Yell It From The Rooftops

Chapter 4: Say It Underwater


"A hot springs trip?" Nagisa absent-mindedly pushed her food around on her plate while her mother, Misumi Rie, shared some news.

"Don't play with your food," was her almost immediate reply, "but yes, I've decided that we can use my break time on a trip to a hot springs resort. We don't usually get to really indulge but I felt it's about time we did."

"So you could say..." everyone braced themselves for the awful joke that was inevitably to come as Nagisa's father, Takeshi, began talking, "you really had to spring for a hot spring?"

A deafening silence fell over the room as Nagisa resisted the urge to slam her face directly on the table.

"At any rate," Rie continued, "it's this weekend so I want everyone ready to go Friday night. Nagisa, if you want to, feel free to invite a friend."

"Ah...seriously?" Nagisa cocked an eyebrow at her mother, "Sure, I could ask someone. Honoka might want to g-Ryouta, stop making that face."

Ryouta clamped his mouth shut and stared at his food. There was a certain level of killing intent in Nagisa's voice that he didn't feel quite comfortable contesting.

"Wait," he piped up, "don't I get to bring a friend?"

"You're not going," Rie responded, "You're going to stay here and watch over the apartment."

"What?" Ryouta almost jumped out of his chair, "That's not fair, I wanna go, too!"

"Someone needs to watch the place," Rie said calmly, "and you're old enough to. Consider it a test of responsibility."

"But..."

"Test. Of. Responsibility."

Again, Ryouta's mouth clamped shut. Again, there was a killing intent he knew better than to contest.

It was going to be a long weekend.


"Sure, I could go," Honoka took little time thinking about the question presented to her the next day, "Though why me?"

Nagisa had accompanied Honoka to her home as soon as school had ended. She was very eager to ask Honoka if she was up for the trip at levels that even surprised her. Regardless, Honoka welcomed her in as usual. They were now sitting at the edge of the platform outside of Honoka's room, staring out into the distance.

"Eh?" Nagisa seemed equally if not more confused as she turned to Honoka, "Because you're my best friend. And Hikari is going to be busy with Akane this weekend."

Honoka's turned to her friend with a slightly flattened look, "You asked Hikari first?"

"W-well, no..." Nagisa scratched her nose nervously, "I wanted to know if she was okay with my decision...She was okay with it, by the way."

Honoka stared for a moment before smiling softly, "Well, alright. If grandmother is fine with it."

Nagisa smiled back before again turning her gaze to the distance, "I've really gotten addicted, you know."

"Addicted?" Honoka's look dove into a concerned frown, "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Ah..." Nagisa caught onto her mistake, "N-nothing bad, I just mean that jokingly...I mean, you know...with shouting off the rooftop."

Honoka breathed a sigh of relief, "Don't scare me like that."

"S-sorry," Nagisa laughed nervously before shortly regaining her composure, "Either way, I've gotten hooked on it. It's just so much fun to do and it makes me feel a lot better after a hard day...I might miss it over the weekend."

Honoka simply smiled, "Silly."

"Am not," Nagisa puffed out her cheeks in a light pout, "You said it was a good idea, too."

"I meant it," Honoka said with a hint of defensiveness in her voice.

"Then why don't you try it?" Nagisa couldn't help but frown. It had been so frustrating just watching her sit there. She knew she shouldn't start a fuss but she wasn't one for keeping her mouth shut.

"I..." Honoka found herself racking her brain for an answer. She knew why. She knew full well. But try as she may, there was no way she could bring herself to let Nagisa know. Not yet, "I just..."

There was yet another brief silence. Though it felt much longer to Honoka. She wanted to tell Nagisa, she wanted to spill her heart out and call it a day. She wanted to do a lot of things at this particular moment; throw Nagisa inside, shut her door, cry into Nagisa's lap for a bit while yelling all kinds of confessions, then...other things, maybe?

However, much to her relief, the silence was broken by a sigh from Nagisa, "Sorry. I trust you so I shouldn't push this kind of thing from you. I guess I'm just...curious. No..." Nagisa stretched her neck back and stared at the ceiling above, "I want to know you better. I mean, you're my best friend so I know you better than anyone who isn't related to you. But I think there's always something new to discover about your friends."

Honoka was conflicted. As much as it made her heart skip to hear all that, it also was a crushing blow. She was indeed Nagisa's best friend; that was something that gave her incomparable joy. But at the same time, it reminded her that it's what she was; Nagisa's best friend. A friend. A companion who would never betray Nagisa's trust or expectations. And that meant not risking that position for anything.

Not for anything...

Not even her own desires.

And through it all, she smiled. For Nagisa.

"So...I trust you," Nagisa continued, "So if you don't want to do it, I won't bother you about it anymore." She smiled again, "But I'll keep hoping if you don't mind."

"Silly."

Honoka continued to smile.


The trip to the resort was uneventful. Much to the dismay of most of the car's inhabitants, Nagisa's father had taken to driving word games halfway through the drive. And he would not be deterred until Nagisa finally asked Rie for a very detailed and thorough description of the resort which Rie immediately and gratefully granted her. Takeshi had taken the hint and accepted his defeat graciously.

Arrival was just as uneventful. A simple check-in and dispersal between rooms, Nagisa's parents in one room, Nagisa and Honoka in the other. Nagisa had been quick to strike any thoughts of what they would do alone from her mind. It wasn't hard to do. She would be alone with Honoka for most of the trip, meaning she might be able to find out what was bothering her.

Nagisa was not the smartest of the team that the legends called "Pretty Cure," but she was not ignorant to the world around her. And that included Honoka. She knew it wasn't simply the rooftop shouting that was bothering her best friend. No, there had to be more.

Honoka was one of the most important people in Nagisa's life. She would have dared say that perhaps Honoka was the most important person in her life. She was as close to family as anyone who didn't share blood could get. So of course she would notice when Honoka was behaving the way she was recently. Dodgy, hesitant, and smiling way too much.

It wasn't that Nagisa didn't want to see Honoka smile. But smiles faltered every now and then. Yet when not pushed by one emotion or the other, Honoka was constantly smiling at her. As though she needed to. As though if the smile were to melt away, there would be a hollow expression that betrayed her sorrow and anguish.

Nagisa didn't want Honoka to smile out of necessity. She wanted to see Honoka smile because she wanted to smile. She wanted to see Honoka smile because she was happy. She wanted to see Honoka smile because...well, because it made her smile. And just as she wanted to see Honoka's smile...

She wanted Honoka to see her smile.

Nagisa shook her thoughts from her head as Honoka stepped out of the bathroom in a traditional robe provided by the resort. It hung a little loose around her shoulders. Nagisa couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

"You got the wrong size," Nagisa snorted, "You look like a kid trying on her mother's robes."

"They were out of my size," Honoka rolled her eyes as she smiled, "Anyway, we're at a hot springs, shouldn't we go try them out?"

"...Ah..." Nagisa snapped out of a slight daze she had, "Sure thing."

"Is something wrong?" Honoka cocked an eyebrow at Nagisa, "You seemed distracted."

"N-no, nothing at all!" Nagisa insisted with a big, goofy grin. She wasn't about to admit that the oversized robe made Honoka seem...adorably dainty, "At any rate, let's get a move on!"

"I thought I was the one who..."

"No time to talk!" Nagisa cried as she started to shove Honoka out of the room on their way to the springs, "Onward!"

Two light poofing sounds in the room they left behind followed the door clattering shut. Mepple sighed heavily as they vanished and gave a smug smirk.

"Nagisa is just so dense-mepo," he shrugged, his shit-eating smile not once leaving his face, "She really should be able to read moods better-mepo."

"You know what's going on-mipo?" Mipple gave the yellow fairy a surprised look. In all honesty, she hadn't expected the hero of light to catch...

"Isn't it obvious that Honoka is sensitive of her stature-mepo?"

Or...maybe not.


Honoka sighed as she gently slid into the water. A classic outdoor spring in the middle of the night. It may have been all kinds of traditionally generic but it was a pleasant experience nonetheless. She knew it wouldn't last, though. Nagisa would come out of the changing room, probably jump in without a care in the world, maybe even splash her, do anything but relax.

And it would be charming. She'd enjoy watching it, maybe giggle a little. And Nagisa would laugh. They might start playing around a little, sharing jokes...

Then they'd go to their room and fall asleep.

Just like friends.

Honoka continued to smile.

"I'm coming in now!" Nagisa called as she made her way out to the spring. To Honoka's surprise, her entrance into the water was less than exciting. She simply slid in, quickly submerging herself almost entirely, her head appearing almost dislocated from the rest of her body.

"This is niiiice," Nagisa sighed. Honoka could tell that Nagisa didn't often come to hot springs. Probably because Nagisa had neatly placed her folded towel on top of her head. Meaning that just below the water...

Honoka turned away as her face turned a dark red. Nagisa looked over and cocked a clueless eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" she stood up and turned to Honoka, concerned for her friend even more than before.

"I'm fine..." Honoka slowly turned to face Nagisa, "I'm...fine..."

There was a pause. Far longer than they would have liked. But words could not be found. The moon reflecting off the water, the steam rising from the springs, the light sheen that glistened off either of their bodies due to the surrounding moisture...

They couldn't move. They couldn't think. They could barely breathe. Honoka knew this feel and she knew it well. She was in love with Nagisa. She loved everything about Nagisa. Her sloppy habits, the way she smiled, the tight grip she would keep on her hand, her chocolate addiction, her carefree nature, her boisterous attitude...

Right now, the horrid forces of nature were strengthening her feelings by emphasizing just how beautiful she was on top of all of that. Nagisa stood in the spring, the water just barely coming up to the top of her hips. Nagisa had stayed fit, even after the fall of the Dark Zone. Regular exercise, sports, and even a little training on the side had left her with a slim form with a light muscle tone but not enough to make her look overly masculine. She still couldn't escape puberty which saw something of an increase in certain areas but that fact escaped her mind at the moment. Nagisa as a whole had grasped her attention in a tight grip and refused to let go.

Nagisa was not immune to the lighting effect and the form of her best friend in front of her. When did Honoka become so...stunning? When did Honoka become so mature? When did her legs get...Wait, not important...Maybe a little.

Honoka had been sitting submerged to the middle of her chest. But she suddenly found herself unable to stay so. She felt her resistance falling, her walls crumbling, every pillar of restraint collapsing under the pressure of the desire rising from her heart and soul. Everything inside of her was conflicted. This could be the moment where she either destroys or saves their friendship. But it could be the moment where it grows. It could be the moment where everything becomes...more.

"I..." Honoka struggled to find the words as the two locked eyes, "I..." She tried again. She was losing control. She couldn't allow that, "I have...to go..."

She won. She was able to resist. But was it truly a victory? Was it a shallow win in the name of friendship? Or was it a failure? A dire loss in the name of love? She would not stay for the result as she stood and turned to exit the spring.

She would not get far.

Very little was within Nagisa's reach at the time as she lunged towards the escaping figure. Escape. That was the one thing she could not let Honoka do. There was so much within reach right now. So much just within her fingertips that she could only grasp if she prevents that damn girl from getting away from her one more time.

"Honoka!"

That cry was enough to get her to hesitate. Hesitate just long enough for Nagisa to reach the pale hand that she feared would escape just beyond her reach if she had waited half a moment longer. She pulled with all her might, seizing the moment for all it was worth, and brought the flighty broad back to her.

"You're not allowed!" Nagisa yelled as she spun Honoka around and gripped her shoulders tightly, "You're not allowed to start like that and then just drop everything! You're not allowed to keep me in the dark for so long! You can't...do that to me..."

"Nagisa..." Honoka was speechless. She didn't know what was going on anymore. She wanted to stay but she wanted to run. She didn't have a choice in the matter, however, as her legs refused to listen to her any longer. They listened to her heart now, and her heart told her to run away no longer.

"You're my best friend," Nagisa found herself sniffling a bit more than she really wanted to. She briefly let go of one of Honoka's shoulders to quickly wipe the back of her arm across her eyes before quickly grabbing onto Honoka's hand, insistent on not letting her go until this was settled, "I always want to be there for you. Because I know you're always there for me."

The hand that rested on Honoka's other shoulder started losing its grip as it slid down her arm until coming to a rest on her hand. As much as she fought it, Honoka couldn't hold back a moment of hesitation. But it was fortunately brief. Slowly, she took her weeping friend's hands in her own and began to tighten her hold on them.

"So let me be there for you!" Nagisa continued, her brief attempt to dry her eyes turning out to be a futile effort, "I don't want you to keep things from me and just give me fake smiles! Honoka!"

"I..." Honoka's voice was light but the words rang through Nagisa's ears like a sonic boom, "love you...Nagisa..."

"Stupid!" Nagisa kept herself from shouting in Honoka's face while holding back further tears, "I love you too, stupid! That's what best friends do! They love each other!"

Honoka couldn't help but smile lightly. Nagisa was pretty dense after all.

"I love you, Nagisa," she repeated.

Nagisa paused. Her own grip on Honoka's hands tightened as well, "Saying it more isn't changing anything!"

"Nagisa..." Honoka smiled a little more, not bothering to fight back the tears she felt welling behind her eyes as she raised Nagisa's hands up between them. It was getting easier to say every time. It was liberating, really, "I...love...you."

Another pause from Nagisa. The wheels were turning slowly but surely.

"Oh..." Nagisa's eyes widened, "OH!...Oh..."

Honoka lightly pressed her cheek against one of Nagisa's hands, "I love you, Nagisa. I love you."

"I..." Nagisa couldn't help but make one of those dumb little expressions she made when she realized how dim she was being, "I probably should have caught on sooner, huh?...Um..." she felt moisture dripping down on her hands. She may have been a little slow on the uptake but she could tell at least what that was.

"H-hey, stop crying," she gulped, "I...I mean, it's not like...I...Ah, jeez!"

Nagisa yanked her hands away from Honoka with one clean jerk. Honoka didn't have the time to be confused before she felt Nagisa's weight being thrown upon her as arms were quickly wrapped around her shoulders. Unable to find any form of balance or anything to brace herself upon, Honoka could only tightly shut her eyes as the two of them splashed into the hot water around them.

While she would have liked to surface as soon as possible, Honoka found that the weight would not remove itself. It was simply getting heavier upon her. The terror that Nagisa may have passed out from the fall quickly subsided, however, once she realize that she was being pulled from the surface. Bursting from the water, she was met by the sight of a now-blind Nagisa, the water having matted her hair over her eyes. Again, she couldn't help but laugh.

"I really just ruined the moment like that, didn't I?" Nagisa puffed her cheeks out, "I don't believe it."

"It's fine, really," Honoka pushed Nagisa's sopping hair out of the way of her eyes, "But...what does this mean?"

"Dunno," Nagisa shrugged.

"You don't know?" Honoka couldn't shake the worried look from her face. Even when Nagisa started to smile at her.

"I...don't know, really," Nagisa said, "But we can count on each other to find out, right? Together." She grinned and pulled Honoka against her in a tight hug, "But, um...if you have any ideas let me know, okay?"

"I...have one..." Honoka was already fairly red from this whole ordeal but she could feel the blood rushing ever more to her face.

"Eh?"

Nagisa was pushed away but only briefly. A pair of hands on her shoulders pulled her back towards Honoka, bringing her head closer and closer until there was a certain softness pressed against her lips.

Nagisa's eyes widened in shock before softening and closing slowly. Her first kiss. And it was with Honoka of all people.

They were both girls.

Honoka was her best friend.

They were naked in the middle of a hot spring in public.

Yet somehow, these things didn't matter at the moment. Nothing really did. Maybe the feelings she had right now. No, these feelings definitely mattered. She was neither repulsed nor repelled by the feelings Honoka was expressing nor the way she was expressing them. Something about it felt like it worked, like it belonged.

Nagisa's clouded mind seemed to be working on automatic. Her arms found themselves slowly wrapping around the body pressed to hers at the moment as she deepened the kiss on her own. Despite their nude status and the intensity of the situation, something about it seemed...innocent. There was less physical drive and libido involved in this kiss than one would expect. A sense of passion, longing, and in some ways closure.

It was some time before either of them pulled away. Honoka found herself mildly out of breath and couldn't help but smile broadly. Much to Nagisa's delight, it was a genuine smile, nothing like what had been covering her face over the past few days.

"I think you got the point across," Nagisa said quietly.

"I hope so," Honoka giggled, "but...we should probably head inside now. Before someone walks in on this."

"...Ah! We're still in the hot spring!" Nagisa suddenly released the girl before her and looked around in a panic, "I don't believe we just did that!"

"It's fine," Honoka lightly patted Nagisa on the head, "But...about heading inside..."

"R-right," Nagisa laughed nervously, "Um...Honoka..."

"Hm?" Honoka turned to leave but looked back at the redhead.

"I..." Nagisa smiled nervously, "I think...I want to do that again...If you want..."

Honoka again smiled, "I'd like that, too."