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“‘m s’rry,” Mahiru mumbles sleepily.
Hikari blinks, confused. It must be directed at her; even though Karen is here, her breathing is steady against Hikari’s neck, and she’s clinging to her left side like her life depends on it. Not that Hikari minds that. She hasn’t wanted to move at all for the past few hours.
Which is why the apology is strange. As far as Hikari knows, they’ve just been napping together and nothing else for the last long while. She squints down at her girlfriend. Mahiru looks back, staring up at Hikari with puppy-dog eyes that make her want to become more of a puddle than she already is. So Hikari thinks. She thinks, and unsticks the tongue from the top of her mouth, and tries to remember what, exactly, words are, and slurs out an, “‘ss k.”
Not real words, but close enough to make Mahiru hum, pacified, and nestle her face back against Hikari’s chest. Because really, Mahiru has nothing to be sorry for.
Vaguely, somewhere floating in her brain, there is a thought. A thought that perhaps she should care about the background noise that is probably Mahiru’s family. Honestly, though, the sound is washing over her without sinking in at all, like... water? Like she’s underwater? No, muffled, like she’s in a carwash. Maybe they’re in a carwash.
Hikari’s similes are bad when she’s tired, but she can’t bring herself to care about that either. Not when Mahiru is laying on her, so soft and warm and sighing so sweetly every now and then. She’s so adorable that Hikari can’t help but feel that Mahiru is the most most most important thing in the world right now. Feel a warm curling in her chest that makes her deeply satisfied.
She wants to put it into words. Real ones. She shifts slightly, trying to think of the right ones to use. She must have jostled the others, because Karen grunts and Mahiru makes a gentle questioning noise that Hikari instinctively hums apologetically in response to, and, ah,
“I love you,” drips out of her lips like treacle, a victorious thrill running up her spine at having found the right thing to say. It must be, because Mahiru murmurs it in return, muffled as it is by sleepiness and the fabric of her shirt. Not for the first time today, Hikari wishes she could purr, but settles comfortably for grinning like a dope and pressing a lazy kiss to the top of Mahiru’s head. Mahiru trills in response, and Hikari finds herself giggling at how cute that is. She presses a kiss to Karen’s cheek too; she’s not awake enough to enjoy it, but she deserves it just as much.
Hikari lays down again, content with drifting back into a haze of delightful nothingness, and thinks that maybe everything is right with the world.