DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mai HiME, or Natsuki, or Shizuru, or any random generic background characters, or even that awesome-looking rose garden. It's all Sunrise's .

A/N: Hurr, I thought I'd try a series of short one-shot ficlets, all revolving around the ShizNat pairing going from pre-carnival through to post-carnival. Prolly done a hundred times over, but meh. I like trying to come up with my own ideas for their relationship development. Depends on if you guys seem to like it or not.

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Chapter 1, Blossoming

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Natsuki glared from the corner of her eye at the older girl who had just plopped herself down next to where Natsuki was eating her lunch, under the shade of a large sakura tree somewhere along the border of the gakuen grounds.

Hands folded across her lap and posture perfect, the intruding girl turned to her middle-school companion with a bright smile.

"Ara, good afternoon Natsuki! I spent the entire beginning of lunchtime searching for you. You weren't in your usual spot out by the rose garden".

Natsuki snorted and turned away, muttering under her breath.

" 'Would've thought you'd get the hint already..."

Shizuru's beaming demeanor faltered for a second as she regarded the withdrawn girl she had recently claimed as "Friend".

Two weeks ago, Shizuru had been sent by her teacher to find the headmistress but instead came across a gloomy young girl in the flower garden. After a tense first meeting, Shizuru had become curiously interested in the girl and now had made it her mission to ditch her horde of fangirls each lunchtime and try to get closer to the socially aggressive beauty with the raven tresses.

Even if Natsuki herself didn't exactly enjoy her company.

Quickly conjuring another Fujino Smile, Shizuru unwrapped the bento sitting on her lap and daintily plucked a rice ball from the small mound of them residing in her luchbox.

"Would you like one, Natsuki?"

Twisting her body in a flash, Natsuki angrily knocked the food item from Shizuru's outstretched hand.

"Why won't you just leave me alone, Fujino! I make an obvious attempt to avoid you, but you still won't leave me alone! Go back to your perfect little group of fake friends, and stay the hell away from me!"

Shizuru blinked. Her smile had dimmed a little, but the corners of her mouth remained upturned slightly. Such willpower, she had.

She gazed at the younger girl in her blue and white middle-school uniform. She had drawn her knees up to her chest, resting her chin as she wrapped her arms around them. Shizuru noticed that her skirt was a little too short to be in such a position, but she refrained from commenting on it. Natsuki was angry enough at her mere presence already, without the added prodding of her teasing.

Shizuru could tell from the girl's cold demeanor that she was unwelcome, but she didn't make any move to leave. She didn't know what it was, but somehow she had gotten the strangest feeling that this girl was hurting on the inside and needed a friend more than anything. And even though the second-year Shizuru was the most popular girl in school, with people throwing themselves at her constantly in a bid to win her friendship, she felt compelled to try and reach out to this strange girl. Maybe it was pity?

Shizuru Fujino sighed softly and leant back on her palms, head rolled to the side and gazing softly at Natsuki. After a few moments of tense silence, Natsuki turned her head to face the gorgeous girl in the orange uniform.

"Well? Are you going to go?!"

"Nope."

Natsuki sighed dramatically and stretched her legs out, mirroring Shizuru's position as she leant back on her hands.

"... I don't get it. Is this some kind of joke to you? Did your friends dare you to trail me for a week or something?"

Shizuru chuckled quietly, causing Natsuki's eyes to snap towards her.

"Nope. I am merely opting to spend my time in Natsuki's presence, because I enjoy her company".

Natsuki released a sharp breath.

"You're never going to leave me alone, are you?" she groaned in a defeated tone. Shizuru chuckled again.

"Nope."

At seeing the other girl half-heartedly roll her eyes, Shizuru decided that she just couldn't resist taking a little jab at the girl.

"Besides, Natsuki is too pleasant a sight for the eyes, I couldn't stand spending a single lunchtime without seeing her cute little frown!"

Just as Shizuru had predicted from two weeks of interacting with and observing the girl, Natsuki's cheeks broke out in a mild flush of pink.

"B-baka! Don't say such things!"

Shizuru giggled and returned to her bento. Throughout the next ten minutes, she chatted cheerily to Natsuki about her interesting classmates or exciting things that had happened to her on the weekends. Natsuki, quietly munching on her own lunch, appeared greatly uninterested in the one-sided conversation.

At one point, Shizuru lost heart in the middle of a classroom recount and quietly let her speech fade out, dismayed by the fact that Natsuki thought she was a pain and was bluntly ignoring her.

Only when Natsuki turned her head and looked at questionably up at Shizuru's sudden cut off mid-speech, did she realise that the younger student had in fact had been listening to her every word. And so she continued until the siren rang, signalling the end of lunchtime.

Gracefully re-wrapping her bento, Shizuru didn't look towards Natsuki as the middle-schooler stood up abruptly and began brushing the dirt off her skirt.

Oh well, I tried. It's been two weeks and she doesn't seem to be opening up to me at all... perhaps tomorrow I should respect her wishes and start sitting with my classmates again for lunch...

Natsuki's shadow suddenly fell over her as the girl stepped in front of the afternoon sun bearing down on Shizuru. The tawny-haired student glanced up in surprise and question at the outstretched hand before her.

"Ara?"

"Hurry up and get up, you're going to be late. Baka."

Raising one slender eyebrow, Shizuru took the offered hand and allowed Natsuki to pull her to her feet. She tried to look into Natsuki's eyes and find a reason for her gesture, but the girl had her head turned and was looking coldly disinterested in her again, arms folded across her chest.

Shizuru was about to give her usual goodbye to Natsuki (one that was never returned) but the girl's somewhat husky voice beat her.

"Well, if you're going to follow me around all the time then I suppose I'll just have to learn to tolerate you."

Shizuru was trying to think up a way to respond to this curt statement. Should she be trying to defend herself, or was it a compliment..? With this girl, even the ever-sharp Fujino Shizuru found it diffucult to read.

At not hearing an immediate response from the upperclassman, Natsuki looked up at the slightly stunned girl.

"So... meet you here tomorrow, then?"

At once, a geniune smile spread across Shizuru's face. And even though her eyes were averted, she was sure that she saw the corners of Natsuki's lifted slightly.

Ara, this is the closest thing I've seen to a smile from her. Maybe I shouldn't give up so soon after all...

Shizuru took a step backwards as she prepared to start walking back towards the school ad re-join her friends for the next class.

"Ara, it's a date then."

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A/N: So, their friendship is in the early stages. Does anybody have any suggestions for later chapters?

Oh, and don't forget to review if you like it/ hated it/ wondered why the hell I posted it!