Photobooth

The photobooth in the mall was almost exactly how Rika remembered it being when they were in middle school. She eagerly swiped through the options, noticing that even though that was about half of their lifetimes ago now, the backgrounds and effects available to select from had not been updated much. It felt very nostalgic to her, in a comforting way. And also a bit heart-wrenching as she considered how much had changed since then in their lives, knowing they could never go back.

She frowned for a moment, trying to push that thought out of her mind as she focused back in on choosing some backgrounds. After all, it wasn't as though life had been perfect back then either. 

"You almost done? They all look the same."

Touya sat next to her on the small bench in the booth, clearly unamused by the fact that she had pulled him in here and insisted they take some pictures for the nostalgia. He scowled, his blue eyes flickering uninterestedly over the options on the screen.

"They do not all look the same. I'm just trying to decide if we should go for something more cute or not."

"This is really stupid." He sighed, stretching his long legs out and putting his feet up against the wall of the booth in front of them. Rika cast a mildly annoyed glance at him as she tapped on a background with a night sky and lots of glowing stars.

"You didn't used to think this was stupid. We used to do this all the time after school!"

It was always a little risky. Talking about before. Sometimes it was alright and he would laugh about some memory with her or remind her of something she had forgotten about long ago. Other times, perhaps more often, he would get that distant feeling she sometimes felt from him, where he was both there and not-there, closed-off emotionally from her and the rest of the world and leaving only a cold, cruel emptiness in place of his usual warmth. She unconsciously held her breath, her heart pounding against her ribs as she awaited his response.

"Maybe I did always think this was stupid. I just didn't tell you because I was such a nice friend, Ri-chan." 

When she glanced back over at him, she noticed that he was smiling in that smug, teasing way of his, just for a moment, his bright gaze fixed on her now.

"Touya!" Her voice sounded a little higher-pitched than usual, even to her own ears, and he chuckled.

Still, she couldn't keep the smile off of her face at the thought that he had cared enough even back then to do this just because she thought it was fun. Same as now, since he was clearly still sitting on the plastic bench beside her despite all of his complaining and grumbling about the ordeal she was putting him through.

Some things never change. It was a comforting thought.

"Alright, I think this one will be nice!" Rika pressed a few settings on the screen in front of them, lining herself up in the camera and waiting for the small clock in the corner to tick down for the first picture. She smiled brightly as the camera flashed, leaning against Touya, who sat next to her with his arms crossed and his face in a neutral, almost-bored expression.

"Aren't you going to smile?"

She quickly posed again as the timer was going for the second picture, making a face with a wink and her tongue out in what she hoped was a cute expression. 

He still didn't move, staring down the camera with disinterest.

"Seriously? You're just going to sit there?" 

"Yeah. I told you I'm not doing this shit."

Rika pouted, putting her arm around his shoulders and leaning even closer, her face very near to his as she tried to quickly think of some pose that would maybe look good anyway in spite of him being so stubborn about things. 

"I wish we could do that one pose. Like, where we make a heart out of our hands together!"

"You can, but half a heart is going to look dumb, Rika."

As she smiled and the camera flashed, she noticed that at least he was smiling too in that one, one corner of his mouth turned up in a way that she usually found endearing when she was not feeling annoyed with him. Of course he was smiling now. After all, it seemed nothing gave him greater amusement than teasing her relentlessly. 

She placed one hand on his face, turning his head towards her so she could look him in the eyes. 

"We have one picture left. Touya, please, can we just take one cute one together?"

She searched his expression for any sign that he might give in, for any sign of how he was feeling. He was so hard to read when he wanted to be, and she couldn't tell from the way the bright turquoise of his eyes burned into her how he was going to respond. It was only as the timer was counting down for the final picture that she saw it. The slight narrowing of his eyes that typically meant he was amused, the way one side of his mouth turned up again, only briefly pulling at the staples on that side of his face before he leaned forward-

He pressed his lips to hers, a sudden warmth against her cheek as he put his hand on her face. Her head felt sort of swimmy, which was silly because it wasn't as if they didn't kiss frequently, but something about this had caught her off-guard in a way that was not unpleasant. She kissed him, running her thumb gently and lovingly over the scars that lined the side of his face from the corner of his mouth to his ear. For a moment she forgot where they were, forgot about the pictures and her annoyance and the world on the other side of the red curtain that separated them from everything else right now.

Sometimes she felt so overwhelmed with how much she loved him. Especially when he reminded her in his own way how much he loved her too.

She could hear the camera flash before he pulled back, looking at her with a grin.

As the photos printed, he leaned back against the wall behind them, closing his eyes and putting his feet back up.

"I'm sure that last one was real cute, just like you wanted, Ri-chan."

She quickly picked up the strip of photos, glancing over them with some scrutiny in her gaze. Touya plucked the strip of glossy paper from out of her hand, looking down at the four pictures. She noticed that he had a strange expression on his face for a moment, somewhere between a genuine smile and a softening of his eyes, the tension in his muscles relaxing for only a moment before the mask went back on.

"They're alright, I guess. I like the way your smile looks right now better than any of those though." She was surprised by his words, by the glimpse of something that was still there burning bright in his heart no matter how many layers of ash and gore and twisted malicious spite he tried to bury it under each day.

He had spoken it as if it were just a fact, not a compliment, but she found that she couldn't keep that smile off of her face as they walked back home.