Matters of the Heart

Chapter 2—Befriending the Unfriendly

-.-

A light angel food cake, topped with strawberries and drenched in a vanilla glaze, awaited Ai’s fork. Even though it looked incredibly tempting, the younger twin was worried.

“Are you sure it’s good?” She held her fork above the dessert, and Ren coughed slightly, taking offense to the question.

“Yep. My mom taught me that recipe when I was 5. I’ve been perfecting it over the years.”

Ai noticed the warm look growing in her friend’s eyes. It had already been a month since Ren transferred in, but Ai had yet to learn about her family. As curious as she was, she never had the courage to ask about them. With a sigh, Ai let her fork cut into the beautiful cake.

Ai was surprised, really surprised at the taste of the small cake. She never thought a cake this small would have such a big taste. The angel food seemed to melt in her mouth and the vanilla glaze added just a hint of flavor. It wasn’t too overwhelming, and everything seemed to blend together perfectly. Ai could tell by the warmth the dessert gave her, that Ren put a lot of love into it. Simply amazing.

Ren noticed the shocked look on Ai’s face and gasped.

“Too much salt right?! Ah! I knew it was less than a teaspoon! I’m sorry, Ai-Chan! I’ll go re-do it!” She started pulling out her heavily decorated apron, when Ai tugged the end of her skirt.

“Don’t. It’s great.” Ai gave her warmest smile, and popped another piece into her mouth. Ren smiled happily before plopping down on the bench, next to Ai. Balancing her chin on the palm of her hands, a frown melted on her face.

“Hey… D’ya think Takaya-Kun would like that?”

Ai looked up at Ren’s sudden interest in Rue. She stopped eating for a moment, thinking back. She and her sister had known Rue Takaya since they were little, but he never played with them or even anyone from school. He was a prankster, but also a genius. He would skip school, but somehow got the highest grades in the class. How he did it, no one knew. People just knew to stay away from him, because he was unfriendly, or so they thought.

“I dunno. I don’t think he’s one for sweets.” Actually, she didn’t really know anything about Rue. The fact he didn’t talk to anybody but Shinobi, his roommate, made it hard for Ai to tell Ren anything. Ren had been trying so hard to befriend the guy, but with his rude comments and cold looks, she wasn’t getting anywhere. Ai looked at Ren, whose features had turned slightly sad. Her eyebrow twitched and she pulled the chef’s cheeks, hard.

“Hey! You’ll never find out if you don’t try!”

Ren howled out in pain, and Ai’s fingers tightened. Opening her tear filled eyes, she saw a smile on her best friend’s face. She was encouraging her.

“Y… Yeah!”

-.-

Rue slid the door open to his home room, and didn’t notice Shinobi coming straight at him.

“RUE! THERES CAKE ON YOUR DESK!” The brunette yelled, loudly. Rue twitched. He didn’t understand how he got the most annoying, perverted, kid in school, as his roommate. He also didn’t get the ‘cake’ thing he was talking about.

“What? Go away, Shinobi.”

He really had no time to listen to Shinobi’s whines.

I knew I should have skipped school to-

His eyes locked onto the small white and red cake sitting proudly on his desk.

What the hell?

If there was anything Rue hated in this world, it was sweets. He never liked candy or cakes, and he definitely didn’t want to start now. His thoughts cracked when Shinobi slammed his hands down on Rue’s desk.

“Well!? Is it from a girl?! Are you gonna eat it? Can I have it if you ain’t gonna eat it?”

This kid never knew how to shut up, and Rue was slowly growing angry. Before he could say anything, the door slid open.

“Good morning!” Ren’s voice exploded into the classroom. Rue turned his head to see the brightly shining girl, and then looked down at the cake.

It couldn’t be…

“Why are you so loud so early in the morning?”

Ren twitched at the raven haired boy’s comment and sat down at her desk.

“Well sorry for being optimistic.” She looked at his desk, spotting the still whole cake. She flinched, but put on a smug smile. “Eating dessert for breakfast? How bold.”

Ren held in the urge to ask him to eat it. She only wanted to see his face when he tried it. She wanted to see the same look Ai gave her when she ate the cake. Her eyes drifted to rue who, was giving her his famous, icy stare.

“I don’t like cake.”

He put it bluntly, before sitting down. Ren watched, a sad look crossing her face, as he put the cake inside his desk, next to his notebook. He would ditch it later.

“Sorry… Takaya-Kun…”

She was depressed, but she wouldn’t give up. Sighing, she pulled out a list, and scratched out Win his friendship with food since it hadn’t worked.

Rue had noticed the sadness in both Ren’s face and voice, and a hint of guilt made its way to his face. In all his life, no matter what he did, he had never made a girl look sad before. They were either scared of him, or didn’t bother talking to him. It was his appearance. He never had the chance to make friends, so he went along with it and decided that friends were useless.

But…

Ren was different. She wasn’t scared of him, and she was the first girl to even try to talk to him. It was hard for him to ignore her, and it was even harder when all she did was try to talk to him and touch him. The boy sighed, and focused his attention out the window.

-.-

Ren’s whine echoed through the nearly empty class room, along with the thud of her forehead hitting her desk. It was lunch hour, and she had been left to save desks for the twins and Kimiko. They had gone off to buy bread and snacks from the cafeteria, leaving Ren bored and lonely. Little did she know, she wasn’t alone; Rue was right behind her, eating an o-bento, and staring at her strangely.  The rest of the class had gone outside to eat, since the weather was nice.

“Gawd! They are so slow!”

Rue twitched, biting off a piece of his spicy croquette. He glanced at Ren, who was slowly sliding out of her chair, flopped to the side. He thought she looked like a rag doll, and frowned.

Does she not know I'm still here?

Ren sat up quickly, and her whines grew louder.

Obviously not…

She moaned, loudly, as if to make sure the nonexistent people knew she was still there. Less than 5 minutes passed before she slammed her hands on the desk and stood up.

“Augh! Where the hell are they?!”

Rue watched her run out; a little shocked at how fast that girl got bored. He knew he should have expected it. After all, he had been watching her for the past month.

Tick…

Tick…

Tick…

The clock slowly counted down the last ten minutes of the lunch hour, and Rue was slowly growing curious. He opened the lid to his desk, and found the cake. Still perfect, still uneaten. He gave the cake a glare.

I hate sweets…

If he hated sweets so much, why did it bother him so much that he hasn’t eaten it? With a sigh, he glanced around. He made sure no one was there. Not Shinobi, not Ren, not even a teacher. No one was allowed to see. He sighed again, heavier this time, and picked up the fork that accompanied the dessert. Hesitating, he sliced into the cake and put it into his mouth.

His heart leapt in shock at the feeling he got from the cake in his mouth. It was like nothing he ever tasted before, and he actually liked it. The weird thing, he thought, it was as if he could feel the care put into making it.

Suddenly, he felt terrible about Ren look so hurt and sad earlier. In return, he ate the entire cake and threw away the empty paper plate. He would talk to her later, alone.

-.-

As soon as Rue had returned to his seat, Satsuki’s scream exploded throughout the school. He sweated and looked up.

That could only mean one thing…

He was right. Shinobi came running in, tears streaming down his face. Rue didn’t quite see what it was, but he could have sworn his roommate has a uniform skirt in his hands.

That pervert…

“RUE! SAVE ME!” The brunette screamed, hiding behind Rue. The raven haired was about to ask something, when the door was blown down by Satsuki’s kick. Behind the obviously pissed of girl, was Kimiko, Ai and a skirt less Ren. Now Rue understood. His roommate was a complete retard.

“I’m SO going to kill you, OYANO!” The elder twin yelled, her voice cracking with Shinobi’s last name. The room seemed to shake, with every angry step Satsuki made, as she stormed over to the cowering pervert. Shinobi laughed nervously, holding up his hands.

“But… Satsuki-Chan! I didn’t do anything to you!”

He seemed really scared of her, which he should have been. Satsuki was not only older than him, but she was much stronger than him, and he knew she could kick his ass. He brain didn’t react in time to notice that he was holding up Ren’s skirt, causing the nearly naked girl to whimper. Ren was crammed between Kimiko and Ai, in nothing but her uniform shirt and pink spotted panties.

A few loud punches landed onto Shinobi’s face, and skirt was yanked from his hands.

“Stop being an idiot, Shinobi.”

Rue glared down at his sniffling roommate, before shuffling over to Ren, who was apple red and crying. He looked away, blushing slightly, before holding out her skirt.  

“Don’t cry, ugly… It doesn’t suit you.”

Ren frowned, and took the skirt.

“Thank you… Takaya-Kun…” She sobbed, slipping back into uniform. Rue blushed deeper, and Satsuki, who still had Shinobi by the collar, noticed this. With a whack, Shinobi fell to the floor, and Satsuki was in Rue’s face.

“Well well well! Nee-San! Nee-San! C’mere! Takaya’s blushing!”

Ai shoved her sister out of the way, and got even closer to the embarrassed 13 year old. With one sniff, she knew.

“You ate it!”

Rue blinked. Had he been mistaken? The boy backed up a bit, never having this much attention before. A gasp sounded from Ren, who had a shocked looked on her face.

“HE ATE IT?!”

Ren looked at Satsuki and Kimiko, who were staring at her with confused expressions, and blush dusted her cheeks. Ai nodded.

“YES. I can smell it!”

Ren’s eyes matched with Rue’s, who was staring at here strangely. She huffed before grabbing his arm and pulling him out into the hallway. The rest of them looked at Ai, since they had no clue what was going on. Ai smiled stupidly before going on to explain.

-.-

“You ate it?”

Rue looked over at Ren, still a tinge red. His gaze fell to the floor. He didn’t understand why he felt nervous and stupid around her, and it was confusing the hell out of him.

“You made that?”

Ren nodded, even if he didn’t look up to see it. She felt her cheek burn more.

“I just wanted to be friends with you! I thou-“

“Will you make me more cake?”

Ren looked up, and was surprised to see the serious look in Rue’s eyes. He was still blushing though. She frowned a bit.

“But I thought you didn’t like sweets…”

Rue looked away, bashfully.

“I… I’ll eat them if you… If you make them for me.”

Ren blinked in shock. When she finally realized what he said, she smiled brightly and happily.

“Of course! I’ll make more for you!”

And then she saw it. Rue’s hidden, kind, smile.

-.-

Ren hummed happily before sliding the door open to the classroom. Almost immediately, she was attacked by a wailing Shinobi.

“REN-CHAN! Make me cake too!” He whined, getting extremely close to her face. As the girl who just had her skirt removed by him, or course she would turn and run. She did. The pervert cried out.

“REN-CHAN~!!”

“Again… Stop acting stupid!”

Shinobi wince as he fell to the floor. Rue had tripped him and was giving him an ‘are you retarded?’ glare. Ai stepped over Shinobi, making to sure to block his vision, and she was followed by her twin and Kimiko.

“Ren-Chan! Did it work?” Kimiko asked, curious. She was still surprised that Rue had even eaten the cake. He had bluntly stated he hated sweets earlier. She wondered what got to him. Ren grinned and gave thumbs up.

“I think so. All I know is that he liked it.”

With a loud cheer, she was glomped by all three of them.

“YAY! Go Ren-Chan!”

And this started the new found friendship between Ren and Rue.

-.-

END CHAPTER 2