I had this idea when I saw the scene where Yuno asks Sae about ideas for her project for the festival in the anime, and after reading it again in the manga, I had to finally write it down. Man, this show just oozes subtext. Anyways with the help of a delicious cup of coffee and crazy insomnia at horrible hours in the morning this story was born. Ta-da!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hidamari Sketch, etc. I can dream though. D;
The art festival was coming and Sae still had no idea what she was going to do. She thought that having to face deadlines like this for her writing would have helped her out a bit more in the last minute crunch, but as it was the day was bearing down on her and her mind was as blank as the canvas she was supposed to be filling. She'd been staring at it for hours, hoping that by some miracle the perfect image would appear to her. As of yet it hadn't happened though, and all she'd managed to do was get a headache. Suddenly a knocking at her door snapped her from her fruitless searching and back to the world. The door opened without a response from her as Misato barged in.
"Don't you know how to knock? Geez, why are you down here anyways, you know I'm trying to work."
Sae stared at her in annoyance as she pushed up her glasses which had slipped down her nose in her surprise.
"Awww, come on, can't I drop in to lend a supportive hand to my beloved underclassman?"
As she said this, Misato give a big grin and sat down next to Sae, ruffling her hair lightly. Sae shot another annoyed glance at her and swatted the offending hand away.
"So, why are you really here?"
"Ok fine, I wanted to see what you were doing for your piece because I was bored. Ah, a blank canvas, is this an abstract representation of the state of your mind? A polar bear in a snowstorm? A close up of a bowl of rice?"
"It's my impending doom."
"I always thought doom would look a lot darker. It seems to be so often paired up with gloom ya'know."
"You're not helping. I can't think of anything, and I really wanted this to be great for the festival."
"Why not draw something close to you?"
"Huh?"
"Well you're probably thinking to big. With so many possibilities it's no wonder you can't pick something. Just narrow down the search field. Draw something close to you."
"Wow, you actually sounded somewhat intelligent for a minute."
"Hey, hey, now. I know that as soon as I leave you'll want to start drawing me, your beloved upperclassman, so I'll be on my way. Make sure you capture my good looks."
Before Sae could protest Misato was out the door with a wink and a devilish grin. Sae sighed and turned back to her canvas, thinking about their conversation.
"Something close to me..."
Immediately a picture of Hiro smiling back at her gently from the canvas popped into her mind and Sae quickly turned away and blushed.
"I can't be that blatant. What would people start to think if I drew her as my special project? Besides, I could never capture the essence of Hiro with just a drawing."
She sighed and got up slowly stretching out her muscles, stiff from her long time sitting, and headed for the door. Her current method was doing nothing for her, so she decided on a change of scenery. Maybe a walk would give her some ideas, at the very least it would help her relax some. As she went out she didn't really pay much attention to where she was going, she just wandered out hoping to hit on inspiration and still thinking of something close to her she could use.
The weather was still pleasant and the scenery of fall was beautiful with the trees exploding in colors, like fireworks made of leaves. Across from the apartments many of the Yamabuki students were already busy working at preparing for the festival, and an air of excitement could be felt emanating from the area. With a sense of jealousy she turned away to contemplate her own work as she walked.
She soon found herself at the train station, but not really having a destination in mind, she took a seat on a bench and simply began to people watch. Everyone seemed to know where they were going. Sae let out a sigh, wishing that she could come up with a similar conviction for the path of her project. Unfortunately her art project reflected her current position in the train station with no destination. She hoped that she would find something that would catch her eye with the amount of people that passed through the busy station, but still, after a while, she couldn't find her idea and it was nearing time for dinner so she reluctantly got up and started to leave the station.
As she walked back though, a flash of white passing by suddenly caught her attention. She spun around to catch a last glimpse of a woman holding a large bouquet of lilies as the woman hurried off to catch a train. She wasn't quite sure what had drawn her attention to it, but now she couldn't get it out of her mind. Lilies, yuri, Hiro. Sae's train of thought was taking a very interesting path which resulted in a furious blush and several strange glances from passer-bys. Quickly collecting herself, she turned back around and left the station.
She walked home with the lilies firmly rooting themselves into her mind and her decision for her project finally made. Lilies. Innocent enough to everyone who would be viewing them, but for her they were indeed that something close she was looking for, they were Hiro.