A/N (half of this is important, read if you please!)
I try to avoid putting author's notes at the beginning of a chapter, so this is most likely going to be a one-time occurrence. I'll get right to the point—thank you for reading! Due to the site's limitations when it comes to story tags and description, I need to say a couple of things. First of all, this story is about Kyouko, Yui, and Ayano. Guess who's in the center of this triangle? If you said Yui, you get a cookie! But you're wrong, it's Kyouko.
Anyways, this story will not be prioritizing one pairing over the other. Certain chapters will specialize in certain characters: either two characters, just one, or several different people. So basically, each character has equal significance in this story.
Second, the story is not simply a romantic triangle between the characters. I can't make that clear using the maximum of two genre tags, but this story is one part romance, one part friendship, one part drama, you get the point.
That'll be it. I hope this cleared things up a bit, so please—enjoy Yuru Yuri: Bottled Hearts!
"I'm so hungry!" Kyouko whined, throwing herself towards the closest person. That happened to be Ayano, who was currently seated at one of the four desks in the student council room. This was a completely normal occurrence—likewise, no one gave it a second thought when the vice president went tumbling to the floor.
"Ah! T-Toshinou..! " Struggling with both her words and the girl pinning her to the ground, Ayano kicked her legs and thrust her hands out. Basically, she was flailing around impotently.
"Oh, Ayano. It's you," Kyouko hummed in an unconcerned manner, ignoring the fact that she might be smacked upside the head any moment now.
"W-what the hell, Dell?!" Ayano's voice rose as she continued her pitiful attempt to escape, earning her a curious look or two from the rest of the student council members.
"Sugiura-senpai, that pun wasn't actually very good. Maybe you're losing your touch?" Leaning forwards over the table, Sakurako seemed to express a complete lack of interest for her higher-up's predicament. Her caretaker and companion—who else but Himawari—grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her back down into the desk.
"Don't antagonize her. Can't you see that she's suffering?" Himawari scolded her friend, but the sideline support did little to help the girl who was "suffering".
"Shut up! Neither of you are helping, by the way!" Ayano complained, still not any closer to getting up.
"Ayano.." Kyouko hummed. "I'm hungry."
"Why should I care?!" She turned her head to the side; Kyouko's face was too close for comfort. "Hurry up, get off of me!"
Kyouko sighed, then crossed her arms and rested her chin on top. Her absolute disregard for Ayano's personal space led to the girl squirming uncomfortably beneath her.
"F-fine! I'll give you my pudding, just let me go.." Her voice had lost its urgency, its flare, and had died down to a resigned whimper. But with those words came her freedom, as her tormentor swiftly rolled to her feet and extended a hand and a smile.
"Thanks, Ayano! I knew I could count on you!"
Reaching out, she cautiously accepted the proferred hand, still wary of being tackled once more. "T-Toshinou, Kyouko.. You really are troublesome!"
Even if the blonde had heard her words, she didn't seem inclined to reply. She was already digging through the minifridge in the corner of the room.
"Toshinou Kyouko.." Ayano blew out of the side of her mouth, sitting up with all remaining dignity. ".. Do you have to be so insensitive?"
Flushed red, she returned to her seat to continue the paperwork she had been working on before the disturbance.
"Oh, my pen.." Ayano realized that she had probably lost her grip on her writer's tool when she had hit the ground. Her eyes scanned the floor, but before she could get up to continue searching, someone held out a hand in front of her.
The student council president had been watching the whole event with mild interest. When a black pen had rolled underneath her desk, she took the liberty to reach down and pick it up. Now, she held out the pen to its owner with a couple words of explanation.
"I see. Thank you, President!" Ayano took the pen with a smile. Rise returned the smile, then returned to whatever work she was doing.
Now that the crisis was over, the room's occupants returned to their occupations. Or at least, they ignored the girl who was dancing about the room, hovering over their shoulders, and making trivial comments about trivial topics.
".. and it would really help bring all of you guys together! Do you agree?" Kyouko finished, holding up a finger for emphasis.
Ayano looked up at their visitor and blinked. Just when she had managed to tune out the chatter, she was now being asked for confirmation about.. something. Knowing Kyouko, it probably wasn't that important. That being said, it was also a bad idea to blindly agree with something Kyouko said.
After a quick evaluation of all her options, Ayano picked the most reasonable-sounding choice. She looked directly at the blonde girl, who was patiently waiting for an answer, and sighed. "Toshinou Kyouko, don't you have anything better to do? Homework? Drawing? Yui?"
Kyouko looked surprised for just a moment, but she covered it up easily. "Nope! I'm done with my homework, my drawings, and Yui!"
Ayano was stunned at the nonchalance and second meaning in the blonde's words, but she calmed down at the sight of the roguish grin on Kyouko's face. Although, the "confession" elicited a cry of alarm, not from Ayano but from behind her. She whipped around instinctively, only to find—!
There wasn't actually any cause for distress. Ayano quickly reassured the rest of the startled student council; they took her weak smile into consideration and politely returned to their work. Then she turned to Chitose and raised an eyebrow to ask, "Chitose, what's wrong?"
Chitose's first move was to close the distance between her and Ayano, which she did by grabbing her target's arm and pulling her close. Ignoring her friend's surprise, she whispered fiercely, "Ayano-chan! You have to tell her about your feelings!"
"W-wha?! What are you asking all of a sudden?" An aggressive blush took over her face, and there was nothing she could do about it. Of course, she knew exactly what was being hinted at; it was difficult to miss her friend's ulterior motives.
Her white-haired friend continued, "Think! What happens if she ends up on Yui's route? Ayano-chan, tell her your feelings!"
"Ch-Chitose, shh! Quiet down!" Panic arose in Ayano's chest at the intensity of Chitose's insistence. What if the girl in question overheard?
But she was too late to stop what was probably inevitable anyways. Speak of the devil, and there she was—and she was usually interested in hearing what's being said of her.
"Huh? Tell who about your feelings? Are you gonna confess to someone?" Kyouko immediately fired off two questions, three if the first "inquiry" was to be counted.
"T-Toshinou Kyouko! Nothing!" Ayano was in a full-blown panic now, and she didn't hide it well.
"Uhh, 'nothing' doesn't really work here.." Kyouko put a finger on her chin to feign thought. "Maybe you meant to say, 'Yes, I am in fact going to confess to my crush!' And then you'll say, 'I can prove it! T-T-T-Toshinou Kyouko, watch me and I'll confess right now!' Or something like that."
The blonde continued her rambling, but Ayano was too beside herself with embarrassment to notice. "Does she know? She has to know. Everybody says it's obvious. She knows, doesn't she? There's no way she hasn't noticed. She probably knows. I think she knows. Wait.. just now, she said.. 'I'll confess right now'.. does she..
"Does Toshinou Kyouko want me to confess to her?! Right now?!" Ayano's mental state was in a mess. She had a two-second moment of "clarity" in which she asked herself if she was delusional, then responded, "Probably!"
And then, she felt eyes on her: curious eyes. Maybe she had let out a nervous squeak without knowing. That, or everybody in the room was curious about her answer. Maybe both.
Flustered, she looked to her superior for help. She didn't know why, because the student council president didn't have much of a presence or influence in these kind of things. Sure enough, all Rise did was smile and mouth, "Best of luck."
Chitose was still holding onto her. As if this was her cue to move, she tore away from the grip and escape. Fortunately, there was nothing stopping her from leaving. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure she had been yelling something strange all the way to the exit, and the worst part was that she couldn't even recall what she had been saying.
Ayano took off at a sprint as soon as she set foot in the hallway, not even bothering to close the door behind her. There wasn't any sign of pursuit, but she still wanted to put some distance between that room and herself. While she was fleeing from the scene, the thought crossed her mind that she shouldn't be running inside the building, so she slowed down to a walk.
After a couple seconds, she slapped herself on the forehead and picked up the pace until she was around a jogging speed. Turning the corner, she casually ran toward two students in the otherwise-empty halls, hoping they would assume that she had some urgent business to attend to or something like that. Sure enough, they waved and smiled but didn't ask any questions. "Perfect," Ayano nodded, pleased with the results.
She continued running for about a minute, through the hallways until she found herself out of hallway. The path she had taken only had about two or three corners to turn, so there was still a high likelihood that someone would see her if she stayed here. Thankfully, she was conveniently located near the roof-access staircase.
The door to the rooftop opened easily, swinging outwards on its hinges with barely any noise. Ayano had barely even taken a step outside before a gust of wind wrapped itself around her: cool, fresh air.
Ayano walked slowly out into the open area, hoping that there wouldn't be anybody else present. When she had confirmed there was nobody else around, she put her back to the concrete wall and slid to the ground with a sigh.
"Why am I even running, anyways.. I probably just made it two times harder to explain myself," she lamented. Sure, a hasty getaway got her out of the current predicament. But as the saying goes, running away won't solve your problems. Later, whether it was today or tomorrow, she would have to show herself to the student council and Kyouko, and there was no doubt they would grill her about what had just happened.
"Toshinou Kyouko.." Just saying the name made her want to pinch something. Ayano groaned and pulled her knees into her chest. "Seriously.. what the heck?"
There was a tiny movement in her peripheral vision, which turned out to be the door to the staircase swinging in the wind. Like an afterthought, she stood up and went to close it.
"Sugiura Ayano!"
To say she was actually hurt from being knocked back and falling to the ground would be an overstatement. However, she was pretty startled.
"Hey.." Ayano's protest faltered on her lips as she looked up and realized who she had bumped into.
"Hey!" What she had just said was repeated but with different tone, and for the second time today Kyouko held out a hand to help her up. "Didn't see you there. Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"T.. T-Toshinou Kyouko!" Ayano stared, wide-eyed in shock. She was too stunned to even accept the gesture.
"Hmm?" When her hand wasn't taken, Kyouko took it upon herself to lift her shell-shocked friend up off the ground and dust her off; she did all of this so innocently, so casually.
"What are you doing here?" Ayano said, feeling her voice rise in pitch and speed. On top of that, her uncontrollable blush was starting to return. "Crap.. thinking in hindsight, going to the roof was pretty predictable.."
"Oh," Kyouko shrugged. "Well, you know when you ran away?"
"Eh? How would I not know something like that?" Ayano deadpanned, temporarily forgetting about her own embarrassment at the inane question.
"Of course you do. Well, you were sort of yelling my name as you were running away, so I just took that as you wanted me to follow you."
".. Eh? Seriously?" For some reason, the fact didn't even surprise her. If anything, she was more on the disbelief side of denial than the embarrassment side.
"Yep. You were all like, 'T-T-Toshinouuuuu! K-K-Kyoukooooo!' It was so cool, I could even hear you after you had left!" Kyouko seemed to be taking all of this very lightly. Ayano tried to imagine that she was being mocked, but the manner in which Kyouko was interacting with her didn't really support the idea. It was sort of hard to be insulted when talking to someone so spontaneous, excitable, and downright volatile—not in a bad way, more like in a fun way.
Before she could reply, the blonde girl started talking again. "So, are you gonna confess? That's what you were gonna do, right? Are you really going to let me watch?!"
At this, Ayano froze, uncapable of answering the triple shot of questions for obvious reasons. How was she supposed to answer? Should she lie or tell the truth?
Calling on the part of her brain that wasn't unresponsive, she asked herself—it was more like begging, actually—what she should do.
Ayano liked Kyouko. It was difficult to explain; there was no rhyme or reason behind her feelings. She was just sort of.. attracted to Kyouko. Even though having such a hyperactive person for a friend might be too much for her to handle, she couldn't help but want to get closer to her. It was a paradox, and she contradicted herself with every thought about the energetic blonde girl. Yet, she still found herself blushing at the slightest bit of physical contact, and the most platonic statements..
What finally snapped her into action was Chitose: or at least, something Chitose had said quite a while ago that she couldn't bring herself to forget. "Ayano-chan, you should be more honest with yourself."
"But what if she thinks I'm weird?" Ayano pleaded, as if the fragment of a memory would actually respond. "Chitose" didn't.
"That.. can be seen as a good and bad thing.." Ayano sighed. For the second time that day, she put her back to the wall and let her body slide to the ground.
"Hm? What is it?" Kyouko, still playing the oblivious card.
"Nothing.. nothing, Toshinou Kyouko.." Ayano mumbled and hid her face deeper in her arms. "Are you actually innocent, or are you just playing with me? Seriously.. I wish I could tell.."
Her companion didn't answer, for obvious reasons. Ayano dared to sneak a glance at the girl, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. The girl's head was leaning up against the wall, her eyes cast toward the sky like there was a cinematic playing in the heavens. One leg bent and the other straight, with an arm draped over her knee, Kyouko was in a rare moment of calm.
"Hey, Ayano, I don't mean to be rude, but how long are we going to wait?" Kyouko said after a while. "When did you tell her to show up?"
"H-huh? Wait, wait, why did you just assume it was a girl?" Although it was quite clear that there was quite a great deal of dramatic irony in the difference between their interpretations of the situation, Ayano was still curious on how Kyouko had unintentionally (or perhaps, knowingly) hit the nail on the head.
Tilting her head and speaking like it was common knowledge, Kyouko explained that she had never, never seen Ayano interact with any person of the opposite gender. That went for pretty much everybody she knew, as well.
Even though her logic was solid, Ayano couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at how Kyouko seemed to have no qualms or hesitation in assuming she was lesbian. "Even if she's right, it's sort of rude.."
"Just in case you're wondering, I don't really care," Kyouko spoke up. "I think it's sort of stupid how people get into arguments about who likes who."
It was like some of the weight on Ayano's shoulders had been lifted; hearing Kyouko's thoughts on orientation was like dipping her consciousness in cold, refreshing water. It took considerable effort to keep herself from cheering as loud as she could.
"What about you?" Ayano made her voice as casually inquisitive as possible.
Kyouko turned to face her, raising an eyebrow. "Hmm? What do you mean?"
"W-well.. you know.."
Embarrassed to answer, Ayano said nothing more. Thankfully, Kyouko seemed to notice and guessed the question. "Do you mean, my interests?"
Ayano nodded.
"Well.. I don't really know," Kyouko exhaled heavily. "I haven't really felt that way about anyone, yet. Maybe I'm aromantic or something weird like that!"
While Kyouko seemed strangely interested in the idea, Ayano's breath caught in her throat. "Don't let that be the case! I hope she isn't actually aromantic.."
Oddly enough, that was what gave her a burst of confidence; she would tell Kyouko how she felt, because this was a chance she couldn't afford to miss!
However, the adrenaline of conviction only lasted a few seconds. In the time that Ayano had spent being pleased about her decision, all the determination that could've been used to confess right then and there had dissipated. Now, she hadn't the slightest idea on how to say it; all she could manage was a disappointed sigh and to hug her knees to her chest.
It was at that moment that Kyouko unwittingly threw her a lifeline: "So, back to my original question. Is she going to be here soon?"
She was sure she had literally yelped out of excitement, but she didn't wait to seize the chance. Swallowing hastily, she nodded and stumbled to her feet. "Actually, she's already here!"
Her words were smooth, no doubt about that, but her voice crack subtracted from the effect. Nonetheless, Kyouko was taken aback. "Huh? What do you mean?"
Ayano ignored the question. "T-Toshinou Kyouko!" Listening to herself was almost painful, but she was trying her best to keep her voice steady and herself from trembling.
"Y-yeah.." Surprisingly, Kyouko seemed to falter for a moment before she nodded.
After a few failed attempts, Ayano swallowed and wet her lips. "I.. I can't.."
But Kyouko was waiting, watching her with unmasked interest. She had come this far; there was no choice but to throw caution to the wind. "Take a deep breath, and tell her how you feel!"
"Toshinou Kyouko, I.. I love you!" She almost yelled, and a molten-red blush erupted over her features. "I mean.. I l-like.. you.."
Suddenly Ayano was overtaken by a surge of.. something. Incoherent threads of thoughts cascaded through her head like a waterfall; all sounds of the real world were drowned out amongst voices screaming embarrassment, regret, and of the worst-case scenario. Her consciousness was a mess, and her vision was soon to follow. The sky dropped out of sight, the person standing in front of her became no more than a blurred image. She felt like she lost the ability to breathe, and it became a challenge to stay standing.
"Is it supposed to be this bad?" She cried desperately in her mind, not knowing if the words had escaped her lips as well. She couldn't feel a thing—not the wind over her head, not the tiles below her feet. Time was, at the moment, unmeasurable—Ayano had no idea how long she had stood still, silent, incapacitated. It wasn't until hands gripped her shoulders that the darkness started to ease.
".. Ayano.. Ayano.. Seriously, are you okay?" Kyouko—who else would it be?—shook her back and forth, a bit too roughly for Ayano to stand. Her legs felt like they would give out any second now.
"To.. Toshinou," she croaked. There was something she had to say, but she didn't know what it was. All she could do was try to swallow the lump in her throat and shut her eyes tightly. But as soon as she closed her eyes, they flew open again in surprise.
"You know, Ayano.." Kyouko was hugging her, face buried in her shoulder. "That's the first time someone's said that to me. No joke, no lie."
The fact should have been shocking, intriguing, or at least meriting some inquiry. Yet, Ayano offered none of these; she stayed quiet, mentally replaying the words Kyouko had uttered at such a sincere volume.
"I don't mean to be a downer or anything.. and I'm not trying to change the subject," Kyouko said, still hugging her. "But you're the first person to ever say that to me. Not my parents, not any of my other friends."
Mildly surprised, Ayano was still at a loss for words; she briefly wondered that if she ended up being the one to comfort Kyouko, she would probably need the power of speech. Those thoughts were put to an end when a pair of blue eyes suddenly rose to meet her own.
"Thanks, Ayano. I mean this in the best possible way, but.. I can't respond with 'I love you' just yet." Kyouko smiled. It wasn't her normal smile, but something.. something happier. "Before we get to that, we should get to know each other a bit more. Right?"
"Y-yeah.. you're right." To say that she was disappointed would be only half true. Of course, that was how she felt at first; she was allowed to dream, right? Regardless, Kyouko's feelings about her had to be taken into account. If the feeling wasn't mutual, then..
The feeling wasn't mutual, yet. Kyouko had hinted at it herself, but Ayano still had to make sure: "Toshinou Kyouko.. Are you saying.."
"Let's go out," finished the blonde girl with a grin. "Does that sound right?"
Words could not express how Ayano felt at that moment: exhausted, embarrassed, ecstatic, the list went on and on. Her cheeks were aflame, her face entirely crimson red, but despite it there was no way she could stop herself from smiling. She didn't hesitate in accepting Kyouko's outstretched hand, taking it in her own; it was cool, and smooth, and a little bit smaller than hers.
"Yep.. that sounds right, Toshinou Kyouko!"