As a little different flavor
here's a little something I threw together for today. It doesn't actually take place for a few days yet, though I thought it'd be appropriate enough
(and this way any potential "other reality" hasn't happened yet to disprove it!
)
"Sakura Chirari”“Good morning!” Airi said brightly as she strolled in the back doors of Sun City hall. She knew exactly where to go today, and felt as if her spirits were lifted. She even woke up well this morning.
The staff murmured good morning to her as well, many of them returning her smiles before hurrying back to their duties. When she reached their dressing room, she noticed that Maimi was the only one there so far and working on her hair. Leave it to the members from Saitama to be the last ones to show up when they’re actually having a concert in Saitama.
When she realized she was alone with Maimi, she stopped dead.
After a moment, their Leader saw her through the mirror and smiled. “Ah! Airi!” she said with a beaming smile of her own. “Good morning! Did you sleep well?”
Airi nodded her head. “Mhm,” she replied simply at first, before walking slowly over to her chair. Once there, she focused pointedly on her cosmetic bag. “I even had time to finish up my homework, so I’ll have a free night tonight. I might get a full night’s rest.”
“Oh, you will?” Maimi asked, almost wistful-sounding. There was a silent pause after that, when Airi almost looked up, but eventually she continued, more brightly, “How was your first week of school, by the way? I know there were times at rehearsal those days when I just stopped and thought like, ‘I wonder what Airi’s doing right now… Does she like her new classes? I hope so…’”
That did make Airi look up, her eyes slightly widened. She forgot that she hadn’t actually talked to Maimi about school yet. With rehearsals made even more intensive than usual given the circumstances, and her being off at school, and every other way the two of them were normally kept busy, they hadn’t gotten the chance to talk like this again since…
“I do like them,” she replied, beaming back at Maimi through the mirror. “Though I’m already sad about missing art and history.”
Maimi chuckled softly as she ran a brush delicately through her hair. Airi watched the bristles as they slipped smoothly through the silky strands, so much like…
“You really are such a geek, you know,” Maimi said, teasing her.
“Airhead,” Airi shot back, grinning as she dug back into her bag.
“Kappa-lover,” Maimi replied, still sounding amused.
“Thank you,” Airi responded, mockingly polite this time.
“Airi,” Maimi said, sounding more hesitant this time, but Airi was distracted now. “About what happened in Hawaii…”
“Ow!” Airi grunted, after pricking her finger on her clippers and snapping it up to her lips to suck at gently.
“Ohayo!!” came a joint greeting from Nakky, Chisato, and Mai as they strolled into the room together before Airi had to look back up at Leader.
“You’re late!” Airi said in mock scolding, grateful for a change in subject. Three pairs of innocent eyes stared back at her.
“Kawaii na~” Maimi cooed, seeming to have recovered.
“Just because we’re not as punctilious as you two, doesn’t mean…” Nakky began as the three of them also moved toward their counters.
“You really shouldn’t keep using words like ‘punctilious’ you know,” Airi chided. “Nobody else may even understand you.”
“Hey!!” came three simultaneous voices yet again, Leader providing the one difference, but Airi just grinned and went back to her bag. However, she kept a view of said Leader in the corner of her vision. It seemed that once again, the two of them would not get to talk alone. Normally she would have enjoyed that, since she liked being around more people, but at this time there was something she definitely wanted to discuss with Maimi-chan as well. She just… wasn’t sure if she was ready for it yet. She wondered if she’d ever be…
“Aren’t the sakura so pretty?” came a voice from behind her. It was dark now, after their last live was over, and she had just left the venue. She felt almost completely worn out, knowing she’d sleep well tonight. However, she’d gotten distracted gazing up at the cherry blossoms in the small park within the Sun City grounds, and hadn’t noticed someone coming up behind her.
Airi thought she did a very good job of hiding the fact that she very nearly jumped out of her skin, and turned her head slightly to see Maimi-chan now also smiling up at the blossoms beside her.
“Most of them have started to fall now, though…” the girl said, lowering her gaze to the ground. It was littered with the pretty white flowers. Groundskeepers would probably clean them up overnight, but she wished they’d just let them stay there on the ground, for a while at least.
Then Maimi turned to look into her face. “Can we talk?” she asked lightly, gesturing to one of the benches beneath the trees. There were a few people around in the park, and they could see the outdoor photo vendors just outside the fence, but amid the trees and falling blossoms, the bench was still relatively secluded.
Airi nodded, and Maimi took her arm as they walked. After sitting down on the petal-covered bench, they both hugged their bags and looked up into the trees again, silence dragging on for a moment.
“I’ve said it so much before, but you’re really lucky to have your birthday in the middle of the sakura bloom,” Maimi said finally. “It’s surely auspicious.” She cast a wry glance in Airi’s direction. “That has to be where all your talent and beauty comes from.”
“Mai~mi~” Airi whined, nudging Leader slightly with her fist. “Stop embarrassing me.” Thankfully it was likely difficult to see her pinkened cheeks in the dim light near the ground.
“You know it’s true,” Maimi replied, looking up and smiling again, rocking back and forth a little.
“I feel like you’re flirting with me when you say things like that now,” Airi pouted, staring straight ahead.
“Oh?” Maimi commented airily. “Maybe I am.
“…Maybe I always have been.”
Airi was now
very glad of the dim light.
“Are you saying Hawaii wasn’t something that just happened?” Airi asked in a quiet voice.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about that,” Maimi replied, as Airi blushed anew. “And I don’t think it could have been.”
Airi stole a peek at the girl, to see Maimi gazing back at her seriously. Seriously, but still cutely. In fact, maybe it’s Maimi-chan’s seriousness that was so cute in the first place.
“You don’t regret any of it… do you?” Maimi asked, still looking serious, but Airi saw another emotion as well. Fear? Desperation?
“I…” Airi began, but couldn’t continue.
She stood up, stretching beneath the trees, holding her bag in her hand as she swung her arms around.
“Do you?” she heard faintly behind her.
Airi froze, slowly letting her arms fall to her sides. A long moment passed before she finally responded. “…No.” She sat back down lightly, purposely not looking at the other girl. “Of course not.”
Then she felt soft fingers against her chin, and they gently pulled her face toward Maimi’s. That seriousness was still there, but to Airi’s great relief, the fear had been replaced by a light smile. She stared into dark eyes as their faces closed in, nearly touching; a tilt; then her lips met the softness of the other’s.
A few minutes later, and the two girls sat side by side, an arm around each other’s back, gazing up at the trees. “You know, it felt different in Hawaii, but back here… looking at the blossoms… Spring is really a season of beginnings, isn’t it?” Airi asked musingly.
“I love the spring,” Maimi followed happily.
“Me too,” Airi replied, and then the two girls looked at each other and giggled.
“We are so hopeless, aren’t we?” Maimi asked. “I don’t even know
how we’re going to get by together.”
“Together?” Airi asked, peering up through her eyelashes. This time it was the older girl’s turn to blush. “Yaji-san, are you saying that we’re a couple?”
“Chissa will be so jealous, won’t she?” Maimi mused.
“It might give her something to think about…” Airi replied, pondering. “You know,” she said, staring past Maimi while she played with the buttons of the girl’s shirt. “Reading your blog posts lately, like from the other day, Chisato sleeping next to you, I know it’s totally innocent.” She was speaking in a rush. “But I can’t help but feel a little jealous.”
“You and I
did sleep together a few nights in Hawaii too, you know,” Maimi countered, causing Airi to blush again.
“I know,” she replied. As if she could forget! “Still,” she continued, pouting. “I want my Maimi-chan to myself again some night.” Her last words faded into murmuring as she snuggled into Maimi’s shoulder and acted as if she would doze off.
“Some night…” Maimi said airily, still gazing forward in thought as she unconsciously brushed her fingers through Airi’s hair.
…
“Thank you for inviting us to this after-party!” Airi exclaimed as the members of ℃-ute began to file out of the restaurant. The ramen had really been delicious; the others didn’t lie.
“It was nothing,” Chisato said, brushing it off. “Thank Mai – she found the place originally.” She gave the girl she spoke of an odd look. “Went by herself, she says.”
“Mou,” Mai whined. “Why won’t anyone believe me when I say I do things on my own!?”
“Because you’re Hagi-san,” Nakky said with a grin.
“It’s because of you people I have to work hard to look mature,” the younger girl grumbled as they exited into the fresh night air.
“I guess we’ll see you later in the week, then?” Chisato asked Leader when it was time to split ways. “I’ll probably hang out with Mai around here tomorrow.”
Airi was going to respond, but at a funny glance from Leader, closed her mouth again. “I don’t know,” she said. “I was thinking of bringing Airi back here. Maybe we can all hang out as ℃-ute for once. That is, unless you wouldn’t like to.”
Three faces turned to her with wide eyes.
“Are you kidding??” Nakky said.
“Let’s do karaoke!!” Mai added.
Chisato just stared in plain, but very pleased, disbelief.
“It’s too bad we didn’t just plan for a hotel for you two, since then you wouldn’t even have to worry about coming all the way back up here for the day,” Nakky said thoughtfully.
“Well you know me,” Maimi said with a smile that made Airi’s heart beat faster. “I don’t always think of these things when I should.” Then she took Airi’s arm. “Anyway, we’ll see you guys tomorrow! I’ll mail you!” And they all said goodbye to each other and headed their separate ways, Maimi pulling Airi along with her.
As they walked, Airi kept looking up into her face. Maimi would meet her eyes, still smiling, before Airi would look down in embarrassment. This continued for a ways down the street until Airi finally said, still looking down, “You have some kind of plan, don’t you,” she stated, not in a question.
Maimi glanced innocently at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Ah! Here we are,” she said as she pulled them to a stop in front of a cake shop. “Dessert time!”
For the next hour or so, Airi was pleasantly distracted by the tasty desserts, though from time to time she glanced at Maimi when she thought she wasn’t looking, and when she remembered the girl must be up to something. Afterward, when they stood satisfied outside the shop, Airi said tentatively, “Well I guess we might as well head to the station then…”
Maimi didn’t say anything at first, smiling off at nothing, before glancing back at her. “I thought you said you wanted to spend the night with me?”
Airi opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Then, feeling her hopes fade, she mumbled, “Mother will be unhappy if I don’t get home soon…”
“Don’t worry about that,” Maimi said, her smile widening. “I’ve already contacted her, and said I’ll take care of you for tonight. It’s for our ℃-ute Day tomorrow, after all.”
“Yaji-san!” Airi almost gasped. “That’s very nearly a lie!”
“Well we will be having ℃-ute Day,” Maimi replied. “I just didn’t mention what would happen until then.”
Airi stared at her Leader, impressed for not the first time, and then her lips spread into a grin of her own. “And what do you plan to do with me until then, Leader-san?” Maimi just grinned and whisked her away.
The next morning, two very happy girls met up with their other three companions, and together they enjoyed a very superb ℃-ute Day indeed.