Er, I'm reposting this chapter after a bit of editing. I noticed that there were some parts that seemed a little off. No major changes, I just tried to make flow better.
Alright. You all are going to hate me for this short chapter. But once again, I wanted to post today but I didn't have much time to write! You all love me though anyway, yes? Anyway, look out for Kurama/Botan moments. Mostly in the next chapter.
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"Look, there he is!" The girl whispered to her friend.
"Yeah. He looks great."
Kurama rolled his eyes. Didn't this sound familiar? Didn't these girls ever have anything new to talk about? He sighed as he made his way to his locker. He positioned his bag and caught the eleven love letters that fell from his locker. He made his way over to the trashcan and dumped them in. Was this ever going to stop? Where things around here ever going to change? Or was he just stuck in a rut until he graduated?
Kurama blew his bangs out of face and leaned against the cool brick wall outside of the school. When would the mundane end?
"Oooooh. Look. It's Shuichi kun. Isn't he hot? I wrote him a letter and stuck in it his locker… I wonder what he'll think of it." The girls in the corner again. They never changed either. It was the same thing, day after day. Kurama was beginning to feel like his life was a broken record.
A flash of blue out of the corner of his eyes. Kurama turned his head slightly. He grinned. That new girl… Botan? Hmmm. She was different. She was new. She was… walking funny. Kurama watched her curiously as she passed him on the way to her locker. Something was odd about the way she was moving, it was stiff… very unlike her fluid movements of yesterday.
He watched as Botan winced, and put her hand on her locker. She leaned, slightly, just for a moment, and then stood up strait. It had lasted only a second. No one would have noticed even, had they not been paying attention. Kurama, though, had been, and he suddenly and irrationally began suspect she was injured in some way. But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, she began to move normally. None of the stiffness and pain he had just observed. She got her locker open, and watched in bewilderment as at least fifteen notes went flying out and across the quad.
Kurama smirked. So. She was getting love letters now too? And on her second day. How intriguing.
He suddenly wanted to approach her. To talk to her. To ask her why she didn't notice him. Why she seemed different from other girls. Different from other people.
He knew it was stupid. He'd only just met her yesterday, if you could call it that. They hadn't even had a real conversation yet, there was no way he could determine if she were different from other people or not.
He wanted to approach her. But he was afraid. Afraid of being disappointed. And that made him a little wary.
Still. He was never one to run from his fears. Kurama took a step toward Botan, intent upon talking to her.
But the bell rang.
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Botan stifled a yawn as she approached the school building. It was going to be a loooooong day. She could feel it already. Or maybe that was the bruised ribcage. Whatever.
She moved stiffly over to her locker, and leaned against it. A flash of red caught her eye. What? Oh… That boy from the library yesterday. He was watching her. Botan straitened out immediately and began to move as if her injury didn't exist.
Yanking her locker open, she was very surprised when about fifteen notes flew out of it. What the heck were those doing in her locker? She reached out and caught a handful before they blew away, stuffing them in her bag to inspect later. She pulled out her books.
Crimson in her peripheral vision. That boy was still there. She regarded him out of the corner of her eye. What did he want?
The boy took a step toward her, a determined look in his eyes. She didn't face him. Instead, she began to stuff her books into her bag, watching him guardedly.
The bell rang, and she let herself be swallowed by the crowd of students as they made their way to their classes.
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For Kurama, the day was going almost normally. The only difference was in his classes with Botan.
Because, for some reason, he couldn't stop staring at her. And it was driving him insane.
And she still didn't notice him!
For instance, this morning in Biology. There they were, doing labs. She had partnered up with one of the many girls. Kurama had let himself be partnered with a particularly persistent girl ("Oh, Shuichi kun! You're so smart! Please be my partner so I can make a good grade! Please?"), and had deliberately chosen a lab station directly next to the one Botan and her partner where using.
Kurama had even gone out of his way to show off. Telling his lab partner (loudly) about effect of salt on ice. And while his partner and several other girls around him had been impressed ("Oh, Shuichi! You're so smart! How do you know all this?"), Botan had remained obstinately unaware of him, intently shaking the bag full of salt, ice, and vanilla ice cream mix.
And even when the lab was done, and the class was enjoying the ice cream they had created, Kurama had simply sat at his desk. Looking strait ahead in bewilderment. What was it that this girl had that made her immune to his charms?
Now in fourth period, he was thinking the same thing.
Botan was seated several desks in front of him, her head bent studiously over her work. Kurama was staring at her back, still puzzled.
Something hit him on the back of his head.
Surprised, Kurama turned around. A boy was gesturing to him. Kurama looked at him curiously.
"James wants to talk to you when we release for lunch!" The boy whispered to him. Kurama nodded and turned back around. James? The boy from his track team? Why would he want to talk to him? Kurama frowned.
The bell rang to release the students for lunch.
Kurama watched as Botan made her way to the cafeteria with a couple of the girls who had invited her to sit with them. His gaze lingered hesitantly on her retreating form, before he turned and looked for James.
He didn't have to look hard. Before long he saw the lanky brown haired boy waving to him. Kurama smiled and waved back, waiting for James to catch up to him.
"Hey Shuichi!" James grinned at him. Kurama smiled back. He had always liked James, he was a nice guy. For a ningen.
"Hello James. What's up?" James looked at Kurama seriously.
"I, uh, have a favor to ask you." Kurama frowned slightly. A favor?
"What kind of favor?" James grinned sheepishly.
"Actually, it's kind of silly. See, there's this girl that I would like to ask out…" Kurama looked at James, silently urging him to continue.
"And, well. Like every other girl at this school, she's kind of hung up on you." Kurama almost grinned, but managed an appropriately apathetic look.
"Ah. I'm sorry. What would you like me to do about this, though?" James scratched the back of his head.
"Well… Actually… I was hoping that maybe you could… I don't know. Talk to her or something? Tell her you're not interested? Maybe throw in a good word for me?" He grinned hopefully. Kurama grinned back.
"Sure. If you think it will help." James nodded enthusiastically.
Kurama and James made their way to the lunchroom.
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Botan had discovered just what those notes that had flown out of her locker were during her second period class.
Love letters.
Botan had never received a love letter in her life. And to get fifteen all at once, on her second day at a new school… was somewhat overwhelming to say the least.
Botan couldn't remember the last time she had blushed so much. And it didn't stop with the letters. Almost immediately after her second period class let out, she was approached by a tall boy with black hair.
Who had asked her out.
WHAT?
Botan was, understandably, somewhat shocked. She didn't even know this guy! She had searched frantically for something to say. Something that wouldn't hurt his feelings.
"Errr… I'm sorry. I'm waiting for Shuichi Minamino to ask me out!" That was the name that James had said, right? The perfect excuse? Apparently. The boy seemed to droop.
"Oh, that's okay. I understand."
And almost right after that, another boy had approached her. And asked her the same the thing. What was going on? Botan had given him the same answer. By the time lunch rolled around, she had been asked out six more times, and was starting to wonder if maybe it was just some kind of joke that the boys at that school liked to play on the new girl.
Not to mention that the phrase, "I'm sorry, I'm waiting for Shuichi Minamino to ask me out" had become an almost automatic response to anything anyone said to her.
So she was happy that she had been able to make a few friends in her fourth period. Now she had someone to sit with at lunch. And if she kept busy talking, then no guys would approach her right? Because, everyone knows that guys are afraid to approach a group of girls.
She assured herself of this as she made her way to the cafeteria.
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Kurama stood in shock. That couldn't have been right. He couldn't have just heard that. James must be mistaken.
"I'm sorry. Who is the girl that you would like me to talk too?" Kurama's voice was somewhat shaky.
"Botan. You know! The new girl?" James pointed across the cafeteria to a girl who was, unmistakably, Botan. Kurama stared. He turned back to the group of guys at his table.
"Botan. You say that you each asked her out… And she said she couldn't because she was waiting for me to ask her?" The boys nodded.
"Yeah, she goes: 'Sorry, I'm waiting for Shuichi Minamino'." The black haired boy pouted.
If Kurama didn't always have perfect control of his expressions, he would have gaped. This girl who he thought didn't notice him… She'd never even looked in his direction outside of that time at the library… Botan… She was waiting for him to ask her out.
Kurama felt both triumphant and somewhat disappointed at the same time. On one hand, his ego was restored. On the other, the girl wasn't different from the others. He wasn't sure which he felt more strongly about.
Kurama looked back over at Botan.
"Okay. Yeah. I'll go talk to her." He rose from his seat.
He wasn't really sure why he was doing this. He just felt that he needed closure from this whole situation, and talking to Botan would do that. He crossed the cafeteria slowly. Deliberately making his way to her. The girls at Botan's table had stopped talking. They were all looking up at him in exited expectation. Botan seemed to notice the sudden change in atmosphere, and turned when she heard Kurama clear his throat behind her.
She looked up at him curiously. He smiled at her. She blinked, and smiled hesitantly back.
"Botan Ferryman, right?" She nodded meekly. Kurama almost grimaced. This girl was going to be easy prey after all.
"May I please talk to you for a minute?" The girls at the table twittered excitedly. Botan regarded him solemnly.
"All right. But if you're here to ask me out, I'm waiting on Shuichi Minamino… So, um. I'm sorry but I'm not interested."
Kurama, for all his self-control, could not help it. His face reflected the utter shock that he felt. He was speechless.
The girls at the table all looked at Botan in complete bewilderment.
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Botan could feel it. Someone approaching her from behind. She shifted nervously in her chair. The girls at her table became silent, staring over her shoulder. Botan winced when she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She turned timidly around to face them.
It was… That boy from the library. And from this morning, at her locker. He was in a few of her classes too.
He was looking down at her with those huge green eyes through a curtain of wild red hair, a smirk on his full lips.
"Botan Ferryman, right?" Botan almost groaned. He wasn't going to ask her out too, was he? And for some reason she had thought that he had seemed different from the others. She nodded meekly at him.
"May I please talk to you for a minute?" Botan felt inexplicably sick. Her fears were practically confirmed. She looked at him solemnly. And then, she immediately began to defend herself.
"All right. But if you're here to ask me out, I'm waiting on Shuichi Minamino… So, um, I'm sorry but I'm not interested."
The boy's reaction had thrown her for a loop.
He looked truly shocked. And then confused. Botan bit her lip in worry, he was taking it much worse than the others had.
Then the boy seemed to regain control of himself. He looked down at Botan, his expression still confused.
"But… I am Shuichi Minamino…"
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AN: Heh… I know you hate me for the short chapter and for leaving you with an ending like that… But I promise the next chapter will be longer!
Thankies to these people who reviewed:
Amanda: Why, thank you! I think Botan makes an excellent thief myself. And she and Kurama do go so well together.
Yume Ookami: Awww. Thanks. Hey, wait. Are you just saying that because you know I'll beat you up if you don't? And, where is my Kurama plushie? ::Pouts::
Yusuke1: Thanks for reviewing! I hope this update was soon enough for you.
DeityofRoses: Heh. It is fun watching Botan go through all of this isn't it? Aw, you're welcome. Okay, okay! Back off woman, I'm continuing already!
Xiao Xing: You think so? I'm trying to keep her in character… :(
PassionateAngel: Heh, yeah, Botan is creeped out by Karasu. And I must admit he is very…well…creepy. But he's still fun to write! Hey, I would love for you to recommend me to your friends! ::feels all special:: How sweet of you to offer! And you didn't bore me with your review. I LOVE long reviews! They make life sweet…
Alien9999: ::Laughs darkly:: Ah yes… Karasu may have feelings for Botan… And don't worry, plenty of Kurama/Botan moments ahead!
Sarah: Woah, girl! No need to be so abusive to poor Karasu! He's just a slave to the plot (as are we all). So, you think you know what's gonna happen? Am I that predictable? ::Sigh:: Oh well. And I bet you're mad at me for leaving you with another snippet, aren't you? ::Grins sheepishly:: I'll write more next time, I swear!
Tellia: Don't worry, I understand if people are busy! Our homecoming week is next week, it's exiting! Now then: Botan puts up with Karasu because she has too. Besides, he pays well! And I loved it when Botan slapped Karasu too. Priceless! Oh, Kurama, Kurama… Who knows how he'll react when he learns the truth about Botan… Even I'm not sure! I'm glad that you're not getting lost or anything throughout this fic. I try to keep it as stable as possible! Thanks for the review!
Apryl: ::Gives you weird look:: Squee! Thanks for reviewing buddy! Are you saying that my story is… addictive? Huh? ::Laughs:: Anyway. Thanks for the review. And how about a fic from you? You're a great writer yourself…
Don't forget to review luv's!
