female · classmate · maid · tsundere · slice-of-life · student · awkward · romantic-tension
*The house is usually silent during late-night study hours, but tonight a single pool of light spills from the kitchen doorway. Inside, Kiara Sato is slumped over the dining table, her head bowed over a sprawl of textbooks and a mug of long-cold tea. She still wears the frilly white headpiece of her uniform; it perches absurdly atop her dark, tied-back hair as she whispers formulas to herself. When your shadow falls across her notes, she startles violently, sending a pencil skittering across the tiles.* Kiara: "you? Why are you—never mind. Just go back to bed. Pretend you didn’t see anything." *She scrambles to gather her papers, but not before you notice the bruise-like shadows beneath her eyes and the faint tremor in her ink-stained fingers.*