Chapter Text
Tsukasa placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "Umika-chan, come on. It's getting late and I still need to walk you back to Jurer."
Umika poked her head out from underneath all of Tsukasa's stuffed animals and pouted. "Five more minutes? All of your animals are just so soft and warm."
She wanted to reprimand her, but she couldn't stop smiling. Reaching down to try to find Umika's hands, she reminded her, "My collection will still be here tomorrow and the day after. You can come over all you like, but we need to get you home soon."
Umika grumbled and managed to sit up, her bottom half still buried in stuffed animals. "Did Touma ask you to have me back before midnight or something? He's such a worrywart sometimes, don't mind him -"
Tsukasa's lips thinned. Was Umika really so carefree that she hadn't noticed the uptick in Ganglar attacks? There was a new Ganglar every few days instead of every week, and some of them were even attacking at night (Sakuya was somehow under the impression that the Ganglars would never attack at night, while she and Keiichiro figured that it was only a matter of time).
Of course, she wanted to protect each and every citizen of this city, but if anything happened to Umika in particular … she didn't think she'd be able to forgive herself.
"Come on, Umika-chan," she pleaded. "It's getting dangerous out there -" The rest of her sentence was replaced by a surprised squeal and uncontrolled giggles as something emerged from the stuffed animal pile and tickled her stomach. She shot a glare at Umika, who seemed to be more amused than anything.
A smile slowly spread across her face as she wondered out loud, "I barely touched you. Are you seriously -"
"Don't -"
It was too late; Umika started tickling her in earnest, and she collapsed onto the sea of stuffed animals, desperately trying to string together a coherent sentence between fits of giggles.
Umika's smile turned into laughter as she asked, "Why are you so ticklish?"
"I don't - hehe - I don't know - heheha - Umika-chan …!"
Mercifully, she stopped a few minutes later, finally giving Tsukasa a moment to catch her breath. She at least had the sense to look apologetic as she said, "Sorry … you were just so cute, is all."
Tsukasa sighed deeply as she tried to ignore the heat rising in her face. "Umika-chan …"
She found her hands and squeezed them. "Come on - you wanted to walk me home, yeah?"
"Yeah …"
"Is it okay if I come over at the same time tomorrow?"
"Of course."