Disclaimer: Characters are not mine, only the puppy, and neither the song and lyrics I used, if it had been I would be topping the Billboards Chart.
A/N: A BIG thank you to my beta reader, windtamer01, for editing (bearhugs!)
Edit: Decided to break it down to chapters. (=.=) sorry for the mail alerts.
Friday afternoon. Natsuki went to Shizuru's apartment after her class. Shizuru and Natsuki have agreed that the younger girl will stay at the ex-kaichou's apartment over the weekend since they both have schools on weekdays. She then decided to wait for Shizuru to come home and get some rest.
Natsuki put down her duffel bag and a guitar casing as she searched for her keys in her jacket's pocket.
'I wonder what will Shizuru think once she sees this.' Natsuki grinned to herself with the thought while eyeing the guitar casing she brought with her.
The blue haired girl pushed the door open. To her delight, she saw a brown puppy scampering towards her. Unluckily, it tripped on its hind legs and came sliding on her tummy to meet Natsuki's shoe with her nose. She whimpered, looking up at Natsuki with those über cute puppy eyes.
"Hehehe, so you thought that was cute, eh?" Natsuki bent down to pick up the puppy. "Well, silly it is. But do not do that again, OK?" she told the puppy as she playfully stroke her head. The puppy licked her chin which made Natsuki chuckle.
Natsuki cuddled the puppy for awhile. How ironic that simple things could bring joy to her. She hadn't felt that particular sensation for a long while now except of course not with Shizuru around. Setting the puppy aside, the blue haired girl collected her things outside of the apartment and left them in the sitting room.
Plopping herself down on the sofa, she reached for her guitar casing. She was about to open the case when she heard the puppy barking just outside of Shizuru's room. Natsuki simply ignored her pet's behavior and she proceeded in opening the case. The puppy seemed to sense this; it walked bouncingly to where Natsuki is. Tilting her head to the right, hazel brown eyes looked curiously up to a pair of emerald ones.
"Sit." Natsuki commanded. The puppy obeyed, still looking up at her.
Natsuki smiled at her. She started strumming her dark blue colored guitar to the only tune she knew so well. The puppy stood on her hind legs upon hearing this and barked wildly at Natsuki. Not contented, it walked to Natsuki and put her front paws to the girl's legs, letting out a low growl.
"Aaarr… arrfff…!" the puppy barked up at her.
"What is it now?" she asked the puppy irritably. 'Silly, how can a puppy talk to you back?' She thought a matter-of-factly.
The puppy circled in her previous location, waiting for her master's response. The blue haired girl decided to stand up, putting her guitar carefully on the sofa. She crossed her arms while an eyebrow shot up. 'What's with this puppy? Does it mean she don't like the tune I'm playing? Humf…! Before it was 'that cat', now it's this puppy!' She felt a pang of regret over this.
"Duran!" she called for her puppy as it runs out of the sitting room.
"Huuuhh?" Natsuki growled when she saw the puppy waiting for her outside of Shizuru's room. She headed to where the puppy was. It was now wagging her black streaked tail.
"You want me to go inside?" Natsuki asked the brown puppy while pointing her finger into Shizuru's room. She received a happy yelp from the puppy.
'Did I just see this puppy grin or was it my imagination?', she thought to herself noticing the puppy's exaggerated wagging tail which made her rear flail from side to side. Natsuki opened the room catching a familiar scent as she walked inside, Duran trailing behind her. Ah, how much she missed this. So much that the scent had made her forget about her puppy, not knowing why it had led her to Shizuru's room, the very room where they shared a lot of blissful memories together.
She laid on her stomach lazily on Shizuru's queen sized bed. Burying her face unto the ex-kaichou's pillow, the blue-haired girl closed her eyes, heaving a sigh of relief she smelled Shizuru's unique scent left on the pillow. A yelp from the foot of the bed broke Natsuki from her trance. She opened her eyes glancing down on the puppy who was now staring at a purple iPod with speakers sitting idly on Shizuru's bedside table. She reached for it and shifted her position lying on her back as she switched it on.
Natsuki stared blankly at the iPod as only one title of a song was added onto it, she noticed that the song was added repeatedly making a list of 20 or more.
'She listens to this too? I wonder. What was that woman thinking? She could've just activated the repeat option if she wanted to listen to it all day long. Sigh.' Natsuki wondered adding this thought to a long mental list of her girlfriend's weird antics. She smiled and discarded the thought to herself. 'Bah. It had been only nice things with her, not weird.' A silly grin formed on her lips.
Natsuki decided to put back the iPod to where it was previously located. She need not listen to the song; she knew it very well by heart. A brown puppy at the foot of the bed is now getting impatient with her master. Duran bit Natsuki's fingers that had been absent-mindedly flinging on the side of the bed.
"Ouch! Hey, why you little…!" Natsuki angrily scowled at her puppy.
Duran lowered her head staring at Natsuki with such cute puppy eyes. The blue haired girl, defeated by this, let out a heavy sigh. How can she resist this cute little creature?
"It's okay, it really didn't hurt." Natsuki told her puppy and picked her up. She put the puppy on her chest and it crawled to a comfortable position reaching anywhere at her face and licking it, Natsuki giggled.
"Duran, where did you learn all this?" Natsuki asked. Getting ticklish from such action, she tried to stop her puppy from licking her. Duran suddenly stopped and was now eyeing the iPod again. Natsuki wondered what was really up with her puppy, and the iPod? She reached for it and decided to hit the play button wondering what kind of miracle was hidden on it that made Duran behave oddly
'Hmmm… what's with this iPod? I really wonder why Duran led me to Shizuru's room and suddenly staring… at this…' Natsuki's thoughts trailed off as she heard a familiar strumming of a guitar, not the one of the artist's who originally played the song. It was faint but audible to the ears. To her surprise, the brown puppy lying on her chest rested its head on its front paws and yawn with all her might.
As she listens to the iPod, the tune gets clearer this time. The player paused; Natsuki knew that the one playing would sing the first stanza of the song.
Will you count me in?