Yo! Sorry for the long delay. I've not been feeling too good with isolation and writing proved to be a difficult thing for me. I've been feeling a lot better and I promise the next update will not take 84 years.
Cheers,
Nova
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Yuzu rushed down the dormitory stairs and was glad to find Harumi still studying in the common area. The brunette lifted her gaze from the books and noticed immediately something was wrong.
"Hey, back so soon. Everything okay?"
"No." Yuzu looked around and saw a few younger students huddled in a corner. "Uh—can we maybe talk somewhere more private?"
"Of course, gimme a second to gather my things." Harumi started to stuff the books in her bag and scooped the rolls of parchment in her hands. "We can go to my room. I'll make sure we can talk in private."
Yuzu nodded and followed Harumi upstairs. The room was similar to Yuzu's but had four people instead of just three. Two of them were there when they walked in and didn't seem to think it was anything strange to see Yuzu tagging along.
"This one's mine. Just make yourself comfortable, I'll be right with you." Harumi pointed at the bed in the far corner and went to put her things away. Yuzu stood next to the bed second guessing if this was a good idea. Pouring her heart out in front of strange classmates wasn't her idea of a private conversation.
Harumi walked closer and gave Yuzu an apologetic smile. "Ah, of course you wouldn't know what I meant. Just jump in, we do this all the time here so nobody will care too much if we disappear here for a while."
Yuzu was just about to ask what Harumi meant with disappearing when the brunette started closing the curtains on the bed posts.
Ah, that kind of disappearing, gotcha…
Yuzu helped with the other side's curtains and settled to sit on the bed cross-legged. Harumi followed and closed the last side before sitting across Yuzu.
"I guess nobody told you, but the curtains work as a Quietening Charm, when you close them you can't hear any noise from outside and vice versa." Harumi explained. "Neat trick when you need to get some sleep and others are too loud."
"Or have private conversations," Yuzu sighed. The day had been long as it was and there was still a lot she wanted to talk to Harumi about.
"Or that, yeah… So, what happened?"
"Well, it's a long story, but I guess it all started this morning when I needed to send my mother a letter…" And as Yuzu started to tell the story she did her best not to leave out any details.
"So, let me get this straight—Mei kissed you in the Owlery, hung around with us because she wanted to make sure you're not dating either of us and then just ended everything, because she has other things on her plate?" Harumi had trouble processing everything.
"Pretty much, yeah." Yuzu hugged Harumi's pillow in her lap.
"She admitted she has feelings, why would she do that—"
"I know, right? It's not fair." Yuzu pouted.
"No, but she also wanted to make sure you were not interested in anyone else. Does she think she still has the right to toy with you whenever she feels like it?"
"I don't think she's doing all this on purpose. She just doesn't know—"
"You're defending her after all this?" Harumi was getting agitated.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"I'm not angry at you, silly. Mei is the one who needs a reality check." Harumi rested her hand on Yuzu's knee and gave a small encouraging squeeze. "You can stay here tonight if you want to. I can help you get the stuff from your room you need—"
"No, I can go get them myself. I don't think Mei has anything to say to me anymore." Yuzu sighed deeply. After the roller coaster of emotions, she was ready to admit defeat.
It's not fair. Why does she get to call all the shots here?
The brunette studied the quiet girl sitting in front of her. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. I'm gonna do everything I can to make you forget you ever had feelings for Mei."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Yuzu looked perplexed.
"We'll find you a rebound or drink ourselves nice in Hogsmeade. We'll find a way." Harumi tried to sound reassuring.
"Thanks, but I don't think I want a rebound or make a fool of myself getting drunk." Yuzu looked at her friend and smiled weakly. "I think I just need some time to wrap my head around all this."
"Well, you can stay here as long as you need to."
"Thanks. Oh, speaking of which, I should probably go and get my things." Yuzu peeked outside of the curtains and was surprised to see some of her things neatly placed on the nightstand. She turned to look at Harumi, confused.
"Oh, I guess the house elves are one step ahead of you. You don't have to tiptoe around your room. Nice." Harumi grinned and emerged from the bed. The others were already sleeping, and the room was lit with only a dim light coming from a big fireplace in the corner.
"You're sure this won't fuel any more rumors?" Yuzu wanted to confirm the invite she got wouldn't make her life more miserable.
"Well, I guess in any normal situation this would be normal, but given there are already some rumors going on, I can't say for sure." Harumi looked thoughtful.
"Ah, never mind. I'll take a few curious looks if that means I don't have to stay with Mei, at least for tonight. You're sure this is OK?"
"Of course, it is. Gimme a sec, I'll come with you to the bathroom. If Mei is lurking somewhere, I'll fight her." The brunette grinned and Yuzu felt grateful she didn't have to ask.
It turned out that Mei was not lurking anywhere, so both girls relaxed and joked about how similar their evening routines were while sharing the bathroom mirror. Yuzu felt lucky she had found a friend like Harumi with whom she could share all the hair and make-up tips with and talk about everything.
They finally found their way back to the dormitory and to their surprise, an extra pillow and a comforter were already in place on the bed.
"Okay I gotta hand it to these house elves, they're really efficient," Yuzu said while crawling under the fresh linens.
"This is fun, though. I've only ever had sleep-overs with Matsuri."
"Oh? Did you sleep on the same bed too?" Yuzu teased.
"No, of course not. She slept on the floor." Harumi was clearly reading Yuzu's subtle hints. "We're not like that, she's more like an annoying little sister than anything else."
"I think you two are really close. I'm not sure if you noticed, but you chose her side today over your teammates'." Yuzu wasn't afraid to bring the subject up. "I've spent enough time around Quidditch players to know that is a huge deal."
"I know. I hate it when she does that." Harumi chuckled quietly, giving away she didn't entirely mean everything she said.
"I wish I had someone like that." Yuzu's thoughts trailed off to her distant stepsister who would definitely not choose Yuzu over anything she held important.
"You can have her if you'd like. I might even pay you a few Galleons if you take her off my hands," Harumi joked.
"Aren't you even a little bit curious, though?" Yuzu found focusing on other people's relationships could be a good distraction she needed right now.
"Curious about what? Matsuri?"
"The way she flirts with anything that moves, that can't be a huge hit with the girls, right?" Yuzu thought of all the snarky comments she had received from Matsuri since enrolling in Hogwarts.
"Oh, you'd be surprised. Maybe it's a Chaser thing. I know she's popular but as far as I know, she's just breaking fangirl hearts left and right. She's a lot of talk and noise but when things get too real, she can't really handle it." Harumi was clearly tired and Yuzu noticed her eyes drooping.
"You must be tired after the game. Sorry, I didn't think—"
"No, it's fine. I'll stay awake as long as you need me to. If you want to talk about you-know-who, that is..." the brunette stated with a serious face.
Mei's nonchalant face drifted back to Yuzu's mind. She was still perplexed how anyone could compartmentalize their feelings like that. A great appreciation of having a friend like Harumi washed over her when she noticed the brunette trying to keep her eyes open, despite being visibly exhausted. "Naw, it's okay. We don't have to do that now, let's just get some sleep. Thank you for helping me with this, it means a lot."
"Mm— anytime. Night, Yuzu." Harumi closed her eyes and gave Yuzu a weak smile before drifting off to sleep.
Yuzu woke up with a feeling that she had been close to a breakthrough with the whole situation right before falling asleep. There was something she knew she had been overlooking the whole time but she couldn't lay a finger on what it was. It was like an itch in her mind that she couldn't scratch.
Her thoughts drifted to the Head Girl whenever there was a quiet moment. Harumi did her best trying to create distractions whenever she noticed her friend sinking back to her dark place. After breakfast, Matsuri joined and after a quick update she also tried to cheer Yuzu up. It turned out, she was not half bad at it. Yuzu found herself laughing at her stupid jokes on several occasions and spent less time looking over her shoulder for a certain dark-haired individual.
Matsuri even took them on her 'Tour de Delinquents' —as she had called it— and showed them all the hidden secrets she had uncovered in the castle. It was mostly hidden rooms and corridors, with one being a room that Yuzu was sure held all the confiscated items taken from the students. Some of the stuff looked so dangerous, Harumi suggested they'd move on before they set something off and wound up in detention for being where they ought not to have been.
They were the first ones to attend dinner that night. Matsuri sat at the Gryffindor table with them and they ignored the annoyed huffs of their classmates slowly showing up and taking a seat further from their group, trying to make a point that the certain Slytherin was not welcome at their table. Yuzu wrapped her arm around Matsuri.
"I don't care what they think. You're my friend the same as Harumi here. Just ignore them," Yuzu said and smiled encouragingly. Matsuri was trying to hide her distress, but Yuzu had a good eye for things like this.
"You might want to let go of her, though." Harumi lowered her head a bit. She was sitting across the table and had a better view of the students entering the hall. "You-know-who just walked in. She doesn't look too happy."
The jovial mood disappeared in an instant and Yuzu felt the familiar heavy feeling settling in her stomach. For a moment, she hesitated if she should let Matsuri go or not.
"Let her be unhappy. I can hug my friends whenever I want to." Yuzu felt Matsuri inch a bit closer and an arm snaked its way around her waist.
"Hear, hear. She has a point," Matsuri snickered and glanced at Mei.
Harumi shook her head and gave up. "Well, whatever you two are doing, it's working. She's leaving."
"Good riddance. She doesn't deserve this beaut—" Matsuri's sentence was cut off violently with Yuzu's hand shoving her face.
"You just had to make this weird, huh?" Yuzu laughed and pushed Matsuri further. "Take your hormones elsewhere, idiot."
The dreaded Monday came and Yuzu knew she would have classes with Mei in the afternoon. Eating lunch felt like a mistake when during Charms Yuzu felt so nervous she was sure she was going to get sick. The Head Girl was sitting behind her and she could practically hear her breathing the same air in the classroom.
When the last class of the day was finally over, Yuzu let out the long sigh she had been holding for the past two lessons. Their Defence Against the Dark Arts class had included some hands-on practice and she had been paired with Mei. Practise was to block a nonverbal disarming spell with a nonverbal counter. 'Convenient practise when she's the one person I can't seem to disarm from herself long enough to show her feelings are a good thing.' Yuzu had thought to herself during the exercise.
The Head Girl had kept her cool the whole time, while Yuzu felt like she wanted to shake the girl to get any reaction out of her. This had been the first time they had shared any interaction since Mei had blatantly told her nothing would ever happen between them. During the class, Yuzu was trying hard to connect with Mei but had failed. As a small comfort, Mei at least seemed to be a little bit distracted. All she could think now was to get out of the classroom as soon as possible and find a void she could scream her lungs into.
Trouble in the form of a pink-haired rascal was loitering outside the classroom when Yuzu was the first to emerge to the hallway, almost running into the younger girl.
"Whoa—where's the fire?" Matsuri stopped Yuzu and grabbed her bicep to slow her down.
"In the classroom, we need to leave. Now." Yuzu tried her best to stress the seriousness of the situation but only managed to pique Matsuri's interest. The grip on her arm was firm and Matsuri was eyeing the people leaving the classroom curiously. "Let go of my arm, please. I need to be somewhere else."
"No, you don't. This was your last class of the day." Matsuri gave a small smirk and a nod towards someone behind Yuzu. "She's the one giving you trouble, isn't she?"
Yuzu didn't have to turn around to know Mei was standing behind her in the doorway.
"Don't worry. I got you." Matsuri said in half whisper and leaned closer.
Yuzu felt the life drain out of her when Matsuri pulled her in for a kiss. Not even a very passionate one, more of a spiteful one and she knew the only purpose of the kiss was to provoke the Head Girl. Yuzu had her back to the door the whole time, so she barely had time to imagine the icy cold stare they were receiving when the pink-haired girl was suddenly yanked violently away from her and she breathlessly watched Matsuri fly across the hall in a perfect arc before hitting the wall and sliding down on the floor from the impact.
The ringing in her ears was blocking all the commotion happening around her. Matsuri got back on her feet quickly and Yuzu silently watched her running towards her.
No... Why are you running— OH! Mei!
Yuzu shook off the numb feeling and managed to grab Matsuri's robes just before she was about to flung herself at Mei.
"Wait, Matsuri! No!" Yuzu cried out and was surprised she had the strength to keep Matsuri still.
"THE BITCH ATTACKED ME!" Matsuri roared. She still had a wide grin plastered all over her face, as if this was everything she had intended to happen.
The hallway was getting full of students who all wanted to know what the yelling was about. Harumi squeezed through a couple of their classmates that were blocking the doorway to the classroom.
"Seriously, I leave you guys for two seconds and this happens? Matsuri, what did you do?" Harumi kept looking at both of them, waiting for answers.
"She kissed me," Yuzu hissed under her breath.
"And then this crazy bitch attacked me!" Matsuri was still staring at Mei with a manic glint in her eyes. Harumi turned and looked at Mei, waiting for her to say something. Yuzu finally turned enough to see Mei. She expected her to have the icy glare she had been imagining just a few seconds ago but saw the panic written all over her face instead.
"Is this true?" Harumi gave Mei a chance to explain herself.
"I—" Mei looked around and swallowed. The people in the hallway were quietly observing the four. "It's true. I'm... I'm going to get the teacher."
Students stepped aside when Mei turned around to go back to the classroom.
"She's going to turn herself in. This can't get any better." Matsuri was gloating and Yuzu finally released the hold she didn't even notice she still had on the girl.
"Why do you have to make a scene anywhere you go, 'tsuri?" Harumi asked, sounding thoroughly tired.
Yuzu tried to contain her curiosity in the Headmaster's office. Harumi had been left outside, despite her persuasive attempts to tag along for support. Yuzu would have given anything to have a voice of reason, someone sensible with them.
A quick glance at Mei's direction revealed how nervous she was about this. Almost too nervous, considering this could all just be solved with a simple apology, from both of them. The three of them stood in the middle of the room when the Headmaster finally emerged from a smaller study in the back of the office. Mei swallowed audibly and her knuckles were white from clenching the handle on her school bag too hard.
Why is she so nervous?
"So, someone please explain to me what this is about?" The Headmaster spoke with great annoyance. Yuzu was sure he had better things to do than listen to stupid love quarrels of the students. He was an old man with a serious face. Yuzu was glad she hadn't done anything wrong, she wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the wrath of this man.
Yuzu noticed Matsuri was trying her hardest not to laugh. It looked painful, her face was all red and she was biting her lip so hard Yuzu was sure she'd draw blood soon if she didn't give it a rest.
Mei's voice was quivering when she finally opened her mouth. "I wanted to bring this to your attention, sir. I attacked Matsuri earlier today and I thought the best course of action would be to let you decide what happens now, sir."
"And which one of you is Matsuri?" The old man barely raised his gaze.
Matsuri took a deep breath, she was still trying to suppress her cries of joy. "I am. Sir."
Yuzu felt like there was something strange in the air, the way Matsuri emphasized 'sir' as if it was a snarky comment on how Mei was addressing the Headmaster. Yuzu couldn't imagine someone like Matsuri ever speaking so formally.
What is going on? Both of them are acting strange, even for their standards...
"I see. Do you have an explanation for this incident?"
Yuzu looked at Mei who looked like she was about to cry and her whole body was trembling. Her mind was clearly going through all possible options she could say in her defence. She opened her mouth more than once trying to say something but no words came out.
"That might be because of me, sir." Yuzu cut in after seeing Mei struggle. She felt responsible for dragging Mei into this and knew Matsuri would never admit she started the whole thing. The Headmaster didn't say anything but rather looked at Yuzu after a short awkward silence, expecting Yuzu to continue. "My friend, Matsuri, was fooling around and I asked her to stop. When she didn't, Mei might have misunderstood the situation to be more serious than it was."
The Headmaster kept quiet, Yuzu was getting nervous too and felt the need to explain the situation a bit more. "See, sir, this is mostly just young people having feelings for each other and the usual love triangles and drama you probably don't need in your office. Just give us detention, or whatever, and we'll take care of this mess and I promise, you don't have to see us here in your office because of this again—"
"Love triangles?" The Headmaster looked stirn and for a fleeting moment, Yuzu swore she saw a hint of disgust on his face when he put 2 and 1 together with the three girls standing in front of him.
What an old geezer...
"No, sir. I don't know what she's—" Mei started to defend herself.
"There's no need to be ashamed, Mei. Everyone is free to have feelings for whoever they want." Yuzu quickly cut in to stand up for what she believed in.
"And who are you, then?" The Headmaster directed his question to Yuzu.
"Yuzu Aihara, sir. I just transferred here."
"Aihara?" The Headmaster seemed to be surprised. Yuzu would have imagined he would know about a transfer student, it wasn't like it happened too often. "So you are Shou's new step-daughter?"
Okay, not the question I was expecting... What is going on?
"Uh—yes. I guess you could say that. I didn't know you know Shou, sir."
"He's my son. He wrote to me, mentioned about this new family he has." The look on the Headmaster's face was unreadable.
Wait... So that makes this man my step-grandfather?!
"Oh! So we're family!" Yuzu's eyes lit up and she took an eager step forward.
"Yuzu, don't..." Mei begged quietly.
OH! He's Mei's grandfather too! Of course!
Matsuri finally failed to stifle her laughter that suddenly rang around the office, replacing the uncomfortable silence. Yuzu could make the almost inaudible 'This is too good...' Matsuri repeated under her breath. The whole situation seemed suddenly too bizarre for Yuzu to handle.
"No, we are not family and never will be. My son made a choice not to honor my wishes and left the family. I only read the letter to see if he changed his mind." The Headmaster said with an unwavering tone, as if his son didn't mean anything to him anymore. After a short silence, he apparently had made his mind about something. "All three of you will receive detention. This week's Thursday, 6pm, sharp. Report to the Caretaker's office. Now, if you could leave us, I need to speak to my granddaughter in private. Dismissed."
Yuzu stared at the man in disbelief and was interrupted when Matsuri grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the office. When they were finally back in the hallway, Harumi rushed to talk to them. Matsuri was laughing uncontrollably while banging the wall with her fist.
"So?" The brunette asked impatiently. "Where's Mei?"
"They need a family moment, blondie outed her to ," Matsuri managed to say in the midst of her laughing fit.
"You did what?!" Harumi turned to Yuzu.
"I—I didn't know they were related!" Yuzu said and felt a tight knot slowly closing her throat. "A little warning would have been nice!"
Fuck... She's going to hate me now, if she ever gets out of that office alive.
"This almost makes up for the fact that the detention with the Caretaker is going to be a huge bore." Matsuri seemed more pleased with herself than Yuzu had ever witnessed before.
"Harumi, can you get this ghoul out of here? I need to wait for Mei and apologize." Yuzu took a long breath and noticed the worried arch formed on her friend's brow. "I'll be fine. I'll see you at dinner, okay?"
"Fine. But you better show up or our classmates will eat me alive for gossip. And I will come back and haunt you." Harumi reluctantly dragged Matsuri down the hallway.
Yuzu paced around for what felt like an hour, going through different scenarios in her head of what was going on in the office and how angry Mei would be when she would emerge. No scenario she anticipated would be a preferable one, in none of those would Mei simply forgive her for throwing her to the wolves like that. She kept cursing her big mouth and her strange need to fight other people's battles. Not to mention fighting the wrong battles and being ignorant of the whole picture that was at play.
Well, it's not my fault nobody told me they were related. Also not my fault Matsuri just decided to piss her off just when we had spent a full hour and a half practising the same spells she probably ended up using on her. Would she have reacted differently if we had been in any other class instead? Why did she snap like that? Does she still have feelings for me? ...of course, she does. Nobody gets over feelings this fast.
The spiral staircase finally started to move and Yuzu waited until she saw the familiar face. Her eyes were red and puffed and Yuzu had a sudden urge to go and hug her but knew better not to.
"Uh—I just wanted to say how sorry I am… I had no idea—"
"Don't." Mei said and walked past the blonde. "I'm sorry I nearly blew up your girlfriend, I don't know what came into me."
"No, that's okay. She just wanted to—"
"I'm not done yet. I need you to know that this, whatever this was, I will not let it get between me and my goals. I'm lucky that grandfather didn't feel the need to take away my Head Girl rights."
Yuzu felt the same urge to scream she had earlier. "Your goals or his?"
"What?" Mei stopped, clearly conflicted but as Yuzu noticed the group of students approaching from the other end of the corridor, it could have just been because Mei didn't want to be seen like this.
"You don't talk to me so I don't know what is going on with you. But you don't seem happy. After hearing about Shou and your grandfather, I'm starting to think this is not what you want. You want to be with me, don't you?" Yuzu tried her best to understand why Mei was acting so strange. "But you can't. Because your grandfather would disown you like he did to your father. It doesn't have to be so black and white, you could just have both."
"No. You don't know what this is like. Don't think you have me all figured out because you've spent two hours with me. I chose this. This has nothing to do with you." Mei looked like she was on the verge of tears again. "Just stay away from me, please. I can't deal with this right now."
With that, Mei strode off with quick steps and left Yuzu standing in the corridor alone with an even bigger urge to lash out and scream. Never in her life had she had someone who would manage to make her so furious, while she also felt like this person was in a dire need of a hug or two.
AN: I'd like to thank Sappho82 for doing the beta reads for this story. And yes, the slowburn must end soon. :P