“That’s the stream everyone! Gotta cut it early, Queen and I have somewhere to be!”
Mint took her headset off and placed it on the table, running her hands through her hair. It always got messy when she was wearing it. The stream was good — it was a Tuesday, meaning it was quiet enough that Aprajita and Bubblegum didn’t have to stick around and moderate. And the game she was playing was pretty fun too. But, real life called, and she had to answer.
Mint leapt from her gaming chair, grabbed a nearby brush, and bounced lightly out of her room and across her house’s wooden panels. Her socks masked her sound. Good — she wanted to initiate a surprise attack.
The girl turned left at the end of the hallway and stopped outside the door. Queen, Mint’s girlfriend, could be heard inside, lightly strumming her guitar. Though she wasn’t inside, Mint could picture her face: pink hair masking her eyes, which were probably furrowed in concentration as she moved from one chord to another.
Sun filtered past the awning and through the window, warming Mint’s face. She smiled, turning to open the door to the studio slowly so as to not let it creak. Queen’s back was turned. She crept up on the girl, before letting out a bellow.
“Queen!”
The taller girl leapt off of the stool she was playing on, nearly dropping her guitar. She whirled at Mint.
“What?” she asked, concern written on her face. Mint almost felt bad for teasing her girlfriend, but it was too easy not to. She turned away from Queen, running her fingers through her green locks in a dramatic flourish.
“Brush my hair!” she commanded.
Queen sighed, letting her shoulders relax.
“Hell Mint, I thought someone broke into the place! You almost gave me a heart-attack. What if I dropped my guitar?”
“I wooooould buy you another one?” Mint asked. Queen sighed yet again. She sighed pretty often around Mint.
“Right. Can’t argue with that I guess.” She threw a hand out, gesturing at Mint’s brush in defeat.
“Get over here,” Queen said. Mint hopped over to the girl and sat on the floor, crossing her legs while Queen got back on her stool and began to brush. The girls sat in silence for a moment as Queen settled into a rhythm going through Mint’s sea of hair with the brush.
Mint’s eyes were shut in relaxation when she heard Queen begin to hum. It was the same few chords from before. She opened her eyes to look up at Queen, lost in thought. Mint smiled. Queen eventually noticed, blushing a deep crimson.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re cute when you get so into your work.”
“O-oh.”
“Is this for the next album?”
“Maybe. I’m trying to figure out the mid-section but I can’t seem to get it down.”
Mint stuck a hand out towards nothing in particular.
“Let me hear it tomorrow. Maybe I can help.”
“Alright.”
The pair sat in silence for a moment longer. Mint tapped on Queen’s knee.
“Have you thought about what you’re wearing tonight?” she asked. Queen looked away.
“I kinda thought…I wouldn’t have to go.”
“What!?”
Mint leapt to the air, nearly knocking Queen on the chin as she did so. She flipped around to look at her girlfriend, hands planted firmly on her hips.
“You have to go! I’m presenting an award! And it might be to Miku!”
Queen’s exasperation was palpable. “I know, I know, I just…”
Mint’s expression softened. She lightly lifted Queen’s chin up with a finger, who had resorted to staring at the floor.
“Just what?” she asked.
“I wanted…to wear…a suit.” Queen could barely get the words out. Mint tilted her head.
“That’s it?” she asked, puzzled. Queen ran a hand through the shaved half of her hair.
“Agh, see, I knew you wouldn’t get it!”
“Get what? You gotta tell me Queen!”
“I just…I feel like it’d be embarrassing, you know? But I don’t wanna wear a dress. I want to wear a suit. But no one’s ever seen me in formal clothes before. Just my usual punk stuff. What do they think I’m gonna wear? What do they think I should wear? What if people think I’m weird?”
Mint interrupted Queen’s rambling. She grabbed the girl’s hand and yanked her to her feet.
“Wha–“
“Come with me.”
Mint sped out of the room, nearly yanking Queen’s arm off as they half-walked, half ran to their shared room. She directed Queen to the dresser on the far wall and yanked it open. It was mostly filled with Queen’s things — Mint still grabbed most of her clothes out of her suitcase, since she was too lazy to hang them up after the girls had moved in together.
Mint pointed at the dresser.
“Where is it?”
Queen stared at the dresser, mouth open as if she were about to say something. She looked at Mint, then back at the dresser again. Mint crossed her arms.
“You must have it, if you wanted to wear it, right?”
Queen nodded. She pulled out a black bag that was hanging in the middle of the dresser.
“Put it on,” Mint said.
“What!?”
Mint tapped at her ear. “Huh. I didn’t think I was wearing my headset,” the girl said. “So there’s no audio feedback. Which means I definitely was clear in what I said. Put it on!”
“A-alright.”
Queen went to the bathroom to change. Mint rolled her eyes.
“She knows I’ve seen her undress, and that I’ve undressed her myself, right?” she asked the room’s dead air. It didn’t respond, leaving Mint to huff alone.
She waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, before she thought to go and find the girl herself, Queen came back into the bedroom, dressed in a sharp white tuxedo.
“Sorry,” she said, giving a sheepish grin. “I had to talk myself out of the bathroom. Uh…Mint?”
Mint seemed to have short-circuited. She was, at the very least, speechless. She took a few steps forward, until she was face-to-face with Queen, and reached out to touch one of the suit’s buttons.
“It’s too much, isn’t it?” Queen said, her worst fears realized. “It’s –“
“It’s hot.”
“It’s what?” Queen sputtered.
“It’s. Hot.” Mint looked up to lock eyes with the girl, before getting on her tip-toes to kiss Queen. When Mint backed away, Queen was just as speechless as Mint was moments before.
“Uh, that was nice,” she finally managed to say. “You really like it?”
“Queenie,” Mint said, using the girl’s pet name. “The only thing stopping me tearing that thing off of you is the fact that it’d be a pain to get ready for the Award Show a second time.”
“Wow. You really like it.”
Mint smoothed her skirt down, seemingly more composed. “Sure I do Queen, but do you? It’s your opinion that matters. I don’t want to pull you one way or the other, I just want you to be comfortable. And happy.”
Queen examined the suit on her body again. “I feel…good,” she said. “But I’m still really nervous. I mean, you know me Minty. Big changes, big anxiety.” The girl let out a short laugh.
Mint had a hand under her chin. She wasn’t looking at Queen at all anymore, but rather the wall behind her — or, perhaps even further. Queen knew that when this was happening, it meant the girl was going into overdrive. Finally, her eyes lit up.
“Don’t go anywhere,” she said, before running out of the bedroom. She turned to poke her head back in.
“I mean, get ready to go, but don’t go anywhere!” she said. “And keep the suit on!” she added as she ran out of the house.
It was two hours until Mint returned, and when she did, she shooed Queen away from her. “Don’t look at me!” she shouted as she ran down the opposite end of the hallway and into the bathroom. Queen watched her zoom past.
“Are we…are we still going to the show?” she asked, confused. Mint didn’t answer.
More time passed. Queen looked at her watch. She knocked on the bathroom door.
“Hey, it’s almost time to go, but, I don’t think I’ll–“
The girl was interrupted by the bathroom door swinging open. Mint stood in front of her girlfriend wearing her own suit, cut slightly differently at the cuffs. She twirled for Queen, before ending with a pose.
“Well? How do I look?” she asked her girlfriend, winking.
It was Queen’s turn to short-circuit. She was beet-red this time around.
Mint continued, seeing as her girlfriend was verbally out of commission. “I didn’t want you to be nervous, so I figured, why don’t we match? I wasn’t sure at first, but I think I cut a pretty good figure in a suit, don’t you?”
Queen steadied herself on the bathroom door.
“Yes,” she said simply.
“So, you’ll go?”
“Yes.”
“In the suit?”
“Yes.”
Mint clapped her hands together.
“Great!” she said. And she meant it.
They were finally ready to go. The two girls stood at the front door, putting their dress shoes on. Queen mumbled something, but Mint couldn’t quite hear it.
“Huh? What?” she asked, leaning forward to hear her. Queen looked away before repeating herself.
“I said, ‘what did I do to deserve such a good girlfriend.'”
Mint’s eyes widened. She stared at Queen for a second, before finally speaking.
“I mean, if you got a girl like me, you’re probably not too shabby yourself, right?”
Mint reached up to kiss the girl again, before the two went on their way.
