If you're wondering what in the hell is going on and why BBLS was a chapter a day but MMC is more like a chapter a week (unintentional), this time it's because I had a really good idea for this chapter. I mean, it was plot-defining, arc-changing, and chock-full of all that character development we know and love. But I scrapped it. Why, you ask? Well, because; I wanted something to write after I finish up this plotline that isn't less than a thousand words and ends with such a fluffy-love scene that it puts BBLS to shame. (Not that I dislike Ones Shots, but still.)

Now, I've scrapped ideas before; but never has one been big enough to support its own multi-chapter fanfiction and never has the idea that maybe I should save this for later come to me more than half-way through a chapter.

*sigh* …Right. Well, enjoy what wasn't originally the plot. Chapter four. Woo.

…It was a good one, too…

Though I kind of like this one better. And I guess that the other idea was a bit too… Fast, I guess is the word for it. Too much, too soon. Anyway, sorry it's taking so long. Here it is. Enjoy.

My Missed Chance – Chapter Four

The next morning, Len was taking getting ready for school a lot slower than he usually would. His alarm clock had woke him up an hour earlier than he meant it to, so all his things were ready long before he needed to get moving. He spent his new free time walking around the house, stopping every once and a while, and looking out the window. It was still darkish outside, with gray clouds filling the sky from the rainstorm that blew through town the previous night. Len sat on the couch and looked outside, staring blankly as the clock on the table next to it moved from one hour left to forty-five minutes. The house was silent.

Len lived alone. While he had a legal guardian, he was never with him aside from government mandated dates and his parents abandoned him years before to pursue a drug habit that led them to an Indian jail cell. He wasn't sure if anyone knew that about him. He'd never told anybody. But it never bothered him much because he made it along just fine without them. His guardian may not ever be there with him, but from what Len had seen he was rolling in a pile of money from work he never talked about and sent Len a weekly check of $750. So long as the government didn't mind his receiving this little payment for living, Len didn't either. It had bought him a new car and the paint job that goes with it. Along with most of everything else he had- he trashed most of the stuff his parents left behind. Which wasn't much.

But he did get lonely. It was a depressing sight: Len lived in a two-story house with three bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, and a freaking library of books that he felt would be too much of a hassle to throw out. And he lived there alone. He didn't have visitors; even whenever someone came to the door selling something, he'd just say that his parents weren't home. Come back later. Luckily, most didn't come back, so he didn't have to think on his feet too much. The only social interaction he had was at school. And now, it was really just with Neru and whoever else decided to barge into his business to find out who he was crushing on/messing around with this week. Apparently, most people thought of him as one of two things: a stoic who doesn't like you, or a playboy who's been with every girl in the school and has no plans to stop there.

Len's never been able to place the source of that last one. And not knowing the source of a rumor makes it very difficult to shut down.

But again, he didn't have many friends. He had acquaintances here and there. But he didn't really care if they thought he was a super-powered god-king or not. He had other, more important things to worry about.

He turned his head and watched the clock's minute hand click from one indent to the next. Forty-four minutes. He went back to staring out the window.

When he arrived at school, Len was walking through the white-tiled hallways around twenty minutes before the first bell was scheduled to ring. He was alone; aside from the cameras attached to the roof that ran off of student's paranoia. They never moved- he'd seen the controls for them in the office once, but they never moved. The always just stared off down the hall the same way they always looked, watching people as they walked up and down the halls, going to and fro. They creeped him out. He didn't like being watched.

Which made the fact that Gumi was unsuccessfully stalking him at the moment a bit of a personal inconvenience.

That green-haired girl was still on him about not telling her about his crush on Rin. He'd hoped that she would just give up and go bother someone else, but she was more persistent than others who had tried to get it out of him. Not that persistence changed anything. He was still successfully keeping her away so far, and he didn't plan on changing that because instead of someone wanting to know, said someone really wants to know.

Though stalking him through the halls was a new one.

Len turned the corner, and slammed into someone standing in his way. He didn't fall, but he had to look up to see who it was.

"Oh, Len, wandering the halls I see? Are you eager to get to class or did you finally decide you wanted to talk to someone?" She brushed the single strand of her pink hair that was in front of her face out of her eyes.

As she adjusted her glasses, Len sighed. "Luka… Uh… No, I was just-"

"Mrs. M~!" Gumi's high and cheery voice came up from behind him as she turned the corner. She stopped and smiled. "Oh, hi Len!" she said, trying to play off the fact she was following him. "Were you looking for Luka, too?"

Len looked back from Gumi to Luka, in about the same way he did when they tried to get him to talk in the classroom. He sighed again. "No, but I guess I found her."