A/N: I got to the part that I pictured when I first imagined this story. Short author's note since I don't want to give too much away. But read read, things gonna get heavy, that's probably why I gave you guys a Noriko and Touko scene at the beginning with more of their antics.

Title: Something About Red Roses

Pairing: ShimakoxYumi

POV: Shimako 1st, other scenes 3rd person

Chapter 10

"Can we ever hangout outside of school without following Onee-sama and Yumi-sama?" Noriko complained as she browsed through a clothing rack, peeking at the older girls across the store.

"We're not following them," Touko protested, "It doesn't count as following if we were here first."

"We only got here first because we took an earlier bus to get here first," Noriko pointed out, "I mean, Yumi-sama didn't even realize she told you that they were going to the mall today to look around at stuff."

"Touko doesn't know what you're talking about Noriko. I'm here looking for some new warmer weather clothing and I wanted my best friend to come with me to aid in the process."

"Touko!" Noriko hissed, "I do not want to get caught again; the last time was bad enough."

"It's like you said, Onee-sama didn't realize that she told me they were coming, and if you actually start looking at clothing with me, we can get pick out some things and actually look like we are shopping!" Touko retorted.

Noriko sighed, and started leafing through the rack of clothing. "Who wear skirts these short?" She said, pulling a tiny mini skirt off the rack.

Touko glanced at it for a minute. "I think I saw something like that in your Onee-sama's closet actually," she said, pulling a blouse off the rack to examine it closer.

"What? Onee-sama owns a mini-skirt?" Noriko yelled, "Wait a minute, when were you in her closet?"

"Chill out Noriko, it was the day we were over there cleaning the entire blasted temple. I decided to do some snooping since we were there anyway, and geez, Shimako-sama has a bit of a wild side."

"I can't believe you went snooping in my Onee-sama's closet," Noriko cried, "And what do you mean wild side?"

Touko just smirked, "Some of the things I found in her closet were very enlightening. I always thought she'd be one of those more conservative types, you know, with her personality and the whole wanting to be a nun thing. I found a lot of sweaters and longer skirts, but I also found a stash of very short clothes that looked like they would be tight as well. They seemed new, so I imagine she purchased them to wear them for a certain someone."

Noriko hastily put the skirt back on the rack and started shaking a little. "So embarrassing, so traumatizing. I mean, I've seen a lot over the last few weeks. The number of times we've caught them making out in various places around the school is astronomical so I'm pretty numb to it by now, but this is too much," she muttered to herself.

"Oh grow up Noriko," Touko said, exasperated, "I was with you every time we walked in on them or found them and I wasn't traumatized."

"That's because you're a cold hearted sadist."

Touko gasped, "There's no need for name calling Noriko, that's not very nice."

Noriko rolled her eyes and glanced back to where their respective older sisters were. "Touko," Noriko gasped, "They're heading this way!"

The other girl's eyes widened, "Okay, don't panic, we'll just casually bump into them. Act natural."

"Why do I let you talk me into these things?"

"Thanks for coming with me to the mall Shimako," Yumi said as we walked into the large building.

"It's no problem," I told her, "I mean I need to look for some new clothes too; some things aren't fitting right anymore." And maybe I'll get a free show too… In private, in the dressing room…

"Yeah, I've been having that same problem," Yumi's voice broke me out of my daze, "My shirts are getting too tight in the chest area and my shorts aren't fitting well in the back."

"Mhm, I think they fit just fine," I replied dreamily. When I realized what I said I snapped out of my daze, "Um, what I meant to say was…"

"It's okay Shimako," Yumi said, taking my hand, "I only wear the tighter ones for you though. In public, however, I'll need clothes that actually fit correctly."

At the thought of other people seeing what I saw the first time I went over to her house, I started dragging Yumi towards the nearest store. "Yes, we mustn't let anyone else see what's mi- I mean, see your unmentionables."

Yumi must've noticed my slip because she giggled a little and followed me into the store. I watched Yumi started flitting around, picking up different items of clothing before she dragged me back to the fitting rooms. "Alright," Yumi started, "You stay here, while I go try on the clothes and you can tell me how they look."

I pouted a little and sat down, waiting for my girlfriend to come out of the fitting room. A few minutes later, Yumi came out and I felt my stomach bottom out and my mouth go dry. She was wearing a denim skirt that, while it covered everything quite well, was still extremely short.

"What do you think?" Yumi asked, spinning to show me the back.

My eyes zeroed in on my girlfriend's backside and I glupped. She's doing this to me on purpose… I thought. "Yeah, it looks great," I squeaked, "Looks like it's a good fit."

"What about the shirt?" Yumi said, turning back around to see me, "Does it look like it fits well?"

I focused on my slightly glazed eyes on Yumi's top, my eyes drawn to her- "Yeah, looks good," I blushed, "Looks like a good size." I looked away quickly and tried to look into Yumi's eyes, but my eyes were continually drawn to… other areas of her body.

Yumi giggled and continued to model more of her clothes for me. I could only hum and mutter approval though since my mind was too foggy and eyes too glazed over to really respond to anything. Finally after a few more minutes the exquisite torture ended, and we left the dressing rooms. Yumi put the clothes that she didn't like on the rack outside of the fitting room to re-hang, and found a checkout counter to pay for the ones she did like.

"So why don't we go to the food court now and get something to eat," Yumi said to me as we left the store.

I turned towards her a smiled. "Sure that sounds great," I started, not really paying attention to where I was going, "Do you know what you want to- hey!" I suddenly bumped into someone and was sent sprawling to the ground.

"Touko, Noriko-chan, what are you two doing here?" I heard Yumi ask above me. I rubbed my head and opened my eyes, seeing my very sheepish looking soeur.

"Just some idle shopping. I needed a few new outfits," Touko-chan responded, helping Noriko to her feet.

My girlfriend gave me a helping hand up and I gave her a quick thank you peck on the lips. I shot a suspicious glare at my petite soeur and her best friend. Noriko weakly lifted the shopping bag in her hand to show me that they were indeed shopping. My suspicions lessened, but didn't disappear completely.

"Whew, that was a close one," Noriko said as she watched Yumi-sama and her Onee-sama disappear back towards the dressing rooms.

"Mhm," Touko said, "Maybe we should blend in better… Oh here, you buy something too!"

"What?!" Noriko whisper cried, "I don't wear clothing like this." She gestured towards the mini skirts they were standing near.

"Just suck it up and try it," Touko said, pulling one of the self, "Here, this should be your size. If you don't like it, just bring it back, but I think you'll look cute in it."

Noriko's face reddened lightly. "You think so," she said hesitantly, taking the skirt from Touko's hand.

"Would I lie?"

"… Yes…"

"Just buy the damn skirt Noriko."

"Just shopping hmm, so what did you buy?" I asked my petite soeur suspiciously. They could be following us again and just carrying bags to make it seem like they were shopping. It seems pretty paranoid of me, but Touko-chan and Noriko have been known to exhibit stalker-like behavior. I was extremely surprised when Noriko pulled out a jean mini-skirt from her bag.

"Touko talked me into it," she replied weakly, replacing the skirt in her bag.

"Leave them alone Shimako," Yumi chastised, "Obviously they're here doing the same thing we were doing."

"Probably not exactly the same thing," Touko-chan said, stressing the word 'exactly.'

I blushed and quickly decided to let go of the present line of inquiry and change the conversation. "So what are you two going to do now?" I asked.

Noriko shrugged and glanced over at Touko-chan. "I think Noriko wanted to go to the book store earlier," Touko-chan said, "and I wanted to go to the music store. We were in the middle of decided where to go first when you bumped into us."

"Why don't you guys come to the food court with us?" Yumi said, "We were going to grab some burgers or something; it could be like a double soeur date or something."

Touko-chan linked her arm with my girlfriend. "What a good idea," she replied, before both of them walked off laughing a talking about unknown things.

Noriko and I looked at each other. "Date?!" We said at the same time.

"So Yumi," I started, "summer vacation is coming up in a few weeks and I was wondering what you were doing?" We were sitting in the Rose Mansion afterschool waiting for the meeting to start. Even though our conversation could be interrupted at any time, my nerves got the better of me so I decided to voice my thoughts before my head exploded.

"Eh, not much," Yumi replied, "We usually go to visit my grandmother for a week during vacation, but other than that, probably be doing homework and catching up on my video games, relaxing stuff, ya know, why?"

I could feel my face heat up a bit and I looked away for a moment anxiously. Tugging at my hair for courage, I turned back to her, "Well, you know, I was wondering if we could do something during break?"

"Something?"

"Something romantic," I clarified, blushing, "We haven't done anything really romantic as a couple since our first official date, and I was wondering if we could."

Yumi blushed a bright red and started to fidget like I was. "What did you have in mind?" She asked me.

"Oh, um, days out, movies, dinneratanicerestaurant…" I said the last one quickly, trying to alleviate the redness in my face.

Yumi blinked, "What was that last one?"

I took a deep breath, "Dinner at a nice restaurant, like a romantic one, mood lighting, music, candles, the works."

"I'd like that," Yumi replied, blushing sheepishly, "to spend more time together as a couple."

I was about to say something else when the rest of the student council, minus Touko-chan as she had club activities, walked into the room. After we all exchanged pleasantries, Sachiko-sama quickly got us all rounding up and working on some mindless paperwork.

After a while, we all started talking about what we were doing for summer break. Noriko and I had agreed that we would go on day trips to support her hobby but also to cater to my desire to spend time with my girlfriend. Yoshino-san revealed that she had (bullied) Rei-sama into taking her to Mt. Fiji. Yumi and Sachiko-sama were arguing about something (something about an amusement park) that I was mildly concerned about but Yoshino-san told me to basically ignore it.

I zoned out of the conversation that my girlfriend was having with her Onee-sama until I heard something I wish I didn't. "Would you like to come to my summer house with me Yumi?" Sachiko-sama asked.

My head snapped up so fast I felt my neck crack. I first at my girlfriend whose mouth was opening and closing like a fish, then I chanced a glance at Sachiko-sama. I saw something in her eyes that I didn't particularly appreciate aimed at my girlfriend, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"What?" Yumi asked, finally gathering her wits about her.

"I asked if you would like to go to the summer house with me. I usually go for a week before student council comes back early to work on events in the fall," Sachiko replied casually. I knew Yumi had to say no, I mean, we had started to plan to spend more time together over break, in a more romantic setting.

"I would love to go!" Yumi answered after a moment, shocking me straight to my soul.

She wouldn't, I thought frantically, she wouldn't go away with Sachiko-sama when we were planning to spend time together! My thoughts were muddled for the rest of the meeting. Once it was over, I told Noriko to leave without me and I waited for Yumi and Sachiko-sama to leave and followed them down the path. When I heard Sachiko-sama ask Yumi if she wanted to invite anyone, I willed her to say she wanted me to come along, but the brunette remained silent. Instead she replied that she wanted the two of them to spend some time together.

I could feel tears forming in my eyes and I turned away. My feet carried me aimlessly through campus and before I knew it, I was staring at my beloved cherry trees. "Shimako?" I started at Yumi's voice behind me. I wiped furiously at the tears flowing down my face, and turned my gaze towards her, anger obviously present in my eyes. "Shimako what's wrong?" Yumi asked, stepping closer to wipe away my tears.

"Don't," I hissed, stepping backwards, "You're getting what you wanted now."

"What?"

"Don't play stupid with me," I yelled, "You're Onee-sama is fawning all over you, basically throwing herself at you, and all you do is encourage her."

"Shimako what are you talking about," I could tell I was scaring the other girl, but I felt such a great pain in my heart that I didn't really care about the pain I was inflicting on the girl/woman that I loved.

"When she invited you to her summer house," I continued to yell at the other girl, "She clearly has other intentions towards you, other plans than just spending time together."

"What do you mean?"

I chuckled darkly, "And the worst part is probably that you're so ignorant of people's true intentions." I turned away from her and stared at the trees in front of me. "It's ironic that this is where it's happening," I whispered, before turning back to Yumi. "I don't think this is working anymore," I sighed.

Yumi reared back like I had slapped her, "Wh-What?"

"You love Sachiko," I whispered, "You told me so yourself, you don't love me, and I can't be in an unequal relationship where my feelings aren't returned to the fullest with which they are given." Tears were streaming down both of our faces at this point, and Yumi's devastated expression probably mirrored my own. "I think we should break up," I whispered into the silence.

I was going to mark this as complete to mess with people's heads, but thought that would be so mean of me. Review please!