Chapter 7: Friend

For a moment there, she had completely forgotten about the reason why she pulled the other girl down in the first place. But when she finally remembered, she found herself not really wanting to do anything other than simply lie there. Natsuki closed her eyes when she felt Shizuru's arms circled around her body, and her mind went blank again.

Without thinking, she tilted her head and nuzzled the other girl's neck before letting out a content sigh. Maybe it's the drug kicking in, maybe it's just her, but the splitting pain on her side started to fade. This is nice. Natsuki thought, rubbing the smooth curve that was Shizuru's back with her thumb absent-mindedly. The body on top of her shivered, and then she felt the warm breaths that were tickling the side of her neck quickened.

She only stopped when she felt warm liquid rolling down her bare shoulder. "Shizuru?" Natsuki snapped open her eyes and tried to turn her head to get a better look at her friend's face, but Shizuru wouldn't let her. "Are you crying?"

"No I'm not."

"Right." Natsuki rolled her eyes and moved her hand up to brush the crying girl's chestnut tress. "You are not crying and I don't like Mayo. Seriously, Shizuru, tell me what's upsetting you."

Shizuru still wouldn't answer, she didn't know how. It was too complicated to describe it in words. All those emotions raging inside her, they just overwhelmed her and spilled over as tears. She thought she could contain them, she always had, she was trained to after all.

All it took was one embrace to break her.

Natsuki propped herself up to a sitting position, her friend still clinging desperately onto her heavily bandaged body. She sighed and pushed Shizuru back a little to create some distance between them. "Shizuru." She put her hand on the other girl's tear-stained face and guided her to look up. "Look at me, you know you can tell me anything. Trust me."

Natsuki waited, gazing deeply into the crimson eyes that always seemed to draw her in. Just when she thought the other girl would not tell her anything, Shizuru whispered. "You didn't come."

"I... didn't come? Oh, you were talking about the date, right? I'm really sorry about that. I promise I will make it up to you next time." She apologized wholeheartedly. Even though it was not her fault, it's true that she stood her friend up, so she owed her an apology.

Shizuru's tears didn't stop. "You disappeared on me." She accused. Natsuki sweatdropped. "I'm really sorry about that too. I did try to call, but my phone was smashed, and I was kinda unconscious. Hahaha..." She laughed weakly. Shizuru bit her bottom lip, her body shaking like a leaf as she let out a choked sob. "I thought you were d... dead..."

Natsuki blinked and was lost for words. She had never thought that her disappearance would cause anyone to draw that conclusion. But then again, if not for Viola's timely rescue, without a doubt she would have been captured, or even killed.

Shizuru's quiet sobs had turned to loud sobs plus a series of wet hiccups. Embarrassed to let her friend see her like this, the former kaichou tried to wipe away those tears with the back of her hands, but new tears kept rolling down her flushed cheeks.

"And these?" Natsuki took one of the crying girl's hand and examined the bruises on her wrist. Shizuru didn't pull her hand back this time. "I w... wanted to f... find you, but they w... wouldn't l... let me." She stuttered between hiccups, looking very much like a lost little girl than a graceful Kyoto upperclass woman.

"You are a real fool, Shizuru." Natsuki's expression was one of the gentlest. She caressed the bruised wrist with her thumb and then planted a kiss on it. Shizuru's breath hitched. "I am not worth all that, you know. Don't waste your tears on me."

Having said that, Natsuki placed her hand back to Shizuru's face and caressed it with her fingers. "Your cheeks are all red." She traced the tear lines down to the girl's chin, and then up again to brush the slightly parted lips. Before she realized what she was doing, Natsuki had closed in the little distance between them, and captured her friend's lips with her own.

"What do you think they are doing right now?" Downstairs in the living room of the seaside cottage, Yukino couldn't help but wonder how things had turned out for the former kaichou and the blue-haired rebel. Despite the unpleasant event took place during the Carnival, she had always been rooting for those two, because she understood perfectly the pain Shizuru must have been suffering through.

The love of her life only wanted to be her friend.

Sometimes she wondered if she could just confess her feelings to Haruka, maybe everything would turn out right, and they would finally have a happy ending of their own. But most of the times, she was overwhelmed by this paralyzing fear of losing what they already shared.

She felt dirty, and should be punished. They did everything together. All those cloth shopping trips, sleep overs, friendly hugs and innocent touches, and baths, oh, the baths they took together, all those precious memories were tainted by her perverted affection. She had no doubt that her best friend would hate her forever if she ever found out.

Not to mention Haruka was homophobic, so basically there was no way in hell for her feelings to be returned.

"They better not be doing weird stuff in there. It's MY room for crying out loud. I can't believe they just kicked me out of my own room. They have absolutely no respect for me, I don't know why I didn't kick THEM out in the first place." The blond was obviously frustrated.

Yukino smiled. Haruka-chan is adorable when she is like this. She thought. Haruka narrowed her purple eyes and pouted. "What'cha smiling for? Did I say something wrong again?" The younger girl shook her head. "No. I was just thinking you are a nice person, Haruka-chan."

The blond was a little flattered. "Well, Kuga was injured, so I can't really do anything about her, but Fujino... I don't know. Maybe it's a bad idea leaving those two alone in the same room. Who knows what the bubuzuke pervert would do to the poor girl. That's it, I'm gonna drag her outta there." Haruka stood up from the lounge sofa and headed upstairs. Yukino stopped her.

"Ah, hold on, Haruka-chan. You can't go in there now."

"Why can't I? I'm only trying to prevent a crime from happening." Haruka crossed her arms, looking quite annoyed. Yukino lowered her gaze and fixed it somewhere on the ground. "Kaichou-san is not a horrible person like you thought, Haruka-chan. She had done bad things in the past, but it's not really her fault, She wasn't herself." The glass-wearing girl raised her head, a serious expression on her face.

"I did terrible things too, many that I've never told you about. The Carnival made every HiME go mad. I... I even tried to kill Tokiha-san, and I didn't go through with it only because Mikoto defeated me first, otherwise... Do you hate me now?"

Haruka was outraged by Yukono's question. "Hate you? Never! We are best friends, aren't we? How can I ever hate you?" She grabbed the shorter girl's shoulder and demanded her friend to look her in the eyes. "I am not a HiME like you, so I don't claim that I understand completely what you all went through. But the Yukino I know is the gentlest human being on Earth, that much I am sure."

"How can you be sure? You have no proof of that. Maybe I am just a liar who took your kindness for granted..."

"Because we are friends." Haruka smiled fondly at the younger girl, who was in the brink of tears. "And a friend knows best."

She tasted like tears.

So warm, so incredibly soft and smooth, but slightly salty and bitter, that's what Shizuru always tasted like. She wondered why. Trembling hands found their ways to her back, Natsuki snapped open her eyes, suddenly became aware what she was doing do her friend.

I'm kissing SHIZURU. Ok, ok, don't panic. Kuga Natsuki, you just kissed your best friend, now pull back before you do anymore damage. You only wanted to COMFORT your friend, and you do NOT take advantage of an upset friend, right? Right? You got your point across, so FUCKING PULL BACK THIS INSTANCE!

The raven-haired girl tilted her head back and torn herself away from her friend's luscious lips. However, her body had a mind of its own, and it's acting up to get what it wanted. Her hand moved to the back of Shizuru' head and squeezed, practically forcing the girl into another kiss.

Too shocked by her own behaviour, Natsuki didn't even close her eyes. Vastly different from the previous friendly kiss, this kiss had nothing friendly about it. With the ferocity of a starved wolf upon its prey, she locked her lips onto Shizuru's and greedily drank in her startled gasps.

Gasps turned to moans as she darted her tongue forward and found its companion. Fingers digging not unpleasantly into her bare shoulders, Natsuki felt something primal raising inside her. She growled and pushed, knocking the other girl over. She fell forward with her friend, her long dark blue hair cascaded down like a silken waterfall, mingling with Shizuru's chestnut hair that's spilling on the white cotton sheet.

She is beautiful. Natsuki stared into the seemingly bottomless crimson pits, mesmerized by the way how light and shadow swirled inside those eyes. How is it possible for a human being to be so beautiful? She could hear her own heart thumping crazily inside her chest, her breath became heavy as her gaze fell on the girl's slightly swollen lips.

Looks delicious...

"Natsuki..." Shizuru moaned, found it unbearable to have the younger girl looking at her like that. Natsuki licked her own lips and leaned down to taste the girl again.

She had never felt anything like this before. This lost of control, this urge to take something, this insatiable desire to completely possess someone just for herself, it's all foreign to her. It's like a train wreck. Once it's started, it's impossible to make it stop.

I gave her Aspirin, not Viagra.

Shizuru's half-melted brain bubbled out this thought as the raven-haired sexy beast sucking quite enthusiastically on her tongue. Really, she should have nothing to complain about, but there was this nagging voice in the back of her head, and it's making her uneasy. Unwillingly (very very unwillingly), Shizuru pushed the girl up and broke the kiss. Still breathless from the kiss, she asked in a uncertain voice. "You are really Natsuki, right?"

The raven-haired girl looked dumbfound. "Huh?"

Shizuru asked again. "I mean, you are Kuga Natsuki, not someone else who looks like her, right?"

Natsuki frowned. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I am. Who else would look like... WHAT THE HELL? There is someone that looks like me out there?" Shizuru nodded. "Yup. Exactly the same. I thought she was you when I first met her."

"This is fucked up. Two copies of us? Next thing we know, we will be overrun by a whole army of HiME doubles." The raven-haired girl shuddered at the thought. "Man, can you imagine? An army of Nao. Now THAT is scary." The mental image of a Godzella-sized giant robotic spider with Nao's head spitting fire and leveling the city to its ground popped up in her mind. Disturbing. "And why are you telling me this?" Natsuki asked.

"Well..." The former kaichou hesitated. Dare she tell? Would Natsuki react the way she wanted? Or would the whole thing blow over in her face? At the end her teasing nature won out, and she decided to gamble. "Because Natsuki never acted so affectionate, so I was thinking that maybe it's the other girl who's kissing me, just like before..."

The Kyoto girl's voice trailed off as she saw the killing intent in the girl's eyes. "Like before? She kissed you? And you let her?"

Shizuru gulped. Maybe she just made a big mistake... "I thought she was you, so... Say, Natsuki, your eyes are a little green."

"THEY ARE GREEN IN THE FIRST PLACE!" The girl growled through her teeth. Never before had she felt this insane loathing toward someone she barely knew existed. She wanted so much to break someone's neck, but with the 'someone' having the exact same face as herself, the supposedly satisfying image turned out to be strangely disturbing.

"Ara, Natsuki is so adorable when she is jealous." Bell like soft laughters rang from the Kyoto girl's chest. Natsuki narrowed her eyes dangerously, she didn't like to be made fun of, but it's from Shizuru, so she would tolerate it. Besides, she hadn't seen her friend so happy in a while. "I'm not jealous. I just don't like it."

Understatement of the century.

Shizuru stopped laughing. With unspoken yearning in her eyes, she moved her hands up to cup the younger girl's face. "Does that mean I don't have to give up after all?"

Natsuki felt a icy cold hand gripped her heart, she almost forgot how to breath. "What do you mean, give up?"

Shizuru gave the girl a wry smile. "You know what I mean. You made yourself clear that you cannot love me the way I hoped you could. Isn't that what you want? Me giving up this unnatural love and just be your friend?"

"I've never said that!" The injured girl sounded desperate. "I told you that 'I cannot love you the way you hoped' because I've never loved anyone like this. I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to do in this situation, what if I do something really stupid and disappoint you? I was scared out of my freaking mind! I thought you were going to give me time, but now you are giving up?"

"You... you don't want to be friend?"

"What's that has to do with anything? I am your friend, and I love you. What's wrong with that?" Natsuki didn't get her answer, but was pulled into a toe-curling kiss instead.

I'll take that as a 'I love you too.'

TBC

Author's Notes: Natsuki finally did something right for once. Hopefully it's not terribly OOC...