Why was all of Muse at her beach home again?
Maki pondered upon that question as Rin kicked her in the side for the third time that night. It was only supposed to be Nozomi. Just Nozomi. But Nozomi insisted the rest of Muse tag along for the night. So here she was, listening to Honoka snore so loud, she could wake up all of Tokyo from here, even though they were miles from Tokyo.
Maki sighed, and pulled the blanket over her head, hoping to drown out Honoka. Why couldn't she sleep in her own room? This wouldn't be a problem if her girlfriend hadn't dragged everybody else here. She and Nozomi could have used this room for better things, like cuddling in a pile of blankets or watching cheesy romance movies, not for seeing the light and hearing the music coming from Hanayo's phone as she furiously moved her thumbs around, tapping circles to the beat of their songs.
Another sigh came from the redhead as she decided to simply faceplant into her pillow. Maybe sleep could be possible if Rin stopped moving around in her sleep. Maki propped herself up on her elbows and looked around. She could guess Umi was the only one being reasonable around here and sleeping like a normal person. Nico was clinging to Eli, and Kotori was humming songs in the middle of the night. Was she just destined to suffer all night?
Slowly, Maki stood up, wrapping her red blanket around her shoulders. She looked at the eight other members of Muse not sleeping peacefully-
Nozomi was missing. Great. Not only would she be sleepless now, but she would be sleepless and lonely. This night couldn't get any better.
Deciding to leave the others, Maki headed upstairs to where the guests rooms were. Maki had her own room in this home, despite this not being her actual house. She placed her hand on the doorknob to her room, ready to open the door to a night of wonderful sleep. She opened the door and looked inside the room.
She dropped her blanket. "What the…."
She was greeted to something in the middle of the room. A pillow fort, to be more exact. There was a big blanket draped over five chairs, with pillows, spare blankets, and plushes surrounding the fort. In front of the fort was a smiling Nozomi, holding a Maki plush.
"Nozomi… what is the meaning of this?"
Nozomi was petting the hair of the Maki plush in her hands. "Oh, Maki! You're finally here!"
Maki facepalmed. "Umm, Nozomi… answer my question please. Why is there a pillow fort in my room?"
A giggle was heard from Nozomi and she turned to face the fort. "You don't need a reason to build a pillow castle."
"Nozomi, two things. First, you do need a reason for this. Second, that's a fort, not a castle," she deadpanned towards her girlfriend.
"No, Maki. This is a pillow castle! It's our pillow castle! I made it for you!" Nozomi happily replied. She picked up the red blanket in the doorway and put it back on Maki's shoulders, but she tied the ends of it so it looked like a cape. Quietly, she ran to the other end of the room and got something, then returned to Maki. She giggled as she placed something on top of Maki's red hair.
Maki took the object off of her head. It was… a flower crown.
"Why do I have this on my head?" she asked.
Nozomi took the flower crown out of Maki's hands and put it back on her girlfriend's head. "Because I made you the queen of our castle! This is your crown!"
A blush slowly spread across the redhead's face, a tone of red that perfectly matched her hair. "Nozomi! Stop being such a dork!" Maki attempted to hide her face with her hands. But with the way Nozomi was smiling at her, it was obvious it wasn't working. She put her hands at her sides again, and looked at Nozomi. "So… now what?"
She laughed as she took a hold of Maki's hand. "Simple! We go to the castle now!" She started walking to the pillow fort, and once there, she let go of her hand, got on her knees, and lifted a blanket up. Nozomi crawled inside the fort, and once inside, signalled for Maki to enter as well. With a bit of hesitation, Maki crawled in as well.
Nozomi let go of the edge of the blanket, the blanket draping over the entrance. The inside of the fort looked a bit different than the outside, there were more pillows and plushies inside the fort. Many colorful blankets lined the ground, and Nozomi's phone was also in here. The phone displayed a time of 2:26 AM.
Maki adjusted the flower crown on her head. "This place needs a name. Since I'm the 'queen,' I get to pick the name," she said.
She heard quiet giggles from Nozomi. "Oh, Maki! I didn't tell you, but I already have a name for our your castle!"
"What did you name it? It better be awesome," Maki added.
Nozomi threw her arms up. "Castle Fluffycuddles!"
"No! We are not using that name!" She lightly jabbed Nozomi with her elbow. "Come up with a better name! Like "Castle NOT Fluffycuddles.""
Nozomi jerked back a bit, rubbing her upper arm, where Maki had jabbed her. She took her pink ties out of her hair, letting her purple twintails fall loosely behind her. "I made that name because it reminded me of you! You're fluffy, and even if you don't want to admit it, you're quite the cuddler!"
Maki looked down, trying to hide a blush. "F-fine… we'll use your stupid name..." She crossed her arms and huffed. Why did her girlfriend have to be Nozomi of all people? It's like she could never win a single pointless argument against her. Whenever she had a reasonable point, Nozomi was quick to throw it down with a more stupid idea. She hated to admit it, but the stupid ideas her girlfriend had usually ended up being more fun for the two of them-
She was suddenly interrupted by a pillow smacking the back of her head. Maki looked behind her to see a smiling Nozomi, holding a pink pillow in her hands. "What was that for!?" Maki yelled at her.
"It was boring in here, so I decided to start a fun little pillow fight!" Nozomi replied. "Aren't pillow fights fun? I remember the last time we were here, all of us-" She was also interrupted by a pillow to the back of the head. She looked the the left to see Maki clutching a red pillow, ready to strike again.
"You wanna start a pillow fight?" Maki smirked at her. "You'll get a pillow fight."
Nozomi laughed. "Alright, but let's take this outside of Castle Fluffycuddles," she added. Both girls made their way out of the pillow fort, armed with pillows in hand. They then stood on opposite end of the room, with Castle Fluffycuddles in between them. Maki adjusted her blanket cape.
"Ready, Nozomi?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Maki started the countdown. "Three… two…"
Nozomi started running towards her. "One!" Before she could even finish two, Nozomi had hit her in the face with her pillow, knocking her flower crown off of her head.
Maki stumbled back a bit from the blow. She looked at her girlfriend with a determined look. "Are we gonna play it like this, Nozo? Don't think you're the only one who can play these dirty tricks on me."
She picked up her flower crown and set it aside for now. Instead of running towards her target, Maki stood in place.
Nozomi took note of how Maki was just standing there, so started running around the fort to get to her enemy. She lifted her pillow to strike, but instead of bringing the pillow down on Maki, she felt something hit her side. She looked in front of her to see a smug looking redhead in front of her, holding her pillow as feathers rained down.
Maki started to charge at Nozomi, causing her to back up into the fort. Before the pillow could hit her again, she put her pillow in front of her face, defending her from the blow. A blanket fell off of Castle Fluffycuddles in the process. Maki ran to the other side of the fort and looked at Nozomi.
"Hmm… you're better than I thought. But I don't think you can take down the queen!" She fluffed her cape for extra emphasis, but it just came off looking really dorky. Nozomi lightly hit her from across the fort, making more blankets fall off, and more feathers fly. Maki crawled into the pillow fort, grabbing Nozomi by the ankles. She then pulled her hands towards herself, causing Nozomi to fall into Castle Fluffycuddles.
The blanket creating the top of the fort gave way, falling with Nozomi. Maki removed the blanket from her head and grabbed the pillow again. She was ready to strike again, but Nozomi had somehow managed to squirm out of her grasp, standing upon the rubble of the fort, pillow in hand. Maki stood up as well, holding the pillow as if she were ready to end this fight.
"Maki, I won't let you win this!" Nozomi said through exhausted breaths.
"I won't let you walk away victorious, either!"
Both girls walk back a bit, before running at each other and hitting the other as hard as possible. However, only their pillows collided, sending a storm of feathers into the air and onto the ground. They looked around the room, then to each other.
"Maki… the castle is gone," Nozomi said while looking down at the heap of blankets below her.
Maki looked down as well. "Yeah… now what… I am NOT going back downstairs to sleep."
Nozomi looked at her phone, which displayed the time as 3:13 AM. "You don't need to, since you're up here." She ran a hand through her loose hair before turning off her phone. She sat down in the blanket and pillow pile. She brushed some stray feathers from the pile and patted the spot next to her with her other hand. Maki took this as a sign to get next to Nozomi, and she sat down next to her. Carefully, Nozomi covered herself and Maki with the big blanket that served as the roof of the fort.
Maki turned her phone on for a second. "Just look at the time…" She pointed to the time display on the phone. "Are we going to be awake by the time the rest of our friends are?"
Nozomi giggled quietly. "So, what if we're still sleeping by then? A little sleep never hurt anybody," she commented while playing with Maki's hair. She started to hum a little song, one she had made up on the spot. Maki also started to hum along to the song, one that had no clear direction or rhythm. Nozomi removed her hands from Maki's hair, with her hair now boasting a small braid in it.
"Thanks... " Maki quietly whispered.
They looked at each other, both blushing a light pink. A few seconds later, Maki took the opportunity to wrap her arms around Nozomi's neck, then pulling her into a kiss. She felt Nozomi kiss her back, moving her hands into her hair. After a few seconds, they pulled away, placing their foreheads together. Nozomi quickly kissed Maki's forehead, causing her to quietly laugh as she snuggled closer to her girlfriend.
Maki felt Nozomi lay her head on her chest, wrapping her arms around her in a hug like motion. She quietly sighed to herself as she lay her head against Nozomi's, quietly drifting off to sleep alongside her.