A/N: Domo arigato for reviewing!!! Makes my day. ^_^ By the way, if anyone could email me at starchaser478@hotmail.com and tell me how in the world to get the html thing to work so I can do italics and bold, it would be greatly appreciated. I know how to save it as a web page….but it won't upload for some reason. Thanks a ton!!

/indicates thought/

indicates memories

Chapter Two: One Plus One Equals…

Lai scanned the bookshelf, looking for a plot she didn't already know the ending to. It didn't happen often, since every time she looked at a title, she saw the whole outline of the book. It was annoying. But that wasn't her main concern. Her father knew what had happened, and he wasn't happy about it.

Lai didn't know how long she and Hitner had simply stared at one another while the world around them was in stasis. Finally, he had blinked and glared at her, and the world had come back to normal movement. Her father had looked back at her with a stern gaze. She had vanished the moment an opportunity had arisen.

All her life, he had never exercised her time abilities, and she had always wondered why. He had always pressed her clairvoyancy, training her mind as well as he could in that aspect. She had always followed his wishes.

Then it happened that afternoon when she didn't mean it too. She hadn't even concentrated on freezing time in that moment of staring at him. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't even positive she could say for sure it was her doing.

But that meant that Hitner also had the capability of controlling time. That thought frightened and excited Lai all in the same moment. If he could, that meant she wasn't the only one, which meant there were rules, and she could be mentally more powerful. Lai snatched a book off the shelf and skimmed through the first couple pages.

"What did you do?"

Lai jumped. "Do?" she asked her father, batting her eyelashes.

Brad narrowed his eyes. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, young lady."

She cringed. She hated it when he called her that. "Orientation?" she asked innocently, wrapping a lock of dark hair around her finger.

"Yes. How many times have I asked you not to do that? We don't know what the repercussions of stopping time are."

Lai made a face. "There are repercussions for everything, not just freezing time. It would be smarter to learn more about it, not to shove it under a rug."

Crawford gave her the we've-been-over-this look. "Why did you do it then? My speech wasn't that boring, was it?"

She rolled her eyes. "No. It wasn't even intentional. It just…happened."

He raised an eyebrow. "You didn't control it?"

Lai realized her slip. "No, no. I just did it without thinking about it. It won't happen again."

He nodded. "Good. You going to work with the little ones tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Arigato. By the way, he gets over the loss of his wife then dies." He called over his shoulder in reference to the book she was holding.

"Dad!" she exclaimed. "Irritating…" she muttered, putting it back on the shelf.

She began skimming the shelf again. "Of all the things to do to a girl…" She pulled a thicker novel off the book and found herself staring into a pair of glittering hazel eyes.

"Good evening," he said.

Lai was almost shell shocked. He had an incredibly deep voice for someone his age. "Good evening," she replied cautiously. She put the book back and moved down the stack. His baritone voice followed her.

"I hope you didn't get in trouble. I don't usually get carried away with myself." Hitner said. This girl unsettled him. She couldn't have done it. He was the only one in the world who could freeze and control time.

Lai lifted an eyebrow. "I don't have a clue in the world what you mean."

Hitner leaned against the side of the stack and watched her. She was still looking over titles. "Of course you do. You were the only one not affected. You were blinking. I could hear you breathing."

She reached for a book and stopped, her fingers mere inches away from his. Lai stepped back and crossed her arms. "Very well. But aren't you a little self-assuming by thinking you were the one to do it?"

He grinned, a wide grin that could have looked evil with the right glint in his eyes. "I always assume I'm the one to do it."

/Oh, brother./ She thought. "And what if you weren't?"

"Are you saying you were the one?"

"What if I am?"

"You'd be delusional." He laughed.

"I've been able to freeze time since I was eight months old." She retorted.

They stared at each other. /I was eight and a half months./ His thought resounded through her cranium.

/I'm not believing this./ she replied.

/I won't believe I'm not the only one./ They both thought.

They both moved at the same time, grabbing for what was handy. He grabbed an abandoned coffee cup that was half full and she a hardback book. They flung the various objects at each other, and simultaneously jumped back, freezing them in the air.

Lai gasped at the image between them. The book was still in midair, pages splayed in various directions. The coffee drops were scattered through the air, suspended in their flight, the coffee cup behind them.

There was a click as someone else entered the library and the reaction was over. The book and coffee fell to the floor with a thud. Hitner shook his head in disbelief.

"You weren't bluffing." He said.

"Neither were you." She agreed.

He ran a hand through his hair. "Well. Nice to meet you." He said. It wasn't exactly convincing. He walked away.

Lai gaped after him. He was walking away? "Hey! Wait a sec! That's it? You're not even interested in knowing more about it?"

He turned around and stared at her. She couldn't be serious. "Interested in what? We both have uncanny abilities. Isn't that what this whole freak school is about? You want a friend, find it in somebody else."

She bristled. "This isn't a freak school, and might I point out you and I are just a little bit freakier than the rest? We can stop time and you don't even care that you aren't the only one? Not to mention, I never said I wanted a friend in you."

"Well that's good." He started walking again.

Her mind raced. He'd obviously been stopping and moving time a lot more than she had. Which meant he might be able to help her find out what happened to her father all those years ago. "Will you help me?" she called.

He stopped moving again. "What?"

"Help me. Just once, and I'll never bother you again."

"You're kidding, right?"

She shook her head.

Hitner looked at her for a long moment. She wasn't playing with him. She really wanted his help. "I'll think about it." He heard himself say. /What in the world…/ He groaned mentally.

"Thank you." She said sincerely. Finally she could find out what the red circles on the calendar were for. She had asked once. All her father said was that every year he circled it in red was another year he broke a promise to a friend he had cared about.

"Yeah." He was halfway out the door when she called out again.

"You don't know my name." She shouted.

"Lai." He replied, tapping his head.

"Cheater." She grumbled.



Crawford's body was sitting at his desk in his darkened office, but his mind was far away. His fingers idly twisted a pen cap as he stared off into space. He was remembering again. It was still as vivid as it ever was.

He was running, running, and as fast as he could and still he knew it wouldn't be fast enough. He wasn't going to make it.

Brad's eyes narrowed. Maybe it wouldn't end the same way this time…

He flung himself along the sidewalk. Why hadn't he thought to take the car? The detour, he remembered. He wouldn't have been able to get to where he needed to go. He was seeing it again, the body on the sidewalk. The red spilling, pooling out underneath him. The red hair falling and brushing against the cement.

He shut his eyes. It wasn't going to change. Twenty years and it wasn't going to change.

He came around the corner. There he was. Fallen and silent. The body was there, just as he had seen. Schuldig! Nothing. The German was gone. He was screaming now, next to the body. Schuldig! Schuldig!

Lai pushed the door open with a light click. Brad flinched as he was ripped out of his reverie. He looked up, and for a brief moment, Lai could see the haunted look in her father's eyes.

"Gomen ne, otousan. I just wanted to say goodnight." She said softly.

The look was gone and Brad smiled at the young girl. "Good night, Lai- chan." He frowned as a picture of something that could be played on his mind. "Lai," he called before she left.

She turned back around. "Hai?"

It was gone before he could develop it. It probably wasn't anything, but it had the feeling of that older boy in it. "Nothing. See you in the morning."

Lai brushed a dark strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. "See you in the morning." She echoed.

Brad's body slumped in the chair as the door clicked shut again. He squeezed the pen cap between his thumb and forefinger. "You're haunting me on purpose, aren't you? You just couldn't leave me alone. You could never leave me alone. Would you?" he murmured.

He squeezed the cap to tight, and as it sailed out of his fingers, he remembered a quote he'd read somewhere. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. A half smirk crossed his face as he thought about it. How true it was. How true it was.



Morning dawned, making the sunlight stretch across Lai's room. It touched her face and she grumbled an inaudible complaint and rolled over onto her back. She flung an arm over her face and sighed. She waited a few minutes before stretching, yawing and blinking her blue eyes open. As soon as she did, it took her a moment to realize there was something in her room that shouldn't be. Rather, there was someone in her room that shouldn't be.

She recognized Hitner, but shrieked anyway, jerking back against the headboard. He glared at her.

"You want to wake everyone up?" he asked.

She pulled her covers against her chest. "What do you think you're doing in here?" she demanded angrily.

He smiled, almost coyly. "You said you wanted my help. I told you I'd think about it. I thought about it. What is it exactly you want from me?"