the lesbian weeb experience is getting into something years past its best buy date and exploring all 4 pages of available fan content, discovering in that process that 20% the people you follow were once fans of the thing as well
“Wait, wait, hold up--please!” Seina gasps, hurtling down the street with her bags banging against her aching back. This heatwave is killing her; every breath she takes feels damp and hot, as if she were inhaling through a wet towel, and her shirt’s soaked through with sweat. The bus belches out a cloud of black exhaust, and Seina coughs as she runs into it, the heat of the smoke searing at her shins.
She leaps into the bus, tripping up the steps with muttered curses. The bus driver raises an unimpressed eyebrow.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Seina says, grinning sheepishly. She deposits a few grimy coins into the till and slides past clumps of passengers to find her seat. It’s packed in the bus; there isn’t a seat in sight, and in her sweaty, stinky state, Seina doesn’t feel like squeezing in-between people to hang onto the handlebars. Seina… isn’t sure she can even reach the handlebars, actually!
The bus lurches forward, and Seina spies a gap that looks big enough to cram her stuff into. It’s like a gift from heaven, and Seina is delighted--as long as her things are safe, she doesn’t care where she stands!
Seina staggers past another passenger and hurriedly wedges herself into the space, depositing her bags behind her. She slumps against the side of the bus--the metal is cool against her heated skin, but the sensation just makes the sweat drenching her hair and clothes feel even more gross. Seina’s gonna file a complaint with Mother Nature. She’s gonna fight Mother Nature.
Still, Seina is hot and sticky, so she’ll take it. The new construction site she’s helping out at is pretty far from her apartment, which usually isn’t not a problem, but oh God, this heat wave. It’s murder. Brutal. Seina doesn’t think she’s sweat so much in her entire life, and she’s been doing heavy labor since she was big enough to carry a plank of wood.
At least it’s there’s some AC in the bus, although having so many people packed into it kinda makes the vehicle feel stuffy regardless. Seina sighs, shoving her clumped up bangs out of her face. Man, she just wants a shower...
Someone touches her shoulder. Seina jerks and squares up on instinct, hands balled into fists as she whirls around.
“Oh, excuse me…” The hand that touched Seina is attached to a freckled arm, which is in turn connected to a sweet-faced girl with the softest, kindest eyes Seina has ever seen. Her hair is a pale brown, like stained wood, and tied up into a pretty braid that loops around her head like a crown. The world seems to hold its breath, time freezing for one perfect second as Seina takes the stranger in. This person might just be The Most Beautiful Girl in the World--no, strike that maybe, she’s definitely The Most Beautiful Girl in the World!.
Seina’s kind of in awe. Her hands go slack and drop to her sides, and despite the AC, she might be sweating even more now.
Damn! Of all the days to meet someone like this! Seina’s a disgusting, messy sweat troll wrapped up in worn, stained overalls and The Most Beautiful Girl in the World is pristine in a white sundress and the sunlight’s catching in her hair and Seina can see motes of dust in the sunbeams, which of course gather around her like glitter surrounding a fairy tail princess and---
Uggghhhh. Uuuuuuguuuuuuuuh.
Seina is… having a moment.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World stares back at her, a worried crinkle between her brows. Seina sucks in a loud, desperate breath, and mutters something that might be a ‘yes?’ in one language or another.
“It’s very hot out today, isn’t it?” The Most Beautiful Girl in the World offers. “You don't look very well, and I was wondering if you needed to sit down...?”
“I--! Uh, no, nope! I’m fine!” Seina swipes her hair from her face, grinning as widely as she can. Oh, shit--probably a bad move. She might look super creepy right now.
She tries to save herself. “I’ve been, uh, drinking lots of water, and besides! I only look scrawny, but I’m actually really tough!” Seina flexes, cupping the round ball of her bicep with her other hand.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World blinks slowly, gaze drifting from Seina’s face to her arm, and then back again.
Seina’s smile feels strained. Why did she do that.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, proving herself to also be the Kindest Girl in the World, saves Seina from melting into a puddle of awkward goo. She fishes around in her bag, and Seina takes a break from her embarrassment to admire the way her hair falls over her shoulders, the way the sunlight glances through the bus’s windows make it look like the girl is sparkling.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World finds what she's looking for. “Here,” she says, holding out a folded handkerchief with an encouraging smile. “At least take this. You must be feeling a little grungy, right?”
Seina stares dumbly at the little square cloth. It's got a little purple flower embroidered on the corner. Super cute. If Seina had seen it in the mall, she'd totally buy it.
But she's not at a mall. No, the Most Beautiful Girl in the World is holding out this handkerchief for her, a really gross sweat gremlin, who's been staring for an inappropriately long time, and Seina’s mind kicks back into gear at that realization.
“N-No, I couldn't possibly--” Seina fumbles at the breast of her overalls, trying to dry her clammy hands on the denim. She finds her own crumpled handkerchief shoved in the very corners of her pocket. “I, I’ve got my own, it's nice of you to offer, but I shouldn't--”
Seina pulls out the handkerchief, gray with dust and grime and dried sweat, and offers it up to the Most Beautiful Girl in the World with a desperate smile. She doesn't seem very impressed. If anything, she looks even more worried.
Seina ends up taking the handkerchief just to wipe that look off of the girl’s face. She manages to mumble a ‘thank you’ and drops her gaze to the floor, praying that the Most Beautiful Girl in the World won’t remember her when she leaves the bus. Seina’s cheeks burn like she used a welding torch without a mask. She spends the rest of the ride imagining those gentle eyes hot on her neck, then scolding herself for thinking that the Most Beautiful Girl in the World would bother to look at stinky Seina with anything more than pity--especially after an introduction like that!
It’s almost a relief when the bus creaks to a halt at Seina’s stop. She makes a beeline for the door and barely even cares who she hits with her bag on the way out; Seina will always regret making a fool of herself in front of the Most Beautiful Girl in the World, but at least she can’t make it worse when she’s in the confines of her own home.
The heat hits her like a wall and Seina staggers at the curb, holding up a hand against the sun’s merciless glare. Her bag swings and clocks her right in the cheek. Traitor!
“Umm…” a gentle, hesitant voice says. A very familiar voice. Seina turns very slowly and finds that she hasn’t left the Most Beautiful Girl in the World behind after all. The girl smiles. “Are you alright?”
“Y-Yep, totally fine! I’m tough.” Seina instinctively raises her arm, but remembers halfway through the motion how well her last attempt at flexing went. She lowers it sheepishly.
“Well then, I’m glad.” The Most Beautiful Girl in the World dips her head, and Seina returns in kind before scurrying away. Oh jeez, she hadn’t known they’d get off at the same stop! She would have prepared her heart, and what scraps of dignity she has left, if she had!
But she shouldn’t be so surprised. Seina’s apartment complex sits right in the middle of a college town and all the amenities that come with it. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World might be making a trip to the shopping plaza just a block away, or visiting a friend in one of the brick apartments lining the streets, or any number of things. College towns are hive of activity, but that’s one of the things that drew Seina to this neighborhood in the first place. There’s always something to do and plenty of construction and buildings rising up from the ground. Lots of work to be found for an enterprising girl, and lots of play to be had for a tired worker.
Seina presses the button at the traffic light. Her complex beckons from across the street, a spot of white against the brick of the apartments around it. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World perches on the curb. They exchange an awkward smile. The girl is sweating too, but on her it’s downright attractive. Seina, on the other hand, is pretty sure that she looks like she just stepped out of a shower.
The traffic light chirps and they cross the street as one. Seina’s getting a little anxious now. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World is going to make a turn any time now, she’s sure. Or she’ll keep going past the gate of Seina’s complex, and Seina will probably never see her again except in dreams, and though that’s a sad thought at least she won’t make a fool of herself anymore! Seina has to cling to that thought, or she’ll melt into a goopy puddle of embarrassment and nerves right then and there.
Seina turns. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Turns. Seina pulls out her keys. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World sticks her hand into her purse.
They reach for the gate at the same time, and a tiny little part of Seina combusts when the realization clicks.
“Oh.”
“Ah.”
Seina can’t think of anything to say as The Most Beautiful Girl in the World pulls away, though she’s pretty sure that every cell--no, every atom of her is screaming at the loss. Seina watches the girl’s mouth work, before it settles into a sweet, sweet smile. A tiny miracle.
“I didn’t know you were one of my neighbors.” Neighbors. Neighbors! The Most Beautiful Girl in the World bows as Seina tries to wrap her head around that. “My name is Aihara Miki. It’s nice to meet you at last!”
