You Belong With Me

Kuragahime- Tsukimi and Kuranosuke

Tsukimi watched as Kuranosuke shouted into his phone and gestured wildly in obvious agitation. She felt sorry for her friend who lived across a small alley away from her in a connected wing of an apartment building. She was surprised when he had said that he was going to go to the same school as her, a lowly college that was close to home and didn't cost much. Since his father was a rich senator she had expected him to go to an Ivy League college like Harvard or Oxford, somewhere the rich and famous go. She had already started to accept the fact their friendship, and her schoolgirl crush, would come to an end by the end of their senior year. So when he told her that they would both be going to the same place she was excited. He would be studying fashion and she would be learning design and studio art. She smiled thinking about how alike they were. He could make a small move with his hand, head, or body, and she would know what he was thinking almost immediately. Sadly though, when they had started college they had grown apart. She studying more artistic design and he more fashion designs. This led them to two different circles, especially with how they looked.

Tsukimi, while pretty, was just a plain boring Jane. With her braided black hair, unfashionable clothes, and thick black rimmed glasses, she looked like a poster child for Nerds-R-Us. Kuranosuke on the other hand, dressed himself in the way he wanted his life to be. He was a fashion icon at their school, for boys and girls. He was so handsome and beautiful that he could cross dress as a girl, no problem. Though she knew he was completely straight, she had wondered a few times in their past when they had dressed up in his mothers old costume dresses. Because of his personality and popularity they had grown even farther apart. His friends becoming the shallow women who only cared for looks while hers were more on the geeky side. They all had their quirks and she felt she fit in seeing as her own little quirk was her obsession of jellyfish. She had always loved them, ever since her mother took her to an aquarium. When she had died, Kuranosuke bought her one and held her as she cried. It was one of her fondest memories and Clara, her jellyfish, floated happily in her tank across the room.

Glancing up from her Jellyfish sketch she saw Kuranosuke gesture again and she mumbled 'Must be his girlfriend,' to herself before going back to her sketch. A few minutes later she glanced up again to see him hang up the phone looking upset. Turning the page on her sketchbook, she wrote with a bold marker, 'You ok?'

He looked up and smiled at her note, grabbing a notebook from his desk he scribbled out, 'Tired of drama'. Smiling he rolled his eyes and quirked his eyebrows.

'Sorry :( 'She smiled sadly and he shrugged.

Turning the page she began writing 'I love you' when movement across from her caught her attention. His curtains were closed. Holding up the sign she sighed, tearing the page out and going to bed.

She didn't see him the whole day, but by late afternoon his curtain had opened. Smiling she waited for him to appear, hoping for another 'sign' language. She giggled at her inside joke and grabbed her sketchpad to work on a commission for one of her art teachers. Time seemed to fly by and when she glanced over at the clock it was already 2:30 a.m., she looked over to his bedroom to see nothing had changed. Sighing she tossed the sketchbook down next to the bed and reached up to turn off her light. Suddenly the door to his room opened and she straightened up happily. Slumping when she saw who was leading him into the room. His popular girlfriend smiled before kissing him hungrily. She closed the door before pushing him against it and grinding against him provocatively. Tsukimi felt her face flush; groaning with disgust she walked over to the window and shut the curtains to hide the scene she knew would break her heart.

The next day she opened her curtains, sitting in her window to soak up the sun and draw. She had her radio on and suddenly the song "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift started playing. Laughing she stood up and turned it up louder and started dancing around like Taylor did in the music video, laughing at herself as she picked up her hairbrush. What she didn't realize was that Kuranosuke had awoken and opened his curtains to watch as she danced around her room. He laughed at her goofy dancing and felt his chest lighten; Tsukimi could always make him laugh. After she fell backwards on her bed in slight exhaustion, he smiled and closed his curtains again before getting ready for school. Tsukimi too decided it was time to get ready and she set about dressing in her usual attire; long skirt, converses, and a top with a baggy jacket, hair in braids and her large glasses.

Glancing at her clock she gasped, she only had a few minutes before the shuttle got to the bus stop. Grabbing her bag she raced out the door, down the stairs, and out into the blinding sung. Running she cried out in dismay as the shuttle pulled away from her stop. Gasping for breath she sat down to wait on the bench for 15 minutes, for the next shuttle to come around. Pulling out a book she began to read, studying for a test later on in the day. Suddenly she saw movement beside her and looked up. Kuranosuke grinned.

"Good morning, Tsukimi!" he grinned.

"Hey, good morning!" she replied. "How have you been, it feels like forever since we talked."

"We talked the other day." He laughed mentioning the signs. "It's going good; I'm flying through my classes and have started styling people. What about you?"

"Same here, I've started taking commissions!" she exclaimed excitedly and he smiled, reaching out to push a strand of her hair behind her ear. She blushed.

"So how's it going with your girlfriend?" she asked.

"Well, its going I suppose, she's starting to get on my case about everything lately. She thinks I've been cheating on her and all this crap…" he kept speaking but Tsukimi kind of tuned out, not really wanting to hear about his relationship with his girlfriend. Instead she just wanted to enjoy his company and was trying to change the subject to more fun topics. When he finished she brought up that maybe they could have lunch sometime soon and talk about more fun things.

Just as he was about to say something a car honked at them and they looked up. It was none other than his girl friend in her red convertible. He smiled at her sadly and stood to go get a ride. His girlfriend looked at her with scorn plainly in her eyes and leaned over to kiss him hungrily after he got into the car. She pulled away and smirked and Tsukimi just rolled her eyes, staring after them as the car pulled away. Five minutes later the shuttle pulled up and she was off to her classes with a sad feeling in her heart. She met up with her friends and they said that they were going to go to the football game later that evening. Football games weren't really her thing but she was convinced by her friends to go with them. She was also convinced to go shopping to pick out a dress to the dance that was supposed to happen after the game.

Since she hadn't kept up with the games all season she didn't realize that Kuranosuke was actually on the team, nor that he was the star quarterback. She just watched as he darted through the guys around him like they were nothing, looking for an open space to throw the ball. He was amazing, he and the running back basically scoring most of the touchdowns for the game. At half time she watched as the cheerleaders took the stage and did some sort of slutty routine that made the fans cheer. She really didn't understand why the dancing had to be so raunchy, she thought it would be better to have some actual dancing than this pg rated stripper dance.

She struggled through watching Kuranosukes' girlfriend go up to him and mack on him while the game was going on. It was very annoying and she had a feeling she was doing it just for her. But everything flew out the window in the last quarter when they had less than 1 minute remaining. They were on the opposite side of the 50 yard line and the game was tied. If Kuranosuke could throw the ball into the running back's hand then they would win the game, but as he lined up to throw the ball, his partner was tackled and two linebackers were making their way towards him.

"RUN KURANOSUKE!" she screamed along with the crowd and he took off, weaving through men and dodging limbs. He made through all of them only one tagging behind him, gaining speed. Suddenly his shadow tripped and fell and Kuranosuke passed through the touchdown area, throwing the ball down and jumping up and down with his team as the final seconds ticked away. Tsukimi was laughing at his funny dancing skills, the same kind of skills she'd seen before in the past, as he did the running man and the sprinkler before getting lifted up by his teammates. They bounced him up and down a couple of times before setting him down and suddenly Tsukimi felt her smile slip from her face. Because right there in the middle of Kuranosuke's victory, his girlfriend was kissing the running back that had been tackled.

She looked back to Kuranosuke who was walking out of the group of celebrating men with a smile on his face, laughing joyously, until he looked up and saw the two. He stormed up to the two and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the conversation going on below. His girlfriend was shaking her head in a rude manner and looked to be telling him off and Kuranosuke just nodded and yelled something back as he walked away running his hand through his hair. His big night ruined.

She sat down on her bed sketching in her book, not really wanting to go to the dance since she was comfortable in her pajamas. She sketched jellyfish as she waited for him to get home, hoping he would open the curtains up again. When he did she noticed he was in a suit, of course he was going. He opened up his notebook and she quickly picked hers up, readying it for the silent communication.

He turned it towards her smiling, "You going tonight?" then holding it waiting for her response. She smiled sadly, turning hers around.

"No, studying."

He looked sad as he wrote down his next words, and half smiled before turning it and looking away. "Wish you were!" She chuckled about to write down another note, but he picked up his jacket and walked out the door. Looking over at her study notes she found the one she had written to him a few days ago. "I Love You!"

Realizing what she needed to do she took off her glasses and made her way to the dress hanging on her door. Pulling it out she began getting to work. Even though she didn't care about her appearance most of the time, Kuranosuke had drilled into her head the basics of fashion and she used every skill she could think of to curl and style her hair, put on light make-up, and accessorize her beautiful white dress with crystals around the bodice. Sighing with happiness she walked out the door, called a cab and went to the fancy hotel the dance was being held at, butterflies in her stomach.

She walked through the dance floor looking for him, getting stares of amazement from her friends and random strangers she didn't even know. Finally she spotted him, just as he turned to look at her. His jaw dropped and she smiled shyly walking towards him. He smiled as he began walking towards her, his smile lighting up his face. Suddenly his ex-girlfriend pulled on his arm and looked him up and down in amazement. She tried flirting with him and kissing him but he struggled out of her grasp, walking towards Tsukimi as she threw a fit on the dance floor. They drew up toe to toe and looked into each others' eyes. She held up a piece of paper, the words "I love you!" written with black marker. He grinned and pulled his own piece of paper out of his jacket pocket, unfolding it.

"I love you!" written in blue marker and she grinned with happiness. They drew closer and she placed her arms around his neck as his went around her waist. "You finally realized, you belong with me." She grinned and he nodded chuckling at her before leaning in and kissing her lightly on the lips. They kissed again and again as the dance went on around them and they never felt happier, because somewhere in their hearts they knew that they had always belonged to each other.