Earth Day

||Aw, Gussy and Julie. Despite having no idea as to how it would actually LOOK like, I'm already a bit partial to this pairing, though I do not know why. I think Gus is becoming my harem character. You know, that character you just want to pair up with everyone else because you either think it's incredibly cute, it's for laughs, or you're cruel like that. Or all three.

||Disclaimer: No, I do not own Bakugan. This is fact. You know what else is fact? Zenoheld being a fat pedo-bastard. He is now on the level of Ace, Dan and Baron. In fact, he might be close to being below them. I know, it's surprising for me to admit such.

||Gus x Julie. Dan, Shadow, Lync, because those three are the most teasing. Mentions of Keith/Spectra.

||All he wanted to do was plant a tree. Did he really have to be harassed while doing so?

"Oh my god, you're actually into this whole 'planting a tree' thing! I, like, totally did not expect that~!"

Gus started in surprise, the little brush of a tree and his spade nearly slipping through his fingers. After a few seconds of fumbling, they were secured in his hands and he was directing a glare towards the beaming girl trailing behind him. "Are you stalking me?"

Julie's sunny smile curved down into a pout. "Geez, way to, like, jump to conclusions. Just because I totally followed you without you noticing does not mean I'm stalking you."

Gus didn't bother to reply to that. Before she had finished speaking, he was walking away briskly, evading the clamor of voices collecting into a crowd that loitered by the fence barring them from the school's football field. Sadly, he could not flee from the high-pitched voice yelping in indignation.

"Guuuuuus, why are you going so far away? My feet are gonna be, like, sore after this."

"Perhaps you should have chosen more appropriate footwear. Sneakers would be a good idea."

"Oh please. Sneakers are so boring. Now, these heels, they're a good three inches. That isn't boring."

Shaking his head wearily, Gus quietly prayed that she would run into a gopher hole. "I won't try to question that."

"Well, it's not like there's anything to question. They're nice shoes." Julie flipped her hair back and blinked against the sun before scurrying back to Gus' side, much to his dismay. "Soooooo… seriously, everyone else is planting their trees waaaaay over there. By the school. You know, so they don't have to walk so much."

"Well, I want to plant my tree over here."

Julie pursed her lips, examining Gus' closed off expression out of the corner out of her eye before grinning. "Oh, I get it! You're an emo-loner-kid~! That would, like, totally explain your… your rebel hair! And all the heavy, emo-looking clothing~!"

"It's not rebel hair," Gus said stiffly, shifting his tree sapling and spade to one hand so that he could touch the thick blue curls gingerly. "And brown…"

"Orange."

"It's brown."

"Nuh huh. You're wearing orange. A lot of it. It doesn't really suit you, actually."

"… And orange –" Better not to argue it, he'd just end up with a headache. "– is not an 'emo-loner-kid' colour. If you want 'emo-loner-kid' colours, look at Shadow."

"Buuuut~," Julie said, voice smug, "Shadow isn't going off to an emo-loner-kid corner."

"I'm not going to an 'emo-loner-kid' corner."

"Uh, yes you are."

"But it's not even a corner."

"Oh, whatevs. It's just an emo-loner-kid space behind the school. Meanwhile, Shadow is totally socializing by staying with the rest of the group. And that's what makes him not an emo-loner-kid."

"Whatever." Gus sighed as he halted, glancing around at the flat, open space of grass and dirt, still comfortably away from everyone else and the road, before turning around and giving Julie a severe glare. "Go. I don't need your harassment."

The silver-haired girl responded by crossing her arms and turning up her nose with a superior smile. "I don't wanna~."

"Go anyways."

"Nope~."

Gus ground his teeth together, fingers curling around the objects in his hand tightly. "Don't you have your own tree to plant?"

She just giggled, grin sheepish as she tapped the side of her head. "I, like, totally forgot to buy one. Hee~."

"This is a school activity."

"Well, it's not like this is for marks or anything," Julie shrugged. Absentmindedly, she started to examine her fingernails for any dirt she could have gotten from all of the non-existent work she had done so far in her tribute to the planet. "The school's just trying to turn us into tree-huggers. Nothing to really be concerned about. Only geeks really get into it."

Gus could have smacked her.

"Sooooooo… like, are you going to do anything?" Julie put her hands on her hips as Gus stood there, stone still. It was rather… boring. "Don't you have to, like, stuff the tree in the ground or something?"

She was once again treated with an aggravated glance. "You don't stuff it – whatever. I need a new spot."

Julie groaned.

Gus' master plan had failed. It had taken five different relocations for him to finally accept it; for all of her girly annoyances, one could not deny that Julie could be stubborn when she felt like it.

"Are you done choosing a spot yet?" Julie asked, only a bit moody as she knelt down to rub her aching feet, pouting up at Gus as he leaned tiredly against the fence. He wasn't as far from everyone else as he had hoped; they were all just down the length of the enclosure, only a fair distance.

"Yeah, sure. This spot is good," he grumbled as he kneeled down, setting the tree to the side and stabbing the ground with ill-humoured force. The back of his neck tingled warningly, and he found himself glancing upwards to see Julie gazing at him with a small, wannabe-cute frown on her face. "You don't need to stare."

"I'm not staring."

"Of course not. You're just looking very intensely, and purposefully trying to make me feel uncomfortable."

When all he received was an airy giggle, he turned back to massacring the ground enough for his tree to fit easily inside.

"You know…"
"No I don't."

Julie waved off his sharp interruption. "You have really long hair."
"Aren't you an observant one."

"It's really pretty too."

Gus opened his mouth, but quietly shut it. There was no point in defending his masculinity from Julie; it would just end in misery.

There was a few seconds of silence from the girl. Then another few seconds; perhaps she had given up on disturbing him…?

"HEY!"

Never again would he allow himself to have such optimistic thoughts; furiously, Gus whipped around and slapped away the pair of hands that had dug themselves into his hair. Julie pulled back, simpering and rubbing her stinging hands affrontedly. "Like, what was that for?"

"That's what I should be asking you!" Gus patted his head frantically, trying to find any evidence of Julie sabotaging the flawlessness of his hair in her jealousy… oh. Maybe he should not be so obsessive; that might be why people kept getting the wrong idea about his sexuality.

"I wanted to put it into a ponytail!" Julie huffed, one hand diving forward again to snatch at his, flicking them. "You shouldn't leave your hair down when you're playing with dirt, and you definitely shouldn't touch it after touching the ground. Silly. Now, be a good boy and let me just–"

"No!" Gus rebelled automatically; Julie was already producing a sequin-spangled elastic from her pocket, the other hand reaching towards him menacingly. He squeaked and backed away as quickly as he could, his own hands raised up in defense.

"Guuuuus, don't be like this, it's for your hair's own good. Don't you care about your hair?" Julie flashed him a fabulous, I-know-what-I'm-doing-just-trust-me-before-you-face-impending-doom smile as she crept closer.

He responded by scuttling back farther. "Don't touch me."

"Gus." For once her face was wiped of all bubbliness, instead replaced with the hardened expression of someone who would not let anything get in the way of their ultimate goal. "There is no way you can treat your hair so cruelly. It's inhumane. I just want to put it up so that it can remain gloriously dirt-free."

Gus growled warningly.

"I'm serious Gus. You don't want to fight me."

So what? She was a creepy frickin' stalker and he wanted nothing to do with her and she was not allowed to touch his hair and oh god she was coming for hi—.

He whipped around as the brown-silver-pink blur hurtled towards him, scrambling to get to his feet—only to forced to the ground with a pained cry as a weight threw itself onto his back. "Gotcha!"

His yelp was muffled by the dirt as his hair was gathered up in a pair of hands, hastily brushing through and tugging and—oh, the horror, her contaminated hands, touching him…

"Do~ne~!" There was that accursed giggle as Julie tapped the top of his head triumphantly. She moved off of him for a second; he rolled onto his back and tried to scrabble back, only to be pounced on again. Julie shoved his shoulders to the ground and inspected his head closely. "There, now your hair is all… aw, no, look, you got dirt in iiiit."

"I?! I got dirt in it?! You're the one who pushed me to the damn ground!"

She was interrupted before she could try and argue this fact. "Oooooh, look at Gus and Julie~, getting it on~."

"What?!" Spluttering, Gus tried to shove Julie off as she chuckled carelessly. His head twisted towards the source of the jeers; Dan, Shadow and Lync had seen it fit to creep closer to the pair during their scuffle and were now in a hysterical huddle, grinning at the two and making cat calls.

"Danny! Shadow, Lync! Don't me and Gussy look cu~te~ together~?"

"It's like you two were made for each other!" Lync called out as Dan and Shadow dissolved into another fit of over-exaggerated mirth. Julie beamed as Gus moaned, still trying to escape the girl's grip and wondering why she was so damn strong.

"I know, right~? I think he's the one."

"Definitely!"

"Come on guys," Dan said, snickering. "Let's give them some privacy."

"Okay, thank you~!" Julie happily waved the three off as they disappeared back to the main group, likely to spread around some delicious rumors, before grinning down at Gus. "So you wanna make out?"

He blanched; despite the cheerful lilt in her voice, she was definitely not teasing. "No! I want to plant my tree!"

Julie squealed, moving off of the blue-haired boy. "Ooh, so we can make out under the tree~?"

His hand twitched upwards, intent on striking across her cheek; it was only incredible strength of will that prevented him from following through with the desire. "What the hell is with this 'making out' nonsense?! What makes you think that I want to –" Gus couldn't bring himself to finish the question. With a hmph, he spun around and shuffled back to his tree, hating himself for allowing his panic to drag him away from it.

"I thought you were lonely, of course."

He stopped; she held her breath.

There was silence.

It was soon broken. "What?"

"Well, you know…" Her hands clasped bashfully behind her back, Julie stared at her toes as she absentmindedly dragged them through the grass, drawing designs that only she could see. "You know, with Keith being dragged away to the loony bin, you haven't really had anyone to chill with."

Her vision shifted from her feet to his as they turned around; with a dramatic air, Julie dragged her eyes up to meet his face. She had known exactly what she was looking for on his face; a look of surprise that the great Julie could be so gracious, understanding, that he would look thankful, even.

It was an understatement to say that Gus instead looked extremely unimpressed. "Loony bin?!"

Julie took a step back, hands rising defensively. "Hey, don't look at me like that. It's not, like, my fault that he's going through some sort of weird identity crisis."

"There's nothing wrong with him. He's perfectly fine."

There was a vicious insistence in Gus' voice that made her laugh nervously. Perhaps she had overestimated her naturally relaxing aura. "Um… yeah, there is. I mean, it might just be puberty or something, but his weird personality switch is waaaay too extreme for fine."

Gus' mouth hung open, waiting for the words that would explain this all away. When nothing came, he shut it with thin lips and a glower that burned even as he turned to stalk away.

"I'm sorryyyyy---!!" He stumbled when slender arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind, a wail colliding with his back. It looked like the bruises he expected to appear from earlier were only going to get worse. "I like, totally did not mean to hurt you~! I'm serious, I was totally thinking about you! I just didn't think you were so sensitiiiiiive! I mean, if you don't wanna be my BF, then we could totally just be friends –"

"How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?!" He squirmed fiercely in her hold, until finally her arms were wrenched apart and she was treated to another loathsome scowl. "I would never, ever want to be your friend or your b…boyfriend. I can't stand you. I'd rather sue you for harassment."

Her bottom lip wobbled and her eyes grew wider with each harsh word. "I totally don't believe you. You have to like me. I'm way too nice to not like."

"Well, believe it." With a last abhorrent glower, he turned his head away for what felt like the umpteenth time. "I don't want anything to do with you."

"Wait!" Once again, his departure was interrupted as she grabbed his sleeve desperately. "You won't stay mad at me, I know it! I… I bet you ten bucks that you'll forgive me! And… and we'll totally be making out under your tree!"

He snorted, pulling his arm away disdainfully. "That's only if I ever get a chance to actually plant it without you harassing me. Besides, it could take years for it to grow. By that time, my opinion wouldn't have changed, and you would have moved on."

Julie puffed out her cheeks childishly, eyes steely with resolution. "Nuh-uh. Just you wait. I can make you like me."

It was her spoken vow; his own contrary one remained unstated, yet perfectly clarified.

And it didn't matter to Julie. She watched him walk away, evidently forgetful of the elastic that was still in his hair, and hardened.

Nobody spoke ill of her and lived to tell the tale.

"Ten bucks please~?"

Gus groaned as her finger toyed with a lock of his hair enticingly, narrowing his eyes at Julie innocent smirk as she picked out a chip of bark. Cursing his weakness, he tried to shift away from the hand wandering to his jaw and look away from the silver hair that glittered in the moonlight. "Nullified. This isn't my tree."

"Ooh, I wonder why~? Maybe because your tree's still a wee wittle baby~?"

There was definitely an intention to dispute this; his tree was nearly a year-old, and for trees that was not technically an infantile age. But she had already leaning forward again, and so all he could do was scowl against her lips and they pressed themselves against his.

Her words whispered against his skin as she pulled away, smug. "Told you I could make you like me."

Gus responded with the one word that summed up all of her efforts. "Harassment."

Julie smiled, defending her cause. "I call it love~."

||I swear, I just keep getting worse and worse at end these things~. :3

I actually seriously debated uploading this, just because of its sheer crappiness. Normally, I'm just say, "Oh lookie, an accident came into being when I touched the keyboard~! Let's show off this accident~!"

Then I figured that since another Gus x Julie idea is gonna take a while, I may as well~.

Critique, my darling bitches~?