Blowing gently into a fresh cup of hot chocolate, Tsubasa pulled a chair out to sit down by her window. This was how winter mornings should be spent. She had the day off, her house was warm, Anju and Erena were close at hand, she'd been seeing a cute girl around the apartment complex – the list went on.
She sighed contentedly and looked out the window, glad she had the ground floor so that she could see the snow more clearly. It fell so delicately, she felt like she was looking at a scene from a movie.
Tsubasa took another sip of her hot chocolate, only for the moment to come to and abrupt and quite literally screeching halt as something bright orange, black and flailing fell alongside the snowflakes, hitting the ground with, had she been outside, what would have probably been an audible thump.
It took a lot of willpower not to do a spit take.
Instead, though, she forced herself to swallow the hot drink, and bolted outside. "Are you okay?"
The fallen person said something, but it was mostly muffled. They shifted a little in the snow, squirming. "Mmmph….owwwww…..are the ….?"
"I'm sorry, what?" Tsubasa asked, kneeling to help the stranger up. It looked to be a girl.
She coughed. "Are – are the lights up? Did I get them up?"
"What?" Tsubasa repeated, stunned for the briefest of moments. This person just fell from – she glanced up, seeing (thankfully only on the second story and not, say, the fifth) a nicely decorated balcony, strung with christmas lights – the second story of an apartment complex, and she was more worried about whether or not the lights had gotten put up properly? "You – you do realize you could have died, right?" She asked, incredulously.
The stranger finally managed to sit up all the way, flashing her an absolutely heart-stopping smile. Tsubasa abruptly felt any emotion other than gay fade, and realized with a start she was being spoken to. "-ahah, yeah, I guess that was pretty dumb of me, but I just had to try and get them hung up! My sister will be coming over tomorrow and I can't let her think I don't have any Christmas spirit!"
"You're doing this awfully last minute, you know….." She said in response, still averting her eyes for fear she'd let on about her thoughts. Anju always did say a cute girl would be the death of her. Damn it.
The stranger seemed to realize something, because she jolted and hurriedly tried to get to her feet. "Oh! Oh no! I should have asked you first, huh? Oh, man, I'm really sorry, here let me ta-AAAAAAAKE-"
Tsubasa stuck her arms out, instinctively catching her before she could fall over. Naturally, her face landed right in the specific place her gay little heart couldn't take. She tried not to think about that and offered the redhead a smile of her own. "Maybe we should get you inside and make sure you aren't hurt before you go trying to fall off your balcony again."
"Eheh. Right." She agreed.
After a first aid kit and about six cups of hot chocolate – seriously, this girl plowed through them like it was her job – Tsubasa learned that her name was Honoka, and, as she'd assumed, she lived in the flat above her. She also learned that this was a last ditch effort to make her apartment festive. And that Honoka was really cute (well, it wasn't the first or the last time she'd 'learn' that, but still) and actually already knew Tsubasa's name.
"Really? How?" She'd asked, flattered but also slightly concerned. If her crush turned out to be a stalker….well, then again, Tsubasa was kind of also a stalker, looking at her so often but never talking to her at all…. Wait, that wasn't the point. Honoka explained herself cheerily.
"Yeah, I've seen you around the lobby and sometimes in that coffee place nearby! You always look so pretty and professional, I've never had a chance to goof up and introduce myself earlier….." So fucking cute.
Tsubasa would shamefully admit that she broke character for a bit after that – "You really should have! I always have time for cute girls like yourself –"
"Wow, same here! Who knew?" She accentuated that with an awkward laugh.
That's when they drank most of the mentioned six cups of hot chocolate, in an attempt to make an excuse for the fact that both of them were too embarrassed to talk for a bit after that.
Tsubasa was the one who eventually broke the silence and, through a slightly misleading series of questions that she was not particularly proud of herself for thinking up, learned that Honoka was single.
By then she decided she might as well ask about the lights fiasco. "Why did you decide to hang your lights the day before Christmas, exactly?"
Honoka laughed sheepishly. "Well, I guess if you really want to know, it was for my little sister, who's coming over tomorrow."
Tsubasa raised an eyebrow, clearly indicating for the other girl to go on.
"Sho, I wash finking –" Honoka swallowed, taking a moment to finish off her cookie – did she mention she gave her cookies? Tsubasa thought it was only reasonable since she also gave her the hot chocolate and also because she was kind of hoping to get Honoka to stay a little longer – before continuing. "I was thinking, oh, man, I should totally decorate for Yukiho! Christmas spirit isn't dead after all! Except I'm shorter than I planned for, so I couldn't hang the lights right, and eventually I was like, 'shit, I'm falling!' and then you came out like 'hi I'm your charming neighbor here to save your dumb ass from falling a second time', and, and, now I'm eating in your flat."
The redhead scratched at the back of her head, obviously a little embarrassed. "Uh, I haven't been imposing too much, right? I mean, you've been really, really nice, I hope I'm not actually bothering you or something….."
"Not at all!" Tsubasa insisted quickly. Realizing the outburst was a bit exaggerated, she cleared her throat. "I didn't have any plans for today. If you didn't fall right past my window, then I probably would have just stayed by myself all day anyways. It's good to socialize once and a while, no?"
"Right! It's really fun to meet new people! Especially nice ones that have toooons of hot chocolate!" She gestured down to her cup. "Seriously, I think I've drank almost every packet you have. You sure I'm not being a bother?"
Tsubasa smirked, deciding to tease her a little. "Well, I guess if you keep insisting that you've been a bother, I should charge you for it."
"R-really? Aww…" Honoka pouted, but then sighed, cocking her head to one side. "Actually, that's fair-"
"I was just kidding!" She said, waving her hands in an 'X' motion. "I wasn't actually going to charge you! It's fine."
Honoka brightened up. "Oh, phew! I was worried, since I don't have any change…"
The brunette of the two sighed. "Are you always this trusting?"
"Only with some people," She laughed, although Tsubasa felt that meant she could take it as a 'yes' since she had a hard time imagining the type of person Honoka might consider 'untrustworthy'. "Are you always this smooth?"
"Smooth? I'm afraid I don't understand," She hadn't started flirting with her that much – not yet, although sure she might have a few plans – so where was this coming from? Internally, she panicked a little.
The redhead shrugged, her expression as good-natured as always. "Well, I mean, you invited me in and you're being really nice and I just honestly expected you to be more like my friend Umi – that's still a good thing by the way! – but you're actually really friendly and I just get the feeling that you're used to talking to people like this, you know?" Honoka glanced away, but then narrowed her eyes playfully, grinning all the while. "So, how many girls fall out in front of your apartment on a good day?"
Tsubasa pretended to take a moment to think about it. "Hmmm….On a good day?" Honoka nodded eagerly, still highly amused by the joke.
She smirked. "Well, on a good day…just the one." She replied finally, flicking the redhead upside the nose.
Honoka flushed colors that Tsubasa previously thought only strawberries or firetrucks could achieve. "S-see what I mean? You're too good at this!"
Tsubasa ran a hand through her hair, fixing the other girl with a dazzling smile of her own. "Glad to be of interest."
That was so smooth. She was so smooth. Anju and Erena couldn't tease her about shit, she was so good at this. Honoka giggled again and she felt her cool evaporating with the noise.
Okay, maybe they could tease her about one or two things.
"This has been really, really nice –" Honoka started, reaching over the table. Tsubasa realized their hands were touching and froze, by that point having no choice but to listen to the redhead, "But I should probably go finish decorating. Come on up in about a half an hour though, and I'll show you how my apartment turned out, okay?"
"Of course. I'll see you soon then."
As soon as Honoka left, Tsubasa scrambled to set a timer for half an hour.
After precisely half an hour, Tsubasa stood in front of the door to Honoka's apartment, having an internal debate. Should she show up exactly on time and risk looking too eager? Or show up slightly late and risk looking like she didn't care enough to show up on time?
While she struggled with that thought, she risked another look out the window – still snowing, although hopefully this time with a zero percent chance of falling girls – noting that it was still lovely weather out.
It was still completely useless to her at the moment, though. Eventually her desire to be on time won out, and she knocked on the door curtly. Honoka opened it after a moment, beaming and welcoming her in.
A tree was decorated, even though it was obviously a kind of hasty job, like she'd forgotten and only bothered to do it just now, right before she'd have to take it all down and let someone haul the tree away. There were other hanging decorations strewn around the house much more carefully and, last but not least, she could still see the glowing lights from the balcony outside.
"You do a nice job decorating, Honoka." She said admiringly, looking around as she stepped in. "I'm sure your sister will love it."
"I hope so!" She chimed in, strolling by her side after closing the door. "I worked hard on doing it quickly, but honestly I've gotten pretty good at doing things last minute. Umi says I'm lazy, but really, as long as it gets done in time, who cares how long I waited to decorate?"
"I'm sure the weather and anyone who's visited your apartment lately might," Tsubasa remarked dryly, but then seeing the look Honoka gave her, let up. "Still, I'd have to agree. You didn't have to decorate at all, so it's nice that you decided to, right? Nobody can complain about procrastinating on something optional."
"That's a good one! I should make a note of it, or something." Honoka said idly. "Anyways, can you come into the kitchen really quick? I have a few sweets to make up for drinking all that hot chocolate at your place."
Tsubasa nodded and walked towards the kitchen with her, but still decided to try and deflect the whole part about 'making up for' drinking all the hot chocolate. "You know, it's really not necessary-"
Honoka stopped abruptly, grinning and rocking back and forth on her feet. She raised an eyebrow at her, and the other girl pointed up in response. "Oh, hey!" She feigned surprise. "When did I put up that mistletoe?"
The brunette flushed a heavy shade of red and looked up. No way.
...No, actually there was no way. Once she got her gut reaction under control, Tsubasa coughed. "That's…that's holly, Honoka."
"Wait, what?!" She blurted out, looking up in a panic. "But I thought for sure that I – I thought I got the right thing! I swear they said it was mistletoe –"
"People kiss under holly sometimes, too," Tsubasa offered as a consolation.
Honoka sighed. "Only when someone messes up super bad. I guess I'm really not romantic enough to pull it off, huh?"
She shrugged. "It still worked on me."
With that said, Honoka nodded determinedly and leaned in. Tsubasa hesitated a moment before doing the same. It was probably the most saccharine kiss she'd ever had; it was kind of fitting.
It probably made her sound crazy, but she was so glad Honoka fell off a building earlier that morning.
They chatted and kissed and dozed until a very confused girl by the name of Yukiho Kousaka caught a stranger in her sister's apartment making breakfast. Tsubasa quickly learned that all that energy must have run in the family, because it was very difficult to catch her and make her sit back down to explain.
AN: I've noticed I tend to leave my one shots kind of open ended (or at least they kind of feel that way to me). Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're reading, I hope you enjoyed this! I don't know how well I got their characters, but this is one of my favorite love live ships and I thought this prompt fit them pretty well. It's also up on my trash blog. Thanks for reading!