Chapter 11
"Yumeko-san," Mary pleads. "What do you want from me?"
The air feels gravely tense, like any slight movement between the two of them could shatter the illusion of what they've been building in this room. So many nights spent in this dorm, on this very bed, where their actions overpowered the need for words. In the midst of their passion, it didn't seem to matter. But now, with no curtain of lust to hide behind, they were both at a loss. She takes care to formulate her response cautiously. Yumeko knows that no matter what she says next, or more likely, what she doesn't say next, things are going to change.
She's been silent for several moments now, blankly staring at the spot on Mary's shoulder just to the left of her neck. Fleetingly, she wonders if Itsuki was given the chance to see the bite mark she proudly left there days ago. They certainly had enough alone time together. It was difficult not to notice how the pair had been inseparable as of late. She was certain the whole student body noticed their newly established "friendship", if that's even what it was...
Itsuki Sumeragi…
Overall, Yumeko's impression of the girl was of disappointment. They had played such a promising game of Double Concentration together up until the girl had yielded so readily. It was her first gamble against a member of the infamous Hyakkaou student council, so she had expected a formidable challenge. Something to really test the capacities of her mind. And with the added risk of physical endangerment? Yumeko couldn't ask for more.
Yet, Itsuki failed (and failed terribly, she might add) to impress her. It was glaringly obvious from the start that the heiress had a ruse in play for their little game. She wasn't just an heiress to any old company, she was an heiress to a toy company. One that could easily manufacture decks of cards that would place the girl at an advantage. All Yumeko had to do was determine what advantage that was.
And she did.
Like she said, it was a disappointment.
Yumeko doesn't understand what Mary would find so appealing in such a boring girl like Itsuki.
The girl in question was still waiting for her answer. It could wait, she thinks, deciding to drag out the silence a little longer. After all, she had waited three days for Mary.
Three days of waiting, for what? A lecture? Yumeko hopes it wasn't all for nothing. She is craving the commandeering Mary that could reduce her to a writhing mess.
Yumeko's eyes trail over the hands that had pinned her down so demandingly moments ago. They skim up the length of the arms that subtly flexed under her school-issued blazer when she pressed down forcefully on Yumeko's wrists. Then slowly, she drinks in the sight of creamy skin exposed below the hem of her uniform skirt. Despite the tense situation, the way she is loosely straddled across Yumeko's body leaves a smoldering fire simmering in her belly.
With an inward frown, she does a double-take at Mary's uniform. It appears different, somehow.
Where the white button-up shirt and blazer usually maintained a tailored fit as it lay over her shoulders and chest, they now pull across her breasts as if it were a size too small. Her skirt was shorter, too, wickedly teasing Yumeko to what lay underneath. Had Mary's uniform shrunk in the laundry?
It was then that she noticed the most apparent disparity of her usual clothing. Yumeko had undressed Mary enough times to notice that the girl only owned trouser socks. The kind that stopped just under the divots of her delicate kneecaps.
The ones she was wearing right now? Definitely not trouser socks, but thigh-highs. Thigh-highs adorned with two white stars on each side of the upper leg. The same ones that Itsuki Sumeragi wears.
Ah, I see. They're sharing wardrobes now. Well then, Yumeko purses her lips, I guess Sumeragi-san did get to see my not-so-little mark, after all.
The realization stokes the burning fire in her belly and yet, simultaneously sends an unfamiliar and unexpectedly strong pang through her chest.
It's not your place, Yumeko. Stick to the plan.
The heat emanating from Mary's thigh-high clad legs where they're laying across her stomach is enticing, to say the least, but she can only deflect with the pretense of desire for so long.
Yumeko inhales, flicking her solemn eyes to Mary's before letting out a deep sigh.
"Mary-san...it's complicated."
The reaction is instantaneous.
"Pathetic," Mary spits back immediately, jerking her body sideways and away from Yumeko.
The loss of her body heat is a shock to Yumeko's skin.
If only she knew, Yumeko laments, it isn't that simple.
On the outside, her features remain stoic, unaffected by Mary's response. But internally? Every part of her body wants to recoil, stung by the harsh tone directed at her. Although, now that she has had a moment to think, it is easy to hold her true emotions back.
Her uncle taught her better than to erupt like she had moments before. He would have been disappointed.
Distantly, Mary's query flashes in her mind like a pesky, malfunctioning neon light: What do you want from me?
What does Yumeko want?
It's not a matter of want, Mary-san. It's a matter of need. And I need...
...to protect you.
But she couldn't say that. At least, not without telling her everything. And that was just not part of the plan.
Truthfully, it was wholly unfair that she was put on the spot with such a loaded question. This was not something she was prepared to answer with a brooding girl sprawled across her lap staring daggers into her eyes. She had planned to find Mary back in her dorm room, ready to be seduced like any other night. Instead, it was this.
"It's complicated," Mary scoffs, shaking her head at the sentiment. "Of course."
Throwing an accusatory glance her way, she continues, "Tell me, is it too complicated to explain how you knew Itsuki-san comforted me yesterday? You seem to know more than just the fact that she followed after me. So, explain."
Admittedly, these past few days Yumeko had been...sloppy. The blatant avoidance on Mary's part had caused Yumeko to tailspin, leading to her stray from her usual routine. If she was going to stick to the plan, part of it meant always having eyes on Mary during her stay at Hyakkaou.
Before class, Mary would purposely "nap" at her desk until the lesson started. After class, the girl would pack her belongings faster than their sensei could dismiss them, rushing out the door without another word. During meal times, she would sit at a separate table with Itsuki, non-verbally shutting out herself and Suzui. Then, at night, she wouldn't even return to her room.
For three nights, she had left Yumeko waiting alone in Mary's dorm aching for the sweet release her body had become accustomed to. On the first night, she had nearly worked herself into a carnal stupor while she prepared Mary's bed with fresh, new sheets. With every layer she secured to the mattress, Yumeko would fantasize all the ways her master would reward her kitten upon the discovery of her efforts. By the time the bed was made, all she desired was for Mary to completely ruin all her handiwork and fuck her until the sheets needed fixing again.
She would have re-done them happily.
But Mary never returned.
Instead of being ravished on those fresh blankets, Yumeko succumbed to exhaustion from waiting for the girl and would curl up under the covers. Then, during the day, she would be ignored by said girl. The cycle persisted for three days. Alone. Ignored. Alone. Ignored. Alone.
It was troublesome. There never seemed to be a time to catch the girl when she was by herself, which forced Yumeko to think of other ways to meet with her.
So when Mary had run from the gambling table yesterday, Yumeko had no choice but to follow. She was about to turn a corner when she caught sight of blonde hair rushing to the school's garden through a large window. Her vantage point on the third floor allowed her to see every second of it. Itsuki's head on Mary's shoulder, their arms intertwined, a romantic walk underneath the moonlight...then later, the tender moment they shared on the bench. She had to watch with disdainful eyes as Mary's body language revealed raw emotion after raw emotion. All to some heiress she had deemed worthy enough to open up to. And when they reached for each other's hands… Yumeko had seen enough.
Stick to the plan, she repeats to herself, snapping into focus. This will only work if you stick to the plan.
"Lucky guess," Yumeko lies, raising her steady gaze to meet Mary's.
"Bullshit. You expect me to believe that after all you just threw in my face?!"
She internally cringes, thinking back to everything she had revealed to Mary in the short time they had been reunited. It was never her intention for the girl to have riled her up so quickly. In her shock at being accused so spitefully, she had let loose all the thoughts she had retained during the time she was so brazenly avoided by Mary. It was a stupid mistake that Yumeko really shouldn't have made.
Too much talking Yumeko, stick to the plan.
Oh, how she so wanted to just skip all this petty arguing and get to the sex. One of the things that drew Yumeko back to Mary's room was how they both seemed to express themselves more accurately through body language.
She knew that if they were just to get past the talking, Yumeko would be able to explain herself much more clearly than how she is now.
But from the tone of the conversation, it was apparent that Mary was unconcerned with Yumeko's lust. The initial shock Mary had experienced upon seeing her on the floor had given her the upper hand. She had been able to captivate her for a short time, but eventually, she had lost her in favor of talking feelings.
In recent days, she had noticed the changes, the small inflections in Mary's orders towards her kitten that hinted at genuine affection. The lingering touches of their foreplay. The heated stares from Mary when she would work her into a powerful orgasm.
In reality, they were miniscule, really. They were barely noticeable shifts in Mary's behavior that to anyone else would probably be overlooked.
But Yumeko isn't just anyone. To her, they rang loud and clear.
The real fault was when instead of rejecting those changes, Yumeko welcomed them. She embraced them and let her...curiosity take control of her actions. Because of it, she gave into the urge to stay that one night. Instead of departing from Mary like usual, she stayed in that bed silently (foolishly) wondering if Mary would join her. That night had changed everything.
She didn't join her at first, acting like a confused little puppy walking in circles behind her while Yumeko feigned sleep in bed. Yumeko's inquisitiveness got the best of her. She wanted to know what it would be like to sleep in those deceptively strong arms of hers. Hane-san had spoken so highly of them, after all.
And Mary, her silly silly Mary had indulged her.
The way she unceremoniously shoved Yumeko into a more suitable sleeping position then in the same breath, delicately stripped off her thigh-high stockings had only deepened her interest that was steadily growing for the girl.
Mary was like a living contradiction. Hot, then cold. Soft, then hard. Sour, then sweet. Yumeko began to crave her like a rare commodity that could only be found underneath the many layers that Mary refused to let her peel back.
She became greedy that day, coaxing Mary to reveal more of her true self as the night went on. She teased her, enticed her to touch and please her once more. And true to form, Mary had delivered. Every caress, every stroke from those hands felt different than any other time they had been together.
She had let herself fall into the fantasy.
By the time their orgasms had subsided that night, Yumeko had let her guard down allowing the all-encompassing warmth from Mary's embrace to convince her that nothing had changed between them.
That warmth only lasted until the next morning.
She recalls waking up to Mary's slumbering form barely a centimeter away from her own.
Everything that Hane-san had described of the slumbering girl held true. Yumeko was finally able to see what she meant for herself. She remembers tracing her hand across those peaceful features in front of her, recalling the accuracy of a girl's words in her mind.
"Oh and when she sleeps," the girl giggles, hiding a timid smile behind her hand, "she always puts her hair in a braid, because if she doesn't, she wakes up with a crazy nest on her head!"
The usually-demure girl is lost in another world; lost in her memories of the girl she cares so deeply about. There is fondness laced intricately in every story that she relays to Yumeko. She never once mentions to her that they were more than friends, but the implications were more than obvious.
She's playing with tendrils of her long, midnight blue hair staring at the wallpaper behind Yumeko's head, probably picturing Mary's wild mane. "I taught her how to braid her hair, actually. She never was shown how," a steadying breath rattles from the girl's chest. "I even cut her bangs for her. If I didn't, they would always fall over her eyes. ...And those eyes? They were my favorite. I could never let them be covered up like that. Never."
The girl's soft, timid voice filled with such love and affection for Mary had rung painfully in her ears. It was in that moment that Yumeko had froze in place, her hand hovering over the very bangs that Tsuzura had claimed to have trimmed herself.
This was wrong. This was very wrong.
What have I done?
She had made extra care to whisper the words, so as to not wake the other girl, but apparently, Mary had heard them all the same. She might as well have been shouting the words by the way they seem to have affected Mary. It had affected her so much that she avoided her for three days.
She had underestimated just how much Mary's separation anxiety had developed. She had underestimated just how much Tsuzura's sudden departure had affected her.
That morning, she decided that she couldn't continue teasing Mary that they were more than what they were, knowing all she knows about Tsuzura.
Yumeko was absolutely fine with the fact that they were fucking out of pure attraction to one another. Although morally questionable, it fulfilled the part of the plan where she was to keep "close tabs" on the girl. Coincidentally, this part of the plan was left to Yumeko's discretion; something to figure out once she got to Hyakkaou.
She's pretty confident that spending every night under the watchful command of Mary definitely counts as keeping "close tabs".
However, as soon as they crossed the line from casual sex buddies to cuddle buddies, she should have stopped.
But of course, Yumeko didn't. She gave into her urges fully knowing they weren't one-sided.
And now that Mary was confronting her with the the possibility of a relationship beyond the bedroom, Yumeko couldn't enable those thoughts.
But therein lies the whole problem. If she were to tell Mary that she doesn't have feelings for her beyond desire, that everything that had happened that night was pure delusion, she is one-hundred percent certain that the girl will freeze her out. She will go back to avoiding Yumeko like she had for the past three days.
And if she were to do that, Yumeko cannot carry on the plan that Tsuzura and herself had meticulously toiled over together.
Of all the absurd and irrational gambles she's had in Hyakkaou, this was a risk that she is not willing to take.
With her decision finally made, Yumeko boldly resumes her stance on all-fours and crawls once again towards the glowering girl. The bed creaks with every drag of her knees and palms on the soft surface. She doesn't stop until she's hovering over Mary, hands on either side of the girl's shoulders with her knees planted next to her hips.
To her smug satisfaction, Mary doesn't waver. Instead, she cocks an unamused eyebrow at Yumeko's antics and crosses her arms over her chest.
"I'm sick of the silent treatment, Yumeko-san," Mary sneers while scanning the girl's face. "What makes you think I want to play, right n-"
Yumeko has had enough with all this inane talking.
Her lips cover Mary's in a firm kiss, effectively stunning the girl into silence.
"Everything," Yumeko hisses against her lips. "I want everything, Mary-san."