Chapter Text
The red curtain drops signifying the end of the 100th Seisho Festival Play, Starlight . The auditorium comes alive with earnest applause and enthusiastic shouts that echo throughout the building. The lights flicker slowly, providing a steady source of illumination. The curtains rises up once again with the actresses lined up, their hands linked facing the audience. Together as one, they bow as their final act of the night. The cheers increase as family members, faculty, and peers clap louder, showing their enthusiasm for the play.
As the day came to an end, the backstage students’ excited clamors of relief that the 100th Festival was finally over was contagious. However, there was still work to be done. The clamor of carts can be heard as members of Class B push carts of props to store away with help from Class A.
Meanwhile backstage, the group of nine actors were in various states of elation, breaking up into pairs as they left the stage. Surprisingly, Futaba was the first to break away from her partner, jumping forward and hugging Junna who was embracing a teary Nana. Kaoruko, not wanting to be left out, stomps towards the trio. Claudine is quick to join in, dragging an all too willing Maya alongside her.
Mahiru and Karen make the outer layer of the impromptu group pile, which soon dissolves into a mess as someone who sounded suspiciously like Kaoruko, makes an unfortunate innuendo and due to Claudine’s reaction, the group topples over. Karen ends up flat on the ground at the center of the chaos.
Hikari looked on from afar watching the brilliant smiles until Karen spots her and tries maneuvering out of the pile of bodies, tearfully begging Hikari to either save her or join the hot mess that was their ragtag group of misfits.
Shaking her head with a rueful little smile on her face, she walks over reaching for Karen’s outstretched hand.
-/-
Karen is quiet, sitting on a bench and watching the sky fade from blazing orange hues into a calmer sea of purple mixed in with darker shades of blue and the remains of daylight, the stars peeking from behind the dissipating clouds. The noisy chatter of the group of students long gone as the majority had already headed home.
They did it. She was finally able to do Starlight together with Hikari-chan.
The Seisho Festival 100th Starlight has concluded. It was meant to be— fate as it was.
Now that her life long dream has come true, she’s happy. Really, she is but… she’s not quite satisfied yet.
What’s next? Now that her dream with Hikari is fulfilled, what more is there to do?
Is there anything more to do?
She lifts her head up and suddenly her vision is blocked as a voice whispers, “Guess who, Karen-chan~?” The voice no doubt belongs to Mahiru, but the chilliness of the hands covering her eyes and the callouses dotting along the fingers—and the faint scar on the palm— belongs to someone equally important.
“Hikari-chan, ahahaha!” Karen wiggles her way free revealing Mahiru smiling at her with a plate of banana cake.
“Hey, Mahiru-chan, what’s that you got there?”
“Want some?” Mahiru takes a seat right next to her, offering a forkful to Karen. Never one to turn down food, Karen opens her mouth and chomps down on it, mindful of the fork in her mouth. Tasty!
“You’ll get more cavities if you eat nothing but sweets Karen,” Hikari says, sitting next to Mahiru.
Karen takes a moment to chew through the sweet and when she isn’t in danger of choking, she responds, “I’m not the one who started crying when I lost my tooth.” Karen crosses her arms, grinning with a wide toothy smile, showing how perfectly aligned her teeth were— the effect of which was ruined by the pieces of cake stuck in the corners of her teeth.
“…there was a lot of blood.” Hikari mummers bashfully, looking away.
Mahiru giggles, tears caking the corner of her eyes. “Awww, that sounds so cute. My little brother did that too when he lost his first teeth.” She places the plate on the empty spot next to Karen to dab the tears from her eyes.
Hikari blushes.
“Oh! Mahiru-chan, listen to this,” Karen leans in conspiratorially, tugging on her sleeve, “when we were younger, Hikari-chan was the best at hide and seek. She would always hide in small places that took some time for me to figure out, but she was always so creative when she thought about where she wanted to hide,” she pauses for dramatic effect, letting Mahiru process the fact.
“One time she hid inside one of the treasure chests that had all the toys and the teachers got really mad when they found out Hikari flushed all the toys down the toilet to cover her tracks.” Hikari makes a wounded sound of utter pain.
“Course, I got in trouble too because I tossed a cube in the next stall to distract the teachers ahaha.” She rubs the back of her head sheepishly. “But the point is that Hikari-chan always won hide and seek except when I was playing.” Karen puffs her chest out and pounds a fist over her heart.
Hikari drops her cheek on Mahiru’s broad shoulder, hiding her scarlet face from both their lines of sight.
“Karen,” her best friend’s name comes out as a strangle of noise. “Please,” she begs pitifully.
“Aww, that’s okay, Hikari-chan,” Mahiru pats her on the head, “When Karen-chan is determined, nothing can stop her.”
The corner of Hikari’s lip turn up. “...yeah, that’s true.”
Karen chuckles, a warm fuzzy feeling expanding from her chest. Resisting the urge to pat her friend on the head, she instead grabs another bite of Mahiru’s cake.
-/-
It’s another night when the unexplainable fuzzy feelings come back.
She sees Mahiru reading a book on her bed and Karen’s eyes trace the way that Mahiru tucks a loose strand of hair back behind her ears, pushing her reading glasses back in place— she mentioned that she’s far sighted and that she can see words up close, but it’s better to wear them because than she can read longer.
Karen’s breath hitches, her heart skipping a beat. She’s always known Mahiru was radiant, but in that moment she shined even brighter like the sun.
What changed?
Karen is mesmerized and doesn’t realize she’s staring until Mahiru peeks up over her books.
“…Karen-chan,” Mahiru calls.
“Y— Yes!?” Karen hears her voice squeak.
“Is something on my face?”
“No, your face is pretty— I mean fine!! Pretty fine!” Karen doesn’t know why her own face is growing warm. Her palms getting sweaty. What’s going on?
Mahiru’s eyebrows knot in concern, “Karen-chan, do you have a fever?”
“No, no I’m great! No fever here!”
Mahiru narrows her eyes suspiciously. Giving Karen a once over, her antennas twitching as she searches for signs. She nods her head once she finishes, satisfied with her assessment.
Karen fidgets in place, wanting to leave the room. “Can I read with you, Mahiru-chan?” Karen asks instead, against her better judgement.
“Sure.” Mahiru scoots over to make room.
Karen moves over to Mahiru’s bed sitting beside Mahiru, propping her chin on her shoulder to read the book.
She hears Mahiru inhale and notices her cheeks are red. Actually, their faces are so close to each other that Karen can see each strand of Mahiru’s eyelashes.
“I’m back,” Hikari announces, fresh from the shower. She drops her shower bucket near the corner of the room by the closet and collapses against Mahiru’s shoulder.
“Hey, Hikari-chan.” Karen reaches out to tug on the end of Hikari’s tank top. Even a couple of months later, it’s hard to break the habit.
“Hey.” Taking out her phone, she asks, “Mahiru, how do you beat this level?” Fiddling with the screen, she opens the Mr. White gacha game app.
Mahiru quickly glances away from her book, "which one?"
"The boss with the unibrow and minions."
"Ah, you need more gems for that," she points at the top of the character screen, "I think you need about 30 more to level Mr. White up."
"I see." Hikari spots her wallet on the table and reaches for—
Nothing, because Mahiru snatches her arm midreach. "No whaling, Hikari-chan!"
Hikari's brow furrows. "I'm not an animal."
“You know what I mean,” Mahiru argues back.
“Yeah, Hikari-chan,” Karen says playfully, “no whaling.”
“...I haven’t spent that much this month…”
“Hikari-chan.” Mahiru says flatly in an impression of her best disappointed mom voice.
“Yes, Mamahiru…” she answers dejectedly. That four-star Phantom Mr. White won’t be hers any time soon—
Something smacks her in the back. Turning around she sees Karen sitting with something out of view.
Glaring, Hikari grabs Mr. White by his ear. “Are you sure this is the path you want to travel down, Karen?”
“I could ask the same of you, Hikari-chan,” Karen inches the pillow closer to herself behind her back, grabbing the corner.
Mahiru drops her book, leans down and collects two of the cushions on the floor, whacking the two dorks on their head, swiftly ending the battle before it could even start.
“Ughn, I’ve been struck down,” Hikari gasps for breath, collapsing against the wall dramatically with Mr. White laying on top of her.
“Hnng, fair maiden, I wanted... to win this battle… for our country.” Karen grunts, falling back onto the mattress.
Mahiru reaches over and takes her baton, raising it up into the air, “Upon this day, I hereby decree, whaling is forbidden for a month.”
“What,” Hikari’s “corpse” cries out in protest.
“Two months.” Hikari pouts. Karen’s “reanimated body" takes Suzdal Cat and offers him as tribute.
Mahiru accepts the offering, waving his little paw at Karen (She feels like she took one of JunJun’s arrows straight to her chest).
There’s a familiar sort of warmth when Hikari props herself up and without hesitation, plops right onto Karen which results in them tumbling sideways onto Mahiru.
A round of giggling erupts in their cozy room.
-/-
It happens one Saturday morning, while they were watching anime together. Hikari had several months worth of episodes to catch up on. Also merchandise too— ironically it was Karen who set a limit on the amount of merch that Hikari could buy to two since their closet was already stuffed to the brim. Mahiru and Hikari pointedly looked away.
Earlier, Karen had left to go get them breakfast at the small café down the street, seeing as she was the fastest of the bunch. She came back to Hikari and Mahiru cuddled up on the couch, napping peacefully with the television paused in the middle of a battle.
In the quiet of the morning with practically everyone that stayed in the dorms during winter vacation, either asleep or occupied, Karen had time to think.
Silently, she pulls the blanket higher on Hikari’s shoulders and places her jacket over Mahiru, knowing how cold she usually gets on mornings like these.
Taking a moment, Karen studies them, this mysterious warmth blooming in her chest always happened when she was around the other two. Right now, she doesn’t feel her heart racing or anything but a sense of— how could Karen put it… A sense of calm, maybe?
But it’s like an instinctual feeling that Karen is certain of but unable to put a name to it.
It’s as certain as her promise with Hikari to meet again and perform Starlight together on their fated stage. As certain as her determination to bring Hikari back from that terrible place.
Karen knows for a fact she loves—
An epiphany hits Karen.
Love. So simple a term but so many emotions held within that one singular word.
She loves them.
A giggle escapes, waking the other two.
“Karen-chan? Are you back?”
“Sorry, Mahiru-chan, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Mahiru shakes her head. “That’s okay, I shouldn’t have been sleeping so late.” She stretches her arms over her head, an audible crack sounds from her back.
“Hey, Mahiru-chan,” Karen says, beaming, “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Karen-chan,” Mahiru responds groggily, lifting a corner of the blanket, a silent invitation to join them.
“Mm so noisy, Karen,” Hikari grumbles, wiping an eye with her fist.
“Sorry, sorry.” Karen places their breakfast on the table in front of them, happily snuggling up to Mahiru inside the warmth of the blankets.
The rest of the morning passes by in relative silence, Karen completely content.
