Work Text:
“This concludes the tour of the Aoba residence! Our final stop is Aoba Moca’s room! Hope you enjoyed it! I accept payments of 20 yen or more via Paypal or Venmo.” Moca announces, and Lisa giggles as they enter her room.
After their shift ended, Moca invited Lisa to hang out at her house. She had never gone into Moca’s room, let alone her house. Moca slides off her Jordan backpack that she uses as her work bag, and sets it down beside her desk, before plopping down onto her bean bag. To Lisa’s surprise, Moca’s bed is made, and a fruity aroma lingers. Lisa scans the room and notices an oil diffuser on top of her nightstand.
“Mm, smells good, Moca. What’d you use?”
Lisa is surprised due to Moca’s efforts in making her room actually look presentable. Lisa's seen her school bag, she has seen papers from the previous year. There was one time she found Moca’s middle school test that she has yet to hand back. Another item on the list is an expired granola bar that she keeps at all times, in case of an ‘emergency’.
“Orange Sweet. I would’ve used something that smelled like baked delicacies, but we haven’t gotten that far in scientific technologies.” Moca hummed.
“Heh, please don’t tell me you tried extracting oils from bread…”
Moca says sheepishly, “I legally cannot answer that, heheh..”
Hina has shown Lisa the process on how to make aromatic oils, so she knows what she’s talking about. Nonetheless, Lisa knew Moca would try to incorporate the smell of the staff of life in another state of matter, other than solid. She’s a smart girl, even if she doesn’t try.
Try.
Did she try today? Did she try ‘cause she knew Lisa would accept her invite? Or is this normal, for the blonde?
Well, you’ll never know. She’s quite unpredictable, with her spacey demeanor. She’s a unique girl.
Moca rummages through her work bag and puts on her signature, blue hoodie. Every time they end shifts together, this is basically her trademarked post-shift ritual.
It’s the same as always, like her best friend, Ran would say. There’s nothing out of the usual. Moca’s just doing Moca things. Just because they’re alone, doesn’t mean that the guitarist would act differently. She is different. In a good way, of course.
“Lisa-sannnnn~” Moca’s singsong voice called out. Lisa was brought back to reality and she pushed those thoughts into the back of her head as fast as possible.
“Aren’t you gonna come in? I don’t bite~”
Lisa was so lost in thought that it distracted her from entering the room and she can feel her ears get warm from embarrassment. Lisa gently placed her bag next to Moca’s and took a seat at the floor table. Moca, who seems to be texting someone, (probably Afterglow) Lisa asks,
“Moca, what’s your wifi password?” The blonde looks up from her phone with a playful look. “Getting bored already? Shit’s hurtful, Imai-san.”
Lisa looks as if she’s done something wrong. She starts looking for the right words so she doesn’t-
“Just kidding, just kidding!” Moca jokes, “Sauce me your phone.”
Lisa hands over the device to her and Moca puts her own phone down to enter in the password. After a few moments of her trying to remember what the password was, it finally became correct, and her face brightens up. Lisa likes seeing the nonchalant girl show some emotion in a while. It makes the senior feel special, in some way. Moca stands up from the bean bag cautiously, since it looks extremely comfy to the point where you’re being sucked in and hands her back her phone.
“I’m gonna make some tea, be right back.” Moca says as she’s sliding her feet into her cat slippers. Moca drags her feet when she walks. This is helpful for Lisa ‘cause she can tell whether or not Moca is coming up to scare her during work, since her beaten up Vans make too much noise. Her slippers sound similar to a dog with long nails running on wood flooring. Lisa imagines Moca with dog ears just running up to her and-
No, no, no, Lisa. That’s weird. Don’t think of those kinds of things. That’s weird.
Realllllyyyy, weird. What are you thinking?
Lisa scans the room again, without having to worry about the first goof-up of the visit, ‘first’ since she knows that there will be more. Moca seems to be a very neat person in her home. She thought she would be the same when she’s out in public. However, that isn’t the case. Lisa hears the dog-like walking nearing the room until,
“Your tea m’lady!” Moca announces triumphantly. She’s holding a tray with two cups of steaming hot tea. She carefully places it down onto the floor table, making sure nothing spills. Moca sits beside her and claims a cup for herself. Lisa follows.
“Soooo, are you enjoying your visit at the famous ‘Aoba Motel’?” Moca asks between sips.
“Well, since you’re Aoba Moca, amazing guitarist and local bread connoisseur, I thought your room would be…” Lisa gazes around the room, seeing all of the photos of her and Afterglow, “...more Moca-Like, y’know? Chaotic, in other words..”
Moca gasps dramatically, “Wowwwiee, Lisaaaaa. Way to hurt Moca’s feelings.”
They usually banter like this during work. It really makes them think that their conversations alone could be turned into a movie or some sort of television show, due to how much chemistry they have.
“The truth hurts, bud .” Moca clenches her chest as if all the bread she has eaten has taken a toll, (it will someday) and falls into Lisa’s lap.
As if this situation couldn’t have gotten any worse, it somehow did. Lisa imagines all the possible outcomes out of this predicament. But, there is one that really stuck. The thought of them kissing in that moment, taints Lisa’s cheeks to a scarlet tint. But Moca doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, she just has this fixed gaze with parted lips. She’s just staring at her , like a baby is staring at you at a restaurant. Lisa doesn’t seem to know what to do from this.
“Heheheheh, has the amazing guitarist and local bread connoisseur made the Imai Lisa blush?”
Shit .
How’d she notice? Well, first things first, she’s on your lap you oblivious buffoon. Of course she noticed. Despite her airheady attitude, she’s really attentive, and will notice the small things. But, it wasn’t the small things, since she doesn’t have the best poker face compared to her. Lisa is flustered. She’s trying to find actual words that aren't ‘um’ or ‘erm’ to respond, but nothing is coming out. She’s usually good at being calm, but for some reason her switch isn’t wired correctly today.
“Um… yeah. Y-You’ve managed to make me blush… Moca... ” Lisa mouthed while twisting a strand of hair.
“Heh, is that so?” Moca laughed.
“Yeah..” Lisa said, her eyes darting everywhere that isn’t Moca’s face. It’s a challenge, her walls are literally plastered with photos of her and her childhood friends, and Moca is still staring at her like a little baby.
But it feels different.
Lisa looks down and notices,
“Moca, what are you…” Moca squeezes her hand tighter, and gives her a soft smile. Her hand is calloused, it really shows how much she practices for Afterglow and it’s showcased during their live performances, since she usually comes and watches with Roselia. She was thinking of using the cliche: ‘the tea is getting cold, we best drink it’ excuse but she chose not to.
After a few moments, Moca’s fast asleep. She has a talent of falling asleep anywhere . And what Tomoe told Ako who told Lisa, is that Afterglow has a contest on who can get the most pictures of her sleeping. (in secret, they plan on telling her on her eighteenth birthday.) The person with the most photos by the end of each month gets a ‘prize’. She’s seen some of them, since Ako’s shown her while taking a break during their band practices. Moca's an abosolute cutie patootie.
She squeezes back the guitarist’s hand and grins to herself.
She doesn’t need the tea’s heat to warm herself up.
She has all of that from the amazing guitarist, and her local bread connoisseur.
“I love you, Moca.”
"I love you too, Lisa." Moca mumbles, in her sleep.