Title: Reunited!
Characters: Azusa, Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Mugi
Pairings: Just a bit of Azusa/Yui
Ten more minutes. Ten more minutes until the train gets here.
Azusa sat on a bench at the train station. She could feel the early-fall breeze ruffling her dark hair, but she was too anxious to straighten it. Her senpais had a few days off from college and were coming back today to spend time catching up with their families. Azusa had been texting them for what seemed like most of yesterday, talking about what they were all going to do after they all met up.
The train whooshed into the station. Asuza sprang to her feet, thanking everyone she could that the station was mostly empty. This particular get-together was sure to be loud. She touched the cat ears partially sticking out of her bag. Sawa-chan, who had heard about the girls coming home to visit (I swear, it's like she's got superhuman powers, Azusa recalled), had shoved these at Azusa, telling her that she absolutely must wear them for the others. If she was desperate enough, Azusa supposed that she would have to put them on.
The doors opened. A couple of dark-suited men and women stepped out, maybe on their way to work. A woman dressed in yellow with two small children passed by Azusa. But…but where were the four college girls? Where was the eager, cutesy guitarist with two yellow clips in her short brown hair? Where was the hyperactive gold-eyed drummer, the affectionate and easily scared dark-haired bassist, the sweet and loyal blond keyboarder? They weren't anywhere to be seen.
The train sped off, leaving Azusa standing alone on the platform. Didn't they say they'd be on that exact train on this very day? Checking her messages from them, Azusa saw that they really had said that. She sent them a text: Where are you? She sat down on the bench she'd been on before the train had come in. Keeping her phone in her hands, she waited for a response.
Azusa found her mouth stretching open in yawn. Since she had today off from school too, she'd stayed up late last night. After messaging her senpais, for hours, she'd turned on the TV and had watched it until she was nodding off. And this train was a morning train, which meant she'd had to get up early to get ready so that she could meet them. So she really hadn't slept that much. Already, Azusa could feel her eyes…slowly…closing.
The next thing she knew, Azusa was blinking confusedly. Her head was resting on something soft and there were voices above her. And did she feel something on her head?
"She's waking up!" a voice exclaimed.
"Ooh, good eyes, Ricchan!"
"Stop showing off, Ritsu. I saw her waking up, too."
Wait a second. Those voices were very familiar…
Azusa opened her eyes wide. Above her was a pair of unblinking brown eyes.
"Eee!" squealed Azusa. The pair of eyes moved back to reveal Yui-senpai, who'd been holding her face centimeters away from Azusa's.
"Watch where you're putting your face, Yui-senpai," Azusa grumbled, still half-asleep. She lifted her head off the soft surface it had been lying on. Looking down, she saw…fabric?
"Yui-senpai! Why was my head in your lap?"
Yui giggled. "Gomen, gomen, Azunyan." She didn't sound sorry to Azusa, though.
Looking around, the dark-haired girl saw that, not only had her head been on Yui's lap, but her legs were on Mugi's lap. Glaring, Azusa sat up between the two girls, pulling her legs free from the blond-haired girl. On Yui's other side sat Ritsu, who seemed to be going through Azusa's phone, shooting teasing looks at Mio, who sat next to Mugi. Whenever Ritsu did this to Mio, Mio would glare and try to snatch Azusa's phone from Ritsu. "Ritsu," Mio said exasperatedly. "Give Azusa her phone back."
Ritsu grumbled and handed it over. To her surprise, Azusa saw that it was nearly two hours after she'd arrived at the train station. Had she been asleep for that long?
"Hey," Azusa said. "What happened? Didn't you say you'd meet me here? But when your train came, you weren't there."
"Oh boy," Ritsu replied, rolling her golden eyes. "It's all because of her here." She elbowed Yui.
"Hey! I needed snacks for the train ride! Otherwise I'd starve."
"Ricchan, it wasn't just Yui," Mugi reminded her. "I had to get some things too."
"Anyway, we got here two trains after the one we missed," Mio explained. "When we got off, we saw you asleep on the bench. Yui kind of took over from there."
"Huh?" Reaching up, Azusa patted her head. Were those the cat ears Sawa-chan had given her? Looking at her reflection on her cell phone, Azusa was startled to see that she really was wearing the cat ears. She also had a sloppy smiley face scribbled on her left cheek in what looked like lip gloss.
Mugi passed her a tissue, saying, "Azusa-chan, that was my lip gloss. Please accept this tissue as an apology."
"Don't do stuff like that while I'm sleeping," Azusa said coldly, mostly to Yui, who flashed her a peace sign and grinned.
"The ears were sticking out of your bag! I just had to put them on you, Azunyaaan. You're just soo cute!" Yui squished her cheek against Azusa's. In retaliation, Azusa shoved her away, into Ritsu, who protested loudly.
"So, do you have anything planned for today, or should we just make it up as we go along?" Mio asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, I have a couple of things in mind, but I want you guys to do what you want."
"I'll do anything if it's got food in it! And Azuuuuunyan!" Yui tried to embrace Azusa, which she had done before. For a small teenage girl, Yui had a grip like iron. Or maybe it was because it was Azusa she wanted to hug. This time, Azusa abruptly stood up, out of the reach of Yui.
"Yui-senpai, quit harassing me!"
"B-but, Azunyan…"
"Azusa-chan," Mugi said, standing up as well. "You don't have to call us 'senpai' anymore. We don't go to the same school or anything anymore."
"But Mugi! I thought it was cool being called 'senpai' all the time!" Ritsu complained, getting to her feet. In a flash, she was whacked on the head by Mio.
"Ritsu! Quit acting so spoiled!"
"I want Azunyan to call me 'Yui-chan'!" Yui exclaimed, springing up from the bench. She stepped toward Azusa, who immediately moved in between Mugi and Mio.
"How about you try calling her that?" suggested Mugi.
"Um, Yui…Yui…Yui-ch…chaa…" Azusa couldn't do it. They would always be her senpais, nothing else. She could never call them anything but "senpai".
"Leave her alone; she looks like she's gonna faint." For once, Ritsu said something that actually made sense.
"We should get going soon," Mio told everyone. "We've been here for way too long."
So the five of them headed out. Mio and Ritsu brought up the front, and Azusa was sure to firmly place Mugi between her and Yui so that Yui wouldn't get any ideas.
As they walked out of the train station, Azusa noticed five red leaves falling from a tree. Though four of them fell to the ground faster, the fifth one still caught up and landed neatly next to the first four. That's kind of like us, isn't it? Azusa wondered dreamily.
Just then, her phone chimed. It was Jun. Um, Azusa? What…what exactly do you mean? I don't get it.
Instantly, Azusa's nostalgic mood dissipated. She hadn't talked to Jun since yesterday, but she knew who had. She also knew somebody who might have been talking to Jun as Azusa for who knew how long.
"Ritsu-senpai, what the heck were you doing on my phone?!"