Building Work
There were many things in life that Minamo Kurosawa didn’t appreciate. However, few of them ranked higher than being woken up by a very drunk best friend at three in the morning. And, as was her luck, that’s just what happened.
“Nyamo…” came the whine from her door. This was followed by a loud series of banging noises that sounded a lot like a beer bottle being whacked against a door, mostly accompanied with the slurred yelling of “Nyamo! Open the door already!”
Minamo blinked, her brain too tired to process things quickly, eventually stumbling out of bed and over to the door, which she opened to reveal a very drunken language teacher in a sweater and skirt, her long brown hair all over the place, clutching an empty bottle and leaning against Minamo’s doorframe to keep herself from falling over.
“What the hell is it?” Minamo snapped. It wasn’t in her nature to snap, but she reasoned that doing so after being rudely awoken at three in the morning was somewhat justified.
“Can I come in?” Yukari slurred, pushing past Minamo before even receiving a response.
“What is it, Yukari?” Minamo repeated, staring blankly at her friend.
“Building work and stuff.” She mumbled, wobbling over to Minamo’s bed, falling on top of it and wrapping the duvet around herself. “I’m gonna stay here for a while.”
“Wait a sec!” Minamo hissed, trying to sound as angry as possible without waking up her neighbours. Those that hadn’t already been woken by Yukari’s attack on her door, at least.
But it was too late. The loud snore emanating from the lump in her bed informed her that Yukari was asleep and Minamo knew from experience that once Yukari was asleep, no power on earth could wake her.
The P.E. teacher sighed, shut the door and wandered over to where her best friend lay, snoring loudly enough to wake the dead. She eased the bottle from her hand – luckily it was empty so she didn’t have to worry about getting alcohol stains out of her bedsheets – and resisted the urge to hit Yukari over the head with it. Instead she deposited it in the trash and stared at the sleeping form of her best friend.
“Great. Where am I supposed to sleep now?” she wondered aloud. She cast a sparing glance at her couch; it was lumpy, uncomfortable and Minamo didn’t really feel like being crushed by the inevitable avalanche of bedding that would occur should she try and find a spare blanket in her cupboard. Sighing, she once again glanced at the lump in her bed. Whatever. The bed was big enough.
“What the hell did we do last night?”
Minamo’s eyes snapped open so fast it hurt. Adjusting to the light, she realized with a large amount of surprise that she was sharing a bed with, and had her arms around, a very drunk Yukari. Blushing furiously, she released the language teacher from her embrace and stumbled out of the bed, babbling incoherently.
“Hehe. You’re so embarrassed.” Yukari laughed. Minamo paused. Just how much had she had to drink last night if she was still this drunk now?
“So what’re you doing here?”
Minamo paused, a little unsure how to react.
“You’re in my apartment. In my bed.” She deadpanned.
Yukari’s eyes widened slightly. “Why? How come?”
“Because you showed up here, totally drunk, at three AM and climbed into my bed! That’s why!”
“Ah yes. So I did.”
“And I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t do it again.”
Yukari blinked a bit, looking around Minamo’s apartment. “What time is it?”
Minamo glanced at the clock on her wall. Seven-thirty. “Dammit, we’re gonna be late!” she shouted. “Yukari, get up!”
A short while later, Minamo had finally managed to drag Yukari from out of the bed and bundled her into the bathroom. “You’re not going into school smelling of alcohol.” Minamo had told her.
While Yukari showered, Minamo was in the kitchen trying to prepare breakfast and attempting to make sense of the last few hours. She was failing miserably at both. This wasn’t helped when Yukari showed up by the kitchen door with soaking wet hair and wearing nothing but a towel. In fact, Minamo nearly dropped everything she was holding.
“What is it?”
“Can I borrow some of your clothes?”
“What? Oh, fine. Whatever.” Minamo tried to recover and failed, though this didn’t really matter as a drunken Yukari’s powers of observation were… nonexistent, really.
It transpired that picking out clothes for Yukari was actually a lot harder than Minamo had envisaged. Yukari was only a little taller than her friend, but everything seemed to be too small for her.
“How’s that shirt?” Minamo asked, leaning on the bedroom door while Yukari changed inside.
“Shmushy!” she shouted back. Minamo sighed.
“Well, I don’t have much else!”
“Why isn’t any of this stuff fitting?” Yukari yelled in frustration. “My boobs aren’t that much bigger than yours, are they?”
Minamo was suddenly grateful there was a door separating her from Yukari so she couldn’t see the shade of pink her face had just turned. Minamo had another look in her wardrobe for something that could fit the language teacher. At the back she eventually discovered a blue t-shirt that was a little baggy and she hadn’t worn in ages.
“Okay, I found something!”
“What is it?” Yukari opened the door and handed the smaller shirt back to her. She was wearing some pants Minamo had lent her and the bra she had been wearing when she had come over. Trying not to look at her, Minamo handed her the shirt. “If that doesn’t fit, I don’t think anything will.” she said before closing the door, leaning on it and sliding down to the floor in exhaustion.
“Tadaa!” Yukari shouted, opening the door and posing; now fully dressed, though certainly not totally sober. Minamo briefly wondered how she managed to make a pair of slightly worn pants and an old baggy t-shirt look so good, but quickly pushed the thought out of her head.
“Great.” Minamo managed. “Now come on and have some breakfast, else we’ll be late.”
They progressed back into the kitchen and Minamo slid some bread into the toaster as Yukari managed to spill cornflakes all over the table. “Nyamo… can you pass the milk?”
Minamo grabbed the milk from the fridge and handed it to her. She wrinkled her nose at the label. “Why do you get the skimmed stuff?” she complained. “It tastes funny.”
Minamo ignored her whining and hoped that she’d sober up soon. Yukari was enough of a handful normally; when drunk, she was impossible.
After they’d finished and Yukari had thrown half her cereal away because she’d been talking instead of eating and let it go soggy, they were nearly ready to go. “I think I’ve got a new toothbrush you can use somewhere.” Minamo told her messily, searching the bathroom cabinet, brushing her teeth at the same time. She wouldn’t normally brush her teeth in the presence of someone else, but the lack of time meant that they had to share the bathroom. Plus, Minamo didn’t really consider a drunken Yukari ‘polite company’.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I already did my teeth. After my shower”
Minamo took her toothbrush from her mouth so she could talk properly. “How? I thought you didn’t bring anything.”
“I didn’t.” she said. A horrible, horrible thought struck Minamo.
“What did you do?” She asked, her voice somewhat dread-filled.
“I used yours.”
Minamo felt her eyes widen so much she was surprised they didn’t fall out. That happened a lot around Yukari. She took the toothbrush from her mouth and stared first at it, then at Yukari.
“Please be kidding.” She said, hearing the plea in her voice.
“C’mon Nyamo, it’s not that bad; it was only once, I can grab my own later!”
“’Not that bad’?” Minamo spluttered, “We’re talking about my toothbrush here! It goes in my mouth! A toothbrush is very personal!”
“We’re friends!” Yukari said, as if that excused everything.
“You could have told me before I put it in my mouth!” Minamo yelled, less angry than embarrassed at the thought of how much of Yukari’s saliva must have been transferred into her mouth via the shared toothbrush.
Yukari giggled, reminding her that she was drunk. “It’s been in your mouth, then mine then yours again. We’re practically kissing.”
“Out.” Minamo told her, holding off a blush and pointing at the door. “You’ve done your teeth; you go stand by the door and wait for me.”
“Fine.” She said, leaving. “I didn’t think you’d make that big a deal out of it.”
Once she had gone, Minamo rinsed out her mouth and stared at the toothbrush in her hand. She stared at it, knowing that for hygiene’s sake she should throw it away. Minamo saw the reflection of herself in the mirror and sighed at it. She put the toothbrush back on its stand and left the bathroom.
“Can I drive?”
“No. No way.”
“Aw, how come?”
“Because I want to reach school alive.”
“But if we’re late, it’d make more sense for me to drive! I’m faster than you are!”
“Only because you ignore every Stop sign you see!”
“Aw, c’mon Nyamo…”
“You’re drunk!”
“Like that makes a difference.”
Minamo sighed. Arguing with Yukari was a lot like arguing with a wall. Only more frustrating. And a wall probably wouldn’t drive on the other side of the road because it looked like fun. “I’m driving, Yukari.”
She caved. “Fine. But I get to ride in the front with you!”
“You drive too slowly! You could have gotten through that light! You were just overtaken by some old woman doing 40!”
“Yukari, shut up.” Minamo snapped. She was worried about what was going to happen if she and Yukari showed up at school late, especially if Yukari had to explain herself to the principal while still drunk. And her constant criticisms of Minamo’s driving weren’t exactly soothing the gym teacher’s mood.
“Fine, fine.” Yukari pouted and amused herself with the adjustable seat, electric windows, sunroof, air conditioning, CD player and a whole mess of functions that Minamo didn’t even know her car possessed.
Somehow, inexplicably, they eventually managed to get to school on time. Even better, Yukari was sobering up, though the only real way to tell was that her speech was less slurred and her cheeks were less pink. Minamo was reluctant to leave her to teach her class by herself - for the sake of the poor class - but she herself had a class first lesson, so she had to leave her.
By the time morning break rolled around, all Minamo wanted to do was sleep. For about eighteen hours straight. If she had to deal with Yukari every single morning, it would kill her. Glancing at her watch, she realized she had fifteen minutes before her next lesson and decided to try and find her friend, so she left the gym and nearly walked straight into Yukari.
“Nyamo!”
“Are you feeling any better?”
“A bit, I guess. My head’s killing me.”
“You didn’t emotionally scar your class this morning, did you?”
“Would I do that?” Yukari grinned. Minamo chose not to answer.
“Did I turn up at your place really early this morning?”
“Very, very early.” Minamo growled. “You said something about building work and fell straight asleep.”
“Wha?” Yukari paused, looking slightly confused. “Did I…?” the language teacher closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to remember. “Oh yes. Building work. It’s really loud and annoying, so I’m gonna come and stay with you for a bit until it’s done.”
For a moment, Minamo was speechless. “What? You can’t just invite yourself over to live with me!”
“Aw, c’mon Nyamo, it won’t be for long!”
“…fine.” Minamo caved. She cursed herself for giving in so easily, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t say no to Yukari.
“Great! After school I’ll go back to mine and grab some stuff and bring it round to yours, okay?”
“You’re not gonna hassle me for a lift?”
Yukari paused. “Nope. I can walk it by myself.”
Minamo gave her an odd look, but shrugged it off. “Fine, whatever. I’m too tired to care anymore.”
A few hours later, Minamo sat in her room trying to come up with a plan to cope with the next few days, weeks… however long Yukari’s building work was going on for. If this morning was any example, it was doubtful she could survive living with her friend for more than a couple of days. If she kept her sober – which was an ungodly difficult task in anyone’s book – she might survive, but Yukari’s drunkenness had its advantages. She might be more difficult to deal with while drunk, but her total obliviousness was useful, Minamo had learned. Especially when Minamo herself got drunk, too.
“Open up!” came a sudden yell from the other side of the door, accompanied this time by a kicking sound. Minamo quickly ran over to answer it; she didn’t really want to have to pay for a new door if Yukari kicked her existing one off its hinges.
“Damn, those things are heavy!” Yukari cursed, dumping two taped-up cardboard boxes into Minamo’s arms and a couple more onto the couch.
“What on earth have you got in here?” Minamo asked, feeling her spine bending under the weight of the boxes.
“Clothes and crap are in those,” Yukari said, pointing to the boxes on the couch, “and the important stuff is in the ones you’ve got.”
“What kind of ‘important stuff’?” Minamo asked suspiciously, placing the boxes on the floor and carefully opening them, unsure what to expect. When she saw the contents, she sighed. Of course.
“You packed two entire boxes with games and alcohol?”
“I don’t wanna be away from them for too long!” Yukari defended herself.
“I can’t believe this...” Minamo mumbled. “You have two boxes with essential stuff you’re going to need for who knows how long, and you somehow manage to pack the same amount of drink and Gamestations.”
“Gamecube!” Yukari corrected immediately, looking scandalised. “Gamecube and Playstation; not Gamestation!”
“Whatever.” Minamo sighed. She had a horrible feeling that this wasn’t going to end well.
A little while later, after Yukari had installed all her various consoles and arranged the numerous bottles in Minamo’s kitchen, she opened the refrigerator and looked inside, searching for a snack. After about thirty seconds of looking she stood up and glared at Minamo. “You call this a fridge?”
Minamo blinked. “Yes.”
“There’s nothing good in here!”
The P.E. teacher looked inside the refrigerator and gazed upon an assortment of healthy snacks that Yukari would never eat. That said, it was rather empty.
“How do you not starve?” Yukari asked, outraged at the state of emptiness that her friend’s fridge was in.
“There’s plenty of-“
“Let’s go shopping!” she said happily, grabbing Minamo’s arm and pulling her towards the front door. Minamo couldn’t bring herself to resist.
Eventually Yukari persuaded Minamo – the gym teacher’s inability to say no to her friend probably played a large part in this - to let her drive the five-minute journey to the supermarket. Somehow, they didn’t hit anything, though Yukari’s reluctance to use the brake sent Minamo’s heart flying to her mouth on a couple of occasions. They got there in half the time it normally took Minamo, though they had to spend a couple of minutes in the car park waiting for Minamo to get her heartbeat back to normal.
“You wait there and breathe, I’ll go grab a trolley!” Yukari informed her.
“But we don’t need a trolley. I don’t plan on getting that much!” Minamo assured her between breaths.
“Trust me. We do.” with that, she was off.
About half a minute later, a trolley came zooming back into the parking lot, Yukari riding it like a scooter. Minamo sighed. This was going to be one long shopping trip.
“We need some ice cream!” Yukari told Minamo enthusiastically, waving around four different flavors.
“Okay; pick one.” Minamo told her, knowing it was impossible to refuse Yukari anything she really wanted. At least, if she didn’t want blood spilt.
She looked scandalized. “You can’t pick just one flavour of ice cream! There’s gotta be some kind of choice, Nyamo!”
“I’m not buying four different tubs of ice cream. Just pick your favorite and we’ll get it.”
“But I can’t pick just one!”
“How about that one?” Minamo asked, pointing to the Neapolitan, “That’s got three flavors in.”
“But…” Yukari stammered, holding up raspberry ripple, coconut and something Minamo had never even heard of.
The P.E. teacher sighed. “Yukari, I know you want it, but there isn’t room in my freezer for seven types of ice cream.”
“...Fine.” She relented, placing the Neapolitan in the trolley and dumping the other tubs back in the wrong freezers, “But I get to choose what alcohol we get!”
After what must have been over two hours of Minamo telling Yukari that she couldn’t afford all the alcohol she wanted to get, Minamo’s repeated apologies to a poor man that Yukari had run over with the trolley, Minamo’s constant telling her to stop putting her expensive snacks and treats in the trolley without asking, Yukari moaning very loudly and frequently about the length of the queue and the speed at which it was moving along with other things that Minamo probably erased from her memory because they were too traumatic to even think about, they were done.
Yukari offered to help load the shopping bags into the car on the condition that she was allowed to drive home, so Minamo refused and unloaded the trolley herself. Yukari then rode it back to the trolley bay while Minamo tried once more to come up with a plan to survive living with her best friend.
“So what did you think of that guy?” Yukari asked absently, her hand out of the car window and playing with the wing mirror.
Minamo blinked. “Which guy?”
“The one I hit with the trolley.”
Oh. That guy. “What do you mean, what did I think of him? I think he’ll probably make a full recovery.”
“Aw, c’mon Nyamo; I saw the way you were flirting with him.”
Minamo stared at her. “What?”
“And you were blushing the whole time, too!”
Somewhere amid the shock of what Yukari had just said, Minamo’s brain registered that it wasn’t a good idea to stare blankly at your friend while driving, so she returned her gaze to the road, though still in disbelief.
“I was not flirting with him!” she defended herself.
“You were being really nice to him!”
“Because my friend had just nearly killed him!”
“And you were blushing!”
“I was embarrassed that you’d run him over with a supermarket trolley!”
“Face it Nyamo; I could tell you liked him.”
Minamo was completely filled with disbelief. Admittedly, she had been very apologetic to the guy, but mostly because she didn’t want him to press charges. She toyed with the idea of telling Yukari that she didn’t like guys altogether, but had no idea how Yukari would react, so she didn’t.
She’d given up a long while ago on the marriage idea; mostly because once Yukari had once told her that she should do what she wanted with her life and if her family loved her, they’d respect that. Granted, Yukari had been totally drunk – and Minamo was no more sober herself - when she said that, but it had stuck with her.
“For the love of god, at least drive though a green light!” Yukari yelled, jerking Minamo out of her thoughts. She looked ahead and saw Yukari was right; she continued, driving at a speed which probably angered the language teacher beside her, but actually obeyed the speed limits.
Eventually they made it home and Minamo successfully put away the shopping while Yukari ate a bowl of ice cream. Once all the shopping was finally away, Yukari began coming up with suggestions of things that they could do in the evening.
“Why can’t we go drinking?” she moaned.
“Because I can’t afford it!” Minamo told her honestly. After buying everything at the supermarket she was a little low on money, and what little she had left she didn’t want to spend on Yukari’s drinking habit.
“Why don’t we go out to eat?”
“Because I just bought a ton of food, and you know you’ll end up drinking if we go to a restaurant, too!”
“You’re no fun…fine; we’ll just have to stay in and drink.”
Minamo gritted her teeth and sighed. “Fine. I’m going to cook us something to eat first, then we can break open the... whatever it was you made me buy.”
“Fine, fine.” Yukari conceded, nodding.
Minamo made her way out to the kitchen and grabbed a few utensils she’d need. “I’m gonna go and make something now,” she told Yukari, “is there anything you’d particularly like?”
“Crab would be great!” she said excitedly. Minamo took the crab from the fridge and began to prepare it. She noticed Yukari staring at her. “What is it?” she asked.
“Do you want a hand?” Yukari offered. Minamo nearly dropped the saucepan – it seemed that it was a bad idea for her to hold things around Yukari because she would almost certainly end up either dropping them or nearly dropping them when she said something strange.
“You’re offering to help?” Minamo asked, stunned.
“Yes! I’m not that bad at-“
“No, it’s not that.” she said, “It’s that you never offer to help.”
Yukari stopped and stared at her some more. “Well, it happens sometimes.” Then she grinned. “Just don’t expect it to happen every day.”
It transpired that whatever Yukari was going to say about her not being that bad at cooking was a complete lie. Minamo was not a fantastic chef herself, only used to cooking a few simple dishes for herself on the occasions when she and Yukari didn’t go out to eat, but Minamo quickly learned that Yukari armed with a ladle and spatula was quite possibly more dangerous than Yukari behind the wheel. Which was really saying something.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the heart to tell Yukari to go and sit down before she destroyed the kitchen after her generous offer to help, so she allowed her to continue wreaking havoc with seasoning, cooking books and things Minamo didn’t even know it was possible to wreak havoc with.
Once Minamo had cleared up the giant mess that Yukari had made all over the kitchen surfaces, floor, ceiling… they sat down at the table to eat. Despite the numerous mini-explosions that had taken place during its creation, the meal was actually very delicious. Yukari certainly seemed to think so, as she ate the whole thing in under ten minutes and then stared impatiently at Minamo while she took another ten to finish.
After Minamo had finished and cleared the plates away, Yukari skipped joyfully into the living room, a bottle in each hand. Minamo joined her on the couch and flipped on the television while Yukari opened a bottle. “Anything you want to watch?” Minamo asked.
A little later, both women were pretty drunk, not to mention a little riled up following Yukari’s suggestion that they played each other on the Playstation. After a victory dance by Yukari to celebrate her third successive victory over Minamo, they both lay on the couch, a little flushed.
Minamo suddenly became uncomfortably aware that she was using Yukari as a pillow. She knew she should move, but it felt warm and relaxing… being cuddled up so close to her friend gave her a strange feeling of comfort and security and, even though she knew she should, she really didn’t want to move. She was silently hoping that the language teacher was too drunk to notice, but she suddenly realized Yukari was grinning down at her.
“I’m really glad you’re a stupid P.E. teacher.” Yukari mumbled to herself. Minamo blinked. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Why?” Minamo demanded, pushing herself up so she was at eye level with her best friend. Unfortunately, she used the closest thing available to push herself up with, and this happened to be Yukari’s thigh. Minamo hoped her face was already flushed enough so Yukari didn’t notice her suddenly blushing horribly.
“Nothing.” Yukari said, looking like she didn’t want to have to explain herself.
Minamo didn’t have the energy to press it out of her, so she sighed and slid back down to her original position – her head resting on Yukari’s shoulder.
“I can’t be bothered to play any more.” Yukari sighed, using the remote control to flick the television off. This, however, suddenly made both women acutely aware of how quiet and dark it was, as well as of their proximity to one another.
“Sure is quiet.” Yukari said, breaking the silence.
Quiet… something clicked in Minamo’s brain. She probably wouldn’t normally say something, but alcohol flooded her system and lowered any inhibitions she would have otherwise had.
“Yukari…?” Minamo asked slowly, looking up at her friend.
“Yeah?”
“You came over to mine because of the building work going on at yours, right?”
Yukari’s eyes widened a little. “Yeah.”
“The building work was stopping you sleeping, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Yukari?”
There was a pause. “…Yeah?”
“Nobody does building work at three in the morning. Especially in residential areas.”
Yukari suddenly found her glass, which was half-filled with sake, incredibly interesting. “Crap.” She mumbled to herself.
“Yukari, why did you want to come over to my house so badly?” Minamo asked, things suddenly falling into place. “There never was any building work, was there?”
Yukari’s gaze never left her glass. “No.”
“Well then, why- “
Minamo was cut off by Yukari suddenly pressing her lips against hers. Minamo stiffened and gasped in surprise before feeling grateful she was lying on the couch because if they were kissing while standing up, there was no way she could have remained standing.
Just as Minamo began to kiss back, Yukari pulled away, smiling broadly.
“We...you…” Minamo stammered, totally unable to organize her thoughts into anything resembling a coherent sentence.
“Yes we did. Yeah I do.” Yukari said, looking very pleased with herself.
Words betrayed Minamo yet again, so she did the only thing that made sense to her – she kissed Yukari again.
Yukari ran her tongue across Minamo’s lips and the gym teacher opened her mouth to allow her entry. Minamo gave a noise that was something between a sigh and a moan, totally melting into Yukari’s embrace. She wasn’t sure how many times she had fantasized about doing this, but she did know that, in terms of how wonderful it felt, the fantasies didn’t even come close.
Eventually they broke apart, still hugging each other close, never really wanting to leave the others’ embrace.
“You’re not such a stupid P.E. teacher after all.” Yukari grinned. Minamo was inclined to agree.
The End