Very quick Valentine's one shot for everybody! I'll continue with my multi-chap soon!

Death by Pretty Hair

A quick glance in the mirror as the girl scrutinized herself. Ribbon? In place. Uniform? As well made as it could be. She breathed deeply. This was it. She was going to confess to her best friend today. Nothing would be the same once she walked outside her home. She was frightened, but she was also excited. She prayed her plan worked out for the best. She didn't know what she would do if her love was unrequited, and she didn't even want to think what would happen if their friendship was affected by her feelings.

She walked out her home, silently steeling herself for the emotional rollercoaster that was to come. As she arrived at the school, she immediately headed for the room she knew her love would be in. She breathed deeply for the umpteenth time that morning, preparing herself to look into the eyes of the girl she would confess to that day. She stopped in front of the door to the Student Council Room and sent a silent prayer to whoever would listen before she opened the door.

"Ohayo-"

Dear. God. She did not expect this.

"Ohayo, Elicchi."

Nozomi looked up from the Student Council work she had begun, turquoise eyes looking questioningly at Eli's shock.

"Is something bothering you?"

"N-No..." The blonde took a deep breath to steady her nerves and took a seat at her usual spot at the head of the table. She tried to keep her eyes on her paperwork, she really did. But the other girl was just too distracting. Crystal blue eyes flickered up every few seconds to marvel at the spiritual girl's beauty.

"Something on my face?" Nozomi noticed the fervent looks sent her way, and Eli fought down a blush at being caught.

"Hm?! Oh, uh... no..." Eli cursed herself inwardly for being so obvious. Can't let her know until I tell her after school!

But... it was so hard. Nozomi was naturally a very pretty girl, something Eli noticed at least a few times everyday. Still, Nozomi looked different today, and the quarter Russian knew exactly why.

"Oh? Is it possible Elicchi noticed what I changed today?"

Eli gulped. She always knew Nozomi would be the death of her. Of course, she had assumed it would be the violet haired girl's teasing or "washi washi", but apparently that was not the case. What was that saying? "Expect the unexpected"? Well, that applied just beautifully here.

Still, though, how was she supposed to expect that, of all things that would end her existence, it would be Nozomi's hair?

Eli was used to the low ponytails the busty girl was prone to wearing, but occasionally, Nozomi would change it up. During their first performance of Snow Halation, for example. Granted, the song had basically been written solely for her, so it would make sense for the shrine maiden to do something special for the performance, but still, it had been distracting for the blonde.

Standing on stage, singing and dancing had never been more difficult for Eli than it was on that day. Her eyes would always lock onto Nozomi's braid, and her breath would catch at just how beautiful her love looked with her hair like that. Somehow, she finished the performance without noticeably stumbling or messing up, something she was very thankful for.

Thinking back to the day made her blush, because she simply thought it was impossible for anybody to look nearly as pretty as Nozomi did once she had her hair braided.

And on this day, the day where Eli had a bag of specially made chocolates, the day where Eli had meticulously planned out everything, Nozomi decided it was a good idea to braid her hair, thereby distracting the blonde unlike anything else, and threatening to make her into a stuttering mess in the middle of her confession.

Eli vaguely listened as the shrine maiden described how long it had taken her to form the braids, and giggled when the other girl told her how she had almost fallen asleep in the middle of it all because she had had to wake up early to make the braids. Inwardly, however, she was trying to balance her anxiety about the upcoming confession with her silent squeals over how cute her best friend was.

'No! I have to carry through with this plan! Umi and Maki didn't put off Soldier Game practice to help me set this up for nothing!' Eli steeled her resolve and assured herself that she would do what she had been dreading for the past few days.

The bell rang, signalling the end of classes for the day. Eli suppressed a scream.

"Elicchi?" Her best friend cocked her head in confusion when the blonde failed to stand up after the rest of the class had filed out.

"A-ah... yeah." Eli was internally losing her mind. This was it. It was now or never.

"Nozomi!"

Said girl jumped in surprise. "Elicchi? There's no need to shout, you know, I'm right next to you..."

The blonde blushed. "Gomen, gomen. But... ah..."

Again, the spiritual girl looked at Eli in confusion. "Elicchi?"

Eli decided speaking wouldn't work. Especially not once she (again) noticed the braid that Nozomi's hair was in. The quarter Russian grabbed her best friend's hand and walked out of the room swiftly, opting to wave away Nozomi's questions for the time being.

The two third years walked out into the courtyard of their school. Eli led them both to a very specific corner of the courtyard, let go of Nozomi's hand and let out a deep breath. She looked deep into the other girl's eyes.

"Nozomi. I... ever since I first met you... I thought you were amazing..."

Nozomi's eyes widened in surprise. "Elicchi-"

"Please... let me finish." Another deep breath, then she continued. "Even when I tried to keep myself distant from everybody else, you wanted to be my friend. Whenever I push myself too hard, you're always there to take care of me. When I wanted to give up on my dancing..."

A tear was wiped away quickly. "You got all of µ's to convince me to join. You've supported me through all of the things I've been through since I came to this school. I don't think I could ever fail as long as I have you by my side."

"Elicchi... why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because... I love you."

Nozomi's eyes widened in surprise. Eli inwardly high fived herself for getting through that part of the confession.

"And..." Eli reached into the flower pot behind her, which Nozomi just realized carried a bundle of roses, which just so happened to be in perfect arrangement- oh.

Eli easily took the roses out of the flower pot, revealing them to be florist-bought flowers that had been put into a flower pot (by Umi, who had been roped into helping the blonde with her confession). Eli shook the dirt of the flowers gently, then took the bag of chocolates she had made out of her school bag.

Nozomi's jaw dropped at the planning Eli must have put into this confession.

"These are for you." Eli smiled warmly at the other girl.

"Elicchi..." Nozomi, stunned, simply took the gifts that were gently put into her hands.

"You're also-" And then it happened. Eli's eyes strayed from their position on the other girl's eyes, and traitorously moved to her violet hair. No!

Eli immediately became a stuttering, blushing, gay mess. "U-um, w-what I meant to say was... uh. You're a-also v-very- um."

Nozomi seemed confused. "...Elicchi?"

"You're... uh."

Nozomi seemed to understand, and she giggled lightly. "Ah... Elicchi is distracted by my hair today, I see~"

"Mou! Nozomi! Let me finish!"

Nozomi lightly put her hand on her mouth. "But how will Elicchi finish if she can't speak?"

Eli's blush deepened. "Nozomiiiiiii!"

Said shrine maiden giggled. "Elicchi's so flustered! How cute!"

The ballerina puffed out her cheeks in irritation. "Nozomi! C-Can I just... have your answer?"

Turquoise eyes sobered up easily. "Elicchi, do you really need to ask?"

Eli was surprised by the sudden hug Nozomi had enveloped her with. "Of course I love you!"

The rest of µ's cheered from the window next to the two third years. Even Umi seemed happy. Until Nozomi pressed a kiss onto Eli's lips, before deepening it, leaning Eli's back right onto the window the other girls were watching from. The cheering intensified (for some) and died immediately (for others).

Still, Eli couldn't bring herself to care that she was making out with her best friend right in front of her other friends. All that mattered right now was Nozomi, and the fact that she returned her feelings. And Nozomi's hair.

Omake:

"So, what I'm hearing is that, if I want this to happen more often, I should put my hair up some more."

Eli immediately blushed and nuzzled into Nozomi's neck. How one kiss in the school courtyard had ended in spending the night in Nozomi's bed, she would never know.

Yup, done! Wrote this in one day!