Dog Days of Summer
By
DrummondType2
It was mid-August. Shizuru was miserable. While it was Summer Break, and she was between classes, she'd had to spend the morning doing meet-and-greets for her Father at the Fujino Group's main office. Her undergarments were damp with sweat, her blouse clung to her, and the tights she'd worn under her skirt didn't breath at all. She felt as though she'd been dunked in a swimming pool while still fully dressed. She at least had been granted the luxury of a company car to drive her back to her apartment.
She walked up the stairs to the apartment, five floors. She would have taken the elevator, but apparently it was down for maintenance. ("Terribly sorry, Miss," the technician had bowed his head, "The doors have been sticking.")
When she reached her floor, she was hot, she was tired, and truth be told, she was more than a little cranky, though only someone who knew her would have been able to tell.
Of course, she reflected, there was such a person waiting in the apartment. It had, after all, been that person's home first.
She opened the door, calling out in the sweetest, most honeyed voice that she could muster, "Tadaima, Natsu…"
She didn't finish, as she found a familiar white hooded sweater lying on the floor near the door. Shizuru ordinarily could overlook some of Natsuki's bad habits, and it was Natsuki's apartment. But the heat, the day, and the circumstances had her in a huff. She picked up the garment, balling it up, and stormed into the living room, fully prepared to put her foot down, especially since her greeting hadn't been reciprocated with the traditional "okaeri."
"Natsuki! How many times do I have to…urk!" Shizuru nearly choked on her own tongue as she entered the living room area. The vision before her eyes couldn't be real! Surely she was suffering the effects of heat exhaustion, maybe even a heat stroke! There was no way she was seeing what she was seeing!
She rubbed her eyes and looked again, but the vision before her stubbornly remained unaltered.
There, in front of her, Natsuki was laying back in a reclining chair, wearing only a pair of light blue panties and a towel draped over her shoulders, the edges just covering her bosom. Her hair hung like a cobalt curtain over the back of the chair, her milky white skin even more striking against the black leather of the chair. Her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell lightly. Her dainty toes were pointed out at the edge of the recliner towards the entrance to the room.
Shizuru blinked again, wondering just what was going on. Natsuki was not the sort of person who was given to wanton displays. Nor was she prone to parading around the apartment in any particular state of undress. Indeed, even as Natsuki had determined that she loved Shizuru in a romantic sense, she was still one of the most body-shy people that Shizuru knew. She insisted on turning the lights out before they made love, though the way she looked in the moonlight suited Shizuru perfectly fine.
Shizuru walked quietly over to the recliner, cocking her head quizzically. What had prompted this remarkably out of character display?
She noticed a couple of invoices on the table. She picked one up and read it. It was a repair notice for the air conditioner, bearing Natsuki's distinctive scrawl. And then Shizuru looked around the room, and she noticed that it was, apart from the sweater in her hands, remarkably free of discarded clothes. Books were in their proper places on the shelves. Dishes were washed and put away. And there was a faint gleam to the wooden surfaces, indicating that they'd been dusted.
Shizuru walked around to the head of the recliner, looking down at Natsuki's face. At those delicate lips, slightly parted. She felt herself flush, and that only reminded her of how hot and uncomfortable she was, but her discomfort was furthered by the memory of another time she'd kissed Natsuki in her sleep. Her whole body tensed with both longing and guilt.
"You're allowed to kiss me when you come home, Shizuru," Natsuki's eyes didn't open, but the corners of her lips turned up in a slight smile.
"Ikezu!" Shizuru wiped at the corners of her eyes, "Natsuki, to toy with me like this…"
"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Natsuki sounded sleepy yet, "But it's been a long, hot day. You should probably relax."
"Relax? With you in that state?" Shizuru near squeaked.
Natsuki cracked an eye open, then seemed to realize her state of undress for the first time, and her cheeks flushed scarlet. Shizuru smirked in a bit of self-satisfied reassurance. At least she could still provoke such adorable reactions from her Natsuki.
"And to what do I owe such an informal greeting?" Shizuru felt herself beginning to smile broadly.
"Well, after you left for your business meetings, I decided that since I'm on break, I would tidy the place a bit. And then, I realized that it was hot in here, so I tried to crank up the AC, only it wasn't working. I had to call the building manager, and he sent a repairman. Took him the better part of the morning to get it working again."
Shizuru noted that it wasn't as cool as she'd expected in the apartment.
"After he was done and all the forms signed, I needed a shower. I was soaking in sweat. But I have a lot of pricey stuff in here, so I wasn't going to step out while there was some stranger working on stuff. And I just sort of…drifted off after the shower I guess."
Shizuru leaned over the chair, embracing Natsuki, "I see. Well, my cuddly Natsuki is very beautiful in the all-together."
Natsuki gently pushed her away, "It's way too hot for cuddling, Shizuru. And, not to be crass, but you should probably hit the shower yourself. You're drenched."
Shizuru sighed, "I won't argue the point."
Shizuru went to the bathroom, only to find Natsuki following her.
"Ara, did Natsuki need something?"
Natsuki shrugged, "Company? I'll help you scrub up."
She helped Shizuru peel her sweat soaked garments from her body and put them in the hamper to wash later. Shizuru handed Natsuki her own sweater, "You missed a piece earlier."
Natsuki blushed, "I…uh…I forgot that I dropped that one at the door, huh?"
"I am inclined to forgive your oversight, in light of all your hard work," Shizuru cajoled, "And your assistance in showering."
Natsuki's hands were gentle as she worked the soap over Shizuru's skin. There was something remarkably innocent and chaste about the way Natsuki ran her hands over her lover, but Shizuru found a quiet appeal to it. That Natsuki would help her at all showed that she cared, and that her actions were so chaste suggested that they were motivated solely by consideration for Shizuru's comfort, and not just some lustful desire.
Once they'd finished scrubbing and rinsing, they stepped into the shower. Natsuki set the water, and Shizuru was surprised to find that it wasn't a cold shower, but a lukewarm one.
"Well, I'm not trying to kill your libido, Shizuru," Natsuki blushed a bit, "So I figured this would be just right."
Shizuru embraced her happily, "My darling Natsuki is always so considerate."
The sweat and grime gone from her body, Shizuru felt much more like herself. She and Natsuki toweled dry, and then Natsuki led her to the bedroom, where the two of them just lay in one another's arms.
"Truth be told, I'm still a bit too tired to properly thank you for the things you've done, today, Natsuki," Shizuru found herself fighting a yawn.
"Getting to hold you is all I really need," Natsuki shrugged. The nonchalant way she said it tickled Shizuru. It wasn't offered in the cheesy way one might expect in a romantic film. Instead it was more a simple statement of fact.
The two of them intertwined, holding one another.
"We can go out to dinner for your birthday, later on," Shizuru managed, even as her eyelids began to droop.
"Sounds good. Somewhere that does hamburger steak, yeah?"
"Sure. And ice cream, later?"
"Perfect for a day like this," Natsuki smiled, closing her eyes.
The two of them dozed gently for a couple of hours.