Prompt: 040 ~ Kiss                                                                                                                                                                            May 2011©
Fandom: Antic Cafe
Focus: Miku x Riri
Word Count: 848

            The quiet moment backstage was tense in a way that none of the staff had ever felt before, not with An Café, at least. It was the day before a concert and the band was there mainly for equipment checks. Their vocalist and tour add-on singer/roadie were rendered rather irrelevant by the situation and the pair had been sitting quietly, giggling over something or other on an iPhone’s tiny display, for about an hour when the staff noticed that something had changed.

            Rather than the quiet and calm the staff were used to feeling in the bubble around Miku and Riri on days like this, the atmosphere was tense and confused.

            “Well, that was different,” Riri commented flatly, puzzled.

            Beside her, Miku shifted uncomfortably. He’d known it had been different, he’d intended it to be different. But he hadn’t known Riri would comment on it so directly; though he should have, considering that it was Riri he was talking about. Even so, Miku wasn’t about to simply come clean with it all.

            “What are you talking about? We’ve kissed a thousand times before,” he mentioned. “Hell, we’ve kissed a dozen times today!”

            Riri nodded slowly. Their backstage fanservice was a huge hit with the fans, and by now it was so ordinary to them that it was a stranger feeling to not kiss a few times every hour or so. But Riri was adamant, “Well, that one was different.”

            She didn’t quite understand it. She’d been friends with Miku for so long now; she’d been a roadie with An Café from the beginning, and now she was something of a permanent fixture within the band itself. Riri didn’t understand why she was suddenly feeling all bothered and tingly, it was like the excitement she felt when she was about to go off with Miku on an unauthorized exploratory mission of the deepest level of the sub-stage . . . only without the adventure part. This was just a regular, boring, afternoon, and yet her heart was fluttering high in her throat and her head was buzzing with anxiety like she was standing back stage before a show and the lights had just gone up.

            Sharing a couch on an afternoon, giggling over funny pictures or stupid videos, turning in for a kiss every time a camera pointed in their direction . . . it was all so typical for Miku and Riri. Miku had already kissed Riri a few times that day, as his normal goofy self. He’d kissed her nose, and her ear, and her forehead, and her lips; and then he’d kissed her.

            Onstage, offstage; their fanservice was some of the most consistent and intense in the industry, even as it wasn’t the slightest bit lewd. Riri should have been completely used to kissing Miku, in every way. But this time it had been different.

            This time Miku had seen a chance to pretend for a few moments that it was all real, that it wasn’t just fanservice anymore. He’d heard stories of successful relationships in the business that had started out as fanservice and then changed into something more. He’d wanted it, and for just a second he pretended he had it. And now here he was trying not to implode under Riri’s intense and confused stare.

            He couldn’t just sit by as Riri questioned the feeling. Miku wanted more than anything to avoid making her feel awkward around him in even the slightest way. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if she grew even more distant from him because he’d taken a second to pretend she was close.

            At the same time, he couldn’t apologize. If he admitted that he knew this kiss wasn’t like normal ones, that he knew why it wasn’t the same, he may as well simply admit that he had feelings for Riri. It would come out with the explanation; there would be no avoiding it anymore. All the reasons he had for not telling her kept him silent on apologizing, particularly the fear that it would drive her away.

            That only left him with one option to fix things. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down quickly, Miku leaned in abruptly for another kiss. He lingered just as he had before, but it was the detached sort of pause he took on stage rather than the sentimental one he’d taken only moments ago. Pulling back a few inches, Miku gave Riri a quizzical look. “How was that? Still weird?”

            Riri frowned, more confused than ever. “No, that one felt normal.”

            “Maybe you’re just getting sick or something,” Miku replied with a shrug. “If you give me a cold, I’m never kissing you again.”

            This at last got Riri to smile. “If you never kiss me again, Cafekko will riot,” she said, laughing. She brushed aside all of her concerns about the strangeness of the kiss. She was always happiest when she was with Miku; nothing else mattered to her when they were together. If something about that changed, she wasn’t sure she could take it. Right now she was with Miku, and nothing else, not even the strange kiss that made her stomach do giddy flips, mattered to her.

                                                                        ♡♥Finite♥♡