Is there any limit of wishes? -- YohaMaru/YoshiMaru
It was a pure stupidity in her part to play stupid. She knew that much, as much as Hanamaru was a bit to the scale of oblivious of her approach, the chestnut-haired girl must have known where she was getting at.
That day, the maple leaves were crossing their feet as they walked from the school, treading the beach’s sand lines. Their hands joined clumsily along the way, slow and surely not apart from each other, with the other hand inside her pocket for Yoshiko.
There was a cake Viking promotion downtown, a perfectly-flawed reasoning to ask Hanamaru out from the library confines. Then again, she didn’t need to be roundabout to get the girl out, she didn’t need to be grand, after all, she knew that—
“Yoshiko-chan.”
“Yohane.”
“The cake Viking promo already ended a week ago, zura.”
“A-And? Your point?”
Hanamaru smiled. “Don’t you just want to hold my hand, zura?”
“N-No! Y, you’re wrong! This fallen angel Yohane won’t request such simple—“ Yoshiko swallowed upon seeing Hanamaru’s warm smile—the smile that Yoshiko knew Hanamaru made only and only for her—and their walking stopped. “—umm, well. Y, you have been rather busy in the library lately.”
“Do I?” Maru gave the sweaty palm a light squeeze, Yoshiko’s heart skipped a beat. “It must be because they got new literature books, zura. I’m sorry, Yoshiko-chan.”
“I said, Yohane—anyways,” she cleared her throat. “Have you been aware that the contract that you signed—“
“—Yoshiko-chan.”
Hanamaru let go off their joined hands, the hollowness of her hands getting into Yoshiko’s nerves too quick. Though in latter seconds, she was distracted by the hands clapping to her cheeks.
“Tell me,” Hanamaru said. “What do you want right now? Am I selfish when I said that you wanted to hold my hand, zura?”
How could she make me dropping all of my cool act?
Another maple leaf danced to the direction of the earth, Yoshiko inhaled a shaky breath, exhaled her worries and then her wants.
“Hanamaru.”
“... Zura?”
“That’s what I want,” Yoshiko’s voice decreased, she grabbed Maru’s hands by her arm before slowly mirroring how the chestnut-haired girl placed her fingertips to her now reddened cheeks. “Hanamaru.”
This turn, Yoshiko flashed a triumphant smile as her beloved rooted at her place, unable to voice any single objection. They stayed there, entwining their hands for awhile until Maru puffed her own cheeks in defeat and annoyance, maybe, it’s just Yoshiko’s prediction.
No, no, they were there not to argue or decides who is the winner of an argument.
“Yoshiko-chan is mean, zura.”
“Ehh!?”
“H-How can I respond to that?” she stated, awkwardly playing with the hem of her yellow sweater and looked downward to her shuffling feet. “Yoshiko-chan is mean.”
“Now, now, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Zuramaru,” Yoshiko grabbed Hanamaru by her shoulder. “I-I just haven’t seen you for awhile, you’re in the library all day and when I came by you’re already home. I-It’s kind of too late to ask you out.”
Hanamaru turned, her brown eyes twinkling to Yoshiko’s amethyst.”Yoshiko-chan is mean, zura.”
“How long you’re going to repeat that?”
“Yoshiko-chan is mean.”
“Zuramaru, I—“
“Yoshiko-chan is—“
It was a pure stupidity in her part to play stupid. She knew that much, as much as Hanamaru was a bit to the scale of oblivious of her approach, the chestnut-haired girl must have known where she was getting at. Hanamaru was practically luring her, making her say the truth out of the false.
Impulsively, or not, maybe she was getting into that all along, Yoshiko shut all the complaints with her own lips. Hanamaru was tasting a glimpse of strawberry as they parted when Yoshiko once again tried to look into her eyes straight.
“... I’m sorry, Hanamaru,” her voice went deep, Hanamaru, on the other hand, eyes widened. “I should be better at expressing my feelings, right?”
Yoshiko’s expression remained forlorn upon seeing the reaction from Maru when she picked up to grab her hand again and kept their pace.
Yes, they didn’t have any goals, just walking on the shores until they reach whatever they would find later, it has been a long time since they did it. Calm and gentle breeze swayed, mixed with a scent of autumn as they walked in silence, hiding each and other’s racing heart.
Hanamaru looked at the front, where Yoshiko’s back was, as well as the blue-haired girl hand that guided her.
“... Yoshiko-chan.”
“Yohane.”
Yoshiko felt another emptiness passing her palm, following with an abrupt tug to her back.
“Zu-Zuramaru?”
Arms circling to her waist. Burning face hiding to her back. The setting sun settling in-between their exchange.
“Keep walking,” a muffled voice, but Yoshiko heard her nonetheless. “Maru will stay like this.”
“I can’t walk like this, if you misstep, you’ll fall.”
“Then, carry me like this?”
“W-Why so?”
She let out a shaky breath. “Maybe Maru want Yoshiko-chan too, zura.”
Yoshiko turned, removing Maru’s hands from her waist. The chestnut-haired girl retaliated fast to cover her face with both hands. Yoshiko was smart enough to flow slowly, trying to remove Maru’s hands from covering the blossoming facial features of the small librarian, nose to ears. Maybe her face was the same, or even worse, but Maru’s eyes were closing, while hers relishing on the view of another series of embarrassed Kunikida Hanamaru.
Yes, Yoshiko perhaps a loser in admitting her point of view, while Maru is a blunt one, but not as confident as Yoshiko at emitting her character.
Again, it was Yoshiko’s blind guess.
Though, when the situation turned like this, especially when Maru closed her eyes, face as red as strawberry she loved, figure trembled to the point she wanted to run away rather facing sweet reality, Yoshiko herself didn’t know how to act; simply dropping dead and hug her or keeping her walk.
“Hanamaru,” she said, almost like spelling rather than calling. “Look at me?”
When the brown eyes peeked, her distance to the waiting, watchful amethyst was a breath away. Yoshiko didn’t falter, nor managed to tease Maru as she opened her eyes fully, their nose brushing at each other, her arms went slack in Yoshiko’s careful grip.
“Yo-Yoshiko-chan.”
“What is it, Hanamaru?” Yoshiko’s answer was small.
“Kiss me?”
“Even though we’re out in the public?”
A gap of four centimeters remained for them to not simply ignore. Yoshiko was about to lean when Maru preceding her, capturing her lips with more fervor than their last impulsive attempt. It wasn’t their first kiss, nor the last kiss was their first; though both sides could surmise that their touches were stronger and firmer, albeit short, innocent, and inexperienced.
“You already did it minutes ago,” she gasped. “This is a payback, zura.”
Those amethyst eyes waning with the sudden approach, but their close proximity and the hold to respective cheeks didn’t back off.
“Again?”
A peck to the corner of the lips.
“Mhm.”
A return to the bridge of the red nose.
“Any times I want?”
A forehead bump, a little groan from Yoshiko.
“No matter how many times.”
A breath to the lips, an impatient touch, and the joined threads didn’t come undone within the range of affectionate exchange.
