Hey, everyone! Well, I'm back with a one-shot. Of course its Kai/Hil, like every other fic of mine…:p I've been searching for inspirations lately, and I've had this new obsession over sketching stuff. So, I had this one-shot inspiration strike me yesterday. In this short story, Hillary uses her artistic skills at sketching to show Kai how she feels about him….

And before I start, let me say this chapter is dedicated to Kai-Hil-Lover, who –despite everything—thinks I was right when I said that I'm a guy. LOL! What are the chances of me being a GUY? God, KHL…SERIOUSLY! Well, anyway, I hope this story cheers you up. I've even used 'Hiromi' instead of 'Hillary'; I know you prefer the first over the other. Enjoy!

Sketches…

Kai, groaning inaudibly, closed his eyes tightly in discomfort. He had been sitting in one corner, just staring out the window, deep in thought –something he did almost all the time—but a certain brunette, who was sitting just across him on the opposite side of the room, was making it difficult for him to continue that condition. She'd been sneaking glances at him, gazing at his face all throughout the day. Kai had stopped thinking he was imagining it when he'd caught her staring at him for the fifth time in one hour. What irked him more than anything else was that she didn't seem to be noticing the irritation it was causing him.

"What, Hiromi?"

Hiromi, who'd been staring at the dual-haired captain's face intently, was snapped out of her extremely observant state at the annoyed tone in his voice. She blushed, trying not to feel embarrassed at the situation; Kai'd caught her ogling at him….again. That was exactly what Kai must've been thinking, Hiromi thought, that she was ogling at him. She wasn't….

"Nothing." Hiromi mumbled, looking away, down to her lap. A multi-colored book lay there, and Hiromi played with the little pages sticking out of it, avoiding Kai's patronizing gaze. She tried to give the perception that she didn't care whether Kai was irritated at her looks or not, so she just absentmindedly opened the book, eyeing the sketches she'd drawn along every page.

Kai, when he saw what she was doing, sighed angrily before turning away to look out the window again. A while later, just like before, he felt someone's eyes on him, and once again, he resisted the urge to sigh out of frustration. Instantly, almost reflexively, his head snapped in the direction of the ruby-eyed brunette. For sure, when he looked at her, she immediately looked down, blushing some more.

Kai eyed her, as she twirled the pencil nervously around in her hand. He didn't know what the normally-lethal friend of his was thinking or trying to do, but if it was to irritate him, then it was working very well. Kai wasn't unaware of Hiromi's feelings for him, and honestly, he, too, felt as if something was there sometimes, but scrutinizing him like some –dare he say it— fan-girl… wasn't going to do her any favor.

Slowly, Hiromi looked up from the book she had in her lap, eying Kai through her lashes. When she saw his gaze still upon her face though, she looked back down at once, startled.

"It's rude to stare…" Kai started, really bothered with her unusual behavior. He wasn't sure if it was intentional or forced, but she seemed to be oblivious to hearing him.

She didn't reply. Instead, she made a rapid moment with her pencil onto the notebook, as if correcting some line she'd drawn wrong. At that, Kai's crimson orbs narrowed; did she just ignore him?

He stood up –intending to leave the room what with all the uneasiness— and the sound, more than any actual one, seemed to have woken Hiromi up from the trance she was in. Her eyes followed Kai's figure as he stood up, lingering on his face… as if observing something, as if seeing something that shouldn't be there. That sudden glint in her scarlet eyes was hard to ignore and it left Kai feeling confused. They both stared at each other for a while; Kai, trying to think of the right words to say, and Hiromi, doing what she was doing already.

Surprisingly, the first one to speak was Hiromi.

"Wait," She whispered, raising her finger at Kai. Her other hand, as she raised it to the sketch-book in her lap, made some slashing moments on the paper once more and a look of clear satisfaction passed Hiromi's features before she finally looked up. Her lips were raised a little upwards in a delicate smile and she stood up, as well.

Kai watched as Hiromi, glancing one more time at the note-book in her hand, walked over to stand just in front of him.

"It's done." She said with some relief, holding the book in front of her. Kai didn't reply physically, or verbally; he just stood there, looking just as confused as he had been before. Hiromi, when she noticed the stoic-captain's face, pushed the book into his hands, forcing it at him before she could change her mind.

The hurry in her actions made Kai want to smile; she was nervous about something. He grabbed the sketch book in his hands, wondering what she was so intent on showing him. Though, he thought as his eyes lingered on the page held out in front of him, he was stupid not to have guessed already.

It was a sketch, obviously, that Hiromi had drawn. But it wasn't just a bunch of flowers, or a colorful little butterfly, or some girl from a CD cover…It was him. It was a sketch of Kai…

"Well?"

He looked up at the tinge of uncertainty in Hiromi's voice, the level of doubt. Her face held a shy smile, and she was scratching the back of her head absentmindedly. Her eyes, though, were on the notebook; anxious, Kai noted.

"It's…"

Kai was a man of a few words, never speaking unless it was absolutely necessary. But right now, it was a different story…he was at loss of words. For the first time, when he wanted to speak, he couldn't find just-right description to what he was seeing. He let his eyes drift along the page, and wondered if he would really have to voice the encouraging response Hiromi seemed to be looking for; the sketch spoke for itself on its own. She'd obviously made most of it from her own imagination; Kai couldn't recall any time he'd been out for a walk with Hiromi watching him. It was what she'd made him do in the sketch; he was walking on a pavement, with hands in his pockets. He could tell that she had put a lot of effort into it; the details were just astonishing. His hair, in her sketch, was sticking out random angles, and the way she drew his clothes made it seem like he was walking against the wind. The fineness of every single detail made him stop again; every single crease, every curve and every cling of the fabric of his clothes to his body in the sketch was outlined with deliberate care. Even the slight curve of his neck into the shoulders of his shirt, beneath where she drew his scarf— which, by the way, she'd raised upwards against the wind –seemed to have acquired some magic to it. His crimson orbs—when they moved to the face—lingered there, once again, in amazement. She'd made him close his eyes in the sketch, and despite the many times he'd frowned, or scowled at everyone, he was surprised at how successfully she'd captured the small smile of his, and managed to draw it so perfectly.

There was a slight shuffling of feet— out of discomfort apparently— from the ruby-eyed coach, and that made Kai look up at her. She folded her arms timidly behind herself, her eyes still on the note-book in Kai's hand.

"I'm…" The elder-teen's unsure voice made the brunette finally look up at him. Her coy, little smile turned to a disappointed frown; she had been pretty proud of her work…Did Kai not like it?

Not being able to come up with any other explanation to his reaction in her disappointment, she assumed that he probably didn't think it was as good as she'd thought it to be. Hiromi had put her whole heart into the sketch, and had intended to show it to Kai as soon as it was done. She had just realized, with bitter frustration, that when she'd made that decision, what she had been feeling wasn't nervousness but her guts telling her against showing it to the grave friend of hers in the first place.

Hiromi held out her hands, wanting to take away the sketch-book from Kai's, but she was surprised when he pulled it away from her reach.

"…just speechless." He finished his previous sentence, noticing the remorseful look on her features. Somehow, it amused him. He smiled casually down at his only female friend, searching her eyes again. There seemed to be a secret message in the wonderful gesture she'd just made. Obviously, it wasn't to tell Kai that she could draw great art, he already knew that. Though, he'd only just seen the extent of the greatness.

She wanted to hear something. She wanted him to know something….and Kai had a fairly rough guess what it really was.

"I'm keeping it." Kai smiled, hiding the sketch teasingly behind himself. Hiromi's crimson orbs lit up at the words, almost as if there was magic in them. She knew, from this specific friend of hers, those were the best she was going to get; they seemed to have sufficed. She smiled proudly to herself, raising her hunched shoulders, and took a playful step back.

"You've got a cute nose." Hiromi grinned, going a little bit red at just the memory of trying to glimpse at Kai again and again all through the day, wanting to take a look at his nose…somehow, she kept drawing it wrong.

Kai let out a smirk. Without another word, but an exchange of a smile from both teens, Hiromi slowly backed away, leaving the room.

Upon reaching his own bedroom, Kai tore the paper that had Hiromi's sketch of him from her note-book, to hang it up on the wall. It was admirable, the time and effort she'd obviously put into the art and even more impressive, was that she'd done it so perfectly. Kai felt flattered, as he finally realized the meaning behind her gesture, in the form of the little words that were emblazoned at the bottom left corner in Hiromi's slightly scrawny writing.

Тыбольше, чем простодруг

He smiled…and in the next second, he had already left the room to tell Hiromi the actual words she wanted to hear; he finally felt like he'd mean them now more than ever before.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

That : Ты больше, чем просто друг meant, 'You're more than just a friend', in Russian. That way, only Kai can understand what she wrote… I used Google Translater, so I'm have NO idea if that was right or wrong. I'm NOT familiar with Russian at all, so don't say anything about that.

Well, whatya guys think? I admit, I kinda like it….it's vague, but I really like it, so don't go hard on me with the criticism. The nose part was just that, when sketching, I can draw the difficult parts, but the nose is ALWAYS the trickiest! I don't know why, but it IS! So, that was the deal with the nose…

Anyway, I hope, KHL, that you liked it. And just so you know, I'm NOT a guy (though, I don't think there should be any doubt), so please start talking freely to me now…:)Oh, and sorry that I couldn't come online…Have some connectivity probs…AGAIN. The net is such a pain in the ass sometimes over here…

Review, everyone, please! I'd love to hear what the readers think about my first attempt at a short-story…:p