Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater
(featuring the Kuga-Fujino family pets)
A/N: It was four years ago today that I posted the first chapter of Duran & Kiyohime's Omake Theater, so it seemed appropriate to put up a new omake today! Hm, if I can keep up with this average pace of fifteen a year, within another three years I should get to the 100th chapter. That would be kind of neat! You should all give yourselves a pat on the back, because I certainly wouldn't be still doing these if it wasn't for you, the appreciative readers.
~X X X~
Shizuru Fujino was a girl for all seasons. This was in sharp contrast to her girlfriend Natsuki Kuga, who generally thought of winter as a plague foisted on temperate climates by a cruelly malicious deity, quite possibly for the sole purpose of making her life miserable. To Shizuru, there was something to enjoy about all of the seasons, and thus she could savor equally the cherry blossoms of spring, the crimson maples of fall, and the glistening white blanket of a snowy winter mountain.
(She was still working on how she'd ended up racing Haruka Suzushiro on snowboards down such a mountain this past winter, but every season also had its little mysteries.)
But it was summer that had come to be Shizuru's favorite season, for the simple reason that it was Natsuki's favorite season. It was always much more fun to enjoy the pleasures of any time or place alongside the girl she loved, after all. And while Shizuru was willing to exert herself when necessary to get the outcome that she wanted, she was a fundamentally lazy person who would rather do as little as she had to. In summer, she did not have to spend time putting Natsuki into a good mood but could instead move directly on to enjoying the good mood that was already there.
Thus, Shizuru was feeling happy and generally at peace with the world that hot summer afternoon. She was laying out on her stomach on a beach chair set to full recline, savoring the warm rays of the sun on her bare back, while Natsuki was in the kitchen, fetching glasses of iced green tea to bring out for the two of them while they relaxed.
The scrape of the screen door opening and closing and the clink of ice in the glasses told her that Natsuki had returned, and a lazy smile curved her lips at the thought.
"Do you want this now?"
"Mmn, if you would just put it on the table, Natsuki?"
"Heh, don't want to get up, huh? Well, you're not the only one; your hydra looks like she's melting over there."
Shizuru found the energy to roll her head to her right, where in fact Kiyohime was doing her level best to imitate a puddle, her heads draped over an ornamental rock, soaking up the heat from both above and below. She was just starting to chuckle softly when she felt something cold and wet press against her back.
"Ah! Natsuki, you tease!" It felt like she'd gone and brushed the tea glass, or an ice cube, against Shizuru's bare skin just below her left shoulder blade.
"Oi? I didn't—"
"Ikezu," Shizuru pouted.
The sensation immediately changed as Natsuki apparently decided to play nice. A warm, wet caress slid up her skin where the cold had just been. It felt much better than the chilly shock, and it continued, the stroking caresses on her bare back.
"Ah, ookini, Natsuki, I did think that I might need some more suntan lotion. But what made you think of it? Or was it just an excuse to get your hands on me, hmm?" she purred.
"Actually, Shizuru, I think you've got on enough of that lotion."
It was not so much the amused tone that caught Shizuru's attention as it was the fact that the voice was coming from several feet away.
This was when it began to sink in that something was not as it should be. She raised her head, half-turned, and looked back over her left shoulder.
Duran paused in licking her back to instead give her a big sweep of his tongue right across the face. She sighed and patted him on his (cold and wet, natch) nose.
"Ara, I'm guessing that you enjoy the flavor of coconut oil and shea butter?"
He gave her an eager doggy grin. Natsuki, meanwhile, had dissolved into a bad case of the giggles.
"Maybe you should switch to a less tasty brand of suntan lotion!" she laughed.
Shizuru shook her head.
"But that would be very foolish of me." She gave her girlfriend a slow, sultry smile and had the satisfaction of watching Natsuki's knees quiver. "After all, if I switch to something that makes my skin taste bad, then Natsuki will not want to nibble on me, and we absolutely cannot have that!"