Please see chapter One for the disclaimer.

No play list for this chapter since I lost my planning play list for writing this. Sorry to anyone who actually paid attention to it though.


Mahiru rolled over in her bed as her alarm clock began its morning blast of sharp ear-bleeding beeps.

Her dreams were calm for the first time in what felt like ages. No blood, no monsters, no cries of princesses or howls of demons. Nothing scary at all. Just the cool waves of the ocean as it turned calmly in the moonlight, the schools silvery fish swimming near her; the tiny creatures swimming around her as if she were meant to be in the ocean just as much as they were. She felt at home. At peace. Happy. Warm.

…Until the alarm went off.

By the time her hazy mind shook the last of the dream water from her brain, it was almost 6:45. Throwing back her blankets, Mahiru scrambled out of bed and nearly ripped the buttons from her nightshirt as she struggled out of her pajamas and into her school uniform. She yanked her brush through her hair with one hand while trying to pack her bag with the other -- a task that she had learned to master with her ever-late status at school.

Finally she tore down the stairs and straight out of the house, book bag in hand, bed head tamed.

"Mahiru?" her aunt called from the kitchen, gazing at the wide open front door with surprise. She knew her niece could be a scatter brain at times, but leaving doors open and running out as if the house were engulfed in flames was pushing it.

"Sorry Auntie, I'm really late!" Mahiru called as she continued running.

Mahiru's aunt sighed as she watched her teenage almost-daughter run down the street, heading directly for her bus stop. The knot in her stomach twisted. Mahiru had always been independent, but in the past few days, she seemed… different. Almost as if something had changed inside the girl she'd known since she was no more than a tiny child weeping at her deceased parent's bedsides. Change was never something she was good at dealing with, which is why she was eternally grateful that Mahiru never hit a rebellious time in her youth.

A rebellious age? She bit her lip as she closed the front door. Isn't that normal for teens…? But Mahiru was different. Mature. Always the adult, never the child. So why now? she wondered. Why would Mahiru's behavior change now, so suddenly?

She had read all the parenting books, all the books on puberty and mood swings and how to parent a child who was… well, a child. Or a teen. Or a borderline adult. But Mahiru was none of these things… she was herself, always and forever.

The knot in her belly twisted, her almost-mother's intuition sending her signals she didn't know how to read.

There was something wrong. She knew it. Of all the years of carefully watching her niece grow up, never once had she acted so distant; running out on her even when late, never going to bed without dinner, never leaving in the middle of the night to get "school supplies."

Is it possible for her to change so quickly? she wondered, her back pressed firmly against the front door.

. . . . . . . . . .

Mahiru ran harder and faster than she normally would have to catch the bus. She'd seen it from a block away, the last of the passengers climbing on board without her. She shoved her way through the mass of people on the sidewalk, plowing though the gossiping schoolgirls and businessmen chatting away on their cell phones until she made it to the already-closed bus door.

"No!" She cried, balling her fist up and slamming it against the door to try and get the driver's attention. "I'm only a minute late. You haven't even pulled away from the curb yet!"

The bus driver waved his chubby hand at Mahiru through the dirty window. "Sorry kiddo, maybe next time." he called to her while shifting the mass transportation bus into gear.

Mahiru's eyes went wide as she watched it pull away without her. "Sorry my butt," she grumbled with an annoyed kick at the innocent sidewalk. "Of all the rotten luck."

She peeked at her wristwatch. 6:52. She had exactly eighteen minutes to hightail it to school before she got detention for a week's worth of tardy marks on her attendance record in a row. "Should've joined the track team," she mumbled to herself as she took off down the sidewalk.

It was one thing to ride the bus to school, she thought, since it was always caught in traffic anyway. She'd spend her time people-watching as the bus inched its way closer to the school that held her prisoner to hours of daily torture.

Running was nice change of pace, she supposed, if only it weren't her last resort. It wasn't as fulfilling as swimming, of course. Dodging people on the busy streets was definitely a challenge, but when her mind slipped from the busy streets back to the water of her dreams, she suddenly was in the ocean again with the people around her becoming the schools of fish that had kept her company in her sleep. The sounds of her feet slapping the pavement as she ran became the soft sounds of them propelling her through the water, the cool morning air combing through her hair and tickling her face feeling like the saltwater she loved so much. Running definitely wasn't so bad.

Her eyes wandered from the fish-people up to the cloudy skies hanging lowly from the heavens; sea foam floating peacefully in her make-believe ocean. The sun glowed dully behind one of the clouds, its light reflecting off the wet air like the moon's beams falling from the sky on a hazy summer's night.

Rainy days were her favorite, the smell of the sea swirling in the clouds and the salt crisp in the stormy air, the dark sky and the sun disguised as the moon -- she loved all of it. It was easy to get lost in a world most people would see as dreary. If she could, she would stay outside all day just to soak up how gorgeous it was to her.

She made it to school with all of two minutes to spare. Who would've guessed running instead of taking motor transportation would prove to be more effective? Suddenly in a good mood, Mahiru hugged her book bag to her chest as she contemplated what she could do with the saved bus fair money she would be collecting in the future.

"Hey Mahiru, you're here on time for once!" her friend called from the school's front gates.

Snapped from her happy place, Mahiru blinked as she realized just how weird it was going to be going into class, on time, homework done, school uniform clean, panic ceased. She grinned a little to herself when she thought about the look on their home room teacher's face when she made it in with everyone else. No standing out in the hall for her today!

"Mahiru," her brown haired friend said as she jabbed her index finger into Mahiru's shoulder to gain her attention. "Do you know that person?" she asked, pointing to the mechanic shop down the street. Her voice was low and thick with suspicion.

Mahiru, once again pulled from her happy make-teachers-faint-from-the-shock-of-her-being-on-time place, peered over her shoulder where her friend pointed discretely.

Her eyes widened at the young mechanic waved from just outside the shop's door.

Akira…?

Her friend's nervous giggle made her panic. "He's totally waving at you, Mahiru!"

Mahiru gulped in as much air as she could and hauled her friend in through the doors of the school. "Nope-I-have-no-idea-who-that-is-come-on-let's-go-we're-going-to-be-late-for-class!"

"Okay, okay!" her friend gripped. "Hands off the merchandise, girl. No manhandling me, I can walk on my own you know!"

Mahiru realized she had a death grip on her friend's wrist. She yelped and let go, a wave of embarrassment washing over her.

"Hey!" Junko called from their classroom's doorway. She came barreling towards them at full speed, paying no attention when she almost plowed them over. "You guys are never going to believe what I just heard!"

Their brown haired friend rolled her eyes. "We don't care if so and so super model married another super model in secret and were caught shopping for curtains for their fabulous new house, Junko."

Junko stuck her tongue out. "Are you kidding? That was so last week." she waved her hand in the no-big-deal sort of way. "The news today is so much better than that!"

Mahiru sighed. "Alright, alright. What is it, Junko?"

"We have new exchange students!" Junko almost squealed with excitement. "Boys! Gorgeous boys!" She jabbed her finger towards a bunch of giggling girls at the other end of the hall.

Mahiru's blue eyes followed the path of over excited girls to were she could only see the top of a taller boy's head full of golden blonde locks. Next to him was another boy who broke away from the crowd, his auburn hair messily spiked in every which way. His cheeks and ears were dotted with the faint indication of holes -- holes from odd piercing.

With a pang in her stomach, she realized Akira had somehow beat her into the school, changed into their uniform, and somehow managed to gain a rock star status all in under two minutes.

Her head snapped back to were Nozomu stood still swarmed with dozens of girls.

Oh… my… god… she thought. No. No, this wasn't happening. She was just being paranoid. The demonic members of the Lunar Race surely weren't stalking her. Nu-uh. They're just some boys that happen to look exactly like Nozomu and Akira. No big deal.

But then, much to her dismay, Nozomu's sapphire blue eyes looked up and over the crowd of his recently obtained fan girls and locked with Mahiru's london blues. He smiled his make-girls-cry-with-glee smile when he saw just how freaked out she was.

They really are all around! she panicked.

Dropping her head, she darted for her classroom just as the first bell rang.

The school day came and went in a blur. She was pretty sure there was some learning involved, but her brain had gone into recovery mode after seeing Akira and Nozomu turn the female majority of the student body turn to globs of mush at their feet. She still hadn't really come-to when she had packed up and started to head home.

During her entire walk home, her eyes darted around suspiciously as she searched for more members of the Lunar Race. She was sure she spotted Misoka on the roof of an abandoned shopping building while Junko and company discussed what might've been their Japanese Lit. homework or maybe the newest edition of the fashion magazine or maybe even the weather, she really wasn't sure -- the sharp stare of Misoka's eyes gazing down at her from the rooftops made her mind go all fuzzy like when she first met him.

When he was sure she saw him, he broke his stare to look casually over his shoulder like standing on rooftops was an every day no-big-deal sort of thing. Mahiru thought with a small grunt. Fine, two can play at this game.

He's ignoring me…

She turned her gaze down to her shoes where she figured would be the least likely place she'd see another demonic face. She tried to tune her thoughts back to the rambling of her friends as they continued their long walk home.

"Omigod, look!" one of them giggled, pointing to a corner store window.

Mahiru looked up without thinking about it and instantly felt a pang of regret.

There, standing behind a large glass window dressed in top of the line fashion model clothes and darkly tinted sunglasses, was Nozomu. He casually looked up from a copy of Mecna Nist: Machine Civilization magazine and cracked a smile. Mahiru could feel beads of sweat forming on her brow as he waved at the giggling girls around her. She tore her eyes away before her heart could start pounding out of her chest. She still wasn't sure what to think of the flamboyant vampire who had kissed her cheek so nonchalantly the night before.

The panic attack ceased as she got a stabbing feeling in the back of her mind, the kind of feeling that tells you when someone is glaring daggers at you. Her eyes locked with a dark pair of glaring brown eyes hiding in the shadows of a nearby ally.

Mitsuru…

If looks could kill, Mahiru would be dead and gone from the angry glaring Mitsuru was shooting her way. He looked a little beaten and bruised, shallow scratches on his cheeks and the shadow of a bruise on his forehead. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest as if he were fighting to hold his human shape. His furious eyes never blinked or strayed from where Mahiru stood, rooted to the ground, staring back at him.

He's not coming after me, Mahiru noted as she finally got some of her senses back. I guess the others are making sure he doesn't try to kill me again, if all those bruises and abrasions are any indication…

"Hey, are you okay?" Junko asked, breaking the blondie from her thoughts. Mahiru forced a smile to her lips as she nodded.

That night, as Mahiru sat at her desk and tried to focus on her Algebra homework, the tip-tip-tap-tap of her bedroom window's glass being assaulted with tiny pebbles pulled her thoughts away from numbers to the panicky fear of a certain brown eyed demon boy trying to force his way into her home to finish the job of sending her to an early grave.

Wearily, she inched closer to the window and peeked through the shut blinds.

"There you are, girlie!" Nozomu laughed. He was sitting on the rooftop just below her window like it was a perfectly natural thing to do. In his hand was a bunch of tiny pebbles he'd scooped up from her aunt's garden in the front yard -- he had been flicking them one by one against the glass to gain her attention in what he hoped would be melodramatic gesture.

"W-what're you doing?" Mahiru asked as she drew the blinds up and slid the window open.

Nozomu dropped the remaining pebbles over roof's edge, feeling a little dorkish and rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry sorry, I'm a hopeless romantic a heart. I don't think the whole throwing-pebbles-at-girl's-windows-is-romantic thing works all too well here in Japan…" he admitted with slight embarrassment.

"That's… okay," Mahiru finally managed to mumble, she too feeling a small twinge of awkward embarrassment. She pulled her chair over from her desk sat so she could lean out the open window. The air smelled like rain, even if none had fallen yet.

"Smells good, doesn't it?"

She fidgeted in her chair a little. "You like the rain too, Nozomu?"

He nodded once, looking up at the sky. "It makes it easier to be out during the day, I guess. You know, the sun doesn't try to kill me then at least. But it's calming too; it smells nice."

"Yeah, it does," Mahiru agreed. She stared off into the dark night's sky for a while before Nozomu brought her back from zombie land for the thousandth time of the day.

"Are you still afraid of us, Mahiru?" His voice was soft but twinged with the slightest hint of worry. "Of Mitsuru…?"

Mahiru stared at the blonde teen in front of her. At that very minute, he looked more like a movie star, bathed in the foggy night's moonlight. There was no part of him suggested he was a blood thirsty monster she saw in movies or read in horror stories. He was a boy, just like any other. Well… prettier than most, but still just another boy.

Akira, she wasn't afraid of. No, he was too much of a puppy, even in human form. When he smiled, she wanted to smile. Sure, he was a bit of an oddball, but his sweet personality shined through even in his weirdest of moments she'd witnessed with him.

Misoka was… well, strange. She felt like he was judging her, but not in a life-or-death sort of way that Mitsuru had been. He was mysterious, but she felt safe around him. He might not throw himself at her to make her feel comfortable like Nozomu and Akira would, but he wouldn't go out of his way to make her uncomfortable. There was something timeless about him. But nothing scary.

"I…" Mahiru finally answered. "I'm not afraid of you, Nozomu… or Akira or Misoka. I don't know… There's a mysterious darkness in you all that I don't find scary at all." I actually feel safer with you guys than I do with most humans… she thought, but omitted from her confession at the risk of sounding too cheesy. "But Mitsuru I don't know about."

Nozomu nodded, getting the gist of what she was worrying about. "I don't think he's as gung-ho about killing you as before," he said, sitting back on the roof so one hand was supporting him from behind so the other was free to rest on his knee. "It's probably more a matter of his pride and stubbornness now." He paused, breaking his gaze into her eyes to look down at the street below. "Just so you know… no matter what, he'll always be against your help."

Mahiru felt her spine go rigid. "But why?" She asked, trying hard to keep her voice from sounding like a whining child's.

Nozomu smirked and turned his head to look at her after a second. "You're interested in him?" his voice wasn't easy to read -- it wasn't mean or rude or even sarcastic, but it did have a twinge of something she couldn't put her finger on.

Immediately, Mahiru regretted even bothering to ask about Mitsuru. Of course I'm not interested in him! She threw her hands up and tried to explain to Nozomu that it defiantly was not anything like that. I mean, really! He tried to KILL me!

Nozomu laughed lightly under his breath while Mahiru finished panicking. He was smiling again, though his voice wasn't the cheerful tone it had been before.

"I grew up knowing we were different," he told Mahiru. "But Mitsuru was raised by humans -- humans who had no idea that our people even existed." He shifted his weight so he could sit face-to-face with her. "Somewhere along the way, we all discovered what it was and what it's not to be of the Moon," he explained.

Mahiru leaned forward, lacing her fingers together and resting her chin on them as she listened to Nozomu's soft voice shine some light onto the mystery that was Mitsuru.

"To be quite honest, we don't know much about Mitsuru," he said, once again looking up at the hazy sky. "You've seen for yourself how distant he can be. What we do know is that he must've gone through quite a bit and lost quite a lot to be the way he is." He didn't feel he needed to scare her with the horror stories of all the foster homes, the juvenile correction centers, the cruelty of humans they managed to dig up that Mitsuru had went through before they hand found him.

He peeked at her through the corner of his eyes, studying her worried face. There was something about a girl who would show concern for a boy--a monster in her eyes--who tried to kill her. She was something special, not in just a Princess of the Moon sort of way.

He smiled a little to himself before continuing.

"As far as his anger goes, it's not really directed towards you, or other humans really. He hates his own race just as much." He grinned, trying to hide the aching pang he felt for having to admit that to such a sweet girl. "And us, we're his friends, right? But deep down, I doubt he trusts us any more than he trusts you."

"But…" Mahiru interrupted, "If there was a way to lower the walls around him, things could be different, right?"

Nozomu smiled, sensing a plan forming from her words.


End of chapter four. It has been exactly one year since I last updated -- I'm sorry! There is a pile reasons why, but writer's block has to be at the top of it. Forgetting my pass to this account and to the email for the account might've had something to do with it too.

This is for Winged Shadow, mooonsnite, and especially my little Minion.

My thanks to Artemis, Elen-Di, hahamoondancecow, Emilinia-sama, and QuickStar for reviewing! You guys are way too awesome.

As for the worried comments about possible copyrighting of this work; as I've said in the disclaimer in chapter one, I do not own nor do I claim the original story. I do use a lot of direct quotes from the manga, but I also try to mix in as much of my own personal work as possible whenever I can. Since I'm not publishing this story as my own, or claiming anything but my own words mixed into the originals--and since this is posted on a fan fiction website, I highly doubt anyone with the authority to sue me for this will bother.

But, if by chance someone who does have claim on it has found this and wants it to be removed, all you have to do is ask. I'm happy to oblige.

Now, with that semi-ramble over, I want to thank anyone who is reading this -- ghost readers or way awesome reviewers who are thinking about letting me know you're still out there (which I would be very grateful for!) thanks for sticking with me for so long. I'm going to try and keep in the flow of writing more often -- and I AM easily bribed and motivated with reviews -- so bear with me a little? I'll try to keep you guys provided with more chapters that aren't spread out with a year between them.

Also, please forgive the typos and mistakes. I tried to catch them all, but it's hard to do on my own and my beta hasn't emailed me back yet, so I'm going to post this anyway. I'll fix any error I might've missed when I notice it.

-RH