Ren'Ai Rensa: Hatsukoi Part 15

"What does that even mean?" s.h.i.+zuka laughed. "Now you're just saying words."

While mother and daughter bickered, Junko said, "It got me thinking about what I would wish for. Maybe I will wish for my husband to get a raise at his job. I want to take a trip for Golden Week."

Junko's words distracted Noriko and s.h.i.+zuka long enough to get them thinking as well. "I want a dog." Noriko looked to her daughter for affirmation.

Instead, s.h.i.+zuka tilted her head back forth as if in deep, afflicted thought. "I think I want to get a new job this year. Mine now doesn't pay enough for all the trouble."

"Sou, sou!" Noriko patted her daughter's shoulder. "You're always complaining about those Americans, and that other no good one." She tossed her hand at Junko and lifted her nose into the air. "My poor s.h.i.+-chan's coworkers at the theater are just so unbecoming. Two rude foreigners and another girl who just smokes and drinks all day."

Aiko tightened in her seat. She's talking about Reina... She may have smoked a lot, and even drank on occasion, but she was nowhere near as offensive as Noriko, a woman who had never met her, made her out to be. Aiko looked to her cousin in hopes she would go on the defensive.

"They are really bothersome sometimes, yeah." Perhaps not. "So much arguing and fooling around. It's amazing we ever finish on time. I need a new job."

As Noriko tssked at her daughter's misfortune, Junko turned to Aiko. "What do you wish for this year?"

The rest of the table fell silent and waited for Aiko to answer. What do I want this year? Many things were solid candidates: good grades in her cla.s.ses; good health for herself, her family, and her new friends; going on a splendid vacation for Golden Week. But when Aiko really sat and thought about what she wanted at that moment, she could only imagine herself wrapped under the covers with Reina, engaged in all sorts of self-indulgent affairs.

"I guess I want to spend more time with people," was all she said. So much time that I learn everything about Reina I possibly can.

"That so?"

"Ara, Ai-chan is so sweet and thoughtful."

s.h.i.+zuka didn't buy it. "So, what you mean is you want to spend more time with your boyfriend."

A quiet draped across the table, all eyes on Aiko. She squirmed on her knees and sank to her b.u.t.tocks, the thump of her weight hitting the tatami mats like a boulder cras.h.i.+ng in a canyon thanks to s.h.i.+zuka, New Year's with the family just got more annoying. "I never suggested..."

"When are you going to tell us more about this boy, eh?" Junko entered disapproving mother mode, complete with a wagging finger and furrowing brows. She turned to her sister and continued, "She's been dating this boy for almost a month now, and has barely told me his name. What was it? Ren Itou?" Junko didn't wait for Aiko to confirm. "But that's it! No picture, no meeting, no nothing. You're almost as bad as your older sister."

Aiko bristled at the thought: her oldest sister had been the most obnoxious sibling growing up, getting into fights at school and sneaking out of the house to hang out with boys from a gang. Yet Aiko couldn't imagine her mother approving of a lesbian relations.h.i.+p more than she had her other daughter's, who talked about divorcing her husband every chance she got. At least her husband is a man.

"Eh, she's what? Twenty?" Noriko laughed. "Sometimes a girl just needs a secret a two. You know I kept my husband a secret from Mother and Father for a whole two months before ever mentioning him."

"Yes, and it's the kind of heart attack my mother had that I never want to experience."

Somehow, Junko thought this enough ranting to do about the subject, and stood up to clear away the tea items. Noriko followed her out, and they continued their sisterly rumblings about "secret boyfriends" and "my no-good divorcing daughter." Aiko also thought she heard the name Daisuke, but ignored it.

s.h.i.+zuka tapped her nail against the table, a wry smile the size of her whole face searing into Aiko. "So you have a mysterious boyfriend now? Hmm, I never pegged you as the type of girl to keep a relations.h.i.+p secret."

Aiko clamped her hands in her lap. How do I tell her I'm dating her female coworker?

"Is he cute?" The "let's girl talk" vibes emanating from her stung Aiko, who felt like she was at a sleepover as opposed to a family reunion. "Come on! You can tell me about him."

"Well..." Aiko's throat dried.

"I'm serious. Tell me! Is he cute?"

Aiko bit her lip. "Yes...the person I am dating is very...beautiful."

"Beautiful! So you like that kind of guy?"

Within the spirals and knots of the wooden table, Aiko saw the sprawl of Reina's hair as it lay tangled after lovemaking a sight she had seen twice, but admired nonetheless. And with that eyeliner, she's bolder than a beauty queen. She never imagined a woman could stimulate her to the point of s.e.xual excitement, let alone one that didn't embody everything male or androgynous. Reina's physical softness over her brasher interior was a perfect combination of the ultimate magnetism. Or so Aiko reasoned when she wasn't too busy fantasizing in the shower and in her bed these days.

"Yes. I like beauty." Aiko still couldn't look her cousin in the eye.

"Huh. Where did you meet him? School?"

Aiko couldn't answer that either.

"Uwaa, I hope he isn't much older than you."

"No. Only a year."

"Oh, well that's good. You hear all sorts of stories these days." s.h.i.+zuka seemed content with the given information for a whole ten seconds before blurting, "But why won't you tell anyone about this guy? What's so secretive about him?"

At first Aiko thought she wouldn't answer that as well, but then said, "They are not the type of person my mother would approve of me dating." You know, female.

"Ah."

Aiko hoped that know-it-all look on s.h.i.+zuka's face had to do with understanding, not an incoming lecture. "I've dated guys like that." Ugh. "Or at least, I thought I was. Turned out my mother liked them more once she actually knew them. Who knew? Well, I didn't let her know about the one I lost my virginity to, ha! She would have killed him!" s.h.i.+zuka stopped talking long enough to see Aiko's breath hang on her lips like death. "Wait, are you sleeping with this guy, and that's why you don't want your mother knowing him?"

Aiko's attempts to protest all came out in incomprehensible stutters, leading s.h.i.+zuka to laugh and slap her hand against the table. "Don't make fun of me."

"So what? Most people our age have s.e.x." But that still wasn't enough for a blabbermouth like s.h.i.+zuka. "Is he any good at it?"

"What?"

s.h.i.+zuka s.h.i.+elded her left hand and gestured her thumb between her first two fingers, a comical and sometimes vulgar expression for s.e.xual acts. The raising brows and toothy grin on her cousin's face did nothing to relieve Aiko of her embarra.s.sment.

"Kora!" she snapped, and covered her face with both her hands. "I don't want to talk about that."

"Aw, why not? Does he suck at it so much you don't want to be reminded of it?" s.h.i.+zuka shrugged. "Sometimes it can't be helped. My current boyfriend took three tries to find the place between my legs the first time we did it."

How the h.e.l.l was Aiko supposed to respond to that? Touting her "date's" s.e.xual prowess would get her nowhere fast, especially if s.h.i.+zuka started asking more and more personal questions about the physicality of it. And if she didn't say anything, then s.h.i.+zuka would a.s.sume Aiko was having the most boring s.e.x to ever come to Earth and bore. That would be an insult to somebody like Reina.

"Everything is satisfactory." Aiko turned away. "I have no complaints."

"Aha, but by that look on your face, it seems deeper than that! Could it be..."

Aiko flinched.

"Hatsukoi?"

"Ha...hatsukoi?"

"Of course! First love has come to Ai-chan!"

Before s.h.i.+zuka could keep prying like some obnoxious busybody, Aiko took her mother's earlier cue and went to the kitchen to help with dinner. But she remained aware for the rest of the evening of her cousin's looks and snickers, and she wondered when she would see Reina again, and whether or not s.h.i.+zuka figured out what went on between them.

Reina flung her cigarette into the ashtray next to Aiko; Aiko curled her arm around Reina's torso. Five minutes ago they f.u.c.ked each other into submission, but now the pants and shouts were set aside for the few moments of peace they had left in yet another sterile love hotel.

She's getting better. With this silent approval, Reina allowed Aiko to press her face against b.r.e.a.s.t.s and bones. Maybe she's a natural, or I'm just a fantastic tutor. Aiko still had a little reservation inside her, but the more they had s.e.x, the more she proved herself willing and able to loosen the reins around her inhibitions. Little good girl ain't so good after all.

Or maybe Aiko was addicted to s.e.x now, as evident in the way she pulled Reina's clothes off and rutted against her the moment the door had closed. This was their first date of the new year. While Reina had made-out with Michiko on New Year's Eve and received anonymous head in another off-beat party, Aiko admitted to pleasuring herself with her own hand, alone. The image of her writhing and whimpering in her bed every night it was every night, right? gave Reina more than enough material to work with. There ain't anything better than a good girl going bad. She congratulated herself.

"I'm sorry I couldn't wait," Aiko said, her lips still pressed against Reina's chest. "I just missed you so much."

Blinking was the only way to rid Reina's eyes of the sweet image of Aiko playing with herself. "You think I'm complaining? I haven't had a decent o.r.g.a.s.m in a few days, so I was pretty uptight, too." The anonymous head had not been fantastic.

Whether Aiko understood her ulterior meaning or not, she didn't reveal. "I hope you had a decent one today."

Two, actually. "I'm quite satisfied, for now."

Aiko giggled that giggle moved a piece of Reina's insides as if it were a puzzle. "I'm amazed you love s.e.x so much. I mean, I understand it a lot more now, but you always talk like you know where your next o.r.g.a.s.m is coming from."

"Yes. That's exactly how it works." She's still pretty nave. Better, but nave. Aiko may now know her way around some v.a.g.i.n.as, but she still knew nothing about the lifestyle that went with making love to them.

Reina wanted to spend their remaining fifteen minutes in silence, reflecting on the satiation in her mind and body, but Aiko mumbled something about her mother's prying and how she could no longer...something...

"Wake up!" Aiko poked Reina's nipple. "You can't fall asleep on me."

"Actually, you'd be the one falling asleep on me." Reina yawned. The last time she cuddled somebody this closely was when she held Michiko in a cold futon. She remembered something she wanted to ask Aiko since a conversation a couple days before. "What are you doing next weekend?"

"Next weekend?" Aiko sat up. "Probably homework. I start cla.s.ses again next week. Why? Do you want to go somewhere?"

Nowhere. Reina had something lazier in mind. "My mother is going on a trip next weekend. I'll have our house to myself, and I have no work on Sat.u.r.day. So..."

Aiko froze like a little rabbit about to spring at the slightest sound. "So..."

"Do you want to come over next weekend? You could stay the night on Sat.u.r.day." And I could finally f.u.c.k you all night.

Aiko melted onto the bed, her body splas.h.i.+ng against Reina's with another laugh. "I want to see your house!" As good as a yes. "But I wonder if you should meet my mother first."

An arrow straight in Reina's chest. "Eh? What?"

"It's just, if I tell her I'm going to go sleep at somebody's house, it's best to tell her it's another girl's, right? She won't suspect anything. But she would ask me who it was, and if it's somebody she doesn't know yet, maybe she'll say no."

"You're an adult, aren't you?"

"Not technically."

"Still, do you really need your mother's permission? Just tell her you're going to a girl's house, and who cares?" The one time Reina was grateful old mothers wouldn't automatically suspect lesbian shenanigans.

Aiko poked a benign mole on Reina's side. "What's so wrong with meeting my mother?"

Oh, so that's what she really cared about? Reina hid her internal grimace. What was with these girls always going on about meeting the parents? This wasn't Reina's first lap around the prospective girlfriend track no, they always did this. Always. Like some girly-girl script every female was offered before birth but Reina conveniently forgot to pick up in utero. f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k.

"What makes you think I should meet anyone in your family I don't know already?" Reina sat up. "You'll see it's best to keep someone like me away from family."

"Someone like you?"

You know, a lesbian s.l.u.t. How hard was it to understand? The modern mother, no matter how liberal she thought she was compared to her own mother, would still balk, faint, and vomit at the thought of her precious daughter rubbing her omanko against another girl's thigh. Bad enough nasty p.e.n.i.ses ran around out there or so Reina had heard once or twice before but the scandal of two omanko clunking together like dead weights. No sense pretending mothers existed who didn't care about who their daughters "loved." Well, at least I can't force any of these pure ladies into a shot-gun marriage. Small favors praised the world.

"Reina-chan?"

She heaved through her nostrils and batted Aiko's hand away. "Mothers make me uncomfortable."

From the look on Aiko's face, as if none of Reina's reservations on the subject mattered, she knew this conversation would continue to decline until either she got angry or Aiko got hurt. Probably in that order.

"My mother's really nice." Aiko's insistence was like an ice pick to the brain. Couldn't she just, oh, go to sleep or make herself busy with that running mouth of hers? That was a great way to placate rising annoyance.

"I'm sure she is." In Reina's experience, they weren't. Mothers hated everything that jeopardized their child's chances at a "perfectly normal, ordinary life." And when they saw Reina, they saw the monster descending to pluck their hapless child from its ba.s.sinet, wickedness in her aura. "That's what everyone says about their mothers." Except me.

Reina swung her legs over the bed and searched for her clothing. She trudged around the room, aware of Aiko's sinking heart just a few meters away. s.h.i.+t, she's going to cry. They always cried.

"That's okay." Aiko wrapped her arms around her knees. "You don't have to meet my mother."

Beneath the bed Reina found all her lingerie...how did they get down there? She heard Aiko's admission somewhere above her but continued to act nonplussed. "That's good, because I have no idea how you were going to introduce me anyway." Reina attempted to put her underwear on while still sitting. "Something like, 'Oh, h.e.l.lo, Mother, this is that woman I told you about f.u.c.king. Where's the tea?' Or am I off?"

Reina hopped on one leg to put her jeans on; Aiko mashed her lips with her teeth. Did I strike a nerve? Or just reality?

"No, I was going to introduce you as my friend." Aiko stood with a huff and rummaged for her clothing alongside Reina. "What kind of friend, I have no idea, because right now I don't know what kind of friend you are either."

An impa.s.se. Reina and Aiko stared each other down, each half naked, and each huffing their own sides of the issue. "I only have one kind of friend," Reina said, her hand tossing her T-s.h.i.+rt into the air. "You're only my friend if I f.u.c.k you." What good were friends for otherwise?

"What a big shock." Aiko snapped her bra shut so each clasp echoed in the tiny room.

"Look, I'm not, you know, girlfriend material." Who would want Reina, who couldn't keep her fingers and tongue out of other women? The mere thought of f.u.c.king one girl for the rest of her life sounded worse than marriage on the surface. And somebody like Aiko, nonetheless! Sure, it was fun to witness another woman's s.e.xual awakening, but Reina also needed s.e.x from women who knew exactly what they wanted at every moment during the act. Although she had dated some s.e.xually open women before, none of them were big on the idea of her s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around with other women on the side. All these girls want to be princesses, and think I'm supposed to be some sort of prince. Prince of p.u.s.s.y, perhaps.

Aiko finished putting on her clothing, including her knee-high boots that made her sit down to wear comfortably. "And I'm not so dense to think that you would be my girlfriend at this point. But at least do me the honor of treating me as more than some girl you just have s.e.x with." For the millionth time Aiko's cheeks flushed red. "I'm a person, you know. I don't mind if we spend most of our time having s.e.x, but at least treat me like a human being."

Reina shuddered. "What does 'treating you like a human being' have to do with meeting your mother?" She felt like something got mangled in translation somewhere in Aiko's post-coital brain.

"Well, it would be a start."

"A start in what?"

Aiko shot her a cold look. "Respecting me."

Huh? Now this was some different s.h.i.+t. Reina had heard "respect me as a person!" before, and she had heard "let's meet my parents!", but never together like this. Aiko was a constant source of new experiences, and Reina wasn't sure she wanted it.

"So," she said, her arms crossed in front of her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s, "to keep this going, all I have to do is meet your mother?"

"Yes."

A raging sigh threatened to rack Reina's body, but she refused to back down. From what? This little thing? "Fine. Take me to your mother."

Finally, Aiko's shoulders relaxed. Another bullet dodged. "Really? You'll meet my mother?"