Title: Waking Up (1)
Characters: Kobayashi Ayumi and Watanabe Miyako
Genre: General
Rated: G
Timeframe: A week and a half after the Youkai Festival
Spoilers: Won't make sense unless you've read up to Chapter 17 and Chapter 18: Darkness: Kara, of Still Waters 3 Book 2. I suggest reading 17 and 18 at least, then reading this one directly after. Also, Language Warning.
Saturday, July 11th, Morning
Ayumi sat up in bed, staring blankly at the wall across the room.
"...huh?"
She had the feeling she should be feeling pretty bad, all depressed and miserable, but... She stretched out her arms and legs, letting out a little sound as she approached the very edge of flexibility, and finally relaxed and flopped over comfortably on her bunk, arms and legs flung out in a haphazard fashion. She made a little quizzical noise as she laid there, wondering why she felt so light and relaxed. She couldn't recall the last time she had felt so good. It didn't really make sense; after all the stress she had been under... That thing with her favorite band asking Kara to play with them instead of her, the thing where Possum fell down the stairs after that, the thing with Kohana's gang after that, and then the thing with Caro that resulted in Kara kicking her out of the band after that.
She had let the stress get to her and acted like a total bitch. She would have to apologize of course; as much as she didn't want to, now that she was thinking clearly she could clearly see how crazy she had been acting at the time...apologizing was the least she could do. Why had she done those terrible things...? Ayumi hated apologizing; it always made her feel ashamed of herself. She heaved a sigh as she imagined calling Kara out somewhere where other people didn't go often so they could speak in privacy; it was embarrassing in a lot of ways. After that, she'd have to do the same with Possum and then Caro too, probably even Shizuko. Just the thought of all that apologizing had her face going red in humiliation. She knew it was necessary, but she really wasn't looking forward to it. Finding the right timing would hard to do, too, since she didn't want anyone else there during any of the apologies...she'd be lucky if she worked up the nerve to do it before summer break! Then after that there would be all the awkwardness of trying to get back into the band, the way Kai and Miyako would keep looking at her when they didn't think she saw them, and whatever would happen with Kara... The whole mess was tiring, that was what it was.
A brief memory of really quite pretty eyes flashed to life in her mind and was gone before she could recall anything more than a feeling of warmth and comfort. Not really knowing why, Ayumi trailed a finger across her lips, wondering why she was doing what she was doing.
"I should probably go to the school today, see if any of the teachers are there..." she muttered, and frowned as she recalled just how many days she had skipped. "I probably have a ton of make up work. Good thing it's an escalator school..."
"Ayumi...?"
Ayumi immediately stiffened, fully expecting to be flooded with her usual low-grade rage at Miyako's sleepy interruption of her thoughts, but...the minor twinge of annoyance she got instead was startling in how unimportant it felt. She realized belatedly that she should probably respond. "Yeah?"
Miyako leaned down to look at Ayumi from the top bunk, and smiled brightly at her, her hair hanging down. "Are you feeling well enough to go out today?" she asked.
Ayumi couldn't help but smirk at Miyako's bed head while again marveling at how light and relaxed she herself felt. It was weird. She felt like a whole year of stress had just...vanished, worked itself out or maybe been vented somehow. "I guess," Ayumi said, trying not to show how good she felt as she pushed herself upright and climbed out of bed. A quick glance at their other roommate Rosemary showed the American girl had, during the course of the night, ripped the blankets off her bed in her sleep and then fallen half out of bed, leaving only one leg propped up on the mattress while the rest of her lay on the floor with her arms flung out. Ayumi knew from past experience that Rosemary would sleep like that until waking up suddenly ten minutes before time to leave for school, and be cleaned up, wide awake, and ready to go before either Ayumi or Miyako managed in spite of waking up much earlier. Ayumi was normally annoyed at that, but today she just didn't feel like holding a grudge for something so silly. Instead, she headed for the bathroom, where she paused for a moment, a dim memory of something pleasant happening in similar surroundings flitting through her mind along with the brief urge to have a dozen or so children with someone before it vanished, leaving her curiously discontented.
She shrugged. It probably wasn't important anyway.