JPHiP Forum
The Hello! Project Fanfics => H!P Fanfics => Library => Topic started by: OTN1 on May 23, 2007, 06:09:46 AM
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Since I wrote two really depressing stories in the past few months, I kind of promised in one of those threads to write ten chapters of pointless fluff to keep readers from totally hating me.
So... here are ten chapters of pointless, plotless, dumb, fluffy fluff. Read at your own risk, and please feel free to post your honest, death threat-like comments. In this case, I will understand and fully and accept them. :D
Remember that all stories ("chapters") are unrelated to each other unless I state otherwise. These chapters can be read in any order and follow no order other than the order I post them in, which is completely random.
(For those of you who know the timeline of events in the Love X 2 series well, you might be able to pick out some sneaky references that I might make, but these stories will not require any knowledge of anything I've written before. I'll make a special note if any chapter here is related to anything I've written before.)
Enough talk. One of these days, I have to stop taking myself to seriously! Let's begin.
Time: Some time after Aya and Miki have graduated from Hello! Project.
Chapter One:
Welcome Home, Aya!
"I ask you to do one thing and you can't even get it right. God, Miki, I don't even know why I bother to ask," I spit out, throwing my hands up in the air in an irritated fashion.
At first, she doesn't react outwardly in any way, which I can tell means she's really affected by what I've just said. She looks at me with a hard expression. It turns into a hurt one, and then quietly, she backs up, slips on her shoes, and walks out of the door, closing it noiselessly behind her.
I'm left standing in my living room, a dead potted plant on the table before me, the sound of raindrops hitting my balcony, and my heart feeling not just a little guilty.
She doesn't call or e-mail me, and I'm too ashamed of what I've said and done to contact her, even though I know I should. How can it be that I come home from a tour of concerts in the south, and the first thing I do is yell at her for a simple mistake? Have I lost my ability to be nice to this girl? Am I turning into a disgruntled old hag?
I go to bed without dinner that night. I feel terribly lonely as thunder rumbles above my head and the rain continues to fall steadily. I close my eyes and see her wounded face. I try to push it out of my mind because it makes me feel upset. But at least I still have a conscience ...
The next morning I wake up to a sun shining brightly into my room through the cracks in my curtains. I get up and look outside. It's a beautiful day. The storm has blown over, and all that remains are fluffy white clouds in the distance and an otherwise clear and uniformly blue sky.
I still feel glum, though. How could I have been so awful to Miki? I didn't even get a chance to thank her for taking care of the rest of my place for two weeks, collecting my mail and dusting the furniture.
I feel even glummer because it's Saturday and I don't have any plans. On the plus side, I don't have to go to work. On the minus side, Miki's upset and she won't want to do anything with me.
That's why I'm surprised when my doorbell rings a short time later. I unlock the door, wondering who's there.
It's Miki. I blink and take a step back when we make eye contact.
"Come in," I say, wondering what she's doing here.
She walks in and takes off her shoes, stepping up and past the entrance.
"Here," she says abruptly.
She hands me a potted purple flower that I haven't realised she's holding until now. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's an African Violet.
"What's this?" I ask, holding the pot in my hands as she backs up a bit and turns her body to face me, but avoiding eye contact.
"That's to make up for killing your plant. I'm sorry."
My guilt tears me up, and I'm actually relieved because of it. There's no way that I've turned into a horrible monster if I feel this bad over something I did. Or at least I haven't turned into a monster completely. Not yet.
I put the flower down on the counter in the kitchen.
"No, I'm sorry," I say solidly.
She looks up at me, still wearing her sad, guilty expression.
"I didn't mean to yell at you. A dead plant isn't a big deal at all."
"No," she says, shaking her head. "You were right to tell me that yesterday. I should be less selfish and more responsible. You asked me for a small favour and I didn't care enough to do it."
I laugh.
"Well, maybe you forgot, but you also did me a whole bunch of other favours these past two weeks."
I remember seeing my mail piled nicely on my table, and not a speck of dust anywhere.
She cracks a smile.
"I guess I did get those other things done well," she says, getting back her joking, overconfident tone back. "But I'm still sorry."
"No, I'm sorry."
"No, I'm the one who's sorry."
"Miki..." I say in a warning tone to her.
She grins and stops. She skips over to the couch and lies down on it, making herself feel at home.
"What are you doing today, Aya?" she calls out as I pick up my new African Violet and try to find an appropriate place for it.
"No plans," I reply.
"Yet," she tags on for me.
"Right. None yet," I laugh, opening the door to the balcony and putting my flower there.
"Okay. What do you want to do?" asks Miki's voice from right behind me.
I jump in fright, my heart racing.
"I, um," I say as I try to collect myself. "Whatever you want to do."
She grabs my shoulders and pulls me back inside, giving the sliding glass door a hearty slam and pushing me onto the couch, letting herself hover on top of me.
"You've been gone for two weeks," she says quietly.
"Yes," I agree.
"We have a lot to catch up with."
"We certainly do," I say.
She grins.
"Okay. Let's start catching up with two week's worth of..." she trails off and smirks at me.
"Two week's worth of..." I echo her expectantly.
"Two week's worth of... tickle torture!!" she squeals suddenly.
Before I realise what's going on, she's attacking me, tickling my sides with those cruel hands of hers. I start to screech and laugh, and I try to push her off me, but she's too good at this. Plus she's on top.
"Welcome back home, Aya!" she cheers over my gasps for breath.
Oh, what a welcoming.
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Beautifully warm weather
Half a day at school
A yummy obento
And the promised story from OTN - Can my day get any better!!!!
(I did manage to get mayonaise in my eye when I read that 'two weeks off..' part. I jerked my hand up too quickly scroll down and read the next part thus there was some chopstick trouble...Anywho!)
We love you. I love you. Thats why you get little, if any at all, critism or how ever you wanna spell the damn word. Im to hungry to care.
BRING ON THE NEXT NINE!!!
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Yay for pointless fluff! We all need fluff in our lives after you brutalised our emotions with your last two stories! Haha. XD
The only death threats here will only be if you don't continue. XD
Oh and Mikan, it's spelled "criticism". :P And I would like to second the "We Love OTN1" resolution. We love you no matter what you do to us. :P Which means you can do anything to us...except for stop writing. In which case we WILL hunt you down and make you write again. :P
Anyway, happy writing! I'll be happily reading! And skiving on my own fic... *cough* You didn't hear me say that. XD Update soon~
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Hahaha! Aw, thanks. To avoid those death threats, here's more. Actually, I have a secret. I've had a few of these chapters written for some time now. I just have to read them through and edit them. I may as well stretch out the posting, though, huh? Hahaha. Keep the anticipation levels high, or something, while I think up of the last 5 pointless stories.
Chapter Two
Asleep
I walk into the room. She's fallen asleep at her computer. Open is her e-mail account inbox. A brief glance tells me she's in the middle of writing to her Irish pen pal. The one she came across last autumn. I look at her peaceful face and see lines of exhaustion around her eyes. If she's not careful she's going to start showing her age. This calls for some Aya Magic.
I pick up the phone and call her manager. I leave a message saying Miki has a fever and that she'll be in no shape to go to work tomorrow. Then I call my own manager and leave the same message, but replacing Miki's name with my own. Good thing we work at different places, or else I'd get into big trouble for pulling a stunt like that. No matter, though. Now we have a day off to relax.
I study the situation and try to decide the best way to get her into her bed. I finally settle for hooking my arms under her armpits and dragging her to her room. The beautiful thing about heavy sleepers is that they could sleep through a stampede of wildebeest. Miki can't even wake herself up with her funny talking and gestures, so my hauling her off to bed is simple.
Once there, I tug off her jeans and unbutton and remove her top in the galaxy's dullest striptease. I cover her with her blanket, and once I'm satisfied that she's tucked in properly, I help myself to some pyjamas and lie down beside her on top of the covers. I watch her sleep and let my thoughts wander.
I think I'd be a good mother. I'm not quite ready to be one yet, but I'm getting there. Miki's good practice. Not that that's what she is to me! I'm just saying. Sometimes she's just like an infant that wears herself out with all her hyperactivity, and as a result becomes vulnerable to the elements and the hardships of the world.
I start to think about my future. Will I get married? I can't exactly do that with Miki around. But I've always wanted to.
Am I just going through a phase now? Will I get over this teenaged love? Is that even what it is?
One look at Miki's face reassures me that it's not, and even if it were, it wouldn't be right to worry about it now. What is it that Shiba-chan would say? Go with the flow. Live for now. Your happiness now is important! That's what matters most.
I smile and brush my hair out of my face, followed by brushing a bit of Miki's out of her eyes. Her face contorts a slight bit, and I marvel at how I can yank her limbs every which way without waking her and then touch her ever so lightly and almost bring her out of her slumber.
That's Miki in a nutshell. She's got her own way. Whether it goes against the grain or not, she sticks to it. It's aggravating at times, but always worth it in the end. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to surprise me and keep me interested. Part of what appeals to me is trying to solve that jigsaw puzzle in her head. I know that there are so many layers, twists, and turns in her personality that I could spend an entire lifetime trying to identify and figure them all out. That would be nice. I think I'll do that.
I roll onto my side so that I can watch her, but the movement causes her eyes to open sleepily.
"Have some cookies," she mumbles, looking right at me.
And here we go.
"Thanks," I say, humouring the sleep-talking Miki.
She sits up and looks down at me. I just look back up with an amused expression on my face.
"You want a drink, too?"
"No thanks," I say lightly.
"Okay, I'll get you some tea," she says, obviously not having heard me.
She gets up and heads in the opposite direction of the door. She walks into the wall and stands there for a minute before turning back and walking in an arrow-straight line towards me. She lies back down on her back.
"We ran out of tea."
"That's okay," I say, holding my laughter in.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry," I assure her, and to show the unconscious Miki that I really don't mind that the wall didn't produce any tea for me, I snuggle up to her and put a hand on her stomach.
"Hmmm," she mumbles, and she turns onto her side, letting out an adorable half-yawn, half-growl. She looks and sounds like baby Simba in the opening scene of The Lion King.
My resolve melts, and I lean in to kiss her carefully. All she does is lie there and smile, but that's fine by me. I leave her alone after a few seconds and settle my head back on my pillow. She's quiet now, back to her deep sleep. I keep my eyes open for as long as possible until I fall asleep, all the while unable to contain my eagerness to tell her the next morning what she did.
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Chapter two is so sweet, You are so great, ONT1, I must say!
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Ohhh sleeptalking Miki <33333
I love how your fluff still ends up introspective somehow. I appreciate your insights into their relationship, they're very enlightening. :)
You've already gotten those written out? :D Well, I'll wait patiently for you to dribble them out...and I really should get back to writing for my own...haha....
*looks around furtively* good, Yuu's not around. *slacks some more*
More please! :D
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-stares at Essy- >_____________> You're not on AIM nor MSN? O_O
The stories are so cute <3
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"Okay. Let's start catching up with two week's worth of..." she trails off and smirks at me.
"Two week's worth of..." I echo her expectantly.
"Two week's worth of... tickle torture!!" she squeals suddenly.
Lol! I love how you write them, it's like reading about me goofing around with my best friend. (But I'd tickle her before she left, and then I'd tickle her more when she returned... :p) Probably that's why I like AM so much, as friends. Although, I have no objection to their more-than-friends fictional versions. :p
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FLUFF!!! :heart:
:imdead:
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pointless fluff FTW! XD
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Fluff Fluff Fluff *chokes on fluff* coughcough More please! coughcough
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It wouldn't be 10 chapters of fluff without a sleep-talking Miki chapter. Haha! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. Thank you.
Estrea, yeah, I kind of have that problem of injecting all that character self-reflection into my stories. Hahah, like, all the time. I have to remember that this is all light-hearted fun. And please don't waste your time reading this. Work on your own story. I'm looking forward to more!
And now, for a bit of, uh, completely non-instrospective household humour...?
Chapter Three
Lessons in Domesticity
January, 2004
Learning How to Compromise
"Are you kidding me? That's not white."
"What are you talking about? It's light enough."
"No it's not. It's, like, darker than my slippers."
"You have silly slippers," Miki snickered.
Aya glared at her.
"Stay on topic. There's no way you're putting that in with the whites."
"Well, I'm not putting it with the dark stuff. It'll turn black or blue."
"No it won't."
"Yes it will."
"Oh my god. I'm never doing laundry with you again!" Aya yelled, throwing her hands up in the air.
"Fine. Then I'll be able to do it the way I want to."
"Arggg!" the aggravated girl yelled. "Do you want to dye all my clothes pink?!"
Miki shrugged.
"Pink underwear is cute."
There was an awkward silence.
"Just put the shirt down," Aya ordered.
Miki dropped the shirt on the ground.
"I ask for one favour - one small favour - and I get shot down," Miki muttered with a roll of her eyes. "You're killing me, Aya-chan. You're killing me."
"Just because you're over here all the time, it doesn't mean you can disrupt my way of doing things."
Another roll of the eyes from Miki.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me. It's my laundry. You might have a few things you need washed, but you're going to do it my way or not at all."
Frustrated, Miki stood up in a huff and started collecting her things.
"Fine. I'll go home and waste water just to clean two shirts and a pair of socks. Then I'll watch TV alone, eat dinner alone, and... ug, whatever."
Miki headed for the door and started putting on her shoes.
Aya ran after her and grabbed her by the arm.
"Don't go, you idiot."
"That's really going to make me stay," Miki spat sarcastically.
"Seriously, don't go home just to do laundry."
Miki stopped, but she still didn't look convinced.
"I'm sorry?" Aya tried.
Miki pouted.
"Okay, I'm sorry," she repeated, this time not in a questioning way.
Miki grudgingly took her shoes off.
"You didn't have to get so angry," she said.
Aya opened her mouth to bite back, but she restrained herself.
"I'm just very particular about certain things," she replied firmly.
"I've noticed," Miki muttured, eying Aya's shoes all lined up in painfully neat rows on the rack by the door.
"I have some other pink clothes. We'll do a separate load for all of them. All right?" Aya suggested.
Miki nodded happily.
"Sounds good."
They went back to the living room and continued separating whites from colours from pinks. As Aya threw a pair of black socks into the colour pile, she shot Miki a shifty look and smirked.
"Why do you own a bright pink shirt anyway?"
"Don't start."
Later That Evening, Absent-Mindedness Abounds
"It says to add one cup of water."
"Trust me. My mom taught me if you replace a quarter of that with milk, the recipe turns out much better."
"And three thousand calories in excess."
"Oh, come on. Relax. We can afford to indulge a little."
"Actually no, we can't," Miki replied matter-of-factly.
Aya glared at her and said nothing.
"Okay," Miki gave in after reflecting on this silent treatment. "Add the milk. Don't come crying to me when your clothing doesn't fit."
Aya rolled her eyes.
"You exaggerate too much."
They continued working in silence, mumbling the occasional instruction to each other. They finally finished preparations and Aya held the tray in her hands.
"I name thee all 'Aya'!" she proclaimed to the tray full of small lumps of dough.
Miki hit her lightly.
"You're so full of it," she laughed.
"You know you like it."
Miki laughed and hit Aya again.
"As if. Anyway, you can't name cookies 'Aya' because they disappear quickly. It would suck if you disappeared like a cookie."
"Idol disappears leaving behind a pile of crumbs," Aya announced in a low voice.
"More like... idol Fujimoto Miki falls into a depression."
"Awww, would you really be depressed if I disappeared?" Aya asked, touched.
Miki sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Duh! Who would I hang out with? Maki-chan? We'd kill each other."
"I think you and I already do a pretty good job of doing that to each other."
The two shared a laugh, and Aya popped the tray into the tiny oven. They went to watch television until the timer went off.
When it was time, Miki took the tray out of the oven (Aya being afraid to do it because of fear of getting burned) and they waited for the cookies to cool down. Finally, they were able to scoop them onto a plate. They stood at the kitchen counter and tried the cookies.
"Gah!!" Miki yelled, spitting out the cookie she'd taken a bite of.
It landed on the counter, crumbs spraying out in several directions. Aya looked at her in horror.
"Miki!" she yelled. "What are you doing?"
Miki couldn't talk because she was bent under the tap of the kitchen sink, rinsing her mouth out desperately. She pointed to the cookies and Aya frowned. She picked one up and took a tentative bite into it.
Her face turned green as she tried to force herself to swallow the fetid thing. She couldn't manage, so she ran to the sink and pushed Miki out of the way. She spit the remains of the cookie out and chugged water, rinsing her mouth out thoroughly. Miki, shoved away violently from the oasis, didn't complain of such violent treatment, but only because she was still in shock.
"See?" she asked, wiping her chin after she'd recovered enough to speak.
"That was..." Aya trailed off weakly.
She couldn't even think of the word to use to describe the monstrosity she'd bitten into.
"What a waste. Just because you wanted to add a quarter cup of milk."
"It wasn't the milk. It was supposed to make them taste better!"
"Well, we followed the recipe exactly. That was the only thing we did differently."
"Are you sure you added the sugar?" Aya asked suspiciously.
"Of course I added the sugar!" Miki yelled back in her own defence.
Aya didn't believe her and started looking through all the ingredients they'd placed on the table. Everything was still where they'd left it. Aya could find the flour, the baking soda, the salt, and everything else, but not the sugar.
"It's not here."
"Yes it is," Miki huffed.
She walked over to the table and grabbed a red container, shoving it in front of Aya's face.
"There. Sugar."
Aya was silent. She started at the container. Then she looked at Miki's insolent face.
"You... idiot," she muttered.
"I beg your pardon?"
Aya grabbed the container from Miki's hands and waved it in the girl's face.
"This is salt!!" she cried angrily. "You put a gazillion tonnes of salt into these cookies. No wonder they taste like this!"
Miki involuntarily flinched away from the angry girl. She turned her nose up and refused to look at Aya.
"Those cookies couldn't taste that bad because of too much salt. There must've been something else wrong with the recipe," she sniffed.
She grabbed the empty milk carton from the table and inspected it. She read the expiration date and then whacked Aya on the head with the carton, a satisfying "thwack!" echoing throughout the apartment as a result.
"Oww!"
"You're the idiot. This milk expired 2 weeks ago!"
There was a moment of silent reflection. Then:
"Ewww!" Aya whined loudly, unable to contain herself.
"Don't you check your food for expiration dates before you buy it?" Miki scolded her.
"The expiration date was fine when, um, I bought it... three weeks ago," Aya said, trailing off nervously.
Miki shook her head in disbelief.
"You... oh, never mind. Just.... Ugh."
"Well, you also put in almost two cups of salt..."
"Okay, I admit it was a stupid mistake... But you didn't label your containers."
"Oh no. Don't pin that on me. Yes, I used expired, rotten milk," and here the two almost gagged as they thought of the foul taste of the cookies, "but no sugar and too much salt is just as bad."
"Okay, so we both screwed up this time."
"Right."
"Okay, then."
There was a silence as they considered what to do.
"Well, there's a nice family of birds that visits my balcony. How about we put the cookies outside for them?"
Miki shrugged.
"Sounds good to me."
So they did that and then went to watch more television.
Conclusion: Aya and Miki should not live together. Ever.
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Haha! Laundry blues! (I actually dyed all my clothes pink before :x)
Why does Miki own a bright pink shirt anyway? XD
And those cookies....XD They really can't live together, can they? Haha. Miki mistaking salt for sugar. And Aya using expired milk. XD Funny as heck.
I feel sorry for those poor birds who would try those cookies. XD Do they die afterwards? Haha. XD Or suffer terrible indigestion? XD
And yeah I should really be working on my own story. I've got the chapter outline down, but I haven't actually started typing it out yet, so yeah. Looks like another long chapter too. XD I'll probably work faster if Yuu is around to nag me...she does that fairly often. XD
Anyway, these stories are a pleasant distraction. XD I would like to see more soon~ ^___^
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Mmm pointless fluff before bed. Awesome!
Thanks for the happy fluff filled story!
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- Is now having second thoughts about moving in with her friend
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I've dyed clothes pink in the wash, too. Not fun.
To repent for that bad chapter (I think it's the worst of all the ones I'll post here), here's another stupid piece of writing!
Time: Post-H!P.
Chapter Four
The Shiner
She came to my home with a black eye one evening. Or it was close enough to a black eye. Maybe more like a black cheekbone. Nevertheless, I never expected to see her with a bruised face in my entire life. It was just one of those impossibilities that I never imagined. Sure, there was always the risk of her being in a car accident and smashing her face on the dashboard, or being trampled by a crowd in a crowded subway, but those seemed as likely to happen as my winning the lottery.
"Miki, what happened to you?!" I cried out, running to grab some ice and a towel, handing these things to her as I tried to imagine the kinds of accidents she could have gotten into.
She pressed the makeshift ice pack to her cheek and winced as it touched the bruised skin.
"Umm..." was all she said.
Then it struck me that maybe it hadn't been an accident she'd gotten into.
"Did you get into a fight?" I asked, scowling at her disapprovingly.
Of all the things for her to do! If she had indeed been fighting. But she was too classy and indifferent to get into a fight. She wasn't a problem child. What could ever possess her to start fighting?
"No!" she snapped and then looked guilty for yelling.
"Then what happened?" I demanded.
"Nothing," she mumbled. "I fell."
I gave her a pissed off look. We both knew she was lying. The chances of getting a black eye from falling were quite slim.
She refused to look at me, so I walked off to sit on the couch and resume watching television. If she was going to screw around with me like that, I didn't have to tolerate it.
I heard her hang around at the entrance, going through her bag and probably checking her phone for messages.
Some time later, she came to join me. She didn't say anything. She watched a comedy show with me. Neither of us laughed.
Thirty minutes later, I saw out of the corner of my eye (not that I was watching her or anything) that the ice pack was melting and water was getting on the couch.
"You're dripping," I muttered.
She got up without saying anything and got two new cloths, one to wrap around the ice and the other to wipe the couch. She sat back down. An hour passed.
"Hungry?" I asked.
She nodded.
Wordlessly, we prepared dinner, which was just leftover food I had from the day before. We sat in front of the TV set and ate. Again, wordlessly.
After that gruelling thirty minutes of silence, I went off to take a bath and get ready for bed. She followed a while later.
I got under the covers as she was still finishing up her bath, and I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep, making sure to wrap myself up in a blanket that I wouldn't have to share with her.
I heard her come in later and slip into bed. She turned out the light, and then all was dark and quiet.
A few minutes passed.
"What don't you want to tell me what happened?" I asked, finally breaking.
I felt her squirm under the covers.
"It's not important," she replied.
"Not important? Somebody punched you," I said acidly. "That is what happened, right?"
"Just let it go," she insisted.
I sighed exasperatedly.
"Stop trying to be so... uh, secretive. Just tell me who did it."
"You stop trying to be all secretive," she threw back at me.
That made no sense whatsoever.
"Was it a guy? Was it your manager?" I demanded.
"No!" she exclaimed, her tone showing how absurd she thought the idea was.
"Then who was it??" I almost yelled.
"It was Goto, okay?" she yelled back.
That made me pause and re-evaluate.
"Why the hell did she hit you? What did you say to piss her off?" I asked in astonishment.
"Nothing," she grumbled.
I got up, switched on the light, and then sat on the bed and stared at her. She was lying on her side, turned away from me.
"Maki-chan doesn't just fly off the handle and hit people," I lectured.
"Actually, she really did this time..." Miki said in a weak way that made me believe her.
"Oh," I said, at a loss. "But you must've done something."
"Nothing."
"Miki..." I warned her.
"Fine," she huffed. "We argued about you. Happy?"
I entered a stunned phase.
"Me?" I asked stupidly.
"Yeah. You."
"What about?"
"Please don't ask," she groaned.
"What was it?" I repeated, voice hard as stone.
"She said some nasty things and I got angry and I-" she cut herself off before she could admit what she had done.
"You tried to attack her?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Miki looked away guiltily.
"Yeah, but she's been taking those self-defence classes lately, so she, uh..."
"She kicked your ass."
Miki looked offended, but grumbled in the affirmative.
"What did she say?" I asked.
I knew that Maki and I weren't that close anymore (not that we were terribly close to begin with), but we certainly didn't hate each other. We were just too busy to talk much. We did send each other the occasional e-mail to touch base, and from time to time we met for coffee.
Miki looked at me slowly.
"Please don't ask me to repeat it," she said, her eyes filled with such sadness that I couldn't repeat my demand.
"That bad, huh?" I asked lightly, trying to brush it off.
Miki didn't nod, but she didn't deny it.
"She felt bad later about saying it. And she felt bad about this," she said, pointing to her cheek.
I sighed. Politics. I was just as guilty as any other girl out there, but I still didn't like it when it became so vicious. So physical.
"Does she hate me?" I asked.
Maybe I was just fooling myself in thinking that Maki and I were on good terms, but I had a feeling it had to do more with her personal circumstances than her opinion of me.
"No, that's not it," Miki said quickly. "She was just bitter. You know, about her career and that lousy ex of hers. Compared to her life, yours is heaven, or so she thinks. She just took out her anger on you."
I suspected as much, and I understood what it was like to snap and come down on other people when things weren't going your way. I wished Miki hadn't tried to get violent about it, though.
"And so you just passed, like, three hours of an evening here with me in silence because you didn't want me to know?"
Miki turned onto her back and looked up at the ceiling.
"I didn't want you to get hurt."
I wriggled out of the blanket I'd wrapped around myself and rearranged the covers on the bed so that we were now sharing them. I turned onto my side.
"You shouldn't have attacked her," I said gently.
She cracked a smile for the first time that evening.
"That's the real reason why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd get mad at me."
"Ha ha," I said sourly. "But really, don't put yourself at risk like that."
"But I had to," she insisted.
"And don't get all noble on me," I said with a straight face. "You know just as well as I do that it's useless to lose your temper about things like that, especially when you know the person throwing out the insults is having a rough time."
I thought of poor Maki with her broken heart and ruined career. I couldn't be angry with her because the things she'd gone through the past two years filled me with pity.
"Yeah, yeah. I know," she replied gloomily. "I guess I've never done that before."
"What?"
"Tried to get into a fight. A physical one. And a fight about someone."
It was kind of sweet for her to do that.
"Well, thank you," I said firmly and with a smile. "Thank you for protecting my integrity, even though you did a lousy job of it."
I pointed at her bruise, and the corners of her lips turned up again in amusement.
I knew, though, that she'd done much more than that. Much more than just try to defend me.
"And thank you for not hitting back."
Nobody knew Miki better than I did, and I knew for certain she must have gone crazy with anger once Maki's punch landed on her face. Despite that, she must have kept a tight reign on her temper and not hit back because she knew she'd be worse off if she did. She had thought of Maki, who was just distressed, not really angry at me. She had thought of me and how I'd feel if she had beat Maki up over some meaningless comments.
One could have asked how I knew she hadn't hit back, but I could never have given any concrete evidence. I'd just have to say that I knew her well. Besides, if she had hit back, Maki certainly would've hit her again, and then there'd be more evidence than just one bruised cheek.
Miki looked at me gratefully because she could see what I was thinking. She smiled, and in that smile I could detect a slight amount of pride, which reaffirmed my assumption that she hadn't hit back. She didn't say anything.
And just as easily as that, everything was okay between us.
An unexplainable tiredness swept over me, and it seemed to come over Miki, too. She closed her eyes, a trace of a smile still on her lips. I got up and turned off the light, this time for good that night. I got back into bed and patted Miki on the arm and then kept my hand there.
"Good night," I said, settling into my pillow, closing my eyes.
"'Night," she echoed.
We slept.
-
Oh, fluff. I feel a little better already. :)
Miki defending Aya's honor makes me happy. :) Fluffy fluff fluff.
...though, poor Maki. I mean, yes, she didn't get hurt (and punched Miki in the process), but she pretty much appears to have had a shitty time. So yeah.
I'm still moping. Can't write. Fluff helps, but it's going to take a while for me to get back on track. Thanks for the sweetness though. It helps. :)
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As Aya threw a pair of black socks into the colour pile, she shot Miki a shifty look and smirked.
"Why do you own a bright pink shirt anyway?"
I was thinking the exact same thing. :D
"You... idiot," she muttered.
"I beg your pardon?"
Aya grabbed the container from Miki's hands and waved it in the girl's face.
"This is salt!!" she cried angrily. "You put a gazillion tonnes of salt into these cookies. No wonder they taste like this!"
Oh crap! (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/LOL.gif)
She grabbed the empty milk carton from the table and inspected it. She read the expiration date and then whacked Aya on the head with the carton, a satisfying "thwack!" echoing throughout the apartment as a result.
"Oww!"
"You're the idiot. This milk expired 2 weeks ago!"
OH CRAP! (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/ROFL.gif)
There was a moment of silent reflection. Then:
"Ewww!" Aya whined loudly, unable to contain herself.
I can picture Aya having a little grossed-out hissyfit while she's doing this! So CUTE!!! :heart:
"Don't you check your food for expiration dates before you buy it?" Miki scolded her.
"The expiration date was fine when, um, I bought it... three weeks ago," Aya said, trailing off nervously.
*trying to contain laughter* (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/giggle.gif)
To repent for that bad chapter (I think it's the worst of all the ones I'll post here), here's another stupid piece of writing!
OI! Fluff is not bad NOR is it stupid! (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/razz.gif)
"Then who was it??" I almost yelled.
"It was Goto, okay?" she yelled back.
...
"Why the hell did she hit you? What did you say to piss her off?" I asked in astonishment.
"Nothing," she grumbled.
Wha? ???
"She said some nasty things and I got angry and I-" she cut herself off before she could admit what she had done.
"You tried to attack her?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Miki looked away guiltily.
"Yeah, but she's been taking those self-defence classes lately, so she, uh..."
"She kicked your ass."
Eep. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/blink.gif)
"She was just bitter. You know, about her career and that lousy ex of hers. Compared to her life, yours is heaven, or so she thinks. She just took out her anger on you."
Ah, frustration's a bitch. :'(
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What about Maki's lousy ex? When was this?
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Miki Vs Maki? Now that Id love to see.
Keep it up!
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I think with my and Essy's stories, we accidentally cemented the false Miki-doesn't-get-along-with-Maki thingy xDDDDD ANYWHO....
Your fluffy chapters are so adorable! <3 You're definitely right, Miki and Aya should never live together, if your chapter's any indication of the hell to come xD But Miki is so sweet trying to defend Aya, despite being beaten the shit out of xD Makes one realize how whipped Miki is when Aya's suddenly involved xD
Looking forward to more of your fluffyness! <3
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What about Maki's lousy ex? When was this?
Hahaha, I have no idea. I made it up.That's another story for someone else to write another day.
Hahaha, Yuuyami, I didn't mean to make it sound like Miki and Maki don't get along. Maki was just having a bad day.
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Hahaha, I have no idea. I made it up.That's another story for someone else to write another day.
Hahaha, Yuuyami, I didn't mean to make it sound like Miki and Maki don't get along. Maki was just having a bad day.
Rawr... Lol.
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:D fluff...ahhh all those stories made me melt. Haha from laundry to baking cookies..it had me cracking up...anyways keep up the good work
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*bows to the GAMfather*
Your stories are the true meaning of life to me. I swear, we must publish the stories into a book and use it as a bible to pray upon. Unfortunately, there would be several installments because you keep writing and writing and writing . . . But, don't stop! This stuff is pure heaven.
Also, sorry for not commenting on the past stories, but I did complete reading them. Awesome work. WNTBD had me crying for several hours.
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^ Amen!
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Hahahaha! Black velvet, your comment made me laugh out loud. Thank you, but flattery makes me turn uncomfortably red. Hah.
Would it pain you or excite you to tell you I have another slightly longer story that's starting to come to my mind? It started as a chapter of fluff, but it grew. Therefore, maybe I won't post it in this thread, but start a new one. But later. I need to decide first if I want to pursue it or not.
But on to other things. Here's some pointless, plotless, fluffy nonsense:
Post-H!P.
Chapter Five
Planning a Trip
"Let's go to America!" Miki says randomly over lunch.
"What? Why?" I ask, pausing in mid-slurp, noodles halfway into my mouth.
"I don't know. Or maybe Brazil. That would be interesting."
She gets that dreamy look in her eyes. The one that I know means she has grabbed onto an idea and won't let go until she's satisfied.
"Why?" I ask again.
Why the sudden interest in travelling?
"Just to do something fun," she says, giving me a big, toothy grin.
"We can have fun right here," I tell her.
"No, something different," she huffs. "See a new place."
I like travelling, but I question whether she's actually being serious. If she says she wants to go to America just to go to Disneyland, I will bonk her on the head. She's said ridiculous things like that before.
"What would you want to do in America?" I ask, feigning indifference and continuing to eat.
"I don't know about you," she beings haughtily, "but I would travel across the whole thing in a car. Go to that famous canyon and the hot springs, and go to a Broadway show, and see the huge mansions that they've got, and... "
I want to tell her to stop because she's too cute and because she has just made my day by giving me a smart answer.
"What would you do in Brazil?" I ask curiously.
She thinks for a minute.
"Go to the jungle?"
Far too cute for her own good. I've lost my appetite because I suddenly feel so giddy. I push my bowl aside and bend over the table, crossing my arms on the surface and resting my chin on my hands.
"And when would you go to America?"
She mimics my actions and stares back at me from across the table, our heads now on the same level.
"Whenever you're free."
"For how long?"
"However long you want."
She's got all the good answers.
"And who would plan it?"
"I'd take care of it."
"And who would pay for it?"
"Um, you would," she says cutely.
She almost had me.
"Only 'cause you make more money than me," she clarifies.
I close my eyes and pretend to look pained.
"You know, you just... you have this.... ug. You have this way of dealing with people that makes them want to... gah, I don't know."
And I'm really not quite sure. In some ways she's too cute, but in some ways I just want to smack her silly.
"But I'll do everything else," she says sweetly. "I'll make the plan and find places to stay and a way to get there all by myself."
Aww. Maybe I'll let her. She's usually not that motivated about fleeting ideas, but when she really wants something, she'll go for it with all her might, pursue it relentlessly, dream about it, live and breathe it, and eventually get it. For example, me.
"America, huh?" I say, letting the idea run through my mind.
Not my first choice for a vacation spot, but...
"Or we could go to Australia next month," she says dreamily.
Now I know she's letting her imagination run wild. Miki and her koalas and tropical fishies in the beautiful blue sea of abundance. I sigh, but I humour her.
"And what would we do in Australia?"
"We could go swimming every day, we could pet koalas and kangaroos, we could climb that big red mountain, we could run away from dangerous snakes..."
I thought as much.
"You realise it's winter in Australia now, right?"
Silly Miki. Forgetting to think ahead.
She stops talking and thinks hard, her brow furrowing, my mind melting.
"Then we'd go in December."
The doorbell rings, startling us both.
"Want to get that?" I ask.
Miki shakes her head.
"No."
I sit there and stare at her.
"But it's your place. I'm not supposed to get it," I point out.
The doorbell rings again.
"Shhhh," Miki stage-whispers.
She gets me up and pulls me into her bedroom, sliding the door shut slowly and quietly.
"What if it's important?" I ask quietly as she sits on the floor and leans her back against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.
"It's not. It's probably a door-to-door salesman. I don't feel like getting rid of one right now," she whispers back.
I roll my eyes and sit down beside her.
"Next time I'm standing out there ringing your doorbell and you don't answer, I'll remember this and assume that you're hiding from me in your room."
"Oh, come on," she releases an arm to nudge me in the ribs. "Don't tell me you're not happy I'm ignoring someone else just so that I can spend time with you."
Put that way, I can't deny that I feel happy.
The doorbell rings again.
"Miki-chan?" a voice muffled by several walls calls out.
Oh crap.
It's her mother. Since when was her mother supposed to be coming over?
I look at Miki and she looks just as surprised as I do.
"You never said your mother was coming over this weekend," I hiss quietly.
"I didn't know!" she whispers back defensively, stretching her legs out in front of her. "She was supposed to come over next weekend."
Suddenly her phone, which is in her pocket, starts to ring. She slaps her hand down on a button to silence it and stops it before another note of music can be heard. We sit there, silent and frozen, wondering if her mother has heard the sound.
Miki carefully opens up her phone and checks her mail.
"Miki, I'm standing outside your apartment. Where are you? I'll wait here till you come back," we both read together.
We look at each other.
"Why don't you just let her in?" I ask, thinking of the obvious solution.
It's not too late now. It's not like we've been doing anything bad. However, she crosses her arms and shakes her head.
"No. I said I want to spend time with you, not anyone else," she tells me.
"But it's your mother, for heaven's sake," I groan.
"No," she says adamantly. "She'll have to wait for her time."
My dear, stubborn Miki. When will you ever learn?
Never, I hope. I love this special treatment, and I show her by smiling.
"Okay. You win. But what's the use? We're stuck here, and we can't make any noise until she goes away," I chuckle.
She's dug herself into a rut. Lack of foresight is always my Miki-chan's undoing.
"Do you think you could be really quiet?" she asks.
I sigh.
"Sorry. I'm trying to be," I apologise. Really quietly.
"No..." she mumbles.
I look at her and she's looking at me with another look she often has on her face. Not the dreamy, I-want-to-travel-the-world look. This is the look she gets late at night.
My jaw drops. Now I know what she's talking about.
"Your mother is standing outside the door!" I scold her.
"Don't remind me," she sniffs as she squeezes my leg.
Oh, the things it takes to thrill this girl. She's unbelievable. The more dangerous the situation, the more enthusiastic (which is just one way of putting it) she gets. We could be next in line at the guillotine and she'd be clawing at my clothing.
"No. Miki- just- no."
She scrunches her nose up and makes a face at me, mimicking me telling her to stop as she gets closer to me.
"Miki," I whine helplessly.
"Miki," she whines back in a mocking tone.
I'm starting to lose the battle. This is what she does. She defeats me in every possible way because she knows that I can't resist anything. Tough as I may be, and try as I might, I am nothing against her will.
"Just don't make a sound," she whispers very quietly into my ear, and I shiver.
This is going to be the test of a lifetime.
At least the bedroom floor is relatively soft.
-
I died. XD
Doing that with her MOTHER outside?!?! o_O XDDDD
I love those two. <3333
I wonder how long it took for the mother to walk away. XD
I love your fluff! Oh and you say you have an idea for a chaptered fic coming? Happy day. :D I'll await your next work. ;)
(and don't ask about All Aboard!, I'm stuck on it :S)
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Lol! Freaking awesome! I love Miki, she's officially my hero!
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Ah, my week just got 110% better! That was a down right awesome chapter. It seems so real and tangible yet is fiction, I suppose thats why i love it.
I heard you cant climb the big rock anymore, is that true?
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Last I heard, it was suggested that you don't climb Uluru out of respect for the beliefs of the aboriginal people living in the area, but people still go ahead and do it. But don't take my word for it. I've never even been there, let alone Australia.
Estrea asks a good question, and I find myself dying to find out the answer. Stay tuned for a brand new chapter. I hope soon...
-
"Let's go to America!" Miki says randomly over lunch.
"What? Why?" I ask, pausing in mid-slurp, noodles halfway into my mouth.
Mental picture developing....KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~!!! :wriggly:
"What would you want to do in America?" I ask, feigning indifference and continuing to eat.
"I don't know about you," she beings haughtily, "but I would travel across the whole thing in a car. Go to that famous canyon and the hot springs, and go to a Broadway show, and see the huge mansions that they've got, and... "
I want to tell her to stop because she's too cute and because she has just made my day by giving me a smart answer.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! :k-inlove:
"What would you do in Brazil?" I ask curiously.
She thinks for a minute.
"Go to the jungle?"
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...GAM in jungle clothing. :twisted: :jerk:
The doorbell rings again.
"Miki-chan?" a voice muffled by several walls calls out.
Oh crap.
It's her mother. Since when was her mother supposed to be coming over?
Oops. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/giggle.gif)
"Okay. You win. But what's the use? We're stuck here, and we can't make any noise until she goes away," I chuckle.
She's dug herself into a rut. Lack of foresight is always my Miki-chan's undoing.
"Do you think you could be really quiet?" she asks.
Oh, I think I know where THIS is going. :pimp:
I look at her and she's looking at me with another look she often has on her face. Not the dreamy, I-want-to-travel-the-world look. This is the look she gets late at night.
My jaw drops. Now I know what she's talking about.
"Your mother is standing outside the door!" I scold her.
"Don't remind me," she sniffs as she squeezes my leg.
WOOOOOOOOOOOO HELL YA!!! :rockon:
"Just don't make a sound," she whispers very quietly into my ear, and I shiver.
This is going to be the test of a lifetime.
At least the bedroom floor is relatively soft.
:imdead:
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Damn, I killed him again.
Behold the sixth chapter of fluff. Part 2 of "Planning a Trip". It's all kind of silly. Hahaha!
Chapter Six
Three's a Crowd
While we're half naked and in the middle of things, Miki's cell phone rings again.
I let out a surprised cry because up until now, we've done an extraordinarily good job of keeping quiet. Accompanying my cry is my head jerking up, and Miki, surprised by both her phone and my voice, whips her head sideways and downwards, resulting in us crashing faces in the most pain-filled nose-to-nose contact I've experienced in my life.
"OW!!" we both howl like animals.
Miki falls away from me, clutching her face as I roll onto my stomach, tears of pain pouring from my eyes.
"Owwowwoww..." she moans as she manages to get onto her hands and knees and crawl to where her jeans are, jabbing at a button on her phone and finally silencing the offensively loud melody.
She looks back at me, her face contorted in pain and fright. I wipe my tears away from my cheeks and wince, my heart beating so fast that I'm afraid it'll burst. My whole body is shaking from the sudden switch of feelings within me. From enjoyment to terror. And now I have to prepare to face the wrath of Mrs. Fujimoto...
But nothing happens. There's no knock at the door. No cries of "I know you're in there, Miki!"
Miki opens her cell phone ever so quietly and reads the message she has just received. She lets out a pained groan and lets her body fall limp onto the floor without putting out her arms to brace herself. I crawl over and take the phone out of her hand to read the message.
Shopping at department store. Will call later.
It's from Miki's mother. So she left already. There we were trying to be as quiet as possible, and all for nothing.
How maddening!
I place the phone beside Miki's hand and then lie down on my stomach beside her, letting out a huge breath that I've been holding for eternity.
"I thought I was going to die," she mumbles, her voice cracking.
"Me too," I sigh.
I reach out a shaking hand and put it on Miki's back. She jerks, and I can't help but laugh.
"Arrrgggg!" she gurgles.
She rolls onto her side and shoots me an exasperated look.
"My mom. Ug!"
"It's okay. She's gone now," I comfort her.
"She knows how to totally ruin a mood."
This is true. Now that we've been rudely shocked apart, any desire to continue what we were doing has left me, only to be replaced by wariness and a sharp pain in the bridge of my nose.
"Aw, be easy on her Miki," I say in an effort to placate her. "She had no idea."
"Yeah, but now I have to let her stay over here, and that ruins the plans that we had," she grumbles.
True, that's not such a great thing. But it's just for a short while. I can come back when Miki's mom leaves.
I sit up and reach for the rest of my clothes, starting to put them back on.
"What are you doing?" Miki asks in disbelief.
I pause and look over at her.
"You'd better call your mom and tell her you're on your way home. I'll pick up my things and get out of your hair."
Miki refuses to let me sacrifice myself, though, and she grabs my hands to keep me from leaving.
"No. You can hang out with us. I don't want you to go. I don't want to spend all this time alone with my mom," she insists.
"Stop being such a baby," I roll my eyes. "Besides, I can't stay here with you two. It's mother-daughter time."
"I don't want mother-daughter time," she whines. "Hang out with us? Please? Just for the afternoon?"
She shoots me such a pathetically sad look that I find myself saying that I'll stay. She does a cheer and hurries to get dressed as I sit in the middle of the room, shirtless and wondering what sorts of mystic forces Miki channels in order to get her way with me.
We clean up our mess from lunch, and Miki calls her mother, making up a story about how she and I were out. She also bickers with her mom for a moment, chastising her for coming a week early. They finish their call.
"She'll come by soon. She said she's looking forward to seeing you, too," Miki tells me teasingly.
I love Miki's mom like my own. She's a funny woman around her friends and family, and when she and Miki are in a room together, they put on quite a show. They're both obstinate in their ways, but they love each other very much. That makes for some exciting entertainment. Their wills clash and they do combat by teasing each other, uttering biting things that some comedians wouldn't even touch on. I hear that Miki's mother actually used to terrify her daughter with these super flying kicks, but that was back when Miki was younger and still lived with her family. I would have loved to have been around for that.
I smile, and we plunk ourselves down in front of the TV to wait for our company.
Miki has trouble sitting still without fidgeting, and her hands keep wandering over to me as she pretends to touch me accidentally.
"If you dare ignore your mother when she comes to the door again because you're too busy thinking about me, I will personally open that door and tell her the exact reason why you didn't let her in the first time," I threaten her.
It's not that I don't want her touching me. Far from it. But if she keeps up with this fidgeting, I'll lose focus, and Miki's mother will be left out in the summer heat again. I have too much of a guilt complex to let that happen to her.
Miki grumbles in complaint, but her hands stop poking at me. This has the strange effect of making me wish I hadn't opened my mouth about the touching. As we sit there quietly, I begin to think more and more of what we were doing before being rudely interrupted by the phone. The mood is coming back to me, and no matter how hard I try to shut it up temporarily in a tiny room in my head, it keeps growing.
The doorbell rings, and I sigh in relief, but underneath my skin I feel a slightly ominous foreboding sense of doom and destruction.
Miki skips to the door and opens it up, letting her mother in.
"Aya-chan, how are you?!" Mrs. Fujimoto cries in delight, completely ignoring her daughter.
I grin and greet her while Miki glares at us. I flash an innocent "I love you" look at her that only makes her glower deepen. Eventually, however, she joins us, and we chat. I sit back and watch as mother and daughter catch up.
We go out for a bit and do some shopping. Miki's mom buys her some new things for her apartment, a very kind and generous thing to do, and we bring them back to the apartment. Miki enslaves her mother and makes her cook dinner for us while we clear the table and then disappear into the bedroom.
"Oh my god," Miki says the minute we're alone.
"What?" I ask in alarm, looking behind me to see if a fire has broken out.
"I love my mom, but I just want her to leave so that I can have you all to myself."
I laugh a little too wickedly.
"How long is she staying again?" I ask.
"Till Thursday," Miki groans.
The smile drops from my face. That is quite long. This means I can't spend a night with Miki until Thursday. That's five nights from now.
"Wonderful," I mutter. "Just wonderful."
She moves in closer to me, but I take a big step back.
"Uh uh. No," I say firmly. "Mother in kitchen. Not good."
"Come on," Miki grumbles, and she grabs fistfuls of my shirt in her hands and pulls me towards her.
"Miki-chan! Where's the sesame oil?!" Mrs. Fujimoto yells from the kitchen.
Miki's face twitches in exasperation, and she mouths obscenities under her breath.
"Coming!" she calls out, letting go of my shirt and turning around.
"Go help her," I laugh, covering up my own frustration and giving her a slap on the butt like she's a horse.
She turns her head and shoots me a look that says "we're not done here" before ambling off to help her mother. I sigh and lie back on Miki's bed until I hear the two start quarrelling. I go out and play peacemaker.
Dinner is delicious. Miki's mom is an excellent cook. Far better than Miki.
"Fujimoto-san, why can't you teach Miki-chan how to cook like this?" I ask after swallowing a mouthful of spinach.
The woman bursts out with nefarious cackle. Miki shoots daggers from her eyes at both me and her mom.
"I've tried. My dear daughter has clumsy hands," she laughs lovingly as I bite back words to contradict her. "I don't know how she managed to get a job that involves so much dancing. She could barely move her body back when she lived with us."
Things change, I think, laughing in my head at the murderous look on Miki's face.
"Well, mom, I have to have inherited it from someone," she retorts.
Her mother, however, is too good at this game.
"I agree. You can thank your father for that."
I see Miki wind up for another blow, but I quickly interrupt before a full-fledged argument can start up, and I lead our conversation onto other things. After we're finished eating our meal, we sit with the television playing in the background, but we're too busy talking to pay much attention. Miki has calmed down and no longer looks like she wants to commit matricide. Likewise, Mrs. Fujimoto seems to have become satisfied by the amount of poking and prodding she's done at her daughter, and she lets that side of her rest.
I don't notice the time until half past ten.
"It's pretty late. I'd better get going," I say, standing up and giving Miki a pointed look.
So much for our sleepover plan, I try to communicate to her.
Her face darkens almost comically.
"Oh, don't go yet," Mrs. Fujimoto bursts in, interrupting our telepathic moment. "Why don't you stay the night? We can have a slumber party."
What...the hell?! I think.
Miki's face reflects my thoughts exactly.
"Aren't you a little old to be having slumber parties with girls in their twenties?" Miki asks bluntly.
Her mom looks at her crossly.
"And here I was thinking you'd thank me for sacrificing my alone time with you and offering to let your friend stay with us," she bites back.
Miki ignores her and then looks up at me.
"You're welcome to stay, Aya-chan," she says sweetly.
Stay. Don't you dare leave, is the underlying message.
I think about it.
Can she control herself if I stay? Her mother is here. That should gross her out enough. But it takes a lot to gross her out. She's so blasé about certain things that I wonder if she has any strand of human dignity left in her.
Well, of course she has dignity, but the question is: is it enough to get through a night with me and her mom in her relatively small apartment?
Maybe. It's quite possible.
Now I have to ask myself this: can I control myself enough to get through a night with Miki and her mom in her relatively small apartment?
"No, I don't want to ruin your time together. You two have fun," I say.
I refuse the invitation because I'm fairly certain the answer to my second question is "no".
"Come on, it'll be fun," Mrs. Fujimoto says cheerfully.
"Yeah, Aya-chan. Stay and have some fun," Miki pouts.
Gah! Two Fujimoto women urging me to do something. Peer pressure can't get any worse than this.
They keep egging me on until I give up and say, "Fine, I'll stay. Thank you."
I look at Miki while her mother goes to use the washroom.
"You know this is going to end badly," I sigh.
"No it's not," Miki says comfortingly, scooting over to sit beside me, leaning right against me and putting a hand on my knee. "We'll do some drinking and get my mom drunk so that she'll pass out. She's a heavy sleeper."
My jaw drops.
"What? You're a horrible daughter!"
Secretly, I start to calculate how long and how many beers it would take to get Mrs. Fujimoto drunk enough to fall asleep.
"I'm joking," she laughs. "But if she has a few beers, it'll help make her sleepy..."
"Do you have any beer?" I ask, not recalling seeing any in her fridge.
"No," she replies with a disgusted sniff. "But there's a machine around the corner. I'll go get some."
Before I can protest, she's at the front door putting on her shoes. She turns around and sees me looking distressed.
"Don't worry. It's just for my mom. I won't make you drink a drop," she smiles.
I feel a little at ease.
"What do I tell your mother?" I ask.
"Just tell her I'll be back in a second," Miki says with an unconcerned wave of her hand, and she leaves without locking the door.
I sigh just as Mrs. Fujimoto walks out of the washroom. She inquires about the missing Miki, and I say that she's stepped out for a minute.
"I have to apologise for my daughter," she says to me as we sit and watch television.
"Huh? Why?" I ask, surprised.
"She can be a bit difficult to deal with. I aggravate her on purpose because it's so easy and fun," she says, and at this point I think that this woman is still stuck in her silly, naughty teenager years, "but her other friends may not realise that despite how stubborn she is, she's not really angry with them."
I know this already.
"Don't worry. I've figured that out. It doesn't bother me one bit."
"Really? Because I know she's lost some friends because of her bull-headedness," Mrs. Fujimoto says, sounding surprised.
"Fujimoto-san, I assure you. Really. If someone can't recognise the good side of Miki-chan, which is about ninety-eight percent of her, then that person isn't worthy of knowing her."
I smile at the woman who raised the girl who is the most important thing, person, or idea in the world to me.
"You're wise beyond your years," she jokes. "And thank you. I don't know if Miki ever shows you how much she appreciates your friendship, but she does. She always talks about you."
Miki does show me how much she appreciates my friendship, but it touches me to hear her mother telling me so. The bond between those two is complicated, but tight and strong.
"Thank you for being a good friend to her," she continues.
I start to flush with embarrassment. I can usually handle compliments, but coming from Miki's mom, it's like the strength of the compliment is multiplied by a hundred.
"We feel good knowing she's got someone like you watching her back."
I can't bear it. I start to wave it off when the door pops open and in walks Miki carrying an armful of cans.
"You went to buy beer?!" Mrs. Fujimoto exclaims, jumping up and cutting short our heart-to-heart.
Miki nods with a grin.
"Come on, Mom. It wouldn't be a girl's night without some drinks."
I roll my eyes.
Mrs. Fujimoto goes and helps her daughter bring the cans to the living room table, and she hands us each one, taking one for herself. I shoot Miki an annoyed look.
I thought the plan was to stay sober, I think, trying to shoot my words into her mind.
She gives me a nonchalant shrug and cracks open the tab.
"To youth!" Mrs. Fujimoto toasts.
"To youth!" Miki echoes, winking at me.
"To youth," I repeat in a low voice, glaring at Miki and then quickly covering it up with a smile when Mrs. Fujimoto looks at me.
We all drink. Mrs. Fujimoto chugs, Miki takes a sip, and I pretend. I can't stand beer.
We pick up where we left off, watching television and chatting about life. We get the Takikawa update from Mrs. Fujimoto. She informs us about what all the town members are up to these days. And here I was thinking that the entertainment world was full of scandals. That little town sounds like it could keep the tabloid magazines busy for months. If only the world cared.
Before I know it, Mrs. Fujimoto has consumed three beers, while Miki's gulped down about one half. I haven't had any as I haven't touched my can since opening it. I get up with the pretence of throwing out my "empty" can, and I stop to take Miki's can out of her hand when her mother isn't looking. She gives me a thankful look. Beer isn't her favourite drink either, although she's much better than me at drinking things she finds repulsive. I dump our cans in the kitchen sink.
I get back to the table. Mrs. Fujimoto has started on her fourth can.
"I'm so tired," she says with a big yawn.
Miki looks at her watch.
"Me too," she says mechanically. "Bedtime?"
I can hear the hope in her voice. Her mom yawns again, drains her beer in a few gulps, and pushes the empty can away.
"Yeah," she says groggily.
My heart skips a beat.
We clear up the table a little and then go out to lay extra bedding. Two people can stay in the bedroom while one has to stay in the living room.
"You two girls take the bedroom. I'll rough it out here."
We don't object. Quickly, we get the beds done, and then we wash up and change into pyjamas. It's past midnight when we say goodnight to Mrs. Fujimoto, slipping into Miki's bedroom and closing the door.
Almost immediately, she tackles me onto her bed, and upon making a huge booming sound, we grab each other's arms and freeze, waiting to hear her mom call out and ask if anything's wrong. We hear no such thing, and we laugh silently, clutching onto each other to keep from bursting out into giggles.
"You could at least have waited five minutes and given her a chance to fall asleep," I whisper.
"I couldn't help it," she whispers back.
We giggle some more. I wiggle my way from underneath her, and we lie on the bed, our legs hanging over the side as her hand tickles my stomach lazily.
"This is so wrong," I state.
"Don't give me that," Miki teases me, rubbing my stomach. "I could tell all evening what you were thinking."
"But what if we fall asleep together and she comes in tomorrow morning to find us like that?" I ask anxiously.
"Don't worry. I'll kick you out of my bed once we're done," she says with a malevolent grin.
What an irritating girl! I punch her in the arm.
"Ow!" she hisses.
"Sh! Don't wake your mother!" I shush her.
Ug. Her mother is in the next room. Her mother. This is so wrong. So very, very wrong. Why am I even here?
I'm here because I have an appetite that's hard to satisfy. Simple truth.
"I'll get back at you for that," she says, gritting her teeth and looking at me angrily, but playfully.
She gets onto her hands and knees and holds me down again, but all I can think of is her mother.
"Ah! This is too weird. Let go," I burst out before she can do anything to me.
I push her off and go to lie down on the extra futon at the foot of her bed.
"Let's just try to go to sleep," I say, taking even breaths to relax me.
Astonishingly, she doesn't protest.
"All right. Sorry, Aya-chan. Good night," she says sweetly, and I listen to her as she settles under her covers.
I wait and wait and wait, but she doesn't come down to join me.
Can it be that my mischievous Miki can control herself? It makes me want to hug and kiss her. But no, I mustn't. I close my eyes, and I wait impatiently until sleep claims me.
I'm awoken by the sound of sheets rustling and movement. I crack open my eyelids and notice that it's getting light outside. It must be about five in the morning. Maybe later.
I twist my head sideways and see Miki just settling in beside me in my bed. I'm about to open my mouth and ask her what she thinks she's doing, but her eyes are closed, a pleasant smile on her face. She's holding onto her pillow, which she has brought down with her, and hugging it like a child would a teddy bear.
My mind becomes a puddle. A melted mess of grey matter and love.
I scoot over and take the pillow away from her gently. She doesn't want to let go at first, but it's not too hard to persuade her to do so. Once the pillow is out of her hands, I place it on the other side of me and then wiggle my way into her arms. They take note of my presence, and as if replacing the pillow, they open up and grab onto me.
I smile happily and coast just above the line of sleep until it's time to get up later in the morning.
Mother present or not, this is the way it should always be.
The end
-
Damn, I killed him again.
True, but the power of GAM keeps bringing me back to life!!! :wahaha:
While we're half naked and in the middle of things, Miki's cell phone rings again.
I let out a surprised cry because up until now, we've done an extraordinarily good job of keeping quiet. Accompanying my cry is my head jerking up, and Miki, surprised by both her phone and my voice, whips her head sideways and downwards, resulting in us crashing faces in the most pain-filled nose-to-nose contact I've experienced in my life.
Funny...hot...cute...all at once! It's almost too much to deal with at once! :frustrated:
But nothing happens. There's no knock at the door. No cries of "I know you're in there, Miki!"
Miki opens her cell phone ever so quietly and reads the message she has just received. She lets out a pained groan and lets her body fall limp onto the floor without putting out her arms to brace herself. I crawl over and take the phone out of her hand to read the message.
Shopping at department store. Will call later.
It's from Miki's mother. So she left already. There we were trying to be as quiet as possible, and all for nothing.
How maddening!
Perhaps, but the thrill of it was still damn intense. Besides, we all know Aya loved it as much as Miki-sama did. :twisted:
Now that we've been rudely shocked apart, any desire to continue what we were doing has left me, only to be replaced by wariness and a sharp pain in the bridge of my nose.
"Aw, be easy on her Miki," I say in an effort to placate her. "She had no idea."
"Yeah, but now I have to let her stay over here, and that ruins the plans that we had," she grumbles.
True, that's not such a great thing. But it's just for a short while. I can come back when Miki's mom leaves.
Aya speaks the truth. Besides, if they want that same thrill again, they could wait until Miki's mom is sleeping, and THEN.....well...you know. :mon lol: :kekeke:
I can't stay here with you two. It's mother-daughter time."
"I don't want mother-daughter time," she whines. "Hang out with us? Please? Just for the afternoon?"
She shoots me such a pathetically sad look that I find myself saying that I'll stay. She does a cheer and hurries to get dressed as I sit in the middle of the room, shirtless and wondering what sorts of mystic forces Miki channels in order to get her way with me.
Pleading Miki is just as cute as frisky Miki. :luvluv1:
And there's no mystic forces involved. It's all just plain, natural rabu-rabu! :heart:
I hear that Miki's mother actually used to terrify her daughter with these super flying kicks, but that was back when Miki was younger and still lived with her family. I would have loved to have been around for that.
Same here! XD MAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA KICK!
:kickass:
"If you dare ignore your mother when she comes to the door again because you're too busy thinking about me, I will personally open that door and tell her the exact reason why you didn't let her in the first time," I threaten her.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo...can't help but wonder how mom would react to that. :O
*NOTE* That was just me thinking out loud dude! No need to come up with another story to explore that possibility.
Miki grumbles in complaint, but her hands stop poking at me. This has the strange effect of making me wish I hadn't opened my mouth about the touching. As we sit there quietly, I begin to think more and more of what we were doing before being rudely interrupted by the phone. The mood is coming back to me, and no matter how hard I try to shut it up temporarily in a tiny room in my head, it keeps growing.
Betcha Aya's sorry now that she said that. ;D
Miki skips to the door and opens it up, letting her mother in.
"Aya-chan, how are you?!" Mrs. Fujimoto cries in delight, completely ignoring her daughter.
Miki-sama's thinking: "Wha? Mom? Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooo I'm over here."
Miki enslaves her mother and makes her cook dinner for us while we clear the table and then disappear into the bedroom.
...
She moves in closer to me, but I take a big step back.
"Uh uh. No," I say firmly. "Mother in kitchen. Not good."
"Come on," Miki grumbles, and she grabs fistfuls of my shirt in her hands and pulls me towards her.
Uh oh, here we go again. :grin:
"Fujimoto-san, why can't you teach Miki-chan how to cook like this?" I ask after swallowing a mouthful of spinach.
The woman bursts out with nefarious cackle.
Like mother, like daughter. :lol:
"I've tried. My dear daughter has clumsy hands," she laughs lovingly as I bite back words to contradict her.
Oh, if only she knew. :sweat:
"It's pretty late. I'd better get going," I say, standing up and giving Miki a pointed look.
So much for our sleepover plan, I try to communicate to her.
Her face darkens almost comically.
Like this? :badluck:
"Oh, don't go yet," Mrs. Fujimoto bursts in, interrupting our telepathic moment. "Why don't you stay the night? We can have a slumber party."
What...the hell?! I think.
Miki's face reflects my thoughts exactly.
Indeed...what the hell? (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/blink.gif) Why do I get the idea that my previous "suggestion" may actually play out here?
Can she control herself if I stay? Her mother is here.
...
Now I have to ask myself this: can I control myself enough to get through a night with Miki and her mom in her relatively small apartment?
The point being? :mon misch:
I look at Miki while her mother goes to use the washroom.
"You know this is going to end badly," I sigh.
"No it's not," Miki says comfortingly, scooting over to sit beside me, leaning right against me and putting a hand on my knee. "We'll do some drinking and get my mom drunk so that she'll pass out. She's a heavy sleeper."
Sounds like a plan. :mon cigar:
"What? You're a horrible daughter!"
That's what she may say...but you know Aya's liking the idea. O0
Secretly, I start to calculate how long and how many beers it would take to get Mrs. Fujimoto drunk enough to fall asleep.
See? :D
there's a machine around the corner. I'll go get some."
Ah, the Japanese have it made. :P
Before I can protest, she's at the front door putting on her shoes. She turns around and sees me looking distressed.
"Don't worry. It's just for my mom. I won't make you drink a drop," she smiles.
I feel a little at ease.
No, of course she won't make Aya drink. Aya has to be fully sober to fully "experience" stuff...and stuff. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/cool1.gif)
"I have to apologise for my daughter," she says to me as we sit and watch television.
...
I aggravate her on purpose because it's so easy and fun," she says, and at this point I think that this woman is still stuck in her silly, naughty teenager years,
So not only did she inherit the cackle from her mom, but Miki also got her mom to thank for her wonderfully sarcastic deviousness. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/thumbsup.gif)
We all drink. Mrs. Fujimoto chugs, Miki takes a sip, and I pretend. I can't stand beer.
...
Before I know it, Mrs. Fujimoto has consumed three beers, while Miki's gulped down about one half. I haven't had any as I haven't touched my can since opening it.
If they keep it up at that rate, Miki's mom might pass out after all. :oops:
"I'm so tired," she says with a big yawn.
Miki looks at her watch.
"Me too," she says mechanically. "Bedtime?"
I can hear the hope in her voice. Her mom yawns again, drains her beer in a few gulps, and pushes the empty can away.
"Yeah," she says groggily.
My heart skips a beat.
We clear up the table a little and then go out to lay extra bedding. Two people can stay in the bedroom while one has to stay in the living room.
"You two girls take the bedroom. I'll rough it out here."
And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/Clapping.gif)
It's past midnight when we say goodnight to Mrs. Fujimoto, slipping into Miki's bedroom and closing the door.
Almost immediately, she tackles me onto her bed, and upon making a huge booming sound, we grab each other's arms and freeze, waiting to hear her mom call out and ask if anything's wrong. We hear no such thing, and we laugh silently, clutching onto each other to keep from bursting out into giggles.
"You could at least have waited five minutes and given her a chance to fall asleep," I whisper.
But where's the fun in that? It's all about the thrill of it all, after all. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/yep.gif)
"Ah! This is too weird. Let go," I burst out before she can do anything to me.
I push her off and go to lie down on the extra futon at the foot of her bed.
"Let's just try to go to sleep," I say, taking even breaths to relax me.
Astonishingly, she doesn't protest.
"All right. Sorry, Aya-chan. Good night," she says sweetly, and I listen to her as she settles under her covers.
Damn...good sense just HAD to win this night, didn't it... :banghead:
I'm awoken by the sound of sheets rustling and movement. I crack open my eyelids and notice that it's getting light outside. It must be about five in the morning. Maybe later.
I twist my head sideways and see Miki just settling in beside me in my bed. I'm about to open my mouth and ask her what she thinks she's doing, but her eyes are closed, a pleasant smile on her face. She's holding onto her pillow, which she has brought down with her, and hugging it like a child would a teddy bear.
My mind becomes a puddle. A melted mess of grey matter and love.
I scoot over and take the pillow away from her gently. She doesn't want to let go at first, but it's not too hard to persuade her to do so. Once the pillow is out of her hands, I place it on the other side of me and then wiggle my way into her arms. They take note of my presence, and as if replacing the pillow, they open up and grab onto me.
I smile happily and coast just above the line of sleep until it's time to get up later in the morning.
Mother present or not, this is the way it should always be.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! :luvluv2: :wriggly:
-
Awww! so cute.
-
Oh, the things it takes to thrill this girl. She's unbelievable. The more dangerous the situation, the more enthusiastic (which is just one way of putting it) she gets. We could be next in line at the guillotine and she'd be clawing at my clothing.
Oh, goodie! It'd make a hell of a short story, hahahaha. :yep:
"And who would pay for it?"
"Um, you would," she says cutely.
She almost had me.
"Only 'cause you make more money than me," she clarifies.
I close my eyes and pretend to look pained.
Ha, this sounds a lot like some conversations I've had with my mother... Me being like Aya, and not the other way around. XD
She moves in closer to me, but I take a big step back.
"Uh uh. No," I say firmly. "Mother in kitchen. Not good."
"Come on," Miki grumbles, and she grabs fistfuls of my shirt in her hands and pulls me towards her.
"Miki-chan! Where's the sesame oil?!" Mrs. Fujimoto yells from the kitchen.
Miki's face twitches in exasperation, and she mouths obscenities under her breath.
"Coming!" she calls out, letting go of my shirt and turning around.
Such a familiar situation... :roll:
-
Aha! I like how you carried out part 2. XD
I want a Mama-Fujimoto POV damnit. XD Um, yeah. XD It's so obvious those two are in luuuuurve. XD
Fluff makes my world go round. :D
-
"We could go swimming every day, we could pet koalas and kangaroos, we could climb that big red mountain, we could run away from dangerous snakes..."
Until they turn around and punch you in the head! Ha! What then Miki?? 8) Only kidding, I love Miki :grin: And the way you make her.... too cute is just.... so damn cute! XD Wait, Miki + punching kangaroo gives me mspaint spam ideas 8)
Hi. I'm back to stalk your fics :)
-
Omg that was freaking hilarious. where do you come up with these ideas? Not past experiences, are they? Lol
*ears prick up* what? Huh? new story?
-
Hahaha, hey, goosefish. I can't wait to see what ideas you've got. :lol:
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo...can't help but wonder how mom would react to that. :O
*NOTE* That was just me thinking out loud dude! No need to come up with another story to explore that possibility.
Hah!
Like this? :badluck:
Yeah, that looks about right.
My imagination is a strange place, Mikan. A strange place. Some situations in my stories are somewhat based on real life, but some aren't.
A POV from Miki's mom? Hahaha! That'd be tricky. And scary.
4 more chapters to go. I have one more half-baked idea, and then I've got nothing. Ahh...
-
I could really go for some really mushy fluff. With the whole Miki-leaving-MM thing...kinda need something to pick up my spirits.
-
Man, I read your mind. Well, it's not that mushy, but it's a story.
You know what I think Miki needs? A vacation. Good for her, though. Quitting - or is that getting kicked out of? - Morning Musume. I think it was a bit of both. But imagine what she must've been like, holding her head up and not giving a crap about UFA's opinion on immoral behaviour. She would have done us proud.
Anyway, 100% pure fluff that has absolutely nothing to do with current goings on:
Post-H!P in a "rabu rabu" world. Not connected to any other story.
Chapter Seven
The Island
Okinawa.
The ocean. The beach. The waves. The heat.
Two girls lie side by side on beach towels under the light blue sky, the sun beating down on their bodies. One is wearing large sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat. The other is not. Both are clad in scanty bikinis.
They're on a private beach, thus having no need to worry about being photographed by meddlesome paparazzi. The beach is located on a tiny island off the southeast coast of the mainland. Hardly any people are ever on the island. There are no stores, no hospitals, and no residential areas. Just some beach houses scattered along the shoreline and a main dock for incoming and outgoing boats, of which there is a maximum of one per day. One incoming, one outgoing. The majority of the days, however, see no boats as not many people come to or leave this island. The island falls under the jurisdiction of the Japanese government, but this place is not Japan. Okinawa is a whole other world. The girls feel like they have left their native land and gone abroad. Such is the difference between the two places.
At exactly the same moment, both girls flip over. They are now on their stomachs. One girl, however, keeps looking at her arm, poking it and watching as her skin turns white from the action and then returns to its natural colour as blood rushes back.
"Am I burning?" she asks uncertainly, the first words to be spoken in quite a while.
No reply comes.
"Because I think I've been out here too long."
Again, no response greets her.
"I don't think I've put enough sunscreen on."
Silence.
"You should be careful, too. The sun's rays are stronger here."
Not even breathing can be heard from the other girl. She may very well be asleep.
"All right, I'm putting more on."
She rolls up and rummages through a straw bag, eventually pulling out a small bottle of expensive lotion.
"Do you want some?"
No reply.
She shrugs and starts applying the cream to all the exposed parts of her body. Once she's completed her task to the utmost of her ability, she turns to her companion.
"Are you sure you don't want an-"
"For god's sake, Aya, shut up," the lying girl groans.
Aya gives a "harumph", but refrains from snapping back. Instead, she waits a minute before poking her companion's arm.
"What?" comes the annoyed demand.
"Can you do my back?" Aya asks timidly.
With an exaggerated sigh, Miki turns onto her back and rolls up, grabbing the bottle from Aya, who lies down on her stomach. Miki quickly squirts cream out directly onto Aya's back, making the girl shiver from the sudden coldness, and gives it a once over with her hand before lying down again to bake.
"Is it all rubbed in?" Aya asks worriedly.
Miki grunts without looking up.
"Miki, I don't think it's all-"
"Okay, already," the increasingly exasperated girl says as she rolls up again.
She rubs the cream in, making sure to get each stray bit of whiteness, and then flops back down on her towel.
"Thank you," Aya says sweetly.
No reply.
Aya lies back down, and they continue to bake for another twenty minutes as they listen to the calming sound of the waves lapping up onto the shore.
"You know, if you want to go and do something else, just say so," Miki mumbles suddenly into the silence.
"No, this is fine," Aya replies.
She also enjoys doing nothing while teetering on the edge of sleep.
"I know you don't want to get much colour," Miki continues.
Aya opens her eyes to see Miki looking at her with an endearingly concerned face.
"True, I don't want to turn brown like you," she says, her nose crinkling in laughter.
Miki looks at her own arm. It's looking quite dark.
"Why is that, by the way?" Miki asks curiously.
Why indeed? thinks Aya.
"I just prefer the pale look for me. It's healthier, anyway, not to be exposed to too many UV rays."
There's another silence, and Miki closes her eyes. Aya picks up the conversation again.
"But I like the dark you."
Miki opens one eyelid and looks at Aya. Aya doesn't look back, but Miki detects a faint smile on her lips
"I like the light you," Miki shoots back.
Aya's smile becomes full-fledged, but she ignores the comment, instead training her line of sight just below Miki's neck.
"I like how parts of you are dark, but some parts aren't."
When the two set out to plan this trip, all they knew was that they wanted to be in as secluded a place as possible so that there would be no danger of anyone stumbling upon them should they suddenly wish to lose all sense of decorum that befit a pair of talented and famous musical artists. They had chosen this island because nobody would be on it other than the two of them. All the other beach houses would be empty. The boat would come to pick them back up in three days or if they called and requested a pickup ahead of time.
This is why Aya feels confident in reaching over and pulling the strap of Miki's bikini away ever so slightly to reveal a thin strip of skin untouched by the sun and a few shades paler than the rest of her exposed skin.
Miki finally opens both eyes and looks down to study the pronouncedly different shades of skin on her shoulder.
"Hm," she utters in a bouncy and self-approving tone.
"Hmm," Aya utters in a suggestive one.
"What do you say about getting out of the sun and going to rest back at the house for a bit?" Miki asks innocently.
"How about we go for a swim?" Aya shoots back in the same kind of tone.
They lie there looking at each other, wondering which suggestion sounds better.
"How about we screw the house..." Miki starts.
"...screw the sea..." Aya continues.
And just stay right there?
Why not? A little sand never hurt anyone.
-
*reads last line*
*brain ceases function*
*spontaneous nosebleed*
:imdead:
Can I ask for what happens afterwards?
-
Man, I read your mind. Well, it's not that mushy, but it's a story.
Thanks dude. :pimp:
That sounds like an awesome vacation. Just the two of them on an island with absolutely NO one to bug them.
I love how they finish each other's sentences. :wub:
-
Can I ask for what happens afterwards?
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!
-
:drool: Yaaaay....
-
Can I ask for what happens afterwards?
Certainly. It would go something like this:
Chapter Seven point five
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Ahh! I got sand in my eye!"
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Oh crap, the tide's coming in."
"Relocate!"
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Pfftooey. Sand tastes weird."
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
And then they fell asleep and burned in the sun.
The end.
-
Can I ask for what happens afterwards?
Certainly. It would go something like this:
Chapter Seven point five
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Ahh! I got sand in my eye!"
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Oh crap, the tide's coming in."
"Relocate!"
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Pfftooey. Sand tastes weird."
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
And then they fell asleep and burned in the sun.
The end.
LMAO! That's probably the shortest fic update you've ever done! :lol:
And you're giving me ideas, hahaha.
-
Can I ask for what happens afterwards?
Certainly. It would go something like this:
Chapter Seven point five
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Ahh! I got sand in my eye!"
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Oh crap, the tide's coming in."
"Relocate!"
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
"Pfftooey. Sand tastes weird."
[Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored][Censored]
And then they fell asleep and burned in the sun.
The end.
Considering all of the censoring...that does NOT count towards what you owe. O0
-
Hah, yeah, it was only a .5. Don't worry, you still get chapters 8 to 10.
Time to hear from someone other than A or M!
The reason why Shiba-chan was so upset about and took responsibility for the depressed Miki in My Own Private Funeral:
Chapter Eight
If Anything Ever...
"If anything ever happened to me, you'd take care of her, right?"
She said it out of the blue one night.
"What the hell...?" I mumbled in surprise.
Things rarely caught me off guard. That did.
"Why would something happen to you? And what kind of request is that? I don't think she would need me to baby her."
Aya shifted in her seat.
"No, I mean... If. Just if. She'd be really upset. She's strong, but sometimes she can lose track of herself. The shock of losing someone could..." Aya trailed off and left it to our imaginations.
I leaned back against the couch and tried to relax. It was late. Aya had come over to talk and seek out some advice about her career. She had been laying low since she and Miki had left Hello! Project a month ago, but now the job offers were coming in and she needed to sit down and talk it out. Since Miki was also busy trying to figure out her career, Aya sometimes came to talk to me.
That particular night, we'd made an impromptu slumber party out of it since the trains had already shut down their service. While it would have been entirely feasible to call a taxi, it would be expensive, and we were getting a lot of talking done. No point putting a stop to something good.
"If anything ever happened to you," I started slowly, "I don't know how much use I would be in comforting anyone else. I'd need some comforting, too."
Aya had a hold on all of our hearts, not just Miki's. I thought that anybody who had ever known Aya would fall into a well of depression if she was involved in some freak accident that got her killed. I would cry my eyes out. She was one of my best friends, and to suddenly have her gone would hurt like mad.
She shot me an admonishing look, but she smiled.
"Glad to hear it. But you know what I mean," she said, turning serious again. "She'd need someone to help her, but she would never, ever ask."
I nodded a couple of times.
"I see your point."
The difference between me and Miki was in the way that we loved Aya. While Aya was a friend that I cared about deeply, Miki was part of Aya. Their souls were connected, their hearts one, and whatever other poetic descriptions you wish to buy into.
"I know you don't know each other well," Aya apologised.
"Yeah, we don't talk much."
We used to play futsal together, and we'd see each other at our group concerts or at the various studios from time to time. What I really knew about her beyond her favourite colour and food was what I learned from Aya, who talked about her frequently.
"But I'd feel at ease knowing you'd be there to watch out for her," Aya said. "To make sure she wouldn't do anything stupid."
How could my heart not melt at that? Aya trusted me enough to leave the most important person to her in my care. She believed that I would be able to help Miki in the event of a crisis. It made me feel so full, so good.
That, I guess, was Aya's special charm. To make other people feel good about themselves. If the idol thing hadn't worked out for her as well as it had, she would have been a successful motivational speaker. She had power.
And yet while she had all this power - this ability to essentially control people as she liked - she never abused it for malicious purposes. She used it wisely, soundly. When she was younger, I could tell that she didn't know how to control that power. She would use it for silly things. Getting little things that she wanted. But getting close to Miki had changed her. It was one of the things I'd observed about her as we grew up together. She'd become much less focused on herself and more focused on the big picture. She used her powers of persuasion to help those around her that were not as adept at speaking their minds. She was a hero for the people.
And yet at the same time, she could still get lost in her own little world with Miki and forget that anything but the two of them existed. Everything in her softened up when she talked about Miki (unless she was angry with the girl). You could see in her eyes that sometimes, all she could see was Miki. All she wanted to do was help Miki.
That, I decided, was true love. I'd do anything in my power to support and protect true love.
"I promise, Aya-chan."
We smiled at each other and then dropped the miserable topic of her possible death, no need to ever bring it up again.
-
When I wrote the above chapter, I forgot that it was supposed to be fluffy, and I ended it on quite a different note. I had to cut out the ending in order to keep it happy. Here is the ".5" version of it. Don't read it if you want fluffiness. It picks up right where chapter 8 leaves off.
Side note: this is where I wanted I Watched Love (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=7301.0), Shiba-chan's take on Love x 2, to eventually end up, but I simply no longer have the motivation/patience to re-write the entire series from her point of view. I'm satisfied with writing scenes and moments as they come to my mind.
Chapter Eight point five
A Debt
So here I stand in a train station years after that conversation. Years after Aya's death in a freak accident.
I have just gone to meet Miki at the airport, and now I'm seeing her off at the train station, watching as she mechanically drags herself onto a train that will take her home. She has just come back from Italy, where she was trying to put the past behind her.
But something's changed.
I curse myself virulently. In the end, I haven't been able to keep my promise to Aya. I've failed in taking care of Miki.
I tried. I gave her my advice, but in the end, it was all in vain. Something happened to her in Italy, and it was entirely my fault. I was the one who convinced her to go there. It was I who thought that she could make peace with the ghosts of her past, see the land where Aya had died, say goodbye...
She called me the night before she headed up to the mountainous north. She had sounded fine then. She sounded ready to face the sad memories.
And then much later the next day, she left me a message on my answering machine saying she was coming home. Her voice was hollow. No life. It chilled me.
When I saw her at the airport (less than two hours ago), my worst fears were confirmed. She was not all right. She was worse off than when she left. She was dead inside.
I cried when she wouldn't talk to me. I cried because I felt so much despair. Because I'd promised Aya to take care of Miki and protect her from doing something self-destructive. Because Miki was dying inside and no matter how many books I read and how sensitive and understanding I was, I couldn't help her. Because a love like theirs had been ripped apart by unstoppable forces that were more powerful than any of us.
So here I stand. Here I stand. I will have to live with this regret for the rest of my life. I will have to try and make up for it, although in Miki's case, it just might be too late.
But no. I'll never give up. I'll never give up on her. Even after I get married to the love of my life, I won't stop until I can make even one minute of Miki's life make her feel like it's worth going on.
Such is the debt that I owe Aya, the girl who opened my eyes and taught me how to love without knowing it. Such is the debt.
-
*pulls familiar white balls off shirt* ....waiiiiit a minute. THIS ISNT FLUFF!!
THIS IS ANGST! SOLID, HEART BREAKING, DEPRESSION CAUSING ANGST! Whats going on here!?...
-
The reason why Shiba-chan was so upset about and took responsibility for the depressed Miki in My Own Private Funeral:
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh this I definitely want to see!
While Aya was a friend that I cared about deeply, Miki was part of Aya. Their souls were connected, their hearts one, and whatever other poetic descriptions you wish to buy into.
...
Aya trusted me enough to leave the most important person to her in my care. She believed that I would be able to help Miki in the event of a crisis.
When you have the type of friendships/bonds that Aya has with Miki and Shiba-chan...for things like this...you just know. There's no need to ask "can I trust them to do it" because you never question it.
Side note: this is where I wanted I Watched Love, Shiba-chan's take on Love x 2, to eventually end up, but I simply no longer have the motivation/patience to re-write the entire series from her point of view. I'm satisfied with writing scenes and moments as they come to my mind.
That and you've been writing about a couple of dead people for what, the past 2-3 months? It's got to be emotionally draining to try and keep that up.
I curse myself virulently. In the end, I haven't been able to keep my promise to Aya. I've failed in taking care of Miki.
I tried. I gave her my advice, but in the end, it was all in vain. Something happened to her in Italy, and it was entirely my fault. I was the one who convinced her to go there. It was I who thought that she could make peace with the ghosts of her past, see the land where Aya had died, say goodbye...
The important thing here is that Shiba-chan was there for Miki, not so much what she actually said/convinced her to do/not to do. Right now Shiba-chan's thinking that Miki would have been better off if she hadn't convinced her to go to Italy. Well, there's no way of knowing that for sure. In time, Miki may have had the same "epiphany" staying in Japan that she had when she went to Italy. For all we know, she would have taken a turn for the worse. It's not Shiba-chan's fault though, she never really forced/coerced Miki to do anything. Shiba-chan just pointed out the possible paths that Miki could take. Miki is the one who, in the end, made those decisions, she's the one who walks the path. In the end, she's still the one who is taking those steps. Some steps will be easy and some will be hard. All that Aya wanted was for Shiba-chan to be there to walk that path with Miki, like how Aya herself did.
I'll never give up. I'll never give up on her. Even after I get married to the love of my life, I won't stop until I can make even one minute of Miki's life make her feel like it's worth going on.
Just be there for her Shiba-chan, be her friend. That's the most important thing you can possibly do in this situation.
I totally understand the desire to bring this mini-arc of the story to completion. It helps strengthen one's hope in true friendship. But yeah...I gotta side with Mikan on this one...FLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUFF!!!
-
So, you gave us one heavily censored(yet, somehow, still sexy) half chapter, and another half chapter of (very well written) angst. Does that mean that you owe us another full chapter of fluff (making 11 in total)?
-
we deserve fluff because [various reasons]
Oh, you guys and your strange logic. Hahaha. The .5s cancel each other out. I hold that chapter 8 is happy and fluffy as we see how much everyone means to each other (Shiba-chan, Aya, and Miki).
But yeah, okay okay. No more angst. Here:
Chapter Nine
You Do Me and I'll Do You.
"A little to the left.... No, too far.... Yes... yes... No. No, more to the left... Ah, too far! Right a bit..."
What is our dynamic duo doing now? Are they moving furniture in an apartment?
"A little more... a liiitle more... ahhhhh, perfect."
It sounds like Aya's satisfied with the result. Perhaps the bookcase has been placed properly.
"That's... ah... good... keep going..."
On second thought, perhaps this monologue has nothing to do with a bookcase.
"Puuuuurfect... Ahhh, tha... ah..."
And on that note, perhaps we should go no further as to not disturb these two in whatever they are doing.
"Oh... Ahhh... Good..."
This wraps up our story.
-The end
Or not. Do you want to know what's happening between the two? Bet you do.
Aya is lying on her stomach on the bed, head resting on her forearms. Miki is kneeling over her, her hands up Aya's shirt.
Anybody watching would immediately avert their eyes... if they were conservative. Anybody else would look on with interest and wonder what Miki was doing and just how far she was going to go.
The two on the bed are oblivious to what their position looks like, and Miki keeps doing what she's doing.
"Ahhh, that feels so good. Miki, you are the best back scratcher on this side of the earth!"
Miki grins and gently rakes her nails across Aya's skin, responding to every command ("little to the left!" or "more to the right!"). She's always been fond of scratching Aya's back because the girl turns into a weak little thing under her hands, completely at Miki's mercy. Aya might be issuing the commands, but Miki is the real one in charge. She gets to decide if the orders are followed or if she's just going to stop scratching and let Aya fend for herself.
"I charge by the minute," Miki replies in a disinterested voice, careful not to show how much she enjoys it when Aya compliments her back scratching abilities.
"I don't have any money on me," Aya says innocently. "Is there any other way I can repay you?"
Miki smirks, but she doesn't crumble easily. Not anymore. She used to when Aya said those sorts of things, but now she can bat them away like annoying mosquitoes.
"I only accept cash."
No arguments.
Aya sighs.
"Fine. I'll bring you your money tomorrow. Oh, and you can stop now."
Miki laughs inwardly and takes her hands away from Aya's back, stretching herself out onto her back beside Aya, who is turning around grumpily while tugging her shirt back down.
"Twelve minutes at two hundred yen a minute equals two thousand four hundred yen," Miki says, pulling a random price out of her head.
She doesn't really plan to charge Aya for a back scratch. She's probably gotten more out of it than Aya has anyway. But Aya plays along.
"Like I said, you'll get your money tomorrow, Fujimoto-san."
Miki can't help it, and she grins, putting her hand on Aya's shoulder and pulling her to her side.
"I changed my mind. This one's on the house," she says.
Aya briefly considers taking the joke a little further and refusing to accept a freebie, but she looks at Miki, who is looking devious and happy, and she supposes she shouldn't risk ruining the perfect mood that they're both in. She lets Miki pull her over into a hug (or for those who can handle mushy descriptions, it's actually more of a "cuddle"), and pokes Miki's tummy.
"Thank you," she says in an adorable and pleased voice, causing Miki's smile to soar high in the sky.
"You're welcome," Miki replies politely.
Aya is about to say something when the phone rings. They both sigh, but neither girl makes a move to get up.
"Are you going to get that?" Aya asks.
"Nope," Miki replies.
Aya frowns at the feeling of déjà vu that sweeps through her.
"It could be important."
"They can leave a message," Miki sniffs.
"What if it's your mom?"
Miki's face darkens.
"Last time my mom interrupted us, we ended up having the most frustrating day and night in the history of time."
"Come on, Miki. That was months ago. Get over it," Aya groans.
Miki's hold on her tightens.
"I'm still traumatised," she pouts. "I think I need therapy."
Aya laughs loudly, and the phone finally stops ringing.
"How about I do you," Aya suggests.
Miki pauses and looks at Aya, surprised. Usually Aya doesn't suggest. She just goes ahead and does. A shifty smirk appears on her face.
"Sure, Aya. Why don't you-"
"Okay, turn over!" Aya commands cheerfully, unwrapping Miki's arms from around her body and rolling the girl over.
"What are-"
Aya's cold hands go up Miki's shirt.
"Ah! Cold!" Miki yelps.
Aya smiles secretively. She knows exactly what Miki was thinking she was going to do, and she derives so much pleasure from seeing the girl's excited demeanour fall as reality sets in. It's rather sadistic of her.
"You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Right, Miki-chan?" Aya asks as she enthusiastically scratches the startled and let down girl's back.
"Uhh..." comes the gurgled response.
But it's all okay in the end, because later that night, Miki gets what she wants and more.
-
Miki likes getting her back scratched. Where did that random fact come from? No idea.
You know Id be completely content if you just continued writing plotless one shots like these.
-
Lol, back scratching. How you made that cute, I don't know.
-
You Do Me and I'll Do You.
Dude, the title in itself is EPIC WINNAR!!! :rockon:
On second thought, perhaps this monologue has nothing to do with a bookcase.
...
"Oh... Ahhh... Good..."
This wraps up our story.
-The end
Or not. Do you want to know what's happening between the two? Bet you do.
That's brilliant use of the narrator perspective. :lol:
"Ahhh, that feels so good. Miki, you are the best back scratcher on this side of the earth!"
Miki's "hand coordination" definitely has it's perks. :pimp:
-
But yeah, okay okay. No more angst.
Bleh! You're no fun... :-\ (j/k)
Oh, and I knew it was all about back scratching. Right from the very first line! :rofl:(I've been forcing myself to think pure, innocent things only, lol.)
-
^ XD
Horray for fluffy chapters and suppressing naughty thoughts!
"You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Right, Miki-chan?" Aya asks as she enthusiastically scratches the startled and let down girl's back.
"Uhh..." comes the gurgled response.
Haha, I could totally imagine Miki gurgling.
-
Hahaha, I could never just stick to writing pointless stories like this. It's kind of fun, though, as a bit of a break. I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying it despite my heavy censoring and my brief (and completely accidental) relapse into angst.
One more chapter to write. I'm fresh out of silly/pointless ideas at the moment. Patiently waiting for enlightenment, but I may as well be waiting for Godot. I need a big bang of an end (mind out of the gutter!).
-
I need a big bang of an end.
:w00t:
(mind out of the gutter!)
:badluck:
. . . .
Just kidding. Can't wait to see what's next.
-
I need a big bang of an end
Are we talking literally or figuratively here? :P
If it helps, we'll forgive you for not having a stupendous finale. Hell, I'll go far as to say you don't HAVE to give us a stupendous finale, that is...if you continue writing random fluff chapters once in a while. ;D
(mind out of the gutter!).
But what's the fun in that? :dunno:
-
Didn't you all enough big bangs in the latest chapter of "Restart"? Hah.
Well, I'd like to give the last chapter a bit of a good ending, seeing as how you all suffered through that death and depression that I wote about. Mikan sent some brief ideas/key words to get me thinking. Maybe I should see if anybody here has any other ideas. Got any?
(And just to reassure (disappoint?) you, if I do have a totally pointless chaper of fluff that I want to write after chapter 10 is finished, I'll certainly write it and post here. This can be the Happy OTN Place.)
-
I like the sound of that~
-
(And just to reassure (disappoint?) you, if I do have a totally pointless chaper of fluff that I want to write after chapter 10 is finished, I'll certainly write it and post here. This can be the Happy OTN Place.)
WOOO! :w00t: :rockon:
-
I like the sound of that. Whenever you write something random, just throw it in here. xD Something randomly happy, of course!
As for ideas . . . Hmm . . . I'll PM you when/if I think of something . . .
-
Chapter 10 is going to be rather long (in addition to being pointless). I've split it into a few parts, but I want it all to be under the same title. (The title is blatantly ripped off of this book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_and_the_Terrible_Horrible_No_Good_Very_Bad_Day).) There are sub-titles for each part of the chapter.
Chapter Ten
Aya and Miki and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Rainy Day
.1 - Three Million and...
We went to bed last night all happy and cuddling like we usually did. It was an unusually warm early spring night, so we hadn't needed mounds of blankets to keep us heated. She was usually the one who got cold at night, which was funny considering she was from the northern fringes of our country. But last night, not even she had been chilly (which was actually kind of too bad for me because I always like to warm her up with a little bit of extra skin-on-skin friction. Oh well, no matter).
The bad day started at two in the morning. We'd gone to bed a couple of hours earlier, but I'd woken up because I was hurting. I let out a groan of pain as I cracked my eyelids open. I tried to roll over to get up and see what was wrong with me, but I couldn't move. That was part of what was wrong with me. I looked to my side and saw the usual - Miki sleeping like a corpse, mouth set in a straight line, expressionless and scary to most people. But the only problem was that she was right up against me, and she had somehow twisted her arm around mine and pinned them both down under her body. It hurt so much that tears of pain came to my eyes when I tried to move.
"Miki," I whispered.
No reply. Not that I expected one. This girl could sleep through a jackhammer drilling right beside her head.
I brought my other arm around and started tapping her on the shoulder, but she let out a snort and grabbed my hand with her unoccupied arm, pulling it to her chest and holding it in a death grip like it was some captured prey.
I lay there, both arms trapped, in pain, exhausted, and ready to scream.
I took a look at her face. It had changed. She now had an expression. She looked pleased. Calm. Happy.
I sneered.
"Why do I like you?" I asked aloud.
Of course no reply.
"It's not like you're that smart. I mean, you can't even locate Africa properly on a map. You're a pain in the butt. You hog the TV and the bath. You eat all the food in my fridge whenever you're over. You tease me. You keep your apartment messy on purpose just to bother me. Your sleep talking wakes me up. You move around way too much in bed and always kick me or shove me off into a corner. You do painful things like sleep on various parts of my body, making them sore the next day. You drool, which is just plain disgusting. And your laugh is so annoying. You sound like a dork. Oh, and that horrid little iguana lizard - or whatever - stuffed toy animal that you keep on your bed? So not cool."
I glared at her face, but she gave no sign of having heard. She continued to snooze happily.
I was about to launch into another rant about her negative points when it struck me. Those things were some of the reasons why I loved her, not hated her.
Bad things could be good, I thought, smiling at the idea as it warmed my heart.
I liked how she wasn't too academically inclined. It wasn't as if I was a scholar either. She looked cute when she was watching what she wanted to watch on TV, and the longer baths she took, the more chances I had to go in and sneak up on her to freak her out. She ate all my food, but she'd always replenish my stock afterwards with gifts, and she'd come grocery shopping with me, which was a great help. She teased me, but come on. Who was I kidding? I loved the attention. Her apartment was messy all the time, but I got a certain satisfaction from scolding her and then helping her clean it up. It was something to do on a lazy weekend. Her sleep talking, while loud, was often cute, if not exciting. Sometimes it was about me, which made me feel happy. Sometimes it was about someone or something else, which always provided some good fodder for endless teasing the next day. Restlessness in bed could be a good thing. It meant that I always had an excuse to be close to her. If I grabbed onto her while she was trying to throw me off the bed, she'd calm down and stop. Her drooling... well, there wasn't anything too redeeming about that. I guess it was cute because it was so innocent. But still gross. And her dorky laugh made me melt. And I supposed the iguana thing wasn't too bad. It made her happy, and a happy Miki made for a happy Aya. I liked being happy.
I decided that there were three million things about Miki that I loved. That was plenty to keep me happy for a few lifetimes.
After going through my list and justifying each of these things, I smiled at the sleeping girl.
"But I guess you're not so bad, huh?" I said to her. "You treat me well and we have fun together. That's good enough for me."
I finished my speech and waited for the miraculous moment when she'd shift and let go of my arms.
It never came. I resorted to kicking her.
It worked a little too well. She let out a yell and kicked me back hard in the shin, which made me shriek out in pain.
This certainly got her going.
"Where's the fire?!"
She tried to jump up on her own, but she took me with her. She flung me off the bed, and because our arms were tangled up and I had no control, I fell to the ground like a rock, pulling her down on top of me.
"The donkey is drowning!" she screamed as her head collided with mine.
"Oh my god!" I yelled, unable to believe this was happening.
Our final resting position was me, flat on my stomach, with her resting on top of me. I lay still, breathing shallowly and trying to figure out how this had happened. She must have still been asleep because she didn't say a word. I think she actually snuggled into my back as though I was a pillow.
"No!" I yelled at her. "Off!"
I stood up and she fell to the floor like a doll.
That woke her up.
"Aya, what the freaking hell are you doing?!"
I wearily dragged myself up to the bed, not caring to explain.
"Just stay down there and go to sleep," I ordered, tossing a pillow at her head.
She let out an offended snort and threw the pillow back. I ducked and it missed me as I settled back into my rightful spot on the bed, closing my eyes, hugging my appendages to myself, glad that they weren't sore.
A minute later, I felt her crawl up onto the bed. I opened an eye and she froze.
"If you touch me, you will die," I threatened to her.
I saw her gulp and curl up as far away from me as possible, looking like a lonely, starving cat. I felt a pang of pity, so I handed her the pillow that had landed just above me. She took it fearfully, resting her head on it and closing her eyes, a pathetic look on her face that made me melt and smile when I was sure she couldn't see me.
Reason number three million and one.
-
.2 - Strange Dreams
Much later that day, I woke up alone in my bed. No Miki beside me. I started to get up, but I couldn't. My legs wouldn't move. I groaned, wondering if she was actually on top of me and pinning me down in such a freakish way that I'd lost all feeling in my entire body. I looked at my legs but saw no Miki sitting there. I tried to move again. No luck. I reached down to my legs - or I tried. My arms wouldn't move either. Upon further inspection, I realised something horrific.
I was tied up.
Someone had taken the ends of my pyjama legs and tied them together, doing the same with the arms of my pyjama shirt.
"Miki!!!" I roared.
I was not in the mood. I was grumpy from lack of sleep.
Miki came bounding into my room looking perkier than usual.
"Ah, you're awake," she said pleasantly.
"Why did you tie me up? You pervert!" I yelled.
She looked taken aback, and she hurried over to me, untying my feet first and then my hands.
"You got really rowdy last night. I did it to protect you. And me," she explained.
"Y... you... Me? Rowdy?" I stuttered.
"Mmhmm. You threw me off the bed and then yelled at me and stuff. It was really scary."
I groaned and threw myself onto the bed face first.
"You were the one being rowdy," I accused her.
Her silence told me she thought she was innocent, and I didn't bother to retaliate because I was far too tired.
"Anyway, glad to see you're up. Now go get ready."
She lifted me up with a heave ho and pushed me to the bathroom.
"Why do I have to get ready?" I grumbled
I slapped at her wandering hands. I swear that girl didn't even know what her own body parts were doing sometimes.
"We're meeting your friends," she said, hitting me on the head.
I pushed her away from me and wandered into the bathroom, wondering what friends those would be, rubbing my head more in confusion than pain.
As I was taking a shower, it occurred to me that we were meeting Shibata and Rika for lunch. We'd made plans yesterday. I didn't feel like going anymore. I wanted to sleep for another few hours and then maybe roast Miki over a blazing fire and feed her to some cannibals.
The next bad part of the day came while I was showering. The power went out, which meant that the heating had shut off, which meant that suddenly, freezing cold water was pouring down over my body.
"Ahh!" the scream died in my throat as I gasped in a cold breath. "Miki! The power!"
I turned the water off and jumped around, trying to stay warm. The shower room was dark, but enough light came through the window to let me see. I waited patiently for Miki to turn the power back on, but nothing happened.
"Miki!" I called out.
She didn't reply.
"Miki, that power's out! Can't you see??"
No Miki to the rescue. I sighed in exasperation, and with soap covering half my body, I barged out of the shower, only to find that I'd forgotten to bring a towel.
"I don't believe this," I muttered, shivering in the cold air.
Not caring about dignity, I walked out of the bathroom completely naked and headed for the closet nearby that was full of towels.
Of course I hadn't brought the laundry in from the balcony the night before, so I had no fresh towels within easy reach. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
"Miki!!" I yelled, trying to locate the girl.
She didn't reply, and I wondered if she had gone deaf or if she had left the apartment. I didn't care to find out which. I went over to the power box and switched the power back on. The lights came on again, and I sighed in relief, going back and finishing my shower.
When I got out and dried myself, I wrapped the towel around me and went to my room.
There was Miki lying on my bed. She was dressed and ready to go, but her eyes were closed and she was snoring away with earphones stuck in her ears. I could hear faint strands of music coming from the earphones, and I tried to remain calm as I walked over to her and took the little buds out of her ears. I shook her shoulders to wake her up.
"Wake up," I snapped.
She opened her eyes groggily, and upon seeing me, smiled and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me down on top of her.
"Good morning," she said sleepily, and she held me like a teddy bear.
I rolled my eyes and pushed myself up, but she wouldn't let go.
"Miki, let me go. I need to get dressed," I murmured into her collar bone.
"Just two more minutes," she pleaded.
I was about to yank myself out of her grip, but memories of last night assailed me, and I decided to give her those two minutes. I lay there and tried to listen to the music she was playing. It was no singer or band that I could recognise. I sighed and rested my head just below her chin, closing my eyes.
More than two minutes later, I woke up shivering. I was still wearing just a towel, still on top of Miki, and she looked a little blue around the gills. I must have been a burden on her breathing. She had let go of me, so I rolled off her and nudged her awake.
"Potatoes have the power," she mumbled.
I nudged her again.
"Dorothy?" she asked me, her eyes closed, but her face inquisitive.
I slapped her forehead. Her eyes snapped open and I smiled innocently.
"Did you have a nice nap?" I asked.
She frowned.
"Aya-chan... I have strange dreams."
She looked positively perplexed, and I laughed delightedly at this facial feature of hers, kissing the spot on her forehead where I'd just hit her.
"I don't doubt that you do."
-
.3 - Transportation Interlude
We got up from the bed, and I started to get dressed.
"Oh... no," Miki mumbled from behind me.
"What?" I asked, unconcerned.
"We just slept for two hours."
"What?!"
It had felt like ten minutes, not two hours.
What followed was a speedy affair. I jumped into my clothes, cheered on by Miki as though it was an obstacle course race. We ran out to the street, only to run back in because it was pouring rain. We tried to find two umbrellas, but I only had one. In desperation, I called a taxi to come pick us up, and we used that one umbrella to get from the lobby of my apartment building to the car. We got a little wet, but nothing that wouldn't dry up quickly.
In the taxi, I messaged Shibata to apologise and tell her that we were on her way. She sent back a one line response.
You guys really need to get a check on your libidos.
I felt irked. I wished that she'd never figured everything out about me and Miki. She was too smart, though, and I could never keep something like that hidden from her if I wanted the close friendship that we had. As a result, it gave her free reign to crack jokes at our expenses all the time.
The taxi became trapped in traffic, and I started to fidget. Miki was her usual calm and collected self. Her nonchalant attitude infuriated me because I wished I could emulate it at times like these. I bounced my knees up and down until she put a hand over one of them and stopped me.
"Shaking the whole back seat won't make us go faster. Relax," she said calmly.
She spoke sagely in one of those rare moments when she acted like a mature adult around me. It made me swoon. I immediately forced myself to lean back and relax. She massaged my knee, looking out the window and seeming to be distracted by something she saw. I watched her hand, and it hypnotised me. It moved slowly and in a practiced manner. Then it started to move up my thigh. It felt nice, but I slapped my hand down on it and shot her a disapproving look when she looked over with a blank expression that asked in a completely serious and unaware way, "what's the matter?"
She saw me look down at her hand, and she shrugged. She kept her hand right there and didn't move it up or down for the rest of the ride.
-
.4 - Squabble in the Henhouse
The restaurant was almost deserted. It was expensive and tucked away in a corner of the city that few could find. It was an Italian restaurant, and it was dimly lit, setting some sort of romantic, late evening mood. Not exactly the kind of place one would expect to find four young idol friends meeting for lunch, but it had been Shibata's turn to pick a place this time, and she must have had her reasons.
We walked in and told the hostess we were there to meet Shibata. We were led to a table where Shibata and Rika were sipping ice water and chatting. When Shibata saw us, she shot me an amused look that I ignored by looking over at Rika.
"Sorry we're late," I apologised, Miki echoing me.
"That's okay. Shiba-chan and I had to catch up on a lot anyway," Rika replied cheerfully.
I risked a glance at Shibata, but she just smirked at me. We sat down and ordered food almost immediately.
"So, Aya-chan, I haven't seen you in a while. What's new with you?" Rika asked.
I was about to answer when Miki cut in.
"Oh, so you ask her how she's doing and not me?"
I wanted to clean my ears out to make sure I'd heard correctly. The expression on Shibata's face was surely similar to mine. Rika looked affronted. Miki had spoken in what I recognised as a voice that was trying to pass as joking, but failing miserably and letting through the actual bitterness she felt. I wondered what she was angry about.
"How are you, Miki-chan?" Rika asked in a polite, sweet voice, masking any sort of bewilderment or anger she may have felt towards Miki.
"Busy. You?" came Miki's curt reply.
"Same."
I exchanged looks with Shibata.
What is going on? I asked her with my eyes.
Her facial reply was: I have no clue.
"Well," I broke in before sparks started to fly and world war five started, "I've been working at this new agency for over a year now, so finally, last week they..."
And I went on and on without stopping until Shibata interrupted and continued for me. As I sat there listening half-heartedly to Shibata's words, I resolved to talk to Miki as soon as possible. My chance came when she got up to go to the washroom. I excused myself casually a second later. Rika looked oblivious, but Shibata furrowed her eyebrows, which was a way of telling me she would also try to get to the bottom of this tension.
Miki was standing in front of the mirror and staring at herself when I entered the washroom. She caught sight of me in the mirror and started fixing her hair, but then dropped her hands down because it was obvious she was standing and thinking, not primping and preening.
"Did something happen with Rika-chan?" I asked her in a non-threatening voice.
She took a while to decide how to answer.
"We had a disagreement last week, and we haven't talked since."
This was the first I'd heard of it.
"What about?"
Miki looked at me in the mirror.
"It's a bit too long to get into now, but she insulted me by saying nobody looks up to me anymore."
"Why would Rika-chan say something like that to you?" I asked with a frown.
Miki looked down and turned around to face the real me, not my reflection.
"Because I said the same thing to her," she admitted sheepishly.
"Oh brother," I muttered.
"But she started it," Miki jumped in defensively. "She asked me why Koharu-chan had eventually stopped mentioning me all the time, and said maybe it had to do with the direction I'd taken just before graduating from the Project."
I didn't know how to evaluate the situation since I obviously didn't have all the information, but from what it sounded like, Rika had struck a nerve in Miki without realising it. Miki didn't appear to give a hoot about who looked up to her and what people thought of her, but she really did care. She liked being looked up to as a senior role model by the younger girls we used to work with. It gave her an extra purpose to be strong. For a girl that didn't like kids, Miki sure cared enough about how they viewed her.
"Then she started getting on my case about Ai-chan, and how..."
I tuned out for her rambling explanation of how exactly Rika had wronged her.
"... but with Shige-san it's different. I know that she likes me, and she's even told me that she-"
"Miki," I snapped, and she stopped talking.
"So you fought over the affections of a whole bunch of junior girls?"
She looked annoyed.
"No. I don't care about them. But it's just..."
She had nothing.
"As your friend, I'd highly recommend that you apologise to Rika-chan. You were pretty rude."
"She was rude when she said that to me in the first place," Miki countered.
"Miki, you think Rika-chan actually knew how much it would affect you?" I asked her.
She was about to protest, but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her in the direction of the door.
"Honestly, you amaze me, Miki," I sighed. "Next time you go putting on that unaffected front around people, remember that they're going to take it as a sign that nothing bothers you. That's what Rika-chan did. She thought you could take a little criticism."
Miki grumbled and glared at me, but she spoke.
"Why are you right all the time?"
I smiled secretively.
"Because I'm me."
We left the washroom and got back to see Shibata and Rika laughing. They toned it down once we got to the table. I smiled at Shibata to let her know things would probably look up in a minute, and she smiled back, indicating that things were okay on the Rika side.
We sat back down, and the tension resumed. Before anyone could speak, I grabbed Shibata's hand.
"Look, they've got an aquarium at the front. I know you like fish, so let's go and see!"
Not one of the smartest things I'd ever done, but it worked to get us away from the table, leaving Miki and Rika alone.
Shibata teased me incessantly while we looked at the aquarium (which was really not that impressive of an aquarium). The only thing that made up for it was that by the time we got back to our table, Miki and Rika were talking almost shyly, probably both feeling silly for having fought. We all became engaged in proper conversation and started to eat as the food came in.
The day may have started badly, but it always has to get better at some point, I thought cheerfully.
But then a waiter walked by and spilled half a litre of red wine on me. Needless to say, I was thoroughly annoyed.
-
Chapter 10 is going to be rather long (in addition to being pointless).
We don't mind, have it as long as you'd like. :D
.1 - Three Million and...
But last night, not even she had been chilly (which was actually kind of too bad for me because I always like to warm her up with a little bit of extra skin-on-skin friction. Oh well, no matter).
Damn. Oh well, there's always next time.
I brought my other arm around and started tapping her on the shoulder, but she let out a snort and grabbed my hand with her unoccupied arm, pulling it to her chest and holding it in a death grip like it was some captured prey.
Miki snorting? Yep, that's cute. :oops:
Oh, and that horrid little iguana lizard - or whatever - stuffed toy animal that you keep on your bed? So not cool."
WNTBD. You just love tying your stories together, don't you? ;D
I was about to launch into another rant about her negative points when it struck me. Those things were some of the reasons why I loved her, not hated her.
While it's not necessarily Miki's negative points themselves that Aya loves, it's probably what Miki does because of/to make up for them that she loves. Miki undoubtedly knows her own faults, and feeling how she does for Aya, while she won't change those habits, she'll do what she can so that they don't drive Aya insane.
I finished my speech and waited for the miraculous moment when she'd shift and let go of my arms.
It never came. I resorted to kicking her.
It worked a little too well. She let out a yell and kicked me back hard in the shin, which made me shriek out in pain.
So much for THAT plan working. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/doh.gif)
She tried to jump up on her own, but she took me with her. She flung me off the bed, and because our arms were tangled up and I had no control, I fell to the ground like a rock, pulling her down on top of me.
"The donkey is drowning!" she screamed as her head collided with mine.
Donkey? :on lol:
Our final resting position was me, flat on my stomach, with her resting on top of me. I lay still, breathing shallowly and trying to figure out how this had happened. She must have still been asleep because she didn't say a word. I think she actually snuggled into my back as though I was a pillow.
Awkward, strange, but still adorable in the end. :wub:
.2 - Strange Dreams
Much later that day, I woke up alone in my bed. No Miki beside me. I started to get up, but I couldn't.
...
Upon further inspection, I realised something horrific.
I was tied up.
Okay, this is going to either be really scary...or really kinky. Any chance we get both? :twisted:
"Why did you tie me up? You pervert!" I yelled.
She looked taken aback, and she hurried over to me, untying my feet first and then my hands.
"You got really rowdy last night. I did it to protect you. And me," she explained.
"Y... you... Me? Rowdy?" I stuttered.
"Mmhmm. You threw me off the bed and then yelled at me and stuff. It was really scary."
Dear...sweet...Miki! I love how she just says it so matter-of-factly! XD XD XD
As I was taking a shower, it occurred to me that we were meeting Shibata and Rika for lunch. We'd made plans yesterday.
Double-date maybe? :love:
The next bad part of the day came while I was showering. The power went out, which meant that the heating had shut off, which meant that suddenly, freezing cold water was pouring down over my body.
"Ahh!" the scream died in my throat as I gasped in a cold breath. "Miki! The power!"
Ooooooooooooh, that's no fun. But still, kinda funny. :hee:
No Miki to the rescue. I sighed in exasperation, and with soap covering half my body, I barged out of the shower, only to find that I'd forgotten to bring a towel.
"I don't believe this," I muttered, shivering in the cold air.
Not caring about dignity, I walked out of the bathroom completely naked and headed for the closet nearby that was full of towels.
Of course I hadn't brought the laundry in from the balcony the night before, so I had no fresh towels within easy reach. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
The curtains at her place are closed, right? :O
When I got out and dried myself, I wrapped the towel around me and went to my room.
There was Miki lying on my bed. She was dressed and ready to go, but her eyes were closed and she was snoring away with earphones stuck in her ears.
Doesn't take long for Miki to fall asleep, does it? :mon sweat:
She had let go of me, so I rolled off her and nudged her awake.
"Potatoes have the power," she mumbled.
I nudged her again.
"Dorothy?" she asked me, her eyes closed, but her face inquisitive.
I slapped her forehead. Her eyes snapped open and I smiled innocently.
"Did you have a nice nap?" I asked.
She frowned.
"Aya-chan... I have strange dreams."
She looked positively perplexed, and I laughed delightedly at this facial feature of hers, kissing the spot on her forehead where I'd just hit her.
"I don't doubt that you do."
And that would be reason #1 689 124 of why Aya loves Miki. :wriggly:
.3 - Transportation Interlude
"Oh... no," Miki mumbled from behind me.
"What?" I asked, unconcerned.
"We just slept for two hours."
"What?!"
It had felt like ten minutes, not two hours.
What followed was a speedy affair. I jumped into my clothes, cheered on by Miki as though it was an obstacle course race. We ran out to the street, only to run back in because it was pouring rain. We tried to find two umbrellas, but I only had one. In desperation, I called a taxi to come pick us up, and we used that one umbrella to get from the lobby of my apartment building to the car. We got a little wet, but nothing that wouldn't dry up quickly.
All of a sudden I'm picturing this as a scene moving in fast-forward, with humerous music (like "Flight of The Bumblebee") playing in the background. :lol:
In the taxi, I messaged Shibata to apologise and tell her that we were on her way. She sent back a one line response.
You guys really need to get a check on your libidos.
ZING! In comes Shiba-chan with the BURN! :wahaha:
I bounced my knees up and down until she put a hand over one of them and stopped me.
...
She massaged my knee, looking out the window and seeming to be distracted by something she saw. I watched her hand, and it hypnotised me. It moved slowly and in a practiced manner. Then it started to move up my thigh. It felt nice, but I slapped my hand down on it and shot her a disapproving look when she looked over with a blank expression that asked in a completely serious and unaware way, "what's the matter?"
She saw me look down at her hand, and she shrugged. She kept her hand right there and didn't move it up or down for the rest of the ride.
The hand moves on it's own. It's instinct. Neither of them have to "think" about doing it, they just automatically do it.
.4 - Squabble in the Henhouse
The restaurant was almost deserted. It was expensive and tucked away in a corner of the city that few could find. It was an Italian restaurant, and it was dimly lit, setting some sort of romantic, late evening mood. Not exactly the kind of place one would expect to find four young idol friends meeting for lunch, but it had been Shibata's turn to pick a place this time, and she must have had her reasons.
Like I said before, it's a DOUBLE-DATE!!@ :inlove:
"So, Aya-chan, I haven't seen you in a while. What's new with you?" Rika asked.
I was about to answer when Miki cut in.
"Oh, so you ask her how she's doing and not me?"
I wanted to clean my ears out to make sure I'd heard correctly. The expression on Shibata's face was surely similar to mine. Rika looked affronted. Miki had spoken in what I recognised as a voice that was trying to pass as joking, but failing miserably and letting through the actual bitterness she felt. I wondered what she was angry about.
"How are you, Miki-chan?" Rika asked in a polite, sweet voice, masking any sort of bewilderment or anger she may have felt towards Miki.
"Busy. You?" came Miki's curt reply.
"Same."
I exchanged looks with Shibata.
What is going on? I asked her with my eyes.
Her facial reply was: I have no clue.
Hmmm...that was unexpected. Everyone knew that Miki and Rika didn't get along at first when the former was first put in MM, but after that they'd seemed to get along famously. :?
Maybe something happened between Rika and Miki that neither Aya nor Shiba-chan know about.
"Did something happen with Rika-chan?" I asked her in a non-threatening voice.
She took a while to decide how to answer.
"We had a disagreement last week, and we haven't talked since."
...
"It's a bit too long to get into now, but she insulted me by saying nobody looks up to me anymore."
"Why would Rika-chan say something like that to you?" I asked with a frown.
Miki looked down and turned around to face the real me, not my reflection.
"Because I said the same thing to her," she admitted sheepishly.
"Oh brother," I muttered.
Oh. Well, considering Miki's sharp-tongue, it's a pretty safe bet that she was probably just a bit too forthright in that particular convo with Rika. At the same time, Rika probably wasn't aware/didn't realize that she had upset Miki with what she said. But then again, Miki has always given of the "don't care" type of attitude, so Rika probably didn't think it that it would hit Miki as hard as it did. Bah...misunderstandings...gotta love them.
NOT!
"Miki, you think Rika-chan actually knew how much it would affect you?" I asked her.
She was about to protest, but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her in the direction of the door.
"Honestly, you amaze me, Miki," I sighed. "Next time you go putting on that unaffected front around people, remember that they're going to take it as a sign that nothing bothers you. That's what Rika-chan did. She thought you could take a little criticism."
Damn I must be psychic or something. That, or my ass has been working overtime. :shakeit:
Miki grumbled and glared at me, but she spoke.
"Why are you right all the time?"
I smiled secretively.
"Because I'm me."
It's a good thing that she's right all the time. After all, she was right about choosing to be with Miki. :heart:
I smiled at Shibata to let her know things would probably look up in a minute, and she smiled back, indicating that things were okay on the Rika side.
We sat back down, and the tension resumed. Before anyone could speak, I grabbed Shibata's hand.
"Look, they've got an aquarium at the front. I know you like fish, so let's go and see!"
Not one of the smartest things I'd ever done, but it worked to get us away from the table, leaving Miki and Rika alone.
I'd say that it wasn't necessarily subtle, but it definitely had to be done. What happened between Miki and Rika had to be settled between Miki and Rika. It'd just be weird (especially given the strong personalities with those two) if they had to clear the air right in front of other people (even if those other people were close friends like Aya and Shiba-chan).
Shibata teased me incessantly while we looked at the aquarium (which was really not that impressive of an aquarium).
No doubt teasing her about being so in rabu-rabu with Miki. :shy2:
The day may have started badly, but it always has to get better at some point, I thought cheerfully.
But then a waiter walked by and spilled half a litre of red wine on me. Needless to say, I was thoroughly annoyed.
Given the fact that there are 4 INCREDIBLY beautiful/hot women sitting together, it's no surprise that he might be "distracted". Still though, that's a damn big goof-up on the waiter's part. Especially since it's red wine, it's going to stain quickly and badly if Aya doesn't get it cleaned really soon.
Hope Miki helps Aya keep her cool and not freak out at the poor kid.
-
These left a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy (alcohol?) So fluffy it makes me swoon. :wub:
I saw her gulp and curl up as far away from me as possible, looking like a lonely, starving cat. I felt a pang of pity, so I handed her the pillow that had landed just above me. She took it fearfully, resting her head on it and closing her eyes, a pathetic look on her face that made me melt and smile when I was sure she couldn't see me.
Reason number three million and one.
Gah! :imdead: Miki's too adorable! :heart: It's sweet to see how well Aya knows Miki (her standoffishness, her insecurities with being a leader), and also how Aya likes the "bad" bits of Miki.
"... but with Shige-san it's different. I know that she likes me, and she's even told me that she-"
How true! :lol:
Michishige constantly talks about how scary Miki is and how Sayu looks up to her anyways, while Miki likes saying how embarrassing Sayumi can be ("Usa-chan Peeeeace!!").
-
Aww, such a cute bad day.
-
Yay and update of fluff!!
Half a litre of wine? Can you really get that much?! When, where and how much does it cost?
-
I don't remember how much, Mikan, and it really depends on where you live (as in what country, what city, what town) and what restaurant you go to. (But I assume it's a standard thing in Italian restaurants around the world. :lol:)
Hahaha, JFC, "Flight of the Bumblebee" is perfect for that moment.
These left a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy (alcohol?)
Ah, the good kind of warm and fuzzy feeling. No hangover the next morning. (Or is there...? Does fluff leave you with a hangover? Hahaha, I hope not.)
.5 - It Only Gets Worse
I later learned that the waiter holding the decanter of wine had tripped on an untied shoelace and had fallen forward and towards me, his hands gripping the decanter tightly, but the contents spilling out all over me.
The wine was slightly chilled, was very dark, and had a strong smell. A small amount went down my back after initially being poured over my shoulders, but the majority spilled down my front, all along my top and right onto my brand new Dolce and Gabbana skirt. As it happened, the world slowed down, and every moment, every breath, became loud and emphasised.
Then everything came to a stop, and all that could be heard was a deafening silence. Even the continuous pitter patter of the rain had seemed to cease in curiosity and anticipation of what was going to happen.
I looked up at the waiter, and all I could do was to stare at him in shock. He looked back, his eyes wide, unable to believe what he had just done. As I studied his expression, I had the urge to stand up and strangle him, but something at the back of my mind told me that if I did that, my name would be dragged through the mud for weeks in papers, magazines, and the internet. So I simply continued to stare at the man - no, boy - who looked like he was about to cry.
"Oh!" he finally yelled out. "I'm so very sorry! So so sorry! Please forgive my heinous act!"
He put the decanter down on an empty neighbouring table and took out a cloth that was somehow magically folded neatly into his apron. He was about to start wiping the front of my shirt when he gave it a second thought and handed me the cloth with a blush. I was in such shock, though, that he could have started administering artificial respiration to me and I wouldn't have noticed. I took the cloth and stared across the table. Rika had an expression of surprise and horror on her face. Shibata's mirrored Rika's. I looked at Miki. She was sitting there with an interested expression on her face, a faint trace of a smile on her lips. So much for her support.
I waved the waiter away and started to dab at the wine. Two waitresses came scurrying out and helped me. The manager of the restaurant also came out and apologised, saying that our meal would be free of charge. Rika handled all the talking and the thanking.
I still felt like killing the waiter.
Once the fiasco had lost some of its charge, I addressed the three girls.
"If you'll excuse me early, I'll go home and change."
Shibata and Rika clucked sympathetically. Miki cracked a joke about my smelling like an alcoholic and how I should try to fashion a new public image for myself using this event. I ignored her and stood up, and she quickly fell in line, standing up with me.
"I'll go with you," she said by way of explanation to the girls.
"No, that's all right," I said sourly, gathering my things. "I can find my way."
"No, no. I'll help. You can't walk down the street alone looking like that," she insisted, pointing at the mess down the front of my body.
It didn't really make a difference if I was alone or not, but I rarely genuinely refused a chance to spend more time with Miki. I knew that if anybody could cheer me up (or distract me from my misery by annoying me), it was her. I nodded at her to give her permission to escort me home.
"Sorry to cut this so short," I said to the girls sitting at the table.
Shibata waved me off.
"Don't worry," she said. "My mother's coming by my place in a few hours anyway. I would have had to leave early myself."
"You mean you're going to ditch me early?" Rika butted in.
"Well, you can come along if you want," Shibata said with a sigh.
"I think I will," Rika pouted stubbornly.
Shibata rolled her eyes.
"You have to get yourself a boyfriend so that you stop hanging around me all the time," she muttered.
I giggled inside. Rika had plenty of boyfriends. She was a tease, but an innocent one. She would make friends with all sorts of men around her, have them fall in love with and confess to her, and then tell them that she wasn't interested that way. She didn't do this on purpose, though. She was just acting her friendly self. The men were the ones fooling themselves. Part of the reason why it happened was because the "love of her life" had left her a year ago, and she was still reeling from that dark and sleazy episode. Perhaps some part of her turned up the friendliness vibe in an honest attempt to find that one perfect mate. She was just very bad at choosing one person. She didn't know what she wanted, which was an anomalous quality of hers, being a very confident and smart girl. In that way, she was very similar to Miki. On the outside she was one thing, but on the inside, one could see the inconsistencies that made that her even more interesting.
I found myself smiling in amusement, wine forgotten. I tuned in to see Shibata and Rika looking at me.
"Um, we'll continue this later," I said quickly. "See you!"
Shibata and Rika echoed their goodbyes while I tugged an unheeding Miki's hand.
Just before I got out of hearing range, I heard Rika say to Shibata in a low tone, "What's up with those two? Do they really go everywhere together?"
I could imagine what Shibata was thinking.
"When fate introduces Dumb to Dumber, you've got to let it take its course and not question it."
The words "kill" and "Shiba-chan" came to mind instantly. I was about to turn around and go give her a piece of my mind when Miki took a firm hold of my arm and forced me to keep walking. She must have heard, too, and I was instantly grateful that she was there to keep my head on straight. We made it to the front of the restaurant without any outbursts, but I kept wondering which one of us Shibata thought was Dumb and which one she thought was Dumber.
It better have been a joke, I thought darkly.
It was still pouring rain outside, so we had the hostess call a taxi. The manager came out and apologised again. I gave him the obligatory "it's quite all right" responses. I felt a little sorry for the waiter. He was probably going to get punished severely. I felt sorry for myself, too, because now the skirt I'd worn twice before today was destroyed.
The taxi came, and Miki and I ran out with our one umbrella. When we got into the cab, the smell of wine was overpoweringly apparent.
"Oh no," the driver said before he could bid us good afternoon. "No drunks before six in the evening. Personal rule. Out."
My jaw dropped open.
"What?" Miki asked in a cold tone. "We're not drunk."
"Out," the driver repeated stonily, turning the engine off to make a statement.
Never before in my life had I ever met or heard of a taxi driver that had refused to take a decent, sober, and quiet couple of people in his cab. Never. Out of pure shock, we got out and ran back to the restaurant. The hostess was surprised to see us again, and we asked her to call us another taxi. She did so with a confused look on her face.
A few minutes later, our new cab arrived. We got in. The driver was a friendly-looking middle-aged man with greying hair. He took one breath to greet us, and he started hacking and coughing.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm terribly sensitive to strong smells," he wheezed between laboured breaths punctuated by raspy coughs.
What a silly idea to become a cab driver, then! I thought, but I felt sorry for him because he looked like he was on his death bed.
We apologised and ran back to the restaurant. When the hostess saw us again, she didn't react. We asked her to call us another cab. She dialled the number and waited... and waited and waited. She hung up and dialled again. She waited even for an even longer time. She looked up another number in her book and dialled it, waiting and waiting and waiting. She repeated this several times. Finally, she closed her book.
"They seem to all be tied up at the moment," she informed us.
"How can all the cab companies in the city be busy?" I huffed out.
Of course the answers were simple. There were two. One was that it was raining, so of course more people would be willing to spend a little more money for the convenience and comfort of staying dry. The other reason was that Miki and I were currently trapped in the worst day we had ever spent together. Not even that frustrating day and night with her mother a few months ago could top this disaster. And it wasn't even two in the afternoon yet!
With a sigh and a "thanks" to the hostess, I grabbed Miki's hand and pulled her out of the restaurant.
"What-" she started.
"We're walking to the station."
I didn't know what station was nearby, but we'd find it in due course.
I opened the umbrella and raised it over us as we stepped out once again into the thunderstorm. We became soaked in an instant. The umbrella was far too small for two people, even two people like us who were pressed up to each other, hip-to-hip.
"This is the worst day ever!" I exclaimed over the sound of heavy raindrops hitting our protective cover.
"It could be worse," Miki laughed, trying to remain optimistic.
Just then, a car sped by, and a sheet of water went spraying towards us. Since Miki happened to be on the side closest to the curb, she bore the brunt of the hit. Her hand grabbed my arm, her fingers digging deep into me.
"I hate the world," she growled through clench teeth.
The world became even more of a grim place because we got lost. For forty minutes we wandered around until we found a familiar street. We were practically back at my apartment, so we decided to walk the rest of the way. We barely uttered three words to each other the whole way. We simply clung onto each other in our moment of misery, praying that our wallets and cell phones weren't completely ruined.
We overcame many obstacles during our walk. There were plenty of cars willing to spray us with water, but none that would stop and offer us a ride. There were puddles that were so wide that we had no choice but to slosh through them. There was also plenty of wind to flip our umbrella inside out several times. By the last fifteen minutes of the walk, I'd closed the umbrella since it wasn't doing anything to keep us dry in this typhoon-like weather.
By some miracle, we made it into my apartment alive, not struck by lightning, and not drowned. It had taken fifty-five minutes to walk from the restaurant. We took our shoes off at the entrance, and then after thinking about it, we also took most of our clothes off. I didn't want water being tracked around my place.
I ran in quickly and went to the closet in my room where I kept old, spare towels since the closet near the entrance was empty of towels. (Earlier in the morning, I'd settled for re-using Miki's towel instead of running into my room, but it would do us no good since it was still wet.)
I started to swear as we dried ourselves off and went to change into some comfortable clothes for lounging around the house.
"What's wrong?" Miki groaned, not wanting to hear what terrible thing we'd forgotten to do that would have us going outside again.
"My clothes are still hanging outside," I grumbled.
It was no doubt all wet again. We both shared a sigh, and Miki went over to my couch and fell on top of it on her back.
"What else have we got on the agenda today?" she asked.
"Laundry." I said, thinking of the pile of clothes we'd just shed.
I left Miki in the living room and went back to the entrance to find my phone and wallet. Luckily, they were both intact. I then took a closer look at my skirt. Stained. Ruined. I'd try and see if the dry cleaner could fix it, but I had a feeling I'd worn that skirt for the third and last time.
Miki came up behind me silently. I didn't notice her until she crouched down beside me, putting her head over my arm and looking at the skirt.
"Ruined?" she asked.
I nodded when she looked up at me with a sad face. No matter how much joking and lambasting went on between us, she really did care.
"You think the dry cleaners can save it?"
"Maybe," I mumbled.
"Well, at least the jug didn't fall on you and hurt you, right? At least you're okay, right?"
Her words, voiced sweetly, were like a hand stroking my hair comfortingly. Like a warm hug. Like a sparkling, caring smile. I forgot all about the skirt as I felt myself fall one more metre into that well of happy, mushy fluff and love. I sat there pretending to inspect the damage done to my clothes, but in reality, all I wanted was to extend that moment. Miki continued to crouch down beside me, watching my face as I trained my eyes on my skirt. Finally, I put the skirt down and was about to turn and thank her when the room lit up in an unnervingly bright way. The event was followed quickly by an explosion of thunder that quite literally shook my walls and doors.
What followed was silence and darkness.
-
Ah, the good kind of warm and fuzzy feeling. No hangover the next morning. (Or is there...? Does fluff leave you with a hangover? Hahaha, I hope not.)
If it does, we're willing to endure it! :rockon:
.5 - It Only Gets Worse
I later learned that the waiter holding the decanter of wine had tripped on an untied shoelace and had fallen forward and towards me, his hands gripping the decanter tightly, but the contents spilling out all over me.
The wine was slightly chilled, was very dark, and had a strong smell. A small amount went down my back after initially being poured over my shoulders, but the majority spilled down my front, all along my top and right onto my brand new Dolce and Gabbana skirt.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh. *grimaces* At least he tried to not spill it.
I simply continued to stare at the man - no, boy - who looked like he was about to cry.
"Oh!" he finally yelled out. "I'm so very sorry! So so sorry! Please forgive my heinous act!"
He put the decanter down on an empty neighbouring table and took out a cloth that was somehow magically folded neatly into his apron. He was about to start wiping the front of my shirt when he gave it a second thought and handed me the cloth with a blush. I was in such shock, though, that he could have started administering artificial respiration to me and I wouldn't have noticed.
Poor kid's probably scared that he'll lose his job over this (as well as being ashamed for doing what he'd done). It's good that he tried to make amends and clean up the mess, but even better that he realized what that would entail (considering where the wine had spilled) and stopped himself. :sweat:
I took the cloth and stared across the table. Rika had an expression of surprise and horror on her face. Shibata's mirrored Rika's. I looked at Miki. She was sitting there with an interested expression on her face, a faint trace of a smile on her lips. So much for her support.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Miki-sama! No doubt she'd have an "interested" look upon seeing Aya all wet from red wine (or anything else, for that manner). :twisted:
"If you'll excuse me early, I'll go home and change."
Shibata and Rika clucked sympathetically. Miki cracked a joke about my smelling like an alcoholic and how I should try to fashion a new public image for myself using this event. I ignored her and stood up, and she quickly fell in line, standing up with me.
"I'll go with you," she said by way of explanation to the girls.
"No, that's all right," I said sourly, gathering my things. "I can find my way."
"No, no. I'll help. You can't walk down the street alone looking like that," she insisted, pointing at the mess down the front of my body.
It didn't really make a difference if I was alone or not, but I rarely genuinely refused a chance to spend more time with Miki. I knew that if anybody could cheer me up (or distract me from my misery by annoying me), it was her. I nodded at her to give her permission to escort me home.
Miki's right, if Aya walks home by herself she'll definitely draw attention, and Miki's "joke" might end up becoming rumours that Aya doesn't need.
"Sorry to cut this so short," I said to the girls sitting at the table.
Shibata waved me off.
"Don't worry," she said. "My mother's coming by my place in a few hours anyway. I would have had to leave early myself."
"You mean you're going to ditch me early?" Rika butted in.
"Well, you can come along if you want," Shibata said with a sigh.
"I think I will," Rika pouted stubbornly.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...kawaii! :wub:
Rika had plenty of boyfriends. She was a tease, but an innocent one. She would make friends with all sorts of men around her, have them fall in love with and confess to her, and then tell them that she wasn't interested that way. She didn't do this on purpose, though. She was just acting her friendly self. The men were the ones fooling themselves. Part of the reason why it happened was because the "love of her life" had left her a year ago, and she was still reeling from that dark and sleazy episode. Perhaps some part of her turned up the friendliness vibe in an honest attempt to find that one perfect mate.
Trying to find inspiration for a new fic maybe?
I mean, poor Rika...:cry:
"They seem to all be tied up at the moment," she informed us.
"How can all the cab companies in the city be busy?" I huffed out.
Of course the answers were simple. There were two. One was that it was raining, so of course more people would be willing to spend a little more money for the convenience and comfort of staying dry. The other reason was that Miki and I were currently trapped in the worst day we had ever spent together. Not even that frustrating day and night with her mother a few months ago could top this disaster. And it wasn't even two in the afternoon yet!
Ouch. The reasoning made sense, but still...ouch. :dizzy:
With a sigh and a "thanks" to the hostess, I grabbed Miki's hand and pulled her out of the restaurant.
"What-" she started.
"We're walking to the station."
I didn't know what station was nearby, but we'd find it in due course.
Well, it was either that, or be stuck at the restaurant, in her wine-soaked outfit for a cab or for the storm to subside. Given her current state of frustration, option 2 didn't have a chance.
"This is the worst day ever!" I exclaimed over the sound of heavy raindrops hitting our protective cover.
"It could be worse," Miki laughed, trying to remain optimistic.
Just then, a car sped by, and a sheet of water went spraying towards us. Since Miki happened to be on the side closest to the curb, she bore the brunt of the hit. Her hand grabbed my arm, her fingers digging deep into me.
"I hate the world," she growled through clench teeth.
Ask...and ye shall receive. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/giggle.gif)
The world became even more of a grim place because we got lost. For forty minutes we wandered around until we found a familiar street. We were practically back at my apartment, so we decided to walk the rest of the way. We barely uttered three words to each other the whole way. We simply clung onto each other in our moment of misery, praying that our wallets and cell phones weren't completely ruined.
We overcame many obstacles during our walk. There were plenty of cars willing to spray us with water, but none that would stop and offer us a ride. There were puddles that were so wide that we had no choice but to slosh through them. There was also plenty of wind to flip our umbrella inside out several times. By the last fifteen minutes of the walk, I'd closed the umbrella since it wasn't doing anything to keep us dry in this typhoon-like weather.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit that's gotta suck. :badluck:
I started to swear as we dried ourselves off and went to change into some comfortable clothes for lounging around the house.
"What's wrong?" Miki groaned, not wanting to hear what terrible thing we'd forgotten to do that would have us going outside again.
"My clothes are still hanging outside," I grumbled.
It was no doubt all wet again.
Man, they just can't catch a break today. :fainted:
I'd try and see if the dry cleaner could fix it, but I had a feeling I'd worn that skirt for the third and last time.
Miki came up behind me silently. I didn't notice her until she crouched down beside me, putting her head over my arm and looking at the skirt.
"Ruined?" she asked.
I nodded when she looked up at me with a sad face. No matter how much joking and lambasting went on between us, she really did care.
"You think the dry cleaners can save it?"
"Maybe," I mumbled.
"Well, at least the jug didn't fall on you and hurt you, right? At least you're okay, right?"
Damn right. Aya's more important to Miki than teasing her about her outfit is. :luvluv1:
Finally, I put the skirt down and was about to turn and thank her when the room lit up in an unnervingly bright way. The event was followed quickly by an explosion of thunder that quite literally shook my walls and doors.
What followed was silence and darkness.
So now the power got knocked out too? Brilliant. Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust brilliant. :mon sigh:
-
Trying to find inspiration for a new fic maybe?
Hmm, should I pursue this one about Rika's heartbreak, Nacchi's "Corruptor of young H!P girls" role, or Maki's lousy ex and sucky career story? Or just keep on beating the hell out of Aya and Miki with sarcastic commentary by Reina and wonderful words of wisdom by Shiba-chan? Hahaha.
.6 - Cell Phones Help and Hinder
All the power had shut off. The lights went out and the refrigerator stopped humming. I bit back what I was going to say and went to turn the power on for the second time that day. When I flipped the switch up, however, nothing happened. Miki had followed me and stood behind me. I backed up into her and dug the back of my head into her shoulder in a frustrated way.
"I think we're a bit screwed," I moaned.
She hummed and tried flicking the switch a few times while I obstructed part of her view. Again, nothing happened with the power.
"Let's ask a neighbour," she suggested, pushing me to the door.
I didn't want to ask my neighbours anything. The closest one was an old man who had moved in last month and who lived alone. I soon learned to avoid him because he liked to talk my ear off. He always seemed to catch me when I was alone with no Miki (or any other friend for that matter). The others residents were anti-social, rich snobs that probably had something against me for being famous. At least they kept their mouths shut about me. They had their secrets, too (how could you get that rich without a few shady dealings on the side?), that they couldn't afford to reveal.
We stepped out into the hallway to find that the regular lights had cut out and the emergency lights were on, creating a dim and almost hazy atmosphere straight out of a horror movie. I noticed Miki tense up the slightest bit.
There was no need to ask a neighbour if it was apartment-wide or not. It obviously was. There were several other people opening their doors and poking their heads out to check the hallway. Having found our answer, Miki and I started to go back into my apartment when the next door over opened and out popped the head of my neighbour, Takagi.
"Good afternoon," he crooned cheerfully when he caught sight of me.
"Good afternoon," I replied politely, trying to usher Miki in through my door as quickly as possible.
"Looks like we have a power out," he continued.
"It sure does," I said with a pleasant smile.
"When I lived in Hokkaido for two winters..."
I groaned in my head as he started to chatter on. He loved to tell me about living in Hokkaido. I had once made the grievous mistake of telling him I had a good friend from Hokkaido. He had decided to educate me about the great white north using his meagre experiences there in an attempt to get me to "understand" my friend a little more. Seeing as how Miki (said friend) had never met Takagi, I groaned at the possible avenues this conversation (or rather this monologue situation) could barrel down.
As he blabbered on, I looked over at Miki.
Yeah, this is the guy I told you about.
My oh my...
So went our telepathic exchange.
I began to fantasise about sneaking off and leaving the man to talk his own ear off, or telling him outright that Miki was that friend from Hokkaido so that he'd shut up out of humiliation... or maybe even grabbing Miki and doing something naughty with her to shock him into silence.
I did none of those because I was a nice person. I stole glances at Miki as Takagi spoke. Her eyes had glazed over, and she uttered automatic responses to everything the old man said. He didn't seem to notice (or care) that she wasn't hearing a single word.
When he started to talk about his older brother's military days in Manchuria, I interrupted, already having heard ridiculously overblown tales of bravery against the enemy.
"Oh, my cell phone!" I cried out. "I'm sorry. I'm expecting a very important call."
I gave Takagi a pained look, grabbed Miki's hand, and excused myself.
As we backed away, I could see Takagi straining to hear a phone ringing, perturbed by his inability to catch it. When we got back inside, we burst into a fit of giggles. I checked the time. We'd been out there for almost half an hour.
"I'm sorry," I laughed. "He means well. I think he's just lonely."
"It's okay," Miki replied cutely, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "If I didn't have an Aya around to talk to, I'd go loopy, too."
Aww, I thought happily.
It was a little chilly because of the rain and the clouds blocking the sunshine, and it was out of the question to do laundry now with no power, so we went and snuggled up under a blanket on the couch. We would have to wait until the power was restored. Luckily, despite no direct sunshine, the grey sky gave us plenty of light provided we kept the curtains open.
At least we have each other, I thought.
I was about to get in close and do one of those naughty things I'd thought about doing in front of Takagi when Miki's cell phone rang.
I sighed and wondered why I even bothered to be surprised.
-
.7 - Promise
Miki sighed and wiggled her way out of my grasp to answer the call.
"Hello?"
What followed was a stunned silence. I instantly got a bad feeling.
"I'm sorry... I see... Okay... Thanks for calling," she said in between more bits of silence. "I will. Goodbye."
She hung up and came back to sit on the couch, clutching her cell phone in her hand, our previous plan of action forgotten. I would have been dismayed had I not seen that she was looking morose.
"What happened?" I asked, fearing the worst.
"That was my boss. One of our technical assistants, Karube-san... um, he was killed this morning in a traffic accident."
"I'm sorry," I said, putting a hand on hers. "Were you close?"
I'd never heard of him, but that didn't mean she didn't talk to him. She shook her head in response to my question.
"I only met him once," she explained, "but he was dating Tomo-chan so I'd heard a lot about him. She must be beside herself with grief..."
Tomoko was one of Miki's fellow performers on her label. They did occasional events together and got along surprisingly well despite Tomoko's excessively extroverted and girly personality. I'd met her and liked her from what I'd seen. She was a friendly girl my age (almost the same birthday) and a very talented singer. Someone who didn't deserve to receive such tragic news.
"Do you want to call her?"
"Yeah," Miki mumbled with a nod.
I gestured to my bedroom where she could have a little bit of privacy. She walked in with her phone while I stayed out in the living room and walked around, trying various switches on my electrical appliances and being frustrated when they didn't work. I sat down and flipped through a magazine without reading a single word. All I could think about was Tomoko crying, curled up in a corner of her room.
Half an hour passed before Miki came back to me. She looked significantly less pale than before.
"How is she?" I asked, dropping the magazine.
"Shaken and upset," Miki replied glumly, sitting on the couch, the magazine resting between us. "But she's surprisingly strong."
"Are you going to go and see her tonight?"
Miki shook her head.
"Her sister is getting in from Shizuoka soon. She's spending the night there."
She picked up the magazine I'd been reading, opened it, and then closed it, putting it back down in the space between us. A nervous gesture that meant she was bothered by something. She sat there looking at the television set listlessly until she looked over and fixed her gaze on me. She smiled, albeit a little sadly, and she sidled up to me, gently pushing us over and laying us down on the couch. It was a little tight for space, but cosy. She hugged me from behind and placed her chin on my shoulder. It felt like she'd never let go.
"It makes me think about what would happen if something bad ever happened to you," she murmured in a quiet, cautious voice. "I don't think I could ever be as strong as Tomo-chan."
If something happened to me? Like if I died? If I died, I would hope that she wouldn't do anything rash. The world didn't need any more Romeos and Juliets. But if Miki upped and died on me, I wouldn't know what to do either. As strong as I was and as much as I liked to tease her and push her away, getting my kicks from pretending I didn't need her, if she wasn't around, I would crumble. I needed all that support from her. She gave me a tremendous amount, piling it on layer after layer. If I fell from a twenty-storey building, I'd survive the impact by virtue of Miki's belief in me.
The same went the other way around. I invested all my energy and feelings into supporting her. Initially by breaking down her tough barriers bit-by-bit and then coaxing that soft part of her out. Reassuring her that soft was the new strong.
If she died... If she died, I would lose half my life. Maybe more. If she died, I'd never speak to anyone else again. If she died, I very well might drown in my tears.
"You're the strongest girl in the world," I said to comfort her.
"No, you are," she countered resolutely.
It was true that I had a higher tolerance for some things, but Miki had naturally built-in defence mechanisms that could serve her. I didn't have as many as she did.
"Miki, if anything ever happened to take you away from me, I wouldn't be strong at all anymore. You make me that way."
I made sure to drop any trace of humour and gaiety from my voice so that she couldn't refute my words. She didn't try, but I felt like she didn't quite accept what I said as truth. We dropped the subject, though. It was pointless.
"Promise me you won't disappear," Miki said, her voice cracking.
I looked up and back at her, and she looked rather embarrassed. I wasn't sure if it was because of the sudden cracking of her voice or the content of her request. I suspected the former.
"I promise," I said, looking at her without a smile, "as long as you promise me you won't disappear."
"Promise."
She brought a hand up and extended her pinkie finger. I smiled and brought my own hand up, hooking my corresponding finger around hers. We held our fingers like that for a count of three and then let go.
Suddenly a change came over the atmosphere, and Miki threw a leg up in the air and over across mine. I tried to run, but she gripped me koala-style.
"Now you can't get away or disappear!" she cackled in my ear.
I tried to squirm out of her hold, but my heart skipped a few beats in exhilaration and I felt happy. She held me tightly and then started planting big, wet, slobbering kisses down from my ear to the corner of my mouth.
"Eugh!" I exclaimed, wanting to wipe my face but unable to.
She flipped me onto my back and sat on my stomach, pinning my upper arms down so that I couldn't push her off.
"What is with you?" I laughed.
Extra-excited Miki? Since when had the day gone from "terrible" to "fantastic"?
"We're free!" she cried out in explanation. "There's no power, we're dry, we're alone, we have nothing that we need to go out and do, we're on your couch, and the temperature isn't that bad."
I'd forgotten that's what life was all about - the silver linings. No matter how much bad there was in the world and how terrible a day we were having, there was always a positive way to look at it all. Just like Miki's so-called bad points. Ultimately, they were all good (except for the drooling).
I giggled as she let go of my arms. She was confident that I'd been convinced by the benefits of our situation. I proved her right. I didn't budge.
"And!" she cried out dramatically, leaving me hanging on her words.
She lowered her face to my ear and lowered her voice into the barest whisper that I could hardly hear.
"I... love... you!"
I never got tired of hearing that. She'd been saying it to me for years at concerts, on TV shows, in magazine interviews, and in front of our co-workers. However, I was one of the few privileged people in the world who knew that the statement was completely true, and not an exaggeration, but perhaps an understatement.
I let her start up some naughty fun, which lasted for about fifteen minutes and was so distracting and nice and good... when suddenly everything that was plugged into outlets turned on.
What ensued was an unadulterated, cacophonous ruckus. The television set turned on, my alarm clock went off, my radio roared to life, and my hair dryer serenaded us with a high-pitched shriek of air. We both screamed in terror like girls (which is understandable). Miki jumped up, one of her fingernails accidentally digging into my stomach painfully, her other hand smashing into my face as I tried to follow her up in surprise. We ended up scrambling to our feet and running around like headless chickens, turning off the various things that were running.
"What the hell caused that?" Miki asked after we'd complete our task, her voice shaking from the adrenalin rush.
I caught my breath before speaking.
"I guess the power came back on," I mumbled.
"Is your place haunted or something?" Miki demanded. "How'd all those appliances start up?"
"I, uh, I was fiddling around with some buttons," I said in a quiet mumble.
"Huh? What?" Miki asked, striding up to me and putting her ear to my mouth exaggeratedly.
"I pressed some buttons while you were on the phone," I said half-heartedly in a louder voice.
Instead of teasing me, she straightened up and smiled.
"Could have been worse," she said.
I suddenly felt a prickly sensation on the back of my neck. The last time Miki had voiced a similar opinion, we'd met with an unfortunate incident. She seemed to notice this, too, and the two of us froze in the middle of the room, waiting for something terrible to happen.
Nothing happened.
I checked my watch and smiled. Dinner time was approaching. Perhaps the bad day was over.
Or not.
-
.6 - Cell Phones Help and Hinder
We stepped out into the hallway to find that the regular lights had cut out and the emergency lights were on, creating a dim and almost hazy atmosphere straight out of a horror movie.
Ah, lightening might have struck a powerline or something like that.
Having found our answer, Miki and I started to go back into my apartment when the next door over opened and out popped the head of my neighbour, Takagi.
"Good afternoon," he crooned cheerfully when he caught sight of me.
"Good afternoon," I replied politely, trying to usher Miki in through my door as quickly as possible.
"Looks like we have a power out," he continued.
"It sure does," I said with a pleasant smile.
"When I lived in Hokkaido for two winters..."
Ah, the talkative neighbour...from Hokkaido? Miki's from Hokkaido...o_o If it turns out these two know each other in some way they're gonna start yammering on non-stop and poor Aya's gonna be stuck in the middle. :P
I began to fantasise about sneaking off and leaving the man to talk his own ear off, or telling him outright that Miki was that friend from Hokkaido so that he'd shut up out of humiliation... or maybe even grabbing Miki and doing something naughty with her to shock him into silence.
I did none of those because I was a nice person.
Damn. Especially with the last option she had thought about...dayum. :badluck:
"I'm sorry," I laughed. "He means well. I think he's just lonely."
"It's okay," Miki replied cutely, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "If I didn't have an Aya around to talk to, I'd go loopy, too."
Aww, I thought happily.
Awww. :wub:
I was about to get in close and do one of those naughty things I'd thought about doing in front of Takagi when Miki's cell phone rang.
But of course it would have to ring. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/doh.gif)
.7 - Promise
Miki sighed and wiggled her way out of my grasp to answer the call.
...
"That was my boss. One of our technical assistants, Karube-san...um, he was killed this morning in a traffic accident."
Oh no. :O That sucks. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised in the accident had been caused by the severe weather.
"I only met him once," she explained, "but he was dating Tomo-chan so I'd heard a lot about him. She must be beside herself with grief..."
Tomoko was one of Miki's fellow performers on her label.
...
"Do you want to call her?"
"Yeah," Miki mumbled with a nod.
That's our Miki. :) When she considers you a friend, she's there for you. :love:
She hugged me from behind and placed her chin on my shoulder. It felt like she'd never let go.
"It makes me think about what would happen if something bad ever happened to you," she murmured in a quiet, cautious voice.
...
But if Miki upped and died on me, I wouldn't know what to do either.
Enter the tie-ins to previous stories written by OTN1: a) MOPF and b) WNTBD :yep:
"Promise me you won't disappear," Miki said, her voice cracking.
I looked up and back at her, and she looked rather embarrassed. I wasn't sure if it was because of the sudden cracking of her voice or the content of her request. I suspected the former.
"I promise," I said, looking at her without a smile, "as long as you promise me you won't disappear."
"Promise."
She brought a hand up and extended her pinkie finger. I smiled and brought my own hand up, hooking my corresponding finger around hers. We held our fingers like that for a count of three and then let go.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! :mon inluv:
Miki threw a leg up in the air and over across mine. I tried to run, but she gripped me koala-style.
"Now you can't get away or disappear!" she cackled in my ear.
Koala-style??? :mon lol: GO MIKI!!! :mon thumb:
suddenly everything that was plugged into outlets turned on.
What ensued was an unadulterated, cacophonous ruckus.
...
We ended up scrambling to our feet and running around like headless chickens, turning off the various things that were running.
Maybe Aya shouldn't have been playing with all of those switches while Miki was on the phone. :on lol:
"Could have been worse," she said.
I suddenly felt a prickly sensation on the back of my neck. The last time Miki had voiced a similar opinion, we'd met with an unfortunate incident. She seemed to notice this, too, and the two of us froze in the middle of the room, waiting for something terrible to happen.
Nothing happened.
...
Perhaps the bad day was over.
Or not.
Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!! :dizzy:
Let's just hope they don't do something like nearly set the kitchen on fire while they're making dinner. ;D
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Poor Aya and Miki. Why am I laughing then? Everything that could possibly go wrong did.
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This day reminds me of a real life incident that happened in a large city in America. The hospitals were all packed with mothers giving birth in a particular month. The reason for this being that 9 months earlier there was a three day black out :P
I suppose when all the powers out, what better stay at home activity is there ^^
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Hmm, should I pursue this one about Rika's heartbreak, Nacchi's "Corruptor of young H!P girls" role, or Maki's lousy ex and sucky career story? Or just keep on beating the hell out of Aya and Miki with sarcastic commentary by Reina and wonderful words of wisdom by Shiba-chan? Hahaha.
I vote for Tsunku's process of coming out of the closet. The title could be along the lines of "Tsunku, Queen of the desert" with H!P songs instead of ABBA xD
This day reminds me of a real life incident that happened in a large city in America. The hospitals were all packed with mothers giving birth in a particular month. The reason for this being that 9 months earlier there was a three day black out
ROFL
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Mikan, coast-wide blackouts bringing out the naughty in everyone, resulting in overcrowded hospitals 9 months later? Haven't those people ever heard of protection? Hahaha!
JFC, setting fire to the kitchen trying to cook? Been there, done that, don't want to do it again (yes, a horse I refuse to beat!). I have other things in store for these two.
ChiruChaCha... let's just leave Tsunku happily married to his supermodel girlfriend. I don't want to mess with his character.
More Terrible Day to come soon! I'm editing it.
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.8 - Wrong Number
I went to the kitchen to see what I had, which turned out to be absolutely nothing. I could have sworn I'd gone shopping just a few days ago. Miki started to whine and complain about having to go out shopping with me again. I was a bit irritated at our pleasant time having been so rudely interrupted that I snapped at her and told her to stay in the apartment and not touch anything while I went to buy something to eat. She ignored me and went off to lie down in my room. I sighed and left after grabbing my wallet, a raincoat, and an umbrella (for it was still raining steadily).
I went to the convenience store and bought some food, but as I was leaving, a big, burly man in a long overcoat bumped into me and my bag went flying into the street, where a passing truck immediately flattened it. I almost started to cry. Almost.
"I'm sorry, little lady!" he cried out cheerfully, and I wondered how he could possibly be so cheerful on such a terrible day.
I mumbled that it I was all right, and I walked away, dejected. I went back into the convenience store to buy more food. When I got to the till, I pulled out my wallet to pay... and I had no money. I had spent my last bill, and all I had was some small change.
"Excuse me, I have to use the ATM," I excused myself embarrassedly.
I went over to the ATM and put my bank card in, going through the boring procedure of taking out money. However, when it was time for the machine to spew out my cash, my card was spit back out with a message on the screen
INCORRECT PASSWORD
I sighed. Why couldn't these machines be programmed to give this sort of information out at a more convenient time? Oh, say, right after inputting your incorrect password? I repeated the procedure, only to have the exact same thing happen.
I grew antsy. There was a line forming me behind me, and as much as I wanted to yell out, I didn't want to cause a scene. I inserted my card for the third time and typed my password in ever so carefully, making sure to get it absolutely right.
It ended up being incorrect once again, and the machine swallowed up my card, flashing a cold message across the screen that suggested I call my bank about my password and my debit card.
Tail tucked between my legs and ears drooping down low, I made my way back to till, and, utterly humiliated, explained in vague terms that I'd decided not to go through with my purchase.
Next week's Friday magazine?
Ayaya Squanders Money on Wine and Can't Afford 7-11 Tea and Soba!!
I left the convenience store, dejected and a little hungry. By the time I got back to my apartment, it was dark out. At least the power had turned back on and we wouldn't have to sit there with no lights on for the entire evening.
I got into the elevator and sighed, standing in front of the full-length mirror that covered one of the walls. I fixed my hair as best as I could, thinking about my action plan. I decided it was Miki's turn to go outside. She had money. She could go and buy something to eat.
I was in the process of inspecting my eyes, noting that I only had one more floor to go, when suddenly the elevator jolted, the lights cut out, and I was plunged into complete darkness.
-
Almost done. I you guys are happy that you got much more than 10 chapters. Haha. One more to go after this, which will bring it to a total of double what the thread title claims.
.9 - Bad Connection
I froze, my finger at the corner of my eye, my mind grinding to a halt.
This can't be happening, I thought desperately.
The darkness lasted only for a split second, though, and the emergency lights turned on promptly. It was still deathly silent, and my breath began to come out in short pants as I sunk to the floor in fear.
The most logical explanation was that the power in the building had cut off again and I was trapped in the elevator.
Trapped.
Time to panic.
I began to hyperventilate, my mind becoming foggy, my brain floating on a hazy cloud. I was on the verge of passing out when I pictured Miki standing above me, hands on her hips and yelling at me to get a grip. I imagined her slapping me hard on the cheek. I focused on this image and slowly brought myself out of my panic attack, re-learning how to breathe properly.
I had to stay calm. For all I knew, I only had a certain amount of oxygen left. The first thing I had to do was get to the emergency phone. I went over to the panel on the wall and opened the little box marked "Open in case of emergency". There were instructions written on the inside of the little door.
"'Pick up phone and speak slowly and clearly into transmitter'," I read aloud, my voice bouncing off the walls in an empty way.
Simple enough. I took out the old-fashioned phone and held it to my ear. It made strange clicking sounds that I assumed meant it was connecting to the emergency operator.
"Hello?" I said tentatively. "My name is Matsuura. I'm stuck in an elevator."
I couldn't keep the fear out of my voice, and when I heard no response, I freaked out.
"Um, I'm trapped. I mean, it stopped. The power's gone out. Is anybody there? Can you help me? Please?"
An airy silence was all that greeted me. I looked around the small phone box for a switch of some sort that maybe they'd forgotten to write about, but there was none there. I did come across a small sticker label, and I inspected it for a clue.
"'This unit should be inspected every six months,'" I mumbled as I read aloud.
I squinted my eyes to see the smaller print under the warning.
"Last inspected on the third month of 2002."
Wonderful. Just wonderful. How had they managed to keep this elevator in operation if they hadn't inspected the emergency phone in eight years? I would have some words with whoever was in charge of the elevators in this apartment. Angry words.
I hung the phone back up and closed the little panel, sitting down with my legs crossed and my purse in my lap. Suddenly I felt buzzing and a familiar melody starting up.
Of course! I had my cell phone! I ripped it out of my bag and opened it up. I had a new message from Miki.
The power went out again. Shall we jump off the roof together in a glorious double suicide when you get back?
I hit speed dial and called her up.
"Hi," she drawled.
"Miki, I'm trapped in the elevator!" I shrieked.
There was a silence.
"..ya... ou repeat that? I... what you sai..."
No. There was not going to be weak transmission. I would murder electricity, concrete, and all concepts of science if I couldn't communicate with Miki in my time of extreme desperation and need.
"I'm stuck in the elevator!" I yelled slowly.
A stunned silence.
"In your apartment?!" Miki's voice came through loudly and clearly.
"Yes!" I yelled back.
There was another silence.
".......... do?"
"What??" I asked, holding my tears back in.
"... said what...ould I do??"
What should she do? Call the landlord! Or the custodian! Or the firemen!
"Get me help!!" I yelled.
"Yeti felt?!" she yelled back in confusion.
"HELP!" I screamed.
"Ahhh.... hhh! ..kay, I got it, ... -chan. Chill."
"Hurry!" I whimpered.
She seemed to hear that.
"Save your battery," she said. "... ll back later. Bye."
She cut the connection and I curled up into a small ball in the corner. If the elevator fell, I'd die. If the air ran out, I would die. If I was stuck here for four days without water, I would die. Maybe I wouldn't be able to keep my promise to Miki. My promise to never disappear.
I sat blankly for twenty minutes until my phone rang. This time it was e-mail.
Took me five tries to send this. Is the elevator shaft pure steel or something? Called the front desk. They're sending help. Remember what floor you passed last?
My heart leapt and I started typing back, telling her I'd just noticed passing the fourteenth floor. It took me four tries to get through and send the e-mail. I waited patiently for a few minutes, but I heard no word back. A few minutes turned into a few dozen minutes, and before I knew it, an hour had passed by and I hadn't heard from Miki. A tear rolled down my face as I wallowed in my self-pity.
Fed up with waiting, I called Miki.
"...!"
I wasn't sure what she said, but she exclaimed it.
"Miki," I spoke loudly into the phone. "I'm scared. What's happening?"
"... ere. They... but no... so...m, Aya."
I couldn't understand what she was trying to say.
"Miki, I'm scared," I repeated. "What if the elevator falls?"
"Falls?" I heard her voice clearly. "It won't fall."
I'm pretty sure she laughed, trying to comfort me. It worked a bit. If Miki said it wouldn't fall, it wouldn't fall.
And so the elevator gave a jolt just to prove her wrong.
I screamed louder than I'd ever screamed before in my life.
"..'s the matter?!" Miki cried into the phone, having heard.
"I'm falling!" I yelled, but she didn't hear, for before I got the sentence out, the phone cut off and I heard silence.
The elevator shook a few times, and I gripped my phone in terror, whimpering, certain that I was going to die. I thought about my whole life. It had been a satisfying one, but I wasn't ready to wrap it up. I still had to hug Miki one more time and get my bank card back and yell at Shiba-chan for calling me and Miki names.
While I reminisced during the period which I assumed was the "life flashing before your eyes" period, the elevator suddenly became a whole lot brighter. I looked up and saw an unfamiliar face poking out of the ceiling, a flashlight clenched between his teeth.
"Matsuura-san, we're here to help you," said a handsome young man that couldn't have been any older than me.
I swooned. Perhaps it was the after-effect of thinking I was going to die and then not dying.
"Thank you," I murmured, and then I did something close to passing out.
I flopped against the wall, weak from the rush of fear that had gone through my body. What I'd thought was the elevator falling was simply this young firefighter jumping onto the roof of the elevator.
He lowered himself into the box and helped me up. I was limp as a rag doll, and he had to drag me onto a harness that would lift me out. Everything passed by in a blur. All I remembered was clinging onto this tall, muscular man, smelling his faint cologne, and thinking how he would have been way more Miki's type than mine. Strange thoughts for me to be having, but such was the stress I was under.
The group of men sat me down on the carpeted hallway, which ended up being my own floor. I took deep breaths of air, and then I saw a face I knew very well.
"Miki!" I tried to cry out, but it came out as an exhausted sigh.
She smiled and walked up, lowering herself down to sit beside me shoulder-to-shoulder.
"See? You're alive," she joked, mussing up my hair.
I let out my final anxious breath and rested my head on her shoulder.
"I thought I'd never see you again," I said embarrassedly.
"Hey, no bad luck can defeat the power of this kind of promise," Miki stated with certainty, hooking her pinkie finger around mine and holding our hands up in front of my face.
I smiled, and we stood up to go back to my apartment after the fireman who had rescued me came by to tell me it was okay to leave.
"Thank you very much," I said gratefully, bowing deeply.
"Not at all," he replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head before returning the bow.
We stood there bowing at each other shyly until Miki nudged me to remind me that we were leaving. I gave a final smile to my saviour and then walked down the hallway to my place. It was dark inside, but Miki had had the sense to bring the emergency flashlight out to the hallway with her, knowing we'd need it when we got back.
I hadn't even locked the door when Miki spoke out.
"You sure you and Mr. Googly Eyes don't want to go out for a romantic walk in the rain?" she asked sarcastically.
I looked at her in surprise, worried that I'd angered her. Her face, however, was painted with an amused expression, meaning that she thought I was being silly and nothing more.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I claimed, putting on a blank expression.
She put her arm around my shoulder and pushed me into my apartment forcefully, training the beam of light in front of us.
"Sure you don't. Drooling all over your hero like that. Gee, have a little class and wait till I'm not around," she teased.
"I wasn't drooling," I insisted.
"Fine, but your cheeks looked a little red," she said in an unrelenting manner, patting one of my cheeks.
I twisted my head away and grumbled in exasperation. If I was going to be teased incessantly all evening for appreciating the beauty of a human physique, I'd rather she leave now.
But not really.
"Aww, sorry," Miki said, squeezing my shoulders.
I shrugged.
"It's okay."
"How is it that you start drooling after someone else and I end up being the one doing the apologising?" she muttered.
I laughed and didn't answer that question. I changed the subject.
"Do you think any more bad things will happen today?"
"I've ruined our luck enough times today. I'm not going to say a word about it," was her curt response.
I laughed at her superstition, but deep inside, I agreed.
"Let's just sit down and talk. Nothing can happen if-" I started, but I quickly slapped my hand over my mouth before I could jinx the moment.
We walked arm-in-arm to the living room couch... and tripped over something on the floor, sending us tumbling to the ground with a painful crash.
As I lay there half under Miki and groaning in pain, I thought that it would be rather nice to be struck by lightning, because it couldn't possibly hurt more than all the pain I'd gone through on that terrible, no good day.
-
I laughed out loud till I had tears in my eyes. Yeti Felt, my oh my.
Well, now I have a new fear of elevators to go with my fear of stairs. Living on the 4th floor this is going to cause some problems. Perhaps I should just absail from now on...ANYWAY!
I can imagine Aya being stuck in an elevator. And after I comment like that one would usually say "it seems like something she'd do" But that follow up doesnt fit here, does it..
Oh well...
Talk about a shit pie of a day, eh.
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Chapter 5
....
Shibata and Rika clucked sympathetically.
Birds.
Chapter 6
...
"It's okay," Miki replied cutely, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "If I didn't have an Aya around to talk to, I'd go loopy, too."
Aww, I thought happily.
So...Adorable-y...cute...! XD
Chapter 7
...
If I fell from a twenty-storey building, I'd survive the impact by virtue of Miki's belief in me.
...
The same went the other way around. I invested all my energy and feelings into supporting her. Initially by breaking down her tough barriers bit-by-bit and then coaxing that soft part of her out. Reassuring her that soft was the new strong.
I really liked the line, "reassuring her that soft was the new strong." I can't exactly put it into words why... It was just so...damn good!
Phew, Ayaya's whole trip to the grocery store and then getting stuck in the elevator was worrisome, especially after the whole 'death talk.' Thank goodness for Miki! Lovely that they managed to pull through the totally crap day together. :)
I can't believe it's almost the end, though! NOOOOOooo!!! :banghead: :'(
I should probably say this later instead of now, but it's been a pleasure reading your fic, OTN1, that's for sure!
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.8 - Wrong Number
I went to the convenience store and bought some food, but as I was leaving, a big, burly man in a long overcoat bumped into me and my bag went flying into the street, where a passing truck immediately flattened it. I almost started to cry. Almost.
Holy geez man, where's the emergency? :k-mad:
I went over to the ATM and put my bank card in, going through the boring procedure of taking out money. However, when it was time for the machine to spew out my cash, my card was spit back out with a message on the screen
INCORRECT PASSWORD
BAH! Stupid storm must've shorted out the networks somehow. Aya's PIN code was probably lost and/or corrupted in the network. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/shakefist.gif)
I got into the elevator and sighed, standing in front of the full-length mirror that covered one of the walls. I fixed my hair as best as I could, thinking about my action plan. I decided it was Miki's turn to go outside. She had money. She could go and buy something to eat.
I was in the process of inspecting my eyes, noting that I only had one more floor to go, when suddenly the elevator jolted, the lights cut out, and I was plunged into complete darkness.
Aw man. Now the elevator's busted? Let's hope she can at least call Miki so she doesn't worry. Elevators are notorious for being hell on cell phone signal strength.
Almost done. I you guys are happy that you got much more than 10 chapters. Haha. One more to go after this, which will bring it to a total of double what the thread title claims.
Oh don't worry, we are. :D
.9 - Bad Connection
Time to panic.
I began to hyperventilate, my mind becoming foggy, my brain floating on a hazy cloud. I was on the verge of passing out when I pictured Miki standing above me, hands on her hips and yelling at me to get a grip. I imagined her slapping me hard on the cheek. I focused on this image and slowly brought myself out of my panic attack, re-learning how to breathe properly
Miki proves to be "useful" in the most unique and unexpected ways. :w00t:
I went over to the panel on the wall and opened the little box marked "Open in case of emergency". There were instructions written on the inside of the little door.
...
I looked around the small phone box for a switch of some sort that maybe they'd forgotten to write about, but there was none there. I did come across a small sticker label, and I inspected it for a clue.
"'This unit should be inspected every six months,'" I mumbled as I read aloud.
I squinted my eyes to see the smaller print under the warning.
"Last inspected on the third month of 2002."
Dammit. (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/J-F-C/doh.gif)
Of course! I had my cell phone!
...
I hit speed dial and called her up.
"Hi," she drawled.
"Miki, I'm trapped in the elevator!" I shrieked.
There was a silence.
"..ya... ou repeat that? I... what you sai..."
No. There was not going to be weak transmission.
Gawdammit I knew that would happen. :badluck:
"Get me help!!" I yelled.
"Yeti felt?!" she yelled back in confusion.
Miki-misunderstanding is just as cute and Miki-having strange dreams. :wub:
If the elevator fell, I'd die. If the air ran out, I would die. If I was stuck here for four days without water, I would die. Maybe I wouldn't be able to keep my promise to Miki. My promise to never disappear.
...
"Miki," I spoke loudly into the phone. "I'm scared. What's happening?"
Don't think like that Aya! :cry:
While I reminisced during the period which I assumed was the "life flashing before your eyes" period, the elevator suddenly became a whole lot brighter. I looked up and saw an unfamiliar face poking out of the ceiling, a flashlight clenched between his teeth.
"Matsuura-san, we're here to help you," said a handsome young man that couldn't have been any older than me.
...
What I'd thought was the elevator falling was simply this young firefighter jumping onto the roof of the elevator.
HOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! Aya's been saved!!! :rockon:
I smiled, and we stood up to go back to my apartment after the fireman who had rescued me came by to tell me it was okay to leave.
"Thank you very much," I said gratefully, bowing deeply.
"Not at all," he replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head before returning the bow.
We stood there bowing at each other shyly until Miki nudged me to remind me that we were leaving. I gave a final smile to my saviour and then walked down the hallway to my place.
He must obviously know who it was that he just rescued. Considering how physically close he had to hold her to help her get out, it's no wonder he's gone all gaga. :P
"Do you think any more bad things will happen today?"
"I've ruined our luck enough times today. I'm not going to say a word about it," was her curt response.
I laughed at her superstition, but deep inside, I agreed.
This seems to be a fairly common superstition, doesn't it? If you don't dwell on having bad luck, you don't. If you DO think you're going to have bad luck, you probably do.
Almost seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"Let's just sit down and talk. Nothing can happen if-" I started, but I quickly slapped my hand over my mouth before I could jinx the moment.
DON'T SAY IT!!! :O
We walked arm-in-arm to the living room couch... and tripped over something on the floor, sending us tumbling to the ground with a painful crash.
As I lay there half under Miki and groaning in pain, I thought that it would be rather nice to be struck by lightning, because it couldn't possibly hurt more than all the pain I'd gone through on that terrible, no good day.
Ugh. Too late. :mon duh:
At least she ended up with Miki on top of her. O0
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That's hysterical! Poor Aya, but it's so funny!
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Ahhh, thank you for reading/tolerating/commenting! Here's the final tale.
1.0 - Finale
"Oops," Miki mumbled. "Sorry again."
The vibration from her voice was pleasant against my back. Maybe being struck by lightening wouldn't be such a great thing compared to this. We slowly untangled our limbs and stood up. I looked down to see what we'd tripped on.
It was clothing. Not just any clothing, but brand new clothing that I'd bought the previous weekend. In the dark, I could see the unorganised pile of my precious clothing, tossed to the floor carelessly and with no love. I clenched my fist.
"What did you do to my clothes?" I asked, unable to keep the anger out of my tone.
"I got bored waiting for you so I decided to try on your new stuff," Miki said with a nonchalant shrug, as if there was nothing wrong. "I thought we were okay with that."
"I'm okay with you wearing my clothes, but not throwing them on the floor like that!" I exclaimed, pointing to the mess on the floor. "Not when they're brand new!!"
"I was going to put them away, but you called and started freaking out about the elevator."
The sensible thing would have been to take this valid excuse and quell my anger with it, but I was beyond sense. I'd had a bad day, and having had one of my most expensive skirts completely ruined by a ham-fisted waiter, I was feeling violently protective of my personal items.
"I was gone for two hours!" I cried. "You couldn't have possibly been monstrously busy that entire time. You could've at least put them neatly on my bed!"
"But I was nervous, Aya," she said, her eyebrows knitting together in sadness. "After you called, I was downstairs with the landlord and then up here with the firemen the whole time. Sorry."
No matter how many times I did the same thing over and over again, I never learned. I would assume that Miki was being sloppy and selfish, when in fact she was thinking of anyone but herself. In this case, she'd been so worried about me being trapped in an elevator that she hadn't been able to return and sit still in my apartment even though there was nothing much she could do to help out. I guess I hadn't thought of that possibility because she'd sounded so calm on the phone. Again, something she'd done for me to keep me relaxed.
I winced and looked at her apologetically.
"I'm a horrible, horrible person," I reprimanded myself. "Sorry for yelling at you."
She looked less hurt after my apology
"I'll put them away now," she said, bending down to start collecting the pile.
To hell with clothes, I thought.
I pulled Miki back up and made her drop what she'd gathered.
"Forget it. Let's just sit down and wait for this day to end," I smiled.
We made it to the couch without incident, and sat down beside each other.
"Oh, did you leave our dinner in the elevator?" Miki asked.
In all the excitement of the past few hours, I hadn't been able to explain my convenience store adventure, so I quickly recounted the events. She started to laugh when I mentioned that a truck had run over my first attempt at buying dinner. When she laughed about my bank card being swallowed up, I threatened her with the fact that it was her turn to go out and scavenge for food.
"But you wouldn't send me out there now, would you? After all the bad things we've been through today? Maybe the truck won't just run over dinner next time," she pouted.
I instantly changed my mind, and gripped her wrist.
"You're not going out there. We'll make do with that bag of frozen vegetables I've got in my freezer," I said determinedly.
I heard no complaint from her, and we went to the kitchen together to see what we could do.
It didn't occur to us until we opened the freezer that without power, we would have to wait for the vegetables to defrost at room temperature. That would take far too long, but we both tried to put on optimistic fronts as we emptied the contents of the bag into a bowl. That done, we scoured the cupboards for anything we could eat without having to cook. We came across a package of seaweed that I'd forgotten about and one rice cracker. The seaweed had passed its expiration date and we decided not to try our luck, remembering a certain cookie-baking incident we had been involved in years ago. The rice cracker, however, was perfect, if not for the fact that it was half the area of the palm of my hand. I took a bite of it and then handed the rest to Miki, who finished it off.
Giving up on the vegetables, we went back to the couch and sat down, leaning back together. My cell phone informed us that it was half past eight.
"You know, that drama is on right now," Miki reminded me.
Damnit! The drama we'd been following for two months now was supposed to be airing and we still had no power. There'd been a cliff-hanger ending in the latest episode, and we'd been waiting urgently for the new episode to air. So much for relieving our curiosity tonight.
"Miki, I just want to go to sleep and wake up in a world where bad things don't happen," I groaned, flipping onto my back and resting my head in her lap.
Surprisingly, she didn't start to play with my hair. She just stared forward in a daze.
"Miki?" I asked.
She didn't respond.
"Mikiiii," I sang out, but she didn't seem to hear my voice.
I pinched her leg and she gave a start.
"Oh!"
"You were lost in space," I sniffed.
"Ahh," she said, a little impish smile working its way into the corners of her lips. "I was just thinking about those hot firemen."
I slapped her stomach. Not hard, of course, but enough to remind her who I was.
"Oh, come on. I let you get away with it. Give me a break," she snorted.
She knew exactly what she was doing. She knew that I would react like that and she thrived on my extra-jealous need to keep what was mine. Not that Miki was "mine". She was her own person. Kind of like how you didn't own a cat. A cat owned you. Miki was a bit like that.
"Fine. They're probably still in the building. Why don't we go and find them, choose our favourites, and get out of each other's hair already?" I snipped.
"Fine," she said with a shrug.
But neither of us moved. We were all talk, no action. We sat in silence for a good five minutes before I spoke up.
"What should we do now?" I asked.
I wanted to eat dinner, take a bath, watch television, read, study German, knit a sweater, do arts and crafts, bake bread... I wanted to do some things I'd never wanted to do before in my life, yet the fact that I wasn't able to do them filled me with the need to do them.
"We can just sit here and talk," Miki said, all previous humour dropped from her voice, replaced by a tranquil, mature air.
So I waited for her to bring up a topic, but she didn't. I had nothing to say either, so we sat there in the most awkward silence we'd ever had since the true meaning of the word "awkward" had completely stopped applying to us.
"Um..." she mumbled after a few painful minutes. "Have we got nothing to say to each other?"
"Well, um..."
But I could think of nothing. The one time we tried to make conversation, it wouldn't happen. It was just one of those things. It was like those times when we had nothing to say to each other all day, but then once one o'clock in the morning rolled around, you couldn't shut us up. Our conversation could not be forced.
"How about some music?" Miki suggested, and I clapped my hands together in delight.
She got up to get her music player and then came back. She hooked it up to a small pair of battery-operated speakers, and soon, the music was flowing. We assumed our previous positions and listened, commenting occasionally on what we heard.
About fifteen minutes passed like this until suddenly, in the middle of Kumi-chan's latest single, the batteries died. We didn't even bother to comment on it. We just looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and that was that. There was nothing more we could do.
"It's been such a miserable day," Miki mumbled, her hand playing with my hair.
"Mmm," I agreed sleepily.
I started to drift off.
"Maybe tomorrow it'll all be back to normal."
"Mmm..."
And that's all I remember. I drifted off to sleep.
Some time later, I awoke from an unpleasant dream about being chased by an oversized can of beer and a giant bowl of pistachios. When I opened my eyes, I saw Miki leaning back on the couch sleeping. I watched her, trying to clear my mind of my bizarre dream. She looked more peaceful than usual.
I reached my hand down and grabbed my cell phone to check the time. Much to my pleasurable shock, it was eleven-forty. We'd slept for a few hours. I decided to try and fall asleep again. Maybe this was it. Maybe when I fell back asleep again, we'd drift into the joyful morning of the next day and out of the bad luck of this day.
But it was still today, and twenty minutes was plenty of time for something to go wrong.
What would that something be? What else could it be but physical pain? Miki punched me. In the upper arm. Hard. It was sudden and unexpected. One minute I was watching her innocent and relaxed expression, the next her fist came flying at me with no warning, her face screwed up in a strange expression of concentration before quickly reverting to its pacified state.
I let out a string of expletives that would have had my ancestors rolling in their graves if they could have heard me, and I grabbed my arm in pain. It felt like a meat cleaver had just hacked into my arm and was still stuck there, being pulled on by an unwitting butcher.
"Miki," I gasped in pain. "My arm..."
She didn't wake up. In fact, she hit me a second time, this time in the hand that was clutching my first injury. I cried out in pain, and that woke her up.
"Aya?" she asked groggily.
"My god, Miki! I can't sleep in the same room as you. You always beat me up!"
"What...?" she asked me, rubbing her knuckles and then looking at them with a frown, no doubt wondering why they smarted.
"You just punched me twice. It hurts."
She put on her puppy dog face and I refused to let it get to me. I wouldn't let it get to me. It couldn't. It had no way. It... it... melted me.
"I'm sorry, Aya-chan," she said softly, patting my hand and arm in a gentle manner.
"It's okay," I said.
Miki had been there for me all day, so I guess she deserved to not be yelled at for actions she couldn't control. But just this once!
I sat up and showed her the time on my phone.
"Say, do you have any candles?" she asked out of the blue.
Of course! We could light candles and have some light. Maybe we could read a magazine. Even just seeing each other properly would be nice. I was about to say that that was a perfect idea, but I shook my head. Candles would lead to no good.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we burned the place down if we lit a candle. Let's just rough it out."
She nodded in understanding.
Twenty minutes until the day ended.
Miki leaned back into me, and all I could do was hold her and pray that a meteorite didn't strike us down where we lay.
Five minutes passed. Miki shifted in my arms and reached for my phone. She checked the weather, and all it said was that it would be storming until well into the morning. Depressed, I took the phone out of her hand and put it on the ground.
"Do you think if we set our clocks ahead fifteen minutes, we'll trick this nasty streak of bad luck into thinking we've started a new day?"
I laughed into the nape of her neck and hugged her tightly.
"No," I said, inhaling that lovely Miki scent of hers. "But let's do something to make those fifteen minutes pass by more quickly."
She giggled in delight and turned around to face me and push me into the couch.
"When the lights go off, you turn so bad," she told me, kissing my neck.
"It's your fault," I muttered, pushing her up...
... and tipping her off of me by accident. She fell onto the floor, right on top of my cell phone. For a moment, we froze. I looked down at her and she looked up at me. Then we began to laugh. For five straight minutes, we laughed and laughed and laughed.
And then there were only ten minutes left until the next day. We didn't move, but I reached my hand down to grab hers.
"If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?" I asked her, starting up our game.
"Hmmm," she thought. "First of all, I'd bring you with me. I think I'd take us to Peru."
"Why Peru?" I asked in surprise.
What was in Peru?
"'Cause the person controlling our bad luck wouldn't think to look for us there!"
Aww. How sweet.
"What about you?" she asked back.
My turn. I took my time to think of a good answer.
"I'd take you with me, of course," I started.
"You'd better!" she harrumphed.
"And I'd take us to New Zealand because it's already tomorrow there."
She squeezed my hand.
We waited out those last seven minutes.
I contemplated our day as a whole and tried to come to some sort of conclusion until her digital watch beeped to signal that it was midnight. A new day had begun. After the last beep of her watch, Miki pulled me down off the couch gently, and she hugged me as I shifted my weight and tried not to squash her like a pancake.
"Finally," she mumbled, putting a hand at the back of my head and pulling me to her.
"Finally," I echoed.
Twenty-four hours of bad luck had revealed something to me, and that was our will to persevere. No matter how bad it got, we still stuck together. No matter what, when it was all said and done, we just wanted to be with one another. We'd ultimately won. In fact, the whole day, we'd been winning. Numerous bad things had happened, but at the end of it we were standing beside each other.
The power didn't come back on until later the next morning when the sun had risen and we were fast asleep. The rest of the night we spent on the floor and then up on the couch when that got painful. It was pleasant and satisfying. We made up for our terrible, horrible, no good, very rainy day with a wonderful, fantastic, supremely good, very sexy night.
If all bad days ended like this, I thought, I wouldn't mind having more of them.
Of course, that was an opinion I held before we had our terrible, horrible, no good, very rainy week some time later. The terrible, horrible, no good, very rainy day paled in comparison.
But that’s a story for another day.
The (happy!) End
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1.0 - Finale
I looked down to see what we'd tripped on.
It was clothing. Not just any clothing, but brand new clothing that I'd bought the previous weekend. In the dark, I could see the unorganised pile of my precious clothing, tossed to the floor carelessly and with no love. I clenched my fist.
"What did you do to my clothes?" I asked, unable to keep the anger out of my tone.
"I got bored waiting for you so I decided to try on your new stuff," Miki said with a nonchalant shrug, as if there was nothing wrong.
Yet anther example of how Aya's neatness and Miki's "Miki-ness" clash and drive each other bonkers.
"I was going to put them away, but you called and started freaking out about the elevator."
One can only speculate. :roll:
"But I was nervous, Aya," she said, her eyebrows knitting together in sadness. "After you called, I was downstairs with the landlord and then up here with the firemen the whole time. Sorry."
...
I would assume that Miki was being sloppy and selfish, when in fact she was thinking of anyone but herself. In this case, she'd been so worried about me being trapped in an elevator that she hadn't been able to return and sit still in my apartment even though there was nothing much she could do to help out.
Awwwwwwww... :love:
remembering a certain cookie-baking incident we had been involved in years ago.
Ah, memories of AyaxMiki domestic bliss. :P
"Ahh," she said, a little impish smile working its way into the corners of her lips. "I was just thinking about those hot firemen."
...
"Fine. They're probably still in the building. Why don't we go and find them, choose our favourites, and get out of each other's hair already?" I snipped.
They can't be serious, can they? :?
"How about some music?" Miki suggested, and I clapped my hands together in delight.
She got up to get her music player and then came back.
...
About fifteen minutes passed like this until suddenly, in the middle of Kumi-chan's latest single, the batteries died.
Naturally. :err:
Some time later, I awoke from an unpleasant dream about being chased by an oversized can of beer and a giant bowl of pistachios.
Looks like Miki's passed on her habit of having strange dreams to Aya. :P
Miki punched me. In the upper arm. Hard. It was sudden and unexpected. One minute I was watching her innocent and relaxed expression, the next her fist came flying at me with no warning, her face screwed up in a strange expression of concentration before quickly reverting to its pacified state.
Speaking of dreams...what the hell? :O
"Say, do you have any candles?" she asked out of the blue.
A bad-luck day + fire? Questionable...
"Do you think if we set our clocks ahead fifteen minutes, we'll trick this nasty streak of bad luck into thinking we've started a new day?"
I laughed into the nape of her neck and hugged her tightly.
"No," I said, inhaling that lovely Miki scent of hers. "But let's do something to make those fifteen minutes pass by more quickly."
Naughty, naughty Aya! :twisted:
"It's your fault," I muttered, pushing her up...
... and tipping her off of me by accident. She fell onto the floor, right on top of my cell phone.
Anyone wanna bet she broke Aya's phone in the fall? :hee:
Twenty-four hours of bad luck had revealed something to me, and that was our will to persevere. No matter how bad it got, we still stuck together. No matter what, when it was all said and done, we just wanted to be with one another. We'd ultimately won. In fact, the whole day, we'd been winning. Numerous bad things had happened, but at the end of it we were standing beside each other.
And THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is why GAM RULEZ!!! :rockon:
-
We didn't even bother to comment on it. We just looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and that was that. There was nothing more we could do.
QFW
I laughed through the whole chapter. God, that kinda luck sucks. And yet.... So awesome!
-
Of course that whole wonderful/horrible day is slightly ruined because that creep from WNTBD was probably watching them the whole time.
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Naughty, naughty Aya! :twisted:
Naughty Aya is good, yes.
Shame on you, Iacus, for mentioning that in a pointless, plotless thread! I promise you that the Terrible Day story happens in a world of alive Mikis and Ayas, no creepy Takashi stalkers, and no extended mourning trips to Italy.
I'm kind of looking forward to being able to throw some more junk into this thread. It'll make a nice recycle bin. I get feedback and kind words. Hahaha! Thank you all again for reading and putting up with my repetitive repetitiveness. :P
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Shame on you, Iacus, for mentioning that in a pointless, plotless thread! I promise you that the Terrible Day story happens in a world of alive Mikis and Ayas, no creepy Takashi stalkers, and no extended mourning trips to Italy.
Yeah sorry about that, I was feeling a little pessimistic when I typed that out. However, a quick re-read of Aya's no good, horrible, and even a little bit shitty, day(I can't remember what the actual name of the story is) made me feel a lot better!
Edit:I just checked and I didn't even get close with the name. And here I thought I had a good memory.
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the blah blah horrible day was just awesome... i couldn't stop laughing, thought i would like to hear about the blah blah awesome night they had after
-
The awesome night after? That's for your imaginations. Hahaha.
Kei-Br brought this out in me (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=11244.msg374038#msg374038).
The story is not related to any other story I have written.
Chapter 11
"Awww, look! He's so cute!" Miki squealed, pointing enthusiastically at something behind a cage.
Aya sighed under her umbrella. Going to Ueno Zoo had been her own idea, but she was starting to regret it. Miki took animals entirely too seriously, and she had planned out a precise route around the entire zoo so that they wouldn't miss a single animal. They'd been at the small zoo for over an hour and they'd covered less than half of the park. It had started to pour rain just when they had entered the zoo, yet Miki had insisted that they continue with their plan and make no changes. Aya just wanted to go home, take off her shoes, and rest in the dryness of her living room. She'd had enough of dumb animals, not to mention she was miffed by Miki completely neglecting her for a bunch of smelly beasts.
Reluctantly, Aya looked over to what Miki was pointing at. Gorillas. She suppressed a groan and covered up her ennui with a smile.
"Cute," she commented.
Miki, of course, ignored her and walked up to the cage in wonder, crouching down to inspect something more closely. Aya took a few steps forward to see what had captivated Miki's attention this time. She saw a baby gorilla sitting by the cage. He looked lonely, and Aya wondered where his mother was. She looked around and saw an adult gorilla sleeping nearby. Maybe that was the mother. Maybe she'd fallen asleep and her little baby had wandered away.
When she got closer, she could hear Miki whispering quiet things to the little baby.
"Don't worry. Mom'll pick you up soon. Don't be scared."
On the one hand, Aya rolled her eyes. Talking to gorillas as if they could understand a human language? Silly and pointless. Miki may as well save her breath and energy for other things.
However, on the other hand, it was touching. Miki's defences were completely lowered as she spoke softly from the heart, her compassion for a lonely living creature giving her a lovable air. It was the kind of behaviour Aya appreciated seeing in her because it was a pure expression.
In the end, the other hand won. Aya crouched down beside Miki and listened to the comforting monologue coming from the girl. After a few moments, she tapped Miki out of her trance.
"Come on. The rest of the animals are waiting for you."
She smiled happily, said goodbye to Gorilla-chan, and they headed out of the foul-smelling area. Aya let Miki take the lead, following her along the carefully planned path. They reached a cave-like structure and walked in, no longer needing their umbrellas. Aya knew that it would take a lot of persuading to get Miki to leave this one. This was one of her favourites. And lucky her. The cave was empty. The heavy rain had kept most normal people away.
"Look," Miki whispered reverently, pointing to a large beast in the cage.
Aya looked and saw a panda. A dirty, smelly, regular panda. It was cute, but not her favourite animal.
I'm cuter than him, she thought smugly.
Miki ignored Aya's cuteness and focused solely on that of the panda's. It was unusually restless that day, pacing along its cage until jumping up onto a ledge that had been installed as a resting spot. The panda curled up on it.
"So... cute..." Miki uttered.
Aya sighed and walked out of the cave, leaving Miki to appreciate the holy bear on her own. She wouldn't even notice Aya's absence. The bored girl opened her umbrella and puttered around at the entrance, wondering how she could speed up time so that they could leave before long.
It hadn't been five minutes when Aya, who was leaning against a dry post that was partially covered from the rain by a makeshift roof, heard a strange creaking sound. At first she thought she was imagining things, but when she heard Miki's voice and words, she panicked.
"What are you doing, you idiot?!" Aya hissed as she threw her umbrella down and ran into the cave.
"Miki!" she yelled out in a harsh, commanding tone.
There was no answer. She got to the panda cage, and sure enough, Miki was inside the cage approaching the panda slowly, calling out words that terrified Aya.
"Come here for a hug, Panda-chan!"
Aya looked to the left and saw an open door that she somehow hadn't noticed before. She cursed the zoo staff for stupidly putting an unlocked, unattended, easily accessible door right beside a dangerous animal's cage. The door opening was what had made the creaking noise.
She walked quickly to the glass and tapped on it.
"Miki, get out of there," she ordered quietly, not wanting to raise her voice in fear of aggravating the panda.
Miki either didn't hear or didn't pay attention to Aya. She kept walking towards the bear that was still perched on its ledge, looking asleep.
"Panda-chan," Miki sang out.
The panda stirred.
"Miki!" Aya snapped angrily.
She clenched her fists, feeling desperate and helpless. If Miki wouldn't listen to her, she'd have to run in after her and drag her back, even though that meant both their lives would be in danger.
The next series of events happened so quickly that they barely registered in Aya's brain.
The panda jerked up and stood to its feet. Miki stopped walking and looked up at it. The panda jumped down and headed towards Miki, making a strange growling sound at the back of its throat. Miki smiled as the panda got closer. It then jumped up onto its hind legs and smothered her with a bear hug. She laughed and hugged it back, and Aya watched in shock.
I can't believe it. It actually hugged her, she thought.
Still surprised and unable react, Aya watched the hug, which looked straight out of a movie. A farfetched movie about a girl raised by pandas in a remote bamboo forest of China.
But the hug went on for too long. The panda squeezed more and more tightly, and Aya could start to see Miki squirming uncomfortably. She tried to push the panda away, but it wouldn't let go.
Oh fu... Aya thought, her stomach falling and feeling ill.
"Miki!" she yelled, and she ran to the door, keeping her eyes on the two inside the cage.
Miki was now struggling openly, her face screwed up in pain as the panda's arms crushed her.
"Stop!!"
Aya ran into the cage just as the panda threw a limp Miki down to the ground and turned around.
"Your turn," it seemed to growl as it crawled on all fours.
Aya started to back away, eyeing Miki in terror. She was on the floor, her eyes closed, and it didn't look like she was breathing.
Before she could turn to run, the panda pounced on her and smothered her with another of its deathly hugs. Aya struggled valiantly, trying to hit the panda off of her, but it was far too strong, and soon, she began to grow faint with shock and lack of oxygen. Her vision began to tunnel, her hearing going, and the last thing she could remember was seeing Miki on the floor behind Panda-chan. Then her eyesight - as well as her breathing - failed. She was shrouded in darkness.
"AH!" Aya yelled, jerking up with a jolt.
She was still by the dry post, her umbrella now hanging so that half of her was exposed to the rain. She was breathing hard, her heart racing faster than it had any right to.
"Oh my..." she muttered under her breath.
What a horrid dream she'd had. Being crushed to death by a panda because Miki had been stupid enough to go into the wild animal's cage? It wasn't at the top of her list of ways to die. But Miki would never do anything that stupid. Ever.
Right? Aya found herself questioning just how far Miki would go to be beside a "cute" animal.
She froze in terror and then bolted from her position, dropping her umbrella and running into the cave.
"Miki-chan!" she yelled as she careened down the hall and turned the corner.
There in the cage was the panda.
And there in front of the glass window was Miki, crouching down and watching the panda. There was no door on this side of the cage.
"Yeah?" she asked without looking up.
Aya let out a sigh of relief. She stalked over to Miki and grabbed her upper arm, hauling her up.
"What are you-?" Miki started.
"We're getting out of here," Aya insisted as relief spread through her body.
Of course Miki wasn't stupid enough to pull a stunt like that.
But all the same, it was best to cut this zoo trip close before her daydream turned into a prophetic vision.
"But I want to-"
"No, no more 'I want to'. Let's listen to what I want to do," Aya interrupted her as she began to walk, dragging herself and Miki out into the rain without her umbrella.
"What do you want to do?" Miki asked with an incredulous tone, as if she'd thought Aya had had the same obsessive interest in the zoo as herself.
"I want to go home and relax. It's a bad day to be out. I want a foot massage. I want to drink tea. I want to watch TV. And I want you alive and well and beside me."
Miki fumbled for her umbrella and opened it up over the two of them.
"Uh... okay," she stuttered, surprised at Aya's abruptness.
Miki started to become distracted a few times, but Aya kept a firm hold on the girl's arm and forcibly led her out of the zoo, out of the park, and towards the train station. Once safely on a semi-crowded train that would take them to Aya's place, Aya lowered her voice and faced Miki.
"You'd never try to hug a panda, would you?" she asked seriously.
Miki burst out laughing, attracting some unwanted stares from various commuters in the car. She toned it down.
"Only if I was stupid!"
Aya sighed in relief.
"Good. Pandas are dangerous. No matter how cute they look, you shouldn't go into their cages and mess around with them. They can crush you to death with one 'hug'. Squeeze the breath right out of you and turn your ribs to dust."
Miki studied Aya. The girl didn't look sick or delirious, she didn't seem to be asleep, and she certainly wasn't joking.
"I associate with the most morbid of girls," Miki muttered under her breath.
Chagrined, Aya's eye twitched slightly. She stayed silent and stared off into the crowd as she held onto a handle to keep from tipping over.
"But I liiiike her," Miki sang in a cute, hushed tone so that nobody else could hear.
Aya didn't look back at her, but the corner of her lips twitched upwards and formed a tiny smile. Miki crushed to death versus Miki, the most adorably annoying person in the world? There was certainly no comparison. The former was unacceptable. The latter won hands down.
-
Lawl.
-
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MORE FLUFF!!! :rockon:
Aya sighed under her umbrella. Going to Ueno Zoo had been her own idea, but she was starting to regret it. Miki took animals entirely too seriously, and she had planned out a precise route around the entire zoo so that they wouldn't miss a single animal. They'd been at the small zoo for over an hour and they'd covered less than half of the park.
Aya expecting Miki to not go all mushy around a bunch of animals is like Miki expecting Aya to be able to hurry up when she gets changed and stuff. Not gonna happen. :P
It had started to pour rain just when they had entered the zoo, yet Miki had insisted that they continue with their plan and make no changes. Aya just wanted to go home, take off her shoes, and rest in the dryness of her living room. She'd had enough of dumb animals, not to mention she was miffed by Miki completely neglecting her for a bunch of smelly beasts.
It's probably more the weather that's bringing Aya down than Miki's going googly for the animals.
Miki may as well save her breath and energy for other things.
It's too easy to make that sound pervvy. :kekeke:
Aya looked and saw a panda. A dirty, smelly, regular panda. It was cute, but not her favourite animal.
I'm cuter than him, she thought smugly.
No argument here. :yep:
Reina probably makes a cuter panda too. :grin:
It hadn't been five minutes when Aya, who was leaning against a dry post that was partially covered from the rain by a makeshift roof, heard a strange creaking sound. At first she thought she was imagining things, but when she heard Miki's voice and words, she panicked.
...
She got to the panda cage, and sure enough, Miki was inside the cage approaching the panda slowly, calling out words that terrified Aya.
"Come here for a hug, Panda-chan!"
Aya looked to the left and saw an open door that she somehow hadn't noticed before. She cursed the zoo staff for stupidly putting an unlocked, unattended, easily accessible door right beside a dangerous animal's cage. The door opening was what had made the creaking noise.
Oh crap. Miki's normally the straight-thinking one, but around animals the logical side of her brain takes a vacation I think. Unlocked door + zoo animal + Miki alone = Miki going in for a hug. Now if the animal is small, no problem, but this is a freakin' panda! :o
Gotta admit though, picturing Miki going "Panda-chan" is damn cute. :love:
But the hug went on for too long. The panda squeezed more and more tightly, and Aya could start to see Miki squirming uncomfortably. She tried to push the panda away, but it wouldn't let go.
Oh fu... Aya thought, her stomach falling and feeling ill.
Miki, undoubtedly, is thinking the same thing. :D
"Stop!!"
Aya ran into the cage just as the panda threw a limp Miki down to the ground and turned around.
"Your turn," it seemed to growl as it crawled on all fours.
Oh fu... :O
"AH!" Aya yelled, jerking up with a jolt.
She was still by the dry post, her umbrella now hanging so that half of her was exposed to the rain. She was breathing hard, her heart racing faster than it had any right to.
"Oh my..." she muttered under her breath.
What a horrid dream she'd had. Being crushed to death by a panda because Miki had been stupid enough to go into the wild animal's cage? It wasn't at the top of her list of ways to die. But Miki would never do anything that stupid. Ever.
Just a dream? Yokataaaaaaa :sweat:
Wait, then how long as she been standing there, waiting for Miki? :dunno:
"You'd never try to hug a panda, would you?" she asked seriously.
Miki burst out laughing, attracting some unwanted stares from various commuters in the car. She toned it down.
"Only if I was stupid!"
Miki's reaction to Aya's question = :mon lmao:
"I associate with the most morbid of girls," Miki muttered under her breath.
Chagrined, Aya's eye twitched slightly. She stayed silent and stared off into the crowd as she held onto a handle to keep from tipping over.
"But I liiiike her," Miki sang in a cute, hushed tone so that nobody else could hear.
Being a fluff chapter, I have to say this at least once:
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! :luvluv2:
Aya didn't look back at her, but the corner of her lips twitched upwards and formed a tiny smile. Miki crushed to death versus Miki, the most adorably annoying person in the world? There was certainly no comparison. The former was unacceptable. The latter won hands down.
Damn right it does. After all, one can't be adorably annoying without being "adorable" first. :inlove:
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LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD
omg! can't believe you actually wrote about this xD
it's so cute and adorable to imagine Miki with her arms open saying "COME FOR A HUG, PANDA-CHAN" huhuhuhuhuhuhu
thank you for this :otomerika:
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*bounces in fluff*
I don't think I commented on the "Everything Goes Horribly Wrong" story, but it was fantastic. I felt so sorry for Aya and Miki, but I couldn't help but laugh. It's a good thing that they have each other. Otherwise, the day would have been even more miserable.
Also, the panda story . . . I can really imagine that. Aya has such a wild imagination, though.
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Hah, sorry it was a strange, but I'm glad you enjoyed it, Kei-Br.
Yes, Black Velvet. Next time I write about a terrible day, I'll have to separate the two, because that way it truly will be terrible. (And HAHAHA, your signature... oh my.)
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I accidentally wrote this while writing chapter 17 of "Restart". I didn't want the chapter to be too long, so I cut it out. Here it is. (Yes, it's totally pointless. And fluffy, too, I guess.)
The Third Thing
Aya and I got home around three o'clock after parting with Shibata. We sat around for ten minutes in silence, wondering what to do in our spare time.
"It's been so long since we've both had an afternoon off together," Aya said, breaking the silence. "Have we lost our creativity? What should we do?"
Part of my brain was focused on trying to think up something to do, but the other part was working on how to approach Aya with my questions. Questions about what she and Shibata had been talking about. It had to do with me. I needed to know.
"I have a question," I started.
"What is it?"
"It's about Shiba-chan."
She nodded for me to go on. Looking at her face that was so willing to answer anything, no clue what I was going to ask her, I lost my nerve.
"What did she say was her favourite food?"
Of all the things I could have asked about Shibata, I had to ask something trivial like that.
"Oh, for when we have her over?" Aya asked with a smile.
I nodded enthusiastically. My question wasn't so random after all. Aya turned thoughtful and launched into a rant about what foods Shibata liked, what foods she didn't like, what day we should have her over, and oh, look, the table is old and we should go and buy a new one. I nodded, pretending to care while my brain worked on how to approach my question.
I wasn't given a chance to think, because I was dragged out to a furniture store. It turned out Aya was serious about the table. We stood there looking at tables, Aya rambling on about size and style. I finally got a word in edgewise when she broke for a breath of air.
"You don't need a new table. The one you have is fine."
"No, I'm positive the legs are going to fall off any day," she insisted.
"Have you tried tightening the screws?"
Silence.
"There are screws?"
Completely clueless.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the store, muttering about vacuous idols and their refusal to do work they saw fit only for the common people. Aya flared up in her own defence, but I waved the example of the screws above her head, muting her complaints with my oh-so-rightness.
We walked back to the apartment, and on the way, I asked Aya what she did when she had a broken pipe or needed to change a light bulb.
"I call a friend," she murmured.
I rolled my eyes.
"Today I will teach you how to: one, screw screws into their proper places; two, change a light bulb; and three, a surprise."
"What's the third one?" she asked straight away. "Why won't you tell me?"
I had no third thing. It was a ruse to get her interested and to get her to listen to the first two in hopes of number three being more exciting. In short, I wanted her to get the wrong idea.
"You'll see once we've completed one and two."
The sly look in her eyes made me laugh inwardly.
Oh, my Aya. Thinking dirty things just as I expected.
"Fine."
I had her cooperation.
We arrived at her place, found a dusty screwdriver ("an ex brought it over and left it here" was her explanation for having one), and cleared the table. Then we carefully turned the table over and inspected the legs. I pointed to several loose screws, and Aya, defiant in her efforts to not seem ignorant, held her head up high and merely uttered an airy "oh."
I handed her the screwdriver.
"What are you giving me that for?" she asked.
"I'm not your personal handyman. Your table, your work."
She frowned at me.
"And who pays for rent and sacrifices her personal space to put up with an extra person in the house?"
Not fair! Aya had the ultimate advantage over me. That argument could be used for anything.
"It's about time you earned your rent," she finished.
I crossed my arms.
"It's about time you learned to do something simple like this. I'm telling you to do it for your own good."
"Ooohh, look at that. All high and mighty because she's older and in university," Aya sang out bitterly.
"Ooohh, look at that. All high and mighty because she's delicate, rich, and famous," I retorted.
She grumbled, grabbed the screwdriver from me, and started to fix her table. After she was finished with the first leg, I knelt down beside her, taking the screwdriver out of her hand.
"Since you're right and I do need to help with the work around here, I'll do half."
I moved to the second leg and fixed it up. When I handed her back the tool for the third leg, she took it with a twinkle in her eye.
"Thank you."
After tightening all the screws, we set the table back up on its legs and proceeded to her bedroom.
"Next, the fluorescent light. This looks complicated, but it really isn't."
I stood up on her bed and she got up beside me, the mattress wobbling underneath us unsteadily as we moved. I reached up to the light.
"Unhook here and here... unplug this... and carefully..." I muttered as I removed the tubular light from its encasing.
I handed it to Aya.
"Now put it back in," I ordered her.
She did so perfectly.
"You do know how to do these things. You're just lazy," I scolded her.
"Lazy? Me of the 'oh my god, you should take a holiday' schedule? Lazy??"
"Gah."
She really had good counter-points.
"Besides, I've seen it done before. In fact, this whole situation is rather familiar to me," she said, and I wondered who she'd stood on a bed with to fix a light bulb before.
I didn't ask. I didn't think I wanted to know.
"Okay, third thing!" she said excitedly.
I was at a loss. She held me at the waist and backed me up to the wall.
"What's the third thing?" she demanded.
Greedy, spoiled, hungry want-it-all, I thought playfully. She's not getting anything from me.
"Number three," I said slowly, watching her look of anticipation grow, "is... how to make Miki smile."
"And how can I do that?" she asked innocently.
I grabbed her hand and tugged her off the bed, pulling her out to the kitchen.
"It's really quite simple," I said. "The one thing that can make me smile without any doubt is if you learn how to prepare a full meal properly on your own."
Aya started to yell and curse, hitting me over and over again as she accused me of making up there being a third lesson. I cackled, raising my hands to protect my body. After growing tired of abusing me, she stalked off to her room.
I snickered to myself in the kitchen for a bit and then walked to her bedroom to go and atone for my sins. I would give her a kiss on the cheek and then promise to make her the most delectable of dinners that she would never forget.
And while doing that, I'd think up a slightly more fun third thing, because simply saying "sorry" was never enough when dealing with her.
The grump.
The one who wanted it all.
The fascist lover.
My judge, jury, and executioner.
My Aya.
-End!
[edit - Apparently, I'd make a lousy carpenter. That's "screws", not "bolts". Different things.]
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We can't all be genii of the tables. (or spelling apparently)
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OMGASS FLUFF!!! :w00t:
I wasn't given a chance to think, because I was dragged out to a furniture store. It turned out Aya was serious about the table. We stood there looking at tables, Aya rambling on about size and style. I finally got a word in edgewise when she broke for a breath of air.
"You don't need a new table. The one you have is fine."
"No, I'm positive the legs are going to fall off any day," she insisted.
"Have you tried tightening the screws?"
Silence.
"There are screws?"
Completely clueless.
Aya = :dunno:
Miki = :depressed:
JFC = :wriggly: and :luvluv2:
"Today I will teach you how to: one, screw screws into their proper places; two, change a light bulb; and three, a surprise."
"What's the third one?" she asked straight away. "Why won't you tell me?"
I had no third thing. It was a ruse to get her interested and to get her to listen to the first two in hopes of number three being more exciting. In short, I wanted her to get the wrong idea.
That actually pretty good psychology by Miki. :yep: If she doesn't hint at a possible 3rd thing, then Aya's likely to not pay attention to the first two.
"You'll see once we've completed one and two."
The sly look in her eyes made me laugh inwardly.
Oh, my Aya. Thinking dirty things just as I expected.
"Fine."
I had her cooperation.
Hey, at least she's going to pay attention. Besides, it's not such a bad idea. :twisted:
We arrived at her place, found a dusty screwdriver ("an ex brought it over and left it here" was her explanation for having one), and cleared the table. Then we carefully turned the table over and inspected the legs. I pointed to several loose screws, and Aya, defiant in her efforts to not seem ignorant, held her head up high and merely uttered an airy "oh."
I handed her the screwdriver.
"What are you giving me that for?" she asked.
"I'm not your personal handyman. Your table, your work."
She frowned at me.
"And who pays for rent and sacrifices her personal space to put up with an extra person in the house?"
...
"It's about time you learned to do something simple like this. I'm telling you to do it for your own good."
"Ooohh, look at that. All high and mighty because she's older and in university," Aya sang out bitterly.
"Ooohh, look at that. All high and mighty because she's delicate, rich, and famous," I retorted.
If they keep up like this, they're bound to end up having "angry sex".
...
:hehehe:
...
Ok, carry on then. :hee:
"What's the third thing?" she demanded.
Greedy, spoiled, hungry want-it-all, I thought playfully. She's not getting anything from me.
"Number three," I said slowly, watching her look of anticipation grow, "is... how to make Miki smile."
"And how can I do that?" she asked innocently.
Just being there and loving Miki the way you do will work. :shy1:
I grabbed her hand and tugged her off the bed, pulling her out to the kitchen.
"It's really quite simple," I said. "The one thing that can make me smile without any doubt is if you learn how to prepare a full meal properly on your own."
Aya started to yell and curse, hitting me over and over again as she accused me of making up there being a third lesson. I cackled, raising my hands to protect my body. After growing tired of abusing me, she stalked off to her room.
Miki = :on lol:
Aya = Damn, no emoticons of those adorable "angry, pouty-cheek" faces. Oh well, you all know what it looks like. :)
The grump.
The one who wanted it all.
The fascist lover.
My judge, jury, and executioner.
My Aya.
And Miki wouldn't have it any other way. :shy2:
[edit - Apparently, I'd make a lousy carpenter. That's "screws", not "bolts". Different things.]
Good job dude. :thumbsup
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AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:
I missed this thread soooooooo much!
hope u start posting in this one more often ;D
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oh fluff~<3...eh i don't think i could fix a table either...i'm pretty sure i can't even turn it over ...oh well what are boyfriends for thenXD