Work Text:
Recklessly plowing through the study materials in one night had Rise in quite a pinch just as the midterms started approaching. For her, studies and books had always been a struggle compared to her peers. ‘Why’d she had to learn this stuff anyway?’ Rise grumbled inside her head, along with biting the end of her pencil she gripped so viscously.
“Hey, are you listening?”
Rise almost forgot, she had company.
Just a mere hour before Rise had begged her friend Naoto to come home with her for tutoring. Without her company, Rise would’ve had a significantly harder time picking up her studies to begin with.
“Huh. Oh, yeah. What were you saying?” Rise tried her best to seem like she was intently listening to Naotos input, but ultimately failed in doing so. Naoto picked up on it quickly.
“You aren’t listening.” Naoto’s tone fell monotone as she stared back at Rise. Naoto sighed in disappointment and flipped her book back to the first page to prepare to start over.
“Okay, let me explain this once more. I won’t be repeating myself again since we have a good amount to look over.”
‘A good amount’ Those words echoed inside Rise’s head.
She tapped the pencil against her forehead and let out a noise, “I give up, screw this.” Rise groaned and rested her head on her palms, while dropping the chewed up pencil.
“Have some faith.” Naoto replied, she realised that Rise’s motivation had been completely drained. As silence fell in between them both, Naoto had to conjure up a different strategy.
“Here, let me um… go over some notes I’ll show you how I gather my information.” Rise’s attention shifted towards Naoto who’s now digging inside her school bag to find her notebook.
With notebook in hand, Naoto shifts and sits beside Rise as opposed to sitting on opposite sides of each other. This caught Rise’s attention to Naotos satisfaction.
“Here, firstly I try to remember everything I’ve learned thus far…” Naoto opened her book, which in Rise’s surprise was quite neatly arranged compared to hers. Naoto had written everything in order with such precision, like she had practiced for years. To her however, this shouldn’t have been a surprise, ‘She is a detective right? Isn’t this what they do?’
As Naoto explained she used her finger to point over the notes. To Rise, her explanation didn’t seem to cut through her as much as Naoto thought. This whole time, Rise didn’t realise how close she was to Naoto. She could practically count the number of eyelashes she has, and surprisingly Naoto didn’t seem to notice. Rise mind started wandering, ‘Was she always this small?’
“Hey.” Naoto snapped Rise’s train of thought. “Are you listening?” Naoto fell monotone once again, but the annoyance in her tone had started to brew.
Rise almost jumped. “I uh- um… Hey, was your handwriting always this good?” Rise didn’t notice that she had been blushing until she swiftly changed the subject.
Naoto’s expression grew in surprise with the sudden change up. “What? I mean… I always thought it was fairly messy and hard to read, at least my Grampa told me so.” Naoto couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.
“What?! Your Grampa sure has some audacity saying that, it looks amazing!” Rise rashly picked up her notebook to closely inspect the writing to her amazement.
“I guess he did say that a while back…” Naoto mumbled.
The silence was louder than before until Naoto cleared her throat. “But hey, I do believe we are getting off subject. Let me continue.” Naoto reached towards Rise to obtain her notes back.
Rise retaliated, “Nuh uh.” She quickly pulled the book away from her.
“Rise. As much as studying might be a gruelling task for you, I’d advise we get this over with.” Naoto attempted once again to reach over. Rise jerked the book away further in another retaliation.
“I refuse!” Rise shifted herself as far away as she could while Naoto was practically leaning over her to reach her book in desperation.
“Give it.” Naoto’s annoyed tone was clear now. Rise hadn’t realise how much closer their bodies were and it made her heart jump. Never had Rise felt this way for another girl, let alone Naoto. What in the world made her so special compared to the others? Was it her androgyny? Her personality? Actions?
Suddenly a thud was heard against the floor. Not only had the book fallen out of her hands, but Rise lost her balance completely, and Naoto fell along with her. Rise didn’t realise until she felt the weight and warmth of Naoto practically on her.
It took a few moments for Naoto to comprehend and as she did, her face had turned red in an instant. “I- uh- Sorry! Are you uh… Alright?” Naoto profusely snapped and tried to scramble her thoughts coherently.
Rise couldn’t deny her embarrassment either, face just as red. “Y-yeah! Totally fine! Just… lost my balance…” Rise nervously chuckled to try to ease their tension, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
Rise sat herself back up to compose herself, as she adjusted her uniform she looked back at Naoto and remembered her notebook, “Oh right!” Rise quickly grabbed the notebook that was now splayed on the floor, and in the process some pages seemed to have slightly crumpled.
“Sorry about that…” Rise handed Naoto her book back.
“I-it’s alright…” Naoto put her book back onto the table to attempt to continue her lecture, “A-ahem… back to it then…” despite Naoto’s flushed face she composed herself enough to continue tutoring after a few minutes of composure.
Out of respect, Rise tried her best to listen as intently as possible, but she couldn’t ignore her wandering thoughts, and the incident just now made something click in her. Rise had a hunger of something she couldn’t just figure out how she would go about it.
‘But… does she feel the same way? Am I gonna scare her?’ Rise closed her eyes shut tightly to grasp onto something, anything.
“H-hey… Rise you’re doing it again…” Naoto sensed Rise’s inner turmoil. Naoto turned her gaze towards the other girl. Rise opened her mouth as if she were to say something, but it wouldn’t come out. “Rise?” Naoto had a look of genuine concern.
The silence suddenly broke, “Hey Naoto?” Rise finally spoke.
“…Yes?”
“Can I kiss you?”
Silence
Naoto’s eyes widened, along with her face turned more red than just mere minutes before. Brief silence followed before it was interrupted, “Huh- What are you saying?” Naoto blushed intently, expressing a face of both pure embarrassment and shock.
Rise furrowed her eyebrows “I- oh gee, forget I said anything… I’m just being stupid.” Rise chuckled nervously, stuttering between words. Her words seem to finally kick in, did she just say that? Rise was in disbelief. ‘I’m definitely scaring her away.’ Rise looked away to save herself from embarrassment.
“I…” Naoto’s look of shock was still prevalent despite working hard to not show this side of herself.
“You… can…” Rise could barely hear what Naoto said, her sentence came out as a stifle. Despite this Rise could guess what Naoto was trying to say by the way she was mouthing her words.
Rise felt her heart skip several beats when the silence fell loud once again. They were so close to each other, and with every passing second the gap between them felt smaller. Naoto was stuck in place, she didn’t move.
Suddenly the gap between them closed, and Rise could feel Naoto’s lips on hers. The room suddenly felt so much warmer.
Rise couldn’t recall how long the kiss lasted, but it was sweet and gentle. Naoto’s lips were way softer than she imagined. Both their faces were tickled red when they looked down at each other as they pulled away. Rise stared at Naoto, her look of fear- no, shock was still there along with profusely blushing.
“Naoto? You doing okay?” Rise said out of concern, she felt almost guilty.
Naoto was silent for several seconds, “Y-yeah… I am just fine.” Rise could tell Naoto was sweating. “J-just… never attempted anything like that before.” Naoto confessed, she tried her best to remain eye contact with the girl in front of her, but failed ultimately.
“What? Kissing?” Rise reminded herself that that might’ve been Naoto’s first kiss.
Naoto looked away, “Y-yes…” she adjusted her uniform collar to slightly ease herself.
“Well… is it okay if I kiss you?” Rise started to feel more comfortable being this close to Naoto, it was almost scary how calm she felt despite the awkward atmosphere riddled upon them both.
Naoto looked back to Rise to observe her face before softly nodding her head for approval. Naoto felt ashamed to be so vulnerable with her friend, but it all unraveled when Rise acted again.
Naoto should’ve been expecting it, but still felt shock when Rise kissed her once more. The kiss felt more tender than the last as Rise cupped her face with her palms. Naoto shut her eyes and took her in. Her warmth was almost comforting despite every muscle in Naoto’s body being tensed. Before Naoto could act Rise pulled away.
Rise smiled softly, “Well! There ya go!”
Naoto’s face only got more red as she got silent. The girls heart was beating so hard Naoto was afraid Rise could hear it. “Um… I’m not sure I will be able to continue tutoring tonight…”
“Fine with me!” Rise’s tone was chipper.
Suddenly Naoto felt the other girls energy suddenly spark up drastically. Naoto grew suspicious, ‘Was she doing this just to avoid studying?’ Naoto’s expression from shock suddenly shifted to dissatisfaction.
“H-Hey, you did that just to avoid studying did you not?” Naoto confronted Rise, face still flushed red.
Rise looked back at the girl, acknowledging her face of disappointment. “I dunno what you’re talkin’ about!” Rise snickered, she couldn’t help but to blush alongside her.
Naoto sighed, keeping her composure as she adjusted her hat and muttered under her breath.
‘I’m surrounded by imbeciles…’