Chapter three. I'm amazed I managed to get this one out.

Disclaimer: I do not own FLcL or any such what have you. I do own a television, a dvd player, and the boxed set of FLcL but that's not the same thing unfortunately.

"Fuck," Alice swore as she brought her now bleeding finger to her mouth and sucked the blood off in an unintentionally sensual manner. She reached out again and shook the wire gate angrily. "Open up!" she shouted at the building, knowing full well that there was no one in it. She kicked at the gate now and it tremored for a moment then settled quiet and impassible just as it had been when she'd arrived.

"Not gonna get in that way," someone said softly next to her and a bass strum accompanied it.

"Ah, Naota?" she turned to face the figure and indeed it was Naota, sitting on a moped with the bass she'd first seen him with in hand. "What are you doing in this city? You got off in Tokyo."

"I could ask you the same question if I actually cared. I knew you'd be here though."

"Here? How could you possibly know that I was outside the Medical Mechanica plant at this exact moment? For that matter... are you stalking me or something?"

"Yes I am. But that's irrelevant. I didn't know you'd be 'here' parse. I knew you'd come to Mabase though. Meeting you here at the Medical Mechanica building was just chance... Mind you chance has a big play in the events to come, so you could say yes if you wanted to."

"Yes to what?"

"To everything."

"I'm not certain that I'm entirely following you."

Naota jumped off his moped and landed softly on the damp grass. He stood only a head and half above her but the way his arms hung loose and menacing at his sides and the strange sloping of his shoulders gave him the appearance of five or even ten heads above her. "Do you want to go inside?" he whispered so quietly she almost missed it.

"Inside... the plant?"

"Plant... building... its neither really. Doesn't even have a door to get in. Come on," he started walking toward the monolithic building and, willess, she followed him.

They'd walked about thirty feet before Alice stopped and looked at Naota's back strangely. "What happened to the fence?"

He turned his head to look at her, "What fence?" He was smiling in a fashion that both terrified and excited her. She tore her eyes away and turned to look back they way they'd come.

The gate appeared as if it had been torn off its hinges by a giant and carelessly tossed aside. "When did that happen?" Alice was terribly confused and tensed when Naota's hand rested on her shoulder.

"Sunset's coming... let's hurry up."

"Come on! Climb!" Naota shouted down to Alice. He could see the top of her fiery red hair slowly moving closer and closer to him at the top of the giant iron. Her left hand reached above her head and grasped at a small metal climbing spike Naota had left behind from his climb up here. The arguably sane man looked to the west at the setting sun and the firey red/orange that it set off. A large smile was plastered on his face and he shouted loudly in the face of the high altitude winds, "You've got ten minutes before the sun's gone Alice! Hurry up, hurry up!"

"Shut up!" she shouted up at him. "This is stupid! Why am I following you up here!" Naota looked over the edge and saw that she had paused in her climbing and had a very angry look on her face.

"You'll keep climbing. You know this and I know this. You'll keep climbing because you want to see it. You want to see what it looks like from the seat of god."

A grunt and Naota saw that Alice was now climbing down. "Tomorrow then," he said quietly to himself and turned to watch the sunset.

"And that's where we'll stop for today class. What did we learn about?" asked the teacher in Japanese. A student raised his hand. "Yes, Sanji?"

"We learned about the defenestrastion of Prague."

"Right, and what was that exactly..." the teacher's eyes scanned over the class and settled on Alice, "Ah, our American exchange student. What do you say the defenstration of Prague was?"

Alice looked up from her desk, angry at having been pulled out of her spacing, "The defenstration was the start of World War I or something like that."

"Well, it was a catalyst, yes. But there's more to it tha-" there was a knock at the door. "Yes?" the teacher asked.

"Oh, silly me. Wrong door," said the silhouette in the smokey glass and walked off the right.

The teacher raised an eyebrow and then immediately went back to teaching but Alice continued staring at the door to the hall. "There's no rooms to the right," Alice muttered quietly and just as she said this the silhouette was back in the doorframe knocking again.

"What is it?" the teacher asked again.

There was silence and then, "I think this might be right room after all. Is there an Alice... uh... hermersher in the room?"

"I'm sorry I didn't catch the last name you said but we do have an Alice in the room."

"Wonderful," the silhouette said, and seemed to be smiling.

Alice knew exactly who it was. "Go away!" she shouted at the door, "I'm not climbing that fucking iron!"

"Alice!" the silhouette in the door responded completely calm, "I'll be waiting at the gate again."

"I'm not climbing that thing!" but her shout was useless as the silhouette had left. Now the entire class was staring at her and she sank deep into her seat to try to avoid their stares. The teacher was staring at her as well.

After what seemed like forever the teacher returned to the board and started talking about things no one was listening to... because everyone in the class was looking at Alice.

"Psst," said the boy in the seat next to her, "Can I ask you what that was about?"

"No," Alice responded sullenly.

"Ah come on. That exchange was so strange... I just want it explained to me."

"And you won't."

"Pleeeease?" the boy was tugging on her sleeve and his voice was getting louder. Alice tried to shush him but he just got louder. "Are you some kinda pervert? Are you going to meet this guy for perverted things? Perversiony perverty pervert?"

"Alice!" the teacher scolded, "Could you keep your conversations for later hm? This is class." The boy went back to sitting in his seat and pretending to pay attention, but his eyes kept stealing glances at Alice throughout the class.

"So what's your name?" asked the boy after class, now accompanied by two other boys from the class.

Alice groaned and then grudgingly, "Alice."

"Alice huh?"

"Yeah," Alice put all her books into her bag and closed the flap, checking once to make sure she didn't forget anything, and then started walking out of the room. The boy and his friends hurried to keep up with her.

"So you're an American then?"

"Yep."

"Where's your goofy hat? I thought all Americans wore those goofy hats."

"Not all Americans are cowboys. In fact, I don't think there are even any cowboys left." Alice turned to face the boys, "Why is it everyone outside of my country associates us with cowboys? Is that really the most lasting picture we've made?" The leading boy shrugged, the other two followed. "I mean really," Alice turned back around and resumed walking, "We were the first people to the moon and yet everyone associates us with cowboys and pro-wrestling."

The four walked in silence for a while, now outside.

"My name's Ryuu by the way," said the lead boy who did all the talking. "On my left is Jun and on my right, Daiki."

Alice looked over her shoulder as she walked, "Nice to meet you I suppose."

"Your Japanese is really good."

"Well, I kinda had to have it down perfect before I left."

"I suppose that makes sense."

"So, do Jun and Daiki talk at all?"

"They will. They're shy around new people. And you're foreign so that makes them double shy. None of us have ever seen an American before except in your movies."

Alice shrugged and then stopped suddenly when she realized where she'd been walking. Quickly changing direction she started walking towards the river rather than to the Medical Mechanica plant.

"Ah Naota," Kamon poked his head in the door, "there is one Koici, Eri here to see you."

"Whoops. She didn't wait very long to stop by," Naota said from his position on the floor. Naota was laying on his back on the floor of his old bedroom. It was exactly the same as when he'd left, bunkbeds and everything. He idly strummed the bass laying on his chest and listened contented to the beautiful sound vibrations echoing out of the intrument. "Tell her to come up, I suppose."

"Alright," Kamon said as his head popped out of the door frame and disappeared, "I'll send her right up.

"Thanks dad." He strummed the Rickenbacker 4001 again.

She tried to skip a rock in the river but it sank immediately. "Damn."

Ryuu laughed, "That rock was to rounded if you wanted to skip it. You need a good flat one."

"Oh I'm sorry," Alice turned to Ryuu, "I wasn't aware you were to rock skipping expert."

"Not an expert... But the three of us come here a lot. It's a good place to sit and hang out."

"I could definitely see that."

"Yeah," he sat down on the bank and stared up at the sky, "my dad said he used to come here all the time when he was a kid."

Alice sat down next to him, "Where'd those other two go?"

"Search me. Probably doing something stupid."

Alice laughed.

"I just came to tell you that what happened can never happen again," Eri said from the doorway. Naota ignored her and strummed his bass. "Did you hear me?" she stepped closer to him, angry, "I'm married. What happened can never happen again, alright?"

Naota looked up at her, "So your last name is now Koichi? Isn't that the last name of that douchebag senator?" Eri's eyes looked away awkwardly. "If he's a douchebag on television and with his voting record I can't imagine he's any kinder in person."

"That's not the iss-"

"I mean voting against heavy controls on puppy mills... what a douchebag. How'd he get elected anyway?"

"We can't see each othe-"

"You married him to further your political career didn't you?" Naota stood up. "But then that sort of backfired because after being elected he went on to be one of the most hated politicians in recent memory. And now you'll always be associated with him if you try to run."

Her eyes were tearing up.

"You'll never get elected for anything now," he finished.

The levies broke and Naota took her in his arms, subtly closing the door behind her.

"So he wants you to climb that?" Ryuu asked, pointing at the Medical Mechanica building easily visible from the river bank.

Alice nodded, "He wants me to climb it for some reason. I honestly don't know why."

"You don't want to I assume?"

"That's the weirdest thing... I kind of do."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I can't admit that to him though. No way."

"Why don't you climb it then?"

"Because if I tell him I want to I feel like he'll... win."

"Don't tell him you want to climb. Just climb it without him."

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous to climb a giant hand iron by myself?" Alice looked at Ryuu and smirked.

Ryuu looked back at her and said, completely seriously, "I'll climb it with you then."

Quietly, he closed the door behind him. "Things to remember;" Naota said to himself as he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, "Sex on a bunk bed is very uncomfortable. Especially when you're larger than the bed." He pulled a bottle of soda out of the fridge. It was one of the sour drinks. "Things to remember;" he said again as he popped the cap, "Buy a double bed." He chugged the drink and hurried outside. With suspicious ease he jumped onto his vespa and took off down the road, toward the giant iron.

When he arrived Naota was surprised to see Alice was here already. And she was climbing! He was about to get off and go help her, in case she fell or somehing but a closer inspection confirmed that there was a boy with her. Naota settled back onto his Vespa and smiled gaily, "They'll make sunset."

Ryuu looked down and immediately regretted it. "It's a really long drop," he muttered.

Alice heard him, "Then make sure not to fall. Use the spikes Naota left behind."

"I'm doing that... its still a really long way to fall."

"Then go back down. We're almost there and I want to see the top."

Ryuu sighed but didn't say anything. He continued climbing.

"We're there! We're there," Alice called and Ryuu hurried to catch up to her and gave a tiny wince of pain as he overextended his arm to reach the lip of the iron's handle. He finally pulled himself over the edge and lay on his back exhausted. "Its beautiful," Ryuu heard Alice say and forced himself to walk over to her and see.

"Wow," was all he could say.

"We made it just in time for sunset," Alice said.

End Chapter 3. Time to thank my (very) few reviewers. InuJoey, tasty cheez, and BrazeRancor, I could not have gotten this far without you.

For those wondering. I plan on making Rickenbacker 4001 six chapters. Just like the anime.