Title: Time's Lullaby

Author: iyris/ai

Rating: PG13

Genre: Romance, fantasy, supernatural, mystery

Summary: Ryoma was living a dull normal human life, not until when several 'aristocrats' who called themselves 'Nobles' and 'Nights' appeared at his school as exchange students. One thing common about them, all their eyes had a certain color. Having golden eyes, was he one of them too? Or was he just a mere human dragged into another world because of his eyes?

Disclaimer: POT is not mine.

NOTE!: "dialogs"

Time's Lullaby

Blue and Gold,

The Red rips;

Song uncalled,

The Time sleeps.

Chapter Three: The Aristocrats

Death whispers tick-tock;

Life yells with the silver clock.

Run! Glints a dangerous hue,

Behind the smile are icy blue.

The sun set early today. It was not even six but the sky was already dark. Wanting to reach my unit as soon as possible, I decided to use the shortcut: a dark alley with not much people—

'THUD!'

A person, all covered in black even his face leaving only the eyes opened in view, fell in front of me.

.

.

.

I got a bad feeling about this.

I was not really sure of what to do. Should I go ask for help? Should I run away and not get myself involved? Or should I help the person myself? "Oi, you okay?"

'THUD!'

Another person, also covered in black, fell. The volume of the blood on the ground increased.

This didn't look good.

'THUD!'

'THUD!'

Now there were two.

This was getting dangerous. I turned around to go ask for some help. I knew I moved independently and preferred to do things by myself but I was not stupid. There were certain things I couldn't handle by myself.

But as soon as I turned around, another person in black landed right in front of my face. It took him a second to notice that I was standing in front of him. He was a lot taller than me, bulkier, and darker. But what I noticed the most were the pitch black eyes that were glaring down at me. Then I saw a glint at his side, he was holding a long katana.

.

.

.

I WOULD BE KILLED!

"Don't move."

Ice. That was what I thought when I heard his voice. It felt solid and really cold. I was so into my thought that I did not notice the new pairs of feet that landed behind me. One, two, three? Was it four or five? The attention of the person in front of me immediately moved towards the owner of that cold voice. I was tempted to turn and take a look at him too but then a strong gust of chilling wind passed by me and then a heavy pressure.

'THUD!'

The person who was just standing not long ago fell on my feet. Followed by the sound of slashes, groans and more thuds behind. And then I felt it again. The unpleasant feeling I felt this morning. For a very brief of moment and it quickly disappeared. Just like that wind… It was so fast that my body reacted late. Was it a 'color'? Was it his?

I braced myself and gasped for air. But it was not as bad as the first.

"Are you alright?"

I turned my head. There I saw, beside the other four bodies that fell beforehand were another three bodies. Were they dead? Slowly, I looked up at the standing figure not so far away from me.

Thin.

Pale.

Long brown hair.

"Hey, are you okay?" His voice was gentler this time but the coldness remained. He stepped closer.

Smiling lips. Did he kill them with a smile?

"Ah, yes. Thanks about that." I answered as I regained my composure and met his eyes. They were smiling. They paired his lips perfectly but they were…fake.

"You've felt it? The 'color'?" he asked kindly.

As I thought. That was a 'color' but I didn't respond. Instead. "Are they dead? Did you kill them?"

"Oh! You can even see them?" His smile grew wider and now stood just inches away from me. "What an interesting human."

Then he put his jacket around my shoulders and walked passed me. That was when I noticed that my body was still trembling, shaking. Was it because of fear? Because of 'color'? Because of the cold temperature of the night? Or because of him? "Go home. Before you catch a cold!" he added with a chuckle and it was not fake. It had a nice ring to my ears.

I quickly turned around to see him but he was not around anymore. Disappearing just like a thin air and considering what I have seen, I bet he's not normal either. There was no need for bet, actually. For sure, he was not normal. Just like the 'aristocrats' in our school. Right, the jacket he gave me was a uniform of our school. Was he a Seigaku student? Was he one of 'them' too? But I didn't see him this morning. It was highly probable though. Someone with his looks should have long been noticed in the school if he was a student long before.

Put that aside. What about the people he killed? I glanced at the corpses and was surprised to see that they turned ashes and were already being scattered by the wind along with the already gone blood.

I laughed nervously to myself. I knew I was pretty normal but what was I witnessing? Eversince those so called 'aristocrats' appeared, weird things started to happen around me. As much as I wanted to wish that everything was just a dream, I couldn't because I was aware of the suppressed excitement I was feeling. It was kind of frightening but the thrill totally covered up for everything. I thought of avoiding them because I didn't like trouble but I couldn't also deny that they were the one who made me first experience everything that happened now. They were indeed interesting. No, more than interesting.

"Koshimae! Wheeere aaare yooou?!" Kintarou was so loud while searching for me during lunch break. Even without looking down from the branch of tree where I was lying, I could tell that he was just below me. "KOSHIMAE!"

He's attracting too much attention. I sighed. "Oi."

He immediately climbed and settled himself at the branch beside mine. "You should have told me that you were just here."

"Tsk. You knew I was here."

"Is that so?" He opened a lunch box. "Want some? They are delicious!"

I took some. It was food we're talking about here and there was no way I would refuse it.

"How is it? Delicious, right?" He was obviously looking forward to my answer.

"Ah."

"Of course it is! Reiko-nee-chan made them for me, after all."

Reiko? Ah, the short girl with long red hair and silver eyes that Akutsu was talking about. "Is she your sister?"

"Sister? Hm. You can say that but we're from different family. I'm from the House of Tooyama while she's from the House of Kikumaru."

I knitted my eyebrows. I understood his words but didn't get what he was trying to say.

He smiled knowingly. "You see, not only blood-related people can treat others as their siblings. My father and Kikumaru-san—Reiko-nee-chan's father— are best friends and I was brought to the Kikumaru house for a visit when I was five. That's when I met her and her younger twin brother, Eiji-chan, though they don't like alike except for the hair. We grew attached to each other easily, especially Reiko and I. I don't have any elder sibling so she became an elder sister to me. Eiji-chan doesn't call her nee-san so she asked me to do it. Just a selfish whim but I don't mind. I also like it anyway."

"I see." Well, I totally understood him. But I was not much interested with his background story. If there were something I was much more interested, it would be what they really are.

"Aristocrats," said he and that quickly perked my attention. "You're curious about us, aren't you?"

Yes. Really curious. "Not really." Totally opposite of what I was thinking. I sighed inwardly. But if it were Kintarou, he probably would say something about them.

"I heard about yesterday. And that you can even see them."

"Them, you mean?"

"The 'Undead'. They were the persons covered in black and had pitch black eyes. They are dangerous. A lot more dangerous than us."

I looked intently at him. "What are they? What are you exactly?"

"I wonder if it's alright to say this." He thought for awhile. "Well, whatever. Telling it to a human seems interesting. As you thought, we are not humans. We are people from the Kingdom of Araqiel, a totally different world from the world you've known. But the people there are almost like humans too. They have dark brown to lively black eyes. Pitch black eyes are different story. Their hairs are black. And they are just a little bit stronger and faster than humans."

"But your eyes are not dark brown or black. Same goes with the others here."

"That only goes for the 'Aristocrats'. We were born with certain eyes and hair color to recognize that we're different from normal Araqielians. In your world, we would be like relatives of a King or Queen with high statuses in the country."

"Then all of you that came here are Aristocrats?"

"Yes. But there's one. He's half. His mother is an Aristocrat while his father is a normal citizen. Second year, Kaido Kaoru. He has black hair. But since he was really an outstanding student, he was allowed to participate in the exchange program."

"I see. You are just like an 'elite'?"

"Elite, eh? Not really. When you say elite to us, that would mean the top seven students in our school. Even in the aristocrats circle, there are those that are on entirely different level. Normally they are the ones that are being sent to the human world but they are really busy right now so there were only three of us here."

"You are one?"

He nodded. "Fuji-sempai and Atobe are the other two. Both seniors. You've met Fuji-sempai yesterday. He was the one with the 'Undead.'"

So his name was Fuji. "About the 'Undead'. They were killed by this Fuji."

"Fuji-sempai is not the bad one. Those undead should be killed. Also, you could have died yesterday, you know? If Fuji-sempai and Reiko-nee-chan didn't help."

Help, eh? More like I just got involved so they needed to help me out of it. Eh? This Reiko was also there? Then the "color".

"Yes, it was Reiko's 'color'."

"Huh? I just said 'color' out loud?"

"It must be Akutsu-sempai who told you about it."

I nodded.

"You must have picked his interest if he went out himself to talk to you." He chuckled. "You're really something. First you felt Reiko's 'color' then you can also see the 'undead'. You see, 'undead' are supposed to be nonexistent in this world so normal human should not be able to see them. I'm certain that you're a human, but...are you really?"

I looked at him in disbelief. The question struck me quite a bit hard. Was I really a human?

"Don't worry, you're a human!" I jumped at my seat when someone suddenly said that behind me. "Just more than ordinary though," she whispered to my ears and shivered at the close proximity. "And Kin-chan, you've said too much."

"An-sempai!" Kintarou exclaimed.

I struggled to keep my balance but uh-oh. "Whoa!"

"Koshimae!"

"Ryoma-kun!"

They both called aloud when I totally lost the balance. It surely would be painful to fall on my butt. I closed my eyes tightly.

.

.

.

'POOF!'

.

Oh, it didn't hurt?

"We met again." I knew that voice. I opened my left eye first and when I confirmed that it was him, the right eye followed. "Fuji-sempai?"

"I'm flattered that you know my name." His lips were curved upwards again but this time, I felt genuineness in his smiling eyes.

"Just heard it now."

His hold on me grew tighter and that's when I realized that he was holding me like a princess. Not a nice thing. I was getting embarrassed at the position and sure thing people had started to stare at us. "Uhm, Sempai, can you please put me down?"

"Are you sure?" He smirked. "Oh, why are you blushing?" He was surely teasing me.

"Ugh. Just put me down."

He put me down and saw the crowd that had formed around us. Beside us were Kintarou and the girl with short brown hair. The crowd was understandable. Three of those aristocrats have gathered in an open space near a tree. With their looks, they were quite a sight. But why did I have to be near them at such moment?! I could already hear the loud voice of Horio asking many things. It would be troublesome.

Fuji-sempai chuckled. "You really are cute."

"Don't say that."

The girl giggled. "By the way, I'm Tachibana An. Junior. Nice to meet you, Ryoma-kun!"

They already knew my name. Not really a surprise. I slightly bowed to show at least some respect. "Meino Ryoma. Nice to meet you."

"And oh," Fuji-sempai interrupted. "I'm Fuji Syusuke. Senior. Though you probably already know me. Nice to meet you, Ryo-chan."

It was out of reflex when I glared at him because of the nickname he gave me. "Don't call me that, Fuji-sempai."

"Why not? Don't you want it?"

"Don't want it."

"C'mon, let me call you Ryo-chan."

"No way."

"Ne?"

"YADDA!"

Both Kintarou and Tachibana An sighed.

"Poor Koshimae! Fuji-sempai had set his eyes on him," said Kintarou with teary-eyes. Teary eyes? Oi, what was that supposed to mean?

"Yeah." Tachibana agreed and looked at me with pity.

Eh? Did that mean that I was really in danger? I thought Kintarou was already handful because of his loud personality. But I never thought that someone could be on an entirely higher league. Fuji-sempai, how should or rather would I be able to handle him?

.

.

That reminded me, I forgot to ask Kintarou. How about the students we sent to their world as exchange students?

to be continued...

A/N: Thank you for those who read, added this to the favorite list, followed, and reviewed the story. I really appreciate them. They are big help. And if it won't bother you so much, please do share you view on the story. I really want to read the reviews of the readers to know where I should improve. Especially on how I portrayed the characters. Grasping there personalities is really hard for me so if you have noticed, they might be some slight OCness. I apologize for that. Also, please if you have any ideas, share them. I already have the main concept and idea of the story but I still want to hear the ideas and opinions of the others. Thank you very much for your time! :)