Yuetchi::Arigatou Gozaimasu-A-Channel Fic [7 Pt. 2 UP]

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. All non-canon characters are property of me, except Regan Hiyruu.

To shortly summarize what you’re going to run into? Um, T rated yuri, later may be M for safety, but nothing lemon likely. A summer set fanfiction, where the group and their extra friends have a little vacation in honor of the recent graduation of their seniors.

Settling In

The bus had stopped a short distance away from the destination intended. After a short walk, the small group of three finally arrived at the large house. Miho seemed pretty calm about everything, while Tooru held an expression of subtle surprise and Yutaka, of course, gasped and was the first to speak up. “Wha!? Wow, Miporin! To think, that you were hiding this gem from us all along!” She exclaimed.

The house was huge, with two stories, and already had a decent amount of acres own to its name. It belonged to Miho’s aunt, who happened to be on a long-time trip away from home anyway. Miho had called her to ask permission to use the house for the summer trip, and it was agreed, as long as they didn’t destroy the house and they took good care of it. They would have supervision anyway, that was for sure. Half their group was made up of people who were technically already considered adults, but thinking about who they were, only one or two of them were actually mentally adult.

Yutaka jumped up next to Miho and grinned widely at the house. Miho looked over at her with a straight face, and then sighed. “Well, it’s not like the subject ever came up…come on, we might as well go inside so you two can see the inside before the others get here.” She motioned for them to follow, heading to the steps of the front porch. A summer trip. Not really a common suggestion, especially not a trip for a large group like theirs. But it consisted of their own classmates, and their upperclassmen, who’d recently graduated. Surprisingly, it had been mentioned as a joke from Nagi, but when Tooru heard about it, she almost too eagerly suggested they seriously take a trip together. Tooru didn’t give a reason why she jumped onto the bandwagon so fast. She had her reasons. Tooru frowned as she followed Miho and Yutaka; her mind was a little distracted about the thought of the others’ graduation. It was a good event, and great that they were out of high school now, but…

What about after that? What happens now?

Those were her main questions. They were going to find colleges. Maybe even leave. Run too. Tooru’s expression fell a little more. She wanted this trip so that she could spend what unpredictable amount of time they had left together. Not just with Run, sure, but all of them. Tooru looked up to see Miho unlocking the front door, and soon after they were all stepping inside of a cooled home, clean and very well kept for having been empty lately. Relatives probably came by to keep it in shape while the owner was away. Still…she looked over at Miho. That aunt of hers must have had quite a lot of money on her to afford such a large place.

Miho looked at Yutaka, who was already excitedly exploring, and then Tooru. She grinned somewhat nervously and spoke up. “Y-yeah, it’s also never come up, that my oba-chan happens to have a nice amount of money on her.”

Miho looked at the stairs leading to the upper floor. “Upstairs, there are probably about four bedrooms we can use, and they can have a couple of us in each, so that should fit us all nicely. When everyone gets here, we’ll just have to arrange where everyone is sleeping.” So, two to a room, and they would be comfortable. Tooru nodded. It did work. Suddenly, Yutaka wrapped her arms around Tooru’s head in an uncomfortable hug. “I want to sleep with Toorun!” She stated cheerfully. Tooru frowned, trying to keep her footing.

It was then that Miho’s hand grabbed Yutaka’s wrist and pulled the excitable girl away from Tooru. “No, I don’t think so.” She stated bluntly. Yutaka frowned and began to whine. “But I—”

Miho cut her off mid-sentence. “Yutaka! You’re going to stay in my room, is that clear?” She wasn’t really asking. More like, if Yutaka said no Miho would hurt her.

Yutaka sweat-dropped and nodded quickly, immediately following the command. “Y-yes ma’am.” Miho nodded, then smiled at Tooru. “Besides, Tooru probably wants to room with someone else.”

Yutaka looked at Tooru curiously. Miho still had a grip on her wrist though, so she couldn’t jump back on Tooru. “Oh? Who would Toorun want to live with?” It was just an innocently curious question.

Tooru stared blankly before averting her gaze to the floor. “I…want to room with Run-chan.” She said in a quiet voice. The hesitation was evident. Though, neither of her classmates would notice it anyway.

Yutaka thought about it for a moment…oh, the fair-skinned sempai? Tooru was always hanging around her and her friends, though they had never really gotten a chance to speak much. Tooru seemed closer to that one sempai though then the other two. “Oh, what was her name…Run-sempai? Toorun must really like her.” Tooru blushed faintly and turned her head to hide it, rubbing the back of her head. “Sh-she’s a long-time friend of mine. We’re close.” She explained, still shyly quiet. Miho stared at her a minute, before frowning at Yutaka. “Okay, I think that’s enough prying.” She said before she sighed. She looked out the still open front door to see a car pull up. “See? The others are here already.”

Four people came out of the small car. Yuuko left the passenger side, stretching a bit before looking at the house with a smile and saying something to the others as they also left the car. Nagi and Run from the backseat of the car both looked up at the house before the driver, Yuuko’s sister Ritsu, finally shut her door and locked the car. Tooru and the others went outside to greet their sempai as they came to meet them. Ritsu adjusted her glasses a little, grinning with her usual ear buds stuck in her ears. She usually had them in whether there was music or not. It was…interesting. But she said it was just a habit. Honestly she had graduated a year before Run and the others, so she was nineteen, and she was also their supervision. Yuuko’s parents, at least, could vouch for Ritsu’s responsible attitude, even if she was a little out there sometimes. And she was a good friend of Nagi’s, having met the senior girl actually when she was volunteering to clean the school campus. Suffice to say, Ritsu and Yuuko didn’t seem like sisters most of the time, but they did have their similarities.

Nagi grinned, her cardigan tied around her waist. “Hey. You guys beat us to the punch.”

Miho bowed to them quickly and smiled. “Welcome sempai!”

Yuuko blushed faintly and chuckled. “I don’t think there’s a lot of need to be formal like that with us. Especially not right now.” Nagi nodded. “Hm. Yeah, we’re all friends here, right?”

Tooru smiled at Run and waved. Run’s bright grin could easily cheer anyone up. Ritsu spoke up next. “Isn’t there one more person?”

Yuuko nodded. “She said she wasn’t going to be here until tomorrow.” Nagi raised a brow at Yuuko. “We’ve never met her, right? What is this, keeping secret friends from us?” She smirked. Yuuko chuckled nervously, shaking her head. “N-no, not at all! Just, she’s always busy with a lot of other things, that’s all! Now that she’s graduated with us, she says she’s happy to use her free time to get to know us.”

Run looked at Yuuko. “Ohh, we’re going to meet your secret friend?”

“She’s not secret!” Yuuko insisted as Nagi laughed.

They headed into the house to talk about living arrangements. Eventually they came to an agreement. Yuuko with Ritsu, Run with Tooru, Yutaka with Miho. And Nagi would room with their yet to arrive guest. “Well, at least I get my room to myself for a night, right?” Nagi said as she untied her jacket from her waist. Now that it was agreed, they would be able to unpack and get themselves situated.

Arriving so late in the afternoon, it was already becoming evening anyway. Yuuko shared the food she’d made for them to eat once they arrived, so that was their dinner.

“It’s amazing, you two are classmates to our friend, yet we never have really talked to you. It’s like she’s got two separate lives.” Yuuko said, glancing at Tooru as she spoke to Yutaka and Miho. Miho chuckled a little bit, and Yutaka grinned. Run blinked, speaking up without really considering what she was telling everyone.

“Tooru said something to me once about…finding it strange that she has fans?” She remembered. Tooru let out a small gasp and blushed, as Nagi and Yuuko looked at Run, confused. They didn’t know about that yet. Tooru’s life was easier if they didn’t.

Nagi chuckled and looked at Tooru. “I see now. So you have admirers?” Tooru didn’t answer, but just looked at her food, entirely too conscious of the subject change now.

“Haha, yes, actually, I guess you could say that Yutaka and I are like a small fan club for Tooru here. She just seems like such a cool classmate, you know?” Miho said. Tooru hid her head under her arms at this point. Run giggled a bit as Yutaka stood up quick enough to push her chair to the floor and make Miho jump.

“Toorun! Are you okay!? Does Toorun need Yutaka’s help!?” Excited enough to go into third person as usual, Yutaka was about ready to try to cross the table to get to Tooru. But Miho grabbed the back of her shirt collar and pulled her back, a subtle anger vein on her forehead. Yutaka flailed her arms, before yelping and falling onto the floor.

“Oww…Mipooorin! That was just mean!” She whined, wincing. Miho just kept her frown, sitting back down. “Yutaka, control yourself. If you keep acting out I’m going to force you to start eating at a separate table from Tooru.” Yutaka gasped, looking absolutely appalled at the idea. She looked a bit defeated as she apologized and got back into her chair. The others watched on, a little surprised by the scene that had just unfolded in front of them, though Tooru just stared, it being an everyday thing to her now.

“Some spirited friends you got there.” Ritsu commented, smirking. Tooru nodded a bit, having regained her composure.

It made sense to say that everyone was tired from the trip here. When it got late, they turned in, in their respective rooms. Tooru let Run in first before stepping into the bedroom they were staying in. There was a bed on one side of the room, and it was a well outfitted room already. Some of the rooms had two beds, some only one. Tooru had her smaller futon on the floor by the bed just in case. “You can take the bed, Run-chan.” She said, nodding. Run giggled, shaking her head. “But then you’re going to end up on the floor, Tooru.”

“I don’t mind, I want you to be comfortable.” Tooru was insisting. Run thought about it, then smiled big, lightly tapping the side of her fist into the palm of her other hand as she got the solution. “We’ll both just sleep in the bed, okay?” She suggested with a more normal smile. The shorter girl looked at the floor, and then nodded. She should have seen that coming. Run was bound to come up with some middle ground, whether strange or reasonable, when something came up. Admittedly, there was something about her solutions though that had been bothering Tooru. What was it? Tooru wouldn’t say. It wasn’t even clear if she knew what was wrong, herself.

-

“Why can’t I room with Toorun?” Yutaka asked once again as Miho buttoned the cotton shirt she had put on. Miho frowned a little and turned her head towards Yutaka, who always complained like a child when she didn’t get something she wanted. Especially when it came to Tooru.

”Yutaka…she wanted to room with her friend, it’s as simple as that. Besides, don’t you ever think that you may bother her enough as it is? To let you sleep in the same room would be punishing her.” She said with an irritated expression. Yutaka sweat-dropped. “A-ah…Miporin’s so harsh.” Yutaka murmured. Miho yawned and shook her head. “Just go to bed, Yutaka.” She insisted.

They had one of the two-bed rooms, so Miho walked over to her bed on the left side. She shut off her light, and Yutaka sighed, trudging over to her own and clicking the lamp off.

Did anyone actually expect her to sleep? Yutaka waited a good hour or so, before opening her eyes. She looked over towards Miho’s bed, where it seemed the dark haired girl was sound asleep. She smirked, and slowly slipped out of her bed. Being as light on her feet as she could, she made her way out of the bedroom, shutting the door, and walked down the hall to where she saw Tooru walking into with Run.

She grinned and reached slowly for the knob of the door. In a second, the knob turned before her hand reached it, and the door swung out, hitting Yutaka square in the face. Tooru walked out of the room and walked the opposite way, heading for the bathroom. Yutaka was left standing where she was, unnoticed, and with her hands on her face. “Ow…” She grimaced. Tooru really swung that door open. She rubbed her nose as she just went back to her room.

Maybe she should have just gone to sleep. She opened the door and walked in quietly, taking her time to shut the door. Before she could turn around to the room though, the light switched on and an arm was around Yutaka’s neck. Miho’s other arm was against the back of her head as she got Yutaka into a painful headlock. “And just what do you think you’re doing?” Yutaka winced. Today wasn’t her day! “M-Miporin, I-I just wanted to see Toorun…”

“Yutaka!”

“I-I’m sorry! I give, I give! O-ow!”  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. Ritsu is my property, and Regan and her ride belongs to a friend.

So a new OC steps in this chapter, our final houseguest. Who is she, what’s her connection with Yuuko, and just what is up with her? Find out! A first day around town! How is it going to go?

A Day in Town

It was the sound of a motorcycle revving that got everyone’s attention as they scattered around the house, getting ready to leave. The decision that afternoon was to visit town, since it was the second day, and they had yet to see what was around. “What was that?” Run was the one to ask when everyone had fallen silent. Yuuko was actually the only one who seemed to know, from the look on her face.

“Oh…she’s here.” Everyone looked at Yuuko. She was here? What was she arriving on? Nagi looked out the window, and raised a brow, surprised.

There was a girl. The bicycle was white with white gold trim, and the design was elegant and unique. The motorcycle was two-of-a-kind, the other one belonging to the man who made it. Everything about it was state-of-the-art, including the helmet with a Heads-Up Display that works together with her cell phone. The girl carefully made sure the helmet was put away and everything was settled, after she had stepped off the bike, shutting the engine off. She looked maybe Ritsu’s age if not a year older. The brown haired female headed for the front door, where Miho already was, opening it. “Hello?”

She smiled. “Hey. I’m, uh, Yuuko-chan’s friend. Regan. Nice to meet ya.” She greeted with a slight bow of her head. Miho stepped aside to let her come in, and Yuuko smiled a bit before waving to Regan. “Regan-chan, you made it.” Regan smirked.

“Of course I did.” She took a look around. The only person Regan really recognized other than Yuuko was Ritsu, having seen her around before. “Hey Ritsu-san. So, who’s who here?” She asked, curious. Yuuko looked around. “Well…there’s Nagi, Run, Tooru, Miho-chan, and Yutaka-chan.” She pointed to each one, naming them off. “Everyone, this is Regan.”

Regan lifted her hand in a wave to them. Miho looked outside curiously, but it was Yutaka who asked. “What is that?” It was obviously a motorcycle. But it looked so different…Regan chuckled. “My motorcycle. You can say I have access to…really advanced technology, thanks to the people I know.” She explained. She got quite a few blank stares from that, but she only grinned and waved it off. It wasn’t important. “So, did I arrive in the middle of something?”

“Oh! Um, we were only getting ready to walk to town and take a look at the sights.”

“Really? Awesome, mind if I tag along?” Regan asked. Miho nodded. “Of course not, we were just about to go.”

With that out of the way, the girls left the house and headed down the road. It wasn’t a flashy town or anything, but still enough to attract a newcomer’s attention. It didn’t seem to take too long for the group to split up. Mostly because Regan dragged Yuuko off somewhere, which made Ritsu follow, and Nagi just followed then over everyone else, without really thinking about it. Miho dragged Yutaka away with an apology when the girl tried to smother Tooru’s personal space.

That was how Tooru ended up only with Run. And she was perfectly okay with that. Run seemed for the moment entirely too taken up by the sights of the town she’d never seen before though to really say much other than her occasional comments. “I’ve just never traveled around a lot before.” Run said as she stopped, turning to wait for Tooru to catch up.

“I haven’t traveled either.” Came Tooru’s reply. Run held her hands behind her back and turned, looking around a bit with a cheerful smile. “Maybe I’ll think about it though, when I’m a bit older.” She said. Tooru looked up at her, and then at the ground for a moment. Run was already eighteen. It only made sense she’d be making plans like that right? The mature thing was to let it go and not to ponder on it too much. After all, Tooru still had to think about her own impending last year of high school. But, trying not to think about the fact that Run was going to be mostly out of her life once she began pursuing her future was nearly impossible, it felt.

“Tooru?” Run tilted her head a bit, staring at her black haired friend curiously. Tooru realized she must have looked strange. Shaking her head, she grabbed Run’s wrist and pulled her along. “Sorry, I drifted a little bit. Come on.”

Run blinked and then smiled. With a chuckle, she picked up a pace a step faster than Tooru and Tooru’s grip on her wrist was released and replaced with Run’s own grip on Tooru’s hand, making Tooru tag along behind her. “I know, want to grab a drink?” She asked, turning her head towards Tooru as her hand gestured to a nearby restaurant cart. Stopping, Tooru looked at the menu nearby. “Okay…should I go get them? You can wait here.” Tooru suggested, looking at Run. Run nodded. “Sure! Um, any kind of juice they have is fine.” She said. Tooru took heed and headed into the line. There were a couple of lines, and it was pretty easy to lose sight of anyone else. Which, she did eventually. For some reason she felt a bit of unease when she could no longer see Run, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Ordering two cans of fruit juice, she carefully made her way out of the small crowd back into the open.

The only problem? Run wasn’t in sight anymore. Tooru frowned as she looked around. But sure enough, the older blond girl was nowhere around. “Run…” Tooru muttered. She should have expected as much, but she worried now. So with both the cans in tow, she headed down the street to try and find her. The last thing she needed was for Run to get lost somewhere or get into trouble. “Run? Run-chan!” Calling the girl’s name wasn’t really getting results either.

Of course, when someone took a light hold of her shoulder, Tooru turned, about ready to hit if she had to. But quickly the desire disappeared when she saw who it was. The familiar face of Miho. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that.” She apologized with a nervous grin.

“No, sorry…I was just…looking for someone.”

“Run? Did you two get separated somehow?”

Tooru nodded. Miho sighed, rubbing the back of her head with her other hand on her hip. “Yeah…Yutaka and I were on our way to get something to drink. But, I dunno, I guess something caught Yutaka’s attention, and she just sort of…took off running.” Miho shrugged. “I haven’t been able to find her since.” So Miho was having the same problem as Tooru. Tooru look at her drinks, then offered one to Miho. Why not, right? She held one out to her, which confused the girl at first, before she smiled a bit and took it. “For me? You don’t have to.” But Tooru shook her head. “Go ahead.”

Miho nodded. “Thank you then. Um, say, you don’t mind if I tag along with you for now, do you?”

“I don’t mind. We can try to find both Run and Yutaka.” Hopefully Run first…

-

“Come on, what’s the matter Nagi?” Yuuko’s voice got Nagi’s attention. Nagi was standing under the shade of a nearby building and the others hadn’t realized she wasn’t following until Yuuko turned and noticed she wasn’t there. So now the three other girls headed back to where Nagi stopped.

“It’s hot.” She simply answered. Ritsu laughed a little bit, and Yuuko sighed. Regan reached out and grabbed Nagi’s arm, pulling the girl back out into the open. Nagi grimaced, groaning her displeasure at being forced to move. “Come on, it’s not that bad!” Regan let go, but by now Nagi was lagging a bit behind the group as they resumed their sight-seeing walk.

However, Ritsu fell back a bit so she walked alongside Nagi. She seemed to turn down the music from her mp3 player a little bit and took one ear bud out of her left ear as she glanced at Nagi. “We can stop for a drink or something, if you want.” She suggested. Nagi waved it off, shaking her head. “No, no, it’s fine. Thanks though…”

“You sure don’t like hot weather. I thought it was the cold you couldn’t stand?”

“I don’t like either one.”

Ritsu sweatdropped. Well, that sounded…complicated, didn’t it? But she wasn’t really going to ask for elaboration anyway. She was used to Nagi’s behavior, especially on those past days Ritsu’s volunteer days tied her activities with outdoor activities Nagi’s class so often had to do. Nagi complained, a lot, during these said activities.

“I’m just not big on casual walks outside on hot days, that’s all.” Nagi said in a dulled tone. Ritsu chuckled idly at her comment, shaking her head. “Yeah, I know, I know. I think we all know by now.”

Nagi glanced at her with a frown. “Hey! What’s that tone supposed to mean?” She asked, only provoking another laugh from Ritsu. Regan turned her head for a moment at the two girls behind them, before grinning at Yuuko. “Well, at least Nagi-chan’s got herself a distraction now, right?” Yuuko smiled and nodded. “Still, she’s right. It’s pretty warm out here. Hmm…” Regan looked partially up at the sky and thought for a minute, before grinning and stopped mid-stride. “Why don’t we get ice cream? Pretty good for a hot day, right?” She suggested. Yuuko nodded, turning to look at the other two, who just now stopped.

“Ah, ice cream? Well, I don’t know…” Nagi frowned a bit. Ritsu shook her head, and grabbed Nagi’s wrist. “Nonsense, let’s go.” She said, giving Nagi’s arm a tug before following her sister and Regan to get their cold snacks.


Seated on a park bench, Regan took the edge of the seat with Yuuko next to her, Ritsu still gone waiting for her ice cream, and Nagi next to Yuuko, the only one who didn’t order anything. She insisted she didn’t want one, despite all her complaining about the hot weather.

“You’re so ridiculous.” Ritsu commented as she made it back; leaning against the back of the park bench instead of sitting, she picked at her ice cream with her spoon, ear buds hanging off the back of her shoulders. She actually had a milkshake, but it always seemed to have the consistency of actual ice cream, so Ritsu instead held the lid of the cup in her fingers and seemed fine with a spoon until the shake was drinkable.

“How am I ridiculous? I never said I wanted any ice cream.” Nagi argued. Ritsu raised her brow at the other girl. “Yeah? Because you sure look like you want some right now.” She said, waving her cup in front of Nagi as if to add to her statement. Nagi frowned a little.

Ritsu stopped, sticking her spoon in the milkshake before looking at Nagi. “You and your diets. You know, you really have nothing to worry about. You look fine.” Ritsu assured her. Nagi crossed her arms. “Who said it had anything to do with my diet?” Ritsu didn’t reply, but instead smirked a little and held out a spoon with the vanilla ice cream in it. “Go on, try a little.” She insisted. Nagi stared at it for a moment, as Ritsu asked Yuuko to hold her cup for a moment. “You’re so stubborn, I swear…” Ritsu used her other hand to take Nagi’s chin and make her open her mouth before making her try the ice cream. Letting go of both Nagi’s chin and the spoon, Ritsu grinned as she took her milkshake back from Yuuko and watched with amusement as Nagi blushed and removed the spoon. “How was that necessary at all!?”

“But you still don’t want anything?” Ritsu asked, grinning like an accomplished troublemaker. Nagi was visibly annoyed, but she sighed, as if in defeat.

Ritsu chuckled. “Should I go get you one then?”

“…banana?”

“Got it.” Ritsu nodded and walked off again. Regan watched as Nagi sat back in the seat, amused by what they’d just seen. “Your friends sure are interesting, Yuuko.”

Yuuko nodded with a light giggle. She and Regan had simple ice cream cones. “They’re a handful sometimes, but they’re my friends. I like them all the same.” She said. Nagi glanced at her with a grin.

“Ah, even the little one you say messes with you all the time?” Regan asked. Yuuko rubbed the back of her head and nodded.

“Hah, yes, even Tooru, of course.” Yuuko answered. Regan grinned. Yep, this was the same old Yuuko, all right. Forgiving and nice almost all the time. “Oh! Hey, you’ve got some ice cream on your face.” Regan said. There was a dot of ice cream on Yuuko’s cheek. Before Yuuko could get it herself, Regan leaned forward and got it herself with a small swipe of her tongue. She sat up again, and giggled a bit with a wink.

“R-Regan! Sheesh…” Yuuko blushed a bit, the back of her hand wiping her face a bit as Regan just laughed. Nagi blinked, not exactly sure what had just happened there. But that was around the point when Ritsu came back with a shake for Nagi, so she just dropped it for now and gladly let the cooling snack distract her.

-

Miho sighed, sitting back in her seat. Tooru and Miho were both seated at a small round table, just outside of a small café. They were taking a rest, since neither had found their missing person. Tooru’s own juice still rested on the table, unopened. “I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” Tooru glanced at Miho, who had noticed she was drifting a little bit. “It’s not that big of a place, they’ll turn up, I’m certain.” She reassured.

Tooru nodded. “Sorry.” Miho just waved it off with a smile and looked around. She glanced at Tooru again. She just seemed so distracted. She seemed more attached to her blond-haired sempai than usual. “Hey, Tooru…” Tooru looked at Miho, attention for the moment given. “You really like Run-sempai, right?” She just came out with it and asked. Tooru blinked, and she looked surprised for a second. Surprise fell to a slight frown and faint blush as Tooru turned her head a bit. “Why the sudden question?”

Miho thought about her response for a second. “Maybe I should have rephrased that…um, are you upset? I mean, that they’ve graduated?”

Tooru’s thumb absently rubbed on the table. “No…I’m not really upset they graduated…”

“But that Run-sempai and the others have to move on?”

Miho’s guess made Tooru flinch a little bit. That was it then. Miho always had a feeling, she just didn’t really say anything. It was better not to, for a while. There wasn’t any way to avoid the subject now though. “I’m sorry.”

Tooru looked at Miho blankly for a second. “Sorry? For what?”

Miho shrugged. “I’m not really sure. But, you clearly feel bad about things, and…I’m sorry.” Miho smiled apologetically. “It’s actually really upsetting, to see you so depressed.”

Tooru looked at the table and nodded. “Then I’m sorry too. I’m…not trying to bring you or Yutaka down.”

Miho chuckled. “We know. Honestly, if Yutaka’s noticed, she’s doing a wonderful job of hiding it. I guess I’m not that good at it.”

“No offense, but that’s surprising, with as expressive as Yutaka is sometimes.” Tooru said with a frown half covering her face. Miho shrugged. “I know, it’s odd, isn’t it?” They both shared an amused chuckle.

In the distance, what they weren’t aware of yet was the orange haired girl hiding behind the café sign. Yutaka had been wandering since she let herself get distracted earlier and get separated from Miho, and now her searching had paid off. She finally found them, and they were sitting together having a nice talk outside of a café. ‘Oh, they’re doing it again! Having a good chat without Yutaka around!’ Yutaka just itched to reveal she’d found them, but she could restrain herself for the time being, at least for another minute or so.

Miho’s laughter died down before she gave Tooru a smile. Seemed their talk had brightened Tooru’s mood up considerably, which was good. “See? Not such a bad time. Tooru, anytime you want to just talk, I’m available, okay?” Tooru grinned a little bit and nodded. Not that she meant it in a bad way, but Miho was easier company than her excitable close friend. It was actually really nice.

‘Okay! Yutaka’s turn to jump in!’ Yutaka smirked to herself as she stood up from behind the sign and opened her mouth to announce herself, at the same time readying a step forward. However as soon as her shoe hit the pavement, Run’s appearance right behind her was made clear. “Watchya doing?” Run suddenly asked, startling Yutaka, incredibly. “Whaa!” Yutaka jumped, flailing a bit before she tripped and fell over, causing Tooru and Miho to finally notice their friends’ appearance.

“Yutaka? Sempai?” Miho stood up as Tooru rushed over to Run, happy to see she was okay. Run smiled. “Hey you two! Oh, sorry about earlier Tooru…I thought I saw Nagi, but when I tried to see if I was right, I ended up getting lost. And, it turns out it wasn’t Nagi.” Run rubbed the back of her head with a slightly nervous giggle. Tooru smiled faintly. That sounded like Run all right. She looked at the drink in her hands, then at Run, before handing it over. It was technically supposed to be her own drink, but she hadn’t touched it in hopes of giving it to Run, since she ended up giving the other one to Miho. Run blinked, then grinned as she accepted the drink. “Oh, arigato, Tooru! You didn’t really have to save it for me, after I disappeared like that though.” Tooru shook her head at Run’s statement. She would have done it anyway.

Miho frowned, and sighed as she helped Yutaka up off the ground. Yutaka brushed herself off with a small groan. “That hurt…” Was it just her or did all the painful things happen to her lately? Miho brushed Yutaka’s sleeves off before speaking up finally. “Yutaka, I told you specifically not to wander off like that, especially not without telling me.” She scolded Yutaka like she was a child, which Yutaka couldn’t say she wasn’t used to, but it was still a little exhausting to take. Yutaka just hung her head in defeat as Miho lectured her for a couple minutes. But Miho’s sigh seemed to mark her lecture’s end, and Yutaka looked at her. “Yutaka…most of all, you just had me worry over you for most of the day. I mean, what was I supposed to think?” She tilted her head, frowning as she waited for an answer. Yutaka felt surprised, and then grinned a little bit. “So Miporin mostly worried about me after all?” She asked, making a curious face at Miho, which just made Miho flinch a bit. “Don’t dodge the question, you!” But Yutaka clearly was already over the bad feeling of making Miho worry, and was already grinning like her normal self again. Honestly, how’d she do that so fast? She grabbed both Miho’s and Tooru’s hands and pulled them along as she headed away from the café. Tooru pulled Run along too with her other hand.

“Y-Yutaka! Do you even know where you’re going!?” Miho ended up shouting as Yutaka seemed to pull her own little new group behind her.

If this was just the first couple of days, just what was waiting for the group in the days to come, living amongst each other like this? At this point, is there really a way to tell?  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. Ritsu and Zaine are my property, and Regan and her ride belong to a friend.

Who is this person Run supposedly claims to have met before, when she was lost in town? Tooru’s still got reasons to feel upset now, if not more, and Miho still isn’t sure just what to say to help her. Are there surprises still to come? You betcha!

What!?

Given a few days, it was actually pretty together once everyone was settled nicely into the house. Somewhat. After all, how calm could things be with the combination of people in the house anyway?

“Why do I have a weird feeling that it’s not going to stay this quiet?” Miho asked Yutaka as she walked into the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice.

“Really? I don’t know…”

How long until she got her answer? Until right after she poured her glass of juice, put the juice away, and was about to drink it. She only just got half a mouthful of juice before a scream rang through the house from the living room. Miho spit her juice out into the sink, choking as the scream died down. Even Yutaka seemed a bit shaken. “W-what was that!?”

“It was Yuuko!” The reply came from the living room as well. Miho set her glass down and both of them walked into the room. Ritsu was sitting in a seat, hand over her face as she tried to hide her laughter. Nagi was rubbing her eyes and placing her glasses back on her face. Right, she’d fallen asleep, as well as…Yuuko. Yuuko was lying on the couch, still shaking like a frightened child. The explanation was in the form of Tooru, knee on the couch by Yuuko’s stomach like she was leaning on the couch and a mask around her head, pulled up from her face. Tooru turned to Miho and Yutaka, usual straight face.

“Um…what happened?” Miho asked hesitantly. Yuuko appeared like she was trying to speak, but it just came out whimpers. Ritsu shut her eyes and laughed, shaking her head. “Tooru…apparently decided to…to put on a scary mask and have Yuuko wake up with her mask right in front of her face.” Ritsu explained surprisingly clear through the laughter she was trying to stifle. Yuuko let out a whine before finally spitting something out. “I-it’s not f-f-funny!” She shot back at Ritsu. Nagi just sighed, grinning a bit as Tooru took the mask off and stood up straight, a faint smirk fleeting on her face. Right...nothing stayed normal around here for too long, did it?

Yuuko sat up and tried to recover from what was probably halfway to a heart attack as Tooru set the mask on the table. The doorbell rang, surprising a good amount of people, but Miho went to get it.

“Yes?” She asked as she pulled the front door open. She looked at the taller boy standing outside the door. He looked to be…about Ritsu’s age? Gelled, short brown hair, blue eyes, and a friendly smile, but about why he was standing there, that wasn’t really clear. “Um, can we help you?”

“Sorry, uh, is there…a Run here?” He asked. What? Miho stepped aside slightly as Tooru pushed herself into view, looking at him cautiously. The guy seemed to sweat-drop a bit at the intensity of the stare.

“Why do you want to know?” Tooru asked, seemingly taking over for Miho without really saying so. Miho stepped back and exchanged an uneasy look with Yutaka.

“Who are you?”

“U-uh…my name’s Zaine.” He answered a little unnerved. Tooru didn’t seem willing to let him get anywhere close to coming inside the house. How did this guy know Run?

Speaking of which, Run came down the stairs, noticing who was at the door. “Oh!” She walked over so she stood behind Tooru, and smiled at Zaine. “Hi Zaine!” Tooru turned her head a bit and felt as surprised as, well, the girls in the living room were.

Zaine was let in, where Run explained that when she had gotten lost in town after getting separated from Tooru, she needed to find her way around. So she started to ask around to find out if someone saw people who looked like her friends wandering around, and one of them, Zaine, had seen Tooru and Miho around. So he had shown her around a little bit while trying to help her find the two in question, which led to them getting to know each other some.

Nagi still looked at Run a little skeptically. “You told him where you lived?” Run seemed to smile obliviously at the undertone of Nagi’s words, and nodded. Zaine just chuckled. “Sorry about, you know, dropping by unannounced.”

Yuuko looked at Zaine, then at Run. She felt nervous, sure, but mostly because of the really unsettling glare coming from the black haired high schooler next to Run. It was clear Tooru was not happy about finding out her apart time from Run apparently led to Run running into this guy. They were all kind of lucky for the most part Tooru left her baseball bat behind. Zaine was lucky, in particular. Too bad he had no idea how lucky.

“He’s a really nice guy though. Mostly, I wanted you all to meet him.” Run said, nodding. Tooru glanced at Run, expression on her face unreadable, and then frowned a little bit and looked down at her lap. Miho noticed it, and stared at Tooru for a moment.

“Hey Yutaka?” Miho chimed in when everyone else stopped talking. Yutaka looked at Miho, curious about why she was addressed. “Why don’t you take Zaine outside with everyone and…show him around the property?” Miho suggested, standing up and making Yutaka stand too. Yutaka seemed hesitant.

“M-Miporin…I don’t even know my way around it that well…” She argued. Miho grinned. “You know enough it of it well enough, now go?” She wasn’t going to let Yutaka refuse to go. Besides, if given the chance to see Tooru was upset over something, letting Yutaka jump her about it wasn’t going to help. Tooru needed to think, probably. Yutaka was ushered to go lead them outside, leaving Tooru and Miho inside. Tooru still sat on the edge of the couch where she had been, so Miho for now let her be.

-

The amount of time she left Tooru alone was about…how long it took her to take her time drinking a glass of juice. Seeing Tooru hadn’t moved from her spot, Miho finally sighed, set her empty glass on the counter, and walked into the living room. Seating herself next to Tooru, she placed her hands on her lap and waited a moment, not sure what to say.

“Umm…Tooru?”

“What is it?” Tooru’s response was dull, sort of mumbled.

“Are you okay?”

Tooru frowned and stared at the floor. Was she?

“Tooru, you remember the other day when I said if you needed to talk, that I would listen?” Miho asked, glancing at Tooru. There was a small nod of response. “Well…I realize you probably don’t want to talk, but…the offer still stands.”

Tooru didn’t respond out loud for a while. That’s why Miho felt a little bit of surprise when she heard Tooru start the conversation this time. “I don’t think I should be shocked.” She muttered. Miho looked at her, confused.

Tooru’s legs kicked out for a moment before settling down again. “Run-chan is…Run-chan. There are always guys, actually. But…she’s never really shown a lot of interest in any of them.”

Miho stared at her. That was it, yeah. Miho and Yutaka always witnessed Tooru barring guys from Run. But on another note, Run never did seem to show a lot of interest in any of them. Not…romantic interest, anyway. It really was something, to be seeing her show particular interest in this new friend she’d made. And as for Tooru…Miho was never one to be able to read the shorter girl that easily, but she seemed to care, very much, for Run, so of course she didn’t feel too great about it.

Both girls looked up as Nagi walked in from the front door entrance. She slipped a hand out of her pocket and waved to them briefly before heading to the stairs. “Don’t mind me. Sort of…hot out, I’m not really that interested in showing new guy around.” Nagi shrugged. “It’s weird, he sure bonds with everyone fast. Run’s saying something about letting Zaine show her around a little bit more tomorrow in town.” Nagi shrugged and headed up the stairs. Miho frowned a little bit, before looking at Tooru again. Showing Run around town tomorrow? If Tooru felt more upset, she was hiding it really well. “Tooru?”

When she got no answer, Miho sighed. Reaching out, simply by impulse she took Tooru’s hand. Tooru looked at Miho’s hand for a second. “Listen, I really don’t like seeing you so upset.” Miho said quietly. She then briefly left a very brief kiss on Tooru’s cheek. Tooru blinked, glancing at her in shock. Miho smiled at her, hiding how strangely uneasy she felt from what she did there. “I know you’re worried about her. But, you deserve to be happy too, right? I want that too.” Miho assured her. “Tomorrow, how about you and me go back out too?” She suggested. Tooru didn’t answer, just looked at her. Miho thought her question over before clarifying. “No one else, I’ll see to it.” She said with a nod. Tooru averted her eyes, and then nodded.

“Okay.” She said quietly. Miho chuckled softly, letting go of Tooru’s hand to ruffle her hair a bit. “There we go.”

“D-don’t do that…”  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. Ritsu and Zaine are my property, and Regan and her ride belong to a friend.

Tooru and Miho spend their own day in town to get Tooru’s mind off of the recent developments. Or to talk them out. Or, wait, what else could happen? Look, now it’s getting somewhat less silly. Gasp.

This is only half the chapter. I'm posting this half now for the sake of early feedback on a chapter weirdly difficult for me to work on.

A Kind of Care

It was early next morning when Tooru was looking down the stairs from where she sat, on the top step, watching Run greet Zaine at the front door. “I’ll come back later!” She said bye and hopped out the door in her usual happy demeanor after the blue haired boy. Tooru’s arms came around her knees as she narrowed her eyes a little bit. Her stomach twisted a little bit when the door shut. She wasn’t even aware that she was growing tense until she heard footsteps behind her. She relaxed and looked up and behind her at Miho. “Tooru?” Tooru stood up.

“When you’re ready to get going, we’ll go, all right? I need to change.” Miho said. Tooru nodded and headed down the hall to the room where she and Run slept in. Sighing, the long haired girl walked into her own room and shut the door, to find Yutaka holding up the shirt she had out to change into, looking at it. Lowering the shirt, Yutaka turned her head to look at Miho, the questions already showing on her confused face. “Is Miporin going somewhere?”

Miho hadn’t told Yutaka about the plans she made with Tooru yet. Deciding on plain honesty as she pulled off her shirt, Miho took the white shirt from Yutaka. “Tooru and I are going to walk around town today.” She admitted as she changed.

“Wha!? Plans were made without Yutaka’s knowledge!? I want to come along!” Yutaka said, her voice excited. Miho shook her head, frowning a little bit. No, Yutaka couldn’t tag along…Tooru wouldn’t like it much, and Miho was trying to make this day for Tooru to feel better. “No, Yutaka, you can’t come with us. I already told her it would just be us.”

“B-but why?” They never went somewhere without Yutaka. What kind of reason was there to make sure Yutaka wasn’t with them this one time? “Miporin and Toorun are sneaking around?”

Miho sighed. “No, we’re not. Calm down.” However, Yutaka grabbed her arm like she just came up with something in her somewhat odd mind. Miho sweatdropped, looking at her. “W-what?” Yutaka stared at her curiously, before asking. “Is it….a date?”

Miho blinked, a light blush coming over her face as she pulled her arm out of Yutaka’s grasp. “No! No, it’s nothing like that. Tooru just seems like she needs a day to be able to think, that’s all…” She insisted. Yutaka looked skeptical for a second, but just crossed her arms and pouted.
“Well it’s still no fair…I wanna keep Toorun company too…” Yutaka muttered. Miho grinned a little and straightened out her skirt. “Listen, we won’t be out long, okay? I’m sure you could get to know the others some more or find something to do until then, right?” She waited for a response. Yutaka eventually nodded, though she still looked upset. Miho smiled and headed out the door. “I’ll see you later then.” She said before slipping out of the room to meet with Tooru. Yutaka was left in the room. She looked around, then at the window. “Hmm…” The side of her right fist thumped into her left palm as she grinned. “Well, Yutaka will tag along anyway! They just won’t know.” She snickered. She looked out the window, and started her wait for the two to leave, before she would go out the door and follow where they headed.

-

Miho glanced over at Tooru as they walked into town. The girl for some reason wore a long sleeved blue sweater over her gray shirt and a pair of shorts. “Hey Tooru, are you sure you don’t want to take that off?” She asked with a slight frown. Tooru shook her head. “I’m fine.” With that, that conversation was over.

Tooru stopped, glancing at the department store nearby. Wasn’t that the same one Run dragged her into the other day? “Tooru?” Miho looked at the store. “Wanna go inside? Come on.” Miho grinned a bit and pulled Tooru along as she entered the department store. Tooru found herself looking around. It felt sort of weird that being in here only made her wonder if Run was okay.

The doors closed barely as another person slipped in, attracting the attention of one of the store employees who looked at her with a raised brow when she hid in the clothing racks to watch the pair nearby. Yutaka caught wind of being watched, and sweatdropped as she moved on, not wanting them to say anything and give away what she was doing. She probably shouldn’t have been following them this way, but she had to find out just what was going on.

Miho stopped and looked at some of the clothes with Tooru, who just seemed…well she seemed distracted. “Tooru, why not get something a little cooler while we’re in here? Or at least take your sweater off.”

“I’m fine, really.” Tooru insisted, busying her eyes with some clothes Miho was pretty sure she wasn’t even really looking at. Walking over to her, she could see Tooru’s discomfort with her outfit of choice. She reached over and gave a small tug on the back of the collar of the sweater. “You’re obviously not, you know…you’re going to give yourself heatstroke, walking around in this.” Miho said, sounding like a concerned mother, pretty much. Tooru frowned and stepped away a little bit, getting her to let go.

“Don’t…”

“Tooru, come on.” Miho said with her own frown as she reached for the sides of the blue sweatshirt. This was beginning to feel like a repeat for Tooru of her incident with Nagi. Pulling up, it was so close to actually being taken off Tooru, if it wasn’t for the fact that her hands closed around the cuffs of her sleeves so she still hung onto it. Miho would’ve just given up there if she wasn’t used to the persistent types of people, like Yutaka. Which, unfortunately, was the difference between what happened when Nagi tried to make her take off her sweater, and right now. Miho still pulled, trying to get her to let go. Fighting back, Tooru pulled against Miho’s efforts, suddenly moving her arms back to try and take her sweater back.

Not expecting the sudden retaliation, Miho still kept her grip on the clothing. But she yelped a bit as she staggered forward a couple steps from being pulled forward like Tooru ended up doing to her, and collided with the smaller girl. Tooru grunted and hit the floor, breaking Miho’s fall as she did, unfortunately. Yutaka blinked, surprised at the pretty chaotic scene she just witnessed.

Grimacing, Miho assessed it. Tooru probably hurt a little bit. The fact that she was on top of the poor girl wasn’t helping much, and it definitely wasn’t helping Miho. She blushed and quickly tried to recover, to little avail. “S-sorry!”

Tooru winced, and shook her head. “It’s okay…just…g-get off of me.” She managed to say. Miho nodded and pushed herself away from Tooru, standing up as Tooru sat up, her blue sweater off and in her lap, her main attire now being a pale blue shirt. Looking around, her eyes stopped at the employee now just staring at them. She felt embarrassed heat on her face as she stood up and grabbed Miho by her sleeve. “Come on, let’s just go.” She pulled, forcing Miho to stumble along as they rushed out of the department store.

“Well, that was…” Tooru trailed off as they stopped walking, given a chance to think since leaving the store in a rush. Miho chuckled weakly. “I’m sorry…”

Tooru shook her head. Well, she wasn’t wearing her sweater now, at least. “It’s okay. Um, you did have a plan of your own for today, right?” She asked, looking at Miho. Nodding, Miho did actually have in mind for them to do something simple today. “See a movie. It doesn’t sound like much, but it seems like a good way to spend the day, right? Maybe it’ll be a good distraction.” The suggestion was a good one. Thinking about it for a minute, Tooru nodded eventually.

“I’m okay with that.”

Miho smiled a bit and led the way to the movie theater nearby. Behind them a small distance away, still trailed the orange haired girl, managing not to lose them when they had rushed out of the store like that. She wasn’t really prepared to suddenly be running out of the store hoping she wouldn’t lose them and end up lost herself. Following, the next destination seemed to be a small local cinema.

“Hmm, what do you want to see?” Miho asked as they looked at the showings. There were probably only a couple of movies they could pick from that were either about to start or already playing but not too far in. “Ah, this one?” Action. Bit of horror, but otherwise it seemed to be mostly one of those moderate paced action movies. Otherwise not too bad, that two underage girls couldn’t go in and see it. For some reason it didn’t seem that surprising that Tooru would want to see a movie like that over anything else. Paying for their tickets and heading inside, Yutaka rushed through the doors to make sure she didn’t lose sight of them as they showed their tickets to the man by the door to the theater and went in.

However…trying to follow them in wasn’t going to work. As soon as she reached the man, he cleared his throat and she ended up running into his outstretched arm. Sweatdropping, she looked up at him, and he was looking at her expectantly. “Ticket?”

And that was how Yutaka ended up sitting in the lobby, muttering and staring at the floor.

-

Inside the theater, a while into the movie, it was actually a pretty good pick. Tooru seemed interested enough in it. The problem with Tooru though, was that it was hard to tell if she was actually having an okay time, or still upset. They both seemed really similar, somehow. Miho noted that and looked back at the screen, not so sure what to do. Maybe she didn’t think this all the way through. Why was she even worrying about it? There wasn’t usually so much to worry about when spending a day just trying to cheer up a friend, and yet here she was the whole time stressing like she was on a date and didn’t know what to do. Wait why did that even register like that in my head? She felt a bit uncomfortable now. Great…

“Miho?” Tooru’s whisper caught her attention. Shaking her head a bit, she looked at the other girl, who was staring at her. “Feeling okay?”

“Y-yeah.” Miho could tell Tooru wasn’t convinced. “Well, um…Tooru, are you really having a good time?” She asked eventually in a hushed voice.

Tooru looked back at the screen for a second. Turning her head slightly back to Miho, she thought carefully about it before answering. “After the movie…we can talk during…I don’t know, lunch or something.” She suggested. Miho blinked. Well, it was at least something that she didn’t say she wanted to go straight home or anything. Nodding, that seemed to be a hint that neither wanted to continue this conversation, especially not in here during the movie.  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

A Kind of Care Part Two

“Candy?” The small boy sitting next to Yutaka asked. Yutaka glanced at him, then nodded, holding out her hand to let him place some of the candy he had in her hand. He’d been sitting there for a few minutes now.

Yutaka herself had been here for a couple hours now. She nearly drifted to sleep at one point, and that was when this kid appeared. It wasn’t all bad, considering at least he woke her up. She didn’t want to be asleep and have Miho and Tooru leave the theater to find her here. Then the series of hard questions would start, and probably end with Miho hurting her in some new creative way.

“So whatchya doin?” He asked curiously, his legs swinging above the ground casually.

“Um…waiting for some friends of mine.”

“They’re watching a movie?” Yutaka nodded. The boy seemed to catch on. “I saw you in here earlier. How long were you sitting here?” Yutaka sweatdropped before answering.

“N-not too long…two hours.” She mumbled the last part. The boy laughed. “Wow! Two hours? Why?”

“I don’t know…they wouldn’t let me in.”

“Why don’t ya get a ticket?” How many questions was this boy going to ask her anyway? Falling silent to the question, Yutaka just looked around while the boy was probably thinking up more questions to ask. “So why don’t you just go?”

“Because…I followed them here. I can’t really leave now.”

“Followed? You mean like stalking?” He asked, tilting his head. Yutaka flinched and shook her head. “N-No!”

He just seemed to laugh at her reaction. Of course, what was he, like, six? “Well, why are you following them?”

“I don’t know…” Yutaka murmured, looking at her lap, at her hands. She wasn’t really sure why she was persistently following them like this. To the point where she was willing to sit here for two hours just to wait for them to come back out. She felt a small tug on her sleeve. She looked at the boy, and then at the theater entrance she saw her friends go in through. People were coming out. Wait, that meant they would too! Quickly, Yutaka bolted to her feet, surprising the little boy to the point where he nearly fell over. Rushing out of the cinema, she quickly got out of immediate sight and waited. In a matter of a few minutes, Tooru and Miho both walked out into the sunlight, talking.

“Okay, so you said lunch? Do you have an idea where you want to go?” Miho asked Tooru.

“What about that café we were at last?” She couldn’t remember the name. But it was a pretty nice place. Probably nicer inside where they weren’t sitting in the ninety degree weather, too. They walked off, leaving Miho wondering why Tooru was the one to suggest they not go back home just yet.

Next to the street sign for the little shop, Tooru stopped suddenly. She held out her arm to stop Miho too. “What?” She asked. Tooru looked on, and sure enough, Run and Zaine were nearby, actually in the process of leaving the café. Luckily they didn’t seem to see Miho or Tooru. Chatting happily, they left the area, and Tooru seemed to be rooted to where she was standing, staring after them.

“Tooru.” Miho touched the girl’s shoulder to get her attention. Motioning they should move, Miho led Tooru into the café to find a place to sit. Tooru sat herself at a table near the edge of the room, sliding into a booth seat. Miho sat next to her, and just outside of the building, Yutaka peered through the café’s large window.

Tooru leaned back against the seat, peering at the table. It was hard to tell what she was thinking most of the time, but it was likely about Run and Zaine just now. “They…looked like they were having a nice time.” She said quietly. Miho frowned.

“Yeah.”

“Do you think that Run-chan…likes him?”

Miho blinked. What? How was she supposed to tell? Especially with Run’s usual behavior. “I don’t know. I don’t really know her that well, so I couldn’t say.” Tooru’s eyes narrowed a bit. She only looked more upset by that answer. Miho averted her eyes. She really didn’t know what to say now. It felt like her plan to cheer Tooru up was really backfiring.

Tooru sighed. “Gomen.” She suddenly said. Miho looked at her, confused. “Why?”

“You did all this to make me feel better, I’m not really helping much.”

“N-no…well, I don’t really know if it’s been working or not.”

“It has been. I just keep getting distracted I guess.”

Miho fidgeted for a second. “Tooru, maybe it isn’t my place to say anything, but…you can’t let what happens in Run’s social life upset you so badly.” Tooru stared at Miho. Well, no stopping there, right? “I know she’s your really close friend…and you seem to really like her. And it’s obvious, it’s more than just really like her.”

Tooru blushed faintly. Miho continued. “But, you know, if you give it time, you’ll get past it. Hopefully, move on. If Run-sempai likes you too, she’ll let you know someday. If not, well, it happens. But as long as she meets someone she’s happy with, isn’t that good?” Miho waited for some response. Tooru looked down a bit, and nodded. “I’m sorry if I’m being too blunt. But if you stew over it instead of move on, you might miss out on a lot of good opportunities for yourself too. I don’t want that to happen, and I know you don’t either.”

Tooru didn’t respond right away. Though she meant it, Miho sort of hoped she didn’t insult Tooru or anything. “I know.” Tooru said eventually. She shook her head lightly. “You’re right…I feel like I can’t help it though, getting upset over it. But, she should be happy. I guess I really shouldn’t be worried, if she does seem to enjoy his company.” Tooru admitted. Miho sighed, giving a faint smile. Well, it was impressive, considering how obvious it was Tooru did really like Run. But she could usually handle things with a cool head, one of the things Miho liked about Tooru. She could talk to her.

“Um, thanks though. For today.” Tooru said, nodding to her. Miho smiled a bit more. “No need. Like I said yesterday, I don’t think you shouldn’t be so unhappy.” She felt a little bit of elation knowing she could actually make Tooru feel better. “I’m just glad to know I helped…honestly, I’ve been nervous the whole time because I wasn’t really sure if this was worth any of your time.”

“You don’t seem like the type to feel nervous about things like that.” Tooru stated bluntly.

Miho chuckled nervously. “I know. I don’t suppose it helped much when this morning Yutaka wanted to call this a date.” Tooru raised an eyebrow at that statement. Miho shrugged in response. “Not that it is…but it kind of still bothers me for some reason.”

“I guess from her point of view, she would assume it’s one.”

“It…it doesn’t look like a date, does it?” Miho asked. Tooru sigh. “Maybe it’d be safer to drop the subject.” She suggested. Miho blushed faintly and nodded in agreement. “Although, she could be feeling jealous that you get the day with me.”

Miho glanced at Tooru. “Well, she made that obvious, actually.”

“From how she acts though…does she have some sort of…thing, for me?” Tooru asked cautiously. Miho blinked, thinking about it. Have a thing? Have a crush? “Oh, I don’t know. With Yutaka, it’s really hard telling. She sort of just…behaves that way towards everyone, almost.”

Tooru seemed satisfied with that answer. She rested her arms on the table and sighed. “Run-chan and her friends are the types to attract people all the time. I probably sound like a worried mother about Run-chan.” She said, rubbing the back of her head before tapping the table a couple times. Miho grinned. “Well, I’m sure you would attract people too. It just depends on who it is, I guess.”

Tooru frowned and blushed. “W-where’d that come from?” She muttered. Miho laughed lightly. “I was just saying. You’re not any less than them, no need to make it sound that way.” Miho explained as she placed her arm over the table too and moved her hand over Tooru’s. Tooru turned her head a bit. “I swear, you and Yutaka…you’re both ridiculous. In different ways.” She said, provoking a short chuckle from the long haired girl. Miho’s hand wrapped slightly around Tooru’s. Tooru stared at it for a second. “Miho, there’s nothing Yutaka, or you, are keeping from me?” She suddenly asked, looking at her. Miho seemed confused.

“Keeping from you?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t ask…but I don’t know, it feels strange. I guess it’s the sudden interest, or maybe that all of us live under the same roof for a while. You’re usually more together than you have been.” Tooru stated simply. Miho frowned a little bit and looked at the table. It was duly noted that she wouldn’t let go of Tooru’s hand.

Yutaka stared curiously from outside the window, glancing at their hands. It made her jumpy, knowing that they were awfully close, and it’d been…way more than three minutes. Somehow she restrained herself from jumping into the shop and shouting though.

“Miho?” Tooru wondered if maybe Miho lost herself in thought or something along those lines. She barely took note of the odd feeling in her stomach, like maybe she should get herself out of here before Miho responded. But instead of giving into that instinct, Tooru waited for an answer. The longer she waited, though, the more uneasy she felt about this.

“I guess I have been a little…unlike myself, huh? Sorry about that.” Miho said quietly. “Maybe you’re right. It could be this whole new ordeal. You know, spending the summer off with all of you. It’s a little, um, different. The distance wasn’t really a problem for me like it always is with Yutaka…it sort of gives me time to sort out my thoughts.”

“Sort out your thoughts? Just how much do you end up thinking about?”

Miho chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her head with her free hand. “More than I thought I guess. I’ve never really thought too much about it.” Tooru looked at her for a moment before looking around. She was thinking about her response. “Is being here with the rest of us stressing?”

Miho shook her head. “Oh, no. It’s really not.” She blushed. How could she really word it? It’s not that it was stressful. She was used to it honestly. “Miho.” The sound of her name brought her back to reality. Tooru sweatdropped and her hand inside of Miho’s hand twitched. “Um, are you going to let go?”

Miho looked thoughtful, but still didn’t look at Tooru’s face. “If you want honesty, I probably won’t.” She said. Tooru stared at her for a moment, slightly confused. “What…do you mean by that?” She asked carefully. What did she mean by that? It was a good question actually, but Miho just knew she didn’t want to let go just yet. There was still a nagging thought in the back of her head.

Tooru’s eyes widened to a small extent as soon as Miho moved. Miho leaned towards Tooru, and much to Tooru’s surprise, and probably the surprise of the reader as well, and not to mention Yutaka, Miho briefly kissed Tooru. Not on the cheek like yesterday, but on the lips. Her free hand rested on Tooru’s shoulder unconsciously as it was sinking in, just what she was doing. She was basically doing something that really couldn’t just be taken back, from here. Tooru wasn’t trying as hard as Miho thought she would to pull away, which was likely out of confusion than anything. More heat rushed to Miho’s blushing face as her nervous mind suggested that maybe it was a good idea to not it linger too long. She was making her statement pretty clear, right? So Miho stopped, pulling back a few inches and looking awkwardly at the confused girl’s baffled face.

And yet outside, Yutaka reacted without thinking first. Giving an alarming shout of surprise, she made several strangers around her jump. Immediately she gasped and ducked out of view as Miho jumped as well, turning her head at the glass. Yutaka took a nervous breath, almost being caught. But…Miporin…just kissed Toorun! She was truly baffled by that.

Miho sweatdropped. She could have sworn she heard someone shout. But…oh well. Turning back to Tooru as she gave the girl space again, she tried to ignore the heated blush on her face from what she had just done, even if it wasn’t anything big. Oh wait; it was something big. She couldn’t really tell what Tooru’s reaction was. “I-I’m sorry…” She found herself saying. She wanted Tooru to say something though. It was unnerving, just sitting here.

“Why…did you do that?” Tooru muttered, averting her eyes finally and looking to the side.

“Well, I…I like you Tooru. I know that you care about your friend, but you’ll worry yourself sick.”

“What does that have to do with what just happened?”

“I don’t know. I want to help, but this honestly has nothing to do with that. I just, like you, and I was hoping for a chance.” Miho finally forced out simply. She let go of Tooru’s hand for the shorter girl’s own comfort. Well, she was getting points for trying at least. “Just, to go out again. But it’s up to you.” She stopped talking and waited for a response.

Tooru looked out the window for a moment, remembering the path Zaine and Run were taking walking away from here, and frowned. Run-chan…she was slipping further and further from her view now, wasn’t she? Maybe she was in over her head, after all. She was aware of Miho still staring at her, up until her eyes seemed to wander during the awkward silence. Letting out what you could define as a sigh of defeat, Tooru tapped the table once like she was making a decision. “We’ll make a date then.” She answered. Miho blinked. Was that a yes? As if guessing the question about to be asked, Tooru looked at her and nodded. Miho smiled, relieved now that most of the awkward was gone.

And outside, Yutaka was still hiding, her head reeling to try and figure out all of the ways that what she saw completely broke every rule of the Tooru Fan Club…  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. Ritsu and Zaine are my property, and Regan and her ride belong to a friend.

After all is said and done, things are far from settling down back at the house. Just how much does Run enjoy Zaine’s company? Is Yutaka being more irritating than usual now that she knows about Miho and Tooru, and why? Just what is going on in the mind of the artist friend of Nagi? Let’s find out!

The Artist and Her Muse

“Eeeyaaaah!”

Nagi looked up. Ritsu stopped drawing on the tablet she had hooked up to her laptop at the sound of the scared scream that broke right through the wall of the bedroom. Sounded like Yuuko, of course.

“Tooru’s at it again.” Nagi said with a slight smirk. Ritsu laughed quietly and went back to her drawing. “Your friends sure are interesting you know.”

“Oh yeah.”

Ritsu sighed, looking around. Hm? She stood up and walked over to the small desk by the wall. Sifting through the belongings there, she noticed something. Something was missing. “Now wait a second…” She muttered under her breath as she looked around the desk. Nope. She didn’t lose it did she? She sighed inwardly, already feeling a sense of horror in her gut from not having it in sight. The sound of someone clearing their throat made her remember there was another person in the room. Stopping, she turned around to see Nagi holding something up in her hand. Her mp3 player. “Looking for this?” Nagi asked, smirking. Ritsu groaned a bit, walking over to the side of Nagi’s bed and reaching for it, only to have the girl pull it just out of reach.

“Seriously? Give it back, Nagi!” Ritsu pleaded. Ritsu had a rather odd attachment to her music, and it was easy to mess with her. All you had to do would be to hide or take her mp3 player. Ritsu climbed onto the bed as Nagi moved away from her, enjoying this way too much for Ritsu’s liking. “Now you’re just being obnoxious.” Ritsu said, grabbing Nagi’s shoulder and stretching out her other arm towards the hand that held the device. In some vain attempt at still trying to evade Ritsu’s grasp, Nagi moved too far back and lost her balance on the edge of the bed. Ritsu still had a grip on her shoulder. So as a result, Nagi shouted briefly as she fell off the edge, taking Ritsu down with her in a clumsy collision with the floor. Nagi grimaced, groaning a little bit as Ritsu slowly recovered her senses. The only problem was that the first thing she realized when recovering was that she was in some confusing tangle of limbs with Nagi, her weight on top of the girl. Face instantly changing about three shades of red, Ritsu quickly pulled herself from the human tangle, snatching her mp3 player and pushing her body quickly off the floor so she was standing again. Nagi pushed herself into a sitting position, rubbing the back of her head. “Ah…well that was fun.” She said sarcastically.

Ritsu huffed. “You’re the one who started it. What kind of sick enjoyment do you get out of taking my stuff?” Nagi looked up at her and then smirked, laughing quietly.

“I guess you’re right. Sorry. But it’s kind of amusing to see you so confused and all over the place.”

Ritsu’s blush still hadn’t entirely faded, but at least now she could just say it was out of embarrassment, and had nothing to do with that fall.

-

“W-what’s going on?” Run’s sleepy voice drifted into the living room from where she was, coming down the stairs. It really should have been obvious. Yuuko was standing in front of the couch, still looking scattered, and looking at the smaller Tooru who was behind the couch. Tooru turned her head to Run, lifting a hand. “Morning Run-chan.”

“D-don’t just pretend like that didn’t just happen!” Yuuko’s frightened voice shouted. Run looked…well, very lost as she looked from Yuuko, to Tooru.

“Tooru-chan was just poking fun at Yuuko. Again.” Regan explained from in the kitchen. She seemed to be helping Miho cook a breakfast for everyone, handling cooking potatoes while Miho made eggs.

Yuuko sighed exhaustedly, and fell back onto the couch, rubbing her hand over her face once over as Tooru for the time being ignored her and followed Run into the kitchen. Regan looked at Run, and then smirked. “Morning. So hey, you’ve been spending a lot of time with that Zaine guy the past few days. He sure seems to like you.”

Run looked at Regan with her usual blank and lost expression. “Huh? Well…he shows me things around town and we just talk sometimes.”

“Hm. Do you actually like him?” Regan prodded her questions. Run looked at her for a minute. Miho and Tooru did too, Miho briefly noting the oddly solemn expression on Tooru’s face.

“Oh? Well, I don’t know…maybe.” Run answered, not really sure how to answer, if she even knew what she was actually being asked. It was hard telling when it came to the ditzy space cadet. For now, Regan just shrugged and dropped it, getting the gist that she wouldn’t be able to get much else out of her other than that.

Miho went back to focusing on the scrambled eggs in the pan, not looking at Tooru.

“Heeey!” A cheery familiar voice broke the ice almost instantly as a hand landed on Miho’s shoulder, and Tooru’s shoulder. Yutaka appeared between them, pulling them slightly into a buddy hug. “Morning!”

Tooru’s immediate reaction was just a grimace as she wriggled out of Yutaka’s grasp. Miho just sighed. “I’m trying to cook, Yutaka.” She said casually. Yutaka let her go. “Whoops, sorry!” She rubbed the back of her head and then turned to look at Run. She grinned. “Oh, so Run-sempai likes that boy?”

Tooru flinched.

“Well…I don’t really know. He is nice.” Run answered unclearly.

“Heh, sempai has a boyfriend~” Yutaka teased lightly. Miho frowned, noticing the expression on Tooru’s face before looking back at her orange haired friend. What is she trying to do, being so obvious about it like that in front of Tooru? Maybe she should have been more concerned about the fact that her own girlfriend of a few days was still getting clearly upset over Run’s new budding closeness with Zaine, but she wasn’t. She knew about it prior to any of this, despite Tooru’s blatant denial of anything.

“Yutaka, why not go wait in the living room? Or, better yet, help set a table?” Miho suggested, hiding her desire for Yutaka to just stop underneath her friendly suggestion. Hesitantly, Yutaka nodded, leaving the kitchen to go set the table. Apparently Ritsu and Nagi had come down and were setting it as well, so Ritsu gladly handed her the plates to set down. “Hey Yutaka.” She greeted.

Nagi looked towards the kitchen. “Everyone sure is making a big fuss out of the Run and Zaine situation.” She commented, before looking away. Ritsu nodded. “You’re right. I know, let’s break the mold. Yutaka, how’re Tooru and Miho doing?”

Nagi looked at Ritsu, and then at Yutaka. “Oh. You know, I nearly forgot about that. I guess I’m still a little bit surprised at the whole thing.”

Yutaka felt their eyes on her. Setting a plate down, she thought about her answer semi-carefully. “They’re just fine. Miporin and Toorun make a nice couple.”

Ritsu seemed to contemplate her next question before speaking up. “What about you? Must be weird, that your friends are dating.”

“Hm? I guess…”

“Well, is it all right with you at all?”

“No…” Yutaka murmured as she set the rest of the plates. Ritsu and Nagi exchanged glances, and it took Yutaka a moment to realize the response she had given without giving a second thought. She shook her head. “I…Yutaka doesn’t really know.” She admitted, now feeling uncomfortable.

“Is it about Tooru? You know, maybe you’re upset that your friend is dating her now?”

Yutaka frowned, unable to answer. Was she? She felt confused now. She noticed their eyes still focused on her, and a hint of red appeared over her face. “U-um, Yutaka should really go ask Miporin if she needs anymore help.” She quickly responded, using the fake excuse to escape the dining room for the moment and head back into the kitchen. Tooru and Run were in the living room now, and Regan was finishing up preparing to serve the food. Miho turned, back against the counter as she looked at Yutaka. “I need to talk to you later, all right?” That look on her face meant that Yutaka wasn’t allowed to say no, so she nodded. She had a really bad feeling about today, all of the sudden.

-

“I feel bad for putting her in the spotlight so suddenly like that this morning.” Ritsu commented, back in the bedroom she shared with her closest friend. Nagi answered casually without bringing her attention off the book she was laying on her bed, reading. “Yutaka-chan?”

“Yeah.” Ritsu’s pencil made its swift movements and strokes over the paper of the sketchpad in her lap as she made finishing touches on her sketch she’d been working on for a bit. Nagi kept her eyes on the book. “You mean for accidentally opening up a whole new can of worms?”

“I didn’t think I’d actually discover some sort of issue like that!” Ritsu exclaimed, before sighing. Nagi chuckled lightly, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not going to help at all if you stress yourself out over every little thing you think you’re doing wrong here.”

Ritsu finished her picture, not replying to that. Nagi finally looked from her book, at Ritsu’s pencil for a while, before asking. “What are you drawing anyway?”

Ritsu picked her sketchpad up, turning it around and holding it up so Nagi could see the really good sketch of herself, reading her book where she laid. She raised a brow. “Nice. But stop drawing me all the time. I doubt you’re getting any better using the same subject over and over again.”

“But you’re fun to draw.” Ritsu grinned, making Nagi roll her eyes.

“I’m sure you can find more interesting things to draw than me.”

Ritsu smirked. She wasn’t saying out loud how there really wasn’t. To Ritsu, anyways. Nagi was kind of a special inspiration to her. That thought lingered in Ritsu’s mind for a moment before she wrote something down at the top of the sketch, and then folded the sketchpad closed.

“So, how come I can’t see the finished product of any of your drawings of me?” Nagi suddenly asked.

“Wha?”

“The writing. You write things on them. How come I can’t see that?”

“It’s no big deal…just a little project I’m doing, that’s all. If I ever finish it, then I’ll let you see the whole thing.”

“You know, if this so called project involves only drawings of me, and things you won’t let me see right now, then that just makes me really suspicious that you’re up to something strange.”

Ritsu laughed at that, picking up the odd abstract ‘squirrel’ that Run had once sewn for Nagi as a gift, and chucking it at her head. “Shut up. You’re just gonna have to be patient.”

-

Miho walked into her bedroom and shut the door behind her, leaning against it. Yutaka was the one who turned to see her upon hearing the sound of the door. “Yutaka.”

Yutaka already seemed a little worried. “We still need to talk about what happened this morning.”

“What about this morning?”

Miho frowned. “In the kitchen. We both know Tooru isn’t really okay with hearing about Zaine and Run. Yet, there you were, playing with the whole thing right in front of Tooru like you were putting on a show.”

“Yutaka was just playing around…”

“No, you weren’t. I know you well enough to realize that you actually know your boundaries. So what was the big idea?” Miho demanded an explanation, which Yutaka honestly didn’t know if she could give. “So what do you have to say for yourself?”

Yutaka averted her eyes and looked at the floor. “G-gomen…I don’t know why I said that.” Yutaka said quietly, the tone she often took when in trouble with Miho. Miho sighed and scratched her head.

“You upset Tooru. She won’t admit it, but we both know you did. I don’t need you to apologize, but she does.” Miho said, her voice now a bit softer as she let her irritation fade from it. No need to upset them both any further than they probably already felt. “That was pretty immature, what you did. I’m used to you, you know that, but that was too far.”

Yutaka nodded. “I know. I…won’t do it again.” She assured, nodding. Well, no, she wouldn’t. But she didn’t know for sure what else she would end up doing on this little vacation. She was already surprising herself, being caught in all these uncomfortable situations, and for her, as well as the others, it wasn’t quite over yet.  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. All non-canon characters are property of me, except Regan Hiyruu.

Summer festivals are always fun, we all know that! So the girls bring Zaine along and they all attend the festival in town.

A Festival Of Surprises

“I-I—no way!”

“Come on, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“No. End of discussion!”

Run looked from Ritsu and Nagi with a blank expression on her face, then to Yuuko. The expression never faltered, either. “What are they shouting about?”

Yuuko chuckled. “The festival. Nagi suggested Ritsu wear a Yukata. Naturally, this started.”

Ritsu blushed, intent on the answer no. She hated wearing things like dresses and barely wore skirts. The idea of dressing in Yukata felt just as embarrassing. Nagi smirked, tilting her head, hands in her pockets. “Aw, come on. I’m kind of curious, so I wanted to know what you would look like in one.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Then you’ll have to wear a dress instead, someday.”

“I won’t do -that- either!” Ritsu insisted, in a still loud voice. Nagi stuck a pinky in her ear pretending to be bothered by the volume, before laughing a bit.

“Fine, fine. It was just a suggestion, no need to keep shouting.”

Today they were getting ready for a festival in town. Osaka was having one of their summer festivities, in the evening, so it was something for the girls to participate in. Zaine was going too, in fact, he was the one who told them about the event. But Tooru didn’t say anything about it. In fact, Yutaka and Miho were careful not to mention it. Instead, they all really spent the day pretty calmly so far, getting ready for the events in the evening. To avoid actually spending too much time going out to buy them or find any in the first place, the group decided not to dress up, but of course you were going to run into the fact that people like Ritsu barely wore things like Yukata anyway, which then made friends want to see such a thing.

Yuuko knocked on the bedroom door. Countdown three hours until the festival, she was dropping by Ritsu’s room while she still knew Nagi wasn’t in there. “Um, come in?”

The door swung open, revealing the black haired sibling, who merely smiled at Ritsu and held something behind her back. It looked like some box or something. Ritsu tried to get a look at it, but Yuuko could tell that’s what she was trying to do, so she shut the door and just showed Ritsu the gift box. “Here.”

Ritsu sweatdropped, staring at Yuuko with a frown. “Here? You’re gonna have to give me more to go on than that.” She muttered as she took the box and hesitantly opened it. She somehow knew she had a reason to feel a sense of dread. Sure enough, what she unfolded out of the box, was…a navy blue yukata. Ritsu blushed, and then lowered it, shooting Yuuko a surprised and harsh glare. “So what message are you trying to give me in giving me this?”

Yuuko held her hands behind her back and grinned. “Nothing, really. But, you could always surprise us with it later.”

“I don’t do surprises.” That was a lie, but in this case, there was just no way. Yuuko sighed, and then added something that piqued Ritsu’s interest. “I meant you could surprise Nagi.”

Ritsu stared at her silently for a moment. Was she at a loss for words then? It looked like Yuuko won this little argument. With a blush showing on her face, Ritsu suddenly picked up the box, and the next thing Yuuko knew, it was hitting her in the face when Ritsu tossed it at her. “You made your point, now get out.” She whined.

-

The older girls were leaving for the festival first, except Ritsu. She was…taking longer to get ready than the others, so Miho, Yutaka, and Tooru had decided they’d just wait up for her.

“We’re going to meet Zaine on the way there. See you in a few minutes then?” Nagi asked Miho, unsure herself of why Ritsu was hesitating to speed it up a bit so she could tag along with Run and everyone else. Ah well, no use in just waiting around since Ritsu already said it was fine if they went on ahead.

“Yeah, we’ll see you there.” Miho replied. The four older girls left, waving a temporary goodbye as they walked off. Miho turned around and looked around. Yutaka and Tooru were actually already ready to go.

“Hey, are they gone?” They turned to a voice coming from upstairs.

“Well…yes?” Miho said as she looked up the stairs like maybe she’d find someone standing there. It was then, there were a few hesitant steps heard from down the second floor hallway. There’s that small feeling someone gets when they’re waiting on something they just had a gut instinct had a reason to hold off its entrance. Like maybe something was different, or changed a bit, or just wanted to surprise. Surprise is what Ritsu did. She stood at the top of the stairs, a red tint of an uncomfortable blush across her face. She wasn’t in casual clothes, but like how Yuuko had left earlier, wore the navy blue yukata she’d been given earlier. If there was ever a time when she looked more awkward standing there, it couldn’t have been nearly this bad, but she was clearly not used to dressing that way.

Tooru blinked, as surprised as Yutaka and Miho. “Ritsu, what…are you wearing?”

Ritsu grimaced, fidgeting with her clothes uncomfortably as she looked at the ground. “Y-Yuuko gave it to me earlier to wear if I wanted to.”

“…I don’t suppose this has anything to do with Nagi?” Tooru suggested, making the other two girls turn their heads and stare at her. Ritsu blushed more, and waved it off with a nervous frown.

“H-hey now…” She muttered as she put her hand on the stairway railing and headed down the stairs to them. “Damn thing…I wasn’t really sure how to put it on properly for a while, that’s why I was taking so long.” She explained. Tooru smirked and shook her head. Though Miho spoke what was on the shorter girl’s mind.

“Oh don’t worry. At least Nagi-senpai will be really surprised.” Miho said with a small giggle. Ritsu pushed her glasses up and tried to hide her discomfort behind her hand without any success. “C-can we just go please? Let’s get this over with.” She said quietly. Decently amused, the group agreed and headed out some long distance behind the first group.

-

There was something fun and whimsical about these decently sized evening festivals. There were games to play here and there for prizes, traditions, and people to mingle with. Fireworks later, but until then, everything else could keep people well occupied just as well.

For a while, for obvious reasons, Ritsu actually completely avoided being seen by Nagi. Okay, she was a pretty together person for the most part, but when it came to these things, she was just too nervous to approach Nagi so casually wearing such an unfamiliar outfit. The only thing that remotely calmed her nerves was her usual accessory to her appearance, the ear buds stuck in her ear, attached to the iBod clipped to her yukata. It was actually on, but her music played quiet enough for her to hear it, yet catch someone trying to get her attention also.

“Darn it!” Ritsu stopped like she had just stepped on an electrical wire. She stepped back, sinking into the crowd a bit more as she peeked at the nearby brown haired girl sitting at…where else but the candy carving booth. Nagi sighed and stood up, brushing herself off. “Forget it…sheesh, is Kami determined to always stop me from being able to finish just one drinking gourd design successfully?” Nagi complained as she nodded thanks to the man running the booth and hurried off to catch up to Run, Yuuko, and Regan. Ritsu slipped out of the crowd and watched her leave.

“Hey there, young lady. You wanna spend some time trying it?” The man said to Ritsu, catching her fixated attention. Ritsu fumbled for a moment, and then thought about it. Well…

“S-sure.”

-

“Hm?” Tooru stopped and turned her head to see and hear Yutaka. She was kneeling over by the Goldfish Scooping game. It was a common sight, seeing Yutaka pretty much never succeed at it. Whether her net tore, or even the one time she caught one, but it scared all three of the girls by suddenly flailing out of the net and at Yutaka’s face. Luckily it landed right back in the water, but that wasn’t exactly the most fun experience you could have with a goldfish.

Yutaka stopped and looked at Tooru as she walked over. “Toorun!” She seemed to brighten up, not surprising Tooru, at the sight of the short black haired girl. Tooru sweatdropped, seeing the failure just sort of seeping from this area.

“Where’s Miho?” She asked. Yutaka scratched the back of her head.

“She went to find a bathroom and said she’d be back. She was wondering where you were too.”

“Sorry…I sort of got separated, so I just wandered.” Tooru explained, shrugging. She watched as Yutaka gave the game another attempt. How many times had she tried so far? Yutaka tried to focus, only to seem dismayed again, once her net broke. Again. Tooru sighed inwardly. She expected she’d have to be the one to help Yutaka, for once. You could only watch her fail so many times before you just had to help a little bit out of pity.

“Okay, wait a second.” Tooru said, stopping Yutaka before the girl could attempt it again. Tooru knelt next to her. “You’re too impatient, let me show you.” Yutaka nodded and watched as Tooru reached over and took her right wrist, helping her slowly guide the net through the water, careful not to tear the delicate fabric of the net like before. Yutaka let out a small gasp of surprise as she managed to successfully get one out of the water. The man walked over and took her net and went to help her goldfish into a bag of water for her to take with her.

“Thanks Toorun!” Yutaka giggled as she was given her goldfish to keep, delighted to have a little live souvenir to take with her. Tooru shook her head. “It’s no problem. Just…try to remember for the next time.”

They wandered a small distance from the booth to wait for Miho to come back. It was a little…awkward, the silence that fell between them. Yutaka still had to do something too…she looked at the swimming fish for a minute, actually trying to figure out how to even bring it up. When all else fails, just say it, right?

“Toorun, um…I’m sorry.”

Tooru looked over at her, quiet. She really didn’t know what the apology was for. Yutaka tried to mull it over for a few seconds more. “Um, I mean, for the other day. When Yutaka said those things about Run and Zaine-san.” Tooru thought about it for a second, then looked at the ground. There it was, now she remembered.

“It’s all right…you didn’t mean to cause anything.” Tooru said, understanding as always. The problem was, Yutaka wasn’t really sure if…she meant to or not. She wasn’t going to say that out loud. “I have a question though. We…don’t usually get a lot of chances to talk. Well, not without extra company anyway. Or without me trying to escape from you.” Yutaka laughed a little bit. True. Tooru continued.

“You’ve been acting strange since Miho and I started dating.” Tooru said. Yutaka glanced at her. “I’m kind of trying to figure out why. Maybe it’s none of my business though.”

“No, Toorun’s right…Yutaka’s been acting different. But she doesn’t really know why.” Yutaka said, slipping into her usual third person.

“Er, Yutaka, do you like me? I mean, in any other way than you usually show?”

Yutaka glanced at Tooru, a little bit surprised at the question. Huh? A blush was barely visible as she thought about it. Honestly, there was one thing she felt sure about, or at least sure enough to give an answer. “I…like Toorun, but…as a really good friend.” She said, turning her eyes to the side to watch Tooru.

“I see.” It was hard to tell if Tooru believed her or not from the short and toneless answer. But Tooru could at least tell that Yutaka was confused about the response. “I believe you. But it doesn’t really clear the other questions.” Tooru said quietly, looking forward at the people passing by. “You don’t really know what’s going on?”

Yutaka shook her head. “No…” She really didn’t. Or, well, she had a faint idea, but it was tucked in the back of her mind. Kind of an absent thought she wasn’t paying any attention to, for certain reasons. It was too iffy, she didn’t want to linger on the thought. She didn’t want to tell Tooru either.

“I won’t tell Miho we had this talk. But I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear things are all right now.” Tooru said, looking on as she could spot the long black hair and face of their friend. Yutaka nodded in agreement.

-

The fireworks were probably the shortest, yet most exciting part of these night festivals. As to not repeat last mistakes, at least the group of vacationists managed to make it to a good sight-seeing spot at a railed bluff to see the fireworks once they started. The question still lingered in Nagi’s head. Where the hell was Ritsu? She hadn’t seen her once, since they left the house.

“Um, Nagi.” Speak of the devil. Nagi turned around to the familiar voice. Granted, the person she saw surprised her. It was obviously Ritsu, earbuds in her ears and glasses and everything. Standing there, dressed in what was a navy blue yukata, holding something in her hands. Nagi blinked, staring. Well, yeah, that made Ritsu feel better. Stand there and just stare, why don’t ya. Ritsu gave her an awkward look as she held the Ziploc bag out to her. “Here.” She said. Nagi looked at the bag for a moment, then took it, turning it flat, whatever was in it, to see what it was. It was a carved candy. A drinking gourd?

“I…know it’s not much but…you seemed pretty irked over never getting it right.” She said, rubbing the back of her head. Nagi stared at the bag for a moment, and then looked up at Ritsu. By then Ritsu was looking at the ground, fidgeting with her sleeves.

Nagi grinned just a little bit. “Arigatou, Ritsu. I like it.” She finally said. Ritsu raised her eyes back to Nagi’s face, lucky that her blush was hard to notice in the darker area of the bluff. The bigger amount of attention Nagi seemed to have on Ritsu really wasn’t lessening her nervousness, but she did manage a small grin. She let her eyes flicker off to the right. Somewhere down the railed edge, Yuuko turned her head to spot the two standing there, and shot Ritsu a smile before turning her head back to the scenery before her. Ah ha…damn her.

“Well, this explains why it took you so long to get ready to leave.” Nagi said, getting Ritsu’s attention once again. She chuckled as she slipped her hands-and the bag as well-into her own pockets.

“Yeah well…” Ritsu rubbed the back of her head and sighed. “I feel sort of ridiculous.”

“I don’t think so actually. It’s a nice difference.” Nagi claimed, giving a small nod.

“R-really? You’re not just messing with me?” Ritsu raised a curious brow.

“Yeah I’m serious. You look cute.” The girl assured her. Oh, well, that just about did Ritsu in. She might feel more awkward now than she did mere moments ago. Or rather, just really nervous.

“G-gosh, you don’t have to get all mushy about it.” Ritsu muttered.

Nagi laughed a little bit. “C’mon, the fireworks are gonna start soon.” She said, removing her hands from her pockets. Ritsu really hoped Nagi in no way could actually feel the faint heat that might have been coming off her face as Nagi reached to her ear buds and tugged them out. She unplugged them from the actual iBod and after carefully wrapping them, tucked them into her pocket. “You’ll get those back afterwards, I swear.” She reached out and grabbed Ritsu’s hand, small tugs encouraging the bewildered girl to follow her to the edge of the bluff with all the others. They’d all made it up here in time to see the anticipated light show. The faint words of an announcement could be heard in the crowds below, before there was what you could imagine as a warning firework went off first. Then it was swiftly followed by a series of exploding fireworks in the dark sky, different colors lighting up the dark bluff as the patterned pyrotechnics whirred into the sky. Ritsu stared up, astounded by the lights and sounds. These things really impressed Ritsu. Sort of sparked her creative mind, she could say. Sights this was like Nagi was to her, a kind of inspiration. She glanced at Nagi, who was busy staring up at the sky in amazement. She felt a genuine smile spread over her face, seeing Nagi so lit up like that over the show. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to tell Nagi what she wanted to tell her before they went back home, but if she didn’t, she’d be missing the big chances she has to take such a huge risk…

Nearby, Tooru watched the fireworks, Miho next to her and Yutaka next to Miho. On her other side, Run was standing with Zaine by her other side. She really could be enjoying this more than she was right now, but she wasn’t. She glanced over at Run and Zaine, where she could see Zaine looking more interested in gazing at Run’s distracted and amazed face than at the sky. Tooru felt her stomach tighten a little bit as she shifted her stare back at the sky, mind distracted. She was trying not to let it show, but it was plain as day on her frowning face. As much as she tried not to let these things bother her, it did. Miho did a slight double-take when she looked at Tooru, when in the green glow of the next fireworks, she could see the unhappy girl. Yutaka was looking too. When Miho noticed, they exchanged concerned glances for a second, but neither would call Tooru out. That wouldn’t help right now.

Yuuko and Regan were the only two who weren’t plagued by stressful company, and happened to be pretty much the two bystanders who noticed it all.

“Wow…your friends have a lot more issues than I gave them credit for.” Regan said, watching. Yuuko frowned a little bit.

“I never really noticed myself…I wonder how this trip’s going to work out.”

“Don’t sound too worried. Things are pretty strange right now, but I’m sure things’ll get figured out. Yeah?” Regan said, trying to comfort the worried black haired girl. Yuuko seemed uncertain for a second, but then nodded.

She hoped, anyway.  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Arigatou Gozaimasu : A-Channel

A-Channel and all of its characters are property only of bb Kuroda. All non-canon characters are property of me, except Regan Hiyruu.

It’s been a couple days since the festival and things have been calm. Until…now?

Jealousy In, Secrets Out

Whoever coined the term “the calm before the storm” really knew what they were talking about. Things have been calm around the vacation home for a while now. Routinely, things didn’t look like they changed much when you only just watch. If you look a bit deeper, you can see it.

Tooru avoided Zaine when he dropped by, and didn’t seem to speak to Run as openly as she usually did. Yutaka still didn’t say any more about what was going through that oddly energetic head of hers, which caused both Tooru and Miho to only wonder. Ritsu couldn’t find the spine to tell Nagi everything about how she felt, and who knew how Yuuko was dealing with being in the same house every day as the brown haired motorcyclist who insisted on coming onto her more often than Tooru poked fun at her.

“Tooru?” Miho gave the open bedroom door a knock before stepping into the girl’s room. Tooru looked out the window, watching something with some intensity. Miho strolled over, peeking out the window as well, to see Zaine, pointing at something in the distance and speaking casually to Run about something. They seemed to spend a lot of time together since meeting. It wasn’t that much of a mystery why Tooru was upset about that knowledge. “Tooru…you’re just going to sit here and stare out the window at them?” Miho said in a sigh, placing a hand on the shorter girl’s shoulder. Tooru narrowed her eyes some and averted her eyes towards the floor.

“Sorry…”

“Tooru, you want to talk about this?”

“Not really.”

Again with refusing to talk about it. What was with everyone here and not talking? “I do. Tooru, why don’t you just go to Run and tell her what’s bothering you?”

Tooru shook her head without much hesitation. “No, I…don’t want to do that.” She answered like she’d thought of doing it before. Probably. Miho frowned, removing her hand and placing it on her own hip. She was taking on that same posture she did when dealing with Yutaka’s behavior.

“You know, I tried to let you off with just that before. You and Yutaka both…I swear, you two are as stubborn as mules. With no offense towards Yutaka or you, I never thought I’d actually ever have to compare you two.” She shook her head a little bit.

“I was fine with brushing this off at first, since I sort of expected it, but…that was clearly a mistake. I didn’t think it would really eat at you this much.” She said. Tooru wasn’t responding. It all felt like some repeat of the talk that they had in the café before. Actually, it was going to be just like that. Just…it would be ending on a different note than before. Miho approached Tooru a bit, placing her hand on the top of her head and kissing her forehead briefly. Now she had Tooru’s attention, even if it was out of confusion. “As much as I try to think before I act, I probably shouldn’t have started something I knew I couldn’t make last longer.” Miho said quietly, smiling a little bit to Tooru, hand still on the girl’s head.

“What is it, Miho?” Tooru said, finally speaking.

“Run’s really the only person who can get through that wall of yours, isn’t she? Some people are just more open to certain friends. I can help all I want, but you need to talk to Run. You and she need to fix this, not me and you.”

Was she doing what Tooru thought she was doing? Tooru blinked, staring at her. “Are you…?”

Miho nodded. “I might have to stick with being Yutaka’s rock. It’s never really come up before, but when it comes to certain things, you’re a lot more firm on your feet than she is.”

“That almost sounds like an insult to Yutaka.” Tooru said, glancing at the empty doorway. Miho chuckled, removing her hand from Tooru’s head and rubbing the back of her own.

“N-no, I’m not trying to make it sound that way. But, you get what I’m trying to say.”

Tooru nodded quietly. Miho glanced at the window, then back at Tooru. “Are we okay?”

After a moment’s silence, Tooru met her stare, and then nodded. They just broke up, didn’t they? The knowledge sort of hung there, but it really wasn’t so bad. Miho…made a good point. Tooru never really liked her that way, yet went along with her anyway. She was using Miho like some sort of crutch to forget about Run possibly leaving her, and worse off, Zaine’s recent appearance in their lives. It didn’t sound terribly fair to Miho, now that Tooru really thought about it.

“I should go. I sort of left Yutaka waiting in the living room.” Tooru nodded and Miho turned to head out of the room. Tooru’s red eyes wandered back to the outdoor scenery, down at where Zaine and Run were. She had to fix this, didn’t she? Miho said so, even. Run-chan…

-

It’s weird to watch television upside down. Yutaka was indeed upside down on the couch, back to the seat cushion and legs up towards the top of the couch. Somehow Yutaka found herself this way while waiting on Miho to come back. She said something about going upstairs to take care of something. Probably to talk to Toorun, if Yutaka had to guess. She didn’t really mind, did she? Mew, Yutaka minds, maybe a little bit…would Miporin really want to know though? Yeah she would…Yutaka found herself not really wanting to admit anything though. It wasn’t so much telling Miho what was bothering her about everything going on lately, but how Miho would take it.

“Hey, I’m back. Sorry about that.” Miho’s voice chimed in, interrupting the flow of Yutaka’s rather…scattered thoughts. Yutaka struggled as she attempted to sit back upright, falling over across the couch and pushing herself up again, shaking her head a little bit to get the hair out of her face. Miho sighed a little bit, taking a seat next to Yutaka.

“How’s Toorun?” Yutaka asked. Miho gave her a confused look. She probably didn’t expect Yutaka to realize she’d been talking to Tooru. But then again, she was gone for a while longer than she intended.

“Ah, well…we just talked about some things that were bothering her. I can at least hope she’ll take what I said to heart.” Miho said, thinking about it. She leaned back against the couch. Should she add the last detail to it? “We broke up.” The words finally came out, short and to the point yet said carefully.

“W-what?” Yutaka said. How was she supposed to react to that? Miho shook her head. “It’s fine though. It was for the best. The one she needs to talk to isn’t me, I know that.”

Yutaka kept quiet for a second. She wasn’t really sure what to say about it. She could settle for cheering Miho up. She was never one to like seeing her friends upset or sad. “Miporin’s still got Yutaka!” She said, grinning.

“Oh, well that’s encouraging.” Miho said sarcastically. But the slight smirk on her face appeared, and Yutaka knew that Miho was just kidding. Yutaka snickered, brushing the comment off. “So, Miporin’s okay then?” She asked, actually curious. Miho smiled, nodding. “Actually, yeah.” Yutaka looked satisfied by the simple answer, letting it go with a firm nod and grin on her face. It wasn’t hard to tell there was another problem that wasn’t being addressed here. But the problem remained, neither of them knew how to approach it carefully enough as to not startle the other or end up bringing touchy subjects up. Another failed attempt at uncovering what the main issue was. That didn’t mean Miho was giving up though. She told Tooru there was only so much she could do for her, but she knew she could at least accomplish more with her orange haired familiar friend.

-

Nagi wandered by the back door, stopping a moment when she peeked outside the partly open door. Pulling the door open some, Nagi stepped outside where Yuuko was. Her hands slipped into her pockets as she stopped next to the black haired companion, looking over at what she was looking at. Regan was standing a small distance away, her body slowly moving through the air as she seemed to be doing exercises of some sort. “What is she doing?” Nagi asked, getting Yuuko’s attention.

“Oh. Um, I think she says Tai Chi? It’s a regular practice she does one or two times a day. She says it helps keep her focused and well.” Yuuko explained, looking back at Regan. Regan’s eyes flickered over to the two girls, and she seemed to smirk, giving Yuuko a wink before going back to full concentration mode. Yuuko blushed, clearing her throat some. Nagi laughed quietly. “She’s got it bad for you more than most of the boys in our school.”

“Nagi!” Yuuko whined a complaint behind her exclamation, blushing. Nagi laughed again, waving it off with a hand she removed from her pocket, before putting it back. “But hey, at least she seems nice. I still don’t think I know her that well yet, but she means well. She’s really forward though.” Nagi smirked. She gave Yuuko a sagely nod. “I give you two my blessing.” She joked. Yuuko gave her a light shove, once again whining a complaint. Eventually Nagi said her two cents and joked about the two, and fell quiet as she watched the brown haired girl’s Tai Chi. Yuuko glanced at Nagi, a thought occurring to her. Ritsu, she hadn’t really said anything to Yuuko since the festival. Then again, Ritsu didn’t like talking about things like that with anyone, really. She was more introvert than she let on, and shy. Yuuko couldn’t say much, she was the same way. It was a trait that the sisters apparently shared, she supposed. “Nagi, has Ritsu said much to you since the other night?” Yuuko asked suddenly. Nagi adjusted her glasses and looked over at Yuuko. “Hm? Well…about the same as she usually does. You know…draws most of the time, has a few conversations here and there. Why are you asking?” Nagi raised a brow. Yuuko thought about it for a moment, and then shook her head. “N-never mind…”

Nagi shrugged and dropped it. Well, the conversation might not have been over yet. Yuuko only remained silent for maybe a minute before she awkwardly spoke up again. “You two seemed to enjoy the festival.”

“Well, yeah. We did.” Nagi was giving painfully simple answers. How did a person work with those?

“It’s kind of a funny thought, that she might have spent a lot of the time missing from our group probably working on trying to get that drinking gourd carved out for you.” Yuuko said with a small smile. Nagi blinked, and then she nodded with a smirk. “Aha, yeah, you’ve got a point. But hey, she did it.”

Yuuko nodded. “Um…has she told you what she’s been working on yet? Her unfinished sketches?”

“Nope. She says I’m not allowed to know until she knows it’s ready. Why, do you know?”

“Actually, I don’t. I suppose when she’s got a surprise, she knows how to keep it that way.” Yuuko said, thinking about it. She really didn’t know what Ritsu was working on. There were a few possibilities about the theme of it or something remotely related, but she couldn’t begin to guess what Ritsu had been adding to those pictures. “Why don’t you ask her?”

“What makes you think she’d suddenly decide to let me see them?” Nagi mused, looking at Yuuko expectantly for her response. Yuuko giggled a little bit. “Well, Ritsu, she gets sort of forgetful or distracted.”

“You mean like you do sometimes?”

“Th-that’s not the point! A-anyway…well, maybe she wants to show you now. But sometimes she needs to be reminded. That’s all.” Yuuko shrugged. Nagi stared at her for a moment, like she wasn’t really sure what Yuuko was trying to say, if she was even trying to imply something. Sounded like she was. Eventually, she sighed, adjusting her glasses again. “I guess that makes sense. I’ll ask her later.”

-

Tooru opened the front door and took a peek outside as Run waved Zaine goodbye. Maybe…she should just leave Run be for right now? She almost decided that, about ready to withdraw her head from sight, but Run was always quicker at noticing the presence of her long-time friend for some reason.

“Hey Tooru!” Run’s cheery voice changed Tooru’s mind about leaving, as the shorter girl spared a friendly smile to Run, stepping out of the way and holding the door open to let Run head back inside.

“Zaine-san’s heading back home?”

“Mmhm. So whatchya up to?” Run asked. Tooru shrugged, not really busy with anything else. “Not doing anything with Miho or anything?” Tooru shook her head. “Actually…we split up a little while ago.” Tooru said, shutting the front door. Run gasped, a concerned expression on her face.

“Whoa! Really? Is everything okay?” Run’s questions only got a dismissive wave of Tooru’s hand.

“Everything’s fine…we had reasons, that’s all. We decided it’s best if we were just friends.”

“Oh…aw, Tooru, always so mature about everything.” Run said with a grin. Tooru blushed faintly. “I’m seventeen years old, Run-chan…” She muttered, looking at the ground. Run blinked, and giggled.

“Well, yeah, but you carry yourself a lot better than a lot of us already.” She assured, patting the top of Tooru’s head and ruffling her hair some. Tooru opened her mouth to complain about the child-like action, but decided against it. It wasn’t really that bad.

“So, is there something on your mind, Tooru?” Run asked, tilting her head some. Tooru debated on saying something now. Something was still stopping her. She didn’t know why she couldn’t just…say it, or bring it up somehow. She looked up at Run’s bright face and shook her head. “Not really.”

-

“Hey, uh, Ritsu?” Nagi pushed the bedroom door open slowly, looking into what seemed to be a currently unoccupied room. “Ritsu?” Nope. Not here. Nagi walked in, looking around. She was pretty used to the belongings that were hers and Ritsu’s in the room they shared by now. The mp3 player was on the bed, so maybe Ritsu was in the bathroom or something. Either way she was going to be right back, so Nagi would wait here.

It was what the mp3 player was resting on, actually, that caught Nagi’s interest. The sketchpad, the pencil stuck where Nagi assumed Ritsu’s current picture was. There was a slip of paper within, just loose paper Ritsu often used to keep the sketches from smearing when she had the book closed. By now Nagi only knew this from observation. She walked over to the bed where the sketchpad and music player rested, staring at the book curiously. Well, it was there…Nagi frowned a bit. “Sure…that’d be a great way to tick her off.” She muttered to herself, looking away from the sketchpad and over at the door. She sighed, rubbing the back of her head. ‘Must be a curse, why do people have to be so freaking curious about everything?’ Nagi thought to herself as she looked back at the enclosed drawings. Her finger pushed the mp3 player off of the cover, then drifted to the edge of the cover as she debated over opening it or not. How long had Ritsu been out of the room? Maybe she could take a look before Ritsu came back and get away with it?

‘I’m probably going to regret it.’ Nagi’s finger slipped under the cover and prodded it open, flipping the stiffer cardboard cover back so she could easily see the inside. She was careful to not move the pencil out of its place or the paper as she gently flipped each page. There were few sketches in the beginning of the sketchpad that were just of a few teachers, classmates from class, and things like that. Nagi heard herself chuckle a little bit at the nicely done sketch of Kuroi-sensei hassling Yuuko to look more ready for class one early morning. Look more ready, note. Not actually be ready. Nagi grimaced a bit, half glad really to not have to face that woman’s fiery attitude in the morning or during class anymore.

Moving on, she flipped the sketch over, continuing her browse of each drawing. Hm, maybe Ritsu didn’t really need as much practice as she let on, she was already really good at this. Though progressively, the sketches did seem to be getting better than the last. It was some ways into the sketchpad before Nagi slowed down a bit, realizing she was at the multiple sketches Ritsu had done of her, usually when Nagi wasn’t even aware of it at first. In fact, there were a number of drawings of her here that she was pretty sure Ritsu didn’t tell her about doing at all. Either Ritsu was stealthy like that, or Nagi needed to pay way more attention to what was going on around her. What was catching her interest really, were the appearance of lines of words on the drawings. She actually didn’t stop to read them really. She’d already pretty much invaded Ritsu’s privacy by looking at the drawings, she didn’t need to make it worse by reading the exact additions that she’d been trying to keep secret from Nagi.

She was forced to stop on the one just before Ritsu’s current sketch, which actually was probably the most interesting to her out of all of them. It looked like it was only finished currently, maybe the last day or several hours. It was made to be more elaborate, since it looked more like a night time setting. In fact, Nagi could recognize it as a sketch of the festival itself. Not really the whole festival, actually. It was Nagi, by the rails of the bluff, looking up. From the expression, at the fireworks. There was even careful shading that implied the bright lights shining down on the scene. Nagi stared at the sketch, genuinely impressed. In the corner, the night air wasn’t shaded in like the rest of the picture, but kept white to show the writing there. A nearly script writing, probably just careful cursive. Ritsu didn’t write like that, so it must have been just a thing she did for her art. She read the title before she could stop herself, a bit drawn in. It looked like some kind of free verse poem.

One or the Other

Which main feature of the night did I consider to be more captivating?

Was it the flashing bombs of colorful light in the sky?

The way it whistled into the sky, and the radiance of the explosions,

The way it made everyone gasp in awe and admiration,

Wishing many things in their lives were so amazing as the spectacle high above.

Or maybe, was it the thing that accompanied us to watch the show?

The unusually lit up eyes were more illuminating than the fireworks,

The gaping smile on her face full of amazement and joy.

If I say that I really enjoyed the show that night,

I was only marveling at how the color of the lights hit her face

And allowed me to marvel at the rare sides of something special to me.

I would choose the face, that which nothing could ever compete with in my mind.

Nagi slowly read the words, struggling only a little bit merely because of how small it was written combined with the handwriting. It sounded really pretty, but…she felt a little bit confused. Were the others like that too? She frowned some, attempting to wrap her head around that. She probably should have gotten it right away. She supposed she already understood what she just looked at, but the thought of it being true was like trying to understand a foreign language to her right now.

She knew she would regret looking. She spotted a hand, and she literally must have felt her stomach jump right into her throat. Her eyes really didn’t want to look up and see who was there, but they did, and much to her expectation, Ritsu was there. She grabbed the sketchpad, the pencil and loose paper carelessly falling out of the page they were saving and falling to the ground. “R-Ritsu!” Nagi exclaimed, stepping back as Ritsu swung her sketchpad shut, her eyes refusing to look at Nagi at all. Her free hand went for her mp3 player, and Nagi grabbed her arm. “H-hey, wait a minute!”

“Let…me go.” Ritsu muttered under her breath, hand grasping her player as she tried to tug out of Nagi’s grip. “I just—I need to go.” She said quietly, freeing herself. Nagi barely got a word out before Ritsu turned herself, running out of the room with her two most important belongings in hand. It took a second for Nagi to realize that she had seriously just run out of the room. All because Nagi couldn’t keep her fingers to herself, too. Cursing under her breath, Nagi ran out of the room, rushing down the stairs while trying not to trip and pretty much cripple herself trying to catch up to the girl who was already out the front door. “Ritsu!” Nagi shouted, catching her breath as she grabbed the door frame to stop herself quicker, only to see the car door shutting and hear the engine start. She could barely see Ritsu inside. The girl glanced over at where Nagi stood, but she didn’t make any gesture or anything as she peeled off the curb and drove off. Nagi exhaled, a bit defeated as she dropped her arms, frowning.

“What…happened?” Yuuko’s voice was heard behind her. Nagi shook her head. “I let my stupidity get the best of me, that’s what.” Nagi quietly replied, turning to walk back into the house. Where was Ritsu going? Yuuko stared at Nagi for a second, before looking back out towards where Ritsu had driven off. She followed Nagi back into the house and shut the door. “She’ll be back…she probably just needs…to think.” Yuuko didn’t ask what Nagi had done. She could only butt in so much, but this was more between Nagi and Ritsu now.  

[Yuetchi Farandole]

Jealousy in, Secrets Out - Part 2

The sound of her friend’s voice talking in the kitchen caused Yutaka to slow down to a stop, instead deciding to get an idea of what was going on first before barging into the kitchen. That took a lot of effort, by the way.

“Really? I see…you know how worried everyone is, right? Why didn’t you call your sister?”

Yutaka peeked to see Miho talking on her cell phone, though who she was talking to was beyond her. Miho sighed.

“I guess that makes sense. I guess if you insist I won’t tell. But just, try to feel up to coming back soon. I know you’re upset, but playing run-away isn’t going to help.” Miho said a few goodbye words before hanging up the phone. “Now stop hiding behind the wall.” She said without looking up from her phone as she pocketed it. Yutaka froze, and then hesitantly stepped out from behind the wall and into the kitchen. She chuckled nervously, hands behind her back. “G-gomen.”

“Oh, it’s fine. That was Ritsu-sempai.” Miho explained. So she didn’t seem to mind telling Yutaka about the phone call. “She ran off earlier after something happened with Nagi-san. She didn’t want the other sempai to know where she was, so she was going to call one of us.”

“What happened?”

“I didn’t ask. It’s sort of not my place. But I’m glad she called and let someone know she was okay. If it involved Nagi-san, I have a few decent guesses about what the problem is.” Miho said, shrugging. She turned to the plums she seemed to be working on for something. Judging by the rice cooker, you could safely assume she was making onigiri. Dropping the subject in exchange for her curiosity about what Miho was doing, Yutaka walked up to the counter next to Miho, watching. “Can Yutaka help?” She asked, looking at Miho. Miho stopped and looked at her for a moment, before nodding. “If you want. I’m just getting the pits out of the fruit.” She explained, showing her one of the plum pits before putting it back down. She cut a new plum from the top, carefully moving down to the bottom with the blade of the small knife in her hand, and put the knife down before splitting the fruit in half with just a little bit of difficulty. She picked the knife back up and carved a shallow line around the pit before putting that half down near Yutaka. “Pretty easy. Help me pry those out of the fruit.” She said. “I don’t have many left, just that one and maybe one or two more.”

It wasn’t a long process. Yutaka had some trouble with maybe one, but otherwise it was surprisingly easy to finish that process before the rice had finished cooking, and Miho took it out to let it set for a little while, though making sure it wasn’t too long so the rice was still hot when it was time to handle it. Yutaka…she wasn’t too used to cooking. She still didn’t know a lot about it really, though Miho had let her help a couple of times before at her own house. Though, usually something would go wrong or Miho would end up having to change her mind because of the girl’s pretty unfortunate knack for screwing it up. She had to have amazing patience for Yutaka to continuously give her another shot. But then again, Miho seemed to hold a lot of patience for a lot of things about Yutaka, despite how irritating she could get sometimes.

Miho gestured to the bowl of water nearby. “I’m gonna handle molding them since the rice is still pretty hot. But I’ll let you fill them. Just put a little bit of plum in the space I make in the middle, and fold the rice over it, okay?” She said, instructing Yutaka. With a nod, Yutaka let her know she got it. “Try to mold it into a triangle, all right?”

“Right! Don’t worry, Yutaka’s got it.” She said confidentially. Miho sweatdropped, chuckling nervously. “That’s what you say every time.” The black haired girl pointed out before getting started. She took a couple spoons of the sticky cooked rice, molding it despite the heat into a ball before using her thumb to make a decent space in the middle of it for Yutaka to put the filling into, and handing it to her before washing off her hands briefly in the bowl of water and then starting the next one. “I figured I’d make these now…then when we’re done the others can just go ahead and eat them. Hopefully Ritsu-sempai will be back to have one too.” Miho spoke as Yutaka picked up the unfinished onigiri placed near her, and looked at it a moment before taking a spoon and trying to get a little bit of plum to place into the ball. Folding the rice closed around the fruit filling, she looked like she was concentrating way too much to mold it into a triangle. Miho put another one down, glancing at Yutaka a couple times as the girl worked on filling and molding the next one. She smirked, feeling some amusement when watching Yutaka’s expression when she was molding the onigiri. A small giggle escaped audibly, stopping Yutaka as she looked at Miho with a little bit of a dismayed look.

“H-hey! What’s so funny?” Yutaka asked, feigning hurt at the light laughter. Miho shook her head. “It’s nothing…”

Miho looked at the counter and continued to laugh a little bit. What else would abruptly stop her amusement? What else but a small spoon of plum, hitting her right on the temple. Miho flinched and looked at Yutaka, surprised. But her surprise was met by another flick of fruit on her face. “Hey! Stop throwing the fruit around, Yutaka!” Miho said, reaching to snatch the spoon out of the girl’s hand. Yutaka snickered, holding it away, a hand extended to keep Miho from getting near easily. “Miporin started it! Laughing at Yutaka’s efforts!” She claimed with a fake sense of drama. Miho’s familiar look of irritation appeared as she tried to get to Yutaka, grabbing the wrist of the hand holding her back. Forgetting that fruit hitting her would have ended up on the floor was sort of a mistake. She stepped on what she immediately knew was probably the plum on the floor as she pushed herself forward, and her weight was thrown all wrong by the time she realized it. She made a small sound of surprise as she felt her shifting weight throw her off balance and she fell forward. Yutaka positioned both her arms, catching Miho’s fall with a small step back as a brace.

“Well that wasn’t very graceful, Miporin.” Yutaka teased. She chuckled, a subtle hint of slight discomfort underneath the humor. Miho struggled to get her balance back and stand up straight, a little bit flustered from the whole incident. “S-sorry…but seriously, stop wasting the fruit.” Miho said, snatching Yutaka’s spoon out of her hand while she was distracted. Miho blinked, taking a good look at Yutaka, like she was trying to see something.

“What?” Yutaka asked, under Miho’s odd stare. “You’re blushing.” Miho said simply, pointing at her. Yutaka flinched just a little. She was, wasn’t she? Yutaka snickered, smirking in her usual way despite that. “Is Miporin trying to turn attention around on Yutaka? Yutaka wasn’t the one who nearly fell on her face.” She poked fun at Miho, making the girl frown, a small vein on her head.

“Hey now, that was your fault.” She said, with the statement from before forgotten successfully thanks to Yutaka’s rebuttal. With the confrontation avoided, both girls got back to what they were doing, hurrying to finish the onigiri before the rice cooled too much and they wouldn’t be able to work so effectively with it. Miho still let her thoughts wander as she worked though. Did Yutaka just worm her way out of another conversation entirely? She had just done the same thing to Miho that Tooru was doing. Avoiding something.

-

Facing it, onigiri for dinner wasn’t such a bad idea. Besides, if anyone still got hungry later, they could just make something on their own, right? Most everyone was fine by sundown, whether because of denial or because they really were fine. Nagi wasn’t really that all right. She still wondered where Ritsu was, up until they heard the sounds of a car outside, and the engine cutting off. No one said anything right away. Run looked around. “I know.” She said suddenly. She wrapped one of the onigiri in some nori. “Why doesn’t someone offer Ritsu-chan one? She should still have one, right?” She suggested with a small smile. Nagi stared at the onigiri in Run’s hand for a second, and then sighed. She nodded, returning her own grin as she took the food from her hand. “I’ll do it, yeah?” She needed to talk to her anyway, didn’t she? They couldn’t dodge the problem forever, unlike the couple other housemates dealing with their issues in that fashion. But neither of those situations involved Nagi, so she wouldn’t have been aware of that, so let’s move on.

Standing up and heading outside, Nagi peered out to see Ritsu’s car parked on the curb, where it was before, and someone still sitting inside of it. Shutting the front door, Nagi stepped off the front steps and decisively started her path to the car.

Ritsu was seated in the driver’s seat, car engine cut off, earbuds in her ears and music playing on a quieter volume into her ears, so she could still hear the things around her. She wasn’t sure why she just…ran like that. Where was she going to go? Things would just be weirder than they would have been if she just stayed to talk, or at least avoid the problem. Not that it would work with Nagi. That girl didn’t like to let problems with her friends sit and fester. But she couldn’t blame her. There was a tap on the passenger window, and Ritsu felt a bit startled as she turned her head to see Nagi out there. Nagi gave her a small wave, and pointed to what looked like a rice ball in her other hand. Hesitating for a moment, Ritsu sighed in defeat, and the door locks raised, the hydraulics of the lock system letting Nagi know she could open the door and come in. That’s just what happened, as Nagi exhaled, sitting in Ritsu’s passenger seat. She handed the onigiri over to Ritsu, getting a muttered thank you from the artist. “Did you eat at all while you were gone?”

“Nope.”

“Sheesh. You know if you’re going to leave dramatically for half the day, you should at least go out and eat something or take care of yourself. I can’t let you be left alone at all, can I?” Nagi half joked. Ritsu frowned a bit, picking at her onigiri a little bit as she was either not sure what to say, or still thinking about how to say it. “Sorry…about leaving like that. I kind of overreacted.”

“Kind of?”

“Okay, I did overreact. Still, I’m sorry about it.”

“That’s okay.”

Ritsu fell silent for another full minute. She always thought it was a load of crap when they said a minute could feel like hours, but now she got it. Cause it did feel like that. “Well, I guess you know what my surprise was now, don’t you?”

“Not really…I’ll be honest, I didn’t read anything on any of the other pictures…just, that last one.” Nagi said reluctantly. But that last one probably stated what anything else would have just as strongly, if not more. Ritsu knew that too. She gave a weak and pretty much void of humor chuckle, and laid her head back against the seat before taking a small bite of the onigiri. “Yeah, I saw…”

“I’m sorry…it really wasn’t my place to look at your things without your permission, though.” Nagi said apologetically. Ritsu waved it off.

“It’s fine…what’s done is done. But I guess we gotta talk about it now, don’t we?” She sounded like she was dreading this the entire time she was gone. Nagi sighed, and nodded. They really did. She could oblige Ritsu, and say no, but…no, she wasn’t going to do that. “That stuff you wrote was about me?”

“Y-yeah.” Ritsu admitted, holding the half of her onigiri in her lap. Her eyes studied the details of the steering wheel.

“You were…going to show me that and the others at some point.” Nagi observed. Ritsu nodded. “So uh…w-were you trying…hm, well, to confess?” She said, finding trying to say the obvious actually pretty awkward. Ritsu blushed, fidgeting with the rice ball. Nagi handed her the napkin she’d brought, before reaching for the door handle. “Let’s continue this conversation in a more open space. It’s kind of…weird in here, don’t you think?” Nagi smiled a bit and stepped out of the car. Ritsu hesitated, but followed her out of the car. She walked around to Nagi’s side and leaned against the door of the car as she looked at her onigiri. Not that they were that aware of the eyes pretty much spying on them from the house windows, but it wasn’t like you should expect anything less.

Ritsu was clearly pretty uncomfortable. Nagi was too, but her discomfort tended to be pretty subtle. She adjusted her glasses, silent and waiting on Ritsu to speak this time. She was the one who had to talk.

“I…don’t know. I think…if you hadn’t gotten curious about it, I probably…wouldn’t have gotten the guts to show you anyway. Maybe it’s not all bad.” Ritsu said quietly, still looking down.

“Hm. Confession by art. Well…it’s different. I’ll give you that.” Nagi said, nodding. Ritsu chuckled, at least finding some amusement in what Nagi said. It wasn’t that different. Not original, by any means, since artists…do it quite often.

“N-Nagi, everything I wrote, I was serious. I really do…h-have strong feelings for you.” Ritsu said hesitantly, face three shades redder than it was a moment ago. Nagi exhaled shortly, looking up at the roof of the large house.

“’Have strong feelings?’ Ritsu, that sounds silly coming from you, when you say it that way. Sounds like a shoujo manga.” Nagi commented casually. If it wasn’t Ritsu or someone who knew Nagi well enough, you would find it really hard to tell if she was dismissing the issue, or just addressing it the way she felt most comfortable. Or maybe pushing Ritsu to be clearer about what she was trying to say. She knew Ritsu, the artist wasn’t the most expressive comfortably when it came to…well, this. Not saying Negi saw it coming—or maybe she did—but it was still Ritsu Nishi, Yuuko Nishi’s sister, and if there was something she shared with her sister, it was that really painful shyness that Nagi almost didn’t agree with most of the time.

She looked forward when a source of shade hit her. Ritsu’s hand reached out and rested on the window shield of the passenger window behind Nagi, her other hand holding onto the glasses she’d already taken off her own face. She seemed to move before she could decide to change her mind out of hesitance or fear, and quickly braved a kiss. Both her shy blush, and her lips lingered for a few seconds, and Nagi could have sworn that if she had superhuman hearing, she’d be hearing the nosy friends in the house commenting on this. There was just this…brief moment Ritsu could swear Nagi returned the gesture, but there was no way to be sure since she drew back, a new bunch of wracked nerves as she stepped back and held her right arm with her left hand. She hadn’t put her glasses back on; she probably forgot to out of nervousness.

“I-I…um…g-gomen. I don’t…know why I—” She had no idea what to say. Nagi didn’t really care if she finished the sentence. She breathed out a soft and brief chuckle under her breath and smirked. “Well that’s a lie. Of course you know why you did that.”

Ritsu frowned, blushing. She looked at Nagi like an angry child, really. “N-Nagi, stop with the attitude! Sheesh…” She whined, pouting a bit as she pushed her glasses back in front of her eyes, ear pieces carefully rested where they should.

“Hai, sorry about that. I don’t know why you’re apologizing though. Kind of a strange thing to say sorry for, don’t you think?”

“Well I…I don’t know…if it was my place to kiss you…” Ritsu admitted shyly, averting her eyes.

“Hm, I can’t say that I don’t think I liked it.” Nagi replied. Ritsu blinked. “W…what now?” Nor really, she barely followed that. “Oh never mind. But you know, I’m not against the idea that you like me. I’m, uh, not really sure what the heck that really means. I’m pretty sure we’ll find out though.” Nagi said, grinning at her.

Ritsu just…could not get this red tint off her face for the life of her. She suddenly felt like she was being awfully gutsy as she reached out, her fingers brushing Nagi’s hand before taking a gentle hold of a few of her fingers. “Ehe…okay, well, in that case. I’ll apologize for doing that in plain view of the windows.” She said with a light laugh. Nagi shut her eyes for a minute and leaned back on the car door, before pushing herself into a straight stand, feeling a light tug from Ritsu helping her. “You should be. They won’t let us hear the end of it now. For future reference, I blame you.” Nagi teased. Her only response was a goofy grin. Ritsu pulled her ear buds out of her ears, her other hand still not letting go of Nagi’s hand as she pocketed the mp3 player and turned to the house, pulling Nagi along behind her. True, the others, who really were spying from the window as both girls suspected, weren’t about to let them hear the end of it. Not that Ritsu was bothered by it. The artist finally spoke to the muse, and she earned just what she wanted.