One early Saturday morning, a certain blue haired girl woke to some rather unwelcome sounds.
Her friends, knocking loudly on her door.
After several moments of trying to ignore the ones outside, Natsuki heaved a sigh and let her athletic body somewhat roll off the bed.
Struggling to her feet, she placed an annoyed look on her face and made her way to the door.
"Greetings friend!," the two outside said in unison.
'Suspicious already,' Natsuki thought to herself as she blinked at the two smiling people standing right outside her doorstep.
Several moments pass by as a sleepy set of eyes meet two pairs of suspiciously shining ones.
Sighing, Natsuki took a step back and opted for the only option she felt was actually available to her.
The girl shut the door.
--
"Wow, who didn't see that one coming," Nao said while scratching her head.
Mai shrugged in response.
"Maybe we should have smiled less. Natsuki gets nervous around smiling."
Giving another knock at the door, Mai and Nao waited for Natsuki once again, this time with smaller smiles.
Hearing a growl from the other side of the door, Mai and Nao both took unconscious steps backwards as it swung open.
"What?!," Natsuki demanded.
Her friends offered her innocent looks.
"I don't like where this is going," Natsuki said as she broke the silence.
"Aren't you gonna invite us in?," Mai wondered aloud as Nao tried to nudge the door open a little further.
Natsuki shook her head firmly in the negative.
"No. Right now I'm busy trying to figure out how to best move the both of you away from my apartment. I'm not really that concerned about thinking about how to invite you into it."
"But Kuga! We need your help!," Nao said dramatically.
Natsuki's eyes narrowed considerably.
"No."
"Natsuki come on, we're your friends," Mai said.
"Only when it comes to weird stuff! When I need help with not doing homework or not being kept back a year you people are always like you're on your own Natsuki! So don't show up at Natsuki's house and ask for stuff when Natsuki is running low on mayo!"
"Low on mayo?," Nao asked as she made an 'o' with her mouth. "Did you hear that Mai?"
"Why I sure did Nao, how interesting is that?," Mai replied also making the 'o'.
"Maybe we can help you out with that Natsuki, if only you'd help us out with something else," Nao said with a wink.
"Something easy!," Mai hurriedly added while elbowing her redheaded friend.
Natsuki blinked and sighed.
'I really really don't like where this is going,' she thought to herself.
--
Letting her two friends into her apartment, Natsuki watched the two take seats at her kitchen table while she hunted around for ingredients she could use to make breakfast.
A few peaceful moments passed as her friends allowed her to get seated and comfortable also.
Then Nao opened her mouth.
After that, a few not so peaceful moments passed and it took Mai double her old record time just to calm the situation down... as much as she could.
"Group date?!," Natsuki screamed out. "No! Group is already bad because one day I mistakenly thought I needed friends and ended up with you people, so adding more weird idiots to the group is obviously a mistake."
Mai winced and sweatdropped at the screaming while Nao was smiling and nodding in agreement.
Then the screaming continued.
"... And date, well that's doubly ridiculous because whoever it is you guys are pawning me off to is likely to be someone I am nowhere near interested in! God! This is like that time Chie came over to my house just to tell me all you guys had sold me off in some auction!"
--
When the situation had calmed down a little more and Natsuki was no longer foaming at the mouth, Mai was too scared to say anything and accidentally decided to leave the talking to Nao.
"Look Natsuki, you're looking pretty scary-angry right now so I'm not gonna say much. But as a friend, I just need you to know. She's hot."
Natsuki rolled her eyes.
"I'm not shallow."
"No Kuga, you don't understand. She's hot. Like..."
At that point Nao made to make a familiar motion and Natsuki cringed prematurely.
"Oh my God Nao if you dare... dare to do that thing where you lick your finger, place it on any other part of your anatomy and make a sizzling sound I swear I'm gonna smack you in the face."
Nao looked at Mai.
The other girl shook her head.
Nao pouted.
Mai put her hand on Nao's shoulder and continued shaking her head.
Nao sighed.
Mai sighed with relief.
Natsuki put her head on the table.
"What's it gonna take to get you people out of my house?"
...
--
Natsuki dismounted her bike at the address indicated on the card Mai and Nao had left her.
'Mai and Nao,' Natsuki thought. 'This can't possibly end well.'
Taking a deep breath and checking herself over, Natsuki headed to the entrance of what seemed to be an expensive restaurant.
Nearing the door, the young biker felt her phone vibrate and quickly checked it over.
'Message from Mai... who knew.... it's not even gonna start well.'
'Sorry Natsuki,' the message said. 'Nao and I can't actually make it tonight. And neither can our dates. But we hope you have fun with yours! Love Mai. Mai loves you. Please don't kill her later.'
As she read the message, Natsuki suddenly felt a little ill and an odd twitch beginning to settle itself in her right eye.
Giving a dejected sigh, Natsuki decided to wander into the restaurant anyway.
'With luck, if I do this, those friends of Mai probably won't show up outside my house tomorrow,' she thought hopefully.
--
At a rather sunny location...
"What are the chances we're gonna get in trouble for this?," Mai asked as she sipped on a colourful drink.
Nao beside her shrugged.
"Trouble as in death threat or as in death?"
"Both?"
"I'd say low. First of all, Natsuki loves Shizuru. She's just slow. Second of all and most importantly, we're really, really, really far away right now."
Mai lay back and smiled as she adjusted her sunglasses and waved for someone to bring her another drink.
"Hawaii is nice," she stated.
"Yup yup!" Mikoto next to her quipped. "Mai and Nao should trick Natsuki more often!"
--
Upon entering the restaurant, Natsuki was met with a familiar face. Shooting the other girl a questioning look, she waited to be greeted.
"Excuse me, are you Miss Kuga?," the girl asked as she walked over.
Natsuki raised an eyebrow.
"Akane... why are you asking me my name like we've never met before? We've been going to the same school for God knows how long..."
Akane sweatdropped and threw Natsuki an apologetic look.
"Sorry Miss Kuga the line was kind of in my part-time job description."
Natsuki simply chose to responed with rolled eyes.
"Right. Well then yes, I am Miss Kuga and who might you be playing the part of?"
"Nameless waitress number one," Akane responded simply as Natsuki fought the urge to facepalm.
"Akane..."
At the other girl's shaking head, Natsuki decided that she was indeed disallowed to make mention of any more actual names and opted to await further instruction.
"Please follow me into the dining room Miss Kuga."
"Well, at least you said that like I kind of had a choice," Natsuki responded as she followed.
--
Being greeted by Haruka, Natsuki again gave in to the urge to look up at the sky, in this case restaurant ceiling and demand the powers that be for some sort of relevant information.
Unfortunately for the girl all she got was a smack on the arm from the blonde who was now standing directly in front of her.
--
"Haruka... please don't tell me you're my date," Natsuki said in an almost pleading fashion.
The blonde in question gave her an incredulous look and Natsuki thought the girl was actually going to start jumping up and down.
"Your what? No! I'm your school disciplinary figure. Your date is over there," Haruka said as she motioned to a table.
Natsuki followed Haruka's line of vision and was met with the sight of a woman. The blue haired girl paused for a moment as a surge of familiarity surged through her.
'Uh oh. What is this... eyes like Shizuru, hair like Shizuru, smile like Shizuru... tea like Shizuru...
"Well Kuga, I wouldn't keep her waiting if I were you," Haruka said as she wandered off, although not before pushing Natsuki in the direction of the woman seated at the table causing the girl to let out a small yelp and the woman to notice her presence.
--
"Erm, hello," Natsuki got out as she gave a polite bow, greeting the woman who was smiling at her.
"Kuga-san, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I was in town for a little while and truly wondered who this girl was that my precious daughter seems so crazy about."
'Daughter?,' Natsuki thought. 'But she doesn't even look that old... wait... brain missing out other important stuff...'
"I hope you are not too displeased with the situation," the woman said as she motioned for Natsuki to sit down. "I did request that your friends exercised all available forms of convincing you to join me for the evening, though I assure you I do not plan on being too rough."
Natsuki sputtered at the woman's words and the girl cursed her face for changing it's colour so willingly. To her chargrin, the woman merely brought a dainty hand to cover her mouth as she let out a gentle laugh.
"Ara Kuga-san, it is not necessary to change the change the shade of your face. Maybe I should have specifically said early evening? I assure I did not bring you here to seduce you."
Natsuki urged herself to relax as the woman before her continued.
"Actually I brought you here to ask a favour of you."
Natsuki blinked a few times as she watched the woman's demeanour suddenly change. At first the girl noticed her dining partner was all teasing, the change to absolute, firm sincerity was impossible to miss.
--
"I wished to meet with you, Kuga Natsuki, to discuss your relationship with my daughter Fujino Shizuru."
Natsuki swallowed. Hard.
"Fujino-san, please don't misunderstand... Shizuru and I aren't dating. You have to believe me."
"That is my problem exactly."
"E-excuse me?"
"Shizuru delivers such dashing accounts of her time together with you, yet when we ask to meet you or inquire about things you do for her all we seemingly receive are sad little excuses."
"I apologise Fujino-san but... I'm... not quite sure what you want me to do."
"I'd like, to be able to entrust Shizuru to you."
"Your daughter is more than capable of taking care of herself."
"Is that why you haven't been taking care of her? Don't get me wrong Kuga-san, I do not dislike you in the slightest but that doesn't mean I find you the picture of perfection either."
'Not just yet.'
"Perhaps Kuga-san does not care for my Shizuru as much as I'd hoped?"
The woman saw a flash of something in Natsuki's eyes as she finished delivering her last sentence. It was obvious many thoughts were rapidly going through the young woman's head at that point in time.
'Annoyance? Anger? Is she offended?,' she thought in her head as she watched the blue haired girl sit in silent thought.
"I care for her very much. Shizuru is very dear to me.. I love her... Fujino... okaasan."
Shizuru's mother gave Natsuki a warm smile.
"I'm sorry it took me a moment with you to have to figure that out, I guess I'm kind of dense sometimes," Natsuki admitted with a sheepish smile as she rubbed the back of her neck. "But to be perfectly honest with you, no matter what I did I could never imagine living without Shizuru in my life."
"Well, it looks like our little talk has served it's purpose fine Kuga-san. With a little more grooming, you'll be a Fujino heiress yet."
"S-sorry?"
"When you saw me sitting here and thought for a split second it was my daughter, you gave a sigh of relief did you not?"
Natsuki opened and closed her mouth as she attempted to think of a suitable response.
This of course only illicited another small laugh from the woman standing before her.
"Please don't feel the need to lie Kuga-san. I have eyes everywhere."
Natsuki turned her head and shot a look at Akane who whistled softly and made her way back to the kitchen.
--
A day soon after the experience at dinner, Natsuki wakes up to the familiar, and ultimately unwanted sound of knocking at her door.
Finding her two friends standing outside again, it took all of the girl's self control to not shout out profanities.
"We're baaack!," Nao said needlessly as Mai shot her a victory sign.
"You people again. Please. Be kidding."
The two redheads outside gave the sleepy girl eyerolls before pushing something into her apartment.
"Relax Natsuki, this time we're just making a delivery!"
"Later pup! Don't do anything we wouldn't do without videotaping it ok!"
"Bye Natsuki!"
"Seriously... videotape it ok?"
Heaving a sigh, Natsuki closes her door before taking a double take at what exactly was 'delivered' into her apartment.
A smiling Shizuru was standing in her thoughtful pose looking very Shizuru-like as expected. Wearing a giant red bow on the top of her head, as not expected.
"Ara good morning Natsuki," Shizuru said as she smiled at the other girl.
Shizuru then turned her head to the side and passed over a note from her mother.
A precious present I'd gladly trust in your care. Thank you for your company at dinner that night, it was a pleasure. – Mother.
Natsuki blinked a few times before taking the bow off Shizuru's head and depositing a kiss on the girl's cheek.
"Good morning Shizuru."
"Natsuki should not have felt the need to have her friends abduct me at such early hours of the morning. I could have just slept the night."
"Mou Shizuru!"
"Yes my Natsuki?"
Natsuki sighs.
"Go sit down on the couch, I'll make you some tea. Then after that maybe we can have a little talk... about us..."
"Why thank you my Natsuki, I'd like that very much. It's interesting how many people enjoy having such talks these days. Why mother called just the other day to discuss baby names she'd enjoy giving her grandchildren."
"S-Shizuru!"
"Ara. I was pleased to find out it that Natsuki had made mention of the fact Kuga-Fujino had a certain ring to it?"
"That's an entirely different story Shizuru, I wasn't naming children, I was naming us!"
"Ara..."
A.N: Thanks for reading!~ Hope you enjoyed it.
And thanks muchly to the people who sent reviews in for 'one way or the other' ^.^ I really appreciated them.