Lonely No More
by Cyberchao X

Disclaimer: Characters that are not mine, are not mine.

CCX: Finally, some characters who have been missing for a few chapters return. And things take a turn for the dramatic.

Chapter 26

*December 31—9:00 PM*

"I still can't believe my father insisted on meeting your parents before allowing me to go to your New Year's party," Miki said.

"Based on what I've heard? I can."

"What you've heard?"

"Well, you've told me a little, and Izei-kun has told me some things, too…well, answered some questions."

"Um…"

"Miki, you can't just deny it. You turn into a different person whenever…that subject is breached, and Suzuka-chan wanted to know why."

"And what did you tell her?"

"I told her what I know. That she died shortly after I met you, and that you hate her for something related to the way she died. I couldn't tell her anything too concrete, though, because I don't know anything more. You haven't even told me. You don't tell anyone."

"No, I don't. Because that's in the past."

"Is it? You still go all cold whenever anyone mentions her."

"…What she did to our family is inexcusable."

"Is that why you told your sister that it was even worse than she thought?" Suzuka asked. "Something happened afterwards, something that you don't want Sakura-chan to ever find out about."

"Is that true?" Izei asked. "I know that Sakura doesn't remember what happened too well because she was only three, but…there's a secret you're keeping from her? Is it…is it something only you know, or does it…involve your father?"

"…Suzuka-chan? This is a private matter. Is there somewhere Izei and I can go where we can talk privately?"

"Y-yeah…it's okay. I mean, I'm curious, but it's not my place to meddle."

"Okay, if all wasn't forgiven before, it officially is now," Tatsuke said. "This place is huge!"

"Yeah. This is my first time here, too, but Arisa's place is gigantic too," Suki replied. "And that means some spectacular parties."

"With spectacular food!"

"Tatsu-kun…"

"What?"

"…Yeah, you're right. Spectacular parties do have spectacular food."

CCX: And now that we've had a short interlude to take care of the need for a scene switch…it's time.

"First, the part that Sakura-chan does know. For some time prior to her death—we're not sure exactly how long—our mother had been having an affair with a man who was found to be connected to the yakuza. There was a hit put out on him, and the assassin took advantage of him being 'otherwise engaged' to sneak up on him and shoot him—and of course, the assassin killed the woman he was with—my mother—because she was a witness. I don't know if they ever caught the killer; I'm assuming they did, but…here's the part that Sakura doesn't know."

"When the two bodies were found, the police didn't know about the yakuza connection. All they knew was that a man and a woman had been murdered in the act of having sex, and that the woman was married. It's…not difficult to guess who their first suspect was. My father…had his suspicions that my mother might have been cheating on him, but it was the police, when they came to inform him of her death, who confirmed it. In one moment, he learned that his wife had been cheating on him and that both she and her lover were now dead and he was suspected of two murders. It…crushed him. You remember how badly I was fucked up after my mother died? Daddy was…even worse."

"E-even worse? But you were just a shell of a girl back then…"

Miki nodded. "Wouldn't you know it, my father actually did own the exact same type of gun that killed my mother? I didn't even know that the police knew that when they first questioned my father. They were quickly able to rule it out as the murder weapon, because it had never been fired…but that didn't make them rule him out as a suspect. I didn't even know about it then, though. I only learned about it when…I walked in on him getting ready to fire it."

"I'm afraid to ask at whom," Izei said. "I already know, don't I?"

Miki nodded again. "All of those revelations at once, he couldn't take it. If I hadn't been there…I might've been an orphan." She started to cry. "Have you ever wondered why I still call my father 'Daddy' when my younger sister uses the far more grown-up-sounding 'Papa' to refer to him? It's because…it's because that's what I said to him then. You heard a little of it when you came to pick me up for the dance." Miki tried to make her voice sound the way it would've when she was six years old. "'Please, Daddy, don't leave us all alone! Mommy's not here; we need you Daddy! Sakura-chan and I need you!' Those were the words I said to him as I tried to wrestle the gun out of his hand, the one he had pointed at his own head. Trying to grab the gun away from him was stupid, and could've easily gotten me hurt as well, but I wasn't thinking; I was doing what was instinctive. My words, though… He came to his senses. As hard as the situation had been on him, he had two little girls who would be left with nobody if he'd gone through with his suicide. I…don't want Sakura-chan to know that our father had planned to commit suicide, and that I basically saved his life.

"Because you don't think she could handle it?"

"No…because I don't think I could handle it. Besides, I'm the big sister, even if she is both taller and more physically developed than I am. It's my job to protect her."

"…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have forced you to relive all of this."

"No, it's okay. This is an important part of my past, even if it's one I'd prefer to bury. It's only fair that you should know… You, who has done more for me than anyone save for my father."

"And your sister."

"No, I was including her."

"You flatter me too much. But that does explain a lot. Why you hate your mother so much more than your sister does…why your father is so overprotective of you two…" For awhile, Miki just cried into Izei's chest, the two wrapped in each other's arms. "It's times like this that Miki is so adorable. I'm probably one of the only people she allows to see her at her most vulnerable. I…want to let her know she's loved, and we've got plenty of privacy here. I could take her up on one of those perverted suggestions she makes so frequently, but…I don't know how appropriate it would be."

Miki had noticed the level of privacy, too. "Being somewhere like this, with Izei…what would two teenagers in love normally do in a place like this? But I can't suggest something like that now, can I? It just wouldn't be right…" "Should we…head back to the party now?"

"You want to? I, uh, I'm not quite sure…"

"Do I not look presentable?"

"No, you're fine…I was just wondering…"

"Yes?"

"I mean, you're normally the one who suggests things, and I normally tell you that they're inappropriate to be doing in public, but we've got privacy right now…"

"You…wouldn't mind?"

"Why would I? I've got a beautiful girlfriend who's actually willing."

"And whose primary physical appeal is to lolicons."

"You're growing up. Slowly, but it's happening."

"…You're so sweet. Full of shit, but it's the thought that counts."

"Am I really?" he asked, hands dropping to caress the gentle curvature of her bottom.

She blushed. "Okay, maybe I've got a little something nice. But you'd better not be trying to take advantage of me in my emotional state."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied, and started to undress.

*9:30 PM*

CCX: That…was unexpected. I love it when a story goes in a different direction than planned.

*10:00 PM*

"You're so adorable when your kuudere side comes out, you know that, Suzuka-chan?"

"Kanna-chan, how many times have I told you that none of us know what you're talking about when you lapse into otakuspeak?"

Kanna looked hurt by this accusation. "O-otaku?! I'm nowhere near as obsessed as those losers. You can enjoy something without being overwhelmed by it…" (CCX: No, she isn't in denial. I've implied before that she is somewhat of a fan of certain anime—like when she started talking about magical girls—but she is by no means a closeted otaku.) "Anyway, I'm talking about you inviting all of Class 1-A to this party."

"What's wrong with the class rep playing hostess to the rest of her class at a party? Even if it's one that also features my parents' guests."

"Because I know that this was just an excuse to invite Kokuro-san. You know, he does consider you a friend. You didn't have to hide it like this."

"I still like the way I did it. After all, you know what New Year's is for…"

"…And since Kusakabe-san is in Class 1-F, she's not here, whereas if you merely invited him as a friend, he'd be more likely to either turn you down in favor of something that would allow him to be with her at the stroke of midnight or pressure you into allowing him to bring her as a date."

"Well, I can't picture Kokuro-san pressuring anyone to do anything, but…yeah, pretty much."

"Shrewd."

"Maybe this was a mistake. Look, you can't even find anything to grab a hold of," Miki said, Izei's hands running down her bare chest.

"It wasn't a mistake. We had to give it a shot."

"…I'm happy that you were willing to satisfy my selfish demands, but…this isn't right. About the best thing that came of this was that there is no longer any mistaking your love for me for being a sign of latent pedophilic tendencies."

"Can we…not talk about that?"

"It's not a big deal. You've told me before that you're not sexually attracted to me."

"…That… that isn't entirely true anymore. I…I wanted this."

"Your 'equipment' says otherwise."

"If you want to stop, then we'll stop." One hand moved to her backside, the other remaining on her chest. "Do you…want me to stop?"

Izei knew exactly how to work his girlfriend. "N-no…don't stop. I'll try harder." She fell to her knees and began licking, trying to cause an erection.

"I think…the problem is not feeling you close to me. Maybe if I lied down, and you straddle me…"

Miki tried to crack a joke. "It sounds like what you really want is to be chest-to-chest…and sex-to-sex."

"I'll give you the first half."

"Well, this is ridiculous."

"Maybe if you leaned over a bit more…just scooch back a bit…"

Miki rolled her eyes, but did as he asked, her rear moving closer to Izei's face. "That's as far as I can go. If you want me to sit on your face you'll have to forgo the blow job, because my torso's not that long." Izei didn't respond. "Eh, well, if it's got a chance of working…" She pushed further back, stretching her arms above her head so that she could still at least reach his member, and began…well, trying to induce some reaction.

She would be the one to react. "I-Izei… Um, I don't think that's very sanitary, and it's kind of…weird." Izei, naturally, was unable to respond. "I-is this…what you want?" She tried to go along with it, gyrating as best as she could, anything to generate friction…

…Success. Miki could see the member beginning to enlarge. She started to crawl forwards, towards it, but Izei held her back. "But Izei…ehhhh?!" Arms locked around her thighs, his hands had begun probing…into regions yet unbreached. "Ah, Izei-kun, wai-wai-wait! Stop!"

He did so. "Did I go too far?"

"A-A little…" She blushed. "But…it was…rather pleasant. I'm just…"

"Still a little shy about putting things in there? Were all of those 'bloody tampon' threats completely empty?"

"Yes to the first, no to the second. I'm…I guess I'm still not ready to have anyone else inserting anything into that particular hole." Her shy smile turned back into her usual mischievous grin. "But there's another hole that I'm pretty sure you'd love to stick it in." Izei was now sitting up, and she sat down on top of him, making sure to push herself as tightly up against his body as possible and wriggling as much as she could as she did so. "Is this to your liking? The heat of my body, close to yours?"

"Yeah…that's exactly it." He guided himself to fit together with her, and the two started rhythmically moving. "You're…okay with this?"

"Mmm…it feels a little weird, but…as long as you don't thrust too deep, I'll be fine." She reached up to stroke his face, and he put his arms around her, hands placed squarely over her undeveloped breasts. He kissed the top of her head, and they made love, truly, for the first time.

And then an incident started when a pair of the adult guests came in with the intent of using the secluded area for roughly the same purposes.

*10:45 PM*

"So what happened? I thought you two wanted privacy to talk about Miki-chan's tragic past, not have kinky sex!" Suzuka said with a mixture of exasperation and amusement.

"We did. But since we already had the privacy…why not continue to get to know each other a bit better?"

"It's a good thing we were able to defuse the situation so quickly. 'Some of our guests overreacted upon seeing that the spot they wanted to use for some impromptu nookie was already being used by a couple of teenagers. No, the report of child molestation was inaccurate; both of the youths in question are 16. It was an easy mistake to make in less-than-perfect lighting conditions, as Miss Ichirei is quite short. We're sorry that your time had to be wasted like this.'"

"It's a good thing my ID doesn't list all of my measurements; it'd be a lot harder to explain it away if they found out that I look like a kid in any lighting conditions. I'm still amazed that you were able to convincingly disguise my flatness so quickly."

"It was nothing."

"And it certainly helped that your backside's not really flat anyway," Izei said. "Subtle, but there."

"I…guess I should be happy for you, then? It sounds like you really were getting to it."

"There were some missteps, but that's to be expected from a pair of first-timers. But yeah…Miki and I really got intimate."

"It's getting close to midnight. Think you can settle for just a kiss when next we go at it?" Miki teased.

*11:40 PM*

"So…how are we going to do this?" Tatsuke asked.

"What do you mean?" Arisa asked.

"The stroke of midnight. Obviously we both get to kiss Suki-chan, but only one of us can do it right as the clock strikes twelve."

"Hmm…that's a good point. It's obvious, though, isn't it? We just both have to be here with her. Suki-tan, it should be your decision which one of us you kiss at midnight. Whoever you want. I won't feel insulted if you choose Tatsuke-san."

"Whoever I want…" "I wonder what Katsu-tan's doing for New Year's? They both insisted that Hanna-chan's confession last week wouldn't change anything, that she didn't mean it that way and that they're still just best friends…but Hanna-chan will undoubtedly be with her when she needs someone to turn to to kiss, and I won't, and Katsu-tan was quick to volunteer her services to Hanna-chan's oppressed breasts at the hot springs a few days ago…"

"You still with us, Suki-chan?" Tatsuke asked.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, I'm here."

*11:50 PM*

"I thought I hadn't seen much of you around here," Suzuka said. "You shouldn't be so antisocial."

"I'm…just being the way I am. I guess I was never that big on large social gatherings…I should've just taken Chidori-san up on her offer to just spend a quiet evening at her place."

Suzuka did well to avoid showing any emotion about Kokuro's mention of his potential plans with Kusakabe. "Yeah, I remember you saying something to that effect before. So then if you don't like big gatherings…why did you come?"

"Because I thought it would be fun. I don't know, I try to be sociable, but I'm not very good at it. And…you did invite the whole class, half of whom I get the feeling you don't even like that much. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't show up?"

"They're not so bad when they're not entertaining dreams of being my boyfriend," Suzuka said. "But then again, maybe I'm too picky. I guess…I just like someone who I can actually talk to."

"Yeah, I know what you mean…"

"Do you? Do you really understand what I'm saying? Because I've pussyfooted around this issue for most of the year, and even when I tried to be direct I don't think I got the point across, and then I had to back off because of Kusakabe-san, and I know I'm being selfish because you've actually been together with her for over half a year, but I don't care because, I don't know, I guess I was a little unsure at the time, but the more dates I went on the more I realized that our date was easily the best of all of them, so whatever it was that made you decide that we'd be better off as just friends, I don't feel the same way, and so I'm just going to come out and say that I like you, Kokuro-san, like really like you a lot, and it seems like I messed up the timing on this speech just like I messed up everything else because there's still a good minute or so left until midnight but you know what, screw it, I'm doing this anyway." And then she kissed him all the way into the new year.

Text received at 11:48 PM: "Couldn't stand being without you. Why don't you ditch your fellow guests and come make out with this party-crasher at midnight?"

"I really think Himiya-san is a bad influence on you, Hanna-chan," Mayu said.

"You give her too much credit. We've gotten into these shenanigans together for years," Katsura replied, "and they're often her ideas. I'm sure you'd be more than willing to admit that she's a better planner than I am, right, Aoba-chan?"

"You didn't have to do this, Mayu-chan. If we get in trouble, you'll probably get it the worst, because you also stowed away in a police car to get inside for us."

"No, no, I'm happy to help you out. What would you have done if my father hadn't been called to the Tsukimura mansion to sort out a disturbance?"

"We'd have been forced to bust out our mad infiltration skills," Hanna said, completely deadpan.

"Honed from hours upon hours of playing the Metal Gear Solid series," Katsura added.

"I didn't know you were into video games," Mayu said.

"Well, with all of these systems nowadays having backwards compatibility with the previous generation's games, there's no need for my brothers to keep their older consoles once they get the new ones, so I get them second-hand," Hanna said. "Though I have to admit that the MGS series was so much fun that I eventually ended up asking them to let me use the PS3 so I could play 4 as well."

"I didn't like 4 as much, though," Katsura said. "Too much weird stuff going on, and Snake had gotten old!"

"They're really in their own little world, those two…"

"So, what about you two?" Katsura asked. "I have my reasons for being here, but you two…wouldn't you have more fun spending your New Year's somewhere else?"

"I'm happy seeing you happy. You know that. Besides, it's too close to midnight. Where would we be able to get to in time?" Hanna replied.

"I suppose we'd have to end up kissing each other, though," Mayu said, in a tone that suggested that she was joking. "Though, if I were to kiss a girl, I'd definitely want it to be Hanna-chan…"

"There'll be plenty of other New Years. Just because we're in junior high now—or, for that matter, because we're attending—"

"—crashing—"

"—crashing a high school party—doesn't mean we have to start kissing people at midnight like we're grownups."

"Speaking of 'grown up', what happened there, Hanna-chan? Forgive me, but…you weren't that stacked when last we had school."

"Actually…yes, I was. I was just wrapping them tighter. In fact, you'll probably notice that they look larger now than they did when the night began, because once I realized that I wouldn't be needing to do any espionage I let them out a bit."

"'A bit?' Does that mean they're actually bigger?"

"A-A little… they're still positively tiny compared to Makimaro-sempai's!"

"Aoba-chan…Hanna-chan really doesn't like it when attention is drawn to her breasts. At least, not unless it's male attention." Mayu was still subconsciously grabbing at her own chest, which like Katsura's was still somewhat lacking.

"How did you three get in here?"

"Mayu-chan stowed away in her father's police car when he came to investigate the disturbance here. She let us in. Otherwise we were going to go all Solid Snake on this place," Katsura said. "Speaking of which, why are you hunched over and wearing a generic-looking overcoat over your head?"

"Why do you think? It's not easy to sneak away from two people bent on making sure they're by your side, and even harder when you stand out in a crowd as much as I do."

"That's true. Your height and your hair color both make you quite noticeable," Hanna said.

"I…wasn't sure if you'd actually come," Katsura said, a pale blush tingeing her cheeks. "I mean, I'm not…"

"My girlfriend?" Suki asked. "Because Arisa-chan and Tatsuke-kun both wanted to be the one to kiss me right at midnight, and left it up to me to choose who I wanted to be with. And even though I didn't yet know that you were here…all I could think of was you. Let's ring in the new year together," she said, as the clock came seconds away from midnight, and she kissed her pale-skinned kohai. "I'd better get back to them. I'll just tell them that I couldn't bear having to choose between the two of them and leave it at that."

*January 1st, 12:05 AM*

"I…think I messed up," Suzuka said.

"I…may have messed up, too. Suki-tan just kind of disappeared. Maybe we were wrong, putting the choice of who to kiss at midnight on her, but… so what did you do?"

"Confessed. Kissed him. Really long one, too, because in trying to make sure I said everything I wanted to say before midnight I started too early and was left with like 45 seconds when my speech ended, and that was after I tacked on a little bit about finishing it early. He ran off."

"That's too bad."

"Yeah, but at least I sort of got my New Year's kiss, even if it was kind of forcefully taken. You still in need of one?"

"Well, if you're offering…"

"Aw, Arisa-chan, I was hoping I could find you and Tatsu-kun together so I could apologize to both of you at once. I just couldn't bring myself to decide between you two, so I—"

"—Went with a third option," two voices said in unison, one triumphant, the other spiteful. The spiteful one, Arisa, seeing the triumphant one, Katsura, behind the poor girl stuck in the middle of it all. "You certainly have a way of popping up, don't you, you stray?!"

CCX: Way too dramatic. Katsura was introduced as this delicate little thing, but it turns out she's anything but. And on another note that I wanted to add at the time but it broke the flow because it was brought up during Suzuka's run-on sentence is that it seems weird to say that Kokuro and Kusakabe have been going out for a long time now, but because Kokuro barely gets any appearances and the chapters have been spaced further apart (when there isn't a single event spanning multiple chapters), there hasn't been much changing over the last 6 in-story months regarding him and his dating status. But of course, it seems that this is all driving us closer to our foregone conclusion, which means this story could be wrapping up in just a few more chapters. I kind of have mixed feelings about that; I'm enjoying writing this so much that I'm going to be quite sad when it's all over. For now, this is Cyberchao X, signing off.