Wolf: Ergrah…to show I'm NOT dead I've written this one-shot since it seemed to be the most cooperative. It was an idea I had two nights ago…and my other fics are NOT COOPERATING WITH ME DAMNIT! Writer's block on all of them! x-x; You've probably noticed if you do check my LJ…if you don't it's linked on my bio as my homepage…O-o Dunno if anyone checks…
Lucky, Not So Lucky
Fujino Shizuru always considered herself lucky, at least to some extent.
She'd been born into a wealthy family, the heir to a large company. In the early days of her childhood her father had been her life. Taken under his strong, silent wing he'd guided her down the shaky steps of her childhood. Progression was all she knew those days. He'd not let her out of his sight, his sharp stone blue eyes hard as he'd watched her grow from a bumbling toddler to a graceful child. She'd been taught by private tutors as soon as she could. Her days passed in a blur; pages of books filled her room as lesson after lesson buzzed into her young mind. Teach, learn, and progress onward. Despite her father's sternness, she'd believed herself lucky. After all, when they were alone together he'd always hold her in his strong, broad arms. He'd tell her what a wonderful child she was, how he was so proud of her. In those times, away from all the facades, she could just be herself as he embraced her. Yes, Fujino Shizuru had considered herself quite lucky those days.
Then things took a turn for the worst.
She didn't remember the clear amount of years the day it happened, nor the reason he had given her when it happened. All she remembered were his cold eyes and then suddenly she was in a car, driving away from home with her bags packed and a ferry ticket clutched tightly in her small hands. Then everything was a blur again, the chauffeur pushing her out of the car toward the boat, telling her goodbye and wishing her luck. In no time, she was surrounded by people, shoved into the crowd. She was on her way to Fuuka. She'd stood on the deck, leaning against the railing and staring at the ocean, at the horizon as she watched Kyoto, and her life, fade away into the distance.
She'd not been very lucky that day.
Afterwards, things couldn't have been more difficult. She'd been left completely vulnerable, left to defend on her own and she'd quivered on the port without the feel of her father's wing upon her shoulders. Then once again she was pushed into the cruel world. Her father had left her with few things. A few pair of bags that had held necessary things, such as clothes or other necessities given to her. All of her childhood valuables, her toys and her precious books she'd loved to read for odds on end, had been stripped bare from her old room and tossed away. An amount of money had been placed in a newly made account for her at Fuuka's main bank, though how to work that account she had no real idea. Then there was the final thing. A piece of paper, a letter. It'd only had a few scribbled words on it. Survival of the fittest Shizuru. That was it. That was all her father had left her with.
Lucky days were no longer in sight.
The first months at her stay in Fuuka had been hard, crushing. She'd panicked at the realization that she had nowhere to stay, but mysteriously she'd found a set of keys and an address. It'd led to a small, vacant apartment; her new home. It'd been barren except for a few pieces of furniture in the living room, a bathroom, and a small bedroom. There was a kitchen as well, but cooking had never been her best point. The letter her father had written her rang in her head as the days wore on. Survive.
Living by herself was the first thing she'd had to get used to. There had been no blue eyes waiting for her nor a pair of arms. No butlers or maids greeting her nor a large busy house in front of her young eyes. A small apartment, empty. It had left a jagged hole in her chest and for the first time, her heart had bled and cried. There were no phone calls, no letters, nothing from her father after that. Abandoned was the word to describe how she'd felt and it left her weak and in despair. Pain, once completely unknown, had haunted the edges of her visage each day. Surviving was harder than she'd ever thought.
Bills, groceries, and plenty of other things had been the next task to cover. These kinds of things had always been left to Father and Shizuru struggled to learn how to maintain a careful life. There was also her schooling, which she found that her father had enlisted her into a school called Fuuka Gakuen. School was difficult, not because of the work, but because she'd never been to one and the adjustment was straining on her stressful mind. There were many things to consider in school. There was the work, which was easy, and there was the act of socializing and how you were viewed by your peers. At first she kept to herself, not caring much for the student body as she had more pressing matters at hand. Then, without her noticing, her care and dedication to her work, her grace that had been ingrained on her soul, gained her popularity. Then, for a time, she hadn't felt so alone.
Lucky days were a glimpse on the dawning sky.
Something had interrupted the fragility of her life one day though. It came in the form of an obnoxious loud blonde who, for some odd reason she couldn't fathom, declared herself her rival. Shizuru had stood there, eyebrow quirked in utter bewilderment as the blonde yelled at her, arms flailing in wild gestures. Her attention span was cut short on the blonde and she'd directed her gaze to a meek-looking brunette, cowering behind the blonde and watching Shizuru with shy sage-colored eyes. Shizuru had been intrigued at first sight, exotic dark gaze flicking from the blonde and the brunette. Friends, they were friends. When the blonde had finally walked away with her meek companion in tow, the Kyoto-born could only stare after them.
Something had struck cords in her heart after that meeting. She'd observed the two from a distance after that, watching the way the loud blonde protectively hovered over the brunette and how the tiny female tamed and calmed the golden beast many a time. Her confusion had grown each day as she watched them. Then it wasn't just those two she watched. Her dark eyes had taken on the sight of the students around her, observing. Pairs, groups, masses even had all been pieced together in her mind as she'd studied the antics of the people around her. Those that hung together tightly or those that spoke casual, easy words. Whether it was best friends or idle acquaintances, she came to one conclusion. Nearly every student in this mass had someone to turn to. Her stomach had plummeted when the hollow understanding finally came to her. The fangirls were nothing to her, the admirers barely mattered any, those whom declared they were 'in love' with her did little for her life. None of them mattered. They wanted her for the mask she put. The mask of beauty, grace, and 'perfection'. Her mouth had tasted bitter then, despondent. She was still so completely alone.
The light of lucky days had faded on the horizon once more.
Her life had taken another pointed, painful twist. It was a mistake on her own account and everything went spiraling downwards. It'd been a flaw in her account, a foolish mistake she'd done with her bills. Suddenly the money that had been in her account was vastly decreased and she had almost nothing to keep her going. Conserving what little she had pushed her almost over the edge, hardships increasing. Bills became more tedious, schooling was too pricey now and groceries seemed too costly. With the added dejection of loneliness coating her heart layer by slow layer she'd almost fallen over. She was in a depression and the empty words of 'survival of the fittest' seemed so laughable now.
She wanted to cry during those excruciating months as she tried to repair the damage done. Checks bounced, furniture was repossessed, food was lessened and everything was handled to the utmost care, the little money she had left was barely used in fear of going completely bankrupted. At the breaking point, she'd collapsed to her knees by her bed one day and wept. Wept with frustration and anguish. Nothing was going right and despite her feelings of abandonment and resentment, she missed her father. She missed him dearly and there was a black hole in the spot he'd occupied in her heart.
But luck had taken on a new shape one day.
She'd been strolling the gardens idly; gaze mild as it trailed along the field of flowers. Beautiful things, pure things. The flowers glowed with brilliance, reaching towards the sun of skies. They seemed to be full of hope despite their short lives; hope that they could live as long as possible. She'd ached with the thought, drawn to the only source of hope in her struggling life. She'd turned corners in the garden, walked along the stone pathway and suddenly someone else was there. A creature without hope, only bearing angry ambition. She'd stopped and stared, captivated by the angry stance of that single person in the middle of the garden. A person without hope just like her.
Questions hazed her mind and she'd silently crept up on the girl. Cascading cobalt hair along her firm back; one porcelain arm reaching out to the flowers, reaching out to crush them, to crush that hope. With a childish thought to save the hope of the flowers, she'd called out to the girl. Speech had flowed from her mouth in a string of gentle, silly words. That girl had gasped and whirled around and there was nothing but strong viridian green in her vision there afterward. A flicker of something burning lit in her core and her lips had trembled with the feeling as she'd gazed into those evergreen eyes. Hope found in something without hope. An oxymoronic thought, but she'd latched onto that hope and her soul had wept each day onward with the feeling of companionship.
Gentle eyes and shy hands had guided her unnoticeably from then on. Awkward smiles aimed her way and gruff whispers filled her ears. Each second of her life brimmed with happiness, so much happiness that she found herself crying each night because of it, overwhelmed. She was wrapped in the warmth, writhing in its abiding grasp. Her heart had overfilled and spilled its banks, bursting with the growing adoration she held for her hope. She needed nothing else except that hope, those gentle hands and ardent eyes. Her father's words reverberated in her mind. Survival of the fittest, but that didn't mean she'd have to go at it alone.
Shizuru considered herself very lucky, because she had Natsuki.
And Natsuki was all she needed.
- - -
On and on was the cycle. On some days she was lucky, overflowing in the joy that Natsuki brought her. On other days luck hid from her in the vast pools of despondency, her soul sobbing by itself when Natsuki wasn't by her side. The hope was still there though. The flickering hope caught delicately in her thin fingers, hands folded tenderly around that light. No matter the struggle that had come after those unsparing days, Fujino Shizuru had survived. She could proudly stand on her own two feet; her father's words no longer a haunting rasp that struck the cords of her adolescent heart. With that hope cupped in her palms and Natsuki's pure wings wrapped around her, she could survive. She considered herself lucky that way.
Unfortunately, luck did not shine on her today.
Today was just one of those miserable days that Shizuru wished would just evaporate from her being and never reappear in her face. Today was one of those god-forsaken-misery-afflicting days. Those horrid days she wished never existed on this planet. To what was the cause of her misery and her misfortune? It was simple enough.
Fujino Shizuru was sick. Horribly, terribly sick.
She usually was fortunate enough to escape sickness's cold, clammy hands. Yet here she was, in her apartment inside her bedroom, sprawled under the covers of her bed. Her body writhed and jerked with violent coughs, perspiration laying a thin layer upon her skin. Her face was flushed, burning even as her hair matted uncomfortably on her cold skin. The clothes she wore were sticky and reeked with the stench of her sickness. Her eyes were heavy and dazed, eyelids drooping over the scarlet irises. Why oh why did she have to get sick? She didn't even know the reason for the illness hanging over her head like a persistent, dark cloud.
A cough worked its way up her sore throat and issued from her lips roughly. One of her shaking hands rose to her mouth and covered it as a coughing fit began. Shizuru groaned and collapsed on her pillow, heaving. Every little noise and feeling was torture. The ticking of the clock seemed deafening to her ears and the occasional ring of her house phone echoed along the walls. Sweat trickled down her forehead and dotted upon her upper lip. Her red mouth gaped open as her parched throat painfully swallowed. Hands clutched her sheets as her body racked with sickness.
She'd been sick for two days now, maybe even three but the matter of time was lost to her weakened body. The brunette moaned in frustration and turned in her covers. It was too warm to be wrapped in her sheets, but it was too cold to push them away. Her body just continued on its suffering as her temperature increased. Shizuru peeked open one bloody eye and stared at her bedside clock. The ticking hand moved aggravatingly, revealing it was a little past four o' clock. She shut her eye once more and tried to get some sleep in the hopes that she would be well by tomorrow morning.
Just as she was succumbing to sleep, a ring vibrated through her apartment. Scarlet eyes snapped open and the university student propped herself half-way up. Her clouded gaze stared at the open door and tried to peek into the small hallway leading to her living room. Who could be at her apartment? She usually didn't get visitors besides Natsuki and she hadn't seen the biker for a week or so, their schedules too busy to allow some time for each others' company.
Waiting silently and praying that whoever it was would go away and leave her in peace, Shizuru listened attentively for any other rings. When none came she lowered herself back to the bed and sighed. Her shoulders relaxed the slender muscles and her body went limp. Eyes fluttered closed and her breathing stilled, her full intention being sleep.
The thud of soft footfalls hummed in her eardrums, nearing closer to her bedroom door. It was a heavy shuffling, one belonging to a person who walked with stiff purpose. Those footfalls grew louder and louder as they stepped down the hallway, crossing into her room. Hazy red eyes weakly opened and watched as green popped into her vision. A fine dark brow knitted and calloused hands were suddenly caressing her face, trailing the sweat as sympathetic, gruff murmurs flowed from pale lips. Rough fingers pulled her up and Shizuru groaned, feebly thrashing in protest. A sigh came from above her and those hands gently her lowered back down.
Footsteps drummed on the floor and faded off. The brunette curled back into her covers as the sounds echoed from somewhere past her living room. Then they came again and a grumble added into the thuds. Once again she felt those rough hands pulling her and this time Shizuru couldn't help a whimper. Something stiffened above her and there was another sigh. Arms wrapped around her back and she found herself enveloped in slender warmth. Subconsciously, she nuzzled deeper into that warmth and raised her weak arms to snake around that strong form. Fingers weaved through her flaxen hair and Shizuru sighed at the tender strokes, easily slipping into a lull.
"God can you not take care of yourself at all?"
Dark irises peered up into annoyed viridian eyes. Cobalt hair framed that pallid face, lips pulled down into a grimace. A frown marred the angelic face and Shizuru mumbled something inaudible as she shakily raised a finger and stroked down that frown. Instantly it cleared and those green eyes blinked in surprise, shyness taking over. A blush tinted those cheeks and a small smile curved the brunette's lips. The blue-haired girl sighed in exaggeration before lowering her down again. Shizuru heard the faint sounds of water sloshing and then a cool, moist cloth was dabbed at her forehead. She groaned instantly, trying to turn her head away from the icy feel. A growl came from her companion and a hand kept her chin in place as the other swiped away the perspiration on the skin of her face. When it was finally gone, the cloth was retreated and the form lifted from the side of the bed. It hovered there for a few moments, seemingly indecisive.
Shizuru flopped her head to face her visitor and moaned softly, "Nats…uki…"
The figure half-turned, shivers just barely noticeable along those lithe shoulders. Then a defeated sigh and the girl crossed to Shizuru again. Sinewy arms embraced her and she was lifted from the bed. Her head lolled to the side and gently rested against the curve of Natsuki's breast. Though the arms were confident, the heart beneath her chest increased in tempo. She murmured and burrowed closer, whining in discomfort as her forehead dotted in sweat again. Natsuki sighed as she carried the ill woman out of the bedroom. The white ceiling swerved past Shizuru's vision with the image of cobalt strands and evergreen orbs. Flat white ceiling soon became tiled ceramic walls and what replaced her bed was the cold shower of her bathroom. A low protest wormed its way past her lips and Natsuki's hands stroked the side of her face, reassuring her. She leaned into the girl as her calloused hands reached to undo the layers of her form. Shaky, nervous fingers hesitated upon her clothes, fearful and shy to remove the layers. Shizuru coughed once more and Natsuki gave another defeated sigh.
"I'm only doing this for you and you better not tell anyone else. Guh, you've taken care of me in the past so I at least should be able to do this one thing…"
Then those hands were peeling away her layers, leaving her bare and shivering in the stall of the shower. Fingers reached up and flicked the knob to the showerhead and cold spray washed down her skin. Shizuru yelped slightly and snuffed back a sneeze at the icy water. Arms lifted her again to stand on her feet, but didn't leave. The woman leaned on the supportive, strong figure as the water cascaded down her body. Natsuki's hands gripped the soft sponge by the shower stall and squeezed shampoo into it. Her movements were gentle and cautious, tainted with timidity as she lathered soap onto her sickened friend. Scarlet eyes grew even foggier at the tender swipes and the brunette threatened to fall asleep in the shower, eyelids drooping shut once in a while.
An appreciative murmur flowed from Shizuru's lips as those calloused hands continued bathing her. Natsuki's hands faltered, pausing for a moment before continuing the movements. When she was finally done, the biker reached for the knob and twisted it once more, the spray ceasing. She carefully guided Shizuru out of the stall and grabbed a towel on the bathroom rack. A cough bounced from the university student and Natsuki returned to her side quickly, softly stroking her back as the brunette's shoulders shook in sickness. The dry cloth rubbed at her moist skin and weak dark eyes turned to Natsuki. Shizuru's lips trembled as she slumped forward, wrapping Natsuki in an awkward hug, "Naaats…kiii…"
"Baka! Get off!" Natsuki yelped as she tried to stop Shizuru from completely toppling over. Her face flamed bright red as the brunette nuzzled her, a gesture of thanks for her effort. Grumbling and scooping up the bare girl, Natsuki carried her patient back to her bedroom, keeping her gaze straight so it wouldn't happen to wander.
Shizuru groaned mildly as the girl lowered her onto the bed. Shuffling feet rounded the room and she heard the opening of her drawers and the shifting of cloth. Then, once more, porcelain hands lifted her and she found herself being eased slowly into a pair of pajamas. Her hazy eyes met viridian and the brunette aimed a thin smile. Natsuki offered a shy one in return before going back to dressing her friend.
Shizuru sighed blissfully as she was lowered onto the mattress and the covers pulled up around her form. Those heavenly rough hands stroked her flaxen tresses and she turned inwardly to the palm, nuzzling her still feverish cheek into the rugged skin. She heard a whisper above her and soft breath blew against her face. She peeked open one eye and stared into that ardent verdigris gaze. Shizuru's gaze focused more slightly and a tiny frown dipped her lips as she rasped, "Naaats…is all wet…sorry…"
Natsuki frowned at the apology and shook her dripping wet head, cause from the shower, before tucking a few oaken strands behind the other girl's ear. Then her frown lifted and she smiled sweetly at her friend. Shizuru was taken by her visage, wanting to curl in the biker's strong embrace, but not moving to do so for fear of getting wet and even sicker. Natsuki pushed Shizuru down and tucked her in while replying softly, "It's alright it doesn't matter. I'll clean myself up later, but right now you need to sleep. I'd make you something to eat…but I don't trust my cooking skills and I wouldn't want to poison you."
A low chuckle thrummed in the girl's throat, the guttural sound better than any music Shizuru had ever heard. Those hands continued stroking her face and she nuzzled closer to them. Bliss and warmth enveloped her in a hazy, comfortable blanket. Her eyelids swooped down her scarlet irises as her breathing evened out and her mind began wandering to the edges of sleep. She could still feel Natsuki by her side though, still feel those supple touches. Distantly she heard Natsuki's deep voice whisper huskily, "I'll call Mai later when you wake up, to make you something to eat, but for now you just need to rest."
"You need to learn to take more care of yourself Shizuru," Natsuki murmured as she placed a solid hand on the brunette's cheek. Clouded dark eyes opened to stare at her, bordering bliss and exhaustion, as that warm smile widened. The biker's face burned red again, but she didn't avert her gaze. Her face was looming closer suddenly and Shizuru could barely utter a gasp of surprise as lips graced her forehead. She gazed at Natsuki, eyebrows knit but the biker shook her head and smiled secretively.
For a reason she couldn't fathom, a flush painted her cheeks and Shizuru meekly buried her head in the pillows. Fingers rubbed her shoulders and barely audible sighs drifted from the other girl. As she allowed herself to relax into those pliant hands, Shizuru closed her eyes at last. She barely registered the vague words from her confidant. Warm, sweet, and strong word, "Sleep well Shizuru. I'll be here when you wake up."
Maybe luck really was on her side today.
Wolf: Well…I haven't written fluff like this in AGES! So I apologize if it was bad or Shizuru and Natsuki were OOC…xD I lied I couldn't resist adding in some angst at the beginning…but there was definitely fluff in the end so I'm hoping that'll compensate for the future angst I'll be writing!
Unfortunately I don't have time to update any of my other fics but I'll get there…check my LJ to see any status progress…I try and post daily…x-x; Erm…yeah ehehe.
:3 Hope you guys enjoyed this though and don't forget to review!