The Contents of a Stolen Laptop
By DrummondType2
Disclaimer: I don't own Mai-HiME. This is a fan work, and not for profit.
Three months ago, Shizuru Fujino's laptop had been stolen. She had been collecting various items from the passenger seat of her car, when two very large men had shoved her to the ground. One of them had then seized her purse and her laptop from the seat, and run at top speed from the scene. The other man had been less fortunate. Shizuru had been caught off guard by the initial attack, but she was well versed in self-defense, and the man who had shoved her to the ground found himself tripped up by her long legs. She then delivered a blow to his jaw that had left him stunned while she called for the police.
She'd reported the theft, and canceled all of her cards, and then filed the paperwork to replace her driver's license. There had been ¥50,000 in her purse, which she wasn't happy about, but it wasn't the end of the world. The laptop had been insured, and was replaced. She'd been careful to save her important documents to a cloud server, and so was able to retrieve the bulk of her graduate thesis and after an all nighter, restore the progress she'd lost and turn it in on time.
She'd also had to endure a mild but loving lecture from Natsuki on the importance of situational awareness, and then a slightly sterner lecture from her Father on the same subject. But both her girlfriend and her Father were relieved that she hadn't been badly hurt, and commended her on capturing at least one of the assailants.
And that had, Shizuru thought at the time, been the end of it. They'd gotten the name of the man's accomplice from him in exchange for a lenient sentence. But the accomplice had already exchanged the contents of her purse and her laptop to a drug dealer for his wares, and he didn't know the name of his dealer.
It had seemed like an unfortunate one-off incident that she took great care not to have repeated.
Unfortunately, the saga of the stolen laptop was not over, yet.
It was mid-afternoon, and the rays of the sun through the window of Shizuru's office were taking on an orange-gold tone, when she saw the news report. She'd been watching Nikkei CNBC to get the latest stock information, when she heard the anchor begin a report that left her in a state of near panic.
"And it has been confirmed by outside sources that the photographs published in Asahi are, in fact, the daughter of business mogul Shinnosuke Fujino, Shizuru Fujino, as well as a young woman that is believed to be the daughter of Genichiro Kuga of Kuga International Trading. Sources close to the pair confirm that they are, in fact, in a relationship, and one can only wonder if any other types of mergers are in the future…"
Shizuru nearly broke the power button on the remote, shutting off the television. She didn't have to ask which pictures. She knew perfectly well. She'd been the one who had taken them. They were meant to be playful mementos, a little private fun.
There was the picture of a bleary-eyed Natsuki blushing at her from the bed as they woke up one morning. One of Natsuki stretched out, topless, on a very hot day when it was just the two of them, her brand new puppy, Jaeger, resting on her outstretched toes. And there were a couple of the two of them, taken with the judicious use of a timer, wrapped around each other in bed, kissing.
A quick web search confirmed her worst fears. It was indeed the candid shots of the two of them.
She slumped into her desk chair. She had promised Natsuki that the laptop was a safe place to store the images, because she'd wanted to keep something to remind her of Natsuki on those long days when she was stuck in the office. She'd assured her that she wouldn't keep them in the cloud server, so no one could find them. She'd told Natsuki that keeping them in a hidden folder on her laptop was safer than taking the physical copies with her. She had told Natsuki, shy, shockingly demure, private Natsuki that no one other than the two of them would EVER see those images.
And now, here they were, splashed all over the nightly news and published in what was only THE most popular tabloid magazine in all of Japan!
Shizuru reached for her phone and began to dial Natsuki's number, when she paused. What would she tell her? That the photos that had been meant for only the two of them were now on display for public consumption? Shizuru didn't care that the rest of the world saw her in the all-together. But Natsuki was so self-conscious. This was the girl who got flustered when having to shower with the other girls in gym. For her to be on full display to all of Japan…
"She must be curled up in a ball, her face as crimson as my eyes," Shizuru reflected. Such an image would usually have her salivating, but now, instead, it had her heart pounding madly in her chest with frantic worry. What words of comfort or apology could she offer to Natsuki, when all of her promises in being permitted to capture such images on film had been broken?
Shizuru decided that she couldn't go home that night. She couldn't face Natsuki. She could face the look of utter betrayal and hurt that her lover must have right now. Shizuru knew that look. She'd seen it once before, during the dark days of the Carnival, when Natsuki had learned of Shizuru's affections in the worst possible way.
And this time, there was nothing she could do. No magical powers. No Element. No CHILD. She couldn't just slaughter the whole of the Japanese news and tabloid systems. The images were out there for general consumption now. What could she do to be forgiven for this? What could she do to make it right? She drew a blank, and she also knew she couldn't face Natsuki without answers to those questions.
She called for a company car, leaving her own in the garage. She then booked a room in a hotel under an alias, and went to spend the night. She ordered room service, and then went to figure out what was to be done.
There was a knock at the door, and Shizuru went to collect her meal, even though she wasn't actually hungry.
"Natsuki!" She gasped in surprise and alarm when she saw her at the door instead of a member of the hotel staff.
Natsuki entered the room wordlessly, and then shut and locked the door behind her. She took Shizuru's hand, and led her over to the bed.
"Sit down," Natsuki commanded in a still voice.
"Natsuki, I…"
She felt a shove. Not a rough push, but a gentle nudge, really, and the backs of her knees hit the mattress, and she fell into a sitting position.
Natsuki sighed, "I said 'sit down', Shizuru."
She then sat next to Shizuru on the bed, an arms' length away.
~~ Close enough to slap me, after she's had her say~~ Shizuru observed.
"You didn't come home," Natsuki said. It wasn't an accusation. It was a simple statement of fact.
"No," Shizuru admitted to the bare fact before them.
There was a flush to Natsuki's cheeks, "I was worried."
Shizuru fidgeted, "I'm sorry. I wanted to call you…but I couldn't find the right words."
Natsuki scoffed, but there was a tiny smile on her face, "The right words? C'mon, Shizuru…what does that even mean?"
"Natsuki, I betrayed your trust! Again! I caused you public embarrassment and humiliation! How am I supposed to face you until I can figure out what it is that I can say or do to make it right!?!"
Shizuru couldn't see through the tears, now, and so it caught her a bit by surprise when she felt those arms around her shoulders, pulling her close, and those soft lips on her forehead, and that husky voice breathing out a strangely amused and exasperated, "Idiot."
"Ikezu, Natsuki," Shizuru wiped at the tears from her eyes, no teasing tone to her voice, "You're always too kind, too forgiving, to me…"
"That's sort of how our relationship works, though," Natsuki spoke softly into her ear, "You mess up, do something crazy, and then I forgive you for it.
"And for the record, Shizuru, I let you take those pictures. I'm just as much to blame for their existence as you are. And you didn't put them out there. Whoever cracked the password on your laptop did. And we'll deal with that later. But do you know what crazy, stupid thing you did, this time?"
Shizuru sniffed a bit, shaking her head.
"You didn't come home. Haven't you learned after all these years that I'm always going to be there for you?"
"Kannin-na," Shizuru bowed her head, "I was afraid…"
"So was I," Natsuki said, "I was afraid you were off to do something drastic! Like maybe hunt down all of the publishers in Japan!"
"Ikezu!" Shizuru repeated, but this time with a bit of a chuckle, "I am a little more forward thinking than that, at any rate."
Natsuki grinned, "Are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you checked yourself in to this gorgeous hotel room with a beautiful view of the Inland Sea, and then you only ordered room service for one? Tsk tsk tsk…"
"Natsuki…how did you find me? I checked into this hotel under an alias!"
Natsuki looked up and away, "Well, um…after those guys robbed you, I went to see your Dad. I told him who I was, that we'd been living together…"
Shizuru blanched, "You didn't!"
"Did. And it turns out he already knew. He keeps a watchful eye on his little girl, after all. Anyway, I told him that the next time, it might be a kidnapping. I…um…I may have gone into his office uninvited and demonstrated my martial arts skills on his private security, by the way…"
Shizuru smirked, "May have?"
"Anyway…I told him it could be a kidnapping, next time. And so I asked him to give me the means to find you, should the need arise. There's a GPS device in the soles of your shoes. It's how he kept tabs on you."
"And so when I didn't come home or call, you used that to find me," Shizuru concluded.
"Yeah."
Shizuru gave a short laugh, "Aren't we a pair?"
"Sure are," Natsuki said, easing Shizuru back onto the bed and laying on top of her with a catlike smile, "So remember that the next time you feel like running away. We're a pair. And I'm not going anywhere without you."
"What about room service?" Shizuru murmured as Nastuki began giving her playful kissses.
"Ate it already," Natsuki smirked, "You owe me ¥1,000 for the guy's tip, by the way."
"First I owe room service another ¥2,000 yen for his tip!" Shizuru feigned being appalled, "Fifteen percent is customary, Natsuki!"
"Hoity toity snob," Natsuki teased.
"Uncouth delinquent," Shizuru purred in reply.
Awhile later, they were laying in each other's arms, "So, Natsuki, what do we do about the pictures?"
"Well, I've had to decline a few offers to do model photography," Natsuki said, "But other than that? Own it. They're ours, they were supposed to be private, and whoever gave them to Asahi received stolen property. Miyu is already tracking down who sold them to the tabloids in the first place."
"I suppose. And what else?"
"Well," Natsuki rose to sit, hugging her knees, and grinning at Shizuru all cozy in the sheets, "From now on, we keep moments like this as mental images so that no one can take them from us. C'mon, I'm still hungry. I swear, you rich people and your overpriced miniscule portions. Let's shower and we can head out and grab a real bite to eat."
"We're bound to get stares, with those pictures out there," Shizuru pointed out.
"Let 'em look," Natsuki smiled, "It'll just confirm that you're dating me. Let 'em find their own cute girlfriends."
"Fufufu. So Natsuki is my 'cute girlfriend'? At my age that makes me sound a bit nefarious."
"So? Everyone knows that about you already," Natsuki grinned.
She received a pillow to her face, "Ikezu!"