Title: Thinking of you
Characters: Yui, Azusa
Pairings: Azusa/Yui
In a small, cluttered apartment, a kitten raced across the floor to the brown-haired young woman who was still asleep. Jumping up on the bed, it began nuzzling at the woman's face until she finally sat up.
"Oh, you want to play, huh?" Yui Hirasawa climbed out of bed and got out the fishing pole with the toy fish attached to the end of it. The tiny kitten immediately leaped up and began to bat at the toy. She raced over to the couch and jumped on top of it, reaching higher toward the toy. Yui dangled and moved the toy fish around and watched her kitten run around energetically.
"You're so playful, Azunyan."
Yui had gotten the kitten only the week before, but both of them had gotten used to one another. Yui, who'd had no idea what to call the tiny brown tabby, named her Azusa, though the kitten's personality was turning out more like Yui's. Just like with her friend, Yui soon called the kitten Azunyan. It made her wonder about the real Azusa sometimes. She hadn't seen the dark-haired younger girl since half a year ago. It had been brief, too. After Yui's college graduation, Azusa had stopped by to congratulate Yui, but then she'd left. They hadn't seen one another since.
Azunyan the kitten leapt over to Yui and butted her head against Yui's leg. Yui absentmindedly stroked the kitten's head, thinking. Ever since she'd graduated from college, she hadn't been doing much. She usually just had odd jobs, though she'd gotten better at singing and playing the guitar. If only the real Azusa were here. Then maybe, just maybe, Yui would know what to do again.
She scooped up the kitten Azusa and buried her face in the kitten's short fur. Yui suddenly realized what she was feeling. She was missing Azusa terribly, only she hadn't admitted it to herself until just now.
…
That afternoon was overcast. Yui was bored. She had a gig tomorrow night playing for a wedding, but nothing to do today. She decided to go down to the store and buy herself some ice cream; maybe that would cheer her up. Of course, the kitten Azusa still wanted to play, so she kept running up to Yui. But Yui was absentminded as usual, so when she opened the front door of the apartment, she didn't notice Azusa running out until it was too late. By the time she saw the blur of brown and black fur, Azusa was skittering away.
"Oh no!" Yui wailed, clutching her head. "Azunyan, come back!" She took off at a run after the kitten.
The kitten bolted down two blocks until she ran into a dog, which frightened her out of her wits. The small brown tabby scrambled away and crashed into the black rain boots of a dark-haired college student.
The real Azusa had been watching this poor lost kitten running around, and she felt sorry for her. Scooping the kitten up in her arms, she examined the kitten to see if she had a collar, which she didn't. Raindrops started falling, so Azusa gently tucked the kitten inside her rain jacket and held it. Watching the small kitten run around had reminded her of someone-her Yui-senpai. Even if the older girl had been forgetful and goofy, she still missed her more than she cared to admit. She had a small hope that Yui would show up to her own college graduation this spring, but part of her doubted it. After all, Yui forgot way too many things.
If this kitten doesn't have an owner, maybe I should keep her. I could call her Yui. Of course, if I did, I'd probably start calling her "senpai". How weird would that be?
Suddenly, the kitten began wriggling inside Azusa's jacket. She unzipped it-maybe the kitten needed air-and the kitten sprang out and took off down the sidewalk. Azusa ran after her, shouting, "Yui! Get back here!"
From a few yards away, she heard someone else calling, "Azunyan! Where are you? Azunyaan?"
No way. It couldn't be…But Azusa had different things to worry about. "Yui! Yui!" she called, following the kitten.
Yui heard the other girl calling out. Huh? Is she calling my name? She was utterly confused. The kitten Azusa raced up to her and Yui took her in her arms. "Azunyan, you're back!"
Azusa stopped, panting, in front of Yui. "You found her," she gasped, before realizing who it was.
"That's my cat," Yui protested. Then she looked closer at the other girl.
"Yui-senpai?" Azusa exclaimed.
"A-Azunyan!" Yui's brown eyes widened. "I can't believe it."
"Weren't you calling for me?"
"YOU were calling out for ME!"
"No, Yui is the cat's name…" Azusa trailed off. "Wait. If you weren't calling out for me, does that mean that…?"
"I named her Azunyan," Yui said, burying her face in the kitten's fur. "I'm sorry!" She looked up at Azusa with big brown eyes.
"Oh, well, it's okay. I thought that if I got to keep the cat, I'd name her Yui anyway…"
"Really, Azunyan! No way!"
"It-it was a stupid thought," muttered Azusa, embarrassed. She hadn't noticed before, but it was starting to rain. "Maybe we should get out of here," she continued.
"Good idea, Azunyan! Come on, my apartment's right over here."
So the two of them walked down the block to Yui's apartment. Yui was gripping Azusa's hand tightly and chattering to her about the new kitten she'd gotten, who'd run away today. The terrified kitten was currently experiencing just what Yui's grip of iron was, which had previously been used on Azusa.
They quickly made it back to the apartment, where the kitten was safely deposited. Azusa scanned the place quickly. It was a total mess, and pretty small, with an unmade bed in the corner of the room. Both of them sat down at the table, and Yui pulled out a box of cake from underneath it.
"Mugi mails me these every week," she said, opening it.
"Hey, Yui-senpai."
Yui turned her attention back to Azusa. "What is it?"
"I was just wondering…maybe we should have joint ownership of the kitten. For a second back there, I kind of imagined her as mine, and, well…"
Yui's eyes widened. "I didn't know you wanted her. Of course we can share her! We can both be Azunyan's parents!"
"Um, that's not exactly how I'd put it, Yui-senpai…but she really reminds me of you sometimes. I even named her Yui."
"She reminds me of you, too, Azunyan. Hey, do you think that since we were thinking of one another, we conjured each other up or something?" That was the best theory that Yui had for this situation. She was proud of herself for coming up with it.
"Yui-senpai, you know stuff like that doesn't happen."
"Aw, man. That would be cool if it did!"
Azusa smiled. Yui-senpai was still Yui-senpai. She was surely going to have a lot of catching up to do. But already, she was feeling a lot happier than she'd been for a while. Just being with Yui-senpai made her feel like this. And if she and Yui had really conjured one another up by thinking about each other…then that wouldn't be so bad, either.