I know

I know! I know! This fic was supposed to be released after the completion of Chuujitsu, but I've been so busy these days that I've decided I won't have time to wait for Chuujitsu to be finished. So…I guess that's good for all of you who have been wanting this fic to come out, right?

I've been planning this fic for a very long time…hopefully, it'll be worth the wait.

A few notes: They're Ham-Human, meaning their humans with hamster ears. Not hamsters. Not humans. Ham-Humans.

Their ages? The gang is in their last year of college, so what would that make them? Roughly twenty-one? (You'll see why I had to make them so old later on…)

There will be OC's in this fic. Sorry! I know that OC's can be annoying sometimes (especially if a fic is loaded with them with virtually no signs of actual characters). But relax! I think you'll like the OC's since most of them have been in other Hamtaro fanfictions. And the scenes that the OC's will be in won't take over the story. This is a Hamtaro and Bijou fic; the story will revolve around them most of the time.

And before most of you repel yourselves at the thought of a Hamtaro and Bijou fic, (seriously, what happened to all the good Hamijou fics? This couple is like nonexistent.) just know that this fic isn't the average love story. To see what I mean, you'll have to read the actual story which you probably are having trouble with since I'm making the author's note so long!

So here you go!

CN

Petals

Chapter One: Tell Me You're Not Claustrophobic!

The Ham-Human Bijou walked out of the cafeteria in an angered rage. The fact that Hamtaro had just made a joke out of asking her out was stinging in her mind. Of all the humiliating things that creature had put her through, this definitely had to be one of the worst.

She had just finished her literature midterm (and mind you, these university midterms weren't exactly a walk in the park) and since she had skipped breakfast, she decided to get a midmorning snack in the cafeteria. That's when that cocky, good-for-absolutely-nothing, pompous, stubborn jerk named Hamtaro came up to her and decided to tick her off.

I hate Hamtaro, she kept repeating in her mind as she walked along the grassy fields of her school's campus.

He was the same boy who would purposely spill paste all over her dress in kindergarten, the same boy who would kick the back of her chair in third grade since he was seated so conveniently behind her, the same boy who would put rubber mice in her purse all throughout middle school, and the same boy who would lean against her locker in high school just so she would have trouble getting her books, often causing her to be late for class.

But today, just as she walked into the cafeteria, in front of the whole crowd of students who had chosen the cafeteria as a place to hangout that morning, he walked right up to her with that sickeningly overconfident smile of his and asked her out.

As soon as she heard the laughter of the rest of the students, she immediately did a 180 and marched straight out of the building. He could be so immature sometimes.

Her stomach grumbled. Cats, why did I choose to skip breakfast just to study for that midterm? She certainly wasn't going to go back inside to the cafeteria after what she had just faced. Since she couldn't eat, there was nothing for her to do for the next few hours. At Ham Sapian University, she had a very spread out schedule, meaning there were a lot of gaps where high school-ers and middle school-ers would have had classes. And since she only had two classes that day, she had a few hours to kill before her next and last class for the day. It was a perk of being a college kid.

But because she couldn't get anything to eat, Bijou's focus immediately shifted to the second thing she was supposed to be doing within those few hours: reviewing for her chemistry midterm.

Since she was a senior and her major was science, chemistry was her most important core class that year. This midterm was crucial for her to maintain the A she had in the class. She had to review before the midterm, for she knew that if it wasn't fresh in her head, her worry over the test would cause her to forget everything she had studied.

She sat down on a bench and started rummaging through her bag for her chemistry textbook. "Where are you, you stupid book?" she asked when she realized that the book wasn't anywhere to be seen.

She reviewed her steps from that morning: she got up, took a shower, brushed her hair, studied for the lit midterm, put her chemistry books on the kitchen counter--

Bijou cursed under her breath. She would have to drive back home to the small house she shared with Sandy and Pashmina, get the books, and then drive all the way back to the university. Bijou groaned as she started walking to the student parking lot, and just as she reached the entrance to the lot, she realized that she hadn't driven to school that morning. She had taken the bus.

Last night, Sandy got a call that her grandmother was in the hospital, so she borrowed Bijou's car to go visit her grandmother since neither Sandy nor Pashmina had a car of their own.

It was a twenty minute drive from her house to the university.

That meant it would take at least an hour to walk home.

And since she read the bus charts last night to see when she had to take it this morning, she knew no buses were running at this time that would take her home.

"Lovely," Bijou hummed sarcastically as she started to walk.

She had been walking for about ten minutes and had only made it to the nearby park. What was worse was that a few gray clouds had started to spread across the sky, heightening Bijou's anxiety.

A strong wind blew in her face and caused her hair to go all over her face. As she started fixing it, she felt water all over herself and realized that it had already started raining.

"Could this day get any worse?" she asked desperately as she rummaged once again through her bag to see if she had anything to cover herself with.

"On the contrary, I've been having a great day, Bij," an annoyingly familiar voice answered.

Bijou turned around. "Don't call me 'Bij', Hamtaro," she said sternly, noticing the bright orange umbrella he had over his head.

Hamtaro walked up to her. "Someone sounds a bit grumpy. What's the matter, aren't you enjoying your walk?" he asked, poking his umbrella to her face and then taking it away.

"I'm not going for a walk, you jerk." And she quickly turned around and started walking again, groaning as she felt more raindrops hit her.

"Apparently," Hamtaro responded as he started walking with her. "You should really watch the weather reports. You would've known about the rain, and maybe you would've been prepared. Little Miss Heiress can't afford an umbrella?(1)"

"I'm always prepared," Bijou explained. "I keep an umbrella in my car at all times, but I lent my car to my friend because that's what friends do, not that you would know anything about having friends." Bijou swiftly looked Hamtaro up and down. "And I don't exactly see you with a pair of wheels either."

"It's being fixed," he replied shortly. "I got a ride to school this morning."

"Whatever." Bijou started walking faster, but suddenly she realized something the same time Hamtaro did.

"Aren't you in my chemistry class?" the two of them asked at the same time.

They looked at each other oddly. "Yeah…Do you have your books with you?" they asked, once again speaking at the same time.

Hamtaro looked at Bijou. "You forgot your chem stuff at home, too?"

Bijou nodded. "I have to walk all the way home and get it," she said.

"Me too." All of a sudden, a light flashed in Hamtaro's eyes. "Don't you live on Grammercy Road? Stan told me his sister shares a house with you there."

Bijou nodded again. "Why do you care?"

"Because, you only live two streets away from me, Stan, Boss's and Oxnard's apartment, and what if I said that I knew a shortcut?" Hamtaro asked, eyebrows raised.

"I'd never go anywhere with you," she told him as she shook her head. "You have to know me better than that. I'll find a taxi or something…"

"Good luck trying to get one. There's going to be a thunderstorm in about an hour; no taxi's going to drive in that weather," Hamtaro explained.

"Thunderstorm?" Bijou asked meekly. She then shook her head gain. "I don't care. Anything but you."

"Fine," he simply said. "Enjoy the rain." Hamtaro walked past her, leaving her to "enjoy the rain" that was simply getting stronger.

Rolling her eyes, Bijou cried, "Wait!" and ran up to him.

"I knew you'd come," Hamtaro told her as the two Ham-Humans started walking together. "So what did you think of the lit midterm?" he asked, shifting the umbrella so some of it covered Bijou's hair.

"It was easy, I guess," Bijou explained as she got under the shade of the umbrella. It was then that Bijou remembered Hamtaro was in her lit class. And come to think of it, he was in her history class, her philosophy class, and last year he had been in all her classes, and it was the same in high school, middle school, elementary school and they even went to the same preschool, which was around the time she had moved from France to Japan.

"We're always in the same classes," she said in a somewhat repulsed tone.

"Yeah. Aren't you the lucky one?" he asked condescendingly.

Bijou couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Not the words I would use…"

Moments later, Hamtaro and Bijou reached a hole in the ground that was covered with a wooden board. Hamtaro stopped walking and looked excitedly at the hole. Bijou followed Hamtaro's gaze and seemed confused.

"This is your shortcut?" She asked him.

"Trust me," Hamtaro told her as he lifted the board off of the hole.

"Forgive me if I have trouble doing so." She watched as Hamtaro jumped into the hole. "What are you doing?"

"Come in," Hamtaro ordered as he held his hand up to help her down. Bijou looked around nervously and wondered if what she was doing was safe, but she nevertheless took his hand and jumped into the incredibly deep hole. As soon as she got a look around the hole, she realized where she was.

It was like being in an incredibly comfy cave. Although she was in a big hole, there was furniture such as small tables and chairs all around the room. There was even a mini fridge in the corner. Soft lighting surrounded the room.

"Impressive," Bijou told Hamtaro.

"You like?" he asked, deliberately making his voice sound more arrogant.

"I once heard Stan tell Sandy that he hung out in an underground clubhouse, but I never believed him," Bijou explained. "How'd you get the furniture through the hole? And how is there electricity in here?"

"You're forgetting why I brought you here," Hamtaro reminded. He pointed to a door that was carved out of dirt. It was at the other end of the room. "That's an underground tunnel that will take us back home in at least half the time it would have taken normally."

Hamtaro grabbed Bijou's hand and took her into the tunnel. Instead of taking her hand away, Bijou grabbed Hamtaro's hand tighter as she noticed how tight the tunnel was. There was exactly enough room for the two of them to walk compactly. Despite the width, however, the tunnel's height doubled Bijou's height.

The two of them walked for while through the tunnel as they heard the rain hit the ground above them. In certain areas of the tunnel, there were leaks where tiny drops of water came through, leaving Bijou to wonder about how protected this tunnel was.

"Boss tells us not to go in the clubhouse when it's raining, especially not in the tunnel, since he claims there are cave-ins when it rains too hard," Hamtaro said, attempting small talk.

"What?" Bijou cried, yanking her hand away from his, which she had been holding all this time. "Then why did you bring me in here?" Her voice was audibly becoming more panicky.

"Relax," Hamtaro told her. "I've never seen a cave-in."

"That doesn't mean there haven't been any."

Bijou couldn't help but feel frightened, but she continued to follow Hamtaro through the tunnel anyway. What choice did she have? She certainly did not want to go outside and face the thunderstorm.

It was a few moments later that Bijou started speaking.

"Thanks, Hamtaro," she mumbled, causing Hamtaro to smile. Just as Hamtaro was about to comment, Bijou heard a snap and she looked up to the roof of the cave.

"What?" Hamtaro asked, looking up curiously.

"Nothing," Bijou quickly supplied. "Just my imagination."

"You know, I never thought I'd ever hear those words coming from you. Thank you, I mean," And as he said those words, Bijou could just feel his ego inflating more.

"Don't make more out of this situation than…." Bijou trailed off. She heard a strange noise, and this time, Hamtaro heard it too. Their large Ham-Human ears started wiggling as they tried to zero in on the noise.

It was a strange rumbling sound, and at first it was soft, like a bee's buzzing. But in a matter of seconds, the noise felt like someone was blowing a hairdryer in their ears.

"What's going on-" Bijou started to say, but she didn't have a chance to finish. Hamtaro had seen a few grains of dirt fall onto Bijou's head, and as soon as he had noticed them, he pulled Bijou towards him. Unfortunately, pulling Bijou towards him so quickly caused Bijou to fall on top of him, but the two Ham-Humans didn't care about that at the moment.

The exact spot where Bijou had been standing, the roof of the cave collapsed, just missing the spot where Bijou was lying on top of Hamtaro by a foot.

"Cats," Hamtaro cursed as dust covered the area. He looked and saw Bijou on top of him, her face as white as her hair.

"A little help, please?" he asked, trying to hide the nervous strains in his voice. Bijou quickly got off of him and helped him to his feet. Bijou dusted herself off and looked at the nearly 300 pounds of dirt that had just fallen, blocking their way completely. Now their only way out was the way they came in.

Bijou looked at Hamtaro sharply. "'Relax, I've never seen a cave-in!'" she mocked as she hit the boy's shoulder. "We could have been killed, and then we would have missed our chemistry midterm!"

"But we weren't killed, and if it wasn't for me that cave-in would've happened on you," Hamtaro explained. "I saved your life."

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be down here in the first place," Bijou reminded. She looked once more at the mound that resulted from the cave-in.

"Well, obviously we can't go out this way," Bijou said as she stared at the pile which went all the way up to the roof of the cave, making it at least twice her height. She turned around and started to leave the way she came in. Hamtaro followed suit.

"We've got to get out of here," Bijou said quickly as she started to go towards the entrance of the tunnel, Hamtaro at her heels.

"It sounds like it's raining really hard now," Hamtaro said softly as he listened to the pounding water on top of their heads. Bijou nodded to this, and that's when they heard the second eruption.

The two Ham-Humans looked at each other nervously. They picked up their paces, dreading what could have caused the noise of that second eruption, and seconds later, they found the sight of the second cave-in.

This cave-in was like the first one: massive. It had also blocked their way completely, leaving Hamtaro and Bijou inside a cave where they were trapped by two cave-ins.

Hamtaro looked at the pile of dirt unbelievably while Bijou gasped.

"We're stuck," Bijou said nervously as she started to bite her nails.

"Not necessarily," Hamtaro reminded, but he knew as he looked at the mound of dirt that she was pretty much right.

Hamtaro kicked the pile of dirt, but it was no use. He had barely dented the mound.

"It's gonna take at least a few hours to remove all that dirt," Bijou estimated.

"Well, we don't need to remove it all…We just need to remove enough so that we can crawl over the dirt," Hamtaro explained.

"How long do you think that will take?" Bijou asked nervously. Was it suddenly getting much hotter in here?

"Maybe a couple of hours…"

"Really?" Bijou asked in an extremely distressed voice. She started to fan herself with her hand. "That…long?" Her breathing was becoming shallow.

"What's wrong, Bijou?" Hamtaro asked nervously. Even though the cave wasn't the brightest place, he could tell that she was starting to sweat.

"Nothing!" she exclaimed. "It's just…that…small…this cave's…so small. Very small…thin…dark…small…tiny…miniscule…" She started to pace slightly.

"Bijou, tell me you're not claustrophobic!" Hamtaro ordered.

"Don't…be silly…" But as if on cue, the moment she said those words, she stopped pacing, her eyes closed, and she started to fall. Luckily, Hamtaro moved just in time to catch her. Her sudden weight caused him to stumble slightly, so he took the fainted girl and sat against one of the cave's wall.

It was then that he was reminded of the chemistry midterm…

Hamtaro gritted his teeth as he looked at Bijou.

"Lovely," Hamtaro hummed sarcastically.

It was a few hours later that Hamtaro awoke to a soft ringing. He quickly opened his eyes and realized that Bijou was still fainted and resting in his lap. He had to maneuver his hands around her body to get his cell phone out of his pant pocket, but as soon as he got a hold of it, he swung open the phone and cried, "Hello?"

"Finally! I've been calling you for hours," Boss's voice was heard on the other end. "You missed the chemistry midterm."

Hamtaro cursed. "Sorry, I guess I dozed off. Unfortunately, that's the least of my problems."

"Why?" Boss asked. "Where are you, anyway?"

"In the clubhouse…" Hamtaro trailed off. "…tunnel…"

"WHAT?!" Hamtaro knew that Boss's face was about as red as a tomato. "You know I told you NEVER to go in there when it was RAINING!! There's a THUNDERSTORM outside RIGHT NOW!!"

"Relax," Hamtaro chuckled nervously.

"So there wasn't a cave-in?"

"…No…" Hamtaro mumbled quietly.

"At least you're alright-"

"…there were two," Hamtaro said. Boss erupted in an explosion of threats to Hamtaro, all of which Hamtaro heard very clearly even when he pulled the phone as far away from his ears as his outstretched hand would allow.

"So you're stuck?" Boss asked when he settled down.

"Yes."

Boss could practically be heard rolling his eyes in anger over the telephone.

"But look at the bright side: we're alright!" Hamtaro said.

"There's someone in there with you?"

"Yeah! Bijou!" Hamtaro heard Boss snicker.

"You're stuck in a cave with her and you're complaining?" Boss asked slyly.

"Shut up! She's fainted, anyway," Hamtaro said. "Now call for help or something. Another cave-in could come at any minute."

"Ok, but stay calm," Boss told him. "The last thing you need is to panic."

"Right. I have a fainted girl in my arms and the two of us are stuck in an underground tunnel but I'm supposed to not panic," Hamtaro analyzed, knowing that staying calm was anything but easy.

Ok…so what did you think?

Good? Bad? Must be deleted immediately?

You'll find out what I made Bijou the heiress of later in the story. It has a slightly significant part in the later chapters.

And everything mentioned in the first chapter, from their science majors to Bijou's sudden fear of the word "thunderstorm" (did anyone catch that, by the way?) is crucial to the storyline. In that case, the whole first chapter is a foreshadowing of everything that will occur in the later chapters of this story.

Most of you are probably thinking, "I don't get what she's so excited about. It seems like an ordinary hate to love relationship fic. Yawn."

Well, if you're thinking that, you're wrong! You'll just have to read and see why this isn't the average love story (especially not for a section like Hamtaro).

Next chapter: A somewhat familiar OC makes an appearance and…you'll see!

Review, please! I'd love the feedback, especially for this fic that I've been working so hard on.

-CN