"YU – KI – NO!"
Sometimes she wondered if Haruka ever rested, and how it was she woke up each day with seemingly endless amounts of energy when even in her dreams the woman was always directing something. For a brief moment she smiled softly and studied the dreaming Haruka's determined scowl. Then brushing some of the girl's long blonde hair away from her face, she gently shook her awake.
"Yukino!"
"Yes, Haruka?"
Looking puzzled, Haruka sat upright and stared blearily at her friend. She rubbed her eyes, and seemed to temporarily relax. "I was dreaming," she said half to herself. Her eyelids slowly slid back down over her violet irises, and her shoulders sagged. This caused the front of her night shirt to fall open ever so slightly, revealing the soft white skin and curves of her chest. No matter how many times Yukino was to see this site, it never failed to incur that tingling sensation throughout her entire body nor the heat that swam up from her middle to flush her face. She blushed even more furiously at the disturbingly loud pounding of her heartbeat. Surely every living creature in the apartment building could hear it. She emitted a high-pitched yelp as Haruka suddenly sprung out of the bed.
"What's wrong with you Yukino?"
"Nothing, you just startled me a little." She said pushing her glasses up her nose, feeling relieved by the disappearance of Haruka's cleavage, and that the woman hadn't seemed to notice the Taiko performance that had been occurring inside of her chest.
"Well, don't just sit there. Get up and help me already! You remember today is the company party right?! It's going to be the height of moral indecency! All of those men drunk on Sake! And I suppose they're going to want to sing Karaoke! I have to make a great imprison!"
"Impression?"
"WHATEVER! The bottom line is that I have to make sure none of those drunkards gets out of hand!" She slammed her fist into her other open palm. "Pick out a nice suit… I'm going to take a shower."
Yukino sighed quietly as Haruka marched off determinedly into the apartment's shower. 'How does she do it?' she thought idly. Opening the door to the closet, her mind wandered over the past several years. Haruka really never changed. She might look more mature, and wear a business suit instead of a school uniform, but she really was exactly as she'd been when they were still at Fuuka Academy. She supposed she really hadn't changed much either. Though she too now wore a business suit, she was still shy Kikukawa Yukino- faithful friend and assistant to Suzushiro Haruka. So much had happened back then, and so much since. The HiMe festival seemed like a story from someone else's dream. Now here they were University graduates, and professional businesswomen. Even so, Haruka was still ordering people around as if she hadn't realized the Feudal Era had ended, and Yukino was still making sure she didn't kill anyone in the process. No, things hadn't changed much at all.
After work they headed out to meet the others. The party consisted mostly of their fellow office mates, and some of the managers. They had reserved a room at one of the many drinking establishments that catered to businesses. By the time they had arrived some of their co-workers were already merrily nursing their beers and sake. Lines of displeasure creased her forehead and appeared at the sides of her mouth. Before she could begin on a tyrannical dissertation concerning the importance of moral behavior and its reflection on their company, however, their immediate superior called from across the room, "Suzushiro-san! Kikukawa-kun! These fellows must be tired of hearing this old man sing. Let's hear the song of our flowers!' The rest of their office mates cheered at this idea. Haruka laughed nervously before agreeing. She swiveled to bartender, 'Sake!' she barked. Then she began pushing Yukino in front of her and they made their way over to where their superior was sitting. "You sing first Yukino" she whispered harshly under her breath.
"But Haruka…"
"Kikukawa-kun said she'd go first!" Haruka proclaimed in a sing song voice. Yukino almost tripped as she was shoved forward to the sound of cheering. Reluctantly she began punching in the number to one of the songs she knew, while out of the corner of her eye she watched the other girl hastily pound back a glass of Sake. The music began and the room became quiet in order to hear. To everyone's surprise, her voice rang out over the instrumentation bell-like and clear. It was a sweet sound that started out softly, but as the music swelled she closed her eyes and her voice rose with it. It held most of the room captivated for its duration, and as the song began to fade out she was surprised to see some of the men's eyes were glistening. Turning to walk toward her seat she was equally surprised to note that Haruka appeared to have an unprecedented number of empty Sake glasses gathered in front of her. Looking up at Yukino as they were about to exchange places, her eye seemed to twitch slightly. "Don't worry Haruka, you'll be fine." Grabbing a hold of her arm, Yukino helped her to her feet, and gave her a light shove toward the microphone. More cheering erupted from around the room, and again died out as the music began to play.
When Haruka began to sing, everyone nearly choked on what they'd been drinking. Could it be called singing? Once over the initial shock they followed their so-called 'flower's' lead, and began collecting their own piles of empty Sake glasses. There were small chortles of laughter from here and there around the room, but after watching for a while (or perhaps after several more glasses of alcohol), they turned into cheers. Haruka was singing with all of her screechy, off-key might. Encouraged by the applauding and shouting, she started to sing without looking at the words on the screen. As was her habit even in every day speech, she began to mispronounce or even use the wrong word entirely, but it only caused everyone to cheer more and more raucously.
Afterwards, Haruka had passed out in the taxi on the way back to the apartment. Luckily there was an elevator in their building, and it wasn't a long walk to their door. She laid the drunk and exhausted woman on the bed, and began to undress her. 'So much for making sure they didn't get too out of hand,' she laughed to herself. Despite not having had too much to drink she had had a great time grinning and cheering with everyone else. Her friend had loosened up for a while, even if it was only from excessive alcohol. It had made her happy to see Haruka smile, sing, and dance. No doubt upon waking she would be in a mercilessly foul mood, and regret it. Yukino knew she was in for a verbal lashing. It didn't much matter to her though; Haruka had been able to feel like the superstar that Yukino always saw her as- if only for a night. Reaching over to turn out the light, Yukino leaned and kissed Haruka lightly on the forehead. She'd be resting tonight, that was certain.
Author's Note:
This was written as a one shot for the 30 Kisses community on Live Journal. The prompt was 'Superstar'.
