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Everything had started on the day that Hifumi asked her out. If Celeste were to be honest, she only used the poor fool because he was the closest person she could boss around - a small portion of normalcy during the killing school life, if you will, and somehow remaining true after. She wasn't particularly known for her integrity, unfortunately for Hifumi.
As disgusted as she was by his confession to her, she tried to let him down easier than she would any other victims of her manipulative whims. But then he took that the entirely wrong way and doggedly chased after her; bombarding her with flowers instead of doing any work, drawing them holding hands or even kissing, going so far as to appeal to Taka in order to make himself look more desirable. In short, he was making a fine mess of things. Evidently, Celeste hadn't been the only one with such troubles either.
As casual as their relationship was, Sayaka and Celeste had taken to each other. Sayaka insisted that it was only because she found the other girl interesting and wanted to learn more about her, but the gambler had her doubts. It was evident to her that they became closer because they both could see the other as one of their own kind. Facetious, manipulative and cunning - creatures hiding behind masks, grasping for control. Celeste wouldn't deny it, even if the popstar did. That made it rather shocking when, out of the blue, Sayaka came to her complaining about how Leon wouldn't stop hounding her to give him a proper answer to his confession.
It was then that a suggestion flew out of her mouth before she could pause to give it thought.
"Then why not kill two birds with one stone?"
"Eh? What do you mean?"
"It is simple. We can tell them that we are seeing each other and that we had wished to keep it secret, if only they hadn't pried. They will be shocked, but they will believe it."
At that time, it all seemed so natural. So logical. It didn't need to mean anything. They didn't really have to commit. It would be a temporary solution to a temporary problem, nothing more. So, when Sayaka's face broke out in joy and she practically leapt towards Celeste, she didn't let her body betray anything.
"That's a perfect idea! I mean, eventually we'll have to stop pretending, but it'll get the boys off our backs for now. Celeste, I didn't realize that you were having boy problems too, though! Is it Hifumi?"
And there was her signature intuition. At least pretending to be romantically interested in Sayaka wouldn't make Celeste want to tear her own organs out from sheer stupefaction.
"How did you guess?"
Sayaka, as she'd done too many times to count, just winked.
"I'm psychic," she'd said in mock seriousness.
The two continued to talk into the night, ironing out their precise modus operandi until they had an entire skit honed to perfection. Being the Queen of Liars meant being the best at making others believe your words, true or not. Celeste would accept no less than perfection, and Sayaka certainly worked to carry her own weight. It was both chilling and exciting to see the happy, friendly popstar begin to drop the facade and truly play into the role she'd so earnestly claimed. Their preparation came to fruition the day after next, when Leon came to bother Sayaka again. Her acting was subtle, but nuanced.
"W-well, you see Leon..." She'd stuttered, her face flushing on cue. Celeste approached the two at that moment, acutely aware of the sound of her shoes clacking against the floor rhythmically. This was it - showtime.
"Actually, Leon, there is something we have been meaning to tell you," Celeste had spoken, and she remembered the mocking smile that played across her lips as she breathed life into the lie. "Sayaka and I have been... intimately involved for a while. We did not want to tell anyone before we were sure of how we felt, but it appears as if we have no other choice."
"Wh-what the hell?! You two're... 'intimately involved'? What does that even mean?" Leon had sputtered, face growing just as vibrant as his hair. He took the "revelation" a bit more poorly than she'd expected - truthfully she expected him to be a bit pervy about it, but that was more Hifumi's strong suit wasn't it? - but he bought it. All there was left was to reel him in.
"We're... Well, we're dating."
Sayaka's voice had been meek and small. Judging by the faces of their once fellow classmates, who all looked like gaping fish, Celeste was the only one who could see the tenacity and wit behind the illusion of weakness. She'd had to look away.
They'd gotten lots of questions, including when they'd realized their feelings and how far they'd gone, all of which they predicted and had not only answers but reactions for. Really, it was quite textbook. Hifumi and Leon went off to sulk together by the end of it, forming a bond that neither girl could really understand. The others all just went back to normal life after a week or so; at least, as normal as it got when they all worked in a Future Foundation base after the despair apocalypse. For a while, everything was fine. The lie worked. They reclaimed their peace.
Then, why...? If they'd been successful, why? It didn't need to be real. It didn't need to mean anything. If so, why?! Why did she get jealous when seeing her fake partner interact with Leon or Makoto? Why did she take to thinking of Sayaka when they were apart? Why did she want to hold her hand, and tell her secrets, and be with her all the time and never let anyonetakeheraway?!
Why... did she kiss Sayaka?
That was how Celestia Ludenberg, the ultimate gambler, found herself alone in her quarters in sleepwear, hugging a pillow close to her face after it'd turned traitor on her and sought more out of her relationship with Sayaka than she was permitted to have, desperately replaying the memories of the moments that had lead to this in search of answers.
They'd been in the room housing the mainframes for some of their bulkier devices, just chatting about how the day had gone and complaining about trivial inconveniences - an oddly favored past time of theirs'. It made everything feel a bit more normal. Then one of them brought up the fake relationship, and Sayaka began to cheerily talk about how they didn't really need it anymore and how they could end it at any time. It was no longer useful, so it was no longer needed.
That had triggered something dark and instinctual in Celeste; caused something in her mind to snap and act without thinking. Their lips had brushed for only a few seconds. She could play it off. She could control her emotions. But Celeste didn't look back as she ran. She made sure to lock the door to her room upon arrival. She didn't want Sayaka to come after her. Really, she didn't! So, why did she hear knocking?!
"Celeste? Please answer me. I know you're in there. Just let me talk to you about this, please!" Sakaya's voice filtered in from the other side of the door, soft and pleading. It sounded like there were tears in her eyes. It didn't make Celeste feel similarly. She could control her emotions. She could perfectly lie to herself.
She didn't need to feel anything, and didn't have to feel anything and didn't want to feel anything.
Then why was everything blurry? Why were her cheeks wet? Why couldn't she breathe?
"Look, I'm really sorry for what happened earlier, but we need to talk about it. I really don't think either of us would want to have this talk around the others or when we're trying to do our jobs, and if we wait too long then I... we'll probably end up never talking about it." Sayaka's pounding stopped, and instead a light scraping noise filled the empty space alongside Celeste's own ragged breaths.
The door clicked and creaked open just enough to let a crack of light filter in from the hall. "Can I please come in?" Celeste could see her eyes, slightly red-looking, and nodded. She couldn't trust her mouth - not after that stunt earlier, the sobbing notwithstanding. The door opened the rest of the way as Sayaka's form slipped inside the dim room, closing the door behind her. She didn't make any move to turn on the lights, instead approaching Celeste's bed and finding herself a seat along it's edge.
"Are you going to talk to me?" she asked, voice suddenly quiet. It was filled with... something, though Celeste couldn't pinpoint exactly what. It evoked ugly feelings in her chest, forcing her to keep her next snivel as quiet as she could muster. Sayaka still heard, though, running her hand over Celeste's back from the shoulders down. She could do little more than bury her red face further into her own pillow. It was getting sticky.
"No," she managed to croak, the pitiful noise muffled enough to be barely audible. Sayaka still heard it, though, as she began to gently rub up and down Celeste's back with a vaguely noncommittal sound in response. Celeste could feel the bed shift as Sayaka did, the popstar sliding her legs fully onto the mattress and scooting closer to the gambler's head, never pausing her ministrations. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed a soft, fluttery kiss to Celeste's dark head of hair, which had been taken out of it's drill curls and fell almost entirely flat, a dark ocean with waves lapping at the edges. Celeste stiffened, those ugly feelings returning with even more force than before and she had to choke back a sob that she knew she couldn't hide from her company.
"Shh..." Sayaka soothed, her second hand taking to combing those dark locks. "I know, I really, really upset you. To be honest... I was sort of... actually, super happy when you came up with the idea of fake-dating." Her confession made the gambler shake like a leaf in the wind under her touch. "But after a while, I guess I just figured that it'd never become something serious. I always felt like... like there was this invisible line I couldn't cross when it came to you. Celeste, I was ready to betray Makoto in Hope's Peak. My only friend, or at least the only one I remembered, and I was that close to stabbing him in the back. But you... Even thinking about it makes my stomach churn. You're... special, to me. More than Makoto, more than our classmates. I'm just sorry I never saw those feelings for what they really were."
"I..." Celeste's voice rose weakly from her tear-stained pillow and as she began to stir, Sayaka shifted to give her more room. She waited patiently for the other girl - the one who was usually the most composed in a room at any given time - to stabilize her breathing and steady her nerves. She let the façade slip on without second thought. "Do not misunderstand. I, myself, only recognized these feelings tonight." Sayaka gave her a bittersweet smile before pulling Celeste's head into a hug.
"You don't need to act tough for me. Just be yourself," those words shattered her carefully-crafted mask in an instant. Just be yourself? What was left for Celeste to go back to? What parts of her remained? Her old self had been dead for a long time. But those words made her think that... maybe it didn't have to be that way. Celeste willed her walls to allow this strange, wonderful, blue-haired, popstar kindred spirit in, and finally she broke down in complete unabashed tears. Wrapping her arms securely around the other girl's neck, she wept a sea of tears into her shoulder as Sayaka held her.
Closeness. Warmth. Comfort. All things Celeste had given up in pursuit of her talent, in the denial of her life before becoming Celestia Ludenberg, Queen of Liars. All things she found herself starved of, in this most unlikely of situations with quite the odd bearer of her affections. But nothing could take away just how freeing it was. How this moment felt like it was undeniably theirs' in every sense. Before she could think to stop herself, she pulled back from Sayaka's now damp shoulder and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Sweet, bubbly laughter flowed out of the popstar like a melody without words and she was reciprocating before Celeste could prepare herself.
The element of shock was a pleasant surprise, though, and she melted into the embrace entirely, acutely aware of how warm her face was getting but ignoring it. She had better things to be doing; namely, expressing the emotions she usually suppressed unbidden from the pressures she placed on herself in day to day life. She didn't have to be anyone else for as long as the moment would last. And it felt like it would last forever. Eventually, however, they had to break apart for air, both of their faces flushed.
"Celeste-"
"Taeko," she interrupted. Sayaka blinked at the gambler, confusion evident. "My real name is... Taeko Yasuhiro." In exposing her real name, Taeko allowed the false accent, which had really been hanging on by a thread, to fall away completely. She was just herself, ordinary Taeko, now. It made her sickeningly nervous, but Sayaka's radiant smile praised her just a short few moments after.
"Taeko," she began again, lingering on the name. Taeko's heart was flittering in her chest, and the little grin that flashed on the popstar's face told her she knew it. "I am so, so sorry for hurting your feelings and not seeing how you felt. I'll make it up to you in any way you want."
"Just... stay," Taeko smiled, burying her face back into the crook of Sayaka's neck.
"Okay." That one word, and she was soaring, hundreds of feet above the ground. Nothing could bring her down. Sayaka's voice rang out in the darkness, startling Taeko out of her thoughts. "Would you like to try dating? For real, I mean." Pulling back, she locked eyes with the girl across from her. How could she ever say no?
"If you're okay with it, then... yes," she settled on, the blush creeping down her neck as embarrassment reared it's head within her. But it was soon forgotten - she was crushed into another hug, and the gentle press of lips on her forehead felt like the most real, grounding sensation she'd ever experienced. Surrounded by warmth, the two held each other late into the night, long after the rest of their classmates were sleeping. Tomorrow was a new day for the both of them.