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imaginatorcreates · 10 months

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Part Of The One Percent

12 July 2023 — 12 July 2023

Summary: In which Jazz poses a question to Akemi.

Word Count: ~2.4k words

Author's Notes: Featuring my OCs in a D&D-esque world! They've been rotating in my brain for a while now. They're queerplatonic! Also, this was written with a burst of inspiration whilst I listened to various music. Also, not entirely edited because my brain is tired.

Love songs were surprisingly unrelatable, even now.

They always seemed to talk about beings getting physical, yearning, breaking up, and many other experiences that Jazz never really thought about. However, besides pop songs, they were always the most requested things whenever they asked for song requests to play on the radio within their school.

Actually, love pop songs were the most requested things. There was a specific distinction between the two. Pop songs were catchy and peppy, while love songs talked about the aforementioned things they just listed. Love pop songs were popular love songs.

Would someone call Jazz a hypocrite for still finding most love pop songs unrelatable? Would someone who had known them for long enough to hear them complain about “yet another love song” now scoff if they saw their current circumstances?

Oh, perhaps. But that was because the entire situation just looked so…romantically domestic.

It wasn’t. Promise.

It was domestic, yes. But not romantic.

“Okay, but you and the Bellamy girl are just so cute together,” one of their teammates commented offhandedly as she held a refined magical ore up to her eye to check it for imperfections. A single, incorrectly cut facet resulted in the frequencies not traveling correctly, which led to the entire radio receiving and sending nothing but static. “You two have at least kissed, right?”

Jazz cleared their throat as they fiddled with the wires on the upcoming radio prototype. A larger version, one with bigger speakers and improved bass pickup. “No, we haven’t. We’re content with what we have, and there’s no reason to do anything we aren’t comfortable with.”

She blew a raspberry. “Boo! So you two have been dating — ”

“Not exactly dating…”

“ — for what? A month now? And you two haven’t even kissed?” She groaned and waggled a finger at them. “It took my partner and I only a week and a half before we shared our first kiss under the sunset!” She sighed as she added, “It was so — ”

“Romantic, yeah yeah.” Jazz swiped the magical ore from her hand and gently placed it in its slot within the radio prototype. “I told you, we aren’t like that.”

She let out a huff. “You two are so confusing.”

“Thank you dear,” Jazz shot back. “I appreciate it.”

However, she didn’t seem satisfied with letting the topic go just yet. “Okay, but have you even thought about it?”

“Thought about what?”

“You know.” She pursed her lips together as she said, “Kissing her.”

Jaz hummed as they fiddled with the wires again, neither a direct yes or no. Truth be told — and they never shared this with anyone, not even behind their confident persona on the radio — they have thought about it. Fleeting thoughts with seemingly no pattern behind them.

Sometimes, they would be studying together into the early hours of morning, and when Akemi thought Jazz wasn’t looking (oh, but they were), she would nod off. “I’m just resting my eyes,” she would say every time. And every time, she would never wake up from resting her eyes. Jazz would restrain themself from reaching over, tucking her hair behind one of her pierced ears, and planting a quick kiss to her forehead.

Other times, they would be bouncing ideas off each other, with Akemi’s getting more and more extravagant and otherworldly. As she would wave her hands around, her voice getting more animated as she would add in a few sound effects for emphasis, Jazz would only watch her with a soft smile. Once or twice, they would think about reaching up to gently take one of her hands and bringing it up to —

“Ah-ha!”

Jazz jumped a bit as they looked up from their work on the wires.

Their teammate’s face had a triumphant grin on it. “So you do think about kissing her sometimes! I knew you had some sort of romantic bone in you!”

“Rude assumption,” Jazz grumbled, turning their gaze back to the wires. “As if you can tell me that with such confidence.”

“But you do, don’t you?” She leaned over the table and tried to meet the other’s gaze. “Hey! I’ll drop the topic if you answer me!”

“You’ll accuse me of lying if I say no, so you’ll never settle for an answer other than ‘yes’.” Jazz closed up the prototype radio and stood up, doing their best to not let their face be noticed by their nosy teammate. “So I’ll leave it at that.”

They quickly left the room, but not before they heard their teammate shout, “I bet you do!”

What was wrong with the beings in this school?

------

“Hello — ! Oh!”

Jazz chuckled at Akemi’s surprised gasp as they dramatically draped themself on a free portion of her workbench. The blue-skinned being slowly sat up with a groan to properly look at Akemi. “Surprise,” they said with a dry tone.

“Hello!” Akemi giggled. “You wanna see me figure out some things for my next mecha?” She snapped her fingers as her green eyes lit up. “Oh! That rhymes! Kinda…”

“You’re a poet and you know it,” Jazz said back with a chuckle. “But I’d love to listen.”

Akemi grabbed some of her papers and rolled her chair closer to Jazz. She went on about her next idea, something about incorporating more stealth into the design. “Think ninja, yeah?” she said. “Except it’s gotta be durable. Sleek and functional of course. I can’t risk my poor baby being dented from everyday use either!”

Jazz let out a laugh. “Your baby?”

Akemi playfully stuck out her tongue. “Of course! They’re my children! I made them with hard work and my own two hands! Spells included.” She winked and shook a finger at them. “Don’t I have the right to call them my children? Isn’t it also an adorable nickname for them?”

You’re adorable.

Of course, Jazz didn’t say this aloud. “It’s a funny nickname, that’s all” was what they said instead.

Akemi laughed. “Okay Jazzy, whatever you say about my babies,” she said as she spun in her chair.

“Emi, don’t say it like that! Just go back to calling them children, dear gods.” Jazz’s face crinkled up in mirth as they stuck their foot out to catch it on the armrest of Akemi’s chair.

The chair stopped and Akemi looked at them with a playful expression. She raised one of her brows and she propped up her head with her hand. “C’mon Jazzy, what’s wrong? Can’t stand to see me go around the world that is my chair without you? Or maybe you're thinking too much about me calling my creations ‘my babies’?”

Jazz shrugged. “Can’t I want to look you in the eyes when we talk?”

“Ah, touche partner,” Akemi shifted her position in her chair as she said this. “It’s still weird calling you that.”

Jazz felt their face start to warm a bit. “Partner? Why so?”

“It’s like…I can say it to you playfully. Partners in crime, dear Jazz and I!” She raised her hands and said, “Pew! Like that, you know?”

Jaz placed a hand over their chest and gasped. “Ah! Straight for the heart! Emi, how could you?”

“You know me!” Akemi brought her hands up to her mouth and blew on her fingers. She dropped her hands down to her lap as her tone shifted back into a serious one. “But if I were to call you ‘partner’, like in a more serious sense, it feels…off. You know?” She shrugged and looked away for a bit. “It’s like…this established thing we have now, it’s not the right word.”

Jazz hummed a bit and shook their head from side to side. “I can see it.” Their teammate’s words surfaced in their mind, but they pushed them down for now. “Partner sometimes does sound a bit strong, for now at least.”

“Oh? You like being referred to as my partner?” Akemi stood up from her chair and raised her hands up. “If that’s so, then it sounds less weird!”

“Wait, what?” Jazz sputtered.

“Exactly! It only felt off to me because I was like ‘Is this coming on a bit strong? Should I go with something else? Something fluffier and lighter? Like cupie? Like the letters ‘q’ and ‘p’ except spelled out in a haphazardly phonetic way!’” Akemi spread her hands out as she said ‘cupie’. “It’s a cute alternative to ‘partner’!”

“You’re cute.” Jazz covered their mouth as soon as the words slipped out. They slowly let their hand down. “I said that out loud.”

Akemi laughed, a light blush dusting her pink skin. “You’re cute! Adorable too.” She moved closer to Jazz and sat on the counter of her workbench. “You have a great mind, I love that too. Your voice! Exquisite. You’re a soothing person to be around Jazz.”

Oh dear gods. Jazz’s face only heated up more at these compliments that Akemi was dishing out. Their orange eyes moved away from her own eyes and they cleared their throat. “Well! You’re cute. Sweet. I love how excited you can be over your ideas. I love your music, and your theories about aliens.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I also think that — ” The words died in their throat. The words from their teammate resurfaced.

“Think what?” Akemi asked them. “C’mon! Don’t leave me hanging!” She leaned back on her hands as she grinned at her blushing partner. “Take your time, but please tell me.”

Jazz pressed their lips shut and willed themself to not break. They could bend, but they couldn’t break. “It’s nothing.”

“I want to hear what ‘nothing’ is.” Akemi leaned in towards them as she added, “I think it’ll sound interesting when it’s you talking about it.”

Focus!

Jazz looked around Akemi’s workshop. What could be the substituted “nothing”? Her mecha plans? Her empty glass bottles that they knew were previously filled with a bubbly and sweet drink?

Nothing. Nothing, except for what their teammate said earlier.

“What’s your opinion on kisses?”

Akemi hummed. “Kisses? Like what romantic partners do?”

“Yeah.” Jazz forced themself to look at Akemi. “What’s your opinion on them?”

Akemi shifted in her spot. Her blush seemed to have grown a bit. “I think they’re okay. But when tongue gets involved, like in some books? Eugh, that’s gross.”

Jazz snickered. “Exactly.”

“Why do you ask?”

Oh gods. Now came the follow-up questions. “Because…I was thinking of it earlier. A teammate was talking about it.”

Akemi’s mouth pursed into an ‘oh’. “So you were thinking about kisses?”

“Yes. Um…” Jazz focused their gaze on Akemi’s shoulder. “I was thinking. And I was wondering. Um, what are your thoughts on kisses for you?”

“Where?” Akemi asked, suspiciously quickly.

Jazz’s eyes flickered up to meet Akemi’s gaze. “Forehead. Cheeks. Maybe hands. I’m not opposed to suggestions, if you’re not. I know you have different experiences and boundaries and I don’t want to cross any of them…” Their voice trailed off as they felt their entire face heat up, extending past their face into their pointed ears. They dropped their gaze down to their lap.

“Well!” Akemi exclaimed after a few moments of silence. “I’m okay with those!”

A breath Jazz didn’t know they were holding escaped.

“But!” Akemi continued, “I would say ‘no’ to 95 percent of people!” From the corner of their eye, they saw Akemi move a bit closer to them. “And an even larger percentage, 99 percent, would be locked off from this!”

Her hand cupped their chin to turn it towards her as she crashed her lips to their own.

The improvised and sudden kiss wasn’t like anything described in books. Most kisses were described to be soft and gentle. This was a surprise. Their noses hit each other and the two separated with groans of pain as teeth accidentally grazed lips from the force that was incorrectly calculated.

Jaz rubbed their mouth and murmured, “Gods…! Emi! What…?”

Akemi’s face was alight with a blush as she confidently said, “You’re in the one percent Jazz.” Her smile was lopsided and her lower lip was bleeding. She licked it and winced at the taste. “Oh. Oops. That wasn’t…oops.”

Jazz felt a bubble of laughter start to build up in them. It slowly made its way to their throat and popped. It was a quiet laugh at first, but then it escalated into a boisterous one.

“Jazz! This isn’t funny!” Akemi reached over and lightly shook them by the shoulders. Her tone betrayed her joking manner. “My lip is bleeding! Oh wait, it stopped.”

“Sorry, sorry! I just…” Jazz let out one more laugh. “That was a disaster!”

Akemi laughed. “That was impulsive of me, sorry! I was just thinking a bit about it too.” Her fingers lightly tapped her previously-bleeding lip as she added, “What I said was true though. You could kiss me.”

Jazz gave her a soft smile as they leaned in a bit. “Let’s try again? Less force, hopefully no blood this time?”

Akemi playfully stuck her tongue out before she responded, “Fine. But only because you’re so persuasive.”

“You love me.”

“With reckless abandon.”

“Like you do with everyone?”

“You’re special.”

This time, it was calculated. It was gentle. Slow. Soft. Jazz felt Akemi’s mouth curve upwards into a smile, and they chuckled as they pulled away and rested their forehead to her own. Their horns lightly clicked against each other as they stayed like that for a bit.

“I’m in your special one percent, hmm?” Jazz asked after what felt like forever. Their voice dipped a bit into their broadcasting one. “You’re going to have to tell me more.”

Akemi chuckled. “I’m making it up as I go. I’ll tell you as I think of it. How’s that, my radio star?”

“I’ll wait for your intergalactic message, my alien.”

The two eventually broke their forehead touch. The rest of the time slowly passed as they talked about whatever came to mind. But this time, it was littered with more small things. Shoulder touches, interlocked pinkies. Forehead kisses. More forehead touches, and for longer.

Jazz wouldn’t be surprised if Akemi made a tune about this.

And they knew that she wouldn’t be surprised if they listened to it as much as they could.

#Ima Writes #writing #my writing #original writing #oc #queer #lgbtq+#queerplatonic #kisses #dnd #dungeons and dragons

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