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“Alright, I guess this is enough for today.” Tsukasa stretched his arms up and crossed them. “Let's stop here!”
“Great job today, everyone.” Rui spoke in his usual calm voice.
“I'll change my clothes now. You guys can go without me, I'll catch up with you two.” Nene said, referring to Rui and Tsukasa.
“Then, if you excuse us!” In a second, both Rui and Tsukasa were gone. Nene went to the dressing room to change into her casual clothes.
As soon as she was done saying goodbye to Emu, she rushed to catch up with her two troupe mates. Nene thought they would be close to the park's gate, funnily enough, they were both trying to get a cotton candy at the park's cotton candy stall.
“You two... What are you doing?” Nene spoke unfazed.
“Ah, Nene! We thought it would be cool to reward ourselves with some cotton candy after practice!” Tsukasa said with some sense of pride. Nene didn't know why he was so proud, though.
“Are you two kids? Also, why didn't you get it? Isn't cotton candy easy to get?” Nene was not really that tired from today's rehearsal, but she was incredibly tired from Weirdo Wombo Combo's shenanigans.
“The thing is, neither me or Tsukasa have money today.” Rui said, with some sense of pride as well. Nene was used to it, so she didn't ask them why were they so proud of this fact.
“Seriously...” Nene sighed, “Let's go home.”
They didn't talk much while they went to the park's gate, however, that took a turn once they spotted a rare sight: public display of affection!
“Ah, over there,” Nene whispered to her two troupe mates next to her, “A couple. They're hugging.” She discreetly pointed to said couple.
“It really is nice to have someone you're comfortable with.” Rui turned his gaze to Nene, who apparently had an idea on her head. Perhaps she too wanted a hug from her loved one?
“But feeling so comfortable to the point of showing affection in public, huh...” Tsukasa was not visibly disgusted, nor did they know if he even was disgusted, but what he said gave both of them this idea, or atleast Nene had.
“Oya, Tsukasa-kun. Are you jealous?” Rui mockingly asked Tsukasa.
“I'm not.”
Nene wasn't listening to their conversation that much, instead, she was thinking about herself. It's been some months since her and Emu started dating. She still remembered when she finally decided to confess her feelings, it felt like her entire body was disintegrating. The relief felt when she found out their feelings were mutual is beyond words. Since then, they have went to dates to eat parfait or taiyaki, they played games at the arcade together, they ate lunch at the SEKAI or at Kamiyama, if Emu happened to invade the school. Although she liked doing each of these things, they still didn't look... couple-like. So far they haven't kissed or hugged, well, atleast not cuddle, since Emu hugged her before they became a couple.
Nene too wanted to show her affection to Emu and vice-versa, but the thing is... how should she do it? Does she just ask Emu for a kiss, does she have to show Emu signs before doing anything? This was the first time she was in a relationship, and she couldn't be happier, but this entire thing was just confusing!
When she got home, she immediately went to take a bath. This was one of her longest bathes so far! She spent the majority of her time talking to her shampoo bottles asking them for ideas on how to ask her girlfriend for a cuddle. Not even the shows and musicals she did as a kid in the shower took as much time as this!
She went to her room and thought some more. Eventually, when she didn't arrive at any conclusions, she decided to appeal to the internet. Twitter? No, only 10% of the people there have any kind of human contact. Instagram? Maybe she could find some slides in a couple helper account, but they never helped the majority of the time.
Finally, she found the answer on the nerdy-question-asker website, Quora. The question read as: How do I tell my partner I want more affection from them?
What one could do, according to the top answer, was:
1. Tell them directly. You two are a couple, it wouldn't be weird to ask for some more contact with them.
2. Try showing signs to them. Try showing interest in receiving affection. Tell them about a couple you saw kissing and make sure your message comes across as something you want.
3. Set up the moment for it. Watch a romantic movie together, sleep next to each other. Each of these can give you the opportunity to ask for a hug, a kiss, or whatever you want. It can also happen with the flow, depending on how the environment's like.
From these three suggestions, number 3 was the one who caught her attention. “Maybe, I could invite Emu to play games with me and try to ask her to cuddle a bit...” Nene thought, “Surely, it won't be that difficult this way...”
Nene hesitated at first, but she sent a message to Emu. It might be nighttime already, perhaps she should've sent it tomorrow morning or talked with Emu during practice. But she wanted to try nonetheless. She wanted to prove how good of a partner she could be!
“Emu, good afternoon. Sorry to send you a message now, but... would you like to come over to play some games together? It's fine if you can't. I would appreciate it if you could, though. Ah, I also found a great place that sells taiyaki, a classmate of mine recommended it. Let's check it out someday.”
Sent.
Now she had to wait for Emu to reply.
She has done this multiple times, but now she could feel her heartbeat becoming faster and faster.
After some time, not really that much time later, Emu replied:
“Nene-chan, hello!♪
Of course I would love to, playing with Nene-chan is always super duper fun!
Let's talk about this tomorrow during rehearsal tomorrow!”
Her message was followed by a cat stamp.
Nene could feel her heart beating faster and her face heat up. She couldn't wait to be with her beloved one tomorrow.
“So you two will be playing games together today?” Tsukasa seemed more excited than both of them. Nene was looking forward to it, although she didn't show her excitement that much.
“Yeah! We'll have lots of fun! Let's BAKYUUN our opponents today, Nene-chan☆” Emu was also excited, more reasonably than Tsukasa though.
“I don't really understand what that means, but let's have fun...!” Nene responded.
“Then, we'll be going as well. Since there won't be practice tomorrow, I guess we'll see you two later.” Rui waved and walked away, followed by Tsukasa.
“See ya!” Emu shouted.
Nene wanted to make sure Emu could feel as comfortable as possible. Her intentions were to experience more things with her girlfriend, but it wouldn't happen if Emu didn't feel comfortable enough. Her room was neatly clean, she made sure all her belongings were in their intended place and prepared some snacks for them.
“Nene-chan's room is so simple, yet so comfortable. Ehehe, I'm so happy♪” Emu spoke aloud, grabbing one of the snacks to eat.
“Don't eat everything in one go, you'll get hungry later and there won't be anything to eat.” Nene said as she seated next to her.
“I won't, captain!”
“Captain...?” Nene looked at her with confusion, but she was already used to Emu's peculiar vocabulary. “Then, let's begin.”
“Yay! I'll BAMBAM lots of players!” Emu swayed while humming something.
Their game night went just as well as they expected. They played Mario Kart, then Emu wanted to try Splatoon, then Mario Kart again and Fortnite, which was also Emu's idea.
Everything went by so fast. Nene was really, really happy. Being with Emu made her chest feel warmer, she felt relaxed. Emu's presence was a positive for her, it didn't matter what they were doing, being with her just felt nice.
“Hey, Nene-chan,” Emu's tone was low, she was almost whispering.
“Yes?”
Emu turned to face Nene and gave her a kiss.
“Emu...” Nene's face was fully red, she wasn't expecting a kiss.
“Hehe, Nene-chan, I love you!” Emu's smile was brighter than the sun. It could make her feel at ease so simply like a magic spell.
“Emu, the truth is...” Nene looked away, still blushing. “I didn't call you only to play games, I called you because I wanted to get some hugs too... Maybe a cuddle...”
“Nene-chan...”
“If you don't want to, it's fine, it's a selfish request, after all...”
“Nene-chan!” Emu gave Nene a big hug, “Of course I want to! I love you more than anything♪”
“Hehe... I love you too, Emu.” They both fell asleep embrancing each other.
“...And that's how it went!” Emu concluded. The four of them were at Kamiyama's rooftop saying lunch together. Emu had invaded the school once again.
“When you put it like this, it feels kinda embarrassing...” Nene sweated nervously, still not used to sharing her experiences.
“I will give you all my love, Nene-chan! It will make your heart go BAWOON!” Emu shouted.
“You don't need to say it that loud, though...!” Nene tried to put Emu down. “I'll be looking forward to it, then.”
“Be prepared, captain! I will steal your heart!” Emu jumped to give Nene a hug.
“M-My heart!? Didn't you steal it already? Also, what's up with this captain thing!” Nene said, not trying to resist Emu's hug attack.
“Fufu, they seem to be happy with each other. Tsukasa-kun, would you like to―” Rui leaned to give Tsukasa a kiss on the cheek.
“In your dreams.” Tsukasa pushed away Rui. Well, not everyone enjoys public display of affection, even with their loved ones.