"It's not that funny," Mahika repeats for the third time, but there's a fond smile on her face at the sound of uncontrollable giggles she hears from the phone sitting on her dressing table.

"I don't know, Mahi, your mom sounds like a pretty funny person to me."

Mahika pulls out a lavender-colored shirt from the closet and holds it in front of her body in the mirror to get a feel of how it would look. "I don't think giving me the birds and bees talk at twenty-three counts as funny, but good to know you think so," Mahika counters, entirely oblivious to the reason behind the sudden silence from Amoli's end.

"I already have a feeling that the two of you would get along very well." She goes back to rifling through her closet for bottoms to match. "You're both equally naggy, for one..."

When Amoli doesn't respond or react to the playful jab, Mahika tilts her head back and checks the phone screen to make sure there aren't any connectivity issues.

But Amoli's still there.

"What?" she asks, chuckling softly when she finds the other girl sitting at her desk with her chin propped up on her palm, looking into the camera with a small smile on her face.

"Nothing," When Mahika raises her eyebrows at the short response, Amoli silently averts her eyes and shakes her head.

"Well, I didn't call so you could sit back and admire me, Amo," Mahika teases, her grin widening when Amoli only responds with a half-hearted eye roll at the way Mahika points at the invisible watch on her wrist to exaggerate her point. "You're supposed to get dressed in like, an hour."

Amoli does get up at that, though, but not without another amused shake of her head. "What, with the camera on?" she throws over her shoulder, and Mahika hums and pulls a pair of white, floral shorts out of the drawer. "Bold."

"I mean... I have seen you naked."

There's a scoff from Amoli's end. "Shut up, Mahi," she says.

Mahika lets the corners of her lips pull back in a grin. "It's nothing I haven't seen in the mirror before -"

"Stop recycling my jokes!" Amoli calls from somewhere in her room, but Mahika can't see her in the frame so she assumes that she's looking through her closet as well. "And you said it was only through your peripheral vision, so it doesn't count."

"Booo."

Amoli's head - only her head - pops into the frame from the side again, the smile on her lips coy. "Yes, honey?"

Mahika gives her an unimpressed look and does not bother dignifying the words with a verbal response.

"Is a sundress okay?" Amoli asks, and Mahika can now hear the sounds of drawers opening and closing. "I want a hint." She appears back in the frame, a bunch of clothes draped across her forearm, and pout in place.

"I already told you to wear whatever you're comfortable in," Mahika says, and Amoli scrunches her nose and continues to stare at Mahika through the camera. "We're not doing anything fancy. Not this time, anyway."

Amoli lets out a huff and turns back around to disappear from the frame again. "Fine. Are heels okay? Or should I put on shoes?"

Mahika tilts her head to one side and thinks about it for a second. "Either works."

"Mahiii," Amoli whines, and Mahika can't help but laugh at her misery. "Can't you just tell me? Or show me what you're wearing."

"That's a bit forward of y-"

"I get really stressed about these things, so you better finish that sentence wisely."

Mahika swallows back the giggle threatening to leave her lips and clears her throat, grabbing the shirt again to show it to Amoli. "I'll just pair this with shorts and throw on some sneakers." When Amoli's pout doesn't go away, she continues, "I'm serious. Just wear whatever you'd be most comfy in, baby. We'll be walking a little, though, so maybe no heels, actually."

Amoli looks down at the layers of clothes on her arm and seems to come to a decision a few seconds later. "Okay." Mahika doesn't comment on the twin pink spots on Amoli's cheeks. She has a feeling she knows what made them appear.

"Make sure you grab something to cover up with, yeah? It might get a bit chilly later."

"Okay."

Sometimes, Mahika is still dumbstruck by how quickly Amoli gets flustered by terms of endearment and gestures that are as simple as having her hair tucked behind her ear, because this is the same girl that asked Mahika to forget slow, pressed kisses to all of the tiny freckles on her face, and then proceeded to make out with her for the next fifteen minutes.

"Okay," Mahika repeats, impossibly endeared. "I'll see you in a bit then?"

Amoli nods with a shy little smile, and Mahika tries not to think about how badly she wants it pressed against her own lips as she reaches for her phone to hang up.

-

Mahika is folding her shirt sleeves up her forearms and humming along to Paragraphs by Luke Chiang that's playing from her speakers when the doorbell rings.

She looks up at the clock and realizes Amoli is early, but she doesn't mind. The idea that they're both equally looking forward to this date makes butterflies flutter up a storm in Mahika's belly.

"Just a sec!" she calls, smoothing back the long wisps of hair on her forehead and tucking them behind her ears before rushing to the door.

She always believed that she would be terribly nervous on her first date - and with a girl, mind you - but her chest is only bubbling with eagerness when she opens the door.

"Hey," Amoli greets softly, and Mahika just reaches for her hands and gently pulls her inside.

"Hi, hi, hi," she murmurs, closing the door behind Amoli, and barely letting her shuffle out of her sandals before taking the cream-colored cardigan draped over Amoli's arm and bringing her further inside the house. "I made oatmeal raisin cookies for my mom, and I know you love them, so you have to try some before we go."

"Okay."

"She's not around right now so..." Mahika only stops once they're in the living room, turning around to face Amoli after bundling up the cardigan on the couch and leaving Amoli's purse on top of it. "I just took them out so they need to cool for a couple more minutes," she adds distractedly, and Amoli nods. "Hi," she says again, finally allowing herself to look.

Amoli is wearing a baby blue dress with white stripes, the straps at the shoulders tied in little bows. On a regular day, Mahika could probably write poetry about how pretty the lines of Amoli's collarbones are, but today her attention is otherwise occupied by the jewelry lining Amoli's ears.

"Hello," Amoli says back, the ghost of a smile twitching at the corner of her lips.

"Hello," Mahika repeats, and Amoli huffs out a laugh that soon turns into a hitched breath when Mahika reaches out to trace the flower stud on her helix, and then the hoop under it with her thumb before giving a tiny flick to the silver bow earring on her lobe. "This is new."

"Mm, not really," Amoli mumbles, and Mahika doesn't miss the little shiver in her voice; the tiny little pinpricks of goosebumps on her arms when Mahika's fingers graze and linger on her cheek. "I've had the helix and orbital piercings for a while, but one of the hoops fell off and I got too lazy to replace it." For a split second, Mahika gets distracted by the movement of her glossy lips. "Then I took them all out and forgot."

Mahika hums. "Pretty," she mumbles, brushing a lock of hair away from Amoli's cheek and tucking it behind her ear.

There's a very faint dusting of gold on her eyelids, light blush high on her cheekbones and lips tinted peach, and Mahika is taken back to the first time she saw Amoli and found herself enamored by this... dainty sort of beauty Amoli has that Mahika has never noticed about anyone else.

Amoli definitely catches Mahika staring at her lips (not that Mahika was being subtle about it), because she flexes her fingers in Mahika's hold and muses, "Are we still talking about my earrings."

Mahika absentmindedly traces the ring on Amoli's index finger. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Amoli's eyes are big and searching, and Mahika doesn't know what she has to look for. She's sure every emotion that's made home in her chest is loud and clear on her face right now.

"Mhm," she mumbles, "I like your lipgloss."

"My... lips?"

Mahika smiles despite herself. "The gloss."

"Oh." Amoli sways forward the slightest bit, and by the way she's looking up at Mahika right now, the latter knows she didn't even realize she was doing that. "I'm - I've got it. Right now. With me. In my... purse?" She looks around distractedly like she's forgotten that Mahika put it on the couch mere minutes ago, and Mahika is so impossibly endeared she doesn't know what to do with herself.

So... "Good," Mahika replies in a murmur, presses the tips of her fingers to the curve of Amoli's jaw, and leans down just enough to catch her bottom lip with her mouth.

Amoli goes still for a full second and a half, and then she just melts.

They're still holding hands between their bodies, but Mahika can feel Amoli's other hand resting somewhere just above her hips, thoughtless, just above the waistband of her shorts where there's a strip of skin visible beneath her tied-up shirt and she doesn't know when it got there or how long it's been there but -

Something about it reminds Mahika of how soft, how... pliant Amoli goes under her touch and it's not like she hadn't noticed it before. It's not that at all.

It's just that when Mahika pulls back, it's with the realization that Amoli trusts her.

Trusts Mahika to gently steer them both; trusts her enough to close her eyes and chase Mahika's lips a little; trusts her when she allows Mahika's fingers to take hold of her chin and angle her face just right before she kisses her dizzy.

Amoli takes a shaky breath and kisses her, too. Brings her hand up and cups Mahika's face, curls her fingers around her jaw and Mahika tries to spill the I thought I would never have this into the millimeters between them when she pulls back just a little, mouth parted.

Everything, there is everything coursing through her right now.

She's feeling all of it, Amoli's breaths ghosting over her lips, still, their noses brushing and the taste of peaches in her own mouth.

Mahika's hand slides from her jaw to her shoulders, wraps around her waist, and tugs. "Pretty," she whispers when Amoli's eyes slowly flutter open, and Amoli flushes pink, fingers fisting shyly in Mahika's shirt.

Mahika feels another surge of fondness in her chest and turns her head to press her lips to Amoli's jaw, her chin, the corner of her lips. "Know you said it was okay," she murmurs, against her skin. "That day? But I should have asked still. If it's okay."

"'s'okay," Amoli whispers quickly, but Mahika's already pulling back a little, so Amoli fists a hand in her shirt and tugs her back. "It's okay," she repeats, firmer, and for a second she sounds so serious that Mahika laughs, and then leans in even further and kisses her forehead.

"You sure... bro?" Mahika deadpans.

"Don't you fucking dare," Amoli giggles and then slumps against Mahika's chest, cheek smushed to the fabric. Sighs. "God. I thought that would never happen."

Mahika grins. "What, kissing me? It happened already."

"Well, yeah, but - I don't know." She burrows herself closer; another tiny habit that Mahika has come to recognize as something Amoli does when she craves comfort, so Mahika locks her arms around her back and just holds. "Feels a little surreal, still," Amoli continues in a low mumble.

"Yeah," Mahika responds softly, pressing her nose into Amoli's hair. "Yeah. It does."

Amoli hums, and they're quiet for a couple seconds, and maybe it would look weird to an outsider that they're just standing there in the middle of the living room hugging each other in silence, but Mahika thinks she could do this for a long, long time.

And then Amoli breaks the bubble with a, "You ate my lipgloss," and Mahika laughs so hard, the sound bounces around the walls and echoes in the house like tinkling bells.

"Wanna go on the date," Amoli murmurs shyly when Mahika stops, her own voice laced with laughter and happiness. "Can we have the cookies on the way?"

Mahika nods, smile fond, fond, fond. Caresses a hand down Amoli's back. "Yeah, okay," she replies, and swipes a thumb under Amoli's bottom lip to wipe what's remaining of the peach gloss, smile turning a little wry. "I think you need to reapply that."

"You think?"

Another smile twitches at Mahika's lips. "Well, good thing you have it in your purse?"

Amoli playfully pushes her away with a roll of her eyes, and Mahika just goes along with it without a word, clutching her chest dramatically. "I have a feeling I'll need to make a habit of taking my lipsticks with me everywhere I go with you around."

Mahika leans against the back of the couch and watches Amoli rifle through her purse for the tube of gloss.

"The gift of foresight..." she drawls, and barely dodges the handkerchief Amoli digs out of her purse and throws at Mahika's head.

➷

a/n

hello !

i hope you guys had fun reading <3

thank you for being so incredibly sweet in the comments on the last chapter :')

anyways, it has come to my attention that a lot of you don't know that there are multiple playlists for this book (desi, non-desi, and separate ones for mahika, amoli and dhruv), so i'll link them in the comment right here for people who want to listen to them --->