In typical 'Aoyama' fashion, the first thing she thought of when she heard the sound of rain outside wasn't to cuddle up under her blanket falling asleep to a good novel, but of the laundry. She spat out her toothpaste and scurried down two flights of stairs to bring the laundry in, but was decently surprised that it was already done for her. Little moments like these really made her appreciate life sometimes. Maybe she would read that novel she was getting into.
Even after the whole 'Rita' incident, it seemed as if everyone at Sakurasou would have a good end to their Monday night. The rain had that perfect balance of not too light, but not too heavy, and it pitter-pattered off the ceramic roof of the house which contributed to the lofi-'sounds to fall asleep to' night.
Aoyama smiled and cleaned up a few plates here and there near the sink, before turning off the lights and returning back to her room. She noticed that Hase's room was lit, the orange glow around her door illuminating the path in front of the brunette as she walked towards it.
She knocked on the door lightly.
"Hase?," she whispered. "You asleep?"
There was no response. She slowly opened the door and saw the first-year studying diligently at her desk with earphones in. Aoyama cringed, hearing the sounds of rock music blaring through her earphones as she took them out. So much for safe hearing practices, she thought.
"What is it?," Hase muttered, stretching her arms out wide.
"Go to sleep Hase," Aoyama yawned. "It's twelve p...m...Jesus. You've lost weight."
"...huh...? Have I...?," she mumbled, feeling her ribcage. "...looks like I have."
"Umm...Sorata and I were gonna play a card game or something. Wanna join? Something about rain and card games just goes so well together..."
"No. Thank you though. I'm gonna keep studying."
"Okay then. Don't overwork yourself. Night night."
Aoyama left her kouhai to her own business while she skipped into Sorata's room for some quality time with him. She resented the fact that she could no longer look at her best friend without lust anymore, ever since Mashiro had entered Sakurasou. Not that that was a bad thing, anyway. She hoped that tonight would be just like the old days, where she could barge in on Sorata's room and hang out with him, shoot the shit and talk about whatever they wanted.
She carefully closed the door, making sure not to make any loud noises which would awaken the beauty from her slumber. She laid down on the comfy wool blanket, laid out on the floor of Sorata's room, and began to shuffle cards.
"Scissors...paper..."
"...rock...! Dang it...you always pick rock..."
"Cause you always f-a-l-l for it loserrr."
As Aoyama began setting up the card game, Sorata got up and lifted up the blanket to Mashiro's face so that her entire body was covered.
"Aww...Kanda-kun finally got himself a girlfriend...," Aoyama whispered jokingly.
"Hey...you just wanted me to be happy right?," Sorata whispered back. He had a tired, yet relaxed look on his face, after his work on his game was finished for the night. Aoyama could tell that he also just wanted to vibe with her. Even if it was just for the half and hour until they both passed out.
"S-Shut it. Erase that stupid memory."
"I'm afraid it's been laser-engraved in there permanently. You might as well tell me about that dream."
"D-D-Dream?!"
"Ssh!"
"...fine...but only if..."
Aoyama stared behind Sorata, at the rain dripping down from his window.
"...you help me with acting. Tomorrow. Night," she muttered, absent-mindedly placing a card down.
"Pft. I was gonna do that anyway," he replied, also throwing down a card.
"...okay. Okay...ermm...let's see. Like...I was a lot older...and uh...I woke up next to you. In a really nice bedroom."
Sorata chuckled. "So you have those kinds of feelings for me, huh?"
"Y-You saw the video. Anyway I...err...there were these awards on the shelf? Like...you had game of the year stuff and I had best VA and all..."
Sorata could've sworn he had a similar dream like that.
"...so I think we were m-m-married. O-Or dating. I dunno. You came onto me in the kitchen. You pervert."
"W-Wha...?!"
"But then you started aging. Really quick. Mashiro was there too, and then these two kids showed up. One had yellow hair and one had brown. And then I woke up."
"Hmm...now I'm no psychologist but..."
"Yeah. Screw you."
They both sighed and kept throwing down cards, not really caring about winning.
"What would you think if that did happen?," Sorata asked. "Would you be mad?"
"Why would I get mad...I would be happy for you. What? I'm telling you the truth."
"Okay then. I...would be happy for you too. If you got yourself...you know."
"A boyfriend?"
"-voice actress of the year- oh. Yeah. That."
"Very funny. Hope you've backed up your game. I might delete it at the last second."
"Now why on earth would our resident Nanami Aoyama, the hardest working, most diligent, goody-two-shoes-"
"Kanda."
"Huh?"
Aoyama suddenly remembered something and leaned in forward to tell her friend, like they were two girls sharing secrets in a sleepover.
"Wanna smoke?"
Sorata blinked in surprise, making sure he didn't mishear her. "Aoyama...! D-Did you just say..."
"Not that kind idiot! I mean...ya' know. Weed. Cannabis."
"Why...like...now? You have some?"
"Yeah."
"Wha...wha...why...I thought you weren't into that stuff."
"Sh. Come on."
Aoyama quietly got up, getting Sorata up by the hand as well, and tip-toed upstairs to her room. The two noticed that Hase's lights were still on, so they kept conversation to a minimum, knowing of the paper-thin walls in Sakurasou. Sorata watched over Aoyama's shoulder as she opened her drawer and lifted up the bottom of it, revealing a false bottom as well as a small bag of green stuff. He made a note to never keep this stuff lying around if he ever got his hands on it. It had an intense odour.
"Nice," Sorata whispered bluntly as the brunette retrieved rolling paper and a lighter from another drawer. "You get that idea from Death Note?"
"You know me too well," she whispered back, and the two scampered downstairs so that they were sitting outside on the porch. They sat very close together, shoulders touching side by side, considering it was somewhat cold outside, with the rain and all. They tried not to blush, choosing to focus on the weed in Aoyama's slender fingers.
"So uhh...how long has this been going on?," Sorata asked as Aoyama began rolling two joints.
"Sunday. Mari gave it to me as a celebratory gift. For the performance. I told her she's both insane, and a criminal."
"Your actress friend? Oh, it's falling on the sides there..."
Aoyama licked the side of the joint and sealed it before handing it off to her friend, who accepted it without a second thought. Maybe he was just conditioned after all his years hanging out together to just accept things that were given to him. He still couldn't get around the fact that Aoyama, a goody-two-shoes for a start, would not only accept a bag of weed, but also voluntarily smoke it.
"Stop staring at me. Don't worry, I've done the research. Apparently this is good for new-timers. It won't get us...too high. Probably."
"Probably...?"
Sorata leaned forward into the small flame with the joint in his mouth and began smoking it as he saw in television. The two were surprised at how Sorata didn't cough at all, instead looking at the lit joint inquisitively, like he was reading math equations in class.
Seeing the relative 'tameness' of the cannabis, Aoyama also lit hers up and took a deep drag of the joint.
"This...is what they're going crazy over...?," Sorata muttered. He smacked his lips. "Tastes like...i-is it supposed to taste like that?"
"I don't think you're supposed to taste it."
"O-Okay then...man...you look really cool."
"Do I?"
Aoyama stared off in the distance with a frown on her face as she smoked, like she was a private investigator puzzled by a murder mystery. She did indeed look very cool.
"What about me? Do I look cool?," Sorata asked, mimicking his favourite smoking action heroes.
"Eh..not really. You look like a dork."
"Heh heh heh...man...I feel like...a stick of butter or something..."
"What does that even mean...oh...I get you now..."
The two continued to smoke quietly, letting the sound of rain as well as the weed bring them into a state of calmness.
"Hey Aoyama," Sorata asked after exhaling a large puff of smoke.
"Hmm..."
"What are you going to do? After all this."
"I...don't really know. I never got too far with my planning..."
"Why not?"
"Because things always go wrong. And the less you plan the less...chaotic things seem, you know?"
"Huh."
"What about you? Find the meaning of life yet?"
"Hm...well now that you mention it...I have no clue."
"Me neither."
"You think it's better if we don't know...? What if...God himself came down and gave us the meaning of life..."
"What if you're letting that weed get to your head."
"Wait..Isn't this the kind of stuff you're meant to talk about?"
"What is it with teenagers and weed..."
"Yeah...wait-"
They quickly turned around and locked eyes with sensei who was dressed in her pyjamas and had her hands on her hips.
"S-S-Sensei!," Aoyama sputtered, looking down at her half-finished joint. She obviously didn't have the determination to throw it away, of course. "T-T-This is just a misunderstanding!"
"Misunderstanding my ass. Give me that," she sighed, taking the joint from the brunette's fingers and taking a drag of it herself. She looked up and exhaled. There was a look in her eyes which said: boy, that brings me back to my early days.
"I hate to be...that person but...," Aoyama sheepishly explained. "That's...my joint..."
Sensei stared daggers into Aoyama, causing her to look down at her lap. "I hate to be that person but...I could get you expelled. If you catch my drift."
For once, Sensei had a very smug smile on her face.
"You goddamn kids with your sex and your weed and your ambitions...," she muttered as she sat down next to Sorata, still smoking away on Aoyama's joint. "Life must be so enjoyable for you, huh..."
"Enjoy it while we can I suppose?," Aoyama weakly explained. "I hope we didn't make you jealous or anything..."
"Oh you guys did more than that. You know I had dreams once? I had a boyfriend and...and...-"
"What's stopping you sensei?," Sorata asked.
"You'll know when you get older. Your body just becomes weak and shit...combined with eight to six work days and...well...you just don't have the time."
"I guess you have the time to smoke with your students at one am then huh?"
"I get back pains from my mattress. Also a certain somebody has been keeping me up. I'm gonna make them regret waking up tomorrow morning. You know, you'd think they'd finish the first time-"
"Oooookay! Man, this weed is good!," Sorata interjected, handing it to Aoyama. "Isn't it?"
"Yep! Great stuff...much better than alcohol!"
Sensei sighed. "Is this some kind of intervention? Trying to get me to stop drinking? Trying to get me to ruin my wallet instead of my liver?"
"Something like that. What do you think about this Sensei?," Sorata asked. "You seem like you have experience..."
"Oh man...the stories when I was your age..."
She chuckled to herself as she exhaled a large ring of smoke with expertise, causing Sorata and Aoyama to 'woo' in admiration. She flicked the finished joint away and got up, grunting like she was an elderly person, even though she was in her twenties.
"Go to sleep. Or I'll sell your sex tape."
"...Aoyama...," Sorata growled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I...don't even know how that happened...," she stammered nervously.
Sensei snickered to herself, saying that it was just a joke as she slowly went upstairs. The duo sighed in relief, knowing that they wouldn't have to blackmail her back with sensei's secrets that they discovered over the years.
"You still have it. Right?," Sorata muttered, flicking away the joint.
"Yeah...I...watch it. Time to time."
Sorata stayed quiet, and he felt the sexual tension between them rise. He felt pressure building up in his lower stomach and his groin, which he suppressed by shoving his hands between his legs.
"Do you remember what happened that night? A-Any of it?," Aoyama asked.
"Kinda," he whispered. "I just...remember...feeling really good. Like I was...on a cloud or something like that."
"I-In the video...you said that you loved her. Mashiro. I-Is that...?"
"It's complicated Nanami. I don't know what I feel anymore."
"Bullshit. You love her. I can tell. I'm...not mad. I'm happy for you."
Sorata smiled weakly at his friend. "Thanks. I'm not so sure what she feels for me though..."
The rain began to fade away, and the sounds of crickets and dogs barking in the distance accompanied their conversation.
"I think we both know what she feels. Anyway...I hope you two never admit to each other. It's so funny watching you two dance around the idea."
"E-Eh? I...you..."
Sorata was too flustered to form a proper sentence, so he just leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. Aoyama then rested her head on Sorata's back, which was nice and warm. If it wasn't for Hase, coming downstairs for a midnight snack, they would've fell asleep on each other until the sun came up.
