1st oneshot of the new yr! i hope you guys enjoy it!
Arigatou
The walk was silent as Risa and Ai headed to the older girl’s home together for a well deserved sleepover from a long and hard day of dance practice. They just started practicing on their upcoming singe “As for one day” and for some reason the young monkey just couldn’t get her footing or placements right, causing a scolding to come at her way from the choreographer.
“If you don’t get your act together and catch you there’s no point in you being here!”It wasn’t like She knew it herself already, and it certainly didn’t help that even though she was one of the best dancers, it seemed like to learn them that she was the worst. It always took her forever to get her moves down. She started to wonder just how on earth she was able to do them right whenever it was time to record. Ai hated it and it showed a lot. She never showed her frustration to their choreographer and the other members, only when she was alone with a certain little bean who was right next to her.
“Sensei knows that I try my best!”
She gave a grunt and ruffled her light brown hair in frustration as the bean just listened to her rant. There wasn’t really much to say at the moment. She knew it was better to just let Ai be and get all of the anger out. She had already cried for half an hr in the studio after everyone else had left, and when Ai had finally stopped the crying the anger was to come next.
When the two reached Ai’s home the monkey grunted a brief “I’m home”, threw off her shoes, and stormed right to her room, leaving Risa to properly greet the older girl’s mother and sister who were watching TV in the living room.
“Good afternoon Takahashi-san; Hi Yui-chan.”
“Ah Risa-chan, I’m guessing practice wasn’t that good today nee?”
The young bean shook her head as the 3 heard loud thumping coming out of Ai’s room. Ai’s mother shook her head and gave out a soft sigh as she looked back to the TV.
“I just finished cleaning her room too and there she goes messing it up again… Are you hungry Risa-chan?”
“No thank you Takahashi-san…”
“How many times have I told you Risa-chan, you can call me “Okkasan” you know~! Or even “Nee-san”; you don’t have to be so formal with me.”
Quickly picking up her duffle bag, the bean felt her cheeks heat up at the mother Takahashi’s teasing, and quickly scurried over to her friend’s room.
“I’m gonna go check on Ai-chan!”
Yui gave out a call of support as she watched the bean swiftly walk down the hallway.
“Good luck taming the dragon!”
By the time she reached the older girl’s bedroom door, she noticed that the thumping had stopped and she braced herself for what she’d see next. Knocking the door, and gently turning the doorknob, Risa slowly opened the bedroom door to see a destruction of a room. Opening the door wider and letting herself in, the bean noticed that her friend was nowhere to be seen in sight. When she closed the door behind her, she noticed the light under the bathroom door and smiled to herself.
“Perfect…”
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Ai sank lower into the water of her as she felt the tension slowly fade away. Now that she was done letting out her anger, she felt her sadness back coming to her.
‘I have to look at the dvd again when I’m done…I don’t want to know what’ll happen if Sensei catches my mistakes again…Maybe I can ask Gaki-san to help me…’Suddenly, the monkey sat up as she remembered that the younger girl was in her house.
“Gaki-san!”
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“There!”
Risa smiled to herself as she placed the remaining CD in its place. The bean felt pretty proud of herself as she looked around her friend’s room. By the time she had faced the bathroom door, the said door suddenly swung open showing a still wet and towel-clad Takahashi Ai.
“Gaki-san! I-Eh?”
The monkey blinked in shock as she saw the state of her room. Not only was it clean, but there were streamers hung all over, along with a few different colored balloons as well as a bag that she could tell was filled with snacks that the both of them liked. Looking at all of this and then at the suddenly startled bean caused Ai’s shocked expression to change drastically.
“Ai-chan! Why didn’t you dry yourself? ITAI!”
Before she could continue her sentence, Risa was smacked swiftly on the head, and within less than a second got a huge embrace. The next thing she knew, the bean heard muffled sobbing coming from her shoulder. Slightly forgetting the throbbing pain on her head, Risa wrapped her arms around the still crying girl and rubbed her back.
“Ai-chan~ you know I don’t like it when you cry like this, and you’re not even fully dry yet!”
The older girl slightly separated herself from the embrace as the younger sweetly wiped away her tears.
“What’s all of this for?”
Risa felt her cheeks heat up at the sudden question and she instantly looked away.
“W-well, I wanted to cheer you up after Sensei lectured you today so I thought…I’d make a party for you….”
Ai gave the slightly embarrassed bean a huge grin and hugged her again. She mumbled a shy “thank you” against the younger’s shoulder. Risa hugged her back and they stayed like this for a while until the monkey gave a shiver realizing that she was still wasn’t properly dry and was still in her towel. Being reminded of this, Risa gave the older girl a slight frown and pushed her back into the bathroom.
“Go dry yourself off and put some clothes on before you catch a cold!”
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“We’ll always be together…right?”
Risa looked over to Ai as the two sat on the queen sized bed in the small hotel room. They had just finished an out of town concert and even though they were assigned their own rooms the bean and monkey combo decided to bunk together for the night. It wasn’t so long after their generation mates had graduated and both were still feeling down over it. It just wasn’t the same without Asami and Makoto and both girls knew it. When they told Ai and Risa about their departure, the both of them reacted in the same yet quite different manner. Ai bluntly spoke out her distaste over it, while the bean just asked why over and over again. Their unit of four was now cut down to two.
Risa raised her hand up and ruffled her girlfriend’s bangs lovingly as she giggled.
“Of course we’ll be together! No matter how far the Gokkies are you know our bond will never break.”
“I know that…I didn’t mean the four of us…I meant us as in…you and me…”
Her ruffling and smile stalled for a moment as she looked at the older girl. Ai was looking right into the beans eyes and she could tell they were filled with uncertainty.
That uncertainty was quickly disappeared though as Risa brought back a reassuring smile and went back to ruffling her hair.
“Ai-chan, we’ll always be together, no matter what…”
She leaned closer and gave the monkey a quick peck on the cheek as she linked arms and rested her head on the blushing girl’s shoulder.
“How about we make a promise then?”
“Alright…”
Risa brought her head up and turned fully to face Ai. Ai did the same as she waited for what the bean had to say. The younger girl took her girlfriend’s hands and looked her directly in the eyes.
“Let’s promise to graduate together…No matter what happens we’ll go out together…No one will separate us.”
The monkey widened her eyes in shock at what she had just heard.
“EH?? Are you sure about that Risa? I mean what if something happens??”
She gave a firm nod and gripped a little harder on Ai’s hands.
“It doesn’t matter…If you go, I’ll go with you so you won’t feel alone…We’ll graduate together.”
“…Alright…We’ll stay together all the way to the end, nee?”
The two grinned at each other and sealed their promise with a sweet and gentle kiss.
“Risa-chan…?”
“Hm?”
“Thank you…”
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Risa looked at her manager with wide eyes at the sudden news she had just heard. The manager had called her down after the last concert performance of the day saying that he had something serious to talk to her about.
“What did you just say?”
He gave a sympathetic sigh and repeated his sentence.
“I said that you and Takahashi-san can’t graduate together, the upcoming 9th generation members will need someone there to transition into the group. The management said that someone has to stay…They also told me that it would be way too much of a task for Michishige-san to start leading head on. They know that she has the potential, but she doesn’t know enough currently to properly lead the group… and with new members that’s a risk they don’t want to take…I really did try to persuade them otherwise but they were firm with their decision… so they wanted me to ask you if you want to go on through without Takahashi-san or would you like to stay behind?”
She stared at him blankly for a moment as she tried to comprehend what he had just said.
‘How can I choose something like this??’If she chose either one, it would still break the promise between her and Ai, and leaving Ai behind wasn’t an option. As much as Risa wanted to just tell her manager that she should get what she wants and should be able to leave with her girlfriend she wasn’t that selfish or foolish enough to say it. She couldn’t leave Sayu in that position either. The bunny was a strong and caring girl but she still had her moments where she doubted herself way more than she needed to.
“Did you tell Ai-chan about this yet?”
“No, I haven’t. Management wanted me to ask you first.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The bean never thought she’d be saying this, and deep down she didn’t want to, but she knew it would be the best thing for both her and Ai. Opening her eyes, the bean gave her answer to the manager.
“Let Ai-chan graduate first and I’ll stay behind…”
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It had been a few days after she gave her decision to her manager, and she knew that Ai had heard about it through him. At first Risa thought that Ai would be upset at her, but unlike her usual way of coming to the bean and bluntly telling her that she was unhappy about what she was doing, she said nothing. She would’ve tried to talk about it, get it all over with and try to act normal, but being the one that hated confrontations and possible arguments, Risa didn’t want to take the risk. Sighing to herself as she walked out of the recording studio, the bean began to head home. The past few days of depressing over her decision as well as her jobs were making her way more tired than usual.
“Maybe I should just head on home…”
As soon as she mumbled that to herself, the bean’s phone started ringing. Pulling it out of her bag she noticed it was a text message from her mother.
‘Risa-chan, your papa and I are going out to visit your aunt for the weekend, so you and Miyuki are in charge of house sitting for the weekend. We’ll call to check on you later ok?’She sighed and replied back to her mother, but as soon as she pressed send another message came, but this time from her sister.
‘Nee Nee-chan, where are you? Let’s meet me at the shopping center and hang for a bit before we head on home!’
‘I don’t know Mikyu-chan…Risa’s kinda tired…’
‘Please~? I’m already waiting here for you!’By the time she had gotten the last message, she was already at the station. Maybe hanging out with her sister for a bit would cheer her up? After all it had been a while since the two girls did hang out together. Giving into her younger sister, Risa sent her a message that she’d be at the shopping center shortly.
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After a few hours of walking around in the department stores and taking new print club pictures, the two Niigaki sisters were now walking around the nearby park when the older noticed her sister constantly checking her phone. When she was about to ask her what was wrong, the bean got interrupted by her sister’s sudden
question.
“How are things with Ai-chan going? Have you talked to her about your decision yet?”
Risa shook her head and looked down at the concrete.
“…I still haven’t talked to her about it…She hasn’t either…”
“Hmm…Well I think you did the right thing anyway…Nee-chan’s always thinking of others before herself…I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end…but I think you should talk to her about it…”
“Yeah...but…it’s just hard…she usually tells me when she’s upset, but I’ve gotten nothing this time…that’s not like her Mikyu-chan…”
“….Still, you won’t know that she’s mad at you unless you try and talk it out…You’ve told me that before right?”
The bean shook her head and looked over to her younger sister with a gentle smile. She was about to thank Miyuki when the younger girl’s cell phone began to ring.
Pulling the phone out of her school blazer and answering it immediately, Miyuki quickly turned away from her sister.
“Ah, Hello?...Eh? Really???”
Miyuki looked over at Risa for a brief moment and continued on with her conversation.
“Hmm..Yeah…Un…Ok, I’ll there in a bit! Bye!”
“Who was that?”
“Uhh…It was Aki-chan! She wants to come over to her place to help out with some school stuff!”
“Eh?”
The bean raised an eyebrow at her sister’s explanation, as another ring came from the younger girl’s phone. She briefly looked at the message and sighed to herself as she mumbled a soft “I get it already! Geez!” to herself and replied back in a fast manner. When Mikyuki was done, she turned back and looked up to her still confused older sister and gave her an apologetic smile.
“Gomen nee-chan, but Aki-chan’s gonna nag me till I get over there, and she really needs my help…so do you think you could head on home without me?”
Risa gave her a soft nod of approval and smiled.
“…Alright, text me when you get there so I know you made it safe ok?”
Miyuki gave her older sister a brief hug and smiled as she started to run off to the nearby bus stop.
“ I’ll see you later nee-chan! And I promise I’ll make it up to you! Don’t forget what we talked about either!”
Risa waved her sister goodbye and sighed to herself as soon as the younger girl was out of site. Looking at how late it was getting, she started walking in the opposite direction to the nearest train station to head home.
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She looked at the door knob with uncertainty as she held the house keys in her hand. It was a long and quiet walk from the station to her house, in fact longer than usual. Risa had filled her head with thousands of scenarios of how to talk to her girlfriend about their now broken promise, but every single one lead her to a bad outcome. Even though she’s had a bunch of arguments and fights before with Ai, it didn’t mean that she fully enjoyed them. She wasn’t the one that usually started them either. The girl just hated confrontations all together; even if they did end peacefully or weren’t a huge deal to begin with.
‘Should I even bother?’With the mood she was in she didn’t even want to be alone in her home. There wasn’t anyone there to cheer her up, no pets or anything. Looking at the other keys that were connected to her house one, Risa stopped at a certain one with a strawberry cover over it.
‘Ai-chan…’
Shaking her head and letting her pride get in the way before her true feelings started to come out, Risa unlocked the door and went inside the quiet house. She mumbled a low “Tadaima” and closed the door behind her to get no response in return.Taking off her shoes, the bean headed straight to her room not even bothering to get something to eat.
“Maybe a nice bath will make me feel better…”
When she got to her room door, Risa opened it and turned on the light to see her room filled with streamers, balloons and any other small party decoration sprawled all throughout her room, with a certain someone slowly waking up from their sleep on her bed. All the bean could do was gasp and drop her bags from being in shock. When she was finally able to speak, all she could say was the person who did all of this.
“A-Ai-chan?”
Upon hearing her name, Ai quickly sat up from Risa’s bed and gave her girlfriend a sweet yet still tired smile.
“Risa-chan! Okaeri!”
She still stood there in shock as Ai stretched and got out of the bed to walk over to the younger girl.
“Surprise~! What do you think?”
The bean looked at Ai, at all of the decorations, and then back to the girl in front of her. She wasn’t dreaming was she? This wasn’t a practical joke or anything? Why was Ai even here? She looked into her girlfriend’s dark brown eyes as she was finally able to say something.
“W-what’s…all of this for…? Aren’t you mad at me…?”
Ai tilted her in confusion from the question and smiled.
“Why would I be mad at you Risa-chan? And anyway I wanted to give you a surprise party to cheer you up…since you usually do one for me whenever I’m down…I thought that I need to return the favor…”
Risa bit her lip as she suddenly felt her eyes start to water up, and looked away from the older girl.
“Eh? Risa, what’s wrong?”
She took a step closer to the bean and wrapped her arms around her. When she did this, Ai noticed Risa’s hand go up in a fist and gently come down onto her shoulder. She did it over and over again as she suddenly started cry. Feeling slightly alarmed at the bean’s unnatural behavior, Ai gently patted the girls head and hugged her tighter as Risa mumbled on her shoulder.
“You idiot…W-why aren’t y-you…mad at m-me…? I-I broke our prom-mise!…”
“Risa…”
“You should be upset at me! Why haven’t you yelled at me?? Why are you acting like nothing happened??”
She pulled away from the hug and sniffled as she looked at the older girl.
“Why did you do all of this for me…?”
Ai smiled and brought her hands to her cheeks to wipe away her tears.
“Risa-chan…you know I don’t like it when I see you crying like this…”
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When the bean finally calmed down, the two sat on her bed in a quiet yet slightly awkward science. Risa looked over to Ai and mumbled to her.
“You still never answered me you know….”
Ai sighed and looked at Risa.
“I was upset…I mean if anything I wanted to hear it from you…not from our manager…”
Risa gave a soft hum of approval and glanced at a certain balloon on the floor. She still didn’t really want to have this talk but there was no turning back now.
“I mean, when he told me, the first thing I wanted to do was find you and yell at you.”
“…So why didn’t you?”
“I wanted some time to really think about why you would do something like that…so I thought it’d be better to just act like I was ok with it…and eventually I was.”
“…I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be…It makes sense…I would’ve said the same thing if they had asked me first…”
Risa looked back at her girlfriend who gave her a warm smile in return.
“I love you Risa…I don’t hate you…If I did, do you think I’d be here right now, and make this nice party for you?”
The bean shook her head as she scooted closer to the older girl.
“I love you too Ai-chan…”
Ai wrapped an arm around Risa and kissed her on her forehead.
“You must be hungry nee? Let’s start this party already! I want to see Risa-chan with that bright smile that I love so much!”
The older girl brought her thumbs and playfully rubbed them against the beans eyebrows. Risa scrunched her face and tried to back away.
“Mou~ Ai-chan~!”
“Yes~?”
“….Arigatou…”
The monkey’s grin grew wider as Risa gave her a small smile, which quickly turned into one of embarrassment when a loud growl came from the younger girl’s stomach.
“Let’s start eating then.”
“Un.”
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tierd tierd tierd ;3;