Tamaki's body shot out of bed and lets out a frightened scream that's drowned by the heavy rain pouring outside.

He sweats and breaths heavily. He comes to his senses and lets out a tired sigh when he realizes that he's safe in the comfort of his home. Suki, his cat, wakes up from the outburst and curls up to him to cool him down.

Suki lets out a small squeak before rubbing her head against his arm and he looks at her, smiling, before picking her up and pulling the cat close to his chest.

"Sorry girl, I had a nightmare about last night.." He whispers to her as she curiously stares at the boy, almost as if she knew what he was saying. She meows once more and rubs him once more.

He lets out a small laugh at her affection. He looks out at the rain from his nearby window and his face dropped to a solemn look.

TAMAKI HATSUMI almost died last night if it hadn't been for the stranger saving him from the clutches of a...monster?

He couldn't make it out. Sure, he's seen these apparitions from afar but not once, has he met one that wanted to approach and devour him.

He recounts at 8.pm, he was grabbing some snacks at the nearby convenience store in the busy streets of Tokyo. He picks up his favorite sour cream chips when he hears laughter outside the window of the store.

He sees teenagers his age hanging out in a group, talking amongst each other and deciding if they want to go to a karaoke club or get some barbecue.

He watches with a frown as they cross the street. He sighed to himself before putting his chips in a basket.

He missed hanging out with his friends after Kendo practice. They'd always go out to eat or play some arcade games, but now they see him a stranger now. They don't invite him to those hangouts because they know Tamaki always had an excuse why he couldn't come.

And now, even more so since he recently quit Kendo and his martial arts class.

But it's not his fault, he thought. His blasted father refuses to let him participate in any of those sports. He grimaced to himself, annoyed over the fact that his father is wayyy too overprotective of him.

And for what?

He opens his wallet to hand over the five dollar bill for his food. He opens the leather folds and sees a polaroid of his late mother and him three years ago.

'Then again, he hasn't been the same since mother died'

"Have a nice night." Tamaki mutters at the cashier before exiting out of the store. The slide doors open and he looks left and right before walking the street.

The boy takes his shortcut as usual, skipping through the busy crosswalks and onto the alleyway. He takes it all the time, so it's no big deal.

But after that unfaithful night, he can't bear walking into the alleyways again.

He stuffs a hand in his jacket and breaths, he can see his own breath from the chill in the air. He plugs in his earphones, listening to Sweater Weather. A perfect song for the occasion.

And all I am, is a man

I want the world in my hands.

He hums to himself and the creature behind him lurks in the darkness. A shroud transfiguring into something enormous, its figure towering over Tamaki who continues to walk.

"Ah!"

He nearly trips on a rocky step in front of him, but he accidentally lets go off his grocery bag filled with chips and soda pop. He grumbles to himself, before picking up the food from the floor.

The monster gets closer and closer.

Tamaki freezes when he feels heavy breath hitting him from behind. He slowly hooks the bag around his arm and surely, he turns slightly to see who's behind him.

A nervous shriek comes out of his lips and his eyes took frantic to see what appears to be a gigantic spirit reminiscent of a large reptile staring at him like he was food.

"G-Go away!" He screams and he throws his bag at him. The spirit simply blinks and Tamaki makes a run for it.

He cries out when he runs but on the way, he drops his phone and earphones. The music is still playing like nothing.

Let's have an adventure

Head in the clouds but my gravity is centered.

Touch my neck and I'll touch yours

The lyrics were frightening than ever in this moment. Tamaki's screams echo through the alley but it falls deaf to anyone that passes by it. He chokes when the spirit's tendrils wrap around his neck, dragging him closer to him.

He lifts him out and Tamaki starts to shiver, tears stinging his eyes. He pants heavily and frantically when he's brought close to the spirit, who looks with a tilted face.

He looks at him like his next meal and Tamaki tries to claw at his skin but it was scaled and sturdy for his nails to pierce. The tendrils wrap tighter around his neck and he croaks for breath.

'Please, god. oh god, save me!' He closes his eyes when he feels its grotesque breath welcoming him as he opens its mouth.

He's going to get eaten.

His life flashes in his eyes, thinking of his father and who he once was when his mother was alive. He thinks of him at his alcoholic stage and now his distance stage.

He thinks of Suki, his cat who awaited him to come back home. He hopes to god his dad will feed her when he's gone.

After many protests, he finally got his cat to stop following him around and made her stay.

But as he stood in its grip, Suki wakes from her slumber and then jumps out the nearest window. Almost as if she sensed his danger.

He remembers his mother, who he will meet very soon.

He closes his eyes tighter, bracing for the slow death he'll likely experience. The music from his phone is heard next to the feet of the monster. He had it in full blast and it could be felt outside of the earphones.

The music plays but all that Tamaki could hear is his heart beat pumping hard through his ears.

Tamaki's eyes snapped open and looks up at the voice coming from the roof of a nearby building. A silhouette of a girl appears, but she comes closer and his eyes glimmered to see a girl in a ponytail and round glasses.

She carried what seems like a staff around her shoulder.

What she does makes Tamaki cry out,

"Hey, watch out!"

She swoops down from the high distance,

A smirk plays in her lips.

Her weapon stabs right directly on the top of the spirit's skull. She falls down as the second verse plays,

And if I may just take your breath away

I don't mind if there's much not to say

No mere human could have survived that fall, he thought after being released from its grip.

He falls on his butt and watches the girl swing around, dodging its attacks and she retaliates it with brutal strength. She growls loudly before slashing his entire leg off.

He watches in stunned silence, as he crawls backwards while looking at the scene.

Sometimes the silence guides the mind

To move to a place so far away

While the spirit is down, she suddenly finds herself right next to the boy of her age. She looks at him fast before bending down and grabbing him.

He finds his left hand put around her waist as she runs with him to safer distance.

The goosebumps start to raise

The minute that my left hand meets your waist

Everything around them went slow. As she brings him to a far radius, in that moment, she looks at the boy with a brave expression. She doesn't grimace nor scowl in her fight.

She looked calmly at him and when he looks at her, all his worries go away. His cheeks then turn dusted pink when he looks at her features.

'She's amazing', He instantly thinks at the girl he just met. He lets out a groan when he's thrown back on his ass again and the girl makes a 180 turn before slicing into the monster once more.

It takes a minute or two until she finally exorcise the monster ahead of them. She pants softly before sheathing her staff back. She looks at the boy, who remains flustered in the ground.

She goes up to him silently and he waits for her to ask if he's okay.

But instead, she points an angry finger at him and she lets out a 'tch' of annoyance.

"Hey, you better be careful walking around with those loud earphones of yours!" She says, grabbing the phone below her and throwing it to his hands.

"I mean, seriously, you could've died if I weren't around. You should really be careful of your surroundings, you know.." She lectures,

"Didn't your mother or father taught you any of that?"

"H-hey, I always take this route all the time!" He shoots back, "Stuff like that never happens to me, you know!"

"Oh yeah? Well it doesn't matter. Even if it weren't a spirit, you can probably get jumped in places like this. Are you a baka or something?"

Yes, she saved him but he felt his forehead throb out of irritation for the girl accusing him of an idiot.

"I appreciate that you helped me and all, but do you really gotta call me idiot? I didn't know, okay!"

She lets out a huff but suddenly, she whips out her staff from her sheath and turns around. When Tamaki sees who's she going to hit, he cries out and runs fast towards her. He ducks down and grabs the creature she's going to hurt.

"STOP!"

His hand out and with good instincts, she stops before she hurts him instead. She looks down and sees the creature he's holding onto.

A black cat. Suki.

"Suki, you okay girl?" He asked looking up and down to see if she got injured, but she remained safe and intact. He then looks at Maki with narrow eyes,

"Hey, watch where you throwing that thing! You almost hurt Suki!" He shouts with a pout. Maki looks taken aback a bit, she doesn't say anything at first.

She looks at the cat who releases herself from her grasp and only looks at Maki.

She's no specialist with curse energy but she can tell, just by looking at that cat,

It was no ordinary creature.

"Suki?" He even seemed confused by her behavior. The cat's blue eyes looking at her for a moment before turning to her owner.

It lowered its ground down before climbing up to his shoulder using her claws.

Maki ponders about the boy a bit. Not only was he able to see curses but it's almost like him and that cat of him have some spiritual connection she can't explain.

Again, she doesn't use curse energy but she can feel a connection between the two.

She shakes her head before turning her back away from him,

"I should probably go." She mumbles and starts to walk but Tamaki calls out,

"Hey, wait a minute?" He puts a hand out to her. "You saved me, but you never told me what your name was?"

'And also..who are you?'

She was impeccable with those moves but as mentioned, no mere human could've done what did. She was special.

"My name is not of your concern, and certainly not my last name either.." She says before cooly walking away. He sees her exit the alley way and he walks out, but he's only greeted with a surprisingly group of people blocking the entry out. He jumps up a bit, looking around.

But she was gone and he sighed.

He had no choice to go back home and so he did, but with fresh memories of his inevitable death.

It scared him as he walked out the next morning in his school uniform. He clutched his school bag as Suki snuck herself inside of it. He felt a little ease with her by his presence.

He didn't listen to his morning music and flinched at every noise at every corner. He then went to class, looking out the window from his backseat.

As his teacher lectures on chemistry, he looks down to his composition notebook. In the corner of his periodic table page, he draws the monster he encountered.

He could've sworn he's seen monsters or spirits or whatever they were before. He just never thought he'd be a meal to them.

He would've said something to his dad but whenever he did, his dad wouldn't believe him and thought he was flat out crazy.

Or worse, he could've made his curfew much restrictive. He scowls at that before throwing his lead pencil back to the book.

'It's not like father would be there to hear it anyways,' His shoulders dropped at the fact that he doesn't see his father when he goes home.

He's either busy with his new girlfriend or at his Kendo academy. He wasn't there that night he almost got his life taken away.

Tamaki was lonely and as he walked back home after school, he enters the house and sees a note taped against the fridge.

'Not coming back home, again. Left some money in the counter so you can order some takeout. See you soon.'

- DAD

He looks at the twenty dollar bill and lets out a sad sigh, before taking it.

The only thing he craved right now was a mocha frappuccino. The boy puts another one of his favorite hoodies before walking out in the rain again and onto the destination that lead to his favorite coffee shop.

He opens the door and he's invited to a warm aura. He can smell the coffee beans crunched inside the machine. Steam making a small whistle and people typing on their keyboards at a coffee table near the window.

He smiles, hearing the song Tremble for My Beloved playing on the radio. He asked for a mocha and he smiles when they call his name to hand it over to him.

He drinks it gratefully, pleased by how good it taste.

He thinks instead of immediately going home, he tries to find a seat where he can chill for a bit. And he turns and looks in front of him.

Everything around him didn't seem to matter. He looks beyond and see a lonely girl with what appears to be luggage next to her.

And a sheathed staff behind her back, similar the one girl who had it last night.

'Wait...it's her.'

She's lonely, like him.

Two loners in the same room.

But now their whole world is going to explode.

He walks slowly to her as the music on the radio plays,

Your eyes have now opened

To a world where madness craves

To a world where hope's enslaved.

He gently touches her shoulder and she looks at him, worn eyes suddenly look shock.

"Hey, hero."

Oh, I'll tremble for my love.

Always~

--

Tamaki is one of my favorite ocs aside from Kei and I'm so happy you guys will get to know him a-lot more. I think the chemistry we wrote for him and Maki just gets better.

Love y'all - Rini!