A/N: I wrote this with the Imaginations: Unleashed contest, Three Words to Three, in mind. I couldn't join, but the topics (pencil, miracle, strawberry) were so interesting that I decided to write one, even if I'm not qualified to join. Happy Monthsary, Imaginations: Unleashed! GLOMP
Credit: My classmate for recommending Mousukoshi... Mousukoshi (ED song of Midori no Hibi, translates to 'Just a Little More... Just a Little More). Awesome song.
Just a Little More
"Ne, ne Ruka-pyon! What should I do to make mine look like that?"
Ruka looked at Mikan questioningly. They were sitting on a grassy part in the Academy's garden, doing their Art project. Mikan was actually paired with Natsume at first, but the two were seen butting heads (literally) in the corridors, so their teacher decided to pair the two with someone else. Natsume ended up with Hotaru (Ruka's first partner) while Mikan ended up with Ruka.
Mikan gamely pointed at Ruka's work, which was still a rough draft of the school's biggest oak tree. "There, there! How could I make my tree trunk look like real wood? See?" She showed her work to Ruka.
"That looks like celery." Ruka looked back at his own work, trying to look indifferent, for Mikan's drawing really DID look like a stalk of celery.
Mikan blushed. "So desu ne?" she muttered disappointedly and tore off the page of her sketchpad. She crumpled it and threw it behind her.
Ruka glanced at her and felt guilty. He sighed. "You shouldn't curve the trunk so much. Look," he instructed, showing her a new page of his sketchpad. He began drawing a tree trunk. "Do you get it?" Without waiting for an answer, Ruka tore the page and handed it to Mikan. Then, he returned to his drawing.
He noticed that Mikan was silent for a while. He snuck a look at her and blushed at how her face scrunched up with concentration. He looked back at his sketch and found out that he couldn't focus anymore.
"Is this okay, Ruka-pyon?" Mikan showed her work proudly. "Look, I even did the curvy lines and the bark holes!"
Ruka nodded at her improvement. "Here," he pointed at a smudged part. "You should lift the side of your palm a bit when you draw because you're smudging up the left side."
"Oh! You're right!" Mikan tried to draw but it smudged up again. She tore off the page and did another try. And another. And another. And another. Soon, her patience ran out and she faced Ruka pleadingly.
"I can't do it!" she announced. "I can't! It keeps smudging and smudging! Mou! Help me!"
Ruka sighed. "Listen carefully," he instructed. Professionally, he kneeled behind Mikan and held her right hand as it clenched her pencil. "You just have to push on the pencil this way..." He began guiding her hand to sketch the trunk.
"Ah, Ruka-pyon's hand is soft..." Mikan murmured. They looked at each other and Mikan smiled. "It's warm!"
Surprised, Ruka fell back. "W-What are you saying?" he asked, his face burning up. "Don't surprise me like that!"
"But it's true! Your hand is warm!" Mikan grinned. "Anyway, I think I got it! See, all I had to do was raise my wrist, like what you did, and push against the pencil diagonally! Right?"
"Hn." Ruka looked away as he continued to blush.
"Arigato!"
xxxxxx
For a couple of days, Ruka continued teaching Mikan real-life drawing to prepare her for their final output. The topic was 'happiness' and they can draw anything, provided that it can explain the given topic.
So now, the two were sitting in front of each other in Ruka's room. They were sketching the strawberry basket in the middle of the table.
"Ne, have you figured out what to draw?" Mikan suddenly asked.
Ruka looked up from his work, blushing already. He recently realized that he had been thinking about Mikan quite often and to prevent Koko from reading his mind, he would memorize Shakespearean poems and recite them over and over mentally.
"Uh... no," he muttered in response, drawing his vision towards his paper.
"I want to draw strawberries forever! Look, look, Ruka-pyon!" She beamed as she handed him her sketchpad. "They look like strawberries! Perfect little strawberries!"
Ruka had to agree because by far, this was her best drawing. She got the shadows and the heavy lines perfectly. He was surprised that she improved this much already. He nodded. "That's good."
"Arigato for teaching me how to draw! I couldn't have done it without you! Ruka-pyon-sensei!" She held Ruka's hands and began shaking them vigorously. "I showed my drawing of rabbit-chan to Hotaru and she told me that I was an idiot who can draw! I didn't like it when she called me an idiot, but Hotaru still loved my drawing!" She was flushed with happiness. "Domo, domo, domo!"
Ruka managed to smile a little. "Sakura was a good student."
"Am I? Yayyy!" Mikan began doing a little victory dance in front of Ruka. Suddenly, she stopped, remembering her earlier question. "So, what're you goin' to draw?"
Ruka shook his head. "I'm still thinking about it." He looked up at Mikan. "You should draw strawberries. They make you happy, don't they?"
Mikan nodded thoughtfully. "You're right. But Natsume calls me 'Ichigo-kara' so strawberries don't always make me happy," she said. "And it proves that Natsume is a pervert," Mikan added.
Ruka smiled again, but this time, his throat tightened up a bit. "But you're going to draw strawberries, not strawberry-patterned underwear."
"You've got a point. I've decided! I'm going to draw strawberries! Yosh!" Mikan grinned again and gave Ruka a thumb up.
xxxxx
"Ano... Sakura."
Mikan looked up from her writing to see Ruka before her, rubbing his elbow. His sketchpad was tucked under his arm. "Ruka-pyon?"
"Are you... busy?" He was blushing so hard, he couldn't even think straight.
"Why?" Mikan asked back.
"Can we practice a little more drawing?"
"Mou, do I still suck? Gomen! I've been the worst student! You can punish me!" Mikan began to lament.
"That's not it... Um, I still haven't figured out what to draw and the deadline is tomorrow... Can you help me?" Ruka muttered.
With this, Mikan brightened up. "Ehh? Ruka-pyon's asking me for help! Of course! I'll do my best!"
xxxxx
The pair walked towards the garden, and they sat in front of each other on the grass.
"So, what are you planning to draw, anyway?" Mikan asked.
Ruka didn't reply. Instead, he opened his sketchpad and began drawing. Occasionally, he would look up at Mikan and then go back to his work.
This went on for a few minutes.
Finally, Mikan couldn't take the suspense and glomped Ruka right there and then.
"Wah, Ruka-pyon! I can't stand it! What are you going to draw? Why won't you show me? Unfair, unfair, mouuuu!" Mikan exclaimed.
"I... can't... breathe..." Ruka panted as he tried to pry Mikan's offending arms from his neck.
"Ah, gomenasai."
For a while, the two sat staring at each other.
"Do you want to know?" Ruka asked suddenly. "And you won't get mad?"
Mikan was surprised. "Why would I be mad at Ruka-pyon?"
"Well..."
"Show me!" Mikan demanded good-naturedly. She held out her hand towards Ruka.
Taking a deep breath and handed her the sketchpad.
"Now, now... let's see what makes Ruka-pyon happy... I bet it's..."
The sentence was kept in mid-air as Mikan slowly opened the sketchpad. As soon as her eyes landed on the first page, her mouth formed a big 'o' and she stared at it. Ruka, on the other hand, was a red as a tomato as he waited for Mikan's reaction.
Bump.
Bump.
Bump.
He was so nervous; his heart was beating so fast. "W-well?" he breathed out.
Flustered as well, Mikan looked back at him, blushing. "Anou... why is it me?" She pointed to the first page; a portrait of Mikan, herself.
A breeze went through them, as if cued.
Ruke stood up. "I like you," he told her. "I like Sakura."
Mikan's eyes went wide. "Eto, eto, that isn't possible! Ruka-pyon doesn't like me! You're kidding! You're kidding!" she began chanting.
"I'm not!"
"Kidding, kidding... lalalalala..."
"I'm not!"
"I don't believe you, I don't believe you, lalalalalala..."
"Shut up, Sakura! You're as dense as lead!" Ruka shouted angrily. "You've been with me all this time and you haven't seen it?"
Mikan was out of words. She stared, gaping at the shouting Ruka.
"I can't believe you're this stupid! If only you weren't so nice and kind and if only you didn't make me so happy! I have no idea why I like you!" Ruka's face was red. "Someone as dense as you doesn't deserve to be liked, but I couldn't help myself because you were always smiling! You're such a kid! Mou, I hate you! I hate you because you made me like you so much!"
With that, he snatched the sketchpad from Mikan and ran away.
xxxxx
That night, someone was knocking on Ruka's door.
The tension and shock made him fall asleep earlier. Drowsily, he got up from bed and walked over to it.
"Who is it?" he asked before turning the knob.
"Ano, it's me!"
Ruka blushed and walked over to his bed. "Go away, Sakura." He covered himself with his blanket.
"Are you mad at me?" Mikan asked through the door.
"YES. GO AWAY."
Silence. Ruka lied on his bed, waiting for her response and feeling guiltier as the seconds ticked.
Finally, he heard sobs from outside. Quickly, he ran over to the door and opened it.
Mikan was sitting on the floor in her pajamas, crying.
"What's going on with you?" Ruka demanded, blushing. "You'll wake everyone up!"
"G-gomen, Ruka-pyon, but I couldn't sleep because my heart was t-thumping so hard and you said you h-hated me when I thought that I was your friend..." Mikan sobbed. "Gomen, Ruka-pyon! Let's be friends again..."
Ruka looked away. "It's fine." Somehow, it felt awkward to be standing in front of each other.
Mikan stood up, wiping her tears. "I want to make Ruka-pyon happy, but I'm really an idiot because I don't understand many things!" she announced. "But I'm going to do my best because Ruka-pyon told me that he likes me!"
Ruka blushed, but he remained to look indifferent. "You didn't get it, did you?"
"What? Tell me, so I would know!" Mikan asked.
"It wasn't anything important. Just forget everything I told you. Ja'ne." Ruka began to close the door before Mikan stopped him.
"But I do understand!"
Ruka looked at her, gaping. "You what?"
"I understood it!"
They stared at each other.
"You... did?"
Mikan nodded bashfully. "I asked Hotaru why my heart was thumping so fast," she began, holding her chest. "And she told me that it was my hormones and since you had a Pheromone Alice, I asked her if I was an animal.
So she told me that even if I was a monkey, your Alice doesn't work on me because I nullify it (Ruka: "Wha--?") and she told me that I felt that way because Ruka-pyon made me happy as well."
She took a deep breath. "Eto, did that make any sense?"
Ruka blushed. "I guess. But you're not a monkey."
"I know. But we're friends, right?"
"Yeah. Friends."
"And we're friends because we make each other happy, right?"
"Yeah."
"And that's what you meant earlier, right? Right?" Mikan's voice was pleading and Ruka didn't have the courage to explain it anymore.
"Right."
Mikan smiled widely. "Arigato, Ruka-pyon! Let's be friends always!"
"Okay. Always."
"Haii, haii! Good night, then!" Mikan said, finally happy. "Now I'm able to go to sleep!"
"Good night, Sakura."
"Good night, Ruka-pyon!"
xxxxx
After closing the door, Ruka laid face-first onto his bed. Friends.
xxxxx
After Ruka's door was closed, Mikan leaned against it, sighing sadly. Hotaru was wrong, then. Ruka-pyon doesn't like me THAT way.
Sadly, Mikan walked back to her dormitory, trying to forget everything that has been said.
She wasn't as dense as everyone thought.
xxxxx
The next day, on the top of the Arts Table, was a sketch of a smiling girl holding a basket of strawberries.
xxxxx
Fin.
A/N: That was my first RukaMikan Love Pair fanfiction, so please go easy on me! Btw, the 'miracle' part was the one where Mikan actually figured everything out despite her denseness. Lol. I was a bit tired of reading the royal love triangle, so I decided to make a Ruka-centered one. Besides, Natsume almost always wins. They're canon already. Mou. (Did the ending suck?)
Leave anything behind, ne? Comments, criticisms, whatever. :D
Oh yeah! Happy monthsary, Imaginations: Unleashed! And a big GLOMP to my co-mods: Ya-chan and Chi-chan! Let's continue working hard!
Seru-chan
Randomness: I can't believe the first fic I wrote was NatsuMikan! O.O Gah, Gomenasai, Ruka-sama! From now on, I will support the LOVE pairing with all my fangirl heart! RukaMikan spells L-O-V-E! (cheers)