Author's Note: As most of you have been able to tell, this story focuses more on comedy than drama right now. That's because I felt like I needed to lighten the mood a little bit in contrast to the prequel One Hot Summer which was mostly drama. So without further ado here it is, Chapter 2! Read, Review, Rejoice!

Chapter 2:
Family Bonding

Nagisa was up early the next morning making breakfast for her parents and her beloved Shizuma. She could barely sleep the night before, she was just so excited! Their guest room was under renovations so Shizuma had to sleep in Nagisa's room. Though, she wasa bit surprised at Shizuma's maturity. The silver-haired nymphomaniac didn't touch her the entire night which made Nagisa very proud that Shizuma was showing some kind of control. That's why Nagisa decided to surprise her with her favorite egg and cheese omelet with a side of French toast with strawberry jam. She liked the simple meals more than the overly complicated breakfast platters her chefs back home would make.

The cherry-head hummed away in front of the frying pan not even realizing Shizuma groggily descending the staircase. She intuitively woke up and followed the scent of her favored breakfast meal to the kitchen.

"Mmm, how lucky am I! My favorite thing to eat in the morning, and she's cooking me breakfast." she mused as she walked up behind Nagisa.

Instinctively Nagisa twirled around and threw her arms around Shizuma's shoulders. She kissed her lover's cheek, careful not to start anything when her parents could come down at any minute. As she drew away, she noticed something strange on Shizuma's face. "Where'd you get that cut and why do you look so tired?"

Shizuma looked at Nagisa quizzically. "What cut?"

"This one… right here!" Nagisa said as she placed a finger over a red scrape just below Shizuma's eye.

Shizuma pulled away quickly and winced. "That stings!" She looked in the kitchen mirror and scanned over her face. "This sucks, first I barely slept at all last night and now I find a bruise on my face."

"Hmm, why couldn't you sleep?" Nagisa asked concerned.

Shizuma rubbed her temples trying to calm down a developing headache. "Half the time, I kept having this nightmare that someone was standing over me with a knife saying, "I would've killed you if I wasn't afraid your screams would wake up Nagisa." And if that wasn't weird enough, I could've sworn I felt something cold going over my skin and that same voice saying, "Give me a reason." It was so creepy." Shizuma felt her skin crawl even remembering it. She recognized the voice but she couldn't quite remember who it belonged to.

Nagisa giggled, "That's a weird dream."

Shizuma used the opening to wrap her arms around Nagisa's waist and pulled her younger lover into an embrace. She whispered in the cherry-head's ear, "Kiss me, I might still be dreaming."

Just as her lips were about to meet Nagisa's, a very familiar butcher's knife flew between them and embedded itself into the wall behind them.

"I'm so sorry! It must have slipped!" an angelic voice called from the doorway.

Mrs. Aoi flashed a smirk as she brushed past Shizuma and dislodged the knife. "No one got hurt, did they?" she feigned concern.

"We're okay. Right Shizuma."

"Yea, we're fine."

"Tch!" Mrs. Aoi whispered under her breath.

Shizuma's hearing was keen but she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Am I the only one who heard that just now!"

"Heard what?" Mrs. Aoi played dumb in her usual appeal.

"I didn't hear anything." Nagisa added.

"Just now, when I said I was fine, she went "Tch." You can't tell me you didn't hear that."

Nagisa tilted her head in concern and asked, "Are you feeling alright Shizuma?" She said that, but the look in her eyes were more like, "Have you been taking pills?"

"Nagisa, I'm not crazy!" Shizuma defended, her voice gradually getting louder. She slammed her fist on the nearby kitchen counter to release some of the anger. Nagisa flinched at the sound of her fist hitting the hard, steel countertop.

"Oh my! I had no idea Shizuma-san was the violent type." Mrs. Aoi pretended to be shocked.

"She's not usually this way, she just hasn't been getting much sleep lately." Nagisa reasoned. "Right Shizuma."

By this time, Shizuma was holding her head trying to calm an eruption of a migraine. Her head was throbbing and the wound beneath her eye reopened and started to bleed. "I think I better go lay down."

"But what about breakfast? It's your favorite, you can't just miss it."

"Don't worry about me."

"You want me to save you some then?"

"That'll be too much trouble. Don't worry about it, it's just as you said. I just need some rest right. I'll be fine."

Hesitantly Nagisa agreed and Shizuma slowly ascended back up the stairs. On the contrary, Mr. Aoi was just coming downstairs and he was full of energy. "Ah, good mornin' Shizuma-san!"

Shizuma weakly returned his greeting and continued to head to bed. It worried him a bit but he shrugged it off and went into the kitchen.

"What's shakin', bacon?" He kissed his wife. She returned the gesture.

"Morning honey."

He went over to Nagisa. "What's cookin' good-lookin'?" He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead while she giggled.

It wasn't often the family was together since Mr. Aoi usually has to travel on business and he always takes Yumiko (Mrs. Aoi) with him. Nagisa didn't like all the traveling when she was younger, she was never able to make much friends before she had to move again. That's one of the reasons she transferred into St. Miator, it was the only way her parents would let her stay in Japan without them.

"I'm making egg and cheese omelets with French toast."

"That sounds delicious!"

"It's Shizuma's favorite."

"Oh, then why's she going back to bed?"

"She isn't feeling too well." Mrs. Aoi intruded.

"Is that so? That's a shame then."

Nagisa turned off the stove. "It's finished! You guys can sit at the table, I'll serve the breakfast."

Nagisa's mother pat her head, "You're still such a sweet kid." She blushed at the compliment and started taking up breakfast.

Meanwhile, Shizuma was in the upstairs bathroom washing her face in cold water. Her migraine calmed down and she was just trying cool herself off. She just wasn't used to this, all this stress. She had such an easy lifestyle between being rich and beautiful. Everything was handed to her on a silver platter.

Shizuma sighed. She washed over the open wound, dried her face, and put a bandage over the cut. She walked back into the room she and Nagisa were sharing and opened up one of her bags. The silver haired casanova pulled out a playboy she brought with her just in case of an 'emergency'. Shizuma through herself on the bed and flipped through the pages.

"Just like I thought. It's no fun skimming through old issues." She sighed again and threw the magazine to the side.

She rolled over on her stomach and groaned to herself, "Only because it's Nagisa. That's the only reason I'll try to endure.", just before she nodded to sleep.

"Man that was some good breakfast!" Nagisa's father exclaimed while rubbing some stubble under his chin.

Mrs. Aoi gathered the empty plates from the table and took them into the kitchen. She quickly returned with three cups of tea and passed one of to her beloved husband and one off to her darling daughter.

"Thanks honey!" He kissed her cheek. He took a sip of his tea and suddenly his face turned sober. "Nagisa, I have some very important questions to ask you and I need you to answer them to the best of your ability. Can you do that for me?"

Nagisa innocently lifted her cup and sipped from her tea, not realizing the seriousness of the atmosphere. "I'll try.", she said still sipping from her tea.

"Well, here goes then." He sighed. "Nagisa, when you met Shizuma, was she a virgin?"

Nagisa froze up at the question. Should she tell? Well, if Shizuma was there she would have answered them honestly, she's cool like that. It shouldn't be a problem.

"No, she wasn't."

At that moment Mrs. Aoi discretely grabbed the edge of the table and squeezed it in a vice grip, leaving cracks and indentations while still keeping a calm smile and cool visage.

"Nagisa, are you still a virgin?"

Nagisa nearly spat at the question. She shifted a bit getting nervous, wondering if she should tell her parents the truth or not. She never lied to them before, even when she broke her mother's favorite vase she didn't try to hide it. So why was telling them the truth this time so hard? Was she scared she might have become a disappointment to them?

She spoke slowly and uneasily. "I… kinda… lost it."

"Don't say lost it unless you don't know who took it. Now, do you know who took it?" Mr. Aoi eased her through the questioning even though both he and her mother knew some of the answers already. They just wanted her to tell them.

Nagisa simply nodded keeping her eyes focused in her lap, afraid to meet her parents' gaze.

"Was it Shizuma?"

She nodded again.

Mrs. Aoi asked, "How many times have you done it since then?" her grip on the table was getting harder and harder with anticipation, deepening the cracks and crevices her hand left.

"I… don't remember."

She wasn't lying. How can she be expected to remember the exact number when her lover is Shizuma, the play-girl Casanova of Astraea Hill? She could only recount the moments of pure passion and raw emotion, how she felt, how Shizuma felt, the ecstasy, and it was all so good! Their countless escapades during the few weeks between the Etoile elections and Shizuma's graduation were all memorable. It's hard for her to think there was a place they hadn't gotten intimate. The library, the garden, by the lake, under the tree they first met by, even once in the Head Sister's office while she was away where they almost got caught. Not to mention almost everyday in Shizuma's room, much to Miyuki's distraught. They tried a few times in Nagisa's room, but somehow Tamao always walked in before things got good.

Nagisa blushed just remembering the time from just a few days ago in Okinawa. The words accidentally slipped out. "Too many to count."

She quickly covered her mouth hoping her parents hadn't heard her. Sadly it was in vain, since her words practically boomed and echoed in both of her parents' thoughts. Her father did a spit-take all over the table where he was so caught by surprise.

Mrs. Aoi was smart. She slid her hand off the table knowing that she would break it with how lethal her grip got. She clenched her fist so hard that her nails had dug into her palm and caused it to bleed, but her expression didn't falter aside from a quick flinch before quickly regaining posture.

Mr. Aoi was almost panicked, maybe distressed. "What's going on, that isn't like you!"

Suddenly Nagisa snapped. "How would you know what I'm like! You're never around long enough to know hardly anything about me! The only reason you're here now is because you disapprove of Shizuma and I!"

Mr. Aoi choked at the accusation. "That's not-"

"I'm sorry." Nagisa interrupted him. Tears were staining her cheeks and blurring her vision. She swiftly tried to wipe them away though it wouldn't stop coming out. She rose to her feet, bowed respectfully, and apologized again. "Really, I'm really sorry."

She excused herself from the table and ran upstairs to her room leaving her parents shocked. She ran inside and closed the door behind her. The cherry-head scanned her surroundings and quickly found the person she was looking for, laying in bed, asleep.

Nagisa walked over to the bed and smiled gently. She crawled into the bed next to the silver goddess she felt lucky to have, but didn't face her. She just needed to feel Shizuma's presence, but she didn't want to make it awkward by staring at her while she was asleep, that would be creepy. Shizuma was already having weird nightmares as it was.

Just as she got comfortable, she felt a pair of strong arms snake around her waist. They held her lovingly, yet strong and possessively like a child would selfishly hold their favorite toy, protecting it from the rest of the world. Nagisa of course didn't mind, she was used to it.

Shizuma, still asleep, was acting on instinct and sensed the cherry-head. She pulled Nagisa close against her own body and confirmed her younger lover's presence by whispering her name in her sleep.

"Nagisa.", she breathed.

"I'm right here Shizuma." Nagisa responded, the tears in her eyes vanishing for some reason.

Shizuma unconsciously nestled her chin into a bushel of red hair. She sighed contently.

Nagisa giggled. All that time during her parents' questioning, she was trying to stay strong and cool like Shizuma. She had forgotten that even Shizuma Hanazono needs support sometimes. She was reminded of that through Shizuma's needy grip that never seemed to want to let her go. That always wanted to protect her. The grip, she never wanted to be released from. Never.

Author's Note: Okay confession time. I kinda forgot that I started this story since I wasn't supposed to, so that's why it took like two weeks to update. You guys know that when I'm focused on the story it doesn't take that long but I can't promise it won't happen again and next time it might even take longer XP. Anyway, tell me how you think the chapter was, all you have to do is press that review button! There's gonna be some plot development soon, I think XD, so you don't wanna miss that. I'll update as soon as I can okay!