"Good morning, Seisa-senpai!" Eruna greeted her. "The world is brighter now that you're awake~"
You're the bright one, Eruna, Seisa immediately thought as she felt lucidity come to her in gentle, gradual waves. Her eyes were still sensitive, though, and so she rubbed at them until they could be coaxed into adjusting to the early sunlight streaming through the transparent curtains by the window. Her ears picked up on the sound of songbirds, too, chirping out tunes she could never hope to know.
Eruna might know them, though. She made a mental note to ask her later.
"Ah, to be with Seisa as she's waking up this fine morning...am I still dreaming?" The sigh in Eruna's voice was too high and whimsical to be genuine. Seisa scoffed.
"If you are dreaming, then I'm entitled to pinching you or otherwise," she warned in a half-serious tone. "Mmm...what time is it?"
"Oh! It's…" Eruna pulled out her phone from somewhere, and checked the time on the flickering screen. "Uh, just a little bit after nine o'clock. Is that too early? Are you still tired?"
"It's fine," Seisa insisted. "I'm already awake, so there's no use in trying to go back to sleep." She stretched and yawned some more, though, and sighed when she felt a satisfying crack ripple through her back. "Let's get ready, and then we can head downstairs. I'll have Kurumi-san make us breakfast."
"She's so lucky to be your maid," Eruna whispered in a not-so-subtle way under her breath. Seisa ignored her for her own good, and Eruna added on in a louder voice: "Sounds good to me! We can get ready together!"
Eruna was about to jump up into a headstart, but Seisa reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. The sudden motion caused her to jerk backwards, and Eruna landed awkwardly on the bed as a result. "S-Seisa-senpai?" she stuttered out, cheeks turning as pink as her hair. "What are you doing—"
"Not so fast," was all she said. The determined edge in her voice did nothing to soothe the thunderous heart beating in Eruna's ribcage. She continued nonetheless. "I brush my hair first thing in the morning."
"Oh," Eruna replied lamely. There was a hint of relief in her obvious disappointment, however. "I forgot to bring a hairbrush, though."
"That's fine, you can just use mine." Seisa reached over to the bedside table, and pulled open one of the drawers. She grabbed a white, ornate hair brush from the inside, and closed the drawer with a soft touch. Her eyes glanced from the white handle, to Eruna's cute face, and back to the handle again. "I want to brush your hair," she decided out loud. "Turn around."
"W-What? I can do that myself!" Eruna seemed embarrassed, but then quickly amended her own words with: "Wait, what am I saying? One hair brushing, coming up!" she turned so that her back was facing Seisa, instead, and from that view the nest of pink hair on her head became even more visible.
Seisa smiled, and reached out for the rumpled ribbon that was keeping it altogether. A tiny tug was all it took for the hair accessory to come out of place, and with it came tangled waves of bright pink hair that cascaded down Eruna's back like a waterfall.
Without hesitating, Seisa began running the brush through the unruly strands. What a serious case of bedhead, she thought to herself. And I thought my hair was bad.
"Ouch," Eruna whined softly when the bristles caught on a snag in her hair. "Please be gentle, Senpai."
"Sorry," Seisa mumbled. "Your hair's like a nest. It must be all that tossing and turning you did last night."
"I-I did that last night? That's so embarrassing—ouch!" she interrupted herself with a fresh whine that was close to a howl, and Seisa retracted her hands with fast, guilty movements.
She hadn't brushed another person's hair in a while, not since...well, in any case she was being way too rough. With a renewed softness, she tried a third time to brush Eruna's hair without incident.
This time worked better, and Eruna relaxed after having such tense shoulders. And with each brush stroke, Seisa watched curiously as the tangly, pink messes became smooth, pretty strands. Really, Eruna was so lucky to have such a beautiful hair color. It reminded Seisa of blush, lipstick, or the pale roses that grew in the school's garden. It gave her the image of the sun in the early dawn, bleeding bright pinks and blues into the sky for the whole world to see.
It made her think even more about Eruna, as if she had anything else on her mind right now. And when the last of the tangles became free, Seisa felt a childish sting in her chest. She didn't want to stop brushing her hair. But Eruna's strands were free of tears and tangles, and became as soft as feathers against her skin.
They were like rose petals, almost, and Seisa couldn't help but wonder if they smelled the same. She dropped the hair brush beside her on the bed, and slowly brought up an errant strand of hair to her face. She breathed in the light scent—strawberries and peaches, but nothing like a rose—of Eruna, and closed her eyes against the vibrant sheen of color.
"Seisa-senpai, are you done?" Eruna asked obliviously. If she knew what Seisa was doing, she wouldn't be as calm as she was now. "I can brush your hair, too—"
"—That's alright. I'm almost finished, here." Seisa's hair was remarkably tidy this morning, quite different from Eruna's bedhead. She frowned at the realization that Eruna might not have to brush her black hair, after all. "Actually, I'm done. You can turn around, now."
Eruna did as she was asked, and she twisted around to face Seisa in full. Up close, the two of them could properly assess their morning visage. Eruna's hair was worn long and down—a rare sight, truly—while her eyes fluttered with an almost innocuous gleam as she gazed at Seisa with an adoration that, really, was undeserved. Seisa didn't deserve the sunny smiles that Eruna constantly gave her, or the undying attention that was hardly befitting of her. Yet, Eruna was both smiley and attentive in that moment, staring at Seisa like she was the only girl left in the world.
Maybe she was.
Or maybe Seisa was also becoming more enamored with Eruna these days. The way that Eruna smiled and laughed, heartily and fully, was infectious. The way that she carried herself with strength and confidence—but never arrogance—was a usual sight. The way that she let Seisa brush her hair just now, or the way that her sleepwear hang so lazily on her body—revealing bits of skin by her collarbone and neck, or somewhere even further down that Seisa would notice if she were just a bit more shameless—was so satisfying and sweet all at once.
Seisa couldn't let her mind keep going at this rate. She felt flustered, suddenly, and was grateful to toss the hairbrush to Eruna like it was a hot potato, instead. Like it was something she just wanted to be rid of. When her fingers no longer felt the pearly ornament in hand, she found relief. "Your turn," she said to her. Seisa turned so the bulk of her long, black hair was facing Eruna. "Go ahead."
"Okay," Eruna said. She shifted her weight as she got closer to Seisa, and began carding the brush through the straightness of her black hair. The sensation of the bristles running across Seisa's skull—as well as the fleeting touch of Eruna's fingers against her head—was comforting. Seisa closed her eyes, and leaned her head back in the most relaxed manner possible.
At some point, Eruna stopped brushing her hair. It might have been the same moment as when one of the sleeves of Seisa's nightgowns slipped off her shoulders, revealing the bare skin underneath. Or it might have been the moment when the sunlight waned so carefully into the room, setting it against an almost fluorescent atmosphere that was alive with energy. Either way, she placed the hair brush aside, and called out: "I'm done!" with a half-squeaky voice.
Seisa turned around, and stared Eruna in the eye. Theirs was a marriage between pink and red, red and pink—roses with roses as their petals come together. Normally, this should have been where Eruna ruined the mood with an oblique comment, or where Seisa soured the atmosphere with a bitter remark. But instead, the air between them was kept wondrously and happily sweet, as the only thing they heard was silence.
Somewhere during that silent interval, however, Seisa realized something.
She really liked Eruna. She liked her a lot. But she would never be able to admit it, at least not on her own like this. Now would have been as good of a time as ever to reciprocate those affectionate feelings that Eruna had for her, but Seisa wasn't nearly as cool or closed off as everyone made her out to be. In a situation like this, she might have been as helpless or awkward as Eruna herself. The only difference was that she was aware of such misgivings, which helped her in hiding the integrity of her feelings in the first place.
But, she liked entertaining the idea that one day, she would do this again with Eruna, and instead of prolonged silence she would fill the room with joyous shouts and declarations of love, those that were far too brave of things for her to say, but were still true enough that she held them to her heart and let them stay there. One day, she would fill this gap between them, and rewrite the spaces that kept them apart.
One day, she could be honest to Eruna and herself. But that day just wasn't today.
Today was a day for pancakes and chocolate, not confessions or love letters. With that resolve, she broke eye contact with Eruna first, and hopped off the silken porch of her bed with strange delight. "Come on," she said to her, "let's go eat something."
"Alright!" Eruna agreed happily as she jumped to her feet. "Let's go downstairs together, Seisa-senpai!"
"Yes," she said. "Together."