A Passing of Time - Raiden (Mortal Kombat) Story

Chapter 4

In the Present

"I'm gonna be honest. This feels a little weird," Althea told Raiden from across the table.

They had taken a corner table at a cafe outside of the town that the college was in, so that they'd run into less students and faculty, but people still stared.

"People will always have their opinions on what they see," Raiden stated.

"I'm not used to having eyes on me like this," Althea replied.

"From the women judging you with envious looks or the men trying to be subtle about the lustful gazes they're sending your way?" Raiden inquired.

Althea glanced around quickly before asking, "Are we seeing the same cafe?"

"We are. I've just been around long enough to see the same eyes in different people." Raiden then took a long drink from his tea.

"Have you seen my eyes before?" Althea questioned, genuinely curious.

And, as badly as Raiden wanted to say yes he had, he couldn't say where he had seen her eyes before. So, he held her gaze for a few moments, enjoying the curiosity and hope he saw there.

"I believe I have, although, I am not sure I can say exactly where," he answered carefully.

"Oh. Okay." There went her hopefulness along with her averting her eyes.

It was like a bad itch he couldn't scratch. He absolutely knew he had seen her eyes, well, just about everything about her screamed at him in familiarity, but never anything distinctive in his memory.

"Although I don't think you have been around long enough, do you think you have seen my eyes before?" Raiden asked.

Her gaze rose back up to meet his once more.

She didn't hesitate when she responded, "Yes."

One of his eyebrows rose in interest. That was not the answer he was suspecting. But, if she was finding things about him familiar, then this was something else entirely.

"Where have you seen them before?"

Her mouth opened with an answer but closed as confusion overtook her features.

"I honestly don't know. It's just-I feel like I know I have seen you before taking your course," she said.

"I believed for the longest time that I had seen you on campus before," Raiden told her.

"I thought that too until it didn't make sense because I never came to your end of campus before your class."

"And I don't ever see the science buildings either."

Althea took a sip from her coffee.

"Excuse me for a moment," Raiden said, offered a smile, and stood up.

She watched as he headed toward the restroom before looking out the window. A soft sigh left her. At least now she knew that Raiden had been thinking the same thing as her, that her sense of Deja vu wasn't misplaced. Yet, the root of the problem remained: where had they seen each other before?

"Hey," a voice greeted from beside her.

It pulled Althea out of her thoughts and back to reality.