-1A/N-decided to do a story since it was Natsuki's birthday, but it's not a one shot so yeah, anyway, Sunrise owns, etc. Attention: it's going to be AU since i'm making Shizuru and Natsuki not know each other alot k?

Stranded With A Stranger

Chapter 1: Some Birthday

Today, the weather outside was beautiful and the sea was very calm. Actually, the waves were a little rough, shaking the boat more then it needed it to be, but hey, what did you actually expected. At the dock of the boat, stood a woman with long, dark raven hair, who wore black carpri pants and a light hoody with its sleeves cut off. Her emerald eyes look out towards the coastline where the boat was headed towards.

"Natsuki." yelled one of the crew members. "Ms. Fujino would like to talk to you."

"Coming." Natsuki really didn't want to go back in but she had no choice, after all, the real reason why she was on the boat in the first place was that she was 'invited' to join the head president of a pharmaceutical company and some others from Tokyo. Natsuki couldn't believe that she actually went along, and what surprised her the most was that she was only working for the company as a part-time gig, making it nearly two years since she worked with the company, her real work was at a mechanic shop in downtown Tokyo. But now, here she was, on a boat, out in the middle of nowhere and well, she had no choice but to take some time off at her other work for this pharmacy job.

Upon arriving at the rank of the boat, Natsuki stood in front of a woman, who casually sipped tea. "You wanted to see me, Fujino-san."

"Natsuki, it's okay to call me Shizuru, since everybody else does." Yeah, but with the 'sama', thought Natsuki.

Crimson orbs met emerald ones. Natsuki hated to admit it, but Shizuru was quite beautiful and sexy, even if she was only wearing simple clothes that consisted of a blue T-shirt and Capri pants. The older woman had grace, and knew how to say the right words to anybody. Natsuki guessed that was why everybody, mostly women, praised her every move. They were even so giddy to make a fan club about the Kyoto woman in the company. She was surprised that a club was even allowed in the pharmaceutical company to begin with.

Mentally kicking herself in the head, at what she thought, Natsuki stayed quite for what seemed like forever, but God, what was she thinking?! Sure Shizuru was beautiful but why did she think sexy?! Okay, okay, right now, Natsuki had to pay close attention to the woman in front of her. Just, not too much attention.

Natsuki had just turned 21 today, making today her birthday, but sadly she ended up on this business trip instead of hanging out with her real friends to celebrate it. Her boss, Shizuru was just two years older then her, making her 23. The older woman was very skilled in just about everything and made everyone looked like they were slow and made lots of mistakes, especially Natsuki. Natsuki could like Shizuru more if the older woman didn't help her all the time, well most of times, but that was far too much to ask.

"Sorry, Fujino-san, but I would like to keep it more professional. So is it okay if you call me 'Kuga-san'?" It was true, Natsuki didn't want to get involved in a relationship with someone in the same work place. It could cause a lot of trouble. Wait, wait….what Natsuki meant to say was, she didn't want to get in a friendship with someone of high status. Yeah, that's it. Anyway, good thing Natsuki and Shizuru were alone because if anyone else were in there, then Natsuki would never hear the end of 'do-what-Shizuru-sama-says-or-die". Then again, even if they threaten Natsuki, the younger woman could always give them her famous death glare.

Now actually thinking about it, it was a shock that the older woman didn't have a husband then again, there were rumors that she rejected every proposal. Natsuki didn't know the reason but it didn't matter to her.

"Ara? Is that so?" Shizuru looked like she was quite amused with Natsuki's answer, but Natsuki wasn't sure and let it go.

"Yes, now what did you want to see me for?"

"Straight to the point." Shizuru sighed. "I called you here to see if you already know what our objective was."

"Yes, I do. We're visiting Fuuka Island to see if we can find some herbs that will help you lose weight when you brew them as tea, specifically green tea. Although the herbs are unknown in Japan, they are native to New Mexico and are very hard to grow." Okay, this sounded stupid and Natsuki had no idea why she got this job but hey as long as it paid okay, then it was fine.

"That's correct, Kuga-san." Shizuru sipped her tea.

Natsuki rarely worked with Shizuru because most of her colleagues did. They all said that it was a blessing to work with the great Fujino. Natsuki was going to excuse herself from her boss, however, someone else beat her to it. "Shizuru-sama, we're already here at the docks."

Shizuru nodded her head, telling the person that she heard the arrival. "Now, Kuga-san before you go—!" Shizuru wasn't able to finish her sentence as Natsuki rudely walked outside. "Ikezu." Said Shizuru to no one in particular.

Looking at her wrist watch, Natsuki concluded that the time was 9:02 a.m. It took nearly three hours on boat to arrive at the island. Natsuki hated to admit it but her day started out like a freakin' nightmare. Waking up close to 5:30 a.m just to take a shower, dress and pack. Well, it was her own fault that she didn't pack ahead of time but she just wasn't a morning person. Other then that, her packing consisted of work papers, a jacket incase it got cold, a book that weighed like an anvil, an instant sandwich (with lots of mayo of course) and a bottle of water. Heck, it was like they weren't going to spend a week on the island anyway.

Fuuka Island was a small island that held a port and the island use to hold a handful of residence. However, with the lack of fishes because of changes in the weather and currents, the residence gradually left off the island, making it deserted. Not much fishing boats came by the island but if they did, it would be during the daytime.

Grabbing her stuff and heading off the boat, Natsuki couldn't help notice that every colleague was helping Shizuru get off the boat. Saying 'Are you alright?' or 'Shizuru-sama, do you need help with anything?', etc, etc. Natsuki thanked the Gods that she never gather a lot of attention from anyone, it would bug the hell out of her. She was even luckier that no one paid attention of her present even at the office. "This is going to be a long, long day."

Thanking the crew who drove the team, they reminded Natsuki that it would come back and pick up the group up in about six hours. Telling Natsuki to inform Fujino about the time of arrival. Natsuki nodded her head and conform the crew that she would tell about the departure time.

"Everyone, please concentrate on why we are here." came a Kyoto-ben and it sounded like it was directed towards Natsuki, since she was so far away from the group.

"Fujino-san," said Natsuki, "I would like to tell everyone that the boat will be back in around six hours."

"Ookini Kuga-san." Shizuru gave her a smile that felt fake, but Natsuki wasn't going to say anything. Everyone around her would jump and kill her here and there on a deserted island, a perfect place to put a dead body on. Very perfect indeed.

About ten minutes on Fuuka island, everyone went their separate ways, okay, everyone went with Shizuru while Natsuki travel on her own for the herbs. She wanted to get this over with and get home so she could sleep some more.

Taking out a map, there was a rumor that the herbs were on the south side of the island on a hill. It looked like it was two miles long, maybe shorter but Natsuki could easily handle it. Reaching up on the hill, the walk had worn Natsuki out for three reasons. Why? 1) She never noticed it but the hill was too damn steep. 2) She was tempted to take the freakin' book in her bag and throw it down the hill to see if it could reach the shoreline, hey, she needed to be entertained (but she couldn't because of work issues) and 3) Well, Natsuki couldn't up a third reason but whatever, she'd figure it out soon until she brought her breathing back to normal.

"Damn….this sucks." growled Natsuki who was still gaining her breath. Once she did, Natsuki went to search for the miracle herbs. Hopefully it wouldn't take so long. Boy, were you wrong Natsuki.

It seemed like an eternity looking for some out aged herbs and Natsuki wasn't getting anywhere. Looking at her watch, it read 1: 47 p.m. She couldn't believe that it actually took her nearly two and a half hours to get up a stupid hill and nearly two hours just to look for something that might have never existed on the face of the planet. Maybe her colleagues found the mysterious plant with the all famous Fujino-sama. Now thinking about the older woman, Natsuki was glad that she had her private space unlike Shizuru. Sometimes Natsuki wished that she could tell the fan girls off when she and Shizuru were alone, however, that could never happed and at least one fan would find Shizuru and call all the others around. Wait, why did she care if Shizuru had space or not?! "Forget it, I'm eating lunch!" Taking out her sandwich and water bottle, Natsuki consumed half of the delicious food and washed it down with about ¼ of water.

Looking down the scenery before her, Natsuki couldn't see her colleague but it wouldn't really matter because the only thing that really matter was looking for herbs. The day didn't start well, but hopefully it might end well.

Looking at her watch again, it read close to 2:30. She had about two hours or so till the boat arrived. Since the weather was so nice, Natsuki decided to take a small nap. Using her left arm to shield her eyes from the sun's rays, Natsuki dozed off.

Slowly opening her eyes, Natsuki noticed that the sky was darker then before and that she should head on back. Looking at her watch it read 5:11 p.m. It was plenty of time to get to the boat and leave, but somehow, Natsuki felt that the time was wrong since the sky was getting darker and darker by the minute.

Natsuki took her sweet time arriving at the dock where the boat was suppose to be. It nearly took fifty minutes for her to make it before six.

"What the hell?" Natsuki looked around at the dock and saw no one around. She could have sworn that the group was suppose to meet here by 6:00, yet why wasn't anyone here?

"K-Kuga-san!" Came a Kyoto-ben from out of nowhere.

No way, it couldn't be her, could it? Turning around to confirm her theory, Natsuki was afraid of who she saw, Shizuru. Okay, well it wasn't that bad, at least if wasn't one of Shizuru's fan girls, if it was, Natsuki was sure that see would swim back to civilization.

"Fujino-san, where's the boat?" Questioned Natsuki as Shizuru got closer.

"The boat already left while I was trying to look for you?" Stated Shizuru.

"Left?! That can't be right, because right now it's—!"

"Seven."

"Huh?"

"It's seven o'clock and you didn't show up at the schedule time. I told the crew to go on ahead while I'll look for you." Natsuki didn't believe her and looked at her watch, it read…5:11 p.m. That was like nearly an hour ago. Natsuki hated to admit it but she didn't want to tell Shizuru 'Hey, my watch broke so I never noticed the time, so sorry that we're now stuck on the island.'

"Shit." Was the only word that Natsuki could muster out. The boat left and surprisingly Shizuru's stupid fan club didn't notice their Queen missing. Natsuki thought her life couldn't get any worse and thinking on it now, she should have declined the offer of working on this project and head out with her friends to celebrate her birthday. "Well, they come back for us?"

"I'm really not sure." Natsuki slumped in defeat, it would nearly six hours if the same boat came back but it would be forever if it didn't.

"Kuga-san?" Natsuki was still shocked that the boat left them. "I hope I'm not too late but…Happy Birthday."

Perking up her ears, Natsuki couldn't believe what she was hearing. Shizuru was the first person to tell her 'Happy Birthday', sure her friends would have too, but since she left so damn early in the morning, no one has ever said it to her.

"I was trying to say that to you earlier but you left before I could."

Natsuki felt confused as why the older woman decided to tell her this now of all places. Then again, she was even more confused as why Shizuru said this two years later when she was working for her company. After all, she never spoke to Shizuru only for business matters.

"T-Thank you, Fujino-san." Said a quiet Natsuki as she sat down next to Shizuru, watching the sun set.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad of a birthday. Now the real problem is how will they make it off the island towards civilization?

T.B.C….I think, anyway Happy B-Day Natsuki!! Did anyone remember it was her b-day?

A/N - if there is a continuation of this story, there would be a lot of fluff in the next chapter since it's just the two of them. Any good?