To continue writing as much as I have until now, I ask for your support. Even tweeting about it helps.
Become my Patron on Pa treon dot com/Kuugenthefox
There are perks and you might even get me to continue writing a discontinued fic!
Disclaimer: You donate for me to have time, not directly for fanfics but I use my time for fanfics.
Dissonance
Event XVI
Redone
The night was almost eerily quiet on the dark team, none awake for longer than a few seconds at a time, just enough to groan and be aware of their injuries. Few shared the bed with someone else. Ako was in Urara's room, she herself not sure why exactly, sleeping right next to her. Nagisa and Honoka had been brought to different beds, both of them too beaten to wake up before morning, if even then. The same held true for Mai and Saki.
Kanade had not once left Hibiki's side after she woke up, unwilling to leave her alone while injured. Moonlight, Rouge, Dream, all three of them were closer to a state of being merely passed out than real sleep. Those three shared that condition with Sunshine, who had yet to recover from being hit by Windy's Stormflair ability.
The healing had not been complete, and the entire day had been one great disaster. The negotiation had been left unattended, the exile run had been one-sided, and the fight had turned into a massive free-for-all brawl controlled only by blind, murderous rage. It had been a bad day for everyone.
That included the light team. The only ones still aware were Love, Setsuna and Ellen, all three of them a little creeped out by how quiet everything was. Of course it was quieter at night than it was during day, but with everyone unconscious and injured, it was almost like they were the only people there.
While Love was running checks on everyone in their rooms, hoping she would find everyone just fast asleep, Setsuna and Ellen were prepping a small and somewhat frugal dinner for the three of them. Fried rice with mushrooms.
"Was... it like this too when I was in exile?" Ellen couldn't help but be curious about it. Even her fear of knowing could not drown out her desire to ask.
"We noticed the hymn only in the morning and it didn't do more than sap a little strength from everyone. This is a thousand times worse. I wonder what happened to make the fight go that much out of control." Waiting for the rice to be done, Setsuna watched Ellen cut vegetables into pieces, afterwards frying them. "Does this remind you of back then?" While she said back then, only about three days had passed since Ellen arrived on their side.
"A little. To see all the others so beaten... It makes me afraid to think that my hymn could have caused all these things to go wrong." The sound of chopping stopped for a few seconds before it resumed, a little slower than before.
Walking up behind her, slowly hugging her from behind, both her arms around Beat's waist, Setsuna smiled a little. "The hymn was just for Love and me, nobody else. There is no way it could have caused this. By the time you sang, the problem already existed. And it was the other side who didn't send someone to the negotiations. They couldn't have heard you."
"You've been with Love for a long time, I can tell." Ellen cheered up a little, genuinely believing in what Setsuna said.
"A few years. Not as long as Inori or Miki of course, but I still know her better than those two." There had been nobody, for years, that she held more dear, or cared about as much, as Love. Ellen was already important to her but still not quite like Love. But it wasn't a contest to begin with.
"She rubbed off on you. Saying those things is exactly what she would have done, don't you think so?" Ellen had trouble keeping working while Setsuna was holding her like that but she indulged in the pleasure of being like that a little.
"Maybe. What do you think Love?" Looking over her shoulder, at the door, Setsuna had noticed her partner coming back, having finished her round of checking on everyone.
"I wonder about that. Setsuna has to work on her timing." Walking over to the two, leaning against the small closet next to the work space, Love had a small grin on her face. "But she is right. There is no way you caused this. To begin with, I don't think you even could cause something like this if you wanted. Today was a disaster."
"Love, Setsuna, I appreciate you two cheering me up, but I kind of can't work like this." A little smile returned to her face just as the two shrugged and backed off a little, hungry enough to postpone everything else to later.
"What worries me is that this might not be over just yet. The healing didn't work as usual and the entire place was filled with mist. We don't have any idea how this place works, so who knows if it will return to normal tomorrow." Setsuna had learned quickly that hiding these worries would only make Love pry them out of her as soon as she noticed. And she always noticed quickly.
"We'll see that tomorrow. For now, we can't really do anything except eat and go to sleep. I didn't even fight and yet I feel really tired." Stretching, Love's neck creaked twice, as if she had stared at the same thing for hours.
"You looked after everyone and kept checking on them, of course you'd be tired, silly." Both of them said no more after that. Regardless of how hard they tried to get a more cheerful mood going, it wouldn't work. Worries about tomorrow and the others stopped them dead in their tracks.
The rest of the time cooking was spent in silence, with Ellen starting to hum the melody from her hymn after a while, Setsuna and Love trying to join but constantly getting off-key. Sitting down at the table with just the three of them seemed even more lonely than it already was, so they ate in the kitchen as well.
"Do you cook for yourself Ellen?" Love was impressed by the taste. She wasn't a particularly good cook though she had a few dishes she did well. Setsuna did better in the kitchen by far.
"I learned cooking to thank the people who took me in. Otokichi, that's Muse's grandfather, and of course Melody and Rhythm. I'm not that good yet." Visibility embarrassed by telling those two, Ellen started to stuff her face with fried rice as fast as she could.
"No, no, this is really good. I'm pretty horrible in the kitchen except for a few dishes." As if to confirm it, Setsuna vehemently nodded, earning a scolding look from Peach. "You don't have to agree that much Setsuna. I'm just not good at any traditional Japanese food."
"That one time she made something that wasn't Hamburgers, it tasted like wet cardboard. I even tried to help her improve, but no matter what I do, if Love cooks Japanese food, it always tastes like nothing." Shaking her head in disbelief, the girl couldn't believe just how bad her partner was at japanese cuisine.
"I was starting to think Love can do anything, but it seems like she's got her flaws too." Holding her plate in one hand, the spoon in another, Ellen was leaned against the front of a tall shelf, which was mostly empty right now. Setsuna to her right, leaned against a wall, Love to her left, sharing the shelf with Ellen.
"Of course I can't do everything." Getting two spoonfuls of fried rice, Love looked first at Setsuna, then at Ellen. "Not alone." Both girls smiled and blushed a little.
"Is there anything you're bad at, Setsuna?" Curious about Setsuna as well, Ellen found herself really relieved that there were things those two couldn't do.
"Transportation. You should see her when we ride a train, or a boat. She looks like a beaten puppy." Love wouldn't get her get away with telling Ellen about her cooking. "She also can't stand green peppers."
"You can't stand Carrots! And I can teleport, I shouldn't need to ride a train, or a boat!" Setsuna's face was flushed red. Love had promised never to tell anyone about her weakness. She was truly horrible at handling transportation. Being on a car was her limit. Riding an airplane was something that haunted her.
"You two really know each other well." Giggling quietly, Ellen put down her plate, done eating. She had barely done that when Love put down her own dish and hugged the girl from behind, poking her cheek playfully.
"Soon, it'll be we three know each other really well." Picking a rice corn from Ellen's cheek with her finger, Love quickly let it vanish between her lips.
"I didn't expect you two to go along that well." Setsuna was watching Love hang on to Ellen, teasing her a little, petting her head. There was an obvious seductive undertone in her voice, making clear what kind of getting along she meant.
"If I didn't know you so well, I would have thought you were jealous of Ellen." Letting go of the blue Cure, who had to catch her breath and calm down a little after being in so close contact with Love, Peach walked over to Passion, who was pretending to pout. It was so painfully obvious, Ellen secretly added acting to the list of things Setsuna was bad at.
Caressing her neck for a few seconds to get her to smile again, Love kissed Setsuna, Ellen watching from the side, thinking how nice they looked together. Others made nice pairings too, but those two were a little special. Like they were definitely meant for each other.
Deep in thought, Ellen found herself surrounded in a heartbeat, Love in front of her, laying her arms around Ellen's neck, Setsuna behind her, laying her arms around Ellen's waist. "I can guess what you were thinking just now Ellen."
"You should be a magician Love, reading people's minds like that." Setsuna playfully added before leaning against Ellen just a bit, not enough to reenact what happened earlier in their room.
"You belong to us now, just like we belong to each other and you. You shouldn't think things like they look really lovely together." Even Setsuna had been able to tell that much by the way Ellen was staring at them when they kissed. It wasn't a particularly new thing either. She had done that a few times already.
Both of them moving at the same time, Love kissed Ellen's left cheek, Setsuna her right. "You and Setsuna look just as nice as Setsuna as me. The same goes for you and me." Getting a little too close, Love could feel Ellen's chest on her own, raising a bit of excitement. She hadn't slept or even made out with Setsuna ever since Ellen joined their side.
"Don't ravish her Love. Keep yourself in check." Setsuna rebuked her partner with a single line and look. Love's eyes had a passionate glow about them, like she just wanted to jump in bed with both of her partners.
"Did I ever ravish you when you didn't want me to?" Giving her partner a challenging look, Setsuna smiled wide. "Don't forget you're a really bad liar." The smile got a lot smaller and Setsuna clicked her tongue, making both Love and Ellen laugh in the process.
"I completely forgot... what are you bad at, Ellen?" The three of them separating, Ellen's face was no less red that Setsuna's had been when Love revealed her weakness. The idea of sleeping with Love or Setsuna was a little too much to handle for her at the time.
"I'm..." Looking down on the ground and trying to hide her face, Ellen was suddenly embarrassed to admit it. Hibiki, Kanade, Ako, most of her other friends as well, knew about it, so why was she so reluctant to admit to those two. They wouldn't think less of her, regardless of what she was afraid of. "I'm... afraid of ghosts. I get scared really easily."
"Aw, that's so adorable. Ellen's a scaredy-cat." Love didn't care that Ellen groaned at the pun and Setsuna simply shook her head. It had taken her years to understand Love's sense of humor even the tiniest bit. She still didn't make sense of the jokes and puns, but at least she could tell when Love was making one.
"So... don't leave me to go back alone. It's really creepy with everyone passed out. Who knows what else could happen after today." Fidgeting a bit, Ellen grabbed Love's hand, suddenly a bit creeped out by the empty living room and the hallway. She was really bad with very dark places too.
"Don't worry. If need be, we'll carry you like a princess. I carried Setsuna like that a few times, I don't mind." As if to show Ellen what she meant, Love picked up the red Cure and carried her in her arms, Setsuna looking quite comfortable if a little embarrassed.
If that was how a princess was carried... Trying to imagine what it would look like if someone tried to carry Ako like that both scared and amused Ellen, knowing that Ako would definitely object to it at first, even if she liked it.
"You can let me down now Love." Setsuna wasn't really in the mood for silly antics, no matter how much she would have liked to be. "Should we go to sleep?" There was just a second pause during which Passion looked at Peach before she said the last word, avoiding saying bed, just to make absolutely sure there would be no making out or anything.
"Shouldn't we at least clean up?" It wasn't a huge mess they had left behind and Ellen didn't like to leave the kitchen untidily, no matter how little the mess was.
"Can you two take care of that then please? I'll use the time to go and check on the others one last time." Deep down, she also wanted to get a little time off to cool down. Ellen and Setsuna were both beautiful girls, and the last time she had gone this long without sex or even making out had been before they started traveling. She didn't doubt she could keep her hands off Ellen and Setsuna, but it didn't hurt to go to bed without feeling like she wanted to jump Setsuna.
"There's no reason to be scared of Love doing something. She really meant it when she said she'd never do something you don't want." Setsuna was washing the dishes and the cooking utensils while Ellen dried them with a towel, putting them back on the shelf.
"I know. Were you nervous when you two first..." Ellen was a little troubled by topics like these, always trying to find the right words.
"We first slept with each other? It happened rather spontaneously so I had no time to be any nervous. Love was really gentle and caring and I eventually had to push her because she was being too considerate for once." Handing Ellen the fry pan, Setsuna let out a slight sigh. "Love has really great insight in what people feel, but she has her limits too. That's why she's almost too considerate in bed at first. I'm sure she'll be like that too when you feel ready. You don't have to feel forced into it, just open up to her naturally. That's how it went between us, too."
"I read in a book that-" Ellen didn't even get to finish her line before Setsuna giggled and shook her head.
"With Love involved, you can throw everything you know from books out the window. There's nothing to be afraid of, I can guarantee you that." The last piece dried, the two waited for Love to come back.
"I wish I could tell Hibiki and Kanade about this. It's the first time I haven't seen them this long. I miss them a little." Just leaning against Setsuna made Ellen feel comfortable. Love was really nice to have around as well, but she still preferred Setsuna just a bit.
"They're bound to come over here eventually. Or we will have to go over there. Since everyone else is asleep, we couldn't really pick a runner for exile and there was nobody today, so I'm not sure what is going to happen. If any of us three has to leave, the other two will go right after that. If they pick Love as the runner, we'll go after her as soon as we can."
"I don't want to get stuck in exile again..." Ellen shuddered at the thought but felt better when Setsuna laid her right arm around her waist, pulling her a little closer.
"You're a bit of a special case. I don't think anyone will want you to be the exile, so you're probably the only one that has this extremely small chance to get stuck. Maybe if you trip, fall over and knock yourself out cold." Setsuna leaned her head slightly against Ellen's.
"Please don't joke about that." Ellen's face turned to a furious red, having done exactly that once before just before she had to go on stage.
=== Dissonance ===
The morning after was as bad as they came for most of them. With few exceptions, they all had their injuries, some that couldn't be labeled scratches and bruises by any stretch of the imagination. The team surrounding Dream was in particularly bad shape, with Dream herself unable to even walk or get out of bed on her own. The spots on arms and legs where she had been pierced were mixes of blue, green and purple, a simple touch enough to send Nozomi to a world of pain.
Rin took it upon herself to bring her some food, despite being in bad shape herself. It was pretty much everyone for themselves that morning. Nobody was in good enough shape to prepare breakfast for all of them.
Nozomi had been horribly depressed, barely eating anything, just staring blankly at the ceiling. Rin couldn't imagine what went through her head at the time. Her consciousness overridden with rage and blood lust, her actions that of a berserker, just like everyone else.
The power she had been given to protect others, the things she held dear... to use that power to arbitrary destroy... That was something she couldn't forgive. Whatever was responsible for forcing everyone into a massacre like that was evil. There was no way to argue that. Finally about to cope just a bit with the direness of the situation, something like that happened.
She had to do something about it. But this time, she had to think three steps ahead. She couldn't screw up like before. Not only would she be in real danger, for even Rin would not defend her if she created another huge mess, but she also didn't have the time to just try and fail countless times. Who knew when the next battle was starting, and if it was going to be even worse than what they lived through yesterday evening.
Others had their doubts too. Muse, lucky enough to hear Lemonade's warning and stay away from the outside, was caring for said Cure. The matter of being comfortable around her or liking her completely left alone, she wasn't as cold-hearted as to leave Urara to her own devices after going through an ordeal like that.
"Good you didn't get caught up in this. That was the most horrible thing I ever experienced. It was like someone controlled my body by remote, wildly mashing buttons and directions. Even wild beasts in rage had more control than we did." Chewing a bit of bread, leaning against the wall, most of her body bandaged, Urara brought Ako up to speed on the events.
The young girl secretly thought that the bandages over Urara's left eyes were rather cool looking, but she would never mention that to the yellow Cure. She'd only let it go to her head and start talking nonsense again.
"What scares me is that this happened so suddenly. Something went wrong and we were suddenly in a situation where all of us could have died. It could happen again tonight and we won't even know." Urara looked at the sandwich she was holding as if it could answer the questions that went through her head. "Is it going to happen again? Do the rules even apply right now? Can we do anything to stop it?" And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
"It's not like you to be all worried." Ako sighed, turned around, her back towards Urara, her eyes glued to the ceiling. "I'd expect you to be all aloof about this, telling me you'll figure out something."
"That's quite an impression you got of me there. I would've done that if this wasn't such a fucked up situation. I'm not keen on the whole laying dying in a pool of blood thing, you know? I'd actually like to live to see what you're going to tell me when you found an answer." Under other circumstances, she would have teased the black Cure a bit, but that was not quite an option with every last bit of her body aching and whining just from sitting up and walking to the bathroom.
"I'll handle negotiations today, if there are going to be any. I'll press for a one versus one, just in case. Don't make a mess of the room while I'm gone."
"Not like I could even if I wanted to. I can sniff your pillow, that's okay, right?"
"Pervert." Ako managed to control her embarrassment and avoided blushing. The idea of Urara laying there and really sniffing her pillow was kinda ridiculous and yet completely in the realm of possible. If her interest had been shallow or just a spur of the moment thing, she would've gotten sick of it by now. So at least one thing was clear. Urara must be seriously interested in her. That still didn't change that she was unable to make up her mind whether she should even think about what she should answer.
Three short knocks on the door got Urara to push herself up, whine a bit from the pain and walk to the door, opening it like it was natural. Rin was standing there, not in the least surprised to see her long time friend in Muse's room. She had fully expected to find her there.
"How are you holding up?" Checking on her friends was something she didn't want to neglect, not in a situation like this.
"Better than Nozomi, I can tell that much by the gloomy look on your face." Urara quickly leaned against the door frame, not interested in putting any stress on her body beyond what was necessary.
"Everyone looks gloomy right now. You do, too." Rin hated how Urara could read her expressions like they were long paragraphs, filled with details.
"You have this particular 'Nozomi problem' look to your gloom. Not like it takes a Sherlock Holmes to guess that. Given what happened, I'm surprised this whole place hasn't gone to hell because of her doing something rash."
"She's an idealist, stop making fun of her. You know I hate it when you do that. And she's not stupid either. Well... maybe sometimes. She can't even walk or eat right now, so she won't be doing anything, not today, probably not even tomorrow."
"Is anyone at the table right now?" Muse intruded into the somewhat somber conversation, and despite the cold look Rouge gave her, she remained calm.
"White and Black were there a little while ago. They look pretty roughed up, just like everyone else. I'm gonna go back to bed. I feel like a beaten puppy." Rubbing the back of her neck, Rouge groaned. She really was feeling like someone far beyond and above her own strength had used her as chewing toy. Turning around, waving for a second, Rin returned to her own room.
"I'll go and see if negotiations are happening today." Ako didn't bother turning around and just left, leaving Urara behind, alone.
Things were quiet and calm around Muse and the others, compared to one specific other area in the castle at least.
=== Dissonance ===
It was difficult to find the right words to even comprehend what was happening right around her. She knew only three things for certain. One, she was the exile. Two, the exile effect was not working. Three, she was still alive, for pain was raging through her head. The dead wouldn't feel pain.
The ground vanished in one moment completely, making Windy drop in free fall, only to be reshaped into something completely differently seconds later. The walls, the ceilings, walls, rooms, objects... whatever controlled the reshaping of the place was completely out of control. Not even the laws of physics applied normally. Reversed gravity, water that flowed backwards, stones that exploded only to reassemble themselves in defiance of time itself.
It was an impossible feat to complete to even count the numerous changes. Trying to stay alive, trying to avoid getting caught in a solid wall or crash on the ground after seconds of free fall, Kaoru was worried what in the world had happened on the outside. The exile effect had worn off a few hours ago, and she knew vividly what exactly she had been believing, seeing.
Being thankful for the chaos seemed misplaced, yet, if that saved the others from facing a murderous, blind dog of a dark lord that didn't exist anymore, then she couldn't very well despise whatever was happening.
The shifting finally came to an end, with Windy suspended on the ceiling, gravity reversed, when the place took the shape of a abhorrently complicated maze, reaching as far as she could see. Dark and only lit in some of the larger convergences, it was difficult to make out the size of it all. That it was three-dimensional, stairs reaching above and below, walls acting as ground, ceilings acting as walls, didn't make things easier.
Fully expecting to be tormented by the exile effect again, Kaoru was ready to knock herself out cold again. But nothing happened. The place was laying dormant, idle, quiet. Almost too quiet. Finding her way to one of the larger crossings, Kaoru sat down below one of the torches. Only the sound of her steps, her breathing and the burning of the torches disturbed the otherwise perfect silence.
There was no exit or entrance to this place. No logic or design. A chaotic, randomized maze with no purpose other than to entrap those getting caught in it. Her own situation was, all things considered, quite good. The exile seemed to fail to function properly and while the area before had been horrible, she now even had a torch above her, so it wasn't all that cold.
She was much more worried about Mai, Saki and Michiru, who were on the outside. And there was no doubt about it. Something must have happened to cause a mess of such proportions. The absolute lack of communication was a thorn in her side.
It wasn't until her worrying started to cause her a headache that she realized that this, by itself, could be the exile effect. Serving under her creator was a terrible fate, yes, but imagining to be caught in a maze, possibly forever, without knowing what was happening to the three people she cared about was every bit as bad. That she was apparently in full control of her own mind only made it worse.
The more one tries not to think about something, the more likely it is that they will end up thinking about exactly that. Countless scenarios of horrible possible events that could have had happened to those three went through her head. She was too smart for her own good.
=== Dissonance ===
Breakfast had been a lonely activity for the light team as well. They've had their fill of excitement for a while. But things were far from over. Initially, it had been Love who wanted to go and negotiate, though Setsuna seemed like a better candidate because she was more level-headed than her partner.
As Peach and Beat stayed behind Passion, literally, and those three were waiting at the gate, they kept waiting in vain. First five minutes passed, then five more. Despite being the one appointed to hold negotiations, Setsuna couldn't feel a thing. No point in the future had any special feeling about it like it did when she had participated in a fight.
After twenty more minutes, they gave up. The gate kept laying dormant and lifeless, without as much as a hint that it would ever budge again. Setsuna, losing her patience, even kicked the gate out of frustration when she thought Love and Ellen weren't paying attention.
Returning to the living room, they found Marine lazing around, half on the table, her blue hair a massive mess, in dire need of a comb. From the looks of it, she hadn't come out of Cure mode since that last battle.
"Ah... I shouldn't have done that..." Erika was not so much just being lazy as deep in thought. "If she finds out, she'll bury me and use me as fertilizer for the flowers." The designer was knee-deep in trouble.
"Shouldn't we ask her whats wrong?" Ellen didn't feel comfortable just walking past her on the other side of the table. Even someone blind could see that something was troubling her.
"Now is not the right time to pry. I don't think it's really as bad as she makes it look, too." Love looked at the blue Cure from the corner of her eyes, seeing the expression on Marine's face. That was not the look of someone in real despair or suffering. An act for herself.
The time to pry never came as the source of Marine's anxiety entered the room. Just the steps of her boots on the ground startled Marine enough to make her jump up and slowly back away from the table and the approaching apocalypse. "Erika...? What's wrong...?"
A purely rhetorical question. Setsuna only needed one look at her face to be able to tell what was wrong. That icy smile, those almost closed eyes. Blossom was furious. People that exerted their anger like that were the most dangerous of all. Getting loud and letting it all out was the easiest way to set things right.
"H-Hey Tsubomi... I can explain." Erika swallowed hard and looked for a way out but the only exit was blocked by the pink Cure. "I was really tired... and I was just kinda saying what popped into my mind! I wasn't thinking!"
"Well excuse me for not looking like Itsuki." The tone of her voice was a very clear and simple signal. The trio had already taken cover in the kitchen, not eager to get into a quarrel between teammates. They must have had worse to sort out, so they would be okay.
"I was thinking of work at the time! You can't hold this against me!" Marine was backed in a corner while Blossom came slowly closer, seemingly unimaginable punishment in store for her now-partner.
"You think about work when you cuddle with me?" Blossom's eyes were mere slits now, her pupils almost invisible. Love was shaking her head. Marine seemed to be good at a lot of things and now she added stepping on verbal landmines to that list.
"Are those two dating?" Ellen wasn't very good at recognizing such things.
"It feels that way, but if they are, it hasn't been long. They certainly didn't give off any vibe like they are yesterday." Love was staring at two girls that looked at her with wide eyes.
"I've always thought this Love, but are you some kind of person Esper? Talking about them giving off some kind of vibe... what do they look like to you?" Setsuna was curious what Love would answer.
"Just trusting my gut feeling." The answer was so very simple that Setsuna let her head hang, sighed and didn't bother to further pursue the matter.
"Do we just keep hiding here until they leave? It'd be really awkward to come out now and walk past them..." Ellen wasn't keen on getting involved into the quarrel. Being in the middle of Hibiki's and Kanade's fighting all the time was more than enough.
"I agree with Ellen, there is no way we'll get past unnoticed." Setsuna wasn't eager to test out just how long or short a fuse Blossom had. She was still injured, but that didn't seem to bother her much at the time.
"Let's just wait here then. They're gonna be done any moment."
The three of them watched in silence as the catastrophe turned out to be a dud. Marine was almost covering when Blossom simply grabbed her ear and pulled her away, Marine whining and complaining about her being innocent. "If that had been Melody and Rhythm, the room would be a mess now..." Ellen wasn't sure if the other two understood that she wasn't joking.
=== Dissonance ===
It was the late afternoon, long past time for lunch when the living grounds returned to life, and the wounded were coming out of their rooms, going about what was now their daily lives.
"That was a horrible experience..." Komachi twitched every time something touched her wrists, even if it was just Karen's hand. "I never want to go through that again."
Mint and Aqua found the air in their room to be pretty stale and they had gotten sick of just laying around. Despite more than half their body each still hurting with every step, it felt good to leave the room, even if they were just taking a short stroll together. Bearing it and keeping her mouth shut, Mint still held hands with her partner, their fingers intervened, not too tight yet as close as they could possibly be. Neither of the two really dared to lean against the other, both of them knowing well that it would result in both of them falling over.
"You can say that again. It was bad enough to make me wish I had been in exile at the time. There is no one there to fight, so at least I wouldn't feel like I went through spartan combat training." Karen preferred to keep her fighting smart and short. She wasn't really all that useful in a mindless brawl like that.
Walking down the hallway, towards the living room, they went silent for a bit. Talking didn't hurt, but there just wasn't too much to talk about. When they passed Blossoms room, they heard a little bit of Marine laughing and making a horrible pun. They couldn't hear the pink Cure, but there was no doubt she was there as well.
"Seems like Marine is already up and brimming with energy again." Komachi smiled a little as she looked back at the door.
"That girl has so much energy, we could probably power a whole city with it." Karen rolled eyes and earned a giggle from her partner. She wasn't too good at making her laugh with funny things, but that didn't stop her from trying.
Arriving in the living room, they found Passion and Beat there, as well as Luminous and Berry, the last three playing dress up with Passion. The long, flowing pink hair was put up in a ponytail, fixed with Beat's hair pin.
"You wouldn't think that we all went through a life threatening situation not even twenty-four hours ago when you look at them." It wasn't that she disliked it when others were a little carefree. She was just jealous of it.
"I think it's good that they can adapt like this. If everyone kept being moody because of where we are and what is happening, it would be twice as bad a place." Pulling Karen with her, Komachi sat down at the upper end of the table, a few chairs away from Passion, who looked like someone who wanted to be saved. It was odd that Peach was not with those two.
"Say Karen... I've been thinking about writing another book while I'm here. And I thought I'd model the main character after you. It'd be a story in medieval times, with a woman pretending to be an effeminate man who is a traveling knight. Do you like the idea?" Komachi blushed a little as she explained her rough idea to Karen. She usually talked such things over with her editor without much trouble, but for some reason, she got quite nervous with her lover.
"I think it would work a lot better if this was taking place in japan. Instead of knight, make it a samurai." Being honest with Komachi was something she wouldn't stray from, not even for her work. "I do like the idea of a woman taking a role like that, even if she has to pretend to be a man."
"Samurai had a really strict code to follow, so it'd be pretty hard for a woman to pretend to be one. Knights wear heavy armor that conceals a lot."
"Not all knights did." Karen wasn't that well informed with medieval ages, but she did know a bit. "Cavalry was usually not that heavy armored. The knights in full body armor were mostly heavy infantry, right?"
"This isn't going to be a historically accurate work Karen." The gentle smile on Komachi's face made Karen blush, knowing that she was being a little too critical without knowing the exact circumstances.
"You're really going to write a book here? Are you gonna wish for a computer?" Karen was a little worried that her love with waste a lot of favor on something that came with too much running costs.
"Just some paper and a pen. A lot of paper, maybe. We'll be here a while and I always wanted to try and actually hand write a full script." Komachi blushed again, never having told that anyone. Her voice also got quieter with every word, "script" a quiet whisper.
"Imagining you sitting on a wooden table, with a candle or an oil lamp, hand writing a manuscript... it's a beautiful image. You won't mind me watching, will you?" Karen was well aware of how mind numbingly boring it would be to watch someone write without reading what they were writing but she didn't care. And she would tell Komachi exactly that if she put that up as argument.
"I've never had someone watch me... I wonder if I won't be too nervous to work if you're right there." Komachi played with a strand of her hair, the area around her nose a fierce red, surprised that Karen took such a deep interest in her work.
"Maybe I could play some music for you when I get a violin. Or massage your shoulders." Covering her mouth with her right hand, averting her eyes a bit, she added, just barely loud enough for Komachi to hear, "Or help you relax after you're done for the day."
The two of them didn't realize that they were being watched from the distance. Pine, a little bored with herself, had looked forward to talking to Aqua, but seeing the mood those two were in, she didn't want to intrude. But it was becoming a problem. She didn't notice at first, but she felt a little jealous of Mint now. Aqua was someone with whom she could be completely herself. She didn't have to pretend to be not as smart as she was with her.
And yet, being that smart, she couldn't stop herself from thinking that if she had a chance to go on a date with Karen, she'd surely hit it off. But there was absolutely no way she could do that. If she really wanted to, she could probably throw a wrench in their relationship, but... she wasn't that kind of person. There would be other people she could date. It didn't have to be Karen.
"Dammit... I feel like a truck ran me over. Twice. While loading ten tons of lead." Kurumi was swaying from one side to another, unable to even walk straight. A thick layer of bandages was wrapped around her forehead and her right hand. Her eyes looking like those of a dead fish, with thick black lines below them, it was quite obvious that the last night hadn't been a good night's sleep for her.
"You look terrible Kurumi." Hikari was quick to leave Passion to Beat and Berry and check on her friend. "Maybe you shouldn't walk around yet."
"If I have to stay in bed any longer, I'll go mad. And I feel twice as terrible as I look." Letting her head hang, Kurumi almost threw herself at the blond girl, both her arms wrapped around Hikari's neck, she was somewhat hanging down from her as opposed to hugging.
More dragging than carrying her to the table, Kurumi felt too tired to even greet anyone. "My hand feels like it's broken... and swollen." Resting her head sideways on the table, her words coming out somewhat muffled because of that, Kurumi kept on complaining about her condition, all the while Hikari kept listening, occasionally patting her head.
"That's a cute pet you got there." Setsuna, whose hair was now tied in double twin-tails, much to Berry's and Beat's amusement, was trying to make a joke. Thankfully, Rose jumped right on it.
"Great idea. If you're going to feed and pet me, I'll wear a collar for you any day." Kurumi was just prolonging the joke a little, assuming that Hikari was well aware of that. Instead...
"That... could be problematic." Looking to the side and blushing a little, Hikari wasn't really sure what she should say to get out of that situation.
"Hikari... it's a joke. Don't take it so seriously. It's embarrassing." Pulling on Luminous' sleeve, Rose shook her head. "I wouldn't wear a collar. Not for anyone. I'm not a dog."
"Are you two still not satisfied?" Setsuna was paying some attention to the giggling that came from behind her. Her hair was all pulled up and bound together, looking sort of like a palm tree.
"Sorry, sorry. It's just... you have such long hair, it's so easy to do all kinds of styles with it. Right, Ellen?" Miki got along just fine with Setsuna's new partner. She was a much nicer girl than she had expected.
"I want to stop but it's so hard. I promise I'll comb your hair later." Ellen had a hard time keeping her laughter in check.
Turning around, as if a sixth sense had told her, Setsuna looked at Love, who just came back from the showers, her hair still damp. "Love... save me. Those two are horrible." Pointing at Miki and Ellen, Setsuna was abandoned by her other partner as well. Breaking out in laughter as soon as she saw palm hair Passion, Love could barely stand.
"Fine." Starting to pout, Setsuna crossed arms and legs and refused to look at both of her partners.
Ellen was showing mercy and undid the palm top, letting her hair down, thinking that they have had enough fun with Setsuna for now. "Poor Setsu." Hugging her from behind, Ellen was testing the water of whether Setsuna was okay with being called a nickname.
"I wish I had a photo of that just now." Love had finally made her way over to the three, sitting down on top of the table right next to Passion. "Are you already feeling okay Miki? No scars left from the injuries?" For someone in the model business, scars would be a huge problem. Love knew that much.
"As you can see, it's fine. I hope you didn't mind me substituting for you. It looked too interesting to pass up." Miki sat down on the chair to the right of Setsuna, looking at Love. "But you two are really amazing. Even knowing you, I didn't think you would really go through with... this, you know." Nodding in Ellen's general direction, the girl busy combing her partners hair, Love smiled.
"It's a first time thing for me too. I couldn't really imagine sharing Setsuna with someone before, but Ellen fits right in with us two. It's not just Setsuna that likes her, I do too."
"You two are hogging all the romance. There's none left for the rest of our team." Miki was joined by Inori now, who sat down on the table behind her teammate. "Isn't that so Miki?"
"You could say that." Her romance wasn't going all that well. Yuri still hadn't given her a decisive answer and she was still on the other team as well. Her luck in love really sucked.
=== Dissonance ===
"Everyone's looking really down." Nagisa was resting her head on the table, her arms crossed below her chin. Watching the others go about their business wasn't all that interesting, but she couldn't really get herself to do anything else. She was still hurting all over the place.
"That's to be expected. Considering what went down yesterday." Right next to Black was Bloom, who was in a similar position. "Mai took so much damage that she's still asleep in our room. How are things with you and Honoka?"
"She's taking it easy for today, reading a book and staying in bed." Nagisa didn't catch that Saki didn't quite mean her condition.
"Was Honoka angry? About yesterday night." The two couples were close friends, so it was natural to worry about that. Saki felt still guilty, but there was nothing they could really do about it now.
"Not the way you think. She's not blaming anyone in specific for it. I think she's relieved that it wasn't someone else. That would've been even more awkward than this." Looking over at Saki, Nagisa showed a brief smile. "To be honest, I don't think it's all that terrible. On the occasions we went out together, you must have seen Honoka naked at least once or twice. At least when we went swimming at night."
Saki appeared to be lost in thought for a few seconds, then she remembered. "Ah." Nodding twice, she recalled what Nagisa meant. "The same goes for you and Mai. And of course, we each other... speaking of that, now that would've been difficult to explain."
"What, you sleeping with me? I can't even imagine how that would turn out." Letting out a small and quick laugh, she shook her head. "I don't think we're in any danger of that happening. Unless we're stranded on some snowy mountain and it's the only way to stay warm."
"That sounds like you really dislike that idea." Saki was a bit surprised by how far Nagisa went to rule that possibility out.
"I know you pretty well Saki. We look a bit alike and even our personalities are somewhat similar." That was what Honoka said anyway. She herself would've never thought about it like that. "I can't really describe it well but thinking about sleeping with you gives me a really wrong feeling."
"We've gotten drunk together before, but I don't think we ever accidentally switched partners." Saki got up, her neck starting to hurt a little, and stretched while yawning. She was feeling a bit restless but at the same time, incredibly tired. "Maybe it's the fault of this place."
"Do you remember that night at all?" Nagisa got a little curious. On one hand, she didn't really want to know, since it was essentially asking if someone else remembered sleeping with her girlfriend, but then again, it was Saki, one of her best and closest friends.
"Fragments at best. It's all a big blur. The only thing I really remember that makes sense is me kissing her neck." Unintentionally blushing, Saki felt like she should remember quite a bit more. Honoka and Mai were both beautiful, and it felt like an insult to just forget about it.
"Same as me. I know it was wrong and everything but I kinda wish I'd at least remember... Honoka seems to remember quite a bit. I can tell by the way she averts her eyes every time this topic comes up." Getting up as well and leaning against the back of the chair, Nagisa let out a huge yawn, attracting the attention of Sunshine at the end of the table, who just wanted to be amongst people, no matter who. Walking over to those two and sitting down across Bloom, she already felt a little better, just being able to talk to someone.
"Lack of sleep?" Itsuki really craved some company right now. After getting out of the exile, the immediate horror was gone, but the thoughts were still in her head. Trying to get rid of them proved to be much more difficult than she had thought.
"Exhausted, rather." Saki was the first to answer. "How about you? You look like you've been awake for days by the size of those bags under your eyes."
"Not sleeping well? You came back from the exile, right?" Showing a little concern, Nagisa managed to make Sunshine smile just a little.
"If I had known it was that bad, I wouldn't have volunteered to go." Shaking her head twice, Itsuki lowered her voice a little, looking at the table surface. "I've been scared of things before but this..."
Nagisa felt guilty since it was Honoka who left Itsuki behind. But there really was no good choice in such situations. Either outcome was pretty horrible. "Honoka was the one that left you behind, so I'm really-"
"Don't bother apologizing. If she hadn't left me, it would've been either Beat or herself. I can imagine that's not an easy choice. And saving yourself when you barely know the other is the obvious choice. We might be allies but there's no sense to sacrificing yourself in this case. Though I'm still happy you wanted to apologize in her stead." Itsuki didn't want undeserved pity but she felt happy that Black cared enough to apologize even though it was her own partner who was saved because of it.
"I don't like the idea of leaving someone behind in exile. I can't even imagine what I would do if I had to chose between two people I know really well." Saki wasn't eager to ever have to deal with such a situation.
"What I don't understand is the why the exile still exists at all. Everyone but Dream pretty much agreed to fight, and I don't think that is going to change." Nagisa figured that nobody was in favor of the exile persisting.
"There could be any number of reasons. Maybe it produces dark energy. Maybe it's just so we use our favor to get past the effect. We don't really know anything about it or this place, do we?" Itsuki was becoming depressed again.
"We know a bit. It's not all bad, is it? Unless something goes wrong, the life here is by far not as bad as it could be." Saki tried to cheer up Itsuki a bit. "We can talk to each other, we have free time, we're usually healed after a battle, we even get rewards for doing well. Sure, it's still somewhat like a prison and arena, but there's nothing we can do about that."
"I wonder what my friends back home are doing... I hope they keep the dojo clean." Not keen on talking even more about the place they were in, it all bringing back memories of the time she was in exile, Itsuki changed the topic to something more casual.
"You work at a dojo?" Nagisa was a little interested in martial arts. Not enough to be member of any club or dojo, but she had taken a few courses in various types of martial arts.
"I remember the last time you dragged me with you to one Nagisa. It wasn't very entertaining for a complete amateur to fight someone who had been taking classes." Saki didn't hold a grudge but she had sworn never to go to a dojo with Nagisa again.
"I run the family dojo. We have our own style. Originally, my brother was supposed to become the head of the dojo, but he's..." Spending a few seconds in her thoughts, looking for the right words, Itsuki started to smile a little. "The gentle, academical type. Not really cut out to run a dojo. He was sickly for a long time so I had taken over out of necessity and by the time he recovered, I loved the work."
"You fight right in with tomboy Black here. She was playing lacrosse for a while but then she got more and more into sports. She's a total muscle head." Laughing and pointing at Nagisa, Saki had the favor returned twice over.
"Says the woman who's been training for a triathlon." Getting up and grabbing Saki from behind, Nagisa tried pulling up her top to show Itsuki that Bloom was definitely the more muscular one from the two.
"Stop it... you..." Saki was unintentionally blushing, knowing that Nagisa was absolutely right. Comparing the two, she was clearly more athletic and muscular, though Mai didn't seem to mind a few muscles here and there.
Nagisa finally succeeded in pulling Bloom's top up when Lemonade and Muse joined the room. "Free peep show?" Urara's remark made both Muse roll eyes and Black let go of her friend. "Some people really have no shame at all."
"You're the last person to ever say that Urara." Ako's comment didn't quite reach the other three but Lemonade's reaction made it quite obvious that Muse had said something.
Itsuki kept quiet until both Lemonade and Muse had vanished into the kitchen, apparently on a quest to fill their empty bellies. "She's really difficult to deal with." There was no mistaking who she meant.
"Everyone has their quirks. Her's are just more annoying than others." Saki still retained a bit of blush in her face, paying close attention to Nagisa's hands. She didn't want to be half stripped in public again.
"Hey. You three want something too? I was gonna make pasta." Lemonade's head poked through the small window that connected kitchen and living room.
"Sure." Food that came without any effort involved was a no-brainer for Nagisa and Saki.
"I'd like some too." Itsuki was a bit more humble about it, but thinking about pasta did make her stomach growl.
As if the topic of food being made attracted the others, Melody and Rhythm showed up seconds later, holding hands and smiling at each other, making Lemonade groan in annoyance. She'd end up cooking for everyone at this rate. And Ako would make a big fuss if she backed out of it now.
Shaking her head and shrugging, Urara resigned herself to her fate, for now. But she wouldn't go down alone. "Get the pots and boil some water for now. I'll take care of the sauce." Issuing orders to Ako, the black Cure didn't even try to get away. A little kitchen work wasn't something she was afraid of.
"You don't talk to your teammates much. Had an argument with them?" Cooking was, as far as she was concerned, incredibly boring. So she'd quiz Ako about her private life a bit.
"What makes you think that? Not everyone likes the noise those two make." Dishonest as usual, Ako didn't want to say that she simply preferred to be with Urara. There was no way she could say that. It would go straight to that woman's head.
"Nothing in particular, just curious. I'm allowed to be curious about the private life of the woman I want." That was a matter of fact statement, not a question, not even a rhetorical one. Ako twitched when she heard her say it and Urara noticed that too, grinning.
"I noticed this before but you're really weak against bold stuff. It's kind of cute." Focusing on the sauce for a bit, Urara quietly waited for the inevitable reaction to that. It would come, she already knew the girl well enough for that.
"It's still a mystery to me why you're so interested. What about me is it that-" Ako dropped the still sealed pack of pasta she held in her hand when Urara suddenly held her from behind. Urara's mouth was touching her neck, her right hand right below her breasts, so close, she had to be able to feel her heartbeat. Using her other hand to grab Ako's wrist, Urara blew some hot air on the taller girls neck.
Absolutely refusing to let out even a single moan, Ako resisted as well as she could, but it was a losing battle. When a few seconds passed and she didn't make a noise, Urara moved her right hand further up, feeling the black Cure up. Just as Ako's mouth opened in surprise, the yellow Cure pulled her around, sealing her lips with a briefly lasting surprise kiss.
"I'm not gonna answer that question again and again. Or maybe I just did? Who knows." Grinning and laughing a little, Lemonade poked Muse's cheek with her index finger. "Stop the surprised look. This isn't the first time I kissed or groped you. Just get used to it already."
That was much easier said that done. Below the mature facade, Ako was still just barely in middle school. It was incredibly hard to keep up with Lemonade, even for her teammates, even more so for someone that was five years younger.
"The water is gonna boil over." Casually pointing at the whistling pot with her thumb over her shoulder, the vocalist got back to making the sauce, leaving Ako to her own devices.
"You're horrible." It was the only thing she could get out. Her face looked every bit the color of the tomato sauce, and she'd rather wear a pot on her head than throw her pride away and look at the woman, blushing as she was.
"I know, I know. It's part of my charm." Doing away with the complaint so easily, the teenager sighed in complaint and gave up. There were many people she could deal with, some easier, some harder. But Lemonade was too much for her. Whatever they did together, it always turned out like this.
"Ako, do you want some help?" Kanade poked her nose in the kitchen, watching the two women work in relative silence. "If you're cutting onions it helps to wear goggles, Ako. That way, your eyes won't tear as much. Your whole face is red from that."
Urara could hardly contain herself, trying very hard not to laugh, but it was an ultimately futile effort. Bursting out in laughter, a somewhat embarrassed Ako walked over to her friend, slowly shoving her out of the kitchen. "Thanks but we're fine." She was ever so thankful that Kanade had the wrong idea about what happened to her face.
Taking a break from being in the range of Urara's assaults, Ako stopped outside, together with Kanade. "How are things with Hibiki?" The answer was so obvious that she felt like running back into the kitchen, into the arms of that molester. Kanade started to pout, while Ako looked over to the table, to find Hibiki sitting right next to Sunshine, the two of them imprisoned between Black and Bloom. No wonder Kanade looked for something else to do.
"As you can plainly see, she's enjoying some flirting." Kanade raised her voice just enough so that Hibiki could hear the last word. The look on Melody's face changed from somewhat uncomfortable to plain annoyed.
"You're the one who stomped off as soon as I said a single word to Itsuki!" Shouting, loud enough for everyone to hear it, Hibiki didn't see any reason she'd be prohibited to even speak to Itsuki. Nagisa and Saki had just taken the seats after Kanade had left, too.
There was but a single thought going through Ako's mind. Not again. Thinking about witnessing another lovers quarrel, she'd much prefer to go back in the kitchen and deal with whatever Urara did. What annoyed her was that the idea of Urara possibly groping and kissing her again wasn't disturbing her as much as it used to do. She was slowly falling into her trap. She was being manipulated. That had to be it. She was sure of it.
"Why would I want to stick around when you're going to flirt with another girl?!" Kanade didn't even notice that Ako had quietly left.
"What part of me saying hello and asking how Itsuki is doing is flirting? Are you stupid?" Hibiki was quick to say things she didn't really mean when they were arguing.
"If I'm so stupid, you must be stupid too for going out with me!" Their audience was not especially happy to witness yet another Melody and Rhythm fight.
"Maybe I am. But you're much more stupid for getting jealous like that!"
"Me, jealous? I simply didn't want to see you flirting! How is that being jealous? It's not like I told you to stop or anything!"
"Oh you're jealous alright! Just look at yourself, making a fuss just because I talked to her a bit."
"If I'm so stupid and jealous and you like her so much, why don't you go back to her!" Kanade realized only after she had spit out the words in a fury what she had actually said. The grim and hurt look in Hibiki's face quickly brought her back to her sense. "Hibiki, I-"
"Fine. I'll do just that. Come, Itsuki." Grabbing Sunshine by her wrist and pulling her up, Hibiki didn't even care that they knocked over their chairs. She argued with Kanade a lot and made up just as many times. But there were some things she couldn't just swallow and ignore.
"I'm so stupid... why did I have to say that?" Kanade hid her face behind her hands, knowing that she couldn't take this one back that easily.
"...Are those two retarded?" Urara had heard everything and watched half of it.
"They're fine as long as they're not dealing with their relationship. They're my friends so I don't want to say this... but this really tops every stupid argument they've had so far."
Urara knew when she could joke around and when not, so she kept her mouth shut now. Insulting Ako's friends any more than this would probably not net her any plus points. The living room was even more quiet than the kitchen until Rouge showed up, looking like she had just survived a night of power quaffing.
"What's the deal with Melody? She just ran past me, crying rivers. She was dragging Sunshine with her, too... I think it's among the top five weirdest things I've ever seen." Rin didn't have the most delicate timing. Hearing her say that made Kanade run right past her, angry with herself and her loose mouth.
"Someone mind explaining to me what happened?" Rin sat down across Bloom and waited for one of the two to speak up.
"One of their arguments went out of control." Saki didn't want to recite every detail. Summing it up like that should be enough. It hadn't been a pretty sight, however short-lived it was.
=== Dissonance ===
"I've always wanted to try this." Erika was laying on her side, her head resting on Tsubomi's lap, said girl cleaning her ears with a traditional Japanese earpick. Both of them were still injured and taking it a bit easy. Even the always energetic Marine was slowing down.
"You could have just asked me." Tsubomi was really happy that things worked out like that. Even though they had shared their first real kiss the last night, they didn't have the energy to do anything else. Sleeping next to each other was less exciting than they had thought, mostly because it was nothing new to them. Tsubomi sometimes just slept at Erika's place when it got really late and she was about to fall asleep sitting.
"I didn't want just anyone to do it. I wanted to be spoiled by my lover." Erika thoroughly enjoyed being able to call Tsubomi that, especially since a strong display of affection like that still made the florist blush. Thinking about it for a bit, nothing really changed. She had showered with her, slept next to her and touched almost every part of her body plenty of times. It was a lot more exciting to do it now, though, so she enjoyed that.
"I wonder what Yuri and Itsuki are going to say. I can't wait to tell them." Tsubomi was so excited that she couldn't stop smiling.
"Your face is gonna freeze like that forever if you keep smiling." Erika didn't even have to look to know what kind of expression Tsubomi had. Partners or not, she still liked to be funny and tease Tsubomi just a bit.
"That doesn't worry me. I'll keep on smiling as long as we're together anyway." Tsubomi wasn't as innocent as she had been years ago. Spending all that time with Erika was bound to let her develop some sass of her own.
"The showers should be free by now. Want to go? We should probably get that dirt from yesterday off us." Waiting for Tsubomi to put away the ear-pick, Erika turned around and looked up at her partner. "Nobody else should be there too, so nobody is gonna hear us."
"You really have the mind of a dirty old man sometimes." But Tsubomi couldn't deny that she was more than just a little interested in how having sex with Erika would turn out. She hadn't slept with anyone else before that, so it was her first time too. While she did like romantic things, she didn't really pay all that much heed to the apparent importance of how and when she first slept with Erika. What mattered was her partner, not the where and when.
"You say that but you don't mind at all." Getting up, turning about, crawling over the bed and behind her love, hugging her from behind, all in a matter of seconds, Erika rubbed her cheek against Tsubomi's. "You like it when I touch you, right?"
Instead of finding a roundabout way to answer that, Tsubomi simply moved her head to the side a little, faced Erika and kissed her, leaning against her so much that the two of them fell back on the bed. Instead of just letting Blossom lead her, Erika put some strength in her arms and legs and forced Tsubomi to roll over, the roles now reversed, Erika on top of the taller woman.
"Are you still mad about the thing with Itsuki? I really-"
"Don't be silly. For how many years do you think I've known you now? I can tell when your mouth is just faster than your head. Or your hands for that instance." Grabbing Erika's right wrist, Tsubomi stopped her, just short of being groped. "Shower first." If she didn't put up some resistance, Erika would push her around too much. She usually didn't mind that, but now that they were a real couple, she wanted a more equal role.
Getting down from her girlfriend, acting all shocked and covering her mouth, Marine feigned being moved to tears. "My little Tsubomi is all grown up, talking back to me and making her own decisions! Mom is so happy!"
Tsubomi cringed in response and grabbed Erika's ear and pinched it a little, making the designer drop her act. "You're a horrible actor."
"I'd have to ask Momoka to act for me. I kinda wish I looked more like her. I can't even look Yuri in the face without looking up. I'd like to just carry you in my arms, too." Getting hugged from behind, Tsubomi rested her head on Erika's back.
"Silly, if you were that tall, I'd have to look up to kiss you. You're barely smaller than me, so don't be greedy."
"Well, I suppose my chest is a bit smaller than your-" Erika was again interrupted by Tsubomi's hands moving to her face, her fingers moving the corners of her mouth into a wide smile.
"Whose chest did you say was small?" Tsubomi wasn't all that sensitive about the issue but she did like to repay Erika for her teasing. The two of them started laughing a few seconds after Erika tried to get out of the hold and resigned herself.
"Shower?" Letting go of Erika and moving to the edge of the bed, Tsubomi kinda wished she still kept her hair in a ponytail for it was tangled up with Erika's at parts. They both had really long hair so they didn't notice, but it was quite a pain to undo it. "After we fix this..."
"Just keep it. We'll be in the same cabin anyway." Marine wore a devious and horny grin on her face, making Tsubomi blush again. "It'll go away as soon as one of us cancels Cure mode, too." Tsubomi kept forgetting that they were in Cure mode all the time now. At least until Erika finished a few clothes.
"I'm still impressed you managed to save up this much. I'll help you any way I can."
Marine first didn't know what Tsubomi was suddenly talking about, then she realized what she meant. "Oh, you mean my idea for a fashion store. Well, it's gonna be just clothes, though. Aren't I awesome? I tried so hard and I'm almost at three-hundred!"
"If I give you mine, you'll be close to five-hundred. I really could do with some clothes beside my Cure outfit. It's not exactly the most practical thing to wear." While she didn't have Erika's knack for fashion, Tsubomi still worried about her looks quite a bit. Switching her hairstyle and changing up her costume had all been Erika's suggestions. The long ponytail as Blossom or the pig-tails as Tsubomi had become rather childish and out of place as she grew up.
"Really? Alright, I'll make you some awesome clothes." Erika, much closer to her goal now, was happy enough to jump Tsubomi and passionately kiss her. And Tsubomi didn't stop her for a long time.
=== Dissonance ===
The day had been oddly quiet, for there had been no negotiations, no exile run, no fight, and yet also no catastrophes like the day before. Just as Hibiki reached the end of the long hallway, still Sunshine in tow, she found her anger and disappointment washed away by what happened right before her eyes.
The entire complex started to tremble so hard that it became difficult to just stand. It was worse than trying to keep balance on a surfboard. There was no way she could keep holding on to Itsuki. Letting go, she managed to keep standing for a few more seconds before she toppled over. The ground was not just shaking, It was going up and down so hard, it looked like waves.
To someone from Japan, earthquakes were both something common and terrifying. "Earthquake!" Hibiki yelled on top of her lungs, hoping that the ceiling wouldn't come down, that the walls would hold. Because there was no way to escape.
The shaking intensified still, throwing them up and down like they were marbles in a spinning bottle. Able to see the entrance to the maze, Hibiki saw the structure of the complex changed violently every few seconds. The hallway persisted, but the outside was being radically turned over and over.
"Look!" Itsuki tried to speak as little as possible, it being dangerous to talk when being thrown around like that. Biting your tongue was something really dangerous, Cure or not.
Part of the wall at the end of the hallway was changing. Stone for stone, the bricks moved away in the darkness beyond the wall. It was like a deep hole that rejected all light. They could only watch in confusion as one large, enormous black block appeared where the rough wall had been before. But that was trivial in comparison to what appeared on said block. Twelve symbols, some looking familiar, some rather bizarre. Beneath those symbols, twelve numbers engraved themselves with a sizzling sound into the stone. The symbols were gray, the number simple cuts into the stone.
Yet the tremors did not stop. To the right of the large stone moved another one of the same design, Just as the one before, it had twelve symbols but lacked the numbers. To the left, another block, the same as the right one.
Dust falling from the ceiling sent Hibiki into a state of panic, fearful of the hallway collapsing, trying to get away, which proved to be a futile effort, with the entire complex shaking as it was. Sunshine managed to reach Melody, hugging her and focusing all her strength into creating a spherical shield right around them. Inside her barriers, she could move freely. The two of them suspended in the air inside the shield, they watched the trembling slowly stop.
It took merely five seconds for Rhythm to arrive and see Melody and Sunshine together. She didn't get a chance to say anything. Those who had not been in the living room or the kitchen came out of their rooms, even Dream.
They all rushed to the end of the hallway, the enormous blocks with the symbols a visible change even from far away. Kanade kept her distance, not eager to start another fight with Hibiki. She would have time to clear up things later.
"So? What's this?" Lemonade, still traces of sauce on her face and on her clothes, was the first to ask the obvious question. Looking at White, who was supposedly one of the smartest Cure's, she expected an answer.
"Twelve symbols must refer to the twelve of us. That much is simple. To say more I'm going to need some time." Honoka didn't even bother to look back at Lemonade. "Or not. It's doing something."
One of the symbols lit up. Changing from gray to a golden color, the symbol was now obvious. It was a butterfly over a chain. It didn't take much thinking to know who that belonged to. "Me, huh?" Urara wasn't sure what to expect.
"This is just a theory, but each symbol should belong to one of us. If the symbol lights up, the one who the symbol belongs to is supposed to do something." White had her theory confirmed a second after she put it out there.
"Fighting. The middle block is selecting the fighters. I know because I had this same feeling just before I headed off to a battle last time. It's a little different now though. I feel... restless. I guess that's that with choosing who is going to fight." Urara felt nervous and uneasy. It wasn't her own decision to participate in a battle, but she felt like she did.
"So they're choosing a few of us randomly now? Why? It worked fine before!" Ako wasn't happy at all with that scenario.
"No, it didn't. Think about yesterday. That must have caused enough problems for them to no longer leave it to us." White grit her teeth. One mistake and they were suddenly running under a likely automatic system? That was extremely harsh.
"If the middle block is for fighting... then those two..." Mai didn't need to say it out loud. One for negotiations, one for the exile. So it was all automated now. One small failure had caused the entire system to be changed.
"The food went to hell in this chaos anyway, so I'm off." Urara didn't feel like doing anything but heading to the arena regardless. Not because she truly felt like it but something was forcing her to feel that way. "If there's anything different about the fighting, I'll tell you later. See ya." Walking past the others, the gate opened as if it recognized Lemonade as the one that was chosen.
Stepping through the gate, she could notice the red mist. It wasn't as thick and there wasn't as much as the day before. The same as usual. Her senses heightened, Urara got ready to lay waste to whoever would show up. If she had to fight anyway, she sure as hell wouldn't lose.
The battlefield was completely changed from before. Gone was the large field with the tower. Standing on what was a thick joist of stone, to her right and left were countless others, deep gaping holes below. Looking down, she could see numerous other joists, some suddenly ending, others connecting with even more, creating paths. There was barely enough space to keep both feet next to each other on every single one. A little bit of missing balance, and one would fall.
"This is great!" Lemonade broke out in laughter. A stage created just for her. No matter where she went, with her chains she could jump without having to worry about where she landed.
Her instinct taking over, Urara jumped out of the way just in time. Six energy orbs impacted on the path she had been standing on, completely destroying it. Looking where the attack had come from, Urara noticed that there were not only paths about a dozen meters beneath here but also above her. Turning around, she realized that the wall at the other end wasn't just any ordinary wall but the side of a gigantic chasm. They were inside a canyon, with countless small bridges connecting each side. And more than twenty meters above her stood another yellow Cure.
"Light Burst!" Sixteen small rays emerged from Hikari's hands, flying straight at Lemonade. Three of the rays hit other paths before they came even close. Not bothering to try and escape that time, Urara created a shield made of her chain right in front of her. Fighting with the other Cure's and watching them gave her some interesting ideas.
Using one chain as a whip and wrapping the end around one of the paths, Urara pulled with every bit of strength she had, ripping the large stone block loose and hurling it at Luminous, who didn't have time to counter with an attack, forcing her to avoid the objects by jumping out of the way. Missing the next path by a few meters, she fell a good dozen meters down, right on top of another path. The bad landing and the impact were enough to make her gasp in pain.
Lemonade was already on the move, closing in on Luminous. In a ranged fight she had the definitive disadvantage but Luminous didn't seem like someone who was used to fighting other Cure's just yet.
"Ray Sphere Burst!" Creating a large sphere right in front of her, Hikari spun around once and kicked the orb with her full power. Bursting into about fifty smaller, fist-sized, orbs, each single one started to fly towards Lemonade.
Hurling several chains in the general direction of the multiple spheres, the second the first orb was hit by the chain, it exploded in a large sphere of light with the force of dynamite. The explosion triggered to more orbs, which in turn continued the chain reaction. The entire pathway between the two yellow Cure's was destroyed, cutting Lemonade off from reaching her opponent. She had to go up or down to reach Luminous and even then she didn't have any guarantee she wouldn't repeat that crazy move.
There was no way she could use either Iron Maiden or El Dorado to substitute the paths. The chains had to connect to something and the wall was easily more than a hundred meters away, the pathways too easy to destroy for Luminous. Someone like her was the worst possible opponent she could have.
"Ray Blast!" Launching her next attack, Hikari was starting to breathe more heavily. She wasn't the type to be able to sustain long range artillery strikes for an extended period of time. Her forte was support and the occasional long range strike. She had to take down Lemonade before she got wind of that.
The same large sphere as before hovered slowly away from Luminous, still in one piece, even after traveling over ten meters. Urara, cautious of the explosive power of something that size, retreated further down. The light got significantly worse the further down they went. Looking up, it was impossible to say just how far up the last pathways were. It would take a while to travel that distance.
The orb slowly following her general direction, it was just about to hit a path. Not eager to get blasted to dust, Urara wrapped a chain around one of the lower pathways and jumped, letting the chain extend freely. Going down far enough so that the light had gotten so bad that her eyes needed to adjust, she watched the sphere exploded with enormous force. If someone took that point blank, there wouldn't be much left.
Following Lemonade seemed like a dangerous choice but she didn't have the energy reserves to blast the entire lower area to bits. Having to take the chance of running into a trap, Hikari jumped down, from path to path, moving away from the direction she had seen Lemonade move to.
"Golden Flail!" The attack came from directly below her, a large bundle of golden chains acting like a rod, the end split into dozens of chains. There were about twenty meters between the end of the flail and her when she noticed it.
"Light Shock!" Extending her right hand towards the flail, Hikari unleashed a large energy beam that rushed straight at the chains, collided with them and split them apart completely, falling down like a shot snake. Her breathing was becoming irregular. Fighting alone, without backup ever coming, was not something she had trained for.
"Got you." Hikari heard the words as she fell by another path. Looking up, Lemonade was sitting there, over a dozen meters above the point the flail had originated from. Running a few of her chains over distance and detours to that point, she amplified them there and used them as decoy.
A single chain wrapped itself around Hikari's left leg, pulling her right out of free fall and smashing her through one of the pathways. Gasping for air, Luminous didn't get to catch a break. Thrown around like the end of a morning star, Hikari found herself hard pressed not to faint, each impact feeling like a truck hit her at full speed.
"Photon Rain!" Unable to pinpoint where Lemonade or she herself was, Hikari simply fired in every direction at once. Virtually countless tiny light needles spawned right around her, soaring through the air like bullets. The chain lost it's pull and she was free, though at a price. She couldn't move her right arm at all and her right eye, too, was giving her trouble. The attack was purely anti-personnel, not even denting the stone-like ground.
Trusting her left eye, Hikari jumped to the side when another large path fragment was hurled at her. Lemonade wasn't in good condition either. Unable to avoid an attack with such an insane spread, she took several needles in her right arm and left leg, greatly disturbing her balance. She could still move, but it was like several super thin razor sharp knife blades were stuck in her flesh.
For Luminous to give her so much trouble was quite a thorn in her side. Almost literally, too. Albeit this was no time for silly jokes. Ignoring the pain and running towards the point Luminous had dropped off the pathway and descended even further, Urara found herself ambushed.
Several large light spheres, identical to the one from before, were floating up towards her. If even one of those things hit her, she was dust. Spawning several chains from her functioning hand, she targeted multiple paths above her, confirmed the chains were stuck to them and jumped down, right through the area the spheres were in, barely passing between them. Luminous was still further down or hiding, but she had to take care of the spheres first. Passing by another path, she used a second chain, screaming out in rage when the needles hit her nerves, to swing once around the pathway and collapsed it. The falling path collapsed the ones much further above, which now fell straight into the spheres.
The explosion was so enormous that the entire chasms was lit by it. And that was Urara's chance. Spotting Luminous only about thirty meters away, she put all her power into getting in effective range. Luminous seemed to prepare some kind of major attack so she had to hurry.
"Judgmental Ra-" Hikari was almost done with her attack when a small rock hit her in the face, her nose immediately starting to bleed. Surprised and thrown off balance, she couldn't finish the attack. Lemonade had used a short chain like a slingshot and thrown a rock at her. Several smaller and bigger rocks hit the area around her, one after another. Urara didn't take any chances.
"Light Sho-" Hikari's attack was interrupted again. Lemonade used a chain like a grappling hook and catapulted herself against Luminous with at least thirty kilometers per hour. Her fist buried in Luminous stomach, she would make absolutely sure the girl won't stand up again or blast her away. Four thick chains spawned directly from Urara's hands, tying Hikari's arms to her torso, the four chains converging into one in Urara's hands.
Spinning around and whirling Hikari like a throwing hammer, Urara smashed her full force against every path that was in range. Every impact filled Hikari's face with dust and send sharp stone shards flying around, cutting through her costume. Four impacts was enough rob her off her consciousness.
Urara was completely out of breath when the area around her started to change. A blinding light made her close her eyes and the next thing she felt her bed. Most of the pain was gone but, as usual, blue spots remained. "How was it?" Urara didn't need to check who said that.
Ako didn't know why but she always ended up coming back to her room, even if she only wanted to read a book in peace. "Wait a second, almost done with this chapter."
Teasing Muse a little, Urara knelt on the bed, picked the book out of her hands and closed it. "Quite an attitude you have there. Making me wait in my own room."
"Patience is a virtue. At least I memorized the page number." Sighing, Ako leaned to the side and watched Urara skim over the content of the book. "Give it back to me later, okay? So how was the fight? Anything different from usual?"
"No. Just a new battlefield. Horrible place. Essentially deep canyon with lots of frail bridges." The book was a plain crime thriller, really generic. "How about things on this end?"
"Melody and Rhythm got into a short fight the moment you were gone. It ended with both of them screaming at each other and Melody plus Sunshine running off. I think someone picked up what we left behind, not sure though. White has been glued to the hallway end ever since. Can I have my novel back now?" She really wanted to know how it ended and she was almost done, too.
"You're being really cold. Something pissed you off?" Turning around and leaning back, Urara forced her head on Ako's lap. The black Cure didn't even make any useless attempts to get out of that. "Here." Throwing the book in a slight angle, it landed safely next to Ako.
"Just incredibly tired of Melody and Rhythm always fighting. It was annoying two years ago and it got only worse since then. Now that they're together, it's worse than ever. If that's how all couples are, I never want to be in a relationship."
"Don't be ridiculous. Black and White, Bloom and Egret. You don't see them arguing at all. Melody and Rhythm are the youngest out of everyone, so it's obvious that they're not as mature as we are." Urara had no idea that just this one comment made Ako really worried. "Should we go check on the kitchen? Or want to finish your novel while I enjoy the novelty of this glorious lap pillow?" Urara grinned wide and enjoyed the smile flitting over Ako's lips.
"Enjoy your lap pillow." Ako was already nose deep back in her novel.
=== Dissonance ===
"We're cursed to never sleep with each other." Erika, for some reason, disliked the word sex, so she substituted other words for it every chance she got.
"First we're too injured... then an earthquake hits us just before we strip in the shower... then we're too worried about what's happening... then they call us for dinner... A tragedy, yes." Tsubomi was, during every short break, stuffing her mouth with the fresh salad that made up most of dinner.
"Now look... you don't look bothered or serious when you say that while you look like a hamster." The table was rather noisy, and Erika looked depressed that her grandiose acting was completely wasted on Tsubomi, since the salad seemed more important.
Playing halfheartedly with a pickle, Marine sighed. She had looked forward to that shower. And touching Tsubomi. Not that she hadn't done either and both in combination before. But now, even the previously restricted areas were free.
"Stop thinking about it, you're making a lewd face." Tsubomi scolded Erika with a look and finished her plate.
"Blossom." A voice right next to Tsubomi. One of the Cure's from Peach's team, Berry. "You worked as a florist, right?"
"Still do. Just not here. No garden to take care of." Tsubomi, while facing Miki, was slowly moving her hand under the table to Erika's direction. Holding hands at the table was kind of an odd thing to do, but she really craved the sensation of touching Erika.
"I was thinking that there really is nowhere to go in this place. A garden would be a place where people could go to relax. I talked to Aqua about this and she said if we find someone to take care of it, we would ask everyone else too if they're okay with using the team favor and part of our own to let you wish for a garden and see what happens." Waiting for her answer, Miki got seconds of the salad. She didn't know Inori was this good in the kitchen. Lately, she just had to eat what everyone else was eating. By the time they got back home, she'd probably have to exercise twice as much.
"What... really? A real garden? I've thought about it but... just imagining how much favor that would eat up... of course I'd care for it. I miss my garden at home and being able to work in it." Tsubomi was so happy at the thought of being able to work in a garden again that she let go of Erika and clapped her hands together.
"Don't get too happy. I think most will agree and that should be enough but there is always the chance that we won't have enough or it just won't work." Miki tried to calm down the now overly excited Blossom.
"Cursed... I tell you." Marine sighed, closed her eyes and bit in the one pickle she had been playing with. She wouldn't give up. Never.
Dinner didn't pass as fast as Tsubomi wanted it to, and the four of them, Marine, Blossom, Berry and Aqua, talked to the others while still at the table. There was nobody opposed to the idea and so they went ahead and let Tsubomi pick a spot. Just beyond the hallway, around a corner, was a series of inter-connected large rooms, both very high and wide, perfect for their needs.
Everyone but Marine chipped in quite a bit, making Tsubomi positive that they would get a nice garden. That Erika kept pursuing her own goal was completely fine with her. Everyone else was in dire need of some clothes as well. Including the favor in the team pool, they had collected over a thousand favor. One thousand one hundred and twenty-three to be exact.
Letting her imagination run wild, Tsubomi stood at the lower end of the hallway, right in front of the team pool, and closed her eyes, wishing as intently for a lush, big garden as she could. As she opened her eyes, most of the favor was gone. A small rest of about two-hundred favor remained.
Everyone else had waited patiently behind her, all of them interested in what kind of garden it would be. But none had quite managed to imagine what they saw when they returned there. Tsubomi walked through the now single, monumental in size, room in total awe. It was less a garden and more of a small part of a forest. The room about thirty meters high, thirty wide and a hundred long. Three small dirt paths led a visitor through it.
The left path winding itself like a snake between tall and thick trees, their leaves green and lush, a wind coming from somewhere, passing through, creating the well loved sound of a real forest. Countless small grasses and flowers were blooming wildly between the trees. Miki even found one of the bigger ones to be an apple tree about to bear fruit. The end of the path returned right, converging with the middle one before the back end.
The right path led past high grown ivy on the wall, several beautiful benches placed along the path randomly, each made of wood with metal framing, inviting one to sit down and enjoy nature. The grass overgrew part of the path in places. Several large bushes, which Tsubomi enjoyed identifying as blueberry and blackberry bushes, obscured the view from anywhere but further down of the same path they were on. Just before it returned to the middle path, it took a small curve, passing between two wooden walls which were covered in ivy, a single bench positioned there, like a hideout.
The middle path was the most amazing of all, for there were no trees, no ivy or bushes, but a small pond, a water garden. Twenty or so meters long, it they watched in completely amazement how a tiny river connected the pond to a hole in the wall. Nobody dared to break the wall and see where the water was coming from. The tiny river ran along side the path, a just as tiny bridge letting one pass with dry feet at the end. According to Tsubomi, a few very rare flowers and grasses grew around the pond. The path branched and while one led back to the entrance, by the other side of the pond, the main path converged with the other two at a round space, where both two simple tree-stump benches and a massive wooden table were placed. A company of up to six or eight could comfortably sit there.
Just beyond that was the jewel of the garden. A small hill, slowly climbing up to three meters height over the course of ten meters length, was covered entirely in flowers. Not a single spot was to be seen that had not a flower blooming. There were so many different ones that Tsubomi didn't know where to start and almost fainted from excitement.
"Such a beautiful garden... I didn't expect much, but even had I expected a lot... this is so serene... so calming. And all of this in this otherwise desolate place. I'd never guess I'm in some kind of prison with an arena while in here." Komachi was so impressed she couldn't stop looking. She was the first to notice something odd about the ceiling. "Isn't the ceiling... moving?"
As everyone looked up, the stone was slowly changing color, slowly moving. Their faces were rich with surprise, some of them too stunned to close their mouths. The stone ceiling was slowly turning into the illusion of a sky. The smell of the trees, of the water and the grass, and now even a small breeze was hitting them.
Komachi was the first to grab Tsubomi's hands and thank her. "This is wonderful. Thank you so much." Everyone else followed suit and then went to look at the garden in more detail. Karen and Komachi walked the left path, stopping at every tree, taking deep breaths of the fresh air. Setsuna, Love and Ellen were playing at the edge of the small pond, which seemed to be just a little over a meter deep.
Kurumi stayed at the flower hill. Miki, Inori and Michiru walked aimlessly through the garden, enjoying the display of nature in an otherwise artificial world. Marine and Tsubomi were left alone, with the exception of Kurumi, at the flower hill.
"You're the heroine of the day." Erika was quite happy, both with the garden and for Tsubomi. "I knew you loved plants but to create something like this... well, it did eat up nine-hundred favor, but still, this is amazing. How many square meters is this?" Kneeling down and touching the grass on the ground, Marine smiled, sat down in the grass and took off her boots. "This feels so... so... good. Try it, Tsubomi." Wiggling her toes in the long grass, Erika started laughing and rolling around. Getting dirty didn't bother her one bit. She had been knee deep in fertilizer before.
Taking off her boots and sitting down, Blossom enjoyed the grass too. Erika was with her, everyone was thankful for the garden and she had such a large place to care for now. So many flowers and other plants. Tsubomi was truly happy right now.
=== Dissonance ===
Itsuki felt like she should say something, but instead she just sat there and listened to Hibiki playing her piano. After Lemonade had left, Kanade tried to clear things up, but Hibiki had still been in a state of anger and being hurt, so things escalated even further. The last thing they said to each other had been "I hate you!"
Sitting on the stairs and hearing the sad song Hibiki was playing, Itsuki assumed that dinner had been over long ago and most of the others had went to bed. The pink haired girl was showing no sign of calming down or wanting to apologize to Kanade.
And the worst part of all was that she couldn't do anything. The words from her exile still resonated in her head. She wasn't needed. Her existence was useless. That she only got in the way of things. And now... Hibiki needed her. And Itsuki needed her. As long as she was with her, she could do away with the thought of really being useless, of being in the way.
She was running away from the real problem, but that was simply how people are. If an easy way out presented itself and it came with the bonus of being close to the person one was in love with, they would always choose that over confronting their fears.
Standing up and walking past the piano, Melody only noticed her when Itsuki stopped her hands from playing by holding them. "Let's go to sleep. You're tired, aren't you?" The dojo master was well aware of what she was doing. After backing off when Hibiki chose Kanade, she was taking advantage of the situation. She was being selfish and trying to keep Hibiki to herself. But she couldn't help it! She still loved Hibiki and if Kanade was as stupid as to constantly fight with her, then it was her own fault if Itsuki made a move.
"Okay..." Nodding once and standing up,Hibiki was still looking at the ground when she laid her arms around Itsuki, resting her head against the blond woman's chest, her voice so quiet and meek that it was hard to believe it was the same girl who had shouted "I hate you!" just a few hours ago.
Melody couldn't help but seek comfort within Itsuki's arms. In her relationship with Kanade, she was the strong one, the leading one, the blunt one. With Itsuki, she could be the weak, frail, delicate one. And right now, she wanted to be that. She loved Kanade, but that love was buried below a fight at the time. And she still loved Itsuki, who had come back and didn't say anything at all. Not a single mean word for choosing Kanade or making things awkward.
Petting Hibiki's head, Itsuki waited for her to let go before she picked her up, carrying her like a princess. Melody's head rested still against her chest when she felt her heart jump. Things like that now were the reason she still loved Itsuki.
The cold air of the night was surrounding them when Hibiki gave in to temptation, to the desire to be loved, to be comforted. With both her arms around Itsuki's neck, she boldly kissed the yellow Cure. And Itsuki responded in turn, the two of them sharing their first passionate kiss since Kanade had confessed to her.
=== End of Event XVI ===
