Six Years Later
Natsuki heard a knock coming from the door and shouted, "Coming!"
She set down the plates she had been carrying on the table and made her way towards the front door of her modest, extremely pink house.
Over the years, she had gained quite a bit of weight, relishing in the chance to indulge in all the food she had before been denied. The skinny little girl was gone, though she was still extremely short, not that anyone could say that and get away with it. She had gained enough weight that she was certainly chubby, but she got enough exercise that it remained that way, and anyone who dared call her fat would soon find a fist shoved through their teeth. Other than that, her physical appearance was much the same.
She opened the door to reveal the former vice-president of the literature club, Sayori. She had let her coral pink hair grow out, and now it reached the middle of her back, and while she wasn't monstrously tall, she still towered over Natsuki. Her bright smile lit up the room as it always did.
She seized the shorter woman in a hug, "Hey, Natsuki! It's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too, now stop squeezing me to death."
Sayori immediately retreated and nervously poked her fingers together, a habit she had never lost, "But you're so cuddly!"
Natsuki pouted playfully at the taller woman before gesturing for her to follow. They made their way towards the dining room and made small talk.
"So, how's the wife?" Sayori asked cheerily.
"Oh, still beautiful and thoughtful as ever, not that I'd ever call her either of those things to her face."
The two giggled a bit at the comment.
Natsuki continued, "She cleared out a bit ago, supposedly to go shopping, but really to give us some space. She knows we like to have it be just us today."
Sayori nodded a bit more solemnly this time.
Natsuki, not ready to let the mood fall just yet, asked, "And how's the idiot?"
Sayori giggled once more before responding, "He's not that bad, Natsuki. I know he can be a bit… dense, sometimes, but he's sweet and he tries."
The pink-haired woman huffed.
"I don't care what you say, the guy's a moron. You two are a perfect match."
Sayori playfully swatted at the pink-haired woman as they both sat down at the table, indignantly saying, "Hey!"
They both giggled before falling silent, wordlessly agreeing to wait for the final member of the trio.
And when a knock came, Natsuki went and retrieved her as well, and they returned to the dining room.
Monika had grown much taller since her younger days, and now was well over six feet tall, dwarfing her pink-haired friend in an almost comedic fashion. Her hair had been cut short, much to the horror of her parents, not that they had much of a say anymore, and her eyes shined just as brilliant an emerald hue as they always did.
As they walked in, Sayori heard Natsuki asking, "So, found anyone yet? I can't believe someone as sexy as you still isn't married, or dating at least."
Monika chuckled as she waved to Sayori, which Sayori returned, before replying, "Your wife might not appreciate you describing another woman as sexy, Nat. And besides, I'm not looking for a romantic partner. I'm not particularly interested."
Natsuki just shrugged and started towards the kitchen, "Fair enough, I guess. I'll bring out the food and drinks, you two just sit there and prepare to be amazed."
Monika sat and wryly commented, "I'm prepared."
Sayori chuckled a bit before they both fell silent. It was a comfortable silence, neither feeling the need to break it as they waited for the resident baker to make her way back.
Which she soon did, bearing a platter of cupcakes and a bottle of wine, the glasses and plates already on the table.
Monika raised an eyebrow at the ensemble as Natsuki set it down, commenting, "Glad to see we're staying healthy."
Natsuki seemingly ignored her as she poured the wine into each glass, but she eventually replying, "The cupcakes are for nostalgia, the wine because we need something to toast with."
Sayori lifted a cupcake and bit into it, not waiting for the other two, "Works for me!"
Monika nodded thoughtfully. The cupcakes certainly did bring back fond memories of that club she had founded so long ago, in which friendships that would last a lifetime were forged. Nostalgia was certainly appropriate, considering what today was.
She took the glass in her hand, spinning it a bit to watch light reflect off of it.
Natsuki sat down and Sayori finished her cupcake, restraining herself from reaching for another.
The former president stood and brandished her glass towards a small bookshelf in the corner of the room, upon which stood a small pictureframe holding a photo of a young girl with long, violet hair and eyes to match, with a shy smile and kind, expressive features.
"To absent friends."
The other two held their own glasses up.
"To absent friends."
Three women sit together in a room full of memories, memories that were not made in the room, instead coming from the women themselves, on the anniversary of the day a young girl drowned in her mind.
Yet, one is missing, and her absence is keenly felt.
The literature club, long dead yet still alive in these three, will still never be whole.
And yet, while they all feel the absence of the fourth girl, they have long since accepted it. They had healed, they had found love, whether romantic or that of friends, they had suffered and conquered every trial and tribulation in their path.
And while they did not know, they liked to imagine that somewhere, a young girl with violet hair was watching, and was proudly smiling at the ones who had never forgotten her.
So, that's Drowning!
I believe I've mentioned it before, but I usually start stories with a single idea or scene in mind, and then grow it from that. For Deleted, it was Natsuki and Yuri hugging in the middle of a void after the game. For this fic, it was this. The other three Dokis, all grown up, toasting the memory of their long lost friend.
Fun.
Now, onto my thoughts on this fic as a whole.
If I'm to be completely honest, I'm not all that proud of this fic. It's kinda a mess, the flow is weird, there was never enough happiness to make the sad parts hit as hard as they could, the dialogue is weird, and it's just not that great. If nothing else, however, it was good practice. Good enough for me.
Thank you all for reading this fic, you all have no idea how much it means to me, really.
I'm currently working on two fics. One is another DDLC fic that is unnamed as of yet. It involves a lot of code fuckery and a sprinkling of mystery. Only in the planning stages of that.
The other is a RWBY fic entitled Selfless, and it's basically RWBY but if I wrote it. Gets pretty far away from canon pretty quick. To all of the... probably everyone here who hasn't watched RWBY, my apologies. If you've watched RWBY and didn't like it, I promise my fic changes a lot. If you have watched RWBY and do like it... huzzah for you, I suppose.
COMMENT RESPONSES
Guest: It was intended to mean that they found themselves sitting together crying less because they were coming to terms with Yuri's death. I honestly thought that was rather self-evident.
Karim: Huh. Of all the ways I thought someone might describe my fic, wholesome was certainly nowhere close to the top.
Also, thank you so much! I really did try to realistically deal with their issues. I despise stories that have all of someone's problems go away because romance. Just like. No. That's not how it works. I honestly dislike romance in the first place, but when the romance makes the characters less interesting and solves problems for no reason it makes me very anger. Extremely anger.
Also yeah Monika was kinda weird.
I look forward to your review of the whole fic, can't wait to hear what you have to say.
Cookies: You give me far too much credit, but thank you :P
COMMENT RESPONSES
So, that's it until I finish and start posting Selfless. It's truly been a pleasure, folks.
o/