(Just wanted to take a brief moment to thank everyone for all the support and the positive feedback. This is my first time doing anything of this nature so I highly appreciate it. Enjoy!)

It felt like an eternity, that miniscule distance from one end of the hallway to the other.

It was like she experienced time differently, a dilution that made her feel like every second was a few hours. She had enough thoughts stirring around in her head to fill such an enormous amount of time. Of course it was JUST after she began to feel comfortable, so what was the problem? Why now? Why did she suddenly feel like her nerves were set ablaze?

She had somehow veered from the course. She had to get back on track.

Thankfully, Chie and Yukiko were engaged in conversation that immediately leapt out at the two returning girls.

"-why else would he just leave the meeting like that without even explaining? Honestly I'm a bit suspicious," Rise said, sounding partially annoyed.

"Suspicious? Sounds a bit more like jealousy to me," she said with a grin.

The two girls were sitting exactly where they had before, though now Rise had been tightly gripping one of the pillows at the edge of the couch, her grasp getting tighter with Yukiko's implication.

"It is not!... well… it's not just that!" she said in protest.

Chie realized she hadn't put the ice cream away, quietly skipping past Naoto quickly, clearly the conversation had caught her attention and didn't want to miss much. Naoto felt a tingling in her spine as she passed her. She took her seat in the room from before, though unlike Chie, she wasn't exactly engaged in the current discussion.

You would've had to of been blind, deaf, or a combination of both to miss that Rise harbored deep affections for their team leader. Naoto's observational skills were acute, and as such, her unsubtle hints and constant neediness were about as obvious as the very sun in the sky, yet no one else seemed to comment on it, so she remained silent about it.

"She seemed nice," Yukiko pointed out.

"Yukiko you think everyone short of actual psychopaths and murderers are nice," Rise commented back flippantly.

"Not true! You have no idea how many people come through here and treat me and my family horribly! I am definitely not a fan of them,"

Naoto wondered how Yukiko maintained such a fairly friendly disposition in spite of this fact.

"Still, she's weird. She keeps calling you 'Red' and keeps calling Chie 'Green' even though she knows your names,"

Chie re-entered the room, sitting next to Naoto.

"Who keeps calling me what now?" Chie inquired.

"We're talking about Marie," Rise said tiredly.

"And how Yu and Marie are totally dating," Yukiko added.

Rise shot her a look.

"Only speculation! Why would he hide something like that from us anyway?" she said pouting.

Chie looked like she was really thinking on this. For Naoto, it seemed rather unorthodox that she'd expect anything from Yu, considering how helpful he'd been, but everyone else had known him longer. Though, his love life wasn't exactly automatically their business… at least it wasn't Naoto's. Was it typical to care so much about this topic? Sure Rise cared because she obviously cared for Yu, but what stake did the rest of them have? Though, if this girl was someone they didn't like, they had cause for concern that maybe it wasn't in their leader's best interest.

"I bet Yosuke knows. Call it a gut feeling," Chie remarked.

That was more than likely a correct assumption.

"Probably… ugh she's just such a…" Rise trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

"Pretentious Coffee-house hipster?" Yukiko finished.

Wow. Yukiko had more bite than first suspected.

Rise smiled.

"Why yes Yukiko, thank you, what she said," she nodded in agreement.

"Well… I'd say their involved… but maybe it's not serious. If Yu wants to tell us, then he'll tell us. She is kinda abrasive. You never know Rise, you might still have a chance," Chie said hopefully.

Rise looked a bit flustered.

"I… I guess. Ugh the one guy I end up liking and he's so weird and difficult to judge. I'm not used to waiting. Or being… patient," Rise sighed.

"We all have our downsides," Chie shrugged, "In the meantime you could date Yosuke,"

Chie said that without a hint of humor, so for a moment everyone was dead silent. The onset of Yukiko's giggle then set them all off. The room filled with howling laughter. Even Naoto, who didn't even entirely understand why she was laughing, slowly began to join her friends with infectious laughter.

"I must admit," Naoto said as the laughter petered out, "I feel bad for Yosuke. He seems to be on the receiving end of most of your jabs. Did he do something to offend any of you?"

Chie snickered.

"Well the casual and unwarranted flirting can't go unpunished so we gotta even it out. He's a… he's a mostly nice guy and he's got our backs. He just makes it a little too easy," she answered.

Now that Naoto thought about it, half of her direct interactions with the boy had been him flirting with her now that he knew she was a girl, which slightly irked Naoto for some reason that she couldn't quite pin down.

"Regardless, maybe we should wait for Yu to tell us before we start laying into him. Or his weird girlfriend,"

Just as they all were relishing in how much they were all chuckling, Rise gave Naoto a startled look. She caught her gaze and immediately ceased laughing, freezing up in the sudden attention.

"Hey Naoto I think you may have a little-"

She motioned towards her shirt, then pointing over at Naoto. It was all she could do to look like a helpless animal caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

She looked down onto her shirt and saw a splotch of chocolate ice cream in the direct center of the clothing her stomach. Not large enough to ruin the top, but enough to be a pain to remove. She sighed in disappointment. She had meant to change her clothes after seeing that the others had changed, but just didn't remember to. Rise's eyesight must've been good enough to rival most nocturnal animals, she was able to point that out in near darkness.

"O-oh. Well, I guess I'm overdue for a change of clothes anyway," she said trying to sound like she had her wits about her.

Yukiko looked like she was about to say something as she stood up to leave, but stopped herself.

"Ah nevermind I'll just do it myself," she said quietly after muttering something to herself.

"Did you need something?" Naoto inquired, more than willing to try and be as helpful as possible.

Chie raised her hand before anyone could say anything.

"I have a feeling Yukiko is going to show you to where we'll be sleeping and where you can change, shot in the dark,"

Rise giggled, the only one catching onto Chie's subtle pun.

"Well, that, yes, but it's been way longer than a half an hour, I need to go and flip the breaker,"

Chie urgently popped up alongside Naoto.

"I can do that! You seriously think I don't know where the breaker is after all these years?"

Yukiko looked a bit puzzled.

"What's got you feeling so helpful all of a sudden?" she asked more than a little suspiciously.

Chie smirked and shrugged.

"Maybe I'm just a helpful friend… and maybe I wanna guilt the hell outta you for making me eat ice cream outside," she said playfully.

Yukiko sat back down, simultaneously sighing and smiling.

"You win the friend Olympics this year Chie, happy?" she asked.

Naoto was already walking towards the front entrance while Chie dragged behind a bit.

"Actually Yukiko the Olympics are every four years," she said, sticking her tongue out.

Yukiko became a bit flustered.

"I'm aware! I just… phrased that improperly,"

Chie turned around triumphantly, rather than simply leading her friend along, enthusiastically grabbing her hand and leading her down the hallway. Naoto was a bit surprised, not even really having enough time to blush.

Naoto was nervous Chie's lead would direct her into falling or hitting a wall, but thankfully she seemed to know where she was going and steered her with efficiency. Chie wasn't joking, she seemed to know this place at least as much as her own home.

Unfortunately Naoto couldn't exactly gage where she was being taken. She definitely went up a flight of stairs and made a turn somewhere. She'd have to go back to Yukiko for directions, the Inn was practically labyrinthian.

Chie stopped midway down the hall, pointing inside one of the rooms.

"This is Yukiko's room, you can change here, but there's also a bathroom down the hall at the end on your right, okay?"

Naoto nodded as she apprehensively stepped inside as Chie motioned for her to enter.

"Be back in a sec!" she said brightly.

As she heard her feet pitter-patter down the hall, she found herself alone for the first time since she arrived in the dark room. She set her bag she had over her shoulder on the ground, kneeling over to open it.

While retrieving her clothing from the bag, she wondered why exactly it was that she felt like this. So caught-up and so frightened, yet also somehow far more content than she anticipated? She didn't feel ill and didn't have a history of mood swings, was this really just her anxiety? Her detective skills and general observations lead her to try and itemize her predicament. What exactly was the problem? Her social ineptitude was eased by her friends, they didn't treat her differently or step on eggshells, they were just themselves, which made it easier for her to be herself. So where did this paradoxical and uneasy feeling originate from?

Chie?

No, that couldn't be it. She knew she was the most comfortable around her. In fact the lasting thought that stayed with her was when the two of them were outside, probably the first time she had truly felt comfortable in Inaba.

She began to undo the buttons on her top, discarding it on the floor along with her undershirt. It was a bit colder now, she had always dressed so warmly temperature was never an issue, so she wasn't accustomed to feeling goosebumps, with an accompanying shiver go down her spine. After taking off her pants she found she was just genuinely cold, if she didn't wear boxers she would've been shivering. There was a metaphor in their somewhere.

Before putting on her other shirt, she looked down with a sense of resignation. Bandages.

They stopped bothering her her a long time ago. Or did she simply just get used to it? Was there a difference? Unfortunately for her, once she had hit puberty, nature itself seemed to inconvenience her even further when she found she had to bind her breasts to pass as a boy. She was worried it was going to get worse and worse as she got older, even though as she got into a routine with it that made it feel somewhat normal. She had seen how expensive bras were and figured she at least dodged a bullet there. It took extra time and it was uncomfortable when she did an especially good job at wrapping, but she took it as another personal personal challenge.

Thankfully she had changed them earlier that day, it was a hassle remembering when she had last done it normally, it had to be somewhat regular, but not every day. She may have grown more comfortable with her femininity, but having big boobs was just sort of a pain in the ass.

She was about to put on her pajama bottoms when suddenly every light in Yukiko's room turned on, almost blinding her. She was midway through putting on one pant leg, so she toppled over onto the ground as she lost her balance.

I guess Chie flipped the breaker.

She hadn't fully caught herself when falling down, so sadly both her arm and her tailbone hurt like hell. Her eyes were still closed in order to shield herself, so the only sensory experience she had besides pain was the pitter-pattering of Chie's feet running down the hall. Naoto hadn't yelped out but her fall must've been somewhat audible.

Chie burst into the room, not missing a beat. Naoto hadn't shut the door while changing, which was ill-advised, but to be fair, she was in the dark.

"Naoto are yo-uh…. Whoa… what.. Happened?" Chie asked all jumbled together. A coherent sentence was somewhere in her syllables.

Naoto grunted as she sat up, rubbing her eyes before she opened them.

"The lights seem to have- er… eh… yes," she said, similarly jumbled.

Chie took some apprehensive steps toward her, extending her hand. Her face was an even mix of concern and confusion.

"Do you… what happened to you? Are you hurt?" she asked.

Naoto turned about as red as Yukiko's wardrobe, which was now partially visible, seeing as the lights were all on.

She didn't even know how to feel. She wasn't embarrassed about the bandages, and boxers were about as covering as your average pair of shorts, so her being found in a somewhat unclothed state didn't play into it too much. It wasn't difficult for Naoto to do a bit of self-profiling and figure out it was simply because she felt so vulnerable. It wasn't one thing, it was everything. Especially because it was Chie.

She propped herself up on her other arm, nodding in appreciation at Chie's offer to help, but grabbed the side of Yukiko's bed to stand up.

"No, it's… it's not because of an injury. I… I find it easier if I do this. For the sake of my… appearance," Naoto said, blushing in full force.

Chie narrowed her eyes a bit, a wave of realization hitting her, instantly sending her back into a more conversational state.

"Ohhhh I gotcha. Does that hurt… at all?" she asked.

Naoto shook her head.

"It gets easier. And it numbs after awhile. It's definitely not comfortable,"

She looked away, trying to grab at her pants to attempt to pull them back up. Chie let out a small giggle.

"Are those for your appearance too?" she asked, referring to Naoto's choice in underwear.

Naoto would've felt embarrassed, had she not genuinely thought about Chie's question.

"Honestly now that you mention it, I'm not sure. Maybe it just helped me play the part?" she said with an uncharacteristically goofy grin, "They're comfortable and I never saw the need to change them,"

Chie nodded in agreement.

"Honestly there's no need to feel embarrassed. I was the same way when I played sports. I had to buy all this new stuff, it was sorta overwhelming. Honestly most of the time I just wear a sports bra nowadays," she said with a bit of an awkward shrug and a shake in her voice.

Naoto couldn't rid herself of her excessively flushed cheeks.

"I-I'm not embarrassed," Naoto attempted to insist.

Chie smiled in a way Naoto hadn't really ever seen before.

"Your face says differently," she said stifling a laugh.

Naoto simply looked away to avoid more awkward tension, pulling on her pants quickly, jumping up a bit to get the bottom of the pant legs up to her ankles.

She stood up a bit more relaxed, looking for where she had dropped her shirt on the floor, right next to Chie's foot, who noticed Naoto's gaze looking down, and picked them, handing them to her.

"Yours I'm guessing?" she asked.

She nodded.

As she outstretched her hand to take them from Chie, suddenly she felt a bit of a chill run over her chest. She didn't have time to process why, but somehow, in her struggle, her bandage had come loose, and her stretch had been all it needed to unravel. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the end of a bandage drop to the floor on her right side, everything else following suit. For a moment, she was just there. Topless. In front of Chie, who looked like she was the one about to be hit by a car.

She had been doing so well, by her own standards anyway. She got caught in an awkward situation and was handling it without collapsing into a nervous wreck, so that was certainly worth noting. But no, this one movement had suddenly brought her evening to a great demonstration of Murphy's Law. In front of Chie, no less.

Why did that matter so much?

And in that moment, to hit PEAK awkwardness, she realized it. Everything had to collapse in order for her to properly see inside her own brain. The first coherent thought she had was chastising herself for being so stupid.

She liked Chie. More than just as a friend.

It was so, bafflingly, stupidly obvious, and only now did she realize it. Was it because it was another awkward revelation about herself that she didn't want to face? She barely had a grasp on herself as a vague idea, as a concept, her identity was very much a mixed bag, but one she accepted. Romantic attachment had just never been something she considered until now. Her lack of forming meaningful connections with people her age, her lack of social interaction, it just prevented her from even thinking about it. Even puberty was something that just, for the most part, escaped her. She had never looked at someone, sizing up their attractiveness consciously. It was just never something that interested her. The notion that she was interested in the girl, or girls in general, was probably the least surprising thing about the whole affair. Naoto liked Chie the person, not Chie the girl. That was all, frankly circumstantial. She had never landed on what she considered herself to be beyond simply being 'Naoto Shirogane'. What did people even call that? Non-binary? Was that the correct term? She simply considered herself to be an infinite amount of different variables. Picking a term to assign to that seemed reductive to Naoto, so she didn't bother, so her sudden realization that she was smitten with a girl wasn't really part of the shock factor. Chie was pretty ambiguous in that ballpark as well. She was a girl, and identified as such as far as Naoto knew, though her sexuality was something she wasn't privy to. However, she was definitely aware that she didn't fit conventional classifications, and was okay with that. One of the many reasons Naoto had taken a shine to her.

So as her brain was internally boiling, imploding in on itself, she stood there, half-naked, in front of someone she liked.

Chie was certainly a bit embarrassed, but not really because of Naoto. Well, maybe a bit because of Naoto, but mostly because she was afraid that Naoto would have been offended. For some reason, Chie didn't initially leave the room once finding out that Naoto was alright. She was in a state of undress, so the respectful thing to do was to leave, but she didn't, simply because she wasn't uncomfortable. It was hardly the first time she saw another girl topless, she had been friends with Yukiko forever, and had to endure the nightmare that was gym class at school, but this was different. Chie immediately felt a rush of guilt for not recognizing that Naoto was probably too nice to ask her to leave. Just because she was comfortable didn't mean Naoto was. In fact it was likely the case, she knew that was the source of a lot of the detective's insecurity. She may have conquered it in a general sense, but it was probably a more complex issue than that.

Chie raised a hand to her mouth, eyes widened, and immediately turned away. It was hard to miss Naoto's little revelation, considering that was the source of motion in the direction she looked, so naturally her eyes were drawn there for a moment, but in an attempt to atone, she looked away. She felt horrible, intruding on someone with bodily insecurities like that. Naoto on the other hand was embarrassed for all the reasons Chie wasn't thinking of, and immediately covered herself.

"God I am so sorry! I didn't mean to intrude on you like this! I'll go!" Chie immediately started to move for the door.

"Wait!" Naoto said urgently.

Chie froze. She couldn't tell if her voice was tinged with anger or not.

"You're… still… you have my shirt," Naoto mumbled.

Chie looked at her hand, and then back at Naoto, who was somehow able to make eye contact with her. Chie sighed.

"I'm such a dumbass, here," Chie said, pulling her gaze away from Naoto's face and towards the wall, still holding out the t-shirt.

Naoto had to take a few steps forward to grab it whilst still covering herself. She nabbed it away from the other girl. Once she had the shirt, she just stood there, completely overwhelmed and not sure what to do. She dropped to her knees out of pure frustration, her eyes welling up with tears.

That was it. The worst possible thing that could've happened. She feared she'd be reduced to such a sight, but even when confronting her shadow, managed to be somewhat stalwart. It was everything that followed that was more taxing. Now what? She just sat on her knees, topless, unsure how to proceed considering that the last twenty seconds had likely been the worst thing that had happened to her in some time. Something so small and stupid. Naoto had been strong all her life, so why this? Why now?

Why in front of someone she cared about?

Chie had to make a judgement call. She either had to leave Naoto alone because she had upset her and felt guilty and didn't know what to do, or attempt to comfort her now that she saw she had tears in her eyes. Not crying, fully, but definite tears. If Naoto was upset with her, she figured she would've been yelled at by now, or told to leave her alone, or even just told in Naoto's normal, slightly cold tone to leave her be, but she hadn't been. She risked further upsetting her and decided to try and help the girl, the sight of leaving her friend alone like that would've weighed on her far more than intruding a bit more.

Chie slowly, nervously, approached Naoto. Lowering herself onto her level, kneeling down beside her. She didn't want to touch her out of fear for further upsetting her, so she just sat there for a moment, looking into the sad girl's tear-filled eyes.

"Naoto, I didn't mean-"

Naoto looked up at her.

"I-it's okay, Chie. It's not that. I just…"

She trailed off, unable to complete her sentence, just staring at the floor beneath her. A pit formed in Chie's stomach. She hated seeing people like this because she knew how vulnerability felt. Her empathetic side ached for poor Naoto. She didn't consider that tonight may have been hard on her, and being overwhelmed and caught off-guard definitely didn't help.

"I just… I hate this. I hate that I get like this. One bad thing happens and I start to cry like this. That's not who I am,"

Chie leaned in a bit, and took the liberty of brushing the larger tears off Naoto's face. She hardly reacted to the touch because she didn't quite know how to respond.

"Hey, you're not crying. If anybody knows the difference between crying and just being frustrated, it's me," Chie said, trying to put a more encouraging tone into her words.

Naoto looked up at her. Chie never noticed how Naoto's pale blue eyes matched her hair.

"Really?" she asked, sounding about as genuine as she was capable of.

Chie nodded, putting her hand on Naoto's shoulder, subtly pushing her over a bit so she could sit on the floor and have her back propped up against the bed, and she followed suit.

"Are you kidding me? Of course! This happens to me all the time. You don't think I just shrugged off everything after I faced down my shadow, do you?" she asked rhetorically.

She knew everyone had to have felt exposed then, but actually picturing Chie being sad wounded her.

"I just feel it's so… unbecoming of me. I'm not used to this," she mumbled.

"What do you mean? It's human to be overwhelmed," she commented.

"It just doesn't feel like me. I've gone my whole life suppressing parts of myself and putting on a show with others, and now that I'm finding myself, it's so… difficult. I hate feeling like this scared little girl. I've been an adult, a sharp-minded detective, a man, but being myself is just so much more exhausting,"

Before Chie could respond, Naoto laughed a bit.

"It sounds so maudlin and saccharin. I feel like a cliche," she said with a half-hearted smile.

"No no no. Some cliches are cliches because they're true, you know. You can't fault yourself for just feeling things. It's probably a first, right? I bet when you were 'Ace Detective Naoto Shirogane' you were as solid as they came. You're just not used to it, being embarrassed or showing weakness. Hell, if you think about it, we've had our whole lives to get used to this stuff. It's pretty new for you, huh?"

Naoto thought she was about to start crying for a totally different reason. How did Chie always know just what to say? Exactly what needed to be said to make her feel better. It was uncanny. Had this been Rise or Yukiko, the whole situation would've been awkward and Naoto would've probably been so much more uncomfortable, and the other girls would've probably tried their best, but Yukiko wasn't always good with words, and Rise would've likely started crying with her, which would've been therapeutic in it's own way, but far less effective.

"It is. I'm sorry for being so-" Naoto began.

"Nope!" Chie interrupted, "From now on, you are not allowed to apologize for being you. If anything I should apologize for being so nosey,"

Naoto shook her head, and wiped away any remaining tears from her face.

"No you were concerned. Rightfully so," she said, looking down at herself, "I am a bit of a mess,"

The two girls shared a laugh filled with newly earned camaraderie.

"Here," Chie said, about to get up, "I'll leave you alone for a few minutes and then we'll go back down together, maybe wash your face a bit, and it'll be like this never happened, okay?"

Naoto, despite still clutching her chest with both arms, used the one closest to Chie to grab her wrist.

"Wait!" she said, a bit louder than intended.

For a moment they just stared at one another.

"I feel more comfortable when you're around me," Naoto said, summoning all the bravery she had in her.

Chie's blush returned.

"Oh, well okay, that works too. I can sit here and we can just wait until your ready, okay?" she asked.

Naoto nodded, both girls then rested their heads on the bed behind them, looking up a bit. Naoto took a moment to try and close her eyes and do one of her breathing exercises again. She shut out all sound and feeling and just focused on slowly exhaling. Her nerves, which previously felt like she had placed inside a kiln, were now tepid, but far more calm. She inhaled through her nose and couldn't help but notice that Yukiko's room smelled like rose petals and apricots. A pleasant scent that made her feel even more at ease.

"Hey uh, Chie?" Naoto asked.

She had been adept at being able to bandage herself over the years… but an extra pair of hands would help, especially considering her hands were far shakier than normal at the moment.

"What is it? Do you need something?" Chie asked, so ready to help her friend it could only be described as adorable.

Naoto looked over at her fallen bandages.

"Could you uh, help… me?" she asked.

Chie nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah sure! Do you… uh… need… you might just wanna tell me what to do I don't really know what this entails," she said, rubbing the back of her head with her hand.

Naoto stood up.

"Actually, just grab the bandages and hold them, I can spin around, once they're covered just put the metal pin at the end of it," she said.

Chie nodded, leaning over to grab them, and stood up assuming the position with her usual Chie vigor. She held the end, and handed the other end to Naoto, who placed it near the center of her chest. She expected herself to flush red yet again, but surprisingly, nothing happened this time, despite her knowing what was gonna happen. In Naoto's brief pause, Chie perked up.

"Oh! Sorry! Do you want me to look away?"

Naoto took one, slow, steady breath.

"No it's fine," she said somewhat quietly.

No embarrassment. Chie really did defy all logic when it came to somehow being comfortable around her. She had seen everything now, no point in being awkward about it.

Chie looked a little surprised. So she instead simply just stood there, ready for Naoto to start spinning.

"Remember, you have to keep kind of a tight hold on it, or else it all come undone again," Naoto reminded her.

"Right!" Chie nodded.

Naoto, taking one more breath, raised up both her hands and started to spin in place, slowly. She felt a bit silly, but tried to look as poised as humanly possible.

"Hey you know the girls won't care, right? You don't have to do this around us, we won't judge," Chie said.

Naoto nervously chuckled.

"Thank you, I appreciate that. And I don't doubt it. But it's not really about that. It just… makes me feel more comfortable. I mean, it's uncomfortable physically, it just makes me feel better… when I'm around people. It's stupid…"

"No it's not! If it makes you feel better that's all that matters!" Chie said, watching her friend spin around, slowly covering herself.

Naoto felt like she had climbed a mountain. She was able to actually speak to this girl while this was happening and not appear like a total disaster after she just cried in front of her. Chie really worked miracles on her, she couldn't deny it. Every time she caught a glimpse of Chie's face as she spun, she thought about earlier when she realized her affections for the girl (another reason she was quite proud of herself). She knew she liked Chie for simply just being herself, but now, she simply couldn't deny the fact that she had a beautiful and infectious smile and gorgeous eyes, despite being tomboyish, she had softer features that just made everything about her seem more approachable. Yukiko and Rise were practically testaments to the power of traditional feminine beauty, which Naoto thought had it's place to be appreciated in its own right, but it was a bit intimidating. Rise was an idol, and Yukiko could've been one if not for her shyness.

On the other side, Chie found herself suddenly impressed with Naoto's physical appearance. As a boy she found her soft features to be adorable, but in the context of seeing her in a more feminine light, she was just as beautiful as the other girls. Her short and somewhat messy hair was ruffled from wearing a hat so much, but even that was endearing. And Chie, considering the current circumstances, couldn't help but be impressed that Naoto was able to hide herself under those bandages. Chie couldn't quite compare when it came to bust size, but she knew it would've hurt her like hell, and from what she could see, Naoto seemed to outshine all three of the girls in that department. She couldn't believe she found a way to conceal something like that at all, leave it to a detective.

Once finished, Chie pinned the small metal clip into place, and Naoto moved around a bit to see if she was good to go, and it seemed like it would hold up alright.

"We in business?" Chie asked.

Naoto nodded triumphantly.

"You're a natural. I may have to hire you to maintain my wardrobe," she said as she bent over, reaching for her shirt.

Chie laughed.

"With my fashion sense? Your loss, my wardrobe philosophy is 'grab whatever is in my closet and throw on my jacket,"

Naoto grinned.

"Which would be perfect for someone like me, yes?" she asked.

She realized who she was talking to.

"Okay I guess that's fair," she said.

She took a moment to let Naoto adjust herself in her new clothes. In more casual wear, Naoto was pretty cute.

"You look great! You think you're ready? We can wait a little longer if you need to," she said.

Her kindness made Naoto smile.

"No I'm fine now. But thank you, Chie. Your concern… means a lot to me,"

In Naoto's voice, Chie heard a mixture of both pain and happiness. One that almost made her choke up. She took a step towards her, and grabbed Naoto's hand to lead her downstairs.

Naoto's hands her a bit calloused, but Chie's surprisingly soft hands felt warm. Safe.

Just as Chie approached the door, Naoto felt a rush of bravery.

"Wait, Chie, I-"

And it died as soon as it came.

Chie had stopped, and was looking at Naoto with concern. Naoto averted her gaze, and shook her head, a forlorn smile on her face.

"Nevermind. Let's go," she said, nodding confidently.

Chie nodded back, and they exited the room. It simply wasn't the right time, the right moment. Naoto didn't want to ruin anything by saying something in regards to her newfound crush. There had been too many tears, too much awkwardness, and she felt like the night could be steered back to where they could all start to have some fun again. She may have had a big realization in that room, but for the time being, it could wait. Even if Chie didn't reciprocate, she had a gut feeling, at the very least she hoped, that maybe when she did say how she felt, that Chie of all people would understand.

At the very least, she still had a close friend she could confide in.