"Rin, what time do you need to be in school tomorrow?"

"Rin?"

Maki turns to her back to see what's keeping Rin from answering her question. She expects that Rin is busy with that music game thing on her smartphone again, but to her surprise, Rin is already asleep on the bed.

"At least tell me that you'll be sleeping already." she whispers to herself.

Maki goes back to face her laptop and is about to continue typing but just as her fingers are almost in contact with the keyboard, she decides to look at the sleeping Rin again.

It's not very often that Maki can see the full glory of Rin's sleeping form. They have sleepovers from time to time, sometimes in her house like tonight and sometimes at Rin's, but on almost every occasion it's Maki who falls asleep first.

Deciding to let her homework wait for a while, Maki walks over to her bed with quiet steps, leaving her study table full of papers and thick books on medicine. She sits on the side of the bed and looks down to observe the sleeping cat who by now is starting to drool on her pillow.

"Seriously." Maki whispers again, but a smile is pasted on her face. Rin must have been really tired with track practice, she thinks.

She then plunges a bit forward to look at Rin closer, wanting to see how many fine lines the girl has at the corners of her eyes. She counts about two or three on each side, but it isn't very obvious since Rin is still too young to have bad wrinkles. Nico has also been giving Rin some tips on beauty treatment lately, although Maki isn't very fond of seeing that scary-looking overnight cream on Rin if she has to be honest.

There's a sudden movement from Rin now and Maki erases her smile just as fast. Rin is scratching something on her shoulder with her eyes still shut. Maki waits to see if Rin will wake up but Rin just stops moving again and, thankfully, the drooling is included.

With her pillow saved, Maki sighs in relief and begins to entertain some musings while her eyes are still locked on Rin. She remembers how Rin always says that she's very lucky to have Maki-chan by her side, but Maki believes that she's luckier to have someone like Rin open a whole new world for her. She now has a big circle of friends that give more color to her life, a number of fun experiences she never thought of being capable to have, and of course someone who loves her very much and tells it to her in every waking second she has.

She may not say it out loud, but Maki is thankful that it's Rin she fell in love with, and she's very grateful that Rin feels the same.

Maki tentatively smiles at the thought and slowly extends a hand to hover the messy bangs away from Rin's forehead. She now has a good full view of Rin's peaceful face.

"Cute." she says.

Gently, Maki plants a feathery kiss on Rin's lips, but is surprised when Rin suddenly pouted as if she is replying to the kiss. She snaps back a little, trying to read if Rin is just pretending to sleep so she can release one of her unfavored chops. Unfortunately, Rin doesn't move further and her breathing remains leveled throughout.

So Rin has strong unconscious reflexes to her touch? That's a new discovery.

Maki smirks at this, one of amusement, and starts to straighten herself to stand but before she is able to, Rin grabs one of her arms and pulls on it, hugging it like a pillow.

"Maki-chan let's sleep nya." Rin mumbles, her eyes still closed.

"I have to finish my homework." Maki replies. She tries to get her arm back but Rin's hold is too tight.

"Noooo…" Rin says, pulling on Maki's arm even harder which makes the redhead fall back to the bed. She finds herself too close to Rin again, their faces just one breath away from each other.

"Sleeeeeep…" Rin adds.

There's no escape now, Maki thinks, as she shoots a look of regret to her study area and apologizes to her unfinished homework inside her head. She finally lets herself get pulled completely as Rin's arm smoothly snakes over her waist, treating Maki like a big body pillow. She faintly sees a contented smile on Rin.

"I love you, Maki-chan." Rin whispers before snuggling on Maki's shoulder even closer and putting a leg over her.

Maki doesn't reply, but she hugs Rin back with a small smile and saves all the mental notes that she gathered about Rin's sleeping form. Rin may be a drooler, a sleep-talker and still an idiot overall while sleeping, but Maki loves this sleeping cat very much all the same.

A/N: Aaaaand we're back to having cavities from tomatoes and ramen.