Summary: After five years, Ruka had finally reached his breaking point, and concludes out of the blue that Hotaru Imai was stalking him. Oh my. "Along with your temper, I'm sure your common sense also flew out of the window." |Ruka/Hotaru|
A/N: Little plot in my head I decided to post up. Enjoy the one-shot! Hopefully I kept them all in character. It has been a long time since I haven't read Gakuen Alice, so this is not based on the manga.
If ever LoveDenied reads this... Your long-awaited NatsuMikan is in progress, maybe. Might post it sometime, but don't expect much. Expect angst. xD
Warning: Possible confusion and OOCness. Hopefully not.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Gakuen Alice. Just a fan with an imagination working overtime.
It... No, she was driving him up the wall.
"It's two in the damned morning, Ruka," Natsume Hyuuga gave a yawn, and then threw the maroon blanket over him. "Get the hell out of my room and let me sleep."
"Natsume," Ruka intoned sharply as he closed the window he climbed in on. "I'm serious."
"About what? Interrupting my sleep and climbing into my room like some creepy stalker?"
"No!" Ruka's hands flew up in the air. "Think about it, Natsume. We're in middle school now, and Hotaru- she still hasn't stopped taking pictures of me. I mean, she's a genius! She created tons of inventions that racks in thousands... no, millions of rabbits!"
"Maybe I should let her install a damned security device on my room so that I wouldn't listen to you obsessing over her," Natsume chuckled underneath the sheets.
Ruka ignored his best friend's comment. "And still, she always... always finds time to take pictures of me!" He restlessly shook the lump in the blanket, aka Natsume. "She sent a damned robot in my room to take pictures of me sleeping! And I've had enough of this! This is the last straw!"
"Ruka!" Natsume threw the blanket off him, and sent Ruka sitting on the floor. Natsume groaned and massaged his temples. "Look here. I'm willing to help you with your problem with Imai, but... Let me go to sleep first! And doesn't Imai send a robot to your room normally?"
"She does?"
"Oh, you hopeless little man. Didn't you ever wonder why there's a photograph of you sleeping in your rabbit's bed?" Natsume sighed and threw the blanket over him, and Ruka was left on the floor, staring into space. Thank heavens, silence... Natsume gave a contented smile as he sunk his head on the soft feathery pillow.
"I've got it." Ruka whispered, breaking the short silence.
"What now?" Natsume snarled.
"She's stalking me."
From that point on, Natsume Hyuuga knew that tomorrow was absolutely not normal.
O0O
Natsume Hyuuga rubbed his eyes as his face felt the sunlight hitting it. He groaned. Last night was horrible. Never again will he give Ruka the keys to his window.
"She's stalking me." The words of Ruka hung on his head. He chuckled. Hotaru Imai, genius and inventor extraordinaire, was stalking the one and only animal boy? That was impossible. If Ruka Nogi's brain was actually functioning well, he'd just conclude that Hotaru Imai was increasing her profit two-fold. But no, he just had to conclude that she was stalking him. He must've really lost his marbles. Didn't he know that the rabbits gained from his pictures are just for funding her inventions?
Then again, being blackmailed and taken photos of for a straight five years, you couldn't blame the poor guy. He'd kept the Mr. Nice Guy façade for so long, but his temper and sanity had to explode somewhere along the road.
Too bad it just had to be today.
He stared at the blonde lying on the floor, sleeping in bunny pyjamas. "The things I do for friends..." Picking up his battered alarm clock, he edged it closely to his friend's ear and adjusted the time.
RIIINNNGGG!
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
O0O
"Oooh... My head..." Ruka Nogi mournfully moaned as he slid down on his seat.
"Nice wake-up call, isn't it?" Natsume smirked as he pulled out some manga off his desk. The blonde beside him winced as he massaged his still-ringing head. "That's what you get for intruding someone's sleep. You sounded like a banshee screaming your head off."
"Natsume," Ruka painfully groaned. "You could've just waked me up normally. It's like you gave me a hangover, placing that alarm clock on my ear... And I'm not a banshee!" He said pitifully, and then smiled wistfully at his pet rabbit, handing him a cup of water.
"Weren't you in a hangover last night? Concluding that Imai... Imai, of all people, was stalking you... You must've drunk hard yesterday. "
Ruka nearly choked on his water. "I wasn't drunk! I was serious last night, Natsume!"
"Yeah, you were as serious as me actually taking a serious conversation with Narumi."
"Natsume!"
Just then the classroom door slid open, and there entered Mochu and Kokoroyumi. "Hey, did you hear that awesome banshee shriek this morning? It was awesome. Got me scrambling on my feet!" Koko laughed with a wide grin on his face.
"It sounded like a girl discovering a couple cockroaches in her clothes dresser. Almost gave me a headache!" Mochu shook his head as he waved at the two sitting at the far back. "Morning, Natsume, Ruka!"
"Did you hear the awesome banshee shriek?"
"What's with you and that damned banshee shriek?"
"It was plain awesome. It's like it came straight out from a horror movie..."
"You look like you came out from a horror movie."
"See?" Natsume whispered as the two continued to argue about the banshee shriek. "I told you. You did sound like a banshee."
Ruka groaned as he hid his face in his hands. "What's wrong with Ruka? Got a hangover?" Mochu asked, peering curiously at Ruka.
"I do not have a hangover!" Ruka shouted, and then winced.
Koko opened his mouth to speak, and then blinked rapidly. "Oh, so you were the source of the shriek! All because you saw Hotaru's robot taking photos you at the middle of the night..."
"A robot sneaks into Ruka's room at night?" Mochu cringed. "Security here is terrible. Then again, it is Imai's robot..."
Natsume held back a snicker. Apparently, no one was irked by the fact that Imai sends a robot into a guy's room at night but was irked by security. Maybe they were just too used to the fact that Imai tortures Ruka on some daily basis.
"Koko..." Ruka started.
"And then you finally got filled up with Hotaru taking pictures of you for the rabbits, so you got out of your room, and made your way to Natsume's window..."
"You think he'd never get used to Imai, after five years of stolen photography and heartless blackmailing," Natsume smirked as he flipped a page.
Mochu nodded in agreement. "But hey, I'd go insane if I was in his shoes."
"Even if your heartless blackmailer was Shouda?" Natsume looked up.
An immediate grin spread into his face. "Insane with love and happiness, sure." Mochu laughed.
Natsume rolled his eyes and settled back into the chair, flipping another page.
"Koko, stop reading-" Ruka attempted to stop the mind reader.
"Then you ranted everything out to Natsume, then you had a conclusion that..." Koko stopped abruptly, and then burst out screaming. "Wait, what?"
Their other classmates turned around, looking over at the corner. The group, excluding Natsume, gave sheepish, apologetic smiles, then returned to their conversation.
"...Stop reading my mind, and don't scream! Ow!" Ruka finished, and then held his head.
"What? What'd you read?" Mochu poked Koko, who was staring at Ruka with utter disbelief.
"What do you think, Koko?" Natsume asked with a small grin spread on his face.
"That's preposterous. Ruka, there's no way that Hotaru would be stalking you!"
"Wait, what? Imai, stalking Ruka?"
"I know, right? That's stupid! Out of this world!"
"Imai's got a fancy reputation," Natsume watched as Koko and Mochu continued rambling on how Hotaru stalking Ruka was like Narumi being straight and Mikan being smart.
Well, Hotaru Imai was one force to be reckoned with. Her inventions were a hit in not only in the school, but even in other parts of the world. She was probably the richest girl in school, and crowds of people admired her a lot. Not to mention she'd accumulated a fair share of admirers.
But that didn't change the fact that she was the Ice Queen, she was equipped with the famous Baka Gun, and she was Mikan Sakura's best friend.
"What's going on?"
Turning around, the group faced the mild-mannered class representative, Yuu Tobita. As they grew older, his dirty blond hair grew quite a bit, and appeared tousled of sorts, which appealed to girls who say 'it was so cute!' and ever since Mikan learned that his glasses were nothing sort of an Alice restraint, she forced him to take them off. Well, it turned out to be a good thing, since he gained a fan club and reputation.
But he was still... shy and so mild-mannered. He was working on it, anyway.
"Oh, Yuu!" Koko clasped the poor class representative's hand. "Think about this. Hotaru the famed Ice Queen; stalking that." Koko pointed a finger at Ruka, who was still pitifully clutching his head.
"Hey! What does that mean?" Ruka growled, feeling like he was called the lowest scum of the earth.
"H-Hotaru stalking Ruka? T-that's impossible!" Yuu burst out. "A-ah, no offense, Ruka..."
"None taken." Ruka looked down.
"That's what we told him!" Mochu replied, and then turned to Ruka. "Ruka, I'm a hundred percent sure that you're wrong."
"Make that hundred and ten," Natsume muttered.
"Then can you explain why she's still taking pictures of me?"
The three boys stared at him incredulously, like he asked a stupid question. Natsume still remained impassive, flipping another page of his manga. "...What?" Ruka looked at them back and forth.
"You don't know what she uses them for?" Koko started.
"Blackmailing. And rabbits." Ruka looked bitter.
"What, you knew after all!" Mochu frowned. "So why ask?"
Ruka stared at them, exasperated. "Look here. Hotaru's a genius. She created thousands... thousands of inventions that could rake in more rabbits than all of my pictures combined! So why in the world is she still taking these damned photos of me!"
Silence.
"And I've recently learned that she sends a freaking robot to my room normally, thanks to Natsume! Isn't that freaky?"
Silence.
"He does have a point," Mochu muttered. "Why sell photos when there are your inventions?"
"I dunno, to keep influence of blackmail? This is Hotaru we're talking about." Koko shrugged.
"You're missing the point here…!" Ruka looked desperate.
"It's because..." Yuu started, but he was held off by a glare, courtesy of Natsume, who stashed his manga away and looked at his poor seatmate.
"Natsume?" Ruka looked up at his best friend gloomily.
"Let's do it then." Natsume said as he narrowed his eyes at the mind reader. Trespass my thoughts, and I will burn your clothes to ash, along with your hair.
Koko paled, shivered, and nodded furiously.
"...Do what?" Mochu asked, giving looks at a pale Koko.
"To prove Ruka's theory." Natsume concluded.
"...What?"
"Ho-ta-ruuu!"
Baka-baka-baka!
"Kyaaaaah! G-grandpa! What are you...? Kyaaaaa!"
"It works perfectly. Excellent." Hotaru said as she lowered the new and improved Baka Gun. This time the baka gun's shots could project illusions of what the targeted person fears the most for a short duration.
In Mikan Sakura's case, her grandfather and his cane.
"Waaah..." Mikan gave Hotaru a puppy-dog look. "That was so mean!"
"It wasn't. I'm only helping you get rid of your fear of your grandfather." She stated plainly as they walked down the stairs heading to their classroom. Mikan brightened up like a light bulb.
"R-really...?" Mikan blinked rapidly, stars in her amber-like eyes. "Oh, thank you Hotaru! You really are my best friend!" She pounced at her.
Hotaru just sighed as she hugged Mikan back, and smiled a little. Her best friend would never change, no matter what happened. Although she grew to be quite a charmer, her now auburn hair cascading along her back in a loose braid. Not only that, but her skin had become a beautiful shade of porcelain, and her amber eyes shone brightly than before. Also, by her own strength, she had changed how people viewed the likes of her, the Special Abilities type. Nowadays, the Special types were no longer outcasts, and blended in.
All thanks to her efforts. Ever since that happened, a great number of students admired her and pine for her affections, which would give Hyuuga a run for his rabbits.
But despite all that...
That did not change the fact that she was still the sparkling ball of sunshine; warm, cheerful, and...
... An idiot.
Baka-baka-baka!
"Kyaaaaahhh!"
O0O
Arriving at their classroom door, the brunette came to a halt, and then spun around. "Oh yeah! Hotaru, can we drop by Nonoko's classroom?" Mikan looked expectantly at the inventor.
"You forgot your notes again."
"Yup. Can we, can we?"
"Oh, fine." Hotaru sighed. Back then, all of them were classmates, but right now, the teachers didn't see it fit to stick all of them in one classroom all the time. Right now, she, Mikan, and Sumire were at class A, while the rest stayed at class B. Shame that Yuu, Anna, Nonoko, or even Hyuuga weren't in the same classroom. She needed someone else to pacify Mikan's idiocy for a short while. Her project was almost complete, and she really couldn't afford Mikan distracting her.
Oh well. She just has to find something to preoccupy her. Piece of cake, considering that it's Mikan.
"Yay!" Mikan gave another smile, and started skipping. "You know, Hotaru, it's really a shame that we're all separated now! I miss all the days when we were..."
"Mikan," Hotaru looked at the broken tile ahead of the skipping girl. "There's a..."
"...all toge-waaah!" Tripping on the broken tile, Mikan began to plummet on the floor, and closed her eyes in fear. She waited for an impact, but instead she felt her head rest on something.
"What the hell are you doing?" A familiar voice scowled.
"Huh?" Mikan opened her eyes reluctantly, and her eyes met crimson ones. "Natsume!"
"Good thing Natsume saw you," Mochu walked towards them, his face cracking into a grin seeing Natsume and Mikan in an… well, awkward position.
"Yeah, or your face would've been pancake," Koko joked, walking alongside Mochu. "Morning!"
"Nice catch," Hotaru said as she took out a small camera and took a photo. Natsume immediately nailed her with a glare as she stashed the camera away. "20,000 rabbits. It's special."
Natsume scowled and pushed Mikan off.
"H-hey!" Mikan tried hard not to fall once more.
"You okay, Mikan?" Yuu asked as he aided her in stabilizing herself.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mikan replied, grinning at Yuu and at Natsume the next. "Thanks, Natsume."
"Hmph. Next time, you'd better watch where you're going, Polka. You should've tried warning her, Imai." Natsume scoffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"I tried. And you know how she doesn't listen." Hotaru replied coolly.
Mochu and Koko looked back and forth at Natsume and Hotaru, who were settling down at glaring thunderbolts at each other. "I can feel the sparks," Koko muttered.
"What's going on? Why'd you suddenly..." Ruka panted, running towards them. Looking up, he saw the living impersonation of cheerful summer and her icy winter counterpart. "Oh."
"Ruka!" Mikan brightened up, unaware of the tension right in front of her. "Morning!"
"Morning," Ruka gave an awkward smile to the brunette, and then turned to face the latter. "Uh, morning to you too, Hotaru."
Hotaru merely acknowledged the greeting with a nod. "Morning."
"So, where were you guys heading?" Mikan turned to the group. They shifted glances at each other, and then looked at Natsume for support.
"Strolling." Natsume merely answered. Mikan gave Natsume a weird look, but said nothing.
"Well, you better not stroll too long," Mikan reminded. "It's almost time for class."
"How about you two?" Yuu asked.
"Mikan forgot her notes," Hotaru sighed. "We were heading to your classroom to get it from Nonoko."
"Was Nonoko there already?" Mikan questioned. Koko shrugged.
"No, she wasn't there yet, I think."
"Maybe you should check," Mochu suggested. "She might be there already."
"Okay, thanks!" Taking Hotaru's hand, Mikan started walking off to the direction of the other classroom. "Come on, let's go! See you at lunch later!"
Hotaru struggled from her grip. "I can walk by myself, now stop dragging me."
"See you guys later!" Koko shouted out, waving.
"Pray in heaven's name, what the hell are we doing here?"
Koko had to agree with Ruka on that one. What the hell were they doing? Looking around, Ruka looked absolutely mortified, Mochu looked grim, and Natsume was... Natsume.
"If we get caught, we are dead for eternity." Koko muttered. "We're going to get mauled with a broomstick. How lame is that?"
"That is, if we get caught." Mochu said, attempting to lift some spirits, but he didn't look so good himself. "If we do, then... It was nice knowing you all."
And tell Sumire I love her, Mochu thought. Koko laughed like a maniac, then said: "Sure we will! If we survive the broomstick lady."
Mochu bonked him with a free hand. "Ow!"
"S-shouldn't we get down? W-what if we fall?" Yuu whimpered, not enjoying this one bit.
"Don't worry. We're getting closer." Natsume said with his usual air of confidence. Koko swore that the raven-haired boy was slightly grinning. Grinning!
"Oh we'd better be." Koko scowled as his hand gripped the old brick.
O0O
Three hours ago...
Koko watched the disappearing silhouettes of the two girls, and then turned to face Natsume. "So, what are we doing?" Natsume was definitely thinking of something good, but he wouldn't really want his clothes and hair get turned into ash in a mere second. And what theory of Ruka's? If it was the stalking theory, that was absolutely false.
Hey, maybe it was the other way around! Ruka might think he's being stalked, but in reality, he's unaware that he's the one doing the stalking! Koko chuckled at the thought. That would be hilarious if that was true.
"What do you mean; we're going to prove my theory?" Ruka narrowed his eyes at Natsume. "You haven't explained anything."
"Let's see if Imai is really stalking you." A grin tugged Natsume's lips as he began to walk away from the group. The group shared glances, then eventually shrugged and followed their ringleader.
"What do you mean by that, Natsume?" Yuu asked timidly.
"We stake out Imai." Natsume said breezily. The others shot confused looks.
"Uh, Hotaru went that way." Koko pointed out bluntly, pointing at the opposite direction.
"Indirectly." Natsume stopped as they left the school building. "We go to her room, and check whatever's there. Imai surely sells all Ruka's pictures after taking them. If we do see those pictures, Imai might be stalking Ruka. If we don't find anything on her cabinets or whatever, we check her computer or other stuff. If that fails as well, Ruka was on high drugs last night." Natsume narrowed his eyes at the blonde, who flustered.
"I've never heard of indirect stake outs," Mochu muttered.
"H-hey! " Why does everyone think I'm on drugs or on alcohol? Koko snickered at Ruka's thoughts. Ruka gave a nasty glare. "Koko."
He laughed and shrugged. "Sorry, Ruka. I'm good with that plan. How about you?" He turned to Mochu.
"Cool. But don't we have a problem?" Mochu frowned.
"What's that?" Koko asked. So far, he didn't see anything wrong with the idea. And if there is, Natsume was there anyway. He wasn't granted special star status for nothing. Or there's Ruka! Or Yuu, even!
"Problems," Yuu piped in, fidgeting. "What about our classes?"
"And I've heard the old lady at girl's dorm is packed with a mean broomstick," Mochu cringed. "An absolute introvert who hates boys."
"And it's Hotaru's room we're... um, breaking into." Yuu paled at the thought. "Surely she installed some security device in her room..."
"And the owner of the room we're entering." Ruka groaned. "What if she actually catches us or discovers that we broke into her room?"
"Wow, that's a lot," Koko frowned, and then faced Natsume. "What do we do then, chief?"
"Ruka, Imai's in class for two hours, and then she always has her break with Polka. Chances are that she only returns here around lunch time."
"Since when did you know their daily routines?"
"Observing. But that's beside the point."
"'Observing' rhymes with stalking."
"Shut it, Ruka."
"How about our classes?" Yuu asked.
"Easy." Natsume had a smirk on his face. "Ruka, Mochu and I are used to skipping class, and usually the teachers don't really bother anymore. So the three of us are in the clear."
"You shouldn't be so proud of that fact, Natsume," Ruka looked glum. Although he will admit the fact that he skipped class, he really didn't want to right now. They had a new pet hedgehog, and the poor thing wasn't really feeling well.
"So, how about me and Yuu?" Koko personally didn't care about class. Well, only now, since this plan had sparked his interest.
"Yuu." Natsume turned to the mild-mannered boy. "You'll conjure illusions of both of you. You're strong enough to keep the illusions running for two hours, right?"
"Uh, y-yeah," Yuu turned even paler. "B-but what if we get caught by the teacher?"
"I doubt that. And if ever you get caught, I'll deal with it."
"So, how about broomstick lady?" Mochu pointed out. "She's usually at the front of the dorm, checking the area out for any trespassing people. Like us."
"There's a path in the forest that leads us to the backside of the dormitory. I doubt that lady does rounds around the back."
"So we sneak in, and the lady wouldn't even know!" Koko concluded. "Genius!"
"Then... how about breaking into Hotaru's room?" Ruka frowned. "I agree with Yuu about the security in the room. Breaking in there is like breaking into a bank vault."
"Totally not easy." Mochu agreed. "You'd really need to be extremely cautious."
"And smart," Yuu added.
The four looked expectantly at Natsume, who dug into his pocket and brought out a silver object; glistening under the sunlight.
"Easy."
The bell rang.
O0O
"How'd you know that there's a path in the forest that leads here?" Koko watched with mild amusement as Ruka waved to the one hundredth bird and thirty-first rabbit that passed by them.
"Exploring for hiding places," Natsume rolled his eyes recalling as he stepped out of the forest. "Girls can be a bother."
"Ah, the lives of famous teen boys," Koko narrated dramatically. "Too bad the other cannot spit it out to the girl whose density level is probably lower than water, not scientifically speaking; and the latter is unaware of his growing admiration-slash-love for his heartless-slash-money-eyed blackmailer..."
"If only they could spit it out and realize their feelings, they could've gotten rid of their grisly curse! Fangirls." Koko waved his hands and eye-twitched relentlessly at Yuu, who edged back from the mind-reader in fright. He laughed. "Special drama effects."
"What the hell are you talking about? I'm sure the heartless-slash-money-eyed blackmailer is Imai, but who's the girl who's absolutely dense? I mean, can someone be even that dense that it's compared to the density of water?" Mochu grinned, trying to play dumb.
"Well, it's..." Koko began to explain enthusiastically, but was stopped by two hands heavily lying on both of his shoulders. A chill went down his spine.
"Say one word and I will burn you." Natsume snarled coldly. "And that's not even half of your punishment."
"Er..." Koko froze in place, turning ghastly white.
"Try saying that crap-knows-where dialogue once more and I will send a legion of snakes in your room," Ruka threatened. Koko turned as white as a sheet. "And I am not starting to like Hotaru in that way!"
Releasing their grip on the poor mind-reader, Koko flung around, panicking. "Snakes! The horror!" Koko gripped Mochu's blazer. "Oh, the horrific hissing!"
"Oh, shut it!" Mochu removed Koko's grip off his blazer. "These are the many reasons why sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut, and why you should not try encouraging them."
"You played along!" Koko declared, pointing an accusing finger.
"Well, I didn't know that they'd act that violent!"
"Well you should've thought of that!"
"G-guys!" Yuu sweat dropped as he tried pacifying the two. "S-stop it! Ruka and Natsume have gone ahead now!"
The two stopped and glared at each other.
"Sorry." Mochu muttered as they walked toward the two who were waiting besides the tall scarlet building.
"No prob!" Koko grinned immediately, the fear and false anger washed away from his face. Mochu rolled his eyes and laughed.
"So, are we going to sneak into the front door now?" Ruka asked nervously.
"Prepare yourselves for the broom lady," Mochu took in a deep breath.
"Is she really that scary?" Yuu whimpered slightly.
"That's what the other guys attempting to enter the girls' dorm said," Mochu recalled. "They said that she was a witch with that broom."
Yuu swallowed, and so did Ruka. "Well, let's go then..." Ruka said, his voice slightly wavering.
"Who said that we're going through the front door?" Natsume raised an eyebrow.
"What, we're not?" Koko looked stupefied. "Then how do we enter?"
Natsume pointed up, an amused smile on his face.
"Oh bloody hell."
"... We're climbing, aren't we?"
The present...
"Pray in heaven's name, what the hell are we doing here?"
Ruka scowled as he reached for another brick. This was ridiculous! He seriously thought that they were just going to sneak in unnoticed, head to Hotaru's room, and then scavenge for stalking evidence to prove that he was sane and drug-free. But no, Natsume just had to say that they were going to scale the freaking building. And he thought that this plan of his was going to be easy...
"If we get caught, we are dead for eternity." Koko muttered from below. "We're going to get mauled with a broomstick. How lame is that?"
"That is, if we get caught." Mochu said, attempting to lift some spirits, but Ruka bet he didn't look so good himself. "If we do, then... It was nice knowing you all."
After a few seconds, Koko laughed like a maniac, and then said: "Sure we will! If we survive the broomstick lady."
"Ow!" A shout from Koko.
"S-shouldn't we get down? W-what if we fall?" Yuu whimpered, not enjoying this one bit.
"Don't worry. We're getting closer." Natsume said confidently, his eyes focused above. Ruka looked at his expression and sighed. Feels no fear at all, Ruka thought. He's definitely enjoying this. "Ow! Stupid window ledge…" He rubbed his head.
"Now that I think about it," Ruka peered up at Natsume. "How the heck do you know where Hotaru's room is?"
Natsume looked down briefly, and then looked up again. "We visited her room a couple of times before just for you to beg her not to sell the pictures of you cross-dressing again at the last Alice festival. Remember? When you were Alice in Alice in Wonderland?"
"Oh." Ruka flushed. "I shouldn't have asked." Another scowl appeared on his face, remembering the dreaded day that he was voted to become the lead female. Again. And he won a freaking landslide.
"But Natsume," Yuu rubbed his nose. "It's amazing that you still know which one is Hotaru's! I mean, all of the windows look similar... And we don't even know what floor we are in now…" Natsume just smiled.
"Are we there yet?" Koko's voice called out. "Ow! Stupid window ledges…"
"According to Natsume, we're nearly there," Ruka shouted as he stabilized his foot on a brick and reached out for a higher one. "Man, these things are musty."
"Hey," Mochu coughed briefly, then continued. "Does anyone know what time is it?"
"Uhh..." Yuu checked his watch, his other hand hanging on a broken brick. "It's been an hour and forty minutes."
"So we have twenty minutes." Mochu's eye twitched. "We'd better hurry!"
"Add break time and we have forty minutes. Don't panic!" Koko sped up, realizing that Mochu was getting further away.
"You're the one panicking! Why'd you suddenly speed up?"
"Ah, there it is," Natsume stopped climbing and looked at the window a little upwards.
"What floor is Hotaru's room?" Koko called out again.
"Wait, how many floors are in this building?" Mochu added.
"Um, the girls' dorm has at least... ten floors," Yuu answered. "And in a floor, excluding the first one, there are twelve rooms."
"Oh, so it's like ours," Koko said, stating quite the obvious. "So, what floor is Hotaru's?"
"Sixth floor." Natsume called out. "And here we are."
"Whoa!" Koko looked ecstatic. "I climbed six floors of a tall building! Cool!"
"You think?" Ruka replied. "Try looking down, and tell me if it's cool."
Koko probably did as he was instructed, since he suddenly yelled out. "Whoa! Okay, not cool at all."
"By the way, Natsume," Yuu said as he finally kept up to Natsume. "The key you showed... Isn't that the key for Hotaru's room?"
"Oh yeah," Ruka thought as he also finally caught up to Natsume, who was hanging onto the window's ledge, inspecting the room. "Isn't that for the door, not the window?"
"Wrong," Natsume produced the key out of his pocket. "I never said that this was the key to Imai's room."
"Man full of surprises, next thing you know this theory proving is some sort of set-up," Ruka rolled his eyes. Natsume smirked as he inserted the key into the window keyhole. "When did you ever get Hotaru's window key? It's kind of suspicious."
"You jealous?" Natsume teased as he pushed the window open and slipped inside the room. "Good. I see no cameras or anything. Strange thing. I expected solid security in Imai's room."
Ruka flushed as he slipped into the room as well. "No, I'm not jealous! Just... curious."
"How poetic of you." Natsume stuffed the key into his pocket and dusted himself off. "Polka dropped this key a few weeks ago."
"She did?"
"Yep. I managed to get a hold of it. It was just lying on the floor, so I took it, unaware that it was Polka's. Then she started lamenting that she lost Imai's window key a few days after. Imai just gave it to her to keep for some time being. Maybe Polka forgot all about it. Or Imai already made a duplicate." Natsume shrugged.
"How convenient."
Mochu watched as Yuu slipped into the window. "Thank heavens," Mochu grinned. He couldn't really stand the climbing. And hitting his head on window ledges. "Never again will I climb this damned building."
"Hey, Mochu!" Koko shouted out. He looked down. "Mind putting your Alice in good use?" The mind-reader made a Cheshire-like grin.
"Glad to," He replied. Focusing, he levitated himself and Koko, who was screaming 'Woohoo! Goodbye, musty bricks!' from below. A smile spread on his face, and then he abruptly frowned. Oh God, I should've done this earlier! Then we wouldn't have climbed all the freaking way!
Apparently the thought of scaling a building weighed too much on his head that he forgot that he had the Alice of Levitation.
"You're right!" Koko flew up to him. "Damn why didn't we think of that!"
"Oh well," Mochu frowned and shrugged. "At least you can brag that you climbed six floors of a building. And I doubt if I'd suggest it to Natsume, he'd agree."
"It's Natsume. He likes convenience." Koko pointed out.
"Oh, never mind. Let's just get into the damned room." The pair floated upwards, and entered the room. "Whoa."
"Whoa indeed," Koko marvelled at the room. It was crammed with all sort of inventions, ranging from computers, cooking machines, weapons, gaming stuff, transportation, and a whole lot of pretty amazing stuff. The inventions almost ate half of the room's space, and the bed stayed a one corner, at the left side of the window. Beside the dresser there lay a computer, resting on a fine mahogany table with two large drawers.
"Awesome shack this place is," Mochu stared at the inventions sprawled on the floor. "Oh, is that…?" He looked over at a heap of gaming consoles.
"Don't you dare touch one of them," Natsume warned. "They might set off an alarm or something equally worse."
"Oh heaven," Koko said hoarsely as he pointed all sorts of items he desired, especially on the gaming section. "That… oh, that… Even that! And those! Nooo! Must… resist…"
Koko's fingers twitched uncontrollably as he tried reaching out for an oblong-shaped console. Ruka slapped his hand away. "Ow! Aw, man! Just a touch?"
"Koko!" Ruka scolded. "Stop it! We're running short of time! And no, you can't touch that!"
"Oh..." Koko stopped, and then snapped his fingers. "Dammit."
"Time check?" Mochu muttered as he looked at another section of inventions.
"Oh no," Yuu looked as his watch worriedly. "It's already break time!"
"You can talk about the games later," Natsume finally looked away from a sleek, black, console. "It's time to raid the drawers."
"You know, that thing over there is kind of creepy," Mochu pointed at a small robot shaped like a gnome. "It's eyes seem to be following us."
"Really?" Koko headed over to the robot and looked at it. "Hey you're right, it is looking at us." Koko waved his arms at it, and the Gnome's eyes seemed to follow.
"I wonder… What does it do?" Yuu looked at the gnome curiously as he followed Natsume and Ruka to the drawers.
O0O
RIIIING!
The painful ringing of the bell never ceased to irk Hotaru. It was even more painful than listening to Narumi's voice for eight hours straight. She sighed as she stashed her books away. Someday, she was going to do some modifications on that bell…
Opening her bag, a red light blinked from one of the many remote controls in it. Taking it out, she raised an eyebrow. This was the remote for the Guardian Gnome, a creation made by her sempai in the Technical class. Her sempai told her that there was something wrong with it and kindly asked her if she could check it out.
The gnome was made to be a scarecrow-and-guard two in one. Strangely enough, the scarecrow part was malfunctioning, and instead of scaring birds or other animals off a garden, it seemed to attract said critters when turned on. She fixed it with ease by just replacing and tinkering with its circuit and it was good to go. Seeing no use for the guard option, she just turned it off and placed it beside the door.
But why the hell was it blinking? She looked at the remote screen, and there, in bold red letters, it said: INTRUDER ALERT. The words disappeared, and the screen showed her room fuzzily. Something… no, someone was standing in front of the gnome, waving their hands at its eyes. The person knelt down, and although fuzzy, she could make out the spiky, unkempt hair, mischievous brown eyes and the idiotic grin that could only belong to a stupid mind-reader.
Koko.
Oh God. She knew that group was up to no good.
"Hotaru!" Mikan shouted as she walked over to the inventor's seat. "I got you some-"
Before Mikan could complete her sentence, Hotaru rushed out of the room and brought out a small, swan-shaped figurine out of her pocket. "Open," Hotaru commanded as she rushed out of the academy.
Flinging it upwards, the swan figurine began to expand and turned into her Flying Swan. Mounting on it immediately, she began to steer the swan out of the academy and towards the dormitory. "If one of those idiots touches as much as one of those consoles…" Hotaru muttered with clenched teeth as she brought out her Baka Gun. "I will kill them!"
O0O
Natsume turned to the open window as a slight gust of wind came through. "Natsume?" Ruka turned to him. "Something wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Natsume shook his head and walked to the mahogany table. "We'd better start looking through those drawers."
"Game time!" Koko ran over, excited. The mind reader finally stepped away from the gnome and was glad to open one of the drawers. "Whoa. That's a lot of papers."
"Talk about it," Mochu stared at the crammed compartment and opened the other one. "There's gotta be a lot of info in there. This one's stuffed, too!" He looked at the multitude of papers, envelopes, and other sorts of files with disdain.
"Should we be really looking into this?" Yuu looked worried. "We're destroying Hotaru's privacy…"
"We've come this far," Ruka scanned some of the papers. "So I guess it's too late to turn back."
"Ooh, envelope from… Microsoft Corporation." Koko held an envelope up. "Sounds like some big shot."
"We're looking for stalking evidence, not big shots."
"Sorry. It's hard not to get sidetracked. Oh heavens, an envelope from Square Enix?"
"Koko!"
While the others started looking for any sort of stalking evidence, Natsume called Mochu's attention. "What's up?"
"If I tell you to levitate both of us," Natsume whispered. "You follow immediately. Don't panic."
"Okay?" Mochu looked puzzled. "What's this for?"
"Emergency purposes," Natsume finished, and then walked back to the compartment where Ruka was searching. "…Hm?"
"What's wrong?" Ruka watched as Natsume pulled out a thick, white book from the very back of the cabinet. "What's that?" The rest crowded over as Natsume opened the book.
"Oh heavens," Koko stared at the first page with disbelief. The page was filled with at least twelve pictures of Ruka when they were still elementary. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"That's a picture of you and Piyo," Yuu scanned the pictures. "And a picture of you with Mikan, then there's with you and Natsume…"
"And there's you as Snow White!" Mochu tried hard not to laugh as he looked at the photographs.
Natsume kept on flipping the pages, and each one was filled with pictures of Ruka. "It's like a complied work of Imai's pictures of you from when we were kids," Natsume tried not rip the picture of Ruka and Mikan off. "Complete collection, until up to now."
"Hah! Told you so!" Ruka hummed proudly. "She's stalking me!"
"It's weird that you're happy about being stalked," Koko argued. "But I still doubt that Hotaru's stalking you!"
"I agree with Koko," Yuu looked hesitant. "I think that's not enough evidence…"
"And if she is stalking you," Mochu looked at the animal lover. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I'll confront her." Ruka said fearlessly.
An amused grin broke into Natsume's face. This was getting hilarious. "What was that?"
"I'll confront her. I've had enough of her blackmail. This stops now!" Ruka looked determined. They all sweat dropped as Ruka continued talking about being free from Hotaru's rule.
"He's on high drugs alright," Mochu whispered. "He's lost it!"
Natsume called the attention of the three. "Look at this."
Looking over, Natsume had gone to the last page of the book. Stuck to the cover was a yellow sticky note filled with Hotaru's handwriting. The three looked dumbfounded, and Natsume looked satisfied.
Koko stole the book from Natsume's hands and rushed over to Ruka. "I told you Hotaru's not stalking you! Look at this!" He pointed at the sticky note furiously.
"Look at what…" Ruka took the book from his hands, and started to read the sticky note, but was stopped by the harsh opening of the door.
Shoulder length raven black hair, porcelain complexion and amethyst orbs, a lethal weapon in hand and a face ridden with irritation and partly heavy murder intent. And a giant swan.
"Mochu!" Natsume shouted.
And all hell broke loose.
"Oh no you don't!" Hotaru shouted as she aimed for the levitator, but it was too late. The Alice had already taken effect, and Hyuuga had immediately grabbed Mochu and flew through the open window. She scowled and instead looked at the remaining three.
"N-Natsume!" Ruka shouted as he looked below. "What the hell?"
Yuu fainted in terror, perhaps, since he paled and fell to the floor. No matter. She'd forgive him at least. She turned to the ever-so-annoying mind reader. "Kokoroyumi." She said icily.
"U-uh, hi!" Koko pulled on a nervous smile. "Want some peaches?" He offered, knowing that the inventor had a great liking to the fruit and would hopefully spare him.
"Eat them yourself," Hotaru shot him with her Baka Gun, and in no time the poor guy had been shouting and screaming about snakes going up to his underwear. She turned to the last person standing. "Nogi."
"Hotaru," Ruka looked pale and his knees were slightly shivering. But he seemed to regain composure and stood bravely, holding the book in hand.
"Drop the book so that I could probably spare you."
"Why? Because you don't want anyone knowing your secret?"
Hotaru raised an eyebrow. "What idiocy are you talking about?"
"That you're stalking me!" Ruka declared fearlessly. Hotaru's eyes flickered with a bit of surprise and confusion.
Hotaru looked at him, dumbfounded. "Are you serious, Nogi?"
"I am. I've had enough, Hotaru. For five years, I've survived every bit of your blackmail and insults towards me. Five freaking years! I'm not going to stand anymore of your torture. All this time, I've been trying to find something that would stop you, and I have it! I've been so blind, and I finally know!" He raised the book up. "You're stalking me, Hotaru. You're obsessed with me!"
Hotaru stared at him, still remaining impassive after his declaration. "Well? Is that all?"
Flustered, Ruka mustered to say one last sentence.
"You… like me, don't you?"
Silence.
"Along with your temper, I'm sure your common sense also flew out of the window." She replied as she shot him with her Baka Gun, causing him to drop the book with surprise and fall backwards, plummeting towards the ground below.
"AAAGH!' Ruka screamed, seeing an illusion of his mother caging him and babying him due to the Baka Gun shot. He lost consciousness, plummeting faster like a rock.
Acting quickly, Hotaru flew down, catching Ruka with her duck. He landed with a thud, and Hotaru could see that he'd fainted, probably caused by the illusion combined with the fear of falling. She rolled her eyes.
"Idiot."
The next thing Ruka knew that he was lying on his bed.
"Wah!" He rose immediately from his bed, gasping. "Huh, I was falling, then… What am I doing here?"
The door opened, and Natsume entered, a smile on his face. "I guess the idiot's awake."
"Natsume!" Ruka frowned as he closed the door. "W-what happened? Where's Hotaru?"
"Making millions," Natsume pulled out a chair, placing it besides Ruka's bed. "I applaud your bravery-slash-stupidity."
Ruka flustered as Natsume laughed. "Shut it. At least I confronted her!"
Then the feeling of confronting the dreaded Ice Queen settled down on him. He declared, this and that… and, oh heavens. What the hell did he just do? He grabbed his hair and shook his head rapidly.
"Oh God I confronted her! I'm dead meat! I'm such an idiot!"
"Truest thing you've probably ever said," Natsume watched as the blonde went hysterical, saying that he'd want to shrivel up and die and he signed his death sentence. He laughed. Oh boy, Ruka was always hilarious when it comes to things like this… This must be his greatest feat of stupidity yet!
"And? Did she admit?"
"Well, n-no, but…"
"Bingo. And you even shouted that she liked you."
Ruka turned red. "W-what? H-how'd you…!"
Natsume seemed even more amused. "You'd be shocked on how loud your voice is. We heard bits of your conversation from below. Real smooth, Romeo."
"Gah, s-shut it! And what do you mean she's making millions? And what the hell happened?"
Natsume looked a little eager to explain. "Well, after your stupid declaration, out of nowhere, you fell out of the window and started hurdling towards us. Mochu attempted to levitate you, but Imai beat him to it. She caught you with the duck, then landed towards us."
"She threw you off to us, then declared that she'd torture us both for life."
Ruka panicked. "H-hey! You made the plan!"
"You followed without a complaint, and you were too eager to prove yourself sane," Natsume reminded him, and he scowled in response. "After that Mochu and I had to drag your ass to your room. And by the way, you slept for three hours straight."
"Three hours. Oh God," Ruka flumped back. "Where's everyone?"
"Cafeteria, waiting for you to come to your senses."
"Is Hotaru there?"
"Getting obsessed, are we?" Natsume smirked. "Like I said, she's busy making millions."
"I'm not getting obsessed!" Ruka snarled. After facing Hotaru, he'd really be better off not seeing her today. Or a couple of weeks. "And for the last time Natsume, what do you mean?"
"Why don't you go down and see for yourself?" Natsume smiled and headed out of the room.
Ruka watched as his best friend left the room, chuckling. He narrowed his eyes and sighed.
"That isn't a good sign, isn't it?"
O0O
Ruka wanted to seriously shrivel up and die right now.
No thanks to Natsume, who graciously allowed Mochu to talk about what happened to Koko, of all the people out there. The little twerp was happy to listen any gossip, especially now. He was engrossed in relaying the whole story to Yuu and Mikan, who gushed at the thought of them being together and saying that Ruka was so brave and romantic. Yuu looked a little amused at the thought.
So much for being best friends. He headed over to the table and furiously placed his hands on the table, halting Koko's storytelling and Mikan's imagination. He seethed at the raven-haired boy. "You…"
"He paid me and offered that he'd be my slave for a week," A smile played on his lips. "It was a good offer, and I'd think you'd agree too if he offered."
"Natsume!" Ruka cried, exasperated. He was definitely going to have a field day with this…
"Oh, Ruka!" Mikan looked extremely dreamy, stars in her eyes. "That was so brave of you! Never had I seen anyone trying to go up against Hotaru, and you confronted her! I totally approve of you and Hotaru!" Koko and Mochu snickered.
"Since when did you start approving suitors for Imai?"
"A long time ago! Natsume, Hotaru deserves the best out there, and it's definitely Ruka!"
The group snickered at Mikan's outburst. Ruka looked like he wanted to stab himself.
"Hear, hear!" Koko shouted, giggling like an idiot. "Ruka and Hotaru approval rating level up!"
"Don't you dare make this a video game!" Ruka groaned.
Natsume looked up. "So, what are you planning to do, Ruka?"
"What do you mean, what am I going to do?"
"You made yourself a fool to Imai by telling her that she was stalking you, and…"
Ruka grew tired of trying to explain himself. "But she was! You all saw it! She kept a damned book of my pictures!"
Koko piped in. "She wasn't! She had that for a reason! For heavens sake, didn't you read the sticky note?"
"Well no, since she arrived already before I had a chance to read it…"
"It was her client list, dummy." Natsume watched as Ruka's expression changed from furious to puzzled.
"Client list?" He repeated.
"Aren't you wondering why there aren't that much people in the cafeteria right now?"
"Ummm…." Ruka looked around. Now that they mentioned it, there were very few people in the cafeteria. There were barely even girls in the building.
The group stood up, and Ruka looked at them. "Where are they?"
"Outside," Mikan gestured, smiling. "And Hotaru's there, too."
"Making millions," Mochu added.
"With your pictures," Natsume smirked.
"Again," Koko gave a mischievous grin.
O0O
Ruka couldn't believe this.
Hotaru Imai is outrageous!
"What the hell is with that line!" Ruka shouted as he pointed at the extremely long winding line of girls. The line was ridiculous, starting near the Middle School division cafeteria until it reached probably as far as the Elementary school division, or possibly even farther. They all looked extremely excited, and they practically squealed when they saw Natsume and himself.
"Hotaru's selling copies the white picture book you saw," Mikan explained. "She just finished it a while ago. It's titled Ruka Nogi: The Complete Collection! It costs at least 10,000 rabbits."
"10,000?" Ruka's jaw dropped. "That's too expensive!"
"Well, Hotaru did say it had at least 5,200 pictures of you in it," Mikan supplied.
"Wow the damned line got longer," Mochu gawked. "And are some of those elementary students? Where the heck do they get that money?"
"Dude," Koko couldn't help but laughing. "There are guys in the line!"
"For every twelve girls I'd say there are two boys," Yuu broke into a grin.
"Wow. I'd guess you'd beat me in the popularity level, Ruka," Natsume patted Ruka's back. "Good work. Thank heavens I'm not Imai's chew toy."
"Natsume! " Ruka groaned. He hated that time of the month wherein Natsume would pick on him… Usually they were some pranks he would easily shrug off and counter, but this….
"Oh, Hotaru!" Mikan waved at the inventor walking towards them. "I brought you some fish!"
"Hotaru?" Natsume laughed at the outburst of the poor animal lover. He was definitely not happy and ready to see Hotaru, no matter what the cost. He was probably still processing his outbursts a few hours back.
"And peaches!" Koko raised a can of peaches. Hotaru horse-hoofed him immediately, sending him flat on the ground, along with the can. Mochu winced, Yuu panicked, and Mikan paled.
"Aiii gwees zhats a nooo…" Koko mumbled, then stayed a silent heap on the ground.
"Ooh, that's harsh," Mochu poked Koko. "Think he'll live?"
"H-Hotaru!" Mikan frowned as Hotaru took the food from her hands.
"Oh, he'll live," Hotaru replied calmly. "Just bring him to the infirmary."
"Who's watching the line?" Natsume asked, thankful that Koko was smacked. He'd been itching to do that since awhile ago…
"Anna and Nonoko were glad to help." Hotaru munched on her fish, looking down at Koko.
While Yuu, Mochu, and Mikan checked on poor Koko, Ruka tried hard not to meet her eyes, or much less catch her attention.
"Nogi."
"Y-yeah?" Ruka tensed, shocked by her call. Hopefully she wouldn't horse-hoof him as well…
"Do you believe me that I'm not stalking you now?" A smug smirk was on her face.
"Ummm…"
"Nogi, I'll make this clear. One, I am not stalking you."
Ruka tried answering, but was immediately cut off.
"Two. I still take pictures of you for funding my inventions. I'll thank you for your kind cooperation."
Ruka shut his mouth.
"Three. I don't like you."
Ruka's jaw dropped, while Natsume whistled. "Flat-out rejection. Smooth."
"And four. Your mother makes a great client. Smirking, Hotaru turned around, dropping an envelope and walked away, waving. "See you around, Ru-chan."
"Ru-chan…" Natsume turned to Ruka. "Doesn't you mom… Ruka?"
"What the…"
"Hm?"
"What the…" Ruka trembled, outraged. "What the hell was that!"
Natsume shrugged and ignored Ruka's furious rants about Hotaru's ever-so-smug attitude and went off to pick up the two papers that she had just dropped. "Hey Ruka," Natsume called as he looked at the envelope address.
"She called me Ru-chan!"
"Ruka." Natsume called out again.
"Nobody but my mom calls me Ru-chan! What the hell! Where and when in damnation did she learn that!"
"Ruka!" Natsume shouted out, and he finally turned around, hellfire burning in his eyes.
"What?" Ruka burst out, still ranting. Natsume threw the papers at him.
"Letter. From your mom to Imai."
"My mom? My mom? I swear, that… that woman! How the heck does she even know my mom, or my address!" Ruka kept mumbling as he opened the envelope sent by his mother to Hotaru. It was his mother's handwriting alright, neat and tidy. It read:
Hotaru-chan,
Oh thank you, thank you for fulfilling my request of making a compilation of Ru-chan's pictures! I really loved it! He looks so adorable in every picture, and so do all of you! As thanks, a payment of 50,000 yen will be sent to you! Thank you so much, Hotaru-chan!
P.S. Please tell Ru-chan I miss him so much!
With all my appreciation,
Himawari Nogi
As Natsume read the letter, he couldn't resist laughing. Ruka's own mother was the cause of all this? He started laughing, while his best friend stood there in disbelief; twitching uncontrollably. He pulled out another piece of paper, wrapped around a bundle of yen. There, written on the paper, with Hotaru's own penmanship, it read:
Compensation fee for all your pictures and humiliation, Ru-chan. Enjoy.
And there stuck to it was a picture of him tripping onstage during the last Alice festival, complete with him in the frilly blue dress, hair extensions, bright red Hello Kitty-esque bow, makeup, outrageously blue Mary Janes, flailing arms, and an ridiculously stupid expression.
"HOTARU IMAI!"
Hotaru smiled, victorious. It would be probably be harder to take pictures of him now. Oh well, she had a pretty good feeling that they'd be running into each other more often now...
end
Yahoo! Longest one-shot ever done. Hopefully it wasn't too sloppy or OOC, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Since I have no idea what Ruka's mother's name is, I decided on Himawari (sunflower). Since Ruka's name meant 'bright blue flower', why not give his mother a flower name as well?
Reviews are appreciated! Thank you very much for reading!