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Author Topic: One-shot Scraps: February Project [02/14]  (Read 27907 times)

Offline rndmnwierd

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Hard Candy 7/15
« Reply #40 on: July 19, 2013, 10:39:00 AM »
You had me a K-ON XD

Maa babble is the best. :lol:

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Hiya 9/6
« Reply #41 on: September 06, 2013, 05:04:25 AM »
I’m back! Sweet baby Jesus I’ve never felt so high in my life that wasn’t stimulated by artificially made (read: sugar-rush-inducing-b****-I-can-do-whatever-the-f***-I-want-cause-I’m-on-sugar-high) beverage or happy pills of any sorts.
I am so done with exams. Yeah!

And~ it’s gone.

So anyways… as a celebratory contribution from moi~

I’m kinda torn. Should I post a funny fic or a sweet fic? Take a pick.

Speaking of sweet… I didn’t get my ice cream… >.<

Will post later... :3

Edit:
@rndm: how'd 'ya like K-on?
« Last Edit: September 06, 2013, 09:49:57 AM by yunagi »
._.

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Dream 9/10
« Reply #42 on: September 10, 2013, 10:31:53 AM »
Sorry, just got back from the hospital.

Anyway here's that fic I said earlier. Well... back to the drawing board.  :bleed eyes:

-o-o-o-o-o-

Dream

“Anyway, don’t you think that was useless?” Reina took a bite out of her fries then pointed the remaining half at Ai who was seated opposite her, currently trying to swallow the large chunk of burger in her mouth. “Sure, dieting for the last few days the way she did, she was bound to lose weight. But after getting her desired weight she’s just going to go back to her old eating habits? Why bother dieting in the first place? It’s stupid.”

“Mah~ mah~ don’t get too riled up Tanakachi. It’s her choice how she eats.” Risa said from beside Ai.

Finally swallowing the food in her mouth Ai slammed her hands over the table as she stood up, shocking the other four girls seated around her. “Isn’t that right? I thought she was joking when she said she’s going back to her old eating habits.”

“Ai-chan! Don’t slam your hands on the table. And sit down.” Risa berated, grabbing a hold of Ai’s arm and began tugging her back to the seat. Ai pouted at the younger girl before complying with the request/command, quickly going back to her half eaten burger. Eri and Sayu remained quiet during the exchange. Eri was happily munching on her fries while watching their friends’ slightly heated discussion, whereas Sayu looked a little irked at Ai’s sudden outburst.

Sayu stifled a yawn. How did she get so tired? Maybe she exerted herself a bit too much during their physical ed earlier. She wasn’t one for sports, but that was her grade for the term, she couldn’t risk flunking P.E. again, one week of remedial classes were enough for her. Thankfully her efforts were rewarded. That was one subject less to worry about.

She turned her attention away from her friends, their voices blending in with the monotonous sound of the air-conditioning unit to their side. She glanced at the sleepy looking girl in front of her. Noticing Sayu’s gaze at her Eri smiled widely at Sayu before opening her mouth, saying something Sayu didn’t hear before turning her gaze away. Sayu yawned again. Her vision began turning blurry. Her eyes felt heavy; she could barely keep her head up.

Maybe she could close her eyes, just for a few seconds.

Yes. She was just going to rest her eyes.

That was all.

“Sayumin?”

Sayu’s eye’s slowly parted. “Huh?” She raised her head, her eyes automatically focusing on the face of the owner of the voice. Eri tilted her head. “Are you sleepy?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m good.”

Risa eyed the sleepy girl before checking her watch. “Ah! It’s already late. We must’ve chatted too long.”

“Shall we head home then?” Ai proposed. Gathering her things she slowly scooched out of the plastic bench, making way for Risa to slip out. Eri quickly slipped out on the other side just as Reina languidly got up from her seat. Following the others lead Sayu got up. She stumbled a little, still a little unstable from her minor siesta.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Eri happily chirped, running on ahead of them. She abruptly stopped and turned back to them, a wide grin in place. “Back to space!”

“And there she goes…” Reina sighed, rolling her eyes at the turtle’s random outburst. Sayu giggled at this.

“No really! I’m actually an alien!” Eri stated happily.

Sayu smirked but said nothing. She turned to Risa figuring the older girl would set the turtle straight again, as what she usually does.

“I knew it!” Reina grinned, clapping her hands together. Sayu’s eyes popped open. She sent the kitten a strange look.

“I always thought you were one!” Risa added. Beside her Ai nodded her head in agreement and clapped her hands together. “It makes so much sense!”

“Wait, what?” Sayu stared at the three girls. Were they really going along with this? What happened to everybody? Was she being punked?

“Whenever you stared into space… you really were communicating with other aliens weren’t you?”

“She’d also say those weird things too.”

“I knew you weren’t normal!”

Sayu shook her head. What was going on? She glanced back at the group, only to jerk her head back as a bright light flashed in front of them accompanied by a burst of heavy wind. Sayu held up her arms, blocking her face from the harsh elements. “Eri!” she yelled.

The light dimmed some. Sayu slowly put her arms down, squinting to see what’s ahead of them. They weren’t in the restaurant anymore, instead they were somewhere outside. There wasn’t a building in sight, which was odd since they were in the middle of the city.

There was a flash of movement. Sayu jerked her head up, just in time to see a huge glowing saucer getting closer and closer to where they stood. In the middle of the flying saucer a circular door opened, a yellowish light streamed down from the inside, engulfing Eri in a bright light.

“See you, Eri.” Risa called.

“Come back soon okay.” Ai followed up.

“Take care.” Reina said.

Eri nodded her head just as an invisible force slowly lifted her up towards the flying saucer. “I will. I’ll see you guys later!” She said, energetically waving her hands goodbye.

“Eri! Wait!” Sayu yelled. She held out her hand, but somehow her legs wouldn’t move. “What’s happening? Why can’t I move?” Sayu turned to the other three girls. They didn’t seem to mind that some weird spaceship was taking Eri up to the sky.

“What are you guys doing? Stop her!”

“Why would we do that?” Risa asked, tilting her head.

“What do you mean? Eri’s being taken away!”

“Calm down Sayu, Eri’s just going home.” Reina said, shrugging her shoulder.

“Yeah, she’ll be back in a couple of years.” Ai said off handedly.

“Guys…” Sayu didn’t know what to say. She looked up at the turtle’s receding figure, her vision blurring from the tears. “…Eri. Don’t leave! Eri!”

Another bright flash of light.

Sayu jerked her head back, her eyes shooting open as a strangled cry left her lips.

“Oh, you’re finally awake.” Sayu heard Reina’s voice. Her head jerked to the side where Reina was looking up at her, a small smirk in place. “You were really out. We were wondering how to get you home.”

“Eh?”

“Anyway, Sayumin, do you think you can walk now?” A slightly strained voice asked. Sayu knew that voice anywhere. She glanced down, only to see the back of Eri’s head.

“Eri?”

“Yeah?” the girl replied. Eri tilted her head somewhat and smiled at Sayu.

Sayu blinked. She turned her head, taking in her surroundings. They weren’t in the restaurant anymore, but they were blessedly surrounded by tall buildings, and what’s better was that there were no weird flying saucers in sight. Her shoulder relaxed as she heaved out a sigh, her arms curled around Eri’s neck, bringing her closer to the older girl, loving the real warmth produced by the girl carrying her.

“She insisted on carrying you home.” Reina said. Sayu nodded her head in understanding before closing her eyes, certain that her friend wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“It was a dream.” Sayu murmured.

“Sayumin, you okay?” Eri asked. Sayu nodded her head, tightening her hold around Eri. Eri sent Reina a questioning look. Reina just shrugged as they continued walking towards Sayu’s place.

“Eririn…” Sayu muttered. Eri hummed, tilting her head a bit to hear better. “Don’t go to outer space okay?”

“Eh?”
._.

Offline rndmnwierd

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Dream 9/10
« Reply #43 on: September 10, 2013, 11:40:54 PM »
Lols XD Sayu being the one to say strange things is just  :lol:

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Dream 9/10
« Reply #44 on: September 12, 2013, 04:09:27 PM »
She isn't too out of character is she? I hope not.
Anyway... I think that's about enough funny fics, cause I haven't seen my 3 muses for an entire week and my brain's been dying due to boredom. So I'm going to try to give some lovin' and see if I get some back... As soon as I get my laptop back, within Internet range. I'm really sorry. I'll try to make better fics.
._.

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Loving You Forever 9/17
« Reply #45 on: September 17, 2013, 02:15:47 PM »
Remember that thing I said about having trouble writing and fics and those fics mainly featuring OG's?

I actually wrote this one after writing its part 2, though at the time it really wasn't a part 2 since I wrote it first. But then I thought I could totally write a prologue to it and it took this long to give it the okay since I keep having second thoughts to posting it since it's sooooooo long and totally out of character but I wanted to post this first before the second part because I think the second part is written way better than this first part. It's also the longest one I've written yet.

*breaths in* Anyway... Here's the fic. I hope you guys like it. Oh and it's also based on an MM song.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Loving You Forever

When I met her, I fell in love. It was the first day of high school. I don’t know why I looked up when I heard her greeting, since I pretty much ignored every other greetings I heard earlier, but I did. It was almost like one of those sickeningly sweet love stories that quickly fly off the shelves. The only difference was that this was real life, and reality doesn’t work that way. I told myself it was just teenage hormones playing with my head, and for a while I fooled myself into believing it. But then, I noticed that I always find my eyes drawn to her. I always had that funny high in the head feeling whenever she was close to me, though I hide it as best as I can. Then there was her smile. She was always smiling, even in the morning, though she had her eyes closed looking like she was still sleeping. It was cute. She had always come in all smiles, like she had no care in the world. It was quite a refreshing sight. Every morning I would force myself to wake up early and get to school just so I can see her when she arrives, and I hate waking up early.

She never failed to greet me as she passed by my table to get to hers. I could never reply to her greeting, she would just whiz past, not waiting for a response. I guess it was only natural, we weren’t close anyway.

I wanted to get to know her better. She was a really sweet girl, everyone was practically drawn to her like moths to a flame. She just has a special charm to her. Maybe it was the way her eyes would glitter whenever she smiles, I’m not really sure. Whatever it was it sure caught my attention.

The first time I tried to speak to her I was nervous. I could feel my heart beat wildly in my chest as I approached her. But for some reason, after the initial awkwardness, we managed to slide into a smooth conversation. I can’t remember what exactly we were talking about but it was the start of our many conversations. We never really talk about anything important, we’d jump from topic to topic, never to actually reach a conclusion on the previous one but it didn’t matter. Through those talk we sort of formed a weird type of friendship, you couldn’t really tell since we don’t speak to each other outside of the classroom, but she had been the only one to actually hold a conversation with me longer than the rest, and for some reason I completely trust her. Though I’ve never actually shared a secret with her I just felt that if I ever wanted to tell someone something important that I don’t want to scatter all over she would be that person.

Whenever I see her, or hear her voice I feel my pulse palpitate every time. I tried to keep it in control but just a word from her I would lose my grip over myself. Thankfully I haven’t done anything drastic, but every time she smiles my way I can never help the smile forming on my face. It was then that I though “I think I love you”. Of course I didn’t say that out loud.

A year went by and we got up the ranks of school. I was relieved when I found out we still had the same homeroom. It meant I get to see her every day, like last year. I couldn’t wait to see her again. But then, after the first week of school she stopped smiling. She came in still looking sleepy, but her smile was nowhere to be found, instead a small frown took its place.

On the first day of the second week I tried talking to her. She didn’t seem interested so I stopped. During lectures I would sneak glances her way. She wasn’t listening in on the lecture. She was just staring out the window looking like she was thinking of something no one else understood. Once I caught her rubbing something from her eyes. It looked like tears. I didn’t understand. Was she suffering? I wanted to ask why, but I felt like I would be intruding on her personal life. I didn’t like it. I wasn’t able to help her.

For some time it continued like this. She didn’t look like the cheerful girl I saw a year ago. It hurt to see her look so sad, it didn’t suit her personality. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how. I wasn’t really close to her, but I wanted to bring back that wonderful smile.

I decided, I would do whatever I can to make her smile again.

It was just a small gesture, I’m not good at making people happy but I hoped it would make her happy, even if just a little bit. I brought her a can of orange juice during lunch. When I offered it to her she looked up at me, unsure of what to do. I just smiled and nodded my head, hoping she’d get my message, and went back to my seat. The day after that I did the same thing, and the day after that.

At the fourth day she finally asked. “Why?”

I shrugged. “I just thought you’d like some juice.” She stares quizzically at me, like I had just grown another appendage. I don’t blame her, it’s unusual to find someone who just comes up and gives you something and not question their objective. I give her a small smile and turn to go back to my seat.

“Wait.” She calls. I turn back to her. “Tanaka-san, would you like to eat lunch with me?”

This time it is my turn to stare. I didn’t expect this. I was thinking more on the lines that she would thank me or ask for me to stop bringing her juice. An invitation was the last thing I expected from her.

“Uh… sure.” I manage to say. I must’ve looked stupid staring at her dumbly. I go to my seat and take out my lunch, just a plain mentaiko pan, and hurry back to her. I take the empty seat in front of her, say my grace and start eating.

“Tanaka-san?” she calls again. I look up at her. “I’m sorry if I sound rude but… is that all you’re having?” she asks haltingly. Still chewing the piece in my mouth I nod my head.

“I like mentaiko.” I tell her.

“Ah…” she goes quiet after that and stares at her bento box. She plays with her food for a while, looking like she was thinking of something. I try not to stare at her too much and concentrate on my lunch. I finish first, considering mine was just bread, and sit back. I don’t have anything else to do and staring at someone eat was just rude so I pretend to look interested at the ceiling.

“Tanaka-san?”

“Hm?” I hum. I tilt my head back down to look at her properly. She sits up slightly in her seat, staring straight at me. “Would you like a bite?” she finally asks.

“Huh?”

“Would you like a bite?” she repeats. This time she picks up a piece of rolled up egg and brings it up. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. Subtly I pinched my leg from under the desk, just to make sure I was awake.

I was awake. This was really happening.

I continue to stare at her, wondering if she was kidding. Slowly I nod my head and reach for the piece, but she pulls it away. She leans over the table and brings it up to my lips.

“Uh, Kamei-san?”

“Open your mouth.” She says.

Reluctantly I open my mouth and she feeds me the egg. I could feel my cheeks burning up, but I try to keep my blush down as I chew on the food. It’s different from what I’m used to but it taste really good.

“It tastes good.” I say.

“Really?” she asks.

I nod my head. “Did you make it?”

Her cheeks color as shade of pink and she hang her head down. She makes an affirmative noise and inside I feel like I’m melting. Damn it, she’s just so cute.

“It tastes really good Kamei-san.” I repeat.

She looks up and, for once since the beginning of the sem, she smiles.

“Eri.” She says.

“Huh?”

“Call me Eri.”

“E-ri?” I try, a bit unsure. Again she smiles. God I can never get tired of her smile.

“Well then… Eri.” I feel a small smile forming on my lips. I like the way her name easily rolls off my tongue. I can get used to calling her by her given name. “Call me Reina.”

“Okay… Reina.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“I truly love you” was what I’ve always dreamed to say to her. She was just so special to me, I couldn’t believe I’d ever feel anything like this to anyone. The feeling of always wanting to be close to her, to make sure she was alright. The deep want to protect her from everything that could potentially hurt her. The irrefutable feeling of jealousy whenever someone came too close to her. I never knew loving someone would be this troublesome.

It’s funny, really. I didn’t even ask her out and already I’m thinking like a possessive girlfriend. Hell, even the thought of asking her out already sends my nerves into a frenzy. She’s just started getting comfortable around me, I mean really comfortable like what normal friends do with each other, I didn’t want to spook her off by just jumping at her with a confession.

‘Hi Eri. By the way I like, like you in that way. Want to hang out later?’

Right. I’d rather shoot myself point blank than make her think I was a weirdo. Ah, love, why art thou so cruel?

“Reina!” I nearly jump as Eri’s face comes into view, just a few inches away from my own. Too close.

“Y-yeah?” I push my chair back slightly, just to make a bit more space between us. This girl has no sense of personal space does she?

“Walk home with me?” she asks.

After the day when we started eating lunch together, and in extension got to talking again, we found out that we take the same train going home. Her stop was before mine. Since then we started going home together. Throughout the way we would talk with just about anything. Well usually I would do the talking and she would listen. She isn’t really as talkative as she was before, but she was a great listener. Though sometime I wonder whether she was still there or her mind had wandered elsewhere. I can never really be sure.

“Sure. Just, hold on, let me clean up my things.” She smiles at my answer. I’ve been seeing that smile for a while now. It’s very satisfying, knowing I got her to smile again. Me, Tanaka Reina, got Eri to smile again and no one else. I might sound a bit arrogant but I think I deserve to be smug about it, at least in my mind. She nods her head and takes a seat on the unoccupied seat in front of my table.

I start packing my stuff, just now noticing that most of our classmates have already left. Have I been spacing out for so long? I take a quick glance at Eri. She notices and sends me another smile. I quicken my pace.

“Okay, I’m done.” I tell her as I zip my bag close. “Let’s go.”

“Un.” She jumps up and waits for me to walk first. She trails after me, matching her pace with mine. I start talking about anything that pops into my mind. She’d answer with little hums or a nod of her head, sometimes she’d answer with short sentences but she goes quiet afterwards. By the time I feel my mouth getting parched from all the talking we arrive at the station. We were a bit early for the next train so I took the chance to get something to drink. I tell Eri to wait by the benches while I get something from the vending machine. I buy a can of tea for myself and a can of orange juice.

I go up to the bench where Eri was and, out of boredom, I place the cool can beside her cheek. She jumps at the contact and swivels around, eyes wide. I had to bite my lower lip to stop myself from laughing.

“Reina! Mou, you scared me.” She places a hand over her heart, looking a bit peeved.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” I smiled and hand her the orange juice. She looks at the can, then at me. “A peace offering.” I joke.

She smiles and takes the juice. She opens the can and takes small sips. I open my own and take a long swing. The taste of the cool tea was refreshing for my semi-dry mouth. Maybe I should lay off the talking for a while, walking in silence was just as nice anyway, just as long as Eri was there beside me.

“You know… if I turn orange from all the orange juice, I’ll know who to blame.” Eri suddenly pipes up.

Wasn’t that supposed to be for carrots? I turn to her and shake my head, but I don’t stop the grin forming on my face.

We take a seat on the bench and silently wait for the train. Like I said the silence was perfectly alright with me, it was refreshing. The station was mostly deserted so the place was pretty much void of the usual noise. A soft ballad was playing on the speakers. I never knew they had speakers installed in the station; I never really heard it play until today, and I’ve been taking the same train for over a year. I guess I really do need to listen more.

Speaking of listen, I hear the train coming. I get up to throw my empty can away. I reach over for Eri’s can, she’s been absently playing with it since she finished its contents a while ago. I wasn’t staring at her the whole time, I just see her through my peripherals is all. When I take it away her hands freeze where they are and she looks up at me, looking a lot like she just woke up.

“Train’s here.” I tell her. She blinks blankly at me a few times before her eyes slowly go to the train tracks, just as the train slowed to a stop.

I throw our cans into the nearest trash can and head back to where Eri was. She was still sitting on the bench, staring at something or another. Once I get close enough though she suddenly stands up. She grabs my bag with one hand and reach for my hand with the other. Before I know it we were running through the station heading for the far end of the cars. The warning signal starts to ring just as we get in the last car and a moment later the doors close and the train starts to vibrate slightly.

Eri strides to the end of the car with purpose. I notice that her hold on my hand hasn’t loosened in the least as I followed her, not that I minded. Her hand is soft and warm, I wish she won’t let go. When we get to the empty chairs she grins at me widely and pulls me to the seat beside her. Like a child she kneels on the chair and looks out the window, her eyes bright with delight as she watched the city zoom past, pressing her free hand and her forehead against the glass.

I don’t tell her to sit properly; I didn’t have the heart to, not with that look she was wearing, the one that was so full of childish wonder. I don’t know how she did it, we’re in our second year of high school but she projected an air of innocence, almost like that of a 5 year old. She just looked happy as she was, so I left her to her own devise.

Throughout the whole ride she would call for my attention and point at something and squeal, laugh, make up a lame pun or do all of the above at once. If it were someone else I would probably have told them off or ignored them. I shift a bit, acutely aware of our still linked hands. She hasn’t let me go since.

The train starts to slow down. I take a quick glance out the window as we arrive at the station, not that I needed to. I know this was Eri’s stop. The warmth in my hand disappears. I hold onto my disappointment and bury it at the back of my mind as I plaster on a smile.

“Reina, can I borrow your phone?” she asks. She has a serious face on as she held out her hand. I pull out my phone from my pocket and hand it to her. She takes it with a wide smile. I watch her as she busies herself with the small gadget, mentally counting the seconds before the doors would close and the train would continue on its way. As bad as it sounds I am actually hoping that the doors would close before Eri could leave.

She clicks the phone shut and hands me back the phone. “I put my phone number in. Text me later okay?” she says in one breath. Before I could respond she turns and run out onto the platform, just before the doors shut. So close.

I turn to look out the window. She was still there, waving her goodbye. I wave back, not stopping the action until she is completely out of my sights. I sit back onto the chair and fumble with my phone. I check the phonebook and search for Eri’s name. It’s there, like she said. I quickly create a message, just a hello and a smiley, of course adding my name at the end, and press send.

A few seconds later my phone rings. I check the mail and my heart nearly skips a beat.

‘You know, Eri already misses Reina.’ It said.

I rub my eyes and reread the message. I am so glad that the car I’m in was empty. My cheeks are staring to hurt from the huge smile I had on. I tell her I feel the same way and that she was fun to be with and that I can’t wait to see her again tomorrow. I try to make it sound as casual as I can, rereading my composition again and again just to make sure it doesn’t sound too forward.

Her reply comes a little later. ‘Nee, Reina, promise me we’ll be like this forever. I will always be here for Reina.’

‘I promise.’ This was a no-brainer.

It’s true.

This tenderness and this promise…

They’re all real.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Gentle and calm, a naturally kindhearted girl, these are few of her traits that everyone would use to describe her. So I guess it was hard to believe that someone as angelic as her would stick with someone who’s practically her opposite, personality-wise. At first we got stared at a lot for simply walking together, it felt like we were part of an exhibition. A quick glare would easily fix that though.

Eri never mentioned anything about it, so I assumed that she either didn’t mind or didn’t notice. It was pretty hard not to notice, especially if you were the one under scrutiny of the public, but I found out quickly that Eri tend to be oblivious to almost everything. I bet even staring at her from a feet away wouldn’t sway her any, not unless someone would tell her straight that she was being stared at.

I play with the pen in my hand. Sensei was in front blabbing about some great warriors from the past. I only half listen to the lecture, I don’t know how something from the past could help us with our everyday lives so I tend to not listen. Thankfully I’m seated at the middle so what I do isn’t noticeable from the front. I tap the pen on my notes. It’s barely filled with writings; there are more doodles in one page than notes of the subject. It doesn’t matter, I can always ask either Niigaki-san or Takahashi-san for the notes later. I would ask for Eri’s but I’m sure hers would be full of ink blots and random lines from trying to stay awake, if not void of any notes. I wonder which one I’ll be seeing today.

I glance up to the front, sensei’s busy writing on the board. Chance. I turn to look at Eri, she’s seated one seat to the left behind me so I have a good view of her, if I can just angle myself right.

Her eyes are barely open. Her pen is hovering over her notebook, not quite touching. Her head would tilt a little bit forward before she would subconsciously jerk back. At the rate of the lecture it won’t be long till her mind would entirely shut down. Ink blots and random lines it is then.

I stare back at the front, wouldn’t want to get sensei to notice now. It’s not that I’m scared of getting a lecture or anything of that sort, more like I don’t need to be called out in the middle of the class. The teachers are really singling me out. It’s not fair.

Speaking of which, sensei’s looking my way now, I pretend to jot down some notes.

“It would seem that my lecture is boring some of you…” I freeze mid-pretend write. Am I found out? No way. I’m in the middle of the room, so unless sensei is actually a super human disguising as a fat school teacher he can’t get to the middle this fast. I look up from my “notes”, sure enough he is still at the front, glaring at someone at the back. A lot of students were en route to dream world, some were already conked out on their seat. I relax my body, at least I might be let off the hook for today.

“Kamei-san!” Oh no.

I turn to look at the back. Eri jerks up from her seat, her eyes clear of the earlier sleep spell. She ducks her head down and straightening up in her seat, half-mumbling, half-shout an apology. I grip my table slightly, sensei has never paid much attention to those that slept through his class before, and the guy behind me was clearly passed out over his table. How come only Eri got called out?

“Welcome back to the world of the living Kamei-san, have you had a pleasant rest? Well now that you’re wide awake mind recounting my lecture to the class.” It wasn’t a request. I glare at sensei from my seat, he doesn’t seem to notice. I hear Eri squeak followed by the sound of pages ruffling.

“Um… from Tokugawa Ienari…” I turn back to Eri. She’s skimming through her earlier notes. Her face is entirely red from embarrassment but still she tries to save face. I grin slightly, proud of her.

“No looking at notes.”

“Eh?” She looks like she’s ready to cry. My hands form into fist underneath my table. “um… he’s um.. the eleventh to serve and the longest to hold office…” I quickly skim through my notes, so far she’s doing good. I turn back to look at her, she looks at me and I give her a go on signal “uh sta-starting from 1786-“ I slightly shake my head and hold up seven fingers “no 7. During his rule there was a great famine that lasted for… 5 years?”

“Kamei-san, please step outside...”

“Eh?”

“… and remain there for the rest of the period.”

“That’s not fair!” I yell. I stand up from my seat and glare directly at sensei. “She tried her best and what she said was right. She already said she was sorry.”

“Tanaka-san, sit down. No speaking unless I call on you. Kamei-san, step outside.”

I hear Eri squeak again and her chair scrapping back as she stepped out to the aisle. I open my mouth, about to retort when I feel a light tug at my sleeve. I turn to her, her cheeks are still red, and up close I can see the tears at the corner of her eyes. She looks up and smiles sheepishly. “It’s okay, thanks Reina.” She says hurriedly.

“Kamei-san.” Sensei barked. Eri jumped from the sound but before she could move I grab her wrist, stopping her movement. I give sensei one last hard stare and slip out of my table. Without saying anything I stomp up to the front and out the door, Eri a step behind. I slam the door shut and continue walking down the hall. I don’t let Eri go, she doesn’t resist.

We go up to the rooftop. Students aren’t allowed to go there except during lunch hours but the doors are always unlocked. I found out about it last year, whenever I didn’t feel like going to class I came up here instead. I’ve slept here so often that I actually have a bag of my stuff hidden at a corner somewhere. I just hoped no one found it and threw it away.

I let Eri’s wrist go and walk up to the far end of the roof, where a couple of logs and fences were left out. I go down on my knees and search for a plastic bag. I quickly find it in between a couple of logs, where I last left it. I take the plastic off and shove it back into the space. The bag is old, but free of smell and stains. The plastic fended off the rain and kept the bag and my things safe from the weather. I take out the large, old blanket and the small pillow. I put the bag back in with the plastic and head over to a shadowed spot. I wave Eri over as I begin to lay out the blanket.

“Reina, why do you have a blanket here?”

“I used to hang out here whenever I felt sleepy.”

“Was that why you disappear in the middle of class last year?”

“Uh…” crap, should’ve made up a lie. “Sensei was really being a jerk back there huh?” I sit down and pat the free space beside me. Eri hesitantly sits down, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head over her knees. The redness of her face has already subsided, but her eyes were still a little watery. I nudge her lightly with my shoulder.

“Don’t mind. He was just flat out being mean. The guy behind me was clearly in snooze-ville and more than half the class was already half asleep. It’s not our fault his lectures were boring. He’d have knocked a lion out with his boring tone.” I joke.

Eri nods her head, but she doesn’t say anything.

I sigh. “Sorry Eri.” I say.

Her head rises at this. I send her an apologetic smile. It’s probably my fault she’s being targeted. I’m not exactly a model student. The teachers hate my guts, even though I didn’t do anything. Well that’s probably the reason why they hate me in the first place. I’m not too big with authority so I tend to be a sore for the grownups. Now with Eri hanging around me they’re probably thinking that I might influence her or something.

“Sensei’s just worried that I might rub off on you. I don’t think they like that I’m hanging around you too much.” I don’t look at her as I say this, I pretend to be interested with my nails. I don’t hear anything from her so I continue. “Maybe it’s best… if I keep a little distance.” Not that I want to, but it’s for the best. I don’t want Eri to suffer just cause sensei was being a pain in the ass and tried using psychology shit. I wanted to protect Eri from harm, how ironic is it that by being by her side I’m practically inviting harm to her.

I don’t hear a word from her, but I can feel her gaze on me. I ignore it and continue staring at nothing, I’m scared that if I look at her I might not want to go through with my proposition. I hear her sigh and a slight shuffle of cloth and I assume she’s getting up to go back to the class hallway. That’s why I nearly jumped when I felt her lean her head on my shoulder and her arm slip around my waist.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I don’t like Reina ignoring me. I don’t care what sensei thinks, I don’t want Reina to be far from me.” She says. My heart melts at this. I bite my bottom lip and try to keep in the tears threatening to fall. I slip my arm around her shoulder and pull her closer. I don’t want to let her go. I don’t want her to be far from me either.

I have to become stronger. Slowly but surely, I will. I’m learning from her.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Okay, glaring at  the teacher was alright, but storming out with your friend in tow and slamming the door just as the teacher was following us out and nearly smashed his face onto the door, whether it was intentional or not, and skipping the next few classes wasn’t one of my brightest moves yet. It was brilliantly badass, but it also meant I got us into big trouble.  Thankfully I managed to convince the disciplinarian that it was all me and that Eri had nothing to do with it.

I couldn’t do anything about the skipping class part, apparently that was wholly Eri’s choice. It was of her own free will to stay with me and not attend the other classes so it was decided that she had to be punished too. She got a small mark on her record and a few days of afterschool clean-up duty for her ‘misconduct’. Niigaki-san told them how sensei was unfairly singling Eri out and that I was only being a good friend, so I got my suspension cut for a week. What’s sucks about it is that it’s an on school suspension. The only upside I can think of is that Eri and I are paired to do afterschool clean-up during the course of her punishment, after that I’m all alone.

Eri doesn’t seem to mind her punishment; she’s too busy fussing over mine to care about hers. She thinks it’s unfair that I get a full week of suspension. It’s cute.

Of course we didn’t forget our manners and properly thanked Niigaki-san. If she hadn’t gone in and backed us up I would’ve been doing 2 weeks’ worth of the teachers breathing down my back.

We went back to class after that. Even though I was mostly staring at my table instead of the front I knew my classmates were throwing glances at me. I was also positive that the next few teachers regarded me with contempt, but wisely kept their thoughts to themselves. By the end of the class I was practically restraining myself from jumping up and hightailing out of there. I keep calm and slowly put my things back in my bag.

I feel a soft tap on my shoulder and briefly wonder if that was just my imagination. I turn back and, to my surprise, find a smiling Niigaki and Takahashi. It’s unusual that the two would come to me of their own accord. It was usually the other way around.

“Uh… can I help you?” I ask.

Niigaki-san shakes her head, her megawatt smile still in tack. “I didn’t get to say this before we went back for class, but what you did earlier was…” she paused, her pupil darting up, trying to go through her internal dictionary for the perfect word.

“Reckless. Irresponsible. Stupid.” Takahashi-san quickly supplied. I shot her a glare, my hands curling into fists at my side. Niigaki-san beats me to the punch, literally. She reaches up, her fist at the ready and squarely connects with Takahashi-san’s shoulder.

“Ai-chan, don’t be rude.” Takahashi-san pouts at this but she says no more.

Niigaki-san fixes her a small glare before clearing her throat and continuing. “What I was meaning to say was… really nice, if a little reckless.”

“That’s what I said!” Takahashi-san protested.

“You didn’t need to add the last one.” Niigaki-san shot back.

Funnily I quickly forget my earlier irritation at Takahashi-san as I watched the two squabble. It’s not the first time I’ve seen them bicker, and I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last. I don’t try to stop them, mainly because they were a lot more interesting than anything in the telly, and they always make up afterwards, like an old married couple.

I jump slightly from the loud smacking sound. Takahashi-san had slapped Niigaki-san’s shoulder hard, enough that Niigaki-san stumbled to the side from the force. Niigaki-san had on a look of pure shock before her face contorted to irritation and she began raining slaps on Takahashi-san’s left arm. Takahashi-san must have realized how hard she hit Niigaki-san since she seemed resign to her fate of being the girl’s personal sand(slap)bag, all the while pouting and looking a lot like a bulldog.

I look back to Eri. She looked a little lost as she stared at the show in front of me, which was currently gaining everyone’s attention. I excuse myself from the two, I don’t know if they heard or not but I don’t wait for a response, and hurry to her side.

“What happened?” she asked as soon as I get to her.

“Same old, same old.” I shrug. “Hey want to head out for some ice cream? My treat.” She grins at the mention of ice cream.

“I want chocolate ice cream!” she cheers.

“O~sha! Ice cream here we come!” I cheer back, pumping my fist up the air. Then, remembering that we are still in school, I glance around the classroom. Every eye was on me, even Niigaki-san and Takahashi-san stopped their bickering to stare at me. I put on a glare and growl out “What y’all lookin’ at?” They all go back to doing their own business, I grin when I see a poor sap tumble over his chair as he tried to act casual.

I feel Eri’s arm slip around mine. I turn to her. She smiles, unaffected by my sudden change of attitude, and begin tugging me along with her, a little too forcefully. I snort a little at this. I slip my arm out of her grip, I see her pout a little at this and my stomach starts flipping. I pretend not to notice and casually slip my arm over her shoulder, inadvertently pulling her closer. “Let’s go.” She looks back at me, smiling so wide it looked like her face was going to rip.

She must really love ice cream.

-o-o-o-o-o-

We stopped by an ice cream shop a little ways from the train station. It was just a quaint little shop stuck in between large bakeries and restaurants. If you don’t look close enough you might just miss it. It looked a lot like a candy shop so usually children with their parents flock there more often than older kids. I think I can understand why though. If I was the owner I would’ve preferred kids than teens, they’re a lot less of a headache than high school guys that think more with their balls than with their heads.

When we get there Eri immediately stalked off to look for a free seat. I line up with the rest of the parents with their energetic kids randomly pointing and rambling on and on about things that kids like to talk about with their parents. The line is pretty short so I probably won’t take longer than five minutes. I make sure to put a distance between myself and the rest. I’m not really a fan of kids. It’s not that I dislike them, I’m just used to my little brother terrorizing me every waking moment of my life.

I admit they are pretty cute once they’re asleep. Not as cute as Eri though. She’s so cute when she starts nodding off.

I snap out of my musing once the old man at the counter calls for my attention. I try to contain my blush as I go up and order. Thankfully the old man just smiled and went off to make my order. He comes back with the two cups on a tray and I pay for it and quickly leave.

I find Eri near the back. She smiles as soon as she sees me and enthusiastically waves me over. I try to hurry, but it proved to be a challenge. Kids were wandering all over the aisle, much to their parents’ infuriation. Some were playing tag, racing across every free space they could find. It took a while but I manage to get to our seat, only once nearly tripping over a kid crawling all over the floor.

“Sorry, kids.” I say.

She tsked, playfully wagging a finger. “It’s bad to pass blame on the kids, Reina.”

I roll my eyes at this and begin placing our ice cream on the table and get rid of the tray. No sooner had we said our grace did Eri begin digging into her ice cream. She would eat half of a teaspoonful and start exaggeratedly moaning.

“So sweet~ Reina, would you like a bite?” I shake my head.

“You go ahead and finish that.”

“Reina, why is yours green? Is it green tea flavored?”

“It’s pistachio.”

“Pistachio?” she asked, tilting her head cutely.

I nod my head. I take a teaspoonful and offer it to her. She cautiously eyes the green creamy substance and purses her lips. “It’s some sort of nut. It’s pretty good. Try it.” I try to convince her.

Hesitantly she starts leaning over, her mouth slightly parting, just enough to permit the small spoon in her mouth. She pulls back, her eyes slightly widening in wonder and her hand going up to her mouth.

“Reina! That’s really good.” She states surprised.

“Of course it’s good. I picked it didn’t I?” I smugly smile at this.

“Let me try that again!” she says.

I pull the cup away from her, earning me a small frown. “Uh-uh. You’ve got your chocolate, let me eat my pistachio.”

“Aw.. Reina, let me try again. Please.” She begs. She claps her hands together and puts on those puppy dog eyes, her bottom lip sticking out to complete the look. I try to ignore her while I still can. I know I’ll lose sooner or later, might as well play my cards while I still have them.

Her hands wrap around my hands, her fingers playing with mine. I slowly turn to her, my firmness quickly crumbling. “Reina… Please.” She says in a small voice.

That was it. I sigh and smile defeated. I push my cup towards her but she shakes her head. I raise a brow at this. She smiles coyly before opening her mouth. I roll my eyes before scooping up some of the treat and feed her. She nods her head once, approvingly, and I notice that her cheeks are tinted a light pink. I don’t put much though on that, must be the cold.

We talk about our family as we finish our ice cream. I find out that she has an older brother and a younger sister and that she often has fights with her mother for the pettiest things. It was cute how she looked as she told me about that one time they had an argument while eating out, about who got to eat the one meatball of their pasta.

I told her about why my family transferred here in Tokyo after I graduated elementary. I told her that I have a younger brother that drives me up the wall whenever we were together and that my dad usually sides with him. That though I get scold at a lot by my parents they were still pretty cool with just about anything, though I’m sure they’ll probably blow a gasket after I tell them about my suspension. I keep the last part out of the conversation though.

Throughout my chatter Eri doesn’t say anything, her eyes sparkling in delight as she listens intently. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I like the feeling.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The weeks go by fast. I’ve served my time without much of a hitch. When I got back to class everything quickly eased back to normality. Risa and Ai were a big help, they lent me the notes that I missed and even offered their help if I ever needed it. They offered the same proposition to Eri which she gladly took.

The four of us started to hang out together. Ai and Risa didn’t mind that I had that yankii image, it even seemed like they didn’t know about my image the school body was spreading. I’m pretty sure the reason why they like me now was because of that time I stood up for Eri. That or because I kept going to them for notes. Well, the more friends the merrier. Eri absolutely loves the company and I sure don’t have a problem with it. They even said to just call them by their nicknames, that and Risa had given me a weird nickname. It kind of has a nice ring to it so I don’t mind.

With just the couple of weeks since we hung out with them I’ve already got a better understanding of the two. Risa can be a bit uptight at times and has infrequent, but scary, angry fits, but she has a lot of good points. She also something like a mother or the older sister of our group, especially when it comes to Eri, it’s probably cause Eri’s so dependent and innocent. Ai on the other hand is hard-headed, frightfully frank and has a bit of a violent streak, it doesn’t really come up often, usually only during an intense argument between her and Risa. But she’s a pretty dependable person, when she’s serious even Risa bows down to her authority. She’s not our iinchou for nothing.

Thankfully after that time, the teachers pretty much ignore me, must be because I’m hanging out with Ai and Risa. Whatever the reason is I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about being singled out ever again, or at least I hope so.

Rumors of me standing up for Eri spread all over the campus fast. A few days after I officially came back to classes a pale black haired girl from the other section came to our classroom during lunch. She pulled me up and suddenly hugged me, much to my surprise. It turns out that she was a close friend of Eri from back during their elementary school days, said her name was Michishige Sayumi. She thanked me for looking after Eri when she couldn’t, then she started sticking to my side, like really close. I tried to shake her off, but it was harder said than done. Suffice to say it was the most uncomfortable lunch period I ever had.

I don’t know if it’s just me but ever since that time with Sayumi Eri’s been acting a little weird. She zones out much more frequently than she normally does. She won’t look at me for long, which I admit hurts a little. She talks lesser and lesser as the days go by and it’s really starting to worry me, though on the other hand she does seem to be a lot more self-conscious, like checking her reflection a lot more often and the likes.

At the end of class I quickly stuff my things in my bag and head over to Eri’s table. I’m going to get to the bottom of this today, at least that’s my plan. I’ll try getting it out of her as soon as we get out of everyone’s hearing range.

She’s taking her time, slowly taking out her things and putting them in her bag. From the way she’s packing you’d think her bag would at least be a bit organized, I tell you it was just as bad as mine. I don’t even think her mind’s all there. I wave my hand in front of her, she jumps a little and hear head snaps to me. Just as I thought.

“Hey, ready to go home?”

“Ah… un.” She zips her bag close and stand up. I offer her my arm, she pauses as she stares at me. I can’t read her face. Feeling a bit awkward I let my arm fall limp by my side. “uh… Let’s go.”

We walk back in awkward silence. So much for “getting to the bottom of it”, I can’t even think of anything to say. I steal a glance at her, she still has a blank look on her face. What could have caused this? I try to think back to the last few days, before all the weirdness started. I haven’t treated her any differently, not that I can recall. Maybe I did or said something that upset her, but I’m not so sure. I’m not one for apologizing, especially if I can find no fault in what I’ve done, but this I cannot take any longer. I’d rather lower my pride once than go through another uncomfortable silence with her.

“Hey Eri…”

“Reina…”

We both stop. I turn to her, giving her my undivided attention. I motion for her to go first. She dips her head down somewhat, and then, as if thinking against it, raises her head back up. There is something in her eyes, something I’ve never seen before, determination. Her body language tells a different story though. Her fingers kept fidgeting with the hem of her skirt, she opens her mouth only to close it a second later.

We were going nowhere with this. I take her hands in my own, giving them a reassuring squeeze. It’s the only thing I can think to do now. Her eyes go down to our hands and I wonder did I make a mistake? I was about to let go when I felt her squeeze back.

She takes a deep breath. “Reina… I- I… I like…” her voice fades at the end. She’s not looking at me anymore, but it doesn’t look like she’s gone off to outer space either, which I guess was good. I rub my thumb over the back of her hand, her eyes go back to our hands. Again I wonder if I’m over doing the caring friend bit. Crap. I hope I’m not freaking her out.

“I think I like you.” She finally blurts out. I don’t know how to react to this. Wasn’t it already a given to like your friends? Eri must have sensed my confusion and she continued. “I mean… I like you more than a normal friend. I’ve felt differently for you for a long time, like I get jealous whenever someone gets too close to you or I get lonely whenever I’m not with you, but I didn’t know how to tell you and I was scared that you might think weirdly of me and I don’t want to lose you as a friend, but I don’t want to just stay friends so I never told you but I just really wanted to tell you and I don’t need an answer I just really wanted you to know.” She says all of that quickly in one breath. By the time she finished her face was already as red as beats, I could almost imagine steam coming out of her ears.

I had to take a short time to decode the mostly garbled words. Once I did I felt light on my feet. It seemed surreal. I was pretty sure I had a dream like this once. I pull one hand back to experimentally pinch myself. I wince slightly from the sharp pain. Wait, that meant this really isn’t a dream. I stare back at her with my jaw going slack. She shifts uncomfortably under my gaze, but I can’t make myself look away from her.

“Reina please don’t cry.” I hear her pleading voice. I reach up to my cheeks, feeling a warm wetness on my fingertips. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” She sniffles. Her eyes are once again down cast, tears of her own silently falling down her cheeks. She starts to pull away. Without thinking I pull her back, my hand gripping hers tighter.

“You like, like me.” I say, almost unbelievingly. She stares at me, her eyes not betraying her nervousness. Hesitantly she nods, pauses, then shakes her head. I feel my heart crush at the action.

“No… I think I love you.”

Let’s be together forever
Loving you forever

My face lights up. I pull her closer and wrap my arms around her shoulder. I don’t stop the tears from falling down my face. I don’t care who sees us, I’m just so happy, I’m sure there’s a large smile on my face. “I love you too. I’ve always loved you. I just never thought you’d feel the same.”

“Really?” I nod my head.

I feel her arms wrap around me, I sink into the warm feeling. It doesn’t matter that we’re standing in the middle of the street, everything just felt right in that moment. So this is what it’s like to be in love and to be loved back. I don’t think I’ll ever want to forget this feeling, not in a million years. I pull back to see Eri’s face. Despite the tear streaks on her face you could tell she was happy by the wide smile she has on, she looked so beautiful. Her hand slips down my arm to intertwine our fingers. I feel all giddy in side as we lock our fingers together. I probably have on an even goofier grin, but I don’t care. I don’t care if anyone sees us, reputation be damned. I love this girl and I’m making sure she and everyone else knows it.

I’ll vow to the stars that I’ll love you forever. This warmth and this feeling, they’re all real.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2013, 03:30:31 PM by yunagi »
._.

Offline MsSmigge

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Loving You Forever 9/17
« Reply #46 on: September 17, 2013, 06:29:36 PM »
Aaaah, TanaKame!!  :inlove: Aaaah, GoRokkies!!  :inlove:

Such a cute story~  :wub:

like an old married couple.

TAKAGAKI GETS!!! Lol, I always end up saying something like this when these two are involved  :lol:

Very nice job there! I really liked this~


Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

Offline rndmnwierd

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Loving You Forever 9/17
« Reply #47 on: September 20, 2013, 10:12:42 PM »
asfsdgdfhg so cute~!~! :deco: I love it!

Offline aya-chii

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Loving You Forever 9/17
« Reply #48 on: September 23, 2013, 04:15:57 AM »
i printed it last time because i was so busy with school works that i dont have time to read it.. it was only yesterday that i was finally able to. and it was so beautiful... so beautiful. i nearly cried as i read it. you.. you projected reina's POV very well. i myself, have felt the very same thing, or almost the same. though i'd most likely to be eri's persona, but such emotions.. some were even similar to what happened to us, i'd like to quote all of it but they were too many ! (yeah, it was that similar) not until the teacher scene of course xD those, small details.. how they interact *runs away and sobs*

though, we're still friends today :)

thank you yunagi <3

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Loving You Forever 9/17
« Reply #49 on: September 24, 2013, 11:32:28 AM »
MsSmigge: My mind is still stuck at the platinum era so I mostly write GoRokkie stuffs. GoRokkie saiko! I’m glad you like it.
TakaGaki FTW! You’re not the only one~

rndm: Then it’s a success!

Aya-chii: Thank you very much~

Thank you guys! I was so nervous that it wouldn’t be received well. Thank you very much! And now Imma take advantage of my stable internet connection and post the sequel.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2013, 11:41:49 AM by yunagi »
._.

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: On a Nice Note 9/24
« Reply #50 on: September 24, 2013, 11:39:04 AM »
On a Nice Note


I wake up. There’s a light buzz in my head as the information I need slowly comes to my still half-asleep mind.

My mind processes that I am in my bed, in my two sizes too large shirt that I like to wear to sleep. I also figure out that it’s already morning and that my alarm hasn’t gone off yet, and that doesn’t sit too well with me.

It takes a minute for my eyes to adjust to the light shining in from my parted curtains, and for that short time I berate myself for forgetting to shut them close last night. I pushed myself up and swing my legs off the edge of the bed and place my feet on the floor. I cringe at the cold and pull my feet back into the warm confines of my bed, rubbing my blanket over them to provide a little warmth.

I check my alarm clock. The alarm will go off in ten minutes. I groan. I hate mornings.

I lie on my side and glare at whatever was in front of me, which unfortunately just happened to be my clock. I watch the long hand’s slow progressively ticking, silently urging it to just stop where it is and let me sleep longer. I quickly give up on that and close my eyes, and for the first time in a long time I try to recall pieces of the dream I had before I woke up.

I remember water, the feel of warm water on my skin and the faint salty taste in my mouth. I remember blue, it’s everywhere. Then the smell, it’s faint but I know what it is. In my dream I was at the beach. I try to remember more, but all I’m left with is a blur of motions, and before I can reach out and grasp the small remains of the dream, it is gone, lost in the dark recess of my mind. I give it up, no use trying to dig up what is lost and end up having a headache. I’m just content with knowing that it was a nice dream.

Just then a sound goes off. It takes a while for my mind to process the tone of the sound, and once it did I know it isn’t my alarm. The music dies down and I am left with the silence of the morning. I try to remember where I last put my phone before crashing for the night, a hard feat for someone like me who still sees everything in a light haze. I blindly began digging through my bed, slipping my hands in every cranny I can find. I feel the familiar contours of my phone and make a grab for it. I flip it open, reading the small message alert box that popped up.

1 new message

I lie back on my stomach and let out a good yawn, my thumb pressing on the okay button. I wipe the morning stars away from my eyes and squint to read the message.

‘Good morning Reina~’

It was short. A simple good morning message. There wasn’t even a single emoticon to go with it, but I felt my sleepiness go away and my lip quirk up in what was probably a goofy smile as I read the name of the sender.

“Good morning Reina” I read out loud.

I slip out of my bed. It’s Monday so I grab my uniform before heading for the bathroom.

Once I’ve freshen up and changed into my blouse and skirt I head back to my room. Just as I enter my alarm goes off. My parents are probably already down stairs preparing breakfast. My stomach grumbles at the thought of food and I sling my school tie over my neck and slip on my blazer, grabbing my bag before I head out the door.

-o-o-o-o-o-

I arrive at school a little earlier than usual. As usual students have already gathered in clusters, gossiping about whatever girls and boys my age talk about before school starts. I don’t stop to listen in; it’s too early for that. I can probably catch up to the latest gossip later when a certain usa-chan would happily prattle off everything at lunch time… or when I get to class. Either way I’m sure I’m going to hear every single gossip by the end of the day.

I head to my shoe locker and make a quick change. It wasn’t long before I arrive at my classroom. I slid open the door, putting on a smile and calling out a morning greeting. Some students look shocked at my arrival, obviously not used to my early attendance. I haven’t been much of an early riser recently, but I have my days. They shake off the shock and give a greeting in return.

I make my way to the small group of girls by the back and see various degrees of shock on their faces. I grin and make my way to my seat. I make a greeting to everyone again. I make sure I look at everyone, my mind quickly taking up every priceless expression and storing them in my memories, before I finally settle on a sleepy pair of brown eyes. As if snapping out of a spell everyone mumbles back a greeting.

“Wow Reina, this is… wow.” I look up to send a smirk to the girl seated to my right.

“Yep, here I am Gaki-san, way, way before the first warning bell rang. Don’t believe it? Try pinching yourself, just not your cheeks.” Everyone crackles at this and Risa makes a humping sound and turns away. I reach over to give her a light push, but I was beat to it by Ai. She grabbed Risa’s chair and dragged it closer to her desk, earning her a loud screech of surprise and multiple screams of “USO!” by the reaction queen.

Once she was on her feet Risa turned angrily and slaps Ai on her arm. Everyone laughs harder as Ai ducks under her arms while Risa beats her with multiple, light slaps everywhere she can reach. I take this moment to address the pretty girl seated in front of me.

“Hey.” I say, giving her my most sincere smile.

“Hey.” She mumbles back. She smiles widely, her cute fang showing. “Did you receive my message this morning?” she asks.

“Sure did. Would it kill you to add at least one smiley?” I say. Her smile drops and her eyes widen. She blushed, hung her head and started mumbling things I couldn’t comprehend. I reach over and grab her hand, giving it a good firm squeeze. She looks up and I smile. “I’m kidding Eri. Relax.” She looks relieved and smiles back, though a bit bashfully now. I don’t let go of her hand, I know she likes it when we hold hands, said she thinks it’s sweet. Her smile widens at this.

We jump back into the conversation. It was mostly Sayu going on about the latest campus gossip. Junjun and Linlin would sometimes jump in to crack a joke or make sounds at appropriate, and sometimes inappropriate times, much to Sayu’s annoyance. It went on like this until the second warning bell rang with the teacher coming in telling the class to settle down and we go back to out seats.

I try to listen to the lecture, really I do, but the teacher’s monotone was bad enough to put even a wild animal to sleep. In front of me I notice Eri’s head lightly bobbing back and forth and I hazard a guess that she’s near her morning limit, she’s usually the first one to clock out anyway.

I check on Risa, to my right, and Ai, seated behind her, as diligent as always. They were writing down the teachers notes, but from the way Risa’s posture was dropping and Ai’s random pen twirls it was obvious that they were getting bored of this too. Behind me Sayu was busy texting, while probably admiring her reflection from her phone to pass time, if her constant hair check and cutesy smile were any indication.

I hear a slight snicker to my left and I know Junjun and Linlin are passing notes again. Funny thing about it was that even though they were obvious about it most of the time none of the teachers ever called them out to read their notes as punishment, not after the last time. Their notes were in Chinese so even though they read it out loud only the two of them actually understood the message, which resulted in the two girls cracking up, which in turn got the whole class to erupt in laughter and consequently bruised the teacher’s pride.

We have two more subjects before lunch time and it’s already this boring. I laid my head down, too tired to think of how to keep myself up. It looks like Eri’s already tapped out. Her head’s bowed in an uncomfortable angle as she went to visit dream land.

I wonder, is she dreaming about me?

I smile as a plan formed in my head. Now if I can just get a little help.

-o-o-o-o-o-

By the time lunch period arrived I had already dozed off twice. My back feels strained from the awkward position I was in when the sandman paid me a visit. I make a short round of stretching, just to get the kinks out, before I notice Eri still hasn’t moved from her seat. I feel a grin forming as I thought of a nice way to wake up my sleeping beauty.

I make a small gesture to Ai, just a small nod, and she moves into action. She herds the rest of the girls away for a lunch up at the rooftop. We don’t normally go up there unless there was a special occasion so it was inevitable that there was some resistance. Fortunately that resistance was in the form of one Niigaki Risa. All it took a little sweet talk from Ai, a little touch here, a little push there and they were out of sight. Sometimes it amazes me how Ai can easily steer Risa wherever she wanted her to be, as long as they weren’t in one of their petty fights. This was one of those times.

I make a quick survey of the classroom. There were only a few left that hung out, maybe because this was where they normally ate or that they had to get a few things before leaving. It didn’t really matter, all I needed to make sure off was that there was no teacher in sight.

I shuffle closer to the crouched form of the sleeping girl before me. I slip my arms around her waist and plant small kisses near her ear. She stirs some, turns her head to the side and resumes her sleeping. I change course, now planting butterfly kisses on her exposed cheeks. She mutters something, lifts her head up and her eyes flutter open. I grin and swoop in for a light kiss on her plump lips. She looks up at me with confused eyes then, when recognition finally settles in, she smiles widely.

“Good morning Reina.” She mumbles, getting up from her table. There is a red spot on her forehead, from where her head had rest against the arm that she used as her make shift pillow. I reach up to her fringe and arrange them so that it covers the red area. She just smiles and let me do whatever I please.

I reach for her hand, instantly intertwining our fingers together, and help her up. We make our way out of the classroom, but instead of leading her to the rooftop where the others are I lead her to the ground floor. She just quietly follows, probably thinking we were heading to the cafeteria.

I lead her all the way to the shoe lockers. There was a bit of resistance at first but she doesn’t question my actions, not yet. It is when I pass her outdoor shoes to her did she finally spoke up. “Are we going somewhere?” she asks, I hear the confusion in her voice. We never go out of school ground until the last bell had rung. I smile.

“Yes. We’re eating out.” I tell her and leave it at that.

We change our shoes and I take her hand again. We run out of the school. The other students don’t stop to question us. Some of them are doing the same thing so they probably thought we were just going out to grab a bite to eat. There aren’t any teacher’s around so it makes this a lot easier.

We make a quick stop at the nearest burger joint. We order what we want and I get an extra bottle of water. I pay for everything, much to Eri’s annoyance, but I’d like to think of it as embarrassment especially since her cheeks turn red whenever I do this. I ask them for an extra bag and slipped our meals in it before we leave.

“Eri,” I start once we are outside, I grab her hand. She tilts her head cutely and smiles. I feel a smile coming up and I continue. “What do you think about heading for the beach?”

Her eyes widened and she asks “Now?”

I nod my head. I hold my breath, now that what we’re going to do next hinges on her decision. If she says she doesn’t want to leave school, then I won’t argue. If she says she doesn’t want to miss fourth period, I won’t argue. If she says she wants to go back, I won’t argue. I’ll be a bit disappointed, but I won’t argue, not with her.

She holds my hand and she smiles. “Let’s go.”

I let out the breath I was holding and squeeze her hand in mine.

-o-o-o-o-o-

It takes us almost two hours by train but we arrive at Hayama. We had to strip off our blazers, untuck and unbutton the first two buttons of our blouse and hide our neck ties so that we wouldn’t be questioned much. It worked, to a degree. People still stole weary glances our way whenever they though we wouldn’t notice, and I just hoped none of them cared enough to call our attention.

Eri looked as chip as a bird as she chattered all the way, the only hint of nervousness she gave was her tight hold on my arm. I tried my best to follow up, squeezing my input here and there, just so we would look less of the guilty students we really are.

As soon as the train doors open we bolted out of there. We didn’t stop until we reached the exit to the station. When we finally stopped for air we burst out laughing. The few people that lingered there spared us a glance then continued on their way, they had more pressing things to do than wonder what two students were doing by the station exit laughing their ass off. We calm down and I offer my hand to Eri. She automatically slips her hand in mine and I lead her to the beach.

The way there is uneventful. The only way to get to the beach was through a back road that was separated from the city. It isn’t the weekend, nor was it near summer. No one would think of going to the beach, no one except two teens out for a change of pace.

We are in the middle of autumn. The air is cold, not so much that we needed bundling up but enough that Eri’s hand’s turned cold after a few minutes out. She says it’s natural. I believe her, but better safe than sorry. I prod her to put on her blazer; she puts up a fight or at least tried to. I win in the end and she slips her blazer back on after much grumbling. She doesn’t disguise her annoyance as she refuse to look my way. To make her feel better I grab her hand and slip them in my skirt pocket. She looks shock at first, then her cheeks colors a slight pink and she smiles. I feel her hand grip mine tighter.

When we arrive at the beach we take off our socks and shoes. Eri runs ahead of me, leaving her shoes beside me. She strips of her blazer and carelessly chucks it to the side. I quickly pull off my socks and stuff them in my shoes, picking up Eri’s in the process. When I look up I see Eri run up to the waves, like a little child trying to chase off the water. When the waves come crashing back up she squeals and retreats back to the dry sand. I laugh at the sight.

She hears me and she turns, her smile is so bright. She yells at me to come over before she twirls around, her arms spread out as she soaked in the sun’s rays. I pause and watch her. It so beautiful, her joy. It is what gets people’s attention. She’s just so cheerful, so pure. I take that moment to capture the scene presented before me.

“Reina!” She calls again. She holds out her hand, an invitation. I dump our things by her discarded blazer and jog up to her. She takes a hold of my hand and she twirls us around. We both laugh freely, not caring who heard us. In my mind it was just us now. Just us and the beach.

She lets go and runs into the water. I chase after her. I know she isn’t running at her pure potential, else I wouldn’t be able to catch up to her. She squeals when I wrap my arms around her waist. She turns in my hold and holds my face in her palms. She leans in close and I close my eyes, waiting for the soft touch that would send tingles all over my body. But instead of a kiss I feel a weird wetness on my cheek. My eyes shoot open and I let her go. She takes the chance and makes a break for dry ground. She turns and sticks her tongue out. “Eri!” I shout but she just laughs. I wipe the saliva off my cheek and run after her.

For the whole afternoon we play at the beach. At one point she suggested we make a sandcastle. It doesn’t come out the way I imagined it. It looked more like a dome that had a circular chimney in the middle than a castle, but Eri absolutely loves it. I don’t say anything.

After that we ate our forgotten lunch. The burgers doesn’t taste as good as when they were still warm but neither of us cared. We were just too hungry to think about the taste. We scarfed down every single crumb and toasted to the warmth produced by the sun. Afterwards I lay out my blazer and Eri’s blazer side by side, as a makeshift beach towel. We both make ourselves comfortable, I lie on my back and Eri cuddles up beside me. I hook an arm around her shoulder and pull her closer, she rests her head on my shoulder and sighs in contentment. I look up at the sky and my mind unintentionally ponders over the lessons we are missing, not that I care much, and that we are going to have a hell of explaining to do when we get back. I try to think of an excuse, something the girls will believe. I think for a while longer but the lull of the waves and the soft calls from the random birds were much too serene. In this peace you’d think it would be easier to think up off a story. It’s not. I give up for the time being.

Then I think that it was really a beautiful day out, and here I was, in a beach with the most precious person in my life right by my side.

And I think, I don’t regret a thing.

I shift in my position to look at Eri’s face, she’s fast asleep. Must have tire herself out when we were running around. She makes a cute grunting sound and her eyes flutters. I hold my breath, hoping I haven’t woken her. Her brows scrunches somewhat and she sighs and wraps her arm over me. I feel the side of my lips tug into a smile. I pull her closer, gently as not to wake her, and place a small kiss on her forehead.

She mutters something. I can’t hear her, but from the way her sleeping face breaks out into a smile I know it’s something good.

“Sweet dreams.” I say. As if she heard me she sighs in her sleep, and that is all the answer I can get from her.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“This is the best day ever!” Eri says.

We are back in Arakawa. We walk hand in hand down the familiar path of her street. It’s already getting dark out, reminding me of the near end of my time with Eri for the day.

I received a text from Ai earlier that said she asked our classmates that lived near us to deliver the things we left behind. There was also a follow up message from both Sayu and Risa. They both had the same message, just that one was plain curious to where we’ve disappeared to while the other had managed to add in a lengthy scolding about skipping school, guess which is whose. Better start making that excuse.

Before I know it we are at the front of Eri’s house. Her hand slips out of my grasp, and though it hasn’t been a minute I already miss her warmth.

“Hey.” she says. I look up at her. She’s playing with her fingers, looking at her door then back at me. She’s buying time, this makes me smile. “We’re not going to do anything like this tomorrow, are we?” she asks. There is a hope in her voice, it’s small but I hear it. I laugh.

“I don’t think the teachers are going to be fine with us skipping classes every day.” I tell her. Her face falls into a small frown, but I know she knows what she’s asking for is impossible.

“Hey, cheer up. We can’t do this every time we like, but maybe we can do something after school tomorrow. Just you and me. We’ll go anywhere you like, just name the place.” Her face light up at this. She launches herself at me. I catch her around her waist as she latches her arms around my neck. Her happiness is contagious and I find myself rejoicing with her, bouncing in a small circle like little kids. We pull apart, her eyes is still shimmering with glee.

“I had so much fun today, Reina. All thanks to you.” She says. I feel my cheeks heat up and I grin. She takes both my hands in hers, swinging them as she talks. “And I can’t really think up of anything to repay you for all the happiness you’ve given me… so at least let me end this day on a nice note.”

Before I can say anything she leans in and kisses me. Like all our other kisses it is sweet, soft, tingly and just perfect. My hand finds their way to her back, pulling us closer to each other. Her hands wrap themselves around my waist. I can feel her soft breathing, feel the warmth of her skin, smell the sweet aroma of her perfume mixed with the faint smell of the sea. I love it all. I can die right now a happy girl.

But, too soon, she pulls back. She grins. “That’s the nice note.” She says and runs in her house and I am left standing there at the front of her house.

A goofy smile finds its home on my face. I can’t wait to see her again tomorrow. I wonder what we’re going to do. Knowing Eri it could be something I’ve never thought of doing. One thing’s for sure though, I’d sure like to start tomorrow with a nice note.
._.

Offline MsSmigge

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Re: One-shot Scraps: On a Nice Note 9/24
« Reply #51 on: September 24, 2013, 12:06:36 PM »
Yay another GoRokkies story!! I so love how you have once again put all the typical characteristics with every girl  XD Especially Takagaki, lol  :lol:

Just can't get enough of these cute stories~  :wub:

And btw, you're no the only one stuck at the platinum era...   :nervous


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Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Russian Roulette 10/20
« Reply #52 on: October 20, 2013, 03:54:34 PM »
MsSmigge: Thank you~ I just love writing those kinds of stories, especially with the gorokkies

And~ for the next story! Blast from the past. Starring the old minimoni group.
Enjoy~

Russian Roulette

“Umai!” Nono suddenly exclaimed as she took another bite from the creampuff in her hand. The heavy cream dribbled down her chin, landing on her pants before she could react. With her index finger she scooped the filling off her pants and quickly brought it in her mouth, happily sucking the sweet off.

“Ah… gimme some!” Aibon slipped beside her, taking Nono’s hand and brining it closer to her face. She took a huge bite and moaned in delight. She licked off the excess filling from the hole in between the pastry and moaned again.

“Hey, keep it down you two. And save some of that for later!” Mari berated the two girls. She stuck her head out the door, checking for any signs of the other girls. She checked the time, it wasn’t long now until the rest of the group comes back from filming. She played with the videocam in her hand, feeling the rush of adrenaline from all the preparations they did. If they could pull it off- no there was no hole in her plan, she made sure of that.

She looked back to the other two… and nearly screamed. The two girls, finishing the one creampuff they had shared, had begun creeping over to the stack of creampuffs they had put in the middle of the dressing room, with the full intent of swiping one or two more.

“Hold it!” Mari seethed. She ran over to the two girls and grabbed their hands, pulling them away from the pile with her. “Did you forget already? Some of those aren’t really creampuffs. I arranged those and even I don’t know which ones are filled with the surprise sauce.”

“But they look so good..” Aibon murmured eyeing the stack.

“Can’t I take just one?” Nono quipped, standing up she started to head for the pile. Mari tugged her back, a little forcefully, and Nono groaned from the slight pain around her shoulder.

“No. Look there’s still two left and we need those to bait the girls into thinking nothing is wrong with the others. Do you remember your lines?” Mari asked. The two girls exchanged glances then looked back at Mari with blank faces.

“We have lines?” Aibon dared to ask.

Mari resisted the urge to smack both girls head and instead let out a calming breath. “Nevermind. Listen, I’ll be taping the whole thing. I’ll pretend this is a new cam and that I’m trying it out. You two,” she pointed at the two of them “act like the studio gave those as a present and… eat like you normally do. Make sure they take the bait. I’ll take care of the rest. If all goes well we might be able to get the studio to show this on the next show… that is if we survive the rampage that’s going to happen later.”

The two younger girls stood to attention and, almost robotically, saluted to the older girl.

“Alright, let’s get this started.” Mari said as she checked herself in the mirror. She stationed the cam over a pile of boxes, adjusting the angle so that all three of them can be filmed and pressed the recording button.

All three jumped into view and started saying their greeting in a hushed way. Then Mari started. “Well today we’re going to play a little game with the others.” She said.

Aibon suddenly popped in front of Mari and continued. “We’re playing Rush roulee. But they don’t know that so sh…” she brought an index finger in front of her lips and made a shushing noise. Nono made shifty gestures behind her, acting like she was paranoid, which she obviously wasn’t given that she was grinning way too broadly.

Mari pulled Aibon back and continued. “Actually it’s Russian Roulette.”

“It’s going to be the best prank ever!” Nono suddenly shouted. Mari pulled her by her arm and both she and Aibon made an exaggerated shushing sound. Nono zips her fingers across her lips, and tosses an imaginary key over her shoulder. After the action is done she smiles broadly, mischief twinkling in her eyes.

“Okay, so there’s eleven of them right? Minus the three of us who do you think is going to pick the one with the surprise sauce?”

“I think it’s going to be Eri-chan.” Aibon said.

“Why Eri-chan?” Mari asked.

“Well, Eri-chan seems like the type who’s unlucky when it comes to draws.”

“Ah, is that so? Non-chan what do you think?”

“Rika-chan.”

“Why?”

“Because… she’s Rika-chan.”

Mari pauses as she thinks the statement over. She shifts in her place to look questioningly at the younger girl. “… I’m not following.”

“Rika-chan is Rika-chan so she’ll get the bad one.” Aibon helpfully pitched in. Beside her Nono vigorously nodded her head and smiled. Mari still didn’t get it but decided to continue anyway since they were short in time.

“Ah… Well there are four in there so I guess we’re just going to have to see.”

“I think I hear them now! Let’s see if we can trick them all. If all goes well we’ll be having a couple of nice reactions out of them.” Mari announced in a hushed tone before she reached for the still camera and turned off the recording button. Outside various voices of the girls could be heard as they came closer and closer to their dressing room.

Nono and Aibon took the last two cream puffs from the box and haphazardly threw the box somewhere behind the clothes rack. Mari refocused the camera on the two other girls and started recording.

Aibon took a bite “So sweet!” she squealed.

Nono followed up “Crap… this is too good! Yagut-san want a bite?”

“No thanks. I’m full.” Mari replied. She swung the camera around just as the first few members slipped through the door. Just as expected their eyes were automatically fixated onto the pile of treats stacked up in the middle, some looked at Nono and Aibon happily devour theirs. As soon as the rest entered the room they began crowding around the table.

“What’s all this?”

“Is that for us?”

“Ah it looks so yummy”

“Can I have one?”

Mari smirked behind the camera. Setting up the trap was just too easy, especially with this group of girls. From the way their leader was staring at the pile it would seem that even she didn’t suspect a thing. Food was definitely one of the groups weakness and they were going to get the best out of it while they can.

“Is this a present?” Makoto wondered aloud.

“Yup. The staffs said everyone was doing a good job and left these here for everyone.” Aibon said. She took another bite and exaggerated her moaning and flipped her head back, nearly toppling over her chair.

Without hesitation the other girls started picking up a piece.

Hook…

“Hey everyone why don’t you all face here and take a bite together?” Mari called out.

“Why?” Ai asked.

“I want to tryout the camera option in this thing. Come on. It would make a great group photo!” The girls shared glances with each other, wondering if they should do as asked. Some of the older girls looked as if they were having second thoughts about the treats as they wearily eyed the three minimoni members, most specifically Aibon and Nono. The two girls were, after all, infamous as the best, or worst depending on how one looks at it, troublemakers to ever grace their side of the idol world.

As if reading the growing  tension the two girls quickly jumped smack-dab in the middle of the shot, simultaneously shouting ‘creampuffs’ and smiling up at the cam. Mari quickly turned off the recording and switched to the camera mode, taking a picture of the two girls.

“Ah, it came out nice.” Mari held out the camera, showing the shot of the two girls. She took a furtive glance at the other girls, checking if any one of them had taken a bite out of the treat, and let out a short sigh of relief as none of them seem to have done so.

“Okay, now everyone else join in.” Mari announced. She switched back to video mode and stealthily pressed the recording button. It was now or never. She moved back feigning that she was fixing the angle as the girls began lining up, while at the same time making sure that her path to the door was unobstructed.

… Line…

She zoomed out, making sure every one of the girls were in the shot. “Okay on three, everyone smile and take a big bite out of the creampuff.”

“One” she called. Aibon and Nono began slinking away from the group.

“Two” Mari’s finger started controlling the zoom stick, zooming into the group, ready to capture the glorious moment.

“Three!” Everyone took a large bite out of the treat.

… Sinker!

Seven of them had a look of pure bliss as the sweet flavor danced across their taste buds, tingling their senses. Four unfortunate girls, however, looked quite the opposite as their faces scrunched into an expression of disgust. Among the four was, as Nono guessed, and Mari humorously noted, a teary eyed Rika.

“Uwah… pah… USO! What’s in this? Ack!” Risa sputtered. Mari zoomed in on the young girl’s priceless over-reaction as she put down her chosen treat and stuck her tongue out, attempting to fan out the disgusting taste. Coincidentally, beside her Kaori was doing her best to hide her disgust. It was plainly obvious that she had one of the trap treats from the way her face would scrunch up as she tried to swallow the piece she had bitten off.

Nono and Aibon’s boisterous laughter cut through the shocked silence of the rest of the girls as they began celebrating their victory for, once again, pranking their colleagues. Mari’s lips twitched into a grin as she mentally gave herself a pat on the back for actually pulling off the trick without a hitch.

“What the hell is in this?” A chilling growl came from the far end of the line. Reflexively Mari swung the camera around, settling on the familiar intimidating figure of one Nakazawa Yuko.

“Huh? Yu-Yuko? Eh? Since when did you…” How did Yuko get a creampuff in the first place? There were only enough for 11. Who isn’t here? Mari thought. She made a quick scan of the room, only now noticing that every eye was on her, and made a quick mental count of those that were present.

Minus Yuko they were one girl short.

“Eh? Is there a party going on here?” Mari turned to the new voice, her eyes widening at the sight of the pale skinned, black haired girl standing by the doorway.

“Michishige-san? You weren’t here earlier?”

“No. I was admiring my reflection in the mirror at the hallway.” She said mater-of-factly, as if it was the most obvious thing to do when one encounters their own reflection staring back at them. But then, coming from the self-proclaimed number-one-cutest-girl, it didn’t really come as a shock.

Before Mari could say anything though, she felt a sharp tug on her arm. She stumbled from the sudden change of momentum, but quickly managed to regain her balance before her face could acquaint itself with the floor. She shot an alarmed look at the twins quickly receding figures as they ran for their lives. She felt her stomach flop uncomfortably and the hairs on the back of her neck stood in fear. Her mind automatically switched to auto, self-preservation kicking in, and made a dash after her co-conspirators.

She heard a string of curses and death threats coming from right behind her, urging her short legs to pump faster. She gripped the tiny gadget close to her chest, wondering whether she should just discard the object, but then thought against it. She was dead meat either way. And though the clip would probably never see the light of showbiz it had all the workings of a potential blackmail.
._.

Offline MsSmigge

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Russian Roulette 10/20
« Reply #53 on: October 20, 2013, 04:48:57 PM »
Oh my this was hilarious! XD

“Michishige-san? You weren’t here earlier?”

“No. I was admiring my reflection in the mirror at the hallway.”

For some reason this doesn't surprise me at all  :lol: The end was way too funny when Nakazawa entered. You better run fast Mari!
It's always nice to read about the old members~ Makes me wish every time that I had found about hello project and such way earlier... But nice one-show anyway!  :lol:


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Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Carving Soup [11/01]
« Reply #54 on: November 01, 2013, 12:46:47 PM »
@MsSmigge: Yeah, I wish I'd know about them from before too. Those OG girls are awesome... Oh well, at least there are still old H!M video's out there, and their music's saved in my hard drive.

I forgot to post this yesterday so a belated Happy Halloween and Happy All Soul's Day or Saint's (I always get them confused) everyone!
And yes, I know the title doesn't make sense.


Carving Soup


“Um… Eri?”

“Yeah?”

“What exactly is that?” Sayu asked, tilting her head to the side to try and guess what her friend was making. Eri blinked back at her. She turned back to her creation, pulling the orange sphere away from her body so she could look at the whole thing, before turning her attention back to Sayumi.

“It is what it is.”

“And… what is it supposed to be?” Sayu asked again before quickly adding “Just to be sure I got it right.”

“It’s a regular jack-o-lantern. See...” with the small knife she pointed at the parts she took off, naming them one by one as she passed them by. “Here are the eyes and there’s the nose. This one is the mouth…”

“Eh… I got it wrong then.” Eri pouted at the implication.

“Hey, I’m doing my best!”

“Eri, darling, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing your best or not, as long as you’re having fun everything else doesn’t matter.” Sayu smiled, patting Eri’s head affectionately as she passed her by to get to the refrigerator. She took out a bottle of green tea before walking back to the table, sitting as far away from the orange carnage as possible. She watched Eri carve out the outer surface of the pumpkin, her brows knitted together in concentration and her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. Sayu sighed. “And with your artistic talent no one but yourself would understand that anyway.” She added silently. Eri’s hand’s paused mid-carve, her head tilted up somewhat to send a pout at Sayu’s direction before returning to her carving, this time putting more force than necessary in her work.

“Sayu, have you seen…” Ai paused at the doorway. Her brow rose up at the pile of orange mass on the table. Her eyes darted to Sayu, who casually took a sip from her bottle of tea, then to the hardworking turtle who was grunting softly as she pulled at the small knife that had wedged deep onto the pumpkin. “Eri, why are you hacking at that pumpkin?”

“She’s carving a jack-o-lantern.” Sayu answered for her.

“Oh…” Ai walked closer to Eri, stopping behind her and tilted her head to the side. Her brows scrunched together in thought. “Is that an alien?”

Eri’s hand’s stopped their movements. She sighed dejectedly, placing the pumpkin carefully on the table. “Would you girls like pumpkin soup for diner?”
._.

Offline kuro808

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Carving Soup [11/01]
« Reply #55 on: November 01, 2013, 10:19:02 PM »
Kame for the win :lol:
Random Thought:

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R.I.P. Jab!  Dad/friend

Offline MsSmigge

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Carving Soup [11/01]
« Reply #56 on: November 01, 2013, 10:44:37 PM »
Aww poor Kame! She tried so hard to do art but others just kept on kicking her inner artist down XD Lol I laughed at Ai's alien comment  :lol:

And yes, all thanks to the old videos and such! Though they are about 10 years old they never die!  :cow:


Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: Control [11/10]
« Reply #57 on: November 10, 2013, 08:32:20 AM »
Control


I slow to a stop as the, somehow irritating, glow of the traffic light turned yellow before consequently changing to red just as the car halted into place right where, I hoped, the white line was. I can’t be too sure, the white lines were already faded, and it was already dark out so it made it harder to see. I turned to my widow to check if I was in line with the other car. Its head jutted out of the yellow post, just a couple of inches farther from where mine stopped, so I guess it was alright. The mob passing in front didn’t give a hoot to whether we were obstructing their passage or not, and I really wouldn’t have cared much if it wasn’t for the tiny camera situated right beside the traffic lights, giving whoever it was watching behind the cams a perfect view of the cars. I turned my attention back to the traffic light.

I hear the mechanical whirl of the window behind me going down followed by another on the other side and another beside me. By now I was practically glaring at the stop light, pleading with God in my mind for it to change as three voices started calling out hello’s and good byes to the people littering the streets, quickly followed by amused giggling’s, or for one case a loud crackle, above one other panicked voice.

The people in front stopped on their way to stare. As ludicrous as it sounds I actually sink into my seat trying to hid from the general public, even though I know they wouldn’t be able to see me past the heavy tint of the windows. I shoot a pleading look at the pale black haired girl seated beside me who looked absolutely confident in her drunken state, smiling and waving at the strangers at the side walk that were giving her a weird look.

I never thought there’d be a day that I’d ever think of that familiar song playing right before the pedestrian light changes as anything but annoying. Right now it was the most beautiful piece of music to my ears. The light changes back to green and I put the car on drive and hightail out of there.

“Reina! Hands inside! Kame! Stop struggling and get back in here! ” I hear the harried voice of the one other sober person in the car. It must suck to be in her position right now, with both windows down the two girl seated beside her were giving her a hard time, whether they consciously know it or not. I chance another glance at the girl next to me. Thankfully she seems stratified with just waving to the people littering the darkening streets, all appendages safely tucked inside, better for me since I can’t really spare her more than a glance, not if I wanted to go on a happy crash course on the way home.

“Oh my God! Ai, go back!” I hear Reina scream, I jump slightly from the abrupt command. I give her a questioning look through the rearview mirror, not that she can see from the way she was looking through the back window. I take note of Risa wrestling the bottom half of Eri back into her seat, only managing to stop myself from laughing out loud from the silliness of it all, before returning my gaze on the bottle neck before forming before us.

“Why would I do that?” I ask.

“There was a guy back there that waved back at me! Quick, go back!”

I take a longer pause as I stare at her figure reflected by the mirror. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was pretty sure that it was the alcohol talking so there was no way I was going back there. Even without the alcohol that request was just absurd. I sigh and ran a hand through my face. “Sorry Reina but I can’t do that. We’re stuck in traffic.”

“Then I’m going down.”

“What?” Risa screeched. I cringed at the volume, even with the windows down it still felt like she was shouting right beside my ear. I glance back at the rearview mirror. She had successfully pulled Eri back to her seat, locking her in place with the seat belt and was now pulling Reina away from the door. Thank God Risa had me lock the doors before we left the restaurant.

“Are you crazy?” she seethed.

“Was he cute?” Sayu asked as she stuck half of her body out of the window, looking for the guy. I hear Risa’s scream followed by a long, loud beep drowning every other noise, and I managed to make a grab for the back of Sayu’s shirt and pull her in right before a bus squeezed past us. I’m quite pleased with how I’m still somehow managing to stay calm from all the craziness, even though my pulse has skyrocketed from the nearly devastating outcome of Sayu’s curiosity.

“Cute? Try hot. Ai, stop the car.” And there she goes. I wonder if this isn’t all a sick prank. I hope not cause it’s sure freaking me out.

“Did you not just see Sayu nearly getting decapitated? It’s dangerous! Sit down Reina. Sayu don’t you dare stick your head out again.” Risa shrieked.

“But he was hot!” Reina whined.

“Hot? Like sweet potato?” Eri ignorantly slipped in the conversation. Where was she for the past minute?

By now the cars in front of me had gone into a complete standstill. I unbuckle my seat belt and reach over Sayu for hers. I feel her arm slipping around my back as she tried to pull me into a hug. I reach out to the sides of the passenger seat to anchor myself and managed to secure the seat belt in place before I start trying to squirm my way out of her grip. For someone who hates working out she sure had a strong grip. Amidst my predicament I hear shuffling coming from the back, accompanied by grunts and more dejected whining and assume they’re having another wrestling match.

I glance out the open window, some people stopped to stare curiously at us. I pull back harder, managing to get Sayu’s grip to loosen just enough for me to slip out. She whines at the loss of contact but I’m already back in my seat, trying to make myself smaller so I wouldn’t be seen. Of all the time they could get drunk they had to choose the day where the master control of the windows got busted.

“Hey! You! I don’t like your girlfriend!”

“Oh my God! Kame!”

I hear more struggling. “No way! I think you need a new o-mph!”

“Kill me now.” I mumble as I lean further back into my seat. It was going to be a long ride.
._.

Offline yunagi

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Re: One-shot Scraps: November Project [11/28]
« Reply #58 on: November 28, 2013, 07:56:14 AM »
November Project


₪₪ “You sure are one crazy kitten.” Reina mumbled, carefully going up the small hill, mindful of the damp browning leaves slowly decomposing under her feet while keeping her eyes peeled for the small orange striped fur ball pouncing on anything it deemed interesting. Despite the lack of lighting on their part of the park Reina could still make out the kittens small form a little ahead of her. Silently she thanked whoever God was looking down on her for the guidance of the moon’s rays. Grabbing the nearest branch she hauled herself up. She gasped as her foot slipped on a protruding branch, one she didn’t see due to the pile of dead leaves on top of it, and swung her arm over the tree she was using as support.

Reina muttered a curse under her breath. She leaned against the sturdy bark a hand going up to rest against her chest, feeling the hard pounding of her heart from the near slip. Why did she let the kitten out again? It wasn’t like it needed to take a walk like it’s bigger- and crazier if you’d ask Reina- counterpart, though Reina was having second thoughts about this one. It’s tail twitched, front lowering onto the ground before it darted forward, once again putting a wide gap between them.

Why did she let it out?

Because you jumped at the very first excuse you could think of to get out of the house and the kitten just happened to be there, her mind answered for her.

Another argument had broken out that night, and not surprisingly for her it was about her grades. She had gotten another D in her math quiz “For the millionth time!” her father, the one who always told her not to exaggerate- how ironic- seethed as he slammed the crumpled sheet that was once her math quiz onto the dining table.

“How hard is it to understand numbers?”

‘Throw in ‘x’ and it might as well be alien language to me. As far as I’m concerned ‘x’ can go find its way to hell and screw over some other sad sap.’ She wanted to say but wisely held her tongue, settling to glaring at the placemat before her.

“I force myself to go to work every day, rain or shine…” Reina rolled her eyes in exasperation, already knowing where their conversation was heading. Her father stopped for a second, sending her a warning glare before continuing “So that I can give you kids a good education. Least you can do is do well in school and listen to class instead of hanging around those no good-“

“Don’t!” Reina heard herself say. She wasn’t staring at the placemats anymore and instead steadily met her father’s glare with her own. “They’re a good crowd.”

“You failing in class don’t make them good in my book.”

“Me failing in math doesn’t have anything to do with-“

“I’ve heard enough, Reina! I don’t want you hanging around them any longer!”

“They’re not-“ she began, slowly rising up from the chair.

“I said enough! I don’t want you anywhere near them. In fact, starting monday you are to come back here as soon as classes end and study.”

Reina gritted her teeth, forcing herself to look away from the disappointed look her father was giving her. It wasn’t that it affected her, she had seen him wear that look enough times to grow immune to the guilty effect it had, but it was getting old and she had rather ignore the annoying gaze. As long as she did that her father was least likely to make another comment and rub more salt into the wound, taking her silence as a form of surrender.

Unfortunately for Reina it had seemed that her father was in a rather talkative mood that night and he continued “Why can’t you do better? Your little brother is doing great with his classes. A’s and B’s! Why can’t you be like him?”

In the living room Reina could see her little brother’s head shrinking behind the couch at the mention of his name, wise enough not to say anything or call attention to himself. She didn’t know if he was being thoughtful of her or whether he just didn’t want the attention, but either way she was glad. One less headache to worry about.

“It’s just math! You use it every day. What is so hard about it?”

“Then why don’t you answer my quizzes.” Reina mumbled bitterly, only catching her tongue after the words left her lips.

“Would you like to repeat that Reina.” It was a command. Reina could hear the anger laced with the words. Her fingers clenched around the edge of her school uniform, trying to contain her own growing anger.

“I didn’t say anything.” She stood up, catching sight of the orange kitten she had taken home a few weeks prior, playing with a roll of yarn. Without sparing her father another glance she headed towards the door, deaf to all the angry words her father was shouting at her, gently picking the kitten up on her way.

“Reina? Where are you going?” A soft voice asked. It was her mother.

Slipping on a pair of sneakers she readjusted her hold on the kitten, holding it closer to her chest. She reached for the doorknob.

“Reina”

“Out. I’m taking the kitten for a walk.” Before anyone can say another word Reina stepped out to the cold night, closing the door behind her with a slam.

That was a few minutes ago. She didn’t exactly know how long she had been out, but judging from the way her stomach grumbled it was safe to assume that it was diner time, or a little past that. She rubbed her stomach, willing it to quieten with the promise of food in a while longer.

“You know, I’m not gonna chase after you the whole night. Come on, it’s getting cold.” As if making a point a cool breeze hit her, her exposed skin breaking out in Goosebumps. Hugging her arms to herself she continued trudging after the kitten, her pace, still careful of her footing, increasing in the slightest.

Finally the kitten stopped in its tracks, opting to stare up at something invisible, its tail moving in a lazy rhythm. Careful not to spook the kitten, and risk going into another round of chase, Reina lightly tiptoed towards the unmoving fur ball, scooping it up in her arms as soon as she had it within her grasp and cradling it against her chest.

“You crazy little thing.” She murmured, playfully poking its pink nose with her index finger.” If this is your way of making me feel better you better think again.”

The kitten mewled, paws up trying to swat at Reina’s finger. A soft smile came to her lips, whatever tension left from her earlier dispute with her father easing out of her body at the cute sight. She chuckled lightly, wriggling her finger some more.

A familiar chime, accompanied by a vibration in her pocket, caught her attention. Shifting the kitten in her arm she reached for her cell phone, flicking it open with a fluid motion and began reading the text message.

‘You busy tonight?’ – Ai-chan

Home or Ai-chan? She mused as she played with the center button.

‘Not really. Why?’ she replied, her fingers quickly going through the small buttons and lastly pressing the sned button. She waited for the reply.

‘Good. Come.’ – Ai-chan

She rolled her eyes. Typical Ai. Always making short- sometimes to the point of cryptic- messages.

‘Is Gaki-san with you?’

‘Yes.’ – Ai-chan

‘Gaki-san, mind elaborating what Ai-chan’s trying to tell me?’

‘She said she wanted to go over the latest song for our next performance. It’s alright if you’re busy tonight, it was suddenly decided out of the blue.’ – Gaki-san

‘No, I’m free tonight. Where?’

‘Great. Room 2, usual place. See you then.’ – Gaki-san


₪₪ Her father was still fuming when she arrived, waiting for her in the living room. As soon as she stepped into the house he exploded. She had tried to keep her responses short, if not none at all. She was boiling inside, her hands clenched tightly at her side, her nails digging into her palm, taking whatever verbal abuse she could knowing fighting back was futile and could only complicate and prolong the shouting. It took a while with her just standing at the front step, glaring down at her feet waiting for the storm to calm and finally her father ran out of steam and ordered her to go to her room.

It had taken her a while to sneak back out, her clothes changed to a comfortable shirt, jeans and jacket and her guitar bag securely on her back. She had snacked on a piece of jerky, emergency rations she had kept hidden in her room since going to the kitchen for food was out of the question. It had satiated her hunger, for now, she could worry about getting more later.

She stuck to the wall, ears perked for any sound of movement. After making sure that her brother was in his room she moved onto her parent’s room. They weren’t present, so that meant her parents were downstairs and that made sneaking out a lot more troublesome. Tip toeing down the stairs she kept to the shadows, her body tense as she slowly made her way to the base. The tv was on in the living room and there was the sound of running water on the other side, in the kitchen. She checked the living room first, seeing the top of her father’s head resting against the couch and a can of beer on the small table next to it. The Hawks were playing today which meant her father wouldn’t be budging from that seat anytime soon. She checked in the kitchen. Her mother had her back to her, engrossed in cleaning the dirty dishes. Sucking up a breath she slinked towards the front door. Halfway to safety she felt the hair at the back of her neck stand. The little kitten, seeing her owner trotted towards her mewing as it did.

Panicking inside Reina picked the kitten up and hurriedly made her way out the door, quickly slipping on her shoes on the way. Once outside she took off in a run, fearing her parents might have heard the kitten and seen her sneaking out. She didn’t stop running until a few blocks after, her heart beating wildly in her chest. She took a couple of deep breaths before regarding the kitten in her arms.

“Do you know what you did? I almost got caught because of you.” She flicked her finger on its nose, getting a small mew in return. She sighed, deflating. “Why am I talking to you in the first place? Ah~ maybe that person really is rubbing off on me…”

Shifting the kitten to a comfortable and safe position she turned her head this way and that, searching for the next turn she should take. She tried to sketch out a map in her head, visualizing the dark empty streets to what it was supposed to look like in the light of the sun. Chuck it to her lack of geographical sense but the night time road always seemed different to her somehow, foreign. There had been multiple counts of her mistaking one street from another wherein she had to double back or ended up elsewhere.

Double checking the street names she turned to her right and followed the name plates, unconsciously naming them as she passed them by. It didn’t take her long to find the shopping district after that and she sighed in relief as soon as she saw the familiar lighted signs. It was one thing to get lost in the neighbourhood, this was different. Morning, afternoon, evening, even if the whole place was covered in snow she’d still be able to find and name each store.

They were to meet at MusicBox, it was a small studio situated at the far back of the district. Just a handful knows of it, usually small time band members and people who are looking to learn how to play musical instruments hands on. With soundproof rooms and the owner nuts about privacy it was a great place to practice. Plus they had a special discount since one of their members was the favourite cousin of the owner.

As soon as she opened the door a head of short brown hair popped out from behind the front desk. The person was mumbling something, going through a bunch of papers in their hand, back to her. With a grin Reina silently crept towards the desk. Reaching out she grabbed the person’s shoulder instantly breaking their concentration. The person yelped and swivelled around, papers dropping to the floor. It took all of Reina’s concentration not to laugh at the normally cool and composed female stare at her like the cops had just pulled out a bag of weed from her bag.

“Yo! Been a while Yoshizawa-san.” Reina greeted holding her hand up, a sly grin on her face.

“Fuck me! Reina you sonnuvabitch! Don’t do that!” Yossie gave her an annoyed look before ducking down the front desk to pick up the papers scattered on the floor.

“Sorry. I don’t really see you so out of it and I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass.”

Yossie straightened back up. Placing the papers on the table she met Reina’s gaze, earlier irritation gone. “Well, I guess I had that one coming, though I didn’t think it would come from one of my cousin’s friends... Okay, I’ll let this one slide, in one condition. This never happened.” She paused, staring at Reina, attempting to intimidate her. “You copy?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She grinned. “Okay then. They’re in room 2. Tell my favourite cousin that I expect to have front row seats for the next gig...” She stopped, her eyes narrowing as she saw the orange kitten. “Reina that’s not what I think it is, is it?”

“Uh…” she stared down at the kitten then back up to the older woman. “I uh… had a little trouble back home… She won’t be any trouble, I promise.” She had a fleeting thought of going on her knees to beg further but quickly put the thought away. “Please… just this once.” She pleaded, looking up at the taller woman as innocently as she possibly could.

Yossie stared at her, her brows drawn in a hard scowl and that with the obvious height difference made her seem all the more menacing. Reina held her breath. Yossie was cool with a lot of things, but there are times when she just had to put her foot down and if that happens there was no way to persuade her to change her mind. Reina had just hoped she was in a fairly good mood that day.

“Okay. Just one time.”

Reina sighed feeling a big grin coming along. “Yes! Thank you! I promise she’ll be good.”

“Alright already. Get going before someone sees you.” She said, jutting her thumb out to point to the door leading to the rooms. Reina immediately set her directions there, power walking towards the door and slipping in quickly. “Don’t forget about the tickets!” she heard Yossie call out right before the door shut close behind her.

The door had led to a narrow hallway that was dimly lit and it took Reina a while to adjust to the lighting. The hall leads to three doors. Two of them were soundproof booths where bands could practice with privacy while last one, the one at the end of the hall was the recording studio often dubbed as “the room”. Reina had never step foot in “the room”, hell none of her group mates had, and she often wondered what it was like being there, but that could wait till later. It doesn’t dampen her mood, instead it excites her, thinking of the experience and the fun she would have on the way. Soon she’d be able to see the inside but now, now was the time to sharpen her skills.

She tears her gaze away from the third door, checking the side of the door she’s in front of where the number 2 was placed on top of a whiteboard and under it was the name of her band. There was a small light that had the words in use, cueing her that her friends were already inside, probably practicing, lazing around or goofing off. She shakes her head from the thought and pushes the door open.

“Oh, finally! Took you long enough, Tanakacchi.” Risa grinned, looking up from her music sheet. Behind her Ai looked up from her languid position on the couch, her guitar pressed against her chest as her left hand reached for the silver knobs to tune her guitar. She raised her right hand up for a hello, her thumb and index pinched together, the tip of the white pick peeking out, but it doesn’t go all the way up since she was using her elbow to keep the lower half of the guitar in place. “Hayo.”

“Osu! Is it just us?” Reina asks.

“Sayu’s nearly here. Kame might take a while longer, unless Sayu went to get her.” Risa answers before her eyes stopped at the small orange ball curled up in Reina’s arm. She blinked exaggeratedly, her eyes darting from Reina’s face to the fur ball. “Reina?”

Before she could say anymore Reina lifted the kitten for her to see. The reaction was instantaneous, as she had expected from the bean faced girl, and she could feel the kitten tensing up in her hand.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked, quickly clamping onto her mouth, momentarily forgetting that they were in a soundproof room, as she stared wide eyed at her “You! And the kitten! No way! No freaking way! You! You! Why? Why? No way! Wa-Why did you bring a kitten in here?! Yoshizawa-san is going to kill you! We are so dead! We- We gotta hide it! But where? Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh holy-“

“Relax, Gaki-san. She knows. I met her at the front and asked” or rather pleaded, her thoughts corrected “for her permission. I’m not as irresponsible as you think I am.” She mentally gave herself a pat in the back as Risa’s body slowly relaxes at the information.

She placed the kitten down simultaneously sliding the guitar bag’s strap down her arm. As soon as the kitten’s paws found ground it made a mad dash for the drum set, tripped over itself and, as if it just couldn’t be bothered standing back up, rolled over onto its back to swat at the air. Reina rolled her eyes at the action, absently pulling her guitar out, dumping the bag somewhere to the side, and making her way to the couch where Ai was.

“Oh and Ai-chan, Yoshizawa-san says to remind her ‘favourite cousin’ to get her tickets for our next gig.” She said as she snatched the tuning device clamped on Ai’s guitar, much to the older girl’s exasperation, and sat on the couch opposite from where Ai was sitting and started tuning her own guitar.

“Noted, and I’m her only cousin so could you guys stop that joke.” She turned to Reina and gave her a pointed look. Reina just shrugs her shoulder, not even bothering to look at the older girl as she threw all her concentration on her current task.

“So the song.” Risa started. She held up the music sheet and waved them a bit, the rustling catching the two guitarist’s attention. “Or did you already forget the purpose of why we’re here.”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me.” Reina bit her bottom lip, just managing to catch herself from laughing, and covered her mouth with the back of her hand not to seem too obvious; else she was sure the glare directed at Ai would turn to her.

Ai pushed off the couch and nearly tumbled back hadn’t Risa acted fast enough to steady her. Ai smiled at the younger, nodding in thanks before adjusting the strap of her guitar. “Listen.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, a sort of ritual she does right before playing, whether they were practicing or out doing a gig. Her left fingers went to their respective positions over the thin strings, her right, pick held firmly in between her fingers, hovered a few millimetres in front of her. Then she began to play, deft fingers switching from fret to fret smoothly, the soft ring of the chords creating a familiar melody. Reina sat back, her mind following along with the rhythm adding in her riffs and fills along with the lyrics. But then, half way through the verse, the melody suddenly switched to a different tune and Reina’s brows knitted together.

Ai continued to play for a while longer, Reina closely following the positioning of her fingers with a surprised though interested look while Risa continued to stare silently from her spot. When Ai finally transitioned back to the original notes her tempo slowed until finally she stopped playing altogether letting the soft ring fade out.

“What do you think?” she asked expectantly, nervously biting her bottom lip.

Reina looked to Risa’s direction, noting humorously the awestruck face she had on slowly transitioning to a bright approving smile. “That was- Ai-chan, that was amazing!” she finally said raising her hands up to start clapping, a little too late. Reina chocked down a laugh and decided to clap along, nodding her head approvingly. Ai grinned, her cheeks blushed in a faint pink at the attention they were giving her.

Not surprisingly, when the other two arrived and after Ai, with accompanied teasing provided by Reina, once again went through the altered version, was immediately met with claps and various forms of verbal approval from the group. A moment later a flushed Ai finally called for silence and began writing down the new chords on the whiteboard. The three other girls, Risa already had hers out, quickly dug around their bag for their music sheet.

They were given fifteen minutes to go over the rhythm and practice, each individual going to their respective corners to silently practice on their own. Five minutes into it Ai slid next to Reina on the couch, quickly catching the guitarist attention.

“So? Whacha think?” Ai asked. Reina had to pause to mull over what the older meant. “I mean, think you can put in a few fills in there?”

“Ah, you shoulda started with that.” Ai shrugged her shoulders, leaning back to get comfortable on the seat. Reina rolled her eyes before good-naturedly bumping her knees with Ai’s. “I don’t know… You really surprised me with the sudden change, and after all the time we’ve put in to memorizing and practicing, especially this close to the next gig…” she trailed, pretending to be busy with her guitar while watching Ai’s face through her peripherals turn pale and contort to a horrified expression within seconds.

She laughed freely this time, moving towards Ai to playfully swat at her arm. “Reina’s kidding. Yeah I already thought about it. I’m still trying to figure out which would sound better but I think I’ll get this done in a few.”

Her words seem to give Ai little comfort. It was still plainly visible how worried she was about the sudden change she had made without prior notice, though Reina thought it was pretty weird not to think of how everyone else would react about it, but this was Ai she was dealing with and wouldn’t be quite her if she did think it through. Reina felt compelled to squash any more ill thoughts from the older girl’s mind, mainly because she had been the one to put it there in the first place. She grimaced.

“Don’t over think it. They- We love the change you did. It definitely sounds better than the original- not that I’m saying the original sucked or anything... point is, believe in us. We can totally do this.” Reina said. When she saw the hesitance in Ai’s expression she motioned with an open palm towards the rest of their group. “See for yourself.” Ai followed with her eyes, slowly but surely the creases on her forehead vanishing at the sight of the girls in their own world.

“Everyone’s doing their best. I’m sure we can pull it off.”

Ai smiled. It was a small smile, but a smile none the less. Then a low chuckle vibrated from the back of her throat, her gaze going back to Reina. “You’re sounding a lot like Gaki-san.”

Reina scoffed, her back plunging back to the comforts of the couch, her butt slowly dragging down the seat until she was practically lying down, her legs spread out in front of her. “Don’t get used to it. It’s just this one time.”

“Of course.” Ai nodded her head. Reina looked back at the older, but it had seemed that Ai wasn’t entirely there anymore, if the distant stare was any suggestion. A scream though quickly fixed that and the two guitarists snapped their head towards the source. Sayu was hiding behind Eri, clinging desperately on her arm while the confused girl stared at her, then towards the keyboard Sayu had abandoned, then back to Sayu. Slowly she lowered her bass, before slinging her arm over her friend trying to comfort, though albeit awkwardly, the terrified girl.

“What’s wrong?” Risa asked worriedly as she rounded the drum set, peering curiously at the vacated spot on her way to the two girls. Reina struggled to get up on her feet, her guitar and her position on the soft couch not the best combination. Ai had already gotten up by that time, torn between checking out what had freaked Sayu and going to comfort her friend instead.

“Something’s there!” Sayu squeaked, shakily she pointed at the direction of the keyboard. “Something’s there.” She repeated, tears slowly running down her pale cheeks. Risa immediately held the spooked girl in her arms, hand soothingly running down Sayu’s back.

Ai hurriedly ran to Sayu’s spot, quickly checking the immediate surroundings. “There’s nothing here.”

“There is so!” Sayu cried.

Finally getting herself upright Reina left her guitar to lean on the wall, quickly joining up with Ai, already having an idea of what Sayu was talking about. Before Ai could repeat her sentence Reina spoke up. “It’s nothing to get freak out about that much.”

“But there really is something there! I felt it brush against my leg!” Sayu insisted, her voice raising a pitch in frustration.

“I never said there wasn’t anything there.” Reina shot back, smirking, catching the two clueless girl’s attention and a look of realization from the older two.


₪₪ After a short explanation, and the two girls cooing over the kitten- overlooking the glares Sayu sent Reina’s way- was cut short by the ever responsible Risa pointing out the time, they finally gotten into actually practicing. It didn’t go perfectly well with everyone still adjusting to the new rhythm, they took it slowly, stopping to correct whatever needed correcting or throwing out an input on what they think would sound better. Before they knew it an hour and a half had already passed, and though it was a Saturday the next day they couldn’t expect the trains to wait for them to finish up. Slowly the group began to pack, purposely dragging on what would have been a minute of rearranging their things in their bags to chatter about nonsensical stuff, and for the case of one sleepy eyed girl to crash on the couch and play with the little bundle of feline cuteness.

“So we’ll see everyone here tomorrow, bright and early! 8 o’clock.” Risa announced, earning a couple of grumbling and whining, the loudest one coming from Eri.

“Can’t we postpone it to 10?” she asked half-heartedly, her mouth set into a small pout as she stared upside-down at a smirking Risa.

“8 o’clock, Eri.” Risa repeated sternly.

“Eh? But- but 8… it’s still so… so…” she moaned balefully indicating that it was too early “ Right nyan-nyan?” she lifted the kitten up to her face, tilting it back and forth gently making it seem as if it agrees with her.

“8 o’clock. And if you aren’t here by then I’ll personally pay a visit to your house. I’ll drag you here if I have to.” Risa warned, waving her drumsticks towards Eri’s direction. Her lips were quirked in a smirk when the lazy girl shot up to stare incredulously at her, the kitten clinging desperately onto her shirt. Eri whined one last time but nodded her head knowing she was beat before her head crashed back to the couch. Languidly her hands ran over soft fur, easily calming the frazzled puff ball.

“Don’t worry Eri, I’ll help you out!” Sayu chirped, skipping over to her best friend’s side. Raising Eri’s legs she slipped onto the couch before letting them drop to rest on her lap, patting them reassuringly. “I’ll keep calling you until you wake up.”

Eri managed to make a half smile, half grimace and thanked Sayu for her kind offer while everyone else grinned. Eri had, on multiple occasions, complained about her blaring ring tone shocking her to wakefulness. The unfortunate girl didn’t know how to change her ringtone and everyone else continued to play clueless with her whenever she asked for help on the matter, knowing it was the only way to get her up in the morning of a non-school day.

Finally Ai clapped her hands, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Alright, so it’s settled then. Everyone be here at 8 tomorrow morning. I hope you could practice a bit at home tonight. Anyway we better get going before Yossie comes charging in here. Check your things, make sure you don’t forget anything.”

Reina rose up from her position, fixing the strap of her guitar bag over her shoulder. She nodded her head when she noticed Ai trying to catch her attention and raised her hand up, silently promising to go over her parts later that night if she can. Ai grinned, quickly slinging her guitar bag over her shoulder and catch up to the drummer who was waiting patiently for her by the door. But before she could reach her friend Sayu half tackled the poor girl, catching her off guard planted a quick kiss right by her lip. Ai backpedalled, her face contorted in shock before she grimaced and playfully pushed the grinning girl’s shoulder while Risa laughed at the exchange.

Reina shook her head, chuckling lightly as she made her way to the couch where the lounging Bassist was, like the kitten in her arms, staring blankly into an empty space. For a second Reina deliberated between pulling the girl out of her dreamland via pulling at her feet or taking a picture first before doing so. In the end she wasn’t able to do either.

The kitten, catching sight of its master, began shuffling around Eri’s hold, slowly crawling its way towards Reina. Quickly, gently, Reina lifted the kitten, cradling it against her chest. She looked back to the bassist’s face, slightly shocked to see the dark eyes trained at her, curious and attentive- though a little hazy. Reina felt heat rising up to her face and forced herself to tear her gaze away.

She took a calming breath, lightly shaking her head wondering what had gotten into her. “Come on sleepyhead, time to go.”

“Carry me.” Eri replied, lazily putting her arms out, but then no more than a second passed when her arms fell onto opposite sides, crossing over her face and unintentionally hitting her nose. She groaned, but didn’t move her arms away.

Reina rolled her eyes at the action. “No way, carry your own weight. Reina’s got enough to worry about.”

“Aw.. where’s the love?” Eri whined as she slowly got up. Slinging her guitar bag over her shoulder she sluggishly followed after Reina, grinning lazily at the other three waiting for them at the door. Sayu lifted her left arm up, inviting the sleepy girl into her embrace. Within seconds Eri was by her side, flinging her arms over Sayu’s shoulder and leaning most of her weight onto the taller girl. Sayu grunted but surprisingly held up the additional weight with little problem.

Locking the door after them they set on towards the small lobby, bidding Yossie their good bye as they passed her on their way out. They chattered amiably, huddled together in an attempt to share their warmth with each other. Their warm breaths mixing with the cool temperature, making a thin white smoke floating in front of them, one Eri constantly giggled at much to the amusement of the others.

They arrived at the train station not long after, the PA announcing the arrival of the trains. Almost instantly Eri’s face fell as the familiarity and warmth around her slowly faded as the three other girls moved to head to the entrance. Quick to catch the change Risa reached to fondly pat the top of the bassist’s head. “It’s okay Eri. Go to sleep, before you know it it’ll be tomorrow and we’ll see each other again.”

“Eririn~ I’ll text you as soon as I get home. Cheer up okay?” Sayu added, smiling cheerily as she pulled her friend for a goodbye hug.

“Don’t fall asleep on your way home.” Risa joked. Eri cracked a smile at that, lightly shoving the older away from her.

“Of course I won’t, Gaki-san! I can’t stand the cold.” Her response was met with merry laughter, brightening up the gloom in the bassist’s face.

The PA boomed again, last warning for the departure of their train. Ai walked forward, tapping the other two’s shoulder to catch their attention. “We better get going or the train’s going to leave without us.” She turned to Eri and Reina, raising her hand in a good bye. “Careful on your way home.”

Sayu pulled Eri into a hug, mumbling something to her ear and getting a giggle in response before pulling away and giving Reina a parting tongue stick, one Reina readily responded with one of her own. Risa grinned reaching up to pat Reina’s head, the younger rolling her eyes but did not try to pull away, and pinched Eri’s cheeks.

“Tomorrow at 8.” Risa reminded once more before turning to follow Ai and Sayu into the train station.

“Well, looks like we better get going.” Reina finally said as she turned to head back home. A moment later she felt Eri’s arm wrap around her free hand, clinging to her to share their warmth. Reina’s lip hitched into a smile as she continued on her way, making sure her pace was the same as the girl next to her.

They were quite for a moment, Eri staring off into space while Reina just didn’t feel like talking. Halfway out of the district Reina stopped in her tracks, Eri nearly stumbling from the abrupt pause in their walking. She sniffed the air catching a whiff of the scent of coffee. She turned to the café to her left and almost immediately her mouth started salivating, stomach growling. The jerky hadn’t been enough, she needed food and her body made sure to let her know.

A giggling to her right reminded her of her companion and her face lit up in embarrassment. Wildly shaking her head she was about to move on when Eri spoke. “Let’s grab something to eat, my treat.”

Reina paused, the line sounding familiar to her, then it hit her. She turned to Eri, her left brow raised up in doubt. The last time she said that Risa ended up paying for them since she conveniently forgot her wallet back home. Seeming to catching on with her thoughts Eri pulled her wallet from her back pocket. “I swear I’ve got it this time.” Reina laughed as Eri smiled sheepishly at her.

Eri had gone inside to order; Reina didn’t mind what she bought for her so she volunteered to stay behind. Taking Eri’s bass with her she made her way to one of the small tables outside. She placed their instruments against the wall, making sure they won’t slide down. Afterwards she placed the snoozing kitten on her lap, lightly running her hand against the soft fur as she waited for her companion, and more importantly, food.

Eri came out a few minutes later with, to Reina’s stomach’s disappointment, a number card. She grinned as soon as she saw Reina and hurriedly made her way to her friend. Placing the number card on its holder she slipped onto the empty chair opposite of where Reina was and propped her elbows on the table to rest her head on her hands. “I ordered a club sandwich and hot choco. I know it’s a bit past 9 but your parents won’t mind you coming home a little late right?”

Reina grinned warily. “Reina’s sure they won’t mind.” They don’t know I’m out of the house anyway.

Eri nodded at her response, smiling her carefree smile. After a while she started to hum softly, something Reina quickly identified as their song, the one they were practicing earlier. Her fingers were pressed onto her palm in a complicated looking position before quickly transitioning into another position, her feet tapping on the ground in rhythm with her humming. To others she would look like she was checking her nails or was bored out of her mind or just plain crazy, but for their band mates they knew that wasn’t the case. She was playing with the bass, or rather an imaginary one. When they first started they thought she was just overly excited about the band, but months later she was still doing it. It didn’t matter if she had her bass with her or not but when she felt like playing something her fingers would start curling into her palm, changing ever so often to the rhythm in her mind. There was method to her madness, though. Soon they realized that she had gotten better, faster at changing chords. Her random finger curling had made them limber.

“Number 4?” a voice asked.

“That’s us!” Eri said. Her hand shot up, nearly hitting the poor waiter who had come up behind her with their order in hand. Reina bit down a laugh when she saw that Eri didn’t notice what her abrupt action had nearly done and was instead nearly jumping out of her seat for the orders to be placed down the table. As soon as the waiter left Eri’s hand reached out for the warm mug, her fingers curling around in search of warmth. Pretty soon she had the mug up to her lip carefully blowing the steam away. Reina followed the action, sighing in content as the warm concoction did what it was supposed to do.

The club sandwich was larger than they had expected. Reina had to stretch her fingers just to get a firm hold of both ends and she wondered, how is it that they don’t go bankrupt with how much they pile on their sandwich? How do they expect me to fit all of this in my mouth in the first place?

Reina looked over the monstrosity to Eri. She was staring in earnest at her half of the sandwich. Reina could imagine the gears in her mind working overtime, trying to figure out how to eat the damn sandwich. After a while she finally decided to peel of the top bun and started picking out the ham and bacon, eating them separately before munching down on the bread.

She paused when she noticed that Reina hadn’t taken the initiative to eat her half, completely oblivious to the stare and grin. “Aren’t you hungry? If you don’t eat that soon aliens just might swoop down and take it away from you.”

Reina scoffed. “The only alien here is you, and I’m sure you would want to watch your waistline. I think you’re getting a little too lazy recently.”

Eri pouted at the implication. “Hey! I’m a growing girl, and growing girls need nutrition and lots of sleep.” Then she smirked. “Reina how much have you grown recently?”

Just as she expected the shorter girl bristled. Putting on the best glare she could Reina took half of the sandwich and bit down on it with purpose.

Within minutes they were done with their late night snack and were calmly sipping the last few ounce of their drink. Reina was completely satisfied and, though it was embarrassing, she was glad her stomach had rumbled at that moment. When she put down her cup she found Eri, once again, staring into space, her mouth slightly open in that cute way of hers. She smiled softly and without thinking she reach over to Eri’s hand, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. Eri blinked curiously at her then her lips pulled into a goofy grin. Reina chuckled and shook her head in amusement.

“Thanks.” She said. “For the meal.” She quickly added when Eri’s expression turned into a questioning one.

“Oh, you’re welcome.” She paused. “We should get going.”

Reina nodded her head as she slowly got up, once again fixing the sleeping kitten in her arms to make sure it doesn’t fall off accidentally. Slinging her bag over her shoulder she stepped out of her seat, offering her arm to Eri as soon as she got to her side. The bassist was more than happy to accept the offer and quickly wrapped her arms around Reina’s.

“Okay! To home we go!” she cheered.


₪₪ Reina slowly let out a breath as she softly let her door click shut behind her. When she arrived at the front door she was taken by surprise when she heard the sound of the pretzel commercial blaring from the living room. She had thought that by then the baseball game would have been long over and was unprepared to hear her father’s footsteps approaching the foyer. Acting fast she let her guitar slip off her shoulder and left it out on the porch along with her jacket and slipped off her shoes, putting the kitten down somewhere along the way. When her father saw her his body immediately stiffen, the tell-tale sign that he was angry. Before he could explode however she had managed to construct a good lie, telling him about hearing something strange from outside and going out to check, as for the pants she just picked out the one from the laundry. Her father fortunately didn’t ask anymore, grumbling that it was too late to blow off his top and told her to get back up her room. She had just gotten back from retrieving her things from the porch and was glad that everyone decided that it was too late to check outside for teens sneaking around.

Placing her guitar to the side she flopped unceremoniously on her bed, stomach down. She was too tired to change into comfortable clothes and the meal she had was starting to make her drowsy. She yawned, stretching leisurely, wondering if this was what cats felt when they decide that getting up was too much of a waste of energy. Snuggling into the warmth of her blankets she was about to doze off when a vibration in her pocket pulled her back to awareness. Grumbling she pulled her phone out of her pocket, checking the message with squinted eyes.

‘Are you home? Have you fallen asleep?’

It was Eri. Reina had walked her home earlier, it was a bit out of her way but she figured the longer she stayed out the better her chances were to sneak back in undetected. Of course that didn’t exactly turn out the way she wanted but at least she managed to get away scot-free. She didn’t mind anyway, she liked the carefree atmosphere of her goofy friend had about her, even though right now she was mentally cursing the idiot for texting just when she was about to fall asleep.

‘Yes, and no, not anymore.’

‘Oops. Did I wake you?’ – Eri

‘Go to sleep Aho Kame.’

‘O~kay! Good night Rei~na! (=^x^=) <- look I made a kitty!’ - Eri

“That idiot.” Reina grumbled, smiling. Rolling on her back she keyed in her last message for the day and pressed the send button. After that was done she let her hand fall down to her side, phone slipping out of her fingers. There was still a smile on her face as the world around her slowly blurred through her half closed eyes.

“Sleep tight, Aho.”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

If anyone is wondering why the title doesn't seem to have anything to do with the story... well it's not supposed to. I couldn't really think of a proper title for this.
This was made in response to the Writer's Block? Prompt Time here -> http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=36508.0
Does the ending seem kinda forced?
._.

Offline MsSmigge

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Re: One-shot Scraps: November Project [11/28]
« Reply #59 on: November 28, 2013, 09:01:21 PM »
Hehe, I should be doing one schoolwork which I have to return tomorrow (And no, I haven't started it yet... :nervous) but then I noticed this and tadaa! The schoolwork was totally forgotten and I read your stories XD But it was worth it!

Lol, Ai being a driver for her drunken friends? Poor monkey! And it doesn't surprise me that Risa was the other sober one in the car  :lol:

And this I had to quote:

‘Throw in ‘x’ and it might as well be alien language to me. As far as I’m concerned ‘x’ can go find its way to hell and screw over some other sad sap.’

TOTALLY AGREE, REINA!  I couldn't have said it any better! Oh and at some point there was also the reaction queen Gaki-san. I laughed quite much at that part  :lol:
And if you ask me, the ending isn't too forced. At least I liked it~  :) Nice job! I really enjoyed these. And now I should finally do my schoolwork... Dammit  :depressed:


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