The Love Letter Lovelies

by Glee-chan

05.

It wasn't much of a kiss. It was more like a head-butt. Makoto was so nervous she came at Kaede with such speed that while their lips connected, their noses and foreheads collided as well. Kaede squeaked and dropped both her bag and shinai as she stumbled back, grabbed her nose. Then, as if fate willed it, she tripped over Makoto's dropped school bag and went tumbling butt first down the stairs that led to the playground proper. Mortified, Makoto chased after Kaede's rag-doll like body.

"Ow ow ow ow." Kaede cried when she stopped rolling, grabbing one of her knees.

"Kaede-chan! I'm sorry!" Makoto was on her knees beside her, pulling the other girls skirt back over her legs. "I didn't mean to do that! I'm so sorry!"

The kendo-girl whined, but gave Makoto a strained look. She was trying to smile. "Your kiss was just too powerful."

Makoto tried not to laugh at that. "I was nervous…"

Taking a deep breath Kaede tried to regain her composer, which lost some of it's effect with blood starting to drop from her left nostril. "Please don't concern yourself over that."

Ignoring her, Makoto pulled out her handkerchief and pressed it underneath Kaede's nose. "I'm such a loser. My first kiss and I gave you a skinned knee and a bloody nose. I'm probably the worst kisser to ever been born."

"It wasn't so bad for the first few seconds." Kaede said. Makoto wasn't sure if she was trying to joke or not.

"Here, Let me help you get to a bench then I'll collect our stuff, okay?"

The other girl nodded and Makoto did just that. The whole while she was crucifying herself in her mind. That kiss was so bad, even if she did like me, she probably thinks it's to dangerous to go out with me now. I can't blame her. When she returned, she felt extremely shy. She was still kicking herself as she used her handkerchief to clean Kaede up some more.

"Mako-chan," Kaede pushed the handkerchief from her nose. "I don't think that kiss should count."

"Hmm?"

"Let's have a do over." Kaede said.

"You're brave." Makoto gave a lame joke, but Kaede didn't laugh. She was looking at her again with those soul searching eyes. Swelled forehead and red nose didn't stop her from looking beautiful.

"Kiss me."

Breathing in again, Makoto leaned in closer, making sure she wasn't coming at Kaede at the speed of light this time. She tentatively brushed against Kaede's lips with her own once, twice, then she allowed herself to softly press her lips against the kendo-girls. She tasted like copper, yet somehow the softness of their lips meeting made her body feel tingly and light. So this is a kiss. She closed her eyes and kissed her with a bit more enthusiasm. They were locked together until Makoto heard Kaede let out a soft moan sound.

Pull back, Makoto looked wide-eyed at her. "Sorry I forgot about your nose."

Kaede looked confused. "I don't understand."

"That sound you made." Makoto went on, then realized Kaede was blushing. "Oh."

"I prefer kisses like that better." Kaede looked away, still blushing.

"Yeah. Me too." Makoto felt giddy. Kissing really felt good. "So… does that mean you'll go out with me?"

Kaede turned to her again. "That is what I'd like, but-."

Lowering her eyebrows, Makoto gave a pout. "You said you'd believe my feelings if I kissed you!"

"I do believe you." Kaede quickly said. "But-"

"Yesterday you wanted to go out with me. Why not now?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Obviously I'm the head-butter…" Makoto joked, even if she was still being serious.

"Earlier today when Inoue-san made a fuss… I was part of the reason you became overwrought. I don't want to be responsible for repeating something similar." Kaede admitted.

"I'm an emotional wreck. I'm going to get like that sometimes. It's just something that I can't control. When I left the argument all I could think about was you. My mind just went going on and on about how I must have hurt your feelings and how much of an idiot I was. I wanted to apologize right away but I couldn't. I wasn't mad at you."

"Mako-chan."

"Please accept me, Kaede-chan."

There was a long drawn out pause, where Kaede did nothing but stare into Makoto's eyes. She was the one who was readable this time. Makoto could tell the kendo-girl was getting cold feet from the day before, but she obviously wanted to act in her passion. Then, after closing her eyes she gave a small nod.

"I can't deny my feelings anymore."

Makoto grinned. "Does this mean that I'm your girlfriend now?"

"Wait. The original deal was just a date." Kaede reminded Makoto.

"I won't be satisfied with just a date." Makoto found herself saying. "I like you too much."

"You really just say whatever you're thinking don't you?" Kaede still was blushing. "Fine. If you're satisfied with being a couple, then I am as well. Let's be girlfriends."

Squealing, Makoto gave Kaede a giant hug. The day before when Makoto had done this, the kendo-girl had stiffened up. Not this time. She melted into Makoto's arms and hugged back. Makoto leaned her head against Kaede's feeling her whole body get warm and light just as it did when they kissed.

After they exchanged mobile numbers, Makoto helped Kaede to her feet and watched her walk around. She had a slight limp but over all she didn't seem that hurt. Still, Makoto offered to help her on her way home, but Kaede refused claiming that she got hurt worse in kendo practice. Makoto wished she could believe her. As they returned to the pavement about to go their separate ways, Kaede stopped Makoto from leaving right away.

"Since we're girlfriends…." Kaede wasn't looking her in the eye. "…we should share a goodbye kiss."

Smirking slightly Makoto leaned her face forward. "You kiss me this time."

Kaede's kiss went much better than Makoto's first attempt. It actually felt better than their second kiss, which either meant that Kaede was a better kisser or that each new kiss felt better. Makoto didn't want it to end, so when Kaede pulled back she felt slightly disappointed.

Instead of seeing a satisfied expression on Kaede's face she had a new look about her. Aside from a blood smear on her face, her eyes were squinting and sides of her lips were curved upward in that famous Kaede-smile she did. But escaping her mouth was the sound of soft chuckling under the breath. It took Makoto a moment to realize that this was Kaede's way of laughing. Blinking she wondered if Kaede thought the kiss was bad.

"Y-Your face." Kaede laughed. "Your face!"

"What?"

"You got blood all over it." Kaede breathed in and made that soft chuckle noise that barely passed as laughter.

"I do?" Makoto laughed, then pointed at Kaede's face. "You do too."

"Here." She reached into her pocket and produced her own handkerchief. Kaede was trying to stop laughing, but she couldn't control herself. It was so cute. As they both wiped the others face, they giggled at each other.

When they finished Kaede was still chortling somewhat. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya."

When they left Makoto felt a grin plastered on her face. She felt really happy. Kaede-chan is so cute when she laughs, I could just die. Makoto thought. I wonder if it's too stalkerish of me to call her later tonight? Should I play it cool? But I can't believe it. I have a girlfriend! And I had my first kiss too. This has been a wonderful day.

As she walked home, she found herself humming and skipping. She just felt so flighty. She couldn't image why she was worried about the things she had been stressing over since the morning. Kaede-chan is perfect. She's so cool! She's so pretty. She's really funny. She's-

"Whoa, you're in a mood." Nori's voice came from around the corner as they both reached the house at the same time.

Makoto giggled and ran up to her sister, embracing her. Nori hugged her back, laughing as well, but more in a curious sort of way. Makoto didn't care. She felt too excited. When Nori pulled her away, she had a sideways grin on her face.

"What in the world happened to you?"

"Oh nothing. I just had a great day." Makoto beamed.

"You did, huh? Would this have to do with some guy ask you out?"

Suddenly the fantasy world Makoto had been living in for the last half hour crashed down. Reality creeped it's ugly head into her bedroom window. She had completely ignored the fact that she willing pursued a relationship with another girl. Makoto was so focused on what she wanted with Kaede she completely forgot about what her family might think about something like that. With Nori's mention of a boyfriend, a sense of fear stiffened within her.

"No… Not a guy." Makoto quickly said. "It was just a fun day is all."

Nori noticed the tone shift immediately. "Did I say something wrong?"

Makoto shook her head. "No, no. I just remembered something when you said that." Makoto remembered the letters she had gotten in her shoe locker and decided to use that as a decoy. She opened her book bag and pointed to the new collection she had. "I got more of them."

"Oh wow." Nori looked amazed. "I wish I was as popular as you."

"It's causing me nothing but trouble." Makoto scrunched her lips to the side. "Hayashi-sensei makes fun of me for it."

"Hmm." Nori pondered about it. "I think the only way for it to stop is for you to pick someone."

Makoto gave a skittish giggle. "You're probably right."

As they entered the house, Makoto was relieved that she deflected Nori's questions about boys, but a pang of guilt hit her. She didn't really lie to her sister, but she hadn't told the truth about Kaede. The thought of telling her sister about that made her even more uneasy. What would she think of her if she knew her sister liked another girl? But Makoto also thought of Kaede. Would the kendo-girl look down on her for being scared to tell her family about their relationship.

Slapping her cheeks, Makoto decided not to think about those problems today. She wanted the rest of the day to focused on the good that happened. The other stuff could wait. Maybe she could talk about that kind of stuff with Kaede and see what she had to say? I wonder if I should call her?

With that thought, she remembered her previous conundrum. How soon was it acceptable for her to call Kaede? She didn't want to come off as some sort of desperate loser. Thankfully the nights dinner had taken her mind off that quandary. Nori took most of the dinner conversation talking about how she was going to try out for the swim team, and everything involved with that. This was a topic of interest as their Father once was on a national swim team, and almost made it to the Olympics.

After dinner Makoto found that her eyes kept looking at her phone. She set it down next to her where ever she went, hoping that Kaede would call, or else working the courage up herself to call the girl. She tried to distract her mind with homework, but there was so little of it that it only worked for a small while. When she went to take a bath, Makoto lamely took her phone with her. After she washed, she sat in the tub to soak and stared at her phone.

I can't take it anymore. Makoto thought and picked up her phone. She thought a text wouldn't be too bad. Maybe she should just say something casual. But what? Then something came to mind and at once her thumb was texting the message. "How's your knee doing?"

What was that? That was so lame. I should have thought of something cooler!

But whether it was lame or not, almost immediately after she sent the text, Makoto had received one as well. Looking at the display screen, she saw it was from Kaede. "It's doing better, thanks."

Makoto laughed a bit. Kaede had to of been right next to her phone to have sent a message right away. Could it be that both of them were waiting for the other to call?

"How long have you been staring at your mobile?"

"I was found out?"

"Only because " was doing the same thing." Makoto typed "I'm so lame I'm texting you from the bathtub."

"You're in the bath right now?"

"Yes."

"You're lying."

Spontaneously she picked up her phone and took a picture of herself giving the peace sign. She looked at the picture, making sure she wasn't flashing anything, then sent it. There was a long wait. Makoto started to feel embarrassed. Maybe that was going to far? Still, the most she had shown in the image was bare shoulders and a hint of cleavage so it wasn't that bad. But there still was no reply from Kaede. Not being able to stand it anymore she texted her back.

"This time you're spacing out."

"Mako-chan. You're so crazy."

"You like my picture, huh?"

There was another break in the conversation before Kaede sent a simple "Yes" back.