Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Just Be Yourself ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Summary: Miaka is worried about Nuriko still acting like a girl, & wants to think of a way to remedy it. Meanwhile Usagi frets about Haruka still playing out a guy. The two girls devise the perfect solution. Set their friends up on a blind date... with each other!

Rating: PG

Chapter 3

The first stop for the evening was dinner. As the couple at last pulled into the restaurant parking lot, Nuriko was much relieved to have this fiasco over with. He walked over to open the door for Haruka, when the girl's eyes caught a sharp-looking blue sports car in the spot across from them.

"Whoa, check that baby out!" she said as she stepped out. Nuriko glanced up, only he didn't see the car.

"Aw, you're right. What a little cutie!" he exclaimed as a woman and her toddler walked past.

"Cutie?" Haruka thought to herself, but decided not to bother to ask any questions. She wasn't supposed to be looking at cars now anyway.

The dinner table conversation was absolutely non-existent. He had to say something. What would this girl think of him if he just kept silent the whole time. Or worse, when he had to go back and admit to Miaka that the whole thing was a disaster, although it seemed to be shaping into just that. Nuriko took a deep breath. He didn't want to let Miaka down, he had to do his best to make this work. A real man always takes charge of the situation.

"So do you have any hobbies?" Nuriko asked. That should get a conversation going. Haruka bit her lip.

"Oh, I uh..." she tried to casually slip in her purse, but the maneuver was a bit clumsy to say the least. The bag was so narrow, Haruka almost got her hand caught in it. But, she did manage to pull out the little slip of paper onto which Michiru had jotted down some notes, just in case Haruka forgot anything.

"I like... sewing, cooking, cleaning..."

"You like cooking?" Nuriko asked excitedly. "Oh, I know the best recipe for..." he caught himself. "Hot dogs," he finished quickly and turned to his menu. He certainly was making a mess of things. He wondered he could at least order dinner right. Nuriko sighed and started rubbing his wrist again.

"Let's see… what looks good tonight?" he pondered out loud. Then, glancing at the beverages, he exclaimed, "Geez! The price of tea is just as expensive here as it is in China."

Haruka glanced up skeptically at her date.

"You went to China?" she asked. Nuriko sweatdrop.

"Yeah. I actually lived there for a while," he said.

"Oh." Is that where you learned to drive? Haruka thought to herself, but out of politeness she did not say it outloud.

Meanwhile, a few TV monitors sat above their heads, showing whatever happened to be on. As luck would have it, it was the motocross race Haruka had wanted to see so badly tonight. So while Nuriko tried time and time again to get a conversation going, Haruka answered in as few words as possible, her eyes still fixed on the little screen above them.

"You going to school?"

"Yup."

"Do you enjoy it?"

"I guess."

"Do you play any instruments?"

"Piano."

"Really? What's that like?"

"Okay."

"Do anything else after school?"

Suddenly, Haruka slapped her fist down on the table. "Lean, you idiot!" Haruka exclaimed. "You want to get around that turn or don't you?"

"Are you okay?" Nuriko asked, sweatdropping.

"Opps." Haruka sat herself politely back down and smoothed out her skirt. They just had to play that race here tonight; even watching one always brought out her competitive edge. As she sat trying to figure how to cover for this disaster, she noticed something slip out of Nuriko's pocket and onto the table. Something that looked like a snapshot of that brown-haired girl Usagi hung out with and a group of several other people, one of which might have been Nuriko, but Haruka wasn't quite sure.

"What's that?" she wanted to know.

"Oh, this?" Nuriko asked, picking the picture up. Suddenly his mind blanked on what it was Miaka called these strange things from her world. "It's a..." The word was on the tip of his tongue. "Pho-to-graph. It's a photograph." Nuriko nodded proudly at his accomplishment, but his date seemed rather unimpressed.

"I can tell that," she said. "Who's it of?"

"Oh," Nuriko sweatdropped a bit. All that fuss for nothing. He held over the photo to Haruka. "It's of me and my friends."

"This is pretty nice," Haruka replied as she looked it over. "I have one like that too." She went into her wallet and found the picture that Minako had taken of the group of them in their school uniforms. It was only after she placed it Nuriko's hand did she realize her mistake.

"Is that a boy's uniform?" Nuriko asked, pointed to Haruka in the picture. Haruka sweatdropped and glanced at the photo.

"Um, no. I mean, yes. I mean... that's not me," she blurted out. Nuriko squinted at the picture.

"Sure looks like you," he said. "And there's your roommate, what's her name, Michiko?"

"Michiru," Haruka replied, snatching the picture back, as her face turned bright red. This whole thing was really starting to annoy her and she was all but tired of having to play the helpless damsel. Besides, she kind of liked that outfit. It was much more comfortable than the tacky skirts the girls had to wear. Haruka finally decided it was time to get even. "So what if it is me?" she asked. "You looked pretty girly in that picture you showed me, I'm surprised you weren't wearing women's clothing." Now Nuriko's face turned red

"I'll have you know I look quite lovely in women's clothing!" he said, pounding his fist on the table and causing it to crack. Wincing, he glanced down at the damage he'd done and gripped his wrist nervously for at least the fourth time that night. This was definitely not good.