Before the Dance
By An Anonymous Friend
"Heh heh heh! You know, I never thought I'd be able to fit in a suit this good!" Ichika tugged on her white and gold jacket with her slender, gloved hands. The black undershirt she wore was already somewhat stretched to try and contain her feminine figure, leaving some slight gaps between the buttons, but it wasn't enough to produce any sort of scandalous appearance. The white high pants and matching white spats completed the whole picture. She had her hair tied back into a ponytail and brushed in such a way to give her the charm of a prince, relatively speaking. Ichika had really 'transformed' thanks to one simple outfit swap.
Ichika's grey eyes had a glint in them for a moment but then they were back to being cheerful slits with long eyelashes like always. She never seemed to lack a smile on her face, no matter the circumstances. Tsurugi had known Ichika for a long time and she was her superior within the justice task force, but she still didn't understand a whole lot about Ichika. She was...she was...Tsurugi's lips twisted into a crooked mix between a smile and a grimace...Ichika was really everything that she herself wasn't.
Tsurugi bit hard on her bottom lip. She looked down at herself. She saw her own cleavage, not something she was very used to seeing, and it almost made her cringe. She was in a gorgeous white dress with a low cut for her chest. It was simply a dress but this too, like her cleavage, is not a thing that she is very used to seeing, and that too made her cringe. Tsurugi didn't feel right this way. She still had the same messy unkempt hair, the same dark bags under her eyes, her eyes themselves were like a pair of blood red pits, her skin was still as pale as snow, she still had an physical inability to actually smile, and her halo still literally dripped all over the place. She was so unlike Ichika it was INSANE, so what were they really doing here right now?
"You look beautiful." Ichika spoke out to her from across the room.
Tsurugi shook her head. She bit her bottom lip hard , almost enough to want to break the skin, and she cried out back at her, "I'm not, I'm not, this is so embarrassing, I'm not! Let's, um, let's just stop this before it gets too far and change out, okay? It was dumb enough that I let myself go this far into being talked into it, even if the dress is super pretty!"
Ichika chuckled softly. She shook her own head this time, but only needed to do so once. "I really think you look gorgeous, Tsurugi. There's no reason to be so hard on yourself. That dress was literally made for you. That's why it fits you so well. It's not the dress that's pretty. You're the one that makes the dress pretty in the first place!"
Tsurugi grumbled under her breath. She did not believe it at all anyway, but she sort of wanted to. Her stark white face was turning so bright red that her whole head might resemble a big tomato soon. Her cheeks were becoming the same color as her own halo. Tsurugi did not like Ichika to see her this way. She brought her hands to her face to try and hide her embarrassment. Ichika chuckled softly once again, her voice is like bells inside Tsurugi's ear lobes, and she walks across the changing room with a great stride. She gets in closely and stands in front of Tsurugi, but she doesn't put her hands onto the other woman until she watches, waits and sees that she would not be rebuked for doing so. Ichika reached down and took the other woman's hands into her own and clutched them firmly.
Ichika was so close that her breath was able to brush Tsurugi's increasingly warm face. "Come on, Tsurugi, I can say it a hundred thousand million times if you want! You're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful-"
"Gyaaaah! Stop it! Stop it! I'm going to literally combust if you keep saying that!" Tsurugi wailed out loud.
Ichika's smile grew insidiously wide and her eyes even began to peer out from between usually shut lids. "You're pretty, you're pretty, you're pretty, you're pretty, you're pretty, you're pretty, you're pretty-"
"Nooooooooo!" Tsurugi threw her head back and screeched loudly.
Ichika burst into a fit of giggles. Tsurugi let out a low groan, feeling like she was going to overheat and pass out at any second. She was so embarrassed. She just wanted to run outside, dig out a little hole in the ground, and burrow herself in there for all of time yet to come. However, at the same time, even if it was hard to admit it to herself, she was actually quite happy too. She felt like she was actually being acknowledged and it made her feel so good and gooey and prickly inside, but she liked the feeling at the same time as she hated it. She didn't know how to express it. She looked up and met her eyes with Ichika's, and then she took a few deep breaths with slow exhales. Finally, the most gorgeous women in the room smiled together, the both of them.
Tsurugi remembered what Ichika could really be like behind that always cheerful face of hers. She had seen that dark side of her friend, that 'monster' hidden inside, that brutality that showed no mercy. Maybe they could BOTH be the Beast, then. But, at the same time, there was no way Tsurugi could ever deny the chance for Ichika to be a Beauty too. If Ichika thought she was also the same, then they could BOTH be the Beauty together.
Tsurugi's heart pounded a million miles against her rib cage. Her poor legs felt like they were going to melt and leave her as a puddle. She was still so hot in her face that she must have been producing steam off of her cheeks. Still, she kept holding onto Ichika's hands. She gripped them back just as tightly and firmly as Ichika herself held them. She wore gloves, but Ichika's hands felt warm too. Not just that, but they felt strong and reassuring. Tsurugi took another breath and let it out again. She needed to not let herself get caught up in her fears and worries and instead focus on the good things as hard as that was. She needed to focus on what she really wanted and not what she thought she wanted. Focusing on Ichika seemed to help a whole lot too, because after all...
"You're so beautiful too." Tsurugi breathed out.
Ichika's eyes widened for a moment (and so did Tsurugi's, since she didn't think she would say that so candidly), but then they shut again and her smile was as warm and prevailing as it was ever before. "Aw, you're so sweet, Tsurugi~! Thank you~!"
"Ahhh...aaahhh...y-you're, uh, you're w-w-welcome...heh heh..." Tsurugi almost completely lost it again, but she mentally FORCED herself back together before she could completely lose control, that had been a serious risk that she had taken just now, and she bowed her head while her whole face out to her ears was glowing bright red. "...I really meant it, too."
Ichika leaned over and kissed Tsurugi right on top of her forehead. The other woman yelped like a small dog. Ichika giggled and winked. She ushered Tsurugi to follow her towards the door. They couldn't stay inside of the changing room forever, after all. They had to go out and meet with everyone. They would get the chance to dance together on the stage. Tsurugi and Ichika both knew the steps well enough and, even if they both had some nerves fried from the anxiety, they couldn't help but really look forward to a chance to be able to dance together for the first time. As they passed through the door, Ichika pulled Tsurugi even closer to her, practically enveloping her in a hug.
"Come on! Let's go and have some fun, Tsurugi~!"
~The End~
