My Love Laws
"Dammit, why the hell do I have to do this?" Neru hissed, scowling in annoyance.
"Because you're my girlfriend, that's why!" Gumi said with a gleeful smile as she and Neru walked through the crowd. Gumi swung her arms joyously while Neru crossed her own over her chest and frowned.
"Shut up. Don't say that so loud."
Gumi stopped at that harsh bark. Neru, having continued walking, stopped at looked back at Gumi with irritation in her gaze. However, it faded when she saw the tears in Gumi's eyes. The girl looked as though she was about to cry.
"Aw, dammit, don't do that!" Neru insisted hurriedly, dashing back to her girlfriend's side and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "C'mon, we're okay, alright? I'm not mad at you or anything."
Gumi cheered up immediately, the tears gone instantly as she beamed at Neru and replied, "'Kay!"
Neru cast a dubious look at the girl as they continued walking. "You just manipulated me, didn't you?"
Gumi gasped, offended, and shook her head. "No, I'd never do that!" The denial was rendered redundant when Gumi then giggled. "Okay, Neru, since we're training you to be the perfect girlfriend, it's time for me to explain to you what to do and what not to do."
Neru gazed at her witheringly. "Are you serious? Aren't you the one who asked me to go out on a date on today of all days?"
"Valentine's Day is the perfect time to start a new relationship!" Gumi insisted. "Lots of people do it. Besides, while this may be our first official date, we've been dating for two weeks now, right?"
"Yeah, whatever," Neru sighed.
"Now, the first thing you did right today," Gumi started, pleased with herself, "was when you came back when I was about to cry." She scowled at her girlfriend. "I hate being scolded, got it?"
"So you're saying I'm not allowed to scold you?" the yellow-haired girl questioned, unimpressed. "What kind of honest relationship is that?"
"Please, no girl really wants honestly," Gumi said, waving the idea away dismissively. "Now, the first thing you did wrong today: you were late to meet me."
"Are all our dates going to be like this?" Neru questioned, but Gumi completely ignored her and strode forward, walking faster than Neru now.
"You should always arrive at our meeting place before me, got it?" the greenette insisted, casting back a sidelong look at Neru.
"I came right on time," Neru sighed, beginning to come to terms with the fact that Gumi didn't plan on listening to a word she said. "It's not my fault you were early."
"Regardless, you kept me waiting, and that's a big no-no." Gumi waggled her finger at Neru and then continued to scold her, which Neru found to be quite the double standard since she wasn't allowed to scold Gumi herself. "C'mon, Neru, even now you're making mistakes."
This was going to be a long day. Neru let out a long breath. "Okay, fine. What am I doing wrong?"
"Match my pace, dummy," Gumi said with a scowl. "We're supposed to walk together, right?"
"I guess so," Neru said, gazing around herself absently. She had no idea where they were headed, anyway. Hopefully Gumi knew. It was distinctly possible that they were just wandering aimlessly.
"Well, hurry up then," Gumi said as she pouted.
"Yeah yeah," Neru sighed, doing as Gumi asked of her.
Then, loudly, Gumi exclaimed, "Bzzt. Wrong. When I'm pouting, you have to praise me. Also, when we walk together, you have to hold my hand so I don't get lost in the crowd, 'kay?"
Neru averted her eyes toward the sky and muttered under her breath, "I'm starting to think that wouldn't be such a bad thing."
Gumi turned her head away and pouted. "Jerk." Silence followed for a moment before Gumi turned back to Neru and shouted, "Bzzt! Neru! That was another test, you meanie! You're supposed to praise me now!"
Neru smiled a little and averted her gaze slyly. "I never said I'd follow your rules."
With a loud harrumph, Gumi crossed her arms over her chest. "They're not rules, they're laws. Break them and pay."
Neru snorted in response, glancing at the girl while keeping her eyes set forward. "You're not that scary, Gumi."
But, of course, Gumi refused to accept that and glared at Neru. Neru was already regretting what she'd said when Gumi stopped in the middle of the street, tapping her foot agitatedly and not bothering to care about the people glaring at her for blocking the road. Gumi daintily cleared out her throat and then looked to her girlfriend, an unimpressed look in her eyes.
"Last night, I sent you an email," the greenette started. "'Where are you? What are you doing?'" She gazed at Neru, who admittedly shifted nervously under that stony gaze. "Why didn't you reply?"
"I was just out with Haku," Neru insisted. "I haven't even checked my mail."
"Respond to my mail right away or suffer the consequences."
As demoralizing as it was to admit, seeing that deadly gleam in Gumi eyes made her threat thoroughly convincing. Neru couldn't help but admit that Gumi was actually scary, despite what she'd said earlier. A demon of a girlfriend; that was what she was. And this was coming from the tsundere. So, hurried, Neru rushed to her girlfriend's side and clamped a hand over her mouth. "Okay, I get it. Calm down, would ya? Sheesh."
When Neru pulled her hand away, Gumi informed her, "You're supposed to hold my hand, you know. We are dating."
Neru sighed and gave in, but that didn't satisfy Gumi for long. The green-haired girl continued to recite her laws. "You didn't call me even once yesterday, Neru. You're supposed to call me three times daily without fail, got it? And answer your emails faster. I was waiting for you to reply, and you never did."
"I'm sorry," Neru deadpanned. She quickly attempted to shift the conversation from the ever-growing stack of rules Gumi laid before her. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"I heard France is nice this time of year."
The scary part was that Gumi actually seemed to be serious.
Neru cast her a witheringly look and said, "You can't be serious."
Gumi pouted and whined, "Bzzt, wrong answer, again. Take me anywhere I want, okay? Even . . ." Gumi glanced around herself for a moment before smiling and, with the hand Neru wasn't holding, pointed to a very, very expensive restaurant. ". . . there."
Neru could feel her money slowly draining away. "Are you insane?" she barked, earning many annoyed looks from sappy romantic couples around her. "I'm not rich, you know!" However, at the sight of Gumi's teary eyes, she repented, "Can we at least split the bill?"
"That's completely out of the question!" Gumi hissed. "I was going to overlook that you didn't praise me, but then you had to say something as ridiculous as that!" Then, on the sight of a theatre, Gumi seemed to completely forget what they'd been talking about. Neru was starting to see that she was definitely in over her head. "Ooh, let's go see a movie! Decide which one, okay?"
"No, do it yourself," Neru grumbled, her energy beginning to slip away from all this walking. She swore, they'd circled the town twice already.
"Bzzt, wrong!"
When Gumi spun back to face her girlfriend, Neru had slipped away. She needed a break from all this, and she thought she'd caught sight of someone she knew in the crowd. Her phone went off, signalling a message from Gumi. Neru sighed and grabbed her phone to check it. There was no escaping that girl.
Gumi: Get back here right away, you jerk! I'll be waiting at the fountain, so you'd better hurry!
Neru sighed, having stopped in the middle of a bustling crowd, and looked around herself. Sure enough, there in the crowd, she saw the two blonde kids on a date. Neither of them was talking, though. They were in a similar situation to hers, so why couldn't Gumi just shut up like that?
Of course, the tsundere could never deny Gumi, so she did as ordered and went in search of her, leaving the blondes to deal with it on their own. Neru forced her way through the crowd, eventually making her way to the fountain where Gumi waited, pouting, as she stared at her feet. With a smirk, Neru made her way over to the fountain and sat beside the girl, who refused to look at her.
"That was really mean," Gumi muttered, keeping that pout plastered to her face.
Neru refused to admit how adorable Gumi looked right now. Instead, she merely said, "I know it was, and you reacted perfectly."
Neru started when Gumi whipped her head around to stare her in the eyes, looking genuinely upset. "Do you really hate me, Neru?" she questioned.
"W-what?" Neru questioned, shocked. "N-no, it's not that I hate you, it's just that—"
"I can't help it, Neru!" the green-eyed girl said, staring desperately into her girlfriend's eyes. "Maybe I'm obsessed with you, but I can't help it! There's nothing I can do about it, Neru! I want you to love that about me, too. I want you to love all my faults, even my obsessiveness.
"I want you to only look at me, don't look away, not even for a second. Instead of scolding me, I want you to stroke my hair and praise me. I want you to hold my hand, laugh at my jokes, say you'll always love me despite all my flaws, and I don't want you to ever let go of my hand like you just did!
"And don't make me cry. Always entertain me and make me laugh. When you look me in the eyes, say something like 'I love those, too.' And I always want to know everything about you, when and where you are with who and what do you do together, because you're the most important thing in the world to me. I think of you when I laugh or when I smile. I love everything about you, and I want you to love everything about me, too."
And then, Gumi's eyes fell, the blush on her face showed a brief moment of weakness. "I've spoken to much, haven't I?"
Neru, unable to stop herself after that, used a crooked finger to lift Gumi's face toward hers, and then, ever so gently, she kissed her. Neru watched Gumi's eyes widen in shock and then slowly close before she gently pulled herself away, smirking at the flushed girl.
"I always forget that you don't understand my way of showing you how I feel," the yellow-haired tsundere confessed. "I love everything about you, Gumi, even your obsessiveness, okay?"
Gumi smiled and nodded. "Okay."
Neru pulled back abruptly and turned her gaze toward the crowd. "Whoa, is that Miki? I don't think she's ever looked cuter."
A pout set itself on Gumi's lips as she proceeded to repeatedly smack the arm of the laughing Neru. "You jerk, weren't you listening to anything I just said?"
Author's Note: Based on Gumi's song. Oh dear Lord, I can't believe the strange pairings I've been given to work with. Another second-place pairing of my Valentine's Day poll. I've never even considered this pairing before, but I figured Neru needed a pushy girl to force her to give up her tsundereness for a bit. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please review if you have the chance! Oh, also, this is tied in with First Love Candid and happened at the same time and place. One more V-day fic to be updated later tonight.
