november yumary otp prompt challenge!

bitter

"Someone's looking a little bitter," Yumeko teased as she weaved through the desks and toward Mary.

Huffing, she threw a twin-tail over her shoulder: "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really?" Yumeko tilted her head in disbelief. She leaned on Mary's desk. "Ryota said you murdered him three times just by the way you're looking at him."

Mary scoffed, beginning to pack up her bag. "He's scared of his own shadow. No doubt he would freak out if I glanced in his direction weird."

"So you're not denying staring him down?"

"I was pretty deep in thought, so if I did I didn't mean to," Mary was being very short, so of course, Yumeko didn't believe a word she said.

"What's on your mind?" Yumeko used her arms to push her back onto Mary's desk completely. "I wanna know if it's upsetting you so much."

Mary wouldn't meet her gaze. The storm cloud obviously rained pretty heavy on her head, deflating her usually confident posture.

"What are friends for?" Yumeko added for a little push. It was cruel even touching their weird "more than friends less than lovers" situation going on, especially now, but if Yumeko's hunch was correct, she needed to agitate her a little bit.

And it worked. Something snapped behind Mary's eyes when she looked back up at Yumeko. A menaced hum was buried behind a frown. "What's up with you and Ryota?"

She had to swallow the bitter pill for them to get anywhere, and it worked. "What do you mean?" Yumeko asked innocently.

"Is there anything going on with you and Ryota?" Mary asked a bit sterner.

"Other than the fact that we're great friends?" Yumeko clarified, just to draw it out. "Why would think otherwise?"

Mary looked like she was about to explode, but she took a heavy breath and mumbled, "He doesn't look at you like it."

"Oh? I never thought so. He told me that I'm the first real friend he's had in a while, and that sounds pretty friendly to me. Even if he did, why would you care?" Yumeko felt kind of bad forcing the truth out of her, but if they were ever going to be in a relationship that isn't platonic, they needed to be honest with each other.

"I-" Mary cast her gaze back to the ground. "I wouldn't like him looking at you like that."

"Why?"

"Ugh, because I'm jealous," Mary gave up.

"Now was that so hard to say?" Yumeko's heart warmed at the thought of Mary getting worked up about being jealous.

"You'd be surprised."

"I'm glad you said it eventually. I like it when you're honest with me," Yumeko smiled genuinely, meeting golden eyes once again.

Mary was speechless as they just studied each other. A grin threatened to break the thin line her mouth created. "Am I being ridiculous?" Mary seemed to relax.

"Ridiculous? No, absolutely not. But you kinda jumped to conclusions too quickly, and then wouldn't tell me the basis of them." Yumeko confessed evenly. "See, now that you've gotten it out of your system, don't you feel so much better?"

"Yeah, I guess. As long as I know there's nothing to worry about."

"No, there's not. I'm unofficially yours until further notice," and sometimes it was easier to keep it that way. Neither of them needed a definite label for whatever this was, and they were more than fine with that.

"Sure, Yumeko," Mary rolled her eyes and picked up her bag. "Alright, well, I'm heading out," she slid from out of her chair and started toward the door.

"Aww, wait for me!"