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The winter air bruises Tenko’s already chill bitten cheeks as she hustles down the sidewalk, stride much longer than someone of her height. She’s always carried herself that way, like someone much bigger than herself, but today especially it’s taking everything in her not to fold into herself so that she’s not even a fraction of what she is. For once Tenko is tired of presenting herself as a strong woman, which she is, but that doesn’t mean she’s not tired of acting as such.
Acting strong when she wasn’t really feeling strong is what got her in her situation in the first place and yet Tenko can’t let it go of that safety blanket.
Maybe that safety blanket had kept her from speaking out about what had happened to her that night at the frat party. It also might have caused her apartment to go without cleaning (something she had never allowed to be done before) and her hair to get matted so thickly throughout that the hair dresser had no choice other than to cut it off at her shoulders. Sure it caused some harm, but it had worked just fine until that point, why change it?
Kaede hadn’t shared that sentiment and seeing how worried she was made Tenko sick with guilt.
Kaede is Tenko’s best friend- or her only friend rather. So that night she let Kaede work herself into a frenzy cleaning up her apartment as she sat at her computer researching therapists.
The long and short of it is that Tenko needs professional help, which brings her to now.
The therapist office doesn’t look daunting at all, a rather bland looking white building with no distinct features, but it feels as though it might as well be a haunted house by the way Tenko’s knees knock together at the sight of it.
She has always lived a life of a highly independent woman, always making ends meet on her own and never asking for help even when she should have. Eighteen year old Tenko may have juggled those two jobs and college courses with twinkling eyes, but unfortunately at twenty she’s burnt down to the wire.
Breathing in unsteadily, she pulls open the door to the office and steps inside. The warm air hits her cheeks, nearly burning them in the process. She closes the door behind her with an almost inaudible click trying not to look so shell shocked by the interior.
The inside of the building is a warm cream color, the floor a surprisingly plush white carpet rather than hardwood floor like Tenko would expect. The room is much alike a doctors office beyond that with a small room with a glass sliding window in it for the receptionist and chairs outlining the room. Unalike a doctor’s office however is the art pieces decorating the walls done by who she assumes is younger patients and posters about mental health.
Tenko takes her uneasy steps towards the receptionist a few short feet away and before she’s even fully there the lady is pulling back the sliding glass with a smile.
“Welcome! Cold out there, hm?” The woman greets and when she smiles Tenko can see gloss shimmering on her lips.
“Hi, uh yeah,” her voice is too quiet to even herself so she continues with a louder, “Tenko Chabashira for Miss Gekkogahara.”
The receptionist doesn’t even check for her appointment and instead says, “Go ahead and have a seat, I’ll let Miaya know you’re here.”
Tenko nods and takes the nearest chair, not wanting to wander far. Unlocking her phone reveals she’s a good few minutes early, so she opens up her Instagram and sets to scrolling. Boredly, she turns her attention toward her own account and nearly sighs at the sight. She hadn’t posted in three months, the last photo being a mirror photo of her and Kaede the night of the frat party. All of her posts had her bright eyed and happy, usually with Kaede or taken by her at least.
Nearly every photo she’s in her eyes are sparkling, her nose scrunched, and smile wide enough to split her face. On an impulse, she opens her camera, nearly falling into tears at the sight. She stares back at herself, dull green eyes underlined with dark circles and cheeks so pale you would think she never saw sunlight in her life. Her bobbed hair doesn’t look bad, but only serves to remind her of how far she’s fallen. She stares a little longer and she can almost see the purple blotches on her neck from that night.
White hot shame boils up in her.
“Tenko? Miaya is ready for you. First door on the left.” The receptionist calls out and she nearly breaks her phone with how quickly she slams the power button, shoving the device into her hoodie pocket.
Tenko follows the receptionist’s directions, not having to walk too far from the main room. The hallway is lined with doors, presumably to other offices, and the bathrooms are labeled with a cute wooden plaque above the door. She doesn’t bother trying to see much more than that, instead taking the doorknob to the door she was instructed to go to and pushing it open.
“Come in! Come in!” A cheery voice calls out and Tenko fumbles as she tries to close the door behind her, shock hitting her quickly as she takes a glance at her therapist.
Miaya is short woman, not sitting up much higher than her desk, with blue hair and similarly colored eyes. She sits in a wheelchair, but the shocking thing hadn’t been that at all, it had been the computer she was typing into that served as the woman’s voice.
When Tenko doesn’t say anything Miaya gestures to the seats in front of her with a broad wave of her hand, “Sit anywhere at all, wherever you’re most comfortable.”
The voice coming from her laptop wasn’t as robotic as you would expect from programming such as that, coming out rather animatedly. Tenko smiles awkwardly and takes the seat closest to her. She would’ve much rather sat on the cozy looking couch pressed against the wall, but she felt too awkward to make the journey across the room.
“So Miss Tenko, what brings you in?” Miaya asks.
“Well, uh, my friend has been worried about my well-being and thought I should try it out.” Tenko says, maybe a bit too loud for the room. Being loud is a show of strength, of power, most of all it also does well to hide her uncertainties.
It was something her guardian had taught her early on.
Insecure? Worried? Not being heard? No problem. Raise your voice, plant your feet, raise your chin and everything else will fall into place.
“Worried, hm? What about you? Are you worried?”
“No,” Tenko lies firmly, “I’m not. I’m doing just fine handling things by myself. This is for her benefit, not mine.”
“You’re a good friend,” Miaya notes, the hand not on her computer’s keyboard writing something on the notepad on her desk, Tenko resists the urge to ask what she’s writing.
“I would say so myself.” She finally says after a moment.
“Do you know why your friend would be worried?”
“I guess,” Tenko hesitates, “I haven’t done my best to take care of myself lately.“
“Is that so?”
“Yes, but it’s really no big deal, just been a bit stressed. I’m a strong woman, I can handle things perfectly fine on my own.” Tenko bristles, hating the way this woman works her up. Aren’t therapist supposed to talk to you instead of badgering you with a hundred questions instead?
“Just because you’re a strong woman, which I have no doubt in, does not mean you have to do things on your own. Admitting you need help is also a strong thing.”
Tenko can’t help out the scoff of, “Yeah, right.”
“No, really, it takes a lot of strength to voice that you’re in pain. Being vulnerable with someone is giving them the opportunity to hurt you and yet you take that risk regardless.”
“Being strong means not leaving anyone the opening to hurt you in the first place.” Tenko argues, a dull headache building behind her eyes.
“Then let me ask you this: is it scarier to ask for help or to stay silent and not tell anyone at all?” Miaya asks her face devoid of expression, not even shaken by the raising of Tenko’s voice.
The thought of asking anyone for help makes her sick on her stomach, even just Kaede finding out on her own had brought Tenko horrible anxiety.
“Asking for help,” Tenko finally offers a shred of truth.
Miaya offers a minuscule smile.
“But that doesn’t mean that it’s stronger than handling it yourself. Asking for help when you can handle it on your own is a waste of time for the other person.” Tenko quickly adds on, not wanting her therapist to think she’s quick to give in.
“Would you want your friend to handle something on her own that causes her stress when you could help and it be easier?”
“It’s different with Kaede.” Tenko bites back.
“Is it? How so?” Miaya asks, not accusingly, but it still sets her blood on fire to be questioned.
So far it feels like all therapy is is being questioned.
“It just is.”
The blue haired woman writes something else down on her notebook before taking a quick glance at her clock, “We’ll come back to that. Candy?”
Tenko finally notices the little glass dish of sweets on Miaya’s desk, but before she really has a moment to fully process her words she shakes her head.
After all, sweets are bad for you, and she had already pushed her normal limits with the several pieces of mint gum she had chewed on her way here.
“Alright then. Next week, same time then?” Miaya asks, writing something else down on her notepad.
Tenko wants to tell her to shove her notebook up her ass, “Yeah. Sure.”
“Great, stop by with Sayaka and have her schedule that in for us. Have a nice day miss Tenko, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you for our next session.” Tenko grinds her teeth but nods anyway, leaving the room quicker than what is probably polite.
She stops with Sayaka to tell her about the appointment, though she’s not entirely sure why. She has every intention to delete the therapist office’s number from her phone as soon as she gets home and forget about this whole thing.
That thought gets entirely thwarted as soon as she makes it back to her apartment building and she sees Kaede’s little pink moped in the parking lot. For once Tenko doesn’t want to see her, in fact she would like to go straight to bed, but seeing as Kaede is likely sitting in her apartment she hardly has a choice.
When she opens the door to her apartment she, predictably, finds Kaede bustling around her apartment. Tenko’s cat, Shiori, is weaving her little body between the blonde woman’s legs as she navigates the kitchen. The smell of stir fry vegetables fills the small space and she nearly salivates at the smell.
“I’m back!” Tenko calls out, shuffling out of her shoes and coat at the door.
“How was therapy?” Kaede asks, her face hidden as she digs through the fridge for drinks.
For a moment she thinks about telling her about how awful it is, about how she couldn’t wait to delete the phone number after calling to cancel her appointment. Kaede ruins all of that when she looks over the fridge door, their eyes locking. Tenko can tell she’s so excited by the large grin on her mouth and the hopeful gleam in her eyes.
“Uh, great, I’ve got another appointment next week.”
“That’s so good! I’m so proud of you!” Kaede exclaims, stopping her pursuit for drinks to throw herself at Tenko, pulling her into a tight hug. Tears prickle her eyes, but she just hugs Kaede back harder and wills them away.
She can’t remember the last time someone told her that they’re proud of her.
That night passes in a flurry of good feelings and good food, Tenko sleeps through the entire night for once as she thinks maybe things are looking up.
Of course, one good day doesn’t mean anything at all. The next week is dismal, raining all throughout the night and leaving the world wet and dreary throughout the day. Tenko just barely remembers to feed herself throughout, nearly crying every day on her bus ride to work. One day she forgets to brush her hair and panics that night, spending the next hour brushing her hair out of fear of having to cut off even more of it.
Her next appointment comes quickly and Tenko nearly considers calling to cancel when her phone lights up with a text from Kaede.
K: hope u have fun at therapy, love u!
Tenko hates how she would do anything not to disappoint her.
T: Thank you! Love you too.
Despite the cold, she walks to therapy again.
This time she comes in right as her appointment is scheduled and only receives a smile from Sayaka as she points to the hallway.
Walking into Miaya’s office feels like a losing battle and Tenko hates it.
“I’m so glad to see you back, take a seat!” Miaya greets as the door opens. She offers her a weak smile that comes out as more of a grimace and sits back down in the chair from last session. She eyes the couch longingly for just a brief second before bringing her eyes back over to the other woman.
“How was your week?” She asks and Tenko gives her a half hearted shrug.
“It was alright, I guess. Kinda stressful and the weather sucks, but I managed to make it through.” The last part comes out more enthusiastic than Tenko really feels, but Miaya says nothing of it.
“That’s one way of looking at it, I like your positivity.” She reads over in her notebook from last session, then writes something down swiftly.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So last session you said it’s different for Kaede to ask for help, do you want to elaborate on that? We can talk about something else, if you rather.”
Tenko mulls over her thoughts for a moment, “I’m not sure if I know how to explain.”
“Try your best, my job is to make sense of the things you say.” Miaya says and for the first time Tenko offers a genuine smile, humored by her words.
“Kaede was raised to ask for help and receive it, that’s how she functions. I was raised that if I couldn’t handle things on my own I wasn’t trying hard enough. Asking was failure to try hard enough and not trying hard enough means I’m not properly taking care of myself. It wouldn’t be fair to be upset at her for the way she was raised, she doesn’t know any better, I do.”
“Your parents said this?” Miaya asks and she can hardly see how it’s relevant at all.
“No, when I was young my parents sent me off to a recreational facility. Apparently I was a rowdy kid, I don’t really remember, but they just never came back so one of the staff members became my guardian. That was his way of thinking, not theirs.” Tenko says offhandedly, not really considering the weight her words have.
“And this... guardian of yours... did he have many strong ideas or just the one?”
“Oh, well I wouldn’t really say strong, they’re rather customary I guess. Men aren’t to be trusted, sweets are bad for you... things like that I guess.”
“And that asking for help is weakness?” Miaya asks cautiously.
“Yes, that too. Really basic stuff.” Tenko says in affirmation, but the look on her therapist’s face suggest that what she just said worries her.
“I’m not sure I would consider that basic stuff, Tenko, if I may say so. He seems like he was very hard on you.”
Tenko opens her mouth, closes it, and reconsiders.
“I mean, I guess he was, and I guess I can see how it may seem like he was extreme. In one way he definitely had the right idea.” She finally says.
“And what would that be?”
“I couldn’t trust any man as far as I could fucking throw them.” She says darkly.
“That seems uncharacteristic for you, you’ve seemed to me to be a very sweet person.” Miaya comments and Tenko bristles.
“Why would I be sweet to them? What a world of good that did me.” She mutters, stomach rolling at the memory that seems so far away for only three months ago.
Miaya pauses, “Can you elaborate on that?”
Every part of her screams no! like her nerve endings had been electrocuted at the mere thought of sharing what happened to her. She’s gotten too comfortable, too sloppy in her moment of clarity. She’s always loved talking and not for the first time she’s simply said too damn much.
“I... don’t think I’m ready to, if that’s okay.” Tenko mutters, wringing her hands.
“Of course that’s okay. You’re already making incredible progress since last session.” Miaya softly says, blue eyes swimming with an emotion Tenko can’t place.
Instead of answering, she looks at the clock on the wall, seeing she’s a few odd minutes away from her appointment being over.
“I think I’m going to go home early, I don’t want to get caught in the rain.” She says halfheartedly.
She really couldn’t give a damn if she got caught in the rain or not, she just wanted out of this office quick.
“Of course, it’s been particularly nasty lately, hasn’t it? Well, just don’t forget to set another appointment up with Sayaka.”
“Okay,” Tenko is already up and out of her seat by the time Miaya said her second word.
“Be safe getting home, see you next week.” She calls out and Tenko barely manages a rough nod before darting out into the hallway like a skittering rabbit.
Purely on autopilot does she set up her next appointment, even as she already resolves herself not to come back.
She walks home in the downpour and has another horrible week.
She can’t look at herself without feeling sick on her stomach, showers are taken in the dark and clothes put on with her eyes firmly trained on the wall. She gets fired from her second job because she’s been late four times that month alone because waking up in the morning is impossible. No matter how much she sleeps it never feels like enough.
The day of her appointment she wakes up thirty minutes later than she normally does and has to rush to get ready so she can make the walk there.
She forget breakfast, but she makes it in time.
Sayaka smiles at Tenko, perhaps ignoring the bedraggled state she’s in, and points her back.
As always when she opens the door Miaya is quick to greet her, “Good morning Tenko, how was your week?”
Tiredly she takes a seat in the uncomfortable chair again and softly pats down her hair which she is sure has gotten messed up by the wind.
“Not the greatest. Lost my second job. I don’t really need it, but it was nice to have some extra cash.” Tenko admits, trying not to let her bone deep weariness convey in her voice. She didn’t really need the second job, but she would have to cut down on some luxury items. Switch to Netflix instead of paying for cable and cut down her allowances on groceries, but she would have more time to focus on college.
“I’m sorry to hear that. May I ask why?”
“I’ve been late a lot this month, seems like I just can’t get out of bed in the morning. I woke up late this morning too, missed breakfast and everything.” Despite her reservations and fear about last session, she can’t say that she’s not getting comfortable with Miaya.
She’s easy to get comfortable with. Sure she asks a lot of questions that make Tenko’s blood boil, but she likes having someone challenge her way of thinking instead of just disagreeing quietly. Even bold Kaede takes to just shaking her head and saying “Oh Tenko...” when she brings up something she doesn’t expressly agree with.
“Would you like some of the candy? I know it isn’t much, but it should hold you over until after our session.”
Well, it’s not like she’s exactly had time to have any other sugar today, a piece or two wouldn’t hurt.
“Yes please, thank you.”
“Go ahead and help yourself.” Miaya smiles and Tenko tentatively pulls a lemon drop from the glass dish sitting on her desk.
Once Tenko has the candy on her tongue, she rolls it around in her mouth for a moment and savors the incredibly sour coating melting on her tongue.
“So your sleeping issues, how about we talk about that?”
The rest of the session goes smoothly.
At her next appointment, Tenko crosses the room and sits on the couch. It eases under her weight and she nearly sighs at how comfortable it is.
Miaya gives her a sly grin, probably noticing the way Tenko had been eyeing the couch from the start.
“Good morning Tenko, you seem comfortable.”
“Yeah I am! It’s such a nice couch.” She admits, nodding enthusiastically.
“I quite like it myself, how are we feeling this week?” Miaya asks.
Tenko considers the week she had. Painfully boring, a little unfulfilling, but inherently okay.
“It was okay.”
“That’s good to hear. So I wanted to bring something up with you, but if I’m crossing boundaries please let me know.”
“Okay...” Tenko says slowly.
“In a previous session you mention not trusting men and from other conversations we’ve had it’s lead me to think that perhaps you may have had unfortunate encounters with men... sexually. Am I right to assume that?” She can tell Miaya is trying to be delicate in the way she says it, but the words make Tenko sick on her stomach.
A horrible, bitter feeling of pure disgust.
“Yes.” She admits through gritted teeth.
Miaya nods, “Well then it brings me to my actual question. I have a group therapy session I do every other Wednesday with victims of sexual assault. It currently only has women in it, if that’s something you’d be comfortable joining.”
Tenko mulls over what Miaya is saying. If one on one sessions already pushed the boundaries of what she’s comfortable with, the group session completely lands in the ball park of things she never even considered. Her initial reaction is fuck no! , but she had thought the same thing therapy and look where she is now.
“I... think I’d like to try it out.”
“Great! I’ll get the paperwork to you, so now let’s talk about the issues you’ve been having paying attention.”
The session goes by without a hitch, but despite it all Tenko’s mind keeps drifting back to the group therapy on Wednesday.
It’s only Friday, she has plenty of time until then.
Except she doesn’t and the next days move so quickly she feels as though she barely had time to prepare herself at all.
Standing outside the room to the group room, Tenko feels sick on her stomach. It would be a different room than Miaya’s office and the unfamiliarity rocks her core. It’s bad enough that she has to talk about her feelings with complete strangers in the room without being in a totally new environment.
She takes a deep, uneven breath, and pushes the door open.
The room is much larger than Miaya’s office, filled with several different mismatched chairs and even a couch. This couch, however, looks nothing like the cozy one in Miaya’s office- overstuffed and an ugly shade of yellow.
A girl with an unruly head of curly blonde hair already sits on the overstuffed monstrosity, legs crossed and just barely hiding her underwear as her tiny pink skirt rises up her thighs. Either she doesn’t care or simply doesn’t notice as she goes about tapping away at her phone with long glittery nails.
The other girl is sat in the chair furthest away from the door, big nervous eyes darting around the room. Her dark purple hangs in uneven length around her face in a stark contrast from her pale skin and pink t-shirt.
The girl sitting in the chair closest to the door had her hair in two long braids, her small hands diligently fiddling with the ends of one of them. Her round glasses keep slipping down the bridge of her nose, even as she continuously pushes them back up.
Lastly was a girl with thick brown hair, her grey-brown eyes already finding Tenko at the door. While all the other girls had ignored Tenko’s arrival this girl had taken easy notice of her, offering a toothy grin.
Tenko moves further into the room, trying to keep up the appearance of confidence. The girl motions to the seat next to her and she takes it, trying to ignore the way the cold plastic bites through her skinny jeans.
“Yo! I’m Akane.” The brown haired girl greets, keeping that easy grin on her face. At her loud voice, the other girls in the room look over to them.
“Oh! I’m Tenko.” She says, a smile of her own finding her face.
“Nice to meetcha.”
Tenko doesn’t have time to respond when the door pushes open and Miaya rolls into the room, a smile on her face.
“Alright everyone, let’s go around and introduce ourselves!”
The session is unbearably awkward, nearly intolerable if it weren’t for Akane’s funny quips from beside her. The blonde girl’s name is Miu and she has the filthiest mouth of anyone Tenko has met in her life , beyond that she’s pretty funny, if not a little stomach twistingly vulgar. The choppy haired girl had introduced herself as Mikan. Tenko didn’t mind her as much and she even felt the need to protect the girl as she stuttered agonizingly slow through her introduction. The last girl with the braids introduced herself as Toko. She definitely gave Tenko the impression of someone who felt herself better than everyone else, yet still managed to say some of the most self depreciating things.
When Miaya dismisses them Tenko nearly scrambled out of her seat, ready to be out of the room and back in bed with her only her cat as company. Something about being surrounded by girls that had similar trauma to herself and yet reacted totally differently made her uneasy. She could’ve so easily became an even bigger loudmouth or completely drawn into herself and yet somehow she managed to stay that medium.
“Overwhelming, ain’t it?” Akane asks and Tenko nearly startles, she had hardly heard the brown hair girl approach her as she sped from the room.
“Oh god yeah,” Tenko breathes out, “I hadn’t really expected that.”
“Nah, no one ever does. It gets easier though, I’ve been with the group for a lil bit now.” She says in an easy way and Tenko nearly envies the way she so easily offers up information about herself.
“I’m new to all this, only really been going to therapy for about a month now. Probably wouldn’t even be going if it wasn’t for my best friend Kaede.” Tenko says, trying be forthcoming as she opens the door for Akane to step outside the building.
“Thanks,” Akane steps out the building, “I started out one on one too. My roommate noticed I wasn’t eating like I should and insisted I get help. Then eventually Miaya brought up the idea of me joining the group and Nekomaru was so excited that I could hardly say tell him I didn’t want to go.” Akane shrugs and shoves her hands in her pockets as Tenko steps outside too.
“I surprisingly made the choice for the group by myself, I haven’t exactly told anyone what happened to me.”
“Fresh then?” Akane asks, only making a movement to move away from the door.
“Uh... yeah. Four months now.” Tenko mumbles, following her lead and moving away from the doorway.
“It gets easier, been a few years for me now. Not that I exactly realized what happened to me that early on, just came to the realization last year.”
“Better late than never.” Tenko weakly says, not sure what to say.
Akane laughs, “I guess so. Ya got a ride coming?”
She can’t help but notice how beautiful her laugh is and gives a little snort herself.
“I usually walk home.” Tenko says after the two are done with their laughing.
“It’s cold as hell out here, I can give you a ride home if you want?” She offers, as if she’s not welcoming a stranger into her car.
‘To be fair,’ Tenko reasons, ‘we do know quite a few things about each other’s trauma for complete strangers.’
“Alright, sure.”
The car ride home with Akane is admittedly pretty fun, Tenko doesn’t socialize much outside of Kaede, and the two are so incredibly different. Kaede is perky, kind of the cheerleader type. Akane seems like the type that would smoke weed behind the bleachers at school.
It’s a bit refreshing.
The two find out they both like sports- different types, but the interest stays the same regardless. They talk about the differences in training between gymnastics and aikido, sharing hilarious competition stories.
Tenko gets dropped off at home with Akane’s phone number tucked away in her phone.
The next few weeks repeat in the similar fashion. Therapy with Miaya gets better every day and the girls in her group therapy slowly grow on her. Miu is actually quite funny if you get beyond her mouth and really intelligent; a lot of the words she uses goes straight over Tenko’s head. She learns that Mikan is in medical school and seeing the normally nervous girl excitably talk about helping people makes Tenko smile. Toko still has yet to really show more of herself to anyone, still has outbursts where she accuses them of hating her or making fun of her, but Akane always handles them with such a stride that Toko calms down quicker with each week.
And Akane?
Well, maybe Tenko has the tiniest baby crush on Akane.
It’s hard not to, in her defense. She drives her home every day after group therapy and they text throughout the week. They’ve gone to the gym twice and had coffee once.
They get along like a house on fire.
Things with Akane are simple, almost too easy. Tenko likes having something so uncomplicated after years of everything being way too difficult.
With the passing weeks, Christmas comes closer and closer. Before Tenko knows it, it’s the week before Christmas, and her last session before the new year. The session goes as per usual and Mikan gets teary eyed as they talk about the gap between meetings, Toko has a noticeable look of agitation on her face as she awkwardly pats at the nurse-in-training’s back. Miu is uncannily quiet before announcing that she’ll miss them all so fucking much.
Tenko and Akane walk out together as normal, but as Tenko starts getting into the car she notices she’s moved around to her side of the car. Her hand wavers on the door, but she ultimately halts her movement into the car, closing the door.
“What’s up?” She asks, eyebrows furrowed.
“Can I be bold for a sec?” The brown haired girl asks, leaning her body against the car and Tenko laughs.
“Aren’t you always?”
“Not as much as I’d like, been one hell of a coward these last few weeks.” Akane says in her usual blunt way.
“Lay it on me then.” Tenko says, raising an eyebrow in challenge.
“Do ya like girls?” Akane asks and Tenko nearly grins.
It’s so middle school to get excited over your crush asking about your sexuality, but she can’t help the butterfly swarm that follows.
“Yeah, I do. Exclusively girls.” She says, almost too enthusiastically.
“Sweet.” Then Akane leans in. Tenko closes her eyes in preparation for the kiss, but when nothing comes she opens her eyes, embarrassment crawling up her spine. Akane is still leaned in, a fond smile on her lips.
“Slow down killer, I’m not about to kiss you without asking first.” Akane quips, her hand gently raising to find Tenko’s cheek. Her thumb brushes over her mole, sending tingles with the movement.
Tenko’s hand finds the bare crook of Akane’s elbow- why that girl never wears a jacket is beyond her- and Akane’s brown skin is such a stark contrast under her pale hand.
“Well then ask me.” Tenko breathes out, her breath clouding as she speaks.
“Can I kiss you?” Akane asks, her other hand wrapping around Tenko‘s waist to press into the small of her back and pull her closer.
“God yes.” Tenko mutters. Akane hand tilts her chin up as she ducks her head down and presses softly against her lips. Tenko smiles too soon and the kiss breaks.
“Another?” Tenko asks and Akane answers her by pressing impossibly close and kissing her again. Her lips are slightly chapped and cold from the winter air, but it lights up Tenko nonetheless.
The two pull apart for the last time, finally ready to part.
“So wanna drive around and see the Christmas lights?“ Akane asks, tucking a piece of hair behind Tenko’s ear.
“As a date?” She asks hopefully.
“Duh.” Akane mutters and Tenko lights up.
“I thought you’d never ask.”