Work Text:
Kyomoto grit her teeth in focus as she shaded in a background, while she sat kneeling on a cushion. The curtain tassles were finicky to draw, but she’d get them done soon.
The sound of pencil scratching into paper filled Fujino’s room as she hatched shadows into each corner of the drawn room, and as Fujino up in her seat drew…probably a creature transformation scene? In their current oneshot—Cicada Humans—there were a lot of people turning into cicada monsters.
She couldn’t get too eager, or she might make a mistake and need to erase it; this panel was almost…there!
She set the pencil down. “I’m getting some water. Do you need anything, Fu…jino?”
Fujino was sitting in her chair, eyebrows and soft lips scrunched up in thought, resting her chin against her hand. She sighed. “Yep. I need your help, Kyomoto.”
Huh? But she knew Kyomoto only did the backgrounds. Kyomoto’s forte was streets; cluttered bedrooms covered in scraps of paper and unmade bedding; library shelves stacked end to end with books; wide plains of grass with flowers scattered among the blades; the coarse bark of a mighty tree, along with its many sprouting leaves; a coast of rocks battered by waves.
Fujino drew all sorts of people and creatures, doing loads of different things: casual chats; faces tight with determination, or screaming in horror; lounging in chairs; being eaten alive by a cicada hybrid… And she came up with most of the plot details too!
She did ask for a second opinion sometimes though… Hm. Maybe she just needed a second opinion on a panel.
“Sure! How can I help?” she asked.
Fujino turned around to properly look at Kyomoto. The sun wasn’t too bright, but a warm glow still seeped through the window, around her face; she looked nervous? That was strange. “Seeee… I’m trying to draw this kissing scene… But…” She sighed. “I need inspiration. Just like when we went to the beach to practice drawing shells, waves and stuff for The Sea Cities.”
Inspiration…for kisses?
“So…you’ve never kissed anyone?” Kyomoto’s eyes wandered to the floor. Neither had she.
“I have too kissed someone! Lots of people, actually!” Fujino blurted out roughly.
Ah. The corner of Kyomoto’s lip twitched. Of course. Fujino was always so cool, so boys must have asked her out before, right? Someone good-looking who could handle normal social stuff. And she’d have no particular reason to say no to all of them.
A brief vision ran through her mind: Someone in a handsome suit, and Fujino in a beautiful, flowing green gown. They danced across a marble tiled floor, under the glistening glass chandelier, surrounded by palace guests. When they were done, he brushed a strand of hair out of her face, and leaned closer, as both closed their eyes…
Kyomoto’s mouth gradually slipped into a frown. That didn’t sound nice; someone else being that close to her ‘bestie’, as Fujino put it. But she allowed herself a little bit of satisfaction that at least these boys probably didn’t get to draw manga with Fujino—that was something special, just for the two of them.
“Oh.”
“But…um, it was a while ago.” Fujino looked away to the side. “And they were, like, really different to the main character in this, so that’s no good.”
Kyomoto hummed in thought. “So we need to…look at people kissing? Like, in a movie?” It would have to be a movie; they wouldn’t be able to find somewhere to watch real kissing, right? Maybe if they stalked restaurants and kept an eye out for dating couples, but that relied too much on luck, and would be super weird!
Unless…
Her heart raced; Fujino wouldn’t ask her to kiss someone to watch and practice drawing it, right?! She couldn’t even talk to a cashier; she could never kiss a stranger!
“Not exactly. I was thinking that maybe we could, you know, if you want…” she trailed off into indistinct mumbling.
“What?” Please don’t ask me to kiss someone please don’t ask me to kiss someone…
“Don’t make me say it again,” Fujino grumbled. “… Can we try kissing?”
Kyomoto’s heart went still for a moment, before drumming back into life. Every ounce of strength left her body, leaving her powerless to close her jaw again, after it fell open.
She’d asked her to kiss someone after all, but strangely, she didn’t hate the idea as much anymore. Fujino was dedicated enough to have run her manga panels weekly while going to school, when Kyomoto couldn’t perfectly manage even one of those. She could draw incredible scenes of both action and emotion, beyond Kyomoto’s skills. She was confident going out and talking to strangers, and didn’t put Kyomoto on the spot when they hung out together. She would praise Kyomoto’s art to the point of making her blush, even when it didn’t feel so praiseworthy.
Fujino had alluring, adventurous eyes—always rushing ahead to what she wanted, while using a warm hand to hold on tight and drag Kyomoto with her. Ever since they met, she felt like she was always following her friend, but never being abandoned.
Even two years after the day they celebrated winning an Honorable Mention in Jump, she still remembered the feel of Fujino’s shoulder bumping against hers while they ate ice cream. The shameless, cheeky grin when she told funny—if sometimes rude—jokes that had Kyomoto keel over laughing.
Fujino was like a manga heroine; beautiful, kind, and skilled…she even knew karate!
And she picked Kyomoto?
She could have asked anyone else, but she asked me.
Fujino must have taken note of her shock, because she spoke again, not meeting Kyomoto’s eyes this time: “It’s just an idea. You don’t have to if you don’t want to…”
“I do!” she replied way too eagerly—why did she want to?—and before any smirks or teases could pop out of her friend, she clarified: “I-I mean, I’ll do it. But I mean…” Still a lingering doubt. “Isn’t it…weird? We’re friends, and you’re only supposed to do that with your boyfriend or husband…”
Even if she’d maybe thought of kissing Fujino a few times in the past couple of years. Just thoughts; nothing more. Even if those thoughts gave her butterflies in the stomach, it was only out of how weird it would be, because they were just friends.
“Yeah, but… It’s just research for the drawing, it’s not like a real kiss.”
Right. “R-right.” She’d been getting ahead of herself. Fujino would never think of it that way—and neither did Kyomoto, not really. It wasn’t real.
…
Neither of them moved, or made a sound. Maybe. If there was a sound, she wouldn’t have heard it over the thumping in her chest. Every time their eyes met, they immediately snapped away to look at anything else but each other.
“Um…” she mumbled. She just knew there was a deep blush in her cheeks.
“Y-yeah,” Fujino replied. “I guess we should get closer, huh?” she chuckled.
Kyomoto nodded, but still didn’t move. Fujino mercifully ended the stalemate by coming down from her chair, and shuffling close.
Her face slowly approached, and Kyomoto’s brain chose that moment to enter panic mode.
She didn’t know how to kiss! How did you kiss someone properly?! You start by pursing your lips, right? Or just put your faces together? Should she put an arm around Fujino? What would she do if Fujino did that? Kyomoto didn’t want to make a fool out of herself! Fujino would tease her for eternity if she was a bad kisser.
Oh god, this was happening, wasn’t it?
Does my breath smell? Should I brush my teeth again, just in case?
“Fujino…” she said.
“Yeah?” Fujino asked, pausing her advance.
“Please don’t tease me if I’m bad at it?”
Fujino smiled. “I won’t, I promise.”
Kyomoto let out a shuddering sigh, and closed her eyes. “Okay.”
She didn’t open her eyes again; she just felt their mouths make warm, soft contact. Fluttering tickles squirmed in her stomach like butterflies, and tingling set in her lips, and a warmer blaze in her face. Their necks were uncomfortably stretched forward; they should have been a bit closer to begin with, but she didn’t mind.
Her veins pulsed. They shouldn’t be doing this. It was wrong, somehow, some way—like having ice cream before dinner. Things this delicious were usually bad for you. That sometimes stopped her, but not Fujino, and when she snook into the freezer, she always did bring some for Kyomoto too.
Fujino said it wasn’t a real kiss… But it sure felt real, right now.
It only lasted a few seconds, probably, before they parted and Kyomoto opened her eyes. Her lips still tingled, and her breath came up a little short.
Fujino looked at her with wide, stunned eyes. “That… So that’s… Huh.” Her cheeks were tinged pink like Kyomoto knew hers were, but she seemed to be breathing more easily.
Both of them had their hand at their mouth, lightly touching their lips. For Kyomoto, it was the unfamiliar, alien tickle on her lips from her first kiss. She couldn’t guess what it was for her best friend.
“Did…” she muttered. “Did that help?”
Fujino stared into space for a few seconds. Then she stared down at the floor, with her lips rubbing together like she’d put on lipbalm.
Oh no… Was Kyomoto really that bad?
Come to think of it, how did this help with drawing kissing? She’d never seen any kiss drawn from the viewpoint of the kisser, so really, they should have just gone with the movie in the first place…
Before she could jump into deep apologies, Fujino looked back at Kyomoto with a clear smile. “It helped. Thanks, Kyomoto.”
She let out a huff of air that was…a sigh of relief? A laugh? It turned into a giggle, whatever it was, as she covered her mouth. “Y-you’re welcome.”
“I’m ‘welcome’, am I?” Fujino asked, and the lines of her smile turned devilish. “Is that an offer?”
It took a moment to think through Fujino’s words, and then the skin on Kyomoto’s cheeks grew hot. She had to explain her poor phrasing immediately! “N-not like that I mean! Just… Ah…”
Kyomoto leaned over the completed draft Fujino had compiled from all the loose, completed pages.
She hadn’t forgotten that moment. How could she forget something like that? Every day for the months since, she would look back on that memory, and her face would start steaming. Mom had even teased her about the blushing, and asked if she had a secret boyfriend; when she denied it, Mom suggested with waggling eyebrows: ‘A girlfriend then?’, which did nothing to calm Kyomoto’s rising embarrassment, and was met with an even quicker and sterner denial.
But as she leafed through the pages, she noticed there was something…missing, from this draft. Her eyes scattered to every corner and scanned every panel, but…
“Fujino?…” she asked slowly. “Where’s the kissing scene?”
Fujino looked over with a confused frown and tilted head. “The what?”