Back again with yet another chapter. I feel like I've neglected this a lot, 'cause I've been so engrossed with a cartoon fic of mine so that I've totally forgotten to update this one! So here's my apology to you, another chapter ^w^

Chapter 11: Coincidence or Fate?

"Aw, now he's gonna propose to her! He's just so romantic."

"Yeah, but ya gotta admit that he looks kinda gay."

"What? He does not!"

"I know what M'talking 'bout, Chi-Chi. I bet he's a playboy who's already got a boyfriend, and has done this kinda thing before. Bisexual bastard." (A/N: I have NOTHING against homosexual or bisexual people! Neither has Lily.)

"Lily, have you seen this movie before?"

"Nah, but I can figure out the ending before it even gets there."

"You spoiler! You ruined the whole film!"

"Oi, it ain't my fault this movie's a big fat clique!"

The three best friends were having a movie night together at Pucca, the dark-haired and the blonde girl having an argument about the main character of the film, which now had resulted into a pillow-fight. They had fun for a while before they eventually realized that Pucca herself hadn't participated or said anything for quite some time and they were now a tad worried. The usual pigtail-haired girl had her long, dark locks loose around her shoulders, her azure eyes darting from word to word in a compendium she was currently holding.

"Hey, Pucca," Ching said hesitantly. "What's the matter?"

Said girl lifted her eyes off the manuscript and glanced on her friends. "I'm just learning my new lines, seeing as I'm not Juliet anymore."

"Which is?"

"I'm…" Pucca mumbled the last part with slight irritation. "…one of Juliet's maids."

"Lemme guess," Lily said, and folded her arms before her chest. "The blue-haired goose suggested it to Mrs. Morrison?"

"It's just a stupid play," Pucca said with a light shrug. "So Ring-Ring's being Juliet? Big deal; who cares about that anyway?"

"You do," both Ching and Lily said in sync, also wearing matching smirks. Pucca gasped lightly, a small pink blush dusting the bridge of her nose.

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"I really don't, girls."

"That's just your ego talking," Lily replied.

"No, that's exactly what my heart tells me. And the rest of me."

"Then, why is your face telling us another story?" Ching giggled in response. Pucca awkwardly brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"'Cause…Cause this is just too ridiculous, that's why," Pucca muttered with a small pout forming. Lily and Ching sat down beside Pucca on her big couch.

"Say, why don't you just quit this whole bet-thing you two are having, and just be friends?" Lily suggested with a smile. Pucca gripped the fabric of the couch for support as she began exploding.

"Are you crazy? I can't be 'friends' with him, it would be like, like becoming friends with the enemy! And furthermore, the word 'quit' doesn't exist in my vocabulary, because I always win, and this one's no exception! I'll win this thing and prove the guy that I'm not one of his fan girls, and that he can't make me one!"

"Geez, Pucca, slow it down. I was just thinking that since it's so freaking obvious that you two have a thing for each other," the blonde explained, simply ignoring the death-glare she got from her friend. "that you should just, y'know, become buddies and know each other some more."

"Trust me, Lily. I think I already know the most important. Garu is just my classmate and love-rival. I don't intend to have it any other way than that, and I would appreciate it greatly if you guys would stop playing match-makers."

"Okay," Ching nodded. "If you want it like this, Pucca, then we'll stop teasing."

"Thank you," Pucca replied with a smile, and briefly glanced at the television. "Um, why're those two guys kissing?"

"Ha! I freaking told you he was gay! And I was right as usual-. "

The blonde teen received a smack at the back of her head with a pillow, surprised to see it being from Pucca.

"Spoiler!"

Pucca just wanted to dig herself a hole and move in. Ring Ring was constantly on her back the next day, acting all sweet and caring, not to mention flirty in front of Garu, and it annoyed the hell out of her as well as grossing her out completely. A small part of her thought that Garu couldn't possibly fall for a girl that sticky, then she shook her head and kept repeating in her mind that the spiky-haired guy's love-life was none of her concern. He could marry her for all she cared. It wasn't her business anyway.

"Hey, Pucca," a mockingly sweet voice asked. "What are you doing?"

Azure blue eyes took their sweet old time before they finally met chocolate brown ones, a bored face-expression immediately taking over the young girl's features. "What does it look like?"

"Gosh, who made you cranky this early in the morning?" Ring Ring asked, and shook her head with a dramatic sigh. "Anyway, I was wondering if you'd sew a dress for me? I mean, you're already working, so I thought-."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am working; on my own dress."

The pig-tail haired girl blew the bangs away from her face before continuing on sewing her maid-dress. It was of used of the leftover fabric Pucca had used from the Juliet-dress, and the girl thought it would be thoughtless to let it all go to waste. The Juliet-dress could always be hung in her closet as a horrible reminder of what she probably never got to wear…

"Actually, I do have a dress available," Pucca said, trying to mimic the same sickly sweet smile Ring Ring was wearing. She needed it, because never in her life had she thought that she would actually lend her clothes to her rival. "It might fit you, and it's in this gorgeous ruby-red color of silk-."

"Ugh, red?" Ring Ring sighed.

"Yeah, red," Pucca frowned. "Anything wrong about that?" Pucca raised a brow skeptically.

"No offense, but I just don't do with red. What about sapphire-blue or emerald-green instead? I do like that it's made out of silk, but I'd want you to choose the color a bit more thoughtfully in the future, okay?"

"Of course," Pucca nodded, her eyes shining with amusement. "I'll try to."

The blue-haired teen brushed her long locks away from her face when turning around to leave. What she didn't know was that her high heels were stepping onto fabric that was carelessly thrown onto the ground, and Pucca was totally aware of that. In fact, her fingers tightened around that very fabric and pulled it towards herself with great force, causing a body to land on the ground with a smack and a high-pitched yelp to echo through the classroom. Ring Ring rubbed her bottom and blushed in anger and embarrassment as a couple of students snickered and giggled a little.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you," Pucca smirked in victory. "The floor can be slippery, so walk carefully on your way out, okay?"

The blue-haired girl snorted, her blue locks turning a dangerous color of red for a brief moment, before they turned back to their glamorous blue color again. She dusting herself off and walking gracefully away with the dignity she had left.

"Girl got what she was looking for," Pucca said as Lily and Ching snickered in their own corner, practicing their lines for their roles.

"A shitload of trouble."

Only two weeks left before I can get this stupid thing off me.

The pig-tail haired waitress was feeling a little down at the moment, walking home all by herself. It wasn't like she was lonely; Ching and Lily had attempted to cheer her up with suggestions such as shopping or hanging out at their favorite café near the mall, but Pucca had kindly refused. She felt like she needed some time alone, a little space due to Ring-Ring's stickiness lately. The two girls had nodded in understanding and left Pucca with an assuring hug each. She smiled; she had the two best friends in the world, and she felt a little guilty for not asking about their health or about them lately. It had always been about her; how she was rambling about how much her day had sucked or what had happened of fun stuff for her. She almost never heard anything about them, besides how great Ching and Abyo's relationship was or how Lily still tried to find the mysterious kisser she met at the party.

Pucca sighed to herself; she wished she had something that could take her mind off the stressful things that currently happened in her life. She walked through a path of naked trees, their branches filled with piles of snow instead of leaves. Letting her azure eyes glide through each of them, she soon noticed that something didn't seem right. A pink tail was sticking out from one pile of snow on a tree, swaying slightly from side to side. Pucca gasped in surprise; an animal was stuck in there! She wanted to leap into action, but she cursed her current condition. She could've climbed up that tree so easily. But damn it if that was going to stop her.

She desperately looked for someone she could ask for help, anyone would be useful! She couldn't see any, not even a student, so she'd have to knock on someone's house for help. When she finally did find a house, she gaped a little; karma was really trying to piss her off today. Pucca saw a house made of bamboo undoubtedly belonging to her spiky-haired class-mate. She fought the urges to just run away from there; the life of a defenseless animal was on risk! A lot of willpower was used to simply knock on the door, and wait for Garu to appear. When he did, he looked surprised to see her, but before a question could form in his mouth, she was already dragging him out of his home by the arm.

"Hey, what's going on..?" he asked in pure confusion. Pucca just kept dragging him, ignoring the heat that had gathered in her face.

"C'mon! You need to help me, there's an animal in danger!"

He looked at her skeptically, another question coming up, but she pulled him further. "Just get your ass moving, okay!"

Garu finally decided to drop the question, seeing as they obviously didn't have time for them, and since he probably couldn't make them out in time before Pucca would yell at him to hurry up. Soon enough they reached the particular tree where the pile of snow where the pink tail was sticking out, still swaying a little. A stab of pain hit the pig-tail haired girl's heart; she had a great love for animals and hated seeing them in pain.

"Can't you see it?" she asked Garu, her azure eyes filled with sadness. "It has been stuck inside the snow for who-knows-how-long? You've gotta save it, Garu!"

Garu eyed the tree for a while, and then sighed as he braced himself before finally climbing all the way up to the branches. It finally hit Pucca like a brick that Garu was only wearing a t-shirt and baggy pants in this cold weather, and a small stab of guilt hit her as well. She bit her lip when Garu had swung himself onto the branch and extended his hands out to wipe the snow away. After some seconds the spiky-haired teenager carefully climbed down, now holding a pink kitten in his embrace. A little squeal of happiness and excitement escaped the waitress's lips and she leaned forward to look at the little kitten. It slowly lifted its eyelids and looked at Pucca with its hazelnut brown eyes, snuggling closer to the warmth coming from Garu's chest.

"Kawai!" Pucca exclaimed and nuzzled the little kitten with a finger, making it play with the finger in curiosity. "Aw, it's absolutely adorable! Think if nobody had spotted it. It could've frozen to death…" Pucca trailed off, feeling a little sad.

"Wanna hold it?" Garu asked, leaning closer to hand over the kitten to Pucca. She looked a little startled, but accepted it nevertheless, resuming letting the kitten play with her fingers again.

"It's hasn't got any collar. Maybe it got lost from its mom…"

"You could take care of it in the meanwhile, in case it has an owner. If not, then you could keep it as a pet," Garu suggested, nodding towards the pink kitten. Pucca's face went all blank by hearing this.

"You…you really think I should..?" she asked softly. "Why don't you keep it?"

Garu shook his head. "Nah. Already got my hands full with my own cat at home. His name is Mio"

Azure eyes widened a little. "You have a pet yourself? Gee, never thought of you as the pet-loving guy."

The spiky-haired guy scratched the kitten under its chin, earning some purrs from it, his dark amethyst eyes gazing into the azure eyes belonging to Pucca.

"There are a lot of things don't know about me, Pucca."

A tingle went down the pigtail haired girl's spine when hearing this. Her breathing hitched and her embrace around the pink kitten tightened a little.

"Is…Is that so?" she finally managed to say out. "Well, that sounds kinda disturbing. Are you an international thief in disguise too?"

He gave an amused smile, that didn't help Pucca's pounding heart one bit. "You never know."

"…Kay, well, um, thanks for helping me out," she held the kitten up next to her face, moving its paw so that it looked like it was waving to Garu. A smile bloomed at her lips all the while. "Me and Yani really appreciate it."

Garu swallowed hard and ran a hand through his hair, glancing at the snow as if it was suddenly interesting, while fighting the sudden heat that had gathered in his cheeks. You could barely hear his low reply of 'don't mention it'.

Then he opened his eyes that held a confusing look.

"Yani?"

"Yeah! It suits her perfectly!"

"…maybe…" Pucca continued, while the tip of her shoe rooted circles in the snow. "…Yani could come over and see Mio once in a while? So she could have a playmate to hang around with when we're at school…I mean," Pucca brushed a strand of hair behind her ears. "…it's only a thought…"

"Doesn't sound bad, Pucca. I-no, Mio wouldn't mind."

Pucca smiled again. "Then, it's settled. I can't-I mean, Yani can't wait!"

They stared at each other with wide eyes and red cheeks for what seemed like an eternity.

"Bye!" they said in union, and turned on their heels to rush away from each other.

Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Was probably the thought that went through both their minds.

Haha, I love messing with 'em! PuccaxGaru fluff rules! Waaaaay too late, but Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody! Hope you liked this chapter!