A/N: Hello again. Yeah, finally a Sachiko/Yumi one-shot! It's easy where I got this sappy, warm little thing from: Episode 1 of the OVA. Yeah, that little bed scene full of undeniable subtext, more subtext, and unresolved sexual tension. So here it is. This is un-beta-ed, thus everything wrong you see there is my fault.

HOW THEY WISH IT WAS RAINING

-TheSilentReader-

CHAPTER 8: Yumi and Sachiko

Sachiko, on waking up early in the morning

If there was a something that she could not change over the course of her lifetime, it was her inability to wake up early without groggily wishing that she'd have more time for sleep. Or that she doesn't suffer anemia. It was not a sickness of the rich—no, not at all. For one thing, Touko admitted once during their little chat that she is rather a morning person, and she likes waking up so early, if not, on a precise time in the morning. Small things like waking up by the second ring of the alarm were enough to make her morning pleasant was Touko defining herself in simple things. Simple, indeed, it was for her. But for Sachiko, it is a great deal—no, a tremendous achievement for her to wake up earlier than the first ten rings of her alarm.

Yumi, on the other hand, is a very light sleeper. She insisted that the alarm clock should be on Sachiko's side of the bed, which the latter distastefully disagreed. In the first nights that they were finally together sharing a bed, Sachiko would put the alarm on the drawers on Yumi's side, but in the morning, she would find out that it was already in her side table. It was a way of Yumi's silent teasing, a little bit devious, but Sachiko would not really complain wholeheartedly. After all, Yumi just does what she thought is right. And necessary. Just like how Sachiko taught her during their soeur days.

But doing that every night? That is just blatantly annoying.

Therefore, she proposed to Yumi, who happened to be preparing herself to sleep, that she should be Sachiko's alarm clock. She proposed it the way Yumi would understand—in the form of a simile. Yumi looked at her, produced an "Ah," with her small mouth, unburied herself from the soft mattress, reached on Sachiko's side of the bed, grabbed the godforsaken alarm clock, and put in on her side drawers. Then she set it. Then she kissed Sachiko on the lips lightly, and smiled. "Goodnight."

Her request did not make sense.

Routine came naturally. Sachiko deduced that they meshed into their roles easily because of their early training as seours. She mentioned that once one morning during breakfast, and instantly, Yumi almost stood up from her seat and objected, "No! That's not how I see it."

Sipping her coffee, Sachiko smiled. "Why so flustered? It was a compliment."

Yumi blushed and bit her toast. She gulped and pouted, "Eh? I imagined it more as . . . you know . . ." She did not finish, deeming it embarrassing. Sachiko blushed too, for she knew the words.

Therefore, Yumi waking Sachiko up was included in the routine. That was the reason the alarm was on Yumi's side of the bed. And it came with steps, and levels. The basic was the alarm clock. Next was Yumi shaking Sachiko gently. If shaking were not successful, then a slight scolding from Yumi would be heard. Then the opening of curtains. If Sachiko would still grumble under the sheets, then the blankets must be rid off.

Yumi was especially violent in the morning. For Sachiko, she was. There was no subtle about her. In the times that Sachiko would wake up earlier than expected, she would hear Yumi scrambled around the bedroom, walking back and forth in front of the bed, as if thinking. Peering through her unused eyelids, she discerned that it was her form of exercise. Her pace was swift, more upbeat, and faster than a march. In the first paces, the steps were heavy and gradually become light until she stopped.

(No, it was not to wake her up. Her footsteps were calming, lulling her more to sleep.)

Then, when Yumi noticed that she was carried away with the walking, she jumbled to the bathroom. She took a shower, singing a rock song that Sachiko thought was from the eighties. Songs that required enough air in the lungs to reach some notes in the song. And that meant deliberately shouting.

One time she heard Yumi singing something in English. She could not distinguish the song at first, but when the chorus came, Yumi's voice reached its loudest, with the lyrics, "/I really need you tonight!/ Forever's gonna start tonight!/Forever's gonna start tonight./" Yumi's English was passable, but, Maria-sama, she's carried away by the song.

When Yumi shook her up after her shower, Sachiko whispered, feigning dissatisfaction, "Your English is atrocious."

"Was it really?" Yumi murmured, conscious at the comment. When Sachiko smirked at her, she saw through the tease and grinned widely, "Finally, I found my atrocious singing just the thing to wake you up. I guess I need to put that in my list . . ."

Then, she would open and close drawers, and took several clothes from the closet—opening and closing it twice or thrice—because she could not decide what to wear. Then she'd stop for a minute, as if picking out clothes was as an important matter as the next performance for a Yamayurikai play. Then, small clanking of hangers. Sachiko, in the daze of her half-asleep state, would look at the almost naked Yumi (in her underwear) who was on trying on clothes in front of the mirror. "The red one. It looks nice." Sachiko would mumble. Then, she was thankful; the sound of hangers was gone.

Yumi would notice Sachiko still in bed would try to pull her from the bed. When she would about to reach out, Sachiko would repeat, "Red is excellent on you."

Yumi would smile, "Really?" then she'd place a kiss on Sachiko's forehead (smearing lip gloss in the process), "Get up, please? And take a bath."

Then, Sachiko's drowsiness would dissipate quickly. "I'm sorry?"

Yumi laughed and trotted away to prepare breakfast.

There was a time that Yumi used a different method for Sachiko get to her feet. Yumi shook her with more force and asked her nervously, "Sa-sachiko . . . it's already nine in the morning. Don't you have classes?" Sachiko looked at the dressed and worried Yumi, then across the bed for the alarm clock. It ticked 8:46 AM. I must have slept through the alarm. Within three seconds of processing, her body finally reacted with her brain—Oh,shit—and scurried to the shower. Yumi put everything to the bed: a set of underwear, a shirt, slacks, blazer. She was on the middle of applying make-up in blistering speed when she check the alarm clock by the bedside drawers for the time (to quickly estimate the time she needed not to be late) when the clock read 7:33 AM. She heard a sizzle of oil and faint rapid talking, of which she guessed to be a rap song. (What in the world . . . ?)

That was so unfair. So low. She retained her composure and decided to use silent treatment. She entered the kitchen (Yumi gasped), and after she sat for breakfast, Yumi put down a fresh cup of coffee and her breakfast. When she looked at Yumi, her nervousness was still there, evident with the creases near her brows. Then, Yumi tried, "Are you mad?"

Sachiko narrowed her eyes, "It is effective."

"It won't happen again. It just came to me . . . I-I made a lot of thinking . . . ." She murmured as she sipped coffee. Then she tentatively looked at Sachiko, to gauge her reaction—

Sachiko was chuckling that she put down her coffee before she spill it. "You won."

Yumi breathed out. "No, you won." She was referring to Sachiko's fake dramatic anger.

Sachiko wondered if waking her up was beginning to be an unwanted duty. There was an instance that Yumi woke early in the morning and shook her too lightly with warm hands. What was unusual that early morning was when Yumi was still in bed, and when Sachiko put her hands on Yumi's waist to nudge her closer, Yumi was unbearably heating up. With a violent jolt up, she was awake at the sight of Yumi burning up with fever. Instantly, she placed her forehead against Yumi's and with the surge of temperature registering into her skin, she dashed to the closet to procure a facetowel then to the bathroom. Her movements were fast as she headed for the medicine boxes, for a thermometer, for a glass of water. She even prepared warm milk and soup—calling Rei early in the morning for advice to fortify the soup with anything good for someone with cold.

When Yumi woke up, it was almost ten in the morning, and was surprised to find Sachiko sitting on a chair, watching her. "Sorry, I didn't wake you up. You missed your classes."

Sachiko scowled at her, but the expression did not last long. "You looked so tired yesterday. I should have known; you were hiding it from me."

"I'm sorry." Yumi said.

"Let me take care of you, too." Sachiko said, as she replaced the cooling pack on her Yumi's forehead with a new one. The younger girl asked for classes once again, but Sachiko told her not to worry, "I gave my students a set of assignments."

Yumi grunted as she chuckled, "They'll miss a day with the terror professor. Lucky them."

Sometimes, Sachiko would wake up with a small touch of Yumi's hand on her shoulder. She would uneasily search Yumi's face even though her vision was still hazy. She'd see Yumi's disheveled hair and tired face. Then, Sachiko would take hold of Yumi's hand, in case the latter tear away from the bed.

"Are you still angry?" Sachiko would ask.

"Not anymore. Are you?"

"No."

Then, Yumi would gently release Sachiko from the blanket covering her and pull her away from the bed. Yumi's hand was firm and warm as she suggested softly, "Let's take a bath."

"Oh."

But there were times when Ogasawara Sachiko would wake up without Yumi shaking her up or making pranks or pulling away covers. Sometimes she has her turn in shutting off the alarm. Sometimes, it's her time to wake Yumi by simple touch and gentle squeeze.

She'd look at Yumi's sleeping face resting on the dip of Sachiko's shoulder, and smile as she noticed Yumi's lips slightly opened, breathing out warm air. Yumi is quite possessive with her hold to Sachiko's middle and their legs were tangled.

She must have looked at a sleeping Sachiko so many times.

She felt Yumi shivered. Yumi unconsciously pulled the sheets to cover their naked bodies up to her neck. Sachiko thought that Yumi would wake, but as warmth built beneath the sheets, Yumi would sigh heavily and resumed to steady breathing.

The alarm clock, if not disabled, would burst off at that moment, but Yumi was still sleeping. Yumi did not need alarm clocks; she proved it many times. Yet, this day, it was Sachiko's turn. She shifted slightly and whispered (reluctantly), "Yumi, wake up."

Yumi buried herself more to the bed and pressed her face on Sachiko's chest. "But . . . it's Sunday."

Later, Sachiko would murmur, "I am hopeless in the morning, am I not?"

Yumi was now fully up. "Hmn, not really."

They got off the bed four hours late that Sunday. Or any day that Yumi wished.

END

A/N: There. Please give this baby a smile and drop a review. :)