10 – Awkward is a Middle Name
Between the three of them, Serena managed to get her entire haul of food back to the house. Which would have been great... until she saw Kanade sitting outside the door.
Hibiki thankfully did not drop the bags when she hugged the older woman and buried herself in the bust, but she almost smacked Kanade with them instead. Which would have been funny if it weren't for Serena's lack of preparedness in dealing with Kanade. And the fact that she was seeing her sweaty and struggling with bags with her hair a mess.
Internally she knew that Kanade probably wouldn't care, but that was logic talking. Not the blush talking.
"H-Hi!" she managed to say.
Kanade grinned. "Sick of me yet?"
"No!" Serena squeaked. She swore she heard Miku laugh. "Not at all! It's just... been a couple of days?" Oh yeah. Nailed it. Totally.
Kanade grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. She hadn't herad any of it. Phew. "Sorry, my roommate and I went into another part of Tokyo to visit her guardian and return... his spare laptop. He's not good with technology smaller than his arms."
Hibiki giggled, and Miku hid a smile behind her hand. Serena could easily interpret that as an in-joke without that prompting, thanks. "Who?"
"Ahhhh~" Kanade dragged out the word. She tried to look sheepish too. "Tsubasa's uncle."
"He taught me how to fight," Hibiki chirped as she unsubtly tried to nudge Serena with one of the bags. "I can eat lightning and crap thunder."
Miku and Kanade laughed as Serena looked at her in utter horror.
"What?!"
...
It took about ten minutes to get Serena calmed down and able to understand that Hibiki had not meant that literally, but that there had just been a lot of kung-fu movies involved.
Hibiki, as Serena was starting to really comprehend that as being completely normal for her, remained guileless throughout, putting food in the pantry by instinct alone.
Kanade tried to help but after the third time she reached over Serena's head to put something high in the fridge, Serena ended up stomping on her foot and telling her to 'leave her tallness' on the couch.
Serena had never known an adult to pout so well, but Kanade had succeeded in nearly wearing down her resolve.
Not even a crush could stand up to the fact that Serena was short and hated being short!
Oh god she had just admitted that in her head, hadn't she?
Did Kanade even care? Or at least notice? She hadn't said anything, and Kanade sure seemed open to saying whatever she felt like because she felt like it.
Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask... oh who was she kidding? It definitely would. She would get rejected...
But they'd actually known each other less than a week. What the hell brain?
Serena resisted the desire to cave to it, the urge to give in and wander in and bury herself into the idea that she was romantically attracted to Amou Kanade.