Peas in a Pod
"And have you ever looked at peas in a pod? I mean, really looked at
them? There's not a chance you'd mistake one for another, after a
minute's close inspection."
***
Yomi was fond of winter, but it was not an unconditional fondness. In her
considered opinion, a winter storm was best viewed from an appropriate
distance: that is to say, from where one could be shielded from the
harshness of temperature while still enjoying the visual splendor of
snowflakes fluttering through the air, whipped into petite cyclones and
driving barrages by the winds that the dry voice of the radio weatherman
assured her were bitterly cold, but that she herself could not feel. Yomi
smiled to herself, listening to the blizzard's howl made impotent whine
by the coziness she was ensconced in. Truly, it rarely got better than
this.
So when the doorbell rang, Yomi chose to ignore it. The book she was
reading had just hit a high note, and no visitors were expected as far as
she knew, so she felt relatively safe in pretending that nothing existed
outside the house. Alas, that plan was thwarted by the call of her mother
from the kitchen. "Yomi, go see who that is, would you?"
"All right," Yomi called back, twitching slightly as parental
interference tore her from one of the most exciting paragraphs she'd ever
laid eyes on. She reluctantly set her book aside and went to open the
door. When she did so, she found herself wishing she'd stalled until her
mother had done it.
"Yo!" Tomo exclaimed, sounding obscenely cheerly for someone who was
standing outside in a blizzard wearing blue jeans and a top barely thick
enough to be called a sweater."
"What...the...Hell."
"Geez, invite me in already!" Tomo prodded.
"Where did you come from?" Yomi asked, her face setting up for a nice
deep glare.
"My house, where else?"
"And how did you get here?"
"Running."
"Running," Yomi echoed, her glare solidifying. "You ran from your house
to mine."
"Exactly! See, you're not so dumb after all!"
"Dare I ask why you ran here?"
"To keep from getting cold! I would've frozen to death if I'd walked,"
Tomo explained.
"Please tell me you're kidding," Yomi pleaded, rubbing her forehead,
which was beginning to throb slightly. "Please tell me you were dropped
off. Please?"
"Hah, no chance in Hell my parents would drive in this kind of weather.
Say, can I come in yet? I'm freezing all of a sudden."
"Well, of course you are--oh, never mind. Just get inside, you moron."
"Oh, you keep me on the porch in a blizzard for who knows how long, and
I'm the moron?" Tomo rubbed her arms, still shivering as she stepped
inside. "Man, I hate cold weather."
"So you're taking up masochism, eh?" Yomi teased, cracking a smirk.
"Masochism? What the Hell is that? Hey, can I raid your fridge?"
The throbbing in Yomi's head intensified considerably. "Didn't you eat at
home?"
"Well, yeah, but you know what running does to the appetite!"
"...You astonish me sometimes, Tomo."
Yomi was unsurprised when this backhanded compliment produced an
ear-to-ear proud grin on Tomo's face. "Only natural! I amaze myself
sometimes. I figured I'd be way more winded than this, and that--" Her
smile froze along with her sentence, and slowly began to crack.
"What's with you?" Yomi asked, peering quizzically at Tomo.
"I'm...starting to cramp up," Tomo reported, still sporting a weak
remnant of her grin. "Ow. Wow. These are the worst I've had since the
school marathon. Looks like I'll have to hit you up for aspirin."
"First, wipe that dumbass smile off your face and get to my room before
you start bawling," Yomi ordered. "Second, lie down and stay still. I'll
get your damned aspirin in a minute."
"Thanks," Tomo said, followed by "Owwww..." as she staggered down the
hall towards Yomi's room.
Yomi sighed, and sighed deeply, once Tomo was out of sight. "I was going
to finish that book tonight," she complained to no one in particular.
Resigning herself to her fate, Yomi trudged towards the bathroom to
retrieve painkillers.
"Yomi?" her mother called out, in a slightly puzzled tone. "I heard
Takino-san's voice...is she still here?"
"Uh, yeah! Will be for a while, probably!" Yomi, who did not feel like
explaining the circumstances of Tomo's arrival, dashed away from the
kitchen before any more questions could be raised. "Aspirin!" she
declared as she entered her room, tossing the little white bottle at
(rather than to) Tomo, who was sprawled out moaning on Yomi's bed. Yomi
got a glimmer of satisfaction from the way the bottle managed to land
right on Tomo's stomach.
"Ugggh," Tomo replied, picking up the bottle. This movement produced a
minute of solid groaning, after which Tomo was again able to shape
coherent words. "Where's the water?"
"Come again?"
"Water! How am I supposed to swallow these without water?"
"I think I'd rather see you try to choke them down dry." This was said
only half in jest.
"Yomiiiiii..."
"Oh, fine!" Yomi relented. She snatched a glass from her nightstand.
"Just a second."
A few minutes later, Tomo had chugged every drop out of the glass.
"Stupid pills," she muttered, flopping back down on the bed.
Yomi sat on the edge of the mattress, chin cradled in her hands and her
eyes fixed on the bedroom door. "If you had come over here in a sane
fashion, or better yet stayed home, you wouldn't have had to deal with
those stupid pills."
Tomo's face scrunched up as she tried to conjure a cutting response. In
the end, the best she could manage was "If you didn't live so far away, I
wouldn't've had to run!"
"You didn't have to run. You could have very, very easily stayed home!"
Yomi snapped.
"But I wanted to see you."
This response, spoken with utter sincerity, surprised Yomi for a moment
or two. Surprise could not fully obliterate irritation, however. "You see
me almost every day."
"Still wanted to."
"I forgot that you have no concept of patience," Yomi said. She frowned
at her prone friend from the corners of her eyes. "Makes me wonder,
sometimes..."
"Wonder?"
"Wonder why I hang out with you at all."
Tomo made another scrunched-up "thinking is painful right now" face. "Why
the Hell would you wonder about that?"
"Probably because it makes no sense whatsoever."
"Sure it does, we've been together since elementary school!"
"That doesn't make it any more comprehensible."
"Well...it doesn't have to make sense!"
"That kind of answer is exactly what I'm talking about. I hate it when
you dodge the question like that." Yomi rose from the bed, pacing the
short width of her room. "I hate it when you ask me for favors and then
forget the simplest little things I ask you to do. I hate how you never
seem to think before you act. And I hate how unconcerned you always
are...how you always assume everything will always work out for you." She
paused in her steps, facing Tomo with her arms folded sternly over her
chest. "Honestly. I don't know why I put up with it all."
Tomo's face was blank, expressionless, her eyes pointed up towards the
ceiling. "You hate how I act like things will work out, huh?" she asked,
her voice matching her lack of expression.
"That's what I said, isn't it?"
"Does that mean," Tomo began, turning her head in Yomi's direction, "that
you worry about me?"
Yomi sputtered in disbelief for a moment. "Have you even been listening
to me?!"
"Well, yeah!" Tomo sat up slowly. "And that's what it sounds like."
"Okay, I do, a little. Even if you exasperate me, I don't want you to
screw up your life."
The expression Tomo wore went from blank to thoughtful. "Hmmmm."
"If this doesn't result in a straight answer of some kind, Tomo..."
"Okay, okay, I get it. Now let me think."
"This should be good. Or frightening."
Tomo began counting off on her fingers. "You don't know why you hang out
with me...you can't stand my habits but put up with them anyway...you
worry about me despite all this...aha! The answer is clear!"
Yomi raised her eyebrows. "Is it now?"
"You!" Tomo exclaimed, pointing at Yomi, her face splitting into an
exuberant grin. "You're harboring a forbidden love for me, aren't you!"
"What?!" Yomi shrieked, going apple red. "What the Hell did you just
say?!"
"Forbidden love, forbidden love!" Tomo giggled.
Yomi leveled an accusatory finger right back at Tomo, roaring, "I-If
anyone's harboring a forbidden love, it's you! You're the one who's been
chasing me for years!"
"...Well, I never said I wasn't harboring, did I?" Tomo shrugged.
"How...How can you say something that embarrassing so easily?" Yomi
demanded, flailing her arms above her head.
"Because I know you feel the same now!" With surprising quickness for
someone who had been nearly paralyzed by muscle cramps a few moments
earlier, Tomo lunged, grabbing Yomi by the waist. "Now come here, you
scumbag!"
"Tomo--" was all Yomi got out before Tomo pulled her off balance, sending
them both tumbling onto the bed, landing side-by-side with Yomi's waist
still firmly in Tomo's grip.
"Hee hee. I knocked you over."
"Tomo!"
Tomo blinked in surprise at the sudden, harsh rise in Yomi's voice. "Uh,
yeah?"
"Don't you think you're making some assumptions here?"
"Like what?"
"Oh, I dunno--me being in love with you, maybe? I never said I was!"
"Never said you weren't, either."
"That's not the same!" Yomi snapped. "I don't love you, Tomo. You got
that? I'll admit that I like you. I don't know why, but I do. But I'm not
in love with you!"
"Oh." Tomo shrugged again, her grin becoming an all too familiar
self-assured smirk. "Well, that'll change."
Yomi began to twitch. "You're doing it...at a time...like this?!"
"Now, does the fact that you're mad about it mean you're worried? Worried
that I might be able to pull it off, perhaps?"
"I-I am not!" Yomi stammered.
"You should be," Tomo chuckled. "For two reasons! One, you know how I
operate. When something needs to be done, I do it! And two...has it
occurred to you that you've been lying on the same bed with me, in my
arms, for several minutes, and you haven't even tried to escape?"
"...No fair," Yomi muttered. "You kept distracting me with this stupid
confession of yours..."
"And even with that fact pointed out, you still don't try and get up!"
Tomo crowed.
"The second you let go of me, Tomo, I swear I'm going to sock you one in
the jaw."
"Hmmm, guess I should hold you pretty tight, then."
"Dammit."
The room fell silent, the only audible sounds being the groans of the
unabated storm outside and the bustling steps of Yomi's mother (who was
engaged in her usual routine of ignoring the shouts emanating from her
daughter's room) in the hall. Tomo and Yomi lay side by side, gazes
locked together, Yomi's frustrated glare met head-on by Tomo's smug
smile.
After a long moment that was only about half as tense as it should have
been, it was Tomo who shattered the silence. "You blinked! I win."
Yomi's jaw went slack, the glare fleeing her face. A second later she
realized that her anger had been siphoned off with it, and in spite of
herself, in spite of the whole evening, Yomi began to laugh. She laughed
as only someone who had traded anger for happiness could. She laughed
infectiously, irresistibly, and soon Tomo was laughing along with her,
just as loud. When the laughter finally died down, Yomi found herself
relaxing into Tomo's arms, the stiffness melting out of her. The silence
that fell this time was peaceful and free of the irritated confusion that
had punctuated its predecessor.
"Hey, Tomo..." Yomi eventually said, shooting Tomo a curious glance.
"Yeah?"
"Why do you hang out with me?" Yomi asked. "Shouldn't it work the same
way from your end that it does from mine?"
Tomo stuck out her tongue. "I thought I told you it didn't have to make
sense."
"And I thought I told you I hate it when you dodge my questions," Yomi
countered with a smirk. "Let's hear it."
"It's pretty simple..."
"The simpler the better."
"Well, you've been good at a lot of things since elementary school,
right?"
"You could say that..."
"And you've always been tough and cool."
"I-I guess," Yomi said, contradicting Tomo's statement somewhat by
blushing.
"So what's not to like?" Tomo smiled a rare, soft smile. "Ever since I
first met you, I thought, 'A girl like that would make a great friend.' I
mean, Hell, anyone who can keep up with me is worth respecting, at
least!"
"Heh...I've never heard you say anything like that before."
"Of course not!" Tomo chided, shaking a finger at Yomi. "That's what
harboring a forbidden love is all about!"
"Y'know, maybe it's not so nonsensical after all."
Tomo brightened, her smile becoming a full-on beam. "Does that mean
you're admitting you love me?"
"Maaaaybe," Yomi teased.
"H-Hey! Don't dodge the question like that!" Tomo pouted.
"Oh my, it seems we have more in common than I thought."
"You're a cruel woman, Yomi, a cruel woman indeed," Tomo sighed, shaking
her head in pretend exasperation. "But I love you, so I suppose I'll put
up with it."
"I suppose you will."
"And you know what would make your horrible cruelty easier to deal with?"
"I think I can hazard a guess."
"Well, let me check." Tomo pulled Yomi closer, closing her eyes and
leaning in for a kiss. Unfortunately, her head dipped a bit low, her lips
barely grazing Yomi's, in the end landing on Yomi's chin.
"I was guessing something more like this," Yomi corrected, cupping her
fingers under Tomo's chin, drawing Tomo's lips to hers.
"That's what I was thinking too, dammit!" Tomo protested once the kiss
came to an end.
"So aim right next time."
"Hey, I've never done this before! Lay off." Tomo scowled suspiciously.
"This doesn't mean you have previous experience, does it?"
"It means I know how to aim, moron."
"Ah! Ah! What's that?! Sounds like another dodge to me!" Tomo accused.
"That was my first real kiss too. Happy?"
"Damn right I am."
"Good. Wanna try that again?"
Tomo nodded. "Okay, on three!"
"...It's supposed to be more spontaneousmmmmmph!"
"Three," Tomo giggled when she pulled back.
"I'll get you for that, Tomo."
"Well, at least you mean that in a good way this timmmmph!" By the time
that kiss ended, Tomo was panting for breath. "This...'spontaneity'
thing...has some problems..."
"Problems worse than everything I was complaining about earlier?"
"Hell no."
"Well then, looks like we're making progress."
"Your cruelty certainly seems to have lessened."
"As has your insufferable smugness."
"So, let us sanctify this newfound bond with a kiss!" Tomo proposed.
"We've already done that, though. Several times."
"We can do it again!" Tomo growled. "Those were just practice. This can
be our official first kiss!"
Yomi laughed. "All right, all right. On three for real this time?"
"Fine by me."
"Okay, here we go!" Yomi laid a hand to Tomo's cheek, moving in close,
her lips brushing feather light over Tomo's. "One..." she whispered.
Tomo's arms tightened slightly around Yomi's waist, drawing the two girls
closer together. "Two..." Tomo whispered back, closing in ahead of the
count, making soft, pleased sounds as their lips met.
And when the kiss ended, when the need for breath forced Yomi and Tomo
apart, two whispers spoke in unison: "...Three."
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