Homecoming (Nao x Reika)

original

“She’s coming soon, Reika, relax!” Akane beamed, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet. She clapped the blue-haired girl on the back and sent her stumbling forward, much to her ire and nerves.

“I know, but I can’t help it,” Reika mumbled under her breath, regaining her footing. Brushing invisible specks of dust off of her uniform, she stood up a little straighter and held her head high. Her eyes darted around. “She’ll be here soon. Yes.”

“Akane’s right. Her flight just got in and she’ll be out here in no time,” Miyuki nodded. Akane caught her eye, and the two girls smiled brightly at one another. From the side, Yayoi edged into their circle and placed a placating hand on Reika’s shoulder, shyly giving a smile of her own.

“One month goes by quickly, but not quick enough,” Yayoi spoke, “right?”

“Yes,” Reika admitted. Her eyes did a sweep of the exit terminal again. Unbeknownst to her, her three friends were all giving each other mischievous, knowing glances.

“One month for a soccer training camp, and you’re already this clingy,” Akane gasped. “What are you going to do when Nao gets a boyfriend?” The hook did the trick, and Reika sank right for the bait.

“A boyfriend?” she hissed indignantly. “There’s a boy? She was seeing a boy?”

“No, no, you misunderstand. What are you going to do when she does get a boyfriend? Meaning in the future, not now,” Akane hastily corrected herself.

“Oh, well.” Reika flushed and refused to meet her friends’ eyes. “Ahem. I won’t do anything. Her romantic affairs are her own business.”

“Sure, sure,” Akane continued. “I’ll let her know that she has your approval then.”

“What?” Reika shrieked. “So there is a boy?”

“Akane, I really think you should stop now,” Miyuki whispered, nudging her friend’s side forcefully with her elbow. Yayoi nodded along with the advice.

“Hold on,” Akane whispered back, not moving her mouth. Turning back to the near panicked Reika, she held her hands up in surrender and grinned, her eyes darting over Reika’s shoulder and seeing familiar green hair. “If I told you there was a boy, what would you do?”

“I would-”

“What’s this about a boy?” a newcomer spoke up.

Eyes going impossibly wide, Reika whipped her head around and gasped at the sight that greeted her. Smiling brightly, eyes twinkling with amusement, her stature a little taller than the last time she saw her, was Nao, real, solid, and actually there, standing right in front of her.

She could have cried.

“Nao,” she mouthed, voice lost in the dizzying excitement upon seeing Nao. Nao in the flesh. Nao.

“Reika,” Nao greeted. “Hi.”

“Are you serious, a ‘hi’ is all she gets?” Akane muttered, ignored and forgotten along with everyone else. She watched as Nao bent down and scooped Reika into a bone-crushing hug, their faces mere inches apart, their expression intense. Then the raging passion faded just as quickly, and their eyes closed, the tension leaving them with a calm certainty. “Oh, that’s more like it,” Akane grinned and watched as their lips headed for a collision course.

“You think they realize other people are watching?”

“Nope. Noooope.”

Bleed Out (Nao x Reika)

original

“Nao!”

The scream tore through the air, piercing and heart-wrenching. Or rather, more accurately, as blood tore through flesh and inspired desperation. The thought caused a morbid, amused chuckle to escape through her dry lips, and she leaned against the wall of the school building and slid down to the ground, legs finally giving out.

“Nao! No!”

No, she wanted to say in return. I should be saying no. Don’t scream for me. It’s not that bad. But her lungs were tired, her mind was fading, and words could not escape from her throat.

“No. No. No. No–”

A trembling form disturbed the dirt between her legs, and the sound reached her ears and her eyes weakly fluttered open. She took in wide blue eyes, panicked, pained, wild with fear, and only managed to summon energy from some deep unknown abyss inside herself once she saw the tears.

Her jaw fell open, and she croaked, “It’s okay.” Dragging her arm up from her side, she laid a bloody hand on Reika’s cheek and gently brushed a few blue locks back behind delicate ears. “It’s okay. Shh.”

“It’s not,” Reika sobbed. She clutched Nao’s green vest, so familiar and so alien, alien because she had never seen it stained with red. Raw emotion pulsing through her veins, pupils shrunk so deeply in fear, she cried, “How can anything be okay when you’re hurt like this?”

“Everything is okay as long as you’re safe, Reika,” Nao smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. She wanted to put on a brave face, but god, her wounds hurt like hell and the blood was beginning to cake in her hair and down her forehead. Playing the martyr was supposed to be the epitome of being a hero, but it really, really sucked when it came right down to it.

“But how can I be okay when you’re not?” Reika whimpered. Warm wetness seeped through the green vest and dirtied her hands and sleeves, and the weight of finality set in her stomach. Too much blood had been lost. No one was around. There was no time. “How will I ever be able to be okay?” she whispered, and she stared deeply into Nao’s rapidly fading gaze.

“As long as you’re alive,” Nao wheezed out, her eyes open but nearly seeing nothing now, “you can learn to be okay. As long as you’re alive, fight. The others... should...”

“I understand.” Her forehead brushed against green bangs, and her eyes narrowed. “I understand, but I don’t think I can ever be okay without you.”

Her thumb caressed the skin under Reika’s eyes, and she spent the next few moments committing Reika’s beautiful visage, stricken as it was, to her mind. When she went out, she wanted to go out with love instead of pain. And so she asked, “Can you promise me one thing, then?”

Nodding, Reika fought to keep her lips from shaking.

“At least try for your chance at happiness,” Nao gasped out. “Just try.”

Their gazes locked, but Nao could not see anymore. Heart breaking, she let her tears fall, comforted that Nao couldn’t see her lose to her pain. With no strength left, she said, “I promise.”

Her hand fell to the ground with a quiet, final thud and stilled.

Don't Go (Nao x Reika)

original

“I’m sorry,” she hoarsely whispered, hot tears forming at the corner of her eyes. Refusing to let them fall, she clenched her jaw tight and squeezed her eyes shut, tilted her head down and breathed in deeply, took in the comforting smell of her friend and shuddered at the familiarity with which she recognized it.

“Nao.”

She swallowed. Reika never used honorifics with her name, and for a brief, horrifying moment, she thought she would hear one added on. Pause. Silence. Nothing. Comforting nothingness, and yet disturbing as well. “Yes?”

“You should let go,” Reika softly suggested. Nao only squeezed her arms tighter around the blue-haired girl, fidgeting with the tension in the muscle as she brought herself close but never touching her friend’s back. Too intimate. Entirely too intimate that way.

“Why?” she asked instead of obeying. Reika shifted slightly in an attempt to dislodge herself from Nao’s grip, but Nao was the athletic powerhouse, and Nao was the one who won the fight for physical dominance. Her embrace was iron. Unyielding, trapping and weighing her down. Warm iron. Heat radiating off her form, flexible and lithe.

“You know why,” Reika quietly spoke. She gave up her futile attempts to leave. Escape. “This won’t end well for anyone, Nao. No one at all.”

“I don’t care.” Her voice came out childish and whiny and immature and foolish and she cursed herself for never growing up when she could have. Growing up in the ways that counted, beyond taking care of her siblings and learning household chores and dealing with monsters and villains. Growing up everywhere but where it counted. She had never outgrown her feelings. “I don’t care.”

“Don’t.” Reika sucked in a hard breath. “Nao, don’t.”

She didn’t listen. Nao leaned her head in closer and laid her forehead to rest on soft blue hair and familiarity and memories of the days where all that mattered was having fun and seeing blue eyes and wide smiles. When being with her was enough. When feelings were simple and innocent. Voice shaking, mouth trembling, she said the only thing she could. “Please,” she softly, ever so softly, whispered.

Reika said nothing. Only heard the sound of Nao’s heart breaking behind her in the walls of hot iron.

She concentrated on keeping her own tears as silent as the ones dropping onto her neck.