Part one of a 3-4 chapter long Karin/Itsuki fic, guest starring absurdly overprotective Fuu.
"No, absolutely not! I won't stand for it!"
"I don't really think that you can stop her though, Fuu-senpai."
"Onee-chan, please stop fussing. It's not like it says something weird or anything."
"It's weird by definition! Who even sends love letters anymore anyway? Guys who don't even have the spine to confess in person, that's who! It's probably some freak who girls run away from if he actually talks to them because he's just that creepy!"
Itsuki sighed again. Earlier that day she had received her first ever love letter and in her excitement she had made the mistake of mentioning it in front of her sister. She should have known better really given how ridiculously overprotective she'd been after everything that had happened. Fuu had instantly fallen into an overprotective rage and had declared that she wasn't even allowed to meet whoever the sender was. It seemed that she perceived anyone who showed any interest in Itsuki as a potential serial killer or some such. She had been planning on meeting whoever it was after school on the roof like the letter had said, but at this rate she might not even be allowed out of the house for the next month.
Said love letter was short and to the point- 'Dear Inubouzaki Itsuki, I really like you. I'll be on the school roof at six o'clock tonight. If you want to know who I am be there, if you don't I won't ask you again.'
"Just look at this shoddy excuse for a love letter! Who writes like that? It's appalling! He must have put no effort into it whatsoever! He's probably a drug dealer or something!"
"Fuu, seriously, just what kind of people do you think go to our school anyway? This isn't exactly a hotbed of crime and depravity you know? A-At any rate, I think its fine. It gets the message across perfectly well, and it's more romantic when someone says what they're feeling in person, right?"
Karin looked particularly bewildered by Fuu's overreaction, probably because she hadn't known her for as long as the others.
"What if it's from someone great, like, I don't know, someone good looking, rich and with a great personality?"
"If he was that great, then he wouldn't have had to send a letter! Either he's too spineless to confess or there's something freaky about him, either way he's definitely no good!"
"But what if you're wrong and you're trying to stop Itsuki from meeting someone who could make her happy?" said Yuna.
"She's right, Fuu-senpai," Togo chimed in. "Whoever it is at least deserves a response if they are serious, and even if it turns out that it's someone undesirable, it really is Itsuki's decision to make."
Itsuki shot them a look of gratitude. As much as she loved Fuu, the older girl could be difficult to deal with sometimes.
"Besides," Yuna continued, "If you're saying that whoever it is must be a creep, aren't you basically saying that there's something wrong with Itsuki and she can only attract creeps? That's a terrible thing to say about your own sister!"
"D-don't try and turn this around on me like that! None of you have younger siblings, so you wouldn't understand! It's my job to make sure she's protected from the outside world for as long as possible!"
"Wow, why don't you just lock her up in a tower and be done with it." Karin sneered.
"That's actually really patronising, Onee-chan." Itsuki frowned at Fuu.
'She's moving past difficult straight into hysterical. I wonder if some creepy guy confessed to her or something?'
"Look, if you're that worried then why don't you wait near the roof and make sure that nothing untoward happens?" Togo suggested. "Of course you'd have to make sure that you weren't seen, or else you would seriously embarrass yourself and Itsuki by proxy."
"I guess that could work…." Fuu said sullenly, sensing that she was losing the argument.
"Er, I don't think that's a good idea," said Karin, "I mean, if whoever it is sees her sister hanging around spying on them it could be seriously off putting, right?"
She looked strangely worried, thought Itsuki. She found herself hoping that there was a particular reason behind her reaction, before she pushed the thought from her mind, blushing slightly.
"If he's put off by something like that then it just proves how worthless he is! Come on Itsuki, let's go right now!"
"What? But there's still 40 minutes to go until it's time…"
"I need time to get into position! Let's go, no time to lose!" She grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the club room.
Ten minutes later, Itsuki was very bored. Fuu had climbed on top of the storage room's roof and was glaring at the roof door like she expected a Vertex to float through it. The others had excused themselves, giving her sympathetic looks as they left, and now she had to wait for another 30 minutes.
Sighing yet again-it was incredible how often she found herself doing that when her sister was involved-she pulled out her phone to see if there was anything to kill the time with. To her surprise, and slight disappointment, she had a message from Karin waiting for her.
'Hey Itsuki, how're you holding up with that idiot? Try not to keep checking the time, it only makes it worse :-) '
'Looks like it wasn't from her after all, not that that's surprising though. I thought she would still be on her way home…I hope she isn't texting and trying to walk at the same time.'
Karin had made impressive progress with her rehabilitation, but she was still on crutches. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, she had passed on the schools offer to let her take a car to and from home.
'Maybe she was tired and took a car after all.'
'It's boring, but it's not for that long. Onee-chan is lying on the storage shed roof glaring at the door. It's actually kind of funny, but I hope that he doesn't see her.'
She sent the message, not really expecting to hear back from the other girl, but to her surprise she received another message less than a minute later.
'lol that's just embarrassing. Take a picture so everyone can laugh at her at the next club meeting.'
Itsuki hesitated. Sure Fuu was behaving ridiculously, but she was her sister…
Unfortunately for Fuu, she sealed her own fate at that moment by noticing the phone.
"Itsuki, what is that!?"
"…It's a phone, Onee-chan."
"D-Don't you be sarcastic at me! Is someone texting you? Is it a boy!?"
She scuttled forward, glaring at the phone like it had insulted her cooking. She was dangerously close to the edge, but she didn't seem to notice.
Itsuki resisted the urge to sigh again, worrying that she'd take in too much oxygen and hyperventilate.
"No, it's Karin. She wanted to know how it was going."
"Hmph! Well that's fine then, I guess." Fuu scowled. She tried to move back onto the roof, but she had managed to end up with her arms and upper body hanging over the edge and had to squirm her way back up awkwardly over the next minute. Itsuki, finally having become annoyed, surreptitiously filmed her the whole time.
'I got her.'
'Nice, did she notice?'
'No, she was too busy to notice. I'll show you tomorrow. ' Noticing that it was almost at the hour, she added: 'I should turn off my phone now, it's almost time. See you tomorrow :-)'
She put her phone back in her pocket and stood up, wringing her hands absentmindedly.
'I'm actually pretty nervous… I hope it goes okay.'
Fuu really wasn't helping matters.
"Onee-chan, anyone can see you there. Move further back."
"Grr…"
The hour came, and then went.
Itsuki wasn't worried by the 2 minute mark, but she was by the 5 minute mark, and when 10 minutes had come and gone she felt rather downcast. It seemed like either he had changed his mind, or it was just a mean joke all along.
Fuu had had the sense to behave herself and now she jumped off the roof and awkwardly approached Itsuki.
"I'm sorry Itsuki. M-Maybe he had some kind of family matter to deal with or something!" She said, with a little too much enthusiasm.
"You don't have to say things like that Onee-chan. These things happen sometimes, right? It can't be helped." She gave a pained smile.
"Oi…" Fuu pulled her into a hug.
"Don't worry Itsuki, if any of them have any sense you'll be beating them off with a bat soon enough. And if I find out who the jerk who did this is I'll turn him into a mushy pulp, mark my words!"
"Thanks Onee-chan, but don't do anything like that, okay? I can take care of myself."
"I know you can, but it's still my job to look after you. Don't try and take everything on by yourself just because you're embarrassed by your stupid big sister, okay?"
"You're not stupid Onee-chan, you're just… overenthusiastic. And thank you. I know you always mean well."
"Eh, I try my best. Let's head home and take your mind off things, Inubouzaki style!"
Itsuki nodded.
"We should get our stuff first though. You left everything behind because you were so worked up."
"…Oh, you're right. I thought something felt off."
As they headed down the stairs, Fuu noticed a figure standing around a corner, with only part of their shoulder visible. She couldn't actually see anything apart from said shoulder, but Fuu being Fuu assumed that this must be the hated boy who she wanted to 'talk to'.
"YOU! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE PLAYING AT YOU LITTLE CREEP!"
"Onee-chan no!"
"Can't she be trusted for five minutes!?"
Fuu grabbed the offending persons sleeve and gave a violent tug, pulling the person around to face her.
"F-Fuu, what the hell!?"
Unfortunately for Fuu, said person turned out to be Karin. Realising her mistake, she let go and held up her hands in a placating gesture, unfortunately as Karin had already been thrown completely off balance letting go of her merely made things worse, as she stumbled over and landed on her face.
"Onee-chan!"
"Oh shit-!"
Itsuki pushed past Fuu and helped the extremely irate Karin up.
"Sorry Karin-san, she thought you were someone else…and she can't be trusted in the slightest apparently." She gave the taller girl her most intimidating glare, which would have made most people laugh, but as it was Fuu resulted in her cowering away.
"Geh, I'm sorry Itsuki…"
"Wait, what!? It was me you manhandled, not her!"
"Well, uh…my apology to you was implicit?"
"Onee-chan!"
"Fuu, there is something seriously wrong with you." Karin drove her point home by swinging her crutch into the taller girls shin.
"Ow! Look I'm really sorry okay? I thought you were the bas-er, jerk that stood Itsuki up!"
"And you decided the best thing to do was start punching things!? Honestly, I'm not even convinced you're related."
"What!? Don't listen to her Itsuki! We have the same parents!"
"That's enough Onee-chan! Apologise to Karin-san properly or I'll stop speaking to you altogether."
"W-What!? I'm sorry Karin, it's all my fault! Forgive me!" Fuu wailed.
'Oh good grief.'
Karin stared at her, then looked away awkwardly. "…Sure, whatever. No harm done I guess."
"That's the spirit! No hard feelings right!?" The blonde wrapped her arm around the shorter girls shoulders.
"Get off."
"Right."
Fuu shuffled back sheepishly, failing to notice how annoyed her younger sibling looked.
"S-So, what are you doing hanging around here anyway? Did you come to check on Itsuki?"
"Huh? Y-Yeah that's right. How're you doing Itsuki?"
"I'm fine. No one turned up, but it doesn't matter. These things happen."
"Oh." Karin didn't seem to know what to say.
"We're heading down to the club room to pick our stuff up. Do you want to walk back with us?"
"Hmph. Sure, as long as you don't start lunging at every guy we meet."
They headed to the club room in a slightly uncomfortable silence. As they reached the door Karin waited until Fuu was inside before she tapped Itsuki's shoulder.
"Hey Itsuki, I really need to talk to you. Alone."
She shot a meaningful look at Fuu, who was out of earshot.
Things clicked into place for Itsuki at that point. Why no one had turned up, the texts, Karin waiting for almost an hour supposedly just to see how things went, how worried she'd looked back when Fuu had said she'd be on the roof as well…
She felt a surge of annoyance.
'Why didn't she tell me in a text instead of letting me think I'd been stood up!? Is everyone in my life completely unreliable!?'
The other girl seemed to notice how annoyed the blonde looked.
"Uh, I mean if you don't want to that's fine, you're probably busy so-"
"No, we'll talk. I'll tell Onee-chan I'm staying behind, wait here."
She entered the classroom. "Onee-chan, I'm staying back with Karin-san for a while, so head back without me okay?"
Seeing the look on her sister's face she quickly added, "No it's not because I'm angry with you or because I don't want you as a sister anymore."
Satisfied that she'd headed off another outburst, she picked up her bag, said goodbye and left Fuu sputtering behind her.
Karin led the way out of school, heading towards a nearby park. They didn't talk on the way, largely because neither of them were sure what to say.
Coming up to a bench, Karin said, "Do you mind if we sit for a while? My legs kind of tired."
"I'm pretty tired too, let's."
Itsuki sat first. Karin stood there uncertainly for a moment, moved to sit by Itsuki, then thought better of it and sat at the other end of the bench.
She sat there pushing her thumbs together for a minute, before opening her mouth to speak…and promptly shutting it again.
'I guess she's not going to take the initiative.'
"Karin-san, were you the one who sent me that letter?"
The mousy haired girl jerked in her seat like an electrocuted ferret. "W-W-What!? How did you figure it out!?"
"It was pretty obvious taking everything together."
"Hmph, w-well since you figured it out then l-let's cut to the chase! D-Do you want to go out sometime or something?"
Despite her attempt at sounding detached, her voice had shot up by an octave and had a distinct waver to it. Her face had also betrayed her by doing its best impression of a tomato.
Itsuki felt her annoyance at her decreasing, but she resisted the temptation to overlook the issues she had. If there was one thing she'd learnt from dealing with Fuu it was that you couldn't let these type of people off the hook or else they'd become unmanageable.
"Before we talk about that I want to know why you left me on the roof thinking I'd been stood up. I was pretty upset you know? And you sent me those texts, so I know you could have said something."
"Ugh, I'm sorry okay? I didn't want to confess with your crazy sister there, I mean it'd be weird even if it wasn't her, so I decided to talk to you afterwards, and I meant to let you know through the phone you know, but it felt kind of weird just suddenly saying something like that so I decided to ask how you were doing first and then bring it up, but by the time I actually phoned you I couldn't get through so I had to wait-!"
She trailed off panting.
'I guess that's a decent enough reason…'
"Well if it's like that I'll forgive you, but you should have let me know. I really was upset."
"S-Sorry…"
Itsuki decided that Karin was suitably chastised, so that just left the small matter of the love confession to deal with.
Sensing that Karin was unlikely to be forward at this point Itsuki took the lead.
"So, you wanted to confess to me right? I'm here now, so if you still want to then, um…"
'Gosh, this is kind of embarrassing.'
Karin's posture stiffened abruptly.
"Ah, w-well, if you really want to hear it then I guess I have to come out and say it!" She said in her best attempt at a self-assured voice. "I-I think you're…" She trailed off all of a sudden and sat there with her mouth flapping open and shut, hand clenching her skirt so hard that Itsuki half expected her to tear it, face getting redder with each second that passed by.
Itsuki smiled lightly.
"I understand what you're trying to say Karin-san. Don't be embarrassed okay?" she said.
"Er, well, then, w-what do you say? W-Want to go out sometime, maybe?"
"Um, well I actually-"
"No, its fine, I get it. You think it's weird that a girl's interested in you, especially someone you know. Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter. Just forget about it, I won't mention it again."
"What? No, I was going to-"
"Dammit, you must think I'm a total creep as well as a jerk. It's not like I've been checking you out the whole time we've known each other or anything, so don't get the wrong idea okay? I mean, I barely even noticed you were there at first, it's not like you said much after all. A-At any rate I don't even care that much, I wasn't-"
"Let's go on a date tomorrow."
"Huh, uh, w-w-wha-"
"Is six o'clock okay for you? Let's meet at your house and decide where to go from there."
"What?"
"I should get back now, Onee-chan's probably worrying. You know what she's like. See you tomorrow!"
Suddenly feeling daring, she scooted to the other end of the bench and lightly planted a kiss on Karin's cheek, then stood up and left without waiting for a reaction.
Karin for her part sat there frozen for 5 solid minutes before heading home in a confused but happy daze.
Next chapter: Karin attempts to have a successful first date with Itsuki.