Complex as you are
A/N nostalgia hit me hard
Love, Umi reckons, is such a fascinating yet absolutely terrifying word. It makes people do incredibly out-of-this-world gestures. And it makes others became so giddy with emotion that their little bodies do their absolute best to not implode. One word, yet the complexity has such a wide variety of consequences that Umi truly believes that you can’t pick one and keep to for all its entirety.
Which, like she said, was terrifying.
She remembers thinking about it when she was younger, and her immediate reaction was to hide her face within her palms as embarrassment overtook her system and made her an absolute mess. Her best friends being highly amused by this.
However, through some unexpected yet most definitely not unwelcome circumstances, her behaviour around love has changed.
Don’t get her wrong, she’s still very easily flustered.
But now she can actually look someone in the eye while expressing it.
And she has the blonde passed out beside her to thank for that.
Eli Ayase, a woman who was as cold as ice when they first met. Although, for all intents and purposes, she did have a decent reason for it.
But even then, there was always this… pull. Like some unseeable force wanted her to chip away at the ice bit by bit until Eli’s true personality shined through. Which was unusual by itself, since by nature Umi wasn’t a nosey person. The enamored feeling she got around the older woman was there from the beginning, those eyes of steel, refusing to back down; meeting Umi’s own internal fire, stubbornness equally matched on either side.
In the end though, Eli was the first to surrender. And the girls got to see the real side of the school president, something Umi hadn’t known she had been fighting for until it was laid before her in all its glory.
And from that day onward, feelings without a title began to bloom in her chest, later becoming one of the most intense emotions she has ever come across.
And Eli was to blame.
Whether it her charming smile, endless teasing or the softness in her eyes, Umi’s before mentioned admiration had blossomed into a weird sticky concoction of emotions that she didn’t know what to do with.
It also didn’t help that Nozomi of all people was the first to notice. But the initial embarrassment turned into gratitude when the older woman was actually helpful.
And it was because of that, Umi was able to somehow muster enough confidence and speak to the girl who, even after a year, still had the same lure as when they first met.
Turned out she was helpless from the start.
But Eli didn’t seem to mind, in fact her response was to clip Umi around the head with the papers she was holding while belting out, “finally you completely dense human being!”
And that was the beginning of it all.
“What has gotten you in such deep though, hm?” The voice, along with a gentle hand grasping her own that was held on the steering wheel, was enough for her to cast a quick sideways glance to the now awoken blonde.
She didn’t need to answer really, her reddened cheeks spoke more words than anything. But she did anyway, in hopes of containing at least some of her pride. “Nothing much.”
Eli knew it was a terrible lie, her hum of amusement saying as much. But instead of teasing the woman about it, she gently squeezed her hand instead. “How much longer until we reach Maki’s?”
Trying her absolute hardest not to get distracted by the way Eli’s top rose when she stretched, because, really, she’s seen far more of the silky skin and yet she still reacts like a hormonal teenager - Umi replied, “not-” she cleared her throat, thoroughly sheepish, “not much longer.”
Eli cast a downright devilish grin her way - honestly, Nozomi would be impressed - not even trying to stop her teasing this time.
Umi just made it so darn easy.
“See something you like?”
“E-Eli!”
The blondes laughter filled the car, the sound making the already quickened pace of Umi’s heartbeat skyrocket. She blew out a heated breathe, casting the woman a glare that held no malice before giving in and joining with the laughter. Even if it was at her own expense.
And it was moments like this, Umi knows, that even though love in all its complexity was something she still had yet to get used to; the fact she had Eli by her side to help figure it out, well, she wouldn’t mind if it took her the rest of her life.
