A/N: Hiya! There is my first fic in a long time, and it is incredibly self-indulgent. If you don't like outsider POV or silly/misguided OCs than you'll probably hate this. Hopefully at least some people are outside POV addicts like me? Anyway, please enjoy the fic!

Kyoko didn't care that a new boy was transferring to her class. No, really. So not a lot tended to happen in their small, rural town. So maybe she was as desperate for literally any excitement as the rest of them. And, okay, so maybe she already tried to pump her dad for information when he mentioned in passing that the Fujiwaras were taking in an orphan. Kyoko at least had the decency to be a busybody from the privacy of her own home instead of the middle of their classroom.

"I heard he's, like, totally crazy and is always talking to the air," Ayako said salaciously to the group of students leaning around her desk as they waited for class to officially begin.

"No way," a tall, lanky girl named Hana cut in, leaning on Ayako's desk with the authoritative air of a seasoned gossip. "I heard that he got kicked out of the last place because he tried to kill the kid of the family he was staying with. Talk about ungrateful!" she added with a bit of a smirk, obviously relishing in the gasps and looks of shock this tidbit produced.

"You shouldn't gossip like that." a bespectacled student named Kazuya said reprovingly, but nonetheless he leaned forward with an unmistakeable look of interest. "But, you know, since you are, what else did you hear?"

Hana cut him a sly look. "I also heard he's hot." Kyoko carefully didn't look up, but felt a sharp jolt of excitement. Her dad had conveniently left that part out. This really was shaping up to be the most thrilling thing that had happened since the arrival of the tall and dark Tanuma.

Kazuya rolled his eyes at her and straightened back up in his chair, resuming his usual air of distance. "We shouldn't talk about him, anyway. We'll meet him soon enough."

Natsume Takashi was hot.

He was thin and pale with fragile, almost girlish features. This coupled with his sandy hair, striking eyes, and soft-spoken demeanor made him seem almost other-worldly; like the prince of a fairy court or something.

"See, I told you!" Hana stage-whispered loudly as the class let out for lunch. "He's totally hot!" Kyoko's face heated up as she considered what she herself had thought about the new student. Fairy court, honestly.

Natsume himself was either truly not paying attention or had the best poker face of anyone Kyoko had ever seen. He didn't react at all to this less-than-subtle pronouncement. His long, slender fingers absentmindedly stroked over the top of his desk as he stared intently out the window. His eyes seemed to zero in on something on the school grounds, but when Kyoko looked, she saw nothing.

Suddenly, a chill ran up her arm. The daintiness of his features seemed less intriguing and more unsettling than they had just a few hours earlier when he had introduced himself.

Kyoko thought about the rumors she had heard: that he talked to shadows, that he had tried to kill someone. Upon first seeing him, she had instantly dismissed it as impossible- Natsume had a gentle air about him that bordered on demure and looked like a stiff wind could knock him over. But now there was something in the intensity with which he stared at nothing that seemed weirdly ominous.

"...and totally creepy. Looks like the rumors were spot on!" Hana continued, jarring Natsume out of his reverie. He glanced around and noticed the staring. Flushing and ducking his head as he pushed up from his desk, he shot Hana a strained smile as he passed her, leaving the classroom in just short of a jog.

Natsume only got more interesting as he settled into his new life. He had acquired a cat that looked as other-worldly as Natsume himself did. It met him after school most days, looking disturbingly statuesque as it sat atop the wall bordering the school grounds, only the occasional flick of its ear or stretch of its legs proving it wasn't just a lucky cat statue someone had left behind accidently.

Ayako claimed she had seen Natsume pour a water bottle out while crouching by the side of the road, muttering to himself. Nishimura had reluctantly confirmed her story while pulling a face; he seemed to have gotten a little protective of Natsume since they started eating lunch together regularly. Hana said he had started acting strange while in the middle of a conversation with her, his eyes widening almost comically as he stared at something just over her shoulder. She turned around to see what he was looking at and saw nothing. When she turned back around to ask him, he was ashen. Though normally unfailingly polite, he had abruptly excused himself while briskly asserting himself in between her and the place he had been staring at. Like he was shielding her, she had tacked on quietly, almost to herself.

Even Kazuya had his own story, regaling them with a tale of how he'd seen Natsume up in a tree, his school shirt and pale skin a stark contrast to the deep green of leaves. Natsume had then gracefully swung down and took off in a dead sprint, shouting a surprised acknowledgment at Kazuya as he ran away. Kazuya had sounded reluctantly impressed, adding that Natsume should really try out for the track team with a running speed like that.

Kyoko herself had seen him in what appeared to be a conversation with a tree one morning before class. Natsume had whispered something and she could have sworn she saw the leaves curl around his feet as he stepped closer to the old oak just outside of school grounds. He sighed and smiled and she couldn't look away. Though she felt silly even thinking it, he seemed to be goodnaturedly humoring a tree. He kneeled by the leaves that definitely seemed to be amassing around his feet before glancing around.

They awkwardly made eye-contact as Kyoko stood a few feet away, staring directly at him with wide eyes. She felt her face flush a dark red at being caught, while he shot back up to his feet, a pretty blush staining his cheeks. Absurd, she thought, that he would blush cutely while she turned an unflattering shade of scarlet when he was the one caught doing… tree magic, or something.

"Um." he said, biting his lip. "I was just…. tying my shoe?" His voice turned upwards towards the end like he was trying to ask if she would believe that. Kyoko suddenly felt as tired and as fondly indulgent as Natsume had seemed to feel earlier toward the tree. He was so strange. But strange in the gentlest, kindest way she had ever seen. Strange in a way that meant bodily protecting his classmates from unseen foes and taking the time to acknowledge someone while he seemed to be running for his life. Strange in a way that meant talking to trees and having the leaves whisper back.

"Cool." she responded blandly and belatedly as he shifted nervously, looking completely uncertain. She automatically glanced at his feet, which were encased in shoes that didn't actually seem to have laces.

He followed her gaze and winced. She noticed that a twig had fallen from the tree and was stuck in his hair and felt another rush of affection for this odd boy who had kept them all intrigued for weeks now. Grinning, she threw him a lifeline. "Class is gonna start soon, we should probably get going."

His eyes widened at her breezy acceptance and he nodded, walking over to her. She noticed how he meticulously stepped around the the leaves that had danced by his ankles, so very careful to avoid stepping on them.

Nishimura and Kitamoto were waiting at the gates for Natsume and frowned at his unkempt appearance.

"C'mon, dude! We're gonna be late. What were you even doing over there?" Nishimura demanded, grabbing the other two boy's wrists and rocketing forward before Natsume could answer. They passed by Tanuma, who gently reached out and plucked the errant twig from Natsume's hair. When they got to the classroom Hana's eyes lit up as Natsume entered and it wasn't long before Kazuya was wheedling him to join the track team as Natsume laughed and declined.

Natsume was a bizarre and oftentimes inexplicable mystery. But he was their mystery to puzzle over and swap stories about. He was a peculiar and welcome break from the monotony of small town life, and glancing around, she knew she certainly wasn't the only one to feel that way.