Chapter Text
Today was February 7th.
Kotoko usually got up at the same time every day, 05:00, to get ready for school. She got out of her egregiously pink and frilly bed and planted herself on the floor to do her morning stretches because, as her ballet instructor always says, if you don’t use it, you lose it! She took a deep breath in and out, stood up, picked up a bath towel, and made her way to the bathroom. Since Utsugi’s bedroom was the only bedroom on the second floor of her home, it solely belonged to her in the morning. The sink area was messy, with many hair supplies and products. Kotoko only had one skincare product because her skin was practically perfect. She stared into the mirror for a second before undressing and hopping into a warm shower to wash her hair and face. The shower had lasted 5 minutes since she had taken a longer one the night before, but because she would probably have a little extra time, she opted to take another one in the morning.
Kotoko shut the water off, wrapped the towel around herself, and went back to her room to get lotioned and get dressed, making sure her outfit appeared as she intended. White, loose socks over some stockings, a pink plush jacket (since it was going to be cold) over her white button-up and black skirt, and some small strawberry earrings. She didn’t like actual strawberries, but they sure were cute. The only thing left was to fix her hair.
The girl took a deep breath in and out, then triumphantly marched back to the bathroom. There was a light brown wooden stool in the corner of the bathroom, and Kotoko centered it in front of the mirror and sat down. Staring at her reflection, she contemplated what she would do with her hair today, and reflected on what she had already done this week because she didn’t want to repeat any hairstyles. She started by simply brushing her hair to get her brain jogging and putting her bangs in place. Something was telling her to go with braids, so she put her white and pink polka-dotted hairbrush down on the edge of the sink and began to braid the sides. She decided that she could do a half-up and half-down sort of style. She braided the other side and searched her drawer filled with stray accessories for a hair tie and a bow. Once she found what she needed, she used a white hair tie to gather the two braids together and decorated them with her signature headband and bow. Utsugi smiled at her reflection, and it smiled back at her.
She gathered her things for the day, put on her shoes, and made her way to school.
Today, Kotoko would make a special request to her little favorite-least-favorite artist friend, Jataro Kemuri, to make a comic book starring her and Monaca Towa. She reflected on some of their most memorable moments, like the time they baked a cake together, and was always the first to taste test Monaca’s new cookie recipes, or starting the Tea Club together. Utsugi decided that the comic book would be the perfect Valentine's gift for Towa and that if she wanted it to turn out nice, she'd better ask Kemuri to start on it a week before. After walking for 25 minutes, she arrived at school and, after switching to the appropriate shoes, headed up to her designated classroom.
Luckily, Kemuri had already arrived and was alone, picking at her fingernails, so Kotoko didn’t have to worry about shooing anyone away or talking quietly. She waltzed up to the artist, pulled up a chair, and sat down. “Good Morning~!” Kotoko sang. Kemuri looked up at her and gave a half-crooked smile, “Morning..”
Her smile grossed Utsugi out, but the girl bit her tongue.
”Let’s cut to the chase!” Announced Kotoko, “I have a small favor to ask.”
Kemuri sighed, “You only talk first when you need something. I suppose that isn’t an issue, though. Being helpful is good.”
“Right, and you’ll be super helpful for this!” She clapped her hands and asked, “Do you know what yuri is?” A serious expression spread across Kotoko’s face.
Kemuri blinked. ”Uhmm. The flower?”
“No, Girl’s Love!”
”Ah. I guess so.. but I haven’t read any. Why?”
Kotoko cleared her throat and put her hands together. “I need you to make a girls’ love comic about Monaca and me! At least twenty pages, please.”
Jataro stared at Kotoko in bewilderment at this request. A girls’ love comic? About what? Did she have much creative freedom? Jataro took a small notepad and pen out of her backpack. The artist didn’t want to question it. “What do you want me to draw?”
Kotoko already had her hairbrush in hand and brushed through her hair as she spoke, so every idea could come out clear and concise. ”Okay, I want you to include... The time Monaca and I had baked a cake, and I had a bit of red icing beneath my eye, and when she sweetly and innocently pointed it out, I got so embarrassed that I wanted to DIE! And the time she complimented me while I was in the middle of a sentence, and I stuttered so much that I forgot what I was going to say.” Kotoko exhaled, shaking her head at her past blunder, making a handgun pointing at the bottom of her chin and going “POW! POW! POW! …Add the time that she came up to me bright and early while I was still putting my indoor shoes on, and she gave me a special batch of cookies, and told me not to tell the rest of you guys! ..Wait.”
“Ah... What?” Kemuri looked up.
“Keep writing!!” She demanded, still brushing through her pink locks. “Include the time that we traded a bunch of accessories and hair clips and stuff, and the time she braided my hair. Make sure I say something along the lines of “Kyaa!! Monaca is braiding my hair!” Kapeesh?”
”Anything else?” Kemuri inquired, struggling to jot down the instructions legibly.
“Make us hold each other veeeery close and hold hands! Lots of blush.”
Jataro wrote that down. “And?”
“A joke at Nagisa’s expense!” Kotoko gave Jataro a thumbs up and sat up to return to her desk. Jataro wouldn’t let her leave, though; she held Kotoko’s arm tightly and said one word. “Payment?”
“Excuse me?” Kotoko glanced around the room and waited for Jataro to repeat herself so she could be sure she heard her correctly.
“Payment..”
Utsugi’s jaw dropped in disbelief. ”Since when did you start charging for stuff?!” Kemuri put the notepad and pen back into her backpack. “Well, Shingetsu said I should charge for my art, commissions, and stuff. I guess this would be a commission, wouldn’t it? So I need payment. It doesn’t have to be cash.” Jataro’s grip was firm.
Kotoko didn’t have any disposable cash on her anyway, so she scrambled to think of something. This was a most creative gift, and she absolutely couldn’t lose that to Kemuri’s new terms of service. Since when did she care about workers' rights? “Uhm! I’ll pay for your dinner today if you get it done as soon as possible!” said Utsugi, and Kemuri backed off. “ Really ?”
Kotoko held her pinky out and held her other hand behind her back, fingers crossed. Maybe she could cheat herself out of this one. ”..Pinky promise!” Utsugi lied.
Kemuri didn’t hold her pinky out, though, and only stared past Utsugi, into the distance. Then looked down at her fidgeting hands. “It’s so weird of me to ask... Like a creep on a street asking to see what color you painted your nails today, his approach makes you want to beat him to death. Like he’s been watching your hands every day and notices the new colors.” Jataro began to scrape at the webs between her fingers as she failed to get to the point. “Sorry, can you put your other hand on the table?”
Kotoko clenched the fist hidden behind her back, then, coming to terms that the promise was binding, and she would have to pay for Kemuri’s dinner, calmly set her hand on the wooden desk in front of her. Utsugi held out her pinky once more, and Kemuri officially agreed to the contract, interlocking her pinky with the other’s. She got up and left to find some blank paper so she could get started right away, not saying a single word after.
After their little negotiation, more people started flowing into the classroom. None of them were Monaca, though, so those who greeted her were offered a disinterested “Hello,” or “Good Morning.” She twisted her head around, trying to make sure that she didn't accidentally miss Towa, biting her nails as she surveyed the room. To others, she looked rather mentally checked out.
“You look paranoid,” someone said behind Utsugi. She turned around and saw Nagisa. The girl took a breath in, then out. “Monaca isn’t here yet! Do you know where she is?” Kotoko asked, taking her nails off her teeth.
“Monaca will not be coming to school because of a doctor's appointment.” Nagisa set his things down at the desk beside Kotoko’s.
“Then WHY am I here?!” She got up, took her things, and stormed off to the art club room. Kotoko thought that she could just skip her first class and watch Jataro work on the comic because there was no use sitting through a boring lesson if Monaca wasn’t there to endure with her. Kotoko slammed the door open so hard it closed back itself, and Jataro was there, at a desk, in the middle of sketching the comic out. Utsugi placed her things on a nearby painted wooden chair and went to hover over Kemuri, who immediately put the pencil down.
“So.. how's the progress?” Utsugi asked, leaning over to get a closer look at the paper. “Are you almost done?”
Jataro took a heavy breath out. “It’s only been twenty minutes since I left class, hasn’t it?”
“Ah… I guess you’d be correct.”
Jataro fidgeted with her hand, the pencil that she had in her hand 5 minutes ago staying untouched. She began to stare at the ceiling. “...Are you going back to class?”
“Nope! Monaca won’t be at school today. Why?” Kotoko said, pulling up a chair.
Kemuri picked up the pencil and got back to work. Her fate was confirmed. “It’s just hard to draw with eyes on me the entire time. But I will manage.”
Kotoko watched as the other sketched the comic out, making verbal corrections until the art and dialogue fit her initial vision. Utsugi and Kemuri essentially skipped the first half of the day, and out of consideration for her commissioned artist, Kotoko had bought lunch for both of them. They ate in silence on a small wooden table on the ground so they didn’t get food on the papers that Jataro worked so diligently on. Once Jataro finished eating, she returned to work. Kotoko took a bit longer to finish her food.
Once Kotoko finished dining, she returned to the chair that she had placed next to Kemuri’s stationery. She was holding a bunch of colored pencils and a few Copic markers. She decided to color the first few pages that she had because she didn’t know what Kotoko and Monaca were wearing, and that she would “need a reference.” As Kemuri colored, Utsugi scrolled her iPad for any photos of the sleepover and some other hangouts that she went on about.
Kotoko propped the iPad in front of the wall, but the other ignored it and mumbled something about using it later when she was done coloring. As Jataro worked, Kotoko would frequently pester her with questions on why she did certain things a certain way, like outlining certain colors while leaving some untouched, or using blue in some of their outfits that actually didn’t include blue whatsoever, and then coloring over the blue with a different color. The artist just answered with “I don’t know” or “It just does something nice” to all the questions as she tried to cover her face with her right hand so Kotoko wouldn’t see any annoyed expressions that she could be making. Even though Kotoko thought that Jataro was ugly, and had disgusting energy and demonic vibes, she did admire how fast Jataro could draw, because maybe after 50 minutes, Jataro was ready to outline the rest of the panels. Kotoko set up the reference photo, and Kemuri began to draw it out.
“You’re good at this! Can you teach me?” Kotoko complimented, sticking her hand in front of the reference photo of Kotoko and Monaca in their pajamas to catch the artist’s attention. Jataro shrugged, “I’ll think about it.” She mumbled. After outlining simplified silhouettes, she began to color in the rest of the pages. Utsugi began to kick her feet in excitement, accidentally kicking the desk every once in a while, but with less than enough force so that she wouldn’t mess Kemuri’s stability up. It seemed like Jataro was close to finished, and as Jataro flipped through all the pages, Utsugi daydreamed about the satisfied expression and the hugs and kisses of hugs and kisses Monaca would give her once receiving this gift, among all the other things that Utsugi would spoil her with, because she would never settle for just one single thing.
Jataro began to pack her art supplies away, and then put the comic into a paper folder, and began to leave. “Wait! Can I see?! Is it done yet?” Kotoko was in a frenzy; she grabbed Jataro’s arm.
“Dinner?” Said Jataro as she put the folder into her randoseru. Kotoko slumped back into her chair as she remembered the promise she had made earlier. She remembered her little finger cross trick didn’t fly past Kemuri, and she was bound by child law to pay for the girl’s dinner. Kotoko laid out Jataro’s options, saying she’d take her somewhere as soon as school got out. Maybe the real reason that latchkey kids had magic powers was that the little nutrition they got went to spells instead of their brains, and that was the reason that Jataro was a little mental and not all there.
There was a red clock that Kemuri watched very closely. They’d leave no later than 3:30.
Maybe it was because this was the first time in maybe two weeks that Jataro hadn’t had mid-tier school food for her dinner, Kotoko's mouth dangled in shock at how much a takoyaki person can eat in under 15 minutes, among other street foods.
“You eat like a bear stocking up for winter!” Kotoko managed to spit out as Jataro scarfed down her third plate of takoyaki. She expected to take Jataro out to some random cafe for dinner and then be done with it, but instead, Jataro insisted on dragging her around street food vendors as she held the fact she had the folder containing the comic over Utsugi’s head.
“Do you like seafood?” said Utsugi. Kemuri nodded her head yes in response, then looked across the street. Kotoko followed the other’s line of vision to see what she could be staring at, and once she solved that little puzzle, it felt like she was hit by a semi-truck.
“Can we go there next?” Jataro said, pointing across the sidewalk at a taiyaki vendor, at this point, Utsugi was concerned. “You’re...You’re still hungry?”
“Mhm,” Kemuri said, finishing the last serving of her food. She got up to throw the cardboard box it came in away, and Utsugi followed behind her as she crossed the street. Jataro pushed the other in front of her so she could pay, and they sat at a nearby bench once they received their dessert. Kemuri also asked for a bottle of water, which Utsugi considered a good sign that she was about done being dragged around to hit up street food vendors. Kotoko silently prayed for Jataro to be finished, watching as Kemuri took her time eating the chocolate-filled pastry. Once Kemuri finished her food, she sat in silence. “Do you want anything else?” Kotoko said, trying to bite the bullet. Jataro stood up and opened her bag, handing Kotoko the folder. “No. Thank you,” said Jataro, and she walked away without another word.
To make sure she was satisfied with the product, Kotoko looked over the book one more time, and to no surprise, everything she asked for was there.
How could someone who never received actual love capture this sort of warmth?