a/n: kohaku means amber in japanese, fun little bit of trivia there
after the past few days of other fandoms i figured i'd get back in touch with my undying love for kumirei, although i can't promise they'll be the only ship i post about in the future
"Okay, is everyone nice and cozy?" Hazuki clicked on a gas lamp as she wriggled eagerly into her sleeping bag. "We'd better thank Midori's mom in the morning for letting us sleep in her backyard like this."
"It was your idea, Hazuki-chan," Midori pointed out, holding her Tuba-kun pillow and trying to fit in her matching Tuba-kun sleeping bag (something that Kumiko was sure Asuka would've poked fun at, had she been there). "I mean, that's not to say I don't like it, of course! It was a great idea, having the four of us camp out in a tent behind my house!"
"This is a pretty big tent, Kawashima-san." Reina poked at the slippery fabric expectantly, as if expecting it to give way. "Does your family go camping often?"
"My parents are geologists!" Midori squeaked eagerly. "They go on a lot of trips to look for new rocks and stuff." Hazuki perked up.
"Oh, yeah! That's why your sister's named Kohaku, right?" Midori nodded. "And it's why you're named Sapph-"
'"Anyway . . ."' Kumiko slowly clapped a hand over Hazuki's mouth. "What should we, uh, do now? It's not really dark enough outside to go to sleep yet."
"Even if it was, we're not gonna sleep until the sun comes up." Hazuki gazed into the lantern. "It's been a while since the four of us hung out like this. I don't wanna waste a second of it." Kumiko smiled.
"Me too, Hazuki-chan."
"You know what that means, then!" Hazuki sat straight up (a feat made difficult by her sleeping bag) and pointed her finger to the sky. "Twenty questions!"
"That game where you guess an object?" Reina asked, flipping over to look up at the ceiling.
"That's . . . also twenty questions, but this is a different kind! We'll just take turns asking a question, and then the other three have to answer it, no exceptions."
This is going to end awfully, Kumiko thought to herself, but she remained quiet.
"I'll start," Hazuki added. "What's something you've always wanted to do, but never felt brave enough to actually go through with?"
"I wanna skip school one day!" Midori squeaked. "I'd have to get someone to drive me, but then we'd drive all the way out into the countryside, and I'd just stand in the middle of an open field and breathe in the sweet air." She had a dreamy look on her face by the time she'd stopped talking.
"That's actually really nice, Midori." Kumiko held her pillow closer. "I guess I've always wanted to go on a really nice date with a cute girl, and we'd go to a cute diner or something. It'd be really cliche - we could, I dunno, share a milkshake or something like they do in old movies."
"That's so cute, Kumiko-chan!" Hazuki squealed. "Kousaka-san, it's your turn now!" Reina twirled a strand of her hair around in thought for a moment before she answered.
"I'd like to run away," she said, and suddenly Kumiko remembered a mountaintop duet and talks of good-girl skins. "I'd just hop a train and travel and get away from it all." Hazuki and Midori both looked down at the ground, avoiding Reina's piercing gaze.
"O-kay!" Kumiko mumbled nervously in a tone that might've been a poor imitation of Asuka, hoping to distill the tension. "I g-guess it's my turn, then? What's a . . . a secret you've never told anyone else? Like, a desire or something like that? I know it's boring, but-"
"I think Natsuki-senpai's really cool and pretty but I dunno how to handle that! Is it normal to think that way? Kumiko? Do you have any idea what it means?"
"Everyone's in love with Natsuki, Hazuki-chan," Kumiko deadpanned. "She's more or less in line to inherit Asuka's place as the band's resident gay awakening."
"Fine, then," Hazuki pouted. "Midori-chan, it's your turn."
"I want Tuba-kun to pick me up in their big strong arms and carry me to safety," Midori whispered huskily, her voice taking on a solemn tone utterly unmatched to the words she was saying. This time, all three of the other girls in the tent were at a loss for words. "Moving on . . . Kousaka-san, what about you?" All eyes were on Reina as she straightened her back and looked Hazuki dead in the eye.
"I'm dating Kumiko."
'"What?!"' Hazuki and Midori shrieked in unison.
"R-Reina!" Kumiko yelped, sweating profusely as her cheeks turned red and her mind started to run on autopilot.
"Was I not supposed to tell them, or-"
"N-no, it's fine, we didn't talk about it before or anything so it's fine, I j-just figured we'd tell them somewhere other than a suburban campout, but it's fine! It's totally fine!" Kumiko gave a wobbly smile, waiting for the three of them to stop staring. "Why aren't we talking about Midori-chan and how she's apparently attracted to Tuba-kun? Isn't that weirder?"
"Way to throw me under the bus for wanting Tuba-kun's gentle embrace, Kumiko-chan," Midori fumed. Hazuki pushed her out of the way to get to Kumiko and Reina.
"How long have you two been dating?" she squealed.
"A-about two months," Kumiko mumbled. "We didn't want any rumors to spread or anything, so we figured we'd wait until, uh, until summer break. Which it is, now. Summer break. Yeah."
"Hmm, yeah, that makes sense. Your secret's safe with me, don't worry!"
"And with me!" Midori piped up. Reina smiled.
"I'm glad," she murmured.
"Yeah! What kind of friends would we be if we didn't take care of your feelings?" Kumiko didn't feel fully in control of her body as she wrapped Hazuki and Midori in a tight hug, tears prickling at the back of her eyes.
"T-thank you," she whimpered. It came to everyone in the tent as a surprise when Reina joined them.
The four girls simply waited there for a few heartbeats while the slippery sheeting of the tent kept the world away until Midori broke the silence with a mutter of "Kousaka-san, you're crushing me."
Kumiko had never felt lighter.
a/n: this whole fic was just an excuse to write tuba-kun furry midori