Deceptively in Love (Private)

In the few weeks following their misadventure in Kishin Egg hunting, Ana and Luna spent plenty of time together. The whole school day due to changes in their classes was spent together. Then, they'd often go on and do things after that, too. More often than not that was to go and get coffee. Except for those things, Ana really didn't things would change too much. She'd still be sleepy, she'd still stay out of people's way as much as possible except for maybe Luna's, she'd still find it hard to pay attention. Those were Ana's expectations. Well, most of those went exactly as planned. Slowly, over that time that the two girls spent together, Ana began to do a few things without really thinking about them. Later during that time did she think on things she happened to note down that stuck in her memory and ended up comparing them to what she herself had been doing. Glances, stares, that sort of thing. She really was surprised at herself, because thinking about it made her think about how she felt about the most mundane of things when it fame to that person. Simply being around the subject of these feelings made her feel less like she was going to fall asleep at any moment.

Of course, Ana was never going to tell this person about any of this. Or anyone at all, really. It had something to do with the way that she just really wasn't the sort of person to try and do much when it came to this sort of thing.. That and it'd be awfully embarrassing. She wasn't one to do unnecessary things. Instead, she'd carry on as usual, simply watching and pretending as if nothing at all is wrong. She'd carry on as she was doing one particularly boring lesson, giving herself the excuse that it was just so she'd not fall asleep quite so quickly; head propped up by her hand, her elbow planted firmly on the desk, she was looking over to the side from the corner of her half-lidded eye. She was pretending to write something or other in her book as she did so, but her attention was focused mostly on the person to the side. That is, Luna Hope, her meister and friend and nothing more.

During those few weeks since their first Kishin Egg "hunt", Luna has managed to get used to Ana's presence and company. The more she was used to it, the happier she was and the more pleasant it was. Having a friend helped her boost her confidence a bit which made her more relaxed in conversations with that friend. Her stuttering was slowly and other signs of shyness were slowly fading. Talking with strangers or even her other classmates was still a bit troublesome, but it wasn't as difficult as it used to be. Luna'd even noticed that she'd stopped stumbling over her own legs (or perhaps... she wasn't stumbling over her legs as often as she used to). According to her, it was all thanks to Ana and her friendship. Perhaps because of her naivety, Luna'd not noticed slight changes in Ana's behavior. Perhaps because of her naivety, Luna hadn't noticed that her own new feelings towards her best and only friend.

In contrary to Ana, Luna was more focused on their lesson; listening to their teacher with interest. She was making notes, slowly filling the pages of her copybook. At one point Luna started thinking about her routine plan to go with Ana to Nine-Tails. The thoughts slowly started drifting towards Ana and how nice she was. It made Luna smile widely. At that point, she wasn't noting anything anymore. Instead, she started drawing small hearts in her copybook. She seemed unaware of the process as she was staring at a blackboard with dreamy eyes.

As the process of Luna becoming distracted by something or other within her mind went on, Ana's pretending to not be looking at Luna slowly fell apart. The smile made her turn her head a little bit more so that she had a better view, though she also looked around for what it was that she might be smiling about. Then, she looked at her book. The hearts were an enigma at first and made Ana look from the girl to her book repeatedly, though considering the whole picture it would seem like Luna was daydreaming about something. Or someone, as it was probably that an object wouldn't really make her draw little hearts all over her book. She tried to see where Luna was looking, to see if it might be someone else in class. That went nowhere, unless it was the blackboard or whatever was written on it, and the thought wasn't really something that was all too pleasant to think about for Ana. In the end, Ana simply shook the other girl's shoulder to try and snap her out of it. She was curious about what or who she was going to be envious of, mostly.

Ana's attempt to rescue Luna from her daydreaming was obviously. "Huh?" The girl looked at her partner and then at her notebook and then back at her partner. Her cheeks turned red. "O-Oh... I must've... I... didn't even notice when... Hehehe~" Luna mumbled and then giggled very quietly. "Seriousy... why did I even start drawing these..?" The girl asked herself as she looked at the whole page filled with little cute hearts. She didn't even remember what thought started the whole daydreaming-thing. In the end the meister scratched the back of her head and shrugged. "Hey, Ana, do you have any plans for after we get our coffee?" Luna suddenly asked smiling cutely.

"That's what I was going to ask you," Ana said in response to the girl's question to herself, though dropped the subject then and there. She shrugged in response to the question that was aimed at herself, however. "I don't ever really plan those things, so no, I have no idea. Did you have anything in mind?" she asked Luna, going back to looking forward at the board as she spoke, though she kept leaning over the desk with her head in her hand.

Luna wasn't exactly good at planning her own day, but she knew that she wanted to spend it with Ana. What could they do together though? Luna bit her pen and closed her eyes for a moment. "I didn't... I mean, everything we do together is so much fun..." The girl finally said as she looked once again at her partner, with her hands folded on her chest. "We could... practice our combat skills, maybe? Ah, we'll figure something out, as always." The meister said nodding.

Upon looking back to Ana, Luna would find that the girl's cheeks were ever so slightly redder than they were prior to her saying what she did. Ana was also looking ahead like there was actually something that interested her over there. Still, she tried to play it cool, trying not to look too happy about Luna saying that everything they do is fun. "We'll see."

Luna's eyes tried to follow after where Ana was looking but she didn't find anything interesting there. She didn't think it was anything weird that's why she quickly shifted her attention back to Ana. "Okay, we'll see! Mmm~! I can't wait, for our classes to end..." The meister commented. She was simply getting bored with classes, like most students. Or perhaps it was because she was too excited to taste delicious coffee. Luna looked at the page from her copybook that was filled with hearts. An idea came into her head. There was enough space under those hearts to draw something else. So Luna, with an innocent smile on her face started drawing chibi versions of herself and Ana sitting at a table and drinking coffee. She... wasn't actually bad at drawing.

After the embarrassment from Luna's earlier comments wore off, the interesting spot that she was looking at got less interesting and her eyes wandered yet again towards Luna and what she was doing. That, Ana figured out once she saw what Luna was actually doing, ended up being an error that made her blush more. She didn't react accept for that, though, simply continuing on watching. The initial connection of the hearts and them together sort of kick started her mind into thinking of it all, but she was very quickly convinced that that couldn't have been the case and that Luna wasn't clueless enough (or too clueless, depending on how you looked at at) to make the mistake (or connection) in plain view of Ana.

Well, it was certainly a possibility that Luna was drawing what (or/and who) she loved the most unconsciously. It was clear that she put a lot of heart into the drawing though, despite it being so simple. From Luna's perspective, she was simply drawing whatever came to her mind and she was unaware of the real reason she was drawing what she decided to draw. Well, she felt a bit happier when she started drawing Ana though. It seemed like she put even more effort into drawing her partner than drawing anything else. On her drawing, Ana was holding a mug of tea and drinking from it with her eyes closed. There was a line coming out of her head which was ended with another small heart. What would be surprising for Ana, was the fact that Luna seemed to be fully focused on the task- she wasn't daydreaming.

Gradually, the shade of Ana's cheeks became darker as she watched Luna work on the drawing, her concentration and the fact that she was drawing her. She still just watched, though, leaning over a little to get an even better view. She didn't really think about it at the moment, since her own attention was captured by the small figures. In the end, when Luna drew the little heart with the line, Ana thought of one thing. I want her to put an arrow at the end of that line...


In the end, she did have to look almost entirely away from the other girl. The thought made her embarrassed enough that acting normal was out of the question. She had to keep hear heart from jumping out of her chest somehow. Caaaalm doooown Diana, you can do it...

Finally, Luna finished her drawing and she seemed satisfied by how well she managed to draw chibi-Ana. For some reason she caught herself staring at the drawing of the weapon with a cute smile present on her face. There was also a slight blush present on her cheeks. She didn't understand what she felt at that moment, but it was something from her heart. It was a sweet feeling though. So sweet, in fact, that it made Luna giggle quietly. "She looks so cute here~! Ah~! I want to draw more~!" The girl thought as she turned the page in her copybook. Well, the lesson was probably about to end, but she wanted to at least start another sketch. That sketch would depict Ana and Luna holding each other hands and waving at whoever was looking at the sketch. Both girls would look really happy on the sketch. Again, Luna wanted to draw in chibi style.

Whether it was a good or bad thing for Ana to not have been looking at Luna's drawing for the moment was debatable. What wasn't debatable was that she didn't, not until the end of the class which came very soon. This was lucky for Ana, as she was able to stand up and stop thinking about it. She quickly gathered her stuff and headed out of the classroom, assuming that Luna would be right behind her. It was the end of the day, so that meant coffee.

Luna was a little dissatisfied with the fact she had to stop her sketch, on the other hand, she could always finish it later. The meister put all of her stuff into her bag, then stood up and followed her partner towards the exit from the classroom. Once the two found themselves outside the room, the girl rubbed her eye and yawned. "Hm... What now? Is it the end for today or...?" Luna asked. She wasn't sure if classes were over for them yet or not. She'd forgotten their timetable.

Ana stopped and turned to her meister when the girl asked her question, smiling a little. "Yeah, it's coffee time," Ana said, moving around behind Ana, putting her hands on her shoulders and pushing her forward. "It's my job to be tired, c'mon."

"I just didn't sleep well tonight... that's why..." Luna complained quietly as she started walking. Her state was caused by weird dreams she'd had. The details of those dreams got lost in the morning when Luna woke up and all she could remember were certain emotions- fear, pain, loneliness and... surprisingly, happiness. "...also, that lesson was... quite boring if we're being honest... I think our teacher was tired too..." She added as she crossed her arms on her chest. "You, on the other hand, seemed a bit more lively than ususal~" Luna told Ana, smiling widely as if that was very important.

"I have my reasons," Ana said, shrugging as she let Luna's shoulders go to instead walk by her side, now that the girl was moving properly on her own. Ana didn't mention that she slept like a rock; that was the default mode of sleeping for Ana. "I agree with you there, I was about to fall asleep. Uh, not that that's any indicator really..."

Luna gave her a puzzled look. "R-reasons?" Luna repeated after the weapon, clearly surprised by the statement. She couldn't help but giggle a bit at what Ana said about her sleepiness not being an indicator. Soon the two finally left the school building. A warm breeze hit her face. It was a refreshing feeling. "Aaah~! Freedom!" Luna commented, grinning.

"Reasons," Ana repeated again, nodding, though clearly didn't seem very eager to talk about those reasons. She stretched her arms out for a moment once she got outside, walking towards and down the stairs afterwards.

Luna dropped the subject of Ana's "reasons" as the weapon clearly didn't want to share anything more about those "reasons". Instead, she just started walking down the stairs beside her. Deep inside she was still very curious about Ana's mysterious "reasons", but she couldn't do anything about that feeling though.

Somewhere on the way down the stairs Ana decided to quite spontaneously ask a question. She looked at some rooftops off to the side, opposite to Luna, putting her arms up with her hands behind her head. It gave her a little more cover. "So, Luna... I'm curious. What sort of person do you find... Uhm, attractive, I guess?"

Ana's question surprised Luna greatly, she'd never expected to hear such question from her. The meister scratched the back of her head. How was she supposed to answer that weird question anyway? The girl closed her eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what to reply. For some reason trying to come up with an answer made her think of... a certain weapon... It caused Luna's cheeks to turn red. "W-Well... I-I-It's not like a-anyone would find m-me attractive anyway... I'm j-just a clumsy, shy orphan. I'm not even good looking so... It doesn't matter what sort of person I would find a-a-attractive... right?" Luna said quietly, stuttering heavily. Her eyes started staring at the ground. She seemed both sad and embarrassed by the question.

"No, I'm pretty sure plenty of people think you're pretty attractive..." Ana said, looking away even more since the fact that she was included in that number made her go red. "I-it's just girl talk anyway," she said, lying, after a moment, "C'mooon."

Ana's behavior was getting rather suspicious. Luna'd never seen her so curious about anything concerning her preferences. With each passing moment, the meister's cheeks were getting redder. She didn't know how to answer the weapon's question! "I... I-I-I really don't know..." Luna replied quietly. Once again she started thinking about Ana and everything they'd experienced together. Luna started thinking about how cute Ana looks when she's full of energy and smiling. Luna started thinking about how awesome Ana was during their fight with that Kishin Egg. She started thinking about many other things and no matter how hard she'd try, all her thoughts were drifting towards Ana. Those thoughts made Luna's heart beat faster, but yet, she couldn't really understand those feelings. Did it mean that in Luna's eyes Ana was attractive? Well, she certainly was a cute-looking girl but... was it really the answer Ana was looking for? Ridiculous, Luna couldn't just say: "I find you attractive!", that'd probably cause too many problems. Besides... what if Ana wasn't into other girls? No, no, no, Luna had to stop such thoughts! Ana was her partner and her friend! "I... I don't know, Ana..." Luna replied, basically repeating her earlier words. That's when she realized that she'd lied. She actually knew. Her face was red- from shame and embarrassment. "I... I guess I-I d-don't really... c-care much about how people l-look... Personality... Y-y-yes! P-personality i-is what matters to me, I guess... I-I mean... I-I think I w-would accept a-anyone w-who would b-be nice to me..." Luna added after a few seconds.

The pause between the first, 'don't know' and the second made Ana think the girl would not answer her. She'd stop pressing her about it, since that would be really very quite suspicious on her part and Ana didn't exactly want anyone to find out. Still, she was surprised that the girl had actually been giving it some thought once she started speaking again. She listened closely and seemed to go from somewhat curious to a deflated state. She made sure to make it seem as normal as she could, though. Did it really have to be personality? Ana, due to years of losing friends due to the snappy, seething, borderline angry mood she was usually in, thought that her personality was hot garbage. She didn't really think about the fact that she really didn't act like that around Luna due to the other girl making her so darn happy. She almost entirely ignored the bit about being nice, which Ana most certainly was.