"At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference."
A/N: This story is a 'thank you' (bribe) to my beta HollowPoint, who was/is so nice to sacrifice his precious time to beta my stories (even the ShizNat, although he isn't fond of the pairing -yes I outed you again-). The story is about Natsuki and Tomoe. I'm just saying in case anyone expects ShizNat.
Summary: The summary box was much to small. So here the orginal summary: Tomoe Marguerite, leader of the Shizuru-Fanclub in Fuuka Academy, is trying to find out what's so special about the famous Ice-Queen Natsuki Kuga that her beloved Shizuru Onee-sama had turned her down twice. After getting to know her supposed enemy better, she soon finds out that ice is much more soothing than fire. NatTom
Disclaimer: Sunrise owns the characters.
Loving the Enemy
Chapter 1 – In the way
The school ground of Fuuka Academy was emptied out by the sound of the school bell as it marked the end of the day's last lesson. Only a few students were aimlessly strolling around the campus as the sun slowly started to climb down the azure sky, passing some small clouds that were hiding its light now and then. The peaceful quietness was engulfing the place bit by bit while the voices of the cicadas and birds slowly took back their territory. Inside the main building the rooms and halls were flooded with air that was streaming in through some open windows. A clicking could be heard in the distance. It was very low, but still didn't belong there at this time. It was misplaced, and if it weren't for the huge walls nobody would have noticed the silent intruder. Normally the concrete swallowed all the footsteps and voices during the day, but when the building lies in perfect silence even the slightest noise sounds like thunder. A resonating echo of little tip-toe steps slowly closed in on the last door on the right.
The wind sent a light breeze through the room as the door was slit open bit by bit. Gray-eyes peeked through the opening and scanned the room for any signs of life. Finding at least some evidence of it, the jade-haired girl let out a disappointed sigh. Not only did she have no luck in finding Shizuru Onee-sama, quite the opposite she was haunted by the misfortune of finding the person she wanted to see least. It wasn't really a surprise to see the famous Ice-Queen of Fuuka Academy in the student-council room since she was spending a lot of her time with the Kaichou, but to find her here alone and not even awake, surely was at least a little bit unexpected. Pondering about what to do next, Tomoe Marguerite went down a list of options in her mind. After trying to be as reasonable as she could, she finally crossed out option one (silently killing the raven-haired girl in her sleep – Assassin style) and two (locking her inside the room after placing some nasty insects inside).
It seems I have to go with number three then, although I would have preferred number one by all means. But for now let's be reasonable. Shizuru Onee-sama, probably, wouldn't be delighted if she found her favorite student dead in the council room in the morning. So, here I go with the last remaining option: Know your enemy.
With a sly grin on her lips the girl walked over to a desk and sat down in front of the sleeping upperclassman. Supporting her head with her right hand, Natsuki's eyes were closed tightly while her mouth was opened a bit. Her long hair was swaying in the wind. The picture screamed serenity and only the dark look of Tomoe tainted the scene. The young girl tried to monitor every breath while observing the face of her supposed enemy very thoroughly. A little disappointed that she wasn't able to find any real flaws, she leaned back with sigh. The chair was creaking under her movement and she instantly cursed herself for being so careless. When she lifted her head two emerald orbs were piercing her with a sleepy and puzzled gaze.
Great… The-too-stupid-to-peep-Award goes to…Tomoe Marguerite, your friendly neighborhood stalker.
While Tomoe was mentally scolding herself, the raven-haired girl slowly came to her senses
"What are you doing here? Shizuru isn't here. She has a meeting." The young girl was surprised about the deep and husky voice, but she tried to act as innocent as possible.
I cannot let my guard down. I have to be careful. God knows what this delinquent would do to me. After all, we're alone and nobody would notice if she would beat me once or twice.
"Ugh and here I thought I was the one sleeping." Natsuki waved her hands to see if there was any reaction from the jade-haired girl.
"I was just… resting." Snapping out of her thoughts, Tomoe answered in her sweetest voice while she faked the friendliest smile.
"Resting, huh? Stalking sure must be exhausting." The raven-haired girl twitched a brow and made clear that she had her doubts about the other girl's excuse. Tomoe instinctively got into defensive mode. She bent over her desk and started to argue with the still sleepy girl more than necessary.
"What about you? It's quite a change from famous slacker to living-in-school. Don't you have a home? Why do you sleep here?" She was a bit surprised that she wasn't able to control her voice so well, but the calm behavior of her long term enemy creeped her out. She had always imagined ending up in a fist fight during their first conversation, yet the older girl didn't look like she wanted to fight at all.
"I have, but my roommates are a little noisy and so I decided to take a nap here. Anyhow, I'm heading out." She rose up, her tone so nonchalant that Tomoe started to question herself if this whole observing thing had really been necessary.
"Roommates?" The jaw of the gray-eyed girl dropped by hearing such trivial things out of the mouth of the supposedly bad girl.
"Is that so unthinkable?" Natuski could see that her underclassman was more than just surprised. Normally she would avoid such conversation, but somehow this girl was fun. She had always been interested to find out if the fangirl-robots of Shizuru were made of flesh and blood.
"I had thought you'd live far away in a big castle made of ice where you sit on a throne with a scepter in your hand that can freeze anyone to death, guarded by huge ice-figures that stab you with icicles."
"Okay, I get it. Lots of ice." Natsuki made a small pause. She thought about simply walking out of the room after hearing such nonsense, but she had to admit she wasn't completely innocent about having the nickname Ice-Queen. Her old self would have probably left wordlessly or punched the little brat in the guts, but the last months and especially getting new friends had changed something in her. She wanted to try out the famous thing called communication and so she stayed. "Not that it would matter to you, but I actually moved into the dorms."
"Wow, so that's why you stopped coming in a leather-suit every day."
"What the…?!" She breathed in and out a few times to calm herself down. She wasn't here to get into a fight with a random girl. "You're quite cheeky for an underclassman."
"Being older doesn't make…" Tomoe was ready to snap at her again, but Natsuki was quick to cut her off.
"You have some guts. I like it." Natsuki said with a cool smile. The bluntness let the younger girl fall silent in an instant.
The following moment gave Natsuki the time to take a closer look at her opposite. Outside of her strange haircut the girl looked pretty normal. She came to the conclusion that this fangirl might actually be human, which of course, she was absolutely sure, didn't apply to all of them.
"So, why are you here? Shouldn't you be on your way tracking Shizuru's every step?"
"Of course not. I have things to do."
"Things? You mean the things that caused you to have a rest… here… in the empty student-council room?" Natsuki couldn't hide the mischief in her voice. Of course she knew that it was a lie, but observing the funny twitches in the girl's face was a lot of fun.
"What, is this an interrogation?" She crossed her arms and turned her head pouting towards the window.
The acting reminded Natsuki of Mikoto when she didn't get her food on time and she couldn't hold back her laughter.
"What's so amusing?" And since when is she capable of laughing anyways? Tomoe was still not looking at her, and Natsuki decided that it was time to let the girl of the hook.
"So, do you have important business with Shizuru? I could pass something on since I'm going to see her tonight." Going back to main topic seemed like a good alternative to calm the waves.
"No thank you. I see her often enough to tell her myself." came the defiant response.
"Alright then, I don't wanna hold you back from doing your 'things' any longer." Natsuki smiled.
"I am not someone to made fun of Natsuki Kuga." The gray eyes gave her a death-glare, and for some reason Natsuki liked the sulky behavior.
"Well, that wasn't my intention, Tomoe Marguerite." The emerald-eyed girl said still friendly, although it was clear that the choice of words was another mock. But she somehow knew that Tomoe could take it.
"You know my name?" The younger girl's face softened in surprise.
"Of course, you're always around Shizuru."
"So, she is talking about me?" The expression of the jade-haired girl had suddenly changed completely. The dark look was replaced by a happy face with shining eyes.
"I asked her about you." And back again to not so happy anymore.
"What for?" The question didn't sound as if the girl was really interested, but Natsuki answered nonetheless.
"I was asking why a bunch of fangirls follow her around every day."
"And what did she tell you?" The raven-haired girl could tell that Tomoe really wanted to know as much as possible about Shizuru, but giving her the honest answer would probably crush the hopes of her opposite and so she decided to sweeten the blow.
"Not much. But you can always tell me yourself." She lied.
"Why would I?" Tomoe snapped back a little disappointed.
"How would I know?" Natsuki stood up from the chair and walked over to the window. The sun had almost vanished beyond the horizon.
"I'm quite impressed you can't figure it out yourself. Oh no, wait. I'm not impressed at all." Another pouting face followed the harsh words of the middle schooler.
Walking back to the sit on the desk, Natsuki couldn't help but chuckle.
"So, I guess I was right about Shizuru." She said looking outside the window, not really bothering about the other girl's reaction.
Tomoe took a little time to consider if she should end this conversation now, or if she would be brave enough to win this battle. After a moment of struggling, she decided that she would never bow to the Ice Queen.
"I never had to explain this to anyone before. I mean, isn't it quite obvious how gorgeous Shizuru Onee-sama is?" She had to admit she was really a bit confused that she had to tell someone who was so close with the object of her affection, why the Kaichou was so famous.
"Depends. What makes her so special to you?" The unimpressed answer of Natsuki made her feel even more insecure. She began to doubt that the girl in front of her really was the reason why Shizuru Onee-sama treated her the way she did.
"Everything." That pretty much hits the nail.
"That's a lot."
"Still not nearly enough to describe how perfect she is." Her eyes started to shine again, but the response of Natsuki brought her down to earth in an instant.
"Acts, you mean."
"No, I meant 'is'." Her voice was sharp as she felt the need to protect her precious Kaichou from the harsh words of this supposed friend.
"Whatever." Natsuki felt that her words made the younger one mad and decided to be more careful about them. She could see that the jade-haired girl adored Shizuru to no end.
"The way she talks, the way she smiles. She's always graceful and patient and never does anything inappropriate. She's simply perfect."
"Yes, I think you're right." Natsuki gave away a light smile before she looked outside the window again.
"But didn't you just say that you kind of disagree." The reaction of her upperclassman surprised Tomoe anew.
"There is no right or wrong about personal perception. Shizuru and I have a different history and you and I see her with different eyes. Which is good." Her voice made clear that she didn't want to explain herself any further.
"Do you think she likes me?" Tomoe asked out of the blue.
"I don't know. You need to find out for yourself."
There was a long pause before the gray-eyed girl decided to reward Natsuki with the truth.
"I was here to find out what Shizuru Onee-sama sees in you." A small blush rose to her cheeks and she felt completely stupid now. "I thought that knowing my rival would help me beat you."
"Beat me?" Natsuki couldn't hide the surprise in her voice. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I'm not your rival. I don't feel that way for Shizuru. We're friends, and even that has become difficult recently." The last words were barely audible, but Tomoe, being the leader of the fangirl group, had well-trained ears.
"Really?" She asked curiously.
"Really." Natsuki said and turned towards her with a smile.
"Thank god, you're such a weird person, Kuga-san." She said with a content expression.
"Natsuki. It's just Natsuki."
"Thank god, you're such a weird person, Natsuki."
"Same to you." The raven-haired girl chuckled before having a look at the clock. "I got to go now. Do you need a ride?" She normally wasn't that friendly to strangers, but she had to admit that talking to the little brat had been quite amusing, and since it was already getting dark, she would feel bad about leaving her alone on campus.
"Huh?" Surprise and terror were filling her gaze as she stared at the older girl.
"That's what a good upperclassman is supposed to do right? I'm heading off to the city. I could drop you off on the way."
"Hopefully after braking first." The sarcasm in her voice didn't sound very convincing, but Natsuki understood nonetheless and started to fish out her keys.
"We'll see about that." She said and flipped her helmet over to the jade-haired girl. "I hope this one fits your small head."
"It's about quality not quantity." Tomoe said with a grin as she knocked on her head with her fist.
"I'll remember that." Natsuki said with a smile. She winked at the smaller girl before turning around. Tomoe followed her, giving the room back to the silence of the night.
I guess this can be called success. Now I know that she has no intention of standing between me and Shizuru Onee-sama. I don't get how she cannot see just how special Onee-sama is, but never correct your rival when she is making a mistake. I need to remember to know my friends well, but my foes even better.
A/N: First chapter done. I honestly don't expect reviews since I know that unsual pairings don't get a lot of attention. But if anyone read it I hope it was at least a good read.