"Why are we walking all the way to this coffee shop a block away this late at night?" Maki asked as she walked outside her doorstep.
"Because, silly, it's a fancy new shop that opened up, and you did say you needed coffee for tonight!" Nico replied, following her out the door.
Maki sighed, trying her hardest not to groan at her girlfriend's attempt to be cute. She had insisted on and on that she could have had one of her maids make coffee for her, but no, Nico insisted on this new shop. Maki was tasked to write a song for an upcoming Live, and Nico had gallantly offered to help her, knowing full well she was just saying that to get more alone time with Maki. Not that she minded or anything. When Nico was being genuine like this, she couldn't help but remember why she fell in love with her. Nico skipped down the street, humming a little tune to herself as she dragged Maki's hand along with her. God, she hated how absolutely sweet she could be sometimes doing the most menial tasks. How and why she had even thought of dating this little devil? Everything about Nico was annoying and made Maki rethink her own life choices. She couldn't take it; her uneven, yet adorable bangs, that ear to ear grin that always seemed to redden Maki,'s cheeks, her short yet cute figure, those beautiful legs of hers….
Oh geez. Totally gay for Nico.
"Thank you for coming with me on this date, Maki~" Nico cooed, as her mouth formed a
petite smile as she noticed Maki's cheeks tinging.
Maki's head became light headed with the thought of this coffee stop becoming a date: they had been dating for a month or two at this point, but it still flustered her to no end whenever they had gone out to do anything; she was an absolute nervous wreck around someone as cute as Nico. "I-It's ok, don't worry Nico-chan. L-Look! We're already here, let's get inside already!" Maki stammered, attempted to hide her blush as Nico stifled a laugh. A comforting smell of ground coffee, creamer, and lacquered wood seemed to drift into the couple's senses as they walked into the coffee shop. Maki's first thought was that the establishment was trying much too hard to be "classy", but her girlfriend had different opinions. "Maki-chan, look! These tables and chairs are so fancy, and the coffee smells good, and there're even sweets!" Nico exclaimed. How she could transform from her quippy, insulting behavior to her heart-meltingly cute self was beyond Maki, but she was more than glad to have both sides; she felt like every day was different and fun, in a way. Disregarding her sightseeing girlfriend, the red-haired girl went to the register to order her coffee, wanting to hurry things up so that more time could be allotted to the actual important things they needed to do.
"Hello there! May I take your order, Miss?" The barista chimed, the fakeness and tiredness much too apparent in her voice. Maki sort of felt a bit bad; she knew much too well how it was to work into the wee hours of the night, and felt like she didn't want to give her too much of a hard time, not like she was known for doing that, anyways.
"Yeah, sure," Maki replied, taking a moment to look up at the chalk drawn menu written above her, taking a moment of what would give her the energy to actually finish the song. "Could I get a large macchiato with extra foam please?"
"Sure, no problem!" The tired barista replied, "That'll be 450 yen." Maki handed her the bill, quickly took her change and took her much more comfortable position on a nicely upholstered couch. After she sat down, Nico had finally stood up, seemingly ready to order her own drink. Like she tended to do, her small girlfriend walked up and started her order, making sure to sound as overly cute as her vocal chords could allow her.
"Hello-nii~ Could Nico-Nii get a -" Nico beamed with her usual gimmick, which was seemingly interrupted by the looming board above her, which had the names of all the drinks. She attempted to mouth out the words that she had trouble reading, and furrowed her brow in frustration after a few seconds; finally stuttering out, "A, u-uh, 'Cah-fee Ah Late?' " Maki couldn't help but let out a muffled snort at Nico's attempt to pronounce the French; she knew the words well enough, she had read a book on French once. But with her girlfriend, who was not very known for her apparent intelligence, she knew she was in for fun when she saw the menu.
Maki barely contained her laughter as her girlfriend attempted to pronounce the French, only serving to completely butcher it, eliciting a snarky remark from the dark-haired girl.
"Hey, I have enough trouble learning two languages, it's a miracle I could even say what that was!" She remarked, paying no attention to the cashier awkwardly watching the one-sided fight. The bartender only answered back with a small smile, as she repeated the order back to the small girl, making sure that what she was making was correct, before moving to the espresso machine to make the two drinks.
Nico wandered back to the seat that her girlfriend was currently occupying, and took the rare moment of them being alone to snuggle beside her girlfriend. Even though nothing was really said, both of them enjoyed intimate moments like this more than anything in the world; even if their back and forth personalities are what people saw a majority of. The paradise of cuddling was unfortunately interrupted by the barista repeating the name of the drinks, with Nico giggling to herself as she heard Maki's drink called out.
"Getting a Maki-ato, are you now? You're really pushing it now, dear." Nico said with an all too amused grin. Hearing the joke, Maki gave an all-too-regular groan of annoyance at the horrible pun.
"Any more of those stupid ones and you're not getting anything, Ms. Yazawa," Maki bickered, shaking her hips, which was an all too futile attempt to seduce her senior.
"Nice try baby, you know it's always me who starts our "fun"; you couldn't get me in bed if you tried!" Nico answered, showing off her signature smug smile; another one of those points that Maki "hated" about her.
The couple finished their tiny fight, picking up their cups and walking out of the dimly lit coffee shop. Maki was finally glad to get that entire debacle out of the way; the sooner they got out of the shop, the sooner she could start to finish the song and finally have the house alone to herself. She could get ready for school and study, and totally not spent another restless night thinking of her totally not hot senior who was currently with her. As the two walked away from the building, the couple stood and stared at the slowly setting sunset, transfixed at the war the yellows were having with the reds, nearly forgetting that there was a deadline that was slowly looming on them. Seeing the auburn skyline eased Maki; she was in her own tiny paradise, only to be interrupted by her girlfriend.
"- home, the Great Idol Nico-Nii and her even cuter girlfriend shouldn't be out at a time like this, right Maki-chan?" Nico questioned, taking a sip of her coffee wincingly; the fact that she was having coffee in no way meant that anything had to be bitter. "Aghh, do you have to be as bitter as the coffee you have in order to stomach a whole cup?" Nico exclaimed, seeming trumped by heated bean water and milk, "Is this why you like coffee so much Maki-chan?"
"At least I didn't order the kid's coffee, short stack. B-but it's true, we should get back quick, I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Maki snapped, furiously twirling her hair, looking away to not give Nico a chance to make fun of her.
"Awwww, thank you for caring about me sweetie!" Nico sang, giving Maki a big hug, letting her head rest on the crook of her neck. Moments like this were the times Maki lived for; Nico close to her, resting on her shoulder the smell of her perfume oh-so-prevalent in her mind; she wanted it to last forever. As they released from the all too short embraced, Maki's attention was finally brought back to the coffee in her hands, and that all too needed caffeine that would be inside. As Maki took a sip from the large cardboard cup, she was brought to a sense of bewilderment at the taste; why the hell was it so sweet? This tasted like something that Nico-chan would have; it felt like they had put a week's worth of sugar condensed into a single cup. And where was the bitterness of the coffee?
"Nico-chan, did you get your drink made right?" Maki asked, still keeping an eye on her
drink, hoping it would magically turn into what she actually wanted.
"Yeah, I did. Is there something wrong Maki-chan?" Nico responded, giving a slight tilt of her head at the random question.
"Yeah, I think they got my order wrong. She might have given me a hot chocolate by accident." Maki declared, with a wincing look of disgust as the all-too-sweet chocolate flavor came back into her mouth. "Ughh, this tastes like someone stuffed you into a cup, Nico-chan."
"Awww, are you calling me sweet, Maki-chan? You're adorable," Nico commented sarcastically, brushing off the comment in favor of actually aiding her girlfriend, "We should hurry up and get to the coffee shop to get you the right order before they close, though."
"N-no, it's alright, I'll just make something for myself when I get home, you can bring this to your siblings if they want," Maki replied, defeatedly staring at the hot chocolate, wondering if she would bother stomaching another sip. "And I think it's getting too late. Like you said, it's dangerous out, right Nico-chan?" Maki added, already starting to walk towards her house.
"No, I know how much you'll need that coffee, and besides, if I'm with you, I'll be safe, won't I?" Nico reasoned, gesturing for Maki to follow her. The two retraced their steps back to the building, and Nico had stomped all the way back to the front cashier, with a very embarrassed Maki in tow. "You were the barista who served us, right?" Nico questioned, gesturing the cup at the employee.
"Yes, I was; is there an issue with it?" the employee questioned,
"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be here, wouldn't I? she snapped back, "You got my girlfriend's order wrong, can you make it again with the correct order this time?"
"O-oh, I did? I-I'm so sorry, I didn't really mean to, I-I've just had a long day, sure, I'll get it to you guys as soon as possible," the barista stammered, all while checking over receipts and starting up the cappuccino machine.
"Sorry she snapped at you and thank you for making it again, Miss," Maki apologized, seeing how frantic she was working after Nico's small outburst. Nico slowly realized how she acted, drooping her head after she realized that she had shouted at someone out of nowhere over something so small. The girl made quick work out of remaking the order, all while leaving the couple to lounge around while the barista clambered around, hoping to not break any machinery.
"N-no, here you go, s-sorry I messed it up, hope you can come again," the girl murmured, eliciting small thanks from the two girls as the made their way out of the shop for the second time. Walking back home, Maki noticed her girlfriend in a much less happy mood, probably because of her realization on how she had acted.
"I'm sorry I was like that Maki," Nico apologized, not wanting to look at her, "I just wanted to be a reliable girlfriend and all that, and I messed it up like I usually do." She welled up with a sense of comfort in her; Nico was only acting like this because she really cared for her, but ended up getting reprimanded for it.
"No, don't worry baby, you did nothing wrong." Maki insisted, making sure to use Nico's favorite pet name to show that she meant it. "I know you were just trying to show that you cared," Maki cooed, letting her usually tsun exterior down to offer Nico a place between her arms. The two stood there in the embrace for mere seconds, but it was more than enough to clear anything that had arisen between them.
"Hey, I think our coffees are getting cold, what do you say we go back and finish that song, huh?" Nico asked, breaking free from that oh so wonderful grasp to gesture to Maki's house.
"Sure, let's go, Nico-chan."