Puppy Love

Disclaimer: Mahou Sensei Negima and its characters do not belong to me, but to Ken Akamatsu, the panty shot king.

"Man, this curry was seriously awesome Chizuru-nee-chan!" Kotarou exclaimed before he shoved another spoonful of the steamy concoction into his already full mouth.

Giggling at his voracious appetite, Chizuru gracefully stood up from her chair, placing her plate in the sink to wash. She had finished one plate, while Kotarou was currently on his third. He sure loved to eat, and eat a lot. He was a growing boy; yes, but eating enough for three people…well, it was a good thing Ayaka was a rich heiress.

"I'm glad that you liked it. Would you like fourths?" She asked, holding another plate of heaping curry and rice, the aromatic smell of cumin, peppers, and chicken wafting toward his sensitive nose.

His stomach was telling him that it could barely handle anymore, let alone the monstrous helping that Chizuru was presenting him, but…that SMELL! Going against his better judgment –that and there was probably some antacids in the cabinet- he easily accepted the plate with greedy, outstretched hands. A quick nod of thanks, and he was enthusiastically devouring the food, two seconds after Chizuru gave him the plate, there was probably three or four spoonfuls of curry and rice already in his mouth.

Settling herself down on the opposite side of the ravenous Kotarou, Chizuru leaned against the tables, resting her elbow on the table with her hand cradling her head. A warm smile was on her face as she gazed fondly at the boy. She was used to taking care of children at the daycare, most of them were far younger than Kotarou, but with his table manners, it was a wonder. Regardless, she enjoyed being at the daycare, and she definitely enjoyed watching him eat her homemade food.

"BURP!"

"Excuse me," Kotarou blushed sheepishly, rubbing the bottom of nose as he tried to look innocent of his embarrassing public outburst.

Giggling, Chizuru shook her head as she gathered Kotarou's empty plate, placing it in the sink with her own to wash. Rolling up her sleeves, she cleaned the dishes, softly humming as she set herself to her task.

Kotarou rubbed his stomach in satisfaction, leaning forward to rest after his large meal. Sighing in satisfaction with a stomach full of good, hot food, he quiet set himself to watching Chizuru as she meticulously washed the dishes.

He was content, and even now, he couldn't believe it. It was the feeling of a fresh, hot, homemade meal and warmth of a loving home still foreign to him after all the years of depending solely on himself. Then suddenly 'BAM!' He found himself taken care of by a freakishly large breasted girl who thought it was her divine destiny to take care of him. Not that he was complaining of course.

'CRAAACK! BOOM!'

The sound of the large boom of thunder nearly made Kotarou jump out of his seat, his stance rigid as he unconsciously prepared himself for attack. Realizing it was just thunder, he sheepishly sat back down in his seat, glancing at the window.

"Hmm…Oh my, it's pouring rather hard," Chizuru said in mild wonder, looking out at the window where the raindrops were pounding the window like clear, glass beads. Unbeknownst to the two earlier, the sky had quickly darkened to a murky grey as clouds gathered, covering up the sky. It sprinkled lightly, before it became a torrent, raining on any unlucky being still outside, uncovered.

Every now and then, the sky would light up with the appearance of a crack of either thunder or lightening. It would have been frightening if it were not such a beautiful sight to see the lightning appear in the sky for barely a moment before disappearing into the dark. A moment a camera could rarely capture, but imprinted in the mind the second it disappeared.

"This is sorta familiar," Kotarou said, clamoring toward the window, his face eagerly pressed against the glass windowpane. The heat from his flushed face fogged the window slightly.

"Of course it is silly," Chizuru silently walked closer to him, a hand gently petting his spiky hair, her nails gently raking across his scalp. "It was like this the day we first met. Remember?" She moved her hand away from his hair, amusing herself by gently prodding his cheek, trying to make him remember.

"Oh yeah!" Kotarou sat up, turning toward the brown-haired girl, not before gently pawing her hand away from his face.

"Tee hee, I'm glad you remember. You were such a cuuuuute little puppy," Chizuru gently pinched, just to see Kotarou's reaction.

"Chizuru-nee-chan!" Kotarou blushed for the umpteenth time that day, trying away from Chizuru, but failed miserably so settled himself close to her who smiled happily, as she continued to play with his soft cheeks or raven hair.

For a few seconds, enveloped in a comfortable silence, Kotarou felt at ease. Yet…hearing the unrelenting rain sparked a dim memory.

The rain…

Count Herrmann…

"Chizuru-nee-chan?"

"Yes?" Chizuru murmured absently, her forehead creased slightly in concentration. Her eyes were fixated on his hair as she braided the silky strands of hair into neat braid down the middle of his back.

"Do you…you know, regret helping me that night?" Kotarou nervously fidgeted in his seat, his fingers idly playing with the bottom of his cream-colored t-shirt.

"Of course not!"

Kotarou was about to sigh in relief, that was, until he heard the second part of her sentence that made him nearly fall off of his chair.

"I enjoy helping you with your homework! Besides, I had a little problem with English too, that is, until Negi-sensei helped me," Chizuru chirped, thinking that his question was about the English homework he had last night. She looked up at him shortly, another one of her bubbly smiles on her face before she carefully tied his long, plait of hair with one of her hair ties. Chizuru usually kept one with her when she would have to put up her hair for activities that forced her to tie up her hair, like chasing little kids on a sugar high when they were supposed to be sleeping.

"No, that's not what I meant!" Kotarou huffed in frustration, whipping his head around when he felt Chizuru finish the braid. "I mean…I mean, well umm…" he sighed in frustration as the words that he had been thinking to say, immediately disappeared.

"Now, now, Kotarou, just take a deep breath and try to remember what you were trying to tell me," Chizuru instructed him like she did with one of the young children she took care of. She smiled patiently down at the befuddled boy, her head tilted to the side curiously at what he had to ask her.

Kotarou as instructed, took a large intake of air before exhaling, clearing both his lungs and mind. "That night, you didn't help me with my homework. You helped me…you helped saved me from that weird Count, even though you were…at a disadvantage."

He paused for a second, a feeling of dread pooling at the pit of stomach. It was as if…the Count was punching him in the gut again, but a thousand times over. "Do you…do you regret helping me that night?"

Kotarou slumped back down against his chair, relief that he was able to spit out the question more clearly.

"Eh?" Chizuru blinked at him naïvely. The words that came out of her mouth next nearly made him literally fall out of his seat. "Why should I regret helping you?"

Chizuru always berated him on being careful.

Yet, when her own safely was at sake, for a person she had just met and taken in no less, she was willing to risk her own life to a foe she had no reason to fight with, much less win against.

If Count Herrmann hadn't been using her as mere bait for Neji, in normal situations, she would be dead by now.

It made his blood boil.

"You were nearly hurt by Count Herrmann…" Kotarou balled his fists against his sides. His head looking downward, his long bangs covering his clenched eyes from Chizuru's view, as he continued to voice out his anger, "how could you still want me to live with you after that? Why in God's name would you even want a delinquent living with you?"

Chizuru remained silent for a few moments, her face blank as she looked down at him.

Kotarou cringed at his sudden outburst.

He didn't want to hear her response.

Without warning, he bolted off, running toward his room, and loudly slamming the door behind him. 'I should've lived on my own.'

Pressing his back against his now closed door, Kotarou slid to the floor. His arms resting against his knees, she placed his forehead on his forearms. He held his knees closer to his chest as the scene just seconds earlier replayed in his head over and over again like a bad commercial.

"My chest hurts…"

Outside in the dining area, Chizuru frowned at Kotarou's sudden outburst. Had she said something wrong?

Picking up Kotarou's dish that had been laid on the countertop, forgotten in exchange to watch the show of rain and thunder outside, Chizuru blinked in surprise to see her hand trembling as she held onto the clean white dish.

Looking down at the white dish, Chizuru was surprised to see her expression.

Slowly, her hand touched the lone tear that hung precariously on her cheek.

SS: Blah, more sappy fluff. And here I thought I was a somewhat mediocre writer. With all this angst and sap, I'm borderline n00b. :P Still, from a recent reviewer, Spanner, it has come to my attention that this fic isn't really romantic at all. Rereading my first two chapters, there are slightly romantic implications, but you really have to look close to see them. To me, it's more like he cares for her very deeply. His adoration could easily turn to love with time. Remember, they're still young. I might decide to write a fic when they're older. Maybe when Chizuru's 16, and still vastly taller than Kotarou because I like a few of my pairings like that. -is thinking Hitsugaya and Matsumoto from Bleach- Anyway, with that thought, I changed the genre of it to angst. From this chapter and the next one that will be most likly posted next month, that genre fits best when compared to all the other. Too bad there's no 'fluff' genre, because this is what this fic is basically about. rofl Lastly, as I've mention before numerous times, comments and criticism are much appreciated. Wow, my author comments were really long this time. o.O;