This oneshot was something that I've wanted to do since a few years ago and I've finally done it! Took me quite a while as I was busy in college, writing on and off :) I hope you enjoy this fic and sorry if the characters are too OOC or anything
Disclaimer: Natsume Yuujinchou does not belong to me
The scratches of pen on paper could be heard as all the students diligently took down notes of whatever the teacher was lecturing about in front of the classroom in a certain high school. The wind blew gently, and the rustling of leaves along with the chirping of birds could be heard from the distance.
As the clock's hands struck 3:00pm, the school bell rang, signalling the end of class. Students packed their belongings in a flurry, anticipating the free time after the end of boring classes. Others said their goodbyes and waved to their fellow classmates, shouting their see-you-tomorrows before exiting the classroom. Our main character, was no exception.
A dusty blonde-haired boy with golden-brown eyes with slitted irises was languidly packing his stationary and books into his bag when an enthusiastic friend of his glomped him from behind. "Natsume! Wanna go fishing later?" Nishimura Satoru asked excitedly, tightening his arms around Natsume's neck in enthusiasm.
"Ah, sorry, Nishimura, Touko-san asked me to go some grocery shopping later and I have made plans with Taki and Tanuma, sorry!" Natsume said with a soft, apologetic smile, turning to face Nishimura, making the other boy loosen his arms around his neck. "Maybe some other time?"
"Mou, Natsume! You're always busy whenever I ask you out," Nishimura sulked sullenly. Suddenly, his expression changed. "Ah! Don't tell me..."
"W-what?" Natsume asked warily, not enjoying the expression on his fellow friend's face.
"Don't tell me... You're going on a date with Taki?!" Nishimura yelled, his hands grabbing Natsume's shoulders and he started shaking him back and forth frantically. "That's not fair, Natsume! I want to go on a date with Taki-chan too! Can you please ask her- ACK!"
Nishimura clutched the back of his head where he was whacked soundly and quite painfully. "Ow, ow, ow, mou, Kitamoto! What was that for?!"
Kitamoto Atsushi, pointed the newspaper roll, clutched in his hand that was used to hit the back of Nishimura's head at Natsume who was on all fours on the floor of classroom, trying to get rid of the dizziness by staying still. "Look at what you did to Natsume, baaaa-ka."
"But, but, Natsume is gonna go on a date with Taki-chan! That's so unfair, Kitamoto!" Nishimura whined, a pout forming on his face.
"Maa, I heard what Natsume said, and he said he was going grocery shopping with Taki and Tanuma, baka! Stop jumping into conclusions!" Kitamoto huffed out, placing his fists on his hips. Both of them started bickering, totally forgetting about Natsume at the side.
Natsume sighed, and continued packing his belongings when he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Yo, Natsume. You done?" Tanuma Kaname asked, leaning against the doorway.
"Ah, I'll be done in a moment, Tanuma. Just hold on a second." Natsume said and once done with his packing, grabbed his bag and rushed out to meet Tanuma. "See you tomorrow, Nishimura, Kitamoto!"
"See you!" Nishimura and Kitamoto said in unison, watching as Natsume left with Tanuma, probably to go find Taki.
After a few minutes, Nishimura's hesitant voice broke the silence between the now only two people in the classroom. "Ne, Kitamoto... I just got an idea and –-".
"No," Kitamoto instantly replied.
"What, why not?!" Nishimura exclaimed in partly surprise, partly frustration. "I have not even spoken about what my idea is all about!"
"An idea from you is probably an invitation to create trouble, knowing you," Kitamoto deadpanned.
"Come on! Give my some credit! Anyway, let's go and stalk the three of them! What if they're going on a three-person date without us?!" Nishimura cried, trying to use the puppy eyes on his close friend.
"...and this is your brilliant idea?" Kitamoto said, momentarily speechless.
"Pleaseeeeeeeee?" Nishimura pleaded with a desperate tone, and for some reason even Kitamoto himself could not fathom, he agreed to the silly idea.
"Look, look, there they are, Kitamoto!" Nishimura stage-whispered, not-so-sneakily hiding behind a lamp post, pointing towards their targeted trio. Kitamoto just gave a huge sigh of exasperation. "Why did I agree to your oh so brilliant idea?"
"Shh, shhh, they're saying something to each other!" Nishimura shushed his friend frantically, pointedly ignoring Kitamoto's question. The only response Kitamoto gave was an eye roll which Nishimura most probably didn't even notice.
"Anything interesting happened lately, Natsume-kun?" Taki asked.
"Er, not really," Natsume laughed with a wave of his hand. "They have been quiet lately and sensei has been going out drinking as always."
"They? Who are they?" Nishimura hissed. "And what sensei?"
"I don't know, shut up so we can listen properly!" Kitamoto hissed back. For someone so reluctant to participate in the plan earlier, he seemed to be getting into this eavesdropping business pretty actively.
Suddenly, Natsume paused and stopped walking, looking at the ground near the trees slightly in front of the trio. He gave a huge sigh and muttered, "Not again..."
"Natsume?" Tanuma asked, a few steps away from Natsume, body turned sideways so that he could face him. "Is something wrong?"
Both Tanuma and Taki stared knowingly at the blonde boy, obviously expecting something from him. This made both Nishimura and Kitamoto very confused as they just couldn't figure out what they were expecting from Natsume.
All Natsume did was take out his bottle of mineral water and walked towards the patch of the ground where he was staring at and poured all the contents onto the ground.
"W-what is he doing?" Nishimura asked in a confused tone. Kitamoto only shook his head as an answer as he was too puzzled by Natsume's actions.
"Oh," Tanuma said. It was clear to the puzzled duo that he understood what Natsume was doing as he surrendered his own bottle of water to Natsume.
"Do you need more, Natsume-kun? My bottle is empty but I can get some from the river over there," Taki piped up cheerfully.
Natsume gave his trademark gentle smile and said, "Yes, please. If you could do so."
"Sure, no problem!" Taki practically beamed at Natsume and skipped off to the river. Kitamoto had to restrain Nishimura from throttling Natsume for getting a smile like that from his Taki-chan to avoid being found out by the trio.
Once Taki came back with more water and Natsume had poured it on the same patch of ground once again, only did Natsume seem satisfied. "Okay, we don't need anymore. Thanks for helping me, guys."
"It's no problem, Natsume-kun! So what was it?" Taki asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.
"It's a Kappa, right?" Tanuma interjected, smiling knowingly.
"Kappa?" Nishimura mouthed. Kitamoto shrugged helplessly, once again speechless on what he was hearing.
"Yes," Natsume replied. "He got dehydrated again before he could reach the river."
"Again?" Taki asked.
"Yeah, this is the third time already," Natsume replied, giving a small chuckle. "That Kappa never seems to learn his lesson."
The trio continued to talk as they walked off to their main destination. The eavesdroppers stayed, rooted to their spot.
"Ne, Kitamoto," Nishimura started in a serious tone. "Do you... remember those rumors that we dismissed about Natsume in the beginning when he first transferred to our school?"
"...yeah. Those rumors of him lying of being able to see things we can't see, right?"
The very next day, as Natsume was packing up once again, Nishimura and Kitamoto went up to him. "Er, Natsume, can we talk?"
Natsume looked at them oddly. "Yeah sure, what is it?"
"Can we... can we go to where nobody is there?"
Natsume agreed and the three of them walked up to the rooftop in silence with one wondering what was going on and the other two wondering on how to start. Once they reached the rooftop, the three of them stood facing each other.
"Okay, firstly," Nishimura said. "We're very sorry!" both him and Kitamoto shouted, bowing down to Natsume in a form of an apology.
"W-what is going on?" Natsume asked, too shocked to say anything else.
"Er, you see, I had this stupid idea..." Nishimura rubbed the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. "So I dragged Kitamoto along andwespiedonyouTanumaandTakichanyesterday."
"Er, can you repeat that again? Slowly?"
Nishimura took a deep breath and repeated, "We spied on you, Tanuma and Taki-chan yesterday."
Natsume just looked at him in bewilderment, his brain not fully comprehending what Nishimura was implying until he suddenly remembered yesterday's incident with the Kappa. His face paled rapidly.
Both Nishimura and Kitamoto were nervously eyeing the blond boy, fidgetting restlessly when they saw Natsume's face pale rapidly. "O-oi oi oi, don't be scared or anything, we're fine with it! No matter what you can see or not, we're still your friends, Natsume!" Nishimura yelled frantically in hopes of calming his friend down. "Right, Kitamoto?" He elbowed his other friend roughly for some sort of agreement.
"Y-yeah!" Kitamoto agreed quickly. "We believe in you, Natsume."
Natsume stayed quiet for a moment, stunned into speechlessness on what he just heard while his friends nervously waited for a response from him. And then he smiled. "Thanks, guys. This is the first time someone told me that."
Kitamoto and Nishimura gave relieved grins to each other before both of them swung an arm over Natsume's shoulder, one arm on each side. Nishimura gave Natsume a noogie, messing up his hair and ignoring Natsume's wild protests.
Kitamoto laughed heartily before saying, "Isn't this what friends are for, Natsume?"
"...I see," Natsume smiled the most genuine smile both Kitamoto and Nishimura have ever seen, warmth pooling in their chest at their achievement of making Natsume smile in true happiness.
This is indeed, what friends are for, friends that see the best of you and love you for who you are.
So, did you like it? Thanks for reading! Review please :D