Kit and Kin   by poetheather

 
Takeshi Saito was a quiet student who kept his head down in Ravencrest High School trying to get along. But strange things happen in this small town and the spotlight finds those who would rather hide. So Takeshi finds himself pulled from his happy geek corner to somewhere else, somewhere he is not sure of.

January 23

Her homeroom looked just like it had. After everything she had been through she had kind of expected some things to have changed, but nothing had. With an internal sigh, she walked up to the teacher and handed over her paperwork. The woman looked up at her expectantly and all Maeko offered was, “I’m new.”

The teacher looked at the paperwork and then cocked her head at what she was reading, “Any relation to Takeshi Saito, by any chance?”

“Half-brother. He’s in California now. The office will probably be sending you something about that soon.” Maeko shrugged noncommittally. Fixing the paperwork of who she had been was someone else’s problem now, not hers.

The woman nodded and then gestured across the desks, “Okay. That’s fine. Take a seat. I don’t have assigned seating in here so feel free to take any seat you want.”

There were already a few other students in there watching her with some interest, students who never had really given Takeshi the time of day. It was kind of funny how things had changed with the aura of newness she had acquired with this whole transformation. People were really looking at her differently and it was pretty strange. She moved towards the back of the classroom and took a seat different from the one she had usually sat in. This was going to be interesting. She just sat there and waited, listening to the conversations going on around her, just sort of being, and remaining calm and almost in a meditative state. And then all the air was punched from her lungs.

Cindy Harper walked in first looking like she always looked, saying something to the person behind her and then Dana entered the room. Maeko’s eyes widened a little when Dana walked through the door, her breathing stopped, her heart racing as it was still clearly tied to her gray eyed goddess. Dana had her long red hair up in a French braid and it looked really cute, with her teal sweater and knee length heather gray skirt, with warm looking teal tights on underneath. The whole look was really cute and looked a bit nicer than she normally wore to school which made Maeko wonder what the occasion was, why she was dressed so nice. Maeko then notice that Dana’s friend, Cindy caught her looking, raising one of her eyebrows at her. She wrenched her eyes away from the girl she desperately wanted and started looking for something in her book bag.

Maeko was cursing herself, internally. Of all the stupid beginner idiotic mistakes she could have done to give herself away, she had to go with mooning over the girl that everyone knew that Takeshi had been in love with because of that damn poem. How the hell would she be able to explain her actions? There really was no way to brush that off. Sure Dana was gorgeous and all, but the similarities between her and Takeshi would be too close for some people to miss unless she managed to make it clear that they were different people. Stupid mistakes like this could ruin the whole plan. This grumbling caused her to miss the appraising glance from Cindy and the somewhat confused and questioning glance from Dana.

Homeroom passed, school announcements were made and Maeko mostly spent the time going over the school rules in the booklets, ‘finding’ her next class on the map and answering some of the questions that other kids had about where she was from and what California was like. Aunt Chiharu had prepared her for all of those sorts of questions and the answers she was able to rattle off were really easy to say without needing to think about them, lending credence to the whole not from around there theory she was trying to establish. She did notice that both Dana and Cindy did not join in on the question game but were listening in.

When the bell rang, Maeko swallowed hard, hoping that Cindy would not come over and say anything or ask her about herself. That was all she would need to completely ruin her day. She knew the girl was clever and might be able to figure things out if she had a few clues to work with. This was not something she wanted to mess with and really wanted to deny Cindy the clues necessary to figure all of this out. Thankfully, Cindy left with Dana right as the bell rang, but not before giving her a bit of an appraising look over her shoulder which made her swallow hard.

Maeko made it to her next class, Algebra 2, with some time to spare and went through the same rigmarole of telling them who she was and stuff. This class was a bit farther in the book than her class had been, so she was busy playing catch up, so she would not be screwed over in the next test. Spanish 2 was easy, as she had been familiar with the language before, though she had been taking French as Takeshi. That familiarity was the only thing saving her now, as it seemed like everyone else was a lot more skilled than she was, which kind of stood to reason. This was clearly another class she was going to have to work at to make sure she was caught up and moving ahead in. Art was the biggest break she had gotten and she cruised through things, thankful for such a relaxing pause in her day.

When Lunch rolled around she was quite grateful for it. This might mean that she could do something in peace for a change or maybe just relax, if she were lucky. Following the map, trying to keep up the ruse that she did not know where everything was, she paused at the entrance to the cafeteria and looked over the usual lunchtime chaos. That was where Maggie found her, gazing at the madness with new eyes. “Hey there Maeko, if you don’t have a bag lunch come on before the line gets too long.”

She let herself get dragged along by Maggie, not resisting in the slightest. The day had already been crazy enough that she just didn’t want to think at the moment and was glad that Maggie was taking care of that. She just kept talking as they moved. “So how are your classes going?”

With a shrug that said little, Maeko replied, “Not bad. Seems like some of them are farther than I was back home, so I got a bit of catching up to do. I just hope it’s not like that in all my classes as that would completely suck.”

“That’s not too bad. Could be worse. They could be a lot farther and then where would you be?.” teased Maggie with a faint smile.

“Ugh… that would suck so hard.” grumbled Maeko, realizing that the scenario that Maggie had presented was indeed a possibility that she could still face with a few of her classes.

“Meeting anyone nice?”

“Not really. People are kind of keeping their distance. I think they are trying to get a feel for who I am before they do anything else. It seems to be the usual new person tango.”

“I’m sorry. You know, there are some really nice people here at the school. Well, you are welcome to come sit with me and my friends until you make friends of your own.”

Maeko rolled her eyes at that. Of all the damn times for the girl’s self-esteem issues to crop back up. There were times she wanted to shake some sense into Maggie and this was one of them. How could someone so cool be so clueless as to how awesome she really was? Even before she had hung out with Kelly and really seemed to open up. No she needed to say something to make it clear what she thought and hopefully make her friend feel better. “Maggie, I hope you can be one of my friends while I am here. I mean, like I know you were one of Takeshi’s friends but you were nice to me when I got here and you did not freak when you heard my story and just so you know, that means a lot to me. So, I’m not going to dump you if I end up making a few more friends, okay?”

The grin that Maggie gave her was worth saying all of that. “Okay.”

The food available once the line reached that far looked about as bad as it usually did, which did very little for Maeko’s appetite. Trying to find a balance of nutritious and edible, she picked food that didn’t look too fundamentally wrong and followed Maggie to the table where a bunch of others sat. She knew them all but she had to act like she was meeting them all for the first time so as to not blow her cover. This was going to be somewhat awkward and she had to play it that way. Introductions were made and the guys continued to talk about comic books, mostly leaving her alone to talk to Maggie.

Seeing Wallace reminded her of what her kasa had told her the other day and she nodded, making her mind up about what to do. “Hey Wallace, sorry about being you know, kind of a bitch the other day. I was like having a hella bad day and I guess I took it out on you. Sorry.”

He waved it off as if it were of no matter, “Nah, don’t worry about it Maeko. It’s no big deal.”

“Thanks. I just wanted to make sure things were cool between us.”

“It’s fine.” Even though he was saying that it was no big deal, Maeko could tell in his body language that it did have an effect on him and made him relax around her more. She would have to thank her kasa for the advice, it was proving useful. Maybe things did make sense. Wallace certainly did seem to feel better for all of that. She wasn’t sure how it would work in a tenser situation but she was sure that her kasa would know. Fighting using wind and water was a good bit about misdirection and redirection and that was kind of what this was, redirecting Wallace’s upset into something else, not even her but rather the day she had had. She was still working to fully switch gears with that combat philosophy change and it was still making her a bit crazy. Sparring with her kasa yesterday had helped but she was still a work in progress.

Casting her eyes casually over the lunch room, she noticed that Cindy Harper was talking to Tracy Locke, with the two of them occasionally looking her way. She narrowed her eyes in thought, trying to suss out what the girls were up to. The way they were sitting was keeping her from reading their lips and that was kind of annoying. She knew that the girls knew each other and had become friends in early fall, but what did that have to do with her. Why was she so interesting all of a sudden? She also knew that their families were two of the more powerful Unseen clans in town. The same was true with Dana’s family, which tied her stomach in knots when she thought about it, which she really tried not to. So, despite all of that, what would a coyote and a wolf want with her?”

Lunch did not last long enough for her to work that out. World History was behind where she had been in her other class, so she had been able to try and work things out then, not needing to pay attention nearly as close. Was the coyote she met in the woods the night she had transformed Cindy? If it was, then her ruse with her identity was probably already in tatters before it really got going. She felt a headache coming on the more she thought of this. She used one of the pressure points in the web of her hand to try and soften the dull throbbing. The pain faded after the third round of ten she had pressed it. It did not make her feel good to know that she was that stressed.

Walking into the girl’s locker room was a new and slightly embarrassing experience. Since she had known that she had to change out for gym, she had brought gym clothes with her. She found an open spot and concentrated on changing and not looking at the other girls in their underwear. It was not easy for her to do that as she had literally been dreaming of some of these young women for a few years and what their lingerie looked like. She only managed to not bask in the truly lovely sight around her with a good bit of meditative focus and deliberate single-mindedness on her getting changed out.

When she walked out of the locker room and into the gym itself she started a little when she was bracketed by the two people she had been pondering about over lunch, both already changed out. She had not noticed them because of her own issues with wanting to not be noticed perving on the girls in there. She searched for an out but there really was none short of actually attacking the girls. What the hell was she going to do now?

“Hi Maeko. My name is Cindy Harper and this is my good friend Tracy Locke. We just wanted to come over and get to know you, you know, since you are New here and all.”

Maeko tried to not wince at the way that Cindy had emphasized the word new. It certainly implied something other than welcome to our school. “Uh… hi. Nice to meet you.”

The two girls maneuvered Maeko away from the others so they could not be overheard and Cindy said kind of quietly, in a very confident voice, “Nice to meet you too Takeshi.”

This time Maeko did wince and searched for an exit. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Maeko, it’s okay. We’re not planning on outing you to everyone.” commented Tracy. “As for how we know… well…”

Cindy took over and said calmly, “We know because we have been there.”

Maeko snapped her head over and peered at both Cindy and Tracy rather intently, letting her mind work rapidly. The answer that came to her kind of scared her but it was the only thing that made sense based off what they were implying. She then said quietly, with a bit of trepidation in her voice, “Trevor? Craig?”

Cindy smirked at Tracy, “Told you she would figure it out.”

Tracy rolled her eyes at brunette.

“Wait… so you both changed? Wow… so that’s what he meant.” mumbled Maeko.

“What who meant?” asked Tracy rather pointedly.

“Uhm… no one. Forget about that. Nothing to see here, just a hedge. So wait… that coyote I saw out in the woods… that was you?”

Cindy nodded and grinned. “Yep. So you were that fox. Pretty cute.”

Tracy said, “I thought the McCormicks were foxes?”

“Uhm… yes that’s true, but uhm… well, it’s complicated. So how did you figure out that it was me?”
asked Maeko, wanting to know what holes she could close in her performance. She really did not want to get herself found out by everybody and their brother. That would just be embarrassing.

“Well, for me it was seeing your face when Dana and I entered Homeroom. It was exactly the same. Add that to the fact that I ran into a new were, and a new girl arrived, how hesitant you were in the locker room… plus my own history. It was pretty easy.” answered Cindy.

Tracy nodded. “Cindy asked me at lunch if I thought there was something about you and I figured it out by watching you talk to people over lunch, plus the locker room. You have similar mannerisms. That and you smell like Takeshi, so there is that.”

Maeko hung her head and shook it, distressed that she had been discovered so easily. “And I thought I was doing so well.”

“You are.” protested Tracy, clearly trying to help Maeko feel better about this. “The thing is, we have an unfair advantage of having been through this whole thing ourselves, so we know it exists. I doubt any others would figure it out.”

Nodding her head in acceptance, Maeko said, “Thanks for that. It is some consolation.”

“Girls! Get over here and start stretching!” yelled the coach.

The trio complied, two of them clearly amused at how lost in thought the third was. The activity itself was dodgeball and Maeko had such pent up energy that there was no way she was going to play like she had been. She did reign in her skills, so as to avoid giving away her martial training but she certainly was not the easy target that Takeshi had been. She let herself get hit near the end when there were only a few people left because she wanted a seat rather than anything else. It was kind of nice to let loose for a change.

Sitting next to Cindy, who had seemed to have done the same as her, the girl grinned at her happily. “So, you seem to have some skills.”

“Uhm… one or two.” Maeko was not sure what to say. She knew the Harpers ran a dojo in town and taught a fairly wide range of arts but telling people that you were a lifetime student of Ninjitsu was not done. People tended to look at you funny when you said that.

“I guess you wanted a break?” astutely asked Cindy.

“Basically.”

“You should come by the dojo. It might be nice. We have all sorts of classes there. Could be fun.” Cindy suggested as an aside.

“I might just do that. You never know when a girl might have to protect herself.” Threw back Maeko with a slightly mischievous grin.

Cindy quirked an eyebrow at that and Maeko only grinned. Cindy then smirked, “Oh yes, we will see.”

Tracy came over and sat on the other side of Maeko. “So, have you been adapting well to our fair town?”

“Yeah, my Aunts have been helping and Maggie is going to show me around town today. I have to say that this place is damn cold compared to Cali.”

“So your only clue how to do this has been your moms?” asked Tracy, leaning in and whispering.

“Yeah.” whispered Maeko back.

“We have got to fix that.” pronounced Tracy in a normal tone of voice. “What are you doing after school tomorrow?”

“Uhm… I guess you’ll tell me?” nervously replied Maeko, her head slightly cocked.

Cindy chuckled and said, “Good answer. We’ll do something to help get you more used to being well… where you are. And it will be a teen thing and not something your parents thought up. You know all of this fabulous stuff!”

Maeko grinned at that. These two were not all that bad at the whole double talk thing. If you knew what the actual topic was it was easy to follow and if you didn’t it sounded completely different. She liked that. “I think I can manage that.”

“Cool.”

Before anything else could be said, it was time for another round of school sponsored punishment. Plans were made once they were back on the sideline and soon class was over. Since she really had not gotten sweaty from the game, Maeko did not need a shower and changed back into her regular clothes. She closed her lock, said bye to Cindy and Tracy and headed off for Chemistry.

This was another class that was behind where her class had been, so she was not getting swamped with things which made her quite happy. But then came the class she had been kind of dreading, English. When she arrived, still following her map, some of the kids were still bagging on Takeshi and his poem. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down after that, not wanting to blow up at any of them over something she was not supposed to know about. It was a bit tricky but she managed to not kill anyone, especially the kid who had caused the most embarrassing moment of her life.

When Dana walked into the room, she was mostly prepared for the event. There was no real visible reaction to her except for a slight tightening of her nipples which was hidden by her clothes, but Maeko felt her heart pounding away as her eyes took in the sight of her love. A warmth started burning inside her lower abdomen, similar to the sensation she had felt during the nightmare only less creepy. In a way it felt like a part of her was melting, which was rather odd, and a bit pleasant. But she didn’t care, she was mostly focused on Dana.

She listened to class with half an ear; the other half of her focus was spent writing lines of poetry, as nothing complete came to her just snippets. There was just something about Dana that made her feel that way, like she could do anything, that nothing was impossible, first as a guy and now as a girl. None of the guys she had seen that day made her feel much of anything except revulsion in a few cases and Dana, Dana seemed to be her whole world.

When class was almost over she looked down at her notebook and blushed when she realized that she had written Maeko Stiles and Mrs. Maeko Stiles a few times. She had even dotted the i’s in the last name with a heart a few times. This made her cheeks burn she was blushing so hard, swallow heavily and close her notebook as a wave of embarrassment washed over her. She prayed that no one had seen what she had done. Could the day get any worse?

Thankfully class ended shortly thereafter. Dana did look over at her as the class was packing up and Maeko was not sure what to do, being caught watching her. She smiled in what she hoped was a friendly smile and less as a creepy stalker chick. Goddess she hoped it looked more that way. Dana smiled back, a friendly smile that seemed to touch the girl’s grey eyes and melted her heart. Maeko went back to getting all of her stuff put into her bag, her heart all a flutter.

Cindy and Tracy found her before she was able locate Maggie so they could head downtown for the big tour of Ravencrest. Cindy grinned in a manner that made Maeko want to check her wallet as she sidled up to her, “So… Maeko, just thought you should know, now that you are a girl, you know that your odds of getting Dana just went up, right?”

“What?” Maeko started eyes wide. She had heard the rumor but this was the first time she had gotten major confirmation about it.

“Oh yeah. And she is single right now as well. So you just might be able to end up dating her, if you play your cards right.”

Maeko opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to frame something to say and words failed to do anything except sit there stunned. Tracy snickered and shook her head, waving a hand in front of Maeko’s face, “I think you broke her.”

“Oh good. I still have my touch.” snarked Cindy.

“Say what? She what? Uhm what?” Maeko was still not firing on all cylinders as she babbled but it was a little bit better than before.

The two girls chuckled to themselves as they walked off waving at her. Cindy called out playfully, “Bye Maeko!”

When her brain stopped seizing and began working again, she started to grin happily. Was this really the truth? Was Dana possibly a lesbian? Cindy, being one of her friends would know. So, did that mean she had a chance to actually, maybe, possibly, go out with her? Dana spotted her and gave her a quick wave from the parking lot. Maeko waved back, her heart swelling in her chest and her grin shifting to more of a goofy love struck one. That settled things. It was the best day ever.