After our meal was finished, we helped clean up and met in the living room. Simpson met us there as well and walked to a door.

“Down here is our storage room. How about we pick out some sleepwear for all of you?”

Simpson suggested as she guided us to the basement.

That’s when my excitement rose beyond measure. It was finally time for me to see what brand of clothing line the Conway’s own. Our guide led the way down the steps. When we entered the room, we were met with a wide space full of boxes and other things like bikes, cabinets, and such. That’s when I saw a box full of children’s toys lying along the wall.

“Are those toys?”

I questioned. Sophia-san crossed her arms and nodded.

“Yes, we’ve had this place since I was a kid. Those are the old toys that I used to play with when we came down here for a short stay.”

So, this home was more of a family retreat? If that was the case, then the Conway’s don't flaunt their money too often. I guess if they ever wanted to stay in Japan for a few weeks of relaxation, they could have this place as a temporary stay while they travel to the big luxurious places.

“Kids, come over here.”

Sophia-san demanded as she waved them over. Hana-chan grumbled, I’m surprised she still let that get to her by this point as they both walked over.

“What’s your favorite color, you two?”

 

 

Sophia-san questioned, looking at the two.

“I like purple.”

Hana-chan admitted. Of course, I already knew what her favorite color was by this point. Feeling a tad proud of myself, I lifted my shoulders. That’s when Sophia dived back into the box and revealed a beautiful one-piece nightgown. The color was a light purple, easy on the eyes, and nothing but pure radiant clothing. I instantly knew what brand it was.

“Oh my gosh, you guys own Shiva?!”

I cried out, leaping up and down. How I wanted to see my little sister in it right now. Maybe take her into a room and flash as many pictures as I could with her in it.

“Yes, mom owns a part of Shiva. It would be insane if she owned the entire dang company!”

Mae-chan warily approached me from the side.

“Calm down, Mado-chan!”

Mae held my shoulder. But instead of stopping there, she held my side, forcing me into a shaking pillar of excitement.

 

“Hehe, you seriously love clothing, Mado-chan!”

“Don’t you guys find that cute?! Shiva seriously knows their stuff!”

Sora-san jumped and clapped her hands in excitement.

“Oh, do you have a light green one! I like light green, Conway-san!”

Mirroring the wild child’s green eyes, Sophia-san brought out a nice light green version of the same thing. She wasn’t lying, it seemed like she had one fit for everyone. So, in that fashion we all got new clothing to wear for the night.

Yuko-chan wanted to go with a pure white one, and I wasn’t going to complain. Mae-chan liked the sky-blue one-piece, and it matched her hair, so I forced her to go with it. Luckily for me, they had a pink color that swooned my heart. I think I was wearing everyone else out by how excited I was.

“Alright, girls. Settle down for a bit then you can start taking your baths. Don’t want to get in too soon after dinner.”

Simpson concluded as we made our way back up the steps.

“I’m going to take mine first. I’ll make sure to check up on you all at the top of each hour. Would that be okay, Sophia?”

“That’s fine with me, Eleanor. You’ve done quite enough for all of us, today.”

Her words were strange. I didn’t know if she really was going to check up on us at the top of each hour. We all bowed to her now in appreciation.

“Thank you, Simpson-san!”

A few of us cried out, earning a giggle from the adult in the room.

“Now you girls have fun. I’ll try not to ruin your games tonight.”

With that, we all made our way up the steps and back into Sophia’s room. This was a problem…that would mean I wouldn’t have a chance to give Sophia-san the phone to excuse herself…without Simpson-san likely interfering. I wondered…what was I going to do?

“Ah, so the bathing question persists!”

Sora-san cackled as she rolled on the floor. That child had so much energy I bet she didn’t know what to do with it like a cat riled up on catnip.

“Ah, Mihara-san! You wanna bathe with me?!”

The redhead asked out of nowhere…likely to tease her if anything.

“Eeeeeh?!”

The mouse couldn’t get out another word. All she did was shake in one spot. Noticing her uncomfortable mood, Sophia-san put her hand on her hips and scolded.

“We’re not doing that, Hino-san! Everyone is going in alone.”

“Are you serious?! You know how late we’d be up if each person had to go in one by one!”

Sora-san complained, crossing her arms. Despite her being unruly, she made a fair point.

“Hana-chan, don’t you want to bathe with your best friend?!”

My little sister gasped as she leaned back. Her eyes went wide, and I could clearly see a blush running over her face.

“Ah…”

The conflict in her was immense. But instead of letting it go, Sora-san jumped up, raced over to her friend, and held her shoulder.

“Think about it this way, Hana-chan, if we bathed together, we’d get done faster and have more time to play Fire Crest longer tonight!”

“Ohhhh!”

That must have been the game they were playing earlier. It seemed that was what caught Hana-chan’s attention the most. She turned to Sophia-san now with a newfound determination.

“Ah…d-do you mind if we take a bath together, Conway-san?”

 

Sophia crossed her arms and sighed harshly.

“You girls are ridiculous. Fine, do what you want, I don’t care!”

From the side, Mae-chan hopped up.

“Ohh, I have a game for us all then. Well, the four of us!”

“This outta be good.”

I scorned as I sat on the edge of Sophia’s bed awaiting an idea I planned to reject.

“What is it, Mae-san?”

Yuko-chan took charge and approached slowly.

“I think the middle schoolers have it right. It’s way faster to go in pairs. And not only that, but the sisters also got super close because of it!

“Listen Mae-chan, nothing happened between Hana-chan and I! It was a normal bath, that’s it.”

“Yeah, Onee-chan didn’t do anything strange to me!”

That felt like it didn’t need to be added, but Hana-chan defended me. Mae-chan just snickered.

“Well as it stands, Sora-san is right. If we did go one by one, we’d be going way into the night, and I’m sure some of us want to study more while others want to do other things like play games and read manga.”

“You want to read manga, Ma-chan!”

“I do! I do!”

She admitted. So, with a groan, I caved. It’s not that it was a big deal for me. I would just…rather not because my mind has been more focused on the physical side of things rather than emotional. Needless to say…I was finding parts of my friends more attractive ever since I noticed my sexuality. But it’s not like I had any intention of acting on these sudden desires.

Conchi-san grumbled.

“Listen, I don’t care in the end. But If I’m stuck with someone like Mihara-san, don’t you think that would traumatize the poor girl?”

She trembled, looking right at me. Now that I thought more about it, Yuko-chan has been looking at me since Sora-san brought this up…

“Are you okay, Yuko-chan?”

 

“MY HEART IS NOT READY YET!”

 

 

She screamed, echoing the crashes of rain from outside. If I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed the storm outside made its way into Sophia-san's room and that we all had to duck for cover.

Mae-chan rushed over to comfort the sobbing Yuko-chan.

“T-That’s okay, Mihara-san! Y-You don’t have to bathe with anyone! Y-You can bathe alone!”

That’s when the crashes of the outside storm caused her to leap up and jump into Mae-chan’s arm.

“B-But it’s what if the lightning comes into the window and shocks me to death?!”

Could it be that Yuko-chan was actually…afraid of lightning? That would make sense. I did come to the bathroom with her earlier…And she came out so quickly and ran next to me like a puppy with her tail between her legs. It was obvious, she was afraid.

“If you're afraid, Yuko-chan, why don’t we bathe together so I can protect you?”

I suggested as I put my hands behind my back.

“MY HEART IS NOT READY YET!”

She cried again like a robot. Her voice was so loud, everyone covered their ears in astonishment.

Needless to say… I think Yuko-chan was more worried about me seeing her everything like that. So, to respect it, I decided with my hand behind my back.

“Mae-chan, could you protect Yuko-chan for me then?”

“Ohhhh?”

She raised up and tilted her head at me. I whispered in her ear.

“Yuko-chan doesn’t want to be alone in the bath. But it’s apparent she doesn’t want to be with me either. Why don’t you go with her, Mae-chan?”

“Does this have to do with that picture of yours, Mihara-san?”

Ma-chan questioned.

“N-No it doesn’t have to do with that, Watanabe-san!”

She literally had tears in her eyes now. I wondered what that picture was and why Ma-chan loved bringing it up to tease her so badly. But instead of going on she pouted and bobbed her head.

“I…I’ll bathe with Watanabe-san. S-Sorry, Madoka-senpai.”

“You don’t have to apologize! It’s not like we're at a proper age to be doing something like this anyway, Yuko-chan.”

That’s when Mae-chan turned to Sophia-san who was lying on her bed, book in hand.

“What?”

The Yakuza-like boss lady stared daggers at my childhood friend.

“So, are you and Mado-chan going in together?”

She glared at me before turning back to Mae-chan.

“I rather not…I want my night to be normal, unlike you crazy girls. And I quite like my solitude.”

“Solitude.”

Like a stroke of lightning, it came to me. I could hand Sophia-san the phone before she entered the bath tonight. But there was one problem…what if Simpson-san listened and heard her talking with someone? That might walk in and ruin the plan. I’ll be exposed…

“Hey, Sophia-san…”

“What?”

 

As I did with Yuko-chan, I closed my eyes and did my best to express what I needed to. My honesty poured into my words as I molded them like fresh honey…

“I…wouldn’t mind bathing with you if you’re okay with it?”

 

 

“Hm?”

With a tilt of my head, I confessed.

“Would you please take a bath with me?”

 

Wordlessly she stared at me. Briefly, the English woman hid deeper into her book as her face went a bright red. Her crimson eyes peeked out from the top of the pages.

“W-Where the hell is this coming from, Madoka-san?”

I haven’t told Sophia-san the true reason yet, and there was a purpose to that. The last thing I wanted is for her guardian to notice something was off with her Sophia-san. So, I hid the idea until it would be the best time for me to tell her.

My plan was simple: she and I will wash up and then while we’re in the bath she can talk with Taylor-sensei. Maybe that way if Simpson-san decided to try and listen in on us, we can make it sound as though it’s just us talking with each other. It would be hard…but it might work.

“Well…I want to get to know you a little better? I…really want to get to know you a little better.”

However, that came out as forced, now the shark was on the defensive. She clenched her fist…I was actually afraid she was going to punch my lights out suddenly.

“…Whatever. We will go in after everyone else. I want to finish this chapter.”

Sophia-san muttered as she lied on her side. As she wished, first my little sister and her best friend went in. They took around 30 minutes to get done leading us into the night around 7:30PM. Next was Mae-chan and Yuko-chan. The storm wasn’t giving up anytime soon, so they went in together as I requested. Now around 8:00PM our turn was here.

“See everyone soon.”

We waved. Once we stepped out that special someone was right at the door.

“Oh, look who it is? Are you both bathing together?”

Simpson asked the question that she already knew the answer to.

“Yes, Eleanor. We decided it would be faster that way since it’s so late already. The last thing we want is to be bathing until 11PM at night.”

The pink-haired nodded.

“That’s reasonable. I told you that you both were like best friends.”

To my surprise, she walked up to me and nudged my shoulder.

“Have fun! Have fun!”

I didn’t know what that was about. But instead of thinking too far into it, I held my towel next to me along with my change of clothing. However, in my towel was my phone neatly snuggled away. We made our way into the bath downstairs. Just as I expected, it was far roomier than mine. As I concluded earlier, this place was made for the sake of luxury.

“So, what’s the real reason why you wanted me in here?”

As I shut the door, Sophia-san doubted. She put a fist up to my nose as she tilted her head to the side. If she had bubblegum in her mouth this would have been a cliché delinquent moment.

“Well, you’ll see…”

I began as I rested my towel to the side. My phone was next to it.

“I was talking with Taylor-sensei today, and I had an idea…a way for you to talk to one another, at least for tonight.”

That’s when I brought out my phone.

“We can wash up, then once we get in the bath, I can message Taylor-sensei, so you both can chat for a bit.”

She put her fist down and turned to the side. Her cheeks turned red as her arms crossed and her gaze lowered.

“So, you’re sticking your neck out for Linda, Madoka-san?”

“Hm?”

“I know I asked you to stick by her…but what if the faculty realizes there’s something up. They won’t hesitate to isolate you and her, you know that, right?”

 

Sophia-san's tone trembled a bit. I was surprised and wasn’t expecting this. Without a doubt, Sophia-san was worried…for me.

“Sophia…I haven’t had the chance to tell you much about what happened over my trip…”

I stated as I let my phone to the side.

“I haven’t told you about my chat with…Mari-san, my stepmother yet.”