Disclaimer: I do not own To Love-Ru
Also to fairly warn my readers, there are some suggestive ideas conveyed in this chapter, but nothing explicitly stated. You have been WARNED.
Also would like to mention my Summary has been updated as well, to reflect the chapters established so far... to the best of my knowledge, it shouldn't be too confusing.
To say Rito had a fitful sleep would be saying it mildly. With the presence of Lala sharing his bed, and the thought of bodily harm come the morning by Nana, to say Rito was stressed was an understatement. Finally his tired mind was able to find a speck of calmness among the quiet room, among the soft snores of Lala, as she snuggled almost naturally into his arms. The thoughts of the threat of death left his mind, as the warmth and closeness of Lala calmed him, and sleep took him to the land of dreams.
Zzzzzzzz...
Rito opened his eyes to find himself on a stretch of rolling, green hills, dotted with flowers of every kind he could imagine, some of them familiar, and others alien. The scent of ginger and pears seemed to waft through the air on the hills, with the blue sky above his head filled with fluffy clouds that looked as tasty as marshmallows. Sitting up, Rito can't help but notice the shimmering lake below him, sun shining happily upon its surface, reflecting the rolling hills and Rito himself in its waters. He was amazed at the lovely breeze he felt upon his face, and the sun shining warmly on his skin. It was then that he noticed shadows in the corners of his eye, and he turns to find Lala, Nana, Momo, Mikan, and Celine in swimsuits, playing in the lake.
"Rito!" Lala calls out from the lake, waving as Celine and Mikan splash in the shallows, "Rito, come join us out here!" Wondering how he could, since he wasn't wearing swim trunks, he looks down and notices that he was wearing a pair of blue trunks. "Rito, come join us!" Lala calls out again, "Rito!" He turns back and notices Rin, Run, Yui, and Haruna have joined them in their own swimsuits as everyone played in the water, splashing each other and laughing.
"I'm on my way!" Rito says, running down the hill to join them, "Wait up for me!" Suddenly loosing his footing on a rock, he falls to the ground and tumbles down the rest of the way to the base of the Lake. Having closed his eyes as he fell, he brushes dirt and grass off his face and opens his eyes to find him surrounded by Lala, Momo, and Run, all with concern on their faces.
"Rito-kun, are you okay?" Run asks, crouching down and rubbing a speck of dirt he missed, "We wouldn't want you hurt all the way out here!" She smiles cheerfully, and with Lala's and Momo's help, manages to pull and push Rito to his feet.
"Rito," Momo says, grabbing Rito's left arm, "Come join me and Nana building sand castles!" She begins to pull him one way, before Lala grabs his right arm and clutches tight to him.
"No, Rito, join me with Mikan in the water!" she says cheerfully, "Celine wants her 'papa' to join her too!" Rito looks over to see Mikan and Celine still splashing in the water. Rito looks at Lala and Momo, and begins to sweat as each of them seem to pull him tighter and tighter their way.
"Hey!" a new voice interjects, coming from farther up the shoreline, "We brought sweets!" Rito turns to see Mea and Yami each holding one side of a massive ice chest, Yami also holding a watermelon with her Trans ability. "Ice cream and watermelon!" Mea calls out, "Senpai, Momo-chan, Lala-senpai, come get some ice cream!" Grateful for the distraction, Rito feels their grips loosen, and he slips out to join Yami and Mea, as the others grab their own icy treats. Ending up with an ice pop flavored like sweet vanilla cream, he happily watched as everyone around him chatted happily, truly content with just being together.
Rito sees a shadow pass over him, and he turns to see a wicked looking treat in Lala's hands. The noxious, oily looking treat was sitting on an ice cream cone, slowly melting in the heat of the sun, dripping down between Lala's fingers. Rito was quite sure the treat was flavored with Dark Matter, the inedible to human seasoning that Lala devoured like nothing, probably due to her Devilukian nature. "Rito," Lala says, between nibbles of her own treat, "Do -slurp- y-you, want a bit of mine?" Rito pauses just a second, pulling his ice cream away, noticing a hungry look in Lala's eyes. Too late, as Lala lunged at Rito's out stretched hand, managing to take a bite out of the tip of his ice pop in his right hand, even though he had pulled it back.
Unfortunately Lala also had her vile ice cream in her right hand, and as she lunged forward, it managed to not only get onto Rito's face, missing his open mouth of course, but a fairly good sized chunk fell from his chin onto his exposed neck and shoulder. Lala pulls back, with a smile on her face. "Tasty!" she says, admiring the flavor, before she notices part of her own ice cream had dripped onto Rito, "Oh no, I'm sorry Rito, I didn't mean to make a mess!" Rito tried to tell the Deviluke girl it was fine, that he just need a napkin to wipe the substance off, but she would have none of it. "You can't just waste a tasty treat like that Rito!" she exclaimed, "It's just not right!" Trying to pull out of her reach, Rito found himself locked tight in her embrace, her bust pushed up against him, as she leaned onto his chest, his back somehow to the ground as he fell caught by surprise.
"Lala, no, don't-" he whimpers out, as Lala came down on to his exposed chest, "S-stop, please..." Lala first reached up to his chin where the creamy substance had first hit, and she licks the spot of dark matter left there, before moving on from his jaw line and onto his neck. Holding the nape of his neck in hand, she started from the back of his neck, sucking on the dark liquid that seemed to be seeping into his skin. Rito fights back a moan of pleasure, trying to instead endure Lala's innocent actions. Noticing the liquid about to drip down further, she stops and moves to the lowest point, licking upwards from just above his pecks, to the jugular area of his neck.
Lala sucks hard, on Rita's exposed skin, causing his restraint to break. With a moan escaping his lips, he feels Lala let go and stares into her eyes. Putting her finger to her bottom lip, she wipes away a drop of dark matter onto her finger, and then sucks the last drop off of it. "Tasty," she says, before Rito suddenly becomes extremely conscious of his body's reaction, "Let me eat you some more, Rito..." Before he can even reply, she's back to sucking on his neck, hard, then softer, until-
Zzzzzzzzzz...
-Lala wakes up, realizing she was sucking on Rito's collarbone, leaving a small purple bruise, and managed to accumulate a small bit of drool on him. Slightly embarrassed, she wipes it off with her thumb, and as gently as she can without waking Rito, moves off of him and his bed and leaves Rito's Cyber space to return to her room and hopefully placate Nana. She knew her younger sister was overly protective of her 'innocent' elder sister, the same could almost have been said of Momo, but both of her younger siblings needed to realize that she was, in fact, a grown woman, and had a strong enough conviction so as to not just let anyone sway her feelings, or outright take advantage of her.
While Momo could be said to be like their Mother, in looks, charm, and seductive qualities, and Nana could be likened to their Father, with her frank, blunt reasoning, and a outwardly hidden maturity which made it hard to properly convey her feelings, Lala could consider herself the best blend of both. Sure she didn't have a unique power like Nana or Momo did, but she had her technical ingenuity of her Mother, the strength inherited by her Father, and a heart all of her own, big enough to love Rito for all his quirks even if his heart belonged to another, self sacrificing enough to even let Rito marry another, if she could gain his love in return. Rito was another boy after all, and she had met many potential suitors over her short life that were just boys, and they all were able to be read.
Stepping into the shower, foregoing returning to her room straightway, she needed to clean up, so that Peke wouldn't scold her if she was deemed 'indecent' by her mothering creation. She began to reflect on the choices that led her and her sisters to this place, in Rito's life and his heart. Rito had been so repressed before she came here, unable to get out of a spiral of self-doubt due to mistrust and suspicion by those around him; ever since She had begun to interfere with his routine, it seems Rito was breaking out of his social martyrdom. Perhaps that was her own special ability, bring emotions to the surface, and to read the hearts on people's sleeves, to decipher the emotions and meanings behind people's words, actions, and feelings.
Perhaps it was just her Charmian nature at work, perhaps stronger in her blood than her sisters, not enough to cause the problems her Mother faced together with her Father, but enough to get a surface understanding. It was a curse, perhaps it was the Charmian's true ability at work, to bring the emotions to the surface and reveal a persons true heart, beyond the surface emotions, the base emotions that people hid within themselves. Perhaps the Charmian outer beauty and vanity, was a way to hide this ugly truth from the universe, from even the Charmian's themselves.
Finishing up in the shower, she quickly began to dry her body off and brush her hair for the morning. After completing her morning ritual, Lala finally decided to face Peke. Moving to the bathroom door, she opens it to find Momo already reaching for the handle. Stopping and staring for a moment, Lala smiles as she realizes Momo could know how Nana was feeling this morning, and gauge her sister's attitude towards Rito as a result. "Momo, it's a good thing-" she begins, only for her younger sister to shoulder past her coldly. Lala turns around in slight surprise, but finds her self off balance as Momo pushes her out of the bathroom.
"Sorry Onee-chan, but I have to hurry," she says, "Nana's not in a good mood this morning, so you better tell Rito to keep his head on his shoulders around her, and not do anything perverted towards you..." At that the door is slammed in Lala's face, leaving her stunned for a moment. Blinking, Lala can find nothing odd about her interactions with Momo the night prior, though it could have happened after Rito dragged her into his Cyber space with him. When Lala and Nana had built it, Nana suggested a unique feature to add to the gateway, and Momo had hated its conception ever since she had found out.
Originally it was bounced around as a safety measure for Celine, and even Mikan, who could wander into an active gateway, not that they would violate their privacy and enter the Princess' rooms, but as a hypothetical situation, if they were to do so on accident, measures needed to be taken. Rito's gateway to Cyber space being in his room, almost everyone could find their way inside it and accidentally get lost or confused in Cyber space, and no one could ever know, so a genetic lock was put into place. Due to its familial nature, it was decided only Rito and Mikan could activate the portal, not one of the Deviluke sisters would have access to the space, and neither would Celine or any of Rito's friends; keeping both privacy and respect for the users. They could, however, allow others through once the gateway was open, shutting it off from the inside if so desired, to allow true privacy for Rito or Mikan if they desired. It was an incident like last night, for Rito's own safety and sanity,that he made the spur of the moment decision to flee to cyber space, bringing herself along with him out of concern.
In a way, Lala was truly happy, knowing he cared about her safety like that, ignoring the fact Nana was her sister and likely would have only hurt Rito, he still thought of her and wanted her safety to be his concern. It was that self sacrificing loyalty that made her love for him still beat as strong as the day they first met. She knew he would never admit it, but her love for him was starting to affect him, as the days went by and Haruna's mysterious absence grew ever longer. She wanted him to be happy though, knowing it was Haruna that held his heart the strongest, she wanted to be there to support him, whether he wanted to choose the harem or not. She only wished his safety though, his forced engagement to her was no longer an issue, but the threat of her father, angry over the inevitable rejection she once saw coming, kept him from ever breaking it off with her.
Lala Satalin Deviluke was surely, not stupid, no matter the opinion of Zastin or her sisters. She often got them to make up, after all. Yes, Lala Deviluke was much like her father, forward and honest about her feelings to the point she had no censor, but she was so much like her mother beyond brains and looks, she showed it in her own small manipulations based on love, her diplomatic skills and tactical genius twisting situations in her favor as she faced them head on. She would deal with Rito Yuuki in the same way, the boy who became a man, who stole her heart and showed her why it belonged to him everyday they were together. Lala had a big heart, with lots of room to love, but no one honest enough to be worthy of it, while Rito Yuuki had so much love to give, with very little outlet beyond his brother-sister bond.
Yuuki Rito could be hurt as easily as he could be protective. He could be as indescisive as he could be loved. Yuuki Rito could be a Harem King, just as easily as he could be a Loving King of Deviluke.
Lala Satalin Deviluke had seen what Rito could become, she saw what he could do. He could turn weapons of war into instruments of peace, he could make the coldest heart, warm. He could be the savior of Earth, and the greatest King of Deviluke, and he could just as easily become the cruelest tyrant, with a simple twist of fate. She would make sure that whatever Rito's choice was, he would have the love and support he needed to make the choices needed. If Momo's Harem Plan was what was needed, then so be it, but she also knew the terrible truth. The seeds were already being sown, and what terrible consequences they may reap.
Meanwhile
Momo is staring in her vanity, trying to understand her sister. If Nana hadn't come when she did, she may not have believed it, but their lack of sister by the late hour of the night, had all but proven Lala's guilt. 'Guilt over what?' Momo thought to herself, 'The only thing Lala is guilty of, is asking her Fiance for a massage...' Momo knew what Nana had seen after all, she had been there only minutes before, having stumbled upon the scene first, after all...
She had just gotten ready to go into the shower, only for Nana to slip in and take up any chance of a 'private' shower for herself. Excusing herself, she informed Nana she would just take one after Nana, stating some fib about wanting hot water pressure to be 'just right', and Nana shrugged her off. Knowing Rito had likely come out of his Cyber Hangout by now, she trudged up the stairs to try and seduce him once more, and get him to proclaim his love for her, and do naughty... She had gotten off track, as her mind wandered, and she managed to fall and make a loud thump as she tripped right next to Rito's open door. Not wanting to move, as she saw Rito on the bed with his eyes closed, looking away from the door, to a spot she couldn't see. Hearing springs creak, Momo was curious who was in the room with him, before she hears her sisters voice from the bed.
"Come on Rito, I know you have experience," she heard Lala say, much to Momo's exasperation, wondering just what she thought he was experienced in, "Don't think I haven't heard..." Heard? Heard from where? Momo thought back to who Rito could have been brave enough to do something to and found... Well, she really couldn't find it in Rito to do anything besides... Momo blushed furiously as she realizes something only she had thought she had ever experienced before, was also something Lala had no doubt learned of, living with Lala for a year, before she herself had ever experienced his nighttime personality.
Thoughts crossed Momo's mind that she had never thought her sister possible of ever crossing, and unconsciously her hand went to her tail. Shaking her thoughts clear, she found she might have to make a tactical decision. Unable to help herself any longer, and knowing she might just give herself away if she stayed, Momo decided to ignore Rito and Lala, in favor of advancing the Harem Plan further, and praying Rito stepped his game up. Minutes later when she absentmindedly lets it slip that she saw Lala in Rito's room after joining Nana in the shower, accompanied by the furious blush crossing her face as she fiddled with her tail, Nana snap[ed to attention and quickly rushed out of the bathroom.
Now knowing her sister had no doubt slept in Rito's arms the night before, she could only wonder what made her sister so brave, so as to approach Rito so boldly. Her sister had changed since the previous summer, her feelings toward Rito seemed to change as Rito's third and final year at Sainan High approached him. She seemed to have been pushing Rito hard towards Haruna, and pulling punches toward herself as well. It wasn't like Lala to hold back her feelings, not as heiress to Deviluke, or as an elder sister, making them clear as crystal. So what was it that made Lala change her attitude? Had she come to accept some hidden fact, kept secret from everyone but Rito and herself? Momo knew that this was a line of questioning for another day,but she couldn't help her thoughts from wondering...
What changed between Rito and Lala that day?