Growing Friendship
by Ranma Inverse



Author's note: I actually wrote this fic a couple weeks ago, but I wasn't sure if I should post it on fanfiction.net or not. Oh well, let's see if I get any reviews. PLEASE review if you read this. If you interpret this fic that way, it could be considered a romance fic between Raiel and Flute, if not, it's just a friendship fic. You choose.
It takes place somewhere after Raiel joins them. Can be considered a cross between the manga and anime personalities of the characters.

Note 2: I wrote this in class when I was bored one day. So sue me. (Don't really!)
. . .

Wind's gently rustled through the green leaves of trees and a young woman dressed in pink closed her eyes to savor the feeling of the cool breeze softly brushing against her cheeks. Two blonde men walked slowly behind her, one with red eyes, the other green.

Smiling, the young woman dressed in pink turned and faced the two young men. "We can rest here for the night, right?"

The one with red eyes yawned and sat down on the grass under a tree, leaning on the trunk of it. "I guess so."

Twin green pools blinked. "Why? We could keep going onwards until nightfall, or until we tire."

"Flute's lazy," the red eyed, blonde man said as he lowered his hat to cover his face.

Flute glared at the one who had made the comment. "You're the lazy one, Hamel!"

Before Hamel could retort, the green eyed young man spoke up. "Don't argue! Please?"


Hamel and Flute stopped.

The brunette turned away from the two men. "Well, I'm going to take a bath--"

She stopped and almost hit herself over the head for mentioning it as she heard Raiel's head hit the ground and Hamel rush over to stop the bleeding and to clean up what had already left his nose.

"Sorry, Raiel," Flute apologized and headed for the small lake they had passed a few minutes earlier.

. . .

She grumbled as she swam in the cool water. Why did Raiel act like that every time? Surely he didn't think about that sort of thing everytime he heard someone was going to take a bath, so why her?

Why did he nosebleed everytime she was going to take a bath?

The brunette girl sighed.

She should stop thinking about something to which she would never know the answer.

Flute closed her eyes and lost herself in the refreshing feeling of the water flowing against her skin.

. . .

"Don't you think that it's been a long time since Flute went to take a bath?"

Hamel blinked, lifted the hat he wore up enough so that he could see his blonde friend and shrugged. Raiel stood up, a worried expression upon his face. "I'm going to look for her!" and with that, he turned and headed towards where Flute had headed, calling her name.

"Flute! Flute!" Raiel called worriedly. When he came across the lake, his eyes widened and his skin paled at the sight.

Floating in the middle of the lake, nude, lay Flute, unmoving and eyes closed. Her expression seemed calm, her hair strewn about her.

The blonde young man took a deep breath, removed his hat and the piano he carried on his back before diving into the lake and swimming to Flute.

When he reached her, he took the brunette into his arms and swam back to shore.

Raiel layed her out on the grass and blushed when his mind finally registered her lack of clothes.

Ignore that! Raiel thought and looked at Flute once more. She was unconscious. Did she need air? That must be it! Raiel lowered his head to hers and pressed his lips to hers, forcing air into her.

Brownish eyes shot open and Raiel jumped back. Flute raised a hand and blinked. "Did I fall asleep?" The pianist sweatdropped.

"Asleep?! I thought you had nearly drowned!"

"Is that why you kissed me?"

Raiel nodded, then blushed. "Uhm, where did you put your clothes?"

Flute, who had sat up, looked at herself. Her eyes widened and she let out a screech of horror. She ran into the bushes to hide herself from Raiel's view before pointing and talling him where her clothes were.

He got them hurredly and handed them to her as she dressed. Finally, he handed her hat to her and Flute stepped out of the bushes.

He blinked at the serious expression on his new female friend. "...Raiel," she began.

"What is it?"

"Do...do you..."

"Do I what?"

"Nevermind," Flute shook her head and smiled half-heartedly.

Raiel wanted to press further, but felt that he shouldn't. He put on a smile in return and pointed back the way they had come. "We should get going. Hamel might get worried."

A snort. "Hamel, worried?"

The blonde sweatdropped. "He isn't that bad!" he defended his childhood friend.

"I bet he fell asleep." Flute remarked.

As they reached the small clearing where they had set up camp, Flute pointed to Hamel's sleeping form as Raiel sweatdropped once again, something to which he was beginning to do often as of late.

"Told you so."

"He probably just drifted off to sleep because he was tired. I'm sure he was worried about us at least a little bit."

His female friend kept the doubtful expression on her face as she lay down on the grass and used her hat as a pillow while she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep. Raiel soon followed her example.

Hamel opened one eye and grinned, his face hidden under his hat. "They're beginning to get along alot better."