Lonely No More
by Cyberchao X
Chapter 38
Disclaimer/Author's Note: Disclaimer's still here, even though the curiously low view totals make me wonder if it isn't so OC-heavy that I wouldn't be better off excising all MSLN elements and reprinting this on Fictionpress. (Changing the names of the more major characters and possibly cutting the more minor ones out entirely—though the irony of this fic is that some of the "minor" ones are the ones that are major characters in the series proper. I think Nanoha herself would get away with a rename because the fact that the place where the characters sometimes go for food is owned by the family of one of their missing friends actually comes into play, but part of the distancing process might actually involve taking Fate's character out entirely.) The thing is, I don't want to do this. I like that this is a fanfiction rather than a completely original work, even if some elements (i.e. Miki's entire plotline) would've probably been better served being in their own standalone work. (Really, that girl has "Hero of Another Story" written all over her.)
*May—a week before the dance*
"…Really?" Dylan asked.
"Yes, really," Kanna replied, hurt at the incredulous look on Dylan's face as he heard her turn down a prospective date to the dance because she already had one.
"A male one?"
"I don't understand why you think it so unbelievable that I could get a date."
"More like I'm shocked that it isn't more obvious to these guys that you don't go that way."
"Who told you?"
"I didn't realize it was supposed to be a secret. Arisa-chan was the one who confirmed it for me, but only after I told her that I'd gotten that feeling from you."
"Narcissist. Just because I wasn't fawning over you like everyone else when you first arrived?"
"No, though that was somewhat of a clue."
"Well, you're right that it isn't quite as much of a secret as…some other people's sexuality, but at the same time, there are plenty who still believe it to be baseless rumors. Though that could be just because that's what they want to believe…"
"Guys who are attracted to you?"
"Among others. There are a lot of people who want to maintain disbelief that a cheerleader could be a lesbian—chiefly among them the other cheerleaders."
"You're a cheerleader?"
"Yep. Not what you'd expect, is it?"
"…That's what was so familiar," Arisa suddenly interjected. "It was last summer, when you introduced us to one of your friends from the cheerleading squad."
"Hmm?"
"One of the first-years on the softball team. Seemed familiar to me but I just couldn't place it. Now I remember that I already knew, or at least had met, her older sister."
Kanna tried to remember the event. "…Fusabi's got a younger sister? And she's not a cheerleader as well?"
"That doesn't necessarily mean that you have a chance," Arisa said, "and even if you did, that'd pretty much wreck your cover."
"If she's anything like her older sister, it'd be worth it."
"Pervert."
"And proud of it."
CCX: You should've learned this by now: Never assume that a character is an only child unless it's specifically stated that they are. And think about reality: unless you're close enough with them to have actually gotten together with them outside of school/work/whatever, how many of your casual acquaintances do you really know how many siblings they have? It's rarely relevant. I remember looking through my senior class yearbook at the section with underclassmen and being amazed by how many of my classmates had younger siblings that I never knew about—but then again, since I was friendly with most of my class but made few real friends, why would I know?
So, yes, it's kind of a shortcut to reduce the number of surnames I have to create…but it's grounded in reality. Have I ever stated that a character is an only child? Well, in case I hadn't, I can confirm that among major characters, Izei is an only child. I think Kanna probably is, too, unless something I previously said contradicts this; same goes for Kaburagi. Oh, and I think I actually might've confirmed it for Mayu…
…Huh. I could've sworn I'd confirmed Suki to not be an only child, but I've been looking back at old chapters and apparently I made a note that while I'd originally planned it to be this way, it seemed apparent that this was incorrect, and she is. So now I don't know if she is or she isn't.
"So since you've only misrepresented your boyfriend's age to your parents by one year, I take it they don't have any problems with you going to the dance?" Katsura asked.
"Why are you asking me this?" Mayu asked in reply.
"I was thinking we could all go dress shopping together this weekend."
"'All'?"
"Yes, don't you remember? Hanna-chan and I are both dating first-years now."
Mayu sighed. "I still think this is a bad idea, but I'd be a hypocrite to condemn you for dating a high schooler because your boyfriend's still younger than mine."
"So is that a yes?"
"…Yes. Now please get back to work."
"…You've become so much more serious since you became class rep." (A/N: I've since learned that class reps aren't actually "elected" in Japan; it's based on who got the best test scores the previous year. Luckily, most if not all of the characters that I've labeled as class reps thus far can pull that off.)
The trio had just arrived at the mall when Katsura felt a nip at her ear. "Hey, sweetie. You didn't really think you were going to have a shopping trip without bringing me along, did you?"
Katsura turned around and kissed Suki. "Of course not. I didn't tell you about it, though, so how'd you find out?"
"Lucky guess. Ari-chan told me you were going to the dance. You'll enjoy it, trust me; Ari-chan arranged to get me there last year."
"Arranged?" Katsura asked.
"Yeah," Hanna said. "Did I ever tell you that I knew the truth about Sempai even before you confessed to her?"
"N-no, you didn't…"
"Well, I did, because last year my older brother had a 'date' for this dance. Bannings-san. I surmised, correctly, that Chikuro-san brought Sempai as his 'date', thus allowing Bannings-san to bring her girlfriend despite a ban on same-sex couples getting dates."
"You confronted her at the festival in June."
"How'd you know?"
"Just what made sense. Anyway, let's get to work."
"Work?" Mayu asked.
"Yeah. You've never been on a shopping trip with Suki… Fashion is kind of her 'thing'." Already Suki was looking at dresses. "I don't think so."
"It'd look great on you, Katsu-tan!"
"Maybe if I had your body. Trying to stand out isn't exactly what I want to do here…I'm probably going to be one of the least developed girls there."
Mayu looked down at herself disappointedly. "Well, at least you'll have me there…"
"I wasn't referring to you, although you're not much better off than I am. Remember that one who looks like she's Natsu-chan's age?"
"Right, right. Though I still think you've got me beat."
"I know a place we can settle this dispute once we're finished here," Suki grinned.
"Ah, yes, it'll be nice to turn the tables on Katsu-chan after last time," Hanna said with a similar grin. "Just too bad Mayu-chan has to get caught up in it."
"Don't think you're out of the woods, Hanna-chan. After all, I need to know how much you've grown so I can pick out your dress. This looks like a good starting point…" And then Hanna was swept away into a dressing room.
"What are you doing in here with me? Hey, those are tender… why are you taking off my panties as well?!"
"To get a better idea of how it'll look. That's far too form-fitting a dress to wear with such childish panties; they'll leave lines. Hmm, looks like your breasts are even bigger than I thought…Still." Suki opened the door to the dressing room. "Doesn't Hanna-chan look stunning?"
"Y-yeah…stunning…" Both girls were immediately afflicted with breast envy.
"Can we try something…not strapless?" Hanna asked.
"You should be proud of your puppies!" Suki said. "You've gotten a bit taller since you first expressed concern about being 'disproportioned', so I think you can pull this look off."
"You also thought Katsura should wear red."
"She looks damn awesome in red."
"She only did that at Christmas to get your attention. I don't think she wants to be the center of attention here. Nor do I."
"Well, too bad, because you're absolutely stunning."
"Need I remind you that I'm trying to keep this from my brother? He…both of them, actually, but Ryo's away at university so I don't have to worry as much about him—they tend to be a bit overprotective of Mei-chan and me. I told my parents where I was really going this Friday, but I told them that as far as Atsu-san was to know, I was just going to be staying over at Katsura's house. Which I will be, of course, because there's no way he wouldn't suspect the truth if I came home afterwards."
"And your parents were okay with that?"
"Why wouldn't they be? It's not like I was keeping it a secret from them. They understand that there are certain things I might not want to share with my older brothers."
Suki selected another dress and sent Hanna back into the dressing room, this time with a shoebox and a pair of those thin disposable socks as well. "But I already have a pair of shoes that I could wear with this dress," Hanna protested.
"And what purpose would you have for bringing them to a mere sleepover, Agent DD-7?"
"My breasts aren't that big!"
"It was a—"
"—I know what it was a reference to. I've seen most of the movies."
"Really? That…kind of surprises me."
"Doesn't surprise me at all," Mayu said.
"I already knew, because I watched a lot of them with her," Katsura added. "Once we found out that Goldeneye was based on a long-running movie franchise, we had to check it out. It didn't disappoint."
"You too? And, wait, what?"
"Goldeneye 007. 1997 game for the Nintendo 64. When a new system comes out and Hanna-chan's older brothers get it, Hanna gets their old one, so we're consistently a generation behind the curve, but…" She smiled. "We like some of the same games they do, but for different reasons."
"She explained all of this to me at New Year's," Mayu said. "Though given what she said about backwards compatibility, there's no good reason for you to have an N64."
"…Yeah, she had to wait two generations to get that one. Virtual Console."
"Why would anyone buy the same game twice?"
"…It's a gamer thing. I don't get it, either. Whoa, looking good!" Hanna had come out of the dressing room. The black dress was similar in style to the one she'd tried on first, but was a better fit, and the added height from the heels made her look…quite passable as a high schooler.
"Perfect," Suki said, "now we just need to accessorize."
"Can we not? Some of us don't have parents willing to fund their daughters' crazy shopping sprees," Hanna replied. Suki frowned.
"Ah, is that how you always seem to be able to shop without fear?" Katsura asked.
"Heheh, yeah… I guess I am kind of 'Daddy's Little Princess'," Suki said sheepishly. "Do you at least have some decent accessories at home?"
"Better yet, I do," Katsura replied.
"It's fine, I think my jewelry box is at least somewhere where Atsu-san won't notice if something's missing. Especially because I still share a room with Mei-chan."
"Why is that, anyway? Ryo-san doesn't even live at home most of the year, but he and Atsuya-san still get separate rooms and you and Meira-chan have to share."
"It's…actually kind of by choice. I like my little sister. This is the last year, though; once Atsu-san graduates, Mei-chan's taking over what's currently his room and my brothers will have to share Ryo-san's old room when they're home." (A/N: In case you were wondering, Meira's a year younger than Katsura's younger sister Natsume.)
"So, what do you think of this dress, Sempai?" Mayu asked.
"It's a bit more…colorful than I would've picked out for you…but that only shows that I obviously don't know you as well as I thought I did. You go try it on, and I'll see if I can find you some matching shoes." Unlike Hanna, Mayu had been prepared for shoe shopping, wearing socks thin enough that they wouldn't affect sizing on shoes that would eventually be worn with no stockings at all.
"Would you have pegged her for that dress?" Katsura asked.
Hanna shook her head. "I probably would've expected something more drab as well. Not to mention a bit longer…Mai-chan's always struck me as more reserved and traditional."
"Me too. Of course, most people probably would never expect the real you, either."
Mayu stepped out of the dressing room just as Suki returned with a pair of floral-print wedges, which Mayu eagerly stepped into. "So?"
"You look marvelous," Katsura said. "You'll fit right in."
"Coming from someone who goes both ways? Very sexy," Suki said.
"Should I be worried?" Katsura teased.
"Of course not, because I'm going to make you the sexiest girl at the dance."
"But I don't want to be the sexiest girl at the dance. Just sexy enough to keep my boyfriend occupied."
"Trust me, unless you want to spend the night far away from your best friend," Hanna recoiled as Suki groped her breasts without even turning her head away from Katsura, "you're going to need to be the sexiest girl at the dance to do that. Also, you need to uphold my legacy."
"…What."
"Hey, we can't have this high school dance actually dominated by a high schooler, can we?" she giggled.
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure where we'll find someone to top you next year."
"That'll still be you, my dear. …You knew I would show up all along, didn't you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Oh, really? Well then why are you wearing the sexy lingerie that we picked out on our last shopping trip together."
"Okay, you caught me. I was hoping to run into you here and seduce you into doing me in a fitting room."
"Seriously?"
"No, but it suddenly sounds like a great idea."
"I'm game."
For the next twenty minutes, Hanna and Mayu were telling anyone who came to use the fitting rooms to please ignore the sounds coming from the adjacent stall. Afterwards, Katsura said she loved the way the dress made her breasts look bigger, but that there was no way she'd be allowed to wear that to a school function. Suki concurred and admitted that the same was probably true of Hanna's dress, and after another five minutes of Hanna and Mayu's warning people, they exited.
"Okay, next dress you pick out for Katsu-chan, you're not allowed to go into the dressing room with her," Hanna said.
"That may be for the best," Suki agreed. "She's just too irresistible for me. Also, upon further consideration, you were right to ask for something not strapless; this is, after all, a school function, and dress codes are likely in effect."
CCX: I'm basically running off of what I remember of my own high school's dress code. I don't remember if the rules set out for everyday dress code applied to the dances—namely the part about everything needing to have straps at least a finger-width wide—but then upon further reflection, I realized that seeing as how this school has uniforms, it wouldn't exactly have a standard "dress code" anyway.
Once they'd found new dresses for Hanna and Katsura, the quartet headed to the onsen where they'd gone last time. "Promise you'll behave yourselves?" Mayu asked.
"Depends on whether there are any guys peeking in from the other side. If there are, I just might have to put on a show for them," Katsura said wickedly.
"Well, either way, I believe we were going to settle the question of which of you two was more developed," Suki said.
"You're such a pervert, Sempai," Mayu said.
"If you have a problem with it, I could do the testing instead," Hanna said.
Mayu turned red. "Um…well, I guess since you're totally straight, it wouldn't be a problem…eek!"
"Don't bother. I was right; you are bigger than me. A little," Katsura said.
"Himiya!"
"Calm down, Mai-chan; you've got nothing to worry about," Hanna said. "I had a feeling you didn't really want me feeling you up."
"But-but…" Hanna shook her head, and Mayu stopped, though more out of confusion than understanding.
*later that day*
"So, how'd your shopping trip go?"
"Wonderful. Took me awhile to rein myself in enough to comply with school rules, but I think my little Katsu-tan will be more than appetizing enough. Let's just hope she can carry it off."
"How'd you get her to agree to it?"
"Simple. I made Hanna-chan as sexy as possible first, and then forced Katsu-tan to choose between avoiding her best friend all night and trying to outshine her."
"Shrewd as ever. I'm seeing a lot of parallels between you and Suzuka. If, heaven forbid, our plan ends up working too well, would you be willing to take me back?"
Suki laughed. "I'm the one who should be asking you that question, Ari-chan. I was the one who broke up with you, after all. Not that I really want to think about losing Katsu-tan to Suzuka-chan."
"Hey, I'd be the one who'd lost two girlfriends to the same girl," Arisa shot back. "So you're really worried that Katsu-chan's more interested in guys than girls?"
"Well, you remember our conversation. Sure, in the end we ended up having an awesome foursome, but any time that it's not just the two of us, when we're with her friends, she sounds just like any other boy-crazed teenage girl."
"And when it is just the two of you?"
"Ah, well, once I have my little cutie-pie all to myself, then everything feels just fine. I can't resist her…and once I get started, she can't resist me, either. If I'm not mistaken, there was a period of nearly half an hour this afternoon during which anyone coming over to the dressing rooms was told to kindly pretend that the obscene noises emanating from dressing room #3 didn't exist."
"Suki-tan, you're so bad…"
"Yeah…and yet I still get a feeling that I'm going to lose out in the end."
"Really? Why is that?"
"Because I don't think it's in her nature. After we finished up, we went to an onsen—kind of for the express purpose of shenanigans, since Katsu-tan and Mai-chan each seemed to think that they were flatter than the other one. Mai-chan didn't seem too happy with the idea of me doing the comparison, and seemed almost embarrassed when Hanna-chan offered to do it, saying it was 'okay' because Hanna-chan was 'totally straight'…but then Katsu-tan did it herself, and she got downright mad at first, only to let it slide without further comment shortly thereafter."
"You think…"
"Katsu-tan doesn't even identify as bisexual; she considers herself 'straight with one exception'. Yeah, that's what I believe…and I'm really hoping that can change. Because even being that exception…if her nature is 'straight', then that's probably where she'll wind up in the end." After a reflective pause, Suki turned the conversation around. "But what do you gain from this? I thought you wanted this to be a proper test of Suzuka-chan's bisexuality. I thought you said you weren't jealous."
"I'm not jealous. I even told her that she can wait until the next day to 'make it up to me' if things get serious, since she offered to do so that very night. And I do want it to be a fair test. What wouldn't be a fair test would be if I were there myself, because she has strong feelings for me that go beyond just sexual lust. She has no such feelings for your kitten, so if she still opts for peaches over a banana when it's strictly her libido doing the tugging, we'll know once and for all that she's been deluding herself all this time."
Suki couldn't help but laugh at Arisa's fruity metaphor. "That's…certainly one way of putting it. Although as we discovered today, 'peaches' might not be the best fruit to compare Katsu-tan to. Something smaller."
"You got the idea, didn't you?"
"Yeah, yeah… Love you, Ari-chan."
"Love you too, Suki-tan." She hung up.
CCX: I definitely remembered having a reason for wanting another chapter before the dance, but I can't quite remember what it was. The opening scene of this chapter was at least somewhat close, because it was set at the school, but everything regarding the junior high students was completely off-the-cuff. Hopefully I've set the tone for what'll be a very intriguing Chapter 39. Until then, this is CCX, signing off.
Oh, and one more thing...nearly a decade after I first set the goal and more than half a decade after reaching the milestone with a work of fiction that was published on fictionpress instead of here, I've finally reached the promised land. A fanfiction that fits into the "100,000+ words" category. Hallelujah.