It's Only Just a Clover

"So, Yuki." Kiyoteru bent down to look at his child in the eye. "What have you learned today?"

He asked that every day, every hour he saw his daughter. If Yuki didn't learn anything, she had to make up something on the spot. Thankfully, the world was so very interesting that it was not hard to do, and Kiyoteru didn't really expect Yuki to come up with something brainy and scientific… though she did sometimes, and that surprised both of them.

Yuki had a present for her father, held carefully behind her back. If only she could postpone the question for a while.

She and her Sunday writing class had gone out for clover-hunting. They were to write a recounting of what had happened in the clover hunt and present it in front of the class. While walking around aimlessly, Yuki had trod upon a clover—and a four-leafed one at that.

Of course, since Ryuto, her best friend, came for the afternoon class (Yuki had the full-day one), Yuki wasn't able to show her clover to him. But at lunchtime, which was now, she could show it to her father.

"I learned," Yuki said promptly, "about summaries."

"Oh? I thought you learned that a long time ago," patting her head absentmindedly.

"I sharpened my knowledge."

Kiyoteru smiled affably. "So you did. What are you hiding?"

"A change of mind," Yuki decided. "I'm going to tell you later."

Back at class, she took her seat next to Ryuto, who looked sleepy and not at all like himself. The teacher allowed a few minutes of talking before the class, so Yuki scooted over to Ryuto.

"Something ailing you?"

"Didn't sleep well. Got pinched today because I didn't wear green." He yawned. "Had dreams of shamrocks dancing in the sky and a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow bridge across an ocean."

Yuki clucked sympathetically, very much like an old lady. "That's sad. Are you feeling better?"

"'Course not. Have something to show me?"

"You read me too well," grumbled Yuki. She opened her palm. "A four-leafed clover. See?"

Bleary-eyed Ryuto leaned in to study the clover, but with his blurry vision (especially without his glasses, as he'd forgotten them at home), he couldn't make out the distinct leaves. Yuki's face fell when he didn't show any signs of excitement or surprise—like he usually would have done. Like he should have done.

"Well?" she said finally.

"It's just a clover."

"Just a clover!" Yuki was indignant. Stomping home at 3 o'clock, she reflected on what Ryuto had said. Just a clover? Even though he doesn't exactly have interest in clovers, couldn't he be a little bit… nicer about it? So senseless! And it was just lack of sleep. What's his problem anyway? It's 1:05 when he comes, and he says he doesn't sleep? Where's the logic in that? And he's not that logical anyway… she fumed as she threw open the front door.

Yuki didn't talk to Ryuto for the rest of the day, and he didn't seem to care.

"What did you learn today?" said Kiyoteru, appearing out of nowhere.

"Oh, hi, Dad. I learned a little bit more about summarizing."

Kiyoteru's face fell. "Not anything about the periodic table?"

Well, so he did expect a little more from her after all. "Nope. But I have a four-leafed clover"—here Yuki thrust it out at him—"want to see?"

Kiyoteru looked at it for a moment or two, and Yuki felt her excitement sink below the pits again. Since when would anyone notice her?

"It's just a clover, Yuki," Kiyoteru finally said, mildly.

Ughh! Yuki left Kiyoteru standing there, wondering what was wrong, and angrily marched off to the biggest room of the house. But just as she entered the living room and threw her sack onto the couch, her father's indifference adding to her anger, the phone rang.

Yuki jerked the phone off the stand. "Hello?" she snapped. "Yuki speaking."

"Oh, hi, Yuki." The dry, boyish voice that still sounded sleepy confirmed that it was Ryuto.

"Hurry up." Much as she wanted to, she couldn't hang up on Ryuto. Besides, he was still her best friend.

"I'm sorry about your clover thingy, if you were mad about it at all…"

The corner of Yuki's mouth twitched. Naive Ryuto. "It's a four-leafed clover, Ryuto. It's special. Don't you see?"

"Can't you just make one? An artificial one? That's why I wasn't that interested…"

Hmm, her father would love this guy. "It's not as good as an authentic one," Yuki said insistently.

After a long, drawn out conversation arguing about the meaning of "authentic," four-leafed clovers, and several other things, Yuki and Ryuto came to an agreement to disagree.

Well, Yuki smirked to herself wryly, it's only just a clover.

She loved the irony of it all.

And no, as an answer to your question, I have no idea what I just wrote either.

Mehhh.. shipped YukiRyuto since Ten-Faced wrote Overrated Average. I blame you, Tenny. And yes, I did lie in the PM. It wasn't KiyoYuki. Sorry. xD

HOLY SHIT FFN UPDATED DID YOU SEE IT NOW YOU CAN DO 4 CHARACTERS PER STORY OMG OMG
... I'll still do Yuki/Ryuto anyway. Thank you for reading/reviewing!

~Unyielding Wish