Summary: Ritsu gets more than she bargained for when Yui hosts a slumber party for the Light Music girls...
Genre(s): Romance/Friendship
Character(s): Ritsu T., Yui H., Tsumugi K., Mio A., Azusa N.
Pairing(s): Ritsu x Yui
Story Type: One-shot
Disclaimer: I do not own K-ON!
* Sleep Over! *
It was a pleasant day at Sakuragaoka High School. The bright afternoon sun was blocked out by a light cloud cover, bathing the school in a refreshingly cool shade. Four young high school girls sat around a table in the school's Light Music Clubroom, enjoying a light conversation and their freshly brewed tea.
"Ricchan, Mugi-chan, Mio-chan!"
The sound of their names being called caused the girls in question to turn their attention from their tea to their brunette band mate, their eyebrows raised in curiosity.
"Want to have a sleepover?" Yui blurted out enthusiastically as she leaned forward in her chair, a large, excited smile plastered on her face.
"That sounds wonderful!" Tsumgui replied as she clasped her hands together and returned the smile.
"What's with the sudden sleepover plans, Yui?" Ritsu asked as she casually laid an arm over the back of her chair. Yui leaned back in her seat.
"Well, mom and dad went out of town again and Ui said the house would feel so empty, so I thought it'd be great to have you guys sleep over!" Yui answered as her smile grew bigger.
"Sounds like fun, I'm in," Ritsu replied with a smile as she looked over at Mio.
"Ah, me too," Mio added as she turned to Yui and nodded. Just as Yui cheered at the success of her sleepover plans, Azusa came walking through the clubroom door.
"Sorry I'm late-" she began but was unable to finish as Yui jumped out of her seat and bounded over the table, barreling towards the defenseless girl.
"Azu-nyan!" Yui shouted happily as she clobbered the poor girl with a fierce hug, rubbing her cheek against her target's cheek.
"Y-Yui-senpai!" Azusa protested in surprise as she tried to ply the older girl off of herself, but it was no use. Yui pulled back enough to give Azusa some breathing room and so that she could face her.
"I'm having a sleepover! Please come, Azu-nyan!" Yui begged as she clasped Azusa's hands in her own, her eyes twinkling with hopeful delight.
"B-but...Yui-senpai," Azusa again tried to protest but Yui gently squeezed Azusa's hands and stared her down, her eyes filled with pleading joy. "A-alright," Azusa said softly as she finally caved and did not resist when Yui put her into another bone crushing hug.
The three other girls at the table watched the exchange with much interest. Tsumugi had zoned out the moment Yui came into contact with Azusa, her hands covering her eyes and cheeks with slightly parted fingers to hide the light blush spread across her face. Ritsu, however, watched with other interests in mind.
'Yui sure has been very...physical with Azusa,' she thought as she watched Yui touch and rub the young girl in every way she could without becoming too risqué. 'Ever since Azusa joined the club Yui has been like this, she wasn't like this with us.' Ritsu's mind began to wander off and think of the possible explanations for Yui's odd behavior.
'Could it possibly be that..?' Ritsu was dumbfounded by her own thoughts, though surely it was not possible. Ritsu leaned over to Mio so she would not be overheard by the other girls.
"Mio, do you think Yui...likes Azusa?" Ritsu whispered to Mio with an absent-mindedly quizzical look on her face to make the question seem more innocent. Mio instantly turned her full attention to Ritsu.
"W-what?" she sputtered as her face began to redden.
"It's just that Yui is awfully physical with Azusa," Ritsu continued nonchalantly.
"B-but that's just how she is, she's a very...ph-physical friend," Mio replied as her blush spread further and she became more flustered.
"But she was never that way with us," Ritsu countered quickly.
Mio opened her mouth but could not find a retort as Ritsu's logic was sound, so instead, she slowly closed her mouth and silently blushed more intensely. Ritsu fell silent as well and glanced back at Yui and Azusa.
'Could she...?'
* K-ON! *
The doorbell rung twice at the Hirasawa household later that evening. Ui paused in chopping vegetables, set down the knife, then went to the door as Yui came bounding down the stairs. Ui smiled as her sister hopped up and down with excitement and opened the door.
"Good evening!" Tsumugi, Ritsu, Mio, and Azusa all said in unison as soon as the door opened.
"Azu-nyan!" Yui dove over the threshold and tackled Azusa to the ground and encased her in a fierce hug as all the other girls looked on with amused looks.
"Yui-senpai!" Azusa protested, but to no avail. The girls all moved inside, followed soon by Yui and Azusa as soon as she allowed the frustrated girl to get up off the ground.
"Dinner will be ready soon," Ui stated as the girls all settled onto futons that Yui had set out before their arrival. Yui made sure that her futon was right next to Azusa's.
"Azu-nyan, are you excited for the sleepover?" Yui asked excitedly as she bounced slightly on her futon with a wide smile on her face.
"I'd be more excited if we had practiced today, Yui-senpai..." Azusa griped as she furrowed her brow in annoyance. Yui stopped bouncing and froze in place as the air slowly drained out of her lop-sided mouth, slowly her head creaked around towards Ritsu.
"R-Ricchan..." she said slowly as the other three girls quirked their eyebrows in confusion.
"Onee-chan! Dinner!" Ui announced as she brought out a large bowl of yakisoba and five pairs of chopsticks, causing Yui's mind to shift gears instantly.
"Food!" she cried happily as Ui smiled and set the bowl down on the girls' futon island along with the chopsticks. Tsumugi's nose began to twitch as she inhaled the delicious aroma and her eyes sharpened in sudden concentration.
"Yakisoba!" she said with an intensity that caused the other girls to simply stare in stunned silence as she grabbed a pair of chopsticks and began eating from the bowl with such determination that only true passion can produce.
Ui left the room, deciding to leave the girls to themselves and let Yui have fun with her friends. The other girls shook off their amazement and grabbed the other chopsticks, digging into the shared bowl with Tsumugi.
"Say 'ahh', Azu-nyan!" Yui said playfully as she held some yakisoba up to Azusa's mouth. The younger girl was resistant at first, but after a few more provocations she begrudgingly opened her mouth and let Yui feed her.
Ritsu's concentration was centered on Yui and Azusa, her thoughts picking back up from the suspicions she had earlier that day. Mio's attention, however, was focused on Tsumugi.
"Mugi, you really like yakisoba..." she said softly in amazement as Tsumugi seemed to plow through half the bowl by herself. At Mio's words, Tsumugi popped out of her trance-like state and blushed intensely.
"I-I'm sorry...for being selfish..." she said in embarrassment as she set her chopsticks down.
After the girls finished their meal, Yui hopped up and flicked off the living room light and popped in a movie. She settled back down on her futon next to Azusa with Tsumugi off to the side and Ritsu and Mio behind them. Ritsu was laying on her stomach with her head propped up on her hands. As the movie progressed, Ritsu became less and less interested in it and more and more interested in how Yui was behaving towards Azusa.
'I just know something is up between her and Azusa,' she thought as Yui wrapped her arm around Azusa's waist and pulled the younger girl tightly against herself.
Ritsu's brow furrowed in thought as Yui began to rub her cheek against Azusa's. She was not sure if Azusa had simply lost the will to resist, or if she was starting to enjoy the attention, because she barely protested Yui's advances.
'Could Yui and Azusa secretly be together? And her protests are just a cover?' Ritsu blushed slightly as she watched Yui lay her head on Azusa's shoulder.
"Yui-senpai!" Azusa whispered sharply as she shook her shoulder to dislodge Yui's head. The brunette girl grinned sheepishly as Azusa huffed in annoyance.
'Maybe not...' Ritsu thought again as she dismissed the idea of Yui and Azusa being in a secret relationship. However, her suspicions over Yui's behavior were still prevalent in her mind throughout the night.
* K-ON! *
After the movie finished, the girls stayed up and talked about band activities, new songs, and finally getting around to practicing; but before long they were all yawning from the long school day and decided to go to bed. However, one of the girls was having a difficult time falling asleep. Ritsu tossed and turned in a frustrated attempt at sleep, finally settling down on her back. She stared up at the ceiling, absently listening to her fellow band mates' light snoring and Tsumugi mumbling something about yakisoba jell-o in her sleep.
Ritsu could not sleep due to a combination of restlessness and her thoughts on Yui; her suspicions had gone past absent wondering and had become an obsessive need to know. She turned her head to the side and eyed Yui, who had rolled from her futon and onto Azusa's and was now cuddling the black haired girl in her sleep. Ritsu turned her attention back to the ceiling.
'Maybe I should go read some of Yui's manga to get my mind off it,' she decided and slipped out of her futon.
Carefully, she tiptoed across the room and up the stairs, cringing when one of them creaked. When she was sure that she had not woken any of the girls up, she continued up the stairs and entered Yui's room. She walked over to Yui's bookcase and began rifling through the volumes of manga.
'Ah, here it is.' She found the volume she had been unable to finish on her previous stay at Yui's house, her head began to hurt just at the thought of the lumps Mio had given her that day. However, when she pulled the volume out of the neatly aligned row she noticed something odd.
'What's this?' She could see the edges of two manga volumes pushed flatly against the back of the bookcase, carefully hidden behind the others.
Ritsu set down the volume she had taken and began to pull the other volumes out as well until she uncovered several more hidden ones behind them. She pulled the hidden manga out and looked at the cover. Her face instantly lit up in a bright glowing blush.
The cover had two schoolgirls on the front holding hands with their faces close together, their cheeks red and their mouths half-open as if they were about to kiss.
'A..a yuri manga?' Ritsu's brain tried to comprehend this amazing discovery. 'I knew something was up with Yui!' she concluded as she stared at the manga. With her suspicions now confirmed, Ritsu began to absently wonder about something else.
'I wonder if it's any good...' she thought casually as she flipped the manga open. 'It couldn't hurt to read just a little...' she convinced herself as she began to read the manga. The manga turned out to be a fairly sweet romance story and she quickly became engrossed in it, despite the sexual orientation of the girls.
An hour passed by as Ritsu read through the manga, she was on the last volume, but the entire time she was reading she had noticed a strange coincidence in the story.
'The main character loves her best friend but she's afraid of ruining their friendship so she uses a newly arrived student as an outlet for her romantic feelings...' Ritsu summarized in her mind as drew closer and closer to the conclusion of the story. Suddenly the similarities to how Yui had been acting clicked into place.
'What if she loves one of us and she's using Azusa as an outlet for that frustrated love?' Ritsu's mind swam with the possibilities that Yui had been harboring affections for one of the Light Music girls. 'What if it's Mio, or Mugi, or...' Ritsu stopped dead in her mental tracks as she flipped to the final page and the romantic climax of the story.
The main character had finally summoned the courage to confess her love to her best friend. It had been entirely expected from the story's build-up, but what made Ritsu mentally freeze was the modifications that had been made to the last page by Yui. The main character's name had been scratched out and in its place was 'Yui', the new student's name was now 'Azu-nyan', and the main character's best friend's name had been replaced with 'Ricchan'. Ritsu's mouth was slightly agape as she slowly read the final page which now had the lines:
'I thought you loved Azu-nyan, Yui,' then 'No, I've always loved you, Ricchan!'
"Ricchan…"
Ritsu startled as she heard someone call her name and looked over the manga for the source of the voice. Her eyes landed on Yui, who was standing at the edge of the doorway, tears in her eyes.
"Yui...I...uh..." Ritsu struggled to come up with a way to explain herself. Yui rushed across the room and snatched the manga out of Ritsu's hands.
"You saw, didn't you?" she asked as she clutched the manga close to her chest, her voice wavering. Ritsu sat up and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"I...um...yeah…" Ritsu replied quietly as she blushed at the awkward situation. Yui blushed as well out of embarrassment.
"I didn't want you to find out this way, Ricchan," Yui said as she looked directly at Ritsu now. Ritsu blushed even harder from the intensity of Yui's gaze. Suddenly, Yui dropped the manga and let it hit the floor.
"I love you, Ricchan!" she said with passion and determination flaring in her eyes, her hands clenched at her sides now. Ritsu fell into a stunned silence as Yui simply stood there in front of her.
"But...I thought you liked Azusa," Ritsu finally said as she stared back at Yui.
"I've always loved you, Ricchan!" Yui replied with strong conviction as a few tears leaked from her eyes and slowly slid down her cheeks. Ritsu did not reply and instead sat and stared at Yui.
"Ricchan!" Yui cried as she leapt towards Ritsu and embraced her, the force of which surprised Ritsu and nearly caused her to fall backwards.
"Yui..." Ritsu protested as Yui clung to her for all she was worth and cried onto her shirt. "Yui!" Ritsu finally managed to pry the sobbing brunette off and stood up, bringing her up with her. Yui looked at Ritsu with confusion evident on her features as she sniffled a few times.
"Look, Yui..." Ritsu began as she looked to the side. "I don't know how I feel about all this," she continued after a long pause as she looked back into Yui's eyes. Yui's eyes filled with more tears and her entire body seemed to slump. "I mean, I thought you liked Azusa up until now..." Ritsu quickly added in an attempt to salvage the situation.
Without a word, Yui turned and slowly began to walk out of the room. Ritsu half-heartedly reached out to grab her but stopped halfway.
"Yui," Ritsu said hesitantly just as Yui reached the door, causing her to turn back towards her. Ritsu had her trademark grin on her face.
"Maybe we could...y'know...go to a movie tomorrow?" she offered as she shifted her feet awkwardly.
"Ricchan!" Yui cried as she instantly brightened up and jumped at Ritsu, knocking her to the ground with a crushing hug. This time however, Ritsu was hesitant in prying Yui off.
'I guess it couldn't hurt…'
END
Author's Commentary: I hope you all enjoyed reading! All feedback happily welcome.
