Author: Anita
Fandom: Takarazuka RPF
Characters: Tsukishiro Kanato / Akatsuki Chisei
Genre: yuri, romance
Rating: PG
Status: complete
Summary: One night, Reiko finds a diary with the inner thoughts of someone in her troupe, and she wants to return it, but Ari stops her from leaving it in the lost-and-found and they decide to look for the owner together.
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 (end)
Chapter 6
After half a minute that felt like forever, Ari finally agreed and gave way to her. “What is all that?” She stared the many bags Reiko had brought.
“Our dinner, of course.” She tried to sound cheery. “Someone recommended me this great place around Shinsaibashi, and the smell! You’ll love it.”
“And you had it delivered here? In front of my door?”
Ari’s apartment looked nothing like the last time. The sweet aroma was replaced for a stuffy but unnameable smell, sheets of papers of all sizes covered the table and the script for their play was open with more paper over it. She’d have to clean it up before anything, but could she? Ari had visibly been busy with all those notes, maybe there was some order she couldn’t grasp, and she didn’t want to disrupt it.
“Reiko-san?”
“Sorry, I was just wondering how to organize the table.”
“You’re eating it here? With me?”
Reiko’s heart stopped momentarily. She’d only considered would either allow her inside or send her home with everything but not she’d accept the treat and put her out the door. “You… prefer I leave?”
First, Ari frowned, then dropped her mouth, frowning once more. Clearly, she was studying her options.
“It’s better than it going to waste, it’s not like I’d eat this alone if you send it all back with me,” Reiko pondered, putting the bags on Ari’s sofa, which was also a mess of clothes and scarfs and hats and belts.
“Wait!” Ari asked. “I… What I meant to ask was, you want to eat that with me?”
What else? Reiko wanted to ask in return. She got there with food, wasn’t that code enough for eating together? “I do,” she answered instead. “That’s why I went there for all the healthy stuff you love.”
“Went there? To Osaka?”
“Why the surprise? It’s not Tokyo.”
“They could have delivered to your house or here or…”
“They don’t do deliveries of any kind, of course I researched before going all the way to another prefecture.” She turned again to the table. “Can you help me free some space?”
The two worked through the mess in silence until the notes, script, and books—very well hidden until now—were gone. Ari produced the plates and everything else they'd need, and she had started to boil the water when Reiko stopped her, showing the wine she'd brought.
“Are you sure this is okay?” Ari asked, staring the bottle.
“As long as we don't get drunk.”
“Not that...” Her voice was a mix of frustration and impatience but still subdued.
“I'm being too clumsy, and I keep misinterpreting you, right? My mind… it’s been running so fast, it's like I'll shortcut any moment." Reiko breathed in with violence but tried to release the air more slowly. "I know it's Kaoto. I can't say I understand everything you did. The more I think, the less it makes sense, but finding out it’s a friend of yours and not a junior four years younger like I’d thought half explained it. And now I can only apologize for calling you out in front of everyone. I should do that even if it wasn't Kaoto but even the more being her. I put you in a spot when you were already in a difficult position.”
“You’re apologizing to me? I caused this chaos, if only I had just stayed out...” She was about to say more but never continued.
Reiko resisted the urge to pat her on the head or caress her shoulder, do anything to comfort and show Ari her heart was in pain for her. “It’s all okay with Kaoto now, by the way. I was really looking for problems where there wasn’t any or not much.” She forced a laugh, because she wanted to share how Kaoto had also cheered for the two, but she couldn’t.
“I’m glad, really. For Uu-chan too, but especially that you forgive me.”
“I’m not sure for what, though. You didn’t have a choice when I made you collaborate and refused to go with any of your plans.” And now was time. Bringing the best food hadn’t been the grand gesture Eri demanded—and it was probably cold by now, which was far from romantic—, but a small hope still pushed her back as far as Ari’s door. “What you said back on the first day, when we met outside the office, got me thinking a lot.”
Ari returned a puzzled expression mixed with impatience.
Nonetheless, Reiko needed to go slowly. If Ari didn’t remember what she herself had defended, her chances would be even slimmer. “You asked me if I’d try going out with someone if I learned they’re in love with me.”
She finally showed signs of recognition, nodding initially excited but becoming more cautious. If only Reiko could read minds… Which was unneeded, for Ari soon spoke up, “Is that what you meant, when you said it was all okay with Uu-chan? You’re going out together? You’ll give her a chance?” Her words jumped from her mouth, sometimes one jumped the other before that as though in a obstacle race gone very wrong, she was in full speed.
The reaction gave Reiko pause. Did the idea make her that excited? Shaking her head and applying all her efforts to keep herself composed, Reiko answered, “I’ve already rejected her properly. I’m sorry that I’ll impose your logic on you when I won’t follow it myself, but I don’t see how I could when I already know it won’t work out.”
“I’m really lost here, Reiko-san.” Ari’s eyes looked as lost as she said she was, unfocused but going right and left, down and up.
“Here it goes,” she said, although she hadn’t planned to do so out loud. “I have no idea when it all started, but this mess made it too clear for me to ignore it. That…” She couldn’t even breathe regularly at this point, so she couldn’t think or even see straight. Time to just let it all out before she literally fainted. “I have feelings for you, that’s it.”
Ari didn’t move, it was like nothing had been said at all. She just stood there, staring the void.
“Do I have to say all the words?” she asked in a pleading voice. She had no idea she would be able to; using the enemy’s weapons against them had sounded much better as a concept in her mind. This was about feelings, not a debate, though.
“It’s that you’re not making sense,” Ari finally responded.
“How could I be more obvious? I’m in love with you and asking for a chance. Would you please give me one? Maybe a date? Maybe… well, I could reheat dinner now, though I was hoping for it not to count as the date, because I’m really not ready to pass any tests now.” She almost said she was sweating like a pig and probably smelling worse than one—the quick shower after the day’s rehearsal had gone bad as she waited for her order in the restaurant and mentalized this very conversation. “Ari…?”
“You’re… but…”
“Can I have this chance? I promise I’ll come up with the best date ever! I hope…”
Ari shook her head while furrowing her brows.
What was happening? Reiko wanted to cover her ears and shout not to hear whatever would follow that. She should have known not to treat love like a lawyer’s dispute. Still… “I’m sorry,” Reiko apologized before she heard Ari’s negative. “You were so incisive when you defended I should give Kaoto a chance… I just apologized for doing it; and yet I’m putting you in a spot again, aren’t I?”
“I was about to correct that,” she spoke, though her eyes were fixed beyond Reiko’s shoulder. “I never told you to give Uu-chan a chance. In fact, I was in the way of that, because you couldn’t date whom you didn’t know.”
Reiko was about to protest, but Ari shushed her.
“Reiko-san, I can’t believe you didn’t even guess. It makes no sense you don’t know it already after having all the information!”
“Know what?”
“When I found out you had the notebook, and well, you read that Uu-chan is in love with you right in front of me, I was just asking hypothetically if that was enough for you to look twice at someone. It was a little disappointing you insisted you wouldn’t, but then you wanted to talk about it again, remember?”
“About the notebook.” She did remember Ari seemed agitated at the request.
“Yes, but I thought that was the best chance I’d get to have you alone talking about feelings and relationships. Like…” She stared the bags with their dinner. “Like a date. So, I planned to bring it up again that night, but… well, you were there. Here. I chickened out, and you really were in no mood for finding out you’d been tricked into a date.” She snickered. “Though it was so obvious, I have no idea why you never called it sus, at least.”
“A d-date?”
Ari nodded, expecting something Reiko was too dumbfounded to begin to wonder what.
“That was supposed to be a date?” she asked again. “To talk about another girl with a crush on me?”
“Minor details.” Ari still looked expectantly.
“What is it? You keep waiting for me to say something, but what?”
“Um… where are we now?”
“Oh.” Reiko finally realized the meaning behind the story and her eyes grew large as she went again, “Oh!” Only she had no idea what she could say. She’d said everything she wanted. “Isn’t it you who has to tell me?”
Ari blushed.
“No, you’re not acting shy now!” Reiko complained, feeling her face also grow hot. Hotter, because she’d probably looked red the whole conversation. “It’s your turn, my cards are all out.”
“You already know it… so…”
“Ari!”
“What do you want me to do?” she whined. “I already told you how I tried to ambush you and how I sabotaged my own friend because I didn’t want you finding out she likes you... What else is there for me to do?”
Reiko took a deep breath. “Kiss me, and I forbid you from just blushing and not doing a thing. Kiss me before I go crazy here trying to understand why we’re still talk—”
Ari had obeyed and covered Reiko’s words, mouth, and anxiety with her warm but unsure lips, testing her grounds. But still stepping closer with every beat until their feet intertwined and Reiko’s arms had to grab her closer.
“Reiko-san?” she asked never breaking from the kiss but instead caressing Reiko’s cheeks, chin, neck.
“Hm?”
“What would you have said had I confessed that night like I’d planned?”
She had no idea of the answer. She’d been so sure that junior who wrote the diary wasn’t someone she’d be interested in, but what if she’d found out Ari was in love with her as unexpectedly as she had Kaoto? She couldn’t think much, because the kiss continued and it felt more important than answering what-ifs, but she felt she had to answer anyway. “I might have been unable to say anything then, but I’d beat myself later. Is that a good answer?”
Ari ended the kiss sweetly and took a small distance to stare Reiko in the face, as if studying her. Then she grinned. “So, we’d still be here wasting time and good food?”
“It’s possible.” Reiko laughed ashamed. “But I don’t think anything matters anymore… do you?” She closed the distance again and gave a light kiss on Ari’s lips, still not used to being allowed that.
“And we haven’t even opened the wine yet.”
“By the way,” Reiko said as she went to get the food and reheat it, while Ari poured the wine for them, “you knew Kaoto was looking for her notebook, and that it was like her diary, then you found out I had it, but how did Odachin find out?”
“Remember I knew you hadn’t entered the lost-and-found? We’d gone there together to help Uu-chan look for the notebook and Odachin was with me, and you didn’t notice her go back inside the office. That was my biggest reason not to let you go in then, it would be suspicious if you found out she was listening in and I’m sure she wasn’t being subtle about it.”
“She sure had fun at our expense…”
Ari seemed about to defend her friend but shrugged. Instead, she handed the glass filled with wine and kissed Reiko’s cheek, the breath of alcohol Reiko hadn’t noticed her ingest teased her skin. “I can’t believe we’re here.”
“We are…” Reiko just repeated feeling like a fool but unable to do anything beyond that.
“And you said you love me.”
“I do.”
“And you finally know I loved you, but you’re not running away from me because of that.”
“I’m not, never…” saying so, the first sentence’s meaning hit her. It was obvious at that point but having confirmation and without having to ask for it was like being inebriated in a happiness potion. She hadn’t even noticed Ari had literally led her against a wall, where she was kissing her again, making her lose the glass she’d been given. “What about our dinner? The microwave will beep any second…”
“We’ll reheat it again,” Ari huffed with her hands loose on Reiko’s body. “I can’t risk you overthinking everything before we’re too far for you to turn back.”
“I’m not turning back, I promise.” She grabbed Ari’s hair, pulling her face closer until their lips were together again. “So don’t even think of turning back yourself.”
“There never was a way back for me, Reiko-san.”
They smiled at each other, as the microwave beeped and went ignored.
The End!
Anita, June 7th, 2021.
Author Notes:
Many thanks to everyone who managed to get here. Please, don’t forget to leave a comment, they always make me feel so happy, it’s like, “Wow someone is really taking their time read my stuff? For real?”
In relation to whom the diary belonged, when the plot bunny occurred to me, I did thought it would be Ari’s and Reiko would speechless that the person would be Ari. The thing is that I later noticed my Reiko at least was too goody-two-shoes to read people’s stuff. I should have done it Ari’s perspective, but then would Reiko really have something that intimate written somewhere? I can’t see it. So with the first problem, it became less of an advantage for Ari be the diary’s owner. That’s why I ended up with the next best thing—I can’t see Yuno writing a diary like that either, not the way I portray her…
I didn’t get to insert a moment someone asked Reiko how the hell she didn’t guess the owner, considering how much Uuchan loves her to the point she openly proclaims so. I wish I had found a good moment for that but yeah, Ari and Reiko were a little too distracted to remember Uuchan existed, ha ha.
I hope you enjoyed this story. I’ve written another fic with this couple, do give it a chance! It’s a bit longer, but Reiko manages to create an even bigger mess in her life (I love it). And of course, I’ve got tons of other couples and fandoms, don’t forget to check my website Olho Azul Fanfiction, where you can find more from me.
Until the next time!
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