'Race You';
written by Rinna.

She hadn't expected to see him, sitting in that swing. His brow was furrowed, as if he was thinking hard about something, and his bare toes brushed the ground. His legs swung slightly in an idle manner, one at a time; right, left. Right, left.

The movement had her completely mezmerized for a minute- she'd always had a rather short attention span, so she momentarily forgot her surprise at seeing him and just... stared.

She snapped out of it, though, as she once again realized who's legs they actually were. "Taru-Taru!!" she squealed happily, bounding towards him. He looked up sharply, golden eyes wide and alert, until he looked to the left and saw her-

"Oh, it's you," he mumbled, and ducked his head again. His small, pale hands were already clutching the chains of the swing; however, his grip unconsciously tightened when he spoke. 'I've always gotta snap at her, don't I? Smooth move, moron,' he thought to himself, giving a mental wince.

"Oh, Taru-Taru! Purin did not think that Taru-Taru would be here, na no da! Purin is sooo happy to see Taru-Taru, na no da!" the blonde girl said as she plopped down into the swing beside Taruto, ignoring his attempt at a greeting.

Taruto shrugged, trying not to blush. (That always happened when she was around, for some reason... he didn't understand it, but it bothered him.) "Kish is an idiot, and Pai's a buttface, so I..." His head snapped up again, this time failing to keep the pink flush from staining his cheeks. "Why am I telling you, anyway?" he asked fiercely, scowling at the grinning Purin.

"Purin does not know, na no da, but she is glad that Taru-Taru tells her things, no da!"

"Yeah, whatever," Taruto muttered, feeling an overwhelming blush paint his face, right up to his ears. God, how embarrassing.

It was quiet for a moment. Purin fidgeted with a thread hanging off her shorts, unable to sit still, and Taruto shifted uncomfortably. "Well, what do you want, anyway?" he snapped finally, unable to handle the silence. He could've kicked himself.

Purin flashed him a grin. "Taru-Taru is so adorable, na no da!" she shrieked as she glomped him.

"H-Hey, get off me! I'm not adorable!" Taruto shouted, eyes wide and ears red. Purin giggled.

"Taru-Taru is the most adorable, na no da." She leaned in to Taruto, still hugging him from the side, and rested her chin on his shoulder. "This Purin... is very, very glad that Taru-Taru is her friend, na no da," she said softly, closing her eyes.

Taruto was afraid his head might explode, he was blushing so hard.

"Y-you..." he started, but he didn't know what to say.

Well, he knew what he wanted to say... he knew that he wanted to say that he loved her the most, that she was wonderful and good and sweet and that he was her friend, too... and he wanted to hug her back and play with her braids and run around and take her out flying.

But damn, he was stubborn.

So stubborn... but he wanted to...

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled, awkwardly patting her back with one hand. She squeaked happily and nuzzled his shoulder slightly, hugging him tighter, before letting him go and giving him one of the most pleased smiles he'd ever seen. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Taru-Taru is the most wonderful, na no da! Taru-Taru will come play with this Purin, right, no da?" she asked, her eyes big and brown and childish.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug, playing it off like it was, 'Yeah, whatever, I guess I'll humor you', but really... he was almost too excited for words.

He got up off the swing. "I guess we can walk around for a few minutes or something," he said, as if he'd rather not.

She giggled and grabbed his hand, managing to lead him a few steps before he tore himself away from her grasp, hovering just a few feet in the hair. "I mean, you can walk. I don't want you to get all your nasty girly human stuff all over me," he said quickly, a little too loudly, as if he were panicking slightly.

Purin gave a small, sweet smile. "Taru-Taru is such a boy," she said lightly.

"Che."

She skipped along on the grass for a minute, and he followed her, slightly irritated with himself.

So stubborn, dammit...

"H-hey... Pudding..."

She stopped walking and turned to face him, eyebrows raised a bit in curiousity.

"Taru-Taru does not often call this Purin 'Pudding', na no da," she said, tilting her head.

"Yeah... well, I..." He let himself drop to the ground. He grinned suddenly, and there was more than a hint of a smirk in the expression. "I'll... I'll race you to the pond!"

"Purin will win, na no da!" she cried, taking off.

"Hey, I didn't say start!!"

"Why does Taru-Taru get to say it, na no da?!"

"You're sure slow for a monkey-girl!"

"H-hey!! Taru-Taru is cheating, no da! No flying, na no da!"

"Who says?"

"Purin does!"

Taruto ended up winning, though Purin was ranting about how flying was cheating and he should have warned her. He smirked and told her that she was just being a sore loser, and she was the one who'd given herself a head start.

She stuck her tongue out at him. He grinned madly.

And she promptly yanked him down by one of his ribbons and shoved him into the pond.

A Note from The Rin;

Dude. has been acting screwy for a few days... I couldn't get this up... and now I have to re-type the first chapter of the AU story I'll be putting up. Which will take forever. Six and a half notebook pages, front and back, people. That's a lot to type.

Well, anyway, I hope the ending wasn't too choppy. I believe this inspired one of my sentence drabbles... I've had the first half written out for a while, but I didn't know how to finish it. I kinda just threw something together...

Well, I'm getting a few teeth pulled tomorrow. (Stupid cosmetic dental work... my teeth are fine, dammit!! Leave them the hell alone!) And they have to give me so many shots, because I've such a large tolerant for the pain medication... gah. I hate needles. I don't even wanna think about it.

Okay, my point is, I won't be able to do much typing for a while. But stuff will come. Eventually.

So, um, bye. Yeah. I never know how to close. Whatever.

-Rinna

P.S.- Okay, I've been having a lot of TMM related dreams lately... it's weird. If I get sucked into a fandom, that'll happen. It did with Zelda, for a while... So anyway, the dreams have been inspiring fics. If I ever get around to it, I'll write 'em out and post 'em, but... we'll see.

So. Bye again? Right.

Dated 4/16/07, 1:55 am.