Love and Litterature

ACT 1: SATURDAY

You groggily open your eyes, and fumble to shut your alarm clock up. No school today, but you'll have to go prepare for the festival again. Reaching for your phone, you rub sleep out of your eyes, and read the text you got from Sayori.

"Hey, are ya gonna show up to the festival? :3"

You respond with a yes, and she responds almost instantly with a happy face.

Putting on some more casual clothes, you grab a waffle and eat it as you gather your things, before you get a message from Yuri (before the one where she tells you to bring chocolate), you can tell by the tone that she needs a hand getting everything prepared.

You say goodbye to your mother, telling her that you'll be home before dinner.

As you approach Yuri's home you feel almost excited to have some time alone for once. You knock politely, and you hear someone approach the door, and open it.

Yuri greets you with a smile, and welcomes you in. as you enter and set your shoes off to the side, you take in just how clean her home is. Everything is nearly spotless, save for the room she takes you to, which has a mess of paint cans in one corner, and canvas, both used and fresh in another.

She looks at the roll of paper she's sketched out a general design on with pencil with a look of worry, seemingly unimpressed with it. She sits down cross legged, and draws a bit more.

"How's this?" Yuri asks after a while, lifting her pencil.

The banner she drew is absolutely amazing, its simple yet eye catching, even without color. You nod, but give helpful suggestions, like adding a little more in the blank spots, or making the letters a little fancier. Before you know it, you're sitting down next to her, drawing as well as Yuri watches, curious.

"H-here, let me try something..." Yuri mumbles, gently taking the pencil from your hand, and adds the perfect final flair to the designs. She then turns it over, and writes her name, followed by yours.

"Why'd you write my name? I didn't do much to help." you ask quietly.

"What are you talking about? You did as much as I did!" Yuri cheerily responds, pointing out the difference in pencil strokes, your heavier ones compared to her finer ones, how you did the lettering a lot better than she did.

You felt genuine pride from her comments. She thought you did great.

"Thanks... I guess." you say, looking away.

Yuri giggles, making your heart flutter.

She then looks at the paints in one of the corners, an indecisive look on her face.

"What colors?" She asks, turning back to face you.

You gesture at some pastels, and Yuri gets to work, painting the banner. You help as well, doing borders around the lettering and other small details. Yuri stretches a bit, and looks down at the now quarter done banner, with the lettering and a few of the smaller added details painted.

"Well... we should take a break... if that's fine with you, I mean."

Putting your brush down, you look up at Yuri and nod, before standing up to go to the bathroom and wash your hands.

After your hands are no longer coated in paint, you return to the room, and see Yuri hastily roll down her sleeve after noticing you, giving you a disarming smile, and waving gently. You sit down awkwardly, picking up your brush and getting to work.

After some tedious painting, the banner is complete. You look down at the work you've done, and smile. Hard to believe that you did something this amazing, now that you think about it. Yuri, who took her break and was eating a cookie, gave you a polite thumbs up.

After she finished her cookie, she sat down next to you, and admired your work

"Next bit is some smaller streamers..." Yuri said to you.

"We could use some ribbons, maybe pink, red and purple..." you respond, looking around the room.

"I uh... Don't have ribbons..."

You then turn to the scrap paper, and look at it, but no ideas come to you.

Yuri pauses. "No wait.. I might have a few..."

She gets up, and darts off, returning with an armful of ribbon spools. She stacks them, and scans the colors, picking out some of the nicer ones. She takes out a pocket knife, and curls the ribbons, admiring her handiwork when she's done.

Your eyes fall on her knife, and a question arises. Why does she just have that in her pocket?

You don't ask any questions, and help Yuri get the ribbons set up.

You fish out some chocolate from your hoodie pocket, and split it in half, handing part of it to Yuri.

She breaks a single piece off, and eats it, giving you a smile of thanks.

You stand, and stretch, checking your phone, reading the time, and remembering you said you'd be home before dinner.

You're just about to say your goodbyes, but notice Yuri has a bit of paint on her face. You use your coat sleeve to wipe it off, and Yuri blushes.

You get up, and go to the front door, but are intercepted by Yuri just before you open it.

She approaches you, and draws closer, pausing right in front of you, seemingly contemplating something. Her purple eyes meet yours, and she puts her hands in yours, before kissing you on the cheek, then darting off.

You exit, not really paying attention, and hear a familiar voice.

"Hi!"

Looking over, you see Sayori, waving and approaching you with a smile.

You wave back, and Sayori catches her breath.

"I hope the festival goes well, don't you?"

You nod, but you notice just how worse for wear Sayori looks, with bags under her eyes, unkempt hair, and messy clothes, like she hasn't changed in days.

"Are you ok?" you ask, giving her a small frown.

"Never better!" she responds, giving you what would have been a friendly smile, but it looks like even she doesn't believe it.

Sayori takes a deep breath.

"W-would you want to walk me to the festival since... well, you're my best friend..." she asks, her light blue eyes looking away from you.

"Oh, sure! You didn't need to ask, I would have gone with you regardless." you respond, putting your hand on her shoulder.

Sayori does something you don't expect, and hugs you, leaning against your shoulder. Before she pulls away and runs off, you hear a faint sniffle, and look at your shoulder, seeing some darker spots where tears presumably fell.

You look up to see if she's still within sight, but she's already gone. Defeated, you walk home.

After your normal nightly activities, you send Sayori a goodnight message, but she doesn't respond as quickly as normal.

You just turn your phone off, and try to fall asleep, doing your best to block out whatever unhappy thoughts that plague you.