Chapter 14: Mikoto's Awakening

The dining room was not big enough for the fourteen of them to sit comfortably around the table. Fortunately, the chef of the day had put some thought into that when she prepared for their meal. She made it so that the only utensil involved in consuming the delicious curry chicken on rice was a spoon.

Shizuru insisted her 'incapacitated' girlfriend to stay in bed for her meal. "Natsuki shouldn't be up and about yet." She said, then brought their portion of food into the bedroom and locked the door.

No one knew exactly what the former kaichou was planning, but everyone got the general idea. Whatever it was, it probably involved a very red Natsuki at the receiving end of a spoon.

Nao officially named them "The Honeymooners."

The rest of them scattered around the house with plastic spoons and paper bowls in their hands.

Nao deliberately choose to sit in front of Mai when there was plenty of room elsewhere. The redhead even made Mikoto sit on her lap during the meal. "Such a messy eater." Nao cooed at Mikoto and wiped the feral girl's mouth with a napkin.

The plastic spoon in Mai's hand was snapped in half.

"Ahaha... Those things are so fragile..." Aoi forced out a weak laugh and gave her roommate a warning glare. Truth be told, if Nao wouldn't stop gloating in Mai's face, she feared that her jealous friend might snap the redhead's neck like she did the unfortunate spoon.

Upstairs in the bedroom, something snapped too. It wasn't the spoon, it was Natsuki's pride.

"Say 'ahhh...'"

"Ahhh..." Natsuki had completely given up. Damn you, Shizuru. Damn you, and the spoon, and your watery puppy eyes. When Shizuru wants, Shizuru gets. That's the way this universe works. It doesn't matter if my left hand is perfectly fine, it doesn't matter if I'm embarrassed as hell, if Shizuru wants to feed me, all I can do is open my mouth wide.

"Ara, Natsuki has such powerful bite." Shizuru mused.

This woman is thoroughly enjoying this. Natsuki thought while chewing her food with unnecessary force. DIE! DIE! DIE!

"Say 'ahhh...'"

"... Shouldn't you be feeding YOURSELF?" AND STOP FEEDING ME LIKE I'M A TWO-YEAR-OLD, DAMN IT!

"You are right." Shizuru nodded in agreement, and then put the curry ladened spoon that was just in her girlfriend's mouth earlier into her own mouth. "Delicious." She said after she swallowed the food.

Natsuki's face turned a new shade of red, if it's even humanly possible.

"Your turn."

"Sorry, this is where I work, so I don't have any other clothes to offer. Put this on for now, I'll find you something later." Nina placed a maid uniform on the bed and gave Ersin a apologetic smile. "This is my spare uniform I keep around the lounge, I shouldn't be making you wear this, but you need some dry clothes..."

Erstin blushed slightly. The thought of wearing something her blue-haired savior had worn was... nice. "I don't mind, Nina-san. I am really grateful. You saved me and took care of me..." And I think you are really beautiful.

Nina noticed the blond girl's flushed cheeks. "Are you alright? Maybe you are having a fever. Let me check." She brushed aside the girl's blond bangs on her forehead and leaned in to press her own forehead against Erstin's.

Erstin almost passed out when she felt the older girl's breath on her face. She is so close... If I could just... She closed her eyes and tilted her chin up, inching slowly toward the other girl's cherry coloured lips.

The door suddenly swung open and came a very loud greeting. "Niii-naaa-chaaan, Fumi-sama called..." Arika froze at the entrance. From her angle, the two looked like they were kissing.

Nina and Erstin both jumped and backed away from each other reflectively.

"I'M SO SORRY!" The young maid gave them a ninety-degree bow and fled the room.

Nina sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry about that. That was my roommate Arika, she is an idiot so you can forget about her. Would you give me a minute? I have to 'talk' to her."

Erstin nodded, her cheeks still aflame. I almost kissed her... She thought guiltily, half relived that the brown-haired girl interrupted before she actually did it, but half disappointed that she didn't go through with it. What was I thinking anyway? Probably wasn't... Great. She saved my life, and what did I do to repay her kindness? I tried to sexually harass her! Gah! What is wrong with me?

The blue-haired maid found her roommate just outside the room. "Arika, you scared the poor girl. Can't you at least knock first?"

"My bad." Arika gave Nina a sheepish smile, her face slightly reddened. "I didn't mean to interrupt you and your... girlfriend."

Nina raised an eyebrow at the young maid's remark. "She is not my girlfriend. What makes you think that?"

"She is not?" Arika frowned in confusion. "Then why were you kissing her? When did you pick up the habit of kissing random girls?" She took a step back and covered her mouth protectively. "You wouldn't be thinking about kissing ME now, would you?"

Nina rolled her eyes and tried to contain the sudden urge to strangle her roommate. "Your head is filled with garbage, do you know that? We were NOT kissing, and I certainly DO NOT want to kiss you. I was testing Erstin's temperature with my forehead because I thought she might have developed a fever."

"Ers-tin?"

"The girl's name."

"Ohhh, I see, but Nina-chan, you are so unfair. The only thing you did for me when I was sick was throwing me a thermometer..." Arika imitated her roommate's apathetic lopsided smirk with great exaggeration. "With that face. You even made me go to school. How cruel of you."

Nina shrugged. "You are durable, a cold or two won't kill you."

Arika protested defiantly. "What do you mean 'I am durable'? I am but a sweet and tender fourteen-year-old bishoujo, don't use the adjective on me like I'm some kind of workhorse!"

"All... righty. Keep telling yourself that, Arinko."

"It's not 'Arinko'! It's Arika!"

The door to the maids' lounge opened with a soft squeak. A concerned Erstin clad in Nina's spare uniform stepped out of the room. "Is everything alright? I don't mean to cause any trouble. Please don't fight."

Nina gave the blond girl a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we are not fighting. Arika is noisy like that."

"Ahhh! You are so pretty!" The said noisy girl exclaimed loudly and examined Erstin with great interest. "No wonder Nina-chan is so gentle to you, you are like a porcelain doll!" She squealed and bear hugged the startled girl. "And you are so soft and cuddly too!"

Nina had to grabbed her roommate by the collar to drag her away from a squirming Erstin. "As I told you before, she is an idiot so don't mind her." She said to the blond girl.

Arika whined and freed herself from Nina's grip. "You are so mean, Nina-chan." She reached forward and held the blond girl's hands. "I'm Yumemia Arika, just call me Arika-chan. I heard your name is Erstin. I think I'll call you Ers-chan. Can I call you Ers-chan? You wouldn't mind, would you? You can call her Nina-chan too. She looks scary, but she is actually kinda nice..."

Erstin blinked and stared at the enthusiastic young girl with her mouth hanging slightly open. She was overwhelmed by Arika's outburst of hyper speed talking mixed with exited squeals and giggles. Doesn't she need to take a breath between sentences? She thought, while trying to make sense of everthing that's coming out of the girl's mouth.

Here she goes again, acting all familiar toward someone she just met for thirty seconds. Nina quickly cut off Arika's senseless babbling. "Arika, didn't you say something about Fumi-sama?"

"EEEK! I almost forgot!" Arika yelped. "Fumi-sama asked for you and Ers-chan. Let's hurry!"

By the time Mai finished her lunch, she had broken three spoons.

Being both Mai's friend and Nao's roommate, Aoi had to do something to prevent those two from killing each other. "Nao, can we have a talk?" She asked but didn't wait for a reply and dragged the redhead delinquent away with Chie's help.

"Where are we going? What do you want to talk about?" Nao asked the two girls who were handling her like a prisoner.

"Oh, we are going to talk about something VERY important. We'll just be talking outside, so no one can hear us." So your pretty redhead wouldn't be smashed to bits by a very jealous Mai, punk. We are saving your ass. Chie added mentally.

Inside the living room, Yukino was having a similar thought. I promised Mai I would talk to Mikoto for her. Now that Nao-chan is not here, this is my chance. "Mikoto-chan, would you come with me for a minute? I'll give you candy." She said and took out a small package as lure.

Mikoto, despite just had four helpings of lunch, drooled at the sight of sweets. "Yup, I'll come with you." She chirped and followed Yukino willingly.

If anyone wanted to kidnap her, it would have been so easy. Yukino couldn't help but think that as she led the feral girl out through the back door.

Outside in the front porch, Aoi and Chie were actually having a serious conversation with Nao. "So the red mark is called a HiME mark, and there are twelve HiMEs." Aoi asked with a slight frown.

Nao nodded. "Yup. The twelve of us had the power to materialize weapons from photons. It's call an Element. I don't really understand how that worked but all HiMEs could do that."

"What about the monsters? Did you materialize them too?"

"Well..." Nao thought for a second. "The ones that ran around doing random damage were the Orphans. The ones that we controlled were our Child. Each HiME had one."

"Wait, why do you keep referring that in past tense?" A puzzled Chie asked.

"Because those were in the past, silly. We had all lost our abilities when the Carnival ended." Nao said matter-of-factly. "Oh, by the way, the Carnival was like a battle royal where HiMEs had to kill each other's Child, sometimes each other. When the Child dies, the HiME's most important person would also greenspark."

Aoi and Chie's eyes and mouths hanged stupidly open.

"If I remember it right, Miyu the android killed Akane's Child and Kazuya died, Akane went catatonic. Father Greer killed Alyssa the fake HiME for her failure to take over our school. Shiho went split personality and killed Akira-kun's Child, Mai's little brother Takumi died. Sister Yukariko killed herself and took Ishigami-sensei with her. The evil Obsidian Lord took over Kanzaki's body and brainwashed Mikoto. Mikoto killed both Director Himeno's Child and Midori-chan's Child. She also killed Shiho's Child and KO'd Tate. Fujino went psychotic and killed Yukino-chan's Child, Haruka died. She also killed my Child, and my mama died. Kuga killed Fujino's Child and also got her own Child killed, BAM! Double homicide and suicide. Yada yada yada, kid Director Kazahana brought us back to life and restored our power. We destroyed the HiME Star and Mai defeated the Obsidian Lord. After that last hurrah, we all lost our power again. Now, any questions?"

In the back porch, Yukino was trying to fulfill her promise to Mai and was talking to Mikoto. "Mikoto-chan, may I ask you a question? I understand that although Nao-chan's advices had their merits, what I couldn't figure out was why were you having a fight with Mai-san in the first place? Did she do something wrong?"

Mikoto's golden eyes casted down on the ground. "Mai wouldn't kiss me."

Yukino's cheeks turned red. "What?"

Mikoto pouted. "Mai said kissing is for two people who love each other very much, but she wouldn't kiss me. Mai doesn't love me."

"I... see." Yukino paused for a second to think about what to tell the feral girl. "Mikoto-chan, sometimes two people can love each other very much, but they don't always kiss."

"They don't?" Mikoto tilted her head to the side and stared at the glass-wearing girl with puzzled eyes.

Yukino shook her head. "Not always. Do you know? There are different kinds of love. I am sure your Mai loves you in her own ways. Maybe she doesn't want to kiss you, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love you."

"Is that so?" Mikoto looked somehow relieved. "Yukino, you are so smart! Now I understand. Yup. Mai loves me, but she doesn't like kisses. I love Mai, and I like kisses too."

Yukino blinked. How come I am getting the feeling that something is about to go into a very dangerous direction...

Mikoto continued. "I like kisses very much. Yup, and I love Mai, I love everyone. I love you too, Yukino. LET'S KISS!"

"Mik..."

"CHUUUUUU!" A wet, sloppy kiss was forcefully slapped onto the timid girl's lips.

A fuming Haruka jumped out from behind the tree. "GET YOUR FUCKING LIPS OFF MY YUKINO YOU FILTHY LITTLE...!"

"I love Haruka too! CHUUUUUU!"

Viola and Kruger were taking a nap on the beach right outside the house. The beach umbrella Chie and Aoi brought came in very handy as they lay in the shade and enjoyed the pleasant summer breeze without being burned by the blazing sun. All's well except...

"What's that ungodly noise?" Kruger raised her head from her girlfriend's lap and turned groggily toward the direction of the house.

"It sounds like someone accidentally steps on a duck's neck." The older Otome frowned at the ongoing shriek that woke her girlfriend from her afternoon nap. "Go back to sleep, dear. It's probably nothing."

"Um." Kruger groaned and plopped back down on the blanket, dragging her girlfriend down with her. She rested her head on Viola's ample bosom and mumbled sleepily. "Remind me to kill the duck when I woke up." She closed her eyes and nuzzled her 'pillow.'

Viola smiled and ran her fingers through the girl's raven hair. "Hai, hai."

TBC

Author's Notes:

1. I tried to make them all in character, so it's taking a while for the pairings to develop their relationships. How I wanted to make Nina gay for Erstin from the start, but that would be seriously OOC. (Sigh...) (Beta: Do it anyway...lol)

2. "Chu" is kissing sound. I think you can all guess what's going to happen in the next chapter. Please read and review.

3. Thanks ifuritka and TwinBladeWarrior for pointing out some errors in the earlier version.