-jabs Loser with a stick- It's not MY fault I had to play in the band at graduation. Otherwise I totally would have smoked you on being the first one to post. >_<
However, I will refrain from being TOO angry at you considering you wrote a very lovely fic and I enjoyed it a lot. <3 You get 5 points from me, master. (...I'm still gonna win, though. XDDD)
...I hadn't expected this challenge to be so hard. .___. Took me all day to think of something. I suppose I shouldn't underestimate them.. XDDD
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[Come to the C-ute Side... We Have Cookies...]
I had been walking innocently down the hallway when they decided to strike. I’m not really sure why they picked me to be their target… Probably because I was really the only one around, and because most people considered me to be an easy target for things… I couldn’t help that I was sensitive and they were cruel!
“Oh, Risako-chaaan~”
Most people would have suspected something was going on, hearing a voice sound as deceptively sweet as that, but… I’ll admit that at times I can be naïve, and so I turned around to greet whomever was calling for me with a rather bright smile.
It was then when I saw them that I realized that they were up to no good. The shorter of the two was wearing a rather mischievous grin, and while her companion’s face was much more neutral, I could see this uncharacteristic, impish glint in her eyes. It was making me nervous, and I’m sure that my voice squeaked a little when I opened my mouth to speak.
“Ah, Maimi-chan… Erika-chan… How are you guys this morning?”
The Human Lighthouse of H!P Jr. (Yurina held the original title, of course. But we never called her that to her face. She had slugged Chinami pretty hard the one time she let it slip, and so the rest of us learned from that mistake.) patted me on the head, letting a slow smile spread across her lips. I suppose it was meant to be reassuring, but it only furthered my anxiety.
“Good, good… we just came to steal you away, that’s all.”
“Steal me away…”
“From the Berryz, of course.” Maimi chimed in, as if it was the most natural thing for her to say. I, however, was staring at them with the most confused expression I could manage, because at that point I was really starting to fear for their sanity. I mean, here were two of the eldest of our group of H!P kids who were supposed to be an example for the rest of us, and they were talking about crazy things!
Understandably, it took me a little while to respond to that.
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, it’s really simple. Basically, Erika-chan and I were just sittin’ around talking about random stuff…”
“And somehow we ended up talking about Berryz and C-ute, and we started to compare everyone in both groups…”
“Kind of like… which members were most similar. Like Erika and Yurina-chan… Airin and Miya-chan…”
“And then we came to a conclusion…”
At that they leaned in towards me, like they were going to share some big secret. I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to know it or not, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“What’s that…?”
“C-ute doesn’t have anybody like you.”
“Kanna-chan was left over when we got to you, but we didn’t really think that the two of you were very much alike. This is a problem, since in order for our groups to rival each other, they need to be pretty much equal, right?”
“…Um, I suppose so…”
“So we decided that we were going to come and steal you away in order to fix that.”
“Aren’t we just brilliant?”
I hesitated to answer at first, intimidated because they had moved even closer to me at that point, and since I was smaller and younger than both of them I was at a disadvantage. It wasn’t really fair… to gang up on me like that. Plus, I think they enjoyed watching me squirm. Maybe being older they had a sense of humor that I didn’t quite understand…
“U-um… eight doesn’t exactly equal six… and if you take me away, then the Berryz won’t have me…”
“Oh, that’s alright.”
So much for equality amongst the groups.
“Actually, we’re really just bored, so if we had to fight them for you, we probably would.”
“You’d get your asses kicked.”
I turned around and breathed a sigh of relief as I spotted my savior walking towards us. Miyabi must have overheard part of the conversation and was coming to rescue me from these strange girls. If anyone would protect me, surely she would. Maimi and Erika seemed to be more amused than anything (Obviously they had no reason to be afraid, when they were taller than most of the performers in H!P…) and merely straightened up when Miya approached, grinning brightly at her.
“My, my, someone’s been spending time with Ishimura-chan lately, I see…”
“What makes you so sure C-ute wouldn’t win, Miya~ Little Maimai may look adorable, but I’m willing to bet she could take you out.”
“Doubt it. But I bet if you paid me, I’d let you take Rii-chan away right now and just look the other way.”
…What? I stared at my Ebiru elder incredulously, unable to believe the words that had just come out of her mouth. The C-ute girls were giving her a wide-eyed look as well, before they burst out into hysterical laughter. I, however, was not amused.
“You can’t be serious, Miya! You would sell me to them?”
“Depends, I guess… How much ya got, Maimi-chan?”
Now, honestly, this was the most ridiculous thing- I attempted to put on my most indignant face, trying to glare Miyabi down, but she was much more interested in the coins that the C-ute leader was pulling out of her pocket.
“Mm… I got about 200 here…”
“Sweet, I’ll take it. I can probably get a snack or something later with this…”
“I’m worth much more than 200 yen, thank you very much!”
But they were ignoring me now, and the trade was sealed as Maimi handed over the money. Some savior Miyabi turned out to be… She was definitely not going to hear the end of this from me… She waved her hand at the C-ute girls in a shooing sort of motion, as if she had become bored with their presence there.
“Alright now get out of here, you two. I’ll bring along your prize later as long as these don’t get stuck in the vending machine.”
“Nice doing business with you…”
Maimi and Erika turned and walked away arm in arm, not making it very far from us before they broke out into a fit of laughter again, and I felt some of my dignity leave with them, the sting lingering until the sounds of their conversation faded and they were out of sight.
I then promptly turned to the girl beside me and smacked her as hard as I could in the shoulder.
“OW! JEEZ, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!?”
“For teasing me like that, you idiot! You were supposed to save me, not make it worse! They’ll come back and push me around even more later now, thanks to you!” I huffed, and she rubbed her shoulder remorsefully, having inched a ways away from me as if she feared another rebuke.
Then I sighed, crossing my arms and feeling my lips inadvertently drift into a pout.
“I don’t want to be a part of C-ute… I like Berryz…”
Now, see… I told you at the beginning that I was naïve. I seriously believed that Erika and Maimi could take me away if they wished and that Tsunku would go along with it. So I guess I can understand (Not that I wasn’t angry at her for doing it and bruising what dignity I had left even more…) why Miyabi started to laugh at me with that Ebiru cackle of hers.
“Oh, Rii-chan… First off, I’m pretty sure they were just messing with you. They can’t and wouldn’t do something like that. And second…”
I felt my heart leap violently into my throat as she approached me, feeling arms sliding effortlessly around my waist in order to pull our bodies closer, and my cheeks grew hot as I realized how close her face was to mine, the tips of our noses just barely touching. I couldn’t breathe, and yet my brain was too scrambled at that moment to figure out whether or not that was a bad thing.
“Nobody’s taking you away from the Berryz… Nobody’s taking you away from me.”
And then she pressed her lips against mine, and I found myself no longer able to form coherent thoughts. It was sweet and gentle, and yet coupled with the words she had voiced only a moment before, I felt a sort of possessiveness behind it all that excited me and scared me at the same time. And then again, I don’t think I would have picked anyone else to steal my first kiss like that.
She was starting to pull away, and so I slowly brought my arms up to hang loosely around her neck, kissing her back once more before it ended. She was smirking at me like she always did, but this time it was playful, and for once I wasn’t upset by it. But she also looked like she was enjoying a private joke, and being curious like I was, I wanted to know what was on her mind.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothin’, I was just thinking about how I managed to get Maimi-chan to give me 200 yen…”
Topic: Senjou! [A war of epic proportions... or, yeah, something like that.] (Read 22254 times)