Haruhi and the Giant Strawberry

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Chapter 2

Here's where the story actually begins. Who do you think the red-haired young man is? Well? Come on, just guess!

Haha! I'm just kidding. You can guess it you really want to. Anyway, enjoy!

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"Saiyuki! Come make us breakfast, child!!" As the voice of her wicked aunt Ayanokoji rose up the stairway, Haruhi couldn't help but wince, as she pushed herself up off her bed. My name's not Saiyuki, damnit. It was frustrating. She worked so well for her aunts, and they didn't even take the time to remember her name. It wasn't even that hard to remember. It was a very simple; the name Haruhi. She could never understand why they always got her name wrong. She took her dear time changing out of her pajamas and into her day clothes. Haruhi even took the longest time possible putting on her slippers, just to displease her aunts. And, of course, to both her great, bittersweet delight, her aunts grew impatient and called for once more.

"Tamaki! What in the world is taking you so long, child!?" Haruhi scoffed. It was almost pleasing, this time, to hear them get her name wrong. Tamaki. Wow, that one's funny. She smiled, so very pleased with herself. "I'm coming, my dearest aunties!" she chimed, in the sweetest voice possible, as she stepped elegantly down the stairs and into the kitchen. Haruhi entered the kitchen, still stepping so elegantly, as if she was some magnificently wealthy princess. This very much displeased her aunts.

"Stop acting so pleasant, Haruchi, and make us breakfast. You know how I get when I don't eat!" her aunt Ayanokoji fumed, clasping the tablecloth tightly. Eclaire giggled. "God forbid you stop eating for once! Dear lord, you're such a pig!" Haruhi couldn't help but lightly giggle under her breath as she began to make breakfast. Her aunts' antics and arguments were positively hilarious! She also found it funny how close her aunt Ayanokoji had come to getting her name right. Haruchi. I'll have to remember that one. She tucked this name away into the back of her mind, for later use, as she prepared the scrambled eggs and bacon her aunts had ordered. Her aunts bickered and chattered at the table as Haruhi made their breakfast. She made her aunt Eclaire two eggs and four slices of bacon, while on the other hand, she prepared her far heftier aunt Ayanokoji four eggs and eight slices of bacon. Being the sneaky devil she was, Haruhi also managed to prepare an extra two pieces of bacon without her aunts' noticing. She prepared these two extra pieces for herself.

With her elegant little fingers, Haruhi placed each of her aunts place onto the table. "Enjoy, my dearest aunties!" She was acting overly pleasant again, just to peek their tempers. It was enjoyable, on occasion, to pick on her aunts. She resisted herself, most of the time, however. Though, today was an exception from such resistance. She couldn't help it, because today was her 16th birthday. She, quite unusually, felt the need to please herself, for once.

After serving her aunts, she began to clean up. She secretly grabbed a paper towel when her aunts weren't looking, and then, she brought the pan over to the sink. Pretending to clean the pan, she sneakily slid her two slices of bacon into the paper towel. She put her package down on the counter, moving her body so they couldn't see it, as she began to actually clean the pan. The warm water and soapy bubbles were most enjoyable to Haruhi. The warm water was quite soothing on her hands, on that cool winter day. The soapy bubbles would, every so often, rise up off of the pan, and float about her face, until they popped, in a quick stream of rainbow colors. With a life like Haruhi's, one just had to find pleasure in small things like warm water and little popping bubbles, to have any pleasures at all. With a life like Haruhi's, one would also have to be very sneaky to get what they wanted, like the savory fried bacon Haruhi was in the process of stealing.

As the last wash of soapy bubbles whirled down the sink drain, Haruhi was down washing the pan. She put it away in the strainer to dry. She wiped her hands carefully on the dish towel hanging from the handle fastening to the cabinet below the sink. With swift, nimble hands, she grabbed her bacon, and put it in the large pocket of her apron, where it would be easily concealed from her aunts. Before she could retreat to bedroom and eat her bacon, she would have to wash the counter down, and then clean her aunts plates and forks. She wiped down the counter with a bright yellow sponge, opened fresh from a new pack she had bought at the store. The sponge was of a brilliant color, that Haruhi took great pleasure in. Because, as I said, with her life, Haruhi had to take pleasure in anything that one could be pleased by.

Washing the counter took mere seconds, and so, Haruhi had to stand at the counter, and wait for her aunts to finish eating before washing their plates. But, her aunts were fairly gluttonous, even her stringy aunt Eclaire, so she didn't have to wait long. When they finished eating, Ayanokoji snapped her fingers for Haruhi to take their plates. This snapping always greatly displeased Haruhi. Spoiled witches. She took the plates obediently, over to the sink, and washed them, again marveling in the soothing feel of the hot water pouring over her hands, and the soapy bubbles dancing about for her. Her aunts left soon after Haruhi took their plates, to go watch some television, leaving Haruhi alone in the kitchen, washing the dishes. When she was done, she marveled at the pleasant shine of the porcelain plates and silver forks.

Haruhi retreated to her bedroom, quite pleased with her successful mission. She sat down on her bed, and reached into her apron pocket. Before pulling the bacon out from her pocket, she looked carefully at the door. She inspected the door for a few moments, to assure herself that her aunts were not out and about in the hallway. Once she was sure with her success, she lifted the paper-towel wrapped bacon out of her apron pocket, and carefully opened it. Haruhi couldn't help but allow for a small trickle of drool to escape her mouth at the sight of the bacon. She never really got to eat much food, especially not such yummy food as bacon. She devoured the bacon quickly. She had wanted to take her time, and marinate in the wonder of eating the bacon, but, she was so hungry, considering her aunts hadn't fed her anything except some stale crackers yesterday. Haruhi found herself bitterly disappointed once the bacon had disappeared. Sighing deeply, she balled up the paper-towel to go throw it out in the kitchen. As she got up to go throw it away, her door began to open. Frantically, Haruhi jammed the paper-towel into her apron pocket. If her aunts had seen the paper-towel, they would have suspected her, considering the fact that it was covered in grease.

Her aunts walked in, and looked at Haruhi for a moment. "Child," Eclaire began. Haruhi froze. "Yes, ma'am?" she asked politely, folding her arms over her stomach. She had had her fun, and now she needed to obey her aunts, or she would get a beating. And she certainly didn't want that. Eclaire grinned, and looked to Ayanokoji, who grinned back in response. "Well, child..." Eclaire continued, "even though it's the cold of winter, we'd like to prepare our garden for Spring." Ayanokoji chuckled. "Our rather, we'd like you to prepare our garden for Spring," she politely 'corrected' her sister, with a devilish grin on her face.

Our poor little heroine's heart sunk. It was so terribly cold out today. And I know they'll make me tend to the garden during Spring too. But, stifiling a deep sigh, she nodded, because she couldn't disobey her aunts. Her aunts grinned devilishly, still. "Yes, yes, and when you're done, we'd like you to clean the ash out of the wood stove and bring it out to the forest," said Eclaire, adding fuel to the fire. Haruhi restrained herself, still holding onto the deep sigh trapped at the bottom of her throat. She nodded once more. "Yes, ma'am. Right away." Quite pleased with themselves, her aunts left. Once they were gone, Haruhi let out her contained sigh. Immediately after the sigh, she yawned, probably from holding onto the sigh so long. Little tears welled in her eyes as she yawned, her mouth stretching open to the size of a grapefruit.

"Blah, blah, blah..," Haruhi complained to herself, as she sat down on her bed, and forced on her tight fitting boots. She slipped on her thin, worn sweater, which hung on a rusty silver hook hanging on her door, and headed down the creaky stairs. In the kitchen, she hastily grabbed her knitted winter hat which hung on a less rusty silver hook hanging on the door to outside. Then, she slowly opened the door, and walked just as slowly outside, and down the dirty, stone steps. She scanned the house's large front yard.

The house she and her aunts lived in had a particularly large lawn because they lived in a rather secluded place. It wasn't too far from town, though. This was quite fortunate for Haruhi, because her aunts often sent her on shopping trips. Even though they had a car, they stayed home and let Haruhi walk to town to go shopping. So, that's why it was fortunate for Haruhi that they lived close enough to town.

Haruhi walked to a patch of ground at the very edge of the lawn, where a stone wall was set. Said ground was surrounded by a weak, rotted wooden fence. And said fence was just about ready to collapse and disinegrate.

It was surprising to think something of such bad condition had been set up only last year. The reason for this was that Haruhi's aunts always supplied her with infectous wood with a large variety of worms and larvae living in it. The fence with which she used the wood to build had little purpose as a fence. It served more as a working outlet for Haruhi. Her aunts would do (almost) anything to keep their niece at work.

The wood she would use to build a new fence was arranged in a sloppy pile by the stone wall, accompanied by a small toolbox. Haruhi sighed. All those poor bugs, having been forced to meet the likes of her evil aunts. She giggled at this thought of hers. Though, she did feel a genuine pity for these poor bugs. A good majority of the bugs living in the wood were killed. The minority of live ones were just lucky enough to retreat into the safety of the wood's body. Haruhi's aunts had a terrible fear and hatred for bugs, and killed them whenever given the chance. Our lovely protagonist, however, was much kinder to all the bugs. Well, she was much kinder than her aunts in general.

As she picked up the pile of wood, a beautiful bird flew over head. Haruhi, finding the bird quite beautiful, became thoroughly distracted and a piece of wood rolled out of the pile. It landed with a loud KATHUD onto Haruhi's foot. She winced deeply, and stared down at her foot for a moment before picking the piece of wood back up.

The moment her gaze looked up from her food, a red haired young man appeared before her. Despite the roughness of his face, this man was really quite kind. And, after only a moment of inspecting, Haruhi realized this. "May I help you?" she asked sweetly, smiling kindly. The last time their house had received a visitor (besides the mailman, if he counts as a visitor) was when Haruhi was 10 years old, and had her friend Yuki over to visit. So, Haruhi was quite pleasantly surprised.

The young man, though he did not appear it, was only Haruhi's age, and grew quite flustered at hearing sweet voice and seeing her kind smile. His face flushed slightly, but he had to shake it off. He was here to help this pretty young lady, not to ask her out. "Miss Haruhi Fujioka, is it?" he asked her politely, though still having a bit of trouble keeping his composure under the presence of Haruhi's adorable demeanor. Haruhi nodded shyly. "Yes, that would be me. So, how may I help you?" The young man cleared his throat.

"Miss Fujioka, I do not require your help. Instead, I have come to help you," he explained to her simply. This young man had peeked Haruhi's curiousity. She grinned. "Oh? How so?"