He still can't pinpoint exactly how she does it, but then again, Akihiko is powerless to resist anything when it comes to those burning red eyes of hers. Just like the last time he stepped into her room, she made him very willingly sink into her bed covers so she could have her way with him and all that came to mind was a yes please.

I know exactly what that says about me and I don't care.

This is all kinds of amazing, and he never wants it to stop, it's just that he can't recall all the steps of the dance that led them here. It doesn't matter though, being eloquent to her is incredibly addictive and he'd talk to her in all the languages he knows all day long if she wants him to.

Akihiko is laying on his back, his left palm cupping the side of her head near her ear with trembling fingertips in her hair, the right one delicately stroking the naked ankle that's close to his side like it's made of glass. She's sitting on him, he remembers her crawling up there at some point, knees on each side of his ribcage to pin him down. Her white skirt is all over his shirt and she's leaning down to keep her silky lips on his while her fingers hover around his hair like a gentle breeze, her other forearm in the covers somewhere behind his neck to keep her balance.

Minako is sometimes aggressively assertive, and he's had to work painfully hard to keep his sanity intact before, but today she completely turned that on its head, and he can't say if it's worse or not.

Maybe it's because of her gaze; it's like she can't keep her eyelids fully open when she's looking at him, which she's almost always doing. Her lashes keep fluttering like butterfly wings around the darkness that takes over the glowing red from within, the crimson tinged with something that's closer to adoration than hunger, and he's feeling so strangely entranced by what she's trying to tell him with her eyes he can't think at all.

At the same time, they're replaying that first kiss under the fireworks, a thousand times over. It's all so languidly soft and gentle, as if she's trying to savor the feel of him in slow motion while he does the same, completely mesmerized. It's a good thing he's not standing up because he's feeling faint, smothered in a warm blanket of tenderness that keeps the frenzy asleep in the depths of his mind, and he's pretty sure she coaxed him into that plushy drowsiness on purpose because there's no safety net here.

Her desk lamp is on, but the sky outside turned to complete black a long time ago when she dips her forehead to his, gasping for breath as she murmurs in his ear.

"You are…"

Unable to finish her thought, Minako just melts next to him, keeping her hand that's stroking the tufts of silver at the back of his head in place and molds herself to his side. His fingers that were on her cheek slide down until he can trace the outline of her jaw with his thumb lazily. He's pretty sure his eyes look as glazed as hers right now and he's panting as well, that was... one hell of a conversation and he feels very incoherent.

"I…"

She tries to inhale slowly and exhales the barest of replies with a tired smile.

"…Yeah."

It's like her kisses poured lava down his throat, filling all the gaps of loneliness that were paining him earlier to the brim, yet it also dug deeper ones to enchain him further. It takes him a long time to shake off the aftermath and gather his thoughts, cuddling her tenderly as his heartbeat finally slows its canter to something less thundering.

I can't even describe how you make me feel.

They are supposed to deploy sometimes later too, he's not sure when exactly, time flew by too quickly and all he wants is to punch the clock. Akihiko just gently grins with contentment, drowning in her eyes as they slowly gain focus again, because no words come to mind. She does the same, breathing slowly, blinking here and there until the color comes fully back in her irises and somehow, she looks a bit impish all of a sudden.

"Do... I get to do this again... if I get my homework done tomorrow?"

He can't help but chuckle at that. It would be irresponsible to use this to coax her into doing schoolwork, but now he's feeling cheeky. Minako has a way to bring out a playfulness out of him that he forgot existed, it's just that it's sometimes dangerous for his sanity. He glides the thumb he was running across the edge of her jaw until it's lightly brushing on her lower lip instead.

We shouldn't be doing this again, we need to go soon, but…

"You want me to bribe you for math?"

She just narrows her eyes speculatively, speaking a hair away from the pad of his finger.

"I told you I'm not a good girl. Sometimes I need… motivation."

And to emphasize her point she bites him, with half-lidded red orbs full of mischief that burn as much as the liquid fire of her mouth and something inside him snaps very loudly.

He rubs his thumb down to part her lips and captures the lower one with his own forcefully, grazing his teeth on it, and she rolls her eyes back with a surprised gasp.

His wet finger is sort of in the way, so he runs it down her chin, to her neck and her collarbone and she shudders. It's when he clasps the whole of his hand over the burning flesh of her shoulder and he feels her nails biting in his neck in reply that he realizes what she's wearing, what he's doing, what he's thinking about doing and a thousand bells start ringing in his head.

Stop stop stop stop stop!

He opens his eyes wide, tensing all over because this is too much too fast. Minako just gently brushes the hair near his forehead and looks at him in understanding, eyes a bit wild herself when she murmurs.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

You're not the one that should be apologizing.

She kisses him softly on the cheek and moves to sit farther away on her bed, hugging her snowman plushie in passing, while he tries to breathe through his distress. She's looking sideways toward her desk with a little smile, biting her lip, when he finds his thoughts again and sits on the edge of her bed.

"I'm sorry I didn-"

But she just cuts him off.

"I'll tell you, if... it's too much or if I don't like it. Trust me."

I do trust you; this is just… difficult to contain somehow.

"And…I really liked it. If that's what I get for a work well done, you can be sure I'll behave."

Akihiko would be lying to himself if he said the prospect wasn't enticing; there's a lot of things floating behind the doors at the back of his mind that really want to escape, he'd just rather they not all flee their prison all at once like a tornado.

"After."

What the hell am I saying?

She just starts laughing with sparkling eyes, absently replacing the numerous little curios on the windowsill next to the end of her bed as if she needs to keep her hands busy. Its really a hodgepodge of different objects that do not seem to have much connection to each other the more he looks at it, and it's a welcome distraction to reorder his thoughts to try and identify them all.

Perhaps they are all souvenirs of the last ten years, the twins hinted they moved around a lot. The weird blue key with a mask design stands out and he almost wants to ask about it, but when her fingers brush over a little bunny statuette, his eyes narrow.

"I saw that design before, in the Kojiki, it's from Oonamuchi's tales."

Minako takes the statue in her palm to run her nails between its flapped ears with affection and she smiles at him, impressed.

"Correct, this is the actual Hare of Inaba, you know your stuff."

Akihiko recalls something else too; a rabbit actualizing in a flash of blue fire, shining like the full moon and standing on her shoulder. His unspoken questions must be all over his face because she places her hands on top of his own delicately.

"It is the same one, I'm the Hare and the Hare is me. I'll try to explain if you want, but it might not make much sense. Now's probably not a good time though, we need to go soon."

Somehow, I just want to know everything about you.

"Fair enough."

He gets up and stops by her desk, glancing at the planner that's still open on her laptop keyboard, biting on his lip absently.

Might as well take care of this now before I leave.

"Do you have your math assignment somewhere nearby?"

Minako eyes him curiously and points to the manual that's under her blue notebook.

"Jammed between the first five pages in there, why?"

Akihiko doesn't answer her, he just opens the trigonometry material and takes the sheets out, perusing their content and flipping them to go through everything with a frown. Then, he takes a mechanical pen from her case and starts jotting down pale notes in a few spots in her planner and once finished, he puts it back where he took it with no change of expression.

"That should do it."

She blinks, gets up from the bed and walks near him to look at what he wrote, visibly awash with curiosity. Minako eventually turns back to him with a calculating look.

"It's not that long of an assignment, really."

No, it's not, you already have good grades and you're smart so this should be quick.

He just looks sideways, slightly blushing, his mind filled with the leftover resonance from the earlier bells that rang in there. Sometimes it's hard to be blunt and just speak his mind, but she's used to that.

It's also difficulty to admit some things to myself as well.

"Some subjects sometimes take more time to… explain."

There's a shy smile blooming on her lips at his words, and he just impulsively brushes the hair that's on her forehead tenderly, lowering his face to peer at her closely.

"And I really like spending time with you."

He just kisses her softly to drive his point home, lingering a few seconds more.

"See you downstairs soon."