project partners
imagine touya and nakuru pairing up as project partners for a week, then throw in small chaos and little moments exchanged between the two. sometimes, we just miss out the little hints in the library.
txn.
inspired by satoshixrisa Hints by Recna den Eres. credits.
"We are supposed to do a project on the history of the Cold War," Touya was grumbling as he sat beside her. He rolled his eyes at the thick book in her hands that read 'How to Snag a Girl in 10 Days'. It apparently was not about the Cold War, or geopolitics whatsoever.
He took his place beside her in the library. "Akizuki, you're procrastinating."
She pouted, looking up, striking her most adorable one she could master. He noticed she was wearing reading glasses. "Aww, Touya! Can't you just let me read the final pages of it?" She pleaded, but he had already shoved it out of her reach.
Instead, he pushed a thick stack of history textbooks into her way, his eyes serious. "Cold War project. I suggest we begin now, Akizuki."
"Name's Nakuru. NA-KU-RU!" She chirped breezily as she happily accepted the huge chunk of stuff in her hands.
He rolled his eyes. He sure could never get used to her hyperactiveness forever induced with excess capacity of caffeine.
-----
"How do you spell 'Eisenhower'?" She asked as her eyes peered out from the thick book. She looked a strange, perculiar sight, as she seemed to shrink with her small face behind the gigantic form.
Touya was reading something by her side. At her question, he did not even look up. Unblinkingly, he spoke, "There's always the dictionary, Akizuki."
"Meanie." She stuck out her tongue, as she reached forth for the little book of alphabets. Then it clicked in her mind, and she asked, "Why don't you ever call me Nakuru for a change, Touya?"
"Only when you decide to stop annoying me." Touya calmly flipped a page.
"But I'm not annoying you." She frowned, puzzled. "I'm being as quiet as a mice, right?"
To which, Touya did not replied. Eliciting a 'humph', and slightly annoyed by the fact that Touya was more engrossed in the book in his hands than he was paying any single shred of attention to her, she leant forward and grasp the book out of his fingers.
He shot her a dirty look. "What was that for? I was reading."
The book title read: How to Snag a girl in 100 days.
Nakuru giggled, amusement flickering in her eyes. Touya quickly snatched the book back, and pushed it away, sliding it across the table. He then leant back on the chair, closing his eyes as if in deep concentration.
"We're digressing."
"We?" She pointed at herself, as if disbelievingly, "YOU, you mean. And what are you doing, reading my book like this? You have a girl you wish to snag, my dearest Touya?"
He debated about pinpointing the way she had called him, or about answering the question. He chose the latter. "No, Akizuki, I was merely bored. And I didn't know you went for girls."
She looked disgusted. "Girls? Eew. Grossness. I like guys, mind you," and as if to prove her point, she leant in closer to him and tugged on his sleeves, "and I'm merely looking for more love advices to offer Eriol-sama."
Touya shifted away, hating the close proximity, and the funny looks the library mates were casting them from a distance.
-----
"You broke the rule." Touya stated as Nakuru took her place beside him.
She mocked innocence as she prepared to bite down on the sandwich in her hands. "What rule?"
"Rule number 5." He never looked up, continuing to complete their sub-topic on the Origins of the Cold War. "No eating and drinking in the library."
Touya had to pronounce the last sentence very loudly, causing Nakuru to practically pounce on him with her fingers to his lips. "Sssh! Do you want the whole library to hear you?"
Touya, caught off-guard, was thrown back onto the library shelves by their side, causing piles and piles of books to fall like plummeting torpedos onto the ground, creating a heap of books to pile up by onto the ground after great noises produced unnecessarily.
"Oops." Nakuru looked up sheepishly, scratching her head as more and more library mates were rouse from their work to cast suspicious glances at them.
They were in a very, very compromising position. Him below, her on top.
Touya shoved her away, trying at best to ignore the stupid heat rushing up to his cheeks.
He tried not to notice how close her face was to his, and how he could practically feel her breath brushing across his neck as she extricated herself from his arms.
-----
"Are you hungry?" Nakuru asked.
Touya's impatience was reaching a scale of zero. She had asked that question from the gazillion time that day, and if he replied back, it would be the gazillion time he would say 'no' in a very irritated manner as well. Hence, he opted for silence.
Nakuru frowned, leaning forward, peering into those brown eyes of his. "I said, are you hungry, Touya-kun?" And she waved both hands before his eyes, distracting him from finishing his work.
"I said, 'no'." He flicked her arms away, a grouchy frown replacing his firm set of lips. "And stop bothering me. Go talk to yourself or something."
"Mou, you're mean." She continued chattering on, as if unfazed by his harsh comment. "Come on, those schoolmates of ours across this table has told me you haven't eaten since morning. So that equates to you being hungry for over six hours, doing our project."
He blinked, and snatched his gaze to cast it across the library. Indeed, three schoolmates of theirs were right across.
"I'm not hungry." He waved her off.
But already, she was opening her lunchbox, revealing rows and rows of yummy, delicious sushis. A pair of chopsticks sat neatly by its side.
"You...made these?" Touya asked, skeptical about her culinary skills, eyeing the glutinous rice glistening back at him crying out at him to devour them with fervour.
"No," she shook her head, giggling, her locks of brown hair swinging behind her, "Tomoyo-san came by yesterday to cook for Eriol-sama and us. These are the leftovers, and they're so good, I thought I'll save them for you!"
For you...
"I'm not hungry." He looked away, trying not to think about how his stomach was inwardly growling, nagging for food.
She looked down at her lunchbox, "Oh, you don't eat leftovers, Touya-kun?"
"It's not that." He shrugged.
She picked up the chopsticks, and offered it to him with a wide grin, "Here you go then, Touya-kun! Try these!"
And he reluctantly agreed.
They were breaking Rule number 5, of course, but heck, who cared?
-----
Touya looked extremely tired today, so she had offered to complete the rest of their sub-topic essay about the Soviet Union and stuff like that. That explained how she ended up writing furiously onto the lined papers while he buried his head in his arms and slept by her side in the library.
Nakuru looked up, biting on the tip of her pen, deep in thought.
She thought about the outlines, the introduction, the exposition, the conclusion, and then finally decided...to forget all about it for a moment, and procrastinate.
Ah, the joys of it.
Picking up a wooden pencil, she began to draw Touya.
-----
"Why are you so tired, Touya?" She asked when he awoke, eyes still sleepy and quite red. "We didn't have a lot of homework yesterday."
"Soccer." He merely uttered, and she nodded, understanding immediately. Seijouu High's soccer season was around the corner, and their practices were now on a daily basis. That would explain his lethargic behavior.
"Okay, I managed to finish our essay while you were asleep. Here, why don't you check it through? I'll go get some food, I'm hungry." Her eyes twinkled at his, and she ran off quickly into the distance.
He looked down, still groggy from sleep, only to see a well-drawn portrait of him lying asleep on the library table staring back at him.
His heart swelled, and one million and one emotions pumelled his heart in a shattering motion.
-----
"Quit drawing circles all over my Math work." Touya tried to shove her away.
She wouldn't quit. She kept drawing circles over his work.
"Akizuki."
"Nakuru." She insisted.
"Dammit, go away." Desperate for her to cease her fruitless attempts (or rather, pretty fruitful) to ruin his Math book and condemn it to becoming a heap of thrash for eternity, he snatched it away from her grasp. Or at least, he tried.
"I refuse."
He lunged for her as she threw the book far into the distance.
He sent her falling onto her back onto the harmless carpeted ground, and he ended up being atop her this time.
The librarian, apparently had had enough. "Get out, both of you!"
-----
The next time they were back in the library, it was because their history teacher had granted them the permission when he saw that their project was going well.
She ended up sewing something beside him, as he started on another history topic.
"You know, Touya," she started, "I think we look quite the couple."
He choked on the potato chips he was snacking on. Spluttering, he looked up, the red colors unconsciously touching his cheeks, "What?"
Unaffected by his exaggerated reaction, she continued to wind the thread through the pinhole carefully, "Don't you think so?"
"Me and you?" He looked incredulous, before he shook his head. "No way."
She looked thoughtful for a second, "Mou, then I don't know why people's been talking behind our backs."
He arched an eyebrow. "They have?"
"Yes. Funny, isn't it?" She laughed, reminding him of silver bells in the spring. He shook his head. Now where did that come from?
"Maybe it's because we always end up looking stupid on the library floor." He uttered.
She flung the dictionary at his direction. "I heard that!"
-----
"What are you sewing?" He finally asked, rousing from his work, stretching his back.
"Something." She squinted her eyes at one particular difficult spot she had to thread through, before she managed to tug the string out after meticulous effort.
Touya closed his eyes, trying to catch a seconds of sleep, if that ever was helpful to rekindle his energy after a day's spent energy.
"Mou!" she cried out, and he immediately snatched himself from his seat, leaning forward to look at her as she bit on her finger.
"What happened?" For a moment, worry laced his eyes, and beneath it, concern was a thinly veiled emotion.
"I pricked my finger." She held it out for him to see. "See?" A trickle of blood was leaking.
He sighed, as he searched his pocket for a single plaster. His search fruitful, he then undid the sticky tapes, carefully took her hand in his, and rolled it around her skin.
He was careful not to let her warmth get to him, nor the peach-scented smell of her hair.
Or those eyes. And her haunting smile.
"Baka." He muttered under his breath, as he was done with his task.
She looked down at her plastered finger, before smiling up at him. "Thank you, Touya."
He shrugged, returning to complete the essay, careful to have his fringe covering that small hint of a smile on his lips.
tsuzuku/owari
A/N:
erh.. yeah, it's either a to-be-continued multi-chaptered fic or the end of this one-shot. it's really up to you guys, because, first of all, there's no single plot that moves this story, and these are merely snippets of their moments as project partners in the library. and secondly, i don't know how many people out there actually... erh.. really supports this non-canon couple, but HECK, I DO!
XD
drop a review, to give me your feedback!
mysterio000
p.s. my lil sis beta-ed this! it's her first time, so thankeww XD