Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There are things that even a demon can’t understand.

Ayame is usually very well versed in just about anything: old rituals, ancient stories, demon culture… she usually can discern the reason as to why those things existed and it gave her a sense of security.

However, there is something that she had never really looked into: the red string of fate.

It was something that humans believed for almost as long as they had existed on the planet: a string colored red that connects you and your soulmate, some people had it while others didn’t and, if you have one, you and your soulmate are the only ones that can see it.

The Oni didn’t really care for it since she never had a string of fate, but she often remembered humans mentioning that string.
She usually didn’t really pay attention to those stories and, when she was younger, she even believed that it was a lie, a story that humans told themselves to believe that they weren’t alone in the world.

But as it turned out, those stories were real.

Still, the demon girl didn’t really have a reason to care for the stories.
For the longest time she believed that demons couldn’t possibly have a string of fate and why wouldn’t she believe that? The only cases that she had ever witnessed were between humans and there hadn’t been anyone in the demon realm that had an experience like that.

Ayame was somewhat happy about this idea: it meant that she didn’t need to find someone and she would spare that other person a forced relationship.

So it was a shocking surprise when Ayame one day she found something tied on the pinky of her left hand.

“Wha…?” There was a lot that went through the Oni’s mind when she woke up and saw the red string of fate right there.
She had never even considered having a soulmate before that day, but now? What was she supposed to do about it? Search for that supposed ‘fated’ person after living for the longest time without them? How did it even happen? She simply couldn’t understand.

Ayame shook her head “I need to go to the office…”

She decided to ignore this fact and to simply head out as she was supposed to do: just because she had a string of fate it didn’t mean that she was forced to look for the person at the end of the string.

After changing out of her clothes and having breakfast, Ayame headed out to catch the train and tried to focus on the day that she had ahead of her. However, there was a hint of curiosity in the Oni’s eyes when she would give a side glance to her finger and she noticed something.

She could see the string but, unlike a material one, it seemed like gravity didn’t have an effect on it as it fluctuated in mid air; she tried touching it and was surprised by the fact that she could actually feel it when she reached with her right hand.
With the growing curiosity, she tried to remember the stories that she had heard to try and see if what she had heard was actually the truth.

In the end, she found out that now she was able to see not only her own string, but also the ones of other strangers that did have it.

‘Maybe someone with the string can see others so it’s easier to find their soulmate or whatever…’ In one story she remembered someone mentioning the fact that they were able to see other people’s strings.
Before the demon girl could remember more things, the train reached her stop and she decided to simply forget about it: she wasn’t going to look for her soulmate anyway so there wasn’t really any reason for her interest to grow.

She walked at a slow pace towards the general direction of the Hololive office, knowing that she had taken a train earlier to take it easy.

As her feet were taking her where she needed to be, she couldn’t help but notice that some of the people around her had the red string of fate: some were with their fated ones, some were walking alone… it was so weird in her eyes.

‘How many people have this thing tied around them?’ She wondered, looking down at her own string with a raised eyebrow.

She sighed softly and scolded herself for, once again, thinking about the silly string.

‘I guess it’s normal that I think about it…’ she thought, her eyes now focusing on the road in front of her as she took a turn towards the office.
After barely 5 minutes of walking later she had reached her destination and entered the office that was now almost like a second home for her with a big smile on her face.

Today she was scheduled for two main activities: in the morning she had a recording session for a new Hologra episode with Fubuki, Mio and Subaru and then, in the afternoon, she had a 3D collab with Marine that they had planned for a while.

As she entered, Ayame greeted every staff member that she saw before taking the elevator and heading towards the main office.

Usually, before a recording session, they would all sit together and have a talk with the recording staff before going into the recording booth not too far from the office room.
As she entered through the door she was first greeted by Mio and Fubuki, sitting on the green couch and chatting about something that Ayame didn’t quite catch.

“-Yeah but I didn’t manage to do it in the end, oh! Ayameee!” Fubuki got up from the couch, reaching to envelop the shorter girl into a big hug.

“Fubukiii! Mioooo!” Greeted the Oni with a cheery smile on her face.

“Hello Ayame! How are you?” Asked the wolf girl, soon giving her friend an hug as well “Oh, everything fine…” As she spoke, Ayame couldn’t help but glace at her friend’s hands and was quite relieved to see that there wasn’t any string.

“Everything good?” Fubuki asked, noticing something weird about the way that the Oni had spoken.

“O-oh, nothing! I was just surprised to see you guys already here! When did you wake up to be here before me?” Ayame asked, trying to move their attention away from her and, luckily for her, it worked as Mio started talking about how they had decided to have breakfast together as they were about to head to work.

In the end, they had all ended up back on the couch as they chatted “We are supposed to start at 8, right?” the demon girl asked “Yeah, but I guess we will start a little later since it seems like both Subaru and the A-chan have not arrived yet.” The fox girl commented, looking at the clock that read 7:54 am.

And then, just as Fubuki mentioned this, the door of the office opened.

“Sorry everyone, we had a little problem, but we made it!” A-chan walked through, heading immediately towards her desk to put her bag down.
Closely behind her, the figure of Oozora Subaru appeared “Yeah sorry, I needed to talk to A-chan about something and then there was a bit of traffic-“

As Subaru’s gaze lifted to meet with her colleagues, the brown-haired girl and the Oni looked at one another in clear surprise and shock.
Ayame felt like she was about to faint and she could feel a small amount of nausea at the realization that her friend and colleague Oozora Subaru had a red string of fate.

And the worst part about it was that they shared the same string.

Subaru didn’t say anything, looking at the Oni with clear stupor written all over her face; everyone in the room (when they heard how silent everything had gotten) looked at the two girls and didn’t understand what was happening.

“Ayame…?” Mio asked softly, seeing that the Oni had started breathing heavily.

But before she could even receive an answer, Ayame ran towards the bathroom and locked herself inside causing Mio and Fubuki to follow behind and knock on the bathroom door while A-chan, that had just sat down at her desk, instantly got up and walked over the shocked Subaru.

In the bathroom, Ayame was about to throw up: she couldn’t believe it, it wasn’t possible that someone that she has been working with for almost years and that she had always seen as a very close friend woud turn out to be her soulmate.
‘W-what am I supposed to do? What are WE supposed to do??’ She thought as her breaths became ragged: forget about the fact that they were soulmates and focus solely on being friends and colleagues?

Outside of the bathroom she could hear Fubuki and Mio calling out for her and, very hesitantly, she opened the door to just let them enter.

“W-what’s wrong Ayame?” When they reached the demon girl they could clearly see that there was something that was bothering her.

“I-I… I don’t…” She was struggling to explain herself, her legs and arms trembling (which made Mio ask the Oni to sit down on the toilet before she actually fainted).
“Take it easy now, you can tell us what’s up when you feel better if you want to…” Fubuki’s voice comforted her and that made Ayame feel immensely better already.

After a couple of minutes, the nausea and dizziness went away and Ayame decided to explain why she had such a reaction “…This morning I woke up with the red string of fate around my finger…” Fubuki and Mio were quite surprised but decided to simply listen to the Oni before speaking “I… I never really thought that I was meant to have one since I’ve never heard of a demon having one… and when it appeared I decided that I would look for my soulmate…”

Ayame inhaled a shaky breath “…my soulmate… I-it’s Subaru…”.

Fubuki and Mio were now the ones with shocked looks as they heard what the Oni had just said “That’s… wow that’s something…” They didn’t really know what to say about the situation since they didn’t have the string of fate, but they knew that their friend needed them.

“I think you should talk about it with Subaru, she must be shocked as well.” Mio suggested and Ayame’s expression changed into panic.

“H-how can I do this!? I have never even considered dating before today and-and now I find out that my soulmate is her!”

Mio held a sympathetic look on her face “Subaru might be thinking the same thing, you aren’t alone in this situation and I think that talking about it with her might make things between you two easier.” As the wolf girl explained herself, Fubuki nodded alongside her.

“Mio is right: even if you guys are soulmates, you guys have always been friends and, when there is a problem between friends, it’s important to talk about it.”

Ayame didn’t feel completely sure about having to talk to Subaru, but she also knew that her friends were right: she had to discuss of this… situation with her.
She cared for Subaru and, even if that string now made things a bit more complicated, they needed to have a talk.

“Y-You guys are right…”

Ayame exited the bathroom, followed by Mio and Fubuki: as soon as she was out, she saw A-chan talk to Subaru in a whisper but stopped as soon as the Oni exited.

“I think you girls need to have a private talk…” A-chan commented as her gaze moved back and forth between Ayame and Subaru.
The two girls nodded to eachother “I guess we will have to move the recording for you two to another time since this quite a serious matter…” A-chan didn’t seem angry, which made Ayame feel slightly better.

Fubuki, Mio and A-chan exited the room and left the two alone so that they could talk. As the door closed, there was silence for a long moment, the kind that tells you a lot of things.

“So… what do we do?” It was Subaru’s voice that broke the silence and Ayame, in that moment, didn’t know what she wanted to answer.

Chapter Text

“So… what do we do?”

Subaru stood in front of Ayame with a serious expression on her face that was filled with both worry and confusion: the Oni could already tell that there was a lot going through her mind and started feeling guilty about escaping to the bathroom earlier.

“I-I don’t really know…”

A soft sigh escaped the brown-haired girl as she scratched the back of her head; it was as clear as a sunny day that there was embarrassment about the situation as well as uneasiness.

“I have never seen a demon with a string of fate, so I never expected this to happen…” Ayame looked at her pinkie where the string was tightly wrapped around it, following it and seeing the end wrapped around Subaru’s pinkie.

For a small moment, Ayame’s cheeks felt slightly warmer and she had to remove her gaze from the string.

“I had a talk with A-chan when you left earlier, I didn’t expect this to happen either and I was quite surprised…” the Oni blinked in surprise at that, but listened quietly “She said that apparently it’s not the first time that this has happened inside the company but she didn’t mention who… she just suggested that we work things out, otherwise it might get… weird…”

Ayame hadn’t even thought about how this could influence their jobs.

“I see…”

Everything went quiet as Ayame thought of the scarce possibilities that they had to solve the situation without causing any sort of problem.

“Would you…”

The Oni’s thoughts were interrupted as Subaru started speaking once again, a soft blush appearing on her features as her eyes struggled to keep eye contact with Ayame.

“Would you like to… go on a date with me?”

“…Eh?”

“I-it’s fine if you don’t want to, but I thought that maybe we could give it a try and see if things can work out, if not we can just… stay friends like we always have been…”

For a moment, the demon girl thought that Subaru was joking: why would she even want to go on a date with someone like her? It made no sense to her… but when she saw how shy Subaru had gotten she thought that maybe she was trying to do this to solve the situation.

Would it be a good idea to accept this request? What if things really took a bad turn and they ended up being uncomfortable around each other? Ayame was beyond scared of that possibility… but with the way Subaru was looking at her, she found it hard to say no.

“… Ok, we could try…”

A small smile made it’s way on the brown-haired girl’s face as she seemed genuinely happy about the answer that she received, causing Ayame to blush softly at that.

“I’m happy to hear that and… sorry for causing you so much trouble.” Subaru apologized, making the Oni look at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I-It’s fine…”

Subaru looked at the time on her phone “Well, it’s only 8.15… we could still make it to the recording booth, what do you say?” Ayame remembered what they were meant to do that morning and, at Subaru’s proposal, nodded.

“Let’s go then!” Out of nowhere, the taller girl’s hand grabbed Ayame’s own and soon the Oni found herself being dragged outside of the office and towards the recording room, a huge blush now making it’s way on her face.

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The rest of the morning went by fast: they got to work (A-chan asked them if they had worked out a solution and Subaru replied that they did), they all had lunch together and then most of them had left for the afternoon to go back home and stream… except Ayame.

She waited patiently for the main event of the afternoon, sitting in the office’s lounge and casually strolling through her phone as she kept thinking about what had happened.

Things went fine… almost too fine: It was as if nothing had changed, which made her feel both relieved and slightly worried.

‘Weren’t things supposed to change? That’s how it usually goes in mangas…’ she wondered, knowing basically nothing about relationships, especially the ones that involved soulmates. The Oni wanted to curse herself for her lack of knowledge.

“Maybe I should read more mangas…”

“Oh, want some recommendations?” Ayame didn’t expect a reply as she turned her head around to see Marine approaching calmly, before stopping in her tracks as she glanced at the Oni’s hand.

“Wait…”

Ayame, noticing the reaction that she was receiving, noticed something that she didn’t expect: a red string tied to Marine’s hand as well.
The two girls looked at one another for a while and, after a long moment of awkwardness, the pirate broke the ice “When… when did that happen?” Ayame blushed a little, knowing exactly what she was referring to.

“I woke up this morning and found it like this…”

“Wow, that’s… that’s something.”

“W-what about you? I didn’t know that you…” Ayame pointed at Marine’s hand and, after a soft sigh, she received her reply.

“I found out about this a year ago…” There was a lot that the Oni wanted to ask: this was the first time she had found someone she personally knew (well, beside her soulmate) that had a red string of fate; with the immense quantity of questions that she had, she couldn’t stop being curious.

“Did you… umh…”

“Find my soulmate?” Marine already figured out what she wanted to ask from the way the demon girl was speaking cautiously.

“Yeah… I guess keeping it a secret would be hard now that you have your own string: it’s Rushia.” Ayame blinked in surprise, not knowing that the two girls were actually a fated pair. “We got together soon after finding out… but we haven’t really told anyone beside the managers.” Marine explained in a soft voice, making it clear that she really cared for the necromancer.

“I didn’t know that she had a string as well…”

Another moment of silence followed and Marine took the occasion to sit down next to the Oni “What about you? It’s kind of silly of me to ask since you just got it today and you probably haven’t found out anyt-“

“It’s Subaru.”

“…Eh?”

“It’s Subaru, she is my soulmate…”

“…EH!?”

After that shocking reveal, the pirate asked for every detail and Ayame, wanting to vent out her frustrations and worries, told her everything that had happened.

“What should I do, Marine? I have never even dated anyone… Subaru has even asked me to go on a date with her-“

“Well, you should just go and see how it goes! That’s what me and Rushia did…”

“B-But what if I don’t like it? What if Subaru doesn’t like it? This could really put a strain on our friendship and it probably already did!” Marine sighed softly: she knew exactly how Ayame could possibly feel and she also knew that she was worrying a bit too much.

A soft hand patted the top of the Oni’s head, softly ruffling her hair.

“Don’t think about it too much, alright? You will figure it out soon enough!” While this phrase didn’t really solve all of the problems that Ayame had, it surely gave her some comfort as she let the pirate gently run her fingers through her hair.

Ayame didn’t ask any more questions after that: soon they were called to prepare for the 3D collab and things got a bit hectic for the Oni to even focus about her soulmate.
When the day of work was finally done, it was time for all of them to head home and, as Marine was escorting the demon girl outside, Ayame noticed that there was someone waiting in front of the building.

“Oh, Subaru!” Marine greeted with a cheery expression, waving at the brown-haired girl who waved back but looked slightly taken aback.

“H-hi…” Ayame could only give a meek greeting, but the pirate noticed the change in expression in both of the girls.

“Well, I gotta go meet up with Rushia… see ya girls next time!” At that point the Oni knew what the captain was trying to do and almost wanted to scream at her to stop and help her through this, but after seeing the pirate give her a sneaky thumbs up it was obvious that she was telling her to spend time with her soulmate.

Now with one less person present, Ayame and Subaru stood in front of each other.

“W-weren’t you supposed to go home?”

“I… I felt a little bad about leaving after what happened today, so I waited here-“

“Wait… you have been standing here since lunch?? B-but why? You should’ve gone home and-“

“I wanted to wait for you…”

The confession of Subaru’s true intentions made Ayame’s mouth stop moving as it closed automatically: this wasn’t the first time that Subaru had done something like this, but now with the fact that they were soulmates… it felt different.

The tiniest of smiles tugged at Ayame’s lips.

“I-I see…”

“… W-would you like to go eat something? Y-you are probably hungry after waiting for me all day and I thought that perhaps maybe I could offer you dinner and-“ Ayame’s nervous rambling was soon interrupted by a chuckle coming from the taller girl.

“Sure!”

It felt weird how in one moment she was asking Subaru to share a meal together and then she found herself already seated at a McDonalds’ while munching on some fries.

“S-sorry that you had to pay for the both of us… I should never forget to bring my wallet…” Ayame mumbled in embarrassment and holding a disappointed expression on her face: she wanted to repay the kindness and offer Subaru dinner like she had read multiple times in mangas, but of course she had forgotten all of her money at home.

“It’s fine! As long as you are good I don’t have any problem!” Subaru muttered before taking another bite into her hamburger with a voracious grin.

Ayame couldn’t deny that the sight of Subaru eating away was quite funny… however, it still seemed like things weren’t much different from when they weren’t soulmates.
They had already done this kind of thing multiple times in the past so the Oni was worried that maybe she was doing something wrong.

“Oh, right! Here, take the toy.”

“Ooooh! They have Pokémon cards this time!”

The two girls had a weird routine every time they went to a McDonalds: ever since Subaru found out that Ayame was too shy to ask for the happy meal just to have the toy, she started buying them and would always give the toy to the Oni.

“Thanks Subaru…”

“It’s nothing, really!” Subaru held a tiny blush on her face when she saw the happy expression on Ayame’s face.

Dinner went by fast and, much to the demon girl’s surprise, Subaru didn’t really seem interested in talking about the fact that they were soulmates and instead seemed far more invested in knowing how Ayame’s collab went, which the Oni answered very enthusiastically.

When they had finished eating and gone outside, Ayame felt the need to apologize once again.

“Sorry for the wallet, I should’ve-“

“It’s fine it’s fine, I mean, it’s not the first time you forget it: like that time when we went to that steak-house and you realized after eating that you had left the wallet in the office and had to run to get it back.” Subaru laughed at the memories while the Oni’s face turned redder.

“Still…”

“You could always offer next time during our date.”

Ayame’s gaze landed on Subaru’s at the mention of the word ‘date’ and her cheeks turned into an even brighter red.

“I-I… Y-yeah, I could… do that.”
A soft smile made its way on the taller girl’s face and, much like Marine had done earlier, her hand reached to pat the Oni’s head.

“Then I’m counting on you!” Ayame wasn’t sure why, but she felt a feeling of impatience grow inside of her… and her heart skip a beat.

Chapter Text

Ever since that night, things had gone quiet for a while.
It was normal in a way: Subaru and Ayame had both busy schedules to take care of and, while Ayame felt weird about it, she knew that sometimes things can't go the way you want them to.

Right now the Oni was casually checking YouTube to look at cat videos when suddenly something caught her attention.

"Subaru is streaming..." she muttered to herself, a smile appearing on her face as her cheeks turned slightly red. The demon girl found herself clicking on the stream for no reason and started watching the brown-haired girl as she played that weird sausage fighting game.

She always enjoyed checking in on Subaru's streams and, while she couldn't always do it, she would try to catch them as often as she could.

Out of nowhere, she decided to send her a message: she believed that it was time to pay her back for the dinner that she had been offered and go on a date.

"Would you like to come over for dinner? It could be our...date..." For a moment, Subaru stopped speaking but soon she went back to her commentary about the game. She could see that the brown-haired girl was typing and it was surprising how she could be both replying to her text message as well as stream her game.

"Sure! Is 7 pm ok?"

Ayame, for a small moment, giggled to herself before replying with a short 'yeah!'.

Subaru stopped speaking for a moment once again before going back to what she was doing. "Sorry guys! I received an important message and I had to check... now, back to sausage legends!"

Seeing Subaru's reaction made the Oni feel all warm inside and, for the first time in her life, Ayame was worried about her house being presentable for the taller girl.

Ayame kept listening to the stream in the background, deciding to clean up her apartment to prepare for Subaru’s arrival: her house was not too messy, but recently she didn’t have the time (or the will) to clean it up so there was some trash on the floor.
As she swept the floor she could feel her heart do some flips when thinking of the brown-haired girl: the first time she had found out that they were soulmates, she was extremely afraid that something would go wrong… but now she was more worried by the fact that things weren’t changing.

‘Why am I always afraid…’ she thought to herself as she threw away the trash ‘I just want things to be good between us…’ a sigh escaped her lips and so the Oni decided to focus back on the task at hand to distract herself.

Without her even noticing the stream came to an end and, before she could even prepare herself mentally, there was a ring to her doorbell.

“HUH?? IT CAN’T BE 7 ALREAD-“ Ayame interrupted her own phrase as she stared at the clock that, indeed, showed that it was already 7 pm.
The girl hurried towards the door to avoid making Subaru wait and almost managed to fall flat on her face because of a lonely sock that had been forgotten on the floor.

She grabbed the object with one hand while with the other she opened the door.

“H-Hi! Wow you are right on time!” Ayame spoke, seeing the brown-haired girl in front of her with a bright smile on her features.

“Hey! Well, I hate being lat- Umh…”

“Mh? Something wrong?”

“Well not really, but… why do you have a sock in your hand?” Subaru spoke, pointing with her finger towards the article of clothing in her grasp.
Immediately, Ayame’s face blushed incredibly hard as she hid the sock behind her back with clear embarrassment written all over her face.

“A-Ah I was just… y-you see… I was just cleaning a bit…”

“Ah I see!”

“A-anyway… come in!” Ayame moved out of the way to let the girl walk through the door and, as Subaru stepped in, the Oni couldn’t help but stare: usually, when Subaru used to come over, she would be dressed in mostly comfortable clothes that (while not the most elegant) looked very nice on her.
This time, however, she was dressed in a way that was more fancy: a white blouse with high-waisted jeans that made the brown-haired girl look extremely beautiful.

Subaru had never looked as feminine as she did right now, making Ayame’s eyes lock onto her figure as she was mesmerized by her.
“So, what’s the plan for dinner?” the taller girl asked, causing the Oni to blink and remove her gaze (that was very casually moving more and more downwards towards Subaru’s butt) from her.

“A-ah, I thought that we could order something while watching a movie…”

“Oh, that’s a nice idea… do you have anything in mind?”

“You can choose!” Ayame proposed and, after a solid minute of thinking, the brown-haired girl finally came up with something.

“How about sushi?”

“Okay!”

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The two girls were sitting next to each other on the couch and, on the table at the front of the sofa, was a plate full of various kinds of sushi.

On the TV the first of the John Wick’s movie was on and the girls were watching it with quite the interest as they ate the food.
While Subaru seemed fully concentrated on the action on the screen, Ayame had noticed something peculiar about the string.

When they were closer the string seemed far more visible than usual, like there was a small glow to it that would increase with their proximity. To test her theory she moved her hand slightly closer towards Subaru’s own that was currently resting on the sofa cushion.

“Mh? Did you want something?”

Ayame’s hand stopped in her tracks as she saw Subaru look at her as she chewed softly on her food, a curious expression on her face as she tried to study what the Oni was doing.

“A-ah, n-nothing…” Embarrassment filled the demon girl’s face but, before she could retract her hand away, Subaru reached and grabbed her softly.
“Oh, I didn’t notice the string had become redder… what a weird thing, I wonder how it happens.” The brown-haired girl commented with a look of surprise as she intertwined their fingers together.

Ayame at that point felt like her brain was going to erupt like a volcano from the excessive amount of things she was feeling… sure, it wasn’t the first time that she had held hands with someone, but her heart was racing out of nowhere.

She was in such a shock that she could only hum as a reply.

After that, Ayame decided that she should try and focus back on the movie, but it was quite hard since Subaru had not let go of her hand and was holding it in a tight yet soft manner.
‘Maybe I should do something like in those mangas were the girls tugs at the guy’s arm and they cuddle closer?’ She wondered, glancing at their hands together: it felt… nice, it was comforting for Ayame, but she wasn’t sure if Subaru was doing this just because she felt obliged to.

And then a surprising scene happened during the movie, causing the Oni to jump and grasp the taller girl’s arm; the moment that Ayame and Subaru realized what happened, the girls stared at one another with a bit of shyness present on both their faces.

They stayed quiet, but while Ayame seemed far too embarrassed to do anything Subaru gently let go of her hand (which caused Ayame to subtly pout) and then an arm wrapped around the Oni’s shoulders.

‘This is… nice…’ The demon girl thought as she let herself be held by Subaru: she had never experienced something quite as personal as this with someone that wasn’t a family member of hers.

The movie was coming to an end and, with the final scene finally rolling in, the two girls had leaned closer: Subaru had brought Ayame to herself, making her head Tuck under the brown-haired girl's chin.
The Oni couldn't focus anymore on the ending, her heart beating too loudly and, with how close they were, it was hard to try and hide her blush.

Ayame then noticed that Subaru had stopped looking at the movie, turning her head softly to gaze at her.

Time seemed to stop as the two girls ended up staring deeply into one another.

'W-what's happening??' The demon girl's mind was racing with multiple questions popping out with each moment passing. Subaru's arm (which had been draped over her shoulders for a long time) moved away to slide down Ayame's arm, causing the Oni to slightly pull back.

Even if she wanted to, which she didn't, Ayame couldn't keep her eyes away from the blue one's that were keeping her in some sort of trance.

Now the TV in the background emitted just a weak sound that wasn't really hearable by the two of them.
Subaru's cheeks held a soft red tint and, much to Ayame's surprise, she was slowly leaning her head towards her own.

"Subaru...? Nh-!"

Ayame's eyes widened while Subaru's own closed as the taller girl's lips tenderly placed themselves onto her mouth.

There had been multiple times were the Oni had seen two people kiss: movies, mangas, some of her friends... but she was a stranger to the gesture itself.
It felt hazy, warm and gentle... Ayame had never felt anything like that but, while pleasant, the demon girl was extremely nervous and hesitant.

'S-should I do something!? Do I have to put my hands somewhere or...??'

In the panic of it all Ayame didn’t even have the time to respond to such a gesture, her mouth remaining completely still against her soulmate’s lips.

However, it seemed like Subaru had noticed.

After barely 5 seconds spent kissing (which Ayame would disagree and say that it lasted for almost an hour) the taller girl removed herself from the Oni and opened her eyes to look at her.
The sight of a clearly confused and flustered Ayame made Subaru’s heart clench painfully as she decided to get up from the couch in a hurried manner.

“W-wh…” The demon girl was quite shocked by what had just happened, but when she saw the girl who had just planted her lips on her get up she was even more surprised.

“I have to go, I forgot something-“ as Subaru spoke she was already heading towards the door.

“W-wait… Subar-!” Before she could even near the entrance to her home, the taller girl had already exited the apartment, closing the door behind her as she left.
Ayame’s hand reached instinctively towards the door, but soon she slowly retracted it towards herself with a soft sigh: did she do something wrong? Maybe she should’ve said something or maybe Subaru felt uncomfortable?

The demon girl tried to come to terms with what had just happened but the mixture of confusion and worry made it too hard for her to focus in that moment.

“Maybe… maybe she just didn’t feel too good! She ate a lot of sushi and m-maybe she was too embarrassed to go to the toilet…” the Oni mumbled to herself as she tried to come up with something, anything that could have justified Subaru’s abrupt absence.

She decided to simply turn off the TV and clean up the table where they had eaten, throwing away the empty plastic plates that had been filled with food earlier.

And that’s when she accidentally glanced at her own hand.

On her pinkie, where before the string showed off to be extremely red and bright, now it almost looked invisible and the red was dulled out: at the sight of her red string of fate reduced in that state, the girl could feel her throat start to hurt and her chest tighten.

“Was it… my fault?”

Chapter Text

For almost a week Ayame didn’t hear anything from Subaru: she thought that maybe she just needed to wait for a bit and let Subaru be the one to write to her first.

But for almost a week, the Oni’s humor had changed drastically.
The worry and the anxiety about what had happened never stopped and had increased with each day that passed since the last time she had met up with the taller girl.

She knew Subaru for a long time, but that was the first time that she couldn’t figure out what she was thinking: was she upset? Was she just thinking about what had happened? Or was she simply busy and didn’t find the right moment to send her a message? These were just some of the multiple questions that she was mentally asking herself… but the answers were missing.

Streaming got a little bit hard to do since she was worried, but it was also a time where she could take a break from everything at least for a couple of hours.

But then, things took a turn for the worst.

Ayame had been streaming for a couple of hours and had decided to move on to the superchat readings since she was getting a bit tired and wanted to wrap things up.

“-MisOshii thank you! Oh this one is a red superchat, thank you Simpky! ‘Thank you for the stream, I rarely get to watch you cause I am usually watching Subaru’s streams, but since she has taken a break I managed to come here-‘ wait, what? Subaru is on a break?”

There was a pause, the girl immediately looking at the comments to see if other fans were saying the same thing and soon more comments followed saying that it was the truth.

She didn’t say anything after that about Subaru and continued with the superchat readings but, as soon as the stream came to a close, she rushed to twitter to see if the taller girl had actually made a tweet regarding her sudden break.
Then she saw that A-chan had replied to someone by saying ‘hope to see you back soon’ and (by clicking on it and scrolling up) she found the tweet made by her soulmate.

“Sorry guys, I haven’t been feeling all too good lately so I am taking a break for an undefined amount of time… I hope to be back soon and I hope you guys will be waiting for me! –Oozora Subaru.”

As Ayame read the tweet, she couldn’t help but wonder that maybe the other girl was taking a break because of her, that she was the reason for everything that was happening.

She bit her lip in frustration.

The stress about the whole situation that had been building up ever since that kiss bursted out in angry tears and sad sobs resonated through the apartment: she didn’t want to be alone at that time and, in the midst of it all, she grabbed her phone and looked through her contacts.

She pressed the call button and soon the phone was ringing.

“Hello?” The voice on the other side responded.

“M-Marine…”

“A-Ayame? Is everything ok??” Worry was clear in the pirate’s voice as she heard the demon girl speak through the tears and loud groans of sadness.
“N-No… Subaru…” Marine didn’t need to hear anything more as she heard the name of her friend’s soulmate “Listen, I will come over with Rushia, ok? You wait there…” Ayame could only reply with a mumbled ‘yes’ before the call ended.

Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door.

The moment that Ayame opened it, she was embraced by 2 pairs of arms belonging to Rushia and Marine and, overwhelmed by the amount of affection she was receiving in such a moment, she let herself cry a little more.

The pirate and the necromancer brought the girl to the couch and, after letting her get everything out of her system, they looked at her with worry filled eyes.

“What happened?” Asked Marine in a soft voice.

The Oni took in a shaky breath and began retelling everything that had happened: from the moment that they had discussed about being soulmates to the night where Subaru had kissed her.
“-After that, she simply said that she had to go without elaborating and she just… she just left…” the demon girl muttered softly, sniffling the last of her tears.

“I see…” Commented the captain, looking a bit thoughtful.

“Did you say something after the kiss?” Asked Rushia and Ayame simply shook her head “I never had someone kiss me on the lips, I guess I was in such a shock that I didn’t really know what to do about it and… I just… yeah…”

“Did you like, accidentally bite her or something like that?” interjected Marine.

“N-No! I didn’t really do anything! I was so surprised…” Ayame muttered, remembering how sweet the kiss had been and, for a moment, she could still feel the warmth of Subaru’s lips against her own.

“Wait, when you said that you didn’t do anything, you mean that you just kissed her back?”

“Uh? No, I didn’t… should I have done that?” Both Marine and Rushia looked at the demon girl with their eyes wide open and their mouth agape, causing Ayame to worry. “Well, I guess we can figure out why Subaru left then…” Rushia commented and Ayame looked a bit surprised .

“W-what is it?”

Marine and Rushia looked at one another for a moment before looking back at the Oni.

“Let me explain this: she dressed up all nice for dinner with you, she held your hand, then she wrapped her arms around your shoulders and then, when she gave you a kiss, you didn’t kiss her back… she probably thought that you didn’t like it or that she must have done something wrong.” Rushia muttered while Marine, who sat alongside her, gave nods of agreement.

“B-but that’s not true! I just didn’t know what to do!” the Oni said with a worried tone, thinking that she really must’ve messed things up and made a huge misunderstanding with her soulmate.

“I was worrying since things between us didn’t seem to change and I-I thought that maybe Subaru felt forced to be together with me after we found out that we were soulmates-“

“Woah there, slow down!” The necromancer stopped her before the demon girl could start rambling.
“Wait... you actually think that she feels forced to be together with you?” Spouted Marine with a clearly shocked look on her face, like she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

The Oni blinked in surprise at that, raising an eyebrow “Well, why would she kiss me out of nowhere then?” Ayame was clearly confused: they hadn’t really done anything different compared to when they were both without a string of fate, the only real change had been the date (just in terms, they had done dinners like those multiple times) and the kiss.

“I can’t believe this…” mumbled the pirate under her breath before putting her hands on Ayame’s shoulders and making her look in her eyes.

“She did that because she likes you, she actually liked you even before you guys had this soulmate string going on!”

“…eh?”

Ayame needed a moment to take in what she had just heard: Subaru… liked her even before? But how? She never noticed anything different-
“Oh…” and at that moment, the Oni felt incredibly stupid for not even considering every possibility and being such a klutz when it comes to relationships and love.

“I messed up, didn’t I?”

“Yup-Ow!”

The pirate yelped as the necromancer slapped her arm while looking at her with a rather scolding stare before turning her gaze towards Ayame.
“I know how you must have felt, I had a lot of worries when I found out that this pervert right here-“ As she spoke, Rushia pointed with her thumb towards her girlfriend. “-was my soulmate… it was hard, but then she told me that she was actually in love with me for a long time…”

Hearing Rushia speak in such a way made Ayame feel more safe about her own experience.

“I think you should go and talk to her if you want to solve things… she might have misunderstood you by accident! But before you do that… I want to know something: do you like her?”

The Oni hadn’t expected such a question: did she? It was something that she didn’t really think about and it seemed like something that she needed to spend time thinking about before she could even begin figuring it out.

“I-I… I liked the kiss…” Ayame admitted with a small blush, but there were still hints of hesitancy in actually answering to that question.

“Then you should tell her how you felt about it.” Marine interjected, making sure to wrap one of her arms around Rushia’s shoulders.
Ayame nodded, knowing full well that she needed to find the courage to solve the situation with Subaru before it would be too late.

“Then… could I ask you girls for some help?”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subaru was walking at a fast pace on the sidewalk, her eyes focused on the road.
Her day had gone normally up until she was heading home from grabbing her groceries, when she received a distressed call from Rushia saying that Ayame had felt sick and A-chan had asked for someone that could go check on her.

The taller girl could not ignore that, no matter how hard she wanted to.

She arrived at Ayame’s apartment and, without wasting any second, knocked on the door; as much as weird that she felt about meeting once again with the girl, her priority was her health.

The door opened and, much to Subaru’s surprise, Ayame stood in front of her… looking quite well in the health department.
“I… Rushia said that you were feeling sick a-and that A-chan asked her to check on you but she couldn’t…” Subaru muttered softly, her gaze scanning Ayame’s face for any sign of discomfort.

“Yeah… I’m sorry, it’s not true…”

“Huh? W-what do you mean?”

“I am not sick… it was a lie…” When the Oni admitted the truth, Subaru felt slightly betrayed and a small frown was placed on her brows.

“Why did you…”

“Because I noticed that you were… well, ignoring me…” the demon girl scratched the back of her head “I thought that if I tried to write to you normally you would try to avoid me…” Subaru couldn’t deny that she would’ve probably done that, but she didn’t say it out loud.

“I… I don’t think I should stay here, I-“ The taller girl had only managed to take one step back before a hand reached to grab her own and, with quite a good amount of force, she was pulled inside Ayame’s apartment.
The door closed behind Subaru and the Oni put her hands against the door, officially trapping her.

Subaru’s cheeks flushed at the sight of the smaller girl keeping her in place as their eyes met.

For a long moment, silence filled the air around them and it almost made Subaru want to run away from the situation… but then Ayame started speaking.

“I just want to talk, I… I have something to tell you.” Her tone was serious and almost broken, like that something that she wanted to say was actually hurting her deep inside: it made it extremely difficult to say no to her.

“Please…”

Chapter Text

Subaru had not expected that she would end up with her back against the door with Ayame basically doing a kabedon to her… but here she was.

There was some discomfort on her face alongside the embarrassment at the position she was stuck in and her eyes could only glance at the red ones that were trying their best to focus on her.
Ayame’s leg felt wobbly: was she really about to have this conversation with Subaru? There was a side of her that almost wanted to let the taller girl go… but there was a bigger side that wanted to clear everything up.

“I… I am sorry.”

“F-for what?” Subaru blinked, looking confused as to why the Oni was apologizing.

“When… when we had our date at my place… and you kissed me…. I didn’t do anything not because I wanted to, I was panicking and I…” There was a moment of hesitancy in the demon girl’s voice as she wondered if she should confess that it was her first time doing something like that.

“… that was my first kiss…”

At that, the taller girl looked even more surprised “Eh? You’ve never… kissed anyone before?” She asked softly and, noticing the blush on Ayame’s face, she realized that it was indeed the truth.

“I didn’t… know…”

“I guess I panicked a bit, I wondered if I was supposed to like, hold you or something like that but before I could do anything you had already stopped kissing me.” Ayame continued her explanation, her gaze moving to the side to avoid looking into Subaru’s eyes since she felt extremely awkward talking about her first kiss.

“Oh…”

“Yeah… sorry.”

For a moment, Subaru’s eyes seemed to move frantically like she was thinking of something “But you didn’t like it right? You looked so uncomfortable after and paired with the fact that when we realized that we were soulmates you ran towards the bathroom- I knew that it was a bad idea to ask you for a date.”

“W-what are you talking about?” The Oni seemed quite confused since the taller girl had started speaking quite fast.

“When I woke up and I found out that I had this string attached to my finger-“ And as she spoke, she lifted her hand to show Ayame “-I was extremely worried that you might’ve not been my soulmate.”

The demon girl could feel her heart begin to race as she heard Subaru speak.

“I had liked you ever since we had our first collab, we had so much fun together and I was just- I was just head over heels for you… having a soulmate that wasn’t you scared me and I informed A-chan about what happened… then when I got to the office I saw that you and I were connected: I was happy, but then you ran away and I… I got worried.”
Subaru inhaled a shaky breath, feeling tears begin to form at the corner of her eyes.

“A-chan told me that we needed to work it out and I thought that maybe trying and see if we could actually date wasn’t a bad idea… I tried but I could see that you were nervous and it always looked like you didn’t want to be there-“ a sob wrecked her and Ayame couldn’t handle it anymore.

Her arms, which had been placed against the door and blocking Subaru, now moved and embraced the taller girl in a comforting hug as she wept on her shoulder.

“Subaru… that’s not it, I am sorry that I made you feel like I didn’t like spending time with you…” The Oni started explaining, running a hand through Subaru’s dark hair in a relaxing manner.
She really messed up: she should’ve figured things out before going out with her and now she had a crying girl in her arms.

“I was just so nervous: I never had someone that I liked and when I found out that we were soulmates I was worried that maybe you felt forced being with me… I didn’t want our friendship ruined. W-when you proposed the date I was worried, I can’t deny that… but I thought that maybe things wouldn’t be too bad since we were in this together, you know?”

Subaru lifted her head from the shorter girl’s shoulder and glanced at her with puffy and teary eyes, listening carefully to what she has hearing.

“Then I thought that things weren’t really changing from what we have always done and I was afraid that maybe things weren’t going okay… but then you came over and that night everything felt so… special and new.”

There was a blush on Ayame’s cheeks and, as she spoke, a smile had managed to sneak on her lips; her narration however wasn’t over yet.

“When you ran away, I thought it was my fault… that you really were doing it just because we were soulmates and that you felt forced to… I tried to give you some space, but then you took a hiatus period and I… I talked with Marine and Rushia since I was so worried.”

“Oh…”

“After I explained everything, they told me that you had always liked me and I realized that I am an idiot that doesn’t know the first thing about love… I’m sorry that you had to get me as a soulmate.” Silence filled the room and Ayame felt like she had really messed up.

‘I shouldn’t have said anything… she probably hates me now-!’

A pair of arms wrapped around her and she found her train of thoughts stopping immediately, turning her head to look at Subaru.

“I’m sorry, I guess I should’ve been clearer…”

“I-it’s fine! I guess I should’ve read more mangas to understand better-“

“Wait, mangas?”

“N-nevermind!”

The two girls stood there enveloped in a hug and, after looking at one another, a small chuckle escaped their lips and soon they found themselves laughing at their situation.

“We did a pretty big mess…” Ayame nodded as she giggled: it seemed like things had been cleared up and that now they were both feeling a lot better.
“So, what do you wanna do?” Asked Subaru softly and the demon girl started thinking once again: things had started weird but, while there was still some worry and fear present in her heart, Ayame couldn’t deny that she wanted to try.

“I am probably the worst person when it comes to love, I don’t know much about it and I guess I am afraid that I will mess up… but I think that I wouldn’t mind learning… with you…”

Ayame’s heart started beating rapidly and, for once, she understood how people might feel when they declare their love to their crush… even if this was a different kind of situation.
Her eyes scanned Subaru’s face and felt extremely relieved when she saw that a smile was placed on her mouth.

“I’d like that as well, and we can take it as slow as you’d like…” Subaru mumbled, still holding onto Ayame.

“Ok… t-then-“ With a spurt of courage, the shorter girl placed a soft peck at the corner of Subaru’s lips, causing both of them to turn incredibly red.

“I-I owed you a kiss…”

Subaru let out a soft chuckle and softly patted the top of Ayame’s head: they may have had their problems, but they could work things out.

As they were too concentrated on one another, they failed to notice that the string of fate that was connecting them was now a bright red and shined like a sparkling gem.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rain was pouring down hard that afternoon, dark clouds in the sky covering the sun and the wind was making the air cold.

“Mio and Fubuki just wrote to me asking if we could move the double date since the rain is pouring down hard…” Ayame’s voice spoke as she held the phone in her hands.
Under her Subaru was letting her lay on top of her while chilling on the couch, her eyes moving towards the window in her apartment.

“Well, I guess it can’t be helped… we can always go another day-“

“But I really wanted to have this double date!” Ayame pouted softly, snuggling her head in Subaru’s soft tummy as she craved some warmth.

“I know… it would’ve been the first time hanging out together with them ever since we officially got together 3 months ago-“

“Then we should still go!”

“Ayame…” The taller girl knew how hard it could be to make Ayame change her mind, especially if it was related to something that she really cared for: while they had gotten together a while back and things were proceeding steadily, it seemed like the Oni was really excited about showing her off.

But Subaru didn’t mind that and actually felt pretty flattered by this.
As she watched her girlfriend pout softly above her, she had a brilliant idea that could help the Oni focus on something else.

“We could do something just the two of us if the double date can’t be done…” This phrase caught the attention of the demon girl, who simply lifted her head from her girlfriend’s tummy and glanced up at her with her big red eyes.

“Like what…?”

A small smirk made its way over Subaru’s face, causing Ayame to look at her with an eyebrow raised before she ended up under her girlfriend.
Ayame’s cheek turned a bright red as she gulped nervously: her girlfriend was staring at her with both love and a little something else that made sure to make the Oni feel incredibly warm inside.

“How about this? We order some food for dinner and while we wait we have some fun, what do you say, mh?”

If there was something that was hard to resist, it was Subaru’s voice that could easily turn from her quirky (and duck-like) tone into an ikemen beauty: it was basically impossible for Ayame to say no… but luckily for her, it seemed like she didn’t want to say no at all.

“O-ok…”

Hearing the reply the taller girl smiled a little before leaning closer to Ayame and planting a long kiss against her lips that was soon reciprocated by the demon girl.
Ayame’s arms wrapped around her girlfriend’s neck and brought her closer so that she could kiss her better: with time, she got quite good at kissing (thanks also to the help that she was receiving from her girlfriend).

Before separating completely, Subaru gave a little bite to the Oni’s lower lip in a teasing manner.

“You have gotten better…”

“Thanks, I had the best teacher to help me.” At the reply, Subaru planted multiple kisses on her girlfriend’s face, eliciting numerous giggles that she always loved to hear.

“C’mon, I will order something for us while you send a message to Mio, does pizza sounds good for you?” Asked Subaru “Yeah, that is a really nice idea!” Subaru moved away from the top of her girlfriend and went to grab her phone.

Ayame saw the figure of her girlfriend move away towards the kitchen as she called for a restaurant to order the food.
She thought for a long moment about the recent months spent together: the struggles that they had overcome, the laughs and tears that they had shared together… and how she had learned about relationships.

She glanced at her red string of fate and silently thanked the universe for helping her, but she knew that with or without the string… she still loved Subaru with all her heart.

With a happy smile, Ayame grabbed her phone and sent a reply to her friend.

“Alright, we can always have the date another time! Tell me when you girls would like to meet up…” after hitting the ‘send’ button, she headed towards the kitchen, seeing her girlfriend end the call.
She wrapped her arms around her waist and gently hugged her from behind, causing Subaru to turn around and embrace her.

“I will offer dinner this time, no strings attached.”

“How nice!” the girls once again ended up planting kisses filled with love against one another, before Subaru lifted her up and carried her once again back towards the sofa.