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Ann was just doing her best. It wasn’t her fault that despite Makoto’s intellect in other areas, she consistently fails to realise that she is being flirted with. Either that or she’s not interested -- Ann didn’t know what was worse. She had been getting bolder with her actions, too, but to no apparent effect. She didn’t know what to do anymore. All the dating and relationship help sites and forums she had confronted had only contained advice aimed at the average heterosexual male, which she was never going to follow, her being a lesbian and all.
She pondered this as she tapped her pen against the table that her and her friends had gathered around at Leblanc. Study groups had become more of a regular thing now that exams had started back up, which meant more excuses to stare at Makoto across steaming cups of coffee while she pretended to add four and six.
“Are you stuck, Ann?” asked Makoto.
Ann blinked, pushing herself back off the table and sitting upright. “U-um, just a little…”
Makoto smiled, and shit, she looks so pretty. “Which question is it?”
Unable to form words all of a sudden, Ann pointed to a random question in her textbook. “Th-this one.”
She peered over at the problem. “Oh, those can be tricky. Let me show you how to do them.” She pushed herself up from her seat and grabbed a pen. Ann was expecting her to slide past Yusuke and sit next to her, but she leaned across the table instead. One hand went on one side of Ann’s book, where she put her weight, and her other hand went to the paper, using her pen as a pointer.
Ann could see Makoto’s lips moving, could hear some sort of explanation being told to her, but all she could think about was how incredibly close she was. She could smell her shampoo, something minty, a little bit of coffee. Makoto paused for a moment to push a few locks of hair back behind her ear, easing the twitching in Ann’s fingertips that would have spurred her to do it herself. The inches between them were simultaneously too much and not enough. It took everything in her to stay put, the conflicting emotions within her screaming at her to take Makoto’s lips for her own or to straight-up run the fuck away. Was she wearing lip gloss? Oh god.
Occasionally, Makoto would make eye contact with her and ask if she was following, to which Ann would mumble some sort of affirmative noise, her heart going faster than Morgana escaping from a crumbling Palace. She felt exhausted by the time Makoto finished explaining and sat back down.
Ann quickly excused herself to the bathroom, almost tripping over herself in her haste. She locked the door and immediately fell against it, huffing deep breaths to steady the shake in her hands. When she had calmed down, she took out her phone and pulled up her IM, finding the right contact and tapping out a message.
You
ryuji we need to talk.
You
And by that i mean i need to scream and i want you to listen
Jolly Roger
sure…? what do u need?
Jolly Roger
are u sick or somethin? you ran real fast. you got bad shits?
You
Gross. And im not sick
You
can you wait around after study? Just say youre walking me home or sth
Jolly Roger
gotcha.
Ann sighed. She was really going to Ryuji, of all people.
--
“And I just -- it’s so hard to keep my shit cool around her!” Ann whined, tugging on her sleeve. “Not when she’s so pretty, and clever, and kind, and just really pretty, did I say that already?”
Ryuji chuckled. He slung his bag further over his shoulder and patted Ann on the head. “You did, like, fifteen times. Honestly, you’re so far gone, it’s adorable.”
“Can it.”
“You’re the one who wanted to talk to me!”
“I never asked you to talk back!”
They walked a few paces in silence. As much as she liked to bicker with him, Ryuji really was a pretty good listener, even if he was slow on the uptake. He even gave not-bad advice sometimes. She’d come to rely on him somewhat, whether she wanted to admit so or not.
“So, what’re you gonna do about it?” Ryuji asked.
Ann stared at the ground. “I’m not sure.”
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You’re not gonna ask her out?”
“What?!” She scoffed. “Out of the question!”
“But you obviously like her, so why not?”
You’re so clueless, Ryuji. “I’ll make a list!” She began counting on her fingers. “For starters, she might like someone else, so in that case I have no chance to begin with. To add to that point, she might even already be dating someone and just hasn’t told us about it. Have we ever asked? Second, let’s say I do ask and she says no. That could mess up our friendship badly. Third, it might even mess up our dynamic in Palaces, and that’s even worse--”
“That seems far-fetched.” said Ryuji skeptically.
“I said, can it. And finally, I don’t even know if she likes girls, so until I figure that out, I’m absolutely not making the first move.”
“I’m pretty sure she does.”
Ann choked on her own words. “Wait, what?”
Ryuji nodded slowly. “I mean, I’m pretty sure she was wearing a Pride pin in school last week? Not the rainbow one, the bi one… didn’t ya see it?”
“No, I did not.” Clearly.
“Which means,” he said, reaching over and putting down one of Ann’s fingers. “You only got three things to worry ‘bout!”
“If you’re right.”
“When have I ever been wrong?”
“Do I need to make a second list?”
Ryuji frowned. “That’s not nice.”
Ann twirled her hair around her finger. Makoto likes girls. “Still, I’m way too nervous to actually ask her out.”
“You shouldn’t be. You’re a catch, she’d be lucky to have you.” Ryuji assured her.
She laughed. “Oh, really now? I thought you had eyes only for Akira.”
Her friend’s face turned an interesting shade of pink. “H-hey, I thought we were s’posed to be talkin’ about you here!”
“But now I wanna talk about you. Tell me, how long ago was it that you swore you were gonna -- how did you phrase it?” She tapped her chin. “‘Sweep that pretty bastard off his damn feet’?”
“Shut up!” he huffed, covering his face with both hands. “It’s a work-in-progress.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure he was just charmed the other day when you dropped hot sauce all down yourself at Big Bang Burger.” she teased.
“I swear to god, if you don’t stop I’m askin’ out Makoto for you.”
--
You
Random question. how do I tell a girl I want to date her
Alibaba
Send her a pic of your nails
You
..wtf?
Alibaba
Caption it “give me a reason to cut them”
You
………..?!?!?JKSHDJKAKJNs
You
?!!? FUTABA YOU;RE LIK E THIRTE EN
Alibaba
（＾³＾）～♪
--
This is it, she thought to herself. Ann Takamaki, you’ve beaten countless Shadows and changed so many hearts. You’re a goddamn Phantom Thief, you can do this. Where’s that Panther confidence?
The answer: melted into a puddle at her feet as soon as Makoto stepped outside her classroom. Surely no one should be able to look that cute in a school uniform.
Makoto spotted her before she could say anything, and approached her, smiling that stupidly cute soft smile of hers. “Hello, Ann.”
“Ah, hey there.” She waved a hand awkwardly, feeling like a complete idiot. The flow of students ran around them, isolating them in a bubble of sorts.
Makoto observed the lack of companions Ann seemed to have. “Were you waiting for me?”
“I… was, actually.” she nodded. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“I’m all ears.”
Ann took a deep breath. She shoved her hands into her pockets, removed them, clenched her fists, then clasped her hands behind her back.
“I was wondering… if you’d like to go get a coffee?”
Makoto nodded. “Of course I would.”
Ann felt her heart stop. “R-really?” she sputtered in disbelief. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This was going better than she’d ever expected, why did she ever doubt herself—
“Have you asked the others yet? It’s a bit soon to have another study group, but it would be nice to just hang out with everyone instead.”
Ah. Of course. As quickly as it came, her excitement disappeared. “Um, oh. I mean — that’s cool.”
Makoto looked at her with a confused expression. “Is… is something wrong?”
Ann scuffed her feet on the floor, nervous. “Uh, well… I meant you. I mean us. Just us, the two of us?” She felt her minimal confidence drop with every passing second.
She paused for a moment. “...Oh! My bad, I guess I just assumed you were talking about the group.” she said. “But yes, I’d love to. ...And then you’ll ask me your question when we’re there?”
Ann kind of wanted to scream. You’re supposed to be perceptive, Makoto! Don’t make me spell it out for you!
“No, Makoto, I— That was my question. I wanted to ask you out for coffee. On…” Face red, she mustered all the courage she had. “On a date.” Her eyes were fixated on the sign outside the classroom, too frightened to meet Makoto’s.
Thankfully, the silence didn’t last long. “Yes.”
Makoto was looking at her with a sort of misty eyed look, her mouth forming a little ‘o’. It was the cutest Ann had ever seen her, so much so that she almost walked over and kissed her right then and there.
“Yes…?”
“Yes, I’ll go on a date with you.” Makoto smiled shyly. “I… I was wondering if you would ever ask.”
Ann had felt happiness before. Stealing hearts, saving society; that all brought her so much joy. But nothing brought her as much pure ecstacy as knowing that she was going on a date with Makoto Nijima.
“Ann? Are you alright?” Makoto looked concerned.
“A-ah!” she stuttered. “I’m fine — wonderful, actually. I just didn’t expect you to say yes.”
Makoto laughed, an angelic sound. “We should get going. We can’t stay at school forever.”
“Yeah. I have a shoot soon.” said Ann, a little regretfully. She would have cancelled had she thought this would go so well.
“Oh, good luck!” Makoto smiled. “You always look beautiful, so I’m sure it will go great.”
Ann blushed at the compliment, and so did Makoto, when she realised what she had said. “Um. I’ll t-text you later? D-Do your best!” she stuttered, then ran off.
Ann watched her go, smiling. She really had it bad, but, from the sounds of it, so did Makoto.
She was really looking forward to tomorrow.