A/N: After seeing the very small, almost miniscule, amount of fics dedicated to this fandom, I decided to take up the challenge and write a fic for my fav OTP in TOSR: Ratatosk and Marta! Woo hoo! \^o^/

Anyways, I personally felt that Ratatosk was cheated out of his own happiness. And check this out: Marta is head-over-heels in love with Emil, yet all he thinks and talks about is Richter. Hello~ You have a pretty girl throwing herself at you, yet you think about another person's well being? Come on! At first, I really liked Emil's character; he was different from the rest of the heroines of the Tales games. But later, it got annoying to see him deny Marta's affections for a guy who tried to kill him may I remind you. Then there's Ratatosk. He was a real jerk before. But then he started to get to know Marta. And before you know it, he begins fighting along side her and proclaiming how he'll always protect her. But Marta was too stuck on the idea of loving Emil to take his feelings into consideration. Now don't get me wrong. I don't hate Emil or anything. I still like his character…err, just not with Marta is all.

So to help those of this shipping feel relieved from the obviously bad ending to the good ending (and you know exactly what I'm talking about), I present you with my own take of TOSR in AU form. Hopefully, this'll be satisfactory for some of you. So without further a due, I'll let you get to reading my first Ratatosk/Marta fic. Enjoy.

Chapter 1: First Day of High School

I remember walking this path all the time some years ago. I would hang out with my friends by the cherry tree near the lake and we'd stare out to the endless waves and dazzling sunset for hours on end. It was a hobby of ours. We did this for three years since our meeting in elementary school. And each year, we'd tell ourselves that we'd be grannies at sixty and we'd still be hanging out by the cherry tree and watching the sun go down. We laughed loudly at the mental image we conjured of us looking like wrinkly bags and topped with puffy white hair (and maybe a cat or two beside us).

But I never would have expected that it'd come to an end so abruptly. It felt like just yesterday when we were laughing amongst ourselves, counting down the days when we'd move up the age ladder and attend high school together. We promised to get lockers next to one another and plan out the outfits we were to wear on the first day. But like that old saying goes: all good things must come to an end. And they did too. One of the girls moved away, due to her dad being transferred else where, and the other decided to ditch me for another group of people, saying that I'm, and I quote, "Not popular enough."

Since then, my life took a turn for the worst. But I don't feel up to explaining right now. I'm late as heck, and on the first day of high school for that matter! And I've heard from other students of being fashionably late. But I don't think they meant for the saying to apply to punctuality at school.

Ring, ring, ring.

Great. Just flipping great! There goes the tardy bell and what's this…they're closing the entrance gate!

"Please, wait! I have to get to the opening ceremony!" I ran as fast as I could while shouting at the teacher to keep the gate open. But the pompous snob had to go and lock it up either way. And after I specifically shouted at him not to do it! The jerk gave me an angry glance and turned on his heel towards the school. Hmph!

Oh, he'll rue the day he decided to keep me from attending my first day of high school. Yes, indeed he will.

During my moments of fury, an idea sprung in my head. I ran to a tree that was leaning near the wall that fenced in the school. I was smiling confidently before it, my hands propped on either side of my hips. During my many years of adolescence to now, I've read enough mangas to know that climbing a tree wasn't difficult. The task itself looked pretty simple: climb the tree and haul yourself over the wall. Simple as that. So I held on to the base and lifted my legs on either side to climb it. Yup, so far so good. I grabbed onto a low hanging branch and used that to pull myself upward, feet pressed hard on the tree while I began my trek to the top.

But let me tell you firsthand, climbing that tree wasn't as easy as I judged it for. My feet kept slipping on the rough bark, the tree was freakin huge (along with the wall I was supposed to climb over), and did I mention that I'm mildly afraid of heights? Well, I am. But when a girl is in desperation, she'll do all she can to overcome the obstacles before her. And this case was no exception. I was determined to get over the wall and make it to hear at least the end of the speech delivered by the upperclassmen.

After some kind of miracle, and a lot of mental praying, I reached the top, getting away with only minor cuts to the knee. I crawled my way through all the leaves and came across a branch that went towards the wall. The only problem, it thinned out at the end. I could feel my legs shaking at the prospect of falling off it. I rubbed at them vigorously, trying to calm my nerves before I took that big step towards the wall. I definitely didn't need shaky legs when I needed to keep absolute balance on this branch. And while it didn't remedy the issue, the rubbing managed to make them less shaky than before. So with a large intake of breath, I crawled forward. But of course, that didn't get me very far.

"Ouch! Stupid tree." About half of my hair coiled itself around a branch, causing the floral pin on my hair to loosen around my face. I carefully attempted to free the brown locks, without yanking too hard and hurling myself off the very thin branch I just happened to be climbing on when my hair got caught. Easier said than done. Oh, and while we're at it, easier than balancing a large elephant on top of a small beach ball.

I kept yanking on it with all the strength I could muster at this rather difficult angle till, lo and behold, gravity decided to become my worst enemy and have me fall off the branch instead. And just like that, everything happened in slow motion before my very eyes. I felt the air push up against my body, swishing my now loose hair around, as I plummeted towards the ground with my eyes shut tightly. Memories flashed rapidly in my mind, mostly those consisting of my mother and the happiness I had before everything went downhill. But now, there's no way in heck I was going to be able to explain my life's tragedy now. Especially not when I was falling to my imminent death. I let out one last scream, thinking that it'll help to relieve the pain I was sure to feel (and in these cases, who wouldn't let out a terrified scream?). In just a few more seconds, I was going to feel it.

Yup, definitely going to feel some massive pain.

Ok…now I should be feeling it.

Hm. Well, I sure did land on something hard. But it wasn't as painful as I had imagined.

So am I dead already? Because if I am, then wow.

Now that was most uneventful. Not that I'm disappointed about dying, because I sure am. But shouldn't I have felt…I don't know…a lot of pain from falling so far down? I mean, it's not like I fell off the jungle bars or anything small like that.

And last I checked, grass didn't feel soft and edgy. In fact, it shouldn't have felt warm when I clearly saw the sprinklers go off not long before I decided to climb the tree.

'What the heck is going on here?' I thought to myself, confusion creating a jumble in my head.

I cracked one eye open, expecting to see the shine from the Golden Gates blaring down on me. But instead of angels playing trumpets on clumps of puffy white clouds, I saw the face of a teenage boy with blonde hair and the most gorgeous ruby red eyes I've ever seen.

Ok. So maybe I was in heaven. Just in the part with handsome guys like this one.

I took a closer look at the person who was holding me up in a princess lift (and how befitting for someone who looked much like that of a prince) and instantly regretted it when I did. He was breathing heavily as though he'd ran a marathon, a deep scowl marring his face. And his eyes were narrowed towards my own. When he saw me staring at him, he let out a small grunt under his breath and tightened his hands around my thighs. Well, he most certainly didn't have the demeanor of a prince.

I really am in heaven…right?

"The hell…huff…with you. Did you…huff…fuckin…want to die…huff…or something? Damn idiot."

Scratch that; I'm in hell right now. For this is clearly NOT the prince charming I'd imagined him to be. And what the heck is his deal calling me an idiot? He doesn't even know me, the jerk!

"Well? Are you going to say something or should I assume that little stunt of yours also made you mute?"

I could feel my face warm up considerably, and not because of how he looked either. I bolted from his arms and turned an accusing finger at the mystery person, sporting my own scowl and narrowed eyes.

"Ok, you listen here! First of all, you have no idea who I am. So that doesn't give you the right to call me an idiot. And secondly, I don't owe you a single explanation after the rude attitude you used with me."

He didn't seem fazed in the least after my little rant. In fact, he looked somewhat amused by my temper. The sight of his smirk just caused my blood to boil over the top.

"Wow. Aren't you quite the fire cracker."

"Shut up!"

"Is this the thanks I get for saving your pathetic life?"

"…!" That one hit home, alright. But I kept myself composed so as not to give him the satisfaction of riling me up.

"For someone who's a jerk like you, I'd say that's all the thanks you deserve." I confidently propped my hands on my waist, a taunting smirk forming on my lips. My answer apparently caused his smirk to falter some, another grunt voiced through his tight-lip mouth. The odds were in my favor now.

"Trying to act all tough now, huh?" His tone lost the humor from before, replaced by anger instead.

"Oh, I'm not trying to act tough. I'm just not like most girls that bow down to men and take all their bad mouthing." Haha! Take that.

"Do you really wanna go there, girly?" If possible, his eyes narrowed even more on his face. I also saw him clench his right hand in irritation, the fabric of his pants being scrunched between calloused fingers.

"Oh, but what exactly do you mean?" I said in a naïve way, batting my eyelashes so as to anger him more. I was getting a real kick out of his reactions. Come on. This guy was all talk, no action. Besides, he started this whole thing first with the name calling. He should of known that I wasn't going to back down so easy.

"You know exactly what I mean."

"Really? Because if I'm correct, then I know you don't have the guts to do anything about it. Besides, from what I can see, you're the type of guy who likes to make fun of others and never take their feelings into consideration. If there's anyone that needs to say anything, it should be you apologizing to me."

"Oh, like I'm going to apologize to you for your dumb idea of climbing the tree. And what do you think would of happened if I hadn't come to your rescue when you were falling from it? Huh? Answer me that."

It took some effort on my part from mauling this guy where he stood. He was seriously getting on my nerves all too quickly.

"Look: I'm not ashamed to say how appreciated I am that you saved my life. But don't save someone and then call them an idiot or mute."

"I'm just saying it like it is. Climbing a large tree IS a dumb idea, smart one." I growled at the comment. "And you should have said something, instead of looking at me all stupid like you did."

I balled my hands into fists, shoving them in the pockets of my skirt to avoid any violent behavior on my first day of school. For as much as I would have LOVED to smash his face in, I knew that getting in trouble was a no no. Because that would mean getting in trouble at home. And I would much rather avoid any confrontation there.

"Did you ever consider that maybe I was experiencing shock from the whole thing, rendering me temporarily mute?" Good. Keep up the confident air and he won't be able to get to you.

But he must have took that as a challenge because he suddenly began walking towards me. And as he made his way there, my instincts kept telling me to walk away from the situation before it progressed any further. But the more stubborn part told me to stand my ground and face this guy head on, regardless if this turned into a fist fight or not. And guess which one I listened to?

Yup. That's right. I stayed there like an idiot, taunting him with the fact that I didn't run away like I'm sure he expected of me. But I made sure to keep my hands in my pockets during that time. Because even then, I still had my good behavior to uphold.

"You're pretty gutsy for a girl, you know that?" The infamous smirk returned on his, dare I say, handsome face. But I was none to thrilled to see it again.

"And what's it to you?" It was getting harder to hold in my anger and the little ting of fear that crawled its way up my legs and to my now trembling hands. His stature easily over towered my own and I caught a glimpse of muscles through the opening of his short sleeve shirt. But I wasn't scared of him.

No.

I was scared by the striking resemblance of this situation. It reminded me all too much of a certain someone…

"It's that attitude of yours that's bound to get you attention from the wrong crowd. Are you sure you want to be acting like this with me?" His large hand made its way to my chin, pulling my face closer to his. "Because it's never too late to apologize and be on your merry way right now."

"Bite me." I told him, putting as much venom into my voice as possible (which wasn't much of a struggle to do, considering my immense anger with him).

He leaned his mouth towards my ear, causing what I felt to have been a blush to stain my cheeks. I mentally cursed myself for allowing such reactions to show on my face when I was supposed to be acting tough in front of him. Good thing he decided to lean onto my face, preventing him from catching a glimpse of my involuntarily reddened skin. But of course, that thought alone didn't erase the feelings of bewilderment and fright that caused me to tremble at the knees from his next comment.

"With pleasure." After he whispered his conviction, he pulled back with an even larger smile. A twinkle shined in his eyes, indicating mischief and a dark desire for something unknown to myself. I was started to regret my bull-headedness that got me into this mess. and what made matters worse, his face was close enough to where it looked like we were going to kiss. and I'm pretty sure he knew this, for he was breathing hot breath on my lips and he kept averting his gaze between my eyes and frowning mouth. Darn him for being a jerk and handsome. Now I was looking at his lips.

"Hey, you two over there! You know better than to be outside the school grounds while classes are in session."

A jolt went through my body when I heard an older person's voice yell out to us, thus breaking the trance that jerk had on me. I quickly pulled away from the guy to regard the teacher walking to us. He looked peeved from seeing two students not in their classes, which only reminded me how much more stupid I'd been to have wasted all my time arguing with someone instead of trying to get to my class. I groaned with annoyance from this, slapping a hand over my face to conceal my utter defeat.

The teacher got within speaking range and reverted his stare between the both of us. "And what exactly were you two doing out here, anyways?"

That was a question I didn't want to answer, especially since the jerk's face being close to my own was still fresh in my mind. None of us said anything for a wihle (and I didn't because of unease. He? Not sure), until the jerk decided to jump in. Was he going to try to get us out of this mess? "Nothing at all, sir. In fact, this matter right here is unimportant. But I can assure you that it won't happen again." Spoke too soon. I nearly barfed at the fake courtesy in his voice.

'Judging by his attitude, I can easily tell he's done this one too many times before. And the nerve of him to say that I'm unimportant. He's just lucky we were caught by a teacher right now, or I would have unleashed a world of pain on that pretty face of his.'

The teacher stared long and hard at the jerk throb, as though unsure of what to make of his words. But he looked convinced enough as he straightened his posture, giving us one final glance.

"Ok. But don't let me catch you two out here again. Got it?"

The guy turned his eyes to me, giving off the jerkiest smile on the planet. "Of course, sir. We won't."

"Good. Now follow me to the office so we can get you two situated."

I walked to the left side of the teacher while fixing the flower pin in my hair, so as to avoid the jerk's evil snickering. I was more than anticipating the moment when I would be free of him and his arrogant attitude that's for sure.

Said jerk kept to the right of the teacher, looking straight ahead with a bored look on his face. He was probably thinking to himself of how he won the little match. The jerk. I kept staring at him for any sign of mischief (at least, that's what I convinced myself of). Stupid memory of his face kept coming back to me and I didn't like it one bit. Why the heck did he have to be so handsome, anyways? Fighting with him would of been much easier if he hadn't had the ability to fluster me. Darn him!

I saw his face twitch as we neared the school entrance, perplexing me for a second as to why he reacted that way. But now I know why. He sensed me looking at him (dummy me) because he right away turned his gaze towards mine, arrogant smile and all, and mouthed a 'hey' in my direction. I was well beyond infuriated with him. So I gave him the stink eye and turned my attention to the double doors of the school.

I was awed by the interior of the school. All the walls were painted a pretty caramel color and adorned at the top with painted portraits of all the principals that taught here. The lockers looked newly refurbished in a lilac green and the floors were a gleaming white, to the point that I could see my reflection in it. Soft music filtered through the intercoms and the school smelt of lavander. It was just as I'd pictured it. I'm definitely glad I worked my butt off in studying to get into this high quality school. The elder man stopped a nearby teacher and informed him to do another round outside the school for any other students, bid him farewell and led us further down the hall.

We were escorted to the office where the teacher left us to take care of his own business. And I dreaded this because me and the jerk were left alone until aided by someone there. When the teacher was out of sight, I walked over to the front desk (never once taking a look at the guy) and propped my elbows on the wooden furniture as I waited patiently for assistance. And I did this for a couple of minutes in absolute silence, all the while avoiding any conversation with the jerk close behind me. I could practically feel his eyes boring holes onto the back of my head and smirking over my defeat. He was taunting me. I know it. But I kept my anger grounded, for my sake at least.

So finally, after waiting an insufferable five minutes, a bubbly secretary lady came around and asked me what I needed.

"Hi. I'm here to get my schedule card." I chimed in.

She pulled out a box filled with schedule cards and looked to me, with the lid to the box popped open. "And what is your name?"

I was a little hesitant at first to give the woman my name. But only because the jerk behind me would have an easier way of finding me if he knew what my name was. But I answered nonetheless. I mean, how else was I supposed to get by in this school without a schedule to follow from?

"Marta Lualdi." As soon as those words left my mouth, I heard the jerk give a 'Hm' in response. I ignored the comment and looked straight at the secretary.

"Ok." She began sorting through the numerous cards, repeating my last name to herself from time to time. Apparently, there were a lot of people in the L category that either hadn't attended school today or were in the process of coming by the office to pick them up later because there was a large stack of cards there. She managed to find mines amongst all of them and handed it to me.

"Here you are, Miss. Now run along to your class and have a good first day of school." She gave me a wave of the hand as I exited the room, my own hand waving back from the door. When I rounded the corner of the office, I heaved a sigh of relief because I was glad to know that I didn't have to deal with that jerk anymore. And hopefully, this would be the last time we saw one another. Hopefully.

I took a look at my school schedule and walked around in search of my class. But this school was so enormous (as in three stories tall), that my efforts were soon becoming futile. By this point, I was aimlessly roaming the halls in search of a class that I didn't know the location to.

'Man, what a good first day I'm having.' I thought sarcastically in my head. I looked to all the doors, but still didn't find the room I was supposed to be in forty minutes ago. The minutes on my watch were ticking by quick, as though mocking me for being late. This caused my anger to flare up at the miniscule numbers.

I definitely wasn't having a good day, that's for sure. And it's all thanks to my stupid alarm clock for not going off on time. And it's also that stupid jerk's fault for holding me up. Grr! Just thinking about him makes my blood boil.

I walked over to the stairs, taking them two at a time, till I reached the second floor. It looked just as extravagent as the bottom, except the lockers here were painted a bright sky blue color. And many flyers pertaining to school events covered the walls. And if I'm certain, the air smelt like citrus instead of the lavander from before. I saw a few flyers asking people to join their art club. I really liked drawing, so I took a minute to write down the rooms and contact numbers to various art clubs being held.

When I was done with my mini sight-seeing, I resumed my quest for my homeroom class. I looked at all the numbers nailed on the doors. But none were the one I was looking for. I was pretty exhausted from walking everywhere and wanted nothing more than to take a short break. But I summoned whatever will power I had in me to check the other hall I hadn't gone through on this floor.

I swiftly turned around on my heel, renewed determination coursing through my veins, when I suddenly collided into someone. The impact was strong and had me stumbling backward onto the ground, all my notebooks from my open backpack sprawled on the ground beside me. I rubbed at my sore butt and looked straight across to see, guess who, that same jerk from earlier rubbing his elbow and hissing under his breath from the pain of falling.

"Well, speak of the devil…" I murmured to myself.

He turned ruby reds in my direction and instantly the smirk plastered onto his face. "Didn't think I'd run into you again."

"Like wise." I retorted with a deadpanned expression. I was in absolutely no mood to deal with his BS again.

"I can see someone is a little lost."

"And what makes you think that?" Shoot. He had me figured out.

His grin grew larger as he spoke. "Someone who knows their way around doesn't wander from one spot to the other, especially with a clueless look on their face. Maybe you should of stuck around to ask the secretary where your class was instead of thinking that you could do it yourself."

That was the last straw. I couldn't help the rise in tempo of my voice when I shouted at him, "Have you been following me!" This guy was creepier than I thought. I can't BELIEVE I compared this stalking jerk to a prince charming in the beginning. Yuck! What an understatement I went through.

"No. But my class does happen to be this way." He spotted my schedule card on the ground, picked it up, and gave it a look through, to my utter surprise. He turned his attention to me again, waving the piece of paper in his hand all the while. "And from what it looks like, yours is this way also."

I narrowed my eyes some more, not saying a word back in reply. He took my silence in whatever way he thought it to be and proceeded to pick his stuff off the floor. I shook myself from my momentary lapse and went about gathering my own belongings and shoving it in my backpack, remembering to zip it up this time in case of this happening again. When I finished, I looked up to see him standing over me with a look of amusement etched on his face.

"I guess you wouldn't mind if I walked you to your class, right? Or should I leave you to find it yourself, since you were doing such a good job of looking for it before."

Standing before him, I was faced with a tough decision: a) let him guide me to my class and risk him knowing where to look for me or b) refuse his offer and continue roaming the halls until the bell rings for the next class and I repeat the process all over again.

He continued looking at me expectedly, as though he KNEW what I was going to answer. And as ashamed as I am to say this, he was the only person around who knew where my class was. So better to swallow my pride and let him show me the way than to suffer this confusion again later on.

I turned my face to the side, hating the horrible feeling in my mouth from admitting defeat once more. "…Fine. Lead the way."

His smirk stretched from ear-to-ear at this. "I knew you couldn't refuse." He handed me my schedule card and began walking ahead of me. I begrudgingly followed, leaving a considerable amount of space between us because I simply couldn't take him teasing me right now about how close I was to him.

We walked a little ways down until we stood in front of a turquoise door with the name 'World History' painted in a bright yellow by the glass window of the door. I noticed he hadn't moved from his spot next to. Strange. And just like in those cartoons, a light bulb 'animated' itself above my head and brightened with a ding.

That's when it finally clicked.

"Don't tell me we have the same class together?" I couldn't help the bit of desperation that escaped into my voice when I asked.

"Why? I thought you enjoyed my company since you like staring at me so much."

"W-w-what?" I asked in bewilderment, a blush spreading all around my face. "I-I'm not s-staring at you, you jerk!"

"Red is a nice color on you."

"Ah!"

"Come on. Let's go inside before we get in worse trouble." Right after he said that, he turned the knob on the door and grabbed my hand to lead me inside. I put my free hand over my face to cover the blush that took it over.

I heard a woman stop mid lecture, indicating that we were interrupting class. Through the cracks of my spread out fingers, I saw the students turn silent and look at me with questioning stares. And I couldn't blame them either for staring like that. I'd give off the same look if I saw someone walk in with their hand over their blushing face, led in by a boy no less. The interpretations were endless. Some of the girls, on the other hand, were too busy gawking at Mr. Jerk who was explaining to the teacher about why we were late.

At least he had enough sense to do that.

When he was through talking to her, the teacher turned to the class cleared her throat loudly to get the attention of all the students as she pointed to us. "Well, students. It looks like we have some last minute arrivals." She took our schedule cards and read off our names to the class.

"I'd like to introduce you to Ratatosk Castagnier and Marta Lualdi. And because we only have five minutes on the clock, I'll leave the rest of the introductions for after class during your own free time." She looked around the class for a moment before turning her attention back to us.

"Since the both of you arrived late, I'll have to assign you the last two seats in the back. I hope that's alright with you." She pointed to two side desks near the window with her pointer stick. Perfect! I always loved window seats. It made places seem less confining when there was the outside scenery to look at.

We nodded in affirmation and made our way through the others to the back and took our seats ( me sitting on the last seat behind him) before she started up with her lecture again. Some of the students, to my dismay, turned around in their seats with curiosity still evident in their faces. I felt like a circus act in the middle of a tourist crowd.

And to put it bluntly, it was embarrassing.

But class went by quick. Before I knew it, people were rushing to put away their materials and head off to their next class. The same girls that were gawking at that good-for-nothing jerk passed by his desk and handed him slips of paper with their phone numbers possibly written in them. It irritated me a little bit to see it, but I kept my face composed to it. I had no reason to be bothered by it. It's not like he's my boyfriend or anything. I turned around in my seat to unhook my backpack when I heard his voice call out to me.

"You ready, Marta?"

I stood up and put my backpack on, all the while staring at him with the same anger from before. "Ready for what?"

He looked at me like I was stupid, his own backpack slung over his right shoulder. "For our next classes. Duh."

Haha, yeah righ- wait. What did he say just now?

"Did you just say… classes?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot to inform you that we have all the same classes together. Isn't that just wonderful, Marta?" he asked as he put extra emphasis on my name.

Everything was beginning to blur out. It was at that moment that I felt my world falling apart before me. I was in so much shock that I almost didn't register the laughing that ensued from the jerk in front of me. Or that he put his hand to my back and led me to our next class, taunting me about how we would be sharing classes together for a whole year.

And that was how my life with Ratatosk started on the first day of high school.

A/N: So what did you guys think? Liked it? Loved it? Or just plain hated it? I'll leave the call to you guys (and gals). So leave me a comment telling me how I did and I'll be working on the next chapter in the meantime. Just remember, don't go out into full-blown flaming if you are going to say you disliked it. I still have my standards and I would very much appreciate it if you followed by those rules.

So until then, buh-bye everyone!