A new fanfiction….finally.

Hello to those who actually read this blog (not many of you I guess). This is a fanfic that I have posted on Musume-Central and JPH!P. Thought I would share it with a wider audience – comments are welcome.

Arigatou Ai-chan….

Kami-sama…so tired……

A young woman gathered her bag from the corner of a deserted dance studio. She let her long brown hair fall from the clip she kept it in during practice before placing the clip in a side pocket of her bag and grabbing the Rakuten baseball cap she was given for promoting their team…

How long has it been?...four years already…

The girl sighed at the thought, her eyes glistening for a moment as she thought of how much everything had changed since then. She had gone from being the girl no one could understand to the leader of Morning Musume in that span of time. She checked her bag one last time and looked across the darkened dance studio to make sure no one forgot anything.

It’d be just like Eri to forget something…

She laughed to herself despite the room’s emptiness. Lifting the bag up to her shoulder and pulling the hat down over her eyes she shuffled along to the door, quietly, gracefully, as if her muscles remembered the years of ballet training she had. She pushed through the door and edged along the hallway making her way to the elevator.

SLAP!

Her bag fell to the cool ground and the sound rebounded in the empty hallway. She had zoned out and missed the elevators.

What the hell?....maybe being a leader does something …wait?

The leader noticed that she now stood next to one of the stairwells. Echoes whispered from behind the cold door.

Is someone crying?....No….just leave it alone Ai…it’s not any of your business.

Her body betrayed her brain as she pushed the heavy metal door open and came face-to-face with a pair of puffy, red, surprised eyes belonging to the younger of the two newest additions to Morning Musume. The girl was sitting at the top of the stairs with her back to the door. The noise of the door opening had scared her out of whatever private misery she was in.

“Taka…Takahashi-…san?” she stumbled over her words as she rushed to wipe her eyes dry.

Ai sat down beside the leaking girl.

“Takaha…” Linlin began.

“Call me Ai-chan,” Ai smiled at the younger girl.

Ai decided not to pry into the reason for her Kouhai’s puffy eyes, instead deciding to sit with her on the cold stairs. She silently thanked kami-sama that she had decided to keep her long pants on after practice. The two girls sat in silence for a while, time creeping by as both girls thought about what to say to the other.

“Taka…Ai-chan…you don’t have to sit here with me. I’ll be fine…” Linlin finally broke the silence, sounding a bit more like her normal self.

“Lin, I want you to know that you can come to me at any time – if you’re worried, sad, happy – it doesn’t matter. When you joined Morning Musume, you became part of a family…”

Ai didn’t know what came over her as she said the words, but she knew she meant them. At the mention of the word family Linlin sniffled a bit. Ai-chan, normally the dense one, noticed the effect her words had on the younger girl and decided to pull her into a sideways embrace. Her shoulder soon became wet, so Ai hugged Linlin tighter.

The two sat in the stairwell, the older embracing the younger, the waning sun’s rays passing into the lone window of the stairwell, until Linlin’s cries subsided to mild sniffles.

“…Ai-chan?” the girl mumbled into Ai’s shoulder.

“Yes Lin-chan?” Ai replied, easily adopting the familiar nickname.

“Thank you…”

“There is no need to thank me Lin-chan, we are family.” Ai smiled as the younger girl pulled slowly out of her embrace.

Linlin returned the smile.

She’s smiling again…

“Come on Lin-chan.” Ai stood up abruptly and extended her had towards Linlin.

“Ai-chan?” Linlin looked confused.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“……no…”

“My treat…then I’ll make sure you get home ok.”

Ai’s smile grew as the younger girl took her hand and allowed Ai to help her up……