Summary: A new amusement park has opened and Ritsu is desperate to go with Mio, but their night out will change their lives forever...
Genre(s): Romance/Drama
Character(s): Ritsu T., Mio A., Tsumugi K., Yui H.
Disclaimer: I do not own K-ON!
Warning: This story contains a scene with strong sexual themes and violence, if that offends you or you're emotionally sensitive, please don't read.
* Always… *
It was a bright and sunny day at Sakuragaoka High School as three of the four Light Music Club girls sat around their clubroom table and sipped on their tea.
"Where's Ritsu?" Mio asked Yui and Tsumugi, curious as to where their missing club president was. The girls did not even need to respond as the girl in question came bursting through the clubroom door.
"Alright! The new amusement park is finally open!" Ritsu shouted as she stuck a flier in Mio's face, startling the girl. "Let's go together, Mio-chuan!" Ritsu said as Mio swatted the flier out of her face and glared at Ritsu.
"No," she replied simply as she took another sip from her cup.
"Pleeeease," Ritsu begged with an overly sweet smile on her face. Mio looked away as to not be affected by Ritsu's trickery.
"No," she said again as Yui and Tsumugi tried their best to cover up their giggling. Ritsu quickly whipped up some tears and fell to the floor, clinging to Mio's legs.
"Please Mio! For my dear life!" she cried overdramatically as she fake-sobbed on Mio's skirt.
"No!" Mio said adamantly as she smacked Ritsu across the head, producing a large lump on the girl's head. As Ritsu nursed her wound on the floor Mio got up from her seat. "It's late, we should go," she said as Yui and Tsumugi tried their best to swallow their giggles.
* K-ON! *
The sun was slowly setting, casting a golden light around the girls as they left the school and began walking down the sidewalk heading together towards their respective homes.
"C'mon Mio! it'll be fun," Ritsu badgered Mio once again as they walked together, only deepening Mio's annoyed look. Yui and Tsumugi looked between each other for a moment.
"Um...Ui wanted me home early, bye!" Yui said rapidly then disappeared down the street, waving back at the girls.
"And...I have to catch an early train!" Tsumugi added as she too bolted off down the road, waving back at Mio and Ritsu. The two girls were now alone and continued walking towards their houses together.
"Mioooo," Ritsu said as her she waggled her eyebrows which definitely got Mio's attention.
"What?" she replied as she raised a confused eyebrow. Ritsu produced the flier from earlier out of nowhere and waved it around in Mio's face again.
"Let's go! Please! It's Friday night and we haven't done anything together lately..." Ritsu's excited tone trailed off into a sad one as she tacked on that bit of guilt to the end of her plea. Mio rolled her eyes, then a smile cracked her adamant visage.
"Alright, let's go," she said and her smile grew larger as Ritsu pumped her arm in triumph.
"Alright! It's a date then!" Ritsu said as she slapped her hand on Mio's shoulder.
"Ehhh?" Mio raised both eyebrows this time at Ritsu's choice of words. But before she could respond Ritsu grabbed her hand and dragged her off towards the bus stop to catch a bus to the newly opened amusement park, cackling like a madman the entire way.
* K-ON! *
The girls arrived at the amusement park and were surprised to find that it was not very crowded.
"Must have just opened," Ritsu said jokingly as she and Mio got off the bus. Ritsu paid for her and Mio's ticket, which Mio found odd since she was fully prepared to pay her own way, but Ritsu insisted on paying for them herself. Ritsu grabbed Mio's hand once again and pulled her along into the amusement park.
"What would you like to do first?" she asked excitedly as Mio stared around at all the rides and bright flashing display lights. Ritsu immediately spotted a cotton candy stand.
"Let's get some cotton candy," she said suddenly as she pulled Mio along with her.
"One please," she said to the cotton candy man then leaned back against the counter as she waited.
"Just one?" Mio asked warily as the man returned and Ritsu paid for the treat.
"Sure, we can share it," Ritsu said with a grin as she took a bite then offered it to Mio.
"It's good," she said through a full mouth. Mio smiled at Ritsu's silliness and took a bite herself, it was indeed good. The two girls continued their journey down the main road of the amusement park with Mio captivated by the lights and sounds and occasionally taking bites from the cotton candy.
'This is even more perfect than I could have imagined, I thought it would have been a lot more crowded,' Ritsu thought as she slyly slipped her hand into Mio's again without her noticing.
'I just need to find the perfect place to tell her how I feel...' her thoughts were interrupted as Mio spoke up.
"I've never been on a Ferris wheel before," she said as she stared at the large mechanical wheel in the distance.
"Well then let's go!" Ritsu said as she began to drag Mio along towards it.
"Eh? But Ritsu it's...it's so high up!" Mio protested as the color began to drain from her face.
"Well you won't know how you feel until you've tried it, Mio," Ritsu tried to reason with her as they arrived at the large ride. Ritsu pulled a protesting Mio with her as she sat down in an available seat.
"Ritsuuuu," Mio whined as she tried to stand up and disembark, but her attempts at getting off the ride were cut short when it started up, causing Mio to suddenly become firmly planted in her seat. Ritsu grinned coyly and offered Mio the nearly eaten cotton candy.
"Eat some, maybe it'll calm your nerves," she offered as Mio took her advice and ate the remaining cotton candy, however it did not help in calming her nerves much. The wheel slowly turned and raised their seat with Mio becoming progressively closer and closer to Ritsu as the capsule rose higher and higher. Ritsu did not take notice of this as she propped her head up on her elbow, staring out over the amusement park and at the nearly set sun.
'It's sooner than I thought it'd be but this is the perfect place, the top of the Ferris wheel is always so romantic in the movies...' Ritsu smiled, her plan was fool-proof. Finally they reached the top of their ascent and the wheel locked in place.
"So, Mio, there's something I've-," Ritsu said as she turned her head then stopped mid-sentence. Mio was blankly staring out into the distance and rapidly repeating "Don't look down, don't look down," to herself as she rocked back and forth slightly in her seat. Ritsu took on an exasperated look, apparently her plan was not Ritsu-proof.
Mercifully the Ferris wheel started again and soon Ritsu and Mio were safely on the ground.
"Sorry about that, Mio," Ritsu said sheepishly as the color began to return to Mio's face but Ritsu still had to support Mio from falling over.
"I-I wasn't scared..." Mio replied shakily as she tried to put a brave face on. Ritsu simply grinned.
"Wanna check out the roller coaster?" Ritsu cautiously asked as Mio recovered enough to stand on her own. She thought for a moment.
"Ok," she said after a moment of silence. Ritsu pumped her arm in the air and started running to the biggest roller coaster in the park.
"Wait! Ritsu!" Mio called after her as she ran to keep up with Ritsu. When the girls arrived at the monstrous roller coaster, the sight of the large metal hill caused the color to drain out of Mio once again, but Ritsu pulled her along anyway, determined to get Mio to enjoy herself on their 'date'.
Ritsu and Mio sat in an empty car and waited for the ride to start, Mio seemed jumpy but less so than on the Ferris wheel.
'Hopefully she's getting used to the rides,' Ritsu thought as she glanced over at the black haired girl. After a few moments their car jolted and headed out on the rails, there was no turning back now. The car slowly ascended the rather large mountain of steel and Ritsu soon found Mio clinging desperately onto her. Mio buried her face in Ritsu's shoulder when they were nearly at the top.
When Mio felt that they had reached the top she squeezed Ritsu tightly and uttered a muffled "Eep" as the car tilted over the edge and her stomach dropped from the sudden lack of gravity. Ritsu raised her arms in anticipation and screamed as loudly as she could when the car fell off the edge and rushed down the tracks. The roller coaster car tore around curves and up and down small bump hills as Ritsu screamed her enjoyment as loudly as she could. Mio only clung tightly to Ritsu as her safety for the entire ride.
Ritsu was disappointed when the car began to slow down, but not so much because the ride was over but because she liked the way Mio clung to her. Once the car came to a halt back at the operating station they disembarked, with Mio shakier than ever.
"That was a blast!" Ritsu said as she smoothed down her blown back hair and replaced her hairband, which she had smartly taken off before the ride. Mio however looked like she was on the verge of being sick.
"Mio you really need to live a little," Ritsu said as she patted Mio on the back. Ritsu was taken aback when Mio suddenly looked her straight in the eyes.
"Can we go again?" she asked with a surge of excitement that surprised Ritsu.
"Uh...sure Mio!" she said happily as they sat back in the coaster car. After several minutes of waiting, the car started up again, except that this time Mio sat up with her eyes open; but she still kept an arm firmly latched around Ritsu. Once the ride was over the girls disembarked a second time.
"That was fun," Mio said as she smiled at Ritsu.
"Told ya," Ritsu replied with a playful wink. The girls headed back towards the center of the amusement park, with Ritsu cleverly finding a reason to hold Mio's hand along the way. The girls went on several more rides after the roller coaster, with Mio progressively loosening up after each ride.
Ritsu even managed to convince Mio to go on a semi-scary looking ride which regrettably turned out to be a haunted house ride. She sighed as another cheap cardboard ghost popped out of the wall.
'This is not how pictured this day going,' she thought glumly at the downturn of events. Mio "eek"ed as yet another 'monster' popped out.
'But at least Mio is, er, has been having fun,' she thought as she glanced over towards the frightened girl. Once the ride was over Ritsu racked her brain for ideas of how to confess her feelings to Mio. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she did not notice that Mio had stopped following her. When she finally did take notice that Mio was no longer at her side she looked back and saw Mio staring at something.
"What is it, Mio?" she asked as she walked back to where Mio was. She did not respond, so Ritsu followed her gaze and found the culprit. Her gaze was directed at a classic baseball throwing game stand, but her attention was focused on one of the prizes hanging from the stand's hook display: a plush left-handed Fender jazz bass guitar.
'It looks just like Mio's bass, I didn't think they even made those,' Ritsu thought with more than a little surprise.
"Mio, do you want that plush bass?" Ritsu asked which broke the spell over Mio.
"Yes!" she said overenthusiastically. Ritsu laughed a little at Mio's excitement and went over to the stand and bought three throws. She did not need three tries however as she squarely hit the stacked milk bottles with one throw.
Ritsu grinned triumphantly as she pointed to the bass plush which the stand operator handed to her. She walked back to Mio and handed her the plush. Mio squealed happily and hugged the plush tightly to her chest.
"Thank you, Ritsu!" she said, her voice brimming with joy. Before Ritsu knew what had happened Mio kissed her on the cheek which elicited a dark blush from the brunette girl. Mio blushed intensely when she realized what she had done. The two girls stared into each other's eyes for a tense moment.
'I have to tell her!' Ritsu opened her mouth to speak. "Mio, I-" but she only got out a couple words before Mio spoke up in an attempt to break the tension.
"It's pretty late, Ritsu, we should go home," she said as she absently looked to the side in a pointless attempt to hide her blush. Ritsu blinked a couple times before grinning and rubbing the back of her head.
"Yeah, I guess we should," she agreed. The two girls headed back to the entrance of the park and caught a late bus heading back home.
* K-ON! *
Ritsu and Mio disembarked from the bus when it reached their bus stop and began walking down the sidewalk in a comfortable silence. After a short ways Mio finally broke the silence.
"Thanks again for the plush, Ritsu," she said as she blushed and hugged the plush tight. Ritsu blushed as well but instead of responding she stopped and grabbed Mio's hand.
"Mio, I have to tell you something," she said as Mio turned her attention to Ritsu.
"What is it Ritsu?" she asked with a questioning look on her face.
It's now or never...' Ritsu thought as she gulped hard and lowered her head, her hands trembling at her sides as she clenched and unclenched her fists. After a moment of silence Ritsu suddenly raised her head.
"Mio, I love-!" Ritsu was cut off as a black gloved hand covered her mouth, muffling her cry of surprise. Mio dropped her plush as her eyes widened in fear as a large man in a black ski mask appeared behind Ritsu. She was about to scream when a second man appeared behind her and grabbed her roughly, covering her mouth with his hand to prevent her cry.
Both girls struggled against the men as they were pulled into a nearby alleyway. The man holding Ritsu removed his hand from her mouth.
"Help! Help someone-!" Ritsu's captor cut her call for help off with a swift knee to her stomach, causing her to buckle over and gasp for air. Tears were streaming down Mio's face as she watched Ritsu get hit and she tried to bite her captor's hand. Mio's captor grunted in irritation at her bite attempt.
"Stupid bitch," he said angrily as he shook Mio roughly. Ritsu's captor grabbed her from off the ground and twisted her arm around her back. She gritted her teeth in pain but was shocked into silence as Mio's captor started to roughly grope her breasts through her shirt. Mio sobbed uncontrollably as she was molested by her captor.
"Leave her alone!" Ritsu yelled as tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Her captor twisted her arm upwards more.
"You should be more worried about yourself, you're next once we finish with your little girlfriend here," the man said as he and Mio's captor exchanged lustful grins. Ritsu's eyes widened at the man's words.
"No...No!" she shouted as Mio's captor started to rip her shirt open.
"Don't touch her!" Ritsu screamed as she slammed her head back into her captor's teeth, causing him to grab his mouth in pain. She rushed at Mio's captor and jumped on him, kicking and punching wildly. Mio's captor released her as he tried to get Ritsu off himself.
"Run, Mio!" Ritsu yelled desperately as her former captor began to recover.
"Ritsu, I can't leave you!" Mio cried as her former captor got a hold on Ritsu.
"Just go!" Mio looked between the injured man who had just recovered and the second man who had pulled Ritsu off of himself and now had her in a bind. Her vision was blurred by tears and her shocked brain worked frantically to function. She slowly backed away towards the entrance of the alley as the injured man approached her.
"I won't abandon you, Ritsu!" Mio cried as she turned and ran down the alleyway.
'Run, Mio!' Ritsu mentally encouraged as her former captor stomped the ground in anger.
"The damn bitch got away!" he said angrily as he turned towards Ritsu and the man holding her.
"Well we still got this one," he said as Ritsu began to struggle against the man holding her. She tried to slam her head back against the man's mouth but he was prepared and moved his head out of the way.
"This one's feisty, we'll have to fix that," he said as the other man walked up to Ritsu and punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. She doubled over, coughing and gasping for air. She glared up at her attacker and spit at his feet. That angered the him and he punched her again before slapping her across the face.
The man holding her threw her to the ground and kicked her in the stomach. Ritsu curled up into a ball on her side and took the beating. After a few more kicks Ritsu lost the will to resist, the pain was more than she could take. One of the men rolled her onto her back and spread her legs.
Ritsu screwed her eyes shut and tried to think the of the happy times she had with Mio at the amusement park.
'Mio...I just wish I had the chance to tell you how much I love you,' tears welled up in her closed eyes. She heard the sound of a pants zipper being pulled down and felt her skirt being hiked up.
'Mio...'
"Freeze!" a voice yelled as a blinding light burned through Ritsu's eyelids. She slowly blinked her eyes open, the bright light hurting her eyes. She could see two men at the end of the alleyway with guns drawn and her two assailants with their hands in the air.
"Ritsu!" her attention turned to the silhouette of a girl running towards her.
"Mio..." she said weakly as Mio dropped down next to her and pulled her into her lap, gently stroking her loose hair, her hairband had been lost during her struggle.
"Mio..." she repeated as Mio looked down at her and cradled her in her lap, she felt Mio's tears drip down onto her face. Ritsu tried to keep her eyes open but she just did not have the strength to, everything faded away as her eyelids slowly closed and everything went black.
* K-ON! *
Ritsu slowly opened her eyes only to be met by a blindingly bright light.
'Where am I..?' she thought as she tried to look around but everywhere was just blinding light.
'Am I dead..?' she thought as everything that had happened that night slowly came back to her. The blurry silhouette of a girl appeared above her, looking down at her.
'It's an angel...' she thought as her eyes slowly closed again. She could faintly hear a female voice cry "Doctor!" as everything faded away again.
Ritsu slowly opened her eyes again, and was met by a stark white ceiling.
'I must be in a hospital...' she assumed as she observed her surroundings and heard the rhythmic beep of a nearby heart monitor.
"Ritsu..." she heard a voice next to her and looked over, finding Mio sitting in a chair next to her hospital bed. Tears were running down her cheeks and her eyes were red and puffy.
"Mio..." Ritsu replied weakly as Mio reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight.
"Are you alright..?" She asked as she squeezed Mio's hand back.
"I-I'm alright," she replied as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Mio lowered her head which caused Ritsu to worry.
"Stupid Ritsu!" Mio cried as she raised her head with renewed tears flowing down her cheeks.
"What if I hadn't gotten back in time! What...what if..." Mio's voice faded away as she tried not to think of what could have happened. Ritsu smiled weakly at Mio.
"I'm fine, Mio," she assured her as she tried to sit up in her hospital bed. After a moment of silence Ritsu spoke up again. "Mio there's something I've been wanting to tell you-," she trailed off as she stared into Mio's eyes. She looked into Mio's eyes and Mio looked back and she could see the love and care in her eyes and understood that she already knew. Ritsu simply smiled and squeezed Mio's hand.
"Thank you for...protecting me, Ritsu," Mio said as she blushed and averted her eyes downwards.
"I'll always protect you, Mio," Ritsu replied as she cupped Mio's hand between both of hers.
"Always," she repeated as Mio raised her head again. They looked into each others' eyes again, and their gaze spoke volumes more than any words could.
'Always...'
END
Author's Commentary: I hope no one hates me after that violent scene. It was hard for me to write, but I would never let anything really bad happen to any of the girls, I love them too much, so please no flames about it! All feedback is happily welcomed!
