Citrus: Mei's Story+Matsuri volume 2 - Targeted Heart

I. Mei - Upstart

I didn't want to open my eyes. Not because I didn't want to see anything. I simply didn't want to have to admit that it was morning and we had school today after four days of relative temporal freedom. Especially the last two mornings. I wished I was back during that first morning after the board meeting. Before that morning, I had never imagined waking up later than ever and feeling sore all over could be so enjoyable. I had never imagined being happy Father was staying the night at a hotel until yesterday morning when Naruka came into wake us up. We had been a little busy waking each other up and only realised it later when Mother started teasing Naruka about missing out how mornings were with Mika. At least I realised it. I didn't bother Yuzu with the knowledge. Instead I just decided to lock our door once it was time to go to bed and made sure our alarm was set. Now I found myself awake before the alarm, with my naked body pressed against my fiancé's body, and wishing we could just relive the last two days. If I opened my eyes I would get to watch her sleep, or even get her back for how she woke me up yesterday. If I pretended to sleep, I could stay this vulnerable and free a little bit longer.
      Let me have this, please! I know they'll be watching us, and any public scene about our relationship will be scrutinised as though it is already a scandal. But please let me feel this happy every morning. Don't let them take this from me.
      I opened my eyes. She was a complete mess as always. I still was surprised that such a restless messy sleeper could have as much energy every day. But she was still handsome, even now without all the makeup and her hair a tangled mess and her bare skin covered in marks from our wild four day weekend. I had my own share of marks too, but it was obvious that my restraint wasn't capable of continuing once we got physical. She was always open about her feelings. It was likely that was why she tended to be gentler unless I asked. I allowed mine to build behind my walls until she found a way to break it down. But here— in this space and time where the outside world didn't have a say— here I was allowed to just be honest about how I felt. So I gazed at the sleeping form of the girl I loved, and couldn't hold back the words.
         "I'm so happy to have fallen for you, Yuzu."
         I did my best to whisper it before I kissed her collarbone and tried to slip back into sleep against the gentle warmth of her sleeping body. Only to feel her shift and then hear a tired moan before her arms wrapped around me and I felt her fingers in my hair.
           "Mei... good morning."
           "Oh! Uh..."
           I couldn't prevent myself from blushing as I realised that she probably heard what I had said a moment earlier.
           "Good morning, Yuzu."
            As I spoke I looked up at her smiling face. She was so beautiful. Just seeing her look at me in the morning was enough to make my heart start racing. So I decided to just embrace my feelings.
           "I meant it."
           "Huh?"
           Without losing any of her content happiness, Yuzu's expression shifted to reveal complete confusion.
           "Meant what?"
           "What I said."
           "You mean, last night?"
           I stared at her for a moment, my mind working to figure out if she was teasing me or if she actually hadn't heard anything. Then I thought back to the night before and the things I had said right before we started. It wasn't exactly the same thing I had said this morning, but the emotions were the same. But instead of answering her question, I decided to just show her instead. I shifted my position slightly in order to better reach her lips and pressed myself against her. As we kissed, I felt her embrace tighten as though to lock us in place.
        We were interrupted by the alarm I had set. She jolted in surprise while I was too busy trying not to laugh at the hilarity of the situation we had caused ourselves. Slipping out of her weakened grasp, I shut off the alarm and looked down at her.
         "We should get ready."
         "Do we have to?! Right now?!"
         Her groggy whines echoed my own feelings about the situation, but we couldn't afford to slip up. The meeting had gone in our favour beyond what I had anticipated, but they used that in order to slip a trap door under our feet. We were being held to a standard they would never hold any man to, and I doubted they would really be content with leaving us alone. Either they would be hyper critical of our every action to the point of absurdity, or they would try to manipulate scandals. I especially would be wary of the militant traditionalist faction with ties to the power hungry board member. It all just tempted me to give in and tell Mitsuko to help me take it out from under the board and replace them all before they even had time to set anything in motion. The only thing that held me back was the way Yuzu looked at me. Even after discovering everything I had kept from her, and my manipulation of her, she still was able to look at me with such open affection and trust. I wanted to never lose that faith she put in me. We were engaged now. We had to face things together. I needed to stick to the plan we set in motion. Even if it meant we couldn't be as affectionate as we wanted all the time. So I rose from the bed and started to get ready.
       "We promised that we'd be model students. How would it look if we were late on our first day because we couldn't keep our hands off each other?"
        "When you put it like that..."
        As she spoke, Yuzu also got off the bed and slipped into her Yuzubocchi tee before turning to make the bed.
        "I know, but they will be looking for anything to use against us after how Father and I cornered and manipulated them. So we'll have to be careful when at school."
        "You mean hide our—"
        "I promised you we were done hiding."
        At my outburst, she flinched and gave me a nervous look before returning to her task. I sighed. She looked as though she was trying not to take it badly and failing. I needed her to understand that I wasn't frustrated with her. I needed to be clearer about my thoughts.
        "We won't hide that we are together anymore, but that doesn't mean we will have unanimous support from everyone. It's likely that some people might make a scene if they can get an audience, and I doubt all of those will be genuine. So we need to be careful with how we let people know. Do little things that won't give them a chance to cause a situation. Does that make sense?"
         She nodded, but it wasn't everything I needed her to know. I had made a choice before the meeting, and I needed her to be ready for it.
          "And because I told the board about us, I will have to consider selecting someone to replace me as president for after we get back from summer break."
          "But what about—"
           I went over and stopped her words by tenderly cupping her cheek and caressing it with my thumb. Our eyes met, and I made sure I spoke softly.
          "You're more important than being in charge of the student council all three years. If I let someone else take control now, It'll be a way to prevent them from using it against us. And besides... then I'll never have to stay late or go to school super early again. We'd have more time together."
           "I want to support you, though! I don't want you to give up on any of your dreams for me."
           "I won't give up on any of my dreams, but please trust me about this? Even without it being for us, I still should consider stepping down if I want to not have to deal with the board."
         I kissed her on her forehead and then rested my own forehead against hers.
         "I also want to know how I can support your dreams. I want us to be a team, from now on. Okay?"
          "Okay!"
         We kissed once more, and then fell into our typical morning routine with a few changes. We ate breakfast before getting dressed, and made a point to get dressed one at a time while the other person watched. For some reason I found it appealing to watch how she slipped into her clothes. It felt like I was watching her put on armour. And I wanted her to get to experience the same sensation and know that she was the only one who got to see beneath my armour. Who got to see the real me. Of course as soon as I was ready, she surprised me.
       "Hey, Mei?"
      "What?"
       I turned to look at her and saw her smiling happily. It was enough to make me nervous and I could feel my face already starting to burn. I knew what she was going to say before the words left her mouth.
       "Aren't you going to say you love me?"
       Immediately my mind short-circuited as my face began to overheat. I knew this was coming at some point. I had thought that my little rule had been a clever dodge back when I first confessed because of how overwhelmed I was with actual desire when she asked me to say it again. I didn't expect her to weaponise it so well ever since. I didn't expect for her to train me so that saying three little words to her would cause my body to want hers. And she had trained me well. I had to look away from her just to make sure I didn't pounce on her and making us late.
       "N-not right now... we'll do that later."
       "Awww!! No fair!"
       I thought that would be the end of the discussion until hopefully we got home from school, but she kept pestering me all along the way. Eventually we were nearly to the turn off for the entrance to the school grounds and she was calling out to me like we were the only two people around, ignoring the crowds of random people and even schoolmates.
        "Mei, come on! Can't we talk about this?"
        Yes, but not right now. Remember what we talked about earlier?! We need to be careful. I can't discuss the fact saying it to you turns me on so much that I physically need you to touch me while we're out in public!
        "It's just, when you told me you loved me it made me super happy! That's why I've been begging you to do it!"
         I would say phrasing, but no that's actually something people overhearing would not be misunderstanding if they thought you meant sex. Which is the problem. You haven't realised that you always had me say it and then we had ridiculous sex because we could, but now we're not home alone anymore.
       "I mean you were the one who said you'd do it once a day!"
        That caused me to stop and let out a loud sigh. Hoping to get to a private location to try to explain it again to her was no longer possible. If this continued much longer, we'd be creating a scene ourselves and everyone would probably say we were a pair of sex fiends. Even if we were, it was none of their business. I needed her to stop and connect the stuff I had told her about the board and school to this topic without necessarily going into the conversation about what saying it physically does to me. So as soon as she was close, I lowered my voice to talk to only her.
          "Yuzu."
           She leaned over to listen, nuzzling into my side much like I did to her when we slept.
           "We have no idea who might be listening. This isn't an appropriate discussion to have on the way to school."
           The topic itself is fine, but what would be said and implied pushes into the part of our life we agreed is to be private. Please let me know you understand what I'm suggesting here.
           "What if someone sees? Do you have any idea how much trouble it could cause?"
            That seemed to make it click for her as she blushed a little and looked around.
           "Oh."
           She then took a step away once she realised where her own hand was wonderfully near.
          "My bad."
          I nearly pulled her back too me to purposely reposition us into a less explicitly suggestive yet still romantic couple way of standing together. Before I could she started forward to create more distance between us, talking normally as she did.
          "Your dream is my dream too, after all."
          She then gave her cheeks a smack for some reason only she could know.
           "So I know I just have to be patient!"
           It's less about patience and more about time and place considering what happens to us typically. We'll need to work on it.
           I let out another sigh, and chased after her.
           "Yuzu?"
           It was her turn to slow and look my way.
          "If it has to be once a day, can it wait until we're home after school?"
           It was unclear if she caught the implication of my question or not, but she grew increasingly excited as the seconds ticked on until she pounced and once more held me close in a way that was suggestive of what had occurred over the past four days.
          "Yes! Thank you, Mei! I love you sooo much!"
           This time I did physically adjust our posture and how we held each other, all while pointedly drawing her attention to how it looked.
          "I told you not to stand so close! Are you stupid?! What if Matsuri saw you draping yourself on me like that? Just wrap yourself around my arm like this and we can hold hands. That way it implies romance, but not what we do at home."
          "So like the stuff that we used to have to wait till dates to do?"
           I nodded. The turn was just ahead. We would be entering the school visibly a couple.
           "Yes, that's fine. Anything we figured out yesterday and the day before though..."
           "Got it!"
            A glance reminded me that she had changed the length of chain for her ring. It was now visible and would definitely invite questions from the rumour mill. There would be no going back after it became true public knowledge. That thought surprisingly was even more exciting than what the two of us might do once we were together at home after school. I felt my posture straighten with a jolt of pride as I realised that from now on, our schoolmates would finally see the truth about us and accept Yuzu for the wonderful person she is.