Chapter Text
Light crept through the dark curtains of Natsuki’s room, disturbing her - frankly shitty - sleep. Grumbling and stretching out across her bed, she turned and picked up her phone.
Bruh
6:26.
She had time. Surely she could just….
“AKIRA! IF YOU DON’T COME DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW, I’LL COME UP THERE AND BEAT YOUR ASS!”
SHITSHITSHIT! She quickly scanned her phone.
7:43?! What the hell? There’s no way she passed out for that long! Oh nevermind that! She threw on her boxers, followed by her uniform, while quickly stuffing her change of clothes in her backpack. “Calm down Papa, I’m coming, I’m coming!” She went down the stairs as quickly as she could. She was met with a glare from said ‘Papa’, causing her to tremble slightly, but Natsuki stood her ground firmly.
“What the hell were you doing up there? I’m gonna be late now because of you! Do you even use that damn brain of-”
Natsuki tuned him out. It was his usual verbal barbs. Nothing new to care about or listen to. The drive to school was much the same, but it was something she had to endure.
“.....work so hard just to put food on the table for your ungrateful…”
Of all the apartment complexes Papa chose, it had to be the one furthest from school.
“-just don’t understand what the hell is wrong-”
It was getting to a point where she was thinking about getting up early just to make the walk to school. Her mind quickly flashed to earlier. On second thought, she might not be built for that.
“......3 years in school and not a single girlfriend, I’ll be damned if I raised such a loser for a s-”
Her brow furrows. Papa was clearly in one of his moods. Natsuki really hated when he was like this, but at least he didn’t-no,no don’t think about that. He’s been getting better! He hadn’t put his hands on her in weeks, that’s a new record! It was a sign of good things, definitely.
“Akira!”
She jumped and looked back at him. “Are you gonna get out the car or just sit that like a fucking moron and WASTE MORE OF MY TIME!?” Natsuki quickly removes herself from the car, then hears the screech of rubber against asphalt from behind. Papa had been quick to leave her, as usual.
Taking in a heavy sigh, she walks through the front doors, keeping her head down. The stares had already started. The whispers were quiet, indistinguishable, none of them good. They were looking down on her. Pitying her. She hated it. She despised this many eyes on her. She hated her face, she hated her clothes, she hated her hair, she hated it, she hated it.
“NATSUKIIII!” She was hit with the hug monster herself, pulling out of her thoughts.
“Hey Sayo..” She offers a tiny smile, holding Sayori’s hands. The energetic girl gave her a puzzled look. “Why haven’t you changed yet? Did you just arrive? You look sleepy! Did you have breakfast?”
Natsuki laughs humorlessly, cutting off Sayori’s barrage of questions. “I overslept. I didn’t really get much sleep last night.”
“Hmmm?” Sayori smiled as she rubbed her thumbs over Natsuki’s hands. “Want to know a secret?”
The girl’s brown eyes darted to meet Sayori’s sky blue. “Hit me.” Natsuki challenged, a smirk in tow. Sayori looked around, then got close to Natsuki’s ear, as if she was about to tell her something life changing. “I overslept too.”
“Sayo.” Natsuki deadpanned, “That’s not a secret. That’s the natural order of things.” Sayori’s mouth fell in fake offense. “I do not always oversleep!” she argued. Natsuki chuckled. She loved Sayori to pieces, but truthfully she didn’t have the energy to play her games right now. “I’m gonna go get changed, can you cover for me if I’m late..?” Sayori smiled and saluted, “You can count on me ma’am!”
She watched the bubbly girl skip to class as she finished getting her locker situated. The next step was to head to the locker room and hopefully get changed in time.
When she arrived there was, of course, nobody around. She had arrived too late to run into any of the sports teams and the track people. She honestly preferred it though, it meant she could get this done quickly. She threw off her blazer, then her undershirt and grabbed the 1-minute hair dye she bought about a week ago. Carefully applying it, Natsuki then moved to the rest of her uniform. Pulling up a skirt she borrowed from Sayori, and spats for safety, making sure to tuck properly. In the meantime she did a little bit of makeup while the dye set in. Just as she was pulling the top half of her uniform, her ears were hit with the reminder of the bell, all but guaranteeing her tardiness.
“God damn it…” She slipped her contacts in and took a moment to put up her signature pigtails, then nearly sprinted to class. Luckily, the teacher didn’t make too big a deal out of it. Sayori must’ve done a good job. That was a nice feeling, knowing she had friends that she could count on. She felt so much better now…felt more like herself. She couldn’t even focus on what the teacher was talking about, she was just so happy sitting and looking pretty!
Class goes down as usual. Natsuki did her best to pay attention, but it was a little hard for her at times. More classes passed and finally lunchtime arrived. One of Natsuki’s favorite times of the day. Not because she got to eat, that wasn’t exactly an every day thing. But because of the person who was sitting at their meeting spot. Pink eyes traced the mature frame of that shy bookworm sitting on the stairwell, her lavender hair brightening up the area despite its darker color. The taller girl's eyes trained intensely on the page of her almost comically large book. Natsuki smiled warmly.
“Yuri!”
“EPP!!”
Yuri jumped, looking at Natsuki, her face flushing red instantly. “N-natsuki…I’ve told you about sneaking up on me like that…”
Natsuki looked over her shoulder, then back at Yuri. “I didn’t though, you just didn’t notice me walking up.” She took a seat next to Yuri, briefly glancing at the page her resident bookworm was on. “Any good?”
“I’m not quite sure yet. From the pacing I’ve judged that I’m still in the early stages of the story. It’s a bit hard to judge these stories based on the setup and early conflicts.” Yuri tucked a hair behind her ear, her eyes still on the page of her book, which kind of annoyed Natsuki slightly. Only slightly.
“Isn’t the set up the perfect time to see if a book is for you? How is it any different from the 3 episode rule in anime?” Natsuki challenged, putting her hand on her cheek.
Yuri chuckled lightly. Natsuki loved it when she did that. She had such a cute laugh. “Anime and Books are two different mediums, silly. Though, I am curious about this 3 episode rule. That seems a little short to judge a show, is it not?”
Natsuki looked out the window. “I guess, but if a show didn’t entice you in 3 episodes, what’s the point, you know? You probably won’t like it anyway. Maybe it’s because most anime are 12 episodes.”
“Mm.” Natsuki had learned Yuri would ‘mm’ in response to anything that she wasn’t particularly interested in, that or if she didn’t really know what else to say. Which is Natsuki’s cue to either change the subject or elaborate further. And Yuri still wasn’t looking at her.
The shorter girl leaned back a bit, putting her arms behind her head. “It’s not like it’s the golden rule or anything. Sayori likes to do 7 episodes before she gives up on a show. Which I’ve never seen her do. Even for shows she doesn’t really like.”
Yuri let out a chuckle again, causing Natsuki to smile in return. “That sounds just like Sayori. She doesn’t really like to stop reading the books I recommend to her either, even if she clearly doesn’t like them.” Yuri scooched a little closer to Natsuki, making the little gremlin feel their height difference that much more. “To answer your earlier question better, I’m not bored enough to warrant me putting it down just yet, which reminds me.” She, ironically, put her book down and pulled a granola bar out of her bag, along with a soda. “For you, because I assume you don’t have lunch money again.”
A frown stretched across Natsuki’s face, accompanied by a tiny blush. It was really hard for her to accept help. It was something she was trying to work on, she couldn’t help but feel like Yuri was almost looking down on her, like she was her pet. Not that she’d really mind-OK! Natsuki shook her head rapidly, stopping that train of thought immediately. “Thank you…I’m sorry that you wasted money on me.”
“Oh please. You don’t need to apologize, Natsuki. You know that I wouldn’t be getting you snacks if I didn’t want to.” She went back to her book as Natsuki humbly began to try and force herself to consume what Yuri had given her.
The rest of lunch passed in silence, Natsuki not really wanting to bother Yuri more since she was reading. She still didn’t look at her. Natsuki wanted her too, she didn’t know why, but it was driving her insane. “Yuri.”
“Yes?”
Her body moved without thinking as she stood up and plopped herself right in Yuri’s lap.
“Nat-Nat-Natsuki!?”
Courage. Courage, Natsuki. “W-What? I was cold.”
“I-I see.” Yuri timidly puts her arms around Natsuki and opens her book to continue reading. Both girls were red as tomatoes, but neither of them could know. It was then that the bell rang.
Despite that, there was no movement to be found in either body on the stairs. They had both heard it, and yet…
Natsuki settled into Yuri’s clutches a bit more, grabbing her arm ever so softly. The taller girl spoke softly, “N-Natsuki…the bell…we should…”
“In a minute…” She turns to look up at Yuri, as their eyes finally meet. So many things said without a single word spoken. The blush on Yuri grew as she swallowed the huge lump in her throat. “W-we should really get going..”
A pout crossed Natsuki’s face as she stood up, straightening her skirt and stretching. She turns to say something to Yuri, but is cut off by the sound of the bookworm's shoes quickly clanking across the tile floor. “Ah geez…” Natsuki muttered under her breath. I hope I didn’t go to far.
The tension of lunch made it hard to get through the afternoon classes. She couldn’t focus on anything besides that beautiful purple hair, those soft rosy cheeks, the piercing dark eyes and those soft pink lips. Luckily she wasn’t called on to do any problems or read anything. On the flip side that meant she spent more time fantasizing. She’d have to borrow Monika’s notes later.
As if on cue, the last bell of the day rang and it was finally time for the Literature club. Natsuki’s other favorite time of the day. She recalled that they didn’t have to share poems today, so that meant it was basically a chill day, which she was okay with. As much as she enjoyed receiving praise for her poetry, days where she could just relax and read manga were equally as precious to her.
When she arrived, the usual scene greeted her. Sayori was bugging Yuri, who was showing her usual amount of patience and amusement with her antics. Monika was sitting at her desk, typing away on her computer. Natsuki walked over to little Miss Perfect and looked at what she was doing.
Coding. What a surprise. Natsuki wasn’t even sure how Monika was able to do this on a school computer. She laid her head on the desk as she looked up at Monika. She truly was one of a kind. Straight, beautiful hair. Perfectly framed face, and gorgeous green eyes. Not to mention her perfectly balanced curves. It pissed her off. An evil grin spread across Natsuki’s face.
Chomp!
“OW! Natsuki! What the hell!?”
She grinned cheekily. “Sorry, you were so locked in, I had to!”
“So you bite me like an animal!?”
“Oh psh! I didn’t leave a mark or anything.” She stands up, and scooches in front of Monika, then plops herself down on her lap. Unlike Yuri, Monika was a lot more accustomed to Natsuki parking her butt on her. When Natsuki had nothing to do and Monika wasn’t engaging with the other two members, this had become their ‘normal’. Natsuki would read in her lap or watch whatever Monika was doing. She did wonder if the taller girl was bothered by this and was simply too nice to say anything. She knew first hand how bad Monika was at confrontation.
Well, whatever. If Monika was really uncomfortable, she could pick the metaphorical cat up and off of her. Which didn’t seem likely, as Monika had resumed typing, her chin resting on the crown of Natsuki’s head. Maybe she had a rough day..
The small girl doesn’t move. “You good?” The president shifts slightly.
“Yeah, I’m fine! Today was just, like, super stressful…”
Oh. Now Natsuki felt a little bad. “Do you want me to leave you alone?”
“Nono, you’re fine, Natty. I just really want to get this to work.” Monika refocused her attention on the computer, spitting out a bunch of words on the screen that made no sense to the girl in her lap.
“What exactly are you working on?”
The workaholic clicked around a bit on the computer then a window of a red plumber in a green world appeared.
“I’m trying to make it so he can throw his hat then bounce off of it.” Monika explained.
“I thought he could.”
“Not in this game, it was added later.” Natsuki felt Monika’s chest rise then fall as the taller girl let out a big sigh.
Natsuki looked up with a smug grin. “I thought you were working on something school related, club president~.”
A blush spread across Monika’s face, frown in tow. “I’m trying to learn something! Is that not allowed?”
“I didn’t say that, I just find it hard to believe that you, of all people, have the free time to waste on stuff like this.” Truthfully, Natsuki was happy that Monika was taking a load off. She hardly ever relaxed. Not that it’d stop Natsuki from teasing her, though. “Surely our president has more pressing matters to deal with..”
Monika, who could be very adorable in her own right, puffed out her cheeks in frustration. She opened her mouth to say something, then a sudden smirk grew across her face. “I’ll have you know I’m done with all my schoolwork for today, and I assume a certain someone was spacing out in class.”
Natsuki looked forward, shrinking in Monika’s lap a bit. “I was not…”
The back and forth between them continued a little and before Natsuki knew it, club time had come to an end. The most disappointing part of the day, if she was honest. She said goodbye to the others and made her way back to the locker room.
Washing the dye from her hair, returning it to its natural black color. With it came a heavy sigh, Natsuki had disappeared and Akira was once again in her place. Undoing all of this morning’s touch-ups took a bit longer than normal, not that Papa would notice. Nope, unlike the morning, she was expected to make it home on her own. It annoyed her at the least and scared the hell out of her at the most.
The walk to her house was uneventful. Almost a bit too uneventful. She opened the front door, its creaking giving away her presence. However, Papa was nowhere to be found. Odd.
Normally he’d be in his chair, watching some random crap on the TV. However, it wasn’t even turned on.
Well, whatever.
Natsuki concluded he was probably at the bar again. She scoffed and walked to her room.
Getting closer, she noticed her light was on. She must’ve forgotten to turn it off this morning. The door was open too, but considering Papa would…probably beat the ever living fuck out of her if she kept her door closed.
Then she heard it. Heavy breathing.
She stopped in her tracks. She should just turn around and walk away. That would’ve been the smart choice.
Humans don’t always make the smart choice.
Peeking through the door, Natsuki saw it.
Her clothes, the ones she wore and took to school. All torn up, ruined. Sprawled across frantically around her room. The walls had several holes in them. Her mirror was cracked. In the center of it all, Papa was there, standing in the middle of it, gripping one of her pink hair ties with all his strength.
His head snapped towards the door, his intense eyes piercing Natsuki’s soul.
“Akira. You have some explaining to do.”