This meant to be my last chapter of the fic, finished with a great big finale. But instead, I crapped out halfway due to University issues and work. Anyway, I did finish the first half, so I might as well submit this in and let you guys enjoy first half of the finale. I don't know if anyone's still reading this since it's quite unpopular, nevertheless, please take the time to read and review anyway. Enjoy.
P.S - what's your opinion of the new K-ON manga? Mine? I do not like their new college friends at all. Azusa's new members at Sakuragaoka? They're okay and quite likable.
Disclaimer: K-ON belong to Kakifly and Kyoto Animation
Houkago Tea Time for Life
"What the hell is this?" Yukari asked picking up some sort of tin box. Her other band members looked away from their instruments to their soundly frustrated bassist, picking up a cookie tin box and carefully examining it.
"I believe it is a tin box, Yukari-san," Aigis' robotic tone rolled out. But Yukari rolled her eyes instead.
"I know it's a cookie tin box, Aigis!" she snapped back. "I didn't remember any of you guys bring this in." She inspected the immovable object, looking at it from every direction, as if it's some sort of lost treasure from the fourteenth century. So far the object appeared to be normal, but the brown tape that sealed the lid of the box drove Yukari to a curious state.
"Maybe it belonged to the previous members," Fuuka suggested. "Sensei did say that they left some of their belongings behind."
"I wish that it would be more useful stuff though," Hamuko sighed as she's trying to tune her guitar. "You know, like a vintage guitar, or an amp. Not a fish tank, or some worn out toys. Or whatever the hell that thing is!" She finished her sentence pointing to a weird looking winking frog statue that's hiding in the corner.
"I would recommend leaving the seal on the tin box, Yukari-san," Aigis pointed out to Yukari who appeared to be scratching out the corner of the tape.
"I'm curious what's in it, C-3PO," Yukari retort back. "Besides, what's the worst thing that could be hidden here?"
"Molded cookies," Fuuka suggested an idea.
"Yeah," Yukari sarcastically replied. "I don't think so." Anyhow, the girls didn't even make an attempt to prevent her to continue even further. But as Yukari finished with the last strip of the brown sticky tape, each one of them sparks an interest of the tin's content.
"Quick! Open it!" Hamuko energetically urged her friend.
"Hamuko, calm down," Yukari was taken by surprise. Nevertheless, Yukari open the tin's lid according to her friend's excited urge. She looked in and picked up the first object she saw.
"What is it?" asked Aigis.
"It's a pink cassette tape," Yukari looked at the object that expressed her favorite colour. "Houkago Tea Time," she read the tape's title.
Meanwhile
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Ritsu interrupted. "So you…" she pointed to Azusa, who shyly looked away. "Thought that she's upset over the fact that you guys broke up." Azusa nodded. "And you," Ritsu started again pointing to Yui. "Thought that she's upset that you took her dream on becoming a superstar."
"That's the gist of it," Yui smiled. Ritsu laughed out loud at both of the former guitarists' mistake. While Yui may laugh it off along with Ritsu, Azusa is not very lenient over the matter.
"Hey, it's not funny," Azusa pouted over Ritsu and Yui. "I actually really thought of that. And it's been eating me up." That didn't stop Ritsu's roar of laughter however. She was actually silenced with a fast swipe to her head, which in return made Ritsu to turn at her lover with a disapproving look.
"Knock it off," Mio lectured Ritsu. "You wouldn't think it's funny if you knew how much it's hurting Azusa." It's true as Mio said, it had been eating her up. Mio lost count on how many times Azusa sniffled to her about her problem when Yui left the town.
"Aww… Azu-nyan," Yui glomped on her old friend. "I'm so sorry for worrying you like that." Yui looked up with a half-assed guilty look, Azusa can guess that deep down Yui is glad that she didn't think the other particular reason.
"It's fine, Yui. Don't worry about it," Azusa replied pushing Yui's face before she can get any closer. "Just don't get too close to my face, please." While she may be glad that Yui treat her like she used to, she must not forget that she still have a boyfriend. And they're not teenagers anymore, two grown adults nuzzling their faces to each other like a bunch of school girls is not a pretty sight.
"I thought we're good already," Yui pouted. Yui, however, didn't grasp the Azusa's reasoning.
"Yeah, but we're adults," Azusa reasoned up. "And I have a boyfriend."
"Oh My God!" Yui raised her voice like as if she saw a dead body. "You do? Who?" Azusa didn't know whether Yui is excited for her, or in shock that she's actually made it with a man.
"My brother," Ritsu proudly announced. "You remember him right, Yui?"
"Ah, you mean the mini-Ricchan we met back in high school?" Yui vaguely remembered the boy that the whole band met during their visit to Ritsu's house.
"Mini-me?" Ritsu scrunched up in annoyance. "Satoshi does not look anything like me!"
"Yeah, he's way better looking than Ritsu-san," Azusa accidentally slipped out.
"What!" Ritsu yelled at the same voice volume to Yui's. Azusa closed her mouth upon reflex, she can see a somewhat upset-looking Mio at the corner of her eyes. "You got guts saying that to my face Nakano!" Ritsu somewhat playfully threatened Azusa.
"Now, now, Ritsu," Mio calmed her wife down. "She didn't really mean that. Right, Azusa?" Mio gave her that same threatening look.
"Uhhh… yeah," Azusa answered with a shifty eye. "I guess." Both Ritsu and Yui laughed at the expense of Azusa's misfortune while Mugi watched on silently on the side with a satisfied smile. Yui noticed her silent demeanor and approached her with a questioning glance.
"Mugi-chan, you've been quiet for a while," said Yui. "Is everything okay?" The other three girls took an interest to Yui's innocent concern and bring their attention to their other friend as well.
"Oh I'm fine, Yui-chan," Mugi simply smiled. "I'm just enjoying each and every one of your company."
The girls understand her completely. Out of all the five girls, Mugi lived the furthest away. Ever since she got married, Mugi had to live with her partner over in Europe. It's hard for Mugi to leave her best friends, but her devotion to her partner comes first. And even if she did stay in Japan, the situation won't change much either. Every single member of The Houkago Tea Time has their own individual live to look after. Mio and Ritsu have a family, Yui has her music career and Azusa is in a committed relationship.
"Yeah," Azusa nodded. "I understand you completely Mugi." Even though Azusa is connected to the Tainaka-Akiyama family, they only had brief encounters. Even Satoshi wanted to see her sister and nieces more often. "It sure has been a while since we're all here together."
The girls hardly visit and get together as much. But a miracle strike when Mugi decided to visit her home country. She called all of her friends and coincidentally, all of them are available on the single day they decide to meet up.
"Come to think of it," said Mio. "When was the last time we're all together in one room?"
"Uhmm… high school?" Yui pondered on.
"Try college, Yui," Ritsu rolled her eyes. "We hung out a lot back in college."
"Really?" Yui tilted her head feeling lost. "I don't remember much of that."
"Ugh! How could you not remember that?" Ritsu asked feeling insulted. "We had so much fun together! Remember the uhh…" Ritsu stopped midway her sentence to gather her thoughts.
"The uhh…" She closed her eyes and try to flashback to her College days, in which turned out with no result.
"Uhmm…" She tried again while holding her head hoping for it to jolt her memory.
"Uhhh… Mio!" She turned to her wife giving up in digging through her memory file. "Help me out here!"
"What are you looking at me for?" Mio snapped. "I'm not an Esper."
"Just tell us some of your great memories when we're in College," Ritsu pointed out. "Just enough to point out to Yui about the fun things we did in College." Mio groaned and rolled her eyes at her, nevertheless she followed to her wish anyway.
"Let's see," Mio mimicked Ritsu's previous thinking pose. "Oh, remember our first gig." Mio recalled her first time singing up on stage in front of people outside the school group. As crazy as it was for her to pull something like that, it was one of her best memories.
"That was when we were in High School, Mio-san," Azusa pointed out.
"Eh? Really?" Mio looked towards Azusa with a confused look. "I'm pretty sure it was after…"
"We were still in Sakuragaoka, Mio-chan," Mugi smiled. "Remember? We performed on our school uniform." Upon the mention of the uniform, Mio immediately remember. She had that sudden realization nodded face, which in return receives a snicker from both Ritsu and Yui.
"Oh, shut up!" she scold them both. Still, she could not believe that her first gig was back in High School. She really thought that her first performance was when she was in College.
"Yeah, I remember that," Yui said after her snickering. "Our first gig. That was our first Backstage Pass sticker. And after that, more of them just keep piling up."
"There we go!" Ritsu suddenly blurted pointing to Yui, "You remembered! Our other gigs back in College." Though Ritsu may point it out to Yui, she wondered herself why it didn't cross her mind.
"Oh yeah, our other gigs," Yui thought about it suddenly. Apparently, she and Ritsu are in the same wavelength. "But that's strange, how come I didn't remember much of it?"
"This may sound cliché, but I believe it's because all of our great memories were all in high school," Mugi pitched in her wisdom.
It never really hit them like that, but what Mugi just said pretty much sum up the gist of the fun things they all had back then. High school was where all the great memories that all five girls shared together. It was where they all met and became best friends, it was where they played music together and it was also where they shared an eternal bond of longtime friendship.
"Yeah," Ritsu slowly nodded. "You know, I've never really thought about it that way, but you're right. We had some great memories together there, didn't we?" Ritsu had her fair share of memories in high school, to her that time was where she finally earned the heart of the princess.
"I couldn't agree more," Mio agreed too. Not only had she found her fairy tale prince (or princess) there, it was also the time where she stepped up from her comfort zone. If she hadn't taken that leap of performing in front of strangers, she wouldn't have the courage to make it as a Customer Relationship Manager in a printing company.
"That was the starting point of my career," Yui smiled at that memory. The Light Music Club she reluctantly joined was the first stepping stone for Yui to climb up that road of stardom. She couldn't be any happier once she climbed up on stage with her trusted Giitah on hand. The once lost turtle with an incomplete career sheet had finally found her road.
"That was where I met some great people," Azusa scanned the room eyeing each and every one of The Houkago Tea Time girls. She remembered that day when the original members graduated, she was heavily devastated over that fact. When she lost contact with her friends back in middle school, she was afraid that another thing would happen again. But much to her great pleasure, they never keep her in the dark.
"Ah, that was my line Azusa-chan. I was going to say that," Mugi break the moment of thoughts. It seems that Azusa's in the same wavelength with Mugi too.
"Sorry, Mugi-senpai," Azusa slipped out of habit. The other four girls giggled in delight as Azusa embarrassingly looked away. With all those talks and thoughts of their high school days really placed Azusa back in her indoor high school shoes.
"Oh, Azusa-chan," Mugi looked at her with those memorable sparkly star eyes. "I've been dreaming for someone to call me that again for so long."
"Azu-nyan! Azu-nyan!" Yui glomped on Azusa again. "Call me 'senpai' again too, please."
"No! And please get off of me!" Azusa argued back while trying to take Yui's wrapped up arm off her neck.
"Akiyama-senpai!" Ritsu suddenly burst out turning towards Mio. Mio was taken aback by the sudden call, and she didn't like that glint on Ritsu's playful smile. "I've always liked you, please go out with me!"
"Ritsu!" Mio shrieked out loud. "Knock it off! That's not funny!" She shuffled her eyes away embarrassingly, while trying to maintain her furious blush from the sudden confession. Ritsu may be married to Mio now, but that did not stop her for always teasing Mio over their 'forbidden' love. And she just loves that reaction of hers, it never changed since high school, and to her it hopefully never will.
"Please return my feelings, senpai. I promise that I'll treat you right!" Ritsu acted her voice out like a pro. The girls are really amazed with her convincing act, too convincing for Mio.
"Stop calling me, senpai. We're at the same age for God's sake!" Mio's starting to feel annoyed.
"Then please accept my feelings, Romeo!" Ritsu added that last thought with a chuckle, which ended up her roaring in a heap of laughter. The other three girls joined her soon enough, that Cultural Festival Play was one memorable moment. "Take me away from this dreaded household. Away from my douchebag father and… OWW!"
"Okay, enough of that," Mio clocked her wife's head hard. Since they're role-playing their high school days, Mio might as well get in to that spot whenever Ritsu crossed the line. She can't remember when the last time she hit her that hard.
"Ahh, yes. Good times," Ritsu rubbed her painful throb. "I wonder what's happening with that school now."
"Isn't it still going?" Azusa asked.
"Well, yeah, but I mean like… you know… how's it going with the Light Music Club, and Sawa-chan and stuff," Ritsu trailed on. As mean as it may sound, they pretty much lost contacts with their favorite teacher/advisor.
"I heard she left the school after she got married," Mugi replied.
"And Ui told me that Jun-chan pretty much took her place," Yui finished for the group. "Anything else other than that, she didn't say."
"I wonder how The Light Music Club is doing," Mio wondered out loud. "Are they short on members like us on the first day? Do they laze around and drink tea before practice?" Mio sighed thinking back like as if she's an old woman who's relieving her younger days. "This must be how Sawako-sensei felt when she left high school."
"Yeah, but unlike us, she's up to date with the current situation when she worked down there," Ritsu said to Mio. Mio nodded back agreeing with her completely. Just as she's about to turn over to Mugi, Ritsu's hand grabbed Mio's shoulder rough. She looked over to her dear wife with a huge realization smile, like as if she discovered the cure for cancer or some sort. Piecing along with the earlier conversation they just had about the school, Mio can guess what's going to come after that.
"Hey, let's go and visit Sakuragaoka High!" And Mio's guess is correct on the spot.
"What?" Azusa asked. "Are you serious?"
"Hey, yeah! That sounds like fun! Let's do that!" Yui agreed with excitement. Azusa groaned at Yui's childish excitement, it will be difficult to convince her otherwise. Even as time goes by, she still thinks of the same way.
"Let's not!" Mio objected. "School time was over an hour ago anyway." Mio checked her watch.
"Great," Ritsu pushed the boundary further. "Then we wouldn't be much of a bother during after hours." Mio rolled her eyes similar to Azusa. Just like Yui, Ritsu is also difficult to persuade otherwise after she's excited upon something.
"Then how about we call a vote," Mio suggested. "All in favor for going to Sakuragaoka, raise your hand." It was the perfect plan for Mio to persuade Ritsu and Yui not to go, by a majority of vote. She figured that at this point on, everyone would like to go back home to their family/loved ones. Too bad she didn't predict that Mugi is on the same wavelengths as Yui and Ritsu.
Conveniently, the part where I stopped is a good place to finish the chapter. Well anyhow, notes.
The girls of P3P are back, you know from the first chapter, if it's not obvious enough as it is. And them finding the pink cassette tape was actually what i initially planned all along. In fact, that was supposed to be the opening scene in the drafting stage, but instead i pushed it down towards the finale part.
Anyway, I'm torn of whether i should mention the new K-ON cast into this fic or not. Since I don't want to spoil anything to anyone who's actually behind with their K-ON knowledge. But I'll let time decide for that.
Anyways, a review would be nice. Please spare the 1 - 2 minutes of it. And thanks again for reading.