- First Love -

On the way home, Jiro told me that it was the first time Kei has attended one of his shows.

"It's thanks to you." He gave me a weak smile. "I understand that his... situation might have caused him to start hating Kabuki... Or even hating me."

"Don't be silly, Jiro. Your brother loves you." He didn't react to my comment.

We continued home without a word. Jiro was lost in his thoughts and I in mine.

Kei never made it home that night.

I was getting really excited because we had three days left to start school. I was also nervous. I had put in a request to be in the same class as Kei but I wasn't sure they were going to accept. If not, I was going to feel really lonely. I wasn't the greatest at making friends and I was afraid I was going to stay alone for the whole trimester.

It was a Saturday morning when I was woken up by knocking on my door. I moaned unable to open my eyes. I had stayed up with Jiro the night before watching Japanese samurai movies.

"Hey, are you awake?" It was Kei. I heard him open the door.

"What do you want Kei? Why are you doing this to me?" I growled and I heard a chuckle.

"You make it sound like I am torturing you."

"You are!" I still couldn't open my eyes.

"Well I guess I'll just forget about inviting you out since you're too tired to even open your eyes." I sat up instantly. Kei laughed, louder this time.

"You're inviting me out? Why? Did your mom make you do that again?"

"How rude?" Kei pouted. "If you don't want to go out just go back to sleep." He pretended he was leaving.

"I want to." I almost squealed.

"Good. Be ready at 12:30. My friends want to meet you." My eyes widened.

"Your friends?"

"Yup." That was all he said before closing the door behind him.

I felt a rush of heat go through my whole body. It wasn't embarrassment, it was pure nervousness.

At twelve thirty, I was ready by the entrance. I wore jeans and a brown shirt. My hands were all sweaty from my nerves. 'Why would his friends want to see me? Has he talked about me before?'

Kei put on his shoes in silent and opened the door for me. He walked with his cane for a while without uttering a word. I wanted to ask him so many questions, about his friends and why they wanted to meet me. But I couldn't open my mouth.

"Don't say anything stupid, ok?" His low voice startled me.

"What do you mean?" I said, angry at his words. "If I am going to embarrass you, why are you bringing me with you?" He stopped walking instantly.

"I didn't mean it like that." He started explaining without facing me. "It's just that... they don't know a lot of things about me, and I'd like it to stay that way."

"So you don't want me to share that I saved your butt a few times when you were bullied." I could see his smile from the side of his face.

"Also, they speak very little English so this would be good practice for your Japanese." I heard my heart pound against my ribs. That last statement made some sweat break on my back.

As we reached a coffee shop, Kei entered and started walking up the stairs. Unconsciously, I stopped him with both my hands clenching the back of his orange shirt.

"Kei, I'm so nervous." I had a hard time breathing for some reason. "Promise me you won't leave me alone in there."

"I promise. Don't worry they don't bite." He chuckled.

I slowly let go and followed him. It was full of young people. The colors were very flashy, the music loud, and there were arcade games on the right corner of the place.

Kei waved at the table on the far left. It was looking over the street where we came from. There were ten people. Four boys and six girls. They looked like a gang, but I dismissed that last thought.

"Kei!" Everyone shouted. They all greeted him and he introduced me.

"My childhood friend." He said. I bowed and sat next to Kei.

One of the girls scooted next to me.

"I love your hair." She passed her hand through my hair which made me so uncomfortable. I felt my face turn crimson. It was very odd because I had read that physical contact in Japan could be considered rude.

"Thank you." I tried to be as nice as possible. I don't really have a good history with girlfriends. But, maybe it could change in Tokyo. These girls all looked nice. Well, except the one who was sitting by the window. She had been eyeing me ever since I walked in. She didn't even introduce herself like everyone else.

"So, how was Kei in elementary school?" Kei's friend, Daisuke, asked me. I felt Kei stiffen next to me.

"He was normal. Really smart and nice."

"Wow, your Japanese is pretty good." One of the girls sounded really excited about my accent.

"Was he a troublemaker?" Daisuke asked me again.

"Actually, I was the troublemaker. Kei was usually the one to save me." Everyone started laughing.

"Tell us about one of your adventures." The girl who touched my hair earlier said. Her name was Yoko. I looked at Kei and smiled.

"One time, we were out playing in the backyard. I remember I dared Kei to climb race up the tree to see who could climb it faster. He agreed." Kei looked at me and smiled. I knew he remembered.

"Is that the story you want to share?" He asked me with a grin. I nodded.

"Of course, I won. I was the first one up the tree. But then when I had to go down I couldn't. I was too scared." Kei's shoulders were shaking next to me.

"She was crying so loudly all the neighbors started looking out their windows" Kei confessed, he couldn't control his laugh anymore.

"So, he told me to jump. He said he would catch me."

"Did you jump?" Another girl asked.

"Yes, I did."

"Wow." They were all impressed.

"I remember I fell on top of him and looked into his cute little green eyes--"

"You mean black." Yoko interrupted. She thought I had made a mistake in Japanese. I looked over Kei and saw that his face was serious.

"Yes, black. Sorry. He was hurt from the impact, but he never said anything until I saw him the next day. He had a cast on his left arm."

"We still don't understand how she didn't get a scratch from that jump and I was the one to brak an arm." Kei added. His words were the perfect conclusion to the story. Everyone was laughing to hard.

The girl by the window was still staring at me. She wasn't even smiling at the story. She was kind of creepy.

Suddenly, Daisuke whispered something in his friend's ear, then, he stood up followed by Kei and the other boys.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." Kei told me in English.

The girl by the window stood up and all the other girls looked her direction. She was staring at me.

"You seem to be really close to Kei." 'Was that a question?'

"We used to when we were kids. But when he moved here, we lost contact a little." I said honestly.

The girl sat again. She was just freaking weird.

"How did you learn Japanese so well?" The girl sitting next to Yoko asked me. Her name was Hana.

"I just took classes and studied hard for the past two years."

"If only I could be as good in English." Yoko sighed.

"I can help you practice if you want to." I offered.

"Really? And I'll help you with any Japanese you don't understand." I nodded and smiled at her. I was pretty impressed with myself. I thought I might have found a potential friend.

"Do you know where the boys went?" I asked a little curious.

"They went to take care of your mess." The weird girl uttered. At first, I thought I misunderstood. 'My mess?' Nobody else ventured to say a thing.

"What do you mean?" I asked her. But she just stared at me.

I did as I was told. None of the other girls followed. I walked behind the creepy girl as we went through a few back streets before I heard a scream. My legs stopped moving.

"Are you scared?" The girl asked me with a smirk. "Come on, we're almost there." I resumed walking again.

We turned at a small alley and I found myself in front of Kei and his friends. They were facing four guys, two of them were on their knees.

My mind couldn't fathom what was going on.

"Please Kei-sama, forgive us please." The man on his knees was crying. I looked a little closer and recognized the scar on his face. My eyes widened. I immediately saw his partner. They were the thugs from a few days ago.

"Well, how will you pay for it then?" Daisuke asked the men.

"Money, we can pay you. Please, how much do you want?"

Kei's face was dark, intense, and scary. He twisted his cane and pulled a dagger out of it. I drew a short violent breath.

"I don't need your dirty money." Kei drew closer to the two men on their knees. My mind froze for a second. The anticipation of what Kei was going to do made the hair on my back stand. He held his hand high.

"Kei!" I screamed getting everyone's attention. Kei's eyes widened. I ran to him and stood in front of him.

"I told you to stay put."

"What the hell are you doing?" I was so shocked, so mad. "Are you a criminal now? Were you going to kill them?"

My hands were on Kei's chest. I found myself pushing him back even though he didn't budge an inch.

"It's none of your business. Go back to the café." Kei said while still staring over my shoulder at the two men about to be executed.

"What do you mean, none of my business. Isn't all this because of me?"

"Just get out of my way. You are embarrassing me." I looked at Kei with hurt eyes. I let my hands slide from his chest.

I turned to face the two men. They were so scared.

"I forgive you." I said in Japanese not knowing what I was doing. "This incident happened with ME, and I forgive you. Now go!"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I could feel Kei's angry breath hitting the back of my neck.

"I forgive them, is it so difficult to understand that?" I looked at the men again. "Go!"

They were confused. Too scared to move. I turned to face Kei again.

"Can you just tell them to go. I forgive them for what they did to ME"

Kei looked at me with strange eyes. I felt like I didn't know the guy standing in front of me.

"You got lucky." Daisuke jumped in. "Get out of here, you better not show yourselves ever again." All four men ran like there was no tomorrow.

Kei put his dagger back in the cane and walked away from me.

I stood there immobile my eyes fixated on the back of the guy I loved. He seemed so far away from me. Everyone left, except the girl who had brought me there.

"We have a hero among us." She said as she clapped her hands. 'This bitch.' She got under my skin. I could take her down right there. Teach her a lesson or two about physical strength. I hadn't done it in a while, fighting, but I think I still got it. Some things just never change.

I walked passed her ignoring her existence. I don't think she liked that. But I didn't give a damn. I got to the main street and called Jiro. I wasn't ready yet to talk to or even look at Kei. Jiro was there in twenty minutes. He took me home without asking me anything. He was a good friend. I really liked how he understood my feelings and gave me space when I needed it.

I didn't have much of an appetite that night. I lied down in bed playing the scene from earlier over and over again. 'Was Kei a criminal?' I understood he was in some kind of a gang, I just hoped they didn't do anything stupid that would jeopardize their future.

I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned for hours. It was three in the morning already. I closed my eyes again hoping that this time my mind would give it a rest and surrender to sleep. Suddenly, I heard a clatter down stairs. That definitely made it impossible for me to sleep.

I got up and walked down stairs. It was Kei, he was on the floor.

"Oh my God, Kei." I ran to him to help me. The smell of liquor hit me hard. "Are you drunk?"

"No!" He couldn't even focus his eyes on my face.

"Come on, I'll help you to your room." I was praying that no one would wake up. I put his arm on my shoulder and helped him up. We slowly made our way up the stairs and to his room. He crashed on his bed. I covered him and sat on the edge of his bed.

He was so peaceful now that he was asleep. 'How can someone change so much?' I thought to myself. All of a sudden, Kei sat up which took me by surprise. He seemed to not have noticed me. He took the contact case on his nightstand, and he took off his lenses. The light from the street immediately reflected off of his emerald eyes. They were beautiful, I still couldn't understand why he hid them from everyone.

Kei's eyes looked straight into mine. My heart skipped a few beats and I couldn't avert my eyes.

"Sam." He uttered, his voice was husky and soft. His face was too close to me. I couldn't move, I was totally under his spell. Without breaking eye contact, Kei brushed my lips with his in the most gentle of ways.

His lips were soft and warm. The contact sent shivers through my body. His right hand moved to the side of my face and caressed it. My eyes were closed and my breathing wasn't normal at all. I was floating in heaven.

Kei slowly pulled away and I could see a bright grin on his face. He lied down and closed his eyes. I was confused as to what had just happened. I sat there for a few minutes after Kei fell asleep. 'How could he just fall asleep after kissing me like that?' It was my first kiss ever.

I finally made my way to my room. Of course, I didn't sleep at all that night. My face was split in two by the biggest smile. 'Kei kissed me' was all my mind was filled with. 'Kei kissed me.'