“Kirumi is going to be incredibly annoying about this”, Mizuki muttered as we left the store.

“On topic of sisters… Can I take a photo? I want to show Haru and Risa.”
“Are you selling out your boyfriend to the fujoshi sisters?!”
“It’s just so that they leave me alone! Besides, Mizuki doesn’t mind!”

I mean, he's actually very tolerant with them. Otherwise he wouldn't let Haru continue to draw the doujinshis, even though it's our story. He never really seemed to mind that my sisters were overjoyed that we were a couple, and Risa hadn't even approached him at school our anything.
Generally, he didn't look like he would mind me sending them photos.

Indeed, Mizuki just shrugged peacefully and brushed some hair behind his ear to showcase the earring.

… Dangerous; his fluffy hair and the accessories on his sensitive ear felt like a dangerous combination. He had let his hair grow a bit since I loved it and he didn’t care, so I felt he was even more beautiful now.

The numerous fujoshis at school agree with me.

It can’t be helped that this is my taste.

I snapped the photo and sent it into the group with my sisters, who somehow felt the arrival of juicy news and were instantly online. After that, I got a lot of squealy messages, immediately pointing out that the earring wasn't any better than if I had bought a normal ring.
Somewhere I read that men giving you something to wear is often intended as a sign of ownership. Halleluja that my boyfriend isn't mad about that...

“Your families are super supportive, huh?”
Into the middle of my weird thoughts, Yuji spoke up. Mama Yuji was smiling, somewhat relieved. He looked at the two of us with a tilted head. 

I laughed dryly. Somehow, I thought that things would have been more complicated under normal circumstances, but with me landing in the hospital with ‘visual impairment caused by stress’, my family had turned very accommodating. My father especially seemed like he still had some trouble accepting it but he’d never say so, considering he did everything to make me comfortable.
It wasn't weird to think that he would need time, but he had taken the dinner with Mizuki very well and I think that since then, things have eased up even more.

I had never told my friends about me visiting the hospital, by the way. I had gone one more time for a checkup, and everything was perfectly alright with me. My stresslevel had gone down considerably and none of the tests showed anything weird.

[This servant is not the product of an illness.]
Yes, yes, whatever. My common sense is just not agreeing with you existing, as happy as I am that I got together with Mizuki thanks to you.
[This servant thanks the host for the praise. This servant shall do its best to aid in stabilizing your relationship.]
[The target is very pleased about the earring, host. It is no problem to display possessiveness as long as it stays within the boundaries of merely showing and not acting on it.]
So I can, for example, complain as much as I want about him talking to someone else as long as I don’t force him to stop it?
[Yes.]

Ohh, good to know. I whine a lot.
I do want to lock him into my room so that he can't go anywhere, but the more important thing is that I actually don't do it, I guess.

“It’s a relief, yes”, I said instead. Mum had already told me she’d even support us moving together and everything, but I wasn’t sure whether that’d be a good idea. By the time we were finished with school, we’d be a couple for a few months already. Was that a long time? Or short?

I knew some people even married not too long after getting to know each other but what about us?
Would living together strengthen our relationship or weaken it?

I was in a light daze for a while. Mizuki accompanied me towards the train. I only looked at him blankly when we passed his station.

“Uhm?”

“Thought I’d come along.” He tilted his head. “A problem?”

I didn’t have a problem with it, I was just surprised. He hadn’t even asked me whether I’d have time or whether it’d be fine to come over. I shook my head.

Mizuki stretched, folding his hands in front of him. He pressed his lips together in a thoughtful manner.

“Sorry, I wanted to see how you’d react if I’d just come along without asking.”
“...So, why did you do that?”

He tilted his head downwards and refused to answer. My heart gave a nervous throb.

“Are you mad?”
“Not at all, since your reaction was what I hoped for… Just don’t ask why, okay?”

Confused, I tried to look past his hair to make sure he really wasn’t mad. Mizuki looked more embarrassed than angry so I decided not to prod him.

He suddenly reached out for my hand, wrapping his fingers around mine. His thoughtful gaze didn’t vanish.

I left him alone, giving him a squeeze and directing my eyes forwards. The train rattled on loudly. We were both left to our own thoughts as we continued to drive.

July was nearing quickly, and so were our final-finals. Nerves were starting to rise. Finals, entrance exams, students preparing to move out from home for work or further studies…

I tapped my finger against the table in front of me, staring outside.

I was at Mizuki’s place, as quite often recently. His parents were working all day and Kirumi was gone, on a short school trip. His other sister had been brought to their grandmother, since his parents wanted us to be able to use those days for studying in peace.

The afternoon had passed already and numerous books were lying everywhere. Mizuki was on his laptop, typing away with a frown. I turned my eyes to him and watched the movement of his shoulders as his fingers slid over the keyboard.

“Why are you frowning?”, I asked with a low, tired voice.

He chewed on his lip, then glanced over.
“How long have we been together?”

“Eh? Few months, want me to count exactly?”
“Nah…”

His frown deepened into a pout as he set his elbow onto the table. I poked it.
“Come, don’t frown, tell me.”

He stayed quiet for another two seconds, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Just thinking about probably the most cliche question I could, according to those BL mangas.”

“...Since when do you read BL mangas?”
“Looked at some when you were busy. Haru pushed them into my arms.”

Haru, what the fuck.

Anyway, what did he say?

“What is the most cliche question?”

His eyes moved over to me, the cold black colour reflecting the light.
“You’re a normal size, but is that gonna fit?”

It took me a moment where I wanted to retort that, huh, I was quite tall, didn’t he know that? 

Then my brain focused on the second half of the sentence so the first part made more sense again. Then I registered what he was asking.

“...”
“Don’t make such a face, you asked.”
“No… I’m just… What do I say first about this… The fact that you’re thinking about it, that you’re thinking about it during a study session, that you’re just telling me about it or whether I should answer the question…”
“Huh, answer it first.”
“The human body is surprisingly flexible so, yes, it should fit. And as far as I know, unless your partner is a huge bastard, they’ll make sure it won’t hurt too much, either.”
“Guess I’ll trust you, then.”

I rubbed my eyes, taking a second to let my brain get working again, because it had completely shut down at that question. “Since we have that sorted out… Can I ask you why exactly you’re thinking about sex during a study session?”

My embarrassment leaked into my voice. He threw a paperball at me.

“It has nothing to do with the study session, I’ve been stuck on it for some days.”

“...” Not making this better.

“Don’t try to act like you’re not having a harder and harder time holding back. I can tell where your hands wander on my body, you know? You said you’ll wait, since that’s what I asked for, so the least I can do is inform myself. It makes me nervous, but I don’t think waiting is going to calm me down, either.”

He shrugged, turning his hand so that it hid half his face as he leaned into it. My jaw dropped.

Owl

There is a point in relationships, no matter romantic or platonic, where people integrate into your family to the point that they can freely come and leave because them coming along is just so natural. You could say Mizuki was testing the waters!
Timeskip~
It's been a while since they started going out officially :3 I'll comment on that in later chapters. And I don't have to tell anyone here where this is going, do I? As I said, the percentage of mature chapters in arc3 is uuuuuuuh. high.