Sukeban

Mami was in her room.

That was all that Tomomi could really think about at the moment, she was still trying to process what was happening. Mami was really in her room, except she was acting really different right now. She looked like Mami and she sounded like Mami, but she wasn’t acting like her. The usually bold and confident girl was curled up against the wall, her body shaking as the water dripped from the matted and tangled hair that stuck to her face. Tomomi couldn’t even see Mami’s face and it had been that way since Mami came tapping at her window.

Tomomi had no idea what was going on and she had no idea how to react to it. She had been innocently washing dishes when she heard something loud bang against the kitchen window. Against her better judgment, Tomomi had approached the window, peering outside only to see that Mami was the one knocking on the window. Tomomi was quick to drop what she had been doing to rush outside and pull Mami into the house. She didn’t even think twice about it. When she saw Mami out in that storm, the only thing she could think about was getting her out of it.

She hadn’t even thought about her parents until after Mami was already in the kitchen, slumped against the counter with her breathing heavy and her body shaking. Only after she heard her parents’ voices in the living room did she remember they were home and she had just pulled Mami into her house. It was practically ruining everything she’d been working for over the last two days.

When Tomomi had left the principal’s office on Thursday, he had failed to let Tomomi know that her parents would be informed about the fight. She only found out about that when her parents came home and started in on her. It had sent her into a nearly panicked state. Her parents were going on and on about how Tomomi might need more supervision and meanwhile, she was hiding the cause of that fight in her room. Things like that just didn’t mix very well. Tomomi was terrified that her parents would surprise her by checking up on her and catch Rina. But the brunette had gotten a lucky break, her parents never checked up on her once that night.

But Tomomi wasn’t so sure that she could get that lucky again.

“I think we should get you a change of clothes,” Tomomi said, finally breaking her thoughts and returning to reality. From where she sat curled into a ball, Mami only nodded. The brunette could only let out a soft sigh as she walked over to her closest to look for some clothes that Mami could fit into. This was more than just slightly awkward for Tomomi.

Tomomi didn’t know why Mami was here or why she was wandering around in a storm, but the brunette fully intended to figure that out. Mami and the others did a lot of dangerous things, but she couldn’t think of any reason why any of them would be out in a storm like this. The rain had started off a small drizzle but it quickly turned into a downpour fully equipped with thunder, something Tomomi hated with a passion.

“I think these should fit,” Tomomi said as she pulled out the articles of clothing. Tomomi had pulled out a simple black t-shirt with matching black pajama bottoms. It would be good enough so they could get Mami out of her soaked clothes, she could always change back once they dried.

Tomomi twirled around, walking back over to Mami. She grabbed the towel that was laid over the back of her desk chair. She’d used it to dry her hair this morning but it should still be good for Mami to use to dry her own hair.

“Here.” Tomomi stretched out the towel to Mami. She noticed the blonde look up at her through a parting in the matted locks. The blonde slowly reached out a hand, grabbing the towel from Tomomi.

“Thank you,” she murmured. That was the first time Tomomi had ever heard Mami speak so lowly and soft. It kind of made her scared to hear, it made it sound like things were a lot worse than Tomomi had originally thought. Tomomi had to wonder just what could have happened to Mami to turn her into this.

She stood back on her heels and watched as Mami draped the towel over her head, rubbing it back and forth gently in an effort to dry herself off a bit. Tomomi slowly leaned forward, setting the clothing on the floor next to the shivering girl.

“You can change into that, okay?” After Tomomi’s words, silence filled the room. The brunette watched as Mami’s eyes went in-between her and the clothes. It took her a few seconds for Mami’s very obvious thoughts to process in Tomomi’s mind. “O-oh! I promise I won’t watch. I’ll turn around.”

Tomomi was happy to see a small smile ghost onto what she could see of Mami’s face. The blonde nodded to her, giving her the silent agreement. Tomomi gave her a smile back before carefully walking over to the bed, sitting down on it with her back facing Mami.

The silence came back to the room, the only noise being a soft rustling behind her. She could only assume that it was Mami actually changing. She was glad Mami agreed to do it, that girl could be bullheaded at times.

“Mami… Can you tell me why you’re here? I-I mean… It’s not like I don’t want you here, I don’t mind it. I’m just curious is all…” Tomomi talked quickly, her two index fingers tapping themselves together as she did so. She didn’t want to upset Mami any further than she already seemed. Tomomi didn’t hear an answer; instead she just heard the continuous rustling behind her.

From behind her, Mami pulled the pants up and over her hips, straightening out the shirt she’d already put on. She had to admit, it felt nice to be in some warm clothes after she’d spent so long in ones so soaked that they had started sticking to her body. And they fit her pretty nicely too. Tomomi and Mami were almost the same height, but they had different body types. Mami was a bit more muscular than Tomomi was so she weighed a bit more. Mami had wondered if she could fit into Tomomi’s clothes but the clothes were actually pretty baggy on her. Considering they were pajamas, it didn’t surprise Mami. Most people did like sleeping in loose fitting clothes.

Mami let her former clothes fall to the floor as her eyes drifted over to Tomomi. Coming to Tomomi’s house wasn’t her first option. In fact, it had been her last resort. Whenever something like this happened, she would always just go over to Haruna’s house. But she knew that she couldn’t do that. She had called Haruna this time as well but she hadn’t gotten a response and Mami knew that meant one thing. She was with Rina and Mami knew that Haruna was planning to talk to Rina about Hana. Mami didn’t feel it would have been right to go over; she knew Haruna would have enough to deal with just with that. Besides, something like that was better discussed alone between the two of them.

She knew Aina’s house was out of the question. She knew from earlier that Aina’s parents had come home earlier than expected by surprise and they had to scramble to get Rina out of her house and find her another place to stay. In the end, they decided on Haruna’s house. Her parents had left earlier in the day so it had worked out for them it seemed. Yukako never answered her phone and Mami knew that meant that Yukako was probably fighting with her own parents. Sumire was never an option and Hinako wasn’t at home.

Mami couldn’t go home. She knew she’d do something she’d regret if she went home in this kind of state, so she went to the last person she could think of. Tomomi. She knew where Tomomi lived and she had her number, although she hadn’t bothered texting Tomomi before she came over. She didn’t even think about doing that, she hadn’t been thinking clearly since it happened.

“Please answer me…” The pleading voice of Tomomi woke Mami back to reality. Mami smiled at the pleading tone that she had used. She was just so sensitive, it was kind of sweet. It was a different change of pace to be around someone so sensitive.

“You can turn around now,” Mami said, ignoring Tomomi’s question from earlier. Mami watched as Tomomi turned around to look at the blonde, her eyes lighting up when she saw that Mami had indeed changed. But she noticed something peculiar. Mami had fashioned her still wet hair in a way that covered nearly the entire right side of her face. Now Tomomi was positive that Mami was trying to hide something.

Pushing the thoughts out of her mind for the second, she pushed herself off the bed. She walked over to where Mami was, picking up the wet shirt and jeans that the blonde had been wearing. She draped the jeans and shirt over one of the dressers in her room before turning back to Mami.

“Why do you keep covering your face?” Tomomi blurted out. She hadn’t meant to ask it so directly but it kind of worked. Asking it directly would probably have been the best option.

Tomomi saw Mami’s body tense up before she could hear a low sigh from the blonde. Mami had really been hoping Tomomi wouldn’t ask that, but she didn’t know why she’d been bothering to hope that at all. Tomomi always asked about what made her curious. But this time, Mami wasn’t sure she wanted to give Tomomi an answer. Something like this wasn’t exactly what she needed to know.

“That’s not important…”

“Please let me see,” Tomomi said quickly, cutting off the blonde. She heard Mami give another sigh but also saw Mami hesitantly reach up. Mami let out a shaky breath before pulling her hair aside, tucking it nearly behind her ear.

She instantly regretted it when she heard the gasp from Tomomi. She looked back over at the brunette to see that her hands had flown up to her mouth, her eyes wide as she stared at Mami. On Mami’s face, just above her right eye, a nasty cut had been left. The cut wasn’t that big but it was still enough to alarm Tomomi. It looked pretty deep.

“What happened?!” Tomomi shrieked. Her hands flew back up to her mouth because of her shriek. She had to remember to be quieter, she didn’t want her parents hearing and bursting into her room. That was the last thing she needed right now. She didn’t need them to know she was violating their trust again.

“You shouldn’t shout so loud,” Mami mused aloud, going back to ignoring Tomomi’s questions. She leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest as her head bent downwards again.

“Mami, don’t ignore my question. Did you get into a fight?” Mami couldn’t help the scoff that left her at Tomomi’s question. Of course that would be the first place Tomomi’s mind would go to. That was always the first place everyone’s mind went to whenever Mami was involved, it was sort of her reputation after all.

“Maybe. I do get into fights all the time, isn’t that right?” Tomomi recoiled back from the tone that Mami had used. It sounded like a mixture of anger and hurt. She hadn’t meant to hurt Mami with her words.

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

“There’s really only one way to mean a question like that.”

Tomomi bit down on her lip hard, her eyes leaving Mami to gaze at the floor. Seeing her do this, Mami felt the guilt wash over her. Sometimes, she forgot about how sensitive Tomomi was. This is why she didn’t want to go home; she knew she wouldn’t be able to control her anger. But she didn’t want to be taking it out on Tomomi either. She could just leave but being alone would be the only option, and being alone was the last thing Mami wanted.

“I’m really sorry, Mami. Please don’t be mad at me.” Mami sighed heavily, letting her body fall against the wall before she slid down to the carpet below. Now she had upset Tomomi, she was certainly on a roll today with this. “Why won’t you tell me what happened?”

“Because it’s not important!” Mami snapped. As soon as she’d done it, she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, shaking her head. She had to control herself; Tomomi didn’t deserve to be treated like that. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.”

“It’s fine…”

It wasn’t fine though. Nothing about this was “fine”. Mami was considering telling Tomomi what had happened. She was considering telling her of the fight she had with her mother but then she was also considering the questions Tomomi could ask if she did say it. Those questions are what Mami didn’t want to face, she wasn’t ready to let Tomomi pry that deep into her personal life just yet.

“Are you tired?” Mami looked over at Tomomi, raising an eyebrow at her question. The brunette was smiling at her, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. Mami knew she was making a desperate attempt to change the subject.

“A bit.” That was a bit of a lie. Mami wasn’t just “a bit” tired. She was exhausted. Wandering around in the pouring rain wasn’t easy on anyone, even someone like Mami. “Would it be okay if I stayed here tonight? I’d rather not go home…”

“Y-yeah… You can stay here,” Tomomi said softly. She saw Mami smile at her answer. The blonde pushed herself off of the wall, coming over to sit on the bed next to Tomomi. “But only if you answer one question for me.”

Mami’s body froze at the sentence Tomomi had added on. She let a small chuckle escape her. She was becoming just as deceiving and sneaky as the rest of them were, they were really teaching her well. Right now, Mami didn’t really want to play these games but she did need a place to say for the night. Seeing as she had no other option of someplace to go, it looked like she had no other option but to play Tomomi’s game.

“What’s your question?”

“Why did you come to me? Wasn’t there someone else you could have gone to?” Mami didn’t respond right away to Tomomi’s question. For a girl who had said she didn’t mind Mami being here, Mami was really getting the impression that Tomomi wanted her to leave with how often she kept asking questions like that.

“Do you not want me here?” Mami asked, speaking the thoughts that went through her mind. If Tomomi really wanted her to, she would leave. She didn’t want to but she also didn’t want to force Tomomi to let her stay if the girl really didn’t want to.

“N-no! It’s not like that. I just… We’re not that close and you’re so much closer to everyone else so I don’t understand why you came to me and I was just wondering. I didn’t mean to make it sound so bad.” Mami laughed at the rambling girl, Tomomi’s fingers tapping themselves together again as she rambled on. Mami reached a hand out, laying it on Tomomi’s shoulder, causing her to instantly stop talking.

“You don’t have to always be so scared around me; I’m really not going to hurt you.”

“That’s kind of funny when I remember yesterday,” Tomomi murmured softly. Mami let out a heavy sigh, her body falling back onto the soft comforter of Tomomi’s bed. So that’s what this was all about.

“Tomomi, look, I’m sorry I did that but you had to learn some way. If you don’t learn how to fight, what I did yesterday will seem like nothing compared to what other people will do to you. I didn’t want to hurt you but I had to, you wouldn’t respond to me any other way.”

Tomomi looked back at Mami, her eyes filled with curiosity. She never expected an answer like that from Mami.

“Will you answer my question?” Tomomi asked, choosing to not push the subject anymore. She could see Mami’s eyes flicker over to her. Mami was debating on whether to tell her the truth or not. The truth could hurt someone as sensitive as Tomomi, but lying wouldn’t exactly help in this situation. Tomomi would definitely find out about it.

“If you want the truth then you’re right, you weren’t my first choice. You were my last choice. No one else was around so I came to the last person I could think of, which happened to be you, Tomomi. To be frank, I didn’t think you’d actually let me in your house. But I’m thankful that you did.”

“Oh…” It was the only response Tomomi could think of to make. She had hoped that Mami would have thought to come to her sooner than that but she couldn’t say it surprised her. Mami and Tomomi weren’t close; someone like Mami would never make her their first choice when it came to things like this… Whatever “this” was. It had just occurred to Tomomi that Mami had never properly answered that question.

“Tomo, are you tired?” Tomomi looked back down at Mami, the blonde now staring right at her. “Maybe it’s time you went to sleep.”

“You should sleep too, you know,” Tomomi pointed out. She heard the blonde laugh as Mami pushed herself up into a sitting position again.

“Of course I’ll sleep too. But um… Where should I?” Tomomi stared at Mami, her mind processing what she had said. It took a few seconds for Tomomi to realize.

“Oh! That’s right!” Tomomi exclaimed suddenly. She hadn’t thought about where Mami would actually sleep when she agreed to let the blonde stay over. “Well… I-I guess you could sleep in the bed with me… If you don’t mind of course.” Tomomi could feel her cheeks heating up as she said her words, it didn’t really help any when she heard Mami start laughing.

“You’re so red right now, Tomo,” she managed to get out in-between her laughs. Tomomi was such a shy person. “I don’t mind. You don’t have to be so shy, you know.”

“I-I’m not being shy!” Tomomi stuttered in defense, which had only made Mami laugh that much more. She felt the blonde sling an arm over her shoulder, pulling Tomomi close to her. Tomomi yelped softly, pushing herself away from Mami.

“Just get some rest,” Mami said, patting Tomomi on the head.

***

Mami sat cross legged on the end of the bed, her eyes staring intently through the darkness at the sleeping Tomomi. She had the covers pulled up to her chin, having wrapped herself tightly in them. Mami had tried to sleep, but she wasn’t getting very far. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep with all these thoughts going through her mind.

Mami let out a small sigh as she dropped her head into her hands, her fingertips slowly beginning to rub small circles in her skin. She could feel one of her fingers graze against her cut, making her wince. She hated it when this happened. The fighting happened between them happened all of the time, but she hated when the proof of it would be in such an obvious spot. She hated all the questions that came with. Although, most didn’t even ask anymore. Everyone just didn’t care of they knew she wouldn’t answer them. Tomomi was the first one to ask in quite a while.

Mami couldn’t help but wonder what Tomomi would say if she could see the things that went on in her house. Thinking about it, the blonde couldn’t help her smile. Tomomi was such a sweet girl; she’d probably try to stop it. And that’s why she couldn’t know, Tomomi was far too sweet and sensitive to know something like that. This was one of Mami’s best kept secrets, only the girls knew but even if Tomomi was one of them, she didn’t intend to tell her. Not just yet anyway.

Mami was startled out of her thoughts when she heard the soft talking outside of Tomomi’s bedroom. Cursing under her breath, Mami scrambled off the bed, dashing to hide behind the dresser in Tomomi’s room. She’d only just hidden when she heard the door open. Mami peered around the side of the dresser, squinting through the darkness to see that Tomomi’s parents had come in.

“Do you think we were too harsh on her?” Tomomi’s mother asked. She reached down, brushing some of Tomomi’s hair out of her face. Mami could see Tomomi stir, but it didn’t look like she had woken up.

“We did the right thing, dear. I know Tomomi doesn’t like getting yelled at, but we can’t let her go down a bad path. I know this is what was best for her.”

Mami could hear Tomomi’s mother sigh softly as she leaned down, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead. Her husband wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling his wife out of the room. Once the door was shut, Mami came out of her hiding place, moving to stand in front of the dresser as she slipped down to the floor, her back pressed tightly against it. Tomomi really was a lucky girl. To have parents who cared about her so much made her very lucky in Mami’s eyes.

Mami leaned her head back against the dresser just as a loud clap of thunder echoed throughout the room. She could hear a gasp, her eyes instantly darting over to where Tomomi was sleeping, except she wasn’t sleeping anymore. Tomomi had been scared awake by the loud thunder; this is why she always hated storms like this. The thunder always scared her. Tomomi wrapped her arms around her body and even in the dark; Mami could see that the brunette was shaking.

“Scared of the thunder, huh?” Mami asked. Tomomi looked over at Mami. In her moment of fear, she had actually forgotten that Mami was here. But why was she all the way over there? Why wasn’t she asleep? Now was not the time for Mami to go back to being a difficult person.

“A little…” Tomomi whispered out. It was barely hearable to the blonde on the other side of the room. Mami smiled at Tomomi’s confession.

“You’re such a little scaredy cat,” Mami teased lightly. She pushed herself off of the floor, making her way back over to the bed. She sat down next to Tomomi and she could feel Tomomi’s eyes watching her every movement.

Mami laid a hand lightly on Tomomi’s shoulder, pushing her back. The brunette let out a squeak as she was forced back down into a laying position, a smiling Mami hovering over her. Mami was so close to her right now, maybe just a little too close for comfort.

“Go back to sleep, Tomo. I’ll be right here; nothing will hurt you as long as I’m here.” Tomomi could feel the blush creeping onto her cheeks at Mami’s words. Right now, she was really glad it was so dark, even Mami wouldn’t be able to see her blush in this darkness.

Mami was just being so sweet and protective again, just like Tomomi had wanted her to be. Tomomi knew she was doing this probably because the girls had finally accepted her as one of them, she knew it was just because they were friends now but… Tomomi almost wished it could mean a little more. She didn’t know why she felt that way but she did and right now, she didn’t want to fight her feelings. She just wanted to enjoy having the sweet and soft Mami by her side, even though she knew that this Mami would probably disappear in the morning when Mami would no doubt be feeling better.

Tomomi rolled onto her side, giving a small yawn as her eyes fluttered shut. Mami looked down at Tomomi, her smile growing. At this moment, Tomomi looked a bit like a child. She leaned back against the wall, her eyes looking up at the ceiling. She was thinking of all that had happened these last few days.

In a way, Tomomi was like another Rina. She couldn’t fight and she couldn’t defend herself, she’d be an easy target for someone who wanted to hurt the others. Just like Rina was. About the only thing Tomomi could ever be good for was stealing. Mami didn’t think any amount of lessons would help her learn to fight; she was too soft for that. But Mami was still determined to try; she didn’t want to see Tomomi getting hurt anymore. She just wasn’t sure if Tomomi’s heart would ever let her pick this kind of thing up though.

Tomomi had a good heart and for the girl, that heart would be her biggest weakness.