A/N: After reading all the reviews for my last post in Sachiko and Yumi's Alphabet, I was really happy (thanks ;) and excited to re-read the Epilogue.

Definitely, I felt that the end of Zipper was a bit of a cliff-hanger (thanks for reminding me the word, seirahErinyes ;)

For those who aren't aware of that story, then you better read it first so that this one will make more sense.

Anyway, though my 2nd day of 2010 turned sour (having cough and cold, how annoying! Really, really annoying! Haha ;), I'm still excited. A little rough beginning but that's not going to stop me from having fun (even if I'm still annoyed haha ;).

Hey, you folks are supposed to be the ones who should give me something on this particular date! ;) I'm waiting! In the meantime, you can have my gift to you now ;) The theme is fitting for me (and for those who celebrates today ;) Have fun!

And yeah, I don't own Sachiko and Yumi, okay? ;) Read at your own risk!

"Sachiko and Yumi's Alpahabet: Epilogue"

---Arvendell---

"Take it off already," Sachiko said with amusement, not perturbed even when Yumi glared at her. "Or would you rather I do it for you? I wouldn't mind if I do," she added, making a show of slowly moving towards the glaring Yumi.

"You're so unfair," Yumi said with a pout as her hand reached behind her to unclasp her brassiere. She didn't let it go immediately, trying to think a way off.

"An agreement is an agreement. May I remind you that you were the one who suggested scrabble," Sachiko said, her eyes twinkling, her pulse racing. No matter how many times she had seen Yumi's body, she was still as delighted as before, or maybe even more, to see it.

"The music is making me sleepy. I can't think straight," Yumi complained, glaring at the source of the music instead. She knew she was being childish but hey, she was the younger one here so it was okay. Besides, Sachiko was letting her have her way. In fact, the latter was enjoying her childish behaviour whenever they were playing.

"You're the one who suggested that music," Sachiko reminded though she changed the genre of music into rock. She laughed when Yumi was startled at the loud music. She was only joking though. They both prefer mellow sounds, so she settled for a soft music. Unless, of course, it was each other who was producing loud music. She shivered at the memory of the beginning of many endless nights of passion shared between her and her partner, triggered by music. Among the musical instruments, she would never ever forget xylophone.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Yumi said with a defeated sigh as she finally took off her brassiere and settled it next to the other clothes she had taken off. She and Sachiko were playing scrabble and just for fun, for every game loss, the loser would take off her clothing. They had started playing the game with her office uniform on. Now, she had shed off her blazer, her skirt, earrings, and the rest except for her panties. She believed that the remaining piece of clothing would not stay long on her.

Sachiko, on the other hand, had still her white long sleeve and slacks on. She had only shed her blazer, but Yumi had a strong suspicion that Sachiko lost on purpose to take it off so that she would be more comfortable to move.

"Of course. It's a nice form of relaxation, don't you think so? Only here can I drop my mask and be at ease. Only here with my Yumi," Sachiko said, at first teasingly, then latter on softly.

"If you put it that way, then who am I to argue?" Yumi said with a smile. It wasn't like she was bothered being almost bared in front of Sachiko. The latter had seen her with nothing on more than she could count, just as she had seen her. However, that didn't change the fact that she was still losing. Badly losing. In all the time they played together, in all their games together, she had never won a single game against Sachiko unless the latter wanted to, and that was only for fun, too. Well, to be honest, they never did finish any game when it was strip-scrabble.

"But I am not cruel. I'll give you a chance. It is a quiz. One question and if you answered correctly, I'll take off one of my clothes. How about that?" Sachiko asked, eyeing Yumi's beautiful form, enjoying the way the latter squirm. She was tempted to reach out and touch the teasing flesh in front of her.

"Okay..." Yumi said slowly, eyeing Sachiko suspiciously. She wondered what her love had in mind this time, what kind of bizarre question she would ask.

"Okay then. Give me a species of yeast that could cause harmful infection to humans. Anything that you know of," Sachiko said, trying not to laugh when Yumi glared at her again.

"I am tempted to wring your lovely neck," Yumi said. She didn't know what the answer was! Species of yeast? She hardly knew anything about yeast.

"The quiz is open notes," Sachiko said, enjoying every minute of it.

"My notes? If you said I can open a book, then that would be helpful. Where am I going to find notes? I am not a student anymore and I don't recall if infectious yeast had been discussed in all my classes," Yumi complained loudly.

"Too bad," Sachiko taunted. "Now, for your punishment..."

"What punishment? You didn't say about punishment?" Yumi protested, moving farther from Sachiko in mild worry.

"If there's a reward, it is but natural to have punishment, right?" Sachiko asked as she reached for her glass of water, plucked the ice from it with her slender fingers and before Yumi could react, touched it to her bare skin.

Shivering with cold, Yumi could only gape at Sachiko as the latter trailed the ice cube to her skin, leaving goose bumps along the way.

"Hey, don't you have any pity? I'm getting cold here," Yumi complained, her voice lower than usual.

"Really? Do you want me to do something about it?" Sachiko asked throatily as her eyes bored to Yumi's skin, particularly to her heaving chest. She didn't wait for Yumi's answer as she leaned down and traced with her tongue the trail made by the ice.

Yumi shivered again. Whether it was from the cold or from the hot flesh touching her skin, she wasn't certain. She was certain, though, that she was feeling really warm inside. She was about to reach for Sachiko's head when the latter stopped and pulled away.

Licking her lips, Sachiko said, "Shall we continue, my love?"

Yumi crossed her arms in irritation and nodded curtly. She lost the battle, verbally and physically. She should have known. Sachiko thoroughly loved and enjoyed teasing her. And they both knew that she loved being teased by her beloved, just as she, too, loved teasing Sachiko. Teasing usually led to...she shivered with anticipation, eyeing the huge bed a few steps away from her.

"Come on. We're supposed to enjoy this," Sachiko teased, again unperturbed by Yumi's reaction. She knew that the latter couldn't really get mad at her, wouldn't really get mad at her at something as playing scrabble.

'Strip scrabble, Sachiko.'

They continued playing and pretty soon, Yumi forgot about being mildly irritated. In fact, she was so relaxed now that she was unaware of the effect of her casual behaviour while practically wearing almost nothing to Sachiko whose eyes were getting darker by the minutes that passed.

"Anatomy? I bet you're inspired by me," Yumi commented after Sachiko put the word in the board.

"Definitely. Only a blind person would ignore the perfect example in front of her," Sachiko answered with a smile, before her eyes gleamed as a thought entered her mind. Yumi, busy thinking, didn't notice until she acted upon it.

"S-sachiko?! Why did you do that?" Yumi stammered, crossing her arms to cover her chest.

"You have dirt there," Sachiko said innocently. Yumi wasn't fooled.

"How would dirt be in my chest when we're inside the room and everything is clean?" Yumi challenged. Really, her devious partner could find excuses, and almost all the time valid excuses at that, for everything that she did to tease her.

"Jelly," Sachiko answered shortly as she showed her finger with a bit of jelly. They had jelly and other food such as fruits, even junk foods, in a nearby table after all. Their snack as they played.

"How come I didn't feel it? I should have felt something when it dropped on me. You only wanted to touch my breast," Yumi accused, not believing Sachiko.

"I am not sure either how it had gotten there. And if you would put it that way, don't you like every time I touch you there?" Sachiko asked, still acting as innocent as she could. Inside, she was laughing with delight.

Having known each other for years already, Yumi didn't buy Sachiko's excuse.

"You can't wait to have your way again on me, are you, cute little vixen?" Yumi teased, uncrossing her arms and surreptitiously looking at her lover beneath her long lashes.

The seductiveness of Yumi's gesture wasn't lost on Sachiko and she took her time to answer to make sure that she wouldn't croak.

"I deny that accusation. I am neither little nor cute nor vixen," Sachiko said primly.

"If you say so," Yumi said. If Sachiko wanted to play that way, then she would, too. She stretched a little, inwardly smiling with satisfaction when Sachiko's eyes didn't blink as she gazed at her intently, hungrily.

"But I'm really happy for you, Yumi," Sachiko said, changing her tone and manner of speaking. Her look, while still hungry, had softened to regard her love with tenderness.

Yumi swallowed a lump in her throat as she smiled and said, "I am happy, too, Sachiko. Thank you for the romantic dinner, even though we didn't manage to change from our work attires for it. I love everything about it, the music, the food, the flowers," she paused to look at the beautiful roses she had put in the vase. She and Sachiko had a quiet and nice dinner at the terrace of their house, complete with music and candlelit and flowers everywhere, some were roses, some were tulips, and some more that she didn't know of, only that they were all beautiful. A tear ran down her cheeks. She was so happy with her life. She was with the one she loved the most and they were both happy together. "Sorry. I didn't mean to be sentimental," she murmured softly as she wiped the solitary tear.

"It's the onions," Sachiko teased softly, still looking at Yumi with love and tenderness.

"What?"

"You must have gotten onion on your eyes. Let me take it off from you," Sachiko explained, the love and tenderness in her eyes replaced by love and playfulness. She leaned closer and dropped a kiss on each of Yumi's eyelids, smiling when Yumi giggled.

"You and me here, everything is perfect," Yumi said with a wide smile, gazing at Sachiko lovingly, kissing her again before Sachiko pulled away.

"Not quite," Sachiko said as she reached for her bag. "I haven't given you my gift yet."

"Oh, you have a gift for me?" Yumi asked in excitement, leaning towards Sachiko.

"Of course," Sachiko said with a laugh, loving Yumi's excitement. "Close your eyes and open your palm upwards."

Brimming with anticipation, Yumi did as she was told and waited. She loved everything that Sachiko gave her, though sometimes she complained when she thought the gifts were very expensive. Sachiko of course, always dismissed her protests and said that she was a woman with plenty of money and what good it was if she couldn't use it for them. She giggled when she felt a brief kiss in her lips just as a something cold was deposited in her palm.

"Happy birthday, Yumi. You can take a look now."

Yumi opened her eyes eagerly and gazed at the thing in her hand. It was a key. Her heart raced. Raising her brow in question, she looked at Sachiko expectantly. More or less, she had an idea what the key was for.

"Make a guess," Sachiko said gently, knowing that Yumi knew it already but would still try to have fun as by trying to guess what the gift was, saying things except the real deal.

"A key to your safe?" Yumi asked with a grin.

"You know the combinations to that lock, too, remember? And it's ours."

Yumi pretended to be thoughtful.

"A key to the office of the CEO of the Ogasawara Group of Companies?"

Sachiko laughed and said with a grin, "You need not a key to that because you own the CEO."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Yumi said, her eyes twinkling. "A key to your diary?"

"I don't need a diary when you have yours," Sachiko answered, grinning when Yumi's eyes widened.

"You've been reading my diary, haven't you?"

"It was an accident," Sachiko said calmly.

"I should have known," Yumi said, rolling her eyes. She fought hard not blush at knowing that Sachiko knew what she had written there which were mostly about her and them. "It's hard to guess. Won't you tell me then?"

"It is a key to the lock in my heart," Sachiko whispered softly.

Yumi's eyes widened, her lips opening and closing. She was having mixed feelings. And then she couldn't help it anymore and she burst out laughing and said, "Sachiko, I haven't heard you say something as cheesy like that in a very, very long time."

Sachiko's lips thinned and her eyes turned in slits as she watched Yumi laughed her head off. She turned her head and raised her nose in the air.

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to laugh at you...but...but...it's just that it's so unlike you to say something like that and...oh my stomach hurts," Yumi said in between laughter, holding her stomach. Noticing Sachiko's annoyed behaviour, she tried to calm down until she would only giggle from time to time.

"I'm glad you're happy, Yumi," Sachiko said coldly.

Thinking that she had gone too far and that she shouldn't have laugh like that at her proud lover, Yumi's face turned serious. She reached out a hand to her pouting lover and was about to beg for forgiveness when she noticed Sachiko's body started trembling. Confused, she watched. She shook her head and pouted before joining Sachiko when the latter started laughing.

"You really love to play with me, don't you?" Yumi commented as she and Sachiko laughed. She knew that the latter was being playful when she had said about that key to the heart thing. However, she became doubtful when Sachiko continued to be quiet after she had started laughing.

'I keep telling myself that I should have known and yet every time she did it, I would still fall for it. Geez, Sachiko. You're really such a tease.'

Yumi's lips formed into a tender smile as soon as the thoughts crossed her mind. She was happy that Sachiko was enjoying herself, and she didn't and wouldn't mind being teased to the point of worry by Sachiko because it was only when they were alone that Sachiko let her guard down. Outside, especially at the elegant office at the main building of the Ogasawara Group of Companies, Sachiko was always calm, serious, stern even. As Sachiko had said earlier, she could only drop that mask at the safety of their house, at the safety of each other's presence.

"I figured it's time you have your own. You know how to drive already, don't you?" Sachiko said, getting back to the topic of her gift.

"Yes. What kind of car it is? You didn't get me a sports car, did you?" Yumi asked, hugging Sachiko until they fell over the carpet. They were playing at the carpet, after all. After their romantic dinner, instead of going to bed, they decided to play. They chose the carpet over the bed because they didn't want to make a mess on the bed, and they chose the carpet over the table so that they could move around as they pleased.

"You'll have to find out for yourself, won't you?" Sachiko said with a laugh, hugging Yumi's beautiful form to her. She felt the latter shiver when her hands touched bare skin. She answered with a delicious shiver of her own.

"I can take you for a ride now. I don't have to worry about getting an accident," Yumi murmured, smiling slyly in Sachiko's neck.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Sachiko protested, drumming her fingers to Yumi's back until the latter squirmed and pulled away from her. The meaning behind Yumi's words was lost to her.

"Aren't we forgetting something, Sachiko?" Yumi said once Sachiko stopped tickling her.

"And what might be that?" Sachiko asked with raised brows.

"Haven't we agreed before that no touching when playing scrabble? You know..." Yumi said, wriggling her eyebrows. They made it a rule after several times of playing unfinished games because all had ended with them tangled in bed. Well, it was hard to concentrate in the game when one was displaying her assets.

"Oh that...Don't worry, you have my permission to touch me," Sachiko said seriously.

Yumi gaped at Sachiko, before she brought a hand to her lips as she giggled uncontrollably.

"I'm honoured, miss-you-have-my permission-to-touch-me," Yumi said in between giggles. Sachiko was the one who had broken the rules many times over already and yet she had the grace to tell that to her. She shook her head. Sachiko was really something. She abruptly stopped giggling when a warm palm covered one bare breast.

"You always said that I defied gravity, but aren't you the same?" Sachiko said with hooded eyes as she watched Yumi's chest heaved with every breath she took. She had been itching to touch it since she managed to have Yumi take off her bra. And now that it was in front of her, she couldn't control herself anymore. That, and the fact that she wanted to retaliate at her teasing lover.

"Don't you dare say what I think you're going to say," Yumi warned as she tried hard not to shudder.

"What are you talking about? I won't say anything about watermelons, will I?" Sachiko asked innocently, then giggled when she saw Yumi rolled her eyes. Yumi had admitted to her that that particular fruit was etched in her mind, that it reminded her so much about her and of how she had teased her about it. Every time Yumi saw or heard watermelon, she would be reminded of breasts and Sachiko. Not like any of them had sizes like those. She didn't even think that anyone was capable to have a size like those.

Not wanting to linger on the topic, Yumi reached for Sachiko's side and started tickling the latter until she was laughing and squirming in her fingers.

"Yumi! Stop! Please!" Sachiko pleaded in between laughter.

Finally having an upper hand since they started playing, Yumi didn't show mercy. Her victory was short-lived when she realized that Sachiko was escaping her. From her sitting position on Sachiko's stomach, she was now a little above her knees.

"You're as slippery as an earthworm, aren't you?" Yumi panted when she stopped tickling Sachiko again. "You managed to squirm your way almost out."

"Oh, I thought I was a horse," Sachiko panted.

"Horse? Would you want me to show you my horsemanship?" Yumi whispered huskily, a sexy grin that made Sachiko's heart race a hundred miles per second plastered in her lips.

"Sho...show me then," Sachiko stammered, then moaned when Yumi moved upwards deliberately until she was resting just below Sachiko's waist, her feet planted on each of Sachiko's side. The sight of Yumi in all her glory was sexy if not downright erotic.

Slowly, teasingly, Yumi lowered herself until she was flat on top Sachiko. She bit Sachiko's ear, smiling when the latter shuddered, and then whispered, "Maybe later. Let's finish the game first." And then Yumi was sitting on the carpet again, looking thoughtful as she thought of her next word.

For a few seconds, Sachiko was left lying on the carpet to ponder what Yumi had said and of what had happened. When the haze in her mind was cleared, she sat up slowly and glared at the innocent-looking Yumi. Yumi had won this round.

"Vixen."

"Oh? And I thought you're a vixen and I'm a kitten? That's what you said before, if I remember it right?" Yumi asked innocently, though there was nothing innocent in the way she looked, more so when she grinned as Sachiko continued to glare at her. "What? Did kitten get your tongue?"

"Long brown hair, beautiful brown eyes, cute nose, irritatingly kissable lips, and soft exposed skin," Sachiko crossed her arms. "You're a cat," she stated flatly.

Yumi burst out laughing.

"I thought you're going to say different. And since when did a cat have kissable lips? The eyes, I would understand. Long hair, you could say it's a fur. But the lips..." Yumi covered her lips as she started laughing again.

"Cats don't have, but you do," Sachiko answered as she moved the scrabble board, which had been a mess already when Yumi lunged at her earlier, out of the way as she stood menacingly in front of Yumi. She smiled darkly when Yumi stopped laughing and looked at her curiously. "You think you're so funny, don't you?"

Yumi, not the least scared, stood up to look at Sachiko better. She shook her head as she hooked a finger at the collar of Sachiko's clothes. "Don't you look ready to eat your prey?" She asked seductively. If she had gone too far, she knew that this was the most effective way to melt Sachiko's anger. After all, it did work for her all the time, so it was only logical to think that it would work to Sachiko, too.

"Ready to swallow you whole," Sachiko answered as she snaked her hand on Yumi's waist.

"I couldn't disagree on that. After all, you look ready," Yumi said as she traced a finger between Sachiko's legs, giggling at the surprised reaction in Sachiko when she realized that her zipper was open. "I'm surprised your pants didn't fell omph..."

Whatever was Yumi going to say, which no doubt were teasing words, Sachiko drowned it with a searing kiss. Time for the next activity for the celebration of Yumi's birthday. And time for pleasurable revenge.

And once again, the lovers proved to each other just how much they loved each other, of how much they hunger for each other, and of how much it meant to them to be with each other for as long as they lived. Tomorrow, they would be separated by work. But in the evening, they would come home to each other. Their home. The home they built together as they fought the world for their love. They had won a lot of battles together, and lost some. Nonetheless, in the end, all that mattered was that they were happy, contented, and had the love and support of whom they considered as friends and of their family.

---Wakas---

A/N: There you have it! Quite long for an epilogue, don't you think? Haha. Hope you had fun reading just as I had fun writing it! ;)

About a follow-up story, it's an idea that I am not dismissing but for the mean time, I'm not going to think about it. Though the more the thoughts crosses my head, the more excited I'm getting (tsk, if I didn't rein myself, I surely will end up writing again instead of reading/doing things that I really should not delay anymore).

On Pillow matters, I'm not sure about my schedule yet, but I'll try to do it little by little as soon as I can. In the meantime, I have to get back to work now haha ;)

Bye then! Until I can come back again! Take care folks! Enjoy 2010! ;)

07 January 2010

9:10 AM