I have updated again! Hooray!
*sigh* I only got four reviews though...what a letdown...
But whatever, I'm continuing anyway! :D
Disclaimer: I do own Gakuen Alice...somewhere beyond the rainbow.
Your Majesty
by: momocandy XD
Chapter 2 - Bagels or Donuts?
XXX
"Natsume, you need a band-aid," Ruka decided as he glanced at his friend's arm wound for the millionth time. "Like, a mega-sized band-aid."
"No, I don't," Natsume insisted blandly. "Your shirt is more than enough."
"But you're not applying enough pressure to the wound," Ruka pushed insistently. "That Hotaru girl was damn serious when she stabbed you. Don't blame me when you pass out from excessive blood loss."
"Fine," the crimson-eyed lad answered coolly as he trudged farther into town. "I won't."
Ruka cursed the stupid stubborness of his best friend.
"I'll still have to carry you though!" he added quickly. "Do you know how heavy you are?"
Natsume stopped and looked back at the blonde.
"That's your problem, not mine."
Ruka eyebrow twitched. Why was he even wasting his precious energy on this?
"Fine! Then I'm not carrying you!"
"Whatever."
"You'll be lying completely helpless on the streets!"
"Okay."
"You'll be ambushed by hobos!"
"Do what you want."
Ruka stamped his foot angrily.
"Arggggh! You're so annoying!"
Natsume shrugged.
"Feeling's mutual. Anyways, got some change on you?"
Ruka let out a strangled sigh of frustration and decided to give it up. There was no point in arguing with Natsume. It was literally like talking to a goddamn wall, and he knew that better than anyone.
Rummaging through his pockets, he fished out an old candy wrapper, some useless pieces of paper, and a few...unidentifiable things.
Natsume raised an eyebrow at the diverse collection of items.
"Ruka. That looks like sun-dried cow shit."
Ruka blushed slightly in embarrassment and made a face as he tossed everything into the nearest trash bin and proceeded to wipe his hands repeatedly on his dirty shirt, which Natsume doubted would help much.
"Um...yeah. No money. You?" Ruka asked.
Natsume emptied his pockets, which were surprisingly clean and free of any cow feces.
"Nope."
They looked at each other.
"So we're broke," Ruka concluded.
Natsume shoved his pockets back into his pants.
"Pretty much."
And of course, that's when the most horrible thing that could've happened in this kind of situation happened.
A large growl...from Ruka's stomach.
"You're kidding," Ruka moaned as he slumped and clutched his mid-section. "You have got to be kidding me."
Natsume cringed slightly as his own stomach let out a just as demanding grumble. Racking his mind for ideas on how to keep him and Ruka from starving to death, his crimson eyes spotted a shabby street vendor.
Bingo.
Although he wasn't sure if this was such a reliable source, being covered in graffiti and all.
Natsume decided to take his chances.
"Hey, where are you going?" Ruka questioned curiously as his best friend began walking across the street.
"Vendor."
Ruka looked over and saw a dirty-looking vending machince leaning against the brick wall of an old, worn shop.
"Okaaaay..." he turned back to Natsume. "Natsume, we have. no. money."
"I know that," the lad replied indifferently.
Ruka eyed his friend skeptically.
"You're not stealing anything, right?"
"No."
"Or breaking?"
"No."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Well, maybe some idiot accidentally left enough change in the slot for us to get something."
Ruka's eyebrows went up. So this was Natsume being desperate.
"That's...kinda impossible, Natsume. Like, one in a million."
"Stop being such a smartass," was Natsume's irritated response. "I said maybe."
"But we can't be that lucky..." Ruka trailed off as Natsume bent down to check the slot.
Natsume's poker face changed into a smirk.
"Eat your words, Ruka."
"See, what did I..." Ruka blinked. "WAIT. FOR REAL?!"
Natsume's smirk didn't falter as he showed Ruka the jingling coins in his hand.
"For real."
Ruka's eyes went as big as saucers and his mouth dropped open.
"That's—that's real money? Like, real, REAL money? No way..."
He smacked himself a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating and peered at the coins again. They sure looked real.
"Damn...maybe our karma is coming back to us or something."
Natsume rolled his eyes, but deep down inside, he agreed with Ruka. Seriously, what were the chances? Truth be told, he was half-joking when he suggested the idea.
Once Ruka got over the stupor of actually finding money in the vendor (which took quite a while), he checked out the options.
"Bagel...donut...or Po...wapon?" he read uncertainly.
The first two choices were decent enough, but the third choice?
"The hell is powapon?" Natsume asked as he studied the different types of donuts that the machine had to offer. "Did you say it wrong or something?"
"Wait, no..." Ruka squinted at the faded letters. It wasn't his fault that their reading teacher was too boring to listen to. "I think it's...'Howalon'."
"That's not a word either, Ruka."
Ruka pouted.
"Well, whatever, it's too expensive anyway! How much money do we have, Natsume?"
"A dollar and fifty cents."
Ruka looked back at the vendor. A bagel was a dollar, and a donut was a dollar.
"Bagel. We're getting a bagel, Natsume," he decided.
"No. We're getting a donut."
Ruka tensed and his gaze shifted to his best friend.
Cerulean met crimson.
It was war.
"We're definitely getting a bagel. Donuts are bad for your health."
"Donuts taste better, and that's what matters right now."
"No, I choose bagel."
"Well, screw you, I choose donut."
"Bagel."
"Donut."
"BAGEL."
"DONUT."
Their fight became loud enough to disturb passing villagers, but as soon as the people looked over and saw it was a seemingly pointless argument between two seemingly homeless boys, they just decided to label them as mentally disabled and stay away.
Natsume and Ruka, oblivious to the all attention they were gathering, continued shouting at each other.
"BAGEL!"
"DONUT!"
Suddenly, Ruka lunged toward Natsume, his hand reaching for the money in Natsume's hand. Taken by surprise, Natsume's grip on the coins loosened.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
Time slowed.
The two boys watched in horror as the three precious coins rolled off into the busy street, disappearing behind a blur of feet.
There was absolute silence for ten long seconds. Then Natsume came to his senses.
"Ruuukaaa..." He slowly turned around, his voice dangerously low.
But Ruka wasn't there. Natsume's head snapped back to the street and he quickly spotted the boy's blonde head bobbing up and down between the strolling people and getting farther and farther away from where he stood.
He's chasing after the coins, Natsume realized.
His lips curved into a challenging smirk.
Well, that's too bad, cause I'll be getting to them first.
"Sorry—excuse me—pardon me—" Ruka apologized as he pushed through the crowds of people, trying his best to keep the escaping coins in his sight.
He felt like an idiot, literally trampling the villagers just to get three runaway coins.
Or maybe he was an idiot.
He didn't even know why he had done something so stupid. Jumping on Natsume—what was he thinking? Okay, maybe it was a last resort, but he never thought it would lead to this.
Though he did find it amazing that he hadn't lost the coins yet.
Nope, not even one of them.
They were always just within his reach, which made it a whole lot more frustrating. Maybe this was the Devil torturing him or something.
Especially that one time when he was actually right about to grab a coin—it was literally at his fingertips, and then some man just had to come and kick the coin out of his reach. His vocab became very colorful after that.
So much for karma.
And now, Natsume was starting to catch up to him.
Not good, considering the fact that all of this was pretty much his fault, and the guy probably wanted to kill him.
"Argh, you damn coins! Stop rolling already!" Ruka panted as he started to lose patience and stamina.
The coins must've heard his desperation though, because the next thing he knew, they had turned their little heads and tails into an dark, narrow alleyway. Slowing down, Ruka entered the passage and found the coins lying perfectly still next to the cold stone wall.
He half expected them to get up on their own and start rolling again.
But of course they didn't.
Still catching his breath, the blonde picked them up, gave a big sigh of relief, and was just about to step back onto the street.
Until he heard voices.
Ruka froze and slowly turned around. Just behind the corner at the very end of the alleyway, there was somebody there. No, it was more than one person. A few people. All full grown men, judging from their gruff voices.
Natsume entered the alleyway, panting heavily, and was just about to say, or probably yell, something when Ruka clamped a hand over his mouth.
'Shut up,' he mouthed.
Natsume cocked a questioning eyebrow at his best friend. In response, Ruka jabbed his thumb toward the end of the alleyway, and Natsume peered down the passage. He saw nothing, but he did hear the people.
He gave Ruka a 'so what?' look and Ruka just shrugged. Rolling his eyes at his friend's pointless actions, Natsume began to walk back out the way he came from.
"No, please, stop!"
As if someone had smacked him, Natsume's whole body tensed.
A weak cry had sounded from the end of the alleyway.
A girl.
He felt himself turn around.
"Shuddap, bitch!" A man whispered sharply.
There was the sound of a smack.
Natsume started walking down the alleyway. Ruka didn't even hesitate to follow. His pace quickened as he heard the sound of whimpering coming from whoever was being held hostage in such a dark, scary place.
Something was happening. Something bad was happening. Something that could not be heard from the lively street outside. Something that he had to stop.
Ruka couldn't help but smile as he walked alongside his confident friend. Natsume had always had this hero complex. He felt the need to save anybody in trouble, stranger or not. It was one of his better traits. Ruka admired him for that.
Reaching the turn of the corner, Natsume found himself facing a group of buff, grizzly men and two young girls who were tied up and currently being held at knife point.
The men were clearly all bigger, older, and more muscular than him, but he was not the least bit afraid. He knew from experience that these kinds of guys were the weakest.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
A tiny part of Ruka, the part that was somewhat crazy, was relieved that the girls still had 100% of their clothes on.
Because he considered himself still young and didn't want to witness something like that yet.
He wondered if Natsume thought the same thing.
Meanwhile, the biggest, beefiest man there with the bushiest maroon beard stalked up to Natsume and poked him roughly in the chest.
"Now who's dis liddle rascal here?"
His beady little eyes scanned over Natsume's worn clothing and glittered with malice.
"Anoder one of dose fildy peasants, eh? Whad a loada crap." ("Another one of those filthy peasants, eh? What a load of crap.")
Natsume only smirked, mostly at the man's funny accent. It made him sound like a five-year-old. Wanting to hear more, Natsume decided to play with the man a bit.
"Sir, what is your business with these two ladies?" he asked politely, though anybody could see it was sickeningly fake.
Well, anybody besides the guy he was talking to.
"'Sir'?" The man burst out in loud, raucous laughter. "Didja hear dat, fellas? Dis brat just called me 'sir'!"
His mates all cackled along with him and pounded each other on the backs. Unfortunately, these guys didn't seem to be aware of the existence of toothpaste, because their breath smelled like a garbage dump times ten.
Natsume scrunched up his nose in disgust and couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt when he saw the two poor girls in the back on the verge of passing out from the toxic fumes. Maybe it was time to move on.
"So, your answer?" He interrupted the man's laughter.
"My answer? It's to gader information about de princess of course! De Sakura Kingdom is really becoming a pile of shit, ain't it? Shit, I say!"
He started laughing again.
Natsume watched the man howl like a maniac behind one of his emotionless poker face masks.
Idiot, he thought. This guy is a complete moronic idiot.
But then again, he couldn't really disagree with him.
"Why these girls?" he questioned casually. "What makes them so special?"
The man answered his question without hesitation.
"Oh, dey just looked purty."
Natsume could barely hold back a snort. Purty? What the hell?
He glanced at the two girls who were still tied up, but now seemed less afraid than they had been before.
Maybe because they no longer had knives to their necks, since the men had pulled away while they were laughing.
One had wavy, bubblegum pink hair and the other had straight, navy blue hair. They were indeed pretty, and their elegant, short dresses showed that they belonged to the higher middle class.
Turning back to the man, he stated, "You talk as if you don't live in this kingdom."
The man grinned, showing a mouth full of rotten teeth.
"That's because we don't. We come from the proud—"
At that very moment, there was a loud shout from above and Natsume and Ruka looked up. Their mouths dropped open (or at least Ruka's did) as a shadow fell from the sky and landed right between them and the man.
Long, silver hair.
Emerald eyes.
It was a girl.
"Oooh, anoder purty one," the man rubbed his hands together giddily. "And she can fly too."
But the girl paid him no attention. Instead, she was staring, wide-eyed, at the two boys who stood only a few feet away from her.
Natsume and Ruka, not knowing what to do, stared right back.
The man was right. This was another pretty one.
Suddenly, as if snapping out of a trance, the girl narrowed her eyes and whipped around, walking straight past the man and untying the two girls.
Instead of trying to kill her like most bad guys, the man just watched with a befuddled expression on his face.
"She's not scared?" he asked his mates, who all shrugged and shook their heads.
Natsume felt like smacking himself.
After making sure that the girls were alright, the sliver-haired girl turned around and pointed an accusing finger at the man.
"Hey, fatass! How dare you hurt my friends! You deserve ultimate punishment!"
The man blinked in confusion, though he was a bit pissed that the girl had the nerve to call him a fatass.
"Ultimate punishment? What's dat?"
The silver-haired girl smirked as she stretched out a hand toward the pink-haired girl.
"Hey Anna, mind if I borrow your shoe?"
Done!
So, this chappy was a lot more easygoing that the first one...a lot more.
Half of it was probably nonsense. I don't know...the change in mood might be a bit too abrupt...
What do you guys think?
The next chapter will be a bit more serious though. The silver-haired girl will be introduced and she's not an OC. It might not make sense now, but it will later!
If you have anything to critique, please do so! Don't hold back for my sake! I want to improve!
And also, please review? For Christmas? It'd be a nice Christmas present... ;D
-momocandy XD
