He came home one night to find her nestled into the couch, buried in a shojo manga, her face crimson. It didn't occur to him why she would look so flushed and, without thinking, he asked her if she was alright.
She nodded mutely, her eyes large and doe-like and her lips slightly parted. She glanced at him, and then, strangely, jerked her eyes back to the pages, hiding her face behind the manga.
The cover didn't tell him much, except that it was probably a high school romance, so he walked over and pulled it out of her hands.
She instantly protested and leaped up to take it back, but he turned out of her reach and glanced at the page she had been reading.
It felt like someone nailed his feet to the floor and punched him in the gut.
Who the hell was putting sex in shojo manga? The blood drained from his heart and pooled in low in his abdomen; he tried desperately to prevent an immediate hard-on, without any good success. His grip on the manga slackened and Kobato quickly snatched it away from him, diverted her eyes, and hurried to her bedroom to stash it away. She didn't close the door completely, though.
As if pulled by a string, he followed her, keeping his suit coat draped over his arm and in front of his waist to hide his sudden, painful erection.
"Are you embarrassed by that? You were reading it," he stammered.
She jumped and turned to face him. "No! I just… I didn't think you'd be home for another hour! And I thought you were probably embarrassed when you saw me reading it! And I was right! You are embarrassed, you think it's gross, don't you? I can tell – "
"That isn't true," he muttered, diverting his gaze.
"But you just froze when you saw the page, and now you think I'm weird!" She turned away from him, clearly upset, burying her face in her hands.
He sputtered, "That's even less true than the first part!"
"And you'd never want to do that with me –" she raved on.
He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out.
Wait…what? What did she say?
She realized he hadn't responded immediately, and flushing even harder, she darted forward to close the bedroom door and push him out.
"Just, never mind!" she cried, shoving at him. "Forget I said anything! Forget it happened! The girls at school were reading it and they said I'd like it, but I didn't know it had that in it, I swear! Just forget it!"
He dropped the coat and grabbed her arms. Kobato froze, and he shifted to cup her face instead, kissing her hard and slanting across her mouth, ignoring her squeak of surprise. But after a few seconds she became pliant, her body sagging so that he had to haul her up against him while also trying to keep his hips away from hers. Her mouth shifted and she cupped the back of his neck, her lips opened and their tongues brushed, and it was all he could do not to throw her onto the bed and strip her clothes off.
After a couple of minutes, he pulled back and muttered, "You're still too young. It's dangerous enough kissing you."
She whimpered against his mouth, cupping the back of his neck to keep him bent over her. "No one would know if we're here in our apartment."
For a brief second, the images of them sharing a bed, of her slick skin sliding along his, of her crying out as he pleasured her, swarmed in his mind. He released her as though she were electrified, grabbed his coat from the ground, and paused at her door with his back to her. He had to take care of his erection, but he didn't want to upset her, either.
"I want to," he admitted quietly. "But… you're only sixteen."
She countered, "Other girls are doing it…"
Oh, fuck. That wasn't going to help his resolve at all.
"But…" she went on nervously, "if you want to think about it, I understand. But, I wouldn't mind. You're the one I love…"
It was as if she knew what would whittle his resolve away chunks at a time. He sighed, smiled, and said, "And I love you, too." Then he slipped out to his room before she could go on.
It wouldn't be long though, he thought. Especially if she kept up the way she was.