Normally when Maki's parents were away, the house felt too big and quiet and empty. She would close herself into her room to make it feel a little smaller, but the silence would echo persistently through her door anyway.

Now, she thought there might be just enough space to fit.

She picked up her phone, sent Naoki an email and waited, until he showed up at her door looking so stiff she wondered if he could even move from her doorstep. She brought out her deck before she even offered him a drink, and the effect was immediate; they ended up all but sprawled down on the floor around the living room coffee table, and she had to remind him twice during the first game alone to lower his voice and not disturb the neighbors.

They played more times than Maki cared to count, but Maki won all of them. Naoki was good, as good as her or maybe better, but they both had their own single clans, and Neo Nectar ruined the advantages Narukami strived to gain. After whatever number loss he'd come to, Naoki scratched his head and made a noise like "gnnnn," peering at his damage while Maki peered at him.

"You almost had me, that time," she spoke up, her tone more impassive than she intended. Still, he looked up at her with wide eyes and a faint flush, so she started to pick up her cards and persisted, "Why don't we play one more?"

"Yeah!" he agreed, and knocked a few of his units off the table in his haste. Maki covered her mouth to hide a smile and drew her hand.

"I lose," Maki announced, placing her sixth damage on the table.

Naoki shot up, pumped his fists in the air, and screamed, "YEEEEEAAAAAH!"

"Neighbors," she reminded him, and with his shoulders scrunched up, he sat back down and whisper-screamed instead.

"Good job," she told him, chuckling.

"Hell yeah! We did do a good job! My Brawlers are the best!"

"You're in a much better mood now," she commented, collecting her cards back into her deck.

"That's 'cause I hardly ever beat you!" He grinned and leaned back on his palms, basking in his win for a moment longer. "You're really tough!"

Maki ducked her head and tucked her hair behind her ear. "I think that's enough for now."

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah," Naoki agreed, though he was clearly disappointed. He gathered up his own cards before asking, "So, what now?"

For a split second, Maki hesitated, struck by nerves, but she glanced at Naoki's face and shook it off.

"Do you still want me to tie you up?"

He hadn't exactly offered that suggestion freely. For a decent stretch of time, Maki had watched him become increasingly antsy around her, glancing at her and fidgeting the way a person with a question does. But he'd insisted, over and over, that it was nothing, until Maki's vague, red-stained dreams finally started to piece themselves into clear memories and she'd asked him about Reverse.

"Is that what it was that you wanted to ask me?" she'd asked then, almost offhand. "If I remembered?"

"No- well, yeah!" Naoki had answered, too quickly, and she had stared at his face until he started shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"What else?" she'd asked, and after a pause, he'd mumbled the answer just barely slow enough to understand.

He was just about as embarrassed now as he'd been then, face painted red and shoulders up to his ears.

"Do you?" she repeated.

"Yes," he squeaked, and that was enough for her to stand and circle the table to come to him. "Wa-wait! Right now? Here? I'm not ready!" Maki swallowed down the urge to laugh, sat down on the floor beside him, and as he tensed and squeezed his eyes shut, she reached out and ran her fingers through his hair. He looked at her and made a puzzled noise, but Maki said nothing and rubbed her fingers into his scalp until his eyes fluttered closed and his shoulders finally went slack.

"Calmer?" she asked. He ducked his head with a frown, but nodded. "Do you still not want to?"

He took long enough to answer that she started to pull away, but when she did, he rushed out, "I wanna!" She wasn't sure what sort of expression she was making, but he looked away from it and shifted position, lowering one knee and lifting the other. "But isn't it," he started, voice high and quiet, "kinda, I dunno, weird? I mean, it's not like you were, uh..." 'Sane,' neither of them said.

"It's not weird," she told him, cupping his cheek in her hand. "Actually, after you brought it up, I looked it up some, on the internet."

"HAH?!" His voice cracked.

"Shhh." She set her thumb to his lips, her other hand dropping to his tie. "If you want to do this, you have to be quiet, okay?" He pressed his lips together comically tight and nodded so vigorously, Maki figured she would get dizzy if she attempted the same. "Actually, I think what you're asking for could be considered tame," she went on as she drew the knot down and slipped it off. "And it's perfectly normal." She lifted his tie up to his eye level, dangling it off two fingers. "Can I use this on you?" His eyes went just a little wider, and he nodded again, jaw clenched. "That's good," she told him, kissing his cheek as she set the tie aside on the floor, "but you don't have to be completely silent. I want you to tell me how you're doing." She pushed his blazer off his shoulders and kissed him full on the mouth, brief but just long enough to catch the hitch of his breath.

At the prompting of her hands at his wrists, he pulled his blazer the rest of the way off and tossed it away. Maki gripped his waist and pulled him into her lap, drawing out another harsh squeak, and reached around him to tie his wrists behind his back with his tie. "Is this fine?" she asked him, tugging at the knot. "Not too loose or too tight?"

"Y-yeah, it's great!" he rasped out, volume rising and dropping as if he was struggling to measure it.

"That's good," Maki said again, and stroked his hair. "But tell me if it gets uncomfortable at any point, okay? Don't bear through it for some reason."

"I got it," he agreed, flushed and serious. She kissed him again, and then set her hands on his chest and eased him back off of her.

Then she stood and asked, "What would you like to eat?"

Naoki stared. "Huh?"

"I've brought you home," stated Maki, who managed to keep her tone even but couldn't quite hold down a smile. "So it would be negligent of me not to feed you."

"Uh." Her choice of words made him flush a little further. "A-anything is fine."

"Okay. I'll be right back, so wait patiently." He nodded, and she ruffled his hair once more before heading for the kitchen.

It felt further away than Maki remembered, and with every step she took, she wished a little more that she'd told him to follow her instead, her thoughts humming with the urge to paint Naoki's presence thick across the white walls and plain furniture.

Cooking was out of the question; Maki grabbed a bag of melon bread and quickly returned to find him in the same place and position. "Good job," she told him, smiling as she traced her fingers along his jaw. "Can you eat now?" He nodded again, more enthusiastically than when she left, so she opened the bag and offered out the bread like a treat. "Try not to get crumbs on the floor," she commented, watching while he leaned forward to bit into it.

She didn't rush him to finish it, willing herself patience, and she even pulled back, when she thought he was trying to take in too much too fast, and warned him, "Don't choke."

"Aah," he agreed around a mouthful of bread. Maki raised an eyebrow at the display but smiled, oddly charmed despite herself.

Once he'd finished it completely, she fed him the crumbs from in the bag and on her fingers. "That's good," she praised him, and as she stroked his hair again she dropped to one knee and leaned close to speak into his ear. "Let's go for a walk."