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“Ruby? Ah, Ruby, don’t be scared, it’s just me! It’s your sister, it’s Dia!” Ruby didn’t answer, she buried her head even further into her tiny knees and kept crying her heart out. The darkness she was in was scary and the voices surrounding her wouldn’t stop screaming. She wanted it all to stop, she wanted the world to just stop.
“Ruby. Shhh. it’s okay.” Somehow Dia had managed to wiggle herself into the tiny space Ruby was hiding and wrap her arms around the girl. Ruby threw her arms around her sister and started soaking her shirt with tears.
The adults don’t know what they’re talking about, you’re fine as you are. You don’t have to change for anyone. You’re amazing as you are.”
“A-Are you sure about that? I-I’m not as good or strong as you! M-Mom and dad say so too! They always want me to be more like y-you!”
Ruby. I love you as you are. But just remember something, okay?” Ruby leaned back so she could look Dia into the eyes.
“If you’re passionate about something, whether that’s getting stronger or being good at something, don’t ever let that go.” Dia leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her sister’s forehead. Ruby seemed to calm down a little at that. After a few, deep shaky breaths, she spoke again.
"O-Oneechan, will you help me with something then?”
“What is it?”
“Will you help me cut my hair?”
Kanan never really saw the point of going to school. Even now, as Mari dragged her to school reluctantly, she wished she could just go back to bed or get some ice cream instead. She didn’t like school, she didn’t like that her fate was decided from the get-go. She wasn’t going to be some amazing scientist, she didn’t have the brains for that. She was athletic and great at diving, but that ended when she moved into a dorm, all to be away from her parents. She did miss diving a lot.“How does it feel to finally be going to school on time? On the first day too.” Mari started a grin on her features.“Awful,” Kanan replied, giving Mari a nasty glare while she continued walking.“I want to go home and sleep the day away,” She sighed, pushing her hands into her pockets. She hadn’t bothered bringing her bag, what was the point anyway? Not like she was going to use anything in it.“Now remind me why you had to wake me up again?”“There’s someone I want you to meet today, it’s her first day at Uranohoshi and I know you’ll just love her! It will be like love at first sight! Ah, youth is so shiny~”Kanan shot another nasty glare at her, nearly grabbing her tie and sending her flying. This woman was way too much, way too extra for her own good. Someone was going to kill her for it one day.“Is that so..?” Kanan said with a scoff. She folded her arms behind her head and chuckled in Mari’s direction. “Love and I aren’t the best friends. I’m not interested, this girl of yours won’t change my mind or behavior if that’s what you’re trying to win from me.”But that stupid mischievous grin never left Mari’s face, it only grew wider with each word Kanan said. The blonde skipped forward, turned around and put a finger to her own lips. She let out a soft laugh. “Oh really, do you want to bet? I think this girl is going to change your life forever. She is that good.”“Sure. What do you want to bet on?” Kanan said, stopping and pushing her hands into the pockets of her skirt. She thought her best friend had completely lost it. Mari knew her, Mari knew she always rejected the girls around her, Mari knew she never went out with anyone before and that she wasn’t interested in love. So why was she so obsessed with this supposed new girl?“I’m saying you’ll propose to her within seven years time. You’ll do it in such a romantic way, she’ll start crying and then you’ll start crying too, just a little. You try to hide it, but she finds out and says you’re silly and that she loves you very much.”Kanan rolled her eyes.“How much are we betting again?” “Three thousand yen.”“That’s a small amount for such a big bet, you not in it for the money I assume.” That only earned Kanan a finger gun from Mari.“Anyway, can we just meet this girl now? I want to see what the fuss is about.”“If you hurry your shiny~ legs along to the entrance ceremony, yes!”“Why are we friends again?”Mari didn’t answer, the two of them simply continued walking down the path and towards the school gates. Before them stood the giant brown building, decorated entirely for the entrance ceremony. There were balloons and slingers just about everywhere. Already there were people outside trying to recruit the new students to their club. Kanan never could get used to the chaos, she didn’t like crowds and the first day was the worst .“Where is this girl of yours Mari?”“Just a little farther.” She replied.Kanan, however, came face-to-face with a group of third-year students who were looking at her excitedly. Kanan let out a heavy sigh and continued walking, trying to ignore them completely.Kanan pushed herself past the group of students, the boys called after her and even tried to shove a flyer into Kanan’s face. It was the stupid swim team, that was trying to recruit her, like they did every year. It didn’t matter how much she struggled to get away from them, they had surrounded her, with one girl standing right in front of her: You Watanabe, her childhood friend.“Kanan-chan, come on, everyone knows you’re perfect for the swim team!” The grey-haired girl said. The girl rolled up one of the flyers and stuck it into Kanan’s skirt pocket.“Please consider it at least. It won’t hurt you.”“You know I’m not interested in this, why do you continue to torment me? I just want to be left alone.”Kanan wanted to pull it out of her skirt and throw it on the ground, stomping on it a bunch of times. Why was You torturing her like this? She knew Kanan’s reason for not joining, she knew why Kanan was so miserable these days, so why? Why was she so considerate.Kanan rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. There was no point arguing over this, You was a stubborn girl.“I’ll consider it.”She said, before pushing past You, shoulder brushing against hers. You seemed to have a smile on her face, but Kanan was far from smiling. She simply continued towards the entrance. Once she arrived there, however, she realized she had lost her annoying blonde friend completely. The rich girl had probably been dragged off somewhere by the ‘prep’ club, which was just an anime club in disguise. Knowing Mari, she had fallen headfirst into their trap.Kanan made her way inside of the building and went to the nearest vending machine, she fished a coin out of her pocket and pushed it in the machine. She ticked in the number on the side and waited for her coffee to come out. Unlucky for her, she got hit by the good old ‘my order gets stuck in the machine’ cliché. She watched as her coffee was about to fall, only for it to get pushed against the window of the vending machine and be stuck against it.“Damn it!” She slammed her fist into the vending machine a bunch of times to see if her coffee would lose balance and fall, but it didn’t. Just another case of terrible luck in action. She sighed and hung her head.She pushed her hands into the pockets of her skirt and turned to walk in the direction of the gym. She was so down about a goddamn can of coffee that she walked right into a lost first year, you know like you see in all those romantic cliché movies. Anyway, the two collided and the first year dropped her bag on the floor by accident.“I-I’m sorry I-I was just spacing out I-I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble!!!” She exclaimed, upon which Kanan frowned. The third-year kneeled down and started collecting the books, forcefully pushing them back into the girl’s bag.“Don’t apologize when you’ve done nothing wrong. I just walked into you that’s all.” Kanan held out the girls bag for her, only now getting a good look at her. She had bright red hair tied into pigtails, she was shorter than her and had bright emerald eyes which reminded Kanan of clear waters on a tropical island. She smirked at the other girl.“Name’s Kanan, you are?”“R-Ruby Kurosawa! I-It’s nice to meet you!”Kanan clicked her tongue and pushed her hands back into the pockets of her skirt when she got the chance to - got to keep up the tough act.“Hey Ruby-chan, you wouldn’t happen to have a 500 yen coin you could miss?” Ruby didn’t know how she ended up sitting next to the school’s most famous delinquent, but she somehow did. So here she was sitting, next to Kanan Matsuura, with a can of coffee in her hand she didn’t really ask for. Her sister had explicitly told her not to hang out with delinquents, and especially not Kanan, but somehow she was hanging out exactly with that person.“So this is your first day, huh?”“Y-Yeah! M-My sister goes to school here too! I-I don’t know if you’ve met her?” Ruby played nervously with her hair, but Kanan didn’t even seem to pay attention to it. She leaned back against the bench and just took a few more sips of her coffee.“Kurosawa Dia, right? She’s student council president. She causes me more than a few headaches. She and that girlfriend of hers. Heh.” Kanan tossed the now empty can into a nearby trash can. She scooted closer to Ruby, a plan already brewing in her head.“You’re cute though. Let me borrow some money too. I already like you more than your sister.” Kanan teased, rubbing her shoulder against Ruby’s slightly. Ruby felt a bit uncomfortable, so she shifted away slightly.“Oh, I’ll give you your money back tomorrow. Come to my classroom, okay? I should be there. Maybe.” Kanan got up from the bench and waved at Ruby, leaving without another word.Ruby sat there, dumbstruck by all that had just happened.Ruby didn’t know for what reason she did actually go to her sister’s classroom. Most of her upperclassmen would think she was just there for her sister, but Ruby knew the truth - she was there for Kanan, and nobody else. Even if she didn’t want to admit it.Once she arrived there, however, Kanan wasn’t there like she said she would be. She was nowhere to be found. According to Mari-senpai she wasn’t in the last period and had instead headed over to the swimming pool. She said something about Kanan wanting to be there before the swimming team got there, indicating that she probably wasn’t at the pool anymore either.Most people would turn tail and head home, but something compelled Ruby to keep looking for Kanan. Perhaps it was the rebellious spirit that Kanan put up, the bravery that Kanan showed in disobeying the rules and just doing whatever she wanted to do, perhaps that excited Ruby. So, was it that Ruby just liked being around her for the thrill?Her heart started pounding faster when she thought of how Kanan might take her hand during class and just drag her away from all her worries and concerns, but Ruby knew that wouldn’t happen. Kanan wasn’t interested in her. Currently, Kanan was only interested in her money, quite literally.She arrived at the dorm room she had gotten from Mari and knocked on the door a couple of time. She stood there for what felt like a century, just fiddling with her tie and adjusting her skirt just that tiny bit to look perfect. After all, she didn’t want to leave a bad impression on Kanan, not like before.She was so distracted she didn’t even see Kanan open the door and frown at her.“Ruby-chan? What are you doing here? How did you even get my room number?” Kanan stood there for a good few seconds, in front of a dazed and nervous Ruby. Eventually, she started waving her hand in front of the other girl’s face.“Hello?!? Earth to Ruby-chan, can you hear me?” Kanan sighed and then softly hit the top of Ruby’s head. The girl finally snapped out of it. She stepped back as her cheeks flushed a bright red color. “I-I’m sorry! P-Please don’t hurt me!”Kanan sighed again, stepping back into her room and leaving the door open, silently inviting Ruby to come in. Ruby was a little dumbstruck for a while but eventually stepped in. She closed the door behind her.Kanan’s dorm was a mess. There were trash bags in the corner that had clearly been there for a while, the only thing stopping them from filling the room with stink was an air freshener in the corner. Kanan’s books were spread over her desk and books from her second-year were pushed below her bed and forgotten about.Posters on the wall were coming off and clothes were thrown around, both dirty and clean were scattered around the floor. The table in the middle of the room was filled with empty ramen cups. Ruby was quite disgusted, but more so confused. Kanan always seemed so confident and organized, as if she knew better than everyone else so why is she so messy? “You just going to stand there or…?”Kanan cleaned the table a bit by tossing all the cups in a trash bag and abandoning it in the corner of the room.“So, why are you here? Did Mari set you up..?” Ruby hesitantly took a seat at the table. She didn’t want to look like she was judging the state of the room too much, but it was pretty apparent she did. Kanan bit her lip when Ruby looked at her, yet didn’t say anything.“N-Not really. You told me to come look for you after class, remember? You were gonna give me back the 500 y-yen you borrowed?” Ruby looked away from Kanan’s gaze. I shouldn’t have come here. It’s just 500 yen. Kanan blinked a couple of times then got up from where she was sitting. She went over to a shelf and removed a dolphin-like piggy bank. Opening up the bottom, she got a few coins out before putting it back on the shelf and returning to where she had been sitting. She dropped a number of coins on the table and pushed them towards the other girl.“There ya go, with some interest. Thank you very much.” Kanan winked at her before sitting down again in front of her.Ruby got the coins and rushed to her feet again. She wanted to leave. She didn’t want things to get uncomfortable or awkward, especially not the person she looked up to. Wait, what am I saying? Why am I being polite to a delinquent? “I-I should probably go now. I-I don’t want to bother you or anything.” Actually, Ruby felt like she had already made the situation awkward.“Ah no, it’s fine. I’m sorry I didn’t wait like you promised. I’m sure you can see yourself out.” Ruby gave her a slight nod and turned on her heel. As soon as she reached the door and had the handle in her hand though, she stopped.
“Kanan-chan always goes to the swimming pool before classes end so she can be by herself. Nobody really questions it. But, you should ask her about it. Maybe she’ll open up a little to you! She’s not as bad as people think!”
“Kanan-senpai?” Ruby heard shuffling behind her a little. She didn’t turn around yet, but she guessed Kanan sat down on her bed.“Hmm? What is it?”Ruby turned again and looked at her senior. Her hand was shaking and her heart pounding eighty miles per hour, but it was now or never. Mari-senpai said she could help Kanan-senpai, so it was at least worth a try, right?“Why aren’t you joining the swim team? I mean, you visit the swimming pool a lot, don’t you? So, why aren’t you joining? Mari-senpai says you love swimming!” Ruby even gestured at the posters on the walls that were barely hanging from tape.“I mean, those posters are either from famous Japanese swimmers or aquatic life, you must have some interest or background with swimming, right?” After finishing her question that had practically turned into a lecture, she felt her heart sink down into her stomach. She had gone waaaaay too far. Kanan was going to actually kill her.However, when Ruby actually looked up at Kanan’s face, she had a rather bittersweet smile on her face. She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head and folded her legs so so that she could sit on them. “Mari told you about that huh? That girl never gives me a break...”Kanan looked back at Ruby and crooked her head a little, gesturing at the table and that she should sit down. Ruby took the hint and moved back to where she had sat - only this time - she also put down her bag and folded her legs in the same manner Kanan had just done.“I don’t tell a lot of people since nobody really asks me about it, but…” Kanan paused and let out another sigh. She seemed to be very tired, very tired of a lot of things.“...I used to be on the team in the first team. We were pretty good too, we made it to regionals with no problem. People said I was the fresh blood the team needed, the star of the team. Everyone praised me a lot and I felt like I was on top of the world. I had a plan for the future and I was loved. We were on our way to nationals”“And then…?”“The worst-case scenario happened.” Ruby let out a gasp instinctively. Her eyes followed Kanan’s gaze to one of the posters on the wall, or well, where one would have been. The marks of tap were on the wall, but the poster had quite clearly been torn-off. Ruby wondered if it was a picture or a poster of someone she admired.“....My parents and I got into a fight about my future in the morning before I left for nationals. I told them I wanted to be an athlete and swim the relay for the national swim team. My dad was furious. He said I should work towards taking over the diving shop, to continue the legacy previous generations had started. I told him a diving shop wasn’t much of a legacy at all. He lost his mind.”Kanan’s breathing was shaky and she was gripping onto the bed sheets.“He hit me and I stumbled backward over a chair onto the ground. It’s no problem right, you think my body could take something like that after all the training, right? I thought so too, but I was unlucky. In the bus to the hotel, we would be staying at, my ankle kept on hurting really bad. I thought it would fade after I walked on it for a little, but it never did.”Kanan got up from her bed and shuffled through the contents of her desk a little. Eventually, she came towards Ruby and placed a folded newspaper in front of her. Ruby picked it up“Anchor at nationals: Kanan Matsuura, star of the Uranohoshi swim team, nearly drowns”Ruby looked back up at Kanan with wide eyes.“Are you an idiot?!?”Kanan looked a bit startled at Ruby’s reaction. She sat back down on the bed and held her hands up defensively. “Maybe a little but eh-”“Who goes swimming with a sprained ankle?!? Are you completely out of your mind?!? You could have died! ”“B-But I didn’t want to let my team down and all-”“OH! Because drowning at nationals is a good way to not let your team down!” Ruby spat out the words as if they meant nothing. She didn’t know when it happened, but she had gained an enormous amount of confidence. Maybe because she realized Kanan wasn’t so hot as she thought and was just a jerk who was feeling bad for herself.“And so what? You just quit the team because you screwed up once? Because your parents didn’t want you anymore? Wasn’t that the only thing you had going for you, your dream? Your passion? You just abandon that?!?” Ruby sucked in a breath and gritted her teeth.Kanan looked like she was about to cry, obviously the words stung quite a bit. She let herself fall back down on her bed, staring at the ceiling.“You’re never going to achieve anything just feeling sorry for yourself! That’s not how this works! That’s not how life works! If you’re passionate about something, don’t just give up on it!” Ruby continued her rant, even as she saw that Kanan’s chest started heaving and she felt tears form in the corners of her own eyes.“Life isn’t simple, but we always have people we can rely on. I’m sure even you have someone.” Ruby wiped the tears from her eyes and swallowed back the lump forming in her throat. She didn’t know why she got so heated. She knew it was a sensitive subject for her but…“I don’t have anyone! Not my parents, not my friends, I have no one to rely on!”“You have me!” Ruby spat out subconsciously.“Wait- uh. I didn’t mean- wait…” Ruby stumbled over her words and nervously played with her skirt again, all the confidence sinking down into her stomach again. She, a first-year, who Kanan barely knew, was really not who she needed.“Then…” Ruby heard more shuffling and looked back up at Kanan’s face. She saw her senior swallow hard.“.....Will you help me?”“Yes.” Perhaps that left Ruby’s mouth a bit quicker than she would have liked.That same afternoon, Kanan and Ruby made their way to the dorm of Kanan’s old friend, You Watanabe. They had sat around the table in You’s room and the three had discussed the situation. In the end, Kanan decided to join the swim team again and would be introduced to the other members the next day.The two of them didn’t really know how it happened, but they started getting closer and closer every single day. Ruby visited Kanan at swim practice to see how she was doing. Some of the members Kanan was on the swim team within her first year were still there, and they accepted her with open arms. Kanan seemed really happy and Ruby had to admit, it made her smile too.“Hey, Kanan-chan?”“Yeah? What is it?” She said, changing out of her swimsuit and tossing it on the nearby bench, which made Ruby blush and look away from her.“Mari is going to have a party soon at her hotel, I was just wondering if you were going too?”“Ah that? I heard about that but I’m not sure I’m going. I’m not the party type.” Kanan stuffed her swimsuit into her towel and then into her bag. She slipped her shirt over her head once she was done putting her underwear on and turned to Ruby.“O-Oh. I was thinking of going actually. I wish you could come too. I’m going to be a little nervous about all the business people that are going to be coming.” Kanan blinked a little and then gasped.“Oh yeah, of course. It’s a business thing. Your parents forcing you to go or something? So you can find the ‘one’ for you?”“Something like that.” Kanan smacked her locker shut a little too hard at that. She had just been joking around but apparently, her guess had been spot on. She turned to Ruby again and folded her arms. “Fine. I’ll go. Someone needs to keep an eye on you and keep you safe.”“R-Really?!?” Ruby seemed more than a little excited over that. Her eyes were sparkling like stars in the night sky and she took Kanan’s hands in her own. “Will you really do that for me?”“Y-Yes, I said so, didn’t I?”“Ah! Thank you Kanan-chan! Thank you, thank you!” Ruby was so happy she grabbed her bag from the bench, threw it over her shoulder and speeded out of the changing room while yelling something along the lines of ‘I’ll see you tomorrow!”And Kanan was left wondering when exactly the party was again.“Tell me, Kanan, why are you so nervous? It’s not your party. Ruby only asked you to come because she didn’t want to be alone. Hey! She could have just hung with me! How dare she! Hmph, I feel offended!” Mari pouted and folded her arms across her chest. She was wearing a pink dress that made a v-line right at her chest, exposing most of her cleavage. The bottom of the dress was covered in glitters. Very ‘shiny’ as she would put it.“She probably just doesn’t want to hang out with a loud-mouth like you all night. She prefers someone quieter, like me. Heh. Anyway, I’m not nervous at all!” Kanan was wearing the complete opposite. She was wearing beige dress pants with a matching waistcoat. The tie around her neck was grey and she had abandoned the grey jacket because of the rather hot temperature.“Besides, you’re gonna be busy talking to business partners like your parents want. Ruby doesn’t want that, she just wants to have some fun and dance. No wonder she asked me to come, nobody here thinks much of me. Even if they had interest in my father’s diving shop, it’s not like I’m going to be running it in the future.” Kanan laughed and pushed her hands into the pockets of her dress pants.“Anyway, shouldn’t you be getting out there? Ruby might be here any second now. You shouldn’t leave her waiting.” Kanan chuckled and raised her eyebrows.“You’re right. I should go find my guardian angel.”“Damn, you’re really making it sound like you have a crush on her. Maybe I’ll actually win my bet~”Kanan laughed more, waving her hand dismissively as she walked out the room.“Yeah, right. We’ll see about that.” Kanan had to admit, her heart was pounding out of her chest and she was quite nervous about seeing Ruby. What was she wearing? Would she like the waistcoat Kanan was wearing? Or would she prefer seeing Kanan in a dress too? I’m getting way too worked up about this. She was so dazed she didn’t even see Ruby come in through the front door and skip towards her. She, instead, was looking at a flower in a plant, which seemed to be the most interesting thing on the planet to Kanan right now. Ruby simply sighed and waved her hand in front of Kanan’s face. “Hello, earth to Kanan-chan? Kanan-chan, can you hear me?”Eventually, the older girl snapped out of it. She stepped back, startled by Ruby’s sudden appearance and swallowed hard. Ruby looked….she looked so…!! Oh my god I’m gay. Unlike Mari’s dress, Ruby’s looked a lot more natural. It was something that you could wear to a birthday party, but it wasn’t out of place at this formal party either. It looked cute, but also strangely elegant as it hugged Ruby’s waist. The necklace around Ruby’s neck and the small rings hanging from her ears also stood out. Kanan was practically hit by a wave of gayness.Ruby, however, already had Kanan’s tie in her hand and pulling at it slightly. Kanan got slight subconscious about her appearance right there, but Ruby put her at ease. “You look really handsome in this. You should wear it more often. It shows off your muscle too.”She said all of the pretty confidently, but she had a bright red blush on her face and giggled a little. She patted Kanan’s tie a little before letting go and stepping away. The both of them just looked at each other for a second, smiling and feeling content. The room they were in, however, was starting to get filled with all kinds of people.Kanan kept close to Ruby and even took her hand to make sure she wouldn’t lose her in the crowd. Ruby did the same, clinging to Kanan’s arm as if they were a couple. Really, all it did, was make both of them blush a lot more. When one of the people passing by asked them why their faces were so red they blamed it on the temperature.They found a place in the large room that wasn’t filled with a lot of people and both of them let out a deep sigh, falling back onto chairs that were unoccupied. After a while, a waiter came over to them and they both took a glass from the tray. Kanan instantly took a sip, which she regretted, because the liquid inside was bitter and burned her throat. The smell made her slightly dizzy for some reason. Ruby, simply laughed seeing Kanan’s reaction and had a sip of the drink herself, though she did it a lot more gracefully.A man was coming in there direction, two men actually. An older man and his son. Ruby instantly got to her feet and bowed her head and Kanan hastily got to her feet to do the same. She took a step closer to Ruby. She was rather suspicious of these two.The man started a whole conversation about being glad to see the Kurosawa family at the party once again, which reminded Kanan that Dia, Ruby’s older sister, was nowhere to be found. Instinctively she grabbed Ruby’s hand and slid her fingers between hers. The scenario would be romantic if Ruby wasn’t so damn nervous. What does this guy want? “My son here is right about your age, I was wondering if you would like to spend the rest of the party getting to know him?”Ruby let out a sheepish chuckle and started to step back slightly. She was clearly uncomfortable but the man kept insisting.“A-Ah no. I-I would not like to. I-I think I gotta go now, somebody is calling me.” Ruby stepped back and looked at Kanan. Kanan nodded her head and pulled her towards her slightly. The man, however, grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him again.Kanan gave the man a dead glare, wrapped her arm around Ruby’s waist and pulled her flush against her chest. Her grip on the girl’s waist only tightened when the man glared at her. She simply kept glaring back at him. “She’s mine. I’m dating her already and I love her very much if you haven’t noticed. She isn’t interested in your son or his stupid haircut. Just leave us the fuck alone.”“Kanan-chan please get me out of here,” Ruby whispered against her. Kanan nodded her head and took her hand, quickly dragging the girl through the crowd and all the way outside. It had gotten dark and the stars were illuminating the night sky. Kanan was about to stop when Ruby dragged her even further into the garden of the hotel.The two went all the way to a hill behind the hotel, a hill covered in grass and looking over the beach below them. Ruby took off her shoes and Kanan did the same, not wanting any grass to dirty them. They cost half a fortune after all.“Mari-chan used to take my sister and I here. I remember we watched the stars and we passed out here a lot. The hotel staff always came to pick us up and put us to bed after. It was a bit weird to pass out at one place and then wake up at another, truly magical.”Ruby moved a hand through her hair and watched the beach below them. Her dress and hair were being blown back by the soft breeze of the wind. Kanan just stared at her in awe, absolutely hypnotized by her beauty. Her eyes were sparkling brighter than the stars in the sky above them. All she could think about was Ruby. Even the distant music faded away and the only thing she continued to hear was the fast pounding of her heart.“Kanan-chan, let’s dance!” Ruby took her hand in her own quickly while the other was placed on her shoulder. Instinctively, Kanan placed a hand on her waist and moved with her. She wasn’t much of lead, so she just let Ruby dance her around. She did get more daring though, even spinning Ruby around a couple of times as they danced. The two started giggling and even moved closer to each other the more they danced until Kanan was fully leading.A slow song came along and Ruby leaned in to rest her head on Kanan’s shoulder. The two slowly moved around in a comfortable silence. Kanan could feel Ruby’s warm breath tickling her neck and honestly, she didn’t quite mind. It made her heart and temperature rise a lot though, she wondered if Ruby could notice.“Hey, Kanan-chan? Thanks for helping me back there. I was really nervous, I thought he was going to do something to me.”“That’s okay. You looked really uncomfortable and I said I would protect you, didn’t I? I say that situation fit my job description pretty well.” Kanan giggled a little. Ruby’s face was probably so kissable right now...she wondered what her lips tasted like.“No, Seriously, thank you. I don’t know what would have happened if you weren’t there but….”“But what…?”“....About what you said back there. Your feelings about me….were those all fake too, or were any of them real?” Ruby pulled away slightly so she could look into Kanan’s amethyst eyes. The two were quiet again, which was a bit awkward at first.Kanan tensed up a lot, her chest feeling a lot heavier than it did before. She swallowed hard and just spit it all out right there, hoping that Ruby would return her feelings in some way or another and that she wasn’t just in over her head.“I-I’ve liked you for a while. Ever since you helped me with the swim team and then homework...and you started talking to me and hanging out with me...it all made me really happy. My chest pounds out of my chest whenever I am around you, even now, my heart feels like it’s going to combust!” Kanan’s entire face was red again, like at the party before. She was biting her lips slightly and holding onto Ruby tighter than she was before.Ruby blinked a good amount of times before letting out a soft giggle. “You’re so cute.”Kanan was about to say that Ruby was a lot cuter than she would ever be, but she didn’t get the chance to. Ruby leaned in quickly and firmly planted her lips over her own dry ones. Ruby’s arms around Kanan’s neck gripped her waistcoat softly and Kanan’s hands held onto Ruby’s dress as they kissed. Even as they parted, Kanan simply moved in to kiss Ruby again quickly, not wanting the taste of Ruby’s lips to fade from her memory.“That was- wooah.” Kanan broke the silence after they parted again. Ruby simply giggled again, resting her head on Kanan’s shoulder once more.Then, as if hit by a sudden realization, she pulled away from Kanan and playfully hit her chest.“You never did compliment my appearance! Even after I called you handsome, Ohoho Kanan Matsuura, you are so ruuude~” Ruby chuckled softly.“I mean- ah- I-”“What? Does my hair look too messy after all the dancing we just did? Or do you want me to put on my shoes and leave again? Huh?”“No uh-”“Hmm…??”Kanan took a deep breath. She pulled away slightly from Ruby so they were eye-to-eye again. She leaned down to push their foreheads together with a confident smile on her face.“You look perfect.” Damn that Mari and her stupid bets. It seems I’m actually going to be owing that woman 3000 yen.