Nico felt like everything passed very quickly, spring break had arrived already. She was more than joyful that they had begun to date. One thing she expected never came true, though. Just a simple display of public affection. She didn't care what it was, she just wanted something, anything from her.
Nico had tried so many times in the past two weeks to initiate something of the sort, like holding hands. What she got in return was an embarrassed Maki who would ask her to stop "bothering her". Even in the indoors of Maki's home, Nico found it hard to get close to her new girlfriend and actually do… couple-y things. Actually, what do couples even do?
And now, here she was, sitting in Maki's living room while she prepared for the trip out. Over the two weeks, Nico noticed that she would find herself going over to Maki's house for no apparent reason whatsoever, she figured she just wanted some company, although that was quite difficult to admit to the younger girl whose presence she sought out for. But every time she had excused herself before entering the redhead's house, Maki didn't seem to mind at all. She supposed that was the only real trace of affection she really showed during the past two weeks.
Surprisingly, Nico had actually packed everything up the day beforehand. Normally, all the people that knew Nico would assume that she would get ready at the very last minute, and when they say last minute, they really mean it. Maybe it was the fact that it would be the first time she had a sleepover since forever, or maybe it was the fact that she would be sleeping at one of Maki's many villas scattered all across the country. She honestly didn't know what to expect, but silently hoped that she would be able to at least hold her hand or something, for heaven's sake. Just anything that assured her that Maki was still… interested in her and wasn't just going out for her due to a feeling of pity toward her.
At the beginning when Maki had invited her on a two day trip to one of her huge houses in some sort of seaside town, Nico was more than excited to accept and go with her. What she didn't know was that the younger girl had invited her other two friends, Hanayo and Rin, who in turn… invited Honoka. Knowing Honoka, the second year girl also dragged along her two best friends. Then, somehow, Nozomi managed to hear of this and gladly invited herself along with a familiar Russian blonde. So in the end, all nine of the girls were going to go for a massive sleepover, basically.
Nico flicked channels on the television to and fro, none of them catching her eye or attention at all. She had been like this for a while, Maki was certainly taking a long time. Elbow upright, with her hand palming her the side of her face, she was sure that there would be a faint red mark when she removed it from her cheek, seeing that she had probably been spacing out on the armchair for such a long duration.
She could only hear feeble sounds of cluttering and closets being shut in a room nearby, the only sign that Maki was still in the process of packing up whatever she needed. Nico didn't understand why, why did the redhead take such a long time in packing up? It was only going to be a two to three day stay at the house, and wouldn't she have some spare clothes there? Things like this puzzled Nico. She decided not to think more about it as she alleviated her tiredness with a stretched yawn.
"Maki-chan?" the raven haired girl called out, boredom clear as day in her tone. "Hurry up… I'm going to fall asleep, like, right now if you don't hurry up."
"Just give me a minute!"
"You said that last time, three minutes ago! We're gonna miss our train if you don't hurry up."
"Okay, okay. Just… go watch something while I'm readying up."
She let out a sigh, giving up her need to be punctual.
The door behind her creaked slightly, revealing her girlfriend. Nico turned to her side and saw Maki. She tried her best to resist the blushing that appeared on her face, but to no avail. She was adorable. Wearing a casual coat that was a warm pink and a cream colored dress patterned with cherry blossoms under it was a fidgeting Maki who was playing with the hems of her dress.
Nico could only cough to stop herself from staring and to lighten the atmosphere, her cheeks now flushed scarlet.
"Y-You look nice, I guess."
"T-Thank you."
"Not as nice as me, though, of course. No-one can be as beautiful as Nico-ni!"
"I take back what I said before," Maki hit Nico in the arm. "G-Geez, Nico-chan."
"Were you happy that I said you looked nice?"
"S-Shut up!"
"So you were!"
Without anything else to say, the two wordlessly brought their luggage with them as they walked out of the house and waited quietly, both of them still blushing.
The couple had arrived, albeit a few minutes late. Maki had one of her servants drive her to the train station where they would meet the other girls for their train journey. When they had stepped out, she noticed that the train station was on the other side of the road… Great job, she thought to herself.
Nico, deciding to be a decent girlfriend, decided to get out of the vehicle before Maki did to carry the luggage out of the boot before anyone else could. With little strength, she opened the car boot with Maki looking a bit confused at her sudden action. Lifting hers out, she put it on the sidewalk. Now for Maki's. Her suitcase was slightly larger than hers, and she began wondering what she put into it and why she would even need to have such a large suitcase in the first place.
She put a hand on the handle as she held it with her free hand. She strained to pick it up and let out a repressed grunt. Exactly just what did Maki have in her luggage that made it so much heavier?
She was about to stumble back and let go of the suitcase until her back hit something soft. The weight was suddenly lifted from her hands and she felt a sense of relief wash over her. Looking behind her, she noticed the redhead holding her own case.
"Idiot."
"H-Hey! You didn't need to help me, I was managing just fine with that!"
"It didn't seem like it," Maki replied nonchalantly, to which Nico huffed out a unpleased puff of air.
The two of them waved the younger girl's servant off, the car departing in a fast pace not too soon after that. Across from the road was the entrance to the train station, Nico felt a giddiness rise up in her chest.
"Let's go," Nico said, awkwardly moving around to clutch Maki's hand.
"…T-This is embarrassing…"
"We're going out so it's fine, right?"
"R-Right…"
Maki became quiet after that and hid the blush in her face well, seeing that she was walking slightly behind Nico.
Holding hands… being a couple…
That had reminded Nico of something Maki had told her, about a week after dating.
"…I want you to keep this relationship a secret," she remembered Maki saying, her lavender eyes looking at the side of the room. Curiosity peaked in Nico, and she had decided to find an answer.
"Why? Are you… are you ashamed of dating me?" Nico asked, voice full of concern and hesitation when she added the second question in. It had only been a week, and Nico had hoped that this relationship would last more than just that, she had been in high hopes hoping that this would last much, much longer than just a week.
She twirled the ends of her crimson strands, seemingly… reluctant to speak? She knitted her eyebrows slightly, as she struggled to say something to Nico.
"I just… I'm not ready to tell anyone yet. And…" she trailed off in a soft voice.
Nico noticed how she had failed to finish her sentence and how uncomfortable she was. Instead of pushing further for more answers, she decided to let her be for now. Gently placing her hands on the redhead's shoulder, she gave a reassuring smile at her.
"I understand. It's fine if you don't want to talk about this."
Maki, not expecting Nico to have such a mature side, blushed even harder, as her heart began quickening in an even faster pulse.
"…"
She kept quiet, knowing that what would come out of her mouth would be a bunch of jumbled up sentences, now that she was in a flustered state. But in her mind, she thought how grateful she was for meeting someone like Nico, grateful for having able to spend so much time with her.
She didn't say it out loud, but she said it clearly in her conscience.
'Thank you.'
Nico stepped onto the sidewalk and was now facing the entrance of the overly large train station. She checked her watch in a hurry to check the time, hoping that they weren't too late.
"We're a few minutes late," Nico told Maki. "But… we're still the first ones here... Ugh, they're all late."
It had been too quiet, until a pattering of footsteps echoed in the station.
"Hey, nya!" an energetic ginger haired girl called out as she dashed to the two idly standing in the station. Behind her was Hanayo, who was trying her best to match her best friend's pace, but failing, seeing that she was lagging behind.
Honoka's entrance was also similar to Rin's, in the way that they had both practically ran towards the group. The last four that came and greeted the group were Kotori, Umi, Nozomi and Eli, who all –like a real, mature, adult – walked in a mannerly fashion.
When Nico had lifted one of her hands up to wave them over, she had realized something. She was still holding onto Maki's hand. Woops. She immediately let go, hopefully before anyone noticed or pointed out what they were doing beforehand. A familiar warmth flooded her cheeks.
"Good morning," Nozomi greeted, to which everyone politely greeted with some kind of response of their own. In the corner of her eye, Nico could see Nozomi giving her a sly smile. Darn, she probably saw.
"Everyone's all here, right?" Kotori had asked, as Honoka swiftly counted the group's number with her fingers.
"Yup! That's everyone." Honoka said, brimming with excitement for their trip.
Eli nodded in approval as she smiled. "Khorosho! All right, I suppose we can go in a few minutes time, everyone."
Umi parted a few stray strands to the side of her face whilst walking over to Maki. "Thank you for letting everyone stay over at one of your villas."
Not expecting that, Maki had tensed up slightly, not knowing what to say. She tried to brush off her awkwardness by acting coolly as she fiddled with her hair.
"I-It's no problem, really."
Umi, being the polite person as she was, bowed slightly, which only embarrassed the younger girl even more.
"T-That's fine, you don't need to do that!"
Umi was about to say more, but refrained as she saw a familiar looking brunette drag her to somewhere.
Nico had decided to sneak up behind her and leaned against the taller redhead, her hands pressed onto her back.
"Maki-chan is so cute when she's embarrassed, aw~" Nico whispered into her ear.
"S-Stop that!"
All of the girls found a spot to sit and relaxed. Everyone had begun to talk whilst waiting for the train, most of them discussing what would they do as soon as they had arrived at their destination.
"Hey, hey. We should totally go to the beach first!" Honoka announced as she pumped her hands into the air with enthusiasm.
"I agree, nya!" the younger cat-like girl agreed, much to the dismay of Umi who wore a cross look on her face.
"No, not until you finish your assignments. Do I have to remind you that it's due in three days' time?"
The brunette tried to wave off the subject with a reassuring smile. "That's fine, that's fine. I'll do it as soon as I get home," she said in a carefree tone that was typical of her.
"Oh really, now? I doubt you would even remember at the end of this trip," the bluenette began foraging around in her suitcase to reveal a single sheet of paper. "…Which is why I brought a list of things you have to do before we return home."
"Don't ruin the fun, c'mon. Plus, we haven't been on a trip like this since high school!" she pouted at the end of her sentence.
The two continued their little argument, with Honoka asking Kotori to back her up every so often. It was something Nico commonly saw when the three best friends were together.
The train arrived in no less than five minutes, and the girls entered it. They had all put away their belongings, while some of them sat down, adjusting themselves comfortably into the seats. The girls were sitting near each other as they all occupied two rows of seats. Nico was just about to sit beside Nozomi until she heard a familiar voice call her name.
She turned her head around to see a fidgeting Maki.
"S-Sit beside me," Maki pointed to the seat beside her.
Nico tilted her head.
"I-I mean! Since that seat is a window seat I figured you might want to sit there. I-It's your first time going on a train right?"
She didn't say anything as she went into the inside of the two seats, a smile gracing her face.
The twin-tailed girl couldn't believe that small detail that she had told Maki a long time ago during one of their 'dates'. Well, Nico considered it a date, but it wasn't really. Nico for the umpteenth time, invited herself over to Maki's house and just… stayed there for a long while. They had somehow began talking about traveling and Nico had remembered briefly saying she had never rode on a train before. She felt pleased, seeing that the redhead still remembered.
"You sure it's not because you want Nico-chi to sit beside you?" Nozomi suddenly interjected the two, causing to dissipate their previous atmosphere.
When the two had looked around, they had both a red hue dyed onto their face. It had gotten even redder when she saw that Nozomi had recorded the entire ordeal on her camera. The violet haired girl stuck her tongue out.
"T-Turn that off!" the two said, in almost perfect sync.
Soon after that, it became quiet again as most of the girls dozed off. After all, it would take at least three hours for them to get there and arrive at their destination. She looked to the side and found that the redhead was silently reading a novel, something saw Maki normally doing when she was over at her house. She then rested her head onto the seat. Nico felt herself getting drowsy as her eyes refused to constantly stay open.
She felt her eyelids getting heavier… and decided to give in to the temptation that was sleep. The last things she noticed was a pleasant hand slipping into hers and a warm smile from Maki.
A/N: Hmmmm... So I've noticed how I've been failing to update every Monday/Sunday... I'm sorry about that! With the beginning of the new school term, I don't have as much time as I normally had during the summer vacation. Add a homubot absolutely confused with their new subjects at school, and you get delays in updates. If you haven't been on my profile page (that barely has anything on it so it's not really worth clicking into), you might not know that I'm now going to start updating around a week after the last. So that means I might not update exactly a week after the last, or it may mean I might update a tiny bit early depending how busy I am. Now, I want to thank you so much for reading this fanfiction. I hope you enjoyed this!
I'll see you in my next update, and I hope you also have a great day/night, whatever time it is right now!
Edit: Oh yes, I forgot to thank you guys for giving me over 100 reviews! Wow... that's just... amazing. Thank you for following, reviewing and favoriting this story, it means a lot.