The next day at college Touko could not stop sighing as she continuously ran yesterday's events through her mind. The moment she asked if he wanted to see the library, of all places, regret and dismay made themselves known because, honestly, it made her sound like a boring person. 'I just met you and this is crazy, but come to the library and think I'm this amazing person that you would love to hang with on hours on end and perhaps think of reproducing with because you have the finest genes of all... maybe?'

Yeah, right.

But he did not look bored or judgmental. Instead he looked a tad amused and intrigued. She had hope she hit a mark in him being fascinated with books. And he was. He browsed the isles for almost forty minutes, finally picking out a non-fiction book and finding a secluded table to sit out. She herself had picked out a fiction book and sat across from him.

Of course she did not plan on sitting there reading with him, she actually wanted to show him around some more but simply sitting there in comfortable silence felt good enough.

'A plain Jane strikes!' Touko thought childishly, a small smile dancing on her lips as she remembered the day before when N had turned down the beautiful woman at the market. If he noticed her sudden good behavior, he did not comment on it.

They stayed there until closing time and were ushered out by the librarian. N had offered to put the books back but the old crow was adamant to get them out so she could go home.

N had thanked her for the wonderful afternoon and declared he had to leave now and did not know if they would see each other again.

"Oh," she had said stupidly and gave a pathetic wave and a forced smile. "I hope you enjoyed your time then. Bye." She had turned around quite robotically and walked away. There was no way to explain how awkward and disappointed she felt.

Another sigh.

'Maybe I need to take lessons on how to flirt with strangers properly,' she thought with a sliver of dismay. Maybe then she could have interested N.

"Hey, you look down in the dumps. What's up?" A voice trilled happily in front of the brunette, making her lift her head to confirm who she thought it was.

"Hey, Belle."

Beautiful, blond hair, blue eyed Belle. She had met her dear friend only four years ago but only after three years they have almost been inseparable ever since.

It was due to Touko's accident. She was walking home from high school and there was a huge downpour, making it hard to see for both walking pedestrians and drivers alike. She had not seen the red light turn green, taking her chances to sprint across the road. The person driving the car had been too reckless, the need for speed coursing through his veins to feed this particular adrenaline junkie.

It had been quick, striking her within seconds. The collision had surprised the driver, causing him to swerve around and tanking the end of his 'baby' into a building. Two trucks had suffered along with the driver's stupidity.

Touko was laying on the ground, staring up at the sky in shock, the rain drops plopping into her eyes barely bugged her. She could not comprehend what was happening. She felt numb, she could not move but all she wanted to do was get home and out of the rain. She just wanted to go home and warm up. She had homework that needed to be done, chores that would not get done on their own. She didn't like being caught up in the rain, nor the way her socks got more soaked.

Everything faded to black and it did not scare her because the pain was just starting to roll in and it was not something she wanted to stay awake for. When she came to, she saw her mother at the end of the bed, slumped in a chair and sleeping. Besides her was Belle, holding onto the railings on the bed, fat tears and snot running down her face. Even crying she looked beautiful.

Before this, Belle had barely paid attention to her, they only spoke to each other in class because they were partners. But now they were stuck to each other like glue.

"I had grown attached to you. You're pretty weird." Was Belle's reply when Touko asked her why she was suddenly talkative.

"You look down in the dumps," Belle took notice of her friend's expression and frowned. "Is something the matter?"

"Well... I met this guy—"

"A guy?! Is he delicious looking?"

"Like a plate of the best lasagna."

"Oh," Belle sighed dramatically and fanned her face. "You must introduce me to him."

"I would, but I only know his name. And he is not even from around here."

"Aw, really?" Belle cocked her hip to the side and place a hand on her waist. "Where did you meet him?"

"The market," Belle rolled her eyes at this and muttered something about it being a 'cliche romance novel moment'. "He said he was waiting for someone there. You should've been there! There was this woman, an eight, maybe even a nine, she tried seducing him with her perfect body but he wasn't into tapping that."

"Seriously? Is he blind?"

"That, or he actually has taste. I did invite him to hang out with me and he agreed."

"Wow," Belle sighed again and placed her hands over her heart. "It's like the perfect start of a romance novel." Honestly, there were hordes of those trashy books in the blonde's locker.

"You read too many of those," Touko chided playfully and opened her locker, stuffing in some textbooks and removing different ones. "It's all going to rot your brain."

"Ha-ha," Belle grinned. "So, tell me this mysterious man's name."

"His name is Natural, but said it was okay to call him N."

"Natural?" Belle's posture became stiff and a dark look crossed her face. "So you're not exaggerating his beauty? Does he have green hair and eyes?"

"Yeah," Touko blinked in confusion at her friends sudden cold behavior. "Do you know him?"

"I do," Belle gave a dainty sniff. "I know him... very well."

"Oh," Touko swallowed thickly and suddenly a sick feeling over came her. "Did you use to... " She couldn't bring herself to ask the dreaded question but her heart sank anyways when her friend averted her eyes.

"We were... partners at one point."

"Oh."

"I gotta go," Belle said abruptly and spun on her heel, heading towards the school exit. "Promise me you won't go near him again, Touko. He's bad news."

Touko breathed deeply, trying to calm her pounding heart. She should have not been surprised or hurt that two beautiful people were wound up together in the past, but she couldn't help it, her emotions would not stop swamping over.

'No, this happened before I met either of them. It is in the past, nothing new,' she tried to assure herself while taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. 'Belle had said he is bad news... did he do something bad in the past? Is he still doing it now?'

Touko felt her nerves fray once again and slammed her locker shut before stumbling off to class. She stared at the teacher in front, not hearing or seeing anything. Her thoughts were filled of the mysterious N and a suddenly distant Belle.

She could not quell the stinging jealousy. It festered annoyingly and made her slam a hand down on the desk without thinking.

"Miss... White," the teacher drawled after looking on the student chart list. "Care to share something with us?"

"Uhm, no, sorry," she mumbled, head dipping in embarrassment when she heard a few cackles of laughter.

The rest of the school day carried on without incident, although many times Touko had wished she could kick all the beautiful couples in the face. How dare they be beautiful and happy. It was unfair.

She tried texting Belle but got no reply. Just where did the woman disappear to? They spent most of their time together after school, unless there was part-time jobs to get to or errands to run. She decided to head to the library to try and finish her homework alone.

It was quiet there, as usual. It allowed her the privilege of talking to herself quietly since she would not be disturbing anyone else. Her mind wouldn't settle down or allow her a moment of peace so she spoke to herself to allow some sanity.

After a couple of minutes the chair across from her squeaked across the floor, followed by a light 'fwump' of someone sitting down. She lifted her head, brows furrowing and mouth open, ready to interrogate the new comer as to why they sat at this table despite the rest of them, being ninety-nine percent empty, but stopped upon seeing who it was.

"Hello," he whispered with a small dip of his head in acknowledgement.

"H—hi," she squeaked and mentally cringed at how high her voice went. "What brings you to the library?"

"You."

Touko believed she could die of utter happiness. A goofy smiled plastered itself on her face and Natural gave a small one of his own, although looking a bit reluctant while doing so.

"Did you find your friend yet?"

"No. And I did not see you at the market today so I came here."

"If I went to the market every day I would be broke."

"Ah, I suppose that would be true."

Touko giggled and stopped. He had said he was looking for a friend... was this 'friend' Belle? She decided to bite the bullet and ask. "So tell me about your friend?"

"Not that important," he waved his hand as if it really wasn't anything major and stopped, eyes widening. His brows furrowed and he frowned. "No... it is important. Please ignore that."

"Okay," Touko bit her tongue and looked down at her half written essay, unsure of what to say now.

"May I see your hand?" His innocent question had blood rushing to her face.

"Sure... " She held her hand out to him and watched with fascination.

He looked so wary of touching her, as if either he would get burned or she would shatter. But when he finally did muster up the courage to touch her, it was unlike anything either of them had ever felt.

Touko felt as if electric currents were traveling underneath her skin, followed by a burning and chilling sensation all at once. Such feelings were causing her to feel weird and she stared over at N, seeing his own eyes wide with wonder. Could this man be tied to her in some way? A soul mate of sorts?

The feelings did not pass but as soon as they came it made her feel warm, her nerves humming in content. N had intertwined his fingers through hers and held it there for what seemed forever. He stared intently at their joint hands, as if trying to make sense of what was going on. Eventually he dislodged his hold on her and held his hand in front of his face.

The feelings went away with his touch and Touko felt a little cold at the loss, but after a moment she felt the normalcy return and shrugged it off.

"Did you feel that too?" He whispered, placing his hand back down and looking at her with confusion.

"Yeah," she whispered back, her eyes more open with emotion.

"What do you think it is?"

"Uhm," she was too embarrassed to say the words 'soul mates' and gave a one shoulder shrug instead. "I don't know."

"It's not normal," he stated and looked uncomfortable. "I never felt this way before when I touched another."

Her pulse quickened. So they had something special, Touko concluded, but in his eyes it was probably disturbing to him. She did not know whether to curl up and die or jump for joy. They said nothing and the silence stretched on.

. . .

A/N: Thanks to BlackRose105 from dA for fixing up my mistakes! ; u; i luv u long tiem.