Praying to the Lonely Star
Kemui Koyama High School

Bearit's Notes: Um, sorry? For some reason or another I can't explain, I've had the urge to write this sort of fic. Despite it's popularity, Eagle/Umi is still an odd pairing. I like it. (To tell you the truth, I like Eagle/Umi and Geo/Umi more than I like Clef/Umi or Ascot/Umi... but Geo/Eagle is still number one! XD My God, I am the oddball of the MKR fandom. ^^;;)

Although two characters discuss incest DOES NOT IN ANY WAY mean this fic has incest. Because it DOESN'T. Just a forewarning. ~_^

And one more thing (sorry, sorry), SMAP fans, let's see if you can catch any references in here. ^_^

***

I hate rain.

Umi glowered out the door. In one hand, she held her schoolbag, and in the other, she held an unopened umbrella. She wore a thick coat over her school uniform. The weatherman did say that it was going to be very cold this night.

She sighed. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible, but her friends' stalling prevented her from doing so.

"Takuya!" she called. "Masahiro! Hurry up! Some people do want to get home before it gets dark!"

"Be patient!" a male voice snapped. Umi tightened her grips on her umbrella and schoolbag.

"Don't tell me to be patient!" she yelled back. "You hurry up! I've been waiting for five minutes!"

"Shut up!"

"You!"

"Masahiro, Umi," said another male voice. "Both of you shut up."

Finally, two boys both about Umi's age walked out of the classroom. The shorter one, Masahiro Nakai, had ginger-tinted hair and bottle green eyes. Masahiro's hair illuminated the shape of his oval head with two locks of hair curving to the front of his cheeks. He was like a stick; Umi was a head shorter than he was and she could grasp his upper arm, and she would still be able to touch her fingertips.

The taller boy, Takuya Kimura, looked healthier than Masahiro, and--Umi had to admit--was more handsome than him. He had wavy, shoulder-length hair, as if he took better care of it than most of the girls in school.

It really didn't matter to the girls. After all, he was the most adored boy in Kemui Koyama High School.

"Ready?" asked Umi. "I would really like a ride home."

Masahiro frowned. "I'm not sure if I want to give you one anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"Okay!" Takuya exclaimed, pushing the two towards the door. "Let's go now!"

All three of the fencing team members were in their last year of high school. Takuya was the captain of the team with Umi as the second-in-command. She had booted Masahiro from his position the year before, so the two were not on good terms.

Umi used to attend an all-girls' school, the Sakura Kawa campus. However, when high school rolled around, she switched to Kemui Koyama because of the better fencing program.

She was also closer to Hikaru and Fuu this way, but it only made a difference on the weekends when Umi had time to go visit them and vice versa.

Although she had changed campuses, her school uniform hadn't changed. In the Sakura Kawa School District, all the schools had the same uniforms. If boys changed from the Taka Monshou campus to Kemui Koyama, their uniform remained the same. Likewise for girls from Sakura Kawa to Kemui Koyama.

The three reached the student parking lot, huddled underneath Umi's umbrella.

"I swear I'm going to get claustrophobic from this," Umi muttered. "Why didn't you guys bring your own umbrellas?"

"Excuse us for not watching the news every morning," Masahiro snapped. "Excuse us for having a life!"

"What kind of life can you have before school starts? And I don't watch the news every morning! My father told me it was going to rain this afternoon."

"Oh, you little Daddy's Girl..."

"Would you two please shut up?" snapped Takuya. "We're almost to the car."

"I call front seat!" Umi said.

"You just love stealing things from me, don't you?" Masahiro hissed.

"Masahiro, chill," said Takuya. "Umi's house is closer, so she'll have to be in the front seat anyway."

Masahiro laughed. "Oh yeah. You only have a two-door."

"No need to rub it in."

Umi giggled. Before she could make a comment to rile Takuya further, her eyes caught a bright figure walking the opposite direction nearby. She stopped walking and turned to see who the person was--just out of curiosity--but she only managed to catch the back of a boy's head.

Even so, that was enough.

White-gold hair? she thought. But... the only person I've known to have that color hair was--

"ACK!"

"Umi! What are you doing?"

Umi glanced back to the two boys. Takuya and Masahiro didn't notice that she had stopped walking until they realized that the umbrella was no longer above their heads. They were getting wet. Both of them ran back underneath the umbrella. Umi laughed.

"Not funny," Masahiro spat.

Umi looked behind her shoulder again. The boy was no longer there.

I'm probably overreacting.

And the three continued to the end of the parking lot where Takuya's car was sitting.

***

"Ethan-kun! Get up now! You don't want to be late for your first day of school!"

Ethan groaned into his pillow. He didn't want to get up. He was perfectly happy in his nice, warm, safe and secure bed. Perfectly happy. Okay, so that was a lie. He was perfectly happy until his foster mother woke him up from a very weird but enticing dream he had.

"Ethan-kun!"

"Okay, Inagaki-san!" Ethan called as he sat up. "I'm up!"

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and held his head.

Again... that dream, he thought. This time, it wasn't only that red-haired girl or those three. Who were those two other girls? A cute, blonde hair girl... and a beautiful girl with long, blue hair. Were they friends with the red hair? They were with her...

Ethan had had the same sort of weird dreams ever since he had been adopted by the Inagaki family. That was nearly three years ago. Most of the time he dreamt about a place called Autozam with three of his closest friend Lantis, Geo, and Zazu. His name in the dreams was Eagle. Only recently, after his foster mother and him left the United States to live in Japan for his last year of high school, he started seeing a young but sad girl with fiery red hair in his dreams. And last night two other girls were there.

It was the oddest set of dreams Ethan could ever remember having, but he actually couldn't remember any other dreams he might have had that didn't have at least one of the three males.

A boy with wavy ebony hair stuck his head into the room.

"Ethan," he whined. "We're so going to be late! Mom's already got the frying pan out and even if I haven't seen her for a year..."

Ethan smiled and waved his hand. "I'm up, Goro, don't worry about it. I can go without breakfast. Just let me get my uniform on..."

"So, how did your talk with the guidance counselor go yesterday?" asked Goro as Ethan trudged to the closet.

"Pretty good," Ethan replied. He opened the closet and took out a navy blue uniform--the uniform of his school, Kemui Koyama High School. "I'm in the same homeroom as you."

"Your club?"

"Club?"

Ethan went inside of his bedroom bathroom so that he could dress without his foster brother watching.

Goro continued. "Everybody who goes to Kemui Koyama has to join at least one club. I understand that you really aren't too skilled in fencing, but did you at least try to get something that's close enough to the gym?"

"Come to think of it, the counselor told me I don't have to join a club. It is my last year of high school. Kind of too late, don't you think?"

"Well, then you got lucky. Ready yet? It doesn't take too long to put on that uniform."

"You've had practice."

"Point being?"

Ethan stared at the necktie worriedly. Goro was right; it didn't take too long to put on the school uniform, but Ethan always had trouble with neckties. He could never figure out how to put it on--normally, he resorted to clip-ons. They were easier to handle.

Ethan sighed and opened the bathroom door.

"Goro, could you help me with this?" Ethan asked, holding out the dark blue tie. He smiled uncomfortably.

Goro rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless Ethan."

After Goro tied the necktie onto Ethan's white shirt and Ethan had put on his overcoat, Goro glared at him.

"If I died tomorrow, what are you going to do?" he asked. "Ask my mother for help?"

"ETHAN-KUN! GORO-KUN!"

"And speaking of the devil," Goro winced. He grabbed Ethan's arm and pulled him out of his bedroom. "We're so going to be late! Takuya is going to kill me!"

***

"Goro. Is. Late."

Takuya stood erect on top of the grassy hill--underclassmen called it "The Fencing Mountain" despite its miniature size--overlooking the flow of students at the foot. Umi sat facing him, her back leaning against the only tree on the hill, and a book in her lap as she crammed to get her Home Economics homework finished. Masahiro faced the same direction as Takuya, except he had the tree as a support and paid no attention to the other students. Takuya's twin sister and Umi's best friend, Takao, was laying on the hill with headphones over her ears, her hands behind her head and her eyes studying the blue sky.

Everybody decided to pay no mind to Takuya. 

"Goro. Is. Late," Takuya repeated.

Silence continued.

Umi finished jotting down the last answer in her workbook and stuffed it inside of her schoolbag. Masahiro sighed. Takao sat up and opened her tape player to change tapes.

Takuya continued to stare at the river of students.

Umi looked at Takuya intently. This wasn't the first time this has happened. Every morning, if the sun was shining, the ones Takuya deemed the "best fencers in the school" often met on Fencing Mountain to just socialize. Of course, the best fencers in the school--according to Takuya, at least--had already been friends before Takuya became captain of the fencing team. Not only were there Umi, Takuya, Masahiro, Takao (who wasn't even on the fencing team, but oh well, Umi thought), and Goro, but there was also Masahiro's younger sister, Mitsuko, who had just joined the fencing team this year. Of course, she had a life outside of the team, so Umi and Mitsuko never had a chance to become close yet.

The five always met on the hill at eight o'clock, half an hour before classes started. Goro never made it to school until eight-fifteen, so he was always late.

Umi looked at the clock in the center of the school's outer walls. No wonder Takuya was getting upset. It was eight-twenty. Goro wasn't the normal fifteen minutes late, he was twenty minutes.

Yet she wasn't completely surprised. Goro was supposed to bring along a transfer student--his brother. Goro had spoken a lot about this brother since he returned to Japan a year ago, but Umi never had actually met the boy the Inagaki family had adopted. He seemed to be a very kind person--kind and shy.

She was anxious to meet him.

"Takao, what are you listening to?" Umi asked, breaking the silence.

"Kinki Kids."

"Kinki Kids?"

Takuya stirred. "GORO IS--"

"Sorry!"

The three team members plus one turned to face the opposite side of the hill. There was Goro, jogging up the hill, dragging along a poor sap behind him. He had to be the transfer student.

"I'm sorry," Goro repeated as he reached the peak. He let go of the boy he had dragged and placed his hands on his knees. "I can explain--"

"You. Are. LATE!"

"Calm down, Takuya," Masahiro said, turning back to his former position. "It's not like he's late to practice or anythi--"

Takuya snapped his head back at Masahiro. "Don't even suggest that!"

"I'm not an idiot, Takuya," Goro reassured. "It's not like I'm going to ever be late to fencing practice. Maybe today, but..."

"DON'T EVEN--"

"Takuya," said Takao in a short and snappy tone.

And Takuya shut up.

Umi had her first glimpse of the boy Goro had brought along. She was immediately dumbstruck.

The same boy from yesterday... the same boy with the whitish-gold hair. It can't be... it just can't be! It's not possible! He... he died!

The boy looked at her and tilted his head curiously. Suddenly, his eyes widened.

"You..." he breathed, but Goro cut him off.

"This is my adopted brother," Goro announced, putting his arm around the boy's neck. "Ethan Villa."

Ethan Villa? Even the name... it can't be...

Ethan turned his eyes away from Umi as Goro introduced him to everybody.

Can it?

"And this," said Goro, turning Ethan towards her, "is Umi Ryuuzaki, the best female fencer on the face of the planet."

Umi blinked and shook her head. "You have it wrong. I'm the best fencer in the world."

Of Cephiro, she added silently.

"Oh?" said Takuya. "Then why am I captain? And why is Taka Monshou Campus begging me to go back?"

Umi glared at Takuya. "I could easily defeat you if I wanted."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Oh, so you're trying to steal Takuya's spot now, are you, thief?" Masahiro growled.

Umi gritted her teeth and tightened her fists. She opened her mouth to retort back--just because she was better than Masahiro didn't mean he had to hate her; it wasn't her fault--the chimes of the school rang and echoed to the Fencing Mountain.

And everybody scurried to their feet.

"Nice meeting you, Ethan!"

"Come eat with us at lunch!"

"Maybe we're in the same homeroom together..."

Takuya, Takao, and Masahiro were already down the hill. Umi turned to Goro and Ethan and smiled.

"Are you in the same homeroom as Goro, Ethan-san?"

"You can just call me Ethan," he replied. "And yes, I am."

"Which means," said Goro, "that if we don't hurry, we're going to be late, and the teacher is going to be pissed..."

Goro darted down the hill. Umi frowned.

"We have five minutes, Goro," she said. "We can take our time. You're getting to be more and more like Takuya everyday."

Goro stopped and looked back at Umi. She and Ethan had casually walked the same path Goro had but without any care for the time. Goro narrowed his eyes.

"That's an insult?"

"Yeah. You're getting paranoid."

Goro glared at Umi even after she and Ethan had caught up to him. Ethan broke the uncomfortable silence with a small chuckle.

"You two seem to get along really well."

Umi stared at Ethan, wonder in her eyes. She had only noticed how alike Ethan's voice sounded to Eagle's. Ethan's first astonishment with Umi seemed to have faded, so she was glad. The way he seemed to have noticed her threw her off completely, thinking that he was really Eagle Vision. But it was impossible. Eagle Vision died nearly three years ago. Three years ago in Cephiro, another world that was not Tokyo, where the three were currently standing.

Ethan smiled. Umi had only known Eagle for a very short amount of time, but even Ethan's facial expressions were equivalent to Eagle's.

Could he really be...?

"We really should be getting to class, then," said Ethan. This time, he grabbed Goro's arm and headed towards the building. "I don't think me being late on my first day of school would put me on the good side of the teacher."

Umi followed Ethan and Goro uncomfortably, trying to keep up her false smile.

It had to be some weird coincidence. There was no way Ethan Villa was Eagle Vision.

Absolutely no way.

***

"I'm relieved that you're dating Masahiro."

"Why's that?"

"It convinces our friends that we are not incestuous."

"But... we're not. Though I'm starting to think that you're not exactly straight..."

"Oh, hey, hey, hey! Watch what you're saying there, Takao!"

"So you admit it?"

"Admit what?"

"That you're gay."

"I am not!"

"Explain your hair."

"Just because I've got long hair doesn't mean I'm gay. In fact, my hair attracts more girls than your hair attracts guys."

"I guess that changes my views that boys are more shallow than girls."

"Aren't you a girl? Or are you really a boy in disguise?"

"I am a girl. And you're a boy. A boy who hasn't dated girls because he likes boys."

"You know what? To hell with you!"

"Oh, sorry, Mister Big Headed Fencing Captain."

"Takao..."

"You know, I wonder if Aphrodite was only Ares' lover because he couldn't get anybody else..."

"Okay, that comment makes Goro think that we're incestuous."

"But we're not. Aphrodite and Ares weren't, either."

"But Aphrodite and Ares were lovers."

"But we aren't. Our past lives don't affect our current lives, Takuya. You have to understand that. Unless you're the incestuous one and haven't dated any girls because you..."

"I. Do. Not."

"So, are you in love with anybody?"

"No."

"Liar. I'm your twin, remember? And reincarnated lover..."

"That gets Goro thinking we're incestuous."

"Takuya, give it a break. We're not. I'm dating Masahiro. I love Masashiro. And you're gay."

"Am not!"

"Would you rather be considered incestuous?"

"You know incest is sick."

"That doesn't answer my question. Would you rather be considered gay or incestuous?"

"Oh, damn you. Fine. Gay. But that still doesn't change the fact that I have more girl admirers than you boy admirers."

"Only because I have a boyfriend now. Besides, Umi's already beat me out for the title. You know, Takuya, maybe you should ask Umi out sometime."

"Goro's already got a thing for her."

"Your point?"

"I'd rather not have a team member upset at me two weeks before our match against Sakura Kawa."

"Oh, hey, what about that new kid, Ethan? Was it just me, or did he seem to have something special about him?"

"Oh my God. You're falling in love with him. Wait until Masahiro hears..."

"Am not! I'm just asking. Did you feel anything about him at all? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Come to think of it... it seemed like he and Umi had known each other. What do you think about this? Could Ethan and Umi be reincarnated lovers like us?"

"I don't think so. Umi doesn't have that aura."

"I wonder what it is..."

"We'll find out sooner or later. Don't worry about it, Takuya. Besides, the teacher's here."

"Now that you mention it, I hope Goro brings Ethan to our table at lunch today instead of giving Ethan a tour of the school..."

***

Ethan stole a peek at his schedule and to the clock above the classroom door. Nearly half an hour until lunch break. The teacher's lecture about the English language was wearisome. Of course, Ethan was from America where most of the population is fluent in English. He was no exception to that. He didn't understand why he should be taking English if he could speak it better than anybody else in the school.

His eyelids began to droop. Ethan shook his head lightly to wake himself up. Now was not the time to be falling asleep. He didn't want to get into any kind of trouble on his first day of school.

Ethan rested his chin on his palm and stared idly at the chalkboard. The time was going by slowly. He wasn't hungry, it was simply that if he stayed in the classroom any longer, there would be nothing stopping him from falling asleep. The air inside the classroom tasted like all the oxygen on Earth was crammed into one tiny room. And for it being a very warm autumn day, Ethan yearned to shed his uniform coat and frolic outside.

Okay, "frolic" was being a tad melodramatic. All Ethan wanted to do was to get out of the building.

And stay awake. He had to stay awake.

From the very edge of his eye, he saw a wave of blue hair fly. He turned his head slightly to see that Umi had difficulty keeping her hair out of her way while she took notes. After the ten minute break, he found that Umi's favorite subject was English. She had pressed Ethan to speak some simply because she never met a native English speaker before that could also speak perfect Japanese.

Ethan frowned for a moment. He never really remembered being taught how to speak Japanese, and at the same time, he remembered that the first three letters that he ever learned of the English language was "F" and "T" and "O". He could speak English smoothly while he lived in the orphanage, but he never learned to read or write until he met the Inagaki family.

And then his dreams started.

That was where he learned the first five letters that he are most prominent in his head: "F", "T", and "O", and "N", "S", and "X".

Later he learned "G", but he had already started on the first three letters of the alphabet, so it really hadn't mattered too much--it was like when he learned F, T, and O--the G preceded T and O.

The next year, he found out that those were the names of two mechas that Eagle--whom he was called in his dreams--and Geo used. The NSX was a major battleship of Autozam.

Ethan almost wished that he lived in those dreams rather than his real life. It was like a science-fiction story sans the aliens. Everything was mechanical and powered by technology. In fact, mind power was converted to mechanical and chemical usages. There was never a need of a power plant. Yet--and Ethan still had to figure this out--Autozam had a major pollution problem that needed to be fixed.

Ethan always waited for the next night to find out.

He also waited to see how the invasion on Cephiro went. He knew the story of how close Eagle and Lantis were, but he couldn't understand why Eagle wanted to invade Lantis's home country. On a nap in the plane when he and his foster mother traveled to Japan, Ethan found that Geo didn't know, either, and had asked, but Eagle never answered. Or maybe Eagle had, but Ethan woke up beforehand.

Ethan was amazed about how much more he looked forward to his dreams than his real life events. That is, until today...

Last night he dreamed of three girls watching him go back into the FTO--for one reason or another, Ethan didn't know--and one of those girls had an uncanny resemblance to Umi. Umi, his classmate, the girl who was sitting next to him, his foster brother's teammate.

Ethan found it no coincidence that he had dreamed of her the night before and met her this morning.

There had to be something more to the dreams than he was giving credit for. Did they tell the future? No. Umi looked younger in the dreams. Or maybe the girl was Umi's daughter? Or sister, if she had one?

Ethan didn't know for sure, but he didn't want to ask Umi. She would think that he was crazy or paranoid.

Or worse, she might think that he was trying to get her to like him--as in boyfriend and girlfriend "like".

That would be bad. Ethan decided against telling her about the dreams--especially when they had just met!

What are these dreams about? They can't be fragmented, random pieces of a story--it has to be something more. And Umi...

Eagle Vision, please give me answers tonight!

***

Chapter Two: Aphrodite and Ares
Chapter Listings

Disclaimer: Magic Knight Rayearth and its characters does not belong to me. It is the creation of CLAMP. Not me. Kodansha, Mixx Manga, Media Blasters, etc., hold the rights to the series. Not me. I have no claims at all to Magic Knight Rayearth. None. Also, I did not come up with the names of four of the original characters--the male original characters' names (Takuya Kimura, Masahiro Nakai, Goro Inagaki, and Shingo Katori) are four of the boys from the J-pop group SMAP. I do not own the boys from SMAP. If I did, I'd have a harem, but I don't. They belong to... themselves. ^^;;

Written on December 14, 2001 by Bearit at grinandbearit@iamnotboring.com.