A/N: My first Carly x Aki fic ever for a Secret Santa event! I hope you like it.
The shuffling of white vinyl sheets on wooden floors always made Carly's hands tremble in excitement. Modeling photography was something new for her but she'd picked it up quickly as a side hustle. Rent day waited for no one, after all. She smoothed out the sheet against the wall of her apartment, checking for any unnecessary crinkles in the midsection. Adjusting the tall lights wasn't easy for her but she made do with her creaky stepstool. She'd have to wait until her next pay day to even consider buying new furniture.
With the equipment set up, Carly moved onto her camera. So many finicky dials and buttons to adjust but for her, it was nothing short of child's play. "I haven't forgotten my extra batteries this time," she said aloud, a wide grin flashing her teeth. Earlier that day, she'd drawn her fortune and Fortune Fairy Hikari blessed her with the greatest luck possible. Carly was going to take complete advantage of this boost in luck. And maybe even get the boost in courage to complete that last event flag. After all, today was Christmas Eve, the day before the most romantic holiday in the world.
"I gotta get everything ready! I have to activate that event flag no matter what!" Carly exclaimed, triumphantly pointing her finger into the air. "I'll confess properly and get her to fall in love with me!"
"Carly, what are you yelling about?" The photographer whipped around and there stood Aki in a light brown overcoat and dark red winter boots. A thick shawl was wrapped around her shoulders and neck and judging by the melting snow on her fuschia colored locks and the pink tint on her face, the weather outside was dreadfully cold. "Is it that dating game you play on your phone?" Aki asked, muffled by the thick outer layer of her clothes being removed and hang up by the door.
Underneath her heavy outerwear, Aki had on dark jeans and a red sweater that would've been a festive choice for the season if Aki cared about Christmas at all. "The only holidays I celebrate are Greenery Day and New Year's," she had once claimed. "Everything else is just something I'm asked to celebrate."
Just roll with it! Carly thought, fumbling to put her camera down somewhere safe. "Y-yeah, that's right Aki! I got into this cool new dating simulator and the characters are all so cute. I'm trying to unlock all the routes right now and there's a time sensitive event flag and-" She continued babbling on about a made up game, wondering if Aki would believe her.
Quickly closing the distance between them, Aki put a fingertip on Carly's mouth, effectively silencing her. "Volume, Carly," Aki stated in a hushed voice. "You have neighbors." Neighbors, schmeighbors, Carly felt like her heart was going to tear itself out of her ribcage and beat her to death. "You left your door unlocked again. You're lucky it was me that opened the door." Aki removed her hand from Carly's lips and looked at the white vinyl sheet with interest. "So, what clothes will I be modeling in today?"
"Winter wear!" Carly gestured to the clothes rack in the corner of the room full of different jackets, parkas, pants, and scarves with shoes and boots underneath. "This will be for the January issue of a fashion blog-zine." Aki pushed aside some of the hangers, the smooth metal hooks gliding evenly along the clothes rack. "You can pick out whatever you want to wear. Everything looks good on you after all."
"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't look good in a paper bag," Aki joked, draping a parka over her shoulder. "I've got a good outfit here. I'll be back in a minute." She stepped into the small bathroom and as soon as the door clicked closed, Carly let out a sigh of relief. She was nervous. Of course she was. She nervously fiddled with the heat dial on the wall, setting the temperature a little lower so Aki didn't overheat during the photoshoot. Gotta take care of your models.
Carly breathed in and out slowly, calming her nerves. She had to be professional, even if she had the world's biggest crush on her model. Women liked professionalism, right? The bathroom door opened and Aki dropped off her clothes onto a chair. A red parka, left open to show off the darker sweater underneath, with a cream colored scarf that was thicker than Carly's arm and the same jeans and boots that Aki had arrived in earlier. "Do I look alright?" Aki asked, adjusting the thick scarf she had wrapped around her neck.
"You look great," Carly said, completely truthfully, not a scrap of dishonesty left in her body. "Let's start with some basic standing poses." Aki stood at the center of the white vinyl sheet and Carly raised her camera to her eye, snapping photos in three second intervals. "Okay, now show me your 'about to fling a snowball pose at the annoying kid next door who hasn't properly set up their snow fort and is about to get a faceful of ice and snow!'"
"That's such a specific name," Aki complained, moving her body into position regardless of her complaint. Carly was envious of how easily Aki could control her face to have just the right expression, the right amount of smile, the right amount of intensity in her eyes. She adjusted the focus of the lenses and began her rapid fire photography once more.
"The next pose is called 'Frosty the Snowman just came to life and you're racing to find the nearest igloo so he doesn't melt!'" Carly announced. Aki laughed at the mental image the pose name created and got into a frozen running position. "Hmmm, Aki, why don't you face towards your back so it looks like you're racing someone?"
Aki turned her face towards her shoulder. "Like this?"
"Good, good. Perfect," Carly complimented, capturing Aki's likeness onto her SD card. No matter how many photos Carly took, none of them really encapsulated who Aki was. Snap. Smart. Snap. Beautiful. Snap. Witty. Snap. Way too patient. Snap. "Let's move onto the next outfit, okay?" Aki exhaled softly as she stretched her arms upwards and rolled her shoulders to relax her muscles.
"Photoshoots like this are the best," Carly thought as Aki rummaged through the clothes rack. Letting the model choose their outfit rather than having a pre-selected outfit was the best idea if anyone wanted to have a more organic feeling. Models knew what clothes suited them best, after all. Aki made her selections, this time grabbing a pair of boots alongside her clothes, and stepped into the bathroom once more.
The short period of time gave Carly some time to look through the photos on the camera. Her hands were trembling during some of these and it showed in the slightest of blur on the edges of Aki's figure. She'd just have to edit these later before sending them to the zine-blog staff. The bathroom door opened and Aki exited, her previous outfit draped over her arm. She carefully put the clothes back onto the rack and Carly stared very intensely at the boots that Aki had chosen.
Black knee high boots with two inch heels skinnier than her toothbrush and white jeans under a light blue cardigan. How Aki managed to balance on those boots was beyond Carly's understanding. She wondered about this, putting her hand on her chin in thought, still staring at Aki's boots. "Carly?" The photographer swallowed when her name was spoken. "Are you done staring at my ass?" Aki gave Carly an accusatory glare. Carly's face became redder than Fortune Fairy En's hair.
"I swear I wasn't looking at your ass!" Carly sputtered out, her blush spreading to her neck and ears. "I was looking at your outfit!"
Aki, now a good three inches taller than Carly, walked over and petted Carly's head. "Just kidding." She smiled and Carly nervously smiled back. "It's an occupational hazard to have my ass stared at anyway so look all you want." Earlier, Carly's heart wanted to rip itself out and beat her to death. Now, it was teaming up with her stomach to inflict critical damage to her ability to think. She was utterly frozen. What an exciting event flag this was.
Carly forced herself to unfreeze and managed to let out the most awkward laugh as a response to Aki's invitation. "W-well I'm a professional, Aki! I know better than to leer at my model!" Carly protested. Aki chuckled and made her way to the center of the vinyl sheet. "Your pose is 'I'm nonchalantly avoiding the mistletoe that the weirdo from out of town hung over the ceiling fan.'" Aki leaned back slightly with her hands behind her back, keeping her balance as Carly quickly took twenty photos. "You can leave the pose now."
Aki centered her balance and looked out the window of Carly's apartment. "It's so dark already," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "Do you have any plans for tonight?"
Besides playing video games until sunrise and opening all the Yamazon packages I gifted myself this year, no, I don't have any plans, Carly thought, taking a picture of Aki. "Nope. Oh hey you look good in this photo. I'm gonna put it with the other photos for the magazine."
"Don't I always look good in your photos, Carly?" Aki teased. "Or is there some exception?" Carly pouted. Aki smiled at her and Carly's finger slipped. Another photo was taken. "Don't get too trigger happy or else you'll run out of space on that thing."
"Let's get back to work." Aki looked at her photographer for her next pose. "Your next pose is 'I'm waiting patiently for my date outside of a bar and there's a heat lamp over me but it's starting to bother me how late they are,'" Carly announced. Leaning back against the vinyl sheet, one leg crossed over the other and a wistful look on her face, Aki looked exactly like how Carly described.
Snap. Carly couldn't lie to herself. Snap. She was really nervous. Snap. She had an entire confession planned for later tonight. Snap. It had to work out. Snap. It absolutely had to work. Snap.
"Carly, have you ever played the role of the model?" Aki asked after Carly called for her to exit the pose.
"Nope," Carly replied, picking up a chair and dropping it next to Aki. "I don't have the body for it. I'm a better photographer anyway."
"Would you mind if I took a photo of you?" And just like that, Carly felt the little red flag in her brain fling straight up. This was it! Her chance! "Carly? Are you there?"
"Yes I am! You can pick my outfit too!" she exclaimed. Aki put her fingertip on Carly's lips again.
"Neighbors, Carly." The model withdrew her hand. "I'd like to take a picture of you as you are." Carly looked at herself. A gray t-shirt with Dark Magician Girl printed onto it, thick sweatpants she'd been sleeping in for who knows how long, and fuzzy Christmas themed socks.
"But this isn't a good outfit, Aki!" Carly protested as Aki slowly pushed her towards the vinyl sheet. "This is just what I wear all the time!"
"If you wear it all the time, doesn't that mean it's a good outfit?" The question, that had been thrown into their conversation pot as a response, shut Carly up as she thought about it, giving Aki enough time to take the camera from Carly's hands. "You look great, Carly." Aki peered through the camera's screen at her model, her eyes tracing Carly's outline into the vinyl sheet.
Carly shifted nervously under Aki's gaze. She hadn't had a photo taken in forever. When did she last take a selfie? It had to have been over a year ago. "Carly, for the pose, I'd like you to imagine that you've just been confessed to by someone you've always admired," Aki instructed, the camera resting at chest level.
Oh this pose was impossible. Carly searched deep in her memories for an instance where someone had confessed to her instead of the other way around. Nothing, nothing, well, did dating sims count? When Leviathan proposed to her during college on the final day of his route, it made her tear up and cry. But no. No one had ever confessed to Carly. "Aki, I've never gotten..." The photographer adjusted her glasses nervously. "I've never been confessed to. Unless you count all the men I've conquered in 2D!" Carly let out a false laugh, trying really hard to push down all the memories of being rejected.
Aki raised the camera to eye level and focused on her photographer. "I love you, Carly." The camera whirred and gently clicked as the photo was taken. "Would you like to spend the evening with me?" At that moment, Carly's jaw would've hit the core of the planet if it hadn't stayed attached to the rest of her head.
"W-wh-wh-" Her brain unearthed an ancient sound from its library. It was the sound from a mobile gatcha game Carly had been quite fond of when she was a teenager and would spend all her hard earned money on trying to pull a certain character. That horrible teasing, mocking pitch of sound and the feeling of disappointment when yet another week's allowance went down the drain. "W-w-w-" She couldn't form a coherent word. She was in a Dark Magician Girl shirt, sweatpants, and fuzzy Christmas socks and she'd just been confessed to by the most beautiful woman she knew.
Aki's eyes held determination, the kind that could take any answer from Carly. She looked prepared and Carly couldn't understand why. She couldn't ever reject Aki. "That's cool beans," Carly finally managed to slam out on the broken typewriter that was her brain. "Very... very cool. Just um... give me a moment." Carly sat down on the chair near her and promptly slid out of it, landing on the vinyl sheet in a heap.
Aki knelt down by Carly and looked out the window. Thick snowflakes dragged across the night sky, sticking to the window in clumps. "It's snowing."
The photographer sat up suddenly and ran for the window. She slipped on the smooth sheet and landed on her face, groaning in pain. Carly rolled over onto her back and removed her glasses. This day couldn't be real. The forecast said there was 0% chance of snow. She was supposed to confess to Aki, not the other way around. There was no way, no way this was real. "Aki, is this a dream?" Carly's voice was so low, it was barely a whisper.
"I stubbed my toe on your sink cabinet so no, I don't think it's a dream." They both chuckled, watching the snowflakes fall through the sky. "You look cute in the photo I took." Carly flinched at Aki's words and her eyes very slowly met Aki's, her vision too blurry to make such a connection at high speed. Cute. That word hadn't been used to describe her since elementary school.
"Aki, I love..." Carly could almost see how red her face was. "I love you too, Aki. I'd love to spend the evening with you." Aki leaned down and kissed Carly's forehead through her bangs. Christmas was the best.