Some weird Uzu/Ryuko fic idea I had while listening to Blumenkranz… I didn't think I could complete this but I somehow did. I recommend listening to paperblossom's cover of nZk version of Blumenkranz while reading this since it added some atmosphere to the story for me and may with you too.
Ryuko slowly opened her eyes to a beautiful field of white flowers and the sky above a cloudly white. She sees the breeze shift the blooms gently, and cover her in a slight chill. She reaches out to pluck one bloom only for it to glow and disappear in soft light.
Everything was naturally white, but unnatural to occur even in Honnouji Academy. She didn't know how she got in this place or how. All she knew was tomorrow was the last day of Naturals Election and one of her chances to finally confront Kiryuin Satsuki about her father's murder.
Her body and mind is more than exhausted by the endless sea of One Star and Two Stars trying to get at her. Was this some work from a club that can work with with projections? Hallucinations? Who knows, but she knew she needed to wake up or get out of this place.
'But why does it feel like I don't?' Ryuko thought tiredly.
Before she could think of anything else, a rough but gentle hand traced at her bare back.
"Nani?!" Ryuko said alertly and rolled over to see the person who felt her.
To her utter shock, she met with the completely nude body and familiar green hair and grey eyes of the boisterous Chair of the Athletics Committee. He looked equally surprised.
"Sanageyama?!" Ryuko practically yelled and tried to distance herself away from him, only to stay frozen on her spot with the arm that touched her further snaked to the small of her back.
"Matoi?" Sanageyama said back and tired to move his arm away, but met to the same result. He couldn't move unless its to move closer to the other.
What was going on?
They stayed still just looking at the other to avoid touching the other any more intimately. But Ryuko broke the silence.
"Sanageyama Uzu," Ryuko growled and glared at the other, "how the hell did I get into this situation."
Sanageyama glared back as harshly, "why're you blaming me on this, Matoi?! The last thing I know was going to sleep!"
"Che, I would think this's some weird experiment the wackos in Honnouji Academy did, I wouldn't know how to do anything happening right now!"
"I wouldn't either! I'm charge of the Athletics Committee, I would know if any of my clubs could do this, and they don't!"
They both glared at each other for the last time before sighing in defeat.
"Look, I swear on my pride and Kami-sama if I have to, I really don't know what or how this is happening." Sanageyama said more calmly.
Ryuko lightly huffed and looked down onto herself, "then I guess this is some deranged fever dream I'm having…or" she paused to say it tentatively "we're both having if you're not a part of my subconscious."
Sanageyama couldn't help but be cheeky about it "A fever dream huh? So something in you wants to be naked and close to me, eh Matoi?"
"Fhuh?! Get over yourself! This must be all my fears coming together to lose sleep for tomorrow." Ryuko denied.
"What would be horrible about all this? Well, apart from being paralyzed that is," Sanageyama argued.
"Just…looking at these flowers and sky is unnatural, Sanageyama." Ryuko said in a sudden, dead tone, her eyes becoming hollow with it. This unnerved Sanageyama greatly.
"If you really wanna know, anything pure white is something cursed with me. White roses in his greenhouse were the faintest memory I had with my dad before he had to send me away, white was the snow in every year I never spent a holiday with him, where everyone at my school did with their families, he wore his white lab coat when he was stabbed in the gut by his murder, white lilies were what I had to lay down on the grounds he died in, and white is what Kiryuin Satsuki wears and she knows who killed my only blood family left!" Ryuko couldn't hold back the well of tears that freely flow down her gear ringed eyes.
"Everything here is white. Everything I associate with white only follows death and disappointment. I would've likely worn white if I was able to attend his funeral to mourn, and my dad will never walk me down the aisle where I go to the person I would marry someday." She finished in heartbroken amusement.
"But…that's just an impossible dream now, I'm not the type of girl anyone should be with forever…"She finished, shutting her stray tears away.
Hearing how conflicted Ryuko was about the topic, Sanageyama felt a stir of guilt for making her upset. He liked Ryuko being mad and riled up for a match with him, but he never wanted her to be like this.
"Matoi, come here," Sanageyama said seriously.
"What-," Ryuko wasn't able to protest any further when she pulled into Sanageyama's chest. She swore her cheeks started to burn red when her own naked body pressed up against his. But even with the intimacy of their bodies, Sanageyama's hold on her was very tender. He reached out to wipe the trail of tears from her face.
He smiled in assurance. "I'm part of your dream, but you're also part of mine, Matoi Ryuko. And even if you're my enemy and admirable rival, I wouldn't want my dream woman to cry."
Ryuko lightly scoffs at this, but managing to smile "Heh, some dream woman you have here, she's already crying on your chest," she self-depreciates, but staying still due to the situation they're in.
"The woman of my dreams would sooner break the laws of physics than bend to one man's will. Just talking with you, knowing if you're really here or just the most convincing illusion attests to what I want to say," Sanageyama really didn't know what's possessing him to so open to Ryuko, maybe because this place is some Schrodinger's experiment to exorcise his inner demons, "and what I want from you."
Ryuko softens her smile before she finally returns the man's embrace, she just went along with what's happening, "Then just say it, Uzu." She wanted to test out saying his first name, and something about it felt comforting.
"Ryuko," Sanageyama started and brushes her hair to show her face, "you're the most beautiful woman I've ever encountered in my life. And I'm falling in love with you," enemy or not, he voiced it in the most genuinely loving tone.
Ryuko felt a pleasant warmth in her body from hearing those words, a part of her did want to hear someone's love for her so honestly. "Just beautiful Uzu?" Ryuko chided while looking at him. "Don't tell me you're shallow under all that Elite dignity."
"I meant you're beautiful in every way." Sanageyama corrected, "you're not just physically beautiful, but also for your raw determination, and even abrasiveness. My eyes were what I prided and depended on to be skilled, and my ego on this ability was what made me blind to everything else. Facing you forced me to seal my eyes away if I ever wanted to surpass you. But even then, you still surprise me from our last encounter."
Sanageyama's praises of her were creeping into Ryuko's heart, did she really love someone like him? "What's not to get? I would have been dead if you landed that last blow. And I ran away since I didn't wanna die yet. But…I was more afraid of dying without knowing more about my dad. I had to keep going despite everything I've gone through." Ryuko claimed in amusement.
"That's exactly the reason you're attractive Matoi Ryuko." Sanageyama shared her amusement, "You could be absolutely ready to rip death by the jaws, but still be able to show mercy if you really wanted to. Most people haven't faced both."
Ryuko started to laugh at how poetic Sanageyama had been with her this moment. Did these words come off naturally to him? He was grinning back at her because he made her laugh, only to soften when the moment calmed. And Ryuko found it charming because he was being himself, "...Uzu?"
"Hm?"
"I…wanna fall in love with you without looking back, is...is that too much to ask?" Ryuko could hear the stronger beat of the other's heart from where she lay.
"Do you mean that?" Sanageyama said, suddenly unsure of the situation.
Ryuko almost wanted to grin, "Yeah, I do. I've...okay I admit you're actually very attractive when I first met you up close with my fight with Fukuroda, and I did think you were an ass to me when I was obviously under matched in equipment against Hakodate, but...despite that, you actually took responsibility for your failures and did everything you could just to change. You've tried to comfort me even when you didn't have to, and respected me in your own rival way."
Ryuko also didn't know how she could be open with him, "You're just a great guy to be with. And I...I can't help but fall in love with you too, Uzu."
The unknown forces of the dream state vanished once they both said those words. They were free to pull away from each other, but didn't.
Sanageyama shifted himself to face to face with his other. Like instinct, they closed their eyes and leaned in together to kiss for the first time. It wasn't rushed nor overtly passionate, but a raw show of complicated emotions.
'Ryuko, you don't know how much your love and spirit affected me in such a short time.' Sanageyama thought in relief, 'And yet I still want to know more about you.'
'Uzu, I've been alone all my life. I've hidden how lonely I really am, that's obvious, but like Mako and Senketsu, you've somehow wormed your way in my heart. But in a way I've never thought I could feel.'
Both of them never knew such a simple action could mean so much. But as soon as they parted, the flowers around them slowly started to glow and turn to white life fibers. The white fibers started to surround each of them and parts of their bodies started to fade away to become fragments of light.
"Uzu!" Ryuko called out in shock.
"Shit! We're fading away!" Sanageyama called out as well. He pulled Ryuko to him as they were hopelessly disappearing.
Ryuko started to feel her pain return, "I wanted to stay here for a while longer." She said sadly, "I wanted to get to know you before we had to fight each other again. I'm still not sure if you're real or not."
"I guess we have to face reality sometime," Uzu said to her in calm disappointment. "...Would you let me court you if we ever had that chance?"
Ryuko still clung to him as her lifeline, "I know I would you fighting nut! And even if we were never meant to be together, you're still a great rival I'll never forget!"
Sanageyama held back just as tightly, "Heh, that's always good to know."
"I...I love you, Sanageyama Uzu!" Ryuko called before her voice faded into abyss. But before she completely faded, she thought she heard him say "Ich liebe dich…"
oOo
Ryuko woke up in a start, breathing heavily from the stress in her body.
"Ryuko, are you okay?" Senketsu alarmed from above her.
Ryuko wiped away the sweat from her brow, "Ahh, yeah just having anxiety dreams, but nothing I can't handle."
"Mmm, do you mind telling me?"
"I...I wanna keep it with me for now, maybe some other time." It was an awkward thing to discuss when the person in her dream is an enemy she felt for.
"It's still early out, its best that you sleep for a while. I have a feeling we'll be facing our toughest opponent yet" Senketsu suggested.
"Right, thanks Senketsu." Ryuko followed through with it, with the hope that she can meet Uzu again in her dreams.
'Ich liebe dich…I've never heard of those words before…what does it mean?'
But to her deeply hidden disappointment, he never came.
About half an hour later, unbeknownst to anyone in the still sleepy Mankanshoku household, a masked man laid a bouquet of red roses and a note on Ryuko's scooter. As a son of a businessman he had to learn some other business languages even if he wasn't going to be head of his father's konjac company. He wanted to send Ryuko a sign that what they shared is a dream doesn't have to stay a dream, his heart is fixated on her.
"I look forward to facing you again. Stay well and I hope we could be more one day.
~ Ich liebe dich, I love you, Matoi Ryuko."