Acidulous
Fandom: Natsume’s Book of Friends
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationship: Tooru Taki/Jun Sasada
Summary: Tooru thought it was a good idea to use her extra oranges as a pretext to invite her crush over, until she found out said crush didn’t like them. [Femslash February 2021 Day 5: Orange]
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Link on Archive of Our Own
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Notes: Written for Femslash February 2021 Day 5: Orange, from those prompts.
I really wasn't much inspired with this one, but I dunno. I tried?
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The round fruits looked huge and shiny and juicy, and under the warm sun of the afternoon they almost seemed like big jewels.
Oranges weren’t Tooru’s favorite fruit, but even she couldn’t help but salivate while staring at them. Her neighbor, a sweet old lady with soft eyes who’d always taken good care of her since she was little, had told her she’d gotten extra oranges this summer and had came to give some to her. It was still a little too much for her alone though — as neither her parents nor her brother would be home before a while — but she couldn’t bring herself to refuse the woman’s kindhearted gift so she took them anyway, thinking she’d share some with her friends.
As she walked towards the kitchen, she considered calling Natsume and Tanuma, but suddenly another opportunity popped up in her mind: what if she invited the pretty class president Sasada? This would be a unique chance to see her with a good excuse!
It wasn’t like she and Sasada didn’t have much occasion to talk — they were pretty much friends, and Tooru had even invited her to her home a few times under some basic pretexts. But they still weren’t excessively close, not like she was to Natsume or Tanuma. Despite the fact it had been a while now since her youkai situation had been resolved, Tooru still struggled to get closer to others at school, or to anyone , really — she was fine with Natsume because he was Natsume , and Tanuma was his close friend so they’d instantly gotten along without issues.
And that was quite a shame when Tooru might have developed sort of a crush on Sasada. She wasn’t sure why or how it happened, but somehow despite her bossy and serious exterior, Sasada had a very kind heart and Tooru liked hanging out with her and couldn’t help but feel attracted to her. It was quite funny, in a way, that she’d instantly felt comfortable inviting Sasada in her home despite the fact it took Natsume and Tanuma to accidentally stumbles on her house for her to finally make them enter the place.
In any case, eating oranges together didn’t seem so bad an excuse for once, so she’d called her and her friend showed up on her porch twenty minutes later in casual clothes, brown hair falling on her shoulders, blue hairpin in place and glasses straight on her nose. Tooru’s face instantly lit up and she smiled brightly at her.
“So what was that surprise you were talking about?” Sasada asked upon sitting down the table.
“It’s nothing much, really! But I wouldn’t be able to take care of it by myself, so…” She entered the room with her arms full with the oranges basket, a wide smile on her face. “Tada!”
She put her charge on the table proudly, but when she lifted her eyes on her friend her smile almost vanished instantly. Sasada was staring at the big, round fruits with a wary expression and… practically a grimace — a far cry from the cute, reserved smile Tooru had hoped for.
“S-Something’s wrong?” She asked with hesitation, wishing she hadn’t done anything to upset the other girl — she was still so bad at relationships, and her anxiety was already screaming at her that of course she was going to screw this one up and that it had been a bad idea to invite her in the first place—
“Uh, no, it’s just… I don’t like oranges.”
“Oh…”
Tooru sat down in front of Sasada, falling quiet. Somehow, it had been less worse than what she’d first thought, but now she felt really silly. The entire reason why she’d invited her was to eat those oranges, but if she didn’t like them, then…
“W-Why?” was the only thing her brain managed to come up with to dilute the weird tension.
“H-Huh? Um… uh, I don’t know, I just… I don’t like sour things…”
Tooru blinked at her, then couldn’t help but laugh, which got her a dubious glare from Sasada.
“Oranges aren’t all that sour, though! But, you don’t like bitter food? Somehow, it doesn’t fit your character.”
Sasada frowned in an unusual way — she frowned a lot at school, but this time she looked more flustered than angry or strict — and suddenly blushed at her comment. Cute.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Tooru giggled again. “It’s just, you’re always so sharp and mature. So I didn’t picture you not liking bitter things.”
“W-Well, that’s just how it is. I haven’t eaten oranges since I was six because of this.”
“Eh? You’ve only eaten it once when you were a child? That’s not good! Perhaps your tastes changed between then! You should try again.”
All while talking, Tooru took one of the oranges and started to peel it, her brow furrowing with concentration.
“Th-That’s not necessary,” she heard Sasada argue from in front of her. “I already know that I won’t like it—”
“But it was so long ago! You never know!”
Honestly, Tooru didn’t know why she insisted so much. It wasn’t like she cared about whether or not Sasada ate those oranges or not. But somehow seeing the girl getting so embarrassed over something like this made it worth it, in a way. At some point, it seemed Sasada had resigned herself to her fate, and she fell quiet while Tooru worked thoroughly on her orange. She was very careful to peel it properly, not making any smudges or scratches on the fruit, then cut it in small quarters properly. She even disposed the orange bits on a small plate in a circle before extending it to Sasada, a big, proud smile on her face.
“Here it is!”
Sasada narrowed her eyes and stared at the plate suspiciously, as if it was some kind of animal that was going to jump at her and attack her. But finally, a fond smile spread on her face as she looked up at Tooru and tentatively grabbed one of the quarters with a pout.
“You’re a strange one. I’m going to start thinking you have a grudge against me or something.”
“That’s not true!” Tooru replied cheerfully. “I actually like you.”
Sasada turned red at her declaration, her eyes widening, but upon seeing Tooru’s smile it seemed she took this as a lighthearted comment.
“All right… I’ll do this but just for you, then,” she declared before finally biting into the orange.
It wasn’t just a lighthearted comment though, as Tooru truly did like her. But she thought now was not yet the time to make such a big love confession.
For now, she just looked Sasada tastes the orange and make a grimace as the juice spread on her lips and that the both of them ended up laughing and laughing.
Sasada still hated oranges once their afternoon together came to an end, but Tooru thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, after all.