--

A bit of exercise to start the evening off seems in order!

"Hey, how about we have a dance-off!" You say as you tug Kaina towards the DDR platforms set up near the corner. Gosh, that's actually super retro! It's got to be a machine from before the Resource Wars! So cool~!

And it presents you with a few opportunities to help spice the night up. Hee~!

"Alice, I'm not so sure…" Kaina begins, but you've cut her off again. Your own enthusiasm's gotten the better of you.

"Come on, it'll be fun! We can have a whole competition. Don't you want to watch me dance?" You ask, batting your eyelashes. Aw, look how cute and awkward she's being! So adorable.

Kind of weird how reluctant she is though, you'd think the idea of watching you bounce around on a dance pad would appeal to Kaina's sensibilities. She did say you were aesthetically pleasing to look at and touch...

"… Well…" Kaina waffles, her unbreakable resolve clearly cracking in the face of your pleading. A chink in her armor!

You capitalize on that opening she left mercilessly.

"How about we come up with stakes? The winner gets one article of the loser's clothing~!" You propose. Then you sidle up against, Kaina, leaning up on your tiptoes so you can whisper right into her ear. "I prepared special lingerie. I wanted to model it just for you. Don't you want to watch me take my cute, lacy panties off~? If you win, I'll do that for you…"

Well, you'd do it if you lost too, but that's beside the point! The point being that you apparently need to motivate Kaina into having fun!

Pressed up against your love as you are, you can feel her entire body shiver as she takes in your seductive words. Her breathing quickens, her green eyes glaze over as she pictures the lovely scene you've just described to her in her mind's eye.

"Come on. What do you say. Eh, eh?"

"… Okay," Kaina jerks her head in a nod. "… But Alice, what do you want if you…"

Oh, right, you've got to come up with stakes of your own too.

Hmm…

"How about your jacket?" You propose.

"Just my jacket?" Kaina sounds a bit surprised. You're a bit surprised yourself! You didn't think you'd shoot for something that innocuous. But your choice is calculated! If you win Kaina's jacket off of her, you can put it on every day and be surrounded by the smell of your love! Ah, to have a garment she worse hanging off your shoulders…!

… Also, while the idea of Kaina going commando for you right now is pretty hot, it also increases the chance that some of the pathetic meat sacks will see parts of her you don't want them to see. Sure, Kaina's wearing pants but it's the principle of the thing. The worthless garbage people don't even deserve to stand in her presence, they sure as heck don't deserve to see her precious places! What if some clown decides to get handsy? What if someone has an accident and her pants get soaked through?

Nope. Nuh-uh. Not happening. Just the idea that some of the stupid meat sacks might see Kaina in a state of undress is enough to make you jealous and clingy…

"Yep, just your jacket!" You chirp. "It's a nice jacket, and it'll smell nice! If I put it on, I'll get to smell you all the time. Until the smell wears off, but then I'll just loan it back to you, so - "

"I think this 'dance-off' sounds like an excellent idea," Kaina interrupts. "Let's do it."

Yay~!

--

It's seriously been too long since you played DDR, you weren't expecting to work up this much of a sweat~!

Your feet are practically blurs as you dance away, hitting the colored arrows beneath your feet on time to each musical cue. Sweat beads in your hairline, you don't even want to think about what it's doing to your top…

Oh, and you're bouncing pretty nicely, of course~! You're doing your best to win after all! You're trying your hardest! And the rest of your body's, ahem, also trying its hardest too. You are, indeed, very jiggly. Just the way you like it.

You take the time to glance off to the side, then let out a little smirk at how Kaina's reacting.

Your girlfriend's staring at you with what looks like religious awe on her features. Hee~! It's definitely worth keeping in shape if it means Kaina keeps looking at you like this. It's like she's never seen a girl bounce around as much as you are right now.

Hmm. You glance back to the screen, checking your score. You're doing pretty well… Why not give Kaina a bit of a show? Sure, you want to win. But you want your love to have fun tonight too. That's more important than winning is! If Kaina's happy seeing you gainax all across the dance floor, then by golly…!

"Stage clear!" The game announces, and you let your feet go still as you turn back to the screen, waiting for your score to be tallied up. You click your tongue against the roof of your mouth, mildly disappointed. Not by your score, your score's excellent. It's just… You didn't get to emphasize your boobs or your butt more.

"Alright Kaina, it's your turn! Let's see if you can beat that!"

"… Ah," Kaina blinks, then fidgets. Your love hunches her shoulders over, drawing into herself. Her body language just screams awkwardness and discomfort. "Alice, is that…"

"What, are you asking if that's the best I can do?" You ask.

Kaina nods, looking even more guilty for some reason.

"Well yes, it's the best I can do!" You puff up your chest proudly. "I wanted to make this an actual competition, y'know!"

"Ah. Well… May I…" Kaina sighs, squeezing her eyes shut. "May I request a handicap for this competition then?"

"Eh?" You frown. "You want me to give you a handicap?"

"No, Alice. I'll need a handicap," Kaina says. For any other girl, this would sound like arrogant boasting. But when Kaina says those words, well, she's so clinical and matter-of-fact in her tone that… It really doesn't come off that way?

Well, either way, that gets you to raise your eyebrows. "Seriously? You're that confident?"

"… Maybe it's best if I show you," Kaina says as she steps onto the dance pad and pulls up a different stage on the DDR machine. A harder stage with a more intricate song.

And then she goes to town.

You're actually a bit awed by how fast Kaina can move, how deft her footwork is. Her movements are just impeccable, her reflexes unparalleled. She's not even using any mana! She hasn't modded her body the way you've modded yours!

And she's still crushing your score. She hasn't missed a single beat since you've started watching her! Every step she takes lands with precision, every pause she makes is perfectly calculated. Her dancing isn't just good, it's machine-like.

Gosh, Kaina's just too exceptional no matter what form she's in, isn't she? You don't think she's breaking a sweat, even with her feet drumming out a harsh staccato on the dance pad, even as she leans back, gripping the supporting bar with her arms so she can continue tapping away. No, her face remains cool and collected…

Kyah~!

You don't even mind that Kaina's just blowing you out of the water, and on a more difficult DDR stage to boot, you're just fangirling so hard right now over how well your love can dance! Oh, you should've expected this much, but even still. What will it be like to dance with her in a ballroom, or at some gala? Ooh, you just want to doll her up and doll yourself up and go to town now. A nice waltz, maybe? Something slower, more intimate…?

"Stage clear!" The DDR machine announces, snapping you out of your fugue. Kaina remains on the dance pad, looking down at her feet. She looks more than a bit embarrassed. You glance over at the screen to confirm her score. Yep, it was a total blowout. An absolute slaughter.

Kaina was right, this really isn't going to be a competition unless she's given the mother of all handicaps.

"It'll be like this for every stage we play unless I have a handicap, Alice," Kaina fidgets again, looking embarrassed. Resigned, even. She doesn't actually seem happy about destroying your score, kind of the opposite. Which is weird… Or is it? Some more pieces begin clicking together in your head.

"It's going to be like this for every single game we play too, isn't it?" You ask, folding your arms underneath your chest.

Kaina nods, a guilty expression flashing across her features. "… Yes. I'll understand if… We can do something else, I realize that most people don't like to lose, so…"

Well, that last line's also indicative!

"Kaina, was it like this for you when you were growing up? You mentioned visiting the arcade before," you try to slide in a bit more casually.

"Mmh," Kaina nods. "It didn't… Mitsuko was the only person who wanted to play games with me after…"

Yeah, you think you understand what's going on now. Your love must've been a pretty lonely person growing up too, and this had to have factored into why that was the case. Children can be cruel and envious, especially to another child who trounces them at every game they play. Couple that to Kaina's stoic attitude, and it'd be pretty easy to miscategorize your love as an arrogant winner. Someone who wins constantly and makes it look effortless to boot.

That's your love for you~! She's so super-tier and overpowered, even as a child without any magical powers she was making all the meat sacks jealous.

… It's kind of sad, and it makes you a bit sad too. Humans really can be worthless sometimes, can't they? Jealous, grasping creatures who seek to drag down their betters because they can't stand their own inadequacies. Look at what they've done to your love.

No one should feel bad about winning!

"Alright, then you'll just have to play with a handicap!" You pump your fist in the air, trying to affect a more excited attitude. Which isn't difficult, you really are excited!

"Alice? You don't mind that…" Kaina says, looking a bit surprised by how easily you've accepted this sudden turn in events.

"Nope! Not at all! Sure I want to win, but I want us to have fun more. Besides, we can do more cooperative games too after this. They have a whole carnival set-up out there, don't they?"

You're kind of thinking you should've gone down that route to begin with. Your love's really too silly, stressing out over something minor like winning too much. Sheesh, if you knew she'd get this worked up you wouldn't have even suggested a silly competition like this! Although…

"We'll call the competition there then, and go try some other games!" Your grin turns a bit sharper as you reach into your purse. "Just give me a moment, I've got to give you your prize…"

Ah, the sight of Kaina's green eyes going wide will never cease to entertain you. She's got such an adorable shocked expression, you just want to immortalize it~!

--

"So comfy," you moan out as you wrap Kaina's jacket a bit tighter around your body. "So warm…"

And it smells so much like Kaina does. Ah, you just want to stay bundled up for the rest of the day like this, inhaling her scent~! You're happy Kaina actually insisted that you wear her jacket for the rest of the day. A consolation prize for getting your butt so thoroughly whooped in DDR.

Kaina nods beside you. On occasion, her hand strays to her pants pocket, her fingers grazing over the soft bundle tucked within. Every time that happens, she hastily withdraws her hand, a light crimson hue overtaking her cheeks. So cute~!

You wiggle your ass, emphasizing the sway of your hips as you walk, feeling your thighs rub against one another…

"Alice…" Kaina shoots you a reproachful look. The effect's kind of lost though, Kaina's cute blush is just destroying all of her attempts to be stern. The fact that she's still got her hand wandering to her pocket, where your black lingerie's safely stashed also detracts from that effect.

"What, I'm still wearing underwear!" You smile sunnily. "I just gave you the underwear I want you to put on me later~!"

As much as you'd like to have gone commando in this arcade, you still remember the way Kaina reacted when you were at the beach with her. You're finding that you don't want to chance having the meatbags catch you in a state of undress either. That's the kind of thing that'd make Kaina overly protective, and then she'd probably start beating more people up!

And you really don't want her to get blood on her cute outfit. Bloodstains will be a royal pain to remove! And she looks so cool in that outfit, it'd be such a waste of clothes that are that cute…

"…" Kaina quickly turns her head away as you glance towards her, pretending like her gaze wasn't glued to your ass.

"Kaina, were you just imagining how I'd look in that underwear?" You chirp in a casual tone.

"… Yes."

Kyah~! So direct!

"I'm also finding that I like having something of yours to remind me of you. It's… Something I can look at, even when you're not around," Kaina continues.

… Gosh, now you're blushing. That's seriously direct!

Now you almost wish that you didn't suggest something so risque to start the night off on. It's like you're sending all kinds of mixed signals out. All this teasing's getting you hot and bothered too, you can feel yourself getting moist down there at the thought of modeling your gift for Kaina…

Hmm. Maybe it might be worth turning in early? You could have Kaina sleep over again! And this time you could do more intimate things together! Maybe teach Kaina how to really kiss, using her tongue? Get her more used to the idea of being intimate?

"Uwah…" You hear Kaina say. You feel her hand slip out of yours as she comes to a standstill, staring off into the distance at…

Wow, that is the largest, fluffiest stuffed penguin you've ever seen. Just mounted on top of one of those rigged carnival-style games, along with a lot of other fluffy animals. One of those shooting gallery games where you've got to plink at targets with an air rifle.

Well. On the other hand, Kaina looks like she's having a grand time here. And it'd be nice if she had more souvenirs of your time together. This one doesn't even have to be lewd...

--

(20/170 Essence, 55 Regen)