Underneath The Stars (Shizune)

[Scissorlips]

Once again, I cannot seem to finish anything until the absurdly wee hours in the morning. Anyway, this started off as a nice little Shizune story, since those seem to be some of my post popular works and I'm glad. But it just kind of spiraled out of control. Sorry for the somewhat long length. It's back to more Suzu after this.



Underneath The Stars


“[Do I even want to know where you got that?]” I sign, hoping my face conveys the exasperation that my hands can't. Shizune adjusts her glasses triumphantly with one hand while holding the bottle in the other.

“[Conf—at--teac--]” She attempts to sign the words using both hands, but even her skilled fingers aren't good enough to do so without almost dropping her prize. Shizune carefully sets the bottle on the desk before continuing as if nothing had happened.

“[Confiscated from a teacher's desk. Apparently alcoholism is a required trait in history teachers these days.]”

“[So why do you have it?]” I eye her carefully, but can't help notice that next to me, Misha gazes at the bottle with something between childlike wonder and deep longing. It does not make me any more comfortable with the situation.

“[I may have confiscated it from the confiscation closet.]” Shizune signs, looking quite pleased with herself. I quickly walk over the to door of the student council room and poke my head outside, glancing up and down the hallway. There's not a soul in sight, the afternoon has drug on and the sun is beginning to set. It's not like we have to worry about anyone overhearing us, that's one of the benefits of using sign language, but it never hurts to be cautious. When I turn around, Shizune and Misha have already fished out glasses from who knows where, and are peering curiously at the glass bottle. I move back over to the desk.

“[Open it, Hicchan!]” Misha ends her signing with a punch of her fist, as if cheering me on.

“[Why do I have to it?]”

“[Plausible deniability.]” Shizune studies me intently behind her glasses. “[You can say you were just following orders.]”

I'm not entirely sure what plausible deniability is, but I don't think that's what it means. I don't actually doubt that she would take the blame if we were discovered though, but something tells me she probably has a backup plan in place for that, too. I study the bottle before me. It looks fairly expensive, with elaborate designs and shapes etched onto the glass surface. The liquid inside is clear, it might as well be water, something that disturbs me for some reason.

“[Vodka?]” I try to read the label, but that's all I really get. English isn't my favorite subject.

“[Open it!]” Misha repeats and I slowly comply, twisting the top off the bottle. I think I hear a hiss. The three of us stand there for a few long moments, not really knowing what to do next.

“[Do we need ice for this?]” Misha asks. I shrug. I have no idea what the best way to drink vodka is, and part of me is glad that they don't either. It's not unusual for the student council to goof around in celebration of getting some task or another done, but this takes the cake. And I mean that, it's even more outrageous than the cake Misha produced one day that was decorated with our faces in little cartoon form. The awkwardness of eating my own image was nothing compared to the childlike confusion we exhibit now.

“[Okay, it's settled.]” Shizune straightens up, puffing out her chest as she enters her authorative mode. I don't remember settling anything, but she continues anyway.

“[Hisao is on ice collection duty. Misha, you go to the vending machines on this floor and get us some juice to mix it with.]”

“[And what will you be doing?]” I'm not going to like this, I bet.

“[I'll be standing guard here.]” Shizune smiles as if her explanation makes perfect sense. “[We can't just leave this laying around for someone to stumble upon. This is really the most important task, but also the most boring one. You should be thanking me!]”

“[I thought guard duty was for people who were too dumb to do anything else?]” This prompts an immediate launch into Shizune Angry Pout mode, but I snatch up the cups and get on my way before she can fire off a reply. I'm sure she's coming up with all sorts of great comebacks as I head for the staircase, and the thought brings a smile to my lips. It's worth it to inspire her wrath now and then, if only to see the faces she makes.

Darkness has fallen on Yamaku. The empty halls are a stark contrast from the bustling life of the school during the day, but I'm sure we're not entirely alone. I take care to walk as quietly as possible and keep my eyes and ears open for any teachers or security staff who might be doing patrols. Granted, I'm technically here this late on student council business, but I don't think that would get me very far in this case.

The cafeteria is completely deserted, it's creepy in the low light. The memories of all the times it's been chock full of people and roaring with noise play in my mind like an old film. Slowly and steadily, I make my way to the ice machine. This is going to be the hardest part. I take one last look around to make sure I'm alone, brace myself, and then hold down the release bar. The sound of the machine churning out ice into the cups I've placed below would be barely audible on during the day, but now it sounds like the roar of motor engine. I wince with every clacking noise that the ice cubes make as they hit the glasses, until finally all three are about halfway full.

I scoop them up with both hands before pausing. This is exactly the part where a teacher would show up and ask me what I'm doing. My body tenses up, any second now I expect an older voice to call out from behind me demanding an explanation.

Nothing.

I turn around, alone in the vast cafeteria but for the ghosts of past lunch breaks. Huh.

I actually have a good feeling about this. I wonder how long it will last.



Upon returning to the student council room, I find the two girls sitting on either side of one of the tables. The bottle of alcohol is set there, with a handful of juice and soda containers sprawled next to it. The pair looks up as I draw near.

“[You took your time.]” Shizune plays it cool, but I can tell she's slightly nervous. And I might have drawn out my trip to the cafeteria just a little bit longer to make sure she had time to forget my slight about her guarding capabilities.

“[Sorry, there was a line.]” I hug the glasses against my chest to free my hands so I can respond, then set them on the table. Shizune and Misha have pulled up chairs on either side, and for a moment I'm not sure who to sit next to. Even though we're dating, Shizune never lets it conflict with her position as the student council president. I enjoy being a part of their antics, the three of us are almost inseparable now, but everything's been so busy these days with preparing for the elections for next year's council that there hasn't been time for much else.

Well, I suppose we're certainly making time now. I pull up a chair next to Shizune and receive a look that's halfway between relief and stern approval. I guess I'm not the only one who worries about stupid little details sometimes.
Now that we hopefully have everything that we need assembled, the three of us sit there for a few long moments, unsure what to do next.

“[Who's first?]” I ask.

“[Shicchan, you're up~!]”

“[Why me?]” She looks from the bottle to the various other drinks laid out before us, not knowing where to start. It's cute, and rare, to see her so indecisive.

“[You're the one in charge.]” I decide that she needs a little push to get her moving. “[If the captain goes down with the ship, then the president should take the first drink.]”

“[Fine.]” She signs, reaching forward. She pours some of the bottle's contents into one of the glasses, the clatter of the liquid hitting ice lost on her, and then sets it back down. Shizune stares at the drink before her with an expression of uncertainty, and I begin to stop and ask myself just why we're doing this in the first place. But then her brow knits in determination, and she raises the glass to her lips, taking a deep sip.

Shizune's eyes widen and she coughs a few times as she lowers her glass. The sound might as well be coming from a stranger, it's unfamiliar and vaguely alien, like listening to a cat sneeze. I find myself leaning forward a little, no longer caring about the why. Shizune's voice is an untold mystery to me, a subject I haven't been able to approach that hangs in the distance like an unexplored island off the coast. There have been... times... when I've heard her voice, though. I find my mind beginning to drift a bit. Fortunately, Misha's laughter pulls me back to reality.

“[Here Shicchan, next time take a sip of this right after the first one.]” Misha offers her one of the cans of juice, then begins filling the rest of the glasses with the clear liquid in the bottle.

“[Do I want to know why you know that?]” I ask.

“[It's called a chaser!]” Misha flashes a wide grin. “[They use them all the time on television~]”

“[If you have time to watch so much TV, maybe we should see about putting you in charge of making all the ballots.]” Shizune quips, but she follows her friend's advice this time and quickly follows another gulp of vodka with one from the juice. She manages to avoid coughing this time, and smiles as she sets down her glass. Another challenge bested, it would seem.

“[That definitely is better.]” She signs before turning to me. She's trying to make her expression blank but I can see the devious glint in her eyes a mile away.

“[Your turn.]” I guess there's no escape now. I glance back the at the door to make sure it's closed, and then raise the glass to my lips. The smell hits my nose, it's sharp and almost reminds me of some household cleaning product. And I'm going to drink this? I glance at the two girls, who stare back at me with anticipation. It feels like this is something that adults do, and the thought makes my pulse pick up for some reason. This is probably the sort of thing that the student council should be cracking down on and discouraging. But Shizune is always one to budget time to shirk her responsibilities, and I know it's far too late to back out now. Besides...

I glance at Shizune, who meets my gaze while wearing that smile that always spells impending doom. Summer vacation is already turning into a distant memory. Maybe we all need a little something to loosen us up. I certainly can't see this becoming a regular occurrence, but we're young, aren't we? This kind of thing is okay as long as we don't lose our heads. I'm sure everything will be fine.

I tilt the glass and pour some of the vodka into my mouth. It's like the drink itself is alive, kicking and screaming as it pours down my throat, it might as well have been scraping its nails the whole time with the burning sensation that threatens to overpower me. Following Misha's advice, I quickly take a gulp of soda to counteract the earlier taste, and then suck in a gap of air. That I should have to do this at all just to make something drinkable strikes me as a stupid idea, but I've barely recovered before Misha steals the show by taking a big gulp, knocking her head back dramatically, and then drinking from a can of lemonade. I wasn't aware she watched that much television. Misha gives her head a shake and then beams at us.

“[To history teachers~!]”

Shizune smiles and adjusts her glasses, and then raises her drink. “[To the student council.]”

This feels too corny to be happening right now, but I'm sure that resisting won't get me anywhere. I follow her example and raise my own glass.

“[To friendship.]” Might as well go there, it feels somehow fitting right now anyway. Both of the girls before me smile widely and I know I made the right choice.

“[To friendship!]” Their hands echo mine, and our glasses meet. The sound is like the death knell to all the issues and fussing that we've powered through with student council work today, and for now the future consists entirely of trying to dispose of the evidence in front of us. I didn't think sitting around drinking would be that much fun by itself, but it turns out that the more you do it, the more fun it gets. Shizune turns it into a competition in record time anyway, which I should have been expecting.



“[I-I think I wonnn.]” Shizune signs with some difficulty. Her motions are disjointed and difficult to follow, but even sober signing is hard to read when you're looking at it sideways. I roll my head back to rest my chin on the table, glancing warily at my glass. It's as empty as the bottle on the table, save for what remains of the melted ice. Well, I guess that's that, I've probably had enough anyway and Misha certainly has because she's passed out in her seat and I feel like maybe I should do the same and wait nah no. My head is swimming as I straighten up to take in my surroundings. Misha snores loudly as she leans against the back of the chair. Shizune smiles softly as she gazes at her, and then closes her own eyes for a moment. When they reopen, she looks somewhat distant.

“[Not even faking it this time.]” She signs, slowly and steadily.

“What?” I blurt out, feeling so fuzzy that I forget to sign it. “[What?]”

“[Neeeever minnd.]” Shizunes's hands bob weakly around the space in front of her, and somewhere in my drunken state I realize that getting intoxicated must be a two-edged sword for deaf people. Not only is it harder to sign anything like this, but my ability to read and interpret her gestures is nowhere near it's peak as well. For better of maybe for worse though, Shizune seems to have more on her mind than talking. Still sitting at the table, she paws at the air in my direction, her face flushed red and her hair slightly tussled.

“[I won. I won, remember? I drank the last of the bottle. And, and and, and]” She slumps onto the table slightly, her head rolling around like a giddy schoolchild. I can't really say I blame her, I probably look just as ridiculous right now.

“[And what?]” I end up fumbling with the gestures and have to go incredibly slow. Shizune watches my hands, squinting slightly, until I finish. Then she smiles and pushes to her feet.

“[And I'm ready for my prize.]” She tries to look deadly serious but hiccups a few times, which not only ruins the effect but gains my immediate attention. Her voice again, I always like hearing it. I remember the last time that I really did was when we...

Oh hey now wait, is that what she's, I mean, Misha is right there in the room with us and it's got to be really late now and--

I had been so deep in drunken thought that I hadn't even seen her approach, but suddenly Shizune is right in front of me, standing next to my chair. She leans down and our faces bump into each other awkwardly for a moment before our lips finally meet.

I don't even remember the last time we were able to kiss at school, although that might just be the alcohol. Still. It's nice. We stay like that for a few moments before she pulls back, smiling.

“[You weren't do--- thing about it so I -ad to ---- prize myself.]” Her hands are shaking a little from either intoxication, excitement, or nervousness. It's probably a combination of the three, but I manage to make out the gist of it.

“[Oh, is that all you wanted?]” I bump one hand into the table as I reply but don't really feel it. I hope my face does a good job of showing her that I'm a little disappointed. A little.

“[That depends.]” She stares straight into my eyes. The bright moonlight that pours into the room drapes her in a soft and pale glow, and I think I can make out her heavy breathing.

“[What else can I have?]” She asks.

Oh boy, here we go.



Before I know it, I'm out of my seat and Shizune's form is pressed against me, our bodies pulsing and grinding against eachother. She caresses my neck, then my chin, then my cheeks with her lips, just brushing them along my skin. I'm still a little unsure, after all, last time I was... not quite so free. But this time my hands fumble along her sides, smooth down her hips. I pray that my body continues to listen to something deep inside of me and that the motions that come naturally continue to do to her what hers do to me. I sink my arms behind her and rake my nails down her back, lightly at first, but I sharpen my movements as Shizune's body shivers in response and I watch her mouth clamp shut to suppress a gasp. She throws herself against me with even more force, pressing me into a fierce and desperate kiss. Just when I work up the courage to try experimenting with my tongue, she suddenly pulls away. Shizune disentangles herself from me, and the sudden loss of the warm body in front of mine feels like a terrible tragedy. In the low light, I see her begin to sign.

“[You're making this too easy.]” Her face is still flushed, whether she's blushing or just red from the alcohol, my addled brain can't determine.

“[What do you have in mind?]” I sign back with some difficulty, distracted by more than just the drinks we've had.

Shizune glances over to take in the view outside the windows of the student council room, still steelclad in moonlight. Then she turns back to me, with an odd look on her face. She's smiling, but there's a strange look in her eyes, one I'm not used to seeing, even when she's in a mischievous mood. It's something my dulled senses can't process, it goes over my head somehow. She looks at me and just is. She's there, and I'm here, and it feels like nothing has ever been more natural or right or better than the two of us together, looking at eachother like this. Something pushes the animal instincts in my brain aside, lust takes a backseat. I'm drenched in something vastly more important, something much more rare and precious and infinite.

I don't know exactly when it was that I fell in love with the beautiful, bossy, fragile, determined girl in front of me. I don't know where the future will take us, what will happen after graduation or even after this night. All my narrowed consciousness can take in is this moment that we're sharing together, right now. Shizune looks at me, and I look at her.

“[Chase me.]" She signs. And then she runs.

I'm left standing there for a moment as Shizune, wobbling slightly on unsteady feet but grinning like a madwoman, bolts out of the student council room. Then I'm off after her, out the door, into the hallway. I follow the sound of her swift footsteps as she runs to the staircase, taking the steps two at a time. My heart is pounding in my chest but a voice at the back of my head is saying it's all right, nothing can go wrong, I've come a long way since the day I first arrived here at Yamaku. I'm stronger now. I can have moments like this, moments when it's okay to just be young and stupid and let everything go. I chase after Shizune, who by now has lost so much inhibition that she's giggling out loud, a strange and bubbly sound that tugs my heart strings. She finally reaches ground level, running through the halls with reckless abandon. Reaching one of the doors that's luckily only locked from the outside, Shizune bursts through it and out into the warm night air. I've caught up to her a little by now, closing the distance between us but still unable to overtake her, and I'm not sure if I really want to, she looks like she has a destination in mind.

For a moment as my legs pump beneath me I wonder if this is what Emi feels like every morning on the track, with nothing but the fluid motion of your body and inertia propelling you forward towards a finish line. But I decide that this must be even better, instead of some arbitrary point drawn down the road, I'm chasing after the girl in front of me, who glances back every now and then, always smiling warmly when she sees me following. I swear I'll catch her. I'm not sure what will happen when I do, but all that matters is that I will.

The chase leads us off of the main school campus and into the wooded area next to Yamaku. Fortunately, the area isn't too dense for my inebriated self to follow her, and eventually we break through the treeline into a wide, open clearing filled with tall grass. Shizune's finally begins to slow, but by this point my own pace has been set and it's too late to put the brakes on. She turns to look at me, her face registering mild surprise as I slam into her. Not my most graceful moment. We go tumbling to the soft ground, flattening waves of tall grass, Shizune somehow managing to twist so that I end up falling on my back with her landing on top of me.

She's breathing even heavier now, face completely flushed, eyes wide with excitement. My dulled senses take in the sight of her looking down at me, the bright and full moon lighting up the sky behind her. It's beautiful. She's beautiful.

And somehow, even though I was the one who caught her, she's ensnared me.

Lying on top of me, Shizune slowly leans down, and our lips touch again, soflty, gently. The raw heat emanating from her body is almost scalding, our kiss is obstructed by the labored breathing we both share. Breaking our embrace, she leans back to sign something.

“[Knew ---'d chase af-- me.]” The backdrop of the moonlight is barely enough to make our most of her shaky words, and it doesn't help that my vision is starting to blur a little by now. Shizune uses her hands to begin unbuttoning my shirt, but I raise my own to reply.

“[What makes you so sure?]”

Shizune gives me her haughty look, even with her hair all disheveled and her face all red. She shifts to sit on my legs so that she can sign easier.

“[---lways do. You alwa-- --ve.]” She hiccups while signing. I'm too drunk to describe how cute it is with words. She seems just aware enough to look embarrassed, but then she grows serious.

“[--'m grateful.]”

I don't really know how to respond to that. I'm not sure if I would know even if I hadn't had my fair share of a bottle of vodka. But apparently just understanding her words is enough for her. Shizune stares down at me for a long moment, smiling slightly. Then a thought occurs to me.

“[What would you do if I didn't come after you?]” I sign. I feel like I'm sinking into the earth at my back, I never knew the ground could be so comfortable. I want to lean back and surrender to the sensation of the flattened grass supporting me, but I need her answer.

Shizune pretends to think about it for a little while, but I think she's known her opinion on the matter all along.

“[I --ust might ha-- to cha-- after y--.]” Even garbled, it's the answer I was hoping for. My head is swimming as I push myself up with my arms, leaning forward so much that Shizune falls backwards, flattening another patch of tall grass. She's giggling again, the strange sound enough to push any trace of lust from my mind. I move to crawl over next to her, and she squirms her body into the contours of mine until we're entwined side by side. We kiss again, the raw passion of before having boiled away, leaving only our feelings for eachother.

After a time our embrace ends, and she turns to look up at the night sky, her eyes growing wide with wonder. She points wordlessly, and I follow to take in the breathtaking sight of what must be a million stars filling the vast expanse above us. It reminds me of the night of the school festival that we spent together, where she showed me just how much beauty was out there in the world. I know that I would never see a sight like this in the city where I used to to live. I tear my gaze away from the brilliant beads of light above and settle my eyes on the girl next to me. Then again, I guess there are lots of things that I would never have gotten to experience if I was still back at that place. Shizune might be grateful that I'm always there to be by her side, but I hope she knows how grateful I am to have her here as well.

It's all too complicated right now. Too much for my clouded brain to process. So instead of continuing down that path I wrap my arms around Shizune and pull her close. She wriggles for a moment until our bodies are perfectly lined up, and then lays her head on my chest. For a second I wonder if she's listening to my irregular heartbeat, before I remember that it's pointless. It doesn't matter though. Arrhythmia or not, even if she can't hear hear it, my heart still belongs to the girl in my arms.
Together, we gaze at the stars for what feels like hours, until exhaustion and alcohol combine to take their toll, and we drift away.




"Underneath The Stars" is a song by The Cure.

[turbulentDuvet]

A beautiful little piece of work. Enjoy the drunken signing I have a hard enough time remembering the manual alphabets and basics.

I like stuff like this as it's interesting to see how people think that the cannon characters progress outside what the game shows. Thanks for sharing.

[Pro PandaBear]

Awwwwwww, so much happy . Side note: I always thought that with sign language a sign was one word or meaning, and you either understood it completely or not at all, instead of how Hisao was able to pick up parts of a word. Maybe I'm wrong. Great story regardless!

[turbulentDuvet]

Awwwwwww, so much happy . Side note: I always thought that with sign language a sign was one word or meaning, and you either understood it completely or not at all, instead of how Hisao was able to pick up parts of a word. Maybe I'm wrong. Great story regardless!

yeah, sign language is similar to chinese / kanji i suppose using hand gestures instead of ideogrammes. maybe the idea was that the gestures were more sloppy, taking a while longer for them both to work out what they were signing, or that Shizune was moving fast enough to stop Hisao correlating ech sign with a word before his mind snapped onto the next?

[Scissorlips]

Thanks to both of you! And Panda, you have a good point. In my experience with sign language, when you're doing things like fingerspelling (manual alphabet), if you miss or can't make out a specific sign you try to hang in there and either guess the word from the rest of the other letters or the context of the conversation. Still though, fingerspelling is a last resort compared to using the actual sign, which is what would probably be taking place here. Really, it was more because it flowed better with the narrative than any other reason, I don't like pointing out "subtleties" in my own work but I think it kind of makes a thowback to earlier in their relationship when Hisao was first learning sign and could barely understand her words, and contrasts that with here and where they are at the time of the story. Any way, like I said, it was just an artistic liberty on my part, so I hope that doesn't bother anyone too much, and any reason you can come up for it in your head is probably as valid as just about any other.
Thanks again for reading, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[crushinator]

There's also the issue with the syntax and grammar of JSL.

That aside, I really like your fan fics Scissorlips. Consider me a fan. I'll always enjoy Shizune as a character.

[nemz]

Hisao clearly hasn't hung around Kenji enough yet to build up proper tolerance for manly beverages. Disgraceful.

Personally I'm suprised that 'whiskey dick' wasn't involved in the proceedings ending as they did.

[Elcor]

Seriously a sweet story that I smiled the whole time reading it. Though I do wonder what happens to Misha in the morning.

[bradpara]

Very Lovely

[Scissorlips]

Thank you very much, everyone. I'm really glad I decided to start posting my stories on the official forums because it's been great having a more permanent place to post and receive feedback. So thanks again for reading, and I'm glad anyone who liked it did.

There's also the issue with the syntax and grammar of JSL.

That aside, I really like your fan fics Scissorlips. Consider me a fan. I'll always enjoy Shizune as a character.

That's also true. I'm just barely beginning to learn ASL, and it's quite a lot of fun, but it's a ton to take in as well. I can't even begin to imagine how intricate JSL is compared to normal Japanese. Also, uh, I still can't really get it through my head that I have fans, but thank you, very much, it means... well, a lot to me. I'm really glad to have had the chance to provide something for my fellow Shizune fans.