Hey everyone! Hope you enjoy this little concoction I'll be stirring up. Been sitting on this one for a while. It'll probably start a little slow, but I have the feeling it'll get a little lemony in some sections. That'll be fun. If you like what you read, please feel free to leave a review. Every little thing helps.

Enjoy.

The yellow phone closed with a sharp snap, only to be opened up again immediately before being followed with another snap. Kodaka Hasegawa's fingers had been exercising their strength with that same repetitive motion for a consistent forty-five minutes, as he sat sprawled lazily over the clubroom's lounge. Cheerful pings buzzed around the Neighbour's Club as his blonde club mate Sena Kashiwazaki shot glittering bullets of love at her digital friends with marksman-like precision, while Rika Shiguma, with all of her intellectual prowess, sat giggling at the table with her nose buried in a mecha manga and squirming her thighs together without subtlety. Yukimura Kusonoki busied herself with preparing sweet cups of tea for the four of them, navy butler uniform in pristine condition as she then handed out tea cups around the clubroom.

'Aniki, are my services not to your satisfaction?' Yukimura questioned, as she held out a steaming teacup which roused him from his stupor.

'Hmm? Oh no, not at all. It's nothing.' Kodaka bumbled, taking the cup from the copper-haired butler with a gratuitous smile. 'Just lost in my own thoughts I guess.'

'You've been fussing with your phone for hours, Kodaka,' piped up Sena, never taking her eyes off of the television screen. 'It's almost like you're expecting something with it.'

'I've just been checking the time is all,' Kodaka lied weakly, his dulcet tones falling into the cup as he busied himself with a mouthful of the hot liquid. Yukimura never ceased to maintain a perfect temperature, so it was cool enough to take heartily without scalding his throat in the process. The truth was, Kodaka held on to a vain hope that their club's founder and his childhood friend, Yozora Mikazuki, would message him from wherever she had run to, and tell him that she was coming back soon. Six months had passed since the Neighbour's Club had been notified of Yozora's leaving, and not one of them had heard any response from her, although Kodaka often tried in vain to hear from her once again. Like clockwork, he would send her a message detailing the week the Neighbour's Club had been through, but it was mostly just a quiet room where each of them were left to their own devices. He would always sign off that everyone felt that the weight of her disappearance left them all a little hollow inside, but it wasn't enough to spur a response from their raven-haired leader. At times, he thought about giving up on his fruitless attempts at contact, but something would stir inside of him and force him to persevere; ten years ago he disappeared from her life without warning, and this time he was determined to prevent the same from happening again.

'You know senpai, you don't have to lie to us,' Rika mused, turning away from her book to face him with those hazelnut eye of hers with a sweet smile. 'She'll come back when she's ready.'

Kodaka met Rika's eyes with his own, and let a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. He should have known better than to think that he'd get away with something without Rika noticing; after all, she and him had become closer friends in the passing months, and very little went over her head.

'I suppose you're right,' Kodaka said with a sigh. 'But doesn't it all seem a little dull these days? We hardly ever try to do new activities together.'

'That's true Aniki,' Yukimura replied, wiping her hands on a white cloth napkin and folding it over her arm. 'What exactly should we do though?'

Kodaka tried to say something, but had drawn a blank. Truthfully, he wasn't exactly the mastermind of plans, and hoped someone else would come up with something.

'Well, I uh...' he stammered, scratching his head with his index finger sheepishly. 'I'm not entirely sure what to do. I'm not good at ideas.'

'We could all go to the pool or something again,' Sena offered, finally putting her controllers down and turning around to face everyone with her full attention. 'It kind of blew last time we tried, but it's not as warm now, so there's more chance of a successful outing.'

Sena's eyes fell on Rika's face, watching her face turn from a heated blush to a pale green at the memory of being cramped in the bus last summer.

'Rika would like to wait just a little longer before making a trip to that pool again, Sena-senpai...' Rika trailed, looking a little sheepish at her confession. 'What if we go to a cafe for coffee or something instead?'

This time it was Yukimura's turn to look sour, as her mouth turned downwards at the thought of someone else making a nicer cup of tea made her bottom lip tremble.

'What if we think of a few things tonight, and each bring them back tomorrow and pitch them.' Kodaka said, after glancing at Yukimura's pale face close to breaking point. 'We can decide then what we should do.'

The three girls nodded in unison, as the school's bell gave a harmonious ring, signalling that dusk was soon to fall. Yukimura gathered and washed the dishes as the others began to pack up their belongings. Kodaka checked his phone one more time, and while he knew that there would be nothing new, he couldn't help the small pang of sadness fall in his heart. They bid their goodbyes to one another, and before Kodaka had stepped through the doorway, he felt a small tug on his shoulder.

'Hey Kodaka, can I talk to you for a second?' Sena asked, slipping her manicured nails from his shoulder.

'Sure Sena,' Kodaka said, turning back to her, his book bag still slung over his shoulder. 'What's up?'

'Well, I, uh...' Sena stammered, suddenly looking at the floor as a soft blush began to creep over her cheeks. 'I was wondering if...' she trailed off.

'What is it?' Kodaka probed, dropping his arm to his side and looking intently at her vibrant sapphire eyes. 'Is everything okay?'

Sena bit her lip and tented her fingers, still avoiding his gaze. She then swallowed hard and met his gaze with a newfound courage.

'I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date?' she asked, the words almost tumbling out of her mouth with a speed she hadn't expected. 'Like, this Saturday? I'll come by your place to pick you up and we can go somewhere. And by pick you up, I mean you can take me to a restaurant and we'll have dinner and maybe find something else to do afterwards.'

Kodaka blanched at this sudden outward request, and looked away from the blonde; his own cheeks betraying him with their own shade of pink. He scratched the side of his head again, while the self-proclaimed goddess started at him intently.

'Forgive me if I'm wrong,' Kodaka blushed. 'But isn't the guy meant to ask the girl out? That's the way it always is in those games you play.'

'That's normally how it goes,' Sena griped. 'But I'm asking you because I got sick of waiting for you to ask me! You never take control of anything, Kodaka.'

'I can take control of things just fine! What makes you think I wanted to ask you in the first place?' Kodaka retorted, only to find that a very taken-aback Sena in front of him. Suddenly his stomach dropped and in an instant he knew that he had said the wrong thing. He had actually been thinking a lot about this, and the betrothal their parents had given them when they were too young to remember. What he had meant to say was that, while he had thought about it and even been enticed by the idea of dating Sena at times, there was a dynamic of the Neighbours Club he was afraid to disrupt as a cause of it.

'Wait, what I mean is-'

'Don't bother.' Sena said, tearing away from him in a huff before he could explain himself. She pushed past him roughly into the hallway before stopping with her back towards him.

'I'd have thought that after everything, after all this time...you'd maybe consider me as an option. I've waited for you to tell me how you feel since I laid out my feelings for you all those months ago. I'd like an answer, even if it isn't the one I want to hear.'

Without a second glance, she stormed off, leaving Kodaka with a heavy stone in his gut and feeling smaller than ever.

Kodaka lay between the sheets in his double bed, hands laced behind his head in his mismatched dirty blonde hair and running over what happened in his head. It was one in the morning, and he had remained in this position for a few hours. For a long time now, he'd been contemplating whether or not to grow those feelings of attraction for the Kashiwazaki girl that occasionally flitted between his mind and his heart. Sena was beautiful, and she knew it, but Kodaka got easily irritated at her sense of self-worth and judgemental attitude. Around all of these things though, was a girl who had indeed been honest and open with him previously, and she herself had grown to like him for his personality, rather than make a judgement on appearance only like the rest of the school had done. There were also the few nights when he felt guilty for focussing on her physical appearance; her athletic physique complimented by her blessings of a voluptuous set of breasts, while also having had the opportunity to witness all of her natural beauty on at least two separate occasions, and these images floated to his mind in the depths of the night, which caused a stir in his groin. After all, it was only natural for a male of his age to begin to delve into these erotic thoughts, but the guilt only came after the deed was done. Sena had (unwillingly) given Kodaka access to her body, while also (willingly) giving him her heart while he, however, had kept her on a perpetual string of uncertainty and confusion. A lot of this had to do with his relationship with Yozora, as he attempted to rebuild the connection they had once shared; but now that she had removed herself of her own accord, what was stopping him now?

He stared at the roof of his bedroom for a few more minutes before swiping up his phone without hesitation. He flicked through his small contact list until he rested on Kashiwazaki Sena, and clicked for a new message. His fingers typed under their own heed, and before long he had sent a new text message without even considering the hour of night it was:

Saturday night, my house. 6pm, wear something semi-formal. You'll look lovely in anything. Don't be late.