A/N: for those that don't know; "Inhime" cream is an aphrodisiac cream for women. It's actually a thing that exists.

Stress Me Out
Chapter 6
Week 1: A Friday
(The Homura Estate)

Nagi looked out to the gardens in front of his rather large home. Sixteen bedrooms, ten bathrooms, eight sitting areas, a formal dining room, and two small coffee nooks, a grand library, a smaller study, his personal office, and a spacious property with plenty to do. There was nothing modest about the home, not that he particularly minded one way or the other.

It was his, entirely.

He had no family, something which he wanted, if only as proof of his family name. Someone to pass along the entirety of his material things, along with his personal convictions. Having all of the money he'd ever need, and then some, he considered adopting a child, if only so that he would have a failsafe, but he found that to be his last resort. When he had been married, the topic had been a non-issue. He hadn't contemplated it very deeply because in his mind it had been a guarantee.

Now on his own again, he had to account for other factors. Adoption was something he once again considered as he held his hands behind his back, watching the groundkeepers caring for the yard below. He reached for his tea cup and lifted it to his lips, and then peered at his phone.

No call, no text – nothing.

"That insipid woman…" He spoke the words like a curse.

"You should do something."

"I am doing something." He knew it would be complicated when he scribbled his name on the divorce papers. "I'm waiting for my wife to come home."

"That she hasn't called…" The far older woman sighed. "My daughter, she means a great deal to me. I know that she must mean a great deal to you, otherwise, you would have never asked for her hand in marriage. Please, help her return to her senses."

"Shizuru isn't the type to just listen to me. As they say, harsh lessons are best learned by harsh realities." Honestly, he didn't love her, and his reasons for wanting her to respond weren't even anything more than a formality at best, but it was one he was still careful to maintain. It wasn't any of his concern, not particularly, outside of one woman that was a thorn in his side. He had told her to wait a little while, and before he made a big deal out of the issue, he planned to hold fast to his words.

Even so, he wondered where Shizuru Fujino, his ex-wife was, and where in the world she thought she was going. No one could escape him, not unless he personally allowed them to.

He would never know that at that particular moment, the woman on his mind was happily sipping her own cup of tea and reading the morning paper.

…
(Maruyama)

Shizuru had a knack for keeping up on the world stage, politics and the like – an old habit, a comfortable one. In a lifestyle full of change, it was nice to reach for the news bulletins. There was nothing particularly interesting, but, there didn't need to be, not right at that moment. It was just the feel of the paper in between her fingertips, the slow reading, and the grid of numbers on the page. Reading those small blurbs were enough to set her mind at ease.

She had no sooner turned to the sports page when she found herself to be a third party in a most unwelcome topic of conversation.

"Last I looked man, it isn't your concern who I'm messing around with."

"I never said it was, but I don't believe sex was the topic at hand."

By the sounds of the voices, Tate and Reito…

"Sure as hell sounds like it to me..." Tate was the first to come into view. "I can handle myself, so you don't have to worry…"

Reito followed closely behind. "Look, I'm not saying that you shouldn't see Nao, far from it, in fact. For what it's worth, I think she's actually good for you, and in some ways she forces you to be a better person." Said a dark-haired man to as they entered the kitchen, setting a pot of coffee on. "I'm just saying to watch yourself."

"Like you watched yourself around Mai?" Tate shot back defensively.

"Ass." Reito said pleasantly as he handed Tate a warm mug. "I'm well aware of Mai's shortcomings, but our relationship wasn't one of them."

"You want to talk about bad news, she was bad news. I still can't believe she let you get between her legs. Nothing but trouble man, I kept telling you that, and look where it got you. She wouldn't even marry you."

"Regardless though, you're in no position to speak of my activities, considering your own." Reito merely sighed. "Besides, that's not a very nice thing to say around polite company." He greeted Shizuru from his place at the counter, stirring his coffee with a spoon. "Good morning, Shizuru."

Shizuru perked up at the sound of her name and cleared her throat. This was not a conversation she wanted to be around. "Good morning gentlemen. I was just finished the morning paper before work, so if you'll excuse me-"

"Oh, no please, don't mind us." Reito brought his coffee to the table and sat down. "We're not used to seeing early risers around here. Normally we're the only ones awake at this hour."

"No, that's quite alright, I really should be going." Shizuru had already gathered her phone, notepad, mug, and morning paper. "A pleasure to see you again, Mr…"

"Kanzaki, but please just, call me Reito as everyone else does." He stood with her, it was the polite thing to do. "You should join us, besides, it isn't as if we're complete strangers. We live under the same roof."

Placated by his words, Shizuru considered him. Maybe she should sit down. Reito was an intelligent man by far, one of the nicer ones she'd come across, and by the looks of the paper under his coffee, he truly hadn't meant any harm. Still, she glanced towards Tate, and felt her heart sink.

She didn't like the way he spoke about Mai, and she wasn't sure what their earlier argument had entailed. Still, Mai had spoken highly of both of them…

"We are that, I suppose." Shizuru placed her things neatly back in front of her. "You assumed correct, I am not a morning person. It's merely that I work a particularly early shift today. I thought, since I had the time, I'd get in a little bit of recommended reading."

"Sounds like a drag…" Tate said, head resting in the palm of his hand as he sipped his coffee sleepily. "And this tastes like crap, did you change the filter?"

"Yes I did…but no wonder you don't like it. Clearly, it's Colombian…" Reito said as he tasted his own cup, seeing nothing wrong with it. "Pour some of that sweetener in it, and it'll be fine."

"A coinsure of coffee are you?" Shizuru asked amused, but Reito actually nodded.

"In fact, I am." He tapped the stocks page that Shizuru had been reading about. "Kanzaki Trading Co. I'm the CEO's nephew. We import and export goods, and coffee is one of them. When I was a child, it was a household staple. Never grew out of it."

"Tea cups too…" Tate grumbled. "Hoity-toity hobbies like that, I'll never get them."

Shizuru had to admit, that was a rather rare hobby to find. At least, around the type of people she lived with. "I'd be inclined to agree, actually…"

"Oh?" A dark eyebrow raised.

"She's got ya pegged, man." Tate told his friend, no trace of amusement in his voice.

Shizuru corrected herself immediately. "Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, but those sort of pleasures come from a rather strict upbringing more times than not." Most didn't make themselves known often Reito was a rare breed in this particular share-house. "It says quite a bit about the inclination of one's bloodline."

"That could be true I suppose, but I'm neither." Reito said as the woman in front of him gave him a surprised look. "It's just that my uncle is getting older, and he never did get married or settle down. I think he figured that I'd be all too willing to take over for him…and while I'm not exactly displeased about it, that's not my first choice."

"Either way, you still have crap for hobbies." Tate muttered darkly. "Rather play cards, or hit the Pachinko machines. Speaking of, game night at the girl's on Saturday."

"Last I looked, you still owe me for when I gave you an advance from the last game." Reito told him, only a small bit of amusement on his face. "Although, he's right Shizuru, you should come. This time, there'll be more than poker going on."

Shizuru smiled at that. "I might take you up on that." Gambling was actually illegal, and even though she'd seen many people playing cards in the past for money, and she was well aware that people sold their Pachinko prizes back to particular stores, it struck her as odd that this group spoke of the act so openly. "You play often?"

"Whenever we have spare cash…" Tate muttered.

"Speak for yourself…" Reito merely turned his attentions back to Shizuru. "I play rarely, but I do from time to time. I'm more interested in reading or watching television though, if I'm being truly honest."

With a glance to her watch, she knew she had little more time to dawdle. "I have to be getting to work now, but it was a pleasure to chat with you both again." She said with a soft bow, placing her cup in the sink for housekeeping.

She no sooner exited the room that Tate began to mock her. "Pleasure to chat with you again… Geeze, what a pain in the butt. I don't know what's worse... Bossy girls like Mai, or prissy girls like her."

Reito gave him a dark look. "Will you shut up?"

…
(Mai, Natsuki, and Nao's house)

Household chores in the morning aside, Mai normally took the time for leisure activities, but when she'd woken up with a scribbled note tacked onto the fridge door, her plans changed abruptly, her book idly forgotten on the kitchen counter along with the glass of juice and eggs she'd just made for herself. "It figures that Nao would find a way to blow off steam," Mai said to herself before calling halfway across the house. "Natsuki…"

Mai called the woman, but after a few moments of no reply, she called again, this time, much louder. "Natsuki!" When even that didn't offer a reply, she shook her head. She was probably in her room again, those earphones crammed into her ears whenever she wanted to turn out the world. Sure enough, Mai found Natsuki in her usual spot on the floor, listening to her music from her phone and doing sit-ups.

"Sup Mai?" Natsuki asked, pulling an earbud out, but maintaining her focus.

"A lot actually," Mai said as she leaned on the door frame. "More than I figured I'd be doing. I'm helping at the store for a few hours, then I need to go shopping. Nao's invited everyone over for one of her famous 'crash and trash' parties Saturday night."

Natsuki shook her head, of course Nao would do that after a stressful week. "Yeah, sounds like Nao. Doesn't surprise me."

"Only because it's Nao? I can throw pretty good parties too, you know." Mai said with a laugh.

"That's true, but you aim to actually make use of the 'party,' Nao just sort of uses the word as an obligatory statement of getting drunk." Natsuki didn't ease up in her routine, her breathing heavier than usual. "Not that I care, just make sure no one falls asleep in the hallway. I don't want to eat shit because someone's too drunk to move."

"Duly noted," Mai said with a nod and mock salute. "Do you happen to have your key to the liquor cabinet?"

"Where's yours?"

"In my purse, along with all of my other keys…and before you ask, that's in the kitchen."

Emerald eyes rolled in annoyance. "In my wallet, left butt pocket of my jeans." Natsuki said, finding the need to carry a purse strange. It just wasn't something conducive to her way of life. "How many are going to be here?"

"The usual." Mai said without missing a beat, collecting the metal key. "The boys are coming over, Midori too."

"Midori...huh, that's odd. I thought she'd be working the weekend." Natsuki knew the woman, a great imbiber if she ever knew one. The tall redhead was very nearly on Nao's level, and that was no easy title. "The way Nao's been squawking, you'd think that whole store is a ghost town."

"It'll be after hours. Besides, even Midori needs a break sometimes." Mai laughed then as she walked out into the hallways, unlocking the wooden cabinet that sat between her room and Natsuki's. Inside the cabinet there was a great many things they didn't want stolen. Money, keepsakes, booze, and a small safe filled with paper work, medical records, tax information, birth certificates and identification numbers. "I'm pulling some cash for particulars…"

"Just the booze kind?" Natsuki's ears perked up in question. "Twelve pack of beer would be good." There was a great many things that word could mean, and she had to admit a pang of curiosity at the thought of Mai shopping for those types of items. "Wine coolers too, I don't want to do shots and get a hangover."

"I'll grab a few bottles of wine as well. Probably some condoms too." Mai said as she came back in. "Nao's had to bum from me, and I've only got two left in my bedside drawer."

"Wine and condoms…sounds familiar." Natsuki switched from sit-ups to the pullup bar she had attached in her closet. "Not that that it's any of my business, but, I thought you weren't taking Reito to bed anymore…"

"I haven't." Mai said, eyeing Natsuki's tight ass. In all their years of knowing each other, Natsuki only got hotter as she aged. "Last guy I took to bed...huh…I don't recall. It's been a while. The dating scene is kind of hard to come by at the moment."

"I remember just fine."

"No kidding," Mai couldn't believe it. "Natsuki Kuga, you have been keeping tabs, haven't you."

"It's not like that!"

"Then what is it like, Natsuki?"

"Oh for the love of God. It's not my fault that Nao bitches about your boyfriends. Anyway, last guy was two months ago. University student." The biker remembered perfectly, describing the man in between each and every rep. "Short, blue eyes, blond hair, wore that stuffy cardigan." Her form fitting workout shorts and sports bra was a near lethal combination, but she noticed that violet eyes had stopped checking her out.

Mai was watching her...eye-to-eye. A stare down. "Natsuki…"

"Like I said, I don't really care." Natsuki shot back. "The guy before that was a double date, remember…you tried to hook me up with his twin brother."

"You have either really good memory, or you've got a grudge…I'm half tempted to argue that you have both." Mai said, but Natsuki just cursed, dropping flat on her feet and swigging from a nearby water bottle. "Try not to let it consume you..."

"Don't care. told you that...it's just, Nao hates when you bring guys around, because usually they forget to put the seat down. The one night, she was pretty drunk too, and sat down without looking. Talk about a good way to be pissed off in the middle of the night…she killed my buzz too, with all of her complaining after the fact."

"I remember…"

"Mai…" Natsuki rebuked slowly, emerald eyes a display of only honesty. "I'm not jealous…"

"Didn't say a word."

"No, but you were thinking it."

Mai gave Natsuki a knowing smile. "Anyway, it's a good thing you aren't jealous. I'm thinking about inviting Shizuru over too."

"She's staying the night?" Natsuki asked, trying to sound indifferent.

"More than likely." Mai said, though her voice indicated she wasn't entirely sure. "Anyway, is there anything you want me to pick up while I'm out?"

Natsuki blushed deeply, there was something she wanted. "Um, that stuff in the small can?"

"Inhime." Mai supplied pointedly, and Natsuki only nodded. "So…"

"So?" Natsuki gave Mai a hard glance. It didn't linger. "What?"

"Did you talk to Nao?" Mai pressed with a smirk as she collapsed onto Natsuki's bed. "The cream, you're going to use it with her, aren't you? So, everything's all good between you two."

Natsuki pulled her long hair out of the ponytail she'd had it in. "We didn't talk."

"Natsuki…"

"I don't know what to say!" Natsuki protested, throwing the towel that was around her neck onto the floor. "Nao's…not the kind of person to settle down…"

Mai sighed, she knew that better than anyone. "You two are like gasoline and fire. The two shouldn't be mixed…but, if you're going to, you shouldn't be playing around."

"How do you do it?" Natsuki asked, back against the wall, arms crossed, eyes closed, lips pulled into a frown…everything about her body language pushing Mai away, even though her words dragged the busty woman in. "You hardly ever get attached…"

Mai took a breath. "Everyone throws up a wall eventually. Get hurt enough, it just happens." Mai knew it wasn't an answer, at least, it wasn't something she could justify, and she didn't want to. "That…what you're doing right now…that's a wall too, Natsuki."

"Wonder who caused that." Natsuki growled before biting her tongue. "Sorry…that was uncalled for."

"It's fine." Mai said quietly, even though it really wasn't. "I'll own up to it…but, you still need to talk to Nao."

"Fine...as soon as I figure out what in the hell to say..."