When Mio sat down in her homeroom, she didn't move. She didn't look around. She didn't check to see what Mugi or Yui was up to. She ESPECIALLY didn't check to see what Ritsu was doing. No no, that was to be avoided at any and all cost. Not that she didn't care, she was worried if anything. After what she pulled yesterday, a bolt out of the blue, she wasn't really up for the task of approaching and engaging Ritsu about it, especially not if her friend prompted her for an explanation of the contact. She just didn't have it in her. Plus the fact that she was worried about what Ritsu might say.
Little did she know, she wasn't the only one who had gotten a full night's sleep in the group. If she had looked over, she would have noticed Mugi struggling to stay awake, and despite her best efforts, every minute or so, her eyes would slowly drift close and her head would drop, before bobbing back up. She hadn't been asleep by 10:30 the night before, Mio had succeeded in confusing her enough to keep her up until midnight, and that was a foreign feeling for her. Especially with having to catch the bus.
Yui was... worse than she usual was. In some homeroom classes, like the Thursday or Friday prior, she was bright eyed and bushy tailed, just like Mugi, but others she was exhausted... like when prompted to practice. However today, she was absolutely beat. Her head was on her desk. Mugi was at least trying to stay up, albeit having little success, but Yui wasn't even giving that much. She was sleeping, plain and simple.
Mio didn't notice either of these things, and she especially didn't notice that her best friend was more than wide awake. Ritsu looked like she had drunk three cups of coffee, and was looking around the room, even looking direct at Mio. She didn't care; the hug was a good thing to her, despite Mio's inhibitions about it. But Mugi wasn't much in the mood for conversation, she looked like a zombie... and Ritsu knew that she could have hit Yui with a stick and not gotten any response.
The reason for her being so awake? Unlike the other girls, who were kept up by thinking or apprehensions, Ritsu had the ability to pass her time by sleeping. Sure, she did some thinking, but it made her tired. The fact that she hadn't slept much the night before, combined with her eagerness to progress her relationship with Mio even more... she had fallen asleep before Mugi usually did, and had squeezed every bit of sleep she could out of that morning. With around ten hours of sleep under her belt, she was pumped for whatever Mugi would give her to do.
But, Mugi was in no position to give advice or orders, not a chance. Ritsu couldn't even help Mugi, every time she tried to talk to the exhausted creature, she would say a few things, and almost nod off. She had been fine when she walked in but... sitting down had caused her breathing to slow and her eyes to droop. Ritsu just kicked back, Sawako rarely took role nowadays; she just counted.
Mio simply sat straight forward. She wasn't nearly as tired as Mugi or Yui, and she couldn't even sleep in class. She was lost in her own world, thinking... until she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Mio?" She heard, causing her to jump slightly, taking in a sharp intake of breath. "Are you ok?"
Mio turned her head to see where the voice was coming from... Nodoka. Of course! Mio felt a bit unsure about this at first but... she warmed up to the girl almost instantly. After all, she had to talk to someone about this, but didn't want to risk it with Ritsu just yet. If Ritsu was upset, Mio didn't know what she might do. Besides, Nodoka had helped her through all of this so far, aside from receiving a bit of advice from Mugi. "I'm fine, just a little tired." Mio finally said, smiling a little.
"Ahh ok." Nodoka said, returning Mio's smile with one of her own. "How was your weekend?" She asked cautiously. To most, that was a simple, common, small talk kind of question... but Nodoka knew Mio had been having some difficulties in life, all dealing with the noisy, forgetful brunette across the room, who was looking more bored than anything else without Mugi or Yui for conversation.
"It went well..." Mio said, feeling her heart pound just a little bit harder in her chest. "I went out on Sunday for coffee... with Ritsu..." At this point, her heart was now pounding at a deafening level to her. She could feel her heart beating in her toes, but that wasn't even the end of it. She had started this conversation, and she knew, it would end up with an unsure confession.
"Oh really?" Nodoka asked, leaning in a bit more. "Did you narrow your options?"
Mio nodded weakly, a blush running rampant across her pale face, and blush that Nodoka took quite the notice to. She pulled away slightly unsure if she had treaded on sore territory. "Well that's good. Just keep up with that..." She said, before turning to the front of the class. She really hoped she hadn't offended Mio.
And she hadn't. Though Mio had fallen silent, and Nodoka had turned to the front of the class slightly worried, the conversation wasn't quite over yet. Mio had Nodoka's phone number, but what a waste of minutes! The midnight haired girl slid a note across Nodoka's desk, her hand shaking like mad. Mio actually thought it was a good thing conversation had stopped, her heart beat was practically all she could hear, aside from the faded murmur of her classmates random discussions.
Nodoka noticed the note, and looked over at Mio, who was taking deep breaths, as stiff as a board. She slowly unfolded the note, to see that Mio had written, "Yes... I narrowed my options. I think there is only one option left though..."
Mio got the note back, looking over at Nodoka who had a warm smile on her face. Mio gingerly unfolded it, passing notes felt so strange to her. She was alone in most of her classes, aside from Biology and Philosophy, but in both of those classes, she could talk to her friends. She could have now... but there was no way she could understand them, or even form a coherent sentence. "What's that?" was the entire reply. A bit anti-climactic Mio thought, but Nodoka didn't really seem like the climactic type to her. Anything but actually.
She scribbled down a note, almost dropping her pen three times while writing the short hand, and folding up the paper was a filthy mess. She couldn't even manage that simple task, much less anything else. She slowly slid the note over to Nodoka, who noticed quite a few more crinkles in the poorly folded note. She could hardly wait to see what Mio had written, if Mio was having this much difficulty folding a paper.
Nodoka slowly unfolded what was folded of the paper, and looked at the message scribbled on it. Then she looked at Mio, who was staring straight forward with a major blush smeared across her face, looking both incredibly anxious and just a little bit jumpy. The brunette took another glance at the message and then scribbled her own underneath it without any concern or worry, before sliding it back to Mio.
The dark haired girl jumped slightly as the paper came in contact with her skin. She honestly felt like she had seen a ghost, she was jumping her leg up and down almost constantly, and she had totally blocked out everything going on around her. She actually screamed a little bit as the paper touched her skin, causing the brunette next to her to jump slightly. She looked around, only to see the piece of paper. It made her soul sink just looking at the now neatly folded scrap.
With a trembling hand, she reached down and grabbed it. She didn't much need to unfold it by the time she got it at reading distance... her shaking had pretty much taken care of unfolding the paper for her. She almost threw the paper down; she didn't want to know what Nodoka might think of what she had written. But that time in this situation was over... she had to read it.
She slowly looked down at the paper, taking sharp intakes of breath to stay conscious while she looked at the note. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked where Nodoka had written.
Then instantly deflated. Her head hung in shame, and she exhaled almost all of her breath at once. She looked at the paper in almost disbelief.
Below her message, Nodoka had drawn an arrow pointing to it, with a message underneath that said, "What does this say?" She couldn't believe it... but upon looking at the writing she had scribbled on the note... even she didn't know what it said. Since when did she have illegible hand writing? Since falling in love...?
Mio however, took this moment of shame and calm within her body to write down another message, along the general lines of the first, but this time her hand writing was crisp and professional... not as much as normally, more like a twelve year... but better than before. She slid the note over to Nodoka, the nervousness returning the moment it hit the brown haired girl's desk.
Mio's hand didn't move from the top of the note. Nodoka grabbed the edge of the paper, but Mio's hand was holding it down like a vice, and there was no way Nodoka was going to be able to remove it without tearing it. She looked at Mio, who was looking down at the ground, shaking and whimpering slightly as she held her death grip on the note. Nodoka carefully extended her other hand and lifted Mio's fingers slightly, enough to slip the note out. Mio's hand hit back on the desk as soon as Nodoka, and receded back, off the edge of the desk, into Mio's stomach.
Nodoka quickly glanced at the note, looking over the writing Mio had scribbled. A mixture of both confusion and understand washed over her as she read what Mio had written. "I hugged her... it was the first time in a while. But it was different this time, I enjoyed it way more than ever. I don't even know where it came from... it just kind of happened." Nodoka looked at the note... and felt a poke against her elbow. She looked down, to see Mio, sliding her another piece of paper.
Mio's composition hadn't change, she was still a nervous wreck, but Nodoka took the second note anyways. On it, Mio had had added, "It was... more enjoyable than it used to be." Or something like it... Mio's hand writing had degraded once more, but Nodoka understood it entirely. She thought she knew exactly what Mio was trying to say. Even if she was making it cryptic. On the new note that Mio had given her, she wrote a small message and handed it back.
Mio took a deep breath as she took the note. Her nervousness now was replaced by subtle agony and acceptance for whatever might come of it. Mio was ready to accept the consequences of what she had written and given to Nodoka. She was almost floating as she unfolded the paper, like a convict on trial for murder, reading her own sentence. Mio had pretty much accepted her fate. She looked down at the message, "Do you 'like' her?"
Mio was a little surprised by the lack of tact in the question, but homeroom wasn't going to last forever. She looked over at Nodoka, who was looking at the paper to see what Mio was going to write. She stared at Nodoka, burning holes in the top of the girl's head, until she looked up. Once Nodoka was looking straight at her, she simply shrugged, as if to say "maybe".
It wasn't that simple of course, but class was due to end in less than a minute, so dragging on any further with the nerve wracking passage of notes would have been pointless. Mio was more in the, "I may like her." area of infatuation, rather than the, "Yes, I want to marry her" area. She was still shaky, but she did know that she had some class of attraction to Ritsu. That hug yesterday had felt better than it had in the past... being that close with Ritsu, feeling her warmth.
Mio had thought about that hug all night, it had kept her up. She got sick of replaying it in her head after about the third hour of constant rewind and replay of it... but she just had to make sure. The thing that really had sealed the deal for her was how the hug felt... particularly how Ritsu's curves had hugged her own.
She remembered how thin Ritsu's shirt was, a really light, almost see-through gray with some design on the front. As she hugged, she could practically feel Ritsu underneath it, she could feel Ritsu's warmth resonating from the drummer. She remembered how their breasts had brushed into each other, fairly inevitable considering gender... but nice all the same. It felt incredible to have Ritsu that close to her, feeling that almost paper thin material sliding against Ritsu's warm back, and soft skin. She almost wished that shirt wasn't there at all.
Maybe a tad superficial, sure, but that was how most relationships started, and Mio definitely liked how Ritsu felt. Even though the hug hadn't been that long, she could remember every detail vividly. And yes, that had been the deal breaker.
Nodoka understood and smiled, that was all she needed. She knew not to ask any more questions. "Good for you." She said in a whisper, leaning in to get close to Mio so only she could hear. The fact that Mio had opened it up as an option, it would only make things easier from there. "If you need to talk or anything, text me."
Class got out right then and there, and Nodoka gathered her stuff, leaving a slightly amazed Mio stuck in thought. Not a huge thought, more relief than anything... and amazement. Nodoka was a way better friend that Mio had expected after a confession like that... and she was a resource.
Though it took Mio a few minutes to get out of her desk, she still managed to get to her first hour without trouble. Ritsu had left homeroom before her, probably while she was lost in thought, and had already taken her normal seat towards the back of the class. Mio entered the room, still with a minute or two to spare... which was far later than she usually showed up.
And the cost?
There were only two open desks available, her own, and the one right next to Ritsu. Mio usually had more desks to choose from, but she was nearly late to class... and thus was left with those two.
And the strangest thing... Mio found the desk next to Ritsu far more tantalizing than her own. Sure sure, on a normal day it wouldn't have taken any thought to chose her normal desk... but today wasn't a normal day was it? No, not even by a long shot, not after what she had just told Nodoka... and basically told herself. She hadn't really said it in words yet, not to herself, but now it was out. She may "like" Ritsu, as Nodoka had so eloquently phrased it. But albeit some quite a few doubts, Mio knew that her friendship with Ritsu wasn't as normal as it had been less than a week ago.
And, despite her nervousness, she wanted to be close to Ritsu. Not too close of course, it was too early for that... but closer than she had been in the past. It was only natural right? Of course it was.
With that thought in mind, Mio rearranged her mental seating chart, making a slight alteration to her mental lay out to the room. Even though she felt like all eyes were on her as she moved up the aisles, she was on a mission at this point. Before she knew it, she was sitting down, right next to Ritsu. A very surprised Ritsu at that, but Mio didn't take notice of it. She was trying to calm her heart, and act casual as she took out her materials. It was odd, she felt so nervous sitting down next to Ritsu, like the act was an invasion of Ritsu's space... but it also felt normal, and... right.
And Ritsu did take notice of Mio, but not until she skipped over her usual aisle and into the desk right next to her own. At this point in time, Mio might have had some inhibitions and nervousness about sitting so close to the girl who she now considered her crush, but Ritsu was absolutely boggled by the gesture. She didn't show it or anything, that would have let Mio know that something was up. So she just kind of looked at Mio, with a small smile. "Hey there."
"Hi." Mio said, looking towards Ritsu slightly before flinching mid gaze and staring down. It didn't take a psychologist to tell she was nervous about this. But hey, she was determined to at least make an effort to be around Ritsu. Brush or not, they were best friends... if not a little more. And you never know if you'll like something until you try it. Just like the hug.
Mio quickly diverted herself back to unpacking her stuff for that day in class. Apparently the girl who normally sat in this desk had moved away, so Mio didn't have to worry about moving. When prompted during role, she simply explained that she had switched seats. She thanked God that the teacher didn't ask why, because she wasn't sure she could come up with an answer. Not on the spot like that. She was tired, and flustered.
However, as class droned on, things became more normal in the classroom. Ritsu went to sleep, or at the very least, feigned sleep REALLY well. Mio took notes on the boring, almost useless lecture that the teacher was droning on about. Although her stomach was still swimming, things seemed to be drifting back towards normality. The sick, nervous feeling in her stomach was actually helping to keep her awake in class though. She hadn't slept much, but nervousness was easily outweighing her drowsiness.
She had completely forgotten that she was tired.
Ritsu... well despite getting a reasonable amount of sleep, she always found a way to be tired. Even whilst playing drums, she could find a way to be tired, and she wasn't the quietest drummer in the world. Besides, she wasn't nervous, she was a little confused if anything. Not a lot, Mio may just be getting out of her funk and becoming a little more comfortable again... or something else.
'Maybe...' Ritsu thought, shifting sleeping position slightly in her desk so her arm wouldn't fall asleep, 'Just maybe... I've rubbed off on her...'
The brunette smiled at the thought, the thought she may have just rubbed off on her best friend, and that they may be able to further their relationship. Become more than friends. Become lovers.
Mio noticed a small blush and smile on Ritsu's face as she stole a look at her current object of obsession. She wondered what might be going through the girl's mind at that moment, screw philosophy, who even cared about this stuff? Boring old guys who had to teach it to inattentive high school students, that's who! Besides, there were so few assignments in that class, everyone had an "A" regardless of what they did.
But for some reason, Mio couldn't just let Ritsu sleep. She had the odd feeling that if they missed something today in lecture, it would be important. She had no idea why of course, nothing ever important happened in that class, aside from a glare from your best friend that basically turned your world upside down on itself. But it was a duty of hers, if Ritsu fell asleep; she would always swoop in and save her from missing anything in their most useless class.
Plus the fact that she wanted the opportunity to see if Ritsu still felt the way she had not twenty-four hours ago. Mio really wanted to see if it was a fluke. Maybe Ritsu's shirt was what made her feel so warm and soft, and so incredibly smooth. But enough of that, Mio snapped out of her trance and reached over to shake Ritsu's arm. She slowly moved her hand around the brunette's bicep, and squeezed slightly.
Ritsu didn't stir, but Mio turned several different shades of red before settling on "crimson". She never realized how firm Ritsu's arms were before... maybe from the little drumming she actually did. They were still slender, and still very feminine, but so firm. And what's more, Ritsu was just as warm as she was the day before.
Ritsu did wake however, as Mio began to tremble. Her lip beginning to quiver and her hand shook. Mio was terrified, her hand felt like it was filled with lead, she couldn't even let go. Her grip tightened slightly, out of pure nervousness, and that combined with the shaking to give Ritsu quite the wake up call. Or grab.
"Mio...?" She asked in a whisper curiously, looking up at the girl grabbing her arm. "What are you doing?"
"N-Nothing!" Mio practically shouted, in a whisper of course, and withdrew immediately. She tucked her hands between her legs and looked down at her desk, like a kid caught with her hand in the candy jar. "I was... I was just waking you up."
"Ohh um... Thanks." Ritsu had to stop and think... she could still feel where Mio's hand had been wrapped around her arm. She could still feel her warmth... and of course, she hadn't been holding lightly. Her death grip had left its mark, but Ritsu didn't mind that one bit. Now she was trying to decide why Mio was deep red, and extremely tense. "Everything ok...?"
"Y... Ya!" Mio said quickly, looking up at the board, grabbing her pencil, and taking random notes down once more. Now she was just trying to look busy, and Ritsu knew that fairly well... but she decided to let Mio get away with it. No sense in pushing a sensitive subject, besides, she found herself being consumed by a fury of optimistic thoughts.
Ritsu knew something was up with Mio, but it wasn't the same as it was in days prior. Everything was looking more and more hopeful.
Class passed quickly from there on out. It was very easily to pass the time when Mio was doing her damndist to stay focused the entire time and stay out of Ritsu's gaze. Even though she knew that Ritsu was occasionally looking at her from the corner of her eyes, she wasn't going to acknowledge that. She couldn't bear to do so.
Ritsu on the other hand, she was busy thinking about other things, like how well the plan that she and Mugi had been working over was going. Her optimism knew no bounds when things started looking promising, just like the moment After School Tea Time was formed, she decided that no matter what, they would be going to Budokan. Senseless optimism perhaps, but at least with Mio, she had a reason to get her hopes up.
After all, she knew that Mio wasn't acting quite herself. It was kind of funny to see Mio like this, every time she got scared, she would act in a similar fashion. Maybe that's why Ritsu scared her so much, she always seemed so adorably helpless, just begging for someone to pull her into a tight hug and not let go until everything was better.
But of course, if Ritsu tried that, there was a VERY strong chance that she would wreck everything that had been built up over the last few days permanently... and what a waste that would be. It may wreck everything forever... and even though Ritsu desperately wanted to throw her arms around Mio and tell her not to worry, she exercised the little self restraint she usually had to stop herself.
Class ended almost abruptly, neither Mio nor Ritsu was expecting the bell. Ritsu was too focused on happier days that were coming in the not so far future, and Mio was still focused on keeping her attention away from Ritsu and towards the front of the room, furiously scribbling down notes that weren't even written on the board. Basically, she was just writing down as many words as she could so she could look focused and busy, a self defense mechanism she had, and the bell had broken that. She almost fell out of her desk as the chime-esque sound echoed through the classroom.
Both girls took a few seconds to shake off their respective focused states, and get all their stuff packed up. Ritsu took a little less time considering... well... she had no stuff out. She considered bringing a pillow with her to that class, but aside from that, she had no supplies whatsoever. Mio only had a few, which were quickly tucked into her bag.
Mio left quickly, trying to sneak away, but Ritsu easily kept her pace. She had to make it seem like things were normal, she knew how Mio got when she was worried. She had seen it in the past, through primary school, and even in the earlier years of secondary school. Heck, even the last few days. She quickly caught up with Mio, and tapped her on the shoulder. "Mio?"
Mio stopped in her tracks as Ritsu touched her shoulder, the feeling of lead filled her feet. Though she wanted to leave, she had little option. "Yes?" She asked quickly, turning her head only slightly to see Ritsu out of the corner of her eyes. Eye contact would have been impossible at that point in time, Mio probably would have had an aneurysm.
"Thanks for waking me up today, I'll see you at lunch!" The amber haired girl said, before waving to Mio and taking her leave in the opposite direction. Not... the smoothest thing to say, a bit disjointed, but Ritsu needed something to say and it was the first thing that came to her mind. Besides, she was grateful for Mio waking her... not necessarily the waking part, but she loved the method.
She decided that it was an "okay" thing to say, and Mio wouldn't have to worry AS much now, even though she was sure she still would. But she couldn't worry about that now. As she dashed into Algebra she saw a flash of blond hair in the corner. It would be a busy period; she had a LOT of news for Mugi-chan.
Finally a look at what Mio is actually thinking, despite her tenacious efforts to deny her fate (at least in this fiction). About time too! And some fluff in there, which is always a plus in my book.
If you get a chance, please leave a review, I'd love to know what you guys are thinking about the story!
Thanks again!