"That looks good, that dye job."

I had just walked out of the salon and had turned back to give my new hair another look through the shop's window when someone called out to me-a deep, masculine voice. He had startled me, to say the least. I probably looked ridicules with how badly I jumped.

I turned to find the voice's owner. A boy who couldn't have been younger than twenty-two was leaning against a tree, dressed all in black, and smoking a cigarette-looking casual as shit.

"What makes you think I had it dyed?" I asked, smoothing it back out, openly looking him up and down. I was high on the confidence my new hair gave me. Plus there was no way this stranger knew who I was. I would probably never see him again.

He pushed his dark sunglasses higher up on his nose. The wind blew, giving me a small glimpse of the silver rings in his ears and cross tattoo on his neck. He reminded me of Zero, only darker and friendlier. I smiled at the thought.

He moved to stand in front of me and offered me a cigarette, which I took immediately-without even thinking about it, leaning into his hands to catch the light he also offered, smoothing my fingertips over the back of his hand. I don't know why I took it. I didn't smoke. I took a slow, deep drag-testing the waters. By the Grace of God I didn't choke.

This wasn't me at all, talking to strangers. I didn't know a thing about him. He could be a murderer for all I knew. And accepting cigarettes of all things! Today was defiantly a day to be noted.

"What's your name?" he asked me, smoothly, ignoring the question about my hair completely. For some reason that didn't bother me at all, that he blew me off. I wanted him to keep talking. I wanted to hear more of his voice.

"Yuuki." I answered immediately, without even thinking about it. I don't know why I told him my name. I could have told him any old name and he wouldn't have known the difference. He didn't need to know who I really was. Then I wondered why I wanted to lie about my name in the first place. Why did it matter if he knew what it was? We didn't know each other. In the end, I really was a nobody, as sad as that sounds. And a name is just a name, right? It was extremely unlikely that we would ever see each other again after this.

But he didn't even miss a beat, probably not even caring what my name was. I mean, obviously he couldn't hear my inner turmoil, but conversation came so natural to him. He didn't have to think of anything interesting to say. And nothing seemed forced. It all just flowed, so smoothly from his lips. He gestured towards my hands, noticing the bruising, raw flesh. "Battle scars?"

"You should see the other guy." That made him smile, and his smile was beautiful.

"I'd like to kiss you, Yuuki."

I stared into his handsome face, exhaling smoke, wishing I could see the eyes of this mysterious stranger that thought himself worthy of my first kiss, thinking I'd need to go buy some gum after thins to hide the cigarette smell on my breath. But then I thought of Kaname. I wanted to kiss Kaname, I've wanted too for years. But I knew we would never be together anyway. Wasn't that the whole point of today's excursion, to see the 'light'? It was stupid of me for ever thinking to save myself for someone like him, childish, so dumb. I could think of a million other hateful words to describe myself or I could fulfill this morning's promise.

"Okay." I said simply.

And he took my head in his hands, not waiting for a single second for me to change my mind, leaning in slowly, and pressed his lips against mine. I wondered for a split second if I came off as clumsy and awkward. I've never had a kiss before-I wasn't about to tell this stranger that-but I've seen other people do it, and I've read books, I got the idea. But it doesn't matter how many books you read or how many movies you watch, nothing compares to the real thing. His mouth was slow and sweet and his lips were warm and soft and for the life of me I wanted this moment to last forever, even if he was a complete stranger and I didn't even know his name or a single thing about him. My heart was beating faster than I ever thought was possible and my blood was rushing in my ears and my legs felt weak and right then he reached out with his teeth and for the shortest second pressed into my lower lip-then it was over.

He was gone.

I opened my eyes not realizing I had closed them, only to see that he was walking away-had turned his back on me and was leaving.

I pressed my fingers to my lips, feeling a lingering tingle in them as I stared at his retreating back, blankly. I took another long drag from my cigarette, deciding that one; saving kisses was indeed, stupid and two; I needed some ice cream.

I really loved ice cream.