Work Text:
Misaki’s feet are killing her as she twists the key into the lock, stumbling into the tiny apartment once the lock gives way. It’s a testament to how tired she is, that she fumbles with the door before managing to relock it behind her. Three days of late night classes are taking its toll on her mental and physical health, and Misaki’s literally aching to collapse in bed, bury her face in Hagumi’s nape, and tangle her legs together with her girlfriend’s. Fueled by that thought, Misaki whirls around from the door, having successfully fastened it, and pauses.
She blinks blearily. Something’s… different from the usual.
Misaki’s tired eyes scan the living room, before finally laying on the hallway. Its usually plain and drab walls are somehow absolutely covered in tiny post-its, the neon colours of pink, blue, green and yellow a far cry from its usual boring whitish-beige, making Misaki’s head ache slightly with its clashing colours. Curiosity now piqued, Misaki slips off her worn sneakers and dumps her bag unceremoniously to the floor, and pads over to the wall.
On closer inspection, Misaki’s eyes widen as she realises each and every one of these post-its have Hagumi’s messy scrawl on them, handwriting she’s gotten accustomed to over the years, and had become almost endearing, letters big and loopy whilst crammed together to become almost illegible. As she gets closer, one of the post-its peeling off the wall flutters to the floor, and Misaki squats to pick it up, squinting to decipher it with the help of the light from the living room. Despite her fatigue, she feels her heart squeeze at the words on the paper, cheeks warming as Misaki’s lips curl upwards in a small smile.
Don’t give up, Mii-kun!! Hagumi believes in you!!! ☆☆
Squeezed into the margins, there’s a tiny doodle of Hagumi herself, with a ton of tiny hearts around her head as she beams up at Misaki. It’s endearing, sweet, and so, so Hagumi, Misaki can’t help but grin dumbly. As Misaki sticks the post-it back onto the wall, smoothening the top part against the surface with her thumb, she realises every single post-it on the wall is written in the same manner, with encouragements, and tiny doodles at the side. She spots a yellow post-it that says Fight on!!!! with many crude imitations of the muscle emoji and a softball doodled at the side, and another blue one that says Mii-kun’s sooo hardworking, it’ll definitely pay off in the end!! ♡ and yet another (a green one) that says Hagumi’s your number one fan!! and so on, and so on.
Each one fills Misaki with an inexplicable warmth, almost erasing her tiredness as she reads each carefully crafted post-it, a soft smile playing on her lips. She spots a post-it with a doodle of herself, another with a drawing of Michelle, yet another tiny Doodle-Hagumi, and of course innumerous hearts and stars and shapes. It’s clear how much time , effort and thought Hagumi’s put into each one, with drawings and words crammed into each post-it until there’s barely any space left. As Misaki slowly makes her way down the corridor, the post-its start branching out in topics, ranging from how Hagumi’s day went (She drew a dog that she met that day, claiming it reminded her of Misaki), to all the things she loved about Misaki (an eternal list that never seemed to end).
Hagumi loves the way that Mii-kun holds her hand and looks away all embarrassedly!! (A small drawing trying to depict Misaki hiding her face behind her cap. Emphasis on trying.)
Today, I met Kaa-kun at the store!! We rode on the shopping trolleys until we got kicked out!! Hagumi wishes you had been there... (A small drawing of mini Kasumi and Hagumi riding a shopping trolley, crashing into a pyramid of soup cans.)
Oh oh!! Hagumi also loves how Mii-kun does her best to make everyone smile in her own way, while being all kind and sincere and waah!!! (Tiny drawings of all the members in Harohapi. Misaki can tell where she realised she didn’t have enough space, as seen by the significantly smaller Michelle, squeezed right beneath Kaoru, and the hastily scribbled apology to Michelle just beside. Almost as if to make up to it, Hagumi used one whole post-it to draw a very large Michelle, just to the left.)
Hagumi loves Mii-kun’s laugh, it’s all soft and huffy and she ducks her head down when she does it to try and hide it because she’s embarrassed, but Hagumi always notices how soft her eyes are!! It makes me all warm and sparkly inside!! (A bunch of hearts and sparkles around the last sentence. At that one, Misaki’s ears pink a little, and she catches herself doing the exact thing Hagumi described. She’s never realised that Hagumi noticed so many small things about her, and the thought makes Misaki’s insides curl up warmly.)
As Misaki makes her way down the hallway, slowly but surely, she eventually finds the culprit, who is of course none other than her girlfriend, still sprawled all over the floor, orange tousled hair all over her face, scribbling on a purple post-it, tongue poking out in concentration, the floor littered with used post-it pads and pens. Misaki can’t help but take in the sight for a moment. Listening closely, Misaki realises she’s humming Sekai Nobbinobi Treasure under her breath as she happily draws another Misaki.
Hagumi’s also very much not in bed, and it’s long past midnight.
“Hagumi,” Misaki whispers softly, yet enough for her to startle. “You have softball practice tomorrow mornin—”
Her sentence is unfortunately cut short as Hagumi scrambles to her feet, eyes sparkling in joy as she beams happily, feet pounding on the lousy flooring with each step, before launching her entire body at Misaki, who isn’t exactly physically capable of holding her weight right now. They both go down, Hagumi giggling as all the air in Misaki’s lungs rush out in a gasp, and they land unceremoniously on the floor, Hagumi’s arms encircling Misaki’s waist tightly. It’s awful, and perhaps years ago she’d have complained and grumbled and pushed Hagumi off in frustration, but now Misaki merely huffs out a laugh and sweeps Hagumi’s overgrown fringe out of her eyes, before gently pressing a soft kiss onto her forehead.
“Mii-kun!! You’re back!!”
“...Yeah, I’m back. Shouldn’t you be… in bed? You’re going to be all tired tomorrow morning, y’know?” Misaki mumbles as her fingers thread themselves through Hagumi’s hair, as natural as breathing, and listens to Hagumi hum in contentment.
“Well, yeah but—” Hagumi snuggles into the crook of Misaki’s shoulder, before looking up with the most blinding smile, bright enough to light up a thousand suns, or at least help Misaki forget the horrible kinks in her neck. “—once I got started, I just couldn’t stop, and before I knew it you were home!”
“Ah, yeah, about that—” Misaki clears her throat, and looks around her in slight awe and wonder. Hagumi really… did that. Put the pen to paper, and bared all her feelings and thoughts out for Misaki to see. Just thinking about all the things she wrote fills Misaki with sunshine to the her fingertips. She’s never felt this… how do you say…
Loved. She’s never felt this loved. Misaki’s overcome with an overpowering waterfall of some unspeakable emotion, her breath catches in her throat and she finds herself squeezing Hagumi just a smidge tighter. It’s reminiscent of the time they just started going out, this dizziness and overwhelming urge to express how much she appreciates Hagumi. However, words and emotions never seem to want to cooperate with Misaki, and she finds all the sentiments she wants to convey at the tip of her tongue, just out of reach.
Suddenly, Hagumi gasps, slight panic in her eyes, as she sits up in earnest.
“Ah—! Hagumi actually made a mess didn’t she… Sorry, I know you don’t like to clean up after me and these are all gonna fall off onto the floor and—”
“Hey… hey, no— I’m not mad at all—” Misaki frantically searches for Hagumi’s hand, squeezing it when she finds it, and fixes her with hopefully the softest, most comforting look she can muster. She swallows. “Instead I’m kinda th-the opposite? I’m just really… taken aback and I can’t believe you stayed up and did this all for me and—” Misaki forcefully cuts off her rambling to trail featherlight kisses down Hagumi’s crease of worry, before pecking her quickly on the lips, cheeks burning. She knows she’s never this affectionate, and Misaki hopes it helps to alleviate some of Hagumi’s panic.
She takes in another breath, and scratches the back of her neck, before blurting out, “I uh… really like it, and… I’m really touched?”
Hagumi pauses for a moment, before breaking into another huge grin.
“Well, yeah! Hagumi loves Mii-kun so much, see? I just wanted to make sure you knew, because you’ve been all stressed and tired, and Hagumi just wants to help!”
And Misaki’s heart seizes, because god, she really does, Hagumi loves her so much , and Misaki just can’t find the words to express her gratitude and love back. She’s always been more reliant on small gestures to convey her soft and ardent affection, but how’s she meant to upstage this? Misaki knows it isn’t exactly a competition, but she’s really hating her inability to make words work right now.
God, her palms are all sweaty again, and Hagumi’s looking up at her in such adoration and love, almost as if slightly expectant.
“Hagumi, I—” Of course her voice decides to crack now, of course— “—I love you… too?” She curls her fingers around Hagumi’s wrist, and prays that Hagumi understands the magnitude of her emotions behind the statement. The multitude of emotions and feelings that the three simple words seem to merely gloss over, and Misaki hates that she can’t express everything in full detail.
Hagumi blinks owlishly, before a pretty pink flush colours her face, smattering over her cheeks akin to a fresh sunburn, slowly spreading down her neck.
“Mhm!” She tugs the hem of Misaki’s shirt and hooks her foot around Misaki’s ankle, and in that moment, bathed in the liquid sunlight of Hagumi’s smile, Misaki knows that Hagumi gets it.
“Yeah, but… We should get to bed. Especially you.” Hagumi pouts at the gentle prod to her cheek, but nods slowly. She yawns, tears pricking the corners of her eyes, before sheepishly grinning up at Misaki again.
“Only if Mii-kun carries me to bed!”
So maybe the bedroom is a mere few paces away, but Misaki sighs good-naturedly, a soft smile tugging on the corners of her lips as she snakes an arm underneath Hagumi’s legs and wraps another one around her shoulders, easily supporting the weight of Hagumi’s lithe frame.
Hagumi squeals and loops her arms around Misaki’s neck, and Misaki can’t help but lean down and press another gentle kiss to her lips, which Hagumi happily reciprocates, tangling her fingers into Misaki’s hair, as she smiles into the kiss.
It’s warm, soft, and feels like kissing sunshine.