I'd like to thank those of you who reviewed, but first, the story! Oh, and by the way, I don't own Hamtaro.

CN

Petals

Chapter Two: The Sleeping Loser Buttface who Snores a Lot

"Listen," Boss told Hamtaro, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible since he knew Hamtaro was becoming very agitated. "I took a class in first aid."

"Good for you," Hamtaro replied acidly, although he knew he should have been is a…nicer disposition. After all, Boss had warned him time after time that going into the tunnels when it rained was a bad idea. So what right did he, Hamtaro, have to be mad at the one person who had explicitly warned him and the one person he had contact with from the "outside"?

"Keep Bijou warm." Boss had to make his sentences terse in order for him to keep his own anger in check.

Hamtaro looked at the girl still lying in his lap. She was breathing softly and had the utmost look of sincerity gracing her features.

She certainly looked very peaceful.

Damn her.

He glanced at his cell's clock and realized the sun must have already set.

"When can you get here?"

"To get you out will require a bit of man power. I'll wait till Stan comes home and then we'll try to dig you out of there."

"What about Oxy? Can't the two of you come right now?"

"Would you trust Oxnard with a shovel?"

Hamtaro sighed. "Just get here soon."

He had put her far away from him, or at least as far as the small tunnel would allow, across the cave. He was even decent enough to put his jacket over her to keep her warm, and he had to wonder if she would do the same for him.

He desperately wished Ribon was awake. Therefore, he wouldn't be bored out of his mind while he drove her mad. That always gave him a sense of justice.

She was an heiress, and not just any stupid heiress…she was apparently the heiress of Ribon Jewelers, the biggest name of jewel-suppliers in Europe. She was apparently the gem of the Parisian paparazzo's eyes. Gem. How fitting.

She had had everything given to her on a silver platter, whereas Hamtaro had to work for everything he had managed to achieve.

She probably had tutors for every subject, and he had to stay up till 3 in the morning studying for a test the next day.

She probably had her mommy donate a whole wing to Ham Sapian University to get in, and he struggled to perfect his grades just so he could be considered for admission.

Why was she a science major, again? Wasn't she eventually going to run Ribon Jewelers one day?

A wind swept through a tiny hole in the tunnel's roof, causing goosebumps all over Hamtaro's arms.

She's pretty decent once you get to know her, Stan had told him after he went off on a rant over how easy heiresses could have it.

"Yeah, right."

Cats…her head was throbbing as she opened her eyes quickly. The pain caused her to slowly lift herself up and feeling the weight of a large jacket over her, she looked at her surroundings. Dark…so very dark, but the smell of wet grass and the floor of dirt under her was apparent everywhere. Her chest went up-and-down ferociously as her breathing became panting her sweat started to dab at her forehead and clam up her palms.

Hamtaro was the only person with her in this tiny little hole, and this was perhaps the most unnerving thing about the whole scenario. His chest moved softly as he slept, and he said something in his slumber but it was too quiet for Bijou to hear over her own breathing. Then he spoke again. "Ribon" was clearly the word, and it served as some sort of realization for he jolted up from his sleep, worry flashing in his cobalt eyes.

"Oh…you're alright." His breathing started to slow down as he spotted her across from him. "I was really worried…er…I mean you fainted. Are you ok?" He was truly amazing. He managed to change his voice from relieved to embarrassed to gruff all in one breath.

Flashbacks of the day were coming back to her…the cafeteria…the chemistry midterm…the stupid tunnel which wasn't stable during rainstorms…the cave-ins…Fainting.

"Are you starting to panic again?" the worry reappeared in his voice. "Quickly! Put your head between your legs!"

Bijou did as she was told. Although the sensation of blood rushing to her head was horribly unpleasant, she still had her consciousness.

"I just remembered it all," Bijou said, head still in between her legs.

"Hmm?" Hamtaro asked in a clearly uninterested voice. "What did you remember?"

"You…in the cafeteria, asking me out in front of everybody. Why did you do that? It was really humiliating…"

"Well, Ribon," he said with the smallest of smirks, "that was kinda the idea."

Although he would never admit it, that quiet yet defiant "no" was one that he had been expecting, the rejection still felt horrible.

"Rejecting someone is an awful thing to do, even if it is a jackass like you, Haruna." Her head was now up again, and though it was pretty dark in the cave, her face was clearly red as a beet, her emerald eyes sharp and her white hair splattered all over her face. She reminded Hamtaro of an inverse Santa Clause…sort of…

"Yeah, I was sort of expecting it. It didn't hurt."

"Oh, I'm sure it didn't," she said dryly. She stood up and stretched herself. When she finally sat back down, she picked up his jacket and tossed it over to him. "I mean, girls must reject you all the time."

Hamtaro simply let out something along the lines of a growl as he himself started to get up and move around.

"No comeback?" Bijou asked innocently as she started to dig through her bag.

"You're pushing it, Ribon," he snapped at her. That's gratitude for him.

She looked up from her bag, a cell phone in her hands and sparkles in her eyes.

"Merci," she said swiftly, causing Hamtaro to roll his eyes.

She realized that she had several missed calls and cursed aloud. She quickly dialed the number that had called her many times.

"Hello?"

"Pashy!" Bijou cried, unable to hide the excitement in her voice. This just made Hamtaro imitate her by mouthing what seemed like an extremely high-pitched voice and flipping imaginary hair away from his shoulders.

"Bijou, where are you? You have no idea how worried I was. I was this close to calling the police…No one's seen you since the lit midterm and the…cafeteria thing…"

"…You heard about that?"

"…Heh…the whole campus has heard of it. But seriously, where are you—Oh wait, Sandy just pulled in with your car…and I think Stan's with her, too."

"Good," Bijou replied. "Get in my car, oh—and bring a shovel."

"A shovel? Cats, Bij, where are you?"

"Stay on the phone. I'll explain on the way there."

An hour or two had passed, and the two Ham-Humans were furiously dialing numbers on their phones. Hamtaro out of sheer frustration for where Boss had been, and Bijou in anger after Pashmina hung up when their connection was becoming weak, despite Bijou's protests to stay on the line.

"Dammit, Boss! Where are you?"

"Zut! Mes amis, où êtes-vous?"

It was a few moments later that there friends had called, explaining that the thunderstorm had left many main roads and highways blocked and that there were police cars everywhere, warning people to stay off the roads.

"Listen up, Hamtaro, I don't want you to panic…"

"Bijou, just stay calm because this might be difficult to take…"

"What?!" Hamtaro and Bijou asked eagerly into their phones.

"The traffic's pretty ugly…"

"All the streets have been flooded, Bij…"

"And?" Hamtaro and Bijou asked their friends in desperation, hoping with every figment in their bodies that they wouldn't say…

"You might have to stay the night…"

"You probably will end up spending the night…"

Hamtaro and Bijou looked up simultaneously at each other, wondering if it was all a really, really bad dream…

…or some cruel twist in an already hopeless situation.

They had waited another hour for any word from their friends, but unfortunately, the situation was just as desperate as ever before.

Bijou had given up all hope of leaving before tomorrow morning. She placed her head against the dirt wall of the cave and slowly drifted off to sleep. Hamtaro, not feeling the slightest bit sleepy, simply watched her body as it moved up and down with the girl's gentle breathing.

He watched her for Cats know how long, and without noticing it, he had fallen asleep himself, only to wake up presumably hours later to see that she was still asleep. No, wait. She had to have waken up, for her shoes were kicked off, lying beside her and her tights had been taken off and placed into one of her shoes. The sleeves of her tidy, navy blue sweater were rolled up and the top few buttons of her blouse had been undone. Her always-present, neatly-tied ribbon was wrapped around her wrist and he noted that a new layer of white hair was messily framing her face, bangs fluttering like petals in the wind every time she breathed.

Hamtaro glanced at his cell phone. 1 A.M. It was impossible to believe. Boss, Stan (Or was he still with Sandy and Pashmina?) and Oxnard had probably given up hope for the night and abandoned him here.

Hamtaro awoke some time later to find Bijou awake, a few bobby pins between her lips and her ribbon being crafted into her hair as she used her open cell phone's backlight so that she could use her compact mirror efficiently. Hamtaro laughed at the girl's silliness. Her sweater was still dirty with clumps of dirt being evident here and there, her blouse had still been undone and her shoes were still kicked off and lay beside her. But what did he know?

"Well," she said with a small smile after the last bobby pin had been placed into her cloud white hair, "Sleeping Beauty finally awakes."

Hamtaro gave the girl an indignant scowl.

"I could say the same about you. Every time I was awake, you were asleep!"

Bijou's smile only got bigger.

"So, you think I'm beautiful, hmm?" Hamtaro simply rolled his eyes yet again.

"If beautiful serves as a synonym for purely infuriating, then yes, of course," he replied, having to force a smile back to her unwavering glare.

"Actually, I take that back. You are not Sleeping Beauty. You're the Sleeping Loser Buttface who Snores a Lot."

"I do not snore a lot."

"Did you ever listen you yourself while you slept?"

"Well, no…but…"

"Well then?" Bijou turned around, once again fidgeting with the ribbon in her hair.

"What are you doing now?" Hamtaro asked, completely enraged at the fact that this girl was willing to test the patience of a saint.

"Forgive me, but I have a sense of needing to do something instead of feeling completely useless," She snapped back, placing bobby pins between her lips. After she had checked her mirror to make sure her hair looked fine, she sighed and stared along the caves dark walls.

"Do you think there'll be another one?" her voice was quiet, subdued…not like her, and this led Hamtaro to believe that she truly was frightened.

"Well," he replied in a calm voice, trying to keep the moment's peace level at ease, "there hasn't been one in a while, so I'm guessing we're safe."

Bijou let out a breath of relief, and Hamtaro couldn't believe that she actually trusted him in this situation. How did he know if there was going to be another cave-in?

I guess fear does that to people.

Just as Bijou closed her eyes, Hamtaro's mouth twisted into an evil, this-is-gonna-be-fun kind of smirk.

"I'm surprised you can sleep, even with…" he trailed off mysteriously, leaving Bijou to want to know what he was about to say.

"Even with what?" she asked, her tired voice still showing signs of interest, with her eyes still closed.

"Well…nothing, it's not important."

Bijou opened her eyes for a brief moment. "Well, coming from you, I'm sure it wasn't." She let out a small yawn and closed her eyes.

Hamtaro's little smirk faded. She was supposed to be interested. "I'm surprised, Bij, I don't know many girls who can sleep knowing that there are bugs everywhere."

"I told you not to call me 'Bij'." She paused for a brief moment, as if to adjust the sound of her own voice. "And aside from you, there are no bugs around."

"Well of course there are! This is a cave, isn't it? But don't worry, all the bugs that have approached you, I took off while you were sleeping."

Her eyes were sharply opened now. "There were no bugs crawling on me. I would've felt them."

"Obviously not. This one centipede was halfway up your leg before I peeled the little sucker off!"

"You're such a liar." Despite what Bijou just said, she pulled her legs up to her body and decided that she wasn't that tired after all.

"Mon dieu! The chem. midterm," Bijou spoke aloud just as she realized that she had missed it.

Hamtaro closed his eyes and cringed. He had forgotten that he missed it. "I'd rather take my chances in this cave with you then take that thing."

About an hour later, Hamtaro was the one dozing off and Bijou was left shaking her head.

"I'm surprised you can sleep, Hamtaro, because I, like you, don't know many girls who can sleep knowing that there are bugs everywhere." She smiled inwardly to herself.

Just as her smile started to fade, she heard the ever-so familiar sound of dirt falling. Her eyes grew with fear as she reached over and shook her cave-mate.

"W-what? Where's the earthquake? I knew the world would end in 2006!" Hamtaro asked as he jolted upwards.

"No, you dolt, I think there's going to be another cave-in," Bijou whispered. She was already standing up and pacing the cave carefully.

Hamtaro wiggled his Ham-Human ears and indeed, he could very precisely make out the sound of dirt falling. Where was the sound coming from? He looked to the roof of the tunnel and there didn't seem to be dirt falling from there. He then turned to the mound of dirt that had been formed by the last cave-in.

"Wait," Hamtaro said, standing up to examine the dirt mound. "I think…Boss!"

"Heke?" Bijou turned to the dirt mound and stood beside Hamtaro.

"Listen," he said, "you can hear the sound of the shovel going against the dirt. Boss? Is that you! Stan? Oxy?"

A large hole was punched into the dirt mound using the shovel. The huge projection of dirt that, well, projected due to said punch caused Hamtaro and Bijou to move back and cover their faces.

"How come you assumed that it had to be one of the guys that got you out of here?" A feminine and certainly not Boss, Stan or Oxnard's voice responded as her large eyes poked through the hole she had just made with her shovel.

Bijou gasped in excitement and ran up to the dirt mound while Hamtaro rolled his eyes for like the fourth time. Stupid Heiresses.

"Crystal!" Bijou squealed as another punch was given to the dirt mound thanks to the brown-haired heiress. "What are you doing back here?"

Crystal Victoria Donaldson. The heiress to the Donaldson Botanical Gardens, supposedly the most beautiful display of all things green in the whole entire world. The very reason, Hamtaro believed, Stan even put up with Sandy and her petulant little girl friends. Although, Hamtaro had to admit, out of the two heiresses he knew, Crystal had to be the far more approachable one. There was just something about her that made Hamtaro go, "Nah, I won't spill paste on her dress today." The two (meaning Hamtaro and Crystal) were actually pretty close. She was currently studying business and finance at one of Kyoto's finest universities, and even Hamtaro had to wonder why she was back.

"Well," Crystal started to explain, "Pashy called and explained that she hadn't heard from you in hours, and I thought since I finished all my midterms and had no major plans tonight, why not hop one of Daddy's jets to help find you. It's good to see you, Bij."

"You're so sweet, Crys, but you didn't have to do all that. I really wasn't missing. I was just stuck here with one of the world's biggest jerkfaces," Bijou explained.

"When did you get here?" Bijou asked.

"Just about two hours ago, and let me tell you, I'm never driving an airport rental car again. They're so slow! From now on, I'm gonna have one of daddy's chauffeurs come pick me up."

"Bien sur! I know exactly what you're talking about. Every time I go traveling, I make sure that a driver is sent from –" Bijou was interrupted by Hamtaro clearing his throat rather loudly.

"Getting back to rescuing us, where are Boss and Oxnard and Stan?" Hamtaro asked the girl, pushing Bijou out of the way.

"Hello to you, too, Hamtaro. Stan came with Pashy and Sandy; they're waiting with Boss and Oxnard outside of this cave thingy that you call a Clubhouse," Crystal explained.

"How come they're not the ones shoveling?" Hamtaro asked indignantly.

"Because they were too dense to bring shovels," the botanical garden heiress replied. This just caused Bijou to laugh and Hamtaro to fall over anime style. "And I thought it was a nice surprise. Besides, Sandy and Pashmina are like hyperventilating up there in worry over you, so, yeah…"

About an hour later, Boss returned with a shovel and started to help Crystal dig Hamtaro and Bijou out, and eventually, there was a hole big enough for Hamtaro and Bijou to step over.

"Cats, I love you!" Bijou exclaimed as she jumped over the dirt and into Crystal's arms.

"You're not gonna hug me, are you?" Boss asked wearily as Hamtaro stepped over the dirt mound. Hamtaro was just happy to be out of the stupid hole.

"Oww!" Hamtaro cried after Boss had punched him on the shoulder.

"I told you to stay out of the tunnels when it was raining," Boss said, which just caused Hamtaro to chase him all the way out of the Clubhouse.

Bijou sighed as she started walking with Crystal out of the Clubhouse. "I'll tell you, it's not fun being stuck with Hamtaro Haruna. I can't see why you're friends with him."

"He's actually pretty decent once you get to know him," the other girl replied.

"Yeah, right." Bijou glanced at her cell phone. "School starts in a few hours, and I have to make-up a stupid chem midterm."

"Come on. You can worry about that later. Right now, you're going home with Pashy and Sandy and you're going to take a nice, long shower."

Bijou leaned her head against her friend's shoulder. "That sounds so nice."

Once they were outside, Bijou saw three cars parked outside. One was Boss's, in which Oxnard, Stan and Boss were sitting while Hamtaro ranted to them, "How could you not have thought to bring a shovel?" The other car was Crystal's, since it had the airport rental logo on the windshield, and the last car was Bijou's little blue one, on which Pashmina and Sandy had been leaning against. They immediately perked up at the sight of Bijou.

"Bij!" they exclaimed as they took the white-haired girl into their arms.

"You have no idea how worried I was," Pashmina started to say. Bijou could see tearstains all over her face.

"Yeah, like, the next time you decide to get stuck in a cave for a few hours, give us a call, 'k?" Sandy said as she stroked her friends face, and Bijou could tell by her voice that she had been crying.

"I'm fine, but I appreciate your worry. And how's your grandmother?" She asked Sandy, who just smiled in return and grabbed her friend even harder.

"She's fine. You're fine. It's all good."

Moments later, Bijou, Pashmina and Sandy were all gathered into Bijou's car (though Pashmina was driving since Bijou looked way too tired), and they honked their horn at Crystal, who happened to be talking with Hamtaro.

'I wonder what that's all about,' Bijou couldn't help but think.

"Are you coming, Crys? You're welcome to stay the night at our house," Sandy called over. To this, Crystal just turned her head and nodded over her shoulder before returning to her conversation with Hamtaro.

"I don't think you should go to school today, Bij," Sandy said as Bijou walked out of the bathroom in a powder blue bathrobe.

"Yeah, you've been through a lot today," Pashmina agreed, patting a seat beside her on the couch.

"I have to, guys, I have to speak with my chem. teacher about making up that midterm," Bijou rationalized with a very drowsy voice. Her head practically fell over onto the couch.

"I guess you can have her room tonight, Crys," Pashmina said with a smile to Crystal, who had been quiet throughout the conversation.

"Thanks, Pashy."

"Good. I'll go get a new comforter from the linen closet. Make that two, one for Bijou, of course. " And with that said, Pashmina went down the hall.

"Hey, you look tired, and I'm in the mood for something nice and hot. I'll go make us some nice, chamomile tea," and before Crystal could protest, Sandy was off into the kitchen, getting a kettle full of water ready.

Crystal just leaned across the recliner she had been sitting on. "I guess it's just you and me, Bij."

"Hey, Crys?" Bijou asked, startling Crystal.

"Bij! Go to sleep," Crystal ordered as she went over to the couch the jewel heiress was resting on.

"I will, I promise," Bijou said quietly, "but I want to know, what were you talking with Hamtaro about?"

"Well, he and I are friends…"

"Yeah, but it seemed like you were talking about something serious," Bijou explained through a yawn.

"If you must know, then, I was going to talk about it to you anyway."

"Talk about what to me, Crys?" Bijou asked, sitting up and sounding more interested.

"Well, aside from finding out where you were, I had an …ulterior motive for coming here."

Well, here you go! The next chapter written and the OC I promised in here.

And before any of you get worried, don't worry: I have full permission from all the Authors/Authoresses to use their characters.

And another thing, I got a bunch of hits for this story ( roughly 300+), but only nine reviews, and I'm really sorry, but I need more reviews than that if that many people are reading this story. Sorry, I'm one of those people who can tend to be self-conscious about my writing and I need feedback to help me out.

So please, if you're reading, just review, or else this fic is scrapped.

And as a thank you for those of you that did review:

AmyAddict1-Thank you for the review! I don't know whether or not you'll be able to see what makes this story so unique just yet, but keep being patient! You'll see by the end of this fic what's so special.

Cappyandpashy4ever-Thanks for reviewing, and no kidding! Writing Hamtaro and Bijou as well, not friends, is pretty challenging, but I love a good writing challenge. And as for Panda's last name, well, I hadn't thought about that since Panda, unlike in "Chuujitsu", will not have a major role in this story. I doubt his last name will even be mentioned, so let's see. If worse comes to worse, I'll make his last name Dapan or something. lol and yeah, Komachi won't come till later but her part is still significant.

Crystalgurl101-Oh, thank you so much for the sweet review! You really think the first chapter was gold? Well, hopefully you'll think this chapter is just as good. And I hope my playing out of Crystal in this chapter honored your writing of her. I read your other fics to try and keep her in character as much as possible, and I even let her end the chapter! Hopefully, this chapter made your day, too!

Dbzgtfan2004-Thanks for reviewing, and it's so nice to know that there's still a Hamtaro/Bijou fan out there.

Huskie86-Thanks for reviewing!

Kaitlyn Takaishi-Thanks for the review, and do Hamtaro and Bijou seriously remind you of a kid you know and yourself? That's pretty cool.

Kerriberri-Thanks for the review!

X Lollipop X-Thanks for reviewing, and I'm so glad that you found their personalities to be alright despite their "rivalry". That means a lot.

XxFadingAwayXx-Thanks for the review, and I'm really glad you liked my story so far!

See? For those of you who actually take the time to review, I try to do something nice in return and thank you. The longer your review, the more I reply back.

So please review!

And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

-CN