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"Dia-san, can I brush your hair?"
Dia's heart stopped as she slowly rose her head, attention moving from the piece of paper she was writing on. Standing in front of her was Hanamaru, a bright blue hair brush in her hand. Her face was slightly flushed.
No. Why did she have to be here now of all times? The sparkle in her eyes made Dia's cheeks warm. "Say that again?"
"I want to brush your hair, zura!"
"What? Why do you want to do that?" She patted down the back of her head. "Are you telling me there's something wrong with it?"
"No! I just like how straight and smooth your hair is, so Maru thought it'd be fun to run a brush through, zura!" said Hanamaru, walking around the desk and standing next to Dia.
"I…" What a strange request. Honestly, Dia rather liked Hanamaru's visits to the student council office, even if it was for a bizarre reason. Right now, though, she needed her to leave. "I'm busy right now."
"Please?" said Hanamaru, leaning towards Dia. A small, adorable smile crept onto her face. "You'll feel really good!"
Hanamaru's face was much closer than Dia was used to. That smile always made Dia's heart flutter. Her golden eyes were so full of innocent, genuine desire. She smelt vaguely like she'd recently been in a tea shop, full of confectionary and matcha. It made Dia want to be even closer to her.
Now was not the time for that, though. "Hanamaru-san, leave me alone for now. If my hair is a mess, I will fix it myself."
Smile falling, Hanamaru glanced away from Dia. "Okay. I'll let you get back to your work, zura…"
Dia felt her heart drop at Hanamaru's crestfallen expression. It was disgusting, the effect the girl's sadness always had on her. Feelings were such ugly things sometimes. As she watched Hanamaru leave her side, Dia suddenly regretted the decision she'd made. Stuffing her paper into the desk, Dia quickly reached out and grabbed Hanamaru's free hand. "Wait. Don't go yet."
Hanamaru turned around, face contorted into a look of confusion. "Zura?"
God, she was going to regret this. Hopefully Hanamaru didn't notice the sweat beginning to form on Dia's hand. "Fine. I'll let you brush my hair. Only for a few minutes, though."
Beaming, Hanamaru zoomed over to Dia's side. "Hooray!" She let Dia's hand go as she took a handful of hair and ran the brush through. "Your hair is some of the prettiest I've ever seen, zura…"
"T-Thank you," stammered Dia, suddenly wanting to slap herself. Being in such close proximity to Hanamaru in the past few months always seemed to transform Dia into something of a stuttering mess. She sat silently as Hanamaru brushed her hair all over, her heart doing a jump with every gentle tug and stroke. Clearly, her hair was as smooth and straight as Hanamaru said it was. Dia bit her lip to quiet an involuntary sigh.
When Hanamaru removed her hand and the brush, Dia turned to her with a frown. "Who told you to stop?"
Hanamaru's eyes widened. "H-Huh? But you told me I could only do it for a few minutes!"
Oh, right. Dia wished she hadn't said that. "I suppose that's true." Her eyes moved to Hanamaru's own hair; a few strands were sticking up on the side. She resisted the urge to lick her finger and smooth it out, as she typically would have done if she saw a small amount of Ruby's hair poking up.
"Maru can do it more if you want, zura!" said Hanamaru, grinning. Goodness, Dia could gaze at her face all day.
Dia shook her head as she stood. "Hanamaru-san, your hair is rather frizzy, you know. Why don't you come sit on my chair and let me brush yours now?"
Hanamaru blinked before her grin widened. "Okay! But why?"
"Well…" Dia tried to ignore how clammy her hands had gotten. "I figured that I should return the favour, considering that you were right about making me feel good. I-I want to make you feel good too, Hanamaru-san."
If it was even possible, Hanamaru's grin grew even larger. "That's so…thank you, Dia-san!" She handed over the brush and sat in Dia's chair.
Taking the brush, Dia placed a hand on Hanamaru's shoulder and began to brush. Though her hair wasn't quite as free of tangles and knots as Dia's seemed to be, it was still remarkably easy to run the brush through. As she continued, Dia ended up less focused on brushing and more on how Hanamaru smelled. Oh yes, that was definitely the scent of matcha on her, mixed with the scent of red bean paste. Was Hanamaru even aware of how much Dia loved matcha?
"Mmmm…" Hanamaru shut her eyes and leaned backwards, her head pressing against Dia's waist.
Dia took a sharp breath. This wasn't fair. Why, oh why did her content expression have to be so intoxicating to look at? "Hanamaru-san, if you do that, I can't brush the back of your hair."
"Oh! Right!" Hanamaru leaned forward again.
"I-If you want to lay back, though, I can focus on the side of your hair," said Dia. Please, lean back again, please…
Giggling, Hanamaru brought her head back. "You feel nice and comfy, zura."
Dia felt like her face was on fire. Why was Hanamaru so damn cute?
Hanamaru made small hums of pleasure as the brush went through her hair. That was it. Dia couldn't resist any longer. She kneeled down and moved her brush-less arm, wrapping it around Hanamaru's waist. It was so soft, so wonderful…Dia found herself pressing her face into the back of Hanamaru's head, taking her scent in to the fullest. It was only going this close that allowed Dia to pick up the scent of flowery shampoo. She placed the brush aside and ran through the hair with her fingers instead, lightly dragging their tips against Hanamaru's scalp. At this, Hanamaru let out a pleasured sigh.
"This feels so…so good, zura," said Hanamaru, reaching behind and placing her hand on Dia's cheek. "Wow, you're so warm!"
Dia nearly yelped at the contact. Really and truly, she couldn't take much more of this. The more Hanamaru enjoyed Dia's touches, not to mention reciprocated them, the more Dia wanted to cease brushing completely. She wanted to spin the chair around and take Hanamaru fully into her arms, to gaze into her eyes and…well, the thought made Dia's cheeks practically melt from embarrassment. She needed to tell Hanamaru how she felt, right this moment. "I'm fine, you don't need to worry about it. But Hanamaru-san, I think you should know something. I—"
"Aww, the new student council president is so adorable!" came a voice.
Quickly releasing Hanamaru and standing up, Dia stared at the office's entrance.
In the middle of the door stood Kanan, bearing a toothy smile. "You look great sitting in that chair, Hanamaru-chan!"
Hanamaru was quiet. After a few moments, she finally spoke. "Really? In that case, maybe Maru will approve the Fallen Angel club to make Yoshiko-chan happy, zura!"
"You will not!" cried Dia.
"See, this is why you'd be more fun to approach than Dia."
Dia stormed over to Kanan. "You."
Kanan took a step back. "Uh, Dia? Are you feeling alright? You're red all over."
Grimacing, Dia clenched the door handle. "What are you doing here? This is a private affair!"
"Private?" Kanan raised an eyebrow. She looked at Hanamaru, then back at Dia. A smirk gradually formed. Uh oh. "Oh, I think I get—"
"Don't even say it!" Dia slammed the door shut. She clenched her fists as Kanan continued to look at her, still visible though the door's window. Kanan began to laugh, though Dia's sharp glare made her stop quickly.
"I'll come back later," said Kanan's muffled voice. "Good luck!"
Dia groaned as Kanan left her sight. Turning and heading towards the window, she glanced around at everything but Hanamaru's face. The moment was broken. Now she didn't feel like saying anything at all to her.
"Dia-san?"
Continuing to avert her gaze, Dia stared out the window at the cloudy sky. "Yes?"
The chair clacked as Hanamaru presumably stood. A few moments later, arms squeezed Dia from behind.
This time Dia was unable to supress a yelp. The sudden feeling of Hanamaru's body squishing against her was so unbelievably unexpected that for a moment Dia wondered if she was in some kind of miraculous dream. Unable to speak, Dia did nothing but breathe as Hanamaru held her. The softness of Hanamaru's breasts and belly were unlike anything Dia had felt against her; she wanted to lie back on Hanamaru as if she were a pillow. This thought only served to make Dia shudder. Oh lord, why did she have to think all of these shameful and inappropriate thoughts?
Despite her anxiety, Dia's body was cold when Hanamaru pulled away. "Hanamaru-san…?"
"Sorry…I-I don't know why I did that just now, zura."
At last Dia brought her eyes back to Hanamaru, who sheepishly stepped away. Her cheeks were redder than Maki's hair.
Hanamaru smiled nervously. "I should probably leave now, huh?"
Dia was tempted to grab her again, to tell her that she genuinely wanted Hanamaru to stay. Alas, Kanan's arrival had made her realize that the student council office was not the best place to discuss matters like this. She would have to go back to her original plan. Dia hoped her face didn't seem too downtrodden. "You probably should. Kanan-san or someone else might need me. But that just now, that was…pleasant. Thank you."
It seemed to be Hanamaru's turn to keep her eyes off Dia as she picked her brush up. "I'm happy you liked it. T-Thank you for letting Maru brush you, and for brushing Maru back, zura."
"Not a problem," said Dia. The longer this dragged on, the antsier she felt. "Now, off you go. Tell Ruby that I'll be a little late getting home, if you could."
"Okay." Hanamaru nodded, then headed for the door.
As Hanamaru reached for the handle, Dia called out: "Hanamaru-san, one last thing. Will you do me a favour?"
Twisting her head to the side, Hanamaru looked at Dia inquisitively. "Hmm? What is it?"
"Meet me outside the front of the school at this same time tomorrow," said Dia. "There's something I need you for."
"Will you tell me what it is, zura?"
"I can't tell you why. Not right now. Just promise me you'll come, please."
Flashing another small grin, Hanamaru nodded. "I promise."
Dia sat back at her desk as she watched Hanamaru exit the room. "That was a close one," she whispered to herself. Everything that had just occurred was unexpected, to say the least. Her head ached somewhat at remembering that Kanan would likely be by later, ready to tease her about the whole thing.
If Dia ever developed a stupid crush on someone else, there was no way she was telling anyone again. Not that that was likely, of course; Dia didn't want to imagine having a romance with anybody else.
She opened the desk and brought her paper out. It had gotten rather crumpled as Dia had put it away, but it was still legible. Dia felt relief wash over her, knowing that Hanamaru hadn't read it. It wasn't like she would've seen it anyway, but it would've been disastrous if she had seen what was written.
After all, what kind of timing was it when someone walked in on their potential girlfriend writing out a confession speech?
Today's events had increased Dia's resolve to confess tenfold. She was going to tell Hanamaru exactly how she felt about her tomorrow, and nothing would stand in her way.