Chapter 2: Touch
"Damn you, Shizuru. You didn't tell me there're so many fucking slopes in Kyoto!" Natsuki cursed breathlessly. It was too late to take it back now, but she should have taken Shizuru up on her earlier offer and let the Kyoto native do the peddling herself. Her legs ached and her thin blue T-shirt was soaked with sweat.
"We're almost there. Turn right at the next stop sign." Shizuru was having a lot of fun, though she was feeling slightly guilty for making Natsuki peddle so hard. But honestly, having Natsuki's toned abdominal muscles ripple underneath her palms was an experience she did not want to pass up.
"You're picking up the tab this time." Natsuki grunted.
Shizuru let out a series of bell-like laughter and leaned forward to press a soft kiss on Natsuki's sweat-drenched shoulder. Her gesture made the younger girl groan in protest.
They finally stopped before a small restaurant after thirty minutes of hellish bike riding. Natsuki's flushed face turned green when she saw the name of the restaurant: Tosuiro Tofu House.
Just like the name suggested, this restaurant served nothing but tofu. Much to Natsuki's surprise, she found herself gorging on every tofu dish Shizuru ordered with great delight. Her favourite was the creamy tofu sorbet.
"Kyoto is famous for its tofu. It's good to know we could enjoy the same food for once." Shizuru said over a cup of barley tea. "There's even oil-less healthy mayonnaise made of tofu. Amazing, isn't it?"
"Oil-less healthy tofu mayonnaise?" Natsuki was appalled by the idea. "Blasphemy! Mayonnaise should be made of good old yolk and oil. It won't taste good if you use the wrong ingredients." She commented like a true mayonnaise expert.
Shizuru decided not to tell Natsuki that she had been slipping tofu mayonnaise into her diet for a few months now.
Occasionally they would stop for some tea and snacks in small tea houses, but for the most part they spent the afternoon riding aimlessly on Shizuru's purple bicycle. Even though Natsuki was having a leg cramp by the time they got back to Shizuru's place, she was having too much fun to care.
"Man... Now I feel it." Natsuki sat on the tatami floor in Shizuru's room and rubbed her calves with a slight frown on her face. "Aw..."
"I'll help." Shizuru sat beside her girlfriend and moved her sore legs on top of her lap. Her fingers skilfully kneaded those tense muscles like a potter would her clay. "Feeling better?" She asked.
Natsuki made an approving groan and lay sprawling on her back with her eyes closed. "Much better. But next time we'll take my Ducati. Your bike sucks."
"My bike doesn't suck."
"It does."
"Does not."
"Does so."
"Does not."
"Spoiled brat."
"Whiny squirt."
Natsuki's eyes snapped open. "Oh now that's a low blow. You are two centimetres taller than I am. You don't get to call me short."
"Ara, so you agree you are whiny." Shizuru said with a smirk.
"I'm not whiny!" Natsuki protested defiantly.
"Exactly my point."
Natsuki knew she couldn't win against her girlfriend in a verbal exchange. Instead of wasting her breaths arguing with Shizuru, she decided to just shut up and let the witty Kyoto woman have the last word.
Besides, she didn't feel like arguing with her girlfriend now. Not when she was enjoying having Shizuru massaging her legs... "What are you doing?" Natsuki asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Massaging you of course." Shizuru answered matter-of-factly. During their little banter, she had worked her way up from Natsuki's calves to her lower thighs.
Looking up at the girl who was kneeling between her legs while groping her butt, Natsuki had an sudden urge to laugh. "Yeah, my ass was kinda sore too. It would definitely need some serious groping."
"It would. Wouldn't it?" Shizuru said and leaned down to peck on the raven-haired girl's lips. She only deepened the kiss when she felt Natsuki's hands pressing on the back of her head.
Tilting her head to the side, Natsuki let the Kyoto girl tentatively dip her tongue further into her mouth. The soft hum brewing in Shizuru's throat turned into broken moans when Natsuki gently sucked on the soft flesh. Shizuru shuddered in bliss and felt her eyes rolling to the back of her head behind closed eyelids. Everything Natsuki did to her tended to cause similar effects. It scared her sometimes to know just how much power Natsuki held over her without even realizing it herself.
Finally breaking the kiss for much needed air, Natsuki stroked her girlfriend's back with both hands and laughed. "Hey, your hands stopped. Didn't you say you would massage me?"
"My hands are tired. Manual labour is not my forte." Shizuru replied breathlessly and settled herself comfortably on top of Natsuki, her hands still holding onto the girl's buttocks.
"Not your forte, I see." Natsuki grinned and suddenly flipped her girlfriend over, straddling her hip and pinning both her wrist down above her head with only one hand. Staring into the emerald green eyes only inches above of her face, Shizuru let out a whimper when Natsuki caressed her bottom lip with her thumb. "Is that why you tricked me into doing all the manual labour myself?"
Shizuru couldn't answer Natsuki's question because her head was blank at the moment. Grinning smugly, Natsuki trailed her free hand slowly down Shizuru's delicate chin, her swan neck, her heaving breasts, before finally stopping at the side of her hourglass waist. "Your HiME mark was here, right?" She asked as her hand crawled up Shizuru's shirt and caressed a particular spot on the left side of her lower ribs. The gasps the chestnut-haired girl let out were most satisfying to Natsuki's ears.
"Be ready to be punished."
Shizuru's brain couldn't register the meaning behind those gleeful words before Natsuki struck.
"HAHAHAHAHA... STOP... HAHAHA... NA... HAHAHA... NO... HAHAHA..." No matter how hard she begged, Natsuki wouldn't stop tickling her. All she could do was wiggle uselessly under Natsuki's merciless assault.
"Say you're sorry." Natsuki ordered.
"HAHAHA... SO... HAHAHA... SORRY...HAHAHA... STOP... HAHAHA... I ... HAHAHA... I CAN'T... HAHAHA..." Shizuru's arms had broken free in her frantic struggle. Unfortunately, it didn't mean she could escape, it only meant that the raven-haired girl could use both hands to attack both sides of her waist.
"Ara, ara." The voice of a third person in the room made them freeze and look up. The woman standing beside the sliding door was looking at them with much amusement. "It's so good to be young." Shizuru's mother said while holding a hand up to her faintly blushing cheeks.
Natsuki followed the woman's gaze and realized exactly what Shizuru's mother was talking about. She was straddling Shizuru's legs with her hands inside Shizuru's shirt while having her breasts grabbed by her girlfriend. "It's not what it looks like!" She quickly withdrew her hands and attempted to stand up, but in her panic she accidentally ripped Shizuru's shirt open when she tripped on her legs. Natsuki ended up falling flat on top of her baffled girlfriend with her face jammed right between Shizuru's bra-covered breasts.
"NOOOOOOOO..."
Natsuki was unable to meet anyone's eyes the whole night. Shizuru's mother's constant reminders of the embarrassing incident during dinner did not help one bit. The beet red blushes on her face lasted so long that it worried Shizuru if she would pass out since all her blood had rushed to her face.
Making a fool out of herself at the most inappropriate timing was nothing new to Natsuki, but she was especially mortified this time. Shizuru was well aware of her girlfriend's depressed state, so she insisted on taking their routine bath together rather than letting the girl hide in the corner and lick her wounds in misery.
"Now is not the best time to be taking a bath together, Shizuru. Your mother just saw us like... that." Natsuki said gloomily. All she wanted was to make a good impression on Shizuru's mother, but somehow she'd managed to make herself look like a deranged sex-fiend who couldn't keep her hands to herself even at the presence of her girlfriend's mother. "She must think we'll be doing something perverted instead of taking a normal bath." She muttered as she rummaged through her luggage for a fresh set of clothing.
Shizuru chuckled. "We are not?"
Her question earned her a glare from the raven-haired girl. "Of course not. Which part of 'normal bath' don't you understand?"
"The 'normal' part." Shizuru sighed and hugged her girlfriend from behind. "Is Natsuki tired of me?"
"No!" Natsuki looked as if someone just kicked her over her head. "What kind of nonsense is that?" She turned and grabbed Shizuru's shoulders a little too harshly before pulling her into a tight embrace. "I thought we were over this. Didn't I tell you months ago that my 'love' is the same as your 'love', and that I'm a complete retard for not figuring it out sooner?"
Shizuru smiled and relaxed against Natsuki's front. "You did."
"Then what makes you think I don't want you?" Natsuki's voice came out shakily. The thought of Shizuru leaving her was simply unbearable.
Alarmed by Natsuki's tone, Shizuru looked up and found herself staring into Natsuki's moist green eyes. "Kannin na, Natsuki. Oh, no. I didn't mean it like that. Please don't be upset."
"I wouldn't be upset if you would just stop saying stupid things!" Natsuki rubbed her eyes angrily with the back of her hands before she wormed out of Shizuru's arms and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Shizuru asked, slightly afraid her girlfriend wouldn't be forgiving her anytime soon.
Natsuki paused at the door and shot her an annoyed look. "I'm taking a bath."
"Oh."
Eyebrows twitching impatiently, Natsuki stood with her arms crossed in front of her chest and demanded. "Are you coming or not?"
Shizuru jumped up and latched herself tightly to her girlfriend's back. "Of course. Let me show you where the bathroom is."
"Shizuru, this is not a bathroom. This is a freaking swimming pool." Holding a towel over her front, Natsuki couldn't help but look at the spacious bathroom with awe. One side of the wall was framed with a huge glass pane overlooking a fenced patch of traditional Japanese garden. Not counting the shower area, the bath 'tub' itself was big enough to easily accommodate twenty people.
"What can I say, mother likes her bath." Shizuru sat down on a wooden stool near a showerhead. She was quite comfortable walking around naked in front of her girlfriend.
They only started bathing together a few months ago after the trip to the Fuuka Onsen Resort with all the other ex-HiMEs. According to Midori, bathing together with friends was the key to strengthening their bonds. Although the speech about bath and bonds seemed ridiculous, Natsuki found herself agreeing with the forever-seventeen-year-old.
The Carnival had torn their friendship apart, and even though they both wanted so desperately to rebuild it, they couldn't bring themselves to discuss the iffy subject of 'I-love-you-more-than-a-friend'. It was when they were both cloth-less that they could finally talk to each other with complete honesty. Since then, taking baths together had become their daily ritual. It was not about seeing each other naked, it was about laying themselves bare in front of the person they cared for the most.
"I hope your mother doesn't pop in like she did earlier." Natsuki peered at the door nervously. "God. Is there a lock on that door?"
"Relax." Shizuru tugged loose the towel around Natsuki's torso and put it aside. "I specifically asked her not to join us in the bath. I told her you were shy."
Natsuki blinked a few times before turning pale. "Does that mean she was planning to?"
Shizuru couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, mother was not offended. She thought you were the cutest thing."
"It sounded like you two were talking about a pet." Natsuki pouted and sat down on a stool next to Shizuru.
"But you are the cutest thing." Shizuru moved behind Natsuki and hugged her like she always did. She could feel Natsuki shiver when her nude front pressed against the girl's bare back. "Let me wash your hair." She said and brushed Natsuki's neck softly with her lips.
Natsuki nodded, and Shizuru retreated back a step to work on the task at hand. Shizuru was always gentle with her. She knew that even during the Carnival, Shizuru had never once hurt her. Suzushiro had openly questioned her more than once about how she could possibly allow Shizuru to be anywhere near her after being betrayed by her. Natsuki's answer to the harsh question was always the same: she trusted Shizuru. It was impossible to logically explain why she could trust someone who had been proven to be untrustworthy. Her blind faith in Shizuru was simply beyond reason.
She felt safe, loved, when Shizuru touched her.
"It's done. Want me to scrub your back?" Shizuru asked.
"Ok." Natsuki mumbled absent-mindedly.
She wondered if her touch would make Shizuru feel the same way.
TBC
Author's Notes:
1. In case anyone doesn't know, this story will (hopefully) have ShizNat lemon in later chapters. I was trying to get them down to business as soon as possible when I first started, but obviously I failed.
2. Please read and review :D