Candlelight
By: DarkBlue Mint

Disclaimer: Sure, and while we're at it I also own Saki and Negima.

Notes: I think I should start by giving half the credit to Heart-san, and then say that after the first paragraph I lost control of the story. Grammar sucks.

It started with Nao, actually it started with Mikoto but Natsuki wasn't going to miss the opportunity of blaming that damn spider. It was a simple lunch, as every lunch with Mai and the rest went, with everyone talking at the same time and Mai trying to include her in the conversations while at the same time protecting their lunch from a forever hungry cat.

It had taken just a second, where Mai couldn't juggle her attempts to making Natsuki being part of the fun and distracting her girlfriend, when Mikoto fast as light took the bento box from Yukino (who had been distracted talking to Haruka on her cell). Yukino and Mai started chasing Mikoto in the hopes that the new student president could recover at least half of her food leaving Natsuki in the company of Nao, Shiho (who was concentrating in spinning a weird contraption) and Chie and Aoi.

There's where the problem started, Chie and Aoi were obviously a couple and even thought most people seemed to think that whenever she looked at them through narrowed eyes was a sign of "please stop the lovey-dovey stuff!" Natsuki couldn't quite hide the jealousy that gripped her heart. She didn't (maybe she did) know why she felt jealous, but…

"That's more green on your eyes than usual." Nao interrupted the train of thoughts of the dark haired girl, who couldn't control the light growl that escaped her. "Might be that the little dog is missing her owner?" Shizuru, just thinking about her made her eyes widen and Nao start laughing at it. "Or is it that the pet is sad cause her owner didn't want to claim her anymore." Nao's words made the rest of the group still at the table become aware of the conversation, Aoi and Chie watched as if it was a boxing match, and Shiho just scowled at Nao.

Natsuki didn't reply; she was too busy recalling that since going to the Fuuka University Shizuru hadn't made any effort to contact her. She knew that the older girl might be busy, concentrating in studying or making friends (fans); she hadn't worry about that before, Shizuru could do whatever she wanted, it wasn't as if she was forced to ask Natsuki for permission. It still hurt, not being able to see the woman she… damn, couldn't she realize this earlier?

"Hey! Wolf, come on! Don't tell me that my words hurt you." But Natsuki had long disappeared through the forest where she kept her bike, without worrying if Mai was going to reprimand her for not being more friendly.

"That was very cruel of you." Shiho said while still scowling. Chie kept eating aware that lunch time was going to be over soon, Aoi was wondering if Mai and Yukino had finally caught up with Mikoto.

"You don't like it when I'm cruel?" Nao wondered with a sickly sweet (and slightly sadist) tone.

"I only like it when you are cruel to me." Those words made Chie choke on her rice, and by the time that Yukino and the others came back, with Mai promising to cook dinner for Yukino and Mikoto happy at finishing a second bento, the gossip queen of Fuuka had to be rushed to Yohko for fear of dying of asphyxiation.

--

When Shizuru had informed her family her plans to stay in Fuuka, her parents had decided that she would be better if she had an apartment of her own (maybe that way crazy fangirls that lived in the same dormitory would stop calling them asking for her daughter hand in marriage). The place was nice, modern, comfortable and at this moment filled with smoke and with a gorgeous biker passed out in the kitchen floor.

After recovering, thanks to Shizuru opening a window and the help of a doctor that lived next door to the red eyed girl, Natsuki couldn't help the dejected feeling that was coursing through her, just this afternoon she had an epiphany and now she was burning her girlf… frie… mast… own… Shizuru's apartment (if she had lived in an alternate dimension she would be comparing herself to a girl named Arika).

"May I inquire why Natsuki had the need to break into my apartment while I was in class and… erhm… tried to cook?" Shizuru's dulcet tone interrupted the biker's self recrimination. Natsuki sighed and proceeded to explain.

"You haven't talking to me since you started college." Or better said, proceeded to recriminate Shizuru for abandonment. "You left me, you said you loved me and all that stuff, and were even willing to be held back a year and still you left me!"

"Natsuki it's only been two days since class started." The voice was serious and cut directly into the wolf childish behavior. "You are complaining only because I didn't talk to you for two days?" Instead of saying anything the now blushing girl hid her face in a plush Kiyohime that normally sat in her couch (part of the concept art of Midori's failed attempt of turning their life to an Anime). "And you even where planning of having a candlelight dinner with me?"

"You saw that." Natsuki murmured while looking at the table adorned with a candle.

"Friends don't have candlelight dinners Natsuki." Shizuru could barely contain the small smile at coming to this realization.

"I know... it's just that I understood something about myself today and apparently I reacted before thinking." Natsuki left the Kiyohime plush next to the Duran one (Natsuki had been to shy to ask Midori for it, so Shizuru had adopted both of them). "Shizuru, I think I need to tell you that I…"

Before she could complete her sentence Shizuru was kissing her. Shizuru was really kissing her, with tongue, and pushing her to the couch (throwing Duran and Kiyohime off of it in the process). It was a great kiss better than the one in the church, and because of that she decided that thinking was overrated and that reacting was much better anyway.

It started with Mikoto, actually it might have been Nao but Natsuki will never in her life say thank you to that damn spider.

End.

Notes: Again this is totally mi brain's fault; it ran away with my original plot and did what it wanted (really need to stop watching all those Saki and Kanamemo episodes; they are starting to influence my Mai HiME).

Prompts: 1) Romance; 2) candle; 3) someone can't cook; 4) someone stole someone else's food; 5) Kiyohime.