Disclaimer: I do not own Sasameki Koto/Whispered Words or any of its characters.
Genre: Yuri-themed
Time: A few weeks after Chpt. 53, Great Useless Addition #2
Ship: Aoi Azusa / Torioi Kiyori
A/N: The idea of Azusa and Kiyori caught a-hold of me something fierce and wouldn't let go. Hopefully this is the first of several pieces til they're out of my system.
[My love is a flower atop a solitary island]
Azusa blinked. The cursor waiting at the end of the single sentence on her laptop screen blinked back.
Sighing, she shut the lid. The framed photo of her friends was just as good of a distraction as anything to switch her mind off of writing. The couples leaned close and, oblivous as ever, Kiyori Torioi to her right had done the same, chin on Azusa's shoulder. Swiping her thumb over the glass, she cleared the dust settling on Kiyori's grinning face.
"Did you win that short story competition you entered?" Kiyori had asked her a few weeks ago. It surprised her that she even remembered. Azusa had told the whole crew about that contest. No one else mentioned it.
Slumping in her office chair, she groaned setting the picture on the laptop. Azusa didn't have the heart to admit to Kiyori that she had been hanging onto that one liner since their last year of high school. The struggle was real.
"Pathetic." Azusa said with a chuckle, wrist shifting her glasses to wipe her eyes.
Inspiration was right under her nose. Between attending Kazama-san's wedding with everyone and witnessing his new bride hand deliver the bouquet to his sister and her girlfriend, that should have been motivation enough for her to crank out a couple of musicals and a story as testaments to the beauty of love. Except that Ushio Kazama's girlfriend and Azusa's old crush were one and the same - tall, dark and bespeckled Sumika Murasame, Class Valedictorian and Karate black belt master of the North Pole fist.
She paused, ready for the familiar thud in her chest, the symptom of conflicted feelings. Images of Sumika talking to, smiling at, kissing Ushio flipped through Azusa's mind. She was happy for them. Really. This is what she said she wanted, to preserve their special love that blossomed right before her eyes. A beautiful romantic connection.
But Azusa also wanted that. With Sumika. Once upon a time.
It was strange. A few minutes passed and there was nothing. The ache didn't visit. The longing didn't settle in. No wishful thinking to consume her.
Azusa took a second look at them posing during the wedding reception, bringing the picture to her face as she leaned back.
Little Lotte next to Kiyori. She smiled. No one had a clue how fast she would grow up and fill out.
Tomoe and Miyako to my left. Azusa rolled her eyes and chuckled at Tomoe's barely visible hand on Miyako's upper thigh. They could be sweet sometimes even if they were still blatant as ever. She still couldn't believe how much the pair had grown on her.
Mayu and Koi. If Sumika and Ushio were blossoms, those two were buds waiting to bloom any day now.
Perched in front of us like brides, Sumika and Ushio, undeniably, were too graceful for words. Simply a destiny fulfilled. Tilting her head, she tapped her finger over the two them, much like Kiyori did after the graduation ceremony, and sat the frame back in place.
Of course, Kiyori. She froze. And me.
Was it back?
She glanced at Ushio and Sumika for good measure. Nothing.
Noting the change in her breath and the warmth spreading across her cheeks once her view changed, Azusa leaned forward to peer into those mischievous amber eyes gazing back at her through rough auburn bangs tamed for the day. It was as if she could feel Kiyori's chin poking her now, forcing her to see what Kiyori already knew.
"Pure, fragile and hidden away...?"
New images came to mind. Squished on the rides at the water park, leaving Sumika's festival of a birthday party together, hiding with the others while Ushio and Sumika kissed and confessed, when Little Lotte shipped into Lotte-'Kemiya on the front page of a magazine, Kiyori was always by her side.
A week ago Kiyori invited Azusa to the concert she kept interrupting her rehearsals for, but the way she smiled when their eyes met before her solo still made Azusa blush to her toes. Specialty curry sucker and crazy band camp stories in her mouth, Kiyori saved her from an unseemly death by boredom, keeping her company while she worked the liquor store on weekends. And Azusa liked it.
Liked her.
Azusa's pulse raced as she threw her laptop open to confront the sentence that held her hostage just moments before.
"Of course this doesn't feel right," she said smacking her forehead, "It's essence was never true!" Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
[My love is a flower atop a solitary island, but alas, it was never alone. By day, by night, intertwined, our feelings bloom and burst open. Let the lonely stumble across us and behold the possibilities.]
She couldn't hold it in, laughing at herself and now three pathetic sentences. "At least I know I'm getting somewhere." Azusa sighed happily, gently closing the computer then reaching for her cell phone. "I wonder if she'd share my sentiments."
Her face lit up. There was a text message waiting.
"Restock day at the convini mart by the bookstore. Up for buns and yuri? :-p :-D" ~Kiyori
After she replied in the affirmative, Azusa shook her head as she headed out of her room, down the stairs, past her parents and out of the liquor shop's front door. They would definitely have a little talk in a quiet corner somewhere. Her Kiyori was still clueless as ever, making propositions before they'd even confessed, but nothing was going to stop Azusa from exploring the beautiful possibilities ahead.