Tako Time

Chapter 9: Feelings

Feelings. They are a thing. And you have them. The romantic kind. You were up for most of the night with nothing but yourself for company so you had decided to go exploring. And you had found feelings. For whom was a secret. Until you felt like telling someone.

You were in the kitchen, making your infamous, five star toast when Ina walked out of the guest room. She appeared to be half asleep. 'Morning, Ina.'

'Mm,' was all you got in response.

'Would you like something for breakfast?'

'Mm.'

You felt like you weren't getting anywhere for some reason. Then you had an idea. You were desperate to tell someone about your adventures last night. Ina was the perfect person to talk to because she was half asleep and therefore wouldn't hear anything.

'Hey, Ina?'

'Mm?'

'I love you.' The priestess woke up. She stood up straight and her eyes widened as her face turned bright red before jumping back into the guest room. 'Ah. I messed up.' At least Ina was no longer half asleep.

Cautiously, Ina poked her face out of the room. Now that she was staring at you, you realised that you were blushing as well. Not wanting to make things any more awkward for her, you continued making your toast, ignoring the heat in your face.

Quickly forming a plan, you repeated your question from earlier, 'would you like something for breakfast?'

Ina, understanding what you were trying to do, opened her mouth to respond. But no sound came out. So she tried again. And again. Giving up, she just pointed at your toast. 'Sure thing.'

With breakfast over, you were about to start your plan. You were going to until you felt Ina cling to your back. 'I... I-I...,' was all she said. Understanding (maybe) what she was trying to say, you turned around and placed your hand on her head, between her flaps.

'Hey chat, guess what?' Once again, chat was exploding before your very eyes. You just missed Calli's comment in chat but saw her name. 'Oh? Calli's here? Hi Calli.' The extra few seconds you had given chat allowed them to start to fill the comments with S/N. 'Anyway, I'm having another collab with Ina tomorrow!' Now chat was filled with S/N and only S/N. Even Calli decided to join in. 'Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, chat.' At this point, you couldn't be bothered to get annoyed at them. Partially because you wanted it to be true.

Ina was a lot more nervous than she usually was when the two of you had a collaboration. You were just having a relaxing chat but you could hear her voice shaking occasionally. A couple hours in, you were starting to worry about her so you decided to feign sickness in order to end the stream.

'You doing alright Ina?'

'Y-yeah! Why are y-y-you asking?'

'Your voice is shaking.'

She took a moment to compose herself, which did not work at all. 'N-no it's not. I'm f-fine! Really!'

'That's not very convincing.'

'Fine. P-please can I-I-I come over?'

'Sure.'

A few minutes later, Ina was knocking on the door. You opened the door and immediately noticed that her bottom lip was shaking. Pretending to have not seen it, for now, you let her in. She wandered into the living room and you followed, sitting on the couch next to her.

'C'mon, how are you? I've been worried for a while now.'

'I-I'm just nervous.'

'About what?'

'Well, I-I, uh... Um, th-there's something I w-wanted to tell you. B-Because I c-couldn't do it y-yesterday.'

'Ah, so that's it.' You smiled warmly at Ina. 'It's alright, take your time. Remember, deep breaths always help.'

She took your advice and seemed to calm down slightly. Her lip wasn't shaking anymore. 'Thanks.' The priestess leaned back and stared at the ceiling. She took another deep breath before continuing, 'I love you, too.'

You were happy. That would be an understatement but you were happy. So very happy. You contained your pure joy for Ina's sake. Instead, you just continued to stare straight ahead and replied, 'Well, I'm glad it's mutual.'

Ina rested her head on your shoulder. You placed your arm around her shoulders and let your head rest on hers. 'I guess S/N's a thing now.'

The priestess giggled. 'Chat's going to have a field day when we tell them.'