Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kasumi sat down at the kitchen table with her dads. She set this situation up, but now it kind of felt awkward. It wasn’t like she didn’t think they wouldn’t be accepting of her relationships, but her dads had a tendency to be protective. They’d seemed like they’d liked her partners enough when she’d introduced them as friends.

At first, Kasumi hadn’t really had any intention of telling them at all. All of this was new to her, and she wanted to figure it out on her own. But it had been two years now. She didn’t want her family to be even more confused because of her not telling them anything.

Her papa smiled at her gently. He was always better with these kinds of things.

“What did you want to tell us, Kasumi?” he said.

“Umm…” Kasumi started.

She cursed herself for not at least giving herself some kind of script.

“I’ve… been seeing someone.”

Her dads looked at each other, then smiled at her.

“Your girlfriend, right? Shi- “her dad started, but was quickly interrupted by her papa.

“Kacchan!”

“What?!” her dad turned to look at her papa.

“We’re supposed to be good parents and let her tell us!” her papa said, while grabbing her dad’s arm. “Remember how we felt when our parents told us they’d known we were dating before we’d even realized we liked each other?”

Her dad sighed and gave her an apologetic smile.

“Right, go on.” He gestured with his arm for her to continue.

Kasumi took a deep breath.

“Yes, I am dating Shizuko- “Her dad gave her papa a look as if to say: See? I told you. “-but…”

Her dads turned to look at her. She gripped her uniform skirt and looked away from them. Why was this suddenly so hard?

“Umm… I’m also dating Yuu-senpai and Ayumu-senpai? And also, Karin-senpai……and Lanzhu-senpai………also kind of Miako, but we haven’t talked about that yet……Anyways, the point is that everyone from the association are kind of dating each other in some kind of way………and I know that you might not understand how you could date multiple people or how that would even work, but I swear I’m not confused or- “

“Kasumi!”

Her dad had taken her hands from her lap, and was sitting on the table in front of her. He rubbed circles on her knuckles.

“It’s okay,” he said, “I don’t really understand how all of this works, cause I’ve only really been in love with your papa, but as long as you’re happy and safe, it’s okay.”

Kasumi let out a heavy breath and leaned her head on her dad’s torso. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. She heard her papa pull out the chair next to her. He put a comforting hand on her back.

“Do you want to tell us more about this?” he asked.

Kasumi pulled away from her dad a bit and smiled her brightest.

“Yeah!”

Chapter Text

"Lanzhu-senpai, why do you tease me so much?”

The question didn’t exactly take Lanzhu by surprise. She’d been teasing Kasumi consistently since they’d merged the club and association after all. However, she’d kind of been hoping Kasumi wouldn’t bring it up.

To be honest she wasn’t sure she could answer the question well. Once she saw Kasumi flustered for the first time, she just couldn’t help herself. She would always take time to call Kasumi cute, or find new ways to praise her. Almost every time Kasumi would call out, “Lanzhu-senpai!” and try and hide her blush behind a frown. Lanzhu’s chest would fill with butterflies, and she would long for the next time she could see that face.

Lanzhu was certain this feeling was different than when she saw Kasumi on stage. That gave her a desire to stand next to her, or to beat her performance. But this? The closest Lanzhu could think of was a craving. No matter how much she tried to stop thinking about it, it would stay in the back of her mind, grinding on her until she gave in. It didn’t help that she never had much self-control in the first place.

She knew that it bothered Kasumi, but wasn’t sure why. Maybe she thought Lanzhu was picking on her? Shioriko had scolded her for it before. She didn’t want Kasumi to think she didn’t like her when it was the opposite.

“Well…” Lanzhu started, “You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”

It was the only explanation she could offer for now. She pushed her hair back, as she felt her face heat up, and averted her gaze from Kasumi. She’d been thinking about Kasumi, but now she was suddenly flustered herself. Butterflies fluttered in her chest, but this time there was an undercurrent of anxiety to it. Why was she scared?

“Lanzhu-senpai?”

Kasumi touched Lanzhu’s cheek and tried to pull her face back to her. Lanzhu immediately pulled back, her hands shooting up to cover her face.

“Sorry! I have to go!” she called out before running out of the club room and down the hall.

Shioriko would be mad at her later, but she could deal with that. Right now, she needed to get away for a bit to calm down.

She decided to head to Shioriko’s house instead of the dorms. Emma and Mia would definitively worry about her and ask what happened. Not to mention that Kasumi would look there first if she decided to chase after Lanzhu.

As she got further away from the school, she slowed down a little. More than anything, she was confused by her own reaction to the situation. She was Zhong Lanzhu for heaven’s sake! She didn’t get embarrassed! Normally, she would’ve declared her feelings with her full chest, but now she wasn’t even really sure what her feelings were.

Maybe talking to Shioriko would help. She had always been Lanzhu’s guide when it came to interacting with people, especially in the last few months. If anything, she would at least lend an ear, even if she acted all exasperated about it.

Thinking about her girlfriend, a smile came to Lanzhu’s face. Yes, that would be her solution today. Shioriko would surely know what to do.

When she arrived at the house, neither Shioriko or her family were home, so she sat down on a rock in the front garden and waited.

Lanzhu didn’t notice as much when she was running before, but it was quite cold. Winter was creeping up on them. She was staring to wish she’d bought those warm tights Karin had recommended when they went shopping last week. She pulled out her sweatpants from her bag and shimmied them on beneath her skirt.

It would take some time before she warmed up, but Shioriko had student council duties, so who knew how long she would take. Hopefully one of her family members would come home soon.

As she thought that, her phone rang. It was Shioriko.

“Lanzhu! Where are you right now! Kasumi has been running around the whole school looking for you!”

“Ah…that’s……well…” she said, fiddling with her uniform ribbon.

“Lanzhu!”

“I’m sorry, okay! It’s just kind of hard to explain!” she said, “Can you please come home and open the door? I’m cold!”

Shioriko sighed at the other end of the line.

“Alright,” she said in an exasperated tone, “but I am not the one you need to apologize to.”

Shioriko hung up after that.

After Shioriko opened the door for her, Lanzhu made sure to look as apologetic as she could. She followed Shioriko upstairs and into her bedroom. After closing the door Shioriko turned to face her.

“Explain,” she said with her usual stern face.

Shioriko had always used this face when scolding her, even when they were children. It was not what Lanzhu needed. Right now, she needed the usual Shioriko. The one who would sigh, but still indulge her (as long as it was within reasonable bounds), who would stroke her hair as she snuggled into her lap. So Lanzhu threw herself at her, almost sending her into the door.

“Ah! Shiorikoooo!”

She sniffed with half genuine tears and snuggled her face into Shioriko’s neck. Shioriko did not return her hug, but kept herself steady so they didn’t fall.

“Lanzhu,” she started, “I cannot spoil you all the time, you will never grow up.”

Shioriko took hold of Lanzhu’s shoulders and pushed her into a standing position. She moved one of her hands up to caress her cheek, and smiled warmly at her.

“Now, tell me what happened.”

As Lanzhu relayed her story, she somehow couldn’t bring herself to meet Shioriko’s eyes. It felt like she was telling a dirty secret. Like these feelings were something she wasn’t supposed to have. She might have said that out loud at some point during the conversation too.

It struck her many months later that she’d been ashamed. There was her girlfriend of three years, listening to her blabber about her feelings for another girl! They had never talked about anything like opening their relationship before, and Lanzhu had never thought about it either. In the end, things worked out quite well.

Shioriko had taken her hand and stroked her knuckles with her thumb. Lanzhu still couldn’t meet her eyes and had looked out the window instead.

Shioriko told her she’d always kind of suspected that Lanzhu was capable of being in love with more than one person, and that she didn’t mind. She even described some experiences she’d had with Yuu and Ayumu that made her feel that might be the case for her as well. Shioriko had seemingly been expecting and preparing for this conversation for a while.

That night, Lanzhu had decided to stay over. They’d talked throughout the evening about what to do next. Eventually, they had decided to keep things open for now, but talk to each other when things happened. Lanzhu had felt much more confident, going into the clubroom to face Kasumi the day after.

What she hadn’t expected was for Karin and Ai to be in full swing with costume fitting for their new year’s performance.

Before she’d even stepped over the threshold, Kasumi had turned to look at her with the brightest smile.

“Lanzhu-senpai!”

Kasumi had pulled the skirt of her half finished dress in to a flare.

“How is it?” she’d asked in a teasing tone, “Do I look cute?”

Lanzhu’s face had felt like an oven. Later, Kasumi would laugh and say she’d looked redder than Setsuna’s penlight colour. Clearly Kasumi had decided she would be teasing Lanzhu back from that day on.