What A Girl Wants

Twelve

Ryusei looked over her shoulder and caught her in the act. Sae didn't apologize for it, either in word or in shameful averting of the eyes.

"No pyjamas," Ryusei said. "Awesome, right?"

"I passed out without really thinking about it," Sae said.

Ryusei laughed as she headed towards the bathroom. "Do you think baby Rinrin will completely freak out if I use her toothbrush?"

"There's extras under my sink," Sae called out. There was a pause in her mind. Was that friendly, or overly suggestive? What was this unfounded territory they'd wandered themselves into? "Just use one and toss it or whatever."

"I'll stick it next to yours," Ryusei said, the sounds muffled from the insides of the cupboard. "For next time."

Sae pulled the covers over her head so she didn't have to think about it anymore. It hardly did the trick. All she could smell all over her own sheets was them, them, them.

She got her own teeth brushed, showered, and got dressed back into her pyjamas from the night before, which she doused in body spray, just to be safe, in record time. She left Ryusei, who had climbed into the shower with her and got through three more unsuccessful kiss mes, as well as one successful one, upstairs. She figured damage control might be easier without her around. Probably not by much, but she would take wins she could get them.

She glided down the staircase onto the main level into near silence, and she thought she might be able to slip back into the basement entirely unnoticed. Until, however, she heard a drawer in the kitchen slam shut. Extremely intentionally. She took a breath, let it out, and stepped into the kitchen to meet a very, very stone faced Rin.

"Morning," she said, very pointedly, mostly a challenge. She walked right into the kitchen, making sure to be unapologetic about it, going right to the fridge and pulling out a kombucha.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Rin asked. Never once had she moved from where she was standing at one end of the island, hands rested on it, gaze fixed forward.

Sae twisted the bottle open and took a sip. She knew full well she could play stupid with Rin. It was unlikely she knew anything, and even if she did, it was even more unlikely that she'd call her out for it.

"You ditched the fucking sleepover, you shitty excuse for a captain," Rin hissed across the island.

Sae shrugged. "I hosted the sleepover. I like sleeping in my own bed. Sue me."

Rin scoffed.

"And besides," Sae continued. "I'm here to make the waffles, aren't I?"

Rin's face visibly twitched. Sae wondered if behind her bangs, one of Rin's forehead veins was about to burst.

"Your dog is missing too, by the way," Rin said, by means of delivering her own challenge. "Unless you let her into the yard to piss or scratch her own fleas or something."

Sae shrugged again. "I don't know anything about that."

"Know anything about what?" Ryusei asked, gliding into the kitchen with impossibly horrible timing, wearing, as Sae's luck would have it, only a towel. The luck thing was true both ironically and unironically.

And to make matters ever worse, as she awaited the answer, she walked right up behind Sae, wrapped her arms around her waist, and rested her head on her shoulder. Her damp hair pressed into Sae's face, smelling of her own conditioner.

Rin lifted her hands off the island now, if only to throw them into the air. Again, she repeated, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Sae didn't answer. She didn't fight Ryusei off, either. It felt nice to be close to her, pressed into her. She wasn't ashamed of that. Ryusei, who found this whole thing amusing, didn't answer beyond a laugh.

"You ditched the sleepover that you insisted on to get fingerblasted by some psycho bitch with a bad dip dye?" Rin hurled across the island. That made Sae cringe, if only the sheer volume and crudeness of it.

Ryusei lifted a hand towards her own hair, taking a piece between her two fingers, the two fingers with the short nails, Sae made a point of noticing, and lifted it to her eye.

"My dip dye isn't that bad," Ryusei said, examining the faded pink. After a second, she conceded. "It could stand to be touched up, I guess."

Sae's face hardened. "Is fingerblasted a term people actually use?"

"In some circles, yeah," Ryusei answered in Rin's place. "There's better terms for it."

"Ugh!" Rin lifted her hands to her ears and turned away from them. "Ugh! You guys are so fucking gross! I hate you so much!"

"Grow up, Rin!" Sae tossed back across the island, not quite yelling, but loud enough to get her point across.

"Yeah, Rinrin," Ryusei tacked on. "Someone's gotta give you the birds and the bees talk eventually."

Rin shoved her hands even harder into her ears and said nothing beyond an exaggerated noise of frustration and a few fake gags. Sae rolled her eyes. She was well aware that they weren't grown, but there were some moments where Rin really could be such a child.

Ryusei was laughing lightly in her ear. After a few long yet somehow comedic seconds, the door to the basement swung open. Not wanting even more of an audience for this, Sae thought about pulling away, to point out the obvious that the girls were waking up, to put some fucking clothes on. The door closed soon after. The thought didn't linger. Rin never once stopped her temper tantrum.

In the kitchen doorway stood a morning ridden and extremely curious Oliver, hands on her hips, eyes flicking back and forth between the two ends of the islands, silently piecing things together for herself. Her mouth turned into something half smile, half smirk.

"What's going on here?" she asked the three of them.

Rin answered first. By means of removing one hand from her ear and motioning accusatorily across the island. Oliver's eyes moved to them. Whatever Sae's stone cold face with a silence to match was not revealing, Ryusei's triumphant grin answered for them. That, and the towel, and her arms which had never left Sae's waist.

Oliver gave them an approving nod. "Nice. Finally. How was it?"

"Ugh! You're all the fucking worst" Rin exclaimed at all of them. She stomped across the kitchen and pushed her way past Oliver. She continued her same angry pace down the hallway towards the basement door. "Make the fucking waffles!"

That was the last thing they heard before the door swung open and slammed shut. Ryusei started cackling like a hyena. Sae didn't quite join her, but the temptation was there, and a smile did creep across her face.