The water in the bathtub shifted slightly as Kuroko let out a pleased sighed, enjoying the hot liquid against her skin as she pressed her cheek against Mikoto's upper chest. She wasn't sure whether Mikoto was blushing or not, the steaming contents of the bath was making them both flushed.
"Sounds like Saten brought a friend home…" Kuroko said softly as she overheard loud conversation from the foyer not far from the bath doors, her eyelids a bit heavy from the relaxation the water brought on.
"Mhmm…" Mikoto hummed out quietly, her eyes closed, Kuroko noticed. It had taken a little convincing, but this level of closeness in the baths, which Kuroko had pointed out wasn't that different from things they'd done while bathing before they were dating, was something she'd achieved a bit last week.
"Mhmm… We won't… be disturbed..." Kuroko purred out. A lecherous smile began to grow across her lips as she leaned up and kissed Mikoto. Mikoto startled her eyes open, looking down at Kuroko with some surprise. Kuroko grinned at her, not saying another word as she started to trace kisses down her cheek. She moved down to Mikoto's neck, eliciting delightful gasps from her.
"K-Kuroko…" She heard Mikoto gasps out of her even as she continued further downward, wiggling her rear a little to get the movement she needed to descend. Accomplishing such things without arms was difficult. As Kuroko moved down toward Mikoto's shoulder and approached her clavicle, starting to go lower…
"Kuroko!" She felt Mikoto's hands grab her shoulders suddenly, and firmly, prompting Kuroko to snap out of her slightly(extremely) lustful and hormonally driven trance.
"Mrr?" She blinked up at Mikoto who looked as red as could be. Pressed as close as they were, Kuroko could feel Mikoto's heartbeat, pounding intensely in her chest.
"K-Kuroko, I'm s-sorry, b-but… I'm not… I'm not ready for… for that." she said, looking to the side with a mixture of embarrassment and slight guilt. Kuroko was beyond ready, but it had only been a bit over four weeks, and Mikoto was not the type of girl to rush into things that quickly. The look away from Kuroko caused Mikoto to miss the slight pang of guilt on Kuroko's face that she shook off quickly.
"I… I apologize, Mikoto…" Kuroko said quietly, wincing as she moved back up to press herself against Mikoto's neck, burying her face there. She did, honestly, feel guilty. Yes, they'd kissed quite a bit, probably a bit more than Mikoto had initially wanted to allow, which she had to admit now that Mikoto had put her foot down. She had been quietly denying that a little. Which she felt really, really bad about in retrospect.
She was just so happy, overjoyed really, since Mikoto asked her to start dating, she felt like her heart might explode. She secretly never thought that Mikoto might actually be the one to ask her, especially so directly.
Mikoto shifted under her a little bit. Kuroko couldn't see it, but Mikoto was wincing a little as she let Kuroko's arms go and hugged her again. It was true that it had taken some convincing from Kuroko for them to bathe together… well, they'd bathed together before as friends and roommates, Academy City did have cultural roots in Japan after all, but bathing together as a couple was… different. It felt different at least. Far more intimate.
"Kuroko." Mikoto called softly to her, prompting the smaller girl to look up at her, allowing Mikoto to pull her up to meet her for an affectionate, and far less embarrassed kiss. She let it linger for awhile, a slight smile growing on her lips as it the kiss grew and Kuroko's body relaxed and let out a sighing happy sound. As they pulled from each other, Mikoto gave her a warm smile.
"... I love you…" She said in a whisper, putting all of her willpower in ensuring she did not stutter. She wanted it to sound as sincere as it felt in her heart. Kuroko returned the smile as she pressed her face into Mikoto's neck once more and nuzzled it with intense enthusiasm as well as a giggling happy, almost chirping, series of sounds. Mikoto was embarrassed on Kuroko's behalf for the display.
Giggling a bit at Kuroko's joy, Mikoto turned and pressed the button on a little intercom that was installed on the inside of the flat rim of the large bathtub.
"Hey Maika-chan? There's a couple of unopened boxes underneath my bed, could you bring those to the baths for me?"
Maika was humming as she worked in the kitchen, cooking up a very tasty looking series of dishes from a number of canned mackerels that Saten and her friend, Frenda, had brought home. She wasn't sure what precisely the appeal of canned mackerels was, but the pair seemed unusually passionate about it. And any maid worth her salt could forge a delicious cooked meal from any ingredients!
A beeping broke her out of thought process. She pulled a sleeve back to look at her wrist, where a tiny little watch with a screen rested. Tapping it, a little audio picture icon appeared.
"Hey Maika-chan? There's a couple of unopened boxes underneath my bed, could you bring those to the baths for me?" Came Mikoto's voice.
"Certainly, Misaka." She said with a chiper grin. Taking a moment to ensure that none of the food would suffer immediately after moving from it, she strode from the kitchen out to the sitting room where Uiharu, Saten, and their guest, Frenda, were currently sitting.
"Man, this place is niiiice!" Frenda said with huge grin as she looked around the room, distracted as Maika came out to join them. "And with a maid, too! Very classy." Maika gave her a friendly smile and curtsy as if to acknowledge this.
"I need to grab something for our bathing friends, Saten, would you make sure that the food doesn't burn?" She asked, smiling at her with a warm grin. Saten hopped up, hands on her hips.
"Sure!" And quickly scampered off to the kitchen. Maika grinned at her eagerness as she departed to go retrieve Misaka's package. Maika was rather prone to using Saten more than anyone else for assistance. Most likely due to her habit of pilfering food from the kitchen outside of Maika's meal times. Saten didn't seem to notice.
Frenda turned to Uiharu with a grin. "So, how'd you guys score such a MANSION like this as middle-school students going on high school?" She asked, loud enough for Saten to hear. Saten stuck her head out, holding a wooden spoon as she heard Frenda talking, holding the door open with her back as she listened to the question.
"Our two roommates were kind enough to invite us! Not really sure where they got the place, I think the city gave it to them. They're suuuper nice, I can't wait to introduce you guys. They're kind of famous too." Saten explained with a big honest grin on her face to Frenda before she dove back into the kitchen to check on the food. Frenda raised an eyebrow for a moment as she glanced to Uiharu who had glanced away from them toward the hallway as Saten gave her explanation, coughing loudly.
A cough that Frenda pegged as being so fake that it physically pained her. Such poor professional skills of deception were always quite insulting. She frowned a little, scowling for a moment before wiping the expression away.
"So, Uiharu!" Frenda called to her, Uiharu turning quickly to look to her with a big smile. "What's with all the security? You guys got some serious VIP's or somethin'?" She asked with a big grin, adjusting her legs to get more underneath the comfy heated blanket.
"Security? What do you mean?" Uiharu asked, trying her very best to play dumb. The notion that she thought it'd work on her was almost insulting.
"Well, you haven't noticed the parked cars all around your place?" She said casually, smiling as she leaned onto the table, resting her cheek into the palm of her hand as an elbow propped onto the tabletop.
"R-really? No, I… I hadn't noticed, really. I hang out at home a lot, kind of a computer girl, really." Uiharu said, smiling a little, rubbing the back of her head. Frenda smirked a bit, and poked at Uiharu's shoulder.
"Neeeerd. Ruiiikoooo! Uiharu is being a neeeeerd!" She teased, grinning wider, Uiharu puffing her cheeks out and blushing all the more.
"Saaaaten-saaaan! Frenda is teassssing me!"
"Really, Flower-chan, you need to learn to take better care of your test subjects, especially ones that have such long-term yield potential as this." Gensei said as he worked on the gurgling individual below him on the table as he treated their wounds.
Indigo growled something unintelligible from his office as he broke something. "THAT WHORE IS PISSING ME OFF!" He roared from his office, kicking over his desk, panting. "Fucking with her and playing her little shadow war was amusing before, but now, now-"
"Now you can't cheat; you have to actually be clever." Gensei offered as he continued his work with a soft smile. Gensei lightly twitched his head a few centimeters to the left to look in the direction of the office, finding Indigo suddenly looming over him in a flash, appearing from nothing it seemed as the air warped and distorted as space itself flexed under Indigo's personal reality. A curved knife pressed firmly against Gensei's throat, Indigo's fresh prosthetic eye glowing a sickly violet color.
"Are you TRYING to die, old man?" He said in a cold, quiet, low voice, his tone filled with malice and ice. The only thing that made Indigo more angry than the old man's sass was his unbreakable, rigid, unmoving smile.
"Come now. I used to work in the same labs that handled the likes of Accelerator and Dark Matter. Do you really think you can frighten me with violence?" He asked, turning away from Indigo to return to his work, ignoring the knife. Indigo's knife trembled with rage as he seemed to strongly debate removing the geriatric man's head from his shoulders. The level of fearlessness the man showed was both enraging, and secretly, intimidating. Deep down, Indigo always felt like there was something that Gensei knew that he didn't, even if he KNEW that wasn't the case. He KNEW that. And now… Now he didn't KNOW.
He slipped the knife back into its sheath with a hiss, storming away as Gensei resumed his work on the poor figure below them.
"I've made my offer. What do you say? Or is the fear of uncertainty still weighing on your mind for the first time?" Gensei asked with a wry grin.
Indigo… did not answer.
The pair got out of the baths, which was always an exercise of slight gymnastics. Mikoto grabbed at her forearm crutch leaned up against the wall. It was mercifully made to be able to handle water slick surfaces like the bathroom floor, and she used it to help herself get out of the tub, and then helped Kuroko get out by being her support and pulling her up so she could sit at the edge and swing around. It was for this reason that the pair preferred bathing together and not with the others- it was so freaking embarrassing to do by themselves and be watched, or to ask for help.
Maika had stopped by briefly and put the boxes inside of the small changing room that laid between the bathroom and the outside hallway that connected to the foyer.
"I have a surprise." Mikoto said as they made their way into the changing room after wrapping themselves up in towels post-drying. "No. Not THAT kind of surprise." She quickly cut off Kuroko's overly excited look. Kuroko pouted a bit. "It's not something we wear around the house in a sort of casual fashion, but I wanted to try them on before festivals started up again… I'm sure… I'm sure we'll get some level of normalcy back in our lives one day." She said as she grabbed the boxes off of the shelf Maika had placed them on.
Opening them up, she showed their contents to Kuroko, who smiled brightly. "Wow… Those are… beautiful."
"Let's get yours on, OK? Once yours is on, you can go join the others. There's something else I need to do beforehand, then I'll join you."
Maika had relieved Saten from her conscription of food-watching duties to instead helping her serve the various dishes. Everyone was politely waiting as the dishes were being set out as Kuroko walked in. The one who decided to make a comment first was Frenda with her suitably Western sensibilities. That in the form of a low wolf whistle.
"Whoaaaa!"
Kuroko was dressed in a very well-fitted kimono, her hair done up in a pair of buns where her twin-tails had typically been tied with ribbons- though her hair was now so long, she had aforementioned twin-tails descending down from each bun to roughly their former length. Kuroko, despite herself, found herself flushing at the sudden aggressive attention from the stranger.
"Wow, I feel suddenly really underdressed." Uiharu said quietly, her own face having a self-conscious blush as Saten hopped up to play proper host.
"Allow me to introduce my friends! Shirai-san, this my friend, Frenda Seivelun. Frenda, this is my friend, Shirai Kuroko." She introduced, Frenda wiggling her way out of the warm blanket to approach Kuroko.
"Heya, nice to meetcha." She offered her hand for greeting. She held it there for a moment, waving it up and down in the air as the awkwardness crawled on. She leaned over to Saten.
"She… She does know how to shake hands, right?" She whispered quietly, Saten cringing a bit. Kuroko just sighed, raising an arm, the sleeve hanging from her stump to show more distinctly what it had previously not been showing hanging at her side.
"O-Ooooh…" Frenda had the realization come over her. "H-hey, no big deal! I'm sure there's a story there, nice to meet you!" Frenda said, trying to wave off the awkwardness and play it off as being no big deal. It was endearing in a kind of crass way.
"I mean, you wouldn't believe it, one time, I almost lost my legs in a thing for work with the famous Raiii…" Her words trailed off into an inaudible, horrified squeak as the color entirely drained from her face, her expression going from nonchalant casualness to one of rigid barely restrained terror as the summoned-by-name Railgun walked into the room by her forearm crutch, suddenly meeting Frenda's eyes. Mikoto was similarly dressed in a comfortable and well-fitted kimono, though while Kuroko's was a dark blue in color, Mikoto's was more of a darker orange.
There was a pause. A brief, terrified pause where Frenda thought her heart might explode.
"Hey. Are you Saten's friend?" Mikoto asked with a soft smile, not a look of recognition in her face that Frenda could spot, save for a brief glimmer of confusion and a slight narrowing of her eyes. Did she… did she not remember her? Was she really that lucky?
"Mikoto!" Kuroko turned and looked to her, spotting the change in Mikoto. Mikoto's hair, which had been rather carelessly left to grow out and hang and largely just be brushed at best- Mikoto had not been taking great care of it in her depression- was done up in a broad braid that hung down to her lower back, tied at the end to hold it all in place was a dark red ribbon.
"Your hair is so pretty, I love it, and…!" She gasped as her face turned into one of shocked, touched, swooning love and nuzzled up against Mikoto. "My ribbon! You're using my ribbon!"
"I-I was just b-borrowing it s-since I don't usually have l-long- H-hey!" Mikoto struggled against the nuzzling attacker that was her girlfriend.
"Is… Is this normal?" Frenda asked, pointing as she looked to Saten and Uiharu who stared in on with expression that said that they had grown numb to the displays of public affection.
"Not uncommon." Saten corrected.
"Let us not give them the credit of saying it is normal." Uiharu added quietly, staring at them with some slight judgement.
"Dinner is served!" Maika announced cheerfully, cutting into the disruptive display of indecency. Mikoto had pulled Kuroko into a airtight hug around the waist to restrain her, pulling her forcibly down to sit next to her.
Frenda sat down between Uiharu and Saten, across from Kuroko and the Railgun, still feeling tense beyond belief, panicked that at any moment she might suddenly be recognized.
This… This was going to be an extremely tense dinner.