Summary: University life's sometimes not all it's cracked up to be. Especially when you've got a particularly quirky group of friends.
Disclaimer: I do not own Azumanga Daioh.
Rated T for swearing, alcohol references, and shoujo-ai.
Nothing really happens in this chapter. Just a bit of awkward conversation and Yomi in a bad mood.
Thoughts and stressed words are in italics.
Chapter 11
The movie last night was ridiculous. She knew she'd been right in refusing to go the first time around, but Sakaki hadn't objected and Kagura and Tomo had insisted and she didn't want to be the cranky, no fun one in the whole group's eyes. Tomo's opinion was a different matter entirely, as in, if Tomo thought she was a drag, it didn't matter because Tomo could deal with it.
Of course the movie was violent. Of course it was disgusting. Of course it had little to no plot beyond kill or be killed. If she didn't know any better, she would say her tall, stoic visitor was traumatized by it. Tomo, Kagura, and Osaka on the other hand, seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly.
Their group was the only one in the theater (a sure sign of the quality of the film). It had been its opening night and already was being shown on one of the smaller screens. Tomo, however, took it as a fortuitous circumstance, announcing her opinion from in front of the screen as the previews rolled while the rest of them all sat closer to the top.
Osaka, she couldn't really tell, but she felt like the girl was having a good time, priding herself in being able to tell before hand when something was going to jump out yet managing to be just as surprised as the victims when they were mauled, mangled, and terrified.
It was the pinnacle of stupidity and it had cost a heinous amount of money. Never again. She knew they should've just done karaoke. Of course, the movie wasn't the end of it. She knew she had been getting sick all week, and of course when they exited the theater she was even worse off than she had been the day before. Waking up on Saturday, she was miserable.
Her throat was dry, and she could feel her head ache as the throbbing pain moved up from her sinuses to her forehead and temples. Hardly able to focus on the wall clock she saw that it was half past eight. Forcing herself to get up she walked over to the kitchen and put some water on to make tea, taking a tiny wicker wastebasket with her to toss out the contents in the larger kitchen garbage. Her body moved sluggishly, protesting her upright position. She was sure she looked a mess and could feel that the part of her hair was lopsided. It had taken her most of the night to fall asleep so she was also certain her eyes didn't look much better.
"I haade this," came out more like a croaked grumble than spoken words. Great, she knew she was congested, but now she also sounded it. Wanting to retreat back to her room and hide from the world, she remembered Sakaki was there and probably still sleeping.
At least she had found a box of tissues in the hall closet. Setting it on the coffee table and taking the small wastebasket from the bathroom, she had watched the television on mute from 3:00 to 5:00 in the morning after everyone had gone to sleep, unable to fall asleep herself due to how she had already begun hacking and how her nose was all blocked up making it difficult to breathe properly.
Silently, she cursed her bad luck. Of course she'd get sick when they were having a guest over. Sakaki herself had stayed awake with her from 1:00 until 2:00 in the morning, the hour in between their chat and turning the T.V. on had been dedicated to her unsuccessfully attempting to fall asleep and then giving up.
Talking with Sakaki though had been somewhat strange, but in a pleasant way, and she was sure that if Tomo knew they were both up, she would've remained awake herself, never one to miss out on anything. In between the companionable silence, they had chatted about what was going on in their lives, every once in awhile reminiscing and probably idealizing their high school memories. Their group had had a lot of fun together, but there were still some things she wouldn't miss from high school like getting up early so many times a week, taking the same subjects every year with little choice with either classes or the teachers, and wearing those awful gym uniforms.
During their tête-à-tête she had done most of the talking, but it hadn't become awkward, as Sakaki had willingly and attentively listened, which was a nice change from Tomo who tended to have very selective hearing, though she had gotten better over the years.
As she was pouring herself a cup of tea, two arms grabbed her from behind, shaking her from her reverie, wrapping themselves around her waist, successfully interrupting her thoughts. She jumped and some of the hot water from the cup splashed on her hand causing her to drop it on reflex. It landed with a clang, but didn't break. Craning her head to look behind her, she glared accusingly at Tomo.
"heheh Ummm… oops? Sorry?" she said, smiling yet the expression in her eyes showed she knew she was in trouble.
Grumbling under her breath, she removed herself from the embrace, too annoyed to acknowledge the strangeness of Tomo waking up and giving her a hug. Leaning over to the oven, she grabbed a dishtowel to clean up the mess with.
"Uh, morning," Tomo said, standing a bit behind her.
"Bordig," she muttered in reply.
"Oh dang. You really did get sick this week, huh?" Tomo said, tossing one arm around Yomi's shoulders as she watched her friend clean up the spilt water.
Yomi glowered down at her before responding. "I'b a bess… id's nod fair. You rud aroud like ad idiod withoud a coad on, bud I'b the persod who geds sick."
"Oh, poor baby!" Tomo mocked.
"Poor baby, ideed! I cad eved sleep id by roob do ged away frob all this dodsedse," Yomi muttered looking directly at Tomo to emphasize what exactly she had meant by "nonsense".
Deciding to have mercy on her irritated friend, Tomo changed tactics.
"Well, you can just sleep in my room. So, I take it you're not going to be in the mood to hang out today?"
"Do," Yomi grunted before coughing into her hand.
"Hey, let me finish cleaning up in here and you go back to bed, 'kay?"
Yomi just nodded before trudging over to Tomo's room and shutting the door behind her, not feeling up to attempting to make another batch of tea.
Tomo sighed before she finished mopping up the rest of the mess and putting the cup in the sink. Yomi could be such a mope sometimes. Granted, she did seem like she was feeling pretty under the weather, but it looked like she probably had no intentions of going out even later tonight. Well, maybe we can go do some karaoke. Things could be much worse. And maybe it would be easier this way for her to prod Kagura into taking some sort of action. Her efforts the previous night were feeble at best. Seeing the way the two greeted the other at the train station yesterday made her hopeful, but after that it had all gone on as if they were back in high school again. Fun as that was, it didn't really lend itself to any romantic encounters, though the movie they had seen did lead to a bit of interaction, Kagura comforting Sakaki during the more graphic parts. Even Tomo had to admit that it was pretty damn cute and she was sure Kagura had went home satisfied.
Unfortunately for Kagura, they were on a tight schedule. Tonight was one of her last opportunities. Just as she was starting to heat up some more water for tea, planning on taking it into Yomi who she knew was still awake because she could hear her coughing, Sakaki ambled into the kitchen rubbing her eyes.
"Morning, sunshine!" Tomo greeted her enthusiastically causing the other woman to blush.
"Good morning," Sakaki murmured, suddenly self-conscious in her pale pink pajamas.
"Well, I'm making some tea if you want some," Tomo offered.
"Yes, that would be nice thank you," the taller woman meekly stated.
"You can take a seat and relax. Yomi was up but she just went back to bed and'll probably be asleep for the next couple of hours. Uhh if you wanna take a shower, I think Yomi already gave you a towel and there's soap and shampoo and whatever else in the bathroom there… Yeah, that's about it…" Tomo trailed off awkwardly, not really sure what to say to the tall, silent Sakaki.
"Thank you," Sakaki said, equally unsure of how to continue a conversation with Tomo. The furthest most of their interactions during high school had gone where when Tomo would point out her chest size and she would blush, mortified.
An uncomfortable lull settled in over the kitchen. Tomo attempted to look busy by putting away dry dishes.
"Uhh, well, maybe you could visit Kagura today? I think she's got Chiyo's present over at her place anyway. I bet she forgot to bring it last night," Tomo suggested, unnerved by the silence.
"That could be nice."
"Yeah, just give her a call after you clean up. She's always awake by this time, even on Saturday mornings. Umm and you probably don't know where she lives. I bet she'll just come get you. I'm going to stay here with Yomi and see if she wants me to get and cough medicine or somethin'. She gets pretty pathetic when she's sick."
"Yomi doesn't feel well?" Sakaki asked, concerned.
"Just a cold, I think. She's been a little under the weather all week. She fell asleep watching T.V.; it was still on around 5:30 when I got up to use the bathroom. So, she probably was up late, too. Has a hard time sleeping when she's all stuffed up like that. But really, nothing to worry about, I'm sure she'll be ok by tomorrow."
"If there's anything—" Sakaki started, feeling a burden for being over when Yomi wasn't well.
"No, no. You just have a good time with Kagura today and come back whenever. Hey, I'll give you one of the spare keys. Ummm, just don't lose it or Yomi'll freak and somehow it'll all get traced back to me, 'kay?"
Sakaki nodded in understanding as Tomo got a key out from one of the drawers in the kitchen.
"Here ya go," Tomo said, tossing her the small object, "Ah, tea's ready. Here, I'll get you a cup, ok?"
Murmuring in assent, she got up and took the filled cup from Tomo, softly thanking the other woman.
"Hope it tastes ok. I normally don't do this stuff. It's uhh Yomi's kitchen more or less."
Once again there was an awkward silence that hung in the air. Tomo waiting for Yomi's cup of tea to cool, Sakaki blowing lightly on her own watching the steam rise in wispy curls.
"Umm… if you want, I can give Kagura a call and let her know to come over. I had something I wanted to tell her anyway," Tomo said, unable to handle the pause in conversation.
"If… if you want to. That's fine with me," Sakaki replied, slightly confused.
"Well, great then! I'll go do that and you can hop in the shower," Tomo said, forgetting about the tea for Yomi and retreating to her room to look for her cell phone.
She slowly opened the door, a shaft of light landing on Yomi's face. The brunette opened one eye to look at her friend.
"Sorrysorry… just getting my phone. We're gonna give Kagura a call."
Tomo tiptoed over to her bed shuffling through the junk on her nightstand knocking a few things over in the process. Yomi's only response was to roll over and snuggle further into Tomo's pillow, pulling the comforter over her head. She would have questioned her roommate as to why she didn't just use the phone in the kitchen, but she knew it would come out as garble and she wasn't all that interested to begin with.
Finally finding her phone underneath her bed, but thankfully plugged in and charged, she scrolled through her phone book until she found Kagura's number. Softly shutting the door behind her, she looked towards the bathroom. The hallway light was off so she could easily see the bathroom light shining from the sliver of space underneath the shut door. A few moments later the water turned on.
Slinking over to the living room she ducked behind the side of one of the chairs and pressed the send button.
On the other line Kagura's voice greeted her.
"Yo. Come on over. Someone wants to see ya," Tomo said, smiling as Kagura babbled nervously.
"Yeah, I said you'd pick her up and show her your place. Yomi went back to bed 'cause she's got a killer cold and quite frankly, I dunno how the heck to talk to your Miss Sakaki. Don't get me wrong. I like the kid just fine, but she's just… not the best conversationalist. And since you're the one who has the hots for her, I figured it'd be better if you both go off and y'know… don't have a conversation… together. Or something."
Tomo removed the phone from her ear a bit as Kagura shouted at her.
"Huh? No! I'm not makin' fun of anybody. Haha And no, actually, I wasn't really insinuating a make out session by that last comment, but now that you mention it… haha… So thaaaat's where Miss Kagura's mind is? In the gutter, eh?"
Giving Kagura a chance to defend herself, one eyebrow raised in amusement, she looked over the arm of the chair to make sure the hall was still empty.
"Well, just come over, OK?" Tomo continued into the receiver pausing to listen to Kagura's response, "Why am I whispering? Umm… well, I'm still in the apartment… but don't worry. Sakaki's in the shower and Yomi's asleep. See you in like twenty? OK. Sounds good. Later. Yeah, don't worry about it. Huh? Don't worry about that either. Just stay calm. Everything's going to be great, OK? Yeah. That's the spirit! Bye!"
Shutting her flip phone, she went back over to the kitchen remembering the tea she had left at the sound of Yomi's continual hacking, and seeing a box of tissue paper on the coffee table in the living room. Eyeing the empty wastebasket from the bathroom sitting on the kitchen floor she grabbed that, the cup of tea after making sure it was still decently warm, and went back to the living room to get the tissue paper.
She cautiously entered her room, quietly walking over to her bed. Yomi still had her back turned to the door and wasn't moving. Quietly placing the box of tissues on the table by her bed, she sat down cross-legged and waited, chin resting on her crossed arms, which she had placed over the comforter. After a few moments Yomi turned over, face only a hand's length from Tomo's own. Nose red, lips chapped, forehead furrowed in worry; her friend looked dismally adorable.
Yomi had thought she heard someone enter the room again, but after a few moments of silence, she returned her focus to finding the most efficient way to breathe. Turning over on her side, she was surprised to feel soft wisps of air brush against her face. Opening her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of a thoughtful looking Tomo.
"Hey," the shorter woman whispered, "I brought you some tea and some Kleenex. Oh, and the little garbage can so you don't leave your snot rags all over the place."
Yomi grimaced slightly at Tomo's word choice, which had successfully ruined the moment. Were she not feeling miserable, she would have taken the opportunity to whap her roommate on the head.
"So, I was just wondering if you needed anything. Sakaki's probably going to go visit Kagura, so it'll just be me and you for a while. If you wanted me to get any cold medicine, I can run to the store."
Looking at Tomo warily, she decided that she'd rather not be indebted to the wildcat and shook her head, feeling some of her hair fall in front of her face.
"Well, tough luck. I think I'm going to the store anyway so I'll get you something so you can get better faster. Besides, it'll be boring with just me here by myself."
Had she been in any mood to talk, she would have asked Tomo why the heck she didn't just go with Sakaki and Kagura. The way Kagura and Tomo had been getting along the past week or two actually kind of made it seem like her position as "best friend" (a term her more cynical mind didn't really believe in) was being usurped. It hadn't bothered her all that much, it really hadn't, but still, it was somewhat difficult to think that perhaps sometime soon she'd become the third wheel. Not that she minded being alone or anything. She could very well take care of herself, but it would be odd to not have a constant companion in Tomo. But all those hypothetical wonderings were useless. Tomo was right there in front of her, insufferable grin and all.
In spite of her reassurances, she felt the need to say something. "I'll go oud with you guys dodighd. I jusd deed sobe sleep…" she murmured, shutting her eyes again.
Suddenly tired, she felt herself drift off to sleep, vaguely aware of a warm hand clearing the loose strands of hair from her face.
Author's Notes: The code for Yomi's dialogue when she's sick is "n" and "t" are replaced by "d" and "m" is replaced by "b". (by accident… this was included in Chapter 10 author's notes… ah well, I decided to split the two up… because it made things easier for me and I didn't have to come up with a transition).
I just don't see Sakaki and Tomo as having great conversation. But it's fun to mix the characters up. Yomi and Osaka together in a scene were also awkward.
I normally have done both sides of the phone conversation… but doing just one was somewhat entertaining.: )
Just for fun:
Calvin: "I believe history is a force. Its unalterable tide sweeps all people and institutions along its unrelenting path. Everything and everyone serves history's single purpose."
Hobbes: "And what is that purpose?"
Calvin: "Why, to produce me, of course! I'm the end result of history."
I see Tomo's logic working like that… (quote from Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson)
Thanks a ton for everyone who has reviewed. I really like hearing from you all. Much love for the repeat reviewers especially.: ) And the ones that send me messages in addition to the reviews. Haha It's always fun to see what you've got to say.: D And sorry… I might have sent uhh a double review reply to a person or two… I forgot who I had already written to before the holidays and who I hadn't. erk. Haven't really said it before, but it'd be great if y'all could leave some reviews for me to look forward to reading while I'm at horrible work.: p I'm sure the American public will not be on its best behavior today.
Next chapter… I just have to figure how I'm going to work this out (final pairings are not set at the moment… so… if you'd like to try to convince me one way or another… feel free to send me a PM…) but maybe it'll be out when I go back to school. People visiting and whatnot.