano…!" Mary just about hyperventilated, running him over as soon as he introduced himself and much to my chagrin, forcing him to sit in the seat behind me. "Friend." Mary had growled at me when I moved to argue, though she was more cute than threatening. "We let friends sit with us."
"Yes, my name is friend also, friend." Kano had snickered. "Nice to meet you friend one and friend two. We must all be a rare sub-species of friend."
It took all my effort to ignore him, but later on I figured that hitting him was the quicker option anyway. Every time I apologised or showed weakness to Kano, he would laugh at me; "Wow, Kido, you're actually really girly, aren't you?" or "You look so scary when you try to be nice!" So I had given up on ever being nice to the guy. Ever.
I had also given up on trying to get rid of Mary, because the girl would never leave me alone. She respected my space, which I was grateful for but she had such a vivid imagination that I found it hard to stand her at times. Kano and Mary grew close within days, as if they both were absorbed in some over-arching story that I had absolutely no clue about.
"I lived in the forest for a long time…" Was a popular line, quoted often by Mary. "Maybe even centuries."
"Yes, me too. In some other random time and place." Kano would pipe up with a grin, playing along. "But I got stabbed and then somehow came back to life somewhere around here."
And then Mary would be in hysterics; the duo blabbering nonsense I had no intention of taking part in. I couldn't call them my … friends just yet, but they certainly pestered me enough to resemble pets of some sort. Mentally I nominated Mary as a sheep and Kano as a cat.
Just another thing I had to get used to, I suppose. Ah, another headache was coming on.
"Then he'd come, the one with the yellow eyes!" Mary exclaimed, hiding her face.
"Oh, I see!" Kano gasped dramatically, "Mister evil snake eyes!"
"Snake eyes don't exist." I had snapped at them, suddenly agitated.
Mary fumbled with her hair. "Maybe…"
It wasn't until a month after I met the two did I start to realise it.
The scream ripped from my mouth, echoing – but it wasn't me, that couldn't be me, it was the Kido in my dreams that would cry so horribly, cry until her voice was long gone. Cry until blood spattered everywhere, cry so hard that it looked like she was going to cry blood, so much pain. Dull pain; it wasn't my pain to feel.
I never figured out why she was crying sometimes, in other dreams, she had seemed much cooler and calm. Then again, I had seen their bodies, but never their faces.
Her friends, her companions.
Dead.
I had always thought they had nothing to do with me, the faceless people all important to the 'other Kido', but nothing that concerned the 'me' of this world.
I was wrong.
Her eyes, I was seeing through her eyes for the first time.
'Snake eyes' as my classmates had dubbed him, looked at me directly this particular night. He didn't say anything, he just stared. It was terrifying.
In a flash, it was as if the lights had suddenly turned on.
Her screaming got louder – Kido's screaming, my own screaming; was this a nightmare? I didn't know. I just wanted to wake up and never go back to sleep again. There was blood all over her hands; this was the first time I had ever seen this dream through this perspective and I felt it. His hair in her hands, in my hands, blood, cold skin, sweat, tears.
I knew that face all too well, the one that the shadows no longer concealed, and the one that the other Kido and I simultaneously held in our arms, her tears pouring and running trails down his face.
Kano.
Kano was dead.
Please.
Someone save him.
"Not again… please not again…"
The sweet voice I had grown to know sounded so broken, so damaged.
Mary.
"Why…?"
I woke up, breathing hard.
It was only a dream.
It must have showed when I went to school the next day, exhausted beyond belief. I was a good student that got average grades, but I never stayed up longer than necessary so I never got so tired that I was practically the walking dead.
My mother had been so shocked at my 'utterly deceased' appearance that she offered for the first time since kindergarten to drive me to school. I declined.
"Whoa, what happened to you?!" Kano had snorted once he saw me, falling onto his desk in a fit of laughter. "Oh no, Kido's become a zombie! Call the ghostbusters!"
Mary frowned, swatting at Kano's hands which were flailing in front of him. "No, no…! No zombies, no ghostbusters!"
"She's becoming so pale, I think she's going to disappear!" The boy continued, chortling.
Mary's frown deepened. "No, no, no… be quiet ..!" I rolled my eyes telling her I didn't really care.
A new voice emerged behind her, the tall figure of a boy leaning over Mary to look at me. He had black hair, swept over the right side of his face with a single clip in his hair and a wide, curious expression open on his sharp features.
"Whoa! Now you take looking tired to a whole new level! What time did you sleep last night?"
The lack of sleep and the thought of death left me grumpier than usual, "What's it to you?"
He chuckled a little, waving my aggressive stare off and turned to walk away when a hand grabbed him, keeping him in place.
What nobody was expecting was Mary to literally turn on the waterworks and cry like there was no tomorrow, clinging to the newcomer like a koala. As soon as the tears emerged, Kano rolled out of his chair laughing and I just sat there, wide-eyed and bewildered.
The other boy literally jumped, leaping back in surprise.
"Oh my god, woman, calm your farm. " Kano the actual idiot retained his teasing smirk, watching Mary before laughing harder at my murderous expression.
The tall kid flinched visibly, trying to calm the weeping girl down, but Mary only cried harder.
"Um..."
We exchanged a confused look, my anger already dissipating as I remembered hearing a similar sound in my horrific dream last night (for some reason Mary's tears struck a chord within me and my head started hurting again). For lack of a better response, I kicked Kano who was on the floor and he sputtered before beaming up at me, a sly grin gracing his annoying face.
"I, uh, I need to finish deliveries." The other boy smiled apologetically at Mary, and then at me, glancing worriedly at Kano on the floor. "I'm the delivery guy for the school newspaper! T'was why I popped in here just now. My name's Kousuke Seto, by the way!"
"Yo frog-boy! The angry one is Kido," Kano cut in, pointing at me and I only glared in return. "The one glued to you is Mary and I'm Kano, hehe~!"
Kousuke nodded at him with a grateful smile but looked increasingly awkward as the other students in my class were staring at the pair as if he had upset the crying girl, and the poor guy was so confused. She was calming down now, mumbling something about 'the first time this has ever gone so well' but she still had a death grip on the guy's shirt.
"Mary, let go of him." I ordered swiftly and she complied, though she still held tightly to his arm. "Completely. Let Seto go back to work."
He seemed surprised I was referring to him by surname, but it had slipped out like that, so I figured I might as well roll with it. "Seto, you can tell her to get off. She's just a little overdramatic at times."
"I don't mind." He laughed nervously, turning back to Mary. "You just surprised me, is all!"
Mary glanced up at him, tears suddenly vanishing. "Hey, Seto?"
"Yes?"
"You're very brave."
"Oh, thank you, Mary."
"Will you be our friend?"
"Sure, why not?"
Seto ended up carrying Mary off to finish his rounds, as the girl seemed completely enamoured by the other student and refused to let him go. I guess he had been the nicest person to her since the school year began but... I can't help but think she was overreacting. It's not like she had psychic powers which told her who to make friends with, right?
And Seto had to be the most patient person in the world to keep going with her antics as if they were nothing out of the usual - I would have lost it ages ago. By the time they returned, they were chatting as if they were long lost friends.
"Do you remember now?" Mary would ask, pulling her ribbons down to the sides of her head.
Seto would shake his head 'no', but pat her head and reply, "I'm sure I'll remember one day."
"Next thing you know, she'll have the whole school bowing at her feet." Kano smiled, as if he were merely amused by the whole turnout. "Or yours."
I groaned. Something was telling me our so-called 'friendship group' was just going to get bigger and bigger.
"Bang bang bang." He had added as an afterthought, and for once I didn't hit him.