Candy Corn Weakness?
I couldn't look at Toshiro. Nor did I really want to. And ever since that night, I really couldn't get that feeling out of my head. It was as if he and I had done something unthinkable. All I knew was that he may have looked old, but he was just like me; innocent to these strange feelings. The only thing I was sure of was that I was 12. And he was not real. I couldn't be feeling these things because I was too young. I didn't want these rage of feelings bombarding my pure self; didn't want to develop the perverted mind of an adult. But my youthful self would eventually fade, I supposed. But puberty seemed to explode into my life so very quickly...I wanted to brush away the fact I was starting to fantasize about him, and about what could happen in the future. As he became more aware, I began to grow physically and mentally since that night; closer to him and farther away from everything I knew. I kept away from him. Because I couldn't get more involved than I already had.
And also because he didn't exist, and my shared innocence with him was just that. What I felt was my uncontrolled hormones. And what he felt was just a programing that were put into him by REM to stir the fire.
With every passing day of volunteering I tried my best to come up with excuses so that I didn't have to go into REM. But there was no avoiding it when I had a modeling shoot.
In The Game
I materialized in the back room of Maid's Healing and jumped up at the surprise of Toshiro sitting, cross-legged, on the ground in front of me. His eyes were bored and his palm was on the cheek.
"Finally logging in after 5 days?" he asked.
"You mean, you've been online? But that's not possible-" I began.
"I wish it weren't possible," Sweetheart began, her diminutive body appearing in the doorway. "That annoyance of an NPC has been online 24/7."
"Huh? How can that be?" I asked. He should only appear when I login...
"They've been stuck with him since I removed his position as your pet," A voice said.
I turned to see LuvLuv brushing her hair out of her face and gazing at everyone through her pale eyes.
"Player LuvLuvCandy1 has logged in. Moderation of player Kurai-Hime will commence," The announcer informed.
LuvLuvCandy1 was still moderating me whether she wanted to or not. Over the past week she had become quite aggravated with me; as did I. But I suppose there were things we had in common. We both thought Toshiro extremely annoying.
"So that means.." I began, my voice fading out to the realization of what LuvLuv explained.
"Toshiro is like any other player now," Yuzu said, "Hehe, before you know it they'll be a person behind his programing." She said hopefully; as if attempting to kill any excuses I had for not liking Toshiro. It was pretty evident, though, that he was just too annoying to like. Or maybe I just wasn't being honest with myself..And on that night maybe he and I were being truthful...
"What are you doing?" I questioned as I saw the tip of a red ribbon hanging over the side of the counter. My account finally finished loading and I was able to smell a sweet, nauseating cherry scent from the kitchen.
"Oh, it's the event next week, didn't you read the REM updates?" Yuzu questioned.
"That again. So now they're doing it for Halloween?" I asked.
"Duh," Ayame said, strolling through the doorway in her usual "I'm so much better than you" stride.
"What's the event?" Toshiro asked.
"Your databases have classified it as the 'corn-husking.' It's an event based off of the corn-husking parties that the American colonial people used to have after a large harvest of corn. They would peel the corn husks away while gathered around a fire. The town would get the work done while they conversed and had fun.
"The event is the simple dubbing given to the corn-husking by the employees and managers of the businesses of REM. This is because the event is considered a nuisance among those occupations because of the way REM's corn-husking works. An internationally celebrated holiday is randomly selected and is chosen as the event in which all businesses of REM participate in a contest. They must preform a task and not be deemed the last place; for if they do, that business is eliminated as it is not useful to REM. It's a yearly cleanup duty that the REM founders do every year, just for kicks," LuvLuv explained, sitting down in one of the cafe chairs and crossing her legs.
"So then, what's the event on?" I asked, cracking my fingers and preparing for work.
"We have to make candy for the Halloween Trick or Treating," Yuzu began.
"Seriously? They're having a Trick or Treating celebration on here?" I said, surprised.
"You would have known about these things if you took your shifts like you were supposed to. All businesses are required to forge 350 pieces of candy in order to stay above the 'line of failure,' and to insure that they are not deleted from the game," Ayame said impatiently.
"It's already been decided that everyone else takes orders while you and Toshiro finish making the rest of the candy," Ichigo said, walking into the kitchen to give an order out the our NPC cook.
My eyes widened. WHAT!
"We have done 267 candies; use the time you guys have alone to resolve whatever love quarrel you two had," Sweetheart said as she lugged over a few containers of ingredients and stood on her tip-toes in order to set them on the table.
I blushed, "W-what?"
I turned to Toshiro, enraged by the assumption that he had told everyone what happened. It wouldn't be a stretch seeing as he had no common sense. And as I sent my hand crashing down on him, I stopped as someone spoke.
"Why else would she be avoiding Toshiro all these days," Ichigo laughed.
I whirled around,"T-that's not-I was sick!" I defended.
"Yeah, yeah." Sweetheart said, dismissing my excuse.
I blushed and tried to get off the topic of my reasons,"But why can't you guys do it?" I asked.
"We have to go sabotage that guy that stuck you and Toshiro's picture in that teen Magazine, Ichigo said.
"And this is the perfect time to leave you with all the work. Since you've been slacking, we won't feel guilty," Yuzu said.
My head dropped by how bubbly she still sounded making such a comment.
I sighed and slid my eyes in Toshiro's direction. This was going to be annoying.
I grabbed the chocolate in my fist and shoved it in the bowl, hastily smashing it with the hammer. I bashed the chocolate over and over and over, aggravatingly expressing my embarrassment for the fact that my intentions the past week were so obvious. Toshiro looked at my demon-like aura and my smashing of the chocolate and back away. He looked down and didn't talk to me for awhile; only mincing the strawberries quickly with a meat knife. All that was heard in the room was the faint sizzling of the caldron where the other ingredients were being cooked.
I glanced at Toshiro from the corner of my eye and took his measure for a quick moment. Once again, he seemed completely different from the usual Toshiro. His programmings for cooking made him look effortlessly cool. His eyes were closed as he carelessly chopped a strawberry and went onto the next.
Then, the buzzer for the caldron's heating went off and Toshiro's steady chopping suddenly fell off track as his eyes lifted up with the sound and his head turned toward the caldron; with his head went the knife.
Uncool, suddenly. His knife came crashing down on his finger, but just as he turned back, he swiped the knife clean away from his finger; grazing it ever so slightly. He brought his index finger, spilling with a thin sheet of scarlet red blood, to his mouth... My cool meter suddenly turned back on. He stuck his finger in his mouth and bordered it on the edge of his teeth so that his tongue could wipe away the blood.
Suddenly, he noticed me staring at him from the corner of his eye and I turned away, coughing slightly. I proceeded to mashing my chocolate once more in an awkward, off beat pattern; my head was too full of fantasies to focus on mashing rhythms.
"Kurai-Hime," He said suddenly, putting the knife down and turning toward me.
Kurai-Hime? Not master? I mean— not like I liked it when he called me that..I just thought that was the first time he'd ever called me by my name...Well my username. But somehow it just felt weird to be called that...
"The other night, I—I should not have done what I did. It might have been awkward for you; as I thought, being my previous master may have been the reason why I seemed to have a strange attachment to you. However, I should not have acted upon those feelings. I apologize," he began.
I stared at him for a few moments and then burst out laughing. A clueless expression came across his face and his head tilted as if he were a confused dog. I began to start crying from the look on his face.
I wiped the tear from my eye and smiled faintly, "You think I was uncomfortable because you were my pet?"
"Well is there any alternate reason?" he questioned.
"I don't kiss people often, you know," I laughed.
"Why is that? Two weeks ago there were men all over you," he said logically.
"Toshiro, you don't seem to get that I'm not the same offline. I'm much younger in my world; young enough to have never had a kiss. In fact, the first time was with you and I thought it was kinda gross at first but-" I stopped after I found myself becoming side tracked.
Now the tables were turned; he was now the one staring at me, surprised by everything.
"I forget that you're from a different world.." he said finally, looking down.
"You make it sound like I'm an alien," I laughed.
He was silent as he thought about everything. Toshiro walked over to the caldron and stirred it a few times. I walked over beside him with my bowl of chocolate and sat it next to him so he could dump it in the caldron. I resumed his place cutting the strawberries while he began to mix the other ingredients.
I sliced down the tip of a strawberry as he began slowly, "So, how old are you—in the other world, that is?"
"Twelve." I said, slicing another piece of the strawberry off.
He staggered back against the island in the middle of the kitchen and bumped his head on the pots hanging from the ceiling as his widened eyes melded with his confused and weakened stance.
"That's...Really young!" he mustered through his surprise.
I giggled and let him freak out for a little bit before saying, "And how old are you supposed to be?"
"My intended age is of a 19 year old young adult male," he explained, through a surprised tone.
I dropped the knife and felt my knees buckle as I dropped to the floor, half laughing and crying.
"I can't believe you were that old!" I laughed, "That's got to be sexual harassment!"
"I didn't think you would be that young, to be honest." he admitted.
"That just goes to show you, that I'm just as clueless as you are about some things..Can't be your teacher for everything," I continued, comically hinting his and my first meeting.
He got up and continued to stir the caldron without responding; only a flicker of a smile was barely visible on his face. I ran over our conversation and his expressions; day by day he was starting to learn rapidly and mimicking everyone else...He was starting to get less like a little brother and more...More like someone I wouldn't mention without a fan nearby to cool me down.
I pressed my hands on the ground and tried to hoist myself up only to be greeted by a sharp prick that sliced vertically across my palm. I looked down to see the fallen knife beneath my right hand.
"Ah," I half panted and gasped as I lifted up my hand, bleeding and raw from the thin layer of skin that the knife had successfully peeled off.
"What's wrong?" he asked, turning around to see me gripping my hand tight.
"It's ok, it only hurts a little bit," I said as he rushed over and grabbed a cloth to wrap around my hand.
He silently tended to my wound for awhile before saying, "Then if you can't teach me, can I have a teacher?" he asked.
"What?" I asked.
"I-I mean, if you don't want to, it's fine. We can still uphold our agreement from when we first met I just-"
"No, what are you talking about?"
"You mentioned not being able to teach me some things, I was wondering then...If I could get a teacher." he proposed.
It took me a second to process his words, but then my face lit up with a smile as I began, "That's a great idea!"
"Really?" he asked.
"Of course! You really do need to catch up on a lot of things; I'll find someone in my world to come and teach you!" I suggested.
"Seriously?" he questioned. Now he's using figures of speech?
I nodded.
He wrapped a cloth around my hand one finally time, and then set my hand down in my lap, but still kept hold of it.
"Then maybe we could learn together," he said, looking down. I could have sworn I saw him blushing underneath his hair.
I giggled a bit by his innocence, but blushed as well, and awkwardly cut off the laugh.
"There are things that I'd rather not learn right now," I said in earnest.
Out of Game
"Hikari, straighten up your stance! Kurosaki, don't kick so hard, your partner can't handle it!" the Captain advised.
I snorted and slammed the ball forward, planting it firmly in the skull of my soccer partner, "It's not as though I'm trying to hit it hard." I mumbled to myself. As I tapped off some mud that my cleats had picked up while sweeping up the ball.
This was just your typical soccer practice. I had joined the boy's soccer team after my excessive strength overpowered that of the others on the girl's team. Ironically, however, I still couldn't vent my full power onto that of even the boy's team. Never the less, the Boy's did get a lot more things than the girls. That's because they'd won a lot more awards. They even had their own soccer field. Somehow I felt as though everyone on the team owned it as their place. I didn't know what other people thought..But the smell of the fresh dew and bitter grass always calmed me; it was the smell of the field.
"Why don't you try to kick lighter then," I heard a voice say right by my ear.
I turned to see two blue eyes staring at me through spiky brown bangs. Two ocean blue eyes glittered slightly with a chilling intensity, and just by seeing those eyes I knew who was speaking to me.
"Understood, Captain," I sighed.
"What's with the sigh?" he laughed, slapping his hand on my shoulder and powerfully pushing me down, without effort.
His strength almost brought me to my knees as I glared at him through a spread out stance. His effortless push on me was probably him saying, "you're not the only one with strength."
"What's with the glare?" he laughed, "Your shoulder hurt?"
I snorted, "Nope..." but winced as the pain grew.
"You have to adjust for other people," he said, taking his hand off my shoulder and using a nearby soccer ball at his feet. He back up and gently tapped the ball to my partner who caught it with ease.
The Captain turned back and smiled through his perfect lips. A smile that warmed my insides and brightened up the whole muddy practice field. I stared at him with his brown, spiky hair that stuck out in a messy tufts that were surprisingly fitting and cool.
I had known him only remotely, outside of soccer practice. But with time, I became interested in the fact that he would never judge me for my gender. Eventually the team captain and I became surprisingly close. But on the soccer field, friendship was not the goal in mind. And even though the whole team was close, we did not ever gather to converse and laugh like the girl's soccer team. We came to train. To get better and to improve mentally and skillfully.
The ball was kicked back to him and he slammed is foot back down on the ball and began, "Adapt to the weaker ones."
Did he just insult my partner by saying he was one of the "weaker ones" or did he just compliment me?
He watched me for the rest of the practice and I felt the pressure of his gaze on me; I was afraid to slip up. But when I did, he was never angered, only kind. He would always assist me with patience. He was a really good teacher; I wish he could be one of my school teachers.
He was 3 years older than me; 15 years old and the top student of the 9th grade class. Sometimes he was rather dense when it came to girls. I guess I thought that about him because he ignored the fact of gender and didn't react differently toward girls that liked him. I'd seen it, girls that liked him being totally let down by his blunt friendliness with them. He was like that toward everyone—he acted like their best friend regardless of who they were.
After practice was over, I slung my soccer ball over my shoulder and panted with the sweat and success of the day. Soccer always let me relax.
As people began to slowly heard away from the field I heard,"Kurosaki! Come here!" the Captain called.
I bit my lip and wondered if I should make up an excuse to leave. After all, Ichigo might have a fit if I was late for work today.. I stopped and turned around; still and pondering if I should walk forward. He didn't give me the choice, and he walked up to me instead.
With his tall body towering over me, pouring with sweat and an obvious attractive wetness to him, I started to get uncomfortable. Curse these stupid hormones!
He looked down for a brief moment and opened his mouth to say something to me. But he was interrupted by someone behind him.
"Um, Captain," a boy intruded, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but my mom is waiting for me. I heard that you're tutoring people for free..Is there any chance you could help me with math?" he asked.
The Captain turned to him and smiled, "What class?"
"Pre-algebra.." he muttered, his voice wavering.
The Captain put his hand on the boy's head and ruffled up his hair, "Smart boy, huh? Alright, I'll talk to your mom next practice." he began, "Now go on, she's waiting for you right?"
The boy's face lit up as he nodded and scurried away after thanking the Captain. Then something in my brain clicked.
"Sorry for the interruption-" the Captain began, turning back to me.
"Captain! Can I please ask you a favor?" I exclaimed suddenly. He's perfect. He's perfect!
"What's that?" he asked.
"Can you please tutor a friend of mine?"
"...Sure. On what subject?"
"Well..Sort of..All of them." I admitted.
"Huh?"
I looked up at him with a determined look in my eye, "Please, I said I'd find him a teacher!" I begged.
"Whoa, slow down," he laughed, "I never said I wouldn't do it."
My face lit up as bright as the stars, "He's sort of a different student-"
"We can discuss the details later, I want you to be able to get home soon," he explained.
"Oh right.." I began, "What was it you wanted me to talk about?"
He smiled faintly and gently began, "A lot of the guys find it hard to concentrate with you..." He paused, hoping I'd catch on.
"Consider it payment for your friend's tutoring.." He said, drawing in closer to me and whispering in my ear, "Wear a bra."
I turned scarlet red and looked down at my chest where two little bumps poked out of my soaked shirt.
I snapped and forgot that he was my Captain for a moment, "Ah you perv!"
I grabbed my soccer ball and swung it at his head. He stepped backward so that the ball would simply glide through to air. "I'm not the one protesting," he defended, "like I said; adapt to your team."
"Flipping boys and their perverted minds," I said, in a rambling mumble.
Embarrassed, I suddenly noticed that the Captain's greatest weakness was one of his best traits. The fact that he treated everyone equally meant that he could be betrayed easily and that he could miss a lot of signals people would send. But the fact that he treated girls and guys equally made me feel as though everyone on this Earth always has a friend as long as someone like him was around. By the discovery of this, I could only be happy.
I smiled, "Come on Hairo," I encouraged, "I know you live near by; Let's walk home together. I'll tell you about my friend I want you to tutor." I proposed.
"On this field I'm still Captain, remember?" He objected, shriveling his nose and rubbing it with the back of his hand...But followed me just the same.
In The Game
I somehow convinced Hairo that Toshiro was a player, from a small country, who wished to be educated further than was provided in his area. Being a very close friend of mine, I promised him to bring a person to teach him. I didn't ask Hairo if he had a REM account. That's because everyone that's anyone in the world has a REM account...
But what I didn't know was that Hairo was the top player in everything; including REM. He was an even higher level than I was!
Captain of the soccer team, highest GPA and grades in his classes, and now the top of REM's combat boards; I began to wonder is there was anything that Hairo wasn't best at.
"I downloaded some files and got a friend in the media department of REM to turn them into books." Hairo explained, "The files were copies of every text book from 1st grade literature to 11th grade Civics," he said, slapping 7 large, broad, dictionary-like books on the table. We had just logged in at the same time after we had walked into Otaku Cafe and he and I had logged in with the Cafe's headsets.
"So, where is this guy?" he asked, gazing around for his new student.
From behind the kitchen wall, I finished brushing out my maid's outfit in the mirror and began slowly, "Yuzu and the others are probably out buying more ingredients for the event."
"You guys still aren't done with that? Halloween is tomorrow. You don't want to get disqualified, you know," he informed, flipping through the 3rd grade text book.
"So how much does this guy know?" he asked.
"Nothing," I laughed to myself.
"Huh?"
"Just start from the textbooks for the earliest grades you have." I said.
"Alright then," He sighed, "This is going to be a long tutoring session.."
I walked out from the kitchen, my shoes clacking on the wood floor, my black mini skirt swishing with it's fluffy petticoat, and my long hair flowing forward as I set my hand on the door frame of the room and leaned my head out, "Hey, do you mind starting with something about common speech, he kinda has problems with using current language..Umm, because he's foreign, you know?" I informed.
For some reason, Hairo didn't respond; he just stared at me wide eyed.
The suddenly, he got up from where he stood and walked over to me. Even when I was taller, he still towered over me at his natural height. His blue eyes seemed to change for a second, as if snapping with an intense fire. I was afraid of what he might do for a moment—even though I knew him enough to know he wouldn't do anything—but when he gave me that friendly smile, some of my fear released.
He looked over me for a little bit.
"When is my birthday?" Hairo asked.
"July 1st," I mumbled.
"So it is you.." He asked, examining my figure; scaling down my body and back up. He smiled genuinely; the same one that lights up the whole room and warms my heart. With a beautifully considerate smile he began, "You look so cute."
I blushed and looked away suddenly, "Y-your so perverted.."
"Eh?" he began, surprised, "But you really do look so pretty when you're older," he smiled again, "The outfit suits you too."
I tried not to blush, but when I did, Hairo just has to use his weakness negatively.
As dense as he was, Hairo blinked twice and tilted his head from my reaction, "What's wrong?"
I shook my head and tried to forget it, "Never mind, let's just look over the criteria for my friend," I said, sliding back the wooden chair and sitting in it.
As Hairo spoke to me, it was very hard to pick out any of his words. The only thing I could do was stare at his intelligent figure and obsess over how cool he was. Could being this fickle about boys really be natural.
"So, is it OK if he starts from here?" Hairo asked, snapping me out of my trance. What was wrong with me? We were just friends and I was suddenly feeling this..
I shake my head and grabbed the text book, sliding it over to my side of the table, all the time I was reading it I noticed that Hairo would stare at me, but every time I caught his gaze, he would avoid it.
I couldn't help but blush by the occurrence of his gaze, "Is there something wrong?" I asked a bit awkwardly.
He snapped up and shook his head, "Ah..No..Just.." He leaned forward again in his chair and examined me with cold eyes. But the more I stared back at them, the more they seemed to melt. Until he groaned and I saw the slightest hint of blush of his cheeks.
The chair screeched backward as he held his hands to his head and and yelled, "GAWH! What is it about you?"
He again, walked around the chair and got up in my face, examining me; I started to blush. And with that, he also did.
Then suddenly, we heard a large beeping noise as the caldron for the next batch was ready to be turned into candy. Hairo whirled around, determined to find a way to get away from me. I did the same.
"I'll go get the candy," I said.
"No, I'll go get it," he argued.
We each tried to squeeze through the doorway until finally we came into the kitchen in an ungraceful manner that only resulted in tripping and the banging of pots and pans to each other.
Then it just seemed to click and my position was revealed. I stopped myself from falling over on him, but by doing so a quite disturbing image was put on the both of us. My face and his, just inches away from each other. My tiny body desperately trying to keep itself spread around him, but failing miserably to keep a safe distance. Long strands of black hair flapped forward and caressed his cheeks as we both stared wide eyed at each other. Only this time, we were both blushing.
Then suddenly, he burst out laughing and I followed, rolling over on my back and giggling.
"I never understood why guys and girls were separated, you know?" he began after a long silence, "Since I was in 5th grade, I always thought that everyone else was just being prejudice by saying that there were any differences in people just because they were different genders."
Somehow, his logic did speak to me in some ways.
"But then, just a few seconds ago, I think I was finally able to see the difference," He said, rolling over on his side and facing me.
"I don't know why.. but I think I'm never going to forget your face," He said, "And when you get older—no, even before you reach the age of your avatar-" he began.
And with a determined look in his eyes and some strange sort of intense gaze, he looked me in the eye and said, "I'm going to make you mine."
Great..Now two guys have said that to me; anything new that the world can throw at me?
But by talking, or just listening, to Hairo I discovered something about myself. When Hairo was young, he stifled the change that girls and guys were to be separated. But that change was only to come later.
My change; these new emotions, attractions, developments..They're scary. But I had to let them be. Because they just came back for Hairo..And if I just give them a chance, maybe I'll find they won't change me as bad as I first thought.
"Look!" Toshiro began, "Did you know that 'down' can mean a variety of things? There's even a term that is 'slang' that points to 'down' as a synonym for 'in agreement with!'" He said enthusiastically.
"Man," Hairo whispered to me, "This guy absorbs information like a computer! We're already on 7th grade sentence structuring and 'street slang.'"
I laughed, nervously thinking to myself, That's because he is a computer...
"Well I guess he's a bright guy," I informed.
"Or maybe he's not actually a player," Hairo said.
My eyes widened as he continued, "You know there was an article about a maid on REM triggering a hidden quest and receiving a pet rumored to have self awareness."
"Really..That sound interesting," I said, beginning to panic. Would he still teach Toshiro if he knew his efforts were merely going into a heap of data? What would Hairo do?
"Your username wouldn't happen to be Kurai-Hime?" He asked.
I bowed swiftly and apologized, "I'm sorry that I lied! But he reall-"
Hairo rushed up to me, in front of Toshiro, and grabbed my wrist, "I heard that you two were together," his grip suddenly tightened, "is that true."
My voice turned urgent, "No, No of course not! That's just because of a stupid magazine rumor!"
Toshiro suddenly turned toward me and Hairo and stared at us intently.
"Are you sure that's all there is?" Hairo asked.
I nodded and he let go of my head. Even though it was just hormones, he seemed to be hard-self on defending me. And though he just saw what my avatar looked like; he still seemed to instantly fall for my avatar which age was accelerated to look and resemble my future self. It made me wonder, if I hadn't ever played REM, if Hairo would still fall for me if he saw me grow.
But no matter what, his unbalanced hormones were just mirroring their explosive aptitude..His affection for me would fade, and a level mind would come. As would my feelings for Toshiro which would eventually rot as well.
Later, after Hairo left, and I had to close up shop, Toshiro confronted me in the dark.
"There's still one more candy left to make before the corn-husking," He said, leaning up against the kitchen door frame.
"Can't you make it?" I sighed.
"I put all the ingredients in but if I actually do everything it would be an infringement of the rules," he informed.
Oh yeah that's right, I said to myself, he's an NPC and we would get disqualified if he were to help make any..
I turned off all the lights and waited in the kitchen for the timer to go off. Toshiro waited behind me like a puppy. And for the first time I wondered what it was like when everyone was logged out. Was he trapped inside Maid's Healing? Did he leave the restaurant?
"That teacher you found me, are you close to him?" he asked while the caldron still boiled.
"We're friends in my world, why?" I questioned..Though he made it quite clear today that he wanted us to be more than friends.
"I don't like the feeling I get when you're around him," he said, "Would you stay away from him?"
I was perplexed, why did Toshiro want me to distance myself from Hairo? Could he have possibly been … Was that the feeling? No..Why would that be?
"Idiot, don't worry about it," I began, and he looked at me, surprised.
"Listen, things are totally different in my world, boys don't come chasing after me; in fact I don't look like I girl in the least and-"
The time beeped and the caldron went up in a puff of smoke, replaced by two small pieces of candy corn.
"I thought you said we only needed one piece to meet the corn-husking qualification," I said.
"I did," he said, picking up one of the yellow, orange, and white candy corns. He held it in his fingers and began, "Hana-hime97 said that this was your favorite candy. And if I gave it to you in a certain way, you might give me answers."
Hana-hime97? That was Yuzu's username. Does that mean that she did one of her weird match maker things?
But I realized to late, because Toshiro was already following Yuzu's orders. And since Yuzu knew me inside out; whatever Toshiro would do, I knew, would break me, even if I didn't know it would.
Toshiro took the candy corn and put it up to my mouth and slid it between my teeth. The feel of his finger to my lips was so painfully spin tingling that I began to believe that, if I swallowed the candy, I would be excepting these feelings. I struggled and tried to back away, but Toshiro merely put his arm around my waist and pulled me in toward him until I could smell the sweet candy ingredients on him from this morning.
"Eat it," he said.
My eyes shut tight as I gave in and accepted the candy into my mouth, and as the only thing that remained on my lips was his index finger, I began to feel so defenseless for a moment. As if his touch was the only thing that kept me on this Earth. How did Yuzu know things about me that I didn't? How did she know that by acting aggressively hostile, Toshiro would win me over? I didn't know.
But now my eyes were dim and my mouth slightly open and panting from the struggle.
"Now," he began, "I want you to answer me honestly."
"Anything; just let me go," I said, my face flush with red.
"What is the name you really want me to call you," he questioned.
Surprised, I could only widened my eyes for a brief moment in my fit. For a seconded, in my panting, I went over the two titles he had been calling me. Master. Kurai-Hime. I was fine with those. And I continued to tell myself that I didn't care what he called me. But Toshiro seemed to feel that his titles were awkward as well. Either that or Yuzu hinted to him something that she saw my subconscious wanted. With all my heart and soul I wanted my name to pass his lips maybe just once.
Through my panting, he lifted his finger off my lips and with his ever aggressive grip on my waist pulled in even more until I felt as if I was being tackled like a ragged doll, his hand motioned toward my chin and lifted my head toward him, I panted,
"Karin."
Author's notes:
PHEW! That was a long one! You have no Idea how much revision I had to do for this chappy! The first draft was 32 pages! GAWH! I'm so glad it's done with.
I have a habit of making special chapters for common international holidays..SO this is my special for Halloween, yay! ^^ I think it turned out ok..but there are a little blurps here and there..
Thank you guys SOOOOO MUCH for replying to my cry for my reviews! ^^ My goal is to get 100 reviews by the 5th chapter..I know, an impossible goes, right? But if those of you who didn't review for chapter 2 could go back and do so, I might actually have a little bit more.
I know that I'm a real freak for reviews..But I tend to like people talking to me about my stories..It lets me know that I'm doing something right! If I wanted to listen to myself write, I wouldn't publish on fanfiction, right?
So, I guess what I'm saying is to please give me the same courtesy as last chappy and give me 18 reviews! YAY! ^^
~*RukiaRocks*~
P.S. I went back and edited the other chapters for you guys..I didn't get everything but I fixed the major tweeks. XD
Reviewers to thanks:
JWzipper
ThornedSunflower
Madeleine
Scarlett Foxie
Escapedslave99
TwoCamelsInATinyCar
yellowbutterfly93
Vetaglmela
strawberryfishcakes
Blueberry Absinth
lightcard
crayontesla
Alice-And-No-Others
Fushigi yuki
meggie-moo s
keroneko13
Sweet And Deadly
Cereza2000
I-Kill-U-For-Yaoi
Ne, to all y'all without an account: Why don't you make one? I'd love to reply to your reviews!
Side story: Revenge of the two Ichigos
Author: Anyone wonder what happened when the girls dumped Toshiro and Karin to go and hunt the director which sabotaged them in chapter 2?
Ichigo(female one): Did it really take us that long to take revenge?
Yuzu: Well we did devise a pretty awesome plan, though!
Author: Well Karin's brother, Ichigo, saw Karin and Toshiro's picture on the magazine and freaked out.
Ichigo(Karin's bro): I was originally intending to beat that white-ass dude that was rubbing up against her but-
Ichigo(female one): He logged into REM and talked to one of my employees, Rukia-san, and discovered that the director that tricked us was actually the one to blame.
Author: So after witnessing the combined furry of the two Ichigos, here is the director who suffered a fairly intense beating by Ichigo and the maids of Otaku Cafe:
Director(Special guest): I was sure to give an extra donation to Otaku Cafe and also to apologize onto a world viewed showing game channel. [he says this in fear of the Ichigos which are threatening him with their fists]
Karin: Oh..So that's what happened.
Toshiro: Wait-Is that guy's hair color natural? [looks at Ichigo(Karin's bro)]
Ichigo: Hey, you better watch your mouth, bro! You still aren't off the hook! The way I see it, you jumped my sister and your just about an inch away from getting the beating of your lifetime!
[Toshiro tries to calculate in his head what he could have possibly done wrong]
To be continued...
