"Due to circumstances within my control, tomorrow will be cancelled."
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.
Chapter 3 – Cut no Ice
Every day during lunch-break the cafeteria of Fuuka Acadamy was hit by a riptide of students. The babbling noises along with the typical kitchen sounds could be heard throughout the whole campus grounds, and to a certain black-haired girl it normally acted as an alert to leave the crowded building immediately. Unfortunately, today was not a 'normal day'. Shizuru had tricked Natsuki into having lunch with her, and although Natsuki regretted to have given in to the fake sobbing like always, she wasn't one to break a promise. With every step she came closer to the cafeteria her gaze became icier. She hated people, and to be in a small room piled up with them wasn't one of her favorite hobbies.
Ugh, a promise is a promise… But next time, I'll trick her into eating at the fast food restaurant.
The thought of a giant Cheeseburger caused the saliva in her mouth to increase, but upon entering the cafeteria door she gulped all of it down at once. The place was dipped in orange and blue. The entire school seemed to be at the same place in this very minute. Already annoyed she looked around for the Kyoto-girl. After two minutes of searching without success, she faced the fact that her friend might be late. However, the growling of her stomach left her no choice but to head over to the food bank. The line was already fairly long and it took more than five minutes to get some fries and a hot dog. After she drowned her plate in mayo, she went over to one of the last free tables in the room. Two middle schoolers were walking over to the same table, but it was easy to scare them away with one of her death-glares. She sat down with a relieved sigh, and stared at her prey with glistening eyes.
Just a second later, the doors of the cafeteria swung open and a horde of young girls rushed in. The noise-level seemed to increase again when the group led by a jade-haired girl walked over to the food-bank.
"Are you sure that Shizuru-sama will be here today? Normally, she eats in the student council room or has lunch with the director." One of the girls said skeptically.
"I'm sure of it. My brother is a good friend of Kanzaki-sempai, and he told him that Shizuru will eat lunch here today with a friend." Another girl from the group gossiped.
"A friend, you say?" The girl's started to babble all at once now. Everyone seemed to have an opinion of the disliked friend of their Kaichou.
"Yes, it might be that delinquent Kuga."
"Such a gross person."
The mentioning of Natsuki's name got Tomoe interested. Shizuru having lunch with Natsuki? Sounds logical. That means the enemy must be close. She let her gray eyes wander around the cafeteria, finding the famous ice-queen sitting alone at a table in the corner. The girl was hovering over her plate like a falcon over its prey. Only the expression on Natsuki's face was more like a happy dog. The image looked so funny, it was almost cute.
"And have you heard? That Kuga-girl is a violent person, too. I've heard she has been seen in this shady bar downtown. Only criminals go there. I bet she's into illegal things."
"Yes, probably drugs."
"Or arms trade."
"Maybe she works for the Yakuza."
"Oh my god, what if she's blackmailing Shizuru-sama, or even worse threatening her into being friends with her."
"Will you stop talking such nonsense, already?" The voice of Tomoe cut through the gossip like a knife, and all the girls fell silent at once. They gave their unofficial leader skeptical glances.
"What's your problem? We were just trying to find reasons why Shizuru-sama would spend her time with someone like her." One of the girls said in disbelief.
"Who knows? Maybe because they're friends?"
"Tomoe, are you okay? Do you have a fever?" Another girl said with a hand on Tomoe's forehead.
"Stop it, idiot. If you want to know that badly, I will go over and confront her with the burning question."
"Somebody is loud-mouthed today." They mumbled.
Tomoe enthusiastically walked over to Natsuki's table after giving a sniff at the stupid comment of one of the girls. She could hear them babbling behind her back, but right now she really didn't give a damn. When she came closer to the table a wicked smile crossed her lips.
"May I sit down?" She said in the sweetest voice, startling the raven-haired girl in the exact second where said girl wanted to scarf down the hot dog. Natsuki was so shocked that someone dared to speak to her during this holy ritual of eating that she almost choked. When she brought her gaze up, she didn't quite believe her eyes.
"What is it?" She said bluntly as ever.
"Impolite as ever."
"Huh?" She looked at her with puzzled eyes. "Who's being impolite by disturbing a starving girl while peacefully eating her lunch?"
"There are too many words in that sentence that don't fit you at all." She said, while sitting down.
"I didn't invite you to sit down."
"I know." She grinned evilly to herself. "You didn't. At least not with words, but your heart was shouting out to me through the whole cafeteria."
"What the heck?" Natsuki's eyes got wide when the voice of the girl in front of her suddenly changed from cold to a scary mixture of girlish and dreamy. She lifted her head to take a look at the face of the middle schooler and found the gray eyes staring directly into hers. The heat rushed to Natsuki's face in an instant and she had a hard time trying to tear her eyes away.
"Are you okay? I mean mentally?" She asked with a shaky voice.
"I'm perfectly fine. Now, that I am with you." Tomoe kept up the masquerade. She had to admit that it was a little entertaining to make fun of the older girl.
Natsuki didn't know what to do. She felt completely off-guard and after the last words of the younger girl, she felt like taking a defensive pose. God knows, what happened to her? She might be an alien or something. She lifted her hands a bit, making herself ready for a possible attack.
"What is it, Onee-sama?"
"Onee-samaaaa? Whaaa! No! Oh my god. I knew it, you have been brainwashed and now you think I am Shizuru. Who did this to you? The fangirl robots? They've got you, too!" Natsuki pointed at the group of fangirls, who were obviously watching them.
The girls observed the reactions of the famous Ice-queen thoroughly and came to the conclusion that Tomoe did an awesome job in asking the girl about her relation to Shizuru.
"Tomoe really is something." One of the girls said while the others nodded in agreement.
The panic in Natsuki's eyes was almost too much for Tomoe to keep her serious façade, but it was way too funny to let the older girl off the hook so soon.
"Why are you so freaked out? You wished for this to happen? Don't you remember?"
"I didn't wish for anything. I…" Natsuki paused as the realization of yesterday's events sunk in. "The ribbon…Oh my god, what have I done…" She muttered to herself in disbelief. Tomoe watched the raven-haired girl with silent amusement.
Slowly, I'm beginning to understand why Shizuru likes this strange girl… Ugh, what am I thinking here? Getting tricked by my own prank. She's the enemy. I should enjoy my victory for now.
Wrapped up in thoughts, the two girls didn't notice a certain Kyoto-beauty walking over to their table. Only the melodic voice shook them both out of their thoughts.
"Ara ara, is Natsuki cheating on me just because I'm running a few minutes late?"
"Shizuru!" Natsuki spat out, completely shocked with her face beet red again.
"Glad to see you too, Natsuki." She smiled before turning to Tomoe. "Do we have a guest for lunch?" She asked just as politely, but still something in her voice had changed.
The voice of Shizuru had not only startled Natsuki, but for the first time, Tomoe wasn't too happy about the appearance of her idol. She had to say, she was rather disturbed at this rate. It was obvious that Tomoe was neither wanted nor needed at this table anymore, and now she had to find a smooth way out of the dilemma.
"No, we were just chatting. I've got to go and take care of some things." She said as politely as she could before leaving the table to make room for the student-council president.
Shizuru sat down and turned her full attention back on a flustered Natsuki. She noticed in an instant that something was wrong with her friend.
"Are you okay? Did she do anything to you?" Shizuru asked a bit worried.
"To me? No…" Natsuki said still shocked.
"But?"
"Nothing." It was obvious that Natsuki had no intention of letting Shizuru know what kind of conversation she had just missed, and so she decided to let it go for now.
"I'm a bit amazed that you haven't touched your food yet. But I'm happy that you were so polite to wait for me."
"Hm?" Natsuki was still spaced out. I need to do something. I need to cut off that ribbon right away. Hopefully that will stop the curse. Slowly drifting back to reality, she noticed that Shizuru was very suspicious towards her conversation with Tomoe, and so she tried to get a hold of herself. After all, the older girl didn't need to know what stupid thing Natsuki had done. "Yes, I wanted to wait for you. So, let's get started now. I'm starving." She said, trying to sound as cool as ever. Shizuru gave her one more skeptic look before she concentrated on her salad.
"You really should add some more fries to the mayo next time or leave the mayo out entirely. That is so unhealthy."
"Mou, stop bickering about my food. You know I like it that way." Natsuki didn't even notice that she was pouting while responding, but as always Shizuru found her opposite adorable.
"I wish I could say that about more things than only your food…" Shizuru mumbled, not really wanting the other girl to hear the comment. Thankfully, Natsuki was very busy with her food.
"So, why did you make me come here?" The emerald-eyed girl asked with full mouth.
"I didn't know it is such a bother to you to eat with me." She said a little sad.
"It isn't. It's just a bother to eat in the cafeteria." Natsuki explained, not wanting to be the target of another sobbing attack.
"I'll take you out somewhere else then next time. Is Natsuki free next Friday?" The chestnut-haired girl seemed to grab every chance she could get.
"Huh?"
"There's a festival in the city, and I would like to go there with you. We could have dinner too before."
"I don't know. I don't like that stuff. Stupid games. People everywhere."
"Please. For me?" She made her voice extra sweet.
"Can't you go with Reito?" Natsuki always had a hard time trying to resist the pleading red eyes, but she wanted to give it a try at least.
"No, he'll be going with Mai. There is also food." It was time to play the joker card.
"American food?" And of course, Natsuki became interested after hearing the word 'food'.
"Of course." Shizuru made a small pause before adding with a sigh: "But if you really don't want to, I won't force you. I might just go there alone then."
"Fine. I'll go with you. But only if you promise to never ever make me come here during lunch-break again."
"I promise. Thank you, Natsuki." Shizuru clapped her hands in delight before bending over and placing a quick peck on the cheek of the raven-haired girl, who instantly blushed in all shades of red. The shocked noises of the fangirls could be heard throughout the whole cafeteria when they saw the intimate act. Only their leader wasn't there to find out what the ruckus was about.
Tomoe had rushed out of the cafeteria without turning around to Natsuki or the fanclub again. She felt the gazes from the girls of the club upon her back, and she knew that they would probably gossip about her loss against Natsuki, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted to get away from there. She didn't want to sit next to her Onee-sama pretending that nothing had happened when her heart was still wrenching under every friendly but faked word coming from the mouth of the Kyoto girl. While she walked down the hall it suddenly hit her that she didn't clarify the situation with Natsuki at all.
Damn it! She still believes the ribbon-thing worked. Hopefully she'll keep her mouth shut in front of Onee-sama… Wait! What if she doesn't? A devious grin crossed her lips. Maybe if Onee-sama thinks I'm interested in Natsuki now instead of her she'll reconsider. And even better… I could use that tactic to keep Natsuki away from her, too… This is just too perfect. Tomoe Marguerite, you are a genius. If I can't have Onee-sama nobody will.
A/N: Next chapter done. That was such a nice change from the increasing drama in A fine line (- btw next chapter will be online on saturday). Hope you liked the chapter. Thanks to my wonderful beta HollowPoint for encouraging (bribing) me to write this story.