A/N: Had this idea the day after I published the last short, but have been kind of slacking on research for the project. Sorry in advance, but hope that everyone enjoys regardless.
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Hanamaru hadn't been sure why everyone kept giving her strange looks while the girls were getting changed for idol practise on Monday, since she didn't think that she had anything stuck to her face. Ruby likely would have told her about it and helpfully pulled it off, despite how meek her best friend could be.
Some of the girls seemed unable to even look at Hanamaru for more than a few seconds at a time before their faces started to turn red and they looked away as though they were embarrassed about the first-year.
Chika and Yo thankfully acted about the same as usual while Dia looked very severe about something while the girls were getting changed, but by far the most odd was Riko as she spent the entire time in the clubroom with her back facing Hanamaru while her face almost matched the color of her hair.
Practise was relatively normal for Hanamaru despite Ruby stuttering more then usual around her while everyone took a break, and Hanamaru noticed that Kanan and Dia had pulled Mari off to a corner of the roof and started talking to the blonde in hushed voices.
Shoring up her courage while Yoshiko was off playing around with Chika and Yo about being fallen angels, Ruby finally managed to broach the topic of whatever was making the girls act so strangely "did you and Mari do anything funny this weekend Hanamaru?"
Blinking in confusion at the odd question from her best friend, Hanamaru brought a finger up to her lips and tapped on them as she tried to think of anything that might have been out of the ordinary when she spent time with Mari that weekend.
Going through the different things that the couple had done that weekend Hanamaru began listing off points on her fingers to her best friend "let's see Mari wanted me to play dress-up with a few cute outfits that she purchased for me. We watched a movie that Mari told me was very popular overseas but I didn't really understand" Hanamaru recited, smiling at the memory of how happy Mari seemed to be while they were watching the movie despite Hanamaru not being able to follow along with the plot.
"Mari had her chefs prepare a really fancy meal for us before she had someone drive me home since we had school in the morning" Hanamaru finished off with a small smile to her adorable best friend, still not understanding what Ruby might be implying from the strange question she had asked.
Becoming even more confused when Ruby's face turned even more red if at all possible, Hanamaru was going to ask if there was something that Ruby thought she had left out, but the redhead beat her to it by squeaking out another question "did you and Mari perhaps do a bit of kissing?"
Hanamaru giggled at the silly question Ruby had just asked, and very honestly replied to her friend "of course we kissed Ruby, we're in a relationship, isn't that what couples are supposed to do?"
That was apparently too much information for poor Ruby as she squeaked before running away from her best friend, moving to hide behind a very cheerful Chika, who took the offered chance to pull the younger girl into a warm hug while Yo laughed at her best friend. Hanamaru was left feeling as though she had missed something and thought that it was somewhat odd for Ruby to respond like that to what appeared to be a rather obvious answer.
None of the girls ever learned what Kanan and Dia had been speaking with Mari about during the break, as the girls reconvened to continue with practise without a word and only a few more odd looks from Ruby and Dia towards Hanamaru as the sun began to set.
While the girls were getting changed back into their uniforms Dia finally shored up enough of her courage to confront Hanamaru directly about whatever had been bothering the ebony-haired girl, right in front of the other members of Aquors "did you know that you had a kiss mark visible on your neck the entire time during practise today Hanamaru?"
"Kiss mark?" Hanamaru repeated the odd term that she had never heard of before back to Dia as she looked at the older girl in confusion, everything going quiet in the clubroom as the other girls just looked at the pair in a mixture of shock and embarrassment.
Instead of explaining what she meant Dia moved to her skirt and pulled out a compact to show Hanamaru. Flipping it open and tilting the mirror so that Hanamaru could see properly Dia pointed out the lipstick stain on the younger girls collar, just visible because of the practise clothes that Hanamaru wore.
Hanamaru oddly started to turn very red without understanding why when she noticed the lipstick there on her collar, and tried asking Dia about it "why do I have that there Dia?" She cried out, hiding her red cheeks with her hands like a pure maiden.
Dia was already well aware of the answer after grilling Mari for information during their break, and turned her full glare upon her blonde friend, who laughed off the scary look with practised ease while Kanan only sighed at her two friends.
"So uh, we're going to just go ahead now and leave you guys to work this out, okay" Chika chimed in to remind the girls that almost everyone was still in the room, and that Chika and Yo's faces were also going red at the rather awkward conversation happening. Grabbing onto Yo's hand Chika quickly retreated from the room so that the girls could talk about this in private.
Sighing at the antics of her two friends Kanan decided that this was no longer her problem to deal with and took her leave in pursuit of Chika and Yo in hopes of talking to the two about what they had seen and heard.
Riko had been the first person in and out of the room after practise to go and catch the bus without looking at Hanamaru again, and dragged Yoshiko along behind her to the ebony-haired girl's complaints, leaving only Hanamaru and Mari to face down Dia's wrath while Ruby half-hid behind the door.
Exasperated at Mari's games since Dia knew that Mari had left a lipstick stain on Hanamaru's neck on purpose, Dia threw her hands up and decided that she had dealt with enough of Mari for one day. Marching over to the door and grabbing onto her little sister's wrist, Dia pulled Ruby down the hall in search of a bit of normality where the name Mari wasn't spoken of.
Quietly whining about what had just happened, Hanamaru slowly turned to face her girlfriend and found Mari with a bright smile on her face as though she had just gotten away with the best prank ever.
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"I can't believe that you did that and didn't tell me about it Mari!" Hanamaru whined as the two girls walked back to the Ohara hotel together, pouting at her girlfriend only partially in anger for embarrassing her in front of the other girls.
"But it was so worth it to see how angry Dia got when she noticed the kiss mark on your neck" Mari tried to argue with Hanamaru with a bright smile on her face, "It's not every day that you get to see Ruby turn such a fine shade of red either."
"Not at the cost of my pride!" Hanamaru cried out as she began to beat on Mari's chest with her tiny hands angrily, only earning laughter from the older girl who enjoyed playing with people so much.
Allowing Hanamaru to go on for a few minutes until she got tired Mari turned the tables and pulled Hanamaru into a warm hug with a bright smile on her face "I'm sorry for using you to embarrass Dia and the others, but you have to admit it was funny how Riko couldn't even look at you without her face turning the same color as her hair?" Mari asked her girlfriend.
Pouting at how sweet and yet mischievous Mari was, Hanamaru grudgingly let Mari get away with her little prank this time since she did agree that seeing the color of Riko's face was funny, not that she would ever tell Mari about it.
"Now come on Hanamaru, let's go back to the hotel and do homework while we watch another of those Marvel movies!" Mari cheerfully suggested to her girlfriend as she jumped away and gently wrapped her fingers around Hanamaru's wrist.
Smiling back to the girl that she put up with the antics of for better or worse, Hanamaru nodded in agreement and let Mari lead her by the hand back towards the Ohara hotel.
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A/N: So in my rough draft I had this story star Yoshiko and Mari as a stand-in while I did a bit of research before writing the hard copy, but changed to Hanamaru after I completed my research.
"I want character A to give character B a kiss mark where the other girls can see it" was basically what I had in mind, but that meant I had to choose one of the girls that wore a shoulderless shirt for practise. Hence my needing to do research since I couldn't remember that off the top of my head.
Since the last chapter was a SIP chapter I wanted this one to be another Sunshine chapter, but only Hanamaru, Mari, and I think Yoshiko wear halter tops (?) for practise...so yeah.
Anyways another chapter should be coming out soon, I have another idea on the table and I just need to decide on characters. Until then I love you guys, thank you so much for continuing to read along!