A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Sixteen: Part Three

Once the summer evening air filled my nostrils, I peered around my surroundings. I saw the headlights of a black vehicle across the street, and I hurried towards it.

I spotted a figure standing beside the long vehicle, and I heard the click of the open door.

“Good evening, Hotaru-sama.” A familiar, welcoming voice greeted.

“Good evening, Megane,” I replied with a small smile as I slipped through the door he held open. I set the briefcase I clutched in my hands onto the floor of the car.

When the door clicked shut and Megane’s silhouette hurried towards the front of the limousine, I exhaled a sigh as I tilted my body over. My head collided with the soft base of the car seats.

I expected to hear the engine roar to a start, but instead, I heard a smooth, mellow voice.

“You’re on my leg.”

What I squeaked in response resembled the sound karate trainees made when they karate-chopped a block of wood in half. I immediately lifted my head up as I exchanged gazes with familiar, robotic, mauve eyes.

I then swung my head over the seat that I sat in to see the silhouettes of the exaggerated avalanche of boxes that still took up the space of the rest of the seats.

I curled up against the door beside me. “K-Keita!” I stammered, giving him a gawk filled with horror.

He responded with blank silence.

“S-Sorry, I didn’t know you were sitting there.”

“That was expected.”

I began to growl. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

I heard the engine start with a distant hum, and I witnessed Keita’s silhouette. It shifted in place, and I noticed that he was holding out his arms towards me.

“Well?” his impassive voice whispered.

I rapidly shook my head. “It’s okay. I will endure the pain this car ride shall give me.”

“Don’t be stupid. You just ate.”

“No!” I shoved my nose against the cold glass of the window. “I will be the mature, calm, cool woman that I am and endure this dangerous and possibly deadly car ride.”

I vividly remembered how Keita had held onto me the last time I allowed him to, but I couldn’t allow it this time. I couldn’t get used to Keita holding onto me the way he did.

After the full moon passed, he wouldn’t be open to hold me in that way. I’d be back to where I started, and if I got too used to his current actions, I’d be absolutely vulnerable.

I had to prepare for the future. If this avalanche of boxes was here to stay, I would have to get used to sitting in the same row as Keita, and I would have to become tolerant to the surroundings spinning and swirling and twisting and twirling around my head.

“The car is about to start.” Keita’s silky voice calmly informed. “You’d better come here right now, or you’ll be going through the next fifteen minutes in agony.”

“I’ll endure it!”

I felt the car shift forward. I felt my body begin to shake. I tried my best to conceal my shaking my wrapping my arms over my chest and clutching each opposite shoulder. I tightly shut my eyes, gritting my teeth.

“I-I’ll endure it!” I repeated, stammering and shivering in place.

I felt a tug at my sleeve and I reacted with a sharp glare towards Keita. I growled, “Don’t touch me! I will endure this all by myself!”