"Since when was she that tall?"
Nico makes a face, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed at the girl standing a bit ways off surrounded by a handful of other students. They're all trying to push things into her hands, colorful cards and flowers and small boxes of chocolates with ribbons. Pretty gag-worthy, to be frank.
Maki, for her part, manages to keep an expression of indifference and coolly shrugs. "Last year. She kept complaining about her clothes shrinking all throughout her growth spurt." She spares Nico a glance, and her mouth quirks up in a little smirk. "Though it looks like you were never that lucky even after high school, huh Nico-chan?"
"Oh, shut up," the smaller girl grumbles. It's almost hilarious how Nico looks exactly the same even after two years. Her face had lost some of that cute roundness, and she wears her hair in lower pigtails, but Nico is still the same exact Nico that Maki remembers which is sort of comforting in its own way.
Rin, on the other hand...
"S-sorry, I really can't hold all of this..."
"Ahh, but Rin-senpai!" one of the girls pouts and tugs at Rin's sleeve. "We put so much hard work into making these chocolates! At least have a taste?"
"Well, okay!" Rin awkwardly runs a hand through her hair and it settles into a messy nest, but the girls apparently like that sort of thing because their tittering increases in volume. Maki's eye twitches. Nico notices, and stifles a snicker behind her hand. "But just a little. I have a track meet after school, nya!"
Rin's face immediately flushes when the meow slips out; it's a habit she had been trying to break, but the girls squeal with delight and practically bounce on their feet.
"Rin-senpai is so cute!"
"I know, right?!"
"Nyaa~! God, too adorable! Rin-senpai's cute charms are seriously the best!"
Maki suddenly feels the urge to throw a folding chair into the small mob. Meanwhile, Nico is still trying (and failing) to hide her laughter.
"Hey now, no teasing Rin-senpai!" Rin holds her palms up, and does that goddamn thing with her hair again that only sends her admirers into another fit of swoons and giggles. That's the moment Maki decides to storm over and shove her way through, grab Rin by the arm, and haul her back to where Nico's watching and shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Rin has something else to do. Bother her another time," Maki shoots the underclassmen a cold glare and they reluctantly retreat with low mutters.
"Maki-chan, don't be so mean! They just wanna be friends!"
"Sure, sure, friends! Sheesh, you're still as dense as ever!" Nico thumps Rin on the back. Maki huffs. She still hasn't let go of Rin's arm.
"Go away, Nico-chan."
"Oh, don't be like that! I only get to visit for a day."
"I don't care."
"You totally do."
"I do not!"
"Is it just me, or did you get even more tsundere while I was gone? Wow, I didn't even know that was possible—"
"Get lost!" Maki is squeezing Rin's arm a little too tightly at this point, but Rin doesn't protest even if she winces in discomfort.
"You know, Kayo-chin is probably still in the clubroom with the new members. You should go find her, Nico-chan! She was talking about how excited she was to see you again." Damage control. As much as Rin enjoys seeing Maki flustered, her arm can only take so much pressure before it's utterly crushed. Nico smugly tilts her head and lightly says something about Maki being jealous, and then she's gone, retreating down the hall on her way to her old clubroom.
"Jealous?" Rin looks down at Maki with a puzzled, oblivious smile. "I dunno what Maki-chan could be jealous of! She's already so smart, and pretty, and talented. There's nobody who could be better."
"Ugh, you know, it's exactly those kinds of things you say..." Maki is aware that her face is turning red and she quickly looks the other way.
It's almost unfair how much Rin had grown in the short span of one year. After retiring from idol activities and joining the track team, Rin put on more height and lean muscle that polished her image of the track star she came to be known as around Otonokizaka. She matured, but only in looks. Her energetic, childish grins didn't become any less energetic nor childish and she was still too stupidly affectionate and too mediocre in her schoolwork and too Rin.
In short, Rin was tall and good-looking and cute and charming and their underclassmen definitely appreciated that.
It sort of annoyed Maki.
"You've got a weird look on your face. Do you have a fever?" Rin leans a bit too close for comfort and Maki takes a hasty step back, still looking away.
"How can you even stand being mobbed like that all the time? They practically follow you everywhere, like hungry dogs."
"The underclassmen?" She steps forward, undeterred by Maki's attempt at a retreat. "Well, Rin thinks they're nice and kinda funny so she thought she'd just let them do whatever they want until they get bored!"
"You're unbelievable..."
Rin places strong, calloused hands on Maki's shoulders to stop her from moving away again.
"Maki-chan, you know you can tell Rin if she did something wrong, right? I don't like it when you're mad at me."
Rin did nothing wrong, except suddenly grow to be... how would Nico say Maki would put it? Fine as hell? That doesn't even sound remotely correct.
Though Maki can't say that that's a bad thing either. She fights back the blush on her face with sheer mental willpower (it doesn't work) and places a hand over one of Rin's. "Just forget about what Nico-chan said. She's stupid. You're stupid too, for the record."
"Heeeh, you're so harsh!"
Light footsteps approach.
"Rin-senpai~!"
Oh, great. Another one. Maki can feel her patience wearing down to the last thread, and she frantically glances between Rin and the approaching girl.
In her frustrated panic, she roughly grabs Rin by the front of her shirt and yanks her in for a kiss.
It's sloppy, and Rin makes a muffled sound like a distressed cat, and Maki honestly has no idea what she's doing, but Rin's lips are soft and she isn't pushing away and she can hear that scandalized gasp from the other girl. It's satisfying as hell. It's Maki's own victory. It's...
Wait, what?
"M-M-M-Maki-chan?!" Rin gasps out the moment she's released, the color of her face now matching Maki's.
It's an awful mistake. Probably. Maki runs a hand over her face and groans, head hanging low.
"Whoa, about time." As if it couldn't possibly get any worse, Nico is there with Hanayo at her side, wearing a shit-eating grin. "See, Maki, this is why it's no good to bottle up all your feelings like that."
The underclassmen, all but forgotten now, makes a small noise and hurries away. That just happened. It sure just happened.
Maki still can't bring herself to look at anywhere but the inside of her hands, pressed against her face.
"Nico-chan, maybe we should give them some time alone..."
And somehow, Hanayo is the most composed out of all of them. Maki can hear the understanding smile in her voice, bless her.
Rin still hasn't said anything else, eyes wide and mouth silently opening and closing like a fish out of the water. Was it really that bad?
Ah, she really screwed this one up.
But then they're alone again, Hanayo having dragged Nico away, and Maki considers fleeing even though she knows Rin is fast enough to catch her without even breaking a sweat. When did it even start...? Long before Rin caught the eyes of their underclassmen, that's for sure. Long before Rin started getting confession letters and small gifts of food and before she was Rin-senpai to everyone. Back when they were still a part of Muse, all together. The thoughts make Maki feel petty, a feeling settling sickly in her stomach, and... ugh, she can still taste Rin. Sweet and salty.
"Maki-chan...?"
"It's— it's okay if you're upset, just. Can we not talk about it ever again? Jeez, sometimes you piss me off so much, and I just..."
Strong arms wrap around her and Maki squeaks in surprise. Rin has her nose buried in red hair and she can feel the taller girl's warm breath against her scalp.
"Sorry! Rin should've realized it earlier." Rin is slightly trembling with laughter, though, and Maki suddenly feels very indignant and flustered. Rin's jacket smells faintly of ramen and something sweeter.
"You think it's like that-? No, you've got it totally wrong—"
"But I really like you too!"
"Jeez! I know, I know. You've been telling me that every single day."
Then it dawns on Maki.
And suddenly she feels like the biggest moron in the world.
But since when did Rin's daily declarations of affection become like... that? Where was the subtle difference between the way she told Hanayo she loved her and the way she told Maki the same thing, word for word? No, Rin's still the bigger moron here, Maki decides. But she's smiling now too and she hesitantly reciprocates the hug. That might be a headache on its way, too. What a mess.
"You always cause so much trouble for me, you know that?"
"Hehe, my bad..." Rin plants a kiss on her forehead. Maki's still smiling. "But Rin's gonna try her best from now on, okay?"
"You... you don't need to. You're already the best I could have."
"Aaah! Now Maki-chan's the one saying weird sappy things!"
"What— you knew how embarrassing the things you said before were?!"
"Nyahaha! This side of Maki-chan's the greatest!"
"I take back what I said. You're the worst."
"Nya?!"
Her smile is less inhibited when she pulls Rin down for their second kiss. This time it's slower and more gentle— and better yet, nobody's watching. They could savor it as long as they want to, the rest of the world forgotten.
"Yeah! Get some!" Nico calls from around the corner.
Rin has to hold Maki back when she tries to throw a textbook at Nico.
.
.
.
A/N: To clarify why Nico was there, she got a day or week off from college so she decided to visit Otonokizaka. Whatever works.
I like to imagine that Rin suddenly grows tall and looks more mature in her third year (even if she's still pretty immature). Everyone would expect Maki to have all the admirers since she's Maki, but I think it would be funny if Rin unexpectedly was the one to receive the most attention. Also, Rin is around half a head taller than Maki in this story.
I'm not sure what I was going for while I was writing this. It was like 3 AM so I was only half-awake, oops.