Chapter 3

Konata regretted having to do this. She knew this moment was bound to happen. Hell, one could view it as inevitable. But she knew this had to be done. It still didn't make doing it any easier.

She stood and stalled for time in front of the door of what was Yutaka's room. That is until she willingly gave it up. It was now Tsukasa and Kagami's room, the two sisters cast out from their family's home for being merely themselves. Their true selves. Rethinking the thought made Konata's heart twist into knots. She wondered, for a moment, how her patent would react…

But she pushed aside such thoughts for the moment, and instead, pushed herself forward to accomplish the task she was instructed to do. She reached her hand forward and knocked on the bedroom door three times. There came no answer. She knocked a second time, harder than the first. Still nothing. Finally she forcibly banged on the door thrice. This finally produced results.

Kagami's hurried and more so panicked voice sounded from the other side. "J-Just a second!" she yelled back. Her voice was followed from the sounds of stumbling, which lasted for a few second before the door finally opened away from Konata.

Kagami appeared from on the other side of the door. A rather flustered and red-faced Kagami at that. Furthermore, she was clad in not much clothing at the moment: a white t-shirt and a pair of panties that matched the color of her hair. "What do you want, Konata?" she blurts out instantly.

"Uh… Well, just that Dad's downstairs and he wants to talk to the both you and Tsukasa."

Kagami's blush faded quickly and the sharpness of her eyes dulled. "He does? What about?"

"Well, remember what he said when you first came here? 'It's a matter of finance'?"

Realization welled on the Hiiragi's face. She knew what was going to happen already. She knew it since the day she was admitted into the Izumi household, but now it was actually happening. "Oh. I see… Ok. We'll be down in a sec."

"Ok." Before Konata left, her eyes could not help but lower and regard Kagami's choice of attire (or lack thereof.) "Hmm. I thought you wore pajamas to bed, Kagami. When did you start wearing le-?" She abruptly stopped when, as her gaze fell onto the other's crotch area, she noticed a rather noticeable darkened spot. She blinked at the sight a few until it finally hit her and, realizing it was more of a wet spot, lifted her now blushing face shooting back up to Kagami's.

It didn't take long for Kagami to figure out what Konata noticed and now she was blushing a deep red color. "I-It not what you're thinking, I swear!" she defended.

Konata poked her head over Kagami's left shoulder and look at the bed on the opposite wall. There was a noticeable, human shaped bulge beneath the sheets. Not only that, but another set of clothes (which Konata recognized as Tsukasa's) sat in a crumpled heap on the floor next to the bed. "… Tsukasa?" Konata asked.

The bulge beneath the sheets flinched, then spoke. "Uh… T-Tsukasa is not here right now. Please leave a message at the Onee-chan and she will get back to you at her earliest convenience… B-beeeep."

Izumi turned back to an ever embarrassed Kagami and burst into laughter. "Ha ha ha, that was hilarious! M-Maybe I should tell Dad to wait another twenty minutes?" she jokingly suggested.

Kagami looked pissed. "We'll be down now!" she shot back, slamming the door right in Konata face.

Konata continued to chuckle to herself as she descended down the stairs and went into the living room. Her father, Sōjirō, was already sitting at the table and waiting. "Hey," he said to her daughter as she walked in and took a seat to his right. "They coming down?" he asked.

"Yeah, they will in a sec," she answered. "They were a little… busy."

His eyes shot open with shock at that last word. "R-Really? They were? Like, upstairs, right now?"

"Dad, knock it off. These are my friends you're talking about, remember?"

"Oh, right, sorry… But seriously, they were?"

"*Sigh* Yes Dad, they were. That means you're cleaning the sheets before we hand the room back to Yutaka… In fact, I'll wash them, just to make sure you don't do anything weird to them."

"Ah! K-Konata, I'm appalled! What kind of a person do you think I am!"

Before Konata could laugh back a joking "You know exactly what I mean," the sound of the Hiiragi sister's footsteps came from the stairs. Sōjirō announced that they were in the living room. The sister entered and took a sat in the same spots as before, opposite Konata and her father.

Sōjirō took it upon himself to be the one to start off. "You probably already know what I'm about to say, don't you?" The two seemed to confirm this with silent nods of their heads. "I warned you from the beginning that this would most likely happen."

"N-No, we understand, really," said Kagami.

"It's just, well, I simply can't afford to support two more people anymore. In terms of groceries alone, we've gone through what would normally be a week's worth of food in three days. I'm not blaming you for anything, but these are the simple truths."

At this, Kagami felt like speaking up. Not two days ago, she witnessed Sōjirō returning home with two huge bags of manga. She felt like there was a small injustice going on in this house and that if, perhaps, Sōjirō spent less money on "reading material," then maybe he could support her and Tsukasa for a bit longer. But she kept her thought within her head. She was already feeling like a burden as it was.

"I'm sorry I have to do this," Sōjirō continued. "Didn't you say there was someone else you could ask to stay with?"

"Well, yeah, I guess," Kagami answered. "Tsukasa and I thought we could ask Miyuki Takara if it was ok."

"Yeah," Konata agreed. "Miyuki's rich, so I doubt she's have problem having a couple extra people over for a while."

"Konata, it's not just for that reason. We decided on her because, well, Miyuki seemed like the most understanding. We couldn't imagine her making a big deal of learning about, well, us."

Both Konata and her father nodded in agreement. "So it's settled then," said Sōjirō. "Would you like me to call her house or would you rather?" he then asked.

Kagami shook her head. "No, we can call her. Thank you." With that the two got and went into the adjacent room, where the telephone was. The sister made their call and talked with Miyuki's mother, Yukari, for quite a long length of time, and when the conversation ended, they packed their things, thanked Konata and Sōjirō once more for their generous hospitality, and left for the station.

It was then, after they left, that Konata finally told her father what was weighing her down. She sat him down and told him everything about her and Ritsu Tainaka. His response was one of absolute support of his daughter, but at the same time, it was rather predictable.

He was thrilled.

-o0o-

The doorbell of the Takara household chimed, sending the sound of bells throughout the entire first floor. Mother of the household, Yukari Takara, who was in a quiet corner of the living room of her large home reading a book, reacted to the bells immediately, as she was expecting visitors already. She bookmarked her book, got up from her chair, walked her way to the front door and opened it up. "Hello," she said to the visitor, both sweetly and with a smile. "You're here early."

The single visitor bowed her blonde head of hair for a full second before lifting it back up, smiling back. "Good evening, Yukari-san," Tsumugi Kotobuki greeted. "Am I early? I thought I was arriving on time."

"Oh, not by much. Please, come in."

Mugi nodded and entered through the front door and into the foyer, taking off her shoes before stepping onto the hardwood floor and into the rest of the house.

"How are things in school going?" Yukari asked.

"Things are fine," Mugi answered. "The light music club is doing well as well."

"Oh good… Well, Miyuki is upstairs in her room. You're welcome to stay for dinner as well, if you feel like it. It's no issue with me." Just then a phone rang not too far away. "Oh dear, I'll get that. Excuse me."

"Oh, it's ok. And thank you," Mugi said back as Yukari turned and scurried off into the next room to take the telephone call. Mugi took that opportunity to escape off up the stairs to Miyuki's room.

She found the appropriate door in the large home without problem, knowing exactly where it was from her previous visits. She knocked four times, to which Miyuki's voice answered from the other side "Come in." For a bedroom, Miyuki's room was somewhat small but rather well furbished. The room was divided into two sections, separated by a thin drywall and sliding door. The door Mugi entered through was the left half, which was a "lounge" of sorts. A couch was positioned against the drywall to the right and it faced a glass coffee table in the room's center and a flat screen television and entertainment system placed against the opposite wall.

She second the door was opened, Miyuki stood up from the couch, putting her own book aside, and greeted Mugi with her usual friendly and warm smile. Mugi entered and shut the door behind her before approaching Miyuki and greeting her with their usual greeting. The two instinctively reached their arms around each other's waists and, once in each other's warm embrace, leaned in to kiss. And these were not short, abridged kisses at all: they were long, drawn out, and above all else, laced with emotion.

Only when the kiss broke a pair of moments later did the two exchange any sort of vocal greeting. "Nice to see you too, Kotobuki-san," Miyuki grinned, her arms still locked around the other's waist.

"Likewise," Mugi said back, smiling as well. "What was that you were reading, Yuki-chan?" she then asked.

"Oh, that? It's an old book I found at the local library's book-drive last week. It's rather intriguing." Miyuki let go of Mugi's waist and took a seat on the left end of the couch. Mugi instantly took a seat to Miyuki's right and leaned herself into the other's arm and rested her head atop Miyuki's shoulder.

Miyuki reached back to the table to retrieve her book and handed it to Tsymugi. Indeed the book was old: paper aged to the color of light amber, bound in a fading green hardcover, and an imprinted image on the front, done in real gold leaf, of what looked like a trophy of some sorts. She then checked the spine and read the title aloud.

"A Mortal Antipathy," she read as she handed the book back to Miyuki. "I've never heard of that one before. Is it any good?"

"This book was published well over one hundred years ago," Miyuki began to explain, "so it might be understandable why people might not have heard of it before. And yes, from what I've already read of it, it's quite good."

"How far are you?"

"Only a few chapters, not that far into it… Kotobuki-san, you can watch television if you want to. I can read with it on."

"Ok then." Mugi sat up to reach for the remote on the coffee table but halted when she realized that, in the bottom right corner of said table, there were five remotes, each of them drastically different looking than each other. "Uh… Which one is-?"

"Second one to the left."

"Thank you~"

Tsumugi grabbed the correct remote and turned on the flat screen, returning to her position of nestling up against Miyuki. They spent the next ten or so minutes in this close position, Miyuki flipping through the pages and Mugi flipping through the channels. Every so often, Mugi would adjust her position and nudge up closer and tighter to Miyuki, to which Miyuki did not seem to mind in the slightest. In fact, it looked like she was enjoying every moment of it.

For all the channel surfing Mugi was doing, she was finding nothing interesting to watch. She finally switched to an anime channel and left it there, hoping something better would be on next. She decided to strike up conversation to fill the uneventful void. "Hey, Yuki-chan," she began.

"Hmm?" she replied from her reading, her eyes not lifting from the pages.

"I just thought of something. Do, uh, do your friends at school know about… us?"

"O-Oh. Actually, no, I have yet to tell them. Why? Do your friends know?"

"I'll get to that in a sec. First, why don't you tell them? Afraid?"

Miyuki closed her bookmarked her page and placed the book back into the coffee table. Now undistracted, she pivoted herself toward Mugi's direction. Mugi adjusted her positioning, and now, blonde was leaning backwards into Miyuki, the two nearly spooning. "Well," she finally answered, "to be completely honest… I kind of am afraid of how they'll react."

"Really? Why? I've met Konata, Tsukasa, and Kagami before, and they don't seem like the kind of people to get mad or upset at you."

"You're right, I don't think they would get angry or anything like that, but… I guess I'm more afraid that rumors will run wild before I can set the records straight. I guess that's what I'm more afraid of."

"Hmm," Mugi thoughtfully hummed back. "So you're not afraid of what your friends think, but rather, what others will think."

"Exactly. So far, I've only told Mother and it took her a long time to calm down after I told her."

"She freaked out?"

"That would be putting it lightly. I think she suffered a mild panic attack. It took her the longest time to come down from it afterward."

"But she wasn't mad?"

"Oh no, just surprised… What about your parents, Kotobuki-san? Have you told them?"

Mugi paused. "… No," was her direct answer.

"Why not?"

The keyboardist once again shuffled up against Miyuki, but this time it was not for comfort. "… Yuki-chan, you know as well as I do that my dad is never around. He's always away on business trips… I haven't seen him in months."

"Oh, sorry," the pinkette quickly apologized. "I didn't mean to bring up a sore subject."

"No, it's ok, Yuki-chan. You have it better, at least. You have a parent that's still around: your mother. I'm more close to my butlers than I am to my own father- Hmm?"

Mugi felt Miyuki move from beneath her. The bespectacled girl slid herself down into more of a lying position, the back of her head resting on the couch's end pillow. Mugi changed her position in response, flipping herself onto her stomach and sliding herself up, now lying her entire body atop Miyuki's, their faces at the same level.

The two leaned forward again to kiss. Miyuki knew her girlfriend would never object to the offer of this act, and she knew it would put her in a better mood. It always seemed to work with Mugi. "You don't need to worry about it," Miyuki assured Mugi.

"But, uh, Yuki-chan, now I want to ask you about… your dad."

"… Oh…" the bespectacled girl's voice cracked. Now it was Miyuki's turn to act indirect. She averted her gaze of Mugi, turning her eyes to her left.

Mugi quickly retracted her words. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok, Kotobuki-san. I can talk about. It's just a subject I don't talk about often."

The blonde changed her position yet again. She rolled off of atop of her lover and instead lay down next to her atop the couch. Because the cushions was rather thin, the two had to press together to stay on the couch at the same time. The two's breasts pressed together and their noses were separated by no more than an inch or two's distance.

The pinkette sighed before she indulged the other in her story. "Well, my Dad… He died when I was ten years old."

"Oh dear! How did he-?"

"Car accident. He was coming home late from work one day when he was struck at an intersection by a drunk driver. Both were killed… I remember coming home from school the day after the accident, mother taking me into the living room, sitting me down, and telling me what happened… I couldn't stop crying for literally an hour."

Tsumugi leaned forward to give comfort: a series of soft, supple pecks on the lips. Miyuki smiled at the gift, showing she truly was grateful, and then continued to tell her story. "As it turned out, the drunk driver was an off-duty police officer from two towns away. Not only that but they found numerous illegal substances in his system. I remember Mother going to court against the police department and the town for allowing someone with that amount of illegal substances in his body to serve on a police force. The evidence was stacked against the department and the case was disclosed out of court for an 'undisclosed amount.'

… I guess, in retrospect, Dad is part of the reason we live in the condition we do."

Again, Mugi leaned forward to give her comfort. "Oh my God, Yuki-chan, I had no idea… How did you mom handle this?"

"W-Well, I-I remember…" Tears made a sudden appearance in the girl's eyes, tears that rolled across her face and fell to the couch's cushioned surface. "Since he passed on, every now and then, I'd come home from school and find mom crying, and I'd know she was thinking of Dad. When that happens, I'd talk to her about my and that would take her mind off of things, I'd make her a cup of her favorite tea, make her dinner, and she would feel better by the time she went to bed.

This still happens from time to time, now occurring about once or twice a week now-"

This time, Mugi leaned forward and buried her crying eyes into Miyuki's right shoulder. The pinkette's story evoked emotions within the blonde, so much so that it drove her to cry out. Miyuki comforted her back by wrapping her arms around the other before then giving her a few pecks on the right side of her neck. "It's ok, Kotobuki-san," she whispered into her ear. "You don't need to feel sad for me."

It took her a few moments, but Tsumugi eventually lifted her head from the other's shoulder and brought her weeping visage back in front of Miyuki's. "I-I'm sorry, Yuki-chan. It's just so sad to hear that such a terrible thing happened to you."

"Please don't worry, Kotobuki-san…" Miyuki reassured her girlfriend. "You always make me feel better."

The tears from both seemed to subside, and after they pulled themselves even closer, the two got lost in each other's displays of affection: the holding of hands and the sharing of many deepened kisses. So involved and lost, they were, that they completely lost track of time. A full half an hour passed when finally an event brought their moment of togetherness to an abrupt halt.

The door to Miyuki's room shot open and her mother appeared on the other side. "Miyuki, dear, there's some downstairs that- Aah!" She suddenly yelped as she laid eyes upon the sight of her daughter and Miss Kotobuki engaged in quite the intimate moment.

Just as both girls leapt up from the couch, Yukari spun around a full one hundred eighty degrees. "I-I'm sorry, I should have knocked!" she blurted in a panicked, embarrassed manner. "I didn't mean to intrude, I promise!"

Miyuki took a moment to straighten out her clothes. "I-It's ok, Mother. Um, you said someone was downstairs?"

"Y-Yes. A couple of your friends from school are downstairs right now: Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi."

Both Mugi and Miyuki's eyes shot open at the telling of their names. "Both of them are here now? For what reason?"

"Um… I think you should come downstairs so they can tell you themselves."

The two students shared a worried glance. Miyuki then replied to her mother "Ok, I'll be down in a second. Thank you." With that Yukari left and shut the door behind her.

"The Hiiragi sisters," Tsumugi commented. "Why do you think they're here?"

"I… I simply have no clue, Kotobuki-san… Though I can't help but feel a little uneasy."

"I feel the same way."

"Well, they'll just be waiting the loner I'm up here… Ok, I'm going to see what's going on. Kotobuki-san, please stay here. I'm still not ready to tell my friends about us. Sorry."

"No, I understand. Good luck, Yuki-chan." Mugi said this with another warm smile. "Love you."

Miyuki smiled back. "… Love you, too." And with one final nod, she left for the downstairs.

She entered the living room and was immediately met with the sight of both Kagami and Tsukasa and Kagami sitting adjacent to each other on one couch and her mother sitting on another couch that face the two. "Kagami-san. Tsukasa-san," Miyuki greeted. "This is an unexpected visit."

Yukari nodded. "Miyuki, dear, please sit next to me." With trepidation she did just that, and once seated, Yukari then asked the two sisters to tell Miyuki what they had just told her. For a split second in time, Miyuki felt like she was ten years old and it was that day she was told her father was killed. Fortunately, this was not like that day, but the message she was relayed was just as jarring.

Tsukasa and Kagami told Miyuki everything: how their feelings began during the battle between Sawako and Nanako, how Tsukasa finally confessed, the moment they came out before their whole family, the expulsion from their home, and how they had spent the last three days at Konata's house. Now they asked to be allowed to stay at her home.

Miyuki's reaction was one to be expected: disbelief. Shock and astonishment. For the first moments after the retelling of their story reached its completion, Miyuki found it hard to say anything. Genuine worry flooded her visage, but when it came to vocalization, nothing.

Yukari spoke in her daughter's place, but not before first getting up from her seat and rushing over to the two and sandwiching the two twins' head against her cleavage in a seemingly crushing hug. They way the twins cringed just before Yukari hugged them made it clear to Miyuki that she had did this once already before she arrived downstairs.

"Oh you poor souls," she cried, the grip of her arms unrelenting. "I can understand the pain you must be feeling right now, being such a minority, feeling so unsure and sacred." Now Miyuki cringed. Yukari was inadvertently giving away too much information about her own daughter. If she kept it up she might reveal Miyuki's secret before she herself did.

"T-Thank you, Yukari-san," Tsukasa managed to strain from the mother's crushing hug.

She let go a moment later, giving the sisters a second to gasp for air. "Please, you two are more than welcome to say here for as long as you like. I'll get some sheets for one of the guest rooms. Stay here, I'll take care of everything." Yukari took off immediately and headed upstairs, leaving the three girls along in the living room.

Kagami turned back to Miyuki. "Your mom is extremely nice," she commented.

"Uh, t-thank you, Kagami-san…"

"We're sorry to put all this on you so suddenly, but-"

"No, please, it's quite alright. I don't think I could possibly deny such a request from a friend, especially given the circumstances." Footsteps sounded coming down the stairwell from the other room. "Huh? Mother is done already? That can't be…"

And indeed it wasn't. Instead, a certain blonde appeared from the stairwell as she entered the living room. "Yuki-chan?" she said to Miyuki. "What's talking so long-?" Only then did she notice that Kagami and Tsukasa were still in the room with her. "Oh! You two are still here… M-My mistake."

She was just about to leave when Miyuki shot up from her seat and rushed over to explain to Tsumugi what had happened. "Oh, Kotobuki-san!" she exclaimed, grabbing the other's hands. "Both Tsukasa-san and Kagami-san came out to their family and… And their mother kicked them out of the house!"

Mugi's now shocked face turned to the two sisters. "Oh my God… T-This is such a shock! I-I… I don't know what to say! I'm so sorry to hear this happened to you both."

"Mother is giving them one of the upstairs guestrooms for the time being," Miyuki then explained.

"Oh, well that's good news… Oh dear, now I feel a little out of place being here. Maybe it's about time I headed back home." Tsumugi looked back to the two sisters. "Good luck, you two. Don't give up hope," then turned back to Miyuki. "See you later, Yuki-chan." And then, perhaps without thinking, Mugi gave the pinkette her usual goodbye before quickly heading out the door: a quick, if not telling, kiss on the lips.

The room was awfully quiet after Mugi left, leaving even more stunned sisters to stare at their friend in a new light. "… M-Miyuki?" Kagami finally managed to say. "You… and Mugi?"

Slowly the bespectacled girl turned back to the others. She first gave the two an "Oh shit" kind of a look back, but she then thought to herself "Well, they would have found out sooner or later," and instead switched her look to a smile. "… Yes," she finally replied back, "it's true. Kotobuki-san and I are… Well, like you two, I suppose." Both sisters now had hanging jaws as none of the two could have imagined this. "Oh, but please," Miyuki continued. "You two must be very tired after such a day. You should both get some sleep." It was a clever move on Miyuki's part. It would delay her giving the twins an explanation, at least for tonight.

Yukari returned downstairs when the guestroom was all set and Miyuki then lead Kagami and Tsukasa upstairs to it. Once they both seemed situated, Miyuki retreated to her room for her own solitude. What began as a normal day quickly turned to a night of unexpected happenings. And right now, the pinkette wanted nothing more than a friendly voice to ease her thoughts.

And thankfully for her, Tsumugi Kotobuki was there to help. Miyuki called her up during the night she stayed with her on the line for a few hours on end into the night until Miyuki finally slipped off to sleep.

-o0o-

Much like many other evenings, Sakuragaoka High's light music club advisor, Sawako Yamanaka, found herself driving back home after a day of work. She took the all too familiar route back with the expectation that waiting home for her was her wife, Nanako. But today was slightly different, not because Sawako did not expect Nanako's presence, but it was because she guaranteed herself Kuroi would be there.

Why? Because, as opposed to Sakura, Ryoo High had no school today, due to the fact that today was the date of the school's founding. And if Sawako knew her wife well, she knew Nanako would spend the entire day home, no doubt engrossed in a non-stop session of online games. Such was her expectations when she finally parked her car in the driveway and entered their home.

"Tadaima," she greeted as she entered the foyer. She received no reply back. Sawako was half expecting this sort of reply so she thought nothing of it. After taking off her shoes she strolled into the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of beer from the fridge. After she had popped the top of the bottle and taken a swig or two, Sawako decided to call for Kuroi.

"Yo! Nanako, you here?" Nothing. She then assumed she was in their room, where their computer was. It made the most sense: all day gaming sessions need computers to play the game on, duh. Beer in hand she walked up the stairs and, as Sawako approached the closed door of their room, she became aware of a voice from the other side, one she instantly recognized as Nanako's. "So she really hasn't moved all day, has she? Can't say I'm all that surprised."

Then, when Sawako opened the bedroom door, the shock of what she saw nearly caused her to drop her beer. Yes, indeed, it looked like Nanako spent the entire day in front of the computer, but Sawako didn't think the sight would be to this extent.

The computer first and foremost, was opened up to World of Warcraft. The desk the monitor and keyboard sat atop of was littered in small dirty plates, each one encrusted with long hardened food, which were amongst used tea mugs, water bottles, chip bags with their crumbs scattered about, and, inexplicably, a lone sock. To the right of the keyboard was a small desk fan that blew a constant wind at Nanako's face. Scattered about the floor was even more discarded trash and whatnot.

But that was not what freaked Sawako out the most. No, rather, that pertained to what Nanako was wearing (which was, to say, next to nothing.) Sitting on a small stool, her legs folded up to create an "M" shape with her body, Nanako was wearing nothing more than a pair of navy blue panties. No pants, socks, shoes, shirt, or bra to speak of. Except for the addition of a matching colored hair tie that kept it in a ponytail and a gaming headset, Nanako was wearing only the previously mentioned underwear.

"… N-Nanako?" Sawako finally said.

The blonde peaked over her left shoulder and saw Sawako standing there. "I'll be back in a bit, guys," she told her guild members through the headset, "my wife just got home." She slipped the head off and tossed it onto the desk before she spun her entire self around toward Sawako, bare chest exposed and not seeming to give a single care.

"Yo, Sawako," she greeted. "How's it goin'?" Though she said this giving a rather peppy (if not rather goofy) smile, the bags under eyes told without words that Kuroi had been playing the game for a long while.

"… What the hell do you think you're doing?" Yamanaka then asked.

"… I, uh, don't think I get what you mean."

She could not help but give a grin of superiority. "Let me take a wild guess here… You've been here playing games on the computer all day, haven't you?"

"Hmm… maybe," Nanako replied.

"How many hours, woman? Be honest."

"Depends. What time is it now?"

"It's 18:00 now."

"And what time do you usually leave for work again?"

"The same time as you: eight-o-clock."

"Then I've been at it for that long." She looked rather proud at stating this point.

Sawako added up the numbers in her head. "… Ten hours? You've been playing for ten hours straight!"

"Not straight. That would be nuts. I got up a few times to go to the bathroom, obviously."

"Don't be a smartass. Ok, now for the obvious question: why the fuck are you naked?"

"I'm not naked. I'm wearing underwear," Nanako defended reaching for the clothing item's elastic waistband and giving it a *snap.* "See?"

"Yeah, but that's all you're wearing. You don't even have a shirt on!"

"Well, it gets hot in front of the computer, you know? The tower gives off a lot of heat during long sessions." Sawako peaked around Nanako to snatch a look at said tower. She could have sworn she saw visible heat waves emanating from the thing.

"Well no shit it's giving off that much heat. It's been on for ten hours straight! You don't even have the window behind the screen open, Nanako!" There was a window to the cool night air right behind the monitor.

"But if I open it, I'll be cold," Kuroi whined back.

"Then that's when you put fucking clothes on, ya idiot! God, I knew this was going to happen when I left for work today, but your surpassed my expectations in 'slacking,' Nanako."

"Aww, thanks~!" Nanako beamed back.

"That wasn't a complement, baka!"

"Oh don't be so mad, Sawa-chan," the blonde teased right back. "Besides, I bet you secretly like seeing me like this…" She got up from the stood and walked over to Sawako, giving her hips a provocative jive. "All bare and exposed," she whispered, "hot, sweaty, dirty." She slipped behind Sawako and grabbed her by the shoulders, now whispering in her ear. "Hell, one little, tiny piece of clothing is the only thing separating us from a good time."

"… You're screwing with me, Nanako…"

"And…?"

"… It worked."

The beer bottle slipped from Sawako's hand and before it even hit the ground, she had already thrown Nanako onto the bed and pounced on top of her. The auburn-haired woman clamped her lips around Nanako's and their tongues lashed at each other, fighting for dominance.

"Damn you, Nanako," Sawako cursed through hardened breaths once the initial kiss broke. "You piss me off so fucking much. I want to be mad at you for doing exactly what I expected you do today: nothing. I want to be pissed off at you…

But fuck do you know how to flip the right switches to turn me on!" Her mouth shot back down and began to attack Kuroi's neck.

"Ah! Oh, I knew I would…" she whispered back. "Face it, Sawako, you can't win all your battles against me."

"Oh-ho! Ok, so you may have one this battle," she admitted before shooting her right hand down to a very specific spot of Nanako's body, an action that caused the blonde to yelp, "but I intend to win the war."

Meanwhile, somewhere in Azaroth, a clan wondered why the hell their wizard wasn't responding.

[Author's Notes] Two in one day? Yes. To make a long story short, bathroom is being renovated and I spent three days at my Grandmother's house. Since there was no internet there (or at least no unsecured networks I could work off of :3) I really had nothing to do but watch t.v and write in word. And in those three days, I cranked out both chapters 2 and 3. It shouldn't take isolation from the internet to be the main reason for me to write, but damnit the internet is so full of fun that it's hard to concentrate on one thing. (Damn you, ADHD. Damn you and your unproductive nature to hell.)