Wow, something new! After a lot of thought and doubt, I finally churned this out. My first AU ever! Don't run away, AU's aren't that horrible, are they? From Kurogane's POV.

It was spring. The cherry blossom trees that lined the road were in full bloom, carpeting the way to school in pink snow. It was every romantic's best dream and every hayfever sufferer's worst nightmare but myself, being neither a romantic nor a sufferer of hayfever, passed them without much care.

It was spring and I was ready and prepared for another droning day of high school. The monotonous classes, the idle chatter that infected the room, the class hamster spinning in its wheel over and over and over and over…everything had just become another part of life.

It was spring and I sat at my desk by the window, watching the clouds pass me by.

It was spring when he arrived.

Yet I didn't notice it at first.

"Class, we have a new student. He just transferred here from overseas. Please, everyone, make him feel welcome."

How could I have noticed?

"Pleased to meet you."

How could I have known? The moment that I simply glanced in his general direction, without much care, I had already doomed myself.

"My name is Fai. I just transferred here. It's a pleasure."

No one can blame me. I didn't know.

XX

I was particularly attached to my seat during high school. My seat by the window let me glance out at the sky whenever I wanted. It was at the very back of the room, near the hamster that turned in its wheel as if there was no tomorrow, in a comfortable little corner, which meant that few people ever bothered me.

I can't say that I hated people, I just found a good majority of them to be idiots. I never thought of myself as intellectually superior, but one would be surprised how many high school students lacked the faculty of common sense…and good grammar. Good grammar was always important.

The lunch bell rang and the teacher ran out for food as quickly as possible before all was lost in a storm of students.

"Kurogane!" Tomoyo called to me, waking me from my trance.

I looked up as she came to my desk. In middle school she had once tried to dress me up in girl's clothes but, upon finding out that I was not cute in women's clothing and would never for-the-love-of-God-please-stopbe cute in women's clothing, she had since found other prey.

Now, she simply resigned herself to mothering me best as she could.

"Kurogane, let's eat!" she grabbed my arm, hauling me from my beloved desk.

I followed reluctantly, trailing behind and feeling the loss of my desk already. Yet as I exited, I caught the voices of those annoying girls filling the air with their senseless questions. I glanced over without a care only to see them huddled around the new kid's desk, bombarding him with over-enthusiastic questions.

"Where do you come from? What's your favourite band? What kind of school did you go to?"

"You must be smart to get accepted here in the middle of a term!"

"Do you like sweet things or sour things?"

They huddled around him so closely that I could hardly see him. Poor kid, he wouldn't survive a day here if he got on those rabid girls' bad side.

Well, however he dealt with them, it wasn't my problem.

Sliding the door shut, I followed Tomoyo to the cafeteria.

"Did you want to say hello?"

"Huh?" I looked distractedly at Tomoyo, unsure of what the hell she was talking about.

We walked down hallways, which were always ludicrously shiny. The windows were wide and tall to let as much sunlight in as possible, in rows of five between art displays and notice boards.

Tomoyo covered her giggle with a hand. "You look distracted so I was wondering if you wanted to say hello to the new transfer student."

I looked at her oddly, wondering just where she had gotten that crazy idea. "I don't really care," I shrugged and quickened my pace towards the cafeteria.

That was how life was and continued to be. The boring, seamless transition of days as one merged into the next. Those routine days continued for many weeks. Those days where I could already tell what would happen from the moment I woke up, those calm days when nothing amazing ever happened.

Day by day, time passed me by. Eating lunch with Tomoyo, sitting in class as the teacher droned, playing sports out on the field, everything was the same. Everything was grey and lifeless, simple and peaceful.

XX

Looking back on it, I see no reason for it to have ever happened. His desk was at a diagonal from mine. It was one up and one across but it was not really close enough that would call for him making conversation with me simply because I was a neighbour. We shared a few classes together but not many and neither of us were part of any kind of club.

He stood out with his blond hair and blue eyes. At first, my eyes would sometimes drift toward him and I would remember someone that I knew a long time ago but that was all that it was.

"Fai-kun! Wanna eat lunch together?"

I would sometimes hear one of those damn annoying girls asking him and, by the second week, I already knew all of his excuses.

"Sorry, I forgot my lunch money. Go on without me," he would hold up an apologetic hand and usher them out of the classroom.

"Hey, Fai-kun, there's this new shop opening, wanna check it out?" someone would offer but he would always wave them off and say with a grin, "I'm busy. Sorry! Another time, okay?"

I suppose that I would have wondered about it if I had cared. He seemed genuinely amiable and his friendly, approachable manner made him instantly popular yet he refused to socialise with anyone deeper than being just classmates. He waved them off and deflected them with sugar coated smiles so that no one could ever hate him. So that no one could ever get close enough to touch him.

Then, that happened.

XX

Tomoyo had taken ill that day and, as the lunch bell sounded, I found that I could not be bothered to grab anything from the noisy canteen. I could only put up with the incessant chatter of mindless students when she was there to take my mind off of it.

As my stomach was beginning to growl, I was wondering if leaving the comfort of my desk would be worth grabbing a sandwich for when, lo and behold, one was offered to me in front of my face.

I picked myself off of my desk to stare at whatever kind of idiot wanted to give their lunch to me. One glance at that bright mop of blond hair told me all that I wanted to know.

I stared sceptically at the sandwich that he was offering, my eyes narrowing at the brightly coloured things peeking from between the bread.

"What the hell is that?" I felt the sudden need to ask.

That was only the beginning of my mistake.

"It's a gummi bear sandwich, what else?" he replied with the same obscene cheerfulness that carried him throughout the day.

"What?" I stared at him, wondering if people from wherever the hell he was from had diets that consisted of gelatine sweets.

His brow furrowed a little but he managed to keep his smile plastered to his face. "Who are you again?" he asked, laughing at his own forgetfulness.

"It's Kurogane!" I grumbled, though I was not surprised that he did not know my name. We never paid the other any special attention and, before that day, had never even spoken to each other.

He nodded knowingly, and shook the sandwich in front of my face. "Do you want a bite, Kuro-chi?"

My eyes widened as I looked at him incredulously.

"What the hell did you just call me?" I asked, my voice low and dangerous. I was sure to make him well aware that repeating such an offence would be fatal.

"Kuro-pin, do you want some?"

Obviously the transmission of thoughts did not work on those who did not actually think.

I stood so suddenly, my chair clattered to the floor. People turned to see what all the commotion was about but their gazes did not deter me from grabbing him by the collar, yanking him towards me as I snarled, "I hope that you're not attached to your legs because they're gonna be broken in a few seconds!"

He wriggled out of my grasp, looking particularly unaffected

"I also have chocolate apples, tabasco bars…" he rummaged through his pockets without paying me the slightest bit of attention.

"Listen - " I began to yell but found my mouth currently occupied with something else.

It was ridiculously sweet and tasted like bread and sugar. I stumbled away with a mouthful of gummi bear sandwich, which he had somehow managed to shove into my mouth.

"It's good, isn't it?" he said cheerfully, oblivious to the horrified stares of those around him.

I choked on my own anger and surprise. Torn between strangling the kid and spitting out the horrible filth in my mouth, I was paralysed. I did not know which one to do first, was not sure which one would give me the most sadistic pleasure.

Yet while I marvelled at his audacity, I didn't have the slightest clue to what was really going on in that evil mind of his. I didn't know that Fai had already targeted me as his latest victim.

And so ends the introductory chapter. The narration will stop jumping about by the second chapter. Damn Kurogane, can't you tell a story straight?