Chapter 114 — Confusion and Jealousy

Akeno

The bath went utterly silent.

Rias and Asia-chan stared at Yuki-chan with mouths opened in shock.

Yuuto-chan looked as though she wanted to vanish into the steam. 

Even Koneko-chan was paying attention now.

She had stopped staring off absentmindedly and now was staring intently at Yuki-chan.

For one lovely heartbeat, no one moved.

Steam curled over the surface of the water.

The air beyond the bath remained cool and still.

We all looked at Yuki-chan, who was looking more and more confused by the silence and shocked stares. 

She sat there with her silver fox ears visible, tails half-curled in the water behind her, wearing the same calm expression she normally wore, only now tinged by slight confusion.

She had suggested it completely sincerely.

As if she had merely pointed out that someone worried about sword practice should find a sparring partner.

This was too good.

“So, Yuki-chan, are you offering to help Rias practice then?” I asked. “Or did you expect one of us to volunteer?”

Her eyes narrowed at me with immediate suspicion. 

“I suggested it,” she said. “So if Rias wanted to, and if no one else was comfortable, I would not mind.”

I knew that Yuki-chan would occasionally struggle with common sense like Asia-chan and Xenovia, but this was something else.

Asia-chan made a tiny strangled sound. 

Rias’s face went bright red.

Yuuto-chan lowered her gaze in a way that was clearly meant to recover composure and only succeeded in proving how badly her composure had been damaged. 

Xenovia looked interested.

She might think this is permission to bother Yuki-chan about practicing making children again. 

Koneko-chan’s head snapped towards me with a glare.

It was the most emotion I had seen out of her since we arrived in the underworld.

And it seems that Venelana-san may have been right about Koneko-chan’s interest in Yuki-chan.

That would make this even better.

Koneko-chan shifted her glare away from me and was now watching Yuki-chan and Rias.

It was still hard to read any expression from her, but the slight downward tilt of the edge of her mouth made me think she might be jealous.

And as for me, I was delighted by this.

“Ara, that's quite the offer.” I said softly.

Yuki-chan looked at me.

Still calm.

Still entirely sincere.

Rias found her voice first.

“Y-Yuki!”

“Yes?”

That made Rias flush harder.

Not because Yuki-chan had sounded smug or provocative.

Quite the opposite.

She had answered like someone responding to a simple question in class.

That, perhaps, was what made it so enjoyable to witness.

“What are you saying!?” Rias demanded.

“Exactly what I said.”

“That is the problem!”

Yuki-chan blinked once.

The small crease between her brows deepened.

She was beginning to understand that she had misunderstood something, but not what.

Asia-chan tried next.

“Yuki, that’s… that’s…”

She floundered.

Poor Asia-chan. There were limits to even her ability to rescue a conversation. 

Yuuto-chan attempted it instead. 

“I think,” she said with admirable effort, “what Buchou and Asia mean is that isn’t usually the kind of thing one offers so casually.”

Yuki-chan turned her head slightly toward her. “Why not?”

It was genuine confusion.

I smiled and asked the question the bath most needed answered.

“Yuki-chan,” I said, “were you telling the truth about not being interested in Ise-kun, then? Were you planning on going after Rias this whole time?”

Rias sputtered in embarrassment. 

Asia-chan covered her face with both hands.

Yuuto-chan covered her mouth and turned away, clearly trying not to laugh.

Xenovia looked back and forth between Rias and Yuki-chan while nodding to herself.

And Yuki-chan looked at me as though I had proposed a completely unrelated topic.

No,” she said. “And I realize now that I am missing something.” 

I laughed softly.

“Yes, yes you are Yuki-chan. I would expect this from Xenovia though, not you.”

Xenovia shrugged at my comment.

“Things are too convoluted. It’s understandable to make these kinds of mistakes.”

Yuuto-chan, Rias, and I stared at her for a moment.

She stared back and tilted her head slightly.

Yuki-chan let out a faint sigh.

“I think I understand where my confusion came from.”

“Oh?” I murmured.

Her expression became thoughtful.

“Like I said I heard some girls at school talking about practicing kissing with their friends.” 

Rias stared.

Koneko-chan shifted slightly so she could face Yuki more directly. 

I tilted my head. “Thats certainly something.”

“Yes.” Yuki-chan frowned faintly, not at me, but at the memory as she tried to recall all of it. “They were talking in one of the classrooms as I walked past between classes. One girl said she was worried her first kiss with the boy she liked would be awkward. Her friend said they could practice together, so she would not be nervous. She said she had heard girls at other schools did the same. The first girl sound hesitant but she agreed to the idea.” 

The conversation Yuki-chan overheard sounded like something someone gullible or sheltered could be convinced of. 

It also sounded like something girls would use as an excuse to experiment with.

Yuki-chan, however, had taken it at face value.

She was too intelligent and not worldly in the right places.

It was endearing, in a way, how someone that was usually the voice of reason could stumble over something like this.

It made for the most entertaining misunderstandings.

And now that I thought about it, there had been gossip about a pair of girls starting to date in one of the younger years at Kuoh recently.

There was something about some boy being rejected as well.

It made me wonder if Yuki-chan had overheard the beginning of that relationship.

Kuoh Academy had a predominantly female student body due to the school only allowing male students within the last few years.

The large amount of female students led to some girls dating occasionally, despite the looks and comments that would be directed to them.

“Ara,” I said. “And you took that as practical advice?”

“It sounded practical.”

Yuki-chan’sp expression changed then.

Very slightly.

A little more inward.

She had begun to realize something was not aligning properly.

She looked from me to Rias to Asia-chan.

“…That isn’t normal?”

Asia-chan nearly drowned on the spot.

“N-No!” she said, hands dropping from her face only so she could wave both of them in frantic denial. “I-I mean—not very! I think! Probably not!”

Xenovia frowned thoughtfully.

“That makes sense to me.” 

All of us turned toward her.

Xenovia continued, entirely undisturbed by the collective horror.

“If there is a skill involved, practicing it beforehand would be logical. Especially if one wishes to perform well under actual conditions. That’s why I  suggested that Issei and I practice making babies.”

Asia-chan stared at her in open disbelief.

“Xenovia-san!”

“What?”

“That is not—” Asia-chan stopped, visibly overwhelmed. “That isn’t really something friends usually—”

“That seems unreasonable, it’s like training for a fight.”

I laughed.

I couldn’t help it.

Rias looked ready to sink beneath the water and stay there for a century.

“No one is practicing kissing with anyone,” she said firmly, trying to seize back control of the conversation. “We were talking about Ise.”

A wise decision to return the conversation to some form of normality.

Hopeless, but wise.

Yuki-chan looked at her, still faintly puzzled. “I know.”

“Then don’t say strange things like that.”

“It doesn’t seem strange. I get that I misunderstood something, but as long as you understand that it is platonic, then I don't think it would be an issue.

“You are the only person in this bath who thinks that,” Rias snapped.

“That’s not true,” Xenovia said.

Asia-chan groaned quietly into her hands.

Yuuto-chan’s shoulders shook as she tried to hide her laughter.

Rias noticed and looked wounded. “Yuuto!”

Yutto-chan coughed into her hand.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were laughing! You should be helping me with this!”

I smiled at the chaos that Yuki-chan’s misunderstanding had caused.

Then I glanced at Yuki-chan. 

My smile fell slightly as I recalled her saying that she didn’t have any interest in anyone, Ise-kun or otherwise.

I knew she probably didn’t have feelings for him, but I enjoyed bothering both her and Rias by teasing her about it.

But hearing her say that she wasn’t interested in anyone made me upset.

I did not like how hearing this mad me feel, but I didn’t want to think too deeply about it now.

That feeling plus the anger I still felt at her for waiting to tell me about her plan against Kokabiel made me want to bully her.

Plus if I got her to react to it, then I could make Koneko-chan jealous as well.

Which might get her to finally come out of the funk she had been in, and it would definitely entertain me even if it didn’t help. 

So there were plenty of good reasons for me to bully Yuki-chan.

I shifted a little closer through the water, letting my movement look natural.

The steam blurred rose around us. 

Yuki-chan was distracted as she was still thinking over what she had suggested and then learned about it.

That gave me the distraction I needed to get close without her noticing.

“So, Yuki-chan,” I said, letting warmth and teasing soften the words together, “were you hoping that Rias would accept your suggestion to practice?”

That got her attention.

“No. I was just trying to help.”

“You want to help?” I leaned my cheek lightly against one hand and smiled at her. “Then perhaps we could do your practice so you could teach me.”

That made Asia-chan squeak.

Rias glared at me. “Akeno!”

“It’s fine Rias, Yuki-chan said it would be okay, right?”

I felt Konkeo-chan’s eyes on me immediately.

I did not look away from Yuki-chan.

She looked back at me with controlled patience.

It was very lovely.

Very false too.

Her ears had twitched slightly the moment I said teach me.

Her tails, where they moved through the water behind her, had become just a little more alert.

She was embarrassed and tried not to show it.

That was my favorite kind of Yuki, perhaps.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said.

“My, but now you sound hesitant.”

“I was told that it wasn’t something normal to do, so why are you asking now?”

“Because you made a good point. Like you said, if we both are alright with it, then there isn’t an issue. Unless you’re feeling shy now.”

“No. I am just unsure.”

“Yuki-chan, if you keep backing away from your own suggestion, it begins to sound as though you’re frightened.”

That made her eyes narrow by a fraction.

My grin widened.

Asia-chan looked between us rapidly. “M-Maybe you should let it go A-Akeno-san.”

Xenovia, completely unhelpful, said, “No, continue. I’d like to understand this better. It may help when I practice making children.”

“You are not learning from this,” Rias said at once.

“That seems premature.”

Yuuto-chan looked deeply torn between embarrassment on Yuki-chan’s behalf and the simple fact that what was happening was very amusing.

“Perhaps,” she said carefully, “it would be kinder to leave Yuki-san alone now that the misunderstanding has been clarified.”

It had been, but that wasn’t the point.

Yuki-chan understood that her assumption about human girls had been wrong.

She understood that the others thought her offer had meant more than she intended.

What she did not yet understand was why that gap amused me so much.

Nor how much of me wanted to see exactly where the line of her patience would end.

I moved a little closer again.

Not enough to crowd.

Enough to make the question feel more straightforward.

I quickly glanced at Koneko-chan with a smile before looking back at Yuki-chan

“Then tell me, Yuki-chan,” I murmured, “since there isn’t an issue with it, would you practice with me?”

Her gaze held mine.

For a moment she said nothing.

The others had mostly quieted again.

Asia-chan was still visibly fluttering with helpless alarm.

Rias looked on with embarrassed irritation.

Xenovia watched scholarly interest.

Koneko-chan stared at me with a now visible frown.

Yuuto-chan looked caught between wanting to help and wanting to enjoy the spectacle.

But they were quiet enough that the center of the bath had become us.

Yuki-chan tried to keep her face smooth and composed.

But now I could see the effort in it more clearly.

Embarrassment first.

Exasperation next.

Then something else.

It was small and felt dangerous.

It made my heart beat harder when I saw it.

The shift happened in her eyes before it reached anywhere else.

They darkened with intent. 

The softness of confusion went away and any patience in her gaze left with.

Something meaner and predatory like took its place.

Ah.

There it was.

I knew this face.

Or rather, I knew the beginning of it.

I had seen it at the pool when I teased her too far with the body oil and she turned it back on me so completely I’d been left breathless on the chair with my own pulse betraying me.

I had seen the beginning of it again, in a different form, when she accidentally ended up on top of me during that ridiculous pillow fight, it was recent enough that I felt the memory of it now with annoying clarity.

And now I was seeing it again.

Because I had pushed her.

Too far, perhaps, or exactly far enough.

I barely had time to be pleased with myself before she moved.

One moment she was across from me in the bath.

The next, her hand had caught my wrist under the water and with a quick, smooth pull she drew me toward her with enough force that my balance went with it.

I let out a short startled sound and then I was in her lap.

The water surged around us.

I heard Asia-chan gasp and Koneko-chan move in the water, but my attention was locked onto Yuki-chan.

Yuki’s tails moved around my back.

Slowly.

Curling with a warmth and weight that made the point more effectively than hands could have.

My breath caught.

That annoyed me immediately.

I was supposed to be the one bullying her right now.

Yuki-chan leaned slightly closer.

Her fox ears were angled toward me. Her expression had become half-lidded in the most unfair way imaginable.

“Ara,” she murmured softly, voice lower now. “You seem very interested in this, Akeno-san… perhaps I should teach you what to do.”

I was suddenly, acutely aware of several things at once.

How quiet it was now in the bath.

The heat of the water around us.

The feeling of her body beneath mine.

How the both of us were naked and pressed together.

The pressure of her tails around my back.

The look in her eyes.

And the memory—

The oil on skin near the pool.

Her hands moving teasingly over my body.

That soft, dangerous tone when she turned my teasing back on me and left me panting.

Then the bed.

Her body accidentally above mine.

Her face close enough to feel her breath on my skin and being unable to focus on anything but her.

Now this.

Now her lap beneath me and that same beautifully unfair hunger flickering behind her composure.

I opened my mouth to say something, but no words would come out as I looked at her.

That, more than anything, told me just how dangerous the moment had become.

Yuki-than drew me a fraction closer.

Enough that my hands had to brace against her shoulders to stop myself from falling all the way into her.

That only made it worse.

Because it meant I had to feel the shape of her.

The line of her muscles beneath damp skin. 

How smooth that skin felt and how soft her tails field pressed against my back. 

Her mouth moved nearer mine.

Not touching.

Hovering.

Close enough that the steam itself seemed to thicken between us.

Now I did not trust my own voice enough to use it.

That realization was humiliating.

And fascinating.

Rias found her voice first.

“A-Akeno!”

Asia-chan made another small, broken sound that meant she had no idea whether to look away or keep watching.

I saw Koneko-chan watching out of the corner of my eye.

Her frown had deepened as she stared not at me, but at Yuki-chan.

I remembered then, that I had partially started this to tease her too and make her jealous.

Yuki’s tails tightened slightly across my back.

Just enough.

A warning.

Or an invitation.

Or both.

My thoughs about Koneko-chan immediately left my head.

My attention snapped back to her immediately.

I stared at her lips as her face was inches from mine.

My pulse beat hard enough to make me feel it in my throat.

Then, Rias shouted something and there was a loud crash.

A huge splash of water spread out from the middle of the bath

The sound hit like a physical blow that made Yuki-chan flinch and snap her attention to whatever had just landed in the bath. 

I forced myself not to scowl in disappointment as I turned to look as well.