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“Come on Takina! Have a drink with us!” Chisato pushes a drink into Takina’s hand with her usual big grin, cheeks already starting to redden from the alcohol.
‘Chisato sure is a lightweight.’
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Takina argues back, attempting to set the drink on the counter. As soon as it touches the surface Chisato snatches it up, a mischievous look in her eyes that Takina knows is only bad news.
“If you don’t drink this Takina,” Chisato pauses for dramatic effect, “I’m just going to have to drink it myself!” She brings the cup up to her mouth, only getting a small bit of the red liquid, before Takina grabs the drink from her.
“I think you’ve had too much already,” Takina mumbles under her breath. Chisato watches impatiently, eyes darting from the cup to Takina and back again. Takina sighs. She knows Chisato is just trying to get her to drink, but that didn’t mean Chisato’s threat was empty. She brings the cup to her lips, not taking her eyes off Chisato for a moment. Chisato just watches with anticipation, biting her lower lip slightly seemingly from keeping her wide grin at bay. Takina takes a very small sip, but it’s enough to make her wince from the taste of alcohol. Chisato giggles and grabs Takina’s hand, pulling her away from the counter, and towards the rest of the party.
“Come on, let’s play with the others,” Chisato exclaims as she drags Takina from the safety of watching to the dread of participating. Takina admits she has come to like board game nights more over these past months, well at least more than she did at the beginning of her time at LycoReco. However, tonight was different. One of the regulars brought a couple of bottles of some fancy wine insisting everyone try some, even Takina and Chisato. Though Takina argued that it was against the law, Mr. Abe said that since Mika was their guardian it was fine as long as they stayed with Mika, and they didn’t overdo it.
“She’s already overdone it,” Takina whispers to herself looking at her hand in Chisato’s. It’s warm, more warm than normal. Takina ignores how her heart flutters at Chisato’s warmth, just the alcohol. To the average person, Chisato is acting normally, but to Takina, who has watched Chisato and been by her side, knows better. Her speech is slightly slurred, cheeks are flushed, eyes more dilatated than normal. As they approach the table, the others look up from their game. Chisato gently pushes Takina down onto half a cushion and sits on the other half. Their sides press against each other, reminding Takina of how warm Chisato is right now.
“Chisato! You got Takina to join us,” Mr. Abe says with a big grin on his face, face more flushed than Chisato.
‘Also drunk,’ Takina notes to herself. Though he seemed more stable than Chisato, who is now leaning on Takina, arm wrapping around her side, hugging her close.
“Of course, you can leave it to me,” Chisato cheers and raises her glass and takes a sip. The others chuckle at her. Maybe she is more drunk than Takina originally thought as whiff of Chisato’s breath, laced with the scent of alcohol, hits Takina’s nose. She leans over to whisper in Chisato’s ear.
“Didn’t Mr. Abe say to not overdo it?” Takina whispers in a low voice, not wanting to alert anyone as to how drunk Chisato has become. Takina feels Chisato shiver against her. “How are you shivering? You’re so warm.”
“It’s fine Takina. No one has noticed,” Chisato whispers in reply before pulling back, giving Takina a sheepish smile. Takina forgets that she asked a question and doesn’t realize Chisato avoided answering it. Sometimes when Chisato looks at her everything else melts away, and that ‘sometimes’ is happening right now.
“Hey lovebirds,” Kurumi calls from across the table, breaking their unintentional staring contest, “you going to play or what?” Takina blushes slightly, though she’s not entirely sure why. She chalks it up to being caught not paying attention to her surroundings.
‘Alcohol is dangerous.’
“Of course we are playing!” Chisato exclaims. She pauses, looking at the game in front of her. “Ehh, what are we playing again?”
“Ugh, I’ll go over the rules again,” Kurumi grumbles. While Kurumi explains the rules, something that interests Takina very little, she decides that she will start siphoning Chisato’s cup of wine into her own in an effort to slow her down even a little bit. Though it would be suspicious if Takina’s cup kept getting fuller. Takina sighs to herself, closing her eyes for a moment.
‘I guess I need to drink at least as much as I take’
As she is pondering to herself the pros and cons of drinking Chisato’s alcohol, she feels a nudge in her side. She opens her eyes and looks at the source. Chisato is staring at her, head tilted to one side with a quizzical look on her face.
“Just a bit tired,” Takina mumbles, looking down. Why did Chisato have to have such good eyesight? A hand starts to gentle rub her head. She looks up and Chisato is staring at her with that brilliant smile that could light up even the cloudiest of days.
“One game, then we can head home,” Chisato says softly, much to Takina’s surprise seeing how boisterous Chisato had been just moments earlier. Takina feels her blush coming back. She takes a sip of her drink, still wincing at the taste, to have an excuse to look away from Chisato. She doesn’t want to be caught not paying attention again. Kurumi either doesn’t notice or decides to not care about their lack of attention to her explanation, which Takina is grateful for. Takina puts down her cup before responding, still not looking at Chisato.
“Ok,” she replies, voice as soft as Chisato’s had been.
Unfortunately for Takina, one game turns into three once Chisato’s competitive side came out. Arguments over rules and points drone on in Takina’s head. She honestly doesn’t care about participating in board game night. Though she has come to enjoy the company of her coworkers and patrons, she can’t say she enjoys playing against Chisato and Kurumi, who seem to fight over the littlest thing. She won’t admit it to anyone, not even herself, but she enjoys the way Chisato maintained physical contact with her in some way throughout the night. Whether it be their sides pressed against each other, Chisato leaning on her or reaching over her, her hand on Takina’s leg when she was trying to get leverage to reach across the board to move her piece, even intertwining their fingers for a brief moment before Chisato exploded with anger when she realized Kurumi tried to cheat. Takina enjoys it all. That’s probably why when Chisato begs to stay for another game, giving her puppy dog eyes, Takina caves easily.
Due to the extra games, most everyone had left by the time the third game was wraps up, save for the LycoReco workers and another regular. Also due to these circumstances Takina’s plan of siphoning Chisato’s drink caused her to be a bit more intoxicated than she would like. Unfortunately, it seems like Chisato is still as drunk as when they first sat down at this table, so the plan was pointless. Though Takina couldn’t bring herself to hate the situation when Chisato gives her a lop-sided grin and nudges Takina’s shoulder with her own.
“Wanna go home?”
“Mmm,” Takina hums back in affirmation.
“Hold it,” Kurumi stops them, “you need to stay help us clean up. It is Chisato’s turn this week. And no, I’m not trading with you again,” Kurumi cuts Chisato off before she could even form a thought. “I’m not going to let you up and leave just because you’re making heart eyes at each other.”
“Fine,” Chisato huffs. She stands up quickly and almost falls over, grabbing Takina’s shoulder for balance. “I’m good,” she says to no one in particular before gathering pieces and putting them into plastic baggies.
“Jeez, you could at least try to act more sober next time,” Kurumi bemoans. Chisato looks at her in pure shock. Takina is slightly shocked too. She thought Chisato wasn’t acting too much differently than her normal self. Kurumi looks between the two of them.
“I could see how Chisato missed it, but you too Takina? She was knocking over pieces, slurring her speech, and hanging off you the entire night. She usually has the common sense to not practically sit in your lap,” Chisato opens her mouth to protest, “at least in front of customers. Jeez, after Mr. Abe let you off the hook for this too.” Kurumi shakes her head.
“Ehh, sorry Kurumi,” Chisato tries to bow in apology, but almost falls onto Takina who reaches out to steady her. Her hand lands on Chisato’s hip and thigh, causing a blush to radiate though Takina’s face again. “Ah, thanks Takina,” Chisato stammers out. Kurumi just clicks her tongue and goes back to cleaning the table off. Chisato retreats to a table behind them to pack away those board game pieces.
Takina snaps out of her slight trance and grabs discarded cups, bringing them to the kitchen. She lets the water warm up a bit before setting on washing the cups. Not knowing if the cup could have a residual alcoholic flavor, Takina takes care to scrub each cup thoroughly. Her mind wanders during this process, thinking of nothing particularly, mainly avoiding the thought that though the water is warm it isn’t the warmth she wanted. She shakes her head lightly, as if that would help get rid of those unnecessary thoughts, and focuses on cleaning the cups. She’s washed and dried a little over half of the cups when she feels arms wrap around her waist. She stiffens for a moment before relaxing into Chisato’s embrace. Chisato rests her chin on Takina’s shoulder, watching her work.
“Need something?” Takina asks after a minute of silence.
“Not really,” Chisato hums, her breath tickling Takina’s face, sending shivers down her spine.
“You could help me dry.” Chisato doesn’t respond. “The sooner I finish the sooner we can go home…” Chisato hums.
“Well ehh, I don’t think I can,” she says sheepishly. Takina pauses her washing.
“What do you mean?” Takina says turning around in their embrace.
“Ahh.” Chisato fumbles a bit. Takina grabs Chisato’s arm and waist to prevent her from falling over. Then Chisato’s face comes inches from Takina’s. Takina squints at the other girl’s flushed face. Chisato does her best to look away from Takina’s glare, but Takina takes the hand that was on Chisato’s arm and puts it under her chin, making Chisato face her directly.
“How are you more drunk than when I left you?” Takina exasperates.
“Well, you see, I saw you picking up cups, so I grabbed ours before you took them and uhh, I might have finished them.” Takina stares at her, mouth agape. “Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t want to waste it.” Takina lets out a deep sigh. All her efforts went to absolute waste.
“Jeez, can you even stand on your own?”
“I’m sure I could!” Chisato takes a step back, out of Takina’s grip. She wobbles a bit before tripping over her feet, causing Takina to grab her once again and pull her into her arms. Takina feels Chisato’s warm breath on her face, mixing with her own. “Sorry,” Chisato squeaks out. Takina averts her eyes and turns back to the sink. Reaching behind her, she takes Chisato’s hands and wrap them around her torso.
“Just hold onto me for now.” Takina begins her washing, trying to ignore the blush that starts to creep up as Chisato tightens her grip and rests her cheek on Takina’s back. Chisato’s chest pushes against Takina’s back as she breathes. At first it felt uncomfortable, but after a bit it felt comforting and natural. Eventually Takina subconsciously matched her breathing to Chisato’s, breathing in as Chisato breathed out. Their breathing and the running faucet mixed into a comfortable pseudo-silence. After a few more minutes of washing and drying, Takina turned off the sink.
“Ok, Chisato, I’m all done here. Let’s go home.” No response. “Chisato?” A light snore broke the silence. “Oh.” Takina sighs and debates her options. She could just wake Chisato, but maybe an asleep Chisato was better than a drunk one. She could try to carry Chisato upstairs to sleep here for the night, but she would need to set up a bed for her. Takina, wrapped up in her internal debate, didn’t notice a blonde head pop up in bar window.
“Chisato!” Kurumi yells, causing both Takina and Chisato jump in surprise, falling to the floor. “What? You seemed to be struggling a bit Takina,” Kurumi comments seeing Takina’s look of bewilderment. “Have a goodnight you two.”
“But not too good!” Mizuki yells from somewhere in the main portion of the café. “Rubbing your love in my face…” Mizuki’s grumble trails off as the main door opens and closes. Kurumi rolls her eyes and waves goodnight.
“Lock up before you leave.” Kurumi hits the lights on her way up the stairs.
“Don’t just turn off the lights on us,” Takina calls after her, but only gets a snicker in response. She sighs then realizes her position. She is currently sitting sideways in Chisato’s lap with the other girl’s arms still around her torso. She feels a squish against her arm that’s currently wedged between her and Chisato. As realization sets in, a blush creeps up her cheeks. She turns her head away from the doorway to the person whose lap she is occupying.
“Hi,” Chisato whispers with a small smile, face once again inches from Takina’s. This has become a bad habit tonight. Takina swallows audibly, mouth dry in an instant. Her tongue comes out on its own accord to lick her dry lips. Even in the dark, she can see Chisato’s eyes flicker to the movement. Takina subsequently glances to Chisato’s lips and finds herself leaning in slightly. “Takina…” Chisato manages to get out before closing the gap between their lips.
It's clumsy, teeth knock, noses bump, but it’s perfect. They are both intoxicated to some degree, Chisato of course a bit more than her. And yet Takina’s head spins, though it isn’t just the alcohol coursing through her veins. It’s a different sort of intoxication that flows in her blood now. It ends too soon, both needing to catch their breath. As soon as Takina pulls away, she wants Chisato’s warmth to engulf her again. Pants from both girls are the only thing keeping her from capturing those lips again.
Takina feels Chisato’s forehead rest against hers, and realizes her eyes are still closed. She hesitates, not wanting to break the illusion of this moment, but then feels Chisato’s hand caress her cheek. Takina’s eyes flutter open, and she is met with ruby eyes staring back at her softly, lovingly, maybe with a touch of lust, definitely still intoxicated. The sight would’ve have taken her breath away if she wasn’t already a panting mess.
“Hi,” Chisato whispers again. Takina lets out an airy laugh.
“Hi,” Takina whispers back. They sit in silence for a few moments, taking in each other’s presence, each other’s warmth. Takina shifts a bit and suddenly remembers she is currently sitting on Chisato. “Ah, sorry, I’m probably making you uncomfortable.” Takina makes a move to get up but is held firmly by the other girl. Chisato buries her face into Takina’s neck.
‘Chisato sure is strong when she wants to be.’
“Not allowed,” Chisato mumbles, tickling Takina’s neck with the vibrations. She squirms a bit in Chisato’s arms, but the other girl has a vice grip. Takina decides to settle in a bit, leaning more into Chisato’s embrace.
“Ok, no moving.” Takina takes her free hand and pats Chisato’s head, who hums happily, nuzzling Takina’s neck more. Takina lets out a light giggle, feeling Chisato’s lips curve into a smile against her skin. “You have to stop doing that, Chisato,” Takina attempts to sound firm but fails miserably through her own smile, “it tickles.”
“I’ll make a note of that for next time.” Takina can’t even see her smile, but still, it’s infectious.
“Next time?” Takina muses, running her fingerings through Chisato’s hair.
“Mhmm, next time.” She sounds so confident.
“Not if I figure out your weakness first,” Takina teases, though unsure if Chisato has a weakness.
“Bold of you think Chisato has a weakness.”
“I’m sure I’ll find something.” A comfortable silence falls between them. Seconds turn to minutes. Neither girl wanting to break the silence first, and neither feeling the need to either. Both enjoy the embrace of the other. But Takina, being the more reasonable of the two, knows they need to get going to bed. They did have work tomorrow after all.
“Chisato?” Takina scratches Chisato’s head with her fingertips, eliciting an almost purr from her.
“Hmm?”
“We have to get going.”
“Don’t wanna.” Chisato pulls Takina impossibly closer. Takina nearly jumps as she felt Chisato’s lips on her neck.
“Chisato,” Takina reprimands, smacking other girl on the head lightly. “We are still in the café!”
“No one is here, plus the lights are off.” Chisato gives a small love bite to Takina’s neck, causing her to let out a gasp in surprise… definitely surprise.
“Chisato! N-no, bad.” Takina manages to pull herself from Chisato slightly to look the older girl in the eyes. Chisato pouts, giving Takina the puppy dog eyes that she knows are hard to resist. So, Takina just covers Chisato’s eyes with her hands. “Don’t give me that look. We need to go to bed, we have things to do tomorrow.”
“I just wanna spend time with you, Takina,” Chisato pouts. Takina removes her hands from Chisato’s eyes, bring them to cup her face instead.
“We spend almost all our time together now,” Takina points out.
“Ya, but it’s never like this. Don’t you like this, Takina?” Chisato avoids eye contact. Takina smiles slightly.
“I do like this,” Takina whispers as she leans her forehead against Chisato’s once more. “But it’s late, and I’m getting sleepy. Don’t you want to go to bed with me?”
“Takina! At least take a woman on a date first before asking to sleep with her,” Chisato says in mock offense, pulling back a bit.
“Ok, let’s go on a date,” Takina replies immediately.
“I- you- but-.”
“To think there would be a time where Chisato was lost for words.” Takina rubs her thumbs on Chisato’s cheeks softly, soothing the other girl slightly.
“Well, ya! I was just asked out by the women I’ve been crushing on for months.”
“For months you say?” Takina teases, kissing the tip of Chisato’s nose, causing her to blush again.
“How could I not? When you’re so kind, and talented, and beautiful, and smart, and-” Chisato is cut off by a pair of lips meeting her own. It’s a soft kiss, not like the previous one, and only lasts for a moment. Takina giggles softly at how Chisato keeps leaning in.
“If you say much more, I’ll get too big of an ego.”
“It’s all true and more. Which you would’ve heard if you didn’t cut me off.” Chisato pokes Takina in the cheek to emphasize her point.
“Well then, I guess we don’t have to kiss anymore.” Takina turns her cheek to face away from Chisato.
“Aww, don’t be so cold Takina.” Chisato showers her cheek with kisses. Takina attempts to fend the attack off, but even eventually gives in. They meet eyes and laughter erupts between them. Takina kisses Chisato’s forehead and stands up, much to her surprise that Chisato didn’t fight it. She must be getting tired too. Takina extends a hand, which Chisato gratefully takes. Chisato jumps up and falls into Takina’s arms a bit. On purpose or accident, the world may never know. They embrace for a moment before Takina pulls away.
“Home?” Takina asks, giving Chisato’s lips a light kiss.
“Home.” Chisato hums slightly.
“What is it?”
“I’m just so happy. I can finally call you my girlfriend.”
“A title I will happily wear.” They smile brightly at each other.
“I call telling Mizuki,” Kurumi’s voice calls from the top of the stairs.
“How-how long have you been up there?” Chisato asks, pulling slightly away from Takina.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to. You should get going soon.”
“Yes, yes,” Takina calls back.
“Don’t stay up too late getting to know each other better,” Kurumi teases. Eventually her footsteps fade, and Chisato lets out a deep breath.
“She sounded too smug,” Chisato grumbles.
“A bit. Regardless, we should get going and we shouldn’t stay up too late.” Takina takes Chisato’s hand and pulls her outside, leading them to the nearest safehouse to definitely go straight to bed.