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Sakura is walking down the hall to the cafeteria, trying to think about dinner and not about videos or Monobear or murder, when Asahina comes running up to her. At a glance, Sakura takes in the tears in her eyes, her hands balled up in fists, her whole body shaking—in outrage? In fear? Both, perhaps. Asahina stands there for a moment, looking up at Sakura, seeming unable to speak.
"It's a fake, right?" she says finally. "It's gotta be a fake. No way could Monobear do that to them for real."
Sakura wonders what Asahina's particular "that" and "them" are, but she doesn't ask. Instead, she says, "Doubtless you are correct. The mastermind is likely only trying to rile us."
"But it won't work, will it?" Asahina says, sounding almost angry. "No one would—would kill someone over some stupid fake video."
"Yes," says Sakura, "hopefully no one will rise to the bait." But she's not convincing herself, and she can tell that she's not convincing Asahina, either.
"Ugh," Asahina says, swiping the back of her hand over her eyes. "I just can't believe this."
"Nor can I," says Sakura, though it seems such an inadequate thing to say under the circumstances.
They fall silent briefly, and then Asahina says, "Um, Sakura-chan..." She hesitates, looking at the floor, then continues, "Would you stay with me tonight? In my room?"
The question takes Sakura so much by surprise that all she can do is blink and say "I beg your pardon?"
"I know, it's a weird request, but... there's strength in numbers, right?" Asahina says, grinning a bit sheepishly. "If someone really is going to be dumb enough to fall for the videos, then I'd feel safer having someone else around. And of all the people here, you're, well... you're the one I feel like I can trust."
The irony is exquisite. Sakura could almost laugh.
Perhaps laughing would have been wiser than her actual reaction, which is to nod and say, "Of course I will."
* * *
Shortly before Night Time begins, Sakura rings Asahina's doorbell. The door opens a crack, pauses, then swings wide.
"Come on in," Asahina says. Her smile seems to have a touch of relief in it, though it may be Sakura's imagination. "I was just about to take a shower, but you can make yourself at home." She waves a hand expansively at the room beyond.
While Asahina heads off to the shower room, Sakura sits down on the edge of Asahina's bed (the desk chair, she knows, will not hold her) and waits. She occupies herself by glancing around the room. For all that they've been there only a few days, Asahina's room already looks lived-in—more so than Sakura's own, at least. Although maybe it is just because Asahina is untidy: her jacket has been tossed over the back of a chair, her shoes kicked off by the door, various other articles of clothing and a towel or two strewn around the room or jumbled on the desk along with some bottles that look like nutritional supplements. It's not, Sakura thinks, that Asahina is lazy or careless; it's more that she seems to be constantly in motion, too busy to stop and pick things up. She's like one of those fish that have to keep swimming in order to breathe. But that's a ridiculous thought, isn't it? Sakura shakes her head a little, as if to clear it.
Asahina emerges from the shower room after a while, wearing only a towel which provides barely adequate coverage for the generous curves of her figure. Her exposed skin shines with moisture. Sakura looks away.
Seeming completely unselfconscious, Asahina flops down on the bed next to Sakura. "You'd better hurry if you want a shower," she says. "It'll be Night Time soon—you don't wanna get caught halfway through washing your hair when the water shuts off."
"Ah," says Sakura. "Yes. Thank you."
* * *
Sakura showers and changes quickly. When she leaves the shower room, Asahina is still sitting on the edge of the bed, now wearing a camisole and underpants. She pulls her still-wet hair back into a ponytail; just as she finishes, the intercom crackles to life and Monobear announces the beginning of Night Time.
"Just in time, huh?" Asahina says, smiling up at Sakura.
Sakura nods. "We should get some sleep."
The smile drops off Asahina's face, as if she's suddenly remembered the situation they're in. "Easier said than done."
"Well, we ought to try, at least. Staying up all night worrying will accomplish little besides making us tired tomorrow."
"What if someone..." Asahina begins.
"I am a light sleeper," Sakura assures her.
Asahina shuts off the lights and climbs into bed. Sakura sits on the floor next to it and leans back against the wall.
"Aww, you don't have to do that," Asahina says. "It's a pretty huge bed. There's room for both of us."
"Well, if it will not be too much of an imposition..."
"It's fine," Asahina insists. "Come on."
Sakura sighs, and climbs in next to her.
* * *
Sakura does her best to follow her own advice, but the sleep she manages to find is shallow and fitful, full of dreams of burning buildings and crumpled bodies and the sound of sobbing.
When she wakes up, sometime in the middle of the night, the sobbing sound does not vanish with the rest of the dream. It takes Sakura a few moments to realize that it's coming from Asahina.
"Asahina?" she says, softly, and part of her feels like she should add Are you all right? or What's wrong?, but she can hazard a fairly good guess at the answer to both of those questions.
Asahina doesn't say anything in response, but she sits up and clings to Sakura, burying her face in Sakura's shirt. Sakura puts an arm around Asahina's shoulders and strokes her hair, and Asahina's sobs abate a little.
"I don't want to die," Asahina says, a bit indistinctly, into Sakura's chest.
Sakura opens her mouth to say something comforting, but all that comes out is "I know." She pauses for a moment, listening to Asahina sniffle, then tries again. "I will not allow any harm to come to you."
"Mm," Asahina says, and then, before Sakura can register what is happening, she lifts her face and tugs Sakura's head down and kisses her.
Taken by surprise, Sakura stiffens, and Asahina backs away.
"I'm sorry," Asahina says. "I shouldn't've done that. I just... I guess I just wanted to do something to confirm that I'm alive, you know?" She looks down. "That sounds pretty stupid, huh."
"No," Sakura says, "I understand completely." And—against her better judgment—she leans in and kisses Asahina. She tastes a faint hint of salt.
Asahina breaks the kiss briefly to position herself in front of Sakura, straddling one of Sakura's broad thighs. Then her mouth finds Sakura's again, hungry and urgent, and her fingers knot in Sakura's hair. They stay there like that for a moment, pressed as closely together as they can get, and Sakura thinks she can feel Asahina's heart racing. Or maybe it's her own.
Sakura puts a hand on the small of Asahina's back to steady her. She slides her other hand up under Asahina's camisole, feeling the weight of Asahina's breasts in her cupped palm. As delicately as she can, she rubs first one nipple, then the other between her callused fingers.
"I am not hurting you, am I?" she asks.
Asahina's "no" is half-word, half-moan. With one fingertip, lightly, Sakura circles one nipple and traces a line down over Asahina's lean, muscular abdomen to her navel, then back up. Asahina's breath catches and her fists tighten in Sakura's hair, tugging on it in a way that's almost painful, but Sakura doesn't care, as long as Asahina keeps making those little satisfied noises. At any rate, it is hardly the greatest pain that Sakura has had to endure.
To better see what she's doing, Sakura pushes Asahina's camisole up, revealing her full, tanned breasts with their small, dark nipples standing erect. Sakura bends her head down and gingerly takes one of them into her mouth, and the way Asahina lets out her breath and leans forward into Sakura is all the encouragement Sakura needs to keep going.
As Sakura licks and sucks at Asahina's breasts, Asahina starts to rock back and forth against Sakura's thigh, building up friction. Sakura can feel Asahina's wetness against her leg, through the thin material of Asahina's underwear.
Maybe the rhythm of Asahina's movements is a little uneven, because Sakura's teeth accidentally graze Asahina's skin, and Asahina lets out a small cry. Sakura pulls back and starts to apologize, but Asahina pulls her head back down.
"No," Asahina says breathlessly, "that was good. Keep going."
So Sakura does, and Asahina rocks faster, her head thrown back, her breathing heavy, her hands clenched tighter still in Sakura's hair, and then, and then—
When Asahina comes, her whole body shakes with it, and she lets out a cry that makes Sakura grateful for the soundproofing. Then her body sort of sags into Sakura's, and they lie there for a moment, Asahina's head on Sakura's breast, catching their breath.
Then one of Asahina's hands starts to work its way under the waistband of Sakura's underpants.
"You don't have to—" Sakura begins. Not that she doesn't want it, but she shouldn't... they shouldn't... she doesn't deserve.... She can't quite seem to finish the thought.
"I want to," Asahina says firmly, as she slides her hand between Sakura's legs.
Sakura tries not to think at all, tries to just focus on the feeling of Asahina's small, deft fingers probing her, finding sensitive spots to press against, sending ripples of pleasure throughout her body. Mostly, she is successful. Mostly.
She clings to Asahina, needing to feel Asahina's warm, living flesh under her fingers, and eventually she's sure that her fingers must be digging so hard into Asahina's shoulder that they'll leave bruises, but Asahina either doesn't notice or doesn't care.
It doesn't take long for Sakura to reach the edge of climax, as aroused as she'd already been when Asahina had started. When it hits, she doesn't make a sound—her hips press forward against Asahina's hand, and for a moment all her muscles tense at once, and then the tension drains away, seeming to take all her energy with it, and she's left just feeling... tired. She lies back on the bed, and Asahina follows suit.
They lie there silently in the dark for a moment, and then Asahina says, "Hey, Sakura-chan... thank you."
"It is I who should thank you," Sakura says. Or perhaps she should be apologizing instead. But she decides she's in no state to think about that now, and the two of them lapse into silence once more.
* * *
Asahina falls asleep not long after, still nestled against Sakura with one arm flung over her. Her face is relaxed, with the faintest hint of a smile, as if all is well with the world, as if she hadn't been crying just a short while ago.
She is so fragile like this, so utterly defenseless. Sakura wouldn't even need a weapon. But to kill a sleeping opponent... how dishonorable. And Asahina... Asahina isn't even an opponent. Asahina is—what is she? Sakura can't exactly say. But, well, Asahina trusts her.
Sakura knows with an awful certainty that she will have to do it, sooner or later. Oh, maybe not Asahina, but someone. She thinks of the other students, of how shaken they had all seemed in the AV room earlier. She wonders if any of them are crying tonight, alone in the dark of their rooms. Or perhaps their despair has manifested differently: perhaps, at this very moment in one of these soundproofed rooms, someone is committing a murder.
Sakura, in the end, does neither. She simply lies there in the dark, feeling Asahina's warmth against her, listening to her steady, even breathing and her heart slowly beating out time. And eventually, Sakura too falls asleep.