Not a lot of Shizuru in this one, though I did try and make it humorous to replace that. Then again we all know that Shizuru is irreplaceable! (Devoted signer and follower of the Love Shizuru fan club) lol.
Chapter 3: Hectic Travels
It had been two days and Natsuki was still nervous about going to Shizuru's house. During those two days Natsuki had contemplated ways of how she would get through -or survive rather -the week without being constantly plagued by the images of the dreams; Yes, she had yet another… graphic dream during the night of day one. After envisioning that dream, she would have easily chosen to make do with the first one revisiting her mind as that dream was certainly much lighter than the second one.
Though Natsuki wasn't very willing to go into details, all that she could say about the second dream was that it had to do with a rather familiar dressing room in the clothing area of a department store and Shizuru's very frisky fingers on her skin and her deep, flirty voice in her ear.
'The worst part about that dream was that I was actually enjoying it!' Natsuki let her head drop as she let out a whine-like groan. 'I actually don't know which dream is worse since I can't really picture myself being the lead and so willingly in such an act like in the first one.' She blushed. 'And the second one is difficult to picture altogether because Shizuru was behind me the whole time doing the reach-around on me! She didn't even take the time to take off my pan-' Stopping herself, she blushed even harder and shook her head vigorously.
Realizing that that wasn't working, she did a speed-walk to the bathroom sink. She took the cup that normally held her toothbrush, toothpaste and used to rinse her mouth out and filled it with freezing-cold water. Not exactly pouring but splashing it onto her head she closed her eyes as she felt the runnels of water trickling down her head, neck, front and back, cooling her flushed skin. She released a heavy sigh as she calmed her mind from the previous thoughts as well as her body from the shock of the cold water; that helped. "They're just dreams, stupid dreams, nothing more." Natsuki had told herself that many times during the last two days.
After letting herself slip into the peaceful silence in her mind, Natsuki glanced down at her watch; she had two more hours to finish packing up and be ready to leave. She had received Shizuru's letter earlier that day though she wasn't exactly sure if she would be able to make it there in the time-frame that Shizuru had hoped, but she would try.
Natsuki's eyes widened as she remembered something then quickly looked down at her watch again to double-check herself. "Damn, I forgot to pick the laundry up." She had procrastinated in getting ready until early that morning when she had taken her load of dirty clothes down to the laundry room of the apartment complex. Not being patient enough to actually wait there for the washer to be done, she just went back up to her own apartment until she knew it would be. She remembered to go back down and switch the load from the washer to the dryer, but she completely forgot about it after that.
Natsuki sped out the door, (then ran back in, grabbed her linked keys off of the counter, sped out again, closed the door and locked it from the outside while mockingly muttering the phrase the old woman next door kept reminding her with whenever she didn't lock her door; "you can't be too safe in dangerous cities like this", not that she found it dangerous enough for her not to handle it anyway) then sprinted towards the elevator and repeatedly pressed the "Down" button.
She knew two hours was plenty of time to fold and pack all she needed for the week.However, the only thing that made herrush was the apartment manager's frustration as she (and a few other residents in the complex) would leave the laundry in either the washer or the dryer for hours on end even after the washing and/or drying cycles had been completed. The manager would then get complaints from the other residents and would soon yell at the lazy resident for not picking their laundry up (who was Natsuki most of the time) and letting other people complete their daily chores; this chain of events was the reason why Natsuki hated doing laundry. Once she had left her clothes in the washer so long that by the time she remembered to go down and but them in the dryer, they had already dried!
'I could run down the stairs and get to the laundry room faster than this thing would reach this floor.' Natsuki complained in her head thirty seconds before the doors finally opened for her. She pressed the "1" button then leaned against the back of the elevator with her arms crossed. Natsuki grumbled as she scratched the back of her head. 'I knew I was missing something to pack…'
Once the doors finally opened again, she dashed (or pushed) through the group of people who were waiting to get into the very same elevator and curved and stopped into the room: four washers and four dryers, two of which were still in mid-cycle with residents standing by them. Luckily, the manager wasn't there yet, so she quickly grabbed one of the many bins stored against the back wall and threw all of the clean clothes out of the dryer and into the bin.
Then she noticed something within the mountain of clothes made the bin much heavier than it should. She reached a hand in and searched blindly until her hand came across a hard object. With furrowed eyebrows of confusion, she pulled it out and her eyes widened. 'A… A textbook?... How the hell…?'
Her brows furrowed again but this time in agitation. When she was picking all the clothes and books off the floor, she must have missed one of the smaller and lighter textbooks and was too careless and too much of a haste to get out of the laundry room and back into the sanctity of her own apartment to really sort. She always picked the clothes up then throw them into things all at once without really taking much notice to things within the bundle. In fact, she did hear a rather loud 'bang' when she dropped the load in but she only shrugged carelessly as she closed the lid of the washer.
'Didn't exactly come out "squeaky clean"…' She thought skeptically with a crooked eyebrow as she noticed the rumpled and torn pages of the textbook. Not caring yet again, she tossed the already and overly-abused book onto the load of clothes and picked up the heavy bin again. Sheturned only to run into none other than her manager's leering glare. He was her height was a middle-aged, glasses-wearing, business suit-sporting guy, though Natsuki saw absolutely no point in him wearing business suits every day just because he was the manager of an apartment complex. Especially when that building was so small and weathering so much with age that she was surprised that the city hadn't agreed for it to be demolished yet (not that she didn't expect it to demolish itself and fall apart on its own eventually).
"Hello again, Miss. Kuga," Natsuki noticed how he was using his big-shot tone again and tried to refrain from rolling her eyes. That failed, though he didn't say anything about it as Natsuki knew he had seen it from her many times and had grown used to it. "Doing our laundry again, are we? Well, then again you don't need to tell me…"
"Is the fact that I'm holding a bin full of dried clothes giving you a clue?" Natsuki asked sarcastically with only a crooked eyebrow to accompany her tone.
Natsuki noticed his jaw clench, lips harden and eyes narrow, apparently trying to hold back another ranting retort to her smartass remarks. "No. I just had yet another complaint about an incessant banging noise coming from the very washer and dryer you're standing next to." He nodded his head towards the said machines. Natsuki looked down at them with slight panic starting to build up; she hoped that the book didn't leave any indentations in the insides. He would have her head for that, or worse, her money so that he could pay for the repairs.
Trying to step around the manager's implied accusation, Natsuki just looked back up at him with furrowed eyebrows again. "What? Do you think I was hitting them with a bat as punishment for somehow not cleaning my clothes the way that I wanted them to? Or are you just noticing that there aren't any dents on the outside of the machines like you just noticed the hint that I'm holding a bin full of laundry? Maybe you should work on your perception skills, sir." She asked in the same tone as before.
Seeing that she was about to break into another one of his rants, Natsuki falsely glanced at her watch and shuffled around him as she spoke quickly. "I'd love to stay and chat, really, but I'm leaving on a very important trip soon and I can't be late." That was both true and false as she dodged the hand that tried to grab her by the arm as she sped passed him. "I promise to send you a postcard though!" That was definitely a lie, yelling it over her shoulder as she came to the elevator.
She pushed the button repeatedly again but with much more force as she knew business-suit-boy was hot on her tail. But by the mercy of the heavens the elevator came to her much faster than before and she slipped in between the doors and pressed the "close doors" button. Natsuki smiled in triumph as she watched the doors close before the manager could break her escape.
Natsuki came to her apartment, literally dropped the heavy bin onto the floor, sorted, folded, and stuffed everything she was going to need for the week in her large navy blue duffle bag which sported a few strips of duck-tape around it in places where it had been previously torn and all by different causes; too many heavy objects in it at one time, a "mishap" in the airline baggage area, zipper wouldn't unzip so her trusty ol' Swiss army knife had to make an appearance, etc.
By the time she was done packing and double checking to make sure she had everything, she checked her watch again and was slightly surprised to see that she had forty-five minutes left before the train would depart; a decent amount of time to get there and into her seat. She took a breath then stood up, hoisted her bag over her shoulder and made her way out the door (then, having forgotten again, repeated the same routine she had done when she was on her way to the laundry room).
After stealthy sneaking around the manager's attention as he was talking to another resident, she ran through the doors of the complex and quickly called for a taxi before he could see her escaping again. She had been very good at this since her school years when the teachers would be looking around for her. In about fifteen minutes the taxi came up to the station and, after paying the driver the cab fare and muttering something about the damn fare meter being broken and cabbies ripping off unsuspecting customers, made her way around the groups and crowds of people.
With Shizuru's money given to her – and thank the gods for it, Natsuki thought as she saw the price for a single ticket to Kyoto – she bought a ticket only to have it be constantly checked by the overly-suspicious security then slipped it through the scanning slot at the gate and grabbed it again at the other end of the slot for when she reached Kyoto.
Natsuki got onto the train with perhaps another fifteen minutes left to spare. Once she found her seat, she literally threw then punched her duffle bag into the small compartment above until it 'looked' like it fit then let herself nearly collapse into her seat with a heavy sigh. She stretched in her seat as she heard the other passengers board. 'Two hours to Kyoto by train, right? So then I might get there by the time Shizuru wanted me too.' Natsuki thought as if she was trying to assure herself.
As the train began to move a few minutes later, Natsuki actually found herself to be quite eager yet still a little nervous to see her long-time friend and schoolmate. She wasn't really sure why though; perhaps she just missed her company after living alone for five years, all the things Shizuru would invite her into doing such as shopping and/or sleepovers. Or maybe it was her always-optimistic attitude that seemed to make Natsuki's school day much more bearable so that she was actually willing to attend.
Then again maybe it was just the fact that out of every person she had ever met since school and worked with in her odd jobs, nobody, not a single person was anything like Shizuru. 'That's certainly true.' Natsuki felt a smile pull at her lips, soon realizing how all three possibilities were true about the former council president.
She remembered how whenever a festival came around Shizuru would always ask her to "accompany" her in "taking part in the festive events of this coming holiday". And of course no matter how bluntly or how many times she'd say "no", Shizuru would just keep trying and trying until she found the perfect statements that would make Natsuki reluctantly change her mind.
Natsuki remembered how Shizuru would dress in her favorite kimono while she would just wear casual, not caring if people thought it was inappropriate in respect for the holiday. Shizuru never spoke against it and showed not one hint of disapproval towards it. Natsuki never figured out why since she was the refined and proper Shizuru. She never asked either but that was because she hadn't really cared to think about it until now.
88( Flashback )88
The most annoying thing about festivals, besides actually going to them and destroying whatever spare time you had for the rest of the day, was that the Fujino Shizuru fan club was always on the look-out for the elegant president of Fuuka Academy. Natsuki was surprised that they didn't just pick her up and toss her out of the way when they would run up to their idol; or then again 'mistress' more like by the way they would act around her, ready to obey any request and/or command at a whim.
Another annoying thing would be how the many guys of the school would spot Shizuru walking passed them and would immediately try and show off their skills at the game booths. The ones who actually did win at the games would then turn and wink or smile at her. Loathing would not be the proper word to describe Natsuki's disgust towards this; she felt like leaving right then and there before she'd slip on all the testosterone being presented especially to Shizuru. However, she then saw the pistol-shooting booth where yet another boy stood trying his targeting abilities.
Of course, the same boy noticed Shizuru and right then decided showed a rather pretentious display of skill. When he was done, he grinned at the results and turned to give her a flirty wink. "I'm the best shot in Fuuka, have been since age twelve, and I've been told to be quite the charmer so I don't think you'll ever find somebody else like me Fujino-san." He stated confidently, though Natsuki had no idea why he was rambling on about stupid things about himself; especially when this boy looked like a dope in his fringe-sleeved black leather jacket. His single earring and sunglasses made him look even more like a moron since it was twilight and was just trying to look cool with the addition of a feminine accessory attached to his ear.
She looked over to Shizuru, who just kept her famous calm smile intact. "Are you? How impressive. Though I believe Natsuki has both those traits as well." Her smile didn't change but her eyes brightened slightly as she turned to deep ocean-blue-haired girl next to her.
Both the boy and Natsuki looked at her with faces that clearly said 'Excuse me?'.
"Surely you would be willing to give it a try, Natsuki? I know you take much pleasure in games such as this." Shizuru gave Natsuki her closed-eye and bright-smile face. What she said was true, Natsuki knew it, she liked any games that involved shooting things since it would help her ease her mind from the daily frustrations in life.
"Fine." Expressionlessly, she walked up to the counter and took a bb-gun next to the boy who just looked at her as though she was a new threat to his self-esteem even though she was just another girl. Natsuki was taking a little pleasure in this anyway; at least she would be beating a boy down at the same time since she had had much practice with guns as well. The targets were just basically a whole bunch of little things like beer bottles, short planks of wood, stuffed animals, mugs etc. with little targets on them.
After paying for a round, she fired a shot… much to her annoyance, it missed her target. Her eye twitched as she heard the boy snicker next to her. She looked down at the gun; it was made for one hand but bigger than what she was used to but luckily she found one the size of a PP7 on the counter and picked it up. She fired; yep, much better. With a confident smirk, she went through every target with awing precision and loved every moment of it, watching as her high score flew up with every pull of the trigger. When she was done, there was nothing left and she placed her gun back down on the counter.
Despite the hilarity the incredulous looks on the boy's and the booth-keeper's facesb provoked, Natsuki forced her face to utilize a stolid-like boredom as she turned to Shizuru. She leaned her hip against the counter and crossed her arms over her stomach as if to say 'Happy?'
Like always, Shizuru's smile remained unchanged but her eyes seemed much brighter than before. After three seconds, Shizuru looked around them and noticed that Natsuki had actually gathered a crowd to gape at her abilities. The tawny-haired girl chuckled, "As Always, you never cease to amaze, Natsuki." Her smile brightened like her eyes as Natsuki had just realized what Shizuru had and blushed at the amount of attention she was getting. Seeing the gaping look on the boy's face was well worth it though.
"Are we done here?" Natsuki cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair, no longer wanting to be the center of attention. She wondered how Shizuru could stand it since she endured this every day at school.
Shizuru shook her head lightly. "Not quite yet, there is still more I want to do with you."
Natsuki sighed, exhaustion already setting in. "A simple "yes" would have been too merciful for me, right?"
The council president laughed softly. "Exactly." She turned to the boy who looked like he was about to have an anxiety attack. "It appears that a little more practice is required of you if you indeed wish to gain the title of "The best shot in Fuuka"." She stated simply yet kindly, though Natsuki couldn't help but smirk at it.
The boy looked up at the both of them, trying to find the right words or any words to say. Eventually he simply uttered "R-right." and looked back down at guns on the counter.
"You're prize, miss." The booth-keeper called to Natsuki. She looked down at it and her brows immediately knitted and her eyes took on a scornful look at the amount of furry cuteness the brown teddy bear that was perhaps less than one-third her height portrayed. If it was at least a stuffed wolf or dog she would have considered taking it home, but not a teddy bear.
In a way that would have been considered immoral amongst those who would melt at the sight of teddy bears, Natsuki gruffly grabbed the stuffed bear and didn't even hold it under one arm but gripped it in one hand. "Thanks." She muttered in a grumbling voice. She walked over to Shizuru, who just stood there while holding both her hands in front of her and smile towards Natsuki's reaction to her prize – she found those reactions to normally cute things to be an adorable part of her, almost like watching her pout -- as she waited for Natsuki to come to her side before they walked away together.
"It is a cute reward, isn't it?" Shizuru commented as she looked at the stuffed toy. Natsuki looked up at her somewhat incredulously, but then brought it up to take a good look at it and finally acknowledged that material used for the fur was actually quite soft to the point where it could almost be mistaken for rabbit fur. The eyes had been shiny black buttons which easily reflected the different colored lights and lanterns that had hung above them. She offered it to Shizuru with a simple "want it?" while holding it over to her with one hand.
"Are you certain?" Shizuru asked as she brought up a hand to take it.
"You honestly think I'm going to keep it?" Natsuki responded with a skeptically quirked eyebrow. Shizuru took the bear and held it in one hand while smoothing out the wrinkles where Natuki's finger's had gripped it and smiled at it; it looked genuine, not the usual calm smile but a real one brought out with fondness. Natsuki knew that she was one of the few, if not the only one besides anyone in the Fujino family, to ever see it. She guessed that very deep within herself, she was a little proud to have that ability of making Shizuru's real smile surface itself.
Shizuru hugged the teddy bear to her chest. "Thank you, Natsuki."
The older girl's simple words and glittering eyes made Natsuki fluster somewhat but she quickly looked away and closed her eyes, feeling her brows knit together again. "Yeah, no problem." She responded dully.
After a few more seconds of silence, Shizuru giggled softly. "I knew that there was a trait of charm in you." She gave her eye-closed bright-smile face again as she tilted her head to see Natsuki's reaction and chuckled again at the other girl's resurfacing fluster.
88 ( EndFlasback ) 88
Natsuki sighed almost in regret. 'I should have seen that coming.' She scolded herself for not being more prepared for Shizuru's 'attacks'. Mentally waving that part of the memory away, Natsuki looked back out through the window, her elbow on the armrest of the seat with her chin leaning on the knuckles of her balled fist. Her emerald eyes watched as the busy city streets, buildings and large billboards passed and were eventually replaced by neighborhood towns, then waited for the towns to be interchanged with countryside and village districts.
'I kind of wonder if she still has it; that bear. Whenever she'd invite me to a sleepover at her house since that festival, I'd see it in her room, on her bed, nothing else next to it. That is until I decided that some of the games at the festivals were actually worth playing and whenever I'd win another stuffed animal I'd just give it to Shizuru.' Natsuki felt a small smile on her face as she remembered coming into Shizuru's room and every year noticing more and more stuffed animals on her bed; not a single stuffed prize that Natsuki won ever went missing once placed in the crimson-eyed girl's hands.
The city-girl's smile soon faded as she remembered another yet not so happy festival. That festival where the only people in her school that she ever made acquaintances with had suffered and were blinded by fear, distrust, hatred and greed. The HiME Festival… that's when things turned between Shizuru and herself and it was equally hard for the both of them to get things right again. Natsuki often wondered why Shizuru felt that way for her, what it was about this rebellious and revenge-driven girl that Shizuru fell in love with.
Natsuki shook her head; she shouldn't be thinking about things like that when she's on her way to that very person's house. 'Though I'm sure she thinks about it as often as I do if not more.' She shook her head even harder; still not good.
888888
An hour had passed since then and the mountainous terrains and woody forests presented themselves to the eyes of the passengers of the train. Half an hour after that, a small city-like area could be seen and also happened to be the place where the train would arrive at. Though it only took fifteen to twenty more minutes to get there and stop at the station, to Natsuki it seemed like hours; the anticipation was really starting to set in.
When the train finally stopped with a lunging halt, Natsuki waited for most of the other passengers to get off before she did; it came rather easily since it took a couple minutes to pull her large duffle bag out of the tiny compartment area above her anyway.
Many people who passed by the blue-haired girl gave her odd looks, especially when she was about to resort to placing both feet on the wall of the train and try to pull the bag out with her body parallel to the floor. One man actually came up to her, asking her if she needed help but all he in response was Natsuki's well-known "Get-Out-Of-My-Face / None-Of-Your-Business-So-Back-Away / Stay-The-Hell-Away-From-Me" demonic glare (the only one who was immune to the sinister evil eye was of course Ms. Shizuru).
Without having to try and defy the laws of gravity, she was able to pull the huge bag out (though nearly falling to the ground with it in the process due to its weight) and make her way off the train. The ticket was scanned again at the gate, security frisked, people walked around her and she walked around people, made her way out of the station and called for another cab.
When she got into it, she pulled out the directions that Shizuru had given her in the letter. "I need to go here." She leaned forward towards the driver, showing him the letter and pointing at the exact address. "Do you know where it is?"
The driver took a look at it, his eyes narrowing as he tried to read the fine cursive penmanship – 'hmph, go figure' Natsuki thought once she saw Shizuru's perfect handwriting -- and then rested his chin in his fingers as he tried to recognize and pinpoint the location. Once it hit him, he found himself taken aback in surprise, wondering why he hadn't found it familiar in an instant.
"Fujino Estate? You're going there?" He exclaimed with the thick Kyoto-ben accent that she had become used to. He sounded almost incredulous at the idea once he looked Natsuki up and down. Natsuki's eyes narrowed as she saw this; what was his problem? "Are you some intern in a department in Fujino Industries or something?"
Natsuki quirked an eyebrow; did this guy want to be injured? "No." She replied bitterly. "But then again, is it any of your business?" She flashed a sneer, signaling him to just shut up and drive. With a cough, he took the signal and started up the engine.
"I must warn you though; it is a bit of a ways." He noted as he drove on the main street.
Natsuki simply waved a hand as she repositioned herself in the back seat. "Whatever."
She leaned back and waited for them to reach the destination while she watched tall pagodas pass by her window.
888888
'He considers this to be 'a bit of a ways'? Where the hell is he taking me, back to my apartment!'
Natsuki sat in that cab for what seemed like hours. She became suspicious when they had started going up the roads of a mountain that seemed populated by only trees. However, the only answers she received after asking and complaining about the distance was "It's this way" and "we're getting closer". Though apparently not close enough.
After about twenty more minutes of seeing nothing but more trees, Natsuki was about ready to get out of the cab, ask a local and walk the rest of the way since it was much better than being screwed for money, the driver pulled up in front of a double-door iron gate. The only thing that could be seen past the gate was the bend of a pebble-made road. A stone wall that was two feet high lined the road's hedges and followed the bend. Behind the stone wall were more of the tall, evergreen colored and light-leafed trees with many flowers planted around them. It looked like a meadow.
"…This is it?" Natsuki asked as she continued to gaze at it.
"Look at the plaque and read for yourself." He sighed as he waited for her to get out and pay him so that he could go back to the city and get more fares.
On one of the two taller walls of stone that held the gate at each side was a bronze plaque. Natsuki's eyes narrowed to read it more accurately since it was somewhat obscured by the thin vines that crept up and around the walls.
"Fujino Estate"
Natsuki blinked at it. "O..-kay." She muttered as she reached for her bag while opening the car door. Just being at the front gate of Shizuru's home and remembering that it has been five years since she'd seen her, made Natsuki nervous, anxious and even excited all at once. She stepped out, fresh, mountain air greeting her; at least it helped her relax. When she was about to look around to find a way to open the gate, an annoying "Ahem." sounded behind her.
She rolled her eyes, turned to the driver and asked for the cost. Natsuki's eyes widened and her jaw dropped; it was nearly three times as much as the cab fare to the station earlier that day! Grumbling and murmuring curses, Natsuki pulled out her wallet and threw the money into the front passenger. Barely hearing the words "thank you", Natsuki watched as he did a K-turn and drove off.
"Spend wisely, jackass." Natsuki muttered as she walked closer to the gate, which she soon found to be one of the automated types. Beneath a curtain of vines on the wall opposite the plaque held what looked like an intercom. She blindly pressed the largest button.
"Fujino residence, how may I help you?" sounded the voice of an older woman that Natsuki didn't recognize.
Natsuki cleared her throat which suddenly went dry. "Uh-yeah, I'm here by invitation for Shizuru Fujino." She tried to sound as professional as she possible could, knowing that the people that Shizuru surrounded herself with would most likely be very 'hoity-toity' so to speak.
There was a small pause. "Give your name please?"
"Kuga Natsuki."
Another small pause. "Just a moment please…"
With a 'thud' Natsuki dropped her bag as she turned to lean her back against the wall. It kind of took them a while to get back to her. In fact it began to take so long that the intercom might as well have played that elevator music that companies always leave you on hold with. Just when Natsuki was beginning to believe that this woman had forgotten about her completely and left her with the only option of climbing over the wall and reminding her, the gate that was perhaps a foot taller than Natsuki creaked open.
Natsuki heaved her duffle bag over her shoulder again and walked through the gate. Her heart seemed to speed up as she passed it; she wondered what Shizuru looked like now, if anything in her personality had changed at all, what kind of occupations she might have taken up, if there was anyone Shizuru might have fallen in love with during the past five years and still had a relationship with…
She felt her throat tighten and a quick, stabbing pain in her chest. She quickly shook herself out of it; what the hell kind of a reaction was that? What did she care if Shizuru fell for someone else? Her love life shouldn't matter to her. It'd only mean that Shizuru's previous obsession for her was gone and that she no longer needed to worry about her. It'd only mean that the density of Shizuru's love for her had lightened in weight so that it no longer went passed the line of friendship. That was good, wasn't it?
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