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Kaguya watches too many movies. Aren’t there any of these on the Moon? The question burns Iroha’s lips, but she prefers to focus on washing the dishes while her very new and impromptu roommate whines at her laptop screen. What is she watching? No, no, no, Iroha doesn’t care. Once she’s done, she has to study for next week’s tests. So, even if Kaguya rolls on the ground, holding one of these expensive plushies – that she bought with Iroha’s money, obviously – Iroha doesn’t care. She doesn’t. Really.
“Iroha!”
Well, even if she pretends to be uninterested, she should have known Kaguya would come to her eventually. She always does. With her big eyes staring at Iroha like a lost puppy – not unlike her INUdoge – she pouts, obviously seeking her attention. It’s difficult to admit when she’s supposed to act annoyed about it, but Iroha thinks it’s a little cute. Just a little.
“Don’t leave the movie on if you’re not watching it,” she says, voice steady as she looks away from her roommate.
“Later… Iroha!”
Kaguya repeats herself, as if Iroha isn’t the only other person in this apartment. Taking Iroha’s hands in hers, she fidgets, her cheeks dusted pink and her usual smile nowhere to be found. Seriously, what kind of movie did she watch that got her like that? The selection Iroha presented her should only have had kids-oriented films and series…
“What is it?”
Though she’s growing irritated – no matter how cute Kaguya is, Iroha’s patience is wearing thin after a day of studying and working at her part-time job – Iroha tries to stay calm. Scolding Kaguya is like scolding a small kid, unaware that what they’re doing isn’t right as they live at their own pace and, unsurprisingly, Iroha isn’t the type of person that would yell at a toddler. So she shakes her head, lets go of Kaguya’s hands to dry her own, still wet with soapy water before turning to her friend.
“So–” she asks again, her voice softer like her mother’s when she was young and her father was still here and she stumbles on her words at this thought that makes her bite her lips. “W-what is it?”
Kaguya starts, her face now bright red and she plays with the hem of her shirt. “K-kissing… It’s for people you like, right?”
“Oh…”
Even children’s movies have this sort of thing. It’s something Iroha doesn’t even think about, a fact so natural that, for a second, she forgets Kaguya doesn’t know about fairy tales and the cliché “The prince kissed the princess and they lived happily ever after” but to her friend, it’s a whole new world.
“Yes, it is. So that’s why you were making weird noises earlier.”
The urge to tease her grows inside Iroha, a strange feeling for her who stays on the sidelines, never getting too close to people even with Mami and Roka. It isn’t appropriate, but when Kaguya who loves nothing more than to make a fuss and run around is so shy, so fragile, she wants to play with her… But Iroha doesn’t do this. Instead she smiles as nicely as she can, hoping it’s not weird and tells her what parents tell their kids. (Kaguya isn’t her child, but it’s close enough. Probably.)
“When you meet someone you love very much, you’ll want to kiss them.”
That should be enough for the message to get across–
“Then can I kiss you?”
“What!?”
“Iroha, I want to kiss you,” Kaguya says and, without warning, she gets on her tiptoes and presses her lips against Iroha’s.
Frozen in shock in both mind and body, Iroha lets her until she finds it in her to gently push Kaguya away.
“Kaguya! That’s… You shouldn’t do that to anyone!”
“You’re not anyone. You’re Iroha!”
“I am… But…”
And truly, it’s hard refusing anything to Kaguya no matter how much of her money she uses, or how much space she steals from Iroha even in her own futon or how she insists on making Iroha’s life harder – Iroha just can’t say no to her and she can’t even say why.
“At least ask before you do it.”
She settles on this because what else can she say when the sensation of Kaguya’s soft lips against hers is still very present in her mind?
“And don’t do it to anyone else, you’ll… You’ll bother them.”
“Roger!”
Kaguya’s bashfulness is now totally gone, evaporated in the claustrophobic atmosphere of their – Iroha’s – eight-tatami room.
“And you know!”
“Y-yes?”
“Your lips taste like curry! Maybe because we ate it for dinner?”
Iroha wishes she could get angry at her for real.
* * *
Regrettably and very predictably, it becomes a habit for Kaguya to sneak kisses. Of course, she always asks first because that’s what Iroha taught her, but perhaps she shouldn’t. Iroha’s cheeks always grow warm at her innocent question and her words get stuck in her throat so she can’t do much more than nod.
One day, she gets home after taking a detour with her friends to the mall, and when Kaguya kisses her as usual, she pulls away immediately, her eyes wide open.
“Did you drink something with strawberry on it? Ah, or did you go and eat parfaits without me?”
“I would’ve bought you something if I did… But,” Iroha stops talking to think. “Roka wanted me to test a lipstick for her. I think it was strawberry-flavored?”
Her friend ended up not convinced at all by the taste and color, so she let Iroha take it home – it’s still here, tucked in her schoolbag pocket.
Kaguya nods. “I like it!”
“You can have it if you want.”
“No, I like it on you. Tastes nice when we kiss. You should put more on!”
“Bleh, no thank you.”
It’ll be a sticky mess, especially because Kaguya has recently learned that adults use their tongues to kiss and insists on trying it with Iroha any time she can. In the end, Iroha’s face gets smeared with saliva and adding lipstick on top of that would be a disaster. Kaguya can beg for it as much as she wants, Iroha won’t budge.
“But if you like it, I’ll put it on from time to time… Not too much though.”
Oh dear Yachiyo above, Iroha has grown too weak when dealing with Kaguya – yet when she sees her friend’s bright smile, she thinks that, perhaps, it’s not too bad… Even if her heart thumps too fast against her chest now that Kaguya asks for another kiss that, obviously, Iroha will grant.
* * *
“It doesn’t taste like anything…”
Kaguya’s cosmetic bunny ears fall to the side, making her look like a poor abandoned critter as she takes a step back and Iroha stifles her laugh. Bringing her hand to her lips, she brushes against them, feeling the ghost of Kaguya’s kiss disappear faster than usual… But that is the world of Tsukuyomi, a transient space where nothing lasts.
“I told you, they haven’t implemented taste yet,” she points out.
Kaguya cries out. “It’s so unfair! I can’t eat cakes, ice cream doesn’t taste like anything and even kissing doesn’t feel as good as usual! It’s so, so, so unfair!”
“K-Kaguya, shhh!”
Around them, there’s nothing but buildings and neon signs, but even if they are in a deserted alleyway, anyone could pass by and see the super popular streamer Kaguya complain about not being able to kiss her partner Iro-P like a child throwing a tantrum… Oh wait, her fans know about her selfish, childish tantrums… But they don’t know about them and, as hurtful as it is, they need all the fans they can gather, including the creeps who want to marry Kaguya – Iroha won’t hesitate to beat them to a pulp again though – so it’s not an option for the moment.
“I’ll let you kiss me again once we’re back in the real world so cheer up, okay?” Iroha leans in, pecking Kaguya’s soft cheek, a gesture she couldn’t have done before without being flustered to the point of logging out. “You have a stream in ten minutes.”
“You’re right! Once we’re home, I’ll find a lipstick that tastes like pancake and make you wear it so kisses can be even better!”
Kaguya takes a step out of the dark alleyway, screaming something like “I’m super duper fired up now! Yachiyo Cup, here we go!” and Iroha sighs before following suit. Does Donki have pancake-flavored lipstick? Not that she wants to find one… It’s just that the very idea of seeing Kaguya happy makes her chest feel fuzzy. Stranger things have happened in Tsukuyomi.
* * *
Tucked in her futon, Iroha holds Kaguya close to her chest, burying her nose in her blond hair. Tomorrow. Tomorrow will be Kaguya’s last day on Earth. Tomorrow she’ll be gone far away, more than three hundred and eighty thousands kilometers away and Iroha will go back to being alone in this apartment that’s too big for one person because they rented it to stay together.
It was always going to be a short-term arrangement, Iroha realized that as soon as she understood who Kaguya was, but it felt right at the time. When Kaguya was nothing more than a money-eating nuisance that bothered her day and night and never listened to her… But now, Kaguya has become part of her life. How naive she was to think that letting that girl take so much space in her heart during these summer holidays would be without consequences.
Iroha doesn’t cry. Kaguya who shines like the sun and the moon should be sent away with a smile. Tears can wait for after, when she’s alone, without any bed invader to warm her. In her arms, Kaguya squirms and Iroha loosens her hug.
“Hey, Iroha.”
“Yes?”
“In the end, we never found a pancake-flavored lipstick, huh!”
Her voice doesn’t waver until the end when her voice breaks yet she keeps a smile on her face. Kaguya is stronger than Iroha ever was.
“When you come back,” she says and her voice sounds hoarse even to her ears, so far from the cheerful Kaguya that she wanted to imitate, “when you come back, I’ll have one ready.”
“Thank you, Iroha.”
I should be the one to thank you, she wants to tell her, but words have never been her forte when it comes to sharing her feelings so, after a little hesitation, Iroha kisses Kaguya. It’s nothing more than a brush of their lips against each other, but Kaguya hugs her tighter than before, whispering a small “I love you”. It’s enough for now like it was enough the first time, surely.
* * *
There are things that don’t change, even a decade into the future.
“It doesn’t taste like anything! Why!?”
“Like I told you,” Iroha says and there’s a feeling of déjà vu, “I didn’t implement taste yet. We’re already lucky I managed to get you back before my funding ran out…”
Asking her brother to give her more money seemed impossible… Or rather, she doesn’t want to do that again. Now that Kaguya is back, she has to work on a patent for this technology so she can get paid properly and then, perhaps she’ll start working on her brother’s friends’ avatars. Just thinking about the long sleepless nights she’s about to go through, Iroha deflates. But more importantly, she looks at Kaguya who’s holding her head in her hands, a plate of freshly made pancakes half-eaten in front of her. What agony it must be to sit in front of such flavorful food without being able to taste it… She’s working on it.
“Iroha…” Kaguya whines as she gets up, dragging her heavy body to the chair Iroha sits on to sprawl herself all over her lap. “The pancakes…”
“Yes, yes, the selfish little princess Kaguya can’t live without their taste, I know.”
“Ah, you grew up and became a little mean!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
Though Kaguya doesn’t look offended at all. She squirms away from Iroha, the pancakes forgotten (for now) and looks around the lab – she still has to stay here for a few days so Iroha can run a few tests – with a sparkle of curiosity in her eyes.
“But wow, there’s a lot of things here!”
“You can look as long as you don’t touch anything…”
But Kaguya isn’t listening anymore – already, she’s running around to observe as much as she can, as if she thinks they don’t have all the time in the world anymore. Still, it fills Iroha with the feeling that, finally, she’s come back home – or rather, that her home has come back to her. Because that’s what Kaguya had become in the short weeks they spent together all these years ago. The place Iroha came back to after a tiresome day, the reason why she worked hard when they were away.
“And in this drawer? What’s in that?”
Before Iroha can see what drawer she’s talking about, Kaguya has already opened it and frozen in place. Then, slowly, her face grows red, starting from her cheeks and ears peeking out of her blond hair.
Ah.
“So you remembered…” She whispers as tears fill her big eyes and even Iroha’s vision turns blurry.
“Of course…”
Far from the assured voice of the adult she has become, Iroha’s words are trembling, weak even, like all those years ago. There’s no need to look at the inside of the drawer to know what she put there. Every time she found one, she bought it immediately, even on the days she was rushing to get to a meeting, until she had accumulated a small pile of lipsticks, all pancake-flavored – novelty items, no doubt about it, but they are much more than that to her.
“You haven’t changed at all actually!”
“I’m an adult now.”
Kaguya nods. “But you’re still the same Iroha I love.”
“I love you too.”
These words she has kept inside her for so long finally spill out as do her tears and Kaguya wraps her arms around her, hugging her tight.
“I’m looking forward to the day we’ll be able to use them all!”
It’s only a few minutes later, when Iroha’s tears dry up that she can answer. “I can’t make you wait any longer, can I?”
Their first kiss in more than a decade doesn’t taste like anything, but this time, Kaguya doesn’t complain… Just like during their last kiss, only she pulls away with a happy smile now.
* * *
“When was my first kiss?” Yachiyo tilts her head to the right as she reads a question from her chat. “Can I really answer that? I’m an idol!”
Some of her fans protest vehemently while others cheer her on, obviously waiting for some precious information on the secretive songstress. Now then, what can she tell them… The truth is probably far from the juicy gossip her chat is hoping for, but to Yachiyo, it’s a precious memory.
One that has kept her working hard for over eight millennia until she could find her beloved again. It isn’t as grand as the tale of the bamboo cutter and Princess Kaguya, nothing but a small moment stolen after dinner yet she cherishes it as much as she does her Earth parents’ memories. So Yachiyo claps her hands together and addresses her public.
“Listen, my gods and goddesses! My first kiss happened eight thousand years ago and tasted like curry!”
Nobody may believe her, they might think she’s joking around with how she presents herself, but Yachiyo smiles. Stranger things than an idol’s first kiss being curry-flavored have happened in Tsukuyomi after all.