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“—and the last option is my favorite, I found a super cute machiya guesthouse for a rent that we can afford and is a ten minute walk to the train station!” Momo beams, clicking on the link and showing the elegant wooden house to Mai.
Mai goggles at the pictures showing beautifully restored sliding wooden doors, pristine tatami mats, and tranquil rock garden. “…Okay, I have to ask though—how can we afford this place? What’s wrong with it?”
“Well, there was a Level 2 grade curse there, but Todou already cleared it out last week, so we’re good,” Momo says blithely, sighing over the pictures. “None of the stories have died down though, so it’s a real steal . What do you think?”
(Mai thinks that the house couldn’t be any more perfect—it looks like it could have come straight out of the Zen’in compound.
Or at least, what the Zen’in compound looked like before her and Maki had razed it to the ground.
Still, even if the Zen’in compound contained some of her worst memories, it was also a reminder of her childhood and days spent, if not in childlike innocence, at least the idea that at least she had a twin to go through hard times with and that she wasn’t alone.
Her and Maki are closer these days, though—you can’t go through nearly sacrificing yourself for your sister and then her turning around and saving you back without that—and she’d like to make new memories in an old traditional house like this.
There’s only one problem.
She’s finally admitted to herself that she might like girls far more than she’s ever liked guys, and maybe she likes Momo as way more than a friend should, but of course, she had saved that revelation for right before they were about to be roommates.)
“…or if it brings up bad memories, we can find somewhere else?” Momo offers after a while, clicking back and then on a different link. “I found some other cute apartments over at Sakyo—”
“No, the machiya is perfect,” Mai quickly blurts out, wrinkling her nose at the thought of having to live with a bunch of Kyoto University students as neighbors. (They’re all going to be so pretentious, she can feel it inside.)
“Great!” Momo brightens, quickly typing away. “I have most of the paperwork filled out already, just need you to sign, and then we’ll submit it, and we should get approved pretty fast since they still think it’s haunted.”
“Sounds great,” Mai says, already planning how to acclimate herself to living with her crush.
(They’ve lived together in the dorms before, how different could it be?
It’s going to be completely fine and under control.)
--
Mai realizes now that she is an idiot.
Living in the dorms together had meant that when Momo was in the more public spaces of the dorm, she would put together fairly cute outfits, and even if they had a girl’s night, she was still wearing pajama pants at least.
Now , Momo apparently has no compunctions about walking around the apartment in just an overly large T-shirt and underwear, with no pants at all , which nearly made Mai walk into a wall the first time she realized this.
“Are you sure your nose is okay?” Momo asks worriedly, getting out another ice pack.
“I’m fine,” Mai manages in a muffled voice, holding the ice pack to her nose while leaning her head back. “I’m good.”
“Did that Level 2 grade curse yesterday wallop you harder than you said?” Momo asks, leaning back and revealing even more of her bare thighs. “Or did you not sleep enough after that Takada concert—”
“I’m really fine!” Mai says, backing away as quickly as she dares, her eyes darting everywhere but Momo’s dangerously bare legs. “I just—got distracted. By—uh—by—how hot it’s been this summer!”
“You’re telling me,” Momo complains, kicking her legs around. “It’s obscene.”
“It is ,” Mai says with feeling, scrambling for the A/C settings. “Let me just turn this down—we got that bonus last week, we can foot the bill.”
“If you’re sure,” Momo shrugs, the T-shirt riding dangerously high. “I guess I’ll change then.”
“Yes, you don’t want to catch a cold or anything!” Mai says with the last shreds of her sanity hanging in there.
However, if she thought Momo walking around bare legged was bad, the frilly nightgowns were somehow worse .
Somehow the frilly, sheer hints of the curves Momo has is even more tantalizing than the sight of Momo’s smooth bare legs.
But only barely.
Both of them were very bad for Mai’s continued sanity in either case, and unless she decides to spend a fortune to make their house subarctic, she’s stuck with this.
“What am I going to do ? ” Mai moans, burying her head in her hands.
Maki pats her back sympathetically while Nobara sniffs, adjusting her eyepatch. “You could woman up and just confess already.”
“I don’t want to hear that from the girl who waited until practically a deathbed confession to confess to my sister,” Mai fires back, glaring at Nobara. “And in case you didn’t realize, Momo doesn’t like girls! She’s obsessed with Sebastian Stan!”
Miwa clears her throat and tentatively raises her hand, looking at Mai.
Mai sighs, gesturing to Miwa. “Miwa, we’re not in class. What?”
“Well—I think that although Nishimiya-senpai definitely likes guys, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t like girls?” Miwa suggests, fiddling with her fingers. “You and her are awfully close after all…”
“Because we’re friends ,” Mai huffs, crossing her arms. “She’s made that very clear before—she’s always telling me how glad she is that we’re friends.”
“Yes, because nothing screams super straightness like cuddling with your best girl friend and whispering into her ear,” Nobara says with a roll of her eyes.
Mai points at her. “You weren’t even invited to this emergency meeting!”
“Uh, you were the one who decided to hold the meeting here in our apartment because you were afraid of Nishimiya somehow finding out!” Nobara retorts, gesturing around, then between herself and Maki. “This is my apartment too, I pay rent!”
“I don’t see why, Maki has a whole half of the Zen’in family fortune,” Mai grumbles. “You could just let yourself be a kept woman—”
“Right, and remind me again why you haven’t let Nishimiya know exactly how much of the Zen’in family fortune you have now—she doesn’t even have to pay rent if she doesn’t want to either!” Nobara argues.
“That’s different! You’re dating my sister, while Momo is my best friend, and if I offered to pay for her entire rent, that would just make things weird!”
“And coming here and having a meltdown over her legs and frilly nightgowns is somehow not making things weird?” Nobara demands.
“Yes, because I’m not doing it in front of her,” Mai hisses at Nobara.
“This is somehow worse than Yuuji and Megumi,” Maki says in an amused voice, crossing her arms.
“Which is just sad ,” Nobara complains, pointing at Mai. “Don’t make us have to lock you two together in a room too.”
Mai pulls a face. “We’re nothing like your doofus friends. Do you see either of us being stupidly self-sacrificial for each other?”
“Thankfully you two haven’t been in as many life-or-death situations as Yuuji and Megumi, but I have to agree with Nobara,” Maki nods at her girlfriend. “If you don’t say something to Nishimiya soon, I think you’re going to stroke out.”
Mai places her head against the table with a thunk. “Easy for you to say, you didn’t even have to do the confessing part to your crush,” she sulks.
(Everything is always easier for Maki—or at least Maki makes it seem like that.
She’s being unfair, she knows, but still, she’s allowed to after she nearly sacrificed herself for her sister.
Thank whoever that it hadn’t come down to that in the end, but still, Maki moves through life with eyes on the prize while Mai has to follow in her wake and make the best of things.
So what if Maki basically got a girlfriend to land in her lap? Life has never been that easy for Mai.
Although, of course, one could argue that Maki has been cursed with Nobara.)
“Or you can move out,” Maki continues relentlessly.
Mai raises her head in horror. “No, I couldn’t! What would I even say to Momo? Besides, I like living with her!”
“Yeah, you like it so much that you’re hiding out here in our apartment,” Nobara snickers.
“Well, I can’t hide in Kamo’s apartment, he’d be insufferable and lecture me,” Mai fires back.
“You could go hang out with Todou,” Nobara says, examining her nails.
Both Mai and Miwa shudder at that, and Mai says in scathing tones, “Bad enough that I have to go with him to all the Takada-chan meetups, can you imagine talking to Todou about feelings ?”
“You could always not go with him to Takada meetups,” Maki points out.
Mai glares at Maki. “And miss out on Takada-chan’s special performances? She also has meetup exclusive photobooks—and he always knows the super secret VIP meetups too, the ones with the best fan merch.”
“Yeah, there’s no way that Nishimiya thinks you’re straight,” Nobara says decisively. “And if she’s still walking around in oversized T-shirts and panties and frilly nightgowns when she knows what a total lesbian you are—”
“That’s homophobic,” Mai declares, pointing at Nobara. “Thinking that all lesbians would salivate all over any woman, no matter how skimpily dressed—Maki, you should break up with her.”
Maki adjusts her glasses and rolls her eyes as Nobara sticks her tongue out at Mai. “No one is breaking up with anyone, and I have to say, Nishimiya’s behavior is a bit questionable. Did she wear stuff like that in the dorms at night?”
“No,” Miwa replies promptly, then looks apologetically over at Mai. “Sorry, Mai-senpai—I feel like she’s doing it on purpose, and if she’s doing it on purpose, then she’s trying to seduce you.”
“Or she could be doing it because there’s a heatwave going on,” Mai points out, stifling the fluttering of her heart.
“Then she’d be normal and wearing a training bra and shorts, not frilly nightgowns,” Nobara says, walking over to the kitchen. “Are you done yet? I want to go shopping with Maki and get noticed by a few agents.”
“You are never going to get noticed by any agent unless they’re looking for extras in a pirate movie,” Mai says snidely, crossing her arms.
“I’d be aces at a pirate movie, wouldn’t I, Maki?” Nobara asks, turning and fluttering her eyelashes at Maki.
Maki grins at her, looking her over. “You’d look delightful in a corset, carrying a sword.”
Nobara preens, adjusting her eyepatch. “I really would.”
Mai gags. “Are you two done yet? I’m leaving, gross—Miwa, are you coming? Didn’t you say you wanted to see Momo?”
“Oh—yes, I did! But—” Miwa glances down at her phone. “Uh—Utahime-sensei wants me to run by!”
Mai narrows her eyes at Miwa. “…Really? It’s summer, what could she need you for—”
“Wards! And—mentorship opportunities!” Miwa babbles, standing up. “Tell Nishimiya-senpai that I’m sorry, but I’ll see her soon! Bye!”
“….Miwa is getting weirder,” Mai declares in general, staring at where Miwa had practically run away.
Nobara snorts. “Sure, that’s the problem. Go home, Mai—you need to confess to Nishimiya.”
“Again, not taking any orders from you!” Mai glares at her, gathering up her stuff. “I’m leaving because you two are too much!”
“See you next week!” Maki says cheerfully, waving her off.
(Stupid Nobara.
It’s great that Maki found her soulmate and everything, but still, did it have to be the most annoying girl alive?
Confess to Momo—like hell, that will just make things worse.
She can just suffer through this—hells, through sheer exposure therapy, she should eventually get used to Momo running around with barely anything on, right?
…or at least, she can last until winter maybe….
She can see that a lot of cold showers are going to be needed in the future, and it’s not just due to the overly hot summer.)
“I’m home,” Mai calls out as she toes her shoes off and braces herself for whatever state of undress Momo has progressed to at this point.
(Maybe it’s frilly lingerie—
No, no, bad Mai!
She cannot be thinking about Momo in frilly lingerie right before seeing her, and besides that, it’s not great to imagine your best friend and roommate like that when she’s painfully straight!)
Surprisingly for once though, Momo is just wearing her normal cute witchy dress. “Hey, Mai. How was everyone?”
“Oh, you know, Nobara and Maki were gross as usual,” Mai says with a shrug, sitting down at the table. “Miwa was a little weirder than usual though—she couldn’t come over for some reason. She said something about Utahime-sensei needing her to renew the wards or something, but we all know that’s bullshit, so who knows what’s going on there.”
“I do,” Momo says evenly, looking her in the eye. “I thought we should talk.”
(Oh no.
Oh shit.
Momo has finally noticed her ogling her and figured out her terrible crush on her, hasn’t she?
And she probably doesn’t want to live with her anymore and wants her to move out—
Fuck.
She’s going to have to move into Maki’s place for a bit while she searches for a new place to stay, which means she’s going to have to deal with Nobara while nursing her heartbreak, although at least she can tell Nobara she told her so—)
“I—did I do something wrong?” Momo falters, looking down at her feet. “I don’t know—you’ve just been acting really weird since we moved in together—do you regret it?”
(Oh shit, she hadn’t even thought of this.
My god, she’s the worst, she actually let Momo think she’s the problem when clearly this is all Mai’s fault!
She has to fix this, stat.)
“No!” Mai rushes to say. “I love having moved in with you! It’s just—”
(Just that I’m in love with you and about to explode from both my unsaid feelings and pent up sexual tension?
That’s too blunt, isn’t it?)
“It’s just?” Momo prompts.
Mai takes a deep breath. “Okay, don’t freak out about what I’m about to say—”
“That doesn’t bode well,” Momo mutters, crossing her arms.
“—but I’m in love with you and you running around without pants on or in the frilly nightgowns is driving me insane , ” Mai blurts out and then immediately covers her face.
(There.
She said it.
Now for the fallout.)
There’s no sound for a bit, so Mai peeks from between her fingers to see Momo just gaping at her, her cheeks pink.
“…You—seriously?” Momo stutters out. “It worked?”
“What?”
“I—well. I saw some of Takada-chan’s photos, and she’s always wearing those super short skirts, and it was really hot, so I thought that—it was a dumb idea, I know, but I didn’t think it would actually work ,” Momo says, flapping her hands a bit.
Mai stares at Momo. “…you’re saying that you were running around in those outfits and driving me insane on purpose ?”
“Well, I didn’t realize they were driving you insane, I just thought that you might—that you might take some interest in me,” Momo squeaks, wringing her hands together.
Mai doesn’t even know when she moved, but she already has a hand cupped against Momo’s cheek, and Momo isn’t turning away at all, she’s leaning into her touch, her pupils dilated, and Mai murmurs, “You mean that we could have been doing this this entire time ?”
“We haven’t even done anything yet,” Momo points out, licking her lips, her cute little fangs flashing briefly.
Well that’s a giant hint if there was one, so Mai leans forward and indulges in those pink lips that have haunted her for her entire high school career and beyond, and while they’re a little more chapped than she expected, it’s everything she dreamed of and more.
(Wow, she can’t believe it was really just that easy.
…Nobara can never find out.)