Forbidden Fruit

Sup guys. This story's gonna contain SxM, but I'm not gonna reveal much more of the plot. Sandy's in a predicament, and the thing she wants is far out of her reach. Not only is it impractical, but impossible. Will Sandy give up everything to gain what she desires? PS, assume this story is set in North America.

I tried to make this as accurate to the Hamtaro universe as I could. The characters will be as in-character as I can make fit to the story, give or take some creativity here and there. This also means no ham-humans, no original characters with rainbow fur/hair and no supernatural powers. There will be some twists that you won't expect and that I personally haven't seen in Hamtaro fiction (yet). ;D

My relationship with Maxwell had been growing steadily. In fact, I'd say it was stronger than ever. This is Sandy, in case you were wondering. I don't know what I ever did before I met the guy. It seems like just yesterday that I had tripped while practicing my gymnastics and he showed up in front of me to help me up. Why I hadn't noticed his charm before that point was beyond me. It was soon after that first meeting where Stan came back into my life, and he kind of took over for a while. But soon the novelty of having my brother back faded away (he was just as annoying as ever!) and I could focus my attention back on Maxwell.

Maxwell was all over me, too. If his nose wasn't shoved in a book he was always willing to help me with something or come play with us. He'd even play acorn soccer if I begged him to. In exchange, I'd sit down and do the more quiet things he loves. I'd discovered his hobbies weren't so bad, either.

I wished so bad that I hadn't screwed it up. If I could go back and do it all over I would. I won't tell you quite what happened yet, but we'll get there. Let's rewind a few months to early November...

On this particular day were all sitting around the clubhouse table drinking tea and discussing the usual subjects. It was the same thing we did every day, but it was still more fun than sitting at home sleeping. Stan sat on one side of me and Maxwell on the other. The constant shaking of my brother's maracas in my one ear made me wonder if I'd be deaf on that side someday. Maxwell was looking through his new, updated encyclopedia. It was the one I'd given him for his birthday.

I heard Hamtaro talk and looked up. "I think we should go on an adventure, everybody! How about it? We've sat around here long enough!" he exclaimed in his distinctive cheery voice.

"But Hamtaro, we just went to acorn mountain yesterday, don't you think zat is enough for a while?" Bijou answered.

"But..."

"Bijou's right," Boss said, agreeing with her of course. He still had a gigantic crush on her and could not for the life of him confess it to her. "We just went on an adventure yesterday. Let's chill out for a little bit. We don't need to do something every day, you know."

"Boss is right. Maybe tomorrow wwe can think of something to do," Bijou agreed. Boss's face turned bright red but Bijou couldn't see it as she sat on the same side of the table as him. Honestly, I felt kinda bad for the big guy, but what can you do? I'd tell Bijou myself but Boss would strange me. The ham's like a bear.

Hamtaro sighed and drank another sip of tea. We all waited around and finished our cups before Panda got up.

"Who wants to play cards with me?" he asked. Dexter, Howdy, and Cappy all got up and joined him on the floor. "Alright, what game?"

Then Stan stood up beside me. "Lame-o, guys. I'm going to play outside if anyone wants to join me. It's a beautiful day, let's go have fun!" he said with a shake of his maracas. All but me, Maxwell, and Panda followed him outside. And Snoozer, of course, but that should just be assumed by this point. Panda walked over to the entrance of his tool room and stopped.

"I'm going to go work on some stuff. You hams can do whatever," Panda said before closing the door behind him. This left just me and Maxwell. Perfect. I had been waiting for some 1-on-1 time with him for a while.

"Ahh, finally some peace and quiet!" Maxwell said. "I might go sit in Boss's lounge chair, actually. Don't tell him, kay?" he winked.

"Don't worry about it Maxy, I wouldn't!" I giggled. Boss's chair was the comfiest in the whole place but he wouldn't let anyone sit in it. And if he caught us, well, he'd probably strangle us again. I wonder if he's ever considered professional wrestling? I imagined him in a tight latex suit, not the most pleasant thought. I snapped back from my daydream when I heard Maxwell speak.

"Say, Sandy, I wanted to ask you something..." My heart began to beat faster. A marriage proposal? Nahh, too early for that. A breakup? Not even! What could he want? I slowly walked over to him. The anticipation was killing me.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to spend some time together tomorrow." He paused. "...Like, not with the other ham-hams. And not at the clubhouse. Just the two of us." He reached up and rubbed my cheek with his paw. "We need some time alone, you know."

I couldn't help but turn red. "Like, of course! What were you thinking about doing?"

He thought for a moment. "Ohh, maybe just spend an afternoon at the park, just to relax or something. Or did you have an idea?"

"No, that sounds perfect. The afternoon works, too," I confirmed. "Sitting outside and seeing the sunset would be nice, but of course we can't be out too late or our humans might notice."

"And alas, the innocent plight of the hamster is again quashed by the ever watchful eye of the human! Sometimes it seems that life would be so much easier without them, a ham could do as he pleased. But thinking about it now I would have a hard time giving mine up." I tossed the thought around in my head a bit. I didn't quite agree, as I loved my human dearly, but I nodded in response. "We can spend the morning at the clubhouse and go to the park later. Maybe we can walk to the clubhouse together tomorrow morning? I can meet you by your house. We can make it our special day."

"Sure! I'll be there. Want me to-" I was interrupted as Panda burst out of his workshop.

"Ugh!! Has anyone seen my wrench? I swear, my tools can't just disappear!" He hiffed around the room a bit, trying to sniff it out. "They've been going missing one by one for days! I can't get anything done!" Maxwell and I were caught in a bit of an awkward moment. We looked like a couple of deer in the headlights. I thought up an excuse to get him out of the room.

"Say, Panda, I think I might have seen Stan go in there and take your wrench. Like, in fact, I think I've seen him take other stuff too. You'd better go do something about that," I said as seriously as I could. "He's outside."

"Stan's been doing this? Why that little-! I swear when I find him ..." he ran out the door, slamming it behind him. I felt a little bad, as Stan had definitely not stolen any tools, (what use would he have with them?) but it was always amusing to see him caught in a situation like that. The trouble I'd get in later from him would be totally worth it.

"Where was I?" I said. "Oh yeah, you were meeting me at my house tomorrow morning."

"I'm looking forward to our day together." he smiled at me. Maxwell was such the most awesome guy. I stood behind him and rubbed his shoulders for a few seconds. He closed his eyes and tilted his head off to one side, enjoying it while it lasted.

I moved back over to the side of his chair. "You know, we'd better move along though as I have a feeling Stan will be back in here any second. And I don't want him catching us like this, catch my drift?"

"I know, I can make it look like we weren't up to anything," he laughed. He turned around and opened up to a random page in his encyclopedia and buried his head into it. I turned around to walk back to my stool at the table, and almost on cue Stan came crashing through the doorway.

"SANDY!! What the heke did you say to Panda? The guy's nuts!! I didn't steal any of his tools, what's going on?" he panted. I pretended not to even notice he was in the room.

"Sandy? SANDY. ANSWER ME." He came up behind me and shook me. I gave him the silent treatment. "Panda said that you told him I've been sneaking his tools out! Why would you do that?" He spun me around and looked me right in the eyes. I stared through him, keeping a blank expression. "Christ, can you at least acknowledge I'm here? Hello-o-o?" I slowly slid sideways off my chair and landed with a thump on the floor, just to be dramatic.

"Man, everyone's psycho! What's your problem? Get up!" he kicked my leg. He couldn't continue any further as Panda came running through the door, followed by the rest of the ham-hams. We hadn't seen this much excitement in here for days. I had trouble keeping a straight face as I continued to stare at the wall.

"Ahhh! I swear, I didn't do anything! Trust me Panda!!" Stan backed away from Panda, who was glaring at him. "I didn't even know your tools were missing!" Panda continued to inch towards him as the rest of the ham-hams just watched. I saw Maxwell turn his head to see what was going on, and then went back to reading his book.

"I ... I ... AHA!" Stan pointed at me. "Her eyes moved! Sandy, please explain to Panda that you obviously lied to him!" Busted.

I stood up from my spot, dawdling to try and think up an explanation. Before I could even say anything, a small voice was heard from the utility room.

"Ookwee! Ookwee!" Everyone's eyes turned to Penelope. She came trotting out of the room with Panda's wrench in hand. "Ookwee!"

"...Hey, my wrench! Penelope, how did you find it?" Panda went over and grabbed it from her.

Pashmina sighed. "Uh oh. Looks like Penelope's up to her usual shenanigans again. Chances are the rest of your tools are in there too," she said apologetically.

Panda wasted no time in inspecting the utility room. Sure enough, they were all in there. At least he was happy. Stan turned back around and glared at me. Looks like I had some explaining to do.

"Well, that's solved! Now, Panda, please apologize to Stan. Looks like we just had a little confusion, here."

Panda looked down at his feet. "Sorry Stan. But my tools are important to me."

"Don't worry about it. S'all right, you didn't know better," Stan said reassuringly, knowing that Panda easily had his feeling hurt. I knew I had to make a run for it before Stan could beat me up for inciting the rage of Panda, as rare as it happened.

"Sorry guys, but my human's coming home early today. I'd better get home," I lied and quickly made my way out the door. It seems like I'd done a lot of lying to get my way out of things today. I might have to stop doing that.

It had been a few hours before Hillary got home, since I left the clubhouse so early. She walked into her room and set down her things after a long day of school and work. I stood at the front of my cage to greet her, as I always did. She kneeled down and opened my cage door, and I gladly hopped into her palm.

"And how was your day, Sandy?" she asked me as she rubbed the top of my head with her finger. I always liked reflecting back on my day when she asked me that.

"Complicated," I answered silently. "And yet, it was awesome. I can't wait for tomorrow, Maxwell and I are spending the day together. Not that you'd know him of course. And I got Stan in trouble. But it was all good." She brought me up to her face and I nuzzled her cheek. She smiled. Hillary was the best owner I could ever ask for. I'm glad that she didn't give me away to Noel way back when, but I'm sure he's just fine too. Stan seems to like him.

Hillary took me over to her bed, where she laid down. I rested on her chest while she relaxed for a moment. Finally, she got back up and put me in my cage for the night. "I've got a lot of homework to do, Otherwise I'd keep you out longer," she said. That was okay, I had other things to think about.

I could barely sleep that night. Tomorrow would be one of the first days that Maxwell and I would ever have alone. Hopefully there would be more to come.

Little was I ever concerned about the conflicting variable that would interfere.

What could it be~

Please review!