Author's note : Hello there! I hope Christmas eve has been good for you, and that you received lots of lovely little things. I'm feeling a bit bloated from overeating during Christmas, but fine otherwise. Next chapter comes next week, as usual. ~
Enjoy this chapter, and Happy New Year to everybody!
NOTE :
This chapter contains a sex scene. Nothing too explicit, but it's more described than the last one.
Again, I prefer to warn you.
"Whether the day is bright or gray give me your heart to rely on
Send me the warmth of a secret smile
To show me you haven't forgot
Now and forever , that always and ever
Little things mean a lot"
- Kitty Kallen
"Say, I was wondering..." Miho begun, covering herself with the duvet.
"Go ahead," Kinuyo said, listening.
"I thought of getting rid of the suitcase, but I don't want to put more weight on your shoulders," the redhead explained. "I know that the strap leaves you quite a mark on your collarbone... and how it must kill your back."
"I'm getting used to it," the brunette replied. "I might end up with some scars, but it won't be long anymore... we must have what... two, three weeks remaining? It will be fine when we'll arrive."
"Do you prefer me to keep the suitcase or shall I leave it?" the ginger asked.
"Do as you feel", her lover replied. "I prefer you to take something rather than feel guilty for carrying nothing."
"Well, let's keep it..."
Miho spreadeagled on the bed, disclosing her almost nude body. She only wore her underwear. Kinuyo laughed lightly and approached her. She didn't say anything ; she was simply staring deeply, intensely into her eyes, as she knew so well how to do it. Miho's eyes, her beloved Miho, whose eyes resembled those of a doe when their pupils were as dilated as in that light. She knelt down against the wall, still on the bed, and invited her to come. Miho stepped forward and sat astride her girlfriend's thighs. Kinuyo didn't take off her almost black eyes from hers, forgetting all that was around.
"We share this dream of sunlight, and I see your light ready to unite with mine..."
"You could have become a poet," Miho chuckled. "Just before the game against the University, you brought these... how did you call them? 'Twenty-two brave steel lions'?"
"Yes, this is true, I think I wasn't creative enough, but still, I didn't really have time to write such things, though I'd have loved to."
"It doesn't matter, we both know very well what you mean", the ginger replied. "I also see your light, and I guess that it's dying to form one with mine..."
Kinuyo smiled and let Miho move closer, feeling her soft and thin body, this skin that reminded her of the almost white sands of the beaches they walked on everyday. Miho put a finger just above her partner's breasts and kissed her near the back of the neck, moving small strands of hair with her nose. Kinuyo knew it was her weak point: she felt her whole body reacting to this. And Miho went even further, beginning to nibble her neck. The brunette struggled to resist the fierce desire that burned in herself; her hands finally unfastened Miho's bra, and they finally kissed each other more and more passionately, moving from some pecks on the lips to a veritable waltz of their tongues engaging in a wild dance, the atmosphere feeling like a forest fire. And the caresses continued, all more exciting than the others.
Miho started removing what was left of her underwear, then put her hands on Kinuyo's chest, looking at her with loving pupils. The brunette denuded her breasts and let herself be gently touched. The ginger also started slowly and sensually caressing her sides, finally to go down her belly, while staring at her, as if waiting. Kinuyo waved her hand as they advanced a little further into the bed and Miho sat next to her, still lowering her small fingers to a strategic location. The brunette spread her legs a little more and let her head rest simply on the pillow. She thought of only one thing: she wanted Miho to make her feel the sensations in such a way that it would make her forget everything else like a drug would do. Forgetting regrets, forgetting this profound sorrow in herself, forgetting her fears and darkest placed, being with her and only her.
Miho, silent, looked deep inside her soul as she started letting her fingers do the work on this soft, warm and damp part. The temperature rose a little more. Kinuyo put a hand on her lover's arm, already beginning to feel her heart accelerating.
"You should have some too," she whispered, urging her to step back and lay over her. "We'll have it at the same time... or we'll try..."
"I never tried that," Miho giggled. "I'm curious to see how it could turn out..."
She sat on the brunette's lower part. Their pink fortresses touched each other. Kinuyo gave her this characteristic look. Miho immediately understood: she started waving her lower abdomen, one hand on her girlfriend's thigh and the other stroking her own breasts as the pleasure started rising, even though it didn't last and they had to try out something else to truly experience the arousal they sought.
They were beginning to know their preferences in this matter. For hours, as they could spend sometimes, their hearts merged, their bodies intertwined, touched and loved each other. Every second that passed during these moments when they wildly felt their reciprocal affection, they sought only one thing: the heat of their bodies that rose again and again, this sensation that could come to a screaming explosion, this closeness, the deepest of the intimate states that could exist.
Miho was laying down against Kinuyo, who held her and continually stroked her coppery hair. Everything was silent. The blankets were at their feet, pushed back into the heat of the action. The day seemed to be starting to rise. Through the window, they could see the blue sky that was beginning to turn into a paler colour. The silence was broken by the surviving birds' songs.
"The nightingales..." Kinuyo whispered, continuing to feel Miho's reddish hair between her long and thin fingers. "The sound of the nightingale... do you hear it?"
"It's the lark, I think, that sings at dawn," Miho replied with a chuckle in her voice, her eyes closed, feeling the warmth of the brunette's body. "It's daylight, I can feel those streaks of light in the distance... in the East... night's over..."
"I think we should get some sleep instead of talking about birds, or else the day will be quite hard," said the brunette, a little chuckle in her voice. "I wonder what time it is..."
"Early enough for the day to come and for the larks to start singing..." Miho whispered. "It's never too late to sleep..."
They soon drifted off to wake up around noon. Dogmeat's barking drew them out of their dreams. Kinuyo felt her beloved's hand shaking her slightly and opened her eyes. Miho was gently looking at her, her amber pupils full of affection.
"Hello", she murmured, smiling.
"I wonder for how long we've slept," the brunette said. "What time is it?"
Miho glanced at the Pip-Boy on the nightstand.
"Half past eleven," she replied. "We fell asleep around half past five..."
"Oh, I think Alice must have got up. She always wakes up before we do. And even... we spent a rather active night, if you see what I mean..."
Kinuyo got out of bed, then got dressed. Miho did the same and went downstairs first. The brunette took the dogtag and the urn, then followed her. She stroked Hosomi's item with her thumb. While they were recovering their night, she had dreamed about seeing her and forgiving her, but had she really interacted with her late friend in her sleep or was it only a figment of her imagination?
When she sat down at the table while the ginger brought the rations like every day, she felt that her shoulder was being tapped. Kinuyo turned her head. It was Alice! Day after day, she became friendlier and friendlier. She said nothing, but had a shy little smile and her eyes were softer than before.
"Have you come to say hello?" the brunette questioned in a warm tone.
"Yes, I wanted to say hello, but I didn't really know how to come to you," the little girl whispered, still a little reserved.
"Just greet me and everything will be fine. You don't have to worry too much."
"Have you slept well?" the blonde asked, trying to get rid of her shyness.
Hearing these words, Kinuyo's face turned bright red and she couldn't help but be taken over by an uncontrollable laugh, that same laugh she couldn't contain after the first night she and Miho had made love, when Alice had spoken of vaguely having heard noise but taken this for a simple bird. Miho arrived at that moment and found her girlfriend doubled up on the table, unable to stop her laughter. She smiled and put a hand on Alice's shoulder, then laid each other's food.
"Yes, we slept well," she said. "Have you eaten yet?"
Crying from laughing, Kinuyo opened Miho's box of biscuits, then her own to distract her mind and calm down. The more the topic of sleep came in the conversation, the more she wanted to laugh from embarrassment. It did it to her every time the rather delicate topics were evoked elsewhere than in bed, alone with Miho. She was often the first to laugh when in Chihatan, before the war, the conversations went on this ground.
"I opened a can of tuna and I gave a little to Dogmeat. He's outside, if you're looking for him."
The redhead sat in front of her girlfriend. Alice went back to her dog. Miho looked very relaxed, far from all the stress she had experienced these past weeks. Even her complexion seemed to have recovered its true shade. Kinuyo felt like she was seeing things more vividly since everything had got better. The colors seemed more visible, it was strange to observe. What would the others have said? They would surely have thought she was crazy... or they might have adhered to her ideas on the sole pretext that she was popular among her peers.
Kinuyo remembered what Tsutsuji Tsuji, the former Chihatan commander who had left at the time of the reform and about whom she thought often, had once told her.
"Once you are loved by all, people will approve everything you say, but as soon as you disappear from their existence, they will forget you and come back to themselves. They are merely egoists and want to boast about being your friend. They actually hate you so much, because they envy you and convince themselves that they love you. That's why I act so harshly with most, Nishi-san. I refuse to be abused, but you are so kind... you're way, way too good for this world."
She regretted not having being able to see her one last time before the apocalypse. In fact, she was full of regrets despite the end of her major problems. Fukuda... the others...
She wanted to go back in time to make better choices. Refusing to be commander, first. Ensuring that Tsuji-san would remain in this role, even if it meant doing administrative tricks and having to bribe people at the risk that it would backfire later. Write that damned autobiography and some haiku. Remember the sukiyaki recipe.
She wanted to go back in time. She wanted so badly to have this ability, even if she had to cause a gigantic typhoon, or a murder, perhaps even a suicide from the roof of Chihatan's dormitories where she had her room: that person might have been well... herself, after the departure of Tsuji-san and being chosen as her successor! Or Kubota, who had hanged herself in the vault, might have died sooner! Nagura would have been taken away by the pneumonia that had failed to kill her a year ago! Ikeda would have been hit by this car that she wouldn't have heard coming .. Hamada would have made this accidental overdose that she had narrowly avoided... Hosomi and Tamada wouldn't have been able to prevent her from jumping from the roof... Her parents would have mourned her loss...
This would have saved her from questioning the real reason for her popularity, and it would have avoided all the stress and mental fatigue of having to command people who listened to her in rare occasions while she herself hated to command others. But she would never have met Miho, her source of happiness... basically, it was perhaps better that way, in this post-apocalyptic world.
"Is something bothering you?" Miho asked, feeling that something was wrong.
"I was remembering Tsuji-san, the former commander of our school. I miss her. In fact, I've always missed her since she was gone. I loved her so much... she had become my friend."
Astonished, Miho approached her and turned her gaze, showing that she was listening.
"Do you miss her so much?"
"Yes," Kinuyo replied. "It was someone who was very hot-headed, she was even stricter than Tamada and Hosomi, but was such kind... you would have had a hot-cold effect when seeing her. You'd swear she was even mean, but she just couldn't stand to reveal herself. She was a bit like me, on this point. She held back a part of herself, but not for the same reason."
"The way you describe her reminds me of Maho", the redhead whispered. "Maho keeps a cold front, but when she's with me, she's the most adorable person in the world. She must keep this facade, because the Nishizumi style is like that..."
"To tell the truth, few liked her. They were afraid of her. It wasn't that she was colossal, she was even a little smaller than most of us, but her voice was quite loud and very firm, she yelled at us sometimes. However, if you talked to her outside of tankery, you would have realized how big-heartedshe was. She shouted at me more than once, I have already cried so much because of how she was scolding me, but she was nevertheless a nice person. My friends loved her too."
Miho didn't answer, but her eyes were already saying long about her state of mind. Kinuyo knew she was listening and felt she was trying to imagine the situation. She resumed:
"In fact, she knew what would happen if Chihatan were to lose again... so she wanted at all costs to lead her school to victory, even if it meant being brutal. In the end, we lost anyway, and she was fired. She chose me as her successor... and when she left, she came to say goodbye. I hugged her, but when I had to let go, I instantly burst into tears and I turned to not see her going away, it was too much to bear. We stayed in touch until... you know, three... triple..."
"At least I hope for you that she is still alive... Or if she is no more alive, she watches over you. She reminds me in a way of Momo Kawashima... a member of our Student Council... they would have got along quite well."
"Oh, you know, even if she was still with us, I think I couldn't see her again. Because... because, in addition, we are very far away, and it's Maho that we must find. It's your plan that counts. It's you who leads the way, Miho. If I do the same and walk a long way to find her, I will do it later, out of respect for you."
Miho let out a light sigh and took her hand, then interlocked her thin fingers with her own, smiling, affectionate. Kinuyo felt the closeness increasing. She wasn't afraid that Miho would go away; she trusted her more than anyone else. Miho would never abandon her. They remained there some time before standing up. It would be soon time to leave.
Kinuyo went to take the supplies bag while Miho was waiting for her outside. Alice and Dogmeat were joining her. As the brunette got up with the bag, a shape appeared right in front of her. It was Tamada: it was probably the first time she appeared directly before her eyes! Her deceased, silent friend looked at her in a way that indicated she wanted to show her something. Tamada pointed her arm to Alice, then turned her gaze towards the brunette.
"What are you trying to tell me?" Kinuyo whispered, having trouble getting her.
With a wave of her hand, she pointed her finger to her heart. Tamada nodded. Understanding directly what had happened but still a little worried, the brunette contained her smile.
"Really? Is she going to...?" she muttered.
The ghost girl nodded again and smiled, a victorious look on her face. Kinuyo was dying to hug her, to jump on her, to cover her with cuddles and affection. She merely thanked her gently, knowing well that she was only going to hug air if she tried to hug her. Tamada had improved the situation, and thanks to her, things were going to get really better. That was one of the best feelings in the world. Kinuyo stepped outside and joined Miho and Alice, looking unusually joyful and revived.
"Well, have you had a revelation?" the ginger laughed, passing an arm around her shoulders. "One more?"
"I'll tell you about it later..." the brunette said, her lips showing her deep happiness.
Alice was staring at them, waiting patiently to leave. She no longer looked aggressive at all; she rather seemed to be wondering why Kinuyo was so happy all of a sudden. Had she seen Tamada as well? The brunette thought of it. Perhaps her late friend sermonised the little girl. After all, Tamada was very fond of her loved ones and couldn't bear to see them being hurt. Yet, despite the fact she was quite hot-blooded and impulsive, she had nothing wicked, nor even real violence in her; it was almost all bark and no bite. Everything came out often, she accumulated less and the explosions were rather effusions, like a red volcano. Alice seemed to never feel anything... she was always stone-faced. Knowing what it was to be someone who bottled up her anger, Kinuyo preferred not to imagine what would happen if the little girl were to get angry. Perhaps it would be much more explosive and destructive than her own violence.
The journey to Nimacho Maji seemed to pass quickly. It was a small village of the immense Shimane Prefecture where they still were. The whitish, sandy beach reminded them of all the places where they had walked until now. Their house for this evening had a very modern aspect: compared to some already visited, this one looked almost Western. Gray bricks, white roughcast. An almost square shape. The interior was very westernized. Wherever they had been, in any case, they had seen a western-ish interior, but which still had its Japanese influence. This one looked like almost like an European house inside. An example of Westernization. It was these same Westerners who had thrown three - no, five! - atom bombs on Japan... Kinuyo thought about it. She wasn't intolerant of foreigners at all, she was even very tolerant, but was beginning to feel some resentment towards America. They had scarred the country twice. She tried not to dwell too long on this idea and put the bag on the living room table.
When she was relieved of the weight, she felt the tension in her back suddenly relaxing, as if she finally realized the heaviness of what she was carrying. She sat down on the sofa, wanting to take a rest, and closed her eyes, letting her head fall against the back. She spent no more than a minute in this position, hearing Miho coming back downstairs and feeling something cold and wet touching her thigh. She opened her eyelids; Dogmeat was sniffing her hands and looked at her gently, his mouth open and his tongue hanging down. Kinuyo gently scratched his little head and let him climb onto the couch. The redhead, a little farther, watched them with a smile. Alice soon came; she sat down next to the dog.
"Aren't you too tired?" the blonde asked, sounding warmer than before.
"I'm fine, don't worry," replied the brunette, despite being exhausted. "I keep going, and I'm not about to stop."
"You're a true fighter," Alice whispered. "Like Miho. I begin to realize that I was so wrong... I've misjudged you so much."
"You've been slow to understand it, but we're always getting better, right?"
The little girl remained silent, then seemed to hesitate to do something. Dogmeat went down and came back behind her on the sofa. Kinuyo thought he had perceived her intention, but preferred to ask her:
"Do you want anything?" she said gently, not wanting to rush her.
"Coming from me, maybe it sounds a little weird but... can I lie down on your knees?" Alice murmured shyly.
Feeling her emotions set ablaze upon hearing this, Kinuyo nodded. She was truly satisfied. What she and Miho wanted long ago was finally there. Alice was acting warmly, friendly, almost like they were her true family. Alice put her head on the brunette's thighs and did not move. Kinuyo glanced a little farther. Miho had started choosing the evening's rations. She put a hand on the girl's little blond-haired head. Hosomi, Alice. Reconciliation. She thanked Tamada again and again, she had an irresistible desire to make Hosomi come back and talk to her.
"Pssht, Miho, look..." Kinuyo whispered.
The ginger turned. Alice was sleeping on Kinuyo's lap. The most unthinkable thing shortly before. She approached her lover and the sleeping blonde. Dogmeat remained behind and watched them, affectionate as ever. Miho crouched in front of them.
"She's sleeping well... I think we're all three very tired," murmured the redhead. "We'll have a good night."
"It's crazy how fate can change from one moment to the next..." Kinuyo replied, her eyes shining. "We are together, Alice opens up bit by bit... you know, I think more and more that we will find Maho."
"We'll find her," Miho said. "Certainly... it can only flow from the good things of this situation."
Having no room to lie down, the redhead told the dog to go down and looked at her girlfriend in the eyes, a loving smile on her lips. Things were back to normal, no more problems hovered over them... and for how long would this happiness stay?
Author's note bis : I just have to make a quick precision about Tsuji-san. She isn't my OC, I found her on Humikane's twitter, so I consider her as semi-official. It's nice to see the former commanders of our beloved schools. ~