"Time to wake up~"
Yumiko surfaced from a dead sleep to the sound of Mio's voice and opened her eyes to find Mio's face approximately twelve centimeters from her own.
She blinked. Stared. Tried to work out, slowly, why Mio was in her room.
A full minute passed.
Oh. Right. Sleepover.
She yawned enormously. "What time is it?"
"Almost seven. If you don't get up now, you're going to be late."
"Seven—?!"
That snapped her awake fast. Yumiko was usually up by six—makeup alone needed time to do properly—but today her alarm had clearly failed in its duties, and she scrambled straight out of bed and to the bathroom.
By the time she'd washed her face, eaten breakfast, and gotten herself together, it was seven-thirty.
She left without doing her makeup.
It was, genuinely, the first time she could remember that happening.
"Not doing your makeup?" Mio asked as they headed out the door.
"I'll deal with it at school."
She yawned again. She looked like she'd barely slept. Which was—more or less true.
"Hmm~." Mio studied her. "You went to bed pretty early last night. How are you this tired? Did you stay up doing something weird after I fell asleep?"
"I didn't." Yumiko attempted a glare. Without her usual sharpness it mostly just looked sleepy.
Mio didn't even blink.
Yumiko gave up and looked away. The truth was she'd been awake staring at the ceiling until somewhere around three in the morning because her brain had flatly refused to quiet down—and that was entirely Mio's fault. Which she was not going to say out loud.
"Aww~. That's a shame."
"Keep this up and I'll actually do something next time."
"Oh? Then maybe I should stay over again tonight. I'll fall asleep really early, I promise~"
Mio was clearly joking—half-joking, anyway. Chihiro-sensei had already been messaging her about the empty apartment and how the takeout just didn't taste the same.
Still.
"Hey—" Yumiko glanced at Mio's uniform. "Return my clothes after you've washed them."
"Whenever's fine?"
"Whenever's fine. I've got spares."
"Sounds good." Mio smoothed the skirt absently. Then, with a completely straight face: "Oh, by the way—your underwear is a surprisingly cute style, Yumiko~"
"You want me to make you take them off right now—"
"Ahahaha~"
"Come back here—"
Their walking pace increased considerably.
By the time the school gates came into view and the foot traffic started thickening around them, the argument had dissolved into silence.
"Mio? And—Yumiko?"
Yuigahama Yui's voice came from a few steps behind. She jogged to catch up, pretty eyes bright with curiosity. Mio's house and Yumiko's house were definitely in different directions—so why were they showing up together?
"Morning, Yui~" Mio smiled.
"Good... morning. How are you two—?"
Then she actually looked at Yumiko.
No makeup. Hair not fully done. That distinctly un-rested expression.
Yumiko never left the house like this.
"Oh," Yui said. "Did you—?"
"I stayed over at Yumiko's last night," Mio said easily.
"Ah—that explains it!"
And it did make sense, logically. Yui had slept over at Yumiko's place before herself, back when she and Ebina-san would stay over together. Totally normal.
But.
She watched the two of them side by side as they walked, and something felt... different. Something she couldn't quite name. The softness in Yumiko's voice when she talked to Mio. The way her eyes drifted toward Mio without her seeming to realize it. Small things—maybe nothing—but Yui noticed things.
Had something changed between them this weekend?
"Yui~?" Mio caught her staring. "Something wrong?"
"Oh! No, nothing." She shook her head and let it drop—for now. With Yumiko right here, she couldn't exactly ask. But she'd find a way to message Mio later and get to the bottom of it.
At school, Yumiko made a beeline for her desk and immediately put her head down. Clearly her plan was to recover what little sleep she could before first period made that impossible.
Mio slipped out toward the faculty room.
She poked her head in the door. "Morning~"
Chihiro-sensei was already at her desk. She looked up, saw Mio, and held up the bag without a word.
"Thanks." Mio took it. "One rainstorm, one overnight stay."
"A female friend's house again?"
"Obviously."
"So you were out on a date." Chihiro-sensei smiled with the particular patience of someone who had seen through many cover stories.
"No, I wasn't, I didn't." The denial came out crisp and threefold, perfectly rhythmic. "Anyway—I'm coming home tonight and I'll make you something good to go with your beer."
"That's not what this is ab—"
But Mio was already gone, footsteps rapid down the hall.
...