"This is a terrible idea. Why are we going to this party if we don't even know anyone?" Maki asked. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Honoka's 2002 Chevy, every passing minute on the road making her want to do this less and less. Honoka had insisted that it would be a great way to meet new people (which her sorry single ass certainly needed) but the closer they got to the questionable downtown house party, the more anxious she felt.
"It'll be fun, I promise. Rin's gonna be there and she's your friend, right? And I know a few of the upperclassmen. You'll have fun. Plus, you need to get out more anyway."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You've just been moping around the dorms lately and it's super boring. I needed to get you out of there, ya know? If you're lucky maybe you'll meet the girl of your dreams or something."
"I just have a really bad feeling about this," Maki fiddled nervously at the hem of her maroon sweater, pushing and pulling the soft fabric between her fingers. To some degree, she agreed with Honoka a little; she'd been dragging her feet since the brunette girl from her bio class turned her down two weeks ago, and she needed to snap out of it before she spent any more of her time thinking about it.
Big rowdy parties made her anxious, made her want to clam up and find a place to hide, because she wasn't good with people, and she especially wasn't good with people asking her questions, but she acknowledged that maybe her friends were right, and maybe she just needed to get smashed and dance on a table until somebody had to drag her home, if for nothing else than to forget how awkward she knew she was any other time.
The car stopped abruptly, startling her out of the silent argument she was having with her own common sense, and Honoka practically shoved her out the passenger side door and sped off to find a parking spot. Before Maki could protest, she felt tiny, surprisingly strong hands pulling her into a nearby house against her will.
"You're actually here! I didn't think Honoka would actually be able to drag you out of your room, but I'm sooo glad you're here!" The shrill voice of her tiny ginger classmate assaulted her ears immediately.
"Nice to see you too, Rin," she sighed, though not quite in defeat just yet.
"I have so many people to introduce you to! All the upperclassmen are suuuuper nice!"
"Yeah, that's great and all, but I don't really want to be here, if you couldn't tell."
"Lemme go get you a drink, okay? I'll be right back!" Her voice faded as she dashed off to a different room, weaving through the crowd of partygoers to get whatever cheap beer the seniors had presumably provided for the occasion.
Maki found herself a quiet corner in what she figured to be the living room of the place, eyes glued to the floor as she tried and failed to make herself look approachable; her permanent mean mug didn't help, combined with the fact that she'd rather be simultaneously drowning, burning, and being crushed to death right now instead of being here.
She watched from the corner of her eye as Honoka leapt through the doorway, striking a dramatic pose just as Rin came skipping out of the kitchen with a can in each hand, almost spilling them as she attempted to leap into Honoka's arms. People flocked to Honoka as they always did at parties like these, Maki had noticed. She was ever the entertainer; charismatic and personable, and Maki wished she could make herself seem more like that too.
Rin skipped over to the brooding redhead, offering her one of the room temperature cans of generic light beer along with her classic cat-like grin.
"How was the bio exam by the way? Kayo-chin was telling me that you guys had one coming up and-" Rin stopped her sentence mid way through when she noticed Maki's eyes narrowing further at the mention of the other girl. An awkward silence hung between them for a few moments as Maki redirected her glare to the carpet.
"Sorry," Rin spoke up finally, sheepishly. "I know you don't want to hear this, but she really wants to stay friends, she just doesn't like you like-"
"Yeah, I've heard it already, Rin. I know," Maki gulped down a large amount of her beer before looking away with a grimace. "I didn't come here to talk about this, okay? I came here to stop thinking about it."
Rin continued to try to make small talk with her, but the atmosphere was still tense and Maki was pretty visibly not having it. The ginger waved herself out of the conversation (if it could even be called that) again, chuckling nervously as she went to get another pair of drinks. Maki hardly registered when Rin had returned, offering another canned drink, and she hardly registered downing it even faster than the last one. Rin was talking to her, but she couldn't hear it. She saw the girl nod her head slightly and disappear into the crowd again, probably realizing at that point that she was trying to entertain a brick wall.
Before Maki could breath out a sigh, a gentle hand, one she didn't recognize, tapped her arm, drawing her attention back to reality.
"Hey, do you wanna come dance with me?"
"I-" she began to reply, but the gaze that met hers left her completely speechless. Red eyes twinkled, locked with her own, and she suddenly felt that, if she had intended to decline the offer, she had been wrong. So she nodded instead before being whisked off by an enthusiastic tug on her arm to another room where the furniture was pushed off to the side and the music boomed even louder. The petite girl with sunglasses hanging off the collar of her pink polo pulled her in, her dancing off-beat and enthusiastic and, Maki dared to think, weirdly perfect in every conceivable way. She moved in a way that said she had nothing to lose, said she wanted nothing more than to be here, in this moment.
So despite the flags telling Maki that her wall of aloof indifference was crumbling as fast as the sway of the thin hips of the girl before her, she danced her heart out almost until she felt like collapsing, like falling through the floor and letting this be the last thing she remembered.
The dark-haired girl whisked her away again, and she found herself past the crowd, past the kitchen heavy with smoke, and onto the porch in the back. She leaned her back against the wall, heart beating so fast that it felt like it would fly from her chest, fingertips burning with excitement, nearly out of breath.
"I could tell just by looking at you that you were a great dancer, glad I chanced it. What's your name?" The shorter girl asked, leaning on the porch railing and taking a long sip from a plastic cup she must have procured from the kitchen on their way through.
"Maki," she said simply, heaving out a sigh as she felt time catch up with her. She wasn't even sure how long she'd been here at this point, and her mind was reeling, restless and euphoric. The time didn't matter that much, she decided, as she couldn't bring her eyes away from this girl for long enough to check her watch.
"You're a lot of fun, Maki. I like you," she replied, brushing black bangs away from her eyes. Maki's cheeks suddenly felt too warm against the chill of the night air.
"That's not something I hear very often."
"That you're fun? Or that I like you?" the girl asked, a charming smirk adorning her features as she stepped away from the railing and closer to the redhead.
"Both, honestly," Maki said, glancing off to the side, feeling completely comfortable with this total stranger, which in itself unnerved her slightly. Her anxiety was strangely absent now. She eased up more as the girl inched ever closer to her, and Maki felt her eyes begin to flutter closed as she figured out what was probably about to happen next.
A wet splash hit her as the smell of cheap wine quickly overtook her senses and she felt the smaller girl fall face-first into her chest. Her eyes shot open; this was certainly not what she was expecting. The drink that was previously in the plastic cup was now soaking through the left side of her sweater, an iron grip on her right arm as the other girl steadied herself before looking up in horror.
"Shit, oh fuck. I can't believe I tripped right now out of all of the times I could have tripped. I'm really sorry, I-"
Maki grasped the girl's soft cheeks gently, pressing their lips together gently, curiously, cutting her apology short. She let go shortly after, searching the short girl's eyes for a reaction. When she collapsed into Maki's chest in a fit of giggles, a sound she could only describe as perfect, the redhead couldn't help but follow suit, letting out a chorus of breathy chuckles.
"Before I forget to ask, what's your name?"
"Nico Yazawa," she said, looking up with a twinkle in her eyes yet again. "At your service."
"Since you went and soaked my sweater, I hope you know you're going to have to help me out of it now."
"Of course."
The next thing Maki realized, she was on her back on a surprisingly small bed, laid out on plush pink fleece blankets. The half a block walk to the apartment was a blur, as was the elevator ride up to the 5th floor, but she vividly remembered her back against the cold metal wall, slender hands wandering up her sweater as the elevator ascended. And now this girl, Nico, was straddling her waist, pulling off her damp sweater for her.
Now, Maki wasn't usually a hook-up kind of person. She was awkward and distant, and that sort of intimacy with a stranger had seemed so unimaginable to her before, but for the hundredth time that night she looked at Nico and could only conclude that she was perfect. She must be dreaming, because this was certainly the aforementioned girl of her dreams.
Maki gasped, shivered a little when manicured nails raked down her torso, ghosted over her hips. Nico leaned down, dark hair cascading over her shoulders, and kissed Maki roughly, teeth pulling at her bottom lip. They were past the curiosity and the experimentation at this point. Soft lips trailed down Maki's jawline, peppering kisses and bites across her neck.
"Let me know if you want me stop, alright?" Nico whispered, her breath warm against the redhead's bare skin. Maki shuddered.
"I don't think I ever want you to stop."
Maki woke up the next morning (or was it afternoon already? She couldn't tell) to a pair of startlingly strong arms wrapped around her naked torso and the soft breath of what could only have been a sleeping angel brushing against the back of her shoulder. She yawned, snuggling closer to the petite girl.
The whole situation seemed too good to be true, so she might as well enjoy it before she really wakes up, right? Since she had to be dreaming. Her eyes fluttered shut as she debated whether she should go back to sleep or not, when something on the other side of the room started beeping, loud and shrill and not stopping. She turned around, pawing at Nico's tiny shoulders and trying to bury her head in the pillows to block out the sound.
"What is that? Please turn it off. Wake up," Maki whined. "Nico, wake uuupppp."
Nico blinked herself awake, brow furrowed in annoyance as she squirmed out of Maki's grasp and out of the too-small bed. Maki watched her stomp across the room to where a pink pager sat on the top of a dresser. The beeping stopped and Nico appeared to read something before letting out an audible grumble and starting to dig frantically through her dresser.
"It's too early for this. This is fucking ridiculous," Nico said to herself, louder than she had probably intended.
"What's the matter?" Maki, eyebrows raised, head propped up on her arms. Nico froze, turning around slowly with a crumpled up t-shirt in each hand. She had a deep scowl on her face, eyebrows drawn together in what was almost anger, but her expression softened instantly when her eyes met the redhead's. She shrugged on one of the shirts, crossing the room again to pat Maki's head reassuringly.
"I have a really really important phone call to make right now and then I have to go run an errand and then I'll be back, okay? Will you stay here?" she said, her eyes soft, apologetic even.
"I'm… just a little confused, but yeah, okay," Maki said with a small nod. Nico kissed her once, briefly and gently, before she headed for the door, donning a hoodie and a cap on the way. As she stepped out, Maki could see her dialing a number on an ancient-looking Nokia flip phone.
She could vaguely hear Nico's voice through the apartment wall, loud and clearly annoyed. Whatever this issue was, she didn't seem to want to deal with it right now. As Maki felt herself falling asleep again, she decided she'd get her answers later.
Maki woke up some time later when the bed shifted behind her, and those same comfortable arms from earlier snaked around her waist. Nico snuggled in with a sigh, and Maki noted that she felt cold and smelled slightly of smoke and rain.
"Sorry about that," Nico whispered, burying her face in Maki's mane of red hair.
"What was all of that about, anyway?" Maki rubbed the sleep from her eyes before turning around in Nico's arms.
"Ah…," Nico's eyes darted around the room, looking at anything but Maki's intent gaze. "Just business stuff. It's kind of a long story."
"I've got time."
Nico chuckled nervously. "I mean, it's not exactly an interesting story either."
"The fact that you're avoiding the subject makes me even more suspicious, you know," Maki said, propping her head up on her hand.
"Alright, listen, you like me, right?" Nico asked, sitting up.
Maki blushed. "I mean, I…"
"I like you. I don't want you to not like me," Nico said, gesturing in frustration. "I sell drugs, okay? It's really illegal, and not exactly the kind of thing you wanna tell somebody you've only slept with once."
"You what?"
"I fucking sell crack. And I figured you might have been less willing to hook up with me if you knew that," Nico explained, crossing her arms.
On one hand, Maki was right, and the whole situation had seemed a bit too good to be true. Whereas she had initially figured this girl to be an angel, she had actually just gotten into bed with a tiny, foul-mouthed devil who may or may not be cooking up drugs in her apartment. Despite all of that, she was still irresistibly cute and incredibly charming, and Maki realized that maybe her dream girl wasn't going to be perfect, but she was undoubtedly perfect for her.
Maki reached up and pulled Nico's head down, their lips meeting in another kiss. When she finally let Nico pull away, the dark-haired girl's face was tinged a bright red, and she seemed to be stumbling over her words.
"Does that tell you enough?" Maki asked.
"Do you wanna date? Is that the next course of action from here?"
"Absolutely."
"To which question?" Nico chuckled.
"Both, honestly."
Ckik here.
It's a crack AU. Get it? Because Nico sells crack.
I apologize for this. How low have I sunk that I'm actually writing for my notp.
Drop a comment and let me know what you thought. Don't forget to like and subscribe.