"Girls, dinner's ready!"
Yui had barely climbed out of the kotatsu when she caught Mio staring at her with wide, pleading eyes.
"...What's wrong, Mio?"
"Pull me out." Mio extended one trembling hand toward her. "The kotatsu has claimed me. I can't escape."
Yui stared at her for a second, then took her hand and hauled her free.
In the kitchen doorway, Mrs. Yuigahama caught the whole thing and smiled in a way that contained multitudes.
Yui noticed the smile. She sighed quietly to herself. Her mom was getting ideas, she could tell. But it was just playing around—that's all this was. Nothing to it.
They washed their hands and settled at the table, which was already covered in more dishes than usual. Yui counted. Yeah, this was definitely more effort than a normal weeknight.
"Go ahead, try it," her mom said, sitting down across from them. The expectation in her eyes was palpable.
Mio picked up her chopsticks and had a proper bite.
"This is incredible," she said, her face going genuinely warm. "Way better than anything I make at home. Could you teach me how to do this?"
Yui, sitting right next to her, nearly choked.
Incredible was putting it mildly. Mio was going full appreciation mode. And Yui knew for a fact that Mio was an excellent cook—some of the things she'd made had been better than her mom's. This was theatrical, and it was working.
"Of course! It's actually not that complicated—"
The two of them dove into a full cooking discussion, trading techniques and ingredient ratios back and forth, and Yui—who was very much a beginner—found she couldn't get a word in anywhere.
Eventually her mom said, impressed: "You clearly know your way around a kitchen, Mio-chan. No wonder you were the one who taught Yui those cookies."
"Oh, it's mostly because Yui is quick to pick things up. One lesson and she had it."
"—Please stop," Yui said, very quietly.
She discreetly kicked Mio's ankle under the table. One lesson—that cookie session had taken forever and they both knew it.
Her mom, who had done her share of cooking lessons with Yui, smiled gracefully and said nothing. She was far too classy to expose that.
Then: "So what did you two get up to this afternoon?"
"W-we didn't do anything! We just watched a movie!"
Yui jumped in before Mio could open her mouth.
Mrs. Yuigahama looked at her daughter. She knew Yui's tells. That nervousness, that way-too-fast answer—those meant something happened and I can't say what.
Which meant: the movie wasn't the whole story.
Something clicked behind her eyes.
"...What kind of movie?" she asked pleasantly.
"A—a romance."
"Oh~"
Yui looked at her mom's expression and felt a sinking feeling she recognized well. When she'd normally protest right now, she found she... couldn't quite meet her mother's eyes. Not after this afternoon. She put her head down and focused very hard on her food.
Her mom, to her credit, moved on.
"Mio-chan," she said, "with a face like yours and such a lovely personality, you must have a boyfriend already?"
"Not at all. I've never actually dated anyone~"
There was a faint undercurrent of something wistful in how Mio said it—just a flicker—before it smoothed over.
"Well then—how about considering my Yui?"
"—What?" Yui stared at her mother.
"If it's Yui," Mio said, matching her energy completely, "we can skip the 'considering' part and jump straight to dating."
"Both of you need to stop—"
Yui's hand shot under the table and slapped Mio's thigh, then aimed a look at her that could only be described as betrayed.
Mio received the look. Considered saying more. Glanced at Mrs. Yuigahama. Decided not today and redirected the conversation back to braised pork.
Dinner wound down in a warm, comfortable mood.
Normally after dinner Yui would walk Sable, but with the rain still going, that was off the table. She settled for playing with him on the floor instead while Mio sat nearby, suddenly remembering she had a cat at home.
She texted Chihiro to handle feeding. Mashiro was an option, but the girl would absolutely dump the entire bag in one go with no concept of restraint.
Once Sable was fed and settled, Mio looked up.
"So, what do we do now?"
Yui thought about it. "We could take baths first?"
"I want to take one with you~"
"Sure. We're both girls."
Yui said it with perfect composure.
Mio blinked.
"...Actually, let's not."
Bathing with a beautiful girl was, theoretically, a delightful concept. In practice, she was not confident she could control where her eyes went, and getting labeled a pervert was not on her agenda.
Yui, for her part, managed to keep her face neutral as she quietly exhaled. She'd meant it—they were both girls, it was perfectly fine—but she'd also privately acknowledged that she might have... trouble. Managing her own gaze.
She was definitely not admitting she'd had a small moment of anticipation when Mio agreed.
Definitely not.
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