WARNING: THIS FIC DEALS REALISTICALLY WITH SIGNIFICANT ETHICAL ISSUES. IF LARGE AGE GAPS AND SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS DISGUST OR OFFEND YOU, OR YOU EXPECT ANY SORT OF HAPPY ENDING, PLEASE USE YOUR BACK BUTTON. THIS FIC IS NOT FOR YOU.

Foreword: Yes, this is ANOTHER revision. I also revised the prologue.

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Hearts, Stars and Horseshoes

Chapter One

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1-1

February 14. Period Zero (Homeroom period).

Homeroom teacher. He was her homeroom teacher.

And there were times, like right now, where he wished that wasn't the case.

Especially since she and Shinra had just walked in the door, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. Shinra's tanned fingers were brushing against Kisaragi's thigh, he noticed, and had to fight not to visibly twitch.

He could still taste Kisaragi. He could still taste the candy. He could still feel her weight against him as she nibbled away at a stick of Pocky until he had a stub between his lips.

Hideous and disgusting as it was, he wanted more. He wanted her.

And so he was jealous of a teenaged girl.

He hated Blindman's Day. Students gave candies to the ones with whom they were infatuated. Therefore, Blindman's Day gave teachers sugar-high, inattentive students.

It was a serious obstacle. He hated it. He hated it enough that repeating "I hate it" over and over wouldn't express the depths of his hatred for it.

Even worse, Yuffie, being the star player on the girls' soccer team, had received an inordinate amount of chocolates. She had received piles of it. From idiot teenaged boys. Idiot, unworthy, hormonal teenaged boys.

Shinra Elena had received about the same. Of course she had, she was one of the prettier girls of her year. Not even that ridiculously tanned skin, the white eye-shadow and lipstick or the white liner under her eyes could diminish the fact that Shinra had one of the prettier faces of the ni-nensei.

But did the two of them have to be so... vocal about it?

"Too much," Yuffie wailed. "Too, too much! I can't even eat it all! I'd get sick and puke! Grossness!"

"Here, I'll take it, if you'll take some of mine!"

...They were trading candy. That was all they were doing. The volume was staying the same. Only the shapes and colours were changing.

"Hey, Yuffie!" Somebody slid the door open.

Vincent turned to face the door.

Ah, it was Touesti.

"Reeve!" Yuffie blinked.

He watched as a dark expression crossed Shinra's face.

Touesti tossed a bag of candy at Kisaragi. She caught it easily.

"Touesti. Three demerits for throwing things in my classroom."

Vincent opened his desk and pulled out his notepad. He scribbled Touesti's name, given name, and class on the top, then circled a demerit amount and listed his reasoning.

Touesti accepted his copy with that typical oddball grace. "Yes, Instructor Valentine. Sorry sir." He bowed and left the class room, sliding the door closed behind him.

Not a minute later, the bell chimed. He looked to the clock, noted that it Homeroom had now officially begun. He began to tick down names, noting that all his students had arrived but one. He sighed, wondering if Kirishima Eriko had skipped today or if she was simply late. He didn't want to start reading a certain selection from the book on his desk if she was just going to be late.

No sense in her missing his revenge against Blindman's Day unless she was missing class, after all.

Before he could inquire after her health, the classroom door slid open again. A girl with long pale hair and a faint flush in her cheeks streamed in the door, her books clutched close. Her hair flew out behind her, not at all tamed by the hibiscus hairpin she and most of the tanned girls wore. Kirishima Eriko turned a few steps inside the classroom and bowed to him, but it was a shallow bow.

"Sorry, instructor," she said, "I had to stop by a store."

She held nothing in her arms but books. He raised an eyebrow at the anomaly. Her faint flush turned more easily visible and he shook his head. This was only homeroom, so he had no real grounds to punish her for tardiness, little as he liked it.

"No demerits this time," he warned, "but if you find a way to be late to my class…"

She nodded, bowing slightly again. Another girl— Ishikawa Yuri— tilted in her desk, peering at Kirishima. Vincent was about to call her on it when she straightened, flushed, and began to snigger. Kirishima flushed, looking around the room. Various girls looked to Ishikawa, who nodded, and soon they were all chuckling.

"You're supposed to bring a change," Shinra cackled.

Kisaragi laughed so hard she couldn't speak. The force of her laughter nearly propelled her from her desk. Shinra grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled, making sure Kisaragi didn't fall out of her seat.

Women. Apparently, high school was when they stopped making any sense. If she hadn't bought something, had she sold something? Something she should have had a spare of? 'Change' usually applied to clothing, but Kirishima seemed fully dressed. Of course, none of this was really his concern. It was probably just a bad lie.

"Kirishima, take your seat. Class, happy Blindman's Day. Do any of you know how the candy-giving tradition started?"

Kirishima sat, adjusting her skirt to sit well past her knees. The multitude of bracelets jingled while she did so. As she had moved toward her desk, the other students chorused a negative. It was almost perfectly timed.

He kept his predatory smirk to himself.

Instead, he sat behind his desk and picked up the book. He turned to the mark chapter and began to read. By the end of the period, four girls had left his classroom in tears. Interestingly enough, neither Shinra Elena nor Kisaragi Yuffie had been among them.

1-2

February 14. Period 3.

Kisaragi and Shinra had amassed even more candy. He saw it when they were returning from lunch— A Lunch, which was ridiculously early, but it was better than the alternatives, and he preferred monitoring it, because it was usually san-nensei who took A Lunch. They walked through the door, grocery bags of candy swinging from their hands.

Vincent fought to keep from twitching.

Especially when Shinra reached over and unwrapped a piece of Kisaragi's candy, sliding it between Kisaragi's suddenly parted lips.

He bit back a groan.

Kisaragi's tongue slid out, touching Shinra's fingers. Perfect pink tongue. Perfect pink lips. Shinra's fingers sliding, entering Kisaragi's mouth.

There was something decidedly... sexual about it.

He swallowed, noting that several boys were staring at the pair.

And then Kisaragi unwrapped a piece of Shinra's candy, slipping it into Shinra's mouth. Dark brown slid between shiny, white-painted lips, while white-lined eyes lidded over and false eyelashes fluttered against tanned cheeks.

He swallowed, realizing suddenly just how hard he was. And just how jealous. He took a seat behind the desk, hoping to hell that none of his students had noticed. This was ridiculous. He was obviously hard for a sixteen year old girl. He was jealous of a teenaged girl!

And yet this teenaged girl had her fingers in the mouth of someone he'd been wanting for so long— too long. He could still feel Kisaragi's weight against his lap, her hand lingering just above his cock.

He cleared his throat. "Please turn to page three hundred fifty-one in your textbooks."

The sound of textbooks opening and pages flipping filled the room. He looked up, keeping in his sigh: classes were usually a bit more energetic than this. It was what he liked best about teaching where he did. The school allowed its teachers to take a more liberal, lively approach to teaching.

Oh well. He supposed he could give them a pop quiz on last class' lesson.

"Actually, turn to page three hundred forty-three. Get out a sheet of paper and a pencil, and number it from one to thirty-three, odd numbers only."

The entire class groaned as one.

"What— is Blindman's Day the unofficial pop quiz day or something?" One male student lamented.

Various other students agreed, sighing and groaning at their misfortune.

He repressed his smirk. This was more like it.

There were four students who weren't complaining: Wedge, Biggs, Shinra, and Kisaragi.

Wedge and Biggs weren't complaining because they were diligent students. He approved of Wedge and Biggs— they were good students. Maybe not the most inventive, but certainly hard-working. Sure, Wedge was a hopeless nerd who found ways to relate everything to some video game and Biggs was a hopeless jock who only got the grades he did because worked at it. They still worked hard

Shinra and Kisaragi weren't complaining because they were feeding each other candy.

He swallowed at the sight of Shinra's fingers between Kisaragi's lips. Kisaragi began to suck on Shinra's finger.

His mouth went dry.

"Enough," he said eventually. "I don't care about the pop quizzes you had earlier. Kisaragi, Shinra, take out your test-taking materials and turn to page three forty-three this instant."

The two separated, took out their supplies, and began their quiz. As soon as he had collected the quizzes, the two of them were back to their little game again.

He stood behind the podium, feeling his gaze turn into a glare.

Shinra's hand was tracing from Kisaragi's knee to her thigh... to the hem of that rolled-up skirt.

"Kisaragi! Shinra! Detention to both of you for inappropriate physical contact in my classroom. I don't give a damn about your sexual preferences, but there is no need to use my classtime to advertise them!"

It had nothing to do with jealousy. He would have given detention to a heterosexual couple performing the same activities. Absolutely.

He was a damned liar. He would have sent such a pair to the principal's office. Immediately. The first time around.

But this was Kisaragi he was dealing with. He was treating her specially, and he really didn't need to do that. What he needed was to do something about this.

1-3

February 14. Last period.

Luke Crescent, he knew, was Hojo's wife. She ran some sort of scientific research group and was trying to organize a biology club at the school. Biology was Hojo's specialty, though he was currently teaching biology and physics, and Luke shared an interest in it.

But that wasn't much of an explanation for her to be reading a book in the break room.

"Ms. Crescent? What are you doing here?"

She looked up, smiling at him. "I wanted to check on Sephiroth. And my husband. You know how things are. We've been getting... letters... again."

Ah, that was right. Luke was a political activist in favour of research into some substance called Jenova. As such, she wasn't particularly popular with those in the scientific community. He'd forgotten.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I believe Sephiroth is closing the day for his homeroom class over in the junior high."

"But my husband?"

"He has one final class for the day... he should be in here shortly."

Luke nodded. "Thank you. I—" but she cut herself off and left the room, probably in search of her husband.

He wondered about that. She wasn't a teacher, and had no reason to enter any of the classrooms. Were things that serious?

Shortly after he left, he heard a knock on the door. A student, probably. He stood up to open the door and was rather surprised to see a red-eyed Shinra Elena standing with her hand on the door frame.

"Shinra. Is something wrong?"

"Can we talk?"

"Of course. Why teach if I have no time for my students?" He took in the sight before him— dishevelled clothing, smeared mascara and eyeshadow, fake-eyelashes dangling obviously, puffy red eyes— and realized that perhaps the lounge wouldn't be the best place. "Is this going to be a private conversation?"

She looked up at him, briefly met his eyes, and then nodded.

"Then we should probably move this to my office." He gathered his briefcase and led her silently through the halls. They arrived at the door to his office some four minutes later. He unlocked it and opened it for her.

As soon as she was inside and the door was safely closed, Shinra whirled on him. "I'm gay," she snarled.

"W-what?"

"I'm gay. I've had a crush on Yuffie since we were in year seven."

"I— I didn't know."

"Yeah. Well. Thanks for outing me."

His head inclined, just a little. "You outed yourself, behaving like that."

He felt a pang of guilt, knifing and hot in his stomach, at the sudden hurt expression that crossed her face.

Shinra bent her head, that short dyed hair falling to cover her face. When she raised her head, her eyes had narrowed and her lips were pursed.

Her eyes bored into him. "You know she does it on purpose, don't you?"

"Who does what?" She? As in Yuffie? Or was Shinra crazy?

"Yuffie. She only dresses like that in your class. She actually unrolls her skirt after you leave."

With that final sally, Elena turned and left. He watched her go, trying once again to figure out what all this meant.

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Notes:

The Japanese words I've edited this story to include are "ni-nensei" and "san-nensei." Second-year and third-year gave a more British vibe, and I really didn't like it. So I edited to use those terms.

Elena is a continuing reference to a type of "gyaru" known as a "Yamanba." Essentially, she's an imitation California Girl. They tan excessively, dye their hair blonde, wear Day-Glo or Neon colours, very brightly coloured contacts, and plastic. Also, they sometimes use stuffed animals as accessories and are basically bimbos. …Elena is one of the few smart ones. Kirishima Eriko is another Yamanba.

Kirishima is also a direct reference to something else, something even darker, in Japanese culture. That thread will continue in later chapters. Let's put it this way: Vincent can be a very possessive man, and when you sell certain things to strangers, there's no guarantee said strangers won't follow you home.

As for the reviewer who drew Lolita comparisons… You are a very well-read person and have my respect for that. But Vincent has a very different past from Humbert Humbert. He's a much stronger person— he's already had his brush with crime, too, so there won't be any road trip. Vincent won't just up and grow a Rita figure the way Humbert did— his Rita has always been there. Also, Dolores was young, like 12, whereas Yuffie is much older: more mature, both mentally and physically. For Yuffie, there won't be that whole marriage or pregnancy.

The biggest difference, though, is that I can't write character death to save my life. And I think Vincent's relationship with his Rita figure is about as immoral as his relationship with Yuffie could ever be.