harmonize_rpg | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Haruka+Miyume+Anyone who wants to jump in
Where: School Pool
When: Monday April 10th, before swim club starts
What: Social link GO~

.

It was half an hour early but the perfect time for Haruka. No one else was there yet, allowing her to get a feel for it.

Already in her swim suit with her towel wrapped neatly around her waist, she wandered around outlining edge of the pool, memorizing and guesstimating how big it was compared to the one at her old school. It felt about a few seconds worth bigger...

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Haruka heard Hazama catching up and she couldn't help but smile. And then she focused on her estimation of time versus pool length and adjusted her speec accordingly. She sped up, gaining some of the ground she was losing to Hazama.

They sounded fairly close-

However, Miyume wasn't quite able to make up the margin Haruka had gained from her headstart. The other girl touched the wall just before Miyume did. But rather than call Haruka on her cheating, she simply smiled angelically.

"Good race, senpai. Congratulations on your win," she said, sounding just as normal as she always did, nothing at all in her tone suggesting even the possibility of her plotting any sort of revenge.

Haruka simply smiled back, as though she hadn't cheated. The smile was genuine though and so was how she sounded,

"Thanks. You are a very worthy opponent, oh great adorable kouhai."

She swam over, close to Hazama's lane. She held out her hand,

"Okay race?"

"You're welcome, senpai," Miyume replied with a little giggle meant to sound as she was nervous and blushing at the compliment. However, her face appeared pretty calm aside from a slight sparkle of mischief in her eyes that Haruka couldn't see.

Miyume's hand moved. To an outside observer it appeared like she might pull Haruka facefirst in the water for a moment but then nothing happened. She simply took the older girl's hand and gave it a gentle handshake.

Haruka felt the other girl's hand (small, very soft, a little fragile) and tilted her head slightly, as though waiting for something. When it didn't come, she shrugged a little, smiled, and lightly pulled her hand away.

"There's best two out of three sometime? You can count."

"Sure, senpai. That sounds like fun."

Despite her loss, Miyume's voice held genuine warmth. Though now she was starting to feel a little tired from all the swimming she'd done already and practice hadn't even started yet. Best not to strain herself too much.

"So... I was going to rest for a bit until practice starts. Would you like to join me?"

"Sure." She nodded and started to brace herself on the edge when she idly thought of something. "Huh. There's probably a rule against using the pool unsupervised or something too. Opps."

She didn't sound too repentant though. She braced herself on the edge and pulled herself up, shaking her hair a little before starting to untie it, letting it fall back loosely around her shoulders.

"Oh. I didn't even think of that," Miyume said, sounding just a teensy bit dismayed. She frowned slightly, a bit uncomfortable about breaking the rules.

Miyume took off her cap, shook her hair free in a way that reminded one more of a cocker spaniel coming in out of the rain than any kind of swimsuit model. She walked over to where she'd left her towel and used it to dry herself a little. Maybe the coach wouldn't notice so much if she wasn't quite so dripping wet.

She finished with her hair, retying it back into her usual long pony tail. She walked carefully on the floor, aware of how much she was dripping and how slippery the floor could be. She eventually found her way over to where she'd tossed her towel.

"We can say we didn't read the student manual?" Haruka replied. "I didn't."

"I didn't, either," Miyume said, sounding more relieved. They still might get in trouble but at least, they wouldn't get reputations for being rule-breakers. Unless the coach was the strict, unforgiving sort.

Miyume walked over to a bench not far from where Haruka stood and sat down. She draped her towel across her legs and sat her cap down beside her.

"Doubt 99% of the school has. I think it's the same as 'I have read the terms of agreement' things. No one actually really cares," Haruka said.

She finished drying herself a little before retying the towel around her waist. She settled on the bench, a little ways away from Hazama.

"What's your other club?"

"Creative writing. We meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays."

Miyume combed her fingers through her hair, realizing that after swim practice was over, she'd need to attack with a hairbrush to keep it from getting any more tangled than it already was.

"Your other one is..." Miyume wracked her brain, trying to remember. "Drama, right?"

"I see," Haruka said. "Sort of obvious I guess? Your specialty's creative writing, right?

"Yep. We're on Wednesdays and Saturdays." She turned her head upwards. "Darn. Guess I can't shangai you into joining."

"Sorry. Maybe next year? And yes, it is."

Miyume smiled warmly at the other girl.

"Don't mean to dash your hopes or anything."

"Naah. I'll just go shanghai other unsuspecting adorable kouhai," Haruka replied with a slight shrug. Then, she grinned wickedly as she steepled her fingers slightly, "Maybe lure them with sweets or promises of fame and then when it's too late...." She giggled ominously - low and skin crawling inducing -

And then she suddenly switched back to normal, looking relaxed again.

"Or I can wait until the bake sale later this month."

Miyume burst into giggles, a warm sound filled with mirth and good will.

"Oh, senpai, you're so funny," she said after she managed to catch her breath. Really, when was the last time she'd laughed that much? Well, there was that fandubber she'd messaged out of the blue with her burning potato story. She'd been funny like this, too.

But connecting the two would have required thought, something Miyume avoided whenever possible so her attention wandered toward something else Haruka had said.

"The drama club's holding a bake sale this month? When?"

Haruka smiled wider and let out a short bark of laughter of her own. Not just because Hazama's laughter was infectious but because she'd heard something similar to that recently on her channel.

"Week or two? Whenever we can steal the home ec room," Haruka replied. "We're donation based too. Should be have lots of really nice treats too, with a .000000000009% chance of being poisoned."

"Do you need any extra help? I'm not much of a cook but I might be able to decorate cakes and watch the table and stuff."

Miyume twiddled her thumbs a bit, unsure if that was too forward. Or could be taken offensively in any way. She certainly meant none by it.

"It sounds like fun," Miyume added.

"Sure. Don't see why the captain would turn away an adorable, eager helper when people will inevitably play hooky anyway," Haruka replied.

"It's loads of fun. And we get all the leftovers and free sushi afterwards so dinner and dessert, sort of."

"I'll look forward to it then, senpai."

It certainly did sound fun. It'd be nice to actually do something fun with other people for a change instead. Back in Tokyo, she'd only really done things with Ayana and most of the time it was same thing over and over. Maybe before that had satisfied Miyume but now, she found herself looking forward to being a part of something different.

"A bunch of slackers in the club, huh?"

"A few," Haruka replied, with a bit of a shrug. She ran a finger through a small droplet of water on the bench and drew random shapes.

"They'd probably apologize profusely and say they have things they have to do during then. Homework, other club work, living a double life and fighting evil and protecting the world from the shadows..."

Miyume giggled. Haruka really was funny. She decided she liked it.

"Being drama club is suffering," she said in a deeply somber voice.

Haruka laughed, so hard she had to force herself to stop and breathe. She leaned her forehead against her hand and went, higher pitched and more innocent,

"Become an actress, Hazama-san, save the school."

Miyume burst out laughing, too, holding her sides. Most of it was genuine mirth but if Haruka listened closely enough, it sounded a little strained like one might detect in someone trying to cover up something much more painful. Then it passed and Miyume's laughter sounded as perfectly normal as any other teenage girl's.

"Become an actress, senpai?" she asked after she'd managed to calm down a little. "That's a new one. I've not heard that one before."

Haruka heard the strain and tilted her head. Laughing that hard? She replied, though,

"I didn't either. The demand for blind actors is a low one." She leaned back. "Could be fun though? You got a cute voice and can shift."