Work Text:
Tomoe is sat in the break room, idly scrolling through social media on her phone. She looks up at the clock. Only a few more minutes until her shift officially starts. No other workers have arrived yet, but if she remembers correctly, she’s sharing a shift with…
The door slowly swings open. Kaede steps inside.
“Good morning.”
Tomoe looks up at the other girl. Right. Today was the first shift where she was alone with Kaede. Senpai’s little sister…She’d seen her once before she started working here and they’d shared a shift together with some others, but never actually talked to her much at all.
“Good morning, Kaede-chan.” Tomoe chirps in response, storing her phone in her pocket before getting up and straightening her clothes. She decides to try to chat with Kaede in the few minutes they have before their shift starts. “How are you doing?” She asks.
Kaede walks over, setting her bag down next to the chair that Tomoe just got up from. She’s not as skittish as the first time I saw her, Tomoe notes mentally, but her movements still seem a bit anxious.
“I’m good. Just a bit sleepy. This is my first morning shift, I usually sleep a little more…” Kaede responds, covering her mouth with her hand to silence a small yawn. “How about you?”
“That’s good to hear! The you doing good part, I mean-not the sleepy part. You better not fall asleep during the shift.” Tomoe jokes, feeling a warmth in her chest when she sees Kaede smile. What’s up with that? “I’m doing good myself.” She continues, stretching. “And I’m super ready for work.”
“Awesome.” Kaede mumbles, looking up at the clock. They still have a few minutes left.
Tomoe speaks again after a few seconds of awkward silence.
“How’s Senpai doing?”
Kaede looks over to her, blinking in obvious confusion.
“Who?”
Tomoe stares back at her, deadpan.
“Your brother.”
“Oh! Well-” Kaede pauses for a second before looking away and continuing. “He was asleep when I woke up. I heard him stay up late with his girlfriend last night, so I didn’t wake him up.”
Even though her romantic feelings for Sakuta had become mostly platonic at this point, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy in her chest. She couldn’t help but frown a little, hoping Kaede wouldn’t notice.
“Oh. Good to hear that his relationship with Sakurajima-senpai is going strong.” She looks up at the clock again. It’s shift time. She smiles, turning back to Kaede. “Time to clock in! Are you ready?”
“Yeah!”
It was after closing time. Tomoe wiped the tables with a wet rag as Kaede followed behind her, holding a large bucket of soapy water to let Tomoe wetten the rag in question whenever she needed it. They’d done a few shifts together by this point. They were a good team.
“Tomoe-chan?” Kaede spoke softly, breaking the silence.
Tomoe looked back at her, pausing the cleaning for a moment.
“Yes, Kaede-chan?”
“What’s up between you and big brother?” Kaede asks plainly. “You call him Senpai and you always get a bit annoyed when I mention his relationship with Mai-san.”
Tomoe is honestly caught a bit off guard. She stares at Kaede before some words finally leave her mouth.
“I thought you didn’t notice my reactions?..”
“No, I’ve just been ignoring them.” Kaede responds. She looks away as she continues. “Y-Your lips curl downwards just a little bit whenever I mention them. I thought it was a coincidence but it keeps happening, so I thought I’d ask…”
She’s observing me that closely!? That’s…
Tomoe feels the now somewhat familiar warmth in her chest again. Her cheeks redden.
“W-Well, its a long story. But we’re not that busy right now, so I can tell you if you want?” She offers.
Kaede turns back to her. Their eyes meet. Her heart skips a beat
Am I lesbian..? N-No. No way.
“That sounds good.” The other girl responds softly.
“Alright. Do you know about adolescence syndrome?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it all started when…”
Time and cleaning seems to blur together as Tomoe tells her tale to Kaede.
“...And so, I managed to bury my feelings and we became good friends. All it took was a super dramatic rejection, I guess.” Tomoe finishes, feeling a little sad after rethinking through all of those events. She sighs. “They’ve mostly vanished, though. My feelings I mean. I probably wouldn’t date him nowadays if given the chance.” She lies, moreso to herself than Kaede.
“...If you say so.”
Tomoe knows that Kaede probably saw right through her lies. That girl is scarily good at reading her. Or maybe she’s just really obvious with her emotions. Tomoe isn’t sure. Kaede continues.
“Well, at least it wrapped up nicely? And you two are still friends as well. I’d call that a win.”
“Yeah.”
Tomoe finishes cleaning the last table, turning back to face Kaede.
“I can go empty and put the bucket away if you want? You can end your shift here.”
“That sounds good. Thanks, Tomoe-chan.” Kaede smiles, reaching out to hand the bucket over.
Their fingers brush together as Tomoe grabs the bucket. The touch is electric-and the feeling is mutual, apparently. Tomoe gasps quietly and her eyes zip up to meet Kaede’s. The other girls cheeks are so pink. Tomoe feels her cheeks rapidly heating up as well. Both of them stand there for what feels like an eternity before Kaede slowly pulls her hands back from the bucket.
“U-Um. I’ll…see you later.” Kaede murmurs, hurrying to the break room to grab her bag.
“B-Bye, Kaede-chan!” Tomoe calls out after her, her shoulders slumping down slightly. She sighs and walks over to the kitchen area to empty the bucket in the sink.
Crap. I think…
“...I think I’m lesbian, Yuuma-kun.”
“And why are you calling me in the middle of the night to tell me this, Tomoe-chan?” Yuuma responds, the sleepiness in his tone apparent.
Tomoe is sitting at the balcony of her apartment. The cold of the night bites and nips at her skin-but she has more important worries at hand right now. She holds the phone to her ear like her life depends on it.
“Because you have a girlfriend and you’re a nice guy and YOU’RE MY FRIEND, YOU FLIPPIN’ DUMMY!” She pauses, hand instinctively covering her mouth when her accent slips through near the end. She continues in a more timid tone. “...Sorry for waking you up in the middle of the night and yelling at you, I’m just-you seemed like the best person to give relationship advice.”
“Don’t worry, Tomoe, its fine. It’s fine. Why me, though? Couldn’t you-” He yawns. “-couldn’t you ask Sakuta or something?”
“No. Not at all.” Tomoe responds quickly.
I’m not desperate enough to ask the older brother of my crush who also happens to be my ex-crush for advice. Yet.
“Okay. Well…is she someone from school?”
“No.”
“From work?”
“...Yeah.”
“Oh! Is it Sakuta’s sister? He mentioned her starting to work at the diner too.”
“How’d you-eh???” She takes a moment to calm herself down. “How’d you guess it immediately?”
“...Because she’s the only other girl I know of that works there?” He pauses, continuing shortly after: “Oh, wait. I get why you couldn’t ask Sakuta now. I see, I see…”
“Obviously! Plus, he’d probably figure out that its Kaede-chan pretty quickly. And then things would get awkward.”
“Well, my advice is to just go with the flow and be honest. Wait for the right time and then confess.”
Tomoe scoffs.
“You make it sound easy.”
“It’s not, but you’ll probably feel a lot happier afterwards. From what I’ve heard of Kaede-chan from Sakuta, I’d say you two might work out.”
“...Thanks, Yuuma-kun. You can go back to sleep now.”
“Thank you. Make sure to not stay up too late, Tomoe-chan.” He hangs up.
Tomoe’s hand holding the phone now falls limp at her side. She sighs, putting the phone into the pocket of her pajama pants. She puts an elbow on the balcony railing, resting her chin on her hand. Cold breeze nips at her face.
“What to do, what to do…”
It’s the end of another evening shift at the diner. Just as Tomoe steps out, she hears Kaede call out from behind her.
“Tomoe-chan! Wait up!”
Tomoe turns around as Kaede hurries over to her. She tilts her head to the side slightly.
“Yes, Kaede-chan?”
“Would you like to come over for dinner tonight? Mai-chan is making meatballs.” Kaede offers, staring at Tomoe expectantly.
Meatballs sound good right now. And I’ll finally meet the Sakurajima-senpai I’ve been hearing so much about. And maybe this will be my chance to confess…
“Sure! Let me just text my mom about it.”
She pulls out her phone, texting her mom that she was gonna have dinner at a friends place.
“Cool.” Kaede said awkwardly, waiting for Tomoe to message her mom.
Tomoe put her phone away after sending the message.
“Alright! Show me the way.”
“Got it.” Kaede hooked an arm around Tomoe’s, beginning to show her the way home as the other girl went quiet. And very pink.
Tomoe and Kaede waited in awkward silence after Kaede pressed the doorbell. An unfamiliar-to Tomoe, at least-voice called out.
“Coming!”
A girl-presumably Sakurajima-senpai-opened the door. The two girls stood there awkwardly for a moment before Tomoe unhooked her arm from Kaede’s.
Kaede stepped into the entrance.
“Hello, Mai-chan!” She chirped, reaching down to take off her shoes.
“Welcome home, Kaede-chan. I see you’ve brought along a guest?” Sakurajima didn’t sound suprised at all. Was Tomoe walking into a trap? She suddenly felt like a prey animal walking into a den of predators for some reason.
Tomoe followed after Kaede.
“Hello, Sakurajima-senpai.” She said awkwardly, reaching down to take off her shoes as well.
“Welcome, Koga-chan.” Sakurajima says, every word sounding rehearsed. (Is this what all actresses sound like?) “Kaede-chan told me a lot about you.”
As Tomoe stood there digesting the implication of the words, Kaede spoke up, sounding panicked.
“W-What!? No, no I didn’t-”
Sakurajima giggles as the two girls step inside, turning around to call out into the house.
“Sakuta! We have a guest!”
“Who is it?” A voice painfully familiar to Tomoe calls out from inside the house. She’s been able to almost fully get over her feelings, thankfully-thanks to the girl standing next to her, equally ask awkwardly as her.
“It’s Koga-chan! She’s over for dinner!” Sakurajima calls out in response. She turns to the two girls, motioning them to follow her before walking to the living room, presumably. Kaede and Tomoe follow.
Sakuta is sprawled out on the couch, the music video of an idol group-Sweet Bullet, if Tomoe recalls correctly-playing on the tv. Sakuta sits up and turns down the volume of the tv to 0 as the three girls walk in.
“Good evening, big brother!”
“Good evening, Senpai.”
Sakuta looks over to them.
“Good evening, Kaede. Good evening, Koga.” He says, obviously a bit confused about Tomoe being there.
Tomoe feels the need to explain:
“Kaede-chan invited me over for dinner after work. We’re coworkers now, y’know?”
Sakuta sighs sarcastically.
“Oh, man. I thought you were here to shoot your shot with me aga-” His sheer dumbassery gets cut off by Sakurajima quickly walking over and stepping harshly on his foot. “OW! Ow ow ow-”
Sakurajima turns over to the girls, foot still on Sakuta’s as she ignores his pain for the time being. Tomoe suddenly finds herself admiring her.
“Dinner probably won’t be ready for around 5 minutes or so.” She informs before looking at Kaede. “Why don’t you show her your room, Kaede-chan?”
Kaede nods, grabbing her ‘friend’ by the hand and dragging her to her room to get her away from this scene as soon as possible. That’s what Tomoe assumes Kaede’s urgency is about anyway. Kaede drags her inside and shuts the door behind them.
“Sorry, Tomoe-chan, big brother can be a bit dumb sometimes.” She murmurs, still not letting go of Tomoe’s hand.
Tomoe decides to not point it out.
“It’s okay. I’ve mastered the art of ignoring him.” She jokes.
“...Tomoe-chan?”
“Yes?”
“Your cheeks are very pink.”
“...”
“Is it because I’m holding your hand?”
“...Yeah.”
Tomoe pauses. She squeezes Kaede’s hand, remembering Yuuma-kun’s words. She’d gone with the flow, and now was the time to be honest.
“I’m in love with you, Kaede. I love you.” She says softly, staring into Kaede’s eyes.
Kaede let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank god. I thought I was about to get rejected.”
“You were…planning to confess to me???”
“Yeah.”
Kaede pauses for a few seconds.
“...Mai-chan was in on it, too. You told me you really wanted to eat meatballs a few days ago so I asked her to make them and-”
“And then she said they weren’t done yet so you could have alone time with me?” Tomoe completes her sentence.
“Spot on. So, if you like me and I like you back, does that mean that we’re dating..?” Kaede asks, timid.
“If you want to.” Tomoe says. Soft, yet somehow full of desire.
“I-I really, super duper want to.” Kaede responds in equal tone.
Tomoe traces circles into the back of Kaede’s hand with her thumb. She leans in, placing a quick kiss on her cheek.
Kaede’s face goes red.
“I-I’m-I-”
Her stuttering is cut off by Sakurajima calling out, presumably from the living room.
“Kaede-chan, Koga-chan! Dinner’s ready!”
Kaede takes a deep sigh, letting go of Tomoe’s hand.
“Lets go?”
“Let’s go.”
As everyone finishes eating their dinner, Sakurajima breaks the comfortable silence.
“So, Kaede-chan, how’d your confession go?” She asks, nonchalant.
Sakuta spits out his water but the girls promptly ignore her as Kaede begins speaking.
“...It went well. She, um. She liked me too.”
Sakurajima smiles. Sakuta finally speaks.
“You two-really?? I’m happy, but…” His tone turns sarcastic as he turns to look at Tomoe. “You’re real desperate, huh? Couldn’t date me so you’re dating my sister?” He says, obviously joking.
Tomoe takes no offense but still bites back.
“I bet you feel really ashamed of staring at my breasts throughout the dinner now, pervert.” She lies. She’s not sure if he was, since she was so busy side eyeing Kaede and taking in her beauty.
“Yeah, Sakuta, don’t you feel terrible about staring at your sisters girlfriends breasts?” Sakurajima chimes in.
Sakuta yelps as Sakurajima presumably steps on her foot.
“OW! I wasn’t! She’s lying.” He frowns.
“Doesn’t he like being hurt? You’re basically rewarding him for bad behaviour.” Kaede says.
Sakurajima nods knowingly. Sakuta’s expression softening as she presumably lifts her foot off of his.
“Ew. I forgot you were into that.” Tomoe pouts. She turns to Kaede and squints. “Are you weird as well? It’s not genetic, is it?” She jokes.
Kaede giggles. The sound is like music to Tomoe’s ears.
“I can’t guarantee anything.” She jokes back, smiling brightly.
I could get used to this…