Over the Rainbow
Disclaimer: The characters are from Mai-HiME, and the story contains many references to The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. None of that is mine.
Author's Note: This is for a Mai-Universe Carnival of MUses event. The prompt words are "dinosaur" and "sleep". The story takes place approximately mid-series in Mai-HiME.
Also, convoluted symbolism for the win.
One morning, as Natsuki made her way to school, she realized that a dinosaur was following her.
It was green, and large, with razor sharp teeth stained with the remains of its last, bloody meal. The ground shook with each footstep, as it strolled a few paces behind the moody first year. Had it been human, they may have looked like two friends on a walk.
But Natsuki was not a girl who wanted many friends. So she turned around and stared at it.
It stared back.
"Look, is there something you want?" she asked, a hint of irritation creeping into her voice, mainly because she felt ridiculous trying to communicate to a prehistoric lizard. "Fuuka is a big enough city that you can easily terrorize it well away from me and my personal bubble."
The dinosaur peered at her with its uncomprehending snake-like eyes.
"So please go away."
A low rumble from deep within its massive body was the only indication that it even heard her, as it continued to brazenly stare. When it made no move to leave, Natsuki turned around with a resigned scoff, and kept right on walking.
Whatever, she thought. Fuuka's seen weirder things.
Her schoolmates gave her a wide berth. There was no more weaving through slow-moving crowds to get to her next class. The prying looks of curiosity, lust and barely-hidden adoration were replaced by abject terror, as students and teachers alike scrambled to get out of her way.
Natsuki arrived somewhat less than fashionably late to her homeroom class.
Midori froze in the middle of some cleverly idiotic greeting as the door to the classroom collapsed behind her like a piece of cardboard.
The older HiME's eyes bugging out in shock gave Natsuki her first smile of the day.
Chemistry lab was dismissed five minutes into the class. Something about safety precautions, and the science department needing to replace broken test tubes and petri dishes. Natsuki wasn't really sure, with the teacher and most of the class busily clamoring for the exit. Pieces of glass littered the room like the aftermath of a bomb explosion.
Natsuki ate her lunch early, and took a nap outside during her alloted lunch time.
It was nearly the end of the day when she saw Takeda Masashi.
The spiky, dark-green hair was unmistakable, and judging from his rigid posture and the way his eyes flitted to the side, he'd already spotted her. And was in all likelihood planning on starting a conversation where he stammered out some sort of an invitation and pretended it was something casual. The impending awkwardness was as absolute as the fact that there were no more turns in the corridor, and thus no way of inconspicuously avoiding the ordeal.
Natsuki didn't hate the man, mind you. She just preferred to avoid awkward socializing in all its forms. This, however, was inevitable.
Cursing her luck, she steeled herself, hoping to just get this over with.
Sure enough, she heard the sound of his voice no more than five seconds later.
"Heeyyyy, it's Kuga!" the kendo captain started a little too loudly, clearly possessed by the sort of creative inspiration only a smitten teenager could manage. "Err... uhm... f-fancy s-seeing you here!"
Before she could think of a fittingly eloquent response, something else decided to contribute to the conversation.
"Grrr," said the dinosaur.
Takeda's eyes slowly travelled to the creature behind her. Natsuki watched with a small amount of guilty satisfaction as the man's face drained of all color.
"Uhh... I've-I've gotta go," he blurted, and nearly tripped on his own satchel in his haste to leave.
After his rapidly retreating form disappeared around the corner, the biker spoke to the gigantic reptile for the second time since she saw him.
"I think I'll call you Freddie."
There was an Orphan creeping around in the parking lot she left her bike. It was a hideous, black, cockroach-like creature whose shrill chittering sent chills down her spine. Its antenna extended into dark, greasy-looking tentacles that reared back to strike.
Natsuki barely dodged the hit, rolling deftly off to the side. Her pistols materialized in her hands, but the monster was far too big for her to fight alone.
Just as Duran's name made its way to the tip of her tongue, Freddie stepped forward.
"Grrr," he said.
The cockroach Orphan froze mid-screech.
And then Freddie bit off its head.
In a way, it was perfect.
As far as friends go, Natsuki could definitely do worse than Freddie. He would never pry too deeply into her personal life, or betray her trust. He didn't expect anything of her, and they never had to engage in bothersome small talk. Plus her association with him pretty much guaranteed that everyone else left her alone.
Of course, being inside for prolonged periods of time was out of the question. Well, whatever. Natsuki happened to be a girl who liked the wind in her hair.
The roof of the dormitory suited her purposes well. It was wide and isolated, higher than the surrounding treetops, but low enough for Freddie to rest his head on. With a lawn chair, a big bowl of fresh popcorn and not a cloud in the sky, it proved to be quite the relaxing environment. The old television was a nice touch.
Natsuki sat warmly beneath a blanket, zoning out to The Wizard of Oz, the light from the screen painting her face in flickering shades of faded blue. It was hardly a movie one would expect someone like her to like, but she figured that whoever had a problem with it could take it up with Freddie, whose baleful yellow eye was also riveted on the TV screen. Unsurprisingly, no one did.
Coercing information from the Searrs minion she tracked down earlier had been laughably simple. Pretty soon, all of this would be over, and she would be at peace with the knowledge that her mother's death had been rightfully avenged.
Life was easy for once. Here in her own little sanctuary, the world could fall away without her notice. No more conflicts. No more worries. And that was just fine.
"Which shall we try first, the sencha, or the darjeeling?"
The dark-haired girl snapped her head toward the sound of the voice. Shizuru sat at the end of the table, sifting through the contents of a brown paper bag with a big, fancy tea-set laid out in front of her. There was a pair of rabbit ears perched on top of her mane of dusty brown hair. One of the ears was slightly yellowed and bent.
Behind her, Judy Garland sang wistfully of bluebirds and rainbows, her resonant voice distorted by the low audio quality of the old TV. Freddie watched attentively, seemingly oblivious to Shizuru's presence.
"How did you get here?" Natsuki asked.
"Why, the ladder, of course."
The younger girl's eyes followed to where Shizuru's finger pointed, and sure enough, there was the top of a ladder poking out from behind the far end of the roof.
The biker frowned. "Had that always been there?"
"Naturally," Shizuru replied, a laugh in her voice. "I assume Natsuki herself was not born in this place."
The humor was lost on the dark-haired girl, who felt herself tense with annoyance. If she had to be honest with herself, she didn't know how she got here - but then again, she didn't have to care. Who was the older girl to question her anyway? All that mattered was that this was her sanctuary. Hers. If anyone who wanted to come up could just come up, then what was the point?
She somehow willed herself to the top of the roof to escape the world, and all this time, she didn't even know about the ladder.
She felt like a fool.
"Why are you here?"
One cotton-clad shoulder lifted in a shrug. "The tea cabinet needed refilling, and Natsuki's dormitory was on the way back. I thought perhaps the darjeeling would be to her taste. This batch is a little spicier than usual, but it's an earlier harvest, so the aroma is mild and fresh." The student council president's lips curled into a charming smile. "Besides, good tea is better enjoyed with excellent company, wouldn't Natsuki agree?"
Her careless attitude only angered the first year further. Did she not know that this platform in the sky was all Natsuki had ever wanted? Did she not care?
As if sensing the building tension, Freddie stirred, the black slit of his pupil shifting back and forth to take in the scene.
"No," Natsuki bit out, her lips tightening into a line. A part of her knew she was being stubborn and childish, but she hated feeling deceived, even if Shizuru herself wasn't the deceiver. "I'm not in the mood for company, and I don't even like tea."
Freddie proved her point by snatching the bag out of the third-year's hands and giving it a hearty shake. The brunette shot up from her seat in alarm as the flimsy material tore easily against his force, sending a fragrant shower of tea leaves raining to the ground below.
Natsuki's smirk of self-righteous satisfaction faded when she saw Shizuru's frozen face. Stricken crimson eyes followed the pretty green herbs on their way down before finally landing on the dark-haired girl.
All was silent, except for the TV.
"I'd be friends with the sparrows," sang the Tin-Man, "and the boy who shoots the arrows..."
The first year crossed her arms defensively, ignoring the guilty twinge in her chest. "Look, I'm sorry, alright? If you -"
"I didn't want Natsuki to find out this way." Shizuru whispered, her eyes seeming to lose all color, the gravity of her expression making Natsuki swallow the rest of her words.
"But my existence relies on tea because I'm secretly..."
"...an amoeba..."
The last word was barely out of her mouth when the student council president started to shrink before Natsuki's eyes. Within moments, the bunny ears became too big for Shizuru's head and slipped off, clattering to the ground.
It took less than a heartbeat for the biker to react.
"S-shizuru!" Natsuki rushed forward in a panic, picking up the toddler-sized kaichou by the waist and glaring into her small face. "Shizuru, stop! This isn't funny!"
But the older girl could only muster a resigned smile. "Goodbye, Natsuki," she said in a small voice, seeming to disappear like bubbles in her hand. Pretty soon, her tiny white jacket looked like it would fit on a Barbie doll.
"Shizuru, talk to me!" the dark-haired girl demanded furiously, dropping her carefully into the palm of one of her hands. "Tell me how to make it stop!"
Natsuki's eyes darted around frantically, looking for something, anything -
Only to find that she was no longer on the rooftop of her dormitory. There were only buildings, like toy blocks, littered around her feet.
All of Fuuka, she realized hysterically, was shrinking around her.
Even Freddie looked like a little coin-sized dinosaur toy at her feet.
Kuga Natsuki was the largest being in the universe, and she was well and truly alone.
And that's when she noticed that her hand - the one that had been holding onto Shizuru - was empty.
All that was left was a pair of lopsided bunny ears.
Out of desperation, regret, and more than a little madness, Natsuki slipped them on, wiped away a frightened tear, and tapped together the heels of her light purple canvas shoes.
With a barely suppressed sniffle, she began to chant.
There's no place like home there's no place like home there's no place like
Natsuki snapped her eyes open with a jolt.
Quick and shallow breaths sawed away at the impenetrable darkness of her surroundings. Her heart pounded like feet running on a long stretch of pavement.
Slowly, the shadows around her took form. She was in her bedroom. A bead of sweat slid down the side of her neck into her pajama top.
The bedside clock read 3:35.
It was all a dream.
With a groan, she rolled over and buried her face in the pillow.
Natsuki was never one to place too much emphasis on dreams. She thought that analytical literature essays were mostly full of shit, and waxing poetic about symbolism and metaphors made just about anyone sound like a pretentious fart. So, she wasn't going to dwell on this latest journey into her subconscious either.
Still, at a little past four when the land of dreams claimed her once again, her last waking thought was not of an extinct carnivore, but of a pesky student council president named Shizuru.