- A Beautiful Tomorrow - An Ambient Generation

. . . Thought of Desire. . .

Okay I told you I'd get another chapter out after the holidays. Happy New Year! Hope you enjoy once again.

Yuri studied the small black print, trying to resolve a decent answer to complete the question. He couldn't come up with a single one and threw his pencil down, allowing it to roll off his desk as he slumped in his seat.

His bedroom door suddenly opened and Anastasia marched in. "Yuri, Mom said--"

She stopped talking and her hands flew to her eyes. "Put a shirt on, will you? I could have risked the chance of blindness!"

She dropped her hands but kept her eyes closed, staggering into his room.

"Ha, ha." Yuri mumbled sarcastically, not budging an inch. "What did Mom say?"

Anastasia opened her eyes but stared pointedly at the ceiling. "She said for you to come downstairs and eat."

"I can't. Not until I figure out these stupid answers and finish my homework for my English class." He said faithfully, sounding a bit pathetic.

Ana actually lowered her gaze as she stared interestedly at him. "Really?" she grinned, "Well why don't you call your tutor and ask her?" His half sister smirked.

"Get lost," Yuri growled. "And she's not my tutor anymore." He lied, "I passed the test so Miss Iasant said I didn't have to be tutored any longer."

But in his head, Yuri was actually considering about calling Elliot. It wouldn't hurt to ask her for the answers, he knew she would anyway if he begged her.

The Russian girl rolled her eyes to an extent. "I'm sure. You're a terrible liar. You're more stupid than I am, you need a tutor."

"Get out!"

His sister turned her heel and left, chin up acting royal.

Yuri made a disgusted noise and turned back to his work, his mind no longer focused on homework but on Elliot.

Her face was clear in his head. To tell the truth, she had been the only thing on his mind lately.

Yuri still couldn't get over how he almost kissed her. Maybe she hadn't even wanted him to kiss her--or wipe her chin for her.

He started to cringed. Elliot was probably like what the hell is he doing? We're just friends! And then he imagined her shuddering.

God this was so brutal, Yuri raked a hand through his thick, damp hair. He had showered a little while ago and didn't bother to dry it.

He suddenly found himself wondering why he had tried to kiss her anyway. And why he had touched her face. Okay, chin. Big difference, at least he touched her face, right?

He didn't feel like he was desperately in love with her or anything. He was just… attracted to her for some strange reason. Not lustful attraction because that would be weird, as to seeing how he never really did get to see her body.

It was always covered with… well clothes that didn't exactly follow her figure. But he was still attracted to her, though.

Every time he stood close enough to exchange a decent conversation with her, he would get a crazy urge to grab her and kiss her.

Her lips were nice. Not full which he had always preferred but… but, well--perfect, he supposed. Cute, pink heart shaped lips. Just big enough to suck and bite on. Yuri found himself smiling absentmindedly at the thought.

Damn he wanted to kiss her. Somehow he figured that she might not want him to kiss her, and that was what actually depressed him.

And anyway, he didn't want just to peck her lips or something; he wanted the real thing, with her kissing him back of course.

Yuri let out a scornful laugh, like that was going to happen anyway. He was being stupid and not thinking straight.

Elliot would never kiss him anyway; she had clearly stated they were friends, which is when she asked him for their friendship.

Friends… not lovers.

Not lovers.

Although he could ask her to be his bitch at least. Yuri smirked, dismissing the thought. She would have slapped him even if he asked. Even if he had made it as a joke she probably would get pissed off.

Damn, that's cute.

He pushed his body out of his seat and went over to his dresser, pulling open the top drawer. He had it with thinking. It didn't get him anywhere. Fantasizing didn't get what he wanted, either.

Yuri found hispack of cigarettes and opened it, taking one and dumping the pack back in, looking around for a lighter. He finally found it and pushed the drawer shut, pushing both the cig and lighter into his pocket and heading downstairs and out the door.

Jesus, thinking made him old. He decided to just stay away from her from now on and go back to being his old self.

Yes, that was the only way for him to get over his bizarre crave for Elliot.

--------------------------------------------------------

Alice was eating breakfast with Yoshiko the next morning before school when someone rang the doorbell insistently. She pushed back her chair and stood up, motioning for Yoshiko to continue eating while she answered the door.

Standing on her tippy toes and checking the peephole, she unlocked the door and pulled it open. Seeing it was Kurando Inugami, she wondered what on earth he was doing there.

Once the door was open, he marched right past her, a mad look on his face. Alice raised an eyebrow. "Morning to you, too…what's wrong?"

He wheeled around and actually glared at her. His skinny, wiry arms crossed over his heaving chest. Kurando scowled at her when she continued watching him in confusion.

She noticed his upper lip was sweating and he kept shifting his lanky body from side to side.

"What's wrong?" Alice finally dropped the puzzled expression and picked up a concerned one. "Is something wrong? Did something happen? What happened to Masaji? Is he alright?"

Kurando's scowl deepened as he narrowed his eyes slightly. When he spoke, his voice was dead calm but sounded a little rushed. Maybe due to the anger he was trying to suppress,

"What were you doing with Yuri after school, yesterday?"

Alice's mouth dropped open in surprise. Of all the things to be angry about, Kurando had to come over to her house at about 6:45 in the morning to ask her about Yuri? She stared at him in disbelief, loss for words.

"Well?" He tapped his brand new sneakers impatiently. "Do you refute it?" his voice grew steadily fierce. "Do you dare lie under a witness?"

Alice finally found her tongue. "A witness?" she repeated, finding a sudden urge to laugh in spite of herself. "You're the witness? I didn't see you there--"

"So you admit it!" His eyes glinted with mad triumph. "And I was not the witness! No siree, but the person in front of you."

"The person--" Alice stopped talking, trying to recall the person in front of her,

"It wasn't someone from school! Just some um…corner woman I think- " she stopped talking and flushed deeply when she realized who the make-up covered lady was.

"Your mom." She finished weakly.

Kurando's eyes flashed. "My mother is not a hooker!" he hissed, spit flying. "How dare you call my mother a hooker! She--she's just shy about herself."

Now Kurando was flushing also, but angrily. "I thought we were best friends! How could you do this to your best friend!"

"Now you are totally reacting." Alice interjected, "We are best friends! Best friends are friends, that's all. You understand don't you?"

Her blue eyes searched his face. "Don't you? Friends are friends. I'm allowed to have other friends aren't I?"

"You were making out with him!" Kurando encountered, "My mother said so!"

"Making out?" Alice laughed weakly in total shock, "What exactly did your mother say? We were just talking, talking."

"MY MOTHER said, Yes Kurando honey, I saw Alice down in Braums!" Kurando screwed up his face, impersonating his mother and looking suddenly very alike,

"She stood behind me in line with some nice lookin' gent. I didn't want to bother her because she and he were all over each other, talking deeply about something."

"Talking about something." Alice echoed. "See?"

"Talking deeply about something!" Kurando snapped.

Alice ran her hand through her hair in exasperation. "Go ask Yuri! I swear I didn't even touch him."

An image of Yuri leaning over to wipe her chin flashed in her head but she ignored it. He touched her. She didn't touch him.

Suddenly Kurando looked like an upset, lost puppy and she felt a stab of pity. Walking over to him, Alice rested her hand on his shoulder and pulled him down so their heads were close.

"Rando, I don't even like him." She assured him, "We're just friends. I promise."

Seeing him cheer up a bit, Alice continued, "Sure he's good-looking but you know me, Rando. Don't you? I don't like guys… not as much as I like you anyway. We're best friends remember?"

She squeezed his shoulder when he gave her a small smile and stood back.

"C'mon, you gotta get going and go pick Masaji up for school," she gave him an encouraging smile. "He doesn't want to be late, does he?"

"Yeah," Kurando nodded, now sounding a bit more like himself. "Do you… do you want me to come back to pick you and Yoshiko up?" his tone was shockingly shy and he looked at her hopefully.

Alice smiled. "Sure, you're so sweet. Thanks."

Once he was out the door, Alice leaned heavily against the door and sighed.

Poor Kurando, she thought sympathetically. He really needs to meet new people. Shaking her head, Alice stood up, smoothing creases from her crisp shirt.

"Jealous best friend?" An idle female voice said from the kitchen doorway. Alice closed her eyes before slowly opening them again to find a smirking Yoshiko.

Alice frowned. "He is not jealous," she said sharply. "He has nothing to be jealous about."

Yoshiko's smirk widened. "I can take the nice lookin' gent off of your hands." She licked her lips.

"But of course, you want both your toys..." She threw her lighter skinned companion a dark look. Alice looked at her in disbelief.

"Please Yoshiko, not you too. You can have Yuri." She glared at the Asian girl. "Just keep away from Kurando will you?"

"Why? You don't even like him." Yoshiko grinned, pleased with the effects from her words.

"I do too like him," Alice said hotly, finding the need to defend herself. "He's my best friend!"

"Ah, but what will he be after he finds out you don't feel for him the way he feels for you, tut, tut." Her eyes narrowed, "And imagine if he found out you have yet another toy."

"What are you talking about?" Alice demanded, raising her voice. Her cheeks flushed with anger, not to mention her voice.

"Mr. Rapist." Yoshiko now hissed her expression venomous. "How dare you spread such vicious lies about other people? Does the reputation of others not matter to you? You think you're so great, just because a lot of guys like you--You think you can spread nasty rumors about other people you don't like, but who like you."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Alice shrieked, unable to contain her fury. "You think I made up the thing about Nicholai being a rapist? Okay, so maybe he never really raped anyone…"

"SEE!"

"--at least not that I know of!" Alice shot back, "He almost raped me, isn't that enough for you? And what the heck do you mean by; I think I'm so great? NO ONE LIKES ME! I only have Kurando! You are so--so ignorant! What the heck are you? Jealous?"

Her voice rose shrilly. "Jealous of me having no one to talk to? No one but Kurando? So I made a new friendship with Yuri--that's just it! A FRIENDSHIP!"

Yoshiko adamantly looked away. "I can't believe I alleged you about Nicholai being a rapist." She muttered mostly to herself, but loud enough for Alice to hear.

Anger flowed steadily through her veins, but Alice was too angry to speak. Instead she whirled away and stormed up the stairs, locking herself in her room.

Let her wait for Kurando, she thought bitterly. She'll call me when he comes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Alice slammed the passenger door shut and quickly walking away, ignoring Kurando's calls for her to return and walk with the rest of them.

The soles in her shoes were so worn that she could felt they would break at anytime. It didn't stop her from slowing to a minimum pace however, so her long strides continued as she climbed up the stone steps of Nemeton High and walked in.

Alice hurried to her locker to deposit her textbooks and homework and grab her copy of The Anthem. She managed it all in ten minutes and jostled quickly through the crowd, intending to get to AP English at once.

That morning she felt exhausted. Last night she had a nightmare, which starred Nicholai. She dreamt that he somehow climbed through her window and into her room with the intention to finally commit what he always wanted or had to do.

Strange thing was, she could actually feel and still feel his hands gripping her forearms and pinning her painfully to the bed.

Alice felt herself rub her arms. It was so real. So real--it hurt. She awoke all twisted in her own sheets, sweating and shaking. Thank goodness she woke up before he had a chance to actually force himself on her in her dream.

It was so real, She repeated in her head, her arms tightening protectively around herself as she walked down the halls.

She felt grieved and stressed as it already was that morning. But no, Yoshiko had to depress her and try to make her feel guilty for something stupid and crazy.

Alice had hoped that they could have been friends now, after the girl had helped her out of the tight spot with Nicholai. She wished they were friends. She wished Kurando's mom had never been in front of them in line. She wished she had never gone with Yuri into Braums for ice cream. If only.

Alice angrily quickened her pace. It wasn't her fault. She couldn't resist accepting his stupid, stupid, stupid invitation that practically caused all of this. Sure she must've lost herself that brief minute with him, but that was only natural to think he was cute and hot.

He was. So sue him.

It's not his fault, a small voice said to her,

Well it's not my fault, either. Alice stubbornly defended herself.

Well how could it be his fault? He was trying to be nice…Alice stopped walking.

There he was, shifting aimlessly through his locker but not making any progress at all in retrieving his book. She bit her lip, wondering if she should go over and talk to him. Alice jumped when he banged his head against his locker.

"Shit, shit, shit." Yuri banged his head with every word. "Arggggghhh… there is no fucking way I left The Anthem at home…. GOD…screw this…"

Alice stepped up beside him. "What's wrong...?"

He didn't even look at her. "Nothing." He said snappily, his voice suddenly going all-stiff as he continued to stare into his locker.

"You left your book?" Alice guessed.

"Maybe." He muttered.

"Well you can share mine or something, okay? Come on, we have to get to class or we'll be late." Alice said, checking the time. He still didn't look at her.

"You get to class." He cracked. "I don't give a shit if I'm late, okay?"

Alice stared at him. "Are… you all right?" she asked slightly hesitantly.

"Fucking fine." He slammed his locker shut.

"Now if you don't mind, Elliot. I needa bounce—Hey Veron!" He called over Alice's shoulder, as if she wasn't even there, "Wait up for me, babe."

Veronica Vera, did anybody forget about her? Nemeton High's biggest bitch turned around. A grin formed at her cherry red full lips. "Of course I'll wait for you." She said in a demure tone. "I'd wait for anyone who looked like you..."

Yuri pushed past Alice and went to catch up with Veronica.

Alice slowly walked down the hall. Did she do something wrong? If she did she couldn't figure out what. It was scary. He was acting like…

Himself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuri slid his arm around Vera's waist as they both walked down the hall. Veronica smiled at him. "It's nice to see that you're acting like yourself. I mean, I was really shocked when you blew me off in the cafeteria!" she pouted.

What the hell? Yuri blinked. Wasn't that months ago?

"Yeah, sorry babe." He said, giving her his old u-know-u-want-me-but-u-cant-have-me smile. "But I didn't intentionally blow you off. You know I'd never do that to someone as gorgeous as yourself."

Veronica glowed with pride. "Are you going to walk me to class?" she asked coyly.

"So what if I am?" Yuri replied, just as coy.

"Than you can!" she declared, sounding a bit too happy. Yuri restrained himself from rolling his eyes.

His thoughts went back to Alice and he shrugged grimly.

What he did was rude and possibly mean… but he had to do it. She wasn't his type anyway and he wasn't hers. They'd just have to go on again with their old lives. He'd find another chick to fulfill his needs and she could… well, she could go date Kurando or some other alien.

That way, he wouldn't have to look at her and want to kiss her if she had a boyfriend. Although he would be tempting to make the guy miserable for going out with his-- Yuri coughed. He'd make him miserable just for fun, nothing else…

"Yuuuri? Hello?" Veronica had stopped walking and was waving her claw-like hands in front of his face. Yuri jerked back, in fear that her two inch deep red plastic nails would scratch his face.

Big Boobs placed her hands on her hips. "You weren't listening to what I was saying!" she accused. "You were thinking about something else! SOMEONE ELSE!" Her steel blue eyes narrowed angrily. "Who are you thinking about?"

"You." He answered automatically. "How cute you look when you're mad."

She looked anything but cute. Like a hawk, more or less.

But Veronica relaxed anyway and flashed him what she thought was a sexy grin.

Yuri smiled back sweetly and she entwined their hands together before they continued walking down the hall. Veronica's mouth ran a mile a minute as she reeled off about all the guys she dated ever since he 'blew her off' and how none of them was as desirable as he was.

He found it all boring and kept nodding his head.

Every time Veronica felt he was zoning off, she would grip his hand, causing her nails to dig into his palm before he would come back to the subject.

"Well this is my class." She turned to him and flashed him one of her actually dazzling smiles.

"Thank you so much for walking me, cutie pie--" Yuri cringed. "--I'll see you at lunch alright? Can we eat together? Pretty please?"

Yuri was about to tell her yes, but then he decided he didn't want to spend a whole hour listening to her yak. "Sorry baby, you know I'd love to, but me and the guys decided to eat together because… because um, we have a meeting." He nodded. "About Martial Arts of course."

"But aren't I more important?" Veronica whined. "I thought you loved me!"

I never said that, Yuri thought, now feeling irked and appalled, "You are," he assured her. "The most important."

He lowered his head and kissed her to please the bitch, but before Veronica could open her mouth to allow his tongue to enter, he stepped back and gave her a cheery smile. Making it seem as if his intention was just to peck her lips.

"See ya babe. I'm late for class."

She looked positively furious but forced herself to wave at him. Yuri laughed to himself as he headed back down the hall for his AP class. Damn, now he was going to be late. I don't even have a pass, Yuri thought. Nor a book.

Oh well, it wasn't that late. Miss Iasant would let him in. And she probably would just lend him her extra copy.

Yuri finally arrived in class fifteen minutes later. He had dawdled in the halls, flirting with other girls just to see if he had lost his skill yet. He didn't obviously because the girls flirted back. Now feeling refreshed, he entered AP English.

Miss Iasant and the rest of the class looked at him. Except, he noticed Alice. The class had been in the middle of reading The Anthem when he barged in.

Miss Iasant raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Hyuga? Pass?"

"I'm only a few minutes late!" he protested.

"There is only thirty minutes left of this class. You don't have a pass?" his teacher slightly frowned. "Please sit down Mr. Hyuga, I'll let this one slide."

He smiled gratefully at her and went down the aisle in search for a seat.

"Alright, let's all continue… Nina, will you please continue reading?"

Miss Iasant had now settled comfortably, book open. "Mr. Hyuga, we were on page 16, reviewing the chapter I asked everyone to read for homework the night before. I'm sure that you've done your homework and should be familiar with what we are on, and that there will be no need for us to go back."

"Yeah," Yuri shrugged. "But uh… I um, see I sorta forgot my book at home if you know what I mean."

He flashed the teacher a cute smile. A few girls around him giggled idiotically.

Remembering how he used to look at them and give them some sort of sign that he noticed them just the please them, Yuri winked flirtatiously at a cute brunette sitting across him. She turned to her friend and they started squealing.

Satisfied, he raised his eyes to see Alice's expression and was amused.

She shot the brunette girl and her friend dirty looks before making a gagging expression. In return the two girls glared at her before haughtily turning away.

Yuri smirked. He would love it if Alice were jealous. It was so enjoyable to watch.

Miss Iasant suddenly cleared her throat and Yuri remembered what was going on. She frowned at him, lips tightly pursed. When she spoke, she spoke to him in a clipped tone. "You arrive late, without a pass. You forget your book at home, and possibly did not do your homework--"

"I did do it!" Yuri interrupted indignantly. "I just… left it at home, too."

Up front, Alice let out a scathing sniff. Yuri felt a twinge of resentment towards her because of it.

Miss Iasant looked at Alice and nodded, as if in agreement. "I don't know whether you really did do your homework or not, Mr. Hyuga but either way--detention."

"Why?" Yuri demanded, feeling a bit outraged. Miss Iasant didn't bother to look at him. "You know why Mr. Hyuga, don't make me repeat myself."

He slumped in his seat in defeat, thinking nasty thoughts about Elliot, and also feeling that it was entirely her fault.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Around midday, Alice left her History class and headed for lunch. Her stomach had been growling ever since she left her house that morning. She didn't eat a decent breakfast because halfway through, she had locked herself in her bedroom, not finishing her scrambled eggs.

She made a quick stop to her locker to put away her books and grab her lunch bag. Just as she was walking down lunch corridor, a loud commotion reached her ears. Screams of delight and roars of approval. Alice frowned in confusion.

Please don't let this be another fight, she thought grimly. She hoped the person who was fighting this time wasn't Kurando and Nicholai.

"Kick him, girl!" a guy yelled, arousing loud shouts of agreement.

"Fight, fight!"

"S-stop--" A moan of pain reached Alice's ears and her eyes widened. The voice was oddly familiar, but it wasn't Kurando. Someone… else. Alice didn't need to push through the crowd because a second later a teacher came screaming.

Automatically the tight circle around the fight loosened and Alice was astonished at what she saw.

Nicholai lay on the ground panting as blood ran freely from his nose and down past his chin, and standing above him, chest heaving was the most unlikely person she could have ever imagined.

Yoshiko Kawashima.

Her breathing was shallow and jagged, and the only damage Nicholai seemed to have been able to have done was an angry, red scratch that ran up her right forearm.

It was ridiculous; he was five times her size but there she was, only suffering from a girly scratch while Nicholai laid gagging and sputtering blood out of his mouth.

"What were you people thinking?" the teacher who was struggling to pull Nicholai's heavy body to his feet shrieked to the onlookers. "You should have called a teacher to stop this! GET UP BOY! I don't have the strength to carry your hulking body."

Fuming, the teacher turned to Yoshiko and started shouting at her for fighting with someone ten times her size and that if she was the one who started the fight, she would be in very big trouble.

Yoshiko merely shrugged, still trying to catch her breath. The people around her were all either patting her on the back, flashing thumbs up, or yelling congrats and Alice found herself wondering how on earth did Yoshiko managed to beat him up.

"You've got class, babe." An all too familiar voice drawled lazily. "Damn good fighter."

Alice focused her eyes on Yoshiko and didn't bother to look around for Yuri as she suddenly found herself heading towards her to accompany her to the principal's office.

They stood face to face before Yoshiko looked away. Her cheeks were flushed red, mouth slightly parted where she was breathing heavily from. Her usually shiny black hair was damp and a few strands clung to her sweaty cheeks.

"Come on!" the teacher said irritably. "Off you go," she told Alice. "This isn't any of your business."

"She stays at my house." Alice shot back. "I think I should have the right to accommodate her. She's part of the FSE."

The teacher studied Yoshiko grimly. "Then I'm afraid she won't be part of the FSE any longer—come on then."

Alice and Yoshiko walked side by side, but neither of them uttered a single word. Alice was trying to think of some way to approach the topic. More or less, her main question was Why? And How?

"You were right about him." Yoshiko suddenly said, eyes trained on the floor. "I'm sorry."

Alice shook her head. "I just want to know how it happened, please?"

Yoshiko still didn't look at her, but Alice could tell she was going to explain. "He kept… stalking me in the halls. He would mouth off bad language whenever we were in hearing distance."

Yoshiko's eyes darkened. "I just ignored him but then finally he must've gotten tired of it and decided to attack me. He came from behind me and tried to grab me and I think slam me against the lockers or something but I bit his arm then punched him in the face."

She hung her head. "I don't think it was a fair fight."

Alice stared at her in disbelief. "It was more than fair. How could it not be fair?"

"He didn't know that I knew karate and was well trained." Yoshiko said evenly.

"You know martial arts…?" Alice asked, impressed, but couldn't help being reminded of Yuri.

Yoshiko only blankly stared ahead. "Some girls learn it in Japan, although most of them don't think the females need to know. I practiced it for self-defense."

She laughed dryly as the teacher ahead glanced back at them. "I was startled at first when he grabbed me, otherwise I would have thrown him off of my back. But biting worked just as fine anyway."

They reached the secretary's large office and Yoshiko finally looked at Alice. "I'm sorry I didn't take you seriously." She said, a look of shame flashing across her tan face. "I somehow knew you weren't lying but just… sort of hoped you were."

"It's okay." Alice said sincerely. "I hope you didn't get hurt by Nicholai in any way."

A familiar smirk reached Yoshiko's lips. "He fights like a girl," she scoffed. "All he did was try to choke, slap, or scratch me."

Alice smiled weakly. "Anyway," Yoshiko's expression turned serious. "I just wanted to tell you if he ever bothers you again you should complain to the school board or your parent."

At her words Alice turned away, not really wanting to listen. "Listen Yoshiko--"

"No. If what you told me is true, then what he's doing is attempting rape or sexual harassment." Yoshiko said severely, not bothering to lower her voice when the teacher glanced warily at them.

"Yosh--" Alice wanted to turn and leave the office. "He just tried once. All he's doing now is just bothering me."

"Then complain that he's harassing you." The Japanese girl insisted, "If you don't stop this yourself, no one will."

"You may go see the principal now." The secretary called to Yoshiko, before Alice could respond. And without another word, Yoshiko disappeared behind the large oak door to the Principals' office

Sorry no comments AGAIN. I'm a very very busy girl now, two part time jobs and school. I loved all the reviews though, they mean a lot. Thank you! Also you new readers, I appreciate that you like reading this. Till next time!