There were times that Kitagawa Marin took a second to herself and just thought about her life.

These moments would usually come to her in the dead of night, not borne out of anxiousness or insomnia, just simply a quiet time with no distractions.

Sometimes it would be about trivial things, things that she knew didn't mean much, but still enjoyed. Such as trying on some new clothes or jewelry. Times like those she usually just thought about new outfits she could try until she ended up falling asleep.

Other times it was about more important things. Like school or an upcoming exam. These kinds of topics were ones that she didn't like to dwell on, school was fun. Exams were not.

Rarely would Kitagawa Marin think about the future. She was a person who lived in the present. She did things on a whim simply because they felt right. Some might think of her as ditzy for it, but she liked how she was. She wouldn't change that. So what if she loved anime and cosplay? No one could judge her for it, and if they did, they weren't worth talking to anyways. Anime and manga were her life. They took up the majority of her thoughts and free time.

Marin's thought process paused there, before backtracking just a tad.

Anime and manga used to take up the majority of her time. She amended.

Somehow, whenever she had some time alone, her thoughts would always end up drifting back to one person. Just like how she always found herself trying to spend as much time as she could with that same person.

Gojou Wakana.

Her friend. Costume creator. Photographer. Hina doll expert. Clueless dork. Bright beacon of hope.

Whatever silly labels she could throw at her current relationship, they all felt insufficient to all their experiences together and the absolute jumble of emotions she felt towards him.

Love.

It was embarrassing, and caused her cheeks to flush red everytime she thought about it. Caused her mind to go into a frenzy and made her unable to stop herself from smiling like an absolute dork.

But it felt right.

She didn't know when it turned into love. But she could remember the exact moment that everything clicked and she realized she liked him.

On that train home from her first exhibit. With the Shizuku-tan cosplay he made for her folded carefully inside her bag.

He didn't just call anything or anyone pretty. He had to mean it. And that's what he called her.

Pretty.

It was like waking up after a long nap, or perhaps like trying out a new prescription and realizing there are so many details being missed. Or maybe realizing the answer to a difficult puzzle.

There were so many different analogies she could use but none of them would ever really do that one moment justice.

For her… everything just seemed to click into place after that.

His kind words, how he was always honest with her. How he struggled with nervousness but always pushed through. How he didn't fully understand some anime but he would always try. How he somehow pulled off traditional clothing and also every other kind as well. How he always reacted so well to getting teased, and simultaneously making her heart race. How he somehow managed to make every single day together fun.

How he would get such a serene and relaxed smile as he talked about the things he enjoyed doing.

How he would go out of his way to make sure she was okay and comfortable despite hardly knowing her yet.

How all her nerves and anxiousness seemed to disappear whenever he was there with her.

Love.

That was the only way she could describe it.

Kitagawa Marin loved Gojou Wakana.

There wasn't any denying it. Not that it was something she wanted to deny. That just wasn't how she did things. It was just… unknown.

Usually that wasn't a problem. She was the type to venture into the unknown. The type to talk to classmates on a whim and ask them to make a full cosplay outfit because they were good at creating hina dolls. And if she ever did get nervous, she always had Gojou-kun to back her up.

But in a strange twist of fate. It seemed as if all the nerves that never hindered her before, crept back up when it came to the man she loved.

On that day of their first convention. She struggled to even say goodbye. Something as simple as 'See you tomorrow' caused her heart to flutter and butterflies to fly in her stomach.

Casual hangouts became heart thumping and there were too often times that she found herself just staring at him, drinking in all his features and then struggling to make it not incredibly obvious. Sometimes she wondered if he ever caught her staring and that thought always got her heart to race.

Despite being the dead of night, Marin could feel the heat radiating off her face. It always turned out like this. It was just something that couldn't be helped when it came to her introspection.

Tonight, like many other nights, had Kitagawa Marin thinking about Gojou Wakana.

But tonight she had the sudden urge to call him. To hear his voice and maybe she could ask him what he thought about her.

Fumbling out her phone from underneath her pillow, she woke it from sleep and squinted slightly at the sudden brightness.

1:25 A.M staring back at her caused her sudden motivation to shrivel up as soon as it had left her. It was late, very late. Luckily it was a weekend so she didn't have to worry about it too much, but she figured someone as traditional as him would likely be asleep by now.

"Call Gojou-kun huh…" she sighed out. A little disappointed yet conflictingly also relieved.

"Calling Gojou Wakana." A mechanical voice spoke back to her.

Huh?

Wait what?

Marin squeaked at the sudden noise and dropped her phone from above her. The phone crashed into her forehead and caused a shot of pain to flare up.

"Oww…" Marin groaned as she rubbed her sore head.

The telltale sign of an outgoing phone call caused her to freeze however. She looked down at her phone in terror as the bright screen proudly displayed 'CALLING GOJOU WAKANA.'

Fumbling around, Marin tried to quickly grab her phone from her bed and disconnect the call but the distinct click of a call connecting caused her to stop everything.

"Kitagawa-san?" Came the voice of the same man that she had been thinking about for hours.

"Ahh…" Was the only response she form. She was frozen in terror.

"Kitagawa-san? Are you alright? Is something wrong?" The same voice echoed, this time with a tinge of concern.

The questions jolted Marin back into reality as she hurriedly answered. "Y-Yes! I'm alright. I'm sorry, I must have woken you. We can hang up and-"

"No it's alright! I… um… wasn't sleeping yet anyways."

The little tidbit of information was enough for Marin to latch onto and ground herself, her nervousness fleeing for a few moments as relief.

"Really? Why's that?" She couldn't help but ask.

Gojou made a humming noise audible through the speaker. "Just thinking about a lot of things"

"Ahh." Was all she could say. Nervousness crept back up and clogged her throat. The silence between them stretched on

"Mmm. Well, it's late. I guess I should try to get some sle-"

"Ah! W-Wait!" She shouted, before immediately slapping her hand over her mouth so she didn't speak up without thinking again.

God, it was as if everything she just thought about for hours just exited out of one of her ears, her mind felt blank and she struggled to comprehend her own thoughts.

"What's up?" He asked gently, as if sensing something was amiss.

Counting to three before deeming it safe to speak. Marin opened her mouth and- "Do you want to- Maybe can we later- Do you want to get dinner tomorrow? I mean today- After we sleep and maybe a movie and-" words tumbled out of her mouth before she could even stop them.

Her heart raced and her face felt like it was on fire. Her chest was beating so loudly that she could barely even hear what she was saying.

She asked him. Oh god what was she going to do?

"Ah, dinner sounds nice. Did you want to go to that ramen place to discuss the next costume? Maybe we can ask Juju-san for ideas-"

"N-No. I meant like a date." She said. Her voice steadying out at the end.

She had said it. It was too late to back down now.

Blood was rushing through her head so loudly that it seemed to consume all other thoughts. Her face was hot and bright red, and her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her ribcage, yet despite it all she felt strangely calm as she waited for his answer.

And waited.

And waited longer.

And when it seemed like she wasn't going to get an answer. Kitagawa Marin could feel her heart fall.

She could feel her throat constrict and her eyes start to burn. She didn't even realize she had begun to cry until she felt the droplets fall onto her hands.

"S-sorry." She managed to get out, her voice wavering with tears. "F-forget I said anything. I'll s-see you at scho-"

"W-Wait. I'm the one who's sorry." He said, his own voice wavering in a distinct watery way.

The sound of it caused all of Marin's thoughts to pause. "H-Hey. Why are you the one crying?" She couldn't help but ask.

"I'm just-" He sniffed loudly. "So happy."

The answer was so unexpected that Marin paused her water works. "Huh? W-what? Why?"

"I just really like you Kitagawa-san."

Marin was floored. All previous sad thoughts evaporated and were replaced with a myriad of emotions ranging from bewilderment to elation.

"Eh? Huh? What?" Was the only thing she could respond with.

"I realized it during the summer festival. But I think I've liked you a long time before that. I just never understood what I was feeling."

Hearing those words, Marin couldn't help but start to cry again, only this time for a completely different reason.

"Eh? Wait, why are you crying now?!" Gojou panicked.

A watery chuckle escaped Marin at the deja vu. "Because I'm just so happy!" She said. Echoing his words from earlier.

"Ah well…"

"I really really really like you too Gojou-kun!"

Marin could imagine what he looked like now. Likely beet red and blushing up to his ears with a goofy smile on his face. Something she had no doubt that was mirrored on herself.

There was a moment of silence between the two. Not an awkward one like before, but a calm satisfied one that the two spent just processing everything that happened.

"W-what now?" Gojou asked, a small bit of uncertainty creeping into his voice.

Marin couldn't help but chuckle. It was exactly like him to say his confession so direct and unwavering and then be anxious after the fact.

"Welllllll." She drawled in her usual teasing manner. "You still haven't given me a definite yes or no to our date."

"Ah! Yes of course! I'm sorry! I completely forgot to answer! I would love to go on a date with you Kitagawa-san!"

She felt it once again, that weightless feeling of elation welling up in her chest and causing her face to erupt in a hot blush, butterflies taking off in her stomach and feeling like the most important girl in the world.

There was only a teeny tiny problem.

"Call me Marin, okay?" She told him, a bright smile on her face despite the fact that he couldn't see her.

She could hear him sputter from the other side of the phone, causing an inaudible chuckle to escape her. There was a moment of silence before his voice timidly rang out. "A-Alright Marin-chan."

Just the sound of her name coming from him was enough to make her heart constrict and force herself not to literally squeal in excitement.

"I'm looking forward to our date tomorrow, Wakana-kun!"

There were a serene moment of silence between the two, lasting only a few beats.

"Yeah. I am too." He said without any of his previous nervousness.

The peaceful silence stretched on, the two just enjoying each other's company even without any words being exchanged.

With her eyes closed and body relaxed, Marin finally felt the dregs of sleep start to finally take hold of her for the first time today.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Wakana-kun." She finally called out, breaking the silence.

"Yeah." He replied, his smile audible. "I'll see you tomorrow, Marin-chan."

With that, she ended the call. Her consciousness slowly drifted off towards dreamland. Idly she hoped that she could dream about their date, so she could experience it twice.

There were times that Marin Kitagawa stopped and just took a second to herself and thought about her life.

And then there were times that she marched forward to the beat of her own drum. Stumbling and tripping, but moving forward nonetheless.


FIN


Start: Jan 21st, 2022.

End: Jan 21st, 2022.

Words: 2216

First fic in the Sono Bisque doll category! I submitted a request to have it added and they got back to me within the same day! Amazing! I just wanted to write something fluffy between my two favourite manga and anime couples. I hope that this category erupts with new fics in the coming weeks of the anime. Thank you for reading!

-FN