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Ibuki's been going to this restaurant every day for the past three weeks. Her wallet is suffering, and her list of friends available to grab dinner with her diminishing, but it's become a newly-formed habit and she just can't stop! She's known for a while now that anything worth catching her interest steadily grows into a full-blown obsession in the span of two days, and this is no exception.
Ever since the first time she came to Jabberwock, it's steadily become her favourite place to eat out; and, well, it may or may not be because of this super, mega-cute, sharp-tongued waitress with a habit of hitting customers with napkins if they piss her off.
(Bad customer service? Nay, good customer service. Ibuki likes the show. It's always the funniest to see people jerk away in shock the first-time around, and one time when she brought Hinata here, he attracted the waitress' attention long enough for her to stand right beside Ibuki to throw napkins at him, and that was a good time.)
(Not for Hinata, but luckily he forgives easily.)
(Or at least, he forgave her after her long and grueling account regarding why she was so insistent on returning to that restaurant despite their 'questionable courtesy'.)
(He has now become her unofficial counselor.)
(He also never passes up the opportunity to look her straight in the eye, and say, "Wow. You're really fucking gay.")
(And she can't retaliate, because she is. She is really fucking gay.)
(She can't even tear her gaze away from the pretty waitress long enough to finish her food; and despite her growing poorness, she still leaves ridiculous tips, dropping the money directly into the redhead's surprised yet grateful hands.)
(Ibuki can hardly believe that the woman hasn't caught on already - but then again, it's not as if Ibuki can do a single thing about the uncharacteristic shyness that overcomes her in the waitress' lovely presence. She hates the way she clams up, and goes wide-eyed and starts stammering. It's so uncool.)
(Hinata's words echo in her mind.)
Usually though, her trips to the restaurant go remarkably well considering her inability to be classic Ibuki from the moment her eyes connect with short, cropped red hair and red lips to match. It's just lucky that her inner turmoil never surfaces long enough to stop her from enjoying herself, and whoever her chosen companion of the night is - well, they're usually polite enough to leave it out of the conversation.
Unless of course she pulls in one of her friends that know the struggle of mega-crushing exactly as she feels it, to which she directs all her Ibuki-ness to scaring Mikan out of her drunken reverie or Nagito out of his dazed stupor or just shaking Kazuichi up in general, because she thinks he might have a few screws loose when it comes to dealing with anything of the romantic sort.
But today, Ibuki has made a mistake.
It all began when she asked Akane to head out to Jabberwock with her for dinner - her co-worker-slash-childhood-friend was the best option at the time, as Akane was never prone to gossip and probably wouldn't say anything of Ibuki's hopeless infatuation because there would be food, and food was always Akane's number one - but she forgot to factor in that Akane had eyes, and anyone with common sense could probably tell that Ibuki was a complete goner.
And once Akane had set her eyes on something, she would not let it go until she got some semblance of proper closure. Which she would not get, if Ibuki didn't make a move that night. In front of her. During dinner. In that restaurant.
Unfortunately, Akane had apparently chosen that night in particular to be perceptive. She had noticed Ibuki's blatant staring and constant sighing within the first five minutes of their entering the establishment. A new record. Ibuki was almost ashamed of herself.
Scrunching her nose up, the brunette had asked, completely out of the blue, "Why the hell dontcha just go an' talk to her? You're cute, she's cute. It can't be that hard!"
To which Ibuki thumped her head on the table and whined.
Akane had just given her a weird look and crossed her arms. She blew a strand of chestnut hair out of her face as she regarded Ibuki with suspicion. "You're hesitating? Who are you and what did you do with Ibuki Mioda?"
"Give me a break!" She had replied, dragging her fingers through her multi-coloured hair and groaning. "Ibuki doesn't knoooooww why! It's just - it's just too weird, okay?! I don't know if she'd like someone like me! Or if she even likes girls!"
"Lame excuses... You won't know if ya don't try!" Akane rolled her eyes, as if her ongoing dilemma was not as terror-inducing as it certainly felt. The brunette's gaze wandered around the room to settle on the one and only figure that Ibuki had totally not been pining over for the past three weeks. And because it was Akane, the queen of subtlety, she pointed directly at the waitress, arm extended to follow the woman's movements around the room. "Alright, let's do this. Look, it's that chick, right? Redhead? Freckles?"
Just the mention of her has Ibuki sprawling across their table. Luckily, due to this action, she did not see Akane stand up and pretty much bodily wave the waitress over - but she certainly heard it, and could do nothing more than bury her face in her arms. On any other occasion, Ibuki could see herself getting onto the table and joining her; but the musician's heart is going all out of rhythm and she can't pull herself together long enough to jam out with her friend for someone's (probably judgmental) reaction.
"Hey!" Akane shouts across the restaurant, "We're ready to order!"
"Oh! Sure thing!"
And, to make matters worse, the waitress was the only one manning the floor that night. And she was damn good at working under pressure.
"Ibuki," Akane hissed, ducking back down to eye-level, though not fully sitting in her chair just yet. "Soon as she gets over here, you better introduce yourself, okay? And smile! You can do it."
"No! Wait, Akane, Ibuki hasn't rehearsed or anything - "
Footsteps could be heard approaching, and Ibuki deliberately fell flat on the tabletop.
"So," the waitress commenced, eyeing Ibuki's limp form on the table for a moment before turning to Akane, "What would you like to order? Please bear with me for a bit, it's a busy time and all the employees in this goddamn restaurant decided that it would be okay to just skimp out on work. Drives me insane. Long story short, I'm on every table. Don't harass me. I can very well get you kicked out."
"Nah, it's cool." Akane answered dismissively, despite the sharp tone in the other's voice. She nudged Ibuki with her foot from under the table. "We're just here for food and stuff anyway. So yeah. Give us the biggest platters you have? Oh, and a large pizza. With everything."
"Of course," The waitress laughed lightly, clearly relieved that this table was going to be agreeable at least, and then gestured with her pen towards Ibuki. "Rough day?"
"Who knows?" Akane grinned. "Hey, 'Buki, wake up."
That's your cue, Ibuki heard in her mind. Move before Akane chews you out.
"Hiiiiyaaaaaaa!" She lifted herself off the table with a loud cry, trying to regain her usual peppy persona (and her confidence) before turning to the waitress. She looked stunned at her sudden revival, but her gorgeous green eyes betrayed no ill feelings. Ibuki beamed, and waved robotically. "Hi, I'm Ibuki Mioda! I-bu-ki Mi-o-da! I to the B to the U to the - "
Akane kicked her from under the table.
"Hi!" Ibuki repeated, trying again. She tried her best not to look flustered, seeing the waitress raise an eyebrow at her antics. "Isn't it a great day today? The weather is nice, and Ibuki's feeling so super musical that she could just get up and sing!"
"It... is, I guess." The waitress replied slowly, scribbling the last of their order onto her notepad (and maybe something else, Ibuki couldn't tell). "Oh, uh, nice to meet you, by the way." The redhead said, before punctuating her sentence with a small smile. Ibuki felt her stomach flip and her heart melt. She almost forgot that this was the longest she had ever actually spoken to the object of her affections. (Details, details.)
And that brings us to now.
"I'm Mahiru Koizumi." The waitress says after a moment. The words fall like liquid gold from her lips and Ibuki just about stops herself from repeating the name right after her like a parrot; it must be nice to say out loud and she's finally got a name to that face. Her excitement levels are on the rise. She's ready to shout out to the world. The waitress' next words stop her from doing so, though. "I've been seeing you a lot lately."
"I'd like to see you more," Ibuki blurts, before slamming her palms over her mouth. "I mean. Be here more. Eat here more! Ibuki loves the food here, it's great!"
"Sure," Mahiru - oh my gosh, her name is Mahiru, that's so cute, that's the cutest thing - answers, chuckling while clapping her notepad shut. "I'm glad you like it."
"I like you, too," Ibuki blabs, but then she can see Akane holding back laughter on the other side of the table and she puffs out her cheeks. "Like, I mean, you're good at what you do. The waitressing thing. You're good at it!"
Mahiru blinks owlishly. "Alright...? Thank you, I guess...?"
And before Ibuki can open her mouth to say anything more, Akane diverts Mahiru's attention to another table, "Hey, you gotta get back to work, right? Come chat to us later. We'll be here all night."
Ibuki doesn't miss the wink her friend sends her way. But she doesn't question it either. Mahiru goes.
"Oh my gosh." Ibuki exhales, grabbing Akane's hands with wide eyes. "I got her name!"
"You didn't know her name before?" Akane groans. "How long have you been coming here again?"
"Three weeks!" She replies proudly, sticking her chest forward in pride. "And shush, I've made progress! She said she's seen Ibuki a lot lately! That means she remembers Ibuki, right?!"
"Well, I dunno, probably?" Akane shrugs, taking a swig of water. "It's not like you're forgettable in the first place, so..."
"Akane! Do you think she'll want to go out with Ibuki?"
Akane just shrugs again. "One step at a time, kiddo..."
"You're right!" Ibuki breathes. "You're right, you're right, you're right. One step at a time."
But even though she says that, Ibuki in fact, does not take it one step at a time. Patience is a virtue that Ibuki does not have, and so when their food touches their table, Ibuki downs all her water and slams it unceremoniously on the polished wood, awaiting Mahiru's next course of action. The redhead seems relatively unfazed by her brashness, in fact, almost looks like she finds it endearing, until she snaps out of it and switches back into 'serious-work mode' - and yes, Ibuki has already started to learn to read her emotions, because she has spent just that long being a hopeless idiot, and Mahiru's a lovely subject to study, thank you very much.
"Can I take this for you?" The pretty, red-haired waitress asks after a moment; her long fingers already reaching for the glass.
"Yeah! Go for it!" Ibuki answers quickly, and in the heat of the moment, accidentally adds, "You can take me, too!"
Mahiru drops the glass.
Akane starts laughing.
"I-I mean," Ibuki backtracks a little, starting to feel her cheeks grow hot as the outburst had been a lot louder than she intended. She tries to be cute about it - that's how things work in the movies, after all - and wonders if she had just been herself from the start, maybe she could've spared herself this trouble? Ibuki's not good at playing cute. She wishes she was as cute as Mahiru, and then maybe she could dig herself out of this hole. "I mean, please? Sometime in the future, maybe?"
The waitress does not respond, but at least her green eyes are not leaving Ibuki, which means she isn't disgusted or anything (yet).
"Let's go out?" Ibuki fumbles. "I-ibuki will buy you flowers, and ice cream and make you epic mix tapes all the time?"
Mahiru's stare intensifies. "Is this... a joke...?"
"No! No, no, no! Ibuki's not joking at all!"
"You, uh..." Mahiru coughs into her hand. "Why should I trust you?"
"What?" Ibuki is genuinely confused, and tips her head to the side. "What do you mean? Does this look like a joke to you?"
The waitress' eyes go to Akane, who is still laughing, though she's now stuffed a slice of pizza in her mouth and muffled the sound. "Haven't you been... you know... taking a different person on a date here every single night? I'm not blind. Why should I trust someone who can't even keep up a relationship for longer than a day?"
Ibuki chokes, and she's on the brink of bursting into Akane-like laughter herself - okay, some people, like Hinata, she can understand, but did Mahiru honestly think she had been on a date every single night? The thought of dating some of them sends shivers down her spine, and despite her love for all her friends, it remains as nothing but that - a love for friends. She sticks a finger up in the air and waggles it in front of her face.
"Ohhh my, my, no, no, you have absolutely misunderstood, my dear angel!"
She doesn't miss Mahiru's light flush at her supposed misunderstanding - or perhaps at the suddenness of being called 'angel'.
"Those are friends! All Ibuki's cute and dumb friends alike," She sticks out her tongue, "They were being... let's say, moral support! Moral support so that Ibuki may one day ask you out, but of course, Ibuki didn't do too well on that front, huh..."
"A-ask me out?"
"Will you go out with me?" She's earnest now, and the whole room seems to vanish in this moment, leaving Mahiru's growing blush and Ibuki's eager expression to see each other and nothing else.
"I was..." Mahiru starts, then cuts herself off. "Dammit. Dammit." She bends down, only prolonging her response by picking up the shards of broken glass on the floor, and finally mumbles. "I was going to ask you out first."
"What?!"
"N-nothing!"
"What do you mean 'nothing'? That was clearly 'something'!"
Mahiru takes a deep breath, and she looks like she's going to hit something, but instead begins to ramble and Ibuki tries to pay attention (she really does) but all she can think about is she wanted to ask me out first so she's giddy and her heart is thrumming in her chest but it feels like she's flying.
"Can we, hey," Ibuki stops her in the middle of the ramble with a wide smile. "Can we try? One date, at least? And if you like it, we can see where it goes?"
Mahiru looks as if she's about to retort, but she eases into a relaxed stance after a few deep breaths and sighs. "I can't say no... to that. One date. Then we'll see."
The spell is broken as Akane stands up and starts cheering. "Hell yeah, get in! Get in!!"
Ibuki can't help it - she laughs, and doesn't stop, and then Mahiru laughs too, and they're all feeling so silly that it doesn't seem like there was any problem in the first place - except misunderstanding and overthinking stupid things.
The next day, Ibuki shows up to Jabberwock alone. She's got a bouquet in her hands, and she grins when she sees Mahiru step daintily out of the side door, a tinge of red already forming on her lovely freckled complexion. Mahiru's eyes narrow when she approaches, mostly at the item in Ibuki's hands, and she asks,
"Are those pompoms?"
Ibuki looks at her bouquet, and back at Mahiru, shooting her a sheepish grin. "Well, you see, I tried getting real flowers but apparently you're not supposed to hold them by the colourful bit and -"
"Never mind," she cuts in, raising a hand to stop Ibuki's probably long-winded excuse for handing her a bouquet of fluffy yarn balls. She takes it anyway, and then asks, "Did you spray perfume on this?"
"Well, yeah! To make it realistic and more like real flowers?"
"You're an idiot."
But even as she says that and turns away, Ibuki doesn't miss the smile spreading across Mahiru's pretty features.
"Might as well be," the musician giggles, "But Ibuki will be an idiot anytime, if it's for you."