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The first time it happens, Kasumi notices.
She’s not sure if it’s truly anything noteworthy, she just thinks it’s interesting Mai isn’t listening to her because she’s staring at Momo across the training field.
Given that Momo is just talking to Noritoshi, it makes Kasumi wonder why Mai is ignoring her in favor of—staring.
Maybe there's something Kasumi hasn't noticed, maybe there are new stickers on the back of Noritoshi's uniform and Mai is staring at him instead. They put a bunch of Pikachu ones the other day and he didn't realize for the entire day.
“What are you looking at?” Kasumi asks because there aren't any stickers so she can't figure out—
“Nothing,” Mai says quickly, forcing herself to look back at Kasumi. “What do you mean? What are you looking at?”
“Nothing?” Kasumi frowns. “I was just trying to figure out what you were looking at.”
“I said nothing. Drop it.”
“Okay?”
This is weird. Mai’s usually snappish but not this much. Mmm. Whatever, it really isn’t important, so Kasumi isn’t going to let it bother her.
“Do you think Mai-chan will like this?”
Kasumi frowns. “Isn’t that expensive?”
Momo rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry about that, this is for her birthday.”
“What? Is that soon? Oh no. Oh my God. I don't have a present for her—”
“Calm down,” says Momo. “You know it's in six months.”
“Six months?” Kasumi raises her eyebrows. That's right. It's only July. “And you’re looking for a present now? You think six months is soon?”
“I’m not looking for a present now,” Momo says, definitely getting a little red in the face. But that always sorta happens when she’s annoyed. Kasumi wonders why she’s annoyed now, what did she even say this time? “I just happened to find this shirt I think she would like. What do you think? Would she like it?”
“I think she would like any of these shirts.” Kasumi points with her little cup of chai tea. The rack of clothes Momo is perusing all scream Mai, monochrome stuff that’s really elegant. She dresses like a refined lady, Kasumi thinks it’s pretty nice. “Huh. Wait. You’re sure you’re not looking for a present? Because this all looks like—”
“What are you talking about?”
Yep. She’s definitely annoyed now.
“Is this another prank?” Kasumi asks. “Is her birthday actually tomorrow?”
“What? You know her birthday is in January.”
“That could've been part of the prank, and it's actually tomorrow—”
“Miwa-chan, what in the world are you saying?”
“You know, like that Valentine’s Day prank you pulled. I can’t trust you two with anything these days.”
“Oh my God, you’re still thinking about that?”
“Well, yes! I can’t believe you made me give Mechamaru batteries—” Kasumi grumbles, chewing on her straw. “Batteries! And then you laughed so hard you cried—”
“Miwa-chan,” Momo says, now frowning. “I’m not joking this time. Mai's birthday is really in January.”
“So why are we shopping in the Mai section of this store?”
“The—the what now?”
“Look at all this.” Kasumi gestures towards the clothes with her drink again. “All of these clothes are classic Mai.”
“I—well it's not like I planned to come this way.”
“But you did? You brought me here specifically?”
It occurs to Kasumi that maybe, just maybe, Momo isn't red in the face because she's annoyed. She fidgets, she looks—embarrassed.
But why?
This is seriously confusing.
“I mean—” Kasumi says quickly in case she's actually crazy and Momo is, in fact, annoyed. “Not that it matters. I think she'll definitely like that shirt. It's a good birthday present.”
“You really think so? Isn't it—too little?”
Kasumi frowns again. “I'm pretty sure that's her size.”
“That's not what I mean.” Okay, she's smiling now. So that's good. Kasumi is out of trouble. “I meant as in, is this good enough?”
Kasumi looks at the tag, and she nearly chokes on her drink. Right. Why are they even in a designer store? “It's—it's definitely good enough.”
For a reason that goes above Kasumi's head, Momo isn't convinced. “No, I don't think so. But she would like it, that's true. So maybe I'll just get her this, then get something better for her actual birthday. But wouldn't that upset her?”
“Why would getting presents upset her?”
“I don't want to come on too st—”
Then she snaps her mouth shut. She's blushing all the way to her ears.
Ah. Could it be?
No, it couldn’t possibly—
Huh.
The next time it happens, Kasumi finally understands.
She walks into the kitchen late at night, or perhaps early at morning, she can’t even tell. She’s sleepy and she’s hungry and her wrists are aching from practicing her katas over and over today. She hates kata days.
The kitchen isn’t empty despite the late hour, but that’s not a surprise. It seems that no matter what time Kasumi shows up there she always finds Mai and Momo either stealing her food or just chatting like it’s the most normal thing to do at four in the morning.
Except this time Kasumi gets the sense that, mm, she’s interrupting something other than just a chat or a clandestine snack run.
Mai is sitting down, but she manages to stumble when Kasumi enters. She recovers quickly, gracefully crossing her legs and looking away as if nothing had happened.
“What’s going on?” Kasumi asks. “Why are you both red? Did you eat the spicy noodles again?”
“Yes,” says Momo.
“No,” says Mai, at the same time.
“Okay.” Kasumi really is too tired for this. She understands now. She understands. “I’ll be on my way—”
“What? Didn’t you come here to get something to eat?” asks Momo.
Kasumi looks between them, Mai keeping her eyes on the wall as if it’s telling her the most interesting of stories, and Momo looking a second away from sliding from her chair and hiding under the table.
“Yeah,” Kasumi says. “But it’s not worth it. Goodnight.”
It comes up naturally in a conversation.
“Mechamaru, do you think Mai and Nishimiya-senpai are in love with each other?”
“Good morning to you too,” Mechamaru says. “I slept great, thanks for asking. How about you?”
“C’mon! Just answer me. Mai will be here very soon.”
He thinks about it for a second, as Kasumi takes a seat at her desk. Utahime-sensei is late for the first time in forever, and Mai is late for the first time since yesterday.
“Why are you asking me?”
“Well, because you notice things,” Kasumi says. “You know. Love things.”
“Just because I saw Utahime-sensei holding hands with that doctor doesn’t mean I notice things. That was an accident.”
“Okay. Accidentally, do you think Mai and Nishimiya-senpai are in love with each other?”
Mechamaru just stares at her, the green lenses that are supposed to be his eyes zooming in. It’s his equivalent of an exasperated yet fond glare. At least, Kasumi hopes he's fond of her.
Then he tilts his head. “Actually, yes. I do.”
Kasumi beams.
So she knows. And Mechamaru knows. And it's likely Utahime-sensei knows because she seems to know everything about everyone. And probably Arata knows because he’s a gossip. Todo definitely doesn't know, because otherwise he would be really insufferable about it, and Noritoshi doesn't know because he's clueless.
So that leaves the problem—
Kasumi doesn't think Mai and Momo know.
She catches Momo at the school's entrance one day, late at night and up in the sky, somehow managing to sit on her broom with her legs against her chest. She's facing eastward, loose hair blowing in the wind, and she looks like a star, distant, and lonely. The only star in an otherwise clear night sky.
She's waiting.
She's waiting because Mai is out on an assignment.
“Nishimiya-senpai!”
Momo looks down, but her face is made unreadable by the distance. “Miwa-chan, what's wrong?”
“Nothing. But I brought you tea.”
“Tea?”
“It's cold out here.”
Wordlessly, Momo descends. It's always really nice, the way she moves through the skies with so much confidence as if they’re hers. Kasumi is always a little jealous, she wonders what it's like to have so much freedom.
“Thank you,” Momo says once her feet touch the ground and she takes the cup of tea from Kasumi's hands. Her fingers are cold. How long has she been waiting?
Kasumi knows a thing or two about caring so much about someone you would wait for them in the cold. Caring so much about someone you can't sleep until you know they're safe and home.
“Do you want some company?” Kasumi asks, because she understands the waiting, and she understands that sometimes it comes with an attached loneliness.
“You should get some sleep instead,” Momo says. “It’s pretty late.”
Always the responsible upperclassman.
“Mai's my friend too.”
Momo regards her for a bit, then nods. “I'm sure she'll be happy to see you.”
Yeah. Sure. But maybe not as happy as she would be to see Momo.
Once Kasumi understands, she can't help but notice how love permeates everything they do.
Mai smiles more when Momo is around, and she's less grumpy. She doesn't get annoyed at her too much, and if she does there's always fondness underneath.
Momo, who is nice to all of them, is somehow even nicer. To them. To others though—God forbid someone says anything about Mai, because good luck. Even if that someone is Mai herself.
“It's really not your fault, stop saying that.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” Momo insists. “How can this be your fault?”
Bad question. Kasumi knows immediately.
“It’s because I’m here that this happened!” Mai snaps. “Because they keep forcing me to go on these missions and they keep forcing you to come with me and—”
“No one is forcing us—”
“Yes they are! You only came because I’m here—”
“Exactly! So—”
“So it is my fault!”
Kasumi rubs at her temples, wincing with each word because her head is too sensitive and the noise is not helping her growing concussion. Still, she’s in good shape compared to the other two. She’s pretty sure Momo broke both an arm and an ankle, meanwhile Mai has a cut on her leg that looks pretty nasty, she’s currently pressing Kasumi’s suit jacket to it while they wait for Akari to pick them up.
They’re sitting on the curb—well, Kasumi is sitting. Despite the state they’re in Mai and Momo are standing while they continue to hiss-yell at each other. How can Momo stand with a broken ankle is anyone’s guess.
Kasumi tunes out the argument, because she’s tired, and her blood is still singing from the fight. So many cursed spirits—and they expected Mai alone to deal with them?
It’s not the first time she gets assigned the craziest missions. Something to do with her family—Kasumi wishes she knew more, but Mai rarely talks about them. Usually Utahime-sensei comes with her, unauthorizedly of course, but she’s been on a classified mission for three days straight now. Summertime is always so busy.
So. Kasumi and Momo followed. On the broom. Kasumi hates the broom, but sometimes she doesn’t mind it.
“You think we’re just going to ignore you being sent into danger alone!?”
This gets Kasumi’s attention back because Mai is silent. She doesn’t seem to have an answer immediately, then she gulps and she says—
“Maybe you should. It’d be better for you.”
“Don’t say that—”
“It’s the truth,” Mai says. “You wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
“I don’t care about getting hurt!”
“And you won’t get hurt in the future.”
Momo steps back, as if slapped, then winces when she puts weight on her bad ankle. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing—”
“No, no,” Momo says. “What did you mean?”
“I—” Mai frowns. “Nothing good comes from wanting to protect me, or help me. It’s all pointless.”
“That’s ridiculous! You could never be pointless!”
Whatever Mai is going to answer is interrupted as a car swerves right in front of the curb. One of its wheels is barely hanging on. The cursed spirits had gotten out of the curtain and targeted poor Akari who put it up, because of course.
Instead of answering, Mai huffs and shuffles towards the car, not letting anyone help her walk.
“She's impossible,” Momo scoffs, and makes it to limp after her but Kasumi is on her feet quickly to steady her and stop her from ending up on the floor.
“C'mon now, senpai.”
“I just don't get it.” Momo leans against Kasumi, her injured arm cradled against her chest, her broom now in Kasumi’s hand. “More than a year here and she still doesn’t understand we care?”
Despite her anger, Momo speaks softly, not wanting her voice to carry over to the inside of the car.
“She knows,” Kasumi says, just as softly.
“What?”
“She knows you care about her. It’s just—it’s like you said. A year and a few months here, but how much time did she spend in that place?”
Momo doesn’t answer, because Kasumi is already opening the backseat door for her and helping her inside, shuffling in afterwards and passing Akari the broom and her sword so she can put them on the passenger’s seat.
Mai is looking at Momo, very intently, like she wants to say something. She’s looking at Momo’s broken arm, and in return Momo is looking at the gash in Mai’s leg, soaking Kasumi’s black jacket with blood.
There is concern, but they don’t speak.
Kasumi thinks, once again, that it must be nice to have someone look at you with so much concern, but she also thinks that her friends are rather dumb.
“Do you think I should apologize?”
“Yes,” Kasumi says, only briefly looking up from applying choji oil to the length of her blade.
“You don’t even know what I’m talking about.”
“Of course I do. You’re talking about apologizing to Nishimiya-senpai, which, yeah, you should totally do.”
Kasumi isn’t looking at her, but she can still see the way Mai rolls her eyes before padding into her room, still limping a little. Akari cleaned and stitched the cut on her leg, and though she told Mai to rest she’s technically allowed to move around.
Momo, on the other hand, is confined to her bed.
She’s been confined to her bed before, but it never does much good. She still goes around campus either sitting on her broom or using said broom like a cane, which probably isn’t very comfortable, and which has led to many broken vases.
It’s been only hours since they returned, though, so no broken vases yet.
“Do you really have to do that now?”
Kasumi puts down the oiled cloth, then grabs the clean one to wipe off the excess. “Yes. Cursed spirit’s blood is horrible for blades, it rusts like crazy. It’s always better to take care of it right away.” Her head is still pounding, but she can’t just ignore this.
She knows, though, that Mai isn’t really listening. Kasumi hears her carefully walk all the way to Kasumi’s bed and even more carefully sit down on it.
Then there’s silence, as Mai thinks, and as Kasumi lets her think.
There’s always this thoughtfulness about Mai. Sure, she can be snappish, and explosive, but it’s only after she’s simmered her feelings for too long that they start boiling over. Before that she’s quiet. Contemplative.
Kasumi likes to think Mai—trusts her. With some things, anyways. There are some things she never really talks about, like her family, her childhood.
Except to Momo. She tells everything to Momo.
Kasumi finishes cleaning her blade, then begins to reassemble it. The golden ferrule, the spacer, the handguard, the other spacer, then finally the handle. It all clicks together satisfyingly, like lego pieces. Kasumi smiles at the comparison. It’s not hers, it’s Takeshi’s. She misses him terribly sometimes.
“What’s so funny?”
Kasumi jolts. Okay, Mai really has a sniper’s stillness sometimes, Kasumi can’t be blamed for forgetting she’s in the room. She turns around where she’s sitting on the floor, sheathed sword across her lap, to find Mai staring at her like she’s lost in an unfamiliar place and doesn’t know the way home.
“Takeshi thinks assembling the katana is like playing with legos. My mom nearly got a heart attack this one time she saw him trying to pull it apart. She was afraid he’d slice his fingers off.”
Mai's mouth twitches. “You let your little brother play with your sword?”
“No! No—but I do take it with me when I visit, just in case, and once he swept it off me while I was asleep. Crafty bugger. But, anyway, we aren’t talking about that. I think that more than an apology, Nishimiya-senpai would appreciate it if you just went to see her.”
“You think so? You don't think she's—mad at me?”
“Mad at you?” Kasumi nearly bursts out laughing. The sky would sooner be mad at the moon. “No, no. She's not mad at you.”
“How do you know?”
Gosh, she wants to say. Maybe because she's so in love with you the thought of getting mad probably doesn't even cross her mind.
Instead, because Kasumi values her life, she says something else. “Nishimiya-senpai cares too much about you to be mad over something like this.” Close enough.
“But you got hurt,” Mai says.
“So? We survived and that’s what matters, but you wouldn’t have survived alone. Nishimiya-senpai was just—she was terrified for you.”
It’d been by far the most uncomfortable broom ride of Kasumi’s life, and also the scariest one. Momo could really reach high speeds when she wanted to.
A part of Kasumi wants to say more, wants to tell Mai her—observations, but it’s really none of her business, and the mere thought of meddling is extremely mortifying. They’re her friends, and there’s something fragile and new and shy between them, Kasumi doesn’t want to stick her hands in it and ruin it.
She can understand their apprehensions. They’re all sorcerers after all, getting too close to someone only means it hurts more when you lose them. But, still, she sees the way Mai smiles more when Momo is around, the way she looks less scared, more confident. The way Momo looks at her like something to be treasured.
It’s good for them. Maybe Kasumi should actually help. Just a little.
“Nishimiya-senpai isn’t mad,” Kasumi says again because Mai is too quiet, and she looks like she doesn’t entirely believe her. That’s just typical Mai. “She just really cares about you. And, uhm—it’s alright if you care about her, too, you know.”
Mai blinks. “Yes I—know that’s alright.”
It’s seriously doubtful that she knows, at least fully, given the amount of time she spends thinking no one truly cares about her.
“Good, good. So, get out of here and go talk to her already.”
This makes Mai roll her eyes before getting to her feet, still slowly to not put too much weight on her injured leg. “Sure, kick me out. See if I care.”
“Wait, Mai.” Kasumi gets up before she even knows what she’s doing, she really shouldn’t meddle too much, but if she doesn’t she’s scared this is just never going to work. “When you see her—be honest.”
Mai frowns. “About what?”
“You know.”
“No, I don’t.” Bite comes into her voice, more like the Mai she knows.
Kasumi smiles. “Yes, yes you do.”
Mechamaru finds her on the evening of the next day, just as she’s about finished with her own training.
“You’re not going to believe this,” he says. “It happened again.”
Kasumi wipes sweat from her brow, takes the bottle of water he’s offering. “What happened again?”
“Another accident. I happened to stumble into Nishimiya and Mai holding hands too. Why does this keep happening to me? Who’s going to be next? Should we make a bet?”
Kasumi laughs.