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sonofgodzillaTitle: Junigatsu no Love Song
Universe: Wonderful Precure!
Prompt: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEKOYASHIKI YUKI!! 🎉🎂🎁💖
Character(s): Kanie, Former Drama Club President Kitsunezaki, Nekoyashiki Yuki/Nekoyashiki Mayu
Rating: 15
Warnings: N/A
Summary: She looked down, swirling the last of the beer in her red cup, the sound of Christmas music playing loudly throughout the house. Everyone was here for the winter break, back from college or on vacation, and the town almost felt like it had when they were still in middle school—alive, full of light, full of wonder. She caught sight of Nekoyashiki Mayu in the corner, smiling, holding hands with another girl clearly for reassurance. Well, Kanie thought sadly, maybe not everyone was here.
Length: 1347 words
Author's Notes: WWTHYWC! #16. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEKOYASHIKI YUKI!! 🎉🎂🎁💖 I've been hinting obliquely at the theme of this story for a while now, so I figured I'd just come out and write something about it. also: external link.
Junigatsu no Love Song
When she was drunk, she would do this trick where she would catch food in her mouth, pretzels, chips, peanuts, whatever she convinced people to throw her way. Kanie had said it before, but in this she thought Komugi was kind of like a dog.
She looked down, swirling the last of the beer in her red cup, the sound of Christmas music playing loudly throughout the house. Everyone was here for the winter break, back from college or on vacation, and the town almost felt like it had when they were still in middle school—alive, full of light, full of wonder. She caught sight of Nekoyashiki Mayu in the corner, smiling, holding hands with another girl clearly for reassurance. Well, Kanie thought sadly, maybe not everyone was here.
She had felt bad when her parents had told her that Mayu’s cousin had died. She had never been close to Nekoyashiki Yuki, she wondered if anyone had been close to her, Mayu not included, but she remembered the girl from school, tall and elegant, often softly yet sharply spoken. During the school play she had been radiant, impossibly beautiful, more so than anyone her age had any right being.
After they had graduated and she had gone to a different high school the next town over, Kanie had lost touch with Mayu and Yuki, seeing them only occasionally during summer break and winter holidays, never really having the chance to exchange more than the vaguest pleasantries.
Both girls had also gone to an out-of-town school, an expensive school, she had heard. St Lucia Academy, she thought it had been, a fancy school for young ladies, the kind Kanie could only dream of getting into. After high school, they had naturally continued down different paths, and it had only been recently, coming home for the holidays with her luggage filled with textbooks, that she had heard about Yuki passing.
She had been so young, she had wanted to say, but that didn’t feel right, as Yuki had always seemed so much older than the rest of them, as if the years of her life were being counted on a different scale to everyone else. Komugi was kind of the same, Kanie thought, but the difference was that Komugi never really changed, certainly she never got any smarter.
An arm fell heavily over her shoulder, and she all but spilt what little remained of her beer.
“Yo, Kanie, you want to get high?”
She turned with distaste, a face close to hers, her breath stale, a dark fringe clipped back with two barrettes.
“Kitsunezaki-san,” Kanie said, shaking off the arm of her senior. “No. I don’t.”
The older girl nodded.
“That’s a shame.”
She looked curiously at the younger girl for a long moment, studying the way she was dressed, the Christmas sweater, the pleated skirt, squinting at her auburn hair in bunches, her lack of makeup.
“You haven’t been back in a while, have you?”
Kanie nodded, looking across the crowd, seeing Iroha, her hair now in a neat bob level at her chin, watching as she tried to convince Komugi to settle down. Those two had always been close as well, she thought.
“Say, Kitsunezaki-san, did Nekoyashiki Yuki really pass away?”
The older girl looked down for a moment.
“Yeah.” She nodded as she spoke. “Yeah, she got sick. It was sad. She didn’t go out much before she died, she just sort of stayed in, but when she did go out, she looked so much older, so much frailer.”
There was a song playing from the speakers, something about Santa Claus, something about someone’s mom.
Again, Kitsunezaki nodded.
“Yeah. It was sad,” she said again.
Listening to it now, Kanie realised she kind of hated this song.
Kitsunezaki looked up, forcing a smile to her lips.
“What else did you miss, let’s see?” She placed a finger to her lips thoughtfully. “Tanukihara came out, Iroha’s sister moved back home.”
“How did Mayu-chan deal with it?” Kanie asked.
She turned, seeing Mayu awkward and uncomfortable, still wearing her coat, still holding the hand of the other girl.
“Ah, I don’t really know,” Kitsunezaki admitted. “She went to that fancy school, now she’s away a lot of the time, studying abroad at some fashion school, someone said. Yuki died just before she graduated.”
“Oh,” Kanie said.
She didn’t know what else to say, and the song playing above them seemed ill-suited to the information Kitsunezaki conveyed.
“Don’t feel too bad for Mayu though. That girl there, that’s her girlfriend now, Yuma, I think her name is. Apparently, they’re old friends. I guess she was sort of there for Mayu when Yuki died. I think she kind of went to pieces for a bit.”
“That’s awful,” Kanie said softly, and then worried that she might be misunderstood, added, “Mayu being sad, I mean, not that she has a new girlfriend.”
Kitsunezaki laughed loudly.
“No one thought that Kanie.”
The older girl slapped her on the shoulder, and this time the beer did lurch from inside her cup, splashing against her fingers. She frowned but said nothing.
“We should go say hi to Ookuma, she’s probably holding. I think Karasuma might be here too, but I’m not sure if she’s on speaking terms with Inukai anymore. I think they fell out over Toyama.”
“Fell out?” Kanie asked.
“Karasuma made a move whilst they were on a break for college or something, I don’t know. They’re your classmates, Kanie, you should know better than me.”
I don’t though, Kanie thought, staring across the room. I only know about crabs, and even then... I don’t know if I really know anything.
She had gone to college to study marine biology, but one term in and she was already falling behind. Maybe just liking something wasn’t enough to make it work.
Amidst the crowd, she found herself staring at Mayu again, and she tried to imagine what the other girl’s cousin would be like if she was here now, she tried to imagine them as they were in middle school, always close, always reaching out for one another. She hadn’t known what that had meant when she was a kid, it was only know she was older that she understood.
The recollection stirred something within her, and against her will, she shook her head. She should never had slept with her professor. She’d gone with it, because she thought he might start favouring her and it might have allowed her a chance to catch up, breathing space to get to where everyone else was in her class, but instead he started acting as if he expected more from her, and her reputation at college had tanked because of it.
“You think Ookuma has something?” she asked at last.
Kitsunezaki nodded.
“She grows it on the family farm.” She leant in close, whispering conspiratorially. “Don’t tell her old man though.”
Kanie nodded.
“I won’t.”
She stared ahead, seeing Mayu and Yuki as they were then, hands on each other’s waist, dancing together as they had at the graduation party after middle school. What must it be like to lose someone so important and still have to keep going?
She took a deep breath.
“If we go to Karasuma’s after, she’s definitely have K.”
Kitsunezaki’s eyes widened.
“What really?”
Kanie nodded.
“We used to do it together all the time in high school.”
“Maybe we should take some of Ookuma’s weed as a present?”
The younger girl shrugged.
“Maybe.”
The ghost of Yuki, the ghost of who Mayu once was, the two of them gazing into each other’s eyes, pirouetting between the strangers their peers had become.
She caught Mayu’s eye, the older Mayu, and she smiled weakly and looked away.
“Yeah,” she said, agreeing to a question no one had asked.
The song continued above their heads, and she allowed former Drama Club President Kitsunezaki to take her hand and lead her through the crowd. They did not dance, yet on the way to find Ookuma, she brushed shoulders once again with ghosts.
Universe: Wonderful Precure!
Prompt: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEKOYASHIKI YUKI!! 🎉🎂🎁💖
Character(s): Kanie, Former Drama Club President Kitsunezaki, Nekoyashiki Yuki/Nekoyashiki Mayu
Rating: 15
Warnings: N/A
Summary: She looked down, swirling the last of the beer in her red cup, the sound of Christmas music playing loudly throughout the house. Everyone was here for the winter break, back from college or on vacation, and the town almost felt like it had when they were still in middle school—alive, full of light, full of wonder. She caught sight of Nekoyashiki Mayu in the corner, smiling, holding hands with another girl clearly for reassurance. Well, Kanie thought sadly, maybe not everyone was here.
Length: 1347 words
Author's Notes: WWTHYWC! #16. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEKOYASHIKI YUKI!! 🎉🎂🎁💖 I've been hinting obliquely at the theme of this story for a while now, so I figured I'd just come out and write something about it. also: external link.
Junigatsu no Love Song
When she was drunk, she would do this trick where she would catch food in her mouth, pretzels, chips, peanuts, whatever she convinced people to throw her way. Kanie had said it before, but in this she thought Komugi was kind of like a dog.
She looked down, swirling the last of the beer in her red cup, the sound of Christmas music playing loudly throughout the house. Everyone was here for the winter break, back from college or on vacation, and the town almost felt like it had when they were still in middle school—alive, full of light, full of wonder. She caught sight of Nekoyashiki Mayu in the corner, smiling, holding hands with another girl clearly for reassurance. Well, Kanie thought sadly, maybe not everyone was here.
She had felt bad when her parents had told her that Mayu’s cousin had died. She had never been close to Nekoyashiki Yuki, she wondered if anyone had been close to her, Mayu not included, but she remembered the girl from school, tall and elegant, often softly yet sharply spoken. During the school play she had been radiant, impossibly beautiful, more so than anyone her age had any right being.
After they had graduated and she had gone to a different high school the next town over, Kanie had lost touch with Mayu and Yuki, seeing them only occasionally during summer break and winter holidays, never really having the chance to exchange more than the vaguest pleasantries.
Both girls had also gone to an out-of-town school, an expensive school, she had heard. St Lucia Academy, she thought it had been, a fancy school for young ladies, the kind Kanie could only dream of getting into. After high school, they had naturally continued down different paths, and it had only been recently, coming home for the holidays with her luggage filled with textbooks, that she had heard about Yuki passing.
She had been so young, she had wanted to say, but that didn’t feel right, as Yuki had always seemed so much older than the rest of them, as if the years of her life were being counted on a different scale to everyone else. Komugi was kind of the same, Kanie thought, but the difference was that Komugi never really changed, certainly she never got any smarter.
An arm fell heavily over her shoulder, and she all but spilt what little remained of her beer.
“Yo, Kanie, you want to get high?”
She turned with distaste, a face close to hers, her breath stale, a dark fringe clipped back with two barrettes.
“Kitsunezaki-san,” Kanie said, shaking off the arm of her senior. “No. I don’t.”
The older girl nodded.
“That’s a shame.”
She looked curiously at the younger girl for a long moment, studying the way she was dressed, the Christmas sweater, the pleated skirt, squinting at her auburn hair in bunches, her lack of makeup.
“You haven’t been back in a while, have you?”
Kanie nodded, looking across the crowd, seeing Iroha, her hair now in a neat bob level at her chin, watching as she tried to convince Komugi to settle down. Those two had always been close as well, she thought.
“Say, Kitsunezaki-san, did Nekoyashiki Yuki really pass away?”
The older girl looked down for a moment.
“Yeah.” She nodded as she spoke. “Yeah, she got sick. It was sad. She didn’t go out much before she died, she just sort of stayed in, but when she did go out, she looked so much older, so much frailer.”
There was a song playing from the speakers, something about Santa Claus, something about someone’s mom.
Again, Kitsunezaki nodded.
“Yeah. It was sad,” she said again.
Listening to it now, Kanie realised she kind of hated this song.
Kitsunezaki looked up, forcing a smile to her lips.
“What else did you miss, let’s see?” She placed a finger to her lips thoughtfully. “Tanukihara came out, Iroha’s sister moved back home.”
“How did Mayu-chan deal with it?” Kanie asked.
She turned, seeing Mayu awkward and uncomfortable, still wearing her coat, still holding the hand of the other girl.
“Ah, I don’t really know,” Kitsunezaki admitted. “She went to that fancy school, now she’s away a lot of the time, studying abroad at some fashion school, someone said. Yuki died just before she graduated.”
“Oh,” Kanie said.
She didn’t know what else to say, and the song playing above them seemed ill-suited to the information Kitsunezaki conveyed.
“Don’t feel too bad for Mayu though. That girl there, that’s her girlfriend now, Yuma, I think her name is. Apparently, they’re old friends. I guess she was sort of there for Mayu when Yuki died. I think she kind of went to pieces for a bit.”
“That’s awful,” Kanie said softly, and then worried that she might be misunderstood, added, “Mayu being sad, I mean, not that she has a new girlfriend.”
Kitsunezaki laughed loudly.
“No one thought that Kanie.”
The older girl slapped her on the shoulder, and this time the beer did lurch from inside her cup, splashing against her fingers. She frowned but said nothing.
“We should go say hi to Ookuma, she’s probably holding. I think Karasuma might be here too, but I’m not sure if she’s on speaking terms with Inukai anymore. I think they fell out over Toyama.”
“Fell out?” Kanie asked.
“Karasuma made a move whilst they were on a break for college or something, I don’t know. They’re your classmates, Kanie, you should know better than me.”
I don’t though, Kanie thought, staring across the room. I only know about crabs, and even then... I don’t know if I really know anything.
She had gone to college to study marine biology, but one term in and she was already falling behind. Maybe just liking something wasn’t enough to make it work.
Amidst the crowd, she found herself staring at Mayu again, and she tried to imagine what the other girl’s cousin would be like if she was here now, she tried to imagine them as they were in middle school, always close, always reaching out for one another. She hadn’t known what that had meant when she was a kid, it was only know she was older that she understood.
The recollection stirred something within her, and against her will, she shook her head. She should never had slept with her professor. She’d gone with it, because she thought he might start favouring her and it might have allowed her a chance to catch up, breathing space to get to where everyone else was in her class, but instead he started acting as if he expected more from her, and her reputation at college had tanked because of it.
“You think Ookuma has something?” she asked at last.
Kitsunezaki nodded.
“She grows it on the family farm.” She leant in close, whispering conspiratorially. “Don’t tell her old man though.”
Kanie nodded.
“I won’t.”
She stared ahead, seeing Mayu and Yuki as they were then, hands on each other’s waist, dancing together as they had at the graduation party after middle school. What must it be like to lose someone so important and still have to keep going?
She took a deep breath.
“If we go to Karasuma’s after, she’s definitely have K.”
Kitsunezaki’s eyes widened.
“What really?”
Kanie nodded.
“We used to do it together all the time in high school.”
“Maybe we should take some of Ookuma’s weed as a present?”
The younger girl shrugged.
“Maybe.”
The ghost of Yuki, the ghost of who Mayu once was, the two of them gazing into each other’s eyes, pirouetting between the strangers their peers had become.
She caught Mayu’s eye, the older Mayu, and she smiled weakly and looked away.
“Yeah,” she said, agreeing to a question no one had asked.
The song continued above their heads, and she allowed former Drama Club President Kitsunezaki to take her hand and lead her through the crowd. They did not dance, yet on the way to find Ookuma, she brushed shoulders once again with ghosts.
