22. Giggly kiss

Maybe it’s the champagne. She never realised she was such a lightweight before, though. Or maybe it’s Kotori, walking down the street beside her in the most simple yet stunning dress, her breathy laughter leaning on the wind itself.

So, then, maybe she’s just in love.

“Did you enjoy yourself, Maki-chan?” Kotori asks, eyes sparkling. There’s a slight slur to her voice she’s clearly trying hard to hide. “You don’t really go out much, except for work.”

“That was, technically, a work related party,” Maki can’t help but point out, “but I suppose I might’ve. Because you were there.”

“Oh, Maki!”

Maki catches Kotori as she trips over her shoe, and finds herself still holding her arm with no more reason to. “Kotori…” She begins, but then she’s lost in Kotori’s beautiful features and fuck it, she thinks, she loves her. She really does.

Kotori looks on in concern as Maki begins to laugh to herself. Maybe that’s the champagne kicking in. (It wouldn’t matter in the morning, anyway). And they begin to dance, actual ballroom dancing, both in dresses and heels and against the backdrop of a poorly lit convenience store and it’s so ridiculous that they’re both laughing and giggling like fools.

“I feel so stupid right now,” Maki says with a wry grin.

“But you look beautiful.” Says Kotori with clarity that wasn’t there earlier, and Maki knows she’s serious.

“I love you,” she blurts out suddenly, and they stop, but before Maki’s addled brain has time to be nervous, Kotori giggles and pulls her down and they’re kissing, and laughing, but mostly kissing. They laugh because they’d both been agonisingly slow and unsure, but it was over just like that. No hoorah, nothing more than a sloppy, giggly kiss in a most inappropriate place.