Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sound of the radio is ambient background noise as Dia folds the jeans in front of her. Across the way her manager Eli is at the counter, sorting out some documents and preparing for the arrival of their new coworker. Dia has to admit- she’s been a bit nervous for this shift. She really shouldn’t be, considering she’s very good friends with the new trainee, but there’s always that tiny bit of anxiety that forms when she doesn’t know exactly what to expect.

And Kanan Matsuura is sure to deliver something unexpected on her very first shift at Chacci.

The store is just a fancy, budget friendly store for women who like brand names but aren’t willing to pay the expensive prices it costs for brand names. Chacci’s is every girls dream, if Dia’s really honest. Forget brand names- their store has shirts, pants, accessories and handbags that are stylish, affordable and Dia gets 50% off everything. What could be better?

Thinking about that Dia realizes their store doesn’t carry shoes, but that’s not that big a deal.

She folds the last of the jeans and places it atop the pile. She glances at the clock. Twenty minutes until Kanan is due to arrive and her anxiety has barely settled. She mentally runs through the training plan; show Kanan around the store and how places work, have her watch a few transactions on the till, and go over how each and every piece of clothing that gets folded and clothing that gets placed on hangers along the walls. That’s easy enough for a first shift. Probably. It’s how Eli taught her during her first shift after all.

Before Dia knows it she sees someone walk through the entrance from the corner of her eye- the familiar form of her good friend. She looks up to get a better view and she immediately wishes she hadn’t. Good God. What the fuck.

Dia finds herself gazing upon Kanan in the most atrocious looking set of overalls she has ever seen in her life. Her face? Perfect. She’s even wearing a bit of eyeliner in the way she had shown her not too long ago. But her shirt sleeves are rolled up and showing off her arms

(or what her girlfriend Mari affectionately refers to as ‘the guns’) and her overalls- god, there’s nothing wrong with a good pair of overalls, but these ones? They weren’t even real overalls. More like a horrible cross between overalls and high waist pants from the 70s’. What shade of green was this? Algae? And pinstripes?! This is 2018, pinstripes haven’t been in style in god knows how long.

Kanan looks like a walking horror show and Dia doesn’t approve. This is her first day of work in a respectable retail store. She’s making a pretty bad impression already and she hopes it doesn’t affect Eli’s attitude towards her much. Kanan waves, as if nothing were wrong and Dia waves back slightly.

At this point, Eli has looked up from her paperwork and she beams.

“Matsuura-san! Welcome!” She says, unaffected by the pants, “Your outfit looks pretty great!”

Dia wonders if it’s too late to eject herself into the sun. Eli is an older college student, someone Dia highly respects and enjoys working with. They have some similar interests and always enjoy talking to one another about various things, but Dia never would have guessed that this was the kind of fashion Eli finds endearing. She always looks so sharp, so sophisticated and perfect and yet. And Yet.

“Thanks!” Kanan responds with a grin, “Thought I’d make a good first impression with one of my best outfits.”

Eli laughs lightly. “Kinda like those patterned pants you wore to your interview?”

Kanan can only beam and she turns to Dia with that charming smile.

“Hey Dia! What do you think? Do I look like a perfect Chacchi employee or what!?”

Dia thinks if her ear could bleed from these words alone, they would.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Dia replies without missing a beat. “Kanan. You have so many wonderful outfits. And you came in these?” Dia gestures to- well. All of her. (Except for maybe.. Her arms and face.)

‘’Really? I don’t know Dia-- I think Matsuura-san’s outfit is very Chacci.” Eli intervenes, boosting Kanan’s confidence in her choice of workplace attire, “Though I would say roll down your sleeves if you could, this way customers don’t get too distracted.”

Dia doesn’t know if she’s referring to Kanan’s muscles or the fact that she has a long sleeved shirt bundled up to her shoulders. She hopes it’s the latter. She really does.

“Oh! Sounds good, I can do that.” Kanan says, reaching up and beginning to roll down the her right sleeve.

But as she does, it’s very. Slow. Dia finds herself internally screaming as Kanan purposefully takes her time bringing the fabric down her arms and only just past her elbow, making sure her forearms are still on good display. The brunette looks over to the clock and see’s she still has plenty of time before Kanan can officially clock in for her first official shift. Dia decides she’s in definite need of a breather.

“Ayase-san?” Dia calls, walking over to the counter, “You wouldn’t mind if I took a quick break before Kanan starts, would you?”

Eli glances at the clock herself and ponders it for a moment before nodding.

“Yes, that would be alright.” Eli confirms, giving Dia a small smile.

Dia doesn’t hesitate to go to the backroom, grab her wallet and immediately head out of Chacchi’s. She pushes herself forward towards the shop across the hall from theirs in the mall- a small italian sweets and cafe shop owned by a certain family she knows all too well. Owned by her friends family, it makes it easy to find their daughter here working a few shifts throughout the week. Dia hopes this is one of the days Mari has to work so she can have a few words with her about her girlfriends choice of work attire.

She steps inside the wonderful and familiar smelling shop, approaching the counter with her usual order on her mind. She glances around the shop to look for Mari but sees no signs of her. Instead she’s greeted by lovely green eyes and a warm dimpled smile.

“Afternoon Kurosawa-san!” the girl greets, tilting her head a bit, “Are you here for tea? Or perhaps are you here for Ohara-san?”

“Good afternoon, Toujou-san.” Dia returns the greeting and sighs, “Both, if possible. Could you possibly make the tea a little stronger today? I might need it.”

Nozomi doesn’t question why but plugs the order in with a small laugh. The girl next to her, finishing rinsing out a coffee pot in the sink comments. Her hair is tied back in a low black ponytail and red eyes look at her with a raised eyebrow.

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with her girlfriend being hired in your store would it? She wouldn’t stop talking about it all yesterday morning.” She comments, putting the rinsed pot on the top burner of the coffee machine.

She sighs and Nozomi can’t hide her tiny grin. It’s no secret that ever since Mari’s girlfriend had been showing up at the mall more in her free time, the Chacchi’s employee would come by their shop for a green tea and a quick conversation with said girl. That’s how Kanan got the idea to apply to Chacchi’s- Dia had commented they would be hiring for the holiday season and Kanan didn’t hesitate to throw a resume and application in. Now Dia feels like Nozomi can feel the regret radiating off of her for this decision.

“There’s only so much I can take,” Dia starts to explain as Nico gets to making her tea, “High school was good because we were required to wear uniforms and I wasn’t forced to see such fashion atrocities. I know myself, I’m not always the most coordinated but even my little sister would think that abomination she’s wearing right now belongs in the circus, and my little sister doesn’t have a single harsh bone in her body!”

Nozomi laughs and accepts Dia’s change (Exact change, as always) and drops it into the till before looking out the shop and across the way. As she does, her eyes scan the shop to see just how bad Kanan’s outfit could be, but instead of finding Kanan she finds the other girl at the front of the shop near a display, looking over towards her at the shop. Nozomi blinks once and the blonde realizes they’ve made eye contact and immediately looks away, pretending to fix the display up and acting as if the locked gaze never happened. A subtle grin grows on Nozomi’s features.

“Add a tally to the chalkboard Nicocchi, just caught you know who for the fifth time today~.” she voices in a sing song tone.

Dia quirks her eyebrow and accepts her tea from Nico as both she and the shorter girl look out towards Chacchi’s to find Eli hurriedly folding the last of the shirts before walking back into the shop and is joined by Kanan.

“Are you talking about Ayase-san?” Dia asks, bringing her tea up to her lips and taking a small sip. She hums in approval- perfect, as it always is.

“You got it. Tall, hot and blondie over there looks longingly over here almost every chance she gets.” Nico smirks, leaning on the counter and looking up to Dia. “You wouldn’t happen to know why, would you?”

Dia feels both green and red iris’ on her and she pursues her lips in thought. She lifts her cup to her lips again, tasting the matcha flavour on her tongue and swallowing the small mouthful as she ponders it. She herself hasn’t really noticed Eli staring out at the sweets shop often and she can’t really fathom why Eli would. Or maybe she could? She can at least think of one reason.

“I would imagine it’s because she has an unhealthy addiction to chocolate. She carries a bag of little wrapped chocolates on her at almost all times and rewards herself with one at the end of every shift.” the corners of her mouth turn upwards, “I’ve told her she won’t find out how the chocolate here tastes until she tries it.”

Nozomi giggles and her eyes linger on Chacchi’s.

“Well, if it’s just for chocolates, I’d be happy to give you some samples to give to her. All on the house~”

Dia’s eyes light up a bit.

“Really? But I thought only Mari could-”

As if on cue, the sounds of footsteps approaching her all too quickly hits her ears. She’s enveloped into a hug from behind and she takes a step forward to stabilize herself, gasping and holding her tea out to safety as the familiar form of the girl she’d been searching for drapes herself around Dia. She’s hit with the familiar smell of Chacci’s N°5 perfume and nothing could prepare her for Mari’s excited greeting.

“DIA! AMORE MIO ~” Mari’s chin rests on Dia’s shoulder as she hugs her tightly. “Did you come here just to see little old me~?”

Dia squirms, trying to pull herself from Mari so she can turn and face her with a glare.

“As you can see, no, I did not. I took my break early because your girlfriend arrived at work and insisted on wearing that atROCITY SHE CALLS PANTS.” Her voice raises in the way it does when she communicates her frustrations with Mari. It’s a charming detail only Mari seems to be able to bring out of her.

Nozomi snorts while Nico snickers as they watch the scene. Dia could care less thought-- she’s pissed. Meanwhile Mari just laughs, pulling her arms off of Dia.

“Oh come on Dia~ she looks very cute! And Sexy. And silly, all at the same time! It’s endearing~” Mari replies with enthusiasm, “Did you like the gun show? She sent me a snapchat and we knew you were gunna react to it.”

Those bitches. Plotting this against her and purposefully enraging Dia with this terrible outfit and pretending that it’d be fine with Kanan showing off her muscles. It’s rude, and it didn’t work. Much. Dia noticed them but made No Comment.

“Only you would think that, Mari.” Dia replies with as little emotion as possible.

Mari looks over to Nico and Nozomi expectantly.

“Oh, I’m with this bitch.” Nico says instantly, jabbing her thumb in Dia’s direction, “Those pants need to be burned in the fires of hell because those are the only flames hot enough to take them out.”

Finally, someone with common sense, Dia thinks.

Mari stares at Nozomi. Nozomi stares back. They share silent words with their gazes. Dia squints a bit, trying to decipher exactly what Nozomi’s feelings on the outfit might be, but finds it hard to understand when she doesn’t quite get her stare.

“Would you say that’s pro Kanan’s outfit, or nay Kanan’s outfit?” Dia asks Nico, not looking away from the two.

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been dating her since high school but there are still some things about her that are a mystery.” She leans over the counter more to whisper to Dia “But if I ever caught her wearing something as embarrassing as those overalls you’d bet I wouldn’t be out in public with her.”

Dia feels kinship with Nico. They are united in this. Together they’ll form the anti terrible fake overalls brigade. Well, maybe not that far. Dia takes a fucking sip babe.

“Anyway,” Mari says, finally breaking her gaze from Nozomi “What’s up Dia~? If you’re not here for me and you have your tea, you’re usually headed back to your store now.”

“Well, Toujou-san offered to give me free chocolates because my coworker has been glancing over quite often. We assume it’s because of the chocolate.” Dia explains, looking to the display case full of chocolate.

Mari stares for a moment and beams. A light tint of pink dusts Dia’s cheeks. Curse this girl and her smile that could light up the world.

“Sure! If it means gaining another cute customer, I’m all for it!” Mari looks through the display case at each selection of chocolates, “Nozomi! Wrap up some of the fresh chocolates you and Nico made today~ She’ll be sure to enjoy them!”

It doesn’t take long for Nozomi to pick a variety of the sweets they made- a couple of solid milk chocolate squares, a white chocolate cream filled chocolate, and some of their premium dark chocolate and the signature chocolate of the store-- the Oharrero Rocher (the chocolate where the shop got its namesake, which is a creamy hazelnut flavoured center inside a wafer ball and dipped in milk chocolate). She wraps them all up carefully into a small purple package and hands it over the counter to Dia.

“There you go Kurosawa-san! Let’s hope this satiates Ayase-sans curiosity.” Nozomi smiles as Dia takes the chocolates from her.

“Thank you, Toujou-san and Yazawa-san. I’m sure she’ll love them.” Dia smiles a genuine smile and Mari pouts.

“Hey! Don’t I get a thank you for giving them to you?” She leans forward to get into Dia’s field of vision. “Maybe you could thank me with a little kiss~?”

“Not this time.” Dia replies smoothly. She doesn’t mean to imply that at some point she could thank Mari with a little kiss, but the idea itself causes her golden eyes to grow and a wide smile to break out on her lips.

“I’m holding you to that, Dia~”

With that, Dia says her goodbyes and sashays away back to Chacchi’s, chocolates and tea in hand. She places her tea behind the counter along with the bag of chocolates when she gets back to the store. Eli seems to be busy at the counter and looks up when Dia places her refreshments down.

‘’Ah, Dia you’re back. I was showing Matsuura-san how we fold the different clothes here, can you go help her out with the current pile?’’ Eli asks before continuing her work on the computer.

Dia agrees with a sigh before she walks over to where Kanan is working. With her break over its time for her to get back to doing what she's here for-- work. She starts folding along with Kanan, and while Kanan might look like a disaster in her work attire, her work ethics were as strong as ever. It's a plus side to everything.

‘’You’re doing good so far, with the folding that is.’’ Dia remarks.

‘’Thanks, It’s pretty similar to when I work at the diving shop during the summer season so far.’’ Kanan replies with that perfect white teeth hollywood smile of hers. Maybe if Kanan did stay for more than just the christmas season they could use her to advertise the store more at the mall. Like sending her out with fliers in a bikini during the summer, that was bound to attract customers!

As much as Dia still fights back a grimace every time her eyes land on the suspenders of Kanan’s pants while they fold clothes together her eyes also scans over Kanan’s arms every now and then. Sometimes her arms flexes while she folds clothes and Dia can’t help but look. So maybe Mari was more right about that, but Dia wasn’t about to admit anything all of a sudden. Kanan was still committing a criminal offense, fashion crimes of the highest caliber.

Speaking of looking, while Dia averts her eyes from looking too much at Kanan she catches Eli in the corner of her eye instead. Was she looking over to the Oharrero Rocher’s again?

‘’Just keep working, I’ll be right back.’’ And with that Dia walks over to Eli at the counter.

‘’You know they catch you staring when you look over, right?” Dia doesn’t sugar coat it, catching Eli by surprise.

If Eli was a cat, Dia thinks her reaction would best be described as one of these cat videos where you scare them with a cucumber.

“I-What-- uhm- I mean,... excuse me?” Eli stammers a bit, before collecting herself.

Dia picks up her tea again and takes a sip before she gestures to the little bag of chocolates.

“Those are from the girls at the counter. They catch you staring a lot and asked me why, I assumed it was because you’re so fond of chocolate so they gave me some for you to try.’’ Dia eyes Eli carefully, “They’re for you, by the way.”

Eli’s face makes her look more and more like the holiday season that’s just around the corner. It’s so red it could easily be mistaken for a Santa Claus outfit by now. Dia has to admit she’s slightly amused by this.

‘’Thank you.’’ Is all Eli manages to say as the embarrassment is evident all over.

“Is this why you stare over there?” Dia asks, one of her eyebrows lifting is suspicion, “They do sell a lot of great treats, you should check it out sometime.”

Her manager says nothing and Dia wonders if she perhaps has said something wrong. Did she make assumptions? Eli didn’t exactly confirm if she was staring there solely for the sweets and treats. The brunette’s mind races through anxious thoughts as she waits for some sort of reaction from Eli. All the blonde ends up doing in the end is clearing her throat.

“I’m sure they do sell some great sweets. I admit, I’ve never tried them.” She speaks in such a professional yet calm tone, the only reason Dia really realizes it’s not the usual friendly conversation they have is because Eli seems so stiff as she speaks.

“You know, I think breaks are spent there a little too often, yeah? But if we’re attracting a lot of attention from it’s employees, maybe we should hold back or pause going there for awhile.”

Even Kanan is shooting them thinking looks now as she keeps folding the last of the pile. And Dia knows something is up when even Kanan doesn’t buy it. What’s even weirder is why now? Dia’s been visiting the place on and off on her shifts for quite some time. It’s clearly more than just the chocolates that Eli seems to be intrigued by from Oharrero Rocher’s. Dia really can’t help it anymore. Her curiosity is Piqued™ now.

“I mean, I don’t think I go there too often. Usually it’s just to talk to a friend real quick but-” Dia starts, before Kanan interrupts her.

“When was the last time you did that when I was there?” She says it so soft, like a hurt puppy. Dia knows its fake but before she gets a say Eli is talking again.

“That’s right! I know you use your break for that but it would be rude going and not getting anything right? So maybe every time you go over you should buy a little something so that they get business.’’

Dia doesn’t say anything as her lips form a small line instead. What a 180. First Eli’s saying they should pause giving the shop business, now she’s saying it’s rude to go without buying a thing? The fact Eli can’t make up her mind just makes this even more embarrassing for her. Dia feels a bit of pity.  

“Even if I just wanna drop something off for my girlfriend or say hi during my break?” Kanan questions, which makes Eli’s points seem even more ridiculous.

Eli thinks for a moment and Dia is sure a small light bulb actually manifests above her head when Eli speaks again.

“Here, for every moment you have to go over there during your break, I’ll give you $5 to get me chocolates. But you can only be there for about five minutes as well. Hows that sound?”

Dia holds Eli in high regards, and she truly idolizes and admires Eli a lot. Probably more than anyone in the world, but this is the second most ridiculous thing that’s come out of Eli’s mouth today. (The single most stupid thing being complimenting Kanan for her outfit.) Now what was she hiding? But if Eli would prefer they do it like that, well Dia wouldn’t object to it. (Besides, there were benefits to this too.. She gets to order her green tea for free from now on.)  

So Dia nods slowly in a silent agreement.

“If that’s what you’d like, I’m sure Kanan and I can do that.” Dia looks to Kanan for a confirmation and the dark haired girl nods with a crooked smile.

“It’s settled then! We’ll start it on our next shifts, alright girls?” Eli says it with such enthusiasm that Dia wonders about, but she decides not to second guess it.

If this is what Eli wants to do, she won’t question it.

Christmas time has arrived at the mall, and as per christmas tradition at Chacchi’s, employee’s are given permission to dawn their nicest christmas wears. Nicest is the key word here. Dia’s ready to die.

Kanan’s first couple weeks of training have been going great and as the days went by, Dia was sure she was going to get the hang of wearing clothes with some fashion dos instead of fashion don’ts. But then december happened, and with december comes christmas. Which brings Kanan’s famous and most atrocious of clothing: the christmas themed sweaters.

Of all the years Dia has known Kanan, she’s expected the best of the worst christmas sweaters. She remembers the one with the giant comical reindeer antlers, the ones with the actual light up christmas tree lights. She remembers fondly when Kanan won an ugly christmas sweater contest with adding ornaments and tinsel to a hand knitted christmas tree coloured sweater. All of these had been so ugly they were endearing.

She wishes those had prepared her for the american football team christmas sweater. Dia literally had to google what a Miami dolphin was. She has no idea how Kanan ended up with the ugliest teal and orange sweater but she can assume it has something to do with her girlfriend. There dolphin on it is really what brings this awful sweater together though. Kanan wears it with pride and likes to gloat about it but Dia really wishes she wouldn’t. There’s nothing to be proud of- she could get an official jersey and it would look so much nicer than this thing, but she knows that part of it’s charm for Kanan is the fact that this one is specifically for christmas.

“Ayase-san,” Dia practically weeps, draping herself on the counter,“I realize we both have very different tastes in fashion, but we have to talk about that- that thing Kanan is wearing. You can’t possibly be okay with that. You can’t.”

Eli looks at Dia sympathetically, but there’s a playful look in her eye that tells Dia that yes, yes she can be okay with this. Maybe even more than okay. Eli encourages it.

“Sorry Dia, I think it’s kinda cute. Fetching, really.”

Of course Eli would say it’s fetch. Dia puts her face into the counter and groans. Kanan, oblivious to the conversation, peers over Dia and laughs.

“Kinda sounds like you need a tea, Dia.”

It’s said as a joke but Dia pulls her head off of the counter and stares at Eli. She knows Eli can put two and two together, see that unasked question within her pleading gaze. The blonde chuckles and shakes her head.

“Sure, alright Dia.” she sticks her hand into her pocket and pulls out a small bill and holds it out to Dia, “Bring me back something good, alright?”

Dia takes it greedily and promises only the best as she says goodbye to looking at that thing and hello to looking at better things- namely, Mari Ohara who waits for her at the front of the counter of Oharrero Rocher. Alongside her is Nozomi, filling up some of the sweets in the display case and humming along to the christmas song that plays on the radio. Upon seeing Dia she places the tray down on the counter behind her and approaches the till. She flashes Dia a warm smile.

“Welcome back Kurosawa-san! Here for your usual?” She asks in a chipper tone. Dia returns her smile with one of her own and nods, already handing her the cash.

“Yes please Toujou-san. Ah- and chocolates for Ayase-san again. The same as last time.”

As the customer Mari helps exits the store, she weasels her way into the conversation by planting her elbows down on the workcounter and glancing up to Dia with a cheeky grin.

“Does her dia et consist of only chocolate or something? Why not try the macarons or a danish? Or one of our christmas cookies! Tis the season after all~!’’

The brunette opens her mouth to object to Mari’s suggestion but she pauses before declining. Maybe Eli would appreciate a change up- she has been getting the same variety of chocolates ever since they started this. The pastries are always a delight to have, especially if you’re looking for something a little different than pure chocolate. Glancing at the christmas cookies makes Dia tempted to buy some for herself- there’s various little tree shaped cookies, santa hats, a few reindeer and some gingerbread people dressed in christmas themed sweaters. There’s even some present and stocking shaped cookies! They went all out with the shapes by the looks of it.

“That’s actually a very good idea Mari. Maybe Eli would like something other than the chocolates.” She nods a bit as she says this, liking the idea more as she speaks each word.

Without any prompting Mari grabs a medium sized box, reaches into the display case for the tray of christmas cookies and uses her arm to swipe from halfway down the tray directly into the box. Dia watches and her brows furrow as the blonde decides to reach even further onto the tray to swipe even more into the box. Dia looks to Nozomi but finds her attention is on fixing up her tea and she’s oblivious to what Mari’s done.

“There! Now you’ve got enough to share with the whole store!” Mari says, holding the box out to show her all the cookies.

Dia has to admit- the trees look the best but the broken santa hats have their own charm. She reaches in and grabs one, taking a bite as Mari laughs and closes the box up for her. Dia’s eyes light up- the cookie is seriously delicious. The cookie itself is subtly sweet- perfect for accompanying tea and coffee- but the icing adds not only beautiful decoration, but wraps the cookies light sweetness with its sugary sweet coating to make it perfection.

Basically, Dia’s got a thing for these cookies. She hopes Eli doesn’t mind sharing. At this thought Nozomi finishes up with her tea and places it on the counter for her.

“Here’s your tea, Kurosawa-san!”

Noticing a small line has begun to form, Dia quickly closes the cookie box up and thanks both Nozomi and Mari before headed out of the store. She walks with confidence across the way back to Chacci’s and can’t help but smirk when she sees Kanan and Eli looking her way. Kanan with a mildly surprised but pleased expression on her features, and Eli with utter confusion. She knows it’s because of the box. It has to be.

She steps over to Eli and gestures to the box.

“Mari decided you’ve had enough chocolate and gave the three of us a ton of cookies. They’re not bad- I think you’ll enjoy them.” She gives Eli a warm smile as she places the box behind the counter. Eli returns it, but there’s something to it that causes Dia to feel mild concern.

“Thank you, Dia.” She says in her same chipper tone.

Dia decides not to question it, but as she moves back towards the station she worked at before complaining at the counter, she hears it. A soft, forlorn sounding sigh, escaping her managers lips. Her eyebrows furrow and she almost turns to look, but she catches Kanan’s gaze. That vivid, dark amethyst gaze, so strong and piercing yet soft and gentle (in a way only Kanan’s eyes could express, really.) Looks like Kanan’s heard it too and could be thinking the same things she is. The blue haired girl decides to venture over to Dia’s station and help her out.

“Listen,” she speaks in a low tone, its soft yet deep, a voice meant only for her to hear, “That rule she made is a little weird, don’t you think? Don’t you think she’d want to leave the store and get chocolates for herself instead of getting us to do it?”

Dia hopes her blush isn’t showing much from how Kanan speaks. She knows Kanan has a girlfriend. She knows that Kanan’s girlfriend is one of her best friends. She’s very clear that both of them would love her to acknowledge they’ve been flirting with her, and maybe they have been, but Dia’s not so sure it’s serious. She’s not sure if they’re even aware that Dia has thoughts like these with them, but she’s sure they aren’t. She’s positive their flirtatious comments are only a joke anyway.

So she pushes all these thoughts away and focuses on the task at hand- figuring out what Eli’s deal is. She focuses on Kanan’s comment and nods slowly, putting the pieces together just as Kanan had. It is pretty weird that the manager doesn’t get the two of them to cover the store for five minutes while she goes to choose her own confections- at first Dia assumed it was so the manager would continue to be in the store at all time, but even with Christmas approaching there was still a lot of down time for them between customers in the beginning and ends of their shifts, and Eli did get her own breaks as well. So why hadn’t she used those times to go into Oharerro Rocher’s herself? Her brows furrow.

“You make a great point Kanan,” She replies in a soft hushed tone, “I hadn’t actually questioned that until now-”

“-And, and!” Kanan interrupts her a little to excitedly to bring up another point she desperately needs to convey, “She never eats more than one chocolate per shift! I’ve seen it. She’ll delve into the bags, pull out one and then she kinda savours it? Like, she’ll take a small bite and put the rest down and come back to it later. It’s like she’s full but forcing herself to eat some!”

Now Dia frowns and looks at Kanan with a confused expression.

“I’ve seen her inhale a chocolate bar brought from her little sister during one of our long shifts. That doesn’t sound like Ayase-san at all. Not to compare, but that woman is attracted to chocolate almost as much as you’re attracted to the ocean.”

Kanan laughs lightly at that and hums, understanding what Dia means.

“So you have to agree, all of this is pretty suspicious, right?”

Dia glances over to Eli, who is helping out a middle age woman and her daughter by the handbags. She has that mask of a customer service smile as she talks with them. Dia squints as she considers all of Kanan’s points. She turns back to her task, folding up a pair of jeans and focusing on her thoughts. She can see Kanan idly helping her but still waiting for a response, and its after they’ve finished fixing the jean piles that Dia speaks again.

“I think you’re onto something here Kanan. I’m not sure what- but I think we can figure it out.”

Kanan’s eyes light up and she grins that adorable half grin she wears when Dia surprises her with an idea. Dia averts her gaze before she gets too lost in it. It’s too charming and blinding, if she stares too long she’s definitely not going to be able to focus on their job.

With that a customer walks over to the two of them, inquiring about prices of some accessories. Kanan, albeit a bit too eagerly, happily walks with the customer to the display, leaving  Dia alone to her thoughts and with other clothes piles to fold. She turns back to her work, thinking about their conversation and wondering, just what exactly it is that makes Eli so keen on getting sweets from the shop if she barely eats them to begin with.

It’s a mystery she’s determined to find the answer to.

“One green tea and a bag of chocolates, coming up. Unless you wanna add anything else today?” Nico lifts her eyebrow as Dia stands in a spot she’s become all too familiar with.

“Yes. Tell the customer wearing that obnoxious blue and pink thing that I can no longer enter this store if she’s in it. I’m banning myself from your goods.” Dia says it so monotone, so wooden. She’s dead on the inside and Nico can see every last bit of life dying inside her gaze alone. How many years of suffering and eternal torment has she been through?

“You hear that Mari? Tell your girlfriend she needs to get out or we’re going to lose business.” Nico peers over Dia to glare at the blonde and her girlfriend, who are sitting together at a table not too far from the counter.

Mari gasps in mock offense, holding a hand to her chest and looking a bit too similar to a certain blonde Disney Channel star when she didn’t get the part for the spring musical.

“But I just got that for her last week! It’s charming like mine, no?” She says, pushing herself out of her chair. Even her hair does a flip to add flare, like slow motion, a L'Oréal commercial was happening before Dia’s very own eyes. And Dia absolutely hated it. But then the sweater comes into view. And Dia wishes for the commercial to come back on again instead.

At a first glance it looks tasteful. It’s red and white, with a lot of snowflakes and little x designs and patterns. Very christmas-y. On the back in english is the name of the iconic american pop star sensation, Britney. The girl Dia remembers Mari having a kind of mini phase for (A phase she realizes that Mari never quite grew out of. Not that she blames her, really. Britney Spears has good music.) However on the front, in english again, it says the words “it’s Xmas b*tch.” Which, as Dia thinks it’s witty and a good reference for her song, it’s not appropriate for the public.

And then there was Kanan’s atrocious sweater. Not only does it have the most unrealistic looking cartoon Santa Dia has ever seen, it reads “Fa la la la Flamingo.” Santa’s sitting in an innertube wearing shorts and a blue tank top which- come on, anyone who even knows even a little bit about Santa knows his signature colour is RED. Not only that, but the blue and the pink are so bright and jarring, it’s hard to believe this sweater is christmas related. She hates it. She absolutely hates it. She especially hates that somehow, some fucking how, Mari and Kanan made the sweater work. She looks so good. The sweater is so ugly but it looks so god damn good on her. Dia wants to scream and shout and let it all out.

Dia hates her life and her friends she may be pinning after. She really does. They’re the worst- hotties with ugly sweaters that make her want to gouge her eyes out while never blinking at the exact same time. They were like candy, (or rather eye candy). Wrapped in these awful colours and patterns, yet they made her mouth water because they were delicious.

“Absolutely not. Literally, please, go change. For the sake of my eyes.” Nico isn’t shy with her comment and Dia, honestly, has never felt closer to anyone she sort of considers an acquaintance. Every interaction with the short girl just adds to Dia’s list of how much she can relate to her.

Kanan wears a smug expression on her face. Much like the cat that has gotten the cream- her expression says it all. She’s a paying customer! If she wants to stay there and finish her beverage with the daughter of the owner, she is more than welcome to. Kanan has immunity.

At this point Nozomi comes over, chocolates in hand and ready for Dia to bring to Eli, but Dia lifts her hand to deny the gift. Nozomi and Nico look puzzled and the former girl keeps ahold of the bag of chocolates. The confusion rubs off on Kanan and Mari, who watch with equally confused expressions.

“Toujou-san,” Dia states her name in a surprisingly stern tone, causing her to perk up a little, “Could you do me a favour?”

Nozomi looks a little shocked and even more confused.

“I guess?” she tests, looking to Nico who shrugs. She shakes her head and changes her answer a little, “I mean, sure? What do ya need?”

“When you get your break, could you bring these chocolates over to me at the store? I’m having some suspicions about Ayase-san and if my hunches are correct, I’d need your help to test it.”

Dia immediately notices the way Nico’s eyes look past her and towards Mari. She can feel Mari staring at her in the exact same way; confusion and curiosity. She can hear Kanan’s soft gasp and Dia knows that Kanan is catching onto her idea and putting the puzzle pieces together. She might not know Dia’s plan exactly, but she’s got a hunch.

Nozomi’s got a curious and playful look in her eyes. She doesn’t know why, but she’s excited to find out. She agrees and tells Dia she’ll see her the moment she starts her break, and with that Dia says goodbye to her friends and heads back to the store to Eli, who seems to have gotten a few customers in the time she was gone. Dia puts her tea down and immediately gets to work.

The moment she get a chance, Eli realizes that Dia hadn’t brought sweets with her. Dia doesn’t say anything, pretending to help out an older woman shopping for her teenage granddaughter, but she does notice the little bit of a downcast look Eli has before she shrugs and continues with her shift. It confirms one suspicion she and Kanan had- Eli is certainly not into the sweets.

Some time passes and Dia’s been so busy, she’s completely forgotten about the favour she asked of Nozomi. Eli too has been busy and hasn’t thought to ask about the chocolate she forgot to bring. Dia’s tea sits with only a couple sips taken out of it, now cold and forgotten behind the counter. She’s glad it’s been so busy and the time has flown by, but she notices a little too late that Nozomi is on her way into the store.

She walks in, passing by a couple customers as they browse and makes her way over to Dia. Dia notices that she’s had time to change out of her work clothes- her hair is no longer up in a messy bun and is instead down in two twin tails. She wears a christmas themed sweater and Dia feels blessed seeing its decent . A polar bear wearing a santa hat- you can’t go wrong with that even a little bit.

Before Dia can think about it Nozomi approaches her with the bag of chocolates in hand.

“Kurosawa-san! Here you are- the sweets you left at the shop.” Nozomi holds them out with a grin, happy she could have helped her out.

It’s then Dia see’s it. She see’s Eli’s eyes glued to them- practically dying to see what happens with their interaction. Her customers at her till have left the store and Eli has nothing to keep her busy since the other browsing customers have left too. Eli has nothing to distract her but these two and Dia swears she can feel Eli’s blue gaze boring itself into her, not daring to look away.

That’s when Dia pushes through with her plan. The plan she realises she didn’t think through as much as she probably should’ve.

“Oh! Thank you, Toujou-san.” Dia stiffly says. “I will just grab those sweets from you no-”

Without warning, Dia knocks over the whole display of folded sweatshirts onto the ground, like some offended cat you just can’t take your eyes off. Next up she hurriedly shoves herself into the table and practically hurls herself and all of the folded clothes onto the floor. The clothes flies everywhere and she makes sure she lands face first into the biggest pile she can find in the span of 0.5 seconds. And then she waits, counting down the three seconds slowly in her head. In those three seconds, Nozomi steps back with a gasp. Eli makes some kind of awkward noise, a customer is about to enter the shop only to immediately turn around and walk the complete opposite direction. Kanan and Mari had somehow made it behind the corner of a huge christmas decoration, watching all of this just past the doorway and at the end of those three seconds, Dia pushes herself up off of the floor.

“Oh no! It seems I have tripped and knocked over this display. How clumsy of me.” It sounds so fake. So absolutely terribly staged- Dia’s voice sounds like google translate as it reads the wikipedia article of arctic seals translated from french to italian to german back to french again out loud. “I’m so sorry, Toujou-san, I have to clean this up right away.”

Nozomi looks a lot more than amused.

“Would you like any he-”

“Oh no! No no, it’s okay. I can take care of this no problem.” Dia’s reply has little to no emotion, Dia finally sounds as dead as she feels inside when she’s around Kanan’s christmas sweaters. She gestures to the counter not far away, “Please don’t waste your time waiting for me to fold these- could you give my coworker Ayase-san the chocolates? She’ll be happy to hold onto them as I clean up this big mess I have made.”

Nozomi, not wanting to disturb Dia, decides to do just that. Mari and Kanan are practically inside the store now, hiding behind a window display, peeking out from behind it as they watch Nozomi move to the counter to Eli. Eli looks confused, flustered, surprised and scared all at the same time. She opens her mouth to greet Nozomi but nothing comes out. She closes it, then stares for a moment. If Nozomi has noticed, she says nothing. (Oh, she has, Nozomi’s gaydar has never beeped this loudly in her life.)

“Hey, I, uh. Well, I have these for Kurosawa-san. She left them at the shop earlier so I decided to bring them to her but she seems a little busy? Could I leave them with you?” She asks with a small, uncertain smile.

And there it is. They both look over to her and Dia quickly pretends to fix her folding, a little too robotically for any real person, but it deters them enough to look away. Dia, goes back to watching their interaction. Eli’s mouth opens and closes like a gaping fish. She can’t form a coherent reply. She watches Eli nod first, before saying a small ‘of course!’ and taking the bag from Nozomi. Her eyes are practically bulging and to Dia, it looks as if Eli is speaking with a local celebrity of some sort. She’s starstruck.

Dia has to hide a tiny smirk forming on her lips as the lightbulb above her head finally lights and she understands. The puzzle is complete and on top of the puzzle is an image with Eli’s face in her hands because she’s been caught red handed fawning over the cute girl who works at the chocolate shop across the hall.

“T-thank you very much Miss..?” Eli, finally able to form real words, speaks in a slightly shaky voice as she asks for her name.

“Nozomi! Toujou Nozomi!” the other girl replies, introducing herself happily.

Eli’s eyes light up like a christmas tree and there’s a small hint of pink on her cheeks as she smiles. Dia pats herself on the back and mentally congratulates herself on her suspicions being correct. She’s throwing a party right now, there’s an imaginary banner that reads “You did it! You were right!” and it gets even wilder as Kanan lifts Dia up in her big strong arms, and Mari comes up and embraces her too, and then they both kiss her on the cheeks to congratulate her on her correct assumption and the plan to prove it. She feels extremely proud of herself.

So proud, she realizes, that she forgot to pay attention to their conversation as her daydream carried on in her head. Nozomi’s pushed herself away from the counter and Eli holds onto the bag of chocolates. The violet haired girl gives a small wave and beams.

“You should stop by the shop sometime! Nicocchi, Maricchi and I don’t bite~ Kurosawa-san can confirm that~”

With that said, Nozomi exits the shop and heads back to work. Eli watches her leave for a minute before she practically falls back behind the counter, putting the chocolates down and staring at the counter in disbelief. A gay breakdown, it seems. Dia looks away from her to Mari and Kanan with a knowing smirk, and she looks on surprised as she watches Mari handing Kanan a few bills. Kanan pockets them with a grin and gives a big thumbs up to Dia before they both sneak out of Chacci’s display window and head back to the Oharrero Rocher's too.

‘This played out better than I could imagine.’ She thinks to herself as she finishes folding the last of the clothes she hurled onto the floor.

In a couple hours following, Dia’s shift ends and she heads back over to the chocolate shop. Nozomi has gone home, her shift being over, and it’s only Nico working for the final hour. Eli’s let Dia go early and has decided to finish the closing shift herself and Dia felt like another tea would be nice for the journey home.

As she waits for Nico to fix up her tea she notices Eli pausing at the door way. She glances over subtly and notices Eli’s staring at Nico with a soft gaze before continuing to the opposite side of the store. Dia quirks her eyebrow upward but turns her attention to Nico as she places her tea down. Dia thanks her and picks it up, taking a small sip from the lid and turning to watch Eli again.

“How many times does Ayase-san glance here during your shifts?” Dia asks Nico, bringing her tea down and not taking her gaze off Chacchi’s.

Nico shrugs and leans on the counter.

“Honestly, I’ve lost count. I don’t catch her staring as often as Nozomi does, but when I do she looks so dumbfounded. Kinda like she thinks she was staring too long and that I could tell, you know?” Nico props her head up in the palm of her hand with her elbow on the counter and looks at Kanan and Mari, “What about you Mari? She look over here much when you’re working?”

“Barely!” Mari sighs and leans back in her chair, “I’m looking there allll the time and she barely glances over when it’s just me in the store.”

“You’re looking for Dia, aren’t you?” Kanan pokes fun at Mari and Mari huffs before smiling.

“Who wouldn’t?! But I’m also looking at you~”

Dia blushes and shakes her head, trying to ignore their comments and go back to the main topic of conversation.

“Yazawa-san, would you say it’s fair to assume she looks over here for you and Toujou-san?” Dia lifts her tea and takes another small sip of it, looking to Nico for her answer.

Nico blinks once, pondering it. Then twice, lifting herself off the counter and raising her eyebrows. She nods a bit as the idea itself seems plausible.

“Well I can understand why she’d look over here for me of course. I’m a hot commodity that only so many people get to have.”

“You mean only Nozomi?” Mari jokes and Nico glares daggers at her boss.

“I have and have had other girlfriends!” She objects with a frown.

“Wait, have?” Kanan says while Mari whistles innocently, “I thought you were only dating Toujou-san?”

“I mean, yeah, we’re dating. Sort of. We’re in an open relationship.” Nico says it like it’s something simple. Dia raises her eyebrows at Nico and stares expectantly. The Black haired girl notices and elaborates.

“Nozomi and I have been in a relationship since high school. We love each other loads and probably always will, but as our relationship went on we kinda mellowed out and wanted a bit more than the other could offer. So we decided to do this together and it’s been pretty great. So far I’m the only one between us to go on other dates and stuff but it’s been nothing serious. Not yet anyway.”

With that said Nico glances over at Chacchi’s with a small grin, watching Eli for a change. Dia watches her and can see it- that same little glint in her eye that Kanan has for Mari (A gaze that, she has to admit, she may have seen directed at her once or twice too.)

She has to admit, she’s a bit envious. Nico and Nozomi knew what they wanted from their relationship and were comfortable making the choice to date other people while still having what they do. It’s probably taken a lot of communicating for them to get to that step. She’s very envious, but she admires it a lot too. She wonders if she’ll be able to find that some day in a relationship.

“Sounds kinda similar to me and Kanan, doesn’t it~?” Mari quips, standing up from her chair and walking over to the counter, “Except we don’t really have too many other people we want to date. Just one.”

She throws a wink Dia’s way and Dia does her best to make sure Mari knows it’s ignored. The brunette literally closes her eyes, but she knows Mari can see her ears burning. She almost wants to curse out loud. Instead, she grabs Nico’s attention.

“Well, if today’s experiment proved anything it’s that I’ve got good news for you and Toujou-san. A positive suspicion I’ve had about Ayase-san for a few weeks now…”

Chapter Text

The halls of the mall are semi empty as Eli Ayase enters the mall. She arrives early that morning to get the store open and running for the day. It’s another busy day for the christmas season and she cannot afford to be unprepared. Thanks to the other manager’s specific and wonderful closing routine, Eli knows that the store will be in tip top shape. All she and Kanan will have to do is a walk around of the store and setting up the tills and they’ll be set to open the doors for the business day.

As she’s walking down the halls on her way to Chacci’s she finds said co-worker is an early bird today too, thankfully. She smiles a bit grateful for that- her last part timer that worked opens with her was a late riser and was almost always late for their shift. Kanan’s the perfect opposite of them and it adds to her list of “reasons I enjoy working with Kanan Matsuura.”

Kanan stands in front of the store with a friend, and as Eli walks closer she can tell it’s the blonde girl from the chocolate store. What was her name again? Mar- Mariah? No, that’s the one that sings the christmas song, what was Kanan’s girlfriend named again- Mari! The one Dia says she’s dating!

Eli feels sheepishly embarrassed for forgetting that little tidbit for a hot minute.

“Kanan, and uh, Mari, good morning!” Eli smiles as she walks up to the couple who turns around to greet her in return.

“Good morning, Eli!” Kanan returns the smile, and Mari seems to beam at the sound of her name.

“Buongiorno!"

Eli gives herself a small mental pat on the back for remembering Mari’s name correctly. While they aren’t exactly friends, they’ve made small talk a couple times in the past and Eli doesn’t want to seem rude to someone she considers an acquaintance at least.

She notices Mari’s dressed up in the familiar purple uniform of Oharrero’s and takes note that she’s probably waiting for her coworker before opening up the shop. With that she glances over Kanan’s outfit and sure enough, it’s another keeper for sure. The green and red horizontal stripes of her overalls? pajamaralls? They looked so comfortable, and combined with a tiny hint of tree lights and that tight fitting white t-shirt underneath its a deadly holiday combination of both sexy and cute. Eli really needs to steal some fashion tips- this girl? You've heard of elf on the shelf, now get ready for Kanan's passion for fashion. She could probably rock a paper bag if she added some kind of festive decoration to it.

“Ready to open in a short moment?” Eli asks with her polite smile.

“Oh yeah! Gimme a sec.” Kanan grins and turns to Mari to say her goodbyes before they both get to work.

She busies herself with unlocking the sliding glass panes to open the store up for her and Kanan. As she does, she ends up a little closer to them and can overhear some words being said. Mari laughs a bit with Kanan and pulls away.

“Okay, I’ll invite Nozomi and Nico today and I’ll let you know if they’re gunna come, okay~? See if you can get Dia on board. Love you babe~” Mari gives her girlfriend a small wave before walking to the chocolate shop.

Eli hears those names mentioned and her curiosity goes from zero to a hundred in an instant. Inviting Nozomi and Nico? Get Dia on board? What could they be doing that involved her crushes and her other coworker?

Well she guesses it could be a lot considering Kanan and Mari are Dia’s best friends. It’s probably nothing more than a get together with friends. Deciding it’s not worth lingering on the thought, Eli pushes it to the back of her mind and gets into the workplace mindset.

She and Kanan enter and commence their walk around- they have fifteen minutes until the mall is officially open and so it’s up to them to make sure the store is presentable and ready for the rush of customers purchasing things for christmas. She realizes it hasn’t been that often that she’s got to work on shifts with Kanan and her alone, especially since most of the time Kanan was scheduled to join her and Dia on shifts. Today it’s the other way around, since Dia asked to come in later thanks to a planned brunch with her little sister and her girlfriends.

Eli decides to form a bit of small talk and get to know Kanan a bit more.

“So,” She starts, catching Kanan’s attention from the wall of expensive zip up sweaters, “How long have you known Dia?”

Kanan has a small hint of surprise in her eyes as her smile widens from the question.

“Grade school! We grew up together alongside our mutual friend-- my girlfriend, Mari.”

Kanan says it as if it’s one of the best things in the world and it warms Eli’s heart.

“I see.” Eli smiles warmly as she begins to count the till, making sure the change matches up with the required $150 that is meant to be left inside of it at the end of the night.

Kanan fixes up a couple of sweaters on the hangers and decides to keep speaking, wanting to confide more to her elder coworker.

“ Dia is our best friend. To be honest, we’ve kinda been crushing on her for a long time now. Even when we started dating- we’ve always thought it’d be great if she could be apart of it too.”

Eli pauses her counting and her gaze immediately goes to the navy haired girl. Did she hear that correctly? The both of them have a crush on her?! Now this is some good, juicy love triangle gossip if she’d ever seen it. And Eli had seen a lot, on the big screen that is. Except it’s more like the triangle is Kanan and Mari mutually loving each other but also really loving someone else- So it’s less of a standard love triangle and more of an amazing polyamorous one. Like the ones she can’t watch on the big screen.

Eli decides that this is the perfect opportunity to pry.

“Have you guys thought about.. If she’s into dating two people?” Eli has to think about her question and Kanan seems a little. Disheartened.

“Sorta. Well, Mari made a lot of jokes about it in the beginning to the point where Dia doesn’t exactly believe us when we try to talk more about it, you know? She tries to joke less and be more serious these days, but because she’s so aloof and funny, Dia doesn’t really take it seriously.” Kanan laughs sheepishly and Eli nods, kinda understanding.

“Well, what about you?” Eli asks curiously, “Have you tired asking her out too?”

Kanan side steps a little and rubs the back of her neck, blushing.

“I uh. I try sometimes. When I show off- she gets reallll flustered around me cause she thinks I’m hot. But it’s like-” She pauses and laughs again, “I guess I’m not as brave as Mari and can’t really say it outloud like she can. I want to-- I want to a lot. I can say it to Mari but when i try to say the words “I like you” To Dia I just-”

That’s when Eli sees it. The look of a lovesick puppy. Kanan’s cheeks heat up in a way Eli’s never seen outside of interactions with her girlfriend every now and again. It makes her heart grow at least three sizes bigger. She’s rooting for these three! She can’t help it- she might not know Mari but if what Kanan says is true she can only imagine she wears the same lovestruck gaze Kanan does when talking about Dia.

“If it means anything, I think hearing it from you might make Dia take it a little more seriously.” Eli finishes up counting the cash and smiles reassuringly at Kanan, “She’s very fond of you, despite your fashion choices.”

Kanan laughs heartily at Eli’s teasing.

“One day, she’ll join us. And we’ll get that photo proof and Mari will have it blown up and framed inside of our cottage by the sea.”

Eli laughs. Damn- this girl really thought her future out with them. It’s literally the cutest thing she’s heard all day.

“What about you, Eli?”

“Hm? What about me?”

Kanan walks to the counter and leans on it, grinning up at her cheekily.

“So, anyone special you got your eye on?”

Kanan looks super mischievous and Eli hopes her cheeks haven’t tinted pink(they totally have.)

“Not- no, not exactly.” She replies, glancing away from her to the accessories rack.

Kanan waggles her eyebrows. Eli closes her eyes, feeling her gazes bore through her. She’s starting to understand what Dia means about Kanan being a handful in her own charming way.

“There’s some- well, a couple people who I’ve been interested in but.. Well, I have no time for it, really, and I don’t think it’d get further than acquaintanceship anyway.”

Excuses. All of them are excuses. Eli’s just a coward who can’t approach attractive possibly lesbian ladies. Unsurprisingly, Kanan can see through all of them like Elle Woods in the court, Eli is gay and European. She pushes herself off the counter and walks over to a display closer to Eli’s line of sight.

“What makes you think that? Have you ever tried to hangout with them or get their phone numbers?”

Eli can feel the air sucked out of her lungs at the idea. Kanan assumes too much of her- she couldn’t do that until they were at least a level 5 acquaintanceship and to get there would require Eli to actually take up Nozomi on her offer and visit the shop while she’s working (which, she has admittedly, not tried yet.) She laughs dryly.

“The only time I’m ever social is when I’m at work here with you girls. And well, I guess with my little sister.” She mumbles under her breath, “and sometimes my little sisters girlfriend..”

Kanan kinda pities her. Slightly. Eli looked like a functional lesbian when they first met, but now that she thinks about it? Disaster lesbian. The Eli peg on her mental chart of lesbians has moved and been solidly placed in that category.

“I’m kinda surprised! You look like the type of girl who would be a social butterfly, or at least someone involved in social activities.”

Eli shrugs a little.

“Looks can be deceiving. I was sorta cold and distant in school as a kid, and by the time I got to college I just sort of. Had no idea how to communicate informally around my peers. I’d get invited to go out to parties and stuff but the one time I went back in high

school, it just felt awful. Super overwhelming and scary. I hadn’t really been to a party outside of family get togethers and it was all so different.”

There’s a twitch to Kanan’s eyebrow as she listens intently to Eli.

“But I don’t really mind. Parties aren’t my scene, I’m okay with that.”

It’s only five minutes until they’re open for business when Eli takes a quick look at her watch, so she decides that’s a good spot to end their conversation. Saved by the bell-- just in time.

“Five minutes left, let’s get ready to open the doors.”

“Ah, yes of course! I’m gonna turn on the radio, do you want AM or FM?”

Kanan walks behind the counter and picks up the small portable radio, watching as Eli goes to open the doors for the christmas rush that was coming their way. This plan could be a little harder than expected.

Eli folds some new sweaters that came in when Dia walks into the store ready for her shift. It’s just as she predicted- Dia walks straight up to Kanan with disgust plastered all over her face when she sees the girls attire for the day.

“Kanan Matsuura, what in the world are you wearing!? This is Chacci’s, not Santa’s workshop! ”

Eli just can’t help it. With the new information she got this morning she has to see this through. She’s made it a personal goal to try to witness any and all growing feelings Dia could potentially have for her childhood friends. She folds the next sweater a bit slower to keep up with their small conversation.

“Oh come on, I’m wearing a normal t-shirt today!” Kanan laughs as Dia’s face grows more red.

“You know very well that’s not what I’m talking about.”

Despite how much Dia protests Eli can tell that she’s never really genuinely upset. It was amusing watching the two of them before, but now? Even more so, and the blush that dusts over Dia’s cheeks when Kanan is being her adorable self in those outfits makes Eli smile from ear to ear behind the stack of sweaters she’s folding where no one can see. Kanan and Mari were going to have another girlfriend in like, no time at all. Eli is already betting herself $10 that the two of them will succeed before the new year.

Eli folds the last sweater, and once she’s done a customer grabs her attention. A young woman, only a few years older than herself needs help with finding a couple christmas gifts. So Eli takes her to a couple different sections before they both land on the ‘Merry Chaccimas’ one. They have some of their bestsellers in that section, and Eli puts on her best customer service voice as she recommends the different fits to the woman.

The woman leaves the store happy with two of the higher quality blouses they sell in cute christmas designs and Eli surveys the store again to see Kanan and Dia had taken their conversation closer to the back of the store, sorting new products and pricing them. But what was this? Eli squints to see them better and-- oh my. They were standing much closer to each other all of a sudden.

She sadly can’t hear what they’re talking about all the way in the back of the store, so she decides to ignore it for now while she checks up on the counter. There’s some assorted clutter there and it’s a nice thing to focus on. She’s in the middle of tidying up the wrapping paper and ribbon when Kanan’s voice travels far enough to reach her ears.

“Is the Kurosawa Dia really going to turn down a challenge? I thought she could do pretty much anything.”

Did Eli just hear that right? What was this? Her ears perk up and she looks over to the two of them again. Her eyes as big as silver plates and ears tuned in like a radio for that juicy hot gossip.

They’ve moved a bit closer to where Eli was standing. Dia looks more than personally offended by Kanan’s statement, and then there’s Kanan with a smug confident grin on her face like she just won something. What was going down between them? Eli can only make blind guesses. Maybe Kanan finally confessed? Maybe she was going to confess? Wait Dia just finished putting away a pair of pants before turning her whole body completely towards Kanan, stepping completely into her personal space. Eli screams in silence as Dia lifts her hand closer to Kanan’s face. The tension, the suspense and finally the kiss-

Dia’s hand stops at Kanan’s shoulder before she jabs her very pointedly in the shoulder with her finger. It must’ve been pretty hard to, even Kanan who’s shoulders looks like they’re hard as marble winces slightly at that attack.

“How DARE you make such an assumption. Do you even know who I am!?”

“I just said your name a mome-”

“Then you know better than ANYBODY that I’m not going to back down. I’m going to do this-- and I’m going to win . Understood, Kanan?”

That’s when it falls into a more logical place, Eli’s seen the competitive side of Dia before but this is a whole new level. What’s Dia so determined to win? The small smile on Kanan’s lips looks like more of an uneasy one now, but it still has that hint of smugness that Eli can’t quite place. Its like Kanan agreed that Dia would win, but she wasn’t the one losing either way.

“Understood! I get it! You’re down for it!” Kanan tries to laugh it off but when Dia takes her hand away and goes back to the clothes, she see’s Kanan reach up to rub the spot she jabbed. Today’s the day Eli witnessed Dia Kurosawa dent a small bulk in the marble statue that is Kanan Matsuura. Whatever competition they have going on has to lead up to Dia getting together with Kanan and Mari. She’s betting on it.

“Anyway, Mari and I will fill you in later. I’ll be going to see her on my break to see if she got Nico and Nozomi to come so we’ll go from there.”

Eli hears that name again- Nozomi. That was the name of the pretty girl working at Oharrero’s. The really pretty one who dropped off chocolates Dia left at the store. Good god Eli really is a gay mess. She truly feels like a disaster lesbian. First she was daydreaming and cheering on her co-workers soon to be romance, and now she was back to thinking about that girl again, Nozomi...

Eli’s always known she’s been gay, but she never really acted on it. She’d delve into the depths of the internet and try to meet more girls online but being anti-social made it difficult for her to hold conversations with many of them. She had tried it all.. tinder, plentyoffish, match.com, but she rarely got past making a profile. She’d even tried going to a gay event at the college campus cafe once, but she couldn’t even bring herself to enter the door to the shop.

So she stuck with admiring pretty girls from afar, and it worked. For a while. Until she saw them working across the way. It started with the black haired girl- who Eli wants to say is Nico, given conversations she’s heard, but she has no confirmation on that- and it wasn’t long after before Nozomi joined the staff.

God it’s hard for her not to admire them on her shifts. She fantasizes about buying snacks from there just to get a closer look at their beautiful features. How pathetic- fantasizing about buying sweets to marvel cute girls instead of actually going to do it.

Sadly, Eli Ayase is a cowardly gay and could never. Besides they’re probably not gay. Even though she saw them holding hands leaving work one day and they totally blow kisses at each other. She’s seen it. But they’re definitely not gay. Or into her. They’re just gals being pals. Do they even know she exists? (a stupid thought- at least Nozomi knows she exists).

She pushes her gay crisis thoughts down with a small sigh and remembers work and her important task of managing the store.

She turns around to put away the gift wrapping supplies when she realizes Dia has come behind the counter to sort hangers from the changing rooms and such on the table behind her. (How long did she daydream for?).

Eli takes a quick look around and the store, not failing to notice it’s dead right now. Perfect. Eli decides to strike up conversation. A small distraction from the girls across the hall.

“What do you think of Kanan’s outfit today?” She starts, watching as Dia almost snaps the plastic hanger in her hands. She looks at Eli with a pointed stare.

Eli stares back at Dia with that knowing smile, and Dia literally wishes she could say something. Anything. But she respects her too much and Eli knows it.

“We will not comment on That.” Dia states flatly.

Before Eli can tease Dia a little more Kanan approaches the counter.

“Is it okay if I take my break now?”

Eli takes a quick glance to Oharrero’s and sees that it’s the shorter black haired girl working there today.

“Sounds good, give me a second to get you some cash-”

“Don’t worry about it today Eli, I got you covered,” Kanan beams and leans onto the counter closer to Eli and continues in a quieter voice, “Mari promised a bunch of free samples for us today.”

Eli blinks and smiles.

“I’ll have to thank her later on then.”

Before Kanan leaves she makes brief eye contact with Dia. She gives her a small wink and cheeky smile and then she’s out the door and on her way across the hall. Dia glowered a little bit and Eli’s curiosity comes back, but she says nothing.

There’s not a lot do in the store now. Eli and Dia sort out the rest of the hangers on the table together when Dia decides to speak up.

“You know, there is a place you could thank Mari personally.” Dia starts, bringing them into a topic of conversation.

“When she’s working..?” Eli says with the hint of a question

“Well if you’re going to be a smart then yes, that’s one way to.” Dia almost rolls her eyes and Eli can’t help but feel like she’s a part of Dia’s inner circle. She’s gotten a reaction like that from her! She’s succeeded!

Eli laughs and smiles.

“What were you really going to say?” She prods.

Dia waits a moment, examining Eli for any further teasing.

“Mari is going to be hosting a christmas party at her place. She hosts a holiday party around christmas and she’s decided to do a big christmas party this year. Don’t worry, it’s not on the actual day. A couple days before hand actually.” Dia says it as if she’s remembering all the small details, but looks at Eli with a soft smile.

“I think you’d like it- There won’t be too many others there and Mari tends to have a lot of fun...events.”

Dia looks as if she’s holding back saying some juicy details- maybe from past party experiences. She just has this face that says she wants to elaborate on what they consist of. On one hand, Eli wants to ask her what kind of events they are, but on the other hand she’s surprised- she didn’t expect to be invited to hang out with Dia at her friends party and- well, it is a little coincidental that she explained how parties aren’t exactly her thing to Kanan only hours before hand.

She feels a little sad that she’s probably going to decline.

“Events huh...” Eli decides to at least pretend she’s pondering going to the party. For Dia’s sake at least.

“Oh yes! Nobody is required to bring a gift and yet Mari likes making sure everyone gets a little something? She calls them wrapped party favours. Last year she gave my little sister the exact plush toy she had been eyeing in the window of the toy store here. I couldn’t believe it- Ruby hadn’t mentioned it to anyone and yet... And yet!”

Eli smiles to herself because the way Dia talks about her friend is so wholesome and sweet. It seems kinda like she likes them as more than a friend. Actually, Eli is completely sure about it. Or she’s putting way too much thought into this ever since Kanan mentioned it (she’s definitely put a lot more thought into ever since Kanan mentioned it.)

“Your little sister gets invited too?” She asks curiously.

“Oh well-- yes. She’s friends with Mari as well. She has a small circle of friends outside of us, and they happen to be friends Kanan lived near as a kid. It’s weird, but we’re all connected somehow and we’re all very good friends.”

Dia has such a soft smile and Eli understands why Kanan and Mari love it so much. Dia is a very, very cute girl.

“But anyways, the party-” she goes back to the most important footnote of the conversation. “Would you be interested in coming along?”

“Ah- I will, uh.” Eli’s trying to find the best excuse. What can she even say? ‘Sorry, I can’t because I have plans to stay at home and watch christmas movies alone and eat a whole tub of icecream all by myself while my little sister goes on her christmas date at her girlfriend's family’s christmas party?’ That is literally an excuse for Dia to pressure Eli into going to the party even more.

She swallows. She literally has nothing to do instead and she’s not a confident liar. Secret keeper? Sure. Liar? Well .

Saving her from actually answering, Kanan comes back with a bag of chocolates and a huge grin.

“Here you go Eli! And Dia, guess what!” She looks ecstatic- the definition of a happy little working elf.

“Hm? What is it?” Dia asks.

“Nico said yes! She messaged Nozomi and Nozomi’s down for it too! This year’s party is going to be great!” Kanan beams even more.

“It will be fun to have some new faces around for christmas!” Dia smiles delighted. Finally, some good fucking news.

“Right!? Mari’s hyped it up a lot to them and the moment she said this year there was going to be karaoke, Nico seemed to instantly agree. Apparently-” Kanan’s voice becomes background music.

Dia said the parties weren’t really that big, and they were fun. If it was only a few select friends and the cute girls that Eli’s been ogling  were going to be there. There really couldn’t be any harm in going, right?

Kanan and Dia discuss things a bit more before a customer walks over to them and asks if she could use the changing room. Kanan happily heads over to the changing station with them.

Now that Dia and Eli are alone again Eli decides to voice her decision.

“So... what day is the party? And could I have the address?”

“This Saturday the 22nd, at the Ohara Mansion at 17 Cherry Tree Lane.”

Sure enough, after a long internal debate about going to a mansion christmas party, Eli finds herself on the front steps of the giant building. Mansion. She shouldn’t have agreed to going to a mansion of all places for a small christmas party.

But she did. And she’s here. In the nicest festive wear she could find (she does wish she had a more Kanan-like outfit, but the moment Dia’s lips said ‘Mansion’ Eli instantly went into presentable mode.) A simple long sleeve shirt with a cute snowflake pattern in a cute, light blue shade (her green one was in the wash and everything else she had didn’t quite scream christmas) followed by a cute and simple plaid skirt. If plaid doesn’t tell anyone at this party she’s here and she’s queer then she doesn’t know what will.

She’s perfectly on time, as one should be when going to a party (she assumes, she’s really guessing from her chick flicks). She isn’t sure whether to knock or ring the doorbell, but she imagines that knocking on the door when nobody is near it might be a bit useless. She locates the doorbell immediately and presses it.

Within moments Mari’s at the door and her eyes practically sparkle as she stares down at Eli. Wait- stares down? Eli blinks up rather surprised to see Mari is at least half a foot taller than she was before. A quick glance over shows Mari in a somewhat. Well. If Kanan’s fashion was bad according to Dia, Eli can only imagine how she feels about the voluptuous snowman and it’s “sexy and I snow it” caption beside it. Glancing downward she sees the dangerous looking christmas shoes Mari wears and suddenly her height change makes complete sense.

She really hopes Mari doesn’t break her ankle when she trips.

“Ayase-san! Welcome! Come right in, you’re one of the first few guests to arrive!” Mari steps to the side to let Eli into the colossal household. Before Eli can take a step further though, Mari stops her.

“Hold up! You’re under the mistletoe~”

Eli’s eyes widen in surprise and she looks around helplessly until she sees it- right on Mari Ohara herself. Directly inside the little loop of blonde hair she likes to wear. It looks like its solidly tied in and Eli can feel a nervous sweat beginning to form. She barely knows her and she has to kiss her?!

“E-erm.” Eli mumbles.

Mari breaks and laughs.

“It’s joke! Don’t worry, I won’t force you to give me a smooch if you’re not comfortable with it Ayase-san. You’re one of the three newer guests to the party so if you don’t want to, you don’t have to!”

“T-Thank you.” She smiles a bit awkwardly as she continues past Mari, slipping off her boots, “Thank you for the invite as well.”

Mari beams as Eli decides to take in her environment. She can tell they take the holidays very seriously in the Ohara household. On every door frame and banister were decorations galore- some were a variety of christmas lights, some were fancy garlands with decorative little ornaments hanging from them. In almost every corner was a fancy christmas themed object of sorts- the most visible things were the miniature christmas trees and their themed ornaments (Eli swears she saw one that just had a bunch of ornaments that were photos of Mari and her family. It’s actually very cute.)

And then there was the giant golden statue in the middle of the room that looked like, no. It was a Mari statue, decorated in a christmas sweater and reindeer antlers on its head, and it even had a red nose attached somehow too. What exactly had she walked into?

Mari leads her into the house after she takes off her boots and directs her to where the party will be held- the main living room. Elis eyes widen and she gasps in wonder at the delightful decorations. There’s a long table by the window filled with punch and snacks of all sorts, a gigantic christmas tree with a star on the top (and another image in the star- a photo of Mari? good lord.) the ornaments are a decorative red, green, gold and silver and the lights aren’t super bright leds, but beautiful dim and golden. Honestly, Eli can’t believe how wonderful the place is- she feels like this isn’t just somebody's house.

A voice pulls her from her thoughts and she turns to find Dia sitting on a sofa with a shorter, red haired girl next to her. She seems a little startled by Dia’s greeting but her eyes are all on her. It only takes one glance at those wide green iris’ for Eli to make the connection between her and Dia- that’s Ruby! Eli smiles and decides to head over to that spot.

“You made it Ayase-san!” Dia says happily, “On time too! That says more than the other guests.”

Eli would object but it does seem a little odd nobody has arrived at the correct time. Then again, parties seem to be a casual get together so Mari might not be a stickler for guests being a little later than the planned time. Mari comments on how she’s going to see if Kanan’s ready and that she’ll be back in a few minutes, and that clears up where her other coworker is. She’s happy to know they’re both here and she wouldn’t be alone in a strangers house waiting for them.

She and Dia fall into small conversation. Dia properly introduces her to Ruby, and while Ruby seems a little shy, she’s a delight to be around. She loves to knit and has a huge interest in sweets, particularly hard candies. She makes a mental note of that.

Mari returns shortly after, taking a seat with the group and commenting that Kanan’s just finishing getting ready and will be down soon. Dia and Ruby decide to grab a couple snacks from the table and that leaves Eli alone with the Oharrero’s employee.

Eli decides to dive right into interrogation.

“Ohara-san?” Eli says, turning her body to face her. Mari is attentive and smiles.

“Call me Mari~” she responds with a grin, “What’s up? Did you need anything?”

“Please call me Eli then!” She responds in kind, continuing to speak, “I don’t really need anything in particular. I just kinda wanted to ask about your relationship with Dia.” She glances to the refreshments to make sure Dia is preoccupied. “Kanan’s told me a brief history, but I was just curious about how you feel.”

Mari is surprised by the question, but if there’s a blush on her face it’s practically invisible.

“I’ll give you the longer version another time, but all I can really say about it right now is I plan to change our relationship somehow tonight. Hopefully for the better.” She flashes Eli a playful wink and it brings out the first of what she hopes is many laughs.

“Is that Eli?! You made it!” A new voice comes in and before Eli can even identify the speaker, there’s a loud shriek.

“KANAN MATSUURA WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS.”

On the staircase on the other side of the room, Kanan wears a red and white themed christmas suit of sorts? It’s definitely a suit, it’s a proper suit jacket but with short sleeves, and instead of having pants it’s a pair of matching shorts. She wears almost knee length red and white striped socks matched by converse with a red backdrop followed by snowflake patterns. The little christmas trees on the fabric of the clothes add more of a colour pop, even the tie matches the suits fabric, and honestly its. Well, it’s a lot. Eli appreciates Kanan’s sense of style (or lack thereof) but she wonders if there’s more to the outfit choice than its christmas spirit and stylish accessorising.

Eli watches as Dia goes through the seven stages of grief almost instantly. Ruby looks concerned but there’s a slightly amused smile threatening to show itself. Kanan can’t help but laugh as she adjusts her santa hat.

“Awh, come on Dia! It’s christmas! Mari gave me special permission to adorn this outfit tonight~”

“Kanan Matsuura you are going to be the death of me.” Dia says exasperatedly before turning to Mari with a pleading gaze. “Mari Ohara, tell me you didn’t.”

Mari, immovable as she is, flashes her a peace sign.

“It was all Kanan wanted for christmas this year! I couldn’t say no!”

Eli wishes she was filming Dia’s face as her lips formed a tight line and her gaze burned into Mari’s. She turns to Ruby and Ruby looks up at her, wondering what her choice will be. Eli’s tempted to visit the popcorn bowl just to snack and watch the younger girl as she decides whether she’ll spend the night here or not.

Her decision is made for her when the doorbell rings, signalling the arrival of other guests.

Eli sort of loses track of time. She’s aware two people have arrived together- two more unfamiliar faces. They greet Mari with cheek kisses as if it were an everyday thing before moving like magnets towards Ruby. Eli learns from Dia that they’re her younger sisters friends and companions (A fact that surprises Eli a little bit- her little sister has two girlfriends before her? Eli almost pities Dia.) The shorter, chubbier girl is named Hanamaru while the taller, lankier and goth looking one calls herself Yohane (a self given nickname, according to Dia.)

Shortly after them is a group of three girls, two who were Kanan’s other childhood friends. Chika and You grew up on the same street as her and Chika and Kanan’s families have been friends since before they were born. Their other friend, Riko, has only been attending the christmas parties for a few years now, but as used to it as she should be she’s still pleasantly surprised by the size of the mansion like Eli is.

Which, somehow, with all these new people arriving, makes the huge building so much smaller. Eli’s beginning to feel the onset of that familiar anxiety she feels when being in large groups. She moves to the refreshments table, pretending to eye all the goodies as a tactic to keep her mind off of socializing with the unfamiliar girls. Dia’s gotten lost in a conversation with the the girl named Riko and somehow Kanan has ended up chatting it up with Dia’s little sister and her girlfriends. Eli’s only other option is Mari, but she doesn’t seem to be around at the moment?

As she has that thought she realizes why that is.

“Okay everyone! Looks like all our guests have arrived!” Mari calls from the entrance of the room and Eli’s eyes land on the guests she’s been nervous and excited to see all night.

Mari’s coworkers have arrived, both together and Eli is almost floored by their appearance. No christmas party is truly complete without everyone enjoying the festive sweaters and Nozomi and Nico are no strangers to it. Nico wears a sweater with the body of an elf starting at the collar of the sweater. It makes it look as if she herself is the elf and its humorous and adorable all at the same time. Eli notices the scrunchies in her hair have holly and little jingle bells tied to it and god. Waiting awkwardly in that odd span of time just to see how this girl could rock the ugliest of christmas sweaters was worth it. She wonders if its her makeup that helps complete the look- it looks so simple and yet so elegant- Nico definitely knows what she’s doing to make those eyeliner wings look on fleek and Eli doesn’t even know if her contour is makeup or natural- in this lighting it’s really hard to tell.

That’s only Nico though-- Nozomi on the other hand has taken a page from Mari’s book. Her hair is tied in a beautiful long braid with little holly decorations weaved through the strands to match Nico’s, but the sweater is something else entirely. The chest part of the fabric is covered by mittens and the text reads in bright red ‘Tit’s the season.’ It’s awful. It’s a seriously corny joke. Eli might not even be fond of it if it wasn’t for the fact one of the cutest girls here was wearing it.

She has no idea how she’s going to make it out of this party alive. She reaches for the punch, pours herself a cup and throws it back, drinking it all in one gulp before pouring herself another cup. When did she get this thirsty?

In her haze of admiring her crushes and drinking punch, Eli finds herself back in the spot she’d been sitting in before. She idly watches the two of them out of the corner of her eye and she see’s Mari share a laugh with the both of them. Nozomi’s eyes crinkle adorably as she giggles and Nico’s match and god- agreeing to this party is either the best idea she’s had in months or it will kill her on sight (much like Kanan’s outfits for Dia.) In her staring she fails to notice that the two have started walking over towards the couchs where she sits and she hasn’t even looked away.

At this point Eli really wishes she would be taken out, in a date way or a sniper way, she wasn’t very picky right now. She definitely just got caught staring. She brings her attention downward and decides hey, her punch is probably a much better topic to focus on at the moment. She looks down and peers into the cup and its.. empty? When did she drink her second glass?! She vaguely remembers bringing the cup up to her lips as she was watching the Oharrero employees and- well. She realizes she probably took another one big gulp in that moment. This is embarrassing.

The spot next to her sinks and Dia has taken the spot next to Eli. She looks a little defeated- or exhausted? It’s hard to tell at the moment. She smiles a bit sympathetically at her and Dia only sighs. She’s aware other people have decided to sit near them and Dia’s defeated gaze only perks up, a fire igniting inside them as she smiles politely.

“Toujou-san! Yazawa-san! It’s great to see you could make it too.”

Oh my god Eli really has to stop spacing out- she thought the two of them were across the room still and now they’re already taking seats with them. She’s unprepared! What’s a good conversation topic? What happens if they point out she was staring? Does she have any excuses prepared? Oh god- she’s doing it again. She pushes the anxious gay baby thoughts away and makes a new goal for the party; no more spacing out. Ignore the cute girls- stay present for any and all conversations she’s included in and make it out of this alive with her pride damaged as little as possible.

She’s aware they’ve greeted her and she can feel her muscles robotically moving to wave a tiny bit. She says hello and puts her arm down. It feels like this itself is an out of body experience and she feels so awkward. She prays that they don’t notice.

Dia strikes a conversation with the three of them and Eli is. Vaguely aware of the topic. They’re talking about the mall. She can hear her replies and she’s taking in everyone’s words but it feels so forced. She feels a little uncomfortable. She can feel the walls of the mansion slowly closing in on them all and the air is getting a little harder to breath. When did the room get so small? Did everyone suddenly move closer to them? She glances around to be sure but there’s quite a distance between her and the other guests who have taken seats on other various furniture pieces surrounding them.

The sensible side of her is gone and she realizes that it took very little time for her to begin spacing out again. This is hopeless. At least Dia is here to keep conversation between the four of them going.

As she thinks that Dia suddenly pauses her conversation and stands up, glaring in the direction of Kanan.

“Ruby don’t you DARE put on Kanan’s tie! I refuse to let her cursed clothes go near you!” She’s pushed herself off the couch and over to them. Kanan and Hanamaru start to laugh while Ruby pushes herself into Yohane to make sure that Kanan’s tie really doesn’t touch her.

Eli’s eyes widen and her smile becomes a little tense as she realizes she’s been abandoned by the one person helping her power through talking to her crushes. Nico watches Dia move in amusement and Nozomi’s lips move and words come from her mouth and- oh! oh shit, she’s talking to her!

“S-sorry?” Eli mumbles a little helplessly. You’ve heard of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, now get ready for Eli Ayase the red faced lesbian. The embarrassed blush that lightly dusted her cheeks all night suddenly becoming a giant beacon of bright red.  

Nozomi only smiles that lovely soft smile and Eli feels like she could melt into the damn couch.

“Is this your first Ohara christmas party too?” She asks again.

This is her chance. She can feel it- her anxiety is screaming at her but she forces it down once again. She takes in a small breath and speaks, hoping her reply is more confident than cold.

“It is.” She says. She can feel it- her prides patting her on the back. Her brain cells kiss and cheer while her heart is beating louder and happier. She did it! She spoke to the cute girls at the party!

Now it’s time to see if she can keep the conversation going.

“This is-  i-it’s my first christmas party I’ve ever been to that didn’t include my extended family.” She feels a little embarrassed and mumbles a little quieter “Actually it’s more like the only party I’ve ever been to without my extended family.”

“Really?!?” Nico replies a little loudly but she looks very shocked- alarmed even, “Are you saying you’ve never been invited to christmas parties at all?!”

“Oh! No- no no. That’s not it. I mean-” Eli laughs a bit fumbling with her words, “I don’t really go to parties at all. I get invited to things here and there but I’ve never gone to anything until now really.”

God she hopes they don’t find that lame. Nico looks at her with a little disbelief while Nozomi hums. She nods a bit as if to understand something not spoken.

“I wondered- you seem like an introvert.” She says it a bit bluntly and Nico nudges her a bit as if she’s said something offensive.

Eli kinda laughs at that. Nozomi really hit the nail on the head with that comment. She reaches her hand up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear before looking at them with an uncertain smile.

“Is it that obvious?” She asks a little sheepishly.

“Only to Nozomi.” Nico responds immediately and reassuringly, “This girl can read anybody like the palm of their hand- Literally. She’s a fortune teller.”

A cup of something has manifested itself into her hands and Eli realizes that someone has walked over to them with a tray of drinks- wait, a server?! What kind of party is this? She thanks the waiter and realizes there’s a good amount of heat coming from the cup and the aroma of hot chocolate fills her senses and soothes her entire soul. Maybe Mari is looking out for her somehow- sending a waiter with her favourite hot beverage is definitely helping her keep this conversation alive.

She remembers the last bit of Nico’s sentence and looks at Nozomi with curiosity and a crooked smile. A fortune teller! That’s pretty neat!

“Fortune telling?!” She says with a voice that dies to ask more about it.

The violet haired girl laughs and waves her hand.

“It’s nothing impressive, just basic fortunes for questions about the future, careers, school,” She looks at her with this gaze that’s somehow very different from all the ones she’s seen before as she says the next word, ”Love,”

Love. Eli wonders what kind of love fortune she’d get if she were to ask Nozomi about it. The temptation to ask her for one is real but she knows it’d be pretty rude to ask for such a personal fortune in the middle of a party.

“That’s amazing!” Eli decides to say, conversation finally coming easier to her. She looks to Nico with bright eyes filled with wonder, “What about you? Do you have any hobbies like that?”

Nico smirks and Eli swears she can see Nozomi shake her head.

“Absolutely! You’re looking at the soon to be number one idol Ni-”

“NICO-NII~” Mari interrupts and finishes as she puts her arms around Nozomi and Nico’s shoulders and puts her head between them. “You girls having a good time~? I see you’re chatting it up with Eli!”

Nico looks offended for being interrupted and Nozomi looks like she was trying to hold back a laugh. Then Nico notices it. The little plant inside Mari’s hair loop.

“Mari, is that mistletoe in your fucking hair?!”

“You bet! Now pucker up and plant one on the cheek!” She directs her to her cheek and grins. “I’m the tallest thing here and the rule is as long as you’re under it you must smooch!”

Looks like Mari’s not shy with people she’s closer to. Eli feels a little special knowing she wasn’t forced to do it while these two are. Nico, while hating it, doesn’t protest and gives her a peck on the cheek. Mari then turns to Nozomi ready to tell her to do the same, but Nozomi has a different idea. Instead, Nozomi lifts her hand up to tilt Mari’s chin just a bit lower with her hand. Mari looks flustered for a brief moment, a little confused about what’s about to happen until Nozomi plants a short, chaste kiss directly on Mari’s lips.

The party practically freezes as everyone notices The Mari Ohara has been smooched on the lips by someone who isn’t Kanan. Conversation pauses and Eli wishes- oh how she fucking wishes- that she was Mari Ohara in that moment. Kanan whoops when Nozomi pulls away from Mari with a cheeky grin. Mari comes to and laughs, pushing herself up.

“Dang Toujou, I would’ve reapplied my lipgloss if I knew you were gunna go for the lips~”

“What can I say Marichi-” She glances over to Eli when she says this, but its brief, “I’m full of surprises~”

The small group laughs and Eli joins in, finally feeling completely relaxed in the party setting. There’s a blush dusting her cheeks and she lifts her cup up to take a sip of her hot beverage. She closes her eyes and lets the content feeling wash over her.

With that over Mari announces for everyone to get hyped because it’s time for the christmas karaoke contest! Mari will select four people to draw two names from a hat and the people who are picked will become the drawers teammates. Each group will choose a christmas song to sing and the team that gets the best score on the karaoke machine is the winner!

Dia, Yohane, Chika and Nico are selected to draw the names from the special karaoke hat. Yohane goes first, sticking her hand into the hat and drawing two pieces of paper. Chika follows suit, quickly picking her two. Dia dives in next and that leaves the last two names for Nico.

“Okay girls! Open it up, tell us who’s gunna be with who! Then we’ll take five minutes to decide our christmas carols before the competition begins~” Mari says with a grin.

“Ah! Lily! Mari! Guilty Kiss is reunited for another year!” Yohane looks over to Mari, who brings her arm around Riko’s shoulders and pulls her close. Riko, though mildly alarmed, smiles.

“HEY! YOU! RUBY! I GOT YOU GUYS!” Chika shouts and looks excitedly to her friends. Dia’s little sister jumps from surprise, but her eyes reflect nothing but excitement. You salutes.

Dia opens her papers and she looks mildly surprised.

“Oh! would you look at that. Looks like I’ve got Hanamaru and-” her tone of voice changes as she leers at the tall festively dressed girl, “Kanan.”

Kanan beams and Hanamaru claps her hands together.

“I guess that means I got you guys.” Nico turns to Nozomi and Eli with a half grin, “Don’t worry- you’re both in great hands with a karaoke star like me~”

“You say that but we won’t know until we hear the others sing now will we?” Nozomi says in a teasing tone. Nico sticks her tongue out at her and the two of them share a laugh.

Eli swallows a bit nervously as the girls disperse into their groups. Nico’s playful expression suddenly dissolves and becomes serious. She lifts her hands and gestures for both Nozomi and Eli to come in close. Nozomi gets it instantly but it takes a few more gestures towards Eli from Nico for her to realize what she’s asking.

“Ah! Sorry!” Eli moves closer to them and huddles in close. She can feel Nico’s arm come around her shoulder to bring her and Nozomi closer so that nobody could hear what they were saying and- is that a hint of honey? It smells like honey, cinnamon and maybe even a hint of vanilla? God, what festive scents were these two wearing?!

“Okay listen up- I knew this was happening and already demanded for the set list of songs to choose from. Mari gave them to me no problem but scanning these girls, it’s easy to see who will choose what song. So it’s up to us not to choose the same song and rock it, alright?” Nozomi and Eli nod once and Nico continues, “Great, so I already know Mari’s for sure.”

“My only wish?” Nozomi asks with amusement in her voice.

“My Only Wish.” Nico confirms.

Eli blinks as she thinks of what song that is.

“Oh! The Britney one!” She says, a tiny proud smile on her lips.

Nico looks almost endearingly at Eli and there’s something about it. She feels like Nico just came to a decision somehow. She blushes a bit under her gaze and avoids looking directly into her red eyes.

“Yeah, the Britney one! So, we gotta get them with something just as good and pop sounding- but not Mariah Carey.”

“Eh? Why not?” Nozomi asks kind of hushed, “How do we compete with Mari’s team if we can’t sing that?”

“Because team over there,” Nico jabs her thumb at Ruby’s group “Has the one who was talking about how it’s her favourite christmas carol so they’re definitely going to sing that. Have you seen her? She’s an adorable ball of cute and there’s no way the butch girl and the orange haired girl will say no to that.”

“Aah, I see I see.” Nozomi frowns. “Well, what song do we sing then?”

Nico and Nozomi look to Eli for a suggestion and Eli kinda blanks. What could combat a wonderful pop song by famous ladies at christmas time? Certainly not an old timey tune. What kind of christmas carols do the boy bands sing around this time?

It doesn’t take Eli long to think of an option.

“Erm.. Maybe Beautiful Christmas by Big Time Rush? It isn’t super popular, but if we use a boy band song we could have a chance.”

Nozomi’s eyebrows rise and Nico thinks about it. They ponder Eli’s choice and Nico slowly nods. She likes the idea the more she thinks about it.

“That could work. You’re right, it’s not popular, but I think we all know it, right?”

“Yup! I remember it.” Nozomi replies, “Think we can sing it better than they can?”

“Are you kidding?!” Nico says with a smirk, “We’re gunna make it more popular after this party.”

They pull out of their huddle and Eli giggles, unable to hide her amusement. She’s kind of excited to see how they do- she hasn’t sung in front of a big group since her family reunion earlier this year so she hopes it’s a great time. It’ll be her first of what she hopes is many karaoke times with these girls.

The other groups are ready and there’s a quick lottery game to decide the singing order of each group. Chika gets the longest straw, so their group will be singing first. Followed by Dia, then Mari’s and finally, them. Nico grumbles, hating her terrible luck but Nozomi pats her on the back saying the best are always saved for last. Eli smiles a bit when Nico leans into her and her chest feels warm. Their relationship is really wonderful. Part of her aches to be apart of it too, but nevertheless, she’s content to see them happy and affectionate with one another.

The competition soon begins and as Nico predicted, the first song by their group is Mariah Carey’s christmas hit. They rock it and get a pretty decent score before handing the mics off to Dia’s team. They surprise a few people with their choice of jingle bell rock, but it’s absolutely adorable watching the older girls and the younger one jam to the tune as they belt out the words. Finishing up for the other teams is Mari’s and of course, as Nozomi and Nico knew they would, they sing Britney’s christmas ballad to a perfect t. Their score is an all time high apparently and Dia looks as if she’s unhappy already knowing her team is either in a hard second or an unfortunate third place. Eli wants to laugh- that girl really does get way too into the spirit of competition a little too much.

She really hopes they don’t mind third place once her team takes the winning score.

The microphones are handed to the three of them. The other nine girls seem surprised by their song choice and that fuels the competitive rush that grows inside of Eli. She wonders if she’s just absorbing some of that energy from Nico, because this girl radiates absolute confidence for their group. Their colours are chosen for the lines and verses they’ll get to sing outside of the chorus and soon the tune begins.

Being a former ballet competition dancer had its perks in her youth- she may not have been social with peers, but she learnt at a young age how to get through stage nerves. She stands with Nico and Nozomi and before long the three of them are singing along to the words. Eli gets absorbed into the moment, focusing on the lyrics and singing loudly and proudly. Her voice echoes throughout the room and while she can’t pay attention to the audience, she adores how Nico faces her instead of the screen with the lyrics.

They get to the chorus and for a brief and wonderful moment, it feels like its just her and her crushes. Eli feels like the three of them are in some weird kind of limbo, singing a cheesy boy band christmas song and having a good time with just one another. They get really into their performance and Eli isn’t too nervous or embarrassed at the end of it when Nico and Nozomi drape their arms around her and they laugh together.

“Holy shit! How come you never told us you could sing that great?! You were fantastic!” Nico’s face is red from the exertion and their labored breaths are synchronized as the machine finishes tallying their score.

“OOH! We have a tie! We’re gunna need to pick a tie breaker song!”

The three look at the machine and sure enough, their team tied scores with Mari’s. The three of them lock eyes and as a consolation prize, the remaining six girls get to decide what the tie breaker song would be. They’re all huddled up around the machine screen while the others wait patiently. Since there’s only three microphones, the groups decide to do a tag team competition; two girls from each team will get to sing a part of the song together at the same time and swap out until the ending chorus, where they’ll all try really hard to sing together with their limited microphones.

Soon the song is chosen and both Nico and Nozomi push Eli up to sing the first verse against Riko. The two make eye contact briefly before the look to the screen and the words “Last Christmas” pop up. Eli smiles. It’s her favourite version too- Cascada’s.

The begin to sing and Eli shows Riko no mercy. She swaps with Nozomi, high fiving her and handing her the mic as she steps up to compete with Yohane. They have a little more fun with it, bringing their mics closer and singing so competitively you’d feel like they were competing on the voice. The next verse is handed off to Nico and Mari who, albeit a little dramatically, conquer the second last verse before the rest of their teams are brought up. Nico and Mari hold their mics while the teams sing and once the song ends, the room is filled with a lot of laughter and applause.

By the end of it Eli’s contently between both Nico and Nozomi as the score is calculated and she really doesn’t care. Mari’s team could keep the prizes if it meant she would continue to have this much fun alongside her crushes. She’s lost in the way it feels having them so close, the warmth that comes from the two of them and the pure happiness she has.

This is the best (first) party ever.

As a fun cool down they decide to sing a few more songs, with solo performances and different teams coming together. Somehow everyone convinces Eli to sing ‘Where are you christmas’ and Faith Hill’s version has nothing on hers. By the end of it Nico’s actually shed some tears and is desperately finding something reflective to make sure she didn’t smear her makeup too much. She looks over and see’s Kanan somehow comforting Dia over her loss, offering the girl a cookie cut into the shape of a santa hat.

Dia takes it and nibbles on it when Mari announces they have to make some space for the next activity. The guests get up and assist with pushing some of the furniture to the side and Kanan goes off into another room, bringing You for some assistance.

When they return they have what looks like two level changing posts- like something you’d find in a gym, sort of, and then a long, red and green decorated pole. Kanan and Mari begin to set it up and within seconds Eli’s put it all together- They’re all about to limbo.

There seems to be a catch when Mari comes out with a few pillows.

“Good thing we all wore sweaters we can stuff this into! otherwise Santa limbo wouldn’t be as fun!”

Oh my god. They’re going to pretend to be santa and limbo. Eli is ecstatic- this is so much better than she anticipated the game of limbo to be and she feels like this is going to be one of the funniest games she’s ever witnessed. She’s still pretty closely huddled to Nozomi and Nico and Nico wears the most sour expression Eli’s seen to date.

“That thing is gunna look hideous under my sweater. Nozomi I don’t like this.” Nico mumbles in an unamused tone.

“Aww, but you’ll look like an adorable chubby little elf! And who knows, you could win since you’re the shortest one here!” She laughs at her own joke and Nico glares.

“You know what Nozomi? For that I’m gunna kick your ass at this game.” Eli can feel Nico moving away from her and Nozomi in favour of grabbing a pillow to start the limbo.

Everyone gets a turn and the game starts out pretty great, but turns into a catastrophe the moment they set the bar lower by three levels. Mari’s heels have become her ultimate weakness as they slide out from underneath her and she lands flat on her back, her belly knocking the pole down instantly. When she gets up she trips and falls directly onto Dia, who falls right onto Kanan, who lands perfectly on the floor and cushioning the two of them from a dangerous fall. Eli makes sure to get a quick snapshot on her phone before Dia, beet red in the face, squirms out from between the laughing girls. Chika and Ruby both do the exact same thing and puff the santa belly out too much, sliding the pole off before they could bend back more. Yohane got knocked out in the first round, but she roots for her other girlfriend as she maneuvers perfectly. Kanan, Nozomi and Eli don’t last longer than the first three rounds and Eli sits in the losers section with her watching as the game slowly narrows down to its semi finalists: Hanamaru, Dia, and Nico.

The pole gets dangerously low and all eyes are on Dia. She’s significantly taller than Nico and Hanamaru and her determination to win could end up being her downfall. Hanamaru herself doesn’t look to bothered, but Nico looks. Well. She’s happy she’s gotten far but she realized partially through the game that she’s proving Nozomi is right by winning this. She pats the pillow stuffed under her sweater and turns in the direction she and Eli sit and glares at them before she goes in for another turn, clearing yet another level of the lowered pole.

When Dia goes up next, she unfortunately pulls a Mari and slips. She falls directly onto her back with a loud thud. The pole falls on top of her and she’s booted out of the game. Eli can’t hide her little giggles as Dia moves to the losers couch next to her to grumble about the game being unfair to the taller members.

“Don’t sweat it Dia, you did great!” Kanan says with a positive smile.

“Yeah! For one of the taller girls, you really lasted so much longer than we thought! We assumed you were going to lose right in the beginning.” Mari jokes and Dia glares in her direction.

“You underestimate the power of a Kurosawa. Unlike Kanan here, who doesn’t doubt my drive to win.” Kanan feels a bit of pride at that statement and Mari laughs.

“Oho! You say that but you have yet to complete the biggest challenge of the night- giving me a kiss~” Mari points to her mistletoe and smirks, “You’re like, the only one here who hasn’t given me one! It’s rude! This is an activity too you know! You gotta kiss under the mistletoe!”

Dia opens her mouth to object and then closes it. Then opens it again and blushes. Eli’s eyes are glued to the scene next to her and she practically forgets about Nico and Hanamaru dueling it out under the limbo pole as she watches Dia figure out what to do with the situation. She watches Dia take in her scenery, noticing Mari is behind the couch and draped between her and Kanan. Eli see’s the look of an idea come to her and an even bigger blush forming on her cheeks and watches as Dia reaches past Mari to grab Kanan by her christmas tie, pull her in closer and plant a small kiss directly on her lips.

Mari practically falls backward, losing her footing from the imbalance of her reeling backward off the couch and not catching herself in time. She lands on her butt for a third time and she almost screams in delight. Eli beats her to it, gasping only loud enough for Kanan and Dia to hear her. She covers her mouth to refrain from making anymore noises but Nozomi and a couple others look over to see Dia pulling away from Kanan, both of their faces bright red. The corner of Kanan’s lip quirks upward is disbelief and Mari pulls herself up from the ground to look at Dia in disbelief and awe.

“ Excuse me !? Did I just see what I think I did?!” Mari practically shouts, catching the attention of everyone now.

Nico, who is under the limbo pole, drops to the ground from the surprise of it all and ends up losing the game (something she intends to argue about later, when the commotion has died down.) Ruby’s eyes sparkle with almost as much excitement as Eli’s do while the others look on mildly surprised and a little confused.

“You bet you did. The rules of the mistletoe is you have to kiss someone under it. There was only Kanan under it, because you’re wearing it. Challenge won. Now excuse me .” Is all Dia says as she stands up and decides now, of all times, is the best time to use the restroom real quick (but Eli knows a gay panic when she sees one and Dia’s going to give herself a brief moment alone to do just that).

The commotion seems to fade into the background as everyone celebrates Hanamaru’s win from the limbo game. Kanan, still stunned, sits on the couch with her hand going to her lips while Mari decides to grab Hanamaru her prize before scampering off to find Dia and question her some more on those loopholes. Eli can’t stop the smile on her face. It’s huge. This is literally everything she could have wanted from a party and she feels absolutely blessed. Nozomi seems to notice and she nudges her a bit.

“How long have you been waiting for that to happen?” She grins as she asks the question.

“Since the day I got invited to this party,” Eli admits a little sheepishly, “Kanan filled me in on a lot of things and I’ve sort of been rooting for them ever since. Dia’s very inexperienced and you can tell she’s always wanted to be some kind of thing with them. It’s not evident, but it’s there, you know?”

Nozomi nods because she knows. She knows all too well about someone being very inexperienced and wanting to be some kind of thing with someone. She looks at Eli with a stare that says she knows a lot more than what Eli might think when it comes to inexperienced gays pinning for people. Eli continues speaking, not really thinking about her words.

“Makes me kind of envious, you know? I’ve always wanted a girlfriend and suddenly my coworker has two potential ones who want nothing more than her to be with them too.”

Great! Eli just practically outed herself to this girl in more ways than one. Her eyes widen and she can feel the colour draining from her face as she watches Nozomi’s eyes illuminate and make all the connections she really, truly hoped wouldn’t happen for months after this party. The colour comes back in a full, bright santa suit red and Eli wishes she could fade into nothingness as Nozomi gazes at her. Nozomi leans closer and Eli finds herself wanting to lean back a bit, but she’s frozen. She has no idea what to do.

“She doesn’t have to be the only one getting two girlfriends at once.” she says in a voice like a whisper, pulling back only to wink and causing Eli’s face to ignite into even more brighter shade of red.

She blinks once. Twice. Her mouth opens and she gapes for a moment. Was that correct? She heard that correctly right? She can’t confirm it because everyone around them isn’t paying attention to the two of them and Eli’s mind is spinning with thoughts.

“What.” Is all she manages to squeak out, not even in a questioning tone.

Nozomi laughs and stands up, holding her hand out for Eli’s. Eli hesitates before reaching up and taking it. Nozomi glances over to see Nico is distracted with the other kids, wanting to get a retry out of them. She pulls Eli along towards the glass doors by the refreshment table, deciding their conversation should be a little more private. For Eli’s sake, really. Eli lets herself be pulled away and as they reach the glass doors she notices Mari has returned, hand in hand with Dia and a big bright grin on her face- Something tells her that Mari got exactly what she’s been wishing for this christmas in that time alone with Dia.

It’s chilly outside, but not bad. Her face is so hot Eli can’t even really tell that it’s cold at all. They stay a few feet away from the door, standing on the stone patio together. Nozomi lets go of her hand and turns to face her, smiling affectionately.

“I’ve been trying to pin you somewhere on my gaydar- I knew you were either bi or a lesbian, but I think you just confirmed it for me.” She says it in a playful tone and Eli wishes she could just stick her head into the ground.

She feels both intimidated and relieved. Thank god her gay ass is obvious- it’s helpful for her to know this as she does try to show and express it. She does wish she had a gaydar like Nozomi’s- it’d be easier to find other lesbians and get into the gay scene.

“I wish I could read people as well as you could.” She laments with an awkward smile, “It would’ve saved me a lot of unwanted conversations and maybe given me the courage to try a few more things.”

“Like the ones you want to have where you come visit me or Nicocchi at work?” she can’t stop her teasing and Eli almost puts her face into her hands.

“God was I that obvious to you two?!” She almost cries and Nozomi can’t stop her laughs.

“We ended up creating a game over how many times we caught you looking over at us! I’m in a five point lead right now~”

Eli wants to shrivel up and die. She hates this. She came to the party to have fun with her crushes, not accidentally out herself only to learn that they could tell she felt something for them the whole time.

“God I’m so embarrassed.” She mumbles, shyly pulling at a strand of hair that frames her face. “If I wasn’t so socially awkward I probably wouldn’t have embarrassed myself this badly.”

Nozomi’s laughs have died down and she wears that warm smile again.

“Well, if you ever want more social practice, you know you can always come find me. I wouldn’t mind spending a day with you helping you with social cues and how to not stare too much at girls you’re crushing on. Maybe some time after christmas when we’re both free? We could even try to rope Nicocchi into it.”

Eli laughs this time, her blush dwindling down a bit. Her embarrassment is gone seeing Nozomi is completely comfortable with this and is in fact flirting with her. She wonders what that may mean for them. Maybe she would get two girlfriends tonight too? It’s hard to tell- Nozomi definitely seems to want to have something more with her, and whether its a friendship or a relationship, Eli really doesn’t mind.

“I think I’d like that a lot.”

Nozomi’s smile only grows as she closes her eyes and laughs. She looks relieved- kinda like she was putting herself out there asking that question. Eli’s heart beats harder, playing with the idea that Nozomi may have been nervous asking her that. She opens her eyes and Eli can’t tell if it’s the cold or just embarrassment that brings the rosy pink colour to the other girls cheeks.

“It’s a date then!” She says, leaning up to plant a small kiss on her cheek.

There’s a loud slam on the glass door and Eli doesn’t even get the opportunity to enjoy the kiss as they hear a muffled shout of “I WIN” coming from inside that sounds like Dia? They look over, their faces still close to see they have ten spectators watching them from the inside. Dia’s practically glowing with pride and has earned a few laughs from the others. Nico watches on with a smug look, raising her eyebrow at the two of them (which somehow makes Eli feel a little more embarrassed than being watched by the other girls.It’s a mystery.)

She begins to wonder if that could be the reason why Eli was invited in the first place. If Nozomi and Nico could easily read her, then there’s no doubt that Dia could as well. Was she really invited to celebrate the christmas cheer with everyone here, or did they set it up? Was it all just one big set up to get Eli to actually talk to her crushes? As she wonders about this with a fond smile on her features, something cold and wet lands on Eli’s hand and she looks away from the window and instead upward. Was that..?

“Was that a snowflake?” Nozomi asks aloud, also looking up.

It catches the attention of everyone inside of the building enough to get them to open the door and peer outside. Sure enough, the snowfall begins to grow and grow by the second and soon Eli and Nozomi begin to get covered in a thin layer of snowflakes. There are gasps of delight at the surprise weather change and Mari cheers excitedly, announcing that it might just be a white christmas after all. Dia, having more sense tells Nozomi and Eli to hurry inside before they become soaked.

They do so immediately, Nozomi taking Eli’s hand and bringing her back inside, where they enjoy the rest of the party at the Ohara mansion together with their coworkers, new friends and new found loves.