Recover
“Erika asked me out yesterday.”
“Saw that coming.”
“I . . . said yes.”
“Oh. Um . . . cool. Have fun.”
“Didn’t see that coming?”
“I didn’t know you liked her. She’s really pretty though, so good job.”
“Well I don’t . . . I mean, I’m just trying to see if I do like her.”
“That’s fine. Sometimes that what dates are for.”
“Date . . . I guess so.”
“. . . Where are you guys going?”
“She invited me to an archery competition.”
“Huh. Do you like them?”
“Never been to one.”
“In a few weeks, you’ll be in one yourself.”
“Hmm, that’s true. Are you gonna come watch?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“You don’t have to . . .”
“Why did you tell me this?”
“That Erika asked me out?”
“Yes.”
“Would you rather I hadn’t?”
“No, but I want to know why you decided to tell me.”
“Because . . . I dunno, because it seemed like the right thing to do. I thought about not telling you but that seemed so dishonest. It’s this Saturday too, but it won’t interfere with dinner.”
“If . . . If you want to reschedule-”
“No. Minako. I said it’s not going to interfere. I’ll make sure.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“It is. Look, Minako . . . look at me . . . should I not have told you?”
“No, it’s fine. You should . . . Just . . . just remember to bring mace. I mean, Erika’s got devious sexual predator written all over her.”
“. . . Of course, hah – five-foot-nothing and shy just screams danger.”
“You better believe it . . .”
Saturday morning, Rei drove to the archery competition. Nervousness was suspiciously absent, though her conscience was troubled. Determinedly, she ignored the vaguely contrite, listless feeling.
They met at the entrance to the event – Erika was waiting there when Rei arrived, their tickets in hand. They chatted a bit about classes and the universities they had applied to before finding an open space in the bleachers set up for the competition and settling down to watch.
The archers were wandering about in the traditional gi and hakama, organising and composing themselves. Rei felt a pang of envy that they got to compete while she had to sit and observe instead of actually participating. Joining the archery club made Rei realise how much she enjoyed the sport, where before it had only been a hobby she practised now and then when it occurred to her.
Erika cooed at a cute little kid sitting in front of them, returning Rei’s wandering attention to the girl beside her. Their eyes met and Erika smiled. Shifting in her seat, Rei looked back at the archers and from the corner of her eye she saw the other girl’s expression fall. Realising she was probably supposed to have smiled back, Rei frowned, mentally noting that Minako would have probably just teased her for being socially inept. Should she say something? She had nothing to say. What the hell were you supposed to do on a date anyway?
She and Minako had never gone on many dates and their first had been a rather unexciting trip to a movie theatre. Watching the movie hadn’t been that stimulating but for the entirety of the film, Rei’s attention had mostly been fixed on the blonde girl to her right anyway – where she was looking, her reactions to what was happening on screen, where on the armrest her hand was laying. She had nearly jumped a foot when Minako’s hand had inadvertently landed on top of her own and it had been purely instinctive to curl her fingers upward to keep that warm, soft skin pressed against her own. She usually had no interest in such things but she wouldn’t mind seeing another movie with Minako.
Erika was looking at her curiously and Rei realised she was smiling to herself. To avoid having to lie in order to explain herself, she turned back to the kyudo range with renewed focus. Erika hesitantly looked back to the range where the archers seemed to be lining up to start the event.
See!? some persistent part of her brain was chirping. You go on a date with another girl and all you can think of is her! Rei nearly sighed at her own thoughts for aggravating the feelings of guilt and dishonesty stirring about uncomfortably in her chest.
An hour and a half later, Rei felt she had been sufficiently punished for leading Erika on. The first couple of archers had been interesting, the next few less so, and by now Rei didn’t even care if the competitors hit the target or not, let alone if they had perfected the minute details of their form.
Maybe next we could watch paint dry, she thought sarcastically to herself and then felt bad even though she hadn’t voiced the thought. She peeked over at Erika and realised the other girl looked just as bored as she felt.
The spectators were all silent as they watched the current archer take his shot and Rei waited until he had released his arrow and stepped back before she nudged the shorter girl in the shoulder and nodded toward a concession stand. She quietly asked Erika if she wanted to go and see what was being sold.
At Erika’s nod, they crept out of the stands, apologising to the people they had to step over. Stretching her arms, grateful to be moving around again, Rei led them over to the small shack selling snacks where they poked around for a bit. Erika didn’t find anything she wanted and Rei wasn’t hungry, but neither of them wanted to go back to watching the mind-numbing competition.
Dark, doe eyes looked up at her hopefully as Erika suggested they find a café instead and Rei looked away as all of the afternoon’s repressed guilt came roaring to the surface.
Time to be honest now, the voice of her conscience spoke up again. Think of it as practice for later, it added smugly.
Choosing her words carefully, Rei began, “That sounds nice, Erika, it does, but I think you should take someone else out for coffee. Someone who . . . who isn’t already in love.”
The doorbell rang at exactly five-to-six and Minako dashed for the front door, paused, counted to three and reached for the doorknob. “Welcome,” she intoned with mock solemnity. She opened the door for Rei to enter and swept her eyes over the other girl as she stepped past.
The sweater Rei was wearing was stylish but fairly domestic looking, as were the neutrally beige pants she wore, though they fit quite closely along the length of her slender legs. Minako had expected her to wear something conservative – it was dinner with the parents after all – but she hadn’t taken the time to properly consider how good Rei would look in it. Foolish, she figured, considering Rei could probably make a big green garbage bag look sexy.
At the moment, however, she wasn’t channelling sexy so much as nervous.
“Relax,” Minako said semi-chidingly, stilling Rei’s hands where they fidgeted in front of her. She had never seen Rei seem so outwardly nervous and the fact that it was caused by meeting her father was highly entertaining. However, the way Rei was anxiously chewing her bottom lip was starting to get distracting and Minako really didn’t need any further incentive to stare at the miko. “My dad loves you already, so don’t worry about meeting him.”
“He does?” Puzzlement took the place of anxiety and Rei was able to partially reassume her standard air of unruffled detachment.
“Of course,” Minako replied lightly. “Now come meet him.”
Her dad was in the kitchen, hovering over his busy wife in a scene that was all too familiar to Minako. The man loved to help but, like his daughter, he was a disaster waiting to happen when it came to the culinary arts. He may have been revered for his competency at the hospital but he was very nearly banned from the kitchen at home.
“Yosh,” Akemi Aino snapped and the man jumped back a bit, regarding his agitated spouse amusedly, “if you don’t sit down or something I swear I’ll-”
“Dad!” Minako interrupted, drawing the attention of her parents. No need to subject their guest to happily wedded bickering. “Meet Hino Rei.”
The blonde watched as Rei’s eyes widened in recognition and her dad’s narrowed in concentration. “Hino, was it?”
“Yes,” Rei replied, clearly surprised and bemused. “You were Grandpa’s . . . I don’t think we were ever introduced,” she said falteringly.
Minako watched, slightly puzzled herself, as her father gave a little bow from the neck. “I’m Yosh Aino – call me Yosh. How is your grandfather now?”
“Better. Thank you.”
Akemi clapped her hands together. “So you already know each other? How serendipitous!”
“Weird,” Minako opined. Rei nodded. “Was this a couple months ago?” Again, Rei nodded and Minako opened her mouth only to close it. Really, it had all been nicely summed up by weird, leaving little else to say.
“Would you like something to drink, Rei?” Yosh asked in the lull that ensued. “We have tea if you’d like some.”
“Yes, tea please,” Rei replied politely. Minako’s father pivoted to get Rei her drink and Akemi returned to the busy stovetop.
The miko nearly jumped when something brushed her arm before realising it was only Minako reaching over to clasp her shoulder reassuringly. She looked over to receive a bright grin and a thumbs-up. Rei rolled her eyes, though her fidgeting had stopped and her lips quirked reflexively into a smile.
On the second Friday since making their deal to spend them together, Rei and Minako agreed on seeing a movie. The previous Friday’s psychic expo had been as lame as Rei had predicted but they had decided to stay and look around at the corny booths and stands. The miko had spent most of their time wandering around together trying to be discrete as she yawned, worn out from studying late and waking up early to do chores.
This Friday, Rei was plainly tired once more, and Minako was easily convinced that an action flick might have the greatest chance at keeping her awake. They got a bag of gummies to share, Rei cracking a yawn while they waited in line at the concession stand, and then found their theatre. Sometimes her eyes watered after she yawned and she looked rather adorably dazed and sleepy.
With a wry grin to herself, Minako wagered that the dark, warm atmosphere of the theatre would knock Rei out like a light before the trailers even gave way to the film. When the blonde looked over, Rei’s eyelids were drifting closer together and her head was starting to bob. Next glance and Rei had given up trying to keep her eyes on the screen and had let sleep come as best it could with her head propped up on her fist. Minako checked the screen – nope, not even done the advertisements – and turned back to surreptitiously study the dozing girl. Rei’s dark eyelashes rested against her pale cheeks, fluttering a little with restlessness, and her hair spilled gracefully across the armrest.
With a small smile, Minako pushed up the armrest between them. Gently, she nudged the other girl and when Rei blinked and straightened blearily, asking, “Did I miss something worth watching?” Minako just shook her head and guided Rei’s head down to her lap.
With a hum and not a sign of protest, the miko shifted into the more comfortable sleeping position and within seconds of lying her head on the blonde’s legs was still and breathing deeply.
Minako softly brushed Rei’s dark hair, straightening the strands and grazing her scalp lightly with the tips of her fingers. The movie began and she was rather glad the acting was so bad and the plot so dull because this way she didn’t have to divide her focus. Her attention was much more absorbed by the idle task of toying with Rei’s hair than the lame movie.
Sifting through the soft hairs at the back of Rei’s head, she lightly brushed the smooth skin of her neck and pictured herself leaning down to touch her lips tenderly to that warm, sensitive spot. Luckily, someone on screen screamed and then things started exploding, so Minako distracted herself with that for a few minutes while her reasoning returned and berated her.
Rei stirred a few times through the course of the film but seemed solidly conked out for most of it. Her leg was starting to go numb but Minako couldn’t bring herself to mind it enough to shift and risk waking the exhausted girl. There were pins and needles in her foot when Rei finally lifted her head, staring blearily at the last few minutes of the movie. Blood rushed back into her leg and Minako flexed her leg, laughing when Rei asked, “What did I miss?”
“The movie,” she replied.
The dark haired girl was embarrassed that she’d used Minako’s lap as a headrest and apologetic that she missed the whole movie as they exited the theatre but Minako just waved it off. “You can’t help that you’re tired. Maybe Fridays aren’t a good day.”
“They’re fine!” Rei insisted, her sudden intensity startling Minako slightly. “I’ll drink coffee or something.” She made a face at the word coffee.
“Tea snob,” Minako prodded with a chuckle.
“Sludge drinker,” Rei muttered back.
“Pinkie lifter.”
“What?”
Minako grinned. “You know-” she mimed sipping from a teacup, her pinkie raised and wiggling.
Rei rolled her eyes, huffed and made to reply, only to be cut off by a yawn.
“So, you already know my dad,” Minako prompted, handing Rei plates to distribute while she set the glasses around the table.
“I guess. I mean, I only talked to him once and that was about Grandpa.”
“That’s sort of strange,” Minako mused. “He mostly deals with kids. I guess Grandpa might have been clinic hours for him or something . . .”
Rei shrugged and they were silent for the next few seconds until the table was set. Setting the table for four people was something new for Rei and she took a moment to take in the comfortable warmth of the scene before looking to Minako to see what they should do next.
The blonde was watching her with uncertain blue eyes, though her smiling lips and the light tone of her question tried to give lie to her apprehension. “How was your date?”
Startled at the question and unprepared to answer it, Rei resorted to shrugging once more.
Minako was silent and Rei could tell the blonde struggled with herself before managing to let go. “Okay. Let’s go sit in the living room.”
“No,” Rei blurted, stopping Minako from heading into the adjacent room. “Well, I mean fine but . . .”
Rei fidgeted. She wanted to reassure Minako in order to eliminate the shadow of sullen doubt from the bubbly blonde’s expression, but she was at a bit of a loss. It wasn’t in her nature to reach out or even to speak more than necessary . . . but if it was for Minako . . . then it was unacceptable not to try at the very least.
“It was educational,” Rei began haltingly. “Awkward. Um, not bad I guess, but not great. It was . . . Well, I think I don’t . . . I . . .” Rei frowned, casting about for the words she needed.
“It’s okay,” Minako interjected softly. “You don’t have to explain.”
“I know,” Rei snapped, “but I’m trying, so shut up.”
The blonde’s eyes widened at the temperamental outburst before she chuckled, finding the miko’s irritability amusing as always. “Yes, Rei.”
With a glower that held no real anger, Rei huffed and forced herself to be as succinct as possible. “We’re not going out again. We’ve agreed to be friends.”
Minako made as if to speak but closed her mouth with a carefully blank expression and only nodded.
“And . . .”
The blonde waited once more for Rei to speak her mind and the renewed focus directed at her from those blue eyes stirred an internal panic. Rei hadn’t meant to say anything else. It had just slipped out. Truth-telling was dangerous, it would appear, as it seemed to lead to more truth being told. Dams blown on that infernal, unreliable brain-mouth barrier, Rei switched back to their original topic.
“While I’m explaining things, that morning I left your house I . . . got back to the shrine and I had to call an ambulance. Grandpa was sick and he fainted.” Rei could hear shame and anger in her voice and the emotions threatened to choke her words completely. “He was doing my chores because I wasn’t there to do them.”
Minako stayed where she was. She didn’t approach to try and console her, which Rei appreciated. She wasn’t looking for comfort, she just wanted things to back to being clear and easy between them.
“It’s not your fault,” the blonde told her.
“I know,” Rei agreed in a subdued tone. “It just feels like it.”
Minako smiled sadly but seemed to know better than to offer words of comfort which Rei usually found empty and aggravating. Instead, she took Rei’s hand and led them into the living room, her thumb stroking the back of the miko’s hand in a sweet gesture that Rei could pretend to ignore.
“Come on, I think the Brain Wall part of this TV show is on soon. It’s ridiculous. You’ll hate it,” Minako informed her cheerfully, releasing her hand to grab the remote.
They settled in front of the television and Minako flipped through the channels, searching for whatever strange game show she had on her mind. Rei was happy to face the plasma screen and watch the blonde in her peripheral vision. The show held no more interest for her than the archery competition had, but for the first time all day, she felt at ease.
“So he gets his daughter back and basically destroys Paris because he’s a nutjob, but oh well. Actually, I’m kinda surprised you didn’t wake up when everything started exploding.”
Rei shrugged and then smirked at the blonde in the passenger seat. “I was comfy.”
“You were snoring.”
“I know I don’t snore. Nice try,” she scoffed.
Minako pouted. “That’s no fun. You’re supposed to get all, ‘Oh no! Really?’” she acted out in a falsetto, adopting an anxious expression. “And then I would go, ‘Yeah, it was awful,’” in a deep voice, “and you would go, ‘Good golly, I’m so embarrassed!’ and then I would go-”
“Minako.”
“There, there. You may saw logs when you sleep but you’ve got a very cute-”
“Minako!” Rei tried again, a little louder.
“Haha, um, face. Yes, face. And then you would go-”
“My god,” Rei muttered to herself, “she’s graduated from Annoying Academy.”
“Gee whiz! I sure am glad you told me! From now on, we should always-”
“With honours in really strange impressions,” she added, not missing the blonde’s giggle at her muttering. Changing tact, Rei flipped on the radio and turned the volume up.
“‘sleep together so that you can tell-’ Oooo! I love this song!”
Predictably, the song was some bouncy, vomitous pop concoction and Rei frowned at Minako for messing up her preset stations. The hyperactive volleyballer criticised her taste in music as ‘boring and geriatric’ and then had the gall to enjoy this crap?
“Number one is supposed to be the news station.” She pressed the second button and her scowl deepened. “And this was classical! Now it’s- it- what is this?!”
Minako laughed her joyous little cackle that indicated the fulfillment of some plot to aggravate Rei. “Country western! You don’t like country?”
“God no. You do!?”
The laughing continued. “No, but I figured you’d hate it. Ah, worth it. Totally worth it.”
Then the blonde switched back to the pop song from before and Rei just sighed, aware that her lips were mutinously trying to form a grin. Attempting to quell the uprising, she glanced over at Minako, now blissfully singing along to the radio, and lost the battle.
What she does to me, Rei sighed to herself mentally, rather appalled at the mushy thoughts that Minako’s smile, her laughter, her voice could conjure. Damn pop songs and their absolutely asinine, unoriginal, horribly true lyrics. Utterly intolerable. And worse, it was probably only a matter of time before her restraint was worn through and these feelings started to manifest.
Well, there was a simple cure to that, though her heartbeat sounded in her ears and her palms grew sweaty at the thought of it.
“So, Rei, what do your parents do?” Yosh asked.
Minako froze at her dad’s question, kicking herself for not preparing Rei or warning her parents in advance, but Rei answered easily enough.
“My father has been a senator for nearly the past fourteen years now.”
Yosh Aino made a noise of recognition. “Senator Hino’s grown quite popular.”
Neutrally, Rei nodded with a murmur of agreement and at a glance, Minako could see how tightly controlled the other girl’s calm expression was. Definitely should have warned them away from this subject. Fortunately, her dad seemed to detect Rei’s discomfort. Unfortunately, he chose to switch to a worse topic of conversation.
“How about your mother? Stay at home? Love her job?”
Rei hesitated at how best to deliver her answer, still unused to voicing it even after all the years that had passed. Two sets of eyes were on her attentively, the third silently sympathetic.
“Um no, she died when I was four. It was a long time ago,” she added, likely hoping to stave off awkward condolences.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Minako’s mother, breathed sorrowfully. Her brows were drawn up in sympathy and her blue eyes were beginning to look a little wet.
“I remember you live with your grandfather – I should have put it together. I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Yosh apologised.
Rei shook her head. “It’s fine.”
He nodded and stood with a secret wink at the young dinner guest. “Well, looks like we’re done eating. I’ll take your plate.” He grabbed Rei’s empty plate and stacked it on top of his own.
This snapped Akemi out of her teary state in an instant. “Oh no you-” Yosh was already out of the room, dishes in hand, before she could stop him. “Going to break everything . . .” she muttered to herself and grabbed the remaining plates before dashing off to prevent catastrophe from striking the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” Minako sighed to Rei the moment they were alone. “I should have told them not to-”
Something shattered in the kitchen, likely glass by the sound of it, and Minako’s mother screeched, “I told you not to touch anything!”
They both froze for a moment before chuckling quietly.
“Should we be helping in there or something?” Rei asked.
Wryly, the blonde replied, “Not unless you want to give that woman a hernia. Besides, you’re a guest.”
“So what’s your excuse?” Rei lifted an eyebrow teasingly.
“Laziness.” She grinned as Rei shot her a familiar, dry look but then abruptly return to seriousness. “Still, I know you don’t like to talk about your parents and I could have-”
“Stop it,” Rei interrupted sternly. “It really is fine, Minako. I’m not going to break. Yeah, I don’t like talking about them and I hate the way people look at me when they find out about my mom but . . . it’s okay. I trust your family and it’s natural that it come up in conversation so don’t feel bad about it. You’ll get wrinkles.” She prodded the blonde’s forehead where it had been creased by worry.
Minako snapped her teeth at the prodding digit as it was retracted, regaining her playful attitude. “How dare you? Perfection cannot be wrinkled. For this insult, you must stay for a movie after desert.”
“Agreed!” Yosh chimed in as he re-entered the dining room, desert in hand.
With a grin, Rei capitulated. “As far as punishments go, this is very harsh, but I accept.”
“And then I got up to the cashier, realised where I’d had to put my money, and then I had to pull it out of my bra in front of him and hand it to him.”
With a distracted puff of laughter, Rei replied, “Good one.”
Expecting more of an answer, or at least some teasing, Minako thought back on most of the car ride since leaving the theatres and realised that for the latter half, Rei had been unusually silent, even for her. The miko wasn’t what anyone would call talkative at the best of times, but Minako hadn’t had much of a problem drawing her into a conversation since around the second month of math class.
“You okay?” she asked lightly.
“Hm? Oh, yeah. Just thinking,” the dark haired girl reassured her.
The took the turn onto Minako’s street as she joked, “Ah, yes that can be difficult.”
She expected some dry reply to the effect that – yes, Minako obviously found thinking quite difficult, but the little jab never came. It was a little disappointing. However, the miko didn’t look troubled and nothing seemed amiss, so Minako let it go. Rei was tired after all and if she would rather concentrate on driving, that was fine.
Rei’s Prelude pulled into its usual spot on the Aino’s wide driveway and its driver shifted it into park.
Grabbing her tote, Minako unbuckled herself and opened the door. “Bye, Rei.”
“. . . Bye.”
“See you Monday.”
She got out of the car, closed the door, blew Rei a kiss and made her way up the driveway to her front porch. Her hand was on the doorknob when she heard the sound of a car door opening and closing. Minako turned to look back but the car’s headlights cast everything behind them into darkness.
“Rei?” she called uncertainly, squinting as she tried to peer into the shadows.
Footsteps, and then the miko’s silhouette stepped in front of the lights and paced towards her with purpose, her hair flaring behind her like wings. Rei’s dark form seemed to grow as she approached, taking the four steps to the porch in two strides, until Minako’s vision was filled with nothing but Rei.
A foot apart, Minako could finally see the determined tension of Rei’s jaw, the intense certainty in her eyes and the soft set of her mouth. The hum of the car’s engine and the wind moving past them faded into nothing. Minako sucked in a breath. She’s going to . . .
Smooth and moist, Rei’s lips pressed softly to Minako’s and the miko’s right hand, warm, rose to cup her cool cheek. As automatically and naturally as breathing, Minako responded, her hands fisting in Rei’s coat to pull their bodies flush, lips returning the kiss with relief, joy, desperation, ecstasy.
They paused only briefly now and then to catch their breaths, clinging tightly as if scared of letting go and losing their places in each others’ arms. Too soon, it seemed to Minako, Rei was pulling away, stealing her hands and lips back to herself.
“My car is still running,” she murmured to the blonde’s lips.
“Fuck your car,” Minako replied in equal softness and this argument won out for the next couple of minutes. Rei’s self-control was readily dismissed by the warm coercion of the blonde’s mouth, her probing tongue and soft hands.
The last time Rei had been in the Aino’s house, the couches in the living room had all been pushed to one side of the room along with the giant, flat screen television and the rest of the room had become a packed dance floor. She wondered vaguely if Minako’s parents ever found out about that party or if Minako had managed to clean the entire house in time.
Once again letting herself be dragged into the room by her hand, Rei watched Minako collapse into one of the throw-pillow filled corners of the three-sided couch configuration. She sat down as well, though a little more gracefully, and rolled her eyes when Minako swung her legs up and draped them across her lap. The energetic girl then grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and spread it over them both, smiling joyfully the entire time.
Rei opted to watch Yosh Aino set up the DVD player as if her attention wasn’t entirely on the adorable blonde next to her. She was forced to look over, however, when it became apparent that Minako was staring at her insistently. Their eyes met and Minako snuggled a little closer to the dark haired girl, raising an eyebrow expectantly.
With a little grin of genuine fondness that she tried to stifle through feigned reluctance, Rei scooted over to sit in the corner with Minako, who immediately took the opportunity to lean against her. Shifting her shoulder where it was angled uncomfortably and noting that Yosh seemed to be studiously looking at the DVD in his hand and only the DVD, Rei snuck her arm behind Minako and settled her hand at her waist.
She felt Minako sigh happily and smiled softly at the reaction, rather pleased herself. Her contentment brought her to the realisation that if dinner with the parents was a couple-ish thing to do, then snuggling on a couch and watching a movie was beyond couple-ish. Too bad she was far too comfy to be bothered by it. Then it occurred to her that all she had to do to kiss Minako was turn her head and that was a rather bothersome notion but Rei was nothing if not talented at repressing unwanted thoughts.
For her part, Minako was wondering at the novelty of being cozy with someone she was attracted to without plotting to get into their pants. It was very backwards, but also very, very nice. She felt warm, slow-simmering contentment and pondered that maybe this was what commitment felt like, what it would be like to spend years and years with one person, relaxed and safe.
Their blissful contemplations were both cut short by Akemi Aino’s delighted cry of, “Adorable!” as she entered the room and set down a bowl of popcorn, giving a moony smile and clasping her hands under her chin.
Rei gave a start and a blush. She tried to pull her arm back to embarrassedly put some space between herself and the youngest Aino, only for Minako to swiftly grab her hand and hold it captive where it was. Her scowl was, as usual, met with an obnoxious grin and Rei resigned herself to staying in place, thankful that at least their clasped hands were hidden by the blanket.
Minako’s parents settled on the couch together a couple feet away and Minako frowned at her mother for teasing. Cursed woman was horning in on her territory and making Rei uncomfortable during cuddle time. Akemi just giggled noiselessly and Yosh gave her a fondly reproving look before pointing the remote at the TV.
The movie started and Rei’s glower gradually subsided, as did the tension in her body, though she couldn’t help but cast wary glances now and then in the direction of Minako’s parents. This, the fire alarm, and various other incidents had Rei convinced that Minako simply enjoyed putting her in awkward positions and forcing her to deal with them.
That was fine, though. Awkward, but fine. It was worth feeling mildly unnerved by the presence of Minako’s parents while being this close to the blonde. Actually, it struck her that this sort of situation seemed like one that might occur if the two of them were going out and, surprisingly, the thought didn’t trouble Rei nearly as much as it would have before she’d met Minako. Maybe that that was the vital upside to the discomfort and confusion she had to face thanks to the unfamiliar territory Minako was constantly throwing her into. She was learning to deal with it.
Love, she had said to Erika. Already in love.
Rei felt a piece of popcorn bounce off the side of her head and turned to see Minako watching the television with an innocent smile on her face. The miko grinned and ate the popcorn.
Yes, regrettably it was true, and she was just going to have to deal with it.
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