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"Ooh, want to check out that new cafe this weekend?"
"No way, they did what?"
"When's that essay due again?"
Conversations overlapped and mingled together, filling the classroom with a familiar dull buzz. It was remarkable how used to all the noise Maki had gotten. Some of the more annoyingly optimistic and outgoing members of the class, like Momota or Akamatsu, might tell her that it was a sign of how much she'd grown since the start of high school. They might coo about how nice it was that she was learning to open up more. Personally, she wasn't so sure being able to tolerate such inane chatter was a skill deserving of praise.
It was what it was. There were worse things than putting up with their attempts at improving her self-esteem or whatever else they might think they were doing. At the moment though, there was no one trying to get her attention at all. She was alone at her desk, flipping through the pages of the novel they'd been assigned in their literature class. Best to try to get some of it done now, while she had the time.
"Harukawa-san!" The shout seemed to originate mere inches from her ear, making her flinch and fumble the book. Inhaling sharply, she steeled her expression before turning to look, in the hopes that perhaps she'd find the self-control not to snap.
"Chabashira," she replied, silently congratulating herself for not sounding too aggressive. "Did you need something?" Good behavior or not, controlling her reaction in this way shouldn't be necessary, because she never should have been startled in the first place. Her assassin training honed her vigilance to near-perfection, making it quite a task to sneak up on her. Or rather, it used to be quite a task. There were some downsides to getting more comfortable around her classmates, and that was one of them. She allowed herself to get distracted, lower her guard.
Lower her guard so much she never even noticed Chabashira approaching, despite how loud she always was about everything.
"Yeah, actually! I was just wondering if you'd—" Chabashira paused, features contorting into what seemed, to Maki, to be a rather exaggerated expression of concern. "Are you okay?"
When she followed the other girl's gaze, her eyes landed on her own hand. Blood was beading up in a thin line along her index finger, right where the book must have grazed her hand.
"Oh, this? Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a paper cut. Honestly, I didn't even notice it until you asked." Maki shrugged, brushing it off. Compared to the other kinds of injuries she'd sustained over the course of her life, a superficial cut was nothing worth worrying about. She barely even noticed the slight, stinging pain.
"Ah, but—! It happened when I startled you, right? So it's my fault. I'll get you a band aid!" Chabashira was already starting to turn back in the direction of her own desk by the time Maki processed that. A band aid? Really? Her nose wrinkled, brows furrowing. Left to her own devices, she wouldn't even bother with that for something so small. Maybe a tissue to wipe up the blood at most.
"That's really not necessary," she began, but Chabashira was already digging around in her backpack. Ouma, who had the desk between them, watched with thinly veiled amusement. Smug little bastard.
Moments later, Chabashira bounded back over, already stripping the wrapper off the bandage.
"Okay, Harukawa-san, give me your hand," she requested, and the full extent of the situation hit Maki all at once. Not only was she insisting on reacting far too dramatically about a simple paper cut — honestly, didn't minor injuries happen in aikido training sometimes? — but she expected to put the band aid on for her? That was like something she'd do for one of the kids at the orphanage, not something anyone else would do for her.
"I can do it myself," Maki grumbled, able to feel her face heating up. Chabashira was waiting so expectantly though, and before she knew it, she was holding out her hand, the other tugging anxiously at her hair.
Gentle, calloused fingers wrapped the band aid around the cut, never applying enough pressure to cause even the slightest bit of pain. Then, as if she'd just completed something truly impressive, Chabashira beamed.
"There you are! Much better!"
Maki would give anything to melt into the ground and cease to exist, but at least it should be done with. She could steer the subject back to whatever it was that had lured the other girl over in the first place. She'd been starting to say there was something she needed, right?
"Yeah, yeah. Aren't you forgetting something?" She sharpened her gaze, staring straight into those bright green eyes.
"Oh! Right! Sorry about that." Chabashira giggled, and then proceeded to do the most nonsensical thing yet. She grabbed Maki's hand all over again, lifting it closer to her face, and then...She kissed her cut finger. Her lips came in contact with the bandage rather than the skin of her hand, but it was a kiss all the same.
"That isn't what I meant." It was supposed to be a sharp rebuke, to drive Chabashira away and make her rethink the idea of ever doing something so blatantly intimate to her again, but looking at her and seeing how earnest she seemed...hopefully no one overheard her sounding fond.