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A grumbling stomach and a blurry mind had led Kurara out of the metal shop and back into the cafeteria. Perhaps her breakfast had been a little too light… but a strange, chocolatey scent had drawn her in from the hall. On the countertop, a plate of little brown squares rested. Brownies, cut strangely small… basically bite-sized.
How odd… who baked these? It obviously wasn’t her and… well, that low-borne lout wouldn’t have done such a thing without being paid, so… who? Her head tilted back and forth as she considered the possibilities.
Not many of them had shown any interest in the culinary arts… The treats, while smelling a little odd perhaps, were far too normal for the twins to have made them… Nozomi, maybe? Perhaps. Kurara quickly examined the surrounding area… the lack of any sort of note apologizing for taking up space meant that there was no way it could have been Shouma. Maybe it was Nozomi? Kyoshika would be too foolish to follow the recipe, Tsubasa never seemed interested in cooking and preferred simple, easy-to-eat foods, Moko only seemed to ever eat meals involving protein… None of them seemed to fit.
So it had to be Nozomi, right? It had to be. Kurara could just picture her in an apron, dutifully mixing exactly measured ingredients… a little bit of flour dusted across her cheek… looking into the oven with a smile on her face… Yes, that was the only possibility.
How did it taste, Kurara wondered. A precious little treat, baked by Nozomi’s own hands… There were so many, surely she wouldn’t notice if just one went missing… Before she could talk herself out of it, Kurara snatched a brownie and tucked it under her mask.
It was. Strange. Very odd. The chocolate flavor and sweetness were intense, completely over-the-top, with a strange taste she didn’t recognize trying to scream out from the background. Whatever that flavor was, she didn’t know… but it was clear that the other flavors were trying to drown it out. It was… well… it wasn’t good. M… Maybe it was supposed to be an acquired taste? She’d have to ask Nozomi what that–
“Oh my,” a smooth and distinctly not-Nozomi voice told her that she wasn’t alone. “Kurara, did you steal one of our… concoctions?” A dark chuckle.
“Wow, Kurara!” Another voice, higher and bouncing with mirth. “Never took you for a snack thief!” A cackle.
A terrible feeling formed in the pit of her stomach. Kurara turned on her heel to meet the sinisterly smiling faces of Yugamu and Darumi. “Y-You two?!” She tried to keep an authoritative air to her voice, but the knowledge that whatever she had just consumed hadn’t been an innocent treat left an audible crack in that veneer. “Y-You made these?!”
“That’s right!” Darumi said. “Got up early to get it ready and everything!”
“It was a bit of a… joint project between us.”
The two shared a devious grin.
“Oh… oh no.” Kurara staggered backward. “W-What the hell did you two make me eat?!”
“Now, now, Kurara…” Yugamu ran his tongue down the length of his finger. “We didn’t make you eat anything.”
“Yeah…” Darumi sneered. “You did that all on your own! We were just letting them cool down and…” She fake sniffed, wiping at her dry eyes. “Y-You robbed us…!”
“Answer my damn question!” Kurara stomped. “The hell was in that?!”
“Well, Darumi and I found an interesting little plant while exploring, and we decided to do some experiments with it…”
“W-What kind of experiments?!” Kurara’s heart was racing. What kind of horrid, perverse poison had these two made?! Was it too late for her? Was she due for a trip straight to the Revive-O-Matic…?!
“For the love of murder…” Yugamu sighed, though his smile only grew. “Aren’t you the curious one?”
“Of course I am!” Kurara barked back. “I ate it!”
“It’s weed,” Darumi answered simply, causing Yugamu to visibly deflate.
Huh? Weed? Like… weed weed?
“But… it’s a special kind of weed,” Darumi’s smirk grew and she leaned in just a little, cupping her mouth with her hand. “This weed… makes you gay.”
W… What…? “It… does what?!”
“You heard her,” Yugamu replied, his smirk having returned in an instant.
“Yep!” Darumi affirmed, snickering to herself. “Them’s the breaks, princess.”
“N-Nonsense!” Kurara stammered. “W-Why would you even willingly eat something like that?!”
“Well,” Darumi tapped her chin. “I already like girls, so…”
“You know me,” Yugamu added. She certainly did.
Kurara staggered backwards, sinking onto one of the stools. She hadn’t imagined that such a thing could exist… soon, she wouldn’t be able to control her own thoughts. It was only a matter of time before her mind was filled with images of Nozomi bound in ropes, of running her fingers across Tsubasa’s stomach, of pulling Kyoshika’s gi from her shoulders…
Even Darumi… no doubt she would soon be wondering what curves lay hidden under her sweater. How her face would look with that awful makeup smeared all over…
“My, my…” Yugamu darkly chuckled once more. “It looks like it’s taking effect already…”
“Oho?” Darumi smirked, tilting her head to the side and just a little to the back, exposing the length of her neck. “See somethin’ you like, Kurara?”
Is that an invitation…? I want to sink my teeth into your neck…! “N-No!” Kurara protested, shaking her head. “Of course I don’t! You two are clearly messing with me! E-Especially you!” She jabbed a finger in Darumi’s direction. “There’s no way you’d be in the kitchen so early!”
“Hmm, true…” Darumi murmured, tapping her chin again. “Guess I don’t really seem like the type to wake ‘n bake… or, actually, maybe I do!” She cackled.
God, she was infuriating! Every laugh made Kurara just want to pin her down, pull those pigtails out and dive on her like–
Kurara shook her head. She suddenly stood from the stool and pushed past them both. “Y-You’re both just making things up!” She stomped towards the door. “L-Leave me out of your nonsense!”
She slammed the door shut before they could respond. Surely it was just a stupid joke, improvised on the spot. Nothing would come of it. Everything would be absolutely fine, and it would be a completely ordinary day.
It was supposed to just be a joke. A little, mostly-harmless prank. Maybe kinda sorta really a lot unethical… like definitely a Don’t Do This At Home sort of thing… but mostly-harmless for sure.
When they had been about to enter the cafeteria, Yugamu had spotted Kurara eyeing up their brownies. It was Darumi’s idea to wait and see if she ate any. After all, Kurara always seemed so… wound up all the time. It would do her good to finally relax for a day. Chill out a bit.
The teasing afterwards… well, maybe it had gone a little too far. It was just too funny to pass up.
Later in the day, Darumi heard through the grapevine that Kurara had said… well, honestly, a completely normal and average compliment to Nozomi, before flushing red and stumbling up the stairs to the roof and locking herself in her room. She hasn’t come out or spoken to anyone since.
Darumi felt maybe kinda sorta guilty about the whole thing. No doubt that the edible was hitting Kurara fully at this point, and after skipping lunch… no way she wasn’t hungry. So Darumi decided that she’d make amends, just a little bit, by delivering some food and then being on her way. Then, tomorrow, she could reveal the whole prank to Kurara, piss her off a bunch, and then Kurara’d never want anything to do with her again. A flawless plan, really.
Darumi, her arms full, kicked at Kurara’s door. “Princess?” She called, to no response. After waiting a few moments, she called out again. “Kurara, I brought you some food!”
The door creaked open just a crack. Darumi angled the tray in her arms so that Kurara could see the bounty–all still packaged from the Ration-O-Matic. No possibility of tampering.
Kurara’s door pulled open and Darumi made to hand the tray off. Instead, she found a hand around her wrist, pulling her into Kurara’s room. It took all she had to keep the tray balanced and not let any of the food go tumbling to the floor. The door slammed behind her and the lock clicked shut. Kurara’s hand slammed into the wall beside her.
“What the hell did you do to me?!” Kurara half-yelled, like she was trying to force herself to sound angrier than she was. “It’s like I… Like I can’t, like…” She paused for several seconds, a long black trail oozing from her mask’s mouth. “Think?”
Well, that made sense.
“I mean. I can think, obviously,” Kurara continued, her arm falling slack. “But like… also I? Can’t? I just keep…” She fell silent again, the pause growing longer and longer, the line of drool nearly reaching the mask’s bottom. “Did you say you brought food?”
“Uh… yeah.” Darumi tried to hide a smirk. “Brought you a buncha stuff.”
“Good… I’m so hungry…” Kurara murmured, stepping back so Darumi could enter the room completely. “Like… I don’t think I’ve ever been this hungry before? I’m… redefining hunger right now.” She paused. “Did I eat today…?”
“You had something at breakfast,” Darumi answered as she placed the tray onto Kurara’s coffee table.
“Oh, right…” Kurara slumped onto her couch. “That was so long ago… Feels like it was more than a day ago, somehow…?”
“Well, eat up!” Darumi backed away and started inching towards the door. “Plenty of stuff there to hold you over!”
Kurara hummed in empty acknowledgement, staring blankly into the pile of food.
Darumi slid out of sight into the entry way. After a moment, she heard a call. “W-Wait! Hold on!” Followed by a bang and a cry. “Agh, shit! Goddamn it…!” Before Kurara limped into the hall, one hand on her knee. “Wait!”
“Uh…” Darumi turned to face Kurara, but backed closer and closer towards the door. “Whaddya need?”
“D-Don’t think you can just walk away without taking responsibility!”
“Oh, come on!” Darumi took another step back. She could feel the doorknob in her hand. She just had to try and find the lock… “You seem fine!”
“I’m not!” Kurara shot, before falling silent. Her eyes widened. “I’m… I’m not…”
Darumi’s fingers hesitated over the lock. “Kurara…?”
“I…” Kurara’s gaze fell to the floor. Her arms curled into herself. “I was f-freaking out before you came… b-but once you got here I felt…? Okay? Somehow?”
Just a flick of the wrist and Darumi could leave. No way that Kurara could chase her down in her state.
“Don’t leave…” Kurara pleaded. “T… This is your fault, you know.”
Darumi’s heart twisted with guilt. She hid it with a smirk. “Aren’t ya worried about all the dirty thoughts you’re gonna have about me…?”
Kurara flushed. “Those… are your fault, too.”
It was rare to see Kurara act so meek with her mask on. A rare treat, and like most delectable delicacies, Darumi could only feel guilt for indulging in it. She sighed and held her hands up in surrender.
“T… Thanks…” Kurara murmured, shuffling back to the couch.
Darumi joined her, pulling a pastry from the pile.
Kurara nabbed a sandwich and greedily ripped it open. She tried unsuccessfully to eat it, having apparently forgotten how to eat with her mask on, before lifting her mask partially in frustration. She took a large bite and remained silent for several long seconds, staring at the food in her hands. “This is, like… the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”
“That so?” Darumi tried to hide her smirk by taking a bite of her own snack.
“Did mayo always taste this good…?” Kurara examined the sandwich closely, trying to parse its ingredients. “Maybe I should put some into my curry…” She took another bite.
Would that be a bad idea? Not like Darumi knew anything about cooking. “Maybe think about that tomorrow.”
Kurara had already finished her sandwich and was ripping open another. “Think about what?”
Darumi hid a laugh. “Nothin’.”
“‘Kay…” Kurara continued eating. “Food is so good?”
Darumi couldn’t suppress a pang of jealousy. All getting high ever did for her was bring her appetite to something closer to average… and dull the pain in her jaw enough for her to eat. Felt more like medicine than anything else.
Their lunch continued as Darumi finished her pastry and Kurara scarfed down sandwich after sandwich after onigiri after pastry… When she finished, she pulled off her boots and curled into a ball in the corner of the couch.
“You okay, princess?” Darumi softly asked.
Kurara hesitated. “Ate too much…” She grumbled. “And I’m still kinda hungry, somehow…?”
“Just wait a bit, I guess.” Darumi said with a shrug. With any luck, the weight of Kurara’s meal would drag her down into a nap… then Darumi could put her to bed and escape. Just wait it out a bit more…
Kurara shifted, her knees pulled into her chest. She turned towards Darumi and settled into place. Silent minutes passed–likely feeling like much, much more to Kurara–and Darumi watched as the mask slowly grew redder and redder.
“Somethin’ on your mind, Kurara?” Darumi asked with a sneer, unable to stop herself from teasing a little further.
Kurara looked away, pulling her legs in a bit more. “…wanna lay… in your…”
“What was that?” A legitimate question.
Kurara huffed. “I wanna lay my head in your lap!”
Darumi blinked. “Uh…” She didn’t particularly mind, but…
“And you… I mean… I’m an Oosuzuki…?” Kurara sounded deeply unsure of herself. “So you’ve gotta… I mean…” An exasperated sigh. “I can’t remember how I’m supposed to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Like… take charge, or whatever.” Kurara shrugged. “N-Nevermind. F-Forget I said anything…”
“Well, it’s not like your mask would’ve fit on my dainty, slender legs, anyway.” Darumi had to choke back a laugh as Kurara’s mask immediately tilted straight towards Darumi’s lap. Despite her guilt, she couldn’t resist the urge to tease a cute girl like Kurara…
“W… What if I…?” Kurara trailed off, looking away again.
It was also difficult to resist the temptation to see Kurara without her mask… “What if you what?” Darumi asked as she shifted in her seat, smoothing out her skirt and adjusting the safety pin on her sweater, making her lap look as inviting as possible.
Kurara grumbled to herself. She brought her hands to the sides of her mask and hesitated. She took a deep breath and pulled it from her shoulders. Her face had already flushed a deep, deep red.
She really was just too cute. How, exactly, was Darumi not supposed to tease her?!
“That’s usually harder…” Kurara looked thoughtfully into her mask before setting it onto the table. Bit by bit, she shifted closer and closer to Darumi before, very, very stiffly, settled her head into Darumi’s lap.
Darumi felt a surprising rush of excitement as she felt Kurara’s weight in her lap.
“T-Thanks…” Kurara murmured. “You smell nice.”
Darumi blinked, her voice momentarily catching in her throat. She hadn’t expected Kurara to be so forward. “It’s prob’ly just whatever the default detergent is.”
“I dunno.” Kurara shrugged. “You smell sweet… Are you sweet?”
“No,” Darumi said, “I’m terrible.”
Kurara hummed. “That doesn’t sound right.”
“That’s how it is. It’s my fault you’re like this, remember?”
Kurara hummed again. “It doesn’t feel so bad, now.” She shifted her head, sinking deeper into Darumi’s lap. “I just… I don’t know.” She fell into silence. Her brow furrowed as a conflicted expression crawled across her face.
“Somethin’ on your mind, princess?”
“I just… feel dumb.”
“Well,” Darumi’s grin fell sideways. “That’s kind of like… what weed does.”
“I don’t mean like that. Or maybe I do? I dunno.” She sighed. “I’m just… so goddamn tense all the time. Like… physically, I mean. I feel like I’ve been keeping my body wound up tight this whole time and…” She sighed again, placing a hand on her forehead, her bangs tangling between her fingers. “I forgot what it was like to just… relax, I guess?”
“That’s…” An extremely relatable experience, really. “You’re not dumb for feeling like that.”
“I mean… what was I saying?” Kurara sighed and gripped her bangs, as if she could extract the thoughts she had lost from them. After a moment, she continued. “My head’s always full of… worries, I guess? But now it just… it all feels so dumb. Like I’ve been making myself feel miserable for all these years for no reason.”
Darumi wondered what kind of worries had been swimming around in that tomato all this time. All she had really noticed was an overbearing family and a serious helping of lesbian repression… It wasn’t really her place to pry. She hadn’t stopped Kurara that morning because she thought she needed the chance to relax, so… “Try not to worry about it. If you’re feeling chilled out,” Darumi smiled, gentle and sweet, “just chill out. Relax a little.”
Kurara stared up at her, entranced as Darumi spoke. “God…” She spoke, her eyes fixed onto Darumi’s smile. “You’re so pretty…”
“H-Huh?” Darumi blinked.
“I wanna see you without your makeup…” Kurara murmured. “I want to see your real face, too… It’s no fair if you get to see mine and I don’t get to see yours!”
“W-Wha…?” Darumi looked away. “T-This is my real face…” A perfect painting in aesthetics she liked, clearly warning everyone else to stay far, far away. What could be more real than that?
“No! It’s not!” Kurara protested. “That’s like… That’s like sayin’ this stupid thing,” she punctuated her statement by giving her mask a firm kick, sending it tumbling off her table, “is my real face. It’s not. And I don’t think…” She trailed off, her burst of confidence fading. “I dunno. I just wanna see you too, I guess?”
“You’re seein’ me right now.”
“Am I? I can see your smile but…” She reached up and jabbed Darumi in the cheek, just at the tip of the lipstick-drawn fake smile that extended past her lips. “All this junk’s in the way.”
“S-So what?” Darumi tilted her head to the side, away from Kurara’s prodding finger.
“I just… You’re real, real pretty when you smile, y’know?” Kurara murmured, her hand heavily dropping back down to her chest. “I just wanna see you smile more…”
“Jeez,” Darumi could feel her cheeks burning. “Really layin’ it on thick, huh?”
“Not anywhere near as thick as all that foundation,” Kurara puffed her cheeks out. “I can barely see your blush under it all!”
Darumi kept silent, her smile twisting. The praise didn’t feel bad, but… it was far more than she had expected. Though, she hadn’t expected any at all in the first place.
Kurara suddenly shifted uncomfortably, turning her head away. “W-What am I saying…? This is all that weird brownie’s fault…!”
Of course, Darumi knew, there was no such thing as weed that makes you gay. These were just Kurara’s thoughts, finally unfiltered.
Kurara began to curl into herself. “Sorry. You must think I’m weird and gross and–”
“Nah,” Darumi cut off the familiar spiral. “If it’s that important to you, fine. I just gotta stop by my room first.”
“...okay.” Kurara’s voice was small. “I-I understand.” She shifted off of Darumi’s lap and curled up onto her couch.
“Be right back.” Darumi said to no response. She hurried out of Kurara’s room and into her own. She could just… stay here, she realized. Just kick up her feet and leave Kurara to her own devices. She has plenty of food, she’ll be fine for a night.
…though, that was exactly what Kurara expected, wasn’t it? That Darumi would leave her behind because she was… gross, or whatever self-hatred she felt like spewing at herself.
Every glimpse into Kurara was far too familiar. How could Darumi leave someone to the suffering she knew so well? She collected her makeup and her wipes, and hurried back to Kurara’s room.
Kurara, who had still been in the exact position Darumi had left her in, perked up once Darumi entered the room. “Y-You came back…?”
“Uh, yeah?” Darumi faked incredulity, trying to pretend that she had no insight into Kurara’s feelings. “I said I’d be right back.”
“That was… forever ago.”
“That was, like, two or three minutes ago.”
“Oh…?” Kurara settled back into the couch. “Was it…?”
Darumi sighed. No pulling out of this now, she supposed. She entered Kurara’s bathroom and set about cleaning off her face… sighing as she knew that she would have to put it all back on before she left…
“Come onnnn!” Kurara called from her room, a fair amount of energy having already returned to her voice. “Hurry uuup!”
“I’m goin’ as fast as I can!” Darumi called back. “Just gimme a minute!”
Kurara sighed. “Everything feels like forever.”
“That so?” Darumi discarded a wipe and got a fresh one. “So you spent forever in a girl’s lap, then?”
“That didn’t… feel long enough…” Kurara murmured low enough that Darumi could only hear due to her strangely honed senses.
Darumi finished as quickly as she could, giving her face a quick wash and exiting the bathroom. As Kurara’s eyes met hers and flicked around her face, Darumi felt… strangely exposed.
She hadn’t expected that she’d feel quite so vulnerable.
“W-Wow, uh…” Kurara gulped. “Wow?”
“A-Aww…” Darumi forced a crude grin, her shield against Kurara’s wandering eyes. “Fillin’ your head with all sorts of nasty thoughts, huh?”
“N-No!” Kurara insisted, her face reddening. “You’re just… W-Well… M-Maybe a couple…”
Darumi cackled, plopping back down onto Kurara’s couch. She gave her lap a quick pat and Kurara wasted no time in returning.
“I-Is… is this really okay…?” Kurara asked, her voice shrinking. “I-I mean, I…”
“It’s my fault or whatever, right?” Darumi shrugged. “So don’t worry about it.”
Kurara settled into Darumi’s lap. Her body clearly held a tension that it had lacked before. She took a deep breath. “Darumi?”
“Yeah?”
“Um… thank you.” Kurara shifted again, looking back up towards Darumi. “F-For staying. And for not, you know, thinking I’m weird or anything…”
Darumi’s heart ached. Even through the haze, Kurara could still find fear and worry. Darumi ran a hand through Kurara’s hair. “No problem,” she answered. Kurara really deserved a break, didn’t she? At least one afternoon where she could live without stress? Darumi smiled down at her. She hoped that Kurara could relax again. “Don’t worry about it.”
Kurara blinked, her breath catching in her throat. “I-I knew it…”
“Knew what?”
“Your real face… Your smile…” Kurara reached a hand forward, the back of her fingers brushing just under Darumi’s lips. “It’s beautiful.”
Darumi felt herself flush immediately. She gently brushed Kurara’s hand away. “Y-You’ve already got me here, you don’t gotta butter me up any more…”
“Your blush is really cute, too…” Kurara noted.
Darumi couldn’t muster a response, distracting herself by brushing her hand through Kurara’s hair again.
Kurara cooed and snuggled deeper into Darumi’s lap. “Keep doing that…”
As long as she didn’t have to endure any more compliments… Darumi ran her fingers through Kurara’s soft hair again and again, gently patting her head.
Kurara looked relaxed. Darumi could feel the muscles in Kurara’s body slowly loosen. Bit by bit, she became more and more relaxed…
…until, after some time, her breathing became slow and even. Kurara had fallen deeply asleep.
Darumi sighed to herself. All that work taking off her makeup… well, at least Kurara finally relaxed a little.
“Kurara?” Darumi called, to no answer. “Princess?”
She didn’t stir, her breathing remaining even.
Left with no recourse, Darumi slowly shifted out from under Kurara’s head and turned, tucking her arms under Kurara’s body and carrying her over to her bed. She tucked Kurara under the sheets and headed into the bathroom.
She looked into the mirror with a sigh, digging her makeup out of her bag. Going through all the effort to put her face back on… well, maybe this time, it was worth it.
Kurara had been distracted all morning, then all afternoon. She had been told that the effects would only last for that day at most, but… her heart throbbed whenever she caught sight of Darumi. Whenever she remembered that smile…
Ugh, she couldn’t believe herself! Acting like some sort of… floozy! Such things were beneath the greatness of the Oosuzuki!
Yet she found herself outside of Darumi’s door, knocking with a shaking hand.
The door opened, a confused Darumi beyond the threshold. “Oh. Hey, princess, what’s up?”
H-How could she act so normal after what happened yesterday?! Ah, wait, no, that wasn’t why Kurara was here… She wanted to…
Kurara puffed out her chest, her voice shaking with something less than authority. “R-Rejoice, peasant!” She called. “F-For today you have the honor of accompanying me!”
“Uh…” Darumi tilted her head. “Where, exactly?”
“O… Out?”
“Out?” Darumi blinked. “Like a date, or something?”
“N-No, o-of course not!” Kurara protested. “T-Though I wouldn’t mind if you thought of it that way, I su–”
A cool breeze against her cheeks shocked the words out of her as her mask lifted from her shoulders. Darumi, holding her mask aloft, regarded her with a gentle, curious smile.
“I-I thought you said that would only last for a little while! B-But when I look at you, I still feel…” She trailed off, unable to finish that train of thought. “S-So I wanted to… s-spend some more time with you…”
Darumi hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure, why not?” She plopped Kurara’s mask back onto her shoulders. “Let’s go on a date.”