The Librarian
In a rather unexpected move, Hotaru Imai pulled out a chair and sat down at the table where Mikan, Natsume, Ruka and Koko sat.
Voluntarily.
The three boys froze, but Mikan just threw herself on top of her best friend "Hotaruuuuu! I'm so glad you could join us! Didn't you have to fix your invention?"
The boys flinched.
Did she have to remind her?
Hotaru turned her serene face towards them and gave just the tiniest quirk of her lips. The boys shivered. "I'm already finished. Actually," she turned to Ruka, "I have to thank you for what you did."
She slid a small box across the table to him. Koko gulped and opened his mouth. Hotaru's eyes cut to him, and he shut it again, then hastily scrambled out of his chair. Natsume quirked a questioning eyebrow at his rapid exit. Mikan's eyes were riveted on the box. "Oooh! What is it?" Hotaru's lips might have twitched again.
"For Ruka's work." Natsume looked pityingly at his friend.
Ruka was getting a very bad feeling.
But he didn't have the guts to refuse Imai. "That's so sweet of you!" Mikan squealed. "I've never gotten a gift from Hotaru before. She must really like you." She beamed obliviously at Ruka. The blonde could feel Natsume straining next to him from the effort of repressing his laughter.
"T-thank you." he managed with minimal stuttering. He carefully grasped the box and waited for it to explode
Nothing.
He was not reassured.
"You could take a gift at face value for one." Natsume said in a low voice, lening towards him. He sounded a little muffled from restrained laughter.
Ruka still felt nervous. Natsume, of all people- and Tsubasa-senpai possibly too- understood his history with girls and gifts. They'd had the same problems before they learned how to scare off the admirers. Well, not Natsume. He was a natural. But Ruka hated upsetting girls almost as much as he hated blackmailing schemes. But...
He opened the box (and shut his eyes).
Nothing exploded, popped, burst, punched, bruised or burst into flame.
He opened one eye cautiously. There was just a small button with the word "Push".
"I hope you aren't going to take all day Ruka. My gratitude won't last long." Ruka pulled it out from the box. "It's the start button to my invention. I thought that since you were so integral to its creation, you'd like to see its results." Ruka let out a discreet sigh of relief. Mikan beamed. "See Ruka? Hotaru is so sweet. " Natsume snorted at the brunette.
Ruka pushed the button.
Nothing happened for a moment, then a huge glowing trapezoid appeared in the air above their table. Ruka frowned. "Wait, but Hotaru, I thought your invention was for-!"
He was interrupted by an avalanche of books. Some fell, some flew, and the majority landed on Ruka. Natsume flamed one hopping after Mikan and casually charred another snapping at his heels.
Ruka groaned from under the pile. "Hotaru…what-." He nevered finished that sentence either because at that moment a ball of bright orange- fur?- fell from the same glowing trapezoid and landed on the pile.
It uncurled itself and its eyes met Ruka's.
"Woah…that's a huge monkey…" Mikan breathed. The "monkey" exploded.
Chucking the books that entombed Ruka every which way (though Mikan noted that they didn't go flying, but rather landed in neat stacks by genera- even in alphabetical order, though she honestly didn't recognize some of the alphabets, much less names. Natsume would have said he wasn't surprised, seeing as she hardly read at all, much less anything of any variety. In fact, he'd probably add, he wouldn't be surprised if she didn't recognize the English alphabet.)
It grabbed Ruka's collar, hauled him out and started chittering at him furiously in something that sounded suspiciously like a lecture. Ruka flailed haplessly.
He finally managed to twist his way out of its grip (loosing the majority of his shirt in the process) and scrambled desperately for the door. The orangutan- and some of the more aggressive books as well- were in hot pursuit
There was a sudden silence, only broken by a few tumbling books. Mikan was gaping (silently for once). Natsume had one eyebrow quirked. And the smirk on Hotaru's face was now full blown. Mikan finally shook off the paralysis and rounded on her friend.
"What did you do that for? I thought you said it was the button for the machine he helped you with."
"It is a button for one of my machines. It's not my fault he couldn't recognize what he broke from what he didn't."
"But he helped you fix it!"
"Yes, he did. This was just for fun."
There was one thing they all learned that day
Hotaru Imai hates debts. Of any kind.