Humming was heard echoing in a large vast room as a young girl fixed her fuchsia bandana around the collar of her white and aqua green sailor designed dress. The purple haired girl dropped her hands to the side of her body and twirled around once in a circle to check her outfit for flaws.
'Alright…! Looks lik- Oh! I forgot to tie my hair up!' Kuguru whispered to herself, walking over to get the circular lamps and hair accessories on the table nearby.
As she adjusted the lamps onto her hair, the zipper on her dress slowly became undone, Kuguru not noticing it.
'There! This should work!' the girl exclaimed quietly.
Kuguru smiled at herself in the mirror, turned to grab her things, and walked out the room to get to school on time.
"I'll be leaving now! Bye!" the girl called out to her parents, closing the door behind her.
Kuguru wore on her glasses she had in her hands and began searching for card info on her tablet to help Baku with Gao's deck until she ran into the deck builder near the escalators.
"Eep!" the girl exclaimed, her circular glasses slipping of her nose a little.
"Oh, hey, Kuguru," Baku said casually, a lollipop hanging out of his mouth like usual. "Be careful when you're walking. Who knows who or what you'll bump into."
"Haha, very funny.. I bet you did that on purpose," Kuguru said, smiling normally.
"Well, I saw you coming so I decided to wait."
"That's nice. Anyways, has Gao made it to school yet?"
Right when the girl finished asking about the red and black haired boy, distant yelling and giggling were heard from about one-fourth of a mile away.
"No, but those booming voices must have hinted the answer," Baku smiled, pointing behind her.
'I DIDN'T EAT THE PUDDING, DRUM!'
'QUIT DENYING IT! I KNOW THAT YOU'RE THE CULPRIT!'
The voices quickly got closer to the two elementary students and the moving stairs, revealing Gao, Drum, and Hanako running to school; Drum and Gao pressed against each other while Hana laughed her brownish red head off.
'Gao! Escalators are ahead!' the girl warned between her giggles.
The boy looked over in front of him and caught Baku and Kuguru staring at the three with interested smiles plastered onto their faces.
"Oh, hey, guys!" the boy greeted, running ahead and leaving his buddy in his dust.
"Hey! We're not finished here!" Drum exclaimed, chasing after Gao.
'Man, they are loud..' Noboru thought, clicking his tongue and looking away as he slowly walked away.
"Ah! Kitten Shirt is there! Kitten Shirt! Kitten Shirt! Hi! You didn't say anything to us! I saw you looking!" Hana exclaimed, waving at the yellow haired boy.
"IT'S NOT A KITTEN! IT'S A TIGER FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME!" the yellow and dark brown streak haired boy exclaimed.
"It's a kitten!"
"Tiger!"
"Kitten!"
"TIGERRRRRRR!"
An awkward silence came between the two as chattering from the outside world filled in the quiet space.
"….. Kitten!" the girl exclaimed in the exact same tone and voice as before, breaking the silence.
"I give up. I. Give. Up. Tiger, kitten, just forget it," Noboru said, slapping his forehead.
"I win! Hahaha, Kitten Shirt!" the young girl giggled.
"You guys are as lively as ever," Kuguru commented as she pushed her glasses upwards.
"Heheh, are we?" Gao answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "So what's up?"
"What's up? We should be the one asking you that," Baku replied. "So what's up?"
"…. You didn't need to repeat what I asked…." Gao said with an awkward smile. "Nothing's up. Well, except for Drum accusing me for eating his pudding again. Thing is, I didn't!"
"DENIAL! YOU'RE IN DENIAL! YOU'RE DENYING AGAIN!" the dragon accused.
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
"Are they in preschool or something?" Zanya suddenly asked, passing by the group.
"Hey, Zanya, Akatsuki! How's it going?" Gao exclaimed.
"Quit changing the subject!"
"Good, that's all I can say until I arrived to school campus and heard…. stuff," Zanya groaned.
"Big Z meant he doesn't want to be here after seeing this at the same time he does because-," Akatsuki jumped in, his brother suddenly covering his mouth.
"L-let's j-j-just get to c-class. W-we're going to be l-l-late if we stay h-here any longer," the indigo ponytailed boy stuttered furiously.
Zanya quickly walked away and up the escalators, dragging Akatsuki up with him frantically.
'Isn't that dangerous…?' the students said quietly as they all stepped onto the steps of the moving stairs.
"Z? Are you alright?" Akatsuki asked after his brother pulled his hands away.
The child noticed his brother's scrunched up face and tilted his head to the side.
"You look….. bothered..?"
"Bothered? B-by what? Ha. Ahahaha!" Zanya chuckled nervously. "You nearly said a random confession I wanted to keep hidden!"
"I don't know.. Isn't that why I'm asking you?" the younger brother asked curiously. "And what confession? I was going to say that you wanted to be here to see the energy of the group again.."
Zanya's face was all red in realization as he stopped making the weird nervous expression on his face and cleared his throat.
"Ahem. It's nothing. Really," the boy said, suddenly remembering what his sharp amber eyes caught.
"If you say so, Zanya," Akatsuki said, smiling brightly. "I should go to class now! We have….. 3 minutes to get to class! Bye, Z!"
The little blue ninja waved at the uncomfortable boy in white and dashed off towards the tall building to get to his class on time.
'Thank God he didn't pry any further…' Zanya sighed with relief.
"What was that?" Gao asked once he reached to the top along with everyone else.
"U-Uwahh!"
The group looked at Zanya curiously and tilted their heads to the side.
"N-nothing! ...Quit staring at me like that!" the boy exclaimed in a high pitched girly voice, covering up his face with one hand and waving the other out in front.
The students stared at each other and gave an awkward shrug to the fidgety boy.
"A-ANYWAYS, I GOT TO GO!"
Kuguru jumped out in front of him before his was able to turn around and take even the slightest step from his spot.
"Want to walk with us then?" the girl asked, rocking back and forth on her heels.
'G-girlllll…!' the boy squeaked in a higher pitched voice.
"What was that?" the girl asked, smiling curiously.
Kuguru slowly leaned in closer and closer to Zanya until she was high enough and about 2 inches apart from his face. Zanya's glasses suddenly shattered and slipped off his face crookedly, his face burning dark red.
"I-I'M IN A DIFFERENT CLASS. I CAN'T WALK WITH YOU," the boy excused himself running away.
"What did he mean by that? His class is just next door," Gao said confusedly.
"Bro, he's just weird," Baku reasoned, patting the shorter boy's shoulder.
"I don't get it?" the Sun Fighter asked, looking at Baku.
"You don't need to get it," Noboru suddenly said, passing by the group again with a grumpy face.
"Wait, wasn't he in front of us?" Gao asked.
"Yes, but he began to talk to Hanako earlier about his kitty shirt," Kuguru said, looking behind her.
'I HEARD THAT!'
"Then why was he so-"
"Gao, no more questions please.. We're going to be late if you're just going to stand here and ask all day long," Baku sighed, leading the boy before him to the building.
"Uh, okay."
'How will I confront her at this point?' Zanya thought to himself, burying his face deeper into his book. 'Kuguru, I have something to tell you- No, that sounds like a confession.. AND I'M NOT READY TO CONFESS YET!'
The boy tightened up his grip on the book he had in his hands and began to shake a little in embarrassment. Tetsuya looked over at the boy and smiled curiously, tilting his head like a dog.
'What's up with you, man?' the boy with bananas on his head asked.
'Nothing. Just listen to the lecture,' Zanya whispered back.
'If you say so, dawg..'
The boy did what he was told, but soon lost interest in the class lecture and fell asleep.
'Jeez, no wonder he has the lowest rank in both class and buddyfighting…' the boy muttered quietly. 'So what should I say to her…? Your dress is unzipped. No, it's too blunt…. Kuguru, your zipper isn't zipped up fully.'
The boy halted his train of thoughts for a second and then frowned to himself, his cheeks growing even darker if possible.
'Damn.. I sound like a pervert.. Should I just swiftly zip it up for her? But then, I'd be near her and that's just awkward, zipping up a zipper for someone else and mainly a girl's dress too. Others might think I'm pulling a prank on her or trying to get the thing even lower than it needs to be..' Zanya thought, covering up the lower half of his face with a handkerchief to keep the blood from spilling all over the book and desk.
"Should I just walk up and tell her straight up that her zipper is unzipped? Maybe she already found out or someone notified her about it," the boy said a little too loud.
"Kisaragi, are you talking to yourself?" the teacher asked, frowning at the boy a little.
The boy's head shot up quickly in embarrassment as the class began to snicker and giggle at his random out of place statement.
'N-no…?' the boy answered meekly through the layer of cloth.
"What was that? Speak up and remove that handkerchief from your face. Your gloves already muffle your voice, so might as well not ADD another layer to make it even harder for me to hear," his teacher said. "And… WAKE UP, KURODAKE!"
Tetsuya's body jolted at the call, but his eyes remained closed for a minute longer. The blond's green orbs shone brightly as his eyes lazily fluttered back open, his mouth slightly parted open.
'Ah..?' the boy grunted lightly in a confused tone.
"You are still in class, young man! Don't you go drifting off to sleep now! And wipe that drool off your face!"
"Okay…" Tetsuya responded in a casual yet lazy tone.
"Zanya, you still haven't answered my question yet," the teacher said.
'But I did…..' the boy thought exasperatedly. 'I wasn't talking to myself.'
No response came from the teacher as the room fell back into silence, waiting for the boy to uncover his mouth. Zanya groaned silently and looked over at Tetsuya to see him still wiping off the drool from his mouth with his sleeve.
"I said, I wasn't talking to myself," Zanya said clearly, removing his gloved hand and the handkerchief from his face.
The teacher nodded and then turned around, Zanya suddenly fainting from the sudden blood lost after letting go of his nose.
"AHHH! ZANYA!" Tetsuya exclaimed, picking up the limp upper body of his.
The teacher immediately turned around to see what was going on and then sighed exasperatedly, noticing the strange behavior Zanya had for the day.
"Tetsuya, Take him to the nurses office immediately," the teacher ordered.
"Is he dead?" a male student asked.
"No! Of course not!"
"Thanks, Tetsuya," Zanya said uncomfortably as the nurse cleaned off his face.
"Naw, I should thank you! You got me out of that boring class," the dancer replied, leaning his head back onto his raised up arms.
'How did I not notice that coming..' the boy with glasses muttered, awkwardly looking over at the nurse.
"I have no idea what happened, but be careful, alright, young man?" the nurse said with a smile.
Zanya gave a slow nod to the woman as she finished up wiping his face casually, unaware of his fear for girls and women.
"And you're ready! Break is next, so just relax and take it easy."
"T-thank you v-very m-much.." the boy stuttered, rapidly sitting up and pushing himself off the bed with force.
Zanya walked out of the room stiffly, his body all straight and strained, his arms and legs flexed and firm. Every step he took made a creaking noise from his bones, his legs outstretched in front of him and the opposite arm brought up; both limbs creating a ninety degree angle each time. Leaning side to side with the steps, the boy walked or just waddled out like a cranked up toy soldier with a nervous face expression displayed.
"Thanks for helping, miss!" Tetsuya said, following his classmate from behind.
'T-TH-T-TH-TH-THANK YOU!' Zanya called loud enough from outside.
The nurse only chuckled and shook her head at the boys.
"You're welcome, boys!" the woman called back.
As Zanya walked over to check on Kuguru and her dress in a jittery manner, he continued to think of ways to confront the girl without making the simple statement sound weird or perverted.
'She still hasn't noticed yet…' he thought disappointedly.
The boy sighed and tried to muster up all the courage he could from inside himself, but too bad he didn't have as much as he thought he did.
"Z, you're shaking a lot," Akatsuki pointed out.
"No, I'm not," the boy denied, shaking even faster and harder.
"Yes, you are."
"I KNOW I AM! I'M A FAILURE, A COWARD!" the older boy sobbed.
"Aw, no you're not! You're the coolest big brother to have! I can never replace you with anyone else!" Akatsuki said brightly, grinning cheekily with his arms outstretched to exaggerate his sentence.
"… Thanks, Akatsuki," the boy said, smiling back as he pat the blue haired boy.
Zanya stood up taller and more relaxed than earlier right after that small statement his brother made, fixing up his clothes and pushing up his glasses. He was still shaking violently, but not as violent as before.
"Let's go!" Akatsuki exclaimed, dashing off towards the group.
"W-WAIT! I'M NOT READY!" Zanya exclaimed, reaching out to grab the collar of his brother's shirt.
Too bad he missed his collar and fell face first onto the floor as his brother called out to the group.
'Hey, Gao!'
'Hi, Akatsuki! Where's your brother right now?' the boy asked.
'Over there,' Akatsuki replied, pointing behind him casually.
'What's he doing, kissing the ground?' Baku snickered.
Zanya hopped back up onto his feet, his face bright red in embarrassment.
"I AM NOT KISSING THE FLOOR FOR YOUR INFORMATION!" the boy exclaimed, brushing off the dirt that was staining his pure white clothes.
'Well, I'm sorry it looked like you were,' Baku snickered, covering his mouth in a mischievous behavior.
Zanya let out a quick 'hmph' and sauntered over to the group to make himself look less bad from how he already displayed himself though it made it worse.
'Now here comes the challenge…'
Zanya suddenly cleared out his throat and tried to calm down from his nervous fit, looking around awkwardly.
"Uhhhh, Kuguru…." the boy began.
"What is it, Zanya?" Kuguru answered back brightly.
'I can do this. I can do this!' he thought. "Never mind, it's nothing."
The boy turned around and slapped himself hard, making his right cheek sting red.
'DAMN IT. I CAN'T DO THIS!' the boy screamed mentally.
'Is he alright?' Gao whispered to Akatsuki.
"Yep!"
'He's lost it, he's totally lost it!' Baku said, trying hard not to laugh. "Hey, hey, were you just trying to confess right now?"
"NOOOOO!"
And with that, the boy dashed off back into the academy with a beat red face, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes from embarrassment. The way he ran caught the attention of the students from inside, a scene just playing out before them.
"He's so out of character today.." Drum suddenly said.
"Yeah…" Gao agreed.
"I failed…. Once again… My pride, my appearance, I soiled them just for this one reason…." Zanya sobbed pathetically, hitting his forehead against his desk. 'Lunch. I need to tell her during lunch…'
Flames were now present around the furious boy, making the other students look at him weirdly and avoid him.
"Dude, you cool there?" Tetsuya asked in a concern tone once more.
"Yes, about 1 minute, 13 seconds, and 5 milliseconds left until the bell rings," Zanya said, glaring at the clock on the wall.
"Are you sure? You are so out of it today, yo," Tetsuya mentioned.
"You all keep asking that same question. I'm fine, really," Zanya said, still counting down the time.
The bell rang a few seconds later, the teacher dismissing the class right after. Zanya immediately stood up from his desk, and ran out the door to inform Kuguru about the zipper on her dress as soon as possible. Once he got to the roof top, he stopped and dropped to his knees from anxiety.
'This…. Is… A pain!' the boy whispered loudly, sweat droplets forming on his face.
"Ah, hey, Zanya! Why are you just kneeling on the ground?" Gao called loudly.
"Gukk! I AM? AM I? REALLY? AHAHAHA, I MUST HAVE DROPPED MY GLASSES! AHAHAHA!" the boy chuckled loudly, standing back up and running off again. "I CAN'T DO THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"
"I'll follow him," Kiri suddenly said after being silent for so long.
"Alright, we'll leave Zanya up to you then, Kiri," Drum said, waving the boy off.
Kiri only waved back and left the area to follow the oh-so-nervous Zanya. The ninja was sitting at his desk, still sulking over the bothersome thought.
"Hey, is there something you want to let out right now?" Kiri asked, popping up from behind the boy.
Zanya flinched as he yelled and fell out of his seat backwards, waving his arms around as he fell.
"UWAHHH! OOF! Jeez, Kiri, don't scare me like that…!"
"Sorry, but I tried to enter the room as loud as possible," Kiri said, smiling a little.
"Well, that wasn't loud enough!" the boy said, pushing himself off the ground and back onto his seat.
"Or you just have lousy hearing abilities," the light blue haired boy joked.
"Hahaha, yeah right.."
"So, is anything bothering you right now? You've been running around a lot lately…. Or is it because of Kuguru's presence?" Kiri asked.
"It's nothing! Really!" Zanya covered up once again.
"Just tell us when you're ready then," Kiri advised, patting the boy's shoulder.
Kiri's words continued to linger through the boy's preoccupied mind, ringing every few seconds and blocking out the teacher's voice.
'He talks as if I have girl problems… But then again, I guess you could relate this little problem to the problems girls tend to have…. That's it. I need to tell her!' Zanya thought standing up from his seat in confidence.
"Kisaragi, do you need to go to the restroom or something?" the teacher asked.
"N-no.. I'm sorry.." Zanya apologized awkwardly, sitting back down.
The final bell finally sounded through the academy, allowing Zanya to bolt out of the classroom in the speed of sound and up to Gao's class. Opening the door to the classroom swiftly, the boy saw no sign of the small group of four students, making him dash to the front of the school hurriedly.
"KUGURU! I SERIOUSLY NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!" Zanya exclaimed after spotting purple, red and black, brown, and light blue heads.
The girl turned around curiously and pushed up her glasses, making the boy unintentionally have a little nosebleed.
"What is it now, Zanya? Did something happen to Akatsuki?" the girl asked curiously.
"N-no… It's about…" the boy drifted off, pointing at the girl.
"Me?"
"SO IT IS A CONFESSION!" Baku exclaimed.
Zanya and Kuguru blushed, but ignored the boy with the monstrous appetite.
"So what did you need?"
"I- Uh… You- Er….. How do I put this together…" Zanya stumbled upon his words, rubbing his neck. "You forgot- No… Your zipper on your dress isn't zipped up!" the boy exclaimed, shutting his eyes tight and thinning out his lips.
Kuguru blinked and then looked over her shoulder to see whether the boy's outburst was true or not. Turns out that it was.
"You could've told me earlier you know!" Kuguru giggled, zipping it back up.
'I'm such an idiot...' the boy thought slapping his forehead.
Kuguru was still smiling as she tilted her head in curiosity.
" … WELL, THAT'D BE ALL NOW. BYE!" Zanya exclaimed, running away nervously. "I'M SO DUMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB!"
"That was it? How boring…" Baku said disappointedly, everyone else smiling uncomfortably around him.
"He just called himself stupid," Drum pointed out.
Stormy: HELLO HELLO! SORRY, I COULDN'T UPDATE ANY FASTER. I HAD FINALS, BUT IT'S OVER NOW! Well, for the first semester.. YES, CHRISTMAS BREAK!
Yuna: This one-shot was requested by PhoenixFireBlade! The idea of the plot also belongs to them!
Stormy: Here's the update in progress:
Stories in progress:
-The Start (Megaman Star Force)
-The One Dream (Hunter X Hunter)
-To Forget Or To Be Forgotten (Future Card Buddyfight)
-Hunters in Wonderland (Hunter X Hunter)
Requested Stories in progress:
-Frozen Connection (Future Card Buddyfight)
-Lovers' War Game (Future Card Buddyfight)
-Once Upon A Time? (Future Card Buddyfight)
-The Land of Olympus- No, Aibo! (Future Card Buddyfight)
Number of Requested Stories that need to be started on:
5 (Someone requested even though requests were closed. -sigh- Please read guys!)
Requests Opened or Closed?:
CLOSED AND I SERIOUSLY MEAN CLOSED.
Yuna: Same poll on Stormy's profile if you haven't checked yet!
Stormy: I think I'll be updating quickly this week to get this all out of the way. I'm sorry guys if you don't like frequent updates like, I don't know and example updating every 2 hours.
Akatsuki: Sorry if her updates are as slow as a snail.
Hanako: She tries to multitask and even sings when she writes stories which causes her to mess up sometimes.
Stormy: -sigh- I also need to finish a drawing before Christmas..
Kiri: Anyways!
Kuguru: R&R
Gao: And enjoy!
Baku: -patting Zanya's back along with Tetsuya-
Zanya: I'm an idiot... -sobbing-
Everyone: Bye!
~stormy003