Work Text:
Lisa shifted her position on the bed for the umpteenth time in the last hour. Normally, she wouldn't be this agitated on a Saturday morning, however this isn't how she — they planned their weekend together would go.
It's been raining hard since last night and their plans of going to the mall and the newly opened park have now been thrown out of the window. Sure, they could set out for alternatives like watching a movie together indoors, playing NFO, even baking sounds like a good idea right now, but they don’t really have the necessary ingredients, or just cuddle and warm each other up while they talk about their lives and future.
However, those weren't the case, instead she found herself alone on one of the beds under the Hikawa household. It's somehow colder than before, but Lisa didn't bother covering herself with the blanket across the bed. Instead, she was hoping that her source of warmth would notice her expression and share with her, her body heat. Said source of warmth was scribbling away on her notebook at her desk away from her.
"Sayo!" Lisa called out. "Aren't you finished with that yet?" she asked, hoping that her girlfriend would take the initiative to pause her work and do things with her instead. "You've been working on that for an hour. You promised that we would have a fun weekend together. Between this rain and those assignments of yours it's taking away any of the fun."
Sayo sighed as she took a glance at the clock, it was just ten minutes past 7:00. She then looked at the window, it was dark outside and tiny droplets of rain had been streaming down her window. She knew that Lisa was right and Sayo herself truly had looked forward to their little outing.
The two of them had been dating for three months now. However, seeing as how they go to different schools and barely see each other outside of band practice, they'd both decided to spend their weekend together in order to get-to-know each other more. Also, the fact that Hina was out on a tour with Pastel*Palettes led to the perfect opportunity for Lisa to sleep over at Sayo's house.
Sayo answered her, "I suppose you're right. However, these assignments aren't going to write themselves—
"I know! It's just we're supposed to be having fun." Lisa looked at her intensely and then caved with a smile. "You know, I don't get why Hanasakigawa gives you guys homework for the weekend."
Sayo gave her a deadpan stare and asked, "Don't you have any schoolwork that you should be doing, Imai-san?"
Lisa shook her head.
"I'm starting to feel concerned about the academic quality that Haneoka offers its students." Sayo said to her as she flipped a page on her notebook and started writing again.
"Oh, come on Sayo! I think it'll be better if you went to the same school as me, and imagine how good it would be to have both you and Hina on the student council." Lisa tells her while imagining having her strict and stoic girlfriend wearing her school uniform, and attending the same school and classes as her.
"I'd rather have Shirokane-san be my president than Hina". Sayo states, mortified by thought of being under Hina's rule.
This earned a few giggles from Lisa, "I should've recorded that and played it to her." Then suddenly a breeze of cool air blew past her, Lisa shuddered, immediately grabbing a pillow to try fighting off the cold.
"Sayo..." Lisa called again in a soft longing voice with 'puppy-eyes' aimed to hers.
Sayo stared at her and darn, she really couldn't stand it when Lisa flipped the switch on her. So she immediately assured her, "As soon as I'm able to finish these, I promise to fully devote my weekend and myself to you, Ima—" Sayo caught herself, and looked down for a bit before looking right back at the girl on the bed and continuing, "... Lisa."
Lisa's eyes widened upon hearing that. Had she heard that right? Did Sayo just call her by... she stood up from the bed and hugged Sayo straight away "Aww, Sayo, it's so rare for you to use my first name."
"After everything we've been through, I think it's alright that I start calling my girlfriend by her given name." Sayo smiled at her.
Lisa chuckled and kissed her on the cheek. It still surprised her every time Sayo would dish out charming words like these. It brings her heart beat fast and make her swoon inside.
Lisa pulled away and told her that it was okay and that she understands how important it is to get her work assignments done, but before Lisa can retreat back to the bed, Sayo quickly grabbed her and gave her a kiss on the cheek in return.
Lisa finds herself back in Sayo's bed and this time covers herself with a blanket happily while scrolling through her phone. She's trying to find a way to pass the time as she waits for her beloved to finish her school works. She's debating on whether or not she should take a nap considering it's still somewhat early and the atmosphere is pretty cozy. She then shakes the thought away afraid that she might oversleep and waste more valuable time. So in turn, she looks at her phone trying to find something that could distract her mind for the time being.
She opened Roselia's group message, checking for something amusing to backread. As she scrolled up, she stumbled upon one of Ako's messages. 'Ah, it's that story she made and asked us to read.' The message showed a link that leads to a website where you can read it.
Apparently, the website contains lots of different stories written by various people, and if Lisa could remember correctly, she knows that these stories are called fanfictions. Ako explained what they were to her during one of their breaks at school and she remembered what Ako said about how it feels to write one. She recalled Ako posing as if she were a master of darkness or something and said, "As the demon princess who writes her subjects' destinies, all of them are just puppets with strings, waiting for my command!” Lisa silently laughed at the memory.
She starts reading and finds that the story is about two female protagonists from an anime that gives off a vibe similar to NFO, which Ako liked telling them about often. Luckily for Lisa, she had watched the anime herself, so she was able to catch up on the characters and got the gist of the story that Ako wrote. While she was reading, she was left in awe on how Ako was able to change a scene from the show into something that led to the romance of the two characters. Lisa had a smile on her face the entire time she read the fic, and agreed that if only the conversation of the two protagonists had veered to something similar to what Ako wrote, it would have led to a much deeper relationship between the two.
After about 15 minutes, Lisa had been able to finish reading the story. At the bottom of the page she saw that she can leave an 'Applause' on it, so she hit the button on her screen and increased the number of Applauses that Ako's story currently had. She also left a guest comment.
Amigurumi's comment:
"wow that story was so cute ✩ I agree that those two should've had a much deeper talk than what they did in the anime"
After leaving the comment and letting out a satisfying sigh, she was once again stuck with nothing to do. Staring blankly at her phone for a moment she finally thought of something to do. She mindlessly tapped on the 'pairing' which led to her exiting the story and she saw the thousands of other stories that were posted about the two protagonists. Then something hit her, what if … what if she searched for stories about her and Sayo? Sure, it's kind of weird to be reading made-up stories about yourself and your friends, especially your girlfriend, but she was just curious about how other people saw them.
She immediately went to the search bar and typed in their names and soon enough she stumbled upon a story that had a pretty interesting summary to it. The summary was about Lisa having a bad day and Sayo trying her best to comfort her, even going out of her way to invite Lisa to watch a romantic movie at the cinema.
As she's reading the fic, Lisa couldn't help but let out some giggling-squeal here and there. She took mental notes of how the Sayo in the story seems to be a lot more relaxed and open to skinship. As she goes further into the fic she takes a glance at Sayo, who was still busy with her schoolwork, and then returns to her phone. 'It would be nice to have Sayo be much looser like this.' She thought to herself. The further she read the story, the more she grew a bit jealous of the Lisa in the fic.
"Here, you should wear this" Sayo said as she handed Lisa her coat. She looped an arm around her as she tried her best to keep Lisa warm. Lisa scooted a bit closer and leaned her head on Sayo's shoulder as they continued to watch the movie...
'Gosh, this Lisa is so lucky!' Lisa groaned in her head as she reads even more how Sayo in the story is much sweeter to her Lisa. 'No, no… you shouldn't think like this..' She tried to push her thoughts away, as she knew that she loved Sayo just the way she was right now and wouldn't ask for any other 'version' of her. She knew they'd both improve and become closer as time passed.
Shortly after she was able to finish reading the whole fanfic.
It's been an hour or so since Lisa had started reading one-shots about her and Sayo's relationship. Curled on her side under the blanket, she's been mainly reading the ones she thought would be sweet and fluffy. Of course, she would also stumble onto fics where the description would seem to be angsty and heavy, but Lisa tried to avoid them.
After reading yet another happy fanfic that made her heart jump with excitement, she sighed, "It must be nice to have a Sayo like that."
"Like what exactly?"
Lisa was startled slightly as she looked toward the girl sitting at the desk beside the window. Sayo was now looking in her direction, brows furrowed as she tried to speculate what Lisa could possibly be talking about.
"Uhm, is something wrong, Lisa? For the last hour I've been hearing you giggling like a love-struck teenager and the next thing you know, you're groaning as if you're disappointed."
Lisa fanned herself to calm down. "Ah, nothing's wrong, Sayo.” She tried to give her an effective smile. “Everything's cool."
Sayo gave her a questioning look.
"It's true! Well, I mean..." She sighed and caved. "Remember that story Ako asked us to read?"
Sayo nods.
"I read it and I happen to stumble upon these other stories about us that were written by other people." Lisa tilted her phone screen to let Sayo see the stories she’d been reading. She also tells her about how the fans described her and how cute and cool it would be if she were to wear this or that.
"Ehh? W-well… I could wear them for you." Sayo stammers as she looks to the side to hide her growing embarrassment.
"Ahaha, it's fine! Don't worry about it. I love you just the way you are, silly."
She quickly scrolls through her phone again to look at the stories once more and frowns as she sees how much angst was written about them.
"Hey, Sayo. I find it sad how many stories are written about us and our relationship seeming to be full of angst."
Sayo sighs, "You shouldn't let what other people think or write get to you."
"I-I know, but what if… what if it actually happens to us?" Lisa asked her with tears welling up on the corners of her eyes. "What if they're right, and somewhere down the road, we just fall apart?"
"No, that won't happen." Sayo said as she stood from her chair walking towards her.
"But..."
Without warning Sayo tightly embraced Lisa, her warmth radiated through Sayo after being under the blanket for so long. She softly placed a hand on her back and rubbed it in a soothing motion. "Shhh..." Hushing her muffled cries against her shoulder.
"You'll never have to be anxious or worry because I will always be honest with you and tell you exactly how I feel about us."
Lisa leaned in closer and rested her head in the crook of Sayo's neck. She let a light sob escape as Sayo continued to rub circles on her back.
While they were stuck in their own little world of happiness, they didn't notice Sayo's bedroom door opening just slightly as someone peeked inside.
The two of them were brought back to reality when they heard a knock on Sayo's door revealing Sayo's twin sister, Hina.
"... Lisacchi!" Hina's eyes lit up with excitement and surprise when she saw her.
Hina sets down her backpack and the paper bag she had been holding and immediately tackled Lisa into a hug.
"Hey, Hina~!" Lisa beamed as she hugged her back.
"Hina, what're you doing here? I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow."
"Well, since we wouldn't be able to finish shooting because of the rain, the production decided to reschedule it until next week." Hina separated herself from Lisa and turned to give Sayo a hug as well. After she broke apart from her sister, she looked at the two questioningly, ”So did Onee-chan invite you to stay over at our house because I was gone?”
"It was just a coincidence…" Sayo quickly defended them before Hina can get more ideas.
The short-haired twin didn't have time to probe anymore when her attention was taken by the faint yet visible red lining under Lisa's eyes, "Onee-chan didn't make you cry did she?" she asked with genuine concern as she leaned closer to scrutinize the brunette’s expression.
"Ahaha, of course not." Lisa answered while giving Sayo a quick kiss on the cheek
"Aww, no fair! How come Lisacchi gets to kiss you on the cheek?!" Hina pouted.
Sayo rolled her eyes at her twin, "Hina, how long have you been standing by the door anyway?"
Hina hums, "I saw Lisacchi was really down, until Onee-chan appeared like a knight in shining armor to comfort her. The two of you embraced in this cold weather—" Hina looked directly at her twin when she added, "I didn't know you could be so romantic, Onee-chan!" a lilt of pride evident in her voice.
Sayo could only turn her head to hide the embarrassment. ‘So cute’ Hina thought, but deciding not to tease her twin further, she changed subjects and asked, "What're you guys doing by the way?"
"We're supposed to go on a date at the mall, then check out the new park that just opened. Too bad it rained though." Lisa answered.
"Oh, we actually went there yesterday, it was really boppin'! We also stopped at the café near the northwest gate." Hina beamed.
"That sounds pretty fun." Lisa chimed.
"Yeah! You guys should go there by next week, I heard there's going to be an idol festival held there."
"That's amazing, is Pastel*Palettes going to perform?"
Hina shakes her head, "Nu-uh, in order for a group to perform the members must be from the same school. Seeing that Maya-chan and I go to different schools than the others, I guess we don’t qualify."
"Oh." Lisa eagerly listened as she continued.
"Plus, you're not allowed to perform with musical instruments, so it's all vocal, dance, and visual! Too bad we can't see them though, but I figured I'd tell you guys just in case you wanted to go."
Lisa nodded, "Sayo, do you want to go and check it out?"
"I suppose so… although, I'm not quite sure about the café."
"Oh! I forgot to mention that you have to try their fries, they're topped with cheese, bacon, and mayonnaise!"
Sayo's eyes went wide with interest and immediately she reconsidered her decision.
Hina laughed at her expression before she started walking towards the door, "Well, I’ll stop bothering you two now…" she told them as she yawned, "Man, I'm so tired. I'll be sleeping in my room. See you two later!" She picked up her backpack and smiled at them before leaving, closing the door behind.
"So, what're we going to do now?" Lisa asked her girlfriend, who seems to be still staring at where Hina used to be. Her sister's appearance was a surprise they hadn't counted on.
"Uh, I still have one assignment to do… although, I guess I could put it aside for now." Sayo replied, her lips curling up slightly, as she turned and hugged Lisa.
Lisa giggled and sighed in contemptment. She then noticed the paper bag that Hina was carrying earlier sitting on the floor close to where her backpack had once been.
"Hey, Hina forgot one of her bags."
Sayo groaned and proceeded to stand from the bed in order to pick up the paper bag, ”How many times have I told her to double check her stuff when leaving—
Sayo’s complaining came to a halt when she saw the contents of the bag. What she found when peering down into it were two cartons of milk, a few eggs, baking soda, butter and flour.
Her surprise caught Lisa’s attention, who walked closer to inspect what she'd found inside the paper bag. Her eyes widened with realization as a smile formed on her face. It looks like they have something to do now, together.
Extra:
True to their word, they both went to the park a week later and watched the idol festival. The first part of the event had finished half an hour ago, and Sayo and Lisa decided to have lunch at the café that Hina told them about.
The café was more beautiful than Lisa could have imagined, it was almost magical. As they walked through the entrance and made their way further in, she admired the interior. The bright pastel colors made it seem bright and cheerful, while the small seating areas reminded her of being at a friend's place with a cozy surrounding. The various planters with luscious greenery only helped it feel more like home. It truly was an amazing café.
"Sayo, did you see the hexagon-shaped seating back there?! So cool!" Lisa beamed.
"I did, it was interesting." She replied.
As they made their way toward the counter to order, Lisa was in awe of the various seating options the café had. From house types to normal tables and chairs, it was unique. As they approached the counter in line Lisa glanced over the various menu items. She was in wonder at the selection and names.
"Sayo, what do you think you might—" Her words were cut off when she looked at her girlfriend, whose stare was fixated on one particular area of the menu, the fries.
Lisa giggled. "I see Hina's words definitely stuck with you."
"Y-Yeah, I'll be getting the fries." She paused for a moment in thought, "With melted cheese, bacon bits, mayo and spices."
Lisa smiled, it was nice to see that Sayo was enjoying herself just as much as she was. After scanning the menu again, she finally decided on the chicken alfredo, along with a "Once Upon a Nutella" mocha hazelnut dessert.
After placing their orders and receiving a small buzzer, which would alert them when their food was ready, they settled themselves on one of the cribs above. It was like a tiny room made just for them. Sayo sat across from Lisa at the small table, they were both silent for a moment until Sayo spoke.
"How's Minato-san been lately?" She asks, knowing the two were neighbors.
"She's well. I heard her singing part of the new song the other day, it sounds really good!"
Sayo nodded, "That's good to hear." Their band really is talented, every time they performed, they'd give it their all.
''About earlier...." Lisa paused for a moment looking down. "I'm sorry that I got so upset over those stories online. I let my emotions get the better of me and—
Sayo leaned across the table slightly as she spoke, "Like I said, don't worry about it. You have my word that we won't end up like that. I'll be honest with you."
Lisa's cheeks felt warm as a small smile appeared on her lips, with a nod she felt her heart race with joy, until suddenly the buzzer in the middle of the table went off. With a startled laugh, Lisa picked it up. "I'll get the food, be right back."
Their next hour was spent talking and laughing over various topics, from school, to memories the two recalled with the others, and themselves. Once they were done, they headed outside for their next stop, the park.
Lisa stopped as they passed an area and sighed. "Sorry, Sayo, but I need to run to the restroom."
"It's alright, I'll wait for you."
Lisa nodded and turned quickly, making her way to the washrooms. While she was away, Sayo elected to find a place to sit down and wait for her. She opened her phone and decided to look for a fanfiction to read, landing on the most interesting one she could find in a quick summary scan.
As she started reading the fic, she wasn't aware of the two other girls who sat beside her. It wasn’t until after the noise they were making reached her ears that Sayo started to take notice of their presence and took a cursory glance toward them. Mainly to see if they would keep quiet once they realized she was within their range of noise-making, and could care less what all the fuss was about. She saw one of the girls with blue hair towering over another girl on the bench just beside her. The grey haired girl underneath her was squirming to gain control of the position, somewhat switching between forceful pushes and desperate tickles while their bodies hovered in an almost embrace from the waist above the whole time. Sayo usually didn’t stare at such shows of affection, but seeing the two play cuddle in public without a care in the world stirred some curious thoughts in her. Maybe her and Lisa weren’t the most enthusiastic about public displays of affection like that, but there were more private and subtle ways that they expressed their feelings for each other. Was that what’s missing in their relationship? And the reason why so many people writing stories about her and Lisa keep putting them in less than joyful circumstances? Or was there something else? Something she and Lisa couldn’t see that others do. If so many people agree on this kind of theme for them, what does that mean for their own relationship right now? Sayo’s head started to go in circles and all the unknowns were making her head spiral more.
That is how Lisa found her a few seconds later, returning from her trip to the washroom. “Hey Sayo, are you ready to go?”
Sayo’s spiral stops as soon as she hears Lisa’s voice, but the thoughts continue to permeate.
She lets out a breath and says "You know, you were right about the stories that other people write about us. There are more upsetting ones, with one or both of us being in a lot of pain than there are those with us just being happy and in love.”
Unaware of the mental debacle her girlfriend just had with herself, Lisa could only stare at Sayo with confusion and good surprise. That was totally unprompted from her part, but she was nonetheless on her way to vocally agree with Sayo’s remark if not for somebody coughing and taking both their attention away. With two heads swaying to the side in sync, their eyes landed at the same time on a grey haired girl whose hair was tied in a way that resembles a bird.
When said grey haired girl started to speak, Sayo swore she never heard someone's voice being that high-pitched before. The girl smiled at them and asked, "First time?"