"How is yours coming along, Hamtaro?" She asked, genuinely curious about the answer she would get.

Hamtaro looked up for a second before he quickly put a smile on his face and replied. "Great! Take a look, Bijou!" He slid the paper across the table for her to see.

Bijou leaned in to see better, not even thinking about the distance between them and how it had shrunk with her doing so. Hamtaro was not a famous artist, but he did have a surprising amount of experience when it came to drawing. She could clearly tell that it was a drawing of himself, his human Laura, and Brandy. "Ah! Très beau, Hamtaro."

"Thanks, Bijou! I'm working really hard so I can show it to Laura later." He seemed excited to think about giving her such a gift. It was obvious that he felt close to her. Still, his thanks was genuine, and he felt happy she liked his drawing. Though he could not explain why. "What about yours? Can I see?" He asked, also curious.

"Oh, sure." She said, setting down the crayon in her paw before carefully sliding her own paper to Hamtaro. She did not even notice that it had started to roll away from the two of them.

It did not take long for him to recognize what it was. It was a drawing of all the Ham-Hams, posed for a picture outside the rocky entrance. It was unfinished, but there were charming details like Cappy peeking out from his saucepan cap. Howdy and Dexter were having a small squabble, and Bijou was lightly clinging to Hamtaro's arm.

"Wow! It's really cute!" He said. "But I guess that would make sense since you made it."

"Um…" Bijou could not help but blush. What was that supposed to mean? Maybe she was reading too deep, but did he just call her cute? "Erm… M-Merci, Hamtaro." She said, taking her paper back to continue drawing.

"Really, Bijou! I think it looks great!" He continued. "Do you think you could draw a second one that I can take home? I can draw something else for you too, if you want."

"S-Sure." She answered, not really paying attention. She was too busy silently praying that he would not notice the blush on her face. "Where is…" She began to ask, scanning the table in search of something. She was certain that she had just put it down.

"Huh?"

"Blue!" She exclaimed, having found what she wanted. The blue crayon, now resting near the middle of the table. She extended her paw out to grab it, but it was not within her reach.

Hamtaro noticed her struggling to grab the crayon, so naturally he offered his aid. "Let me help, Bijou." He said as he reached his own paw out to grab it.

"I got it…" She said, leaning forward more to increase her reach. Luckily, she was able to grab the crayon by herself. But Hamtaro had reached it just the same as her, and so his paw ended up on top of hers.

Bijou let out an audible gasp before quickly looking over to Hamtaro, a deeper blush covering her face. Hamtaro was clearly blushing too, shock marked on his face as well. They stayed staring for a bit, neither with any clue what to say or do. Bijou was already incredibly embarrassed, she feared she might make it worse. Hamtaro felt a foreign emotion inside of him, one he had felt before, but only around her. He still could not properly explain what it was, but he found that he oddly enjoyed it.

Bijou could feel Hamtaro begin to move his paw. It was slow and seemed as though he was unsure if he really should. "Sorry." He could not look at her as he spoke, but he hoped that would not dampen his apology. "I just wanted to help, and then…"

"No, it is okay." Bijou told him quickly, not wanting him to worry. "Thank you, Hamtaro."

That was the end of their brief conversation. The two continued with their drawings, hoping to finish before the time came to return home. And more so hoping that the evidence of their blushing would wither away with a distraction.

However, a certain scarf-clad onlooker seemed to be enjoying herself immensely from viewing such a scene. "Oh. My. Gosh. Those two are adorable!" She raved. Her words accompanied by an "Ookwee!" at her side.

"Eavesdropping?" She heard Stan say, his cool personality present as always. "I didn't take you for the type, Pashmina." Oddly, he seemed legitimately impressed by this. Though he was right, normally she would not listen in on conversations, but there was no way for her to ignore the events at that table.

Sandy looked at her brother, curious why he had joined the small group of girls. Was it merely to tease Pashmina? Or was he interested in flirting with her again?

"I can't help it." She told him. "They're in love!"

"Ookwee!" Penelope echoed fiercely, matching the expression on her face. However the expression quickly changed to confusion, followed by another more questioning "Ookwee?"

"Well of course they are, Penelope!" Pashmina answered, making it seem as though it was obvious. "Sandy, you agree, don't you?"

Sandy was surprised to hear her name, yet still answered the question. "Totally." Of course she knew of Bijou's crush on the boy, and she could not deny she saw something between them. "But don't you think you're like overthinking this a bit?"

"What do you mean?" Pashmina asked her, absolutely confused.

Sandy would have answered her question, but her brother cut her off before she could even get her first word out.

"Pashmina, my scarf-wearing princess, I'm so sorry to tell you…" He said, still keeping his cool personality, despite the feeling he had that what he was about to say would likely make Pashmina upset. "...but I don't see any romance going on at that table."

Pashmina was shocked to hear him say that. "Are you kidding? They're definitely going to be married in the future! I'd bet my scarf on it! Just look at them!" She argued, determined to show she was right.

"Pashmina…" Sandy wanted to tell her again that she should calm down. She was getting a bit wild over this topic.

"Zu… zu… zu… It's undeniable. They're definitely in love." The small group heard.

"Ookwee?" Apparently Snoozer had been listening to their conversation. Always being a rather odd source of wisdom, it seemed he thought it was time to speak up.

"See?" Pashmina said to Stan, a smug look visible across her face, happy to have someone agree with her.

"But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Zu… zu…"

Just as quick as Snoozer had caused her complacence, he made it disappear with his new comment. More shock had replaced it.

Stan could be heard laughing from across the room. It was just so funny how she had assumed that Snoozer had sided with her.

"Don't worry, girl. I still like think they like each other." Sandy did her best to ignore her brother's obnoxious laughter.

Pashmina found it easy to replace the current look on her face with a smile. "Thanks, Sandy."

"Ookwee!"

"Well, I don't!" Stan interrupted, still trying to calm himself from his hysterical laughter. "Look girls. I'm just trying to tell you what I know. Call it Stan's incredible intuition."

"Oh boy." Sandy said, already a mix of both annoyed and bored by her brother. Penelope noticed her readying her gymnastics ribbon.

"And what I know, is that clearly I'm the perfect boy for the beautiful Bijou."

"Stan, don't you dare!" Pashmina said as if to warn him. She did not know what she would do, but she knew she would be very upset if he were to disturb them.

"Now if you girls will excuse me." He said before promptly running directly toward the table, eager to begin flirting with the pigtailed girl. If only his momentum had not suddenly stopped and his chin unexpectedly colliding with the clubhouse floor.

"Really bro, like you should know better." Sandy taunted her brother. Her paw was grasped tightly to the ribbon that constricted his tail, and she had no intention of letting go.

It never failed to impress Pashmina how Sandy had such control over her ribbon. She had witnessed this situation many times, but it always manages to surprise her.

Stan groaned, obviously miffed that his sister had halted him. "C'mon sis. Why won't you let me talk to her?"

"Are you joking? There's like no way I'm letting you anywhere near her!"

Pashmina heard Stan groan again, as well as what was likely the sound of him picking himself up from the floor. She had stopped paying attention to the siblings and their bickering since she noticed that Bijou had bid a goodbye to Hamtaro.

"Au revoir, mon ami."

"See you, Bijou! Sorry I have to leave so early. I promise I'll work on a drawing for you later."

After the door closed, Bijou started to walk towards the group of girls. Though it took a bit before she actually moved. Stan and Sandy did not seem to notice her, since they were still having their dispute. Bijou quickly decided against bothering them and initiated a conversation with Pashmina instead.

"Bonjour!" Bijou greeted her cheerfully.

"So he liked your drawing, huh?" Pashmina asked, using what she learned from her eavesdropping.

"He…" She started before quickly realizing the answer she was about to give. Bijou felt like she had never blushed so much in one day as she directed her gaze away from Pashmina to stare at the uninteresting floor. "Pashmina, you should not have spied on us." She rebuked, though failing to sound angry.

Pashmina giggled at this. "Sorry, sorry! But I had to! You two were just so cute! I swear you're perfect lovers!" She teased.

"Ookwee! Ookwee ookwee!"

Bijou could feel the red growing on her face. "M-Merci." She replied, unable to form any other words. "Kushi-kushi-kushi…"

"Oh look, Penelope!" She said, giggling again. "I think we made her blush!"

"Oo-kwee." Penelope said in agreement.

"Well…"

"Oh don't worry, I'll stop now." Pashmina told her, which she was relieved to hear. "But just so you know, I meant what I said."

"Huh?" Bijou asked, confused.

"You're perfect lovers, remember?"


I honestly hate that this is my longest posted story. I don't think of this as a really great story, I could probably do better on this but I'm so done with it. I just want to move on to other stuff. Still, I tried to make this enjoyable to read.

This was an idea that I had about how the other Ham-Hams would react to Hamtaro and Bijou's relationship. You may find it surprising, but Pashmina was the first one that I thought about. I noticed that she'll usually comment about romantic pairings or settings. Even though she says she's not interested in romance for herself, she seems very interested in the romance of other people. I have a few other ideas for this with other characters, so you might see those eventually.

I got the idea a few months ago and originally wanted to write it for Valentine's Day. But I ended up doing something completely different for Valentine's Day, so I didn't start working on this until way later. In other words, this really should have been finished way sooner.

Comments, criticisms, and advice are always appreciated.

Thank you for reading this.