Resting her face in her hands, Kotori closed her eyes and listened to the crowds around her, trying once again to simply stop thinking. Soon enough they would announce her flight and that would be that. Her mind continued to wander along tortured paths as time passed slowly on. Every action or omission she had made in the last few weeks was replayed and analysed to death. If only I had told her, she thought, over and over again.
"Kotori-chan!"
Kotori sat bolt upright at the sound of her name. It was quiet and far away, muffled like it called from the other side of a dream, but she would know the voice anywhere. Could her imagination be so cruel as to play such a trick on her? Just when she was starting to think that her subconscious could be that cruel, she heard the voice again, much closer this time and much more distinct. "Kotori-chan!"
"Honoka-chan!" she shouted back, standing on her seat (whacking her shin in the process) to try and catch a glance of a familiar head of hair. "Honoka-chan, I'm over here!"
People were staring at her. No doubt they thought she making an exhibition of herself, but Kotori couldn't give less of a damn. Desperately, she kept searching the passing crowd for any trace of her friend. Occasionally, she would hear Honoka's voice getting closer, but she still hadn't caught a glance of the girl herself.
"Kotori-chan, I see you! Over here!"
The voice had come from somewhere close to her left. Turning on her seat, Kotori's heart leapt to her throat. There she was, larger than life, waving at her and running, dodging a path through the crowds with all the grace and form of a bulldozer. Without a second thought, Kotori jumped off her chair, dropping her bag and almost tripping over it in the process. (When had she become this clumsy? A stray thought swiftly dismissed.) Then she was running, the sound of her footfalls pounding off the tiles like the rolling of thunder in her ears. The other people were mere obstacles now and she paid them no mind, except to dodge around them. For a moment, Kotori worried that Honoka had been swallowed by the crowd, or, for a split second, that her friend hadn't been there in the first place and she'd simply driven herself insane.
Then a gap formed in the crowd and there she was: Kousaka Honoka. Their eyes locked and for a moment Kotori's steps faltered. She had hoped beyond hope that this would happen, imagined it a hundred thousand times in her head, but now that she was actually here Kotori had no idea what to do. She'd imagined Honoka would be happy in their myriad imaginary reunions, or maybe angry, or sad. The look Honoka gave her was none of these things. She wore an expression Kotori had never seen on that beautiful face before, an expression she couldn't name, but none of that mattered. Seeing Honoka again, Kotori instantly decided that she wouldn't leave. Couldn't, not now, even if her feelings were never returned.
'I love you Honoka.'
They closed the small distance left between them at a run before colliding in a forceful embrace. Kotori started crying uncontrollably, though whether they were tears of joy or sorrow was beyond her ability to decide. "Honoka-chan, I'm so sorry," she whimpered into the fabric of her friend's shoulder.
It took her a moment to notice the telltale signs: the erratic, sharp breathing, the way Honoka held her like a life preserver. Honoka was crying too. "I'm sorry too, Kotori-chan. I-I'm sorry I didn't notice what you were going through and-"
"No, it's not your fault. I-I was… I-"
Honoka pulled out of their embrace and placed a finger on Kotori's lips. A few tears still meandered down the redhead's cheeks, but she was smiling. Kotori thought she'd never seen anything or anyone so beautiful.
"Don't go. Please stay. With me."
Kotori couldn't have refused even if she wanted to. And why would she want to? "I'm not going anywhere Honoka-chan. I'll stay with you and Umi-chan and-"
"No," Honoka interrupted, shaking her head. "I want you to stay with me."
Kotori blinked. "…What?"
The next thing she knew, Honoka's hands were on her shoulders and she was being pulled in for what she assumed would be another hug. But Honoka apparently had other ideas. It took a moment for Kotori to realise that their lips were touching.
No, it was more than that. Honoka was kissing her!
Her eyes flew open (she wondered when they had closed) at the realisation. Up close, she could only see a distorted image of Honoka's eyes, wide, blue and staring with that same expression she'd noticed before. Then just like that the kiss was over. It had been a short, almost chaste kiss, over almost as soon as it had begun but Kotori felt breathless nonetheless.
"Honoka…"
"I want you to stay with me. I-I love you Kotori. It's only as I was about to lose you that I realised. Please don't go.