AN: in honor of Shiraishi Birthday I present a special one shot, this one has SayuMai paring and also Shiraishi Hashimoto platonic friendship. I hope you can enjoy this one
Shiraishi Mai Birthday Special One-Shot
You know that the earth is really messed up when it’s raining heavily on summer season. Even worse when she clearly remember how the weather forecast said that the day will be bright and shiny. While the truth it’s started to rain in like 20 minutes after the morning weather forecast show ended.
She’s not going to complain though, since she herself is pretty much a stayed at home person. In fact, the rain does help her to give a reason for simply cozying up in front of the television, with her legs below the warm kotatsu, laughing loudly at the idol variety show that is airing.
Something that she-Shiraishi Mai considers as enjoying her life.
“Seriously, don’t you want to go out and have fun?” the sound beside her interrupt her laughing fit.
“Where? It’s still raining outside, why do you want to kick me out so much?” She questioned back, frowning at her roommate irritating question.
“I’m not kicking you out. I’m just saying that today is your birthday, yet here you are by your lonesome laughing at some stupid tv show. As your best friend and roommate, I’m worried.”
She looked at the half eaten red velvet cake on the table. The said best friend and her girlfriend had actually baked that by their own, made a little celebration for her straight after she came back from her modeling gig. The girl knows well how she doesn’t actually like a big celebration- and she’s grateful for her consideration to her liking, yet the other girl couldn’t stop talking about how she should celebrate her birthday.
“I’m not alone. I have you and Maimai. It’s enough for me.” She answered, her gaze move to the later who’s laying on the other girl’s lap, from her position she couldn’t see her face clearly because she’s facing the opposite side of her, but for the soft breathing, she could tell that the older girl has fallen asleep.
“Aw, that’s really cute and touching. But think about it, most of the girl in your position would spend their birthday having fun at the club, get some drinks and try to find someone to spend their birthday with. You know, so they will feel less lonely.”
She was tempted to punch that roommate of hers. It was bad enough to feel like a third wheel all the time with her subtle flirting with her girlfriend and now she dares to put Shiraishi Mai single status on the table too. Just for the record, she doesn’t hate Maimai, she’s fond of her and couldn’t help but feel happy that her roommate who’s also her best friend since her childhood days has finally found someone as amazing as the 25 years old.
“Thanks for reminding me of my status. But I’m happy with what I am now and not even interested in one night kind of thing- seriously how insensitive can you be? You know how much I despise one night fling. Say a thing about that again and I’ll be the kind of roommate that walks in every time you’re going to do the sinful deed with your girlfriend. About the drinks, it’s not like I don’t want them but you wouldn’t let me.”
“Yep. No drinking in front of the TV on your birthday night. This is my place too, so I add a rule.” She said with a winning look, knowing that the birthday girl is not going to win on this matter.
“Hmph- Nanamin such a spoilsport.” She pouted cutely while widening her eyes.
“Not going to fall for that look. You’ll thank me later, Shi-chan.” She said, calling her with how people call her back in her preschool days. “Like seriously, you don’t want to get drunk on your birthday and ended up kissing our neighbor thinking that she’s Matsumura-san while the truth is she’s actually that Akimoto girl that you hates so much, don’t you?”
“I love how imaginative you could be when it comes to what ifs. Just so you know, I don’t hate that Akimoto girl, she’s just not the kind I would bother with. I mean, even this late at night she’s still blasting that awful music out-loud.”
Actually, it is not that disturbing, but it’s still audible from her place which is 2 doors away from the source. So it must be pretty loud.
“She’s celebrating her birthday too, stop being so bitter over someone having fun.” Nanamin chuckled. “Why don’t you go there? We actually got invited too.”
“Why would I go inside that creature’s den?”
“Because next door Matsumura-san is probably there too.” She gave her friend a look of disbelief.
Well, it’s true that she’s been having a pretty huge crush on Matsumura- ever since the said girl gave her a baked cheesecake as a ‘Hi Neighbor’ present upon moving in from Osaka. But to tell the truth, she doesn’t actually know the girl that well, apart from being friends on Facebook and following each other on Instagram and her liking almost every selfies the girl posted while refraining herself from commenting and embarrass herself.
Oh- and she does give the girl some presents which she will carefully pick whenever she come back from her parent’s house in Gunma.
Of course, this doesn’t escape her roommate's eyes. It’s really annoying how easy the other girl figure that out while it took her more than 5 months and several secret and not so secret visits to find out that she is in a relationship with someone. She had even believed that Maimai was a friend that’s sleeping over to work on a university project, which is a total lie because Maimai isn’t even in the fine arts department like Nanamin does.
“Stop it, I’m not going to enter that hell just to meet Sayurin.”
“Look who’s finally on a first name basis. Does she allow you to call you that? Or you’re just calling her like how her best pals call her on the social media.”
Something inside her snapped as she grabbed the seating pillow next to her and proceed to attack Nanamin with it. Resulting the girl to fall to the other side and woke Maimai up in progress.
“What happened?” Maimai asked, she looks a little bit drowsy, courtesy of being abruptly awoken from the slumber.
“Your girlfriend is being a shitty roommate. That’s what happened.” She curtly answered while covering the roommate face with the pillow.
“Oi, oi can- not- breathe”
She lifted up the pillow a little letting the girl breathe before proceeding to attack her again. Nanamin started to attack back, she swiftly avoids her attempts and slowly turning the side of the game into the one which she’s in the advantageous position.
“Maimai, you should go to the room first, I’ll be there after this.” She said while sitting on Shiraishi legs, both of her hand pinning the birthday girl to the floor to prevent her from making any moves. If another person sees that they probably would have thought that they’re doing something wrong, but since Maimai already knows their antics she just sighed and give Nanamin a little peck on her left cheek before going to her girlfriend room. She also did give Shiraishi a quick look of apology for not helping her situation.
Knock knock knock.
That’s when they hear a knock on the front door. Both of the girls look at each other with questioning looks. She’s sure that she doesn’t invite anyone to come tonight, even more at this time. But the look on Nanamin face is saying that it’s not her guest either.
Knock knock.
“Wait for sec” she shouted while trying to get away from Nanamin, the other girl is thankfully letting her do so as she nods to the door, a signal for her to be the one who open the door.
She was surprised when she sees none other than Matsumura Sayuri waiting as she opens the door. The neighbor hair is pulled up in a slightly messy bun and she dressed up in a plain gray tee with a white shorts she wore a pretty worn beige cardigan. Even with that kind of clothes, she’s looking cute and beautiful as always.
The birthday girl fingers unconsciously went up to comb her hair, hoping that she looks presentable enough after that messy brawl with her roommate.
“Um… Hi! Um…” The neighbor stammered to continue her sentence, which has successfully increase her adorableness to a whole new level.
“Yes?”
“Do you have any sugar? I’m out of stock and not feeling like going out to buy it with this kind of weather.”
Right- the rain. She nodded and look behind her and found Nanamin there with a really weird smile. Before she could say anything she felt a pretty powerful push on her back resulting her to move forward and almost crash into the neighbor.
“What are you-” the sentence is never finished because the door slammed shut behind her followed with a clicking sound of the lock.
“That one is also sweet enough, Matsumura-san. Have a great night!” The culprit said behind the closed door.
“What are you doing? Open the door.” She shouted, knocking the door harshly.
“I’m just helping you to find some good activity to do on your birthday night. Also- it’s been a while since the last time I have the place for myself.”
“Nanamin, what are you doing?” she could hear the faint sound asking from the inside.
“Just helping my friend to make a progress on her stagnant stalker status.”
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING? Maimai, please hit that girlfriend of yours and open the door.” She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks.
And that’s when she hears a soft laugh coming from the girl beside her. The laugh is a bit awkward something that she had never thought will come from the girl, but also something that suits her the best.
“Sorry, it’s just, I don’t have a roommate and seeing you bickering with yours is quite funny.” The girl apologized the corner of her lips is up to form a sincere smile.
“Don’t be sorry, you’re not at fault here.” She said gulping down at the sight next to her. She averted her gaze to the floor when she realized that she has been staring. Not a day has passed since she has turned 24 years old, yet she already acted like an idiot. She scolded herself for that.
“Oi, let me in. Matsumura-san is here for some sugar and I can’t get it with your childish joke.”
“Matsumura-san? That’s not how you call her name. Isn’t it Sayurin?” came the answer from inside.
She feels so embarrassed that she think Nanamin should be grateful that there’s a door to protect her from her wrath. Seriously her jokes are getting unfunny and her hands are itching to strangle her best friend. At least for her. She looked at the girl beside her, but she wasn’t laughing, in fact, she was looking anywhere but her. It was suffocating and awkward.
“Sorry for this. I guess I can’t help you much with the sugar. B- but if you want to go out and buy it. I’m willing to accompany you,” she decide to break the tension, but hearing no response from the girl she quickly added, “only if you feel like doing it, though.”
“It’s okay, it’s just for making popcorn anyway,” she said.
Shiraishi frowned at the answer, not because she had smoothly rejected her offer even though that actually hurts a lot more than it should, but she's kind of confused because she thinks that there are other things that could replace that sugar and most of them will do better for the taste than normal sugar.
“Um.. You see, you can use something else to make popcorn. Like honey, butter and salt.” She said trying not to voice her confusion upon the ingredient that the girl wanted to use.
“Really? I didn’t know that before. Thank you.” Her eyes widened- she’s looking at her as if she had just save her life. “Shiraishi-san, do you want to join me for the popcorn and movie? It looks like your roommate wouldn’t let you in anytime soon.”
“YES,” she was surprised at how loud her voice is, “I mean sure. I would even help you with the popcorn as a thank you.”
Correction. It is more towards a concern that is starting to grow over the neighbor cooking than a simple thank you, but she’s not going to say it out loud. She followed Sayurin into the apartment, gulping down her excitement when she realized that she had never walked past the front door before.
Matsumura Sayuri's place is pretty much different with hers, maybe because it’s a studio type whilst hers is a 2 bedroom apartment. The kitchen is next to the front door facing the bathroom, and after that is a pretty large space that contains everything starting from bed until 2 person dining table. Unlike her who choose to place the television a little bit lower so she could watch it while cozying it up on the kotatsu, Matsumura has a pretty big television hanging on the wall with a proper couch facing it. Besides the television, there are several frames which consist of her family photos and her graduation diplomas also a picture of her with a bunch of other people she doesn’t know standing on a stage with their hands holding a cute tiny anime action figures.
“So how are you doing?” She opened the conversation.
“Tiring, but it means everything is good I guess.” Sayurin laughed,
“What does it like to be a fresh graduate?”
“Stressful, my current job is not related to my degree at all. So it is a bit- you know.” She smiled bitterly remembering her own diploma from Tokyo school of performing arts that is stuffed somewhere back in her drawer.
Sayurin nodded sympathetically while opening the kitchen cupboard taking out a pack of corn along with other ingredients that she had mentioned before.
“Let me help you,” she said when she noticed the other girl struggling to decide which kind of cooking pan she is going to use.
“You really don’t need to,” Sayurin shook her head and place the pan on the stove.
“I insist,” she chuckled before washing her hands in the kitchen sink then started to unwrap the butter, “consider this as my apology for my roommate behavior.”
“If that’s what you want, sure.” Sayurin stepped back letting the guest taking control of the cooking.
“Um.. Shiraishi-san, please do tell me when you get a role, I’ll come to watch your performance.”
She covered the pan with the glass cover then tilted her head a little, “Really? Thank you very much, I’ll make sure to tell you, I’ll try to get you a ticket.”
Now she’s fired up to go into every stage play audition in the city. She give the other girl a big smile just so she understand how much she actually appreciate her interest. “Matsumura-san too, do tell me about your roles, I will definitely watch that.”
Actually, she has gone past her anime lover period, but seeing how the other girl wanting to see her performance has an effect on her.
“I haven’t yet got anything big, just a few supporting characters which appear for a limited time,”she laughs, “Also- you may call me Sayurin, o- only if you want to, though.”
“Then Sayurin, please call me Mai or Maiyan”
“Maiyan,” she said cheerfully, Mai averted her eyes to the cooking pan trying to focus on the popping sound of the popcorn rather than the girl beside her who somehow become even more irresistible in every second.
“So, Maiyan, I was thinking of watching a horror movie. I recently got a supporting role for the dub in its latest series so I want to watch the old one to improve my characterization. If it’s okay with you?”
“Of course, it’s fine. Go ahead.” She says quickly before later starting to scold herself inside.
She’s not good with horror. Not at all. When she was young probably around 8 or 9 years old, there is a story spreads among the students about their school land was used for burying people who died from the war torture.
Then one night little Nanamin managed to drag little Mai who had already dressed up in her pajama to make a quick run from her house to prove the horrifying theory. They met up with a couple of another student in front of their school and decided to pair up, consisting of boy and girl- using the weird logic that the boy will protect the girl in case something happens.
She ended up with a boy which always considered the coolest of them all, after breaking into the building by the window the two of them started their little journey with the boy holding a flashlight that he had brought from home. Well, they actually managed to explore up to the second level of the building which is where suddenly they hear a croaking sound.
Both of them were scared and of course started to run as fast as they can, but unfortunately Mai trousers was a little bit too long, causing her to slipped and fall down and her supposed to be partner wasn’t even looking back when it had happened.
In just a matter of seconds,little Mai is already alone. She crouched down and cried for a time that she couldn’t remember, but it does seem so long until a footsteps came and Nanamin found her.
After that, she has never been able to handle dark places and scary stories, just like how she has never been able to put up with opposite gender.
Back to the present time, she- who had regretted her words a second after saying okay to her beloved neighbor choice of the movie- doesn’t know what to do. Sayurin seems to be so excited throughout the movie, telling her about the character that she’s going to do the voice over and asking her about the opinions of how she should portray her.
The newbie voice actress also commented that the popcorn is really good which she is replied with simple thanks and an offer to have some dinner in her place sometime, of course, she’s the one who will cook for the other girl.
But after a dreadful first quarter of the movie Sayurin had stopped talking and started to focus on the movie while she tried to look anywhere besides the television or the one that sits beside her. Well her eyes did wander to the screen every time her gaze meet the other girl and there are times where the jump scare happened and she accidentally grabbed Sayurin’s arm in reflex. That kind of thing happened a lot and she started to feel guilty because she was genuinely shocked and her response is always to grab the nearest living thing to her. It probably looks like she's doing that on purpose.
“Maiyan, could it be- are you scared?” She asked.
She had her mouth slightly opened while her mind is still deciding whether she should tell the girl the truth or not. She doesn’t like it if people know that she is scared of such things but she also wants to admit that she couldn’t handle watching something gory or scary even more both of them combined.
Before the words could be formed in her mouth the electricity gone out.
“S-sayurin?” She gripped the other girl's hand tightly.
She could feel comforting fingers engulfing hers, “I’m here. I’m going to check the circuit for a moment, okay?”
“No- please don’t leave me,” her grip the other girl hands got even tighter, “I’m… scared”
She had expected the girl to laugh calling out her childish behavior. But she doesn’t. She squeezes her hands back in a comforting and calming way, “Okay. Would you like to check the circuit with me? Or would you rather stay here for a moment?”
Mai had tried to speak she really did, but her mouth just mumbled incoherent words. She tried to remember the last time she has been in this kind of situation and what she did to get over it, but her brain seems to be working so slow.
She could feel the tears started to fall because of her frustration. She always tried to hide it, putting up the cool mask on her face, she hates the fact that she’s actually weak with this kind of simple things and now she’s trying to stop herself from crying.
“Hey, it’s okay Maiyan. I’m here and I won’t leave a cute girl behind.” Sayurin tried to joke when she realized what is possibly happening, she couldn’t see much because the lack of lights, but she tried to guess from how the other girl is keeping her silence and her hands slightly shaking.
With the warmth of Sayurin hold on her hands, she tried to calm herself down, the other girl did not say anything else, just simply letting her took the time.
“You see, today is actually my birthday, yet here I am trying not to cry because my fear of darkness. I’m pathetic, aren’t I? S-sorry for bothering you.” She said after a few minutes of silence.
“I don’t think being scared of something is pathetic, I consider that as a thing that make us humans. I’ve always seen Maiyan as someone perfect, without any flaws, but now I can see that Maiyan is just human- the normal one,” Sayurin chuckled before continuing, “and I like this side of Maiyan.”
“I like you too”
If it hadn’t for the other girl hands holding hers, she would probably had cover her mouth upon realization of what she had blurted out. But the way Sayurin hands are still not moving, is that mean that she’s okay with that?
DING DONG, the sound of the bell echoes inside the dark room.
“I'm the next door Hashimoto, I’m here to get Mai.” She announced.
“We’ll be there in a sec!” Sayurin answered out loud,
“Before you leave, I want to say thank you for putting up with me. Sorry for making you watch that kind of movie,” she continued with a softer tone.
“It’s fine. It’s partly my fault for not stopping you. I hope we can hang out again someday, would you like that?”
“Of course and also there’s another thing-”
Mai had her eyebrows raised when the other girl didn’t fell silent at the end. Then she realized that the other girl is moving closer, and now facing her properly.
That’s when she felt a soft touch on her lips. It was quick, not even 3 seconds long, not enough for Mai to snap out from her confusion and reply to the action. But the sensation lingers a little bit longer.
“Happy birthday Maiyan, I’m sorry for ruining your birthday night.”
“You didn’t ruin it- actually, it’s not even the worst birthday and- and, of course, spending it with you is actually what makes it better. And memorable,” she reasoned her mouth were trying the best to form the sentence without stuttering like an idiot.
She was refraining herself from shouting that the kiss has that effect to boost the day into her most memorable and cherished day.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Sayurin chuckled.
“W-well it’s time for me to go back- Nanamin is already out there waiting and she’s going to tease me senseless if I got her waiting for too long.” She stood up, her fingers are still intertwined with the other girl.
“I’ll walk you to the door,” Sayurin said, standing up and slowly guiding her to the front door, “And also- just for you to know, I like you too.” She said in a soft whisper that is loud enough for only the birthday girl to hear and opened the door.
Just like inside Sayurin’s place the hallway is also dark, it seems like the electricity of the whole building is out. Nanamin was leaning her back against the wall beside the door, playing a game on her phone to help her wait.
“Someone said this happened because Akimoto-san’s party. Seems like one of her guests got too wild and ended up causing a little bit of shorting in the electricity,” Nanamin explained, from her tone Maiyan could sense that she’s quite annoyed with the whole thing.
“I see,” Sayurin replied, “well, let’s hope they’re going to fix it soon.”
“They better be, or I’m going to kill that girl in the morning,” Mai muttered under her breath.
“Maiyan, snapped out of that kuroishi mode, will you? Even though it’s dark and we couldn’t see your expression clearly it’s still terrifying.” Nanamin said.
“hmm.. sure, well so- Sayurin I’m going back to my place, see you later.” She said after getting rid of her anger.
“Okay, see you later, thanks for everything.” She nodded, reluctantly let go of the other girl hands.
“It's fine, I’m really sorry to bother your night, you need to apologize too, Nanamin” Mai replied before using her hand to force Nanamin to bow her head a little bit.
“Why do I need to apologize? What I did actually make you two closer, isn’t it?” she complained, but because Mai is still forcing her to bow she surrender, “sorry.”
“It's fine, you’re not wrong about the getting closer part.”
“See?”
“Well- see you, Sayurin,” Mai said with a wave of her hands before following Nanamin to their own living quarter, she could feel her mouth is forming a wide smile when her brain recounted what had happened between her and Sayurin.
She realized that she had skipped the wishing part before blowing her birthday candles. She takes it as a good thing because now she knows what is it that she truly wanted.
For that kiss to not be the last.
~fin~
SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MAIYAN
To be honest, I don't consider writing light stuff as my forte, that's why it got a bit heavy in the middle, but I'm really trying to keep it as light as possible. I hope it will be up to your guys liking. About the pairing I actually ship SayuMai too, I even consider inserting Sayurin in the on-going story so it could become a love triangle kind of thing but I'm still thinking about that.
This turns out to be longer than I thought- in terms of story length and writing time, that's why I'm going to say sorry because the sakanatachi update is still quite far for complete. It probably going to take me another 3 or 4 days to finish it, because I'm stuck with Uni activities.
repliesミサキ: sakanatachi is NanaMai pair- but this one shot is SayuMai, I hope you can enjoy it
pretend_2besome1: I actually love to challenge a genre that has less to none people that wrote. You're right about Kaz. And about NanaMai- this is really confusing, let's just call the nanasexmaiyan NanaMai, while nanaminxmaimai HashiGawa and the nanaminXmaiyan ShiraHashi (I'm bad with name, I'm sorry
). I assure you there will be a pair, they might face challenges ahead but I'm trying to pair them up.
akbcoupleshipper: which Nanamai are you talking about? hehehehe let's just hope the NanaMai that you want is the same with the one I have in mind. Thank you for reading
Topic: Sakanatachi No Love Song [Nogizaka46] [Chapter XXVIII || 101218] (Read 47811 times)