You Gotta Have Standards

[nezchan]

This is another of my Very Short Fics, with a hard limit of 200 words. This one was also an exercise in conversation planning, since my current (maybe paying) work relies on a LOT of conversation so that's something I'm focusing on right now.

“You know what I can’t stand?” Nico asked, setting her tray down. She paused, obviously expecting a response.

Maki sighed. She knew the game. “Fine, what?”

A smile formed. “When people aren’t honest about their desires. You’re bad like that.”

Luckily they hadn’t started eating, or Nico would be wearing Maki’s milkshake. “W-what!? Are you kidding me? What about you?”

“You wound me,” she said, shooting her straw wrapper across the table. “I thought you’d understand me better.”

Maki took a fierce bite of her burger. Better than punching that smug face. “Fine,” she said. “Educate me.”

“If there’s one thing I am,” Nico said, “it’s honest about what I want. You don’t get to be greatest idol in the universe oth

erwise. Other things...maybe not so much.”

“Greatest pain in the ass,” Maki muttered. “I’ll give you that. But there’s still something that doesn’t make sense.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

“Nico...you’re dating Nozomi!”

“So?” she asked. “Nozomi’s the most honest person I know. I can always tell what she wants.”

Maki cradled her head in her hands. How utterly biased. “You’re the only one in the world who could say that,” she said with a laugh.