Chapter Two

“Detention is now released.” said the teacher standing in front of the classroom that was currently being used as the detention room.  Hiroshi heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Why did  learn to keep my temper under control.’

            Hiroshi put his books in his locker.  He never studied anyways, so what was the point of lugging around a bunch of heavy books when you never even used them?

            As Hiroshi walked home, he thought about the odd dream he had while he dozed off during detention. In his dream, there was a shiny red ruby in the shape of a heart. It was being held by a feminine looking boy with large green eyes, red hair, and for some odd reason, cat ears. The boy held the ruby close to him, as if it was something very important. After that dream, Hiroshi felt the strange need to protect the boy from any harm that came his way, but of course he was only a figment of his imagination.

            Or at least that’s what he thought.

            Hiroshi decided to take the long way home. The later he got home the better. He didn’t want to hear his mom rant on again about how unacceptable getting detention is.

            He stopped short when he heard a short muffled scream followed by a splash. Hiroshi ran towards the source of the sounds, a very deep pond.  He saw a flash of red hair and were those….cat ears? It didn’t matter though because Hiroshi had already jumped into the pond and was swimming towards the drowning person. It was a good thing he took those swimming lessons last summer!  He ducked his head underwater to see if he was close to the drownee.  He found himself staring into a pair of bright green eyes. The eyes were slowly closing. Hiroshi could tell that the owner was slowly losing consciousness.

            He grabbed the soaked boy and hoisted him up on his shoulders, trying his best to swim with an unconscious person laying on him. After what seemed like hours, he finally made it. He laid the drownee’s head on his lap, because he didn’t want to put it on the cold, hard, muddy rocks. He checked for a pulse and was relieved to see that there was a heartbeat. But the boy on his lap still wasn’t breathing.

            In the swimming class Hiroshi took last summer, they had taught the students how to give CPR. He pressed down on the boy’s chest to try to get the blood flowing again. When that wasn’t working quite as well as he thought, he knew what he had to do.

            He pressed his lips up against the boy’s slightly parted ones. They were, to Hiroshi’s surprise, soft and tasted sweet. He breathed into the drownee’s mouth trying to get him to breathe again. Hiroshi pulled back when he heard the boy softly cough. The last thing he needed was to have him think he was some kind of perverted molester.

            The drownee’s eyes softly fluttered open. He lay there for a little while, taking in his surroundings. It was when he appeared to have realized that he was laying in Hiroshi’s lap, he abruptly sat up. He clutched his left shoulder as if he was in pain. “Oooow… where am I?” the boy asked Hiroshi. “More importantly… am I dead?”

            “You aren’t dead and you are in Japan.” was Hiroshi’s reply. It was then that he saw that the boy’s shoulder was oozing with blood.

            “What exactly happened? How did you end up in that pond and why are you bleeding like that?” Hiroshi asked. The boy was silent and stared onwards. After a while he said “It’s kind of a long story and you wouldn’t believe me anyways.” “Heh, I’m up for anything these days” said Hiroshi. “But before you explain what happened, we need to get your arm checked. That’s a pretty nasty cut you have, it could get infected.”

            The boy tried to stand up, but as soon as he was up he gave a sharp cry of pain and fell back down again. Hiroshi crawled over to him. “Are you ok? Did you twist your ankle?” Before the boy could protest, Hiroshi was at his ankles, checking for signs of injury. When there appeared to be no injury, Hiroshi retreated back to his original spot. “Are you just feeling weak? I assume you must have had quite a day today.” said Hiroshi. “You can say that.” sighed the boy, looking sad.

            ‘What the heck happened anyways?’ thought Hiroshi.

            Hiroshi surprised both the boy and himself when he picked him up bridal style and held him in his arms. “W-what are you doing?” the redhead asked as Hiroshi started walking. “I am taking you home. My mother is a nurse; she will take care of you.” Hiroshi said. “By the way, you never told me you your name. “ The boy looked up at Hiroshi and said “Megota.”

            “That’s an odd name, are you not from around here?” said Hiroshi. “I’m actually from very far away…” said Megota, he was obviously tired. He closed his eyes and started to drift to sleep. Hiroshi brushed a few strands of hair away from Megota’s delicate face. When Hiroshi got a closer look at him, he realized he looked exactly like the boy he saw in his dream. ‘Does this mean something? Maybe the dream was a message from God.’ Hiroshi thought.

            When they finally got to Hiroshi’s house, Hiroshi’s mom stopped the bleeding in Megota’s shoulder and wrapped a thick bandage around it. “Where are your parents, sweetie?” She asked. Megota stared at the floor, fighting back the tears forming in his eyes.  “I don’t know where they are right now.” Megota said quietly. “Well, I guess we’ll have to put up found child posters or something.” said Hiroshi’s mom.

            When she finally scuttled out the door to get some paper, Hiroshi turned to Megota. “Ok, this has been bothering me for the past half hour. What’s with the cat ears? Are you cosplaying or something?”

            “Cosplay? What’s cosplay?” asked Megota “You don’t think my ears are real?” “Well, you see, most people don’t walk around with cat ears on top of their head unless they’re at an anime convention or something.” said Hiroshi. He tugged gently at Megota’s ears.  Megota gasped, surprised. Hiroshi took a closer look and saw that the ears really did appear to be attached to Megota’s head. “What the heck, these really are real!” exclaimed Hiroshi. All Megota could do was fidget nervously as Hiroshi poked and prodded him.

“Megota, you can’t tell anyone that your ears are actually like that. Scientists would keep you in a lab and would constantly be poking and prodding you with needles, trying to figure out how the heck your ears are cat ears. How is that even possible?!?”

            “Where I’m from, all of my people have cat ears. The only reason I wasn’t surprised when I saw you didn’t have the same ears as a cat’s was because last week we learned about Earth and its inhabitants in school.” said Megota. “Wait, where are you even from?” asked Hiroshi. ‘This guy is completely bonkers. Cute, but bonkers.’ he thought.

Megota told the whole story of what happened, from Fonin attacking his village, to almost drowning in a lake. The odd thing was, Hiroshi actually believed him. There is no way someone could come up with such a creative lie.

            Hiroshi brought his face closer to Megota’s. “You can’t tell anyone about any of that. If people knew you were from another planet they’d… they’d… I already told you what they’d do. We can’t let that happen. And about this Fonin guy, will he be able to find you here?”

“I don’t know, Fonin is pretty powerful. He did destroy my entire village with just one try after all. How I survived I have no idea.” said Megota

“Is there anything, anything at all that could defeat him?” asked Hiroshi. “There might be one thing…”  Megota said as he reached into his pocket. He felt around his pocket for a while before a look of shock crossed over his face. “It’s not here!” he exclaimed.  He dug around franticly in his other pocket. He heaved a sigh of relief. “Here it is.” He said. “I forgot which pocket I put it in.” Hiroshi face palmed

“So what is that? How can it save the world? Why is this conversation starting to sound so cliché?” Hiroshi asked in one breath. Megota ignored that last statement. “This is the legendary ruby. It is the only thing that can save the world from destruction.” he said.

“Well jeez; this is starting to sound like another story. I suppose now you’re going to tell me that I’m Sailor Moon, champion of justice?  Hiroshi said sarcastically.

Megota sighed. “Please try to be serious about this.” he said. “Right, sorry, it’s kind of a habit I have.” Hiroshi said.

“Ok anyways, if Fonin got a hold of this, the world would definitely not be the same place.” Megota stated.

            “So the entire future of the universe is in our hands?” Hiroshi asked.  “Our? You mean-“ Megota was cut  off by Hiroshi placing his finger on his lip to shush him. “From now on I’m going to protect you. You’ve been through so many awful things already, so I will make sure no more harm comes to you.” Hiroshi rested his other hand on top of Megota’s.  He studied the red headed boy carefully, taking in all of his beauty. He especially noticed that his lips were slightly parted, and they looked soft. Hiroshi remembered when he gave Megota CPR. His lips had tasted sweet and spicy at the same time, and felt good against his. He slowly started to lean forward.

“H-Hiroshi..” Megota said, not quite sure what to do.

Suddenly, they heard the door downstairs burst open. They quickly separated themselves, just in time. Hiroshi’s mom ran loudly through Hiroshi’s bedroom door. “ok guys, I bought all kinds of paper and a new ink cartridge for the printer! I’ll go get the camera so I can take a picture of Megota to put on the poster! Hiroshi, can you type up the poster’s text? Thanks, sweetie! I’ll be back!” She said all of that in less than ten seconds than ran back out the door.

“That’s the fastest I’ve ever heard someone talk.” said Megota. “ “Yup, that’s my mom for you!” said Hiroshi. “She talk a mile a minute.”

Hiroshi turned to the computer and opened Microsoft Word. He left a space where a picture was going to be inserted. He started to type up a description of Megota, constantly looking over his shoulder to see if what he was typing was accurate. He also just wanted to check him out. At one point, Megota caught him looking at him, blushed, and looked away.

Hiroshi thought that was adorable.

Hiroshi’s mom came loudly bursting through the door with her camera, singing show tunes at the top of her lungs. ”Ok Megota, honey, I need you to sit up so I can take a picture of you to put on the poster! I know you two are going to be such great friends!”

Hiroshi looked over at  Megota. ‘Hopefully we become more than just friends..’ he thought to himself…