Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

10/28, Friday

Sadayo honestly didn’t really know what to do with herself anymore. Ever since Amamiya had helped her deal with the Takeses? She’d had far more free time than she ever could have anticipated. Now, she certainly wasn’t complaining about that, it felt amazing to finally get a good night’s rest, but by now? Now that she was so thoroughly rested? She realized that she didn’t exactly have all that much in the way of hobbies… And there was only so much time she could spend grading papers or planning out lesson plans before she felt like she was going stir crazy. And sure, she could go fishing, it was honestly her only real hobby in general, but by now it was honestly getting far too chilly out for her liking… Especially in the evenings, when she had time to herself.

That’s what led her here, visiting the cafe Leblanc on a pretty regular basis ever since her last visit a few weeks back. By now it was a pretty common occurrence for her, she’d show up and get a coffee, share some slight small talk with Boss, and eventually head back to her mess of an apartment to sleep. It was far from a thrilling sort of pastime but it was nice enough for her, a nice peaceful quiet was all she really wanted after all.

She’d also come to realize that Leblanc had a rather… consistent clientele… Virtually every time she came in? She’d see a few of the same people scattered about across the booths. She’d either see the pair of elderly people who seemed to think she was far younger than she actually was, a snobbish man who was annoyingly arrogant, or… that Takemi woman she met here last time…

Takemi was honestly a bit strange in her opinion, she could seem somewhat standoffish yet was actually surprisingly friendly and talkative with her. Out of all the customers Sadayo would see in Leblanc? The punk-looking doctor was easily her favorite.

So, she counted herself lucky when she saw the woman sitting at the counter when she entered the cafe that evening. She walked over to the woman’s side, sitting two chairs down in her regular seat at the counter with a long and exhausted sigh.

“The usual?” the cafe’s owner asked with his typical smirk, to which she nodded with a groan

“Yes please”

The languid doctor to her right made a slight sort of giggle in response to her exhaustion, “Long day?”

“The worst kind of long day,” she huffed, placing her elbows on the counter so she could rest her head in her hands, “Long and boring”

“Aw, poor thing,” the other woman spoke with a teasing sort of lilt in her voice before her tone became just a bit sharper, “That Chuono lady still giving you a hard time?”

She couldn’t help but give a slight snort of a laugh at that, “Not anymore thankfully, she seems to have laid off after realizing I was just helping students with their homework after class”

Honestly she was surprised that the other woman still remembered that… She’d only complained about Chuono once, a few weeks ago, but she supposed that just meant that Takemi was both attentive and took some actual interest in their little conversations.

“Hmph, good,” she could practically hear the smile that came across the doctor’s face in her words, “I’d hate to see such a good little teacher get punished for helping her students~”

Boss placed her drink in front of her just a moment later and she rather swiftly grabbed it to take a long sip in an effort to avoid having to respond. She just knew though that her face was ever so slightly red in response to the woman’s teasing praise…

That was really the only ‘bad’ part of seeing Takemi… The woman was ruthless when it came to prodding her with teasing little remarks. On some level Sadayo thought she would be used to it all by now given her former moonlighting job as a maid… But then again, nearly every single client she’d had that complimented her like that was a man … which certainly did absolutely nothing for her… But when it was a confident woman giving her praise? Well, it made her feel like a blushing schoolgirl all over again…

The doctor giggled in that lower toned voice as she too took a sip of her own coffee. Gods , Sadayo really was pathetic… Although some part of her did want to attribute it to her genuine lack of experience in the whole ‘flirting’ world… She’d hardly had much of an opportunity to practice after all…

“Ew, what? Why would I like you like that?”

“Be careful changing around Kawakami-san, apparently she’s into girls”

“What, you don’t think he’s hot? Tch, you’re so weird”

“You just haven’t found the right guy yet, you’ll get over this whole little phase soon enough”

“Kawakami-san?” a voice shook her from her thoughts and she looked over to see the punkish-doctor looking back at her with a slightly raised brow

“H-huh? Oh, sorry, did I miss something?” she got her wits back as quickly as ever fortunately

“It’s nothing, you were just frowning at your drink,” the woman explained in a more serious tone

Boss seemed to have caught it as well, if the half-curious look on his face as he was pretending to focus on cleaning off some dishes was any indication.

“Oh it’s nothing, I was just thinking about some classwork I have to prepare for tomorrow,” she offered confidently enough, which seemed to be believed at the very least

The cafe eased into a bit more of a peaceful silence after that, as it usually tended to, and before too long? Sadayo was on her way back to her cluttered mess of an apartment… Trying and failing to push all of those sorts of memories and thoughts out of her head…

11/5, Saturday

Sadayo made it a point to keep her eye on Amamiya and her friends as much as she could. For as capable as they all were? They were still outcast children, ones that were still every now and again susceptible to the occasional rumor or bullying, even after the school had finally put it’s foot down thanks to Niijima’s intervention. And from her vantage point at the teacher’s desk? She was able to see and hear quite a bit whenever they spoke to one another in class.

The bell had just rang for lunch, and as was usual? Takamaki looked back at the raven haired girl the second the bell had begun to ring, all the while Mishima walked over to the pair of girls with a surprising amount of confidence given how skittish the boy tended to be.

“Aww come on, you know it’s true!” Takamaki cooed about something that Sadayo hadn’t picked up on while Amamiya’s face was a bright, bright red, “Right Yuuki?”

“Uh… y-yeah?” he instantly blushed ever so slightly just from being addressed by the girl, “W-wait, what are we ta-talking about?”

And sure, she probably shouldn’t have been listening in on their conversation, but the children were hardly quiet in the slightest. So sue her, Sadayo could be a bit nosy at times.

“I was just saying that we should get Ren to dress up as a maid again sometime,” the blonde explained with an outright devious sort of grin

Of course in response to that? Mishima nearly looked like he was about to faint …

“A-Ann!” Amamiya hissed, glowing an even darker red all the way up to her ears, “D-dressing up like th-that was way too embarrassing!!”

“Awwww but you were such a good little maid!” Takamaki shot back with a giggle

“L-let’s just g-go meet up with the others! Th-they’re p-probably all waiting f-for us already!” Amamiya jerked out of her seat in an almost robotic motion with a face so red she nearly looked like she was about to pass out, the poor girl was obviously completely overwhelmed, as she typically seemed to be around her friends

“Hmm, ok, but you know Shiho will agree with me,” the blonde got up right after with another giggle, having to more or less drag the still-stunned Mishima behind her as the trio left to go to wherever they usually ate lunch.

It certainly wasn’t really any of Sadayo’s business, but she was glad that Amamiya’s relationships still seemed to be going strong. After everything that girl had to suffer through in this school? She was glad that she at least had so many friends and partners that she could rely on. She could still vividly remember when the girl had come to her for relationship advice months ago, back when she was still moonlighting as ‘Becky’, so she knew that Amamiya was together with Sakamoto and Takamaki at the very least. Seemingly Suzui as well if she had to guess… Honestly? Sadayo couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous about how open this younger generation seemed to be about queerness… Or maybe it was more accurate to say that she was a bit jealous about how little Amamiya and her friends seemed to care about the judgmental stares they assuredly received…

But, as she started to eat her own lunch in the now empty classroom? A thought occurred to her… What Takamaki said there… she almost sounded like…

“I’d hate to see such a good little teacher get punished for helping her students~”

“Awwww but you were such a good little maid! ”

Even down to the verbiage? Takamaki sounded quite a bit like Takemi at that moment… And it was obvious that Takamaki was trying to fluster Amamiya, that made sense after all, they were dating. But why would Takemi have spoken to her in such a similar manner?

Could Takemi be… She felt her own face heat up ever so slightly at the thought, not unlike her student’s had… Nope. Not unpacking that. I am not about to get my hopes up… It was obviously just some friendly banter that I’m looking into far too much. Takemi-san probably has a boyfriend or husband as it is.

She tried her best to push those thoughts aside for now, she didn’t want to still be red in the face for her next class, but of course she didn’t exactly have all that much success…

11/7, Monday

There were a lot of things Sadayo loved about her parents, they’d been there for her every step of the way through college, they supported her efforts as a teacher and they even sided with her after Takese-kun’s passing. For all intents and purposes? They were fairly ideal parents… Save for one small thing … One small thing that was just about always put at the end of the letters she got from them, if slightly reworded each time… And the letter she held in her hands today was no different…

Sadayo, I know you’ve been busy lately with your teaching but please don’t let that distract you from building a family. You’re thirty years old after all and yet you’ve never once brought a man home to see us. If you keep putting this off you won’t be able to give us the grandchildren we so desire.

Love, Mom

It didn’t matter how many times she told them that she didn’t want to be with a man at all, they’d always reacted the same way…

“Oh shush, you’ve just got to find the right guy!”

“I’ll introduce you to some of my friends’ sons, they’re quite lovely young men”

“You don’t want to be one of those kinds of people, do you?”

“Once you reach our age you’ll regret not finding a nice man to provide for you”

“Now what would our friends think if they knew about this? Please think of how we feel”

The excuses, the deflections, the offers of ‘help’, she was all too familiar with it by now… Over the years Sadayo had more or less become accustomed to it, it wasn’t surprising or even really disappointing anymore, it was just a fact of life. Her parents, as great as they were in so many ways, were just too old fashioned to ever even consider her point of view. And by now? She had compartmentalized it all away and opted instead to completely ignore any discussion of romance or men or partners or anything of the sort whenever she spoke with them. It’s not like it mattered, as annoying as the pressure and denials could be? It’s not like Sadayo would ever find a woman who actually wanted to be with her anyway, so it was all just a moot point as far as she was concerned…

She tucked the letter away in a pile with all the others, truthfully she didn’t know why her parents didn’t just call her , but it was fine. She also reminded herself that she needed to call her mom sometime soon to catch up, once she had the mental stamina to evade all the obvious boyfriend questions that would assuredly come up…

11/9, Wednesday

The evening was just like so many of her prior evenings, it was chilly outside while the coffee in front of her was still practically steaming, all while the air around the cafe was filled with the pleasant aroma of curry and coffee that pretty much defined relaxation for her at this point.

There was nobody else in Leblanc aside from her and Boss, and the two sat in a nice and comfortable silence while the TV off to the side continued on in the endless reporting of how ‘horrible’ the Phantom Thieves were and how amazing some politician running for Prime Minister was. Truthfully, a part of her wanted to tell the man to turn the TV off, but it was his shop, so she figured it wasn’t really her place to make demands like that…

The otherwise peaceful quiet in the cafe was broken when the door suddenly swung open. It wasn’t so much that the door was flung open with any sort of aggression, rather, it had simply been so quiet that even the slightest sound had startled Sadayo to the point where her head jerked up to look at who had entered. Of course, as soon as her eyes met the other woman’s eyes? She felt herself relax once again as she gave the doctor a polite wave before turning her attention back towards her drink.

“The usual,” Takemi sighed as she slumped into a seat just one empty chair away from her

“Comin right up,” the man offered, quickly getting to work on the doctor’s order

“Long day?” she asked, as was their new sort of little greeting whenever one showed up later than the other

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” the punkish woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment in frustration, “Sometimes I almost miss the days when people were too afraid to enter my clinic”

“People used to be afraid of your clinic?” she raised a slight brow, not meaning anything by it other than casual conversation… to her surprise though? The other woman flinched ever so slightly in response…

“...Yeah,” Takemi sighed again before a slight scowl came across her face, “It’s a long and annoying story, but ever since Amamiya… helped me with it? I’ve gotten probably about ten times the amount of patients I used to get”

She laughed a bit at the irony of it, while Amamiya’s help had given her more free time than she knew what to do with? It seemed that she had the opposite effect with Takemi.

“Well that’s a shame, here I thought I’d have the perfect doctor to go to next time I get sick,” she joked in an effort to lighten the other woman’s mood

Surprisingly? That seemed to work, as an obvious sort of grin came across Takemi’s face right after, “Oh, I’d always have time for someone like you~”

She shot back a genuine smile, “I appreciate the thought, but I wouldn’t want you to overwork yourself”

For some reason though, in response to that? Takemi just sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose even harder…

She wasn’t sure if it was her fault or not, but the doctor seemed to leave earlier than normal that evening… Walking out very shortly after she’d finished her drink and paid. It confused Sadayo quite a bit since usually they spent at least another thirty to forty-five minutes talking, but it was easier to assume that it was just because the woman was exhausted after a long day of work than it was to try and rationalize what could have happened to sour her mood…

Things had just slid back into a content silence as a matter of fact when the cafe’s owner chuckled, looking at her with a sort of knowing grin while he was cleaning off some of the dishes.

“You know, you could always just reject her more obviously,” he said, as if that statement made any real sense, he must have seen the confusion on her face though because he quickly clarified in a far more serious tone, “Ya know, whenever she flirts with you like that?”

She knew that she had to have misheard him, “I-I’m sorry, what? ”

The man’s brows raised in response to that, like a realization suddenly clicked into place in his mind, “You… really didn’t know? Huh… Guess she was onto somethin…”

“W-wait, what are you talking about? Takemi-san wasn’t flirting with me at all,” she hurriedly excused, feeling entirely taken off guard by the man’s clearly incorrect perception of things

“Seriously?” he chuckled even more, “Here I thought you were just trying to subtly reject her, but she seemed certain that you weren’t even aware she was flirting with you these past few weeks… guess she was right”

“She told you that she’s flirting with me?!” her voice was quite a bit higher than she intended, but in her panic she hardly even noticed that

“Hoo-boy, ‘n here I thought the kid was clueless about this sorta thing,” Boss chuckled even more fondly, “Even if she hadn’t told me she was? It’s pretty plain to see that she’s been tryin to”

Sadayo was… truly at a loss for words… She had always sort of thought she had a good eye for this sort of thing, she always knew instantly whenever a guy was trying to flirt with her after all… So could she have really been that unaware? Surely Boss was just messing with her… But then again, that’d be sort of a strange and childish thing to mess with her about, wouldn’t it? And he didn’t really seem like the type to do that…

Her thoughts then drifted to Takemi… The woman was… well, she was a lot of things… She took interest in her complaints about her job, she was a great conversationalist, she was confident and smart and had a great job and was all-around pretty much exactly Sadayo’s type… So if she was flirting with her? Then… Maybe, just maybe … getting her hopes up wasn’t the worst idea?

11/13, Sunday

Yet again? The cafe was in a nice peaceful quiet, the bald man on the TV ranted and rambled about how atrocious the crimes of the Phantom Thieves were while Sadayo sat and enjoyed her coffee in silence. Truthfully? She begrudged the nervousness she could feel as she was waiting for Takemi to show up.

For all her talk about how it was so much better to get one’s feelings off of their chest back whenever her students asked for advice? She couldn’t help but feel the desire to flee back to her apartment… Honestly, she probably would do that if this had happened just a few months ago… But as much as she worried? She knew she needed to follow her own advice…

9/10, Saturday

“Are you sure you’re alright, Niijima-san? You look like you might have a fever…” she frowned slightly at the student council president, truthfully? She didn’t like the fact that they’d had to bring her along in the first place to fill in as a chaperone, so the least she could do was make sure the girl was ok…

“I-it’s nothing I’m j-just…” the girl let out a deep sigh, “A-A bit… nervous about something”

“Nervous, huh?” she cocked a brow slightly at her, “About what?”

“I-it’s no big d-deal! I don’t need to waste your time with it!” she tried, getting a slight laugh from the teacher

“Niijima-san, we’ve wasted a lot of your time making you come all the way out here to chaperone the second years,” she folded her arms casually and gave her a polite smile, “Besides, you’d be surprised by how good of a listener I can be”

“I just… w-w-well it’s uh… y-you know a… r-r-relationship issue?” Niijima murmured, looking down at her own fidgeting hands, obviously to avoid eye contact

That got a slight giggle from her, “No offense but I sort of assumed that it was based on how flustered you are right now”

“R-right… w-well it’s just that… uhm… my friend thinks that I should ask out my crush today since she’s also on this trip b-but I think it’s far too soon I mean I only very recently learned I was even attracted to girls plus we didn’t really start off on the right foot so I’m worried about endangering our friendship by letting my feelings get in the way,” the normally very composed girl rambled out in an uncharacteristic sort of panic, luckily Sadayo had managed to at least catch everything she was saying

“I think I understand,” she hummed softly, “You say your friend told you to ask your crush out, but how do you feel about it?”

“I… w-well… I mean I think maybe i-it would be nice to get it out, if nothing else…” she mumbled, “But I… I don’t know, it’s… rather intimidating”

“Oh absolutely, but it always will be, you know?” Sadayo offered with a comforting sort of smile, “You could wait years and it would probably just get more scary as time goes on”

“I… I see b-but… what if it goes poorly?” Niijima fidgeted even more nervously with her fingers, honestly? This was a new side to the girl from her point of view… as far as Sadayo had ever known, Niijima was exceptionally well put together and level-headed, sometimes she felt more like an adult than some of her colleagues did… in a way it was almost relieving to see the girl acting her own age for once

“What’s the worst that could happen if it went poorly?” she astutely countered, “Is she the type to end a friendship over something like this?”

“N-no not at all!” the class president immediately defended

“Then the worst thing that could happen is she says no, right?” she pointed out

“I suppose so…” the girl murmured after a moment, looking like she was seriously considering her words now…

—

Sure, it was easy for Sadayo to give that advice to a troubled student, but actually following her own advice felt almost akin to a herculean task… But, she figured that if her own second-year students were brave enough to not only be so open about their unconventional relationships but also brave enough to be the Phantom Thieves , then she could at least be brave enough to take her own advice and not hide away from Takemi…

After a while though? She started to worry that the other woman wasn’t going to show up, it was starting to get later into the evening after all and by now? She was the only customer left in the little cafe. She had just been about to give up for the evening as a matter of fact when suddenly? The bell above the door chimed and sure enough, when she looked to see who it was? Takemi walked right in and over to her seat a few chairs down at the cafe’s counter.

“The usual,” the doctor sighed, slumping back just a bit in her chair as she did

“Comin’ right up,” the cafe’s owner responded as he looked over at her with a slightly knowing smirk for just a moment before he turned his attention to the coffee maker

“Long day?” she tried her best to keep her nerves from her voice, although she certainly wasn’t all that sure of how successful she was at it

“Yup,” the punkish-woman huffed out an exasperated breath, “You wouldn’t believe the sorts of things people want me to figure out, it’s like this whole district thinks I’m some kind of miracle worker”

Flirting, as Sadayo constantly reminded herself, wasn’t really her specialty, so instead? She just went with whatever came to mind, no matter how embarrassing it was, “Well I’d certainly say that you’re a miracle”

She wanted to crawl into a hole and die as soon as the words left her lips. At the same time though? Takemi looked at her with a slightly raised brow for just a single second before she giggled at the awful pickup line, “Is that so?” the doctor asked in a lower, huskier sort of tone that nearly sent a shiver down her spine.

Well, she was in too far to back down now… “You definitely look like a miracle to me”

The other woman giggled even more at that, almost giving her a… hungry sort of look, “Careful there sensei , wouldn’t want to give a girl the wrong idea, would you?~”

Swallowing down whatever fear she had? She gave the doctor the same sort of smile she used to use when she really needed to get requested more at her maid job, “Oh, I know exactly what idea I’m trying to give you”

The smirk that Takemi gave her almost looked like she wanted to eat her up right then and there and honestly? Sadayo had pretty much never wanted anything more in her entire life…

Fortunately, the other woman had the self control to simply sit back with another knowing laugh as she dug out a small slip of paper from one of her white doctor’s jacket pockets, “Then in that case? I’ve been meaning to give you this for quite awhile now”

As the small slip was passed over to her she quickly realized what it was… A phone number, Takemi’s phone number… She really hoped that she didn’t look too pathetic when she quickly swiped the paper up and stored it away in her bag as if it were some precious treasure.

Thankfully for Sadayo’s heart, things almost instantly slipped back into a normal evening after that. Seeming neither of them wanted to flirt all that much when it was just them and Boss in the cafe, she was sure the man heard more than enough cheesy flirting whenever Amamiya had her friends over after all. Of course, all the while? She was practically panicking in the back of her mind… She’d never gotten a woman’s phone number after all, let alone even been in a situation where a date was seemingly a possibility, and yet again? As she so often seemed to feel as of late? She couldn’t help but empathize a bit with how shy and scared Amamiya always seemed to be about this sort of thing…

Chapter Text

11/25, Friday

Tae’s life had certainly become… busy as of late… She’d nearly had a heart attack when Sakura had shown up with a half-dead Amamiya just a few days ago, and ever since? She’d been in a damn near panic trying to fix the poor thing up. She couldn’t help but frown to herself as she looked over the girl’s chart once again while she sat in her otherwise empty clinic… The girl had several broken ribs, a broken nose, a near-broken leg and bruising over at least seventy to eighty percent of her body… It was appalling that the police had done that to her, and that wasn’t even counting the drugging that had made medicating the girl during those first few days even more difficult and strenuous… For as worried as she was though? She was at least glad to see that Amamiya was properly listening to her instructions and remaining firmly on bed rest, regardless of whatever ‘mission’ her and her friends had to work on.

She sank into her rolling chair with a huff, having closed the clinic a bit early this evening due to her genuine exhaustion. As exhausted as she was though? She felt a bit of a smirk pull on her lips as she pulled up her phone to message a certain teacher she’d been meaning to talk to.

DM:Kawakami

Tae: Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I’ve been a bit busy over the last week

Kawakami: Oh that’s not a problem. I actually just heard a bit about what happened myself…

Tae: 1 of the kids told you?

Kawakami: Not very many details, but yes, Mishima-kun informed me that Amamiya-san is alive and resting.

Tae: She is

Tae: And so long as she listens to what I say? She’ll make it through this ok

Kawakami: That’s a relief

Tae: Yeah

Tae: But putting that aside, and I know this may come across as a bit blunt, but I desperately need a drink after the week I’ve had

Tae: Think you’d fancy going to a bar?

Kawakami: Right now?

Tae: Only if you want to, no pressure

Kawakami: No no, I’d love to! Where are we going?

Tae smirked to herself at the sight of just how excited the other woman was, not that she was much better though, as she got out of her seat with a lot more energy than she had just a few minutes ago while sending Kawakami the address for the bar in question. She felt a little ridiculous being so invigorated by the simple prospect of getting some drinks together, but she figured that it’d been far too long since she last had a good drink anyway, so she may as well enjoy this…

—

Tae swirled her drink in her hand for a moment, watching the ice spin around in the brownish liquid while she awaited the other woman’s arrival. It’d perhaps been a bit too long since the last time she had a little date like this, as she’d gotten changed out of her doctor’s coat and sped to the Crossroads rather quickly after sending the teacher the address. Before her thoughts could linger on that bit of pitifulness though?

“It’s certainly been awhile, hasn’t it Tae?” Lala-chan asked in that familiar, friendly voice, “For awhile there I was worried you’d found yourself a new bar to go to and left little old me behind”

That got a slight laugh out of her before she took another sip of her drink and smirked back at the taller woman, “I wouldn’t dream of it”

“Sweet as always,” the bartender laughed, “Well then, if you don’t mind me being a little nosy, what’s the occasion?” she asked, laughing even more heartily when Tae gave her a confused look in response to that, “You’ve been staring at the door every couple minutes like a lost puppy, so clearly you’re waiting for someone dear”

“Tsk, well I suppose you’re not wrong there,” she huffed out, as confused as ever at the way Lala-chan could read her like a book, “Been awhile since I last had a date is all, been too busy lately for it, so I guess I’m a bit antsy”

“Is that so? Hm, that actually does remind me… I’ve heard that your clinic is finally getting the recognition it deserves, right?” the larger woman stated in an almost proud sort of voice

“More that the negative rumors have been dispelled,” she dryly answered, idly tapping her nails on the counter as she spoke

“Heh, always gotta downplay it, huh?” before she could even address that allegation though? Lala-chan quickly moved on to her clearly far greater interest, “So then, who’s the lucky person you’re waiting for?”

“Just a teacher I’ve been getting to know lately,” she casually answered with a shrug, once again looking down at her drink as she swirled it a few times

“A teacher?” the other woman laughed, “I certainly didn’t expect that one, here I thought you were going to bring in a cute nurse”

“Please, you think I want to get into arguments about how to handle patients while on a date?” she scoffed at the thought, “Besides, you know no one in the medical world respects me, even with my name being cleared”

That brought a frown to the bartender’s face for the first time that evening, but before she could respond to that? The door to the bar gently swung open, and in walked Kawakami…

“Sorry I’m late,” the woman offered with an awkward little laugh as she slid onto a stool at her side, wearing her usual yellow striped shirt and jean skirt, only with a brown jacket over it now due to how cold it was outside, “I got a little lost trying to find the place”

“You’re not really late anyway,” she casually offered back with a shrug and a small grin, “I’m just glad you could make it”

“Well hello there, and welcome to my chateau,” Lala-chan greeted the woman with that familiar customer service smile, “Can I get you something to drink before I leave you and Tae-chan to talk?”

The teacher ordered a drink, a notably more fruity and sweet sort of drink compared to Tae’s more smoky and harsh drink of choice. Fortunately the bartender was also true to her word, giving the teacher her drink before she walked away to give them some space, even if Tae knew that she was going to pester her for details about it later, as she usually did…

—

“You wouldn’t believe just how tedious it can get sometimes, but I’ve been really trying my best to not fall into that rut again, I owe my students that much,” Kawakami continued on in her impassioned rant about her job

Things were going good, fortunately after all the time they’d spent talking to one another at Leblanc? It was pretty easy to slip past that slight initial awkwardness of a new location and situation, which let them talk amongst themselves without much of an issue in the slightest.

She giggled a bit, getting a curious look in response from the other woman who cocked a brow at her.

“Oh it’s nothing, I was just thinking that it’s rather admirable, and a bit adorable, that you care so much about your students,” she watched with a smirk as the other woman’s face lit up like a roaring fire, turning her entire face bright red, the sight of which just made her giggle as she took another sip of her drink, “You don’t have much experience with this sort of thing, do you?”

“I-I… I can’t say that I do, I suppose…” Kawakami looked away, quickly taking a sip of her own drink in a futile effort to calm her blushing down

“Hmm~ well, no worries there, I’d be more than happy to teach you for a change, sensei~” she drew her words out, speaking in that lower, sultrier tone that she knew all too well had a powerful effect on her dates

Just as she expected? The poor flustered woman immediately choked on her drink, coughing a few times in another futile effort to cover it up before looking completely mortified when she looked back at her again, “Y-you’re… certainly rather forward, Takemi-san”

“Please, just call me Tae, no need for honorifics either,” she quickly corrected, “Of course, only if you don’t mind, Sadayo”

She nearly looked like she’d completely stopped processing words for a few moments in response to that, and at first she thought she’d pushed the poor woman too far, but thankfully she recovered rather quickly, “That’s not a problem at all, T… Tae”

Perhaps it was a bit much of her to be that forward, but it was hard to help herself when this beautiful woman before her was blushing like a shy schoolgirl, so she couldn't exactly blame herself too much.

“Good, now, as for being forward? What can I say,” she shrugged and downed the last bit of her drink before smirking at the flustered mess of a woman, “I’m a woman who knows what I want, so I don’t see much of a point in beating around the bush”

“I… I see…” Sadayo averted her gaze from her, face still completely lit up bright red, a trait that Tae suspected would likely be in place for quite some time to come, a fact that made the pleased smirk on her face grow even wider…

12/7, Wednesday

As the days went on and on? Tae found herself increasingly grateful for Sadayo’s company. It was rare for her to feel so comfortable around another person, even her prior romantic relationships hadn’t given her that sense of ease and comfort that Sadayo’s presence did. Although, she supposed on some level, that did come with it’s own drawbacks… Drawbacks in the form of vulnerability…

“It’s all water under the bridge now,” she sighed, swirling another drink in her hand, having gone with Sadayo to the Crossroads once again

“But the fact that they would do that to you, and to not even apologize after your name is cleared?!” the teacher huffed, absolutely enraged by the story of how Tae had become known as ‘The Plague’, “It’s completely outrageous!”

“It comes with the territory,” she shrugged, grimacing at the thought of many of her prior colleagues, “You’d think that people smart enough to graduate med school would be considerate enough to mind their own business, but alas… Although, I suppose a number of other factors certainly weren’t helping my case”

“Other factors?” Sadayo cocked a brow at her, “What do you mean?”

“Well, the fact that my clinic is in a shady alleyway for one,” she started with a sigh, “Then there’s my… preferences… it’s not exactly seen as respectable for a doctor to be openly pansexual”

The other woman grimaced at that, obviously understanding her pain in that regard very well, being a queer teacher and all… And looking back? That was probably what spurred Tae on to say what she said next…

“There’s also the matter of my health. You’d be surprised by how many of my colleagues saw me as nothing more than a pitiable patient rather than a peer,” she hissed, only fully realizing what she’d just said a moment after, when it was too late to take back

“Your health?” Sadayo questioned, concern now filling her expression more than any other emotion

A part of her wanted to backtrack, or to excuse it away with some little white lie, but after all the good times she’d had with Sadayo over the last several weeks? She very much didn’t want to ruin things… So after she downed another swig of her drink? She turned slightly in her seat to face the teacher, frown clear across her face.

“I was very sickly when I was a child… I had to go in and out of the hospital on a regular basis because they could never quite figure out what was wrong with me,” she scoffed at the old memories, at how quickly she would have been able to identify her illness, “I have a rare genetic disorder, and because it wasn’t properly identified until I was a teenager? I was still rather sickly at the start of med school”

“And your colleagues treated you poorly for that?” the teacher questioned, to which she shook her head with a sigh

“Oh no, they didn’t treat me ‘poorly’ per say… They all just started to treat me like I was their ticket to proving themselves. After all, if they could correctly diagnose the sick girl in their class then surely they’ll pass med school with ease, right?” she grimaced slightly, “The constant pestering was almost worse in my eyes. They didn’t respect me, they just saw me as some pitiful little child that needed their help to survive, even though I was the top of our class”

“I see…” the other woman muttered, partially to herself

“It’s ok though,” a slight smile pulled on her lips, “I showed them when I graduated with high enough marks to instantly earn a roll at the laboratory I used to work at”

Sadayo laughed a bit along with her, though she could clearly see the slight bits of concern and possible pity that were still lingering in the woman’s eyes…

“You don’t need to worry about me,” she firmly stated, “My condition is well under control”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that at all,” Sadayo instantly explained, “I just feel a bit bad that you were treated that way in the first place… I know a thing or two about being looked down on…”

That admittedly caught her a bit offguard… Over the years? Tae had become accustomed to being pitied, borderline infantilized, for having her genetic disorder. It’d ground her down enough to feel nothing but pure annoyance when others treated her like she was less capable than others, like she wasn’t a fully capable adult. But seemingly? Sadayo had moved right past that… Her only concern being empathy and understanding for being looked down on… It had absolutely baffled her, and she knew it was showing loud and clear on her face…

“Are you alright?” she snapped back to to the present when she heard her voice

“Oh, yes, of course,” she answered as smoothly as possible, and thankfully? Sadayo seemed content enough to leave it at that

Things fortunately slid back to normal after that, or at least, as normal as they could be with Tae’s mind still somewhat lost in her slight confusion over the other woman’s reaction to her past.

As confusing as it was though? It was beyond relieving to know that Sadayo didn’t look down on her, didn’t pity her, didn’t see her as less just because of her condition. And it was at that moment that Tae knew she wanted to be serious about her relationship with the other woman…

12/10, Saturday

“I’m surprised to see you coming here so often,” the bartender laughed heartily as she placed a drink in front of her, “Your little gal pal coming tonight as well?”

“Not tonight,” she sighed, downing about half of her drink in one go

“Oh?” Lala-chan gave her a concerned look, immediately sensing the bit of melancholy that had to be radiating off of her, “Something happen? I thought you two were getting along swimmingly”

“Oh we are, but that’s the problem, isn’t it?” she huffed out a slight laugh, “I’ve only gone out with her a few times now, but…”

“You’re thinking about making it serious?” the bartender guessed, getting a sigh and a nod from her in response, “And what’s wrong with that?”

She frowned at the larger woman, resting her chin in her hand against the counter, “I don’t want to come across as desperate. I mean, we’ve only really known each other for a few months now”

“Heh, and here I thought a woman of your confidence wouldn’t have any issues at all with going after what she wants,” Lala-chan grinned at her, earning her a scowl in response, to which the large woman rolled her eyes and fully turned to face her, taking on a more serious tone of voice, “Tae, what do you have to lose? You’re both grown women, there’s no need to act like this is a schoolyard crush. Besides, wasn't it you that said there was no point in beating around the bush?”

She blinked at the bartender, her frown turning just a bit more familiar, “So you were listening in”

“One must hear everything spoken in her chateau, darling,” Lala-chan laughed, “Or are you saying that you don’t listen to everything that goes on in that clinic of your’s?”

As much as she didn’t want to admit it? She had her there…

“Thought so,” the bartender smiled at her again, a warmer and more friendly sort of smile, “So just take your own advice. Don’t beat around the bush and just talk to her, ok?”

“I’m surprised that you’re taking this so seriously,” she sighed, finishing off her drink with one last sip

“Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve seen you stress out over anyone like this, so it seems pretty obvious that you’ve fallen hard for Kawakami-chan,” Lala-chan shrugged, smirking a bit as she made her next remark, “And it’s also rather obvious that she’s completely head-over-heels for you as well”

Tae tried and failed to deny just how good that remark made her feel… And so, before too long? She paid for her drink and went back home… Preparing herself mentally for what she was going to do in the coming days…

12/14, Wednesday

Tae locked up her clinic a bit early that night, a bit thankful for the early winter chill as she slipped on her black leather jacket. The chill helped to ground her slightly worrying mind as she proceeded on her commute back to her home. Her apartment was thankfully relatively close to her clinic, only a single stop away by train or a short drive by car, depending on which mode of transport she’d taken each morning. She opened the door and shrugged off her jacket, hanging it up on the small hook by the door before proceeding inside to make sure that everything was spotless and clean, not that she had to do much additional cleaning though thankfully. And once she was sure that her home was spotless? She went about cooking dinner while she awaited the arrival of the woman who would hopefully say yes to being her girlfriend at the end of the night…

—

By the time Sadayo had arrived, the meal was just about done cooking. Her favorite little teacher seemed to be a bit nervous at first as well, being just a bit fidgety as Tae served up their food. Of course, even with how nervous she seemed to be at first? It didn’t take all that long before they’d both slid into a comfortable, casual conversation. It wasn’t really all that different from their little dates at the Crossroads, they were just in her apartment instead.

She admittedly also felt relieved that Sadayo seemed to enjoy her cooking, or could at least stomach it enough to finish the meal to be polite if she didn’t enjoy it, and once they were both done eating? They’d migrated over to the small, cozy living room of her apartment, sitting next to one another on her couch while they watched some movie Tae had seen a thousand times.

While Sadayo was absorbed in the movie? She’d spent more than a bit of time trying to think of how to bring up what she wanted to ask, when to her surprise? At one point or another during the movie? The screen suddenly cut out… And the image of a grinning cat-like logo popped up on screen as digitally distorted voices began to speak through the speakers…

“What the?” the woman at her side muttered, brows furrowed at the sight

Tae could have sworn she recognized the voices, even with how distorted they were…

“But we’re here to tell you all the truth! So please, let us borrow your time!” a voice on the TV spoke in a light and bubbly tone

“Takamaki-san?” Sadayo instantly whispered to herself with a gasp

“Sounds like it,” she couldn’t help but giggle a bit at the sight as the logo ping-ponged all across the screen

“O-Oh! Uh, I mean!” the teacher instantly tried to cover up for her slip up, to which she just laughed even more and gave the other woman a confident smile

“It’s fine, I assume you know what those kids are doing?” she asked, getting a nod after a moment of hesitation in response, “That makes sense, now I see why Sakura-san asked for both of our help in getting custody over my little Guinea Pig…”

“I… don’t know much about what they actually do though, but… they helped me get out of a horrible situation,” Sadayo grimaced at what must have been a painful memory, gaze turned down towards the floor for a moment, “Which is how I learned their identities…”

“They did the same for me… Remember that man I told you about? Oyamada?” her smile widened just a bit after the teacher looked back at her and nodded, “They were the reason why he finally accepted responsibility for his actions”

Sadayo looked a bit wide eyed for a moment before she sighed out of exasperation, “Amamiya-san is always butting into other people’s lives, huh? Geez… That girl really is gonna be the death of me”

She fully laughed at that, “Join the club, I’ve been the one dressing all of their wounds over this last year”

The other woman smiled gently back at her, “Well, I’m glad that they’re in good hands then”

“We ain’t gonna sit back and watch some crook wreck this country just cause of his GODDAMN ego!” The yelling brought both of their attention back to the screen as the picture on the screen shrunk away to nothing, showing a more zoomed-in look on two of the Phantom Thieves in particular… The boy who was speaking had slung his arm around a shorter girl’s shoulders, ”Ain’t that right… Leader?”

Amamiya stepped forward, revealing her mask-covered face but exposing her bright, powerful silver eyes, “Yes, before that happens, we will take this country!”

“What?!” the teacher suddenly yelled, admittedly catching her a bit offguard, “She didn’t even distort her own voice?! And she showed the whole world what she looks like! Why does she keep taking stupid, unnecessary risks like that?!”

She blinked a few times at the other woman before a giggle was practically pulled out of her, a giggle that became a full on bout of laughter that served to confuse and embarrass Sadayo in equal measure.

“S-sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled like that,” she instantly and sheepishly tried to excuse herself, but Tae quickly shook her head

“Don’t apologize for caring,” she stopped laughing, looking right into Sadayo’s eyes as the screen flickered to a ‘signal interruption’ screen when the Calling Card came to an end, “And if my little Guinea Pig can call out Masayoshi Shido in front of the entire world? Then there’s no reason why I can’t do this”

She gently but quickly reached over, taking the other woman’s hand in her own, containing the urge to snicker when Sadayo’s face suddenly flared up in a blush from that simple action alone.

“Sadayo? It’s been absolutely wonderful getting to know you these last few weeks, and so I was wondering, if you’d perhaps like to make it a bit more official,” fortunately, despite whatever nerves or anxieties she had over the last week? Tae’s voice came out as completely smooth and confident, not showing even a single shred of that worry

The other woman’s eyes widened significantly at that, and Tae was quite certain that she’d never seen a grown woman blush as intensely as Sadayo was blushing in that moment. She didn’t rush her though, even when upwards of thirty seconds passed without an answer, and thankfully, before she had to wait too much longer?

“I’d love to!” Sadayo practically yelped out, as if she’d only just realized that she hadn’t answered her

And to Tae’s further surprise? Before she could even respond to what she’d said? Sadayo suddenly shot forward, claiming her lips in a kiss that told her everything she needed to hear…