Maki looked at the clothes scattered across her room. Why did I agree to this anways? Looking at her phone she sighed. Nico was supposed to come to her house at 4:00, leaving her with half an hour to make herself presentable.

It doesn't matter, it's not a real date anyways. Although Maki told herself this, she couldn't help but feel her heart beat faster in her chest. She had been looking forward meeting up with Nico ever since Nico had asked her to spend Valentine's day with her. Maki didn't want to get her hopes up over it, but she could never control her emotions when it came to Nico.

Maki groaned in frustration as she threw the skirt she held at the closet. Taking a few deep breaths, she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. At least I can decide on what toothpaste to use, she chuckled to herself.

After finishing in the bathroom, she found herself in front of her closet again. Quickly glancing at her phone, her face paled. Have I really spent that long choosing an outfit? Maki grabbed the closest skirt and blouse to her and changed into them. Running over to the bathroom mirror, she went over her hair one last time. I guess this will have to do, she sighed.

"You ready to go?" Nico giggled.

"Yeah, lead the way," Maki smiled as she stepped outside. She locked the door before following Nico to the street.

Maki stared at Nico's back as she followed her. Nico was wearing a brown skirt with a filly white blouse, with a short dark pink poncho over top to keep herself warm. She's so pretty in that, Maki thought before looking down at her plaid grey skirt. I should have worn my purple one instead.

"You okay Maki? You seem kind of lost in your own world."

"It's fine," Maki reassured. "Just thinking that I should have worn my purple skirt instead…" she drifted off.

"Is that all?" Nico giggled. "You look fine. That red shawl goes good with your hair by the way."

Maki looked away and twirled her hair at Nico's comment. Before Maki could think up a retort, a gust of wind blew by, causing Maki to hug her shawl to her body.

"Bah! Okay Maki, let's hurry up and get to that café. Nozomi told me it has some really good parfaits," Nico said.

"You're leading us, not me. If we freeze to death out here it's your fault," Maki said before slapping herself internally. Why would I say that? Every time something like this happens I always say something stupid.

To Maki's relief, Nico didn't acknowledge Maki's jeer but grabbed her hand and started jogging. This caused a tingling sensation to shoot up Maki's arm. So warm, she thought, before shaking her head to clear her thoughts. She's just doing it to bring me there faster, she doesn't mean anything by it.

Silence engulfed them on their way to the café. Maki used the time to try and get her thoughts sorted out. She loved Nico. She came to that realisation weeks ago when her Japanese teacher went on a tangent about love. Ever since then, she had started paying attention to her feelings to try and deny it. No matter how hard she tried and what explanations she thought up of, it always led back to her have feelings for Nico. This culminated three days ago when Nico had asked her to spend Valentine's day together. Maki had immediately agreed to it before she could process what Nico had asked, but by then it was too late to take back her words.

Why did I agree to spend Valentine's day with her? No matter how nice today turns out, I'm only going to get hurt from it.

"We're here!" Nico cheered, breaking Maki out of her thoughts. Before Maki could respond, Nico started pulling her into the café.

Maki looked around eyeing all the Valentine's day decorations around her. Upon further inspection, she noticed all the tables sat two people each. "Hey Nico, isn't this a couple's café?"

"Yup, only the best for my sweet little tomato," Nico teased before looking around. "Ah there it is!" she exclaimed while pointing at a table off in the corner. "That's the table that I reserved. Go grab a seat while I check in."

What does she mean reserved? Maki walked over and took a seat, smoothing out her skirt and pulling at her sleeves uncomfortably. "Why would she go through all this effort? She muttered to herself.

"And I'm back," Nico smiled while setting down two cups of hot chocolate. Nico sat down in her chair and smiled while folding her hands and placing her chin on them. "How has Maki's day been today?" she asked cheerfully.

"It's been good. I wish it was a little warmer though."

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "But now you have me to warm you up with my Nico love! I bet you've been looking forward to today."

"pfft, as if," Maki blurted, before shutting her mouth. She felt her heart drop as a frown formed on Nico's face, before quickly being replaced with a smile.

"No need to hide your true feelings, everyone loves Nico!"

Maki looked away and played with her shirt cuffs, unwilling to look Nico in the eye after her words. Maybe it's better if I don't say anything.

"Here's your order. I hope you two have a wonderful day," a young female server bowed before scurrying away to attend to other customers.

Maki raised an eyebrow at the pink parfait that was set in front of them. "I don't remember ordering anything…"

"I told you, I reserved a spot for us," Nico giggled. "I had to reserve a table and our orders ahead of time due to how busy they are on Valentine's day. I hope you enjoy it, because I'm eating this with or without you!"

Of course she is. Maki picked up a pink spoon with a heart at the end from her side of the parfait and examined it. It has our names engraved in the heart. Maki stared at her spoon before looking over at Nico. After a few spoonful's, Nico looked up at Maki.

"What?"

"N-Nothing," Maki stuttered before taking a large spoonful and stuffing in in her mouth. It's good.

Nico stared at Maki questioningly before examining her spoon. Nico began blushing after a few seconds and resumed eating.

She must have noticed our names.

Their shared parfait disappeared quickly, with few words exchanged between the two girls. After finishing, Nico got up and excused herself to go to the washroom before leaving. Maki silently pocketed her spoon, feeling the cool metal against her fingers as she did so. I wonder if she kept hers, she wondered, noticing that Nico's spoon was nowhere to be seen. Once Nico came back, they left the café together.

"So-"

"Let's go for a walk," Nico interrupted.

"Sure, the wind has died down so it shouldn't be too cold," Maki agreed.

They walked in silence, enjoying the fresh air. Maki glanced at Nico's hand secretly, wishing that she could gather the courage to reach out and take hold of it. Would she even want that? She asked herself.

"Those spoons had our names engraved on them, did you notice?" Nico asked.

"Umm," Maki tried to think of a good answer. If she said she noticed, would Nico ask her what she thought? On the other hand, what would Nico think of her if she didn't notice something like that.

"By the blush on your face, I'll take that as a yes?" Nico asked, although Maki thought she sensed something in Nico's voice.

"Y-Yeah, I wonder how they did that."

"Yeah, pretty amazing huh?" Nico said with a hint of something Maki couldn't identify lingering in her voice.

Maki looked at the trees, wondering what it would be like to hold Nico's hand and walk down the path when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

"So, does Maki like anyone?"

"Where did that come from?" Maki choked.

"Well, it is Valentine's day. It's not that weird of a question for today, is it?" Nico chuckled.

"What about you? Is there someone you like?"

"Yeah, you could say that," said wistfully.

Oh, Maki thought, feeling her heart drop to her stomach. "They're pretty lucky then. I hope they like you to," Maki said, feeling tears threatening to spill. Quickly taking a breath to calm herself, she continued. "You should have asked them to spend today with you instead of me, it would have been the perfect day to tell them."

"Yeah," Nico said gloomily.

"What's wrong?"

"You seriously haven't noticed, have you?"

"Huh?" Maki asked perplexed.

"Asking you to spend Valentine's day with me, taking you to the couple's café, holding your hand on the way there," Nico giggled to herself gloomily, "they even had our names engraved on those spoons. You have to specifically request that you know?" Nico shook her head. I really thought you would've noticed by now.

"I don't understand," Maki whispered, "do you mean you like-"

"You, I like you." Nico said while staring Maki in the eyes. "I've liked you for a while now. I got my hopes up because you agreed to spend today with me. Of course, I never clarified what kind of a date it was just in case, but it still hurts that you didn't even notice."

Maki felt tears starting to fall from her eyes. She couldn't believe her ears. Not even in her wildest dreams did she think Nico would actually like her, and to tell her on Valentine's day no less.

"I don't blame you for not noticing though. I could probably have made it more obvious but-"

Maki didn't give Nico time to finish before pressing her lips against Nico's, letting all her feelings that she couldn't put into words flow into Nico. Nico stiffened against Maki before relaxing into Maki's embrace, wrapping her arms around Maki. They stayed like that for a minute before breaking apart.

"Wow," Nico exclaimed, "that was unexpected."

"I didn't want to get my hopes up about this, so I never said anything. To hear that you actually like me made me so-" Maki said before being cut off by Nico's lips on hers again.

"Less talking, more kissing."

Maki couldn't agree more, tightening her embrace on Nico.

They stayed embraced in each others arms for a few minutes until Nico spoke up. "Hey, my mama got off work early and is taking my siblings to a restaurant today. Did you want to come back to my place for dinner. I can make something good."

"Sure," Maki smiled warmly at Nico. "I can't wait to try your cooking," she said before taking Nico's hand.

If I only knew taking her hand would be this easy, I would have done it earlier.

Unbeknownst to Maki, Nico was thinking the same thing.

Author's Note:

I actually got this done in time for Valentine's day! I hope you all enjoyed this. Hopefully I can get some more nicomaki stories up, but this will have to do for now. This is my first time writing in third person (and only my second story), so let me know if there are any errors. Until next time.