written for christmas & the kagamine 13th anniversary. don't know how my brain managed to smash this one out but it was pretty sexy of it!
red looks good on you
Rin had been best friends with Len since before she could remember. They had all but done everything together; grew up together, went to school together, graduated together. And that was fine. Fine. Absolutely fine.
Except one small thing.
Rin wanted to do more than that with Len. As in, like, you know, date him and stuff. She'd had a crush on him since middle school (or maybe even before that), and despite trying to date other guys over the years in an irrational attempt to move on, her heart wasn't showing signs of letting up on her childhood crush anytime soon.
But that wasn't even the dilemma. The dilemma was that, unfortunately, Len was the thickest man to ever exist. Thick, as in his head was thick. Thicker than a concrete wall. No amount of indirect and direct attempts of showing her feelings for him were getting through. He was just the God of Happy, Happy Friendship.
And of course! She loved her friendship with Len.
But you know what she loved more?
Being more than friends with him.
And it was going to continue to trouble her until either, a) he outright rejects her, b) she somehow falls in love with someone else, or c) he actually grows a brain cell or two and realises her feelings for him.
So.
Okay.
Well, she hadn't been too direct. She had said, multiple times, how much she liked him to his face, but every single time he just took it as a 'friend' kind of like and responded happily, "I like you too!"
She couldn't outright say I love you and I want you to rail me under the moonlight to My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. That was just… bad etiquette.
Of course, her other friend-slash-coworker, Miku, had been listening to her woes about Len for the past few months with much pity. (She didn't have a choice because it was all Rin ever complained about during their lunch breaks together.)
So, the kind soul that Miku was, drew up a Foolproof Plan™ that would ensure Len would get the message without requiring Rin to make any mention of the word 'love' to his face.
But the catch was that the plan was absolutely humiliating and horrifying all at once, and made Rin want to burst into flames at even the thought of executing it.
However, Miku was not giving up on it so easily.
When Rin walked into work on a fine Tuesday morning, her peppy coworker appeared by her side with an inconspicuous white package that she shoved into her hands before she could react.
As Rin stared in confusion at the package in her hands, Miku leaned in and wiggled her eyebrows.
"You know what it is. The special surprise for that bone-headed boy of yours."
A sinking feeling of dread settled in the pit of Rin's stomach as she came to realise what it was.
Oh.
Oh no.
Before Rin could give it back, Miku skipped off to her department with a snicker.
Ah, shit.
After multiple failed attempts to return the package to her friend during the day ("Gumi doesn't need any seducing, honey."), Rin went home with it, and stared at it in horror on her kitchen bench for a good half hour before deciding to open it. She knew what was inside, of course. It was all part of Miku's diabolical plan.
As she peeled open the seal and peeked inside, she caught the glimpse of telltale red fabric. Oh, god. She really had done it, hadn't she.
With the furrow of her brow, she reached in and pulled out the plastic-wrapped object inside. What was revealed, was a neatly packed, lace-ridden and borderline-sickening Christmas-themed lingerie set.
Rin's expression was far less than impressed by any standards.
She pulled the plastic wrap from the remains of a sexy Santa costume and held them up in front of her. The bra was lacy, with white fur lining the top, and practically see-through where her nipples would be. The matching top was a flowy, gauze camisole, with appropriate white fur, that served as little purpose with covering up as the bra did. Lastly, was the final piece of the set; a pair of lacy panties with ribbons on the sides, spared from the horror of white fluff, but doing little to hide one's secrets down below.
She set them down on her table with a look of disgust. There was absolutely no way— no way she could walk in on Len wearing nothing but this . God, the guy would have a heart attack. And she didn't even know CPR! Let alone did she want to be responsible for her best friend's death.
Miku, I can't do this, she texted. I will die and so will Len.
Miku responded quite ominously within a heartbeat, No, you can, and you will, do this.
Rin set her phone down with a groan. The bad thing was that it was all the right size. She couldn't believe the girl got her measurements right to a T, but it was as well just her luck. She couldn't get out of this.
The plan was as simple (yet complicated) as this; have Len over on Christmas eve, and whip out this number on him. This was not Rin's idea by any means—it was Miku's, and she wondered whether it constitutes as sexual harassment or not. She didn't want a restraining order from her childhood crush on Christmas for trying to pull a smart one on him.
And, alas, half of the plan had already been executed. As per tradition, she'd invited Len over to hers on Christmas eve, and there they were planning to feast on KFC and strawberry shortcake while watching cliché Christmas movies. It was something they did every Christmas since graduating high school, given they were both single at the time.
Luckily—but unluckily—for Rin, Len was a single pringle this year. And that meant, well, dear god.
How on earth.
She already felt sorry for him.
So, that was how her disaster-of-a-Christmas was probably going to go. Sexually harass her best friend because her galaxy-brained coworker said it would work, but maybe end up just as single and sad in the end if it all—most probably—goes to shit.
Oh boy. Oh shit. Oh fuck.
On the early evening of Christmas eve after work, Len showed up, a bag of food and one small present in arm. He dropped the present off under her makeshift-cactus-Christmas tree near the TV, then dumped the food on her kotatsu, which was heating up ready to toast their legs.
Usually, one whiff of the scent of KFC sent Rin's mouth watering, but she was far too nervous to have an appetite as she watched her best friend unknowingly shrug off his snow-covered coat and roll up the sleeves of his mustard-yellow sweater.
God, he was so fucking sexy and she was an absolute moron.
"Was the snow heavy?" she asked, joining him knelt by the kotatsu to help serve their dinner onto some plates from her kitchen.
Len shook his head. "It was pretty light by the time I got out of work. At least it eased up a bit." He took the shortcake from one of the bags and whisked it away to the safety of her refrigerator, to be later devoured. She followed him with her gaze.
"Lucky. It was a nightmare when I was walking home from the station."
He gave her a look of sympathy. "How was work, anyway? Is that shitty supervisor of yours still giving you a hard time?"
Rin sat back on her heels to think. "Oh, yeah, is he ever. Yesterday he got mad at me for leaving some documents in the printer—but it wasn't even me."
"What a dickhead," he muttered, cracking a can of beer open and passing it to her. She gingerly smiled back at him.
They settled under the kotatsu together—a tight space, but it was never uncomfortable next to Len. She grabbed the TV remote and switched on the TV.
Next to him, she momentarily forgot about the events to come later that evening, allowing dinner to slide down easier than it should. Shoulder to shoulder, she wanted everything and more, drinking in his warmth and his presence and wishing she could have it all to herself.
The beer sunk into her blood, washing away some anxiety, allowing her to relax for a bit. But as the hours peeled on, while they sat together laughing at Christmas television, a glance at the clock reminded her of her eventual doom.
You see, usually on a Christmas eve, one of them would stay over for the night—depending on who was hosting the celebration—and that meant Len would be sleeping on an extra futon, sandwiched beside her own futon on the floor of her tiny apartment. And that meant, also, that she had to pull the inevitable move of surprising (or shocking) him with her new… outfit.
As Len went off to shower and bathe first, she sat and waited in pain. As much as she wanted to… seduce him, she also valued integrity.
But then she was struck with a really bad, horrible, awful idea, that would mean nothing ever happening between them this one fateful Christmas eve, but ensured Miku's donation wouldn't go to waste.
Well, sort of.
After switching places with Len and having a shower, she changed into the godawful lingerie set she somehow managed to sneak past him without him noticing. Then, with no remorse, she pulled a warm, fuzzy hoodie over the top and some pajama pants on the bottom.
There.
He would… never notice.
But she was technically wearing it.
(And to hell was it uncomfortable.)
She settled back down beside him under the kotatsu, where he was cutting up the shortcake they had saved for dessert, unbeknownst to the utter sexy disaster she was concealing.
"Sorry, it got a bit tossed around on the way here," he said, handing her a plate of crumbling cake.
"It's fine," she said, not feeling up to making a joke out of it. "Thank you so much for grabbing everything, by the way."
He smiled at her, and it just about melted her heart. It always did. "Well, you're putting up with me for a night, so might as well make the pain worth it."
She elbowed him, before digging into her piece of cake. "Shut up. It's more like you putting up with me ."
Len chuckled, and they fell into mutual silence, spoons scraping at their bowls.
Rin took a breath, wondering if it was a good time to attempt something. You know, try a half-baked, slightly tipsy confession, or something, even though it would likely go straight over her friend's head.
She licked at her spoon and turned to him. "So, um, Len."
He didn't look up at her. "Mm?"
"Um…" Oh god. She was already panicking. Why, oh why, was this so hard? It wasn't like she hadn't done this already a million times before.
This time he looked up, curious by her silence.
"So," she tried again, trying to play it off cool and averting her eyes back to her bowl. "Is there anyone you're, uh, interested in right now?"
Geez. What a terrible question. Anyway.
Len blinked at her, almost as if he didn't understand the question. But then the puzzle pieces must've come together, because he broke his gaze to focus on his cake again. "You mean, like, romantically?"
No, duh. "Yes," she squeaked.
"Oh." He paused his eating to muse, staring over at the television screen in deep thought. "Hm. Yeah. There is."
His response made her heart stop, before starting up again. Of course, she'd asked this question before, and he'd come out with the same answer, as well. But even so, the possibility of him liking her—or liking someone else—was, well, there .
"Why do you want to know?" he asked.
Rin froze, spoon to her lips, as she panicked internally to find an answer. Her heart sang, just tell him! TELL HIM! But her brain sang, Make a genius excuse. Make a really big brain excuse, Rin. He must never know the truth.
It really would be the perfect moment to confess. Ugh. But.
But.
"Well, you know, I was curious…" she said, rather pathetically. "Christmas is the holiday everyone spends with their lovers, after all."
Len set down his spoon. "Hmm, yeah. I guess it is." He looked at her. "Is there someone you would like to spend Christmas with?"
"Uh." She stared at him. "Yeah." You , she almost said, but her mouth clamped shut before she could get to it.
His mouth twitched. Then his eyes went down. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you, but what are you wearing under your hoodie? A Santa costume?"
"Uhh, fuck," Rin blurted, before following his gaze. Part of the shitty, cursed camisole was poking out from the hem of her jumper, very obviously right there and not at all a part of the rest of her pajama wear.
Len reached out to touch the fluffy hem, and she almost slapped his hand away from it—but instead sat there in total mortification.
She wanted to bring up that strawberry shortcake back into the bowl, but this time, deconstructed.
"It's, uhhhh…" she began, not even knowing how to deal with this conversation. Of course, no thoughts, head empty at the best of times. "It's not a Santa cosplay, no, uh, look, it's um, it's a long story."
He raised his eyebrows at her, not letting her off the hook that easy.
"I, um, a friend. A friend, by the name of Miku Hatsune, dared me to wear this. That is why I am wearing it."
Much to her horror, Len started lifting the hem of her hoodie higher to get a better look, and she screeched something inhuman, this time actually smacking his hand away.
He looked startled by her reaction, before furrowing his eyebrows. "What is it?"
Rin wanted to black out and die. Instead, she reached across the table, cracked open one of the untouched beer cans Len had bought, and sculled a good portion of the drink. Then, she set it down loudly on the table between them and turned to him with a face the same shade as the humiliating bra she wore.
"It's—" She hiccupped. "— Lingerie ."
It seemed to take a moment for the word to process in Len's head. Then he nodded slowly, as if to show understanding. "Ah, I see." But instead of saying nothing more about it and moving on, he just had to ask the golden question, "Why?"
"I, err—" she stalled, looking into his pretty blue eyes and wondering why on earth she was stuck in this painfully awkward situation with her best friend. If anything—if anything at all, it was probably better for her to just say the truth and get it over with. She groaned and put her head in her hands.
"What?" Len said, leaning closer, which made everything worse.
"You," she mumbled.
"Who?" he asked, leaning so close she could smell his shampoo and deodorant.
She peeled her face from her hands. " You, " was all she said.
Len hovered close to her for a few moments, before sitting back, a dumbfounded expression falling across his features as he yet again tried to comprehend what on earth she was talking about. "I… don't quite get it."
Of course.
Of course.
This was Len she was dealing with.
Rin wanted to throw her hands up into the air and sob. Instead, she took a breath and rubbed her eyes, smudging the leftovers of her eye makeup from work that day. "Len, I like you ."
He tilted his head. "Huh?"
Maybe it was the beer making her so bold, but this time she grabbed his head in her hands and gave him a little shake. "You. You . I like you . I wanna spend Christmas with you . How many times do I have to spell this out? Do I really have to take off my clothes to make this obvious? Do I really have to expose my nipples to my best friend just so he can understand my feelings? "
Her voice had reached a pitchy state, and that's when her half-sober brain processed what she had just blurted out to his face. Immediately, she dropped her hands away from his head like it was a hot potato, and slid out from under the kotatsu to place reasonable distance between them.
Len was stunned silent. His eyes were wide. A deep red colour was seeping from the tips of his ears, down to his cheeks. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, then opened it again.
Finally, when he found the voice to say anything at all, he just responded with a very underwhelming, "Okay."
Rin wanted to cremate herself right then and there. Just—pass on. Cease to exist. Poof. 'Okay', huh? Just an 'okay'. Fine. Fine . Cool. Awesome. Really fucking great.
But she did it. She finally got through to him.
And, well, what other response did she expect, really? It was unlikely that he liked her back, too. She was prepared for this, right? She was prepared for rejection.
But it still hurt too much.
Trying to keep herself together, she picked herself up off the floor and reached over to grab their bowls. Her hands trembled as she carried them over to the kitchen sink. She turned on the tap, let the water run, let the tears fall.
It was rather dramatic, really. Oh, woe is her. Woe is the girl with a cute, sexy, yet incredibly dense best friend.
But she had managed to get through to him. Somehow.
While taking an exaggeratedly long time to clean up the dirty dishes, she heard movement from the living room. Perhaps it was Len deciding it was best to evacuate the house before things spiralled further into madness. She fully expected to return to the kotatsu and find him, and any remnants of his presence, gone, as if disappearing into thin air.
However, that was not what happened.
Arguably so, maybe it was worse than that imaginary situation. Or better. Rin hadn't figured it out quite yet.
"Hey Rin," said a voice from behind, and she jumped about a mile into the air, throwing bubbles everywhere.
She quickly hurried to wipe her face with a wet, soapy hand and spun around to see Len, standing very awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen.
"I, um, set up the futons," he said.
"Oh," she croaked. "Thank you."
He stared. Awkwardly. Then asked, "Are you okay?"
Rin's immediate response was, "No." But then she backtracked, saying, "I'm fine."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
Her bottom lip trembled. "Yes."
A beat of silence passed. She almost thought the conversation was over, but then—
"I'm sorry," he said, catching her off guard.
Her heart jumped to her throat, and immediately she knew what he was apologising about. She turned back to the sink to furiously scrub at the dishes in a vain attempt to hide the tears about to spill over. "For what?" she asked over her shoulder.
"I didn't give you a proper answer before." Silence, before he added, "It… Well, you surprised me a little."
Rin couldn't speak. She bobbed her head up and down, hoping he would take it to keep speaking. Or leave her alone. Either way.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
She paused her scrubbing and took a breath, swallowing back the sob choking up her throat. "I did tell you," she said. "Like, a million times. But every time you would take it the wrong way."
There was a drawn out pause between them; the only sound the sloshing of the water as she dug around in the sink.
Then, softly, Len said with realisation, " Oh ."
Rin drained the water from the kitchen sink, rinsing the dishes and setting them aside on the counter to dry. One last time, she wiped her eyes before turning to face him.
He gazed at her with a strange expression, something unreadable. His lips twisted, and his eyebrows furrowed, and he knitted his fingers together in front of him. "You know, Rin," he began. She took a breath, anticipating the worst. "I wouldn't just celebrate Christmas with anyone."
She looked down at the floor, mustering a, "Mm."
"There's a reason I spend almost every Christmas with you," he continued. He took a breath, hesitating. "Hey, Rin. Look at me."
She lifted her head reluctantly and met his eyes. He took a step forward.
"From now on, I wanna keep spending every Christmas with you, too."
Her heart was pounding in her ears. It was almost deafening. She could only stand there, staring dumbfounded, as he inched closer and closer, closing the distance between them, until she could feel his hot breath on her cheeks.
"Is that alright with you?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Warmth was rushing to her cheeks. She was in disbelief at what she was hearing. Was she dreaming? Had she passed out in the kitchen from alcohol poisoning?
Dream or not, she answered, "Y-yeah."
Len's lips twitched into a smile. He lifted a hand to cup her face, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. It sent fireworks running over her skin.
"I'm sorry for not taking you seriously," he said. "I like you, too, Rin. I really like you. And I'd happily look at you in lingerie, if you wanted me to."
Before she could get a word in, he tilted his head forward and brushed his lips against hers. It was something brief, something sweet, before he pulled away again and checked her expression, cold air hitting her like a punch to the face.
Not wanting to wait anymore, she leant in and pressed her mouth against his, balling his sweater into her fist and yanking him towards her. His hands went to her hips, then slid up her sides, fingers dipping underneath the fabric of her hoodie. It went up and up, and they broke apart, the jumper being tossed off to the floor.
His eyes swept over her, and she was sure the colour of her cheeks rivalled the shade of the fabric.
"Red suits you," he told her with a mischievous smile, before going in for her lips again.
When Rin hobbled into work the following day, Miku was waiting to greet her by her desk.
"So," her friend started, propping her elbow on top of the cubicle wall and resting her head in her hand. "How was it?"
Rin put on a disappointed look and sighed, feigning defeat.
"Oh, no," Miku said, eyebrows meeting. "Don't tell me."
"Yeah. I didn't sleep a wink last night."
"Aw, no—wait, what?"
Her mouth betrayed her with a shit-eating grin. "Look, it almost didn't happen. I even cried . But somehow, because of that cursed outfit you gave me, I managed to get through to him."
Miku squeed, clapping her hands together. "Oh my god. Really? I didn't think it would go so well."
"Miku."
"I mean—congratulations! Enjoy your new boyfriend."
Rin pulled a face, jutting a finger at her chest in accusation. "Maybe just this once one of your crazy ideas worked. But I'm never taking your advice again. Last night literally took years off my life."
Miku ignored her. "Okay, but like, did he like the lingerie?"
"Unfortunately."
The teal-haired woman puffed out her chest. "Well, that's only because me, Miss Miku, the goddess of knowledge, chose it."
Rin rolled her eyes. "To be honest, Miku, I feel like I could walk in with toilet paper wrapped around my chest and Len would like it. He's never been hard to please."
"C'mon! At least acknowledge my contribution to your success, you bitch."
"Ugh. Fine." Rin set down her handbag on her desk and turned to Miku, plastering on a fake smile. "Thank you for helping me somehow make Len take me serious for once. I appreciate the help."
Miku beamed. "You're very welcome, miss Rinnie Poo."
Rin planted her hands on her hips. "If you call me that again, I will personally find the exact same lingerie set you gave me and send it to Gumi, signed from you."
With that threat made, Miku jumped up off the wall and gave her an over-enthusiastic thumbs up. "Understandable! Have a nice day!" she chirped, before running off to her own cubicle.
Leaning back in her seat, Rin rubbed her forehead. Her body ached something terrible. She knew Len was something carved by the gods, but she did not anticipate him being ridiculously flexible, either.
She had her work cut out for her, huh.
my brain shrivelled up and died at the end tbh sorry x