Chapter Eighty-Seven

Mine

(Part 1 of 3)

 

 

Why were he and Abihiko even friends?

Nekohiko knew that after the fifth year in Izumo began, their friendship had advanced onto another level... But what that level was, he had no idea.

Abihiko had given him this seashell like his Ward Father Okinaga had once given it to Abihiko's mom as an engagement gift. The symbol of their love and loyalty to one another.

Yet Abihiko's mom had not accepted it and the seashell had never left Okinaga's home. Until Abihiko.

Nekohiko had a hard time explaining even to himself what it meant that he had accepted this seashell from Abihiko. Were they engaged now? Were they... a couple? Were they just friends who were engaged?

How did this even work?

What did it mean?

Did Abihiko know? Would he tell Nekohiko?

But at the same time, Nekohiko had told him he only wanted friendship from him. And Abihiko had not questioned or rejected that answer.

So... did it imply they weren't a couple?

Did Abihiko find that agreeable? Him -- a boy who chased after every other boy in his vicinity and wanted nothing more than to get into their pants, would find this bizarre, unsatisfying relationship -- fine?

Without even saying so much as a single word about it?

At first, Nekohiko had tried to deter Abihiko from thinking of the two of them in a romantic sense. He'd been afraid that Abihiko's romantic appetites would be too demanding for him and that he would feel too forced to comply.

He didn't want to be forced.

However, nothing happened. Not even a conversation. Not even a stray glance or an odd silence in their interactions that would imply Abihiko wanted anything else from him than just being... friends.

It was so confusing, yet Nekohiko was afraid to ask, and Abihiko didn't seem interested in talking about it either. Nekohiko half-wondered if Abihiko was afraid to talk about it as well. So...

All right.

Sure.

Engaged friends they were, apparently. If only Nekohiko knew what being friends with Abihiko even meant. Because he had never defined for himself why he wanted to be friends with Abihiko so much. And why, being such a different person from him with almost nothing in common between them -- would Abihiko ever want to be friends with Nekohiko back?

So many questions. So much fear in asking them.

The Fifth year of School, here we go.

 

 

 

---

***

 

"Hello, Spirit Wayfarers!"

Nekohiko sized the farmer up and down and approached him, holding his hands behind his back as he had seen most professional Wayfarers do. His red robes rustled in the autumn breeze. His hems fluttered about as did his long hair. He carried almost nothing else with him, solely relying on his Binding prowess to provide him with personal care items and mending material for his clothes and boots. The weapons...?

Well, he did not need weapons. This country could not be his enemy. Especially now that he had both Hira and Nagare powers under his belt.

Abihiko beside him was, on the contrary, very much armed. He also didn't have a lot of gear with him, but not because he didn't need it. Unlike Nekohiko, Abihiko would have enjoyed it immensely if he had several high-quality brushes, mirrors, ribbons to tie in his hair, belt buckles, many pairs of leather or stone boots, incredible amounts of entertainment books and musical instruments and some other garbage he loved carrying around.

But he also knew that carrying a lot of items diminished his incredible looks. Bags and boxes would distract too much from his tall, slender silhouette, while cloaks and layered, sensible clothes would detract from the unbearable redness of his Fifth-year uniform.

And Abihiko could not allow that. Nothing could take even the smallest focus off his wonderful persona.

Everyone had to know that he was nearby, otherwise he might as well not exist at all!

So the only things he did carry around with him were weapons. A bow strung around his back, a quiver of arrows at his hip, dozens of knives and daggers lining his boots, sleeves, at the back of his belt... Darts and bolts and throwing stars, and of course, the crowning jewel of his arsenal -- the Maple Apple in its searing-red scabbard on his other hip.

Nekohiko always tried to outrun him when the farmers and simple townsfolk sought their attention for Spiritwayfaring missions. Because if someone like Abihiko -- covered head to toe in quality weapons as though preparing for war -- came over to receive their plea of help, they would likely be too spooked or too stunned to even talk to him.

Most non-Binders were afraid of Binders, especially of such young ones as Fifth-years in their noticeable red robes. The young Binders' tempers were volatile and their experience still too thin to not overdo or simply mess up whatever they actually wanted to do.

And when somebody stalled Abihiko, whether from fear or from other hidden motivations, Abihiko tended to lose his patience very fast. And thus, became even scarier and more unpredictable-looking to most simple folk out there.

No, Nekohiko had to be the one to talk. Or the two of them would never get any real experience in dealing with Spirit exorcism and purification.

So, however much he hated to be the "diplomatic one" in his and Abihiko's pack, he had to bear with it.

"The village leader told us this farm is the one who asked for a Wayfaring specialist?" Nekohiko asked after bowing to the farmer in greeting. He could see that the farmer wasn't very impressed with his show of politeness.

As usual Nekohiko's blank tone likely made the man feel Nekohiko was disinterested, which wasn't true. But he could do little to fix the way his voice sounded or the way his numb face looked.

Besides, as soon as Abihiko came in sight, most people would generally stop looking at Nekohiko anyway.

Exactly like now.

The farmer's eyes shot wide and his jowls shook when he nodded. "Yes, yes, Master Binder! This way, please! Be very careful -- the beasts are truly monstrous!"

Ooooh, interesting!

"Which kinds of beasts?" Nekohiko ducked, throwing cautious glances everywhere.

The farmer leaned over, his eyebrows so high up they nearly vanished into his hairline. "Rats, Master Binder! Giant, Demonic Rats!"

...

"Ah, godsdamnit," Abihiko spat from the back. Judging by his sigh and how his back hit the wall of the building, he reclined against the small house and was now staring at the sky leisurely instead of going anywhere after Nekohiko or the farmer.

And Nekohiko fully understood why.

Demonic Rats... seriously?

Their luck with the Spirit Wayfaring missions hadn't been good so far.

Of course they were lucky enough to survive and remain unscathed through the first few weeks of traveling and engaging with all sorts of Wayfaring missions. It was just that... there wasn't much to survive. And nothing much to walk away unscathed from.

In short, it was so dull and mundane, Nekohiko's soul felt withering simply from hearing another of these "Demonic rats in my cellar!", "a Demonic spider in my bedroom!", "the neighbor's child is positively Demonic because he annoys me too much!", and the most common one -- "my mother-in-law is definitely possessed, most definitely! Please give her a good fat scare so she stops harassing me, Master Binder!"

Only once or twice since Nekohiko and Abihiko began their Wayfaring, had they encountered actual Demonic Spirits that warranted skills of a formidable level. The rest of the time, they had finished their jobs with the simplest spells and thus hadn't learned anything new or exciting.

Abihiko was over these kinds of missions, so he preferred to relax somewhere else while Nekohiko wasted all his time on fixing things for the poor people in need.

Nekohiko couldn't ignore them, even though they were clearly abusing the Spirit Wayfarer profession to solve everything they perceived as unjust in their lives. But he guessed the Emperor's job wasn't that much different anyway, so...

The cellar was weedy and moist with overgrowing vines. Barrels and jars were too good a hiding place for the obnoxious little Demons who had possessed the Rat Spirits -- and Nekohiko spent much too long getting rid of them.

It was mind-numbing, so simple yet repetitive the job was.

When he reemerged out into the fresh air, it was already late afternoon and most of the day was lost.

On rats.

Nekohiko felt like wailing in futility. He strolled over to Abihiko who lay under one of the picturesque trees at the edge of the farm, napping. A stalk of grass between his lips, a few fallen leaves tangled in his hair. Such a serene image...

Nekohiko kicked him in the side as meanly as he could.

He was not overly petty toward his fate. But he was overly petty toward Abihiko, all right?

Besides, the kick wasn't that harsh. Abihiko's only reaction to it was to open one eye and glance up at Nekohiko playfully.

"How was the cellar? Had fun?"

"Aaaaaaaaargh," Nekohiko groaned instead of a reply. He sank to the ground next to Abihiko and reached for his clay jar of water. "I am dying of thirst and exhaustion." He uncorked the jar and overturned it into his mouth, spilling the majority over his parched lips and dirty face.

Water trickled down his throat and toward the seashell he wore on his neck. Subtly, but he noticed Abihiko tracing the direction the water rivulets took and couldn't help but grow awkward.

He and Abihiko had generally avoided talking about it, but Nekohiko always felt it. The tension of the unsaid between them.

He did not know how to release it, though. Because every time he had tried to veer the conversation to that, Abihiko would ignore him or divert the topic to something else.

And Nekohiko wasn't a pushy person.

He lay down next to Abihiko, putting his head on the other's shoulder. Because, however much they were uncomfortable talking about their relationship or all that crap, they never minded proximity or even tenderness between them.

Thus, the talks weren't needed. As long as Nekohiko could sleep next to Abihiko and hold his hand and cuddle into his side whenever he liked, nothing else mattered.

"Let's just sleep a bit, then we can do some night Wayfaring in the woods. There are bound to be some Demonic Spirits there, right?"

"Mnn."

The tactic usually worked. The wilderness Spirits were at their strongest at night, so the two of them never wasted a chance to train on those.

Lazed by the sun and warmth, Nekohiko almost drifted off to sleep. But then--

"Great Spirit Wayfarers! Our cat is stuck at the top of the tree! It must be some Demonic work!"

...

 

 

---

***

 

The funnest Spirit Wayfaring incidents happened not because of the Spirits but because of the humans.

In particular, the humans who attacked Nekohiko and Abihiko wanting to capture them. Or in short -- the Imperial assassins sent after Nekohiko by his Usurping uncle.

Nekohiko didn't mind. Of course all the bounty hunters and the assassins in the Empire would know he was in his fifteenth year, traveling the land and engaging in constant fighting with the Spirits -- so no longer protected by the spell barriers of Izumo.

That made him a very good aim for them to attack.

The caveat was that they almost always underestimated his power levels and -- most ridiculously -- the existence of Abihiko.

The assassins would try to poison their food, sneak into their room at night, and worst of all -- ambush them in the bathing springs.

After a while, Nekohiko decided to never stop at inns at all because there would always be hunters trying to disrupt his and Abihiko's stay there!

But at the same time, on the days when he and Abihiko had almost no fun other than chasing stray cats and defeating Demonic Spiders under someone's bed -- even going into an inn and facing assassins started sounding like a cute romp in comparison.

Exactly like today.

The roadside inn wasn't in the village proper and was off half a league away, on a big crossroads of the trading routes. The two of them only managed to reach it by the end of the day when the twilight already gave way to velvety night.

The autumn winds were getting chillier and the prospect of rain made the inn's light and warmth-filled rooms feel so much cozier in comparison. The two of them broke into the inn's main hall, rubbing their shoulders from the leftover cool that had seeped through their clothes -- and halted at the threshold.

The main room was alive with motion and noise and the glow of the amber lanterns. The scents of stewed and fried delicacies wafted through the air. But much more importantly -- the people in the inn!

Fellow Fifth-years on Wayfaring duty!

"Spirits, look what the drafts brought in!" Koki groaned to his buddies from over his seat by one of the tables brimming with bowls. "Just my luck, isn't it?"

"Abihiko! Kitten!" some Fifth-year girls cried, waving. "We have all just come here to hunt some Spirits in the local woods at night! And you are here for that, too?"

"It's just been two months since the year began, and we're already meeting up at random?" someone else whined from the back. "This Wayfaring business sucks. Nothing good to hunt and same old faces everywhere, making me sick!"

Same.

Nekohiko nodded at them all dismissively, making his way to the lobby on the side where he could rent a room for tonight.

"And now I remember why we don't usually stop at inns," Abihiko sighed at Nekohiko as he followed him into the lobby.

Nekohiko pondered that through while the innkeeper filled his ledger with notes and payment information.

"I thought it was because assassins attack us in places like this all the time?" Nekohiko said.

Abihiko gave him a shocked scowl. "That would be the biggest selling point if you ask me. No, I hate these kinds of cesspits for different reasons."

The innkeeper's horrified reaction to 'cesspit' didn't register with Abihiko. He was solely preoccupied with the bawdy laughter of the fellow adolescents and the calls to begin some dances or flirting games that came from the main hall.

"Aren't you usually the loudest person at such gatherings?" Nekohiko asked. "I thought you enjoyed them."

Otherwise you wouldn't have spent several months doing exactly those activities while we were 'broken up'. Would you?

"Huh? I hate them. It's too noisy and most people usually get drunk like pigs and there's too much shameless snogging going on. It's boring as hell."

Nekohiko failed to not roll his eyes in his own mind. "I would beg to differ. Though I haven't actually participated in any, so I don't know."

He took the room key from the innkeeper and hurried after Abihiko who was going up the stairs to the second story.

Abihiko turned around on the stairs, majestically blocking the way up and staring at Nekohiko down in the most defiant manner.

"Well, maybe you have to participate in one so that you'd know."

"In one what?"

"In one party."

"..."

The day and the overall Wayfaring was so frustrating that actually -- Nekohiko didn't care to reject any offers to learn something new.

Including ones where he could truly see Abihiko in his own element. Partying, snogging, drinking too much.

Maybe it would shed some light on what Abihiko thought their relationship was and what they wanted from each other? Because on his own, Nekohiko knew he would never solve this profound mystery.

"Why not?" Nekohiko said, to Abihiko's vast surprise. "We are young, after all. And a little bit of fun among my peers wouldn't hurt me."

"Um... I wouldn't be so optimistic about that."

"Abihiko, there are literal assassins going after you and me," Nekohiko said, pushing past Abihiko to go up the stairs. They struggled, flirtatiously elbowing each other all the way up. And thus, Nekohiko felt very light and inspired when he said, "I can't see how a small party among other teenagers like us can be that much worse than an assassin ambush."

In fact, he wasn't wrong.

The party was fine.

But his own behavior on it... that was a wholly different issue to talk about.

 

 

 

---

***

 

 

They dropped off their meager things in the room and went down into the main room to order their share of rice and pork broth with mushrooms and greens. Nekohiko ate, mainly observing what else went on around them while Abihiko didn't seem much into food at all.

He picked his ceramic spoon at the broth and kept throwing dour glances at the people around them, but ate only rarely and without gusto.

Probably the topics the fellow Fifth-years discussed, huh.

Almost no conversation was about actual Wayfaring. Only gossip about other students and someone they met in their journeys across the land. Though Nekohiko perked his ears up when he heard about some spooky ghost legends not so far away from here, but even that quickly dissolved into tittering about rumors and school drama about their peers.

The copious amounts of plum wine being served to the boisterous tables certainly didn't improve things.

Abihiko sipped from his own cup much more than he nibbled on his food, and Nekohiko found that very aggravating.

"Did you hear that Juro and Yata began dating? They go on Wayfaring missions together now and--"

"So boring! Actually, Takabe is going to marry the girl from the Third-years before winter. Dating, pfff. What is all this childish stuff about? Real lovers marry, stupid hen."

"You stupid hen! Or a stupid cock," the girl spat at the boy from the separate table who had dismissed her earlier. "I don't see any girls flocking to marry you. Or even date you."

"Yeah? You are clearly a magnet for male attention yourself!"

"Oooooh, did you know who else Wayfarer-s together and are even... you know... together?" Another girl tapped the table eagerly. Then her voice dropped to a whisper and a few others descended into stupid giggling. "You know..."

"Oooooohh..."

Nekohiko could feel their stares burrowing into his back even from several tables away.

He saw Abihiko's displeased eye-roll as well, especially after the girls' table exploded into shameless chuckling and the two tables with boys and a diverse one with both boy and girl Wayfarers grouped together leaned in with demands to spill the gossip.

Abihiko gulped another mouthful of wine and Nekohiko finally snapped.

He reached out for Abihiko's bowl and scooped a good bit of pork and broth into the ceramic spoon. "Come on," he said, poking the full spoon toward Abihiko's face.

Abihiko grimaced, being very bratty.

"Open up," Nekohiko warned him. "Or I will force it down your mouth myself. You can't drink so much and not eat anything! That's unhealthy."

"Uuuuuum," Abihiko mocked him, opening his mouth.

Not that Nekohiko cared for being mocked. He used the moment and thrust the spoon through Abihiko's lips and felt very satisfied with that. "Good boy," he told him, squaring a spoonful of meat into his own mouth in turn.

Grimly, Abihiko accepted the feeding and now chewed methodically, watching Nekohiko from across the table with such a... dark, amused expression.

It made Nekohiko feel very uncomfortable, for some reason.

So uncomfortable, he even decided to sip a bit of his own wine. Just to distract himself from feeling nervous.

If only everything could be dealt with just as easily.

"I just saw... they ordered the same room and all," someone's whisper broke out amidst the stifled speech.

Then Koki's resounding -- "NO WAAAY."

The girls smacked him on the side for screaming, but Koki wasn't willing to let it go.

"Oh come on, everyone knows he only sticks it to men and that his appetites are insatiable," Koki snorted, not even bothering to keep his volume down. "Or better to say, it's not he who sticks it but the other way around, ha-ha-ha... Only such a furniture girl as Kitten can make it seem believable he can actually do it with women..."

"Koki," some girls drawled, also more playful and coquettish than actually angry. "Eeew."

"What? It's not like a secret or anything."

...

Nekohiko slammed his spoon on the table and turned around, menacing.

"Shut up," he said. "Or I'll make you."

He had never been able to project an intimidating mood, and his way of speaking -- tonelessly and without much heart -- didn't help. The rude manner only highlighted that fact.

After a second of bewilderment, the entire gathering of the Fifth-years burst out laughing at him. Koki was a bit flustered by being put on the spot like that, but it only increased his desire to laugh it off.

"All right, Kitten, sure," he said.

What confounded Nekohiko even more was that Abihiko joined everyone else in their glee. He chortled along as he rose from their table and walked over to the others languidly. A few people closest to him seemed a bit wary at first, but Abihiko gave them the most good-natured smile in his repertoire.

"Feels like coming home, isn't it?" he told them, reclining against the wall cozily. He waved at Nekohiko to come over. "Sit, play with us. Didn't you want to see what peer gatherings are like?"

The table was strewn with cups and jars and bowls, but amidst them -- lay a set of flower cards¹花札, lit. "flower cards" -- a style of playing cards in Japan for gambling ^^. , creased with overuse, a box of crystal tokens, and some other small vials and ceramic objects Nekohiko didn't recognize.

Koki glowered at Abihiko with all the fury of the person whose spotlight was stolen but didn't dare to resist. Abihiko already leaned over and snatched the cards out of Koki's hands to throw them all into the common pile in the center.

"Yaaaay, new game," one of the other boys cried out. "Please tell me we aren't playing just with an honest word and finger flicks. I want real bets and real stakes, this time."

"Nooo, I want to play for fun, not for stakes," a girl whined. "I'm out. Just give me my incense pipe back, will you?"

Deftly, Abihiko started shuffling. He gave Koki a smirk. "Aspects or money? What do you want to stake?"

Cautious, Nekohiko sidled over and took a seat next to Abihiko. He didn't know much about pipes or flower cards or gambling or stakes. But he knew he could trust Abihiko if he wanted to get educated in any of these things.

And maybe, in some others Abihiko was known for being proficient with...

What he couldn't trust, was that Abihiko would be able to keep himself calm and quiet during it.

Hadn't Koki and other boys frequently complain that Abihiko went full-berserk on them in the town parlors? 

"I am not betting my aspects if you are playing," Koki snarled, pushing away from the table. "Everyone knows you cheat."

Abihiko was all charm. "You cheat only if you get caught. Conjecture and assumptions do not count. So I suppose -- money it is?"

With a collective groan and only a few excited hums, the gathering began turning their pockets out of golden rice coins. A few of the boys and girls who didn't want to play, lounged about, passing between them what looked like thin flutes made of ceramic or wood. A thin thread of incense smoke curled at its wide end, and everyone seemed just so mellow and giggly after sipping the smoke from the other end of it.

Nekohiko blinked when cards smacked the table in front of him.

"You said you wanted to experience fun among our peers?" Abihiko nudged him gently under the elbow. "So, cards?"

...

No, he didn't even know how to play. And he didn't like the idea of his money being given away just because he lost to some cheater in a stupid game. Suminoe had given him this money! He could not squander it just like that!

"No, thanks." Nekohiko nodded at the pipe being passed by. "That thing, maybe?"

Abihiko's eyes grew wide, then his grin. "Oh? Well, just so you know, your behavior after you smoke that might change and your impulses can be severely out of your control. Everyone reacts differently to smoking. Are you sure you want to try?"

"Slutty Kitten," Koki grumbled under his breath. "Or maybe funny Kitten? Or just stupid, giggly Kitten. My-my, can't wait to see that."

"Most people just become like wooden logs, completely spacing out," one of the girls said relaxedly, and the rest nodded in agreement. "So it's not a big gamble."

"Gamble, pfff!" Someone broke out in stifled chortles. "She said g a m b l e."

And though the joke was not funny at all, a lot of the people began laughing at it as though this was the funniest thing ever. Abihiko shrugged as though this was utterly natural and went on with the cards.

It was all very confusing to Nekohiko.

The game already began but Abihiko didn't seem very much into it even though he had started with a big bet already. He looked at his cards once, and now was mostly turned to Nekohiko, intrigued. Nekohiko leaned over to his ear.

"Even if I lose control over something, you will not let me do something stupid or dangerous, will you?"

Abihiko seemed like wanted the sip from the smoke pipe himself, but when Nekohiko said this -- Abihiko stopped before reaching for the pipe.

"Of course," he said. "I will never let anything bad happen to you."

Good.

Good, wonderful.

Nekohiko accepted the pipe when it passed on to him and shakenly lifted it to his lips. Only after a moment of hesitation, he pushed through.

Rushing, he sucked on the pipe's ceramic mouthpiece and breathed in the delirious, heady smoke that the burning dry grass gave out.

It was a... potent concoction. A potent and disgusting one, honestly.

He coughed and choked, passing the pipe on and trying to blink tears out of his eyes from the crap he had just inhaled.

But he didn't regret it one bit.

Losing just a bit of his emotional control... it was probably not that bad? It was precisely because Nekohiko was so rigid and uncomfortable with talking to Abihiko upfront about some things that he hadn't addressed any of the pent-up issues between them.

Last time they had broken up due to not being able to communicate.

Sometimes, they just had to do it. Pull down their guards and just talk, right?

The more he thought about it, the more it started to seem obvious and natural to think this way. Actually, he was now wondering why hadn't he and Abihiko talked about being engaged, for heaven's sake?

Engaged people should talk, no???

Then again, were they even engaged? It was kind of vague and undefined...

What did "engaged" even mean?

What was meaning, in the end?

Where did we all come from?

Why was he so ill and woozy all of a sudden?

"Neko?" Abihiko leaned to peer at his face from the side, a cute little smile curving his red -- beautifully red -- lips. Nekohiko stared at his lips, transfixed, afraid to blink and see the image disappear. "Neko, you look so damn sweet, being dazed like that. Are you spacing out? Are you?"

Through budding nausea and the buzz that coursed through Nekohiko's mind, the only thing he could focus on clearly was Abihiko's face. His eyes, so dark and warm and pretty.

His lips. So... RED.

Like apples.

In the background, somebody laughed and said something about "Kitten has officially flown off to the Spiritside, folks", but Nekohiko spared them no attention.

These people apparently made fun of him and Abihiko behind their backs? Or sometimes right to their faces? Was what Koki had said true about Abihiko's appetites for men being insatiable?

Nekohiko knew the truth. He had seen it countless times.

Abihiko liked men. He would always want to be intimate with them. Absolutely.

So why had he never made moves on Nekohiko? Because Nekohiko was special to him, that's why. Because maybe, for the very first time in his life, Abihiko was afraid of being rejected.

And Nekohiko hadn't even rejected him yet!

"Snatch your chance while you still can," someone yelled at Abihiko from the back. "She seems willing enough, ha-ha!"

Nekohiko wanted to throw some devastating spell at them.

Liars. Scum. Enemies. Everywhere.

How dare they. His and Abihiko's friendship was so pure. So... eternal. Nothing would ever taint it because underneath all disagreements and small lies, Nekohiko could only find this intense... warmth and tenderness for him.

Only Abihiko mattered.

Especially when he looked so adorable and sweet as he did now. The wine had given him blush and the day spent outside had tangled stray grass and twigs and leaves into his clothes and hair. He looked so natural and comfy.

So... Abihiko of him.

"Abihiko," Nekohiko whispered, reaching out to him.

"Shhh. I'll get you a mint tea, it'll disperse your daze a bit," Abihiko told him, then wanted to turn to the servers to make the order.

But Nekohiko didn't let him.

Do not turn. away. from me.

Get over here.

Before he even understood what he was doing, he grabbed Abihiko's face and his lips in particular. An odd decision but it made sense to him at the moment.

He was just too afraid that Abihiko would vanish out of his life again as he'd done before.

He could not allow that.

"Uh..." Eyes huge with shock, Abihiko dithered, unable to speak if Nekohiko was pulling on his lower lip like that. He ended up lisping. "All wight, that hurts a wit."

"MINE," Nekohiko told him, refusing to let go.

Then, just as easily as he grabbed him, he leaned in and exchanged his fingers for his mouth.

His lips landed wetly on top of Abihiko's mouth, not knowing what to do other than to smash them against him. He was inexperienced. He was very much lost, guided solely by the faint knowledge of what others did when they kissed like this.

He pushed himself onto Abihiko, subduing all of his resistance with his relentless assault. He felt both hungry and thirsty. And weird. And... electrified.

He wanted... something. He didn't know what.

These apple-red lips -- he might just eat them, so cute they were.

Maybe he should.

At least now, Abihiko would have to realize what kind of a friendship the two of them were having and stop pretending like nothing had changed between them.

Everything had changed.

"Aaaammmn!" Abihiko still struggled under him, looking positively horrified. The two of them toppled backward and onto the lap of the two people who sat next in line.

"Ahhhh! Perverts!"

"Get a room you two -- that's gross!"

"They already rented one."

"Then use it!"

But Nekohiko didn't give a damn about anyone anymore.

The more people knew about the two of them -- the better. As long as Abihiko was one of these people.