Marmalade Boy Fan Fiction ❯ Lonely Hearts ❯ Finding ( Chapter 1 )

I cannot speak for others, but mending a relationship that's gone wrong for all the wrong reasons is one of the best feelings I can think of. Certain people are simply meant to be together, and if there are obstacles it only makes the final joining sweeter, and more lasting. I had flown across the world, from Japan to New York City in order to bring together my best friend and his girlfriend. Their relationship had nearly been destroyed when Koishkawa Miki thought that Yuu had found someone here in New York, and had forsaken his affections for Miki.

Now, a scant pair of hours after our taxi had delivered us to Chidester Hall at St. Andrew's High School and University, where Yuu is currently an exchange student, they had straightened everything out and I, along with Miki's best friend, Akizuki Meiko, was seated in the downstairs common room watching Miki sob uncontrollably into Yuu's shirt. Her small, slight body was wracked with spasms of relief, and I could make out the muffled words "Thank God" repeated over and over in Japanese. Watching them did, however bring back not too distant memories of my own attempts to win a woman's heart.

Glancing over at Akizuki's clean profile, where she was seated next to me, I couldn't help but remember trying to woo her, with all of my roguish tricks and charm. I'd thought I had her for a brief while. This calm unspeakably beautiful young woman, who'd been bereft at the rejection by the man she loved, had blossomed under my care, giving me hope that she'd come to love me. In the end, though, just like this time, I'd accompanied her and Miki on a trip, but that time I'd been forced to watch Akizuki beg and plead with the man she'd never really gotten over, until he broke down and admitted that he hadn't wanted the separation, but had thought she deserved better. Remembering their reconciliation, I sighed.

The slight sound caught Akizuki's attention, and she looked over at me.

"I'm glad it all worked out." She spoke softly. "Miki has been so lost lately."

"I was a little frightened by how still she was on the flight over. It reminded me of," I stopped, not wanting to betray my thoughts' direction. Akizuki's warm hand on mine both reassured and puzzled me.

"It reminded you of me at Hiroshima, didn't it? I certainly felt the same way Miki did. I know it wasn't fair to you, especially after everything you did to encourage me, but without Shin'ichi I felt like something was missing, and I'd simply perish if I couldn't get it back." She moved her hand away and turned forward to look again as the tall, fair-skinned Japanese man before us, cradling Miki's tiny body to himself before continuing. "One day it'll happen to you Miwa-san. You'll meet a woman and be drawn to her so strongly that a part of you changes forever."

"Perhaps." I spoke in a low tone, more to myself than to her. The conversation was getting a bit uncomfortable. "Maybe I'll just have to settle for making sure that others remain happy." Nodding towards Yuu and Miki I fell silent. While Akizuki and I had been talking a few of Yuu's New York classmates had entered the room and unobtrusively spread around. One of them, whom I recognized as Yuu's roommate, made his way over to Akizuki's and my couch.

"Good afternoon, Akizuki-san, Miwa-san." He addressed us both in the Japanese fashion, which sounded a bit odd in English.

"Bill, please, call me Satoshi. The formality just does not suit your language." As I stood to greet him I was acutely aware of the contrast we made. We were both tall, with hair falling to our shoulders, but he was obviously Caucasian, with strikingly silver fair hair. I, on the other hand, have the glossy straight black hair that is common among people of Asian origin. The only oddity about my appearance comes from my Canadian mother, who's legacy remains in my height, and in a pair of deep blue eyes, incongruous with the rest of me.

"Of course." Bill replied to my request with a smile. "Are you guys," he indicated Akizuki and me, then swept his arm back to include the still embracing couple, "still joining us for dinner?"

"I believe so, let me ask Yuu."

I was moving forward to attract Yuu's attention, when movement in the room behind us caught my eye. It was a young, petite brunette, Doris I believe her name was, and she looked frantic. She waited for a lull, then hurried over to Yuu. I was close enough to catch her quiet, urgent message.

"Yuu, we need to get into your dorm room," she rushed on without giving him a chance for reply, "You know the new student who moved into the room down the hall from you? She hasn't been seen for a few days, not since she moved in, and, and…"

"What is it Doris, what does this have to do with my room?"

"I just heard something large hit the ground in there, and now I can't hear anything. She's been ill all week, and normally I can hear her coughing, but now I can't. I can't hear anything!" Doris was worried, that wasn't hard to tell, I'd only just met her, but concern was evident in the lines of her face.

"Have you knocked?" I interjected into the conversation, not wanting to be obvious, but merely to try to understand a situation that quite frankly baffled me. Things like this simply do not happen in Japan.

"She's not answering the door, nor her phone, and the building manager, Mr. Raney, is gone. We need to get in to that room and make sure she's, she's," Doris's voice, which had been rising in pitch and volume throughout the interchange, broke on the last words and drew the attention of the remainder of the company.

"Doris, what's wrong?" Akizuki asked. Doris was in no position to answer, so Yuu began to explain what he'd just heard, still holding Miki close to his heart.

"We had a new student move in last week, just down the hall, next to Doris and Jinny." At the mention of her name a slender blonde wearing a tight shirt stepped forward, looking worried.

"That girl, who moved in down the hall from us. Well, Doris thinks there's something the matter with her and I think she wants to use Yuu's loft to get onto the roof and then get into her room. Am I right Doris?"

She nodded, "Yes, she keeps her windows open. I see the curtains blowing in the breeze whenever I look over."

"Have you asked Mr. Raney to check on her?" Yuu had apparently not heard that the manager was absent.

"He's gone out for the day, and he locked his room this time."

"Has she been assigned a roommate?" I was beginning to think Yuu was stalling, or trying to avoid being separated from Miki for any reason.

"No, I heard she's some kind of special case. She's living alone." Doris was quick to reply. She didn't strike me as the type to suggest this sort of maneuver unless it was absolutely necessary.

Miki looked up at Yuu earnestly. "Yuu, you have to help her, what if it was me?"

After his obvious reluctance, I didn't want Yuu to be troubled by this today, of all days. My mouth moved almost before I thought about it.

"What needs to be done?"

"I think it would be best if someone could use Yuu and Bill's loft to get onto the roof and then climb down into her room." Doris said.

"I guess I'd be the best choice." Yuu remarked quietly.

"No Yuu, I'll do it, so long as there's rope. It wouldn't hurt if she were cute too. Is she?" Akizuki looked at me oddly, probably questioning my motives.

"Yes, we've got rope Miwa-san, I'll get it." The reply came from Doris's boyfriend, Brian, who suited actions to words immediately; leaving the room and returning in a few moments with several hundred meters of thick nylon rope.

"We use it to practice." was all that the athletic red head offered by way of explanation.

Before I knew it I was in Yuu and Bill's room with Brian, Bill, Yuu, and Miki. Doris and Jinny were downstairs outside the girl's door, ready to help me once I got in there, if we needed it. Yuu climbed up to the loft, with Bill and me following. Carefully knotting one end of the rope around myself while Yuu secured the opposite end to a ceiling beam, I cocked half an ear to Brian's yelled instructions, rendered almost inaudible by his distance from the entrance to the loft. Both Yuu and Bill were going to provide me with the necessary tension, Yuu from the loft, and Bill from outside, on the roof above me, while I performed my short rappel. Taking a deep breath, I double-checked the rope knotted around my waist and walked out along the roof. Bill followed, and we stopped above the necessary window. Bill braced himself, grasped the rope firmly, leaving very little slack, and nodded. Her window really was open. I could see a spotless pair of white curtains fluttering gently. Without thinking I stepped off the roof onto the side of the building and began to walk slowly down the side of the wall. Before I knew it my feet were on her windowsill and I was forced to drop to a crouch to survey the room.

At first glance it looked empty. The bed was neatly made with a forest green coverlet, the bookshelf full of complicated chemistry texts. I noticed the desk lamp was on, and as I swung myself into the room, I saw her.

I got a nasty spurt of worry when I saw the body of a young woman lying on the floor next to the desk. She was lying on her side, with part of her face concealed by a heavy looking textbook, and the remainder covered by a thick waterfall of dark brown hair. I could tell that she had been the "loud thud" that Doris had heard hitting the floor. It looked as though she had been studying and had fainted or fallen asleep. I called out softly,

"Excuse me, miss?" but she made no response. Swinging myself inside the window, I untied the rope from my waist and thrust the end back outside.

When I walked over to the girl on the floor I was, well, I was worried, what could she have been doing that caused her to fall out of her chair, with the book on top of her?

Trying not to disturb her, especially if she'd hurt anything when she fell, I cautiously picked up the heavy volume, not wanting to cause any damage, then almost dropped it in spite of my care when I saw the title. It was an advanced book on chemical analysis. Closing it and placing it on the desk I turned my attention to the damsel I had been sent to rescue. After the book was gone I gently pushed her hair back from her face. Drawing my face close to hers I was relieved to feel the gentle puff of her breath against my cheek. Satisfied that she was, in fact, still breathing, I drew back, noticing her face for the first time. She looked dainty, with high cheekbones and a small slim nose. Carefully drawing my fingers down her cheek, frowning a bit at its pallor, I wondered what color her eyes would be once they were open.

The impression I had received of delicate beauty was little changed by my perusal, for purposes of injury detection only of course, of her body. Her wrists, protruding from the cuffs of an Oxford cloth shirt, were tiny, even with my familiarity towards bird-like Japanese women. Her legs were lean, and seemed impossibly long. Rising to a crouch, I slowly straightened her body out and carefully rolled her so that she was lying flat on her back, and found myself hard-pressed to remember my mission and avoid taking unconscious liberties. Her waist was trim, neatly belted, and her breasts were just right for her frame, balancing her torso with the slender curves of her thighs, and sorely tempting my baser instincts. My attraction was undeniable, before I even heard her voice.

Inwardly chastising myself, I knelt beside her again and rolled her prone form towards me, intending to slip an arm under her knees and carry her to the bed.

Halfway through my maneuvering, with her head resting against my chest and my arm around her shoulders I felt her move. I froze, unable to move as she burrowed closer into my arms.