Okay I just realized a critical mistake I made in the last chapter. I originally planned for this to coincide with the story line, the weekend before the school trip and the school trip it self to be exact. The crucial detail that I forgot was that Mitsuru was unavailable for Tartarus at the time! So I'll have to go back edit her out to continue the way I wished. Well enough talk it's time for me to raise my evoker and let this story flow out!
Stay by me
11/15 Sun. Morning
"I'm so bored!" Yukari shouted before falling back onto the dorms living room couch. She wore only her PJ's, pink of course, and a bandage around her recently sprained leg.
"Mitsuru said that you should so it doesn't become worse." Minato said calmly from the armchair. He wore his usual Sunday attire while he read a manga he borrowed from Junpei.
"But I wanted to go to Paulownia mall to pick up a few things before the trip." She let out a sigh as she sat up clutching a pillow in front of her. "Wait…where is Mitsuru-sempai and everyone else?"
"Akihiko took Mitsuru out somewhere with hopes of cheering her up…" he began.
"You could almost believe they were a couple sometimes" Yukari added in with a laugh.
"Junpei is at the hospital visiting his goth Lolita girlfriend…"
"Junpei dating a girl, never thought I'd see the day" she smiled at the thought that she could finally use the words 'Junpei' and 'girlfriend' in the same sentence without the words 'will never have' in between.
"Fuuka said she needed to go home to get a few things for the trip. Ken took Koromaru out for a walk and I think Aigis is asleep in her room." He finished explaining everyone's whereabouts. "Leaving me here because I had nothing better to do." He added in a sarcastic comment which earned him a pillow to the face.
"I can do without the sarcasm, thank you." She said with crossed arms. "Anyway I'm getting hungry can you get me something please." Her voice was layered in sweetness to get him to abide by her will.
"Fine" Minato said with a sigh as he made his way over to the kitchen area not forgetting to throw the pillow back at her.
She smiled to herself as she watched him walk away. 'This is nice' Yukari thought to herself. 'Just me and him alone…together.' As she basked in the joy she was experiencing a terrible sound reverberated close to her. It was a sound that signaled her move would turn southward.
Yukari turned to see what had made the sound only to find Minato's cell phone rumbling on the table. Quickly picking it up, she flipped it open to see that he had received a new message. 'A message?! From who? Could it be a…no way could it be…from a girl?!' All common sense and ethics told her not to open the message but at this moment not knowing seemed a whole lot worse.
She opened the message and read over its contents before she let out a sigh. It was only a message from Kazushi from the sports team asking him if he was free to hang out. 'Why am I so relieved by that? It's not like I care if he has a girlfriend. I mean he is a popular guy and…' As the thought crossed her mind she instantly ran through his list of phone numbers. She saw that he had a pretty extensive list of friends but her heart stopped when she saw a few names that were girls.
'Maybe they're just classmates he's exchanged numbers with.' Yukari thought trying to convince herself. 'But the again…' she prepared to open his messages again to confirm what she hoped was true.
"Yukari what do you want to drink" Minato's voice called from the other side of the room making her jump.
"A-anything's fine!" She said hastily. "…Not Cielo Mist!" She added in considering how often she saw him buying one from vending machines. Minato gave a groan in response before mumbling to himself.
Yukari inhaled deeply readying herself before she opened his messages and there they were messages from the girls asking him if he was free, to meet them somewhere. Yukari hung her head as she stood, letting the phone slip from her grasp letting it drop to the ground before she made her way to the stairs
"Yukari you okay?" Minato called from behind the counter as she began to ascend the stairs.
She forced a smile "Yeah I'm just going up to my room. I gotta…finish packing." It was a lie; she had actually finished preparing for the trip the week before she just needed to be away from him for a while before she continued up the stairs.
Minato was confused by her sudden mood change. A ringing sound suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "My phone" he said before searching his pockets. "Ugh where is it?" Unable to find it he looked followed the ringing to its source and found it under the couch, thinking that was a strange place for it to be.
Putting it to his ear he heard Kazushi's irate voice shout over the speaker. "Did I get your message?" Minato checked his phone screen; the new message icon wasn't lit. "I don't think I did…you sent it a few minutes ago? I'll check again." This time he checked his message history and sure enough the message was their. "Um Kaz I'm sorry but I'm kind of busy at the moment" he said as he gazed at the stairs. He hung up the phone "…Yukari."
Back upstairs Yukari was in her room, with her back to the door she slid down its hard surface, coming to a stop on the floor. She buried her head in her knees as tear began to stream down her cheeks. "Why do I care this much, they were just messages. I…I don't even know if he went with them or not…" Yukari tried to convince herself. "And if he did…I don't know exactly what happened so…so why do I feel like this." She tried to wipe her tears but more just continued flowing.
Hours later Yukari sat quietly going through her things for the trip, making sure he had every thing she needed. A knock came to her door. 'The others are back?' she thought to herself before telling the person on the other side of the door. "Oh it's you" her voice sounded sour when she saw Minato come through the door.
Ignoring the fact that she was still rather angry with him he entered the room anyway. "I brought you something." He said as he presented a glass filled almost one to the brim with a rather thick substance. It was one of the smoothies he had made multiple times for his dorm mates. (Manga only)
Yukari took it, taking a small sip from it. She enjoyed it but she made no motion to acknowledge it, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. 'He knows I went through his phone and now he's trying to butter me up with this smoothie peace offering. Well it's not going to work.' She glared at him from the corner of her eye. 'Any minute now he's going to try to convince me those girls are only friends.' She became agitated at the thought.
"You know Yukari…" Minato began.
'Here it comes'
"I heard Ryoji asked you to go out on a date with him on Shirikawa Blvd." He finished with a smirk.
Yukari nearly choked "Who told you that" she shouted as she slammed the glass on the ground.
"He did."
"Tell that pervert I'm not going anywhere near Shirikawa Blvd. with him!" Apparently she's still a little sore from the incident they had on the night of a full moon at a hotel on said Blvd.
Minato gave a small laugh at her expense earning him a glare. "…This is the first time I've ever been in your room. It's…pink."
"Yeah" she smiled a little. "I'm usually the one who comes rushing into your room."
"Remember that one time you broke into my room because Aigis had somehow got it?" He laughed as Yukari grimaced over the memory of how worked up she got. As he looked at the scowling girl something black and white caught his eye as it easily stood out among the pink. "Hey what's that?" He made his way over to the object.
"What's wha- wait don't' look at that!" Yukari shouted before she moved across the object and hid it behind her back.
"Come on let me see." He reached around trying to grab it.
"No way" she backed away from him. "It's nothi-ah!" As Yukari took a step back she tripped over her own bag." As she fell she felt something wrap around her, nulling the shock from her fall. "Opening her eyes she Minato hovering over her. "Once again you saved me."
"Yep just call me Mr. knight in shining armor." He laughed as he pushed himself off of her allowing her to get up. "…So that's what it was" he said as he studied the item in her hands. It was the maid outfit that she was supposed to wear during the school festival which was regrettably canceled. "I bet you'd look really cute in that, to bad you never got the chance to wear it." He was lying, he had seen her wear it all thanks to the recording he found in the command room (Fes only) but he wasn't going to tell her that.
A blush spread across her face. "You're just as bad a Junpei" she sounded disgusted but in truth she was only trying to mask that she liked the compliment and actually considered it.
"I'm serious" he said pulling her closer to him allowing her to rest he head on his shoulder. "Hey Yukari how about I make up this lost weekend for you by taking you around Kyoto during the trip but I don't know the area to well so you might have to show me around."
Yukari's heart began to pound within her chest. Was this a date? Was he asking her out? "Okay" She said without hesitation and as smile lit up her face before she let her lead slip off her shoulder and into his lap. "Minato about you phone…"
"You mean about how there are girls numbers in my phone and they've asked me to go out with them?" he said cutting her off. "I know you're going to say but they're just friends of mine. Sure they've asked me out and sometimes I've gone but we aren't dating or anything. Just like me showing you around Kyoto isn't a date."
That last comment struck home with Yukari. "Y-yeah it's not a date. Just two friends getting together for a trip and nothing more." She felt another pain in her chest rise up. They both didn't see his offer as the other did.
She was about to back out of the offer when a loud banging came from the other side of the door. "Yukari-san I heard a rather loud noise come from your room earlier." Aigis's voice echoed through the closed door. "My sensors detect that there is a second person in the room with you. I suspect you are involved in some kind of confrontation. I request that you open the door or I shall force my way in 3…2."
"Gotta go!" Minato said suddenly before he rushed to open door coming face to face with her guns aimed at him.
As the door closed, leaving Yukari in the room alone her only thought was 'don't go.'
TBC
Next time on "Together and Alone" it's time for the legendary Kyoto trip! Kyoto the town of Yukari's origin and the town known for bring couples together on trips such as these. Now if only Yukari could say those simple words. Maybe a dip in the hot springs will change that.