Where Is The Sun That Leads Me To Rome |

by Rei (レイ)

(mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/49733.html)

I have no idea how I managed to get dragged into this. No, coerced was more like it, that damn Mei and her bloody ideas, I never wanted to do this in the first place!

It took eight days, four hours and the constant promise that Mei would do anything if Yun would just agree to it, so pretty pretty please? It wasn’t a difficult request or anything, but Yun hated cosplaying — she’d rather just sew the outfits — and that was exactly what Mei was asking her to do.

She wasn’t swayed by how Mei pouted her lips, or how Mei laughed and pulled at her hands, but dammit, every time Mei pulled that dejected look on her, she knew that she had lost.

What a loser I am, she thought sourly, because she knew that despite the nice girl look, that Mei had everyone fooled with, Mei was most certainly not nice. Mei was manipulative to a fault, she was crafty and she knew ways to trick you into agreeing -– and Mei knew all of her weaknesses; she should really, they’ve been friends for the last five years.

That was really low of me, I know, but Yun really fit the part and well. If she didn’t agree to it, the plan would be back to square one and that wouldn’t be very fun would it?

Yun had to admit, though, that the characters were exceptionally good-looking and that okay, maybe she did fit the visual profile of the character that Mei wanted her to play. They’re both from a game, Mei said, ticking off their personalities on her fingers and Yun tuned her out – experience has taught her that Mei would hardly notice – and went back to the opened magazine on her table. Her outfit looked relatively easy to make – lots of black, tan and sea-green suede and brown fur with tufts of white, for the ears. Mei’s outfit on the other hand – Yun frowned and studied the magazine spread closer – probably needed some sort of black and blue clingy PVC-like material and some white fur. What sort of names were Rai and Konoe anyway?

We’re going to be really awesome and hot, laughed Mei and flashed an easy smirk at Yun. That smirk always made her annoyed recently and sent a ring down to her belly, which was weird because it has never made her annoyed before.

I’ve never cosplayed before, I’m going to make the both of us look like retards, Yun grumbled as she folded up the magazine spread and dropped it on Mei’s lap.

We’ll be fine, Mei replied, picking up the folded paper and sliding it into her clear file.

There it was again, that cat-ate-the-canary smirk, Yun frowned and she couldn’t help feeling like she wasn’t catching onto something.

I’m going to look retarded; I just know it, no matter what Mei says. And of course Mei’s confident; she’s been to so many cosplay competitions she probably knows everyone in the cosplaying industry.

Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating but you get the idea.

Yun’s problem, Mei realized early into their friendship, was that she liked to keep things simple. She didn’t like cosplaying because she didn’t like the attention, she didn’t like green tea ice cream because it had milk in it, she rejected nine out of every ten guys who asked her out because she “wasn’t ready”. Yun’s idea of relaxation was to sit in front of her machine and sew. Mei on the other hand, liked things complicated and tangled, like the mess of black threads you find at the bottom of your sewing kit, she liked cosplay because of the multiple layers it involved, she liked messing with people’s minds by showing one side before switching to another, it was psychological fun to see what made people tick.

And Mei knew very well how Yun ticked, what made Yun laugh, what made Yun narrow her eyes and flatten her lips, how Yun reacted when Mei took her hands, how she lifted her right shoulder, shrugging off remarks that she always ignored, how Yun rolled her eyes pretending to be annoyed when she really was just amused but she just didn’t want Mei to know.

Two weeks later, when Mei is over at Yun’s house watching her sew the outfits together; she set her plan in motion and casually dropped the LAMENTO game DVD onto Yun’s desk.

I thought you might want to play it, just to see how the characters move and all, Mei smiled and watched the way Yun narrowed her eyes at her.

Knowing Yun, she wouldn’t give up till she finishes the game, because she’s obsessive like that. <3

Yun knew it was a bad idea and that Mei was totally reeling her in, but uggggggghhhhh Mei knew that she would play the game just to see how her characters moved.

…Mei never told her it was a Boy’s Love game though.

Well, it wasn’t as if she minded or anything, she had her own secret stash of BL manga safely hidden away from her parents, but really, some sort of prior notification wouldn’t kill.

Okay, so the game wasn’t as bad as I’d expected – the plot was surprisingly addictive. But it’s slightly disturbing to see Mei’s character push my character to the ground and screw him senseless.

…It was a hot scene though, what with all the squirming and kissing and clothes tearin–

BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT.

Two weeks later, Mei was over at Yun’s house again trying out the outfit that Yun had sewn; as expected the outfit fitted perfectly with the curves and the bumps in all the right places. Mei adjusted her white wig one last time before putting on the eye patch and smirked at her reflection, lifting a calculated eyebrow before turning the look onto Yun.

So, how is it?

Yun cast a look over the outfit and a part of her admired her handiwork (more like her handiwork on Mei’s body, her brain laughed – shut up you stupid hormones, she thought) before she lifted her right shoulder in a shrug; looks good, as always.

Course it does, Mei leant down and wrapped her arms over Yun’s shoulder; I have the most talented tailor in the world as my best friend. It wasn’t really the clothes that fitted, Yun knew, but it was that Mei was pretty, always has and always will be, with her calm smile and her coloured hair (it was currently a dark blue). Mei could look pretty even when wearing a potato sack, much less cosplaying some handsome game character. Yun on the other hand, was plain. She didn’t look exceptionally stunning like Mei; she has normal black hair which she kept with long bangs and a smile that never quite reached her eyes. Yun was the sort that you would pass by on the street and not remember her face. It was okay though, Yun could live with that, she didn’t need the attention anyway. Mei gave her enough of that, with her hugging and her hand holding.

Yun used to hate it when Mei did that, hate the feeling of another person’s skin on hers, but Mei ignored her discomfort and did it every single time until it felt as normal as breathing. Mei, Yun found out, was a touchy sort of person, who liked to brush their hands together and tugged at the tips of her bangs.

So she was used to the hugging, and the hand holding. They got the occasional odd look, but Mei would turn on the charm and the look would usually melt into something else, Yun never bought that look. The Mei she knew calculated her actions and never did anything on impulse.

You’re heavy, Yun complained and she ignored the way she could smell the herbal shampoo that Mei always liked using, or how she could feel Mei’s breath on the back of her neck.

Sorry, Mei laughed into Yun’s shoulder, she could smell Yun’s soap, that faint chamomile that Yun liked using so much and tried not to think about what would happen if her plan failed.

It’s risky yes, but I’ve got nothing to lose.

Except five years of friendship, but one never goes anywhere without taking risk anyway, right?

Yun liked watching Mei cosplay. Maybe it was because Mei could take on personalities so easily, how she shifted from one to the other to the next in a blink of an eye. Yun could never do that; she doesn’t like pretending, doesn’t like cosplaying, doesn’t even like psychology. It’s entertaining though, watching Mei enchant and reel people in, before she flashed her smile and bit down on them.

Very entertaining indeed.

She was half-way through the LAMENTO game when Yun realised that she was obsessed. Obsessed with the game, obsessed with the character’s clothes (she made another change to her outfit again this morning; Konoe’s arm protectors were giving her hell), obsessed with finishing the game. The more she played, the more she saw Mei in her Rai character; it was there in the small lopsided smile, the liquid movements, the smirks, the way their words twisted to trap you into a corner.

A month before the convention, Mei suggested that perhaps they should practice, y’know to get their movements down right. Yun couldn’t see a flaw in her suggestion, but there was something in the way Mei smiled that rang alarm bells in her head. She was probably way too paranoid, it was Mei anyway, they had been friends for the past five years, and best friends for the last three. Okay, so maybe they were going to cosplay as male pair who had sex, but that’s okay, it won’t be so much of a problem right?

When Mei placed her hand on Yun’s chest and smiled with hooded eyes, Yun felt her gut contract and knew there was going to be a slight problem.

It’s not as if I have a problem with Mei putting her hand on my chest, it’s just that… well, how do I say it? You know that annoying doki doki feeling that happens sometimes?

Yeah.

The day after Yun finished the game and two days before the convention, Mei came over. She had purposely left Rai’s arc to the last and she couldn’t help feeling cheated in the end. The ending left a bitter taste in her mouth for some reason, and a rock in her gut.

…That arc wasn’t fair, Yun grumbled as she helped Mei into her outfit and buckled up the overlapping belts on her hips, before turning back to her own outfit.

I thought it was kind of sad, Mei shrugged, shifting her body weight to her right foot and tugging on the black cape, as she watched Yun changed through the large mirror in the hallway outside Yun’s room.

It was downright cheating; I was rooting for Rai and Konoe y’know, Yun snorted and tugged on her brown boots, before straightening up and tugging on her brown wig, feeling vaguely frustrated that she couldn’t get the hair to flip the way Konoe’s did in the game.

They were my favourite pair too, Mei laughed as she practiced her movements in front of the mirror and looked over when Yun walked over, still wearing a sour look on her face and tugging on the tips of her wig.

They stole my happy ending away from me, Yun snapped to no-one in particular as she nudged Mei out of the way and narrowed her eyes at her reflection, pulling on straight chestnut brown strands. Stupid characters and their stupid endings, Yun wanted to growl and snarl at something and she didn’t even understood why she was so irritated; seeing Mei dressed up as Rai only served to remind her of the arc’s ending.

Stop that, Mei scolded and she reached out, batted away Yun’s hands and smoothed out the wrinkles in Yun’s cape. She could smell the faint peppermint shampoo that Yun always used whenever she was annoyed or upset – it was a habit, probably something that Yun probably didn’t even noticed. It was hard not to let everything get to her, after all she had tried for so long and now Mei was so close.

She could do it.

Mei’s hands slipped to the wrapped front of Yun’s shirt and dragged her in for a kiss.

I would have been stupid to let that chance slip — I’ve been waiting for five years y’know.

That’s a pretty long time, I’m not that patient.

Their first kiss was a lot less than what Mei had wanted it to be, there were no silken lips or trembling touches; instead they bumped their noses together before they had actually kissed. Awkward yes, but what was done was done and Mei had no regrets.

(She had trouble convincing the rock in her stomach though.)

After the kiss, Yun reacted the same way that Mei expected her to; Yun cocked her head to the right, blinked once, then again before asking, so what was that about?

It was like Yun, to take everything in her stride, just like Yun to shrug her right shoulder and say, so what? Mei wanted to scream, wanted to push Yun against the wall and kiss her again, wanted to grab Yun by her narrow shoulders and shake her and tell her — I’ve been in love with you for the last five years of my life, and you didn’t know — instead Mei swallowed her voice and pasted her practiced smile on her face and laughed, just practicing for the convention. Mei could do with lying, she could do with the fake smiles, she could do with the whole going-back-to-square-one thing, except that the latter was going to hurt. A lot.

It was still doable though, especially since Yun was still watching her with that expression of hers, where her brain was clearly moving gears but Mei couldn’t read what she was thinking at all.

Yun smiled, one of her rare half-smiles before she leant in and whispered, I knew you know, in Mei’s ear before she placed her hands on Mei’s waist for leverage and leant in for a second kiss.

That kiss was much better than the first.

I mean, of course I knew, Mei’s hints are a little too obvious sometimes, even though she thinks they’re really subtle and ninja-ish.

Mei’s not the only one who can read actions, y’know.

When it came to sexing your best friend, it was probably best not to do it while in cosplay costume, especially when said friend was the tailor for the costume. Or if said costumes were really hard to get out of, with lots of buckles, twine and body-hugging fabric.

Watch the buckles Mei, and wai– take off the gloves before you do anything! Yun frowned and grabbed at the tips of Mei’s black fingers and tugged on it, seemingly oblivious to the fact they were both on her bed and Mei very badly wanted to get into her pants. But yes, the buckles, oh this bloody outfit was such a pain to get out of, and the whole clothes-tearing thing looked so easy in the game too.

But I wanted to ravish you, Mei complained even as she slid her hands down Yun’s hips and traveled southwards, brushing against the thin fabric of Yun’s underwear and circled back up again.

You still can oh go–, Yun arched up against Mei’s touch and touched the long white hair tickling her cheek, — leave the wig and the eye cover on okay, and don’t mess up the outfits –, Yun twitched and gritted her teeth as Mei’s hands wandered northwards and found their way into her bra, — oh fuck you Mei, you totally did that on purpose.

Mmm, Mei purred before leaning in and licking the curve of Yun’s ear, also you have a serious kink, Yun; not that I can complain of course. Mei’s fingers slid slowly under Yun’s underwear and into moist heat; she felt Yun buckled against her once, then twice, and as Yun’s breathing got heavier and heavier, Mei leant in and took her first taste.

Yun tasted like nothing Mei had ever tasted in this world. Mei licked her lips, perhaps she would be addicted.

—

About an hour and a half later, they were still naked in Yun’s bed which was starting to feel a little cramped. Their outfits were all over the floor, thrown haphazardly across Yun’s chair, across Yun’s table, across Yun’s laptop. Yun hoped the costumes and her poor abused brown wig (it sort of fell out when Mei was applying pressure there and licking her jutting hipbone, maybe she shouldn’t have jerked so much) were still intact. Mei on the other hand, was still wearing the white wig (she gave up the eye patch an hour ago), which oddly enough, managed to remain in place throughout the whole encounter. Mei had a newfound respect for wigs from HANAKAZURA now.

You planned it didn’t you?, Asked Yun pleasantly as she wrapped a white shock of hair around her finger.

Course I did, Mei replied just as pleasantly.

Bitch, you totally reeled me in, Yun rolled her eyes and Mei knew that her bark lacked the bite.

I had to, I waited five years y’know, Mei laughed and rolled on top of Yun, before leaning down to kiss her.

—

They had been in the convention for roughly 30 minutes before they were approached by a bespectacled girl with bleached blonde tips.

Can I take a picture of the two of you please?, She asked, lips curving into an embarrassed smile and Mei laughed before slipping into her Rai-mode, blue-contacted eyes narrowing dangerously. Yun shrugged and stood next to Mei, their shoulders barely touching, and their hands intertwined just before the camera went off.

Of course.