Every rose has its thorn

Hmm. Some people seem to be confused. Kia (for the time being) is NOT in-love with Hideki. I said that, didn’t I? I guess it’s my fault. I was writing in a rush and didn’t pay much attention to some detail. I don’t want the ‘romance’ to be too rushed in this story, so I’m going to tone it down a bit. Enjoy chapter 3!
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Ever since that kiss, almost 3 weeks ago, nothing else of the sort had happened between Kia and Hideki. School had been more convenient though. Although Hideki had still spent the majority of the time with his friends, he made room in his busy schedule to have conversations with Kia. They weren’t exactly the smoothest conversations, but he enjoyed them nonetheless.

It was quarter to 3; Hideki tapped his foot anxiously against the floor. I’m really glad it’s Friday, he mused to himself. Usually Fridays had meant drinking, parties, lose-girls, and a hang-over the next day. On this particular night Hideki hadn’t made any plans. Maybe Kia wants to do something? He kept that thought in his head as the bell rang and swarms of teenagers rushed outside to begin their weekend. Hideki had just missed Kia at her locker, but luckily caught up to her as she made her way through the front foyer.

“Kia!” Hearing her name being shout across the foyer made Kia drop her book bag, spilling its contents everywhere. She kneeled down and grumbled as she began to pick up her books, only the sight of Hideki suddenly eased her frustration.

“Oh, hello.” Kia spoke quietly, trying to organize everything in her bag so it would fit once again. “Um…Did you want something?” she asked, peering up at Hideki with a questionable look on her face.

“Well…My friends all have work or other plans tonight, so I thought maybe you and I could do something?” He asked, a smile that Kia couldn’t really describe, playing on his face. Hmm…She thought. What is he up to? Kia explained that although she would love to hang out, tonight just wasn’t very good for her. Also, that she wouldn’t need a ride home. With that, she pushed past him and headed to wherever it is she was going. Puzzled, Hideki just stared at her. Do I come on to strong? He asked himself. Well, I guess if I were in her place I’d find it a bit odd that someone like him had taken a sudden interest in her.

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It was a quarter past nine. Whenever Hideki had no where to be, he would head downtown to an alley behind one of his favorite restaurants, conveniently next to one of his favorite strip-clubs. When in the right mood, Hideki liked to sit somewhere quiet, anywhere, with his acoustic guitar and write songs.

I can’t get the chorus! He damned himself. I need to find a muse…That’s all. Something that I could sing about. A sudden noise coming from outside of the alley had broken his train of thought. It sounded like a man and a woman…

“Hurry it up would you! It’s not like we have all night, my wife will be home soon!” The man yelled back at the woman he was dragging by the arm. Hideki ignored the 2 people. He wasn’t surprised, he knew there were lots of prostitutes around this part of town, but curiosity got the best of him. He looked up and only caught a glimpse of who the woman was. Absolute shock and terror engulfed his face. KIA?!?!! His mind shouted, sending alarms all throughout his brain. Hideki stood up and ran towards the end of the alley; the two people had long gone disappeared in a blue Honda.

He couldn’t have seen right. That couldn’t of been her, could it? Still, he did want to find out if he was right. He ran back towards his Motorcycle, packed up his acoustic and was off; speeding after the car that could, or could not, have Kia in it.

Not so much as 20 minutes later the car came to a halt, as did Hideki’s bike. He decided to keep his distance to not be seen. The man stepped out of the car, rather stocky, not quite a full head of brown hair, and looked to be in his mid 30’s. The man had grabbed the woman out of his car with much force, yelling at her to hurry up. Once she was out he started grabbing at her, molesting her. Just as Hideki had feared; it was Kia. What the FUCK is she doing??! Should I stop this??! His mind burst with questions, but he could not move.

I hate this. Kia thought. Why do I do this? She asked herself, as the man ran his hands all over her body. It was all because she had been a stupid teenage who ran away from home, she needed to make money one way or the other. Normally, this didn’t bother her, she never actually sold her body to anyone, she wanted her first time to be with someone special. She would just satisfy her customer, and be off. This time was different; this time she couldn’t stop thinking about how wrong this actually was. I should have just agreed to spend time with Hideki when he’d asked me. Before anything actually happened, she had begun to push the man off of her. When he didn’t stop, and started getting rough and yelling at her, she began to panic. No, no! This isn’t how it’s supposed to be! Worry and fear had completely filled up her mind, tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

Hideki had noticed Kia pushing the man off herself, he had thought wrong when he thought that she could handle it herself. Before he could even think, he found himself running in her direction. When he got there, he grabbed the man by the shoulders, spun him around and punched him right in the nose. The man stood there, a shock yet angry look on his face. The man charged at Hideki, although wobbling a bit, but Hideki just socked him another. After Hideki decided the man had had enough, he grabbed the man by his collar, threw him into his car and told him to never touch that girl again.

Relief built up all over Kias’ body. She was so glad that Hideki had come to get her, although the look on his face when he turned to face her pushed all those emotions aside.

“Come on.” Hideki said coolly. “I’ll take you home” Kia followed him to his bike and got on. She didn’t dare to speak the whole time they rode down the street. Although his eyes were covered by a motorcycle helmet, she could still make out the cold expression they were filled with. When the bike finally came to stop Kia noticed that they weren’t at her house.

“Um, where are we- “ Before she could even ask her question, Hideki had already answered it. They were at his house. He explained that his parents were out of town and that he wanted to talk to her. The thought of what he could want to talk about made her stomach drop like a stone. When they were inside he showed her where to hang her coat, and made a gesture towards the dining room. Once they had both made themselves comfortable, he began asking her questions.

“So…Want to tell me what you were doing, exactly?” There was a dangerous edge in his voice as he spoke.

“I don’t think it’s any of your business.” Kia replied, quite coolly. They stared at each other in silence for a while. Finally, Hideki let out a sigh and decided not to ask anymore questions. Kia began to feel less tense when he decided to just drop the topic, but the look in his eyes told her that he still wanted to know the truth. She let out a sigh and began to explain, noticing the triumphant look on his face.

“When I was 11,” She began. “My Father had left my mother, I never understood why; I guess I was just too young to understand. Anyways, my father leaving us put my mother and I on welfare. My mother began going through some bad phases; she took up smoking and slowly started becoming an alcoholic. By the time I was 13 going on 14 I had had enough! I decided that I didn’t need her. So, I ran away from home. I went to stay with my aunt for a while, the mortgage on her house was already paid off, and so she said that when she moves out I can have the place to myself. I needed a way to pay for electricity though…So, I started selling myself…pleasuring people for money.” As she spoke those last words she noticed the complete look of horror on Hideki’s face. He would have never imagined Kias’ life so…horrible. She always seemed so; carefree…He never would have guessed. “Um…I’ve never been all the way with any of them…” She continued. “It was all really about their needs…not mine.” By this point, Hideki wasn’t really sure how to react. Normally, he would have probably been furious and yelled. This time, caring and compassion got the better of him.

“You know…” He began, finally being able to find his voice. “You don’t have to do this anymore…Your much better than this.” He rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Heh…how else am I going to pay off bills?” She asked, jokingly.

“I could pay you!” He exclaimed, regretting his choice of words right after they had left his mouth, realizing how bad they sounded. He noticed the bemused look on her face and couldn’t help but laugh. “No, no! I didn’t mean anything like that…” He suddenly remembered why he had wanted to talk to her earlier. He going up and walked into his, what looked like, a studio. He came back not even a minute later holding a folder entitled “Design Ideas; Property of Kia Latoure.” Her heart raced, how did her get that? She wondered.

“A few weeks ago, the day in the drama room…You dropped these while you were outside. I tried giving them back then, but you smacked my hand away” He chuckled as he noticed her expression change so quickly from wonderment to guilt. “Anyways, I really like what you can do. My band, well, we need a new look…So I have a proposition for you; If you can design us new outfits, I’ll pay you.” Kia starred at him. Occasionally her mouth would open but no words would come out.

“You can have these back” He passed the folder to her. “As for how much I’ll be paying you; well, that all depends on how the final result turns out.” He flashed her a smile and winked at her. Out of the blue Kia began bombarding him with protests. Hideki, being the stubborn person he had always been, ignored each one of them. At half past midnight, Hideki decided to call it a day for both of them and offered her a ride home. She told him that after all he had done for her that day; she would just take the bus. Hideki just sighed and shook his head and started towards his front door and then towards his bike. Why would she want to take the bus when he was perfectly happy to take her home himself?

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For the next few days, Hideki had been rather clingy with Kia at school and out of school. He had explained to his friends that they all need to get along because they would be seeing a lot more of her. The truth was, he didn’t want her running off with some strange man again. He had actually been worried about her. Something he hadn’t felt for another person for quite sometime…

The next day Kia, Hideki, and the rest of Nymphet amine had shown up at the school rather early. Hideki introduced everyone, and they made arrangements on days they could get together and work on outfits. They had setting on Wednesday afternoons, and anytime of the day on Sundays. There still being a good hour before school actually started, Kia, Hideki, Soujiro, and Tohma (The bassist and Drummer) decided to head over to the nearest café and get some breakfast. As they walked past the guidance office they heard Mr. Ashito (the counselor) talking with another student.

“Hey that’s right!” Soujiro exclaimed. “Mr. Misaru told us that there was a new student transferring!”

“Ohh! She sound’s hot!” Tohma said, practically drooling. Yes, by the sound of the person’s voice, you’d think it was a girl. The turn of the door knob made the four of them jump back. Not from surprise, but from shock when they saw the person who had opened the door.

It was definitely no girl, but the most feminine looking guy either of them had ever seen. And very well dressed, if I might add. Flowing blonde hair, almost white, cropped just about his shoulders and the most fabulous…

“ARE YOUR EYES RED?!” Kia clasped her hands over her mouth just as the words escaped. That was so rude, she thought, staring nervously at the four faces now turned on her. Heads quickly turned back towards the mysterious guy when he finally spoke.

“HIDEKI!” He yelped with joy, throwing his hands around Hideki’s neck. Kia, Soujiro, and Tohma stared wide-eyed. As the guy that was tangled around Hideki, well his mood quickly changed from ecstatic to pretty angry. His hug of joy quite suddenly turns into little smacks of fury. “Way to NEVER call me you ass! What am I? Some one-night stand?!” The guy asked, finally stopping his violent outburst and settling his hands high on his hips. Who is this guy? Kia wondered, curiosity finally getting to her. “Don’t make a scene, Lorr” Hideki murmured quietly so that no one else could hear. “Well then, introduce me…” Lorr contorted, glancing over at the four puzzled faces.

Hideki sighed; he knew when to accept defeat. I guess there’s no way of getting out of this, he thought. They’ll find out one way or another…”Lorr, meet everyone. Tohma and Soujiro; my long-time friends and co-band members. And Kia; my little costume designer.” Hideki flashed Kia a smile. Her heart sank a little when he didn’t mention that they were friends, only co-workers, but she decided to ignore that. She really wanted to know who this ‘Lorr’ guy was…Hideki continued once Lorr shook hands with everyone. He was hesitant to speak, Kia could tell, but he continued anyways. “Everyone…Meet Lorr; my ex-boyfriend…”

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Hahaha, WELLL??!! I know I know; “Is Hideki gay?!” “WAS Hideki gay!?” You’ll have to read chapter four to find out. I don’t know how long it will be before I post that though. Hopefully not long. I know that the change in the middle of the chapter was a bit drastic; from something serious to somewhat humorous. But, whatever. I didn’t actually want to go on writing about Kias’ past for that long…but once I start writing I can’t stop. What I really wanted was to make Lorrs’ first appearance a lot sooner, and I wanted him to have a bigger part in this chaper…. That’s alright, I’ll just bump it to chapter four. I like how the cliffhanger turned out. R/R please! Sorry about any grammer or spelling. Me so sleepy.