Chapter Text
Act I: Nagi wants to be Reo’s trophy wife
“Nagi, Nagi, what’s your dream again?”
The girls in the class giggled. Ever since Reo had convinced her to play soccer, more and more of the girls in class had started talking to her during school. It was tiring.
Nagi sighed heavily and let her head fall onto her desk, trying to hide her face in a mess of short, wavy hair. Where was Reo…?
“Wasn’t it something like I want to get an easy job, make a lot of money, and retire early?”
“Yeah, yeah! She just wants to laze around and play games!”
“It’s not a bad idea, I’d love that!”
Nagi hummed in agreement and pulled her phone out to prove them right.
“Honestly it makes sense, but it’s still a ton of work. If you don’t want to do any work at all there are much easier ways to do it!”
“Yeah, you’re honestly really pretty, you just need to put in some effort!”
One of the girls starts to twirl a bit of Nagi’s hair. It didn't feel as nice as when Reo did it. Where was she again? She should be here.
“If you did, then you could just be a trophy wife and then you could breeze through life and not do anything”
“Honestly, isn’t she already Reo’s trophy wife?”
Nagi perked up. What? She lifted her head and stared at the laughing girls.
A trophy wife?
She remembered considering it briefly before, but having to deal with men, any man at all, didn’t appeal to her. Reo, though. Reo wouldn’t be a hassle. She could be Reo’s trophy wife.
Before Nagi could ask more about it, Reo burst into the classroom.
“Nagi, let’s go practice!”
Nagi sighed and curled more into herself before her face was smashed into her desk as Reo jumped onto her back. “Heavy….” Nagi murmured trying to refocus on her game.
She heard the rest of the girls greet Reo while giggling at the display.
“What’re you doing, Nagi? Let’s go!” Reo commands as she ruffles Nagi’s hair, completely ignoring the other girls.
With a put-upon groan, Nagi stands up, bringing Reo up with her. She’s already tired, but the head scratches and Reo’s weight on her is worth it.
“Wow, so impressive, Nagi! Do you think you could lift me?” One of the girls asks, looking interested. Honestly all of them do, eyeing how easily Nagi lifted Reo into the air.
“No.” Reo glares and Nagi raises an eyebrow.
The girls giggle, like they expected this response. “Of course, of course, don’t worry, Reo, she’s all yours!”
Reo blushes faintly, finally lightly stepping down from Nagi’s back with a cough. “Ah well, of course, but we can’t have her waste all her energy before practice!” Reo boasts, nervously tucking a bit of hair behind her ears. The short bangs immediately fall back into Reo’s face.
Cute, Nagi thinks and her fingers twitch to tuck those bangs back behind Reo’s ears, but she doesn’t move. Instead, wanting to immediately feel Reo’s warmth again, this time it’s her that hangs all over Reo as she rests her entire weight over Reo’s back. She snuggles into the side of Reo’s neck and feels the other girl stiffen.
“A-anyway, we have to go! Come on, Nagi! Nationals doesn’t wait for anyone!” With that Reo hitches Nagi up, carefully gripping Nagi’s thighs so that the gym pants she wears under her skirt don’t bunch uncomfortably.
Reo lazily waves goodbye as she walks away, but Nagi glances back to the group of girls.
They all are giving thumbs up, mouthing “trophy wife” and Nagi makes a note to think about that a bit more. Being Reo’s trophy wife doesn’t sound so bad at all.
Nagi is only reminded of trophies and wives days later when the team is getting ready for practice. Everyone is in various states of dressed for practice as they slowly wake up from the tedium of school, or at least that’s how Nagi feels. She herself is sitting only in her shorts and sports bra, leaning back against the lockers, staring blankly up at the ceiling, and trying to gather enough energy to move.
The chattering of the rest of the team washes over her, going in one ear and out the other. Something about a guy, dates, standards is all she hears from the girls closest to her. Nothing to interest her, until Reo speaks.
“That’s the least he could do!” Reo speaks up, hand on hip looking disbelievingly at the others.
“Oh, Reo of course would have high standards!” One girl teases.
Another, “Reo, you can’t expect much from high school boys, the bar is low.”
Reo scoffs and goes back to getting ready, starting to gather her hair up in a pony tail.
“Well, what about you Reo? What are your standards?”
Another laughs. “The guy would have to be perfect to live up to the standards of a billionaire heir.”
Reo half-heartedly laughs and Nagi can tell she’s getting uncomfortable with the turn of this conversation. She nudges Reo’s foot slightly and looks over at her curiously. Reo makes eye contact for just second before looking away, flushed.
Strange.
“Yeah, I guess I would have high standards.” Reo mutters, before she steels herself to stare everyone down. “And so should all of you!”
“Yes, yes!” A girl hand waves away.
“You know Reo would need someone super hot. Nothing less for our Prince!” Another girl chimes in.
Reo sputters, wide-eyed, “Um.”
“And super fit! Someone rich? Or does that not matter?”
“I bet as long as the guy isn’t a deadbeat, she’d be fine! I mean, she would take care of whoever it was!”
“Yeah, yeah! But he’d have to treat her right! Flowers, obviously! And truly cherish her! Treasure her!”
Nagi perks up. Ah, they’re talking about Reo’s future trophy wife. Nagi feels like she fits all those qualities. Nagi’s moderately fit, getting fitter by the day because of Reo’s intense training after their normal practice. She’s hot, probably. She doesn’t have a lot of money, but she’d love to get taken care of.
And she absolutely treasures Reo. Who wouldn’t? Reo must know that. Becoming Reo’s trophy wife is going to be easy.
“Oh my god, stop!” Reo screams, hiding her face in her hands as she slumps down next to Nagi. Nagi can see the tops of her ears turning red.
Cute.
The rest of the girls must be thinking the same as they start cooing over the flustered Reo.
“Aw, is Reo thinking about someone specific?” Nagi preens.
“Who has stolen our Prince’s heart?” Me.
“Well, what boy is our Prince thinking about?” Wait, boy?
“No one!!” Reo protests, still hiding her face. Oh, thank god.
There’s a flurry of movement as the teasing continues and Reo continues to fight back, but Nagi spaces out. A boy, she thinks. She hadn’t considered that possibility. Would Reo really want a trophy husband? Well, even if she does, Nagi could be that too, right?
She’s a little unsure now.
Finally, the coach comes in to gather everyone up on the pitch and the conversation trails off.
Nagi sluggishly stands up to put her shirt on and accidentally jostles Reo a bit. They make eye contact and Reo glances down, squeaks, and runs away. Nagi blinks after her and mentally shrugs, she has more important things to think about rather than Reo being weird.
Generally, Nagi is able to do everything easily on her own. But Reo has shown her that sometimes it was usefu to ask for help. There was text book for locking down a wife and even though Nagi hates class she knows it’s useful for gaining information as she half listens. And now, with a complication of Reo potentially wanting a boy? No, Nagi needs a bit of help. And she knows exactly who to ask.
It’s the next day, after Reo has dropped her off in her class, given her some head scratches, and extracted a promise that she won’t sleep through every class, that Nagi begins a conversation with someone other than Reo willingly for the first time in a very long time.
She walks up to the group of girls from before and looms until they all look at her.
“I want to be Reo’s trophy wife.”
The reaction is instant and Nagi winces from the squealing. She hopes that Reo is far enough away that she won’t come to investigate.
“Really? Really? I never thought we’d never see the day!”
“We really thought you both would be in this dumb situation-ship for the rest of your lives!”
“And Nagi realized first? Who would have guessed!”
Nagi’s a bit offended. Who are these girls to be making assumptions of her and Reo’s relationship? What she has with Reo is not dumb and definitely not a situation-ship, whatever that means.
“So when did you realize you liked her?”
What a dumb question. Maybe she shouldn’t have come to them for help. “I’ve always liked her.”
“Of course, of course! Who doesn’t like Reo.”
“But, when did you finally realize you wanted her as your husband?”
“What do you love most about her?”
The endless questions are a lot and Nagi is really regretting coming over here. She really just wanted to come tell them they were right and get advice on how to make it happen. Not whatever this is. Nagi has never been part of this kind of overly excited conversation and truthfully has never wanted to be.
“She takes care of me.” Is the only answer Nagi can come up with under this barrage of questions.
Finally, there’s some blessed silence. But, looking at the girls, it seems like they’re expecting more.
“That’s it?”
Well, no, but she doesn’t know how else to explain how important Reo is to her. She doesn’t think there are any words for all of what Reo means to her. She also doesn’t think these three deserve to know her feelings either.
“Don’t you want to hold her hand?” Of course she wants to. She wants to be touching her all the time.
“Don’t you want to kiss her?” Kiss? Well, no, she’d never thought about kissing anyone. But, maybe.
“Ok, no, we are not continuing this conversation until you actually figure out if you like her or if you just want a servant.”
The girls immediately turn their backs to Nagi and begin talking about who knows what. Nagi doesn’t care. She’s annoyed this is going to be more complicated than she thought.
How does she like Reo, she wonders as she drifts back to her desk. Leaning her head on her palm, she stares outside hoping something she sees there will help her figure all of this out. But class starts, the teacher begins to drone on and on, and Nagi is no closer to understanding her own feelings for Reo than before.
Nagi is once again back in the locker room. She’s beginning to hate this time of day more and more with how much she’s having to think here. But it’s for Reo, so she’ll persevere.
She’s back in her normal position - slumped against a locker, shirt off with only her sports bra on, legs spread. She’s tired, but she’s looking at Reo getting ready from the corner of her eye.
Today, there’s no gossiping happening. Everyone’s casually chatting and Reo’s in her own head probably thinking about new plays to try out.
She looks at Reo closely. Does she want to kiss her? She wants to touch her all the time, so maybe kissing wouldn’t be that bad. It could even be better. Her lips are a bit shiny from some chapstick Reo put on earlier and Nagi wonders absentmindedly how it would feel.
Nagi’s long bangs keep falling into her eyes and she keeps shaking her head to move them out of the way. Honestly, she should do something about them, they’ve gotten a bit too long.
It’s the third or fourth time that Nagi does this that Reo finally looks over. She grins as she’s doing the final step of putting up her hair and Nagi feels warm with that smile directed towards her.
“Do we need to get you a haircut?” Reo asks leaning over to push Nagi’s bangs back.
Nagi whines as the bangs immediately fall back into her eyes. “Reo, clip them back.”
“Yes, yes, you spoiled baby.”
Nagi grabs Reo’s wrist and drags her over to stand in front of her.
“Ah, wait.” Reo protests, tripping a bit.
Nagi doesn’t listen and keeps pulling her until Reo is nestled between her legs. “Reo.” Nagi states, tilting her head back to take a good look at Reo. Reo’s blushing a bit, fidgeting with her hands, looking away and Nagi doesn’t understand why. Nagi pulls her closer and squeezes Reo’s legs between her thighs. “My hair.” Nagi insists. One problem at a time. First, hair. Then, Reo.
Reo squeaks. Her face flares up even more; how cute. “Fine!” Reo hastily pulls some clips out of her bag and begins to work.
Nagi hums, enjoying the feeling of Reo running her hands through her hair and admiring Reo as she works. The little crinkle in between her eyebrows as she focuses on her task, the sleek ponytail bouncing behind her, the pursed lips as she tries to keep a neutral face. She’s so beautiful and Nagi begins to feel feel warm. It feels good to have her this close so she wraps her legs around Reo’s legs to pull her closer.
“Na-nagi?” Reo stutters in surprise. She grips Nagi’s hair tightly for balance as she stumbles and Nagi's mouth goes dry. She's surprised by how good it feels. Once again, her instincts are steering her correctly; having Reo as close as possible will always be a good thing.
Nagi licks her lips and looks up at Reo without the barrier of her bangs. There's a charged moment where they lock eyes and Nagi thinks perfect. This is perfect and she doesn't want this moment to end.
“Thanks, Reo.” She rasps, her mouth still parched. She brings her arms up to bundle Reo closer to her and nuzzle her chest, and that’s finally enough for Reo to break away with a nervous laugh.
“Ok, well, see you outside, Nagi!”
Nagi sighs. It’s not the locker room that’s the hassle, it’s the fact they have practice.
After practice finds Nagi in her normal state of hanging off Reo’s shoulders. She's tired; practice was brutal. Reo is still chatting with some of their fellow teammates, but they are definitely closer to loitering than talking about anything substantial. She nuzzles deeper into Reo’s neck.
Unlike other times, today Nagi notices Reo is dangerously close. Nagi has the sudden urge to bite. To show everyone else that Reo is hers and they should all leave. The strength of her feelings would surprise her if it didn’t feel so right. Is this what those girls had meant?
Unfortunately, Reo’s survival instincts are on full alert because she immediately disengages, so smoothly that even Nagi doesn’t notice it happening. “All right, I’ll see you all tomorrow. Nagi and I both have to get home.”
Nagi vaguely registers the other girls walking away, too focused on figuring out how to get herself wrapped around Reo again.
“Ok, genius, ready to head out?”
Reo turns to her with a smile so honestly breathtaking that Nagi feels like she could play another full game if she could keep that smile directed at her.
There's no way she thinks of Reo as a servant. Reo is Reo and Nagi needs to find a way to keep Reo in her life. There's no way she wants to share Reo with anyone else, let alone a boy.
Nagi must give some type of response because Reo begins to turn away towards her bike, already knowing that Nagi will follow.
And she does. Nagi gets home in a bit of a daze. Focusing on Reo today was a good idea. She's noticing so many things about her friend that she hadn't noticed before.
Sitting on the back of the bike on the way home, Nagi savors Reo chatting away about something or another. She let's Reo's voice wash over her as she struggles to keep away from nuzzling that neck, running her lips over the the small triangle of an undercut Reo still hasn't told her parents about.
It's hard feeling this much and it's hard to organize it all, so Nagi doesn't. She knows she wants to keep Reo around. She knows being Reo's trophy wife will give that to her. Now she just needs to convince Reo of this.
Reo comes to a stop and the jostle finally breaks Nagi from her thoughts. She's a bit disappointed she spent the whole way thinking about digging her teeth into Reo's neck—were fantasties always this violent—instead of coming up with a plan to win the right to be Mrs. Mikage.
"Well, here we are! I'll see you tomorrow, Nagi!" Before Reo can speed away, Nagi shoots out to stop the bike.
"Don't." Nagi mutters as the two lock eyes again. Nagi looks away first, gingerly letting go of the back and bringing up a hand to rub nervously at the back of her neck. "You should stay over." She's only learned she wants Reo close by always. She can't let her leave yet.
Reo blinks. "Oh, sure!" She sounds surprised and Nagi can't really blame her; Nagi never takes initiative like this. "I’d love to stay! What do you want to do? We should get dinner! Oh, I should let someone know and-" She keeps going and going as she locks up her bike and shuffles them into the apartment, unloading all their school things as they go.
Nagi breaths out in relief, guess she didn’t have to be nervous about this.
She follows Reo into the kitchen and leans against the counter as Reo starts to rummage in the fridge. Nagi is in the process of powering on another game when Reo starts to bend over to dig deeper into the fridge and Nagi’s mouth goes dry again.
Her eyes are completely locked on the inches of thighs that Reo’s revealing carelessly.
What is happening today with Reo? Is it always like this and Nagi’s only now realizing the affect the other girl has on her? But no, Reo would never be so careless as to do this at school, so this must just be that’s she’s so comfortable around Nagi.
That thought is enough for Nagi to immediately look away. She can feel her face burning, but she doesn’t think Reo will be able to notice. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to invite the other girl over when she was still figuring out her new feelings.
“Here we go!” Nagi’s view is immediately invaded with some leftover snacks Reo was able to find. She looks to the right a bit and sees Reo’s large grin. “Wanna snack?”
Nagi coughs. Hopefully this will distract her enough from anything else Reo decides to do today.
Nagi has never been more wrong in her entire life. The entire afternoon has been one stressful, heart-pounding situation after another. Nagi is almost wishing she'd never been reminded of trophy wives.
Have they always been this close, physically? Has Reo anyways been hanging off of her, climbing over her, snuggling into her? Nagi doesn’t think they’ve stopped touching since they’ve sat down against the bed to play some games. Reo is fully pressed against her, Reo is clutching her everytime she wins or doesn’t, she’s crawling over her to get snacks in such a way that every single part of her body is pressed against Nagi and she can’t take it.
It’s finally time for them to start getting ready for bed and Nagi falls face first into bed after a quick bath and breaths a sigh of relief. She finally has some time away from Reo to calm her beating heart. She groans. This is so much harder than she thought it would be. Is Reo not affected at all?
Rather than think about it, she turns her head to the side to bring out her phone, hoping to turn her brain off while Reo is in the bathroom.
Minutes pass and Nagi forgets what's been riling her up for the last few hours. She’s focused on clearing the latest level on her rhythm game and only vaguely notices Reo walking out of the bathroom. She does however notice the drops of water that start to fall on her head.
“Reo.” Nagi whines, trying to roll way from the attack and losing the level in the process.
Reo laughs and, even with her eyes closed, Nagi can feel her settle down in bed and lean over her. “Sorry, sorry!”
“You're not, you're not moving.” Nagi finally looks up and she swears her heart stops beating. Reo is leaning over her, hair wet, eyes sparkling with laughter. She's closer than Nagi expected and more water sprinkles down on Nagi as Reo continues to giggle.
She doesn't even mind the drops anymore. Her hand itches to touch, to pull Reo in closer. She wants the only thing she sees to be Reo.
But Reo’s not able to or doesn't want to read her mind today and she leans back to take a seat on the very edge of the bed.
Nagi pouts as she watches Reo start to towel dry her hair. She’s wearing one of Nagi’s oversized tees, her wet hair causing little sheer pudles to form near her shoulders. Nagi almost wishes Reo’s hair was longer, so the sheerness could spread further down. The second that thought flits through her mind she immediately flushes and looks away.
“Oh, don't pout! Not like you dried your hair either!” Reo laughs as she glances back at Nagi.
Nagi scoffs. “Different.”
“Well, come on, I'll dry your hair too.”
Nagi grumbles and sits up, turning her back to Reo.
“Good girl.” Reo starts carefully drying Nagi’s hair and she closes her eyes in bliss.
As heart pounding as this entire evening has been and currently still is, she wouldn't exchange this for the world. And once she's Reo’s trophy wife she won't have to hide how much Reo affects her. Hopefully she'll affect Reo the same way. Hopefully one day she'll be able to get Reo feeling just as warm as Nagi feels now.
“You ok?” Reo softly asks.
Nagi slowly nods. She feels herself start to lean back, being pulled into Reo’s gravity like always.
“Oh baby, you should sleep.” Reo whispers in Nagi’s ear as Reo cards her fingers through Nagi’s hair.
Nagi bites her lip to keep from groaning. She's truly losing her mind. Reo can’t be doing this for everyone right? Only her?
“Reo will sleep with me?” Nagi asks, though she already knows the answer.
“O-oh” Reo stutters. Nagi feels her fingers stiffen against her scalp and whines to get her to keep going. “Where else would I sleep, you don’t have an extra bed.” She mumbles.
Nagi hums and fully settles back onto Reo. “You should stay over every night.”
Reos breath hitches, jostling Nagi slightly. “Really? It wouldn't be a hassle for you?”
Nagi shuffles around and their noses brush with how close they are. “Being with Reo is never a hassle”
Reo flushes and grumbles, “Shut up.”
Nagi hums and falls into Reo. Brings them close enough that Nagi feels Reo’s stuttering breath and wonders if Reo can feel her pounding heartbeat in return.
Reo really isn't a hassle, Nagi realizes. Of course she loves when Reo takes care of her, but she also loves when Reo messes with her and bosses her around. She just loves having Reo here, even when Reo makes her do so much she doesn't want to do. She’d do anything for Reo and she may finally understand what those girls were talking about.
Reo’s not a servent.
Reo is everything.
Nagi snuggles closer. “Promise, Reo.”
She hears, feels Reo take another shuddering breath.
“Reo?” She mumbles into Reo’s neck, lips just half a inch away from touching. She doesn’t know if she’s teasing herself or Reo at this point. She thinks the both of them have been teasing eachother.
“Agh, Nagi!” Reo shouts and the moment is quickly broken. Reo pushes her off, ruffling Nagi’s hair energetically.
Nagi groans and tries to break away.
“You're such a sweetheart!” Reo coos.
Reo’s teasing, Nagi realizes. But she’s also very clearly put a bit of distance between the two of them that annoys Nagi. She knows Reo always makes space between her and everyone else, but she thought she was the exception.
“Reo’s being mean.” Nagi pouts and starts bury herself under the covers.
“Im sorry, I'm sorry!” Reo laughs. She follows Nagi under the covers, but doesn't get any closer.
Nagi peeks at her, still pouting. Even with the obvious distance, Reo looks happy. Shes smiling softly, eyes twinkling and again Nagi is struck by how perfectly Reo fits into Nagi’s own life.
Usually Reo doesn't stay over, but she's always flitting around—picking Nagi up in the morning, dropping her off after practice. Even when she isn’t there physically, she’s sending messages and videos and pictures of random things that make her smile.
Reo is a constant.
And so, Nagi reaches over the barrier and grabs Reo’s hand, intertwining thier fingers together. Holds on tighter when Reo flushes and tries to pull away.
She has so much she wants to tell Reo but there still aren’t enough words. Looking at Reo, it seems like she’s feeling the same. She’s staring wide eyed at Nagi, mouth open like she wants to say something but doesn’t know what. It’s good Nagi isn’t the only one out of her depth.
She pulls Reo’s hand closer, just enough that she’s sure Reo can feel the tiny tufts of her breath, but not close enough to feel Reo against her lips. .
Nagi stares at Reo over their clasped hands, doesn’t look away. “Good night, Reo.” She brings Reo’s hand the rest of the way to her lips and closes her eyes. She still has no words, but hopefully this is enough for now.
She hears a hitch of Reo’s breath and then, “Good night, Nagi.”
Nagi’s lips curl every so slightly up behind their clasped hands.
Interlude I: Reo, the next morning
The next morning, Reo wakes up early as she normally does. Unlike normal, she wakes up nestled in someone else’s arms.
She tenses for a bit—where was she—before it all comes rushing back. She can feel every single inch of her body heating up as she undergoes a full body flush.
Oh my god.
She can't believe she got to spend the absolute perfect day with Nagi last night. It’s so hard to restrain herself from shuffling in excitement
She'd stayed over before, but there was something so different about last night. Nagi felt more attentive, felt more focused on Reo rather than her games. Every so often she would look over at Nagi and find her already looking at her from the corner of her eyes. Every time it happened Reo could feel herself get warm, feel heat gather in her chest and she’d have to look away before it got too overwhelming.
And now she has Nagi curled up behind her; it was more than she could ask for.
Reo smiles into the covers and snuggles herself backwards into Nagi, drinking up as much of the warmth she can. She wants to live in this moment, but her mind is already moving on, telling her that this means nothing to Nagi, telling her that Nagi would do this to any of her friends if she had any and that Reo wasn't special.
But that’s ok, Reo thinks, tightening Nagi’s arms around her herself. This is enough for her. Being Nagi’s friend is enough.