(Natsuki)
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the sleeve of my T-shirt, sitting down heavily on the bleachers. It had to be a hundred degrees out here-my shirt was stuck to my back with sweat. And it was dark outside, for crying out loud! It must have been the humidity. It had been raining for the last three days, and only stopped the night before. The air felt like it was solid. I cracked open my soda and upturned it, drinking half of it before coming up for air. I sat there for a while, watching the crowd hurry by and wondered what the hell I'd agreed to come here for, anyway. What was so great about a fair? I sat there, trying to cool off, and slapped my forehead as I saw a familiar figure storming toward me. Whoooops.
"Where WERE you? It's too hot to be standing around WAITING...and I was there for an HOUR-" my best friend started ranting at me. She was short, about five foot two, and her short red hair was matted to her head in a mass (it really was that hot outside), and even though she didn't play any sports, her body was pretty solid, if not athletic. Her eyes were a piercing green and seemed really hostile most of the time.
"Oh, can it, Nao. You would never have found me in that mess, anyway." I said agitatedly, pointing at the huge crowd. Nao crossed her arms. I pushed some of my long hair behind my ear. It wouldn't stay out of my face. Sometimes I wished I could stand to cut it…but my hair was…well, I liked it how it was.
"You should've waited anyway. It's not nice to ditch the best friend, Natsuki."
"You're missing the point, here." I rolled my eyes and took a sip of my drink.
"It's not the point...it's...well, it's the principle of the thing!" she argued, and sighed knowing she'd lost at whatever she was bitching about.
"Jesus, it's hot." I said, hoping she'd let me change the subject.
"No kidding." She conceded. Woo-hoo.
"Let's go do something to cool off." I suggested after a short pause. She looked at me for a minute, waiting, and then rolled her eyes.
"Like what? Dance naked under the full moon?"
"The full moon's tomorrow night." I said, and she sunk down in the seat next to me, and gave me a look.
"Ookay, Miss Astrologically Correct." She said, and I just blinked at her.
"Miss what?" Nao grinned.
"Miss Astrologically Correct-you know, like 'politically correct', or 'anatomically correct'-only...not." She explained. I flicked her forehead with my index finger, and she punched my arm.
"You're an idiot." I laughed.
"Indeed. Let's at least go to my house or something. Where there's air conditioning. Then we could go for a woodsy walk." Nao said, taking an exhausted breath. One of our favorite pastimes was exploring the forest around our houses. There were miles of it.
"Yeah, let's." I said, and we stood up, making our way through the crowd. Nao pushed ahead of me, and I tossed my soda can on the ground, following. Then my face hit someone's chest.
"Littering is a crime." A boy's voice (with a faint French accent?) said quietly and with a hint of amusement, and I looked up into a pair of honey brown eyes. They were beautiful eyes that seemed to have an odd glow. Dark lashes, and black hair fell tastefully into his face framing the eyes. He was tall, must have been about five foot eleven (not quite six feet), and wore blue jeans that fit him perfectly and a black shirt that emphasized his muscular physique. "Are you okay?" His deep voice said, and I jumped back with the embarrassing realization that I'd been staring for longer than was appropriate. My face burned.
"What are you, some kind of environmentalist?" I snapped. Wow, that was a dumb thing to say. I fought the urge to slap my forehead.
"Not particularly." he said, not elaborating. Ooh, a conversationalist. I hate that kind of...but...he was an attractive conversationalist. A...VERY attractive—my thoughts were interrupted by a giggle. A female one. I looked up as a girl slapped him lightly on the arm.
"Now Reito, what did I tell you about this little tree-hugging fetish of yours?" she said, grinning. She spoke with a much thicker French accent than the boy had.
"It's not a fetish. It's simply rude to litter." he said almost playfully. If the boy was beautiful, I wouldn't know how to describe this girl. She was two inches shorter than Reito-making her two inches taller than me-and had tawny, chestnut-colored hair that reached just past her shoulder blades. It had just enough curl and fullness to it that it wasn't curly, but couldn't be considered straight either. Her eyes were a dark color that could pass as brown, but in the right light had a red glow to them. Her lips were the reddest lips I'd ever seen without makeup, and they were very pouty. Except the grin she was wearing ruined the effect. Or maybe it didn't. She quirked a brow at me, and I closed my mouth. Damn...freaking...
"What is the matter?" She asked. "Something on my face?"
"No...You guys are just...well..." I was having trouble speaking, and I would have loved to give myself a good slap. Didn't want to look insane, though. "I haven't seen you around before. And this is a pretty small town."
"I've noticed. It seems the entire town is here at this...fair. I didn't even think there were THIS many people around." She said. "What is so great about a fair, anyway?"
"...That's what I said." I grinned. "My friend and I were just leaving, but, uh.." I looked around Reito, and didn't see Nao anywhere. "She seems to have lost me. Or, I lost her. Well, you lost her." I babbled, looking up at Reito, who frowned at me.
"What?" he said, truly confused, and the brunette girl laughed again.
"You are funny." she took a step toward me and extended her hand. "I am Shizuru Fujino, and we are new here. We start school tomorrow." she said, and I couldn't help but smile. I liked this girl. Even if she seemed really weird. And the boy was attractive and...kind of funny. I shook her hand.
"Shizuru? Huh." I said, frowning. I looked up and asked suddenly (and I have no idea why), "We should be friends. What do you think?" She laughed, again. I seemed to be amusing the heck out of her. Reito grinned slightly. I tried to save myself, and as my face burned, rambled. "I mean…if you just moved here and maybe need someone to like show you around, or…"she saved me, mercifully, from my idiocy.
"I think that would be a marvelous idea." she said, and she took another step toward me. She wasn't smiling anymore. Another step and we'd be touching. She was giving me a really strange look. She looked down, then up, then right into my eyes. "You will be my very first friend in this country." she said, and I was thinking that this is probably the most intense look I've ever gotten. And coming from a girl, unheard of. I may not date much, or like, at all, but I'm not gay. Really. I mean, I look at guys and girls and I think they look good, but I think I'm just asexual. I don't actually want to, well, you know…Anyway, I was about to back away myself when she grinned again and took a step back. Reito looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I decided a subject change was in order-not that we were even ON a subject at the moment.
"So, uh...what grade will you two be in?"
"Eleventh. We'll be juniors." Aha.
"Me too." I said. She smiled again. It made me feel kinda fuzzy. In a weird, pathetic kind of way.
"Delightful. Perhaps we will have a few classes together."
"Yeah...I guess."
"You know, you haven't told us your name yet." she said. Hey, I hadn't. Imagine that.
"Oops." I said, and laughed. "I'm Natsuki Kuga."
"Natsuki? What a beautiful name."
"Not really." I said, and meant it.
"Of course it is. Natsuki." She tested the name slowly, and the way she said it made me blush furiously (again!) for some reason I didn't understand. Then, she glanced upward and I think she was looking at the moon. She seemed lost, like she couldn't stop looking at it. Maybe she was hearing something no one else could hear. I looked at Reito. Nope, he seemed to be hearing it too. And here's the weirdness. Knew there had to be something wrong with them. They were just too pretty to be normal.
"Uh, if you say so." I said nervously, and they both looked at me suddenly. Both of their faces were...I don't know, they seemed wrong. Kind of blank. Then Shizuru smiled.
"I am sorry. I can be strange sometimes." No kidding. We stared at each other. I couldn't think of anything to say.
"HEY! There you are, you damn deserter!" Nao cried, grabbing my arm from behind. I let out a surprised yelp, turning like I'd slap her.
"Nao! There you are. I got...caught up."
"Caught up? Yeah, right. You're just trying to ditch me! AGAIN!" she shouted.
"That would be Reito's fault." Shizuru said, gesturing toward him. Nao looked at Shizuru, then Reito, and stared at them for a moment. Awesome, it wasn't just me. I didn't feel so dumb anymore. "He's sorry he kept you, aren't you, Reito?" Shizuru said, and looked at him expectantly. He looked at her, seemed about to say something, and then looked at us.
"Yes, I'm sorry." He smiled sedately, and Shizuru patted his arm. Whoa. Talk about controlling. He acted more like her slave than her boyfriend. Nao looked really embarrassed now.
"Well...that's all right, I guess." she said, her face turning red. My jaw dropped. She was being nice? What the hell was wrong with her? I looked at her, and saw she was staring at Reito. Oh. Wonderful. I looked at Shizuru, and her eyes went from Reito, who was watching Nao, to me. She grinned. I don't know why. She walked to me and lowered her voice.
"Perhaps your friend and Reito would like to get to know each other a little better? What do you think?" she said conspiratorially. I blinked at her.
"Looks like it, but…" I wasn't sure Nao should be left alone with anyone who made her blush. I would worry about them.
"Reito, Natsuki is going to show me where I can find a restroom." Shizuru said, and Reito blinked, looking at her.
"But, there.."
"Why don't you stay here with Nao? We'll be back shortly." she said, and she was staring at him. His eyes went to the ground, then back up.
"Alright." He said.
"What?" Nao asked, looking back and forth between Shizuru and I.
"Maybe you should show Reito around? They're new here, you know." I said, and gave her a wink where Reito couldn't see. Her face went red, but she forced out a reply.
"I figured that. I guess I can do that." she said, flipping me off where he couldn't see, and Shizuru grabbed my arm and pulled me away. Once we were out of sight, I stopped and looked at her.
"Hey...what's the deal? I thought you two were dating?"
"Reito?" Shizuru said incredulously, and then laughed. Hysterically. I felt like I was the butt of some kind of joke. But her laugh was really nice. Ew, her laugh was nice? What the heck. I wondered if my blushes were like facial expressions, and like they said about those, if I did it long enough it would get stuck that way.
"Is he your brother, then?" and she laughed harder. I just looked at her, frowning in frustration. She stopped laughing and looked at me.
"We're not related. We're just...like best friends, is all. He is much more like a brother than a boyfriend, at any rate. Honestly...Reito and I dating." She giggled again, and I rolled my eyes.
"It's not that funny." I said.
"Sure it is."
"If you say so."
"So, what kind of things do you do for fun around here?"...
3456
(Shizuru)
"I take it you had fun with that Nao girl." I said, eyeing Reito as he walked in our front door with a smile plastered to his face. He had obviously had a good time.
"Oh Erus, she was frustrating. I've never met a girl like her. They don't come like this in France." He said, and laughed. I laughed with him, he always did say such silly things. "But what about you? I mean, 'the restroom?' are you serious? You obviously wanted to make eyes at that cute girl with the dark hair and pretty green eyes." he said playfully and I made innocent eyes at him.
"I have no idea what you mean. I simply wanted to make a friend. We do start school tomorrow, after all." I said, raising my eyebrows. He laughed again, and I smiled at him, before I became serious again. "But you know why we are here. The prophecy states that the Low-Blood will be made here, and very near right now. I do hope she has not already been made and inducted into that silly boy's pack. That would be a shame." I said wistfully.
"A shame, right. You mean, we'd have to kill them all to get her away, and if she didn't want to come with us, kill her too?" He said sullenly, and I looked at him.
"I do not like what I have been ordered by my family to do any more than you do, but they said that it must be me. I had no choice." I said, looking at him intently.
"I know. Neither did I." he said, and smiled slightly at me. He had been my best friend and protector since I had been a child, and I had never gone anywhere away from home without him.
"We will start searching during school tomorrow, I suppose. Tomorrow night is the full moon, and likely the best place to be then is that forest that the boy's pack runs in." I said, and yawned. "I am tired. Holding off partial changes this close to the full moon does take it out of a girl." I said playfully, and headed for the bedroom. Reito did the same.
"I know what you mean. As soon as Nao was out of my sight, my eyes were gone. I had to push her away much sooner than I wanted to." he said dismally, and we went to bed.