Chiyo: Wahoo! It's my forth chappie! I'm so-o-o sorry it took so long to update, but I kind of haven't been into writing my story, and also I had to work much more than usual. I got 15 reviews, and it's exactly what I was going for. I think i'm going to shoot for...19 this time, okies? Wait, I'm not going to shoot for reviews. I'll just let everybody review if they want. Sound good?
Chiyo's Sis: Shut up and get on with it!
Seto'sGirl: Yeah! Get on with it! (From Monty Python: Holy Grail. I request that everybody watches it)
RandomGuyWhoBreakDancesOutsideAMajorPublicBuilding: Who cares?
Chiyo: I'm getting to the good part! Geez, give me some praise and time to actually write the story! And this disclaimer thing is getting annoying after putting it in each chappie, but who cares?
Disclaimer: ChiyoTenshi doesn't own Hana-kimi. She wishes to, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. She's already got some plans.
Previously...
'Is she talking about Minami?' Mizuki nodded her head and smiled. "Yeah. What about him?"
"Well...why is he here!" she screamed as she pointed towards the door to point out the figure of a dorm R.A. with long, brown hair.
"Hey. What's up?" Minami asked.
'This can't be a good sign,' Mizuki thought to herself.
Everybody stared blankly at the figure, known to humans as Minami, and wondered why he was there. His arm left arm was up and pressing against the frame of the door to keep his balance and to look all cool.
"What's with the faces?" Minami asked. "I thought you would be happy to see me before school started."
Julia, obviously, was the first one to talk, or yell, in his face. "Why do you keep following me wherever I go? Can't you just leave me alone! I don't like you and never will, so just get out of my life!" she screamed in bloody murder.
Apparently, Minami had managed to ignore whatever it was that she had to say, and, instead, grabbed her around the waist, pulling her close to him.
"It's ok, sweetheart. I won't bother you if you ask nicely, my little chickadee," he said, kissing her hand gently.
She quickly pulled away, and, to an unknown cause, Julia couldn't help but blush at his action. Everybody saw and laughed in their throats, but once she noticed, the look on her face was undescribeable, or, in simple words, shocked.
"What are you all looking at! Get this freak away from me!" she yelled, angrily.
Mizuki laughed again and began to question Minami. "Um, why are you here, Minami? We never received a call from you," she said as she scanned the list of reservations.
"What are you talking about? Of course I called and got a reservation for the whole weekend. I should be on this list," he assured.
Mizuki, again, scanned the list but this time, she then noticed two letters on the sheet that made her think. 'R.A...' she thought to herself.
Holding the list up to Minami's face, she pointed to the name "R.A." "This wouldn't happen to be you, would it? Who, in their right mind, would reserve a room under "R.A."?" she asked, curiously.
Minami ran his fingers through his hair and smiled excitedly. "Yup. That's me. You know, I AM an R.A. at Osaka High, so why not reserve a room under that nickname?" he asked, proud that he was an R.A. rather than a normal student. (Sorry to all us normal people out there. I just had to make this story seem...well...interesting.)
Mizuki sighed a bit in embarrassment, knowing that her school R.A. was now in the restaurant that she worked in, and also had a reservation. In Minami's point of view, it was all towards chasing a hott, well-developed, nose-punching, american girl who was now staying at a school in Japan with his aunt, Rio. Apparently, they were at the hotel as well, along with a few of their friends.
All of Julia's friends went up to Minami with their hands against their chests in a girly manner. They started asking him questions about his hobbies and work, and, with his popularity with the girls, he smiled and answered every question honestly and sweetly.
Every time he smiled, the girls would turn around and squeal in their throats because Minami's smile is just so-o-o gorgeous...to them. (Personally, I don't like Minami, but I don't hate him either. I just think he could get a small haircut and a better attitude instead of hitting on every girl in his bubble. I just want to entertain you with my knowledge of humor.)
Julia grabbed Mizuki by the arm and dragged her out of the room while her friends were busy keeping the obsessed-with-Julia, Minami, talkative with them and not Julia.
The drag didn't last long, (Doesn't that sound like a smoke? By the way, I don't smoke...if anybody cares.) and before they knew it, they were outside the restaurant and gazing up at the stars and crimson moon that emitted a beautiful light throughout the landscape.
"What's wrong, Julia? Are you upset that Minami is here? I could always ask Io to tell him to leave, but that would bring us a bad reputation for the restaurant. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it," Mizuki blurted after a long silence.
Julia laughed and shook her head, then smiled to Mizuki. "It's ok, Ashiya. You don't have to do anything about it. I can take care of it on my own. It's my responsibility that he likes me, and I should do something to get him out of trying to get my attention so often," she replied.
They smiled to eachother and then turned their attention back to the darkened sky. It was nearing 11 o'clock, and usually the time for the workers to return to their "dorms" for bed.
"Well, sorry, Julia, but I have to get going. If I don't get to bed now, I'll never get up for work tomorrow. If you want, come by the restaurant and get some breakfast. I'll buy," Mizuki suggested, kindly.
They exchanged hugs and then started towards their own rooms. "Okay. I'll ask the girl if they want to stop by, but if they don't, I will. Just don't tell Minami, okay? I don't want to be stuck with him," Julia said, disguistedly.
Mizuki laughed and waved goodnight as she started in a hurry to get to bed. Just before she turned a corner, a figure stood before her, and, without the breaks that she needed to stop from running into the figure, she smashed right into him/her.
She was sent flying to the floor, and because of the speed she, until recently, had, the other person was pushed back a foot, but was able to gain their balance.
Mizuki rubbed her butt after she fell, and then looked up at the person who stood before her with his arm stretched out to help her up. 'AH! It's Sano! Gosh, this reminds me of what happened when I first arrived at Osaka High,' she thought.
"Where have you been, Ashiya? You never went back to the room, so I went looking for you all over the hotel," Sano said as he grabbed Mizuki's hand and pulled her up.
She smiled her nervous smile and laughed uneasily. "Uh...sorry. I was just spending a little away time with Julia. She just had to get away from Minami, obviously, and I'm her best friend, so she just dragged me outside," she replied.
Sano sighed a bit in relief that Mizuki was okay and wasn't hurt physically or mentally. He then ruffled her hair and smiled the kind of smile that Mizuki loves. "Well, I'm just glad you're okay. You should be more careful about going out late at night. It's dangerous for gir-- I mean guys like you to be outside the hotel for many reasons." He turned and started heading back towards their room.
Mizuki tilted her head a bit, confused about everything he said. She then smiled and followed, and while on the way, they talked about their day at work. Sano and Mizuki had an easy day because there just weren't that many customers as there were two nights ago, but the next couple days were going to be busy, fun, exciting, and bad for different people.
When they reached their room, they quickly changed into their pj's and went straight to bed. It was getting extremely late, and they had work tomorrow again. Another reason was because Sano was tired, which isn't surprising since he usually sleeps at school with his eyes open.
The moon rose, and then set, changing places with the rising sun. The whole first floor was rumbling with noise from different alarmclocks going off at the same time. Everybody jumped from their beds and began their day with showering and dressing for the occasion known to modern humans as work. (DOOOOOOOM! I hate my work, but I get good pay...so it's all cool. Who agrees?)
"Hey, Mizuki, could you get the basket of knives, please?" Nakatsu asked as he rushed through the kitchen while carrying a tray of water glasses.
"Sure," Mizuki replied as she went from the table that she was setting flowers on to the kitchen for the basket of forks. "Where do you want it, Nakatsu?"
"Anywhere by the window is fine," he yelled as he set some glasses, neatly, on each table. "Then could you start sorting the knives into their groups? I need them ready in a bit after I'm done with these glasses."
Mizuki nodded and took the basket of knives and brought them by the window of the kitchen, setting them on a tray that stood before it. She then started separating the steak, butter, and bread knives so they would be easy to find when needed.
"Need some help?" came a voice from behind Mizuki as she was starting to get into the whole separating-the-knives event.
Mizuki turned around and smiled. "Sure,Sano. That is...if it's not a problem."
Sano shook his head and smiled at Mizuki with amusement. "Why would it be a problem? I don't have anything else better to do," he answered.
A nervous and uncertain expression appeared upon Mizuki's face since she didn't know what to say in reply. She never really ever knew what to say to him, but that wasn't because she was nervous to talk to him. It wasn't because she was nervous around him because he was so handsome. It was because she didn't want him to find out that she was really a girl. Apparently, he already knew, but kept quiet about it. "Oh...well, thanks," she replied, hesitantly.
Sano laughed and ruffled Mizuki's hair. "You worry too much. If you don't stop, you're going to go bald," he chuckled.
Mizuki blushed a pinkish red and glared at him. "I don't worry! I just didn't want you to cut yourself if you accidently fell asleep while separating these things," she growled at him while holding up a knife to show him how sharp they were.
At that very moment, when Mizuki told Sano about cutting himself, she hadn't been paying attention to her own hands and what they were doing. All she remembered was feeling a knife slice her finger open slightly and watch the blood trickle down her hand and onto the floor. Luckily, it wasn't over the other knives, otherwise they'd have to be washed all over again.
"Ouch!" Mizuki cringed in pain as she felt the cut and clutched her finger in her open hand, trying to prevent the pain and the bleeding.
Sano jumped at this and then set his knives that he was working on down. "Let me see it," he politely insisted. Mizuki first refused, but with Sano's look of fury and worry, she then put her hand in his and watched him study her finger as if it were a life or death situation.
"It doesn't seem to be a deep cut, but..." he stopped mid-sentence as he then, softly, sucked on her finger to help rid of the blood that slowly, made it's way out of Mizuki's body.
Noticing his action, Mizuki blushed a crimson red and just couldn't help but stare at him as he did what he did. Sano then stopped for a quick second to examine her finger. It had managed to slow the bleeding a bit, but now all her blood was in her face. Sano's eyes looked up at Mizuki and stared right back at the pair of eyes that were gazing at him with non-stop affection.
For a few seconds, they continued to stare at eachother, each having a blush on their face, but neither of them could turn away.
The silence and staring was broken by the sound of angry footsteps entering the dining area where Sano and Mizuki were presently at. They both turned towards the doorway and saw a confused Nakatsu. "What are you two doing?" he asked, quite upset about what he was seeing. From his point of view, Nakatsu saw Mizuki's hand in both of Sano's and he was bent over a bit while looking up at Mizuki. To Nakatsu, it looked like a love scene or a proposal of marriage, but he didn't think that Sano would do such a thing, especially to his roommate, but his thoughts didn't match up to what was really happening.
Mizuki and Sano looked at eachother for a split second then at their hands before pulling away from eachother with a slight warmth in their cheeks.
"Oh...sorry. I cut my finger, and he was just checking it for infections," Mizuki said with a some hesitation in her voice.
Sano stood as she was talking and walked towards the door that Nakatsu was just barely through. He nodded at what she said and exited quietly, returning to his duties.
As he did so, Nakatsu watched him pass and then turned to Mizuki who stood by the basket, looking at her finger that was cut. "Hey, are you okay? Maybe you should get a bandade and help stop the bleeding," Nakatsu suggested, wanting her to feel better.
"Oh, right. Thanks, Nakatsu. I never thought about a bandade. I must be off in my own world," she laughed as she smiled to Nakatsu, thankfully, and headed towards the bathroom to grab a bandage.
'Oh, god,' Nakatsu thought to himself. 'Is it just me, or does Mizuki seem closer to me somehow?' He sighed a bit in his happyland, and walked out of the room to finish putting out some water glasses.
'Ouch,' Mizuki yelled in her mind. 'This cut is more than it seems. I guess I should do what I can to make it better.' After putting a bandade on her finger, covering the cut that continued to let blood flow from the wound, she made her way back to the window of the kitchen to finish separating the knives. When she neared the window, she was greeted by an empty tray and no basket.
"Hey, what happened to the knives?" Mizuki asked Nakatsu as he passed her with a few water glasses.
He shrugged a bit and continued to rush to the tables. "I think Sano finished them. He didn't want you to get another cut, so he did them himself," he yelled in a soft-tone.
'Sano? Why would he do the rest? It was my job...maybe I should thank him,' she thought, happily. She ran to the other room to look for Sano to do what she had planned. When she was just about to turn a corner, she ran into another figure, and being the shrimp that she was, she fell backwards and onto the floor again like the other previous times. "Ouch! Why does that always happen to me?" she whimpered while rubbing her butt.
"Ohmigosh! I'm sorry, Mickey! Are you okay?" came the voice from the other person, and was followed by a few others. Mizuki looked up, knowing that there was only one person that called her "Mickey."
"Julia...Oh, it's okay. I'm fine," she laughed as she pulled herself off the ground and brushed her butt that was full of dust. "I guess I missed a spot when sweeping," she giggled while looking at the dust that shot from her butt as it was brushed off.
All the girls laughed and smiled a warm, morning smile. "When does the restaurant open? We're starving!" they cried in hunger.
Mizuki sweatdropped and assured them with all she could might. "Well, if you could hold your hunger for another--" she then looked at a clock "25 minutes, we'll should be open by then. On weekends, the restaurant doesn't open until 9 o'clock, but on weekdays, it opens at 8 o'clock."
The girls whined in chorus, wanting to eat something, especially all they've heard about Io's food just made their mouths water. They glanced around the room, glaring at all the other people that were starting to walk in and take seats at some tables, waiting for the kitchen to open and start serving breakfast.
"Would you girls like anything to drink while you're waiting?" Mizuki asked, hoping that they would give her something to do.
"Oh, sure. Could we just get a pitcher and a few glasses? That would be great, thanks," Rio ordered kindly.
"Sure. I'll be back with that in a minute," Mizuki smiled, happily. She made her way to the kitchen and grabbed a large pitcher from a cabinet. She then put some ice in the pitcher before filling it with cold, refreshing water with a lemon in it to make it a bit sour. After doing so, she started walking back through the entrance to the kitchen, but before making it entirely through the door, she was stopped by a tall, slender figure standing before. She quickly leaned back and held the pitcher of glass tightly so she didn't drop it.
"Excuse me," said a familiar voice that Mizuki wasn't expecting to hear. She looked up and groaned a bit in the back of her throat, hoping he didn't hear that.
"Well, it's good to see that you're awake, Minami. If you're looking for Julia, she went outside on the trail with her friends," she lied, smartly.
Minami grinned a happy smile and turned a bit with each word he said. "I guess I'll go find her," he declared.
Mizuki, noticing his movements, knew that Julia and her friends were in the kitchen waiting for the kitchen to open. "Wait!" she screamed almost stuttering.
At the scream, Minami snapped around and faced Mizuki as if something was wrong. "What?"
"Y-you can't go through the dinnery," she started. "It was just swept and mopped, so it's slippery, and you don't want to slip and break your arm or leg while looking for Julia, right?" she asked, hoping he didn't know she was lying.
Minami stared down at her a bit and then sighed while scratching his head a bit and laughing. "I guess you're right. It would be a bad thing to hurt myself while looking for her, so I'll go around. Thanks, Mizuki. Next time, you should get a caution sign," he suggested.
Mizuki brushed off the sweat that gathered on her forehead from her face. 'Phew. I'm glad that's over,' she panted. She then took hold of the pitcher of water again and headed back into the dinnery towards Rio and Co.'s table.
"Sorry for the wait," she smiled a bit. "I met Minami on the way back, but I told him that you were on a walk on that really long trail just outside the hotel. You owe me big now, Julia," she moaped as she crossed her arms and sat next to the girls.
Julia looked at her, wide-eyed and smiled happily before giving her a big, bear hug. Mizuki smiled and laughed at her. "You know, you could just ask Sano something for me, that is if you want to pay me back," she grinned.
"Like what?" Julia asked, curious on what she wanted to know.
Mizuki looked around the room and then leaned in towards Julia, followed by the other girls who wanted to know the secret, too.
"I want you to ask him if there's something special in his life; if he has any plans on spending his life with anybody," Mizuki mentioned.
Julia looked at Mizuki for a long minute and smiled, knowing that she still had a big crush on Sano and that she wanted to know something else about him.
They smiled at eachother and Julia nodded in agreement. "Of course. If it'll help you with your relationship, then why not?" she laughed. The other girls joined in and giggled. The rest of the time, before the restaurant opened, the girls talked about Sano and his practice, and she explained her story to the other girls that didn't know her real identity.
A bell rang through the dinnery and the kitchen, signaling that the kitchen was now open, and that the customers could be served anytime from now until it closed. After saying their goodbye's, Mizuki stood from her seat and quietly made her way to the kitchen to help Io with getting food ready. When she entered the room, one lonely figure stood before her, taking care of the meats for Io.
"Hey, Sano," Mizuki greated. "Need help with anything?" she asked, hoping she could help him.
Sano shrugged a bit and smiled as he cut some of the meat of chickens, cow, and pigs on a board to make it easier to cook and easier for Io to get the food and go. "Well, not really," he started, making Mizuki frown, but Sano, noticing this, laughed softly and talked while cutting some of the meat. "But could you get some frozen fries from the freezer downstairs? Io's running low, and she needs them ready when the customers order them."
Mizuki's energy and mood shot up in an instant, knowing that Sano needed her help again. That's what she loved about him. Not only because he needed her for certain things, but because she loved spending time with him because he paid a lot of attention to her when he wasn't busy.
"Sure!" she yelled a bit too loud and ran out the kitchen and down the stairs to the freezer.
The stairway was a bit long, making it seem like she'd been going down for an hour. After reaching her destination after what seemed to be atleast 20 minutes, she walked towards the freezer. It was a big, silver door with a big, metal handle to keep the coolness inside. She grabbed the handle, which almost froze her hand the instant she touched it. When she opened the large door, there were shelves of many different foods and accessories. On the right side of the freezer were the meats and poultry that either lay in boxes or on sheet pans. The left side contained all the breads and other small foods like fries and cheese curds.
With each step she took, cold chills would make their way up and down her body, resulting in a small, shivering body in the middle of the freezer. She glanced up and down the left shelve, looking for a bag of frozen french fries, and once finding one, she took it from a box and then headed towards the door quickly so she could regain her blood circulation. Upon reaching the door, she noticed that there was no handle on the inside of the freezer door.
Mizuki's eyes roamed around the door, desperately looking for a way out so she could warm up. Once realizing that there was no handle, she began to panic even more. She dropped the bag of fries and started banging on the door as hard as her little hands would allow her.
She screamed as loud as her cold lungs would let her, but upon the other side, only soft talking was heard. She then cuddled herself in a corner of the freezer, farthest from the freezing machine. Her eyes were watering and slightly freezing because of the temperature in the room.
Up in the kitchen at the time, Sano was cutting some the meat that he had before Mizuki went into the freezer. 'Oh no,' he thought to himself, almost panicing as much as Mizuki was. 'Didn't I tell her there was no handle to the freezer on the inside!' He then dropped his knife and ran out of the room and down the hallway, trying his hardest to get downstairs. 'Mizuki...'
'Sano...,' she thought to herself, shivering while holding herself tight to try to keep warm. 'Help...'
Chiyo: Okay! I'm finally done with this chappie. I'm really sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been quite busy and haven't been in the mood to write, but whenever I get reviews, I get more and more into wanting to write the story, so keep the reviews coming. Thanks HyperBunnyAttack! Without your review, I never would've finished this chappie.
Chiyo's Sis: When will the next chappie be out?
Chiyo: No idea. I guess you'll just have to wait!
RandomGuyWhoBreakDancesOutsideAMajorPublicBuilding: That's fine with me! I can get money in front of the P.A.C. while I'm waiting!
Chiyo: Um...okay, but anyways, the more reviews, the better. I'll be done with the next chappie by mid October at the latest! Ciao!