“Onee-sama,” Yumi whispered, her eyes locked on Sachiko’s sparkling sapphire gaze.
Sachiko took Yumi’s hands in her own and brought them towards her, clasping them tightly to her chest. “Yumi.” Sachiko spoke with that customary quirk, almost as if she were asking a question.
Yumi’s eyes traveled down her onee-sama’s face to her lips. Inching forward, they came closer, her own lips pursing of their own accord, stretching out….
Yumi blinked rapidly. Her eyes were open, but she could see nothing. After a moment, she became reacquainted with the shape of her dresser in the pale moonlight seeping through the curtains.
She blinked once again, realizing in the first moment that she had been asleep, and in the second that she had been dreaming. When the third second dawned and she recalled exactly *what* she had been dreaming, her faced flamed. Too embarrassed to face even the darkness, Yumi pulled her blanket over her head and hyperventilated with shame. When she could no longer breathe comfortably, she pushed the blanket off, and placed her hands on her cheeks. What *was* she thinking?
Yes, Yumi thought, it was true that Sachiko was tall, and gorgeous and graceful, and that her eyes were the blue of a deep lake, and that her lips were full and….
“Gyahh!” Yumi threw the blanket over her head once again, horrified at herself. Slapping herself sharply on her cheeks, she remonstrated with herself.
What *would* Sachiko think, if she knew what Yumi was thinking?
***
Sachiko was agitated.
The room was too bright, she thought petulantly, and too hot to sleep.
She rolled onto one side, then another, awkward and annoyed. This was completely unlike her – and wholly unbecoming a lady.
The curtains on her bed hung ghost-like in the moonlight. She could clearly make out her furniture, the shape of her uniform hung up on her closet door and the school bag beneath it. The moon was too bright to sleep, she thought again, pushing the blankets aside and rising. Covering her shoulders with a light wrap she paced back and forth a few times, ending at the chair in front of her vanity. She sat, and laid her chin heavily in her hands.
It wasn’t the light, she knew, or the stuffy closeness of the night, that kept her from rest; had kept her for the last three nights. It was the scene that kept coming back, unbidden, over and over, which made her restless and edgy.
Three days ago; when she and Yumi, Rei and Yoshino had gone out for an afternoon picnic. Of course Rei had made wonderful food for them all. Yoshino and Yumi had wandered off to pick wildflowers and she and Rei had remained behind in the shade.
Yoshino and Yumi could be seen in a field of asters, and then, as Rei spoke to her about Council business, Sachiko had seen them turn to rejoin their grande soeur. They were laughing as they returned, joking and talking animatedly. Sachiko was so busy watching Yumi she completely missed something Rei had said and had had to ask her to repeat herself.
And then Yoshino and Yumi had come closer. Sachiko could see the hairs at the side of Yumi’s face and neck matted down. Her face was red and sweat ran down her neck. Then Yumi turned towards her with the most amazing smile and had come running up to present Sachiko with the flowers she had picked.
Sachiko hadn’t slept since. She shook her head at her shamelessness and muttered, “What *would* Yumi think, if she knew?”
With a sense of futility, Sachiko stripped the wrap from around her and lay down once again on her bed to not sleep some more.
Maria-sama ga Miteru © Konno Oyuki, Cobalt Shueisha Publishing.
Original situations and characters, E. Friedman