Work Text:
Kumiko woke up a whole hour ahead of her usual alarm.
It was definitely not by choice.
She rolled away from the noise at first, half asleep and too tried to care if a giant bee had gotten into her room.
But the bee was relentless as well as huge. Bit by bit it buzzed her up out of the soft fluff of nothing and back towards the horror of having to be an actual semi-functional human person.
Rolling back over she slapped at her nightstand, pinning the weirdly flat bee in place.
It buzzed again.
It kinda felt less like a giant bee an more like her phone.
Kumiko groaned. “Why, god? Have I really done anything to deserve this…?”
Her phone’s next buzz sounded almost smug.
Sliding it off the nightstand she dropped it next to her on the pillow. A swipe, a tap, and a single slightly hoarse question followed.
“Goood morn-!”
“What time is it?”
There was a pause as Asuka checked.
“Five-fifteen. Also known as time to grab a little practice before the day begins!”
Pushing her face into her pillow Kumiko let out another groan, longer and louder but mostly muffled.
“If that’s your secret to becoming a great euph player then I change my mind. I’m switching to drums first thing when I get to school.”
“You’d be a good percussionist.” Asuka agreed with a smile Kumiko didn’t have to see to get irritated at. “You have good rhythm and already know how to play my heart like a drum~”
Shit.
“Flatterer.” Kumiko grumbled, trying to hold onto her irritation as her face heated up, perfectly aware her blush would show in her voice even so.
“-But in the end the euph is a manifestation of your very soul, Oumae-chan. It picked you for a reason!”
That got a snort. “My teacher picked it for me because the trombones were already full and no one else wanted the bizarre mini-tuba.”
“Exactly! It was a fated meeting.”
“Sure. Right.”
A yawn left Kumiko spitting out a stray curl and a mouth full of pillow.
“Fate and souls… Can I go back to bed now?”
“Ab-so-lute-ly not!”
Kumiko opened her eyes just so she could roll them in exasperation.
She’d known the answer before she even heard it, of course. Asuka wouldn’t be this cheery if she was still at home and her practice spot was close enough to reach at this disgusting hour of the not-yet day. But getting to whine a bit was the only thing keeping Kumiko from crawling over to the window and chucking her phone as far away from the house as she could, so she felt it was deserved.
There was fuzzy clunk as Asuka set her phone down on something. Then the sounds on the other end of the line turned slightly hollow and tinny- Kumiko’d been put on speakerphone.
“Now.”
The familiar sound of cloth rasping on smooth metal floated into her room. Against her will Kumiko felt herself perking up.
God she was so predictable…
“You don’t have to get out of bed for this, Kumiko-han.” Asuka reassured her. “You don’t even have to sit up since you don’t have your euph at home. Just practice the fingering while I play for us both, okay?”
With a sigh Kumiko grabbed the phone and pressed to her ear- Or to the mass of bedhead covering her ear, anyway.
“Alright.” She croaked, then cleared her throat. “But if I fall asleep listening to you I get to stay asleep. You can’t wake me up again, even if I snore.”
It was way too easy to imagine the grin that must have flashed across Asuka’s face.
“So I just have to keep you awake by whatever means?” She hummed thoughtfully. Kumiko heard a few warm-up scales, then an evil chuckle.
“Challenge accepted!”
And that was how Kumiko sold her mornings to the devil.
She didn’t feel so bad about it, honestly, no matter how groggy she’d sounded answering the phone.
At least her devil was helping her with the extra practice. And her devil was a damn good euph player. And cute.
It was also nice to picture Asuka there, dark hair brushed over one shoulder, glasses shining under the pearly pre-dawn light, euph in lap and phone laying at her side. Asuka sitting on her own but knowing that somewhere across the city Kumiko was leaning back in bed and playing phantom keys in time with her.
And if she was being really honest, knowing Asuka wasn’t completely alone on the riverbank today, and wanted to not be alone with her specifically, that was a good feeling too.
A really good one.
-
Kumiko slumped into the kitchen a bit less than an hour later, after waking up for the second time that day.
Her mom blinked at her from the kitchen table.
“You’re up early.”
“Mm.” Bypassing any actual breakfast food Kumiko headed straight to the fridge. “’Morning.”
“I didn’t even have to chase you out of your room.” Marveled her mom, too shocked by this to comment as Kumiko poured a glass of juice and scavenged some cold leftovers.
“And you even look somewhat happy to be awake- Are you really my youngest daughter?”
A prickle of irritation swept over Kumiko.
Maybe there was a reason she normally avoided coming out of her room until right before she had to leave for school…
She took a breath, half wanting to actually say the thought out loud.
But her breathing exercises from earlier were still fresh in her mind and she found herself falling back into them without even meaning to. Almost at once her annoyance started to fade.
She was so surprised to feel it go she glanced over at her mom, who was watching her a small, proud little smile.
The last of Kumiko’s annoyance slipped away.
“… I’m just trying not to fail as a second year.” She said blankly. “I guess.”
The hand not holding her juice flexed, fingers moving as she redid a part she’d stumbled over when Asuka had played it. This time she thought she got it right.
Lifting her glass Kumiko took another gulp of juice to hide her smile. If her mom was this surprised to see her up so early, then actually seeing Kumiko smile before ten might actually freak her out a little. And if her mom asked why she was smiling she wasn’t sure she’d be awake enough to stop herself answering truthfully.
‘The girl I’m in love with called me at five in the morning.’ She thought giddily. ‘Just so I could keep her company while she played our song…’
‘How am I not supposed to be happy after waking up to something like that?’
-An hour and several minutes earlier, somewhere near the other side of the city.-
-
Asuka crept carefully through the house, sticking close to the walls to avoid the squeaker parts of the floor.
Yet again she wondered at how someone could make it feel like they were hovering disapprovingly over you even when they were fast asleep.
That woman didn’t even know about Asuka’s early morning ritual, Asuka having made sure to keep it secret since she started at the age of nine, but her hissed remonstrations still followed the high school graduate to all the way the front door.
Grabbing her sandals she stepped out into the pre-dawn twilight. One last check at her pocked for her phone- Yes there is was safe and snug- And then is was just a matter of easing the door closed on well-oiled hinges.
The latch clicking softly shut behind her brought an instant feeling of relief.
Asuka took a deep breath of clear morning air, giving the euphonium under her arm a light squeeze as she headed off down the road.
She was free, at least for the moment. Free to go where she liked and play as much as she wanted, so long as she was back home before That Woman woke up… So, maybe not exactly ‘free’ in the proper sense of the word…
The bitterness she usually felt over that just wouldn’t come today, though, just as the house’s watchful miasma had failed to completely rid her of the small smile she’d woken up with.
Again she touched the phone sitting in her jeans pocket.
Just checking, or rather triple checking by this point, and imagining she could feel the series of texts that had started a week ago and never quite reached a stopping point.
Goodnights had run into good mornings and odd comments. Traded quips, a snap of Asuka’s untied shoelaces captioned ‘seeing how long I can get away with it >:)’ which got a thumbs up emoji in return and a dry ‘make sure u send a pic of the bruise u get falling on ur face. i’m gonna wanna frame it’.
Then a six second video of a tiny cactus with a dispirited euph blatting softly in the background, ‘life goals’, Kumiko texted.
Asuka had been snickering as she typed back ‘or wife goals? <3 ??’ knowing full well she’d get a delayed ‘shut up’ and savoring every second she spent waiting for it.
Free, she thought to herself again as the river came into view, an almost jaunty skip in her step.
Wasn’t it odd how getting closer to someone could make the world feel wider than it ever had before?
She’d always assumed it’d be the opposite- Actually, she was still fairly sure that with anyone else it would be- But that was the wonderful thing about euphoniums and euphonium-like girls. It was why she loved them both.
Love was also the reason she was going to get away with what she was about to do next.
The first step of which was to find her usual spot on the river bank.
Step two involved Asuka fishing out her phone, scrolling through the contacts with a smile, and starting her second ever call with a certain fluffy-haired girl.
A girl who had listened when Asuka played and spoken up even when it left her teary-eyed and shaking.
A girl who had said she once hated her, an ice cold stab to the gut which Asuka had tried to laugh off– Only for Kumiko to cut past her and confess that she didn’t feel that way anymore. That now, somewhere along the way, she’d fallen in love with her.
Typical Oumae-chan, Asuka hummed to herself as she flicked quickly to the girl’s name. She had very little tolerance for ‘bullshit’ when real feelings were on the line.
Aaaand she was probably expecting she’d have another hour or so of unbroken sleep ahead of her. Too bad~
Tapping her phone’s screen Asuka pressed it to her ear and grinned, feeling perfectly warm despite the morning’s chill.
Someday she’d have to answer the confession with a proper one of her own. But for now this was all she could do and she knew that, for now, for the girl who would be listening, this much was more than enough.