By Atlantis Forester
Disclaimer: "St. Tail" belongs to Megumi Tachikawa.
A.N. Sorry about the long wait!
Chapter Three: Challenge
"So, Asuka, how did it go?' Yuki leaned in towards Asuka.
"What did she look like?!"
"What was she wearing?"
"Did you hear her voice?"
Asuka sweatdropped. A crowd of people surrounded him, bombarding him with questions. He didn't know how to respond to everyone's queries... mainly because last night had been a complete, humiliating failure. Asuka had never failed an assignment before, and it had been a degrading experience.
"So," said a cool voice behind him, "I heard that Fallen Angel stole the Emerald of Deception in a total of... five minutes."
Asuka nearly fell out of his chair and turned his head to be met by the sight of a slim blue-eyed girl with red-gold hair. People gasped in surprise at this and also turned to the informer.
"Hatashi," Asuka said tightly. He glared at her. "Where did you hear that?"
Eimi's lip curled slightly and she held up a newspaper as she walked towards him. "The paper. Sumi-chan got it for me. See? It made the front page--Fallen Angel always does."
Suddenly determined to change the subject, Asuka looked pointedly at her. "What are you doing here? This isn't your class."
"Just dropping by,' Eimi answered, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "I thought that you might want a glance at today's headlines." By now, she was right next to Asuka. Smiling mischievously, Eimi lowered her right hand to his hair and ran her fingers slowly through his ebony hair. "And I wanted to say hello." She dropped her lashes over her eyes and stroked his head again. "My... you have very silky hair." Then, with a sultry laugh, she dropped the newspaper on his desk and walked confidently out of the room in a manner that definitely spelled trouble for Asuka's breathing.
Asuka stared after her, following the sway of her hips and admiring her form. He was brought back to his senses by Yuki, who discreetly kicked his foot. Embarassed, he coughed lightly.
"She seems... very close to you," said one of the girls--jealousy clear in her eyes--to Asuka.
"The way she touched your hair...' added another girl suspiciously. "Is she... your girlfriend?'
All the females held their breaths, hoping for a negative answer.
"Er, no," replied Asuka, uncomfortable.
"Well, she has some nerve!" exclaimed someone. Eyes turned to a slender, dark-haired girl. Misawa Kinokouchi was the most popular female in--possibly--the entire school. She had light blue eyes, a rosy mouth, a voluptuous figure, and her flaxen hair flowed down to her waist. Misawa was undoubtedly a very beautiful girl. However, in Asuka's opinion, Misawa lacked the ripe maturity of Eimi Hatashi's curving body as well as her exotic look.
Now, it was no unknown matter that Misawa was after Asuka.--she had gotten everyone else she had wanted, even Yuki. Unfortunately for her, Asuka resisted her charms, though he sometimes flirted with her. "What do you mean?" asked Asuka calmly. For some reason, even though Hatashi had angered him, he disliked Misawa's attack on her.
"What do I mean?" Misawa flipped her hair. "It's so obvious that that little girl likes you. It's so pathetic to watch her trying to flirt with you!"
Absently, Asuka noted to himself that Hatashi's 'attempt to flirt with him' had worked quite efficiently. He felt undeniably attracted to her--if she liked him, he had absolutely no problem with it. "She's only one year younger than you, Misawa. I don't think that a sixteen-year-old can be called a 'little girl'."
Misawa took the liberty of sitting on his desk and crossed her legs. Giving him a coy smile, she said, "Now, really, Asuka! You disappoint me. Compare her to, for instance... me. I've got double her curves, and she's only, like you said, a year younger than me." She laughed and tilted herself closer to Asuka.
"No she doesn't," said Asuka hotly, starting to stand up. "You definitely don't have double her curves, Misawa, or you'd be on the cover of a magazine for perverts."
Everyone stared at him. Asuka suddenly realized with a red face that it seemed as if he was making a fuss out of nothing. Coughing, he sat back down and grabbed the newspaper to read. If he wasn't careful, people would think that he had a crush on Hatashi! He was going to ignore them, and they would eventually go away.
~~~
"Ahhhh..." Eimi sighed with pleasure as she sank into her steaming bath with a glass of chilled tea.
As soon as she settled down, taking slow sips of her drink, her mind turned immediately to Asuka. She smirked. It had been her victory, today. The Emerald of Deception was sitting on her bedside table, and she had shown Asuka that she was master of the situation.
Hmm, she thought. Maybe I should make things a little more interesting... She smirked again and tipped the rest of her tea down her throat, humming. I know just the thing...
~~~
The next day, Asuka found himself sitting on the grass outside with a mulish expression on his face and an envelope in his hand. His friends formed a circle around him, and were all trying to speak at the same time.
"Get me an autograph!"
"Can you get a picture of her for me?"
"Get me one of her bras!"
"Can I smell it so I can buy that perfume for her?"
"Ask her what kind of jewelry she likes!"
"Tell me who her favorite band is!"
Asuka had had enough. "SHUT UP!!!" he roared with a glare. "For the billionth time, I don't know her!"
"That's impossible," scolded Yuki. "If you didn't know her, then why would she send you a personal letter sprayed with her perfume?"
"She's a thief, for crying out loud!" Asuka yelled. "And I happen to be the person who will arrest her! If I knew her, I'd drag her straight to jail!"
"What does the letter say, anyway?" someone asked, curious.
Asuka flushed. "S-she... she says she wants to see me."
"W-WHAAAATTT?!?!?!?!"
A.N. Phew, I'm glad that's over. Sorry about the long delay! And, yes, I know it's short, but I couldn't help it. I'm kind of running short on time, so... *sweatdrop* I'M SORRY!!!!! But you can find out more about how fast I plan on updating in my bio. Cheers!
~Lanti~