Of all the times Mio had come to Yui's house for guitar practice, she had never once seen Yui's parents. She half wondered if Yui and Ui were raising themselves, which might explain the state that the house was always in. If Ui hadn't been around, it would probably have been appreciably worse: Yui taking care of herself would undoubtedly result in fires on a daily basis, likely because she'd get distracted by birds at the window while cooking breakfast, or any number of such mishaps. The thought of her being responsible for another living thing-anything more complex than a bonsai tree, and possibly not even that-was unfathomable.
Today there was a pile of books on the edge of Yui's desk that looked ready to topple over if a stray dust mote happened to land on it a little too forcefully, as well as three half-empty cups of tea and two candy boxes strewn about the floor. Mio itched to set them upright and pick them up, but that would risk distracting Yui, who was uncharacteristically focused today.
Oddly enough, it was Mio who found her attention wandering. Focusing on the chord handbook in her lap was impossible this evening because she kept getting distracted by her surroundings. She wanted to blame it on the teacups and stray Pocky sticking to Yui's bed sheets, but that didn't explain why her eyes kept flitting over to admire Yui's delicate fingering on the guitar's strings, plucking notes and strumming with a gentle hand. Her technique had gotten better, but she still had trouble with chords, which was why Mio had come over after school today.
This morning, Yui had been melodramatically slumping against her desk and crying about her inability to remember which chord was which. "You should have another cram session. It worked so well last time, remember? Mio is a pretty good teacher, you know," Ritsu had commented with an ornery glance in Mio's direction.
Mio had to fight to control the blush that threatened to spread. What had Ritsu meant by that, anyway? "That's a good idea. It should probably be just me, though. Having you roll around the room last time was really counterproductive," she recovered.
"What?" Ritsu's face had gotten red, and she stomped over to Mio, putting her arm around Mio's shoulders, speaking directly into her ear like they were sharing a secret. "Excuse you, but Yui needs me for moral support. Somebody has to make sure she doesn't fall asleep mid-lesson, and I'm the only person I trust with the job."
"Err, Ricchan?" Yui had interrupted, putting one finger up in the air, "I think Mio might be right-" Ritsu snapped around. "B-b-but you're welcome to come of course! Ui would be happy to see you, I'm sure she wants to defend her Playstation record! Ha... Ha." Mugi had looked apprehensively back and forth between the three of them.
Ritsu had turned back around to face Mio, giving her a significant look. I told you. She needs me.
Mio had been cool and unshaken by Ritsu's flourishing and meaningful stares. Or at least, that was what she told herself. "You're busy anyway, remember? I thought you had to submit our proposal during the festival planning meeting."
Ritsu steamed, because of course Mio was right, and it just pissed her off that she had forgotten, again, about submitting their paperwork. After that, they all had agreed that Yui would get a lot more done with minimal distractions, and that was why Mio was here alone, sitting on the floor of Yui's room and clenching her book until her knuckles turned white in an attempt to keep from standing up and cleaning everything in a whirlwind of misplaced frustration while Yui flexed her fingers determinedly.
"Mio?" Yui eventually asked from the bed.
"Hmm?" She tried very hard to look like she was concentrating on the page about the F minor chord.
"How can I make my hands callous faster?" She glared at her open palm.
"You can't, not really." She pointedly didn't look up. What? No? Nothing important going on over here. "They have to break and harden over time from constant pressure."
Yui looked up at the ceiling with her tongue poking out of her mouth. After a moment, she asked, "What if I kept a rock in my pocket all day and kind of buffed it up against it during class? Would that help?"
"Um." Mio put the book down and stood up to walk over to where Yui was sitting the bed. "Maybe, but that would be really unsanitary." She shuddered, withholding the urge to fixate on that.
"Wait!" Yui shouted, holding her other hand out in a STOP! gesture. She had to let go of the guitar in order to do so, and it fell to the side, clanging loudly as it bonked her on the head.
Mio stopped in her tracks halfway across the floor. "What?"
Yui put her index finger in her mouth and then behind her back, rubbing her head with the other hand. "Nothing. Well. I cut my finger on the string. I don't want you to get upset."
Mio's knees turned inward and knocked together as her heart dropped into her stomach. "That's okay. I'm not upset. I'm fine. I'm fine." Her thighs began to shake visibly, and a hot panic crept up her spine. "We'll just... get a bandage..." She turned around, oblivious to the concerned expression on Yui's face, and waked out into the hallway in a daze, barely noticing as the walls began to spin in front of her eyes. She couldn't see them because she was way too busy thinking up worst-case scenarios, picturing torrents of blood flowing from Yui's finger and filling the room and then flooding the whole apartment, getting into everyone's socks and sticking to their toes. It made no sense, but that was far from the point. Where was the bathroom in this house? Her heart thudded loudly in her ears. Oh no, she was lost and Yui was going to bleed to death in her own home.
She tried taking deep breaths, sucking air as she took each shaky step out into the hall, but before she could get very far her legs gave out and she hit the ground. Dimly, she heard a rumble through the carpet as Yui ran up to her, resting her bare knees on the floor next to Mio's face and grunting as she put her warm hands under Mio's armpits and yanked her up into a sitting position against the wall. Yui's hair fell wildly in her own face, and she had to blow it out of her eyes while Mio blinked at her in a daze. "Don't..." Mio whispered feebly.
"Don't what?" Yui asked, brushing her bangs out of her face with her injured hand, leaving a very light trail of blood across her forehead.
"Don't touch anything with that!" Mio shrieked and started pulling in harsh, rasping breaths. She grabbed wildly at her knee-high socks, pushing them down her legs because the whole house felt way too warm all of a sudden. She was overheating from the adrenaline and her pounding heart. It was so loud that Mio was positive Yui could hear it trying to beat right out of her chest.
"Mio...?" Yui asked, but Mio was breathing shallowly and rapidly, tearing at her shoes and socks as black roses blossomed in front of her, obscuring her vision. "You look very pale."
"I'm fine!" Mio said with a shrill whine, kicking off her shoes so forcefully that they ricocheted off the wall and bounced down the hall. She closed her eyes and began to rock back and forth in place, whooping down enormous breaths. "I can't see anything. I can't see anything. I ca-oomph."
She felt a force pull her forward and away from the wall as Yui grabbed her face tightly and kissed her, pressing her lips to Mio's and holding them there, noses crammed together under the dim, incandescent hall lights. Mio opened her eyes in confusion and saw that Yui's were squeezed shut, a blush spreading over her nose. The tight contact forced Mio to hold in her last breath, which had smelled the way Yui's chapstick tasted, that kind of synthetic waxy cherry flavor.
Somehow, this was less panic-worthy than a bloody finger, but her heart was still thudding in her temples all the same. Thoughts flew wildly through her head, which still rang with the high-pitched gong of frayed nerves. Was she going to tell Ritsu about this? If she didn't, would Yui tell Ritsu? Would Ritsu be angry? If Ritsu had to know, would it be better to come from her than from Yui? What would her mother think? Would she even be able to get married now? Why did Yui's lips have to be so soft?
The only question she didn't think to ask herself was why Yui was kissing her.
It didn't even occur to her to try to pull away, but it probably wouldn't have made a difference, since Yui's hand-the one that wasn't bleeding, thank god-was clamped behind her head. Instead they sat there quietly, lips smashed together and breathing measuredly through their noses, until Mio felt her heart dropping back into her chest where it belonged. Her body sagged against the wall, and Yui followed her, maintaining the pressure on her mouth by crawling forward into Mio's lap, bumping their shins together.
After a minute, she parted her lips to speak, to tell Yui she was okay for real this time and that she could let go now, but her tongue touched the soft surface of Yui's bottom lip instead. She got another burst of that fake cherry flavor.
Yui let go of her head and backed away, seemingly shocked out of whatever trance they had been under by the momentary touch of tongue. "Better?" she gasped, looking Mio in the eye.
"What?" Mio asked, still completely confused.
She shrugged. "You were hyperventilating," she said as if that was obvious. "I didn't have a paper bag, so..."
"Oh." Her face got warm, and she looked down to pick at the cuff of her socks. In her panic, she had pushed them nearly all the way to her ankles. She propped her leg up and reached down, concentrating on pulling them back over her knee and up just below the line of her skirt.
Yui's eyes drifted down, watching Mio's hand trace up her leg to her thigh, and then quickly shot back up again. "I'll go get a bandage," she said abruptly, running off in the direction of the kitchen.
Mio pulled herself off of the floor and took a few tentative steps, which were solid this time. She collected her shoes and took them back to Yui's room, dropping them outside the door. Now that Yui was completely and hopelessly distracted, she took the opportunity to collect the teacups and set them on the table where they wouldn't be kicked over. Cleaning her surroundings put her into a nice little zen mood that brought her all the way back down from her panic attack. It also had the added bonus of giving her something mindless to keep her mind busy instead of dwelling on all the things she had been thinking while they kissed. She was still trying to extract the melted Pocky from Yui's bed when Yui returned, finger already bandaged.
Yui held her hand up, showing Mio the purple bandage around her index finger. "No blood, see?"
"Good. That's good." She flopped back against the bed and Yui joined her, flopping right next to her and staring up at the ceiling. Neither of them said anything, so Mio followed the swirls in the ceiling pattern with her eyes, while her hands rested on her stomach, picking at her nail beds. Yui breathed steadily next to her, her chest rising and falling slowly in the corner of Mio's eye. Mio tried to imitate her, focusing so that her breaths matched Yui's and their chests rose and fell at the same rate.
Time stretched out like that for a while, and the only noise was Yui's feet tapping on the floor. Mio had nearly fallen asleep when Yui eventually spoke. "I was trying to do an F minor chord." She held her hand up in the air over her head and tried to position her fingers properly, but Mio could see immediately that she was trying to stretch her middle finger too far out of the way.
She sat up on the bed and crossed her legs, facing Yui, who did the same. "You should do it like this," she said, holding her hand up and showing Yui her bent fingers. She lifted her middle finger out of the way instead of trying to tuck it under.
Yui narrowed her eyes and flexed her fingers as she tried to match it, but she kept putting her ring finger down instead of her middle finger.
"You're doing it backwards!" Mio laughed. "Turn around."
Yui frowned. "If I turn around you won't be able to see what I'm doing."
"Just do it. Trust me." Mio twirled her finger impatiently, indicating that Yui should make like her finger and spin.
She shrugged and twirled around, tangling the sheets as she twisted her legs under her and then stuck them out in front of her, wiggling her toes and flexing her fingers some more. Mio slid up behind her, her knees spread on either side of Yui's back and her calves tucked under her thighs. She peeked over Yui's shoulder, blowing Yui's stray hairs out of her face.
Yui giggled and cringed away. "That tickles. Okay, like this?" She held up her hand again, and Mio reached around Yui's body to cover her hand with her own, pushing her ring finger down and pulling her middle finger up.
"Like this," she said softly next to Yui's ear. Yui held in a shiver and bit her lip with concentration, forcing her hand into the proper position. While Yui was working on that, Mio tried to figure out how to breathe so that she didn't inhale Yui's hair or brush Yui's back with her chest. Why had breathing suddenly become so difficult? She never had to think about it this much.
After a moment, Yui's concentration on maintaining correct chord pose dissolved because she got distracted by Mio's callouses. She slid her fingers through each of Mio's, feeling the rough patches with the sides of her fingers and caressing them back and forth. This sent a tickle up Mio's spine that she had to suppress. She cleared her throat. "Okay, now show me C minor."
Yui obeyed, shifting her fingers, and Mio once again covered her fingers to put them in the correct place. Yui leaned back into Mio and sighed. "I'm never going to remember. There are too many." She threw up her hands in exaggerated defeat.
"I've got time," Mio said, aware of the fact that Yui was now rising and falling against her chest every time she took a breath. Yui was very warm and starting to slump quite a bit from dejection, but Mio did her best to hold her up. She stretched her legs out so that Yui could scoot her butt in, up against Mio's thighs. "F minor again."
Yui set her jaw and shifted her fingers, getting it right this time.
"Good, now give me A."
She winced and got it completely wrong. She didn't even need Mio to tell her that, because she had no idea where to start. Her hand cramped up and she gave a small yelp, pulling it in to her chest and bringing Mio's along with it. "I don't remember. I'm so tired," she whined.
"Um," Mio said flatly. "Um." She looked over Yui's shoulder at her hand, which was pressed under Yui's arm and up against the side of Yui's small breast. "Yui?"
"Hmm?" she hummed groggily. Mio wiggled her fingers, still trapped under Yui's arm. "Oh," she said when Mio's index finger brushed against her. She quickly let go of Mio's hand and blushed a bright, ungraceful red.
"This is not how fingering practice is supposed to go," Mio muttered to herself, dropping her hand to Yui's waist.
"I made it weird," Yui said, quirking her mouth to the side. She picked up Mio's hand and held it down in her lap, twisting her fingers over Mio's callouses once more the way someone might wring their hands as a nervous habit. "I shouldn't have kissed you! But I didn't have a bag."
There were about half a dozen paper bags in this room, most of which had formerly held various types of sweets, but Mio wasn't going to point that out. She flexed her fingers under Yui's hand, scraping her fingernails against the tops of Yui's thigh highs. "It's ok. Better than passing out."
"Yeah," Yui murmured, shifting their hands higher in her lap. Mio turned her hand over and positioned her fingers into an A chord, pressing the tips of her fingers against the skin of Yui's thigh. Yui's hand rested on top of Mio's, mimicking the position.
"That's A. This is G." She slid her fingers a little higher under the hem of Yui's skirt, changing positions so that her fingertips tickled Yui's thigh, making the skin pull into goosebumps.
"I like G," Yui said quietly with her hair in her face. "Can you show me C?"
Mio darted her middle finger out, brushing it against the trim of Yui's underwear. Yui inhaled and held her breath for as long as Mio held her finger there. Mio held her breath too, but not on purpose. Mostly she wondered how long she was going to keep pressing her finger against Yui's underwear as if there was nothing strange at all about it. Like she thought if she exhaled, they'd both wise up to what was happening here.
Yui beat her to it, exhaling in a sigh that made Mio bite the inside of her cheek and force her hand to relax. Apart from that deliberately casual hand, Mio's whole body was about as tense as she could ever remember it being. Her legs were almost quivering with-not fear, really, but probably a kind of nervous anticipation of whatever was going to come of this. "Do you think you have the hang of C, Yui?"
She shook her head, so Mio darted her middle finger again, a little more boldly, over the trim of her underwear and onto the cotton fabric, through which she could feel the puff of Yui's pubic hair and the warmth of her skin. "How about now?" Yui shook her head again, her bangs flying back and forth, so Mio slid her middle finger down, between Yui's legs, her knuckles dragging across something that made Yui sit up straighter and make a small, startled noise.
Mio tried to pull her hand back because it sounded like something hurt, but Yui threaded her fingers through Mio's and stopped her. "Show me again, Mio-sensei," she whispered so quietly that Mio could barely hear her.
Mio felt her heart creeping up her chest when Yui called her sensei. It was more pleasant than having it slosh around in her stomach, but it was also just as arresting. Maybe it was a good thing that Yui's parents were never around, because there was no logical way to explain the fact that Mio had her hand up their daughter's skirt right now. It was bad enough worrying about Ui walking in on them, the thought of which made Mio gnaw at her bottom lip with her teeth as she slipped her finger under Yui's panties.
Mio wasn't completely unacquainted with what she would find inside, but she hadn't gone out of her way to become intimately familiar with her own yet, either. She had a general idea of where things were, so she pressed down until she felt something very slightly warm and wet. Her chest tightened, and she made herself exhale. "Okay. I'll show you A and G again first, though." She pressed gently on Yui's skin, sliding her fingers slowly around and spreading warmth around a little.
"This is A," she said as Yui clamped her hand over her mouth. Her face was still as red as it could get, and her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Mio put her other hand on Yui's side, rubbing her up and down and brushing her fingers against the side of her breast again. "This is G." She moved her hand again inside Yui's panties, sliding her knuckles and fingertips until her middle finger was flush against the wet spot.
"Do you want C now?" Yui closed her eyes and nodded, so Mio darted her middle finger out and in, sliding inside as Yui moaned through her hand. Mio's heart was thudding in her temples again, and although she didn't think she was in danger of hyperventilating this time, she kissed the side of Yui's face. Yui stretched to the side so that Mio could kiss her mouth and taste the fake cherries on her lips again, parting them just slightly, just enough to moan in her mouth when Mio pushed her middle finger in farther.
Yui grabbed Mio's knee and held it tightly as Mio thrust her finger slowly in and out. The only sound in the room was their breath, which was coming much more quickly for the both of them. "I don't know what to do," Mio whispered against Yui's lips. "This really isn't anything like guitar anymore."
"It's still nice," Yui whispered back. She broke the kiss and clapped her hand back over her mouth to stifle any noises, but Mio was so close that she could hear the breaths wheezing harshly out of her nose every time she thrust her finger deeper.
It reminded Mio of the way Yui would fondle her fingers, rubbing them back and forth to feel the hardened callouses, except this way it was Mio who was fondling her, feeling all of her crevices and soft spots and finding the places that made Yui sigh or made her legs twitch. She became so lost in the concentration, focusing on their breathing and the rhythmicity with which Yui had started moving her hips, that the gradual crescendo of Yui's response barely registered with her until it had started to crash in on itself, her body becoming so tight and then releasing everything in a stifled shudder.
Mio held her close, her hand still, while Yui slumped all of her weight into Mio's chest. Yui's breath eventually returned to normal, whereas Mio's stayed stuck in an elevated state, her heart now beating somewhere in the vicinity of her throat, but at least it wasn't in her temples anymore. Yui's body was pliant and wet in her hands, and Mio pulled her hand out of her underwear, wiping her fingers on Yui's skirt before resting both hands on her hips, holding her in place.
"I don't think that really helped me learn the fingering for a C chord," she finally mumbled, rolling over and stretching out on the bed, arching her back and reaching for the headboard with her fingers. It would be impossible to know that anything was different about her if you weren't already looking for the damp spot on her panties.
Mio lay down next to her, jittering with unresolved energy. The pillow was cool against her face, but her front was too cold where Yui had moved away from her, so she leaned into Yui's back. "I can show you again. I'm a pretty good teacher." She couldn't stop the blush this time, and instead she buried her face in the pillows, feeling the warm flush on her face and the hot throbbing between her legs. She tried not to think about Ritsu.