Disclaimers: It didn't belong to me last fic, and it doesn't belong to me in this one either.
Notes: Totally different pairing than last time. A bit of a prequel, really. Starts off with the Nittle Grasper boys in high school.
Starts off from Tohma's point of view
~*The Bible of Kumagoro—Achieving Your Dreams*~
I sighed as I waited to get into the principal's office, hearing her as she screamed at the boy inside. I wasn't supposed to be here, crowded in the principal's office with all these people. I didn't trust any of them, and it was obvious they were curious as to why I was there. To tell the truth, so was I.
I glared over at the green-haired boy sitting across from me, who himself looked like he belonged there. All of them looked like little delinquents…I was well aware I stood out amongst them. His eyes caught mine for a moment and I turned away, crossing my arms and checking the time. Great, I'd been there for almost 20 minutes now!
"You wanna tell me why you're so mad at me?" I blinked as someone whispered into my ear, clasping my hand over it as I turned to face him, staring into the blue eyes of my new 'friend.' While his appearance made him look like a general punk, the look on his face made him look rather like a child. Bright blue eyes held nothing in them but innocence, it seemed.
"I'm stuck in here because of you," I offered dully, staring at the floor instead of into his eyes. I didn't want to look at him; it was kind of freaky…how he could look so innocent.
"Yeah, but it's not like any of this is going on your record na no da. I'm the one that did it." I sighed again and gave up on arguing with the boy, it wasn't of any use. He just didn't understand. I didn't want to BE here, surrounded by people I didn't know and who were starting to spread rumors about me. "Please don't be mad at me…I was only trying to help…" he tried again, touching my elbow gently.
"You caused more trouble than it was worth," I snapped back, turning to look at the hand on my elbow. "Shouldn't you have gotten that taken care of before coming here?" I asked as I noticed the blood slowly drying on his hand. He blinked and looked down at it as well, smiling innocently.
"I guess so, but they told me to come down here immediately, so I did. Didn't want to get into any more trouble na no da." He offered with that same cheerful smile, and I could hardly believe this was the same boy that had forced me here. He'd been so…different…back then.
"Sakuma-san, the principal will see you now," the assistant announced as the other boy stomped out of the room, obviously pissed off. From the way the green-haired boy stood up, I was willing to guess that meant us, and I stood up as well, following him inside slowly. They were still whispering behind me, and I heard the assistant scream at them to shut up.
"You two were the last I expected to see in here," our principal commented as I shut the door behind us, hand remaining on the door handle as I waited. Her office wasn't very big, so I doubted she noticed I was holding onto it at all. "You can sit down if you want, you don't look so well," she offered to me, and I finally let go of the door handle to sit, running fingers through blonde hair nervously.
"Um…Miss Principal lady…can I have a band-aid?" the green-haired boy asked nervously, still standing. "I missed the first time, and I'm still bleeding," he offered as she cast him a strange look, still smiling. She didn't seem too happy with his attitude.
"Are you trying to suggest to me you're proud you hit that boy?" she asked calmly, and blue eyes blinked back at her curiously.
"Why would I be proud of something like that na no ka? I'm proud I got to help somebody out, but not for hitting someone…" he trailed off absently, glancing back at me. I caught his eyes for a moment before he turned back to the principal, smiling again. "If you don't mind, can he go back to class now? It was my fault, and I'm sure he doesn't want to be here. He's not an over-emotional idiot like me." He never stopped smiling, crossing his hands behind his head, covering his bleeding hand with his clean one.
"I need him as a kind of a witness to tell me what happened, to make sure I get everyone's side of the story. Rest assured he won't get in trouble, though." Well that was a relief. I didn't think I would be, but still…one could never tell. I had been the cause of it all.
"I'm not going to lie if that's what you think. I know it was my fault, and I'll take whatever punishment you wanna give me."
"That's sweet of you, but we really need to hear his side of the story, too. My invitation goes to you as well, you know. You can sit down if you want to," she tried again, motioning to the seat next to me with a nod of her head. He didn't even look at it, obviously not interested in the invitation.
"Dun wanna get blood all over your stuff," he offered offhandedly, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall instead.
"Kind of you. Sorry I don't have a band-aid on hand. Now, would you mind telling me what happened?" she asked, turning her attention to me again, waiting patiently. I glanced up towards the ceiling absently, trying not too look as nervous as I felt. I hated it when people bothered to pay so much attention to me.
"The other boy was…picking on me, I guess. He wouldn't shut up so I was just kind of ignoring him, when…" There was a long pause as I tried to think of the other boy's name. Sa-something.
"Ryuichi," he offered dully, but he smiled at me slightly, as if trying to make introductions in the middle of my story.
"…Um…Ryuichi-san…started talking to him," I paused for a moment, trying to think of what else to say. I'd never done this before…it felt kind of awkward, especially after having to call the other boy by his first name. I couldn't for the life of me remember his last name, though, so I'd had to use what information I'd been given.
"Do you remember what Sakuma-san said?" she asked, glancing up quickly from the paper she was currently taking notes on.
"I TOLD him to leave him alone…I didn't think he'd listen to me if I asked." His smile was a little more forced now, looking more sad than cheerful. As much as I hated to admit it I was more at ease when Sakuma-san wasn't smiling…he didn't seem quite so…unnatural that way. As friendly and cheerful as ever-smiling people might be, their optimism was out of place in the world today.
"Why did the other boy feel the need to bother you?" she asked me again, raising a hand to keep Sakuma-san from answering. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. As if it wasn't obvious already.
"Because he's smarter than him na no da," Sakuma-san offered when the principal obviously didn't understand that I didn't feel like answering. "He doesn't talk to many people, so the other boy was calling him an 'arrogant little know-it-all.' It made me mad!" he finished truthfully, catching my eyes again. He smiled a little bit again, going from being angry to apologetic in mere seconds. "Sorry I don't know your name."
"Seguchi Tohma." He nodded once and went back to staring at the principal, waiting.
"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't interrupt Sakuma-san, you're in enough trouble as is. Continue, Seguchi-san."
"I…I don't remember. I was trying not to pay attention," I answered honestly. I hadn't really noticed anything was going on until Sakuma-san hit the wall near me. That had seriously scared me. I only remembered the fight, and Sakuma-san had already admitted responsibility for that.
"Alright, now you can talk, Sakuma-san," the principal offered, dropping her hand again. "Care to fill us in on what Seguchi-san missed?" Sakuma-san nodded once before opening his mouth to speak.
"He ignored me even though I told him to stop, and I warned him that even if Seguchi-san wouldn't do anything about it I would. I hate it when people pick on one another na no da. It's stupid." The principal raised an eyebrow at Sakuma-san as he wandered off topic, and he smiled nervously. "Sorry. Anyway, he said something else mean about Seguchi-san just to make me mad, so I hit him…well, I tried to," he corrected as he held up his hand to indicate that he'd missed.
"I hope you realized you made the wrong choice, Sakuma-san." He shrugged in return, standing straight up and crossing arms behind his head again.
"So long as he leaves Seguchi-san alone, I don't think it was the wrong choice." I stared down at the floor at that, wishing I wasn't a part of this conversation. I wanted to get back to class and pretend like this never happened. I'd wanted to do that all along. The kids outside were going to have a field day when I left; whispering amongst themselves about what they thought had happened…I was sure of it.
"Well, it was. Seguchi-san, could you wait outside for a moment, please?" I could feel my eyes grow larger as I looked up at her, panicked. I didn't want to go back out there with them… "You'll be alright, I just want to have a chat here with Sakuma-san in private. Afterwards I'll write you both a pass and you can go back to class." I nodded slowly and got up, taking a deep breath before walking outside.
The people in the waiting room were surprisingly quiet as I stood there, although I was sure the talking would start after I left. I wasn't dumb enough not to know that they found a twisted sort of pleasure in causing people smarter than them pain. I'd never understand how someone could purposely hurt someone else, but I guess that was because I wasn't one of them…and I was glad for that fact.
It was quite a while later when Sakuma-san emerged from the room, humming softly. I took that as my sign to re-enter, grabbing my pass with a soft 'thank you' and leaving. I was a little surprised to find Sakuma-san waiting for me outside, and I didn't bother to let him know that I'd taken any notice of him, either.
"Hey, wait up for me. I waited for you, after all," he whined as I walked past him, walking along beside me quickly. "I was just trying to help, alright? I didn't mean to make you miss class…" I didn't say anything to that, just kept on walking, ignoring him as best I could. "If it makes you feel any better I got detention, alright?" I stopped suddenly at that, turning to face him. He was smiling a little bit, although he seemed a little scared.
"Why would that make me feel any better?" I asked slowly, not understanding what he was getting at. Did he think that I'd WANTED him to get into trouble?
"Well, I did sorta mess with your class time. I dunno, some people are weird like that na no da." I raised an eyebrow as he again ended off his sentence with that weird string, not bothering to ask where he'd picked it up. "Wanna go with me to the nurse's? I feel kind of lonely going there all by myself."
"Why are you still hanging around me? I got you in trouble and I haven't done anything nice for you…is that what you want, some kind of payback?" I asked, more curious than bitter. Why would he hang around with someone that just got him a detention? It just didn't make any sense.
"Not really…I wanna be friends. I wouldn't have helped you if you didn't deserve a helping hand…you don't have many friends, do you?" he asked quietly when I turned away from him, burying my hands in my pockets. "Please don't think I mean that in a bad way, but…you don't seem to like people very much, so I figured…"
"No, I don't," I cut him off, starting on my way again…turning early to make my way towards the nurse's. Sakuma-san smiled brightly as he realized I was going with him, humming that weird little song again. He seemed more like a kid trapped in a teenager's body than anything else.
"Ryu-chan! What took you so long, huh?" I stopped suddenly as a purple-haired girl glared at us, hands on her hips stubbornly. Sakuma-san stopped as well, blinking a few times before he smiled again and headed towards the other girl.
"Noriko-chan, what are you doing over here?" he asked, sounding slightly amused. She looked…young…to say the least.
"I skipped class when I heard you'd gotten into a fight, dummy! Told my teacher I was going to throw up and ran over here...all the way from the junior high school! Damn, Ryu-chan, you had me scared!" she scolded, grabbing his hand when he got near enough and examining it. "I figured this would be the first place you'd come, but I should have known better. You're such an idiot!" she scolded again, and Sakuma-san laughed nervously, not even bothering to pull his hand away.
Her eyes moved to me after Sakuma-san finished apologizing. She quickly dropped his hand and walked over to stand before me. "You the reason behind all this?" I nodded slightly, not sure what I thought about this girl. She was obviously quite a bit younger than I was, and she glared up at me, because she was quite obviously a few inches shorter than me, too. "I have half a mind to kick YOUR ass, letting people push you around like that. Ended up getting poor little Ryu-chan into trouble because you're a coward."
"I'm not a coward!" I snapped back, glaring at her. She should have known better than to speak to me like that.
"Noriko-chan, leave him alone." Noriko-san blinked and looked over to Sakuma-san, staying like that for a while before slamming her hands on her hips and staring at the ground. She looked rather like a child throwing a fit.
"I just don't like the fact that you'd get yourself in trouble for someone who wouldn't do the same thing for you…not even for himself," she whined, not looking up at either of us.
"I know, but he's not a bad person. I was the one that got myself into trouble. I could have left him alone, too, you know. I don't stand up for myself either, you do it for me. Does that mean I'm a bad person na no ka?" Noriko-san shook her head slowly, loosing her proud look in an instant.
"No," she answered softly, no longer the opinionated girl she'd been seconds earlier.
"I hoped not," Sakuma-san cheered, smile back in place. "Now let's go get something for my hand and then Noriko-chan can go back to class so she doesn't get into any more trouble. You can go back to class if you want to, Seguchi-san. I have Noriko-chan to keep me company now." Noriko-san looked up at me slightly from where she was standing, smiling ever so slightly as if she trying to apologize without saying anything. I guess she was aware she'd made at fool out of herself all on her own.
"If you don't mind…I'd like to stay and get to know you," I answered without really thinking, and Noriko-san was immediately in my arms, smiling happily.
"I was hoping I wouldn't scare you away. I'm sorry," she apologized after letting go, stepping back a bit. I shook my head and smiled a little bit in return, although I'm sure more than a little awkwardly.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I know I'm not done with the FIRST one of these yet, but I actually got most of this down during anime club, and I had it all written out and perfectified already (as much as it's going to be perfectified with me writing it), so I figured I might as well post it.
Oh, Tohma's supposed to be 17 while this is taking place. At least for right now, I'm probably going to skip ahead a few years in later chapters because I don't want this to be a TohmaxRyuichi, and that's all it can be right now.
Aren't you all so glad I'm back, writing my short crappy stories and begging you for reviews? (and yes, I am aware my stories are anything BUT short)