The Love Letter Lovelies

by Glee-chan

29.

When visiting hours were over, Maria's exited the hospital in good spirits. Yui seemed to be getting better with each passing day. It wouldn't be long until she was discharged and allowed to set the country on fire with all that energy she had. Maria didn't see a problem with Yui going to school right now, it was just all the traveling she'd have to do that might ware her out.

When she and Shiho separated Maria took the phone from of her pocket out of habit, waiting for Emiko to call. But a thought creeped into her mind: what if Emiko had come down from her high and now hated Maria? Indeed the phone hadn't rang yet, and usually by that point Emiko did call. Maria stopped on a bridge and leaned against the railing looking at her dead phone. Maybe they had gone to far the night before.

Just as she was about to call Emiko herself, the phone rang. The contact number was Emiko's. Feeling elated, she answered. There was silence on the other line, but Maria could hear breathing and background noise. She knew all at once that Emiko was on the other end, but was freaking out. Maria wondered if she should say something.

"H-How is she doing?" Emiko asked.

"Better." Maria said automatically without thinking.

"That's good." Emiko's voice sounded robotic.

There was another awkward beat. It was driving Maria crazy. "I get it… you feel weird about earlier. I told you we can go back to being friends if you weren't into it, didn't I?"

"I don't know if I can do that."

Maria bit her bottom lip to keep herself from crying. "You don't want to talk to me anymore, then?"

"Maria…" Emiko's voice sounds strained.

"I understand… don't worry about it." Maria swallowed trying to keep her emotions at bay. "I'll leave you alone."

"Wait." Emiko said after it seemed like Maria was about to hang up. "Don't leave."

"I don't know what you want." Maria was doing her best to try and sound detached, but her voice was failing her.

"I don't know what I want either." Emiko moaned a bit. "All day I've been looking at the clock, waiting for visiting hours to close… then when it did, I just stared at my phone scared. I want to talk to you, but I don't know what to say. It's… it's… I don't know."

"You're just scared of hurting my feelings." Maria said after a moment. "I knew the risks going in… it's my fault, so you don't have to blame yourself."

"Stop talking like that!" Emiko almost shouted. "I'm not breaking up with you!"

"We're going out?" Maria gave a pathetic laugh, trying to sound carefree. She wasn't even fooling herself.

"You know what I mean." Emiko sighed. It sounded like she flopped on her bed. "Maybe it'll be easier to figure out if we go out on a real date."

"I can't keep doing this, Emi…" Maria admitted to her. "I told you before I'm trying not to fall for you, but you're the type of girl I like."

"I know… but I need to figure out what I feel for you." Emiko pleaded. "It's selfish, but I want to go out… right now."

"Now?"

"It's Saturday night, what better time?"

"But-"

"If you want to go out, then be at my house by 8:00, okay?"

"Emi, be serious, you can't just-" But there was dead air on the other line. "Damn it!"

Looking at the time on her phone she saw it was closing in on 7:30. She didn't have time to go home and dress in something prettier. Shoving the phone into her pocket Maria turned around and started for Emi's house, her heart leaping up and down like it was in the middle of a mosh pit. A date? What was Emiko thinking? She didn't have any time to prepare for it, physically or mentally. She was dressed comfortably and she wasn't even sure she had enough money on her to go somewhere really fun.

Arriving at the Morimoto's Convenience store, Maria saw that both Emiko's father and mother were manning the shop. the Mom nodded at her and pointed at the back room, as if she was expecting her. Maria gave a shy bow towards them and went to the back room and up the stairs. On entering, Maria kicked off her shoes and felt awkward just standing there looking at the empty house. Then she heard noise come from the living room, and knew from the sound of it that it was a video game. The brother must be around. Bashfully, Maria walked further in.

"Sorry for the intrusion… Emi asked me to come over." She spoke in a quiet voice to the brother.

He was sitting on the ground, like the day before, playing a fighting game on his Playstation. He glanced at her momentary and said "She's in the bath. You can play with me if you want."

Not having anything else to do but worry about Emiko's reasonings, she sat down next to the brother. He was playing a fighting game she recognized. She often played the previous version of the game with her sister last year. She hadn't bought the sequel because they had forgotten to bring their Playstation from the house to the apartment and still hadn't gotten around to it.

"Do you know this game?" The brother asked.

"Yeah, I've played it before."

"Let's have a match."

Doing as she was told, she took the second controller and selected her favorite character while the brother went to his. All at once they were in a match. It wasn't that long into it that Maria realized the move set was mostly the same as the previous game, and that she was better than Emiko's brother. Not wanting to make him mad, she held back. When he won he seemed less than thrilled.

"What happened? You were doing really good then out of no where you weren't even trying anymore?"

"Huh? Was I?"

"You're just holding back because I'm a kid." He said.

"Alright, you caught me." Maria gave him a smile. "I didn't want to make you mad."

"Play for real." He said as the they went to the character selection screen again. He picked his favorite character once more, while Maria went to random character select and let the game pick someone for her. "Why are you doing that?"

"It's more interesting this way." Maria said in a fake cocky voice. "My name is Maria, by the way."

"Shoji." The brother said.

The game started again. Even though Maria had a gorilla of a character, she adjusted her strategy of gameplay and soundly beat Shoji within moments. When round two happened, he did a bit better, but still was no match for her. He looked at her in awe.

"You're really good!"

"I used to play this game with my sister." Maria admitted. "Don't feel bad, I got good at it."

"How did you do that triple combo?" Shoji asked.

Maria explained. When they went to character select Shoji picked the same guy she had before so he could try out the combo while Maria random-selected again. The first match went as expected, with Maria allowing him to try the combo a few times until he got it.

"Don't over use it, though. You don't want me to read your moves."

"Yeah yeah." Shoji pounded on the buttons as round two happened.

"Hey?" Emiko suddenly was behind Maria.

"Yo." Maria didn't turned around, but lost her concentration. "Your brother talked me into playing with him."

"Did he?" Emiko asked sweetly. "You're not being a pest are you?"

"You're distracting me!" Shoji grunted and tapped his controller furiously.

"Are you about ready to head out?" Emiko asked Maria.

"In a moment."

"AW!" Shoji shouted. "Emiko! You made her lose concentration! I won because she wasn't paying attention!"

Maria held up her finger to Emiko before she could speak, then turned to Shoji. "Once more, then I've got to go play with Emi, okay?"

"Alright! I'm going to beat you for real this time!"

But he didn't. He was a graceful loser and politely said goodbye, as Maria and Emiko left the building. Emiko was laughing at how well Maria got along with her brother as they left. Maria didn't really think anything of it. Shoji wanted to be treated as an adult, something that Yui was trying to do now. It was very similar in a way.

Maria stopped walking. She realized she hadn't fully taken in Emiko's appearance because of the whole Shoji-thing. She looked her over and realized the beautiful girl had put a lot of effort into her outfit and make-up. "You look so pretty."

"I kind of overdid it." Emiko looked embarrassed. "I wasn't sure how far I should go, but I really wanted to make you happy."

"You're beautiful." Maria repeated. She looked down at herself feeling unworthy. "Sorry about what I look like. You kind of asked out of no where and I'm really not prepared for anything."

Emiko laughed. "Sorry about that. It was impulsive. You sounded so sad, and I wanted to… well…."

Maria felt awkward. "I'm not really sure where to go… I'm usually better at these kinds of things, trust me."

"How about karaoke?" Emiko suggested. "I'll treat since it's my fault for inviting you so suddenly."

"Okay."

As they started walking the air was thick. If Emiko were a normal girl she was trying to get to know, she'd at least try to hold her hand. But she didn't know if she should push it with her. Still Emiko wanted to know if she was well-suited for Maria's life style, so holding back seemed wrong too. She didn't know what to do. Settling for holding hands and letting the other things fall where they may, Maria reach out and took Emiko's hand. Emiko smiled a surprised smile, but didn't withdraw her hand.

When they reached the Karaoke Cafe, Emiko ordered a room, and the two of them went to up. Once the door was shut, they were all alone again. Emiko was looking at Maria with curiosity in her eyes, as if she was expecting Maria to do something. Maria didn't know if she expected her to kiss her right there, or what. What did Emiko want from her?

"You're nervous." Emiko said after a moment. "Are you afraid I'll freak out on you?"

"Maybe."

Emiko sighed a bit. "Just pretend I'm some girl you like? If you do something I don't want, I'll say something, okay?"

"Emi…"

"Please." Emiko blushed. "I want to know this about myself."

Shaking her head, Maria gave in and pushed Emiko against the wall. Their chest pressed against each others they were so close. She leaned forward to kiss her, but stopped herself. "Is this what you want?" Maria spoke in a soft voice. "Do you really want to turn me loose?"

Emiko's eyes widened. "This is the real you, isn't it?"

"No. People have layers… this is just a part of me." Maria said, her lips so close the brushed lightly against Emiko's.

Emiko was breathing in Maria's air with fluttering breath. "I've seen this side before. It's the one I like the most. I don't like it when you hold back."

"I have too…" Maria started to pull away. "I don't want to chase you way."

"I'm not running anywhere."

"You will. If you're so unsure about everything, you will."

"Just shut up and kiss me." Emiko lowered her eyebrows. "I don't care about lesbians or straights or bisexuals. I just want you to kiss me already."

Maria leaned forward again. She could feel Emiko's heart beating, and feel her breath escape her mouth. She closed her eyes and waited to be kissed. She was so beautiful. Maria give a small kiss then pulled back to look at her pink cheeks some more. Then as she went in for the kill the room's phone rang. The noise startled both of them, as they both almost leaped out of their skins.

Shaking her head, Emiko walked pass Maria and answered the phone. "Yes?" Her voice sounded slightly annoyed. There was a moment of silence as she was listening to whatever the speaker on the other side was saying. Then she looked up at Maria. "It's room service, they want to know if we want something eat."

Maria blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. She wanted to eat, alright, but nothing from food service. Even if she felt that way, Maria's stomach must of disagreed as it growled. Emiko looked down at it, then giggled. She reached for a menu and picked something for both of them to each, then hung up the phone.

"Let's kiss after we eat something, okay?" Emiko giggled again.

"Sorry… I wasn't hungry until you said something."

"Stupid phone." Emiko stuck her tongue out at it. "You finally let your guard down too."

Maria laughed slightly. "I can't figure you out. One moment your shy the next…"

"That's the thing… I can't figure myself out either. I want you… then I'm scared. I wish I could just make up my mind already."

Maria hated being in the middle of this identity crisis. One path would lead to her getting her, but the other path….