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Ena doesn’t know how she’s got herself into this situation.
It’s unnatural for her to be worrying about the time as much as she is right now. If anything, she’s more used to always being on the opposite end. Always late, always in a hurry.
She wants to say it’s because she’s an artist—you can’t help being sucked into the creative grind set, after all—but her track record of being the last one to arrive at every meeting isn’t a good look on her case of “being a punctual person”, even if it isn’t close to resembling the truth at all.
That’s why it’s unnatural for her to be the one waiting for the other instead. Even the mere act of bringing out her phone to check the time is foreign, and it gives her a sense of unease, not anything quite like she’s ever felt before.
…And Ena’s grip on her phone case, as she looks at the clock for the nth time that hour, tightens with every heavy thump of a heartbeat she feels resounding through her body.
“Where could she be…?”
But, perhaps, there’s a different reason behind this feeling of unease. Something beyond just being placed into a position she’s never been in. Something much deeper, and much more unnerving than the mere idea of standing around, waiting for someone to arrive, under a light pole situated by a fairly busy Shibuya street.
“Sorry, I’m late…!”
It’s who that certain someone is that makes this whole situation horrifying for the soul, and as a result, the worst to be put in—especially after crossing through a vulnerable period in your friendship that you can’t just help but wonder how you’ve gotten yourself here in the first place.
“There you are…! I was just wondering where you…”
Ena freezes, and finds herself at a loss for words, the moment she lays her eyes upon the girl who had just arrived right in front of her.
Her heart thumps.
“…went.” She mutters under a faint breath, even as she settles to look at the trash bin placed right to the side instead, doing all she can do to avoid having to look directly at the source of her current uneasiness.
It’s upsetting, because Ena doesn’t want to feel this way, but it’s hard not to, when you’ve never seen your best friend in this way before.
“Ena, I…”
Ena’s eyes flicker to the front, and her stomach churns when she looks at her friend’s face a bit too quickly than she had meant to.
“…Mizuki.”
Though the entire day had been chilly due to the December air, it is then when Ena feels a heat on her face that makes her head feel light. She glances to look at her friend’s face once more, forcing herself to have the courage to at least push through the first meeting.
“You’re late— Hhie!”
Her head reels at the sight of an equally flushed face, and it makes the words immediately escape her. Mizuki, her dearest friend, is standing right there, wearing the cutest outfit in the world that accentuates the cutest expression Ena has ever seen painted on her equally pretty face.
She almost thinks that she could paint it, right here and now.
Wait, what? Pretty? Ena thinks Mizuki has always been naturally cute, so that’s another thing on its own, but pretty?
“Ena…”
She also thinks that Mizuki with her hair down is also one of the prettiest things she’s ever seen. She rarely sees the other in such a light, so it’s— well, difficult. But one thing she does know for sure is that it’s—
It’s, okay, beautiful and intricate: the way her curls drape down her shoulders as naturally as they do, like a line of ivy clinging onto an overgrown garden wall.
It’s inspiring, almost, and she feels the urge to stare at the girl before her until she can burn the image into her memory. To be able to live with it forever framed in her mind. Ena thinks that perhaps that, alone, could last her artistic inspiration for an entire lifetime to come.
“Ena…!”
Huh, what? Stop thinking of her in that way, Ena! You can’t just make someone your muse just because they looked pretty once!
What, huh? Ena?
"Ena!”
A yelp escapes her mouth, before feeling two hands place themselves on both her shoulders, as if to jolt her back to life.
“Wh— What is it?!”
“I said you’re pretty! Did you hear me?!”
Oh.
Ena looks up. She notices, for the first time, the light makeup the other has put on tonight. It’s fair and vibrant, it’s pretty. She can smell the other’s lipstick too. It’s sweet. She notices, also, how Mizuki’s face is closer than it’s ever been before.
Oh.
Her heart drops to her stomach.
“…Well, of course I am!! You should be, too! Which, I mean— you are! And don’t stand so close to me like that! In… public!”
“You really think I’m pretty, too, Ena…?”
Oh my god.
Ena is forced to look as Mizuki leans in closer with an adorable pout on her face—what?! Don’t think it’s adorable, Ena!!—and a glossy look to her eyes that renders her unable to look away. Ena can’t look away.
She notices just how red Mizuki’s face is, too.
Oh my goodness gracious.
“I mean—” Ena desperately wants to look away, but she can’t. Her eyes flicker, left and right, up and down, instead. “When are you not—” The words threaten to strangle her.
She freezes, and her brain malfunctions– or, what seems to be closer to a malfunction more than anything else. Then she remembers how it’s barely been five minutes in, and how the night hasn’t even begun.
“I… I don’t…”
Ena doesn’t think she can survive tonight at all.
“…Ena, let’s—”
“Let’s just go before the lines grow too long.”
“Yeah— yeah.”
They share a moment of silence between them, and then they both take a step back—and then another—before walking away, towards the busy Shibuya crowd to get themselves (hopefully, Ena thinks) lost in a sea of people.
“So, um, you got anything planned?” Mizuki asks, quieter than usual. Ena pauses, “There’s this Christmas market I wanted to check out…” and she shoves her hands into her pocket. “…Okay, that’s cool.” Mizuki does the same as she replies.
Though the two of them walk together side by side, their gazes are averted, and their heads are faced towards every single direction that isn’t towards each other.
And even as they busy themselves with making sure they don’t bump into anyone passing by, Ena still finds that the noise and the bustle of the city streets still don’t do enough to tune out the heavy thumping in her heart.
Her head feels light as she groans to herself, and Mizuki looks away.
Even though she had asked for this, and even though she had declared for this to happen…
“You picked the perfect night for a… date, huh, didn’t you, Ena…?”
“Don’t say it out loud.”
Ena doesn’t know how she’s got herself into this situation.
🎀
Mizuki hasn’t been able to calm down at all.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. It’s more, like— Mizuki hasn’t been able to quieten the loud beating she hears resounding from her chest ever since she saw Ena’s face.
…Okay, maybe it isn’t as exaggerated as she thought it sounds, but it’s not like Mizuki doesn’t know not to let that get the best of her. I mean, why would she? It would be really embarrassing if she did, and even more embarrassing now, because it’s Ena.
Ena, one of her dearest and most trusted friends in the world, who wouldn’t dare to leave a single soul behind to be left alone. Mizuki can think this with full confidence, because she’s been the receiving end of that outstretched hand, time and time again.
Even though she's run away countless times—always afraid, always hiding. Always choosing the options that allow her to stall from confronting things she doesn’t like even for just a bit more. Ena was there to take her by the hand to show her a light that’s soft and warm, the same way she held her on the day they promised to be together forever.
Because even through tears and through hardship, they vowed to never leave each other ever again.
Though, deep down, Mizuki knows all of this, she really does, there’s only one… major issue stopping her from wholly embracing this warm truth.
“Mizuki— Mizuki! Were you listening?”
“…Oh, huh? Ena…”
And Mizuki is forced to be made intimately aware of what it is when she’s pulled back to reality by an Ena staring her directly in the face.
“Hah? What do you mean, ‘Ena…’? I was asking if you wanted strawberry or vanilla.”
It’s sudden, because she immediately meets Ena in the eyes, and then she feels her heart clench, like she’s unable to breathe. Mizuki freezes and internally prays that Ena can’t see right through her.
Ena is so, so close…! As she thinks this, she looks into the other’s eyes, unable to look away. (At least, as inconspicuous as she thinks she is.)
Ena’s eyes—those eyes: kind, and warm eyes—are beautiful, like they had been painted using stars from galaxies far, far away- No, wait a minute! She can’t afford to be thinking too deeply about this right now! She rapidly combs through the depths of her mind to think of a response before spitting out a quick—
“Um, vanilla should be good!”
No, wait, I wanted strawberry!?
Mizuki watches the way Ena confusingly examines her expression, and her sigh that follows after isn’t very reassuring to her already jumbled-up stomach.
“We’ll get two of those, please.”
She also watches Ena do all the talking for the both of them, which also makes her stomach feel as if it’s been tied in knots, because it’s unnatural for Mizuki to just stand there like she was a foreigner who didn’t understand a word they were speaking. Mizuki was never one to be this meek— she should speak up, right now!
“I’ll get, do, another one, too, please!”
Mizuki swears she felt the life drain away from her body right then and there.
What am I saying?!
“Huh…? Oh, okay, we’ll get another one then.” Ena pulls out her wallet while Mizuki daydreams of a meteorite crashing into them to end this torture right now.
Mizuki is sure that it’s warm— that it’s kind, and that it’s wonderful to feel like it’s okay to stay with the people you love. She knows this, deep down, and she’s aware of it very clearly now, more than anything.
However, it’s difficult to keep the promise she made with Ena, right now, you see, when Mizuki has never felt the stronger urge to run away before than she feels to this instant.
“I’ll pay for us, okay?”
“…Yeah, okay, thanks…!”
I’m sorry, Ena.
“Mizuki, what’s wrong with you today…?! Seriously, you’re quieter than you usually are…”
Nothing that isn’t wrong with what I feel for you, Mizuki thinks as she forces out an awkward laugh. “Just feeling a bit too chilly today, probably…!” She says, even as she licks up a stripe into the ice-cold ice cream Ena bought for her just now.
Immediately, there are at least two things wrong with what she said. For one, there’s definitely more reasons for her to be feeling warmer than cold right now, and Mizuki knows it wasn’t just because of her current outfit.
“Right. I’m sure the layers and the legwarmers are doing a lot to freeze you to death right now.” Ena retorts, and that sentence, too, had a lot of things wrong with it.
Perhaps we could start with the fact that tonight was Ena’s idea to begin with, even though she’s acting like she’s totally unaffected and oblivious to the atmosphere. But who was Mizuki to think of how unfair it is, when she, herself, is being totally unfair too?!
Being unfair, like… stepping away when Ena inches closer, or changing topics just as soon as Ena brings them up… or daring to lean onto the other, even after doing the previously mentioned… It’s unfair, Mizuki thinks, totally unfair, and she should be treating Ena much better.
“Hey… Look at me.”
Nevermind, Mizuki thinks as she defeatedly closes her eyes, it’s very fair, because you say things like that, Ena.
She slowly turns her head towards the other, even though she knows to herself that she’s unprepared. “…Yeah?” Mizuki hesitates, and, clearly, she is unprepared—she knows that now, for sure—because she’s unable to think at all when she feels a warmth wrap itself around her hand.
“…Ah.”
Mizuki’s eyes are owlish when she looks at Ena, and she wishes to herself, then, that the expression on her face was anything but one that resembles the incoherent thoughts that were rushing through her mind.
A soft hand finds its way around hers, holding onto it with a certain gentleness that makes Mizuki feel sick. Her head feels light; the beating in her chest, heavy. Mizuki thinks that it’s warm, and so, so soft around her hand, but she selfishly wishes it would be acceptable right now to just tear hers away. It’s not that Mizuki finds this certain sensation unfamiliar, but that’s what makes it worse.
She watches as the other tests by rubbing her thumb on Mizuki’s, and when she doesn’t move away is when Ena holds it much tighter. “You said you were chilly, right…?” Mizuki hears Ena sheepishly say, but she’s too busy staring at their intertwined hands to think of a response or to look up to see what must have been the reddest Ena’s face has ever been.
She can’t, even if she wanted to, because she’s too occupied by the softness she feels in her hand.
The same softness that’s reached out to her, time and time again, with a kindness that can only come from her dear friend who would never leave a loved one behind. The same hand that held hers on the day Mizuki Akiyama was made anew and turned into a person that could walk side by side with the people she loves with pride. The same, tender hand that’s guided her—showed her that there’s a light that Mizuki deserves all the same, even through sickness and in health.
Mizuki thinks of all of that; she remembers all the different, warm feelings that bloomed in her chest each and every time Ena’s hand held hers the same way it was now, but it doesn’t help. Mizuki thinks that it only makes it all the more horrible.
Because, surely, this isn’t the same as all the other ones now. Not when Mizuki isn’t able to think of Ena as nothing more than just her friend anymore. This was beyond friendship, and it’s terrifying.
Her face must have looked stupid—stupidly red, and stupidly abashed.
“Ena…” She swallows, before taking a step back. The pit in her stomach only grows when she sees Ena’s hand twitch lightly at the sudden emptiness it now holds onto, and Mizuki’s embarrassment turns into guilt. Even now, even after everything, she’s unable to look Ena in the eye. “…I’m sorry!”
“Mizuki…?!?!” is the last thing she hears before departing hastily towards the opposite direction, running into the busy Shibuya crowd to hopefully lose herself in it, and as a result, lose Ena, too.
🎨
Ena is frustrated.
With a lot of things, really, and she could take half of an entire day if she had the time to be able to list down everything that irritates her and describe what exactly she’s exasperated by in full detail. But she doesn’t have the time, she never does, and perhaps, that alone could go into the list of things she could rant about if anyone ever asks her what frustrates her the most… Yes, she won’t be able to talk about it at all— that’s the point.
But out of everything in that list, Ena knows deep down that there’s nothing more that frustrates her more than she frustrates herself. Her vulnerable, emotionally explosive self. Ena wants to say she’s gone a long way, that her aggressively confrontational ways are long behind her, but when she’s feeling particularly bummed out like she is right now, it’s hard to think of herself as a person that’s improved.
“Ugh! I’m so stupid!!” Ena exclaims, and she defeatedly leans against a lone wall. It’s a bit unflattering to be seen all alone near a dark alleyway like this—no, it’s definitely unflattering—but Ena doesn’t care to think about that right now. There’s no more correct location for a sad, defeated teenage girl like her than an alleyway hidden away from public view.
She’s been running through the Shibuya streets, yelling for Mizuki’s name in a busy crowd, for the past 30 minutes, and to no avail. Ena is sure that it’s better for the public if she mopes around in a corner all alone instead of disturbing them. Does she think it’s better at all? No, but she thinks she can give them a few minutes of peace before she sets off to look for her lost friend once again— like she always has in the past.
Right now, she can mope around. Think of how stupid she is to have thought of any of this, to have acted the way she did. How could she not know how awkward it must have been for Mizuki to be forced to do that…? Ena is so, so stupid, and regrets any choice and action she’s picked that led her to today.
She sighs for the umpteenth time, and she turns her phone on to check her lockscreen—but, nothing. Of course there’d be nothing. What did she expect? For Mizuki to come messaging her, all apologetic and meek, telling her how sorry she is to have run away like that and how Ena should just spend the night alone? No! Of course not! Ena is frustrated by herself, right now, yes, but she’ll think of anything but to ever blame Mizuki at all. She knows she would never do that, and that’s why she’s all the more determined to find her.
But sometimes, it’s difficult to find the resolve to… when she’s just so exhaustively ashamed of herself. Ena looks down at her hand, the same hand that started this in the first place, and sighs. Seriously, why did she do that? She should have known better.
It was merely a spur of the moment, and Ena only wanted to make the first move. Tonight was her idea, after all, and even though they had been on outings similar to this one in the past, tonight was… different. She knows it’s different, because they’ve been looking at each other with a love in their eyes much more passionately than they ever have before. At least, Ena knows that she has, and she doesn’t intend to make it a secret. Which is why the two of them are here right now.
Does Ena regret it? Maybe a little bit… but she knows most of all how dishonest it would be if she were to just hold back on this, especially after Mizuki had to bare her heart in order to feel even just a little bit deserving of being around Ena. Though, now, Ena hesitates to ask if this was even the right thing… if Mizuki even wanted this in the first place.
“God, why am I like this…” Ena looks up in defeat. The sky is dark, and limitless, and it makes her feel so pathetic. If Ena were a different person, she thinks that she would have definitely, definitely treated Mizuki better. She wishes she had Mafuyu’s bluntness, maybe she would have been able to ask Mizuki directly if she even wanted this, or perhaps, even Kanade’s gentleness— maybe then, Mizuki would feel much more comfortable to be here, and much more like herself.
But no matter how much she wishes she were someone else, she is apologetically and shamefully Ena, and like she always does, she has to make do with what she has, even if it’s difficult to understand.
That’s right, I said we’d go to the Christmas sale together today… As Ena thinks this, her attention is directed towards the street right next to the alleyway she’s creeping about in. More specifically, she’s eyeing a woman in Santa-themed clothing handing out flyers she recognizes as familiar.
A poster—pink, cute, and decorated with frills and ribbons…
“Is that… Dear Ribbon?!”
🎀
Mizuki feels like the most pathetic person in the world.
She’s been through lots of rough experiences, that’s for sure. For instance, finding yourself on your knees in a forest in the middle of a rainstorm is one way to get your ego beaten to the ground as much as it is easy to feel like the luckiest person in the world when your friend, disheveled and covered in mud, looks at you with warmth.
Because there’s nothing better than when a heart is filled with light after trudging through the darkness for so long. Mizuki knows this more than anyone else, and as long as she continues to hold the resolve to keep the precious friends she’s made for years to come, she’s going to relearn it over and over—she’s sure of it.
But that doesn’t make her feel any less pitiful than she does right now. She doesn’t know what’s more miserable: to be seen standing alone in front of a pretty, pastel-lit shop display, on Christmas Eve, staring sullenly at the line of neatly decorated cases of makeup and accessories she would have done anything to obtain just a little while ago, or the plain fact that she’s a coward who can’t even look her dearest friend in the eye without feeling like she’s about to throw up.
Whichever one may think is much more displeasing than the other, it still doesn’t hold a candle to Mizuki’s feelings of helplessness, and how it’s as if this must have been her worst moment. Maybe it is, because Mizuki already knows what a bad idea it is to run away from Ena—so that makes it worse, because she already knows. Even after Ena’s extensive kindness and effort to make sure Mizuki is comfortable, she runs away even now? Well, she is no better than a curled up pillbug.
Her eyes aimlessly stare at the glass display in front of her instead. After all, the one thing that’s never failed her is fashion. That, and cute magical girl shows. At her best, she’s living to embody the strength and compassion the characters she adores encompass. At her worst, she indulges and abandons herself in it, doing all she can to numb the pain. To leave it behind and to waste away instead.
Maybe that’s why she’s always surrounded by the things she loves, because it’s easy to yield to narcotization, and why she’s here right now.
A soft sigh escapes her mouth, and she clenches onto the sleeves of her coat. “Well, I guess I should just get going…” Mizuki mutters, but before she could even take a step back to start walking away, she hears footsteps swiftly make their way towards her.
“Haaah… Mizuki…! There you are…” She perks up in recognition of the voice, and she gawks foolishly at the figure before her. “Ena…?”
The last person she wanted to be here is standing right there in front of her, panting exhaustedly, like she had been running around all hour. The girl hunches forward to catch her breath. “I was worried you’d already left, but…” Ena exhales, “I knew you’d be here! I’m so glad…”
Mizuki, stunned and at a loss for words, looks at Ena. “You’re… glad.” She manages to stammer. “You’re glad you found me…?”
“Yes!” Ena immediately looks up to answer. She leans in forward and looks into Mizuki’s eyes with desperation. “…Yes! Of course I am! Why would I not be…?” The earnest look on Ena’s face, as if this was the easiest to figure out in the world, renders Mizuki speechless.
Between the artificial white light emanating from the display behind her, and the warm orange from the Christmas decorations throughout the city, Mizuki thinks that Ena looks prettier under something much more natural.
(Mizuki thinks that Ena looks pretty, always.)
“Come on, I’ll take you somewhere.”
Mizuki doesn’t know how long they’ve been walking for.
She hasn’t even bothered to look up to where Ena was leading her, or to intently watch Ena’s hair sway back and forth, like she’s done in the past. All she’s been seeing is the ground moving as she walks past, and the way Ena’s heeled boots tread lightly onto the city cement. Mizuki thinks to herself, at one point, that even the way in which her skirt bounces off her ankles with every step she takes was pretty.
Every time her face scrunches up when she laughs, or when she’s mildly annoyed, Mizuki still manages to think that it’s pretty. Ena is pretty. That must be it. That must be what’s been scaring Mizuki away.
Mizuki thinks that she could live off of this forever. Would that be okay?
“Here.” She watches Ena stop in her tracks. “We can stop here.”
She looks up for the first time in a while, and she’s… confused. “This is…?” Mizuki turns around to see the street view of a corner lit up by warm, artificial lights, secluded and a bit more private than where they previously were. She walked her into the nearby neighborhood, Mizuki guesses, where only a few people pass by.
How thoughtful, she muses, and also a bit inconvenient. This way, Mizuki would have no reason to run away. There’ll be no crowd to lose herself in or Christmas sale to run towards at any given moment. It’ll just be Mizuki and Ena, and no one else this time. Mizuki and Ena.
“Oh,” Ena clears her throat. “Nowhere, really. I just walked until I felt like stopping…” Mizuki chuckles lightly at the sentiment.
“Of course you’d do that.” Mizuki says, even if it was meant for only herself to hear. She only realizes she spoke out loud when she hears Ena go—
“You’re smiling.”
…and Mizuki’s expression is caught halfway. Oh. It’s that easy for her to laugh, now, huh?
“Yeah.” Mizuki pauses. “Yeah. I’m glad.”
The peaceful ambience of the neighborhood is calming, and the shared silence between them that follows isn’t as unbearable as it was just an hour ago. It’s enough to speak for the two of them, Mizuki thinks, and as quickly as it went thumping heavily from the panic that rushed through her brain earlier, she begins to feel her heart still.
How strange. It’s as if she was never scared at all.
She hears Ena exhale, and Mizuki tilts her head up.
“…Sorry.” “Sorry.”
For a split second, they look at each other, dumbfoundedly, and another brief silence passes them by.
Mizuki’s shoulders tense as she stares into Ena’s eyes, and Ena’s mouth twitches as she attempts to speak. But no words end up being said, and they’re both left rushing through their brains to think of what to say.
Their eyes darting back and forth was enough for them to tell that the other was thinking the exact same thing, and it makes them—
Snort.
As much as it makes the other,
Chuckle.
And before they can even manage to utter a single word, the both of them begin to laugh instead— and they chortle, and they cackle with every stupid noise that slips out of their mouths.
“Why—” Ena stops to laugh, and she places her hand on her stomach. “Why do you laugh like that?!”
Mizuki giggles, “Hey, hey! Don’t point it out!” as she hunches forward to catch her breath. “Your laugh is even weirder! Why does it sound—” Mizuki leans closer, and she scrunches her face.
“...hyuk-hyuk! Like that. It sounds like that!”
Ena lightly shoves Mizuki away as she laughs. “Don’t mimic me!”
“Sorry, sorry!”
Despite the exchange, the two of them continue to laugh, until their stomachs strain and hurt, as if they’ve run out of breath.
🎀🎨
“So much for the perfect date night, huh?”
The two of them are standing side by side now, under the streetlamp, and they both look up at the dark, Winter sky. “Well, I did have something planned, you know, until someone decided to run off.” Ena retorts with a smile, and Mizuki responds with a titter that makes Ena’s smile grow (whether she knows it or not).
“I said I was sorry, okay~? Forgive me, won’t you?”
Ena rolls her eyes, and she lightly pushes Mizuki away by the shoulder. “Sure, sure. Next time, you do the planning, okay? We’ll see if I run away then.”
Mizuki’s eyes flutter in confusion. “Next time…? You mean—”
“Yeah…? I… mean… if you want to—”
“Yes.”
Ena averts her gaze as she thinks, and strangely enough, she feels her face begin to heat up. Mizuki feels the same way.
The brunette hums before speaking. “Okay…” She mutters. “Okay.”
Mizuki briefly glances towards Ena, and she exhales. “Okay.”
The beating in the two’s hearts are synchronized, and though they are unaware, they both inch towards each other, bit by bit, with each second that passes.
“…I’m sorry that I ran away like that. I shouldn’t have done that.” Ena looks up to see Mizuki with her head down. “That’s not—”
“I know… I know. You said you wanted me for who I am no matter what. Deep down, I know that all too well…” Mizuki weakly laughs as she speaks. “I’m just… not used to it. To this.” Ena knows what she means. Mizuki knows that she does.
“We’ve been friends for so long, and now we’re like this…”
She turns her head away. Ena’s eyes instinctively follow her.
“…I don’t know how to deal with it.”
Ena’s mouth opens to speak, but the words are caught up in her throat. Oh no. When Mizuki says it like that, it becomes even more embarrassing than it already was. Why is that?
“Why…” Ena whispers to herself. Mizuki hears it. “Why can’t I just do this like a normal person…?” It makes Mizuki slowly turn her head towards the other. “I thought I was smarter than this. That I’d be better about it this time because we were friends.” She pauses. “We, are, friends, but I guess I had to go and ruin it with my feelings—”
“It didn’t ruin anything…!” Mizuki is fully facing Ena now, and Ena is stunned. “It… didn’t ruin anything, at all…! If anything, it was me who went and ruined it, because they were too strong for me to handle—”
“You really mean it…?”
The tenderness in Ena’s voice makes Mizuki freeze, and the words immediately escape her. Her head feels light.
“…Yes. I don’t know… how to face it…”
She turns her head to the side to hide her face, and Ena is still completely dazed out.
“I… see. So it’s like that, huh?” Ena looks to the floor, and she sees that they’re both fully facing each other now, and it makes her feel a bit dizzy. This is it. This is when the both of them get to face their feelings, together. Ena had to do this right. She braces herself and decides to look Mizuki directly in the face.
“…Mizuki. Look at me.”
She looks up, and sees Mizuki’s eyes flutter with hesitance. The other turns her head back around and nearly hiccups at the sight of Ena looking at her earnestly. She didn’t want to acknowledge the heat radiating from her face, even though Ena adores it all the same.
“You don’t have to be sorry at all. Didn’t I tell you? I’ll always be waiting for you, no matter what. That means I’m willing to do whatever it is that makes you comfortable, and that includes giving you space when you want it.”
Ena’s voice is gentle as she speaks, and she raises her hand to lightly brush her fingers against Mizuki’s cheek. She tucks a strand of pink hair behind her ear. “We can take things at your pace, or maybe, not even at all if you don’t want to.” The motion makes Mizuki’s heart jump.
“No, no…! I want to do what Ena wants to do, too…” Mizuki leans forward, and instinctively takes Ena by the hand. She clasps onto it like it’s the most precious thing in the world. “It’s worth it if it’s you. So…” She shakily exhales. “I want to be with you, Ena.”
“Ah—” Ena’s breath gets stuck in her throat, and she freezes. Her face must have been embarrassingly red, she thinks, but it’s reassuring to see just how red-faced the other was, too.
“Ah…!!” She stammers. “I…”
They’re staring at each other now, closer than they ever have been, and Mizuki is the bravest she has ever been. Their hearts beat together as one, and the warmth emanating from both of their cheeks was enough to melt away the Winter air. Close, and closer. This is the closest they will ever be.
“…You really mean it…?” Ena smiles, and she cups the other’s cheek. Mizuki’s eyes begin to water, and she nods.
“Yes. I swear it on my heels.”
Ena’s eyes are wide, and Mizuki anxiously awaits her response. The two are silent, again, but the gaze they share with each other is enough to tell—that this is more than enough.
That is, until Ena lets out a snort.
“You… swear it on your heels…?” Her face scrunches, and Mizuki splutters to speak. Her face is redder than it’s ever been.
“That’s— No, I meant…!” But it doesn’t help, and only makes Ena laugh even louder. “Ena…!!!”
The brunette laughs, but her hand remains gentle on Mizuki’s face all the same. “I know, I know! But it’s still hilarious to me!” She lets out a content sigh, before returning to look at Mizuki with a silly smile.
“If it’s that serious to you, then, promise me you won’t run away anymore, okay?”
Mizuki halts to think, and she forgets to breathe for a second.
But she returns Ena’s smile with another one of her own, and she leans onto Ena’s palm.
“I promise.”
“Through tears and through hardship?” The brunette playfully says, to which Mizuki responds with a light chuckle.
“Through tears and through hardship.”
The two of them share a hearty laugh, and they feel the heaviness that were previously weighing on their hearts go away—as if it were never there in the first place. It’s ridiculous how easy it is to feel this way, they think, maybe it’s because it’s each other.
“It’s beginning to snow, look.” Mizuki points up, and Ena gasps. Her eyes light up, but right before looking at the other, mildly panicked. “Wait! I almost forgot— We still need to buy presents for the others!”
The pink-haired girl clasps onto Ena’s hand as they briskly walk across the snowy cement. She smiles. “Let’s hurry, then~ You said you wanted to check out the Christmas market downtown, right?”
Ena reciprocates Mizuki’s grip by holding onto hers much tighter. “So, you remembered? Hey, I paid for you once, so you pay again, okay?” She’s met with a feigned gasp, and Mizuki playfully leans in to meet Ena at eye level. “That’s no fair~ You gotta buy me a present, first!”
“Okay, fine. Whoever’s the last one to find a present for the other has to pay for everything!”
“Whaat~! That’s totally unfair!”
Just like this, they think, it’s okay to be just like this.
And on that Winter night, the two find themselves in union with one another once again, as they laugh their hearts away, under the warm, orange streetlamp, with the assurance of having the other in each other’s hands—never to leave or to be separated, even in sickness and in health.