After gauging my reaction, he began a slow, steady movement. I experimented with shifting the position of my legs, and finally wrapped them around him, holding on tight. This seemed to reassure him, and he increased his pace, and even put some strength into it when I gasped and clenched my legs tighter.
I came very quickly, digging my fingers into his ribs and lifting myself toward him as I did, then loosening, and he responded by slowing, then speeding up again. His breath was harsh in his throat, and the continued motion made me feel I was suspended in a tingling sea. I tightened my legs again, keeping our bodies as close as possible until he flooded me with heat, and then stilled.
Shifting his weight off me, Rin lay on his back beside me, one of his hands finding mine and tangling together lightly. A companionable gesture.
"I like this music," I said. "It reminds me of the ocean."
He lifted his head to look down at me, wearing a sudden, pleased expression quite unlike either his gentle mask, or the more edged smile he had previously offered me. But then he lay back down again.
"Do you like the ocean, Cheshire?"
"I like water. I’ve lived on a couple of islands, and I often listen to ocean sounds to help me sleep. Is the music yours?"
"I suppose I was being very obvious. Yes, my latest piece, background for an underwater section. Are you musical, Cheshire?"
"I can read sheet music. Whenever I changed schools, I used to pretend I’d never learned anything and let the teacher suggest an instrument. Piccolo, saxophone, xylophone, guitar, and recorder. Piano four times, so I can play to a low level, and I can find the chords on the guitar. Occasionally I was shuffled into the choir. If I had infinite time, I’d probably continue with the piano. But there’s never enough time for everything I want to do."
He hummed softly, a solemn sound, then started kissing me again.
Eleven
"Mika, share a room with me on the school trip."
"Not going," I said, sliding my laptop into my backpack.
Lania hesitated, then ducked her head closer to mine, and whispered: "Is it a money thing or a too busy studying thing?"
"Studying," I said, laughing.
Lania pulled a face, then grabbed her bag. "Walk to assembly with me?"
"Sure," I said, wondering if she was unconvinced about the money.
We slipped out of the classroom, and joined the throng heading toward the day’s Special Assembly.
"Celeste says you’re really smart."
"Nice of her."
"I mean, really really smart. A hundred percent on all the class quizzes in calculus so far."
"Maths is fun for me. I’m planning to take a bunch of course credit exams so I can skip some units when I get to Helios U. Which will hopefully help me with the getting into Helios U part."
"You don’t have much problem with the other classes, either, though. It’s all easy for you. So why are you studying so madly?"
"Everyone applying for the course I want will also be really really smart. The Marden Institute, where I want to at least intern, does cutting-edge development, and only takes the absolute cream. Meanwhile, my academic record is skim milk."
"And so, a regular study routine makes sense and no doubt will pay off. But, Mika, you need to give your head a break every so often."
"I do. I give myself time to play games practically every day. Usually on the bus, because the endless stop-starting makes studying impossible."
"I bet you have it all scheduled on a calendar, too. But the school trip’s not just a break: it’s specifically about being with your school friends, making memories that last a lifetime. Look, I know that we’re all more or less still strangers to you, and none of the things that happen this year, none of these end of an era events, are going to feel quite the same way to you. But give it a chance Mika. Is it really going to make that big of a difference if you spend four days not studying? Look, all I’m saying is that you can still submit the form by five o’clock today, and I’d really love it if you were my roommate."
Lania touched my shoulder lightly, only to be jostled away by the crowd, leaving me alone to find a seat in the auditorium. The subject of the assembly was the senior class trip, and so only the oldest two grades had been required to attend. I was unfamiliar enough with the school to not even be sure if I was sitting with people in my year, and that was of course one of the reasons the class trip held no real meaning for me. If I went, I’d have to attach myself to the members of the Art Club to have anyone to talk to.
I closed my eyes, wishing the air conditioning was set higher on this muggy, unseasonably warm day. The senior advisor gave us a summary of the standards of behaviour expected of Corascur students when on outings, and the consequences of stepping over lines. Then came a short lull, followed by a familiar gentle voice, describing some of the group activities planned for the island resort that was the year’s destination. Our Student Council President, looking like a model who had drifted away from his photo shoot. How Rin managed to transform a standard school uniform into couturier fashion was beyond me.
Bran, standing behind him, was studying his feet. It was definitely an achievement for someone so generally unsociable to be voted vice-president. By contrast Kyou, a few steps away, was scanning the audience methodically. He only stopped when he reached the point where I was sitting, and then he turned his attention back to Rin.
Kyou’s expression had been entirely appropriate to the occasion, and he didn’t look at me again, but a certain aura of anticipation left me unsurprised when I found him later that day in the garden, contemplating the vivid sky.
"Worried it will rain?" I asked.
"Almost wishing it would. The summer house is very unpleasant today."
I went inside, and had to agree. Muggy air, baking sunlight, and no trace of wind. I put down my backpack and opened the window, but it made no difference.
"Let’s work with it," Kyou said, and took the picnic blanket around to the far side of the summer house, then returned and began rapidly shedding clothes, folding everything on the coffee table. I looked at him a moment, then followed suit: in this weather, nakedness was a better option, even if the idea of physical activity was less than compelling.
He closed the window, then went back outside, and after a moment’s confusion I followed him around, only to be met with a stream of water to the face.
Managing to stop myself from shrieking—the water was actually hot from the sun—I dashed forward and we wrestled for control of the trigger nozzle. Gouts of water, thankfully cooler than the first spray, drenched us and our surroundings, and then cut off abruptly as Kyou and I dropped the hose and grabbed for each other instead.
He was hard and I was ready, and we more or less crashed down onto the blanket he’d prepared, and wasted no time fitting our bodies together. This was a different Kyou to our previous encounters, abandoning gameplaying for a straightforward enthusiasm that I happily matched. He kept trying to kiss me deeply while pumping, but had some difficulties, and I found myself having to stifle giggles and gasps. And I very much hoped there was no-one wandering out-of-the-way paths when he came, because our panting in the aftermath seemed highly obvious.
"Good adaption to environmental conditions," I murmured, when I could, and he laughed, and rolled off me, then pulled me to him and kissed me hungrily.
We wrapped ourselves together and kissed until I felt we were cooking in the heat. Kyou briefly shifted to his favourite preoccupation of trying to swallow my breasts, then rolled me onto my stomach and found the fading hickeys he’d left on our previous encounter and renewed them, then began biting the small of my back, my hips, my buttocks, my shoulder blades, the back of my neck. He held me in place when I tried to roll over, and I could sense that his mood had shifted. He began rubbing against the small of my back while continuing to nip and bite at me lightly, until my whole back felt like it was burning.