Chapter 49[Back in Hello! Apartments]
Standing in front of Sayumi's door at 4 am in the morning wasn't something Eri did everyday. But this time things were different. She was going to carry out the plan Risa hatched up for her. At first, she couldn't stop laughing when she heard parts of "Operation Elly" related by a very enthusiatic Risa. Everything sounded ridiculous, insane even. However on hindsight, the plan did sound exciting and rather feasible. It was
guaranteed to rekindle that extinguished flame, or so Risa claimed.
Curling her fingers into a small ball, Eri prepared herself to knock on Sayumi's door. The pink furry sign which beared her beautiful name in kanji hung in the middle of the wooden structure. Staring at it for a while now, Eri's eyes began to blur and her stomach churned. Arghs! Why was she chickening out at such a crucial moment. Deciding that she needed back-up before she gave up completely, Eri started towards the stairs and ran upstairs to find her closet senpai.
'If there isn't a 7.5 scale earthquake or fire that's gonna burn me to crisp any second, that person is so gonna die.'
Mumbling grumpily to herself, Risa dragged her tired body towards the door. The hours spent on the train's little compartment in the day made her sore all over and it was only after falling alseep did she find herself less achey. Whoever was standing outside sounded like she was going to break through her door at any moment. Hence the exhausted girl had no choice but to grudgingly hurry to let the impatient beast in. Swinging the tormented door wide open with one forceful pull, Risa came face to face with a bent over Eri, still panting from running up the stairs two steps at a time.
'If this isn't an emergency, you're DEAD!'
Since she could not catch her breath back fast enough to reply the fuming older girl. Eri clamped her sweaty hand over Risa's wrist and pulled her towards the stairs. Back down the same way she came up. She would just have to explain things later.
'What?! You woke me up at 4 plus am in the freaking morning just so I could be your personal cheerleading squad while you made out with Shige!!!'
Risa was one millisecond away from exploding, she felt like a volcano bubbling at intense levels, going to erupt at any second. As nice and understanding a person she could be, she was no happy camper when it came to sleeping issues. This was the perfect example of a person who didn't take kindly to being woken up abruptly. She would wake up at her own time, on her own terms.
'I'm so sorry Gaki-san but this
is an emergency. There's only got a couple of hours left before everyone gets back. Today is the last day of our break. And I really wanna do this before it becomes too crowded. I don't think I could muster up the courage another time. Also, what if someone stumbles onto us while we were at it?'
Grinding her teeth, Risa looked from Eri's flustered face to Sayumi's name on the door. She really wanted to smack Eri over the head with the trashcan that stood temptingly in the corner. It was funny that she hadn't noticed how gleaming and handy that trashcan looked before. Too bad bashing Eri would result in bloodshed and injuries that would be problematic to hide. It was already a big headache having to conceal Reina's wound, there was really no need to add another casualty to the list. Fine, so the turtle would live... for now. Wow, so she did share some traits with the senpai she adored so much before successfully entering Momosu - Abe Natsumi.
'You know what you're supposed to do right?'
Eri nodded her head rapidly. She had gone through every detail of the plan and made sure she memorized them step by step. It was part of the reason why she could only put the plan into action during the early hours of the morning. Eri didn't initially plan to carry out this crazy deed at all but that afternoon, when the group of five had arrived back in Tokyo after the endless train ride from Yokohama, Konno had been standing on the platform waiting for them, no doubt informed by Makoto. And standing by her side looking very pretty indeed in a pink and white frilly strap top, was Sayumi. She looked so beautiful with the sun setting behind her that Eri's breathe was taken away instantly.
Later, she was further touched when Sayumi, who had obviously knew all the happenings after being filled in by a reluctant KonKon on the night she had left for Yokohama after receiving Makoto's urgent phone call, didn't shout or stomp her feet at being the last to find out. In fact, Sayumi didn't even jump at her throat for not notifying her about something so important or blame her for running off without a single phone call or message for so many days. There was none of that. Instead, Sayumi offered to carry her luggage and silently slipped her hand around Eri's arm, leading her towards the cab stand where a rather long queue was already forming. Her actions made Eri feel bad, so much so that she decided to jot down from memory all the major points of "Operation Elly" as soon as they returned to their apartment block.
'I won't be going back with you guys. We need to catch up.'
Annoucing this with a huge grin on her rosy face, Makoto moved aside to let the Rokkies and remaining Gokkies pass through when two cabs pulled up to the stand. Then wrapping an arm around the gentle Asami, she gave a little wink as a glint flashed in her eye. Everyone knew what sort of catching up she meant when they saw how tightly she held onto her bag of "victory items". Earlier, back in Yokohama, Makoto had insisted that Risa take her out for some long overdue shopping. Strangly, the target of her mad shopping spree revolved only around food. In spite of Risa mentioning that her hometown wasn't really famous for chocolate sauce. Makoto dumped into her cart every single brand and type of chocolate sauce she could find at the supermarket. At the cash register, the checkout lady gave them a weird look after seeing the small mountain of sauces and the satisfied smile on Makoto's face.
~ Flashback to a Few Days Earlier ~
'Why did you buy so many types of sauces Mako-chan?'
'Oh you know, so KonKon and I could enjoy ourselves. It really is so much more fun with it. You should try it sometime Kamei-chan.'
Rolling her eyes, Risa reached out for a random bottle that lay nearest to her on the coffee table. Marginally managing to shrink herself back before Makoto could swipe at her to grab it back. She twisted the cover open and stuck a finger in.
'I'll do a taste test.'
Seeing Risa's actions, a light bulb illuminated above Eri's head.
'Ah, so it's supposed to be eaten like that. But why would anyone want to eat chocolate sauce by itself. Won't it be too sweet?'
Scratching her head with a confused expression on her face, Eri looked from Risa to Makoto and back again, waiting for one of them to further explain. Eyeing their somewhat curvy junior, the Gokkies wondered if she was being sacastic. However, Eri's pouted lip expression told them she truly didn't know the "real" reason.
'Uhhh... that's a good question Kamei. Mako-chan will explain the reason to you whilst I take a shower.'
'GAKI-SAN~~~~'
Jumping up from her seat on the couch and running upstairs towards the bathroom, Risa made like an arrow slicing through the air straight for its target. She slammed the door and ssexy beasted loudly when she heard Makoto yelling her name after being bombarded with Eri's questioning. Sometimes, the turtle was too naive for her own good.
~ End of Flashback ~
'Come on, open the door.'
Pushing Eri towards Sayumi's bedroom door, Risa nudged at the statue to get inside already. However her junior had a serious case of shell-shock syndrome and couldn't move an inch. Eri was definitely no Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in these scenarios.
'Go on, hurry up!'
'Ehhhh?!?! But...but....what if she's already sleeping? It wouldn't be good to wake her.'
Making a last ditch attempt with badly thought up excuses to try and get out of entering Sayumi's bedroom, a scared Eri clutched at Risa's hand and refused to budge. Her wobbly legs felt like jelly, barely able to support her weight or prevent her from crashing to the floor.
'Of course she's asleep. It's early morning! Are you gonna do this or not? I'm going back to bed if you aren't!'
[Reina's Room]
'Did you hear that?'
'Voices?'
'Let's check it out.'
[Rokkies Hallway]
Opening the door a crack, Ai peeped out into the darkened hallway, her heart pounded rapidly, afraid of what she might see. As soon as her eyes got accustomed to the darkness, she saw not some frightening boogyman roaming the corridors but two shadowy figures standing outside Sayumi's room. Recognizing them as Risa and Eri but not being able to hear what was being said, Ai got increasingly angry when she saw Eri holding onto Risa's arm and her Risa, yes
her Risa patting back gently. An outraged Ai practically kicked open Reina's door and zoomed over to the pair with a stunned Reina trying desperately to keep up.
'Why are you two holding hands?!'
A couple of extremely surprised faces spun 180 degrees around to gape at the uninvited intruder. Eri's hands immediately flew off Risa's like having touched a hot potato and she shrank back a few metres to clutch at her chest with both hands. Failing to calm her frantically beating heart, she could only stare opened mouthed at the furious Takahashi. Having the chance to observe Ai properly and Reina who was trailing behind, Risa's right temple twitched.
'And why are you two dressed in practically nothing exiting Tanakacchi's room? Why wasn't I informed about the late night activity
AGAIN?'
Ai had an expression of disbelief as she folded her arms across her chest, resting her full weight on one leg.
'You're the thief and you're screaming robbery? Look at what
you're wearing.'
What was I wearing? Risa couldn't recall what she wore to bed. She only remembered what she had picked out for Eri to ensure their plan was foolproof. Something she was sure Sayumi couldn't resist. Eric clothed in nothing but a large white shirt had to do the trick.
'She's wearing a white shirt while I'm wearing.....'
Glancing down at herself, Risa's mouth dropped down so wide there was a full splendid view of her neatly placed rows of teeth. She was wearing her favorite undies. White lacy ones she secretly bought for herself some time ago. With her mind doing a 50 metre quick dash back to just before Eri proclaimed her decision to carry out the wondrous plan, Risa had a vague image of taking off her tank top and flinging it across the room while sleeping. She had always felt uncomfortable during the months with high tempertures and this was usually what happened when the night got too hot .
'God Kame! Why didn't you tell me?'
Glaring at the shivering turtle who was in no condition to explain matters or help in her suspicious position, Risa narrowed her eyes and raised her voice to yell exasperatedly.
"You! Inside now!"
Pulling on the shirt sleeve of the white oversize shirt Eri was wearing, Risa yanked her towards Sayumi's room, twisted at the door knob and pushed her inside with one smooth motion. The whole episode was over in a second. Now left to face Ai's wrath on her own, Risa took a deep breathe before speaking.
'It's not what you think or see. I can explain everything....'
Before Risa could shift into high gear and convince Ai that she was as innocent as a new born baby, Reina who had been standing at the side witnessing the entire chain of events in silence finally spoke.
'Before Ai-chan tears your hair out, I wanna know why you're wearing
lacy underwear. Aren't all of us restricted from owning anything other than white cotton undies?'
[Sayumi's Room]
'Yes Eric yes! That feels so good.'
*Thud!*A loud noise woke Sayumi up from her very blissful dream. Annoyed at being interrupted at the best part, she kicked her pink bed covers off angrily and sat up with a frown on her pretty face. She was all ready to yell at whoever was making the ruckus. However, before she could scream bloody murder, she saw a wide-eyed pouty Eri dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, plastered back first on the door. Sayumi's eyes travelled down from Eri's face to her bare feet standing on the thick carpeted floor. She was no longer able to resist the smile that was slowing creeping onto her lips after noticing Eri tremble slightly from the air conditioning's strong blast. Sayumi was more than happy to be awake now. Eric in the flesh was way better than any dream. Licking her slightly dry lips, she rolled off the bed and crossed the short three metre distance between them.
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First off, a thousand apologies for this update which took an incredibly long time. I had a serious case of writer's block. Next, I'm thinking of ending this fic soon before it gets too boring. So do keep a look out for the last (or maybe last few) chapter(s).
orangesocks: Oops, does this count as a misunderstanding
wordsworth: Well, it won't exactly be a trip on the ferris wheel this time, but it should be just as *aheminterestingcough*
Sukoshi: And Eric makes an appearance! I had wanted to go there (Risa, Eri & the closet) but on 2nd thoughts, things are messy enough aren't they
Owaranai_sLaVe: Yes, school is horrible. I've just been released for a while after my last paper. Better to get on with the story today since my writer's block seems to be on bit of a vacation too
JFC: Let's hope matchmaker mame can help herself this time
Saikami: I like Eri with Risa too! *high 5* Actually I like Risa with everyone
Ren: Hahahahaaaaa yeah that is pretty funny. I'm imaging it in my head now. Victorian time KameMame. Slap Sayu is hilarious sounding to me for some reason and it really shouldn't. How could slapping anyone be funny? I'm bad
stefy: I bet everyone has a crush on Eri sometime or another. She's too cute to resist
Ahhhh Eri *daydreams*
rndmnwierd: Takanagaki trio. I like the sound of that. It's a mouthful
They won't be over if I can help it. There's no way Risa doesn't get a good ending in my fic. Lolz.
deviousmind: Thanks for reading this and liking it. I'll definitely write this to the end