Part Six: Secret No Longer

Chapter Seven: If this is the last kiss (Let's make it last all night)

It was Friday evening and after two days in which she had been living on a metaphorical knife-edge, Kari Kamiya was grateful it was now the weekend. It had been touch and go at points, but fortunately, there had been no further incident in school since Wednesday. She had, however, still felt a bit nauseated on both days, but not enough to keep her from school, even though she had vomited once on each; she felt this evening. Unfortunately, it was an out of the frying pan and into the fire situation. While she had avoided her mom being called into school and told about her relationship with Tai, she now faced the prospect of having to tell her parents about their relationship before the end of Sunday. It was a terrifying prospect. How badly would they react? What would they do? Would they try to put a stop to it? Would they go as far as trying to separate them? Variations of these very questions, plus others of a similar ilk, had been relentlessly going through her mind ever since she set foot inside the apartment after school.

At breakfast that morning, her father had surprised her mother with a dinner reservation for that evening. When Kari had asked what the occasion was, he simply told them that he'd made a promise to her mother at New Year, to be more romantic in the forthcoming year. It was quite sweet, she had thought, that even after all these years, her father was still willing to do small things like this to make her mom happy. He'd then given Tai money for the two of them to order some take out for dinner, assuming neither of them had any plans to go out. She'd felt a sense of guilt when her boyfriend had accepted it and she'd suspected he had too. For they'd both known how much damage they were about to do to the family before the end of the weekend.

Kari lay on her bed, eyes closed and headphones on. Mike Oldfield's aptly named Crises album enveloping her. She let out a regulated breath as the second lyrical section of the title track began.

"The watcher and the tower, waiting hour by hour."

A good metaphor she thought. She was the watcher and the task of telling her parents about her relationship with Tai, the tower that loomed over her as she waited here, hour by hour.

"There's a breach in the security, a disturbance in tranquillity."

She could think of no better way to capture the essence of what had happened over the course of the last two weeks, that had led to…

"The watcher and the tower, waiting hour by hour."

Kari allowed the music to soothe her and push thoughts of the current situation from her mind. It would only be a temporary reprieve, like putting a bandage over a wound that clearly needed stitches. However, she would take what she could get. Moments when she had felt some semblance of peace had been rare of late and she had a bad feeling they were about to become even more scarce, but that would be a little later on…

…Kari felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder and her eyes snapped open to gaze into the brilliant chocolate browns of her boyfriend. She reached up with slightly numb hands and took off her headphones.

"Hey," Tai said softly and gave her a warm smile, "mom and dad have just left."

Rather unsteadily she sat up and placed her headphones on the nightstand; hitting pause on her music player in the process. "Hey, yourself," she replied, her voice sounding as though she had just woken up from a long sleep.

"Have you been lying here since you got home?" her boyfriend asked playfully.

"Yeah, pretty much. I just needed to try and get away from everything. If I'd had my way, I would not have gone to school today and just lay here and listened to music."

Tai let out a low whistle, "you can actually do that? How do you manage to just lie hear and listen for that long? Don't you get restless?"

Kari shook her head, "no. I just close my eyes and let the music take me away. If you hadn't disturbed me, I probably would have kept going until I ran out of albums." She swung her slightly stiff legs over the edge of the bed and planted her feet on the floor. She gave it a few moments before she stood up.

"If you want, I can leave you alone?"

She let out a light laugh, "no, it's ok. I'd rather spend the time with you."

"Do you want to order some take out then?" Tai asked as, on cue, his stomach making a light noise.

Kari made a quick check-in with her own stomach, before replying, "not quite yet. I'm not hungry enough." She then looked her boyfriend up and down. Just seeing him standing there, with his mass of messy hair, brilliant chocolate eyes and cute smile, reminded her of just how good it felt when they joined together as one. She sighed internally. Tonight might be the last chance they had to be intimate for a long time. "Tai," she said softly.

"Yeah?"

Kari met his gaze. "I want to have sex tonight… it might be the last chance we get for a while and I want one more memory of how amazing it feels."

Before Tai even spoke, she was already undressing him with her eyes. The deep-seated hunger she felt to have him quickly taking hold.

He gave her a smile, "I'd like that too. Do you want to play a video game just now, then have something to eat before we…"

Kari swiftly cut him off, "no." In a flash, she closed the short distance between them. "I want you now!" she said firmly, as her hands wrapped themselves around his torso and she pressed her lips against his own.

It took nothing more to turn her boyfriend on and soon they were a tangle of limbs as they tore each other's clothes off amidst a flurry of passionate kisses.

##

Everything about tonight felt wrong to Yuuko Kamiya. The temperature outside was the highest it had been for weeks (for the time of day), yet she felt cold to her core. She'd put on a nice dress and applied her makeup perfectly, yet she could not recall ever feeling so horrible. And while she had left her children at home alone countless times over the years, never before had she been so concerned about what might be going on in her absence. Earlier in the day, she'd taken the foolish notion that, if she permanently stayed in the apartment while Tai and Kari were at home, then they could never do anything indecent.

Yuuko shook her head upon reminding herself of this idiotic idea. She and Susumu had talked the matter over three times since Thursday and each time come to the consensus that they needed to do this for the sake of their children. She took a deep breath. I'm doing this for Tai and Kari's sake, she said to herself. They're making a huge mistake and need to be stopped before it completely ruins their lives. She reached out and took hold of her husband's hand.

"Are you ok?" he asked with concern.

"No," she replied truthfully. "I hate this situation. I hate the thought of what Tai and Kari may or may not do while we are out and I hate the fact that we're doing this to try and catch them in the act of…" Images of Tai and Kari kissing, that quickly became more sordid, filled her mind and she shuddered. The idea of coming home to deliberately try and catch them kissing, or worse, somehow still felt wrong. It was not a sight she wished to see.

"I know," Susumu replied and gave her hand a light squeeze, "but we've talked about this and we don't have a choice. We need to put a stop to whatever is going on between them before it irreparably damages their lives."

Yuuko sighed, "I know, you're right. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I don't like it either." He reached out and put an arm around her shoulder. "But we have to do this."

Neither of them said anything else as they continued to walk towards the restaurant. They'd discussed in detail how they were going to do this the previous night and eventually decided that the best course of action would be to actually go out for dinner. Her husband had told Tai and Kari that they would be home by twelve at breakfast, then reminded the former before they had left. That gave her children five and a half hours alone. It was a wide time frame to operate in, but if they had given the kids less, they might not risk doing something indecent for fear that they would be caught. However, they had sat and narrowed that window down to roughly two and a half hours, based on two assumptions 1) Tai and Kari would order food sometime within the first two hours, have to wait on it being delivered and then eat it and 2) they would not risk doing anything after 11 pm, in case she and Susumu arrived home slightly earlier than expected. That gave them a time between roughly eight-thirty and eleven in which to catch them. They'd decided to go with half-past-nine. Enough time for them to actually have dinner and get home and it not appear suspicious, should they fail to catch them doing something indecent. In that event, she and Susumu had agreed to put their early homecoming down to her not feeling well after dinner. They would then have to try again at some later point in time. She sincerely hoped it would not come to that. For she just wanted this horrible business to be over.

Following her husband's lead, Yuuko stepped through the door he held open for her and into the restaurant. Regardless of how good it might be, she knew that this was one meal she would not enjoy.

##

Kari pushed Tai down to the mattress, both of them panting and struggling for breath and they hadn't even done it yet. With her teeth, she ripped open the condom packet, pulled it out and pinched the tip. She gave him a devilish grin as she placed the rubber over the tip of his solid penis and rolled it down the shaft. Picking up the bottle of lube, she squeezed some onto her hand and began to rub it all over her boyfriend's dick. He let out a series of low moans. The excess she rubbed over her opening.

"Don't cum now, Tai, or I'll get very pissed off with you," she said as she moved into position. "And you don't want me pissed off at you."

On all the previous occasions, Tai had been on top, which had been fair enough. They'd only just started having full-blown sex and the vanilla missionary position had seemed like the best option until her vagina had acclimatised to having something as wide as her boyfriend's cock thrust into it. And now it had. She'd not felt an ounce of pain or discomfort the last two times they had done it. Meaning that tonight, she got to be on top. Grabbing his erect penis in one hand, Kari lined it up with the opening to her vagina and slowly slid herself down atop it. Immediately she could feel the warmth radiating from it as it filled her up inside.

"Urgh," she moaned, her eyes glazing over for a second.

Beneath her, Tai too let out a groan, "mmph."

Then she started to ride him. Up and down she slid on his penis, each and every thrust sending pulses of pleasure zipping through her body. Oh god, this felt so good! Faster and faster she plunged her hips down atop him, while Tai quickly matched her rhythm with thrusts of his own. Extasy exploding inside her, Kari seized her own breasts and began to furiously rub them.

"Uh, uh, uh," she cried out as she dug her nails into her soft mounds, "fuck yeah! Argh!"

Kari was completely unaware of what her boyfriend was doing when she felt his penis suddenly expand inside her. It was enough to send her over the edge and she yelled, "ARGH, TAI!" as she came hard. If she'd had any capacity for rational thought, she might have questioned why, unlike on the second time they had done it at New Year, she had not felt a slightly warm sensation shoot up inside her when her boyfriend had orgasmed.

When eventually she came down from her enormous high, Kari flopped down atop her boyfriend. She could hear his heavy breathing as she felt his now flaccid penis slide out of her; it matched her own. This was the third time out of five that they had mutually climaxed, which either meant they were supper compatible or were doing something right. She didn't care which. It just felt sooo good.

"How was that?" Tai eventually asked her. She felt him raise a hand and brush some strands of her lit-match hair out of her eyes.

Kari gave him a warm smile as she opened her eyes to stare into his. "It felt amazing," she replied. "How about you?"

Her boyfriend returned the smile, "I think we got our good memory." His stomach chose that moment to let off a loud rumble.

"I think we need to get you some food," she laughed. "Why don't you go order us some take out, then join me in the shower?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Tai replied with a grin. "There's just one problem."

"What's that?"

"You need to get your cute and sexy sweaty butt off of me."

They both laughed and she gave him a playful punch in the arm as she sat up. The sudden motion made her feel slightly dizzy and a bit nauseous. Placing a hand against the wall, Kari steadied herself and took in a long slow breath. Whether it passed on its own or because she was determined not to let anything ruin what may be their last night alone together, she did not know. However, by the time she stood up, the sensation had faded.

"Are you ok?" Tai asked, a look of concern spreading across his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, deliberately evading his gaze. "I just felt a bit dizzy when I sat up. Guess my body had not quite recovered from orgasming. I'll see you in the shower," she added, before briskly heading for the door.

##

Dinner had been a grim affair and, in hindsight, Yuuko felt they should have just gone to a bar instead. She doubted she would have drunk any less and there would have been no food for her to move about a plate. Her appetite had been virtually non-existent. By the time the check had come, she had been glad to leave, despite what they were potentially heading home to. Outside, she clung to her husband's arm as they began a slow walk home. Her gaze drifted up to his expressionless face that was focused straight ahead. While Susumu would never admit it, Yuuko knew that this whole affair was hurting him inside too. She could see it in his eyes.

As they walked, Yuuko's mind uncontrollably started to do what it had been doing at every spare moment since seeing Kari wearing those Digital Punk jeans; blaming herself and Susumu for what had happened. It was their fault, it had to have been. They had allowed Tai and Kari to become too close. Kept them in the same room until he was sixteen and she thirteen. Left Tai to look after Kari too many times, thus not allowing either of them to go out and be with other people. Not to mention the whole Digital World affair. Who knew how traumatic that experience might have been for them? They could have seen and done things that they could only ever talk about with each other and the few others that had been with them. Why had she, Susumu or any of the other parents not thought about sending the children to some form of counselling?

She should have seen this coming… should have prevented it from happening. Despite what her husband had said on Thursday, the warning signs had been there. Tai paying for Kari to get her hair dyed had been the start of it, she was sure of it. Since that weekend, they had started doing things together that they had not done since they were a lot younger. Her children had re-forged a relationship, only this time it was not the innocent sibling relationship they'd had before. And she had not even thought to question it. As their mother, it was her responsibility to look after them, protect them, teach them right and wrong about the world, people and relationships. She had utterly failed them as a mother and as a result, they had fallen into an indecent relationship with one another.

Tears began to nip the corners of Yuuko's eyes and she had to fight to stop them from running down her cheeks. After tonight, both her children would almost certainly end up hating her and Susumu. And that thought more than any other threatened to shatter her heart. Only they had no other choice. If there had been any other out that might prevent Tai and Kari from hating her, even if it meant sacrificing her own life, she would have taken it in a heartbeat.

Yuuko's eyes stared out into the streetlamp lit distance. She could just make out the shadowy mass of concrete and glass that was their apartment building. The destruction of her family unit was only about ten minutes away.

##

Tai stretched his legs and arms out to their full extent as Kari cuddled into him on the sofa. Allowing his limbs to relax, he draped an arm around his girlfriend; she nuzzled against his neck. After having a rather steamy shower, the couple had settled down on the sofa to watch The History of Trunks, while they waited for the Chinese food he'd ordered to arrive. When it did, they'd eaten the lot. Sex was hungry work after all. Afterwards, they'd watched the rest of the film.

He ran his fingers softly through Kari's lit-match hair. The thought of not being able to spend evenings like this with her did not bear thinking about. Except he couldn't escape such thoughts. Come tomorrow, their parents would know about their relationship and then all hell would most likely break loose. And as much as he wanted to avoid, ignore or just plain deny it, Kari had been spot on at the start of the evening. This may very well be their last night together for a long time.

Tai felt his girlfriend's slender fingers in his own hair and he turned to look at her. His chocolate eyes met with those brilliant reddish-browns and a wave of love and warmth washed over him. No matter what happened, for him, home would always be the place where he could find those eyes. He reached over and planted a tender kiss on her soft, warm lips.

"I love you," he said after the kiss had ended.

She kissed him back, the gentle movements of those delicate lips drowning him in desire and setting his soul on fire. "I love you too," Kari said softly.

Tai could feel the want, no, the need to join with her begin to build inside of him once more. It wasn't just about sex. In fact, even he did not know the full depth and complexity of it. Only that he needed to be with her and that any minute that he did not purposely choose to be apart from her was one more that they'd lost. His eyes drifted to the clock on the wall; it was only 9:20. That meant they had just over an hour and a half in which they could safely be together as a couple. He looked back at his girlfriend. "Want to make one more amazing memory?" he asked, desperately hoping she was not tired out from earlier.

Kari gave him a devilish smile, "is that your way of trying to talk me back into the bedroom?"

Tai grinned at her, "if it'll work, then yes."

His girlfriend let out an elongated sigh, "and I'd just gotten comfy too… oh well…" In a flash, her arms wrapped themselves around him and their lips met.

Hmm, not this time sister, Tai thought as he planted his feet on the floor and in one fluid motion, stood up, twisted and scooped her up off the sofa. The entire motion seemed to catch her by surprise and he used the opportunity to take control of the kiss. Pushing his tongue into her mouth, Tai began to explore the inside, while carefully navigating them through the main living area and into Kari's bedroom. Placing her down on the bed, he climbed on top of her and immediately began to unfasten the toggles on her green, Japanese silk pyjamas. He had just undone the last one and pulled the jacket open to reveal her breasts, when he felt her hands grip the bottom of his t-shirt. Next second, his vision became obscured and his arms temporarily trapped as she hauled it over his head. He had to sit up in order to wrestle out of it. By the time he had tossed it to the floor, Kari too had sat up enough to slip out of her jacket.

Naked torso pressing against his girlfriend's, Tai found her lips once more and their flame-like dance began again. His hands found her breasts and he began to caress them with gusto. He then felt his girlfriend start to rub his back and when he pinched her nipples, she retaliated with her fingernails. Determined not to be outdone by her this time, he ran his hands and tongue down her body until he reached the waistband of her trousers. Pulling them down, he felt her neatly trimmed bush tickle his lips slightly as he opened his mouth and began to lap her up. Each and every moan he elicited form her was music to Tai's ears. He enjoyed pleasuring her almost as much as the sensations of ecstasy he felt when she played with him.

"Urgh, no fair," Kari moaned, as his tongue found her clit. He sucked it hard for that comment, causing her to yelp. "Damnit, Tai, I want to play too," she cried out amidst another series of moans.

He looked up at her from his position in between her legs and grinned, "not this time, Missy. For once, you're going to be a good girl and just enjoy yourself."

"Make… ARGH!" Kari yelled as he furiously wiggled his tongue over her clit, while at the same time his fingers found her nipples and pinched.

Quickly, Tai withdrew his head from between her legs and flipped her over onto her stomach. From her nightstand, he grabbed a condom and the bottle of lube. He had to drop both onto the bed and give her nipples another hard pinch to stop her from trying to wriggle away. "Oh no you don't," he said playfully, as she writhed in pleasure under his touch.

He then planted his left hand between her legs and pinched her clit between thumb and forefinger. Anytime she tried to move, he would squeeze them together as he used his other hand and teeth to open the condom, slide it over his erect penis and lube up. Shifting his left hand to her hip, he guided himself to her opening and slipped inside.

##

The climb up the stairs to their floor of the apartment building felt akin to climbing the steps to the gallows for Yuuko. This was it. If their plan worked, this was the point that everything would change. The moment she and Susumu stepped through their front door, the happy family life she had enjoyed for the vast majority of the last eighteen years would be over. She clutched desperately to her husband's arm. He would be all she would have left and she could only hope that it would be enough.

Susumu met her fearful gaze. "We can still turn around, go to a bar and come back at midnight," he said quietly. "Tai and Kari are smart kids. Maybe if we talk to them about it, they'll listen to reason and stop."

Yuuko shook her head. The idea was tempting, so much so that she almost turned around on the spot. It was only her maternal instincts that stopped her. She had completely failed her children as a mother and if there was only one thing she ever managed to get right for them, this had to be it. This relationship they were in could ruin their lives irreparably and so she had to ensure that it ended. Even if it cost her their love. "No," she finally managed to say in a shaky whisper. "Tai and Kari are smart kids and yet they've still chosen to pursue this. By whatever bastardised logic they've used, I know that they believe what they are doing is right. If we confront them with what we have, they'll deny everything and make sure to be extra careful from now on. They won't stop."

Her husband lowered his head. Perhaps he had been hoping, like she had, that there was another way out of this dire situation. "Ok… here we go. We'd probably be best to take our shoes off before we step inside. Hard soles and heels make too much noise on wood."

She reached down and pulled off her high-heels and almost yelped when she felt the cold stone of the landing beneath her nylon covered feet. She watched Susumu do the same before he lightly took hold of the door handle. Ever so gently, her husband pulled the handle down. There was the lightest of clicks as the locking mechanism operated. He then tentatively pushed the door inwards and out of its frame; it opened almost silently. Taking care to step as lightly as she could, Yuuko followed him across the threshold. She sat her shoes down atop the rack but did not bother with her indoor ones, as her husband closed the door behind him with the same level of care.

From down the hallway, she could hear untoward noises coming from Kari's room. Oh God! she thought as she stepped into the main living area. She had hoped to simply catch them making out. However, fate it seemed had decided to treat her to the full show. The colour drained from her face and she froze on the spot. She couldn't do this. She could not deliberately walk in on her children while they were having sex with each other. Susumu took hold of her hand and guided her onward. Against her will, yet at the same time unable to bring herself to stop her husband, Yuuko was ushered through the main living area and down the hallway to Kari's bedroom door.

"…Urgh… Urgh… Urgh… ARGH! TAI… YES… URGH… JUST LIKE… THAT! ARGH!"

The sound of her daughter screaming in delight chilled Yuuko to the bone and she wanted to run. To run from the apartment and the excruciating sounds of her son fucking her daughter and just keep going until she collapsed from exhaustion. This could not be happening. No, this was not happening. Beyond that wooden door, her children were not having sex. This was all just some twisted nightmare that soon she would wake up from. Only she never did. In abject horror, she could only watch as Susumu reached out, seized the door handle and in one fluid motion, threw the door open.