Flamenco, The Round Table
By Major Mike Powell III
Chapter 1: You Never Asked
It was just another day at the Sakuragaoka High School's Light Music clubroom. The five members of Hokagou Tea Time were, well, enjoying their usual tea time.
It was relatively quiet. Not much going on lately. The only sounds in the room were the usual clinking of fine cutlery, tea cups touching their saucers after the sipping of tea, and the contended hums from the taste of the tea and cake the band were enjoying.
However, four of the five band members became distracted by the rhythmic tapping of school shoes on the floor and fast-paced humming of a song coming from the lead guitarist of the group.
"Yui? Private, what's up?" The "Captain" asked her "subordinate", honey-brown eyes looking at her fellow brunette with curiosity. The elder Hirasawa child squeaked adorably in surprise, completely caught off-guard. Her foot stopped tapping the floor.
"R-Ricchan! I mean, Captain! I'm Ok! Nothing's wrong!" Yui sputtered with a clumsy salute. Ritsu sweatdropped and patted Yui's shoulder.
"Yui-sempai, it's Ok. We were just curious what kind of music you were thinking about there, with the humming and tapping," Azusa explained to her senior, who in turn smiled a goofy smile and rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"E-Ehh, heh, you noticed, huh? Sorry, I just got kind of idle and such, y'know…"
Mio tilted her head to the side and motioned towards the guitarist' hands.
"Yui, I noticed your hands were moving too, like if you were playing an instrument…what was it? Ah yes, the castanets," grey eyes gazed at Yui with curiosity.
"Flamenco," all eyes turned to the heiress of the band, the only child of the Kotobuki's, as she moved in to refill Yui's tea cup, not without a soft "Thanks" from the girl. Tsumugi sat down and smiled at Yui as she cut her piece of cake with her fork.
"…huh?" Mio, Ritsu and Azusa all uttered in response. "Flamingo?" Ritsu asked and Mio facepalmed.
"Flamenco, Ritsu! The flamingo is a bird!"
Yui blushed bashfully as Tsumugi gave her an encouraging smile.
"You were humming and tapping your foot to the rhythm of a Spanish Flamenco song, weren't you, Yui-chan? I noticed your hand was moving in perfect rhythm with the song, as if you were, in fact, playing the castanets to the beat," the blonde of the band spoke with calm and serenity, all in an effort to keep Yui at ease. The air-headed brunette remained quiet in her seat while the information sank in the other band members.
Ritsu hummed in thought as she munched on her piece of cake. After swallowing, she spoke.
"Yui, now that I think about it…remember when Mio and I were trying to convince you to join the Light Music Club?"
Yui remained quiet while Mio put her index finger under her chin as she recalled that time. Azusa joined in to inquire.
"Huh? What happened then? Wasn't Yui-sempai one of the founding members of Hokagou Tea Time?" Garnet eyes glimmered with kitten-like curiosity.
"Well, Azusa-chan, Yui said that she didn't actually know how to play the guitar and that she hoped to join and just play the castanets," Mio spoke with a sincere, amused smile from recalling that silly instance. Then, Yui sighed heavily in defeat.
"Ok, girls, look! I, uh, I'm…" The girl fidgeted with her hands in her lap. "I can play the castanets, yeah, because I used to attend Flamenco classes growing up and I was in my middle school's Flamenco Club!" Yui explained in a hurry, not liking being on the spot like this. She bit her lip before she went on. "And Sakuragaoka doesn't have anything close to a Flamenco Club…and that's why I had no idea what club to join! None of the clubs caught my attention and I was kind of torn when I met Ricchan, Mio-chan and Mugi-chan and they were so happy to have a new club member, even though I had no idea how to play the guitar back then…" She sighed, afraid of upsetting her friends with the implications of what could have happened had there been a club at their school that had drawn Yui's attention first…
To Yui's surprise and relief, Ritsu ruffled her soft brunette locks affectionately.
"Sheesh, Yui. Sorry, I guess that I didn't help much, eh? With dragging Mio along to hound you to join the Light Music Club. Sorry 'bout that," Ritsu spoke with sincere yet amused embarrassment. Yui smiled softly.
Mio smiled in kind, giving Ritsu a brief scolding look.
"Yeah, Yui. We should have asked you what you actually wanted to do then," the bassist of the band moved a hand to take Yui's and give it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Tsumugi moved as well to gently place her hands on Yui's shoulders.
"So, Yui-chan, why didn't you ever tell us you knew how to dance Flamenco?" She inquired honestly. Yui scratched her blushing cheek, finally giving a goofy grin.
"Well…you guys never asked!"
The four original members of Hokagou Tea Time burst into giggles before they fell silent abruptly with the slam of palms on the table. Silky black pigtails fluttered about Azusa's torso as the girl stood up and looked at Yui.
"Yui-sempai! Please, show us! Dance Flamenco for us!"
To Be Concluded
Notes: Ok, brief explanation (not excuse. :P) for this…I've had this idea stuck in my head for quite a few days now, popping it into my mind while I was listening to the song "The Round Table" from the soundtrack of "Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War" and…well, I'll show you more in the next and final chapter. LOL Yeah, I know this is short, but I got kinda antsy or impatient, so I'm posting this now, if only to get out of this bit of…hmmm...indecisive writing funk, 'cuz I have several ideas in my head and only now am I finally sorting through them. :P So, this is one. The "romance" part of this will come in the next chapter. After all, a dancer needs her partner on the guitar to really get into it and dance, eh? ;3 Just, well, don't expect something out of this world, eh? LOL
Also, in order to get the most out of the next chapter, I highly recommend you go to Youtube and look up the aforementioned song, "The Round Table" from the "Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War" soundtrack. It's sort of a "to get the full experience" thing, I guess. LOL
Semper-Fi! Carry on!