Disclaimer: I do not own Sunrise or any of its creations. All my work associated with Sunrise is purely fanbased.

Three Wishes or You

Special 3- A New Friend, Natsuki's POV

Nimara

"Natsuki! I need your help…!"

I heard the door open and her strained voice come down the hallway and into the dining room. She had gone out for groceries before I had left my domain of the teapot that morning. She was back earlier than I expected she would be and she didn't sound normal.

"What is it? Are you hurt?" I could not sense anything from her in the form of emotions of pain or sadness. I did not bother walking through the corridor as apprehension got the best of me. Instead I just simply appeared where she was in the foyer. When I rematerialized in front of her, I felt a heavy wave of happiness from her…with just an underlying current of trickery.

I looked at her and did not get the chance to feel relieved as I saw a large grin on her face. She carried a box in her hands, instead of the grocery bags she usually brought home. The box moved a bit in her arms and she looked like it was heavy, or at least hard to handle. Two white pointy furry ears followed by a furry face appeared over the side of the box.

"Is that a dog?" I said exasperatedly. I suddenly felt really dumb for feeling so worried about her tone of voice as the puppy looked at me with excitement. I tried to tune out the puppy's idle chatter as it began to bark in my direction. It whined and circled in the box and Shizuru had to put it down, probably in fear of the puppy jumping right out.

"It is!" Her voice was so wonderful to the ears when she was excited. "It is cute isn't it?"

The ball of fur did jump out of the box, or more like tumbled out of it and walked between the both of us, barking in greeting.

'Hi! Hi! Hi!' It was saying and I glared down at it with a sharp, "Shh!"

Nudging it gently away with my foot I looked back up at her with the same glare I had given the puppy. "Where the hell did you get it?"

"Mr. Toms had puppies! His dog just finished weaning them and he could not possibly keep them all. Mr. Toms, the sweet man he is, gave me the most convincing lecture about how great the company of dogs is. He thought it must be lonely to live by myself. Little does he know that I already have the adorable Natsuki to occupy my time." She winked at me and bent down to pick up the puppy. It licked the bottom of her chin and she held it tighter to her, her laughter filling the house.

I grunted, imaging a frail old man conning Shizuru on the side of the road. "Sweet Mr. Toms," I started sarcastically, "Sounds like an expert salesman. Do you even know what to do with a dog, Shizuru?"

Her smile faltered for a moment and she seemed to ponder on the question. "Ara, no I don't think I know too much about dogs. My mother never allowed me to keep a pet."

I remembered the strict nature of Shizuru's mother from when she told me about her family the other night. The puppy began to fuss in her arms but she held it tighter. I knew exactly what the puppy wanted.

"First off," I began, stepping closer to her and the puppy. "Put the poor thing down. Your breasts are squishing it! Secondly, it needs to take a piss."

"Such coarse language, Natsuki!" She reprimanded me but I smiled back, enjoying the way she began to blush. She placed the dog down and the white ball of fur began to sniff around my legs. Oh hell no. I grabbed the scruff of the puppy and turned to make my way to the kitchen and the door to the backyard. Behind me I could hear Shizuru complain about me being able to pick up and handle the puppy. She sounded jealous and that caused a tickle of joy in my stomach.

The little creature whined a bit and looked up at me as I opened the sliding door to the backyard. I placed him on the porch, trying to keep myself from getting too attached to it. I pointed down at it and spoke firmly, "Hey, you! You relieve yourself outside only, got that? Don't make me tell you again."

Glaring at the puppy, I could feel Shizuru come to my side, leaning on the glass sliding window. "How did Natsuki know what the puppy wanted?"

Smirking, I started triumphantly, "I, as a genie, understand animals!"

It was true. It had to be one of few nice aspects of having been cursed as a genie. I could understand animal languages to an extent, but unfortunately many animals were not that interesting to listen to. Baby animals were just as annoying as baby humans so it definitely did not make them any cuter in my book.

I looked over at Shizuru who had an excited and awe-filled expression and I began to blush a little bit at her next words, "Natsuki is truly amazing."

Not as amazing as you, Shizuru.

"Shizuru!" I yelled, unable to reign in my emotions from what I was seeing. Shizuru jumped up from her kneeling position and looked over at me shyly. I had caught her, but the look she wore chased my annoyance away.

"What are you feeding the dog?" I questioned sharply. I recognized the bag she held as she tried to hide it behind her back like a small child. I tried to keep the smile from my face, thinking of how absolutely silly this graceful woman could be sometimes.

"Uh…" She smiled a little too pleasantly at me, one of the few times I've heard her stumble for words. She settled on the truth, knowing I knew exactly what she was holding, "Toshiyo Dara Herbal Tea…biscuits?"

"Why?" I pressed.

"He likes them!" Her innocent smile was captivating as she tossed another biscuit from the bag onto the floor.

Quickly I bent down to retrieve the biscuit from the excited little brat of a puppy, "No, no he doesn't. He likes dog food and meat, and maybe beer."

As I went to pick up the biscuit, the white puppy growled and yipped at me. I glared down at it, tapping it on the nose as he gobbled up the tea flavored biscuit from the ground, looking up at Shizuru expectantly for more.

"Just how many biscuits has he had?"

"A handful. I'm tell you, Natsuki, he likes it!" She laughed as the puppy rose on its back paws and begged for more. I had my work cut out for me in terms of obedience as this rate. I grabbed the bag from her before she could fish out another treat for her new friend.

"This is corruption…" She laughed harder and that beautiful sound filled my heart.

"What are we going to name him?" I groaned a little bit, before eating a spoonful of Shizuru's delicious beef stew. It was the perfect meal for the cooling weather and she had quite the hand on her spices.

She was just poking at her bowl of stew and I replied with a bit of exasperation, "We have to name him?"

"Don't be silly! Of course we do! He's been with us for four days and he doesn't have a name yet!"

Well, if she wanted to name the troublemaker something then how about this.

"Let's name him Bond then."

"Bond?" She didn't get the reference and looked at me with a quizzical stare.

"Yeah, like James Bond." Now that was a man. Those movies were so great. I'm glad to have woken in an era where the entertainment industry was booming with action films and shows. It had to be one of the best parts to this century.

"That's a horrible name!" She replied back, while scrunching up her nose.

"Well, what were you going to name him? Cupcake?" I teased.

"Nobunaga!"

I nearly choked on the carrot I was swallowing at her choice. I thought she was going to at least have some half decent name ready for the puppy, but apparently she may need my help. "What the hell, you better not be serious."

"Rover? Punipuni? Bob?" She rattled off some names, her smile becoming more and more playful with each one.

If she wanted to be like that then I had a few choice names as well! It's not like this puppy needed a great name anyways. "What about Squidward?"

I could hear the puppy whine at our feet and I wanted to tap it with my foot at its objection. Brat. And Bob was an acceptable name? Tch.

"Who's Squidward?" I ignored her comment only slightly surprised that she did not know of the famous American cartoon that I had come to learn of. Still, who did not know about Spongebob, even in Japan?

"Bah, I thought it was a good name," I grumbled as the puppy came into view next to my leg. It looked up at me with almost begrudging eyes.

After some moments she beamed brightly again. I braced myself for what was coming next. "I know what we should name him!"

"What?" I replied dryly, shoveling another spoonful of stew into my mouth.

"Heathcliff!" She chimed, clapping her hands together.

"No!" I objected and the puppy ran over to her, placing his fat paws on the edge of her chair, wagging his tail furiously.

"It's great!" She continued, "Such a fantastic book and look how handsome our puppy is! He will be an amazing Heathcliff!"

"This is ridiculous! Our dog doesn't want that name!"

The words 'our dog' had slipped both our mouths and I think she noticed as well and we both began to blush.

Patting the puppy's head she said, "Well, let us see. All in favor of Heathcliff as a name?" Shizuru raised her hand from the top of the puppy's head and into the air in a form of impromptu voting.

The puppy barked at her raised hand and then barked in my direction. You little...

"All opposed?" She smiled coyly at me, and I threw up my hands in the air. Glaring back at the puppy again I said, "I'm calling him Turd."

"Heathcliff it is!" She said happily, ignoring me. Along with her laugh the puppy began to bark again. Here I am, the all-powerful genie, and I have to put up with this nonsense! She winked in my direction and I went back to my meal, trying to restrain my flush. This woman!

I ran my hands through the soft fur of the puppy, as he curled up closer into my leg. He was actually pretty cute when he wasn't moving around and barking so much. We were beginning to watch a war film when Shizuru came from the hallway with two blankets. She had begun to spend nights watching films or television shows with me, and it was one of my favorite parts of the day. I enjoyed the moments I could look at her for minutes on end, while she was distracted by the movie. I too would be entertained by the movie, if I wasn't being distracted by her.

The moment she sat down on the opposite end of the couch, the puppy…Heathcliff…left my side to nuzzle under the blanket she put on her lap.

"Traitor," I said in his direction.

"Natsuki shouldn't be jealous of the little puppy," she teased, handing me my own blanket. Except I was. Just like she was jealous of how I could interact with her household items, I was beginning to feel jealous that the puppy could so easily feel her warmth and touch.

We watched the movie start and though it was long, it was really good. I don't think Shizuru really enjoyed it as much as I did though, because by time it ended she was sleeping on the armrest of the sofa, the puppy nestled into her belly. Standing and stretching, I looked over her and how the position caused her pajama blouse to show a little bit more cleavage than usual.

I smiled, my gaze finally resting on her sleeping face, clicking the television remote to change to a news channel. I lowered the volume, looking back at her. She was absolutely beautiful. It was actually a little bit ridiculous of how moved I felt just by looking at her. I picked up the blanket that had fallen from her form, and placed it around her shoulders. I let my finger trace her cheek and chin, wishing I could always feel her skin against mine. Sure, I had discovered a way to do it, but it was so energy consuming. For now, I would be fine just pretending that I was touching her face.

I jumped a little and quickly drew back my hand as she mumbled, "Natsuki?"

"Mmm?" I replied, looking at her still closed eyes behind long eye lashes.

"Thank you…" This time I could not help the blush that rose to my face, thankful she was not looking at me. She snuggled into the blanket and smiled softly. I'm pretty sure she knew I was blushing though…

"Night, Shizuru," I whispered back and sat back down next to her on the couch and went to watch the late night news. I would not mind infinite nights of this…

Author's Note: Welcome back! I had this special in the barrel for a while now so I figured I'd post it before we got back to the actual plotline. Hopefully it'll allow both old and new readers to ease back into the story. This story is entering the end so I don't expect it to be incomplete for much longer.

While I am technically actively writing, my main focus is on another ShizNat story that I have posted. It is called New Erebos, please feel free to check it out!

Nimara