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Kita gulped down water from her trendy and colorful water bottle like she was dying of thirst. Somehow that first drink after a long day of practice with the band always tasted sweeter. And today felt longer than usual. She was already exhausted and she still had guitar lessons with Hitori later. Not that she would miss that, Kita practically lived for that alone time with her bandmate these days.
“Um!” Hitori spoke up, catching the band’s attention. “I-I have some new lyrics,” she said.
“Great!” Nijika said, with Kita nodding along enthusiastically. Kita really enjoyed the times Hitori brought new lyrics, it was like getting new small glimpses into her heart.
As the band gathered ‘round, Hitori handed over her notebook to Ryo with an awkward little bow. Ryo flipped the notebook open, and began reading, with Nijika and Kita reading over her shoulders. Kita greedily drank in the words, which were very Bocchi as always, before freezing at the sight of a phrase.
Your touch is fire; your touch is ice
What did that mean? Whose touch could evoke such dramatic feelings in Hitori’s heart? Kita’s mind kicked into overdrive. Did Hitori have a Crush on someone? Could it be her? Surely the only people who touched Hitori regularly were her and Nijika – maybe Hitori’s family, but those lyrics wouldn’t be about them. But Kita went out of her way to respect Hitori’s space! Most of the time, at least. Nijika, then? But Nijika also seemed to respect Hitori’s personal bubble. Maybe… No, it was no use to worry like this. Words! Use your Words, Kita!
“Good lyrics.” Ryo said, “I’m already feeling some inspiration.”
“Yeah! I’m just a little surprised to see a love song out of you, Hitori,” Kita said, taking her opportunity.
“L-l-l-love song?” Hitori asked with an expression resembling panic.
Ryo and Nijika gave her a Look.
Fortunately, Kita was pretty good at recovering from social missteps. “Oh, maybe I misread it, it’s just this line that sounded so much like a love song,” she said, casually pointing out the line that had branded itself into her mind.
Nijika looked a little convinced, but Ryo looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable.
“I-I-I. I mean… Um. It’s like… Um,” Hitori valiantly went fishing for words, but apparently came up with none. Kita felt a stab of guilt for making her bandmate so uncomfortable, but was mostly just confused.
“It’s a touch-starved thing,” Ryo said, bailing Hitori out from her floundering. “If you haven’t had human contact in a while, someone’s touch can feel… intense.”
Hitori nodded, but avoided eye-contact with everyone.
“Oh,” Kita said.
Hitori walked toward an empty trashcan and began crawling in. “I’m-sorry-my-experiences-are-too-alien-for-you-to-understand…” she muttered in a dead tone of voice.
“W-wait, I’m sorry Hitori! It was my fault for misunderstanding! Hitori? Hitori! Let’s just start our guitar lessons, okay? Please come out of there!”
Five minutes later saw Kita and Hitori alone in the practice studio, fidgeting as they prepped their guitars. It hadn’t escaped Kita’s notice that Hitori was avoiding eye-contact more than usual. She repressed the urge to apologize again and instead focused her mind toward finding a way to make this right.
“Say… What if instead of guitar practice we had touching practice?” Kita asked, half thinking aloud.
“Eh?”
“Well, if we were to practice holding hands and stuff, then touching wouldn’t be as intense for you, right?” The idea was gaining momentum in Kita’s mind.
“O-oh. That. You don’t have to worry... Since joining the band it hasn’t been a problem, really,” Hitori said.
The protest left only a vague impression in Kita’s mind. Already she was imagining a near future where she was softly brushing her fingers against Hitori’s face. How does that feel? Kita would ask, Like fire, like ice, Hitori would respond. Their eyes would lock together, faces inches away from one another, and then… Wait. She said no.
But! It wasn’t a straight denial, there was still room for Kita to convince her. And as someone who could navigate any social situation with ease, she could totally accomplish that! She would just have to bring all her powers of persuasion into her next words.
“Let’s do it anyway! Because… I really want to!”
Kita’s social skills had a tendency to slip when a pretty girl was involved.
Still, she focused all her enthusiasm and charisma into her eyes and smile, as if her aura itself could convince Hitori to agree with her.
Hitori stared at her for a second, then looked away.
“Okay,” she said.
Kita felt herself break out into a grin. “Great!” she said, and reached out to clasp one of Hitori’s hands within her own. Hitori’s hand was a bit sweaty, warm, and the callouses on her fingers rough to the touch. It was… intimate, just touching for the sake of touching. Kita’s heart was going wild, but Hitori seemed unusually composed. She still looked uncomfortable and nervous, no doubt, but more in a ‘I don’t know how to handle this situation’ way than a ‘her touch is lighting my skin aflame’ way.
Deciding to push just a little bit further, Kita gently pushed back the sleeve of Hitori’s tracksuit and ran a finger along her forearm. This time, Kita was delighted to see Hitori’s skin break out in goosebumps.
“How does that feel?” She asked.
“O-oh. Fine.”
Kita leaned closer and cupped Hitori’s face with her hand. “Really?” she asked.
“Y-yeah,” Hitori let out a shaky exhalation after saying this, as Kita began running her fingers through Hitori’s silky hair. “I mean, being t-touched hasn’t been a problem lately…” Hitori broke the eye contact that Kita hadn’t noticed they’d been keeping for the past minute.
“It’s more like…” Hitori trailed off, perhaps distracted by Kita’s playing with her hair. Kita herself was plenty distracted, the hair of the back of Hitori’s neck was super soft, and the way she shivered slightly with Kita’s touch was doing a number on Kita’s composure.
“Hm?” Kita prompted.
“It’s just that… I wish I had more practice… Um. Initiating,” Hitori said.
Kita blinked.
“You want practice touching someone, not being touched?” She asked.
Hitori nodded, still not making eye-contact.
“Do you want to practice with me!?” Kita’s mind and heart was now less racing and more skidding out of control. “You can touch me wherever you want!” she said, perhaps a bit louder than she intended.
Hitori’s face underwent a fantastic transformation into a truly indescribable facial expression.
“Or not, ha ha!” Kita said, backing away a little, “I mean… Only if you want to.” She could feel her face heat up from what had to be a very vivid blush.
There was a short silence, then Hitori’s hand, like it was being being controlled by a puppeteer’s strings, raised up and slowly inched towards Kita. Then paused. Hitori’s eyes darted about, scanning over Kita’s body before freezing into a blank stare. Kita could practically hear the gears in Hitori’s mind kick into overdrive over some imagined potential calamity if she did the wrong thing.
Kita willed that hand to start moving again, the anticipation in her mind reaching unbearable levels. She shouldn’t have been so vague, she knew that Hitori was less likely to panic with more specific instructions.
Hitori’s hand remained frozen in the air between the two of them.
She probably just needed a little push, the kind of thing that Kita was good at giving Hitori.
“You can touch me here!” Kita said, as she grasped Hitori’s wrist and pulled until her palm slapped against Kita’s abdomen. Oh no. That was super awkward. The out of control feeling in Kita’s heart stopped as if it had slammed into a wall.
At least Kita had managed to shake Hitori out of her frozen state. Her fingers moved against the fabric of Kita’s band t-shirt and her eyes met Kita’s for a brief moment.
“It feels… Um. Nice. Warm.” Hitori said.
Kita’s heart started racing again. “Do. Do you want to touch my thighs next?”
Oh no. That was even worse.
Hitori gave a nervous laugh and backed away slowly.
Kita slumped a little. This disastrous turn this conversation had taken couldn’t have been good for her heart. Or her sense of dignity and self-esteem. Still, Kita took a deep breath, then spoke up to salvage what she could.
"Sorry. I’m more of a touchy-feely sort of person, but I guess touch can be intense for me as well,” she said, “Sometimes those feelings of fire and ice can go a little out of control for me, too,”
Kita felt a touch on her shoulder. Hitori’s hand, kinda brushing down her shoulder and arm in a super awkward attempt at comfort. But one that nonetheless made Kita’s heart melt.
“Um… We can try again if you want,” Hitori said.
Oh, today really wasn’t going to be healthy for Kita’s heart.
Nijika eyed the door to the practice studio with visible concern. There had been some pretty questionable phrases being said from beyond that door. And, more importantly, not a lot of guitar practice noises coming from there.
“Do you think we should… interrupt?” She asked.
“Nah, let’s just make fun of them for it later,” Ryo replied, before taking a long, slow sip from the energy drink she was holding.