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It was something out of a shoujo manga, she swore it. Eli swore it because, and it was seldom known by few, she indulge more than regularly; could it even be called a guilty pleasure then? The classics spun tales of tragedy and love lost -- love in the classics was conditional and politic, torrid and passionate. In the manga of today, love was holding each other's hand or pulling gently at each other's sleeves; simply being in each other's presence. And that was nice.
But the amount of time she spent after a long study session either watching melodramatic romance films or reading teen romance comics mattered little; the embarrassment she felt for even telling anyone in the first place wasn't at the fore front of her thoughts either, all she could think of and subsequently gawk at was the violet frock of twin tails that was now using her shoulder as a rather bony pillow at this very moment. And the blonde stared doe eyed at Nozomi's slumbering form as if she were looking at a ghost more than her partner. The only difference was that instead of fear in her crystalline eyes, there were stars. Her cheeks not ashen, but exuberant and the color of ripe cherries.
Eli could do nothing but stare, though when Nozomi shifted in her seat -- curling herself closer to the other's side -- the stricken girl quickly averted her gaze at the window. For a moment she watched the world speed by and yet the setting sun remained as still as ever. Ah, it had been a long day for them, Eli realized. But typically Nozomi was refreshed after practice. She glanced down at her again, noticing that her lips were parted and she faintly sighed with each soft breath she took. Blue eyes softened at the sight, the torrential storm calming. Maybe she didn't get a good rest last night? Eli wondered this, brows furrowing just a little. But she shook off that notion: if Nozomi didn't get enough sleep, then she wouldn't have showed up to school; a habit that annoyed the blonde to a degree, but it was just the girl with serpent's eyes way. She learned to live with it and accept it, as she did with many of the things Nozomi did.
Like pestering her for instance.
Nozomi meant well, of course, and Eli could take it and at times she even dished out some back. But when it came to matters of the heart she was a bit more persistent. Maybe even incessant. Regularly did Nozomi Tojo grill Elicchi about what made her heart flutter most -- and simply chuckled when her girlfriend batted away those questions.
"Mmm, you show me anyway, don't you~?" Nozomi always had a purr in her words, but it was most prominent then. Perhaps the ante was upped when, on this particular incident a night ago, the miko spoke right into Eli's ear. Her lips ghosting over the flesh of the blonde's ear, and Eli drawing her into a chaste peck on the lips before she went racing out of the solemn temple. "I'll talk to you later...!" She called as she jogged off. Sure, Eli Ayase could dish out her own hell at times, but Nozomi was Hades: beautiful and terrible.
Nozomi had smiled prior to her little thimble, leaning against the broom she used to sweep. Green staring into blue, spring against winter. "What makes your heart flutter, Elicchi?" When Eli had made it home that evening, she relented her answer wordlessly. Nozomi being one of the few to know of Eli's guilty pleasure, received a manga scan in her messages: a boy sitting on a train, and a girl asleep against his shoulder.
The blonde broke from the miasma of memory and returned to the present, choking on her own saliva as she put the pieces together.
"Nozomi!!" In between coughs, Eli yelped at the sleeping girl. Her face was lit up like a flame, red hot 10-fold. And Nozomi didn't open her eyes or even move. She only smiled lazily, and press herself to her flustered love's side.
"What makes your heart flutter, Elichika?" She asked.
And the girl, the recipient of this cliched token, grew relaxed at the contact. At the other's warmth. Her kindness and attention. Nozomi's incessant want to know every single detail of Eli's life, down to the crosses on the T's and dots on the I's.
She melted into her warmth, resting her chin on the divine young woman's head and entwining their fingers together. Eli struggled with the words for a few moments, but when she let her breath escape her, she was freed.
"...You."