WARNING: The following fanfic contains major amounts of shojo-ai (girl loves girl sparkle desu) and cheesy, corny... stuff. Viewer discretion is advised.

I wake up to the rhythmic songs of birds, the brief sound of a car whizzing past my house, and the sun shining in my face. It's a lovely morning, but I can't bring myself to get out of bed. I check the clock, and then roll over to grumble to myself, as I am disappointed with the amount of sleep I got. School has been out for two weeks, and I know I should be happy it's over and all… After all, the weather's warm and the sense of freedom that comes with summer vacation had been exciting and great for 12 years. Until this year. It's hard to believe I've been in school that long, especially since I'm not that academic… and yet I graduated. On top of that, I'll be attending the same college as my best friends, a prestigious all girls' college that I never would've been able to get into without their help and motivation.

And I'll be going with Mio. I inhale a little bit at the name, and my head throbs. I chuckle for a moment, and then let the unusual concoction of emotion really sink in before I grit my teeth and slam my head into my pillow. That was stupid. You're stupid, Ritsu. If Mio were here, she'd smack you in the back of the head. After all, she has been keeping you under control all these years, hasn't she? Since grade school, she's always been the looming presence of authority in your life. And now what? Does she expect you to mature over the summer? Does everyone else? After all, you're 18… Does this mean you're an adult? I shrug off the same questions that have been bothering me for weeks and pull the sheets above my head, unwilling to face another disappointing morning.

I haven't seen anyone since school got out. Mugi went on some exotic vacation to the Caribbean, Yui is at summer camp, Azu-nyan's visiting her family in Kyoto, and Mio… I haven't been able to face her yet. I haven't even spoken to her since school got out, and I would feel bad if I clung to her every waking moment of the day now that I'm an adult… I decide against it. Once I realize that I can no longer lie still, I get out of bed and get dressed. I'm not going to be lethargic today. I will find something to do if it kills me.

I check my cell phone and my computer, neither of which have any messages. Okay, sure Yui and Mugi might have a little trouble contacting me, but Azusa! She knows better than to just ignore me! I sigh, and head to the bathroom to brush my teeth. As for Mio, I feel a little relieved that she hasn't been trying to talk to me. I brush for a bit, staring vacantly at my reflection in a sleepy daze. Maybe she feels the same way I do… I spit the toothpaste out, and return my gaze to the mirror. I stare back at myself and notice that my face is flushed, which only makes me turn redder. I sure hope she doesn't. It's too weird. I'm too weird. It'll pass. I mean, there's no way. There's just no way… That's what I keep telling myself, but… nothing has changed… I clench the toothbrush in my hand. Whatever happens, I don't want to ruin my friendship with Mio…

After brushing my hair, I slide my headband over my bangs, and I start to reach for my book bag. I catch myself, and let my hand fall to my side. Sheesh, it's kinda lonely without my friends. Oh, who am I kidding? Why am I trying to act so strong here? There's no one to fool. I'm lonely. I'm very lonely. I miss them. I miss her. I tense up and grimace, squeezing my eyelids shut in an effort to squeeze all unwanted thoughts from my mind. I'm hopeless.

I walk aimlessly through my house for a few hours. I watch TV, but there's nothing good on. I play video games, but I'm sick of them. I check on my brother, but the age difference makes him uninteresting. I even tried spending time with my parents, but at that point I was sort of desperate for attention and I knew that there was no way I'd do anything productive today.

At about six o'clock, the sun was hovering low in the sky, threatening to set but moving slowly. I was ready for it to end my idle day. I can't take it anymore and announce to no one in particular, "I'm going for a walk…!"

"What? Right now?" My mom asks from the other room.

"Yep."

My brother walks in and peers at me from the doorway. "Why? Are you finally going to start looking for apartments or something?"

"Oh, shut up. It's just a walk." I tell him in a flat tone. I don't want to hear my brother pester me about moving out. I'm worrying about it enough as it is. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"Alright…" My mom replies. She sounds a bit puzzled with my announcement, but I don't give it much thought and proceed out the door.

I'm walking through my neighborhood with the darkening, dreary blue sky hanging overhead. I don't know exactly where I'm heading, but I'm on autopilot. I decide to keep walking. I know this town well enough to be able to find my way back… but it still comes as a little bit of a shock to me that I'm out of the house, for once. And I'm alone for that matter. My eyes are unfocused on the path ahead of me, but I'm not worried in the least. It feels like my brain had numbed over, and I'm hardly thinking. All that gets through to my mind is the rhythmic patter of my feet against the pavement. All of the other activities around me have faded out of sight and out of mind. I have nothing to think about but my pace. Just keep walking.

Eventually, I reach the destination I have drifted towards. It's my school. I don't even pause when I see it, I just head towards it. I've needed to come here for a while… to resolve my fixation. I'm a little surprised that the door's unlocked, and I enter. I walk past the shoe boxes, through the halls, up the stairway, and I graze my hand over the fake turtle without realizing it. This is all a second nature to me now. I've missed it so much, and it's only been two weeks. I reach the light music club (or at least its old room) and step inside. I survey the familiar sights, and I'm pulled towards the window. The sun is finally setting on the horizon, over the school campus. I exhale, just now having noticed I held my breath.

"It's beautiful…" I hear a familiar voice say. I stiffen. It can't be. Can it? I turn frantically and notice her beside me.

"Mio…!" I ask, startled.

She turns to look at me, and I'm surprised by her steady gaze and the calmness in her eyes. "Hi, Ritsu." She greets me with a weak smile.

I don't understand how she's so tranquil, and that only agitates me more. I'm so confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Well… Probably the same thing you're doing here…" She seems a little surprised by my reaction, and maybe even a little bothered by it.

"No, I mean…" I try to think of a response, wishing I had finished my thought before speaking. "What are you really doing here?"

"I… don't know really…" She murmurs, and then avoids eye-contact with me. "I just felt like I needed to come here… I haven't really done anything since school ended… I miss it…"

"Yeah. Me too…" I nod, my voice still sounding a little surprised.

"Anyways, it's good to see you…" She grins, and she means it. Was she as lonely as I was?

I don't ask her. I know better. "It's good to see you too." I pause. "Uh, listen, now that we've graduated and all, I'm sorry for… you know… being such a pest."

Her grin fades for a moment, and she laughs. "What? You weren't a pest…! We were only kidding, weren't we?"

What? I don't know what to say… that's really how our friendship was, wasn't it? I was always teasing her and she was always wagging her finger at me. Well, now she sure has something to tease me about. How could I have taken that so seriously?

Mio laughs again. "Why are you speechless? Don't tell me you spent break worrying about that…!"

This gets to me. "Eh? Well don't tell me you spent the break worrying about being too serious…!" I beam. I forgot how much fun she was.

She stops laughing and takes the defensive this time. "Of course not…! I have better things to worry about than that…! I was only trying to keep you under control…!"

"Ha-ha-ha! You can't keep Ritsu Tainaka under control and you never will…!" I joke, exaggerating my voice and gestures to a clownish extent.

Mio still plays along, despite how goofy our conversation has become, and raises her hand in a karate chop. "Oh yes I can!"

We stand in the club room giggling like idiots over our little game. That's really all it was. I'm not a burden after all. Once our laughter dies down, there's a short moment of silence.

"… I really missed you…" I admit softly.

"Yeah…" She agrees, and I notice that tears are welling up in her eyes.

I walk towards her and put my arm around her shoulder. "Hey, why are you crying? Come on…"

She blinks and tears drip down her face. Mio wipes at her eyes. "It's nothing, really, I…" She sniffles again. "I was just worried we grew apart… I wasn't sure if you wanted to talk to me… I didn't want to shadow you around or anything…"

"Shadow me around?" I repeat. This has all been a big miscommunication, and I'm finally ready to admit to my stupid worries. "No, I thought you didn't want to talk to me… I assumed that I was a burden and that I was too immature…"

She shakes her head rapidly. "Not at all… You're my best friend, Ritsu…"

I pull Mio into a full embrace and rock her back and forth, for myself just as much as her. "You're my best friend too…" My eyes sting and I start to cry along with her. "You're my best friend too…" I repeat in a whisper.

I don't even feel silly about the rapid change in mood. I'm just glad to know that my fears weren't realized. After cradling Mio for a while, our tears have dried and we remain in a hug. I lift up her chin.

"Huh…?" Mio mutters, and blinks at me.

I lean in and kiss her without a second thought, and pull away quickly having realized what I've done. I may have just destroyed the friendship we were rebuilding in a matter of seconds. I'm ashamed to look her in the eye. "… I'm sorry," is all I can manage to say.

"Rit…su…" She murmurs, frozen in my arms.

"I don't know what came over me… I'm really, really sorry…!" I repeat quickly, and return to my feet. Oh God, oh God, oh God. I feel like running away. I can't look at her. Why would I do that?

"…." Mio doesn't respond, and I feel my stomach turn.

"I-It won't happen again...! Oh God, I'd be better off leaving right now…!" I bring my hands up over my face and head for the door, but I'm pulled backwards.

Mio grabs my arm and take me by the shoulders, but I'm lost somewhere far away. She kisses me back and I drift even farther. I don't know whether it was a second or an hour, but when she pulls away, I suddenly feel myself brought back to reality in an instant.

"Please, don't go anywhere…" She hugs me from her my shoulders, and I grapple my arms onto her back, and press my face into her chest.

I come to my senses, and let my eyes close. "Okay…" I smile, and we share another hug for a few minutes before leaving the school with a better sense of each other.

We walk down the street for a while together, reminiscing. I'm holding onto Mio's arm and I never want to let go. Eventually, we stop at an apartment building.

"Here we are…"

I look up to survey the whole building, and I'm reminded of Mio's maturity. She probably moved out right when she turned 18… "So you live on your own… huh?" is all I think to ask.

She nods.

"… I don't really want to move out of my parent's house just yet… I don't want to have to be an adult…" I squeeze her arm tighter, and I feel like I shouldn't have said that. Why do I have to be so stupid?

"… Neither do I."

I turn to look Mio in the face and notice how stoic she is.

"I think I was in too much of a hurry to grow up. I wish I could've been more… laidback like you." Her gaze is set on an apartment. She won't make eye-contact.

I glance at Mio for a while, and then try to find the room she's staring at. "… Oh." She's not staring at the building. She's staring past it.

"Well," she forces a smile and fixes her posture, making the height difference between us more noticeable. I feel small and try to stand up straight too. "I'll show you in… That is, if you want me to…"

I nod. "I do."

"Okay." She smiles, and we head inside.

We take the elevator and walk through the halls of her floor, and we come to her room. Mio unlocks the door and it swings open. Her room is… cozy. It's large and neat, but it's warm and inviting with plenty of high school pictures hanging the walls. She really does miss them… maybe even more than me. Mio walks over to the windows, and I notice her bass sitting in the corner, along with a portable amp. "So you kept Elizabeth… even if she does have a scratch." I smirk.

Mio goes off. "Hey…! I mean…! It's not that noticeable…! Or, well…! Maybe I was overreacting a little, but…! You were exaggerating…! That one time was just… it was just…!"

I laugh at her nonsense. I walk over to her and ruffle her hair. "Relax, I'm just teasing. Remember?" She's so defensive sometimes. It's cute.

Mio pauses, and brings her hands to her head with a weak laugh. "Yeah… It was kind of funny… I guess…" She looks me in the eye, and places her arms around my shoulders again. "Do you think…?" She trails off, losing eye-contact and blushing. Her shoulders rise toward her neck and I know exactly what she's thinking.

"Do you think what…?" I ask. I want to hear her say it, and I feel kind of bad for asking. The guilt quickly disappears when I remind myself that I'm just playing.

Mio doesn't respond. Instead, she closes her curtains and turns off the overhead lights. She walks toward her bed and brings me to her bed. She kisses my forehead, and takes off my headband, letting my bangs fall over my eyes. "… You look really cute without your headband…" She tells me in a hushed voice, and brushes my bangs out of my face.

I can feel the heat rising to my face, but I'm not nervous. I'm as calm as I've ever been, and I'm with Mio. I smile and turn off the bedside lamp, then kiss her, letting her fall back on the bed. I can't remember ever being this happy. All I can think about is that I'm with her. I'm with her… And there's no one else I'd rather be with right now…

At home, I spend all of the next day drumming. Usually my family doesn't mind, but now they're so unaccustomed to it, they keep telling me to quiet down and asking me why I'm so worked up. I didn't feel like lying to them, so I'd shout back, "I got to hang out with Mio yesterday…!" and continue drumming. I didn't mention anything about our… relationship now, but I'm seriously thinking about it. I actually want them to know. I do a fill, and bang the symbols, out of breath. As much as I wanted to stay the night, when I told her that I should be going home, she understood. We made plans for today, and we're going to be seeing much more of each other over the summer.

Once everyone got back from their vacations, we decided to take another trip to Mugi's summer home. On the way to the train station, we talk about how our summers have been. "You should've seen Mio!" I elbow Mio, "She was so lonely while you were gone…!"

She growls, upset. "What? Ritsu…!" She slaps me, and we bicker a little bit. Some things never change. After our playful fight has died down, we look up and notice we've fallen behind.

"Come on, Mio-chan! Ricchan!" Yui shouts, waving at us. She turns around again.

Mio starts to walk towards them, but she turns around and kisses me on the cheek she slapped. Some things change for the better. I bring my hand to my face and chuckle. I take her hand, and we run to catch up with our friends before they turn the corner. I interlock fingers with Mio, and look over at her. For a brief moment I see the shy girl she was when I first met her. Some things, no matter how small, stay with you for the rest of your life. And I have a strong feeling Mio's going to. I should know. No matter how much I teased her, and prodded at her, and laughed at her cute little mistakes, not once did she stray from me, and I have no intention of leaving her behind. We're going to get through life together like we have since I first saw her. I squeeze Mio's hand tighter, because I'm sure she's thinking the same thing. Some things are going to get much better from now on, because now we know. We know that, no matter what, we'll always be alongside each other, on the same path. We'll be together. Always.