Entwined
By: akinriahtram
Beta-ed: IndigoGrapefruit
Summary: It was a relationship with no emotional attachments, but she has already fallen in too deep.
She sat in the back of the classroom next to the windows. Her hood was pulled over her head and her eyelids were closed. The room was bleak and vacant except for a few eager students who came early for tutorials.
Regardless of the tranquility in the room, the sounds of laughter and chatter resonated from the courtyard and her acute ears caught onto parts of the conversation: something about plans for the summer and group dates which she had no interest in.
"Hotaru!"
Mikan Sakura dashed into the room only to trip and fall right before her.
"Baka," Hotaru muttered as her eyes opened to reveal a pair of hauntingly beautiful amethyst orbs.
Mikan Sakura laughed nervously at the pair of eyes feigning indifference.
"Hotaru! Guess what?"
Despite her complex towards her cousin, Hotaru wasn't ready to deal with her cousin's hyperactivity.
She sighed and ignored her aching heart. "Natsume Hyuuga asked you to date him."
At the sound of his name, everyone turned, wide-eyed and astonished by the news.
Mikan Sakura and Hotaru Imai were labelled as the freaks of the school. Mikan Sakura had the most atrocious taste in everything (besides her love interest) and was the most reckless and imprudent girl on the planet while her cousin, Hotaru Imai was eccentric and aloof with insensitive critics. 1) relate to the topic sentence 2) chance the topic sentence 3) make it a new sentence altogether
"Eh? How did you know?" Mikan blinked foolishly as she grabbed onto the ends of the auburn hair that was tied up into two pig tales.
A smile then broke out onto Mikan's face, "Of course you would know! You're the most intelligent person I know!"
Hotaru breathed in deeply. She couldn't tolerate her cousin's chirpiness today. Not today.
"Why don't you go to your class, Mikan? Who knows? Luna Koizumi might just want you to join her group."
A large smile formed on Mikan's face as her chestnut brown eyes twinkled in delight. "Sayonara Hotaru!"
Hotaru watched as her best friend skipped out the door and went back to her previous feat. The ray of sunshine Mikan brought into the room vanished instantaneously and her life was bitter and chilly again. Her heart ached uncontrollably and her eyes stung with tears. Her breathing became irregular as she tried to supress them, except one crystal drop that managed to escape the eyelids.
There was no need to bother Mikan with meaningless memories that didn't concern her.
The warning bell rang as students entered the room in cliques. Hotaru really couldn't tolerate the happy vibe flowing out from her classmates. Without anyone noticing, she stood up and headed towards the infirmary.
She was hoping, waiting for someone to save her.
As Hotaru predicted, when lunchtime flew by, everyone was talking about the newly established relationship between Natsume Hyuuga and Mikan Sakura and Luna Koizumieven invited the girl into their clique.
When Hotaru approached the cafeteria, she was greeted with a loud "Hotaru!" from her cousin. She knew she should've just gone home instead of the infirmary! Her cousin skipped up to her and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the table that belonged to her boyfriend's group. The table was converged with Luna's. Hotaru stared at the odd layout.
"This is my cousin and my best friend, Hotaru." Mikan introduced hastily, using hand gestures, which was a habit she developed when she was a little kid.
Infinite pairs of eyes turned and stared at her. Natsume acknowledged her with a nod which she returned, ignoring the tugging of her heartstrings. She could feel it, but she could only ignore it.
"Just call me Imai."
"She's that freak, right?" Luna's friend whispered softly but she, being the freak, caught onto her statement. "The one who scored perfect on every single test."
"Imai, you can sit here," A boy with a slight French accent gave her a gentle smile as he scooted his chair over to the right and pulled out another one.
"No thank you," Hotaru declined politely, "I have a student council meeting. Mikan, I'll see you later."
She turned and left, hoping for something that could only happen in a fairy tale. She hoped that someone would grab onto her arm and stopped her. But that only existed in fairy tales and for Hotaru, there were no fairy tales.
No one stopped her.
She knew that even if she tried, she could never belong anywhere.
She dreamed of her mother often.
Like a broken video tape, every time she slept, the images would replay constantly - the image of her mother's back as she left the house. The digital time on the oven with the neon green numbers that read 4:03. The wailing of the phone. A man's scratchy voice informing her of her mother's death. The hospital. White. White. More white. Her mother's pale corpse with raven hair that Hotaru ever loved so dearly.
She was as good as dead since that day.
"I knew you didn't have a student council meeting."
It was that soft, gentle voice with the slight French accent again.
"I also know you're not sleeping either."
Hotaru hoped that he would go away if she didn't respond, but she had no such luck because she heard him sit down, leaning against the same tree trunk as her.
"And I know that you like Natsume."
Her eyes opened and she casted him a dangerous look.
"I was right!" A smile graced his lips.
"You're annoying as Mikan," she snarled as her dangerous pair of amethyst eyes bored right into his cerulean blue ones. If looks could kill, Hotaru finally would have got the peace she wanted.
"And you're as stubborn as Natsume."
His smile did not waver, which angered her. It felt as if he was mocking her, testing her patience.
"What do you want, Nogi?"
His eyes widened and he blinked a couple of times.
"You know my name!" The sentence came out in an astonished manner.
Ruka resembled Mikan so much that she didn't know whether she hated him or if she was tolerating him like she tolerated Mikan. The only difference between them was that Mikan and she had a connection, whereas she and Ruka Nogi were strangers who occupied different ends of the spectrum and were somehow thrown together ever since their first meeting.
"So tell me, why are you here Nogi?"
His infamous boyish grin appeared on his face and he scratched his heads. "Well…" He trailed off, uncertain how to respond to her question.
"If you have nothing to say, go back."
"I'm wounded, Imai." He put a hand over his left side of the chest and feigned hurt.
"Don't try those tactics on me. They might work on other girls, but you should know that they won't work on me. If you want to pose for some photo shoots, then I won't mind."
Ruka ignored the previous statement as he stared up at the endless blue sky. "I still can't believe you like Natsume. Does Mikan know?"
Hotaru decided to give up on persuading the other boy to leave to her at peace. She stood up and was about to leave when she felt a tug on her sleeves.
Glancing back, her eyes widened at the sea of loneliness that was reflected in his. His eyes were so innocent that he suddenly looked like a child, a boy who was lost in the world.
Hotaru then wondered if it had always there. Maybe she just had never bothered to notice before.
Hotaru sighed dejectedly as she sat down, wondering if there was ever an end to the solitude in her life.
"Does Mikan know you like him?" Ruka asked her as he sat down, handing her a can of orange juice he bought at the vending machine.
"She's a selfish selfless girl," she muttered darkly as she took the icy cold can into her hands. "If I tell her, then the outcome would be horrendous."
The school's small courtyard was empty and serene with the occasional chirping of the birds and the munching coming from the small wild animals under the ground. They were sitting under the canopy of the blooming trees as Sakura petals drifted slowly down onto the floor.
Hotaru took a sip of her orange juice as she softly inhaled the brisk, cool breeze of the spring air. She missed the warm colours of spring. After her mother's death, she spent time in the asylum where everything was practically white with shades of blue that resembled the eerie grey sky.
When they finally let her out, the season of winter approached her with snickers and chuckles, mocking her.
"Are we really skipping third period?" Ruka asked anxiously.
"Go to class then." She replied in a monotonous voice.
However, Ruka did not leave her.
"You know, back when you just transferred here, I thought you were scary and unapproachable,but you're just like Natsume.""You're unfriendly and remote, but that's because you're protecting yourself."
Ruka almost laughed at Hotaru's stricken face, knowing that he had very well hit the mark, but there was something about her that he didn't get. There were traces of darkness that overshadowed her, threatening to fully engulf her and pull her down to the pits of abyss. He wanted to save her.
So he told her his deepest secret.
"You know Hotaru, I've always liked Mikan. Ever since the first day I spoke to her."
She glanced sideways at him, "Why don't you move on, Nogi? Just let her go."
He was slightly taken back at her answer. A chuckle then left his throat and he laughed inwardly. Of course, Hotaru Imai was different from the other girls.
Ruka closed his eyes and silence engulfed the air. They were sitting side by side against a tree trunk with her holding onto a can of orange juice and him sleeping against the tree. It appeared to be a place for star-crossed lovers, but these two were no star-crossed lovers. They were two broken-hearted people, suffering from unrequited love.
"Can you?"
She bit her bottom lip. It was always much easier said than done. Reality was like a pendulum string that swung back and forth even through hardship and battles, never-ending.
"We're pitiful, aren't we, Hotaru?"
He didn't use her surname like he usually did. For the first time, Hotaru found herself liking how he said her name.
"Yes we are, Ruka." She answered softly. "Yes we are."
…
Three months passed since Mikan's get together with Natsume. They were no longer closed like they were before and to say that Hotaru didn't miss her cousin would've been a lie. Mikan's priorities lied in her new clique and like Hotaru predicted to herself, their time together seemed to shorten devastatingly.
It wasn't Mikan's fault, Hotaru told herself as she wandered aimlessly down the hallway. It was her fault, for not trying to fit in with Mikan's new friends, but she couldn't bring herself to sit down near Natsume. The pain of the unspoken rejection was far too much for her. It was an endless burden, a parasite feeding onto her heart.
Hotaru wondered how Ruka managed to remain charming in front of them.
The two each other met up on random occasions. For Hotaru, Ruka was someone who understood her pain. He was the source that helped her linger in the reality without completely disappearing.
There was no love in their relationship. There weren't even traces of friendship. Just two people strung together because of a tragic one-sided love. They both understood that their relationship had no emotional attachments, just a physical one to numb out the broken feeling and forget the unrequited love.
It was a mutual, loveless and temporary solution, and Ruka understood that too. But as time passed, Hotaru knew that she had to leave him. She was starting to develop deeper feelings for him, for someone who she shouldn't. Every morning, when she woke up with him next to her, she noticed details of him that she hadn't noticed before: the way his messy soft blond hair framed his face while he slept. His unnaturally long eyelashes and his deep and alluring his blue eyes.
Her feelings for Natsume slowly disappeared and simple actions done by Ruka made her heart fluttered: the way he said her name, the way he walked up to her and stroked her hair like a little kid when she sat alone at lunch and no one was watching, the way he hugged her during the night. She felt secured when he was around.
However, it was all was temporary. Whenever they were out in public, the two remained silent with each other.
Graduation crept up slowly and Hotaru decided to leave Tokyo, taking the offer at the University of Waterloo, majoring in engineer. Mikan and her family cried endlessly at her choice and persuaded her to stay. Bit weird, don't you think? I think they should support her choice.
"You're not going to tell him." Natsume questioned her, but it came out more like a statement.
How ironic the way the world works.
She didn't have to reply for the other boy to understand.
"If you don't take the step, Imai, someone might just take him."
"If you like her Hyuuga, then tell her. Someone might just take her away." She didn't respond. Her eyes stared aimlessly at nothing. She didn't want to tell Ruka and Mikan's boyfriend didn't understand the relationship they had. No one knew about their passionate nights. It was a sin that she became accustomed to. It was a relationship without any attachments.
Except she fell for him.
Like in most clichés, Hotaru waited right before the entrance to the security check, hoping that he would just show up at the last minute and pulled her back.
"Don't go, Hotaru!" Mikan sobbed like a little child.
She muttered the word "Baka," but nevertheless, a smile was visible upon her lips.
While exchanging farewells with Mikan's family, Mikan and Natsume, Hotaru eyed the entrance, hoping to see him, but he did not come. Five minutes before the departure of the plane, Hotaru decided to give up.
"I'm sorry I'm late." He breathed heavily, which was the result from running. Hotaru knew well enough that Ruka had ran quite a distance for him to be breathing heavily. After all, she always watched him during his soccer games.
An awkward silence hung between them, before Ruka said, "I'll miss you, Imai."
She noted that he didn't call her by her first name and she felt her heart shattered. She didn't know how to reply, because she was an awkward person and their relationship was quite indefinite.
"If you don't take the step, Imai, someone might just take him."
Natsume's sentence replayed in her mind and Hotaru knew that if she would regret it if she let it go. She wanted to tell him. She wanted to him to know her feelings, even if all she got was rejection. So she grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him into a kiss.
She kissed him passionately; her actions spoke louder than words. She wanted to show him how much she loved him, and that it wasn't all just meaningless desire.
Ruka stood there, dumfounded by the sudden act but just when he was about to reciprocate her confession, he was interrupted.
"All passengers to Toronto, Canada, please board 7514. All passengers boarding 7514."
Hotaru pulled away rather awkwardly.
"I have to go."
Ruka didn't answer her.
Hotaru knew that Ruka wouldn't ask her to say. She could tell through that one kiss. Perhaps he would wait for her, but she would be fine even if he didn't. After all, he was her knight, who had saved her from the abyss of hell.
Hotaru parted the airport, leaving Ruka staring at her back.
"Why didn't know you tell her to stay?" Mikan asked him as she sobbed.
"Hotaru's different, Mikan. She's prideful and selfish… She won't stay if I ask her to. All I can do is wait."
Their goodbye was rushed and easily brushed off.
But actions always spoke louder than words.
….
A pair of amethyst eyes aligned its vision with the pale grey sky that seemed to stretch endlessly to the ends of the horizons with delicate flutters of the snow petals. The harvest season was ending, marking down another year of her life. She was no longer the childish girl who yearned to be love. The six years unaccompanied in Canada made her grew up and to depend on herself rather than anyone else. After all, she couldn't wait for her prince charming forever.
Hotaru took a sip of her coffee as she stared out the window which was fogged up by the vapour coming from the dark liquid, indicating that the temperature outside was much colder.
"This is Kevin Simz as your pilot. We've successfully landed in Tokyo. Thank you for choosing West Jet and I hope your journey will be a safe one. Thank you!"
Hotaru took her bag and exited the plane, hoping that the idiot hadn't forgotten to pick her up.
…
She should've expected it.
She expected her cousin to pull some nonsensical joke, but she didn't think it would go that far.
Ephemeral amethyst eyes met unfathomable blue azure ones, which successfully pulled her into a trance.
She had expected a childish, chirpy Mikan jumping up and down holding a big sign with horrible, indecipherable writing that said 'WELCOME BACK HOTARU.' However, it was Ruka with his charming, boyish smile holding a bouquet of roses.
"It's been a while."
She, being the awkward girl she was, stared at him with no ability to utter a word, but she didn't have to say anything, for he understood.
"Welcome back, Hotaru." He wrapped his arms around her delicate shoulders.
She slowly wrapped her arms around his waist as crystal tears fall down onto her pale cheeks. Her face rested against his shirt and she took a deep breath, filling the all too familiar scent of his into her lungs.
"I'm back, Ruka."
Despite the chilly air in the airport and despite the fluffy petals burying the surface of the earth like an eternity of death, Hotaru felt the warmness and the life of spring.
Note: Something I stumbled upon in my files. Enjoy!