Chapter 48

Humming a cheerful melody Hitomi splashed her face with water, then checked herself in the mirror. She flashed herself a grin and walked out of the bathroom. The last few weeks had went rather well in her opinion.

She had done all the Christmas shopping she needed to do and was glad for it because she had to do that pretty much on the last minute a few years back and that was something she would never do again in her whole life if she had any say in it. She also had made some good progress in getting even closer to Leifang. Always in small steps, a bit of intimate cuddling here, a good few romantic words there.

They also managed to have two more dates, none of them being as fancy as the first one, though they still had been great. Today the two had agreed to meet in a small café, called Zeitzone, that Leifang had taken a liking to.

Hitomi let out a happy sigh and headed out towards the door. Things were going really well and she was confident that she could confess her love to her when the time was right.

She grabbed her keys from the small stand near the door and looked at them for a moment, pondering something, then smiled and headed out.

"Sorry if I made you wait." Hitomi said as she sat down opposite of Leifang, who had just placed her cup of coffee back down.

"It's alright. I haven't been here for very long either." she said.

Hitomi looked around the café. It sure looked fancy, with those modern looking tables and the frilly tablecloths. Hopefully the prices weren't too overkill. Looking at the menu she let out an internal sigh of relief and called over the waiter to give him her order.

"So did you do something before you came here or did you just fall asleep on the sofa again?"

"Hey that happened only once!" Hitomi said, then turned back to the waiter. "And I'd like a slice of the cake too, please."

Leifang let out a small giggle.

"But if you want to know, I was doing something before coming here. It look longer than I thought it would though." Hitomi said and Leifang leaned forward, giving her a slightly curious look.

"What did you do?"

Hitomi gave her a secretive smile. "Be a good girl and I'll tell you."

Leifang sat back and let out a huff. "Whatever, I don't want to know."

The Karateka chuckled. The waiter came back, bringing her a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of chocolate cake. Thanking him she lifted the cup to her lips and drank some, enjoying the warmth as it had become increasingly colder these past days.

A little bit more and it would snow. Hitomi couldn't wait. She loved the snow.

Looking over to Leifang she saw her girlfriend pouting, silently sipping on her coffee and looking out of the window. With a small smile Hitomi placed the cup back onto the table.

"Give me your hand." she told her.

Leifang arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"Just give me your hand, alright?"

The Chinese her a dubious look for a few seconds, then held out her right hand. Hitomi grabbed it gently with her own, turning it around so that the palm faced upward and dropped something into it.

As Hitomi let go Leifang pulled her hand back and looked at the item that had been placed there. A set of two keys.

"What are those for?" she asked.

"For my apartment." Leifang's gaze shot towards Hitomi. Did she just hear right?

"What?"

"I want you to have keys to my apartment, so that you can come over whenever you want. You're always welcome." she said and took the fork that had been placed on the table.

Leifang looked at the set of keys, then placed them on the table and pushed the back towards Hitomi.

"I can't accept that. It's too much." she said. The fork that Hitomi used stopped just inches about the cake, then was placed back.

She sighed. "No it's not too much. Listen, you're my girlfriend, but also my best friend and you're important to me." she grabbed Leifang's hand gently and placed the keys back there, then placed her own hand on top. "So I want you to come and go whenever you please."

Leifang looked at her for a long time and made a resigned sound.

"It's really hard to resist when you get like that, you know?" she said and couldn't help but smile. "Alright. I'll take them. Maybe I can steal some cake while I'm at it." Leifang winked. "It looks like you've been gaining weight these days after all."

Hitomi glared at her, but after giving the cake a short look she pushed it to the side. She really had eaten a bit much of that as of late.

"Whatever, I didn't have much of an appetite anyway." she grumbled. "Gaining weight."

Leifang snickered and looked at the keys once more.

It was evening when they stood in front of Hitomi's apartment door. The brunette had her hand placed on the other girl's shoulders, speaking eagerly into her ear.

"Come on, try them out." she said and nudged Leifang forward.

"Alright, alright. Jeez." Leifang laughed and pushed the key into the lock. She let it linger there for a moment, then turned it and unlocked the door.

Giving it a gentle push she opened it.

"Welcome." Hitomi whispered into her ear, let go of her shoulders and walked into the apartment, turning around to smile at her.

Leifang returned the smile and followed, pulling the key out of the lock and closing the door as soon as she entered. Their lips met as soon as they had privacy. The Chinese ran her fingers through the Karateka's hair, enjoying the feel of it on her fingers.

"Finally." Hitomi said as their lips separated. "And here I thought I'd need to wait longer to kiss you."

"Sorry for making you wait." Leifang said and rubbed her nose against Hitomi's. While Leifang had become rather eager when it came to show more of the physical parts of their affection, she was still rather reluctant to do so in public.

Hitomi understood though, alone for the fact that Leifang grew up in an entirely different culture. China still held a lot of prejudices against same-sex relationships, even though it was better in Hong Kong than other places, so it was only natural that it would be hard for Leifang to show that kind of affection where everyone could see.

Instead of saying anything Hitomi just pulled her in for another kiss. Leifang returned it, then pushed Hitomi off. "Now maybe we should stop for now, or we're going to still be standing here in a few hours."

"Ah! You're right." Hitomi grinned sheepishly and pulled off her jacket, hung it onto the coat hanger and offered to do the same for Leifang as she pulled her own coat off.

"How nice of you." Leifang said teasingly and handed her the coat. Hitomi simply chuckled and hung it besides her jacket. They walked into the living room, sat down on the sofa and Hitomi turned on the TV.

She zapped around a little bit, only to find out that nothing was on, so she settled on a documentary channel where one about dinosaurs was currently airing. Like they did pretty much every two weeks.

The German looked over to Leifang, who looked at the screen with interest. Oh well she thought and turned back to the documentary. She liked dinosaurs well enough, though a certain event with Jann Lee had soured her memories of them a little bit.

I wonder what he's doing. Probably being in another contest or training. He was always trying to become the best. They were both similar in that regard, but in her case it was because she wanted to prove herself while for him it seemed like he needed to show everyone else that he was the best.

She envied him a little for that, because it showed that he was already confident enough about himself, whereas she was sometimes left standing, questioning herself.

Though it hadn't been on her mind these past few months. She looked over to Leifang again, who was engrossed with the TV right now, and found the reason why she didn't doubt herself this much anymore.

She looked so beautiful in the light of the TV and Hitomi couldn't help but stare at her. Of course that didn't go unnoticed for long and Leifang turned her head to look at her.

"Hmm?" she mumbled.

Hitomi shook her head. "Nothing. Never thought you would be the type to like dinosaurs."

Leifang shrugged at that. "I don't know much about them, so of course I find it interesting to learn a bit more about the topic. But that wasn't why you stared at me, was it?"

"No it wasn't."

"So?" Leifang asked.

"So what?"

"What was the reason?"

"It's a secret." Hitomi said and stuck out her tongue. Leifang's answer to that was a thrown pillow that Hitomi simply deflected. She slid closer to Leifang and placed her arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.

The other girl didn't resist and placed her head on Hitomi's shoulder. They remained that way for quite some time until Hitomi was getting a bit tired and lied down on the sofa, pulling Leifang with her. Hitomi placed her arms around her and Leifang buried her face in the crook of her neck.

After a while Leifang pulled her head back and gently kissed Hitomi, parting her lips a bit to invite her in. It didn't take long for the Karateka to respond and her tongue pushed forward, brushing softly against the other one's.

The TV had long since been forgotten as they were to busy with one another.

Leifang let out a soft gasp as Hitomi brushed one of her hands against her butt, but didn't do anything to stop her. In fact she liked it and pressed herself further against her, deepening the kiss.

Eventually they broke the kiss and looked at each other.

"It's getting late." Leifang said simply.

"Yeah." Hitomi responded.

"Maybe I should go." She got off the sofa and Hitomi sat up, giving her a look that she couldn't read.

"Stay." she said. "You can go to the university from here tomorrow."

Leifang pondered that for a moment. It was true she could just head over from here. And she really didn't want to go.

"So the sofa?" she asked and Hitomi shook her head.

"We can share the bed." she told her. "It's not like we didn't do that before."

"True." Leifang said and had to think of New York. God it seemed like it was just yesterday to her when she had that hangover and Hitomi had taken care of her. Time sure did fly.

Hitomi got up from her sitting position and walked towards the bedroom. "Come on, I'll lend you something to sleep in."

Smiling to herself Leifang followed.

Leifang awoke in the middle of the night, feeling rather thirsty. She licked her dry lips and turned over to see Hitomi sleeping like a baby. A soft giggle made it's way past her lips. She had thrown the covers off her body and was lying slightly on her side. The oversized T-shirt she wore had shifted a little out of place, giving Leifang a nice view of the Karateka's breasts.

She checked them out for a moment, then silently got out of bed and left the room, heading into the kitchen to get a drink. She took one of the glasses, filled it with water and drank it in one go.

Feeling refreshed she made her way back, then halted in her steps when something caught her eye. There was a book lying on the table, covered by some notes and the newspaper of yesterday.

Out of curiosity she walked over and pulled the book out, reading the name.

The Women's Guide to Please Other Women. She nearly dropped the book right there, but caught herself and just gaped at it for a moment. The cover of the book also left no imagination as to what kind of book this exactly was.

Opening it she thumbed through some of the pages and read its contents.

Oh my she thought and her face became beat red. Was Hitomi really thinking about them like that? Not like it was a bad thing!

Leifang too had the odd thought here and there, but nothing that would warrant buying a book like this. Snapping it shut she put it back where she found it, taking extra care to not make it look like she found it.

Suddenly she felt very embarrassed, not because her girlfriend was probably planning on them having sex, but because she was completely inexperienced on the whole matter.

Leifang wrung her hands nervously. And was she really ready to go that far?

It was silly, she knew that Hitomi would never do anything to hurt her on purpose. And being in a relationship meant that eventually you would end up making love with your partner.

Slowly she headed back to the bedroom and climbed back into the bed. She crawled over to Hitomi, sitting down on her legs to look at her, sleeping so innocently.

She brushed a brown lock out of her girlfriend's face. Maybe it was a good thing she found the book. Now she could mentally prepare herself, get a bit more used to the idea.

Leaning down she planted a kiss on top of her head. The other girl let out a small moan, and her eyes started to flutter open as the Chinese started to sit up.

"Hey there, sleepyhead. Go back to sleep." she said as Hitomi looked at her with eyes that told her that she was still half-asleep. But she only smiled and placed a hand on Leifang's cheek, brushing her thumb gently across her skin.

"God, I love you so much."

Haha, just had to end it with a cliffhanger here. Let's see what will happen next week. ;)

See ya then.