Work Text:
"I love you."
Well, shit, Kuina thinks. She really didn't mean to say that.
Well, obviously she meant the words. She's never been one to lie to anybody, so she almost always means exactly what she says. It's just that she didn't mean to say them right now.
Kuina knows that she can be overwhelming at times, with her exuberance and her enthusiasm and especially with how fast she falls for people.
Because, you see, Kuina falls in love almost daily. Just today, she fell in love with the mother of two who came into the coffee shop, stressed and overwhelmed but still being kind to her when Kuina accidentally mixed up two orders. She fell in love with the young woman who complimented her on her hair and with the grumpy old caretaker who reminded her again this morning that she isn't allowed to leave her bike standing in the hallway, but who also removes the mud and dirt from it every single time without ever once mentioning it.
So yeah, Kuina falls in love daily, but it's almost never in a romantic way. So when she does feel romantically for somebody, it happens too hard, to fast, and that can be very overwhelming for a lot of people. And she expects Ann, reserved and stoic and introverted Ann, to be one of those.
They've been dating for a few months now, a relationship built on hospital food and shared trauma, but also on bright laughter (Kuina) and small, quiet smiles (Ann), and on daily text messages. And, for full disclosure, Kuina has been desperately thinking I love you at Ann since probably less than two weeks into their relationship. Has been screaming it from rooftops internally, and if she's honest, she's been doing a decent job holding herself back from screaming it for real and straight into Ann's beautiful face.
Well, had.
Had restrained herself from declaring her never-ending love for Ann when Ann finally initiated their daily strains of text messages for the first time with a single "Good Morning" and a picture of an empty, quiet and dark street on her way to work.
Had swallowed the words when they'd met up with their friends and Ann had laughed, full-on belly laughed, at one of Tatta's jokes, her dark eyes glinting, her cheeks painted a lovely red.
Had almost blurted them out after Ann met her father for the first time and had politely but also very firmly outtalked him to the point of speechlessness.
So why the hell couldn't she hold herself back now, standing in the doorway to Ann's kitchen and watching Ann cook them dinner? Was it the way Ann wrinkled her nose when she tried the curry, and it turned out that it needed more seasoning? Was it because she still remembers how Ann looked that morning when they woke up next to each other, her soft dark hair tickling Kuina's chin and making her giggle? Was it the way Ann seems wholly relaxed for a change, nothing about work or life bothering her that weekend?
Well, whatever it was, it happened, and she can't take those words back. Doesn't want to take those words back, not really, because the matter of the fact is that Kuina is so, so in love, and she's been thinking those words over and over again for the past months, and she doesn't want the first time she says them to be over text or when they're not on their own and Ann could interpret those words as anything but serious. She said it because her heart is bursting with those feelings, because she needs Ann to know, even if, maybe, it's been too soon, and she scared her away with them now.
She braces herself for whatever might be coming her way now. She doesn't think Ann will panic, she isn't the type, but there might still be the 'we've only been on a few proper dates' coming, or the 'I don't think I am ready for that level of commitment', or 'it was never supposed to get this serious', every single reason Kuina has imagined Ann might reject her for.
She doesn't get any of it, though.
What she gets instead is Ann, with her hand still on the spatula that she used to stir the curry with, and her eyes on Kuina, pink spreading on her cheeks and her lips slightly parted.
What she gets is Ann finally letting go of that spatula before stepping across the kitchen floor and to Kuina, her hands reaching for Kuina's face, cradling it between her fingers.
"I love you, too", Ann finally whispers and Kuina's heart jumps at the realization that she's allowed to have this, that she gets to have this, no denial, no excuses, just Ann in front of her and in her life, loving her back without hesitation.
And what a wonderful realization that is!