This is another Essy inspired fic
It may seem like it has some holes, but it is really just a glimpse...
If anyone's still around here, I hope you enjoy it.
Fifth EmberNobody KnewLaughter from late night revelers echoed from down Takeshita Street as two girls approached each other below a streetlamp outside Harajuku station. Both were now comfortably settled into autumn attire, although that meant something very different for each of them.
The colors were similar – a mixture of washed-out grays and browns and navy blue, but the older by a few years wore a dress that carried nearly down to her ankles as well as an off-white knitted jacket. The other, relatively the same size though younger, boasted a denim jacket over a thin black nylon tank with stainless steel studs up and down its straps. The belted skirt over thin sweatpants carried barely to mid-thigh.
“Are you all right with this?” the elder spoke, peering concernedly into the eyes of the other glistening above her white mask. They still seemed a bit dark and puffy.
“I’m dealing,” the other replied. “Holding everything in until it’s all over comes with some unexpected… effects.”
The older girl smiled. “You always were a crybaby when it came down to it.”
“Hey, I saw someone else up there bawling her eyes out at least as much!”
“Ah, but I didn’t disappear nearly right away afterward.”
“Shut up,” the younger pouted, the other still smiling.
That smile adopted a nervous tension though when she prompted once again, “If you don’t want to do this now, there will be other places. It seems they always have availability.”
“Ai-chan,” Reina Tanaka replied to her in almost a low growl, “If I don’t finally have you completely to myself tonight, I am literally going to kill someone. And it may end up being one of our new
oh-so-cute kouhai.”
Ai Takahashi giggled at that, then stopped immediately. No. Killing new kouhai was a bad thing, a bad… But then her protective sense was stymied in remembering once again that she was no longer their leader, the one they’d come to. She was no longer anyone’s leader, and she wondered if anyone would ever come to her for something again. If anyone would ever…
“Come on then,” she said quickly before she broke down again herself. Reina looked skeptically at her, though she ignored it. The girl was too good at picking up on her moods. “We’ve kept them waiting in the office long enough as it is.” And she began walking down the wide street paralleling the station toward Yoyogi Park.
Reina quickly jumped to keep pace with her, only reaching back to rub her thigh muscle once. Ai knew she had soreness at times after a long concert. “They’re an upper-scale business, Ai-chan,” the younger girl explained once again matter-of-factly. “Someone’s available at the front desk twenty-four hours a day.”
Perhaps, Ai thought. Still, she was worried about causing trouble to others. She wanted to make a good impression on those who she’d hopefully be in the care of for a long while, after all.
When they reached the park, Reina broke away from her and detoured slowly off the sidewalk toward a fountain that was shut off for the night, sitting down on a bench overlooking it. There were a few other people who became visible on the paths around them from time to time, but at this hour it was generally deserted.
With a sigh, after she had stopped to watch what her companion would do, Ai walked over and sat beside Reina on the bench. Reina held her bag tightly in her lap as she stared hard at the slightly rippling water in the fountain pool.
“What’s the matter?” Ai asked simply this time, deciding not to once again pursue whether the other’s mind was still made up.
“Ai-chan, if I do this…” Reina replied hesitantly. “If I do this, I won’t be a kid anymore.”
“I know what you mean,” Ai said, touching the tips of her fingers to the other’s arm. “It’s the same for me.”
Reina turned to her, peering a moment into her eyes before shaking her head. “No. You’re already past that. You’ve graduated. You’re not an idol anymore. You were a leader… and you’ve even graduated that. I’ve been nothing. Just a kid.”
“That’s not true,” Ai responded. “You’ve been doing this for eight years too. You led
Aa! right from the beginning. Airi-chan and Miyabi depended on you. Then there was High-King.”
Reina gave her a skeptical look. “I was hardly a leader then. They were even my senpai, after all! As for High-King… Well, as much as I loved the recognition, you can’t be serious. You were there too.”
“It was actually nice being able to relax and let someone else handle things for once,” Ai replied insistently. “I could just focus on my performance.”
“Like that’s something you don’t do anyway,” Reina retorted. “Besides, Yuukarin, Saki-chan, Maimi-chan… It’s you they look up to. With you around I could really be nothing more than a figurehead. Not that I mind being that, mind you,” she added importantly.
“Even if that was true, it won’t be the case any longer,” Ai said gently.
Reina stared at her for a time, then looked away as if fishing for a response. “Gaki-san will be leader then,” she mumbled.
Ai took a deep breath and sat back. The subject just became a bit touchier again. “They won’t look up to her in the same way,” she said quietly, though she was very reluctant to do so. “You know that.”
“Why do you always get quiet when talking to me about her?” Reina asked suddenly.
Ai now was the one staring back in reply.
“What… are you talking about?” she asked, a bit dumbly.
“Gaki-san,” Reina replied bluntly. “You just started getting quiet when I mentioned her.”
“I…” Ai stumbled, “Um…” This is why she never liked boasting about herself. But she didn’t see what that had to do with Risa.
“I’m only kidding,” Reina chided with a toothy grin, poking at her arm. “You are too predictable, you know. I need to work on making you more confident in yourself.”
But I am
confident in myself! Ai told herself, silently offended.
I just don’t think I’m necessarily better than anyone else!“Come on,” Reina said, suddenly standing up and pulling Ai to her feet as well. She was still grinning. “Let’s go buy an apartment.”
After finally reaching the station beside the park and taking the
Oedo line to Roppongi, the girls walked in to the center office of building two of Roppongi hills and approached the desk.
“May I help you?” the receptionist asked. Despite the late hour – nearly eleven at night now – the area hummed quietly with activity. The low sound of some business programming emanated from a TV in front of some couches – Reina eyed it carefully – and a counter was still stocked with snacks beside elegant-looking pots of tea.
“Yes,” Ai replied. “I am Takahashi Ai.” She pointed to her companion. “And this is Tanaka Reina. I apologize for bothering you at this late hour, but we’d like to finalize our leasing contract and move in to the apartment we’ve reserved.”
As she spoke, she was very conscious of Reina eyeing her now, a small smirk at the corner of her mouth garnishing an expression that almost seemed impressed. Ai just tried not to fumble with her words.
“Ah, yes,” the attendant replied. “I was told you would be arriving. If you will allow me to retrieve the manager, he will be excited to take care of you.”
“We’re in your care,” Ai hastily said with a bow of her head. She was pleased to see Reina give a small nod as well, though that smirk certainly didn’t go away.
A half hour or so later, Ai fumbled with the shiny new keys in her hand at the door of the apartment they had just bought together. She’d almost completely stressed herself out over the paperwork and signing the contract for so much money, to where now it felt like her nerves were almost completely shot.
“Here,” Reina said impatiently, and grabbed for Ai’s hand to hold her fingers steady enough to find the right key. When it fit into the lock and the door began swinging open, the girl muttered bemusedly,
“Will I have to do everything for you?”When they stepped inside, Ai stared. Of course she’d seen the plan and a model before, but actually being here, in a house that was hers –
theirs, she immediately corrected herself – and seeing all the furniture laid out in a very appealing fashion, smelling the scent of new upholstery and fresh paint, made her feel like crying again. It really was almost too much, all in one night, but it was what they had agreed… what they had looked forward to.
Her emotions were quickly stunted however as Reina dropped her bag on a shelf in the entryway and kicked her shoes off, running into the large living area atop the pristine carpeting. “Oh my god, Ai-chan!” she cried. “Look at this TV!!”
Fully jolted out of her thoughts, Ai meticulously slipped out of her own shoes and followed slowly into the room to find Reina staring with sparkling eyes at a huge flat-panel TV mounted to the wall opposite the seating.
Breaking out of her own trance, Reina desperately searched around before finding a remote control on an end table. She sighed blissfully as the lamp there flicked on by itself at her movement, and once again as she tossed her jacket over a chair and dropped into the couch to turn on the TV. Ai watched as she flipped through the channels, perusing the current offerings.
Reina flipped open her cell phone to check the time. “Ah!
Our Music is on! Almost perfect timing…” She dropped the cell phone and remote onto the end table before sitting back to fix her eyes on the screen.
Taking a deep breath, somehow feeling amused, Ai carefully removed her jacket and draped it atop Reina’s before sitting quietly in the very soft, plush chair beside the couch. “So are you going to sit here and watch TV all night after we’ve just moved into our new apartment?” she asked the girl only a touch cynically.
Reina glanced her way and blinked as if surprised to see her there. “Oh, Ai-chan,” she said. Then looking longingly back at the TV, she picked up the remote and flicked it off. “I’m sorry. It’s just so… big… and nice… and big…”
“Yep,” Ai said, now appraising the screen herself. “It will be wonderful for my video games.”
Reina’s scandalized glare in return was priceless. Though of course, Ai could have reacted exactly the same. Watching grainy dramas was truly a waste of high definition, after all. Instead, she rose from the chair. Stifling a groan at leaving its comfort, she sidled in to Reina’s left on the couch and cuddled up to her, slipping an arm around her waist. This was much better than the chair.
She felt Reina tense up at the intimacy, and so rubbed gently at her right side in an attempt to calm her. “You don’t have to worry anymore,” she cooed gently. “It’s all over.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Reina asked, looking up into her face. “We’re here… and you’re not an idol anymore.”
“Mhm,” Ai replied, trying to nuzzle into the girl’s neck. “You know, it’s almost funny,” She really had been waiting for this so long. In her current exhausted state the girl’s scent almost felt intoxicating to her. “I always thought the first one I’d move in with would be Risa.”
Suddenly the girl beside her was tense again, and she began pulling away. “What did you say?” she asked in a low voice.
Ai blinked. “Huh?” She tried to think. What
did she just say?
“You said you thought you’d be moving in with Risa.”
“Oh,” I replied. “Yeah. It’s just like… that’d seem so natural.”
“Natural,” Reina said, now fully extricating herself from Ai’s embrace. “Unlike it is with me?”
“What?” Ai asked, flabbergasted. “Of course not. But it is different with you.”
“So why’d you move in with me then?” Reina’s voice was monotone with each question asked, her firecracker mood certainly not seeming to improve.
Ai stared. Had the girl been holding this in the whole time as well, just like her tears?
“Well?” Reina pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them tightly, crossing her arms as she peered sharply over them at Ai.
Ai took a breath. “Gaki-san’s my best friend,” she said carefully, making sure the right words came out. “We’ve been with each other for ten years now. It felt like we’d always do everything together.”
“Does it feel that way now?” Reina asked, tone unchanged.
Ai held her breath, searching for how to explain. “Well… I grew up.”
Reina’s eyes now narrowed into a more curious expression.
“Friends are great,” Ai continued. “They’re necessary. But who I want to
be with, all the time, is someone that excites me. Someone that always interests me. Someone who gets me differently from anyone else.”
For the first time since she began questioning her, Reina broke eye contact, looking down as a light flush started in her cheeks. Ai reached out to touch her arm again, and felt a tingle at the touch of skin where she’d only felt denim before.
“I love Risa, but I
want you, Reina,” Ai pleaded, gazing intensely into her face as she became more and more focused. “I feel like you’re who I want by my side also for those times I can’t just let loose and goof around. I feel like I want my
life to be with you – when I’m asleep, when I’m brushing my teeth…” Now she looked down at the feel of a blush coming on, though it was something she wanted to get out. “…When I’m bathing…”
Reina looked back up at that, and watched her for a moment. When Ai wondered how long she could stand it, the girl let a thin smirk show. “Ai-chan,” the girl said playfully, “I think that’s the naughtiest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Taking a deep breath, in no small part of relief, Ai smiled back at her. “The first of many I hope,” she said, letting a mischievous grin of her own show.
Then, with no warning, the girl let her legs drop and scooted over to Ai, gripping her shoulders lightly as she leaned in for a kiss. Ai, surprised at first, after a moment lifted her own hands to the girl’s waist as she returned the kiss before they pulled slowly apart.
They looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds before Ai started looking around them again. “You know,” she said. “I still have the feeling that someone could pop up and see us.”
“But they won’t,” Reina said with a smile, and then her eyes looked past Ai for an instant before she stood up and brushed past her shoulder.
Ai turned to see the girl walk toward the curtained windows. She seemed confused at not finding anything to pull them apart with, and Ai glanced at the remote control Reina had left on the end table. Grinning, she picked it up. Finding what she thought she was looking for, she pushed the button.
A small squawk told her she’d chosen correctly, and the curtains hummed softly as they pulled themselves apart. Reina stared at them a moment before turning to Ai-chan. When she opened her mouth for a question though, it died at her lips as she turned back agog to the window.
Standing again herself after watching Reina just stare for a minute or so, Ai walked over to join her. She’d heard what to expect, but once again, seeing it herself took her breath away.
The night-time view of city lights splayed out below them, with the familiar landmark of Tokyo Tower pointing high above even the heights where they resided toward the far right. Below it was the dark patch of the park, but it was the lights of the buildings and the traffic on the streets below that mesmerized her.
“Isn’t this incredible?” Reina asked, apparently having had time to recover from the shock. “And I thought we’d stayed in decent hotels before…”
Ai just nodded.
“You know we’ll have this view every day and every night for…”
“For years and years,” Ai finished, and Reina turned to see Ai smiling at her. “But the view I’m enjoying right now is what I’ll treasure the most.”
When Reina blushed, Ai stepped forward to take her into her arms, and the two hugged each other tightly as they continued gazing out into the night. Reina held her desperately close, and Ai stroked the girl’s hair in a slow, soothing manner.
“Do you think you’ll really miss being an idol?” Reina asked quietly after who knew how long.
“Of course I will,” Ai said. “I’ll miss everything about it. But I’ll still be doing what I love.”
She felt Reina move, and pulled back to where they gazed into each other’s faces once again. “And who you love, right?” Reina asked, her lip twitching again.
Ai blushed. “
Mou… You’re horrible.”
Reina leaned in to kiss her, and the two girls made out tenderly in front of the window, holding each other close the whole time. When they were finished, Ai glanced out the window tentatively. “You know, it almost does feel like we’re still out in public doing this right here. After all, we can see the whole city.”
“Yeah,” Reina replied, turning Ai’s face back to hers with a finger to her chin, “but they can’t see us.”
Ai looked into her eyes again, thinking about how she’ll be spending perhaps… hopefully… the rest of her life with the girl in her arms. She noticed there was something in Reina’s eyes, a question she wanted to ask. She had a feeling she knew what it was.
“There’s one room we haven’t checked out yet,” Reina said meekly. She was so cute when she was being shy.
“Oh?” Ai asked, as usual between them playing dumb.
She felt Reina picking at the back of her shirt, and the girl started chewing lightly on her bottom lip in nervousness.
“Reina,” Ai said, pre-empting the girl. The lip-chewing stopped. “Would you like to check out our bed with me?”
Reina smiled and nodded, and the two girls walked hand-in-hand to the bedroom. When they arrived, the bed they saw inside was larger than they’d ever seen before. It was made up precisely, the bedspread a stylish red and black pattern over white sheets.
Ai let go of the other’s hand, this amazing piece of comfortableness looking so inviting after perhaps the longest day of her life, and she crawled onto it before dropping to her stomach, her cheek on the pillow, and closed her eyes as she spread her arms and legs out on it to give herself complete relaxation. Even when she did that, she barely covered half of its surface.
After a moment she felt Reina apparently crawl onto the bed too, but instead of doing as Ai did, the younger girl crawled on top of her and used her as if she was a pillow. When she nuzzled her face into Ai’s neck to kiss it lightly, Ai rolled over to view the girl above her.
For a moment they just looked at each other again.
“So…” Reina said softly, nervousness showing in her eyes.
“So,” Ai replied just as quietly. She lifted her arms to wrap around the girl.
“I guess you’re tired, right?” Reina asked, doing a fine tap dance.
“Mhm,” Ai replied, smiling up at her girlfriend.
“Well I guess we should get some sleep then,” Reina said, and acted like she would roll to the other side of the bed. However, Ai held her fast above her.
The two girls stared into each other’s eyes another long moment before Ai pulled Reina’s head down and into another kiss. They made out again tenderly, intimately, as they had done a few times before in one or the other’s smaller bed. However, this was markedly different.
Ai coaxed Reina’s tongue out of her mouth with her own, and they explored each other. Eventually Ai’s hands began doing the same, and she moved one slowly down Reina’s body past her belt. She held it there lightly a moment as their kiss continued before finding the hem of her short skirt and pulling it up. It eventually overlapped her belt and Ai slid her hand back down over the girl’s thin, tight sweats. When she squeezed, the girl cried out softly in the kiss and reflexively spread her knees to either side of Ai’s legs, but when Ai dared to dip her fingers tentatively down between her thighs, she felt the girl tense and pull herself away from the kiss.
“I’m sorry,” Ai said, quickly pulling her hand out and dropping it to her side. “I got lost in the moment. If you don’t want to…”
Reina looked back at her seriously before shaking her head. “It’s not that,” she said. “It’s… You’re the first girl I’ve um… I’ve not had an um… girlfriend… before. Kissing you is one thing, but…”
Ai smiled. “It’s a little weird, isn’t it?”
Reina nodded.
“It’s okay,” Ai said. “We can take our time. We have plenty of it now, after all. Or even…” Her self-consciousness was getting to her again. “We don’t have to do this at all. I really just want you here with me.”
She stopped babbling when Reina laid a finger to her mouth. “I do too,” the girl said, now smiling herself. “Do you…” she swallowed, showing her nervousness again. “Do you want to have sex with me?”
Ai looked into her eyes a long while before finally nodding, amazed she wasn’t also blushing. “I want to love you, Reina,” she said intensely, ignoring the girl’s crudeness while at the same time loving it, before pulling the girl back down to her.
A while later, they lay beneath the sheet with the bedspread all the way at the foot, entwined in each other’s nakedness as they made out unlike ever before. When their lips parted, they gazed lovingly into each other’s eyes amid shared pleasure and the heat and dampness surrounding them… as well as the fresh smell of everything else.
Unable to stop touching Reina, Ai leaned down into her neck to give it long, slow kisses. “So do you think you’ll be all right loving me?” she murmured as she kissed.
Reina giggled softly, and Ai loved feeling the vibration in her throat with her lips. “I think I’ll survive,” she said, and Ai felt her thin legs entwine to squeeze tightly around one of Ai’s own. “Although… do you think it’ll be all right if I tell everyone about us now?”
Ai stopped the kissing, though kept her face at the other’s throat. “It doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “I’m not an idol anymore.” She grinned against Reina’s neck.
Reina gave a quick growl. “You know I’ve got you in a very vulnerable position right now, right?”
Now Ai lifted her head up to look into the other’s eyes. They were still shining. “Somehow I think I’ll survive,” she said, still grinning.
Their giggles carried out into the night, twenty-eight floors above the ground. It was yet to be seen whether twenty-eight floors was high enough to find paradise.