˗ˏˋ embraced interests and presses of hearts'ˎ˗

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It's a little after two in the afternoon when Keerti hits 'pause' in the middle of their sixth episode of Love, Death + Robots and announces, "I crave ice cream."

Amoli raises her head from where it's resting right under Sakshi's shoulder just in time to catch Mahika throwing Keerti a mildly apologetic look. "You know I don't have any at home and ah, this was kind of spontaneous so I didn't—"

Keerti interrupts her with a forehead flick that echoes loud enough in the room to tell Amoli that it hurts, and says exasperatedly, "It's not that big of a deal, silly. We can just make a quick run down the store or something." When she stands up, though, Mahika does too, only to get another vexed look thrown her way. "Mahi. God. Seriously. Sit your ass down." Then she points at Sakshi after pulling her hair up in a quick ponytail and says, "You're coming with me."

"Okay!" Sakshi chirps in response and Amoli takes that as her cue to pull back and sit up straight, stretching her arms above her head and wincing at the newfound soreness in her neck.

"Guys, seriously, I can —" Mahika tries again, only for Sakshi to be the one to interrupt her this time.

"All these years of us spending more time in her house than our own, and she still treats us like guests." The words are directed at Keerti in a dramatic drawl, but they effectively make Mahika slump back down in a cross-legged position with a sheepish expression on her face. She looks up at Keerti with an exaggerated pout that makes her upper lip touch the tip of her nose, and it seems so unlike her, Amoli can't help but let a laugh slip past.

"Dude, it's okay to let us do stuff ourselves sometimes," Keerti says seriously. "Like, I know it goes against your mother hen nature or whatever, but we came here to give you company. Not for you to spoil us."

Mahika looks effectively chided, but she folds her arms across her chest like she doesn't know what to do with herself, still staring up at her friends with the same expression. Keerti stares her right back down, until Mahika breaks eye contact and slumps further. "Fine, whatever."

It's terribly endearing.

Sakshi seems to think the same as her, because she breathes out a laugh that drips with fondness, walking over to where Mahika's sitting with the sole purpose of taking her face between her hands and planting a loud kiss to Mahika's forehead.

When Mahika half squeaks, half laughs at the gesture, Amoli feels pure, unadulterated warmth bloom in her chest so quickly and with such intensity, it leaves her heart a little sore.

She has known them for a while now, but the way they've never been shy about the warm, genuine display of affection they share still surprises Amoli at times. One look at Keerti tells her that although she does not join in on the hugs, the half-smile on her face while she waits for Sakshi says more than enough about how she feels about them.

"We'll be right back," Sakshi announces, looping her arm around Keerti's. "Do you guys want anything else? Amo? What's your favorite flavor?"

Amoli shakes her head. "Ah, no, thank you. I actually don't like ice cream." When three pairs of eyes settle on her with different levels of surprise, she blinks and asks, "What?"

"Me neither," Mahika says with her thumb pointed in their direction,, and Amoli's lips twitch in amusement when she spots the insulted look on Sakshi's face. "That's why they're leaving me out."

"That's not why w—" Keerti starts, then stops herself with a sigh. She pulls Sakshi closer to the door. "Let's just go."

"Yeah, let's just leave these two to their joyless, ice-cream-less world."

Mahika breathes out a laugh through her nose and gives them a little wave that Amoli copies meekly.

"You guys can continue if you want," Keerti throws over her shoulder, referring to the show they have on pause. "Sak and I are always rewatching it anyway." Before they shut the door, Amoli hears the words, "With the number of times she's made me watch it with her, I'd say she has a problem, actually," and Sakshi's loud, offended 'Hey!'

Amoli doesn't know why she expects the atmosphere to grow awkward or tense the second they leave, but she barely keeps in the sigh of relief when it doesn't. Instead, Mahika chuckles to herself , probably over her friends' antics, and turns around to address Amoli with a warm smile that leaves Amoli's insides horridly gooey.

She leans back against the bed again. "You wanna find something else to watch? I don't want to go on with this one without them."

"Mhm," Amoli confirms with a shy nod and switches positions so she can be closer to the screen, lying on her stomach and propping her chin up in her palms. "Do you have anything in mind?" she asks, turning her head and surprising herself with how close her face is to Mahika's that way. She quickly turns back to look at the screen. "Um. I'm bad at picking. So."

They actually just end up scrolling through Netflix and talking about the shows they've already watched. The conversation flows smoother than Amoli would have ever expected, and she's pleasantly surprised when the two of them end up having a lot of favorite stuff in common.

"Oh, they put the Twilight movies on here," Mahika remarks absentmindedly. "About damn time."

"Wait, really? I love them."

Mahika chuckles. "Yeah, me too. They're dreadful."

"That's exactly why."

Mahika scrolls through the list to confirm that all five movies are there, and then hums to herself before turning to Amoli. If she's phased by the proximity, she doesn't say anything. "The four of us should have a marathon sometime. It'd be fun." She doesn't look away from her face after Amoli confirms the plan with a nod, though, and Amoli is left wondering what's going inside Mahika's head with a flurry of butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

"What?" Amoli asks, voice coming out softer than she had intended.

Mahika tilts her head and raises her shoulders in a mini-shrug. "Nothing." She looks back at the screen and begins scrolling through the website with much less purpose than before and Amoli could swear she sees her skin turn the slightest bit of pink. "We just... have a lot more in common than I thought."

Amoli's eyes fall on those tiny curls at the nape of Mahika's neck again, and she forces herself to tear her gaze away. Tries not to clear her throat to make sure her voice doesn't come out breathless. "I would be offended, but I was surprised too."

"Hm, we could have been friends after all."

"And when I suggested it, I was the bad guy." Amoli is glad. She's so, so glad that they've moved past that stage enough to be able to joke about it like this.

Mahika tilts her head back to rest it on the mattress, right beside where Amoli's elbow is supporting her weight and laughs. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath after, and Amoli steals a few more moments to just... look at her. "Isn't that kind of what we're doing right now, though?"

She's so beautiful, Amoli thinks, breath stuck in her throat and fingers curling into a fist under her chin. Mahika is all sharp features and soft words, and Amoli is beginning to think she could fall in love with contradictions if she allowed herself to.

"Are we?" she asks, managing to not evade Mahika's eyes when she opens them. "I thought we were in our 'getting to know each other' phase." There's a lilt of a smile on her lips by the end of that sentence, and Mahika matches it with her own.

She raises her head, but this time she turns around and folds her arms on the mattress, leaning into Amoli's space. "And what have you 'gotten to know' about me so far, hm?"

Amoli feels a bit dazed, but she stays rooted on her spot.

"That you're..." she starts, and this time she does clear her throat because of how low her voice comes out. "Brave." It's not what Amoli had meant to say, the words, That you're not just the prettiest but also the kindest person I know getting lost somewhere in the midst of her cowardice. Mahika looks appeased, though, and it's not like Amoli didn't mean what she did say. "And kind," she adds, blessed with the sight of the lightest of blushes on Mahika's cheeks.

She tilts her head to one side to take attention away from it, and the corners of her lips lift up barely in a smile. "Oh?"

Amoli copies the gesture. "Mhm. And the most hardworking person I know."

"I'm not sure how far flattery's going to get you, but anyways."

Amoli allows her smile to grow a little cheeky despite the rising heat on her face. "It's not flattery if you mean it."

Mahika rolls her eyes but her smile stays. "Whatever. Go on."

"You call it flattery and then ask for more. Make up your mind, Mahi."

Raising a sleek eyebrow almost as if in challenge, Mahika waits. When Amoli doesn't say anything else, she lets another small laugh slip past, shaking her head. "Well, if you're done with just that, I would like to recite my own list."

Amoli almost squeaks in surprise. "A list?"

"Oh, there are quite a few things that I've learned about you."

Internally panicking a little bit, Amoli rushes to say. "No, I'm not. Not done yet, I mean." She could note the exact second when amusement slips into Mahika's expression, and Amoli gets ready for a whole other round of being teased.

But Mahika just raises a hand in the universal 'go ahead' gesture and waits patiently.

A list, Amoli thinks hopelessly. What have I gotten myself into?

"I think..." she starts, mentally patting herself on the back for sounding far steadier than she feels. "It's almost an instinct for you to take care of everyone around you." Mahika's expression sobers up a little at that, and if Amoli isn't wrong she almost looks abashed. "And that you aren't... very good at letting other people do that for you in return."

Mahika averts her eyes for a second before looking back at Amoli, like she had done it out of habit but realized that she doesn't want to hide.

"You work really, really hard," Amoli continues, letting Mahika search her eyes for any hint of insincerity. Because she knows Mahika won't see it. There isn't any to find. "For everything. Everyone says you're an extremely private person, but I've never seen you not wear your heart on your sleeve."

The smile on Mahika's face is gone and now her lips are parted the slightest bit, her eyes fixated on Amoli unflinchingly.

"The way you carry yourself can seem intimidating but I've always admired how strong you are." Amoli is treading on untouched waters here, but she nervously reaches for Mahika's hand, reveling in the warmth of her skin and slowly bringing it up to her cheek. "You're... lovely. That's just. It's the only word that comes to mind. When I try to sum it all up."

Instead of pulling away like the scared part of Amoli had expected Mahika to do, the hand on her cheek adjusts more comfortably against the side of her face. The tip of her thumb brushes across Amoli's cheekbone in the most tender caress, and the rest of Mahika's hand settles on the sensitive spot under her ear.

The second her long, slender fingers brush the nape of Amoli's neck, she quivers.

Honestly, if anyone asked Amoli who it was that leaned in first, she wouldn't have an answer for them no matter how hard she tries to rack her brain for one. What she would have an answer to, though, is how it feels when Mahika's lips touch hers.

Like getting to finally reach the surface and taking a big gulp of air after being underwater too long.

Mahika's lips are just as soft as Amoli remembers from her alcohol-filled haze, her other hand reaching out to cup the left side of Amoli's face just like she had that night. Lovely, lovely, lovely, is all Amoli can think, because lovely is the way it feels to be held like this. To have Mahika's shaky exhale caress the tip of her nose when she pulls back after a kiss that's more a gentle press of hearts than anything else. To have their foreheads touch like it's the only thing grounding them.

Amoli didn't realize when she had closed her eyes, but she opens them when Mahika speaks.

"I think... another thing that you should probably know about me is that I've wanted to do that sober for an embarrassingly long time now."

Still reeling from the little kiss, Amoli can't quite bring herself to react to those words yet. And Mahika's eyes are flickering between Amoli's eyes and her lips, like she can't bring herself to decide what she wants to focus on more.

The decision seems to be made only a few ticking seconds after, because she exhales shakily and meets Amoli's eyes with a newfound vulnerability in her own. Asks, "Is there any chance that you would wake up tomorrow and regret this?"

Amoli doesn't even have to think before she shakes her head, the reminder of how she almost, almost messed this all up and there's a possibility that the two of them wouldn't be here if Mahika hadn't been the most patient person Amoli knows coming back to her with a sharp pang in her chest.

"No," she responds out loud for good measure. "Never. I didn't regret it before either. I never regretted it." When Mahika continues to stare at her like Amoli has already broken her heart once and holds the power to do it again, she says, "I promise, Mahi." Taking hold of Mahika's wrist and leaning into her touch, she whispers. "Please."

So Mahika kisses her again. Angles their faces better so their noses are slotted alongside each other's and there's no barrier between them when their lips touch again.

Their positions are a little awkward and Amoli has to tighten her fingers on the sheets so they won't tremble, but it's everything. This moment means everything to Amoli, all the way from Mahika pulling back for a split second only to press her lips against Amoli's cupid bow, to the softest sigh that leaves her mouth when Mahika does the same with her lower lip.

When Mahika lets their lips separate with a soft chuckle and distractedly whispers, "Baby..." Amoli is fucking gone. "We're doing this whole thing backwards again."

Then let's go on a date and bring it back on track, Amoli wants to quip, but all that leaves her mouth is a sound that she didn't even know she was capable of making. It takes her what seems like ages to open her eyes, and how ironic, she thinks, because she feels just as drunk as she did that night.

"Maybe it wasn't the alcohol." 

She hadn't meant to say it out loud. And when Mahika's eyes widen for a second as she processes the words before scrunching close with how hard she laughs, Amoli hangs her head in utter humiliation and buries her face against the mattress.

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a/n

i spent the Entire Day working on this chapter and i have zero regrets . that is all