The loud buzzing of an alarm clock begins to go off, signaling stirring from under bed sheets. An arm finds it's way out from under the covers to stop the alarm. The one who turned it off, Ariu Aki, then begins to stretch herself awake. She attempts to sit up, but is restrained from doing so because the grip from the arms around her waist begins to tighten. Next to her, her girlfriend Koba Youka cuddles closer to her, burying her head further into her side. This is then followed by a groan, indicating Youka's protest to get up. The whole thing makes Aki let out a small laugh, since she can't resist how adorable her lover can be.
"C'mon Youka...we have to get ready for school, you know." Aki whispered quietly.
"Mnnnnn...what time is it even..."
"It's 5:30. I hope you haven't forgotten that I have to be there earlier for disciplinary committee duties." That response made Youka groggily groan even more.
"That's way too early to be awake, can't we just sleep for a few more minutes...you're so warm..."
"Sheesh..." A smile begins to creep up on Aki's face. "Why do you have to be so cute all the time, honestly..." Aki wraps her arms around Youka to embrace her and moved her face up to Youka's ear. "If you get up right now I'll reward you with a bunch of kisses." she whispered, purposefully saying it very breathy so that the air from her mouth would tickle her lover's ears. Almost instantly, Youka took the bait as her eyes shot open and her cheeks became red.
"Will you really?!" Youka said much louder, her heart beating faster with excitement. She was definitely awake now.
"Heheh, of course I will. In fact, seeing as you're awake now, I'll reward you right away." And with that, Aki began to plant kisses all over Youka's face. She started with her forehead, then her nose, over to her cheeks, and a few light kisses on her ears. She considered giving her a few kisses on her neck too, but realized that probably would've ended up turning Youka on, as well as herself, and they didn't have enough time this morning for anything frisky. So instead, she finally went for Youka's lips, giving them a long, deep kiss. Once they parted, Aki smirked, unable to hide her happiness. "That should be enough motivation to get you out of bed. Come on now, we have to get ready."
"You're so cool Aki, that was the best thing ever to wake up to, really. I'm totally ready for anything now!" Youka said, with a big goofy grin on her face.
The two of them got up and out of bed together and helped each other straighten out the sheets. They then each got their uniforms so that they could change out out their pajamas, Aki getting hers from her closet and Youka pulling hers out from the bag she brought, since she was staying the night at Aki's place. Aki started to get changed first, pulling her shirt up and over her head.
"A-Ahh.."
"...Hmm? What is it Youka?"
"E-Ehh...I-It's nothing...just..." Youka hesitated a little, her face becoming bright red. "It's just that...every time you start undressing in from of me, it never fails to make my heart start rockin' like crazy!" Youka grabbed at her chest, attempting to try and calm it's rapid beating down. The comment made Aki's face start to heat up too, but she cracked a smile after a few moments.
"Jeez...Y-You don't need to be so embarrassed by it, I feel the same about you as well. Hurry up and get undressed so I can sneak a few glances at you too."
They finished getting dressed, packed up their school bags, and said goodbye to Aki's parents before leaving. The two of them exited the house and began heading down the road to school. It was around 6 in the morning now, and the sun had just started peaking it's way out from the horizon, painting the sky in vibrant colors, lighting up the darkness from the night. There were hardly any other people on the road since it was so early in the morning, but it wouldn't be too much longer before the streets would begin coming to life.
Youka and Aki walked close to each other, hands tightly intertwined, talking about whatever came to their minds. They had some extra time before they would have to arrive at the school, so they stopped Aki's favorite bakery on the way. Each of them bought some bread to eat for breakfast and shared what they got with each other while they sat inside for a few minutes. After that, they continued walking again and eventually made their to the school gate.
It was about 6:30 by the time they got to school. In about half an hour, the gates would officially open for the day, and the campus would slowly start to get busier with students and teachers. Since the two of them were some of the first to arrive at school that morning, Aki had to unlock the gate so that they could get through, and then lock it back up again to keep others from coming in before it was time to. Once inside, there were a few staff members walking around, but other than them the only others currently at the school were the rest of the disciplinary committee. Aki had to meet up with the other committee members, so she started heading in the direction of the classrooms with Youka still by her side.
"I just have to talk to them for a few minutes to discuss duties for today. Do you mind waiting for me outside the classroom for a little bit?" Aki asked.
"Sure thing, that's no problem at all." Youka gave a nod, and then watched as her girlfriend disappeared into the room. She pressed her back against the wall next to the door and pulled out her phone to pass the time by. She was about to put on her headphones to listen to some music until she heard the clacking of heels coming down the hallway, which caught her attention.
"Good morning, Koba-san. You're here surprisingly early. Waiting for Ariu-san, I assume?" The voice came from Sonou Tsukuyo, a teacher at the school who Youka was acquainted with. She admired Tsukuyo a lot actually, since the teacher had gotten her out of some tough situations in the past.
"Oh, heya Sonou-sensei! Yea, I'm just waitin' for her to finish her meeting. What're you doing here?"
"I had some paperwork I wanted to try and get done, so I figured I would come in this morning to do it. And well, I'm a teacher you know, it's not that odd for me to be here early."
"Heh, you're just like Aki, always workin' hard. Good luck sensei, don't overwork yourself too much though." Youka flashed a grin.
It was at this time that the door they were standing next to opened, and the disciplinary committee members shuffled out of the room, all of them heading down the hallway except for Aki.
"Oh, good morning Sonou-sensei." Aki said, a little surprised. "How have you been?"
"Good morning Ariu-san. I've been doing fine, thank you for asking. Good luck with your duties today. I'm sure you have to get right to business, so I'll go ahead and leave you two alone now, but perhaps we'll meet up again in class later." Tsukuyo gave the pair a kind smile. They waved goodbye as their teacher started walking down the hallway, shoes tapping against the floor once again.
"Youka, I have drum watchtower duty today, would you like to come with me? You don't have to if you don't want to." Aki spoke soon after.
"Sure, I'll come with. I like spending the time with you anyways." With that, they started down the hall together, Aki grabbing Youka's hand to hold along the way, because she didn't really care about the small amount of people that might happen to see them. They continued to make small talk while they headed to the tower.
They entered the drum watchtower room, which actually became very familiar to both of them by now. Reason being, besides the fact that Aki often went there for morning duties, both of them go up there together often to make love. It's quiet and out of the way, and Aki always made sure to make precautions beforehand. The place actually held a lot of importance in that sense, especially since their first time was there as well. Remembering that, both of them got a little embarrassed, but also happy at the same time.
Aki looked at her wristwatch. Any minute now it would be 7 AM, and the drum would have to sound to signal the opening of the school gate. She began preparing for that moment, grabbing a drumstick in each hand and standing next to the drum. She took a deep breath and straightened her back. Youka knew Aki had actually really enjoyed this routine, since she had expressed it in their conversations before. However, it wasn't everyday that Youka actually got to see the spectacle in person. She continued observing as Aki began to hit the drum, since there wasn't really much she could do to help.
"Sorry if I'm being distracting by standing here watching." Youka said, trying to sound a little quieter than usual as to be as little of a disturbance as possible to Aki's mojo going on.
"Ah, don't worry about it at all, you aren't being distracting. If anything, I'm sorry you have to wait for me to do this." Aki responded, while continuing to pound the drum with perfect timing.
"I don't mind it. The drum isn't a bad sound, y'know." Plus, watching Aki made it all the more worthwhile. She decided against saying that part though, since it might've messed up Aki's rhythm.
After ten hits of the drum, the routine was finished. Aki put back the drumsticks and made sure everything in the room was in order before they they both left the watchtower. They spent the next several minutes strolling the halls and chatting some more, purposely walking as slow as possible to savor every last available minute with each other. They knew they would have to part very soon, and both of them were really dreading it.
Sure enough, that moment came all too quickly. Aki didn't have any more time to hang out since she would have to continue with her duties. Once they reached the end of the hallway they were in, Aki stopped and pivoted her body to face Youka.
"Well, you know what time it is now..."
"Gate guard duty time, huh." Youka sighed. This was the only bad part about coming to school with Aki in the mornings, besides having to wake up ridiculously early. Aki wasn't really allowed to talk with her while she was watching the main gate, so they would have to separate for now and meet up later.
"Hey now...there's no need to get upset. I'll see you at lunch after all, won't I?"
"Ah, yes of course! I won't miss it no matter what!"
"Good then. You have any plans for what you're gonna do until class starts?"
"Hmm...I'm probably gonna end up in the tatami room and work on some song lyrics for Strange Magnet, I've almost got some finished." Youka said, but then it crossed her mind that she had neglected homework that she should probably consider doing instead. Ah well, song lyrics sounded way more appealing to her, so there really wasn't any changing her mind at this point.
"Well, good luck with that. I think you're a very good songwriter, Youka. I'm sure you'll continue to write amazing lyrics."
"Hehehe...Thank you.." The compliment made Youka start to blush. "Good luck to you too, work hard today as always!"
"I certainly will. Well then, I'll see you later." Aki began to turn away, but was stopped by the voice of her lover.
"Ah, wait, Aki..."
"Yes?"
"U-Um...before you go...maybe we could like, have a farewell kiss?" Youka requested, which made Aki's face go a little red and look sort of surprised, but the shock was quickly replaced with a lovely smirk.
"Of course we could. I was really hoping you'd ask actually..." Aki made a quick glance down the hallway first to see if anyone was there that could've seen them. It was still early enough to where there wasn't really any people around, so there wasn't a whole lot to worry about. Besides, they had kissed up on stage in front of a crowd before, a few people possibly seeing them was nothing, really.
They leaned into each other, bringing their lips closer together, and finally touching. They passionately pressed their lips together, making for a very sweet kiss. Aki purposefully made a couple soft moans just to tease Youka, though it ended up backfiring on her because Youka moaned a little in return, which made their hearts race even more than they already were. Soon after they broke away, they were immediately smiling at each other, not being able to hold it back after such a wonderful kiss.
They then parted ways, Aki heading down the hall towards the direction of the main gate, and Youka lingering where she was standing for a little while, watching Aki go further and further down away before eventually disappearing. She already couldn't wait to see her again at lunchtime.