"H-hey! Nico-chan, cut it out!"
"Aww, I just wanna see what kinda embarrassing stuff you have in your phone!"
"There's nothing like that! Get off me—!"
"If you have nothing to hide then this shouldn't be a problem!"
Everyone else in the room is doing their own thing, already more than used to tuning out Nico and Maki's bickering like white noise in the background. The only one who acknowledges them is Umi, who's trying to study. She scowls when the noise disturbs her concentration and slams her hand down on her textbook, which makes Hanayo jump but fails to grab Nico and Maki's attention.
"Honestly… they could at least have their fights outside in the hall."
"Oh, let them be. You can't disturb the natural order, after all," Nozomi smiles and pats Umi arm.
"…Nozomi, are you really eating popcorn right now?"
"Shh, I think we're getting to the good part."
Maki finally topples over with an ungraceful ueehh?!, allowing Nico to snatch her sleek little smartphone from her hand and scramble away, cackling in triumph.
"Give it back—!"
"No way! What the hell, you don't even have a passcode lock?! Too easy! Now let's see what we've got here…"
"Nooooo!"
Nico suddenly falls silent and her expression goes oddly blank. Everyone else looks up almost in sync (except for Nozomi, who's leaning forward over her popcorn with rapt attention) when they notice their background noise gone. Maki's face is in her hands and her ears match the color of her hair.
"… Cats." Nico blankly says, slowly scrolling through something.
"Cats?" Kotori repeats.
"Cats."
"I-it's not what it looks like—" Maki stutters, stumbling in an attempt to grab her phone, but Nico easily dodges. Aw, jeez, everyone's watching now. Maki wonders if she can escape by jumping from the window, or something, but then she remembers they're not on the first floor.
"Cats!" Nico loudly whispers in horror.
"Nya!"
"Rin, you idiot! These are all pictures of you!"
"Nya?!"
"N-n-no they're not! They're not! It's not—!" Maki's rapidly breaking down by the second and she just about shrieks when Nico turns the phone for everyone to see, swiping through pictures and lingering on each one only for a second.
It's all Rin. Every single picture Nico displays on the phone is of Rin, and it's obvious from the angles and the way Rin seems distracted in each one that they were taken without her knowledge. Maki muffles a wail into her hands and curls up on the floor, trembling, and Nozomi is shoveling popcorn into her mouth with her eyebrows arched high. This is way better than all her other TV dramas.
"Holy crap." Honoka blurts out, finally breaking the stunned silence.
All at once, their heads turn towards Rin, who… looks more curious than shocked or disgusted. Even her head is slightly cocked like an animal that heard something interesting.
"That's a lot of Rin, nya…"
"We have a pervert amongst us!" Nico yells, pointing at Maki with her free hand, still holding up the phone with the other. "Uh, aside from Nozomi, that is."
"Thank you, Nicocchi."
"Don't thank me for something like that!"
"Maki…? Would you, uh, like to explain?" Ah, good ol' Eli, always trying to do damage control. Except that's a whole lot of damage and maybe even the student council president won't be able to fix it.
Maki makes a gargled sound, still curled up on her side.
"Maki-chan…" Rin stands up. Everything falls silent once more. Except for the sound of popcorn being crunched— thanks, Nozomi. Rin slowly walks over to Maki and crouches beside her, one of her hands awkwardly hovering over her shoulder.
"Listen, Rin, you have every right to smack that pervert across the room if you want." Nico is looking through the photos again, eyes narrowed. She mutters to herself. "How many pictures of Rin does Maki even have in here…?"
"Maki-chan, it's alright!" Rin gently pries Maki's hands away from her face, smiling that stupidly sunny smile that had prompted Maki to start taking pictures of her in the first place. "Rin knows you have a hard time expressing yourself…"
"I-I do not!"
"You kind of do…" Kotori helpfully chirps up.
"So!" Rin continues. "I dunno how to say it, but I don't mind if Maki-chan likes taking pictures of me, nya! Because I really like you too! It's kind of embarrassing… but that's alright! Because Maki-chan is an embarrassing person, and that's cute!"
Nozomi's practically choking on her popcorn. This is gold.
"Rin," Nico deadpans. "I found pictures of you sleeping."
"Nya?!"
"I-I'm sorry, okay?!" Maki clings to Rin's shirt, head bowed. "I just… I don't know what I was thinking!"
"Rin doesn't know what she's thinking most of the time either!"
"Wow, you two are perfect for each other." Nico drops the phone on the table at last, finally done with looking through it. "Seriously though, that was way too weird for comfort."
"Don't worry, Maki-chan." It looks like Nozomi ran out of popcorn. She laces her fingers together and smiles brightly. "I understand how you feel. I have an album just for pictures of Elicchi, myself."
"Wait— what?! N-Nozomi?!"
"That's it. This is getting to be too much. I'm out of here." Nico throws up her hands, grabbing her bag and leaving the room. No one tries to stop her.
"Ah, guys…?" Hanayo timidly raises her hand. "Umi-chan passed out a while ago…"
"Umi-chan?! Umi-chan, don't die! Wake up! Umi-chaaaan…!" Honoka dives over and vigorously shakes her friend by the shoulders, yelling in her face. Umi, her face pale, mumbles something about shameless indecencies, or something. Kotori grabs a piece of paper to fan her with.
"This day could have gone a lot better." Maki mumbles, rubbing her temples. She doesn't try to push Rin away when the other girl clings.
"Does this mean we're dating, nyow?"
Maki considers her options. They're surprisingly limited, but she doesn't care anymore. Her lips quirk in a sort of lopsided smile and she leans against Rin. "Yes. Yes, Rin, we're dating."
"Hehe, yay!"
"Someone get Umi-chan some water! I think she's slipping away!"
"Umi-chaaaaan!"
"Nozomi, were you serious when you said…?!"
"What do you think, Elicchi~?"
"Somebody saaave uuuuus!"
Nico probably made the right choice when she decided to leave early.
.
.
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A/N: the original prompt from an anon on Tumblr: "Nico stealing Maki's phone in one of their shenanigans but accidentally finding out a whole folder of pics of Rin (taken w/o the other's knowledge ofc)"