Every time Chiaki waved goodbye as she left the Enohana baths, Mayuko swore that next time would be different. Next time she'd break out of the rut. The rut of, "bring Chiaki over, study together, make dinner with ingredients Chiaki paid for, eat, visit the baths, wave goodbye when Chiaki goes home." It wasn't a terrible rut. It was a rut that had pleasant moments. Which made it all the more difficult to break out of.
The problem with the rut was the guilt. For instance, why should Chiaki pay for food if she was a guest? Just because the cheerful girl had money to spend didn't mean that she should be obliged to!
Not that they had ever discussed it. When they picked up food, Chiaki simply handed over the money to the cashier while Mayuko was still fumbling with her purse. She tried to protest, but Chiaki didn't even appear to hear her at those moments.
And as time went on, Mayuko's protests grew weaker and weaker. Because getting free ingredients two or three times a week was a godsend. Lately, Chiaki had been throwing in ingredients they wouldn't even use for dinner that night! Tonight for instance, they hadn't even touched the half-dozen eggs Chiaki had paid for. Visions of egg salad, omelettes, okonomiyaki, maybe even chawanmushi danced in Mayuko's head.
(There was no way she was going to make chawanmushi).
With the money she was saving on food, she thought she might even be able to start building up a rainy-day fund.
But it wasn't just about the money. Mayuko's one-room flat was boring and she hated subjecting Chiaki to it. It was shabby, threadbare, had virtually no decoration, and featured the world's most annoying alien. No television, no video game console. The only entertainment system of any kind was an ancient terrestrial radio that could only pick up one station clearly. A station that played late 20th-century enka music exclusively.
Chiaki never complained or said a single word about Mayuko's home that wasn't complimentary. And the "annoying alien" part was a good thing in her books, apparently.
Or perhaps the complimentary things she said were sneaky insults? Words like "character" and "heritage" might just be code words for "old" and "would probably fail a municipal health and welfare inspection."
After thinking about it, Mayuko rejected that idea. Chiaki wouldn't ever make backhanded compliments like that, would she? Surely not.
Was she making as much an effort in their friendship as Chiaki was? Or was she just running on friendship inertia?
Was Chiaki going to get tired of these boring study sessions in a run-down failing bathhouse and just disappear out of her life?
She couldn't help but think of the memory of the mothership disappearing.
"Hope I didn't keep you waiting!" Chiaki said.
"Oh. Of course, no problem." Mayuko looked for the sponge she had been holding. She must have dropped it in her reverie.
Chiaki picked up the sponge from next to Mayuko's stool. "Here you go."
"Thanks." She squeezed it out. "My mind must have been wandering." Chiaki hadn't asked but Mayuko still felt obligated to explain.
"I had been talking to the old lady up at the front."
"Oh."
The two proceeded to wash themselves in silence. The only sounds were of scrubbing, water occasionally dripping, and NieA chasing Wakaba the cat.
"Get your back?" Chiaki asked.
"If you want to," Mayuko answered. "I'll get yours, too."
Chiaki shifted her stool behind Mayuko's, and lathered up her back.
It reminded her of being back home again. A bath brush did the job just as well, but it was nice for someone else to take care of her for awhile.
"Did you know this is the only public bath I've ever been to?" Chiaki asked as she lightly scrubbed her friend.
"Is that true?"
"Yeah, I always took baths at home." Chiaki squeezed out her sponge, then resumed scrubbing. "I thought that people only went to bathhouses in tv dramas and cartoons. But actually coming to one opened my eyes. It genuinely feels different. Maybe because it's in such a big space. I read someplace that big baths have a lot of positive ions in the air or something? But the best part is just getting to talk."
"Don't we talk all the time?"
"Yes, but…" Chiaki set down the sponge and picked up the bucket to rinse Mayuko's back. "Oh, do you want to lift your hair up? I'm not sure if you mind getting it wet."
"No, it's fine. I'm not going out after this, anyway."
"Like I was saying, we do talk a lot, but it's different in a bath. It's just… I can't find the right word for it. It's just nice." She poured the bucket onto Mayuko's back.
She closed her eyes. "You're right, it is nice." She looked across to the faded mural of Mount Fuji on the wall. She turned around. "Your turn."
Chiaki sat in the opposite direction and Mayuko lathered her back. "I want to enjoy it while I still can. The bathhouse, I mean. I'm going to miss it."
"What do you mean, 'miss it'?" Chiaki looked over her shoulder at Mayuko. "It's not like it's going to disappear."
Mayuko softly scrubbed Chiaki's back. "It can't stay open forever. Kotomi can only afford to run it at a loss for so long. And even if it does stay open by some miracle, I'm not going to stay here forever." She set down the sponge, then turned to fill up the bucket at the faucet. "The plan is to go to university, and that's not somewhere I can commute to from here." Once the bucket was filled, Mayuko turned around and poured the water over Chiaki. "If there's anything I've learned, it's that nothing's forever."
Chiaki sighed. "Yeah, I know. So enjoy it while we've still got it, right?"
Mayuko knew that she meant the bathhouse. But maybe her mistake was not enjoying her friendship with Chiaki while she had it?
Mayuko set her bucket down and stood up. "I'm going to go for a soak."
"Sounds good."
The two settled into the bath, sitting side-by-side at the edge.
Chiaki sank down in the water until her chin was touching the surface. "I'm gonna move out too. When I go to university, I mean. Nervous about it though." She sat back up.
"You don't need to be nervous about it. If I can do it, anyone can, right?"
"I don't think I can do half of the things you do." Chiaki chuckled. "You're pretty cool, Mayu."
Mayuko couldn't remember if she'd ever been described as 'cool' before. "Not really. I'm just a girl from the country with a bunch of part-time jobs."
"I disagree, but we've had this conversation before."
"Guess so."
Chiaki stretched her arms. "When we move out, we'll need to get a place near a public bath. Nothing's forever, but that doesn't mean I want to give this up."
"I'm sure you and your roommates will have a good time whenever you go for a soak together."
"Um." Chiaki looked at her with a frown. "Why are you saying that like you mean other people?"
"I… I don't understand."
"When we move out, we'll get a place near a public bath."
"I must be missing something."
"I mean we." Chiaki pointed at Mayuko and then herself. "When we'll be roommates."
NieA skidded into view, cat in her arms. "Me too, right?"
"Of course! But only if you promise to keep building UFOs."
"Woo-hoo!" NieA stuck a fist up in triumph, losing her hold on the cat, who immediately ran away. "Come back, fiend!" NieA ran in pursuit.
"Oh god," muttered Mayuko. "I'm never getting rid of her, am I?"
"So… you do want to share a flat with me, right?"
"But… you don't even know where I want to go to university!"
"Aichi, isn't it?"
"Apparently, you do know. How do you know?"
"You had some pamphlets on your desk." Chiaki smiled. "They don't have a ufology department, unfortunately, but they do have electrical engineering. So, you do want to share a flat with me, right?"
"I…" Mayuko tried to think of an objection, but realized that she didn't have one. And more to the point, didn't want one. "Well, I suppose, yes."
"Great!" Chiaki sighed and tilted her head back. "It's going to be the best."
So, apparently Mayuko had a roommate now? Roommate-in-waiting, at least. This was going to take some time to get used to.
"When you mentioned a roommate at first, I thought you meant someone you went on the go-kon with."
"What, a boy?"
"No, one of the girls…" Mayuko started to answer before Chiaki interrupted her. "Nah. They were fun, but I like you better than any boy."
Mayuko found herself blushing. There's no way that Chiaki could have meant that. And if she were to ask her, Mayuko was certain that she'd clarify.
And with the way she was feeling, she wasn't sure if she wanted clarification.
And the way Chiaki was resting her head against Mayuko's shoulder, and the hand that slipped around to her side, and the foot that was gently rubbing her ankle, maybe she wouldn't need clarification?
No, there's no way that Chiaki could possibly…
No. Mayuko decided that she needed to stop listening to that part of her mind.
"So enjoy it while we've still got it, right?" Chiaki had said earlier.
At the present moment, Mayuko had Chiaki with her, and whatever things were going to be like in the future, she was going to enjoy everything.
Author's notes:
Story begun: 16 February 2023
Story completed: 20 February 2023
Artwork by Beedok
The title "Molokai Shores" is the name of one of the tracks on the Niea_7 soundtrack, "NieA's Loco."
I watched NieA_7 when it was first released 20+ years ago, and I've always enjoyed it a lot, but I've never thought to write fanfic about it before now. I had been thinking I should write something for Femslash February. I had always thought Mayuko/Chiaki was a cute ship, so I had to write something for it.
Anyway, to the folks that have sought out a story from an obscure fandom from nearly a quarter-century ago: hope you enjoyed reading.