Title: Plan B
By: bakayaro onna
Pairing: it's a mystery
Rating: M - for language, nudity and suggestive situations
Idea Conceived: Friday, March 5, 2005
Completed: Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Summary: Has a heavy rainstorm completely spoiled carefully made plans for a Sakura Matsuri celebration? One-shot.
Thanks! To imayb1/Aja for a beta that met itself coming and going! smooch
Author Notes: This is an exercise in Second Person Narrative, Present Tense. I have not tried this in a long time so I felt it was time to explore the style again in this short piece.
This is also another story inspired by the March Drabble Challenge topics. This time the subject is rain storms. Most of my one-shots are too long to be considered drabbles because of the heavily descriptive nature of my typical writing style.
A glossary for all the Japanese terms are at the end of this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation; Maki Murakami, Sony, TokyoPop and The RightStuf do. Too bad about the latter two - their translations are inaccurate, sanitized and full of Americanisms.
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You bolt upright like a jack knife, immediately awakened by an unknown mystery that makes your heart beat rapidly and your breath to gasp and pant in alarm. Sleep forgotten, you quickly try to fathom what could have caused such a reaction, but you cannot recall any recent nightmare. A muted flash of light from the drawn curtains and a loud boom rattling the bedroom window glass distract your thoughts. Erratic patters, then a more steady drumming, thrum against the window panes. A brighter flash precedes another deafening explosion, this time causing the room to vibrate. It finally gives you the answer you are searching for and your body quickly calms itself. You check the clock on the headboard shelf and inwardly groan at the hour. It is quite early in the morning – only a little after dawn.
You slide off the warm mattress and dash across the bedroom floor. You push yourself between the edges of the closed curtains of the large floor-to-ceiling window. Pulling back the fabric with one hand, you are met with the sight of heavily pelting rain drenching Tokyo.
You gather the nubby material with your left hand and hold it close to your flat stomach to preserve your modesty while your right hand presses against the cool glass to steady yourself. You mutter a colourful curse softly so you will not awaken your bed partner, then you lean your forehead against the window in dispirited frustration.
This was to have been a special day. You had been able to finagle the entire day off to enjoy Sakura Matsuri with your lover this year and now the deluge was destroying all those plans.
The two of you had intended to escape the city this day and travel to a more remote area for your celebratory picnic. The banquet purchased the day before waited in the kitchen, with only the perishables and cold drinks in the refrigerator and the frozen cold-pacs needing to be packed in the hamper and insulated drink cooler before you would leave the apartment for your adventure.
You had had it all arranged – your lover would drive the two of you to the country to evade the throngs of city people who would be celebrating also. You would find a quiet rural area with blossoming Sakura trees. You would enjoy a secluded lunch in the shade of the pink petals, where you could snuggle together and feed each other without prying eyes and cameras pestering you. After your meal, you would travel to a ryokan with outdoor onsen. After getting a room and changing into yukata, you would visit the bathhouse, where you would delight in scrubbing each other's backs and maybe even wash each other's hair. After rinsing, the two of you would take a soak in the steaming outside pool, with the pink, white and green bedecked trees framing the natural hot springs. A few Sakura petals might even drift down into the water, adding to the colourful patterns reflecting in the rippling liquid. After having your pores opened and your energy drained, you would return to the traditionally appointed hotel room, where together you would make delicious and languid love on the futon. The open shôji would allow the cool and fragrant breezes from the garden outside to circulate inside the room. The soft zephyrs would swirl and lick sensually across your sweat-glossed bodies, adding to the hedonistic pleasures and fervent emotions flooding your bodies and souls.
Your fantasy is interrupted by another pane-rattling thunderclap. The partial erection brought about by your vivid daydream quickly recedes. You lift your forehead from the glass, leaving a greasy oval to mar the view. You hope to see the clouds breaking so the day will not be a complete shambles. The boiling black haze covering the city and reaching to the horizon indicates much of Japan is being soaked and the storm is not going to end any time in the near future. You mumble more curses under your breath about the ruined day as you use the curtain fabric to wipe away the oily smear.
A low sensual voice that sends liquid fire down your spine and makes your penis quiver asks you why you are you awake and cussing at such an ungodly hour of the morning. You release the curtains as your eyes leave the window to gaze in the direction of both the bed and the voice.
A single golden eye contemplates you from the face buried in a purple and teal striped pillow. Your lover is lazing on his stomach, his arms tucked under the cushion cradling his head. The deep purple sheet is covering only his legs so his beautiful bare back and slightly rounded bottom are delightfully exposed. The gorgeous vision causes your own voice to freeze up in your throat and you clumsily stammer out your complaints about your wrecked plans for the holiday's celebration.
The eye blinks at you a few times, then you hear an exasperated grunt as the eye rolls around once in annoyance before it closes and disappears back into the folds of the pillow. A few seconds later, a resolved sigh is heard, the golden eye reappears and the spine-tingling low voice speaks again. Your lover tells you to come back to bed and says if you allow him to sleep in, he promises to prepare an indoor, lounging-in-bed feast and revelry at a more civilized hour later in the day.
You happily agree to the proposal, scamper to the bed and crawl back onto your side of the mattress. You pull the sheet and light blanket over both your bodies and up to your necks before turning on your side and sliding over so your back is snuggled against the side of your prone lover. Behind your head, you feel your sleep-mate move his right arm so it is no longer under his pillow. It drapes across your body and snakes around your middle. The hand tucks itself between your waist curve and the mattress and you are pulled closer to the body behind you. You sense his head shifting and suddenly you feel his breath against your skin as his nose buries into the nape of your neck. His twitching body and deepening breathing tells you he will soon be asleep again and your own body relaxes against his warmth. Just before you drift off, you hear him murmur how the only pink he wishes to view when he finally gets up today is your hair, your blush and your hard-on.
You succumb to slumber with heated cheeks and smiling lips, knowing the day will be perfect.
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Glossary of Japanese Terms
Sakura Matsuri - the annual Cherry Blossom Festival held all over Japan in the spring every year. The festival is dependent on when the trees will blossom. They bloom on the northern islands before they flower on the more southern islands. In Tokyo, the festival is usually sometime in March, but the date changes every year because of the unpredictability of the blooming. Tokyo's 2005 celebration date: March 31. Read more about Sakura Matsuri: gojapanDOTaboutDOTcomSLASHcsSLASHcherryblossomsSLASHaSLASHsakuraviewingDOThtm
Ryokan – a Japanese style inn.
Onsen – hot springs.
Yukata – a lightweight cotton kimono, usually worn in the summer or at ryokan.
Futon – traditional Japanese bed.
Shôji – a sliding screen made of wood and rice paper. These are usually used as exterior doors to traditional homes and you enter the house or room through the sliding shôji.
