a/n: me? overanalyzing extremely subtle character design changes? never. anyway it's canon that natsuki and yuuko both play guitar and i'm still feeling like 8000 emotions from that trailer

Natsuki plucked at a string, wincing at the noise that came out.

"How long's it been since you tuned that thing?" Yuuko groaned, adjusting her own guitar. "Geez. I invite you over to my house one time and you manage to play a sound that should be illegal."

"Nice to see ya too, Ribbons." Natsuki stuck her tongue out in concentration. "It's been a while since I played one of these things."

"What, a million years?"

"I have ears, y'know."

"I'm aware." Yuuko flipped her hair back, resting the guitar on her lap. "Not very good ones, if you think that doesn't sound terrible."

"Uh-huh." Natsuki had been here before, of course, no matter what Yuuko said to claim otherwise, but she was still struck by how big it was. There was an actual fireplace - a fireplace - in the living room. "Ya don't have much bark to your bite, Ribbons." A quivering silence hung in the air, then, until Yuuko broke it.

"Maybe I'm sick of biting."

"Kinky."

"I'm serious! I'm the president of the band now, Natsuki." Yuuko set down the guitar. Natsuki followed suit. "We're getting older."

"I'm aware."

"And you don't sometimes get sick of this? This . . . this arguing all the time?"

"'Course I do."

"Then why don't you stop it?"

"Hey, I'm not the one who said my guitar sounded like shit."

"I never said that!"

"You implied it." Natsuki dodged easily as Yuuko flung a songbook at her. "See that? Wasn't me. We both suck equally."

"Wow, you're amazing at pep talks. You should be a coach." Yuuko flopped down on the couch. "Ugh. I don't know how to be a good leader."

"Neither did Haruka-senpai, but she did it anyway."

"She wasn't the leader and you know it." Yuuko rolled around to face her, eyebrows knitted together. "It was your Asuka-senpai running the show."

"What, now you're proposing I keep everything going behind the scenes while you whimper about a girl who doesn't care about anyone?" Natsuki raised her eyebrows. "Doesn't seem very fair, Prez."

"You don't take anything seriously." Yuuko tugged at her ribbon, not quite making eye contact. "Just like Asuka-senpai."

"I'm not like her," Natsuki growled, and then the silence pulled its veil again. Yuuko wasn't going to answer, obviously. "Say, didja do something different with your hair?" It was better than nothing.

"What? Oh, yeah." Yuuko fiddled, self-consciously, with the ends. "I cut it."

"Huh." The quietness again. Natsuki licked her lips. "Looks nice."

"Thanks." Yuuko ran her fingers over the sides of her guitar. "Figured, you know. We should try to act more mature. We'll be the oldest ones there this year."

"You will, ya old lady."

"You're only two months younger!"

"And what a difference it makes." Natsuki sat with a hand on her chin, as if imparting sage wisdom. "Tell me, elder Yoshikawa, does Kumiko become less oblivious to Kousaka-san's feelings?"

"Obviously not."

"Obviously not," Natsuki echoed. Yuuko absentmindedly plucked a string on her guitar. "We're not gonna end up like Asuka-senpai and the president, are we?"

"I hope not. Maybe you were blinded by your rose-tinted euphonium glasses, but she was kind of a jackass."

"Exactly." Natsuki reached over and tugged at Yuuko's ribbon. "It's smaller now."

"Yeah. It's the same thing - being, you know, more mature. Nobody takes you seriously when you look like Bugs Bunny."

"They'd better take ya seriously, or I'll have some words for 'em." Natsuki looked her in the eyes, then, and the intensity with which Yuuko looked back at her was almost too much to bear. "So. Jam session?"

"That is why you invited yourself over."

"That's the spirit. One, two, three." Natsuki raised her hand, pick pinched between her thumb and her pointer figure, and they started to play.

a/n: and then they played the jonas brothers' entire discography, made out for three hours, and broke into kyoani headquarters to fight the staff. the end