Saiyuu no Ryokou: Adventures of Yuriko

The Story So Far: Although only one day into tour preparations has passed, Midori is presenting Yuriko with her going away present - a phone cord.

 

Volume 1, Issue 10

"The Coconut Wireless"

 

"Ohhhkay," Yuriko stared down at her palm. "I'm guessing that this is a subtle reminder for me to call you every day?" She looked up with a puzzled grin. "Either that, or you've developed a new fetish."

Midori laughed. "You were closer the first time. Come here," she took Yuriko's other hand in her own and pulled the blonde towards the table. "Wait." The writer let go of Yuri's hand and walked around to the bookshelves on the wall. Yuriko watched in amusement as Midori leaned down and rummaged around on the lowest shelf. When she stood up once again, she was holding a laptop.

"Hey," Yuriko said, still holding the telephone wire, "isn't that my laptop?"

Midori nodded. "I took the liberty of borrowing it this morning." She pinned Yuriko with a glare. "It took me an hour to clean out your hard drive - don't you ever defrag?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Yuriko said, avoiding her lover's gaze. "All the time."

Midori laughed. "Uh-huh. Anyway, *after* I cleaned out your hard drive, I installed a few things for you - including a modem and a wireless network."

"Those are things that you use to make a computer connect to the Internet, right?" Yuriko asked. "See? I'm not totally ignorant."

Midori placated the blonde with a smile. "Exactly. So, now you can connect to the Internet."

"Great...I mean, gee I've spent years avoiding that very thing and now I can do it! Wow!" Yuriko crossed her arms in front of her chest in protest. "This present better have a sexual component to it, or I'm taking it back," she pouted.

"Give me the cord," Midori ignored her completely, holding her hand out. Yuriko hesitated a moment, the slapped the cord into the outstretched hand. "In most of the hotels you'll stay in, you'll be able to connect without this, but in this old apartment building, we need to go through a phone line."

"Or jewelry," Yuriko said. "Jewelry is always nice."

"Right, so you plug the cord in here, see?" Midori continued, pointing out the port on the laptop and overtly ignoring Yuriko's complaints. "Then you plug the other end into the telephone jack on the wall." She looked up to see if Yuri was paying attention, then laughed at the expression on the blonde's face. "Stop pouting and get over here - I want you to see this!"

Yuriko subsided and walked around the table. She allowed herself to be seated in front of the computer and walked through the steps of connecting to the Internet.

"I made it as easy as possible for you, so there's no excuse whatsoever for you not to email me every day, even when you're far away. Especially when you're far away."

Yuriko looked up at Midori, who was beaming down at her. "You did all this today?"

"And this, too," Midori asked her to type in an address which led Yuriko to a sign in page. "Now watch." Midori leaned over Yuriko's shoulder and typed in a username and password while Yuriko watched. "Ta da!" Midori said, standing back to let the blonde read the screen. "Welcome to your very own email address!"

Yuriko regarded the screen with caution. "'yurisnr'?" she pronounced the English letters as if they were a word, "What does that mean?"

"That's your email address [email protected]." Midori said, obviously pleased with herself. "I picked that service so you could get your mail anywhere."

"Ah," said Yuriko. She looked back at the screen. "It says I have a message. How could I have a message if you just registered the email address today?" She sounded entirely bewildered.

"Just click on the message," Midori urged. "It could be important." Yuriko could hear the smile in her voice. She clicked.

Yuriko read the message out loud. "Hello, my darling Yuriko. Welcome to the wonderful world of email. As a reward for your patience, turn around and receive the second half of your going away present."

Yuriko spun around in her chair, a smile spreading across her face as she stood.

Midori moved into Yuriko's embrace willingly, and the two women kissed for a very long time, with the hum of the computer in the background. Midori pulled away slowly, smiling up at the blonde. "Well? Do you like it?"

"I love it," Yuriko said enthusiastically.

"If you don't," Midori said, laying her head on Yuriko's chest, "we can always find another use for the cord."

Yuriko laughed as she drew them both towards the floor.

***

"I'll email you every day I can," Yuriko said, as they sprawled on the couch sometime later.

"Every day, you mean," Midori joked. "You can even email from airplanes, you know."

"I know, I know! I'm not an idiot - I'm just not interested in the Internet," Yuriko laughed. "Well, until now." Her fingers played with a loose strand of Midori's hair. "I've never had a reason to, until now."

Midori leaned into Yuriko, running a hand across the other woman's stomach. "Think of all the things you'll be able to do now - keep in touch with your friends, tell us what's going on wherever you are, join my online fan club..." she giggled a little as Yuriko straightened up.

"I can? Will you teach me how? I want to join your fan club!" Yuriko shouted. "I'm your number one fan!"

"Shush you," Midori pulled at the blonde, who slipped away towards the computer. "You'll wake the neighbors."

"If I do, I'll tell them that I was practicing for my tour." Yuriko said over her shoulder. "Now about that fan club..."

Midori bounced off the couch. "Get away from there!" she shouted, laughing.

Yuriko held her off, while she typed Midori's name into a search engine. "I can do this anytime, you know," she laughed, as Midori lunged for the keyboard. "You can't stop me." She lifted a hand in triumph as "The Yukano Midori Fan Club" website loaded.

Continued