A/N: More unplanned fluff! YAY! Sorry for those of ye who wanted a lemon out of this... I have not the strength to write it XD

Chapter 13: "Dearest"

The sun rays seemed to float through the windowpane of Natsuki's room, sprinkled through the clouds left over from yesterday's storm. They glistened over the girls' hair as they lay asleep in each other's arms. Slowly the younger girl's emerald eyes opened as she woke, scanning the sight before her to assure she was in the right place. She smiled at the sleeping Shizuru, who had actually fallen asleep rather quickly once all the energy built up in excitement was, well, expended.

Natsuki tried to close her eyes and fall back asleep, but with the light shining on her face it was impossible. The girl quietly slid herself from the bed careful not to wake the other while she dressed. The blunette was very caught up in romanticism this lovely morning, and wanted to show it to Shizuru. After shutting the blinds tighter to give the latter a better chance at sleeping in, she went into the bathroom to gather their lost clothing and toss it in with the rest of the laundry. Natsuki hauled the basket with her to the door and looked back inside her room.

"Please don't wake up before I get back," she pleaded in a murmer before leaving; shutting the door quietly behind her.

Little did she notice the crimson eye peeking over the ruffled blankets.

"As my Natsuki wishes," Shizuru whispered to herself before closing her eyes again and continuing her rest.

--0--

The girl in questions had started her day very hard at work, she wanted everything to be perfect. It was one of those lucky days where Fuuka academy had the day off at a time that coincided with Shizuru's only class being cancelled. Natsuki dropped off her laundry in the machines downstairs to get that started before leaving to pick up everything she had in mind for her surprise. She was rather giddy in contrast to her normal cold exterior, Natsuki was actually smiling outside in public alone, genuinely content with her life thus far.

First stop was the flourist. The girl opened the door, and took in the wonderful smell of the shop. Though she knew she was short on time, Natsuki hadn't gone with an intended choice and decided to roam around, inspecting each one with care.

Hmm... these ones are nice. She thought upon seeing a small collection of tiny blue flowers, tied together at the stem. When she looked up, Natsuki saw that there was more than just blue ones, there was nearly every colour. Just as she was about to take some a familiar voice caught her attention.

"Natsuki-san?" a short boy with auburn hair asked, coming closer.

"Takumi? You work here?" Natsuki replied with a raised eyebrow.

The boy nodded with a smile.

"I wanted to start working like Onee-chan but she wouldn't let me do anything strenuous."

"Speaking of Mai, do me a favour and not mention I was here okay?"

"Sure?" he was rather confused but went along, it's not like it would hurt anyone, "Would you like a basket to put them in?"

The girl nodded and accepted the woven object when handed to her. Natsuki went back to the previous selection and grinned. Takumi stared wide-eyed while she proceeded to practically clear out the entire store. Once Natsuki got her hands on them, she couldn't stop. In the end she had picked out one of each flower in the store and carried her now three full baskets to the counter; leaning on the edge while the boy added up the cost.

"Do you have a reason for wanting all these Natsuki-san?" he asked after the last one was noted.

"What!? No! Why would you ask something like that?" she barked back tomato-faced.

Takumi just looked at her oddly and sighed.

"I didn't mean to pry, it's just... before you see the price it would be best for you to have a firm resolution in mind..."

Natsuki took a moment to consider it, she forgot how expensive flowers were. With a content smile in response, Takumi spun around the small piece on the cash register that showed the total. Natsuki's jaw dropped. On any other day she probably would have stormed out furious, but she was exceptionally happy this morning and wanted to remain that way. She handed over the bills and took her purchase, which was actually quite large considering the uniquely small size of the store.

Now... next thing to do is get food!

--0--

Natsuki continued to ignore the strange stares she got from people as she walked towards the supermarket. In her original plan she intended to buy their breakfast, but the extensive cost of the flowers led her to the option of buying in bulk. That in turn gave her the perfect reasoning to make the meal herself. She was a little worried about it turning out right, but assured herself that a year of Mai trying to teach her culinary skills actually had succeeded but was locked away in her subconscious... until now.

Still keeping up her perky self, Natsuki exited the store with her choices and started her relatively short journey home.

--0--

Quietly, the blunette stepped through her apartment, kicking off her shoes at the door to travel more softly. Natsuki looked into her room to find Shizuru still sleeping and smiled, she made it. First she put the flowers on the small kitchen table and attended to the food. It was just as she knew the girl would like, very healthy, consisting of mostly fruit salads thus far. There was still the toast that had to be made, but that required precise timing.

Natsuki had set up both plates and started started the toast, putting herself on a time limit to do the next part. In a flash the girl grabbed the flowers from the table and ran into the bedroom, still with the stealth of a cat. Carefully she tip toed around, placing each flower in every corner of the room and then across the bed until there was none left. The blunette grinned with pride and hurried back to the kitchen just in time for the meal to be complete. She felt a tug at her heart when she passed the mayo jar; it was taunting her. Natsuki clenched her eyes shut and picked up the plates, shaking her head clear as she put them on a tray.

No mayo today! Must not disappoint!

Slowly she walked into the bedroom, pushing the door open with her shoulder.

"Good morning," Natsuki greeted softly, moving closer to the sliding lump beneath the sheets, "I made us breakfast."

Shizuru stirred a bit more in her half-sleep before propping herself up with one arm.

"Ara, my Natsuki is so gracious this morning."

The girl blushed and placed the tray on her bed, leaving enough space for her to slide in next to Shizuru where she was shown a very warm welcome. The sheet hung loosely on her on her shoulder but slipped off easily as she raised her arms around Natsuki's neck. The blunette tensed for a moment while being showered with kisses, causing her to blush once more.

"Sh-Shizuru... I umm I can see you."

"Of course you can see me, I'm right here... And I don't intend to leave either."

"Baka! That's not what I meant!" Natsuki was still flushed, trying to look away as to not suffer a nosebleed.

"Mou, Natsuki's turned cold!" Shizuru fake cried as she pulled the sheet back up to accommodate her sitting position, "Now that the moment's over you no longer wish to see all of me. I feel so used..."

Natsuki pouted.

"You know that's not what I meant either!" her semi-annoyed expression quickly faded into a smile again, they were the same as always. She had only realized it afterwards, but there was a possibility it could all change after this. Maybe it had and she just didn't notice, it was early in the morning after all. Natsuki mentally shook herself alert once more.

Our relationship might have changed, moved forward, but we're still the same... I still love her as much as before, if not more.

Shizuru looked around the room, for the first time taking in the breathtaking arrangement Natsuki had made. Her mouth fell slightly agape in a smile before turning back to the blunette.

"Do you know what all of them mean?"

"I know a few, but that's part of the reason why I got one of each. They all symbolize different things, different feelings. I don't know the meaning behind all of them yet but I'll find out as time goes on," she replied sincerely before turning to the food.

Natsuki took a piece of sliced fruit between her thumb and index finger and was about to toss it into her mouth when it was snatched from her. The girl blinked and looked to the side to see Shizuru munching away happily.

"Oi! That was mine!"

"Kannin na Natsuki, but I'm afraid I have not the energy to feed myself this morning."

The blunette just rolled her eyes in light-hearted manner, as if it say "Oh alright if you insist" while taking hold of another piece. She held it up in front of Shizuru's lips, giggling a bit at the ticklish sensation she felt in her fingers when it was accepted. Soon another similar feeling crossed her own lips and Natuski found herself cross-eyed, looking at the slice of watermelon being given to her. When she re-adjusted her gaze forward she saw a chuckling Shizuru extending her arm balanced on her bent knees. The younger girl smirked and took it roughly with her arms folded across her chest and eyes shut in concentration. She peeked out after she swallowed.

"I thought you couldn't feed yourself?" she joked.

"I could for a brief and shining moment and chose to give it to you, but now my weakness has returned. I seem to only become strong if Natsuki feeds me."

Although the blunette's first instinct was to retort the tease, her heart melted when she saw those dreamy crimson eyes staring at her. Natsuki gave in and continued to feed Shizuru piece by piece, in return for being given her share of the breakfast.

About an hour later the two had finished eating, but were still quite reluctant to move through the rest of the day. Natsuki had gotten up for a moment to return the tray to the kitchen and when she came into the room again she was pulled back into bed. She remained still and calm in Shizuru's hold, though stirred when she felt something graze the side of her ear. The girl looked up to see the other weaving one of the flowers into her midnight locks.

Natsuki smiled in thanks.

--0--

Yet another hour later, the pair was still in bed. Every time Natsuki would try squirming her way out of the sheets, Shizuru would punce on her. It turned into a fun game, and the younger girl's somewhat unconscious willpower to keep herself there led her to have less than perfect escape plans. The farthest she ever got was the edge of the bed where a rather inconviniently placed pillow tripped her. Luckily she landed on her feet, though staggering, and hopped away to catch herself on the back of the sofa in the living room.

Shizuru finally gave in with a sigh, she knew that at some point they would have to get back to normality. The day was fading away and Natsuki still had quite a bit of work to do. Composing herself, she slid out of the bed and stood facing the closet opposite it. As she was scanning it and trying to find what clothes to put on, it was at that moment that Natsuki balanced herself and turned around, expecting to be pulled back into bed. Instead she froze, gaping the stunning figure before the fluttery feeling in her stomach flew up to her nose.

"Gah! Put some clothes on!" she yelled while running away to catch herself before the bloodflow started.

Shizuru just blinked at the empty space where Natsuki was a second ago before smiling somewhat childishly.

"What does Natsuki think I am doing then?" she slipped into her outfit, "And why does she run away? Am I unsightly in the mornings?"

"Baka! That's not -" Natsuki clenched her fists and turned around.

But before she could even finish the taller girl had snuck up behind her and pulled the other closer, causing the latter to blush furiously once more. At least she was thankful it was contained to her face and not exploding everywhere.

"If not that," she leaned close to Natsuki's ear, making sure to breathe extra heavily, "Then Natsuki must be a pervert."

In an instant the girl fell to the floor spiral-eyed and red faced, leaving Shizuru to simply giggle playfully. Perhaps she was being too tough on the poor girl, but Natsuki's expressions were priceless to pass up any opportunity to see them in full force. Still, she had put so much effort into this, it was only fair that she be kind in return and refrain from anymore teasing... at least for a little while. Shizuru extended a helping hand to Natsuki who accepted it thankfully and got to her feet.

Together they then collected all of the flowers spread around the bedroom, putting them all in a vase and setting it on the night stand next to their bed. After going through the daily cleaning ritual of doing dishes and folding the laundry Natsuki had brought up from before, they each went to their respective schoolwork.

Natsuki hovered over her blank paper trying to think of fun filled activities. She hadn't expected her first task to be something she was fundamentally bad at. It had come to a point where she was on the brink of laughing hysterically about what she had gotten herself into. The only thing stopping her was the effort it took into not asking Shizuru for advice. While she appreciated it very much, she wanted to do this on her own and prove it. She would follow her own path, while still paying attention to the footsteps of the person she admired.

Suddenly it came to her, just like that her creativity flowed onto the paper in one fulfilling sentence. Natsuki grinned with pride as she held up the paper to read.

"Ask the students?" Shizuru asked aloud, having read it over her shoulder.

"Yeah! I mean, anything I come up with would probably only be fun for me, so to make it the best ever I figure why not find out what they want? It won't take long, I'll just make an announcement and ask them to drop a note off in the office."

It seemed like the perfect plan, especially considering the rather unique dynamic of their school being based on the students' wishes. Natsuki folded the paper over and stuffed it in her schoolbag with the rest of her books before taking out another one. On top of this she had to remember she still had normal schoolwork to do, and especially now she had to keep up her grades; though it wasn't too much of an issue now that she showed up to class. Taking what summer courses she could the previous year also cut down her course load. In any case, her art homework was the new task.

Natsuki opened the book, while it looked like a hardcover novel on the outside, it was actually a small scrapbook. She spun around in her rotating chair and looked around the room, her eyes settling on the vase she had made up. With a pencil in hand and the book rested on her knee the girl got to work.

"Still life?" Shizuru asked, once again looking up from her own work.

Natsuki nodded and continued sketching.

"It's weird, I took an art class because I thought it would be easy to pass but it turned out to be a lot more fun. I never tried drawing much before but apparently the teacher thinks I'm good. What are you working on?"

"Math unfortunately... such a tedious subject considering I will hardly ever use any of it again..."

"Aren't you good at it though?"

"Good enough, but I can't stand the lack of creativity involved... But the sooner I get it done the sooner I can write."

"Ah," Natsuki just nodded again and flipped a page in her book, starting a new drawing coming straight from her imagination, "What are you writing?"

Shizuru looked up in thought for a moment and pondered what to say, her hesitancy causing the blunette to look at her suspiciously.

"It's a secret!" she said with a grin, earning a pout from the girl in front of her, "Don't worry, it's not all that important, just a short story for my literature class. What are you drawing?"

Natsuki toiled with herself whether or not to call Shizuru on the speed which she changed the subject, but soon realized it a most likely just another trick to get her all riled up. She looked down at her book and then held it up for her to see. It was an abstract drawing, not really looking like anything distinctive, but was an in depth view into her mind at the time she was making it. Although with that done Natsuki had finished her work for the day and took the time to watch Shizuru practically drag herself through the load of calculations needed to be done.

She leaned back in the chair and rested her head in her hands that were folded behind her. As much as she wanted to help, Shizuru's university work would be beyond complicated for Natsuki and probably only end up causing her more trouble by having to teach her. Again the blunette sighed and tried to think of a way to cure her boredom. Although until she did she wanted to stay here.

"Though it's sweet, you don't have to wait for me Natsuki," Shizuru mentioned as she worked.

"Oh sorry, am I distracting you?"

"Well..." she looked up with a cheerful bright smile, "Natsuki is always on my mind, so it is no more than usual."

The blunette playfully rolled her eyes and returned the smile before sanding up to head out to the living room.

"I think I'll go play some video games, don't forget to give yourself a break."

Shizuru nodded back and turned to her work again; she was almost finished. She smiled when she heard the generic fantasy noises coming from the adjacent room accompanied by Natsuki's "back talk" to the screen. Quickly she finished up the last of her math work and took a relieved sigh while leaning her head back on the wall. Doing such things tended to give her headaches so re-energizing before writing was crucial. Of course everything that filled her mind afterwards were thoughts of Natsuki which made her happier.

The girl reached into her bag and took out the smaller notebook, opening it to a clean page and readying her writing instrument. It was a journal of sorts, something she had for a long time and always wrote in it when she could. Not only did Shizuru use it to express her thoughts, but it also came in handy for writing. She could always look back on her experiences to get ideas for a story if she needed, thought she never had before. Everything from before she reunited with Natsuki was not happy enough to write a story, but now things were different. Shizuru would write much more often, taking note of all the wonderful things she did every day; immortalizing them and treasuring them.

--0--

Sometime later, Shizuru closed over her book and rested her hand on the cover. The real writing would come later on in the year when the final project was to be handed in. For now she was in the "data collecting" stage. In any case it was enough for one night. The girl stretched and got to her feet, walking towards the room where Natsuki was still busy playing her game. Shizuru leaned down, resting her forearms on the back of the sofa and watching the screen over the girl's head.

A mischevous feeling inside her was begging her to poke the back of Natsuki's head, but it was safest to avoid that. There was probably only one wrath Shizuru feared, and that was the blunette's boss-loss-rage. Instead she just climbed over to sit on the cushions while Natsuki was on the floor as usual. She was content with observing but noticed the save menu pop up before the console was turned off.

"You didn't have to stop just because I'm here," Shizuru tried to explain before she was cut off by a chaste kiss.

Natsuki smiled and moved over to sit next to her girlfriend, taking her hand.

"But I wanted to, I'm going to be really busy this week so I want to make the most of this extra day off."

"Don't forget to take your own breaks too. I always worry about you pushing yourself too hard," Shizuru said, leaning down to rest her head on Natsuki's lap.

"I'll be fine, just wait and see how awesome this is gonna turn out!"

--0--

Omake:

Notori: I've done it! I've come up with a plot!

Natsuki: Okay... Let's hear it...

Notori: ...-awkward silence- I forgot...

Natsuki: Didn't you JUST have it!?

Notori: I did... but now I've forgotten once again...

Natsuki: You're hopeless...

Notori: It had something to do with an OC...

Shizuru: Are you planning on unleashing your original-created Notori into this universe?

Notori: Oh dear goat no! The character Notori must be contained to a universe where killing people is commonplace. Not to mention people would end up thinking it's a self-insert...

Natsuki: -phew-

Shizuru: So who will this OC be?

Notori: I have no idea... though it will most likely be a guy, writing so many "she"s and "her"s in one space gets confusing.

Shizuru: As long as no one tries to separate us I'm fine with it.

Natsuki: Same.

Notori: Wait! I remember who it'll be now! But you have to wait until the next chapter XD

Shizuru: Do I?

Notori: ...-hands her the script-

Shizuru: ...Very... interesting...