Italics are for emphasis and thoughts.
Better With You
(Sequel to Waiting)
By: Leafsdude
Chapter 6: Blending The Ingredients
True to her desires, Natsuki spends the rest of the weekend lounging around the house. While she got up early on Saturday with John to help Sayori with her job interview, she spent the rest of the day in the quiet company of her friends doing very little of anything. They do spend the night out together, having fun at the local hang out, though mostly as a distraction for Sayori.
The owner of the shop seemed impressed enough with her interview, but still said she would get in contact the next day to let Sayori know if she got the job. As a result, she was feeling extra anxious that night, so both John and Natsuki suggested going out on the town, small as it was, until they were all exhausted.
By Sunday morning, the atmosphere was much more relaxed. Sayori had finally gotten the phone call just before lunchtime. Her squeal after hanging up the phone signaled her officially becoming an employee of the Baking Store.
Immediately, she had called Monika back, confirming that she had managed to avoid any work hours on that coming Friday or weekends. That was mostly due to her accepting staggered hours, including a 4-hour Monday morning shift that would be her first one the following day. Yuko had even agreed to take the new employee under her wing, showing her the ropes and helping her out with some of the more technical aspects the job required that she didn't know about yet.
As a result, the road trip for the following weekend was a go, though both Natsuki and John had declined to join, each for different reasons.
The result was a change in the group's tone for the beginning of the week. Without Sayori's morning energy and the more subdued evenings, there was a new dynamic for Natsuki and John to get used to.
Thankfully for the master of all things baking, Hime somehow seemed to have been affected similarly. Her disruptions during Monday's class were minimal and she had left without a word, finally giving the pink-haired woman something positive for the week.
Tuesday and Wednesday went by quickly as well, the new routine of early classes followed by Natsuki and John spending the afternoon alone in the house felt odd but still somewhat natural. Occupying the time together doing assignments, it was never long before John would leave to pick up Sayori while Natsuki would make dinner.
Little did Natsuki know, this new routine would also be shattered soon enough.
Thursday's classes go by quickly. With Sayori's morning coinciding with John and Natsuki's for the only day in the week, they'd managed to spend a decent amount of time together getting ready for their day. However, the result of that was a long afternoon for Natsuki and John to spend with just each other for company while Sayori spent a whole 8-hour shift at the shop. Considering the weekend coming up, Natsuki was glad they had a good relationship between them, even if it wasn't as good as the one between her and Sayori.
As the clock passes 6:00, John is putting the finishing touches on whatever he's working on, knowing it wasn't long before the time came to pick up his girlfriend. Though Yuko had offered to be her chaperone to go along with the rest of her help at the job, Sayori knew how important that simple role was for John.
Natsuki, meanwhile, was busy herself tonight, gathering up various items for that evening's supper.
Suddenly, her phone rang. Her own assignments had been finished a while ago, and she hasn't begun cooking anything just yet, so she hurries over to answer it before it went to her voice mail.
"Hello?" She answers, the number on the display unknown to her.
"Hello, Natsuki?" The voice on the other end sounds vaguely familiar, but she can't pinpoint it immediately.
"Yes," her short response is terse and impatient, though it elicits a poorly concealed chuckle in response.
"Hello, this is Yuko calling," Natsuki's eyebrows shoot up quickly in surprise. "I thought you might be interested to know we received a shipment of Callebaut chocolate chips this afternoon. We are open for another 45 minutes if you can make it in."
A touch of uncertainty creeps into Natsuki's mind, but she pushes it aside, already determined to jump at the chance to acquire her preferred quality ingredient. "Sure, I can be there in just a bit."
"Okay, we'll have it waiting for you when you get here," the voice on the other end responds. Natsuki swears she can hear the rapid nods through the phone. "We'll see you soon."
In a rush, the pink-haired woman hangs up without saying goodbye, quickly making her way towards the door.
"I'm heading over to the Baking Store to grab up something," she announces over her shoulder, gaining a pair of raised eyebrows from her friend. "I'll walk Sayori home after, so you don't have to worry about picking her up."
There's a moment's pause before a wide smile crosses John's face. "Okay, have fun!"
There's no response before the door closes.
Entering the shop, Natsuki glances around at the large room that is now becoming very familiar to her. Despite the late hour, she's still surprised at how empty it is, especially after her previous trip.
Finally, her eyes reach the front where the familiar brunette is milling about at the cash register. There's a bag sitting on the counter with a couple of boxes that Natsuki recognizes. Taking a quick scan around the room, Natsuki marches over.
"So I'm here," she announces a little gruffly, wanting to get this out of the way quickly. The brunette smiles at her as she carries a couple boxes and places them onto another counter. Natsuki takes another glance around the room in an attempt to spot Sayori. "How much?"
"It's on the house," Yuko finally responds as she finishes her organizing. It's a moment before Natsuki's eyes shoot back to her.
"What?" She can't hold her surprised response as Yuko chuckles while nodding. "Really?"
"Well, they might not sell that well," she shrugs simply. "I kind of ordered them on a whim, so…"
Despite her surprise, Natsuki knows better than to ask twice, grabbing the bag and draping it over her arm.
"Where's Sayori?" She asks, glancing around again. There's a pause.
"Oh, right," Yuko smiles at her before nodding. "You guys are friends, aren't you? She's working in the back today, actually. If you want to go and wait for her to finish her shift, you can."
Natsuki's about to object before she scans the room again quickly, seeing that the last customers that were hanging out had left. Instead of answering, she turns to head through the doors.
"Sayori?" She calls into the room. She hears some scurrying as she lets the door swing closed behind her. "Hurry up and grab your things so we can get out of here."
Despite her words, her tone is not overly pushy as she glances around the otherwise empty warehouse space.
"Natsuki?" Sayori calls in surprise. She hurries over before Natsuki can respond, staring at her intently from a few steps in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
Lifting her arm with the bag, the baking expert gives a soft grin. "Yuko called to tell me you had these in stock, so I figured I'd grab them and then walk you home," she grins playfully. "We haven't gotten any quality girl time this week, so I thought we could catch up before you go spend the weekend with Monika."
Sayori smiles back happily. "Aww, you're so sweet," she says, giving her friend a playful hug that Natsuki half-heartedly pushes back against.
"Okay, okay, enough of that already," she whines before she's finally released. Looking up, she sees an amused grin. "So, let's go already."
"Oh, right," Sayori nods, quickly turning towards a set of lockers. After pausing to look them over, she pops one open and grabs a lunch bag out. She starts to close it before her eyes catch something, and she reaches out to grab up her phone.
"Almost forgot you," she mumbles to herself as she stands there for a second. "Hmm, I should probably check…"
As the pair walk back through the doors, Natsuki watches in bemusement. Making their way into the main room of the store, Sayori's eyes remain locked on the phone's screen the entire time.
"What are you checking?" She finally asks, curiosity getting the best of her.
"Monika wants to go watch a baseball game on Saturday night," her best friend responds, still distracted by her phone. "I ordered tickets on Sunday, but there's a couple of days before they're confirmed. I forgot to check them yesterday, so…oh no."
Sayori's face falls suddenly as she taps her phone a couple times desperately.
"What is it?" Natsuki asks, now also concerned. Her voice doesn't seem to reach her best friend's ears, however.
"No, no, no, how'd I manage to…?" she trails off again, tapping the screen a few times with a more determined expression before lightly sighing in relief. "Yuko?" She calls loudly. "Do I have a couple minutes before you close up?"
"Sure," the response is quick.
Tapping her phone once again, Sayori puts it up against her ear while a tinge of embarrassment slowly turns her face red.
"Hello, Monika?" She asks, a light cringe on her face at her own squeaky voice. "I may have made a mistake. Yeah, with the tickets. Umm. I got them for the game tomorrow. No, no, I still want to come down and see your place, but…yeah, there's still a decent number of them left. Sorry, I didn't pay enough attention in my excitement, I guess. Yeah, I don't know. I'll figure something out with them, okay? Yeah, I know. I still feel bad about it, though. Yeah. Okay. See you tomorrow, then? Alright, bye."
Natsuki stands uncomfortably next to her friend throughout the conversation. Sayori puts the phone in her hand away from her ear before pressing the screen with her finger one last time. She shoves it into her pocket before she sighs again.
"You alright?" Natsuki's voice is soft and small, worried about her friend while also equally aware of how the question might be received by her.
"Yeah, I'm fine…" almost by instinct, Sayori puts on a big smile as the words tumble out, before she pauses. "Okay, that's a lie."
She lets out another sigh, and Natsuki gives her a soft pat on the shoulder.
"I kinda screwed something up, and now Monika's gotta fix it up for me," she shrugs. "I know she doesn't mind, but I still feel bad about it. I don't want to, but…well, you know."
Natsuki nods, managing a soft smile. While she wants to cut in and scold her friend for having such thoughts, she knows from experience the best thing she can do is just stand there and listen.
When a few seconds of silence between them goes by, she breaks into it instead of letting it linger. "What is it that you said you'll figure something out for?"
"Oh, I just," she pulls out her phone again. "We're going to spend the weekend together on her school's campus, but I have a couple tickets for the baseball game tomorrow that I need to figure out what to do with."
"Baseball?" Natsuki smirks with glee. "Well, this is your lucky day, then. I'll take them. I mean, assuming I can get to it. Or force John to drive me to it."
"John's in this hyper-productive streak right now with school," Sayori says quickly. "I doubt he'd want to go. But you can have them if you want. It's the college team, so it's at a small stadium just off campus. They're playing Monika's college. They play Saturday as well, but on her campus. I kind of got the dates mixed up since the teams were the same, and now I've wasted my bonus from work on them."
"Hmm," the response from Natsuki is muted as Yuko walks up with her keys in hand, ready to close the shop. The pair walk out the door together quietly, mulling their own ideas as they head down the sidewalk. Yuko, meanwhile, locks the door behind them before heading quickly to her car.
After taking a few steps away from the brunette, Natsuki speaks up again. "I don't know anyone else that's into baseball, so..."
A noise behind them catches their attention, and they turn around to see Yuko's curious gaze. "Baseball?"
Natsuki gives an inaudible sigh of annoyance which Sayori fails to notice as she bounds a few steps towards her co-worker. "Yeah, I have a couple tickets to the college game tomorrow. You wanna go?"
"Natsuki's going, too?" She asks, getting a groan from the pink-haired woman.
"Yeah, there's two tickets," her best friend carries on regardless, an excited grin on her face. "I was going to go with a friend, but we kind of had a mix-up, and I won't be able to make it. The seats are right next to each other."
Dreading the idea, Natsuki still can't find a good reason to avoid it, especially knowing she can't say no to her best friend on this. Sighing once more, she resigns herself to the arrangement. "Alright, I guess it's the two of us, then."
"Great!" Sayori's mood seems to have rebounded entirely over the past couple of minutes as she looks between the other two women standing on either side of her. "I can print you the tickets when we get home and you guys can work it out with each other!"
"Sure," Yuko smiles. "I mean, we've already exchanged our phone numbers."
Before Natsuki can say anything else, the store clerk waves as she finally gets into her car, leaving the two friends alone together again.
Natsuki sighs one final time, rooted to her spot in shock from what just transpired. Well, better than Hime at least, she reasons with herself. She just manages to hold in a horrified chuckle at the thought, but she doesn't have a moment to consider it further before Sayori grabs her hand and starts running down the street, dragging her along with playful exuberance.
"Sayori, stop!" She shouts as her legs struggle to keep up. She only gets a giggle in response.
Natsuki wakes up the next morning, still moody that her first bit of on-campus fun is going to be spent with someone she barely knows.
Yuko had called her the night before to coordinate the evening. With the stadium right next to the campus, Natsuki could easily walk to it in just a few minutes, even from the house. Yuko insisted on picking her up, however, and her whining voice had gotten too grating. As a result, Natsuki had finally agreed, if only to get her to shut up.
Putting together a decently fancy breakfast, she's still careful not to wake up her friends, both of which have a few extra hours before their classes start.
She shuts the front door quietly behind her before she slowly makes her way to campus. Her 8:30 class this morning has her extra cranky, but she decides to use that to her advantage as she looks at the sky. Her elective this year is astronomy, and getting a little extra stargazing in could do her some good, even if it's just to brighten her mood up ever so slightly.
The air is nice and cool this morning, and the sky remains mostly clear as the first signs of the sun start spreading outwards, blotting some of the more distant and hard-to-see stars from Natsuki's view.
She had checked out the weather that morning, and was thankful that there was no sign of rain for game time, meaning a rainout was unlikely. The flipside was that she wasn't getting out of her trip with Yuko that night, but she decides to take the good with the bad.
"Or at least not-as-good," she mutters to herself grudgingly. She still barely knew the brunette who seemed really nice and well-adjusted, even while she had a strange side to her as well. Natsuki had to admit her willingness to look past the time they were to spend that night together told her that she didn't find Yuko that annoying, even if the chance to take in the enjoyable pastime that was baseball would be worth it regardless.
Taking her eyes off the sky, Natsuki sees that she's now at the set of lights that crosses onto campus. She sighs as she looks at her watch to see that she's still a few minutes early. Feeling a little annoyed at everything, even after her little internal pep-talk, she decides to take a jog around the block before to clear her mind before heading in to begin her classes.
As she runs past the rear entrance, she catches two familiar faces, and she slightly freaks out before jumping behind one of the larger trees on the campus yard. Looking back around cautiously, she sees both have their backs to her now as they head in towards the back doors. Yuko's brunette hair is tied back into a pony-tail today, while Hime's shorter blonde hair is left straight and loose.
While she can't make out anything beyond mumbles between them, she does hear Hime's annoying laugh and the playful sneer from Yuko in response.
Despite the mood she wants to force out of herself at the sight, Natsuki can't let herself be anything more than confused and concerned for her soon-to-be companion. How does she give her the time of day? She's so sweet, and…
Natsuki stops herself at the thought that escaped unexpectedly. She can't help but bottle it up inside as she tries to explain it away to herself. Well, I mean, for an annoying shop clerk who tries to please everyone and imposes herself at every moment, at least.
She nods, satisfied with the correction as she watches them enter the school. Looking at her watch, she sees she's running late and busts it for class. Dashing through the halls, she just makes it on time, huffing and puffing as her professor eyes her with a begrudging respect.
Walking home again with her friends, Natsuki doesn't take the afternoon trip home for granted, knowing that Monika was already on her way into town to pick up Sayori for their weekend together to the north.
Though she wants to be upset with her best friend for ditching her so early in the school year, she knows she can't really complain. With her plans that night, not to mention her own focus on recreational activities and just being plain lazy over the weekends, she's not exactly much better.
Entering the house, Natsuki notices the travel bag lying at the front door, likely placed there that morning. Not giving it a second thought, she hurries her way into her room.
Digging through her things, she quickly locates her long-unused baseball glove. Putting it on her hand, she punches the palm a couple times, satisfied that the leather had held up well over the years. Taking it off again, she chucks it onto her bed before sitting on her chair, wiping off the cat hair beforehand. Pulling out her phone, she sends a quick text to Yuko, letting her know that she's ready to go.
With that done, she walks over to her wardrobe to find something better than the casual school clothes she wore that day. With the cooler September weather dropping even more that evening, she immediately rejects any of the shorter skirts as an option, turning instead to consider her remaining choice between pink jeans or a longer red skirt.
"Which one?" She mutters to herself, looking between them a few times before grabbing the skirt without consciously deciding on it. She quickly grabs up a well-fitted black shirt to go with it before dropping them next to her glove and closing the door.
Just as she finishes getting dressed, she hears Sayori's excited yell. "Monika's here!"
Heading back out reluctantly, Natsuki is still happy to see Monika again as she walks up to the front door.
"Nice place," the brunette comments from the walkway, impressed as she looks around the front yard.
Sayori can't contain herself anymore as she flings the door open and practically jumps her way to Monika. Grabbing her into a big hug, she giggles in delight.
"I missed you so much, Monika," she says happily, finally pulling out of the hug and glancing at the amused face of her friend.
"You saw me just a couple of months ago," Monika reminds her, though she's clearly flattered by the greeting.
"Yeah, and that was two months ago!" The excitable woman retorts quickly as she heads back into the house to grab her bags. Monika follows closely, giving the others a quick greeting as she enters the door.
"You guys lucked out with this house," the brunette comments, looking around the room with an impressed look.
"Tell me about it," John responds with a nod.
"I just have a small dorm room, so," Monika shrugs before turning her head towards Sayori. "I didn't get a roommate, so there's an extra bed for you to sleep in tonight."
Sayori smiles appreciatively. "That's good," she looks at her friend with a bit of bashfulness. "I probably should have asked about that. It wouldn't have been good if we had to fight over a bed."
Giving a soft nod, Monika's eyes wander over to the pink-haired woman that she had barely noticed up to that point. She smirks as she takes in her attire.
"Special occasion tonight?" She asks, appreciating the formal nature of the heavy-yet-formfitting clothes Natsuki had chosen. Growing ever more crimson from the question, the smaller woman is unable to respond before Sayori blurts out about her upcoming outing.
"I gave her the tickets I bought accidentally," the tone is excited, but also holds a touch of teasing in it. "She's taking the co-worker I told you about. I think she really likes her."
"Uh…buh…what?" Natsuki finally manages to sputter out after giving Sayori an evil eye. "I don't like her. She's just always around, and she's very pushy. It's annoying, actually…"
She trails off as she sees Sayori try to hold her laughter inside. "I meant Yuko likes you," she finally says, eventually letting her giggles escape without resistance.
As her embarrassment deepens from the teasing, Natsuki notices her chosen clothes and finally realizes that Monika's impression was probably right. Letting a little squeak escape, she turns and quickly heads back to her bedroom. Slamming the door closed a bit louder than she intends, she doesn't miss a step as she grabs the jeans, quickly changing into them before tossing the skirt onto the closet floor and heading back to the door, though she grabs her glove up after catching the sight of it from the corner of her eye.
The two women nod as she comes back into their view, though this time only Monika can't hide her grin. Natsuki rolls her eyes in response, though she holds her tongue. John, meanwhile, suppresses his own reaction as he grabs one of Sayori's bags and heads outside with Monika following him closely.
Sayori takes the moment to pull Natsuki aside quickly.
"Sorry," she says earnestly, though she still can't help a light smirk from escaping. "I do think she does, though. So…"
She doesn't finish the thought before skipping her way out the door and after her boyfriend. Natsuki watches them go from the doorway, thoughts in her mind racing at a mile a minute.