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It had been four months since Akane had first met Mikan Tsumiki.
The location, regrettably, had been at the local pub where Akane danced - under the guise that she was being fooled by an old man into dancing for money, but she knew the truth was that she was selling herself out to survive - and there, it was there, when she had seen that girl for the first time and felt superfluously, crushingly hopeless.
Her first thought was that Mikan Tsumiki was a sad, sad individual. Not sad as in she cried a lot - though Akane slowly noted that she did - but sad as in she was a sad person, with a sad disposition and a resigned outlook to life. (Well, she hadn't been able to put it in words properly until she brought it up with her best friend Sonia, who told her this much was so).
The girl was timid, curvy and sweet - the kind of girl they liked around here, but not Akane, no, that girl didn't belong in this bitter, disgusting place - and with sinking dread, Akane discovered she worked daytime as a nurse, and was looking into some work in the nightlife; a small ask that got snatched up by cavernous fish in the forms of lecherous men and overwhelming business demands - and that was how it all began.
Mikan Tsumiki had joined her shortly after their first meeting, in the whole 'dancing' business, at the exact same pub. Akane never enjoyed a minute of it.
The reasons, she thought, were righteously obvious.
She didn't enjoy dancing, that girl; Tsumiki. She didn't care about the money either. She didn't do it because she had to - she didn't have siblings to look after and an uncertain future as Akane did, and she had a comfortable life somewhere out there as a part-time nurse... she had a good place. A place that shouldn't have involved downtown dancing for money to live.
But it was after one, short conversation:
"Y'know, Tsumiki, I really don't think you should be here."
"I-I'm sorry to be such a bother, O-owari-san, I can make it up to you in any way you want...! D-do you want money? Food? My clothes? I-I can give you anything, anything you want."
"Nah, it's not me... s'just I really don't think ya belong here, girlie."
"I... I'm terribly, sorry...! I already told you, I can give you whatever you want, so... please, don't hate me..."
"What? I don't hate you, I just don't think this is the right place for you, y'know? Girls like you shouldn't be here. That sorta thing."
The atmosphere had abruptly and surprisingly tensed, as Tsumiki turned momentarily assertive. "... if you want me to leave, I'm not going to. I know you won't forgive me for being here, but they love me here. They accept me for who I am. I'm not going anywhere."
... and that sent the gears in her mind whirring again. Back to her first impressions of Mikan Tsumiki, back to what she knew and what she didn't know about the nurse, and down to the very reason why Mikan Tsumiki wanted the job in the first place.
"She's a sad person." Akane told Sonia, as the two were meeting for lunch one day to catch up. It was a comfortable routine, and an easy one, compared to the amount of chaos that went on in Akane's life in all other senses of the word. Sonia was a beautiful constant and confidant, and though offered many times to help her friend out financially, Akane couldn't bring herself to lynch off the heiress - preferring their friendship to be built on sincerity rather than money.
"She sounds like a lonely person." Sonia had mused quietly, sipping at her tea. "To think that a human being would subject themselves to public humiliation for well, love if you can call it that, is... it's not pure, in any case. Love is supposed to be pure."
"Hah. Yeah, that's what you'd think, huh?"
A delicate hand came up to Sonia's mouth. "I do not mean to insult you, Akane! I understand that you must... use your body so that you can support your family - though there are more preferable options - but this co-worker of yours seems to be consumed in bizarre conceptions of love. So much that I could say she is satisfied with cheap and dirty love rather than any kind of pure love!"
"That's uh, kinda, yeah." Akane nodded, biting into her sandwich and nodding thoughtfully. "She's sad, as I said. I got no better way to say it."
Sonia hummed. "Is it because she is 'sad' that you want to make her happy then? Or would you just rather she left for good?"
"I dunno," Akane shrugged, swallowing and biting into her sandwich again. "I want her to be happy, 'cuz everyone deserves to be, but I really don't know."
"What is it you do not know?"
"I just don't know what to do." Akane sighed through a mouthful of bread, thinking before acting for the first time in a long time. Had this happened a year ago, she was sure she would've simply packed her bags and left someone else's problems for them to deal with themselves.
"Make friends with her," Sonia suggested, exuding pure calm and intelligence, despite her simple words. She glanced in out the window, somewhat sadly, before she sighed and gave her friend a reassuring smile. "That's the kindest thing you could do for a girl like that; a girl who's done all that you've done not out of necessity but out of loneliness."
"... all I caught outta that was the 'make friends' part, but I'll see what I can do. It ain't easy, I'm tellin' ya!"
"I'll be in full support of you, Akane. If my perception of her is wrong, then you are obliged to place the blame on me."
"Dude, you've got nothin' to do with this, don't worry. By the end of the week, we'll be happy chappy, just you wait!"
"That's certainly hella speedy for a friendship!"
"... Sonia, just stop that while you're at it."
"You're my friend, so ... 'deal with it'."
"Sonia."
The blonde giggled delicately into her slender hand, "Good luck though, really. I'd love for you to introduce us when you're ready."
So with that, Akane was stuck with the challenge of making Mikan Tsumiki her friend - though she had no way to know how to go about it. In the first place, what did Tsumiki even like...? She didn't seem to be the type that appreciated being bribed by truckloads of free food (like herself), but she didn't seem the type like Sonia, to be interested in occult and horror (was that normal? Even Akane didn't know).
Without direction, Akane resorted to the only option she knew how, which was charge straight on.
"Yo, Tsumiki! Got a second?"
It was a night where the nurse arrived minutes after her - a fairly common occurrence, though Akane didn't want to know why - and so it had been easy to sweep her into conversation before she got lost in the Friday night crowd.
"Y-yes...! What is it, Owari...? W-what do you need...?"
"Be my friend!"
Ah, yes. Subtlety was her middle name.
"..." Tsumiki answered with a stunned silence. He brown eyes were wide, lashes quivering both under heavy mascara and the rapidity at which she was blinking.
"Uh, hello in there? Yer know what friend means, right?"
"Y-y-yes, b-but you would want to be... friend with someone like me?"
A tan hand reached up to scratch at her cheek, as Akane regarded the nurse with a raised eyebrow and sense of incredulity. "Why wouldn't I?"
"I-I always..."
"No, wait, stop. I don't wanna hear it." She flashed the smaller, thinner girl a grin. "Let's start this again. I'm Akane Owari, nice to meetcha!"
"E-eh? Um.. um..!" Squeezing her eyes shut and clenching her hands together, Tsumiki replied with a determined, "Mikan Tsumiki! I-it's my pleasure!"
"Nice name." The brunette whistled, "T'is a fruit. You're a fruit."
"U-um, yes, 'Mikan' does mean 'mandarin', but I-I'm sorry, I'm not a fruit... I'm really sorry! If you want to eat me then that's - "
"Whoa, chill. I was kidding." Stretching out her hand, she grinned. "Hey, let's shake on it. Friends?"
Tsumiki looked stunned, glancing from the hand to the other girl's face and back to the hand again. "Y-you... forgive me?"
Akane, not knowing what she meant by that, only shrugged. "You gonna shake on it or not?"
The nurse blubbered for a moment, before deciding that yes, she was going to shake on it, so she reached out her own slender hand...
... and proceeded to fall straight into the brunette, knocking them both to the floor. Their limbs were a tangled mess, and a few barstools had skidded to make way for them as they fell. In the process, their foreheads had smashed together and Akane hissed, glad that she was able to cushion the nurse's fall, but annoyed that she had been caught off guard and couldn't land more smoothly. "What the heck..."
Tears sprang to Tsumiki's eyes, soon escalating to a waterfall - droplets of water trickling down her face as she sat up on Akane's stomach, apologizing as if her life depended on it.
"Just... get off," Akane waved up at her, squinting, "Hey, hey, shush, clumsy. T'was an accident!"
"I-I'll fix it, I'm sorry!" wailed Tsumiki, hands trembling as she pulled out an array of first aid supplies out of seemingly nowhere. They seemed to start to gather a crowd, but Tsumiki's attention was fixated on 'mending' whatever she had broken - which apparently translated to wrapping bandages around Akane's confused face, whilst the girl tried to wriggle out from under her without looking awkward doing so.
"Ey, what's the matter?" She asked, as soon as she got out from under Tsumiki, who had followed her with her active hands, continuing to wrap the bandage around her head.
"I'm sorry," was the nurse's only reply, and it was at this instant that Akane felt like there were entirely too many bandages around her head for what was - at most - a small bruise.
"Why're ya apologizin'?" Swatting the hands away, she felt her face for any blood. There was none. So slowly, she started unraveling the bandages, hoping that this didn't somehow offend the other girl. "You did nothing wrong. So don't apologize."
"I-I'm sorry..."
"What did I just say about apologizin'?" Akane, on a whim, reached out and ruffled the nurse's hair. "You're a silly one, mandarin."
"I-I-I'm not a mandarin," she squeaked, accepting the affection by pressing her head to the foreign hand.
Akane cackled, "Yer a mandarin, and the greatest mandarin ever."
"I-I'm not..."
Standing up, Akane brushed herself off, and then helped the other girl to her feet. She shot a glare around at the crowd, and so they scattered, or turned to each other to chat - to keep the attention off of them both as they continued to converse. The brunette figured since the fall basically broke the ice for her, she would just go ahead and ask Tsumiki for an outing this weekend. "So, as my new friend, what do you say about hangin' out on, uhh, Sunday? Or something?"
The other's head shot up, choppy strands of hair flying from the motion. Her mouth was wide open, lips curled. "H-h-hanging out...?"
"Yeah. How about it?"
"U-um, I'm... I'm free... but..."
Akane frowned. "But what?"
"Y-you would want to... h-hang out with someone like me?" Her eyes seemed to glaze over, but Akane paid it no mind. Tsumiki had already been proven to be a little on the weird side. She had time to figure this one out.
"If I didn't, I wouldn't be asking, y'know."
"I..." the nurse burst into a round of fresh tears. Okay. Well, that was normal for her so... "I'm so happy. I'd love to."
"Hell yeaaaah!" Akane whooped, offering her hand for a hi-five. Tsumiki glanced at it curiously, before tapping her hand to it ever-so-gently. The brunette took the opportunity to grab hold of her hand. "You won't regret it; I promise!"
"It... it's a date?" Tsumiki rejoined, in a timid voice.
"It's a date!" Akane shouted, dragging her off to the dressing rooms. They had to get ready for work, after all.
It took a few moments before Akane processed their last exchange.
Wait. Date?
She shrugged, kicking open the back door and hauling her co-worker behind her. She let the girl free after they passed the nurse's room, and she kept heading down to her own.
Whatever. It's a date.
Tsumiki seemed to have a renewed bounce in her step as she scuttled off to get changed, clutching the lingering warmth of her hand to her chest.
"It's a date," she giggled to herself, cheeks flushed, "I'm going on a date..."
Akane said the same thing to herself in the other dressing room, staring off into space as she wracked her brains for what they would do. If it was a date, it would have to be... like... date-y, right?
Ehh. I'll ask Sonia tomorrow. She nodded to herself, running in and out of her closet, setting a record for fastest wardrobe change yet.
If anything was certain, this Sunday, she was determined to make the sad girl smile.