Nozomi yawned a little as she traced a finger over her proud masterpiece– a piece of lyric for Muse.
It was quiet in the clubroom today– there wasn't any practice today so most of the members rushed home, or off on their dates, or whatever it is they usually did.
Even Eli– Nozomi sighed– left in a hurry. Some emergency family business, she said. Nozomi didn't even get to offer to go with her before her shadow disappeared behind the school gate.
She reminisced the happy moments she had with her friends and second family, as she read through her lyric again.
It definitely wasn't the first time she hung around in the clubroom alone, long after school hours. She was just reluctant to go home to yet another empty room, albeit one a little more devout of warmth than this one.
It was a bittersweet piece of lyric, filled with her gratitude for the miracle that is Muse, and her thoughts about the inevitable parting.
BRRRTT. BRRRTT.
The violent vibrations from her phone startled her out of her moping. She reached for the cell carelessly thrown on the desk.
–2 new messages from Elicchi3–
BRRRTT.
–3 new messages from Elicchi3–
A smile crept onto Nozomi's face as she eagerly opened the messages. However–
Eli: Nozomi, my parnets just snt me a message. My grandmama in Russia is criticlly ill.
Eli: They want me to catch the nxet plane back to Russia. It's flying in 1 hr. They want me to go back an live there so I cn support her emotuonaly.
Eli: I'm not coming back.
Nozomi's heart stopped. It was as if all of time had frozen as Eli's texts sank in. Nozomi couldn't believe. She didn't want to believe. Yet she could not quell the fear that began to rise inside her.
BRRRTT.
Nozomi's fingers trembled as she reached to open the new message.
Eli: I'm so sorry, Nozomi.
Emerald pools quivered as the self-proclaimed mystic tried to get her thoughts together. This is not a hallucination brought on by paranoia. The mistakes in Eli's earlier messages showed that she was panicking on the other end as well.
As she regained control to move her body, Nozomi made haste to collect her belongings so she could see her best friend once more before she left.
The sudden movement freed a lone tear that ran down the side of her face, barely noticed by said girl.
Hauling up her bag, she raced for– or into– the door. Locked.
Did the janitor lock her in by accident?!
Nozomi struggled with the knob for several moments, as if her anguish would allow her to break it with brute force.
Window. WINDOW. She seemed to come to her senses, and abandoned her items to wrench the window open. After all, the room was situated on the first floor.
No luck. The window was jammed stuck, and no matter how hard she tried the panel didn't budge a centimetre. She vaguely remembered Rin accidentally lodging the hinge during a failed escape attempt.
Somewhere during her desperation, tears began to flow freely down her face. The feeling of being trapped and helpless was like fuel to her anguish.
Nozomi crouched against the window, sobbing silently. Defeated, she pulled out her cell and dialled a well-memorised number.
"Nozomi…" The blonde on the other end sounded crestfallen at hearing her sobbing.
"E-Elicchi. A-Are you really going?"
"I'm so sorry Nozomi. I'm leaving the house."
"W-When will you be able to r-return?"
The lack of answer added another weight on Nozomi's heart, and crushed any of her remaining hopes. She herself could not find any words to say.
"… I have to go. I'm really sorry, Nozomi. Good bye." Eli on the other end was so touched that tears began to well up in her eyes as well.
"Take care. I l-love you, Eli."
The last four words came out as a mere whisper, but everyone on the other end could hear it crystal clear.
Eli was about to protest when Nozomi hanged up.
The lonely cat had curled up into a ball below the window, broken, crying freely. Midnight blue sleeves were soaked with the tears of a goddess.
There was a quiet sound of a door unlocking. The trembling figure barely reacted.
"Nozomi…" A familiar voice caused the nomad to lift her head. The familiar face looked at her with a sort of pained expression.
"E-Elicchi?"
Nozomi scrambled to get up from her sitting position, but the blonde caught her in her arms as she knelt beside the still shaking girl.
The doleful face quickly replaced with a mask of concern.
"D-don't you have t-to be at the airport?"
The other girl took Nozomi's face in her hands, "I'm not going anywhere."
"S-so you're staying?"
Surprise was clearly written on the mystic's face and the tears ceased to flow. She stared intently at Eli's face in return, waiting for more bad news.
"I'm really not going anywhere. The others wanted to scare you, they've been trying the last few months or so. I'm so sorry I put you through all this." Slender fingers tried clumsily to wipe the tears off the older girl's face.
Nozomi buried her face into the dancer's chest as she felt tears coming once again– tears of relief.
"Thank god. Thank god I– hic" The same slender fingers rubbed her back in a soothing manner, and played with her hair.
It took the purplenette a few long minutes to regain her composure.
She leaned onto the blonde, relishing the comforting hug she was pulled into. The blonde continued to trace shapes on said girl's side.
"Did you really mean that?"
The sudden vibrations from Eli's voice made the nomad start from her position. She jerked her head up, nearly whacking into the origin of the voice.
"Hmm?" Nozomi's cheeks reddened, "Anyways Elicchi really knows how to ruin the mood doesn't she." She leaned up to poke Eli's cheek.
Eli pulled the other girl to face her and continued in all seriousness, "When you said you loved me."
Nozomi's gaze faltered, and shifted onto the ground.
"I did."
"Nozomi, I love you too."
The purplenette's face snapped up again, a shy smile breaking through. The threat of tears returned– now tears of happiness.
Eli found her opportunity to tease back. "For the first time since I met you, I realised you like to cry a lot," she quipped. Nozomi said nothing but smiled.
Now their gaze had a different meaning, it was the gaze of two people who were more than friends.
"Uhm, Nozomi? I'm sorry about this mean scare. But if it wasn't for me, I guess you two idiots would never have confessed."
Nico huffed and struck a confident pose, but her sneaking a concerned look at the mystic gave herself away.
At first they took her presence as no matter… Until they realised how awkward Nico looked. The reminder of another living creature within five metres of their cuddling instantly caused any romantic atmosphere to fly out the window.
Nozomi separated from Eli with a shriek, while Eli gave Nico her best 'what the hell' glare. That's when Nozomi noticed.
The rest of Muse was crowding at the door.
Nozomi was sure she could bury herself in a hole and never come out in that moment.
Nozomi's flustered face was soon turned back to Eli though. Eli, in an indignant attempt to appear as the most gentlemanly girlfriend ever, held out a hand to Nozomi, "I'm not going anywhere, so expect to go out of a lot of proper dates! The clever and dashing Elichika will sweep you off your feet!"
Nozomi blushed even more, but graciously accepted.
"I guess the scare really worked out well, finally. But in a different way huh…" Honoka mused as she peeped through the door at the two hugging seniors.
Kotori smiled approvingly, "At least Nozomi-chan is happy now. I was starting to feel bad."
At this Hanayo asked shyly, "Do you think Nico-chan intended to do something like this from the very beginning? Nozomi-chan and Eli-chan always looked like they were meant for each other after all."
They all turned to look at the mentioned girl. The petite senior was standing midway into the room, shedding a proud tear for her two friends' happiness.
"Who can tell?"
As expectant of the persistent Eli, Nozomi was dragged out the very next day for their first date in the park.
It was romantic to say the least. To say the most– well, the sky dropped shōjo manga sparkles, and white lilies lined every path they strolled on.
Eli serenaded the mystic as the sun first began to set– she had never seen the purplenette this embarrassed!
It was also just as the sun completely disappeared that the two shared their first kiss–illuminated by the beautiful, dying sun.
The purplenette had cut the blonde's singing short with the joining of the lips.
It was when Eli, being the gentleman again, saw Nozomi home that the nomad admitted,
"Thank god for Nico. Thank god for you. Maybe if you're with me, when I think of tomorrow, I can be overflowing with courage."
One more omake:
Nozomi voice, out of nowhere, had lowered into a dangerous sounding purr, "So… All of the stuff that had been going wrong… Were they all spearheaded by Nicocchi?"
Drats I thought she forgot?! The thoughts of seven people at the table were exactly the same. All cringed for Nico.
"Uhm yes, but not all of them! Haha some of them came from your beloved E– mmmfh?!" Eli had slapped a hand over the panicking girl's mouth.
"Doesn't Nicocchi need some washi-washi punishment?!" While finishing her sentence Nozomi had lunged forward to grab at Nico's chest.
When the ordeal was finally over Nico couldn't help but notice Nozomi's ministrations were not as rough as usual. What was the deal with that?
Recovering from her 'effort', and ignoring the deadpanned looks from every single person at the table, Nozomi leaned over to whisper in Eli's ear,
"Your punishment will come tonight, dear Elicchi." On which Eli began to have cold sweat in her seat, unable to concentrate the rest of the club meeting.
A/N: This idea was suggested by sunokasai. Thank you!
Two songs inspired me while I was writing this, King by Lauren Aquilina, and Anata no Aishita Sekai by Nanjō Yoshino.
That's it folks! I wasn't able to use all the ideas you gave me about Eli, there were many and I only had room for one. I'm sorry, don't take this personally but I felt this would bring out the situation best. Thanks for all of them though, gave me a lot to think about.
Once again, thanks for reading, favoriting, and following the story that celebrates Nozomi! Please review on my writing, I appreciate! Go team NozoEli!