A/n: This chapter contains detailed descriptions of an intimate scene. If the reader is underage, please know that you've been warned and you can skip the last few paragraphs of this chapter.

| I'll call you mine ~ girl in red |

Niji leaps into my arms and I catch her. I think I hear her tutu snap but if she doesn't care, either do I.

"They cheered," she whispers into my ear, and happy hormones flood my bloodstream. This is awkward.

"Yes, they did." I pull her out of the next performer's way and put her down on the floor. "You were great. I couldn't take my eyes off you."

She looks away but soon looks up to meet my eyes. And in the faint light, I can see her damp lashes. "Don't let your mascara run now," I say. I have to physically restrain my hand from reaching up to cup her face. Her cheeks look so soft and kissable right now. "Why don't you run and change into something casual and after this is over, we can hang out. Alright?"

She tries hard to not look too enthusiastic but her wide eyes give her away. I give her a small smile as she whispers, "okay," and exits my embrace. And once again, my arms feel weirdly empty. This is new!

I cradle my clipboard to make up for it. Just as I think Niji has left, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see her, twisted tutu but tiara on her head, and she asks, "is this a date, Maki-san?"

If it were a few years ago, I probably would have blushed. I'm sure I did when Nobara asked me the same question. The only difference between then and now is that Nobara and I were already on the date. And I was head over heels in love with her for weeks already.

Al I do now is smirk and say, "it is whatever you want it to be, baby."

The next time I see Niji, my jaw quite literally hits the cobblestone road that snakes around our campus because the people who paid to build this place wanted it to look like the Edo era. She's wearing a red floral off-shoulder dress that covers just about half of her gorgeous thighs. Nude stockings lead my eyes to a pair of white sneakers. A small cream-colored handbag hangs from her grasp.

She's in front of the onigiri stall Inumaki and I had lunch at and looking around, probably trying to locate me. I'm just about to take a step in her direction when someone calls her name and she turns toward a different stall.

A tall, definitely foreign, curly-haired girl comes running to Niji and takes her in a hug. I watch as they separate and the foreigner cups Niji's cheeks with her palms and tells her something that makes Niji hug her again. This time, the black girl's hands drop a little too much down her back. Too much for my liking.

I hurry down the pavement to where they're standing, still embracing, and make my presence known with a cough.

"Oh, Maki-san," Niji says, turning toward me with a mellow smile, "I was just looking for you." The other girl just stands there, blinking in the neon lights of the nearby stall's sign. I'm sure she knows who I am.

I look from Niji to her and then back, prompting Niji to introduce us. Niji does a little jumpy "oh" and says, "Maki-san, meet Lulu-san. She's a sophomore in my department and also my dorm neighbor. And, this is Maki-san. She... err..."

Niji points at me with an open palm but is clearly at a loss of words. So I choose to help her. "We're going out," I say, looking Lulu straight in the eyes.

"Oh," Lulu replies, looking back at Niji with her thick eyebrows raised. "Oh! Is... is that why you're all dressed up like that? I'll leave you two to it then. Have fun. I'll see you at the halls, Niji."

I notice Niji's head hanging low as Lulu leaves. "Give me your phone," I say, trying to bring her attention back to me.

She unlocks her phone and hands it over. I dial in my phone number and save it as "Maki-san". As I hand it back, I say, " now, if you're ever looking for me, just call me."

She puts her phone in her tiny handbag but refuses to look up at me. I frown, trying to guess what I have done to elicit that response. As we stand there, wordless, my gaze shifts to her bare shoulders. The front of her dress is cinched just under her boobs, pushing them up, revealing only the slightest and leaving the rest to my imagination. Which, by the way, has gone wild at this point.

"You look great," I tell her, trying to put my lust at bay.

"Thanks." She finally looks up and smiles politely.

"Is everything alright? Did something set you off?"

"No, not really. Umm... what do you want to do?"

You. I obviously don't say it out loud. Instead, I point toward the in-campus garden and ask, "would you like to take a tour of the garden? It's not as pretty as it is in the morning when you can see the cherry blossoms but they've put up some pretty lights, I believe."

Niji shrugs and I lead her to the garden, still unsure about what's upsetting her. We're offered dango at the gates which she refuses. I get mine and we start down the thin cobblestone path flanked on both sides by topiary, illuminated only by strings of fairy light.

I don't think I've seen Niji this silent since we met. It strikes as especially odd when she was smiling with Lulu only a few minutes ago. Am I intimidating her?

I pretend to check out the people in front of us and behind us and lower my head to whisper to her. "It looks like this is an event for couples." It's not even a lie. There are two boys in front of us holding hands and I'm sure I saw the pair behind us feed each other the dango. "Should we hold hands to blend in with the crowd?"

Wordlessly, Niji transfers her handbag to her right hand and produces the left one for me to take. I sigh and take it. But instead of continuing to walk, I yank her off the pavement and under a bigger tree. Circling its massive trunk are rows of warm, unblinking fairy lights that cripple up to the branches, making it look like a tree of tiny bulbs.

A boy with a volunteer card rushes toward us. "I'm sorry, you can't-"

"Can't what?" I spit in his direction and he leaves us alone.

I wrap the confectionary in the tissue that came with it and put it inside my fanny pack. "Niji." I hold both her hands with both my hands. "You seemed so happy after the performance. What happened between then and now that you're this upset?"

She shakes her head but I egg her on. "Did I say or do something to upset you?"

She shakes her head again.

"You don't like gardens? Is that it? Or maybe the crowd? Are you hungry?" Niji decisively shakes her head to every question except the last.

And then it occurs to me. "Niji, did you meet anybody on your way here? Did they tell you something about your dance?"

She says, "no," shifting her weight from one leg to another.

"About your dress?"

She says nothing. When I ask her again, she simply nods. I sigh. Those bitches!

"I don't know what they told you," I say. "And I don't think I want to know. You look beautiful. So fucking beautiful. You look so gorgeous that... I just want to take you home and ravish you. If you'd let me, of course. It's a shame that you put so much effort into picking the right clothes and the matching bag and shoes because I just wanna take them all off and..."

"They said you might say that," she whispers, and my mind and body freeze. "That... whoever defends a fat girl only does that because of a fetish. Because they just want to check it off their 'to fuck list' before college is over."

I stand there with my mouth hanging open. I know what I have to say to her but I'm not sure if it will be enough to convince her.

Niji sighs. "You want to sleep with me, right?" she asks, sniffling. "We can do that. I can't say that I haven't been thinking about it all day. So, let's... let's go. My room or your apartment?"

"Niji, stop." I urge her, squeezing her fingers in my grasp.

"No, it's fine. I don't mind really. We don't have to force a date when it's all gonna end in the same way."

"Niji!" I say sharply, surprising her. An unfamiliar sense of responsibility washes over me. I finally let my hands do what they've been dying to do all day. I cup Niji's face in them, the softness of her cheeks pooling over my fingers, and draw our foreheads together.

"You're not a fetish," I whisper before meeting her lips with mine. I let my hands drop to her shoulders and knead the exposed skin. She moans into my mouth, sending vibrations down my body. This is too hot to be in public.

I tear myself from her and look at her.

Niji still has her lips apart and eyes shut tight. Fuck!

"So, my room it is," she says, just above a breathy whisper.

We run through the rest of the garden tour and get out of the other side. The hostel building stands towering in front of us, promising a good time. But standing there, in front of the gates that don't allow day scholars in after sundown, I realize how much more work needs to be done before I can see Niji naked.

"I have to make a call," I say, fishing my phone out of my fanny pack. I call Mai.

"I need an ID card," I spit before my sister can even complain about me calling.

"What? No! Is it about a girl?" She screams over the phone. The absence of noise in the background tells me she's in her room. What a bore!

"Err... yes." I look at Niji. She just stands there, blinking at me innocently like she has a total of zero lewd thoughts in her head.

"The short answer is no, Maki. And the long answer is nooooo..."

"Please," I say the magic word. The look in Niji's eyes calls for it.

"What did you say?" My sister barks from the other side.

"I said, please, Mai. I need an ID card to get inside the hostel. I'll be sure to return it to you shortly."

She's there in five minutes. Niji and I stand by the side of the gates, trying our best not to get caught by the guards. Mai freely walks out of the dorm gates in her Demon Slayer pajamas, speaking to them. "Not going very far," we hear her say casually, "just have to hand this notebook to a friend."

She slides out, notices us, and jams the notebook in my hand before turning and leaving without a word.

Inside the notebook, I find an ID card with the green tag, meant for hostellers. I put it around my neck as Niji pulls hers out of her handbag. And as we amble through the gates, nobody bats an eye.

The elevator ride up to the seventh floor is the most excruciating and not only because of how slow it is. The small space is crammed with people, all dressed up, either returning to change for Takada-chan's concert or calling it quits for the night.

Niji still looks gloomy, so I tell her what any decent person would. "Hey, if you're having second thoughts about this, we can just watch something on your laptop or... we don't have to..."

"I don't know if it's a second thought when all my thoughts are about this," she says with a smirk and blush that I would give up on sunny days for.

"Smooth!" I remark, snaking my arm around her waist. She tenses momentarily before relaxing and leaning into my chest.

We push our way out of the elevator on her floor and glide past the several people just existing. They seem... happy. I can never imagine living in and sharing the same space as so many other people.

I find relief once Niji shoulders her door open and we step inside her room. It's worse than it was in the morning. Her snapped tutu lies across the bed, ballet shoes are flung under the wardrobe, and makeup and sewing materials are scattered on the dressing and study tables.

Niji gathers the tutu and pushes the shoes further inside. "Umm... this is just for today," she says, putting the tutu and Mai's notebook over some folded clothes. "Do you want a cookie?"

This time, it is an innuendo.

I drop my fanny pack before making my way to her in a flash and pull her to me. Chest to chest, mouth to mouth. I let my fingers wander into her thick, dark locks. Her lips are so soft, her cheeks so plump, it feels like I'm diving head first into a bed of lilac.

Her hands are on my waist too and her touch is so polite and hesitant. She doesn't knead or claw into my skin like I know I want to do to her. She touches my elbows and pries my hands off her. I immediately hate it.

"I don't know what I'm doing," she whispers to me. "I just know I want to do it."

"I know what I'm doing." I make her sit on the bed and kneel in front of her. Rising on my knees, I kiss her again, this time prolonging it to make sure she knows my intentions.

I drag my lips along her jawbone and down her throat and place a fluttery kiss over a mole in the crook of her neck. She shudders and closes her eyes. I'll give her a million fluttery kisses if she'd make this face every time.

I place more kisses down her chest until I reach the top of her dress. I look up at her as her hand moves to my shoulder and then into my hair. "Can I take it off?" I ask.

"Yes, please," she murmurs.

Her dress gives in easily under my pull, revealing a strapless, nude-colored bra underneath. I tuck the dress under her breasts and unhook the clasps of her bra. Her boobs spill out and my hands rush to be filled with them.

Niji moans as I brush my thumb over a mauve nipple and her fingers tighten in my hair.

I put my mouth back to work. I kiss the supple skin between her breasts and drag my tongue along the curve of one of them to find the nipple. My hand rubs up and down Niji's thigh as her fingernails rake at my scalp. Already?

"Lie down for me, baby," I tell her and she obliges. She kicks her shoes off and I mentally thank her for understanding the assignment.

My hands graze up her thighs to find the elastic band of the stockings around her waist and pull it down. My hands ache to touch her now bare skin. I reach up again and find the band of her underwear. "May I?" I ask her again and she replies in the affirmative.

I do with it what I just did with her stockings, tossing the pair into oblivion. I scoop up her thighs and throw them over my shoulder. Pushing the skirt of her dress up to her belly, my mouth waters.

I feel Niji's thighs tense like she's trying to pull them together. I grip them tighter and place a kiss on the inside, very dangerously close to where I want to kiss next. She gasps but with a few more kisses, I feel her relaxing.

"Good girl," I whisper before treading toward where her thighs meet.

She is well maintained and smells clinically clean, like an intimate area wash, but she's slick and flinching with every drawn breath. I kiss her first, on the mons, softly, gauging her every sound and reaction. I look up at her one last time through my lashes before parting her wet folds with just the tip of my tongue.

She shudders with a breathy whimper as her hands find my hair again. I'm awfully enjoying her touch.

I lay my tongue flat against her labia, looking for the nub of her clitoris. It takes a few seconds to get familiarized with the new territory but Niji helps me out. She rolls her hips and pulls me by my hair to get me to the right place. Somebody knows what they want.

I groan as I find it, tightening my grasp on her hips. Niji moans too and shakily calls out my name. "Maki-san," she says, and even though I can barely hear the words, the pleasure is undeniable.

I quicken the pace of my tongue against her. Any onlooker would think I am starving, the way I lap up her juices. I let one of my hands trail up her torso to find her bare breast. This time, I pinch her nipple between my thumb and forefinger, making her cry out.

Her breathing gets erratic and her hips roll further, pushing her mound against my mouth. Her back arches as I feel her muscles clench. Niji's hand flies to mine on her tit and holds it there. She's close.

I look up to see her face buried in the side of the pillow, her lips apart, chest heaving. Her final moan is the clearest I've ever heard and her fingers dig into the nape of my neck as her thighs tremble around me. I groan, relishing the afterglow of her orgasm as I slow my tongue, carefully guiding her down from the heights of pleasure.

I pull her dress back into place to cover her up while she just lies there with her face hiding behind her hands. It makes me giggle.

I lie down next to her, my feet dangling over the side of the bed, and pull her closer. "What's up?" I ask as she still refuses to show me her face.

"Thank you," is all she whispers before crashing into my chest.

And that's when I hear the simultaneous roars come from both our stomachs.

I have nothing to say except that I wrote this. I know it's hot and I'm kinda proud of it.

A/n: If you liked this chapter, please consider leaving a vote and commenting about what you liked or what you'd like to see in the next chapters.