Chapter Text
It had come out of nowhere one day. They weren’t doing anything special, they weren’t even talking to one another, just sitting around and working on separate projects. As with most things, it was Mari who started it. “We should do something together!” she exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table and forcefully pulling Kanan and Dia’s attention away from their work.
“Like what?” Dia responded, hardly reacting. By now she was completely accustomed to her outbursts, they were so commonplace they could hardly even be called outbursts.
“I don’t know, anything!” she replied, grinning and rising to her feet. “We’ve all been so focused on work for so long, we should have some fun!” she exclaimed, looking to Kanan for support. Kanan always backed her up, unless it was something extremely stupid. (Which it often was.)
“Like a party?” she suggested, looking up at Mari, a sparkle in her eye. “I’d like that.” she smiled softly, looking over at Dia expectantly.
“Well, what kind of party?” she inquired, glancing away from Kanan’s gaze, that look always made her weak. “It’d better not be like the ones you dragged us to in college.” she complained, recalling the time she and Kanan had to carry an extremely drunk Mari home while she loudly and obnoxiously sung American pop songs.
“No, no!” Mari asserted in English. “And like I said, Dia-Chan. It can be anything!” she smiled proudly. “Whatever you wish for, I can make it come true.”
“Even-” Dia began, only for Mari to gently place a finger on her lips to silence her.
“Anything.” she reiterated, her eyes blazing wildly.
“Fine, I want a full, world class orchestra.” Dia scoffed, smirking to herself, certain that she had one finally one upped Mari. “Even with her obscene wealth, there’s no way-”
As if she were reading her mind, Mari cut her off. “Absolutely.” she nodded, beaming. “That’s just the kind of thing we need!”
“Wh-what?” Dia’s eyes widened, so shocked they were almost more white than green. “Mari do you know how much that costs?” she objected, only to have Mari hold a hand over her mouth.
“Anything.” Mari repeated once more, lightly patting her on the head. She was glad her hand was covering her face, it’d kill her if the other two saw her blushing.
“Ah! I’ve always wanted party on top of a ship.” Kanan commented offhandedly, seemingly unaware of the sheer scale of her request. It’d require them getting a big enough boat to host a party, fit an entire orchestra, not only that, but all of it had to fit on the top, without even considering the inside. Dia wanted desperately to object, but Kanan had such an innocent, oblivious look on her face. It was so happy and pure. She couldn’t bring herself to ruin it. She’d simply have to explain softly to her about how it’d cost far too much.
“On top of a ship! Okay!” Mari’s smile grew wider, she took her hand away from Dia’s mouth and excitedly grabbed for her phone. “I’ll start arranging it right away. How does Friday sound?” she was already tapping away, it was clear their party was an inevitability.
“That’s too soon! No!” Dia rose to her feet, attempting to magnify her presence.
It didn’t work at all, she had absolutely no ability to intimidate Mari, or Kanan for that matter. After all, she was still the same girl who, when they were little, couldn’t sleep at sleepovers unless she had someone with her, still the same idol obsessed dork, despite all they had gone through, she was still ultimately that same person, and that person definitely didn’t have the presence to stop Mari when she was set on something.
“It’ll be fine, Dia-Chan.” she insisted. “Just leave it to me.” she grinned a wide catlike grin, Dia didn’t trust her in the slightest, but she knew she couldn’t really do anything but back down.
“Well, I don’t really get what’s gonna go into this, but it sounds fun.” Kanan chirped, watching Mari do whatever she was doing on her phone. “I’ve missed doing stuff like that with you.” she closed her eyes dreamily, opening them to meet a rather focused stare from Dia, it was intimidating. “N-not that this isn’t good!” she help up her hands defensively.
“H-huh? What?” Dia blinked hard, it became clear she wasn’t exactly paying attention in the last few seconds, and that the intense gaze she was giving Kanan was just her default look when she was focusing.
“Heheh, nothing.” Kanan sniggered, savouring Dia’s adorable, bewildered look. “So this is gonna be a pretty fancy event, yeah?” she pondered.
“Of course it will! It’s being hosted by the Ohara family after all!” Mari declared, repeating her earlier slamming of her hands on the table. She buzzed with giddiness, an electric air of excitement emanating from her. Despite all of her protests, Dia found herself caught up in her aura, energising her in a way only Mari could.
“Yes. So we’ll need to prepare ourselves accordingly!” she proclaimed, her dark gaze falling over Kanan. “And that means no wearing a vest and shorts when everyone else is in formalwear.”
Kanan glanced at the floor like an ashamed dog, a warm sensation of guilt washing over her. “When you said party, I thought you meant the normal kind.” she said in a small voice.
“My parents were hosting it! They rented out a ballroom! You knew that!” she complained, reiterating points she had made many, many times before. The argument was old and unimportant now, but Dia’s passionate annoyance persisted across time.
“Aw, shush, Dia-Chan.” Mari chimed. “I’m sure Kanan-Chan’ll wear something really nice this time.” she beamed, stepping behind her and placing her hands on her shoulders. “Won’t you?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it, Dia-Chan.” she smiled up at her, now being the only one who wasn’t standing. She smiled at the firm presence of Mari’s hands on her shoulders, pleasantly pressing down on her.
“Okay, Mari-Chan, let’s make a checklist of what we need. I’ll call the catering company, you can start on the o-” Dia went into full business mode, her tone changing to a familiarly intense one. It was the same that she would use when she would use when explaining Aquors’ new training schedules. Commanding, but with an unbridled passion, with a burning exhilaration boiling under the surface. However, it didn’t last long, Mari cutting her off.
“Dia-Chan, no. I’m doing this myself.” she stated, oddly seriously. It was definitive, a clear, unyielding quality to it.
“What? Why?” she questioned “It’d be so much easier with two people!”
“I don’t want you two to do anything.” she spoke genuinely and softly, unveiling a rare side of herself that only they and a select few others had experienced. “I just want to make you two smile.” she admitted, smiling warmly at the two of them. It wasn’t a great grin or a blinding beam. Just a regular, uncharacteristically restrained, smile. It said more than words could, displaying just how dedicated she was to the two of them, and the simple feeling of joy it would give her to make the two of them happy.
Dia couldn’t break her gaze away from Mari’s face, she looked beautiful. She wished the moment could last forever, so that she could just stand there and drink in the look on her face. But time passed, and so, she needed to quickly find a reaction to cover up how utterly in love she was. “Make us smile? You do that anyway, why is this anything special?” deciding that being pedantic was a good method.
“You know what I mean.” Mari challenged, squinting at Dia.
“I don’t, actually.” Dia retorted, squinting back at her.
Kanan chuckled, destroying the atmosphere of their little confrontation. “You two always do this, does it never get old to you?” she asked, tilting her head slightly in curiousity.
“No.” they said, almost in unison.
“Good” Kanan hummed, she enjoyed watching them clash, it was always fun to watch, two strong, passionate personalities battling. In a way, it brought out one of the things she loved the most about them. Their forcefulness, both Mari’s playful variety and Dia’s more serious one. She found herself getting caught up in it, rising to her feet to be on the same level as the other two. “You two’ve gotten me all riled up.” she commented, grinning at them. “Who should we invite?”
“Well there’s Ruby-Chan, Chika-Chi, Yoshiko-Chan and the rest.” Mari listed, tapping her cheek in thought.
“No, no, no.” Dia countered, bestowing a no upon each of the named options. “Knowing you, this party will be littered with alcohol. So no Ruby. Chika can’t be trusted, do you really expect her to not mess up an event like this? And Yoshiko is Yoshiko.”
“Aw, no Ruby-Chan? But a party like this could be just the thing she needs. Letting her meet new people.” Mari contested. “Plus maybe this time I can get her a date without someone scaring her off.” she emphasised someone dramatically, Dia didn’t flinch, she thought she was entirely justified in scaring off any girl who dare think she was good enough for Ruby.
“You’re not being my sister’s wingman, Mari-Chan. You have bad taste.” she said, unknowingly insulting both herself and Kanan.
“Fine, no Ruby-Chan. But what about the rest of our friends? They’re fine. Riko-Chan could even help out with the music!”
Dia grumbled, having no reason she wasn’t too embarassed to admit. Luckily, Kanan, somehow reading her mind, spoke up. “Maybe Dia-Chan wants it to just be us?” she teased.
Her face flushed, Kanan was exactly right. “That would be fine.” she stated slowly, refusing to look at anything but the floor.
“Okay! Just us then!” she grinned, suddenly picking up Dia’s things and handing them to her, doing the same to Kanan seconds later. “Now it’s time for you two to go.” she began pushing them, out from the room they were in and toward the front door.
“What? Why?” Kanan questioned.
“To prepare!” she exclaimed, pushing them further and further.
“We don’t need three days to prepare!” Dia protested. By now they were already at the door.
“I know, but it makes it more exciting, not seeing eachother until then!” she beamed, opening the door and definitively placing them outside. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get everything ready!” she shut the door on them, leaving them both in a state of shock.
Dia looked over at Kanan expectantly. She just shrugged. With a sigh, Dia made her way toward her car. “I suppose I’ll see you on Friday then.” she stated.
“I suppose you will.” Kanan replied, waving to her happily before beginning her run home.
“Now, all I need to do is convince my parents to give me the money!” Mari said aloud to herself. The difficulty of the task now bearing down on her. “Crap…”