Hey everyone! No, I'm not dead, I just have been caught up in school which started a few weeks ago so I may not post as often, but I'll try to keep up. I'm glad that you're all enjoying my story so much. Someone recently commented that I hadn't even described Akane, and they're right. To be honest I hadn't even thought to describe her, so I'm gonna do that now.
Akane is about the same height as Sayori is, maybe an inch or two taller. She has short brown hair, fierce but at the same time caring brown eyes and has a very athletic figure. Her "posture" is a cup size bigger than Sayori's is. Her normal casual clothes are very tomboyish, I'll describe them later in this chapter. As for whether she had a crush on Damian, yes she did at one point, but now she just thinks of him as a close friend, although those feelings might return later, I don't know yet. Hope that answers your question! Now on with the story!
I woke to the sound of birds chirping outside my window. The light from the morning sun didn't seem to blind me so much as caress me with it's warm and soft glow. I felt like I was lying on a bed of soft clouds. I was so content that I didn't want to move. I turned to look at my right. Monika lay next to me, arm resting over my chest. She looked so peaceful and happy, with a smile on her sleeping face. We were both still very much naked in each other's arms. I never wanted to leave, but I knew that the others would be arriving soon to prepare for the festival. I gently poked Monika's cheek. "Wake up, sweetie," I said softly. "We should be getting up now."
She snuggled closer, pulling me tightly towards her. "Mmm…no. I want to stay in bed with you."
Her soft skin against mine sent shivers through my body. "Come on, love. What if the others walked in on us like this?"
She groaned. "So? A girlfriend and boyfriend can't be naked with each other?"
I smiled. "You're right, but we have a lot to do today."
She opened one eye and looked up at me. Opening her other eye she got on top of me slowly. "Fine, but you owe me one…or three." She leaned down and kissed me before sitting up and stretching. "Thank you for last night," she said, face suddenly red. "You made me…made me feel so special."
I sat up and took her hand. "You deserve to feel that special. And you made me feel special too."
She lay her head on my shoulder, smiling widely. "I'm glad…"
We sat in silence for a little while before there was a knock at the door. "Damian? Breakfast is almost ready," Mom said.
"I'll be down in a minute, Mom!" I called out.
"Alright. Oh, and Damian?"
Something about her tone made me pause. "Yes?" I began getting nervous.
"Just be glad we sleep downstairs." She sounded amused. "You're just like your Dad."
My face got hot. "I did not need to know that Mom!" I shouted as Mom giggled and walked away.
Monika giggled. "Maybe next time it should be in my house," she said teasingly. "My parents travel more than your Dad."
I gulped but grinned. "Heh, yeah."
When Monika and I walked down the stairs, Mom was just setting up the table. She looked at us and winked. Suddenly shy, Monika hid behind me, blushing hard. Mom laughed. "Hey, no need to be so shy, Monika. It makes me happy to hear you making my son feel appreciated and loved. And Damian, I'm proud of you for treating Monika so well."
"C-Can we talk about something else?" I asked, already embarrassed enough.
Mom smiled. "Sure. What time are the others coming over today?"
I looked at the clock. It said 8:32 AM. "I asked them to be here by around ten," I said, "but they might be here earlier. I should shower before then." That last sentence I murmured softly to myself.
Monika leaned in and whispered, "Should I join you?" She looked up at me with seductive green eyes.
I felt my face flush again. "A-Another time," I replied.
"I'll hold you to that," she replied as she returned to her breakfast.
Through the morning, Mom, Monika, Hana and I prepared the living room and kitchen for the inevitable activities. To my surprise, Natsuki was the first to show up at around 9:12. She looked exhausted, but happy to be at my place. She was wearing a bright pink skirt and a white t-shirt with a pink kitten on the left side. I saw black straps for what I assumed was her bra. I quickly grabbed all the bags she was carrying and rushed them to the kitchen. "Whoa, you have a full-sized oven?!" Natsuki exclaimed as she walked into our kitchen. "That's a far cry from that apartment you had back in the day," she continued, teasing me.
"A lot of the homes here have those," I replied. "Monika, doesn't your kitchen have a full-sized oven?"
Monika came out of the living room and smiled. "Oh yeah, although it's rarely used."
"Monika, when did you get here?" Natsuki asked.
"She stayed the night," Mom replied before either Monika or I could reply.
Natsuki looked at me, then Monika, then at me again. She crossed her arms. "If you both did something perverted, I'm gonna kill you."
I laughed. "Natsuki, what a loving couple does behind closed doors is their business," I said, walking over and hugging Monika from behind, lifting her up. She squealed in delight as I twirled her around.
"Gross," she said. "Well I'm gonna set things up for the cupcake baking."
"Need any help?" I asked.
"I got this," she said.
Yuri arrived next about fifteen minutes later. She was wearing a gray turtleneck and black pants. She was carrying a few items which I took into the living room. "You look a bit tired," I said, "I hope the walk wasn't too much for you."
"N-No, it wasn't," she said, smiling reassuringly at me.
"I hope not. Make yourself at home. Are you going to need any help?"
"A-Akane said she'd help me when she got here," she replied.
"That's good," I said. "Make yourself at home. Akane should be here shortly."
About ten minutes later Akane strode in, whistling a merry tune. She was wearing her normal casual clothes, jeans and an unzipped hoodie with a dark brown t-shirt underneath. "Morning, everyone!" she said with a grin. "How's everyone doing today? Not too tired, I hope?"
Everyone immediately perked up and replied in the positive. "You're in a very good mood today," Monika said. "Anything special happen?"
"No, I just enjoyed yesterday so much and can't wait to do it again with you guys."
"That was fun," I said. "Maybe next time, we should head to the mountains to ski or play in the snow."
Natsuki looked up, seeming a bit excited, Yuri didn't seem all that into the idea, Akane and Monika looked very excited and Hana was beaming. "That's our student council president for you!" Akane said, "Always coming up with new and great ideas!"
"What idea did he come up with now?" a new voice asked. Turning I saw PLAYER and Sayori standing at the door, hand in hand.
I decided to be cheeky. "Oh I was planning a double date for the four of us," I said, indicating PLAYER, Sayori and Monika.
Sayori hid her face, blushing hard. "D-Double d-date?"
"Already holding hands? Lewd," Natsuki said, but her smile indicated she was only teasing.
The new couple let go, both looking extremely embarrassed but also smiling. I decided to step in but Monika must have read my mind because she beat me to it. "Awww leave the two alone. I think you guys look very good together."
"Aah um, thanks Monika," PLAYER said.
"Okay everyone," Monika said. "Now that we're all here, should we get started? Sayori and I are making the pamphlets and fliers, Yuri, I guess you and Akane are working on mood setting, Natsuki's going to be making the cupcakes, and as for Damian and Makoto, well you can be backup in case any of us need help."
"I can help Natsuki," I said. I wanted to get her alone so I could gently let her open up to me about anything that might be troubling her.
"Better get ready to get your hands dirty," Natsuki grinned. "Just because you're the president don't think I won't hold back on using you as my servant for the day."
I bowed. "Your wish is my command," I said in English.
"Damn right it is!" she replied. I'd said that phrase enough that she knew what it meant.
I closed my eyes and looked at the world through the gaming system. I saw PLAYER's screen with three choices. On the pink textbox I saw the question Who should I help? The three options were Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri. I sighed and opened the game files. Finding the piece of code I was looking for, I added in a new option, which was All of them! The game screen glitched and the fourth option appeared. "Makoto?" I asked, opening my eyes. "You okay?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, I was just trying to think of who I should help," he replied.
"You could be a jumper," I said. "Just checking on all of us during the day."
"Huh, yeah that's not a bad idea," he said. "I'll do that."
"If you find yourself with nothing to do, could you play with Hana-chan?" I asked.
"I wanna help make cupcakes!" Hana said with a wide smile.
"That okay with you, Natsuki?" I asked.
Natsuki looked at Hana and smiled. Kneeling, she said, "Why don't you help someone else for now? You can help frost them with me later, I promise."
I raised an eyebrow but at the same time was relieved. I didn't want to talk with Natsuki while my little sister was there, but I was also confused as to why Natsuki had said that. Hana looked a bit disappointed, so I added, "Tell you what, I'll save you some batter to lick when we're done, sound good?"
She giggled and nodded before running off. "Well, what are you waiting for, Prez? Wash those hands before we start!" Natsuki ordered me.
"You bet," I said, washing my hands and arms thoroughly in the kitchen sink.
"We're going to make two batches at a time," Natsuki explained as she brought out the ingredients from her bag. "You're going to watch and copy me exactly, got it?"
"Of course," I replied, helping put the ingredient on the table.
As the two of us began to put ingredients into two bowls, Natsuki's normal bossy attitude seemed to fall away. She explained how much of each ingredient was needed and was patient with me despite me being a fairly decent cook myself. As we were mixing the ingredients, she moved closer and lowered her voice. "Hey, thank you for the other day at the arcade," she said.
"What for?" I asked.
The money," she said. "I wouldn't have had any dinner that night if you hadn't given me any."
The way she bluntly admitted that shocked me. She always seemed like the type who would keep her troubles to herself. "Natsuki…is everything alright?" I asked, treading lightly around the subject as best I could.
She paused, her mouth opening and closing for a bit. "That…um…" she lowered her head and went silent again.
"You don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable sharing," I said. "Take your time. Just know that I'm here to listen to you. Everyone here is."
She sighed. "If…If I tell you something, will you absolutely promise to keep it a secret?"
"Of course," I replied.
She looked around, then lowered her voice. "My…my dad…he…" I saw he face fall as she struggled to keep her composure.
"Take your time," I said comfortingly.
She took a deep breath. "Dad…he does this to me." She pulled her shirt up to show me a large bruise on her stomach before quickly pushing it down.
An anger I hadn't felt since I appeared in that white void all those years ago seeped into me but I forced myself to keep calm. Nothing good would come of me scaring Natsuki even more. "For how long?" I asked evenly.
Natsuki turned away, trying to blink away tears. "E-Ever since…I started high school…he drinks a lot and…we hardly have enough money for food. I've lost more weight than I care to admit since I was a first year…"
"I see…" I couldn't think of anything to say.
"Please…don't tell anyone else about this," she begged.
"I won't, but may I make a suggestion?" I asked, immediately wanting to fix her situation. She didn't reply, just looked down as more tears streamed down her face. "You should leave your home and move in with someone else. You don't have to tell them why. One of the other girls would gladly take you in."
She shook her head. "Dad wouldn't allow it. He'd find the others…and hurt them worse. He is a police officer, after all. B-Besides, I still love him…even if he does those things, he's still my Dad. I don't want to see him hurting anymore."
"You're eighteen," I reminded her. "There's nothing illegal about you moving out."
Natsuki shook her head even harder. "I can't do that…not to my friends."
I sighed and put both my hands on her shoulders. Before she could react, I pulled her into a gentle hug. "Natsuki, you're one of the strongest women I've ever come across," I said softly. "It took a lot of guts for you to admit this to me. I'm proud to call you one of my friends."
She didn't move for a while as I just held her. Eventually, I heard her softly sobbing and she moved her arms to hug me back, albeit a bit weakly. "Th-Thank you…" was all she could say.
"May I make another suggestion?" I asked. I felt her nod. "I think it might be a good idea to tell someone else about this. I'm honored that you trust me enough, but the others would be glad to help support you. They're your friends too and I know they don't want to see you hurting."
She sniffled. "I-I'll think about it."
"For now, I'll keep silent about it, but I will speak up if something drastic happens."
Her grip on me tightened. "Thank you…" I held her for a little while before her soft sobbing dissipated. She released me and stood, hands on her hips. "Nothing like a good cry to purge the system," she said triumphantly. "Now come on, we have some cupcakes to bake!"
As the cupcakes were busy baking, I called Hana over and told her to help Natsuki with the frosting. "I'm just going to check on everyone else quickly," I said. "Hana, listen to Natsuki-onee-san, got it?"
"Haaaaiiii!" she said with a wide grin.
"Natsuki-onee-san?" Natsuki asked, clearly proud of the new nickname. "I like it!"
"Good." I washed my hands and headed into the dining room where Yuri was carefully painting the banner and discussing something. Akane had just walked out, talking to someone on her phone. "Hey there."
Yuri jumped at my sudden interruption. Her paintbrush flew out of her hand and the brush grazed her face, getting some paint on her left cheek. "Ah!"
"Damn! I didn't mean to startle you so much," I said. "Stay there, I'll be right back." Running quickly to the kitchen again I grabbed a small towel and got it wet with some warm water. After wringing it out, I rushed back and said, "Turn to me, Yuri. Let's get you cleaned up before t sticks." I began to clean her face when I looked at her and saw she was furiously blushing. Realizing what I was doing, I panicked and began to remove my hand. "Sorry, I shouldn't be doing this."
She quickly grabbed my arm and held my hand to her cheek. "I-It's okay," she said demurely. "This feels n-nice."
I gently removed the towel. "If you think that's good, try an onsen."
She blushed. "I-I don't know about that."
I chuckled. "They're separated by sex. There's nothing wrong with that, right?" I took the chance to look at the banner. "Wow, this is quite impressive," I said.
"Ah, um thank you," she said.
"Need any help?"
"N-no, but thanks for asking," Yuri replied.
Akane came back right then. "Another crisis averted," she said, sitting back down.
"Something at school?" I asked.
"No, family business," she replied.
"Ah. Well, I'll leave you to it." I stood. "Keep up the good work everyone."
When I went to check on the others, PLAYER was sitting next to Sayori and Monika was at the other end of the table creating the fliers and posters for the festival. Monika was drawing the designs out with pencil and Sayori was coloring them in carefully with PLAYER's help. I picked one up and smiled at the colorful and catchy drawings. "These look amazing," I said.
"Ehehe, thanks," Sayori said, pushing her fingers together and looking aside, embarrassed. Monika smiled up at me happily and gave me a thumbs up. Her index finger was slightly separated from the rest of her fingers, a subtle sign that Akane, Monika and I had come up with to indicate that all was well.
"Keep it up, and you'll be getting new members in no time," I said.
"I hope so," Monika said. I sat next to my girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She giggled cutely and leaned on my shoulder. "Nya," she said.
"Nya?" I laughed. "You just keep getting cuter and cuter," I said, moving to tickle her stomach. She laughed and squirmed.
"Um, shouldn't we be workiiiieeeheeheeheehee!" Sayori began before she was grabbed by PLAYER and tickled as well. "Ma-kun Ahaha! Stoooop!"
"Can-kun! You know I'm weak theeeeeere!" Monika exclaimed as I moved my hands up her stomach. "Aaahahaha!"
PLAYER and I chuckled as we continued to tickle our girlfriends before we all collapsed into two separate piles, Sayori in PLAYER's arms and Monika in mine. Sayori turned around and touched PLAYER's nose. "Boop."
Everyone laughed at Sayori's cute childish nature. Monika looked up at me with a wide smile. "Thank you, Damian. I needed that."
"I could tell," I whispered back, kissing her forehead. "Do you want to take a bit of a snack break?"
"Snaaacks!" Sayori said, drooling almost immediately.
"I'll take that as a yes," I said. I stood. "I'll go grab something." I went to the kitchen again where I saw Natsuki helping Hana mix the frosting. Natsuki looked natural while helping the younger girl, smiling and holding Hana's hand as the two mixed the frosting. I pulled out some celery from the fridge along with some peanut butter. "Does anyone have a peanut allergy?" When no one replied in the affirmative I began making celery with peanut butter for Monika and me before grabbing some cookies for the rest. I began to heat up some water for tea as well before setting up the table in the living room. Monika, PLAYER and Sayori had moved the pamphlets and fliers away. Yuri and Akane had joined the trio and behind me were Natsuki and Hana. After a little while I came out with freshly brewed tea. Sayori was already wolfing down the cookies while the rest were eating some as well. To my surprise, Yuri was holding one of the celery and peanut butter sticks. Monika looked right at me when I came in and scooted over so I could sit next to her. I placed the tea on the table. "How's everyone's projects coming along?" I asked.
"Great!" Natsuki said. "Cupcakes have about ten or so minutes before they need to come out and then I'm gonna have Hana help me frost them. She's really good."
Hana giggled as Natsuki ruffled her hair. "Thanks, onee-san!"
"I-I think I may need to finish the banner at school tomorrow," Yuri said. "The paint will take a while to dry."
"We'll be done with the banners soon," Monika said. "Sayori and Makoto are really helping this along."
"Good, glad to hear it," I said.
Ten minutes later I heard my kitchen alarm go off. Natsuki went to check on her cupcakes and a few minutes later came back, beaming. "They're all done. Now we just wait for them to cool."
I was about to congratulate her on a job well done when there was a banging on the front door. "Naaatttssuuukkkiii! Get your worthless ass out here now!" The voice was gruff and male.
Natsuki's smile vanished and she hid behind me. "H-How'd he find me?" she asked, whimpering.
I looked at Natsuki concerned. "Who? You know who that is?"
"D-Da…Dad…"
An action scene is coming next. Get ready!
morbiusgreen