"I must say, I'm surprised you wanted to join us again, Chris!" Darkness chirped pleasantly as she set up the training mats in the mansion's dojo once more, with her boyfriend and best friend assembling their training weapons nearby. "I'm more than happy to help my friends train, but I must ask, what prompted this decision?"

"What? You mean to insinuate that I wouldn't normally want to see what my friends were up to out of the kindness of my heart?" Chris mock-gasped before eyeing the couple with a playful glare. "Way to cut a girl deep, Darkness. I thought I knew you…"

"Don't let her get to you, Dark." Kazuma retorted with a smirk, poking at the thief with a wooden sword and shaking his head. "I think she just wanted to visit her two favorite punching bags for another round of easy practice. Seriously, she's leagues better than both of us at one-on-one combat."

"D-d-d-don't discourage yourself like that, K-Kazuma!" The flustered crusader all but sputtered, just barely able to rip herself out of her daydream of being humiliated by her own best friend/goddess of worship. "You've made stupendous strides these last few months alone! The man who duels me now is a far cry from the man who wouldn't even dare to set foot on the training mat with me two years prior."

"Thanks, Dark. I appreciate the sentiment." Kazuma replied, dutifully ignoring his girlfriend's delighted shudders and turning his attention back to Chris with a curious expression. "Seriously though, Chris: was there something specific you came here for, or did you just want to hang out?"

"Eh, truth is I was bored and pickpocketing can only be entertaining for so long," Chris answered with a lazy shrug. However, the wily goddess in thief's clothing soon smiled mischievously and added, "Besides, any day's a good day to mess with my two favorite horndogs~"

"Yeesh, that's a helluva compliment, I suppose." Kazuma snorted, before noticing just how red Darkness was getting and how intensely she was fidgeting and chuckling nervously. "Are you alright, Dark? You seem really easy to get going today. Need a minute?"

Snapping back to reality, a flushed Darkness vigorously shook her head before bowing in apology. "N-no, I am good, thank you! I…I am truly sorry, Kazuma. I thought I was getting a better handle on my tendencies…"

"It's alright, the point is that you're trying. That's all that I can ask of you." Kazuma replied patiently, mentally pondering just how the crusader managed to talk him into actually enjoying her perverted side. "Still, you seem pretty tense. What's got you so worked up?"

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say our lovable crusader's a little 'pent up' as of late," Chris commented thoughtfully before eyeing Kazuma with an all-knowing look. "When's the last time you satisfied your lady, huh?"

"C-CHRIS! You can't just ask that outright!" Darkness sputtered helplessly, before rapidly jabbing a finger in Kazuma's direction as he tilted his head in consideration. "And don't you dare tell her! Our s-sex life is none of her concern!"

"You really think I'm one to broadcast what I do to you or any of the other girls in bed to the public!?" Kazuma shot back in an embarrassed defense. "I'm trying to improve my reputation, not make it worse!"

"Alright, alright! I can tell this is a touchy subject, so I'll do us all a favor and drop it!" Chris seemingly relented, though the less than innocent smirk on her face clued both of the adventurers into the fact that she wasn't quite finished yet. "Honestly, Darkness! I figured that, given our past, you'd be a bit more open about disclosing to me~!"

"Oh yeah, that's right, you two hashed this whole thing out before, haven't you?" Kazuma commented, suddenly being reminded of Darkness' small admission to her self-awareness on her masochism back during their café date. "Just for the record, I'm sorry for what you probably had to go through, Chris…"

"Nah, it really wasn't all that bad, actually!" Chris replied, shrugging her shoulders loosely. "You guys forget that after being around a few thousand years, you see some really bad shit. Masochism is remarkably low on that list, and considering Darkness is my friend...eh, it softened the blow that much more."

"Must we really go into that memory now? In front of my b-boyfriend no less!?" Darkness whined miserably. "That would go far beyond the type of humiliation I actually like…I may very well die from it this time!"

"Oh, c'mon Dark! It's nothing to be ashamed about!" Kazuma assured her, though the smile of his face did have a hint of mischief in it. "Besides, it's not like either of us haven't seen this side of you. I'm intimately familiar with it, in case you've forgotten."

"S…so merciless…" whimpered the hapless (and almost definitely horny) crusader.

"So this is the name of the game we're playing today?" Chris snorted, looking as though she were moments away from rubbing her hands together evilly. "Alrighty, then! Time for me to tell the tale of Darkness' first encounter with her masochism!"

Kazuma, Darkness, and Chris/Eris all sat around the campfire, one that was graciously provided by the latter's goddess powers. The couple sat cozy next to each other while their thief friend sat in front of them, like a scoutmaster about to tell their campers a scary ghost story. Kazuma was smirking to himself at the theatrics of it all while his girlfriend crossed her arms and did her best to look as unamused as humanly possible, inadvertently making the smirk on her boyfriend's face grow wider.

"Well, let's start with the basics. You both know that once upon a time, Darkness prayed to me for a friend. Not long after, I decided to make that wish come true personally." Chris started, the theatrical tone she liked using coming into play. "However, around the time when Darkness started to mature into a young woman...well, some questions started to pop up that she was far too embarrassed about to ask her father."

"He means well and I love him dearly," Darkness immediately decided to interject. "However…I was never properly given 'The Talk' before. O-obviously we've discussed this at length more recently and he's well aware of it by now. But still, I just felt like I couldn't bring myself to ask him about it back then…"

"And as such, she ended up coming to me for some semblance of clarity." Chris continued, before turning to Kazuma with a particularly pointed look and teasing tone. "Now, if I recall correctly, you seemed to think that this meeting of ours was something perverse and sexually charged, right Satou?"

The no-longer-virgin but still hormonal young man shot his blonde girlfriend a pointed look of his own and said, "You seriously told her about that?"

"I-It came up naturally! It's not as if I accused you of being lecherous!" Darkness defended with her cheeks tinged a bright red, pouting slightly as she turned away. "Besides, that really is how you interpreted the first time I explained."

"I'm a teenage boy, I have an alibi," Kazuma countered with a determined tone as he poked Darkness's side. "You are a perverted adult, and therefore have no excuse. So I win."

"That is absolutely NOT how this works!" Darkness fumed, flushing brighter following the chuckle of both her boyfriend and Chris, who was patiently waiting for them to finish their spat. "Hmph. I refuse to tell either of you about anything ever again. You'll just use it against me."

"Only because we love you~" Kazuma teased before going in for a hug, prompting his flustered knight to sputter helplessly before eventually resigning to her fate and returning the embrace.

"Well, if you two are finished being yourselves, I'm gonna get on with my point." Chris started with a good natured smile, rolling her eyes at the couple's antics before she continued. "As I was saying, my meeting with Darkness over her tendencies wasn't overly perverted or sexual in nature. In truth, it was more about figuring out just where she fell on the scale, so to speak."

"It's true, I merely wanted to seek answers for what was happening with me at the time," Darkness admitted, squirming slightly in her seat as she cast her gaze aside. "Like I said, I hadn't received 'The Talk' and very rarely was I allowed to go outside to play. So whenever I got hurt, be it from a bug's bite or from scraping my knee, and my tendencies started to manifest as a result…well, I was scared and confused."

"Honestly, when Darkness first came to me over it, I was...kinda scared myself." Chris admitted, her expression softening slightly as she proceeded to explain. "As a goddess, I essentially popped into being knowing everything I needed to know and learning from there. When dealing with matters as delicate to mortals as sexuality, well...I didn't want to risk steering her wrong."

Kazuma's eyes widened a bit as he glanced back between the abnormally quiet Darkness and the serious Chris. In all his time knowing his perverted girlfriend, both inside and out, from the good to the bad to the ugly and everything in between…he never once seriously considered how or why she became the person she was today. Kazuma had simply chalked her masochism up as something that was just in her nature, but obviously the truth was a little more nuanced than that. He had no idea that the crusader, at one point in time, was stressing out over something she seemed to recognize as being not normal. Suddenly, his outlook on her began to adjust accordingly.

"But, after I took some time to sort my thoughts and really consider how I could best help Darkness, I told her that I'd help her however I could." Chris continued, her words regaining their certainty as she offered her closest friend a small, warm smile. "It wasn't perfect, of course. We all know she had her hiccups, and that was partially my fault, but all in all I think that I helped her the best that I could when she came to me."

"Wow…I had no idea," Kazuma admitted, mostly to himself, as he looked back at his girlfriend. "Dark, I…I'm sorry you felt like you were alone at the time. I guess I can see how that would be scary if I were in your shoes."

"It's quite alright, Kazuma. There was a time when I was less than proud of my tendencies, but these days I understand that they are simply a part of me. They do not define who I am." Darkness replied with a wisdom that Kazuma rarely saw from her. It was...refreshing, to say the least. "Of course, if I'd have to fault you for one thing, Chris, your suggestion of dumping all my skill points into defense had its weaknesses, yes?"

"Heh heh heh…yeah, maybe not one of my better ideas," Chris relented with an embarrassed chuckle.

When Kazuma stared at the goddess with the kind that he only reserved for when Aqua royally screwed up, she backpedaled. "Hey now, I just thought it would help 'lessen' her masochism so to speak! My thought process back then was, if she maxed out all of her defensive stats, she'd hardly ever feel any pain ever again! Of course, I was still figuring out how stats worked for myself at the time. I didn't realize that just because you max out your defense doesn't mean the pain that gets inflicted on you is watered down any. It was an honest mistake!"

"...honestly, while I hate to give you this out here, I actually follow that line of logic." Kazuma admitted, before crossing his arms and offering the thief a particularly snarky retort. "Of course, that plan would have worked better if you tested it on yourself first, but what do I know? I'm just a guy who uses his brian when he makes plans."

"Oh and how would you go about solving confused, personal, sexual questions with your inexperienced best friend, hm?" Chris back-sassed at the sassy teen. "Please, by all means, open your third eye and enlighten me, O' Purveyor of Knowledge."

"Well, I don't know, but I wouldn't just pick something without thinking about it for more than five seconds!" Kazuma retorted, jabbing an accusing finger in the thief's direction as his eyes narrowed dangerously. "And watch it there, Eris. Steal might not work on you anymore, but I've got a few back-up solutions if you start getting too big for your britches."

"Ooo~ Is 'daddy' going to punish me later?" the cheeky thief/goddess practically sang, sparking a unified series of short gasps from the couple for obvious reasons. "Oh, don't act like you're so shocked, Kazuma. You already know I'm a switch, it's not that big of a deal. Only difference is I'm not as loud about it as Dark is. No offense intended, girl, I mean that in the best way possible."

"I...I really do hate that she knows exactly how to shut me down. It's kinda embarrassing." Kazuma remarked with red cheeks, turning to the crusader and quirking an eyebrow. "Is this how you feel whenever I tease you? This is awful! Why haven't you asked me to st-oh. Right. Nevermind."

"It…heh, i-it's quite alright, Kazuma," Darkness replied, actually managing to let out an amused chuckle in spite of the raging blush now overtaking her cheeks. "I understand now that my tastes aren't for everyone. Nevertheless, I do appreciate your willingness to indulge in my desires from time to time, even if masochism isn't your preferred kink. That…takes great trust, and I'm humbled by it always."

"Yeah, well...it's no problem in the slightest. I've grown the tiniest bit accustomed to your tastes, actually." Kazuma muttered, blush not faltering as he tilted his head away from her in slight embarrassment. "Really, even if I hadn't...I wouldn't want you any other way. You're just fine the way you are, Dark."

Suddenly, Kazuma found himself ensnared in a bone-crushing embrace by a giggling mess of a woman as Chris cooed teasingly at his predicament. "You say you suck with words, yet you've somehow managed to capture a noble maiden's heart. Then again, being sheltered most of your life could make any girl turn to jelly at even the smallest compliment…hmm, food for thought I suppose."

"Ha, ha. Glad you're having fun analyzing this one. Lemme know when you finish your hypothesis, doc." Kazuma snarked within the embrace, though he couldn't put too much heat into his tone given his current position. Honestly, it was kinda nice being hugged by Darkness when she was out of her armor, for...a few different reasons. Speaking of which… "Hey, Dark? You, uh, you gonna keep this up all afternoon? I mean, I'm not complaining, I just didn't think you were on Yunyun's level when it came to hugs."

"Oh, honestly! Am I not allowed to hug the man I love the most?" Darkness retorted semi-playfully, removing herself from Kazuma (much to his quiet dismay) and putting her hands at her hips. "I swear, one of these days, I am going to have to educate you on the proper etiquette when it comes to women and their emotions."

"Truthfully, I wouldn't mind a few pointers. People are still confusing to deal with some days, let alone women." Kazuma replied with a soft chuckle, sparing his girlfriend an amused look as he shook his head lightly. "Well, this little sparing meet up of ours has certainly been effective, hasn't it? So far, we've completed exactly zero matches."

"Hmmm, yeah, I guess I'm still up to do a couple of rounds. Thank you so kindly for asking," Chris joked as she hopped up and waved a hand over the dying campfire, making it disappear in the process. "Just try not to tucker yourself out after this, Kaz. Like I said earlier, your lady is pent up and in desperate need of your services~ I can tell just by looking at her."

"Jeez, really racking them up today, aren't you? And Sena tells me I should go into comedy." Kazuma huffed, before following Chris' gaze and realizing that she hadn't been entirely joking. Darkness stood only a foot or two away, arms crossed, cheeks flushed, and an excited twinkle in her eyes. Kazuma's mouth suddenly got terribly dry. "Oh...you meant...heh, should have seen that one coming."

"O-only if you want to…" Darkness murmured after daring herself to look her lover in the eye. "I don't want to force myself on you if you're not in the mood. I do have…'ways' to relieve myself in private…"

"I...I don't think that'll be necessary tonight." Kazuma assured her quietly, a familiar, hungry warmth settling in his chest as he held her gaze, taking a step closer. "Chris, you mind, uh...stepping out for a few minutes?"

"Only if I get to peep~" Chris replied with a near perverted grin of her own before immediately cleaning up her act and addressing Darkness. "Uh, w-with consent from my best friend, of course. I wouldn't do it otherwise."

"With what you had to deal with all those years ago? I think I can settle for having an audience." Darkness assured her, the lust briefly dissipating from her gaze as she offered her oldest friend a genuine smile. "This certainly isn't what I expected when we first met so long ago."

"You and me both," Chris/Eris supplied with an almost sage-like nod before giving Darkness a small but appreciative smile. "Thanks, bestie."

"Well, this is surprisingly touching, considering how these things usually go." Kazuma mused in front of Darkness, mildly bewildered by the apparent agreement that had just unfolded. "So...are we still doing this?"

"If all parties present are consenting to it, then yes, I believe we are," Darkness answered matter-of-factly. Then, like clockwork, the closet degenerate began to breathe heavily as she mindlessly drooled out of the corners of her mouth. "My, just the mere thought of my goddess and c-closest friend spying on us as you violently ravish me…ahhh, I'm truly hopeless, aren't I~?"

"Yup. There it is. Back to business, I guess." Kazuma snorted, before closing the gap between himself and the crusader and allowing what was going to be a long, intense afternoon finally begin.