The Elements (part 2 of 9)

a Mai HiME fanfiction by Keebler

Back to Part 1
Wind

The day was perfect.

Perfect for what?

"Sailing, okay?" A Kyoto rich voice came from the receiver of a dark 
haired girls cell phone.

"Sailing? I've never been sailing before... I've been motor boating, but 
never sailing..." the dark haired girl began to whine back at the voice.

"Come on, Nat-su-ki," the Kyoto rich voice said in a seductive voice, 
pronouncing each syllable of the dark haired girls name.

After a moments pause on Natsuki's end of the phone, she spoke up, "... 
Your parents wont be there, will they?" the dark haired girl asked 
cautiously.

"Of course not. No one else besides you and me. On a 24 foot boat. 
Alone," the Kyoto-ben made sure to emphasize certain words as she 
noticed the poor girl was going to break and say yes to the plans.

A hot feeling came over Natsuki's face at the thought of her alone with 
the other girl, "S-Shizuru! Don't you ever not think about perverted 
things!?" the raven haired girl commented before hearing a small chuckle 
on the other end.

Shizuru replied, "That's rather hard with Natsuki being the victim in 
this case. Natsuki is too cute not to think about things like that," she 
knew what she had started and could only imagine how red the poor girl's 
face was.

A full fledge blush formed on Natsuki's face. Poor by-standers were 
struck blind by the sudden flash of red. "Shi-SHIZURU! I wish there 
weren't as many "Cases" as you say there are!" she yelled into the 
phone.

Shizuru simply chuckled, "be at my house by 3 tomorrow, then we'll head 
over to the port. Oh yeah, it's going to be an overnight trip, so bring 
some changes of cloths and a bathing suit... Unless you prefer going 
skinny dipping," Shizuru teased.

All Shizuru heard was the other end going dead and the dial tone. 
Chuckling to herself, she called in her father informing him that she 
was going to use the Neptune, the smaller of his sailboats.

------

When it was nearing 3 o'clock, a sudden rumble sound came from near 
Shizuru's window. Knowing exactly what that was, she grabbed her 
luggage, which was only one small suitcase and her purse.

She walked hurriedly down the stairs to the front door. When she opened 
it, Natsuki was walking up the front steps with a smaller luggage bag. 
It was more like a plastic grocery bag that you would bring your gym 
cloths into gym class with. Shizuru looked at the bag and back up to 
Natsuki with a rather awkward smile on her face.

Natsuki looked behind Shizuru to see her luggage. Blushing slight when 
comparing hers to Shizuru's, she just turned her head.

"I didn't think you took my advice to not bring a bathing suit," Shizuru 
teased in a rather realistic tone of disbelief.

Shocked, Natsuki could one pretend to form words out her mouth and 
decided to stop making herself look stupid and just shut up. Thinking 
carefully, Natsuki decided to ignore that comment, "lets go already..." 
she said impatiently.

"Okay, but I'm driving so you know," Shizuru said for more than one 
reason.

Natsuki, thinking that her bike was good enough for the trip looked at 
Shizuru weirdly, and then remembering that is one of the rare times 
Shizuru actually drove, Natsuki decided it was okay. But after a moment, 
she remembered how Shizuru drove and decided to wear her seatbelt this 
time.

------

After an agonizing hour and a half of Shizuru's driving, Natsuki hopped 
out of the car and kissed the ground, until noticing that there was a 
piece of run over gum where her lips were.

------

After along while in the restrooms, Natsuki and Shizuru finally made 
their way towards a yacht club docking area.

"Wow. Everything here looks so expensive... and large," Natsuki marveled 
at her surroundings.

"You're acting like a little kid in a candy shop. This isn't all that 
great, some people here are mean and conniving little..." Shizuru was 
cut off by the toot of a horn, signaling a boat was leaving the dock.

After walking a rather long time, they finally stopped at a moderate 
looking sailboat with the fancy lettering: Neptune, on the side of the 
boat. The boat itself was beautiful. Its mast was tall and the main sail 
was furled and covered on top of the boom with a rainproof sleeve that 
said its name on it. The boat was blue and white with tides drawn on the 
side of the boat. It was clean and no cobwebs anywhere to be seen.

"How often do you use this boat?" Natsuki inquired innocently.

"Only ever so often..." Shizuru smirked as she hoped onto the boat with 
her luggage and purse in one hand while her other hand grabbed onto a 
shroud that ran along the side of the boat.

Natsuki watched in marvel at the fact that Shizuru can look graceful no 
matter what she does. She tried to follow suit but ended up swinging all 
the way around the shroud, almost falling into the water, and almost 
pulling Shizuru in with her. If Shizuru wasn't holding onto the mast.

------

After Natsuki finally got her sea legs, they both went under to set 
their luggage in the cabin where they would be sleeping. After going 
down there, Natsuki looked at the space in the cabin. It was rather 
spacious, but it only had really two places to sleep on... "Shizuru! You 
knew that there was only one bed! And I don't know if it's a bed that 
midgets would sleep on!" Natsuki wailed.

Shizuru looked up from her work at hand and smiled innocently at 
Natsuki, "Are, Natsuki, would you be kind enough to pull that rope over 
there until I say stop," Shizuru avoided the question.

Natsuki, distracted with Shizuru's request, "Huh... A rope.. This one? 
Pull... Okay... Umm.. Tell me when," Natsuki allowed herself to fall 
into Shizuru's game.

Ohhhh!! I never knew Natsuki looked this cute when she's distracted like 
that. Shizuru allowed herself to watch Natsuki as she heard the sound of 
the cover from the mail sail unravel and fall to the ground. Shizuru 
gathered it up and handed it to Natsuki, "can you store this in the 
compartment on the left side, under the cabinet next to the sink, thank 
you," the Kyoto-ben spoke as she hopped off of the boat.

Natsuki came up, saw the other girl and she almost thought Shizuru was 
leaving her, "Wh-what are you doing?"

"Oh, Natsuki, go to the back of the boat and turn on the motor will 
you?" Shizuru trusted Natsuki with steering the boat out of the harbor.

Natsuki went to the back slightly hesitant. Then noticed the keys then 
turned them and heard the all to familiar sound of a nice engine turn 
on. At that sound, Shizuru told her to put it in reverse slowly as she 
untied the rope from the cleats on the dock. Shizuru had one foot on the 
boat and one on the dock with one hand full of ropes and another holding 
onto a shroud. She pushed off the boat as Natsuki put the boat in a slow 
reverse.

------

As they slowly drifted their way out of the port, the made it to the 
open harbor where several boats were seen.

Shizuru stood up and told Natsuki to help her raise the sail. "We'll be 
only sailing with one sail instead of using all three. This way we have 
less to pull up and less to clean up. And less hassle for only two 
people," Shizuru said to hopefully make Natsuki feel better about not 
have sailed before.

"Natsuki, I want you to drive the boat's bow to face towards the wind 
and then help me pull up the main sail," she instructed.

Not to shortly after, the sound of luffing sails was heard. Natsuki had 
joined in hauling the main sail up at this point.

After tying it up and locking the main sail to stay at that height, 
Shizuru informed Natsuki of what to do.

They turned off the motor and steered the boat out of irons. The time 
was only around 5 at this point. It hadn't taken them very long to get 
out of the port. The wind was great. It was light, but enough to pull 
the boat with only one sail. Shizuru was steering and Natsuki was found 
leaning over the side of the boat the sail wasn't on. The boat wasn't 
heeling at all, just cruising along.

After of teaching Natsuki how to steer, Natsuki was steering the boat by 
herself around 7:30. They were in all open water. There was a faint 
silhouette of a shoreline in the distance to their side, but there 
wasn't anything other than that.

------

"It should be around time that we stop and anchor the boat to rest for 
the night, don't you think so too?" Shizuru asked sweetly knowing this 
was the best place to see what she wanted to see.

"Sure," Natsuki muttered as she turned the boat lightly into the wind. 
Shizuru told her that when they needed to pull the sails up and down, it 
would be best to it while in the wind. It just makes the job a whole lot 
easier.

------

With the sails and anchor down, both Natsuki and Shizuru went down into 
the cabin to make some dinner. In a small corner of the cabin were all 
the basic needs a kitchen needed to be called a kitchen. It had a 
mini-fridge, a mini-gas stove, a sink, a mini-microwave, and a freezer.

Shizuru made the meal, for she didn't want to be swimming to shore 
because of a fire on the boat.

The meal was simple but very good. It was a bowl of ramen and white rice 
on the side. Natsuki was slightly upset with the lack of mayo, but she 
decided to not say anything about it.

------

After dinner, it ended being around 9 o'clock. Shizuru seemed a little 
to excited that night, thought Natsuki.

Shizuru beckoned Natsuki to come sit with her up on the deck. When 
Natsuki peeked her head out of the cabin, she saw Shizuru lying down on 
the bow of the boat. The dark haired girl walked slowly to the lighter 
haired one.

Natsuki sat down next to her, then after a while, she laid down next to 
Shizuru.

"So... What did you want?" Natsuki inquired trying to break the silence. 
After saying that, she felt something brush against her hand and then 
fingers lace themselves into Natsuki's hand. A small blush formed on her 
cheeks, but luckily it was too dark to see. Or so she hoped.

Shizuru's eyes were still on the sky above. Focused on something. 
Natsuki didn't see anything and was about to ask what she was looking 
for but just decided not too. She shrugged and allowed herself to be 
calmed by the feeling of Shizuru's hand and the sound of small waves 
bumping up against the boat.

Suddenly, Shizuru squeezed Natsuki's hand to get her attention and spoke 
out, "Look at the sky, Natsuki, isn't it beautiful?" Shizuru said 
happily.

Just as Natsuki looked up, she saw the sky pour down with a light show. 
A meteor shower. It was truly beautiful, but what made it better was 
that she could share the moment with Shizuru. Of course, she never would 
tell her that, she would be teased to no ends. But Natsuki knew that 
Shizuru knew how special she was to her.

------

After the show ended, Shizuru sat up slowly. Natsuki following Shizuru, 
they both sat up, fingers still laced within each other's.

Then they got up and headed in as a chill began to sink through their 
clothing.

The light haired girl closed the cabin entrance and waited for Natsuki 
to change into her nighty. Shizuru decided to change in the room and was 
slipping off her pants right when Natsuki came out. Natsuki nearly 
crashed into the bathroom door from the sudden change of directions.

Shizuru found this rather cute, but decided it would be too awkward for 
Natsuki since they'll both be sharing a small bed together. Smirking at 
what she could do, she put that all in the back of her mind and finished 
changing.

------

As Natsuki crawled into bed, she felt awkward for doing so, but she knew 
it was the only way she could get into the bed.

After they both got under the blanket and the lights were turned off, 
there was silence besides the incessant rocking of the boat. It was at a 
nice pace, slow and soothing.

Natsuki was thinking about the day and how much Shizuru has done for 
her. She asked herself if there was a way to repay her in the least bit. 
Then coming up with only one idea, Natsuki gripped her fears.

They were both turned away from each other, until Natsuki turned towards 
Shizuru. She stared Shizuru's neck and her eyes ran down her body until 
a blanket stopped her from her view. Thinking that she would have looked 
like a pervert if anyone had seen that, Natsuki blushed and almost 
turned around again. Until she remembered what she was really planning 
on doing.

She inched closer to Shizuru, her heart pounding in her chest. And 
shakily she slid her hand between a blanket and clothing, until reaching 
around the figure to rest her hand on a flat stomach. Natsuki both heard 
and felt the hitch in the figures breathing.

Natsuki pressed herself against Shizuru's back and bent her other arm to 
rest her hand underneath her own head. Her own breathing staggered 
slightly until her heartbeat calmed down and warmth was felt over her 
hand against Shizuru. Natsuki leaned her head into a crook in Shizuru's 
neck and allowed the rocking of the waves rock her to bed with a smile 
plastered over her face at her self-victory.


Okay, so here is the second chapter. Just to tell you some terms that 
you might have not known about sailing: Shrouds is a cable that keeps 
the mast on the boat upright on either side of the boat. Luffing is when 
the sail... well, billows in the wind. Irons is the point of sail that 
the bow (front of the boat) faces towards the wind. And yeah. Just in 
case I've confused any of you readers, these chapters wont be connected 
to eachother unless it's a continuation from another chapter, but you 
should know that. Like this chapter is going to continue onto another 
chapter. But, umm... Yeah. R&R, thanks.

Onwards to Part 3


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