Author's Note: I've been on a drama-watching craze lately. It is directly related to my writer's block for other stories, it seems, aside from real life being a complete beach. Korean ones are soo long, though, that most of my recent ones are Japanese; and I'm so impatient that I start from the end and work my way back, depending on how I like the series.

Ah! There are so many many dramas that I want to write for now. I've been holding back on that urge, but I just had to write O-chan/Kaeri…and create a new FF category for them.

But please be warned that this is my first M rated fic, and should be for the intended audience.

Disclaimer: Love Shuffle is not mine, nor are any of the characters associated with it.

.:x:.

She's never told Oojiro that he had been her first, though has probably always known. And perhaps that was why she felt drawn to him (they say you cannot forget your first time, no matter how unfortunate the experience). Perhaps the fact that they were both artists had nothing to do with it. Maybe they were just hopeless romantics who found each other equally so.

But Kaeri does like art. She's seen naked men and women, known of sex, and even felt such lustful thoughts, as was expected in puberty. But she never acted upon them. No, such beauty—and the male body was beautiful—, Kaeri was content to paint it.

And yet, when Oojiro had casually suggested it, Kaeri felt a bit of longing. Kaeri cared little for the physical pleasure; she just wanted to be filled to the very core of her with the thought that there was someone who felt exactly how she did, even just for a moment.

And then, suddenly all Kaeri thought about was how Oojiro touched her, how it felt…and how afterwards, Kaeri began touching herself, remembering. She had been so bewildered by the whole thing that she herself could not tell if the change in her was good or bad, much less to her dear doctor. And it was weeks later, during her "death", when Kaeri realizes that, some-when during her time spent with Oojiro, Thanatos had disappeared. For more than three days. Indefinitely.

Then, days after reappearing, while at the convi (1), a hand on her shoulder made her turn around and face a wide array of tools packaged with a "keep away from children" warning: Thanatos, staring at her with a Cheshire-Cat smile. "Happy birthday, di'jya miss me?"

It is there Kaeri understood: Thanatos would never go away. She could trust in him-Thanatos, her constant, horrible friend. It is there that, for the first time, Kaeri wonders if she really was insane. It is there that, again and again, that the face of death scares her; and she thought: when she leaves this world, she will never have to see it again…

But Oojiro had waited for her, and for once, Kaeri panicked. She just wanted to die. But the things Oojiro tells her then are so nice, that Kaeri wraps her arms about his neck, and leaves the scowling Thanatos behind on the bridge.

The others are waiting for him though, when the two of them reach his floor. Oojiro become sheepish and shy, and to, Kaeri, it's completely adorable.

She glances at her beloved friend, Kikurin, though, who is slowly catching on, regarding them with the mind of a psychiatrist…and, well, Kaeri is impatient. And so, giving her doctor a smile goodnight, she takes Oojiro by the hand, opens his apartment door, and drags him inside, letting go just long enough to lock the door behind her.

When she faces him again, with a wide, proud grin, he's even more embarrassed.

"You…did you really have to do that?" She nods, serious, all traces of a smile gone from her face. And even though she's the one who walks up to him, he's the one to make the first move.

This time, it's different. Oojiro is even gentler than she remembered, though Kaeri can't have him fast enough. Yet, within a few minutes, Kaeri, remembering his life after she "died", doesn't know what to do, not wanting to hurt him. She finds Oojiro guiding her again, and she clings to him tightly. Somehow they manage to find their rhythm.

And when he enters her, Kaeri is so surprised that she lets out a small squeak.

"Feel that?" Oojiro asks. "That means you can't ever leave me again."

She won't.

.:x:.

(1) convi: abbreviation for "convenience store"