Title: A Light Music Club Tradition
Characters: Azusa, Jun, Ui, Sawako, Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi
Pairings: None
"Azusa, what's all this about?" grumbled Jun. The early summer sun had been warm today, and the air conditioning in Azusa's house was soothing. "I wanted to go straight home and watch TV after the club meeting," Jun continued.
"I don't really have anything to do, so thank you for inviting me over," Ui said politely. She and Jun sat down on Azusa's couch.
"I'll be right back," Azusa told them, stepping into her bedroom. Once there, she retrieved the plastic shopping bag she'd been keeping under her bed. Glancing inside it, she saw that everything was there. In the living room, Ui and Jun were chatting about their exams, which were coming up soon. Azusa sat down on the couch between them, with her bag in her lap.
"What's that?" Jun asked, pointing to it. Azusa took a deep breath and recalled the speech she'd prepared.
"Well, now that the three of us are members of the Light Music Club, I wanted to do something with you guys that I did with the senpais when I first joined."
"Oh boy. It better not be eating cake and drinking tea," Jun said sarcastically, remembering what the old Light Music Club used to do every day.
"Don't worry, it's not," Azusa assured her. "I've had enough tea and cake to last me a lifetime." As she said this, though, she felt a twinge in her stomach. She did miss drinking tea and eating cake and sweets with her senpais, who had all graduated in the spring.
"What is it in there, then?" asked Ui curiously.
Azusa reached inside her bag and pulled out two pairs of black cat ears. She handed one to each of her friends.
"Try them on," she told Ui and Jun. Both of them looked taken aback, like they hadn't been expecting Azusa to do this of all things. But Jun eventually took the ears and put them on top of her head, which, with her hairstyle, made her look a bit funny. Meanwhile, Ui pulled the yellow ribbon she usually wore out of her hair, letting it fall down around her shoulders.
"Wow, you look like Yui-senpai," Azusa suddenly noticed. She'd forgotten how much the two sisters resembled one another.
Ui perched the ears on her head, proclaiming, "Azu-nyan! Just kidding! Ooh, how do I look?"
"You look like Yui-senpai did when she tried on the cat ears for me," Azusa remembered. That had seemed like such a long time ago, the day that everyone had made her into their pet cat. She kind of missed those days.
"Wait…the senpais tried these on too? Just what kind of a club was this?" Jun asked.
Azusa struggled to try and find words for it. It was just…the Light Music Club. There was no other way to describe that club that snacked all the time and was always slacking off and rarely ever practiced, except during big performances. She'd thought that the club would become better after the senpais graduated, but there was something missing in the club without them, and it wasn't the expensive food and drinks. Not that Ui and Jun were bad club members, but they were still new to the ways of the Light Music Club. So Azusa had tried to show them what the old Light Music Club used to do, and they'd reacted differently than she'd expected.
Ui noticed the look on Azusa's face just then. "Oh, Azusa-chan. She didn't mean it in a bad way. This is really funny, and it reminds me a lot of my sister." Her face fell a little, and Azusa realized that Ui was missing her big sister a lot. Ever since Yui-senpai had gone to college, there was nobody for Ui to look after or talk to. She still remembered how the Light Music Club used to be, and missed it too. But, sadly, those days were over.
"Yeah," agreed Jun. "Maybe I'll start to wear these every day to school. Call me, er, Jun-nyan!" All three of them collapsed into giggles, since "Jun-nyan" sounded even sillier than "Azu-nyan". Soon Azusa and Jun were trying to say it five times fast and see who messed up on it first, while Ui kept calling herself "Ui-nyan". Eventually, they were all laughing too hard to speak.
After a while of hysteria, the doorbell rang. Ui stood up, saying, "I'll get it!" She crossed over to the front door and opened it.
"Yui?!" a startled voice said from the front porch. "What are you doing here?!" Azusa had forgotten that Ui still had her hair down, like Yui-senpai's, and she recognized the voice immediately. She rushed over to stand next to Ui, and, sure enough, it was Sawako.
"Sawako-sensei, this isn't Yui-senpai. It's Ui."
"Ohh." Sawako's gaze drifted down to somewhere around Ui's chest. "Yep, the two of you still have different bust sizes." Ui blushed and Azusa suddenly remembered the time when Ui had pretended to be her sister when Yui-senpai had caught a cold. Just then, Azusa glanced behind Sawako and saw that the teacher was carrying a huge rolling suitcase that looked like it could fit at least two microwaves in it. Azusa decided not to ask about that, but change the subject instead.
"Ah…Sawako-sensei? How do you know where I live?" But Sawako completely ignored Azusa's question and barged into her house, wheeling the huge suitcase into the living room and setting it down on the floor. Azusa and Ui followed the teacher inside, shutting the door behind them.
"Let me guess…this is a Light Music Club tradition too," Jun said. Ui giggled as Sawako opened up the suitcase and pulled out several pieces of clothing. No doubt she and Jun were remembering the time that they had dressed up as ninjas last spring, thought Azusa. Then her train of thought was interrupted when Sawako held up a very familiar item of clothing.
"Oh, no, Sawako-sensei! Not the maid outfit!" But, to Azusa's surprise, Sawako just reached into the outfit's pocket and pulled out a well-worn pair of black cat ears.
"Here you go," Sawako said to Azusa. "It's the same pair I gave you that day…the day of your initiation into the Light Music Club." Her eyes misted over, like she was remembering something from very long ago. Truthfully, it hadn't been that long ago, and Sawako didn't need to make that big of a deal out of it. But Azusa took the ears and put them on anyway. She patted them, feeling the familiar weight of the headband on her head, and smiled. Okay, so it was nice not having the senpais around to tease her or tell her how cute she looked (she wasn't sure which one was worse).
"Is it just me, or do you feel like we're making a really big deal out of this?" Jun asked no one in particular. Everyone laughed.
"Now!" Sawako cried, suddenly recovering from her case of nostalgia. "Time to dress up!"
An hour later, Azusa's living room was strewn with clothing, and Ui, Jun, and Azusa were sitting in the center of it all, wearing the maid outfits and their cat ears. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion on Sawako's part, but the girls were finally wearing them. Sawako was hovering around them, snapping pictures. It was kind of fun, dressing up like she had in the old days, Azusa thought. It was nice to sometimes do things you used to do, for nostalgia's sake. She picked up her cell phone and turned on the camera.
"Say 'keionbu'!" she cried, just because she felt like it. Jun and Ui laughed out loud and smiled for the camera.
Not too long afterwards, Yui's cell phone chimed. She was eating dinner with Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi, and glanced down at her phone.
"Ooh, Azu-nyan texted me!"
Ritsu laughed wryly. "Yui, we're not in high school anymore. You don't have to keep using that nickname."
Mugi glanced down at Yui's cell phone screen. "Oh, but she has Azusa's contact down as Azu-nyan." Everyone snickered at this.
Yui opened up the text message. "It's a picture!" she announced, and showed it to everyone. Azusa, Jun, and Ui were smiling and showing peace signs for the camera, dressed in maid outfits and with cat ears on each of their heads. In the background, Sawako was looking delighted and holding up a camera of her own.
"Wow, looks like the Light Music Club hasn't changed at all, has it?" Ritsu asked. Everyone looked down at the photo again and smiled, remembering the old days. They'd had it pretty good back then, hadn't they?