Chapter Text
“So you and Mari are like, really close, huh?”
Kanan raised an eyebrow as she stared forward at Chika, who sat across the table from her. Although they were in the school library and meant to be studying-- Chika especially-- it seemed she had something else on her mind.
That, or she was simply making small talk as an excuse to not study. Both could probably be likely. Kanan decided to respond anyways, albeit with a very simple answer and a shrug. “Well, yeah. Have been for a while. Why?”
“It’s just…” Chika rested an elbow on the table, chin in her hand. “I was thinking, it would be really great if I could be that close with Riko, y’know?”
“You think?”
Kanan was given a vigorous nod to the simple question. Clearly, this was going somewhere. “Yeah! Do you think you could give me advice?”
“Advice…” Kanan furrowed her brow slightly. “On becoming closer with Riko? I don’t know… Considering you’ve known each other for less than a full year, I’d think you’re already really good friends with her in that time. Aren’t you?”
“Well yeah, we are, but not the same way as you and Mari!”
“I mean, I guess not, but…”
“Okay, um, if I have to just come out and say it…” Chika, likely sensing Kanan’s utter confusion, gave an oddly shy chuckle. Really, what was this about? “I... wanna know how you asked Mari out.”
Chika fidgeted, poking her fingers together as Kanan registered what was asked, the unexpectedness of the question making the process just a bit slow.
“...What? Asked her out? I don’t know what Mari told you, but whatever it was, she was probably making things up.”
“N-No, Mari didn’t say anything! Sorry, are you guys, like, on the DL? I didn’t realize--”
Kanan quieted Chika with a raised hand. “Chika, I… have no idea where you even got the idea that we’re dating…”
“Well… I thought it was obvious? I mean, the way you two act with each other… I never really saw you act that way in the past around anyone! Although I guess I never even saw you hanging out with Mari or Dia before I started high school… I was super surprised to hear how close friends you guys all were.”
“I mean, it’s always been like that between us… It was just hard to hang out outside of school because of Mari’s parents, and then she went to study abroad…”
Chika’s eyes practically sparkled, and she grinned widely. Kanan had a sinking feeling that this misunderstanding was just deepening... “Wow, you’ve been in love with each other for that long? That’s so cute...! Why didn’t you ever tell me, Kanan? Was it because your love is forbidden and stuff, so you had to keep it a secret?”
“Tha-- That’s not what I meant!” Kanan could feel her face starting to heat up, and she really hoped she wasn’t visibly blushing. This was just embarrassing! “I’m trying to say we’re not dating and we’re not in love with each other! A-- And I don’t even treat her that much differently from my other friends, so…”
“Eh? Kanan, are you… a tsundere?”
“No, Chika!”
Before Kanan could continue, the two could hear an abrupt slamming noise which drew their attention to the front desk where Hanamaru sat, staring at both girls with a scolding expression usually just reserved for Yoshiko. Whoops, right, they were in the library…
Kanan frowned, but she turned back to Chika and lowered her voice. “She’s just really affectionate and stuff. It’s not like she wants to date me…”
“What if she does?”
“Excuse me?”
Chika tilted her head. “What if she does want to date you? If she did, would you?”
“If she really did, I’m sure she would have said something by now… given the type of person Mari is.”
“But what if, Kanan? C’mon, even just hypothetically?”
“Geez… You’re really pushing it, Chika. Look, I don’t… I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it. Not much, anyways…”
“S-Sorry. But… if that’s the case, you do like her at least a little bit, right? ‘Cause if you didn’t, you wouldn’t even consider it and you’d just say no.”
“Well…” Kanan let out a sigh. She wasn’t sure why Chika was so persistent… but it wasn’t like she was wrong, either. “Maybe. But really, what does it matter? You just wanted to… get closer to Riko, was it? You want to get close in that way, then?”
“E-Eheh… Yeah… I thought you were dating Mari, and I figured you’d have been the one to ask her out, so I thought I’d get some advice from you. But I guess not… I mean, that’s okay, though! No biggie, heh…”
“Why don’t you just… ask her?”
“H-Huh?”
“Ask her out.”
Oho, was Chika blushing? That was new. She didn’t often get embarrassed or flustered-- certainly not talking about romance. Although come to think of it, as far as Kanan knew, this could’ve very well been Chika’s first time having a crush on someone…
“I-- I don’t know… I mean, it’s not that easy! I wanted to talk to her about it, but I get all nervous and stuff… and besides, what if she doesn’t like me like that? She might feel all awkward around me, and I don’t want that…”
“You still asked me for advice on asking her out, though…”
“Well, yeah… I’m nervous and kinda scared, but if I’m always like that with people I like, I might never get anywhere.”
It was a fair point. Honestly, Kanan hasn’t expected that Chika would put so much thought into such a matter.
Or any at all, like with many of the things she did and said. Chika was somewhat like Mari in that regard… Although both of them, Kanan had found lately, did think about their actions a lot more than they’d initially let on.
“Well… I’m not sure what advice you could even be given, really. I guess if you want to make sure it goes as well as it can… practice it? Sort of like practicing a speech or a presentation for school. You’d be more confident when you know what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it.”
“Huh… That’s actually pretty good advice, Kanan.”
“You think?” The suggestion was really just the first thing she’d thought of, but if Chika was happy with it, she’d take it. “Does that mean we can go back to studying now?”
“Wait, um…” Again, Chika bashfully poked her fingers together, apparently hesitant. “...Can you help me practice?”
“...Practice asking Riko out?”
Chika nodded.
“Can’t you ask someone else? I’m sure You would be happy to help.”
“Um… For some reason, You doesn’t seem to like when I gush about Riko and stuff. I think it makes her uncomfortable. I don’t think asking her would be a good idea-- but I guess I could ask Mari, maybe...”
“I-- I’ll help. But it’s going to be after we finish studying, okay?”
“You’re the best, Kanan!”
The two barely got anything done because Chika’s normally bad attention span seemed to be even further weakened by her mind being stuck on the whole Riko thing. Because of that, they ended the session earlier than intended. Kanan really hoped they could get this over with soon… not only so that Chika would stop worrying so much, but so that her grades didn’t suffer from an innocent crush.
“Okay, you be Riko.” The two sat outside the diving shop, Kanan drinking a grape soda and Chika a peach tea. Kanan still wasn’t sure about this whole “practice” thing, but she did want to at least try and help her friend.
“Alright, I’m Riko then. Hey Chika?”
“Hm?”
“Have you finished those lyrics I asked you to work on?”
That got Chika flustered. “N-- No, not like that, Kanan! Geez… You can be such a meanie sometimes.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Kanan replied with a chuckle.
“A-Anyways, let’s start over. I’m gonna go first, okay?”
“Fire away.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
Kanan quietly cleared her throat.
“H-- Heeyyy, Riko…”
“Um…”
“I-- I felt put on the spot, okay!?”
At the outburst and at Chika’s silly pouting, Kanan laughed. “Just relax, will you? If you talk to her like that, she’s going to think something’s wrong.”
“I know, I know… Ahem. Okay, so-- Hey Riko, wanna go out!?”
“T-Talk about straightforward…”
“Ehh? Is that no good either?”
“Man…” Chika really didn’t know what she was doing, did she? Not that Kanan had been expecting her to. “I’m not sure… but I don’t know how receptive someone like Riko would be to suddenly being asked that…”
“Um… Then…” Chika thought. For about two seconds, then she had a brilliant idea… or so Kanan guessed from her expressions, anyways. “Show me!”
“How to ask her out?”
A nod. “Yeah! I’ll be Riko. Or I guess Mari?”
“R-- Riko is fine. Different people respond better to different approaches, anyways.” She doubted that Riko and Mari had many of the same interests in that regard. “As for what she would like… I sort of have an idea, maybe… Chika, do you mind standing up?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, sure.” With an inelegant scrape of her chair against the floor, she stood.
The next thing Chika knew, her back was against the wall of the shop, Kanan bracing an arm against said wall and leaning in… really closely.
Whoa.
“Hey Riko, have you ever thought about the two of us being… a bit more than just friends?”
“...K-Kanan, I--”
The two heard a thud nearby, and so their heads automatically turned to the source of the noise…
Only for them to see Mari and Riko kissing rather intensely right by the shop.
Oh. Huh.