🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨

🌸Off-the-Cuff Modeling, Part Three🎨

Written by EmtenDew

Edited by P. serrulata


Author's note:

ED: I know I said Chapter 65 would be the last chapter of the "spring saga", and that's after I said 64 would be the last chapter, but now 66 will be the last chapter.

After YET ANOTHER re-edit of Off-the-Cuff Modeling (it needed it, really), we decided to include three (technically four) story elements and Naoto/Sakura dynamics we were waiting to spread across several chapters in the future.

It made sense to include them in Chapters 65 and 66, as opposed to later. These also added about 5K words, hence the new break between chapters.

I'm sorry the chapter you're now getting was delayed this much, but a lot of stuff came up for both PS and me the last couple of weeks.

I've been a little burned out from work, and I wound up taking a break from the story for a couple weeks. I don't anticipate taking a long break again anytime in the near future.

I'm thinking about starting a totally new story, beginning with summer, but we're leaning against it. I'm still thinking though. The transition to a new story might cause difficulty. Sometimes it's a good idea, and sometimes it's a lousy idea.

I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN ANYONE'S THOUGHTS ON THE MATTER, REALLY.

Just saying. Contact me or PS.

Here's the list of the sections of the story I threw together last month:

SPRING SAGA:

Weekender Arc: Chapters 1 to 5

Monday After Arc: Chapters 6 to 12

Puzzler Arc: Chapters 13 to 18

Tutelage Triumvirate Arc: Chapters 19 to 24

Bluesy Ladder Arc: Chapters 25 to 31

Oddball Arc: Chapters 32 to 43

Brunchy Munchies Arc: Chapters 44 to 48

Spring Finals Arc: Chapters 49 to 66

SUMMER SAGA:

Doorway into Summer Arc: Chapters 67 to TBD

Dreamer's Arc: TBD

Please forgive the level of detail with the subject matter in this chapter and the next. I saw no way around it, Naoto doing what he is.

I hope it's not too uncomfortable, but you've made it through plenty of such material already.

My editor had to wade through it for many hours and keep it from collapsing, so pity him. I think a few parts of it make for clumsy reading, but stick with it.

I promise you that Naoto won't be thinking quite as much as he does in this chapter for a while. He gets lost in his own head for a fair spell. Expect more action ahead.

Also, I came across something funny in my notes I forgot about!

Some time ago, a reader was complaining about me writing about guys' testicles sometimes hurting when they get really scared or stressed out, quoting me once using "ouchie boo-boo scared nuts", and this reader wanted to know how I'd feel if somebody wrote " crampy grumpy pussy bleed" about girls. THEIR WORDS, NOT MINE!

It's gross, but it was kind of funny. I'd like to include something like that in the story, but I'm not sure how. I think I'll throw it to my editor and see what he thinks.

For those unhappy about the references to the Berserk series and Kentaro Miura, I wrote that material into the story before Miura passed, so that's that, and the story takes place in 2018. His staff is producing the story now anyway, and I imagine that they'll do fine with it.

In canon, yet another nothing chapter. Nanashi needs to do more with his GOOD characters.

Ask us anything, and we'll add a Q&A section in the next chapter. I would be happy if you ask questions.

Please enjoy what I wrote.


Friday, July 19, 2018

The last few days of "research" for his project had convinced Naoto Hachioji of many things, though he remained unconvinced in others.

Astrology and fortunetelling were fun, but science was far more appealing to him.

Nature vs. nurture was a concept older than the Theory of Evolution.

It was older than the study of genetics! Older than gunpowder! Older than the Roman Empire! Older than Spartan man/boy lovin'!

Whatever pair of hands a person inherited upon conception and birth was mostly genetic in nature—it was nature—but it didn't mean a whole lot in who or what this person became.

Whatever sort of hands someone was born with, nurture shaped the person, barring catastrophe.

Naoto had read in more than one place that a person could tell a lot about another person—sometimes the most important things—just by looking at their hands.

Whether a person had "fire", "Earth", "water", or "air" hands, it had little bearing on that person becoming a mechanic, a lawyer, a doctor, a businessman, a potter, a soldier, an artist

Strong or weak…

Nimble or blundering…

Hard or soft…

Working or idle…

It made enough sense to Naoto, the idea that someone's hands could shed light on their owner.

He'd also read about theories—if one could call them that—in the same vein, regarding a person's feet.

Genetics were genetics, but anyone might become an athlete or a couch potato or even a diabetic, and it would reflect in their feet, a person's grounding to the Earth below, regardless of shape or size.

That was as far as Naoto was willing to go when it came to men!

Looking further into the "philosophy of feet", when it came to women, a lot more had emerged.

Not only did a woman's feet tell one plenty about her—how well she took care of herself, if she took care of herself, if she was an athlete or a couch potato—they also reflected the woman.

Whether the latter portion was true or not, he'd read further.

It was a strange pseudoscience, somewhere among and approximate to biology and astrology and paganism, and it had sent his mind spinning.

Basically, there was a correlation between… something and something… and…

He'd given up trying to make sense of it.

What was noteworthy was the notion that a foot was like a woman's body, all the curves, angles, nooks and crannies and crevasses, different shapes and sizes and features, creating a totally unique form.

Just like every woman.

It didn't seem unlikely that this was one of the reasons why so many men liked women's feet.

The "science" of fetishes was as dubious as a diesel engine put together by a drunken blind person, but the above made as much sense as most things!

Though he'd never seen a proper citation, Naoto had read in several places that about 25% of men liked women's feet enough to fall into the "range" of fetishism. After that, the majority of men were okay with them, and most didn't mind them.

And such men were probably accepting of legs too. If not, it was like hating the bread part of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich… or something.

He certainly didn't understand his own deep-rooted predisposition connected to the lower appendages of the ladies or any of the specificities inclining him in the directions of "meh" or "full-flag erection".

He'd known half his life he liked legs and feet but was still figuring things out.

Despite the previous running through his head, Naoto wasn't allowing it to overwhelm his thinking.

It was there, but it didn't own him!

Whatever way, he was satisfied to be in control of himself, his friend Sakura Inori modeling for the aforementioned project.

The gal was sitting Indian style on the art room's big table, her hands palm-down between her crossed ankles.

Naoto sat at a chair in front of her, quite comfortably sketching this four-way junction of Sakura's ancillary parts at the table's edge.

This was alright!

Every couple of minutes, Sakura would pick up the second bottle of Mtn Dew left over from their dinner and take a sip, dutifully putting her hands back just as they had been.

Naoto had commandeered the auxiliary Pepsi…

For the sketch, he really liked the way this one was turning out!

Even more than all that crap about biology, he loved seeing the side of his odd research manifesting in the more artistic vein! He was learning even more and seeing SO many things "at work"!

Even the artistic side had a certain concreteness to it… Naoto tended towards this.

It could also be said that this piece was taking a while.

Sakura had contented herself to remain quiet for much of this time, relaxing, having enjoyed the udon the two of them had shared.

She wasn't impatient, but she was curious. "How's it looking, Senpai-kun?"

"I think it's going just fine," he said without reservation and even a little buoyance. "Wanna see? I could stand up a minute and show you."

"Nah, it's cool." She shook her head. "Don't stand unless you need to stretch or something."

He turned it down, "I'm okay… Are you, Sakura-san?"

"This isn't so bad…" she ho-hummed. "Back's getting a little wonky from leaning like this, but I'll be okay for a bit longer. Legs haven't fallen asleep, thankfully…"

"It won't be long," he guaranteed. "I'm almost done."

She grinned. "Sweet~… I kinda wanna finish this article I've been reading in my mag."

Her hands would be free for the last pose, it had been promised.

As much fun as they'd had talking, it didn't bother Naoto a bit that she wanted to chill with her magazine for a while.

He had no reason to complain.

This was maybe the best modeling session he'd EVER held!

"Just give me a couple minutes…" He scratched away at his pad.

Her grin broadened. "No prob."

Naoto had been pretty good that evening about not letting his mind drift, but he wasn't immune to it. Nor was he immune to becoming a mite antsy.

Whatever Sakura might've had going through her noggin, she was also falling into the same realm of restlessness.

Her disquiet was evident, the gal occasionally wobbling her knees, drumming her fingers, wiggling her toes, and budging her butt, all in the frame of the sketch.

It was good he'd be done soon!

Man, was that nail polish of hers wild!

A totally gonzo, iridescent indigo, Naoto couldn't recall seeing the crazy color on her before that week.

Among the girls he knew, Sakura was the only one to always wear nail polish, and she was the only one to stray outside the confines of reds and pinks.

They tended to stand out!

Able to give more commitment to the contemplations he'd periodically fallen upon in the last few hours, he…

Well, he gave those views a lot more time and thought!

They were mainly of Sakura… and her body.

Naoto could appreciate her body.

As has been made clear, all of his female friends were beautiful to him, and each of them had her charms, and Sakura was quite charming.

Those big, brown, soft eyes, set in her tanned face, curtained by her dyed, golden locks were a sight to behold compared to the tired orbs he'd first become acquainted with!

As usual, she had on too much makeup, but it was what he was used to.

That was just Sakura!

And he was okay with that.

Not to say he couldn't appreciate her in the raw, as rough as her features could be!

Habitually tanning did not do wonders for one's complexion or one's skin, no matter how regimented and carefully monitored it was.

A lot could be said about Nagatoro's complex of tan lines, gained from swimming, the beach, and just spending a whole lot of time outside, and Naoto got a real kick out of them, but the distinct absence of these lines on Sakura—the gal tanning artificially and in the nude—was a completely different creature!

For other things…

Compared to Gamo-chan especially, mostly legs, Yoshi to a lesser degree, and even Nagatoro when put to scale, Sakura did lack the willowy quality each of the other girls had, her arms and legs being relatively shorter.

He reasoned Sakura's sitting height might in fact beat out Yoshi and possibly match Gamo-chan's.

It wasn't a BAD thing or at all odd; she was just more "compact" than the rest of them…

And her proportions…

Her proportions were NOTHING to gripe about!

While she was decidedly big-breasted, she didn't quite stack up to the novelty of Gamo-chan and Yoshi, but… proportions!

Naoto could envision the hourglass figure at the core of every female, but there was no envisioning required in the case of Sakura!

Not for him!

The form was there for all to see!

He knew it was probably her more compact form than anything contributing to his own personal "golden ratio", but as far as he was concerned, her magnitudes pretty much knocked the ball right outta the park!

She was a FINE specimen of a young woman!

A couple things did stand out, not to say, enough to shock or even catch one's undivided attention.

He really only noticed because he was PAYING attention… and working on them.

Sakura had bigger hands than one might expect.

They weren't HUGE, but he was aware of them.

And Naoto was something of an authority on women with more ample features, knowing and working with the Prez as long as he had.

The Prez was over 170 cm in height, and other than her bodacious bazooms, wire-thin waist, Hellacious hips, and awe-inspiring ass, the rest of her was very much "to scale".

"…" Raising his gaze from his sketchpad, he further took in the view.

Sakura's hands seemed to at least match the Prez's in size; Naoto was able to surmise that.

She certainly beat out Gamo-chan!

He also well remembered the Prez's shoe-size, mainly because he'd assisted her in her own modeling and changing clothes so many times.

She did self-portraits garbed too, though her birthday suit was still her favorite!

Hinging on the brand and type of shoe, she wore a 23, a 23.5, or a 24.

And it wasn't like he was peeking into every pair of shoes he handed off to her, aiding in her "pursuits"!

It was that the Prez had no qualms in casually citing any of her sizes, and she complained quite a bit in this area, far more than someone so seemingly composed might be expected to.

But Naoto knew the Prez wasn't all that self-possessed.

She ruffled easily!

He'd definitely told Sakura how easily the Prez could be thrown off of her game!

With the Prez, her sufferings about shoes were invariably as prolific as her complaints about clothes.

This is too tight… I fill this out… It doesn't fit… I can't button this… These pinch my toes… I can't wear a bra with this… Does this make my butt look big…?

Granted, when it came to clothing—especially clothing—it was hard to find something that worked well for her.

It was probably one of the reasons she enjoyed freedom from her wardrobe so much!

"…!" Naoto again had to focus.

To bring to an end the tangent, he saw that Sakura had to be a size 24, at least.

Her feet were easily as big as the Prez's, maybe bigger.

It went without saying hers were bigger than Nagatoro's. And Yoshi's… And Gamo-chan's…

Gamo-chan was like the Prez, proportioned by way of her hands and feet.

Yoshi had rather petite attributes.

Nagatoro's distal portions weren't petite; everything was small because she was small.

Nothing about any of this was odd; people were proportioned differently, and their bodies were how they were meant to be, at least in the ABOVE ways.

Putting the Prez aside, Naoto was most familiar with Nagatoro's features along such lines, and he'd become familiar with Sakura's much more recently.

If he was to tell the truth…

He could certainly tell it to himself!

If he was honest about it, Nagatoro had the legs of a girl.

They were slender and cute—even pretty—but not particularly beautiful.

Those were his thoughts, and there was a reason for it.

Sakura? Her legs were beautiful… the legs of a woman!

They had a Heavenly, meaty quality to them, and… ya-hee!

There was no comparing the two of them, the two pairs of legs, that is…

Since Naoto had acclimatized himself the last few nights to the… world of feet, he'd gained a few more insights, and he'd found words to articulate what he knew and could see.

In what he was doing, there was just no escaping his thinking about it and all that went with it, and he thought about it more than a lot of people to begin with!

But he was working "in the field", so to say, and had reason to give the subject a non-casual level of attention.

He hoped being able to find and use the appropriate wording and terminology would normalize what he was doing, but it seemed to fall short.

He was quite unable to get over himself… and his propensities…

Regardless, feet came in many shapes and sizes, and while the shapes were designated Greek, Mongolian, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, etc., this didn't reliably correlate with a person's ancestry any more than the aforementioned pseudoscience of tying someone's personality or fortunes to the shapes and sizes of their feet.

As with hands, it was virtually entirely genetic in nature, and there was so much variability, even the paired hands and feet of an individual weren't mirror images of one another.

Naoto was able to categorize that Nagatoro had "square" feet, meaning her toes were fairly close to the same length but not too close.

Her feet were slender—as her legs were—and she had pronounced tendons and longish toes.

Bony but not angular, they were what they were.

Like her legs, they were… okay.

It was what Nagatoro DID with her hindlimbs and their add-ons that drove him fuckin' bananas!

"…!" Naoto shook it off. Keep it together, you dope!

Before the modeling session they were in, Naoto had seen Sakura's feet several times.

There was the judo tourney, a couple times in sandals, the beach, his house, and certainly when she'd "gone bonkers" in the park the previous Thursday.

He made a point of not paying too much attention to the girls' "below-the-waist", but he currently had an "alibi", considering what they were up to, and things came clear up close.

Hell, alibi, nothing; they were working.

Reaching this point, Naoto felt fortunate to be able suitably convey what was in front of him, as he might put into words the description of a face.

He hadn't done all that investigating for his own pleasure; it had purpose!

Sakura had what were known as "Egyptian" feet, her first toe slightly longer than the second, the rest scaling down from there.

Neither slender nor wide, her feet had toes he'd call average in length. Her tendons were less pronounced, and her arch was slightly lower than Nagatoro's but was by no means low, being medium-ish.

Tapering out from the heel, the foot was more rounded than pointed but not quite square.

He supposed he'd noticed the gal's shoes—like Nagatoro's—were generally more rounded in the toe than pointed.

Back to her tan, the palms of the hands and soles of the feet—the "padding"—didn't tan quite like other skin, but they did tan. In contrast to her overall tan, they exhibited a glowing pink not seen with Nagatoro.

"…" Naoto pondered. There was more…

Sakura's feet were immaculate, really.

There were no uneven nails, no cracks in the heels, no rough patches or calluses…

She was like a MODEL…!

"…?!" Naoto caught himself.

Jeez! He wanted to kick his own ass.

He'd allowed his mind to wander a little too far!

But he couldn't help but impress upon himself something:

He saw Nagatoro barefoot quite often. She knew he didn't mind (to say the least), in most cases, and she was inconsistent with teasing him in these circumstances.

But, Nagatoro's weren't his type.

Before his bit of intrigue into the area of human extremities, he hadn't really HAD a type, or rather, he was unable to define it.

That Nagatoro's feet weren't his type, it didn't matter much.

It WAS what she did with them and TO HIM that ruled him.

Barring all that, he was unable to avoid the conclusion:

Aesthetically, Sakura's were nicer.

Sakura… was more beautiful in nearly every physical manner.

It hit pretty hard.

She WAS more attractive than Nagatoro…

But it didn't confront him.

He loved Nagatoro.

And he hadn't fallen in love with her for her body.

But she WAS pretty! There was just SO much more, and these were so much more important!

Sakura was his friend.

Naoto was still good and nervous, doing what they were doing, but he trusted Sakura…

And she seemed to trust him…

Despite what was in front of him, he wasn't turned on, at least not in the same way as with Nagatoro, though there was a certain sort of inspiration felt.

Sakura was his friend!

Instead of having to fight off a hard-on the entire time he was working with the gal, he really did feel a professional sort of confidence…!

He was… fairly comfortable!

This was for the sake of art, and he was SO blessed to have a friend who would help him in something so "suspect" and not give him killably unwarranted shit about it.

He'd been afraid he'd get all hot and bothered, sitting where he was and sketching what he was, but he hadn't!

This didn't bother him, not really!

Senpai-kun…

He dearly wished all modeling sessions could be this pleasant!

Senpai-kun…?

He felt this was some of the best work he'd ever done, sketching the human form.

Hey, buddy, you in there…?

"Huh…?" Naoto gasped lamely.

Sakura took on a look of amused horror, slouching over her lap. "You okay over there, little dreamer~?"

"Sorry… I spaced out."

"I know." She arched her back. "You were just sitting there."

"Sorry…"

"Seems you were gonna drop your pencil~," she speculated. "And start drooling~…"

He felt foolish, reflexively wiping at his lip. "How long was I doing that?"

"Not long… Maybe about 30 seconds. You slowed down for a moment, and then you stopped drawing."

Grumbling to himself, Naoto looked over the sketch.

"How is it?" Sakura leaned forward again. "Getting close?"

He was!

"I just need to add a couple more lines… shade one or two things, and we'll take a final break."

She resumed the pose. "Sure. All that soda's making itself known, so that sounds good."

The gal had sucked down a good liter!

"Same here…" Naoto supported.

He needed to take a leak as well…

"I wanna see this one once you affix it, after we take a breather," Sakura said amiably. "You were really into this one, Senpai-kun~!"

It was some decent work, so said he!

"Try to hold still…" He cracked a smile.

Putting up her best Mona Lisa impression, if the enigmatic lady was a bewitching, blonde gargoyle, she froze. "…~"

Chortling at the silliness, it only took a minute to finish the piece.

"Thanks for being willing to do one last sitting for me, Sakura-san," Naoto praised his friend. "This one won't take long. I hope… You've been a real trooper about this."

She simpered, nestling into the sofa, "It's all good; I agreed to it. I can deal with a lot when I'm well-fed. This has been kinda nice~."

He thought the same thing!

"Yeah…" Naoto had pulled the small table over, wanting to work off its edge, and he sat in his chair with his materials. "That was kinda wild, ordering in like that."

"That was fun, Senpai-kun~…" The gal was flat on her back, fingers laced behind her head; she glanced his way. "So… what did you wanna do for the last one here?"

"Well…" Organizing his makeshift workstation to his liking, Naoto chewed it over. "There's a pose I found online, but I haven't been able to find it again…"

He'd saved some of the "less unsavory" images he'd come across, hoping to use them for reference.

She asked, "You remember it though, right?"

"Yes, definitely."

It was quite the image!

"Just describe it to me." Sakura rolled to her side. "That's half of what you've been doing tonight anyway."

She wasn't wrong…

Naoto responded, "Alright."

He was more than decent at describing a mental picture!

Or so he thought…

A moment or two of explanation hadn't gotten them far.

"Hmm…" Naoto… just couldn't figure out how to explain it.

Sakura, sitting up with her lower back to the armrest, wasn't getting frustrated, but she sort of was. "Myeh… Let's just do something else, Senpai-kun…"

She'd followed all of Naoto's instructions, but he couldn't find what he was looking for.

He didn't want to make a big stink about it, but the moment he'd seen the image, he'd really wanted to render it.

"Just lemme think, Sakura-san…" he implored. "Sorry about this…"

He still really wanted to render it.

The pose he had in the forefront of his brain and on the tip of his tongue…

If Nagatoro presented herself as such, he'd probably leave the room as a cave, bleachy stalactites hanging from the ceiling!

But he had loftier goals than such petty onanism and imitating the formation of lifeless deposits, eons of mineralized water going drip, drip, drip.

For the pose, "structurally", it was the sort that offered numerous elements…

Similar to the position Sakura had held moments before, her hands at her ankles, it gave a… good overall picture

Speaking of the gal, she picked up her magazine, opening to where she'd been. "Just say when…"

Hopefully this wouldn't take long enough for her to make any headway!

As she began to read again, Naoto ruminated, "Mm…"

What he wanted her to do wasn't all that complicated, but what he'd gotten out of her just didn't match up to what he pictured…!

Reclining in his chair slightly, he reasoned they'd gotten a lot done—more than he'd hoped for—and it might be best to just call it a night.

But to miss this opportunity…!

It was a sure thing he'd find the image again, browsing his internet history at home, but he knew he might not have a better chance at this, using a live model.

It hadn't taken Naoto long to realize an unpleasant truth:

What he was engaging in with Sakura?

There was no way to ask Nagatoro to do this…

There was no way he'd have been able to master himself, focusing on and reproducing likenesses of that which drove him to the verge of nonfunction.

He wouldn't be able to use Nagatoro's help in this capacity, not for modeling feet!

How he'd deal with that in the future was for another time.

But he still had options.

The Prez would do it…

But he didn't want to ask the Prez.

He'd worked with Sakura for several hours, and he wanted to see it through.

He wanted more.

"…" His eyes unfocused, Naoto wasn't looking at anything in particular.

The girl on the other side of the little table crabbed, dropping her magazine in her lap, "Okay, now, I'm getting a little creeped out…"

Naoto blinked, returning to awareness. "What was that?"

"You're staring, Senpai-kun…" Sakura cautioned.

Indeed, he was seemingly eyeballing forbidden territory, and he immediately focused on her face.

How many times had she chided him about keeping his overly interested eyes off her legs?

"Sorry…" Naoto said, knowing he'd heard it a fair few times. "I just spaced out again… Didn't mean to… I was just thinking…"

He wasn't about to argue, though was a difference between him OGLING her and observing her for his work.

But he happened to think he didn't really ogle her much to begin with, though he couldn't blame her for keeping an eye on him, knowing what he liked and not enjoying too much "southerly" attention paid to herself in the first place.

Sakura was already back to her magazine. "…"

Naoto didn't wish to take advantage, but he used the opportunity to observe.

He wasn't being a leg-lech!

Within a couple more seconds, he established one of the problems, and seeing enough, his gaze left the gal.

The experience he was attempting to emulate had been performed on a hard, flat surface.

Seeing Sakura's toes and heels pressing into the sofa cushions, now plainly enjoying whatever she was reading, only drove the point home.

He felt somewhat dumb for not thinking of this earlier, but it hadn't mattered with the other postures.

They needed to get back to the big table… Sakura sitting on the table beat the two of them working on the floor.

"Uh, Sakura-san?" Naoto spoke.

She looked up from her perusing, a happy little smile present. "What's up?"

Oh, he didn't want to see that smile go away!

And he hoped it wouldn't. "Would you please get back on the table?"

His voice had lamentably wavered, but he knew he was asking a lot and not feeling great about it.

(Un)surprisingly, Sakura sneered, hooting, "Again…? My bottom kinda hurts~."

B-b-bwaah!

"I'm… only asking because I think it's the only way that'll work…" he gulped. "I'll try to make it quick."

He couldn't believe he was trying to persuade her, after what she'd been through already.

She eyeballed him impassively. "…"

Oof!

Naoto refused to push any more. "But if you don't want to, really, it's okay. We can do something else or… we could call it a night… if you want…"

The young artist didn't wish to trail off, but his resolve was going, and he hung his head, mumbling.

His drive was finally losing momentum.

"Whoa, hey, Senpai-kun, I'm only messing around," Sakura hurriedly returned.

He raised his eyes. "Huh?"

She muttered, "Sorry… I thought it'd be kinda funny… I thought you might play along."

"…!" He hadn't realized.

"…" She'd only been kidding, remorsefully twiddling her thumbs.

He might've seen it, but he was tired and a little too invested for jokes at this point.

"I guess I'm just a bit burned out, Sakura-san…" he capitulated. "It's been some week."

Slowly sitting up, planting the soles of her feet on the tile, she exhaled. "I know… Me too…"

"…"

"…"

"So…" Naoto began. "You wanna do one more…? I'm totally serious, if you've had enough of this, that's completely alright. You've been a big help, so…"

Thus, he trailed off again.

But Sakura twinkled. "I'd be good for one more~."

"Really~?!" he gibbered, hopping out of his seat.

She giggled, backing away from his outburst, "Yeah, it's cool."

Holy Hell, yes! Naoto wanted to jump up and click his heels.

Drive, nothing! He had a fire lit under him now!

New life had been breathed into him!

Next, Sakura became more serious, though there was no hiding her good humor. "But… really, my ass is pretty sore. I'm kinda stiff all over, so let's please make it quick."

"You got it!" Unsure of what made him do it, he offered a blush and his hand.

Her face going a jiff pink, she smiled and took it. "This had better be something interesting… the way you're stumbling around over it~."

Naoto balked. That was a questionable thing!

"I, uh… I guess I'll let you decide that…" Shaking with what must've been excitement, he pulled her to standing.

Regrettably, there wasn't much for the gal to decide on, other than the notion her butt going numb was even less comfortable than a sore butt.

Naoto still wasn't able to get "the look" correct!

He'd described it in all the ways he thought he could and had again come up short.

Leaving Indian style, Sakura sat, hugging one knee, the other leg stretched out, waggling on her heel.

The hard table was no comfort on anyone's bony ankles…

"Dude…" she (not without justice) protested. "I'll do this for you, but you need to give me something."

She might've been ready to quit…

Naoto saw no other way.

He had to ask.

Nagatoro…

In the autumn, when she'd tried to break him playing that stupid game, getting him to put her stockings on her, she'd been the one to break, not him!

He'd been ready to do it!

And he'd been ready to give Sakura first aid the night this whole thing with her began, and he'd had a clean mind about it!

What he'd done with Nagatoro—what she'd done to himthat was dirty.

She'd literally stepped all over him a few times!

But the things he'd done with Sakura, none of it was dirty!

There was nothing lewd or vulgar about giving someone first aid!

What's more, he thought she was a very pretty girl!

And there was nothing disgusting about the human body or appreciating the beauty of it!

There was nothing filthy about real art, and he was a real artist!

He wasn't some pornographer!

However, he did overthink things…

Not overthinking things was something Naoto hoped to improve upon.

So, he didn't think. "Could I show you?"

Yikes!

Based on experience, his trying for decisiveness was also something to be taken in steps, not leaps and bounds.

Afterall, he wasn't always the best at easing into things…

Sakura cocked her head. "Show me?"

He affirmed, voice a bit shaky, "I can picture it exactly like I want it, so… I think I can show you."

"Okay…" She blinked. "So, what? You'll sit on the table and show me?"

I wish I'd thought of that first! He cerebrally upbraided himself. That would be easier!

He hadn't considered this possibility, but it might've been in vain.

He wasn't flexible enough anyway!

"Uh… no," he maneuvered, his gaze to the side. "I'm asking if I can… uh, touch you."


Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading!