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Getting Noelle to meet anyone outside of school-related activities was no easy task. Luckily, Akarsha had the amazing talent of annoying someone (usually only Noelle) until they do what she wants.
Noelle went totally out of her own free will and not because she liked Akarsha or even remotely enjoyed spending time with her or anything. That was impossible.
Akarsha felt anxious from the moment Noelle accepted her invitation to meet at a GameStop. It was like she suddenly regretted every decision she's ever made in her life because unlike Noelle, Akarsha had no idea what she was doing.
She just had to wait until the Taiwanese girl shot her a message regarding her departure before leaving for the shopping mall herself. It was only then the panic would truly set in. Akarsha didn't know that yet, she was too busy pacing back and forth in the space that was her room. "She's going to say no," was all that ran through her head. The brunette had no plan anymore. The mess she could call an idea went out of the window of her brain a long time ago. Whatever it was could not be remembered. She had to come up with something new.
About five more minutes of formulating brought Akarsha back to something resembling her original plan. Might as well go with it. It went something like:
1) Meet Noelle in GameStop.
2) Play some sort of demo on the PlayStation with Noelle.
3) Blurt out that she wants to date Noelle.
4) ???
5) Profit?
Okay, it was unlikely that those last two steps wouldn’t happen – especially since ‘???’ isn’t even a proper step to anything - but hopefully everything else would go just as planned. Hopefully. Jesus, talk about overthinking a situation. The only things she really had to do was wing it with her own fake charm and make sure she didn’t mess stuff up too early. How hard could that be?
She let out a huff as she plopped face first onto her bed. Time to wait for that damned text.
~~~~
It would be silly to say Noelle didn't know what she was doing, of course. Every day of her life was pretty much planned out, down to the seconds. But Akarsha... well. She was something else - perhaps the most unpredictable moving part in her life. She had no idea what to expect from her in this impromptu plan. It was nothing too noteworthy for anyone else, perhaps, but for Noelle to go somewhere without her mom's explicit permission, and not know what the hell she was there for? God. That was probably the most spontaneous, risky thing she'd ever done. Would ever do, even.
She had considered simply not texting Akarsha, not going to Gamestop at all - but she wasn't that heartless. Even if she didn't know about the freak out, she didn't want to stand her up. Not that she cared about Akarsha's feelings (but she did). Akarsha was a mere annoyance to her, after all (but she wasn't). If anything, she was doing it out of sheer boredom. Maybe small rebellion, even! (Or maybe she was just doing it because she genuinely enjoyed spending time with Akarsha - but she'd never tell her that.)
It would take her perhaps an hour to convince her mom to let her go. There was no way she was telling her the truth, no - an entire convoluted story about tutoring, stupid kids, and resume padding was stuffed down her mother's ears until she couldn't refuse anymore.
Finally, though, she emerged victorious. She had to admit she was pretty excited, despite her instincts to just think in a borderline clinical way all the time. It had been a while since she'd gotten out, and, if her memory wasn't failing her (which, it never truly did), this would be the first time she'd be hanging out alone with Akarsha. (That shouldn't make her feel so non-grumpy, but it did.)
After what felt like hours later, Noelle was starting to walk the slow trek to the mall, and ever irresponsibly texting while she walked.
[To: Yaoi Seme]
I'm on my way to the mall.
I'm walking, so it should take me a while. Take your time.
~~~~
Hearing the notification sound ring from her phone made Akarsha let out some sort of sound that was between an ‘oof’ and an ‘ahhh’. She’d actually gotten quite comfortable in that face-down position she was in. Either way, the notification was most likely Noelle texting her, so she reluctantly got up to check what it said. She was leaving for GameStop.
Oh god.
Out went the slightly more carefree attitude and in came something that was more akin to full on panic attack. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had one before, she was upbeat, but she wasn’t a robot. At least Akarsha knew how to deal with them.
‘Breathe. You’re okay. You’re not dying,’ but it sure as hell felt like she was dying.
It was already more contained by the time she left her room. The student sent a quick ‘I’ll be there’ to Noelle after walking out of the front door. The mall in relation to Akarsha’s house was only a five-minute walk away, but she wanted to make it there before her so she had some extra time to mentally prepare and choose a game she’d force the other to play.
The store was relatively empty when Akarsha arrived. There were only a few employees, some kids looking at things they couldn’t afford with their own pocket money and someone buying an Xbox. A typical GameStop, basically. She avoided eye contact with the unoccupied worker, it wasn’t like she was going to buy anything.
And there it was. That one PlayStation demo unit where everything was going to happen. She sauntered over to the console. It took a while to find a game that wouldn’t frustrate Noelle somehow, but Akarsha eventually settled on some Lego game. The tamest game there was.
Being in the GameStop early quickly turned into another waiting game with nothing to do, but play the other game demos available.
~~~~
Akarsha being a closed off person was no news to Noelle. She truly understood - god knows it would've been hypocritical for her not to. She never pried, because it was all too relatable to her - other people showing signs that they knew what was up in her mind panicked her to no end. She could only imagine that the case was the same for Akarsha herself. Right now, though, even if she would have wanted to overstep and check in on Akarsha's mental state, she had no way of knowing that she was freaking out.
In all honestly, she was very much prepared for a prank right now. She'd left home with her backpack full of napkins, wipes, band-aids. Essentially an Akarsha care kit - for her own good, not the other's. She knew the Indian girl wouldn't have any trouble getting away unscathed - Noelle hadn't had the time to plan a prank to throw back in her face in advance. The other truly did hold all of the cards.
It wasn't that difficult to push that thought to the back of her head, as the thrill of doing something remotely rebellious with one of her friends (acquaintances, as she might call her) was somehow getting to the otherwise uptight student.
One thought led to another, and by the time that Noelle had reached the mall, the worst-case scenario was running through her mind - what if her mom found out? And she prohibited her going out of the house altogether? What if she threatened to change her to another school? What if Noelle - whoa, easy there, tiger. Looks like you've arrived at your destination.
There we go. An oddly nerve-wracked Akarsha was pooling all of her focus as she stepped into the Gamestop - a place she'd tentatively stepped into maybe once or twice in her life. With her hands tucked into the bend of her arms - which were, as was typical, crossed over her chest - Noelle made her way over to the old PlayStation Akarsha was waiting in front of.
She gave her a huffy greeting, rolling her eyes at the sight of the doofus with her usual buns in place at the top of her head. Her annoyance wasn't genuine - it mostly came out of a place of a self-created, heavily practiced habit.
"Here you have me, Akarsha. Led my right into your trap. What's the catch, now?"
Noelle raised an eyebrow as her hands tucked themselves out her elbow creases, and hesitantly grabbed one of the old controllers that was left to gather dust atop of the console.
But there was no catch. Not this time. Akarsha had no prank for Noelle to get angry for once. It was suspicious all the same - asking to meet in a GameStop and not stating the reason. It wasn’t like the park or anywhere else was an option, but a prank in a Gamestop is one way of ending up with a hefty fine for damages. Akarsha cleared her throat, not answering the question. Her signature grin showed itself as the word ‘Lego’ appeared on the screen in front of them.
Noelle’s dark eyebrows raised as she noticed the other’s cheeriness - or rather, lack thereof. It weirded her out for sure, but, once more, she wasn’t about to intrude on Akarsha’s personal matters if she wasn’t invited to. Besides, it’s not as though anything seemed immediately off. Surely, Noelle was just observant. Akarsha didn’t seem upset, nor sad, nor angry. It was just odd to her, not seeing her at a maximum capacity of obnoxiousness. Something in her chest felt like it was being squeezed, and her grip on the control (hopefully subtly) faltered as she felt it. It must have been the adrenaline pumping from her escape. Obviously. Ha ha.
“Konnichiwassup, Frenchman? I hope you’re ready for a good time in Lego Star Wars.” There was less enthusiasm in her voice than usual. It was most definitely due to how nervous she was. Though, she felt like she could run a marathon at the same time. Akarsha fell silent. She had to wait until the ‘perfect’ moment to execute step three of her plan. Unless Noelle ruined it somehow by asking her as to why she was acting off. If that happened there would be no real plan B to fall back on. She’d just have to blurt it out right then and there. She was okay with that. It wouldn’t be that different to what she wanted to occur.
Noelle was still stunned a minute or so after the greeting, and it was nearly too late when she realized that she hadn’t verbally responded to her. So she did, with a huffy - “Arguing over my nationality is honestly getting a little tiring, Akarsha.”. Despite her words, her tone carried that soft edge she now found herself having around the girl. It was weird - like an annoyed fondness that she couldn’t keep out of her expressions and words any longer. She hated every second of it. Something she didn’t hate, though? Playing Lego Star Wars with Akarsha, apparently.
Akarsha glanced over at Noelle. She wasn’t annoyed, right? What if Diya already told Noelle everything and she was ready to reject her? What was in that backpack she was wearing? Did she even want to be there in the first place? Asking questions in your head is a trend at this point. The brunette couldn’t really blame her if she wanted to leave; they were just playing a game in silence after all. No one would really want awkward silence during their first time being alone together. There wasn’t anything else Akarsha could do about it other than occasionally make some sort of grunting noise whenever the character she was playing died, only to respawn again.
Noelle herself was surprisingly alright with this development. Though Akarsha was freaking out over the silent moments in her mind, Noelle was, of course, unaware of this inner turmoil. She was actually pretty happy with it. It was nice, to just stand and play in silence. She didn’t get to play video games often, so she was definitely sucking major ass at this, but standing beside a surprisingly silent Akarsha was nice.
Okay, so maybe complete silence was too much for Akarsha. “Uh, nice weather we’re having,” she word vomited. Like she’d ever willingly talk about the weather. Anyone who knew her well enough would know that she avoided any form of small talk like the plague. She only initiated it when she had no idea what she was doing or when she was leading up to something. In this case it was both.
Noelle knew that the silence was too nice. When the brunette made an attempt at small talk her worry came back. There had to be something wrong - there was no way it was normal for the most annoying person she knew to be this silent for so long. She paused the game after cringing at that terrible question, and set her controller down, only to cross her arms right back over her chest, where they belonged.
It took her a few moments to figure out how she wanted to approach this situation. This girl was a wildcard. She could either be biding her time to give her the biggest prank of the year, or she could be going through a terrible time, and Noelle had no way of knowing other than asking her outright. So that’s what she finally decided to do. She couldn’t possibly take any more of these tense silences that seemed to pop up left and right. “It’s not nice weather. It’s humid, and the sky is dull. It looks like it’s going to rain, even though it’s still warm. Are you ready to drop whatever act you’re pulling and tell me what is going on? I could get grounded, Akarsha. I hope you didn’t make me come here for our prank feud.”
There it was. ‘Drop the act.’ It was hardly an act at that point. Was it even an act in the first place? Akarsha didn’t even know what she was really doing. She wanted to run away. She wanted Noelle to leave and forget she ever went to that GameStop. Damn the weather, it was obviously the weather’s fault for being humid and wanting to rain. It was also Noelle’s fault for existing and being a likeable person. It was even Akarsha’s fault for being a raging bisexual and having feelings for the girl beside her. It wasn’t even like she wanted to have them, they just kind of popped up one day like she does out of bushes in front of Diya’s house.
Plan B was suddenly going ahead before she was ready and Akarsha was soon blurting out what was on her mind. She made eye contact with Noelle for the first time that day. “So, not to be gay or anything, but this is really gay and I hope you understand, but I kind of really like you-“, she stopped herself to take a breath, “like in a really gay way. I guess what I’m trying to ask is: will you go on a date with me and/or just date me in general?” Another breath. Akarsha was speaking like she’d just had 5 cups of coffee in one sitting. “I mean, I don’t even know if you’re gay or anything not straight, I just thought I’d say it anyway. You can just leave if you want and we can go back to whatever we were before today. I don’t mind.” There was a beat of silence before she decided to let Noelle know that she was finished speaking. “Okay, I’m done.”
It was only then Akarsha let her eyes wander to the floor below, not daring to look into the Taiwanese girl’s eyes. What would she even think of her after that quickly-spoken confession? Would she hate her? ‘Do not show how terrified you are, now is not the time for that,’ shouted her own brain at her. Not like she’d just said everything that’s been on her mind for weeks or anything. Nope. Didn’t happen. There was nothing to worry about, other than Noelle possibly saying that they weren’t even friends in the first place and she couldn’t even think about going on one date with Akarsha. Woah, calm down.
She found it amazing how she almost lost control of every emotion she had bubbled up in a GameStop of all places. At least step three was over and done with. Only the joke steps of ‘???’ and ‘profit?’ were left.
~~~~
If there was one thing Noelle hadn’t foreseen, it was this. It was… completely unprecedented. From the jokes, the pranks, the borderline asshole-ish banter between the two of them, who would have thought that those would be the words leaving Akarsha’s lips?
But it made sense, didn’t it? It made much more sense than Noelle wanted to recognize, at first. Her immediate reaction was that it had to be a prank. After all, what could Akarsha possibly want to do with someone as boring as herself? As uptight? Someone that would have to sneak around and get her into the dumbest of situations just to go out on a date with her? Her brows furrowed, knit tightly together, her expression full of anger. Hurt. It wasn’t a funny joke, if that’s what this was. Had Akarsha, perhaps, noticed the way in which she tried so badly not to smile or laugh amidst her silly jokes? Maybe there had been one too many longing glances at lunch. Maybe she’d even realized that the day she scored a 99 on her chem test instead of a 100 was also the day that Akarsha had momentarily had her hair down from those annoying buns. But… it felt too cruel for Akarsha to do, and the way she nervously fidgeted… god.
This wasn’t the place where they should be doing this - people were staring. Granted, this wasn’t the busiest Gamestop. It was barely half full, but still. The girl’s outburst had drawn more eyes than Noelle was comfortable with. She allowed a hand to come up to glide through her tightly braided hair, and used the other to impatiently grab at Akarsha’s wrist, only to drag her right out of the shop. Noelle simply walked. And walked. She seemed tireless for a few moments - until her physical limitations did her in, and she had to stop just short of where the mall ended, and the sidewalk began.
She turned, then, and gave the brunette a look of disbelief. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes wide. So great had her shock been that the reality of the matter was just now sinking in. Akarsha liked her. She was well aware that the girl was bi, but she never thought...well. This was far too complicated for her mind to comprehend after having walked more than a few steps. But she tried, and managed to string together a semi-coherent sentence. “You like me.” Oh, hi, captain obvious! “I… don’t know about this, Akarsha. Logically speaking, even if I did hypothetically like you, it seems like it’d be more work than payoff. We’ll graduate soon, and the chances of us going to the same university are infinitesimal. Besides, there is no way I could risk my mother knowing - thinking! No… I couldn’t risk her knowing I’m…” She left the blank for her to fill in. With no one to cheat from. She figured it was easy enough for her to get it.
“Just being realistic, there’s no way it would turn out in anything other than disaster.” She gave a breath, finished with her brief lecture. Any possible excuses she could think of were laid out on the table. She… really had no idea why she was still considering the offer, even after all but mathematically proving that they weren’t meant to be. There was no logical explanation for why her hand was almost instinctively reaching for Akarsha’s, other than perhaps - just perhaps - Noelle felt guilty for the unwarranted rejection she’d just given her. It wasn’t fair - if Akarsha was opening up to her like this, it must’ve been because she picked up on something on Noelle’s side. And if that was the case, it was because Noelle was definitely, albeit accidentally, giving her (itty bitty, tiny) crush on the girl away. “With that being said, though… there’s always some leeway in statistics. And… I don’t dislike you all of the time.”
Robot-to-human translation: I’m extremely gay for you, please kiss me.
Akarsha gave a small smile, hurt shining through from the truthful words. Still, she understood them, she was in the same boat with her own parents and who would want to risk that? Not being fluent in robot, she gave her best answer.
“Aw, you don’t always dislike me, I feel honoured.”
In truth, Akarsha never thought anything of Noelle struggling not to break character by laughing or smiling. She always thought it was because her jokes were that good (which they were). There was never anything special about that. It was more the fact that her heart liked to aggressively play the drums whenever Noelle was around. She was always glad she had jokes to cover it up. If there were no more jokes, she could always blame it on baseball practice or some other sport she doesn’t do. Akarsha liked to think it worked, but she never knew if it actually did. It probably did, though, it was her heartbeat, not a thunderstorm.
“So, um, is that a yes or a no?” Noelle’s answer was unclear and she was never a straightforward person when it came to her feelings. Akarsha wasn’t either, but that’s beside the point. “I can just leave, if you want.” It was fine. Everything was going to be okay. It wasn’t like her world almost crashed down in a mall or anything. It didn’t happen. “Also, what’s in your backpack? Were you going to prank me? I would’ve been so proud of you if you did. You really should’ve, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up in this mess we’re in right now. Am I rambling?” She was, granted, it wasn’t as bad as it was in GameStop.
“You are rambling, without a doubt.” A roll of her eyes was accompanied by a huff, and she found herself near face-palming, but stopped herself midway. Akarsha’s nerves were obvious from miles away. Noelle, despite her instincts, didn’t want to cause her any more grievances. The last thing she wanted was to have an even more anxious girl continue to ramble before her. “My backpack just has some supplies I thought would have come in handy if you were planning a prank. I’m honestly thankful I didn’t have to use it. And, just so you know, you’re not going to leave. You don’t get to escape after bringing me all the way here just to tell me something you could easily have told me anywhere else.” Alright, that was enough scolding to compensate for the next thing she was going to say. She couldn’t be too nice, now - the world would spiral out of control.
But, of course, she couldn’t just outright lie to Akarsha when the poor girl was being so open about her emotions - she knew what that could cause. She was already plenty closed off, and Noelle didn’t want to make it worse by any means. This meant she wasn’t going to say something overtly affectionate just to make her feel better, either. In reality, Noelle’s feelings weren’t clear to her by any means. It would be silly to say she was head over heels for Akarsha. Noelle had never nor would she ever do head over heels - or so she told herself. But there was something there - something constantly nagging at the back of her head, almost as annoying as the object of her confusions was.
Oh, no. She must’ve been standing still, lost in thought for a good two minutes, at the very least. Way too long a time after having told the other not to leave. So, she quickly organized her train of thought, and strung it into a sentence, instead... alright, multiple sentences. A small lecture. “I’d like to think that I’m good with challenges, and…” Watch her swallow down her pride, now. Just for a second. “Our feelings for each other may be more similar than you’re thinking, given my initial reaction. But I don’t want to jump into anything - not like Min and Diya. That’s just ridiculous. It’s… not my style. We’re going to have a date, next week. It’ll be discreet - this means you’re not going to shout about it at school. I will plan it, because… I don’t want to trust you with those plans. I'll text you to let you know what we're doing. Is everything clear?”
Noelle raised an eyebrow, and for a moment there, it almost looked like she was going to give Akarsha a sweet touch. Except she’s just... she’s just holding out her hand for a handshake. Noelle, no. Please, what are you doing? What is this? A business meeting?
Akarsha looked down at the pale hand that was being presented in front of her. Did Noelle really say (in robot) that their feelings were mutual and that they were going on a date in the week? She’d have to keep quiet, but then again, that was the least of her worries. Of course, they weren’t like Diya and Min, no one could really match their pace without having known each other for as long as they have or without ending up really uncomfortable on the first date. That’s what Akarsha thought up in those two minutes of standing around. She also found herself really glad that there were no prank materials in Noelle’s bag.
Oh yeah, the hand. Right. She almost forgot about that. She really didn’t want to shake it, if that’s what she was supposed to do. “I hear you loud and queer- I mean, clear!” That was definitely a slip up. Yup. Not said on purpose. Instead of what Noelle intended, Akarsha slapped the hand in a quick, sideways high five. “Almost got me there. I’m not falling for that one.” She was, of course, referring to the time she’d grabbed the other’s wrist and hit her with her own hand and the possibility of it happening right there. It was very unlikely, but Akarsha didn’t like to take risks when it came to jokes, even in serious circumstances.
In that moment she was half tempted to pull Noelle into a hug that would most definitely be against her will. Save it for later, Akarsha. Keep it in your pants. Her hands were in the pockets of her windbreaker after their short high five. She’d probably force an embrace before they parted ways. She was more than happy and she wanted to show it by any means. Maybe she’d message Diya and/or Min when she got home. Diya had a higher chance of receiving anything, though.
She could still barely process anything. A date. With Noelle. Who’d have thought that would ever happen? Akarsha certainly hadn’t. Though, Noelle hadn’t exactly thought the same.
The high five almost made Noelle retract her proposition of a date. She quickly held her palm to her forehead in annoyance, but brought it back down to cross her arms. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t do that and say that you’re bearable, sometimes.” There. That was the closest Noelle was willing to go to a compliment. For now, at least.
Akarsha couldn’t help, but laugh. “Awww, bearable, sometimes.” It was almost an anti-compliment at that point, still, she couldn’t help but hold it close to her heart. “It’s unfortunately fact. You can’t be talking 24/7.” Noelle held her usual proud smile, causing Akarsha to dramatically gasp. She was back to her normal self. Noelle was secretly glad.
“WOW! You wound me. Look! Wounded.” The brunette held her hand in an okay sign just below her waist and Noelle did indeed look. “There’s no injury here, Akarsha, it’s just your hand in a-“
Pain suddenly seared through Noelle’s arm where Akarsha had struck. “OW!”
“Got ‘em!”
The Taiwanese girl was fuming, yet there was a hint of a smile in there somewhere. Too bad she couldn’t get payback since Akarsha was already running off. Efforts would be in vain, but that didn’t stop Noelle from running after her, never admitting the fun she was having.
“AKARSHAAAAA!!!”