Fic: Brokeback HiME - Mai-HiME
Title: Brokeback HiME
Author: hyena_gal
Fandom: Mai-HiME
Summary: ShizNat - Brokeback Mountain style. Crack!AU.
Rating: R for the *bad* attempt at written Southern dialect. But if you're old enough to know of the existence of the movie, you're old enough for the rest.
Disclaimer: I don't claim ownership of the ShizNat pairing, other Mai-HiME characters, "Brokeback Mountain", dialogue from the film, or fainting goats. But I *do* like to pretend it's all mine and only mine.
Acknowledgments go, without a doubt, to Fujino Shizuru's dubbed voice - the sole *reason* behind making this fic.
Author's Notes: Do not tell me I'm the only person who thought this the first time you heard that voice! I'm not even going to mention the similarities between the two couples. I swear, this thing turned out bigger than I ever intended!
*
2004.
Fuuka Island, supposedly somewhere near Japan.
* * *
The dark-clad girl leaned heavily against the ugly greying trailer, aware that her hopefully soon-to-be boss was sitting inside it, yet not really concerned about that certain fact right now. Figured it was safe, as long as she didn't stay *stuck* to the side like a piece of wallpaper or anything.
Besides, out here, she could shuffle her boots a little, dust her jacket off, stretch some of the older aches and tiredness out of her body all she wanted to before finally finding those guts she knew she had and knock on the door.
Natsuki glanced up. Wasn't like the weather could be complained about -- sun brightly shining, fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky like miniature sheep, all seemingly calm and quiet here on the isle of Fuuka -- yet...
There was still something making her... wary. Pay attention.
Yeah.
Probably had something to do with that other HiME standing some distance away from her, sprawled over the hood of what looked like the sorry excuse for a pick-up when she rode in here on her Ducati.
As soon as she had arrived (twenty minutes ago), the two of them had readily indulged in a game of 'I-Don't-Blink-How-'Bout-You?' before, //ha!//, her playmate had feigned disinterest, shown her back and started to check herself out in the rear-view mirror.
The rim of Natsuki's cream-coloured cowboy hat afforded her enough a sliver of the world to sneak looks at 'mystery girl' without getting caught in the act of doing so, and... okay, if it had to be admitted, maybe the other female *was* somewhat attractive -- what with that long chestnut hair visible under the inky cowboy hat, the fine foreign-looking features, warm maple-red eyes, and a rounded behind, just there in front of her, begging for attention.
//And it ain't like I'm *looking* at that nicely shaped ass of hers or anything. No Siree! Not at all! That I am not!//
While trying to suppress the blush spreading out across her face in vain, Shizuru meanwhile angled her head a bit more to the right, to get a better view of the reddening absolutely gorgeous female standing over at the trailer.
//Thank goodness for rear-view mirrors! Oh my, is she one fiiiiine cutie this one! And I think I might already have her hooked -- Gawd bless Mumma's apple pies for winding up the places they have!//
Shizuru's Butt (TM) would have smirked if it had a mouth. Luckily it didn't, because that would have been freaky beyond comprehension.
Natsuki finally managed to rip her sight off the enchanting behind after minutes of intense studying. She gave one cough, turned around, raised her fist to hover near the door she stood near.
Waited for five seconds.
And then knocked twice.
* * *
"So... I reckons you two girls be HiMEs and looking for a job, since you're standing here in mah trailer," Kazahana Mashiro grumbled around her thick stump of cigar, small lavender head almost not visible above the desk she was seated behind. Squeaking of the leather chair was heard as she probably tried to prop herself more up, to getter a better view over the papers scattered across its surface.
Didn't make any notable difference, though.
Standing in front of the desk, a demure Kuga Natsuki and Fujino Shizuru kept their eyes downcast.
Or, well, at least Natsuki made a point out of doing it -- Shizuru simply kept up her badly concealed ogling of the other girl's backside.
"You HiMEs! Showing up here on Fuuka, because you damn well know I ain't able to chase them Orphans off by myself with mah delicate size! Just waltzing in and expecting me to stuff your asses full o' money at the first sight a-you! Jeez! Goddamn freaks that you all are!"
//Oh, shut your face, damn dwarf!//
The thought resounded inside Natsuki's head, but she wisely decided to keep it to herself. She was trying to *get* the job, after all. No need to shoot herself in the foot... like good old Uncle Hiroshi -- literally -- had managed to do in one of his more shitfaced moments years ago.
Instead, she dug her hands down in her pockets, rocked a bit back and forth on her thick-soled heels.
'Unperturbed Shizuru' carried on eating her up with her eyes.
Kazahana blew out a massive cloud of smoke, sighed deeply and started to rub her forehead with an index finger. "Awright then. You sees that mountain through the window? Fuuka Mountain?" A ridiculously petite doll-like hand waved in the general direction of the only window the trailer had, panes all the way up, buttery sunlight streaming inside through the glass.
Both girls of course chose the same exact moment to step to it to take a look outside, their shoulders innocently bumping together. Natsuki did her best impression of 'Mute & Not Amused', while Shizuru simply dished up with one of those enigmatic smiles she seemed so good at.
"That's were you'll be putting them fainting goats o' mine out to pasture, where you look after them. I'll let you know, Gawd as mah witness, that I'd have moved from this damn island years ago and not depend on HiME help anymore if it wasn't for the 'Fuuka Grass' growing here! Dumbass animals grown up eating it here so long they won't touch nuthin' else. Whatever shit vitamins is in it, they'll keep munchin' it till the day they die, I swear on mah Mumma's grave. Huh."
The teenagers remained silent.
"So -- you keep those damn Orphans off their backs at all costs, okay? My goats are damn fine yummy treats for those monsters, all tender meat and sweet-tasting as they are. Last summer, I lost a friggin' 75% of them, 'cause of those two other HiMEs... Fuckin' lazy no-good doers, them. I don't want no second round of that!"
"Two other HiME?" the chestnut-haired girl suddenly softly inquired.
The dwa--, their boss snorted in response. "Yeah, some red-haired skanky slut and something with a hairdo that looked like it had sausages hanging from its head showed up previous year. Did a fine muck job of it! Anyway, that means the two of you better do it better, you hear?"
She apparently took the following silence to mean agreement since she continued explaining:
"Okay. Camp tender stays in the main camp, herder goes herding, pitches a tent and makes sure to sleep with the goats."
Shizuru made a face, but no one present really noticed.
"What else? Yamada will be at the bridge at noon, maybe on Wednesdays, maybe not, with food supply. I'd cross my fingers on that one if I was you. You get two dogs, two mules, you got your own weapons. Kill as many Orphans as possible."
"We do as First District says... as little as possible. But I don't really need no trouble with them, hear me, so I'll be wanting you to keep a low profile up there and cause no goddamn stupid *explosions* or whatever else shit those Childs of yours could suddenly come up with of cute tricks, blowing trees in all kinds a-directions and whatnot. You go up there tomorrow. Got it? Fine. Now get the hell outta here."
They didn't need to be told twice.
Outside, the sun was still shining. As if that would have changed...
"Fujino Shizuru." The older of the two said as she presented a slender hand towards her new companion.
"Kuga," was what neutrally came back, offered hand briefly squeezed. And what seemed as an after-thought: "Natsuki." Her green eyes were looking anywhere else than at her.
Shizuru couldn't help but warmly smile. "Well, pleased to meet you, Kuga Natsuki."
Oh, she was definitely sure this was going to be some... *interesting* months to come.
* * *
The bar was reasonably clean. Everything considered.
Shizuru ran a delicate finger along the capitalised words on her bottle of beer before letting it curl around the neck of it. Someone had pressed a Dolly Parton song on the juxebox. How many times hadn't Daddy told her during chibi-hood that she had the same angelic voice as the large-chested peroxided lady?
Deciding that it was probably of the good to chat a bit with the other person she was going to be spending the entire summer together with, she glanced at her table buddy out of the corner of her eye and said:
"She's mighty tough awright, that Kazahana-san, ain't she?"
A curt nod was what she got as agreement. //Okay, now we're rolling!// Took a sip of the bitter beer and then asked a new question.
"You've worked with goats before?"
Another nod. Well, this looked like it could turn out to be the funnest one-sided conversation she'd *ever* tried! But Fujino Shizuru had never been one to give up very quick, so she decided to try a bit more personal question to see if she'd get any reward from it.
"Your folks have them? On a ranch?"
This time she didn't even get a nod -- silence seemingly going on for far too long to be called 'companionable', before the black-haired girl cleared her throat.
"Yeah. But no 'folks'. I never knew mah Pa. He left Ma and me when I was born. I guess he did it after seeing the... y'know, *mark*," Natsuki quietly said, eyes on her own beer.
Shizuru looked at her, nodded. Although she hadn't been fed to the dogs by her family or anything overly dramatic like that when they'd found the HiME mark on her as a baby, she very well knew it wasn't exactly considered 'good fortune' to breed an infant with the small red print on them. Like getting a child with an extra ear or something like that.
"Your Ma run you off then?"
"No, she... she run herself off. There was one curb in the road in 43 miles... and she miss it. So the bank took the ranch, and me... well, I ends up living with mah Uncle Hiroshi until he don't wanna have me staying with him no more. Been earning money on rodeo since," she matter-of-factly explained.
Took a sip of her beer.
"...Damn," Shizuru only muttered.
The stern-looking young woman gave one nod as if to communicate a 'Yep' to that.
They drank the rest of their beers in silence.
* * *
It came fairly naturally to them how to divide the two individual roles the next couple of days after settling; Natsuki as the herder and Shizuru as camp tender, preparing food and whatever else needed taking care of in the camp simply seemed like the most clever way of going about things.
Duran turned out to pretty much be the born shepherd dog made out of metal. Most of the time Natsuki didn't even need to lift a finger to get any work done -- the mecha seemed to get the picture rather quickly, and guarded all the goats more or less on his own. It was only when an Orphan showed up now and again she'd come along, shoot a couple of bullets after it.
Occasionally, the two teenagers would make good use of Shizuru's Child to get an idea of the lay of the land, to see where every single animal was located -- the red-eyed woman would stand on top of Kiyohime's head, and get raised all the way up high in the sky where the best possible view imaginable of the pastureland was.
Together, they made a lethal cocktail: within a week of their stay, they had already killed 25 Orphans working as a team.
All through the Orphan community mortal terror struck hard -- this looked liked a worse situation than back when the Spanish flue and pest had simultaniously hit them...
* * *
Seeing as it was gradually getting darker, the two HiME had started the campfire and now sat around it, holding their puffy white impaled marshmallows over the flames, busily turning them.
"What you be doing, once summer's over?" Shizuru quietly asked.
"Well, Takeda and me is getting married when I get down from this mountain. One of the coming months, probably," Natsuki nonchalantly answered.
"Me too. With Kanzaki-san. His Dad's loaded -- sells farm equipment, big ass tractors, y'know, stuff like that."
The black-haired woman gave one of her usual short nods, kept looking at the yellow fire. When it didn't seem like she was going to say anything else, the older female took up the questioning again, since she *did* happen to be interested in anything which concerned the gruff biker and, well, not like there was anything better to do, was there?
"What's he like?"
"Hm? Takeda? He's awright, I guess. Known him a hecukva long time. I used to beat up the other kids what gave him a hard time when we was young -- he always said he'd pay me back in puppies for helping him when we grow up," the shrugged answer came.
"Puppy love..." the chestnut-haired female muttered under her breath, a little sadly. Natsuki didn't notice.
"But, truth is - I don't need no puppies. I already have the dog for me. I only love mah Duran. Ain't that right, Duran?" She looked over her shoulder, at the outline of a large animal-shaped form resting near a small number of trees some distance away.
Raising his long head from its place upon broad paws, he looked at his mistress with something anyone slightly optimistic would interprete as 'devotion', before giving a yelp and a single happy howl. The ginormous purple mass lying beside him, Kiyohime, shivered in its sleep and, instead of waking up, moved a little closer to the wolf for... artifical warmth? Five trees groaned loudly when the snake-creature's body shifted.
Natsuki continued to smile unabashedly at her Child.
Shizuru thought it was the prettiest thing she'd ever seen.
* * *
"You didn't bring mayo *this* time either?!"
The angered female let out a frustated whine and threw a non-approving look over the countless boxes placed on the ground, ready to be packed onto the two mules (Holly and Polly respectively - yes, Shizuru's choices of pet names) she'd brought along with Duran.
Wonders of wonders. Yamada with his stupid beret *had actually* turned up today! Oh yeah, still *without* the mayo!
"What can I say? Iz not easy getting," the big-nosed man lisped as he crossed his arms defensively.
//Yeah, but you don't seem to have no problems bringing all that friggin' tea with you, do you? Damn son of a bitch!//
She really didn't feel like pondering what in the hell that devil-woman had said to him when she'd went here eight days ago, to have so ample portions of her detestable tea provided each and every single time he decided to show himself at the bridge afterwards.
Selling of souls and whatnot. Devil dealings.
"Hmph. Well, here's the list for next time." The accompanying growl could have come from a bear. Yamada had the list thrust hard at him. Natsuki turned and guided the mules back towards their route home.
Once the grumpy girl was far enough away for him to feel somewhat safe, he threw a glance down the scribbles on the crumpled piece of paper --
- Whatever food's easy roasting over an open fire. Meat, please.
- MAYO!!
- More whiskey too, goddammit!
... and he sighed.
* * *
Loudly cursing the many, many boxes containing goddamn Fujino goddamn Shizuru's goddamned tea, the added weight of them making Polly's and Holly's eight legs wobble in unison under it, the biker led the hoofed mammals along the narrow road up Fuuka Mountain which they had used to come down from.
She looked over her shoulder, sitting ramrod atop Duran as she was, to make sure they were holding up, and when she turned her head again...
The great big peppermint-coloured Orphan sitting right in front of her further ahead gave an impressive roar. On cue, Polly and Holly reared and took off like they had been stung by bees. The next thing Natsuki knew, she was flying through the air. Her skull collided with a stone on the ground. It hurt. Understandably.
And just when she'd thought this could have been an 'okay day'...
//God. Damn. It.//
-- Seven Hours Later --
It wasn't like her to be this late.
Shizuru kept peering into the darkness in hopes of seeing her Natsuki appear from it any second now. She was trying not to get worried, she really was, but it was hard not to when the hours dragged by with no sign of the laconic female showing up.
Her prayers were finally heard when the younger woman came bursting through a bush. She had a little blood on her pretty face, nicely framing the utterly pissed-off expression it wore.
"Damn mules! Damn Darjeeling! Damn Orphan!"
The first thought to enter Shizuru's mind at seeing the state her beloved was in went along the lines of: "Oh, Natsuki, mah one and only most precious snuggly-pooh honey-bunch, are you okay?" The edited version which in fact did come out of her mouth was:
"Oh mah gosh, what happened, Natsuki?"
The wounded woman seethed and mumbled for a while. Then decided to grumble. "Came 'cross an Orphan, Holly and Polly got scared, ran, and Duran thought it grand fun chasing them instead of helping me *stop them*." The last parted was shouted in a certain mecha's direction.
Duran let out a mechanical whimper, placed his paws over his snout in what appeared to be a remorseful manner and unsuccessfully tried to make himself look smaller.
Shizuru instinctively threw her arms around her disgruntled companion. "Oh goodness gracious! Let me kiss the pain away, poor Natsuki. It's the least I can do."
"Ow, no, Shi--, *OW*, ow!"
"Love can hurt, don't you know, sweetie?"
Sounds of wet kissing and an aggravated "knock it off already, Shizuru!" could be heard from the camp that night.
* * *
Two days later, one could have sworn the younger female hadn't ever been thrown from the back of a robot wolf or bumped her head. Or even a combination of the two.
At least, it didn't appear like it, sprawled carelessly as she was on the grass near their tent, feet crossed at the ankles, gazing up at the bluest of blue skies with clouds dotted across it. Shizuru was moving somewhere behind her, out of sight, doing... hopefully something 'productive' or other.
Those clouds above made her feel strangely philosophical all of a sudden. They were probably the reason for why she suddenly decided to ask out loud: "You ever try rodeo?"
The shuffling noises the other girl had been making behind her stopped, most likely from surprise, but then a merry response drifted to her ears. "No. Far too potentially dangerous for my taste. But you've tried it, right? How's it?"
"What it's like? Hmm -- I guess... I guess it's like being on a bike... just with four wheels, instead of two," the emerald-eyed motorcyclist explained as she adopted a faraway look on her face and moved her hands behind her head to serve as pillow.
There was a few moments of silence, a bird or five twittered, before something was said again.
"Wouldn't that make it a scooter?" And she could practically *hear* the smile in that.
"...Uhm. Okay, yeah, maybe. Not that, then. Eh... more like a, a bike... made out of flesh and bones. Or something."
"Aha."
"...Yeah. Don't laugh."
"I'm not."
"But you want to."
"What I want to do and what I'm not doing are two completely different things."
"..... I.. uh, oh, shut up, and make us some dinner."
"Sir, yes sir!"
* * *
Admitted.
Patience had never been Natsuki's forte. Ever since she was a little girl, she'd had too much of a temperament to possibly contain it for long, try as she might.
The number of snotty rude boys she would beat up *a day* when she was a child was sufficient proof of it.
So, when she faced yet another week without any meat (still no friggin' mayo!), and only those thin slimy strips of 'bacon' that tasted of nothing than wet socks and squirrel, she'd first of all punched Yamada in the jaw. Secondly, she'd materialized her trusty guns, yelled for Duran to appear, and set out on a personal quest to find 'The Bigger Culinary Experience' in this place.
Or just *anything* more edible.
-- Three Hours Later --
Shizuru only arched an eyebrow when she saw her companion ride into camp with an enourmous dead elk thrown over Duran's lower back.
"What?" the female defensively barked when she saw the other girl quietly watch her.
The kneeling HiME didn't say anything. Simply smiled and continued poking to the embers in the campfire with a stick.
* * *
Sure, it was a nice warm sunny not-one-single-breeze-blowing day, but...
"Hey, you promise you won't turn around, right?"
"Of course not. I told you I won't, didn't I?" Shizuru good-naturedly chuckled as she kept on polishing the baby blue coffee-cum-tea can with her red scarf, sitting with her back towards a nervous Natsuki about to undress.
"Well... okay then," she heard the doubtful-sounding voice say from behind her, and then the sound of clothes being discarded followed.
Shizuru wiped a bit harder at the can in her hands, and, then, voila! -- the clear reflection it gave of her surroundings might as well have been from a mirror. Just a question of getting the right angle then, and, ooohh, right there; well, thank you, all the goodness in the world, the view of a stark naked Natsuki was found, scooping palmfuls of water up from the bucket next to her feet, dousing her flawless goddess-like beautiful skin with it.
When the seated HiME felt blood start to trickle out of her nostrils, it was with the all the discretion she could muster that she brought the scarf up to press against her nose.
* * *
She was so happy that she had remembered to bring her banjo with her, *especially* right now.
"Don't you wanna hear me play mah banjo, Natsuki? I know tons of songs, like, "While My Banjo Gently Weeps" and --"
"No, that's... really okay, Shizuru, you don't have to."
Mightily heavy fall of rain ceaselessly pelted against both sides of the tent, threatening to completely soak through the fabric. And right at the moment they were sitting inside selfsame bombarded tent, huddled together. Even though the situation really didn't call for it, Shizuru couldn't help but *feel* like grinning. The warmth from Natsuki's body beside hers was, indeed, very nice.
Fingers briefly danced over the strings. Natsuki didn't bother to conceal her prominent scowling at the hellish instrument while she hugged her knees closer to her chest.
"But, Natsuki, whatever else are we supposed to do? It's raining cats and dogs. There's not a whole lot a-things we can do otherwise here in this tent. Unless you've got... *other* suggestions?" the drawled question was breathed a nail's breadth from the curve of a small ear as she leaned herself against the other female. Their cowboy hats bumped together.
The only response she got was the faintest blush staining the black-haired girl's pale cheeks, a slightly harder pull on the cigarette held between index and middle finger when she turned her face in the opposite direction from her friend's.
Of course, Shizuru still saw it. She expertly hid her smirk behind a lifted hand.
* * *
"Aww, man, we shouldn't have drunk that much whiskey! Mah goddamn head! Ungh!" Natsuki groaned and rolled onto her side. The fire had died down, it was cold, and she wasn't sure which way was up or down. Down -- probably were she had her nose and mouth at the moment.
//Mmm - the grass smells gooood.//
"We? I've only had tea," Shizuru mumbled puzzled and looked down at her own tin cup.
"Whuz yu say?" Natsuki slurred as she tried to get to her feet, but to no avail. Balance was a lost thing right now.
"Nothing, nothing. Now, Natsuki, listen, you can't go looking to the goats in this condition. It's way too dark and all you'll manage to do is fall off Duran's back. Come inside the tent, sleep it out," Shizuru, the voice of reason, softly said, before heading for the tent herself and disappearing inside it.
"Yeah, I, yeah, okay, good idea."
And so the black-haired female crawled after her on hands and knees, into the tent where the older girl was already lying with her back turned her way, supposedly already faraway in 'Dreamland'.
She was pretty sure she fell asleep at once. She was also pretty sure what it was that made her wake again from her sleep: a warm soft hand inside her pants, rubbing and stroking, and moist velvety lips on her own. Natsuki figured it would be rude not to reciprocate since Shizuru *had* made the effort to put her tongue in her mouth, and hey hey now, things were starting to feel decidedly fantastic!
The details afterwards were sorta blurred, but she seemed to recall there had been six or seven orgasms involved in whatever they did.
* * *
Dawn breaking saw 'Natsuki-With-Hangovers' stumble out of the tent. She made sure to make an unnecessarily big deal out of avoiding her companion the rest of the day. Only when she'd wallowed in self-imposed denial for hours on end did she go near Shizuru who, ever the romantic, was gazing at the flaming sun set.
"This is a one-shot thing we've got going on here," the younger woman solemnly pointed out, trying her darn hardest to look hetero and completely passive towards gay intimacy, what with the cigarette bit between white teeth and her stern look, and, oh boy, this *wasn't* helping on Shizuru's libido. She'd had a taste of that and now she wanted more, no question about it.
"It's nobody's business but ours," she answered in the hopes of calming her lover down.
"You know I ain't queer."
"Whatever you say, honey,"
"Wha'?"
"Nothing."
When they lay side by side in the tent a few hours later, Shizuru impatiently yanking off her clothes and then unbuttoning whatever garments happened to be on the girl beneath her, sliding her hand down like it was second nature to where it was more than welcomed, and the black-haired woman started making all sorts of agreeable whimpering noises, the stubborn HiME just *had* to declare one more time, just in case someone (the mules? their Childs? space-aliens?) should surprise them:
"I still ain't queer."
The exasperated sigh from above her spoke volumes.
"Less talk, more action, Natsuki."
* * *
They had both known it was bound to come: the last day.
The time for them to depart and give up on all their numerous rounds of rowdy hot steamy finger licking good homo-sex.
Saying 'goodbye' was much too painful for the grumpy HiME -- she knew she wouldn't be able to get the taboo word over her lips. So, in a fashion which fitted Natsuki's true nature more, she decided to show her way of handling undealt-with feelings ---
She grabbed Shizuru's banjo, threw it on the dusty ground and completely smashed it with one well-aimed stomp of her black combat boot. Huffing like a bull after seeing a red piece of cloth, she then turned her back on her not-anymore-lover, and flung herself on her Ducati, speeding away from the place as fast as she could, pushing the motorbike to its limit.
The wind whipping against her face erased all tears which fell.
Shizuru glared down at what had once been her banjo. Darn. There went her master plan of singing a special cover-version of "I Will Always Love You" before they'd go their seperate ways.
The crimson-eyed HiME lifted a hand to rest above her heart as she let out a dramatic sigh. She kept her gaze on the tiny dot growing smaller and smaller in the horizon.
Would the two of them *ever* see each other again?
-- Four Years Later --
Natsuki and Takeda were both sprawled in each their brown leather armchair in front of the blaring TV in their shared dingy apartment, tilted beers in two right hands.
"Turn the channel," Takeda mumbled as he touched two fingers to his ridiculously spiky hair. He still insisted on putting *ten* handfuls of gel in it, even though his wise wife had carefully pointed out on more than one occasion that it made him look like "a monkey after shock treatment".
He'd kindly ignored the advice of cutting down on the amount of products applied to his hair. His hair -- his rules. Yep, Takeda sure was a clever man. A clever man indeed.
Football. Very boring, not interesting, brainless American football was what was being shown.
"Do it yourself," Natsuki yawned.
"I don't know where the remote is."
"Not my problem."
She decided to glare at the flimmering screen for a few more minutes before getting to her feet with a grunt. Absentmindedly scratched at her stomach with the hand that had placed the bottle down next to the chair. Went and got her leather jacket. Four years worth of pent-up sexual frustration only had one way of being relieved in Natsuki's mind, and the chosen way she had found to be the very best was...
"I'm gonna go beat a complete stranger up. See ya later."
"Yea, see ya. Bring cigarettes back," Takeda tiredly answered, eyes glued to the still continuingly non-thrilling football match playing out in front of him.
The door slammed shut.
He burped.
* * *
Shizuru and Reito, both seated at their kitchen table, held cups of aromatic tea up near their feminine faces, steam calmly swirling up from them as the couple now and then sipped at the hot beverages.
"The tea's delicious," Shizuru commented after a delicate sip, a soft smile on her lips.
"Yes. Yes, it is," Reito agreed.
"Delicious," she stated.
"Yes."
"I haven't had sex in four years."
"Hm?" her husband answered. He'd been distracted by a fat buzzing fly landing on the white door of the kitchen's fridge.
"Nothing. Excuse me."
Shizuru got up from her chair, went outside, got in their black Mercedes and drove to the nearest post office. Here she hastily scribbled down a few sentences on a letter and had it sent the selfsame day.
She felt much better after doing it.
* * *
Natsuki slammed the door shut behind her when she entered the dingy apartment she shared with Takeda. She mechanically thumbed through the mail she'd just been out getting, but stopped dead in her tracks when her fingers found... a letter.
No one ever sent them letters. Not only did she seriously doubt Takeda even *had* friends who could spell to 'postal communication', but she didn't know anybody personally herself either who would seem the type to write her one.
She flipped it over and started reading:
Natsuki.
Long time no see. Hows about we get together for some serious ****? I want to feel your **** again in my **** so badly it **** me. Just thinking of you is enough to make me **** -- and this time I want us to try ***** pony **** with honey-flaboured ****, which we couldn't on Fuuka Mountain.
I'm patiently waiting, mah 'love puppy'.
- Fujino Shizuru.
Natsuki swallowed. Then she swallowed again. Then she spun around so fast she almost lost her footing as she stormed to the door. The slamming of mentioned door was powerful enough to shake the entire building. Seconds later, the sound of a Ducati racing away was heard outside.
"Natsuki? Natsuki... is that you? Did you bring cigarettes?"
".............."
"...... Natsuki?"
end.