One Helluva Crush 2

By: Esa MaRie

Chapter 2

Hotaru was walking towards her room when all of a sudden Mikan sprang out of nowhere and hugged her.

"Hotaru!!!! I really hate Natsume! I broke up with him!" Mikan cried against her shirt.

Hotaru felt her nerves began to tick, although it's not quite obvious in her expression. How many times had she heard that line? She really has no patience for Mikan's stupid love-life. She has a deadline to meet and she has no time to listen to Mikan's problem with her idiot of a boyfriend. Anyway, a dozen roses and several boxes of howalon is enough for her to forgive Natsume Hyuuga.

Without warning, Mikan found herself flat on the wall after Hotaru knocked her off with her horseshoe gloves.

"Hotaru, you meanie!!!" Mikan cried massaging her temple. "I'm depressed here."

"Mikan Sakura?"

Mikan turned at the voice and saw a man holding a huge bouquet of red roses and six boxes of howalons. "Yes?"

"There's a delivery for you," the man said as he handed to her the package and a card.

Mikan opened the card and saw two words.

Sorry

N

Her eyes brightened and her usual cheerfulness came back. "I love you Natsume!" she exclaimed as she smelled the roses and began popping the howalons in her mouth. "Hotaru, want some?" she offered.

"A real idiot," Hotaru muttered as walked ahead.

It was the next morning and Ruka really felt depressed that his plan failed. He glanced at Natsume and noticed that he seems calm. He wondered if he and Mikan already reconciled. His question was answered when Mikan burst into the classroom with a huge smile on her face carrying a box of howalon.

"Ohayo!" she greeted cheerfully, then proceeded to her seat which is just beside Natsume. "Natsume-kun, arigatou for the flowers. You're so sweet," she giggled. "A brought a box so we can share later."

"Whatever, polkadots," Natsume said as he continued to read his manga. But it didn't escape Ruka that a small smile formed on Natsume's lips.

Ruka turned his attention at Hotaru's back. 'Will flowers really do the trick? Will Hotaru like it if she receives flowers?' he thought. 'Maybe I could give it a try…'

"Yes, young man?"

Ruka shifted his leg uncomfortably as he stared at the huge selection of flowers in Central Town. "Aah… c-can I have a dozen of p-pink r-roses delivered to…" he stammered.

The old lady smiled at him and gave him a piece of paper. "Here, you can just write the name of the girl you like and where you want it delivered."

Ruka blushed furiously as he began writing on the paper.

"Also, you need a card if you want to write a message or something to her," the kind lady added. "Here, this is a special paper that is really a craze with the young ladies right now. It's made out of flower petals. I'm sure your special girl will absolutely love it."

Ruka looked at the card and saw that it's really pretty. He saw that several kinds of flower petals were flattened and used for the paper. 'I hope Hotaru likes it.' "Okay, I'll take it."

Then he wrote:

Dear Hotaru,

Hope you love the flowers…

Love,

Your secret admirer

He frowned at what he wrote. He's not really good with words so that's all he could come up with. Well, what the hell…

There's still ten minutes before the class would start and the class was quite noisy with students talking to each other about one topic to another.

"Hotaru-chan," Anna called.

"Hn," Hotaru turned to look at her.

"I really love the product from your new invention," Anna exclaimed as she stared at the scented stationery she's holding. "I wonder how you came up with the idea to use real flower petals."

"Yeah, it's so pretty." Nonoko added. "But don't you think using flower petals is too expensive? I mean do you have to order several flowers for you to catch up with the orders?"

"I don't have to buy flowers," Hotaru said with her usual emotionless tone. "They're always available."

"Eh?"

Suddenly the door opened and a delivery man entered. "Delivery for Hotaru Imai."

Ruka shifted on his seat uncomfortably trying to wait for Hotaru's reaction. He feels kind of excited on how she would react especially when the class would start teasing her. Would she be mad? Would she blush? Would she like the flowers?

He stood up then walked forward. He sat in front of Koko facing him, his back against Hotaru. "Nice strategy Ruka," Koko grinned.

"Shut up Koko. Just pretend that your attention is on me so I can listen to whatever they're saying," Ruka whispered.

"Hotaru-chan, they're gorgeous!"

"Oh, I want someone to send me flowers too!"

"Oh wow Hotaru, someone seems to really like you!" Mikan squealed which earned her a blast from the baka gun.

Ruka blushed at that. He heard Koko snicker so he looked up and glared at him. His female classmates seemed to be enthusiastic about the flowers, but he hasn't heard anything from the recipient herself.

"Hmmm…"

"Is that all you can say Hotaru?" Anna asked.

"Wow, Hotaru is speechless," another classmate commented.

"Nice," came Hotaru's voice.

Unable to bear it, Ruka turned to look. Anyway, it seems that all of their classmates are curious so it wouldn't be suspicious if he acted like one of the spectators. He saw Hotaru looking intently at the flowers that made him wonder at something. 'Is she expecting something with the flowers? Why is it that she seems to be inspecting it?'

"Hotaru-chan, is there something wrong with the flowers?" Nonoko asked.

"It's perfect," Hotaru said as she stood up.

"Hotaru, where are you going?" Mikan asked.

"I need to bring the flowers back to the lab," she simply replied.

"But couldn't that wait?" Yuu asked.

"I need these fresh. Anyway, Narumi-sensei is absent," Hotaru answered as she took out her remote control and quickly left using her flying swan.

The rest of her classmates were left dumbfounded.

"W-what does s-she mean fresh?" Ruka stammered as he asked.

"She uses flower petals for her new invention," Koko explained.

"Invention?" Ruka asked stupidly.

"Tada!" Mikan plastered on his face a sheet of paper… or should I say… petal paper?

Ruka blinked at the paper in front of him. "T-this…" 'This is the same one that I used to write the note.'

"It's so cute, isn't it?" one of their female classmates gushed. "It's made of flower petals."

"Hotaru-chan is such a genius."

"Flower petals…" Ruka whispered.

Koko placed his arm around his shoulders and whispered to him. "It means that aside from your pictures, you just gave her another source of income."

"It means the Hotaru-chan invented a machine that can make use of the flowers that all her suitors gave her to earn some money," Nonoko explained. "Pretty good idea, right?"

"Ohhhh……"

"Amazing…"

"That's Hotaru-chan for you."

"Oh, the card was left," one of the girls said as she picked the card. "It says… Dear Hotaru…Hope you like the flowers…love, your secret admirer."

The girls began squealing. 'Like pigs,' Natsume thought as he looked up from his manga to his classmates that were gathered in front.

Ruka was blushing deep red. Good thing, Koko's arm was blocking him from other people's view. But the damn Kokoryomi was having the time of his life laughing at his expense.

"Wow, and he used the paper that Hotaru was selling. Tsk tsk. Poor guy. He was just adding extra income to Hotaru-chan."

With a drooped shoulder, Ruka went back to his seat beside Natsume.

"What's wrong with you?" Natsume asked when he heard Ruka's sigh.

"A little depressed over a failed plan," Koko interjected who followed Ruka when he returned to his seat.

"Shut up Koko," Ruka mumbled in irritation, resting his chin over his palm.

Natsume just shrugged and continued reading his manga.

Koko just grinned. "Hey," he whispered quietly to Ruka. "Why don't you ask Natsume for some advice? After all he was able to make Mikan his girlfriend."

Ruka looked at his right and stared at Natsume. 'Would he know how?'

Natsume then turned and his cold crimson orbs met his gaze. "What?"

Ruka sighed. "Nothing." 'Maybe he can help…'

This is long overdue… but anyway, here's the second chapter. Doesn't seem like a romantic one, eh? Anyway, hope you like it. Please read and review!

Thanks to natsumeluvr, shielamaria, Natsumesama, Dear Julie, tomboy ninja13, 'orange-ideas'natsumexmikan, emrevolemina, SweetMelancholy, SnowMirage, KaTLeYa KaSSaNdRA KaReN LiN, Winter Sapphire, candy0007, flora0moonstone, and I know a wonderful movie for all your reviews:-)