A/N: I do not own anything but what I write and what I can draw. I've been hiatus on this fanfic for a year and therefore I am sorry. It's a good thing I still have the files on my computer and a few written parts.
I have made small edits on the previous chapters since I was disturbed with how many errors I have. I still do know there are still more, but I can't clear them all up since I don't always notice them...so, sorry.
Chapter III
Night time drew close with the obviousness of the coolness of the breeze entering through the open windows, fluttering the curtains momentarily. The light from the quarter-moon following as it lit up a certain blonde's desk, showing the pile of stacked papers and books neatly placed on top, almost taking up all of the said furniture's space in the process. It was mainly because of the books though since there was a need to go through them due to the crucial all-or-nothing test they have tomorrow.
'It's a bit too early to work on those textbooks,' The blonde thought as she glanced at her desk when she had entered her room, a towel in hand as she dried her damp silken tresses after taking a nice refreshing bath after coming home from a hard day's work in the Student Council. Nevertheless, the blonde plopped herself on her desk chair and wheeled herself in front of her work for the night.
Scanning through the stack, the papers never seem to end, be it from Student Council work or from her homework as a third year student. She would like to protest for once, but Eri went against the thought, it would be too childish of her to do that since she did ask for it when she ran for the position of Presidency. All that was left to do was to accept all of it until she graduates. Nonetheless, it was energy exerting to go through every single day with all this stack of papers in front of her.
The only thing that would make her day is spending time with the other Muse members or talking to Nozomi during their breaks in-between their work in the Student Council. Other than that, the times she spent inside the school would pale down to nothing and at the end of the day the need to collapse on her bed was much stronger than the need to eat dinner.
Today was different though since the papers were lesser than what Eri had always expected them to be when she went to the council room and it made her sigh in relief because she was able to relax her mind for the whole school hour.
What did make Eri wonder was how it lessened; perhaps it might have been her best friend's doing, but how she did so had managed to make the blonde puzzled. They were often with each other, almost as if they were joined to the hip, which is why it puzzles her completely. Eri doubts the older girl went early to school today either, but Nozomi being her usual self…she possible would.
Tapping the mechanical pen on her chin, Eri thoughtfully preoccupied her thoughts with her best friend. Toujou Nozomi was everything that Eri could ever need and want as a friend. The purple head had helped her through different kinds of rocky situations and stuck to her through thick and thin, even with Eri's embarrassing moments, Nozomi was there. Though much to her chagrin, Nozomi would always use said embarrassing moments to tease her endlessly and mercilessly until she was a blushing far too red that rivals even Maki's hair.
It did make Eri feel embarrassed and irked about that little details, but Nozomi has seen every side of her. The older girl knows too much, she might as well be able to read the blonde like an open book with just a single glance. Still, even though Nozomi is keeping a lot of Eri's secrets, not once had the older girl ever betrayed or violated Eri's trust.
Nozomi has been nothing but kind, a true best friend to her.
Eri did have to admit that there were weird things about her best friend that she could never comprehend like her ESP ability being real and her reliance to her precious cards but overall, Eri liked her even with that little touch of weirdness. It was a quirk that she had come to accept fully, and it was amusing, except the time when Nozomi startled her when she started chanting on the burger when she went to have lunch afterschool with the other Muse members.
"Really…she's full of surprises," Eri stifles a giggle, remembering fully well how puzzled her purple haired best friend was when she had taken a bite of her chanted burger while Eri was staring dumbstruck at her purple haired companion.
Eri sighs, grinning, before she looks down at her desk, a hand covering her face as she hid her flustered cheeks. Whenever the thought of her best friend comes up, it would never fail to make Eri feel embarrassed and flustered, but the warmth that filled her heart would always be comforting and soothing, just as how welcoming Nozomi's presence is in her life.
Placing down the pen near her arithmetic book, Eri twirled her hair in a childish display of action, staring at the ceiling as she spun her chair.
She wonders if the older girl is sleeping already, it wasn't exactly that late, but she would want to hear her voice, though she wouldn't want to impose on the purple head if she was already sleeping around this time.
Frowning thoughtfully, Eri decides to just fulfil her selfishness. She'd call Nozomi right now. There were also some questions she would like to discuss with her too, and maybe get some help and advice from her as well.
Without wanting any doubt to build up inside her mind, Eri hastily took her phone and called Nozomi, and without much to wait, the older girl answered her, as if expecting her to call at that very moment.
"Quite rare of you to call me at a time like this, Erichi, is there something wrong?"
"Mhmm, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to talk about something," Eri smiles and closed her eyes. As ever, Nozomi would always worry about her, always the kind and caring one, this best friend of hers.
"You could have at least greeted me though…" Eri humoured her teasingly, standing up from her seat to letting her body comfortably surrender to bed the blonde lied upon.
"Ah, my bad then~" Nozomi answered softly, giggling afterwards before murmuring the greeting she forgot to say, Eri responded back with her own greeting. Both weren't in a hurry and just took their time and pace, although Nozomi knew that there might have been something urgent for the blonde to call her tonight.
"Well, I hate to cut the greetings short now, but what does Erichi want from little ol' me?" She asks, although it seemed an impolite action that implied of her being hasty. Nozomi though, not wanting the blonde to shrink down and feel as if she had been a bother, implied a playful tone in her questions which Eri merely shook her head at.
"Little ol' me, you aren't that much smaller than I am, Nozomi, and we both know that."
"Ara ara… At least humour me back, Erichi," The older girl sighs, pretending to sound hurt.
"I will. I will, when you stop relying and using your cards that is," Eri answered back, the thought of asking the older girl of something already forgotten in her head as she focused on her current conversation with Nozomi.
"Will, you say then you add such a condition. How mean~"
Eri smiles even more and laughs at the whining sound that came from Nozomi.
The blonde's laughter was like music to Nozomi's ears that even she is smiling tenderly at how melodious Eri's voice could ever get. She just simply loves to listen to Eri's laugh, it sounded lovely when her blonde best friend laughs without much worries or restrains. Nozomi wouldn't really mind being a fool for the whole night if it meant having to hear Eri laugh and hear her sound this happy every time.
How much would Nozomi do for such a thing to continue on—she wished it was possible.
"Mou, Nozomi…if you don't stop it, I wouldn't be able to think seriously now!" Eri stifles a giggle, a dainty hand covering up her mouth. The obvious fondness reflected in her sapphire orbs in a sign of happiness, one that Nozomi unfortunately couldn't see.
"Hmm—that isn't really a bad idea either, I can get to hear you laugh like this. Erichi's laugh is really cute too~"
"N-Nozomi…!" The blonde stutters, feeling the blood rush up to her cheeks due to Nozomi's 'unintentional' compliment, although it did brought Eri some joy to know that the older girl had this liking for her laugh, for whatever reason though, Eri doesn't know why. What she does know is that the feeling of warmth, fluff and bubbles filled her insides—it tingled a lot.
"Ah—? Are you blushing right now, Erichi~?" Eri could imagine the other girl smirking and it makes her huff, her lips turning into a small pout.
"I'm not! Mou…"
"Hmm~ Hehe, whatever you say then, Erichi~"
"Nozomi… You aren't really going to believe me, are you?" A sigh escapes Eri's lips, unable to find a retort to Nozomi's response since commenting or complaining would only result to the older girl jesting and teasing her back, much to Eri's slight embarrassment.
She did enjoy it, but too much would do badly to her pride and Eri would never admit enjoying Nozomi's teasing, she would die of embarrassment if Nozomi ever found out.
"Who knows~? Erichi is kind of cute like this, so…"
"D-Don't just cut your sentence off! Mou…!" Eri shouts, pushing herself off her bed and sitting up straight, the bright hue of rosy pink covering her cheeks up to her ears in a clear sign of her embarrassment.
"Sorry, sorry~" Nozomi responds playfully with a giggle, making the blonde huff again, an arm crossed in front of her chest.
The conversation continues as it is, light hearted coupled with a few teasing from Nozomi's side and Eri's defences. The real purpose of the actual call having been long lost, but the two enjoyed their talk until it was time to settle in for the night. They bid each other good night and did their own tasks for the night before going to bed, with a promise of tomorrow to come to school early to handle their overly normal and repetitious tasks with the continuously piling stack of papers in the Student Council room.
o=o=o=o
It was currently early in the morning, the first period happening to be foreign language subject, or to be exact, the dreadful English. It wasn't really a pretty schedule to be in at the moment, considering how they would come to school early, only to start with one of the difficult subjects they have.
Mind aching to say the least, but no one could complain anyways, that aside, some of the said students weren't necessarily fully focused on the lesson at hand. A very likely example of a said student is a certain brunette who seemed rather disturbed, fidgeting every now and then as she sent passing glances at the older girl in front of her.
Glancing wasn't the appropriate word for what she was 'actually' doing though. More like, she was staring. And if stares could kill, Kotori knew that she probably would have murdered the girl in front of her at that very moment.
Kotori found it vexing, and even if she did want to stop, but she couldn't help herself from staring at the small back of her blue haired best friend/childhood friend. She should be paying attention to the chalkboard filled with notes and pointers in front of them and their teacher's lessons, but she just couldn't.
At times, there would be certain urges inside Kotori to reach up and tap her friend's shoulder, wanting to make her best friend look back towards her direction, as well as the strange need to see the older girl's shining kind amber orbs and her comforting smile.
It was too much to take now, having just an initial imagination cross her mind made Kotori frustrated.
Kotori wanted to see them right now, but she couldn't—she shouldn't act selfishly based on just her urges. It would be wrong to disturb her best friend without having any reason and need of her attention just for the simple purpose of her selfish urges to be fulfilled and quenched.
'I need to snap out of it…'
Trying to resist the urge to simply take her best friend's attention then and there was becoming a burden for her to take—there was always that urge to simply have Umi's focus solely on her and it was becoming increasingly frustrating as it came often.
'I really got it bad…'
Biting her bottom lip, Kotori looked at her notes with downcast eyes. It was even more evident how much she lacked focus on their class with all the doodles on the leaves of her notebook, the said leaves lacking notes and pointers that were already written on the chalkboard for them to copy. It was even more obvious how much her blue haired best friend was taking up her mind when most of the said doodles were of the older archer in a cute deformed size.
At first, Kotori found that the seating arrangement in their class was something that made her perk up with happiness, but then, it somehow now became a part of a distraction to her focus. To top it off, the brunette was hopelessly in love with her blue haired best friend since their childhood days, though of course she would never know that she is 'in love' with her when they were children, she was too young to know the difference after all.
Kotori had all along thought that it was just a crush at first sight kind of moment—a thing that Kotori believed would fade away in time, which was why she wasn't any least bit worried about it. But over the course of time and the longer she spend time with Umi as they grew from being children to teenage girls, the emotions that existed in her heart grew from a simple puppy crush to a much stronger kind of affection. The one thing Kotori had not wanted it to become: Love.
The affections she thought would fade, never once did falter and disappear. Instead, it had become a large problem because it was hard to ignore completely. How could Kotori possibly even ignore the way her heart beats fast, or how it would soar up high at the sight of her blue haired best friend? Or even the way Umi dominates and preoccupies her thoughts and daydreams?
This attraction was something that society forbid, yet, she couldn't throw them away easily even if she wished to. Even in Kotori's own innocent young mind when she first discovered her attraction for Umi, she was aware how wrong it was, but then again why did it also seem to feel so right? Kotori wished she knew why she felt this strongly, or at least if possible, have a way to contain the emotion itself.
'I wish I were like Honoka-chan…' The brunette sighs, glancing at her ginger best friend from her left. A bitter smile etches on Kotori's lips in envy at how comfortable and peaceful Honoka seemed as she slept through the class without any care in the world. Even though her very first friend would likely to fall for it and get reprimanded.
If Kotori was like Honoka, surely, maybe, she'd handle her situation differently right now. Then again, Kotori wasn't Honoka. The energetic ginger head was different when it was about these kinds of things. When it comes to what she wants and about her feelings as well—Honoka is always straightforward with her feelings, to say the least, she's always sure about what she wanted and would pursue it in a way that is very like her.
Unlike Honoka, Kotori has always been indecisive about everything. They are total polar opposites, Umi had once told her so, which is truth itself. She could only act on her accord if someone were to give her a push. Always thinking about other people before herself, and always putting their needs before her own, Kotori could never be selfish like Honoka when it really mattered. And on her own, Kotori can't do anything as remarkable like what Umi and Honoka can.
She's the type of girl that was always stuck in her own train of thoughts, unable to do anything but be a bystander to the fleeting chances of what could become a reality and of the events at present.
Kotori knew that she was merely but an observer and a wistful dreamer.
Which is why it was hard not to mind and pay attention to things like this, especially when the cause of her distress was in front of her—she was what Kotori wanted, desired, the one thing that her heart sorely wished for. Yet, it's also something that she could never possibly have either.
'It's not fair…' An exhausted sigh slips out of her mouth, an evident sad frown on Kotori's face.
It seemed like everything would be going excruciatingly slow today, the brunette already wished that it would just end soon. That she could just hide away and detach herself from all of the weight of this problem that she's carrying: The conflict of loving.
Unable to do anything more but to resign to the situation she's in, the brunette simply slumped on her seat and played with her mechanical pencil, letting the whole English class pass by in a state of restlessness and longing.
o=o=o=o
"Mm—finally, class is finished!" Honoka chirped cheerfully, stretching her limbs as she sat properly on her seat, her ever so cheerful smile present on her lips.
"You didn't even pay attention to the class though, Honoka…" Umi shook her head in disappointment and sighed, one hand place on her waist while the other hand flicked off her long blue silken tresses over her shoulder.
"It was boring, it can't be helped! And I was sleepy too…" Honoka shrugged as she murmured her excuse, which did not in a way, make Umi happy.
"If you don't start paying attention to classes, you'll fail on your subjects."
"You don't need to be so uptight, Umi-chan, I'll be fine~" The younger ginger haired teen cheerful smiled happily waved a nonchalant hand in a manner of trying to end the topic, which Umi saw as a sign to give up for today in getting her to straighten up.
There wasn't really any use in trying to ask the ginger head to focus on her studies anyways, Umi already knew that much, she wasn't Honoka's best friend for nothing. That doesn't mean she didn't have the right to be worried about how her best friend handles her studies though, the fact that their club's range of activities and the school's support on them also ranged in the skills of all of the members to pass their subjects and exams with good grades, meant that there is something to worry about if they all wanted to continue their activities as school idols.
"At least study before our tests, it would at least do some good with your grade. And you shouldn't forget that the state of our clubs lies on the states of our marks as well," The older teen reminded sternly.
"I know that, mou…really; I'll give my best on our exams. You don't need to worry so much, Umi-chan!" A toothy grin flashes towards the blue head's direction in reassurance of a promise to triumph their test, or so Umi saw it as, but without much effect though.
"I wonder about that…" Another sigh escapes Umi's lips, she couldn't really believe in Honoka's words, there were too many times to count how much Honoka's grades almost plummeted to the ground, if not for the effort that she and Kotori gave in order to salvage it from pulling their ginger haired friend to repeating a year.
"Mou! You don't seem to believe me at all!" Honoka puffs her cheeks, both hands on her waist, looking a bit hurt at Umi's lack of trust in her academic prowess, or so she sees it as.
"Because it's doubtable when you say it..." Was the only answer Umi could offer with a shrug of her shoulders, making Honoka shrink at being hit straight through by the stinging words of her dear best friend and childhood friend.
"U-Uuu…" Honoka cringes, eyes narrowing at her best friend's painful retort and in an effort to somehow hopefully bail herself out of Umi's sternness, the ginger haired student stood up from her chair and called upon her other best friend, whining.
"Kotori-chan! Help me…!"
"H-H-Hiiiih…!" Kotori squeaked in surprise, the startling feeling of Honoka's hands on her shoulder shaking her out of her mindless stupor. But since the brunette was not actively listening to the conversation, Kotori had no knowledge of what had occurred and had been said, which was why she opted to simply blink in obliviousness.
"W-What is it…Honoka-chan?" The brunette tried to smile, hoping to compose herself quickly in front of her two best friends to not alarm them with worry.
"Kotori-chan! Umi-chan is being a meanie again!" Honoka whined; her arms automatically wrapping around Kotori's neck in a loose embrace, hiding her face from their other best friend's view in order to escape Umi's menacing glare.
"I am not. And please don't drag Kotori in this too, Honoka," Umi reprimands, a frown settling on her face as she tried to pry Honoka off the brunette, making the ginger head pout and comply, not wanting to hurt the still oblivious brunette.
Immediately as soon as it happened, Kotori stood up and intermediated with the two, seeing as how Honoka was put into a headlock, courtesy of Umi, after the blue head pried their pouting best friend away from her. Currently now, Honoka was patting the older girl's arm in an attempt to loosen her seemingly strong tight grip from her neck, whining all the while as she did so.
"A-Ahh…I think you should settle down…" Kotori looked at her two friends worriedly as she tried to get in between the two.
With or without any other words said, the two girls immediately soften up a bit in their little playful banter—or so, their classmates saw it as, and stopped but did not move to disentangle themselves from one another just yet.
It was automatic that whenever Kotori would step up to become the middle man between Umi and Honoka, the two girls would soon loosen up from their little session like children in the presence of their kind loving mother.
Most of the time, it was either Honoka being sided by Kotori and Umi unable to complain about Kotori being biased on some occasions, or the two of the girls agreeing to Kotori's wish for them to ease up. That was the only means to make the two best friends stop. Not that the two ever became too serious or enraged about their little conversations and acts. It was just a normal everyday occurrence between two quarrelling best friends.
Seeing as how Kotori was siding with her, Honoka gleefully slipped off from Umi's grasp and hummed a cheerful tune, instantly perking and running off when she saw a certain first year red head pass by their classroom and in no time, engaging a conversation with the irked red head.
Unable to do anything now, Umi simply shrugged and slumped down her seat, finding it a lost cause to continue on with appealing to Honoka to study seriously.
Now with just her and Kotori left behind, Umi placed her sole attention to the brunette, her being the new primary target to Umi's frowning.
"Kotori…you're being too soft on Honoka."
"But, it's likely that nothing would come out if we were to force Honoka-chan to do what she doesn't want to, right?" Kotori simply smiled and shrugged as if there was nothing else that could be done but to give consent to the ginger head's ways of handling herself. Of course Kotori would likely want to side with Umi's cause, but since they both know how Honoka was, there was no use in just forcing her something she didn't like.
"That's true…but still…" Umi sighed, wanting to continue on her response, but it ended short when she saw Kotori's pleading smile. Again, the brunette was taking Honoka's side, just like before. Just like always. Sometimes Umi wonders if Kotori was just too fond of Honoka that she instinctively sides to her because of these said affections.
She wouldn't really be surprised if it was because of that. Kotori did pronounced it to everyone inside the clubroom a few weeks before her supposed departure that her very first friend was Honoka and seek her approval more than Umi's. Which Umi can see as Honoka weighing a lot in terms of affections for their brunette best friend compared to her.
It wasn't surprising, since this was always an expected scenario to come whenever they dealt with Honoka, but that doesn't mean that Umi didn't take it with a little grain of salt and a small wound to her pride.
"If you say so…Kotori," The blue haired teen mumbled, altogether dropping whatever protests she wanted to address since there wasn't any point in objecting. Umi chose to turn away from the brunette and went to focus on her English book, but not without giving one last glance at her still smiling brunette best friend.
Once Kotori saw Umi was now focused on the book, the cheerful smile she tried to maintain on her lips simple crumbled into a bitter one, eyes half-lidded and looking away from the back of older girl's.
Kotori did not choose to react to the way that Umi shrugged her off. Although she was surprised at the sudden tinge coldness that the blue beauty threw at her, Umi had her right to act like that because Kotori knew exactly why she did, and it was justified—she was being unfair for siding with Honoka often and being indecisive about taking Umi's side after all.
'I'm sorry…' The brunette mentally apologized, having no such strength in facing the older teen and apologizing for it. If she did, she would probably look insincere to Umi after she already blatantly took Honoka's side, and it would likely hurt the older girl's feelings.
Kotori knew that Umi had a lot of points in her side that justified her reasons very well and she did want to take her side, but the fact that because she had deeper and stronger feelings for her made Kotori feel confused about herself.
If she were to take Umi's side, it would mean that she was biased for Umi because of the love Kotori felt for her, that was why Kotori chose to take Honoka's side. However, because she was taking sides, meant that she was going to hurt one of her best friend's opinion and cause, no matter how little the situation could be.
Something, which she was exactly doing right now—and Kotori hated it.
If only her feelings for her best friend had never existed, Kotori probably won't have to be conflicted with her decisions. If only she never came to understand how she looked at Umi, she probably wouldn't be hurting so much right now.
But things such as 'if's' were always meant to stay as simple 'if's—and nothing more.
Responses:
Major Mike Powell III - Sadly I'm not into threesome, and I do just love the dynamics of these three and their wonderful friendship. And thank you for the compliment, sir.
I love Eri too, especially when she's playful or shy and blushing...around Nozomi. XD
Bad one - I see, I'm not always too into popular characters, so I get the sentiment since sometimes I don't feel appealed to them that I don't know why they are popular...like Nico let's say.
That seems rather worrying, kidding aside, I'll try to make the NozoEri interactions worthwhile.
And... Thank you very much for putting those out! I'm kind of really...well, rusty, and I guess writing when you're sleepy and burned out from school really clogs the mind. I do admit I'm not that particularly super duper good at English. I do wish to offer a coherent story that people can understand at the very least. What you've pointed out sure did help me to be mindful and I'm doing my best to look for all my errors and right them, so really, thank you! ^ ^
A/N: All I have to say is I'm sorry for being out for so long. The update was already half written when I wrote The Word Us, I just never finished it, but school was hefty and I thought I lost my files on this. I dunno if I can update soon, but here's to hoping I don't update after a year.
And Love Live! S2 is clearly amusing and wonderful. The small bits of KotoUmi, and also hooray for Nozomi center song, Dancing stars on me! X)