"Aaah! Honokaaa!"

Even amid the hustle and bustle surrounding Honoka, Nagisa's voice still cut through it all. She sounded anxious, even distressed. Well, that wasn't unusual, especially given the circumstances, but this seemed more immediate than simple stage anxiety.

"Nagisa?" She turned to find Nagisa hurriedly ruffling through the boxes of props and equipment on the stand next to her.

"Where did the makeup kit go?"

"The makeup kit?" Honoka glanced around. The backstage area was filled with students filling their roles; actors to stagehands to makeup artists, all preparing for the next scene of the play their class was putting on for the cultural festival. The makeup artists in particular seemed to be in a tizzy of activity, doing much the same as Nagisa was. "I don't know. What's wrong?"

"I messed up the lipstick they put on me before we started!" Nagisa closed the final box with a grimace, which served to highlight for Honoka the absence of said lipstick. "I washed it all off and now we can't find the kit to reapply it!"

"Nagisa, Nagisa. Calm down." Honoka reached out and put her hand over Nagisa's fidgeting hands. "We still have a couple minutes until our next scene. We can solve this. Where have you looked?"

"The changing room and the props room. Mayu is asking around. I thought maybe someone took it out here, but…"

Honoka shook her head. "I haven't seen anyone doing any touchups." There weren't many other places the kit could be, and it would probably take too long to find. "Maybe…" Honoka raised her voice as much as she was willing to risk, what with the play still going on not too far from them. "Does anyone have their bag and makeup with them?"

The only response was slow shakes of their classmates' heads.

"No luck, of course…" Gloom crept into Nagisa's face, and her whole body drooped. "Jeez, why do we even need so much makeup anyway? It looks so weird. Couldn't I go without it?"

"Oh Nagisa…" It was true, under normal circumstances the makeup they were wearing would be terribly thick, but there was a reason for it – a reason she happened to know! "The makeup is because the audience is so far away. They can't see details of our faces very well, so people in theater use makeup to enhance the important bits, not only making them stand out better so you're more recognizable, but also making it easier to tell what expressions you're making, even from afar!"

Understanding slowly rolled through Nagisa's expression, and Honoka smiled. Until the time they put on a play of Romeo and Juliet in middle school, she hadn't ever thought much about why the people in theater did what they did. But it was all so fascinating; a beautiful intersection of circumstance and practicality driving a group of people toward a particular solution. "In fact, that's why we're told to make such large motions with our bodies when acting, it's—"

"Honokaaa…" Nagisa cut her off, her hands making small, random motions in front of her. So cute. "If it's so important then I really need to get it reapplied!" Nagisa began to run her hands through her hair over and over.

Oh. She hadn't intended to get Nagisa even more stressed out about her predicament.

"Nagisa! Yukishiro-san! Get ready to go go go!"

Shiho called out to them and gave them a thumbs-up. It was just about time for them to go onstage for their next appearance. They didn't have much time left, maybe a minute or so.

"Ah, no! I can't believe this! Everyone's going to notice my missing lipstick and the play is going to suffer and—"

"Nagisa, everything will be fine." Honoka said it, smiling and giving Nagisa's further drooping shoulders a little rub in the process, but truthfully she knew how much Nagisa could be thrown off by little problems. For just a school play, it really would be fine if she went without every bit of makeup applied, but convincing her of that after her ill-timed exposition on its importance would be difficult. She needed to do something for her…

She looked around. Mayu was nowhere to be seen, so she probably hadn't found anything. If only there was something else she could use. Where else could she get lipstick from? Running back to the lab for her own bag was out of the question. Some emergency supply? No, of course not, there wasn't such a thing for lipstick.

… Unless…

"Nagisa, come with me for a second." She grabbed Nagisa's hand the moment the idea came to her.

"Wait, did you figure out where the kit is?"

"No, that's not it." Honoka lightly tugged on Nagisa's arm, and Nagisa immediately followed without further questioning. One of the little benefits of their unusually close friendship, one she sometimes dared to wish would be so much more.

There weren't many good places to go, but finally she settled on a piece of scenery that would be used later on in the play. She stepped behind it and ushered Nagisa in behind her. Nagisa took one look at the empty corner and raised an eyebrow.

"Honoka, I don't think there's anything we can do here that will fix the problem. I know you're good at the pep talk thing with me, but that doesn't—"

"I know that. Which is why I'm solving the problem." She put her hands on Nagisa's shoulders and turned her around. Their eyes met. Nagisa seemed expectant behind her despaired look — trusting her words even without any evidence. Honoka's heart skipped a beat. This was a bit reckless and spur of the moment of her. "This is a bit early, but—" And then Honoka cut herself off before she could doubt herself, taking Nagisa's head into her hands and quickly pulling her in close.

Her lips quickly wrapped around Nagisa's. She set to work immediately. She rubbed her lips against every supple surface she could find — she couldn't not notice how supple they were. Focus on the task. It wasn't supposed to be an actual kiss, but it felt oddly exhilarating now and every part of her wanted to lean into it. And Nagisa, though surprised, was already beginning to relax and accept her purpose-filled caresses. It stirred a hope in her.

But as much as she wanted to make this last, to explore further and truly confirm what she hoped, they didn't have the time. Or privacy.

With just a bit of regret, Honoka pulled away and smiled reassuringly. "There." It wasn't perfect, but now there was a good amount of red lipstick – her red lipstick – adorning Nagisa and giving her lips a faint sheen, if only slightly unevenly.

Nagisa looked away and gingerly pursed her lips and rubbed them together without any prompting, spreading the color more evenly across them. Honoka wasn't sure whether she knew it was helping to even out the application, or if it was because of the same sparks that lingered on her own lips. She hoped it was the latter.

"Ah, um… Honoka…" Her half-dazed expression left no trace of the panic she had been in when she finally met Honoka's gaze again. Her hand drifted up to her lips and felt the edges where the lipstick was now applied. Her lips glimmered ever so slightly with each touch. Her gaze dropped down to Honoka's lips for a moment. "… Thanks." And then she looked past her and took in a sharp breath.

"Wow, that was amazing. You make the kiss look so real! Hey, did you practice it a lot like that for your scene together?"

Honoka whipped around and gave the best smile she could muster to the person that had seen too much. "Ah, no! I just wanted to make sure we… that we had the pose just right!"

"I see!" Thankfully, Mayu seemed to accept her hastily thought up excuse and simply nodded as if it made any sense. She leaned to the side to get a better look at the still-flustered Nagisa. "Misumi-san, I couldn't find— oh, you got the lipstick reapplied! Great!"

"Y-yeah. Honoka… helped me." Her voice barely rose above a whisper, and her eyes darted around until settling on Honoka herself.

"And you both even put on a little color for your cheeks! That will look perfect for the next scene, good thinking!"

Both Nagisa and Honoka stiffened up and let out a nervous chuckle.

"Hey hey hey, Nagisa! Yukishiro-san!" Shiho popped into sight behind Mayu and maneuvered her way behind Nagisa and Honoka in a blink of an eye. "Let's go, you're up you're up you're up!" And with that, Shiho ushered both Nagisa and Honoka to the entrance toward the stage.

Side by side, they waited for their cues to go on stage. Honoka glanced over at Nagisa. She was fidgeting again, but this time with a few attempted furtive looks sent her way. Cute. Honoka couldn't leave her like that, and she quietly snuck her hand over to Nagisa's and took it into her own. A gentle squeeze, and Nagisa looked straight into her eyes. A moment of silence, and then she grinned that goofy grin like she always did with a shine to them that dazzled Honoka. She was obviously still nervous, but with an air of setting her mind to do what she needed to do. It didn't stop her from blushing deeper when Honoka responded with a smile filled with the warmth she felt right then, though.

A thumbs up from one of the backstage crew, and Nagisa walked out onto the stage. In a minute Honoka would follow, but until then she would quietly admire the girl awkwardly doing her best to cover up her embarrassment while still shining brilliantly as could be.

"Oh, Nagisa…"

It was a little selfish of her, but though Nagisa's embarrassment wouldn't make for the best mood at the beginning of this scene, Honoka very much looked forward to their confession scene together right after.