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She knows that the girl sitting across from her will never admit it for as long as she lives, but today is her favorite holiday.
Yes, that forever-scowling, over-confident girlfriend of hers absolutely adores Valentine’s Day.
Ririka can see a peek of the girl’s monthly planner as she flips through the thin pages. For every month except February, there are mundane notes here and there of assignments due, but nothing noticeable beyond scribbles.
For the month of February, though, she swears that Mary must have exhausted all of the red and pink pens in Hyakkaou with all the markings she scrawled across that particular page. From what she can see, there are hearts, arrows, roses and more drawings of the like filling every inch of the stationary. Post-its of different sizes and shapes litter the surface, overflowing the edges of the page.
By the time she could process what she was seeing, Mary had already slammed the organiser shut with a mumbled excuse of something along the lines of “I doodle when I’m bored”.
Knowing that pushing the subject would never garner a real answer out of her girlfriend, Ririka just smiles timidly and continues eating her small breakfast.
“And what are you smirking about?” Mary snaps.
The tone she used may seem sharp to bystanders, but Ririka has learned to hear the difference between genuine anger and deflection when it comes to the girl.
This? This is deflection.
This is nothing but Mary trying to save herself from embarrassment.
“Nothing, Mary.” The sentiment is delivered with twinkling eyes and a smile that she reserves just for the blonde. Almost instantly, the girl’s tense shoulders deflate and the corner of her lips smoothe into an easy smile. It is a song and dance unique to their relationship, and theirs only.
She watches those strong, but delicate hands let go of its death grip on the planner and reach for her unoccupied hand instead. “I don’t want to rush you, Ririka, but we should really get going.”
A glance to the feline-shaped clock hanging on the cafe’s wall confirms that they indeed need to start moving. It wouldn’t look good for the student council if the Vice President was late to class, after all.
With a quick nod, she finishes the rest of her tea and joins Mary in cleaning up their mess. When Ririka reaches for her school bag, the girl intercepts her with a gentle nudge of her hand.
“Don’t be silly,” Mary tuts. “Let me.”
It’s little actions like these that surprise Ririka every day she spends as Mary’s girlfriend.
She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to the attention Mary gives her. She doesn’t think she’ll ever deserve it.
But then, Mary will do something like gaze at her with nothing but pure admiration in her eyes and in that moment, she would believe it.
And so, accepting this moment as one of those times, Ririka relents and sidles up next to her most favorite girl. In a silent show of appreciation, she weaves her arm through Mary’s elbow and places her free hand on the girl’s wrist.
Mary doesn’t say anything, but she knows the subtle flex of her arm is for her benefit.
| | |
They’ve only just passed the towering, iron gates to Hyakkaou when they bump into Yumeko and Ryota.
“Ririka-san! Happy Valentine’s day!”
“Ah- good morning, Vice President!”
They greet her respectively. Yumeko is already breaking the hold she has on Mary in favor of a bone-crushing hug while Ryota is awkwardly bent between a bow and a standing position.
“Ugh, that’s enough Yumeko. Don’t hurt her,” Mary scolds.
“Happy Valentine’s day to you too, Yumeko-san.” Once the girl has given back her personal space, Ririka touches her fingers to Mary’s hand wanting to re-establish contact with the girl, no matter how small. “And good morning to you, Suzui-san.”
It is only then that Ryota finally straightens his stance. It seems he still harbors some feelings of fear in regards to the Vice President. She is completely baffled as to why, seeing as though Ririka is known to be the most amenable out of the whole student council.
Her question is answered when she traces his frightened gaze back to the girl beside her. Ah, it’s Mary he’s scared of. Not particularly me, she realizes. I guess the fear is automatically associated to me now that we’re dating.
Giving a light squeeze to the hand still holding her briefcase, Ririka retrieves her belongings and addresses the trio, “I have a student council meeting after classes, but I suppose I’ll meet with you all later?”
Yumeko and Ryota happily nod their assent, but Mary remains still.
They all stand there awkwardly glancing from one person to the next until Mary clears her throat.
They all stare at Mary. She frantically looks from Yumeko to Ryota.
She clears her throat again and throws a menacing glare to the pair next to her. “A little privacy, please?!”
“Oh!”
“Sorry!”
Ririka can’t help but giggle as the two shuffle away from her huffing girlfriend. It is always so entertaining to see her worked up like that. She notices that Yumeko and Ryota always seem to be the cause of it, too.
“Anyway,” Mary breathes. She watches as the girl suddenly turns timid, a completely different girl than the one who had almost lost her temper moments ago.
“I’ll um- I’ll miss you,” she rushes out, punctuating the words with a quick peck on the lips.
Before the color can fully rise to Ririka’s face, Mary is gone, shoving her fellow classmates in a forward march to the school’s entrance. Their noises of protest steadily fade away as the distance between them grows larger.
As she watches her girlfriend’s retreating back, she’s eternally grateful for her porcelain mask. She doesn’t think this blush is going away anytime soon.
Just as she finishes placing the accessory on her face, realization hits.
Mary never greeted her for Valentine’s Day.
| | |
In hindsight, Ririka only assumes that it’s Mary’s favorite holiday. There was no actual confirmation on her part that it is, in fact, her favorite.
The rationale doesn’t stop her mind from racing, though.
She must have another Valentine. We are still pretty new in the relationship… Plus, she hasn’t asked me at all to be hers. No. That’s stupid. I’m her girlfriend. She’s my girlfriend! She has to know it’s Valentine’s Day, right? Her calendar wouldn’t have been marked up like that, if she didn’t. And Yumeko! Yumeko greeted me right in front of her. ...Maybe she was shy… Too embarrassed to say anything around the others. That’s got to be it. Right. She was just shy.
Unfortunately, her internal ramblings did nothing to quell her anxiety.
Three times.
Three times she passed by Mary in the hallway in between her classes.
Her girlfriend had three separate occasions to wish her a measly “Happy Valentine’s Day!”, but all she got was a feeble hand wave in her direction.
All the while, she was surrounded by classmates being greeted left and right, with chocolates being passed around like secret notes in class.
Behind her mask, Ririka swallows the taste of disappointment in her mouth and trudges forward.
There was only the student council meeting left to deal with, then she could finally have some words with her “ girlfriend ”.
She doesn’t understand. It was clear that Mary had made plans for the holiday. Why wasn’t Ririka part of those plans?
Reaching the door to the executive meeting room, she takes a second to gather her breath and build the persona of Vice President Momobami. These meetings took a great deal of her energy as she had to maintain the perfect image of second-in-power next to her sister.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
Ririka’s automated voice breaks through the threshold before she does.
“Don’t be silly.”
Ririka freezes. That’s…
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Ririka,” Mary says, quietly, lovingly.
The room is an explosion of red and pink heart-strung streamers, paper card hearts, and inflated heart-shaped balloons. It was as if the Valentine’s Day aisle at every store in town got hit by a tornado and landed in Hyakkaou’s executive meeting room.
She rips off her mask.
“Mary, what is…” Ririka lets out, absorbing all of the decorations in the usually-desolate room with bright eyes. “Did you do this all yourself?”
“Of course not!” her voice is uncharacteristically chipper. “I made Ryota do it!”
“Mary!”
“What? He offered to help!”
“Mary!”
“Okay, fine. He didn’t. But he owed me!”
“Mary.”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll buy him food or something,” Mary pouts. She genuinely looks disgusted at the thought of compensating Ryota for his efforts.
The sight of her sulking only adds to the growing affection she has for the girl. Overwhelmed with emotion, Ririka rushes over to her girlfriend and gifts her a tight embrace.
“Did you make him do everything?”
“I’m not that horrible of a girlfriend,” Mary scoffs. “Here,” she says grabbing a red, glossy box from behind her. “ I made these for you.”
They’re chocolates.
Mary Saotome made her chocolates for Valentine’s day. Ririka is worried her heart will burst any second now.
“Oh, this is just so sweet Mary!”
She moves her head back to take in the blonde’s face. She’s beaming.
“Do you really like it?” Mary asks bashfully.
“I do! I love it!”
At the praise, Mary actually ducks her head and hides her face from Ririka’s reverent eyes in her girlfriend’s shoulder.
This girl is just full of surprises.
They stand there, bodies interlocked, basking in the warmth of each other’s embrace.
Reluctantly, Ririka pulls away first, but only to bring Mary back in for a tender kiss. When she feels her girlfriend sigh against her lips, all she can do is sink further into the girl’s arms.
She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to the attention Mary gives her. She doesn’t think she’ll ever deserve it.
But now, in this moment, she’ll believe it.
| | |
BONUS SCENE
Mary, handing Ririka a huge, fluffy stuffed-teddy bear:
“And for your final Valentine’s Day gift…”
“Mary! This is almost the same size as Runa!”
“Eh, it’s definitely bigger.”