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It was a comfy day during the weekend before the two week long winter break, so that meant Pareo and Chu2 had an entire two weeks of comfy days ahead of them too. With, you know, band stuff in between those days too of course. As a Super Cool Tactical Move, the two had decided to get a head start on their comfy days upon the rather randomly placed king-sized bed within Chu2's penthouse's lounge. As bizarre as it seemed to have a bed there, it was still a pretty comfy place to hang out during late afternoons as it had a good view of the large TV on the wall in the same room. However, Pareo's eyes were glued firmly on a much smaller screen. She lay on her stomach, her chin propped up on the squishy pillow she held in her arms and happily kicked her legs behind her as she intently watched Chu2's iPad on it's stand. Her girlfriend sat crossed-legged beside her, head slightly tilted like a little cat.
"You're... still watching those?" Chu2 had to ask eventually. It seemed like the second the two had put their comfy clothes on that afternoon, Pareo had practically been bouncing on the spot with eagerness until she got her hands on that iPad. As soon as she got it, she was getting comfortable and smashing in a variety of keywords into the YouTube search bar with most being the names of specific idol girls only to end up watching numerous vertical videos of them singing and dancing on stage.
"Mhm! I saved the names of lots and lots to watch when I came home to Chu2-sama~" Pareo responded, her voice full of glee just as one video came to the end. Almost immediately she was scrolling down the recommended bar to see what to put on next.
"... Couldn't you watch these "fancams" in your room at your parent's house?" It sounded a little unintentionally rude, but Chu2 was just curious. She did often sit with Pareo and watch a couple of these videos with her because... y'know... what's there to dislike about watching videos of pretty, talented women with your girlfriend?
However, as soon as the question was asked, Pareo paused her scrolling, her expression dropping ever so slightly. "Umm..." She began, searching for the right words. "Mm... My... mother was home a lot during the week... and I do enjoy spending time with her! But she... you know, tells me things sometimes that... puts me off doing things I enjoy sometimes." Her voice grew quiet as she finished her sentence.
"Things...? What sort of-" Ah. Chu2 realized it was a dumb question. "O-Oh... S-Sorry."
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Despite the subject matter, a smile was still upon Pareo's face as she shook her head in response to her girlfriend's awkward apology. "It's just... ah... the usual stuff... about the future and all." She didn't need to elaborate. Chu2 understood. She'd been there during moments where Pareo had come home after a particularly tough day at school or her parent's house, and during particular moments of exhaustion, Pareo had often poured her little heart out about the things that her parents or classmates or anybody had recited that scared her. The thing that seemed to hurt her the most was the things her own mother said, usually regarding what her mother deemed a "suitable" and "correct" future for her only daughter.
"It didn't help that she wanted to watch TV with me once I was done with studying..." Although Pareo whined, there was still a lighthearted exaggeration to her voice as she fiddled with the hem of her sleeve. She probably didn't want to dwell too long on the things that upset her right now, especially now she was outside of all of that and beside her girlfriend. "There's so many... m...men on there! I don't know if I'm supposed or look away or pretend I don't... mind them but..." And then her face proceeded to flop into the pillow in her arms with a groan of built of frustration. "Gosshh~ It's just so hard to pretend! When Hina-chan last invited me shopping, a boy asked us for directions and even she told me I looked at him like he was a bug on the ground!"
"Well... Who cares. You don't need to hide how you think men are gross as hell here, you know." Chu2 responded, sounding very smug and proud of herself for sliding in her snarky remarks. However, Pareo raised her head to look at her with an expression of surprise.
"Chu2-sama...! I... P-Pareo does not-"
"There's no use denying it. You're totally right anyways. Boys are super gross." It seemed Chu2 was taking great joy in the opportunity to proudly declare her strong thoughts upon men, all with a smug smile still on her face. She'd already told Pareo plenty of pretty exaggerated "horror stories" about the boys in her class back in America when her girlfriend had curiously asked what it was like to go to school with them. Chu2 always told her she was insanely lucky to never go to a mixed school because it meant she was free from "gross boy germs". The two were very fourteen. "Besides, Pareo..." Chu2 spoke again, but this time her voice had shifted to flustered mumble as she folded her arms. "The way you look at men like they're dirt and all... it's pretty cool, you know."
"Chu2-samaaaa...!" Pareo initially whined, only processing the first thing her girlfriend told her. "Pareo doesn't... E-Eh?? Cool....?" But then it hit her.
Chu2 gave her a firm nod.
Okay, Pareo... sort of maybe didn't like being near men much. Or... at all. She didn't get their appeal at all, and she was so used to how "overhyped" they were at her middle school, but she didn't want to appear rude! She wasn't rude. But... Chu2 found it cool... was it cool? Pareo did find the teeny girl sharing her stories about the awful awful boys in her American school pretty cool, after all...
"So should... Pareo... look at men in a mean way more often?"
"Yes! Exactly!"
"Even the ones who open the door for me...?"
"It's called being a "GIRLBOSS", Pareo. It's cool."
"Hmmm...." Pareo didn't look convinced, but she did feel quite content with the feeling that Chu2 thought she was being "girlboss" when she unintentionally let her distaste for men become apparent. It made her heart feel warm and fuzzy.
As two sat in quite for a moment, Chu2 couldn't help but think back to what Pareo had referenced earlier in regards to the things Pareo's mother would say. She knew all too well how much even the smallest things would hurt her, from the small scoffs whenever her mother saw anything remotely gay on television from the apparently proud rambles about how her precious perfect daughter's cooking skills would make a man happy... God, Chu2 couldn't bare the thought of someone saying those things to Pareo. But alas, there wasn't much she could do so she usually didn't want to think about it for long. If it was out of her control, surely she should put all her focus on making her girlfriend feel better and supported rather than wasting her energy getting upset. So maybe she should start with helping Pareo cope with whatever words were thrown her way.
"But don't you think it's weird?" Chu2 asked suddenly. It sure was a start.
Pareo looked back up at her, wearing a perplexed expression. "Eh?"
"The stuff you mentioned earlier." She tried to explain. "How your parents base your entire future based on some random organs you're born with."
"C-Chu2-sama...!" Pareo appeared startled by her girlfriend's word choice, yet she meekly glanced away as she replied. "Don't... phrase it like that..."
"How else am I supposed to phrase it? I'm right." Chu2 just continued to double down. "It's even weirder that they think you have to act a specific way because of that too. They base who you are as a person around it... it's like... picking your career choice based on your eye color or something. It's stupid, Pareo."
Pareo had her brows furrowed as she glanced off to the side. For a moment, Chu2 was worried she upset her. Maybe her wording had been a little... off. Perhaps she was been too harsh in her choice of wording, or perhaps she was overstepping. She couldn't exactly read Pareo's expression at that moment, but she could tell the girl was deep in thought. But... what was she thinking about exactly? Chu2 tried not to overthink her response (or lack thereof), but it seemed she didn't exactly have much time to do so.
"Chu2-sama's... right." Pareo spoke up eventually despite her gaze still being cast into the duvet in front of her. "I just... I've... never thought about it, is all. Not like that, I mean..." She gave her pillow a squeeze that only grew tighter. Maybe she was so used to these concepts of how she was supposed to "be" as a girl that she never took time to properly question everything, or- "I think... I just never wanted to think about it for too long. But, Chu2-sama... is right...!" Optimism returned to her voice as she shuffled into a sitting-up position, crossing her legs as she did so with her pillow still held close. There were a lot of feelings buzzing around Pareo's head at that moment, but bright and clear realization seemed to overshadow them all. There was bits and pieces of guilt-like sensations here and there, telling her this sort of thing was her being "bad" and "defiant" by going against everything, but what was she being defiant against exactly? Chu2 had described exactly what she was taught growing up. Her parents, everybody in her life up until meeting her girlfriend... they'd defined every single thing about her by a marker on her birth certificate. How she was supposed to behave, what she was supposed to do with her life, who she would love... Chu2 was right. "It's... it really is..." The word was hard to get out of her throat, but a look of determination found itself upon Pareo's face. "Stupid!" But then she of course covered her mouth. "... Oh my goodness."
Chu2 was delighted by her realizations. Pride swelled in her chest as she watched that enthusiastic sparkle in Pareo’s eyes as the taller girl said her first vaguely-mean word in what was probably months. "Yes, Pareo! You tell them!" She cheered, raising a triumphant fist in celebration of her girlfriend. "Tell them what you really think! Tell them- bwah-!?" But then, before the teeny girl had time to finish hyping her up, she found herself being quickly scooped into a very snuggly hug from behind.
"Then, Pareo will tell them that she loves Chu2-sama so so much~!" Pareo cheered, holding the teenier girl so easily in her arms as if she was a teddy bear or tiny cat, the pillow she was previously holding now discarded. Although Chu2 let out a small, slightly-taken-aback-from-the-surprise-hug whine, leaning back into warm comfy girlfriendness and having her face nuzzled did make her feel all toasty and gay inside. So toasty and gay in fact, she was the teensiest bit disappointed when Pareo suddenly paused her sappiness. "Ah... actually... I love you so so much!" She began, enthusiasm still present in her voice yet her tone had softened greatly. "And... and we're girlfriends! And that's really really lovely!"
Oh. Ohhh man. There goes Chu2's heart. Chu2 said nothing for a moment as she felt as if she was blue screening from the sudden surge of love in her chest, but still she wanted to express her affection in return and so she pawed at one of Pareo's hands that was on her waist to try and hold it. "L-Love you too.... gaylord..."
"Ehh~ Chu2-samaaa!" Pareo whined dramatically as she brought back the face nuzzles. "Pareo thought that was Chu2-sama's title~ Fufu!"
Once the two had finished their little back-and-forth and giggled it off, Pareo rested her chin on top of her teeny girlfriend's shoulder as the small DJ in question leaned back into her and simply enjoyed being held like a little plushie and holding hands. Everything felt so soft like this.
"Chu2-sama... you really are right, you know..." Pareo spoke up after a moment of quietness, tracing soft circles over the back of Chu2's hand. She'd said she was right multiple times by now, as if she couldn't get over the new revelations she was making in her brain after the other girl's words. "Like... everybody wants girls to like boys, right? But then.. if you show too much interest in a boy, they'll call you all sorts of horrible names! It's so... It's... so..."
"Dumb?"
"Y-Yes! It's... It's dumb!"
"But... you know what's not dumb?" Chu2 was feeling smooth. Until she crawled out of Pareo's lap to shuffle around and face her. It was those big, pretty red eyes gazing back at her that always threw her off.
"Oh? What's that?" Pareo asked curiously, with another slight tilt of her head and oh god Chu2 was so very lesbian.
Her smoothness had vanished. She'd completely forgotten what she was about to say. "Uhh... us- I-I mean, we're... not..." Yeah, that was going to sound stupid. "I mean, we're the...o-opposite of... umm... Huh?" Thankfully she had no need to try and figure out what to say as the lovely girl in front of her tenderly took ahold of her hand once more.
"Pareo... I mean, I think I know what Chu2-sama's trying to say!" She began. Nothing but love was in her eyes as she looked back at a rather surprised Chu2. "I'm not... No, we're not the ones who are flawed! I don't want to say any more mean things but... how could anybody think what we have isn't pretty... right?" She beamed and Chu2 swore her heart melted. She was absolutely at a loss for words with how to respond to Pareo, but thankfully she knew the other girl understood that she wasn't great with her words in these situations. And so, as if she could read her mind, Pareo just took Chu2 into a gentle hug. "I love you ♡"
Chu2 buried her face in her shoulder (she couldn't help doing it even if she didn't intend to), squeezing the soft fabric of Pareo's shirt in her hands as a way to let out all of the energy the buzzy love feelings left her with. "Y-You're... right. And... and I r-really love you too..." And everything felt comfortable and peaceful for several long moments. Until she felt Pareo suppress a giggle.
"Don't say it."
"Ehh~ But Chu2-sama called Pareo it first!" She sounded sulky, yet she couldn't keep up the dramatic act for long and instead gave her a light kiss upon the top of her head. "Can we stay like this for a while?"
Chu2 was quick to respond with a nod.