"are you gonna keep staring at me like that forever?"
"there is a gun pointed at my head right now what do you expect"
"PLEASE JUST PUT THE GUN DOWN"
mizuki looks at ena, the smirk on their face growing just a bit more. "dont worry, enanan! its just this nerf gun i found under my couch. worst case scenario i accidentally pull the trigger, but you can trust me!" they push the gun just a bit closer to her head.
enas eyes narrow. "do you really think i trust you?"
"i mean, i told you i'd let you go if you just told me what you were whispering about with airi earlier. unscathed."
"thats none of your business!"
"don't be like that! everythings my buisness." mizuki stops aiming the gun at her to gesture it around.
"mm, i'll give you a hint. only if you cut off these zip ties. did you really have to go that far?"
"it sets the mood! but sure, okay." mizuki goes up to the chair enas strapped to, humming cheerfully while snapping the ties off her wrists.
she rubs her wrists to sooth the slight pain of the ties. "we were just talking about.. some crush one of our friends had. nothing crazy."
"ooo..." mizuki smirks obnoxiously, putting a finger to their chin in thought. "well, you know how great i am in keeping secrets, so if you-" ena shakes her head. "no, not a chance."
"okay! i have my ways, anyway. don't worry about it, enanan!" she sighs. "sure you do. have fun with that," ena knows that at some point they will figure out, they always do.
"oh, dont worry, im having so much fun," mizuki walks in front of ena and leans down, bringing their voice to a whisper. "you know, i already know it at this point, so dont even bother hiding it from me, enanan."
ena flinched when they said they already knew. of course.. "really?” she looked down to hide her face. “i should know better than to try and hide this. you’ve always been good at reading people.” she sighed and finally faced mizuki. “ugh.. i just never knew how to tell you all. or how you feel about me,"
"...right!" mizukis speechless. they didn't expect the "i already know" ploy to work as well as it did but... now what? "so what made you realise it? the crush, i mean."
“i dont know.. just recently, around you guys ive felt—“ the door knob shakes, revealing mafuyu on the other side. “are you two.. why do they have a gun..?” she says straight faced, tilting her head.
"mafuyu!! theres my favourite... uh, purplette?" mizuki nervously grins, "the guns actually pretty fun to aim around. here, come try it! you do archery, dont you? you'll be a natural!" ena can sense that mizukis trying to avoid the previous discussion, but doesn't comment on it.
ena laughs nervously. “hey mafuyu.. uh, since i told you what it is, ill leave. bye.” she heads up the stairs, and hesitates before going to open the door.
mizuki runs to put their hand on her shoulder "ena! come on, leaving so soon? mafuyu just got here, at least stay a little while."
"what were you two talking about, anyway?" mafuyu asks with the slightest hint of curiosity in her tone. "ena's face looks very red, so i'd like to know."
ena sighs in frustration. “fine. ill stay for a little longer, i guess.”
mafuyus comment had made her even more flustered. she looked away. “i’d.. rather not talk about it.”
"...okay." mafuyu analyses the gun in her hand, raising it to aim at ena. "is this gun loaded?"
enas eyes widen. “THIS AGAIN??”
"..."
"again?" mizuki smirked. "hey mafuyu, wait right here, i'll be right back." mizuki ran out the door of the basement, running up the stairs. "and keep the gun aimed at ena!" they shouted from upstairs.
mafuyu aims to the right of ena and presses the trigger, a foam bullet shooting out of the end. ena could feel the wind of the bullet brush past her ear.
“i could leave and never come back. those bullets dont hurt anyway, theyre just foa—“ mafuyu steadied her arm again, shooting the very middle of the space between enas brows.
"did that hurt? no matter what the material is, the bullets should at least cause a bit of pain, judging by the velocity of which they're going---"
“OW. WHAT. YES?” ena brought her hand to her forehead. she paused. “..im still not going to talk, you know that right?!”
"is it because i come off as untrustworthy? i could perhaps bargain the answer out of you."
mafuyu put her left hand to her chin in thought, nerf gun still aiming at ena's figure.
"...if you tell me what you were talking about, i'll shoot mizuki for you."
“its not that! i just— its.. very embarrassing…” she groans and covers her face with her hands for a moment. she looks at mafuyu and smiles. “you do bring up a good offer though.“
"are you consciously defending your ego? im sure by now you know i'm not the type to judge anyone for anything," mafuyu pauses, bringing the gun down, "especially not you."
“i know! ..im still not sure on how you’ll feel about me after i tell you though.” she realizes what she just said after she said it. great.. “uhm. sorry. lets just go see where mizuki is,”
a bullet hitting her hard in the back of her head interrupts her. "HEY ENA!" mizuki shouts as they jumped through the door. "did you miss me?" they grin so wide, their cheeks must be aching. in their hands sits a twin gun similar to the one in mafuyus grasp.
“OW. WHAT THE FUCK MIZUKI?!!!1!1” ena looks at the two, both of them aiming straight at her.
“you cant be serious.”
"don't move ena! we've got you in our grasps!" mizuki giggles, slowly scooching closer to ena. "how are you gonna escape this n-- OW!"
the foam bullet recoils off of mizuki's head, and before they have enough time to process it, they hear ena laughing like a maniac.
"what the- HOW DID YOU-..." mizuki looks up, astonishment painting their features once they realise who exactly the culprit is. "MAFUYU?!"
ena bursts out laughing at them. “didnt expect that, did you, mizuki?”
she looks over at mafuyu, holding back tears. she leans over to whisper in her ear. “didnt you say you’d only do that if i told you about what happened?”
"now you owe me." mafuyu whispers back, eyes locked on the startled mizuki. mizuki straightens up, their expression slowly morphing into that of amusement.
"...i see how it is. its on, mafuyu!"
before they knew it, mafuyu and ena were getting plummeted by countless nerf bullets. "ena's the damsel in distress! oh, commander mafuyu, you must save her from the bullets coming her way!"
akito comes in, slamming the door open.
“QUIET DOWN. IM BUSY DOING WORK WHAT ARE YOU EV—“
ena snatches mizukis gun, not giving them a chance to react, and takes a shot at akito. it hits his neck. “go do your work somewhere else if youre that bothered.”
he stood there in shock.
“bye!” she went up and closed the door on him. looking back, she finally realized she had mizukis gun.
"WHAT! THATS FOUL PLAY! THAT SHOULDN'T-- AGH, ENA!" ena giggles to herself as she fires the many shots at mizuki. she sees it as returning the favor.
"you know what?" mizuki says between shots. and then- okay, ena could never have predicted mizuki tackling her to the ground in retaliation. are they crazy?
the impact renders them both surprised and paralysed for a bit. mizuki lays there for a second before remembering why they charged at her in the first place, attempting to wrestle the gun out of ena's hands. "come on, hand it over already!"
ena was laughing, until mizuki ended up bringing them both to the ground. she never would have thought she would ever be in this position.
for that one moment, ena didnt know what to do. she could feel her face heating up.
she finally snapped back into reality. quickly, she started fighting for the gun and pushing mizuki away. “i already know you’re immediately going to shoot me, youre not getting this!” she laughed. she successfully pushed them off of herself.
when she sat up, she was met with their face extremely close to hers. ena jolted up from the ground- trying to play it off.
“HAhaa..a..,, looks like i got the gun in the end!” she aimed it at mizuki.
"hey, mafuyu!" mizuki looked past ena to the person standing behind her, "can you help me out, just this once? you know what to do~!" they giggled. mafuyu obviously wont help them, so ena has nothing to worry about-
oh my god, ena was getting tackled from both sides for the gun in her hands.
...shes starting to think that it would've been better to just tell mafuyu right off the bat; being sandwiched between the two people she had a tiny (TINY!) crush on was worse than any form of torture she can think of right now.
ena looked around rapidly trying to find a way out of this that didnt require her secret... seems like there isnt much.
“holdonholdonholdon!!!!” she repeats hastily. “is there anything i can do to get you to stop shooting at me?”
she could feel her face getting redder by the second. ena wonders what she did to deserve this..
“ena, you know you still haven’t told me, right?” mafuyu says as she grasps for the gun.
mizuki nods. “yeah, ena! these are the consequences of your actions!” they grinned.
“i didnt even do anything!” she shouts at mizuki. “but.. uhm.” ena tries to avoid eye contact with the two at all costs. “its just, this crush i have. that enough?”
mizuki and mafuyu stop fighting for the toy and step back, sharing glances. mizuki looks a bit nervous, mafuyu notes. *do they know who it is?*
“mizuki.”
“y-yeah?”
“can i talk to you for a second?”
ena just looks at them as anxiety overflows her yet again. *what are they plotting this time? ugh.*
mafuyu stares for a second. “do you know who it is? i saw how you got nervous.” she already knew good mizuki was with figuring out secrets.. especially enas.
“uhm… speculations about it are running through my head, yeah,” mizuki avoids eye contact, “but not… for sure, no.”
mizuki’s fidgetting with the end of their sleeves now. mafuyu thinks for a second - if mizuki seems *this* nervous about it, then the crush must have something to do with them, right? or perhaps something to do with mafuyu, judging by how mizuki seems to be avoiding eye contact with her, as well. she’ll ask just to make sure.
she looked mizuki up and down. “does it have something to do with you? or me?” mafuyu had a strange feeling in her stomach, not knowing what it meant. she decided to ignore it. “because, it definitely looks like it does.”
mafuyu watches them gulp slightly. “well, uhhh, ma-“
ena takes a deep breath,
“its you both.”
oh.
oh.
so mizukis suspicions were correct. wow, who could’ve known? it’s not like ena shinonome’s the most obvious person in the world. not at all.
still, the confirmation is… suffocating.
mizuki switches their gaze back and forth between mafuyu and ena, taking note of their expressions. one looks like she’d rather be anywhere else right now, while the other’s just straight faced and staring down at the carpeted tiles, perhaps in thought (maybe her eyebrows were raised a slight bit. mizuki cant tell from the angle.)
“well, i understand mizuki,” mafuyu looks back up at ena, “but why me?” she tilts her head, ignoring mizuki’s flustered face at the former comment. “you frequently say you hate me. i’m confused.”
ena felt like she was going to throw up. she never thought she would actually say it. but here we are.
i cant believe this started from a nerf gun fight..
she strayed her eyes far away from mafuyu and mizuki. “i— i dont know.. i dont actually hate you. i could never.” she mumbles the last part. “i’ve always admired your talent.” ena felt like she was talking too much already.
“sorry.” she said quietly.
“ah.” mafuyu pauses, thinking of how to respond. “that’s… cute. i think.”
mizuki stifles a giggle. “you think?”
their smirk makes them look *extremely* punchable right now, ena thinks.
she looks back up at mafuyu as she smirked. “ugh.. shut up.” ena brings her arm to her face to cover up how red she was.
mafuyus eyes lock with ena’s for a while. how is she supposed to react? when she thinks about it…
she’s realising how the feeling is probably mutual.
whenever the group calls at night, mafuyu always waits to hear ena’s voice complain about her back hurting, or how her sketch just doesn’t look right and that she should “just start over at this point.” or when they’re out at their favourite diner, when ena shares the large plate of fries with mizuki, and she makes that face. that *face.* that face where you can tell she’s enjoying everything about this moment. not to mention her giggles that usually follow…
mafuyu thinks.
mafuyu speaks.
“ena. i think- i wouldn’t mind pursuing a… relationship with you. that would be nice.”
mafuyu has never done anything like this before. all of the miyamasuzaka girls that have confessed to her before have all been turned down with the same exact practiced response: “i’m very honored to be seen like this by you, but i’m not sure i’m ready to be in a relationship right now.”
but now, it’s different.
now, mafuyu is looking at the person that just confessed to her with mutual adoration in her eyes. and she’s hoping she’s doing this right.
“alright, lovebirds, we get it.” two sets of eyes turn to face the obnoxious voice that just interrupted them. mizuki’s smirking. of course they are. “if you two are done, we have a nerf battle to get back t—“
ena froze.
she stared at mafuyu.
she never could have thought this would happen. mafuyu has always been so hard to see through.. always mysterious. you cant tell how shes feeling 90% of the time. but, this time.. she kind of sounded like she meant it.
“really..?”
ena smiled at her.
“hehe, im glad you feel the same way.”
ena interrupted mizuki. “what about you?”
they clearly didnt know what to say, or want to say anything.
“i dont care how you respond. id just rather hear it sooner than later. get it out of the way, i guess,”
mizuki looks at ena and smiles (a bit too widely.) “aw, come on! you and mafuyu already had your moment, and i won’t ruin it for you guys~!”
for the almost two years ena’s known mizuki, she’s learned to tell the difference between when they’re being annoying just to be annoying, and when they’re being annoying to get out of something. this situations pretty much the latter when you consider how mizuki avoided the topic earlier, too.
hm.
so… do they feel the same way?
ena’s unsure. and frankly, she’s ready to go up to them and slap that smirk off their face if she doesn’t get a straight answer out of them any time soon.