K-On: The Return
Two
Mio Akiyama sang with passion, her long black hair swinging as she grabbed the microphone stand, bringing it close. There was a electric feeling to preforming that she had forgotten, or maybe chose to forget, and it raced through her as they finished up the set.
"We're After School Tea Time," Yui Hirasawa waved excitedly as the crowd cheered them all, "thanks for coming!"
"And I hope we pass the audition," Ritsu Tainaku murmured under her breath, the group filing off stage as they smiled and waved, her shaggy brown hair soaked with sweat.
"The Beatles?" Mugi Kotobuki recognized the quote, the light brown haired woman looking amused as the much more composed looking woman followed.
"You were great!" Azusa Nakano said excitedly, her eyes shining as she waited off stage with Nodoka, her long black hair tied back in a ponytail. Her right arm was still in a cast, only the fingers exposed from the white plaster.
"You were terrific," Nodoka Manabe agreed, her dark brown hair falling around her face as she moved to meet Mio.
"Thank you," Mio swiftly hugged her girlfriend, sighing in relief. It had been a long time since she had played, and each performance filled her with anxiety.
At first, all the band had asked for was for Mio to fill in for the injured Azusa in one show. As Yui had said, the show was televised and helped break the band all over Japan, but there was pressure to tour immediately to capitalize on the sudden interest. Despite still carrying a grudge with Yui and Ritsu, Mio didn't feel she could sabotage Azusa and Mugi's chance for fame by dropping out again, so she agreed to keep playing until Azusa recovered.
"Damn, they're cute together," Ritsu noted, feeling a deep sense of regret. Once she and Mio had been close, but after accidentally stripping Mio on stage her friend had fled her and the band. Which, considering how much she used to tease Mio, wasn't entirely unreasonable.
"They are, aren't they?" Mugi agreed, beaming.
Ritsu looked at her friend with amusement, knowing that Mugi had always been a yuri fan-girl. She was probably overjoyed at having a real life yuri couple to watch, instead of just relying on her overactive imagination.
"Hey," one of the stagehands not taking their equipment off stage and hauling it out to the official 'After School Tea Time' van stuck his head around the corner, "there's a few girls with back stage passes. Do you want to see them?"
"Women, not girls," a voice corrected him from somewhere behind him.
Mio had to bit back a laugh as she recognized the voice. "They're my friends from the library," Mio admitted a bit shyly, "I sent them passes for the show."
Ryouko Sorayama lead the pack of what looked like office ladies gone wild, normally reserved women who were wearing the flashiest clothes they had. Her short black hair gave her a boyish look, well suited to the long trousers she wore along with a leather jacket.
"You were great!" Ryouko enthused, suddenly hugging Mio as she added, "I never realized!"
Yue Ayase and her friend Emily were close behind, looking looking rather amused by their co-worker's antics. "I'm sorry about this," she addressed the other members of the band, her long purple hair tied back.
"I remember her," Yui actually looked amused as she noted, "she tried to scare me off when I came to see Mio."
"It's nice to meet you," Azusa bowed a bit to the newcomers as she wryly added, "you must think we're terrible."
"Mio didn't talk much about what happened," Emily said politely, keeping close to Yue.
"We're lucky Mio is a forgiving sort of person," Ritsu admitted, smiling shyly. "I want to do something special for her, but I still don't know what."
"You know, I might have a suggestion," Yue admitted, leaning a little closer and murmuring something to Ritsu.
Ryouko was saying something to Yui that made her go visibly pale, then the bold young woman stepped back. "All of you take good care of Mio," she said, not adding aloud 'or you'll regret it' but everyone got the message.
Emily shook her head as she said, "I wish we could stick around, but the library is opening tomorrow and we're on shift."
"I'll stop in as soon as I can," Mio promised as she hugged her friends and coworkers, "I miss the kids, and even the annoying patrons."
"I like your friends," Mugi noted as they headed out from the small club they were playing in, "they seem very nice."
Azusa snorted, "Did you hear what Ryouko said to Yui and Ritsu?"
"Eh?" Mio blinked.
Yui looked sheepish as they unlocked the van the band was using, "She's just worried about Mio, Azusa. It's fine."
"I think we should go out somewhere tonight to celebrate," Ritsu said, smiling in the way that signified to the whole band that she was up to something.
Almost everyone got into the fairly mild argument, but in the end Ritsu triumphed due to two reasons. First, she was very stubborn, second, she was the only one who could drive the old, stick shift van they had borrowed.
The club was on the edge of town, in the warehouse district, but was brightly lit and aglow with a large neon sign. They front read 'Arisugawa's Locket' and had the image of a locket opening to reveal the picture of a pretty woman, while underneath a moderate line waited to get in.
"Why are there only women in line?" Yui asked innocently and Ritsu just smiled, gesturing for them to get in line while she and Mugi locked up the van.
They got in pretty quickly, really, and went down a short hallway that openhed into a much larger room. It was obvious the owners had converted a large industrial warehouse, fitting it out with lighting, a dance floor, a bar, dining tables, a stage and if their eyes weren't decieving them a library! There were also stairs leading up from nearby the bar, and who knew what was up there.
"How did you find out about this place, Ritsu?" Mio asked, looking around her with wide eyes.
Ritsu smiled as she answered with a half truth, "I heard about it from a fan at the concert, actually." In fact she had heard about it from Mio's own friends, but she wasn't going to tell her that. 'I wonder what that says about her friends Yue and Emily?' she mused.
"This is so cool!" Yui Hirasawa breathed out excitedly, her shoulder length brown hair shimmering in the light as she looked around at the dancing women, women sitting having intimate meals and even going off to make out in the dimmer corners..
"Wow," Mugi Kotobuki murmured, the pretty blonde watching in fascination as two women kissed at one of the nearby tables.
"Don't space out on us," Azusa murmured to the older woman, the smaller black haired girl walking beside her.
"Sorry," Mugi laughed.
Nodoka stood beside her lover Mio, her stylish glasses catching the light as the brown haired woman looked around with a bemused expression. "Think Ritsu picked this place out because she knows about us?" she asked softly.
Mio Akiyama smiled slightly, "Could be, but I don't really mind."
"Yeah, me too," Nodoka agreed as the group of six made their was through the crowd up to the bar. She still found it strange, being back hanging out with this group of people, strange but nice.
"Have I said thank you lately for agreeing to come back and play?" Azusa murmured, the younger woman carefully shielding her cast enclosed hand from the jostling crowd.
"Yes, but you can repeat it as many times as you wish," Mio smiled at her wryly and Azusa laughed softly.
They passed a positively scary looking woman with tattoos on the way to the bar, then the six women reached the massive bar with two bartenders flamboyantly serving booze. "Can I see your ID?" the one bartender asked Azusa, her cheeks marked with twin scars.
"Everyone asks for my ID," Azusa sighed as she passed it over, even though she was over twenty. Admittedly not much over, but still...
"That's because you're so cute!" Yui said, hugging her from behind.
"Yui!" Azusa squeaked, blushing even as the bartender laughed warmly.
"Here you go," the woman handed back the ID, "I'm Minagi, what can I get you?"
The girls ordered their drinks even as someone started up the karaoke machine. All of them blinked as a girl got up to sing, 'Girls who like girls.' Thankfully she could carry a tune, and the song was kinda catchy.
"I can't believe someone wrote a song like that," Mio noted wryly as she sipped from her mug of beer.
"This from the woman who wrote Light and fluffy time?" Ritsu gently teased as she took a gulp of her own drink.
Mio blushed, "I was young."
"Don't tease," Mugi recovered enough from being overwhelmed by the yuri to point out, "it's still one of our most popular songs."
"You're a band?" Minagi asked them, looking thoughtful as she polished a glass and set it back in the rack behind her.
"Yeah?" Ritsu responded a touch warily.
"Wanna play a song or two?" Minagi asked then offered, "I'll put your drinks on the house."
Ritsu looked thoughtful, then she turned to the rest of the group. "What do you think?" she asked them curiously.
"I wouldn't mind," Mugi shrugged, the others all answering in the affirmative.
"I wish I could play," Azusa sighed, holding up her busted hand with a resigned sigh.
"Keep Nodoka company," Yui suggested, "and make sure no one picks you up."
"Yui!" Azusa blushed.
"Don't worry," Yui smiled as she winked at Mugi, "I won't take you away from your girlfriend."
'I'll be damned,' Mio blinked as both Mugi and Azusa blushed fiercely. 'I guess there's some things that I'll need to catch up on,' she mused.
"How long has this been going on?" Nodoka asked, taking a sip of her own drink as she smiled gently at the two women.
"Since not too long after we graduated," Mugi admitted a bit shyly. "I came by the school to offer moral support when Azusa's version of the Light Music Club was playing. I stayed to congradulate her, we went to lunch and, well..."
"I kissed her," Azusa shrugged, also blushing.
"That's so romantic," Yui sighed, even though she knew the story by heart.
"I'm happy for you," Mio told them both, smiling warmly.
"Sawa-chan wasn't happy," Ritsu told them, "though more because she didn't think a college student sould be dating a high-school girl. She insisted they wait til Azusa graduated."
"It was a very long year," Mugi sighed.
"Very," Azusa agreed, also sighing.
"They certainly made up for lost time afterwords," Yui said eagerly, "Ritsu and I walked in on them and they were..."
"Shh!" Ritsu yelped as she swiftly slapped her hand over Yui's mouth while both Mugi and Azusa blushed furiously.
"You really haven't changed," Mio noted to no one in particular, chuckling warmly. 'And I guess I wouldn't want it any other way,' she admitted to herself silently.
To be continued....
Notes: Parts of this chapter were based on chapter 96 of 'Arisugawa's Locket.' Yue Ayase and her friend Emily are both based on characters from Negima, while their other friend is inspired by a slightly less crazy version of Ryouko from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.