♥ Gotta Love Valentine's. [Jade/Kat/Open]

[Rock Lee]

An array of flowers were sprawled across a small stand painted a shade of pink with paper hearts taped onto it. On a broad sign held above the stand someone had painted "Find A Flower For A Sweetheart". Lee wasn't completely sure why he was at the mall when he should have been ready to go to a party or something else a regular teenager would do on Valentine's Day. A rose in the shade lay withered on the stand hidden behind pots that held healthy varities of flowers. Lee picked up up the roser and twirled it in his fingers, while still browsing the selection of flowers. He noticed the patient girl behind the stand, waiting for him to make his choice. Lee set the flower back down, and smiled. "I am sorry, I am just not looking for flowers today," he'd said mindlessly walking in another direction.

Lee was secretly-- or maybe he had made it obvious?-- hoping that this year he wouild have someone to spend Valentine's Day with. He adored the cheer everyone else was in, but envied them, wishing he was as happy as they were. Lee wandered into a department store crowded with men looking for the perfect gifts at last minute. This made Lee smile to himself-- if he had a girlfriend he's buy her a gift for Valentine's Day as soon as he could get some money for one.

Oh. Right. You need money to go shopping. Lee had realized he was out of cash, and shouldn't even have been at the mall in the first place. He suntered by the food court slightly downed by the stupid couples already there. As he neared a table, he heard a sudden crash coming from behind him. Lee spun around and stared in awe of what he saw.

[Misarashi Katanai]

Pushing through crowds of people, Katanai made her way out of the vast swarm of so called 'customers'. She hated the mall when it was that crowded. It meant more people to stare at her. Nothing bothered Katanai as much as an entire crowd of mall-goers staring at her, whispering loudly, 'that girl....she has a tail and ears!' Every time she heard something stupid like that, she felt like leaping up to them and saying, 'no sh*t, sherlock...' Of course, she prevented herself from doing so.

She sighed, looking up at a banner. 'Find A Flower For A Sweetheart'. Katanai gasped for air, being she had just wriggled away from the vast swarms of people. She mentally slapped herself. *d**n Valentine's day again?!* Out of all the holidays, Valentine's Day was the one most despised by Kat. It meant there was going to be super-cliquey people crowding around every freaking corner of the mall, making out, doing lovey-dovey sh*t that she could hardly stand to watch. She felt like puking at the thought.

She finally was able to walk alone, free from the people bumping into her left and her right sides. Of course, as clumsy as she was, she ended up tripping over some smart-as*'s foot--which she figured was placed there for a reason. She tumbled down a flight of stairs, making a loud crash upon hitting the bottom.

Passer-by-people, random crowd members, customers at the food court which she had just tumbled into--all eyes were on her. She began to turn a bit red in the face as some laughed, some whispered, and some just rudely stared. *Great...* Katanai thought, rubbing her head, wondering if the day could get any worse.

[Tayaki Jade]

(Sorry it is a little late. )

Ahhh... February 14th, a day of love and happiness. Everyone is kind to each other, even if they are not your Valentine....

"And don't come back!" shouted the manager of Hallmark, "You're nothing but trouble!"

Jade giggled while dashing out of the store. 'Don't worry yourself, I'll be back' she thought. 'You know I do it every year'. It was kind of like a tradition to her. Every major holiday Jade would cause havoc to Hallmark by opening all the singing cards. Jade slowed down her pace and a glanced at the stores going by. Pay Less, Fashion Bug, DEB, and a flower shop! Jade paused for a brief second. There was sign there that read, "Find A Flower For A Sweetheart". “Oh my god, that is so corny,” murmured Jade, thinking for a second why she had stopped.

She really didn’t want a Valentine and the only type of flower she liked was the Mountain Laurel. "Whatever! I don't care!" Jade blurted out and she started to skipping back and forth up in the mall.

Then something caught Jade's eye. 'A cat girl', thought Jade. 'Wouldn't it be funny if she were to fall down the stairs?' Jade waited for the right moment a stuck out her foot. The girl had fallen all the way to the end of the steps! Jade broke out into laughter and walked away. When she had turned around, she saw a boy. He was just standing there, looking alarmed. Jade trotted slowly up to him. The boy was ready to tell Jade off when Jade said looking up to him because she was slightly shorter, "You have huge eyes! They're weird!"

[Rock Lee]

Walking up straight, Lee ventured on toward the heart of the mall where a large set of stairs was placed by platform with the name of the mall and a few benches on the side. The stairs were lined with a metal banister leading to a dark section of the mall. The platform had paper shredding of pink paper and signs that announced upcoming sales and exclusive deals and gift-cards that could be obtained at the Customer Service desk. Lee went to go sit on bench when he saw Katanai glooming stalking around. Lee smiled, eager to see a familiar face. He held out his hand and gave a hearty grin as he called out to her, "Katanai-chan!" =D

Just then, a random girl came out of nowhere and tripped Katanai making her fall down the steep set of stairs.

Lee's mouth went ajar as he saw the white-haired feline tumble forward. The blonde-haired girl snickered as she walked away. Lee could practically hear the Cupid's arrow snap as he witnessed this act of unkindness. 'Where's the love?!' Lee thought in despair marching up to the girl. Before he could reach her himself, she ran up Lee with a twinkle of curiosity in her eyes. "You have huge eyes! They're weird!"

And all of this time Lee thought his eyes were adorable. Lee's eyes widened as they teared up. "How could you be so cruel on this day of love and affection?" Lee asked not with anger but with genuine curiosity. "Do you not feel obliged to act kind on such a day? Just for one day?" Lee's lecture could have went beautifully with a string quartet playing sadly in the background. As Lee looked at the girl he began to recognize her from somewhere-- she was Jade Tayaki, a student he and Katanai attended History class with.

Kat! Lee rudely pushed Jade out of the way careful not to use enough force to knock her down, and went to go help his friend. "Katanai!" He called rushing down the stairs.

What a day this was going to be.

[Misarashi Katanai]

"You have huge eyes! They're weird!"

Katanai could just barely hear her "attacker" say to someone. She couldn't move quite yet, and her vision was a blur. *Great....* Katanai thought with a glow of hatred.

"How could you be so cruel on this day of love and affection? Do you not feel obliged to act kind on such a day? Just for one day?"

Katanai recognized the voice immediately, as belonging to Rock Lee, one of the students in history class. *Wow...he's even more of a dork than I thought,*Kat thought at first. She than reminded herself, *well, at least he's trying to help... That's nice... I guess...* She tried to get up, but was still too weak. *Who thought that falling down the stairs would hurt so d*mn much*She thought.

"Katanai!"

She began to get the feeling back in her body. She had been numb, laying there. She sat upright. Letting out a slight groan, she managed to spit out, "Wh-what the hell was that for?"

Still nearly unconscious, Katanai cursed her clumsiness under her breath. She, so far, was totally pissed at the girl who had tripped her.

Aurora had been walking by Kat's side when she had fallen. She had jumped to safety, as not to be squashed when her master had fallen down the stairs. Currently, the small black cat was looking at Katanai, with her emerald eyes, softly meowing in concern. But one thing was for sure--Aurora liked the girl who had tripped Katanai even less than KAT did.

[Tayaki Jade]

Jade's stomach started to sink. 'I'm not usually this heartless,' thought Jade, dragging her feet over to a heart shaped table. 'Most of the time I'm just making a fool of myself, which actually I did do.' Putting her fingers onto her chin, Jade thought of a way to repay for what she had done. 'Maybe I'll get her a chew toy. No, that's for dogs. How about catnip? That's not good either, because then every cat in town will be after me!' Jade couldn't help but laugh. She glanced around for a few seconds to see if she could get any ideas. "Aha!" Jade announced with glee. Passer-byers glanced at her like she was mad (which she was), and shook their heads. "Tuna salad! All cats have to love that!"

Jade jumped out of her seat, opened her purse, and headed to the food stand. The man smiled while giving Jade her box. Little pink flowers decorated it. 'I really hope that cat girl forgives me. Not to mention it she does look familiar.' Then she remembered history class. The girl sat three chairs ahead of her, and the boy was positioned two seats to the left of Jade. There names were Katanai and Lee. Jade rushed down the steps to give Katanai her 'Hopefully You Will Forgive Me' present. When Lee saw her, he burst out into argument. Katania's cat hissed and batted at Jade's leg, but Jade kept walking towards Katanai. Jade swallowed her pride and said, "I bought you some tuna salad."

[Rock Lee]

How appalling such a simple gesture could be! Katanai was sprawled across the dirty cement floor looking extremely confused. Her black cat-- whose name Lee had never learned-- walked quickly past the two of them and headed directly for the stairs. Lee grabbed hold up Katanai's arm and said, "Are you hurt, Katanai-chan?"

People passed by the two of them stopping for not more than a few seconds to see why the two of them were on the floor. He looked around for a minute to look for where Jade was. Hopefully not pushing any more people down stairwells, Lee thought beginning to stand up. He offered a hand to Katanai.

Just as Lee did this, Jade came flying down the stairwell with a paper bag in her arms. Lee stared curiously at her as she hesitantly advanced toward Katanai. She began to pull out the contents of the paper-bag and Lee could see a flicker of apology flash through the blonde's eyes. Jade held out a small container with a logo printed in bold letters. "I bought you some tuna salad." She'd said. Jade thrust the container into Katanai's hands.

Lee smiled, ignoring that this idiot had just come and pushed his friend down a dirty stairwell. Lee could feel the heat begin to radiate in the vast section of the mall and the flame of kindness begin to burn. "Now to keep the flame burning!" Lee blurted out forgetting that he as thinking these metaphors out in his head. Another flame lit; this time in the boy's determined eyes.

There was going to be some kindness shown today, dammit.

Lee helped Katanai up onto her feet, and paused to find where her cat had run off to. Lee continued to smile and grabbed Jade's hand and pulled them both to food court. He looked back at them unnecessarily as if he wanted to check if they'd broken his strong grasp without his knowledge. Lee stopped at a table in the court far enough from the rest of the customers. Lee flashed a brilliant smile toward Jade, "I think we have began on the wrong foot," he started as he self-consciously controlled how big his eyes were getting. [of course it was not enough, for they swollen with determination!] "But, I would like to introduce myself to you. I am Rock Lee; a junior at the high-school of Konoha." It was necessary, Lee thought, to lengthen his high-school's name just for the sake of his spirit toward Konoha High. "And this is my friend: Misarashi Katanai."

All Lee hoped was that Katanai would not be too angry that he'd just done probably the most desperate gestures in human contact history.

[Misarashi Katanai]

"Are you hurt, Katanai-chan?"

These were the first words that Katanai heard clearly after the fall. She looked up, eyes sensitive to light after being in a personal darkness. She squinted. Finally, after blinking a few times, She could see Rock Lee grabbing her arm. She carefully sat upright, rubbing her sore head. She couldn't feel any bumps on her head--thank God. One thing she did notice was a cut, begining to bleed on the back of her right hand.

Not too long after this, Katanai, wearily sitting down, heard her cat hiss! "Aurora." she said with a slight gasp. "What is it?" She looked in the cat's direction. That girl was coming towards her. *That's the last person I want to deal with right now...* Still a bit too weak to reach for her sword, Katanai just looked at her with a hell-fire red glare of hatred.

"I bought you some tuna salad."

Tuna...Salad? Katanai hated that putrid fish-like product! She looked at her. She had a gleam of apologetic sorrow in them. Katanai couldn't forgive her just like that! What did she think? Katanai was supposed to forgive her because she gave her fish-like food?! NO! But, as Kat knew, Lee would go into one of his lovey-dovey Valentine's Day moods if she said anything.

"Arigato..." Katanai said, taking the pink (why, God, why pink?!?) container from her hands gently. She opened the lid, unveiling the putrid fish-ish stuff. She smiled, fakely, giving the container to her cat, who even looked a bit disgusted! She knew that Aurora would either eat or get rid of whatever was ReAlLy in that container.

"Now to keep the flame burning!"

*Okay...what the Hell is he talking about now?* Katanai thought. Not too long after, she was swept off her feat--literally! Katanai felt herself being dragged down halls of staring passers-by. *Why, God, why?!* Katanai thought once again.


"I think we have began on the wrong foot,"

*No $hit, sherlock!* Kat felt like blurting out, but didn't.

"But, I would like to introduce myself to you. I am Rock Lee; a junior at the high-school of Konoha."

...Katanai had no comment.

"And this is my friend: Misarashi Katanai."

Friend? Katanai hardly KNEW Lee! What right did he have to introduce her, anyway? Katanai decided to go along with it.

She sighed, looking away from both of them, now seated in the food court. She looked off to the floor. "Aurora!" she called, no fault in her tone--pure, simple, semi-sweet. That's it. That's all. They weren't going to see her talking to anyone but her cat today.

[Tayaki Jade]

This was weird. Getting grabbed by the hand and dragged to a table. Jade was a little amazed. 'It really worked,' Jade thought to herself 'But why the heck am I getting kidnapped? What has this world coming to?' Jade face looked puzzled. It kind of look like she was constipated. She started to hum the Jeopardy theme song.

Then she turned her head to look at Kat's cat. 'What the hell!' Jade's face went blank, 'She making her cat eat the salad!' Jade raised her hand, swung it around, and snatched the salad from Aurora. "Don't you eat that you stupid CAT!!!" Jade voice was stern. She gave Kat a dirty look. You could see that Jade was a little upset. She was very emotional even though Jade didn't like to show it.

She turned around and took three deep breathes. 'Well, I do deserve this... not being forgiven so easily.' Jade spun around and smiled. "The food around here really sucks.... maybe that's why I don't eat here." Walking over to the garbage can, Jade quickly tossed the tuna into the garbage. "That was a waste of money," Jade murmured under her breath.

[Rock Lee]

This was just getting weirder and weirder by the second. Lee smiled uncertainly as he watched the cat sniff at the tuna salad. Normally cats devour tuna salads like they were starving. Katanai was definitely... different. As was her cat. Then again, it wasn't very "not different" to have cat ears and a tail.

Well. It wasn't very "not different" to be wearing a spandex in public, either.


"Don't you eat that you stupid CAT!!!"

Lee leaned forward almost ready to block any attacks Katanai was going to launch at Jade. Lee turned to Kat as Jade stood up to throw the salad away.

"The food around here really sucks.... maybe that's why I don't eat here."

"The food here is not that bad," Lee said. "Maybe we should get something to eat while we are all here." Lee smiled willingly as he reached out for his wallet. Which was inconveniently empty.

Lee blushed as he admitted, "The only problem is that I do not have any money with me at the moment..." Lee's voice trailed off. He moved to the side to see past Jade's head [xD] where there was a sign decorated with paper-hearts. "WIN $20 BY PLAYING THE CUPID HEART GAME!"
Hells yeah!

Who better to win a "Cupid Hearts Game" then the Cupid of Konoha? Lee silently thanked Lady Luck that she had challenged him conveniently for a change. "I will be right back!" Lee cried starting to walk away. On second thought. "Come along, ladies!" If he left them alone who knows how many paramedics and lawyers would be involved in this.

Lee lead them into a shady mall outlet arcade. The same paper sign similar to the larger one standing in front of the outlet was pasted on a machine. Lee stared at the arcade machine. He wasn't fluent in the art of the video game. But he'd seen plenty on movies on TV that had school-children skipping class to throw coins away at video games they either lost simultaneously at, were showing someone else how to use the machine, or they were so good a crowd of other kids were watching them.

Lee emptied out his wallet onto his hand. He picked through the receipts and wrappers, searching for coins. Lee took two quarters he miraculously found at the botton of the wallet and dropped them into the orange slots on the face of the machine and stuffed the receipts and such back into their home in his wallet.

Lee jumped a little as a fast-paced techno melody blasted. Colorful pixel pictures exploded on the screen as the Credits and Title of the game blinked. Little pink heart blew up as a cupid shot arrows at them.

Lee didn't see any directions of how to start the game so hit all of the buttons until another screen appeared. Lee put on his game-face. This must have been the start of the game. He expected to see a cupid theme since that was the name of the game, but instead he saw a yellow caution sign and the machine flashed red lights.

"PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THIS CONSOLE

... Was this part of the game?

[Misarashi Katanai]

"Don't you eat that you stupid CAT!!!"

Of all the things that pissed Katanai off, insulting her darling cat was the number one. She didn't even mind that much that the insult had been countered with a dirty look. That had crossed her short-tempered line. "Hey, b*tch! Don't call my cat stupid! She's probably smarter than you!" Katanai had basically screamed that, considering how much she loathed people who insulted her feline companion. She would have launched an attack, had it not been for stupid Lee, basically lunging in front of the baka-girl.

Now, the girl picked up the tuna-salad crap, that even her cat was reluctant to eat, and began to throw it away. Ouch...that must have hurt...Well...GOOD! That freak had just insulted Aurora! Let her throw away the Sh*t that she had just wasted her ryou on!

"The food around here really sucks.... maybe that's why I don't eat here."

Katanai then mumbled softly, "If you think the food sucks..." she stopped herself. Lee would probably lecture her to death if he heard her.


"The food here is not that bad. Maybe we should get something to eat while we are all here."

Wow... Every second they were there, something either pissed her off or gave her a headache.

"The only problem is that I do not have any money with me at the moment..."

Thank God. This meant that they wouldn't have to eat. For, as Katanai predicted, Lee, trying to be a gentleman, probably wouldn't let the girls pay. It would be...rude? Hell if Kat knew what was running through that freak's bowl-shaped head.

She then spotted Lee's abnormal eyes (of course, who is she to talk about abnormal) staring at a video game. *Oh God...* she thought with a tinge of worry.
I will be right back!"

"heh..." Katanai let out a slight laugh...or a sigh...or...whatever that sly, twisted sound was meant to be for. Alone. The perfect opportunity. No one would care if the girl died there... But then, Lee came back, saying,
"Come along, ladies!"

She followed him to the shady little outlet. Of course, the moment he walked away, she let out a soft whistle, her cat bounding towards her and onto her shoulder at the moment. After flashing the girl a dirty look, she bounded out of there, ditching the two.

She couldn't stand the girl, she thought of Lee as more of a freak than she was, and all she had come for was cat food! She ran into the pet store where..."D*mn! This isn't my day!" she cried softly as...someone else tripped her. She felt her cat nuzzle against her. Sighing, she looked up. There was a boy standing there, snickering with his friends. He, obviously, got the idea from the girl. "Think you can trip Misarashi Katanai, do you?" she said, with a twinge of evil in her voice. She grasped the handle of one of her swords, pulling, so that the medal could be seen. The boys ran, yet, she couldn't get up. Why was it so hard for her to recover from falls today?