So as I haven't updated in a while, this chapter is about two pages shorter than the previous two, but I think this is still sufficiently long enough to be labelled as a chapter all its own.

Funny thing, this was truly supposed to be a short story, but going into Chapter Three it's turning out a lot longer than I ever expected. And I'm not even near done yet! I mean, how much can you truly write about two people trapped in a small room together? Apparently more than I ever thought.


7:43 pm

The next 20 minutes or so was spent in a bustle of action as the two girls set out to tidy their enforced little prison up… or well, to be more accurate, Haruka was seen bustling about while Shizuru's particular contributions were most decidedly debatable.

Despite her promises, the only things Shizuru had truly managed to accomplish over that last 20 minutes were to stack a pile of adjacent papers into two sets, moved the chair she had been sitting on against the wall opposite to the closed door and then back to its old place again, scrunched up her nose at the dusty surfaces she wasn't entirely convinced she wanted to touch at all, and now she was simply looking at the over-crowded shelves with an air of contemplation, seemingly trying to decide what she was supposed to do exactly.

Contrary to Shizuru, Haruka on her part had shed her uniform jacket and had been moving in around like a machine in clearing up boxes of junk, rearranging the shelves on her part of the room, and generally just being the poster child of efficiency, hard work, and GUTS!

But if you thought that Haruka had not noticed Shizuru's less than dynamic grip on the task at hand, you'd be dead wrong. Haruka just tried to ignore it, thinking that, no matter what, this was still the same useless Bubuzuke woman who was a constant thorn in her side, and who had somehow managed to steal everybody's votes for the student council presidency with just pretty, empty words and a smile, while she had to content with only Yukino and a couple of others showing support; a truly disappointing day for justice it had been, indeed.

But now the damn woman wasn't even doing the little work that she had done a moment before. Heck, she wasn't even pretending to work! As much as Haruka tried to put this out of her mind, in the end she just couldn't. She could not let Fujino off the hook for this blatant slacking off. Not on her watch.

"Oi! Bubuzuke! Will you stop daydreaming there and doing nothing! Get to work! We'll never get anything done if you don't get a move on already!" Haruka said as she heavily dropped another box of papers down on the table.

Shizuru, however, quirked her head toward Haruka and smiled amicably, "But I am indeed working, Haruka-san."

"Fujino… standing around doing nothing isn't working! It's the very opposite of work! It's… not doing any work," the blonde argued completely frustrated.

"Ah, but that is not true. I am in the process of a very important phase in this operation. I am in fact planning," Shizuru beamed back.

"Planning?" Haruka echoed dumbfounded.

"'Planning is half the work done'," Shizuru quoted sagely.

Haruka clicked her tongue at that and scoffed, "Where'd you get that bit of philosophical wisdom? A cheesy fortune cookie?"

"Fortune cookies do not have cheese in them," Shizuru stated, and continued before Haruka could interrupt, "And no, I got that 'bit of philosophical wisdom' from my father."

"Oh…" Haruka dumbly said.

"Yes, he has high aspirations that one day I will be seminally involved in the family business, so he has always told me 'Zuru-chan, always be sure to have a plan first before doing anything. Once you have a solid plan, the chance of a failure will be infinitesimally small.' Thus I have always followed his sound advice with everything I do," Shizuru finished her explanation.

"Well, that's all fine and good, but you should also sometimes practice the functional part too: namely once you've planned everything out then you should also execute it! Like now! Tidying up the shelves is hardly anything requiring that much thinking instead of doing! This is hardly pocket science after all," Haruka told her.

Shizuru consciously let the slip slide for fear of Yukino'ing herself too much, and instead continued as carefree as before, "Do not worry, Haruka-san! I have everything almost entirely thought out already. In fact, I believe I know perfectly well where to start now." With that said, she took a step forward, took hold of a randomly dangling cord, and gently yanked at it, apparently trying to dislodge it.

However, the results were rather more unexpected and dramatic than anyone would have thought as this small yank unleashed a chain reaction that, through a complex logistical set of reaction and counter-reaction, effectively brought down the entire contents of the shelves in one fell swoop. Shizuru's heightened HiME senses immediately kicked into action as she quickly jumped back to save her toes from being crushed under the falling debris and manoeuvred herself to sit on top of the big table at her side just as all the junk started covering the floor.

After around 15 seconds of colliding metal, wood and other industrial noises filling the small room in a deafening cacophony of crashing noise and grinding dissonance that made the girls' skins crawl, stillness once more descended upon the surroundings with only billows of dust causing any real movement in the air. Shizuru and Haruka were both stock still, looking a mixture of shock and bewilderment at what had just happened as clearly neither seemed to have expected this outcome from that little action of Shizuru's delicate fingers.

After a few more seconds of complete silence had passed, Shizuru recovered first as she quietly moved her right index finger to rest just below her lower lip, the spitting image of an innocent little girl who had accidentally shattered her mother's favourite vase, and timidly muttered, "Oops…",

Haruka facepalmed, "Fujino… I have serious worries about your father's company…" Haruka could already feel the migraine coming on.

"…Perhaps I miscalculated," Shizuru told the blonde.

"Ya think?" Haruka ground her teeth.

Shizuru just looked meek as she gently jumped off the table and started bending down to pick up the junk from the floor.

"No! Don't!" Haruka quickly stopped her, sounding more frustrated than she had all day, "…Just… just don't."

"Ara?" Shizuru asked curiously.

"Don't… don't touch a thing. Okay? Just… just… leave it and… and sit down. Maybe that way you'll do less damage," Haruka bit off bitterly, feeling utterly fed up with the useless Bubuzuke standing in the middle of the mess she had managed to create within only a few little measly seconds.

"As Haruka-san commands," Shizuru said complacently as she made her way back to her seat and sat down, making at the same time an unconscious swipe of her right hand over the table surface to grab her mug of tea… only to then realise immediately after that in fact her tea was still unfortunately sitting in the council room and out of her current reach. "Ah…" she said disappointed.

In the meantime Haruka was still shaking her head feeling very frustrated, as she quietly grumbled to herself, "…Perfect plan, eh? 'Planning is half the work done.' Yeah, right… now there's twice the amount of work than there was to begin with… Stupid Bubuzuke…"

But ultimately Haruka came to the conclusion that fretting about spilled milk wasn't going to accomplish anything worthwhile, Fujino being Fujino after all, and the mess certainly wouldn't clean itself up on its own. Sure it would have been nice if Fujino was helping out as well, but Haruka feared that getting her involved with this operation would only make things infinitely worse as the President had already so helpfully demonstrated on her very own volition. Thus Haruka decided to take the high road and let it pass. For now, at least.

Having consciously avoided looking at Shizuru for this long, Haruka finally decided to give the brunette a disdainfully withering glance, and by so doing almost ended up peeing in her panties out of shock.

The reason: Shizuru looked mildly dejected - like a little girl who had been reprimanded for doing something naughty. And Shizuru never ever looked anything but calm, composed, and unperturbed about anything. For her to show even a small hint that she was bothered by something was unprecedented, and Haruka rightfully would never have expected to get to see such a rare expression flash across the President's face. Shizuru wasn't exactly sulking as that would have been too much to ask, but the change was still noticeable enough to make Haruka grab a double-take.

Being suddenly confronted by something so alien - and also to Haruka quite shocking a change - she lost all her previous reasoning and dislike toward the brunette she had been entertaining just a few seconds before in a swirl of confusion, uncertainty and nigh-on-panic. What the hell just happened? Did… Did Fujino get… upset over what I told her? No… No, of course not! Bubuzuke never gets upset over anything, the tea-happy lolicon… But then what? What if she really is? Did… How… Is it my fault? Was I just… too harsh on her about the shelves? Oh, curse all the little goblins Yukino thinks are hiding in the bushes late at night! What am I supposed to do now?

While Haruka was trying to organise her thoughts into something resembling a reasonably cohesive order, Shizuru on her seat gave an infinitesimal sigh that made Haruka go in her heightened state of nervous perception almost over the edge with panic.

She really is upset! The hell am I supposed to do now? I mean, sure this is Fujino we're talking about… but still. This is just not normal. If Fujino's affected in a way that it shows this obviously, that means this is serious! Jeez, guess there's no helping it. I have to do something.

"Fujino…" Haruka started unsurely, but still with a brusque voice.

Shizuru immediately sat more upright and her normal smile instantaneously settled over her lips, the President inwardly scolding herself for almost letting her usual mask inadvertently slip off in front of Suzushiro Haruka of all people. Turning toward Haruka as if nothing had ever happened, Shizuru calmly asked, "Yes?"

"Don't give me that! I saw it!" Haruka said back adamantly.

Shizuru looked confused, "Saw it? Saw what?"

"I'm not blind, you know! You're clearly upset now, aren't you? I saw it bright as day," Haruka stated.

Curses, Shizuru muttered in her mind as she fixed a mildly amused expression on her face, "Ara, upset? Me? I am afraid I do not quite know what Haruka-san is referring to."

Haruka just gave a frustrated growl at Shizuru's brusque way off waving off the issue as if it had never been there at all, and continued surprisingly patiently, "Look, Fujino. You know I'm not your biggest fan or anything… or a fan at all really, but well… I guess… that is… what I'm trying to say is that… that if I upset you in any way, then I'm… I'm… That is… I'm… I guess…"

Shizuru looked at Haruka struggling with what she wanted to say, but decided not to push her as she continued to look at her.

"I'm… Damn… Look… Curses! I… I'm… I'm sorry, okay?" Haruka managed to force the words out of her mouth, and causing Shizuru's eyebrows to lift higher in surprise.

"Ara ma…?"

"Look, don't think I'm just being buddy buddy with you here, but I'm just saying… that is… look, it really could have happened to anybody," Haruka finished with an effort.

"Truly?" Shizuru asked curiously, wondering what had made the usually blustery blonde to become so sympathetically soft all of a sudden - or as sympathetically soft as she could expect Haruka to be - as to actually utter a plea of forgiveness to her… whatever her reason for doing so ultimately entailed.

Haruka shuffled her feet uncomfortably before she resumed reluctantly, "Yeah. And I guess… I guess I'm… maybe… partially to be blamed too."

"Oh…" Shizuru said with a bit more understanding creeping into her voice, once more allowing herself to adopt the slightly pensive look she had moments before as she knew there was not much point in pretending anymore that nothing was bothering her as her gig was obviously up. Ah, I should be more careful…

"Yeah… I mean… I guess you're just human too. And… these things… happen… from time to time. Even to the best of us. So I guess I shouldn't have… you know… yeah," Haruka concluded her big semi-encouraging pep talk.

Shizuru looked thoughtful, but nodded anyway, "I suppose you are correct, Haruka-san."

"Of course I am! Point is, don't beat yourself over the head because of this. It'll all work out in the end, and we're all allowed to be human too and make mistakes," Haruka said with determination, taking up her role of the supporting authority figure with increasing aplomb, "Just keep your head up high! It'll all look better again tomorrow!"

"Mmm. Yes, you are in the right, Haruka-san," Shizuru said with a likewise determined expression, "Indeed, it is truly rather tragic that my tea is locked in the other room, but I suppose I can weather it without a cuppa until tomorrow morning."

This single sentence was enough to instantaneously freeze Haruka in her spot for several seconds and to cause her previous encouragement to ripple out as fast as it had come, her mouth fixing itself into a silly grin as her brain synapses momentarily hit an empty spot, and as her brain activity once more started to increase as her brain rebooted, so did said lips start to precariously point downward.

"W-what?" she asked.

"And you are quite correct in owning up by saying it indeed is your fault as well to an extent," Shizuru continued.

"What?" Haruka repeated a bit louder.

"But I do think this is not the time to point fingers and assign blame, either. Thus I am quite willing to pass it up as an unfortunate accident as I am certain that it was," Shizuru said, now adorning a bit of a smile as she turned to half-gaze at Haruka.

"What?"

"Ah, but should not Haruka-san get back to work soon? The day is wasting, after all, and all this junk is not going to pick itself up on its own," Shizuru said motioning to the debris lying by her feet as she leaned back in her chair.

"WHAT?"

"Ara… Has Haruka-san lost her hearing?" Shizuru innocently asked with mock concern while cocking her head to her side.

"I… I… You… I…" Haruka struggled to form a cohesive sentence.

"I… You… Yes…?" Shizuru probed.

"I… I… I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! YOU SNAKE!" Haruka screeched completely besides herself.

"Ara…"

"Don't you fricking 'ara' me! I've heard a lot of bullshit in my life, but you really take the damned bagel! You were not upset at all about destroying the shelves, were you?" Haruka raged.

"Oh, was I supposed to be?" Shizuru innocently asked, clearly completely unaffected by all the shouting directed at her.

"Were you…? YES! Yes yes yes yes! And then you dare blame me for you not getting any of your stupid tea? How is any of this my fault?" Haruka shouted.

Shizuru suddenly looked at Haruka with a serious face as she went for the kill, "How was any of this your fault? Well, let me recount: it was you who locked us in here in the first place, was it not?"

This stopped Haruka once more in her tracks as the first accusation dropped on her head. Noticing this, Shizuru continued, "Also, was it not you who told me that helping you carry the box in here would only take a - quote unquote - 'few seconds of my precious time?' Well, the seconds have added to quite a significant amount already."

"Umm…" Haruka said now crumpled down to the level of a small mouse when faced with a predatory cat.

"Therefore it is very much your fault I am deprived of my six o'clock tea. As well as eight o'clock, nine-thirty, pre-bed, and pre-sleep tea times… and most likely my breakfast tea ceremony must also be pushed forward a considerable amount of time before the other student council members come to school and can free us. And that is not even taking into account any of my snack tea times I will now miss. Also hardly can I be blamed for this mess here either, as it was Haruka-san herself that wished to engage in this activity in the first place against my personal desire, and to add it would have been impossible for me to have known of the structural flaw of these shelves to know this was going to happen beforehand. Thus I suggest Haruka-san should keep her criticisms to herself and instead get back to work, as well as quit bothering me with any of these issues," Shizuru concluded with steely finality that Haruka could not contest in any way.

Haruka didn't know what to say. In fact, she wasn't really certain if there was anything she could say. Shizuru had carved such unpatchable holes in her boat with such logic and resolution that Haruka felt like wanting to sink into a deep, dark hole far away from Fujino Shizuru. Of course, this situation pissed the career-minded abider of justice enormously when she suddenly found herself lacking any kind of foot to stand on. But at the same time neither could she think of anything that would have given her even a bit of leverage… or anything that would have been anything more than circumstantial at best to win over Shizuru somehow, which even Haruka admitted was not going to be enough.

Utterly drained and frustrated, Haruka rested her fingers in her hair for a slight bit as she tried to squeeze the majority of her initial desire to destroy the room she was in and, after feeling her self control had restored itself sufficiently the few moments she had spent gathering it to know that she wasn't going to do anything regrettably drastic, she finally pulled her hands down from her head.

"YAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!"

The room echoed like a cave for a few second from Haruka's animal scream that even made Shizuru's ears visibly ring for a while, after which Haruka looked down at her hands. She could have cried right there and then. She had accidentally pulled a few of her golden locks straight off their roots as she forgot to release the grip of her fingers.

"Haruka-san should be careful, or she might go bald before she has a chance to enjoy the pleasures of maturity," Shizuru advised, her face reflecting a mischievous smirk once more.

This time Haruka did cry.


There you go. I think Haruka and Shizuru are really coming into their own now. Oh, and if you thought that Shizuru was being uncharacteristically clumsy with the shelves, what did you think she was doing all that time she was "planning" her moves? You know, it's always been one of my favourite characteristics in Shizuru that, despite being clearly intelligent, she's also really, really lazy. If she can make anybody else do her work for her (usually Haruka that is), then she'll take an advantage of it and not regret doing so in the least. But guess that's the real reason why Haruka really is there in the first place, as Shizuru's unwitting lackey…