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“Hona-chan, Icchan! We’re home!”
“We’re back.”
Honami pokes her head out of the kitchen, watching Saki and Shiho take off their shoes, their cheeks flushed from the hot temperature outside.
“Shiho-chan, Saki-chan! How was your date?” She asks while taking the freshly baked apple pie out of the oven. She had wanted to surprise the others with dessert for quite some time, but their busy schedule – a national mini-tour – had prevented the four of them to spare much time on things such as cooking. Taking advantage of Shiho and Saki’s planned date and Ichika’s likelihood to spend the day in bed, Honami had taken it upon herself to make dinner and dessert for her partners tonight.
“So fuuun! Shiho-chan and I went to a café I found recently, and then we went on a shopping spree. I got tons of new clothes!”
“That’s great Saki-chan, make sure to put on a fashion show for me and Ichika-chan later. What did you get, Shiho-chan?”
“Oh, um…” Shiho was already halfway to their bedroom door, ready to change out of their outfit into pajamas. “I didn’t really get anything. We checked out the musical instruments store that just opened and I took a look at their bass strings for when I need to replace them, but other than that nothing much.”
“That’s because Shiho-chan was nice enough to pay for most of my items!” Saki beamed, while hugging her partner tight and pressing her lips to their cheek, leaving a light pink lip-gloss mark. Shiho’s cheeks turned red as they patted Saki’s head.
“That’s only because you were giving me that bashful look you have when you really want something…” their lips turning into a small smile.
Honami giggled at her partners’ affections. “You two should go change, dinner will be done soon. I will go wake Ichika-chan while you’re at it.”
Saki made her way into the bathroom to take her make-up off and ease into her night-time routine, while Shiho changed into their pajamas. A few minutes go by, with Saki infusing the cotton pads with micellar water and carefully swiping them across her face, so as not to irritate her already sensitive skin. As she was almost done, a knock came from the other side of the door.
“Come in!”, she chimed.
“Are you ready? I want to brush my teeth,” said Shiho, rubbing at their eyes.
“I’m not done yet, sorry…” Saki gave her partner an apologetic look and watched them roll their eyes, until an idea dawned on her.
“I know! Since you’re here and were ready for your bedtime routine, why don’t you do some skincare with me?”
Shiho glares at her. “Absolutely not.”
Saki pouts, putting on her best puppy eyes and batting her lashes. “Pretty please? You’ve promised!”
“Alright, alright… But let’s make it quick, okay?” Shiho sighed, only to be caught once again in their girlfriend’s bone-crushing hug.
“Yay! Thank you so much! Alright then, let’s get started!” Saki reaches in one of the cabinets below the sink, pulling out two headbands – one pink and one green. “Let’s put these on so we keep our hair out of the way.”
Shiho pushed the fabric up towards their forehead, making sure no stray hairs would get in the way. Meanwhile, Saki was gathering all of her products and aligning them on the counter near them.
“Alright, let’s start. First, let’s wash our face with this cleanser! This will clean your skin of any impurities from throughout the day.”
“I know that much… I’ve washed my face before, you know?” Shiho muttered.
“Hehe, just making sure I’m walking you through all of the steps!”
Both proceed to dampen their faces, lather the cleanser, and rinse. Saki pats her face dry and hands Shiho their own towel, which they take with a small thanks.
“Okay, now… Have you exfoliated your skin recently, Shiho-chan?”
“Um, no.”
Saki shakes her head. “That’s really bad, Shiho-chan. But fret not! Since I also need to exfoliate, so let’s do it together!”
She reaches towards the bottle containing the exfoliator, pumping some into her hands and spreading it evenly across her face. As Shiho reaches to do the same, following her lead, she takes their hand.
“Wait, I’ll do it for you!”
Shiho’s cheeks turn red. “There’s no need, I can do it myself too…”
“You’ve already spoiled me today, so now it’s my turn! Please?”
All Shiho could do is let out a sigh and close their eyes, a sign for their girlfriend to go on with both of their skin care routines. She rinses her hands and pumps out some product, then carefully spreads it across Shiho’s warm face. They scrunch their nose and Saki giggles.
“It feels weird.”
“Does it? I’ve never noticed any different textures between this and other stuff I use.”
Saki continues to massage the exfoliant into her partner’s skin, making sure it would remove any dead skin cells and dirt that might have gathered during their outing. Then she instructs them to rinse again, as she does too.
“What’s next?”
“A toner! This doesn’t really do much other than offer extra hydration, but I still like to use it. I’ll pour a bit into my hands and then put it on you, okay?”
Shiho nods, their gaze following Saki’s movements closely. As her hands find their face once again, they can’t help but let out a soft breath. The slight coolness of the liquid in contrast with Saki’s warm hands made them lean into her touch, relaxing their shoulders and muscles.
“This is really nice.”
“Right?! Toners can also soothe any irritation so I thought we could both use some of it, especially after so many shows where we had make-up on,” she repeated the same process, gently patting some product into her own skin.
Shiho watches as Saki reaches once again down into the cabinet and pulls out a handful of face masks. She eyes the back of each packet, trying to decide which one would better fit her and her partner’s skin respectively. She looks at Shiho for a second, then to the wrappers in her hands, and back again to them.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just trying to decide which ones we should put on. Your skin is pretty dry as it is so you could definitely use some moisture, and I’ve been breaking out like crazy since we’ve been back.”
After a few more seconds, Saki makes up her mind.
“Alright, I’ll give you the aloe vera mask and I’ll use this one infused with tea tree.” She rips open the first packet and takes out the thin sheet, trying not to let any liquid from it spill on their carpet. She carefully unfolds it and then steps closer to Shiho, fixing the fabric on their face and patting a few spots to remove the air bubbles. She puts on her own mask, sets a fifteen-minute timer on her phone and then faces Shiho, who was already staring at her.
“Now we wait!” She takes a step towards them and takes their hand in hers. “Did you have fun today? Thank you again, by the way, for paying for the clothes I got. You didn’t have to.”
“No, but I wanted to. We’ve had quite the busy schedule, juggling between the tour and doing press at each stop wasn’t easy. You’ve worked hard and I couldn’t be more proud of you, of us.”
“Eek! Shiho-chan praising me so openly, that must mean I really did do a good job!”
Shiho shakes their head and laughs, putting their free arm around Saki’s waist. “How long are you gonna keep this up? I don’t think I’m as rigid as I was when we started our band.”
“Hehe, you really aren’t like that anymore, but you’re still stricter than Hona-chan is so that makes me still have to work hard to earn your praises.”
“You’ve definitely earned them,” they chuckle and lean in, intending to peck Saki’s cheek, but stop in their tracks as she quickly pulls away.
“We’ve got face masks on! You can’t kiss my face!”
Their expression drops with an exasperated sigh. “I forgot I’m dating Miss Beauty herself, my apologies.”
Saki giggles and checks the timer on her phone. “Come on, just a few more minutes. Why don’t I brush your hair in the meantime?” She reaches for the brush and gestures for Shiho to turn around. She runs the wooden bristles through their short hair – after all their time together, Shiho hadn’t done much with it. They’ve let it grow a few times but nothing past the nape of the neck, making it the perfect length for Saki and Honami to create very simple hairstyles that would still have Shiho feeling like themselves.
They’ve also gotten a few green streaks once, when everyone in the band decided to dye parts of their hair in their favorite color. Saki had been the one to come with the idea, considering what her own hair looked like, and was over the moon when the others agreed, especially Shiho.
Now that the green had faded, they were sporting a sort-of pixie cut, which still heavily resembled their usual look, just a bit shorter in order to ‘cope with the heat’, as Shiho had put it.
What Saki and the others liked most about Shiho’s hair however, was how nice it felt to play with. Even now as she was brushing it, she couldn’t help herself but to massage and scratch their scalp, which always earned a quiet hum from their bassist and had them lean into their touch.
The timer going off pulled Saki out of her thoughts and Shiho out of their relaxed state, jumping a little at the sudden loud noise.
“Finally!” Saki reaches for her phone and turns the timer off. She puts it back down on the sink and then peels off the sheet on Shiho’s face, followed by her own.
She then takes the bottle containing the moisturizer she used, squeezes some on her finger and swipes it across Shiho’s cheeks and forehead. A shiver runs down their spine at the cold feeling of the cream – they really aren’t used to this. But Saki, as always, is so gentle with them. She takes her time massaging the product into their face, squishing their cheeks under the excuse that she 'needs to work this into their skin!' But they both know Saki is just having her fun, not that Shiho would complain.
They reach once again for Saki’s waist and pull her close against them.
“We’re done with our face masks. Can I kiss you now?”
It’s Saki’s turn to blush. “Since when are you so chivalrous?” she says, but answers Shiho’s question by wrapping her arms around their shoulders and initiating the kiss they’ve been waiting on. Shiho tightens their hold on their girlfriend’s waist as she buries one of her hands in their hair, slightly deepening their kiss.
As tough as they might be during practice, correcting every little mistake the others make no matter how small, this was one of the many ways the bassist enjoyed showing appreciation to their drummer, keyboardist and guitarist. Shiho loved coming home from whatever errands they had to run during the day and getting to help Honami make dinner, sneaking in a few pecks whenever proximity allowed it. As much as they would grumble about it, they loved when Saki gave them her bone crushing hugs, accompanied by a flurry of kisses all over their face. They loved settling in bed with all three of their girlfriends and then turning towards Ichika, giving her a goodnight kiss (one of many, if Saki was feeling particularly energetic and insisted on keeping all four of them up).
Shiho’s thoughts were interrupted by Saki breaking the kiss, her breath warm on their face. They both stare at each other for a moment, neither saying a word, before Shiho pulls Saki in again. For a second, they think they will spend the next few hours locked in the bathroom with their girlfriend, which they really wouldn’t mind, until –
“Shiho-chan, Saki-chan! Dinner’s ready!”
“Coming, Hona-chan!” Shiho flinches at Saki’s loud voice. She leans in and gives their lips a few more pecks, “For good measure. We can continue later, with Hona-chan and Icchan.”
“Right, whatever you say,” Shiho rolls their eyes and smiles. “You still haven’t changed out of your outfit, by the way. Want me to bring you your pajamas?”
“Yes, please! Until then I’ll put on my moisturizer. I can’t have dinner without finishing my own skincare routine.”
Saki quickly pats the cream into her skin as her partner fetches her change of clothes, knocking on the bathroom before entering.
“Thanks Shiho-chan! I’ll get changed now.”
At that, Shiho turns around to face the door, as Saki puts today’s outfit in the laundry basket and dresses into her fluffy and comfortable sleep attire. She pats Shiho’s shoulder, signaling them that they can turn around. They both take their headbands off, put them back in the drawer and head to the kitchen.
Honami and Ichika are already seated and waiting for the two remaining members to join them. It was an unwritten rule – if all four of them were at home, no one starts to eat unless everyone is at the table. Ichika’s hair is disheveled and her face looks puffy, not having woken up too long ago as Honami rubs her back. Both of them turn towards Saki and Shiho to greet them and giggle at their intertwined hands.
“Shiho-chan, your skin is glowing!”
“Yeah, it looks really in-shape. Did Saki give you one of her make-overs?”
Saki sits down across Ichika and Shiho takes the seat next to her, facing Honami.
“Yeah, she did…”
“Don’t act like you didn’t like it! Plus, we should do this more often, look how good your skin looks right now! Your skin could really use this sort of treatment. Right, Hona?”
Honami giggles. “Let’s just eat for now, and then we can discuss when you can use your skin-care routine on each of us, Saki-chan.”
They all say their thanks and begin eating their home-cooked dinner, which is as good as the many ones they’ve had and will continue to have in the future.