AN: Oh goodness, an update. This is for renny-chan, who managed to do what a lot of my friends wish they could do: kick me into action. So I managed to make good use of the semi not busy week and squeeze out a chapter, though I'm sure this could be a lot better than it is, but what's done is done and at least it's updated. Thank goodness for the renny-chan's in the world. Ummmmm, another update any time soon may or may not be too much to ask for, I'll see if this blinding headache of mine and my labs go away soon, but other than that... We'll see. We will see.

I think maybe I’m delusional. Maybe I’m suffering from a high fever, at home, tossing and turning in my futon with a maid attending ever so diligently to me, their beautiful but hallucinating ojou-sama. Dabbing at my flushed forehead, shiny from a thin glossy sheen of sweat, at my cherubic cheeks as I try to burrow deeper into the warmth of the futon, away from some wild nightmare concocted by my infection-ridden mind, she’ll sit ever so patiently at my side awaiting my awakening.

Ara.

What am I? Five? I do not have cherubic cheeks.

And I am most definitely not delusional, feverish, or at home.

I have been kidnapped. Bound. Gagged. Tied up. Didn’t I tell Natsuki that bondage isn’t really my thing? Is this why she’s had me trussed up like some promiscuous pay girl and tossed into the back of some sketchy man’s car?

I hear voices in that distant, drug-altered away, and for a few moments I’m sick with fear. Natsuki has gone so far as to have had me drugged? Who has that girl been talking to, lately?

Ara. I know who.

“….Yuuki… Nao…”

The voices stop abruptly and I try to smile through the gag, triumphant at my success of deducing who my abductor is, only… What is that smell? It makes me… The feeling is so disorienting, to be dizzy when one cannot see anything but darkness anyway. I feel the urge to sleep, but I fight it. It’s getting hard.

“…Nat…su…”

Blackness.

“Oh, shut up, Fujino.”

--

It’s like a slap in the face, the cold water sloshed ever so unkindly onto my prone form. I wake up with a very unwelcome jolt.

“Wha- What-”

“Shut up, Fujino. Could you just stop contemplating in that airheaded way of yours for once in your life?”

I know who this is, and I also realize I am no longer bound and gagged. Rather, my hands are tied behind my back, and I’m currently sitting on a very uncomfortable chair.

“Ara, Yuuki-san. I knew I heard your voice during that enjoyable car ride. Why didn’t you call me sooner? I would have gladly gone on a date with you. All you had to do was ask.”

The room is dark, too dark for me to see, just yet, but I can hear the telltale signs of scuffling. Nao’s muffled cursing, someone else’s sharp demands for her to calm the hell down and leave me alone.

Hm. It seems the real culprit and mastermind behind my capture has decided to show up after all.

“Mr. Captor-san, please. I am but a humble girl with nothing but the school uniform I am currently wearing. If it would suffice, please feel free to take it, but don’t hurt anyone that I care about. Especially not my dear Natsuki.”

More scuffling, the sounds of Nao snickering and yelping indignantly when ‘Mr. Captor-san’ whacks her soundly about the head. There’s the sound of a chain clinking and then suddenly, the room, or whatever part surrounds me, anyway, floods with light.

I blink once, twice. Can’t really see, what with the sudden flash of brightness, but my eyes are slowly beginning to adjust. I can only imagine how unflattering I look, dishevelled and squinting in such an unladylike manner. I try to appear presentable as I cross my legs demurely at the ankles and give my head a little twist, flicking my hair into its natural windswept grace. Oh, the painstaking lengths that I go to to impress my lovely Natsuki.

“Fujino Shizuru.”

She sounds unnaturally gruff in the most amusing way as she tries to mask her voice. Not that I wouldn’t recognize her dulcet tones anywhere, anytime in any way, but she doesn’t know that.

“Ara, Mr. Captor-san! Have you come to strip me of my only worldly possessions?”

Even behind the clichéd black ski mask I can imagine the blush spreading across her porcelain cheeks. My Natsuki is so easy to tease.

“N-NO! God, Shizuru, you…! Ah! I mean…!”

She fumbles for a while, fingers skittering in the air in a frantic attempt to type out her thoughts.

I’m sorry, Natsuki, but I can’t read what you’re trying to write.

“Fujino Shizuru, I have been hired by a secret employer to interrogate you for a certain truth that you hide!” Natsuki booms theatrically. If only Nao hadn’t sniggered in the background, the effect would have been quite swoon-worthy.

“But, Mr. Captor-san, I am innocent!”

I lean back and pretend to faint a bit, playing the part of beautiful demure lady scared for her life perfectly, and watch Natsuki’s response through half-veiled eyes. She hesitates, unsure of what to do as my answer had clearly not been a part of her script, and I jump at the chance, “Please believe me! I will offer myself to you, my pure and untouched virginity, as a token of my sincerity, so please…”

I lean forward now, towards her, flushed lip caught between my teeth and a gentle pout apparent in my eyes. A sprinkling blush dusting my cheeks, bangs semi-shrouding downcast eyes, my shoulders pushed forward just a bit to bring attention to the swell of my breasts… I almost want to laugh at Natsuki’s stuttering and her very apparent attempt at not looking where I want her to look. She almost falls onto her backside as she backpedals in horror.

“Ara, am I not desirable enough for Mr. Captor-san? How can this be? I always thought I was a beautiful girl… Oh, what will my Natsuki think, I’m just a plain, ugly girl who isn’t even good enough for a nasty criminal.”

And now the tears, big round drops dripping from my eyes and slipping down my cheeks. I give a little sniff as I squeeze my eyes shut and let loose the waterworks. Somewhere in the background, I can hear Nao peeing her pants laughing, but the redhead holds no interest for me. Only Natsuki’s reaction matters and I watch intently as she flaps her arms around, at a complete loss for what to do, gaping like a fish, moving ever so jerkily as she tries to come up with something, anything, to stop my tears.

“Ah… um… Shizu… Shizuru, hey, I’m… I’m sorry… Shizuru?”

She’s kneeling in front of me now, emerald eyes big and wide in concern, “I didn’t mean to scare you or make you feel ugly or anything, honest.”

I sniff and gently tilt my head up to glance at her through moist eyelashes, “Really?”

“Really.” Natsuki firmly asserts, peeling off the ski mask to show me the honesty written all over her beautiful face.

“And you don’t think I’m ugly?”

“N-no! I mean… No… I don’t.”

She’s so shy now, curling into herself with the most adorable blush on her cheeks. I want to kiss her, hug her, hold her until she can’t breathe. Making quick work of the rope around my wrists, I free myself and reach out, carefully brushing a stray strand of midnight blue from Natsuki’s face. She looks up in shock, slack-jawed at my sudden freedom.

“When… How…?”

“Just now,” I whisper, smiling, “I think Nao here had other plans that she didn’t tell you about.”

Natsuki moves to get up and maybe throttle the younger redhead but I catch her wrists in my hands and gently pull her back down, making her settle back onto her haunches again in front of me, gazing up to meet my eyes.

“Damn her,” she says, her voice oddly subdued, and she watches me with a look that makes my breath catch, “but at least she didn’t hurt you, right?”

“Was Natsuki worried about me?” I gently tease, trying to ease the mood away from the dangerous territory we’d just been encroaching upon, “It would be worth being tied up if Natsuki was just a bit worried.”

“Sh-Shizuru! I was… I mean,” she falls silent and looks away, awkwardly clearing her throat before turning to face me again, “I just wanted to know, and I didn’t think Nao would actually help me kidnap you.”

I raise one elegant eyebrow and quaintly ask, “Wanted to know? And kidnap? So you wanted to kidnap me?”

“Only to ask you until you gave me a straight answer! Nothing else, I swear.”

I chuckle, “I believe you. Natsuki is, after all, very pure and innocent. And cute. She would never dare to do anything to me, because after all, I’m always the one to start the kisses.”

She clamps a hand over my mouth and irately hisses, “Not here, Shizuru! Nao’s still listening!”

I giggle against her hand and cheekily poke the tip of my tongue against her warm palm, watching in amusement as she recoils so fast, her wrist might snap. She glares at me.

“See? This is what I mean. I can’t get a straight answer out of you unless I kidnap you.”

“Ara, is that what Natsuki thinks of me? That I lie all the time?”

I pout again and watch as she scrambles for an answer, “N-No! Of course not!”

Laughing, I wrap my arms around her and pull her close, pressing her face into the crook of my neck and giggling as she squirms against me for a while before falling still, knowing it’s futile to fight. We stay like that for a while and I can barely stop myself from trembling at the warmth of Natsuki’s breath on my skin. I hear a scoff somewhere in the distance followed by a door slamming shut.

“I think Nao left,” I murmur into Natsuki’s hair and listen to her laugh breathily.

“Good riddance.”

A few moments longer and Natsuki carefully slips out of my grasp, standing up and gesturing for me to follow her. Half an hour later, we’re back at Fuuka and she’s walking me to my dorm.

“Natsuki?”

Kicking at a pebble and watching it roll away, she turns to look at me, “Hm?”

“What was it? The thing you wanted to ask me about?”

We’ve reached my building and she stalls as she opens the door for me, an uncomfortable look on her face.

“Natsuki?”

“I…”

Hallways pass us by, people wave at me and I politely wave back but my attention is still on Natsuki. She seems to be insisting on wiggling embarrassingly under my gaze rather than saying what I knew she wants to say, and it isn’t until we reach my door and I’m standing inside the doorway, watching her, that she finally swallows and makes as though to speak.

“I wanted to know… About the present. The box. What’s inside of it, Shizuru?”

I find that I can’t quite look at her eager, trusting face as she waits for an answer, fidgeting in the hallway just outside of my room, so I fake a look of reappraisal and hedge, “Ara, didn’t I tell Natsuki not to open it until the right time?”

“W-well, you did, it’s just…”

“You’ll find out,” I murmur, quieter than I think I wanted to be, “And until then, you’ll just have to wait.”

She stares at me for a while before huffing, “I knew you’d say that. I should have kept you locked away for longer,” a soft smile playing on her lips despite her bid of indignation.

“I suppose so,” I return, still too quiet.

She stands there for a bit longer, looking at me looking at her, before she finally sighs, shrugs and touches a hand to my shoulder, “I should go. I have a certain redhead I need to threaten and beat up. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course,” I smile.

“Good.”

She turns to go, and I’m mesmerized by fluttering strands of navy. I almost jerk in surprise when she suddenly calls out to me over her shoulder, “And Shizuru?”

“Yes, Natsuki?”

“When it’s the right time, you better damn well tell me to open the thing, or you’ll end up like Nao. Got it?”

She’s gruff, but there’s something hidden just underneath, “Ara, if Natsuki is old enough to beat girls up, she’s old enough to figure out when to open a present, right?”

And somewhere between her yelling in frustration and her attempt at a death glare, I ease my door shut and sink to the ground, tired, slightly broken, and wishing that she wouldn’t have to open it when she’d have to. Because something like that, it’s something I want to be the one to gently place onto her and watch her smile, sparkling just as it would be, in her reflection.