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Rise wiped her nose with her sleeve and turned to readjust her position on the bed. She layed sideways, her head facing the wall. She curled up in her bed and blankets as she closes her eyes in an attempt to rest.
She started to hear footsteps, thumping quietly against the wooden floor, and the creaking of the stairs. Clinking dishes and the door being opened afterwards. Something scooted across the floorboards, presumably a chair but the fever has affected Rise too much for her to even properly comprehend what was happening.
The dishes are then heard again, most likely being placed on her nightstand. A hand settled on Rise’s shoulder, signaling for her to turn around. She huffs and turns and lays flat on her bed. Then something cold and soft is placed on her forehead, it must be a cold wet towel.
Rise opens her eyes slowly, only to then suddenly be closed for a short second. “Achoo! Ugh, I feel like crap…” she bitterly grumbled.
“You do realize that this is your fault right?” the other person in her room scolded. She heard a sigh come from her caretaker. And of course no one else would say things like that in that tone other than Naoto. “Stop complaining and eat.”
Rise’s attention turns to Naoto. She pouted, an exaggerated frown, along with a look her eyes that only showed fake innocence to the other girl. “Jumping into the floodplain to play splash seemed like a good idea…” She averts her eyes momentarily. “At the time.”
“Honestly...” the blue haired girl trailed off. “What am I going to do with you.” Naoto held out a spoon and blew on the rice porridge. “Can you please sit up, you need to eat.”
Rise doesn't move, only pouts once again. “It's not like I'm the only one who got sick.”
“Of course but now I'm here to take care of you,” Naoto simply responded. A few moments pass and Rise groaned and sat up, taking the spoonful of porridge in her mouth.
“You don't have to feed me y'know. I can do it myself,” she protested while crossing her arms with an even bigger frown. To Naoto, Rise was only imitating a small child trying to act like a grown-up, and frankly, as cute as it may be, Naoto just waits until the act of protest finishes. Rise sneezed again, “Ugh… fine.” She opens her mouth and Naoto feeds her.
“Whew,” Rise sighed once she snuggles into her blankets after she finished her bowl. Naoto soaked the towel with more water again and squeezed it to not make it too drenched.
The towel is once again placed on Rise's forehead. “You're very stubborn, you know.” Naoto sighed once again. “It's unlike you to pout this much and you do that a lot.”
Rise turned her head away from Naoto. “Well if you don't want to be here with me then you should just go,” Rise responded dryly, in a tone of bitterness and underlying anger, at least from what Naoto could observe from her.
“Excuse me? Where is this coming from?” Naoto asked incredulously. “I'm not the one acting like a child right now.”
“Well I'm not the one who's here with a child voluntarily even though they're clearly not enjoying it or any other time they spend with said child!” Rise yells, or rather, she raised her voice as loud as she could without going into a coughing fit.
Naoto freezes. After a few moments of deathly silence to her, she hesitantly asked, “Rise-san… are you mad at me?”
Rise doesn't respond, let alone look at Naoto.
“Oh really? What gave you that idea?” Rise asks. The anger bleeding through her sarcastic tone had struck a stab through Naoto’s heart and made it sink further than the Marianas Trench.
“Rise-san, what's wrong?” Naoto asked, hurt obvious in her voice. Rise could hear it too, despite her sickness clouding most of her senses and functional thought, and felt her anger dissipate along with her stubbornness.
“It's just that….” Rise hesitates for a moment. She looked at Naoto again for any sign of anger but all Rise saw was confusion and concern in the other girl’s expression. “You're not spending time with me anymore, even though I'm your girlfriend… I don't blame you though, no one would want an annoying girlfriend like me.”
“Rise-san, that's not it, you know that I'm busy,” Naoto responded calmly. It infuriates Rise for that moment, so unfair that she is the only one who's always visibly upset or angry while Naoto gets to be the cool and calm one. It always happens but Rise can’t help but be slightly glad that one of them is always calm at this point.
“But you're here now,” Rise weakly mumbled.
“That's…” Naoto paused. “That's because I…”
Intrigued by Naoto's hesitation, Rise’s head perked up slightly and straightened her posture that she didn’t even realize was bent. “Because you what?” she asked.
“I got…” Naoto tipped her hat down. Rise can see a blush form on her face. How cute Naoto is when she’s blushing is the only thing that Rise could think for a moment. “I was uh…um... jealous.”
Rise can only start smiling, until it turned into a stupid, bright grin that Naoto had always hated because it made her heart flutter. Naoto glares at her but Rise could barely see it, let alone feel the fire that Naoto was trying to emanate from it. “Aww Naoto-kun, that's adorable!” Rise proclaimed. “I'm usually the one who gets jealous but you?”
Naoto could only sit there and listen while making weak protests. “Rise-san…” Naoto growls quietly but that only makes Rise coo at her even more.
Rise looks at Naoto, the irradiation in her eyes from earlier had completely dispersed into warmth and adoration. Once she's calmed down, she asks, “Why were you jealous?”
Naoto's face is practically buried into the inside of her hat now. “I just… ugh this is so embarrassing.”
“Just tell me, I'm not gonna hate you!” Rise said reassuringly.
Naoto tipped her hat up, only enough for Rise to barely see her eyes. “It's just that…” she paused and averted her eyes from Rise's curious gaze. “I just saw you fooling with everyone and it reminded me that, as you’ve said, we haven't been together alone recently because of my job. Seeing you together with everyone made me ache more than I would’ve ever realized. And I apologize for my behavior, it was very uncouth of me to do so.” Naoto almost bows out of guilt but Rise reaches out to cup Naoto's cheek. Naoto freezes and looks up at Rise.
Rise gazes directly into Naoto's eyes, and her thoughts become clouded. All she can only think of how beautiful that mixture of blue and gray was and how much it suited the seemingly cold and uptight girl. “I'm glad actually,” Rise softly whispered.
“Huh?” Is all Naoto could say in response.
Rise chuckled softly. Her body naturally leaned towards Naoto and before she knew it, their faces were much closer than before. “It means you still care.”
Naoto's eyes widened and only express emotions of confusion and relief. “...I am afraid I do not understand.”
“Aww, silly after all this time away from you I thought that you didn't like me anymore,” Rise says as she presses her head into Naoto's shoulder. Naoto freezes as Rise entangles one of her hands into Naoto's. “I don't want to break up….”
“Neither do I,” Naoto responds. “...I- I'm sorry for not spending as much time with you as you want to. I.. really like you and I-”
Rise put a finger to Naoto’s lips. “I’ll forgive you if you kiss me and take me out on a date after I’m better.”
There was no word spoken after that, for Naoto had instantly planted her lips softly onto Rise’s own. The kiss lasted shortly and once Naoto pulled away, Rise grabbed her collar to get another one. That was her plan but Naoto had quickly placed her hand between their lips. Rise pouted and leaned her head into the crook of Naoto’s shoulder.
“No fair….” she whined.
“I just don’t have the desire to get sick,” Naoto simply explained.
Rise buries her face deeper into Naoto’s shoulder. “But still… we haven’t kissed in forever.”
“It was only a few weeks.”
“But it felt like forever.”
Naoto made a small smile and kissed the top of Rise’s head. “We can kiss all we want when we go on our date.”
Rise’s head sprouted up and her face had a bright smile plastered on it. For a moment, Naoto could’ve sworn that Rise was glowing and maybe she was. “Really? Do you mean it? You usually don’t like PDA and I-”
One of Naoto’s eyebrows quirked up. “So you don’t want to kiss me?” she teased, a rare smirk was on her face.
“No! I want kisses!” Rise grabbed Naoto’s waist and she somehow had gotten her to lay next to her. Rise went on top of Naoto and straddled her waist. Before Naoto could do anything, Rise started to peck Naoto all over her face, much to Naoto’s dismay. This was not part of Naoto’s plan and now her face is bright red, almost outdoing the redness of Yukiko’s sweater.
The embarrassment had overtaken Naoto and she could only wait until the onslaught of kisses was over. Once they were, Rise merely smirked at her accomplishment and immediately fell flat onto Naoto, burying her face into Naoto’s chest.
“Naoto-kun, you have big boobs,” Rise mumbled along with a small chuckle.
“Rise-san, oh my God!” Naoto would’ve pushed Rise off but her heart was beating so fast that she couldn’t muster the strength to do so.
“Sorry, sorry,” Rise laughed but quickly became silent. “..Naoto-kun, can you stay the night?” she asked softly.
“I think I can, why?”
“I want to be with you for longer.”
Naoto’s breath hitched for a moment. “I-”
If Rise Kujikawa was trying to kill Naoto Shirogane, it was working. Even as she tried to calm herself down, she couldn’t. The way Rise can easily bring out reactions from Naoto that other people would have difficulty doing so was dangerous.
“Naoto-kun, your heart is beating really fast,” Rise whispered. “Do you really like me that much?” A smirk formed on her face when she felt Naoto's heart immediately begin to beat faster after she made her sly comment.
“Be quiet,” Naoto grumbled grumpily as she took off her hat and placed it onto the nightstand. “Just go to sleep.”
Rise got off of Naoto and layed next to her. She nuzzled her face into the crook of Naoto’s neck and wrapped her arms around Naoto’s smaller frame. “I was planning to.”
As Rise slowly fell asleep, she couldn’t help but be glad that she got sick on purpose in order to get Naoto’s attention (Naoto was a bit of a worrywart afterall). She’ll tell Naoto about that when they woke up but for now, she just wanted to have her all to herself.