#AN: Unexpectedly, this randomly fell out of my brain almost fully formed! I originally had the concept a few years ago, when I read the NozoRin SID, but apparently it needed a lot of time to bake!
As she reflected in solitude, looking out over the school grounds toward the bustle of Akiba, someone joined her.
"You know, Rin came to me yesterday."
Hanayo had joined her.
"Hmm?"
"She was crying and crashed into me at full tilt and then wouldn't let me go until I listened to her. Nearly dropped my onigiri!"
"Hehe, like a snotty koala shot from a cannon?"
"Basically," she grumbled good-naturedly. "But do you know what she said?" She hesitated, but Nozomi watched from the corner of her eye as Hanayo dipped into that deep well of courage that she had always admired in her soft-spoken kouhai and plunged onward. "She said you need to be loved. That we should love you."
"Truly!?" The reaction escaped unbidden. None of her usual consideration.
"She also compared you to a mama for our group. ...and a cat."
Ah, so it's like that. That makes a lot more sense.
"Hmmm... if you ask me, I would say Hanayo is much more motherly of the two of us. You're constantly looking out for everyone, doting and making sure we're happy and healthy when those girls with the bottomless energy just push on with reckless abandon. You always have a kind word and an encouraging smile and we're all better for it."
Nozomi knew she had an aloof reputation and how some girls likened her to a mysterious seer with an enigmatic smile, but the feeling behind it was no less sincere. And she knew her friends all knew this.
That Hanayo would know and trust that she was speaking true.
They stood in silence for a few minutes.
"You know..." Hanayo ventured, and Nozomi turned to find she was being studied with an intensity that almost seemed to have physical force. She awkwardly looked away. "I think I see where she's coming from. If I'm the kind doting mother who shelters the kids, then Nozomi is the kind of mother who loves her kids enough to let them try things on their own and fall down so they can learn from adversity. You don't care any less than I do! I'm sure of it! We wouldn't have our name if you didn't."
"You didn't deny being a mother," Nozomi teased.
"And you are avoiding the question."
"Haah, yes mother."
There really was no "question", asked or implied, but she knew this confrontation for what it was. And the remorse was cutting deep already. She wanted; needed this catharsis too.
Nozomi turned from the railing to face Hanayo. And bent nearly 90 degrees at the waist, her twin tails flopping off her shoulders to dangle like pendulums.
"I'm sorry."
"W-what!? What for?"
"I didn't mean to cause that. Sincerely. I deeply regret my role in instigating strife in your happiness. It was not my intention."
Hanayo and Rin's love was adorable and just being in the same space as them healed her. The idea that she might have caused it harm... she shuddered.
The silence dragged on. She heard Hanayo step closer. Felt a hand under her chin, lifting her upri- not quite. She was being hugged, her face crushed into Hanayo's deceptively soft chest.
"Don't be silly, Nozomi." Hanayo was petting her hair. "Despite what you might think, Rin is smart enough to make her own choices about matters of the heart. Don't go deciding you're some sort of villain mastermind all on your own!" She felt a light bop on her head before the petting continued. She was paralysed with uncertainty, everything about the experience outside her expectations.
"I think," Hanayo ventured at last, "I think, if you want, I'm willing to try."
"What?"
"A relationship," she replied easily.
"Bwah? I... don't... what?" Really, how was she supposed to react to that!?
"She said that we should love you, silly. Both of us. She was very specific: 'The way one mama loves another, and then we add another nya!' were her exact words. And I wasn't really sure at first, but now I think I'd like to try."
"For Rin?" she rasped. She had avoided crying outright, but not by much.
"For Rin," Hanayo confirmed. "And for you, and for myself."
"Eh!?" But that was...
"Please, understand, I can't say I'm in love with you, Nozomi. Yet. But I can clearly see how it could happen, now. I'm willing to bet on that being a 'yet'. And regardless of what might come or what might happen, I love you as a dear friend already. And I need you to know, one 'mama' to another," Hanayo caressed her cheek and tilted her face up to look her right in the eyes, "you deserve to be loved. I would be honoured to be in love with such a wonderful girl as Toujou Nozomi."
And then Hanayo kissed her.
Koiizumi Hanayo, The Lovers herself.
Hanayo kissed Nozomi.
It wasn't much, just a little peck at the corner of her mouth.
But what it represented...
Suffice to say, Nozomi failed to keep the waterworks in check and Hanayo had plenty more time to pet her hair.
Nozomi was... nervous. Everything that had transpired was just... well outside her experience. She hesitated, falling behind slightly and her hand was squeezed. They were holding hands, and Hanayo didn't just let go, didn't let her take up a distant lonely perch just to watch. She looked to her companion, who smiled back (tenderly?), and allowed herself to be led into view of Rin who was humming softly to herself with eyes closed, wiggling in place on bench under a tree to a song only she could hear, a wide smile plastered on her face.
Somehow, nekomata senses, perhaps, Rin perked up as they approached and opened her eyes. And her smile grew to megawatt intensity seeing her girlfriend hand-in-hand with... with what? What did Rin want from her, really? Hanayo had relayed the words but it couldn't be that simple...
"Kayo-chin! You found her! And brought her!" She leaped to her feet with preternatural speed and time seemed to slow as Rin grabbed her other hand and dragged her away from Hanayo.
She cast a stricken look of confusion back as the traitor let go and waved her on with a pleased expression.
Oh, so that's how it is. There will be a reckoning, Kayocchi!
Manhandled into place, Nozomi was sat down in the warm half sun of the bench Rin had just vacated and couldn't help staring up into lively orange eyes. It didn't take much imagination for them to be slitted and full of innocent mischief.
"Nyozomi, I betcha don't understand a lot of what's going on an' I get that you're shy like a rescue cat right nyow an' all that, but you know words so I can tell you I'm gonna kiss you now and if you're not okay with that you can back out any time."
For all that, Nozomi barely had time to look askance over Rin's shoulder and receive a contended thumbs up before her awareness was consumed.
Hanayo's little kiss was a shock. Rin's, in typical Rin fashion, was more like a wrecking ball to the senses. Sweet and smooth and rough and soft and firm and... unconsciously, she let her guard down and enjoyed kissing back, her first real kiss from a feral dynamo who already has a girlfriend and what am I even doing-
Rin pulled back in concern as Nozomi stiffened and recoiled, hugging herself.
"Nozomi... did... did I do something wrong?" Oh no, now Rin was tearing up, she'd done it again. Hanayo was coming over, she was about to lose two friends and break the group and Why do I ruin everything I touch!? She closed her eyes and withdrew as much as she could, and maybe the pain of- she was drawn a hug again.
"Rin!" Hanayo demanded sternly.
"Nya!" She could imagine Rin going stiff, tail bottlebrushed straight out.
"What did we discuss!"
"Uuuu... that she'd be skittish and need soft kitty Rin."
"And what did you do?" Her sweet voice carried the rebuke as well as any anger could have.
"...kissed her first thing. But... but Kayo-chin, she was kissing back too! I don't... I don't understand what..." Hanayo was defending her and Rin sounded defeated.
This is wrong.
"This is wrong," she whimpered. "You're not supposed to fight, you're supposed to be The Lovers and Strength!"
Hanayo was stroking her hair again.
"I never thought you were such a crybaby," she teased. "I guess it's partially my fault, I didn't explain everything, yet. Rin and I talked about this a lot before I went to ask you, you know? We talked about as much as we could think of about how it might work and how to make sure you were comfortable and how we weren't going to get excited and jump the gun... Rin."
"Sorry, nya..."
"But... but the cards..."
"Nozomi. Don't you dare finish that sentence." She tried to flinch from the scolding but only fell deeper into Hanayo's vicelike embrace. "We are more than just cards! We are your friends! And if you'll let us, if you want, we could be more than friends."
"You... you're really okay with..."
Rin flumped down on her other side and draped herself over Nozomi's back, wrapping arms possessively around her middle.
She started to sing.
Hanayo joined in.
A personal duet as they poured out their feelings to her, to each other, to this new beginning for the three of them.
And Nozomi sobbed ugly tears as the lyrics of Snow Halation, the love song, her love song, reached her - really reached her and made their mark on her - for real this time.
"Gods, look at the mess you've made of me..." she lamented eventually.
"You're beautiful," Hanayo countered, voice heavy with emotion. "We might have to retire that song now, I'm not sure I can sing it without crying anymore now that I understand the girl behind it so well."
"Same nya," Rin sniffed.
"I..." Nozomi faltered and frowned.
Nicocchi would call me a big dummy right about now.
"I think... I want to try too. This... relationship, this... this love. With you."
"Well, I'm sure glad all it took was us baring our souls to get that concession!" The quaver in her teasing betrayed how emotionally worn Hanayo was. "I'm glad. I said before that I could fall in love with Toujou Nozomi, and the more she shows us these sides she tries to hide so she can be everyone's rock, the more I'm sure I really, really want to."
"I'm already there nya!"
"I... think I like the sound of that."
"So..." she ventured again after a long contented silence sandwiched between two lovely girls - her lovely girlfriends - that warded off the spring chill as shadows crept across the previously sunny bench. "...now what?"
"Well-"
Hanayo was cut off by a horrendous gurgle.
"RAMEN NYA!"
Hanayo sighed deeply as Nozomi laughed into her boobs.
"Somebody help me..." she groaned, smiling fondly at her one-stronger family.
A month later...
Nozomi and Hanayo both let out an "oof" as Rin crashed into them, bawling her eyes out.
"Eli-chan is beautiful and saaaaaaad!"
They each wrapped an arm around their sensitive tigress and pulled her close.
"So this is how it happened?" Nozomi whispered to Hanayo.
"Pretty clo-" she got half the confirmation out before she made the connection and realised where this was going. "Somebody help us..."
They shared a helpless, resigned smile.
"...How long do you think it'll take her to collect the full set?" Nozomi smirked.
Hanayo's eyes widened in shock, as she whispered harshly, "Nozomi! I love you but don't even joke like that! Where would we find a house that big?" she teased.
"So six months?"
Hanayo's expression fell and she nodded. "Six months," she agreed. "Though there's no way it'll realistically happen like... like us... right? That's impossible... like, statistically... And, and my heart's not ready anyway!"
"Better start preparin' your heart, Kayocchi."
"Nyaaaa! You gotta listen to me! Eli is a princess!"
"Okay, okay, love, let's sit down on the bench and clean your face off, then you can tell us all about the pretty lady."
(It only took five months.)