"This fucking dress again." Katsuragi spat the words out through clenched teeth. This was the fourth time this evening she had tripped over the excessive frills on the bottom of the dress.
"Easy on the cursing!" Ikaruga scolded. "And don't tell me that you've never worn a dress before."
"Of course I've worn a dress before. Just never one this big and frilly and easy to trip over."
"Still. Remember why you're here tonight."
"Of course I remember. I'm meeting your parents."
"Right, and my parents are very high-class citizens. So, I need you to act polite, proper, and cordial. In other words, don't be yourself. It's bad enough that I've had to tell them I'm marrying another woman. If they find out that I'm marrying a woman who's rambunctious, wild, and perverted, they'll have a fit."
Katsuragi looked down. "You don't… really think about me, do you?"
Ikaruga realized she had touched a nerve. She laid a hand on her fiancée's shoulder. "Of course I don't. It's just that my parents might. You realize, I'm their only living heir aside from my *ahem* incompetent brother."
"I thought you told me you were adopted?"
"I am. But I'm also related to them. Very distantly. That's why I thought they would be more upset that when I announced I was engaged to another woman. All they were upset about was that they haven't met you yet."
"What about the whole heir thing? We can't exactly have a baby."
"My father said that he wants me to be happy, and if another woman has made me happy, then that's fine with him. However, he reminded me that I have duties to my family. When my father retires, I will be the head of the Houou family. That means I must have an heir. My mother reminded me that in the 21st century, surrogacy exists as an option."
"And you're okay with that? Them just telling you that you have to have a baby? Shouldn't that be your decision too?"
"They took me from poverty and raised me, gave me a life where I had food to eat, a warm bed to sleep in, a roof over my head, and more money than I even knew what to do with. If all they ask in return of me is a child, then I'm happy to oblige."
"What about me, though?" Katsuragi turned to the side. "I don't know if I'm exactly 'mom' material, but I'm not exactly the kind of person who can just sit back and let you do everything, either."
Ikaruga took her fiancée's hand in her own. "We're not even married yet. We can worry about the child later. For now, let's just go meet my parents." With that, they walked up to the door, and Ikaruga used the ornate, phoenix-shaped knockers on the door. An older-looking man answered the door.
"Whoa!?" Katsuragi jumped back. "I was expecting your father to be a little older! I mean…" She walked backed forward and bowed politely. "It's an honor to meet you Houou-san."
"Katsuragi." Ikaruga laughed. "That's not my father. He's the family butler."
"Ehhhh!?"
Upon closer inspection, Katsuragi realized that the man in front of her didn't look like the head of an important Japanese family. In fact, he didn't even look Asian.
The butler chuckled a bit. "You must be the woman who won the heart of the Young Ojousama. It's alright. You can just call me William."
"Uirriamu-san." The name was very difficult to pronounce in Japanese, phonetically speaking.
"My father does a lot of charity work overseas." explained Ikaruga. "He met William in America. William had an interest in studying Japanese culture, but he didn't have a lot of money, so my father employed him as a butler so that he could stay in Japan, learning about the language and culture. It took him a while, but now he speaks perfect Japanese!"
"I wouldn't say I speak perfect Japanese." William replied. "You flatter me too much. Shall I fetch your parents?"
"That would be lovely."
Ikaruga and Katsuragi waited in the large, lavish lobby while William went to get Ikaruga's parents from upstairs. Katsuragi looked around nervously. She know Ikaruga came from money, at least after she got adopted, but this was beyond what she expected. Katsuragi never really had that much money. Her parents left her some money before they were forced into exile, saying that they wanted her to live a good life, and that they'd find their way. She'd budgeted and spent that money very carefully even from the time she was only twelve years old.
"Ikaruga!" A slightly older-looking man with a woman beside him came down to greet them. Katsuragi had gotten caught off guard before. It was pretty embarrassing to have mistaken an American man for Ikaruga's father, even if she was adopted. This time, however, it was much safer to assume that these were in fact, Ikaruga's parents.
"Father!" Ikaruga accepted the embrace offered by the man in front of her. He responded by kissing her on the forehead. She then moved slightly to the side to hug her mother.
"This must be the woman you told us about." Ikaruga's father said, turning his gaze to Katsuragi. My name is Akira Houou, and this is my wife, Toriko."
"She's very pretty." Toriko said.
Katsuragi had been called many things in her day, but this was the first time someone had called her "pretty." It felt kind of nice. She remembered what Ikagura told her.
"Excuse me." She bowed. "My name is Katsuragi. I'm… engaged to your daughter."
Toriko approached. "I guess that makes you our soon-to-be daughter-in-law." She hugged the blonde, catching her off guard.
"Welcome to the family."
Welcome to the family. Katsuragi had gotten to experience a family in a while. Of course her own parents were still alive, but she didn't really get to see them that often what with the whole exile thing. She was surprised that Ikaruga's parents were welcoming her with such open arms, but she certainly wasn't complaining.
"No sense standing out here all night." Akira escorted them to the dining room, which was unlike anything Katsuragi had ever seen before. She was used to eating in ramen shops, or in the kitchen of her small house. The large dining table in front of her seemed like it was prepped for a feast.
"What will be having tonight, William?" asked Akira.
"The chef tells me that he has prepared a steak from a tender cutlet of Matsuzaka beef, which he has topped with a Western bordelaise sauce, with assorted vegetables on the side."
"Excellent." Akira sat at the table aside his wife, and gestured for Ikaruga and Katsuragi to sit down next to one another.
"So? Let's hear it." Toriko hastily started a conversation, clearly assuming Katsuragi knew what she was talking about, when she did not.
"Hear what?"
"The story of how you two met, of course, and how you fell in love."
Katsuragi gulped. It was pretty easy to explain that they attended the same Ninja Academy. As for how they fell in love? She probably didn't want to tell Ikaruga's parents that she groped their daughter's breasts as well as those of others around her at her heart's leisure, even if it was the truth. Speaking of the truth, she wasn't exactly sure when exactly she and Ikaruga fell in love.
"We met at Hanzou Academy. We're both shinobi. As for how we fell in love…" She paused, looking to Ikaruga for help.
"She saved my life on a mission." Ikaruga jumped in. "She risked her own life to do so and ended up horribly injured."
Wait a second, that wasn't true. Katsuragi never saved Ikaruga's life on a mission. At least, not directly. It's not that she never would do something like that. Not that she wouldn't do something like that, but the situation never came up.
"That sounds like the quite the ordeal." Akira surmised. "Glad to see you've recovered."
"Yeah…" This was not Katsuragi's forte. Deception was a skill essential to shinobi, yes, but it's one subject that she was not something she was good at. She preferred to tackle her issues head-on. Lying always felt so… dirty, and not the good kind of dirty, but she was knew this was important to Ikaruga.
"So, Katsuragi." Toriko continued the conversation. "What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun?"
Katsuragi subtly looked to Ikaruga for another lie. Ikaruga certainly wasn't going to tell her parents that her new fiancée's favorite activity was groping breasts. She also quite enjoyed fighting, but she had a feeling Ikaruga was going to say something else. Something that would make her seem more refined than she really was.
"Katsuragi does calligraphy."
Calligraphy. Ikaruga couldn't have picked a fake hobby that was further from Katsuragi's actual personality. She knew Yumi was into calligraphy and had seen her do it. She was actually quite good at it. Yumi was the type of person to be good at such a graceful artform, but she certainly was not. She was not artsy in the slightest.
"Oh, that sounds wonderful!" Toriko's eyes sparkled. "Will you show us!?"
"I… uh… didn't bring my brush."
"That's fine. "We have some brushes for calligraphy in the basement."
"Well, uh…" Katsuragi stammered, wondering how Ikaruga's parents hadn't already figured that all of this phony already from her terrible acting. "It's my lucky brush. I'm very superstitious."
She was not very superstitious. This is what Katsuragi hated about lying. It always felt like you had to keep coming up with more and more lies.
"Excuse me." William interrupted them. "Dinner is served."
He rounded the table, serving all four of them, and then setting aside a plate that Katsuragi assumed was for William himself, with Matsuzaka beef and the vegetables to go along with it.
All of them reached for their chopsticks. "Itadakimasu", they said simultaneously.
Katsuragi tasted the beef. It was her first time having Matsuzaka beef. It would be yet another lie to say that she wasn't curious about it living up to its reputation. After all, it was the most expensive beef in Japan.
"It's good…"
"Of course it's good!" Akira laughed. "It's Matsuzaka beef."
"Well, I've never had it before."
"Really?"
"I can't exactly afford it."
"Nonsense! You are marrying into the Houou family. That makes you a part of our family. Our daughter-in-law. What's ours is yours."
"This would go really good in ramen. I get beef ramen all the time at my favorite place in town. We actually pass it on the way here"
Toriko froze at the comment. "You like that ramen place?"
Akira rolled his eyes. "Here we go."
"I absolutely adore that ramen shop."
"You do?" Katsuragi appeared just as shocked as Toriko. "But you're so wealthy. I would have figured you had meals like this all the time."
"I do." she admitted. "But I married into money. I came from a middle-class background. Having money certainly makes things either, but it's not all there is to life. There are a few pleasures in life that are worth more than their weight in gold."
"I couldn't agree more!"
And that was the truth. All that lying to get Ikaruga's parents to like her, and the moment she tells the truth about something, she feels closer to them than anything.
"Excuse me!"
Everyone turned their attention to Katsuragi.
"I never saved Ikaruga's life on a mission."
"Katsuragi!" snapped Ikaruga. "What are you doing!?"
"I'm telling the truth!" Katsuragi returned. "The truth is, I fell in love with your daughter by fighting her. She was my partner. At first, we didn't get along, so we fought a lot. She would win most of the time, at first, but she motivated me to improve. Even now, she's always scolding me and keeping me on the right track. I don't know where I'd be without her. I probably would have gotten horribly injured on a mission. Or worse. And when she first came to Hanzou Academy, she never smiled at anything. It was so sad. It seemed like nothing could make her smile or laugh, until me. I can't say when Ikaruga fell in love with me, but if I had to guess, that would be when."
"Ikaruga?" Akira turned to his daughter. "Is this true?"
Ikaruga hung her head in shame. "Yes, Father."
"Then why did you lie?"
"I'm reckless!" Katsuragi continued. "I'm wild and sometimes even a little rude. I love fighting. She wanted you to like me, so she came up with all these lies to make me seem less the person I really am. But you've been so kind to me. You've opened up your home to me, given me a place to eat at your table with your very expensive beef nonetheless, and you welcomed me to your family. My parents are in exile for using their discretion to morally object to the completion of a mission, so I haven't gotten to be part of a family in a while. That's why it means so much to me that you've invited me to yours. I don't want to start out my relationship with my new family by lying!"
Toriko adjusted herself slightly in her seat; then leaned in towards her daughter. "Ikaruga."
"Yes, Mother?"
"This one is good for you. Keep her around. I don't like that you felt the need to lie to us about your fiancée, but she'll keep you honest."
After the meal, Ikaruga and Katsuragi took Ikaruga's parents up on their invitation to spend the night. William offered to escort them to their bedroom, but when they arrived, Ikaruga looked troubled.
"William, excuse me?"
"Yes, Ojousama?"
"My bedroom is on the third floor, near my parents. This is the 2nd floor."
"Yes. Your parents instructed me to prepare this room for you and Katsuragi-sama as opposed to your normal bedroom. They say that while they are willing to accept your same-sex relationship, they are aware what newly-engaged couples do. They do not wish to be awoken by the sound of you and your partner's love-making."
Ikaruga blushed profusely.
"We do not-
"Ikaruga." Katsuragi interrupted her in a teasing voice. "Remember what your parents said about lying?"
"Good night, ladies." With that, William was off, leaving the two women in love to their own devices in the guest room he had prepared for them.
Katsuragi needed no invitation to plop herself on the bed. "This bed is so soft!" She exclaimed. "Ikaruga, you gotta try this- Oh, I guess you probably sleep in a bed like this all the time, huh?"
Ikaruga didn't reply to Katsuragi's comment, instead she mumbled something.
"What was that?"
"I said, I'm sorry."
"That's a first. Usually I'm the one who screws up and makes you mad." She laughed at her own comment.
Ikaruga was less willing to see the humor in the situation. She sat beside Katsuragi on the bed. "I… shouldn't have made you lie like that."
"Yeah." Katsuragi agreed. "It was pretty shitty."
"Thanks." Ikaruga replied sarcastically. "That makes me feel so much better."
Katsuragi took her fiancée's hand in her own. "Don't be so hard yourself. I mean, you just wanted your parents to like me, right?"
"I've just had so much family drama in my life. I don't want any more. I've had enough. My whole life, my brother tried to make me feel like I didn't belong here. He's reconciled, but still, it hurt. I wanted to feel like I belonged with these people, in this house."
"I know all about wanting to belong." Katsuragi responded. "Ever since my parents went to exile, I've been so lonely. Fortunately, we found a place we do belong."
"Hmm?"
"We belong with each other, right?"
Ikaruga couldn't handle how cheesy and sappy that remark truly was, but yet, she couldn't bring herself to laugh at it. Not because it wasn't funny. It was definitely quite humorous that Katsuragi would say something like that. No, she couldn't laugh at it because it actually did make her feel better. She leaned forward and kissed Katsuragi.
Katsuragi pulled away after a short while. "Well, no reason to let what happened this evening dwell on us." Ikaruga grabbed Kasturagi's head and pushed it towards her once more.
"I wasn't finished." Ikaruga kissed Katsuragi again. This time, much more passionately than the first time. Katsuragi pulled away again.
"What's this about?"
Ikaruga stood up and slowly removed her dress, revealing her black lace bra and panties. Katsuragi gulped, obviously trying not to stare directly at the raven-haired woman's assets.
"I still feel bad about making you lie." explained Ikaruga. "I'm going to make it up to you. Take your dress off."
"This seems healthy."
"Less sarcasm. More stripping."
Katsuragi did not need to be told again, but she was struggling to actually remove her dress. That was, until Ikaruga became too impatient and reached around to do it for her.
Once Katsuragi was down to her own underwear, Ikaruga reinitiated the kissing. She placed her hands on Katsuragi's cheeks to deepen the kiss. In the midst of the passion, she pushed Katsuragi down onto the bed. Their tongues remained entwined.
Most people would agree that Ikaruga seemed like a stickler for the rules, and she was. That always made her seem more pure, the kind of girl who waited until her wedding night to lose her virginity. Only Katsuragi knew the truth. Only Katsuragi knew that Ikaruga was an animal in bed. Many of their first handful of sexual encounters while dating where initiated by Katsuragi, as one would probably expect. Ikaruga certainly wasn't as perverted as Katsuragi was, with her obsession for breast groping, but when Ikaruga was turned on, Katsuragi had to be ready because this girl was dominant. When she wanted sex, she was going to get it. After all, there was no rule against having sex with your fiancée, was there?
Ikaruga pushed her lips past Katsuragi's so that she could take her tongue in between them, and suck it. She knew that Katsuragi absolutely loved it when she did this. After a respectable moment of tongue-sucking, she released and returned to their normal makeout session. A moment later, however, she stuck her own tongue out, inviting Katsuragi to reciprocate. Of course, she did. When she was finished, Ikaruga removed her tongue from the equation entirely and gave her lover a gentle peck on the lips. She sat up, still straddling the blonde as she reached behind her back to remove her bra.
"Boobs are your favorite, right?"
Katsuragi nodded vigorously.
"Then what are you waiting for?"
The blonde reached up and gently placed her hands upon the raven-haired girls breasts. She massaged them, squeezed them, played with them.
"Do you want me to `pretend I don't like it the same way I did in high school?" asked Ikaruga.
"Oh." Katsuragi laughed. "No, thank you."
Ikaruga bent over, letting her tit hang over Katsuragi's mouth. Getting the hint, Katsuragi licked the nipple while still groping both. Her licking soon escalated into sucking, as her mouth latched onto Ikaruga's nipple, causing her to moan. From inside her mouth, she could feel her lover's nipple growing hard as rocks. This prompted her to switch to the other one.
Not long after, Ikaruga pulled herself up slightly and grabbed Katsuragi's bra. Ripping it in half as she tore it off of the blonde's body. "Your turn."
"What am I gonna wear in the morning?"
"Figure it out." Ikaruga postured herself over Katsuragi's nipples. "A bra doesn't suit you anyway." With that, she aggressively sucked at her fiancée's peaks, taking as much of the mound as she could into her mouth as she stimulated the nipple expertly with her tongue. Once she was convinced the blonde had had enough, she made her way down in between Katsuragi's legs and removed her panties.
"You're soaked down here. You want it bad don't you?" Ikaruga kissed the inner sides of her fiancée's thighs, teasing her, torturing her, going everywhere but the one spot she craved it most.
"Ikaruga, please!" Katsuragi begged.
"Well, if you insist." Ikaruga stuck her mouth onto Katsuragi's nether regions and started getting to work. As she continued to pleasure her with her tongue, she reached up with a hand, which Katsuragi lovingly grasped her own. With her other hand, she fondled Katsuragi's buttcheeks, increasing the sensations of ecstacy.
"Ikaruga, Ikagura!" the blonde panted. "Keep going! It feels so good! I love you! I love you so much!" Hearing about these strong feelings encouraged Ikaruga to not only keep going, but push her tongue deeper inside Katsuragi's core. This created so much pleasure for Katsuragi that she began to spasm uncontrollably, signalling she was close to orgasm.
"Do you forgive me now?" Ikaruga asked in a sultry tone following Katsuragi's orgasm.
"What was the problem again?" Katsuragi replied. Ikaruga giggled a little bit. Then she sat up, still straddling her soon-to-be-wife as she positioned both of her thighs around Katsuragi's head, allowing her pussy to hang directly over her face.
"Lick me, please. Making you feel good always makes me so hot and bothered." Ikaruga's voice and body were both irresistible to Katsuragi. Taking the outside folds in her hands and spreading them apart, Katsuragi pushed her tongue inside Ikaruga. Once the combination of Ikaruga's natural fluids and Katsuragi's saliva had lubricated it enough, she removed her hands and returned them to her favorite part of Ikaruga's body: her perfect, large breasts.
With Ikaruga's pussy in her mouth and her breasts in her hands, Katsuragi didn't think life could get much better, but Ikaruga, seemingly determined to prove her wrong, bent back slightly so that her arm could reach Katsuragi's pussy, which she prompty began fingering rapidly. This was heaven. Ikaruga's breasts were soft and squishy, her flower was delicious, and her hands were working to return the pleasure. No longer able to contain her thirst, Katsuragi's cunnilingus became more vigorous, ravenous. The blonde licked full strokes through all her lover's folds, sucked hard on the clitoris.
To be honest, Katsuragi's pussy-eating technique was a little messy, but Ikaruga didn't mind. In fact, she preferred this wild style. She liked it a lot better when Katsuragi just went by instinct. It was after all, the kind of person she was. As the black-haired woman came to climax, Katsuragi eagerly continued to suck and lick at the core of her lover, trying to get up all that sweet nectar from the orgasm. Katsuragi came again as well, from the expert and precise work of Ikaruga's fingers.
Ikaruga climbed off of Katsuragi and collapsed onto the bed. Katsuragi inched over and laid her head on one of Ikaruga's boobs, snuggling up to it.
"Are you sure you would not like to try these pillows?" Ikaruga inquired. "I assure you, they are quite expensive, and with good reason: they are very comfortable."
"Nah. I'm good. You're my pillow, Ikaruga." Her hand reached over to Ikaruga's, interlocking their fingers together. Incidentally, it was the hand on which both girls had chosen to wear their wedding bands that grasped one one another.
"You are incorrigible." Ikaruga looked down to realize that her fiancée was already asleep. She was unable to hold back a smile at how peaceful the blonde looked. When she said that the pillows were expensive, she was not exaggerating. Yet, Katsuragi would rather find her nightly resting place upon the bosom of her lover. Truly, she was a woman of simple pleasures. With her free hand, she reached around the other girl and lightly stroked her hair. Then, she tilted her head down and kissed Katsuragi on the forehead.