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At the end of practice, Saki comes bounding up to the railing.
"Good work today," Honami says as she smiles and hands her a water bottle and a towel. She’s still panting slightly, worn out from all the hill running she and Saki did. A drop of sweat trickles from behind her bangs, running down her forehead.
Saki takes the offering, grinning, and then tiptoes, using the towel to wipe off Honami's forehead. Honami lets out a little eep, her ears shooting straight up. Saki giggles, bouncing away. Ichika looks on fondly, from where she’s taking a sip of her own water.
"Want to go for another lap, Saki? Since you don't seem tired yet." Shiho says, leaning over the railing and raising their eyebrows.
Oh yeah, she can go for another lap. Especially if it means leaving Shiho behind in the dust. Saki opens her mouth to answer the challenge, but the voice of their trainer comes from behind her. She’s a younger woman with wavy shoulder-length blue hair, slim rectangular glasses, and a single strand of hair falling between her eyes. There are freckles dotting her round cheeks, and she has a kindly, but firm expression on her face.
"That's enough for today. Rest is an important part of your training as well." She glances over at the clipboard in her hands. "Saki, your times are improving on the hill run, and you seem less out of breath after each rep. It's a clear sign your stamina is improving."
Saki perks up, beaming. Honami pats her on the head. Her tail swishes once in response, and she leans into the warm touch.
Their trainer turns to Shiho, pushing up her glasses. "Your lap times have never been better. There's still some time until the Yayoi Sho, but you're in excellent shape."
Shiho turns away to hide their satisfaction at the compliment, but a slight flick of their tail gives them away. Saki smiles to herself.
"Honami, your endurance is spectacular, but you have a tendency to hesitate during positioning. We'll try more partner running soon, but for now, we'll continue to work on your power to better enable you to position yourself. Just remember to trust in yourselfーyou have a knack for it, but you can't hesitate."
A quick nod from Honami. "I'll tryー, no, I'll work on my decisiveness." Their trainer gives her a smile, and turns to the last member of the team.
"Ichika, we'll work more on your gate training. Your reaction time is fine, but you still tend to get a little startled by the noise as it opens."
"R-right." The tips of Ichika's ears droop.
Their trainer smiles at her. "Don't worry, Ichika. It'll just take a bit more getting used to. You'll have it in no time. We'll try again the day after tomorrow."
Ichika tilts her head to the side. "Not tomorrow?"
She shakes her head. "I'll be out on some business tomorrow, and you've all been working hard, so a break is in order." She unclips a piece of paper from her board and hands it to Honami. "I'll leave you with some light exercises to do, and you can continue with your roadwork, but we'll pick it up again the day after. Any questions, any concerns?"
She meets each of their eyes as they shake their heads. "I'll see you all soon then. Don't work too hard on your day off!" The last line is directed towards Shiho, who looks away.
The four of them say their thank yous and wave as they jog off, heading towards the cafeteria.
Halfway back, Saki slowly comes to a stop, and the others follow, looking at her. She turns to them, a glint in her eyes. "I have an idea."
"No," Shiho immediately objects.
Saki pouts. "You didn't even listen!"
"You were just going to say something like 'we should hold a party!' or 'we should stay up all night!' or 'sleepover in our dorm!' again." Shiho sighs. "Rest is important, Saki. Especially for you."
Saki frowns at that. "I'm fine, Shiho-chan."
Ichika interrupts before the two start bickering. "Saki, I love you, and I love Shiho and Honami, but it'd be nice to have some warning before a sleepover… I need to clean."
"Icchan! I wasn't going to say that this time!" Saki huffs. "Fine. I guess no one wants to listen to my brilliant idea."
Honami stifles a giggle. "Let's hear it, O Wise Saki-chan," she teases.
"Not you too, Hona-chan!" Honami placates her by brushing her tail against Saki's, and she huffs again. "Hmph. I was gonna say, since we have a light day tomorrow, we should go out and stargaze tonight."
Shiho frowns and tilts their head. "Where, the roof?"
Saki shakes her head. "No, Shiho-chan, there's no way to get up there besides climbing, and we shouldn't do that at night."
"And you shouldn't do that during the day either? That's dangerー"
"Anyways!" Saki cuts in. "Let's sneak out, like out of town, away from all the lights!"
Shiho opens their mouth to dissuade that idea too, but then takes a good look. Saki's eyes are glimmering with excitement. They glance towards the others; Ichika's ears are perked straight up, and Honami's tail is slowly wagging from side to side.
"The stars, huh… it's been a while since we've last been out to see them." Ichika muses.
Honami nods. "It's too bright here. It's just not the same in the big city."
Shiho's already normally weak to their girlfriends, but seeing them quietly excited has them giving in faster than Honami when it comes to apple pies. "... Fine." Their ears flick at the prospect.
Saki grins. "You can admit you're excited too, Shiho-chan!" Shiho glares, though there's no heat in it.
"Whatever." Looking into the distance, the cafeteria building is just within view. "Race you. Last one to the cafeteria has to clear all our plates." At that, they dash off.
It takes less than a second for Saki to react. "Hey, no fair, Shiho-chan!" Saki sprints off too, hot on their heels. "That's a false start, Shiho-chaaaaaan!" Honami and Ichika look at each other, nod, and chase after too.
In the end, they all reach the cafeteria at roughly the same time, skidding to a stop when they nearly run into Mafuyu, their dorm head, exiting.
"Ah-! Sorry, A-Asahina-senpai! U, uh, good evening."
"Good evening, Hoshino-san, Mochizuki-san, Tenma-san, Hinomori-san. "
Saki gulps and waves. Mafuyu smiles, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes.
"My, you all sure are lively this evening. Did you have a good time at practice?"
"Yes, my apologies for our overexcitement." Honami inclines her head. "We'll be more careful in the future."
"No need for that!" Mafuyu chuckles. "No harm done, after all. Just make sure to be more careful in the future."
Shiho gives a curt nod.
"Well, I'll be off then. I'll see you all around the dorms later." She raises her hand and walks off.
Saki lets out a sigh of relief. "I thought we were going to get in trouble again." Shiho opens their mouth to say something, but catches a glance from Honami and shuts it.
They spend all of dinner planning their grand escape. It's simpleー wait for Mafuyu to get ready for bed at ten pm exactly, like she does every night, and then sneak out of the dorms. Truth be told, there's not much security, and the dorm heads are more there to enforce quiet hours and be available as needed, rather than corralling students.
("That's too simple!" Saki complains. "We should make a rope out of blankets or something!"
"And stir up a ruckus by falling out of the window?" Shiho hisses back.)
After dinner, Honami and Shiho offer to clear everyone's plates, so Saki takes Ichika by the hand and pulls her back to their dorm room.
Thanks to Saki's mother, their room is home to an abundance of blankets. She pulls one from the top shelf, and in doing so, her eyes fall on a picture of the four of them in elementary school. It's from when they went to observe one of the bigger regional races for the first time, 2000m on the Ooi Racetrack. In the background, the runners are on the dirt track, stretching out their muscles in preparation for the race ahead. None of them are looking at the cameraーinstead, the four are clustered around the railing of the track, Shiho leaning so far over they look like they're about to fall towards the racers.
"Icchan, do you ever miss it?" Saki asks, as she folds together a blanket and packs it into a bag.
"Hm? Miss what?" a muffled voice comes from the closet, where Ichika is preoccupied with digging out more blankets.
"Ah, nothing."
Ichika pokes her head out, staring directly at Saki. "What is it, Saki?"
Saki takes a seat on her bed, swinging her legs. "Y'know. The town. The stars. Everyone back home."
Ichika dumps the blankets, and sits beside her, putting a hand on her leg. "Is something the matter, Saki?"
Saki just shrugs. There's nothing wrong per say, it's justー
"I do miss them." Ichika says, interrupting her train of thought. "I miss the old man down the street who would greet us with manjuu after every race, the flower lady who gave us all bouquets when we were about to transfer." She looks up at the ceiling.
Saki nods. "I miss them too." She misses being able to look over and see the face of her classmates on the side of the track, their homeroom teacher watching over them with a proud smile. She misses the narrow tracks, the feel of dirt beneath her cleats.
"I like it here, though. Do you?"
She does. There's something that tugs at her in her heart, but she's happy here, with the three of them. She'd go anywhere to stay with them.
"I'm glad we transferred," Ichika continues. Her hand finds its way into Saki's. "I miss home, but hereーeverything's so much bigger here, and there's so many more fans to excite." She squeezes Saki's hand. "Like how we started dreaming after that race, I want to be able to give some younger girls dreams too."
Even now, it's still burned into her memory. The heat of the crowd, the roar of the cheers.The rhythmic pounding of cleats on dirt. And, above all, the joy and excitement glowing in Shiho's, Honami's, and Ichika's eyes. She's sure that if she had a mirror, hers would reflect the same.
Saki nods. "I'm glad you're glad." Ichika smiles.
The alarm on Saki's phone rings, and Ichika jumps.
"Ah, sorry Icchan!" Saki checks her phone. "It's almost eleven."
The two linger there for a minute, two minutes, until Saki peels herself up with a groan. "Let's get going."
Ichika nods, grabbing one of the bags of blankets. Saki takes the other, and since her hands are occupied, intertwines her tail with Ichika's as they tiptoe down the stairs together. They head out into the cold, Saki shivering and pulling closer to Ichika. A few minutes later, Honami appears, clutching a bag of snacks. Saki quickly takes the opportunity to sandwich herself between the two, like pigeons huddling on a telephone wire.
Finally, Shiho appears.
"You're so slow, Shiho-chan!" Saki whisper-complains. "My ears are about to freeze off!"
"Some of us had to wait for their roommates to fall asleep, you know." Shiho retorts.
Honami laughs. "I'm sure Kohane-chan can keep a secret. Better than Emu-chan anyway." She smiles, remembering the last time Saki had tried to host a sleepover, and Emu had accidentally let it slip to Mafuyu within the hour. "Let's get going."
Honami takes the lead, guiding them to the river, following its banks away from the city. Even though Saki runs through this path daily, the sense of familiarity she normally feels is gone. The path is different at night, with the trees casting a strange shadow under the dim streetlights, the river glimmering with the reflection of the moon, and the absence of people. She's glad to have the others with her as she chases after Honami's back. Eventually, they reach the end of the path, and as they merge onto the road, Honami breaks into a faster jog. The rest of them speed up to follow, quickly spreading into a line. It's a bit strange to be running with so much baggage, but in a way, it doubles as strength training. Kind of.
The split between the city and the country is less obvious, but soon it's just the sound of shoes thudding onto the dirt in unison, the whiteness of their breaths, the wind rushing by them. There are no more lights out, but the moon is bright enough that they can see the way.
After about twenty minutes, Honami slows down, and the others settle as well. They fall into a familiar rhythm while setting up; Ichika and Shiho spread blankets on the ground while Saki organizes the snacks and Honami takes out the guides that she knows by heart.
Ichika takes a seat on the blanket close to Honami, and Saki burrows her way between them again. She immediately realizes her mistake, yelping at how cold Ichika's feet are, even through their socks.
Wordlessly, Shiho pulls out hand warmers from their pocket, handing them to Saki and Ichika. Ichika sheepishly takes one and puts it between her feet. Honami laughs, and pats the space next to her, beckoning for Shiho to join them. Saki takes the chance to reach over with her tail, somehow managing to tangle with all three other ones at once. Ichika pulls a blanket over their laps, everything now a tangled mess.
One of Saki's legs is against what she thinks is Shiho's foot. She's snuggled into Ichika's side, and she's definitely kicking Honami.
"It's nice out here." Honami's the one who breaks the silence first.
"It is," the three of them chorus. Saki giggles, and looks up. Though the city lights still burn in the distance, the night sky is clearer than it has been a while.
"It's almost as good as back home," she whispers. Ichika turns over and tilts her head in question, but she shakes her head and shrugs it off. "What's that one, Hona-chan? The really bright one." She points to what she thinks is Sirius, or whatever the dog one is, but looks at Honami to confirm.
"Are you talking about Sirius, Saki-chan?" She nods, a sense of pride welling up in her. "That's part of the Canis Major constellation."
"Oh, yeah! The dog one?"
"Good job, Saki-chan!" Saki beams at the praise. "It may look like one star, but it's actually a binary star system, which is why it appears to be so bright." Honami launches into one of her lectures about the stars, and Saki nods along, but by the tenth constellation, she's more focused on the way Honami's ears are perked upright, and how excited Honami is, and how warm and soft Honami is, and how comfortable…
"Saki." Shiho's voice startles her, and her eyes pop right open. She looks over, and Shiho is looking back with a fond smile on their face. "Don't fall asleep on us now."
"I wasn't sleeping!" She protests. She leans back, this time on Ichika.
Ichika laughs, shaking her shoulders (her headrest!) as she does so. "You're always the most determined to stay up, and the first one to fall asleep."
"Hey! Thas' not true!"
Honami giggles. Saki glares at her. "I don't want to hear it from you, Hona-chan! You’re like a grandma. You wake up before Trainer-san does." The grandma in question hums, as if considering how late it was for the first time that night, and lays her head on Saki.
"Now that you mention it, I am tired," she says with a yawn. Her eyes start to close, and Shiho pokes her on the shoulder.
"Not you too, Honami. I can carry Saki home, probably, but I definitely can't take you both."
Ichika nudges Saki off her shoulder. "Come on, let's go home. Shiho's right, we can't spend the night here."
Saki mumbles and grumbles, but her girlfriends untangle themselves from the pile one by one, forcing her to get up.
"We can do this again," Ichika says. The others nod. She reaches her hand out for Saki's. "Let's go home, before we catch a cold." Saki reaches out, and after a moment, takes it. Ichika smiles.
I'll run anywhere, if I can be with them, Saki thinks. I'll follow them to the ends of the earth.