Chapter Text
Karolina stared at the text she received from Nico, telling her to let her know when she got home. She couldn't help but smile through her teary eyes. Even though Nico didn't express her feelings much, it was still clear through those little things that she cared a great deal. It's just too bad she would never care for Karolina in the way that Karolina cared for her.
She texted her back to let her know she made it home safely, and made her way inside her house. Thankfully both of her parents were working, so she could let her tears fall freely instead of hiding them away.
She immediately went up into her room, and walked over to her head-dresser and started digging through the drawer in it. She sifted through an abundance of different things, such as pictures, old childhood drawings, pens and pencils, and finally, at the very bottom, she found what she was looking for.
It was a small, messily ripped off piece of paper with the words 'get out of my school' on it. She had always kept it because she had taken more offense than she probably should've, and always thought she would eventually figure out who wrote it if she kept it as evidence. Of course she got over it about a year later, but she had completely forgotten it was in her drawer, much less existed, until today.
She looked at it, and reached out to trace over the lettering. It actually looked a bit like Nico's current handwriting, but a sloppy version of it. Karolina took note of how every letter was capitalized, making the tone of the note even angrier. Nico must have been so overwhelmed that she had treated her crush the way a little boy would, with aggression. Karolina had lost count of how many times her mother told her 'he's mean to you because he likes you!' when she would complain about a boy in her elementary school years. But her mom never said that when Karolina would complain about the girl with the black hair randomly being mean to her.
She grabbed one of the yearbooks on her shelfs, and started flipping through it until she found the page that had her class on it. And there she was. Nico Minoru. How had she not remembered? Maybe because Nico had went to a different elementary school after first grade, and she looked completely different now that she picked up a goth sense of style.
Karolina caught eye of another picture. It was supposed to be an innocent class picture, but you could see Karolina and Nico giving one another dirty glances. She suddenly remembered that day. They were fighting about who got to stand where. She couldn't help but chuckle. Her relationship with Nico back then was a strange one. She was either really nice to her, usually because Karolina shared her school supplies with her, or she was rude for no reason.
But now she knew the reason.
She put the note in between the pages, using it as a makeshift bookmark, and put the yearbook back on the shelf.
Her tears had dried by then, but Nico's words continued to echo in her head.
Why did this this bother her so much? She knew she liked Nico, but not this much. Not to the point where she'd feel absolutely heartbroken if Nico indirectly rejected her.
Karolina sat down on her bed, brought her knees up to her chest, and buried her face in her arms. "What are you doing to me, Nico?"
—
Karolina was very withdrawn the next day at school. She knew this, but she couldn't bring herself to hide it. Not until she got approached by Gert.
"Hey, Karolina? Can I talk to you?"
Karolina nodded, and let Gert drag her to a less crowded part of the hallway. "What's up?"
"You have to tell Nico about your feelings for her," Gert stated bluntly, not even bothering to get confirmation that Karolina liked Nico in the first place.
"W-what?" How did she know? Karolina hadn't told anyone.
"Don't play dumb, K, it's so obvious."
Karolina opened her mouth to deny it, but no words came out, causing Gert to smirk a little bit. "E-Even if that was true, why would I have to tell her?"
"Because, she thinks the reason you stormed out of Timely yesterday was because you were weirded out by her previous crush on you."
Karolina's eyes widened. Nico really thought that? She wasn't sure what Nico was going to think, but it definitely wasn't that. Though, Karolina didn't really think about it at the time. She was too upset.
"What?"
Gert nodded. "I tried to explain to her, but I don't think she completely believed me." Karolina narrowed her eyes at her. "Um, but... Molly told her most of it... And the damage was kinda already done, so... I might've... added to that conversation?"
"Seriously? That's just amazing. Now it's Nico who's gonna be weirded out by me." Could this week get any worse?
"Don't say that. Nico's not like that."
Karolina just shrugs and looks ahead instead of directly at Gert. "I don't blame her. We're best friends. It would be weird. Her words."
Gert looked at her in sympathy, not knowing what to say.
"Anyway, I have to go to class." One of the classes she had with Nico, which she was not looking forward to.
Gert said nothing as she watched Karolina disappear in a sea of students down the hall.
Nico was already sitting in her assigned seat when Karolina walked in. She gave her a small smile, which Karolina returned, but it didn't reach her eyes, and Nico must've noticed considering her brow furrowed in slight concern.
Karolina sat in her seat which was right in front of Nico's. She felt Nico tap her shoulder, and she turned her head to look at her.
"Hey, you okay?" Nico asked.
"Yeah, fine."
Nico didn't seem convinced, and Karolina didn't have the energy to properly convince her, so she just turned back around and stared blankly at the white board.
As the lecture started and went on for about twenty minutes, Karolina only retained about a fourth of the information. She was too distracted, thinking about that note written by the very person sitting right behind her.
As if fate would have it, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to find Nico handing her a piece of paper. She took it hesitantly and opened it under her desk so the teacher wouldn't see.
Get out of my school
Karolina stared at it for a whole minute, and felt angry tears well up in her eyes. Now Nico was rubbing it in her face since she now knew that Karolina liked her, thanks to Gert and Molly.
She turned her head again to look at Nico, who was smiling at her. Until she saw the angry look in Karolina's eyes, turning her smile into a frown. Karolina crumpled it up and stuffed it in her pocket. She would throw it away as soon as class let out.
When it did, Karolina quickly got up and made her way angrily to the trash can.
"Wait, Karrie!" She felt someone grasp her wrist.
"... Please let me go."
"Can we talk?"
Nico took Karolina's utter silence as a yes, and she gently dragged her away and into a supply closet so they could be away from everybody.
The note was still tightly clutched in Karolina's fist.
And finally, she spoke. "Wh... Why are you doing this to me?"
Nico's heart practically shattered when her voice cracked.
"What do you mean?" Nico asked.
"You're teasing me! I know Gert and Molly told you that I like you, which is true, but that doesn't mean that you can rub it in my face, okay?! Did you know that I cried practically all day yesterday because I got my hopes up thinking maybe you still liked me, just to find out you didn't and probably never would!" Karolina was now crying again. Whether they were sad or angry tears, she didn't know. "It's not fair!"
Nico looked absolutely horrified. That's what Karolina thought she was doing?
"Hey, hey, hey," she stepped closer and put her hands on Karolina's shoulders. "Calm down. It's okay."
"No, it's not... This is exactly why I didn't want anyone to know how I feel about you."
"Karrie!" Nico asserted, "Stop! Do you really think for a second that I would tease you about that? Do you really think I would do something that horrible to my best friend?"
Karolina sniffled and looked at her through her eyelashes. "I... I don't know. There's no other explanation for why you would do that..."
"Well, there's one other thing."
Karolina was confused. "What?"
"Just think about it. In first grade, I wrote you a note telling you to get out of my school because I had a crush on you. So if I did that again, that can only mean...?"
Karolina's eyes slowly but surely widened. "Wait... You don't mean...?"
Nico raised her eyebrows, encouraging her to continue.
"You... Have a crush? On me?" Karolina questioned doubtfully as she pointed to herself.
"Yes," Nico breathed, and stepped even closer than she already was. Their faces were now only inches apart.
Karolina finally got over her bewilderment, and started to lean down. "Is this okay?" She asked, just above a whisper.
Nico smiled at her. "It's more than okay."
And then, they were kissing. In a supply closet. Their location left a lot to be desired, but neither of them cared or even remembered as they were so lost in each other's lips. Nico brought one of her hands to the back of Karolina's head to deepen the kiss and Karolina had both of her hands on the nape of Nico's neck. It was so passionate, and so full of love, like they had both been itching to do that for a very long time.
After what felt like several minutes, they pulled away.
"Wow," Nico whispered.
"Agreed."
Out of nowhere, Nico started to laugh. "Man, can you believe a stupid note finally brought us together?"
Karolina chuckled and looked down at her guiltily. "God, I feel so terrible for accusing you of playing with my feelings for you. I'm not sure why I ever thought you would do that."
Nico rubbed small circles on her back. "It's okay. I realize now maybe the note thing wasn't the most obvious way in the world to let you know that I still like you."
"Yeah... But, it was really cute."
Nico huffed. "It's not cute... It was supposed to be funny. Nothing more."
Karolina playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, will you just admit that you're adorable already?"
"No, you're the adorable one, and I'm the badass one. That's how our whole dynamic works."
Karolina giggled. "Oh is it now? How do you know? We've been together for literally five minutes. And we're not even really together yet."
"Because we've been friends for years. And we'll probably be exactly the same as we were, except we'll kiss each other... and other things." Nico visibly got shy towards the end, which was quite a rare sight.
"I really like the sound of that... Dating your best friend sounds like the best."
"Yeah," Nico agreed, "It will be."
They leaned in to kiss again, but were interrupted by the door flying open, revealing a surprised and angry janitor. "Get out of my closet!"
They speed walked away after he rudely kicked them out.
"So, do you think he had a crush on at least one of us?" Karolina teased.
Nico glared at her. "You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"
"Actually, he verbally said it instead of writing it on a piece of paper, so, I think we're good."
Nico pushed her softly. "You're such an ass. But um... After you get out of my school, and I get out of your school, do you maybe wanna go out and get something to eat?"
Karolina couldn't help but laugh at her wording that would sound incredibly weird to anyone else but them.
"And by that I meant, like... after school," Nico added awkwardly.
Karolina laughed, "Yeah, I got that. And that sounds amazing."
"Great, so, I'll see you after school," Nico said.
"You too."
Nico walked away to her class that she was currently late to from their little make out session in the closet.
Karolina pulled the crumpled note out of her pocket, and traced over the handwriting like she did with the old one.
It was not one of the many scenarios Karolina had envisioned that would bring her and Nico together, but she wouldn't have it any other way.