You Make My Heart Sing - [ Bocchi the Rock ]

[Baka]

[ Bocchi the Rock┃Hitori Gotou x Ikuyo Kita┃Romance / Slice of Life / Comedy┃possible NSFW (characters in story and series are 17 or older) ]

Just a little project that I decided to start writing to keep my muse active. Decided to post it here to motivate myself and hopefully entertain one or two people.

Do not comment on this thread! Feel free to drop in my PMs or Journal if you want to comment the fanfic!​

 

[Baka]

Chapter 1 - Sweet Pandemonium​

"Ok! That's a wrap!" Nijika Ijichi shouts behind her drums after the final notes of the 'Guitar, Loneliness and Blue Planet' rang out in the almost empty Starry. Aside from Kessoku band practicing their upcoming live-show the only other people in the live-house were Nijika's sister and the manager of the Starry Seika and PA-san who were listening the band that had come a long way ever since it was formed half-a-year ago. They had a few live-concerts behind them now, handful of songs, and the four girls in the band had become fast friends after a rocky and hectic start.

Girls were excited to move onto the next song before Seika claps her hands twice to get their attention. "Alright! Time's up. Start packing your things so that we can start preparing for tonight's live." she says with her usual stern look in her face.

"Fine sis..." Nijika reluctantly replies, and the members start to pack their instruments and clean the stage while chatting how the practice went aside from the gloomy looking pinkette, who was still standing with her trusty Gibson Les Paul in her hands, staring at the floor with an empty gaze, clearly something weighing on her mind.

That something was the rhythm guitarist and singer of their band. Kita Ikyo. Complete opposite of the gloomy introvert with a social anxiety like her. Someone that she at first deemed somewhat overbearing with her cheery attitude and extroverted nature. Unlike her who rarely talked with anyone the red-haired bubbly gal could strike a conversation with anyone, and become fast friends with them as well. It was the case between them as well. They were the same age, both of them played guitar in the same band, and now she was teaching her to become better at the instrument as well. As the two spent more and more time together the pink-haired girl had realized how genuinely kind and attentive she was. Kita knew how hard it was for her to even hold a simple conversation going, how the stares of people made her uncomfortable, and how intimidating the world outside of her own room was, and still was to her. Instead of being weirded out by this she made sure to take things at her pace, didn't pressure her to anything, and always got her back when pinkette found herself in overwhelming and scary situations. Somewhere along the way she had started to pay more attention to her, stealing glances of her while the two were on playing live or practicing, getting excited to meet her every day at school or practices and enjoying her warm smile she unconditionally bestoved to anyone, and that made her heart skip a beat.

Kita made her feel warm and fluffy inside, a feeling that she had never ever felt before in her life. Just a little while ago she had learned how nice friends were, after all she had failed to make even a single one before she joined the band by the freak accident, but she knew that the feeling that she felt when she was with Kita was something different. After consulting the good-old internet she had reached to her conclusion:

She was in love.

Or at least had a crush on her bandmate.

However despite now knowing what the alien feeling was she was now even more confused. Of course she knew what love and romance entailed... At least based on shoujo-manga and romantic movies... But she still couldn't put it in words or make heads or tails these feelings and sensations in any sort of orderly fashion to make thos mysterious feeling of 'love' open up to her. After bondering over it a few sleepless nights she finally found the solution that might help her, and it was something she had done previously to conevy her feelings to herself, and now to everyone listening their music.

Write a song about it.

A week had passed since she begun her project, and the notebook she used to scribble any ideas and inspirations for lyrics had now a 10-page mess where she lays her feelings bare while some single lines, rhymes and phrases she came up for the lyrics had started to take a form of an extremely early draft of a song. While she had started to sort out her feelings on paper it had created another problem, which was that now the red-haired girl was constantly on her mind, and her focus on practices were all over the place. Gladly with her skills that she had acquired after many years of practice and being quite a famous and mysterious internet guitarist "Guitarhero" made her performance at least passable, and at least Nijika and Ryo Yamada, the bassist of the band hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. After all she had always been a silent, gloomy and eccentric person, and the whole band had somewhat gotten used to that already.

However the young woman who was now living rent-free in her mind 24/7 had taken a notice of the shy gaze watching her, and the lead-guitarist being even more distant than she usually was. After realizing that the pinkette was still just standing in the stage her guitar still strapped on her shoulder she walks to her, and gently pokes her shoulder, which makes the girl jolt back a bit.

"Are you okay Hitori-chan? You seemed to be in your own world for quite a while there." She asks while smiling gently at the lead guitarist and lyricist of the band Hitori Gotou, who was usually referred with the nickname Bocchi. Instead of giving the reply Bocchi just stood still, shaking a little and looking at Kita with a blank expression. The gentle poke scared her, and the realization that it was the red-haired girl in question she was thinking the whole time made her brains short-circuit for a little while. After a few awkward seconds of silence she averts her gaze and starts to look on her side at the floor.

"I... I...I'm fine..." she manages to reply as she shakes a little hoping to end the conversation then and there, but her extroverted band-member weren't going to let it be.

"I've actually seen you looking at my playing a lot recently. Am I doing something wrong? You know you can just tell me if that's the case." she says with her kind voice, and now receives an over-exaggerated headshake as a response. "Not at all! Y... You've improved a lot..." Gotou replies as she tries to quickly think a good excuse so that Kita would just leave the topic at that. "I've... Just been looking to see if there's any area in particular you need my tutoring in... For the next lesson..." then without even waiting to hear the response of the fellow guitarist she scurries to put her instrument away.

Nijika and Ryo had also heard this little exchange between the two, and joined in before the red-haired girl got the chance to reply as they walked closer to Kita. "I never would've thought Bocchi would be such a reliable teacher." Nijika comments. And Ryo nods. "True. She's so reliable and kind." stoic Ryo then hurries over to Hitori who had already put her guitar away and tried to sneak out of the Starry without anyone noticing. "So could the kind and reliable Bocchi-sama give this poor-old Ryo-chan a few thousand yens?" Ryo pleads with teary puppy-eyes. "I don't want to have to eat grass again to..." her sentence is cut short by Nijika who head-chops her with her hand. "You still haven't paid her back last time you asked money." blonde girl with side ponytail reproaches the blue, short-haired one before turning to Hitori. "You can go now. We'll see tomorrow same time." she informs the pinkette, who then bows quickly and darts out of the door. "Hitori-chan!" Kita tried to shout after her. She wasn't done talking with her, but the girl was already gone. It seemed that she'd have to wait for tomorrow to talk with her again.

However her sprint only lasted a short while before she had to stop and take a breather. She wasn't known for being good at sports, and her stamina was quite low. Now that she was out she could just go and take her time resting in the nearby park where she was scouted to the band in the first place, have a drink from the vending machine and just go home after she's done with it. While walking towards the park she prayed that nobody would be there.

Apparently god listened her prayers, since the park was empty. She bought herself a canned coffee from the nearby vending machine and went to sit in the swing. She put her guitar-bag leaning against the frame of the swing and started to gently swing as she enjoyed the warm beverage and continued to think how to put her feelings into words, and those words into the paper. Looking at the evening sky of the late summer dyed orange and yellow by the setting sun she racked her head over to try and come up with something. After spending few minutes in silence she finally comes up with something:

"...I want to see a whole world of different color-soaked skies with you.... "

Hitori whispers to herself. And once those words escaped from her mouth she knew that this sappy and corny line needed to be written down before she forgets it, but once she looks at the guitar bag and the pocket where she keeps her notebook her heart sinks.

After putting her picks there she had left the pocket open. Dropping the coffee-can she had drank halfway on the ground she rushes to rumamge through the pocket only to realize that the only thing missing was said notebook. "Oh god. I need to find it quickly. If someone sees what I have written in it I can't keep on living. I need to move out of Japan... No... I need to migrate to the ends of universe, dig a hole, bury myself there and apologize for ever being born!" she thought to herself as her usual negativity, embarrassment and her own insecurities started to take a hold of her thoughts, but among her dark thoughts she sees a flash of hope. "What if the notebook is lying somewhere, and no-one has seen what it contains?" this single thought gives her addrenaline boost as she swiftly grapped the guitar and started to rush back towards the live-house panickly looking around her in case she dropped in on the road, however the pink notebook was nowhere to be seen. She was already at the door of the Starry and slams the door open rushing towards the stage they had rehearsed moments prior.

And it was at this moment that she realized the worst-possible scenario had came to be.

Kita stood middle of the stage, familiar pink notebook in her hands, her eyes glued to the open pages, completely red from ear to ear, mouth slightly open from the apparent surprise of seeing Hitori's feelings for her laid bare in front of her dressed in the most sappiest and corniest lines one could even imagine.

Hitori herself collapses onto the floor, finally alerting the red-haired girl, who looked at Bocchi with even more surprised expression. "H.... H... Hitori-chan!" she squeals out and drops the notebook between the two.

With empty, dead eyes Hitori's eyes dart towards the notebook, the pages laid before her confirming what she already knew. The cat was out of the bag, and all of her secret feelings were revealed to the one these feelings were directed towards to. At that point there was only one thought going through the head of a shaking pink mess in form of a human with flushed cheeks who shaking on the floor.

"... Please... Someone... just end me..."

 

[Baka]

Chapter 2 - Right Here In My Arms​

The moments that followed Hitori's arrival to the live-house felt like eternity for both of the young women. Bocchi's soul had left her body ages ago, leaving only a shell blankly staring at the floor, unable to think anything other than wanting to dig a hole right through the floor, burying herself there, and never coming back to the surface ever again. Kita's brains on the other hand were working on overdrive thinking what to say, what not to say, how to dissolve the situation and going over if she should confront the awkward pinkette about this straight, or just feign ignorance, which would be extremely hard now that she caught her red-handed reading her memos. Room was completely silent aside from some distant noices from Seika and PA-chan readying the backroom for tonight's live-show, but neither of the two registered them. It felt like the two were alone in this awkward

However they both knew that either one of the two had to break the silence and tension, that was so thick that one could easily touch and feel it in the air. The fact that Hitori was still in this mortal plane, keeping her human-form was already an achievement that the red-haired woman couldn't believe, but she also knew that someone who was suffering with everyday communication wouldn't most likely be the one who'd open their mouth first. With her face still completely red she finally open her mouth and tries to talk to Bocchi.

"I... I.... It is just...a ....a .... Hypothetical 'what if' for.... O... Our next song!" Pinkette suddenly stutters before Kita has the chance to even say anything. Completely stunned from the surprise that the Hitori was the one saying anything first leaves her speechless. It was clear that Hitori had come a long way since they first met and started the band, but to be able to function this well in a situation where even the social-butterfly of the group had difficulties was extremely admirable. While she wanted to jump off of the stage and compliment her for this step there was much... MUCH more pressing topic at hand.

To Kita Hitori's lie was clear as day. Based on everything she saw on the pages of the notebook she knew those weren't just some willy-nilly what-if's with no meaning behind them. Bocchi's lyrics had always reflected her true feelings that she had hard time saying out loud, and she couldn't see a world where her lyrics didn't come straight to he heart, or that didn't have some truth to them. It was the reason why people in the band loved her lyrics, and what made the Kessoku Band sound how it did. The notebook on open on the floor laid Bocchi's true feelings bare for anyone who saw it, and there was no other way about it.

But she also surmised that calling out her bluff wouldn't benefit the situation at hand. In worst-case-scenario she might make Bocchi really uncomfortable, and make her close herself and her feelings behind even larger wall of lies. All sort of scenarios from Hitori coming a real Hikikomori to her leaving the band and never talking to them ever again flashed in her mind, and she knew that it was best to play along, and to play along she did. Red-haired guitarist forced an awkward smile on her face, and let out as awkward and forced laughter.

"I see... It was all just for the lyrics huh?" she replies with her kind voice, which prompts an exaggerated nods out of the pinkette across her. "Yes! J... Just something to help me write a... l... love song... " she replies her gaze directed towards floor. In her mind she thought that her bluff was flawless, and to make it even more convincing she decides to double it down. "You know... Those cool party-people love their love song... S... So writing one will get us access to Budokan one day...."

"Perfect. 10/10! That was awesome and flawless excuse." Bocchi thinks to herself, while Kita is having a hard time to keep the straight face and go along with her. She replies with another awkward chuckle. "Yes... We party-people can't get enough of our love songs..."

Another awkward silence follows, but now instead of explaining things further the social-anxiety started to rear it's ugly head for Hitori, and she swiftly lunges towards the open notebook taking it to her hands. "Wellithinkthatwasallsonowiwillbegoingseeyoutomorrowkitachanbye" Bocchi says at a rapid-fire pace extremely quietly before starting to run towards the exit, ready to leave this all behind her as one of her many shameful moments in her life, at least in her opinion. Ready to scrap this song, and her feelings for the always so shiny and kind guitarist and vocalist of the band for good, since to her it seemed clear that Kita had no interest in her, and she already told that this was all just a thought-experiment for her.

"WAIT!" a sudden shout from Kita makes pink-haired guitarist stop dead on her tracks. She slowly turns towards the fellow guitarist, with a scared look in her face. "Oh my god! She saw through it after all.... I want to die. Please.... I'm sure she will just say how much she hates me... How cringy loser I am... How I'm not a cool party-people like she is... How she likes Ryo so much more..." Bocchi started to already drift away from this world towards her own pessimistic one as she shaked in her place ready to hear all the bad things she'd surely hear from her crush. Nervously swallowing the piece in her throat waiting for her to talk again.

"... W.... Would you like to go on a date then....?" heavily blushing Kita asked from Bocchi. Who was now frozen in place.

".... Eh...?" escaped from the confused pinkette, as she tried to process the question thrown at her, and all the conflicting feelings inside of her.

"For a reference! You need some if you want to write about love right?" Kita continues with a bashful voice. "So keep your Sunday open. I will text you the place and time later." she manages to say before she herself felt like she was going to faint from embarrassment, and ran off deeper into the live-house out of Bocchi's field of view.

Pinkette didn't get to say anything in response to her crush, and she did know better than to run after her, so she walked out of the live house, still utterly confused of the events that had just transpired between the two. Slightly cold evening breeze however managed to blow all the unecessary ones away, and a shy smile rose to her face. "A date... with Kita-chan..." she thought to herself, and the shy smile turned into a bigger one. Even if it was supposedly just for the reference the fact she get to go out with the one she was in-love with was like a dream come true to her. It felt like her stomach was full of butterflies, and that her heart could jump out of her breast from the joy and excitement it was suddenly filled.

Without even realizing it she got a little skip to her step, not even caring if someone saw her goofy happy smile and her skipping along towards the train-station. While feeling the cold air of the late-summer caress her face the one thought in her mind had now changed to a different one.

"I wish it was Sunday already."

 

[Baka]

Chapter 3 - Join Me... On A Date (part 1)​

Days leading to the Sunday were both agonizing and exciting for the pink-haired girl, who was completely oblivious about anything dating-related. While she was extremely happy and excited for the upcoming date it also brought a much more pressure on her, way more than she ever thought. Questions like "What should I wear?", "What I should talk with her?" and "Where I should suggest we go?" were filling her head with some more common troubles for Bocchi like "How I make sure I don't embarrass myself" and "How I can avoid making her hate me?". To get answers to these questions Hitori did what she usually did when facing an insurmountable social roadblock of any kind... Look it up online and let the wise guru's of the World Wide Web guide her to the right answers. These wonderful dating senpais of the online-world gave some good and some not-so-good advices for the inexperienced pinkette, and they managed to make sure that she wouldn't break down under the anxiety before the fated day. Her biggest hurdles were Bocchi asking her mom to buy her new cute clothes, which shocked the whole family who were used to her wearing same jersey and skirt for the longest time and her trying to style her hair, which she ultimately gave-up on after her little sister surprising her and telling the whole family about her hairstyle experiment causing another huge fuzz.

Another thing that caused her confusion and anxiety was her crush. Kita acted like nothing had happened, and was her bright and cheerful self at the school. She didn't avoid Bocchi and kept greeting her when they stumbled on one another, chatted when they had a chance and on band-practices everything was like it had always been. The fact that she didn't seem to be nervous at all made Bocchi's imagination run wild, and by the Friday she was sure that the date-plan was all something that she only dreamed or imagined as a coping mechanism of the red-haired girl rejecting her for good and that her budding romance was nipped from the bud before it even had any chance to bloom...

... However she then received a notification on her phone. A message from Kita with time and place where they meet Sunday with an added info of making sure she doesn't eat anything too heavy before it. The fact that it wasn't her imagination made the pressure once again turn from zero to hundred within second, and now the poor introvert was shaking with teary eyes from both nervousness and happiness.

She then received another message from Kita:

"Can't wait for our date (๑>ᴗ<๑) "

At this point the multiple feelings inside of her caused her to blankly stare at the phone screen, read the message over and over again with tears streaming down from her eyes till she eventually fell on the ground on her side, hugging her phone while fading out to her own little world trying to compose herself while going back to stress over anything and everything regarding the date, her feelings and Kita in her pessimistic mind.

---

Finally Sunday came, and Bocchi found herself in front of the station hour earlier than the planned time. She had barely gotten any shut-eye thanks to all the stress over the date. Her realizing that she'd had to go out in a cute costume also caused her anxiousness ramp up. "I can't wear this... This is so embarrassing... It's so cute... But I will just ruin this cute outfit with my ugly and hideous body..." was the dominant thought inside her mind, but after thinking that Kita might like it she managed to get the outfit on after fighting over the decision for two hours. She still thought it looked horrible on her, but maybe Kita might like it... She'd even be happy with a forced compliment over it if nothing else.

Wearing her brand-new casual outfit Hitori goes to sit at the bench while shaking in her boots. She felt like everyone's eyes were locked on her, staring holes at her and judging her appearance mercilessly. Every person passing her by felt like someone staring daggers and laughing at her ridiculous appearance. Pinkette was sure that people were now whispering to each other, pointing her, laughing at her, calling her names. Her own social anxiety and low self-esteem were beginning to cloud her mind, and it felt like the sunny world around her was beginning to turn darker, pitch-black one with only lights being the eyes staring down at her, while the cacophony of whispers and insults she had conjured inside her mind started to eat her out. Now shaking, staring down and almost crying she was starting to doubt her choice of clothes, and she decided to leave to change them back. She still had almost hour to spare after all.

"Hitori chan!"

Familiar voice pierced through the noices inside of Bocchi's mind, making them to quiet down completely. Pink-haired girl then finally lift her head up to see a ray of sunshine that was Ikyuo Kita. There stood her crush, smiling at her, waving gently like she was wiping the darkness away with her shy wave and bringing back the sunny Sunday that Hitori's bleak mind tried to ruin from him. Like the bringer of light the world seemed to get it's color and light back as the red-haired woman approached her till she was standing in front of her with a faint little blush on her face.

"Did I make you wait?" she asked despite both of them being there almost an hour before the appointed time.

Bocchi didn't even get the chance to reply before her crushes eyes seem to light up and her gentle smile turned int oa radiant and big one. "Oh my god! Your dress is so cute! It really suits you. Those little bowties and the frills on the shoulder are nice touch to it." she compliments Bocchi, which now looked Kita directly, with teary eyes from before she blushes heavily thinking that she could literally die happy now. She always thought her crush was the most fashionable and beautiful woman she had ever met, so getting seemingly genuine compliments from her made all the agonizing worth it.

"... T...T... Thank you... " she says while looking at Kita's outfit for the first time and seeing her in a new one-piece dress. The cuteness overload makes Bocchi's heart to skip a beat, if not two before she returns the compliment. "... Y...You're really c...c... cute too." she says now completely red, and in turn the faint blush on Ikuyo's red on her face turn more prominent.

"Thank you! I'm glad I managed to pick something you found cute." she says and laughs a little before realizing that her innocent words dealt a critical damage knocking Bocchi out like Joe Yabuki leaving her with a content smile as her blissful soul had already left the body.

"Hitori-chan? HITORI-CHAN!" Kita yells as she takes a firm hold of her shoulders shaking her gently. "Are you ok?" she asks and manages to make the pinkette snap out of it. Sighing from relief Kita then takes a gentle hold of her hand, and starts to pull the pink-haired girl along. "Shall we go then? We have some time before the movie starts so we could check out the shops before it." red-haired woman says and takes the lead, pulling Bocchi along with her.

Now the date had officially begun, and now the Hitori only had three objectives:

1. Make sure Kita-chan enjoys herself... Though it seemed that it was Kita-chan who seemed to try and make the date as fun for the introverted woman as possible.

2. Don't embarass yourself!

3... Survive!

 

[Baka]

Chapter 4 - Join Me... On A Date (Part 2)​

The weather had blessed the two girls going on their date together, and the sun was shining from a clear sky. People wiping their foreheads and enjoying cold beverages from vending machines around them served as proof that despite it almost being the end of August the heat was still a real deal. And for Hitori, who absolutely hated hot-weather and would much rather stay in her air-conditioned room this was actually a blessing in disguise.

Her hand was actively trying to sweat out every possible drop of water from her body right now. Kita holding her hand gently, yet firmly and leading the way had made the awkward pinkette's heart almost stop, and since an abrupt cardiac arrest didn't finish her off it seemed that her body now tried to use other means to make the flushed and shaking young woman to go to the afterlife.

However, if she were to die at this moment she would die as a happy girl. After all her crush had invited her for a date, and now she was holding her hand. Bocchi felt like she had used all of her lifetime's worth of luck just in the span of this one week, and felt herself fulfilled despite being a nervous mess. To her it was still a mystery why someone as beautiful and sweet would ever want to take her on a date. After all she saw herself as someone who wouldn't be worth her. After all she was unpopular, not pretty at all, an absolute buzzkill, awkward and embarrassing to be around, at least that's what her inner demons were screaming at her even at this moment. While being consumed by her dark thoughts yet again she kept looking at the soft hand that was holding hers. "Her hand is so warm and soft... She even put on some nail polish... That's so like her... But she shouldn't have bothered to make herself so pretty for me..."

While fixated on the red-haired womans hand she doesn't notice that she had stopped and gently bumps into her back throwing them both slightly off balance. "Are you alright Hitori-chan?" Kita asks after regaining her balance. Now even more heavily blushing and shaking Hitori nods frantically. "S... Sorry..." she manages to say while cursing herself to the deepest pits of hell inside of her head, Ikyo however seems to be smiling at her. "It's alright! I myself shouldn't have stopped so suddenly." she tries to take the blame on herself, which makes the pinkette feel even more bad about her clumsiness, she was about to rebut and take the blame on herself again, but her date manages to open her mouth first.

"Should we go there?" she asks and points out a small trinket-shop. It seemed to be filled with all sorts of accessories, make-up products and generally things young high-school girls or women liked. Something that was completely alien to almost-hikikomori Bocchi who mainly wore her jersey and didn't pay much attention to this kind of things. Honestly she just wanted that Kita would have fun, and so she nodded. "Y.. Yeah. S..Seems like f... fun."

And that was the sign on where her crush once again took the lead and dragged the Bocchi to the store. "Let's go then. There's a lot of cute ornaments, some really good hair-products I tend to stock. And extremely cute little blushies! You gotta see them!" the red-haired girl gushed about the store, and the pinkette could just nod and follow the lead.

When they get inside the store a soft bell clinging above the door and a smiling cashier welcomes them both in. The store had extremely cute interior where the pink and green colors dominated the space. There were some advertisement posters of cosmetic products hung around here and there, and few nice displays for things like fake jewelry, plushies and even aromatic candles were put neatly at the end of every row of shelves. This was a lot for Bocchi to take in, and while she followed her fashionable school-girl crush she felt extremely out of place in there. They toured the whole store, and Kita showed to Bocchi various things she herself used or liked. Lastly they end up in the plushie shelf, where there were a lot of plushies big and small displayed on there. Even the shy pinkette, who was careful to not touch anything and just followed her friends lead took the initiative to look some of them. Her attention is grabbed by a red, fluffy and gentle looking cat-plushie, which reminded her of her date. A dumb smile rises to her face as she thinks about how much it actually reminds her off Kita.

"You really seem to like that Hitori-chan." she hears Ikyuo's soft voice and giggles next to her. "Oh god. She saw my stupid ugly smile. I want to die. Please someone end me right now..." Hitori, who had frozen in place cursed inside of her head. "Do you want me to get it for you. I was also going to buy this one." she says and shows the rock-solid frozen pinkette a pink... She didn't know what it was supposed to be. It was simply a pink blob. Bocchi took a look at it, then Kita who was smiling away like she had done pretty much the whole date.

"... A... Are you sure? I can b...buy you something much prettier like... This dog plushie!" Bocchi asks and points at a cute Golden Retriever plushie on the top shelf, but the red-haired young woman shakes her head. "I want this one. It reminds me of you. And I can't help but to want to hold and protect it." she says and finishes her explanation off with even brighter smile.

Flashbanged Bocchi had now received a critical hit. One that made her hold her chest and slump down on the floor. "That's not fair Kita-chan! You can't just say stuff like that!" Bocchi thinks to herself before rising up to her feet. She felt like she was about to faint, or leave this mortal world behind, but then she was reminded of her objective. "Make sure she has fun! You are not allowed to die before that.". And now with new-found determination she rises from the floor, looking much more serious and determined than she had probably ever looked.

"I... I can buy them both then." she says gently taking the plushie off of her crushes hands, and starts to confidently walk towards the cashier.

However when almost at the counter she stops. The smiling cashier who was ready to ring her in looks at her wondering what's wrong. After a few seconds the Bocchi does a tactical retreat back to Kita. Despite the momentary boost in her confidence her social anxiety got the best of her. "A... Actually it wo... would be better if you bought them... I will give y... you the money." she says and takes out her wallet giving her few bills to pay them with.

Kita once again giggles. "Alright then! You were really brave today, so I want to buy you the plushie you want, and you can pay for my plushie for me. Does that work?" she asks, and she receives a shy nod as a reply. Kita then hurries to pay their plushies, and Bocchi decides to go and wait for her outside. After the things Ikuyo said to her and the scary experience of almost confronting the cashier made her in need of some fresh air, and she received a nice breather before two more fatal hits would land on her.

Red-haired woman came out of the store with two bags. "Here you go!" she says and hands her the plushie she picked. However after she takes it she feels something warm petting her head. "K...K... Kita-san?!?" Bocchi nervously shouts as she realizes that her head was being patted by her crush. "You tried your best, and I think it's worth some praise. You were really brave there Hitori-chan." Ikuyo says while the pinkette's face was now as red as her crushes hair was, her eyes fixed on her gentle smile and her beautiful eyes that seemed to sparkle like jewels to her before averting her gaze and trying to hide her embarrassment.

"And thank you for the plushie Hitori-chan. I will treasure it!" she says before pulling her hand away. Now the pinkette was completely short-circuited. What was she supposed to even reply to that. She was so happy right now. Not only did she manage to spend all of her lifetime worth of happiness, but she thought that she also sucked the happiness of her whole family and future generations within this hour the two had spent together. Now shaking on her place, trying to answer something to Kita she ends up just stammering and blushing while looking at the ground trying to hide her face as much as she can.

"Oh my! We need to hurry or we won't get to the movies in time." And once again the Bocchi was dragged along by her crush.

"Why does it feel like I am the one being entertained here? I wanted to look cool for her!" Bocchi screams inside of her head as their date advances to the second state.

 

[Baka]

Chapter 5 - Join Me... On A Date (part 3)​

After two minutes of running the two arrive to the theater-building. And in her head Bocchi was now already thinking of things how to atone the fact that she was the worst date ever, at least if you asked herself about it. Not only had she managed to neglect to look at the time, but made the one she was supposed to entertain drag her along and on top of all this she was now completely covered in sweat, and totally out of breath. While in contrast her partner seemed to be fairly okay despite getting a bit sweaty. "Phew. Seems like we made it." she said with a smile while the pinkette was holding her cheast and heaving heavily. "I think I have never ran this much... " she thought to herself as the images of her doing the world's biggest dogeza turned into memories of her faking being sick to get out of going to sports events at school.

"I... I..G...Go and get u...us the tickets." out of breath Hitori manages to utter as she digs out a wallet, and sluggishly walks towards the ticket booth, where a smiling cashier was already waiting to give her service. For the delight of the introverted girl the cashier immediately asked if she'd buy the tickets for two, and the whole interaction was over with a shy nod and her paying the tickets. When she arrives to the spot where Kita just was standing she notices that her companion had vanished. Looking frantically all over and not immediately spotting her the fear of getting stood-up starts to creep in her head. "S... She got fed up with me! I knew this was going horribly! Of course she'd want to ditch a loser like me and go home. I am a failure of as a human being! I will be doomed to forever be alone." she thinks to herself already shaking in her boots as her complexion starts to get a bit bale, but once again a familiar voice pulls her out from her dark state of mind.

"Hitori-chan! Over here!"

Pinkette sharply turns to look at the direction of her crushes voice, and sees her holding two drinks and popcorn box. Bocchi quickly goes to her while still being mildly shocked from her own 'what-if's'. Ikyuo notices this and smiles at her "I thought I would get these while you were getting tickets." she says with a soft voice before continuing. "I should've said something. I'm sorry." she says while Bocchi frantically shakes her head. "N...No! I... I'm sorry! I'm just..." introverted woman tries to explain before the red-haired woman cuts her. "No need to explain. I understand, and that's why I apologized." she said and gave her a friendly smile at the same time as she hands her the drink she got for the pinkette. After taking it she suddenly feels a soft pat on her head, and Bocchi, who's gaze had been glued to the ground ever since she arrived to Kita finally looks up to see that she is patting her head gently.

"I would never leave you alone silly." Kita says. "So cheer up and keep your head high. No reason to look down when your date is right here right?"

Bocchi felt like her heart missed several beats as she stared at the yellow bright eyes of her crush. Her words, smile, her whole aura made Bocchi's dark thoughts finally leave her head. She was like a sun that vanguished the darkness in her head, and that was one of the multiple reasons why the pink-haired woman had started to develop these strong feelings towards her. For the first time since their date had started she felt like all her plans and meticulous planning didn't mean anything. "... M... Maybe she is actually having fun now." one positive thought came to her head, and when looking at the woman in front of her she felt like that most likely was true. Her smile always felt genuine, and she would most likely never lie while wearing it.

Without even knowing a small, shy smile had rose to her face, and she accompanied that with a shy nod.

The moment between the two seemed to last eternity, as they both started one another, Bocchi taken in the smile that had started to turn into a surprised expression, and Kita taking in the sight of her friend, who rarely if ever smiled showing her the cutest little smile in the world.

However they soon come back down to the reality, after saying that the introverted woman should keep her gaze at her she would go against her own advice "A... Anyway let's go! Movie should start at any minute now. We don't want to be late for real right!" red-haired woman says as she sharply turns herself 180 degrees and starts to walk towards the hall where the movie they are about to see is being screened.

"Y... Yes!" Bocchi says and starts to follow her.

Since Kita turned so fast Bocchi missed something, a cruicial detail of her date.

After seeing the introverted girl smile her shy little smile the cheeks of Ikuyo got the same bright hue that her hair had.

And now she hoped that the dark hall would hide this fact from Bocchi, and that the soda she got would make the burning of her cheeks cool at least a bit.

 

[Baka]

Chapter 6 - Join Me... On A Date (part 4)​

As one might expect from a theater screening a sappy romance film in the afternoon on a Sunday the place was mostly filled with other couples. You could tell that this was one of those types of movies you take your date to see since that's a basic 'first date 101' type of thing to do, discuss about it in a cafe or on a dinner with them, and then shortly after forget even the title of the movie. Your standard B-tier romance-drama fair that checks all the boxes on what a romantic drama should be and nothing more.

That was the picture Bocchi got after seeing the posters and people waiting for the movie to start with. Something that these 'normies' or 'cool party kids' went to see so they could flex to their friends that they did something romantic with the one they were interested in...

... And that was perfect for Hitori! For a person who wanted to belong and be seen as one of the regular girls this was something she could only be seen herself doing in her wildest dreams. An average date with someone she had a deep crush on would be something that she could use as a conversation piece if nothing else if she ever found herself in a situation where people start discussing things like 'romance' or 'dates' . Not only that this all could very well help her writing songs in the future. After all the reason she gave for Ikyuo as to why she was writing a sappy love-song not-so-subtly dedicated for her in the first place was to make something that people could relate to... And her red-haired crush was giving her just that. An authentic, generic shoujo-love experience.

"Ikuyo-san.... You're a genius! A true party-people at heart!"

Pinkette complimented her date inside of her head as they were finally taking a seat on their seats and putting down their drinks and popcorn. Their timing couldn't have been more perfect since as they took their seat the infomercial about the movie-theater etiquette started to play-out as a sign for a movie to start. The two had timed their arrival just right to skip all of the trailers and ads being played, so without saying anything the two shared a quick look. Red on Kitas cheek was mostly subsided now and after flashing her a a smile she directed her gaze towards the silver-screen, and Bocchi followed in-suite.

Like the introverted guitarist had assumed the movie was run-of-the-mill romance-fair with some type of Romeo And Juliet-like forbidden romance going between the two main characters, completed with over-dramatic acting and soundtrack trying to force and squeeze as many tears from the movie-goers as humanly possible. When the pinkette started to look around her during the halfway point of the movie she saw different kinds of rections ranging from people sitting at the edge of their seat, holding back tears to a some guy sleeping in the seat, while their date tried to poke them awake with less-than-pleased expression on their face.

Then Bocchi directed her gaze at the red-haired young woman she was on a date with, and the raction she showed came as a surprise to Bocchi.

Kita belonged to those who were fighting against tears. She could literally see a teardrop forming at the base of her eye when a more well-lit scene came to the screen.

This caused the introvert pinkette to flail her hands about as she started to panic a little. While the reaction of her crush was totally normal the woman she was with wasn't exactly experienced with these sort of situations, and while deep inside knowing that the tears weren't anything bad she couldn't help but feel that she needed to do something. While Kita was completely fixated on what was happening on the screen Hitori was too fixated on panicing in her seat, looking around for anything she could do to make Kita not to cry. And then her eyes landed upon a figurative jackpot.

Kitas hand next to her was firmly fixated on the arm of the seat.

Immediately a Bocchi formed a possible plan to do... Something to maybe not make her at least not to break-down in tears when the climax of the movie would hit the screen, but even just thinking of her hasty solution made her beet-red on her face. "I bet she wouldn't like if I just touched her without a warning... I mean we already touched hands before, but she started it... And my disgusting sweaty hand will probably just make her more uncomfortable... She will probably break down in tears just because I forced my hand on hers..." thoughts with the low self-esteem filled her head once more. However she saw that her date was really about to break down in tears, and when thinking how awkward things would become when she didn't know how to react of someone crying... And maybe in some distant alternative universe earn some 'cool date partner-points' with her 'super-cool and smooth move' she decided to swallow her insecurities and anxiety this time.

Bocchi softly put her hand over Kitas softly enveloping it in her own hands warmth.

When Kita feels the soft hand touching her immersion of what's happening on the screen break, and she quickly turns towards the pinkette. Completely surprised that her shy date would have courage to do anything like this. However when she turns towards Hitori she tries her best to act normally. Clearly shaking in her seat, red on her face, her eyes glued to the movie, while her thoughts are clearly somewhere else.

Few moments that the red-haired woman was looking at the pinkette felt like eternity, and she felt how the blush and warmth rushed to her face. When realizing this she quickly turned her attention back to the movie, but decided to take things step further.

She turned her hand around so that she could take Bocchis hand to hers, and softly squeezed it back as she wrapped her slender fingers around hers... And moments later felt as the Bocchi did the same in turn.

Movie approached its climax and was soon over. The two girls held their hands together till the end. Only letting go when the end-credits had stopped and the two needed to leave the theather. Without any word they both stood-up and Ikyuo started to lead Bocchi out of the hall, walking few steps ahead to hide her red face, and Bocchi purposefully did the same, making sure she stayed few steps behind of Kita.

Unbeknownst they both were also worrying about the same thing:

They both hoped that they didn't have to talk about the movie, since they were too distracted to even pay attention to it.