Citrus: Mei's Story vol. 8 - Travelling Heart

II. A Change in Plans

I looked at the clock and tried to breathe through how tired I felt. I had ended up with only two hours of sleep after our rather long night. Yuzu somehow was well rested but then I didn't see the time when she fell asleep as compared to when I finally did. There was nothing for it now, so I just focused on what we had planned for the day. Noticing that we now had fifteen minutes before we would be running late, I turned and called over my girlfriend.
"It's time to go, Yuzu."
The expression I was met with was a strange one. She seemed to be staring at me with the look of someone who just at something sour and gross. It wasn't focused on my face, but rather my body. I looked down. I was in a rather simple long sleeve top and a light long skirt. Everything was clean and the colours contrasted each other fine. So the only other thing to come to mind was that she was now disgusted with me because of what I had told her the night before. I decided to ignore that thought and instead ask Yuzu directly.
"What?"
"Mei, you should..."
What? Did I do something wrong?
"Wear pants instead."
That caused me to blink. She typically wasn't all that concerned with my style outside of finding it cute or beautiful. This was one of the first times my clothes had gotten a strong negative reaction. I didn't know why it was important to her, but I decided to trust her judgment. So I quickly changed into a pair on fitted denim pants that Yuzu pulled out for me. Once on, they sat midway up my hips. With my top tucked into them I felt like it might be a little too different and might make me look awkward. However when I looked at Yuzu's face she was blushing and smiling.
        It's always so easy to tell what you're feeling. You really like it that much?
        I looked at them in the mirror and realised that these pants were designed to show off the frame of the girl wearing them. Yuzu was now able to see my curves a lot easier than when I was in the skirt. Once I was done appreciating this rather different look, I turned to find Yuzu looking pleased with her hands on her hips.
        "There."
        She was in a slightly loose fitting long sleeved top and a pair of shorts with folded hems. It felt like she was nearly trying to match with me in her own style.
       "We'll be moving around a lot today, so I think this will be better."
        And the fact that you clearly like how these look on me... is that just a coincidence?
      "Now then..."
       I turned to look at her and saw her taking off her ring. I fought the urge to stop her physically, but I wished she would change her mind. We both glanced at the ring box where my ring was already sitting. If she hesitated for just a second, I was going to take my ring out and tell her we should just wear them and not care anymore. She didn't hesitate. She slipped her ring into its place in the box.
      "We'll leave the rings here."
       Soon. Soon we won't hide them anymore.
       She picked up the open box and looked at the rings.
       "I guess there's really no point if we don't both wear them."
       "True..."
       I knew she meant it wasn't something that we could hide or just have one person wearing theirs as it was about the matching. However I wanted her to mean we might as well just wear them anyway. I touched my neck where the mark had been and once more felt tempted to have us mark each other in visible spots. Suddenly Yuzu spoke in a decisive voice.
      "Since we're leaving them behind..."
      I turned in my surprise at the sudden shift and stared wide-eyed at her.
      "I want us to have a special connection!"
      Once more she was summoning all her courage and determination to state her idea while blushing at the romantic moment herself. It staggered me how she could be so handsome and adorable at the same time.
         "A bond that only the two of us can see."
         Are you referring to our relationship, or are you thinking of marking each other again too?
        "So, uh..."
        She grabbed my arms near my elbows as though she was afraid I'd run away.
        "From now on, I'd like us to kiss once a day."
        I could only stare in shock. My heart raced. She then seemed to consider something and added a simple question.
        "Is that okay...?"
        My first instinct is to just say yes, but...
        As I stared into her longing face, I thought back to how things had been since we became girlfriends. We didn't kiss every day, but we rarely had kept it to a single kiss. And nowadays it was looking like if we started kissing, that wouldn't be how we ended up.
        I felt the mood shift as she almost pushed me against the wall. She was blushing hard and I could feel my own face was on fire as well. We were inching closer and closer to each other. The desire to once more be with her was overwhelming. It was surprising to even myself when I was able to slip out of her arms and put distance between us. I didn't dare look at her as I spoke.
      "I'm not doing that."
      "Wha?!"
      Yuzu, think it through...
      "There's no need to get clingy just because we can't wear our rings."
       Not that I won't cling to you, but the rings aren't the reason.
      "Sure, but..."
      It'd be safer for us to wear our rings actually... we'd never stop at just a kiss. And being discovered while having sex would be a thousand times worse than everyone seeing us wearing matching rings.
     I grabbed my bag and quickly went to our door. All the while trying not to reveal my scarlet blushing face.
     "Let's go."
     Yuzu followed behind and was not subtle about her disappointment.
      "Awww... I thought it was a good idea."
      If we had good self control, yes. But we both know that if we give in to one kiss, there's no stopping until we have to breathe.
       Mother was nowhere to be seen and I had a feeling she had taken my idea to spend as much time with Naruka as possible. I just hoped this trip would be as good for their relationship as I planned for it to be for ours.