Free Talk- Rather than continue any of my poor neglected Bleach stories, I have decided to start a new one in my shiny new fandom, Eyeshield 21. As much as I love Hiruma/Mamori and would love to write about them, for some reason I felt inspired instead to write about Rui and Meg from Zokugaku. I think they have a lot of potential for storylines and there definitely is not enough fanfiction about them. So, this is the first chapter (and hopefully there will be more) of my story. I hope there are other people who like these two and enjoy this story. Please tell me what you think. Oh, and I have chosen to use the name Meg as opposed to Megu because it really just sounds much better. I hope that's okay.

Bittersweet Symphony
By Miss Angel Maxwell

Chapter 1: Tsuyumine Meg

She was pacing, her slippered feet raking through the permanent layer of old school papers and clothes she wasn't sure were dirty or clean that blanketed her bedroom floor. When her left foot snagged under something hard she nearly tripped and she cursed softly through her teeth. "Dammit!"

Tsuyumine Meg bent down to pick up the offending object, her splintered bamboo sword, with one hand. Then she looked up at the Hello Kitty clock on her wall. Only one minute had passed since she last checked.

Why the Hell does time slow down whenever you're waiting for something important? Oh right, because the universe is a bitch.

The near fall had caught her off guard and now she was too anxious to go back to her pacing. Her eyes followed the clock's second hand as it made a full circuit. One more minute to go.

Warm, sweaty fingers twisted around the hilt of her sword.

Now that the Chameleon's football season (and her time as their manager) was over, there was nobody that she needed to intimidate. That wouldn't stop her from carrying it with her wherever she went, of course, like a badge of honor. Reaching for that smooth, worn handle had always made her feel protected, in her element. It made her feel strong.

Today it had somehow lost all of its cathartic powers.

The littlest hand finally completed its sluggish journey around the clock and, after sucking in a large uncomfortable breath, Meg lifted the object in her other hand (the one not holding a sword) and turned it over. The plus sign was a shockingly bold shade of pink.

"Fuck," she squeaked, though the sound was strangled as she'd momentarily forgot how to push that big breath back out. She felt her knees beginning to buckle beneath her and sat down on her bed, eyes never leaving that little pink symbol.

Plus means pregnant. But… it could be a mistake. These stupid pieces of junk are probably wrong all the time.

She let go of her sword and lunged for the empty box on her bedside table. Heart pounding, she sifted through every word written on that damn box until she found what she was looking for. '99.9 accurate!'

"Fuuuuuck!" she growled, much louder this time, loud enough, apparently, for her mother downstairs to hear.

"Meg? What's all that noise? Are you getting ready for school?"

"Down in a minute!" she called back, not letting one hint into her voice that anything was out of the ordinary.

Alright, gotta stay cool. I've lied to my mother too many times to count. I'll just act the way I always do and she won't suspect a thing. I'll take care of this… problem… without her or anyone else finding out.

It was unlikely that the woman would dare venture into the wasteland of her bedroom, but just to be safe, Meg tore up the test box into unidentifiably small shreds and buried them at the bottom of her trash bin. Then she wrapped the tester itself in tissues and crammed it into the zippered pouch of tampons that she hadn't needed for far too long, and tucked the pouch into her flat leather school bag.

There was still one last task to complete before she left for school. She stooped to the floor and from under her bed retrieved the thick local phonebook. It only took less than a minute for her to find the listings for women's clinics, and just a second more to narrow in on the one closest to Zokugaku. It would be easiest to go straight from school and just get it over with.

When she picked up her phone. For some reason her fingers seemed disabled, incapable of typing in the number.

Errr! I just need to let the whole mess sink into my skull. That's all. I'll write down the number and call tomorrow, or the next day. Won't make any difference.

She slung her bag over her shoulder (the number on a folded scrap of paper in an inside pocket), grabbed her frayed sword, and bounded down the stairs. The smell of fried eggs stuck in her throat as soon as she entered the kitchen and she gagged. Unusual, as she normally loved the odor of things cooking.

"What, no breakfast again this morning?" her mother sneered from behind her ladies' magazine, though her eyes never even glanced at her daughter.

"Trying to lose weight," Meg breezily lied as she sprinted out the front door.

He was already waiting for her outside, his long, extraordinary arms crossed over his chest as his bike purred impatiently between his legs. "What took you so long, woman?" he grunted.

"None of your damn business!" she growled back.

Rui's flinch was so subtle that only she, who had known him since he was a little boy, would notice. "Jeez, bite my fuckin' head off why don' cha?" he muttered under his breath.

She sighed and put on the helmet that he'd set for her, as always, on the back of his bike. Then she stowed her baggage and climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around his stomach. "Let's just go already."

And they were off.

Ah! This is how she wanted to live, weaving through the streets of Tokyo on a motorcycle, wind whipping her bleached hair behind her like exhaust flames. Of course, she preferred to be the one driving. But the bitch seat had its advantages too.

She pressed her locked hands against his hard stomach, felt the ridges of each individual muscle through his shirt. Not bad. Even though his high school career was finished, he would do everything he could to play football in college. This body wasn't going soft any time soon.

There was also the view. She could spend a lot more time gazing at the passing city landscape when she didn't have to pay any attention to the road. Gambling dens and dark alleys, the shadier locales that dominated the area around Zokugaku, whirred past.

A cold knot formed in her stomach when she passed the women's clinic, the one whose number she had written down. She wouldn't be an unusual patient there. In fact, that clinic had a local nickname: Zokugaku birth control. Besides having a reputation as violent, no nonsense thugs, Zogugaku girls were known for their proclivity to get themselves in a 'delicate situation.'

Rarely, the girl would choose to keep the kid and would drop out of high school in a very mild scandal. But more often than not they did the sensible thing, because you couldn't ride a bike or mug someone with a brat strapped to your back. Soon Meg would be one of those girls. She would miss a day of school, maybe two, and not one person would ask whether she was sick.

The scent of pomade from Rui's hair wafted over her face and brought her mind back into focus. They were pulling through the school's graffiti-covered gates now, clusters of apathetic, chain-smoking teenagers shifting to clear a path for the magnificent bike.

Rui's was the only motorcycle that had its own reserved parking spot, an alcove outside the thunder dome. A half-dozen of his cronies were already waiting there to protect his bike once he got off. Upon dismounting he immediately flicked open his butterfly knife and hissed an order at the guards.

"None of you little shits touch it either! Any one of you messes with my bike, I will fucking disembowel you!"

"I think 'disembowel' might be too big a word for these guys," Meg softly clucked as she pulled off her helmet and swung her blonde mane around. When she stepped down onto solid ground, her insides lurched and all the blood in her head seemed to drain into her feet. She staggered, on the verge of falling down, but a long arm caught her by the shoulder and steadied her.

"You all right, Meg?" he asked.

"Just motion sick from your horrible driving," she huffed, pushing his arm off of her. She hated pity. Pity was for the weak. She didn't hate that he had used her real name. Even though she never told him, she secretly loved those off-guard moments when he would forget to call her 'woman.'

"Well, I'm going to have a smoke before class," he said as he began to stalk away. "You coming?"

She followed him for a few meters then stopped. "Eh, not today. In fact, I think I'm probably just gonna quit altogether."

"Huh?" he asked, one eyebrow raised in bemusement. "Since when are you a health guru? Do you really think you're gonna get cancer at age seventeen?"

Mustering as much pride and bravado as she could, Meg answered. "I'm not scared of cancer. Weak people get cancer. No, I just figure it's a waste of money. All the cash I spend on cigs could be used to buy new parts for the bike. Anyways, I'll catch you later."

She turned around and with a goodbye wave over her head, started walking towards the main school building. A few steps before she reached the door, a large hand landed on top of her head and she paused a moment while Rui moved in front of her and held the door open.

"I think you may be on to something about the cigarettes," he said. "Besides, I want to be in top condition when I start college. Might as well break the habit now. C'mon, let's go, woman." Then he gave her a shove through the doorway.

An odd feeling, something akin to an enormous gorilla fist, squeezed Meg's chest. Only now did she realize that it had been there since she first saw that plus sign- no, since the first morning she felt 'funny.' Up until now it had just been too faint to feel. It's what wouldn't let her fingers dial the clinic and what stopped her from having a cigarette.

She was never going to call that number she'd written down because she wasn't going to go through with the abortion. It wasn't any moral objection that was stopping her, and it certainly wasn't because she liked children (quite frankly she hated them). It was her stubborn inability to get rid of anything that Habashira Rui ever gave her.

She looked down as she walked at the old wooden sword in her hand.

Fuck! I guess this means I'm going to be a mother.

To be continued…