Unlike Others (1)

Thursday

"Ok class. New day. And yes, I get it. It's almost Friday. Big deal. But you know what that means? It means you all get to work harder!!" Mr. Norio laughs.
"Now, we're going to start a new, lesson, I guess is what you
would call it. Anyways, grab a partner. This will be your running partner. Today, we will be running through the forests around the city. The forest has already been checked to make sure that there is no disturbance, like a monster. Now look at the board, find your partner, then head outside and meet with me." Mr. Norio points at the board then heads outside. Takeshi looks at the board for his name then finds it.
"Carte Morta and Ren Asame. End group leaders/follow ups." "Great. Let's go new boy." Ren grumbles next to Takeshi then walks off outside making Takeshi have to jog to catch up with her. Once everyone meets outside, they all start running, Mr. Norio in the front and Takeshi and Ren in the back.
The run starts, everyone keeps together in the beginning but eventually the line breaks up in the middle with two big groups of runners and their partners at each end, front and back.
A few hours in, there's a loud scream at the front of the group Ren and Takeshi were following. Takeshi and Ren rush up and meet face to face with a young girl their age with a large fancy white dress covered in blood, a pale face with makeup running down their cheeks, messy black hair, and light grey eyes.
"Ren, carefully get everyone back then wait till I have her distracted to call Mr. Norio for help." Takeshi whispers into Ren's ear then straightens up, meeting eyes with the girl. "What about..." Ren starts to say back but Takeshi shushes her and motions to go back. She nods and starts to walk
towards the rest of the group. The girl snaps her head to look at Ren.
"Ren don't move!!" Takeshi quickly whispers.
"Wait till I distract her." He takes the girl's hand, turning her attention from Ren back to Takeshi. The girl leans close to Takeshi and kisses him, letting him motion for Ren and the others to get back and call for help. As they get over 10 feet away from Takeshi and the girl, Ren pulls out her phone and calls Mr. Norio who says he's on his way.
"Ren, come here." Takeshi looks over at Ren with the girl pinning him to a tree. Ren walks over and Takeshi quickly pulls her close into a kiss then releases her, making her stumble backwards shocked. The girl looks furious but before she can make her way towards Ren, Takeshi stabs her in the back, making a ray of light shoot out of the stabbed area then slowly disappear as the girl drops to the ground. Mr. Norio reaches them soon after and takes everyone back to the school after calling the authorities to get the girl's lifeless body.
"Well Mr. Ryuu. It is nice to see you again. And what a pleasure it is to finally meet the famous Ren Ayame." The headmistress sits in her chair behind her desk as Ren and Takeshi sit in the two chairs on the opposite side of the headmistress.
"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you too ma'am." Ren smiles at the headmistress, slightly catching the tired Takeshi off guard.
"So, tell me. What happened out there?" Headmistress Tarenia glances at Takeshi and continues to look at Ren. "Basically what the incident report says. We were running, a Mournscream attacked one of our classmates, and we dealt with it." Takeshi sighs and looks out the window.
"Wait, the report never said it was a Mournscream. It claimed that it had to be taken to the Church to be examined and then it would be determined what it was." The headmistress immediately snaps her attention to Takeshi.
"I told you, I've read my books about monsters and stuff. No big deal. I just get really bored and don't have a life." Ren chuckles a little at Takeshi claiming that he doesn't have a life.
"Ok, well. You two can have the rest of the day off. Go on now." Headmistress Tarenia obviously doesn't believe him as she shoos them away and starts to call someone.
Maiman sits waiting outside the headmistress's office until Takeshi and Ren walk out.
"Let's go Maiman. We got the rest of the day off." Takeshi laughs and him and Maiman walk outside and back into town with Ren quietly following behind them.
"Hey Takeshi. How did you know all that anyways, because obviously you lied back there?" Ren jogs up and stops the two.
"Maybe I lied about not having a life but I do get bored easily and my room is full of books." He stops and shrugs.
"Liar. Again, tell me how." She glares at him.
"Fine. I don't have a room full of books, ok? Now can we go?" He sighs annoyed.
"No. Not till you stop lying to me." She growls.
"And what in the world was with you kissing me during that monster attack?!" Ren quickly punches Takeshi's shoulder.
"I needed to grab the knife out of your back pocket cause I noticed that you always carry one around with you and I also needed the Mournscream to get angry and try to attack you so I could stab her without her trying to kill both of us at the same time." Takeshi shrugs and starts to walk around Ren. "Takeshi. How did you know what it was?!" She slams him against a side of a house. Luckily for her, the streets were empty except for them.
"I already told you. Now, leave me alone." He flips them so he has her pinned to the wall, their faces close together.
"No." She grumbles.
"Fine, but this is your fault." He leans in and kisses her lips carefully for over 5 seconds. Once he leans back and stops, he turns and walks off with Maiman, leaving Ren furious and steaming again.
Takeshi walks in through the front door of his empty, quiet, house. Maiman runs up to Takeshi's room as he drops on the couch with a sigh.
A while passes and there's a knock on the door an hour after Arhiyan gets home. She walks over and opens the door only
to be greeted by Ren.
"Hi ma'am. I'm looking for Takeshi. I'm a friend of his from school." Ren smiles at Arhiyan, trying to hide her lie.
"He's up in his room. Do you want to come in and run up?" Arhiyan buys it, not knowing that Ren lied.
"Thank you...." Ren walks into the house.
"You can just call me Ms. Ryui, or Arhiyan. Your choice. His room is up on the second floor at the end of the hallway. Nice meeting you Ren." Arhiyan smiles at Ren then walks into the kitchen as Ren heads up the stairs. She walks to the end of the hall and knocks on the door, faint music playing behind the door.
"Hold on." Takeshi's voice responds a little louder than the music as there's a shuffling noise behind the door. "What..." He starts to say as he opens his door but stops when he sees Ren.
"What're you doing here?!" Takeshi lightly growls at the sight of her.
"You're not wearing a shirt. Just shorts." Ren points out, completely ignoring his question.
"Well yeah. I wasn't expecting anyone. Now answer me. What're you doing here?" He half growls in response.
"You never truly answered my question so I'm not going to answer yours. Now, aren't you going to invite me in so we can talk?" She lightly glares at him.
"No!! Why would I?!" Takeshi completely growls.
"Then I'll just walk in. Since I saw Maiman downstairs." She ducks under his arm and enters his room. The walls are dark blue and his queen sized bed is covered in black sheets. A smallish radio sits on his black desk in the corner next to a closed dark purple laptop. A black keyboard and a dark blue guitar sits next to a guitar amp by the desk, an empty white laundry basket sits in another corner of the room with two individually detailed black and dark blue skateboards leaning against the wall, his book bag sits on the black swivel chair in front of his desk. Ren walks over to a large window overlooking the forest on the outskirts of town.
"I actually like your room." She sighs then turns to him.
"Ren, what are you doing here? What do you want?" Takeshi walks over after cracking the door. He sits in the black swivel chair and stares at her.
"To talk. The one thing I figured we needed to do. Mostly to stop you from kissing, me." Ren walks over and sits on the edge of his bed, letting him carefully eye her.
"That's the only way I've gotten you to leave me alone but now it's making you bother me even more?" He grumbles and looks her right in the eyes.
"Well, in a way, yes. Takeshi, I have a lot of questions for you. I thought about something. Maybe we could actually get along other than annoying each other." She sighs then looks out his window again, breaking their eye contact.
"Fine. Go ahead and ask." He half growls half sighs.
"You'll answer truthfully?" Ren looks back at him.
"Depends on what you ask." They look at each other right in the eyes again.
"What's with all of the bandages?" She looks at the bandage wraps around his waist, wrists, and neck.
"Don't worry about them. Next question." Takeshi tries to avoid the question.
"Fine. How do you know so much about monsters, and don't say books because your room isn't filled with them. And you barely have any visible downstairs." She rolls her eyes. "Laptop. Next question." He tries to avoid the question again. "Takeshi, why won't you tell me any answers to my questions?" She looks him right in the eyes.
"Because we barely know each other." He sighs and stands up.
"Can you at least sit next to me?" Ren looks up at him. "Fine." He grumbles and sits next to her on the bed.
"Thank you. And Takeshi, it's been a little while since the first day we met, and we've barely spoken. Mr. Norio is obviously going to keep pairing us together so we might as well know each other." She sighs and looks over at him.
"Ok, and?" He gives her an annoyed look.
"I'm saying we should at least not be annoyed by each other all the time." She glares at him.
"Ok, and?" He repeats, making her let out a defeated sigh. She pulls his face close into a hard kiss, slowly dropping him back onto the bed. As she stops and sits up, she lets out a laugh.
"Now, I'll bother you about my questions later, and, I really don't want us on bad terms but we will be if you tell anyone at school about this." She stands up and leaves, letting Takeshi try and figure out what just happened.