Okay, it's been awhile. Hi. The KanaMari fic I was working on before was obviously under hiatus, still is, but seeing as I'm writing again that can only mean good things for it. This one takes place in the same universe, only a few years later. The rating is subject to change to M if/when it crosses that line into dirtyville. For now, though, in interest of it being more widely accessible I'm making it T since it's pretty tame right now. This has been Rogue. Enjoy the read.
OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT
Chapter One
Between outrageously high piles of homework and the lurid party scene, a good night's rest at university was a rare and precious thing. Twenty-two-year-old Tsushima Yoshiko treasured such nights like last night when she finally got her Greek mythology essay done with two whole days to spare. After doing all that work on a twenty-page paper she intended to spend those two days sleeping deeply, mindlessly. Yoshiko had always had the worst run of luck, but at this point sleep seemed like the luckiest thing of all. She had set her standards that low.
But God's plan couldn't even meet those standards. The doorbell stirred her from slumber. Eyes still closed, she pawed for her cell phone. Squinted at it. Not even ten o'clock. It was Saturday.
Groaning, she rolled out of bed, pulled on yesterday's jeans and tank top. She slumped out into the hallway of her apartment. She found her room mate and childhood friend Kunikida Hanamaru in the living room at the table, her pencil flying across her notebook. The doorbell rang again.
"Oh no, please, let me," said Yoshiko.
Hanamaru didn't respond, only kept writing. Yoshiko grunted. Maru got up at the crack of dawn and spent the morning writing till lunch. After lunch and a cat nap she wrote again until dinner. After that she'd write some more until well into the night. Yoshiko couldn't even imagine having that many words in your head.
Cracking the door open, she hissed, "What mortal insect dares trespass into my domain?"
"The kind you wouldn't tell your landlord about." It was You, a friend of hers who had gotten her B.S. last year. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know how to bowl, would you?"
"Ha. I have no need for such an insignificant skillset – hm?" Her husky monologue was cut off by Hanamaru's notebook tapping her head.
"Do I need to lecture Yohane again about manners? Show some and let her in."
"Yes, 'mother,'" Yoshiko said in a mock sheepish voice.
"I'll take that as a 'no,'" You said, stepping inside and taking off her shoes. "Pardon the intrusion."
"What's this about bowling?" Hanamaru asked.
You sighed and rolled her eyes. "Another one of Chika's antics."
Yoshiko put her hands behind her head and cocked an eyebrow. "What, she wants to be a bowling idol now?"
"No. Not really. We were out bowling last night – me, her, and Riko. Riko bowls a strike, which is kind of a big deal. Forgive me for saying this, but she's not much of a bowler. And Chika's kinda tipsy and caught up in the moment so she stumbles up to her, beer bottle in one hand, and kisses her."
"Aww, that's sweet."
"Really?"
"No." Yoshiko could only imagine how bad a beer kiss tasted.
"Yeah, it was pretty sloppy, but I'd be lying if I said the look on Riko's face wasn't cute. Anyway," You continued, "there's these people the next lane over, and they're straight."
Hanamaru wrinkled her nose. "How straight?"
"Straight. Like, 'he gives her strength and she gives him feelings…' straight."
"Yuck," said Yoshiko. "Disgusting how they always feel the need to flaunt it." Maru gave a sage nod of assent.
"They go laughing at Chika and Riko. Saying stuff like, 'You could spend more productive time with balls.' And Chika is livid. She rails on them, telling them gay people can bowl every bit as good as straight people."
"Good for her," Hanamaru said.
"And she challenged them to a match next Friday. Only problem is she doesn't have a complete team..." You looked over at them, smiling sweetly.
"Not good for her," gulped Yoshiko.
Sunday found her, Hanamaru, Chika, Riko, You, and Kanan at The Second Cup, a diner on campus. It wasn't the most popular hangout; this was partly due to the rainbow flag hung outside and its equally colorful clientele inside. It had been open since the seventies and hadn't shown much change since then. The front counter was done up with chrome, and the whole place sported a garish tangerine color scheme as far as the eye could see.
"I have called you here as the best bowlers in our circle," said Chika.
"And the best moral support," Riko added, nodding at Hanamaru.
Chika proceeded to make an impassioned speech with Riko giving short interjections.
"The gay community has incurred a tremendous blow. ("Over bowling?") Bowling balls everywhere are crying. ("They're not.") But in the face of such tragedy we must remain committed to our shared goal – securing our unalienable rights as LGBT citizens of this Land of the Rising Sun. And on Friday we take a step closer to those rights." ("With a game of bowling?")
"Question!"
"Yes, Tsushima-san, you may proceed."
"Why not challenge them to something they'd never beat us at? Like rugby or softball?"
"Excuse me, am I sensing some stereotyping?" asked You, who had formerly managed the softball team part time.
"I happen to know for a fact over half the team is gay, including that third baseman you set me up with last month."
"How'd that go, by the way?"
Yoshiko glanced aside and nibbled a French fry. "Let's just say I had higher hopes for third base..."
Chika rapped her knuckles lightly on the walnut tabletop. "C'mon, guys, let's focus. We need to train and we need a strategy. Luckily, I have a plan."
Everyone looked at each other nervously. Plan was like a four-letter word to Chika, and she was as vulgar with it as a sailor. She had always hatched some wild schemes, and they seemed to grow more insane with age. As You said, "You are going to lead to a very interesting cause of death one day, mark my words."
"Kanan." Chika jabbed a finger in her direction. "I want you to bring Mari and do her on the straight team's lane."
Kanan blew her drink back through her straw. Coke spewed up over the rim of her glass. "No!" she spluttered. "You – you gotta be kidding!" Her face was glowing.
"We'd get kicked out!" Riko exclaimed.
Chika sighed and resigned herself to tracing a knot in the wood with her forefinger. "Oh, fine. Here I was, hoping we could confound them."
"The gay team is not so awful that we need to rely on tricks to win," said You. "We're gonna own them."
That was a strategy they could all get behind. They raised their glasses to the gay team. Then, conversation meandered to campus gossip.
The week passed. Yoshiko checked her Greek mythology grade online with low hopes and high anxiety only to find her paper had gotten an A. She treated Hanamaru to dinner as thanks for her help. They popped into the bowling alley twice to practice. Yoshiko saw no sign of improvement.
"Okay," said Hanamaru. "By Friday, at this rate, you should be able to get the ball close enough to the pins for them to exchange short pleasantries. That is, before it goes into the gutter."
"Where it'll be at home with everyone's brains." Yoshiko knocked back a swig from her water bottle. "You're doing excellently in the moral support department. Thank you."
Maru smirked. "Coddling you never did do much good." She stood and stretched, then put her hands on Yoshiko's shoulders and looked her right in the eye. "You'll be great. You're bringing more to the team than I am. I'm only here to heckle the straights. But you – you will rise to this momentous occasion. You won't let us down. I know it."
Yoshiko felt as if she'd grown three sizes larger from the chest out. She smiled. Then, catching herself, she turned away from Hanamaru's hands and gaze, brought her first two fingers over her eyes, and said in a low voice, "Your flattery will not save you from the end of days, for when my –"
The side of Maru's hand landed lightly upon her head. "That will not help us win."
Friday came. Team Gay bowed to a Team Straight that barely inclined their heads in response. Hanamaru recognized one of them from her Western Lit class; this one had wanted to be a Japanese Faulkner – only she wanted to write novels about the grim lives of the poor in blank verse. Maru remembered actually losing sleep trying to puzzle out that one.
Mari made an appearance to cheer her team on. She and Kanan didn't rut on the straight team's lane as Chika requested, but they did share a deep kiss after Kanan bowled a strike on her first round.
"I don't think it's fair," a guy with a cluster of blackheads on his nose said loudly, "for the lesbos to have a man on their team."
Kanan glared, opened her mouth to say something, but Mari shook her head and whispered in her ear, "If you are a man, you're more of one then he'll ever be. And you're more woman than he'll ever get."
Hanamaru had offered to keep score, but she backed out after she saw the complex Star Trek-esque apparatus that served as a score keeper. Her rule of thumb was that if it required an instruction manual to operate then it had better be for home, work, or school.
Dia and Ruby Kurosawa joined in later for yet more moral support. After getting past their saltiness over not being invited as the gay community's best bowlers they cheered harder than anyone when one from their team stepped up.
Finally came Yoshiko's turn. The second she stepped up she was certain this was just a very bad idea. She could feel the stares of the opposing team, cruel people who in all likelihood wanted her dead. Oh God, these assholes are gonna win and it's gonna be my fault. She looked at Hanamaru. She had just finished tying her hair up, and she tipped Yoshiko a thumbs up and a wink.
"The ball might come close enough to the pins to exchange pleasantries before it goes in the gutter." You little trick. I'll show you. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the ball. The voices and the stares disappeared and it was just her and the pins. They were going down. She would take them out in a single strike and she would show up not only the straights but that smartass Zuramaru. She would.
She took a step. Another. On the third, she brought her arm back and swung it forward and down, aiming for that sweet center.
And her fingers got caught as she hooked her wrist, twisting them with a series of cracks. Crying out, she dropped the ball.
Kanan and Mari, who were both med students, ran forward to check on her.
"I'll bet she would have rather broken her fingers in a different hole," the straights cajoled.
In truth they weren't broken, but they hurt like hell and she couldn't do her round. Kanan and You had shown true talent in theirs, but they were only two talented people against a team of four. And so it was that the gay team lost.
Despite feeling painfully bitter at the loss, Chika put on a smile and proposed they all go out for drinks to celebrate a fabulous (if not victorious) effort.
Hanamaru sat down beside Yoshiko as she gingerly changed her shoes. She took a look at her crestfallen face and said, "Oh, Yoshiko. There's no need to beat yourself up."
"I let the team down."
Maru rubbed her back. "Those people we were up against let themselves down all the time probably. That one with the bangs and glasses does for sure anyway." She shook her head, amazed at how someone could be so stupid and so hateful at the same time. Seeing people like that only made her happier she knew Yoshiko, knowing without a doubt, despite what she may think, that she was one of the good ones. Maru leaned against her, then said, "You probably would have missed those pins anyway."
Yoshiko lightly slapped her arm with a shoe. "I'll pin you, Meaniemaru."
"Not now, dear, there are children here."
Dumbfounded and blushing, Yoshiko dropped the shoe and stood. Sometimes she had to hate how smart Maru could be. "Whatever. Like you'd actually want me to pin you anyway."
"No. But somebody will." Hanamaru also stood and pulled a thread off Yoshiko's shirt. "You're not exactly a troll, you know. You'll find her. The exciting thing is you'll never know where."
Yoshiko looked at her smiling up at her from under sandy brown bangs, her short ponytail like a fluffy halo around the top half of her head. Time seemed to move in indirect proportion to her racing heart. Words seemed to fall clumsily from her open mouth. "Yeah. Or… when."
"Right? She could come into your life at any moment."
Like almost twenty years ago. Yoshiko brought a hand to her mouth and rubbed thoughtfully. Maru, meanwhile, was suggesting they rejoin the group for those drinks.