It's lunch, not a date! (Mako, Hana)

Waiting for someone to show up for lunch wasn't normally the kind of thing that would stress out Mako. She knew that a lot of people could have any number of reasons for being late, but they always contacted her if something were keeping them from arriving. Not that the person she was waiting for was even late in this case. If anything Mako had arrived too early for lunch and thusly only added to her stress. The only reason stress was occurring at all was because of who she was waiting for really. At the moment she was sitting in a booth at the restaurant waiting for her roommate, friend and secret crush to arrive. Hana was coming to meet her for lunch and she couldn't stop fretting about it.

She'd taken the occasion to dress up a bit, donning a knee length plaid skirt, a brown top and of course her navy cap. There was just a tiny bit of makeup on her face as she'd experimented with lip gloss and eyeliner in preparation for the lunch. Hana was someone that she wanted to ensure that she looked absolutely perfect for. As she'd tried this sort of dressing up out for the first time, she had discovered that doing so wasn't nearly so easy as she'd thought it might be. Every second that went by without Hana there made her more and more nervous that something might happen to prevent her arrival at all. There was even a plastic folder on the table which contained a fully inked and colored character design that was based on Hana. Just add a magical girl outfit with a different hat than Hana usually wore and you had it. It was going to be a gift to her for the occasion of their first lunch together of the.. week? Month? Certainly not because dressing up, making a gift and doing makeup before meeting this girl for lunch was pretty much a date. 'It'snotadateIt'snotadateIt'snotadateIt'snotadateIt'snotadateIt'snotadate.'

"Hana-chan.. you're so cute.. I need to tell you.. but I just can't.." she thought aloud, tapping her finger on the tabletop as she waited for their appointed meeting time to arrive.

Lunch was simple enough. Especially a lunch that wasn't at school. She could wear her normal clothes instead of the normal school outfits, she could relax, and usually she didn't have to worry about going to a class soon after. All in all it was really just better, especially since Hana wasn't exactly wanting for cash, so she could do it without much worry.



It was especially good when she got to go out on lunch dates with Mako. Yes, the term lunch date was normal and not normally used to denote an actual date, but as soon as the words went through her head, Hana had blushed her way off campus, clutching her bag of books tightly. Unlike her friend, she hadn't dressed up at all. She wouldn't mind giving it a try for Mako, but it just seemed like she would be too obvious or desperate or something if she just showed up that way.



Which was why she was a bit surprised when Mako looked so nice. She didn't immediately spot Hana, so the brunette walked up quietly, as per usual, keeping her eyes trained on the beautiful young lady that was her roommate. She really was super cute.



Hana walked up just in time to catch the tail end of whatever Mako was saying. "Need to tell who what?" she asked in greeting, sliding into the booth beside her. "What are you all dressed up for? You look... pretty." 'Pretty? Stupid Hana, she's freaking gorgeous. Just tell her and maybe you could actually have a lunch date! No that would be totally inappropriate right now.'

Mako was the type of girl whom jump scares would affect every single time no matter how telegraphed they were. She was therefore not a terribly big fan of horror films or attractions like haunted houses. No matter how much she wanted to go into those kinds of environments just so that she could cuddle with Hana when she inevitably became scared. To be held by the cutest girl in the world would make all the fright she'd undergo very much worth it! Hana walking up right in the middle of Mako's ruminations on confessing was pretty much a jump scare too. She jumped in her seat and stared up at the girl who had just arrived. Wait.. she just said Mako looked pretty? Whaaaaaat? The look on Mako's face told the whole story as it went from surprised to blushing to scrambling for some sort of response which would address the compliment.

"Oh, this? I'm just... practicinglookingreallyclassyforcomiketandstufflikethatsothatIwillbepresentabletothefansatlarge... I'mcertainlynotdressedupbecauseIwanttoimpressyoualotandneedtotellyousomething.." Mako began, became more flustered and then pointed off to the side, "HEYLOOKASPIDER... Man... poster..."

Of course, Hana had no idea what any of the expressions on Mako's face meant. For someone who drew cartoon expressions like some sort of goddess (in some people's opinion anyway), she certainly had no clue when it came to actual people. That part wasn't a big secret; except for Mako, Hana was quiet, secretive, and downright antisocial. She literally sought out anywhere where the party wasn't at.

So, the brunette just tilted her head, unable to actually understand a word after "I'm just..." Which of course, was too bad for the both of them. "Um... what?" She blinked, confused as she sat down in the booth across from the girl who would one day be her girlfriend. When she was brave enough. "How much coffee did you have earlier, Mako-Chan?"

Darn it, why couldn't she just come out and say how she felt? Whenever she even got close to the general neighborhood of confessing it turned into incomprehensible gobbledygook. Mako didn't really expect much to come out of such a confession, but her inability to even get that far was quite frustrating. Hana was a professional artist like her, though, so she had far too much going on with deadlines and expectations to worry about someone liking her. Sitting across from the brunette made her heart pound. They were so close physically and yet their hearts were so far apart otherwise! A moment later she wondered if Hana had been confessed to by a boy before. Nothing of the sort had ever been mentioned to her but honestly she wouldn't have been surprised had that been the case. Quiet as she was Hana was so pretty, so adorable that someone had to have told her how amazing she was before. Anyone who had done that before could go to Pluto, though, because Hana was hers! Or should be. Or something.

When she was asked how much coffee she'd had Mako blushed intensely. It was no secret that she tended to binge on the stuff when an important deadline was on the horizon. Afterwards she'd crash for a day or two until her system fell back into its regular routine of rest and activity. Though there was no deadline on the horizon this had been a case of such bingeing. That picture had to not only be finished but inked and colored before it was ready to be presented to Hana! An all-nighter had gotten the drawing finished, though she was operating on the continued energy of coffee at the moment. Soda and its inherent sugar and caffeine would further push her through lunch today. Smiling sheepishly she reached across the table and patted Hana's hand. Then she blushed and giggled nervously at how forward the gesture had been.

"Coffee? What on earth are you talking about? I only had about... seven cans of it..." she responded, then slid the folder with her drawing in it across to Hana, "I had to finish this after all."

Hana picked up the paper without much pause, shoving it in front of her face to hide her blush. 'Stupid Hana. Just let her know she's an amazing artist and super pretty. Why can't you do that instead of hiding behind a paper while pretending to scrutinize it?!' The brunette sat the paper back down after she had her blush under control enough (or thought she did, at least). "It look perfect," Hana told her honestly. "I've been working on stuff too, though I don't like the writing as much as the drawing..." She pulled her own papers of dialogue that needed to be placed properly on the pages later (Currently they were rough sketches in pencil with the position of said speech bubbles).

"You know you're going to crash in like an hour. You always do..." 'Though I hope you crash leaning on me so I can get away with a little bit of cuddling! Though... how would you manage to do that..?' Hana of course had to Lecture her friend about her habits because she cared about her health. Her one true love couldn't possibly have anything happen to her! Hana wouldn't allow it! 'Maybe I should start making us both meals and things, and we can both be healthier and live for like two hundred years together! ... if I ever confess to her...'

Mako honestly and truly counted on Hana to review her work with a critical eye. They were friends of course (with Mako wishing for more) but they were also both professionals who knew what would and wouldn't be acceptable as a finished product. Rather than simply saying something was not good enough they'd even be able to give constructive criticism as to what could be fixed in order to improve a product. She watched intently as the brunette held her drawings up to scrutinize her work. Of course the drawing wasn't for a project other than as a gift to Hana, but she'd intended it to come off as professional as possible. Hana rendered her verdict that it was perfect, so Mako let out a sigh of relief. Now she just had to explain that it wasn't for a project or anything.. which immediately took a back seat to reading up on the dialogue which Hana had drawn up. Excellent! Being something of a fast reader she got through it relatively quickly, and nodded.

"Well it could use a little fleshing out but it's definitely what I'd expect from someone as talented and experienced as you. I'll help sketch out the scenes if you'd like. What kind of story is it?" Mako smiled cheerfully as she tapped the papers from Hana.

Then she shook her head as she denied Hana's statement, "Nonsense! I'm perfectly awake, and I'll last as long as you need me to, Hana-chan! After all this is our big.. um.. lunch.. that's not different than any other lunch we've had.. right? I.. I drew that picture for you actually. That's why I wanted to finish it and stayed up all night for it."

"It's for... a future part of our manga," Hana answered after a moment. She'd gotten... a little overzealous and was already planning issues ahead even though the class progress was still going. She'd surely keep Mako around forever if she could get enough plans going that they could just keep making things and be super successful! Even if her scripts did need a little work!

She might have explained more, but then Mako informed hana that the picture was for her, and that an all-nighter had been pulled in an effort to make a picture for her to give to her over lunch. It was... really flattering. So flattering, in fact, that Hana's response was supposed to be thank you, but instead it ended up being something incoherant that roughly rhymed with "Iloveyoumakoandthepictureisamazing" but it certainly couldn't have been that. It also caused a mild case of very red blushing, which she couldn't hide this time as she was busy staring at her gift. A heartfelt drawing from an artist was the greatest gift one could get from them! "Er, I mean... It's nice and... you didn't need to..."

Mako had been so dutifully enveloped in her work with reviewing Hana's dialogue that she hadn't caught the last part about its purpose. She didn't want Hana to think that this work was substandard or somehow unacceptable. Far from it! It was just that while it was pretty solid she would've liked to see a little more out of certain little points in the story. Some cases were just matters of it being different wordage than what had been put to paper in the first draft. When she thought that maybe Hana could take it the wrong way Mako wanted to reach over and hug her, but that would be a little weird. Right in the middle of the restaurant, anyway. Otherwise maybe it'd be a good opportunity and not out of place like she thought it would be.

Then Hana blurted out something that was so indecipherable that it might've been a Mako outburst. What was that? Mako squinted as she focused her brain, trying to wrap it around what the girl had said about the picture. A few words materialized out of it but they didn't make very much sense. What she thought she had pulled out of the muck of rambling certainly made her blush as well. No way that was what Hana had told her. Nope. She was thankful though, so Mako nodded in response and offered a smile while combating her own blush. Slowly her hand crept across the table like one of the spiders she always shouted about. Without thinking about it she let her hand pounce on Hana's, feeling the warmth and softness of the brunette's hand. Such a wonderful sensation! Then her eyes went wide, her blush worsened and she chuckled nervously.

"Soooo... Hana-chan.. I love the story you wrote up in the dialogue.. you're really awesome," she admitted, blushing like crazy yet again.

Hana, for her part, was still rather embarrassed for her outburst. It wasn't exactly in-character, if she had been one of her characters in her manga stories. Maybe she was around Mako so much her random shouting was starting to influence her? Not that it mattered, it was just weird to Hana and had her distracted... at least for a moment. It took her at least a minute to realize there was a soft, feminine hand on hers, belonging to the one girl she actually did want touching her. Her cheeks flushed crimson as she tried not to draw attention to the hand and make it stop. 'What's the hand for? Does she think I'm upset since I'm blushing? Don't go away, Mako hand...'

"Story?" she repeated, her own brain now distracted by a hand rather than an outburst. "Oh! Er, thanks, Mako," she nodded, her eyes flicking down to their hands, which caused her to blush slightly deeper and gulp. "I er, try really hard for, you know, stuff the two of us are involved in..." Was that the best she could do? The hand had very nearly given her the courage to try right then and there, and yet that was the best she could get out. Ah well... Forever alone right next to the girl of her dreams must just be Hana's fate. She mentally let out a melodramatic sigh. See now that sounded just as stupid. 'Get it together Hana, other girls hold hands it's not like it automatically means anything like it would if one of you was a boy.'