The first practice after the sleepover seemed to be business as usual. Which Sae had both been banking on and appreciated. She needed something stable to fall back on. Cheerleading would be that thing. Everything in her personal life had seemed to have exploded entirely.
Because of course Rin wouldn't leave her alone about it, with her disgusted looks and her scoffs whenever Sae walked into the room or passed by her room in the hallway. And Oliver, being Oliver, of course told Shuto, who was not so much a gossip as she was an idiot, who had then told everyone, because nobody had ever told her it was a secret.
Which it wasn't, Sae supposed. It just wasn't anyone else's business.
But she could ignore the looks and the quiet whispers that existed more around her than at her so long as she was at practice. When she had a whistle in one hand and a clipboard in the other, people looked at her as someone to impress and fear rather than someone who snuck off with another teammate at the team building sleepover.
That other teammate was a whole other problem.
Maybe problem wasn't the right way to put it. Ryusei wasn't as much of a problem as she was an event. A walking, talking explosion who either didn't notice or didn't care about how the other girls talked about them and did things like walk right up to Sae in the change room and said, what's cookin, good lookin? I missed you, did you miss me?
To which Sae had effectively shot her a look and ignored how the whispers ramped up while she finished tying her hair up in the scratched change room mirror.
Once Sae got finished going around the room, checking over each stunt group's tricks and progress, marking down her findings, she went back over to her own group, who were stretching and chatting and all smiles. Ryusei and Oliver, Sae understood, the unsufferable human beings they were. Their other base, on the other hand, Sae barely knew, but was annoyed by nonetheless. By association.
"Finally," Ryusei said, resting her face on her fists in her wide straddle, looking at up Sae. "It's nice to see you all up close, though I don't hate watching those legs walk around in that skirt, either."
Sae felt her face immediately heat, and her mouth fell open, but nothing came out. This wasn't even gay panic. This was just not the time.
Oliver, who was lazily stretching at best, snorted a laugh. "Adorable."
The other base, a girl whose name Sae hadn't bothered to learn and barely knew or paid attention to, hid a smile in her hand and refused to meet Sae's eye. That, more than anything else, was salt in the wound.
"Get up," Sae told them all, not bothering to acknowledge the comment.
They did as they were told, and there was nothing else said beyond the talk about which group stunts and dismounts they needed to practice. Which, admittedly, were few. They were pretty good, and as much as Sae didn't want to admit it, they were more in sync then they had been before the weekend. The same as everyone else, according to Sae's clipboard. So, the team building activity had worked. Thanks a lot, Luna. Also, fuck off.
Now that everyone was working with the caliber of a well oiled machine, it was almost time to start thinking about the routine for nationals. Well, thinking about it seriously. More seriously. Sae had been thinking about it. Noting everyone's strengths, skill levels, aesthetics. She thought about it half-heartedly through the rest of practice, because throwing the skills really only needed half of her attention to be done to perfection, and then wholeheartedly once she dismissed everyone.
Including into the locker room.
She was only broken out of her daze when she felt a hand at the side of her face, brushing some loose hair pieces that didn't fit in her ponytail off of her face. She still had her athletic shorts on, sports bra, but her uniform was stuffed into her bag and her street clothes were in her hands. She'd really, really zoned out. She recognized the hand. The bright pink nails with the two shorter ones for a reason she now fully understood.
When she looked over, there was Ryusei, also halfway through changing and seemingly in no real hurry to finish up. Staring at her. Aside from a couple showers still running in the back, they were the only two there.
"What?" Sae demanded.
"Ha!" Ryusei said back. "What? You're hilarious."
"I'm not trying to be funny," Sae snapped.
Ryusei wasn't offended. "What is your head all up in the clouds about?"
Oh. So she noticed.
"I'm thinking about nationals," Sae said, finding no reason to lie.
"Huh," Ryusei said. "Well I'm thinking it's about time that we went on a date."
"Huh?" Sae said. "A date?"
"Yeah," Ryusei said. "Like, a real one."
"I enjoy our dates just fine," Sae told her.
And by that she meant everything they'd been doing up to this point. They'd never really spelled it out, but now that she was here, shed of all the gay panic she didn't think she'd ever really had, she thought that maybe they didn't really have to. It had always just kind of been like that, even if she hadn't realized it until much later. In her mind, their first conversation in the fitness room, the first practice even, every single walk home and everything that had come after had all been dates to her, last but especially not least, the sleepover. If she allowed herself to go a little too far, in the safety of her own mind, maybe she even considered the first time she ever saw Ryusei in that fucking skirt a date.
She didn't need a real date. What they had been doing was just fine. She liked the privacy of it, the casual nature, being in her territory and playing by her own rules, but she also meant the rest of it. The sleepover. The nail painting and the hand holding that had come with it. The almost kiss and then the real one. Every kiss that had come after. And everything else, too. Waking up with her the next morning, skin on skin in her own bed, every cell glowing with familiarity because anything left to wonder about had died overnight. That had been a date too.
Her favourite one, maybe.
Which is, of course, exactly what Ryusei thought she was talking about.
"Well, that might be the hottest thing anyone has ever said in the history of ever," Ryusei said. She crossed her arms and leaned up against the lockers. Sae looked over the rest of her, so much of her, so little covered up. It was a good moment. "And there will be more where that came from. Trust me. But, come on. Let me wine ya and dine ya a little. You know I like, like you, right?"
"I know that," Sae said, eyes still wandering. She wondered how hard it was for Ryusei to find everything she wore in the exact same aggressive pink that her eyes were. "You're not subtle about it."
"Neither are you." Ryusei reached out and snapped her fingers in front of Sae's face. "My face is up here."
Sae slapped her hand away so it stopped obstructing her view. "I know where it is. And when I want to look at it, I will."
"Seriously?" Ryusei laughed. "You're worse than a guy."
Sae scowled and looked back up at her face. Defiantly.
"Go date one of those, then," Sae said.
"I'd rather kill myself, thanks," Ryusei said. "Besides, I have a really hot girlfriend who is about to agree to let me take her on a real date, so."
Sae just stared at her. How much there was to unpack in such a short sentence. She was really hot, thanks. She knew it. So did everyone else. The girlfriend part. She'd assumed as much. Especially at this point. It felt more obvious than it did surprising, but still. Acknowledging it in concrete terms when the whole time it had been something undefinable and unreachable was...weird. Not in a bad way, just. Strange.
The date however, was still something Sae didn't feel all that inclined to do.
"I'll consider it if we win nationals this year," Sae said.
Ryusei's eyes went wide. "I'll hold you to that!"
When she reached over this time, she took the shirt Sae was still holding in her hands and tossed it onto the bench. Her other hand reached for Sae's now free hand and pulled her in, right against herself, her perfect tanned skin, her perfectly toned muscles, the bits of pink that complimented the rest of her perfectly.
Even so, perfection aside, this was also not the time.
Sae pushed her off. "Are you insane? There's still people in here."
"Oh, you mean that?" Ryusei said, jerking a thumb back towards the shower. When she saw in Sae's face that yes, that was what she meant, she rolled those pink eyes all the way around. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "What-ever! You know that's Reo and Nagi, right? They keep both showers running but they're only in the one."
"Seriously?" Sae whispered back. "That's genius."
"Oh?" Ryusei said. "Well aren't you full of surprises?" She reached forward, pinched Sae's cheek, and gave it a playful shake. "You want to give it a try?"
Sae glanced over at the showers, thought it over, and shook her head.
"No," she said. "Why don't you just come over instead?"
"Oh my god." Ryusei pulled back, leaned against the lockers, head back, eyes closed. And groaned. "You drive me fucking insane."
Sae grabbed her shirt back up off the bench and pulled it over her head. "Hurry up and get dressed. You're wasting time."
"Damn, bossy," Ryusei said, her eyes rolling again as soon as they opened.
"Unless you don't want to," Sae challenged.
"No, no, no," Ryusei said, opening her own locker back up, reaching for her own clothes. "I want to. Trust me. I fucking want to."