A/N Chapter 2 was meant to be the date, but the bit of fluff that preceded it ended up being pretty long so I broke it into two chapters. Hope you like :D
Chapter 2
The next day Minamo awoke excitedly even though the date was still a couple of days away, she knew Yukari was normally pretty bad at keeping secrets and she wondered what clues she might be able to weasel out of the woman.
She arrived at Yukari's house early and buzzed the door, Yukari's mother answered, inviting her in to wake up her daughter. As she came to Yukari's bedroom door she suddenly felt a little flutter in her chest, was she nervous? Impossible, she'd been in Yukari's room millions of times. Steeling herself Minamo knocked on the door and upon hearing some sort of drowsy rambling entered, her nervousness was immediately replaced by the usual mild annoyance at the state of Yukari's room.
The room was quite simply a mess, the room of a kid who refused to clean up their things, clothes, manga and video games littered the floor, the TV was still left, on its screen a camera revolved round the carcass of a warrior, with the option 'restart?' flashing on top of the image, obviously Yukari had been late night gaming and having died had sulked in bed forgetting to turn off the console. The TV cast the still dark room in an odd glow, Minamo made her way over to the still drawn curtains, careful to avoid stepping on anything. As early morning light bathed the room Yukari stirred, murmuring something unintelligible, turning from the window Minamo looked down on her friend, Yukari was crumpled on her bed, laying mostly on her front, her face buried in her pillow, she was wearing a worn t-shirt, that had ridden up slightly, and shorts, her bed sheet was tangled about her but most of it had been seemingly kicked off.
Minamo started off gently shaking her shoulder and whispering to her to wake up, this only resulted in Yukari reaching over and patting her on the head, as if trying to turn off an alarm clock. Minamo sighed, 'Come on Yukari, get up' shaking her friend roughly, only to be answered with more incoherent rambling. Minamo stood up crossing her arms across her chest, this calls for something a little more drastic, she thought, she quickly cleared the floor in front of Yukari's bed, sliding the items with her feet away from the immediate area.
'Are you sure you don't want to get up?' asked Minamo one last time, more grunts, 'fine then'. Minamo grabbed the edges of the bed sheet and pulled, instead of coming away cleanly, it half pulled half unraveled Yukari off her bed, depositing her with a crash on the floor and at Minamo's feet.
'What the hell, Nyamo' grumbled Yukari, sitting up and rubbing the back of her head.
'I did try nicely but you didn't want to listen' explained Minamo, standing over Yukari with her hands on her hips.
'Yeah well I'm definitely up now' said Yukari bitterly, getting to her feet sluggishly.
'Right, well, get dressed and I'll help your mother with breakfast' said Minamo, before turning to leave, again being careful not to tread on anything.
The car journey just like breakfast turned out to be a quiet one, Yukari choosing to give Minamo the silent treatment over her rude awakening.
At breakfast Minamo and Mrs. Tanizaki had attempted to make small talk but although they got along well, in fact Minamo probably got along better with Yukari's mother than she did with her own, neither had too much in common beyond Yukari herself so conversation became stunted. When Mrs. Tanizaki had inquired as to Yukari's silence she became more animated, complaining to her mother about Minamo. When breakfast was finished and it was time to head off Minamo apologize for her and Yukari's behavior, Mrs. Tanizaki simply brushed it off with a laugh, well used to Yukari's moods, telling Minamo that her daughter would no doubt forget about it before the end of the day, to which Minamo agreed.
As Minamo had got into her car, Yukari had evidently remembered she was giving her the silent treatment so was sat in the chair, arms crossed and pouting, looking away from Minamo if she addressed her and tried to make eye contact.
This left Minamo to drive silently and drift into her own thoughts.
Probably not the best time to ask about the date, she concluded hopefully she'll get over it later today and I can try to get something out of her later.
She let her mind wonder at the fantastical ways the date could go and go wrong. This immediately made her reminisce about some of her and Yukari's more disastrous outings; it normally started with Yukari drinking a little too much which in and of itself was not uncommon, then Yukari would get angry over some slight, whether real or imaged, which would lead to her trying to start a fight and Minamo trying to defuse the situation. One that always made her laugh was when she had dumped a whole seafood platter over a distraught restaurant manager that had tried to get her to keep the noise down, that had half the restaurant and some of the waiting staff on the floor laughing, but the manager, who had gone a bright red, had ordered them out of the restaurant, banning them for life.
Oh god, if I want this to be a good date I'll have to make sure she doesn't drink too much, she thought to herself, though last time I tried I ended up drinking too much myself and ended up talking about the birds and the bees to some of my students, the memory still made her blush with embarrassment.
Well we'll probably end up in a restaurant so I'll just have to make sure we order some water or something non alcoholic.
The school day went rather quickly, it had been a good day, warm pleasant, sunny but cool enough that you wouldn't overheat, she loved these days as teaching outside she was able to enjoy her day to the fullest. She didn't see Yukari until near the end of the day when she was in the staff room, the English teacher collapsed into her chair next to Minamo, she looked flushed.
'Busy day?' Minamo inquired.
'Nah, just the classroom was really stuffy' explained Yukari, Minamo nodded, without the cool breeze outside, the classroom would have felt worse than outside.
'Well if you're waiting for your lift you'll have to wait a bit long, I have swim club today' informed Minamo, and after today she was looking forward to dipping into the pool.
'Not a problem' smiled Yukari, perking up, 'cos, I brought my bikini' finishing with a thumbs up directed towards her friend.
'The pool isn't your personal play area Yukari' Minamo sighed, wondering when her friend had, had time to pack a bikini, 'You'd better not disturb my students'
While not exactly disturbing her students Yukari did spend half of the time messing around with an inflatable shark while Minamo and her students warmed up and readied for laps eliciting some confused and slightly jealous looks. Once into the lesson proper Yukari had elected to sit at the side of the pool drying off and soaking up the afternoon rays and even seemingly marking some homework, but that didn't last long as the next to Minamo looked Yukari instead was giggling to some manga.
As the lesson went on Minamo stole the occasional glance a Yukari, wondering to herself if she was gay would she find her friend attractive. She'd always known that Yukari was attractive but there was a difference between knowing someone is attractive and being attracted to someone. She started with Yukari's face but as it was hidden behind her manga so decide to travel down, first her slender neck then to her plump breasts, the thought of naked breast did really excite her, but then she thought maybe it had more to do with touch, how would they feel cupped in her hand, the feeling of warmth on her skin, teasing the nipple and then she felt a little something in her stomach, a warm feeling.
She was distracted by a student asking for help with their stroke, once she had help them she returned to her musings, the earlier feeling still there, though slightly diminished. Minamo decided to move on from the breasts, following the curve of her friend's body to the stomach, she was quite surprised that Yukari was in as good a shape she was, while nowhere as fit as Minamo herself, for all the food and drink she consumed Yukari didn't have too much extra weight and what she did have seemed to add to her allure rather than detract. Her curves were something that did excite Minamo, as she had always enjoyed exploring a bodies shape with her hands, she had done so with what boyfriends had gotten to that stage with, and she could only imagine what it would feel like with the soft smooth skin of a woman.
Her eyes quickly scanned Yukari's legs, sunlight glistening off her thighs and she caught herself licking her lips before her gaze drifted back up to her crotch. Minamo tried to imagine sex with a woman, she had a vague idea what would be involved but she realized she didn't really know what to do. She was surprised to find that she was less worried about this and more curios. In fact her early excitement slowly faded as she began to daydream about the logistics involved, would I have to use my tongue? Would it taste nice? Maybe I should do some research she mused.
But where would I research? I not sure porn would be the most accurate source; it's all made for male gratification, right? The few times she had actually tried masturbation she had preferred to use her imagination, the porn she'd actually seen when she was younger she actually found funny or a bit creepy rather than erotic.
Minamo noticed it was getting a little cooler and checked her sports watch, it was about time to bring the club to a close, 'Right everyone, let's start finishing up' letting the students finish up their laps and climbing out of the pool, 'you too Yukari, we'll go as soon as I change' Yukari looked a little disheartened but gave her a thumbs up.
After changing into her usual sports jersey that stuck slightly to her damp skin, she came back outside to find Yukari had elected to not change instead putting on an oversized t-shirt that covered her top half but left her legs exposed, some sandals and a big sun hat, where she'd pulled that from Minamo didn't know.
'I thought I told you to change?'
Yukari simply waved off Minamo's annoyance, 'I'll change at home'
'Alright, but if you get a cold don't blame me' warned Minamo, but even though it was cooler now it was still warm enough that a cold was unlikely.
Minamo lead the way to her car, remembering to lock up the pool before they left and saying goodbye to a few students who hadn't left immediately, while Yukari hummed to herself carrying a bag, with her regular clothes in, over one shoulder.
The ride to Yukari's house was the polar opposite of that mornings, Yukari talked endlessly about her day, leaving Minamo to try to piece together what might have really happened, though Yukari's exaggerations and blatant lies, she was well versed in this but choose to revel in Yukari's telling of the story rather than the story itself.
At one point she caught herself peeking at Yukari's crossed legs, watching a droplet of water trace its way up the bare skin of her thigh, slowly making its way into the shadow off her oversized shirt and the prize it hid. Her eyes quickly snapped back to the slow-moving traffic her face blushing bright red and her heart skipping a couple of beats. She needn't have worried; Yukari was still in her own world, bragging to her friend about something, though Minamo had missed exactly what.
Eventually Minamo pulled up to Yukari's house and before opening the door Yukari turned to her, 'So you want to come round later? I've got a new movie to watch'
'Umm, yeah sure' Minamo mumbled an affirmative, still a little embarrassed about her earlier action, even if Yukari hadn't noticed. Yukari smiled and left with a small wave back, Minamo waved back before setting off back to her apartment.
This'll give me a chance to get some date information she thought to herself realizing she had forgotten about it after Yukari had joined her at swim club.
Unfortunately for Minamo, Yukari proved surprisingly tight-lipped during the movie night and the next couple of days, not letting anything slip and outright ignoring her if Minamo asked directly. Instead Yukari just acted her normal bratty self, making Minamo worry that Yukari might have forgotten about their date all together, but for the occasional knowing wink or mischievous smile.
Minamo found herself getting unusually excited for this date, the opposite to her usual, mother arranged, date which was normally a combination of nerves and dread. Maybe she theorized it was because Yukari was her oldest and best friend and even if it didn't live up to the hype, she knew that however begrudgingly she always had fun on their outings, so even if all Yukari did was pay as agreed it would have been a successful evening. Another reason might have been, even with her recent fantasizing, that she had no relationship expectations going into it, unlike her other dates that always had the spectre of arranged marriage hanging over them.
As the day grew closer Minamo did start to get a little nervous, mostly for Yukari. The pair had spent pretty much every night together, either watching movies or playing video games, though Minamo preferred just watching Yukari play, listening to her regale her on the worlds lore and why it pretty much always boiled down to her running around killing everything in sight. Minamo especially like it when Yukari would start giving her character, and the few NPC's she couldn't or had decide not to kill, a back-story, listing there passed deeds and how they had come to the particular region the game was set, the back-story was always just enough to keep within the lore but fantastical enough to have only been from Yukari's mind. The thing was that Yukari didn't make her characters interesting or fantastical by giving them crazy powers, she did it in the details she added to their story, why they behaved in certain ways, how past events had shaped them, so that the small bundle of characters she had all interlinked with each other, sometimes getting so convoluted that Minamo had trouble keeping track of them. She found it strange and somewhat sad then that when Yukari got a new game the stories were drop, new ones being creating with the new characters but that was just how Yukari was.
When it came to the Friday, the date day, it started the same as the days before, with her calling at Yukari's and helping Mrs. Tanizaki wake her daughter. She luckily awoke fairly easily, however that normally meant a longer time in which she walked around drowsily. She was fully awake by the time they had entered the car though, and to Minamo's surprise didn't nod off during the drive to school; instead they made pleasant small talk, which in its own was slightly disturbing, Minamo more used to the English teachers snoring.
The day then went somewhat slowly, the P.E. teacher preoccupied with her date that evening, Yukari still hadn't mentioned it and she started to worry a little. Even in the Staff room at the end of the day Yukari never mentioned it, instead talking loudly about a new game she wanted and seemingly expected Minamo to buy her.
It wasn't till the end of the drive home, in which Yukari was still talking about her game, that before closing the car door she leaned in coming close to Minamo face, enough to make her blush slightly, that she whispered, as if telling her a secret, 'Remember to wear something super nice for your date' adding a wink at the end.
'Super nice?' repeated Minamo, raising an eyebrow.
'Super nice' nodded Yukari, seemingly agreeing with herself and with that flashed Minamo a wide grin and wave her goodbye as she went inside. All Minamo could do was wave back and on the way back to her apartment wonder what clothes she had that were 'super nice'.