A group of students huddled closely together, each of them discussing matters of great importance. Among the group were two particular young girls who stood next to each other, one of which was leading the discussion with dedication.
"We need at least two people to patrol the base. Who's going to volunteer?!" She barked. Two students immediately shot their hands into the air. "Alright, you two will guard the base." The students sighed of relief, knowing they wouldn't have to be involved in the fray. "However," They seized up and looked straight into the eyes of the speaker. "If I find out that either one of you surrenders, there will be consequences. Courtesy of the Sonoda family's daughter. Understand?"
"Y-Yes Sir!" The two students snap their hands to their foreheads, saluting to the navy haired girl.
"H-Hey, Umi-chan..." Whispered Honoka.
"What is it?" Umi replied in her low menacing voice.
"A-A-Ah! Nothing! Just..."
"Just...?"
"Just..." Honoka softened her voice as much as she could. "Maybe you're taking this a bit too seriously?"
Umi widened her eyes. "Too seriously? Too seriously? Honoka, one cannot be too serious just before entering a battlefield! This is war!" She exclaimed. She turned back to the rest of the students that awaited her order. Some of them were already getting shaky knees from the mere presence of Sonoda Umi.
"As I thought..." Honoka muttered to herself with a forced smile. "Taking Umi-chan to paintball wasn't such a good idea..."
"Team 2! Ready?" The referee shouts.
"Ready!" The leader shouted back.
"Team 1! Ready?" The referee shouts once more.
"Ready!" Umi yells out with vigor.
"Game on!"
There's immediate open fire as each team charges forward and dives to cover. Bright paint splatters all over the field, marking almost everything in sight an obnoxious yellow, pink, or orange. Aside from the main fray lurks the commander and her right hand woman.
"Remember the plan, Honoka." Umi mutters. "Once I snipe out their first guard, you run and distract the second one. When I take out the last one, grab the flag and run straight back to base. I'll cover you, got it?"
"Roger!"
Both begin to army crawl towards enemy lines, taking out any unsuspecting victims as they go along. They finally reach their destination undetected.
"Look, over there." The navy haired commander points at a medium sized flag. Two guards stand at each side of the flag, on the lookout for anyone who dares to come and take it. The girls nod at each other. Umi lifts her paint-gun, and Honoka crouches into a low running position. "Ready..." The commander whispers. She squints at her target.
Pop.
A paintball fires and breaks onto one of the guards clothes. The guard looks down at their clothes, feeling the sudden pain at their stomach.
"What the-!"
"Out!" The referee calls.
The other guard goes into high alert and lifts her gun into the air, searching for the culprit.
"Now, Honoka!"
The ginger emerges from their hiding spot and starts sprinting across the field. The guard locks her aim onto the ginger, but before she can even fire,
Pop.
"Out!"
Honoka stops in her tracks upon hearing the words and dashes back to the flag. Once she plucks it out from the metal stand, Umi rolls out from hiding place and rushes to her side.
"HEY! They got our flag!" One of the members of other team alerts the rest of group. Each of them now have the nozzles of their gun aimed at the carrier. Paint from all directions flies at the blue-eyed girl. Honoka somehow manages to zig-zag her way out of the line of fire along with Umi shooting any immediate threat.
"Almost there!" Honoka calls out.
An enemy appears from behind a tree just as she says those words from behind a tree, about to fire point blank at her.
"Honoka, look out!" Umi jumps in front of her, and shoots just as the enemy does. Both paint balls breaks on the other.
"Both, out!"
"Umi-chan!"
"Just keep running!"
The ginger obeys only after slight hesitation out of worry for the blue haired girl. Getting shot from so close would hurt, right?
Other teammates covered for the flag bearer, hoping for this battle to end as quick as possible. After constant ducking and diving, the blue-eyed girl finally reaches her team flag and plants the stolen flag next to it.
"Team 1, Winner!"
The field fills with whoops and cheers from the whole team, both out and still in the game. Everyone jumps for joy and high fives each other, but the one who made that possible didn't. She immediately backtracks, looking for her best friend among the ruckus. Opposing team members occasionally approach her, telling her "Good game" or "Good job". Honoka would only reply "Thanks" with a quick smile and go along her way. Umi finally appears, walking up to Honoka with a wide grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye.
"Honoka-chan, you did so well! I'm proud of you!" The copper-eyed girl grips Honoka's shoulders and gives them a squeeze.
"Umi-chan! Are you alright?" Blue eyes trails down to the large pink paint splatter on Umi's shirt. Looks like it hit right on her side.
"Eh? Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, after you got hit from so close, I just thought that would have hurt pretty bad...I heard that people get some nasty bruises from these games because they're so intense but-"
"Don't worry about it, Honoka, it was nothing." Umi gives her a reassuring smile. "Now let's get changed! And, for just this once, since you won for our team, I'll treat you to some bread from your favorite bakery, alright?"
Honoka lets out a shy laugh and scratches at the back of her head. "I didn't do much though...if you didn't help me out we'd still be shooting paint balls and I'd be out of the game."
The dark blue haired girl chuckles and pats Honoka's back. "Take some credit for once, all right? Now, let's go."
Both girls sit back to back in the locker room on a bench, Honoka already having fully changed but Umi still putting on her socks. The ginger looks up at the ceiling, still worried about the other girl at her back. After some quiet contemplation she lifts up her legs and swivels around to the other side.
"Honoka? What's wrong?" Umi inquires. The ginger keeps her silence at stares at the spot Umi had gotten hit. "Hey, say something will you? Why are you staring at me so odd-UWAAH!"
"I knew it!"
Honoka had lifted up Umi's shirt just enough to peek at the skin where she'd been hit. There, a pale red circle. "I knew it, Umi-chan! Look!" Honoka pointed at the circle with concern adorning her face.
"L-Like I said, it's fine! It doesn't even hurt at a-AH! Hey, don't poke it!"
"See, it does hurt! Umi-chan, you can't hide something like that! It's all my fault that-"
"Honoka!" The copper eyed girl puts her hands on the ginger's shoulders and gives a light shake. "See? This is why I tried to hide it. You would end up blaming yourself."
"But...But..." Honoka tries to put up some form of argument. She's too overcome with worry for her best friend that she can't think properly. "If I'd just paid more attention then-"
"Honoka, look."
But Honoka didn't look. She kept her eyes glued to the floor, wallowing in regret. "Honoka, please look at me." Umi gently cupped the other girl's face and turned it to her. Slowly, ocean blue irises meets copper. "Honoka...I know...that sometimes I treat you like a pain in the neck, and that I scold you a lot...but that doesn't mean I don't care for you. It's just the opposite. I care for you more than you know. You're...You're very important to me, alright?" Umi peels away her gaze and looks to the side. "S-so that's why something like this is nothing to me. If it even came down to it..." She lowers her voice to a barely a whisper. She can feel a familiar heat rise up to her cheeks. "I'd die for you, you know? That's how much you mean to me."
A heavy silence blankets the air. Honoka's eyes begin to water and her lip starts to quiver.
"Um...Hono-"
"Umi-chaaaaann!" Honoka throws herself at Umi as she bursts into tears, almost knocking down the blue haired girl. "Umi-chan, I love you tooo!"
"H-Honoka, please, I..." Umi tries to protest. "Oh...I guess there's no really helping it is there." She laughs to herself and puts a hand on Honoka's head, patting it lightly in hopes of calming down the wailing girl.
"Geez, and I'm the one supposed to be hurting."
A/N: Originally posted on my tumblr, akihaotaku. You can find the original post easily through the tag 'akiha writes'. Follow my tumblr if you enjoy LL, because I post so much idol trash. Leave a favorite and review if you enjoyed this, and let me know of any errors, typos, grammar things etc etc so I can fix them. Thanks for reading!
