Under Construction

The same dream again. I stood atop the tall office building and felt malicious winds blow against my back. The flow was relentless and inescapable and once again I was pushed over the edge. The fall towards the crowded street had become so familiar that I could hardly even care anymore. Eventually I would unceremoniously splat on the cement and be either awoken or sent to the next layer of dreams. Perhaps this could be classified as a nightmare of repetition.

Once again I found myself looking for the spot that I would hit and realized that something was changing. The crowd was drifting apart and left behind a huge empty area in the street. No cars, no trains, not a single soul would be between me and my violent impact. That was new.

As my dry eyes teared up from the strong winds that assailed them I noticed a blurry blue and white shape below me. It grew rapidly until it was the size of small indoor pool. That was the only comparison I could make when faced with the cold blue light. With all my mental capacity I managed to focus and recognized the blurry object as… a face?

It was a face. Can't make this up. And the face belonged to someone I sort of knew as well. Her wide smile was so innocent that I could feel my heart be at ease already. The girl that declared herself an alien from the future had turned into a giant flat surface, but grew more bouncy and balloon like by the second. As I finally crashed into her I was enveloped by the unbelievable squishiness and sank so far into it that I must have reached the sewers below the street. It was a strange feeling, like being covered in deflated balloons and rubber.

"Boing~!" The giant face made a cute noise and the next second I was flung back by the reactive force of the elastic material.

The speed by which I was flung through the city was comical, but I slowed down all too soon and was about to crash on my butt (this time my arc was so close to ground level that it wouldn't hurt much). Instead I was caught in someone's arms and spun in place as she gave it her all to contain my inertia. The spinning caused my eyes to swim and eventually we landed on top of each other.

I rubbed my head and looked up with squinted eyes. The one who was still holding onto me even while I was resting in her arms was…

Adachi.

My eyes sprung open.

The darkness of the room initially threw me off, but the low sound of breathing near my ear gave me a good idea where I was. And next to whom. I blinked a few more times and tilted my head to the side, staring out the window. It was still dark outside and the street lamps only threw a weak hue into the room that could barely give my raised hand a visible contrast.

This was definitely not a dream. And neither was what had happened yesterday. Not that my dreams where any less embarrassing. Yeah, my heart was still racing, so what?

With a languid motion of my arm I picked up my phone from the night stand and read the time in the upper corner. My eyes were hurt by the artificial light, but I could roughly make out that it was six in the morning. That was impossibly early for my standards. After that dream I certainly couldn't calm down and go back to sleep, though.

I suppressed a yawn and raised my torso up slowly. Today I would have to go home first to get my stuff and then I would go back to the station to ride the train to work. It sounded incredibly bothersome even just listing it in my head. The Shimamura from yesterday was quite irresponsible.

The blanket next to me shifted slightly as the woman who was sleeping in the same bed adjusted her legs. It took me a lot of discipline to keep my head turned towards the door. If I looked at her right now it might have stirred my sleepy mind even more and that would have just been troublesome.

There had to be something I could do to distract myself.

"You didn't need to…" Adachi muttered with a mix of surprise and guilt.

"If I didn't you would have just bought something at a vending machine later, right?" I said with a half-smirk and pushed the plate her way. She didn't respond, but I was fairly confident in predicting her way of thinking this time.

"I will pay you back."

"Just eat already. I'm hungry too." Without giving her a chance to talk back I picked up my chopsticks and took a piece of the omelet to my mouth. The eggs weren't nearly as fluffy as my mother made them, but it was at least edible. The rest of the breakfast was in a similar state honestly.

Adachi awkwardly put her hands together for a silent prayer and then started pushing food into her mouth. This could definitely be seen as a test run of sorts, so I wanted her to give me a proper review. Adachi wasn't someone who could express her likes and dislikes too well, at least when keeping my feelings in consideration, so I would have to be extra pushy today.

The food was still relatively fresh as I had gotten it straight from the 24/7 convenience store close-by, but they didn't get the new stuff on an early Monday morning, so these were the leftovers more or less. The shop clerk had looked at me with a tired expression the entire time as I leisurely picked out the stuff I needed and then yawned a generic phrase of thanks when I left. That was pretty much how I felt too. The lack of sleep was already kicking in. Honestly, how did mothers manage to make breakfast and lunch boxes for their children every day?

"Thank you for the meal Shimamura." Adachi said with earnest gratitude as she put down her chopsticks.

"It wasn't a big deal." I replied while intentionally avoiding her eyes.

The silence returned like an old friend, but this time it left me restless. Adachi's shirt was feeling extra sweaty around my body right then. After this I would put my stuff in a plastic bag and head for the station. I didn't really care about how I looked while riding the bus, but I could only guess what my family would say when I arrived home. Now I remembered that I didn't actually tell them that I would stay over at a friend's place. I wasn't a school girl anymore, but it still felt like I had to report to my parents all the same. This was another reason why…

"Look at the time, I really need to leave soon." I said as I grabbed the dishes and carried them to the kitchen.

"Please leave those to me!" Adachi jumped up from her cardboard seat and rushed after me like a dog who was going to fetch the paper for its owner.

"Go ahead." I nodded and put everything down in the sink. Considering how rarely Adachi seemed to use both the tableware and the sink it was not going to be much work. Compared to a family of four this was quite manageable even without a dishwasher.

While the running of water echoed inside the kitchen, I was getting ready to leave. Getting to eat breakfast with Adachi like this seemed like an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and yet I felt at ease with the concept already. I didn't even mind going shopping this time.

"I left you something in the fridge so you won't starve tomorrow." I exclaimed while fastening my boots in the hallway.

"What?" Adachi sounded quite surprised and immediately audibly opened the fridge.

A light smile curled up my face as I pulled the bag over my arm with a somewhat lighter body. The ever so dusty fresh-wood smell of the apartment was already clinging to me as I opened the door and received a mild breeze from the outside. The rain had already stopped long before I had awoken, but the sky was still overcast even as the first rays of sunlight pierced the clouds.

Thus I took my first step outside the cozy apartment and into the cold everyday in front of me.

"Shimamura!" Adachi appeared behind me, slightly out of breath.

"We will see each other on the train." I raised my hand for a casual goodbye.

"Shimamura, wait." She put a hand on my shoulder and locked me in place. I swallowed. "About what we discussed yesterday. I was… serious." Her sincere eyes pierced the back of my head. They demanded a response.

I sighed. This whole morning had felt like a movie reel passing by my eyes. Conveniently I didn't seem to be part of that little show put on for my eyes. Wouldn't it have been nice if I could just fast-forward the inconvenient parts? Everyone must have dreamed of having a magic remote that could do such things before. Well, there wasn't such a device in my pockets. Maybe I could have gotten one from some alien, but I didn't have such suspicious friends.

Even my inner monologue was just a distraction for myself at this point.

"Me too." I eventually wrung out from my hesitant lips. "Honestly I would prefer you would forget what I said before that, though." I turned my head and showed her a pained smile.

"So then?"

"Living together, right? Seems like a lot of work." I scratched my cheek with my index finger. "I think we will need to think about this more seriously."

Adachi fidgeted with her feet and then nodded in agreement. It seemed like she would have preferred if I just moved into her apartment right away, but for once I would have to be responsible and pull her down to reality. Not that I had much right to talk about realism when I tried to avoid it until now.

"I will do some research." She promised with an encouraging raised fist.

"We might need some help." I gave up and accepted my lot. Disappointing Adachi was something my heart seemed to find unbearable already. I was a lost cause. "Let's put our heads together at my place this weekend. Alright?" I raised my fist the same way she did and we did a forced cheer.

Against my lazy and bothered nature, I felt a current of giddiness spread through my body as I walked towards the new week.

The work week passed in a flash against all known laws of corporate time flow and spat me out on Saturday where I welcomed Adachi to our house once again. Mom and my sister were giving me meaningful looks all morning as I prepared for her arrival and I barely managed to stonewall them until she rang the doorbell. What awaited me at the door was unexpected for me as well.

Adachi was standing there in what I could only describe as camping gear and a family's worth of luggage. Even if you calculated in that she was staying the night and wanted to be extra prepared, this was just excessive. It was also really funny, which was why I had to suppress a chuckle by hiding my mouth behind my hands.

"G-Greetings." Adachi bowed her head nervously to my mother who had unfortunately managed to sneak up on me.

"Oho, is she going to move in?" This snarky comment was accompanied by a poke in my defenseless lower back. "Make yourself at home Adachi the younger!" She waved her in with a laugh.

"Nevermind her." I pulled Adachi through the hallway and dragged her to the upper floor and into my small room. "You can put your, uh, everything over there." I vaguely pointed at the corner of the room. Watching her try to stack the bags and suitcase on top of each other neatly was quite entertaining.

After she managed to forcefully pile it into an efficient stack she turned around and huffed. My amused gaze was troubling her, so she knelt down near the low table and stared at her knees. Cute.

"I don't want to be a bother."

"No worries." I chuckled. My guess about why she was so overly prepared had been spot on. She probably carried half her belongings along so she wouldn't have to lend anything from us. "Let's take it easy and think about our preferences."

"I already… I did some research." Adachi said with feigned stoicism and pulled over one of the bags. It was completely flat and soon revealed a laptop. She booted it up and opened some browser with way too many loading tabs. Like a gazillion.

"This is?" I tilted my head to the side as she kept loading all the tabs at once.

"A list of properties in the area." She replied with the screen reflected in her sharp eyes. Sure enough, she had picked out pretty much every single apartment and rentable house in this town and two cities over. I was more impressed than shocked.

Obviously Adachi's apartment was too small for the two of us. Even if we were conservative and decided not to take all my belongings along, there was just not enough room. We weren't university students anymore (Adachi never was one to begin with). Knowing both our incomes, I could say we had a shot at a fairly decent apartment, even if not a house. It wouldn't be big and it wouldn't be luxurious, but it would still be better than our current living space. At least that was the hope.

The numbers were quite disheartening. Even when Adachi closed the pages for overpriced places near the inner city, it was hard to look at the rent. The fact that my family owned two houses made me all the more envious of the previous generations. It couldn't be helped, we had to find a place close to public transport that would still be in a residential area at least. Stuff near the industrial districts was generally cheaper, but I didn't want to put Adachi through that. Or myself.

After two hours of discussing the options we finally postponed the search and decided to get something to drink (and some snacks while we were at it). Downstairs I was basically ambushed by my family. Adachi greeted my sister and father politely and put on her business smile. Very convincing.

"I can smell something in the air." Mom was loudly sniffing and drawing circles around me. Did she have any idea how old she was? I was just glad that Adachi was busy talking to dad right then. "You are up to something my dearest daughter!" It wasn't even a question, she just knew.

While I lazily considered my options (ignoring her or fleeing the kitchen) I was taking a bunch of things from the drawers and pulled some soda from the fridge. Although I found every second of being pricked with questions agonizing, I could sense the inevitable outcome of this losing battle. So with an unintentional smack of my cold bottle to her nosy nose, I turned to face her.

"I'm thinking of moving out." Blunt. Blunt weapons were the only thing that could even scratch this woman.

"…" For once in her life my mother seemed lost for words. Miracles really did happen.

"Are you serious?" My little sister slipped into the kitchen like she had been standing behind the door frame to listen in. Now I was pincered between them.

"You always told me to become independent." Maybe my casual façade was far from convincing too. My mother already recovered and changed her expression to one I could only describe as a sarcastic villain grinning at a foolish hero.

"Moving out of here. Which means moving in with Adachi?" She put a hand on her waist and rubbed her chin with the other. These dramatic poses were too much.

"Are you really going to leave, Sis?" Another slightly more alarmed question came from behind me.

"Yeah, I think it's time to get out of your hair. Adachi also wants to move, so it just kind of worked out that way." I said something I considered relatively reasonable. Definitely better than saying we just chose this path on a whim.

"Hehehe, this coming from the little girl who was afraid of the big bad dorm?" The supervillain that doubled as my mom made damaging comments. How could one receive so much joy from the misery of their offspring?

It was not like I was afraid of moving into the university's dorms, I just didn't feel like it. Our house was not far from the train station, so I could make it to lectures in time. There was no reason to move into some dorm full of strangers who would get on my case over every little thing. There was nothing for me in that place.

This wasn't anything like back then, because if it was Adachi I knew we could manage somehow. We had our differences, but just this once I wanted to give it a try. There would be a compromise that only the two of us could reach. Call it intuition.

"You will have the room all to yourself." I said to my sister and gave her my best smile. Although we were almost the same height now I raised my hand to pat her forehead. It was almost comical from an outside perspective, but she had lowered her head enough to make it work.

"You are going with her?" She muttered so quietly that I barely picked it up.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"I see." She exhaled and then escaped my mild patting. She turned to the door and left.

"Hmhmhm hmmm~ I can't believe you suddenly grew up." Mom was exaggerating her suspicious tone and crossed her arms. "Are you going to split the costs evenly?"

"Of course." I gave her an angry look for even implying I would mooch off of Adachi. The reason we had trouble with the high rent was also that we had to go with a budget that suited me more than her. The first compromise of many.

"You're super serious then." She suddenly put her powerful hand on my head and patted it the same way I had done for my sister. It was not nearly as gentle, but I could still feel her warmth. "Your Adachi is quite amazing. Like mother, like daughter."

"What are you talking about?" I just shook my head to try and pry her hand off, but that comment was a bit foreboding.

"I'm thinking about what I will do with the room in the attic once you finally release it!" She declared and clapped her hands excitedly.

"I am not some foreign army occupying it…" I sighed and pulled the snacks into my arms to leave.

"Ask Adachi what she wants for dinner, okay?" She threw those words after me before I left.

I doubted that Adachi would be able to answer that. It would probably pose more trouble to her than finding a good apartment.

"This might work." I fell onto the bean bag behind me and released all the tension in my body. We actually had been clicking through pages all day and were now finally at the end of our exhausting journey.

"Yep." Adachi nodded, still fully invested. Her tenacity was admirable for sure. The site she had open on the screen was displaying the kind of apartment that only intensive research and a big dose of luck could hook you.

I stretched my arm over the charger cord of the laptop and grabbed my room temperate soda. In this belly down position I emptied it completely and stayed still like a dead fish afterwards. This had been more tiring than working out and I wasn't even remotely in the mood for jokes. Being an adult could be its own endurance run.

"I wonder if dinner is ready." I mumbled and opened one eye to see that the sun had already left us behind. The days had become pretty short already due to the quickly approaching winter.

"Mhm."

"You should take a break Adachi. Your eyes will hurt a bunch, I guarantee it." I stretched forward to lightly poke her back. In an instant her spine straightened up like she had been electrocuted and she released an incredibly odd squeal. "Whoops. Is my hand that cold?"

"Ah, uh- y-you… don't do that please." Adachi was flush as a drunk and equally unsteady on her feet as she had suddenly risen to her full height.

"Sorry, sorry~" I lazily raised my hands like I was held at gunpoint.

In that moment we heard a call from downstairs that dinner was ready. Mom's voice could probably penetrate several concrete walls with ease. My stomach was growling in equally loud measure, though. I rolled over and accidentally sank deeper into the bean bag. This was a wonderfully comfortable prison. Adachi looked back and forth between me, the laptop and the door.

A really silly idea hit my dumb brain.

With a wide motion I raised my arms forward and held them up expectantly. I must have looked like a flipped over turtle stuck on some rock, pathetically flailing my limbs and hair spread out everywhere.

Adachi slightly bit her lip and stiffened up. I could only imagine what was going through her brain right now, but I could definitely hear the gears screeching under the stress. The twitching of her elbows and knees told me that conflicting commands were trying to move her limbs in opposing directions. Was Adachi secretly an android?

"Please?" I finally gave her a pleading smile for the finish. My arms were really extend as far as possible. Would she pull me up or not?

If my android analogy wasn't fitting before, the sparks that seemed to spring from Adachi's eyes and mouth were proving it rather accurate. And with the heat of overstrained machinery she twisted forward and walked into my direction. I was slightly delighted that she was going along with my childish behavior. No shame in admitting that.

Speaking of awkward machinery and mechanical issues…

Adachi tripped over the laptop cord.

Do I even need to explain what happened next? The cord was pulled out and flew over the ground and hit a wall, although the laptop miraculously stayed on the table. That's not what most people care about, is it? I most definitely had bigger worries. Like in the common scenarios from your favorite manga, suddenly Adachi flopped right on top of me. To say that she was heavy would have been rude and inaccurate, but the weight of a slim and beautiful woman like her in full forward momentum could still be quite crushing.

We sank into the bean bag until it was pushed close to bursting on both sides as my back hit the floor painfully. As if to make up for my hard reckoning on the back, I received an equally soft greeting from the front. Well, to make things short, Adachi was lying on top of me.

I could hear her intense inhale next to my ear as she had braced for impact. Her arms were pushed against the ground behind my head, so she didn't outright flatten me. Nonetheless, her body was pressed against mine in several places and our heads were right next to each other. Now she was shaking as she held her body up in the most awkward position.

I groaned in pain and opened one eye after desperately closing them before the collision. Unsurprisingly I just got a full eye of Adachi's hair. It should be mentioned that the way she was pressing against me made it very hard to avoid noticing the sweet smell of her shampoo. Considering I had used her shampoo just a few days ago I should have gotten used to it, but for some reason it made me very restless all of a sudden.

"Ouch… Shimamura… are you alright?" She spoke directly into my ear which gave me inexplicable goosebumps.

"I guess so." I replied, trying to find a way to move in my pinned position. "How about your hands?"

"It's fine." She pressed out, but I could hear the pain clearly. This tough Adachi act was really getting on my nerves. She could have just let go instead of trying to protect me.

Just as we were about to separate I heard the squeaking of the door getting pushed open. My eyes widened as I peeked through Adachi's luscious hair to see who was slipping her head inside. My sister.

"Mom asked me to get you." She said with an expression that was maybe trying to be too many things at once. "Sorry for the disturbance."

"No wait a sec-" I called out to her, but the door was rapidly slammed shut.

Was this an actual romcom manga now? These kinds of misunderstandings were beyond comical. But could she really misunderstand anything? I mean this was just me and Adachi…

"Sorry." Adachi pressed out. I had no time to wonder what her apology was for as she already collapsed on top of me. Her arms had given out after she had been shocked by my sister's appearance.

Let's just say that I haven't had this much physical contact with another person in over a decade.

Dinner was very different from usual. Even compared to Adachi's last visit this was an entirely incomparable atmosphere. We could not even look in the same direction without turning slightly red. My sister was giving us suspicious looks, which in turn made my mother look like someone who was about to press out a grape for all its juice. Dad ate his food with a content expression as always.

I had no idea why Adachi's ears were so red, but her nervous reactions made me feel anxious in turn and so we just quietly ate our meal.

After that messy situation was behind us we returned to my room and prepared for the night. Adachi had apparently bought a futon, which was a big part of her luggage. Of course I had one in the store room, so that was pretty unnecessary, but I didn't have the heart to tell her. I suggested that she take a bath first, as my little sister tended to only go after midnight. She had even brought her own shampoo and toothpaste. Incredibly prepared or seriously weird? You be the judge.

Adachi's nervous expression had not disappeared at all after dinner, so when she returned with a nearly monk like relaxation and slightly wet hair I was genuinely caught off guard. Hot water must have loosened her metallic chassis and revealed the soft flesh below.

I got up to take her place in the bath, but as I passed her I couldn't help but sniff her once. She was still using the same shampoo I smelled before, but it was far more intense and fresh now.

"It smells good." I commented as I passed and only heard something close to a collapsing pile of bricks behind me. For the sake of Adachi's pride I dared not turn back to look.

In the bathroom I was undressing quickly and spread my legs inside the tub. It was a divine feeling to experience the heat of a late bath. The attic was actually getting a little cold already, so I would have to pull out the heater for Adachi before I went to sleep. While such thoughts went through my relaxed brain, I was surprised to hear the door slide open.

"Hmm?" I looked over the edge and saw… my sister.

"Sis, can I come in?"

"Huh?" I blinked repeatedly and looked at her holding her pajamas ready. Otherwise she was only in her underwear. "It will be really cramped." I pointed out. I felt a weird sense of déjà vu.

This had to be the first time since at least grade school that she wanted to take a bath together. This was definitely abnormal for a high school girl, right? If it had been me I definitely wouldn't have shared a bathtub with some older lady. This wasn't a bathhouse. On the other hand I found it very hard to deny my sister's requests. They had gotten quite rare.

"I don't mind." That was her stance and she already slipped out of her panties before I could say anything else.

Thus we ended up inside the tub together. Unsurprisingly our legs pressed against each other and it felt like a tin of sardines were being cooked in boiling water. If there was any positive to this it was in the fact that I could ask her to help me with my hair. She actually offered to wash my back, so I was happy to oblige. While she brushed my hair slowly she spoke up.

"You and Miss Adachi."

I nodded.

"Do you really want to live together?"

I nodded.

"Are you getting married?"

I kicked my foot against the tub and silently suppressed a painful yelp. Tears welled up and I had to wipe them away with the bath water. The pounding in my toes would not disappear any time soon.

"No way." I replied with a strained voice.

"You aren't dating?"

My mind was going through the grinder trying to cope with my sister's blunt questioning. This was the kind of thing I would expect from our mother, but she had always been a lot more subdued. Honestly I had never talked about romance with her before this. That was just not a topic that came up among us siblings. Mostly because I absolutely hated talking about it. But now that I was confronted with this awkward moment I realized that she was indeed a high schooler and absolutely at the age where she might start dating.

Still, why would she think Adachi and I could be in that kind of relationship? It couldn't have been because of the previous slapstick like scene. Would anybody think two women acting a bit close were actually an item? That wouldn't even have crossed my mind. Or maybe… There were Hino and Nagafuji after all. But we weren't like that at all. Mostly.

"We are not." I finally said a bit more firmly.

"Really?"

"I swear."

"But you are going to live with her anyway?"

"Pretty much." I nodded and let her rub my back with the sponge.

"I don't get it. Is it that bad living with us?"

What? I turned my head and looked at her gloomy expression. I had not seen her like this in a long time. Maybe I had been missing something this entire time. She didn't actually care that much about my relationship with Adachi, but rather about my desire to leave.

That hadn't crossed my mind this entire time. Not in that direction anyway. I wanted to leave mostly to stop being a bother, but it seemed that my sister was more attached than I expected. Now I had to question if this was a sudden realization or if there had been signs all along. Even though we had been drifting apart and she had stopped being clingy, I might have misunderstood.

"Of course I like living with you all." I responded slowly. "But mom is right that I need to leave the nest eventually."

"Mom will miss you the most."

Another unexpected left hook. How was I supposed to take this? Where was all this coming from? That woman was kinder than she acted, but she would surely not break down crying if I left the house. If I was honest I would miss her as well, but it was not like we would be apart forever.

I lowered my head and pressed my knees against my chest.

"Your hair is so long." She suddenly complained as she had to pull it together and wrap it over her arm to get it all.

"I am going to cut it."

"What?"

"I am going to cut my hair." I said with a melancholy smile on my lips. "And then I will find a place where I can live with Adachi."

My sister merely quietly kept brushing my hair and applied the shampoo. It seemed like she couldn't make peace with my choice, but was tired of arguing. I should have noticed her feelings sooner. But now it was too late. For a couple of reasons.

"I want to be clear about one thing. I am not just doing this to get out of your hair." Obviously that pun was not intended, but she snorted anyway. "I am doing this… because I really want to." An illusion of Adachi's face was reflected in the bubbles that floated on the water. Despite my many reasonable points before, I had to be honest with myself here. With her.

When Adachi had listened to my self-loathing that night and just given me the same honest kindness as always, I had already decided. Maybe I had been running away from that, because it was too basic. Too selfish. If I was afraid of being a leech, then what I was doing with Adachi could have been seen as much of the same. I really yearned for that something that only she could give me. Whatever that truly was. I could justify my choices in so many ways and most of them were sensible, but the truth was just so simple.

The empty me that had forgotten how to desire anything had latched onto something. That was all it was. I had called her my salvation before and now it became clear just how far that feeling extended.

"I will miss you." My sister said with a light tremble. "But I am glad you are smiling again. Wherever you may go."

I held her warm hand in the water. She made it pretty hard to leave. The bathtub, our shared room and this house. My adorable clingy sister had never quite left.

"Let's play a few rounds before going to sleep." I suggested.

"Bring it on!"

After drying off and dressing myself I turned on the heater for Adachi who had already been snoring inside her futon when I came back. Her sleeping face was rather funny, but I would stay quiet about that when she woke up tomorrow. Until then I had a few video-game matches to win.