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Everything about the moment felt like magic.
It was late, and Kobayashi was tired (and just a little drunk). But that was just the cynical side of it. She was sitting on the couch in the living room of her childhood home, a place she hadn’t seen in years. A place that had managed to look and smell the same as it had when she’d been small. Tracing her eyes over the pictures on the wall was equally familiar and strange. She knew this place so well, and yet had forgotten so much until she’d returned to it.
The dying fire cast a flickering, orange glow across the scene. Everything seemed to be dancing. Knickknacks, furniture would fade in and out of clarity as the light alternately touched and abandoned them.
Hardly a sound could be heard.
But most magical of all...Tohru.
Kobayashi snorted softly. “Magical”. The joke had been unintentional.
Tohru sat beside her on the couch, sharing an old blanket that had once been the roof of Kobayashi’s pillow fort. The firelight brought out the sharp yellow of her eyes. She was gazing into it, watching the sparks pop, the embers wither away. Tohru had been as lively as ever during the day, but once Kanna and the senior Kobayashis had gone to bed...
Kobayashi studied her profile.
“Tohru,” she murmured.
The dragon girl jumped. “A-ah?” she squeaked, turning so quickly to face Kobayashi that she nearly fell onto her. “Sorry, Kobayashi-san, d-do you want me to—? The fire, should I—?”
She pointed at her mouth and pantomimed flame breath. Kobayashi shook her head quickly.
“No, no. That’s all right, Tohru.”
“Oh. Got it.”
Tohru’s face was red, and she glanced about the room awkwardly. Kobayashi watched her just a little longer.
“It’s your dad, isn’t it.”
It wasn’t a question.
Tohru nodded, and sank under the blanket.
“I’m sure he loves you in his own way, even if he has trouble understanding.” And then a distraction, in case she had overstepped. “You made a good impression on my parents. Horns and all. But you understand why I can’t tell them the truth yet, right?”
“Of course, Kobayashi-san.” It came out quietly, though Tohru forced a smile. “They’d have trouble understanding, too. Since they don’t even know dragons exist.”
Kobayashi’s gaze lowered.
“Oh, but I like them! They seem to be excellent humans. Your father’s soup was almost as good as mine.”
Now Tohru was cackling playfully. A show to express that she was all right, more than anything. Kobayashi could read her well enough by now.
“I missed you,” Kobayashi said.
Tohru froze.
“While you were gone. I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” was the immediate reply, and Tohru was sobbing.
She bent double, burying her face in her knees, smothering the sound in the frayed old blanket. Her whole body shook. The couch shook.
It took a long time for her tears to subside. By then the room was nearly pitch black, the fire snuffed.
“’m sorry,” Tohru choked out, still muffled by the blanket. “Your—your parents are really nice.”
“Mm-hm.”
...A hand on Tohru’s back.
“They’re your parents now, too, okay?”
Kobayashi rubbed in circles. Gently, barely touching her at all.
Tohru’s already shallow breathing had stopped completely.
“And you’ll always have a home with me,” Kobayashi whispered, letting her fingers trail up into the skin of Tohru’s neck. They slid into Tohru’s silky hair, cradling the back of her head. “No matter what. Okay?”
Tohru’s hands clenched into fists around the blanket.
“I love you, Kobayashi-san,” she burbled, clearly crying again. “I...I know you’re sick of hearing it, but I really do—”
“Aaaanh, can’t you read the mood?” Kobayashi whined, more sharply than she’d intended. “Geez. Do I really have to say it? It’s embarrassing for me.”
Tohru didn’t lift her head—not quite—but she turned to blink incredulously up at her. Her face was messy with tears. They almost glimmered in the darkness.
Leaning that far down was awkward, especially with her bad back. But Kobayashi managed to plant a kiss against Tohru’s temple before she straightened back up, covering her flaming face with her hand.
“Okay?” she mumbled again.
She almost fell over, Tohru tackled her so hard. But she squeezed tight, holding Kobayashi upright, crying and nuzzling into her shoulders and sprinkling desperate kisses all across Kobayashi’s face.
Kobayashi sat there and took it. She patted Tohru’s back as comfortingly as she could.
And when Tohru had finally calmed down enough to take a deep breath and wipe clumsily at her eyes, Kobayashi held on and waited. But having such a guilty, tear-stained, blushing face just inches away from hers was too much temptation. She gently leaned in and met Tohru’s lips.
It was a soft, almost ethereal kiss. It barely happened.
Tohru kissed her again almost immediately—but just as soft, just as hesitant. Their breathing slowed. The embrace became looser. It felt more like magnetism than passion. Their lips would slide apart from each other, then touch again. Every time. On and on, slowly. Like there was nothing else in the world.
“I can’t tell you what to do,” murmured Kobayashi at last, dragging a fingertip through the length of one of Tohru’s pigtails. “But...if you want to...I’d like you to stay with me forever.”
“Yes,” Tohru exhaled, hugging her again. Not as violently this time. Her body was warmer than the fire, softer than the blanket.
Above all, she was magic.
---
The setup was almost the same, a year later.
Kobayashi and Tohru on the couch, under a blanket, before a dying fire.
But tonight Tohru was grinning from ear to ear.
“You remember, don’t you?” she cooed, scooting even closer (they were already thigh-to-thigh, all this did was push Kobayashi a few inches across the couch). “What happened here...?”
“Of course I do,” Kobayashi mumbled, already bright red. She couldn’t meet Tohru’s gaze.
Tohru was unbothered. She peppered kisses across Kobayashi’s cheeks, fingers already creeping under the hem of Kobayashi’s shirt. Kobayashi put up a feeble struggle.
“Someone’ll walk in,” Kobayashi whined. Difficult, since Tohru was already running her tongue along that dip between Kobayashi’s lower lip and chin. “Kanna-chan’s the only one who knows—”
“That I’m a dragon?” Tohru teased, gracing her mouth with a wet smooch. Kobayashi’s hands tightened against Tohru’s back and she kissed back reflexively.
“That’s not what I meant,” she grumbled as soon as she was released.
They made out a little longer before Tohru got her onto her back. She yanked the blanket up over them as camouflage.
For a moment, they just gazed at each other. The light was nothing but a dim, warm orange glow, muted by the blanket. But they knew each other’s faces so well that they hardly needed to see.
“You asked me to stay with you forever, remember?” asked Tohru softly.
“I wouldn’t forget something like that.”
“But let’s mark the time anyway. One more year out of forever.”
Still blushing, still nervous, Kobayashi finally smiled. “Tohru, you’re a goofball.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”