Work Text:
“Natsuki? Hello?”
Natsuki’s eyes slowly open to the unexpected sight of Yuri leaning over the desk, face inches away. Shit. She jolts backwards, running her fingers through her hair as she returns to her senses. At least thirty minutes ago, after completing her seventh reread of the Parfait Girls box set she keeps in the literature club, she had decided to move to a desk to rest her head (and maybe watch over her clubmates). It seems she fell asleep, and Yuri must be here to scold her.
“Geez, Yuri! Personal space! What do you want?” She asks. Yuri, as Natsuki expected, starts fidgeting with her hair. “Monika noticed that you were asleep, and she left me with the task of waking you. I-I had planned to stay to speak with you after club, anyhow, s-so do not think of that responsibility as a burden on me!” Natsuki cocks her head sideways in intrigue. “You wanted to talk to me?”
Yuri takes a moment to compose herself and breathe before speaking. “Yes. Monika and Sayori are… Less than approachable, and so that leaves me with you.” After noticing Natsuki’s sour expression, her face pales. “N-Not that you are less desirable than them! Or that I d-dislike the other two, I-It’s just that my problem leaves me in a rather.. Vulnerable position, and d-despite our arguments you-”
Natsuki cuts off her rambling with a giggle. She once thought there’d be a snowball’s chance in hell for this girl to ever approach her with a problem, but it looks like even hell can get cold enough. She stretches and places her chin on her hands à la Monika. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. What’s up? Did a hot guy ask you out?”
An uncomfortable silence fills the room. Yuri stares intensely at the floor. Natsuki, for a second, worries that she hit the nail on the head. Maybe it was a little rude to make a guess like that. “...I wanted to ask you for help with organising my school bag.”
Natsuki can’t stop herself from letting out a quiet “Huh?” before covering her mouth with her hand. The idea is absurd to her. Yuri, the most graceful, prepared girl in the club sincerely coming to Natsuki, the brat of the group, for help with organising? Hell really has frozen over, hasn’t it? She quietly stifles a laugh. “You’re joking, right? I bet Sayori thought this prank would be…” She stops herself after seeing Yuri’s determined expression. Her hands are trembling holding her hair. Oh shit, she’s serious. “You’re not joking?”
Yuri shakes her head. Without a word she trods across the classroom and retrieves her backpack. She places it on the desk with a heavy thud. “B-Between my extracurriculars and my household duties, I’ve let the situation become dire enough to require help…”
Unzipping the bag, Natsuki is left in awe at the sheer density of books, papers, and miscellaneous school supplies. It’s staggering to her how much is crammed into the moderately-sized compartments. “I can see that..” She mutters, searching for an angle of attack. “Let’s dump it all out and figure out what goes in the trash.” Yuri responds quickly with a hesitant look. “Please do not ‘dump out’ the contents of my bag. I worry there may be a tea set in there..”
One by one, the two girls work together to unearth the contents. While Natsuki works to fish out loose pencils and folded papers, Yuri carefully rescues the books packed tightly together and sets them on an adjacent desk. Numerous textbooks, novels, an old dictionary that Natsuki recognises from a club session weeks ago, old homework, and assignments breathe fresh air again after seemingly a long time. Once they’ve dug deep enough, Yuri lets out a relieved sigh. “I’d been looking for this for the longest time.” She remarks as she carefully pulls out a dark cobalt leather case.
She looks embarrassed as she continues. “I think I planned to give this to Monika as a ‘thank you’ for letting me join the club. Sayori, um… Talked me out of it. She told me it would be inappropriate.” Natsuki looks over from her piles of homework. “Oh, is that the tea set? Cool! Lemme see!” Yuri traces her finger across the gold zipper. “I-I would rather not open it. I may decide to give this as a gift in the future.”
An ever-so-slightly dejected Natsuki crosses her arms. “Like, to me? Flattering, but I’d burn myself trying to make my first cup.” She teases. Yuri tenses up for a moment, her face suddenly hotter than it was earlier. She turns away from Natsuki, muttering a hasty “Not particularly to you…” before returning her focus to the bag.
Natsuki can’t help but blink in amazement. She’s never seen this side of Yuri before. She’s seen her being anxious or shy, but never flustered. Usually her teasing is met with a cold shoulder or a firm retort that leads to an argument, not… That. She makes a mental note that Yuri’s embarrassment is as infectious as her laughter and returns to her task.
“Alright, that’s all my work done! How’s it going, Yuri?” Natsuki chimes after finishing her assigned task of sorting through the loose papers. Yuri freezes like a deer in the headlights, and Natsuki notices the book in her hand. Oh my god. “Is that ‘Camellias in spring’ by Kanna Akiyama?!” She blurts out, rushing over. Yuri slams the book into her chest and wraps her arms around it defensively, but Natsuki can still see the fancy embossed hardcover clear as day. “N-NO! IT’S NOT!” She shouts.
“Pffft! You’re seriously carrying lesbian smut around at school?! Hahaha!” Natsuki heartily laughs, tilting and angling herself to peek while Yuri turns away to hide it. “Damn, Yuri! I didn’t know you were into that! Is that a bookmark in the middle?!” Yuri brings the book up to cover her face, utterly mortified. “I-IT’S NOT MINE..!” Natsuki snorts in response. “Oh, yeah? You must’ve got it from the library, huh? Hahaha!”
Natsuki’s laughter fills the room as she continues to tease the purple haired girl relentlessly, her sides stinging from how funny it is. “W-WELL, THIS NOVEL WAS ONLY RELEASED TWO WEEKS AGO! H-How would you know about it?!” Yuri yells, uncovering her face to make eye contact with Natsuki. Immediately the room falls silent. Natsuki’s expression changes first from a teasing smile into neutral contemplation, and then into a look of horror. “K-Kanna Akiyama isn’t at all a widely known author, and this release is marketed more as a drama than as lesbian erotica…” Yuri trails off, seemingly realising something of her own.
As they stare at each other, the tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. Yuri clutches the book to her chest and wishes she was anywhere else, while Natsuki laments the dire blunder she just made. She clears her throat and looks at the stack of books. “Let’s just, uh… Forget I ever said anything, yeah?” She chuckles weakly. Yuri lets out a quiet “Okay.” and tucks the novel back into her bag.
The two of them returned to organising Yuri’s bag. Once they were done, they exchanged a knowing look and a brief goodbye before going home separately. By the next literature club session, they were back to arguing as if nothing had happened.