Maiko Shindou- (13) Maggie Shoeman
Shuichi Shindou - (16) Shane Shoeman
Ryuichi Sakuma - (17) Ryan Satterfield
Hiroshi Nakano- (17) Hilary (Hi) Nathan
Tatsuha Uesugi- (? looks 16) Thaddeus (Tad) Understold
Eiri Uesugi - (? looks 22) Eric Hueman
Tohma Seguchi - (?) Tohma Seguchi
Mika Seguchi- (--) Mira Sears
Suguru Fujisaki - (15) Sullivan Fulk
Taki Aizawa - (18) Taylor Ainsworth
Ma-kun - (--) Mark Kurt
Ken-chan - (--) Ken Chandler
Noriko Ukai - (18) Nova Upton
Claude K Winchester - (? looks 25) Claude K Winchester
Sakano - (28) Mr. Sakner
Yuki Kitazawa - (--) Yale Kitterman
Ayaka Usami - (?) Ayla Usher
Tutelary
'Anticipating something sinister. I have a bad feeling ...'
The young singer strolled silently through the almost empty park, breathed the crisp air and closed his eyes against the chilled breeze. He knew his sudden change in moods was worrying those that associated with him, but something had struck him that Thursday. It was a tangibility: something undefinable that he couldn't quite associate with deja vu. It was too real to be ignored and had sent chills up his spine that had him wondering why this was effecting him so badly and what the feeling could possibly foresee. He couldn't say Hilary's enthusiasm alone was the cause of all these confusing emotions; the intuition had been haunting him since that Monday but not nearly with such intensity.
'After I saw that man ...'
That Man. Mister Janitor: whose presence was not of any importance in Shane's life but when he happened to be around he caught the boy's attention like no other. The whole situation was almost hilariously cliché. There were the casual glances in the hallways that had Shane blushing suspiciously like a schoolgirl, and the fact whenever he was mindlessly skimming the lunch room his gaze would always find his mysterious, golden haired infatuation.
'I'm acting like a girl with a crush ...' That thought was most definitely disturbing. But there was more to his reactions than any possible attraction wasn't there? (Once again Shane dismissed that this was not the only time this week that he had used the word 'attract' in reference to Mister Janitor with its corresponding suffix). Hilary had given him the same feeling, and oddly enough Taylor had also. This strange, deja-vu sensation was very perplexing to the all ready easily puzzled singer, and why it was happening around people he hardly knew raised even more unanswerable questions.
Shane sighed, and chose to force himself into some form of relaxation. The town's universal meeting arena, official and casual alike, often served as a sanctuary to assist in focusing his mind. This seemed to work best during the clearest nights when the stars were bright, and there was no one in the surrounding area to distract him. Such was the choice environment that peaceful evening as he walked and took in the dark trees that stood noticeable against the building lights outside of the park. He walked, and refused to allow himself to debate anything besides how lovely it was that eventide. He walked, and soon found himself standing outside of the hedge maze that sat in the center of the park.
The aperture was at least eight feet high, posted observably next to two tall metal lamps that beckoned for a visitor to enter. One lamp flickered with its weakened bulb, a moth and gnats bumping against it as they seemed curiously interested in the dance the strange luminescence had to propose.
The pink-haired teen stood and watched for some unknown amount of time, thinking nothing and not wanting to, before taking his first plunging step into the dimly lit maze. The already weak illumination faded and dark green leaves swallowed him in a warm but uncomfortable embrace, the tall walls surrounded him domineeringly. Spaced lamp-lights offered no ease where the shadows loomed and the night crawlers supposedly lurked, sending Shane's imagination on a goose chase that he knew was purely mental, but could not reason away.
It was when he had effectively spooked himself and was looking over his shoulder constantly, did he realize that he had no idea where in the hedge maze he was. There were red, cloth flags that marked the correct path, but since his attention had been elsewhere he wasn't sure where the awry path had begun or how to return to the true, precise one. Shane turned his tense body and attempted to backtrack. Every discovery of a new corridor felt as though he only leading deeper into the purposely planted shrubbery, and soon the frightened teen began jogging pointlessly as though moving faster would help him find an exit; only to run himself strait into a dead end and send his hapless body tumbling to the ground.
"Ouch ..." He mumbled and rubbed sorely at his tender and newly scratched cheek. The boy whimpered quietly and allowed himself some self-pity toward his hopelessly lost and pathetic state of being. Only he could have possibly misplaced himself at 10:00 at night, alone and located in what could be considered an abnormally large bush ... was that noise nearby?
"Did you hear something?" A distant male voice asked curiously.
"Hear what?" Came an irritated reply, followed by the muffled footsteps of two.
Shane could feel his face brighten with this possible smidgen of hope, and picked himself up off the cold ground to locate whomever his saviors voices might belong to.
"It kinda sounded like: 'shuffleshuffle WHAM whimper ...'" Stated the first voice musingly.
"Gee, I know now exactly what you're talking about." Sarcasm seemed to be this person's cardinal attribute.
The boy rounded another corner and noticed two retreating backs as they made their ways into the shadowed distance. "Excuse me!" He called, and waved his arm with the intention of catching the pair of stranger's attention. They both hesitated and Shane ran with all of his scrounged merit possible to his means of leaving this petrifying place. "Oh thank you!" He gasped weakly as he reached the two puzzled men ahead of him. "I was lost!"
The slightly shorter male's black eyebrows rose, "Really?" He asked in surprise. "'Cause the entrance is right ahead." He pointed forward for Shane's gaze to follow and indeed, there was the opening archway, noticeable with its two lampposts eminent and flickering almost mockingly. The teen felt unbelievably moronic for having missed such an obvious landmark.
"Not very bright, is he?" The taller of the two strangers stated, and pulled from his mouth a shortened cigarette that had hung lifelessly. Shane glared at the degrading man with every connotation of returning the smart remark, to find himself staring at a painfully familiar pretty face.
"You're the janitor!" The pink-haired bungler exclaimed. "From my school!" He looked closer at the shorter of the pair, the bad light making him squint to see the details of the not-quite-stranger's face. "And you're Thad Understold, the guy that helped the seniors toilet paper the gymnasium last year." Shane gasped, and he pointed accusingly toward the walking misdemeanor.
The blond raised an eyebrow and looked down at his previously unknown mischievous companion, "So what have you been up to while I wasn't looking?" He asked as his voice dripped with mirthful amusement.
Thaddeus laughed and an unconscious shade of pink spread across his slightly embarrassed face, "Can I say I don't know what you're talking about?" Not only did his new acquaintance have some information that could place him into a jailhouse, there were probably rules against such activities in accordance with obvious, higher authorities.
Shane laughed also, and was on his way to leave the cursed Hedge Monster with his two fellows beside him, when something completely illegal occurred to mind. "Say," He said carefully, and abruptly ceased his chuckles. "You two aren't ... you know ..?" The boy trailed off, unsure of how to express such an abominable idea to these seemingly friendly people that had assisted him. When he received a pair of puzzled glances, he attempted to fill in the remaining empty spaces of his question. "Well, it's kinda odd that a janitor and a student are hanging out after hours ..." Shane mumbled, somewhat disconcerted by his own open accusations.
Comprehension dawned to the accused, and the blond appeared more vexed than his raven-haired companion. "You think we're --" He began to rave, only to be rudely interrupted by a stray hand.
"Of course not!" Thaddeus cried. "We're cousins! A bit closer than most, but don't we look alike?" He babbled, and linked a chummy arm around his supposed cousin's tense shoulder.
Shane squinted, the bad light evidently impairing his vision. "I guess ..." He complied with an incoherent mutter, and dismissed the subject rather quickly.
They fell into a silence that was not quite comfortable, but was perfectly acceptable since non of the three genuinely wished to begin a conversation for the mere sake of creating noise. However, from Shane radiated the aura of somebody who wished say something more, though by the time they had stepped foot from the hedge maze, he hadn't worked up the courage to mention whatever the unknown topic was. Normally Thaddeus would have asked just to help relieve the tension that had been befalling the group, because he had never been of the personality to allow quiet to remain in the heavy atmosphere. Though, under the odd circumstances he decided to avoid as much conversation with younger, nervous boy as was politely possible and settled for fidgeting in his jacket.
Mister Janitor was content, and allowed the other two to be uncomfortable; he hated small talk anyway.
Shane chewed his lower lip, and attempted to think of a gracious way to leave. "Um ... well ..." His hands fisted to his sides, and he struck his legs as though the action were a nervous twitch. "Thanks ... I guess ..." He waved a jerky goodbye, and began his trek up a separate pathway, before he hesitated and turned with newfound courage. "Ah ... I was wondering ... " Shane stuttered apprehensively. " ... what your name was..."
The cause of his embarrassment glanced over his shoulder and raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Well, I see you everyday I guess I was just kind of curious ..." Unknowing of why such a simplistic question was so difficult to ask, Shane could not quite bring himself to look at the stranger's face.
"Next time look at the name badge."
"Huh?" The boy raised his eyes, dumbstruck at blunt statement.
The blond smirked and tapped his chest were the mentioned badge would have been. "I said, next time we're trading glances look at the name badge I wear everyday." With that, he turned again and strode away with Thaddeus close behind.
Shane stared at their retreating backs, before he scowled and grumbled, "That stoic asshole ... it was just a question." Rude people annoyed him to no end, and obviously his mystery was extremely ill-mannered. The teen concluded that this man was not worth his time, and any future trading-of-glances would be efficiently ignored.
He nodded to himself, satisfied with his decision and ran the rest of his way home, eager to inform his sister of the horrible man.
"That was sort of mean." Thaddeus informed the perpetually rude man when they walked side by side once again. Eiri's habit with insisting on being so painfully blunt was irritating and the rational seemingly non-existent, but for some reason Thaddeus always found it within himself to tolerate the man's predictable discourtesies.
Eiri only smiled and dug in his coat pocket for another cigarette. Smoking was a habit he had immediately been drawn to upon returning to the human realm. Why, he wasn't sure, but the blond figured it didn't really matter since it couldn't possibly kill him. "If I had given him my name he would have tried to talk to me again. You know the rules." He said, and lit the white cylinder between his fingers.
Thaddeus sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Yeah, but you don't want him to hate you."
Eiri only smirked around his newly fired cancer stick, "He doesn't hate me; he just thinks I'm a prick now."
"You are." Thaddeus said with a frown, supporting Shane's apparent opinion. "Especially when you talk to him like that."
"Why do you care how I talk to him?" Eiri sighed. He wasn't in the mood to argue with the other male, and Thaddeus seemed willing to goad some any sort of conflict at the moment. Something particularly bothersome had seemed to be resting on the boy's thoughts that night, and while Eiri hadn't bothered to ask what was making the other so irritable, he was somewhat curious.
"I'm just saying; you just might not want to make him angry ... you know, just in case." Thaddeus commented impassively. He looked away as though the darkened trees were suddenly interesting, and did not quite meet the inquisitive glance he was currently receiving.
"Why say something like that?" Eiri asked calmly. Far be it for him to imply in the slightest that someone's steering-of-the-conversation tactics were working.
"Well, you know ..." The black-haired angel began thoughtfully, "all this band stuff that's going on right now." He said quietly, and his voice slowly lowered itself to not much more than a mutter. "Someone's bound to get hurt ..."
Eiri pondered this peculiar statement for a moment before he stopped his walking and frowned pointedly at the other angel. The excess amounts of odd comments that Thaddeus was making tonight were too many to be ignored. "What's going on?" He demanded, and glared at the fidgeting boy expectantly.
He squirmed even more uncomfortably under Eiri's penetrating stare. "I heard ..." He started, but his tongue did not seem to want to move for more than a few syllables.
"What?" The irked blond growled dangerously. Not only was he not in the mood to argue: after all, a game such as this was not particularly appealing at the moment. If Thaddeus felt as though this apparent nerve-racking topic was important enough to bother him with, the boy might as well have courtesy enough to finish his stuttered sentence.
The angel chewed his lip. "Tohma and ..." He commenced carefully, and attempted to avoid any specific names. "... one of his messengers. They were talking about how some spirit or something-or-other was hanging around the school." Thaddeus explained a bit reluctantly. "They sort of commented on how it seemed to be hanging around Shane ... but they weren't really sure."
"They 'sort of commented'?" Eiri scowled.
The boy chose to lie through his teeth. Although he was technically an angel, that didn't mean he was holy at heart. "It was implied." He said quickly. "Tohma mostly said that he wanted to change you to a different human."
The object of his insincerities seemed to deem this an acceptable answer. Tohma -had- commented that he hadn't been overly pleased with the arrangements himself, and Eiri wouldn't have put it past the other blond to attempt using his man-power to change who he was paired with. Eiri would not object should the event transpire either. Being around his charge made him strangely uneasy for reasons he couldn't pinpoint. It disconcerted him even more that he didn't know the causes for these disquieted emotions, and that Tohma presumably would avoid his questions since he had already inquired as to why he was so objective to him being near Shane, and had never received an answer.
Not occurring to Eiri's growing list of Questions and Curiosities, was that he had not been informed of the malignant matter despite it directly involving him. A curious happening indeed; and Tatsuha was grateful that he appeared to have overlooked this. As shrewd as Eiri really was, he had a tendency to ignore rather blatant details. Had he heard the actual conversation Tatsuha had come across, though, his suspicion unquestionably would have become much greater.
The impish angel was almost relieved that Eiri probably trusted Tohma enough to leave matters thus, and honestly didn't seem to want to meddle in the complicated affairs of Mr. Seguchi. That meant all the intruding would be left to Tatsuha, and this mystery would sooner be solved since he had the more complete information. Notifying Eiri of the spirit had been a courtesy 'heads up'. Should anything harmful advance in Shane's direction, the blond would at least possess a hunch of what the harmful creature was.
"Thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to put in my two weeks notice for my -choice- job." Eiri said nonchalantly. "And I'll keep an eye out for this demon-whatever ..."
Whether or not Eiri was planning to do something about Tohma or not, Tatsuha was almost sure the other would dismiss it. Being in purgatory also meant one was content with all happenings; negative and positive. Eiri rarely questioned anything anymore, only because his existence was a state where he had no reason to do so and questions would only lead to unwanted answers.
Tatsuha was not in true purgatory: his memories had never been forgotten.
He looked at the one that was his unknown brother, one whom was satisfied with a mundane reality, one whom disputed nothing because conflict was unwanted. This was not the brother he remembered, and Tatsuha was on the verge of willing to sacrifice Eiri's current cozy state to see who he remembered as his relative. That would be selfish though, and the boy had an unwelcome feeling that all of Tohma's past and current interferences would soon be resolved at the angel's expense. His, and possibly another's...
Tatsuha audibly sighed, and raised his head to the black sky that he had only recently become familiar with. 'Anticipating ...' He thought grudgingly, 'It's gonna be a long couple of months ...'
AN: What? You thought they were gonna like each other off the bat? That would have been way too easy. :) Consider this a sort of interlude between setting up the characters and the real story ...
And is anyone still reading this:stares at review counter: