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Ena stands in the light of her bathroom and stares in the mirror with her brows furrowed. She needs everything to be perfect, prim and proper in all the best ways.
She adjusts her hair, taking her beautiful braid out in favor of running a brush through it one more time to ensure the softness of her locks. She gently combs through the brown strands, shivering and smiling a little at the pleasant sensation on her scalp.
As much as she will never admit it, her heart is filled to the tip top with excitement and anticipation. She gets like this every time she and Mizuki have a date planned, something so embarrassing she only keeps in the depths of her own mind.
Something about the time they spend together, whether it’s doing something productive or lounging around, it’s so fulfilling and utterly magical. Mizuki is like the sun on her cloudy day, managing to lift her spirits higher than she can even imagine with only a smile.
They tease, they bicker, but the both of them know that’s just how they interact. It’s a common exchange, Mizuki taunting an ever stubborn Ena until they’re at each other’s throats. There’s no real anger though, Ena hiding her flusteredness under the thin guise of being upset and Mizuki just happy to be drawing a reaction. Within moments they’re laughing again, unbridled smiles of joy and unspoken emotions that only they recognize.
Ena ties her hair back up, making sure there’s nothing stray poking out that Mizuki will be able to poke fun at her for. It’s actually relaxing getting ready like this, the happy swish of her skirt mixed with the dull thud on her home’s ceiling from the rain outside.
Wait, what?
Ena turns off the bathroom light and hurries to a window, glancing outside to see that her worst fear has come to life. It’s raining heavily outside, far too much for any umbrella to do much more than get turned inside out and be ripped away from the person holding it.
She groans at the sight, loving the smell and the sound but not the implications it has on her and Mizuki’s date. They were supposed to go out for dinner but that won’t be possible if neither of them can get to the restaurant. Even worse, Ena vividly remembers Mizuki saying that she was going to rush over to Ena’s house so that the two of them could walk together.
Ena goes back to the bathroom where her phone sits on the sink counter, unlocking it and seeing that it’s around 10 minutes before Mizuki plans to leave. She lets out a sigh of relief, glad that Mizuki hasn’t accidentally subjected herself to punishment via cold rain.
Swiping on her phone, she opens their texting channel and shoots off a message about how it sucks that the weather took a turn for the worse and how bummed she is that they can’t go out. She debates calling Mizuki but decides against it, sadly trudging back to her room to change into pajamas.
–
Ena emerges from her bedroom shortly after, sliding her phone into her pocket and immediately being disturbed by a loud ring of her doorbell.
She initially grows irritated, what kind of crazy advertiser is out in the pouring rain to sell his product? Whatever it is, it can’t possibly be worth the cold that’s sure to accompany the occasion.
Ena flings the door open, ready to give this guy a piece of her mind, but freezes when she sees a familiar pink head of hair instead of an irritating door-to-door salesman.
“Mizuki?” Ena stares in shock at Mizuki on her doorstep, eyes moving up and down her figure to fully digest exactly what’s going on. For lack of a better word, Mizuki is absolutely drenched. Her frilly and gorgeous dress clings to her skin, the same thing with her bangs that are plastered against her forehead, her hair in general lacking its usual bounce that goes hand in hand with her springy personality.
In her left hand is a loosely held bouquet of flowers, red roses that look like they’ve been waterboarded and are tightly wrapped with cellophane that is covered in little droplets. “Heh, hey Enaemon.”
Ena doesn’t even make an effort to voice her distaste at the odd name Mizuki insists on calling her, remaining stationary for a moment with her jaw dropped low. The torrents of rain rush down from the sky and paint a dramatic scene behind Mizuki’s mostly motionless body. “What’re you still doing outside? Get in here!”
She steps out of the way to make space for Mizuki’s entrance, drawing a weak giggle from her as she lets herself into Ena’s home. “Don’t you know I’m like a vampire? I can’t come in unless you invite me.” Mizuki laughs at her own joke when Ena only gives her a huff, struggling her shoes off and smiling at the wet squishing noise it makes.
“Why are you out in the rain? You shouldn’t have even left your house yet.” Ena’s concern is evident in her voice, clearly soaking into her words even more than Mizuki is soaked to the bone by the relentless rainwater.
Mizuki holds up the floppy flowers and tries to make them as presentable as possible. “I had to grab you a present.” She smiles cheesily, the bouquet, if you can even call it that anymore, partially obstructing her face. “And I got too excited to wait.” Mizuki giggles, moving the flowers so that it blocks even more of her face and leaves only her eyes that peek at Ena in search of validation.
Ena can’t help but smile back, the offer sweet and kind but the way it panned out anything but satisfactory. She takes the posy from Mizuki’s hands and feels the wrapping crinkle under her grip. “You’re such an idiot.” She waits a beat, looking at the beautiful flowers in her hands. “Thank you.”
The plain words seem to be make to make Mizuki happy, puffing her chest out with the overwhelming pride that swells up inside of her. Such exaggerated movements make her small tremor all the more noticeable. Ena wraps her hand around Mizuki’s arm and tugs a little. “Come on, let’s get you warmed up.”
They walk in tandem through Ena’s house, making a little stop in the kitchen for Ena to drop the flowers off and then disappearing further into the house.
Ena only releases Mizuki when she needs both of her hands, searching through her closet for clothes that could possibly fix Mizuki. It doesn’t help that their heights and proportions are overall different, Ena eventually settling on a pair of sweatpants that are big on her and a t-shirt that frequently slips off her shoulders.
“Here you go.” Ena hands Mizuki the clothes in a pile, ushering her over to the bathroom where she’s given the instruction to change. The action shouldn’t take too long so Ena busies herself in the meantime, finding her way back to the kitchen and pulling a glass to house the flowers in hopes that their vitality will return.
Ena moves back to the bathroom that Mizuki still occupies, knocking and calling out to her. “Mizuki? You done in there?” There’s shuffling and a voice chirping back.
“One sec!” More rustling and oddly loud noise comes from the bathroom, finally broken by the squeak of the door opening. Mizuki leans one arm above her head and against the wall, looking at Ena and allowing her to bask in all her glory. “How do I look?”
Ena rolls her eyes; the sweatpants are floods that reveal her ankles and the shirt is something that Mizuki would never wear at her own volition. “You look like an idiot that tracked water all over my house.”
“Enanan…” Mizuki whines, Ena laughing as she pushes herself in the bathroom. She sees the dress that Mizuki discarded hanging haphazardly like a shower curtain and doesn’t pay it any mind, unplugging her hair dryer from the wall and twisting the cord around her arm.
“To my room, go.” Mizuki obediently listens to Ena, leading the duo as they both make their way to sanctuary. “Sit on my desk chair.” Mizuki sits on the plush chair and spins around in circles as Ena gets everything hooked up.
“So were those the clothes you were going to wear when we were going out?” Mizuki asks to fill the silence, a smirk forming on her face.
“Do you want your hair dried or not?” Ena smiles too, facing away from Mizuki so that she can’t see but enjoying herself all the time.
“Enanan, don’t be mean to me. Can’t you see I did this for you?” Mizuki spins around on the chair some more until she’s facing Ena, giving her big pleading eyes that break away at Ena’s defenses.
“I texted you and told you about the weather, you shouldn’t have been out if it was raining.” Ena grabs the back of the chair and whirls Mizuki so that she’s facing her back.
“It started raining while I was paying for your flowers! I didn’t want to take my phone out in the rain so I just ran as fast as I could.” Ena pauses with her hand in the air, still gripping the blow dryer.
“You ran here?” Mizuki nods enthusiastically, spinning herself around to face Ena.
“Sure did! I told you I was too excited to wait.” Ena feels the blush hurriedly making itself prominent on her face and rotates Mizuki back around so that she can’t see.
She tugs the bow out of Mizuki’s hair and clicks the blow dryer on, raking her fingers through the pink waves to dry even the inner layers. She feels Mizuki shudder from the rush of warm air and smiles.
She continues her gentle ministrations, slowly twisting the chair around to fit what she needs. Ena cups her hand when she gets near either of Mizuki’s ears, saving her sensitive skin from heat that might be too rough on them. She mimics the same tactic when she gets to her bangs, covering her eyes with her hand as she gently fluffs the hair that’s no longer sticking to her face.
Ena shuts off the blow dryer when she’s all done and relishes in its silky feeling, the hair easily gliding between her fingers and extracting giggles from Mizuki as she twirls it around her finger. “You can’t keep playing around in the rain, you’re going to get yourself sick.” Ena lightly chides, setting the appliance down but continuing to fiddle with Mizuki’s cotton candy hair.
“You wouldn’t nurse me back to health?” Ena struggles against her instincts and eventually gives into the desire to look at Mizuki. She immediately regrets it when she sees her face, her imaginary kitty ears bent down and her tail between her legs like she’s actually sulking.
“You know I would..” Ena replies, her eyes shifting to hold eye contact instead of observing the fabricated animal features. “..but I wouldn’t be happy about it so don’t let it happen.” That response makes Mizuki content enough, humming as she stands up and inelegantly flops down on Ena’s bed.
“What’s in your mattress? It’s like it’s made perfectly for me.” Mizuki rolls around and takes up all the space, planting herself smack dab in the middle.
“Hey, scootch. My bed, not yours.” Ena slips into bed next to Mizuki who immediately moves closer and nuzzles her.
“Aww, don’t be stingy Enanan. Can’t we share?” Learning her lesson from last time, Ena doesn’t bother sparing a look at Mizuki who likely is glancing up at her with those big stupid watery eyes that she puts on whatever she wants something. The only reason Ena doesn’t look is because she knows it’ll make her too flustered.
“You big baby.” She pets the top of Mizuki’s head and listens to her pur in response. “I know we were supposed to go out and get dinner, does that mean you’re hungry? We could probably figure something out if you want.” Ena tries to hide the fact that she isn’t dying to get up and cook right now, leaving the choice up to the pink presence that pushes herself even further into Ena’s side.
“I can just order in, I don’t trust your cooking.” Ena can tell by the way Mizuki curls her head down that she’s hiding a teasing smile. Mizuki takes her phone out of her—well, Ena’s—pocket.
“Don’t be rude when you’re all warm in my bed. There’s nothing stopping me from laying you a futon on the floor.” Ena knows she wouldn’t do that, probably couldn’t will herself into it no matter how much Mizuki pushes on her buttons or walks her last nerve. “Let’s pick out some food and then put on a movie while we wait.”
Ena doesn’t leave much room for question but Mizuki takes it as one anyway. “Making all the decisions for us? I treat you so well and I don’t even get a choice.” She fakes a pout and pulls a little away from the heat that mingles between their bodies. Ena clutches her and eases Mizuki back into her spot.
“Oh shut up, just pull up food while I look for a movie.” Mizuki accepts the space that Ena so graciously offers her, leaning into the embrace and making their faces morph into matching smiles.