Author's Note: Hi all. Apologies for taking so long with this chapter. A combination of vacation and illness kept me from writing, but at last it's done - and just in time for Valentine's Day too! I hope you all enjoy, and I'll try not to keep you waiting so long for the next chapter.
Tomorrow Today
Rating: T
Chapter 3: Tomorrow Afternoon
With an exasperated sigh, Natsuki dropped her head to the desk. This just wasn't working. It had seemed like a good idea to try to write something for Shizuru, but now that she was actually in the position of trying to do so, nothing seemed right. She couldn't think of any good stories to tell, and talking about their friendship just seemed like it wouldn't mean anything to a Shizuru that was already married to her.
Married… Natsuki had been trying not to think too much about that part. She'd been so focused on her mission that she hadn't given romance a second thought. If she'd been asked yesterday to predict how she'd end up in five years, she would have predicted she'd still be single. That was all she was used to, and she wouldn't have thought to imagine otherwise. But obviously, something had changed, probably quite a while ago, and then things had proceeded from there.
Thinking about it… Well, she actually wasn't put off by the idea, oddly enough. It was certainly better than ending up with Takeda. Shizuru was a hell of a lot more sweet and sensitive than him, and today was evidence that she could be strong when she needed to be. Not to mention how beautiful she was - today just as much as five years ago. And that accent of hers had a tendency to just make Natsuki melt… with the way those lips of hers moved… even just thinking about it right now…
Natsuki shook her head, trying to calm down the blush that had risen to her cheeks. It hadn't even been a full day since she'd found out about this future; it was far too early to be falling for Shizuru already, wasn't it? Well… she supposed this wasn't exactly a common enough situation that there were rules for this sort of thing, but even so…
In any case, this had solved one thing. Now she knew exactly what she wanted to write in her letter. With a grin, Natsuki got to work.
Natsuki tapped her pen on the paper a few times, glancing the clock. She could certainly work on this for a while longer if she wanted to; there were still quite a few strike-outs on the paper, even on her fourth attempt now. She could probably type it up if she really wanted to, but a typed letter felt so much less personal. Besides, Shizuru wouldn't be looking for perfection here, she'd be looking for honesty, and Natsuki felt like she'd at least achieved that goal.
With a nod, Natsuki folded up the letter and placed it into the envelope Shizuru had given her. She licked and sealed it, then flipped it over to write "Fujino Shizuru" on the front. It was done. And she still had most of the afternoon left to… do what? She hadn't really thought that far yet.
If she were on her own on a day off, she might try to catch up on homework so her grades didn't slip too much, doing at least the high-value, low effort assignments, but even if her future self had any homework, there was no way she'd be able to do it now. No Orphans to hunt any longer either, or any other special mission - putting aside figuring out what had happened to her, that was, but she was content to leave that until tomorrow, since she was unlikely to find any useful information about it in the future.
When it came down to it, the answer was simple: She had a holiday. She could simply enjoy herself. With another nod, Natsuki pushed her chair back and stood up from the desk. As soon as she did so, she heard a distinctive jingle from her left. She nearly jolted in surprise as she looked over to the source of it; she'd thought she'd been alone in here all this time, but apparently she'd been too engrossed in her writing to notice when Kiyoran had come to join her. As soon as she'd stood up, he'd done so as well, and now he was looking up at her with interest.
Chuckling lightly at the dog, Natsuki said, "Well, Kiyo-chan, what do you say we find something fun to do?" The dog barked in response to this, prompting Natsuki to chuckle and furrow her brow at him. "You know… I'm starting to suspect someone's trained you to bark in response to questions. So tell me, Kiyo: Has Shizuru been encouraging this?"
For a moment, Natsuki got no reply from Kiyoran, and then he tilted his head to the side.
"Hmm, well, you don't respond like that to every question then. It must be something in the tone of voice. Let me see… Do you want to go explore the house, Kiyo?"
"Wuff!" Kiyoran said, standing up and wagging his tail now.
Natsuki couldn't help but chuckle at this. "Haa… who am I kidding, I must have been the one who trained this in you… it's just so adorable. Alright, Kiyo-chan, come on. Let's go see what we can find out about my future life." Natsuki stood and made to head for the door, but she paused in her step. This was silly. She might as well start right here; she'd barely looked around the room since entering it, after all. "Actually… Maybe we can start right here, Kiyo."
Turning around, Natsuki looked back at the desk she'd been working at. Off to the right of where she'd been writing, there was a laptop computer resting on the desk, set up with a power cord and mouse. She'd seen it before and had been considering typing up her letter for Shizuru on it, but she hadn't actually turned it on. Returning to her chair, she opened it up and searched around until she found the power button.
After a minute, the computer woke up, showing Natsuki the login screen. It looked like both she and Shizuru had accounts set up on it, though hers was first, which probably meant that this was her computer. The icons for the two profiles actually looked like they were both taken from the same image, with her and Shizuru's smiling faces cropped out of it.
Natsuki moused over to her own profile and clicked on it. Instead of logging in automatically, a password prompt showed up. "Hmm… I guess that makes sense. I probably take this to university..." Deciding to give her email password a try, Natsuki typed in "MayoLover" and hit enter. No luck. "Hrm…" she said. That password was a bit too obvious, and she probably should it change for her email account once she got back to her own time. But what would she change it to? Whatever that would be, it might also be the password here.
Leaning back for a moment, Natsuki looked upward as she thought about this. She wouldn't go for anything obvious again, so it would be something memorable that no one else - or hardly anyone else - would know. After a moment, an idea came to her. She'd only heard the word once, when her Child Duran was introduced to her, but it had stuck in her mind. It was his real name after all, so she wasn't going to forget it. Leaning forward again, she typed in "Yafusa," and hit enter.
Success! Natsuki grinned as the desktop loaded up. She scanned over the icons, taking them all in. Nothing that looked like a game - even five years on, Japan was still barren of good PC games, it seemed. She'd have to keep an eye out for a gaming system then, so she could see what the next big thing was. But for now, she looked over the rest of the icons on the desktop. None of the programs there were particularly surprising, but one of the documents caught her eye. It was titled "AE-final-paper".
Natsuki opened up the document, curious to see what she might be studying. The title of it soon made this clear: "Analysis of Recent Developments in Aerodynamical Design of Motorcycles." Natsuki's eyes widened as she read this. The "AE" in the title… "Automotive Engineering" maybe? Was that what she was majoring in now?
Intrigued, Natsuki leaned in as she began reading through the paper. The writing style was definitely her own, though after the introduction paragraph, she was embarrassed to find that most of it was going over her head. Letting out a sigh, Natsuki leaned back in her chair. Well, it was a final paper for one of her courses after all; it shouldn't be surprising that it would be pretty advanced.
Well, if this was her major, then she'd certainly chosen well. Great job prospects, interesting, and she'd be able to make some nice tweaks and improvements to her own bike with the knowledge she'd obtain. One more indication that her life was going pretty well in the future.
With a smile, Natsuki pushed herself up from the chair. Glancing over to the side, she saw that Kiyoran had once again popped his head up to look at her. "Alright, Kiyo-chan. This time I'm really going to head off. Come on, boy!" Natsuki patted her thigh to encourage him to follow as she headed to the door. She could hear his tags jingling as he got up to follow her, and she leaned down to give him a quick pat on the head before she opened the door.
Natsuki had planned to head to the bedroom first, but Shizuru's voice coming from the kitchen caught her attention. She wasn't calling out to Natsuki, though; she seemed to be in conversation with someone else. Approaching cautiously so that she wouldn't disturb Shizuru, Natsuki tried to get into a position where she could hear her better. Unfortunately, Kiyoran didn't also decide to be as stealthy, and the jingling of his tags made Natsuki's efforts pointless.
"...sure to let her know," came Shizuru's voice, just as Natsuki was first able to make out her words. She was silent for a bit after this, and then said, "Ara, that's a very nice offer, Mai, but I think it's best I just take care of her myself. I'm already exposed, and for all I know I might be contagious myself, so I think it's best for you to leave it to me."
Contagious? Natsuki blinked. Was Shizuru sick with something. Wait… was Natsuki sick with something!? No longer worried about alerting Shizuru, Natsuki headed into the kitchen. Shizuru was sitting at the kitchen table, and she looked up as she heard Natsuki enter. She didn't look particularly concerned or upset, though. Instead, she simply brought her finger up to her lips, motioning for Natsuki to remain silent. A bit reluctantly, Natsuki did so, waiting for Shizuru to finish her phone call.
"Of course, I will," Shizuru said after a moment. "In any case, it looks like Natsuki needs me right now, so I should get back to her. Merry Christmas again, Mai, Mikoto." After a few seconds, Shizuru ended the call on her phone and turned to Natsuki. "Forgive me, Natsuki. I've just been extending Christmas wishes to all our friends and family."
"Fine, whatever," Natsuki said. "What was all that 'contagious' stuff about? Is there something you aren't telling me?"
Oddly, Shizuru chuckled at this. "Ara ara… No, Natsuki, nothing of the sort. I just figured that the simplest way to explain why Natsuki wasn't available to talk on the phone was to say that she'd lost her voice. Otherwise, everyone would insist on talking with you, and that would certainly lead to more than a few awkward conversations for you."
Natsuki blinked. "...oh," she said. That was… probably for the best. "But… couldn't you have asked me first?" she said.
A sheepish look crossed Shizuru's face. "Forgive me, Natsuki. It didn't occur to me that this might be an issue until my parents phoned, and I had to think up an excuse on the spot for why you couldn't come to the phone. I know you've never even met them before, so that conversation would have certainly been difficult at best."
"Oh… right," Natsuki said. Shizuru's parents. Well of course, if she and Shizuru were married, she'd most likely be in contact with Shizuru's parents. What was their relationship with her like, she wondered? Did they even know she and Shizuru were a couple, or did they have to hide that from her family? They at least knew Natsuki and Shizuru were living together, but they might just think they were roommates. "Um… what kind of relationship do I have with them?" Natsuki asked.
Shizuru raised her eyebrow at this. She motioned to the chair across the table for her, encouraging Natsuki to take a seat. "Well, Natsuki certainly gets along well with them. They think I've done quite well for myself, in fact."
"Oh, so... they know we're a couple then?"
Shizuru nodded. "Yes. I never hid it from them. After all the… all we went through before getting together, there was no way I was going to hide this from them, or anyone else for that matter." Natsuki noticed that Shizuru seemed to glance away momentarily while she said this. It was only a brief slip in her facade, but it was enough to let Natsuki know that there was something going on there.
"'All we went through'?" Natsuki said, furrowing her brow. "What do you mean?"
Shizuru glanced away again, and this time it took a while before she looked back at Natsuki. Her expression was a bit more subdued as she spoke now. "Ara, I suppose there's no harm in telling you, at this point. If you do go back to your own time remembering today, you've already learned enough that things will unfold quite differently for you. It's quite a long story, but in short, I kept my feelings for you hidden. As the situation got more and more stressful - and perhaps with some manipulation from external forces, though I can't say for sure - it eventually broke me. I did… some things that-"
"Wait!" Natsuki said, cutting Shizuru off. Shizuru's gaze hadn't drifted from Natsuki this time, but there was more and more tension in her features as she spoke. She seemed to be fighting to keep her emotions from showing through. Obviously, things hadn't gone well. Natsuki closed her eyes and gave herself a moment to take a few deep breaths. She wasn't going to let herself get worked up here. "Okay," she said at last, opening her eyes. "It's not fair for me to just ask you for the worst part, without even getting any context for it all. Just tell me: Is there any part of it all that you haven't told me - that is, me before today?"
Thankfully, it seemed that Shizuru relaxed a bit as Natsuki said this. "No. I told Natsuki everything long ago, before we officially got together."
Natsuki nodded. "Okay," she said. That was all she needed. "Well, I've obviously forgiven you, so I'll just trust myself on that one. It's not like I've been a saint myself."
Shizuru's eyebrow raised at this, and she looked about to say something, but she stopped herself. After another moment, she said, "Well, the point of it all is that keeping my feelings for you hidden caused a lot of trouble that could have been avoided if I had been honest with you, and so I was certainly not going to repeat that mistake with my parents. Thankfully, they were both quite supportive, even if my father did have to tease me a bit about it."
Natsuki's eyes opened wide at this. "Wait, your father teases you?" she said. Now that was certainly interesting news. "What kind of teases?"
Shizuru gave a gentle chuckle at this and shook her head. "Ara ara, Natsuki doesn't think it would be that easy, does she? If she wants some ideas for how to tease me, she's going to have to think of them herself."
"Pfft, fine," Natsuki said, playfully sticking her tongue out at Shizuru. Even so, just the thought of Shizuru being teased by her father was quite cute, and Natsuki couldn't help but smile imagining it.
"So," Shizuru said after a minute. "Is there anything else Natsuki would like to ask me? Perhaps we could go look up the lottery numbers for the week after she gets back so she can make us rich."
"Hah!" Natsuki said, grinning at the thought. "Now that's tempting… Something tells me it wouldn't end up working, though. It seems too easy. And with my luck, some Orphan would come along and destroy all my earnings somehow… or do I have to remind you what happened to my lingerie collection?"
"I'll have you know I've been making that up to Natsuki one article at a time over the past few years," Shizuru said, leaning toward Natsuki. "And my predictions of her taste have been nearly perfect. I bet if Natsuki were to go to her closet right now, she couldn't even pick out which pieces were gifts from me and which were her own purchases."
Natsuki raised an eyebrow at this. At this point, the fact that Shizuru was buying lingerie for her didn't put her off one bit. But did Shizuru really think she could predict Natsuki's tastes that well? Well… maybe. But this still sounded fun. "You have a bet. What are the stakes?" she said.
Shizuru looked momentarily surprised at this, but she recovered quickly. She leaned back and thought for a moment. "How about this: Natsuki can pick out one item that she's absolutely certain she bought for herself. If she's right, I'll treat her to my special mayo-flavoured ramen for dinner. If she's wrong…" Shizuru trailed off, but then her eyes suddenly caught Natsuki's. The look on her face caused Natsuki to involuntarily shudder. She didn't know what that look was, but she had to admit that she kind of liked it. "If Natsuki's wrong, then I get to surprise Natsuki by doing something to her - something sweet, I promise - which she did to me in the past, when I needed it most."
"Hmm…" The way Shizuru had set up the bet, Natsuki had a pretty good chance of winning it. Part of her was a bit worried about what exactly Shizuru might have in mind for if she won, but she'd said it was a surprise, so there was no point in asking what it might be. Perhaps she could propose different stakes instead, but… Well, Shizuru had said it was sweet, so it couldn't be that bad. "Alright," Natsuki said. "You're on."
With a smile and a bit of a twinkle in her eyes, Shizuru got up from the table and led Natsuki back to the bedroom. "Most of your collection is in the dresser, second drawer from the bottom," Shizuru said. She motioned to this drawer as she entered the room. "There are also a few items hanging in the closet, and…" Shizuru trailed off, glancing back to the dresser. A curious expression appeared on her face, with perhaps even a hint of a blush. "Ara, that should be enough for Natsuki to select from."
"Whoa whoa, hold on, Shizuru," Natsuki said, narrowing her eyes. She waited for Shizuru to turn back toward her before she continued. "You aren't trying to cheat, are you, hiding all the ones I picked for myself? Where are the rest of them?"
Shizuru raised an eyebrow at this. "Ah, forgive me, Natsuki, but no, that's not what I'm doing. There are plenty of articles Natsuki bought for herself in the drawer and closet, so please don't worry about it."
Natsuki narrowed her eyes even further and crossed her arms. Shizuru was hiding something, and Natsuki wasn't going to let her get away with it. "You're avoiding the question, Shizuru. Where's the rest of my collection?"
Shizuru closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She motioned to the dresser again. "There are a few special items of Natsuki's in the bottom drawer, as well as some of mine, but I recommend Natsuki simply trust me and…" Shizuru trailed off as Natsuki pushed past her to get to the dresser, not even listening after she'd learned where the remainder of her collection was.
"Alright, now what do have here…" Natsuki said as she pulled open the drawer. Her eyes immediately latched on to some pieces in the center of the drawer. On top was a black demi bra and matching panties, which Natsuki fished out to inspect. Both pieces were lacy and soft to the touch. They were actually nearly transparent, Natsuki noticed as she held them up, but they were quite well-made, so they didn't feel at all flimsy.
"There are actually a couple more parts to that," Shizuru said, grabbing Natsuki's attention back. She was holding up a garter and a pair of stockings, both matching the style of the bra and panties. She must have fished them out of the drawer while Natsuki wasn't looking.
"Aha, okay," Natsuki said. She placed the bra and panties down on the bed, then reached to take the garter and stockings from Shizuru. She tried to picture in her mind how they might look together, but it was a bit hard to get a full mental image without trying them on. Perhaps she'd have to do that a bit later… It certainly was tempting.
The question though, was whether these were of her own choice or if Shizuru had bought them from her. Shizuru did seem to be trying to keep this drawer a secret from Natsuki, so that made her suspect that perhaps everything in here was selected by Natsuki herself. This set was perhaps a bit on the daring side for Natsuki, and it wasn't something she'd wear often - if at all - but she could certainly imagine herself picking it out to add to her collection.
"Okay," Natsuki said. She folded the stockings and placed them and the garter on the bed, then looked up at Shizuru. "I think you were keeping this drawer a secret for a reason, so my guess is that this is my own selection," she said.
Shizuru's expression was unreadable. "Ara, I didn't mean to give Natsuki that impression. That wasn't why I was-"
"Shizuru!" Natsuki said, narrowing her eyes. "I've made my choice - now, is it right or wrong?"
Shizuru slowly raised an eyebrow, and then shook her head. "I bought that for Natsuki for our anniversary earlier this year," she said.
Natsuki cursed below her breath. She grumbled for a moment, and turned to pick up the items so she could return them to the drawer, but then she turned back to Shizuru. "Then what was the big deal about the drawer?" she said.
No answer was forthcoming from Shizuru, and so Natsuki found her eyes wandering back toward the still-open drawer. When she'd opened it, she hadn't really taken in anything apart from the pieces right in front of her, but as she looked over to it now, she realized that her own lingerie only occupied the center of it. What looked like Shizuru's lingerie was to the right, but to the left was…
"Gah!" Natsuki jumped back and turned away from the dresser. She could feel her face fill rapidly with a blush as she tried desperately not to think about everything she'd just seen. "Close it! Close the drawer!" she said. She squeezed her eyes shut, but this only made things worse. With nothing else to look at, her mind was free to conjure up images of all the… very inappropriate toys she'd seen in there. "What is all tha- no! Don't tell me!" she said.
After what felt like minutes, Natsuki felt Shizuru's arms wrap around her from behind. Without letting her mind get in the way, Natsuki let herself slowly relax into the hug. "Forgive me, Natsuki," Shizuru said, giving Natsuki a brief squeeze with her arms. "I should have been more careful about that."
"Haa… no, it's not your fault," Natsuki said. She was the one who'd been so persistent about seeing what Shizuru might have been hiding from her. At this point though, what she'd actually seen there was getting a bit easier to accept - of course if she were married to Shizuru, they'd have an active sex life. There wasn't anything to really be ashamed about there… but that just made Natsuki's own reaction all the more awkward. "Er… Um, don't think… I didn't want to be rude there, sorry…"
"Ara?" Shizuru said. She removed herself from the hug and moved around in front of Natsuki. "What do you mean, Natsuki?"
Natsuki shook her head. "My reaction… that was… I shouldn't have freaked out like that," she said. She could feel her cheeks filling with a blush again, and she couldn't meet Shizuru's gaze, but she pressed forward. "It's not like there's anything wrong there, and I don't want you to think I'm judging or anything, it's just… I never really thought about those things before, so…"
Natsuki felt a finger against her lips. She looked up to Shizuru, and she could feel herself melt a bit under her friend's gaze. "I know," Shizuru said simply. She removed her finger, then leaned back in to envelop Natsuki in a hug again.
Letting out a sigh, Natsuki wrapped her arms around Shizuru in turn. She could really get used to getting hugs like this. "So…" she said. "About that bet…"
"Maybe later," Shizuru said. Her hand slowly began to stroke Natsuki's back. "I did say it would be a surprise after all, didn't I?"
"...Right," Natsuki said. She wasn't quite sure why, but she found herself smiling at this.