a/n: here's a small birthday/holiday present for my pal rose (aka Melphis_Amekia on twitter), the original trio hanging out!
"It's a little cold for ice cream, isn't it?" Hazuki frowned at the cone in her hand, trying to wipe off the dribble from the threads of her glove. Kumiko shrugged.
"I thought it'd be a nice thing to do," she said. "I mean, we h-haven't really hung out that much lately, have we? Just the three of us, I mean."
"I guess not." Midori took a massive bite of her ice cream without saying another word. Kumiko flinched. "Still, Kumiko-chan, why'd you wanna meet us here like this?"
"Can't I just ask to hang out with my two friends in peace?"
"You've got some kind of ulterior motive, don't you?" Midori stepped closer, standing on her tiptoes in an attempt to look more imposing. All she really succeeded in doing was making it painfully obvious how tiny and harmless she was. "Ooh, I bet it's relationship advice! You want to know how to woo Kousaka-san, right?"
"N-no, I just wanted to-"
"I can help with that!" Hazuki jumped up and down, still clutching her ice cream tightly. "I'm good with romance stuff!"
"You're really not," Midori muttered as an aside, but Hazuki seemed too excited to hear her. "Kumiko-chan, you sneaky girl!"
"Seriously, I wanted to hang out with you two so that we wouldn't talk about that!" Kumiko's ice cream slid to the side as she flung her arms out for emphasis, and she had to struggle to keep it contained. "I mean, I'm with Reina. That's, uh, that's kind of amazing, but you two are still really important, y'know? I just figure we should meet up somewhere we don't usually go."
"So you picked the dinky ice cream place that's just about to close?" Hazuki looked around, and Kumiko knew what she meant. Paint was peeling, chairs were falling apart, and they'd been slowly dropping in staff. "I kinda like it."
"You do?" Kumiko and Midori said in unison.
"Mm-hmm. It's got a nice charm to it."
"You're spending too much time around Natsuki-senpai," Midori chided. "She'd love a place like this, all creepy and spooky. I like cuter things."
"We know," Kumiko and Hazuki said, again in unison, and then the three of them laughed. It all felt so natural, so easy, that Kumiko couldn't help but laugh and laugh until she was out of breath and the ice cream cone was slipping from her grip.
"Thanks for doing this," Kumiko finally said, once she'd regained her breath. "It's, uh, it's really nice."
"Of course!" Hazuki chirped, swinging her free arm around Kumiko's shoulder. Midori soon followed suit. "Geez, didja think we wouldn't always be friends? You two were the first people I talked to that first day! That's something nothing can get in the way of."
"Yeah," Kumiko murmured, wiping away the tear that had started to form in the corner of her eye. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
And so they just talked and laughed for hours, until the ice cream shop closed up and they were just three girls walking home beneath a blanket of stars.
a/n: happy new year!
