It's Not My Fault We're Together!

Chapter 2: I'm Going to Smile (If You Help)

...

A/N: Welp, Chapter 2 Boys! Maybe I shouldn't have written this until the next chapter of WataMote came out, but if I did the sensible, logical thing, I would have written a short, nondescript, mostly flavorless piece for a literature magazine instead and slowly used the credibility from that to start a small but consistent revenue stream from writing on the side.

And fnon-age-appropriate word that.

...

Yuri writhed in bed, occasional murmurs of "Yuri-chan" in her dreams holding her in a restless limbo between waking and sleeping. She knew it mattered to her that Tomoko's voice had said it, but... for some reason, in each dream, Hina would always be the person saying it. In each half-forgotten fantasy, Hina would be the one she was having coffee with, Hina would be at the library with her, Hina would be the one she was lost in the mall with, Hina was...

Shaking her head to clear away the uninvited thoughts, Yuri rose unsteadily from her bed and began to perform her morning rituals. She had already begun brushing her hair by the time she finally thought to check her phone, and, doing so, she was surprised to find that she already had a few notifications. Her surprise only increased when she opened her phone and found that the notifications were messages from Hina.

Yuri paused, trying to remember when she had given her contact info to the girl. While she vaguely remembered passing it out as a part of the whole "amusement park" thing a while back, she never thought anyone would actually try to use it. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, after all.

Ignoring her underlying pessimism as best she could, Yuri opened the message and read,

HINA: Good morning, Yuri-chan! 3

Yuri frowned, uncertain of Hina's motives. Why go through the bother of messaging someone you barely spend time with? She just didn't get what Hina was up to. However, sitting around and doing nothing wasn't going to get her anywhere, so, steeling herself against the high chance this would be irritating, Yuri responded,

YURI: What do you want?

She only had to wait a few minutes before receiving her response.

HINA: Uwah! So cold! _

HINA: I just wanted to say good morning, is all...

HINA: And

HINA: Well, walking to school alone is pretty boring, so I figured maybe we could meet up at the train station and walk together...? PLEEEEEEASE?

Yuri frowned. Following this conversation would be bothersome, after all.

YURI: I don't need your pity, you know.

HINA: I wasn't asking because I pitied you

HINA: I was asking because I WANTED to

HINA: It'll be fun! C'mon, say yes!

YURI: I'll think about it.

HINA: That wasn't a no~! ;)

Yuri sighed, pocketing her phone as she left for the train station. Really, Hina could be impossible when she felt like it, and Yuri wasn't even sure if she wanted to walk to school alongside the girl. So why did she feel so excited?

...

Stepping off the train, Yuri found, expectantly waiting for her... absolutely no one. She sighed, unsurprised but still disappointed. Honestly, she wasn't sure what she was expecting; she didn't consider Hina unreliable, but that didn't mean she was expecting much out of the girl. It's not like Hina could be held responsible for skipping out on the meeting-after all, only friends really hung out like that-but Yuri couldn't help feeling hurt anyway. Shrugging, she decided to forget it. After all, it wasn't that importa-

"G-good mor-morning, Yu-yuri-chan."

Yuri jolted as she felt arms wrap around her, and felt the weight of someone's head on her shoulder. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, Yuri was surprised to find that Hina had, in fact, made an appearance... and was just slightly closer than might be considered 'okay'.

"What are you doing!?" Yuri blurted in suprise. "And get off of me! What's with this!?"

The pink-haired girl's face split into a bright smile before she stuck her tongue out at the introvert, saying, "I just wanted to catch you by surprise, y'know? I figured it would be the best way to figure out who you were! Plus, I wanted to know if I was getting any better. So, what'd you think?"

Yuri sighed, answering, "I think you're way too noisy. It's early, so could you tone it down a bit?" She paused, adding, "Honestly, it's things like this that remind me why you're friends with Kuroki; you don't have to push yourself to be so friendly with me."

Hina shrugged in response, saying, "Well, it's not pushing myself if I WANT to, right? After all, there's nothing keeping us from being friends! We sit right next to each other, so we should get along!"

After a moment of silence that quickly became uncomfortably long, Yuri said, "...let's just get going."

...

"Hey, Tamura-san," Hina began, "we should eat lunch together!"

Yuri cocked a brow at this suggestion. "Don't you have those other friends to eat with?"

Hina nodded, saying, "Yeah, but today, I want to eat with you! I can eat with those guys any day, but I can't eat alone with you almost ever!"

Yuri considered this before finally answering, "Well... Mako'll probably end up eating with Minami, and since Kuroki's not here... I guess it's fine."

Hina smiled, rushing into the shoe locker as they arrived at school as she said, "Yay! See you in class, Tamura-san!"

Shrugging, Yuri followed Hina into the building and began to look for Mako. She might as well tell the girl about the lunch plans she had with Hin-

Wait a second, when did this morph into eating alone together!?

...

For some reason, Yuri found herself unable to focus all morning. Although her friends and classmates noticed this above-average distraction on Yuri's part, anyone who knew her well enough to care assumed it was because Kuroki was still suspended. This was not entirely true, however; while she was still upset by the strange girl's absense, what was truly gnawing at the edges of her thoughts was her upcoming meeting with Hina. Even though they sat beside one another in every class anyway, it still felt unusual, as though she was doing something new and exciting.

Yuri drifted through her classes, unsure of why she was so unfocused. She had eaten lunch with Hina before, and while there were always other people around, that didn't mean anything would be different. They were just two people, who knew each other, eating a meal together. Alone. Nothing deeper than that. It was a simple, inoffensive, standard course of-

"Tamura-san!"

Yuri blinked, realizing that she had been caught in a reverie in the middle of class. She started to blush, realizing that the teacher had noticed her lack of attentiveness and was now motioning for her to stand up. She glanced to the side, realizing that Hina had been tugging on her sleeve and was likely the one who called out to her.

Glaring at the young girl, Yuri's teacher said, "if you find yourself so distracted, perhaps you should remain standing until you find yourself more attentive." Yuri's blush deepened as her classmates began to chuckle and giggle at her misfortune... all except for her friends, of course. And...

Hina wasn't laughing; she wasn't even smiling. She simply glanced down, occasionally shooting Yuri an apologetic look as if to say, 'sorry, I should have nudged you before the teacher noticed.' Yuri merely shook her head, quietly motioning to Hina that it was alright.

...Well, at least now they would have something to talk about. Yuri suppressed a sigh; lunch couldn't come quickly enough.

***Chapter 2: Good End***

A/N: Well hot damage, this story blew up WAY faster than I was expecting it to! I'm sorry if this isn't very good; I actually suck at writing and plotting and shit, and can only cover it up in MTsDB because I'm only rewriting established plots. Plus, I have a better read on the characters in that than those in WataMote. Damn, I reread all the chapters with these guys in it and I STILL have barely an idea how to write with them! Ah well, I'm sure I'll figure it out... and if I don't, well, sorry everyone. Ah, well.