Disclaimer note: I do not own Maid Sama. The characters are absolutely borrowed.

Fandom: Maid Sama

Pairing: Misaki X Takumi

~Chapter 01. It Took One Look~

I was lost and alone
Trying to grow making my way down that long winding road
Had no reason no rhyme
Like a song out of time
And there you were standing in front of my eyes

-:::-

The handsome bachelor went out of his peaceful residence that very early morning to get the daily newspaper; it must be on his porch by now. Hiccup, his faithful fluffy English Sheepdog wasn't there to greet him with a tackle like he would usually do.

Odd?

As he neared the gate, he saw the familiar wagging tail. When it came to full view, he noticed his dog was being petted by the newspaper girl down at the narrow slits of the gate.

Again.

He casually walked to the entrance in a quick manner but the girl must have felt someone nearing that she hastily wave a goodbye at the happy dog and strode off with her bicycle.

Takumi ran if he could catch up with her but she was already gone by the time he opened the white-painted metal door. The light post illuminated the bare empty street. The people apparently still tucked up in their beds while cool dusk of the evening hasn't left yet and remarkably unprepared for the breaking of dawn.

He turned to his pet and pouted.

"Did you see that? Your friend ran away again," he complained. Hiccup had the newspaper between its mouth, happily bringing it to him while skipping making its long silky black fur up and down.

He ruffled its fur while chuckling and gave his last glance to the entryway.

"Come on, I'll give you some reward," and they walked back to the house to start the day with a healthy breakfast.

Since the day, he had a glimpse of her four months ago at the very same place— his gate to be precise- trying to fend off an annoying stranger, he immediately became interested with her and curiosity baffled on his mind. She shouted something like "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" and bumped her head against the unlucky guy, knocking out the stranger in the process. Before Takumi could laugh out loudly, the girl had hop on her bike angrily, pedalling with much force than necessary.

He knew some things about her.

She did odd jobs. Delivers newspapers at different streets every morning except Sundays, works as a karate instructor at Mondays and Tuesdays and attends as a part timer waitress in a small cafe by Thursdays to Saturdays. And from what he had heard, she was quite a tomboy. Often seen scaring guys around, when the females were being threatened, she was their hero.

He might have stalker tendencies every once in a while due to gathering data like asking the people around neighbourhood or friends that most likely knew everything.

All these, despite how busy, she always find time to go to the large library in the nearby street.

He checked the clock and his schedule. Good. He has no duty at the hospital today might as well spend the day rather a little different. The library was just a few minutes away if you will ride by car, but he chose to walk instead, to savour the cool morning breeze and had an exercise on the way at the same time.

It didn't fail him.

She was there.

The same girl a while ago, sitting with her legs crossed, with her arms stretched touching the tip of her shoe and the other hand at the book responsible for flipping the pages. She wore a hooded navy blue jacket and a faded jeans. He took the liberty of staring at her face since she seemed to be too occupied to notice him anyway. He proceeded to the table and took the seat opposite from her, pulling out a medicine encyclopedia and started scanning the pages.

Misaki was reading the unusually large book in a soft whisper; she preferred reading it that way as it goes effectively up her head when she mumble the words. The story of The Hero and the Crown was quite a good story. In the mythical land of Damar, Aerin was the daughter and the only child of the king. Because her mother was a witchwoman, the people were suspicious of her and instead it was Tor, her friend and cousin, who became king after her father died. The rest of the story told the gallant tale of how Aerin had slain the mighty dragon, acquired the Blue Sword and retrieved the Hero's Crown.

Oh, she must be very brave, she thought after closing the book and grabbing another one from the pile she had put on the table. She opened it in half and began looking what's interesting in the contents but instead what she found were long gibberish words that all made nonsense to her.

Visual aids to diagnostic. Presbyopia? Huh. Sympthoms? Ophthalmoscopic view of the what? The hell-?

When she flipped the odd book to see what was written at the front, a deep smooth voice broke her panic and saw the gorgeous man dressed in a white long sleeve.

"I think you picked the wrong one," Takumi smirked in amusement, his back leaning on the chair.

"Uh? Sorry…here I'll place it back," she offered, carefully placing the book on his side and grabbed the one she had earlier. She plopped back and sank in her chair feeling a little embarrassed.

"You often go here?" he asked her, eyes down to the reading material and his small smile still present.

Realized that she was being asked, she promptly answered "Yeah, when I feel being stressed out and just wanted to laze around."

Oh, crap! What kind of answer is that?! Laze around? She reflected while silently hitting her head under the large atlas of the world pretending she was reading.

"Hmn, I understand that. It also takes away my boredom."

She popped her head over the thick cardboard map and smiled foolishly "Yeah, just like that!" Internally, she was saying Go away.

She was afraid that her conversation with this man might get longer and that would result in spoiling the golden rules she made up on her own- avoid men and especially handsome men! Just when she was ready to bid an excuse to her new acquaintance, her stomach growled rather soundly. She slapped her tummy.

The man in the opposite blinked a few times.

She quickly jerked her head and gestured her free hand to the large library window. "OH, look at that pretty bird out THERE!" exclaiming a little low since she was still aware they were at the library.

He let out a muffled laugh and promptly stood on his feet pushing off the chair, grabbing his things and the books sprawled on the table with his hands.

"We could finish this later, for now let's eat somewhere. I'm craving for some ramen."

All our Misaki could do was to question herself with an audible 'Huh?' before being drag outside the building.

:::

"Ok, let me clear this," she slammed her fist in the table. "It was me who wanted to come here in the first place, it's just you were—hey listen!"

"Whatever you say, Ma'am," raising his hands in defeat, blowing the hot ramen in bowl.

Misaki shot the blonde a veiled look of annoyance.

Then eyed her own serving of ramen and it was silently inviting her to sip those stemming soup and oh so delicious noodles with all those carrots and yummy stuff. She parted the chopsticks, said a prayer and started digging to the edible goodness.

*fuff* *fuff*

Takumi was stealing a glance watching how adorable it was when she puckered her tiny lips to blow the hot soup. And there she goes again.

*fuff*

She suddenly jolted, wincing in pain and biting her cherry tongue between her teeth, a sign clearly indicating the soup was a bit too hot for her unprepared taste buds. Takumi had to hide his laugh in fake coughs and waved the nearby waitress over to refill his glass of water.

:::

And atlas, her long shift at the cafe was over for tonight. How she really missed her bed! The customer a while ago was somewhat arrogant, good thing she could really control her temper now so as to avoid being reprimanded by the manager.

She clutched her bag and found something that reminded her what happened earlier that day. It was a beautiful pen that the weird stranger dropped unnoticed just before he left. She rolled in her bed. 'Must be expensive' she could tell by just looking at it, she removed the cap and the ink flowed to the paper elegantly.

"It smells nice, too."

She found a name engraved purposely at the pen's covering, announcing in golden letters the words – T. Usui.

Her little sister called out from the kitchen, "Onee-chan, dinner is ready!"

-:::-

Tender thoughts:

Song courtesy of Boyzone's wonderful 'All That I Need'.

Ok, I did it! Too many thoughts swimming around in my mind especially in my bedtime, phew! I hope you like what I wrote.

Please give some reviews—it's how I know you care.