**Quick note. I have an inconsistency with the Rentarou and Enju home and their bathroom. I forgot that they have a tub and will from now on hold that. I was conflicted on using the term onigiri (a rice ball usually served with dried seaweed) but figured it fell under a titled word and translating it would be terrible. If any other inconsistencies show up, please leave a comment or a message letting me know so I can either fix it or point it out. Thank you. **
The sun had long set behind the varanium monoliths, the reaching shadows crossing over the city like long reaching fingers grasping at the heart of it before night hit. In an eerie way, the shadows always reminded the city folk of the cursed children just on the other side of the river water that separated the inner and outer city limits. No one ever mentioned it, but it left a hanging guilt into the night as people warmed themselves inside well furnished homes with family members. In one particular home, the glow of a lamp drowned out the flashing lights of a television and sounds of an action show being peered at intently by a red haired girl.
On the other side of the small living space sat Rentarou, his head was tilted down with his palm against his forehead with fingers dividing his hair. In front of him were open text books from class and half finished homework that he was in the midst of completing. His concentration, however, had been shattered and his twitching brow and frown was an indication of coming to a breaking point. "Enju.."
"Yes, Rentarou?" Enju was no longer sitting in front of the television, but instead laying on the floor sprawled out with her hand over her belly, a sign that she was full of Rentarou's scrumptious cooking. When he called her name she tore her eyes from the screen and gave him a wide smile, a trademark of hers whenever she had him to herself.
"I can forgive you watching your favorite show," Rentarou mentioned and then dropped his hand from his head to look up at Enju, the palm falling to the tabletop with a sharp smack. "Do you have to lie down like that?" He demanded pointing at her lower side. She was wearing her nightgown and had pulled up the lower edge to rub her stomach contently without a regard to exposing her white panties with tiny teddy bears on them. "Can't you cover up already?"
"Ehh?" At first Enju gave him her innocent befuddle look, but it soon turned into a sly smirk. "Hee. Rentarou you don't have to be shy, you can gaze at my body all you want, my heart!"
Enju stood up and pulled the hem of her nightgown up attempting to to toss it off her body in one fluid motion. However, she was interrupted with a cushion to her face that knocked her off balance. "Rentarou, don't be such a prude!"
"Enju," he wanted to reason with her, but he sighed and knew there just nothing he could say. "I'm going to bed."
Rentarou closed his books and shoved all the work into his bag. They had each already had a bath and dinner as well, the night was a bit young, but the week had been long with many nights coming home only in time to sleep. He slid the door shut behind himself and crawled under the blanket and into the futon, the cool feel of the fresh linen and pillow were intoxicating.
There was a rustling in the living room as the television was turned off and so was the lamp. Enju slowly slid the door open to remain as quiet as possible and stepped inside, snapping it shut and wincing at the sound that pierced the room even against her attempts at muffling it. Her gaze was lowered and she fell from her stance onto her knees and crawled over to the lump under the blanket that hid Rentarou's form. Her eyes swept over the blanket that hugged close to the shape of her beloved, creases outlining his side, legs, arms, and the large mound that signified his head elevated by the pillow under it.
She lifted the nightgown over her head, folded it neatly, and set it beside the futon. For a moment she looked down at her own chest with its pale skin and slightly protruding mounds too nubile to be considered breasts just yet. Small palms pressed against those mounds wishing that she could actually cup them, but instead was met with flatness that could not even fill her palm. Instead, she pressed them slightly together to create artificial cleavage – though, even that amount was too small to be considered as breasts. This caused her to release her chest and frown in self deprecation.
"Rentarou." Her voice was soft and she had to repeat herself a few times before Rentarou's head popped out from under the blankets with tired eyes to look at her.
His face faltered for a moment and, startled, he shouted "What the hell! Put your clothes on, you'll catch a cold!"
The reaction only seemed to upset her more and instead of grabbing her clothing she pounced onto him, straddling his stomach and looking down at him with a rising fury. "If it were any other girl you would have stared and stammered! Why is it you can so easily disregard my body?"
"Enju, just put your nightgown on, I'm tired and we have work to do in the morning." He tried to turn over despite her small form on top of him, but she slammed his lifting shoulder back down onto the futon as if he were but a toy. The strength of a cursed child was sincerely horrifying when experiencing it first hand.
"No, wait!" She them seemed to realize how hard she had pushed him back down and she pulled back but remained steadfast in her motive. "Why doesn't my body excite you, my love?"
"Enju, you're not an adult."
"Neither are you!"
"Yes, but I'm much older."
"Why does that matter? Am I ugly to you?"
"It's not that I think you're ugly, Enju, it's that you're not ready for things like that."
"Why not?! I love you, and I know you love me even if you won't say it!" Her eyes misted over for a moment, but then she defiantly bit her lip to hold back tears and glowered down at him again. "Is it because I don't have a chest like Kisara?"
"No, of cou-"
"I can't help that I don't have boobs, Rentarou!"
Enju made a motion to hit him with her fist by raising it above her head as she spoke his name again. This caused Rentarou to put his hands up in instinctive defense to parry her attack, but after a while he realized it wasn't coming and instead was confused by the soft feel of her hands cupping one of his and guiding it onto her chest.
"EH-EH-ENJU!" Rentarou knocked the young girl from his chest as he bolted out of the futon until he was backed against the wall. The hand that had touched her chest was now clutching his own as he caught his breath back. He could still feel the electric tingling along his palm and fingers where he had, for a split moment, felt the warmth of her chest and the softness of her skin and brushed against the pale areola, smoother than the surrounding skin and under developed.
Meanwhile, Enju stood up and angrily narrowed her eyes at Rentarou as she crawled back over to him. "What? Don't pretend to be so surprised," she straddled his lap while he pressed himself against the wall unable to evade her any longer. "Why won't you see me as a woman? I'm giving myself to you, don't just toss me aside!"
"You're not a woman physically yet! It's not right, Enju!"
"I'm a cursed child," she spat out the ill tasting title her kind were given, "I wont ever, not ever, get to be an adult, this is all I get."
"Enju," but it was all Rentarou could really say against the truth of her words.
"I get it ok! I get I don't have the looks of Kisara or the sexual appeal of Miori! But what I feel is real!" As angry as she wanted to sound her voice began to quiver and break. Her eyes were misted over with tears, now staining her cheeks as they trailed down the length of her face, and were shining brightly red in the darkness of the room. "It's fine if you can't do this with me. But let me just have this."
At those words she pushed herself up on his lap and pressed her lips against his and slipped her tongue past slightly parted lips before he could counter. Mere seconds passed into the kiss, but before she parted from him, both their skins were flushed red and the strong pounding of their flustered hearts vibrated in their ear canals. Wet, hot, and slippery could simultaneously describe the kiss as well as her physical state.
After a few moments of staring speechless at each other, Enju came to her senses and buried her face into his shoulder unable to stand how embarrassed she suddenly felt. Neither of them spoke and Rentarou wrapped his arms around her and held her until the sniffling was replaced with soft sighs of sleep.
"Hee! Come on Rentarou, you're not even aiming straight today! This isn't a warm up at all!" Enju emphasized this by leaping within range of Rentarou after he failed to get a rubber bullet close enough to her dodging mass. She tapped his forehead with her finger and then did a flip away from him and into a prepared stance.
"Oh, well you know," he replied while reloading rubber bullets into his gun and then cocking it ready, "that amazing position we fell asleep in last night was just so relaxing and didn't leave me with a sore neck at all!"
"Pfft, maybe if your aim was as sharp as your sarcasm we could get a work ou-"
Enju ducked a bullet aimed at her shoulder and then rolled to the side to avoid two more shots at her center mass. She didn't wait for another pulling of the trigger and instead leapt at him feet forward and twisting herself as she left the ground so that her body contorted in the air into a side sweeping kick. It connected with his arm in a block and she used the momentum of it to push away and twirl her body counter to the way it had first moved in bringing her other leg around and hitting his side with her shin.
"See, told you! Too slow today!" She teased him while helping him off the floor, beaming at her ability to win so easily today.
"Yeah, okay. Let's take a break though, my neck is killing me." Rentarou holstered his gun and pressed his palm against the base of his neck and groaned dramatically. He sat on the porch and took a swig from the half empty bottle of water.
"What? Can't keep up with a little girl all of a sudden, Rentarou?" She put her hands on the back of her head and stretched back a bit to give a hearty mocking laugh, her smile wide. This was the true strength of Enju – the ability to go from a night of near hopelessness to another day where she just grins and bears it all.
"To be fair, you're not just an ordinary girl."
"Oh? Would you like to test out an 'ordinary girl', then?" Rentarou was startled by Kisara's sudden voice and presence behind him, only someone of her skill level in the Tendo style martial arts could so quietly arrived.
Kisara wore a much less formal outfit today; her long slender legs seemed softer when they poked out from under black biker shorts that were just visible under her long white t-shirt that hung loosely to her body, except for the plateau caused by her breasts. She currently held a plate with onigiri on it which she set down next to Rentarou as she sat down.
"I thought you might like a snack," she said, noting that Rentarou had ignored her question in favor of suddenly needing to drink more water. "Why exactly are you so tired today, Rentarou?"
"Oh. Um, I had a lot of homework and slept on my neck weird is all."
"My father had some trick to getting your neck all fixed up, want me to give it a try?" Kisara cracked her knuckles and some of the color from Rentarou's face drained at the idea.
"Er no, I should be fine soon, just the work out that's making things harder."
There was actually no reason for Kisara to not know about the events from last night, it wasn't a secret that Enju felt and truly believed that Rentarou was her own, but his childhood friend had enough on her plate to worry about without adding to her stress. Still, Rentarou couldn't help but notice the smile being less sincere.
"Since Rentarou is being a baby about a stiff neck, why don't you spar with me Kisara?" Enju loaded the question with as much innocence as she could muster and filled her mouth with a large bite of onigiri as she waited for a response.
"Enju don-"
"Well," Kisara cut him off as she stood up and brushed non-existent crumbs from her shirt, "I don't mind at all. Just remember that I'm not as easy going as Rentarou."
"Good! Just don't get angry when that isn't enough of a challenge for me!" Enju sneered as she finished the last of her onigiri.
"Honestly, Kisara you really shouldn't strain yourself when it isn't necessary. And Enju-"
"Stay out of it, Rentarou!" said Enju and Kisara simultaneously.
Her feet touched the cool grass of her own backyard as she stepped off the porch and took her practice kendo sword from its resting spot against the wall. Made of bamboo and strengthened with a solid steel inner rod, the practice sword was over ten times heavier than her sword but without the added benefit of being deadly – yet it's significant weight increase did wonders for muscle growth.
"Ready?" Kisara asked, holding the wooden sword loosely to the side.
Enju didn't answer but instead launched herself forward at top speed for a straight forward attack. At the last moment she jumped into the air and brought one leg folded up against her while the other extended aiming for the top of Kisara's head. Damnit, Enju thought to herself as her momentum carried her through her motions even though Kisara had managed to move back quickly enough so that her varanium-toed boot barely made contact to tendrils of black hair.
"Too slow!" Kisara called out as she brought down her wooden weapon in powerful arc over her head down toward the still airborne Enju.
Enju was unable to dodge while in the air, so instead she put her arms up and crossed them at the forearm. As soon as the sword made contact she pulled her arms in along with it to absorb some of the shock until at the last second she could push away from the sword by pushing her arms back into the sword and propelling herself backwards. The sword still managed to leave deep red marks where they made contact on her arms but the pain was pushed to the back of her mind and she moved forward again.
Kisara and Enju were a flurry of movements that Rentarou could only gawk at from his spot on the porch. Each time they broke apart to catch their breath each sported new bruises but remained relatively unharmed, except for the kendo stick which had begun to splinter in place from pure force of impact. At least they are pulling punches when it counts, thought Rentarou to himself as he nibbled on another piece of onigiri, slow and soft chewing so as to not further agitate his sore neck.
"Kisara!" Rentarou suddenly shouted as her body collapsed into a heap on the floor. He rushed over to her and Enju, who now equally shared worry for her friend, despite their love-rivalry. "Are you okay?"
Her body seemed flushed in sweat and her breathing was rapid. "I'll, I'll be fine. It's just these stupid kidneys again."
"I told you not to over do it! Come on, I'll take you to the hospital."
Rentarou helped Kisara to her feet and let her lean on him for support while they headed off to the hospital for her dialysis treatment and rest. The kendo stick became a crutch and they left Enju to clean up and remain in Kisara's home for a while, after all Rentarou would return later. Still, Enju felt relief that it wasn't her doing that had caused Kisara to fall, and the work out had been nice. As much as she wanted Rentarou, she couldn't stand the idea of hurting Kisara to get to him, besides, Rentarou would never stand for it.
That's not to say, Enju thought to herself as she turned on Kisara's TV and drank some green tea, it wasn't fun taking out my frustrations on her.
