Chapter 5: The Judas Game

(Author's Note: In keeping with the Italian OVA, this is my version of Sei's side of the Italy trip. Please enjoy. )

-Sei-

I woke up a few seconds before the alarm sounded. I usually despise alarm clocks, really, for obvious reasons. They're loud, annoying, and won't stop until you haul your lazy butt out of bed. Never mind that that's its purpose.

Ah, but today was different. Today was the day, the day of my trip to Italy along with most of my fellow English Literature students. Actually, if they were the only ones I was going on this trip with, I really couldn't have cared less—I'd been to Italy before, during my second year at Lillian High School—but this one had the added bonus of the entire Fine Arts people coming along with us. Which meant that Harada Tomiko would be there.

I could feel a big grin spreading over my face like bad acne. I sprung up out of bed and snatched up my phone, wondering if dear Tonko-neko would already be up and about and ready for the flight. Being the good friend that I was, I decided to give her a call, just in case.

It took a while before she answered, and when she did there was something different about her voice. For a moment, all I could hear was muffled sounds and a faint grunt—like the sound you make when you stretch—and then she said, "Moshi moshi?" in a voice that sounded like melted butter—warm and thick. Considering she sounded a lot like startled-alley-cat whenever she was with me, this aspect of her was…new.

"Ah…Tomiko? It's me. Sei."

There was a soft yawn. "Sei…hayasugite yo (trans. "It's too early"). Don't you know what time it is?"

That voice. It was so…mellow. "Ah…" I cleared my throat. "Don't you know what DAY it is, Tonko-neko?"

"Mm…Yeah. We go to Italy, right?"

For some reason, it suddenly felt quite warm. Especially around my neck and ears. "Yep! Are you ready?"

"Hmm. Yeah. Packed last night. Sei…I want to sleep a bit more."

Tomiko was drawling nearly every word out in sweet slow motion. Was this smoky-voiced bed-bunny really the often high-strung spitfire I hung out with every day since the start of college?

My throat felt dry. "Ah…hrrm…all right, but I think you should start getting ready soon. Our flight leaves in just a few hours, and we have to get to the airport."

"Mm-kay. I'll see you later." I heard her stretching again, and then, unbelievably, a faint moan. "Getting up now."

Something happened to me then, and I knew I had to cut our talk short. "All right, later then. Ja, ne." And before I could hear anything else, I put down the phone.

And I proceeded to curse every god or higher being I knew.

Why, why, WHY, of all times, did I have to get a nosebleed NOW?

Several tissues and a cold shower later, I was at the airport, along with Kei and the other students from my course. I'd managed to somehow put the morning incident away in the back of my mind, but certain images still kept popping up, which was doing wonders for my concentration. If Kei hadn't been around to point out where we were to dump our luggage, I might have ended up spending the entire Italy trip in the clothes I was wearing and the spare ones I kept in my backpack. A part of me was saying that I shouldn't have called Tomiko so early, but then again the naughtier side of me was grinning from ear-to-ear.

At that moment, Kei made the mistake of saying, "Look, the Fine Arts students are over there," so I took that opportunity to sneak away from my group and search for Tomiko. I found her after a few minutes. She was asleep on one of the airport seats next to Rizu, who was predictably reading a book.

Rizu caught sight of my approach and put a finger to her lips, indicating that I shouldn't make a sound, in spite of the fact that the airport itself was fairly noisy. Everyone around us was excited about the trip. Most of them had never been out of the country before, heck, some of them hadn't even been outside of the city before, so they were pretty enthusiastic.

"Yo," I said quietly to Rizu. "So our darling Tonko-neko still can't get enough of her sleep, eh?"

Tomiko languidly opened one eye at the sound of my voice, regarded me the way a cat looked at something uninteresting, then closed her eye again and shifted in her seat, completely dismissing my presence. O-kaaay. She was SO not herself in the morning.

Rizu gave me a lopsided smile. "You'll have to forgive her. She's not exactly a morning person."

"Tell me about it," I said dryly. "I called her earlier and got the shock of my life. She sounded so…"

"Hot?" Rizu grinned.

"I was going to say 'different', but I guess 'hot' fits better. Yes, hot. Very."

Rizu closed her book and folded her hands on top of it. Uh-oh. Any time Rizu gives you her full attention is a time for worry. "I was there with her when you called, you know. Want me to tell you how she looked?"

I blinked. "Uh…"

This time Rizu's smile was positively beatific. "You should've seen the way she stretched. Slow, sensual, and graceful, like a cat. And the look on her face." The evil girl shook her head as if words weren't enough to describe it. "The way she sleeps isn't exactly ladylike, though. Her blanket was wrapped around her haphazardly, in bunches, and she looked like the kanji for 'Dai', what with her arms and legs splayed out like that. Not like the kanji for ' Chu'."(note: 'Dai' (big) does look like a person with arms and legs somewhat outstretched, while ' Chu' (between/inside) is simply a rectangle with a line slashed down the middle)

Rizu was looking up at me, watching my expression intently. I swallowed past the dryness in my mouth and pretended to be cool, even if it felt like the tropics. "I suppose she needed you to help her change out of her pajamas?"

"But she wasn't wearing pajamas."

Come again?

Rizu was smiling that horribly angelic smile again.

"Err…nightgown?"

"You won't believe," Rizu began, drawing out her words carefully and slowly, with proper enunciation and emphasis, "just how little clothes she has on when she sleeps. This morning she was in a tank top she must've had when she was tubbier. Did Kei tell you that Tomiko was a bit chub-chub in high school? They WERE from the same school."

This was new. "Ah…no, she didn't say anything about that—"

"Now that Tomiko's slimmed down, that old tank top's kind of loose. Actually, it was really loose." Rizu glanced sideways and up at me. I was pretty sure my ears were on fire. "It was really loose, Sei."

I stared at her. For a moment, I couldn't find my voice. "I heard it the first time, Rizu. What—"

"It's a good thing Tomiko's a little over a cup C, otherwise her top wouldn't have fit at all."

Oh, my God. Did she just say what I thought she just said?

"Did you know that, by the way?" Rizu went on.

"Did I know what?"

"That Tomiko's a little over a C? It's amazing how she can hide them." Rizu purposely glanced at Tomiko's chest, which, of course, made me do the same. Now that Rizu'd pointed it out…Tomiko's chest was a bit…generous.

I was starting to have palpitations at that point.

"Anyway, she was also just in her panties. They were white." Rizu was tapping her chin and looking up at the ceiling, as if she was really just remembering what Tomiko had on—what little she had on, anyway—and was completely unaware of the effect her 'innocent' narration was having on me. "And then she stood up, faced me, and stretched again." Rizu giggled.

Now I was hyperventilating. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pretend not to be hyperventilating?

I pushed my bangs out of my eyes and was mildly surprised to find that I was sweating. "Rizu…"

Rizu smiled impishly. "Here, Sei, have some tissue."

Goddamnit, not another nosebleed!

While I was trying to staunch the flow of blood (and rescue what little dignity I had left), Rizu smiled again and said, "Tomiko's really not herself in the morning. Did you know that she once made me breakfast naked?"

I bolted.

When I had successfully stopped the nosebleed, I made my way back to my group, which was just starting to line up for boarding. Kei was at the end of the line. She gave me a slightly worried look. "Where were you? I thought you got lost or something. I even had you paged."

I waved a hand dismissively. "Used the toilet. Come on, let's get on board."

Kei and I were sitting somewhere in the middle of the plane, waiting for everyone to get on board and for the plane to take off. I couldn't take my mind off of the images Rizu's words conjured for me. If purgatory was someplace between heaven and hell, I was almost certain I was in it.

"Oi," Kei nudged me. "What's with you? You've been unusually quiet all this time. Normally you'd be flirting with the stewardesses by now."

I rubbed my temples. "It's not on my itinerary."

Kei frowned. "Are you sick? Do you have a fear of flying or something? You look a bit…flushed."

I decided to be honest for once. "It's just that Rizu's been painting a pretty picture of Tomiko in the morning, is all."

"Ah, that!" Kei suddenly turned red.

I looked at her. "What?"

She seemed embarrassed. "Well…Rizu asked me to go into Tomiko's room this morning to make sure she was really awake. Apparently Tomiko has a tendency to just fall right back asleep all the time. So I did. And…" she turned even redder.

I raised a solitary brow. "And…?"

Kei shook her head. "Tomiko looked at me, said "Good morning," and then proceeded to take off her top."

Oh, good God.

"I tell you, I ran out of there like a bunny with a fox on its tail." Kei grinned sheepishly. "I have to say, though, Tomiko's pretty curvaceous. I guess some of her baby fat stuck around in all the right places."

I was making odd, strangled noises in the back of my throat. Finally, I found someone luckier than I was. "Kei, you have no idea how much I want to kill you right now."

Kei held up both hands. "Oi, oi, I didn't look! At least, I didn't look when I realized what she was doing. I turned right around and ran. Rizu took one look at me and burst out laughing. Huh. Guess she knew what she was sending me in to."

Indeed, she did. She knew what she was sending me into as well. I was SO going to get back at her for this.

"Did you know that Tomiko's a little over a cup C?" Kei asked.

I held my head in my hands. "Kei, please stop. I don't want to die of massive blood loss in the middle of a field trip. It's not a good way to go."

Kei laughed. "Sorry." She peered over the tops of the seats. "Do you know where those two are sitting?"

"Up a few seats ahead, left side, by a window," I replied without looking up.

"Ah." Kei sighed. "Well, at least it's just Rizu who has to deal with her every morning. They're roommates for the entire trip to Italy."

I slowly lifted my head. Something went 'Click!' in my brain.

"Say, Kei," I said, leaning back in my seat as the plane got ready for take off. "We're roommates for the entire trip, aren't we?"

She let out what sounded like a long-suffering sigh. "Hai."

"And Tomiko and Rizu are roommates for the entire trip, aren't they?"

Kei turned her head to look at me. "Hai…?" she answered uncertainly.

I smiled. It must have been scary, because Kei moved away from me a bit. "Wouldn't it be nice if, say, I could get Rizu to, hm, I don't know, maybe…switch places with me?"

Kei stared at me. "That would mean…" she started thoughtfully, "that you and Tomiko would be roommates, and Rizu and I would be roommates…"

I nodded. "For the entire trip to Italy."

Her jaw went slack. Only God knew what was going on in her head, but I could tell she liked my idea.

And then Kei recovered. "Well, that would be nice, Sei, but…how are you going to pull that off? Rizu might act the way she does, but she's very protective of Tomiko. She's not going to agree to your plan just like that."

I shrugged. "We're writers, Kei. Be creative. Think. All we really need is a weakness. So tell me, what's Rizu so fond of that she can't say no to it."

Kei's brows pulled together in a frown. "Well…she likes jidai geki (period films)."

"Not like we can find a film featuring Italian Samurai, now can we?"

"Sou ne? Hmm…" Kei thought about it some more, and then she snapped her fingers. "Chocolate. Rizu loves chocolate. I seriously think she'd get drunk on it more than she'd get drunk on beer or any other alcoholic beverage."

I grinned. "Think she'd agree to switch places with me if we offered her a big box of genuine Italian chocolate?"

Kei's expression was priceless. "So…you're going to play the Judas game."

"Why not? Don't you want Rizu to be your roommate instead of little old me?"

She sighed again. "Believe me, I do. It feels like I've just made a deal with the devil, though." And then she grinned. "I do feel sorry for Tomiko."

I laughed. "Come on, it's not like I'm going to molest her."

"You wish, though, I'm sure."

"If she's that agreeable in the morning, Kei, it won't be molesting."

She buried her face in her hand. "Oh, my God, Sei, you are impossible. So, when are you going to approach Rizu with this dastardly scheme? When Tomiko gets up to use the toilet?"

I leaned back and laced my fingers behind my head. "Nope, not on the plane. This sort of thing can't be rushed, but it does have to be timed just right. The minute we get off the plane, we'll set this plan in motion. Just follow my lead."

Kei looked a bit doubtful, but since she couldn't think of a better idea, she simply sighed yet again and nodded. I grinned, then settled in for the long flight.

I didn't really like long flights, but I was all right when we finally landed. The exhaustion would probably sink in later, and so would all the cramped muscles and aching joints, but at the moment I was pretty much pumped. I hadn't forgotten about my little plan.

Kei was tired, but snapped to attention when I nudged her arm. "What, are we doing it already?" she blurted out.

"That sounded really wrong, coming from you," I said, grinning. "Let's go. Operation Judas Game, start!"

We found the girls sitting near the baggage carts. Rizu was watching the conveyor belt go round, keeping an eye out for their luggage. Tomiko was groggily peering around at the airport. The little kitten had been asleep for most of the flight. The only time I saw her fully awake was during meals. And there was one time when she was awake for a couple of seconds, when Rizu woke her up to check if she was still alive.

Kei and I walked over to them. "Yo!" I greeted cheerfully, with matching wide grin. "How're you two holding up?"

Rizu held up a small V-sign. "I'm fine."

Tomiko rubbed at her face. "I guess I'm okay, too," she mumbled.

"Someone looks like she could use some coffee," I noted.

"I miss my siphon," Tomiko sighed.

I glanced at Kei and tipped her a wink. This was our pre-arranged signal. Kei looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but she did her part. "Ah, Tomiko, is it all right if I asked you to come with me for a while?"

Both Rizu and Tomiko glanced up curiously. "Err…sure, but where are we going?" Tomiko asked.

Kei wasn't expecting that one. "Ah…well…I…"

"Her Italian isn't so good yet," I cut in smoothly, wrapping an arm around Tomiko's shoulders and lifting her to her feet. She protested with a yelp and a couple of swats at my head. "Be a darling and help Kei out, won't you?"

"Ha? Help her out with what?" Tomiko demanded.

I tilted my head slightly towards Rizu, who had gone back to watching the conveyor belt. Tomiko's ice-blue eyes widened. Understanding the situation, she nodded, and then she and Kei went off in the direction of the shops.

I plopped down next to Rizu. "All right," I said, "I'm going to get straight to the point here, Rizu."

Rizu blinked. "What are you up to, Sei?"

"I want you to switch rooms with me."

Rizu looked slightly surprised. "Oh, no way. I know how lecherous you can get. If I'm not always interrupting you and Tomiko, who knows what you'd do—"

"Ouch, you wound me, Rizu! That's all just clean, harmless fun. Besides, if we switch rooms, you get to be with Kei the entire Italian trip." I wriggled my eyebrows suggestively.

Rizu laughed. "Don't make me out to be like you! Besides, it sounds to me like Kei didn't exactly request this little switcheroo. Did she?"

"Does she have to? I know she'd like to spend time with you."

"Oh, please, Sei, you're not that altruistic."

"If I gave you my word that I would never molest Tomiko in the bedroom, would you switch?"

Rizu snorted. "What good would that do? You'd molest her everywhere else!"

Damn, she was sharp!

I sighed. "Shikata wa nai, ne? Guess there's no other way then…" I looked her straight in the eye. "All right. Would you trade rooms with me if Kei and I gave you a box of Valrhona? Or some Baci chocolates?"

Rizu froze. She slowly turned her head to face me, and I could almost swear she was shaking. "What?"

I grinned. "Bacis. You know…nice, loverly, little kisses of hazelnuts in hazelnut creme AND the best bittersweet. How does that sound?" I twirled a finger around in the air. "All yours just for a slight change in room plans. What do you say, Rizu-chan?"

Now it was Rizu's turn to sweat bullets. "You're asking me to sell out my friend for chocolates!" she gasped, anguished. "How could you?"

"You TORTURED me sixteen hours ago with images of same friend in little or no clothing!" I shot back. "Wasn't that already a sell-out? What would Tomiko say if she found out you told me EXACTLY what she'd been wearing that I spoke to her on the phone?"

Rizu didn't know which way to turn. She wrung her hands, then glared right at me. "If you do something, anything that she doesn't like, Sei Satou, I will shove those chocolates down your throat and kick you out of that room. One toe out of line and the deal is off! Understand?"

I grinned triumphantly. Yes! "Deal." I held out a hand.

Rizu shook it reluctantly. "Oh, God, I've just made a deal with the devil."

"Not exactly, but you're close." I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Kei and Tomiko returning. Kei carried a paper bag in one hand.

Rizu was grumbling. "You've turned me into Judas. There had better be thirty pieces of chocolate in there, Sei Satou."

Turned out, there were sixty.

-Tomiko-

I had to admit, I was pretty much out of it at the airport on the day of the trip. Despite my enthusiasm about the whole thing (Rizu and I talked about it excitedly for weeks on end), my unholy love of sleep won out in the end. Mom's always maintained that I might be narcoleptic to some extent. She might be right.

I have a very, very fuzzy recollection of the flight itself, mostly Rizu shoving into my mouth what seemed to be a very shoddy rendition of fettucine alfredo, airline food-style. After that I didn't really want to remember anything about the flight. I do remember that Sei and Kei were doing a lot of seat-hopping, though.

When I really first came to in Rome, Sei had bodily taken me around the shoulders and set me to my feet to help Kei. If I were asked to recount anything that transpired during that walk around the airport shops, I could honestly say that I just remember being dragged by the arm by Kei, being nudged to say "Buon giorno" and "Grazie". I just hope I wasn't too rude. I think I slept through the hotel check-in too. One thing I could say about the hotel, though, was that they had excellent lobby couches. So yes, it would suffice to say that I was virtually dead to the world for more than sixteen hours. I guess I really loved sleep.

In retrospect, it might have also been my key to disaster.

Rizu and I settled into our hotel room. It was nicely appointed, with the softest beds imaginable. It need not be said that I sank into one of the side-by-side double beds and tucked in. I was jetlagged, and we did have four more hours until we started our first tour. I had the best sleep one could ever imagine after being crushed into an S-shape for sixteen hours.

Then, I was being poked.

In the cheek.

By someone.

Someone who smelled like that men's cologne I saw in Lumines.

". . . Tonkoneko? Okite yo." (trans. "Wake up.")

Suddenly, like a dead cat that got all its nine lives sucked back in like an airplane toilet, I was suddenly awake. WIDE awake.

The first thing I saw was the ceiling of the nicely-appointed room. The second thing I saw (when I turned) was Sei's face to my left, about an inch away from mine.

"GAH!" I yelped, bolting up and out of bed.

"Now you're awake," Sei said, smiling lopsidedly. Breaking into a grin, she continued, "I hate to wake my angelic Sleeping Beauty, but we have an hour until the bus leaves." She settled into the pillows, crossing her arms behind her head. "I already did what I had to do, so the bathroom's all yours."

I was, in a word, aghast.

"Y-y-y-y-y-YOU!" I barely peeped out the words. "Wha-wha-WHAT are you doing HERE?!" I gave the room a quick survey. "Where's Rizu?!"

"Rizu?" Sei asked as if I were daft to ask after my roommate. "Why, she's bunking with Kei."

"U-u-USOTSUKI!" (trans. "You LIE!") I whipped my head around, looking for signs of Rizu's stuff, which I saw her unpack.

Her million scrunchies on the dresser were gone.

There were Sei-sized-and-styled clothes in the hangers in the closet (and incidentally, some of my clothes were on some of the hangers.)

I pulled the nearest drawer open.

BOXERS?!

So she wasn't lying.

Shit.

She shook her head, stood up and walked around the bed towards me. "I'm afraid not, kitten. She wanted to spend more time with Kei, and thought this trip would be a good idea to do so." She smiled at me and put a finger under my chin. "We would have asked you if you were up for the idea, but I doubted even the King of Italy could wake you up. And then we tried." Her grinning face inched closer to mine. "Then he said that Italy's a democracy anyway, so we let you sleep, and you let us decide." She tilted my face towards hers. "You know what they say. When in Rome…"

"STOP STOP STOP!" I yelled, pushing her hands away from EVERYTHING, and catching my breath. "Okay, okay, I can accept that Rizu might want some alone time with Kei. But I DON'T want any alone time with you!"

"Aw, no?" Sei asked, pouting mockingly. "But I wanted to see Italy with you, Tonkoneko."

"You probably want to see London and France too!" I burst out.

"Okay, okay," she said, holding her hands up. "Don't freak. I did promise Rizu I wouldn't molest you in the bedroom. So you have Rizu's word, not just mine." One of her grey eyes closed in a wink. "Capisce?"

I heaved a sigh. "Fine."

I had no idea I was digging an even deeper hole for myself. I went into the bathroom and took a shower, making a big show of arming myself with my scrub-brush-on-a-stick. She had better not get any bright ideas.

My 'exciting' Italian trip was now starting out with this sentiment:

Mi sento male. (trans. "I feel sick.")