The Concept of Forever

Summary: And as she sat there watching the waves, Elie decided that the only 'forever' this cruel life could ever offer them was death. AU, Haru/Elie/Lucia.

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Author's Note: Gasp! Alarm! tehsecretardor has returned! I won't bog down the start of the story here, but there will be more info at the bottom and whatnot! Enjoy, my lovelies!
[I do not own Rave Master or any characters, just the plot and such of this story maybe.]

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Chapter One: The Beginning

With an audible groan, Elie Valentine pushed her torso up off the bed and hit down the button on her alarm clock to silence it. Though the ringing had ended, it echoed through her skull like a bad memory, reverberating around her head in beat to the throbbing headache she had. "That was such a bad idea," she grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she fell back onto the bed, unwilling to get out of bed just yet.

Oh…who's idea was it to get drunk the night before school? She asked herself angrily, kicking off her covers and sliding off the mattress. She couldn't remember much about last night – she didn't even know who took her home – but she knew that it had been awesome.

Elie didn't often drink, and so when she did, she often overdid it and drank herself into a debilitating hangover. Today, it seemed, was going to be one of those days. "We really should bring water with us when we do that sort of stuff," she muttered to herself on her way to the bathroom, noticing that her brother, Sieg, and his son, Niebel, were still sleeping. Of course they were. The high school term started today, but the middle school had another week. "Lucky."

When her routine was finished, she stopped by the refrigerator and chugged a bottle of water. It wasn't an instant cure for a hangover, yeah, but at least it would speed up the recovery process a bit.

"Elie?"

Startled, the brunette nearly choked on the water, tossing the empty container onto the counter and slowly easing the liquid down her throat. "Niebel, what are you doing up?" she coughed out, turning to her nephew.

The child yawned and rubbed his dark purple eyes. Elie never could figure out how she had come from the same mother and father as her older brother – he, and his son, both had cerulean blue hair, deep violet eyes, and a birthmark going down their right eye; yet all she got was brown hair and brown eyes. "I heard you moving around," he said sleepily, smiling. "I wanted to say goodbye before you left."

"That's very sweet of you," said the older one happily, crouching down in front of him. "I'll be sure to tell you all about how the first day of my last year of school goes, alright?" Niebel nodded slowly, but Elie could tell that his lack of enthusiasm was purely due to sleepiness. "Go back to bed, and tell your dad that I'm going over to Haru's house after school today."

"Daddy said that he thinks you two 'like each other'," whispered the child slyly in her ear. "Is it true?"

Elie sighed. "Sieg is worse than an old woman sometimes when it comes to gossip," was her only response before straightening up and shooing him away. He waved to her once more before disappearing into his tiny bedroom.

All the rooms in their house were tiny, though. Sieg was a teacher, however, he did not feel comfortable enough leaving his son in the care of his seventeen year old daughter, so he was very rarely in work. Most of their income, if you could even consider it that much, came from the private tutoring lessons he gave to some of the richer children on the island. The pay was terrible, just enough to pay the bills and get by.

As she was locking the door behind her, the brunette felt a slight tap on her shoulder. Startled again, she threw the key into the air before wildly turning around in shock. "Don't do that to me, Haru!" she cried after her moment of panic was over, slapping him on the arm.

Haru Glory laughed for a second before reaching down and plucking her keys from the ground, shrugging. "I wasn't expecting you to throw your keys up like that," he teased kindly, stepping away before she could hit him again. "Why were you so jumpy, anyways? Who else was it gonna be?"

"I didn't know," grumbled the brunette, pushing past him. He followed behind her, still laughing at his little prank. "I thought we were gonna meet up with the others, what happened?"

"You haven't checked the time, have you?"

Elie slowly shook her head. They didn't have any electric clocks in the house, and she hadn't bothered to check after getting out of the bathroom. "Elie, school started five minutes ago."

"What?!"

Haru laughed again, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a slow jog. "I told the other's to go on ahead and I'd come get you," he explained, smirking as she struggled to keep up. "You must be really hung-over still. Want me to carry you?"

Under normal circumstances, Elie would have rolled her eyes and told him to bugger off. However, they were late and the jogging was only worsening her headache, undoing what little relief the water had given her. "Alright, fine," she muttered, pulling him to a stop. "But you gotta let me off before school so no one see's!"

"Not like everyone's gonna miss the fact that we're both late," retorted Haru, but at her responding glare he rolled his eyes and nodded, offering his pinky finger to promise.

Out of all of her friend's, Haru Glory was by far her oldest, and her true best friend. They had been friends from the day that she and her family moved to Garage Island, when she was only four years old. There was nothing that they had been through that the other hadn't been there for.

When his father came home after being gone for six years, Haru had ran all the way to her house just to share the news with her first. Two years after that, when Elie's parents had gotten sick and died soon after, Sieg allowed her to spend the night at his house for a few days and he allowed her to sleep with his favorite teddy bear. A year later, when Haru's mother was in an accident and passed away, the two of them spent the night together in the woods and Elie listened to him tell her all about his mother. And, finally, when Haru and his father were in a car accident on the mainland three months ago and Gale died, the only person Haru would speak to apart from his sister was Elie.

Naturally, rumors floated around their friendship. It became a joke for them, making silly little sarcastic remarks every so often when it was just the two of them. Usually something along the lines of "Oh, but, Haru, don't you know? You're my one true love!" or "I've never dated a girl because the only girl I could ever be with is you, Elie!"

Even their circle of friends, which included three other people, were convinced that they were secretly in love. Julia, the only other girl and somewhat of an older sister to them, often tried snide remarks to see if she could make one of them slip up and accidentally say something that would reveal their feelings for each other. However, Elie and Haru merely laughed it all off and, for the most part, ignored them.

For Elie, playing along with it had become second nature. She had known for years now that she was, in fact, desperately in love with her best friend. She couldn't name the exact moment, but she suspected that it had happened sometime around when he and Musica started to hit puberty, when he went from being a boy who was shorter than she was and with a voice almost the same pitch, to being a teenage boy a head taller and with a voice that deepened spectacularly overnight.

However, she had also long since given up on the idea that he might return the feelings. Haru's current relationship status was one of the few things that he had little to say about. "I don't want a relationship," was usually the only response he'd get, even for Elie. Though she was positive that her love was true, the brunette decided a long time ago to be happy that he was her friend and not be greedy about it.

"Alright, as promised," said Haru after a few minutes, breaking her train of thought, "Time to let ya' down and prevent anymore rumors from flying around than already exist."

He crouched down for her to slide off, stretching his arms as soon as she was off. "Thank you very much, sir," she giggled, pretending to curtsy for him. He rolled his eyes, but grinned, and took his bag from her and slung it over his shoulders. "Alright, come on, we might be able to slip in without too much attention drawn."

The two made their way through the building quietly, but there was no sign of any of the usual hall monitors roaming. "That's weird," muttered Haru as they climbed the stairs up to their classroom. Due to the small size of the Island, most of the seniors had the same core-classes, which meant they would all see each other in most of their classes every day. "Look, there's a whole bunch of people outside the class."

Just as he had said, an entire group of girls crowded around the small window to their classroom, each one struggling to get a closer look. "Oh wow, he's even dreamier in person!" one of the cooed, sighing happily. "Such beautiful hair, and those eyes!"

"Excuse me," said Elie softly, trying to make her way through. Haru followed closely behind her, his body gently pushing against her. "Sorry, pardon us," she continued to mumble, keeping her eyes down. The crowd was doing nothing for her headache, but thankfully they made it through without much of an issue. Inside the classroom, however, was no different.

Most students stood gathered around a desk in the far left corner, obscuring the object of fascination from view. "There you two are!" called Julia, sitting opposite the room from the crowd and waving them over. "Grab your seats, hurry, the teacher is busy trying to get a handle on the class."

Elie and Haru did as they were told, sliding into two empty seats behind them. Julia and her boyfriend, Let, sat in front of them all, with Musica directly behind Let and Elie to his left and Haru behind Musica. "What's going on?" asked the brunette, pulling her bag off her shoulder and quietly setting it on the desk.

"New kid. Dunno anything about him, we got here just a bit before you two," explained Musica lazily, yawning. "Even the teacher is going all gaga over him."

As if his words had summoned her, the teacher reappeared through the crowd, straightening her shirt. "Alright class, please, settle down," she called, making her way to the front of the room. When no one responded, she grabbed a yardstick that was leaning against the wall and rapped it on her desk several times. "I said, 'settle down'!"

The crowd dissolved slowly, finally revealing what had made them all so rowdy. It was a new student, like Musica had said, about the same size as Haru. However, he could not have been any more different than their friend; his hair was golden blond and roughly the same length as Elie's, hanging down in front of his similarly colored eyes. He had a slight smirk on his face that seemed almost as if it belonged there, making even his relaxed expression seem mysterious.

For reasons Elie could not quite place, she felt drawn to him. He sat with the air of someone that was accustomed to being the center of attention, and his every movement demanded to be noticed. That, she suspected, was most likely the cause of the crowd forming around him. Not only was he new – something the teenagers of Garage Island did not often experience – but he almost required to be flocked to.

More than anything, it worried Elie. For any man to be that magnetic and know it (judging by the way he surveyed the classroom as if he owned it, he knew of his effect on people) could spell destruction to the hearts of girls everywhere.

"Alright, as you can all see, Garage Island is now the home to a wonderful new family," said the teacher after everyone had been seated. "Young man, would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"

"Certainly," replied the blond, sitting a little straighter in his seat. "My name is Lucia Raregroove, and my father and I have returned to his home indefinitely until it is my turn to take control of the family business."

His voice was almost melodic, soothing and charming and the sort of voice that only prince's in make-believe stories were possible of possessing. For a brief moment, Elie felt herself slip into the spell it created, but there was something about his words that drew her away. His tone was charming, but it carried an undertone with it that the brunette was sure she wanted nothing to do with.

As the teacher proceeded to ask him more about himself, Elie glanced at her friends. They were all clearly interested in Lucia, but not in the same way that the rest of the class was.

Julia was frowning, her entire body on alert. Musica was also frowning, his eyes narrowed in a sense of concentration that meant he had felt all the same things Elie had. Let, who looked serious almost 99% of the time she saw him, had hardened in what appeared to be a defensive expression. And, finally, Haru was just staring at him as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"And so, after twenty of years of loyal service and assistance to the Empire, father decided to take an early retirement and come back home," Lucia finished, his smirk widening.

At his words, Julia broke away from him and ripped a page out of her notebook, scribbling something down before passing it over to Let. He read it quickly, and responded. With a quick glance at the teacher, he handed the note to Musica, who followed suit and passed it to Elie.

The message from Julia was simple, "You guys feel something weird about this dude?" Let had replied with just a simple "correct" and Musica wrote, "There is totally something off about him," as well as a small doodle of an unhappy face.

Elie took a pen out, glanced at the teacher one more time, and quickly wrote underneath Musica's reply, "I don't like the way he sounds. It's all nice and stuff, but his expression makes it seem all dark and spooky."

The note went to Haru, who replied much slower than the rest of them, crossing out several responses before finally settling in on one and passing it up. All it said, however, was, "We'll talk about this at lunch, not enough time here."

Once the note had made its way through the five of them again, Julia slowly tore it to pieces and threw it away. Haru was not often serious, but there was something almost urgent about his response that had them all on edge.

The class proceeded as it normally would, and once the forty-five minutes were up, the students herded out of the classroom like sheep. As soon as the door behind them was closed, all the girls in the classroom went crowding around Lucia again, determined to make a good impression on the supposed billionaire son.

"Hey!" cried Elie as she got dragged into the mess. "Wait, I don't want to be here!" Her friends noticed, but it was too late; she was already sucked into the vortex-like-crowd. The brunette struggled, trying to free herself from whatever had snagged her into this hell, but rather than free herself and rejoin her friends, Elie lost her balance and came tumbling down.

Right in front of Lucia Raregroove himself.

In a flash, the entire crowd was silent. "Hello," said the blond pleasantly, leaning over her. Elie opened her eyes and smiled back up at him, hoping no one would call out the growing blush on her cheeks.

"Hi there," she replied happily. "How goes the first day of school, Lucia?"

He smiled at her and shrugged. "Delightful." That said, he straightened up and offered her a hand, much to the surprise of the crowd. "Would you like some assistance?"

Elie did not want his help, but she also didn't want to be rude to the new guy on just a strange feeling about him. Reluctantly, she reached up and grabbed his hand, hoisting herself off the ground and back onto her feet. "Thank you," she said quickly, brushing herself off. "It was a pleasure to meet you, but I really have to get on off to class now."

"Well, so do I," he said, something in his tone suggesting that he was growing tired of dealing with other people. "Where are you headed to…?"

"Oh, um," she stammered, unwilling to divulge her name. "Elie. Elie Valentine."

"Which class do you have next, Elie Valentine?"

The way he said her name made her skin crawl, and for just a second she was glad for the jacket she had pulled on in her hung-over haze this morning. "History. How about you?"

By now the crowd had realized that Lucia's full attention was going towards Elie, and they slowly dissipated. The blond started to walk, and with an apologetic look over her shoulder to her friends, Elie followed him. "History as well. Tell me, do all new students receive a welcome similar to mine?" he asked, his body mirroring her movements exactly.

"Sort of. We don't get a lot of new villagers, so, you know, the people are always really happy when one comes along."

Lucia nodded. "To be honest, I'm not much a fan of crowds," he admitted sheepishly, laughing nervously. "They make me nervous."

The brunette turned to look at him, unsure of whether she believed him or not. He seemed more genuine now than he had in the class, but there was still something untrustworthy about him. "Really? You seemed so comfortable," she commented, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I've had a lot of practice," he said, suddenly stopping. Elie stopped as well, and looked up at the classroom. "This is where you were going, isn't it?"

"I-uh, yeah," said the brunette in confusion, looking down at her purse to see if her schedule was poking out. It was not. "But how did you know that?"

Lucia smirked, and leaned in closely, his forehead hovering above hers. "My little secret," he said softly, his golden eyes shining. "I'm sure that we'll be seeing each other again, Elie."

With that, he straightened up and moved away, glancing over his shoulder at her before disappearing behind the corner. Elie continued to stare at where he was for a few seconds after he was already gone, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

He was a totally different person than he had been around those people. Maybe it was just a ruse, something he put on when he felt threatened. He was the son of one of the largest companies in the entire world – though she had never actually heard of Demon Card before then. It was certainly possible that he was much more complex than his first impression would have given off. Elie leaned against the lockers for just a second, her mind made up.

She wanted to get to know him.

~x~

Author's Note: TADA! You guys would not believe how difficult it was to get this chapter started! I must have started and scraped the first page seven times before finally getting a beginning that worked. I am SO excited for this story, it's an idea I've had for a really long time (actually based loosely off of a story I read a long time ago. I say 'loosely' because I remember NOTHING about the story except the main general plot and whatnot) and I'm so happy that I can finally make it work!
I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'll work on getting the updates up as often as I can (pfeh, no promises). :D