Author's Note: Since its exam time, I expected this to happen to me. I read GA again and was amused by Hotaru and Ruka's antics. Again. That's when my study-irritated brain drew me away to my laptop.
It's kind of random and all since I just like the idea that Hotaru is so into money.
Hope you enjoy!
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Hotaru Imai was a money-hungry girl. Everyone knew that. She admitted to going as low as selling Natsume's and Ruka's pictures when in a pinch (one would be surprised how fast they sold. When each girl brought every single individual copy of their photographs, you could expect a great rise in one's finances. As predicted, the elementary school photograph of Ruka in a skirt and the one of Natsume in a cat costume were most popular) and had expanded it into a fully fledged business. Mikan, her best friend, thought it a bit strange that she would do anything for money but took it in her stride and even offered to help because in her oh-so-illuminating words, anything Hotaru did was great.
Hotaru ignored Mikan as usual because she was busy counting her money. It was hard to count when there was a twelve-year old girl attached to your arm but Hotaru managed anyway. What was unbearable was the fact that she was whining for her to come play with her. Instead of punching her in the face with her baka-gun, she instead uncharacteristically mellowed and told Mikan to count the pictures on her digital camera and choose the best photos. A stupid job, but if it kept her occupied, that was good enough.
Mikan, as usual, was delighted.
"Hotarruuuuu!" she said and flung at her to give her a hug, but Hotaru dodged it and for extra measure hit her with the baka gun, careful not to damage her camera.
Mikan, uninjured (because she was too used to her hitting) made a really sad face and went to work on Hotaru's glare.
Hotaru smiled to herself and settled back in her chair. After counting her money and putting it together in neat piles, she shoved it in her wallet which, predictably, asked for a code, Hotaru took a chance to stretch out and relax. This was ruined by Mikan shouting appreciatively...probably at the photographs.
"Oh," she said loudly, "Ruka-pyon looks so cute in a skirt!!!"
Hotaru slapped her forehead. Of course it was a mistake handing the camera to her mentally-deficient best friend. She turned around slowly and was greeted by the furious face of Ruka Nogi, who was deeply offended by the skirt remark. His best friend, Natsume Hyuuga was too busy hiding a smirk behind some RPG-based manga.
Hotaru rolled her eyes and was prepared to face the music.
"IMAI!!" screamed Ruka (sounding more like a girl than an angered man) and came stomping towards her as fast as his fan base would allow. Which was pretty slow. Hotaru took this chance to prepare herself – it wasn't that he'd hit her but there was no harm in hitting him, snapping some pictures and rushing off to print them.
Natsume was now looking interestedly at the pictures upon Mikan's insistence (he'd have looked anyway) and then shot a look at Hotaru which had the words 'Good job and I'll burn you to crisp if you have any pictures of me' blazing all over it. Hotaru chose this as the time to get her portable flying swan scooter out of her backpack and move out. After getting her precious camera, of course. She let Natsume sneak a glance at a picture of his face with cat ears sticking out of his head, scowling at the camera and then she snatched it out of his hand.
Natsume, angered by her betrayal, was about to come after her but was stopped by Mikan who just fawned over him and told him how cute he looked in cat ears. He sat down looking reluctant but Hotaru knew he was too pleased by her compliments what with him being in love with her...as was Mikan with him. Even if they both didn't know it.
Because if there was anything Hotaru was better at (apart from money-making, sneakiness, extortion and inventing), it was reading people.
She huffed for a second (the sight of them sickened her) and escaped out of the window. Her flying swan scooter was hovering in mid air, taunting Ruka to come after her. But then again, even geniuses slip sometimes. He scrambled out of the window and she shook her head slowly as if saddened by his incredible stupidity. Then he whistled.
Hotaru's amethyst eyes widened as she remembered that giant eagle.
"Crap." She said and hightailed off in the direction of the northern forest. When she chanced a glance backward, she saw him sitting on the eagles back, blushing furiously and shouting what she could only perceive as grave insults.
---
She finally lost track of him (and inwardly thanked god for having smoke bombs on her person) and then she sneaked back to her room...or what she thought was her room. Except, unknowingly (and stupidly) she'd snuck into Natsume's room. Natsume glared at her when she entered panting, because it was obvious that she was disturbing his time with Mikan. Mikan was passed out beside him on his bed as Natsume was sitting beside her reading his manga.
Hotaru cocked an eyebrow at the display but swallowed her pride because she saw Ruka commanding a few guard dogs (enormous ones...damn what were they feeding them anyway?) to look for her. With an uncharacteristically non-girly expression.
Natsume continued to glare at her and she sent a cold look of her own back at him.
"Imai, your room is on the other side." He said in an irritated voice, "And if you're here for Polka, forget it. She's staying here."
Hotaru's cold stare softened but his rude tone had been annoying. She and he always shared something of a bond due to her stupid best friend. She'd always brought a smile to their faces. Look to what extent she'd softened Natsume! If it were an earlier time (and if she'd been stupid to venture into his room) she'd have been burnt to crisp now. Of course, the time they'd really bonded was the time at the Alice Festival Play when Narumi had tried to get Ruka and Mikan to kiss as a grand finale to his play. But being jealous (Hotaru being the smart one she was, she could always tell), Natsume had thrown a board eraser at Mikan's thick head just as Hotaru killed the lights. Once throughout the ordeal their eyes met and he looked pissed. 'I'm going to kill Naru' she'd thought to herself just as Natsume turned away and stared at his hands as if trying to ascertain how he could've let this get the better of him.
She would let him off for the possession of her best friend. But the rude tone? Oh, the rude tone was going to have to suffer.
"I wonder how huge posters of you in the cat costume look all around the campus." She said, revenge sparkling in her eyes. Natsume seemed taken aback. At an earlier time, he'd have burnt the camera to crisp but now that he was in possession of her best friend, he couldn't do anything. Hotaru smiled triumphantly. There was no response.
"Imai," he said in a warning tone.
"Just call your stupid bunny boy off me. I can't hit him because it'd affect the sales." She said and hoped she didn't sound desperate.
He grinned evilly.
"Why should I? You brought this on yourself. Besides, do you really think Ruka will listen to me?"
She stared at him with a blank expression.
"Just do it or I'll tell Mikan that you sleep with a picture of her every night."
This seemed to do the trick for the boy paled. Mikan was too dense. The fact that Natsume had a crush on her (and possibly even liked her) never seemed to get through her thick skull. And Hotaru wasn't entirely inclined to disturb this balance unless the given situation was grave. If he thought about opening his mouth and calling her bluff, he knew she'd tell Mikan immediately and attach a picture of it for evidence for further embarrassment.
"Fine, fine." He said getting off his bed. He knew that Imai only took advantage of him now that he'd mellowed to such an extent. But he wouldn't give anything in the world to give up the relationship with Mikan.
Flushed by her success, she thanked him by selling him some Mikan pictures.
"A set of five. For you, I'll give it at a discounted rate of 50 Rabbits."
Natsume rolled his eyes but didn't shy away from the offer.
"Thank you for your business." She said and shoved the money into her pocket hurriedly.
Natsume sighed wearily and wondered briefly what the world had come to. Of all people, Imai Hotaru was asking him to tell his best friend to shut up and stop bothering her. He hoped Ruka would understand that his ass was going to be grass if he didn't comply.
---
Ruka finally gave up chasing Hotaru, partially because his hounds were useless, partially because Natsume had asked him to stop acting like a moron. But he was mad. He wanted those pictures back. In a skirt?? And a dress? He also saw a few shots of him sleeping and there were some of his prancing around with the giant chick, Piyo. The latter was most embarrassing because he remembered he'd parted with the giant chick after their first meeting shouting, "Je t' aime!" He was sure Hotaru had all that on tape.
He returned to his room dejectedly, Natsume's warning ringing in his ears. "Stop acting like an idiot or else I'll burn all photos of Polka you have stashed in your room. And of Imai. I know about then Ruka, don't try to deny it. And I'll tell Imai that you have an enormous crush on her." Ruka blushed. He didn't have any crush on anyone! Maybe on Mikan at sometime in the past but that was a gone phase. He just kept some photographs of her to remind him of the overhaul his best friend's personality had gone through. How he'd begun to laugh and embrace friends. He'd softened to such a great extent, Ruka felt glad. He was happy that most burdens which were on them were fading.
"I'll tell Imai."
Ruka blushed even more fiercely. Imai was such a pain in the ass, consistently blackmailing him and selling his pictures and not letting him have any part of the profit! She was such a money-hungry ice bitch. And worst of all, she knew how he had felt about Mikan.
She mocked him, made him run favours for her and made him buy her the most exotic of cuisine (which was almost always out of the budget of the poor three star...but you do what you gotta do to keep yourself from embarrassment) and sometimes when he had the guts to blithely refuse, she just flashed an evil smile and sweetly told him that she'd put giant banners of him frolicking with Piyo. Then he'd cow down and carry out her bidding. He hated that picture. He hated the fact that she was capable of that degree of blackmail.
She scared him.
He dejectedly made his way to his room, hoping he wouldn't run into Imai.
Upon reaching his room, he collapsed on his bed, the exhaustion and stress of the day flooding into him and catching him unaware. He slipped his hand under his pillow and extracted a slightly frayed and folded photograph from almost a month ago. It was one of Imai in her rare good moods. In fact, she was actually smiling. He'd clicked the photograph himself. Ruka briefly considered going into business with Hotaru as her stealth cameraman.
He lay on his back, his hand in the air so as to look at the photograph. She didn't seem like a filthy, scheming, lying, back-stabbing (there were a lot more adjectives he could use but they'd only ask him the same question – Do you actually like her?) girl when she was smiling a genuine smile. She seemed defenceless, trusting and fragile – completely unlike her real self.
He smiled slightly then tucked the photograph away.
Photographs can be so deceptive.
---
Hotaru may have earned an extra 50 Rabbits that day but that didn't stop her from collecting more material.
She was manoeuvring her spy bug to get some more sleeping shots of Ruka. She took a swig of juice she was drinking and let the spy bug hover outside Ruka's window because she had spotted something odd coming out of the forest. Intrigued and slightly shifty, Hotaru let the bug move closer to that thing, her hand unconsciously jumping to a button on her desk.
But as the person came closer to their dorm, her irritation jumped up a few points.
It was that no-good, obsessive freak Hayate – the high schooler who had a completely irrelevant crush on her. He irritated her by continuously stalking, sending her useless presents (a flower? What does one ever do with a flower??) and calling her 'Cool Blue Sky' (which in her opinion was the most ridiculous name ever).
He had taken to coming down to their dorm some nights and usually serenaded the entire elementary school to the tune of 'Bishoujo Warriors Five Colour!' theme song consequently embarrassing himself. Hotaru hated it. Most nights he made it through one song before being led off to high school by the authorities. He usually left shouting, "I'll see you again Cool Blue Sky!!!"
Tonight as he made himself comfortable on the grass with his guitar, Hotaru's anger spiked. She was in no mood for his stupidity. Rummaging through her things she found her ultra baka gun. She fitted it onto her hand and stood by the window to aim. Upon getting a perfect lock on the target she let the projectile fly. It gained much momentum and hit Hayate with bone-crunching impact, enough to render him unconscious.
And to think he had just started twanging on his guitar strings.
Satisfied, she got back to her spy bug. It passed by Natsume's room and she noted that he was in splits over what had occurred to his poor senpai. And, as always, Mikan was sitting by him trying to get him to stop laughing over the guy's misfortune. Hotaru rolled her eyes and continued on.
Her creature alighted on Ruka's windowsill and she took this opportunity to grin. He was such a naive little boy. Even after numerous lessons he never learned to shut his window. But for those special cases, Hotaru had outfitted her bug with tiny glass cutters. And upon leaving, it would seal that hole over. Perfect.
The bug was now hovering over his sleeping form and Hotaru smiled at it. He looked so much like a girl.
With that brief smile, she began taking photographs from all angles.
---
In his dream, Nogi Ruka was in heaven. Well, if heaven constituted of endless happy animals who adored him. He played with all of them happily and they responded with enthusiastic cries of 'RUKA!!!' He was thrown in the air. He was just too happy. Then, unexpectedly a dark haired girl approached them and laughed. Everything stopped for a moment and all his animal friends retreated quietly because their master Ruka found something to break his trance.
A beautiful amethyst eyed girl smiled at Ruka openly. But something in her smile terrified a very small part of him. Upon looking closely at her smile, he noticed the evil strains he'd missed. She took his hand and he blushed.
Then she drew close to him.
Ruka looked at her, confused and felt his heart rate speed up. Then he cursed himself silently for acting like such a girl.
She brought hers lips close to his ear and with his heart pounding, Ruka strained to hear what she was whispering.
"Nogi," whispered Hotaru, "I'll get my revenge."
That's when he opened his eyes.
Upon opening his eyes, he was greeted by a grotesque mechanical bug of some sort. He looked at it in a confused manner trying to ascertain what the hell it was. Staring at it intensely for a few minutes didn't do the trick – a flash of light and a clicking sound did.
"IMAI!!!!!!!" screamed Ruka at the top of his lungs.
In no way was she ever an innocent little flower. NEVER.
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Sitting in her room, Hotaru grinned with satisfaction. It was a spy bug whose flash she'd let off accidently-on-purpose to annoy him. She tipped back the last of her juice she'd been drinking. She could hear Ruka scream bloody murder from the hallway and she took this opportunity to manipulate her bug back to her room.
He was so easy.
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A/N: I couldn't resist adding Hayate. He's just too funny. I wish they have more of him in the manga...
Any thoughts will be appreciated!