The Elements (part 4 of 9)

a Mai HiME fanfiction by Keebler

Back to Part 3
Wind: Day 3

This was the final day of the two girls' voyage.

The boat was engulfed in complete silence until a soft high pitched 
beeping came from the cabin quarters.

With a ruffling of sheets and a soft click, the beeping stopped.

A grunt and a moan of displeasure sounded through the cabin.

Movement was heard, and another grunt of displeasure from someone else's 
mouth.

------

With Natsuki in a sweater that read Fujino on the back, and Shizuru 
cooking up another great breakfast, the cabin was filled with laughter 
and happiness.

Natsuki and Shizuru both finished breakfast and put their dishes away.

Both heading up to the deck, they came out seeing the deck sparkling 
with water droplets covering the entire surface of everything.

------

Trying her best not to slip, Natsuki adventured out first with her thin 
converses. The first step was firm, but the second one caused her fall 
forward, grabbing onto a cable that lead to the mast.

Shizuru waltzed out onto the deck and walked gracefully over to the 
mast.

Natsuki's checks were a nice redder shade; she then glared at Shizuru 
with envy that she could just come out onto the deck in such conditions 
without slipping. Shrugging it off, Natsuki walked over to the wheel and 
turned on the engine. Feeling a glorious humming sound from underneath 
her feet, with that she remembered that today was the last day of their 
trip. Saddened because she had done so much in so little time and has 
yet fully let the older girl understand how much she appreciated it and 
loved her.

Slightly dazed, Natsuki absentmindedly started to turn the boat into the 
wind, allowing Shizuru to pull up the sails. When the dark haired girl's 
ears didn't pick up something she knew was suppose to be there, she 
snapped out of her daze and looked up at Shizuru, who was just standing 
next to the mast, looking down at her.

Natsuki looked up to her and kept eye contact and the silence for a 
moment before she deiced that Shizuru shouldn't know what she was 
thinking, "What are you doing?" Natsuki asked innocently.

Shizuru just looked at her for a moment before turning to the mast and 
pulling up the main sail single-handedly.

Natsuki couldn't really tell, but she swore there was a tint of worry in 
Shizuru's eyes. The dark-haired girl felt a pang in her chest, and she 
knew what it meant. She promised herself that she would never have 
Shizuru look at her with worry again. Natsuki planned to keep that 
promise until the very end.

------

The ride back to the harbor was going to be a shorter one compared to 
all of the others. It will be only an hour before they had to dock.

Natsuki had to think of some way of showing her appreciation before her 
time runs up.

------

Shizuru was at the wheel, while Natsuki was down in the cabin getting 
something when the room suddenly got brighter from an idea that just 
went off in Natsuki's head.

------

She called to Shizuru to come and help her get something. With a simple 
call, Shizuru came down, letting the sails out all the way to decrease 
their speed. Natsuki pointed to the microwave, "It doesn't seem to be 
working..." Natsuki trailed off.

Shizuru looked at her, but deiced against asking and started to examine 
the microwave.

At this point, Natsuki was hesitating in her plan. When Shizuru leaned 
back behind it, she saw that the plug was unplugged. She plugged in, 
"Ara, Natsuki is so silly to not look to see if the microwave was 
plugged in," then she felt two sturdy arms wrap themselves around her 
waist.

This was something a little bit new. Shizuru was use to Natsuki pulling 
all of her moves similar to this in the bed, but she rarely felt it in 
the daytime.

Natsuki's heart was pumping from the rash actions that she just buried 
her face in the brunette's long hair. Breathing in the relaxing scent of 
Shizuru.

The older girl felt warm breath on her back after Natsuki put her face 
on her back. Not really understanding what is going on, Shizuru just 
relaxed into the hug and allowed whatever was going to happen-- happen.

Natsuki took one more breath in and got her mouth close to Shizuru's 
ear, "I enjoyed this trip so much. I wish we could spend more time with 
each other like this," Natsuki felt a soft nod, then continued, "I loved 
being with you, and I loved where you took me. And most importantly--- I 
love you," Natsuki breathed into Shizuru's ear and received a shudder 
from the girl in her arms.

Natsuki waited a moment for it all to sink in. Then she loosened her 
grip to allow the other girl to turn towards her.

When she got the chance, Shizuru wanted to face this wonderful girl face 
to face. And she did when she felt looseness around her. As she turned 
towards Natsuki, Shizuru just wanted to kiss her and just give Natsuki 
the whole world, and she was about to say something until she remembered 
that the boat's wheel was still unattended too. Gasping in realization, 
she rushed up the stairs to see that the boat was heading towards the 
harbor, but the only problem was that there was a notorious sand barge, 
known for wrecking many ships, in their way. Shizuru gasped as she ran 
to pull in the main sheet and turn the wheel so the boat would go up 
wind.

------

Natsuki was standing there with turmoil going through her eyes. She was 
hurt, shocked, heartbroken, confused, depressed and about to cry. At 
first she thought that Shizuru would hug her or kiss her or something 
along the sorts, not run out of the cabin to get away from her. She 
turned to sit on the seat next to her. With a soft thud, Natsuki 
clenched her head in her hands. Weak from the sudden rejection, she 
didn't understand why.

So sunk from the sudden depression, Natsuki just drowned out all the 
sound from the deck and the loud clanking from the main sail.

------

Shizuru finally breathed a sign of relief as she had successfully pulled 
the boat out of a dangerous course that could have lead to server 
injuries, and she would never let anything hurt her Natsuki. She was hit 
with a sack of bricks when she remembered that she ran up right after 
Natsuki had said all that.

Shizuru wanted to go down there right now and hug her, tell her it's 
okay and it wasn't what she thinks, but she knew she had to dock first.

Thinking ahead was what Shizuru did best. And this time wasn't an 
exception. She turned the motor on and steered towards the wind, letting 
out the main sheets, the sail started to luff and she ran up to drop the 
sail, folded it perfectly and then ran to the wheel all under 10 
minutes.

------

As soon a soft thud was heard, Natsuki convinced herself that there was 
another meaning behind it all. There had to be another reason, Natsuki 
tried to make herself believe what she thought was untrue.

After a second's notice, Natsuki was packing up her things and heard 
quick taping sounds coming from behind her. She knew it was Shizuru and 
she felt her heart rise in hope. And then she heard her name called and 
then she found herself being tackled onto the bed.

She looked at Shizuru who had the worst looking expression on her face 
Natsuki had seen. Natsuki was opening her mouth and was about to ask her 
why she did that, but she was sufficiently stopped, as her mouth was 
busy being kissed by the girl on top of her.

Once they broke from their kiss, Shizuru looked deeply into Natsuki's 
eyes, "I'm so sorry! 
IlefttheboataloneandwewereabouttocrashintothesandbarandIwasn'tthinkingandI... 
I... Never meant to hurt you," Shizuru was about to start crying, but then 
she felt pressure against her lips and this time, Natsuki was kissing 
her.

Shocked at the new action, because it was usually her that initiated the 
kiss and Natsuki to follow up by kissing back or just letting Shizuru 
kiss her, never has Natsuki kissed Shizuru except a few times.

When they broke, it was Natsuki's time to talk, "I knew there was a 
reason you had to do what you did. I'm not sad or hurt, I'm just happy 
you came back," Natsuki looked at her eyes and saw the sadness slowly 
retreat from her eyes.

After a long silence, "let's go home," Natsuki said and was replied with 
a weak nod.

Shizuru got off of Natsuki, and stood to the side, watching Natsuki get 
up. Her bag still in her hand, Natsuki looked at Shizuru, "You should 
pack up, I'll be on the deck getting everything cleaned up," Natsuki 
smiled at her while she walked up to the deck.

------

After a moments time, Shizuru came up with her luggage in hand and 
looked at Natsuki, who was sitting on the side of the dock waiting.

Shizuru quickly went over things and then approved of Natsuki's work 
then closed off the cabin and jumped onto the dock in a single leap.

Natsuki stood up and walked next to Shizuru as they walked towards the 
car.

"I'm driving this time," Natsuki's voice cracked the silence.

Onwards to Part 5


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