“Welcome, and merry Christmas...” Shizuru said cheerfully as she opened up the door to Mai's dormroom. She'd been recruited to help with the preparations for Mai's Christmas party, and apparently she was now playing greeter. “Ara, Natsuki!”
Shizuru was the perfect image of Christmas cheer when she opened up the door, from her lovely smile to her Mrs. Claus costume that was far too sexy for its own good. Not that Natsuki minded the sight, of course, she just didn't want other people to be ogling Shizuru. She let it pass though, as the only other girls at this party who might be interested were Yukino and Haruka, but they were involved with each other, so there was really no worry there. Granted, there were also rumors about Mai and Mikoto, but Natsuki didn't buy into them, personally.
Natsuki didn't have much time to think about her worries, though, as she quickly noticed the change in Shizuru's demeanor, who became even more cheerful, if that was possible. It had happened right on the note of her “Ara,” when she noticed that it was Natsuki at the door. Her eyes went from sweet and graceful to gleeful and loving, and her smile widened, breaking through her mask to show her genuine pleasure at Natsuki's presence. It wasn't just that Natsuki had showed up late; Shizuru was always like this upon seeing her, and it never failed to tug at Natsuki's heart.
Natsuki smiled back, though she quickly suppressed the smile when it occurred to her that others were already inside and could probably see her. She had an image to keep up, after all. Looking past Shizuru, she confirmed that most of the group was already there, which included the original HiME-sentai, plus Shizuru, Haruka, Chie, and Aoi as new additions to the group. Midori was of course still off in the Middle East, so she couldn't attend, and although Mai and Mikoto were nowhere to be seen, Natsuki was sure they were simply off in the kitchen working on dinner.
Ignoring Chie's gestured request for her to smile for her camera, Natsuki slipped in through the door. “Hey Shizuru. I'm here, as promised.” You owe me later.
Shizuru laughed gently and then smiled at her girlfriend. “I never doubted Natsuki for a moment,” she said as she took Natsuki's jacket and placed it in the closet. Natsuki started to move past her into the main room, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. “Ara ara, I'm afraid Natsuki can't do that quite yet.”
“Huh?” Natsuki turned around, eying Shizuru suspiciously. She recognized that tone of voice; Shizuru was in a teasing mood. She'd learned from experience that it was best to just get it over with, for both her and Shizuru. “Why's that?”
“Did Natsuki not notice?” Shizuru said, giving an impish smile. Her eyes rolled upwards, and then back to Natsuki. “We're both standing under the mistletoe right now...”
Natsuki's eyes snapped upwards, and her blush was immediate. She tried to shake her head to get rid of it, but Shizuru's expression just made it impossible. “Shizuru!” she snapped out, glaring at her girlfriend. She couldn't say the words out loud for fear of embarrassment, but she tried to get the message across to Shizuru that yes, she loved her, but she couldn't start kissing her in front of all their friends like this. She just wouldn't be able to trust herself to keep her cool and not go into “girlfriend mode” in front of everyone. She'd said as much to Shizuru before, surely she could understand?
The twinkle in Shizuru's eye told Natsuki that she did indeed understand, and that was in fact the heart of the tease. “Does Natsuki not have any Christmas spirit? Or perhaps she just hates me so much she couldn't bear to kiss me...” Shizuru gave her best sniffle as she said this, and her eyes actually started to water up.
Natsuki knew this was an act. It was one of the few times she was sure. That didn't make things any easier on her, though. She couldn't appear mean to Shizuru in front of everyone, so she was forced to play along. “Come on, Shizuru. You know I don't hate you... or dislike you even.”
Shizuru put on a huge pout now. “Then it must be that Natsuki doesn't have any Christmas spirit. If that's the case, then I just can't let her into this party!”
Natsuki growled and glared at Shizuru again. She mouthed through clenched teeth, “Why are you doing this to me?” even though she had a pretty good guess as to the answer. Shizuru did love to torment her sometimes. She just wished it didn't have to be in front of everyone else this one time.
“Give it up already, Kuga,” Nao's voice came from Natsuki's left. She turned to see the red-haired girl leaning back on the sofa, sipping a drink. “We all went through this. You can't win. Just give her a peck on the cheek and be done with it. Or are you afraid you'll enjoy it too much and jump your dyke lover right there?”
Natsuki's mood dropped in an instant. “What did you just call Shizuru?” she demanded. The glare she gave Nao was no joke this time. She fully intended to murder that girl – whether they were supposedly friends now or not – if she didn't take back that comment.
To the relief of everyone in the room who didn't want the Christmas party to turn into a crime scene, Nao proved that she didn't lack common sense. She cowered back into her seat and said, “Er, uh, 'bike lover,' I meant. 'bike-lover lover,' even.”
Natsuki's anger didn't completely fade at that, but she caught the glare Haruka was giving Nao. Ever since her snap conversion during the summer, Haruka had taken up the cause of gay rights with a passion that no one on Earth could rival. It seemed that even if Natsuki wasn't going to attack Nao for her comment, Haruka still might. Of course, she'd claim it was because she was against the use of the term “dyke” on principle rather than defending her friend, but the result was the same.
There was nothing Natsuki could do about that, though. Probably best to hope Haruka cooled off a bit before she got Nao alone, so that she wouldn't hurt the girl too badly. In the meantime, Natsuki found herself having to dodge a pair of incoming lips from her overly-amorous girlfriend. “Oi!”
Shizuru pouted audibly as her attack was dodged. “Ikezu! Natsuki neither likes me nor has any Christmas spirit!”
“Gah!” Natsuki growled and gritted her teeth. This was really getting out of hand. At this point, Shizuru wouldn't be satisfied with just a kiss on the cheek. She was probably hoping to catch Natsuki in a real kiss now and make her melt in front of all her friends, mortifying her once she was thinking straight enough again to realize what had happened. And that would give Shizuru the perfect excuse to “make it up” to Natsuki when they got home. Truly, the woman could be evil when she wanted to.
And Natsuki loved her for it. She could be the most infuriating person on Earth, but it just made her so endearing, and it spoke volumes for her love. Natsuki let her eyes drift back over to Shizuru. She was really cute, too, when she pouted like that, pleading for a kiss. Her eyes sparkled as she noticed that Natsuki seemed to be weakening, but her face stayed in that perfect, adorable pout.
Fine then. Shizuru wants a kiss, she'll get it. But it'll be on my own terms.
Natsuki glanced at the room, noticing that despite the simmering hostility between Haruka and Nao, she still held most of the attention of their friends. It would do. It was about time Shizuru knew what it was like to be embarrassed in public anyways.
Natsuki turned back to Shizuru with a fire in her eyes that caught her girlfriend off-guard. It was just the opening she needed. Taking a step forward, she placed her hands on Shizuru's shoulders and pushed her love back against the wall. She caught the shock in Shizuru's eyes and met it with confidence in her own. Before Shizuru had a chance to react any further, Natsuki pressed her body up against hers and leaned in to capture Shizuru's lips in a kiss.
Shizuru slowly melted as Natsuki kissed her slowly, lovingly, displaying affection she'd never before let out in front of others. Natsuki knew perfectly just how to make Shizuru melt. It wasn't any specific physical act, but simply her love. Even after this many months together, the fact that Natsuki truly loved her still touched Shizuru's heart. She always loved the utter sweetness Natsuki could show to her with just a few simple motions in the kiss that told Shizuru she was really feeling it, and she was really loving her.
Shizuru had to wrap her arms around Natsuki's back to hold herself up. She weakly tried to kiss back, but it was all she could do to simply respond to the motions of Natsuki's lips, and soon Natsuki's intruding tongue as well. She quickly surrendered to her lover, seeming to forget all about their current situation and what exactly had brought this kiss on.
Natsuki nearly forgot herself, she was enjoying this so much. It wasn't until she'd brought her hand up to cup Shizuru's breast that it occurred to her that something like that might be a bit inappropriate in front of others. Fortunately though, it was her right hand, which was out of sight from the rest of the room, so she didn't have to worry. She kept it on, gently massaging the breast, sending Shizuru even further into a sensuous haze.
Eventually, it got to the point where Natsuki felt it would just be cruel to let Shizuru go if she aroused her lover any further. Silently apologizing, even though she knew Shizuru deserved this punishment, Natsuki suddenly ended the kiss and pulled back from Shizuru. Just as her lover started to collapse, she reached her hands out to catch her, at least sparing her the indignity of collapsing to the floor. Still, Shizuru was left with a beet-red face as she tried to blink off the haze Natsuki had sent her into.
“Merry Christmas, Shizuru,” Natsuki said, smiling down at Shizuru. To her surprise, she actually received a weak smile back, even as Shizuru's blush deepened.
Natsuki took a moment to gauge the reactions of the rest of the room. Unsurprisingly, most were simply staring with their mouths agape. She caught Aoi slapping Nao's shoulder and saying, “Now even you have to admit that was hot.” Nao shook herself out of her stun at this and grunted in reply.
“No!” Chie's cry caught the attention of the room, pulling gazes away from Natsuki and Shizuru. She pressed her hands to her head, clawing at her hair. “I can't believe I didn't take a picture of that! I could have made millions!”
The tension in the room was broken as the other girls couldn't help but let out a laugh at Chie's expense. Aoi tried to console her friend, telling her that it was understandable she'd be too distracted to think of taking a picture, and then murmuring something that made Chie blush but which Natsuki couldn't quite make out. It sounded like she was saying something like, “And how come you never kiss me like that in public?” but Natsuki discarded that possibility. Their group was already pushing the bounds of probability for the number of lesbians among them. Chie and Aoi just had to simply be friends. Natsuki couldn't believe otherwise, even if Chie did just start to kiss Aoi like that to prove a point.
Okay, maybe I was wrong.
“Food's ready!” Mai called out from the doorway to the kitchen. After a moment of stunned gazing at Chie, who currently had Aoi pinned down to the floor, she said, “What the...? Great. As if Mikoto needed more ideas...”
After a brief respite for dinner, during which the worst that happened was Shizuru's hand wandering down to Natsuki's rear and remaining there for much of the meal, the floodgates were opened. Shizuru glued herself to Natsuki, nibbling on her love's neck, rubbing her hands over her body, pretty much any form of affection she could get away with showing while Natsuki slowly turned purple from the embarrassment of having a Kaichou stuck to her like this.
But if anything, others in the room just envied her position. It wasn't long before Nao had to run out from the rampant coupling going on around her, claiming there was someone she needed to see and completely baffling the rest of the room. Natsuki took this as her cue to leave as well, as her girlfriend was currently the most amorous and it seemed that there was only one possible way to satisfy her – a way which certainly wasn't going to happen with anyone else in the room.
Natsuki half-carried, half-dragged her lover out of the dormroom, waving fleeting goodbyes to those of her friends who had noticed her departure. The second the door closed behind her, Shizuru jumped to her feet and pulled Natsuki in a dash outside, to where her bike was parked. “Wha- Hey!” Natsuki protested. “What happened? One moment you can't stop yourself from kissing me, the next you're fine?”
Shizuru didn't stop until they reached Natsuki's bike, only then taking a chance to explain, while she took out her helmet and hopped onto the seat. “Ara, I do think I've punished Natsuki quite enough. It's about time the two of us get home so we can both properly apologize.”
“Punished...?” It took a bit, but things finally clicked in Natsuki's mind. “Shizuru!”
“Ara.” Shizuru smiled and leaned down to give Natsuki a quick kiss on the nose. “Merry Christmas, Natsuki.”