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when akamatsu falls, it starts off slowly. clumsy piano idiot, not used to the uneven ground of a forest trail; her foot doesn’t pick up high enough to cover the tree root tangling out within the ground. they collide, and she stumbles for a moment, her body lurching forward as it attempts to right itself. her ankles hit each other in the effort, and that’s all it takes. she watches in slow motion as her body tumbles, the basket full of fresh food in her hand tilting and threatening to spill out its contents. her free hand reaches, fingertips so close to rescuing what she’s ruining.
and then, suddenly, she’s on the ground. her body hits hard, her lungs forcing a soft ‘ oomph! ’ from her mouth. it hurts, but all she can focus on is staring at the sandwich she had spent so long preparing lying open in the dirt.
“akamatsu-san!” chabashira spins around on her heel after hearing the thump of her companion’s body, green eyes wide. it only takes the blink of an eye before she’s there and crouching at akamatsu’s side. “this is why tenko said you should go first instead! are you okay? did you get hurt?”
“the sandwich got hurt,” akamatsu replies listlessly, pushing herself up into a sitting position. her nose crinkles at the food, sadly lying on the forest floor as it calls out to every ant in a mile. it was the one she had prepared for chabashira, too, telltale by the strips of bacon that akamatsu had just sizzled up hours ago.
“what?” tenko pauses, allowing the poorly delivered joke to settle in before shaking her head and holding her hand out to her friend. “tenko doesn’t care about a sandwich! she cares about you!”
akamatsu sighs, dusting the dirt off her hands before grabbing the basket and taking the other’s offer of help. their hands meet, and a bolt of electricity goes spiraling down the pianist’s spine. she almost flinches, almost shies away from the touch, but she stops herself before she can. slowly, she slides her palm against chabashira’s, and they clasp them together. it’s almost effortless, the way the aikido master pulls her back up to her feet. for a split second, she finds herself fantasizing about running her fingers over those muscles.
akamatsu does not stay on her feet for very long. just as she’s about to ensure that she’s alright, her left leg gives out from underneath her. her body starts to fall again, but thankfully chabashira is there this time to catch her, emitting a soft ‘ ah! ’ as she does. akamatsu’s cheeks turn the slightest shade of pink as she lands in her arms.
“ehe, sorry,” akamatsu giggles, a sheepish smile turning up her lips. her heart is hammering in her chest. chabashira feels so warm against her. “i think i might have twisted my ankle after all…” she frowns. “maybe we should go back. i don’t know if i can walk there anymore… and the sandwich is ruined…”
but chabashira will have none of it. she smiles, bright and cheerful as the sun. akamatsu thinks she would like to capture that smile and put it in a jar so that she can look at it whenever her heart is heavy. “no way!” the aikido master chimes. “tenko will just support you the rest of the way. who cares about the sandwich? tenko will be glad just to get there and sit with you and spend time with you!”
akamatsu feels her heart skip a beat in her chest at those words. the tingle in her spine returns, this time working itself upwards as she grasps at some words to say. her eyes dart down the path that they still have to walk, and she gestures, saying, “it’s too narrow, remember?”
“oh, yeah.” chabashira frowns, but only for a moment, before she smiles again. suddenly she’s letting go of her and turning her back on her. akamatsu blinks, then blushes as chabashira bends her knees, leans forward, and says, “here, i’ll carry you then!”
“n-no way, i’m way too heavy, i’ll break your back!” akamatsu nearly falls over again as she stammers. her hands tighten up around the handle of the basket of food. “then we’ll both be stranded out here! we should just go back. it’s not that far, i can walk!”
“akamatsu-san.” chabashira’s voice is warm, and liszt’s liebestraum plays through akamatsu’s head. gentle and soft, followed by an energetic crescendo that makes her feel like she’s soaring through the clouds before landing, delicate and light as a feather. her heart feels that way now, looking at the other girl. “it’s okay. really! tenko will be able to carry you no problem! she’s not an aikido master for nothing, you know.”
akamatsu bites her lip for a moment. “well, if you’re sure…”
slowly, she wraps her arms around chabashira’s shoulders. there’s a moment of hesitation, a moment where she’s all-to acutely aware of how her chest presses into the other girl’s back. her heart pounds away. she wonders if chabashira can hear it. with the minimal upper body strength the pianist has, she hoists herself up and onto chabashira’s back, her knees lifting to tightly close on her waist.
chabashira straightens her body back out a bit, her hands coming to lift up the blonde’s thighs. the touch sends a shiver through akamatsu.
“i’m not choking you, am i?” she asks.
“not at all!” chabashira replies. “are you comfortable?”
akamatsu thinks about how chabashira feels against her. she thinks about how she wants to touch her all the time, thinks about how every touch is warm and makes her heart patter in her chest. there’s something so calm and safe about being in chabashira’s arms. there’s something so lovely about just being in her presence. there’s something there, a word, a feeling, an emotion. akamatsu can’t think of what it is.
she answers, “yeah.”
so they continue on. the liveliness of the forest is music to akamatsu’s ears. the wind humming through the leaves, the squirrels chittering, the birds chiming overhead. it’s all a wonderful, beautiful symphony that akamatsu had completely forgotten about. quietly, she hums along with it, a song absent of any real melody, but important all the same. chabashira listens, and akamatsu can tell this by the way the muscles in her shoulder strain to keep her body and steps as quiet as possible.
when akamatsu falls, it starts off slowly.
something hits the blonde’s hand, tiny and cool. then another. and another. akamatsu frowns as she lifts her chin up to the sky and a raindrop lands squarely in the middle of her cheek. internally, she wills the rain cloud looming overhead to disappear. desperately, she hopes her constant checking of the weather this morning was not in vain.
as if in response to her woes, the cloud erupts into a sudden downpour.
“ah,” chabashira says, halting in her footsteps to look up at the sky. “it’s raining.”
a loud groan sounds from akamatsu. she has half a heart to just let go of her piggyback and drop to the ground to let the worms take her. instead, she holds on, deciding chabashira wouldn’t let that happen even if she tried.
“n-no worries!” she chimes, though her voice is strained, laced with her own frustration at the situation. she tries to ignore how icky it feels to have her clothes stick to her skin the way they begin to do. “maybe it’ll be over by the time we get there?”
chabashira seems to think it over for a moment before shaking her head. “you’ll catch a cold if we stay in the rain! tenko will turn back.”
she’s about to turn around, but akamatsu stops her with a soft squeeze of her legs. the pianist squints at something that appears to be a pavilion several yards down the trail. she points with one hand. “no, look, i think we can take shelter over there!”
chabashira’s grip on her legs tightens before she dashes forward. akamatsu’s grip tightens, her toes curling at the feeling of the other’s wet hair against her face. what a disaster this was. she had put in so much meticulous planning, and it had all gone to waste. her eyes squeeze shut. stupid piano freak. can’t do anything other than play the piano.
chabashira’s voice breaks her out of her thoughts, “aha! here you go, akamatsu-san! you can sit down now!”
akamatsu opens her eyes. the pavilion is small, likely built as a rest stop between the bus stop and the shrine they were planning on picnicking at. there’s a set of two benches, too, protected from the rain by the roof over top. the place is rundown, paint worn and chipped in places. she’s surprised it hasn’t collapsed after the years it hasn’t been tended to.
she’s careful as she slides off the back of her companion. she wobbles for a moment once she’s back on her feet, a sharp pain shooting up from her injured foot, but it relaxes once she shuffles and sits down on the wooden bench. chabashira turns to her, a smile on her lips one moment before it abruptly fades into an expression of panic.
“a-akamatsu-san! you didn’t tell tenko that your knee is hurt, too…!”
the pianist blinks, her gaze falling down to her knee. there’s a wound there, unbeknownst to her, still bloody and dirty. she chuckles, shaking her head as she rummages through the basket in her lap, “i guess i scraped it when i fell. it’s fine, see? i brought bandaids just in case.”
chabashira visibly relaxes at that, but she pauses for a moment. then, “tenko can clean it up for you! here, give her a napkin and water bottle.”
there’s a small rush of blood to akamatsu’s cheeks as she obeys, grabbing the items out of the basket and handing it over. she watches as chabashira spills a miniscule amount of the bottle’s contents out onto the napkin, letting the paper soak up before she dabs it gently against the bloody scrape.
there’s a moment of silence between the two. just their breathing, their hearts beating firmly, and the rain pouring around them. akamatsu thinks about catching chabashira’s hair in her fingers and running them through it. but she doesn’t.
“uhm… akamatsu-san…” chabashira starts, eyes trained on the wound she cleans.
“yeah?”
“why did you ask tenko to go hiking with you? tenko didn’t think you liked doing that…” a beat, and then she quickly adds, “n-not that she thinks that makes you any lesser! just that… well… tenko just didn’t think you did, is all!”
akamatsu finds herself giggling, shaking her head gently as she answers, “no, i didn’t think that’s what you meant.” there’s a second that follows, where she thinks on what to say. how to word it properly. “i just thought it was something you would be interested in, that’s all.” and it’s true. there’s a faint blush to chabashira’s cheeks, and the blonde smiles to herself.
“y-you know tenko would have been more than happy to do anything akamatsu-san wanted!” the other responds, green eyes lifting up to meet violet ones. “really! she’s just happy to be with a girl! she wants akamatsu-san to be happy.”
long fingers reach out to chabashira, quietly brushing the bangs out of her face. her eyes sparkle like emeralds, even in the overcast weather, and akamatsu admires that about her friend. her face is hot underneath her fingertips. akamatsu smiles.
“i am happy, because i’m with you.”
silence falls over them as both of their faces light up shades of pink. akamatsu slowly pulls her hand away, pressing it into her lap instead as chabashira finishes cleaning the wound and placing the bandaid over it. there’s something, some sort of feeling or emotion, that buzzes in the space between them. neither of them can think of the word for it.
when akamatsu falls, it starts off slowly.
it doesn’t take long before chabashira is up and sitting next to her on the bench. the rain continues to beat down out around them. akamatsu looks out ahead. the pavilion faces a clearing in the trees, which opens up to a fairly decent-sized pond. a family of ducks goes swimming through, five little babies behind their mother. akamatsu smiles to herself.
“you know, i did always kinda want to be an outdoorsy-type girl,” she says after a while, tapping her fingers on the picnic basket to some melody in her head. “my sister was always super fit and popular, while everyone called me piano freak.” she laughs, softly. “i guess i was sorta jealous or something. but… i suppose that i really am just a piano idiot. can’t even go on a mile hike without getting injured.”
“don’t say that,” chabashira is quick to respond. her expression is stern as she looks at the other. concerned. “you’re not an idiot. you just fell! besides, tenko thinks all girls are wonderful.” she looks back out to the pond, her legs kicking back and forth. “especially akamatsu-san.”
akamatsu is quiet, her cheeks a light pink as she lets the compliment flood over her. she watches chabashira. chabashira, who is so kind and emotional and thunderous. chabashira, who is one of the cutest girls akamatsu has ever met. chabashira, who didn’t hesitate to help akamatsu when she fell. chabashira, chabashira, chabashira.
there’s some kind of emotion that akamatsu is feeling, some kind of feeling, some word that’s on the tip of her tongue as she looks at this wonderful girl beside her. she doesn’t know what it is.
she reaches out, silently taking the aikido master’s hand in hers.
“i think you’re pretty great, too.”
neither of them say anything as chabashira’s hand returns the grip. they don’t have to. they simply sit there, watching the rain pour down around them. akamatsu isn’t sure how long it is that they do. it feels like seconds and years all at the same time. the only thing she’s positive of is that she doesn’t want it to end.
the rain slowly teeters out, fading to a light drizzle and then stopping altogether. even still, they sit, enjoying each other’s company. akamatsu’s eyes flutter shut. she almost rests her head on the other’s shoulder. she almost picks up chabashira’s hand to hold against her cheek. she almost does. she almost does.
once again, chabashira’s voice shakes her out of her thoughts, “akamatsu-san, look…!”
akamatsu’s eyes open and follow where chabashira points into the sky. there, sitting atop the lake, glowing against the green of the trees around it, is a rainbow. akamatsu smiles a bit at first, but when her gaze catches sight of the aikido master’s face -- awe-stricken and sparkly-eyed as it is -- she smiles wider. perhaps this wasn’t a complete disaster of an outing after all.
chabashira’s eyes catches akamatsu’s. their cheeks are both painted pink as they let this feeling wash over them, both too afraid to do anything and understanding all at the same time. the pianist tightens her hand’s grip just a bit.
“we can eat here instead?” she offers. “we can share my sandwich. if you don’t mind peanut butter, that is.”
chabashira smiles as she nods her head. akamatsu thinks the rainbow in the sky could never compete with the beauty of the aikido master’s smile.
when akamatsu falls, it starts off slowly.
and then, suddenly, she’s in love.