I thought about writing about this odd, in a good way, couple because, at least in my opinion, they were one of the few characters to have character development in the series. And, they are the only pairing with no definite future; hence they are open to many possibilities. But, because I lack experience, I decided to use Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a backdrop to help me write; I just love that show; it's so inspirational lol. And this is, after all, my first story. Thanks.

I don't own Mai-hime or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Loverboy's, "Everybody's Workin for the Weekend."

In a burgundy building adorned with teenage angst, graffiti, known to foster and hold hundreds of the communities' youth, a professor and a student remain there after school hours.

The sky, once blue, bright, warm and blinding is fading into orange, red, violet and golden hues of light. The man, in his late thirties, glances out the white trimmed window and sighs, causing a small white fog to creep onto the glass' surface, only to dissipate within seconds. He extends his left arm and glances at his watch as little brown hairs curl around the brown strap. Pacing the room, the man gives up and pays his attention elsewhere-his plants. Bending down slightly, he prunes one of his bonsai trees with the focus and determination as one of a surgeon operating on a patient. Involuntarily, he releases a shriek when the door opens and closes in such loud accord, causing the man to give into his perspiration as a trickle of sweat descends further along his cheek.

"Usually, when a door is closed, you have to knock," he says running his hand along his face and tugging on his upper lip before releasing it with a loud pop sound.

"Well ya' know, I was just gonna save the world. But, you're right. Manners are more important. Seriously, what was I thinking?"

"Enough, Natsuki. I had no idea you were serious about this 'employee of the month' ordeal."

"I am the only employee..."

"Right," he sighs. The irritation in his eyes disappearing from his blue irises, only to be replaced by a calm, solemn gaze. "There was report of an animal attack near the bookstore in Harvey Lane."

"Vampire?"

"It would appear so, but no. The body was far too mutilated; no neck bites either."

"Demon."

"Yes. Although I am not quite sure what type of demon this was. I'll get back to you on that as soon as I have more information. Turn your cell-phone on."

"I kill. You research."

"No need to be so primitive. But yes, we'll do just that," he says with a sad smile.

"Good. I trust that you won't play with your plants."

"I wouldn't have been 'playing' with my plants had you been here on time."

"Sakomizu, you're a dreamer."

Using her super-strength, Natsuki takes hold of the blackboard and, easily, lifts it out of place; she then places it next to the door, barricading the entrance. Returning back to where the piece of board used to hang, she lifts a small handle and punches in a code. The walls divide into two separate structures as they slide horizontally out of view. A small room , close to the size of a large closet, is revealed-a room in which weapons of all kinds hang for the slayer to take.

"Careful, Natsuki. And please, don't be reckless," the man says as lines surface along his forehead, rising and falling like little hills.

"Hmm," she says as she reaches out for her favorite wooden stake, a curvy and thick weapon that she hides in one of the inner pockets in her blue leather jacket, the left side; instinct always told her to reach to her left as it had during a fight. Instinct: a slayer's greatest weapon and a slayer's lifeline.

"Of course, she is not paying attention to any word or syllable that escapes my mouth," mutters the peculiar man with a round body and a round baby-like face, being that it was smooth and jiggly as he takes off his lenses and cleans them with the hem of this shirt.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah," retorts the girl with midnight tresses as she caresses her Beretta Px4 Type G 9 mm semi-automatic pistol with a lilac squared piece of linen. "It's just hard to take you seriously when you look like an extra from Saturday Night Fever." As in cue, she turns to look at him the exact moment that he scoffs. Like the stake, she hides it. Only this time, she hides it behind her back, the cool metal of the weapon sending chills to her skin.

"Don't forget to close up shop this time," he says motioning to the wall where the weapons hang. "Surely you remember how unfortunate it was the last time when you had to come back after a tiring battle to put that bloody board back on the wall..."

"About that...Why are my toys here? I mean, doesn't it make sense to have them elsewhere? Like, not at school?"

"Demon. Natsuki," he says with another deep sigh. "Demon."

"Stupid demon. Here I am, all ready to fight and this damn thing won't show it's ugly ass face," she says as she surveys the street, Harvey Lane, which is better known as homeless, druggie, prostitute wonderland express. "Pfft. Figures, the one time I actually put a quarter in the parking meter..."

WOOOSSHH. "Okay...creepy," she says, nervously nodding her head. You can do this Natsuki. The sooner you kill this thing, the sooner you go home and snuggle into sleep. "Wait! Dammit! I have a history test tomorrow!"

Picking up pace, a noise near an old rundown bar catches her attention. "Yup, this must be where it's nesting," she says pinching her nose as the stench of some kind of rotten carcass, sulfur, trash, cigarettes, alcohol and blood stings her nose as she inhales. It only heightens when she gets closer to the grey bricked building with dark brown stains, black holes, broken windows, and faded open sign swaying loosely under the influence of the cool night air.

"You're definitely here," she mutters to herself as the floor creaks to the sound of her black chucks.

Surveying the area, Natsuki is sure that the demon is there-in that building; it has all the right elements that scream 'evil.' There are newspapers, bags of chips, cans, broken glass, and articles of clothing scattered all around the room.

"Demon or not. Something evil is or was here. I just hope I don't walk into some sort of orgy...again," she says as her porcelain face scrunches up. Emerald eyes squinting and closing to shut away such memories.

Then, a noise startles her. Reaching for her beretta, a stench of flesh blood creeps into her nostrils.

Everybody's working for the weekend; everybody wants a new romance; everybody's going off the deep end, ever-

"Shit!" she exclaims as she searches her articles of clothing to find the source of such profound eighties music. ...you want a piece of my heart-

From afar, she is sure anyone who saw her such moment of desperation would confirm their suspicions: the ice princess really does loves herself that much.

"What!" she yells into the mouthpiece of her phone.

"Such a lovely girl..."

"Sakomizu!"

"Ah yes, the demon. It appears that we are dealing with a Lei-Ach demon. These creatures feed off of bone marrow. You'll have to decapitate it."

"That is, if it doesn't get to my healthy, super-strong slayer bones first..."

"Right. Natsuki. Do be careful..."

"Yea," she says, ending the call.

Picking up her gun from the floor since it had fallen due to Loverboy's 1981 hit, "Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend," she does a quick perimeter sweep of the room, gun at hand, finger on the trigger.

"You can come out now! I know you have heard me!"

Getting no response, she tries yet again to lure the demon out: "Oh come on now! Aren't you supposed to be evil!?"

As minutes pass, Natsuki decides to plop down in one of the old chipped bar stools. "I am going to count to 30. Then I am going to find you and kill you, and eat your babies seeing as to how much you like to play hide-and-seek...must play that with your little ones..."

"ARRGHH!"

"Pirate? I mean finally..."

A scrawny, male figure emerges from the adjoining room. The demon, to Natsuki's disdain, is a pale of white-grayish pigmentation that is broken by reddish-pinkish sores spread throughout his face with dark sunken eyes penetrating her jade orbs.

"Ready?" she says motioning him to her, smirking.

"You'll regret this little girl!"

The demon with a curious pilgrim fashion sense and long shaggy, frizzy hair bouncing up and down, minus the top the head, since he is bald there, runs toward the slayer whilst yellow, triangular teeth bare out to scare Natsuki's pearly white ones who smirk toothily to the seemingly overconfident demon.

Without any hesitation, Natsuki pulls the trigger and shoots the demon in his heart, slowing him down.

Clenching his chest, the demon smiles back to Natsuki, dark eyes never leaving hers.

Amused, Natsuki runs over to the demon and rams him to the ground; however, much like any other teenage girl, the demon starts pulling on Natsuki's moonlit hair. He stops when the sixteen year old girl's pale, but smooth, fist lands on his jaw. Griping a huge shard of broken glass, Natsuki pierces it to the demon's neck. Red, pulpous, blood squirting out of it like a broken sprinkler of spoiled, runny, red cottage cheese. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Natsuki continues her incision and drags it across the demon's neck. She gets up, certain that demon, though not completely dead, is incapable of movement. Finding an old 'yield' sign outside, she returns back to where the demon lay. Pressing the sign and setting it straight, thanks to her incision, the sign holds, standing erect. She raises her right foot up, much like she does during training, meditates, placing all focus and energy into her next move. A couple of seconds later, she kicks down the yield sign so hard, that it breaks through the wood flooring. The demon head, as a result, rolls back to a corner with its thick, bumpy, black-purple forked tongue sticking out of it.

After kicking the head back near the corpse, Natsuki goes off to retreat a bottle of "El Patron" tequila that she had spotted earlier. Covering the corpse and its head with tequila, she lights a match, igniting it, and tosses it to the grotesque decapitated monster; however, the bright red, orange, and golden flames spread much quicker than she had anticipated.

Right. This is a bar: highly flammable.

Making a run for it, Natsuki jumps on her moonlight silver Ducati, and stops at a payphone. She dials 9-11, anonymously of course, and races back home.

Waking with severe muscle cramps that get worse when she stretches in bed, Natsuki winces. Her body, as she comes to find, is sore for a reason that she cannot fathom. The demon was not too hard to take down. Then, as her eyes adjust to the light, she finds that she is not in her bed; she fell asleep studying for her history test in her desk-sitting down.

"Awww" she wines as she stretches her muscles yet again. And raising her hand to wipe away her drool from her mouth, she freezes. Drool. "Dammit! My notes are all smeared! And..AND MY FACE!"

Quickly, Natsuki darts to the bathroom mirror to find that the ink, reflecting her poor penmanship, has been tattooed on her beloved face.

Taking a shower, scrubbing her face, and moisturizing on double dosage, Natsuki dresses for school-a short khaki skirt, white hoodie, orange vest, high dark blue socks, and blue converse, a simple attire with a flare of rebellion and intimidation that kept the student body at bay. She was, after all, the ice princess-untouchable and unreachable by all others.

"Natsuki," her mother says in response to Natsuki's boisterous steps as she descends down the staircase. "Don't forget to take Duran out before you leave and don't forget your lunch and forget to take out the trash land don't forg-"

"What else mother! Don't forget to what? So needy," she retorts crossing her arms and leaning in the kitchen wall, facing her mother who is busy filing papers on the kitchen table.

"Don't forget to kiss your mother goodbye," replies Saeko with a playful smile tugging her red lips.

"I love you too mom," she says exhaling a deep breath.

"Good. I did, after all, grant you life...AND beauty."

"Yeah, Yeah."

"I'll be home late, sweetheart, so pick something up for dinner."

"Okay mom."

Taking out the trash with Duran trailing behind her, Natsuki feels something inside her clench. Fazed, she stops to look around and sees a moving truck parked across the street-two houses away. Pushing the feeling away, she drags the green bin to the edge of the street, near her mailbox, for the city garbage trucks to pick up.

"Come on Duran," she says to the grey Irish wolfhound who, too, is staring at the newcomers. The dog turns to look at her, cocking its head to the left side, causing Natsuki to smile warmly. She pats his head, but is distracted by a flash of purple and blonde coming from the opposite side of the street. "Come on," she says once again as the figure disappears inside the charming two-story custard painted home.

Back inside her own two story maroon home, however, Natsuki grabs her lunch bag and backpack before heading to the garage.

"Goin' to school ma'," she says walking past her mother in the kitchen and to the far left side of the room where the door adjoining the kitchen and garage stood. "Don't forget to close the garage and lock up," she adds opening the garage door.

"I won't; I won't. Have a good day hun!"

"You too," Natsuki replies closing the door. She presses down white bulbous button that opens the garage door. Blinded by the sunlight for a split second, Natsuki straddles her Ducati, roars the engine to life, and speeds off to school.

"Miss Kuga," says a screechy mousy voice looming behind her.

"Principle Snyder...good morning?" Natsuki says, turning around to face the one demon she couldn't kill, smiling awkwardly at her with his too toothy and broad smile, paired with squinting and confused eyes and furrowed brows.

"Follow me."

"I-I have a test,"

"Oh don't you worry! You're late and you didn't study! If anything I am doing you a favor, Miss Kuga. You don't have to embarrass yourself by attempting to pass a test we both know you will fail," he says turning around to face her once again-gaze lowering and a glint of satisfaction appearing on those steely brown eyes. "You can take your test after I talk to you. But before that...office. Now."

I'll be sure to send a gift basket to the vampire that either kills you or turns you into a vampire that I'll kill. I'll add a gift card if it's the latter.

"Sit. And stop looking like you're enjoying yourself," principle Snyder remarks as he himself sits down in his brown-leather, world domineering chair; a chair that all his frequent delinquent students know that he loves because of the broad and privy smile that plasters his baloney shaped head every time he rolls or spins closer to a student. "As you know," he continues spinning slightly to meet Natsuki eye-eye. "I don't like you. I don't like the lot of you. But you, I smell something fishy about you and I will figure it out, fish sticks. That's right! Fish sticks!"

"Fish sticks? Hey man, if you don't like teenagers, don't you think being a school principal surrounded by a bunch of 'fish stick teenagers' isn't really your calling?"

"What?" he gasps. "So that another 'let's sing out our problems' principal takes over?! No! This is my calling because I despise you hormonal bunch. Only someone like me can keep you sexual creatures in order..."

"Excuse me. Principal Snyder?" comes a melodious voice from behind.

Natsuki, immediately, gets tingly feeling in her gut from hearing such an enchanting sound.

"What do you want?" asks Principal Snyder with very visible irritation; his jaw clenches; his eyes harden; and his bald spot reddens from frustration.

"I'm new here. Fujino, Shizuru," continues the mystical voice.

"Fujino? Of course! Of course!" smiles the newly happy principal.

"Are you smiling?" a confused Natsuki asks, leaning closer to get a better peek at Principal Snyder. "Oh my god you are!" she blurts out, admonished. "You're capable of smiling? Wow!" she continues, leaning back into her chair, whilst earning a singsong chuckle coming from behind her.

"DETENTION KUGA!"

"What?! WHY?"

"Out! OUT!" principal Snyder shouts extending his arm and pointing his finger towards the door.

"What a marshmallow," mumbles Natsuki as she rises from her seat. And, apparently, Principal Snyder doesn't hear her last remark, but the stranger behind her does as she continues to giggle lightly.

Picking up her backpack, and preparing to turn and leave, she stops.

"Is it possible that I get a some sort of pass or excuse for me being late to class?" Natsuki asks fidgeting with her index fingers and pouting, involuntarily.

"OUT!"

"Right," she responds hastily turning around, only to stop again.

In front of her, a girl about her age with tawny golden hair, fair white skin, full pink glistening lips and crimson eyes, is smiling coyly at her.