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Harua only checks herself over head to toe three times.
The layered tank top and cami accent her shin-high boots and the thin stripe of white socks peaking out. While it’s not her usual style, evident by her platinum blonde dyed hair, it’s fitting for her personally assigned theme.
Rockstar’s girlfriend.
Well, Nicholas’s theme. The only reason she’s going is because Nico’s situationship is performing and she needs a plus one. Harua hasn’t heard much about the other members, granted all she’s heard about Nico’s girl is that she’s very round, at least one of them has to be hot.
“Ready?” Nico pokes her head in and gives her a quick one-over.
Harua does the same, the rocker outfit works well on Nico. She has a light orange and strawberry covered waist chain on. She keeps branching out with her style, and Harua’s a little nervous she’ll be left behind.
Nicholas waves her along and rushes them both outside the house. There aren’t seats, it’s a standing outdoor concert, but Nico’s girl told them they could push to the front.
The sun’s already set by the time they arrive. It’s more packed than she expected, but nothing she can’t handle. They walk along the grass until the reach the outskirts of the crowd.
Nicholas leaves her with some mumbled excuse and a command to wait for her. Harua shrugs in agreement. They aren’t on stage yet, so she’ll be fine.
It continues like that for about five minutes, Harua standing around looking lost, until they start setting up. A tall woman with a short brown cut and enough flamboyancy to last a lifetime goes on stage first, then followed by a girl with such long black hair she looks like Rapunzel.
The third girl is… She’s the prettiest girl Harua’s ever seen. Like someone off the cover of a magazine.
A tattoo crawls its way out of her tank-top sleeve. Huge swirling tendrils like a tiger’s inky stripes trace her muscles down to her hands. Slim silver rings adorn a majority of her fingers.
Tracing the lines back to her face, Harua can barely make out the shining glint of an eyebrow piercing on her face. Dark smokey eyeshadow lines her eyes, but other than that she doesn’t have any makeup on. The sharp edges of her jawline look like a chewtoy, and the muscles on her arms are ready to be bitten.
Harua moves closer to the stage, an excuse that her friend is at the front, and hopes Nicholas has the mind to do the same. Sure, she’s ditching Nicholas now, but she’ll find her in the crowd. Maybe.
She’s practically at the barricade. A girl next to her, about the same height with cropped pink hair and an all black outfit, waves exaggeratedly to the tall girl carrying an electric guitar.
Harua ignores them in favor of appreciating the drummer’s visuals. She can’t see her outfit from where she hides behind the drumset, but the discarded leather Ferrari jacket on the floor looks promising.
The bassist, probably the girl Nicholas is into based on her round face and boba-shaped eyes, comes onto stage and whispers something into the drummer's ear. Her eyes dart around the crowd for a minute, then she shakes her head.
Harua is dying to know what they’re talking about.
Harua can hear, she’s practically screaming in her ear about it, the pink haired girl giving the guitarist a final cheer for good luck. The guitarist blushes a blazing red at the kisses thrown her way.
“Do you know them?” Harua asks the girl once she’s sure she’s done. When she turns, she realizes how cat-like her face is. Fangs and all it seems.
“She’s my girlfriend,” the girl appraises her outfit slowly; sizing her up. “Why?”
Harua adds a high tilt to her voice, “She’s so pretty but,” she leans in as though she were letting the girl in on a secret, “I’m more interested in the drummer.”
The girl follows her pointed finger to the drummer, who’s busy adjusting the height of the stands surrounding her.
The girl’s smile grows from suspicious to sly. “Oh you mean Maki?” Harua nods softly, a little bashful.
Maki.
Harua and Maki. It has a nice ring to it.
“Harua, I told you—Hey Yuma—to wait for me!”
Nicholas appears out of thin air. She waves to the girl, Yuma, and pushes herself right in between them. The bassist somehow spots her immediately, and they make gay I want you eyes at each other.
So weird, she would never do something like that.
Harua instantly begins staring wistfully at Maki. She ties her hair into a ponytail, but half of it falls out immediately in dark waves on the tips of her shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Nico questions slowly while following her line of sight. “Are you... Harua, no.”
She frowns instantly, her attention torn away. “No what? I wasn’t doing anything.” Harua retorts with her arms crossed over her chest.
“When you fail to get with Maki, and get your heart broken, that will totally ruin this whole thing between me and EJ.”
Yuma makes it very obvious that she’s listening in as she peers over the side of Nicholas’s shoulder. Harua pays her no mind, too focused on defending herself. “I wouldn’t fail.”
Nico scrunches her noise and grins: her betting face. Harua regrets the words as soon as she realizes what she’s gotten herself into, but one long look back at Maki makes the feeling drift away.
“I bet you couldn’t even land one date with her.” Nico rests her chin on her palm, a smug look cemented on her face.
Harua turns away, Maki’s pulling out her taped drumsticks. There’s a bisexual pride flag on them. “We’ll be dating by the end of the week.”
“You haven’t even met her,” Yuma grumbles. When they both turn to look at her, she acts as though someone else said it.
The lights previously illuminating the stage disappear, in its place an empty void of darkness. Four loud bangs from the drums. On beat spotlights hit a different member. Yuma’s girlfriend performs a long riff on her guitar, and from it the stage lights flicker back on in shades of blue.
The vocalist is practically making out with the mic as she mutters, “We are AndTeam and this is Go in Blind.”
The song starts slow, and the beat drop is halted by an insane guitar riff. Yuma's loud sining along to the high notes upstages Harua's humming.
At the end of their set, Harua is understandably more infatuated with Maki as she was before. Nico and Yuma are moments away from scampering off to meet their girlfriends backstage when she announces, “I’m coming with.”
“Yeah? Where else would you go?” Nico rolls her eyes and links their hands together. “Don’t do anything dumb, okay?”
“Okay.”
…She is about to do something very dumb.
Maki is only a few feet away, still unassembling the drumset. The other members are helping out, and Harua feels a little awkward standing around. She should help. Sure she’s never touched a drumset, and the thought of talking to Maki makes her hands sweaty, but it couldn’t hurt.
Nico is ten times more anxious than she is, which does nothing to calm her nerves. She’s frantically running her fingers through wine red strands. Her bangs look like they’ve been tortured half to death, and her waist chain is backwards.
“Nico, you came,” EJ says her name like it’s a breath of fresh air. All smiles and warm eyes. Nicholas, despite EJ being taller, looks down at her like a wolf watches a deer.
"Of course I did Juju,” she huffs. Faking nonchalance despite the huge grin on her face.
EJ pulls her eyes away from Nico to inspect Harua, who’s been trying to appear like she’s not listening in nor checking out Maki’s ass from behind. “Who’s that?”
Harua looks around before pointing to herself. Nicholas takes charge of the introduction, “That’s Harua, we’re like best friends. You know,” Nico whispers into EJ’s ear. She instantly glances between her and Maki. Harua can fill in the blanks.
“Oh. Huh.” She looks Harua up and down once, almost dumbfounded. “Well I’m Euijoo,” she points at each member as she introduces them, “Jo and Kei are over there talking to our manager Fuma.”
Talking is a strong word for whatever Kei’s doing. She’s laying practically on top of Fuma while she talks with Jo. Yuma’s lingering around the edge of the conversation while on her phone, half invested.
“And you know Maki,” Euijoo tacks on to the end.
At the mention of her name, the girl pops up from where she was nearly shoulder-deep in her bag. “Did someone say my name?”
There's a faint German accent to the tinge of her words. Harua blinks at her as she glances around.
Euijoo raises her hand, “I did, I was telling Harua everyone’s names.”
Maki fully sees Harua once Euijoo introduces them. She looks her up and down, very obviously checking her out, before deciding her bag can wait. She half-jogs up to them, black ponytail swinging.
“Harua,” she tries the name on her lips.
“Maki,” Harua mimics the same tone. Up close, she’s a little taller than she expected. Enough to where she has to tilt her head up.
She tilts her head, “Friend of Nico’s?”
“The one and only.”
Nicholas slaps her on the arm in annoyance, no doubt she’ll complain about making her not look cool later, yet the smile it tugs out of Maki hits like a shot of cocaine.
Jo and Yuma skid near the edges of the little circle they’ve formed. The difference between Jo from before and now, is that her ears are hot red and Yuma looks unusually pleased with herself.
“I came to support her support Euijoo.” Harua explains it slowly. Maki nods along, although she’s looking all around her face as though she’s committing her to memory.
“But you know, I think Nico and Yuma exchange glances. Harua can’t make out their hushed murmuring, but if she had to guess they’re placing bets with money this time.
Maki bites over the top of her lip before blurting, “You’re really pretty.” She smiled until her dimples are frozen on her face.
“Thank you?” She’d take the compliment better if Maki didn’t look moments away from taking herself out.
It’s a little adorable, and the embarrassment makes her puppy-like features shine. When Harua doesn’t let her off the hook, instead letting the embarrassment fester, she gets progressively more ashamed.
“Hey,” Kei knocks the pair of them out of their conversation. Whereas Harua stays forward, Maki glances back two times.
Kei and Jo wave at her. They’re both tall, but Jo has extremely long black hair versus Kei’s neck length brown wolfcut. Jo waves without extravagance while Kei’s hand is about to fall off.
Their polar opposites, yet Harua can tell as they simply stand next to each other how close they are. Though it’s different from how she can tell that now Nico and Euijoo have met, there’s nothing that will separate them. Like a cupid sense.
Harua waves at them shyly, her best appeasing smile on her face. Maki, in the few seconds she’s looking away, scampers off to collect the rest of her stuff. A girl she doesn’t know scampers out of nowhere to stand next to her. From across the circle, Kei watches her like a hawk.
“I’m Taki,” she says softly. She smiles in the same wide way Maki does, but she’s shorter and less muscular.
She dips her head, “I’m Harua.”
Maki reappears at her side, now with a leather jacket around her shoulders. The same one she shucked to the floor earlier.
“Well, me and Euijoo were going to get food after this. Nico and Harua can come too, if they want.”
Euijoo looks up from where she was staring at Nico’s lips. She very obviously did not know they were getting food, but she agrees for the both of them. Nico elbows her in the ribcage for it.
The uninvited don’t whine about it. Kei wrangles Taki away with Fuma, all three laughing to their own levels. Taki and Fuma surprisingly the loudest. Jo follows behind Yuma toward the way of the parking lot.
“Great,” Maki clasps her hands together and looks down at Harua, “Wanna ride with me?”
“She does not,” Nico cuts in between them and throws an arm around Harua’s shoulder. Before the blonde can push her off, she moves on her own. “We can go with Euijoo.”
The scene attracts the attention of the other band, who has to squeeze past them to make it on stage. Fuma calmly ushers them away while Nicholas and Maki give each other death eyes.
“I can decide for myself,” Harua shoved Nico to the side. “Sure, I’ll ride with you.”
Maki twirls the key around her finger, stopping at a blazing red motorcycle. Even under the moonlight, Harua can tell how well maintained it is. Sleek and powerful.
She glances back sheepishly, all the coolness factor she gained from the reveal of her ride as she speaks, “I don’t have an extra helmet. Here—” She slides her leather jacket off her arms. The swirling tattoo sleeve is revealed again, and Harua has to avert her eyes to keep herself from speaking before she thinks.
The jacket is warm and oversized. The sleeves run down to the second knuckle of her fingers.
The flame in Maki’s eyes burns with possessiveness and her cheeks are a dusted pink. Harua shoves her hands into her pockets to appear uncaring.
It takes a repeated mantra in Harua’s mind to remind herself that they just met. She won't fit the moving-too-fast stereotype.
She unclips the butterfly clip in her hair to tie it back with a ponytail instead. While she does so, Maki slips the helmet over her now loose hair.
Harua giggles openly, it makes Maki look like a bobble head.
Maki scoots forward on the bike, but Harua still has to squish their hips together to fit. Harua wraps her arms tight around Maki and only pokes her in the stomach once.
The motor of the bike roars loudly under Maki’s control. It sways and takes off on her easy command as well. Within moments Harua’s ponytail is lost to the night.
The wind keeps her hair out of her face. It’s less packed than it usually is for a Friday night, but they still have to stop semi-frequently. She doesn’t savor the feeling of being pressed so tightly against Maki, assured that it will be far from the last time.
They pull all too quickly into the lot of some generic fast food chain. Euijoo and Nico are standing outside chattering about music. The menu is full of items that’ll make her stomach hurt, so she decides on something safe. French fries.
Maki orders a huge burrito, and Nicholas orders a pizza to share with Euijoo.
Nicholas, seemingly forgotten about trying to sabotage, slurps on a strawberry slushie he pulled out of nowhere while everyone grabs their food.
“We should go on a date sometime,” Maki asks as though it’s an offhand comment. Harua can tell by the way she nervously darts her eyes around that it’s serious.
Harua giggles, a little bashfully, “No.”
Harua slams open the door to her apartment.
Nico is off with Euijoo, which means she gets all the space to mope.
She kicks her shoes off. Throwing her clothes around as she strips herself down to a tanktop, her underwear, and the leather jacket. When she hits the bed it’s face first.
Harua screams until she runs out of breath, and then screams some more.
How could she be so stupid!
The opportunity was right there, and instead of accepting she just had to say no. Harua flips onto her back. Her bangs dig into her eyes painfully, but the sting of another night without a date hurts worse.
Abruptly she sits up, her resolve renewed. This was all part of her plan. Like training a dog. You can’t give them the treats all at once, you have to reward them slowly.
Harua fishes for her phone, it somehow survived her strip fest and it’s in the jacket pocket. She clicks on Maki’s contact to send something cute. A little flirty, but not too much. A lead.
Maki’s already typing.
M: hey haruaa
She doesn’t say anything. Only stares at the message while willing it to do something.
Another one is added reading, sorry if I came on too strong today
Harua’s fingers move before she can compute what she’s saying.
H: not at all 💕
M: good, wouldn’t want to scare a princess like u away
M: haha
M: am I muted ..
Harua doesn’t see the last two messages until an hour later as the moment she read the word princess she threw her phone across the room fell asleep to dream of a world without romance. Atleast, without romance that makes her burn shades of pink.
Harua wakes up Saturday afternoon with only one thing in mind.
Date with Maki.
After Thursday they decided the best course of action would be to go on a chill date to the aquarium.
Maki knocks on the door in three quick clicks. Harua nearly sprints to the door. When she's opening it, she wishes she would've ran faster.
Maki’s wearing baggy jeans and a tank top that ends right below her belly button. The band of her boxers slim on her stomach. A stripe of toned skin revealed right above it.
She almost doesn’t notice the bouquet of flowers.
“For you,” Maki smiles, all dimples.
Harua holds the pink and purple mixes of camellias, carnations, asters, and a few others she doesn’t recognize. She isn’t sure how Maki knows her favorite flowers are carnations, but she’s grateful anyway.
“Theyre not as pretty as you but,” Maki trails off. As though it’s supposed to explain itself.
“Don’t make excuses," Harua grumbles while burying her face in the petals to hide the heat blooming on her face. She darts back inside the house to set them down on the table. Maki waits patiently by the door, although she does try to sneak a peak in.
Harua tugs on a longer strand of dark hair, one of the ones kissing her collarbone, as she walks past to regrasp her attention.
The ride to the aquarium is a few minutes longer than the one she had before, but this time she has a helmet.
Once inside, the breeze through the child-centred viewings. Upon entering the tunnel, Harua takes pause.
Schools of fish swim in intricate patterns beyond the other side of the glass. The blues of water freckle and reflect onto his skin. It gives her the effect of her own tattoo, as she looks upon her hands. The yellow designs she painted on them take on a green-ish color.
Maki walks up to the glass. Her lone silhouette is dark against the bright glass. Dark hair flows down the top half of her back. She hadn’t noticed, but in the light it looks almost as though she has light grey streaks, like a surprise.
Harua trails up behind her slowly. She watches a large shark-like fish make its way overhead. It’s underbelly light hues and scaly.
Harua steps up beside Maki. She’s watching two fish, one black and the other white, swirl around each other. Their two fins always out of reach of another.
Maki pulls her eyes away from the scene slowly, “Sorry. Reminds me of something I’ve seen before.” Harua glances back at the fish. They’ve stopped circling each other. The light is chasing behind the dark.
Harua hums and allows her eyes to find Maki’s again.
The blues refract against her face beautifully. She watches the fish swim around the water with a far off glimmer to her eyes. It’s soft. Maki’s soft. Harua’s known since the moment she saw her she wanted to make out with her, but forward isn’t her thing.
Maybe she should try new things.
“Let’s go, I want to see the jellyfish.”
Despite how it was Maki’s idea, Harua leads the way. The room full of jellyfish is pitch black. The only illumination it provided being the glow from the bioluminescent jellyfish and the oceanic deep blue color of the water.
Maki grabs a hold of her hand to pull them both front and centre.
Harua watches them float around. The mixtures of colors nearly hypnotizing. Harua looks back up to Maki to sneak a peak and see if she minds the sweatiness of her hands.
Something new.
This is new.
Maki turns her head slowly, the far-off look in her eyes replaced with something brighter. Or perhaps it’s the lighting. “Will you be my girlfriend?”
“No.”
Harua covers her mouth the moment she says it. “Sorry I mean yes!”
Maki tilts her head, unconvinced. A mopey kicked-puppy shade coloring her.
Harua elaborates, “I was just going to ask you first.”
“Really?” Maki blinks down at her. “When I asked,” she explains with wide gestures, “I was thinking: Harua will totally say no but, it doesn't hurt to try…”
Harua tongues at her bunny teeth to hold back her giggle. “Yeah?” She tips her chin down in an attempt to look delectable. Like a bunny trying to be eaten by the wolf.
Maki lowers her tone, catching the hint. “Yeah.”
When Maki leans in to kiss her, the jellyfish appear to glow a little brighter.
Or perhaps that’s Maki’s heart; Harua can feel it pounding in her chest beneath her palm.
Weeks later, when they decide it’s a respectable time to admit they actually started dating after the first date, Harua pretends not to notice Nico begrudgingly handing Yuma two bills for twenty dollars.
It is Christmas, after all.