“Izumi-san.”
I looked up, blushed, and looked away. “H-hey.”
Mitsuki looked between us and grinned. In a loud voice she announced, “Well then! I’m going to go outside and feed Pochi. Come on, Reira-chan, you come, too!”
I stared at her retreating back, horrified. ‘That little conniving…’ In two minutes flat, my younger sister had managed to drag the still working Reira-chan outside, the door closing with finality.
Anna sat down on the couch, on the opposite end that I was. I glanced over, and noticed she was blushing a little too.
“So…” I gulped. “About yesterday…”
She tried to laugh nervously, and couldn’t even get that out right. “Kasumi… has always been rather decisive…”
“She… She would have been good for you.”
Anna continued to look down at her lap. “She’ll be good for anyone.”
It was hard to argue with that.
The silence grew.
Anna-chan cleared her throat. “So, um, what do you want to do today?”
“Y-you’re the visitor. You can choose.”
“But you’re the ‘hostess’. I don’t know any of the… new things to do around here.”
“You should have visited more often then.”
“Um… yeah. Sorry.”
“Kasumi was right.” She looked up at me, and I attempted a humored smile. “You apologize too much.”
“Ah, sor- I mean… she’s right about a lot of things. She rarely misunderstands.”
“Yeah… I figured. I mean… with the shower thing and all… I know I would have assumed the worst.”
Anna laughed nervously. “Well, the ‘worst’ happened anyway, right?”
I blushed more and tightened my grip on my skirt. “Yeah… I guess it did.”
More silence.
Taking a deep, calming breath, I stood up, turning to her only when I could do so with a smile. “Well, no use just sitting here dwelling on it, right? Let’s… um…oh, okay, how about we alternate picking things to do? Today’s Sunday so… I’m free all day.”
Anna stood up as well, and I had to fight back the urge to retreat. “That sounds good. And if we started from yesterday… We met at the café, you chose the lingerie shop, I chose the movie, hum… I chose my place and then you chose to meet here… I guess to be fair, it would be your turn to choose.”
I cursed, not having thought of anything yet. I’d been hoping the dice had fallen on her. Well, fine. I said I wanted to make up the past incidents to her, so I guess I would just have find ways to do it in stride. I already made up for the bra-throwing incident, giving her my favorite piece of lingerie. Now…
I walked over to the window, verifying that it looked like a good day. “Let’s take a walk around the mansion grounds. Did you bring a camera?”
“A camera?” The nervous anxiety seemed to break at that, and a slow, genuine smile sprouted onto her face. “I did, actually.”
I turned and smiled at her again, taking her hand as we headed for the door. “Come on then, let’s see how long I last before I fall into that infernal river/creek again.”
My record was apparently twenty seconds, because almost as soon as I neared the river, Pochi got away from Mitsuki and tackled me… straight into the water. At least I managed to let go of Anna-chan first, so she wouldn’t share the same fate.
“Stupid Pochi…” I sighed, even as I pet his reptilian hand. I found that the more I stopped running, the more content he was to be obedient after he had chomped on me once.
I was surprised when I saw a flash of a camera. Looking up at Anna-chan, I was doubly surprised when she handed the camera to Mitsuki and set down her purse before joining me in the water.
I was 24, a perfectly well aged adult… but I squealed when she squirted water into my face. For once, I was glad that Yoshitaka was rich, and somehow managed to keep this creek well purified.
As I launched a counterattack, hardly even noticing the second camera flash, I felt a more natural smile appear on my face, a reflection of Anna’s.
“Come on, Pochi, help me out!” I stared as Anna enlisted Pochi’s help. “The more soaked she gets, the more see-through her clothes get!”
“H-h-hey!! Wait a min-“ I shielded my face with my arms as Pochi eagerly turned and whacked the water with his tail, sending a torrent of water onto me. “No fair!”
Anna giggled, that is, until I unleashed a large counterstrike. I may not have a tail, but I wasn’t about to lose out on a swimming bout.
That said, about half an hour later I’d sneezed for about the third time. She called off Pochi when I finally surrendered. As she helped me out, our wet bodies disturbingly close with our clothes positively soaked to the bone, she whispered into my ear, “You know what this means, don’t you?”
I looked at her warily. “What?”
As Reira offered us dry towels and a new set of clothes (probably at Mitsuki’s instruction), Anna answered, “I choose the penalty. Since you lost.”
“We never agreed on that!” Flustered, I pulled away a little so I could accept the towel. It felt cold despite the warm sun after all.
“Sure we did.” Anna grinned as she also started to dry off. “Back inside, remember? It’s my turn after all.”
“That’s not fair! I said take a walk around the grounds! We only made it to the creek!”
She blinked at me. “Izumi… you really didn’t notice?”
“N-notice what?” I hated it when someone else noticed something I didn’t.
Mitsuki informed me, “You ended up swimming along the creek all the way around the mansion, Nee-chan.”
I was at a loss for words. Finally, remembering my private oath to make it up to her, I took a deep breath and released it with a tentative smile. “What do you want me to do?”
“Strip in front of me.”
“W-what?!” I instinctively covered my chest with my arms.
Anna laughed at my reaction, taking the bundle of clothes from Reira and nudging me towards the bridge that went over the creek. “It’s not so bad. You have to strip anyway, right? To change clothes? I do too, so it’s not like you’ll be alone.”
I frowned, not quite understanding. “If you have to do it too, then what makes it a loser’s penalty?”
She hugged me from behind, and I blushed as I felt her more than ever. “Because either way, I come out the winner.”
As we stopped at the bridge, I frowned. “Out here? In the open?”
“What’s a lingerie model so afraid of? See, Pochi’s all the way over there with Reira and Mitsuki-chan.”
I felt the overwhelming sense of being tricked into lowering my guard. It happened anyway.
I sighed, plopping down cross-legged on the wood. “Oh all right… But grope me and you’re dead, got it?”
Anna chuckled. “For now…”
I looked at her, calmly drying out her hair, though her eyes were casually focused on me. She seemed to understand that I was still embarrassed, going into uncharted territory, but was willing to nudge our relationship along little by little.
Well, okay, this wasn’t exactly ‘little’… it was more like… service. I sighed, starting to unbutton my damp blouse. Why I hadn’t thought to change before leaving the mansion is beyond me… You would think all those years of doing the laundry would have taught me that nice clothes and outdoor walks never computed correctly.
I placed the towel over my shoulders like a cloak when I was down to my bra. I glanced over at her, nervous, and stopped cold in my tracks.
She was mirroring me. She was down to her bra, too, at least on the top half. She grinned innocently at me, one hand twisted back, ready to unfasten at my whim.
I blushed.
And looked around, making sure no one else was looking. When I looked back, I swear Anna had somehow scooted closer.
Licking my lips nervously, I quickly unfastened, only to tighten the towel around me. With the intensity that Anna seemed to be watching me, however, I’m sure she got in a good look anyway.
I was able to after all.
I dried off my top half as much as I could, sure that my face was beet red from being nude underneath a single towel. I grabbed the new bikini top Mitsuki had set out for me.
I blushed more when I realized that Anna was also putting on one of mine.
My heart had never beaten so quickly before. Not even in the days of Alicia teaching me my sadistic side.
Was it because we were outside?
Or because Anna was watching me.
Or was it because of that smile she had on as she slipped on a light tank top?
I shook my head, drying my hair and neck a little more before donning the blue-jeans half-jacket.
Now for the bottom half… I dried from the knees down, if only to stall for time.
Then… it wasn’t until Anna had grinned victoriously after I had shed the skirt and wet panties to put on the new ones that I realized what she had.
Well, I realized it when she mimicked me one last time.
Towel covering over the top didn’t really do much with your knees bent… and the voyeur sitting right in front of you.
I fell forward, exhausted, as I finally allowed myself to throw aside the towel. She caught me with her chest, her arms folded around me.
There was something overwhelmingly soft about her manner and actions as she bent down and kissed my forehead and whispered…
“Thank you.”
And for the first time, I truly acknowledged outloud, “No. Thank you.”
For loving me… and encouraging me… and never making me feel alone in a crowded world.
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