disclaimer: The characters are not my own.
Don't sue me. Kain ate my wallet.
<margins corrected.. I hope>

"Onmitsu No Ai"
<part two>

    He was sitting alone at lunch, as he always did, and Tanaka almost
sat with him. Almost. As she reached his table, she could have sworn 
she heard him growl at her, or maybe he was arguing with a tough bit of 
meat. He didn't have the best table manners in the world, she'd noticed, 
but a boy as cute as he was could afford to be impolite now and again. 
After all, she told herself, everyone was entitled to one or two faults. 
He had brought his own meal, not that anyone blamed him, school lunches 
are notorious for tasting horrible, which consisted of spareribs and 
some teriyaki steak, it was a lot of meat for a Japanese meal, but he 
was an exchange student... and was tearing at them, growling with each 
bite, like some wild animal enjoying its meal and warning off 
scavengers. The growl was frightening and Tanaka told herself he was 
obvious not in the mood for company, so she sat at a nearby table, 
keeping her eye on him. When he was finished, he licked the teriyaki 
sauce from his hands and then lickgroomed his face to clean off any 
teriyaki sauce that might have got there. He quickly finished and took a 
sip of his milk. A moment later, he crushed the small carton in his hand 
as if he'd suddenly realized what he'd done and was angry at himself for 
such a major slip-up. He got up and walked over to the door with an 
amazing amount of dignity considering how he'd  been acting during 
lunch, slipping a hand into a pocket so he appeared almost regal, then 
tossed his milk carton into the trash as he left the room.

    'Naoki' studied his face in the bathroom mirror. A little pale 
compared to most of the other students there, but quite handsome 
otherwise. It was his eyes that troubled everyone. He'd had a pair of 
contact lenses that would've helped matters considerably, but they'd 
been lost along time ago. He recalled vividly the events surrounding the 
loss. He'd been attending an medal-giving ceremony at which the being 
who had saved his life when he was a child, a being whom he was later 
reunited with as a youth when he'd first arrived after graduating at the 
Academy, was being honored. When he had returned to his cabin, down the 
hall from the one belonging to his rescuer and friend, he had 
discovered, to his amazement, that he'd been robbed! Several items had 
been taken from him, including his contact lenses and, to his 
embarrassment, his diary. 
    Of course the thief had never mentioned any of the entries in his 
diary.
 'Naoki' had never spoken of these facts to anyone and talking of them 
would have given the thief away, and so his private life had remained at 
least mostly private, known only to himself and the thief. He'd never 
recovered his lost property, but in the years that followed, his work 
had earned him more than enough money to replace the items he'd lost. He 
never, however, started another diary, and he also failed, entirely, to 
replace the contact lenses. He hadn't really thought they'd be 
neccessary. He'd only gone to 
 Earth once before, and then no one had ever looked him in the eye. Not 
even just once. 

    "You know," a student observed, walking into bathroom and lighting 
up a cigarette, "you're never going to win her over with this shy 
routine. If I were you, I'd stop moping about and go after her."
    "And if I were you, I'd put that damned thing out before I shove it 
down your throat." His enhanced senses had their drawbacks and one of 
them was the smell of cigarette smoke. He had nothing against smokers, 
or their habit, and to be fair he had spent more than his share of time 
in the proverbial smoke-filled room, that was inevitable in his line of 
work. But today, he wasn't in a very accomodating mood. Already he'd had 
managed to embarrass himself at lunch, and he was sure he'd been 
recognized by that damned blue-haired girl. Why couldn't she keep her 
mind on what she was doing and just leave him alone. She was going to 
blow it, he knew, and it irritated him. And now this mere boy was 
presuming to try to give *him* advice like he was an idiot.
    Within a few seconds of the boy's rather expected comeback of "I'd 
like to see you try it.", 'Naoki' was on his way back to class while the 
other boy was lying sprawled out on the floor of the boys' room.
    
    In her next class, Tanaka found herself seated next to the boy who 
 she had been daydreaming of all day. With him so close, she found it
 difficult to concentrate on her studies. He was very handsome, she
 reasoned, that's why she couldn't keep her mind on her schoolwork, and
 she was falling in love with him. She blushed at the thought, knowing
 that he would've blushed, too, if he could've read it. 
     Something, perhaps the latent maternal instinct in all women,
 told her that he had clearly faced more than his share of traumas. 
 Despite this, she was sure that he was as pure as she was.
    "That might be a problem on our wedding night." she remarked,
 not realizing at first that she'd spoken aloud.
    He looked over at her with a bewildered expression on his face and
 his head cocked to one side in puzzlement. 
    Tanaka realized she'd spoken out and blushed, deeply, turning red
 all over.  She looked totally flustered. "Oh my!" she gasped, in a  
state of near-panic. "Oh dear..." The boy put a hand onto hers, meaning 
 to soothe her and ease her mind. Instead, the act had just the opposite
 effect. Her heart leaped up into her throat and the butterflies that
 were in her stomach began to dance the minute waltz. Then he looked at
 her and she saw the twin slits of his pupils up close for the first
 time. Those eyes, entrancing, exotic... They held her spellbound for a 
 moment and she gazed back up into them, Her own eyes shone with love
 and admiration, and perhaps just a twinge of fear. He leaned forward 
 and she wondered if he was going to kiss her. The butterflies gave up  
 the minute waltz in favor of mimicking the combat of her favorite anime
 series' mecha and she thought she would faint.
    Just then, the schoolbell rang.
        "Damn," she though to herself, though she was too polite to say
 the word aloud.
    The boy pulled away and started off for the next class on his
 schedule and Tanaka did likewise. As it happened, they were down the
 hall from each other, a fact that Tanaka made note of as they entered
 their classrooms. She wondered if she could get herself transfered into
 his class. But what reason would she give the teachers? She surely 
 could not tell them she wanted to attend the class because she was in  
 love with this student.
    She politely asked to be excused, lying about having to use the
 facilities, and quietly made her way down the hall. She knew it was 
 wrong but she could not get his hypnotic eyes out of her mind. She had 
 to see him again. She stopped at the door of his classroom and peeked  
 through the small window atop the door, she was a little too short to  
 do it on her own and needed to stand on a chair.
    The new janitress joined her and she stumbled back in surprise,
 falling off the chair. The woman caught her with surprising ease and 
 Tanaka thought she must be a Martial Arts student, a brown belt at the
 very least, probably in Judo.
    "Is this what they mean by falling in love?" the janitress
 kidded her.
    Tanaka blushed, deeply. Was it really that obvious? She tried 
 to make a witty comeback, but it died in her throat. She had fallen
 in love. There was no denying it. But who was he? She realized she
 had no idea of this and it took her by surprise. She'd heard a few
 rumors in the locker room. One of these suggested that his parents had 
 abandonned him at birth because of his strange eyes. Another rymor said
 that they were both dead, A third combined the first two, saying they'd
 killed themselves because they'd believed they'd brought a demon or 
 monster into the world. The first and third of these made Tanaka very 
 angry. She could not believe anyone could abandon a boy as handsome as
 he was. She wanted to marry him, to give him a family and perhaps let 
 him take her last name if he didn't have one of his own. If this boy 
 had spent his entire life unloved, she wanted to be the one to give him 
 all the love he'd missed, to make sure he was never without it again.
    "Don't worry," the janitress smiled, "your secret's safe with me.
 So, which one do you like?"
    "The chestnut haired boy." Tanaka whispered back.
    "'Naoki'?" the janitress asked.