Dark Side of the Moon:

Story One: The Road Less Traveled

Notes: -100% Alternate Universe Canon Divergent!

-If you do not like the idea of original characters being paired with cannon characters, please leave this story.

-If you are a fan of the following ships: Tadano/Retsuko, Tadano/Haida, Haida/Retsuko, Haida/Fenneko, I suggest turn away.

-For my ease, I gave Haida, Tadano, etc family names. Just referring by one name felt really clunky to me personally.

"Why do I keep getting myself into these sticky situations?" Sugiyama Haida grumbled sulking to himself sitting at the counter of the ramen shop.

"One miso ramen," the cook said setting the bowl down in front of the sullen hyena.

"Thank you," Haida sighed to the cook then turned his attention to his phone. A mild scowl furrowed Haida's brow as he scrolled through the official Facebook page for the OTM Girls. His scowl deepened when he stopped scrolling on a picture of Retsuko with the rest of the group on stage. Just as he was about to start scrolling some more, Haida's ears perked up hearing a familiar voice.

"I'll have my usual," Tadano smiled to the cook behind the counter as he took a seat next to the surprised hyena. Glancing to his side, the donkey did a double take recognizing the hyena next to him. "Oh, hey! It's been a while," he greeted Haida with a warm smile. "What brings you out here?"

"Oh, hey. I...heard this place has some of the best ramen in Japan," he told a half truth once he recovered from his initial shock. Truth was Haida was a little embarrassed to admit he followed Retsuko out to Sapporo fearing she was in danger.

"Yeah, it does," Tadano admitted. "It's honestly my favorite place to come eat." Tadano's smile faltered slightly as the cook placed a bowl of spicy miso ramen in front of him. "I brought Retsy here on our first date," he sighed sadly before picking up some of the noodles soaked in the spicy broth.

"How are you able to still come here?" Haida asked. "If it were me personally, I wouldn't be able to come here again because there would be some sad feelings."

"I moved on," Tadano replied slurping up the noodles on his chopsticks. "Not going to lie, when Retsy dumped me, I was in a really fucked up place. I didn't know how I was going to be able to continue. Eventually, I was able to let go of the hurt and move on." He confessed between bites of his ramen.

"So how did you do it?" Haida asked hanging on Tadano's every word. "How were you able to let go and move on after the breakup?" Haida asked the donkey.

Tadano picked up a piece of chashu with his chopsticks staring at it. "I met someone new," he simply said before putting the flavorful pork in his mouth.

"What? Seriously?" Haida looked surprised.

Tadano glanced at the hyena with his usual laid back smile and nodded. "Yeah," He slurped up some more noodles. "I didn't think I could ever love again after Retsy dumped me. Hell, I was ready to just swear off relationships all together...but then I met her," Tadano showed Haida the picture on the lock screen of himself with a petite rat, both of them with a cheesy grin on their faces taking a selfie.

Haida couldn't help but smile at the picture. "So how did you two meet?" he asked.

"I kinda broke her glasses," Tadano chuckled when he saw the shocked expression on the hyena's face. "It was a couple of months after the breakup, I had just left a meeting with your CEO," Tadano began to tell Haida how he met his new girlfriend.

Eight Months Earlier:

To the casual observer, Tensai Tadano is an unambitious lazy ass living off of his family's wealth, but that is far from the truth. The young tech genius did not get to where he is by being a slothful slacker letting his gifted intelligence go to waste.

On his own, he created the most intuitive and scaleable artificial intelligence algorithm, and started his own company earning him a spot among other self made tech billionaires like Will Bates and Ethan Dusk… and he accomplished all of this before his twenty-second birthday. By his twenty-fifth birthday, Tadano's net worth reached 565.3 billion yen (5.5 billion USD) setting him among the ranks of Clark Ruben in wealth. However, from a cursory glance, it did not look like the young tech genius had accomplished much.

"I think that meeting went well," Tadano sighed looking over some contracts on his tablet rather than at his computer. "ENI-O, do I have anything else on the schedule for today?"

The A.I. took a second to process the query scanning through Tadano's schedule. "No sir, you have no other meetings or appointments scheduled for today," ENI-O replied.

"So my afternoon is clear?" Tadano asked slipping off his suit jacket.

"Yes sir. Would you like me to take you home now?" ENI-O responded.

"Mmm, no. I think I am going to check out some places around here for lunch," Tadano casually replied as he looked around the back of his limo for his hoodie. Mildly annoyed at himself realizing he must have left it at home, Tadano sighed rolling up the sleeves of his red shirt before getting out of the limo.

Seeing as she needed some fresh air as well as to replenish some of her art supplies, Ogata Rumiko, a petite rat in her early 20's, wandered about the Otamachi business district totally lost. "Where in the hell am I," she murmured to herself looking down at her phone following the directions on the screen. Not paying attention to where she was going, the petite rat gasped shocked when she walked into someone landing on her rear, her glasses flying from her face.

"Oh! I'm sorry," Tadano said to the person that collided with him. The dressed down donkey stepped closer to help the rat back to her feet only to accidentally step on her glasses with a loud crunch.

"Oh no!" Rumiko cried out blindly feeling around for her misplaced and now broken glasses. "Shit!" Rumiko sighed as her hand landed on the broken glasses.

"Are you okay miss?" Tadano knelt down to help the rat up to her feet.

"Of course I'm Not okay!" She held the broken glasses up attempting to look through the lenses only to sigh frustrated as one lens was severely shattered while the other had several cracks. Currently, all she could see was a blur of black, red, and pale blue directly in front of her. "You broke my glasses! How the hell am I supposed to get home if I can't see where I am going!" The petite rat snapped at the donkey in front of her.

Tadano honestly felt horrible for what just happened. "I'm so sorry!" he apologized. "Listen, can I give you a ride home? It's the least I can do."

"How do I know you aren't some nutcase out to kidnap or kill me?" the feisty little rat squinted her ruby eyes looking in Tadano's direction.

"I promise, I am not a psycho killer. I'm just a sometimes clumsy, clueless businessman not watching what he's doing at times," Tadano chuckled taking her hand and helping her to her feet. "Though to be fair, you were the one who walked into me."

"Ah, touche," Rumiko felt her heart flutter slightly when he took her hand as they stood up. "Okay, mister clumsy businessman. Do you have a name or should I just call you Clumsy?" Rumiko relaxed a little teasing the donkey.

Tadano rubbed the back of his head with his free hand laughing. "My bad, I'm Tadano. Tensai Tadano," he introduced himself to the petite rat. "So, can I offer you a ride?"

"Ogata Rumiko," she introduced herself. "And yes...please, I would greatly appreciate a ride," Rumiko smiled accepting his offer considering she was not familiar with the Otamachi business district.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Rumiko," the donkey smiled extending his arm slightly so she could grab on to him.

During their trip to the blind rat's apartment in the Meguro District of Tokyo, Rumiko asked the tech genius donkey all sorts of questions learning more about him. She in turn told him about her love of art, sewing, music, and all things crafty despite her visual handicap.

Ever the kind and friendly soul, Tadano walked with Rumiko to make sure she made it to her apartment without getting hurt. "Thank you for your help," she said fishing her keys out of her purse.

"It's no problem really," Tadano chuckled warmly. "I mean it's the least I could do for accidentally breaking your glasses."

"Well truthfully I should have been more alert to my surroundings," Rumiko confessed with a light chuckle. "Listen, I know I probably interrupted something important so could I maybe offer some tea or maybe lunch?" she asked squinting at the set of keys in her hands.

"Uh, do you need help?" Tadano asked ignoring her question watching the petite blind rat concerned. He gently touched the back of her hand expecting her to say yes but instead was shocked when she pulled her hand away from his and looked in his direction mildly annoyed.

"I'm blind, not helpless," Rumiko sighed with a flat tone locating the correct key.

"Well that's the thing," he began concerned reaching for her keys again. "Without your glasses, you can't see anything at all so…" Tadano started to say reaching for her keys again.

Rumiko crossed her arms folding her ears back now clearly annoyed. "Just because I am blind doesn't mean I am in a world of complete darkness," she sighed exasperated.

"I'm sorry, I…" Tadano started to apologize for his assumption when Rumiko held up a hand stopping his apology.

"Save it," the mildly annoyed rat sighed then returned her attention to the door unlocking it with ease. "Anyway, the offer for lunch or tea is still good even though you have greatly offended me," she said stepping into the entryway of her apartment.

"If I declined, you would take it personally, wouldn't you," Tadano sighed with a slight smirk.

"Yes, I would," Rumiko said with a flat tone though her face held a smug expression.

"Then lunch would be nice, thank you," Tadano smiled as he entered the apartment removing his shoes at the door before walking further inside.

"Please, make yourself comfortable," Rumiko said as she moved through the extremely spacious apartment confidently. The petite rat made her way to a corner of the living room where there was a large L-shaped desk slightly cluttered with various art supplies along with her current project and found her spare glasses. Now that she could see, Rumiko turned and looked at Tadano to get a better look at him. For the second time that day, the petite rat felt her heart skipping a beat as a deep blush washed over her cheeks. "I'll go prepare lunch, make yourself comfortable."

"You said that already," Tadano couldn't help but chuckle softly at the flustered rat taking a seat at the dining table. From a cursory glance around the "artist tidy" apartment, the observant tech genius donkey learned some more small details about the rat in the kitchen cooking like her love of Sailor Moon and Disney. "So do you live alone?" he asked turning his attention back to Rumiko.

"Yes, I do...sort of," she said as she looked through her fridge pulling together the ingredients to make a quick and easy ginger pork stir fry.

"Sort of?" Tadano raised an eyebrow watching as she started cooking.

Rumiko paused in slicing up the vegetables and thought for a moment the best way to explain her living situation. "I live in this apartment by myself, but my older sister and her husband live in the penthouse unit on the top floor."

"That's pretty convenient," Tadano sighed. "My closest family I am on good terms with live pretty far south outside of Nara."

"Honestly it's a pain in the ass, but it's one of the conditions my father set so I deal with it," Rumiko sighed moving on to slicing the pork.

"Conditions?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rumiko sighed. "If I wanted to live on my own, I had to either choose the guest house on the family estate, or where my sister lives and even then there are rules I Must follow."

"What happens if your sister and her family move?" Tadano asked.

"I have to either go with her or with my father until..." she sighed finishing cooking the stir fry.

"Until?"

"My father is extremely overprotective of me." Rumiko sighed somewhat dodging the question. "I get that he is just trying to keep me safe from the rest of the world, but it gets annoying always being sheltered like a fragile porcelain doll."

"Okay, now I am really curious," Tadano admitted.

"It's a long story I am not comfortable telling you at the moment," Rumiko said handing a bowl of jasmine rice to Tadano.

Tadano raised an eyebrow accepting the bowl. "What would it take to get this story out of you?"

Rumiko squeaked as her ears and tail turned bright pink for the third time that afternoon. "Dinner and a movie," she simply said before taking a bite of the pork stir fry with a smile.

"It's a date," Tadano returned her smile then began eating.

"So, through an unfortunately fortunate accident, you met your current girlfriend," Haida raised an eyebrow sitting next to the donkey piloting the small private jet. After their hearty meal, Tadano offered to give Haida a ride back to Tokyo which the stranded hyena gladly accepted. "No offense, but that sounds like a far-fetched plot from a goofball rom-com."

Tadano chuckled and glanced at Haida before returning his attention back to the various instrument panels that needed his attention. "Funny thing, Ruchan's sister said the same thing when she confronted me, though it was more of an ambush."

"Ruchan?" Haida raised an eyebrow looking at Tadano. "There's a story there, and I need to hear it."

Tadano's smile disappeared completely as he began landing procedures. "I'll tell you once we're on the ground considering it wasn't exactly one of my best moments."

Surprised by Tadano's sudden mood shift, Haida nodded opting not to press the subject until they were back on the ground.