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Mafuyu didn't feel too different.
Sure, she'd graduated, but that was basically it. She'd already applied to the university she wanted, and passed with flying colors. She was a nursing student now. Therefore, the purpose of her school experience had been served. There was no need to get excited or emotional.
Sure, she wouldn't see some of her kouhai as often, but they'd probably keep in touch. They had a surprising amount of friends in common, somehow. And yet, Kanade insisted that this was an important step forward in life.
Hmm, a step forward. Yeah, that works.
“A step forward…”
“Eh…? Mafuyu?”
The purple-haired girl came to her senses after she felt her lover cup her cheek. Her hand instinctively reached up for hers, resting over it gently. Warm, as always. Warmth was no longer foreign to her.
“Do you feel alright?”
“Yes. I was just thinking and got lost in thought. I'm sorry.”
“Don't worry about it…”
Mafuyu looked into her partner's confused, pure eyes. Looking down, she saw that she was holding a hairbrush, and Kanade sat in front of her, observing patiently. Right, she was doing Kanade's hair.
She rarely ever spaced out hard enough to lose track of her activities, so it was understandable that Kanade would be concerned. The composer tried to break the silence, clearing her throat.
“Excited for the graduation party...?”
“The ceremony was last week. I have my diploma. I already graduated.”
“I know, but… it's rare for you to want to attend something like this.”
It was, indeed, a rare occurrence. Mafuyu wasn't exactly known for going out to social gatherings, let alone with people from school of all places. And yet, when Shizuku told her about the graduation party that some of the graduates from Miyamasuzaka were organizing, she felt like it'd be nice to go.
“I know. I feel like it'd be a proper send-off to my school years, in a way.”
She kept brushing Kanade's hair, smoothing it out nicely. It was so long that brushing it from the top to the bottom could be counted as decent arm exercise, though archery made sure she didn't need it too much. She'd definitely miss the club a little bit, though she could always practice as a hobby or from time to time.
After a long fifteen minutes, the composer’s hair was nice and smooth, ready for the celebration they were about to attend. It wasn't necessarily a formal ceremony or anything, so they'd just go with their usual clothes. Not that Kanade had anything other than tracksuits and t-shirts anyway.
As they were about to head out of the house, Mafuyu stopped dead in her tracks near the entrance, making Kanade almost bump into her back, as she was trailing behind her. The white-haired girl let out a tiny yelp, stumbling slightly to stop herself.
“M-Mafuyu?”
Without a single word, Mafuyu turned back, and gave Kanade a nice, gentle hug. For no reason. Completely unprompted. Kanade was slightly stunned, since Mafuyu rarely ever initiated affectionate contact, but she relaxed into the embrace shortly after.
They hugged for almost a full two minutes. Kanade didn't mind it one bit, though they were running a bit late. After a certainly not long enough moment, Mafuyu pulled away, and looked down at Kanade.
“I felt it was appropriate to show you my gratitude. If it wasn't for you and the others, I… don't think I could've made it to the end of high school…”
The silence between them grew heavy, memories flashing briefly. It was true. If it wasn't for Kanade, Ena and Mizuki, she would've certainly disappeared. Even if they'd saved her that one time, if they didn't stick by her side, she would've lost herself again.
“You all gave me the opportunity to get here. To follow my goals, and live for myself. And for that, I… can never thank you enough.”
“Mafuyu…”
Kanade got on her tiptoes, pressing a quick, gentle kiss on Mafuyu’s lips. Warm.
“You've come this far, haven't you…? You deserve some credit for that… And… I'm glad I could be a part of your journey… Waking up by your side every morning… It's truly one of my favorite things… Being with you is more than enough..."
Mafuyu wasn't one to blush, but Kanade's words had dragged out something that she didn't know she had in her. Her cheeks became slightly rosy, and at the sight, Kanade's eyes widened.
Kanade was, indeed, one to blush. She got easily flustered by literally half of Mafuyu's actions, and sometimes, her own. The white-haired girl blushed so hard that her ears and her collarbone got red, and she broke eye contact immediately, suddenly finding the floor to be very interesting.
"C-Can we just… go…?”
Mafuyu felt her lips curl very slightly, forming a smile. A genuine one. The sensation wasn't alien to her anymore.
“Yes. Let's go.”
With that, they stepped out of the house.
“Okay, what the hell is this, Minori.”
“Salmon!”
Airi pinched the bridge of her nose, pacing back and forth. Shizuku just watched in concern, eyebrows creased. Haruka just stood there, stone-faced.
"Minori, we've opened four of the appetizer boxes, and all four of them have salmon in them! Why would you do this?!"
Airi flailed her arms around in frustration, and Minori just stood there, somewhat confused.
After a moment, Haruka stepped up, walking towards Minori and taking her hands in hers. Minori almost passed out at the touch, but before she could freak out, Haruka's gaze pierced through her.
“Minori, uhm… How do I say this…”
Letting out a gentle sigh, the blue-haired idol spoke, trying to be gentle.
“When you said you could take care of the appetizers for the graduation party, we expected more… uhm… variety?”
“I-I know! B-But salmon appetizers were on discount when I went to place the order for them! A-And I ended up buying, uhm…”
Minori pulled away from the touch briefly, reaching into her pocket. Shortly after, she pulled out a receipt. And kept pulling it out. And then pulled it out some more.
The receipt reached the floor before Minori could read it. Minori lifted the end of it, eyes squinting, searching for something. When she found it, she perked up.
“Twenty smoked salmon bites, twenty lemon-garlic salmon bites, twenty cucumber salmon bites, fifteen smoked salmon onigiri, thirty salmon croquettes…”
Haruka just stared really hard. Airi and Shizuku were too stunned (or confused) to speak, so they just stood back. Clearing her throat, Haruka spoke, willing all of her patience and gentleness into her tone.
“Minori, did you buy anything that wasn't salmon?”
Minori looked up at Haruka, almost offended. She could never get offended by Haruka though. If Haruka were to slap her, she would probably thank her.
“Of course! I bought uhm… pizza bites, mini pretzels, mini tarts, mini meatballs, mini brownies, mini truffles…”
“Okay, good…”
The tension seemed to lift off the other three's shoulders. Sure, about half of the appetizers were salmon-based, but at least it wasn't all of them. It could be worse.
Shizuku walked up to them, smiling a bit awkwardly. Airi followed behind her, though Shizuku covered her almost completely.
“I-I believe we should get going… We're gonna run late, and we still have to load all these boxes into the trunk of the More More Car…”
“Shizuku, we are not calling it the More More Car.”
Airi interfered almost immediately. Getting a car for group transportation purposes was nice, but Airi had fought fiercely to prevent Minori and Shizuku from naming it the "More More Car”. A lost cause, she was sure, but a noble one.
As Shizuku looked down at her with kicked puppy eyes, Airi just groaned, irritated but not seriously enough.
“Whatever, let's just take these to the car and take off.”
“Okie! I'm on it!”
Minori grabbed some of the appetizer-filled boxes, marching off towards the front door. Haruka and Shizuku carried the most boxes, and Airi carried a total of two, because smol.
Having packed everything properly, and double checking that the boxes wouldn't fall or open during the drive to the venue, they got into their respective seats.
“Alright! Let's go!”
“Calm down, Minori. We haven't even started the car yet.”
Minori always got overly excited when they were all in the car. Unfortunately, the only one with a driver's license was Airi, who had to sit on two books to be able to drive at all. She truly was five apples tall.
Airi was on the steering wheel, Haruka sat on the passenger's seat, and Shizuku and Minori were banished to the backseats, due to previous incidents. Minori got too excited when one of ASRUN's songs came on the radio once and almost caused a More More Crash, and Shizuku was too tall and blocked Airi's peripheral vision.
Airi waited until Minori stopped bouncing excitedly in her seat to start the car. It was just a regular car, so the engine didn't rev too loudly.
“Alright, now we can go.”
With that, Airi pulled out of the parking lot, driving off to the venue.
As Ena and Mizuki entered the venue, they encountered a familiar scene. Very familiar. Mizuki looked around for a good five seconds, before speaking, still a bit stunned.
“Ena… Why is the whole venue styled like the Club Penguin night club?”
It was a blast from the past, sure, but it was so oddly specific and had nothing to do with graduation. Even the “Dance Contest!” poster was there, except for the fact that it said “Gay Contest” instead. Funny joke indeed. Or maybe someone printed the wrong file.
Before they walked further into the venue, however, Mizuki stopped altogether. Ena seemed confused, and Mizuki uttered a single word.
“Rui.”
“Rui?”
“Yeah, Rui. This whole place is way too elaborate to have been made by anyone but him. Also, the Gay Contest poster was definitely his idea.”
Ena had talked to Rui a few times, and Mizuki recounted a thing or two from time to time. If she pieced it all together, and her mental image of the guy was correct, she'd have to sit near the fire extinguisher.
They just sat on one of the benches, which were also Club Penguin themed. Mizuki was sure her igloo had one of those benches. After a few minutes of waiting around, everyone's favorite polycule stepped into the venue, carrying many small, white cardboard boxes.
“Airi!”
“Ah, Ena!”
Setting her two (2) boxes on the table, Airi rushed up to Ena. They hugged for a moment, before Airi tensed up and pulled away, looking up at Ena, brows furrowed in tiny.
“Hold up. You and Mizuki are from Kamiyama. What are you doing here?”
“Mafuyu told us that we could come! Our classes didn't really do a graduation party after the ceremony, so we were kinda bummed.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
A soft voice interrupted their catching-up, and Airi felt a hand on her shoulder. Shizuku towered over her, looking slightly distressed.
“Airi-chan, could you please help me out with the appetizers? Haruka is… well, busy.”
Airi took a single glance at Haruka, only to realize that she was absolutely dazzled by the ambiance. She was looking around like she'd ascended to heaven.
“A-Are we really… here? In the Club Penguin night club…?”
Oh. Makes sense. Knowing her, she probably had 300+ hours on Club Penguin.
Airi turned back to Ena, giving her an awkward smile.
“Sorry, my girlfriend's being weird. I'll be back in a bit.”
“Okie! Do your thing.”
As the More More Gays set up the boxes and laid out the snacks, Mafuyu and Kanade made their entrance. The entrance in question was just them walking in, and sitting down at the farthest possible bench.
Ena and Mizuki approached the other two, but before they could start a conversation, a weak, bass-boosted hum started to blast from the speakers. In a blink, there were two people behind the DJ console, and a thundering voice filled the room.
“WHO'S READY TO GET THIS PARTY STARTEEEEEEEEEEED?!?!?!!??!?!”
Tsukasa yelled into the microphone, a wide smile on his face. Everyone winced. The idols were stunned, negatively. The artists just stared. Literally no one responded to his question.
At the sight, the star deflated slightly, but thankfully, Rui had him covered.
“That concludes our mic test! Sorry for the disturbance, everyone.”
Tsukasa wasn't necessarily embarrassed, just disappointed. Rui gave him a few pats on the back, guiding him to the stairs that led up to the console, and they sat there for a while.
The idols stared at each other for a bit. Shizuku seemed somewhat calm, probably used to this by now. Haruka was neutral. Airi was just confused.
“Who hired him? He's not even in our school.”
Minori spoke up almost immediately.
“No one did! But you all said that you needed someone to be the DJ, so I told Kohane and Shiho, and Shiho told her friend Saki, and Saki told her brother, and her brother volunteered! He also said that his boyfriend could help with the decorations, which I assume is why this place is… well, Club Penguin themed.”
Haruka was unusually happy when the game was mentioned, letting out a high pitched squeal. She was in a giddy mood, and she leaned in towards Minori, talking to her in a whispery voice.
“Minori, we're in the Club Penguin night club!”
“I know! It's really nice, I think.”
“Did you know that the existence of the night club dates back to the third predecessor of Club Penguin, Penguin Chat 3?”
Minori was a bit stunned, and the other two just backed away as soon as they could, tending to the snack table to avoid this. Wise choice indeed. Minori was in for a very long yap.
“Huh? There were three?”
“Yeah! The first instance of what would eventually become Club Penguin was a test game, called Experimental Penguins, also known as Penguin Chat 1.0! After that, followed Penguin Chat 2, which added multiple features and built upon the concept! And then, Penguin Chat 3 introduced the night club!”
“T-That's really cool, Haruka-chan…”
“We're literally standing on a piece of Club Penguin history! This particular reconstruction of the night club seems to be based on its Music Jam 2009 iteration, based on the color of the balloons and decorations, and the way things are set up. The only detail that's amiss would be the original Dance Contest poster. This one is… changed.”
Haruka took a moment to gesture at the Gay Contest poster, with slight discomfort from the infidelity to the source material. Before Minori could leave and continue to help Shizuku, Haruka started to speak again.
“Did you know that there are a total of 103 unique appearances for the interior of the night club? There are also 58 different renders of the exterior of it! They changed them quite frequently for in-game events, like holidays, crossovers, anniversary celebrations..."
Even as her brain was being actively fried by an overflow of Club Penguin information, Minori was happy. She would die a good death, within Minori standards.
By 6:30 PM, there were some more people in the venue. Not everyone accepted the invitation, and not everyone that did showed up, but there were still a fair amount of people. The snack table was set, and the different groups were chatting and having fun.
As soon as the clock hit 7:00 PM, the lights were dimmed, colored lights dancing around the room. A reflector shone upon the console once more, and behind it, stood world future star Tsukasa Tenma. Thankfully, he didn't screech this time.
“Good night, everyone! Welcome to the graduation party for our students at Miyamasuzaka! We also have some guests from Kamiyama here! Even some second-years came around! In short, this is a celebration for everyone!”
Tsukasa handed the mic to Rui, and he cleared his throat, before speaking.
“Congratulations to the senior students who have graduated! We hope that your future can be one you're happy with, and that the memories made these years stick with all of you for a long time.”
Some of the students had teared up already, but before they had much time to get emotional, Rui pressed a few buttons, and the lights flashed, music playing on the speakers.
“By the way, this isn't much of a dance party, but there is a dancefloor, so if anyone wants to take it, you're free to do so! Song requests can be given to Tsukasa-kun right here. Have fun!”
The idols were the first to approach Tsukasa. They sent Shizuku to request a song, and before long, they were dancing to the beat of Dream Place. After them, more people joined the dancefloor, and soon enough, people were just having fun and dancing together. Some couples even went and requested romantic songs to dance to. Naturally, there were two exceptions to this.
Mafuyu and Kanade just stood near the end of the room, where the staircase would be. Unfortunately for them, the venue was a recreation of the night club, not the room upstairs. Therefore, no stairs. Just a sign that read “No :3” and a poorly drawn autism creature.
A small, shuddery breath caught Mafuyu's attention immediately. Her gaze darted to Kanade, who was doing that thing where she fidgeted with her hands to focus. Clearly, it wasn't working well enough.
The music was a bit too loud at that point, and the intermittent, bright lights were probably too much for Kanade to handle. She was definitely getting overstimulated.
Taking one of her clammy, trembling hands, Mafuyu locked eyes with her. One look was enough to gauge Kanade's state. She needed to leave, now.
“Let's go somewhere quiet, okay?”
“O-Okay…”
Still holding her hand, Mafuyu guided Kanade through the crowd. Thankfully, they got to the exit before she got any worse, and the venue had a lobby where they could sit down. There were no people there, so Mafuyu made sure to turn the lights off, letting the moonlight from the window be their only source of light.
The lyricist helped the composer lower herself to the couch, still holding her hand, rubbing small circles on the back of it with her thumb. It wasn't shaking anymore, but her breathing was still unsteady.
"Is this better?"
"Y-Yeah..."
Mafuyu continued to comfort her, her arm eventually wrapping around Kanade's shoulder, and pulling her into a side hug.
They just sat there, Kanade resting her head against Mafuyu's collar. After a few minutes of silence, Kanade managed to speak, her voice a bit less agitated and exhausted than before.
“Thanks…”
“It's alright.”
Mafuyu closed her eyes briefly. The sensation of Kanade's body against hers was nice. It was warm and soft, just like her. Being there for her was certainly the best thing she had in her life.
There was a time in which such warmth was unfathomable. And yet, Kanade didn't give up on her. Neither of them gave up on each other or themselves. They were both here, in this room.
Mafuyu's eyes opened, looking down at the love of her life. Kanade gazed up at her partner, and smiled. That tiny, gentle smile that she always has when she's genuinely happy. Mafuyu felt herself smiling, just a little bit.
“Mafuyu…”
“Yes?”
“That song…”
Mafuyu paid closer attention to the background music, still audible from the lobby, though it was muffled. A nice, gentle beat, probably requested by a couple.
Kanade managed to stand up, albeit weakly, and extended a hand to Mafuyu. With a slightly flushed expression, and a smile that could brighten up the world, she spoke.
“I know we're not in the venue anymore, but… Do you… want to dance too…?”
Asahina Mafuyu from two years ago could have never said she wanted something. She simply existed. No wants, no desires. No wishes or goals. Just go through the motions. Exist until she doesn't.
But now? She wanted this. She wanted to have this dance.
“Yes, I… I want to dance with you…”
Mafuyu took the hand extended to her, though she basically got up by herself, since Kanade couldn't really pull her up. They stood close, and after a moment, Kanade wrapped her arms around her waist.
Mafuyu's right hand went to Kanade's back, and her left hand searched Kanade's right. Kanade just stiffened, not knowing what to do with herself.
“I-I've… never done this… Is my hand supposed to go…”
Kanade's left hand hovered over Mafuyu's back, trying to mirror her lover's posture, before pulling back and resting on Mafuyu's elbow, of all places. She looked so confused and small and pathetic, and it was the most endearing thing ever to Mafuyu.
Gently, Mafuyu took Kanade's left hand in hers, and moved it to rest on her right shoulder. The contact made Kanade blush, and Mafuyu would be lying if she said she didn't feel even slightly flustered. Rare for Mafuyu, yes, but not impossible. Not anymore.
“There. And your right hand holds mine, like this. Keep your elbow at shoulder level.”
Mafuyu took Kanade's free hand in hers, and her right hand went back to Kanade's back, just above the waist.
“And now, we…”
Slowly, Mafuyu began to move, one tiny step to the right, then one to the left. Kanade followed clumsily, but eventually, they fell into a rhythm. It was a gentle, slow sway. Nice and soft and everything that Kanade was to her.
“Where did you… learn to do this…?”
“Dance classes in middle school… We learned to waltz in theory, but… we didn't practice much…”
They were both clumsy with their movements, Mafuyu being completely out of practice and Kanade knowing nothing about dancing, but this was perfect to them.
After the song stopped, so did the whole world, it seemed. Nothing else had relevance anymore. Nothing existed outside of this room, this moment, this waltz. Their gazes locked, faces mere inches apart. Kanade was absolutely red, and Mafuyu's eyes shined with life for what felt like the first time in ages.
“Mafuyu… I love you… So, so much…”
Mafuyu felt herself smiling. Blissfully, warmly, truly.
“Me too, Kanade… I love you too…”
Slowly, hesitantly, they got even closer, and eventually, the gap was closed. As their lips met, it was like everything in the world was right once more.
This was all real. They were here, together. They got here, together. They brought each other here, together. They went through so much, and managed to come out on the other side, together.
As they pulled away, their gazes locked once more. Kanade looked impossibly happy, her face graced with a smile that could easily outshine the sun.
For the first time, Mafuyu felt that same happiness in herself. She knew it was happiness. This was happiness.
Mafuyu's heart was warm. She felt so, so warm.