ricchan rabu

"I love you, Ritsu."

She stood there for a moment, as what I said slowly sunk into here.

"Erm... What do you mean?" She said, jokingly. "Of course you love me! Everybody loves me! I'm Ritsu, after all!" She said, trying to put on an illusion of fake haughtiness but failing miserably. It was obvious to anyone that she was desperately trying to change the subject. That wouldn't work, not today.

"No... Ritsu..." I said, making sure she wasn't going to escape this. "I mean... I LOVE you."

It hit her this time, and she dropped the act. She stood there for a moment, fidgeting, looking away, letting out "Umms..." and "Uhhs..."

"But... But... I'm not even pretty at all... Why don't you like Mio? She's beautiful... A lot prettier than me... All of the other boys in school like her!" She said, still desperately trying to deflect the conversation away. "And... And... I mean, I'm just a plain, stupid, silly tomboy." She began to ramble. "Azusa's much smarter than me... Yui's cuter than me... Mugi's more gracious than me... I mean... I mean..."

I grabbed her shoulders, making her stop her impromptu speech. "I don't care about that." I said. "I don't care about ANY of that. I'm not in love with Mio or Azusa or Yui or Mugi. I don't care how beautiful or smart or cute or gracious they are." She looked up at me, and our eyes met. "I love YOU Ritsu. You're as beautiful and smart and cute and gracious as I would ever want you to be. So stop saying all those things, already."

Her eyes quivered a little bit, and it looked like she might be tearing up a little bit.

"But... But..." I silenced her protests by leaning in and placing my lips on hers. My eyes were closed, but I could tell that hers had widened as much as they could.

I pulled out of the kiss, smiling and looking her in the eyes. "No buts."

I let go of her shoulders, and she stood there for a while, taking in everything that had just happened.

Then, before I knew it, she stood up, grabbed the back of my neck, and pulled me into her own kiss. My eyes were the ones to widen this time, and as she pulled out and let me go, she had a mischievous smile on her face and a bright glimmer in her eye.

"Well, if that's the case, then you know exactly what you're getting into, so I shouldn't have to warn you about what kind of girl you've fallen in love with."

I smiled back at her. "Nope. No warnings. I'm ready for whatever you have to throw at me."

This time, we both leaned in together, for one more kiss.