The Ordinary Life of Chizuru Yukimura

Disclaimer: Hakuouki isn't mine.

"It has frills."

"I know."

"And a pink rose… Why?!" Heisuke dramatically threw himself onto the table and Chizuru watched as he let out a few loud groans. She had to agree with this reaction; it was an ugly, tacky dress.

Hanging up at the front of the class was one of the dresses that had been made for all the boys (and Chizuru). A black maid dress with puffed sleeves, white apron and pink rose on the collar. Chizuru hated it. Her face probably showed her distaste. This was the sample dress, the others hanging up on a rack in the concealed area at the back of the class.

It was the morning of the cultural festival and none of the guys were happy that they were all going to have to do most of the work whilst the girls sat around and watched. That wasn't what Chizuru and Heisuke were worried about.

"Those dicks are gonna have a field day."

"They're really going to screw with us aren't they?"

"Oh yes. Especially Shin." And someone else… She was glaring at her asshole brother who was currently helping to get the tables ready. He'd been walking around the house looking pleased with himself; it had been just too tempting to throw things at his head.

Chizuru was just pleased they had no club activities for the festival; apparently the kendo club never did anything. Especially when they opened up their café; a lot of people came to laugh at them and as a result, they were rushed off their feet. Well, most of them.

"I'm not going out there! Never!"

"Please get out of there." Chizuru didn't want to have to go out there on her own (she'd only looked out and that had been scary enough) but Heisuke was currently hiding under a box.

"But I look so stupid!"

"You look fine! We all look a little stupid!" The box lifted a little and Heisuke gingerly peered out.

"You look like a girl Ruo, you don't even look wrong!" Damn.

"Hey! It's not my fault I look feminine." Looking offended always seemed to work. Heisuke slowly emerged, standing up and looking very awkward.

"I look stupid right?"

"Well… you look quite… maid like." Similar to her in fact.

"Really?" He looked down at his skinny figure with some dejection.

"It's not the figure…" It was mainly the softened face. He just sighed.

"Shin is gonna be such a dick."

"He's just jealous that you look so good in a dress and he couldn't." Heisuke laughed at this idea.

"I guess that's something… I'm just glad you're here too."

"Yeah… We can do this together."

When they finally got out into the main café area, the place was full and they had to get to work. Chizuru and Heisuke were really quite lucky; some guys looked quite uncomfortable in the undersized dresses. Some of the asshole girls were laughing, the nicer ones were just helping to get food ready. Of course Kaoru was one of the jerks snapping photos on his phone.

Chizuru had expected the kendo club dicks to appear at opening time and so the fact that they weren't yet here had lulled her into a false sense of security.

"Yukimura, friends of yours want you." Bollocks. Her language was really getting worse, even if only in her head. She looked in the direction indicated to see three identical smirks and one blank face in the corner. Heisuke was in another part of the class, stubbornly refusing to look in their direction so she had to move.

"Can I help you?" She made sure to glare.

"I'm impressed. You almost look like a real girl." Souji was grinning whilst Sano stifled a laugh.

"Ha. You're so funny." She was too irritated to be polite.

"I know."

"Having fun Ruo?" Shin looked so pleased with himself, especially when he looked over at Heisuke.

"So much fun."

"I'm not pleased with the service though. I thought maids were supposed to say welcome home master." Sano smirked.

"And they're supposed to smile."

"Well?" Chizuru sighed. And then she put on a fake smile at full beam.

"Welcome home master." The stifled laughter made her cheeks slowly turn red. "You're getting water and then you're leaving."

"Oh come on Ruo!"

"We're supposed to be friends!"

"And Saito didn't do anything."

"He can have whatever he wants then."

"Wow, you have a lot of attitude for a first year."

"You deserve it." And then she huffed off to get them some water; the sooner they had their order, the sooner they'd have to leave.

That was what she had hoped would happen. Instead she was stuck with them for the next two hours whilst they sniggered and took photos. Kaoru wasn't helping with his grinning and commentary on her 'fans'. Heisuke managed to avoid any kind of direct contact with the gang in the corner and she was too nice to make him join in; the poor boy was suffering enough.

The only positive was that they were soon to be going on a break so would get to go and hide out somewhere else.

"Heisuke," she hissed as he entered the back room.

"Gah! Why are you hiding there?!"

"Shhh!" It was likely the group could hear. "We can go on our break now."

"Oh thank god. Let's get out of here." When he started to go back out to the main area, Chizuru grabbed his arm and dragged him back out of sight.

"We can't go out that way!"

"Why not?"

"The guys will see us and follow. We need to go out that way." She gestured to the other door, slightly obscured by the covered area at the back.

"I get you! Good thinking Ruo." Kaoru was watching from where he was readying some cake and sniggering at the sneaking. Chizuru flipped him her middle finger before closing the door behind her.

The hallway was absolutely filled with people, stalls and random clutter. Two 'guys' in drag kind of blended in with the crowds so they didn't attract too much attention as they made their way through the school.

In the end they headed for the kendo club room. It was isolated, quiet and familiar. As usual, a cloud of dust appeared as they entered the room. No matter how much they cleaned, more always appeared. Heisuke slumped by the table and buried his face in his arms, letting out long and miserable sighs. Chizuru perched down awkwardly so that the view up the skirt wasn't too obvious. She didn't want Heisuke to notice she was lacking something.

"I don't think I can deal with this."

"It's ok. We only have a couple of hours left." This encouragement wasn't helping, judging from the wailing.

"I can't do anymore!"

"Aww. But you look so cute." Chizuru and Heisuke swung around to see Sano, Souji and Shin all leaning their heads round the corner and smirking.

"How did you find us?" Heisuke was instantly on his feet and in a defensive position.

"Where else would you hide?" Sano was edging close to Heisuke, Shin going around the other side of the table.

"But how did you know we were on a break?!"

"Shin found out from Ruo's adorable sister." Souji spoke from just behind Chizuru and she slowly turned around to glare at his evil smile.

"What does that mean?"

"He asked where you guys had gone while he was asking her on a date~." Sano was repressing a laugh.

"Shut up guys!" Shin looked momentarily embarrassed but pleased with himself. Oh crap.

"They're going for a nice day out on Saturday."

"How did you hear that?" He swung around to face Souji.

"I heard the day and so I guessed."

"You didn't hear anything else did you?"

"No… So where are you going?"

"As if I'd tell you!"

"How cruel."

"Yeah Shin! You could at least tell your best friends!"

"Yeah! So we can laugh at you!"

"You cannot say anything wearing that."

"Gah! Get off!" Heisuke looked very pathetic in an arm lock, especially as his flailing had no effect on Shin's grip.

"This will be fun to watch later." Chizuru could see Souji holding up his phone and filming the struggle.

"Where's Saito?" She wanted someone half-sensible around. Souji pointed behind them. Saito was indeed, sitting against the wall and eating a piece of Taiyaki. He nodded at her when they made eye contact. "Oh."

"So that's your future brother in law, what do you think?"

"Shut the hell up." She was not in the mood for his crap at the moment. "…Go outside."

"Hmm?"

"Now." Souji raised an eyebrow at her serious expression but shrugged. Clearly he was expecting to be amused.

"Ohh! Ruo's gonna punch Souji!"

"Shut up!" Possibly it was the way she hissed but Shin sort of froze under her glare.

"Should I be scared?" Souji asked as she slid the door shut behind them. He looked bored and sleepy as usual.

"What are you playing at?!" She tried to raise her voice whilst whispering so no one could overhear them.

"What do you mean?"

"You can't let Shin get hurt!"

"I didn't do anything."

"You let him ask Kaoru out!"

"I believe you're implying that Shin can't make his own decisions. How mean." Chizuru bonked him on the head. "Ow…"

"Why didn't you put him off?"

"The only way I could do that is by telling him the truth and I don't think you want that."

"…" He was right and they both knew that.

"Your brother seemed keen too. Maybe he likes Shin?"

"No." It would definitely not be that. "He's probably just enjoying getting away with that too."

"Hmm… Your brother is pretty funny."

"You guys would get on." They were both jerks.

"Oh really?"

"Definitely."

"Is this an insult? It feels like it."

"Might be." Perhaps it was a little harsh; Souji was a tiny bit nicer than Kaoru.

"How harsh. I thought we were friends."

"I prefer you so stop whining."

"Prefer me?" Damn. That sounded kind of suspect.

"I think you're less of a jerk than my brother is what I meant."

"Oh Chizuru." He whispered a little. "That is such a nice compliment from you."

"Don't use that name!" Souji smiled.

"So… Don't you want to know?"

"Know what?"

"Where the date is?"

"You actually know?"

"Obviously. If Shin realised though, he'd change his plans."

"Devious." This guy was clearly an expert.

"Did you want to find out?"

"…Fine." She might as well know.

"They're meeting at midday by the burger place. And then they're going to a film. So cliché but it is Shin so he probably picked it up from a book or something."

"Sounds quite… normal."

"And we're meeting half an hour earlier in the burger place."

"We?"

"Me, Sano and probably Heisuke of course. And you?"

"Why would I go?"

"So we can watch the train wreck as it occurs of course."

"But…" Something seemed wrong about it to her; it was kind of harsh.

"And you can see if your brother is found out?" That part was tempting to her.

"…Are you guys going to ruin it?"

"We're just going to watch and laugh. And drop hints that we watched of course."

"Hmm…"

"Come along if you want. It's hilarious."

I think I'm going to have to… She didn't trust Kaoru to be honest with her if he was discovered; she hadn't told him after all.