Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
Tsumugi smiled, feeling warmth rise up in her chest as she remembered the first time she'd been able to have a meaningful conversation with Kaede. Kaede was so, so happy, cheerful and nice in a way that just made her heart pulse with warmth and her brain tingle with excitement.
She would be the first one to admit that she had fallen for the pianist hard and fast, and wasn't going to stop falling anytime soon.
Kaede was… she was luminous, both figuratively and literally. Small pink sparkles like glitter trailed her everywhere she went, and some sort of natural light shone from within her, making her look even more radiant and beautiful. She stood out from all the rest not just in her talent, but with her beauty. Everyone else was either dull, with a complete lack of light emanating from them or too dim for her to bother truly acknowledging them. They were all pathetic ants, as far as she was concerned.
The only one that mattered was Kaede.
In fact, she might have to thank her father for transferring her to this useless school after all, where people were mindless sheep half of the time, moving as if they were being manipulated by some sort of awful scriptwriter, doing nothing meaningful. They were all extras, background characters that she couldn't care less about.
Only Kaede mattered here.
She always felt so happy whenever she saw the bright flash of long blonde hair come into view, or her gorgeous violet eyes… Kaede was so beautiful, so painfully beautiful, that Tsumugi sometimes felt like crying because of how plain she was in comparison. She'd had no idea why Kaede had decided to keep talking to her, after that near-disastrous first meeting where she'd fallen and stumbled over her words, barely being able to remain coherent as she'd rambled out some sort of half-assed compliment about how similar Kaede looked to the protagonist of the new space-themed anime that had begun airing.
As soon as the words had tumbled out of her stammering lips, she'd wanted to run all the way back home and rinse her mouth with mouthwash until her it felt sore. Or better, drink it and make herself sick so she wouldn't have to face what she'd thought would be cruel, mocking laughter.
But instead, Kaede had smiled brightly, and said that she loved the series and appreciated the compliment.
Tsumugi had felt like her heart had thrown itself out of her chest and that her brain was resting inside a large tub of fizzy soda instead of cerebrospinal fluid. Her blood vessels no longer contained blood, but helium, that made her feel as if she was floating even as her senses told her she was firmly affixed to her seat.
He mouth felt like it was full of hot pepper as she started spewing out all the information she knew about the series, as well as her opinions, her predictions and theories, how she hoped the show would go, what she thought of the voice actors, what she thought of the company producing the anime… her voice had taken a mind of its own, and her brain was too busy on cloud nine to even stop and think.
The best part was that, instead of getting weirded out or telling her to stop, Kaede seemed just as into the series as she was, and before long they had fallen head first into a lively discussion about the anime.
Tsumugi swore that she had ascended in that moment, and that either her heart had stopped beating, or that it was beating a mile a minute. She'd felt like she was on top of the world, that the stars had aligned and smiled upon her, that fate had finally decided to turn a few odds in her favor.
To put it succinctly, she'd been over the moon.
At least, she had been, until the discussion had been prematurely ended at the sound of someone's chair soosily screeching against the floor.
Both she and Kaede had looked back to see Shuuichi looking as if his life had ended. People have voiced their alarm and concern, but he didn't seem to hear any of it, rushing out of the classroom as if Satan himself had set his shoes on fire.
The discussion had been ruined after that, and she had felt devastated. Curse Shuuichi for ruining this opportunity for her! The one time she had actually managed to say something apart from a simple greeting or inane discussion about classwork was when he decided to have a crisis!
Damn him.
She'd been ready to melt under the weight of her sadness, to find an opportunity to excuse herself and run to a deserted corner of the school and scream to the high heavens about how unfair this all was, when she felt someone gently touch her arm. She'd jolted, looking up like a deer in the headlights, to see Kaede's concerned gaze looking at her.
“Don't worry, Tsumugi… Shuuichi should be fine. Maybe he just got some bad news from home and overreacted slightly, or something similar to that.”
Tsumugi wanted to both rejoice and scream in fury at that moment. She must have lost control of her facial expression for a few seconds back there and Kaede thought she was upset because of that worm!
She forced herself to nod meekly, and divert her gave to the ground.
“That was… honestly a little scary. Shuuichi's one of the calmest people in class; what could have made him react like that?” Probably something along the lines of her strangling his sorry ass to death later on, honestly.
“He should be fine, don't worry,” Kaede said, her voice taking up the soft cadence of someone consoling someone else. “He's a detective, remember? He should be able to sort himself out just fine,” she said, squeezing Tsumugi’s arm slightly, in an effort to reassure her.
Tsumugi felt like an electric shock had passed over her in that one second of slightly deeper contact. Kaede had actually touched her! Her heart felt like it was performing cartwheels in her chest, and she struggled to stop a large smile from overtaking her face.
“I hope so,” she'd said, looking up slightly.
Kaede had smiled at her reassuringly, and in that moment, Tsumugi swore that she looked like an angel.
“I know so.”
Those three words had sent Tsumugi world into a swirling void of happiness. Kaede was always so confident and strong, she always knew just what to say to reassure people, and even though this was just an act, she couldn't help but appreciate Kaede's caring nature.
She felt herself smile involuntarily at the sight and she swore that, for a split second, Kaede's eyes had lit up with glee. But as soon as it was there, it wasn't, and Tsumugi wondered if she had imagined it.
They eventually lapsed into a companionable near-silence, talking softly, even as the rest of the class seemed to be abuzz with worry.
She hadn't cared for them. All she'd kept in mind was that Kaede still wanted to talk to her, even despite that nonsense the detective boy had pulled for no reason.
And that had been enough to satisfy her.