Archive of Our Own

The issue with being self aware was that you knew immediately when you were being an idiot, Nice Nature thought. There were no cushions against it, no helpful layers of delusion to separate her from her own actions, just the excruciating sense of watching a train crash from behind the wheel and not being able to turn away. 

“Nature? Are you there?”

Like everything else in Nice Nature’s ill fated career as a racer, it started with Tokai Teio. Before she had even debuted, Teio had stolen all the attention from the trainers and reporters. But even worse than that, Teio had stolen Nature’s heart. Anyone would find it hard to ignore the way that she almost flew down the turf, but to Nature it was absolutely mesmerizing. She initially had thought that it was just the normal reaction to getting outshone by a real prodigy, but soon enough, Nature was getting completely uncharacteristic thoughts. She shouldn’t feel any fondness when losing, damnit! But she couldn’t help but look on with some happiness… and some longing. She definitely shouldn’t have gotten a crush on someone so completely and utterly out of her league, but yet there she was.

“Is she ok?”

“Hey, Nature! We gotta get back to crushing Spica!” 

“I would settle for paying attention…” 

For a long time, Nice Nature was able to ignore her feelings - she was in the Twinkle Series, so there was endless training (with Teio as her benchmark) and race after race (chasing Teio’s footsteps) to focus on. She didn’t have to confront the sudden sense of longing  she felt whenever she saw teio or the wild fantasies she had where she would break out of the pack and sweep Teio off of her feet. But once she was sidelined by her injury, there was nothing to distract herself from the tenseness in her heart when she thought about Tokai Teio … nothing, that is, except for Teio’s constant companion Mejiro McQueen. Somehow, the heiress had noticed Nice Nature during their first Arima Kinen, and she had even asked Nature to train with her. At first, she was a little intimidated around her, Ryan, and Palmer - and how could she not be? Not even counting how Palmer had just beat her by 5 lengths, the three of them were the scions of the Mejiro family, known for the Mejiro Medical Center, the Mejiro dining hall on campus, the Mejiro apartment complexes, even the Mejiro brand of sports bandages... Meanwhile, when Nice Nature was growing up, she was babysat by the old men and women who played mahjong at her mom’s bar, sitting on top of an empty crate of beer bottles. But McQueen never paid attention to any of that when inviting Nice Nature to tag along. First it was just for training and rehab advice, but then it was study sessions and cafe visits and hiding from Gold Ship, and it became obvious that McQueen saw her as a friend. A friend! 

“Umm… maybe we should let her be… Anyways, Dictus-san, we should prepare for your next race. We need to do - “

“Hill training and cornering training, I understand. Thank you for the regimen.”

“Ahh, you’re welcome?”

At first, Nature was just glad to have such a skilled distance runner helping her out. And if she was secretly fantasizing about getting some alone time with Teio, well, that wasn’t any of McQueen’s business. But slowly, Nature started to appreciate McQueen more and more. She saw McQueen’s less serious side: the way that she hemmed and hawed over sweets and inevitably made Nature split them with her so she could try them all, the way that she snuck out to watch baseball games and had a horribly obvious collection of Tigers merchandise, the way that she played along with Gold Ship in much the same way that Nice Nature herself had to play along with Marvelous Sunday or Twin Turbo. And she also saw how dedicated McQueen was, how she drew strength from the many expectations placed upon her rather than crumbling beneath them like Nice Nature was tempted. And slowly, gradually, she found herself pulled between the two of them. She cursed herself for her heart’s unfathomable greed time and time again. It was bad enough to deal with one unobtainable crush: two should have killed her on the spot. It wasn’t like anything would have ever come from it, either - right as Nice Nature healed up, both Teio and McQueen were struck with seemingly interminable injuries and a career ending illness respectively, and Nature really couldn’t say anything. “Sorry about the fact that your legs are going to explode. Do you want to go out with your least impressive friend?” As if that would ever work. And so, Nice Nature simply tried her best to support Teio and McQueen and to live up to their example on the racetrack. She helped Teio back onto her feet for one last hurrah, organized that (mortifying) motivational video, and resolved to figure out how she felt later. Maybe after she won a G1 race, she said to herself. Maybe then she could sort out her feelings.

And then Teio kissed McQueen on screen after the biggest comeback race of the decade, and all hell broke loose. 

There was an immediate media frenzy as the new power couple made waves in the entire uma musume community. There were endless articles written about them, reporters and interviewers swarming Tracen and warring with the campus security, well wishers from the entire school coming up to Teio and McQueen… and Nice Nature had just spent three years getting close to both of them, so she was front and center to the hell of her own making. She would be damned if she were to get in the way of the happiness of both her idol and one of her best friends, but at the same time her entire romantic life had been completely torpedoed. In conclusion, Nice Nature was dumb and stupid and gay, and it was all going terribly.

“Nacchan! You are not dumb or stupid!” Machitan said, grabbing Nature’s hands. “But we support you no matter what!” 

“Eh? No, I’m pretty stupid…” Nature said, sighing and not bothering to correct Machitan on the nickname. Then she blinked and came back to reality. “Wait, what?”

“Wow, I didn’t know that you were gay! That’s cool!” Twin Turbo said. She then paused. “What does that mean?” 

“Briefly being gay means that you are romantically interested in the same gender.” Ikuno explained. 

“Uhhh… Gender… Is that like boys and girls?”

“The naive answer is yes, but there is more to it. You see -“ 

“Um, Dictus-kun, while I appreciate your insight, it’s probably not a good idea to teach Twin Turbo about gender theory in such broad terms,” Team Canopus’s much put upon trainer Minamizaka said sheepishly. “And, well, Nature-kun, you said that out loud.”

“Ah,” Nice Nature said. “How much of that?”

“Just the one sentence,” Machitan replied with a sheepish look.

“Oh, good,” Nature replied with a polite smile, and then she stood up. “Um, thank you for the help, Trainer-san. I’ll make sure to work on my stamina in preparation for the next race. For now, though, I’m going to jump inside of the loser’s stump and stay there for a couple of years.”

Nice Nature was eventually convinced to not throw herself into the stump by a combined effort from Team Canopus bribing her, Marvelous Sunday being Marvelous Sunday, and the threat of Teio and McQueen finding out about the whole thing, but it was a pretty close thing. Even then, she basically ended up on autopilot for the next week of training while her brain screamed uselessly into the void. Thankfully, Nice Nature didn’t really need to engage her brain when she was just swimming in laps. And swimming also was involved enough that she couldn’t think about anything mortifying that she may or may not have said, which was also great. 

“So, um, Nacchan, how are you doing?” Machitan said, looking concerned. “Are you alright after, uh, you know?”

“It’s Nature,” Nature said with a sigh. Matikanetannhauser always meant well, but meaning well didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt to be reminded about her nervous breakdown. Still, though, she had invited Nature out to this café outing, so she couldn’t be too mad. “And, well, I’ve been better, but I’m still alive, and I’m still training.”

“That’s good!” Machitan said, smiling. “If we keep at it, I’m sure we can win Team Canopus’s first G1!”

“Well… we are Takamatsunomiya Kinen winners. Ahahaha,” Nice Nature said with a dry laugh. “Do you think that they’ll retroactively give us the banner now that they bumped it up to a G1?”

“Do they do that?” 

“Oh, absolutely not.” Nice Nature sighed. “Nothing to do but to keep working at it.”

“You’re running a lot of races, too,” Machitan said. “I don’t think anyone has such a packed schedule!”

“I just…” Nature frowned. “For some reason, I have a lot of fans. I feel like… I should be giving back to them. And if one of them helps me figure out the way to turn all of these losses into a single big win, then even better.”

As Nice Nature sipped at her drink, a particularly refined voice came out from behind her. “An excellent mindset to have.” And then another voice, younger, energetic, and self confident. “Don’t put yourself down, Nacchan! You’re really popular for good reason!” Oh Three Goddesses, strike her down right now… 

“… Um… McQueen? Teio?” Machitan’s voice sounded really puzzled, and when Nice Nature turned around she immediately saw why. There were two multiple G1 winners behind her, and they were wearing the most outlandish outfits imaginable. McQueen was wearing some kind of incredibly laced black dress with more frills than sense, complete with a face mask and extra cuffs for her ears. She looked like an umamusume from Europe two hundred years ago back when their races were more about showing off than winning. Or maybe it was just what an edgy teenager in their goth phase thought one might look like. And while Teio hadn’t gone quite as extra with her outfit, she was still wearing a giant trenchcoat, a bowler hat, and big brimmed glasses… which, now that Nature was looking at them more closely, looked a lot like Rudolf’s glasses. Three Goddesses, those were Rudolf’s reading glasses.

“Shh! We’re being undercover!” Teio stage whispered at a volume that was still loud enough for everyone to hear them. 

Nature’s embarrassment at seeing her two crushes had long since turned to utter confusion, but a bit of second hand embarrassment came back upon seeing this baffling display. Belatedly, she remembered Teio wearing an outfit straight out of that detective show that old woman Yamamoto talked about at the bar as a ‘disguise’, and she sighed. “You’re drawing way more attention with those outfits than you would have otherwise,” she said with a bit of annoyance. Already, she could see the telltale signs of people bringing out their phones and taking pictures. “Get out of those things already.”

“I told you this was a bad idea,” McQueen said to Teio, despite the fact that her outfit was way more elaborate than Teio’s. “We should have just came to see her normally.”

Teio opened her mouth to protest, but Nature shushed her before she could blow her cover even worse. “I mean, people might think you’re cosplayers if you’re lucky,” Nature said. “But you’ve gotta get out of here now. Anyways, um, Machitan -“

“Oh, crap! Fukukitaru and I were supposed to clean out all of her lucky items today!” Machitan said at a slightly too high volume. She stood up and smiled at the three of them. “So sorry, Nacchan, but I have to go! See you at practice!”

“Wait -“ With that, Makitanetannhauser bowed to Teio and McQueen before running out of the restaurant fast enough to avoid all confrontations. She’d even left way too much money at the table to pay for their two drinks. Nature sighed deeply at her teammate’s heavy handed matchmaking(?) efforts, then turned back to Teio and McQueen. “Gimme a moment,” Nature said, pocketing the money to return to her. “And please try to be inconspicuous.” 

“Oh!” McQueen said. “I can call over Ikee-san and have him bring us back-“

Nice Nature hit McQueen with a glare that could have curdled milk, and she immediately stopped talking.

After the bill was handled, Nice Nature led her two ostentatiously dressed friends out of the populated cafe and into the back streets and alleys using her thorough knowledge of the shopping district, her friendliness with the regulars, and her ability to promise death upon people with a single frustrated stare. Eventually, she brought them to the one place where she knew they were guaranteed some privacy, although it had some massive downsides…

“Woah, there’s a lot of newspaper clippings of you, Nacchan!” Teio exclaimed, peering up at the crowded tackboard in the front. 

“Yeah, well, you know. This is my mom’s bar, so.” Nice Nature said. “Geez, they still have no sense of shame at all! Why is this article still up? I got fifth at that race.”

“They must really care about you,” McQueen said, looking at the article detailing her third consecutive bronze at the Arima Kinen… The same Arima Kinen where Teio and McQueen had went very, very public. “I can feel the pride that they have in your accomplishments.”

This was coming from the girl who had an entire inheritance ceremony where an entire estate solemnly clapped as she took up a giant shield, so Nice Nature couldn’t really feel too happy about that. Still, though, a complicated mix of pride, disappointment, and embarrassment welled up within her. “Yeah… I guess.” Nature said softly, and then changed the subject immediately. “Um. Mom's going to open up soon, and we’re not going to be able to stop people from seeing you. Do… do you have anything to change into?” Nice Nature had to ask, even though it was super unlikely. Tracen was another district over, after all. 

“Nope, sorry,” Teio said, frowning. “I’ll be okay because I can just take off this thing, but McQueen is stuck.” McQueen flushed a bit at the reminder of her overzealousness but didn’t say anything in protest.. “Actually, Nacchan, can I put the coat somewhere? This thing is kinda big.”

Nature looked at the trenchcoat, then back at their clothing rack. It was a Saturday, so there would be at least ten of the regulars, plus probably five more at any given time with hats and suit jackets… “ I’ll leave it in the back room,” Nature said in the end, taking the heavy trenchcoat from her. “Maybe Ikee-san could bring you two back?” 

“Ah! Good idea,” McQueen replied, already fishing out her phone. “I would hate to bring unwanted attention to your family’s bar after you’ve done so much for us. … And, uh, I’ll see if we have a car other than the limo.”

“Yeah, that would be good too.” Nice Nature said, then she slipped into the back and breathed deeply. She was being helpful to her friends right now, she told herself. That was enough for her, and she was happy leaving like that. Nature shook her head to clear out any bad thoughts. But as she was catching her breath, she heard the telltale squeak of the izakaya’s back door, and she shuddered. 

Nature raced back to the front only to confirm that yes, she had the most twisted sense of luck ever known, and yes that was her mother standing in the kitchen alongside Teio and McQueen. Maybe she should have went with Machitan and take some of Fukukitaru’s lucky charms. “Dear! You didn’t tell me that you were going to be back so soon! And you even brought your friends!” 

“What are you doing here?!” Nature exclaimed, scandalized. “It’s not even four yet!”

“I just happened to be early, that’s all… And I’m glad, because I got to meet the Tokai Teio and the Mejiro McQueen! You know, Teio, my daughter has been singing your praises ever since she started at Tracen.”

Teio visibly preened at the praise even as Nice Nature recoiled. “I’m always happy to meet a fan, and I’m even happier to do something for Nacchan’s mom! Here, let me sign something for you!”

“‘Nacchan’, hmm? Oh my…” Unfortunately, Nice Nature’s death glare was completely useless against her mother, who heedlessly continued. “How come you didn’t tell me that you had gotten that close, ‘Nacchan?’”

“A-anyways,” Nice Nature said, reading between the lines. She knew deep down that it was pointless to hide anything from her mother, but up until now she was always able to dance around any mention of her love life. Now, though… “I’m sure you already spoke a little, but um, yes, these are my friends. Tokai Teio and her girlfriend, Mejiro Mcqueen.” Internally, she winced at referring to the 4 time G1 winner and heiress to the Mejiro Family as merely ‘Teio’s girlfriend’, but it was important to emphasize that Teio was absolutely taken. Even if she highly doubted that her mother could possibly miss the TeiMaku gossip rags with how closely her parents followed the racing news. 

“It’s very nice to meet you,” McQueen said with a deep bow. Thankfully, she didn’t seem upset at all. Maybe she was just still giddy whenever she was reminded she was dating Teio, because there was a light dusting of pink on her cheeks. 

“Woah, woah! Settle down, you’re not meeting anyone important. I’m just Nacchan’s mom, that’s all!” Her mother did a very Nice Nature-like move, waving the attention off.

“Your daughter is a very dear friend to me, and to Teio as well,” McQueen said with a wide smile. “And we have you to thank for raising such a wonderful daughter.”

“You do have a way with words, huh…” Nature’s mom said, returning the smile. “Nature wasn’t lying at all. Anyways, what brings you to our humble bar? Is there some kind of a costume party going on?”

“Long story,” Nature said. Nature’s mom looked at her for a beat before realizing that Nature would not elaborate on anything that led to this circumstance, then shrugged, letting her off the hook. “But it’s not going to be for too long. McQueen, when is Ikee-san coming to pick you up?”

McQueen looked at Teio, who nodded back with a cheeky grin. Nice Nature had to suppress the smoldering pang of jealousy she felt at the two. “Actually, I asked if he could simply bring us some more casual outfits. After all, we’ve been wanting to spend some time with you for a while. That’s why we came to see you in the first place.”

“M-me?” Nature sputtered, McQueen once again completely derailing the pity party Nature was holding for herself in her head. “Um, don’t the two of you have stuff to do?” Like dating or kissing or holding hands or any of those sickeningly sweet things that Nature couldn’t help but imagine.

“It’s been so long since we were able to hang out, though,” Teio said with a pout. “I know there was stuff and things and whatnot happening, but it’s been actual months!”

“Indeed,” McQueen added. “We haven’t been able to spend time together since… It must have been last November, before the Arima Kinen.”

Of course they hadn’t spoken since the Arima Kinen, Nice Nature thought to herself, making sure to not say it out loud this time. “You’ve been really busy dodging the papparazzi, I know.” 

Teio groaned. “Don’t remind me! I swear, we do way more running away from the reporters than we do on the track nowadays. It’s a miracle they haven’t found us here.”

“That, and Nature-san was able to get us right where we needed to go,” McQueen pointed out. “If we follow her lead, we might be able to have a day out while remaining under the radar. Clearly we aren’t good at being stealthy.”

“Aw, come on! Why didn’t you say that before we went out?!” 

“I’m not saying that I knew any better!”

As Teio and McQueen bantered with each other, a pit settled in the bottom of Nature’s stomach. Goddesses, they were perfect for each other, weren’t they? And then here she was, sitting on the edge of the podium. And even though Nature knew that they probably didn’t intend this at all, it was like they were twisting the knife by inviting her out today. She had done too good of a job at bottling her feelings to never see the light of day, and her reward was having the front row seat to see what could have been, again and again and again. It was like she was the tour guide for their date…

“Hmm… Tell you what. Nature, could you grab me my bag from upstairs? I’ll give you some money for this afternoon,” Nice Nature’s mom chimed in.

“Mom, I’ve got-“ Nature stopped her sentence in her tracks. Her mom seemed unusually serious, enough to give her pause. Taking the hint, she headed out to fetch the bag. Clearly, there was something else that she wanted to talk to Teio and McQueen about, and Nature did trust her mom, teasing aside. And it gave her something that she could do to get over her own hesitation to spend some time. These were her friends, and she could still have a good time with them. 

When Nature returned, all traces of seriousness had vanished from her mom’s face. In fact, she almost seemed too happy, as if she had heard some joke that Nature was going to be the butt of by the end of the day. “Thank you, dear!” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Nature said, handing the bag to her mom then turning back to her two friends. For some reason, there seemed to be a look of determination on Teio’s face, which made Nature really curious as to what exactly she missed out on. As for McQueen, well, she was much better at disciplining her face so she was harder to read, but it seemed like things went well. McQueen’s butler Ikee had also shown up while Nature was fetching the bag, and he was currently bowing way too deeply to Nature’s mom. “Anyways, um…” she said awkwardly at her mom, trying to get across her questions without saying anything.

“You should go with them! Don’t worry about me, I can open shop by myself,” Nature’s mom said with a smile, probably answering her question. 

“Alright, I suppose I could,” Nature said. “Here, let’s get you changed, looking at those outfits is hurting my head.” she said, practically dragging the two of them into the back.

“… I mean, You aren’t going to be nearly as recognizable, but…” Nice Nature said as they headed through the back streets, sighing. “This isn’t exactly subtle, either. We can use the hats and then go clothes shopping, I suppose.”

“I sincerely apologize for the limited wardrobe on hand,” McQueen said with genuine apology in her voice. That almost made it worse, though, considering that the casual outfits that they’d picked out for Teio were nicer than everything Nature owned except for her racing outfits. 

“McQueen, it’s not your fault you grew up in a manor,” Teio said, tugging at the provided dress shirt. “But I vote that we come back to Nacchan’s place to store these. This feels like it’s worth as much as a Pre-OP prize pool.” 

“I… I don’t know how much they cost,” McQueen admitted. “But don’t worry about the clothes, this was just what was on hand in short notice. Once Nature-san gets us something appropriate, we can bring it back.”

“Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not Palmer or Gold City; my favorite brand is clearance,” Nature said with a bit of self deprecating humor.

“Clearance? I’ve never heard of them. Are they local?” 

Nice Nature scanned McQueen’s face for any hint that she was telling a joke. McQueen stared back at her, regal features schooled into the perfect picture of innocence… and then the heiress couldn’t help herself any more and cracked a smile. “Geez!” Nature said, breaking out into laughter. “You really had me going there.”

“If I hadn’t known Gold Ship for three years, I might have legitimately asked that,” McQueen explained. “But she’s dragged me through enough shenanigans to vastly broaden my experiences. For example, I would have never stepped foot in a Costco if not for her.”

Teio shuddered. “You got off lucky, McQueen. Costco is a real place with actual purpose to its existence.”

“You sound like she’s taken you to Mars or something,” Nature said.

“Way worse than that,” Teio said, and the haunted look in the normally upbeat horsegirl’s eyes gave Nature pause. 

“… Anyways,” Nature said, taking control of the conversation again. “I hope you don’t mind if we get some simple clothes.”

“Not at all,” McQueen said. “After all, it’s something you will have picked out for me. That alone makes it worthwhile.”

Nice Nature suddenly grew very interested in the floor. “Um, well… Geez, your girlfriend is right there”, she got out eventually. Up till this point, she hadn’t acknowledged the fact that she was very much the odd one out in this outing, but at this point she felt like she had to make sure Teio knew she wasn’t trying anything with McQueen, as she could be pretty jealous and clingy at times. One time, she was trading terrible puns with the class president, but Teio was still in her Rudolf fangirl phase and decided to worm her way into the conversation, shooting glares and pouts at Nature until Nature backed down.

However, it seemed like today wasn’t going to be a repeat of that. Teio grinned, putting a hand to her chin. “Nature, how about we put McQueen into something really silly? We can get her some terrible branded shirts with people’s faces on them!” 

“I’m not bringing you to a tourist shop,” Nature said with a sigh. “This is where we buy our clothes. Speaking of, here we are,” she continued, holding the door open for the other two. “Hey, boss!” she said, calling out for the storekeeper. “Are you there?”

“Oh, Nature! It’s nice to see you again,” the shopkeeper said, slipping into English for the pun. “And who do we have here? … Wait, I think I’ve seen you younguns before.”

“These are my friends, Teio and McQueen,” Nature said by way of introduction. “They’re my classmates, although they’re more popular than I am.” 

“Ahhh… That must be it. You know me, all that running around tires me out, even if it’s not me doing it,” she said.  “But any friend of Nature’s is a friend of mine! Now, let me see what I can get for you…” 

At first, Nice Nature was super nervous, trying desperately not to overstep her boundaries as the close friend of two girlfriends utterly devoted to each other. But maddeningly enough, neither of them seemed to care how close Nature was to them. A charitable interpretation would be that both Teio and McQueen knew that Nature was important to them, and thus the two of them wanted to stay just as close with her as before. Since it was Nature, though, she instead was leaning towards the idea that they just didn’t see her romantically in the slightest, and thus even without finding true love in the Miracle at the Arima Kinen, her feeble advances would have been slapped away instantly. But whatever the reason, the two of them steadily eroded away at that wall by being… there wasn’t really any way to describe it but close, or maybe comfortable. And it was genuinely nice to hang out with the two of them again, even if she was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was great to hang out like nothing had changed, and to banter back and forth about whatever random topics, and to try out all sorts of clothes, aided by the discerning eye of the shopkeeper. 

In the end, McQueen had gotten a much more subdued and simple green dress, and after some consideration to the early spring temperature they had picked out a white sweater for her as well. Teio was leaning more into the androgynous side, accentuating her somewhat boyish charm with a tried and true jeans and black jacket combo. 

“There,” Nature said, admiring their handiwork. “Now you look like fashion models for a low end magazine rather than a high end magazine.” As for Nice Nature, well, it was more of the same for her, and no amount of flattery from Teio could convince her that the cheap blouse actually suddenly made her super cute actually.

“You know, that’s a really strange compliment!” Teio said. “But I’ll accept it… as long as you accept my compliments, because you do look cute in that.” Nature made a heroic effort to not blush at Teio’s words right next to McQueen and was mostly successful. Heedless of the effects she had started throwing out different poses, looking at herself in the mirror. “Do I look cool now? Heh, I sound like Vodka.”

“Yes, yes, very cool,” Nice Nature said with a wry grin. Teio was currently trying to replicate some kind of boy band pose or something like that, but the effect was mostly ruined by the fact that Teio kept giggling at herself. 

“Here, how about this?” McQueen said, holding up a baseball cap for the Hanshin Tigers. “It would fit well with your outfit.” Her need to appear dignified was so strong that she kept up the act even though both Teio and Nice Nature knew that she loved baseball. Hell, Nature had gone to a game with McQueen and saw the Mejiro heiress screaming “GO TIGERS!” until her throat was nearly raw. But everyone had their little self deceptions.

Teio grabbed the hat and put it on at a rakish angle, and Nice Nature’s heart skipped a beat. “Perfect!” she said, grinning. “Now get over here and let’s take a picture!” McQueen headed over to join in the picture, a satisfied smile on her face as she stood right next to Teio. 

“Here, let me take your phone,” Nature said, reaching out to grab Teio’s phone to take a picture… only for Teio to smoothly grab her wrist and pull Nature in as well. “Woah!” she sputtered out.

“Hey, hey, you get in here too,” Teio said, grinning as she firmly placed Nature… in between Teio and McQueen. 

Nature flushed involuntarily at suddenly being in the middle of her two crushes. “Are you really sure you need me getting in your way?” she asked, trying really hard to not hyperventilate. She couldn’t tell if this was a dream or a nightmare.

“What do you mean?” McQueen said, an elegant smile on her face. “This outing is for all three of us.” 

“Yeah, but… Fine. To the three of us,” Nature echoed, screaming at herself internally while she did so. 

While Nature might have been in yearning lesbian hell, she wasn’t about to let that get in the way of showing off her shopping district. This was her home, as ordinary as it was, and she was going to do her best to show it off to her friends. It was definitely possible that her best wouldn’t be enough, of course. Both Teio and McQueen were way above this kind of life - McQueen was personally wealthier than Nature’s family and Teio had been a full scholarship student at Tracen ever since she was six - but she was hoping that they would find Nature’s old hangouts charmingly quaint rather than dilapidated. And to their credit, the two of them seemed more than happy just to follow Nature around. It was way easier to entertain them than it was to keep Twin Turbo engaged in anything, that was for sure.

The next stop on their impromptu tour was the nearby indoor track where she’d done all of her running as a young child. It had already begun to feel small back when she was graduating from elementary school, but now she was used to Tracen’s luxurious expanses of greenery and the 800 meter track tucked away in the back building of her elementary school seemed positively tiny. Still, though, Nature remembered it well, and she was able to tell a couple self-deprecating stories about her failing to corner and running straight into the padding on the sides. McQueen and Nature were able to convince Teio to not actually do an all out race in a kid's track and ruin the artificial turf, but they did all run a lap for the sake of it. Next, the three of them took a quick stop at the local recreation center, and although there wasn’t really anything for someone between the ages of 10 and 50 to do there, it provided a good backdrop for some more stories about playing around in old boxes and doing random errands around town. And lastly, they started poking in and out of shops in the shopping area itself. Sure, it wasn’t as if any of them needed to buy fresh groceries, but it was still kind of fun to see what random things Teio and McQueen found interesting. And since Nature had done all those errands for the owner in the past, Teio and Nature were able to grab a couple of sea cucumbers to chase McQueen about without getting into too much trouble. 

The last spot in their impromptu hangout was the traditional snack store where Nature had spent her pocket money growing up. She had picked this for their last stop for two reasons: first, because she knew that both Teio and McQueen had a sweet tooth and therefore might end up buying more than they could easily carry, and second, because the owner was a huge fan of the uma musume scene and definitely had heard about the “two star crossed lovers fated to never race together” or whatever the tabloids were saying now. But it was still pretty much perfect to cap this day off, so she led them into the store showing perfect outward confidence.

As the door’s chimes rang, the old owner Watanabe came over to greet them. “Hello - Oh! Good afternoon Neicha,” the old owner said, beaming widely as he saw Nice Nature. “Bringing some friends over to my humble dagashiya rather than one of them newfangled convenience stores? You really are too good to me.”

“Afternoon, Toyoshima-san,” Nature said. “And you really don’t need to praise me, sheesh. You sell sweets, we want to buy sweets, that seems like a very straightforward thing to do.”

“You’re too reasonable,” Toyoshima said with an audible grunt. “Learn to take all the compliments you get and have them feed your ego to unreasonable levels! That’s the best way to survive in this world.” The old store owner laughed raucously at his own joke, then took his glasses out of his pockets. “Anyways, Neicha’s friends, welcome to my store,” he said as he put them on. “I can get you anything you… want…” Toyoshima trailed off as he peered at who exactly Nature had brought with her. “You’re Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen.” 

Teio and McQueen looked at each other, then looked back. “We sure are!” Teio said, grinning.

“Well, well, well! It’s a great honor to meet you,” Toyoshima said with a bow. “It’s truly incredible what you’ve done out there on the racecourse… That being said, I’ve definitely cursed at both of you on the TV for denying our Neicha a win or two. Just gotta let you know.” The old man let out another guffaw. 

“No offense taken,” McQueen said graciously, but with a clear tint of humor. “It’s clear to see that she’s beloved in this community.”

“And we won’t let the poor girl forget it!”

Nice Nature sighed. “Yeah… Anyways, Toyoshima-san here is a big fan of uma racing. That’s how he recognized you.” And he also had the personality type such that Nature couldn’t just glare at him to get him to not bring it up. “Sorry, I know you wanted to get away from all that for a bit.”

“Nah, Nacchan, you’ve still bought us an entire day outside without even a single run in with paparazzi," Teio said. “That’s already more than we could have asked. Plus, this guy is kinda cool.”

“I hate that that’s true,” Nature muttered, then caught herself. “Wait, no, I didn’t mean to insult you, Toyoshima-san!” 

“Not very nice of you, gaha!”

“Never mind, I actually did mean to insult you,” Nice Nature said, rolling her eyes. “Come on, I like bad puns as much as the next person, but you have to try harder than that.”

“Not a shot,” Toyoshima replied. “I’m old, I get to be set in my ways. I’ll leave the constant striving for improvement to you all. But enough of an old man’s jokes, you should get some snacks! I want to ruin your diets so Nature can beat you two in a race!”

McQueen flushed red at the unintentionally accurate comment, but she did still come with them to get some sweets… and then more, and more, and more, Teio deciding that she actually really wanted to try everything in the store.  “We’re going to have to help her finish everything, aren’t we,” McQueen said, sighing fondly.

At that, Nice Nature frowned. She had been trying to ignore it this whole time, but … it was still really weird how Teio and McQueen were treating her. Every time she would try and give the new couple some space, they would pull her back into the thick of things, as it were. At this point, it felt like they were doing it on purpose, and Nature had no clue why they would do that. If it was just Teio she could maybe see it as some cruel prank, and if it was just McQueen she could see it as McQueen being overly nice rather than force the issue, but both of those at the same time was too much to believe. And more to the point, they were just fundamentally good people, in a way that Nature struggled to be. Those were things that Nature herself would do, not the inexhaustibly positive Teio or the perfectly elegant McQueen. But it was for precisely that reason that she just couldn’t figure out what they were doing! Nature had long since accepted that she would be forever third, and that was fine. But it didn’t seem like her rivals had got that memo. 

“Nature?” McQueen asked, “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Nature lied. “Sorry, just got lost in thought. It’s a bad habit of mine, ahaha… Teio, are you sure you want to eat all of this?”

Teio looked at Nature, then back at the basket filled to the brim with candies, chocolates, dried fruits, rice crackers, and more exotic things, then back at Nature. “I don’t see the problem!” 

“Some of us have to maintain diets,” Nature said, although it was mostly on McQueen’s behalf. The sense of wasting money stopped her from eating sweets long before her metabolism would get affected. 

“Geez! I didn’t even know I still had baskets back there,” Toyoshima said. “I was gonna just give you the stuff for free, what with you all being famous racers, but that’s way too much. At this rate, I’ll have to actually restock the shop this month!”

“Wait, really?!” Teio exclaimed. “Umm… what if I do some of my signature moves for you, what then? I’ll show you my Teio Step!”

“No, no, you’re going to have to do a little better than that, missy. You do the Teio Step at every G1, it feels like. No, you’re going to have to show me something special.”

“Or we could just pay for it…” Nice Nature said. 

“Ah, you’re such a killjoy… Just like your old man, eh?” The old man faked rubbing tears out of his eyes.

“I’m not gonna let a girl who’s won the Arima Kinen haggle for rice crackers,” Nice Nature said flatly. “Or the heir to the Mejiros, for that matter,” she added, seeing the look on McQueen’s face. 

“It seems like it could be fun,” McQueen said in self defense. 

“Alright, how much do you think all of this costs?” 

McQueen furrowed her brow in thought. “… 4 thousand yen?” she guessed.

“Inflation is bad, but it isn’t that bad,” Nice Nature said with a laugh. “These are intended for school kids and poor people, after all. This is half that, at most.”

McQueen flushed a little bit. “W-well Gold Ship sells her own candies for roughly that rate, that’s all! … Although now that I think about it, she definitely would try to raise her prices… no, I was simply being foolish.”

“No, you were actually right, McQueen! At least, you will be once I add on even more stuff!” Teio came to her girlfriend’s defense… maybe. “Old man, do you have anything with honey in it?” 

“Yeah, in the back right I got honey drops, although mostly us old men like ‘em. Maybe you’re an old man at heart just like Nature.” Toyoshima said, going back to his old joke.

“Hey!” Teio piped up in defense of Nature even as she was piling their basket of sweets higher. “Don’t say that about Nature!”

“Nah, nah, he is right,” Nature replied, shifting into her best affectation of the regulars at her mom’s bar. “Ah, you youngn’s are so nice, letting an old lady like me hang out with you.”

“Don’t do that!” Teio whirled back to face Nature, and now that the other girl was facing her Nature could actually see that Teio had shifted to being serious. Her ears were flattening in genuine frustration, and Nature instinctively took a step back. “Why do you always say that you don’t deserve to be here? Nacchan, it’s not like we just wanted some person to hang out with,  we want to spend time with you.” 

“Er…,” Nature said eloquently, acutely aware that both McQueen and Toyoshima were watching. She had hoped to defuse the situation with a joke, but… Teio had clearly been thinking about this for at least a little bit, too, but Nature didn’t think that Teio would have paid that much attention to someone like her. 

“She’s right,” McQueen added, and to Nature’s growing concern she looked very serious as well. “I don’t know where you got this idea, but you are not a burden to us, neither today nor at any other time.”

“I…”

“Ahh, sorry, sorry!” Toyoshima interjected, scratching his balding head. “My bad. I used to work for her mom, so we go way, way back. But you’re right, ‘Nacchan’ has gone really damn far. Just a bit of ribbing, that’s all. Hehe.”

After a beat, Teio responded, returning to her earlier chipper state. “Hey, no problem. But you better be aware that you have competition for biggest Nice Nature fan, you hear?” 

“You know? That’s fair!” As the old man laughed some more, Nice Nature breathed a sigh of relief. Was it not obvious why she was on edge? Thankfully Toyoshima was able to defuse the situation, but… “I do have to ask, though,” the store owner said. “You two became a couple, right? I must have seen that picture a hundred times by now.” … he had that skill mostly because he constantly said things he shouldn’t have.

After a pause, McQueen took the initiative. “Yes, we did,” she said firmly. 

“Man, you girls are gutsy! Millions of eyeballs on you after the stunt that Teio pulled and you decide to make it official right then and there? Might as well have been the ending to a movie!” Toyoshima exclaimed. “It really was something. Neicha, I hope you aren’t feeling too left out with these lovebirds next to you!” 

Nice Nature was not imagining strangling Toyoshima with her bare hands at this time. “Ahahaha…” she laughed mirthlessly. “No, it hasn’t been an issue. They’re making sure to include me too.” 

“Indeed,” McQueen said, and she sounded more than a little frosty. Was she mad at Nature? Goddesses, what did she do this time? “Teio, Nature, we should be going. Ikee’s already on the way with the limo to pick us up. How much is our basket, sir?” Teio glanced at McQueen with a questioning look on her face, but then nodded.

“With the extra stuff…” Toyoshima took a glance at the box. “3,200.” 

“Thank you very much,” McQueen said with a bow, tapping a jet black card against the old man’s card reader. “Now, if you’ll excuse us…” The heiress strode out of the store purposefully, Teio following soon after. 

Nice Nature hung back for just a bit to look at the old man. “Um…”

“I think I said something wrong, but that’s normal for a guy like me.” Toyoshima said as he looked out the door. 

“You sure it wasn’t me?” Nature couldn’t quite bring herself to look at them just yet.

“Nah,” the old man said decisively. “Those girls would stick with you through thick and thin. Why else do you think that Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen would grace this here store? I really doubt it’s because of my stellar personality and customer service skills. If you aren’t listening to what they’re saying, listen to me instead.”

“You don’t get to be self deprecating if you’re telling me that I’m being too self deprecating,” Nice Nature said petulantly. “… But, thank you.”

“That’s how you know I know what I’m talking about, because we’re the same kind of hypocrite. Now, get out of here already! They’re waiting for you.” 

“Yeah… No more running away.” Nice Nature breathed in, breathed out, then ran out of the door after Teio and McQueen. 

“I apologize for causing a bit of a scene,” McQueen said as Nice Nature caught back up to them. 

“No, no, I totally get it. The old man just is like that, sometimes. He is really nice for the most part, though!” Nice Nature replied. 

“I don’t think he did anything wrong,” McQueen said after a pause. “He was simply expressing concern in his own way.”

But then why did McQueen still sound a little frustrated? “Oh, that’s good,” Nice Nature said lamely.

“You guys seemed really close,” Teio joined in from the other side. “Must have been fun to have an uncle that could give you candy.”

“Yeah.” And with that, the conversation died again. It was McQueen leading the group this time, striding with purpose to… well, Nice Nature had no idea where she was going. Hopefully McQueen knew. 

Eventually, Nice Nature found herself back at the tiny indoor racing track. Good, now no one else would see her get dressed down. Nature aimlessly kicked at the artificial turf, waiting for the end.

“So… I think we made a mistake here,” McQueen eventually said, sighing. Nice Nature blinked, then opened her mouth, then closed it again, wholly unsure of where the conversation was going and unwilling to mess it up any further. “I’m actually grateful to Toyoshima-san, because he was able to broach the topic of Teio and I’s relationship without being overly… Presumptious? Patronizing? Something like that. We’ve been trying to figure out the best way forward for a while now.”

“Really?” Nice Nature asked, baffled.

“Yeah, ever since you ran in the American Jockey CC,” Teio admitted. “McQueen knew from Dictus-san that you were racing on that to prep for the Tenno Sho, so we figured you were focusing on that. But then you still weren’t talking with us after that.” 

They were paying attention to her racing schedule even while going on interview after interview?! Nice Nature really didn’t know what to think. “I was… busy,” Nature said eventually, lamely. 

McQueen nodded, not exactly accepting Nature’s excuse but letting it slide. “Perhaps, but we still wanted to speak with you. I wasn’t lying when I said you were important to the both of us. It hurts to see you put yourself down and say you’re not good enough, especially since it seems like you’re comparing us to you.” 

“Wait, that was your issue?” Nice Nature stammered out. “What?!” 

“It’s been happening all day,” McQueen said. “It feels like you’re constantly trying to pull away from us because you feel unworthy. And part of that is our fault, of course, because we couldn’t figure out how to mention it.”

“… Okay, it was me that didn’t want to just say it,” Teio said with a sheepish laugh. “I can never quite figure out how to go about these things.”

“I wasn’t going to mention that part, but yes,” McQueen replied. 

“I mean… You’re reading into it too much. It’s just kinda awkward to hang out with a new couple, you know? That’s all that’s been going on today,” Nice Nature tried. “But I think I’ve gotten over that. Thanks for being so considerate and still being my friend!”

“Nacchan. Come on, that might work on me, but McQueen’s right here, and our roommates are also your friends. And you can’t hide anything from Mayano.” Teio said with a wry smile. “Something’s been going on, and it’s getting in the way of us hanging out.”

“Jeez, you aren’t going to let me get away with that, are you…”

“No,” McQueen said. “I want to ask, is this still related to your performance? Because -“

“Because that’s not why you’re my friends,” Nice Nature said, then realized that her words sounded more petulant than she wanted. “Er, not like that. Sorry, I’m not trying to mock you or anything, I’m actually fine with my career right now. I would still love to win a G1 race, but I still have … honestly, way too many fans, and I’m still getting better. So, yeah. Just heard that one before, that’s all.”

McQueen and Teio looked at her intently, and Nice Nature tried her hardest to not blush. Her heart was beating like it was her debut again. “I thought so,” McQueen said eventually. “So if it’s not that, then… I think I understand why you’re being more self-deprecating than normal right now.” Nature wasn’t sure if McQueen being right or if her being wrong would be worse for her sanity right now. “Teio, I think it’s time.”

“Yeah,” Teio said. “Nice Nature, I…aw, man, why did I agree to do this? I couldn’t say anything the first time either!” 

“Because we care about her, dummy.” 

“You’re right, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”

“Fine, then, let’s do plan B,” McQueen acquiesced. Nature felt her head throb as she tried desperately to figure out what the hell was going on.

Teio took a step forward, and then another. Nature was too confused to back off, so the distance between them just kept shrinking. She looked back at McQueen, only to find that she was also closing in on Nature. Her breath grew faster and faster, coming to a head when Teio reached up and wrapped her right arm around her  with a tenderness that Nature would have never expected to come from her beforehand. Meanwhile, McQueen completed the pin on Nice Nature’s own right side, preventing her from escaping. 

“Wh- what is going on? What are you doing?!” Nature stuttered, in no way prepared for whatever was going on.

“Nature… We’re going to kiss you now,” McQueen said. 

“Ah. Uh. Really? Is this real? Am I dreaming?”

“Do you want us to stop?” Teio asked, right there in front of her, close enough that she could feel her rival’s breath.

“Well, uh, no, but - mmph?!” Tokai Teio kissed her. The Invincible Tokai Teio kissed Nice Nature. Three Goddesses. For a moment, her entire world was consumed by the heat of Teio's lips on hers, almost overwhelming in its sudden presence. Nature felt more light headed than after she had run the Spring Tenno Sho, and Teio was still pulling ahead, dragging Nature along in her wake. After a couple more seconds, Teio pulled back reluctantly, leaving only the ghost of her lips and the faint taste of honey behind. 

And before she could even process anything, McQueen gently turned Nature’s head towards her to give her a kiss as well. Unlike Teio, McQueen's kiss was firm, controlled, and steady. Nice Nature felt less like she was being carried away with her energy and more like she was following along besides McQueen. Slowly, hesitantly, she started to try and press back, returning the kiss with a nervous energy. From her unique vantage point right at McQueen's lips, she felt rather than saw McQueen's typical little self-satisfied smile, and she realized that the heiress really had been waiting for this for a long time. Both of them had.

That realization, more than anything else, was the final blow. Nature went half limp in Teio and McQueen's shared embrace, going over what just happened again and again in her head. All the time she had spent pining and yearning and wishing and dreaming, all those feelings that she had shoved down and self rationalized away, and it turned out that things would have turned out even better than she could have possibly hoped. Nice Nature opened her mouth to laugh, or maybe to cry. She couldn't quite figure out which one to do, and thus it ended up being some kind of strangled mix of both. 

"Nacchan? Are you - "

"Shh. Give her a moment."

"... Alright." Instead of talking more, Teio simply clung harder onto Nice Nature. After some time, McQueen started patting her on the head, running her delicate fingers through Nature's hair as she finished working through her emotions. 

Nice Nature took a deep, shuddering breath, and then another. "Holy crap," she said eventually. "What the hell was that."

McQueen sighed fondly. "Well, Teio is bad at expressing her feelings out loud."

"... Really?"

"Yes." Actually, by the way Teio's grip on her got a little tighter, McQueen must have been right. "Instead of just saying 'I love you' like a normal person, she decided to win the Arima Kinen instead. So we had to improvise a little.”

"Teio, did you really do all that before you confessed," Nice Nature said flatly, unable to muster up any more emotions.

"... Yeah," Teio admitted. For once, she looked actually bashful, and the contrast between the normally precocious Teio and her flushed cheeks and averted gaze now made the situation even more surreal for Nature. “… It’s hard to confess, okay?” Teio said petulantly. 

“You’ve never said a more true thing in your life,” Nature replied with a long-suffering sigh.

“That’s just because I haven’t said that I love you yet!” 

“Teio?! You couldn’t have just said that in the first place?” McQueen exclaimed. 

“What?” Teio blinked as she reviewed the last couple seconds. “Oh, wait. Crap, I really could have just done that the whole time! … Well, whatever, at least I got better at it this time!”

“I’m glad you didn’t make quite that much of a scene this time,” Nice Nature muttered. “McQueen, how did you not die of embarrassment?”

“Gold Ship.”

“Ah, fair enough.” Nice Nature sighed, then steeled herself to ask some very awkward questions. “So… did you know this whole time that I liked you? B-both of you?"

"Well, it was obvious to everyone but Teio -" 

"HEY!" 

"-that you had a crush on her, but I wasn’t so sure about you and I,” McQueen finished. “I was hoping so, but I didn’t know until today. Our friends pushed us to have this little outing because they were worried about you, but I’m really glad that it worked out as well as it did.” 

“Wait.” Nice Nature put the pieces together. “You had a crush on me?” 

“Is that so hard to believe?” McQueen started, then she shook her head before Nature could respond. “Wait, no, my apologies, I shouldn’t say it like that. I did, yes. You’re very charming, and it’s incredibly easy to be myself around you.”

“I… wow.” Nice Nature thought she was fully out of embarrassment at this point, but she was still able to summon some more redness. “I don’t know about that, but…”

“We’ll simply have to tell you until you do believe us!” Teio said with a grin. “But yeah, it’d just be really weird without you here, you know? Someone has to be the one to tell us that actually we shouldn’t do that stupid thing.”

“Like dressing up like it’s a winning live while trying to be stealthy.”

“Exactly! And I wouldn’t want it to be anyone but you, Nacchan.”

“It’s Nature,” Nice Nature said automatically again, trying not to look at Teio’s beaming smile. “Please. If… If I’m your girlfriend, then can you do that for me?”

“Nope!” Teio’s smile became mischievous as she said that. “Actually, I was thinking that I needed another name for you, because Maya and Marvey and everyone else calls you Nacchan. Hmmm… Nicey, maybe?”

“My mom called me that when I was 5,” Nice Nature said flatly, firmly rejecting the pet name. Teio giggled, and despite her embarrassment Nature felt warm and fuzzy inside. Or maybe it was just because Teio was still hugging her and she could feel the laugh. “So, um, now that I mentioned it, what are we? Is it just … having two girlfriends?”

“Yes,” McQueen said. “Well, Ikuno tells me the overall thing is called a polycule, but we’re all girlfriends. If you’ll have us, that is.”

“That sounds pretty polycool,” Nature said before she could stop herself. 

“…”

“…”

Teio and McQueen looked at her, then at each other. “You know, maybe you should have Prez’s glasses instead,” Teio said after a long pause. “You deserve them more than me.” 

“That bad, huh?”

“… Yeah.”

“…and that wraps it up, Tannhauser-kun. I think we have a good shot at the Nikkei Sho,” Minamizaka said. “Just keep in mind the proper footwork technique we discussed in case it’s wet, it’s supposed to be raining all of that week.”

“Mun!”

“As for you, Nature-kun, are you doing better? It seems like you’ve been able to get back to training, mostly.”

“Well, it definitely couldn’t have gotten worse, ahaha…” Nice Nature replied. “But yeah, I’m all fired up and ready to go. Yeah.” She half cheered in her usual style.

Ikuno looked at her closely. “Hmm… Ah, good. Things must have gone well the other day.” 

Nice Nature tried desperately to not show anything on her face. “Yeah, haha. We cleared everything up. How could you tell?”

“You’re actually smiling like you used to!” Machitan said, clasping her hands together. “I’m glad that it worked out.” 

Ah, right. Nice Nature remembered Machitan very clumsily ditching her once she’d seen Teio and McQueen. Typically the other uma was extremely guileless, but maybe someone else had put her up to it - maybe it was Ikuno, maybe it was Teio and McQueen themselves. Nature decided to let it go; she couldn’t be too upset at how that went, after all. “Thank you?”

“What happened?” Turbo asked.

“Well, since the Arima Kinen, Teio and McQueen have been dating,” Ikuno said. “Since Nature is both of their friends, it’s been really awkward for her, but last weekend they were able to reconcile.”

“So…” Twin Turbo thought for a moment. “Nacchan, Teio, and McQueen… Hey! Why are you consorting with the enemy?”

“Consorting? Wait, you’re friends with Teio too,” Machitan pointed out. “It’s not like you’re consorting with her by being friends.”

“Yeah, but I’m not dating Teio!” Twin Turbo protested. “Nacchan’s doing that! She’ll leak all of our secrets to Spica when they’re doing… couple stuff!” Nice Nature froze like a deer in headlights. 

“… But what about Teio and McQueen?” Minamizaka asked, clearly unable to help himself. 

“They’re all dating, duh. So she’s outnumbered! They can gang up on her.” Twin Turbo frowned, crossing her arms. “But that means we just have to be even faster! Nacchan, it’s okay! We’ll still beat the socks off of Spica even if you are dating Teio and McQueen!”

“Turbo, how did you come to the conclusion that the three of them are a throuple?” Ikuno asked. “We don’t have any evidence to show that…” Her teammate looked at Nice Nature, and then back at Twin Turbo, and then back at Nature’s horribly, horribly revealing face. “Wait, I think you’re correct… Well, I still want to know how you came to that conclusion. We never even talked about queer identity and what being gay meant.”

“What’s that have to do with dating?”

“Oh three Goddesses.” Nice Nature said, burying her head in her hands. 

“Wait, so it is true?” Machitan said excitedly. “Oh my goodness, it is! Wow, Nacchan! You really have two girlfriends! I’m so happy for you, you deserve it!”

“… Thanks, Machitan…” Nice Nature got out eventually. “Appreciate that…”

“Um… Anyways, I think we should update your training schedule for today, Nature-kun,” Minamizaka artlessly pivoted before Canopus could get too caught up in Turbo’s logic. “Instead of doing 20 laps, let’s have you do 15. And first… uhh, how about some breathing exercises.”

“What kind of breathing exercises?”

“Screaming really, really loudly at the stump?”

Nature considered this for a moment. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thank you.”

“Nacchan!” Teio yelled out as soon as she saw Nice Nature, running up and tackle-hugging her immediately afterwards.

“Woah, woah, slow down there,” Nature said, laughing despite her words as she caught the shorter woman and spun her around. “Do you want to get a fifth fracture?”

“How could I do that if you’re there to catch me?” Teio asked rhetorically - and incorrectly, but leave it to Teio to still think she was invincible. Nature carefully put Teio down, but Teio refused to fully let go, so Nature just let her girlfriend cling onto her like a koala.

“Teio, she just ran 2400 meters,” McQueen said. “Give her some room to breathe. And if you ruin your rehab just to hug Nature a fraction of a second early, we will have to revoke your honey privileges.” Before Teio could respond with her typical indignation, McQueen turned to Nature and beamed. “You were brilliant out there.”

“Well, it’s not quite a G1 race, but… I guess a D1 will have to do,” Nice Nature demurred instinctually, but she couldn’t keep the smile from her face. 

“Nature, now’s not the time for that,” McQueen said fondly, coming up to stand next to Nature as well. You’ve worked for so long, and now these are the fruits of your labors. Come on - isn’t it time to show the world that you’re the star?”

“Are you teaming up with my therapist again?” Nice Nature said with fake annoyance in her voice.

“The Mejiro Rehabilitation Center is a world class facility in all respects,” McQueen replied, although she couldn’t get to the end without breaking character and smiling goofily. 

“Of course,” Nature said with another laugh. “But if I’m the star today, that means that I get to use my own coping mechanisms just for a bit. As a treat.” 

“So then what other treats do you want today?” Teio asked. “Because I can think of a couple of things.” Teio’s grip on her tightened and she grinned cheekily.

“I’m going to get up on that stage and tell the whole world we’re all dating,” Nature declared, completely ignoring Teio.

“Oh my,” McQueen said with a hand to her mouth. 

“Not quite as dramatic as the miracle Arima, but… it’s as good a time as any.”

“Possibly even more romantic to do it at a Dream Series concert, though,” McQueen mused. “The camera work was pretty good then, but they only barely caught that kiss. You’d have the entire spotlight to yourself on stage. It would be incredible…”

Nice Nature thought about that for a moment. Then she thought about that some more. And then her face burst into flames as she blushed like a schoolgirl. “ Maybe that isn’t a good idea…” she trailed off lamely, horribly embarrassed at her own earlier confident words.

“Come on, it would be amazing!” Teio exclaimed. “We’d have no choice but to fall even further in love with you. you know?” McQueen nodded in agreement. 

“… I’ll think about it,” Nature eventually replied, now doubly flustered at how her two girlfriends looked so excited at the idea.

“Nature, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Teio said, more seriously this time. She even let go of Nature to look at her head on. “It’s up to you.”

“Yeah. It’s my winning live. Goddesses, it’s my winning live.” Nature clenched her fist in triumph, the long awaited release of finally winning a big race overpowering her embarrassment. For once, the burning in her legs felt triumphant rather than bittersweet. 

“Racers! Are you there!” came the voice from the coordinators. “Concert in 10!”

“Alright. It’s time to give thanks to all my fans for supporting me for so long,” Nature said, now completely unable to keep the smile from growing on her face. “And as for you, my biggest fans…” Nice Nature pulled Teio in and made her stand on her toes before planting a deep kiss onto her lips.

“J-jeez, Nacchan! You’ve gotten so smooth!” Teio exclaimed once she was able to extricate herself from Nature’s embrace, now with a glowing blush of her own at how she was handled.

“I’ve had a lot of practice, after all,” Nature said smugly. She turned her attention to McQueen, delivering another deep kiss to her other girlfriend. This time, she wasn’t nearly as forceful about it, but she still held the heiress there until she was good and satisfied. McQueen pulled back, now happily frazzled from the attention. “Alright. I think I’m ready now.” 

“Bring ‘em home,” McQueen said dreamily.

Nice Nature grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, I will.” Reluctantly, she left her two girlfriends behind to head out of the backstage room, through the tunnels, and lastly onto the stage. The crowd roared with approval as Nature stepped out onto the stage for her first ever grade 1 victory, and for once, she didn’t feel as bashful. After all, Teio and McQueen were at her side.

“Hey, everyone,” Nature said, finally ready. “I have an announcement to make…"