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days like these were the days kanade would reminisce the most.
the afternoons she’d spend in the kitchen beside honami brought a familiar fuzziness to her stomach—a feeling she thought she was no longer capable of yielding after her mother’s passing.
oh, but how a small, gummy-like smile would often appear on her face just like that. the sight of the brunette’s warm expression and her soft, soft voice have always been more than enough to cure kanade of all the blues occupying her mind.
maybe she was selfish for wanting honami all to herself. maybe she was selfish for floundering in the nostalgia honami made her feel. maybe she was extremely selfish for basking in the love and care the latter provided with no second thought.
ah, she thought, honami had always looked the prettiest beneath the rays of sunshine. it was a beauty like no other; a certain etherealness no other being could possess the way honami did.
“yoisaki-san, is there something on my face? you keep staring at me…” a baby pink blush flushed throughout the taller’s face, reddening especially within her fluffy cheeks. kanade shook her head, an airily melodic laugh wisping through the air.
“no, it’s not that,” she smiled again as she leaned an elbow against the counter, cupping her face and continuing to hold eye contact with honami as a fond expression overtook whatever stoicism she forced upon herself, “you look really pretty right now, is all. i mean, you always do; you’re just particularly beautiful today.”
she hummed gently, “where’d you learn that from? i never expected you to be such a flirt, yoisaki-san.”
“neither did i expect you to get flustered so easily, but i suppose we digress, mochizuki-san.” honami let out a faint giggle, covering her mouth in the process. kanade didn’t understand why, though—she had always found her smile, laugh, literally every characteristic, personality trait, physical feature and just everything about her to be gorgeous.
regardless, today is a day kanade would spend reminiscing the past that had slipped through the cracks of her fingers. as per usual, it was the afternoon, around 2-3pm. honami comes over to kanade’s cozy abode once or twice a week on average, sometimes three to four times on an especially good week, and at first, kanade most definitely minded.
but now, she feels neutral. well, neutral probably isn’t the best way to put it. she felt somewhat glad? acutely, of course.
being with honami made her feel warm—so, so warm. the type of warmth a hearty meal an awfully loving mother would cook for you on a cold, winter's evening.
but in no way, shape or form did kanade see honami as a motherly figure. instead, honami filled the gap in her heart that had been missing for years—missing since she was a child.
honami filled the gap her mother’s death left.
and oh, she couldn’t be any more grateful for that. honami and her mother were very similar, after all. they were both selfless, giving, sweet, sickeningly sweet, caring and loving. and yet, kanade somehow loves both of them in two completely different ways.
her mother was the woman who raised her as an infant and spent the beginning of her life alongside, while honami is the woman she wants to marry and live the rest of her life with.
“yoisaki-san, do you want to help me wash and chop the vegetables? dinner’s on me tonight,” she craned her neck over her shoulder, tilting her head slightly. the whitehead nodded instantaneously, rushing over to the sink.
they both short-circuited at the sensation of their fingertips touching beneath the stream of cold water until the pair started to laugh instead.
ah, she remembered this all too well.
her and her mom used to be like this, too. back when kanade was just a child, she’d help her wash the whitest of radishes and the largest heads of lettuce she had ever seen; she’d do anything to spend more time with her mother back when she was still alive.
it made her heart rate fasten and do backflips within her ribcage at the mere thought of remaking those memories with her lover—honami mochizuki.
knowing the woman her mother was, she already knows just how much she’d love honami, too.