soundoftheseas | DIAMARI CATCHALL

"...No more games. Right."

Dia steps back, but Mari just steps closer. She can feel herself fidgeting, still overcome with nerves; there's really not an easy way to say it, just because there are so many different ways she can react here...and, it might as well be proven now that she's not the best at predicting her reactions. It's so much easier to just keep it lighthearted...but the time for that has long passed, and she doesn't have any more time to beat around the bush without Dia getting mad, and--

"You told me...you said the theme was to write about a one-sided love. So, that's what I wrote about. I thought you would just...take it as a joke, like all of the other times."

There. It's...it's a start.

"But I'm serious, now. No jokes, no games. No ridiculous smiley faces. Not right now. For you, I'm being honest, okay?"

Dia spends a moment just staring at Mari's face, unblinking. The goosebumps creep down her back, but she doesn't move away a second time, her feet rooted in place. Her pulse is beating out of control, and she can feel it in her chest, in her fists, in her throat when she swallows.

"You... meant it," she echoes Mari's sentiment once she's able to process it. Somewhere in her head, Dia feels she's known for weeks. Somewhere else, she still doesn't believe it.

"You're serious?"

"Would you like for me to prove it?"

She sees Dia doesn't move back, so Mari, instead, tries to take her hands in hers, and lead her in a little closer. Mari's palms are starting to sweat, but she thrives on physical contact, and closing the gap between them is the first step towards making herself feel a bit more confident before continuing. She's really no good at being this serious, but...when she moves in like this, when she can inch her face closer to Dia's and regain some semblance of control with their positioning, she feels a bit more confident in herself, that she can keep going.

Dia hasn't pushed her away, not just yet. To Mari, that's all the more incentive to keep pushing forward. She can do this; Dia's still shaking, and she's still jittery, but, she can still, they can still...

"It was never a joke, Dia. I've been telling you, all this time. You just didn't hear it."

Edited 2017-02-24 13:57 (UTC)

Having her own words from weeks ago hurtled back at her trips Dia up, and she stumbles inwardly, sputtering out a half-formed protest:

"That's-- that's because you're always--!"

But something in her throat knots up, sealing the words inside. Reason, trumping her natural urge to argue -- yelling at her Mari just confessed, do something.

They've finally got this far. They're finally talking about this, with no jokes or excuses or patched up half-truths. Dia can't let herself squander it, not even to defend her own pride.

So she snatches her hand out from Mari's hold, takes hold of her by the jaw, and brungs their mouths together. The kiss is clumsy with inexperience and a little rough, her frustration and embarrassment still simmering beneath the surface -- but it's as earnest and determined as Dia is in all she does, just the same.

"D-Di--"

It all happens in an instant; just when Mari thought she had an inch worth of leverage, Dia's hand is on her chin and pulling her in for a kiss here, under the staircase.

Dia kissed her. It wasn't a clean kiss by any means, and Mari's a bit too stunned to even reciprocate it at first, but it was her first kiss, and it was with Dia--

If she was thinking straight, she'd hug her tight while this was happening, or pull her in closer, or something. But the longer Dia's lips stay on hers, the more hazy her thoughts get, and every coherent string of words she tries to come up with are drowned out in this fog of Dia is kissing me.

And even when Dia pulls away, Mari's face is still red as a beet; any sort of smug, collected pretense she had before wiped away completely. All she can do is stammer Dia's name, stunned to her core that this isn't a dream--

Once the kiss is over, Dia slowly comes to her senses, and what she's just done begins to sink in. She kissed Mari -- right here in the middle of school, where people could've easily passed by, where such displays are of course strictly forbidden to begin with, and-- and top of that, Mari barely reacted at all...!

She takes a wobbly step back, feeling her face heat up all over again. One hands rubs across her tingling lips, while the other incessantly brushes at nonexistent dust on the front of her uniform. Anything to keep occupied, and to not have to meet Mari's eyes. That stunned silence from her really is the most daunting part in all this.

"... I-is that all you're going to say?"

It isn't because the kiss wasn't good or anything, of course; Mari just needs a moment to let the whole thing soak in, but, Dia's words are quick to snap her out of the haze of "I was kissed by Dia, she really did like me back this whole time--". It's a sudden jolt back to reality, as if someone just pulled her straight up for a breath of fresh air after having spent a full minute underwater. Her eyes go wide, seeing Dia trying so hard not to look her in the face...

And at that point, she's already tearing up and clinging onto her, throwing her head straight into her chest with a loud wail.

"Diaaaa!"

Her arms lock around Dia's waist, with as much force as she can muster as she sobs into her sternum. Mari's fingers grip her poor friend's (lover's, now? oh my God.) uniform, and at this point, it'd probably take a crowbar to pry her away.

"I love you, I love you, I love you! I'm so sorry! I love you! Ti amo! I'll never let you think I don't ever ever again!"

Whether she's completely forgotten she's in public or she just doesn't care, her declarations in love are, at the very least, muffled into Dia's chest between sobs and the occasional hiccup--

"Wha-- buh--"

Dia stumbles back with the force of the impact, thankfully managing to steady herself on the side of the stairwell before she collapses onto the floor. She asked for more of a reaction, yes, but she didn't expect anything of this caliber. The sudden switch is far too much for her to handle, Mari's words are making her whole body burn -- and so even though her arm strength is nothing close to a crowbar, Dia's first response is to try and free herself of the wailing girl's grip.

"M-Mari-san! Cease this at once! Your voice is way too loud! We're on school grounds, for heavens' sake, and--" It's then that she notices the hint of wetness seeping through her uniform's blouse. The sobs were a touch too dramatic for her to discern their sincerity, but this leaves little room for doubt. "--Are you crying?"

"Of course I'm crying, you big dummy!"

As hard as Dia tries to wriggle out of her grasp, Mari just won't let go; Dia's like a fish on a line here, and she has no intention of giving her up. When she peeks up from her spot in Dia's chest to look up at her, her face is wet with tears, and her lip is quivering...

"I had no idea that you liked me back! And for you to kiss me like that...I can't believe you! Now I know why you reacted like that! Please, please, please, please, please forgive me!"

"Ah..."

Mari's words take a second to register, as Dia's brain grinds to a temporary halt at the sight of her face. It's overwhelming, in part due to the realization that she's the one who brought this on, and in part because-- well...

It's cute. Mari's flushed, tear-stained face is painfully, unbearably cute.

It's probably-- no, definitely wrong for her to be thinking this, and Dia shakes the thought out of her head, screwing her eyes shut.

"I forgive you," she squawks, "so let go already!" But she instantly regrets how harsh that comes out, and so she tries again, softer: "I-it's hard to breathe like this, okay?"

"O-oh...right, of course, I wouldn't want you to choke..."

Her forgiveness, at least, seems enough to get her to loosen up her grip and wipe at her eyes, as she starts to calm down a little bit. She couldn't help herself, she was just so overwhelmed...she's still shaking a bit, her knees still quivering, but it's a different feeling from before. Like she's only just starting to catch her breath, even though the butterflies in her stomach are still in full force.

Even though her cheeks are still red-hot, and her eyes are a bit puffy, she can't help but giggle.

"That...definitely wasn't how I imagined this would go. Dia, I didn't know you could be a real casanova...you're just full of surprises this week, aren't you?"

"Back to your usual self, are you?" Dia heaves out a sigh, but in truth, she's relieved. Even knowing Mari for a whole decade, she's completely unequipped to handle her tears.

"Here," she reaches into her pocket to produce a handkerchief, which she holds out to Mari. "Dry your face properly."

Outside, the rain lightens to a drizzle.

"It's all your fault I'm like this! You've been the one doing unexpected things...it's been driving me totally pazzesca!"

She swipes the handkerchief, but before Dia has a chance to take her hand back, Mari locks arms with her and holds on tight, letting her fingers nestle between Dia's while she wipes her eyes.

"But, it just means I'll have to surprise you more, too. Doesn't it? You know I'm not gonna let you off easy, now that we've...gotten it all out in the open."

"It's only because you've been pushing me into these situations with your impossible behavior," Dia mutters. There's little bite to it. Her hand is loose in Mari's, neither rejecting nor reciprocating at first -- though her fingers do, after a beat, curl back against hers just barely.

"--And I don't consider this conversation over, either! I still... want to talk to you more." Her eyes dart away again. "Not at school. Just the two of us."

"If it weren't for my impossible behavior, you never would've fallen in love with me, now, would you?"

She's all too eager to say it, and once the words pass her lips, all she can think about is getting to say them again and again. This is all too much...

"Then, shall we go back to my house, where we can have the place to ourselves, just until the rain starts to calm down a bit? Or is that moving just a bit too fast? To take a girl to my bedroom the same day I asked her out, oooh, it's all just so scandalous..."

Edited 2017-02-25 00:41 (UTC)

Dia's face scrunches up in a mixture of embarrassment and distaste. "In that case, forget what I said," she snaps back, planting her hand over Mari's mouth to keep any further nonsense from spilling out. "And don't confess for me before I've said anything!"

She tries to exclaim in protest, but, with her mouth covered, all that comes out is a muffled cry. Dia, of course, should know exactly what she's saying, though--

"Oh, come on, it was just a joke!"

She swats at Dia's wrist with the soggy handkerchief in her free hand, just so she'll get her mouth free!

"Then when we get home, I'd like a full confession. Otherwise, I'm going to just keep putting words in your mouth...though, between you and me, that kiss said plenty, already."

"You'll get one," Dia says coolly, rubbing at her dampened wrist, "if you can stay serious for longer than five minutes."

She doesn't know how to make Mari understand how much this means to her; everything about this situation is new and uncertain, and Dia hates uncertainty. It makes her feel vulnerable. It's scary.

So she goes with the safest bet here: a threat. "The moment you make me angry again I'll get up and leave, understood?"

"I'll do you one better and try for ten. Anything past that, I make no promises."

But she seems to have gotten the message, and scoots in a little closer to Dia's arm.

"I won't get you mad, but only because I couldn't possibly let you go off by yourself in weather like this. The last thing I'd want is for you to catch cold, even if it means I'd get to make you some of my famous Stewshine while you're in bed...you can snuggle up to me under the umbrella on the way back to the villa, okay? It'll be our first romantic walk together! Isn't that exciting?"

"No," Dia answers flatly, fishing her own bright red umbrella from out of her bag. "I have my own, thank you very much."

"I should have known it, you're a total spoilsport! Fine, if you're going to be like that, I'll just have to conveniently forget my own next time..."

She just puffs her cheeks out in indignation; not twenty minutes since she's confessed, and Dia's already being like this! It's cruel and unusual punishment!

"Unless I happen to lose mine somewhere before we leave school..."

"Please, the entrance is less than fifteen feet away." A hearty roll of the eyes. "Sharing an umbrella will only ensure both of us getting wet. And besides--" Dia's gaze flickers towards the hallway-- "the others will be heading home soon, they're going to see us!"

"Ooooh, so that's what the issue is. You're embarrassed to hold my hand in public? Trying to keep this thing of ours a secret? A hidden romance, a private little la cosa nostra..."

Mari, it's a relationship, not a mafia deal--

"Alright, that might be fun, for a little while. Acting like everything's normal in front of the girls, and kissing each other beneath staircases or in the director's office in secret, when no one's watching...Dia, my love, you know how to keep a girl on her toes! But now you're just getting me more eager to have you all to myself!"

If nothing else, it seems to get her off the topic of umbrella sharing..?

Edited 2017-02-25 05:33 (UTC)

The look on Dia's face grows steadily more mortified as Mari goes on, and by the end of it she teeters dangerously close to real, actual distress.

"None of that!" she admonishes, more frantic than stern. "We won't be--" her voice drops to a whisper for the next word-- "kissing, anywhere on school grounds, and certainly not in the director's office! This was a one-time thing, all right? An anomaly! A fluke!"

"Just a moment of weakness, then?"

She can't really help herself but smile at how flustered Dia gets; even the way she has to dip her voice low to even mention the word kiss is enough to make her break out into a grin; it doesn't help matters when she lets her mind wander, thinking about how often she'll get to make her this bashful.

But, for now, she doesn't want to do it so much that poor Dia'll get angry; knowing Dia, she actually will walk off into the rain, and we wouldn't want that, especially after she already did it once today. Which means, of course, Designated Serious Time starts now. (ಠ_ಠ, she already pictures in her head--)

"Then, first things first, we should get off school grounds. The longer we stay here, the less time we get to ourselves at home, right, my Dia? And I'm looking forward to our...well, discussion."

It's such a pain to try and act natural, she thinks as she puts the handkerchief away and gets ready to move, given all that just happened under this staircase, but...well, it doesn't have to be for too long, is her rationale. Once they get to the villa, they'll get to be as cute as can be, but, it's such a trek...it's times like this she wishes she could just have a helicopter swing by and pick them up, but even that's a bad idea in this rain...

Well, even if they won't be sharing an umbrella, walking home with Dia in the rain sounds nice enough, in its own way. Just because it could be more romantic doesn't mean it isn't romantic at all.

Edited 2017-02-25 07:09 (UTC)

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pictured: a rarely defeated mari

dont talk to me

"dia what's this?" mari asks, pointing at the doll of her crying that hangs from dia's lamp

b l o c k e d

why don't we write the school idol diaries ourselves i'm being 100% serious

agreed tbh

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