#mmj fluff

2000 words (meant for this to be short and it for out of hand sorry !!)

characters: minori, haruka, airi, shizuku (also all of them are dating (poly relationship) but that’s not explicitly mentioned)

**warnings: bfrb, dermatophagia, skin eating/picking, insecurity**

(ALSO I DIDNT REREAD THIS so if there’s any mistakes that’s why)

minori often found herself picking at her fingers, it comforted her, and it’d been a habit from her childhood that she couldn’t stop. of course, she was embarrassed by it, especially when in public, but the skin peeling off of her pinkie kept resurfacing in the back of her mind, and so, like always, she went back to picking, occasionally using her teeth to break off the piece once it was ready.

it was something minori did constantly, whether it be while walking to class, being in class, walking home, or just doing anything really. there were only a couple times where she wouldn’t pick or eat and that was during dance practice, and other random instances.

her idolmates never really had the time to notice her continuous picking due to their long practices, and their own stress over their idol careers, but as the group grew closer to one another, and spent more time together, the others started to pick up on minori’s “habit”.

-

haruka was the first to notice, being the one who had the most free time, and the one to spend the most time with minori. plus haruka was the more observant of the group.

before one of their livestreams, haruka could tell minori was more nervous than usual, the brunette was tapping her foot harder and less rhythmically than she usually did before their shows, plus minori’s fingers were in her mouth constantly, she kept switching fingers, and picking the cuticles of her pointer finger.

“hey..” haruka started, “do you.. want to hold my hand?”

“huh?” minori said, turning her attention to the blue-haired girl, immediately taking her finger out of her mouth, but still picking at it with her other hand, eyes flickering down every few seconds.

“uhm…” haruka mumbled, thinking about how to continue, “uhm, you seem nervous, and i thought it would help ease your nerves, uh, knowing we’re in this together.”

“okay!” minori agrees, attempting to get her pep up, though haruka could clearly see through the facade. minori was clearly very nervous.

“hey,” haruka says, squeezing minori’s hand, “we’ll be okay, i’ve done this before, you’ve done this before, you’re going to do awesome just like always!”

minori gave a shaky smile back to haruka, squeezing her hand back to reciprocate the message, not knowing how to put her sentiment in words like haruka.

haruka smiles back, squeezing minori’s hand one final time before the group went live.

-

airi was the second to notice, soon after haruka figured out about minori’s “habit”, the pair held hands more often, mainly so minori would stop unintentionally harming herself, but there still were times where even haruka wouldn’t be able to calm minori’s picking.

when airi found out, it was a calm day, the band didn’t have practice, with shizuku having an essay to write, and haruka busy getting tutored, airi and minori were left to their own devices, which brought them to a cafe.

“ooh, can i have some strawberry short cake?” minori asks.

“of course,” the waiter replies, then turns to airi and asks, “and for you miss?”

“i’ll have some tirumisu, please.”

“of course, that’ll be right out for you,” the waiter answers, leaving the two girls alone.

“oh! airi can you show me how to do that move when we have practice tomorrow?” minori says, vaguely moving her body as to describe the move.

“oh, yeah sure!” airi answers, while pulling out her phone, “oh em gee, minori i just remembered, i have to show you this video i found yesterday.”

“ooh!” minori says excitedly, rubbing her hands together for some odd reason, while getting out of her chair to peer over airi’s shoulder.

“isn’t it so adorable!!” airi squeals.

“oh my god, he’s so squishy! i love him so much,” minori exclaims, hugging airi, “i want to just squeeze him until he pops!”

airi laughs at minori’s antics, before showing her another video. (the videos in question being of red pandas, one of minori’s favorite animals.)

“awww, he’s so little!” minori squeals, flapping her hands a bit, airi chuckles again at minori’s excitement, finding it endearing, before taking minori’s hands in her own and telling her to calm down a bit, since people were staring.

“oh, sorry! i didn’t mean to act out like that,” minori apologizes, feeling bad for her outburst, shame overtaking her.

“it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” airi comforts, rubbing minori’s hand with her fingers, “i just didn’t want us to be kicked out of here.”

“… okay,” minori huffs, tapping her fingers, causing airi’s hands to brush against the tips of her fingers.

“woah,” airi exclaims suddenly, immediately takin minori’s hand in her, examining her fingertips.

“ack!” minori jumps at the sudden movement, quickly trying to pull away from airi’s scrutinizing gaze, she didn’t want anyone to see the horrible state her fingers were in. unluckily for her airi’s grip was strong.

“oh my god minori, what happened to your fingers? are you okay?” airi frantically questions, a confused look on her face.

minori flushes with embarrassment and worry, “uhm, i… i’m fine, don’t worry about it,” she says, attempting to break her hand from the pinkette’s grasp.

“uhm, your literally like seconds away from bleeding, this obviously isn’t normal, what happened?!”

minori mumbles something incoherent, causing airi to ask her to repeat what she said.

minori settles for the explanation, “i, uh, pick my skin sometimes,” making a point not to add the fact that she bites, and more commonly eats the skin that isn’t there.

“that doesn’t look just like sometimes,” airi replies, letting go of minori’s hands, then asks, “why do you do it?”

“well, i don’t really know exactly,” minori starts, “ever since i was a kid i’ve been doing it, and before that i was biting my nails, i guess it’s always been a thing i’ve done.”

“but, it obviously hurts you right? so why don’t you stop?”

“i don’t really know, a lot of it is, well, i don’t really realize i’m doing it, i just do it, or sometimes i can like vividly feel the piece of skin and if i don’t do it it’s the only thing i can think about, it’s pretty odd when i say it out loud,” minori says chuckling slightly, “i probably sound super weird right now, i really hope none of our fans find out about this, they already hate me enough…”

“hey, don’t say that!” airi butts in, “sure, i may not understand this whole finger thing, but don’t go saying our fans hate you, they’re our fans for a reason, if they don’t like you, they are aren’t our fans, they aren’t fans of me, haruka, or shizuku if they don’t like you, i, we, like you, and we accept you for who you are, and our fans should to. so even if i, and our fans, don’t really understand your finger habit, that doesn’t mean we don’t love you the same.”

and at that minori is speechless, she’s never had someone (maybe besides haruka) even accept her weirdness so quickly, and not say any weird comments about her gross fingers. minori feels close to crying, and some tears do end out slipping out once she gets home, “thank you, airi…” minori replies, “i love you, too.”

airi smiles at minori, taking the brunette’s hand into hers, “i will never stop loving you, well, unless you turn into an alien or something.”

and with that minori bursts into laughter. today was a good day.

-

the last to see it was shizuku. which made minori even more nervous, sure she was extremely nervous when haruka and airi found out, but for shizuku, who’s considered the beauty queen, and the most beautiful person in all of japan (at least in her city’s eyes, and the idol-sphere), minori was rightfully nervous for shizuku to find something ugly about her.

even after learning shizuku’s kind nature, and loving heart, shizuku’s reputation with beauty was still one that scared minori. sometimes the brunette wanted to disappear when with shizuku because she felt like she ruined shizuku’s beauty by being there, especially with her disgusting fingers.

thankfully for minori, shizuku’s air-headedness made it easy for her not to notice minori’s fingers. that is until today.

today, shizuku was getting ready for an interview, and she asked minori to help her get ready, which was already a big mistake since minori had very limited knowledge on make-up and accessories, mainly choosing to wear something comfortable and casual.

“so minori, have you ever done make-up?” shizuku asks, excited to finally get hers done by minori.

“nope!” minori laughs, “but i mean, i have to try! it can’t turn out that bad, right?”

“that’s the spirit!” shizuku exclaims, clapping her hands, “now can you try doing my eye shadow first?”

“mhm!” minori answers, grabbing the eyeshadow and dabbing the pastel blue color on with the brush, “oh wow! it’s super bright!”

“yeah! that’s why i chose that color, it also helps accent my eyes!”

“oh really?” minori asks rhetorically before taking a step back and realizing it does, “oh wow, you’re right! how do you even know all this stuff anyways?”

“well, i’ve always loved make-up from a young age, it’s like my own form of art, i guess, so i just studied it a lot!”

“oh! like me with idols?”

“oh, yeah, i guess! … i used to always want to be a make-up artist before i became an idol, i never thought myself to be talented enough to be an idol, but i thought maybe if i did their make-up i would still become famous!”

“oh wow! so you still planned to be in the business before you even were in it, that’s super cool!”

“yeah!”

a couple minutes pass in silence, as minori finishes up the eyeshadow. grabbing a mirror, minori passes it to shizuku, allowing her to take in the eyeshadow minori had put on her face.

“i love it!” shizuku says smiling, even if minori feels like she did an adequate job, seeing shizuku so happy made her feel better about her attempt.

“i’m glad you like it!” minori smiles.

“oh! can you also do my mascara?” shizuku pleads, handing minori the tube of black substance.

“sure!” minori agrees grabbing the tube only to be stopped by shizuku.

“what’s that on your hand?”

the dreaded question, minori feels like time freezes as shizuku leans closer, a confused look in her eyes.

“oh no! minori are you okay??” shizuku exclaims, immediately getting out of her chair and running to her dresser where she keeps bandaids, before minori can even say a word.

“uh, shizuku,” minori starts, causing shizuku to pause her crazed movements, “i’m fine, don’t, uh, don’t worry about it.”

“no, no, you’re obviously not fine, let me take care of that! i have the perfect thing!”

“seriously, i’m oka-”

“nope, shhhh, here i got you a bandaid!” shizuku says, plopping the bandaid onto minori’s mutilated pinkie finger, before realizing all of minori’s other fingers suffered the same fate, “oh no! this is worse than i thought!”

“huh?” minori mumbles.

“you need to come with me!” shizuku exclaims, dragging minori along to her kitchen.

“uhm, shi, what are you doing?”

“making you soup silly, that always helps me heal from stuff, i think.”

minori laughs at shizuku’s antics, yet she still feels worried that her friend will find her ugly and repulsive because of her fingers.

“you, uh, don’t think that i’m ugly because of my fingers, right?” minori asks quietly, biting her finger in anticipation for the answer.

“nope,” shizuku responds, still focused on making the soup, “i’d never think of you as ugly, no one’s ugly, especially not you, you’re super pretty, don’t worry about that. anyone who calls you ugly is just wrong.”

hearing that from shizuku, the beauty queen herself, made minori feel a bit better about the monstrosity she called her fingers, “i… thanks, shi. i really appreciate that, you’re really pretty, too.”

shizuku turns around and smiles back at minori, before adding, “the soups almost ready, do you want some?”

“i don’t think that’ll fix my hands, shi…”

“it’s not meant to fix them minori, they don’t need to be fixed, i just wanted to stop the bleeding, silly.”

minori laughs at shizuku’s stupidity, yet she can’t help but feel like crying at what shizuku just said.

she always felt like her hands were something that needed to be fixed, but even shizuku, the most beautiful girl ever, didn’t see anything wrong with them. and maybe, just maybe, that could help minori realize that her hands are beautiful.

-

end <33

(also included some nd!shizuku undertones w her being hyperfixed on make-up)