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“Shiori does flirt with you, though.” Bijou mentions as Nerissa was mid-rant over what the archiver previously told her.
You are bad at catching when people flirt with you too.
That wasn’t even what she initially heard, only being corrected by her own magic when she replayed the sound of the memory just to check what it was that actually happened. Nerissa huffs.
“No she doesn’t.” Nerissa was certain. “All she says is ‘thank you’, which I don’t particularly mind, by the way. I know she loves me.” She jests…? Bijou only rolls her eyes, laughing afterwards.
“Sure sure. Go and keep telling yourself that.” Before Nerissa could whine out a reply, Bijou continued, “Maybe you’ll hear one soon, loud and clear.”
She doesn’t hear anything of the sort for who knows how long. A week, actually, but she won’t admit she’d been counting. This had to have been on purpose.
Yeah.
Shiori is too shy to say anything, so she makes sure Nerissa doesn’t hear her. But that’s delusional, and it makes Nerissa want to rip her hair out in frustration.
If—and it was a big if—if Shiori actually was flirting with her, since who knows how long ago, Nerissa dreads all the missed opportunities. She dreads the misunderstanding.
What if Shiori thought she was ignoring her? What if she thought Nerissa didn’t want to acknowledge it? What if she thought of worse?
And no, Nerissa was amazing at catching people flirting with her. It just was never effective on Shiori.
Because the raven never expects her to say anything back.
So she doesn’t look out for the possibility. She gulps.
What was she going to do now? She doesn’t want to appear too aware of Shiori’s words. Doesn’t want to appear like she’s uncomfortable, because she never was.
Speaking of, Nerissa found herself pacing down the hall, face-to-face with the source of her turmoil. “What are you doing, Reese?”
“Oh.. uh.” Eloquent, as she was, she sputters. “Just pacing.” Shiori quirks a brow, and she shrugs.
“If you need me for something, let me know. I can join you, if you want.”
If you want.
This wasn’t one of those, is it?
Nerissa sucks in a breath, and she watches Shiori wait patiently, lingering by her own doorframe to see if the raven was still going to say something.
“Can I.. hang out for a little bit?” Nerissa has never felt this nervous asking Shiori for some extra time together. “Just a little, if that’s okay.” Nerissa’s voice was going weaker, a lump in her throat stopping her from saying anything more.
“Of course. Get in here.” Shiori made a show of opening her door wider, a grin on her face as she poses dramatically. Nerissa laughs, nerves easing at the sight. Right. It was just Shiori.
“Sit anywhere you’d like. I’ll just do a bit more archiving, but we can talk if you wish.”
If you wish.
Nerissa sits down on the edge of Shiori’s bed, stealing glances at the archiver as she wrote things Nerissa was sure she’d never know about.
“Hey, Shiori?” Here goes nothing.
“Hm?”
“Have you ever flirted with anyone before?” She chickened out, but she watches her hum, watches her glance at her before looking away. Watches as her eyes widen slightly, remembering something but not quite.
“I don’t remember. Why?” Shiori continues archiving, and Nerissa doesn’t know how to proceed further.
“No reason, really. Just curious.” Shiori giggles.
“Jealous much?”
“Yes, actually.” Nerissa huffs, jokingly.
“But I do flirt with you, sometimes.” Shiori brought it up naturally. “I wait for how you’d react but you never say anything.” She laughs, blinking as she faced Nerissa, shocked at the look on her face.
“You flirt.. with me?”
Now even Shiori was confused.
“Yes..? Do you actually never hear it?”
“No…?” Nerissa doesn’t know what to say. Shiori didn’t know what else to do but laugh.
“Oh my good gosh, I thought you ignore it on purpose.”
“I would never!” Nerissa exclaims. She feels hot, her face red from embarrassment, shock, giddy down to the bone. “I just thought you made sure I wouldn’t hear it ever when the others told me about it!”
“Why would I do that? Your reactions are too good to miss out on.” Shiori laughs as Nerissa plops down onto her sheets, face down as she groans into the fabric. “Reese?”
“Don’t look at me, I’m embarrassed.” Shiori’s laugh was more carefree, a subtle shift Nerissa noticed, whether it was because she was a sound demon, or she just particularly bore Shiori’s specific laughs to memory, she doesn’t know.
“C’mon, you big baby. Scoot over.” Nerissa does, facing the wall as Shiori lays down with her. Curious, she turns to face the archiver, only to be met with a smug grin. She whines, stuck between holding Shiori and burying her face in the pillows to hide. “C’mere.” Shiori decides for her, pulling her face to hide below her chin, shivering slightly as Nerissa’s breath hit her neck.
Just to stay sane, Nerissa opens her phone, needing something just to distract herself.
Idly, they laid there, doing their own thing: Nerissa on her phone while Shiori brushed her locks, the raven occasionally showing her a meme or two that she finds.
Shiori giggles, getting Nerissa’s attention.
“Dense protagonist Reese.”
“Noo…” Nerissa whines. “It’s not even that, I just never catch it when you say something. For anyone else, I can usually tell pretty easily.”
“Maybe you don’t like me flirting with you.”
“What? No!”
“Your brain said “No, this isn’t the Shiori I know. She would never say this,” and erased it from your memories.”
“Wha-” Shiori laughs, Nerissa pulling away just to see her cheeky grin as she continues.
“Oh but she would. She would so say that Reese is pretty, is really nice. Talented. She would definitely say all those other things you never heard.” Shiori laughs as Nerissa hides once more.
“Will you tell me again?”
Shiori ponders.
“Nah.”
“Why???”
“Because! It won’t be funny without context, Rissa, there has to be context!”
“You have to tell me when I miss something you said...” Nerissa’s lids felt heavy. She closes her phone and leans ever so slightly towards the archiver once more.
“But then you’d be prepared for it. It’s funnier if you don’t know.”
“But Shiori..”
“But Rissa~” The archiver smiles. “You’ll just have to catch it.” She prepares herself, giving Nerissa one respite. “You’ll catch me, right, Reese?” Except the demon was too sleepy, eyes blurry with sleepy tears, a non-committal hum signaling that Nerissa once again didn’t catch what she said.
Shiori chuckles lowly. “Sleep well, my girl.”