Despite her partner's strange behavior, Kagami was having a surprisingly good time solving all these riddles with her. Their conversations could stand to be a little more engaging, but the fault lay solely with herself and her poor communication skills. She'd never before had to make conversation with someone her age outside of high-end events, and those usually followed the same script every time.
Her initial attempts at conversing with Marinette were rather stiff, and Kagami could tell they made her partner uncomfortable with how robotic she must've sounded. She would've continued to ask dry, scripted questions if Marinette hadn't taken the lead and steered the rest of their dialogue. All of a sudden, the conversation was flowing much more smoothly, and she felt like she was actually learning more about her new potential friend.
When they had to split up with the other's phone for one of their clues, they had both rushed off quickly to finish their task as soon as possible and resume their conversation. They were asked to take a selfie in front of a certain landmark with the other's phone and then meet back up at a different landmark to take a selfie together in front of it.
Kagami made it to the first landmark in good time and pulled up the camera on Marinette's phone. As she was posing, a sudden influx of messages flooded the screen and obscured almost half the screen. Perhaps Marinette needed glasses if her notifications were this large?
Kagami began swiping the messages away to dismiss them and free up the screen more until she accidentally opened up one of the messages. The screen shifted and a video reply began to play before she could exit out.
"Damn girl, I'm sorry you got Kagami as a partner! I know how obsessed you were with Adrien so I can only imagine how you're feeling around Kagami. On the bright side, now's your chance! Instead of being a disaster bi, maybe you can redeem yourself and ask her out! If you don't take this chance now, you'll regret it! Good luck!" Instantly, Kagami felt the blood rush to her cheeks.
The first half of the message was a little misleading. It made it seem like maybe Marinette didn't enjoy her company as much as she pretended to but the second half cleared up all misconceptions. Marinette was romantically interested in her? Her? The awkward, stiff, socially inept girl who had declared herself her rival in the matter of Adrien's heart? Just earlier, she literally insulted her by implying that she shared a lot of common negative traits that people with an AB blood type tended to share. And she liked her?
Quickly forcing herself to come back to reality, Kagami switched back to the camera app and raised the phone to take a selfie. She didn't know how she felt about what she had just heard, but it made her much happier than the message she thought it had been. With a surprisingly genuine smile, Kagami snapped the photo and didn't even look at it before she began to make her way towards their meeting point. She actually almost missed the meeting point, so lost in thought as she was.
Marinette was already there when she arrived and her call was what brought Kagami out of her thoughts. It would be wrong to hide the fact that she saw something she wasn't supposed to, wouldn't it? She should tell her. She might have to let her down in regards to her feelings for her but at least she wouldn't be lying to her by not telling her that she knew. That was one thing she learned during the game; Marinette hated liars.
"I apologize, Marinette, but I saw something in your phone that I didn't mean to see. It seems your friend Alya had a lot to say and while trying to swipe the messages away, I saw a video she sent."
Marinette's eyes widened a little and a cute rosy tint colored her cheeks, quickly hiding the incriminating device behind her back. "U-um… what did you see?"
Now it was Kagami's turn to turn red as she recalled the message from earlier. It took her a moment to compose herself before she answered. "Well, I learned of your attraction towards me. In light of that, I'd like to apologize again for the insults I directed towards you during the first challenge."
Marinette flushed a darker red at the admission and covered her face in embarrassment, moving to pace around anxiously.
"Oh, Kagami, I'm really sorry you had to see that! I knew our relationship was already fragile with the whole Adrien situation so I never planned on telling you. If this ruins any chance of friendship between us, I completely understand. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm apologizing for but I'm really s—"
Kagami held up a hand to mercifully pull her partner out of an anxious rant and smiled a little. It was hardly noticeable to anyone but Kagami but it was surprisingly endearing to see how worried Marinette was about losing their friendship. It was a new experience for her.
"Marinette, it's okay. This will not negatively affect our friendship. I suppose I'm just surprised that you feel that way. I haven't exactly been the kindest to you nor have we really spent enough time together to get to know each other."
Marinette stopped and nodded softly. "I know. This actually started out as admiration at first. When I first met you, you burst into our class and challenged our most skilled fencer to a match like your victory was already assured. You demanded attention and respect, and I couldn't help but be in awe of your confidence and bravery. On top of that, when you set your mind to something, that thing gets done no matter what…" Marinette smiled a little before she recalled a certain declaration. "You never hesitate."
Kagami was a little taken aback at hearing all of the praise directed at her but especially so at the use of her own words being handed back to her.
Marinette continued, "Despite how little we saw each other, when we did meet, you never failed to make an impression. And today, as we were finally able to get to know each other a little better, I realized that maybe it was more than admiration." Marinette shyly lowered her gaze as her face grew warm once again.
"I know you like Adrien and I'm not even sure if you like girls so, I never planned to tell you how I felt. I didn't pursue Adrien as hard as I used to because I thought, how could I even compete with her? She's amazing in every way!" Marinette sniffled a little and pressed her palms against her eyes to wipe away the tears that were gathering.
Kagami raised her hands to reach for Marinette and comfort but stopped halfway. She was at a complete loss as to how to console her new friend, both because she'd never been taught what to do when someone was upset and because what Marinette was saying was sending a lot of blood rushing to her face and scrambling her brain a little.
She'd never, in all her life, heard someone talk about her like that and with such sincerity. The last statement really got her thinking about whether it was even possible to return the other girl's feelings because she found herself really wishing she could. As Kagami was about to reply, the phone in Marinette's hand began to ring and they both saw the contact as it flashed.
Mother.
Marinette quickly composed herself and handed over the phone to Kagami. What followed was a short conversation, some very curt responses, and ended with an angry disconnect from Kagami. Kagami took a moment to calm down, lowering her head and taking in deep breaths until she felt composed enough.
"My apologies for the display. Mother can be a bit of an authoritarian and I was a tad frustrated. Anyway, Marinette, I must be honest, I do not know how to answer your feelings. Your comment earlier about not knowing whether I was even into women made me realize that I am not so sure about that myself. It is something I will need to think on."
"As for the praise you gave me…" Kagami once again felt her face light up with a blush, her eyes lowering to the floor as she remembered all the wonderful things she'd said about her. "...thank you for saying that. I don't think I've ever had anyone speak about me the way you have and… it made me really happy."
"I want to give you an answer but as I said before, I need some time to figure out some things. Can I ask you to wait for just a bit longer?"
Kagami raised her head to meet Marinette's eyes and saw her wearing a wide beautiful smile at her question. "Of course. I'm a very patient person. Now, shall we continue the game?"
Kagami smiled and nodded softly, "I would like that."
Several days after the game with Marinette (they did win and had a great time hanging out with Adrien together), Kagami started seriously self-reflecting. Now, Kagami thought about her future a lot and what path she wanted to follow. She'd set goals to be the best Olympic fencer in France, and then later become the best in the world. Once she achieved that, she planned to start her own fencing dojo and become the most respected and feared name in the fencing world.
When she decided to pursue Adrien, her plans changed slightly to include him. They were both great fencers and being with him was a very safe choice. He had a good personality, was immeasurably kind, and most importantly, understood her in a way that people who didn't grow up with an authoritarian parent couldn't.
For months, that future was the only one she saw. Being with Adrien was the ideal choice because she knew he would never cage her in. They both understood the desire to be free to do whatever they wished and not being confined to other people's expectations and that was a big reason why she chose him.
However, from what she knew of Marinette, the same criteria could be met with no issues. Instead, Marinette might actually make for a better partner because of how well she understood people. Both Kagami and Adrien struggled to understand social cues and what kinds of things were and were not appropriate in certain social situations.
That was evidenced a few days ago by how Kagami first attempted to start conversation with Marinette during the game. It was stiff and dry and when Marinette saw Kagami struggling to make conversation, she took over and completely changed the tone of the conversation. She honestly didn't expect to share as much about herself as she did that day but talking with Marinette was so...easy. It was the first time in a long time that she actually enjoyed talking with and learning about another person.
It was refreshing and even if she found she couldn't return Marinette's feelings, she'd hoped they could still be friends… and that is where the other issue arose. Does Kagami have the ability to return Marinette's feelings? Could she see that future that she had planned with Adrien with Marinette instead? Would everything she planned still happen the way she imagined they would?
…
No, it wouldn't. It wasn't the same future. She could still see herself doing everything that she set out to do, but there was one major difference.
Kagami once asked Adrien what he wanted his future to look like, and the model had said he had always wanted to study physics and maybe even become a physics professor at a university. He wanted a quiet life away from his father's company with three kids and a hamster. Kagami accepted that since it seemed like the idea made him happy but it raised concerns that he wouldn't be able to have that quiet life if Kagami was successful in completing her goals.
Marinette, however, planned to go into fashion and with her skill and talent, becoming world-renowned was only a matter of time. A part of her, the part heavily influenced by her mother's teachings, thought that that future was more befitting of a Tsurugi. Kagami becoming a world-famous fencer and Marinette becoming a world-famous fashion designer…she could almost see her mother nodding in approval. It also eased her concerns of confining someone to a life they didn't want.
But what was more important is that she could see herself being happier with Marinette. She might be a little more affectionate than Kagami might be comfortable with, but she was sure that Marinette would never make her doubt that she was loved. And that thought alone was enough to sway the balance in Marinette's favor.
At the very least, if this didn't work out, she would learn more about herself and what kinds of things she should expect from future relationships. Maybe being with Marinette might help her understand people better and help her grow as a person as well. Yes, that sounds good. Although Kagami's decision had nothing to do with logic and everything to do with heart, she still felt better that she could rationalize these thoughts to satisfy her rationale.
The next day, Marinette asked Kagami if she wanted to get some juice with her and Kagami felt this was the perfect opportunity. She agreed, and they met up at the park beside Marinette's parent's boulangerie. From there, they walked down a few blocks to a nearby juice stand and ordered their drinks. After they paid, the pair returned to the park outside Marinette's home and took over an empty bench sitting under the shade of a tree.
They made a little small talk while Kagami waited for an appropriate moment to bring up what she wanted to say. After a while, there was a lull in conversation and Kagami took the opportunity to speak up.
"Marinette, I did a lot of thinking about what you said during the game." At this, she saw her friend stiffen up a little bit but responded in a very casual tone.
"Oh yeah?"
Kagami nodded and turned to look at her. "I want to give it a try."
Immediately, Marinette snapped her head to look at her, her face wearing an expression of genuine surprise. It seems she thought this would be rejection.
"I am typically a very logical person. I make decisions based on hard facts and a sense of rationality. Even choosing Adrien started off as a decision based on logic. He not only understood my situation, but had gone through it himself. I knew that being with him would never have expectations and that I would be allowed to pursue whatever I wished with no pushback from my partner."
"However, in thinking about you, I learned that using reason to determine matters of the heart is a bit of a contradiction. So, I tried listening to my heart for the time and… it was hard." Kagami lowered her head a little and took a breath.
"I still really like Adrien. I've given too much thought to the future I'd have with him and it's difficult to imagine how that would change if I were with you… However, I also feel like I would regret it if I didn't give this a chance. So, I want to try." Kagami watched Marinette's expression of shock slowly transform into a beautiful beaming smile.
Her cheeks turned a light crimson and Marinette nodded softly. "I understand that. I think a part of me will always love Adrien, but I can't deny myself a chance at happiness just because I'm waiting for someone to notice me."
Marinette held out a hand for Kagami to take, and the brunette did so—with no hesitation. Interlocking their fingers, Kagami took a sip of her peach juice and Marinette hummed quietly in thought.
"What is it?" Kagami asked.
Marinette turned to look at her as an idea entered her head. "Have you ever heard of polyamory?"