Chapter Text
It's like their schedules intertwine in every way possible! Seishirou swears that she's been by Reo's side from dawn to dusk since their senior year began. Reo takes her to school, swapped all of her classes to be with Seishirou, she's the only person she eats lunch with, and they go to practice together. Hell, this rich brat even makes sure to take Seishirou home too. It's like Seishirou can't look both ways without this purple haired princess within her reach. Is it a bad thing? No... not really. Well, at least not now.
It took some time to get used to someone orbiting Seishirou like the moon herself, but it’s kind of nice having someone by her side to rely on for class projects and piggy-back rides. Reo never backs down from an excuse to hang out with her, it’s as if she can’t refuse to hang out with this gamer addict. Like, does she not get bored when Seishirou is just sitting next to her playing video games on her phone? By now people would get tired of her and just eat lunch somewhere else. She’s not that interesting of a person; not exactly the prettiest, not the smartest, not the nicest, not even talented. Well, according to Reo, Seishirou is a soccer prodigy? That’s the only reason why she’s stuck around her like gum to a shoe.
“Let’s go to my place and finish this project together.” Reo approaches Seishirou at her desk, smacking her palms against the table with enthusiasm.
“Um, sure.” Seishirou tucks her phone away into her jacket. Their last class just ended, so they can just leave the school. Nothing is waiting for the so-called “soccer prodigy” at home. It couldn’t hurt to finish this partner project for their chemistry presentation.
“Great! We can stop by the bakery on the way home and then after the project we can…” As Reo rambles on about what they can do, she swiftly pulls Seishirou onto her back like she weighs nothing. She carries her out of the classroom and down the hallways like no one can see them. Reo tends to be caught up in her own little world, forgetting that judgmental passerby exist. Seishirou just lazily rests her upper body against her handy companion’s back and focuses all her strength into keeping her legs wrapped around Reo’s waist. Whatever this vibrant-lavender head is on about is just background noise to the platinum blonde girl. In no time, they’re at the edges of the campus with a limo waiting for them.
Reo’s bedroom is the stereotypical rich kid’s room; she has everything she could ever want in here. Seishirou was blown away the first few times she visited, but now the excitement of the room fades into the background and Reo’s presence plunges its way into the forefront of Seishirou’s mind. A tray of tea and slices of cake are sitting almost untouched by the quiet guest, who is sitting comfortably in a giant bean bag that engulfs her like a pile of soft snow.
“Nagi… Nagi! Don’t tell me you’re falling asleep right now!” Reo is merely centimeters away from Seishirou’s face. She wasn’t even aware that she was falling asleep until just now. Fully alert, she sits up and lightly smacks her own face a couple of times.
“Sorry… what do I need to do?” Seishirou tucks a stand of hair behind her ear to see a little better as she leans over the table to get a good look at the project.
“I did all of the research,” Reo presents a neatly sorted document from her laptop that has been sitting on the table, “you just have to take the highlighted parts, write them neatly on these assorted cards and frames I’ve picked out, and tape or glue it to the cardboard.” The young woman is proud of herself.
“I thought you didn’t get excited about school projects.” Seishirou finds her enthusiasm to be humorous. Her hands reach for a pencil to draft the words before she finishes with a pen or marker.
“I thought projects like these were boring until you became my partner for literally everything.” Reo shoves the decorative and stylish tape towards Seishirou. [] With a sigh, she takes the colorful tape. Reo clearly knows how much Seishirou hates using her brain for a big project, so they team as the brain and the decorator; Reo does all of the research while Seishirou copies down the main points onto their poster board. It’s tedious but sort of fun, like playing a video game. It’s much less of a pain to work with her hands for an hour or two than spend hours or days reading through articles and typing down notes. As the white haired girl works on her part of the project, her best friend sits beside her braiding and unbraiding her own hair.
After thirty minutes, Seishirou can’t help but feel a burning sensation on her skin. She turns to Reo to find her staring at her with curiosity.
“Somethin’ wrong?” She puts her marker down. Has she just been sitting there doing nothing but staring at her?
“You’ve grown your hair out…” Reo observes out loud.
“Oh, yeah, I haven’t bothered goin’ to get a haircut in a while.” Seishirou feels a strand of hair that reaches far past her ear. She normally has it cut short like most boy’s do in order to have less hair to worry about when she washes it. It’s grown past her shoulders over the course of the summer and it’s not as tough to manage as she thought, “do you not like it?”, as if she cares what Reo thinks about her appearance… Does she?
“No, no, I like it. I think it’s cute.” Reo reaches for her and pulls Seishirou into an embrace, “Makes me wanna braid your hair.”
Seishirou feels her face heat up a little bit. She clears her throat and hugs Reo back.
“I wouldn’t mind that… but I need to finish at least half of this.” She gestures to the poster board.
“Why not now?” Reo runs her fingers through Seishirou’s light locs.
“Mm… I may just fall asleep.” She can already feel her eyelids becoming heavy. A nap sounds really good right now but she wants to finish half of the board so that she won’t have to do much in class tomorrow. Yet, this offer is super enticing, an excuse to nap sounds nice right now.
“You could stay a little longer.” Reo pulls Seishirou to lay the back of her head onto her chest so she can play with her bangs.
“... sure, but you’re getting me coffee after this.” Like Seishirou was going to actually say no to taking a break.
“Hot medium hazelnut with whipped cream?” The gentle whisper of Reo’s smooth voice is like honey to Seishirou’s ears.
She hums in response, the only thing she can do right now in the state of practically being her friend’s lap cat. She sometimes wonders if Reo sees her as a little kitten; lazy, quick, and doesn’t mind a little affection. Seishirou wouldn’t mind being Reo’s cat. Think about it, she would have to do nothing but exist, look cute, and receive love and affection.
One heavy blink later, Seishirou wakes up in a bundle of blankets surrounding her. She rubs her eyes and looks around to find Reo lining the poster board with sparkly glue. Next to the poster board on the table is a medium sized cup. She reaches out to grab the coffee, it’s still warm. Quite cozy.
”You looked so peaceful, I almost didn’t want to wake you up.” Reo stops what she’s doing.
”How long was I asleep?” Seishirou says in between sips.
”Just thirty minutes.” Reo scoots over to wrap her arms around Seishirou, who is still wrapped in a pile of blankets. Seishirou snuggles against Reo and continues to mindlessly sip her coffee, “ready to finish our project?”
”Hm?” Seishirou cocks an eyebrow, “finish?”
“I got a little bored so I just did some of the decorating to the board. There’s still like a quarter of the poster left.” Reo pats her head.
”Oh, thanks.” Seishirou can’t complain; less work for her. She shimmies herself out of the blankets and scoots up against the table to look at what’s left.
Now that Seishirou thinks about it, anytime they’re at each other’s houses, all she does is game, nap, or watch videos on her phone. Reo doesn’t complain about not actually doing anything. Why is that? It’s not like they have deep and meaningful conversations or go on great and exciting adventures. Seishirou can admit that she doesn’t do much but exist. What does Reo get out of this friendship? A lazy soccer prodigy? She doesn’t understand.
The next day at school, Seishirou and Reo turn in their project to the teacher. They can’t present it yet because no one else has completed the assignment, so they have the whole class to just slack about. Seishirou has been very conscious about how much she and Reo hang out. There’s barely a waking hour where Reo isn’t in the room with her.
Since she has the free time to slack off, Seishirou goes to the trusty internet to search why Reo would want to continue hanging out with someone like her. She clicks on an article that’s titled “Signs That She Likes You” . It’s published on a well-known, credible site. Why not trust it? It’s a list article and the first thing listed after the introduction is “ She Spends Lots of Time With You” . Reo couldn’t possibly like Seishirou, like, they’re both girls. Unless… Reo is a lesbian? Come to think of it, Seishirou has never seen or heard her best friend talking about boys. To be fair, Seishirou hasn’t either, but that’s not the point.
So what if Reo likes Seishirou? What is there to like about someone like herself? She doesn’t do shit. The greatest accomplishment Seishirou has done is get to the max level on a mobile game. Nothing to sneeze at, of course, but Reo seems more like a goal-oriented gal. They’re total opposites. Reo could have anyone she wants, she’s popular with the boys and the girls. She could literally hang out with anyone else, anyone who actually brings substance to their daily lives.
Thinking about all of this is such a pain. Seishirou closes out the tab and folds her arms on the table. She buries her face into her arms and sighs. Then Seishirou looks at Reo from across the classroom. She can’t be into her like that, right?
Well, it’s not as if anyone will move their schedule around to be in every class with just a friend. It’s not as if anyone would go out of their way to only eat lunch with just a friend. Not when that person could just stay on their normal schedule. Not when that person could date any guy that confesses to her, which happens every week. Just last week, a classmate of theirs approached Reo during lunch and she just outright rejected him on the spot. To Seishirou, who doesn’t care too much for a guy's looks, that classmate of theirs was pretty handsome. Reo might just be super picky or maybe just hasn’t clicked with someone as well as she’s getting along with Seishirou?
What a pain.
The rest of the school day goes on. Soccer practice is fine. But it’s after the girls change in the locker room that Seishirou finally feels the need to ask a few questions.
“Reo… What about me is interesting?” Seishirou slings her bag over her shoulder and hesitates to walk towards the exit without her friend.
“What about you isn’t interesting?” Reo starts with a smile, “You’re a soccer prodigy, you’re just so cute, and I’d say you’re fascinating when you’re focused on a task that isn’t a pain .” She nudges her friend and starts walking outside with her.
“Mm… okay-” Seishirou thinks about that response and follows up, “...Why don’t you hang out with anyone else? I mean… It's cool that we hang out but I can’t be that entertaining.”
“Well, you’re my best friend. I trust you, you’re pretty cool, you don’t come with drama, you got this chill vibe and you don’t emotionally exhaust me.” Reo talks as she quickly texts to confirm that their ride can pick them up. “Just being with you is so much better than a big group full of fake friends that just hang out with me because of who I am.”
“Okay, but I did ask you for some cash when we first met.” Seishirou sits down on a bench by the road once they leave the campus.
“Eh, but you haven’t asked since. Besides, you don’t flaunt about being my friend or gawk everytime I bring you over to my home.” Reo smiles at her, “Anything going on for you to ask about this stuff?” She sits down with Seishirou.
“I dunno. I just wonder why, out of anyone in this school, that you actively choose to spend time with me.” Seishirou peeks at the imprint of her phone in her pocket, mentally recalling the article she pulled up in the middle of class. She hadn’t read far past the first paragraph but so far it just looks like Reo has a better time trusting Seishirou. Nothing weird, that doesn’t mean she likes her. Yeah.