Chapter Text
A sweet aroma enveloped lunch hour at the academy, bouncing off the walls and contributing to a pleasant mood within its halls. It seemed to hit a soft spot for Kirari, who suddenly felt a certain amount more content while sipping her perfect cup of tea. She sits, legs crossed, in the light of her massive aquarium, daydreaming of the next big (or small) fish sweeping her into the excitement of gambling.
The sound of Sayaka Igarashi, her secretary, shuffling through papers and making certain all arrangements were perfected for the next week or so added to the sweetness attacking her senses. She’s lost in stacks of paperwork and a planner, some of the work probably also homework or classwork that’s more of a nuisance than practice or learning to the actual genius before her. Sayaka skillfully manages the workload, almost through her work for that lunch hour.
Kirari smiles, unsure of anything that could make her feel more tender, until an idea sparks. She gets up from her spot and stands as quietly as possible just beside her secretary, observing the strict expressions on Sayaka’s face. They give away all the gears moving through her head at once as she multitasks gracefully. She doesn’t even notice the president until Kirari bumps her lightly with her shoulder.
“Sayaka,” She says in a light and playful voice. The president smirks mischievously at Sayaka after the contact is made, making Sayaka turn a deep shade of red.
“P-president?”
Sayaka is barely able to make the word come out, even though she probably says it more than any other word in a given day.
“I was wondering if you’d accompany me to get some tea after class today. It looks like you’re through enough work to be completely done with your degree and then some,” She gestures at the mountain of paperwork in front of her, “so I beg you not to make the excuse that you have work to do.”
Sayaka smiles, unable to suppress the blush, and nods.
“I guess that’s a fair assessment. I do have a paper due next Thursday though.” She manages a hint of playfulness in her tone to Kirari.
“It can wait. Is that a yes then?” Kirari grabs her secretary’s right hand in both of hers, adding a degree of cuteness to her request that she knows the secretary can't resist.
“Y-y-yes” The secretary looks to her left, starting to feel her head spin.
“Wonderful. It’s a date then!” The 1 pm bell rings and Kirari swoops down lightly to press a kiss to Sayaka’s cheek before leaving the room in a flash.
Her flustered secretary is about a minute behind, nearly passing out from the interaction.
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Sayaka’s final class is out and she hurries to the meeting spot they use when her and Kirari walk home together, which had only started recently. She nearly knocks Yumeko Jabami over on the way, who says something that Sayaka has zero intentions of paying attention to, with a smirk that most anyone else would probably find cute.
Not talking to you and ruining my perfect mood. She thinks while continuing her purposeful and speedy walk.
Upon arrival she notices that the meeting spot is empty. The smell of lilies fills her senses as she stares at no other place than the tower of doors. It was amazing how gorgeous it looked, even without the hint of moonlight behind it. It filled her with pride to have it serve as a meeting and occasional lunch spot now, since the entire gamble had gotten her even closer to the president. The monument served as a reminder of her love and devotion for the woman who, in many ways, takes her own breath away. Now if only she knew where that same woman was.
The President gets out of class before me. She should be here by now. Maybe she forgot? Or I misheard her? Her brain gets the better of her and she decides to turn around, only to suddenly get knocked over by someone. Her hands reflexively go for the first pocket in her bag, the handy spot of her taser, before she’s face to face with the president with the weapon in her hand.
Kirari falls over into her lily field almost instantly, giggling madly. Sayaka forces about ten thousand apologies the president’s way as she puts it away hurriedly and stands up. The apologies seem to bounce off the president, who is definitely laughing louder with apology from the secretary. Sayaka can't help but the deep red blush that follows.
When Kirari manages to get control over herself, she lets out a huff and offers a hand to Sayaka so she can get up. Sayaka is quick to help the president up, and Kirari quickly moves to brush the dirt off of her back.
“Completely reasonable response from you, as expected Sa…Ya… Ka.” Kirari links arms with her secretary, and begins directing them to the tea spot chosen for the afternoon, “I’m actually surprised you didn’t notice me behind you at some point. I was right behind since you walked out of class too.”
Kirari glances out of the corner of her eye to see that cute blush she loves. Sayaka remains silent after the comment. Her determination to meet with the president had blinded her from the idea of the president waiting in the hallway for her. Unexpected, since she was almost always the one waiting for the president, never the other way around.
“You even managed to completely block out Yumeko Jabami greeting the both of us.”
“Wow, I must be better at mentally muting her now than I thought.” Sayaka chuckles. Kirari smiles deeply, such a skill would have been hard for her secretary just a few weeks ago. Yumeko was the only person she had met who could make her secretary so upset. She had made an irreversible tear at the fabric of her beloved president’s university after all.
As they walk, Sayaka can’t help but smile too, the deep red of her earlier blush (due to all the teasing) slowly starting to fade. She’s been spoiled since the tower of doors, being much more deeply involved in her president’s life than ever before. It was probably the biggest plus to her meeting with Yumeko Jabami for that fateful gamble, aside from Kirari reciprocating feelings with her after a five story fall.
Sayaka leans slightly into Kirari’s shoulder while thinking about the fall and the snowball of events that followed. It felt like a year had passed with everything going on with the election. Kirari was still second place, of course, to keep Terano Totobami thinking she had a sliver of a chance to win.
It’s better that way. The president had told her after Sayaka offered her the votes she had bought to undermine Totobami’s efforts. If I win too quickly, it would probably just cause more chaos than anything. I want to devour her more naturally, towards the end.
Ririka Momobami, however, didn’t seem to be as lucky. Kirari’s plans for her were more forward. A gamble tomorrow would determine her sister’s fate. The idea of both of them gambling, after hearing of Ririka’s perfect match against Rin Obami, was enough to make the secretary shiver. The Vice President was an unknown variable in all this as well, much like Yumeko.
“Are you actually cold, Sayaka?” Kirari asks with a smile. The air outside was honest-to-god warm and mildly humid, so the shaky movement against her shoulder was out of place.
“Y-yes, I got a little chilly for a second.” She let herself get just a tad bit closer to the President in her bluff, relaxing her head closer to Kirari’s neck. They continued to stroll silently, enjoying the beautiful day, and made it to the corner tea shop not long after.
They order, then find a spot nestled in the back, near a window. The shop is covered in greenery, some real and fake, and is quiet enough for them to finally relax away from the aquarium that was Hyakkaou university. Kirari slips into a bench-like seat next to her rather than across from her while Sayaka starts to ruffle with her bag to pull out the planner she meticulously kept for the President. Kirari bats at the secretary's hand playfully.
“Even you need to relax once, Sayaka.” She muses. “I have a lot riding on tomorrow, as you and I both know, so let’s just relax. ”
“I was just going to see if you wanted to go over your schedule, President.” Sayaka says in such an official tone.
“I’d rather not. That whole schedule might need an update, after all.” It was unlike her to lose her confidence like that, which changed Sayaka's expression to slight worry. “Also we don’t have to be on such formal terms, especially outside of school, Sayaka. Please just call me Kirari.” Sayaka shifts uneasily. She’s never seen Kirari’s guard come down so much, but secretly likes this change.
“Is everything alright then, Kirari?” The name comes out easier than she thought it would. Kirari sits back and crosses her legs.
“I’ve actually been quite content today, Sayaka.” Kirari smiles enough to hint a blush. “Although, that also made today the tiniest bit boring, until you nearly tased me, of course.”
“I said I was sorry!” Sayaka turns her head to look out the window, trying to avoid the look that Kirari follows her teasing with.
“I’ve never been tased before. I imagine it would be something Midari is more into, but that doesn’t change the rush of something unexpected occurring.”
“I thought you said it was expected.” Sayaka says.
“Reasonable, but not expected.” Kirari banters and grabs Sayaka’s right hand in her left, interlocking their fingers underneath the table. “I don’t think like you Sayaka, so most everything you do is unexpected to me. You’re my perfect opposite.”
Their tea arrives and they both take to snuggling lightly while enjoying the tea shop. They try each other’s tea to make sure they made the right choice as well. Sayaka’s is too bland for Kirari, and Kirari’s too sweet for Sayaka. They laugh quietly at the exchange, and Kirari places the hand formerly in Sayaka’s around the woman’s shoulder instead. She feels Sayaka relax more before putting her head on Kirari’s shoulder.
Kirari sips lightly at her tea and enjoys this one blissful and uninterruptible moment. Yumeko, Ririka, Mary, and Terrano could all come in at once and challenge her to a high stakes gamble and she’d turn it down for this— this one feeling. She’d never felt it before the tower of doors either. This complete adoration of another person was alien to her.
“Sayaka?” She removes her hand from the secretary’s shoulder.
“Hmm?” Sayaka lifts her head, bold enough to be close to Kirari’s face. Not bold enough to suppress her blush yet, though. She takes a small sip of tea.
“Can we be… exclusive?” Kirari nearly stutters.
Sayaka nearly spits the tea out as she short-circuits briefly.
“Are you asking to be, g-g-irlfriends?” Sayaka asks, completely shocked. Kirari nods.
“Is something wrong? Did I put it strangely?” Kirari doubts herself and blushes to her right. The doubt is cuter than Sayaka is able to handle.
“Not at all, I just never thought you’d be the one to ask.” A burst of confidence escapes from Sayaka, and she adds, “Though I do have one condition before giving you a yes.”
“Which is?” Kirari looks her in the eyes, in that absolutely intoxicating way she shows only when she’s intrigued with someone.
“I want you to promise me we can build our future relationship,” She stops mid-sentence to gather her courage despite being severely flustered, “with complete trust in each other.”
Kirari places her hand on Sayaka’s face, thumb just underneath the cute girl’s lips.
“How…,” She leans in even closer to Sayaka, “Completely logical.” She closes her eyes and plants a perfect kiss on the younger woman’s lips, feeling Sayaka relax beautifully into it as well. The feeling is enough to make Kirari’s head spin for once.
They separate, both smiling and blushing.
“I can give you that promise, as I did say the terms were negotiable before.”