Hamuko knows Yukari does not have a date for Valentine's Day. If not for some other students asking her out, Yukari probably won't even be aware of the upcoming holiday. So, Hamuko confidently waits until the day before.
"Yukari, you're not busy tomorrow, right?" Hamuko says, while they're on the train to the dorm. "Wanna go out with me?"
Yukari answers, "Yeah sure." A moment later she remembers a particular detail. "Wait, isn't tomorrow Valentine's?"
Hamuko nods.
"Hamuko… Did you just ask me out on Valentines?"
"Uhuh."
"Oh." Yukari can't help but smile. "I didn't think you would want to spend the day with me."
"Hey if you want to then just say no."
"No –" Yukari hurries to correct herself as Hamuko's smile breaks. "I mean, not no! Yes! I want to. What time?"
"All day?" Hamuko hopefully suggest.
An eyebrow is raised but Yukari accepts saying, "Well I do like spending time with you."
"Great! Meet at the lounge tomorrow morning okay?"
"Aright. We'll split at Iwatodai, and do our own preparations. Speaking of which, next time, give me some heads up if you're going ask me out again."
"Heh, sorry."
Hamuko heads straight for the dorm and her room. She pushes aside her bed, and underneath, there's a big, foldable cardboard box with something heavy inside. Inside the box is another container: a safe. Hamuko unlocks the safe to access some equipment she kept from their adventures. There's one artifact of immense power she's looking for. The Omnipotent Orb, which Elizabeth gave her.
Once Hamuko procures the orb, she conceals the safe. It's grey and smooth. The orb is set in platinum ring. The dull aesthetics hides a power that gives invulnerability to everything except Almighty harm. She doesn't need it, because of her disgustingly broken repertoire of Personas and because it cannot protect her from what's next.
Even with that depressing thought, Hamuko still looks forward to tomorrow. Tonight, and likely only tonight, she wishes for her time to tick away.
Hamuko is waiting on the couch when Yukari comes down to the lounge.
"Morning," Yukari says. She's in her winter outfit.
"Yukari! Ready?"
"Yeah. I assume you've already made some plans?"
Hamuko shakes her head. "Nope."
"Huh? You didn't?"
"It's our date, right? I wouldn't want to just drag you around to places you may not even want to go."
"This," says Yukari, "is why you should have told me earlier!" Despite her tone, Yukari still looks forward to the day.
"Sorry, sorry. So, I think we should get something to eat first. I know Chagall does breakfast. And I'm gonna bet this is the only time we're getting in without reservations today."
At Chagall Café, the place is sparsely populated. While the place is popular for Valentine's, most people go out later in the day. Nevertheless, the Café has its all-day Valentine's special selection, in addition to its regular breakfast menu.
"What are these flavours?! How can there be so many different variations on drinks? I'm gonna try 'em all!"
"Yeah. I've never seen anything like this. Can we share? I mean, if you're okay with that."
"Let's share!"
An arrangement of coffee, hot chocolate, and tea in tiny cups is served to the girls. Yukari goes for a cup of coffee that's completely oversaturated with spice. Hamuko catches her hand.
"Careful. It's hot." She releases Yukari and picks up the cup and brings it up to her mouth.
"But you're –" Yukari's expression turns grim. "Oh you're going down."
Hamuko holds up a palm, signalling Yukari to wait. She then blows on the drink a few times to cool it down, and then places it in front of Yukari, with its drink volume unchanged.
Yukari takes a quick sip, and drops her head on the table, covering it with her arms, embarrassed by more than just her own hasty reaction. "Sorry," she mumbles.
"Don't worry about it. If you were anyone else, you wouldn't have been so lucky."
After willing blood down to her feet, hands and anywhere but her face, Yukari lifts her head, wearing a smile she can't wipe thanks to the unspoken, 'But you're not anyone else.'
Hamuko grabs the same drink she cooled and Yukari drank. She takes her turn to taste it from the same spot Yukari's mouth touched. A myriad of strange flavours, all combine in just the right way. The taste is absurd. It's wonderful.
"Did you just…" Yukari begins. "Ugh… never mind."
While Hamuko has a few more flirty ideas, she decides to relent for the rest of morning. Too much at can be exhausting, and Hamuko thinks she's reached that threshold for now.
A cool breeze blow past Hamuko and Yukari. The two are taking a break, after a day of doing countless random things together. They plan on returning to the dorm but are too tired now so they end up huddled up on a bench, right on the edge of the artificial island. Ahead of them, is the mainland city, and gentle – but possibly polluted – waves roll beneath.
Few people are around, mostly just minding their own business, not a care in the world given to what they would consider a silly holiday. It's quiet, unlike some areas where countless couples probably have their time ruined by crowd alone.
Hamuko leans sideways on Yukari, with their shoulders touching.
"Still don't feel like going?" Yukari asks.
"Mmmm… another minute."
"This time I'll just go ahead and assume you mean another five. Should save you the trouble of saying another minute five times."
Hamuko grunts and nods once.
Before the five minutes' pass, a Yukari asks a question that's been on the edge of her mind, "Hamuko why did you ask me to go out with you? Today, that is."
"Huh? It's obvious, right?" Hamuko looks at Yukari expectedly.
"I – I don't want to assume," says Yukari. She blushes and gives herself away.
"Hmm?" Hamuko smirks. "You got an idea though. The right idea too."
"Don't tease me!" Yukari kicks herself mentally. She feels like a coward, trying to get something from Hamuko instead of just saying how she feels. She resolves to at least give a straight response, no matter the answer she gets.
"I like you Yukari," Hamuko confesses.
"You… like me..." Yukari repeats. The words burn her ears red. She smiles, and although it's not wide like when they were playing around earlier in the day, it covers a joy far greater. One she doesn't think can be beat.
"Um… wait I mean…"
In that split-second pause, Yukari's thoughts go blank. No dread. No hope. Not enough time to think about what's on either side of the edge where she stands.
"I love you." Hamuko says, and she proves Yukari wrong.
Yukari immediately wraps Hamuko up in a tight hug. "Hamuko," she says.
While not as rib crushing, Hamuko returns the embrace. "So this means you like me too?"
"No. I love you too." Yukari leans in to kiss Hamuko. Just before their lips touch, Hamuko intercepts her with a finger.
"Wait, tonight," she says. "I promise it'll be worth it."
Yukari backs away and nods, not without hesitation or discontent. "Okay. I'll be patient. Wanna stay here or go back now?"
"It hasn't been ten minutes, but aright. Let's go. And, let's meet up at the roof at midnight."
"The roof is locked – never mind. You've probably taken care of that. Okay then. I should mention I need to take care of something once we get to Iwatodai. Once we're there, please go on ahead."
Hamuko nods and they get up, holding hands. She finds her eyes glued to Yukari, and the same goes the other way around. They both notice this and giggle, having allocated all their self-control to patience. Waiting until midnight will be a trial.
At 11:55 Yukari heads up to the 4th floor and finds Hamuko picking the lock on the door to the roof. She's slightly disturbed at the downright Junpei-like tendencies. It's a brief concern which gets dashed away as soon as Hamuko successfully cracks the lock and does fist pumps. More cute than disturbing.
As Hamuko turns to her, Yukari straightens up and turns her body to face Hamuko directly. Behind her back, she holding small bouquet of flowers. "What would you do if you couldn't pick the lock?
Hamuko checks the time and sees it is 11:58. "Try for two more minutes and after that," she shrugs, "kick the door down." She back-pedals out, and keeps her eyes on Yukari.
Yukari doesn't think she's kidding. Right. Delinquent. When Yukari steps out after, she shivers from the night time chill, biting into her exposed shoulders, proving that fashion has its drawbacks. Yukari hurries up to her date and presents the flowers. "This is for you," she says.
Hamuko stops mid step, one foot still raised behind her when she sees the flowers. They entice a pleasantly surprised gasp, and Hamuko hops forward to take the flowers and hug Yukari. "Yu-ka-chan!" she squeals. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome," says Yukari. "I'm glad you liked it." It's a bouquet of roses. Yukari remembers when Hamuko said they are her favourite and from then on, their passionate red reminds her of Hamuko's equally lit eyes.
After releasing Yukari, Hamuko backs away and admires the flowers for a few seconds. She then looks back at Yukari, framed in the ambient light of urban night time.
"Hamuko?"
Hamuko snaps into focus, realizing she stared for too long. She fishes out her gift from a pocket. "It's not the prettiest thing in the world," she admits, a bit embarrassed. She gives it to Yukari. "Please take it."
The ring is dropped into Yukari's hands. She holds up high to see it better. The design is odd because the dull sphere clashes with the shine of the ring, as if the jeweler used the wrong gem when setting it. For what visual appeal it lacks, it has an aura of wonder and power. More than that, Yukari has a nagging sense that this ring is important, and since it's from Hamuko, she has no reason to doubt that intuition.
"Wow… what is it?" she asks.
"It's a… charm. I got it from a friend."
"From a friend? Are you sure it's okay then for me to have this?"
"Oh don't worry! It's more like I won it from a friend. She's one of those filthy rich types who'd dump 100k yen into a fountain on a whim. It's meant to keep the wearer safe."
"Wait I think…" Yukari remembers being in Paulownia mall one day and noticing giant mountains of coin, poking out of the water surface like islands, in all the fountains. "That was her? Wow you hang with weird people. And did she have a whole sack of money on her or something? How would anyone even carry that much coin?"
"Yep. And I have something else to remember her by." Something which should allow Hamuko to go meet Elizabeth but the key isn't working. She's lost access to the Velvet room. Hamuko sighs. "Never mind that." She dismisses the wistful sorrow that doesn't belong to this night. She steps closer. "Go ahead, put it on!"
Yukari slides her gift onto her ring finger and then she flexes her hand. "Hamuko, it's okay if I wear it like this right?"
"If you mean you want to be my girlfriend, then absolutely."
Yukari turns to meet Hamuko's eyes. She's blushing and grinning. Then she's going in for a kiss and so is Hamuko.
Every moment Hamuko has her eyes closed with Yukari's lips on her, she tries to say "I love you," and since she can't, that desire changes into stroking Yukari's cheeks with her free hand before dropping it to trace the bare collarbone. She lets her lips part for Yukari and when Yukari takes advantage, she moans the words as a jumbled mess.
"I love you," Hamuko finally says coherently when they take their first breath.
Yukari kisses Hamuko again. She has both of her arms on Hamuko's hips and she pulls their bodies up together while she crosses a leg behind Hamuko's to hold them there. She kisses Hamuko, repeatedly, on different parts of the mouth. Finally, she takes Hamuko's lower lips and sucks.
Hamuko gasps, shivers and she nearly drops the bouquet. Her legs shake and she finds herself relying on Yukari to stay upright.
Yukari stops and she holds the thoroughly shaken Hamuko.
"Ha…. Yukari…"
"I love you too," Yukari says and smiles. When she feels Hamuko weight lift, she steps back.
"Yukari, you're so good at kissing!"
"Huh?! H-Hey, don't just say that so casually!" Despite her words, Yukari grins. They're quiet for a few moments and in that time, Yukari glances up. She spots the tiny visible sliver of the moon. It's the only celestial object she can see with all the light pollution, but even so, the rooftop makes her feel nostalgic. She comments on this, "You sure know how to pick a romantic spot. I feel like this is could be – no, it's already – our special place."
Hamuko nods. She had her doubts about the place but it's where their relationship started. "I know what you mean," she says. "But it is pretty cold now. Wanna go inside?"
"Didn't notice until you mentioned it actually. Sure. My room?"
"All night?"
Yukari laughs and teases, "You probably won't even have the strength to walk back to yours. Since I'm 'so good at kissing'." She grabs Hamuko's hand and rushes back into the dorm.