A/N: Hi. I'm back again. This is really a new kind of story from me since I normally prefer stories where Ruka and Hotaru are already together but I just had to write this. Maybe next time I could come up with Hotaru's side of the story. Anyway, I hope you like it and please, as always, tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except the plot
He had taken to staring at her lately. Rather openly in fact that his best friend had taken to teasing him endlessly about it as often as he could.
But Ruka Nogi could have cared less.
He ignored Natsume Hyuuga's good natured teasing and continued to watch every move of the lavender-eyed Hotaru Imai.
He was not sure if the stoic inventor noticed but if she had, she made a good show of not being aware or affected by it.
And so for two days, his staring continued.
Ruka sighed in annoyance. No matter how long he'd watched her, he still was not able to figure her out. He could not guess if she was amused, happy, irritated, angry or murderous.
Hotaru Imai, it seemed, was truly unreadable.
But still he knew that his view of her was different from other people, different even from Mikan Sakura's.
Everyone, with the exception of Mikan and possibly Natsume, associated the name Hotaru Imai to the words cold, unemotional, ruthless and blackmail. They saw her as a money-obsessed young woman who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. Which was true---to an extent.
But he coupled that name to a beautiful young woman with shoulder-length black hair, pale almost-translucent skin and a pair of startling violet eyes. He saw someone intelligent, hard-working, diligent and perceptive. He also saw her as the girl who ate ravenously but never seemed to gain weight and the girl who cared a lot about a certain brown-haired, brown-eyed girl but hid that concern under a barrage of seemingly cruel acts and words.
And although he would never acknowledge it, he saw a girl he could possibly fall in love with.
.
.
.
This of course was ironic, since that same blue-eyed young man found himself more-often-than-not the constant subject of the said inventor's blackmail and he seemed to be her favorite source of income.
But after he had gotten past the stage of shouting, cursing, chasing and demanding that Hotaru give back his pictures and videos, he didn't mind anymore.
In fact, as weird as it sounds, he was actually enjoying the attention.
"You were staring at her again, Ruka." Natsume Hyuuga remarked casually, peering over the manga he was reading.
Ruka stopped petting the head of his pet and turned to look at the fire caster, "Yeah…so?"
The ruby-eyed young man placed his manga down and stared hard at his best friend.
"Ruka, have you actually heard me? You have been staring at her for the past two days."
When he got no reaction from the blonde, Natsume continued.
"And besides, the whole class has noticed…rumors are spreading fast, you know. Even Mikan has noticed this and has been pestering me to ask you about it."
It was probably the longest line that Natsume had said in one setting and Ruka grinned slightly.
"So, you do like her after all."
Ruka's grin suddenly disappeared and he flushed.
"O-Of course n-not Natsume! W-Where'd you get such a crazy idea?!"
Natsume settled in a much more comfortable position, smug that he was able to fluster Ruka. A smirk found its way to his lips and he closed his eyes.
"Whatever you say, Ruka." He opened an eye. "But seriously, you were staring at Imai like she was the most fascinating creature in the world. Either that or you were afraid that she'd suddenly disappear once you let your gaze wander away from her."
Ruka blushed harder and found nothing to say to that.
That night, Ruka found himself pondering on the fire caster's words. Natsume's blunt way of addressing his growing 'obsession' on Hotaru had made him, once again, question his motives in watching the girl's every move.
Was he in love with her as Natsume claimed? Or was it just a period of momentary insanity which was a sure sign of brain damage?
For the sake of his peace of mind, he chose the latter of the two aforementioned. Yes, he told himself over and over again, it was brain damage. Brain damage that probably resulted from all the emotional beatings that he had taken from her blackmails. Yup, that was it, right? It was all Hotaru's fault.
After all, it wasn't even normal for a 'victim' like him to fall for his blackmailer, no matter how fascinating she might be.
His blackmailer huh? He liked the sound of that.
Before sleep came to wrap him in her arms, his last coherent thought was that if the whole class knew, did that mean that Hotaru did too?
.
.
.
The next morning, Ruka was cornered by Hotaru.
"Tell me, bunny boy," Her voice was cold as always but Ruka could detect a little amount of…curiosity? "Why do you keep on staring at me?"
Ruka opened his mouth to answer but Hotaru cut him off.
"Think about your answer, Nogi. If I don't like it, I'll make sure you won't be able to look at me, or anything else for that matter, ever again."
The ending's a bit...off, I know. but it was the best I could come up with at the time.