Chapter 34 : Tempus Fugit - Two person sized.

An arm.

A forearm.

A hand.

A toga, or maybe a shirt, barely covering farther than the shoulder, showing defined muscles, almost rippling under the skin, as the hand clutches the pommel of a sword.

A head.

A face.

A pair of lips.

Heart shaped lips, slowly mouthing out a few words.

An ocean.

A lake.

A pond.

Ripples running alongside it, without any evidence of what may have caused the phenomenon.

A sword.

A guard.

A pommel.

The form of the swords ripples, unseen cracks brightening in unwhite fires, the metal almost seeming to throb-

-until it blows away, metallic fragments flying everywhere-

-before stopping in mid-air-

-particles rising from the ground, slowly encasing them-

-before collapsing inward, forming a blade once again, shining rose gold.

The mouth speaks once more.

The water in the pond surges upward-

"-awake, Prima?"

I'm jolted out of my slumber, wincing, clenching my jaw, The Voices particularly loud this morning.

I groan, even as someone gently shakes my shoulder.

"Huh, I didn't know you were such a disaster in the morning." My tormen-Sakura utters from somewhere very close.

I bite back the immediate retort that comes to me, one about inconsiderate people forcing me awake when I have the mother of all headache, only giving my lover a one-eyed glare.

"'hat?" I grumble, locking eyes with her, only to see the half-amused, half-exasperated look she throws my way.

"Sorry, sleepyhead," The gorgeous brunette apologizes, squirming a little, "But I'm kind of trapped at the moment?"

I slowly blink my sole opened eye, before taking a longer look at the situation-

-and finally understanding what seems to be both the problem and the reason she elected to wake me up.

…I may have confused her with a body pillow sometimes during the night, or something along those lines.

I relax my grip, grumbling all the way, before giving her a bit of space, making Sakura giggle slightly.

I give her another glare, before pulling my pillow closer-

-and shifting it around, using it as a shield against the sunlight filtering through the windows and the outside world as a rule of thumb.

Another musical giggle escapes her lips.

I pout, but she doesn't see it.

I sigh, the noise I make muffled by the fabric of my makeshift shield.

"...What time is it?" I ask, my voice a little raspy.

"It's 9am, you didn't hear my alarm?" She answers, her tone of voice a little puzzled.

"Nah."

"Surprising." She comments, even as I feel her shift around the bed, "Anyway, my train is in a couple hours, so, I have to go."

I puff up a little, before deflating in resignation.

"...Right, that's a thing."

"...Yeah." She answers simply, her tone as enthusiastic as mine at the prospect.

With a final shift, she rises out of the bed and starts to ferret around the room, probably putting back her clothes on or something.

For a little while, silence falls in my bedroom, even as I try my best to banish The Whispers, their volume extremely loud and my usual meditative breathing pattern not quite up to snuff this morning, probably because of that dream-

I pause, my grip on the pillow going slack.

-but what did I dream about, exactly?

"-fast together?" Sakura asks, interrupting my musings, and I only catch the last few syllables.

With a last grumble, I escape the protection of my pillow, giving my lover an annoyed glance-

-only to see her biting her lips, her hands clutched in front of her, which, admittedly, considering how cute she looks right this instant, does wonder to quell my ire.

I sigh slowly, before seating myself against my bedhead, my eyes closed and my legs crossed, one hand coming to massage one of my temples.

I raise a finger upward.

"...Give me five, I have a bit of a headache, but, yeah, sure."

I do admit, though, that feeling her Happiness shining in the room soothes the harshness of the experience a little.

I stomp my way in the direction of my house's entrance, even as someone is trying their best to break my doorbell for the last minute.

Considering I still wasn't at one hundred percent after having gone to sleep late-late -comparatively, I ended up in my bed extremely early, but that's a whole other can of worms-, I had elected to go finish my night after having said goodbye to my lover.

I didn't know if this was because we… went at it… until really early in the morning, of if it was because I hadn't a real night of sleep for a few weeks, but I was feeling like absolute dogshit, the weird dream I didn't remember probably not helping my current circumstances one bit, since I was pretty sure I had Warp-bullshittry to thank for those and it was apparently taxing or some shits.

Needless to say, even if it was something like 1pm right now, I was in the foulest mood possible, and I was going to commit murder on the asshole currently treating my doorbell like a toddler's toy.

I wrench the door open, my Annoyance peeking so high that I'm not totally in control of my aura-

"Surprise!"

-only for my eyebrow to twitch as I lock eyes with a brightly beaming Rias, who, if my eyes aren't deceiving me, is wearing a pareo of all things, the fabric doing very little to hide both her assets and the fact that she's wearing what I'm fairly certain is swimsuit.

Granted, a risqué swimsuit, but a swimsuit nonetheless.

Time seems to resume as her smile falters a little, her eyes roaming my body lightning quick, her cheeks instantly darkening a little-

-and I want to groan, because I'm pretty sure this is a variation of the Serafall incident all over again, my own cheeks getting a little hot as I remember that a certain v hot senpai had shown herself a bit possessive yesterday night.

"Erh…" The Gremory heiress trails off, apparently not knowing what to do in this situation and scratching the back of her head a little awkwardly -what are you, girl, a cliché harem protagonist?-, which gives me ample time to settle myself against the door frame.

I sigh heavily, even as I try my hardest to bring back my aura to heel.

I take a deep breath, my eyes closed, knowing now that murder of the annoyance on my doorstep is definitely not in the cards.

I lock eyes with the crimson headed devil once more, arms crossed under my bust.

"Hello, Rias," I greet her, noticeably calmer, "This is certainly a surprise."

"R-Righ, hmmm," She starts, worrying at her bottom lip, before smiling once more, "Sorry, did I come at a bad time?"

"Not necessarily?" I answer, a bit confused, until I notice her eyes looking intently at my neck, which, understandable, "I mean, I was taking a nap -alone-" I stress out as I see her eyes widen a little, "Because I woke up with the harshest headache ever this morning.

"So, no. But I'm really curious as to how you found out my address?" I ask, a little pointedly, a sliver of my previously tamed annoyance coming back with a vengeance.

I mean, I like the girl, she's a kind-hearted dweeb.

But, at the same time, I'm kind of mad at her right now for being the second person in one day waking me up.

And the first barely escaped my ire because they fucked me crossed eye the night before!

"Erh…" She trails off, and my vindictive ass enjoys seeing her squirm a little, "I asked Sona-chan's sister!"

I quirk an eyebrow at that, because that's both a nice save and I'm actually curious as to what happened behind the scene for her to know that Serafall actually swung by my house.

My money is on the less impressive Sitri offspring bitching about it after her sister ambushed/reamed her a new one, if she even did.

Probably just the ambush.

"Well, at least, you're not on my doorstep at an ungodly hour in the morning, contrary to her." I offhandedly mention, the crimson headed devil awkwardly laughing, "That begs the question, though, why are you here?"

I tilt my head minutely.

"Not that I especially mind, but still." I nuance.

"Right!" She answers, perking up, sky blue orbs somehow shining with excitement, "I wanted to invite you to the water park!"

I take that in, before giving her a 'really?' look.

She blinks, her smile still firmly in place.

"Rias…" I slowly start, eyes half-squinted, "You do remember that I'm-" I gesture at my shoulder, clearly visible in my tank top, "-tattooed, right?"

She does a little affirmative 'umu', complete with a nod.

"I did! That's why I booked the place!"

I stare at her, feeling the beginning of the second headache of the day rear its ugly head-

-before heavily sighing.

Because I can't really say no to that if she went to this kind of length just to be sure I wouldn't be bothered.

I know that saying that the girl has money to spare is like saying that the floor is made of floor, but still, that would be kind of a dick move not to say yes.

Although…

"Fine, but don't come whining if I'm only lazing on a lounge chair instead of taking a dip, because I'm exhausted." I grumble, a bit petulantly, but feeling fully in my right to do so.

She should have warned me that she intended to pull that stunt, after all!

My arms drop along my sides.

"Give me five." I tell the crimson headed devil, before closing the door-

-heaving a last sigh and slowly shaking my head at her antics as I start to make my way toward my bedroom.

With friends like these, who needs enemies on their peaceful Sunday?

"Isn't it great?" A certain peppy devil chirps from right next to me as I lay on my belly on a bath towel right on the grass, my head in my arms and the sun shining overhead in my back.

"Hmmm." I commiserate, feeling my sleepiness coming back with a vengeance under the warm summer sun, the sounds of a few people splashing around in the pool washing over us and making my words barely intelligible.

"...You're going to go take a bath at some point, right?" Rias asks, prompting me to open an eye to look at her over cheap, heart shaped sunglasses -hers, requisition by yours truly, turns out my eyes are a lot more sensible to bright lights than in my previous life-.

I give her a slow nod, barely managing to hide a yawn in the crook of my elbow.

"...Yeah, I will," I answer, closing my eye once more, actually not lying in the slightest, even as I shift a little on the bath towel, "Just had a bad dream that exhausted me."

I can almost feel her freeze next to me, all of her muscles going taut, making me inwardly chuckle.

Mother hen much, eh?

On the other hand, it's not like I can come out and say that 'the voices in my head gives me prophetic dreams and they're taxing as fuck'.

At least I assume those are prophetic dreams.

Maybe they're 'what if's' scenarios, or something along those lines, hell if I know, but, until I'm proven wrong, I'm going to assume they can be prophetic in nature and tread cautiously.

I have no fucking clue about what they can mean, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

After all, thrice is a pattern, as they say.

"...Are you all right, Prima-chan?" Rias asks, her voice serious, and strangely at odds at what I came to expect from the overly enthusiastic and bubbly devil.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I ask her, a bit confusedly, the Anxiety coiling around her like a snake forcing me to prop myself on my elbow to at least treat the situation seriously.

The Gremory heiress remains mum, looking at me a tad intensely.

"I mean," I start, "I got a roof over my head, a good school, good grade in said school, a few hobbies to keep myself busy," -a path to unlimited to power-, "some friends," I dip my head in Akeno, softly smiling as she plays with Koneko and Kiba inside the pool in the background, "hell, I even landed a girlfriend, somehow.

So, yeah, I'm alright." I conclude with a shrug.

We keep staring at each other, the devil surreptitiously biting at her lips-

-Anxiety giving place to Determination, and I feel like slumping and groaning both.

I knew it would be coming at some point, and I'd rather it never did.

Time to tread carefully, I guess.

"You dont-" She starts.

"Nope." I cut her off, popping the p, making her blink as I slightly redirect the discussion, "Can't miss what you never got in the first place."

Which was admittedly less true than I'd like, but not totally false either.

After all, I had slowly cut all ties with my family as I grew older in my previous life.

I can see understanding light up in her eyes, the girl far less stupid than she outwardly showed most of the time.

"I mean, I did wonder at times, what it was like," I carry on, jerking my head in Knight, Rook and Queen's direction, "To have people with you through thick and thin at all times."

I fall silent, prompting the crimson headed devil to kick back the discussion.

"But…" She probes.

"I'm a loner at heart." I answer simply, "My ideal family unit is two person sized, with maybe a pet on the side, or I'd be liable to strangle someone at some point."

I give her a little shrug, Rias not letting her Distress show, her poker face quite impeccable I'd say.

I'm feeling a bit bad, denying her this way, but this is for the better.

At the very least, I will have kicked back this discussion to the end of the year, when I'll finally be able to GTFO of Kuoh.

Or so I hope.

Eh, on the plus side, since I've already told her 'no' without her going all Morpheus on me, this means we can still be friends.

She goes to open her mouth-

-but a mass of unknown origin lands on the back of my thighs, prompting the both of us to blink in surprise, and me to look over my shoulder-

"Sleepy…"

-only to stare as a certain white haired catgirl elects to use my thighs as a pillow once more, not giving a shit about the fact that I probably won't be able to move if she does.

I trade a look with Rias, my lips quirked up, the catgirl already well on her way to dreamland.

The Gremory heiress and I giggle.

And all is well in the world.

[AN: Well, for once, I have nothing to say.

Or maybe not: cute Koneko is cute!

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]