Cleaning House

The aircon billowed throughout the shop as Nitsuki strained to lift a box of ramune into the lone fridge display. The door was wide open, the cold air spilling out and pooling around her legs as she quickly stacked the bottles. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand as she shut it closed again.

She exhaled deeply and looked over the checklist. "Alright, all that's left is the snacks and some cleaning."

The clock on the wall showed that there was still a little under an hour until noon, and she'd already pretty much gotten the lion's share of her work done for the day. It was Friday now, nearly a week since Tanabata, and things had mostly been calm in the interim.

Well, aside from a certain person's newfound obsession with petting her head and a rediscovered passion for something else…

"Come on—Darn it!"

Nitsuki glanced over to Tachibana, who'd been cursing in frustration for a while now. She chuckled to herself as he failed to properly land his kendama, the ball once again missing the cup by a hair.

"If you keep playing around like that, the old man is gonna get mad at you," she chided, but she couldn't stop a smirk from growing on her face. "To think that you somehow regressed back to your middle school self."

Tachibana huffed, the ball rolling back into his hand. "It's just… I've lost my touch. I'm not even that good anymore, and it's not fair!" He carefully tried swinging it up to try and catch it another time but once again missed. "Noo! I was so close—"

"Damn it, you brat!" Koji's voice came from the other end of the shop, and Tachibana's expression shifted into one of pure panic. He quickly stowed his kendama and went back to pretending like he'd been working.

Nitsuki rolled her eyes and turned back to the checklist, her smirk growing bigger. "Told you so. Didn't help that your failures were loud enough to wake him out of his morning nap."

"Shut it," he cutely hissed. "I'll have you know that I was the best player in the whole school."

"Oh, yeah?" she teased. "And when was Ball-buster Tachibana's heyday again? Fifteen years ago?"

His cheeks puffed in irritation as he finally started working again, stocking some candy into its display. "No. It was fourteen, not fifteen. We were second-years!"

"We're both coming up on 28 though, and we were 13 when we were second-years. That means—"

He groaned. "Ugh, please don't. My soul hurts just thinking about it. I'm still young!!!"

She snickered and moved to start helping him with the snacks before the putt of a scooter's engine caught their attention. The two of them looked to see two highschooler girls pulling up in front of the store riding tandem, the passenger really, really pressing themselves against the rider.

Wait, hold on a second… Was that her old scooter?

As they parked, her suspicions were confirmed as the driver took her helmet off and shook her braided hair loose. It was Nakagawa, the girl she'd given the scooter away to nearly a month ago at this point.

She hadn't expected to see her so soon again after they'd finally resolved that headache of a title transfer, but here she was—and with an illegal passenger too considering her permit restrictions.

"Seriously?" Nitsuki huffed, crossing her arms at the girl she'd thought had been a timid, rule-following type. "She told me she'd be using it to pick up groceries, not dates."

"Hey." Tachibana gently elbowed her in the side. "Don't be rude. Maybe she's just getting… extra friendly with her friends."

"…Eh, fair enough. Still, I thought I'd be done with this whole mess. If she's here to get another signature—"

They both witnessed the passenger suddenly smooch Nakagawa's cheek before making their way to the entrance.

"…" Nitsuki looked at Tachibana.

He looked back.

"…"

"Um." Tachibana blinked as the door swung open with a chime, scrambling to put on a smile. "W-welcome, dear customer!"

Nakagawa and her companion walked in, and as Nitsuki got a closer look, she realized they had the same uniform as Yamaguchi. They must've gone to the same school.

"Ah, Ms. Amano, hello again," the girl politely bowed to her.

"Hello." Nitsuki nodded back, her tone neutral. She was all for supporting their relationship if that was indeed a thing, but she was still mildly annoyed at the girl's blatant disregard for road safety. "How can we help you?"

"W-well, we were just stopping by to buy some drinks and snacks. Exams just wrapped up, so we got a little extra time on our hands today." Nakagawa smiled. "We're planning on having a mini-celebration at a park near here."

Nitsuki's eyes flicked over to the other girl who had her hand 'discretely' resting on Nakagawa's waist.

She knew Tachibana had noticed it too and had to fight back a smirk. "Oh, a celebration? Just the two of you?"

Nakagawa's gaze suddenly got bashful. "Y-yeah. Just us." She glanced over at her partner before jerking up. "Ah! I, um, almost forgot. Ms. Amano, this is my… friend, Sakurai."

Sakurai bowed with a confident sort of elegance, but there was a slight stiffness in her body language. Her eyes were sharp as they met Nitsuki's. "Hello, Ms. Amano. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"…Mhm." Nitsuki nodded. "Likewise."

Her gaze flicked back over to Sakurai's hand that had decided to slide over to Nakagawa's lower back and then—Oh, come on!

"Anyways," Nitsuki coughed. "Feel free to look around. The snacks are on this aisle and display case here, while the chilled drinks are over there. We also have a little freezer in the corner too if you want to grab ice cream or something."

"Ooh, ice cream? That could be hot," Sakurai whispered into the other girl's ear, a little too loudly.

Nakagawa's face lit up like a furnace. "Y-you can handle that. I-I'll go and grab some ramune for us!"

"Wait, I didn't mean it like that—" Sakurai protested, but Nakagawa had already darted off to the fridge display. She groaned and gave the two of them an embarrassed smile.

"I'm sorry about her, she's a little shy," Sakurai said. "I'm trying to get her to… open up. Yeah, let's go with that."

Nitsuki had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes at the obvious euphemism. Did these two seriously think they were being subtle?

Tachibana cleared his throat, and his smile was starting to look strained. "W-well, we wish you two the best of luck. Don't let us keep you from your celebration."

"Right, thanks." She gave him a curt nod, and then she went off to the ice cream freezer, humming to herself.

Nitsuki watched them go, amusement and exasperation both in her eyes. She turned to her boyfriend.

"Well, I'm glad to see love is in full bloom," she softly remarked. "It'd be even cuter were it not for the PDA and potential license suspension though. I really don't want to see them getting in trouble."

Tachibana's smile grew a bit warmer and a smidge more complicated. "Yeah, I get you. It's a tough balance to maintain, especially at their age." He sighed and leaned against the counter. "You think they get any bad comments for it?"

She frowned. "Probably, but they seem happy, so I hope it doesn't get to them—"

The smack of plastic wrapping against the countertop caused Nitsuki's head to jerk to the side.

"Here's the stuff. How much will it be?" Sakurai asked, her tone slightly clipped. She was holding a pack of popsicles and some pocky.

Nitsuki was about to start ringing it up before the girl leaned in with a deep, harsh whisper. "Hey, look. I saw you two whispering about us. I don't know how you pieced together our situation, but you'd best not make fun of it. Got it?"

"Whoa—" Nitsuki blinked, taken aback by the sudden aggression. "Um, just take it easy—

The girl's eyes narrowed. "No, I will not. This is serious. If you so much as make a single remark about our relationship or about how we're not normal…"

Nitsuki's heart nearly stopped as she stared at the girl. "Wait, no. That is not—"

"You heard me." Sakurai rapped her fist against the counter. "You don't know what it's like to be us—to have to deal with everything. So if you have a problem with me and my girl being happy, you can shove it up your ass and find someone else to ring us up."

Tachibana butted in. "U-um, excuse me ma'am. I'm sure there's been a misunderstanding. If you allow us to explain…"

He trailed off as Nakagawa suddenly appeared beside Sakurai, tapping her shoulder. She had drinks in one hand and a flyer in the other. "Rina-chan, did you see this?" she asked, her voice bubbling with excitement. "There's a support group holding a meeting next week Thursday!"

"…A support group?" Sakurai hesitantly tore her glare from them as she looked down at the flyer in hand.

"Y-yeah! I'm surprised, I can't believe I never saw this earlier." She looked extremely excited as she passed it to her. "M-Ms. Amano, Mr. Tachibana, is it true? You're really going to hold a meeting? Can we come?"

Sakurai tensed up. She scanned the paper for a moment—lingering at the bottom—before awkwardly looking back at them. "Oh… wait… so the two of you…"

Nitsuki's gaze shifted to her boyfriend. He did the same to her albeit a little awkwardly.

"…"

When she turned back to the now noticeably meeker Sakurai, Nitsuki politely gave the biggest shit-eating grin she could muster.

***

Nitsuki casually sipped away at her tea in the backroom as she relished in her break.

It'd taken a lot of effort to not start laughing once Sakurai'd realized that the target of her misplaced ire was not only the co-organizer of the support group, but a trans woman to boot. It had taken even more effort not to openly guffaw when the girl started apologizing profusely to her.

Things had calmed down a lot after that misunderstanding. Nakagawa had explained that Sakurai had been having a rough day and was a lot more defensive than usual after a particularly nasty comment from one of their teachers.

Nitsuki took another long sip, savoring the slight bitterness on her tongue. Jokes aside, the girls were honestly nice kids. They'd bought double the ramune as a way to make amends and were genuinely interested in attending the meeting.

She hoped the group would give them the support and guidance they needed next week.

"Hey, iron maiden." She heard a knock on the frame of the open door, and she looked up to see Koji leaning against it. He was about the same as usual, although perhaps a little groggier and gruffer.

Nitsuki closed her eyes and internally groaned at the new nickname. She still couldn't believe that was the replacement he'd settled on for 'young man'—not that she was complaining too much though.

"Hey, old man. What's up?"

"I… need to talk to you about something." His voice was low and more serious than usual.

She opened an eye, suddenly concerned. "Wait, did something happen?"

He shook his head, and his expression softened a bit. "Erm, not yet. But it might soon, so… I just want to give you a heads up."

"Alright, what is it?"

"Come with me. It'd be easier to show you," he sighed, and then stepped out the doorway. He fumbled around with his smart phone awkwardly, clearly not used to handling the thing despite her and Tachibana's many lessons.

After a moment of struggling, he seemed to find whatever it was that he was looking for, and he passed the device to her beneath the dim fluorescent light.

She took it and glanced down. The screen showed a separate Hoshimura group chat than what she was used to. On it were a couple of messages from Inoue, and they were not nice.

"…"

She looked at the old man and wordlessly handed him the phone back. He returned it with an uncharacteristically gentle look on his face, as if he were worried that she would break down in tears or something.

"…I'm sorry you had to see that," he eventually murmured. "But it's better to be prepared."

Nitsuki breathed in deeply and nodded, appreciating his concern. She paused for a few moments, letting herself process what she'd seen—

And then promptly gulped down the rest of her tea to soothe her.

Koji raised a brow. "Are you okay?"

"Not really." She placed the empty can down onto a nearby table before crossing her arms. "I'd be lying if I said I was. But at the same time, I'm not exactly shocked either."

"Yeah, that's fair. Inoue… well, she's always been a thorny one." Koji sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "To think she's going to use the stargazing festival of all things just to spite you…"

Nitsuki closed her eyes as a million different thoughts ran through her head. That would definitely throw a wrench in the plan Tachibana had come up with, and it could mean that this was the end of the road.

She frowned, her heart sinking at the thought. She'd been so close, but now, everything was at risk.

…Or at least that would've been the case if she didn't have a cheat power on her side.

Suddenly, the gears began to turn in her head, and a small, sly smirk played on her lips.

"N-Nitsuki?" Koji asked worriedly at her new expression.

"Hmm, oh, don't worry. I'm just thinking about something."

She picked up her empty can again, looked at it for a moment, and then tossed it into a recycling bin.

"Break's over, I guess. It's time to help Tachibana clean house."