Work Text:
"Goodnight, Rikka." Ira smiled as he stood at the doorway of her room, preparing for bed. Now a newly reformed Selfish, after the final battle, Rikka had decided without hesitation that Ira would live with her despite Raquel's protests. Ira knew early on that Rikka was a force to be reckoned with when he saw her defending him in front of her other sparkly teammates for the second time.
So they lived together and he even started going to school with her. And every night, he would either help Rikka study or she would force him to do his maths homework. Then they would share their thoughts and feelings- something Ira was still not quite used to- on the couch with a mug of warm milk while Raquel ran off to Sharuru, Lance and Davi due to the fact that 'it makes him feel nauseous seeing all the sap'.
Oh, and they were dating, too. Ira still couldn't really wrap his head around that.
It had happened quite fast. Ira had been secretly harbouring feelings for Rikka since the amnesia incident, and somehow, so had Rikka. So, after a few months of mutual pining, it didn't take too long for a confession to come out of both of them.
He took a look around her bedroom from the doorway. There was always one thing that stuck out about it that he had never really thought to ask about before.
The frogs.
Looking at them now, it was slightly jarring. A frog alarm clock, frog lamp, frog slippers, frog chair, and heck, there were even frog figures.
"Hey Rikka."
"Mhm?"
"What's with the frogs?"
She looked up at him from her desk. She really was beautiful.
"They're cute."
Ira raised his eyebrows. "Is that it? It's just that they're cute?"
Rikka chuckled and scratched the side of her cheek. "Well, no... a lot of my good memories involve frogs in some way. They've just always been my favourite. "
"Memories? Like what?" Ira cocked his head.
"Well..."
--------------------------------------
"Mana, wait!"
A young Rikka stumbled down a hill, trying to follow her friend. Behind her ran their new friend, Alice. Both of them were running as fast as their little legs could take them down the hill as the hot summer sun beat down on them.
Both of them tumbled down to the bottom while Mana stretched her arms and giggled before flopping down beside them. Then, out of the blue, something jumped on top of her and croaked loudly. Mana screamed.
"Wahh! What is it? Get it off!"
Rikka looked at the creature. "Oh, it's a little frog! Hello frog!" She waved her pudgy hands at it. It croaked in response, and she squealed in delight. "Its face looks like my froggy toy at home!"
"Yeah, it does look like Kero-chan!" Mana and Alice agreed. The frog hopped off Mana and onto a stone.
"Ooh! Would you ever kiss a frog? Like in the storybooks?" asked Mana.
"Like 'The Princess And The Frog'?" asked Alice, "Sebastian-san read that to me once. It was a nice story, but I wouldn't kiss one."
"Me too! Yuck! What about you, Rikka?"
"I would!" Rikka stood with her hands on her hips while Mana and Alice looked taken aback.
"Really? Isn't it unhygienic?" questioned Alice
"Well, I love love love frogs, so I don't care! In fact, I'm going to kiss it right now!" Rikka leaned in towards the frog.
"EHH? RIKKA??"
--------------------------------------
"So? Did you kiss it?" asked Ira, laughing to himself. He couldn't believe that little Rikka would've done such a thing. He chuckled.
Rikka sighed, "It leapt away before I could much to Mana and Alice's relief."
Ira laughed. "Do you still think you would?" Rikka looked confused. "Kiss a frog, I mean. Would you still do it?"
"Obviously not!" Rikka spluttered, "I like to believe I have a lot more common sense now."
"Clearly."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Nothing~"
Ira spotted a stuffed toy frog on her bed. It definitely looked a little flat and worn out, making him question just how old it was. "Is that the one from the memory? The stuffed frog?"
Rikka nodded, "I've had Kero-chan since the day I was born."
"Since the day you were - damn it's old!"
Well damn, Rikka grew up with the thing. Ira was surprised. He never would have guessed that the worn-out toy that he had seen every day had some sentimental value to his girlfriend.
"You wanna see some pictures?" Rikka's voice snapped Ira out of his thoughts.
"If it means seeing photos of my cute girlfriend, sure." Ira smirked as Rikka blushed and took out a few folders from her shelf. He noted the sheer amount of photographs from her childhood, which made him feel a small twinge of sadness. He couldn't really remember his childhood, only the memories of him being a Selfish.
"Here."
Ira examined the photos. They all seemed to be taken with an air of polished professionalism, which made sense, seeing that her father is a photographer. "Is that you as a baby? You sure cried a lot, huh?"
"Well- yes. I cried all the time." Rikka sighed, "Look there's Kero-chan beside me."
Rikka had a very new-looking Kero-chan in a death grip. And yet to Ira, she looked rather peaceful, which was a first seeing as she was crying in basically all the other ones. "Yikes Rikka, that poor frog. Look at how hard you're holding him."
"Well, I was a baby-"
"A strong baby who cried all the time. What a contradiction. You were a cute baby, though. That hasn't really changed much. You're still cute now."
Rikka turned slightly red.
"See? Cute," he gave her a quick kiss on her forehead and turned back towards the door. "Goodnight, Rikka. Don't fall asleep on your desk again, or you'll permanently screw up your back."
She smiled softly. "I won't, I promise. Goodnight, Ira."
He walked out of the door before stopping again. "Love you." He mumbed as he hurried away back to his room. Rikka chuckled to herself.
"I love you too."