A/N: This is my first fanfic so hopefully it's decent and the characters aren't too out of character, don't think Yukari is manic enough at the moment. But this chapter is more of a set up, anyway hope you like!

Chapter 1

Minamo sighed, it had been a long tiring day and all she wanted to do was to go home and sleep. Her head was beginning to throb as she finished some paperwork at her desk, hoping she might slip away before a certain person arrived. Unfortunately she had no such luck as the door of the staff room flung open and her best friend, Yukari, burst through.

'Nyamo!' she shouted, disturbing the other teachers, eliciting a few sighs.

'Yukari, will you…' started Minamo, trying to quiet the woman.

'Guess what Nyamo, I found us a great new restaurant' said the woman with a smile, 'And cos I'm so nice, I'm gonna let you pay, Woo!' she added flailing her arms in the air in excitement.

'Let me pay?' said Minamo in disbelief, 'when do you ever pay?'

'It's been known' said Yukari defensively, crossing her arms and pouting slightly.

'Well, it doesn't matter either way because I have a date' this was the other reason why the P.E. teacher had a headache today, another arranged date, made by her mother.

'No fair, how come I only just found out about this now!' whined Yukari, pouting harder.

'Because I know you'd just complain and I'm just not in the mood' said Minamo, uncharacteristically letting a little anger slip into her voice. Yukari's face quickly softened and she mumbled a sorry, before sighing and listlessly making her way to the door, as she disappeared from sight Minamo sat back on her chair feeling slightly guilty.

Why does she always do that? Barging in making demands and I'm the guilty one…

After a minute she hear a soft knock at the door, expecting to see a student Minamo turned to see her friend fidgeting in the doorway and giving her an awkward wave.

'Seeing as we're not going out, the least you could do is give me a ride back home' said Yukari, sounding more hopeful than demanding. Minamo gave a small giggle, feeling what guilt and anger she had leave her.

I can never stay mad at her.

Wearily she got to her feet and collected some things, 'Come on let's get you home then' she said, leading the way to her car. Yukari visibly brightening followed her and then began regaling her as to how she would make up for her 'lost' evening. Minamo, an expert in tuning her friend out, was simply happy Yukari was once again in a more jovial mood.

As Minamo made her way through the slow traffic she realized her friend had been quiet for some time, looking over she saw the English teacher slumped ungraciously against the window of the car, snoring softly, making Minamo chuckle to herself.

If I wasn't driving I'd join you she thought to herself You'd better wake up before we get to your house though, I don't want to help your mother drag you in again, boy, that was awkward.

As the traffic continued to crawl along her thoughts turned to her impending date. Her mother had become more persistent lately about her relationship status, she thought back to their last convocation.

'You're not getting any younger' she had argued 'always fretting away your money with that Tanizaki woman'

'This has nothing to do with her' shouted Minamo, suddenly on the defensive, before hanging up the phone in anger. After cooling down for a couple of minutes her guilt lead to her redialing her mother, apologizing and subsequently agreeing to the date.

She always got a little angry when people badmouthed Yukari, though it wasn't entirely surprising with her mother, they, Yukari and Mrs. Kurosawa, had never seen eye to eye, much to Minamo's chagrin as she was always the one stuck in the middle. Though Minamo could see why people didn't see the appeal of her best friend, often loud, obnoxious and bratty, she could also be kind and funny.

In fact that was one of the things Minamo loved about Yukari, was her stories, often wild and ridiculous but always put a smile on her face. When they were younger Minamo had even tried to get Yukari to write some stories but Yukari, as was often with her, grew bored when it became more work than play. Still Minamo had managed to pry something from her friends skill, if only she was the only one that would ever read them, most were silly detective or horror stories, but one she prized above the rest, a story about a girl looking for her lost love, unlike the rest of Yukari's stories which were meant to be fun and fluffy, this story was very tender and somewhat sad. Unfortunately it was also unfinished, she'd asked Yukari about the ending once but she had simply said it was undecided, now the story and the others were hidden away in her apartment, as she knew Yukari would be likely to throw them away if she knew they still existed, that or just loose them in the mess that was her bedroom.

Back to reality, she was just arriving outside Yukari's; looking over her friend was still snoozing so she decided to brake harder than usual as she stopped. The jarring halt trust Yukari forward into her seatbelt, eliciting a weird snort and a confused grunt, which caused Minamo to laugh out loud.

Yukari shot Minamo a disgruntled look but said nothing as she got out of the car, before leaving she leaned back into the car and mumbled thanks for the lift and a good luck with the date, before leaving.

Minamo sat in her car for a few seconds slightly confused; Yukari was being very sedate and even thanking her for driving her, which she never did. Minamo shrugged, maybe she'd got a new game and wasn't getting enough sleep, lack of sleep always tended to mess with her moods, though usually it made her more irritable.

So too little sleep makes her angry, maybe too much sleep is making her all nice and quiet she joked to herself, before shaking the thought from her head, whatever the case she'll probably be back to normal tomorrow, and besides I've still got this date to worry about.

When Minamo got back to her apartment checked the time, seeing she still had quite a bit of time left before her date arrived, she decided to grab a shower. As the drops of water ran down her body she willed them to take the weariness she'd felt earlier away with them, and eventually they started to. Feeling more refreshed she climbed out of the shower, wiped away the condensation on the bathroom mirror and looked at herself, posing slightly, fit athletic, surely she was quite the catch she thought to herself, so why do I have such bad luck in love? Even when she found a man who she could get along with she just never quite felt that spark she thought she should have, am I just being too picky, but no matter my mothers scheming I don't just want to settle for some random guy then a thought popped into her head why do you have to settle for a guy at all?

She laughed to herself, now that would really put a spanner in mother's plans, but strangely as she though more on the idea she was surprised that she actually a little excited by it, but then she caught herself, shaking her head, what am I doing? I've got to get ready for this date!

Minamo quickly dried herself of and searched her wardrobe for something to wear, after several costume changes she settled for a simple dark blue dress with a low back that went well with her hair, even Yukari had, begrudgingly, admitted that she had looked good in it when she bought it.

Right, just because my mother set this up doesn't mean it'll be a total loss, the guy could be great! She said to herself, attempting to pump herself up.

Minamo's watch started to beep with the alarm she had set earlier just before her shower, it indicated that she had around half an hour left till her date was scheduled to arrive, so she quickly went about finishing her makeup.

She still had some time left to kill so rummaged around her flat for Yukari's stories that she'd remembered on her drive home, she found the stack of papers fairly quickly and took them to the sofa, sitting down and flipping through them. Most of the pages were faded and worn with age and use, she brought the pages to her face and inhaled, breathing in the smell, behind the musty smells of age and dust, she could smell something, Yukari. Unlike the real Yukari the pages were always warm pleasant and relaxing. Of course she doubted that there was actually any smell there, particularly some old Yukari perform, or whatever her brain made up, but it didn't matter, what mattered was that nostalgic feeling that brought her back to their University days.

Lowering the pages she flipped through until she came to one story named The Detective and the case of the missing faces, a silly noir story in which Detective Mary O'Brian, Yukari's protagonists were nearly always female, had to solve a case in which people were having their faces stolen. Though the story sounded like it could have gone quite dark, which some of Yukari stories did, this one played out more like a Saturday morning cartoon, and always made her laugh.

Half an hour later there was a knock at the door, before she went over to the door she check the notepad next to her phone, checking the name written on it again, 'His name is Hayashi Kento, nice to meet you Mr. Hayashi' she practiced to herself, before heading to the door.

'Nice to meet you Mr. Hayashi' she greeted with a practiced smile.

'Ah, yes, nice to see you at last Miss. Kurosawa' said the man nervously, 'but please just call Kento'

'Please me too, I mean, call me Minamo not Kento, obviously' she laughed, cursing herself internally for sounding like an idiot.

The man, Kento, was quite average looking, short dark hair and somewhat tired eyes, there was no immediate spark, but Minamo didn't let that dampen her sprits.

'So where are we planning on going?' she inquired.

'I have reservations for a restaurant and perhaps a movie afterward if that sounds okay' he didn't sound entirely sure of himself, but Minamo reckoned that he was probably just as nervous as she was, blind dates were never the most combatable starts she'd found.

'That sounds lovely' she smiled warmly, after she locked her door she followed him down to his waiting car.

Next day, Minamo came into school in quite the funk. Indeed by the afternoon there were many rumors around the school as to the reason there usually bright and cheerful teacher was slinking around the hallways in a stupor.

Yukari had caught wind of these rumors and while she could guess why Minamo was in a mood, she decided to go against her normal nature and not tell her students and rub it in Minamo's face. Mrs. Kurosawa's recent meddling had put a strain on Minamo's normal good nature, besides she had a plan that would hopefully cheer up her best friend.

Minamo was relatively surprised to have not been accosted by Yukari during the day, as her best friend normally loved to point out her relationship failings, but without Yukari as an external vent she was left to wallow.

Towards the end of the day Minamo was mindlessly finishing some paperwork, when a pair of arms wrapped round her from behind as she was half hugged, half jumped on, 'Nyamo!' Minamo nearly screamed in shock as Yukari hugged her tighter, 'God, Yukari, you frightened me half to death' she shouted as her senses came back to her. Yukari simply chuckled to herself before releasing Minamo from her grip and taking her seat next to her friend, wearing a big smug smile across her face.

'I'm guessing you heard?' asked Minamo, hoping to get any ribbing out-of-the-way quickly.

'Ah, yes…' her smile fading rather quickly, 'did it really go so bad?'

'God, I'm gonna be alone forever' sulked Minamo, laying her head on the desk in front of her.

'Oh come on, I'll always be here' offered Yukari, 'now tell me what happened'

'Well it started off pretty well the restaurant was really nice…'

'You didn't have crab without me did you?' eyed Yukari suspiciously.

'No' smiled Minamo weakly.

'Oh, good sorry, carry on'

'Well we started of fairly normally, he talked about how he knew my mother or rather how his mother knew my mother and about his job, then I told him about my work and a bit about sport but after a while conversation kinda petered out, and he started to drink a little more' at the point Yukari was just nodding along, Minamo glad that she was for some reason remaining quite, 'at first I didn't think it'd be a problem, after a couple of drink some people are more open or friendly, but then he started being kind of sexist, I think he was trying to be funny or lighten the mood, but it just was sort of sad'

'Wow sounds like a keeper' added Yukari sarcastically.

'Yes, well I was going to make my excuses when he suggested a movie and even though I knew I shouldn't have I decided to give him a second chance. Hopefully the walk would sober him up a little, and for the first half an hour of the movie I thought it had but then he started to feel me up alit…'

'HE DID WHAT!' Yukari was out of her chair, fire in her eyes, 'THE BASTARD I'LL KILL THE…'

'Sit down Yukari' urged Minamo, pulling at her skirt till she sat down, 'as I was saying he attempted to but I said no and left' it didn't go as smoothly as that in reality, no hadn't been quite enough, instead she had left after giving him a strong slap, which judging by his face had been quite the surprise, but she left that bit out, no need to worry Yukari more.

'What a jerk' stated Yukari after a few seconds of silence, Minamo nodded in agreement, 'but why were you so down then? The bad night was entirely his fault'

'Because that's the only people I seem to attract that or people to boring to even do anything. I'm never going to find love with some jerk salary man that my mother sets me up with' she let out a heavy sigh, 'I'm pathetic aren't I?'

'Don't worry Nyamo' said Yukari, before pointing a thumb back at herself and adding 'for I have a plan'

'Really?' question Minamo doubtfully; this is going to end in my buying you meat isn't it?

'And don't worry you won't have to pay for a thing' said Yukari, somehow reading Minamo's mind.

'So just what is this plan?' asked Minamo, still doubtful.

'I'm gonna take you out on the date you deserve!' a smile spreading across her face.

'Sure sounds like a normal outing to me'

'No no no' Yukari waged her finger, 'I'm gonna pull out all the stops and you're gonna get what you deserve' there was that word again 'deserve' it seemed somewhat ominous, Minamo was quite sure what Yukari thought she deserved in a date, normally it seemed to be that she deserved to pay, but then again she normally did that on their outings anyway so what would be the harm either way.

'Okay then' she shrugged, 'but you better pay'

'Yes!' shouted Yukari, striking some sort of victory pose, 'I promise Nyamo, you'll love this' Minamo could help but be caught up in Yukari's excitement.

'So when is this date planned for?'

Stopping bouncing for a second Yukari pondered, 'Well I'm guessing during the week probably isn't too smart, so this next Friday night?'

'Sounds good to me' agreed Minamo, with that Yukari left grinning like an idiot, when she didn't return Minamo guessed that she'd borrowed her parents car or bought her bike today. The P.E. teacher leaned back on her chair and thought back to the previous night and her thoughts on dating women, Yukari certainly wouldn't have been her first choice. If she looked objectively Yukari was an attractive woman, curvier than Minamo but yes attractive, in fact she was sure her friend would attract considerably more attention if it wasn't for her abrasive personality. She smiled to herself, the question had come up before, about her sexuality but she had never really entertained it, instead thinking that she just hadn't found the right the man.

Maybe I need to find the right woman, but Yukari? She shrugged to herself if nothing else I can use this as a dry run, to see how I feel about the whole dating girl's thing.

Slowly she came back to reality, got to put these fantasies into reality she reminded herself, Yukari would probably do what she always did, which was drink too much and make her pay, but something in her excitement told Minamo that she at least had something out of the ordinary planned.

Minamo finished up her paperwork, and looked forward to a calm drive, a relaxing shower and a comfortable sofa with Yukari's old stories.