Ritsu x Azusa

Human Storm

Chapter 1 – Crystal Castles

A/N; Gotta love a crack pairing. XD

This fic is also split into chunks until they get to the campsite, so I can centre on that more.

ZzZz

"Ne, ne, Mio-chan!" Ritsu grinned as she jumped at her best friend, linking her arm through Mio's as they walked through the school gates.

Mio had noticed Ritsu was acting more clingy than usual, directing her conversations to Mio, it was as if she was trying to block the other's out. Mio sighed.

"Ritsu?" Mio asked, looking at her best friend.

Ritsu looked at her questioningly, letting a fake smile spread across her features, "What is it?"

"Why are you doing this?" Mio frowned a little, wondering if Ritsu was just not interested in music anymore.

"Doing what?" Ritsu grinned in her usual boy-ish way.

"You're not fooling me, idiot." Mio clipped her across the back of the head, raising her voice a little as she spoke.

"Mioooo~! Don't be so insulting!"

It really was becoming a chore to handle Ritsu this way, and a very big slice down the middle when it came to sorting club affairs out.

ZzZ

Later in the club room.

ZzZ

Ritsu hadn't been listening in class either, she just doodled all over her notebook, and when Mio tried to glance over, Ritsu would pout innocently and cover the page.

And now they were sat at the club room table.

Mio noticed Ritsu's gaze was ever so slightly directed towards the youngest member of their band, Azusa Nakano.

The rhythm guitarist looked oblivious to what was going on, she was too busy whispering to the lead guitarist, Yui.

Mio glanced back and forth between the pair as Nadoka stood talking to them about the upcoming festival plans. That was when the usual broke the lingering awkwardness in the air. Yui threw her arms around Azusa, and grinned cheekily, nuzzling the raven haired girl.

Mio heard shuffling from across the table, and she looked in the direction of the sound, and saw Ritsu glaring in the opposite direction now. No-one had noticed, not even when Ritsu's head eventually dropped on the table.

Mio stood up, she had enough.

"Azusa-chan, can I talk to you outside for a second?" Mio smiled to herself inwardly as Azusa nodded, wriggled out of Yui's grip, and got to her feet.

The two walked out of the club room, leaving a puzzled Nadoka.

"Are these plans bad?" She asked, a small sad expression on her usually calm features.

"No, no! I think everyone's just preoccupied." Tsumugi smiled sheepishly, Mio closed the door behind her.

Azusa looked slightly worried, fumbling with one of her pigtails awkwardly.

"Azusa-chan, I wanted to ask you if you would like to come along to the senior's camping trip." Mio smiled warmly.

Azusa gasped in shock, but looked somewhat relieved. "I would love to! I have the money to pay for it, so it's no bother."

It was made a new rule that Junior's could go on trips with the Senior's, and vice versa, if the year that wasn't meant to be going was intending to go, of course it was only exemplary if there was space, and there was lots for this trip, since it was just a casual time out, and there were no activities.

"Oh and Azusa-chan..." Mio lowered her voice when she said this, making Azusa visibly flinch, "Do you know what's wrong with Ritsu?"

Azusa blinked and tilted her head, looking lost in thought for a moment. She hadn't really realised anything was wrong with the drummer, other than the fact she seemed a little bit off, but Azusa always figured that would be all the studying they were having to do for their final exams.

"She's never talked to me for a while, now that I think about it..." Azusa mumbled, looking down at the floor with a sad expression, she should of taken more notice of her friend's suffering.

"If you hear anything, please let me know." Mio smiled, and before Azusa could say anymore, the older girl had already opened the door to the club room and slipped back inside. She had no intention to tell Ritsu about Azusa attending the trip with them. She wanted to see if it was the junior's fault her friend was trying to act different.

The trip

Having only a night to pack, Azusa had spent so many hours sorting out her things, that she had almost slept in, in the morning she had to run for the train, but as soon as she was on it, all of the senior's eyes turned to her.

They started to whisper, some smiled at her and some frowned, but that was when a hand squeezed her shoulder, and she heard Mio's voice in her ear, "C'mon, follow me." She smiled as the bassist lead her casually along to a more secluded carriage, where the rest of the light music club sat. She was sure that Sawako was behind the reason they got this carriage, but she didn't complain, and took a seat next to Ritsu.

Azusa noticed that Ritsu shuffled a little, and seemed slightly uncomfortable, she glanced at Mio, who glanced back with a worried expression. If Ritsu was trying to pick someone to hate, then she picked a bad idea, this wouldn't work if they couldn't get along.

"Ricchan!" Yui smiled and held out a packet of sweets to Ritsu. There was a pause, before Ritsu's most fake voice possible sounded out.

"Ahhh, thanks, Yui-chan."

What was the luck?

Ritsu's head pounded as she irritatedly twisted another rod into the damp soil next to her feet. It was freezing cold, and it turns out neither of them knew how to set a tent up.

Frog's croaked irritably in the lake that was about 10 feet away from their tent, they had chosen to place it there so there wouldn't be such a difficult journey when it came to collecting water to boil, or use for cleaning in.

Nobody else seemed to have that idea though, as people were spread out much deeper inside of the tree's, leaving this tent particularly on its own, the rest of the band member's on the other side of the camp.

"What the hell does Sawa-chan think she's playing at anyway? Everyone else seems fine where they were placed and she sticks us here...Dammit..." Ritsu grumbled, glaring daggers at the ground.

Azusa sighed as she began to unfold the tent, "Senpai, I think it's because she knows that you're full of energy and won't mind a longer walk to get to water. And...Maybe it's punishment for not leaving her usual cake the other day."

"I was REALLY hungry, Azusa." Ritsu pouted, finally managing to get the rod deep enough into the ground so it wouldn't blow over when the wind hit.

"Don't tell me that senpai, I can't change her mind." When Azusa finished unfolding the tent, she kept one foot on it so it wouldn't blow away, and started on a rod opposite Ritsu's.

"Azusa-chan." She noticed Ritsu's eyes on her face, and flushed a little. She must off looked like a mess. The rain had already began to fall and she could feel her hair starting to slip out of style.

"What is it, senpai?" She questioned, taking in a steady breath as she pushed the rod down deeper into the ground.

"...I-It's nothing." Ritsu dead-panned.

XxX

"I-It's going to be a cold night, huh?" Azusa zipped the tent up behind herself, as Ritsu had clambered in first.

Now that she looked at it properly, the tent was pretty small, and there was barely any room to move. Their sleeping bags were squashed together. Ritsu had pre-occupied herself with lighting up one of the lanterns she had brought along for the trip, and Azusa began to pull on some extra clothing to keep herself warm against the outside weather.

Once Ritsu had lit the lantern, she started to pull on her own thermal clothing, and then slipped into her sleeping bag.

Azusa blushed slightly at the close-ness to her senpai. They were almost nose-to-nose when they looked at each other. And Ritsu's hazel eyes still held a glassy look in them. It was a shame that dark had came so early because they had spent so much time setting up the tent, on the inside and the outside. She would have liked to have explored a little.

"Hey, Azusa?"

Azusa frowned, not this game again.

"Senpai?" She asked, her mouth slightly covered by the sleeping bag as she had snuggled into it as much as possible.

"You're really cute." She stated, Azusa nearly tore the covers in half.

"E-Excuse me?" She squeaked.

"You're really cute." Ritsu repeated, a small blush covering her own face now.

Before Azusa could respond, the tawny-haired girl had already turned over in her own sleeping bag, and Azusa could hear her snoring lightly.

She blushed deeper and didn't know if she could bring herself to tell Mio about what had happened.

Why her of all people? Ritsu barely even spoke to her as much as Yui did. She spoke more to Mio, surely she was just in a half-dream and thought Azusa was Mio...But...

Did she want Ritsu to like her?

ZzZzZ...

"Ah..?" Ritsu whimpered softly as she felt a small heat pressed into her chest. Her eyes slowly fluttered open to look down at the source.

"Azusa?" She whispered, blushing a little as she noticed her arms were wrapped around the smaller girl's waist.

When there was no response, Ritsu felt a pang of irritation.

She would definitely make Azusa realise her feelings, consciously.

To be continued, maybe~