Disclaimer: I own no part of Love Hina, but Sean is me.
Well, I'll just let the chapter speak for itself on this one.
Chapter XLI: Reparations
Saturday, 4/26 2:41 AM
Alicia woke up to another dark morning. "Well, another day, another… whatever the hell the exchange rate for a dollar is these days," she said unenthusiastically. She couldn't even remember the last time she woke up after sunrise. "Might as well get my duties over with." She walked over to the closet to decide what to wear for the day (at least while in female form). "You know what," she said after a minute or two. "Screw it. Nobody else is ever awake at this time in the morning, and I might as well take advantage of it." She closed the closet, deciding on doing her chores in the buff.
Now, here's where the day started to turn awry. When Alicia reached the door, she found it extremely hard to open. "What the hell…?" She tried as hard as she could, but the door refused to budge. "Hmm, why would they lock my door? Oh well." She figured that if the door couldn't be opened by mundane means, she could just teleport around it but, as she found out, she was unable to do that as well. "Okay," she thought. "This is starting to creep me out. Somebody doesn't want me to leave my room, but why?"
After a few minutes of contemplation, she figured she'd make the best of a bad situation. (Well, it really wasn't that bad, but being locked in your room isn't that good, either.) She grabbed her Game Boy Advance and started playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. For her, video games have always been a good way to get her mind away from the more unpleasant things in life, but in this case, it wouldn't help as much as she hoped.
After almost fifteen minutes, she turned off the game and went back to her closet. The whole time, her breasts and crotch were right in her line of sight, and she was starting to get turned on because of it. She opened the closet, grabbed the first thing she saw and quickly threw it on. As she went to continue playing her game, she realized she should have paid closer attention to what she picked out, as the friction between the silk nightgown she was wearing and her flesh (especially a few areas in particular) only served to turn the spark within her into a small fire.
She grumbled to herself as she pulled the garment off her (stoking the fire father in the process.). "It just had to happen while I'm confined, didn't it?" She glared at the accursed door that kept him away from the other girls. "It's just as well. I wouldn't want to wake anyone up just to fulfill my needs." She put a hand to her chest and could feel her slowly increasing heart rate; it took all her concentration to keep from spreading her fingers. "But I don't know if I can hold out long enough for somebody else to wake up on their own. I might be forced to…" She knew that she was perfectly capable of releasing her pent up hormones on her own, but she knew from experience that two was much better than one. Besides, there was always the risk of someone walking in on her, and being caught masturbating wasn't something she would ever look forward to.
Alicia paced around her room (another habit of hers), trying to think of some other way to deal with her current situation; she knew the heat within her wasn't going to fade on its own any time soon. Eventually, she sat down on her futon to give her legs a rest. "Oh, I can deal with the others' being aroused and coming on to me just fine," she thought bitterly. "Why are my own hormones so hard to deal with?!" She laid down, resting her head on her hands, mostly to prevent them from moving elsewhere.
A few minutes went by and she felt her body start to cool down, much to her relief, but just as she was about to relax her defenses, a new attack would be brought forth against her. All of a sudden, Alicia's mind became cluttered with images of the other girls in various states of undress and of past encounters with them. This caused the warmth within her that had all but vanished to come back with a vengeance.
It was at this point that Alicia's body decided to rebel against her. Her hands tore out from under her head and started caressing her body, sending waves of pleasure through her. The battle for control was almost completely one-sided, but the small part of her mind that still had some rational thought left knew that something had to be done to stop this from going too far, no matter how good it'd feel; as much as she wanted to continue, she didn't want to do it alone.
Her breathing started to get heavy as her hands made their way to her breasts; as they gently moved across those two mounds, her mind almost shut down completely. There was one last gasp of conscious thought before she would give in to her raging hormones; and that would be all she'd need. She released one of her breasts to move some of her hair from her face. Her hand remained on her forehead for a brief moment, and the hand that was still groping her stopped in its tracks. In fact, her whole body stopped moving entirely as darkness engulfed her senses.
--- 6:25 AM
When Alicia was aware of her surrounding again, she noticed, even with her eyes closed, that daybreak was upon her. "Well," she thought. "That worked." She stretched her arms out, one of them coming into contact with something--no, someone. "What the--?" Still keeping her eyes closed, she tried to identify her unexpected visitor. "Hmm, soft skin, long hair… it seems a certain swordswoman has come to play." This delighted Alicia, as she was still in a playful mood herself.
"I was wondering when you were going to wake up."
This forced Alicia to open her eyes and reevaluate her current situation; that did not sound like Motoko. "Naru? What are you doing here?"
"Were you expecting someone else?" Naru asked, smiling.
"Well, sight unseen, I thought you were Motoko. I'm sure you understand."
"Yeah, I can see how she'd be more inclined to do something like this."
"Which brings me back to my question: What are you doing here; and also, why are you naked?"
"Should I be asking you the same thing?"
"What I do in my room is my own business."
"I'm sure it is. You know you've helped me out in many occasions, right?"
"Of course."
"You've helped me study for Toudai, sparked the chain of events that got me and Keitaro together and also got rid of Kanako, just to name a few."
"I'm glad to have been of such help to you during my stay."
"That brings me to why I'm here." Naru started to blush. "Remember early on when Kitsune got you drunk?"
"Um, before or after I got possessed?"
"Before."
Alicia narrowed her eyes. "Hey wasn't that when--" Her eyes grew wide. "Oh man, that's right."
"Yeah. That is one experience I will never forget. You have done so much for me, and I've done so little in return; you're more than overdue."
"Overdue for what?"
"For this." Naru climbed on top of Alicia.
"You mean--"
"Kitsune and Motoko both returned the favor; and it's high time I did too."
"But what about Keitaro? What would he do if he found out about this?"
"This is just me repaying an old debt, Sean; I'm sure he'd understand. Of course, that's if he ever finds out. Now, just lie back, relax and let me take care of you." She pinned Alicia's arms to the ground, letting her know she had no choice in the matter.
"Yes ma'am," Alicia said. Her arousal had resurfaced at some point in the conversation, but she made no effort to resist this time around. "Mmm," she purred as Naru started lightly kissing her on the neck.
Noticing Alicia's very positive reaction made Naru feel that much more comfortable with what she was doing. She slowly moved her kisses down Alicia's body, stopping at her breasts.
Alicia felt Naru's tongue swirl around just outside her left nipple, causing her to moan and arch her back. Her body was aching with the need to give her other breast at least some attention, but since Naru still had a firm hold on her wrists, and she wasn't strong enough to break free, she found herself unable to do anything about it. Fortunately, Naru eventually made the switch, and a new wave of pleasure rushed through her.
"I really should have thought of doing this a long time ago," Naru thought as she sucked and nibbled on Alicia's nipple and listened to the blissful moans and sighs coming from her. Over time, (and switching breasts a couple times) the sounds rose in volume and pitch until, much to Naru's surprise, they became muffled. Curiosity taking over, she looked up to find Alicia biting her lip, her eyes shut tight. "What is she--" It suddenly came to her; Alicia was trying to keep the noise she was making to a dull roar. The last thing she wanted to do was wake up the whole house, especially Keitaro right next door. "Even now, in the heat of passion, she's still being considerate. Time to put her at ease… well, sort of."
Alicia felt Naru stop what she was doing, but before she could say or do anything, Naru had her in a lip lock. "What was that for?" she asked.
"Would it matter?"
"I was just curious."
"Just do me a favor and stop talking, alright?" Naru was about to kiss Alicia again to reinforce her request, but was stopped short when a jolt shot through her. She quickly found the source; her crotch had rubbed up against Alicia's. It felt good; real good.
Suddenly finding her arms free, Alicia quickly wrapped them around Naru and brought her close so that she could get as much bodily contact as possible. Naru started to moan as Alicia grinded herself against her. She had just lost her dominance in this situation, but she didn't give a damn at this point.
The next few minutes went by with Alicia rubbing her breasts and privates against Naru's, sending them both to greater and greater heights until they reached their peak at the same time, making sounds that were a few decibels short of being screams.
As they came down from their high, Naru rolled off Alicia, lying next to her on the futon. "Oh my God," Alicia said after a few moments. "That was wonderful."
"You said it," Naru said.
"You have no idea how much I needed that."
"What do you mean?"
"You know I never sleep this late in the morning, right?"
"Yeah; I was wondering about that when I got here."
"In the past, as a last resort, I've used sleep spells to deal with the girls if they get… out of hand; and apparently, I'm not exempt from this."
"You mean--"
"Yeah. That's kind of what happens when someone's locked in a room alone with her hormones, which brings up a question: How did you get in?"
"Through the door, how else?"
"That's the thing; I wasn't able to open my door earlier this morning. I couldn't even teleport out. How is it that you can get in, but I can't get out?"
"We all decided that you needed a day off, and since you wake up well before any of us, we had to figure out some way to keep you from doing your chores."
"So you locked me in my room, is that it?" Naru nodded. "I think you forgot to consider what might happen to me should you do something like that, so next time you girls decide to coop me up in here, one of you had better be in here when I wake up, just in case."
Naru chuckled a bit. "Alright. Let's go get cleaned up, shall we?"
"Yeah, good idea." Alicia and Naru got up off the futon, which the sorceress quickly cleaned and put away. Alicia then produced towels for each of them and--more carefully this time--picked out a change of clothes for both Naru and herself, which was easy to do, as both girls were almost exactly the same size. After wrapping the towels around their bodies, they left the formerly locked room and headed for the hot spring.
Before they could get to their destination, they happened upon a drunk Kitsune in the living room. "Hey, guys!" she said. "Having fun, were we?"
"What?" Alicia asked, worry starting to appear on her face. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, don't be so modest," Kitsune said, waving a finger at them. "I could hear you all the way down here."
"You could?! Then Keitaro--"
"Doesn't know a thing, trust me," Naru said.
"So that's why you had Shinobu secretly soundproof Keitaro's room last night," Kitsune said, her usual grin forming. "You must have been thinking about doing this for some time now, haven't you?"
"Longer than you think," Naru thought, blushing.
"So," Kitsune said turning her attention to Alicia. "How was it?"
"You heard what happened," Alicia said, also blushing. "What do you think?"
"I think Naru just joined our little group; and you're a welcome addition if I do say so myself."
Naru shook her head. "That was only a one time thing. Don't count on it happening again any time soon."
Kitsune shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well. I'm sure it was good while it lasted. I guess you'll be focusing your attention on Keitaro from now on. Speaking of which, how far have you two gone together, anyway?"
Naru blushed again. "Why do you want to know?"
"Just curious."
"Like I'm going to tell you."
"Aw, come on Naru," Alicia said. "You can tell us. Have you and him had intimate moments like we just did?"
"Leave me alone, will you?"
"Maybe even… gone all the way?"
"WHAT?!"
"I'm not hearing a no," Kitsune noted.
"Hey, stop prying into my personal life!"
Alicia and Kitsune exchanged glances, grinned evilly and taunted Naru in unison. "Keitaro and Naru, sitting in a tree; F-U-C--"
"Stop it! Stop it!" Naru shot out of the room like a bat out of hell. As soon as she left, Alicia and Kitsune busted out laughing.
"I guess that settles it," Kitsune said. "They've done it."
"We don't know that for sure, do we?"
"Oh, come on. It was obvious from the way she reacted."
"That she doesn't want us asking such personal questions. We have no absolute proof of what those two have done at this point."
"You always need proof," Kitsune said. "Why can't you just use your gut like I do?"
"I case you haven't noticed by now, my gut hasn't been of that much importance to me lately."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know," Sean said, walking out of the room.
"Where are you going?"
"Can't you tell? I'm going out to the hot spring."
"Wait up, I'll go with you." Kitsune got up off the couch, stumbling a bit in the process.
"Need any help?"
"Nah, I'll be alright." She then slipped on one of the empty sake bottles strewn about, falling flat on her face. She looked up to find Alicia right in front of her, holding a hand out to help her to her feet. "Uh, thanks."
"No problem," Alicia said as she helped Kitsune get to the changing room on her own two feet. "Drunk," she added under her breath.
"Workaholic," Kitsune shot back.
After Kitsune stripped out of her clothes and grabbed a towel, they went out into the hot spring to find Naru already there, who at this moment didn't look all that happy to see them. "Are you two going to pester me about my sex life again?!"
"Nah," Alicia said. "What you and him do together is none of our business."
"Good."
Alicia and Kitsune joined Naru in the water and they spent the next few minutes relaxing in silence before Alicia spoke up. "This was Motoko's idea, wasn't it?"
"What?" Naru asked, wondering what she was referring to.
"This day off. It was Motoko's idea, right?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
"It wouldn't be the first time she brought up my work habits, though I suppose she does have a point. In the past, most of the time, the only time off I got was when I was too injured to work. A break while I'm healthy is just the thing I need, even if it's just for one day." Alicia then sank lower into the water and reveled in the relaxation the hot spring provided.
When Alicia eventually returned to her room, she found Motoko there waiting for her. After receiving a full body massage (Interpret that however you want, folks!), she would spend most of the day playing video games with Suu; with Shinobu joining in for a couple games. They were having so much fun, they lost track of time until nightfall.
--- 11:48 PM
"Holy cow!" Suu said. "How did you get so good at playing video games?!"
"Maybe it was because I've been playing since before you were born!" Alicia said. "I think that kinda gives me an advantage."
"Well, I'm going to head for bed now. I look forward to going up against you again, now that I know just how good you really are."
After Suu left, Alicia turned to Shinobu. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Shinobu giggled a bit. "I couldn't tell you." A short silence followed before she spoke again. "If you don't mind, I'd like to sleep here with you tonight."
"Why would I mind?"
"It's just that last time we started sleeping in the same bed, it had a certain affect on you."
"Oh yeah, that. Well, I guess we'll just deal with that if it happens, won't we? Go on to your room and get ready."
"Actually, I have a better idea." She walked over to the closet. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she thought, trying her best to hid her smile as she walked in, closing the door behind her.
"What is that girl up to?" Alicia thought. Her question was quickly answered when the closet opened and saw what Shinobu had planned. "Oh man, it just had to be that one, didn't it?" she thought as she saw the silk nightgown she wore; the same one she briefly had on that morning.
"How do I look?" Shinobu asked.
"I think we both know that answer to that one."
"So," Shinobu said, "How was your day off?"
"It was pretty good, though in the future, you should just tell me these things instead of having me find out the hard way." Alicia went to her closet, changed, and joined Shinobu in bed.
"Yeah, I guess what we did was a bit sneaky, huh?"
"Yeah, though I know you had good intentions. Have a nice sleep, Shinobu."
"Good night." It didn't take long for Shinobu to fall asleep, but Alicia found herself unable to, as the wheels in her head were still turning.
"Everything was perfect today," she thought. "Except for my confinement." She looked at her hand, and the ring that was on it. "And this is the cause of all of it. Because of this ring, I have an extra six hours or so in the day to deal with. If it wasn't for this thing, I wouldn't have to search for things to do in the mornings. Then again, I'd have to start eating meals again, but considering the way Shinobu cooks, that's not necessarily a bad thing." She spent the next few minutes just staring at the ring…
---
When she woke up the next morning, Shinobu was surprised to find Alicia next to her, still fast asleep. If she had looked at her hand, she would have noticed that the ring was no longer there.
End of Chapter XLI
Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking; "When will he stop with all the sex stuff?" Of course, others are no doubt wondering when the next one will be. Well, I don't have the exact answer for that one, but at the rate I'm going, it might not be that long. Anyway, in the next chapter, I'll be back to being more serious. See you then! Please R&R!
Well, I'll just let the chapter speak for itself on this one.
Chapter XLI: Reparations
Saturday, 4/26 2:41 AM
Alicia woke up to another dark morning. "Well, another day, another… whatever the hell the exchange rate for a dollar is these days," she said unenthusiastically. She couldn't even remember the last time she woke up after sunrise. "Might as well get my duties over with." She walked over to the closet to decide what to wear for the day (at least while in female form). "You know what," she said after a minute or two. "Screw it. Nobody else is ever awake at this time in the morning, and I might as well take advantage of it." She closed the closet, deciding on doing her chores in the buff.
Now, here's where the day started to turn awry. When Alicia reached the door, she found it extremely hard to open. "What the hell…?" She tried as hard as she could, but the door refused to budge. "Hmm, why would they lock my door? Oh well." She figured that if the door couldn't be opened by mundane means, she could just teleport around it but, as she found out, she was unable to do that as well. "Okay," she thought. "This is starting to creep me out. Somebody doesn't want me to leave my room, but why?"
After a few minutes of contemplation, she figured she'd make the best of a bad situation. (Well, it really wasn't that bad, but being locked in your room isn't that good, either.) She grabbed her Game Boy Advance and started playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. For her, video games have always been a good way to get her mind away from the more unpleasant things in life, but in this case, it wouldn't help as much as she hoped.
After almost fifteen minutes, she turned off the game and went back to her closet. The whole time, her breasts and crotch were right in her line of sight, and she was starting to get turned on because of it. She opened the closet, grabbed the first thing she saw and quickly threw it on. As she went to continue playing her game, she realized she should have paid closer attention to what she picked out, as the friction between the silk nightgown she was wearing and her flesh (especially a few areas in particular) only served to turn the spark within her into a small fire.
She grumbled to herself as she pulled the garment off her (stoking the fire father in the process.). "It just had to happen while I'm confined, didn't it?" She glared at the accursed door that kept him away from the other girls. "It's just as well. I wouldn't want to wake anyone up just to fulfill my needs." She put a hand to her chest and could feel her slowly increasing heart rate; it took all her concentration to keep from spreading her fingers. "But I don't know if I can hold out long enough for somebody else to wake up on their own. I might be forced to…" She knew that she was perfectly capable of releasing her pent up hormones on her own, but she knew from experience that two was much better than one. Besides, there was always the risk of someone walking in on her, and being caught masturbating wasn't something she would ever look forward to.
Alicia paced around her room (another habit of hers), trying to think of some other way to deal with her current situation; she knew the heat within her wasn't going to fade on its own any time soon. Eventually, she sat down on her futon to give her legs a rest. "Oh, I can deal with the others' being aroused and coming on to me just fine," she thought bitterly. "Why are my own hormones so hard to deal with?!" She laid down, resting her head on her hands, mostly to prevent them from moving elsewhere.
A few minutes went by and she felt her body start to cool down, much to her relief, but just as she was about to relax her defenses, a new attack would be brought forth against her. All of a sudden, Alicia's mind became cluttered with images of the other girls in various states of undress and of past encounters with them. This caused the warmth within her that had all but vanished to come back with a vengeance.
It was at this point that Alicia's body decided to rebel against her. Her hands tore out from under her head and started caressing her body, sending waves of pleasure through her. The battle for control was almost completely one-sided, but the small part of her mind that still had some rational thought left knew that something had to be done to stop this from going too far, no matter how good it'd feel; as much as she wanted to continue, she didn't want to do it alone.
Her breathing started to get heavy as her hands made their way to her breasts; as they gently moved across those two mounds, her mind almost shut down completely. There was one last gasp of conscious thought before she would give in to her raging hormones; and that would be all she'd need. She released one of her breasts to move some of her hair from her face. Her hand remained on her forehead for a brief moment, and the hand that was still groping her stopped in its tracks. In fact, her whole body stopped moving entirely as darkness engulfed her senses.
--- 6:25 AM
When Alicia was aware of her surrounding again, she noticed, even with her eyes closed, that daybreak was upon her. "Well," she thought. "That worked." She stretched her arms out, one of them coming into contact with something--no, someone. "What the--?" Still keeping her eyes closed, she tried to identify her unexpected visitor. "Hmm, soft skin, long hair… it seems a certain swordswoman has come to play." This delighted Alicia, as she was still in a playful mood herself.
"I was wondering when you were going to wake up."
This forced Alicia to open her eyes and reevaluate her current situation; that did not sound like Motoko. "Naru? What are you doing here?"
"Were you expecting someone else?" Naru asked, smiling.
"Well, sight unseen, I thought you were Motoko. I'm sure you understand."
"Yeah, I can see how she'd be more inclined to do something like this."
"Which brings me back to my question: What are you doing here; and also, why are you naked?"
"Should I be asking you the same thing?"
"What I do in my room is my own business."
"I'm sure it is. You know you've helped me out in many occasions, right?"
"Of course."
"You've helped me study for Toudai, sparked the chain of events that got me and Keitaro together and also got rid of Kanako, just to name a few."
"I'm glad to have been of such help to you during my stay."
"That brings me to why I'm here." Naru started to blush. "Remember early on when Kitsune got you drunk?"
"Um, before or after I got possessed?"
"Before."
Alicia narrowed her eyes. "Hey wasn't that when--" Her eyes grew wide. "Oh man, that's right."
"Yeah. That is one experience I will never forget. You have done so much for me, and I've done so little in return; you're more than overdue."
"Overdue for what?"
"For this." Naru climbed on top of Alicia.
"You mean--"
"Kitsune and Motoko both returned the favor; and it's high time I did too."
"But what about Keitaro? What would he do if he found out about this?"
"This is just me repaying an old debt, Sean; I'm sure he'd understand. Of course, that's if he ever finds out. Now, just lie back, relax and let me take care of you." She pinned Alicia's arms to the ground, letting her know she had no choice in the matter.
"Yes ma'am," Alicia said. Her arousal had resurfaced at some point in the conversation, but she made no effort to resist this time around. "Mmm," she purred as Naru started lightly kissing her on the neck.
Noticing Alicia's very positive reaction made Naru feel that much more comfortable with what she was doing. She slowly moved her kisses down Alicia's body, stopping at her breasts.
Alicia felt Naru's tongue swirl around just outside her left nipple, causing her to moan and arch her back. Her body was aching with the need to give her other breast at least some attention, but since Naru still had a firm hold on her wrists, and she wasn't strong enough to break free, she found herself unable to do anything about it. Fortunately, Naru eventually made the switch, and a new wave of pleasure rushed through her.
"I really should have thought of doing this a long time ago," Naru thought as she sucked and nibbled on Alicia's nipple and listened to the blissful moans and sighs coming from her. Over time, (and switching breasts a couple times) the sounds rose in volume and pitch until, much to Naru's surprise, they became muffled. Curiosity taking over, she looked up to find Alicia biting her lip, her eyes shut tight. "What is she--" It suddenly came to her; Alicia was trying to keep the noise she was making to a dull roar. The last thing she wanted to do was wake up the whole house, especially Keitaro right next door. "Even now, in the heat of passion, she's still being considerate. Time to put her at ease… well, sort of."
Alicia felt Naru stop what she was doing, but before she could say or do anything, Naru had her in a lip lock. "What was that for?" she asked.
"Would it matter?"
"I was just curious."
"Just do me a favor and stop talking, alright?" Naru was about to kiss Alicia again to reinforce her request, but was stopped short when a jolt shot through her. She quickly found the source; her crotch had rubbed up against Alicia's. It felt good; real good.
Suddenly finding her arms free, Alicia quickly wrapped them around Naru and brought her close so that she could get as much bodily contact as possible. Naru started to moan as Alicia grinded herself against her. She had just lost her dominance in this situation, but she didn't give a damn at this point.
The next few minutes went by with Alicia rubbing her breasts and privates against Naru's, sending them both to greater and greater heights until they reached their peak at the same time, making sounds that were a few decibels short of being screams.
As they came down from their high, Naru rolled off Alicia, lying next to her on the futon. "Oh my God," Alicia said after a few moments. "That was wonderful."
"You said it," Naru said.
"You have no idea how much I needed that."
"What do you mean?"
"You know I never sleep this late in the morning, right?"
"Yeah; I was wondering about that when I got here."
"In the past, as a last resort, I've used sleep spells to deal with the girls if they get… out of hand; and apparently, I'm not exempt from this."
"You mean--"
"Yeah. That's kind of what happens when someone's locked in a room alone with her hormones, which brings up a question: How did you get in?"
"Through the door, how else?"
"That's the thing; I wasn't able to open my door earlier this morning. I couldn't even teleport out. How is it that you can get in, but I can't get out?"
"We all decided that you needed a day off, and since you wake up well before any of us, we had to figure out some way to keep you from doing your chores."
"So you locked me in my room, is that it?" Naru nodded. "I think you forgot to consider what might happen to me should you do something like that, so next time you girls decide to coop me up in here, one of you had better be in here when I wake up, just in case."
Naru chuckled a bit. "Alright. Let's go get cleaned up, shall we?"
"Yeah, good idea." Alicia and Naru got up off the futon, which the sorceress quickly cleaned and put away. Alicia then produced towels for each of them and--more carefully this time--picked out a change of clothes for both Naru and herself, which was easy to do, as both girls were almost exactly the same size. After wrapping the towels around their bodies, they left the formerly locked room and headed for the hot spring.
Before they could get to their destination, they happened upon a drunk Kitsune in the living room. "Hey, guys!" she said. "Having fun, were we?"
"What?" Alicia asked, worry starting to appear on her face. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, don't be so modest," Kitsune said, waving a finger at them. "I could hear you all the way down here."
"You could?! Then Keitaro--"
"Doesn't know a thing, trust me," Naru said.
"So that's why you had Shinobu secretly soundproof Keitaro's room last night," Kitsune said, her usual grin forming. "You must have been thinking about doing this for some time now, haven't you?"
"Longer than you think," Naru thought, blushing.
"So," Kitsune said turning her attention to Alicia. "How was it?"
"You heard what happened," Alicia said, also blushing. "What do you think?"
"I think Naru just joined our little group; and you're a welcome addition if I do say so myself."
Naru shook her head. "That was only a one time thing. Don't count on it happening again any time soon."
Kitsune shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well. I'm sure it was good while it lasted. I guess you'll be focusing your attention on Keitaro from now on. Speaking of which, how far have you two gone together, anyway?"
Naru blushed again. "Why do you want to know?"
"Just curious."
"Like I'm going to tell you."
"Aw, come on Naru," Alicia said. "You can tell us. Have you and him had intimate moments like we just did?"
"Leave me alone, will you?"
"Maybe even… gone all the way?"
"WHAT?!"
"I'm not hearing a no," Kitsune noted.
"Hey, stop prying into my personal life!"
Alicia and Kitsune exchanged glances, grinned evilly and taunted Naru in unison. "Keitaro and Naru, sitting in a tree; F-U-C--"
"Stop it! Stop it!" Naru shot out of the room like a bat out of hell. As soon as she left, Alicia and Kitsune busted out laughing.
"I guess that settles it," Kitsune said. "They've done it."
"We don't know that for sure, do we?"
"Oh, come on. It was obvious from the way she reacted."
"That she doesn't want us asking such personal questions. We have no absolute proof of what those two have done at this point."
"You always need proof," Kitsune said. "Why can't you just use your gut like I do?"
"I case you haven't noticed by now, my gut hasn't been of that much importance to me lately."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know," Sean said, walking out of the room.
"Where are you going?"
"Can't you tell? I'm going out to the hot spring."
"Wait up, I'll go with you." Kitsune got up off the couch, stumbling a bit in the process.
"Need any help?"
"Nah, I'll be alright." She then slipped on one of the empty sake bottles strewn about, falling flat on her face. She looked up to find Alicia right in front of her, holding a hand out to help her to her feet. "Uh, thanks."
"No problem," Alicia said as she helped Kitsune get to the changing room on her own two feet. "Drunk," she added under her breath.
"Workaholic," Kitsune shot back.
After Kitsune stripped out of her clothes and grabbed a towel, they went out into the hot spring to find Naru already there, who at this moment didn't look all that happy to see them. "Are you two going to pester me about my sex life again?!"
"Nah," Alicia said. "What you and him do together is none of our business."
"Good."
Alicia and Kitsune joined Naru in the water and they spent the next few minutes relaxing in silence before Alicia spoke up. "This was Motoko's idea, wasn't it?"
"What?" Naru asked, wondering what she was referring to.
"This day off. It was Motoko's idea, right?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
"It wouldn't be the first time she brought up my work habits, though I suppose she does have a point. In the past, most of the time, the only time off I got was when I was too injured to work. A break while I'm healthy is just the thing I need, even if it's just for one day." Alicia then sank lower into the water and reveled in the relaxation the hot spring provided.
When Alicia eventually returned to her room, she found Motoko there waiting for her. After receiving a full body massage (Interpret that however you want, folks!), she would spend most of the day playing video games with Suu; with Shinobu joining in for a couple games. They were having so much fun, they lost track of time until nightfall.
--- 11:48 PM
"Holy cow!" Suu said. "How did you get so good at playing video games?!"
"Maybe it was because I've been playing since before you were born!" Alicia said. "I think that kinda gives me an advantage."
"Well, I'm going to head for bed now. I look forward to going up against you again, now that I know just how good you really are."
After Suu left, Alicia turned to Shinobu. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Shinobu giggled a bit. "I couldn't tell you." A short silence followed before she spoke again. "If you don't mind, I'd like to sleep here with you tonight."
"Why would I mind?"
"It's just that last time we started sleeping in the same bed, it had a certain affect on you."
"Oh yeah, that. Well, I guess we'll just deal with that if it happens, won't we? Go on to your room and get ready."
"Actually, I have a better idea." She walked over to the closet. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she thought, trying her best to hid her smile as she walked in, closing the door behind her.
"What is that girl up to?" Alicia thought. Her question was quickly answered when the closet opened and saw what Shinobu had planned. "Oh man, it just had to be that one, didn't it?" she thought as she saw the silk nightgown she wore; the same one she briefly had on that morning.
"How do I look?" Shinobu asked.
"I think we both know that answer to that one."
"So," Shinobu said, "How was your day off?"
"It was pretty good, though in the future, you should just tell me these things instead of having me find out the hard way." Alicia went to her closet, changed, and joined Shinobu in bed.
"Yeah, I guess what we did was a bit sneaky, huh?"
"Yeah, though I know you had good intentions. Have a nice sleep, Shinobu."
"Good night." It didn't take long for Shinobu to fall asleep, but Alicia found herself unable to, as the wheels in her head were still turning.
"Everything was perfect today," she thought. "Except for my confinement." She looked at her hand, and the ring that was on it. "And this is the cause of all of it. Because of this ring, I have an extra six hours or so in the day to deal with. If it wasn't for this thing, I wouldn't have to search for things to do in the mornings. Then again, I'd have to start eating meals again, but considering the way Shinobu cooks, that's not necessarily a bad thing." She spent the next few minutes just staring at the ring…
---
When she woke up the next morning, Shinobu was surprised to find Alicia next to her, still fast asleep. If she had looked at her hand, she would have noticed that the ring was no longer there.
End of Chapter XLI
Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking; "When will he stop with all the sex stuff?" Of course, others are no doubt wondering when the next one will be. Well, I don't have the exact answer for that one, but at the rate I'm going, it might not be that long. Anyway, in the next chapter, I'll be back to being more serious. See you then! Please R&R!