Chapter 1
The screech of the intercom was enough to momentarily drag Mitsuki out of her own thoughts. She let out a soft sigh and turned back to look at Aya, who was standing with her back towards the darker haired girl.
“It's… it's off now…” Mitsuki said softly, waiting for Aya to turn and face her, but she didn't.
“Okay…” Aya mumbled in reply. Mitsuki winced a bit to herself. Had she done something wrong? Had she misunderstood something? Why couldn't she just ask these things? The two girls stood in silence for a moment, Mitsuki running through thoughts of what to say in her head quickly, but Aya had seemed to beat her to it.
“...sorry.” The apology echoed softly through the room. Mitsukis eyes widened a bit in surprise. She watched as Ayas gloved hands covered her face and felt a sting of guilt. She didn't want an apology. She didn't want to make Aya feel bad, far from that. She simply wanted to know why. Why Aya hadn't just said something? Mitsuki watched as Ayas eyes squeezed shut, as her body tensed as if she were bracing for something.
Mitsuki paused with her mouth half open, trying to decide whether to speak… to reach out to her… to do something. Instead, her eyes were drawn away from the pink haired girl by a glint of light on plastic.
“Hey…” Mitsuki started softly, taking a step closer to the CD rack that had caught her attention. “There's so many CDs here.” She knelt down to better inspect the covers. Aya made a confused sound, seeming drawn out of her nervous trance. Mitsuki bit back a soft smile. She knew music would do the trick.
It always did.
“Huh, you're right!” Aya's voice gained a layer of intrigue as she leaned down, near Mitsuki, looking over the CD covers. “More like a bunch of Aerosmith CDs!” Ayas hand grazed the cover of one of the cases momentarily. Mitsuki looked up at her, letting the smile finally form on her face now that Aya had seemed to calm down a bit.
“They're probably the principals,” The guitarist added, humming to herself as she scanned a few of the titles, ticking off the times she'd heard them in her mind. “We hear them playing at school all the time.” Her brain fluttered back to the memory of the cleanup before summer vacation. Back when Aya still didn't know that ‘Onii-San’ and herself were the same person. It all seemed so long ago. But regardless, her heart still jumped in her chest when Aya got too close. Even if she wasn't worried about being ‘found out’ anymore.
“You find yourself listening to it over and over again, right?” Mitsuki inquired gently. Aya raised an eyebrow at her and Mitsuki continued. “To your favorite song, I mean.” She turned and sat down, leaning against the CD rack, her hands intertwined with each other. When Mitsuki didn't know how else to say things, music made it so much easier. Sometimes, she wished she could simply play a song and have it speak for her instead.
“Then, gradually, as you listen to the song’s lyrics and melody… you end up taking them in without thinking.” Mitsukis eyes scanned around the room. She was scared if she looked too closely at Aya, her words would be gone, and she'd be left a stuttering mess. She took a deep breath and continued.
“And just like that, it's like you can't feel the essence of the song anymore.” She glanced down at her hands, absentmindedly picking at black nail polish. “I mean… it just feels so vexing.” She sighed quietly. Aya was quiet for a moment, and Mitsuki was worried she'd gone off onto an unintelligible tangent.
“Okay…?” Aya whispered back. Mitsuki took that as an opportunity. She felt a swell of nervousness in her chest as Aya sat beside her but she swallowed it down and continued to speak.
“And yet, I feel like I should be the one to understand it the most.” She murmured, finally looking up from her hands and staring across the room at the wall. Breathing. She had to breathe. But when her shoulder brushed against Ayas, all of that knowledge flew out of her head, and words tumbled out of her mouth.
“So I figured…” She paused, her eyes finally meeting Ayas. Her heart leapt in her chest. But she wasn't afraid of being figured out, she didn't have to be. She was safe with Aya. She trusted her. So why did she feel like if she moved the wrong way, the pink haired girl might disappear? “I should give it another listen. This time, more carefully.”
Ayas eyes locked onto hers as Mitsuki leaned closer. She could faintly hear the music and chatter of the prom past the door, but she didn't pay attention to that. There was a new rhythm she was all too focused on. The soft flutter of Ayas breathing, the way her eyes flicked along her face. It made her cheeks burn. But her eyes couldn't leave Aya. Not for a moment.
Mitsukis eyes lingered down onto Ayas lips for just a moment before they snapped back up to the pink haired girl's eyes. A soft gasp echoed around the room like a singular strike to a snare drum. Mitsuki froze for just a moment before she leaned up, closer to Aya, locking eyes with her again.
“Um…” Mitsuki said softly, her breathing shaking ever so gently as she looked into Aya's eyes. She had never been this close before. She could really see the little freckles dotting her nose, the way her pupils dilated ever so slightly. Maybe it was a trick of the lights. “Are you okay with this?-” Mitsuki braced herself internally for Aya to pull away, her eyes searching Aya's for any sort of hesitation.
“I'm okay with it.” Aya whispered back to Mitsukis surprise. Mitsuki would have nodded if her face wasn't so close to Aya's. But even inches apart was too far. She leaned closer, listening to the way her breathing hitches in sync with Ayas, like the hiss of a hi hat.
“What about this?-” Mitsuki breathlessly spoke, barely even breathing as her eyes traveled down to Aya's slightly parted lips again. Each breath was a new chord, each thud of her heart like the steady pulse of a bass drum. Aya's lips… they were the melody that was missing from this song.
“It's fine.” Aya murmured, her eyes moving from Mitsukis, trailing downwards. Mitsuki felt her face warm. Did Aya hear this song too? Did she think something was missing too? They froze there for a moment, gaze locked a little too low to be making eye contact anymore. Mitsuki finally averted her eyes.
“I- I'm sorry if I got this wrong- I-”
She felt the hands on her collar before she felt anything else.
But when her lips met Aya's, she was sure.
She would never get tired of this melody.