Ju Te Veux - another warped Utena fic by Harukami

And, yes, it's again named after a Malice Mizer song.  Vague yuri
here.  *waves the home colours, which happen to be red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet*  I don't loathe Shiori.
Much.  Maybe a little. A lot.  But I do understand her.  A little.
Not much.  Uhm, yeah.  PRE-series here, folks.


"Look, Juri-san."

Juri looked.  A bird.  A collection of tendons, bones, muscles,
feathers... it was flying.

"Isn't it pretty, Juri-san?"

Juri looked back.  Young face alight with wonder, eyes turned
away from her observer.  Perfectly heart-shaped face.  Full lips
tilted upward.  Raspberry-coloured hair falling around that sharp
chin.

"Yes," Juri said.  "It is."

The older girl watched as She sat.  Those full lips continued to
smile as Her hand patted the ground beside Her.  "Juri-san, sit
with me?"  The girl did not meet Juri's eyes.

Juri sat.

"Have you ever wanted to fly, Juri-san?"

Sometimes, Juri would dream.  Last night had been one of them.
She rarely dreamed, so it was memorible.  Juri had been flying.
Full wings, feathers each as long as her arm, stretched from her
back for at least ten feet, eleven, twelve... further.  They
caught the wind and her unbound hair waved against her nude body
as the wings pumped, pumped, building momentum, muscles bunching
and extending as she went so high she felt dizzy and had to duck
back down.  Going back through the clouds she'd seen the tower of
Ohtori Observatory ahead and had flown closer.  Inside, She was
there, kissing a man.  Juri hadn't pulled back in time and had
impacted with the window, naked figure contorting with pain,
wings giving out as she spiraled down, down, down, to impact hard
with pavement outside.  It had hurt.  Blood had puddled around
her, but it wasn't the painfully bright red of newly spilled
blood, it had been raspberry-coloured.  She had woken up, rose
from bed, and headed for the shower.

"Yes," Juri responded distantly.  "Of course.  Haven't you?"

"Oh," She murmured, still not looking directly at Juri, "I have.
I think everybody wants to fly, right?  Imagine the feeling!  The
wind in your hair, complete freedom, nothing to overpower you,
everything in your dominion!"  The girl stretched a hand out.
"Nothing would escape my grasp unless I wanted it to."

When Juri had gotten out of the shower, the whole bathroom was
filled with steam.  She hadn't thought to turn on the bathroom
fan.  It would be hard to brush out her long hair, especially if
she didn't want it to curl into its customary sausage-curls,
which is what it did if she didn't brush and dry it at the same
time.  She had taken the slightly-damp towel and ran it over the
mirror.  It was still blurry.  In her reflection, she thought she
had seen large, blindingly white wings from her back and had felt
a heaviness there that matched it.  But when she scrubbed harder
with the towel, unwilling or unable to just look over her
shoulder, the wings had vanished with most of the mist, leaving
only the heaviness.

"What do you want to catch, Shiori?" Juri asked Her.

The raspberry-haired girl smiled and looked into the far
distance.  "Nothing.  Childish fancies.  You know.  It doesn't
make sense.  It doesn't have to.  It's just dreaming."

"No," Juri agreed.  "It never makes sense."

"HEY!  OVER HERE!"  The other girl had stopped listening.  Juri
looked up.  He was approaching.  She placed a smile on her face.
"Shiori.  Juri."  He smiled at both of them.  Shiori smiled back
brightly, meeting his eyes. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon!"

Juri felt tired. "Good afternoon."  She rose.

"Juri-san, don't go."  Shiori's eyes were large and startled.

"I have to study," Juri said and left as quickly as she could.
She was tired.  Maybe she needed to sleep.  To dream.  To fly.

Her back ached.

FIN