DISCLAIMER: I do solemly swear that I am up to no good. Er, I mean, that I do not own Mai HiME :)
A/N: I felt like writing again, thanks to my little chats with brokenxsky and rain141 about anime. You guys struck me with write-urge, thanks a LOT! XD (aww you guys rock)
And to the people who reviewed and laughed at my lack of understanding when it comes to the American language - forgive me for trying to write like you! I think it'd confuse the mostly American/British readers if I started using Aussie sentences like "Shizuru and Haruka stood in the Uni dunnies, as the Kyoto-born re-applied her face paint before she decided she was decent enough to start work at the movie joint that night". XD
Thank you sincerely to all my reviewers, I love the fact that you'd take time to leave feedback on my story. Don't be scared to voice anything that you don't like about my writing style - I can only improve if I know what is wrong to begin with!
Chapter Two - Why Do You Do That?!
"Fujino, are you even listening to me?!"
Suzushiro Haruka fumed, turning around mid-rant to glare at her college colleague who was frantically tugging on a red polo shirt. There was no one else in the girl's public bathroom, so Shizuru took the chance to quickly change into her Legend uniform so she could leave straight from campus.
"Hai, Suzushiro-han, I am indeed listening to your…eh, exciting political opinions, but I really must finish getting ready quickly or I am going to be late for the 4:30 shift!"
Haruka sighed, crossing her arms and leaning back against the large mirror.
"Fujino, you've been working at that place for just one week already and so far you have missed three after-class study sessions from it! Don't you think that your education is suffering because of this ridiculous "casual work"?"
Shizuru chuckled as she straightened her shirt and checked her hair in the mirror. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced through the mirror over at her irritable blonde friend.
"Actually Suzushiro-han, I really enjoy what I do there. I know we both come from honourable families, but I am surprisingly quite glad my father made me get a part-time job. You really should try it one day".
Haruka just scoffed and absently examined her perfectly-manicured nails, thoughts racing through her mind of flipping burgers at some fast food restaurant.
"As if, Fujino…"
Shizuru smiled politely and backed away from the mirror, satisfied with the loose bun her hair was pulled into, allowing twin tawny locks to neatly frame her face. Quickly snapping shut her compact lipgloss container, the Fujino heiress tossed all of her items into her college book bag which was promptly slung over her shoulder as she walked out of the student bathroom.
"Ja'ne, Suzushiro-san. See you at class tomorrow!". A casual hand was waved in the air without her turning around.
Haruka rolled her purple-painted eyes.
Climbing out of her stylish little sports car, Shizuru glanced at her watch.
4:27…. Perfect.
Striding casually into the building, she was immediately greeted by the refreshing blast of the air-con, blowing towards her the slight scent of musk overpowered by the smell of the carpet powder used at the end of the night when the floor had to be vaccumed. Making her way to the counter, Shizuru occasionally reached out and straightened some dvds on a nearby shelf or bent down to pick up a scrap of paper from the floor.
"Ara… do these people not give a second thought to the poor souls who have to clean this place before they litter all over the floor…?…."
Her mind drifted back her past experiences at the store. True to Kazuya's words, every night since she had started working at Legend she had seen Kuga come into the shop just before it was closing time.
And in the three times she has interacted with the girl since then, she could ruefully admit to herself that it was just so difficult trying to get the girl to talk more to them, even if she had persisted to gently chip away at the girl's cold exterior.
Friday Night
"Ara, Kuga-san, you are back. Perhaps you were trying to woo me the other night after all! Kyaaa… such a romantic…"
Natsuki glared at her. She didn't say a word.
Monday Night
"Back again, Kuga-san? Am I just so irrestible, hmm?"
Natsuki rolled her eyes.
"Idiot…" she mumbled under her breath.
Wednesday Night
"Ara, ara Natsuki. How come you only rent out these gory flicks? Why don't you try a nice romance film for once...? Maybe it would give you more ideas at how to approach a cute girl, rather than continuously using movies as your excuse ~ !"
Natsuki double blinked. Then she turned her head and proceeded to ignore the kyoto-born until the transaction was over, before she stomped rather comically out the door.
Shizuru giggled.
... And this brings us to the present.
Shizuru impatiently glanced at the clock, feeling as though the minute hand was ridiculing her as it took it's merry time completing it's circuit, bringing itself closer to the end of the night.
8:45... nearly her cue.
Deciding it was best to keep herself busy rather stand around anxiously awaiting the arrival of her current obsession, Shizuru turned away from the clock for the fifth time in the past two minutes.
"Midori-han?" she enquired, her soft voice drifting over to the older redhead standing in front of the popcorn machine.
A pair of lime green eyes snapped up and a lazy grin spread upon her co-worker's face.
Click. Shizuru's mind took a mental snapshot of the pose. Midori-han looked like a superhero in their prime scene right at that moment.
"What's up, Fujino?"
It was curious, Shizuru thought, that even though she had only met Midori earlier that night, the "17 year old university student who loves the night life!" was so carefree that Shizuru couldn't help but relax around her.
In fact, every one that she had worked with so far had been remarkably easy to get along with. First there was Kazuya. Then she worked with the flirtatious Chie-han; the boyish girl who spent half the night showing Shizuru pictures of her girlfriend on her phone, and reiterating that Aoi-chan was the "hottest thing this side of Fuka".
Monday night introduced her to yet another boyish co-woker - Are there no cute feminine girls around here?! Shizuru's mind screamed - Akira-han. In fact, it took a double-take on Shizuru's end to realise that the quiet girl was indeed female.
Wednesday night was a relief; Tomoe-han was young, stuck-up and sexy. Exactly the kind of girl Shizuru was used to interacting with at school. Even though it took all of her willpower not to drop her smile at Tomoe's ramblings about the latest scandal at her parent's company office. Also, Shizuru could tell that Tomoe's eyes lingered on her the entire night, and so she made an effort to constantly lean forward on the counter when talking to the girl, or to bend over purposely to pick up a piece of paper from the floor.
So what if she stuck to her beliefs of not dating anyone less than her soulmate? She still found flirting to be a most fun pastime. And anyway, Tomoe was only 15 and Shizuru knew better than to seriously go further than just teasing the girl. Hopefully, Tomoe's obvious little crush would fade away after working a bit more with Shizuru and the kyoto-born wouldn't find herself in any awkward situations involving her, Tomoe, and explaining to Tomoe that she wasn't really interested.
And on this Friday night, was when Shizuru met the rogue-ish Midori and her exuberant personality. Shizuru found her endearing, in a way.
Shizuru smiled back at Midori's friendly grin.
"Midori-han, I was wondering if you could watch the counter for a few minutes, while I go and start tidying the shelves up a little..?"
A nonchalant wave of the hand.
"Sure, sure. I have a stack of comics to keep me entertained anyways - it's like the Dead Zone in here at this time of night.".
Shizuru giggled. She wanted to add,
"But Midori-han, We are not completely free of customers yet! Kuga-han will be arriving soon!"
but she chose not to say it aloud. Her mental voice made her sound like she had been waiting all night for Kuga to arrive, and that thought worried her. It was a foreign feeling for her to actually have so much interest in a complete stranger.
So, off she went to the back of the store, where she went about neatly ordering the DVDs that inconsiderate people had messily browsed through during the course of the night.
She couldn't help but linger when she got to the "Special Interest" shelf.
Her eyes amusingly skimmed the titles printed on the spines of the DVD covers.
Babes in Bikinis... Hot Hostesses 4.... The sophistication of Paris: Menage a trois....
Whilst she was inwardly chuckling lecherously, a rather irritated grumble that sounded from another section of the store startled her.
"Goddamnit... I have seen just about all of these already..."
Shizuru's sharp eyes locked onto her prey - A slim figure stood facing away from her; a dark long-sleeved sweater accompanied by tight-fitting jeans that hugged a shapely backside. A waterfall of midnight hair cascaded halfway down the back to stop just above the waist.
Red-ochre eyes sparkled with joy.
Time to approach her.
Shizuru skillfuly and silently stalked her way over to the Horror section, watching as her irritated prey plucked DVDs from the shelf into her arms, and occasionally let out an adorable little growling noise every time something about a particular title displeased her.
"Oh for heaven's sake, WHERE on earth does this store keep the sequel to this movie?!"
BINGO! An excuse to intialise conversation! Shizuru sashayed towards Kuga, all to eager to offer her assistance as a helpful employee of the store.
The phrase "May I help you?" was right on the tip of her tongue just as Natsuki spun on her heel and walked smack bang into her.
Oh. Not good.
The DVDs from Natsuki's arms fell into a scattered heap on the carpet. Shizuru rubbed her nose - unfortunately she was just as much taller than the other girl for forhead to collide with nose bridge.
After a split-second of regaining their bearings, both girls immediately dropped into a crouch in an effort to start picking up the dropped movies.
As luck would have it, they both reached out to the same movie first, and both paused when their hands touched.
Kuga looked up in suprise, that quickly turned into annoyance.
"You!"
Shizuru smiled.
"Me again. These chance meetings really are quite suspicious, wouldn't you say so, Kuga-han?"
And she began to collect up some of the dropped DVDs. Natsuki gaped at her.
"What chance meetings?! You work here, dammnit!"
Shizuru stood up, facing the girl who did likewise and handed over the stack of DVDs.
Natsuki opened her mouth as if to retort something else, but Shizuru effectively cut her off by reaching past her and plucking a DVD from the shelf.
"Here," she said, placing the movie atop the small stack already in Natsuki's arms,
"This is the sequel for Scream. You'll also find Scream 3 there as well, towards the left of the second row".
Not giving the strange girl a chance to reply, Shizuru swiftly made her way towards the front counter.
She realised that her heart was beating somewhere around her ears, and that her palms felt suspiciously warm.
Ara, I wonder why a simple exchange of words felt so exhilarating... this girl has quite the odd effect on me.
She walked behind the counter and stood at her post near the system computer, playing with one of her bangs absent-mindedly as she dwelled on the events of the last 30 seconds.
Midori raised her eyes from the comic book she was reading, reclined on a chair with her feet propped on the back bench, and regarded her coolly.
"What went on over there? Someone drop something? I thought I heard a crash..."
Shizuru, broken from her reverie, looked up and smiled.
"Yes, Midori-han, the customer dropped some DVDs but I helped out. Everything is fine."
Midori continued to stare suspiciously at her for a few more seconds. Shizuru felt like the girl was staring right through her; the nervousness almost made her mask slip!
From behing her comic, Midori grinned slyly.
"So, are you going to go back to cleaning the shelves? I'll handle this last customer...-"
"No! I mean... no thank you, Midori-han. I'd rather serve at the front counter for now, I think. If it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could take over shelf duty for me...?
She ended her speech with a clasp of the hands and a beaming smile. Anyone could've sworn there were sparkles surrounding her for that second.
Midori, her suspicions pretty much proved correct, grinned rather smugly as she put down her comic book and made to stand up. She let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Well, whatever Fujino. If it means so much to you to be on counter duty for the last 4 minutes before closing time, then who am I to deny a fellow teenager her dearest wish?"
And with that, she slid aound the counter and made off to the back of the store.
Shizuru's heart skipped a beat as she heard footsteps approaching the counter from behind her.
She turned, and was met face-to-face with those enchanting eyes. She unconsciously swallowed.
Neither girl moved an inch. Everything was silent.
They both stared impassively, faces unreadable.
...Shizuru winked. Kuga exploded.
"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO STUFF LIKE THAT?!"
She dropped the DVDs onto the counter, freeing her arms in order to wave them around in wild gestures as she continued,
"Every time I come in here and you're working, it's like you're always flirting with me. STOP HITTING ON ME!"
Shizuru remained amused through this little tirade, waiting for a few seconds as Kuga slammed her palms onto the counter and glared menacingly at her, expecting an answer.
"... Ara, but unless I am mistaken, it is Kuga-han who continues to use these DVDs as an excuse to approach me!"
Natsuki stared in utter disbelief at the employee who was at the moment smiling sweetly at her.
"But this.. this is a VIDEO STORE! You are the counter girl! OF COURSE I HAVE TO APPROACH YOU!"
Shizuru weighed her options as she stared at the fuming girl.
Okay, time for another approach...
She turned her head away from Kuga's livid expression and sighed mournfully.
"Oh, I see now. Kuga-han doesn't like me after all. In fact she hates me!"
Kuga was confused. She couldn't process this abrupt change in the other girl's mood. Huh?
Shizuru continued on before the girl could interject.
"In fact, she detests me so much, she felt the need to head-butt me in the nose, just because I was trying to help her find her movie!"
"W-WHAT?! That's not true! It was your faul-"
"Araa... well, I get the hint. My poor, aching nose is a big enough hint, if anything could be. From now on, Kuga-han, I shall refrain from speaking to you outside of the required conversation for the DVD hiring".
She finished her words with a glance upwards into Kuga's face. The dark-haired vixen appeared at a loss - it looked as though she was struggling with either to say "Yes! Don't talk to me ever again!" or "What the hell are you smoking, woman?!"
In the end, she settled for a steady exhale of breath and her momentary outrage dissolved back into her expressionless state as she straightened up and reached into her pocket to withdraw her wallet.
Shizuru inwardly flinched - that was not the reaction she wanted at all!
Realising that her cause was hopeless, Shizuru allowed the silence to fill the gap between them as she mundanely when through the motions of scanning each one of the DVDs. She inwardly sighed.
"Name, please?" she enquired softly, following the standard procedure even though she knew the answer she'd get.
"Kuga.... Natsuki."
Shizuru's eyes widened almost unnoticeably as she studied the profile of the girl who was looking towards the bac of the store, her emotionless aura never once faltering.
Hm, first time she's actually said her first name...
As she finished putting the last of the DVDs into their cases and standing them in a neat pile to the left side of the counter, Shizuru noticed the faintest of blushes adorning Kuga's cheeks as the girl hesistantly picked up her DVDs, looking as though she was debating with herself mentally over something.
Shizuru was beginning to wonder what the other girl's distress was - and why she was lingering around the counter - when the girl finally revealed the source of her hesitance to leave.
"Look, I'm sorry about your nose, alright?"
Shizuru blinked. The words were spoken gruffly, but she could definitely hear a trace of sincerity behind them. After a few seconds of stunned silence,
"... That's quite alright, Kuga-han. It was only an accident after all -"
"Natsuki... I told you. It's Natsuki..."
Shizuru was intrigued by the girl's sudden switch from impassiveness to shyness in 0.3 seconds flat.
Perhaps she is really just shy all of the time...?
Quickly becoming uncomfortable, the shorter girl coughed and nodded towards Shizuru.
"Seeya."
And with that, she was out the door before Shizuru could even blink twice.
Slowly allowing a smile to spread on her face as she looked towards the door, Shizuru reveled in the curious feeling of having just run a marathon - her heart was beating fast and her stomach was fluttering.
"Bye... Natsuki".
Omake-Thing: True Blue Aussie HiME
(In bathroom)
Haruka: Ey Shiz, what's up with ya mascara? It's runnin' all down your face, ya bloody idiot!
Shizuru: Aw, strewth!
Chapter 2, brought to you only 3 MONTHS after chapter 1 (Author is a busy girl )
And as a little spoiler-thing for next time:
Natsuki fails to show up for the next few nights, leaving overdue movies?! Good thing the ever-gracious Shizuru offers to drop by her apartment on her way home and stop in for a quick reminder!
... Heh. That's your spoiler, folks. Be sure to leave a bit of input, as I'm curious to know what you think of my little set-up going on there with the whole Tomoe being a co-worker and Midori catching onto Shizuru's little "Non-crush", hehehe.
Plus, I just like to hear what you guys generally think of my writing :)
~ Komett (a.k.a Komakode)
