Disclaimers: Obviously, Ruka does not belong to me either.
Author's Note: I'll be updating whenever I can and when the muse strikes. I think I've also been suckered into writing an Utena musical...mostly due to my own nagging and listening to "I can't say no" while I was writing this and realizing it was perfect for Kanae. ^^;;;;;
~~~~~~
The third day after Akio had asked her to get rid of them, Kanae still had the lilies. She was a bit nervous as she glanced at them. She really needed to throw them out before Akio saw. She didn't think he'd be very pleased.
Since the school day was over and they weren't going to leave of their own volition, she decided that rather than destroy them, she'd put them in the greenhouse. Akio didn't spend anytime there so they wouldn't cause him any problems.
Sadly, the lilies were wilting anyway. She blamed herself, of course. She had never been good at taking care of anything or anyone in her opinion.
She propped the door open with her foot as she carried the two pots outside into the hallway.
~~~~~~
"What's with the lilies? Did someone die, Kanae-chan?"
The smooth tenor voice behind her made no effort to disguise its owner's amusement.
She knew the voice without turning around. It was Ruka. He had been rather sick lately and consequently held back a year. If it bothered him, he didn't show any signs of it.
In the back of her head, she thought she remembered a time when he had been....dead..but...no, that couldn't be. She would have remembered.
She looked back over her shoulder and shook her head smiling. "No, Ruka-san. No one died."
Ruka brushed a strand of powder blue hair out of his face and smirked.
"Then why lilies?"
He took one of the plants from her before she could answer.
"Aa....they're not doing well at all," he said frowning slightly, eyes glinting.
He looked up at her with the same concern as he had given to the wilting flowers. His eyebrows furrowed and he bit his lip before going back to the flowers. Kanae found herself wondering what he had been about to say, but it must not have been important.
He smirked playfully. "You still haven't answered my question."
"Ano, I just thought they were pretty, but they need to go. Akio-san is allergic to them."
"Hn," Ruka said looking at the lilies then over at her again.
Kanae found herself blushing under his scrutiny then blushing as a result of being embarrassed in the first place. She sighed. Ruka was after all a pretty shameless flirt.
He threw his head back and chuckled as she continued to flush.
"Sometimes, if you'll forgive me for saying it, I think it's too bad Ohtori-san isn't allergic to you, Hime-chan," he said after awhile.
She looked down at the lilies she was still holding and smiled gently attempting to hide it among the slender ivory petals.
Ruka took them from her and pretended to stagger under the meager weight of the two pots. "So. Where are these monstrosities supposed to go?"
~~~~~~
The lilies had begun to fade the day Kanae's mother had slapped her. Kanae had been playing the piano in the downstairs study while she had been upstairs napping.
Kanae had run off from the house as fast as a twelve-year-old girl could. Her mother, still angry, had made no effort whatsoever to try and stop her.
Her white dress was torn and her legs scratched and sore when she was stopped by a bunch of boys on bikes. They had been sitting under a tree throwing cans at squirrels and making general nuisances of themselves when they spotted her.
They zoomed in front of her and she had barely seen them through her tears. When she had wiped them away, she noted the leers on their faces which emphasized that they were older than her by several years.
She sniffed and regarded them suspiciously trying to find a way around them.
One boy moved in front of the others and stared at her with piercing emerald eyes. "Where are you going, Hime-chan?"
Princess.
The other boys snickered at her.
Kanae was too hurt from her mother's anger to articulate her annoyance. She turned around and began to walk the other way.
"Oi, Hime-chan!" said the emerald-eyed boy riding after her. "Too good to talk to us?"
The others laughed and started making fun of her family. Assuming correctly that she was Ohtori.
Kanae felt she ought to be angry, but the remarks were too true to cause her to do anything but cry.
"Oi," came another far younger boy's voice from Kanae's right. "What are you idiots up to?"
Kanae brushed back green curls and tears to eye the blue-haired boy who was about her height and she assumed around her age.
The older boys chuckled and the green-eyed one sneered at him.
"Ah, so you do have a little friend, Hime-chan," he said riding over to the newcomer's side.
The blue-haired boy smirked, eyes glinting with amusement, making him seem older than his appearance indicated. "Hai. And you know what else?"
His voice lowered and his eyes narrowed almost threateningly.
The older boy shrugged with indifference and leaned in. "What?"
No one there including Kanae and the older boy had expected the square upper-cut to his jaw or the sickening crack that caused the rest of the boys to vanish.
"Nobody should make a princess cry," the blue-haired boy said kicking the fallen teen in the stomach.
Kanae found herself blushing when he moved over the whimpering boy to her side.
"You okay?"
She nodded silently, green eyes sparkling with gratitude.
She bowed gently, "My name is Kanae Ohtori."
He bowed curtly. "My name is Ruka Tsuchiya."
He gave her a more innocent smile that made him look more like the twelve-year-old child he was before taking her hand.
"Here, I'll walk you home, Hime-chan."
~~~~~~
The greenhouse looked horrendous, overgrown with untended, wilting roses and weeds of various shapes and sizes. There was little room for Kanae and Ruka let alone her lilies.
She sighed.
"Himemiya-san took care of this place," Ruka said kicking at a weed.
"She..hasn't been gone this long," Kanae said wrinkling her nose and glancing around the greenhouse.
Ruka frowned, "Ohtori-san needs someone to take her place."
Kanae pondered the ominous tone of his voice, but decided that she would have to take care of this abandoned garden and it dying roses.
~TBC~