You guys, I know I've been away from the computer for a long time, and yet you still eagerly await my stories. For all the love in the world, I owe it to all of you. Especially the friends I've made here on and the poeple who've helped me out. So here's my gift to you, a special story for about each of the poeple who've been a big help from editing to story ideas. I owe all my thanks to you, I appreiciate all that you have done :D

So, I'll start off with Aquatwin, you lovely insane Rimahiko fan-gurl! Love ya! (in a friend way of course XD)

-NW :3

~When life gives you an unexpected package~

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~Keep it~

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~So you can keep believeing~

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~There's someone there for you~

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Love And Hate

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Are A

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Package

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By

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NessieWinsa

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Package: ?

'::'

Okay, so my mom told me once 'Big things come in small packages.' But love and hate? Are you kidding? In some situations, I could believe that, but purple-head? Please, love doesn't even belong in the same sentence as that guy. Or should I say 'cross-dresser'. I've been hating him for a while now, sometimes I'm so sure why he ruins my life, and some days I can't understand why I get the feeling I want to talk to him. It's really confusing, all this 'yes' and 'no' days where I glare at him or just smile.

It hadn't occurred to me that I might actually want to be his friend. Amu nagged me all the time, but I would always reject the idea of talking normally to him. I mean, what is 'normal' when it comes to Nagihiko Fujisaki?

"I don't get it." I told Amu. I squeezed the box, hoping it still had enough juice to drip on to my burning tongue. It was getting close to summer, and extreme heat had beaten all the living tar out of me. I chewed on the straw when I realized squeezing wasn't doing any good. "It's insane. I can't think."

"Hm," Amu said, letting her bag brush against her skirt as it swung from side to side. Her pink hair made her look like a model from a bubblegum commercial on TV. Amu's hand pulled at it, just like she always did when she got an idea that was going to get me in a rampage. "Interesting."

"What?" I asked, leaning forward towards her. My fingers twisting the cord of my bag as I bit my lip.

"How's life?" She said, changing the subject. I ran in front and stopped her by spreading my hands and fingers as far as they could go.

"Tell me," I demanded, standing with my legs apart, showing her I was serious. "What were you thinking?"

"Are you sure you don't want me to buy you a juice box?" Amu deliberately questioned, trying to bribe me from getting my answer. She motioned to the local store just across the street. "I bet they have all kinds too…"

I hesitated. I was thirsty, and turning down the offer would be a waste. But I had a feeling Amu was going to say something important. "No, thanks."

Amu frowned. "Fine, I'll tell you."

I smiled a little. We kept walking towards the school until we were at the entrance. Amu hadn't said a word and I was getting agitated.

"Love and hate are a package, you know." She suddenly said. We grew closer to the massive building and tons of students crammed in and out of the doors. The windows shone against the sunlight and bounced off a little too brightly. A little girl with long blonde hair chased a girl with purple stringy-hair. When I looked closer, I realized a lot of her features were masculine and resolved it to be a boy. They ran across the field, the blonde trying to catch up to the purple-haired boy. She huffed tiredly, and collapsed on the grass. She flung herself against the green and spread her arms and legs out. The boy stopped running and walked slowly over to his playmate. He sat down and rested his head beside the girl's. They looked up towards the sky and pointed their fingers at clouds and giggled.

"How does that make sense?" I asked her. She just shrugged.

"All relationships have hate and love in it. Especially love relationships."

"And this has to do with Nagihiko, how?"

"It's kind of obvious you like him, right?"

I stopped in my tracks. I felt my fingers stop twisting the cord and start rolling into a fist. "Wrong," I cried. "You are completely wrong."

"Okay, fine. Deny it, and I won't say anything, but you should take my word. Most people don't know they're in love at first."

"Oh, so now you're referring to Ikuto and you?"

Her eyebrows twitched, she started to pull at her hair a little harder, the way you knew she was going to have a huge spaz attack. "Rima…?"

I smiled at her. "Yes?"

"Don't mention that, ever again."

I shrugged and resumed my walking. I called over my shoulder, "Okay, fine. Deny it, and I won't say anything, but you should take my word for it. After all, most people don't know they're in love at first."

I thought I heard Amu curse out to the sky, forgetting to sensor the language for the younger kids roaming on Seiyo High School's field.

Package: Made

'::'

I heard the same pst again, ordering me to turn. I resisted the urge to grab my pencil and shove it up the person's nose. I stayed put, not giving the person behind me the satisfaction of their victory.

"Rima," the whisper tickled my ears.

"And therefore, X equals six. The next question in your test books should be…"

"Rima." I scribbled some answers down, reminding myself I had to finish my homework next time.

"This question was a little tricky, but it means they want you to subtract the twelve from the twenty and use the exponents afterwards…"

"Hey, Rima."

I wrote down the formula.

"Then multiply the five by…"

"Rima, turn around."

I scratched out my original answer, sweat starting to make the pencil slip.

"The answer you should have gotten is forty-two."

"Mashiro-san."

"Any questions?"

"Rima, can you hear me?"

"Good, next, there are brackets on this one. Find the power of…"

"Please, Rima."

"And then…"

"Chibi demon."

I jumped out of my chair and used my text book to smack the pest behind me. "Would you shut up already, you retard!" The boy had long purple hair and clasped his head as he stared at me in surprise. Oh Lord, it was Nagihiko. But he deserved it. I turned hesitantly, noticing the class had grown quiet.

"Mashiro-san," the teacher said, furious. "Maybe you would like to explain this class for us."

"Uh, I… no, Ma'm."

"Go stand outside of class. I don't want you to interrupt again."

I pressed my lips in a firm line and collected my things before running out the door. I slouch against the wall outside and sighed as I slid down until I sat on the tile floors. I burrowed my head in my arms. Everything was so messed up.

Just then, I heard talking inside, I guessed they were talking about me, then the door slide open and shut. Someone walked over and sat down beside me.

"Sorry," a voice said, bouncing down the long, empty hallway. "I didn't mean to."

"Good for you," I muttered. "I don't care."

"Please don't hate me," he desperately said.

I mentally rolled my eyes. "A little too late for that, aren't we?"

He chuckled. "I guess so."

"It doesn't matter," I told him. "Math is a waste anyways."

"It's actually mandatory in life, you use it every day."

"Oh, really? Name two times in my life I could find it useful."

"Well, if you want to buy gag manga and it costs ten dollars and you have twenty, you'd have to figure out how much change you would need back if you don't want the cashier person to cheat on you or make a mistake. You'd want to watch comedy specials on TV but its two hours and you have three hours of free time. How much time would you have left to do your homework?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but realized there wasn't anything for me to defend. I closed my mouth and huffed loudly, making it echo so he would know I was pouting. He gave a small chortle.

"Do you really hate me?"

The question came unexpectedly and I almost fell to my side. My nails drummed against my text book, making a soft tapping noise like the sound of the rain. I spun a curl around my fingers and thought about it. Did I really hate him? Yesterday, I would have said yes, but today, I hesitated. "I don't know," I said finally. "The fact that you lied to Amu about Nadeshiko and pretended to be her friend, it hurt a bit." I realized it only pained me because Amu didn't know. Because I was hurting for her, even when she didn't know. "I think I used to hate you because I thought you were going to take Amu away from me, or she was going to replace you with me."

"But if that was true, it would have happened, wouldn't it?"

"Y-yes." I said.

"And it didn't happen, so why do you still ignore me?" He asked and tilted his head so it leveled with mine. I didn't notice until a few seconds later how warm my face was.

"Because I'm confused."

His moon-yellow eyes blinked and then a smile played on his lips. "I can help clear that up for you." Before I could respond, he wrapped his long arms around me. The smell of cherry-blossoms and Wisteria flowers filled my nostrils. They smelled clean and fresh, like it had just rained. His hug was warm and inviting, nothing like the way my parents had hugged me when they got divorced and said they were sorry. Nothing like the group hugs Amu would persist me to join. It was nothing like the strangles Rikka sometimes threw on me, or the noogies Kukai did, or Yaya's glomps. This one was an embrace that made my heart throb and my ears tingle. It made my fingers quiver and my head dizzy. I felt like I was in a warm and fluffy heaven, a beautiful place with lots of clouds. It felt like hours even though it was only seconds, and then Nagihiko did something imposturous. He pecked my cheek.

I was about to turn when the bell rang and he got up before I could snap at him. He got his binders and text books and waved at me good bye.

I blinked and got my own things before the students could stampede me to a pancake.

Package: Sent

'::'

"How was your day?" Mother asked. I just shook my head.

"You don't want to know."

"Ah," she said, and opened the oven to take out a tray of cookies. She had been doing that a lot. No, not baking cookies, ignoring my complaints. It still didn't feel full. The house still had that empty eerie feeling, just without my father. He had his own family now, a big happy one, and I'm sure he was enjoying himself. I hoped he didn't forget me. But he never called or wrote anymore, I guess he was too busy. "Nagihiko?"

I tripped on a stair in spite of myself. "What?"

"Purple-head, I don't know. It took me an awful long time to find out his name, since you always write him as 'Purple-head'."

"Write it where?"

"You're diary."

I slapped my forehead. "You've been looking through my DIARY? Doesn't anyone understand why they call it a SECRET DIARY, anymore?"

She just hummed as she kicked the oven closed and inhaled sharply to take in the scent of her cookies. I grabbed one and crushed it in my hands.

"Why'd you do that? Now we're one cookie short!"

"I don't care about the damn cookies! You went through my privacy and looked into the place I keep all my secrets!"

"Really? I didn't know it had all of them. I only randomly flipped it to a page and found the pages ripped because you wrote the word 'Purple-head' so hard."

"That's not the point! You don't just go and barge into someone's secret book and read without permission."

"Alright, I'm sorry, Rima." She said sincerely, then put the tray down. "So, who is he?"

"MOM!"

"I'm just wondering. You wrote a lot of his dialogue in there. And from the looks of it, it sounds like he really likes you."

"Mom, I don't care if you—wait, what did you say?"

"I said, it sounds like he really likes you. Even though you hate him enough to ruin the page you tried to write his pet name on, I don't understand why my daughter is so dense."

"First, I'm not dense. Second, purple-head is not a pet name, and third, he doesn't like me!"

"Maybe you should listen to the way he talks to you. That always helps."

I was about to argue when a loud ding sound came from the microwave. She opened it and pulled out two plates full of steamy yellow strings. She caught me looking hungrily and offered, "Spaghetti?"

Sometimes I wondered if breaking up with dad had made her happier than a kid on Christmas, or she just got mental.

Package: Received

'::'

"You look tired today," Yaya blabbed. I blinked and yawned.

"Yeah, my mom spent the entire night trying to convince me caned and instant food is bad for my health."

"She's right, you know." Nagihiko told me. I noticed the way Nagihiko's voice wavered a bit, like he was genuinely fearful for me. No one else noticed, and I guess taking my mother's advice was a good thing… for once.

We all continued on our way until Yaya and Kairi had to turn off the road to Seiyo Middle School and left only the three of us. Amu, Tadase and me. Oh yeah, and that thing. Amu and Tadase seemed to have a rather strange mood and blushed heavily as they walked beside each other, their shoulders or hands brushing sometimes which made their faces even redder.

I just walked along between Amu and Nagihiko, not saying a word. Nagihiko was humming, though I think humming 'It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year' was a bit too early. I closed my eyes and looked up at the sky. It was a crystal clear blue and clouds blew by like a child in a fair accidentally let the balloon slip out of his hand and watched it fly higher and higher until it was only a spec in the sky.

"Rima!" I felt a hand shoot out to stop me and I staggered back. I suddenly noticed the large street light in front of me. "You were about to bump into the street light!" Amu cried. "Are you okay?"

I nodded and saw Nagihiko's hand retreat back into his pockets. "Please, be careful," he said worriedly. "You could have bruised something."

His words sounded soft like a giant blanket caressing a newborn. I nodded, a little dumbfound and picked up some things I had dropped from the surprise. Then a loud bell tolled.

"Oh no!" Tadase said, instantly looking towards the school. "Class is starting in a few minutes!"

"Hurry, Rima!" Amu urged.

"You guys go ahead," I waved them away. "I'll catch up."

"But you won't get there on time," Amu pointed out from my athletic abilities.

"I'll help Rima," Nagihiko changed my plans. "We'll catch up."

Amu and Tadase looked satisfied, obviously trusting the cross-dresser, and raced towards the school.

I bent down and collected my pencils that had fallen out of my pencil case.

"Rima, can I ask you something?"

"Ask away, O Great Master of Cross-Dressing."

He pressed his lips in a thin line and sighed. "If you don't hate me, why are you still mean?"

"That's a darn good question, Fujisaki. Maybe you should use something people now-a-days call 'your common sense'."

"See? There you go again, just making fun of me when I hadn't done anything wrong to you."

"Sorry," I apologized, really meaning it. I actually didn't know what was wrong with me. "Habits I guess," I said sincerely.

"Maybe we can change those habits," he said suddenly. He took my bag and put all the things back. I took it and slung it back on my shoulder. Just when I was about to run to the gates of the school, I felt a tug at the cord of my bag and brought me closer to Nagihiko. Then I felt something I hadn't experienced in my life. Kissing a boy wasn't something I wanted to get used to, but I finally agreed, if it was Nagihiko, it was fine with me. "How about it?" Nagihiko whispered in my ear as we pulled away.

"O-okay," I blushed. We started to run when I yelled, "Nagihiko? I still hate you!"

"You're love is as deep as your hate!" He yelled back.

Hm, I guess love and hate really are a package. "You know the teacher's going to kill us, right?"

"Yeah," he said and opened the door. "But I have all I need right here."

Package: Sent Back To Sender

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Hope you guys enjoyed it :D It's a little corny, but I think the details came out nicely... I think.

Next, Riri-chi!

-NW :3