She Comes And Goes As She Pleases (Part 45)
by BrDPirateMan
"Neku, will you… make love to me?"
Those words… Deceptively simple words, yet they had such a powerful impact on me. They reverberated in my head so much I felt dizzy. But I had to get it together. Eri was still waiting for my answer. I guess for now, I should make sure this wasn't another one of her tricks.
I was already a quiet guy to begin with, but now my voice was a shadow of its former self. "Eri… wh-what are you smoking?"
"Nothing!" she huffed, slightly offended. "There's nothing wrong with me! Look, I know I'm always playing pranks on you, but not this time. I'm serious and I can prove it. Let me show you something."
She fumbled around inside her luggage bag, her fingers shaking to a ridiculous extent. Unable to keep still, she gracelessly shoved her clothes around within the confines of the bag to conduct her search. I had half a mind to give her a hand, but then she found what she was looking for.
"Take a look," she said, returning to my side and pressing a small box into my hands.
I immediately recognized it as a packet of birth control pills. I'd seen this brand before at the local pharmacy. She motioned me to open it, which I did. I pulled out a single cluster of pills. Only three out of twelve remained; the rest had been squeezed out of the foil. It could only mean one thing.
"Y-You're on the pill?"
All of a sudden she felt bashful and broke eye contact with me, settling for staring at the pills.
"I'm sure you remember my promise, Neku. I told you we can do it when I'm ready. All this time, I've wanted to do it with you, but could never bring myself to make the first move. I was scared it'd turn out badly. I didn't want to rush and make a mess of it."
Ah… she's just like me. I had the exact same fears. I was happy to know I wasn't the only one who thought that way.
"But back in Fukushima," she continued, "I had a lot of time to think. I've already pledged to stay by your side forever… so it's only natural that it's bound to happen, sooner or later. Once I understood this, I realized there was no point in waiting any longer. So I secretly bought myself some pills and started taking them."
"How long have you been on the pill?"
"About a month. I actually wanted us to do it as soon as I came back, but since you said we'd be going on vacation, I thought it'd be nice to, you know… like, why don't we…"
Her voice trailed off and she said no more, too embarrassed to continue. I gently urged her to, she refused. I had no choice but to put the pieces of the puzzle together myself.
"Could it be," I stammered, "that you want us to do it during our stay here?"
"I… I just thought it'd be more romantic if we had our first time at the beach or something, as opposed to simply getting it on at home… n-not that doing it at home is a bad thing, either, but… oh god, I'm saying something weird, aren't I…"
There was a plume of steam rising from the top of her head as she slowly disintegrated into a blubbering mess. Before she had a complete breakdown, I placed my hand on her arm, rubbing it softly.
"It's not weird at all," I said. "In fact, I'm happy you put some thought into it."
She calmed down somewhat upon seeing that I didn't think badly of her. Not wishing to upset the delicate situation, I let her gather her thoughts, stroking her back to soothe her nerves.
"I'm sure you think it's odd," she said, "that I'm getting nervous now when I've been teasing your butt off all the way since high school. But… I've never had, you know, s-sex…" – her cheeks turned a brighter shade of red upon reluctantly uttering the s-word – "…so I really don't know what I should be doing… or even saying. Ugh, I feel like such an amateur!"
I hurried to assuage her concerns. "H-Hey, no one's an expert before their first time! Everyone's stumbled at least once or twice in their lives, and we're the same. So don't get too hung up over it. There's nothing wrong with being a newbie."
Seeing that she still didn't seem convinced, I drew her close and kissed her. I knew what I should be saying next, but with her in this state, I wouldn't be able to get a word in until she calmed down. Luckily my plan worked. It was just a brief grazing of the lips that lasted no more than ten seconds, but she was already a lot less jittery.
"Eri, we'll work it out together, you and me. Let's think it through carefully… get the most important steps out of the way. I can't promise it'll be smooth-sailing, but what I can promise is that I'll make you happy."
Slowly but surely, she smiled. Then she leaned in for a kiss as thanks. But the heartwarming goodness didn't end there.
"I'll do my best too," she said. "I can't be the only one who's happy."
"Th-That's a deal, then."
Kariya, Uzuki, Mr H… Back when I was still lost and flailing about in my quest to make Eri my girlfriend, you were the ones who gave me advice and guided me onto the right path. And thanks to you, I could finally be with the love of my life.
Courting Eri was one thing and maintaining the relationship was another, but consummating it was a whole different ball game altogether. It's frightening because of what could go wrong. I was tempted to call my WildKat buddies and ask for one final piece of advice, but ultimately decided against it. I've relied on them long enough. Now's the time for me to prove my mettle. I'd do this myself, and show everyone how far I've come.
My readiness to take charge was dampened when Eri posed the million-dollar question:
"So how do we start?"
Uh… that's actually a really good question…
"I'm okay with anything!" she said. "It's your call, Neku!"
I knew she was trying to make life easier for me. Ironically, leaving it up to me was the bumpier road to travel. The look of anticipation and excitement on her face made it even more difficult. I had high expectations to live up to.
Calm down, Neku… Recall what your uncle taught you. One thing at a time. Hmmm… I might have an idea of what to do.
"Um, for now," I said, "let's see if our 'protection' is in order."
"Contraceptives, right?"
"Yeah. You've been taking birth control pills for a month. That's more than enough time for it to be effective. So you got this nicely covered."
"But what about you?"
"Oh, um… I have this."
I grabbed the condoms I stashed in my luggage. When she saw I had an entire box in my possession, she was both impressed and amused by my preparedness and foresight.
"You didn't need to bring so many," she giggled, "but I appreciate the thought."
"C-Can't hurt to be careful…"
We went over the relevant bits of information printed on the box. All of the touted features consisted of complicated-sounding terms like "featherlight texture" and "space-age durability", and I'll be honest: a lot of it went over my head. If the claims were huge lies and I was holding a bunch of inferior products in my hands I would be none the wiser. But I trusted them to be in perfect working order. As long as they did their job, I was cool with it. Eri's pill treatment was our safety net in case things went south, but I didn't want to count on that alone.
"There're twelve of them in here," she said.
Totally absentminded, I said, "So that means we can do it twelve times…"
She looked at me in horror. That's when I saw my mistake.
"Theoretically!" I squawked. "I meant theoretically! There's no way we can attempt half that many times in one night… We'll just get ourselves killed!"
Relief washed over her visibly. "Oh, good. I was worried for a moment there."
Whew. Crisis averted. Still, what possessed her to think I'd even try something as suicidal as that…
"How do I put this on?"
I squinted at the tiny booklet that was included inside. The instructions were functional enough and there were diagrams to illustrate the correct procedure, but I was still overwhelmed by the fact that I was actually going to put one on so I could be on my merry way with Eri. It was actually happening. Once or twice I had to pinch myself to be sure.
Thinking I was still stumped, Eri attempted to give me a helpful tip or two.
"D-Don't you have to be naked for that?"
True. But we never got undressed together for anything other than baths and the rare trip to the onsen.
In other words, this was the first time we were naked for a very different purpose… and knowing that, my insides twisted themselves into pretzels. Eri realized it too; I could see it in her shaking frame. Suddenly she looked so shy and vulnerable, and that she was clad in only her towel made her look even more so. And this was the girl who had no qualms stripping at the drop of a hat!
However, if I didn't do something, we wouldn't get anywhere. Uzuki once said girls like it when guys take the initiative.
Here goes nothing!
I peeled off my shirt and tossed it onto the floor, earning a gasp from Eri. Whether it was out of shock or awe, I didn't really care. Not wishing to leave this half-baked, I kept the momentum going and the rest of my clothes followed suit. The end result of my bravado was me standing before her without a shred of modesty on my person. There. How's that!
Her roving eyes checked me out from head to toe, although they were prone to being hopelessly drawn to my lower half. She's seen it dozens of times during our baths, but it never fazed her until now. I guess it's a different story for her when we're about to do the dirty.
"Whoa."
Suddenly my courage took a hit and I became self-conscious. "D-Don't stare so much… I mean, well, I can't stop you, but…"
She mustered a shaky smile, but the cheeky undertones of her next words were clearly there.
"Showoff."
Obviously in response to my clumsy striptease act, she stood up and tore open her towel, revealing her body in all of its alabaster glory. The soft, vaguely orange light from the bedside lamp kissed her bare skin and left me spellbound. Her towel dropped in a heap at her feet and she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear in the most alluring manner possible. That smug smirk on her face showed she was mighty proud of her body and the fact that she was giving me access to a raunchy private VIP show.
It was my turn to go, "Whoa."
"I'm not letting you upstage me," she retorted. "You're not going to beat me, nope!"
"Since when did this turn into a competition?"
"Oh, I'm not quite done yet." Giggling, she reached inside the box of condoms and pulled one out, deftly tearing the square foil wrapper open with her teeth. "We still need to fit a muzzle on this bad boy."
Eri's seductive nature had returned, just the way I liked it, but I could tell she was still nervous. And that's fine. I imagine anyone about to experience their first night would be a gaggle of frayed nerves. But she was doing her very best to lighten the mood, even when she was shaking, so I had to give her credit for trying. To be fair, she was doing a great job turning both of us on. She's not the resident nudist for nothing.
After she made a big show of ordering me to sit back down on the edge of the bed, however, the awkwardness returned in full force as she found herself in an epic struggle to sheathe me properly based on the instructions on the booklet. She simply couldn't do it. The sudden change in atmosphere from sexy to stilted was actually kinda funny on hindsight. Eventually, after a series of repeated failures to get the job done right, I insisted that she leave it to me instead. Giving up at long last, she was all too happy to oblige. I had considerably less trouble and it was finished in half a minute.
"There we go." She passed her arm over her forehead in a figurative show of a tough job well done. "Whew! That was hard work!"
"Y-You didn't do anything in the end, though…"
"Oh, shut it. It's the thought that counts!"
"Sure it is."
It's nice that we were poking fun at each other, but we'd come this far for a purpose. The teasing petered out and we gave each other knowing looks. The time was nigh. So we slipped into bed…
Watching her lay her body full-length on the bed with velvety smooth movements, my heart pounded like a jackhammer. Eyeing me with a come-hither look, she offered herself like a maiden on a sacrificial altar, and I got on all fours on top of her, poised to begin our ritual. But as soon as I was in position, she started to grow uneasy again, clutching the sheets with a vice-like grip.
"Oh god," she whimpered, "this is going to hurt, isn't it…"
She's getting frightened… I should put her at ease. "Well, from what I've heard, it's just a small sharp pain at the beginning, then it's smooth-sailing from that point on. Think of it like a bee sting."
Alarmed, she spluttered, "Don't bee stings hurt like heck?!"
"Uh, wrong analogy, sorry!" Great going, Neku! Her panic just rose about a few notches. "It won't hurt much at all, I promise!"
"You're not even a woman. How can you be so sure?"
"Uh… um… men's intuition?"
"Women's intuition is a thing, Neku. Not… what you said."
"Argh."
What a wonderful way to start the night. Luckily for me, however, she was willing to overlook this as a rookie mistake.
"It's okay, Neku. I trust you." Her hand reached up to caress my cheek. "I'll be fine, because I know I can trust you."
I could feel tremors in her fingers, a sure sign that while she was ready to endure this trial together with me, she was still apprehensive. I wanted to do something… anything at all to help her.
"Don't worry," I said. "I'll be real gentle."
"Gentle?" Her fingers slunk from my cheek to my shoulder, tracing the curvature of my muscles. "Y-You can do that?"
"I can."
"…Promise?"
I chuckled. "I already made a bunch of promises tonight. What's one more?"
"You're right, that's true," she said, allowing herself a tiny giggle. "But seriously, I'm kinda scared… If we could take this slow and steady, I think I'll be able to manage."
"You got it. Slow and steady."
"J-Just don't go too slow, okay?"
"If you get bored, just go to sleep and I'll handle the rest."
"Ha ha ha! You're funny."
Eri was laughing along with me. That's a good sign; it meant that she was calming down. Her other hand was still clinging viciously onto the sheets, though. And it's just as well. Once this boat starts rocking, she'd need something to hang onto.
Playtime was over and we readied ourselves for the great climb up the stairway to adulthood.
"Well, this is it, Neku. You up for it?"
"Am I ever."
"Same here," she giggled. "Now… shall we begin?"
About time. I was only too happy to comply.
XOXOXOXOXO
As much as I want to describe how the last fifteen or so minutes went, I feel that such intimate details are best left in the closet. But I'll say this much: it's official. Eri and I have just slept with each other.
And it was glorious.
Make no mistake: it was by no means perfect at all. Neither of us had any experience, so a lot of trial and error was involved. Just as I promised, I went about this slow and steady so I wouldn't cause her too much discomfort. Even then, she'd cry out a little too loudly more than once, which made me think she was in pain, and then I'd instinctively grind to a halt and check up on her. I must have sounded like a broken record asking her over and over if she was okay and whether I should stop. But she was very understanding of me and never once did she chide me for my repeated questions.
Eventually we got the hang of it and found a comfortable rhythm that we, um, "danced" to for the last few minutes. Hiccups aside, I'd say it was pretty good, considering it was our first time.
Exhausted, we lay side by side staring at the ceiling. For the longest time we didn't say anything, choosing instead to catch our breaths. The room was dead silent except for the purr of the air-conditioning and our gasps for air.
The long silence started to worry me. I may have enjoyed myself immensely, but could the same be said for her? What did she think of me? I mean, I'd gladly take any constructive criticism she had for me so I could improve myself for future endeavors, but this being my first time, I'd appreciate it if she was gentle about it.
The uncertainty overstayed its welcome and I simply had to find out.
"Eri?"
"Hmm?"
"Is everything okay with you?"
She turned to her side and snuggled close, resting her head against my shoulder. One arm of hers was splayed out over my chest as she clung onto me, like a baby koala with its mother.
"I'm fine," she whispered, sighing in a satisfied way. "It was incredible, really. I'm just… zonked out."
"Are you sure? Didn't it hurt?"
"Well, yeah, it did at first. And I bled a bit too."
"Sorry about that. I really tried."
"No, no! You did just fine!" She snuggled even closer. "Don't blame yourself, Neku. Listen… I don't know about these things, like what's considered good or bad or whatever, b-but I think you were great. Nowhere near what might be considered perfect, but still great."
That sounded like a fair evaluation of my… performance. "R-Really? I dunno. I felt like I was stumbling around the whole time…"
"Hey, I could say the same about myself. And you did say no one's an expert before their first time. Don't get so hung up over it."
"That's true…"
"Besides, I could tell you were trying your best for me. You were real gentle the whole time… just as you promised. So I… I really appreciate that…"
The past several minutes while we were busy were so surreal, all we could do now was to lay there and let the reality of it sink in. I didn't need to pinch myself anymore, though. There were already more than enough bruises on my arm from trying to convince myself earlier that this was no dream.
"Neku, thank you so much. You were amazing, and I had a lot of fun."
"I had fun too… Thank you for spending the night with me. That was the most beautiful thing we've done together."
"Not to change the topic or anything…" Eri sat up, fanning herself with her hand. "…but I'm feeling rather hot."
"Are we talking about temperature or sexiness?"
She didn't answer directly but her giggling was proof that she liked my little one-liner. "I'm all sweaty thanks to our 'evening workout'. I'm gonna go outside for some fresh air."
"Outside? Fresh air?"
Eri hopped off the bed, whisked away the curtains from the balcony doors, and disappeared onto the balcony. I came to my senses in a jiffy and hurried after her. She stood leaning against the railing, surveying the horizon all while her hair fluttered about in the night breeze.
I wanted to remind her that she still wasn't wearing anything, but she was so peppy from the night's events I couldn't bear to be a wet blanket. So I let her be, watching her from behind the door.
Standing brave against the chilly breeze, she squealed, "Mmm, this is so much better!"
"Hey, you're in full view."
"There's no one around at this time of night. I'll be fine!" Beckoning to me, she added, "Now you just quit staring at my cute behind already and haul your fine tush over here! The air is real nice and cool!"
"Uh… at least let me get my pants – "
"No excuses, young man!" She grabbed onto my wrist and started pulling, sprinkling the air with her infectious giggling. "There are some things you can only truly enjoy al dente! This is one of them!"
"D-Do you mean au naturel?"
"Yes indeed!" She was winning our tug-of-war and I found myself getting dragged towards the railing. "So come on, no hiding now! Free yourself from your inhibitions! There's more to life than comic books and video games!"
"Like what? Running the risk of being captured on video while standing naked on a balcony?"
"Exactly!" she laughed. "What's life without a little danger?"
There was no use resisting. I knew from the moment she grabbed my hand that this was a battle I wouldn't be able to win. I opted to lean with my back against the railing. I figured it'd be less of a shock for any passersby to catch sight of my butt as opposed to getting an eyeful of… wood. Not that it meant much…
But she was right. The evening air did wonders to soothe the heat in my body. I was embarrassed at first, standing there in the buff. But then I thought to myself, at least I'm not alone in this so, well, it's not that bad.
Eyes firmly set on the horizon, she spoke to me. "I'm sorry I made you wait for so long, Neku. And you were so patient for my sake too. I can't imagine any other guy being able to hold it in for nine whole months."
"I was close to reaching breaking point a few times, honestly," I admitted, before playfully blaming her, "and you walking around the house naked almost every day didn't help matters."
"Sorry," she giggled, "but I'm proud to be a nudist and I don't intend to turn over a new leaf anytime soon!"
We laughed. It was a fantastic feeling.
"Okay, enough with the jokes," she said. "Really though, you've made me very happy tonight."
"And you me."
She cast a bashful glance at me. "C-Can I count on you to make love to me even more from now on?"
The glow on her cheeks seemed to pierce the darkness of the night. My answer to her question was a no-brainer.
"Why not. I'll take you on as many times as you like."
"Wow, I can see you're… rising to the challenge." She playfully lowered her gaze to my… dammit, I'm running out of euphemisms here.
"Nice pun there. So, um… wanna go another round?"
My proposition was met with a surprising – and disappointing – answer.
"I'd love to, but… not this time, Neku. Sorry, I'm totally knackered out."
She yawned widely, plopping her head against my shoulder. The fragrance of shampoo in her hair tickled my nose pleasantly. If I let her, I bet she could sleep right on the spot. When she's like this, I guess there's nothing else to be done except to hit the sack. Now that I thought about it, I probably wouldn't be able to hold up a second time myself anyway.
"Eri, what say we get some shut-eye?"
She nodded weakly, allowing herself to be led back inside the room. After securing our privacy by shutting the balcony doors and curtains, we fell into bed without a second thought. We didn't even bother to get dressed. I'd never slept in the nude before, much less with a girl as naked as I was, but they always did say it's good to try new things…
Eri's long hair draped all around her body like a bridal veil. The way she was curled up made her look like a cat taking a nap. With the exception of the odd grunt or mumble here and there, she was already pretty much asleep. That gave me a lot of time to indulge in the guilty pleasure of lapping up the sight of her unclothed figure, before I finally pulled the covers over us.
With one last ounce of energy, she grasped my hand with the lightest of touches. Our fingers intertwined with each other, the warmth reaching up to my heart. She didn't exchange any words with me…
…but she smiled.
And so, with dreams of a brighter future in store for us, we slept holding hands.
XOXOXOXOXO
The next morning was abuzz with activity as we checked our luggage one last time to make sure we didn't miss anything. The most convenient train ride back home was in one and a half hours' time, so we couldn't dilly-dally.
There was, however, enough time for a quick snack at the Bistro. Eri showered compliments by the bucketful on the guy who made her chocolate sundae.
"Why, thank you, Eri," said Mr H graciously. "I'll be sure to relay your satisfaction to the cooks."
"Hee hee… Just for this alone, he deserves a pay raise."
"I'll think about it. By the way, you seem extra peppy today. Did something good happen?"
Sure. Our definition of 'something good' leaned on the more… private, bedroom-based side of things, however. I tried to stuff my blushing face behind my glass of juice, but Eri was more composed. Her reply to Mr H's question was with a wink and the ever so mysterious words…
"It's a secret!"
…
…
Author's note: This was one of the more challenging chapters to write because of the main subject's touchy nature. I could've gone the more exciting route by including the actual sex scene, but that would have required me to go into detail about everything the heroes had done together, and I didn't want to change the story's age rating from T to M. Sure, it sounds hypocritical of me to say that when Eri's not even half-dressed much of the time we read about her, but…
To make sure the chapter achieves the feel of a sex scene without having to wander deep into lemony territory, I did some research beforehand. A couple of seinen anime and manga titles had sex scenes but they were tastefully done without going overboard or even exposing any naughty bits. So I sought to replicate that effect. In the end, however, I decided to play safe and settled for the "some time later" scene change trick, without showing Neku and Eri in action. Yes, it feels like cheating… but at least the buildup to the final moment shows a loving couple taking their awkward first steps towards adulthood.
I understand that this chapter will polarize the readers. While some may like it, I'm sure others wouldn't. And that's fine by me. My main aim here is not so much to titillate but to show that Neku and Eri have reached a point in their relationship where they can finally be intimate. That's progress, right?
As always, if you have any constructive criticism for me, I'd gladly hear you out. I could use your advice to improve my stories, not just this one. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. Stay happy and I will see you in Chapter 46. Bye bye!