Mayaka and Satoshi promised they hadn't abandoned the Classics Club, but while there was no intent to mislead, their actions told a different story. Since they had managed to talk and move forward together, all of their time not taken by Manga Club and the General Committee, which always seemed to coincide, was spent together. Not here. When Oreki considered the alternative, witnessing all the bliss of the happy couple, he found that he could bear their absence quite well. Being alone with Chitanda was… well, compared to the cringe that was a couple teens who had pined over each other for a stupidly long time… well, it could be worse. Probably.

So it was that every afternoon, he was on the fourth floor, quietly reading or dozing in his seat. If he had intrusive thoughts regarding how far removed the club room was, and how quiet the 4th floor was after school, and the fact that he was behind closed doors with Chitanda… he did not have these thoughts to dismiss in the first place. He simply assumed another boy in his place might. With that in mind, he couldn't ever leave before her or skip a day unless she caught him in the hallway to apologize that she was needed back home. He didn't have these thoughts but he knew they weren't hard to have. And, Chitanda was very nice to look at. Her figure was also… very nice. And her eyes…. Well, he did not trust any high school boy alone with her. Except him. Because he did not have those types of thoughts.

Except that one time at the hot springs, but as he had fainted he chalked this up to the effect of the hot water drawing his blood from his brain. He had been drained of any resistance to hormonal instincts. It just so happened that the only girl on the other side, other than Mayaka and she didn't count, was Chitanda. The noises were what got him. It wasn't that it was Chitanda. It wasn't that imagining her relaxing into the warmth was particularly stimulating. It would have happened with any female who didn't constantly seem to want him quite literally dead, or at the very least permanently removed from her life, or better yet to have never existed to begin with. Mayaka was not a girl in that way to him. She was more of a predator, and he wasn't into that. Was he? I mean, Mayaka was so not for him, but was having a girl act so boldly and assert herself so readily really a turn-off?

I guess it would depend on other factors. If the girl was pretty, and made cute noises and faces, and had hypnotizing purple eyes… maybe he'd be into that. No. He knew his brain hadn't had those thoughts, another part of him had. There was nothing to do about it except attempt to ignore the memory of the images that had been conjured in his head, by his… well… his other head.

All the more reason he had to stay with her in the club room. He knew she wouldn't give up on the club for any reason, and she decided that meant using the club room often. And once Chitanda decided on what she wanted, he had no way to sway her. At least, not that wouldn't violate his MO. It would be terrible energy wasting to try to argue with her. So he settled for relaxing in the club room rather than on his couch or in his bedroom at home and really it wasn't much of a loss. There was nothing that particularly drew him to the apartment he "shared" with Tomoe, other than his bed. But he could sleep anywhere, he mused. Maybe getting a pillow would be nice. Or a straight-up futon. I mean, what would stop him? But being on the fourth floor made carrying it up a deterrent even though he assumed he would enjoy the opportunities it would present. Immensely. Sleeping, of course.

The easiest solution was using his jacket. Which he did. Nearly daily. Sometimes he would spend time reading, not long, but he upheld the Classic Club.

—-

She should have been used to Oreki-san's habits. He had often rested unabashedly during club hours before now. It was nearly a daily occurrence. Why was it that now, she was so aware of him? His breathing. His hair resting over his forehead, obscuring his eyes. His occasional shifting and the way his mouth moved when he stirred. The satisfied … lip smacking followed by such a noise as would make anyone blush. It wasn't quite a sigh, or a yawn. There was too much… sound involved. He was clearly satisfied, blissful even. It felt almost wrong to be witnessing, and frankly experiencing, such an intimate moment with a boy.

He didn't seem to think it was anything odd. She was happy he was comfortable with her but knowing him, he would be fine sleeping just about anywhere. With anyone. Watching, with anyone watching. That was an upsetting thought so she never left without waking him, and never went home instead of the club room without telling him.

His sleeping face was more vulnerable than she would have guessed now she had had the opportunity to really take it in. His face. With her eyes. Gah. For some reason, once Oreki was well and truly asleep, she couldn't focus on her book. Or anything. Besides how the tips of his hairs brushed his eyelashes and how the sun outlined his form. When he vocalized, she couldn't think, let alone focus on anything at all. Her reactions were confusing but not … unpleasant. It usually involved some tingling and warmth, which had become less and less unexpected and disconcerting. It wasn't unpleasant. She didn't hate it. It's not like she waited for the sounds he made, or savored them.

Sometimes he looked so comfortable she was tempted to sleep with him. To join him. In his napping. She couldn't resist the pull much longer, so she gave in to the draw she felt to him. She sat in the chair next to his, not her spot across from him. It was the chair she happened to be closest to. Not because she had been staring at Oreki and decided she needed a better view. She just happened to be standing on his side of the table.

She put her arms up, mirroring his position, and put her head down, looking towards the door. Feeling him behind her was certainly an experience, especially hearing his steady breaths. She nearly sat bolt upright when he made one of his languid sighs. Her heart was beating fast as if she was startled, but that didn't make sense. He made those sounds all the time when he was around her. When he rested with her. While she watched him exposed on the table. Vulnerable. Only for her to see.

She couldn't get her face to cool and she felt oddly light headed, so she put her head back in her arms, facing Oreki-san for the sake of her constitution. She found she liked this position, when she could see his face clearly. The sensation was no longer evoked when he made noise. It was a constant buzz. She found it hard to breath deeply and decided she really would like to sleep with Oreki-San. She felt dizzy and then nothing.

—-

He woke up for some reason he couldn't fathom. He didn't think it was worth the energy to deduce the cause and kept his eyes closed, thinking there must be plenty of time since Chitanda hadn't roused him. Woken him up. Told him she wanted him to take her home. That she didn't want to be alone. That she needed him. To accompany her since the evening we're getting darker earlier and earlier. And she was a girl, as he was acutely aware lately.

It hadn't taken very long but he was on the edge. Of returning to his blissful rest. He heard her mumble something. And what was more he felt her hair tickle his arm. And her breath caress… tickle… his arm. He slowly opened his eyes without moving anything else. At least not intentionally. Some part of him was eager to be up, but it wasn't his executive function head.

It was a bit uncomfortable and he worried what to do if Chitanda woke up. But he was distracted by how her hair was splayed out on the table, how her lips were damp, and slightly open in pure relaxation, and how strangely expressive her sleeping face proved to be. He supposed he should have been surprised that she telegraphed her feelings so clearly in sleep because of how she was when she was aroused… awake. Crap, this was bad. Worse than the Living Doll Festival. He couldn't move, he could hardly breathe, and his uniform was feeling stuffy and constraining.

He was satisfied enough watching her breathe. Her collarbone rising and falling nearly imperceptibly as her lungs expanded and contracted. As her chest heaved deeply and slowly. He felt he should turn away, he really ought to turn away. If he thought her eyes were hypnotizing when she was staring at him, this was like past life regression level. He was in deep. He wished he were in deeper and in a more physical way. No. He wasn't prey to intrusive thoughts. No.

Then something happened that he almost wished he could forget. Or that it hadn't happened, at least when he could see her, because he didn't want it to NOT have happened. He was conflicted. But Chitanda made even cuter noises when she was resting with him. When she was relaxed. When she was taking a nap. It was sort of a hum. Her parted lips were closed momentarily, and he missed the sensuality of her teeth showing through the gap between her soft lips.

He must be a sound guy, he concluded. Satoshi had pestered him after a particularly embarrassing lesson on human anatomy years ago, telling him he HAD to have some inclination. There were two types of guys in the world, according to Satoshi, boob guys and butt guys. Satoshi had declared too proudly he was certainly a butt guy. Which made sense since his crush-now-girlfriend was basically a board. A guy wouldn't have to choose with Chitanda, he idly mused. She wasn't flat anywhere, she curved so softly everywhere he had seen, which was a lot considering the day he had spent working at the community pool. He supposed there were a few things, but he didn't doubt they curved deliciously as well. How many times did he have to say he wasn't one to have these thoughts?! Not about boobs or butts.

But the sound of her so near did things to him. He had to admit that while he was rational and apparently quite adept at the art of sed… DEduction, he was a 16 year old boy. No matter how gray he preferred his high school life to remain, there was a certain drive to experience certain new things. With, he secretly hoped, Chitanda. And her curves, boobs and butt and hidden places and all.

He couldn't take the sweet torture much longer and was about to resort to trying to get up and grab his stuff as quietly as possible so Chitanda wouldn't catch him. Stand up and gather his things. That's what Oreki-San thought stubbornly. He was not the kind to entertain thoughts about longing for a rose colored life. He wondered if other guys would fantasize about the possibility that she would look very much like a rose, in color, and in unfurling and blooming to the call of spring. He felt certain they would and that she did, and would bloom beautifully and smell… crap had his uniform always been so tight?

He didn't have to try to get up, he thought wryly. And it got harder. In every way. She had mumbled again, but this time he caught the word on her lips.

It was his name.

Houtarou.

This was becoming quite literally a pain. Not quite in the ass. But quite physically, all the same. He would have stood up but he didn't trust he had enough blood up top to prevent him fainting again. This time he couldn't blame an onsen.

He could get used to this agony. Or was it agony? Is this what agony was?

Perhaps he really was an M. He thought an M might think something along the lines of his train of thought. It hurts so good. I want her to keep me in such a painfully excited state.

Could he breath? He must be…

—-

She stirred and felt the tingling. This had started to happen more and more as she woke up so she wasn't initially all that surprised. She idly noticed she was resting on a table instead of alone I'm her futon. And that reminded her, she wasn't alone. She had slept with Oreki-San. In the club room. That gave her a thrill, thinking of doing something like that at school. She was too proper to nap anywhere she wasn't entirely comfortable and that had never extended past her home until she had found new comfort near him.

She suddenly needed to see him. She opened her eyes, and saw his face. It didn't look relaxed. Or asleep. Or fully satisfied. His eyebrows were furrowed. He was taking shallow and rapid breaths. She searched his eyes to make sure he was alright and he looked away from her and then right back at her.

"Are you ok, Ho… Oreki… -San?" The last syllable came out as a whisper. She felt that he was undressing her with his hungry eyes. She didn't really mind. Yes! Yes she did. She was the daughter of the Chitanda clan. She was not a lewd girl. Or she hadn't been until she learned she was excited to hear his noises. She must be a sound girl. She wouldn't think of a conversation she had had with Mayaka about what there was to appreciate in the male form. She didn't think of any particular part of the boy in front of her and didn't think she used too much effort focusing on his eyes.

Which looked strange, now that she thought of it. She's never seen someone's pupils blown up so much. Her cat sometimes would get that look and then dash all over with his tail all stiff and askew. His tail. She wondered if Oreki was in a similar state. What was a guys tail? She wasn't the type of girl to answer that question, regardless of if she knew full well.

But she was still curious.