My night's sleep manages to last until around 10 AM, which is pretty rare across my week for various different reasons. On weekdays, I'm always up before 10 AM, but on weekends I always seem to be stuck sleeping far past it, even when I manage to fall asleep at a somewhat normal time. As soon as I see the time, though, I don't bother debating any further as, remembering what was already planned for the day, I can only imagine Miia's already up and she seems like the type to get restless about something like this, especially if we're taking into account what happened last night.
In contrast to yesterday, I rush through getting my clothes on and store my usual necessities when leaving the house in my pockets. The house is the same kind of completely quiet outside of my room and Miia's door has been left slightly ajar, so nothing stops me from heading down the stairs into the main area where I could expect her to be. She's in the living room, patiently waiting for me no doubt, but outside of my expectations, she's also pacing around a little bit, gently fidgeting with one of the buttons on a mellow, sandy-colored cardigan I haven't seen her wear until now. It seemed like something she chose purely for the aesthetic purposes, as she has a rather simple blouse on under it, too. She's also wearing a totally different skirt, as well, but the main difference is just the color, this one only just being a feint rosy pink color and covering just enough that it wouldn't be strange to wear in suburban public.
It's a cute look, for sure, but the way she's wiggling around makes it seem like she's indecisive about something right now and that's the kind of look that gives me reservations about suddenly speaking up. Of course, standing there silently only lasts so long before she spots me without my intervention. "Oh, Koruto, darling! I didn't notice you there, I'm sorry!" she chirps.
"It's alright, I'm just trying to make sure I'm not forgetting..." I can't keep my sentence going when her greeting manages to sink in fully. "D-... Darling?" I ask, my voice narrowly cracking as my face undoubtedly changes color within an additional moment.
Miia giggles as if I should know and she isn't going to tell me again. "C'mon! I wanna see more of the neighborhood!" she declares, rushing herself towards me with a few powerful flicks of her tail.
As she closes in, I can see her eyes widen out and her smile goes from anticipation to an almost unfiltered, primal happiness. It stuns me silent for another handful of moments, which she responds to by slipping her arm under mine and gently tugging it in the direction of the door. I relent on an outside level, moving towards the door with her eagerly attached to my side, but as my hand grasps the doorknob, I'm compelled into asking again. "Seriously, Darling? W-Where did that come from?"
She lets out another giggle, but this one borders on maniacal. As soon as it's subsided, she looks up at me and leans in. "My heart, of course," she says with a quick and confident wink.
"I-..." Despite struggling in the hopes of finding a response, I can't say I have anything intelligent to go against that with, save for the obvious comment of 'that's not what I mean', but the distinct feeling that she wouldn't tell me anyway keeps me from even trying. It's a little too late to abandon ship for that now, anyway, so I just open the door and the both of us step out into the blaring open sunlight.
While I put merely a moment of thought into closing the door behind me, Miia's attention has already been caught by the outside world and her particular point of interest shifts around for another minute further as we step out into the street. The local population isn't out today as much as they usually are, but there are enough people strolling around that it doesn't make it feel eerie and barren either. "It's such a wonderful day out," Miia comments tightening her arm's constriction around mine.
"Y-Yeah, it's... kinda that really mellow time of year before summer," I reply, trying my best to hold it together, lest I be in a social tizzy for the entire time we're out.
"So, where are we going first, Darling?" she asks, her voice filled with immense patience despite having the body language of an excited kid again.
"I figured just a brief walk up this way and then back, probably," I answer, just trying to ignore her new title for me, at least for the moment. "There are a few small shops like your standard convenience store, a little family-owned liquor store. The bigger stores are around double the walking distance, but the little cluster up here is nice."
"Ooh, I've heard a lot about Japanese convenience stores," Miia adds as she almost begins forcibly pulling me down the street towards that old bridge. "Will you be taking me in there?"
"I... I don't see why not," I agree.
"Thank you so much, Darling!" she squeals. The sheer amount she's pushing this nickname is throwing me off harder than anything else she's done thus far. It's slowly making it harder and harder to respond without directly questioning it again, but that just leaves my hopes to fall on not running into too many people from my daily life, assuming running into none is too tall of an order.
Those hopes are easy enough to hold onto at first, but as soon as we're past the short walk across the bridge, I can see the visible manifestation of bad luck giving me the finger right up ahead. Admittedly, if it were only Buji I saw heading towards me, I probably wouldn't be stricken with such a massive wave of anxiety so quickly, but his homestay is very closely keeping up by his side and I can practically see the dastardly grin that spreads across her face when she notices Miia and me in return.
Miia herself, sure enough, doesn't know anything until they finally come within interacting distance, but as soon as both of them are aware of both of us, Buji gives me an endlessly smug grin like he's barely containing laughter. "So, you're not eligible for the homestay program, huh?" the little demon to his side snickers.
"Well, I had someone with more authority on the matter clear it up for me," I say. The way this all happened has obviously been more nuanced than that, but I don't believe those are the details either of these two are interested in.
"I guess they must be even more gimped than the news says if it only took a couple of days for everything to get through," Buji laughs. "It took them almost a week just to tell me I was accepted, let alone actually moving Mimi in."
"Actually, I've been in Darling's care for about three days now!" Miia chimes in, squeezing her grip around my arm and giggling like a schoolgirl talking to her first crush.
"DARLING?!" Mimi bursts outwards, followed by falling into an uproarious fit of hysterical laughter. "Oh, man, this guy's even more desperate than you, Bu-chi!" As a massive torrential blush sweeps over my face, I do my best to just bite my tongue for the moment.
"Aw, that seems a little harsh, doesn't it?" poses Buji, seemingly unbothered entirely by the nickname he's been given, despite it also being an insultingly cutesy pet name. I suppose it's still distinctly different because she's still using his name and maybe that's what makes it seem less awkward, but in either case, I still feel a little bit better knowing I'm not the only one who's being given the high school sweetheart nickname treatment by their new homestay. "She seems really nice!" he added.
"She is," I reply before anyone else can keep piling on. "She was kind of a last-minute decision to be placed with me, but..." The words I was struggling to grasp at have run out and I trail off coldly.
"You just couldn't pass up on a body like that?" Mimi finishes for me, giving me that distinct look like she knows my dirtiest thoughts.
I can practically feel Miia squirming next to me, but I just can't convince myself to look over and see if it's excited or uncomfortable body language. Frankly, I think I might feel better just not knowing because my I'm already having trouble really parsing how angry and embarrassed I am at the same time. "I wouldn't, uh... Tha-That's not... really what was on my mind at all," I stammer out helplessly.
"Yeah, he definitely wasn't thinking of that until after," added Buji with a snicker of his own.
"Goddammit," I mutter. Those are the kinds of phrases I always say in English on their own, if only mostly out of habit, but I also find a vast majority of native people who can speak English well here don't tend to know the curse words as well, which makes it a lot less of a social anxiety catalyst to get those out of my head. Despite that, I can vaguely see Miia out of the side of my vision, the look on her face starting to get a little antsy as well. The smile that she manages to keep, though, looks amused in a very specific way, like a mother laughing at her child's embarrassment.
"Nah, this guy's probably still just realizing it," Buji rolled back, turning his attention more directly to Miia. "He's got a good head on his shoulders, he'll take great care of you, miss."
"Oh, I know, he's been a great help getting settled in. But please, call me Miia," she responds, politely bowing.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miia-san!" he declares. "I guess we should let you two get back to it, though. Wouldn't wanna interrupt you two getting to know each other more and all."
I remain silent, but to counter that, Mimi speaks up again. "Enjoy your date~!"
The new sudden warm flush of blood pouring into my cheeks quickly eliminates all my ability to respond to that in a timely manner, leaving me just blushing and trying to put together a simple idea to articulate how much I want that little demon to shut her mouth. By the time I have anything to say, they've already walked past us, laughing playfully between one another. There's no doubt they're going to be joking about this with one another for a very long time, but before I can get caught on that I feel another light tug on my arm and look down at Miia. Her look has become bashful again but in that excited sort of way.
A handful of individual dots connect in my head as I look at her. It's only now sinking in just how forthcoming Miia's affection is now and the sort of active, growing feelings and sentiments that implies. With any luck, I can keep my composure through this while that prospect becomes less inherently intimidating to me, but I can't shake the feeling that's going to take a lot longer than it usually does.
"Darling? Are you okay?" Miia asks, breaking me out of my skull. "Was that... too much?"
"N-No, it's fine," I assure her hastily. "It's just... I'm still getting used to it all at once and it's starting to get to me a bit."
Her expression changes back to that warm, encouraging smile. "You're doing great, Darling, don't worry. C'mon, let's keep going!" She yanks on my arm once more with less strength to it.
"Yeah," I affirm loosely, taking a deep centering breath as I guide us both onward.
The walk to the area I actually had in mind when I brought up doing this was a lot quieter than I could have anticipated after running into Buji and Mimi. Despite the near complete lack of conversation, though, Miia still has her arm very sternly gripping mine close to her body and she still seems to be in a good mood after it all, too. Unfortunately, that's left me time in my own head which has made this whole outing turn into negativity sludge in my head already. I can't exactly bring that up right now, though, because, with the rounding of one final corner, a large modern-style convenience store is within a stone's throw, followed closely after by a laundromat and a few small shops, one of which is the little art store I work in.
That's a tidbit I feel the need to intentionally skip over telling Miia, at least for now. With Miia's new exasperated infatuation with me, I'm not exactly sure what Mayumi would think. Although I doubt she'd react in any negative or disrespectful manner, I still can't say I want her to have the wrong idea while I'm still figuring out what the hell is going on in Miia's mind. On the other side of my luck, the Konbini ahead has much more signage and the vending machines in front of it make it stand out a lot more when it's the closer building of the two. "That's the convenience store, isn't it?" Miia whispers up to me quietly like she doesn't want anyone else to hear her get it wrong.
"Yeah. They cover a lot more in this country than they do in a lot of others, too," I mention. It's one of the most commonly-cited differences in modern society, at least from everything I grew up hearing, but it's true enough to be worth saying.
"Really? That's interesting," Miia muses. Almost immediately following, she starts pulling me along again. "Come on! I've gotta see what's inside now!"
Narrowly managing to keep my balance once again, I fall in behind her as she slides through the automatic doors, just barely missing a nearly blind collision with them as they open out of our way. The guy at the counter looks up at us. He looks like he's only barely an adult and also like he doesn't want to be here right now, but he can't help eyeing Miia as he sees her tail's staggering length pull through the door behind her. The look he gives her isn't dirty in any sense, but he's definitely not used to seeing extraspecies people. "Oh, wow, they really do have a lot," Miia gawks, letting out another quiet chortle. "Shall we pick up something while we're here, Darling?"
I furrow my brow and bite my lip, trying to ignore the new title again, but I can't help feeling like she's doing it in front of people on purpose now. If that is her goal, she's definitely succeeding because I can feel the clerk's eyes shift from her to me. "I... Don't think there's much I'd need to get, but... if we see anything." That's enough of an answer to sate both of the people watching me, but I can still feel sweat beginning to collect thinly along my forehead.
We start our way through the store, with Miia finally letting go of her vice grip on my arm and looking at everything from the types of products being sold to simply the organization of those products with pure fascination. It's very endearing to see in motion, even if it still doesn't take away how awkward everything up until now has been. Either way, as a cheap six-pack of beer was the only thing that I considered (and I'm still nineteen, so I can't drink in Japan yet), I decide not to get anything and simply let Miia get a good idea of the place. "They really do have a lot here," Miia repeats again. "But, if you don't have anything to pay for, I'm ready to move forward."
As I try to respond, she locks her arm around mine again and clamps back in. I accept that this is something I'll just have to deal with for now, if only so we can leave the store faster. That much goes without issue and I start looking around the street for a more concrete idea of where to go next. I have to admit now that this was as far as I had planned, but it takes less than thirty seconds for my thoughts to be rendered irrelevant. "Hey, Darling," Miia calls me from my own thoughts. "What does that sign say?" she points up at the one sign denoting the art shop.
Despite my hesitations on doing so, telling her the name doesn't necessarily tell her I work there. Still, I can't help but feel like there's a fifty-fifty shot of that not mattering, so I give up on any kind of excuse and just tell her. "Asakusa Art Supply."
"Art supply?" she chimes enthusiastically as if she's had an epiphany. Even if it's easy to read from her face, exactly what thoughts have entered her mind are still unclear to me, regardless of any good guesses I could make. If anything, though, that makes the dread feel even deeper-seeded. "I wanna see the inside, Darling, come on!" Her grip shifts from wrenching my arm close to her to grasping me by the hand in one swift motion.
This time there's almost no contest to me losing balance and her first yank forward sends me tripping forward. The ground's sudden rush to connect with my face is so smooth that I register the impact before it happens. The only reason I can tell that is because it doesn't happen at all. A thick, scaly and slightly cold cord wraps around my torso right under the arms, barely keeping me from hitting the ground. I tilt my head up to see Miia's tail having just barely made it in time to catch me. Miia's expression had also changed, now encompassing a smug mixture of various forms of endearment. "Darling, you need to be more careful."
"I... I'm not sure how much that'll help, but you're not wrong," I utter as her tail's constriction squeezes my upper torso a little bit. She has to scoot back towards me a small ways, but with that small difference in distance, she swiftly pulls me back to standing position without any help from the muscles in my own legs. "Th-Thank you, though," I added, rubbing my shoulder as her tail retracts from around my body.
She once again smiles at me, but this time with a near total absence of her previous smugness. In fact, with the light batting of her eyelashes and gentle brushing of her hair from her face, this expression is nothing short of genuine sacharine feelings. "Anything for you, Darling. I'm just glad I noticed in time."
I freeze up for a little bit, the look combined with the line rendering my mind a mess again, but doing so just long enough for her to shoot me another warm, amiable look before turning back and opening the door. At this point, I don't have much I can do to protest and, more notably, I've run out of the capacity to care as well. At the very least, the doorway has no problems with Miia's more unique figure, even if I do have to wait for her to be mostly inside the store before stepping in around the side of her tail. Mayumi, manning the counter as she does on her normal day, had already looked up and was sizing Miia up before I had stepped in, but when I enter her vision the expression on her face switches almost instantaneously. "Oh, Koruto-kun?" she asks with a hint of exasperation. "I wasn't expecting you to come in today! Especially not with a homestay."
"Uheheh, neither did I," I return, trying not to sound too nervous. "But she said she wanted to come in here and..." Once again, I had nothing to follow up my conjunction with. She wanted to come in here and she did and that's really all that got us here. "This is Miia, she's a Lamia," I introduce, trying not to linger too long on my internal struggles.
"It's very nice to meet you, Miia-san," Mayumi expresses with a simple, polite bow.
"It's nice to meet you, too," Miia exchanges, her right hand extending over to her side just enough to slip her grip into mine again. "So, Darling, this is where you're working?"
I knew it. Miia is doing this all on purpose. The question remains as to why she's doing it on purpose, but the pattern has become too clear to debate it any further, as far as I'm concerned. The look in Mayumi's eyes changes as quickly as I was expecting, but she begins to look more gently amused and less assuming. It's relieving, but I still have to answer to the nickname, too. "Yeah, it's... it's nothing grandiose, but it's everything I could have wanted for where I am right now," I answer.
"It's very helpful to have someone who at least knows about the things we sell," Mayumi laughs softly. "Although it's also great to know you're confident enough in being responsible to sign up for a homestay, too."
Again, a debatable statement but not one I can blame her for making. As I breathe in to speak for myself, though, Miia beats me to the punch. "Oh, Darling has been wonderful with making sure I feel at home! Everything I've had trouble with, he's been there to help me through it!"
"Has he, now?" Mayumi giggles, now starting to lean into that area that makes me feel like I'm being laughed at. "That sounds about right."
"Please don't encourage her," I mutter quietly, although it's a comment from reflex so it comes out in English. Mayumi, however, catches on to some degree. At least, I suspect she has because she gives me a look like she's somehow aware of what Miia's doing.
Miia, on the other hand, definitely didn't understand it. "Oh really? Does he do that well working here?"
I receive another look from Mayumi, but this time she helps me out outright. "Well, he's only worked one day here, but just from that I can say he shows a lot of promise... as long as you don't tire him out too hard yourself."
I can practically feel the sudden lurch in my irises as my eyes widen, and I think Mayumi sees it, too, because that's when she seems to realize the possible alternate meanings of what she just said. Again, I find it hard to blame her because I think the more literal interpretation of that sentiment is pretty relevant here. However, when I look over to Miia at my side I see her grinning behind an immense blush, as if Mayumi had just affirmed to her the narrative she's been pushing from an unbiased perspective. I look back up to Mayumi, finding she's looking back up to me in a similar way. She gently mouths "I'm sorry" to me very carefully, once again in English.
Nothing will convince me that an apology in any language is properly going to make up for this, but I find myself struggling to think of anything that would, so I return with a polite bow. "It was, uh... Nice to see you, Mayumi-san, but I don't think I'm out of anything important. Miia just... really wanted to stop in." Ending this is definitely the best I can do for now; if we stay in here I can't imagine it's going to get better. I'll just have to explain it to her properly with all the full context when I come in tomorrow.
"That's quite alright. It was very nice to see both of you, too," she exchanges back noticeably more awkwardly than before.
Frankly, I can't hold myself and start walking out the door before Miia adds her copy of that sentiment to the mix. A social faux pas it may be, but I can feel a panic attack slowly sinking in and that's on my list of the worst things that could happen right now, at least within the realm of logical possibilities. Miia obviously notices, though, and substitutes the formality for a simple "See you later!" before pushing herself out behind me. To the surprise of nobody, she quickly catches up to my side and interlocks our arms together again. "She seems really nice," she comments with another soft giggle.
"She is," I somehow manage without choking halfway through.
That barely gets past Miia's radar, but as soon as we're turned in the direction to go back home her grip tries to hold me from going forward any further. "Are we already going back?" she asks.
"Well... Unless you wanna see the inside of an old coin-operated laundromat or small produce shops, that's really the most interesting stuff here," I tell her. It isn't a lie, in my defense, but I also will admit it's slightly deceitful to hide exactly how I'm feeling with all this. The problem is she's so goddamned happy now, I can't deny I'm scared if I shut her down firmly on how she's acting now it might crush her spirit. Obviously I have to keep some sort of boundaries for myself and I definitely intend to, but I just don't have it in me to consider this the straw that breaks the camel's back, even if the way she's been talking to people all day hasn't exactly been helpful from my perspective. "There's a lot more interesting stuff further into the bigger parts of the city, but that's a bit more of a commute."
"Aw, then we'll just have to make up for it when we make that trip, won't we?" she sighs. Clearly she's disappointed but she also seems sated by the concept of a bigger outing.
"I suppose we will," I affirm. Although it doesn't fix how unprepared I was for today, this at least sets something in stone again, and without a concrete date yet so I have more time to get used to these new developments.
That also winds up being the last we say to each other for the whole walk back. It leans a little towards being eerily quiet, but I quickly come out of the tipping point for that near-uncontrolled panic along the way as well. As we reach the house, though, with me entering through its front door single-file behind Miia's swishing, curving tail, she turns around to face me. I'm busy closing the door as it begins, which seems to be part of what leaves me with little room to back up when she slides in, closing the gap between us to maybe two fingers in length. Her eyes lock with mine very sternly despite the gentle, warm look within them. "Thank you for taking me out, Darling," she coos up at me, her tone clearly deliberately provocative.
"I-" I start. I fail to get past the first syllable, though, as I'm interrupted by her swiftly but accurately planting a kiss on my cheek. After that she only lingers long enough to give me a much more intimate look before turning and, despite lacking legs, she deftly maneuvers her way up the stairs with the help of the guard rail. I presume she goes back to her room, but that's as much as my mind will process right now, the rest being an overwhelming static.
After at least two or three minutes of standing in the doorway, I finally collect myself enough to relocate to the living room, although all I really do for the moment is lie down on the couch in the center of the room. Every time I thought things were calming down, I'm proven wrong, which leaves me in one of my least favorite states of mind, a mixed state of confusion and dread.
That being said, I can't help also feeling like I'm taking this a lot worse than I should be and it's really just how fast it's all happening that's throwing it off. I lay there for maybe ten or twenty minutes, stuck in that odd state where I can feel the desire to move but I just can't force it to happen for effectively that whole time. I take that as a good reason to consider this day's big events over and take a hot bath to possibly help ease the more physical tensions I have right now.
I speed through the preparations to get in the bath more than I usually do. It feels a little odd to rush so much, but as soon as I begin lowering myself into the lightly steaming hot water, the nuances of my feelings on the decision melt away and, on at least a physical level, I manage to relax a good deal. Warmth slowly spreads through every part of me and I ride out those waves of sensation without thinking of anything significant for a little while.
A few quiet minutes later, though, my mind wanders back to the prior issue that made me want to come in here in the first place. My hand slowly raises from the water and I gently rub at my eyes with my pointer finger and thumb. For a little bit I can only repeat asking myself how all this happened despite already having most of the answers to that. The more times I ask myself, though, the more the question shifts towards how this specific behavior came about and, even more importantly, where it's going to go from here.
The prospect of just leaving things to however they happen terrifies me, in large part because I know I essentially can't do anything about it myself. But with every passing moment I spend stressing about that particular point, I start questioning the purpose of stressing over the future of this homestay thing more at all. Not because I can't plan for it but because if I'm anxious about it all the time my mental health is only going to get worse. I need to get better at picking and choosing what really gets to me that much, even if it's not easy to convince myself to give something up when it's bothering me.
My train of thought continues in the same silence for another chunk of time, but I eventually decide to get out and get something to eat together, possibly with the additional stipulation of going to bed early if I can manage it. I pull the plug to drain the bath as I step out, only then grabbing a towel to dry off. Once again, I rush my job on it, but in this case I've never cared all that much how my hair looks. As I put the towel to the side and pick up my fresh clothes to get into them, I hear a knock at the door. I ignore the sudden lurch in the rhythm of my heart and simply call back over my shoulder "I'm almost done, I'll be out in two minutes, max."
"Okay, take your time," I hear Miia's voice respond through the door.
It puts the pressure on for me to get into my clothes and that certainly doesn't help my accuracy, even in such a simple task, but I manage to get them all on right before she opens the door unannounced. Even so, I can't help but wheeling around wide-eyed like she did walk in on me naked. "I-I-I didn't say to come in, but..."
"Sorry, sorry, I thought I heard you get done," she laughs, a bit too much of a playful tone to it for me to fully believe her.
"It's okay, it doesn't matter," I shut down. "It's all yours." I look back towards the bath's tub itself, only just finishing up draining of the water I was in. When my attention shifts back to Miia, I do remember something. "I-I'll also leave Smith a message about getting a bigger bath installed. I need to get around to that."
"I'd appreciate that," she says, slithering over towards me and setting the clothes loosely lying in her arms down in a dry spot. I take that as a good cue to start leaving the room, but as I pass through the wide open doorway, I hear from behind me, "Maybe after it gets put in, you can join me in here~!"
I don't reply; I don't even try to come up with a reply. I just leave the room and close the door behind me. Even through the door, though, I can hear her giggling and carefree humming as if everything is going according to plan. I don't stick around to let it get to me and go straight to my computer to send Smith an email. I have to remember this is a quality of life thing for Miia regardless of the comments she has about it, so I get sending the request out of the way before I can convince myself to procrastinate on it again. Promptly after that, though, I proceed to the kitchen.
The wall clock in the kitchen is the first thing to alert me I was in the bath for nearly two hours. It certainly didn't feel that long, but that doesn't matter now. What matters now is getting something to eat made and then getting good rest. It's the best preparation I can expect to actually have an impact on how ready I am to face whatever is next. The discouraging part is that I can also only hope that these preparations actually do help; there's no telling what I'll wake up to tomorrow.
A/N: The beginning of the next chapter is gonna look familiar. Yeah, we're finally gonna get into it. Because I TOLD YOU I AM THE ONLY GOD HERE
I'm so sorry
Obviously, this won't be, like, a static idea-for-idea retelling, though; this wouldn't be a very special story if I didn't actively try to make things unique, and no, the new lad in the POV seat doesn't count for enough to me.
That being said, the first few chapters don't give me a lot to work with in terms of changing it up, but at worst, that just means I'll have to stir the old brain a bit and come up with my own whacky hijinks to break it up.
Anyways, I need to stop writing such giant fucking author's notes!Thanks for reading and remember to read and reread!