A/N: Oh, I'm school-less and job-less now. What has the world come to? Hmmm more writing time I guess.
WARNING MY BETA IS ON VACATION!!
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IM by kara papas
Chapter 8 Lunch Dates
The chestnut haired woman found herself dragged into her class period by loud mouthed bossy blonde. So Shizuru Fujino found herself rushed by physicality and by mere mental shock as the class period itself seemed inconsequential. The red eyed woman was once again dragged out of where ever her stupor left her and to lunch by the very same blonde. The blonde made sure she had a firm grasp of Shizuru's wrist pulling the slightly absent mind Kyoto woman along.
"I swear you are such a useless girl. My friend Yukino was much more descript with her emotions!" The blonde confidently boasted. However Shizuru's mind clicked on the incorrect word and she had this feeling that this blonde's friend Yukino probably would mention the error.
"Don't you mean discrete…Haruka-san?" Shizuru muttered in a slightly cautious tone.
Haruka stopped in her warrior march cocking her head up looking aimlessly as she placed her left index finger to the corner of her mouth. Her other hand still remained upon Shizuru's wrist, but the chestnut haired girl really didn't care much as the bossy blonde stood in thought. The time it took Haruka to realize or her thinking process to heat up at least Shizuru's thoughts wondered to Natsuki.
I wonder if Natsuki is having a pleasant lunch?
A light sneeze escaped Natsuki mouth as the words left Shizuru's mind. Natsuki and Akane were off to the university cafeteria. The blue haired wonder sighed deeply after the sneeze upon which she received a friendly pat on the back from Akane.
"Food first…explanation of sighing after." Akane said in a very simple fashion making Natsuki think "how out of character."
"Yeah…" Natsuki said as the two of them pushed through a set of doors into the cafeteria only to be bombarded with a variety of scrumptious smells. Upon the girls smelling those delicious odors and sighing as they floated towards a table the girls were knocked out of their trance by the massive roars from their stomachs. Akane's eyes glazed over as she placed both of her hands on her stomach. While Natsuki just gritted her teeth in response.
The two girls were too starved to really care about where they sat as they both dropped their bags and went off to their own choice of food. The cafeteria at universities really catered to their students which basically meant that the cafeteria sometimes resembled a food court at a mall. Akane had quickly disappeared into the crowd to get her food while Natsuki looked to the nearest western food area.
"Ah…pizza," Natsuki said out loud as she held money in her hand and walked on over.
It wasn't too long before the two were reunited at their table with their bags intact. Akane was happy with a healthy sized bowl of ramen before her which she took her time ingesting. Natsuki was back with about four giant slices of pizza, a mixture of sodas, and packets of mayo. Natsuki enjoyed a greasy cuisine for some odd reason, but she never had anyone to tell her otherwise outside of her long time roomie Mai.
"So," Akane attempted to talk while slurping down her food. "Tell me about –slurp- you."
Natsuki held up her hand as she greedily gobbled down her pizza slice which was dripping in mayo. Akane nodded and slurped along. As the two feasted away on the opposite side of the cafeteria entered Shizuru and Haruka. The blonde had a set goal as she barreled on into the faculty's five-star catering line and snapped her fingers at one of the servers. The server for the misfortune was new and disregarded Haruka as a pestering student. Shizuru even took note of how the man acted assuming this was the correct reaction when a student interrupted the lunch service of the faculty members. Haruka noticed that she wasn't being waited on after a minute had passed.
"Excuse me!" Haruka barked. The server glared down at Haruka as they finally took notice.
"This isn't your line, madam. Now go get yourself some regular student food." The server aggressively suggested. Haruka's jaw dropped in horror to be treated in such a fashion and looked off to the side for second making the server think he had won. As the server smugly smiled to himself and as his eyes opened again he was met by a fiery eyed blonde unwilling to step down from a fight.
"I'll have you know my family owns the property of the ENTIRE UNIVERSITY!" Haruka growled and then grabbed the impertinent server by the collar calling the attention of the manager of the catering service over.
"Miss Suzushiro! I am so sorry for this young man's attitude. I will take care of everything right away." The manager shouted running over as Haruka dropped the idiot server. The manager caught his breath and looked to Haruka's right and back at Haruka who was adorned with the "well take of this" expression. "And I just happen to have two meals set aside for you today." The manager said grinning. He turned around and found Haruka meal and removed the name tag of someone else's and gave that as the second one as not to get into anymore havoc with Haruka.
The grumpy blonde snatched her food and motioned for Shizuru to follow her as they found a table to eat at which was not too far from the entrance they came in at. The chestnut haired woman was dazed but couldn't complain for gaining such an ally like Haruka Suzushiro. The two ate their meal in moments at a time as they discussed the distraught nature that Shizuru was going through.
"So, you're telling me that you think you're in love with this person?" Haruka said with a mouth full of food. Shizuru's red eyes fixed upon her own hands thinking of holding Natsuki that other day as she nodded to Haruka.
"It's not so much I think I'm in love with them. I've fallen for them. I've fallen so hard and I'm still falling and it's just the wrong time for this to happen. I can't afford to be emotional at this time in my life. I wasted so much time and this is creeping into my heart and it's killing me because I just, don't know what to do anymore." Shizuru said with a heavy and serious tone. Her life had been rolling on so smoothly. She had kept her personal life limited to engagements with her friends and what little family she had.
"So, why do you keep referring to this person as a person? I could care less if you like a man or a woman. I mean I care, but it would help me know, you know." Haruka said obnoxiously as she took a quick gulp of her drink staring back at Shizuru who was almost shocked at Haruka's brazen statement.
"I, I'm in love with a girl…" Shizuru said as redness crept up on her cheeks.
At the same time across the cafeteria Natsuki found herself slouching back into her chair with her hands behind her head as Akane leaned forward waiting for Natsuki to explain her sighing. The short haired brunette traced a heart with her finger on the table humming to herself as she looked at Natsuki.
"Well I should help you feel more comfortable, shouldn't I?" Akane said and Natsuki looked away and back placing her elbows on the table and nodded. Akane grinned sweetly and turned a soft red as she pushed the tips of her fingers together. "Well, I think you were sighing because you might be in love and not know it."
"What makes you say that?" Natsuki quickly responded in a flabbergasted tone.
"Well, you see the last time I sighed like that was when my boyfriend Kazu-kun told me he loved me. It scared me and made a million times of sensation run through my body and mind. I could think. It took me off guard so I couldn't return his feelings immediately." Akane said as frown went over her face. Natsuki's heart skipped a beat thinking how close that was to her situation with the minor difference that Akane probably had to deal with it in person whereas Natsuki had virtual and real world connection to her confessor.
"What happened?" Natsuki said in her low husky voice grabbing Akane's hand. Akane looked up with a half smile.
"I almost lost my chance at love with him. I let my doubts and fears take over, and if I hadn't said what I did to him at the time I did, I wouldn't have him in my life now." Akane said putting her other hand over Natsuki's. The two girls looked as if they were trapped in the throws of love as they both held each other's hands. However it wasn't with each other that they were in love with but a person walking by could easily misinterpret what might have been going on.
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Omake:
Akane: Natsuki...
Natsuki: Yes...
Akane: There is this scary lady behind you with glowing red eyes...
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Another chapter, another plug for another story. I wrote something called "A Twist of Fate" it is on my LJ account which can be accessed by the homepage link on my profile. This story is loosely tied to meine liebe and forever yours.