Standard Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. Sunrise owns Mai-HiME as well as Shizuru and Natsuki.
For heartificial
Three of Hearts
"I had to run the damage is done
Give it up yeah, give it up yeah
I had to go, it got out of control
Yeah you're breaking me
There's nothing left so take the rest
Stab it out yeah, Stab it out yeah
I set it light it burns so bright
Yeah, you're draining me...
...Baby, you make my heart beat faster"
"Beat Your Heart Out"- The Distillers
Natsuki's green eyes swirled and floated, reflected in a masu brimming with sake. Her thoughts, unfortunately, were nowhere near as transparent as the spirit. They crowded and clamored at her and all seemed to be buzzing with the same question: What the fuck?
She stared at the Natsuki in the sake cup, her slender brows and pink lips forming a quizzical expression that matched her own. Usually, she was much better than this at avoiding traps. Normally, she would have been much keener in sensing danger. She could root up duplicity, she could cling and growl and shake until it unraveled like a puppy worrying a sweater.
So why hadn't she seen this coming? How did she get here?
She knew how she had gotten here. It had all started with Yuuki Nao.
Natsuki could not believe her eyes. She stood frozen, limply gripping her helmet, still halfway to her head.
Nao was smiling and leaning, oh-so-casual-like, arm draped nonchalantly around Shizuru's shoulders. Her face was turned, leaned in and hovering near a glossy wheat-colored wave of hair. She said something, and then her lips hooked into her sneering version of a grin. Natsuki watched as Shizuru smiled and pressed the fingertips of one hand to her lips, as if to hold in her humor. Shizuru turned her head and brought the same hand up to tuck a strand of fiery red hair behind Nao's ear. She pressed the edge of her hand gently to Nao's cheek and with her thumb and forefinger she cupped her own full lips. She whispered something that Nao seemed to find quite agreeable because her face lit up and she laughed throatily, her expression one of mischievous glee.
They stepped back from one another, said a few more words, and then left the gazebo in opposite directions, Shizuru with a small inclination of her head and Nao throwing a lazy wave over her shoulder.
Natsuki took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She saw Nao's face; leaning in close to Shizuru's and thought about what it smelled like so near to those honey locks. She took another breath and counted it. She counted to ten, then twenty, then thirty, before she trusted herself to start up her bike and slowly guide it back to the road.
Shizuru rang her phone that evening when she got back to her dorm, but she didn't answer it. Instead, she flung herself into bed and wrapped her arms and legs around her body pillow, strangling it for all she was worth.
She had too many questions that she didn't know how to articulate. Like, what was Shizuru even doing at Fuka High after class? Why hadn't she told Natsuki she was coming? And what the hell was she doing chumming around with Nao? Natsuki and Nao had established a sort of mutually wary alliance, but they weren't really what Natsuki would call friends. And Nao certainly wasn't Shizuru's friend.
Natsuki growled and bit her pillow, punching it roughly. A restless night did nothing to assuage her paranoia, and the morning found her without answers and as agitated as ever.
The next day at school, Natsuki couldn't concentrate on anything her teachers were saying. She kept seeing Nao and Shizuru in her head. Talking, laughing…touching. She broke three pencils, brought the wrong textbook to her literature class, and gave up entirely at taking notes in chemistry.
To make her mood worse, it seemed she had even more hangers-on than usual today. The thunderous black aura she carried with her made the other students tremble, most with fear, but some with excitement as they followed her like schooling fish. Natsuki dispatched them all with snarls and icy glares that cleared even the most committed "Kuga Ice Princess" fans away.
The day wasn't even half over and she was already dying to go home. Then, at lunchtime, she saw Nao in the cafeteria.
She had paused in the lunch line and was looking over her shoulder at Natsuki, one hand holding a package of bread, the other, her change. Natsuki glared at her, fists tight, body perfectly still. Nao stared back for a moment, eyes narrowed. Finally, she snorted with contempt and sauntered away, coins jingling in her pocket.
It was also Nao who Natsuki came upon eating with Shizuru in the stairwell that day just as the lunch period was ending. It was odd enough for Shizuru to come to visit the high school, though the faculty always greeted her warmly, but Natsuki couldn't imagine Shizuru coming to the academy if it wasn't to see her. Yet there she was, taking precise bites of rice from lacquered chopsticks while Nao tore huge mouthfuls from her bread. Nao was watching Shizuru nibble her way through a piece of tamagoyaki and smirking.
"So," Nao drawled. "I just have to make sure your little she-puppy doesn't find out, right?" She crushed her bread wrapper and leaned back, her elbows propped on the step behind her. Her knee touched Shizuru's, and Shizuru just let it rest there.
She placed the lid on her bento box and folded her hands atop it. She smiled at Nao, a deviously innocent smile usually reserved for manipulating student council members or turning the ardor of her fangirls to her own purposes. "I'm glad you understand the arrangement, Nao-san."
Nao snickered. "Oh, this arrangement is just fine with me."
Natsuki slipped hurriedly up the stairs and back around the corner when she saw Shizuru's head swivel in her direction. Natsuki didn't go back to class.
The perfect end to a bad school day came when Natsuki got to her shoe locker. Upon opening it, a small mountain of boxes and sachets of chocolate, both homemade and store bought, cascaded out. Mixed in with the candies were cards and letters in pink and red and white that fluttered around her head and fell to her feet, leaving the scent of perfume behind.
Great.
It was February fourteenth, Valentine's Day, and Natsuki had forgotten. She hated Valentine's Day. She dug her shoes out of the mess and then gathered up all the notes and sweets in her arms, which she then dumped into the trash bin by the door.
She made it all the way back to the clearing where her Ducati was parked before she realized she was running.
Natsuki sipped at her sake, letting the astringent sweetness of it wash over her tongue before leaning her head back and closing her eyes.
Nao had definitely been up to something. And she was up to it with her Shizuru. But for some reason when Natsuki saw them together, she couldn't muster a shout, a threat or even a single word. It was the second time in her life that she had felt too betrayed to fight. All she could do was clench her jaw against an aching lump in her throat, and so she just ran.
After an afternoon of cutting school and riding idly around Fuka, she found her way to Shizuru's apartment. Ringing the bell garnered no answer, so she stuck her fists deep into her pockets and scuffed angrily back to her bike.
She imagined Shizuru, hands clasped and laughing at her. "Ara, Natsuki is so cute when she is upset!"
Natsuki scowled. "Yeah, right." She croaked to no one in particular as she crushed the dainty lattice edge of a flower bed with her heavy boot on the way out.
She mounted her bike and flipped open her cell phone. Shizuru answered on the fourth ring.
"Hello, my precious Natsuki! Where were you last night?" Shizuru's voice dropped slightly and she purred. "I missed you and I wanted to hear your voice."
Natsuki could feel a hot blush creeping across her face. "I…I wasn't feeling well… so I got in bed early."
She could hear Shizuru's pout. "I hope my Natsuki isn't getting sick. Do you need me to come over and take care of you? I know a good cure for colds." She teased.
The blood that had rushed to Natsuki's face suddenly drained away and she shuddered. "Um…no! That's okay! I don't need any, uh, folk remedies!"
Shizuru fetched a dramatic sigh. "Well…if that is the way Natsuki feels…"
"But, listen Shizuru; I need to talk to you. Can I see you tonight?"
She heard Shizuru pause. "I'm sorry Natsuki, but I have a study session with some of my classmates tonight. We have a difficult test coming up next week and they've asked for my help in preparing."
"Oh, I see… I…won't bother you then." Natsuki could think of nothing else to say. She snapped her phone shut and dropped it back into her pocket before Shizuru could reply.
Why didn't she just ask? Ask Shizuru why she had spent the last two days sneaking around her school, and what she was doing. Why didn't she just tell Shizuru that she had seen her with Nao? What was the big deal?
Because! It just…is…because…
She told herself that she didn't want Shizuru to think she was spying on her. That she knew Nao and Shizuru didn't like each other in the least, or that it was none of her business who Shizuru hung around with anyway.
But she knew the real reason she didn't ask; she was afraid to know the answer.
She jammed her helmet down on her head and fired up the engine, using the kick start rather than the electronic ignition, just to get a satisfying stomp in.
"Yeah, well I don't even care!" She shouted, her frustration bouncing off the interior of her helmet and ringing in her ears. She accelerated abruptly, the front wheel of the bike lifting off the ground before she tore down the street, tires squealing.
Natsuki finished her sake and set the masu down with a dull thunk. Her head was feeling a bit fuzzy.
She knew Nao couldn't be trusted. What she hadn't known was that Nao was weaving a complex web, with Shizuru at the center.
She should have known. She should have realized.
But most of all, she wouldn't have been blindsided if she hadn't been so complacent in thinking that Shizuru herself was innocent.
Natsuki had to know what Nao was up to. She had to know what that two-faced spider was doing to Shizuru. So, she rode back to the academy.
She hid her bike in its usual spot outside and waited for the junior high classes to let out. She caught a glimpse of Nao's red head bobbing through the mass of students and quickly followed her at a cautious distance.
Nao had just reached the gazebo at the center of the garden where Natsuki had seen her with Shizuru yesterday when she paused. Natsuki hurriedly flattened herself behind a tree and watched as Nao cocked her head and turned slightly. She quietly let out the breath she had been holding when she saw Nao open her bag and take out her cell phone. She strained her ears to catch Nao's side of the conversation.
"Hello? Humph, I thought it might be you, Fujino. Of course. Oh really? Yeah, hmm…I guess I could do that, just tell me what you like. Right. Tell me the address when you get there." She raised her chin and sighed fussily. "Sure. Just don't forget what you promised me." Nao shut her phone and stared at it for a moment. Then she burst out in a laugh and continued on her way, muttering to herself.
Natsuki shoved her roiling emotions into a small corner, punched them down and hurried after her. She shadowed Nao to the front gate, where she had to double back to get her motorcycle. There weren't that many places in Fuka to go and Natsuki figured her best bet would be to beat the train into town and look for Nao at the station.
Natsuki parked her bike out of sight when she arrived and soon picked up Nao on foot threading through the crowd. Nao led her past ramen stands and bookshops, down a few alleyways and onto a side street.
Natsuki halted in her tracks when she saw Nao enter a familiar store. Familiar indeed, because it was a place she had been to many times. It was Shizuru's favorite lingerie boutique.
She should have turned around and gone home right then.
But she didn't. She sat in a café across the street, fuming and trying not to imagine Shizuru in alluring underwear, beckoning seductively to a certain red-headed con artist as she waited for Nao's reappearance.
After what seemed like ages, Nao finally emerged from the boutique carrying a large, flat box under her arm. She turned and began to walk down the street.
Natsuki had just caught up with Nao at a crosswalk where she was waiting for the signal to change when she heard Nao's phone ringing. Natsuki squeezed herself behind a trio of businessmen and inched as close as she could without being seen.
"Hello? Hmm. You've got expensive taste, you know that? I hope it's worth it. Oh you are, eh? Room 1219, got it." Nao laughed derisively. "Well, I'm on my way over, so don't take off your clothes just yet."
So this was the 'study session' Shizuru had planned for tonight? Natsuki would have reached out and clamped her hands around Nao's pale little neck just then if the she hadn't stepped off the curb and slipped into the crowded crosswalk, leaving Natsuki to push her way through the knot of pedestrians.
After several turns and a few of Nao's creative shortcuts, they came to a large hotel. Not a neon-signed love hotel, now, the sort of nice hotel one might stay in on business, but a hotel nonetheless.
Natsuki observed Nao as she disappeared through the revolving doors and tried to decide what to do. She would feel much better if she had her pistols. This whole situation would be less messy if she just had something to shoot at. Squaring her shoulders, she crossed the street and stepped into the hotel lobby.
Natsuki laughed to her self as the sake began to loosen her muscles. She had to learn her lesson sometime. She knew nothing about trust and when it should be given, so she shouldn't be surprised that the convoluted motives of Fujino Shizuru were a complete mystery to her.
The thing about dealing with Shizuru was that complete honesty was impossible with her. She wore a carefully crafted persona designed to show only what she chose of herself so that others would never know her fully.
Natsuki wondered what it would even look like, if the whole of Shizuru's thoughts and desires was a darkly fascinating place, or whether it was something else entirely.
Natsuki didn't see Nao in the lobby, so she approached the front desk.
"Um, hi, I'm here to see Fujino Shizuru in room, uh…room 1219."
The woman at the desk smiled politely. "Let's see…ah yes, she did mention a young lady. I'll ring the room."
"No, wait! I mean, I kind of wanted to surprise her when I got here. Do you have a key?"
The woman set the phone back on its cradle and gave Natsuki an appraising look. "I suppose that would be all right…" She slid a keycard across the counter. "Third floor, miss."
"Thanks." Natsuki snapped up the key and made for the elevators.
As she stepped out on the third floor she caught a glimpse of a red haired girl in a school uniform getting into the other elevator just as the doors shut.
Nao. That bitch.
It seemed the spider was crawling off somewhere, but Shizuru was nowhere to be seen.
That freak. Probably went to get some rope, knowing her. Who knows what she's doing to Shizuru about now.
Natsuki found room 1219 and stared at the door, hands clenched, tension vibrating up her spine as she braced herself for what she might find. She felt sick to her stomach, and she wanted to run, but she had to know. She had one chance to find out.
Natsuki swiped the keycard and rammed the door hard with her shoulder. It flew open, hitting the wall with a bang as she bellowed, "What the fuck have you and Nao been doing?"
She saw Shizuru bent over the edge of the bed, completely naked, lifting the lid off the box that she had seen Nao carrying here. She turned her head and stared at Natsuki with an expression of startled amusement. "Ara," she said, pursing her lips slightly. "Natsuki…you are rather early."
Natsuki stood in the doorway with her mouth agape, trying to grasp just what was happening. The room was empty except for Shizuru and herself. Unlit candles adorned most of the surfaces. The bed was still neatly made and she recognized a few of Shizuru's hairpins and cosmetics laid out on the vanity.
"Wha-what are," Natsuki began. "You…I saw…with…" She sputtered. Her righteous indignation from a moment ago was quickly deflating into embarrassing consternation.
Shizuru stood up straight and folded her arms under her bare breasts. "It seems Natsuki is upset about something." She chuckled. "I was just about to draw a bath. You should join me and then we can talk." Natsuki was still standing there dumbly when Shizuru called to her from the bathroom. "And do please close the door, Natsuki."
Natsuki stretched out her legs in the ofuro. She looked across at Shizuru who was reclining, eyes closed, her lovely hair piled atop her head.
"I'm…I'm sorry for being so stupid, Shizuru. I don't know what I was even thinking."
Shizuru opened one eye to look at her.
"Natsuki must be drunk if she is apologizing already."
"No fair!" Natsuki growled as she slapped the water, giving Shizuru a little splash. "You're the one who brought the sake!"
"Ah, but it came with the room." Shizuru replied sweetly.
Natsuki snorted. "Yeah, right."
"Besides, you were in such a state when you burst through the door that I felt you could do with a bit of calming." Shizuru refilled Natsuki's masu, and set it down on the tile. She watched Natsuki take a sip. "Although I do like the constant blush that it gives you, Natsuki. It's so adorable, I find you quite difficult to resist." She winked lasciviously.
Natsuki gasped and coughed and pounded her chest with her fist while Shizuru laughed. After a few gulps of air and another sip of sake, Natsuki grinned. "Don't try to make me choke just so you can do mouth-to-mouth on me!" She stuck her tongue out at Shizuru. "You almost gave me a heart attack anyway with that business with Nao! I was thinking crazy things..."
"Kanin na, Natsuki. I asked Nao-san to bring you here under some pretense of her choice, though I made her promise not be rough with you. But then I had to ask her for an additional favor. I wanted her to pick up a rather special custom piece that I ordered and was told would not arrive until late this afternoon, along with a few other items, and so we met to re-negotiate her payment." She caught Natsuki's concerned look and smiled. "Don't worry. I didn't promise her anything that will embarrass you."
Shizuru continued. "I needed her help because she is the only person whom you know, and are also suspicious enough of, that she could entice you to an unknown place and make you think it was your idea. Also, for the right price she keeps a secret far better than Mai or Chie. But it appears that I underestimated just how suspicious you could be. She was meant to bring you here after she dropped off the lingerie." Shizuru laughed easily. "I suppose I should call and tell her you arrived just fine on your own."
Natsuki shook her head wearily. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
Shizuru tipped her head inquisitively to one side. "What would have been the fun in that?
Natsuki knew when to give up against Shizuru's crazy logic.
"So." Natsuki said hesitantly, staring into her sake. "What's this custom piece you mentioned? Do I, uh…" She cleared her throat. "Do I get to see you in it?"
Shizuru brought her own masu to her lips and replied. "Ah, it's not for me to wear, Natsuki. It's for you."
Natsuki sank down in the water, taking consolation from the knowledge that she couldn't get any redder than the bath and the alcohol had already made her, and that Valentine's Day came only once a year.
-END OF THREE OF HEARTS
Author's Notes:
x1oheartificial asked me for a miracle for Valentine's Day. How could I say no? The only problem was, I'm no miracle worker, so this is a few hours late. Gomen! I got as close as I could!
Thanks for the idea, heartificial, and for the prod to write something more plot-based. I really hope you enjoyed the way it turned out. Happy Valentine's!
I speed wrote this and beta'd it myself, so if you find mistakes, I will try to correct them. Sorry there weren't any ecchi bits, but I had to leave them out for the sake of time. Please fill it in with whatever your imagination fancies. :D
Natsuki needed a little punk rock to complement her mental state in this fic. "Beat Your Heart Out" by The Distillers fit the bill nicely (which you can hear at this url: .com/playlist/additem/595930641).
I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and that you took some time to appreciate the love that is always around you, even when things seem otherwise.
Translation Notes:
Masu – a type of sake cup that resembles a small, wooden box.
Tamgoyaki – a sweet Japanese rolled omelette common in bento lunches
Ara – Oh my
Kanin na – "I'm sorry" in Kyoto dialect
Ofuro - a deep, Japanese style bathtub