A week has passed since I’ve come here, and honestly, I don’t think I could be much happier to be exhausted to the bone. Izumi has been… has been…
Well, let’s just say she’s been very good to me.
I almost feel guilty for indulging.
Almost.
Somewhere in between playing Twister with her and the other girls, having watermelon on the porch, going to a public beach only to protect each other from the flocks of random single guys...
She'd stolen my heart again and again.
It must be that smile.
“Anna-chan…”
I fought back a giggle as she twirled a thin lock of my hair, tickling my cheek with it every so often. “Mm?”
I looked into her eyes, and lost myself in her soft expression, her eyes telling she felt very relaxed… and had no real intention of getting up.
“It’s my turn… right?”
I nodded, though I neither remembered nor cared anymore. It was like I told her that day… a day that seemed so recent, as if it were just yesterday.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Right now?”
“Mmhmm.”
“I was just thinking of how cute you look when you’re starting to get sleepy.”
“It’s not my fault I stayed up so long…”
“It wasn’t mine either, at least not tonight.” I smiled as I leaned forward and kissed her cheek.
She wrinkled her nose a little and smiled, her eyes drifting closed. I still reveled in how little she minded the things that I did now. But then, denial only gets stronger with the strength of emotion that it protects… so once one stops denying…
“Izumi?”
“I want to thank you again.”
“For what?”
“For letting me stay here, with you, instead of at the mansion after Yoshitaka and them got back.”
“They weren’t that bad…” I bit my lip slightly as I smiled, lightly engaging her idle hand into play mode. “I’m still surprised Mitsuki didn’t join their drinking party.”
“I’m still appalled that they got those minors all drunk silly.”
“Aren’t you glad your sister didn’t get drunk?”
Izumi smiled a little as she finally lashed out and grabbed my hand in hers, constricting it before adjusting so she could rub her thumb over the back of my hand. “Karen just had to come visiting then…”
“Now that I think on it…” I frowned, though I was too tired to object more seriously. “Should we have left as early as we did? What if…?”
“Mitsuki likes her fun, but she and Pochi combined can keep a leash on Yoshitaka.”
“Then why didn’t you join them sleeping there?”
“I wanted… to sleep without their loud drunken snores. Just with you…”
“Are you going to tie me up again?” I couldn’t help but tease, even though this wasn’t the first night we had slept in the same bed. Without fear of what the other would do in our sleep.
“Only if you want me to… but…” She scooted closer, letting go of my hand to draw my body closer to hers in a loose embrace. “You make a good… pillow this way.”
Giggling softly, I snuggled closer to her on my own account. “So do you.”
We let the silence blanket us for several minutes. Not out of awkwardness, but of comfortable companionship.
I had closed my eyes, expecting that she just wanted to sleep now.
And then I felt her lips on mine.
Soft, just a brush, as if she had lunged but hadn’t quite made it to the other side. My lips felt lonely without hers. So I chased them before they could retreat completely.
She whined softly, not in an unhappy way, but a it-didn’t-work-out-the-way-I-wanted way.
I opened my eyes and in the dim light of the closed-blind window, I saw her pout.
Ten years can change a person so much.
Or maybe it was just the situation at hand.
I leaned a little closer, and then closed my eyes again.
My guard was almost completely down again when her lips made full contact with mine.
She even wiggled her tongue a little.
She’s so cute.
Obliging her, I opened my mouth a little, accepting her and giving a little back.
She started that soft little whimper again. What now? I stopped trying to give back, and she was happy again.
She’s so strange.
But still so cute.
When she stopped, she merely bent her head down so she could nuzzle my neck. Which did feel good. Even though it tickled horribly. It stopped when she had settled down to sleep again.
Silence reigned once more.
“Good night.” She whispered in a soft, all too sleepy voice.
I kiss the top of her head, which was closest. “Sweet dreams.”
She yawned one of those puppy yawns… mouth opens wide… but only a small yip comes out.
Can I take her home with me?
Oh wait, I already did.
Even though this hotel isn’t really my home…
I glanced at the clock.
1:30.
I should have let her go to sleep sooner.
Oh well. She didn’t seem to mind too much.
I smiled, closing my eyes.
‘Pleasant dreams… really.’
-------Dream: A variation on sheep jumping over fences-----
The meadow was pure white, the trees decorated with a sheen of snow. I was in a large bed, an impossibly large bed, like the Seven Dwarves' beds put end to end for Snow white large.
It was very warm in that bed. The pillows were soft too. But where was Izumi?
There!
On the other side of the icy creek, the chibified Izumi crouched there, looking absolutely miserable despite her perfectly cute white bunny pajamas.
I called to her gently, telling her to jump over. She seemed nervous, as if she had had bad memories of the water, but she backed away and bounded on over, right into my arms. She was shivering in her cold, so I pressed her little body to my chest and pulled the blanket up.
“Ahnna!”
“Ahnah!”
I looked up, and on the other side of the creek, many many more Izumi-usa-chans stared appearing, wanting to share my warmth. They kept coming and coming, like 101 Dalmations.
I opened my arms wide and beckoned them over. I decided to count them as they passed.
There was already one…
Two…
Three...
Four…
The fifth one slipped off into the creek, but number three, four, and six helped five up safely.
Six…
Seven…
…
…
…
Two hundred eighty six…
Two hundred eighty seven…
There were still more… it was never ending… and that was when I knew that this was as it should be.
I would never tire of snuggling up with my Izumi-bunny.
-End Dream-
“Three hundred forty-“
I felt those lips on mine again. She was getting good at this surprise attack thing. Did she want me to scream? She would have to do much more than just kiss me to hear me scream…
But that was surely for another day.
“Good morning.” I smiled at her.
“It’s afternoon.”
As I sat up, looking around, I sighed. So it was.
She squeezed me tight, as if she never wanted to let go.
And then she let go.
But I still loved her.
“Anna-chan…”
“What do you want for lunch? Your turn, remember?”
“Was it?” I had such a nice dream, I feel like I already had a turn… “Room service?”
She pouted cutely again.
It was too early in the morning to refuse it.
But I didn’t know what I was refusing, so I had to ask first. “What did you have in mind?”
“I wanted to cook you breakfast… I’ve gotten better you know.”
“Lunch, Izumi, lunch.”
“Right, that’s what I meant.”
“But this is a hotel; not an apartment. We’d have to go all the way to the mansion to have a kitchen to use, and by the time we get there…”
She pouted cutely at me. Again.
She really was getting to develop an evil side.
And I don’t mean the ‘Call me Queen’ syndrome.
“Oh, I suppose we could work up an appetite walking and maybe get there in time to make dinner. Together.”
“Together?”
I nodded. “I’ve gotten better too. A little.”
She perked up happily. I could almost see a tail wagging behind her.
I wondered if bunnies could wag their tails. Their ears maybe.
I imagined my little Izumi-bunny wiggling her ears at me.
I almost had a heart attack from cuteness overload. I climbed out of bed. “You want to take a shower first?”
She clamped onto my arm. “Together!”
Now this was getting to be a little much, even from my little bunny.
I pulled her cheeks, wondering if she had somehow gotten drunk.
“Owwie, owwie, thah huhhhtsss!”
Or gotten hit by a thick branch when I wasn’t watching.
“Izumi? Are you feeling okay?” I let go of her cheeks so she could answer.
“Annah meanie… I’m just fine!”
I didn’t feel ready to believe it. She sounded like she had gotten an intake of helium.
“Gimmie water first.”
I walked over to the mini-refrigerator and brought her a bottle of water from it.
She drank half of it in one go.
But when she spoke, her voice was back. Especially after a bit of coughing and throat clearing. “Happy now?”
“Were you serious about showering together?”
“Well after the creek incident…”
I smiled upon remembering ‘the creek incident’. A very good day that was…
She slapped my arm, and I realized she still blushed over that day.
Which made me wonder about the showering…
“I’m just used to it, okay? After all those years of using Yoshitaka’s bathhouse…”
I smiled. This I might believe, especially with her blushingly guilty look. “Okay.”
“Can I um, get a change of clothes too?” I watched in amusement as she wriggled around with her hands behind her back. “I… kind of left without thinking…”
“Pick whatever you like. Though I’m here on vacation, so I don’t have that much either.”
Minutes later, when we stepped into the freakishly small shower together, I felt like we had gone one step into the past and three steps into the future.
It had to be the future, because God knows we didn’t spend our baths like this when we were in middle school.
Cue image of Pochi’s Godfather and Hamster mistress watching television.
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