What Now?

Nitsuki stared up at the ceiling of her room, tracing the wooden grains of it with her eyes as she lay on her bed. Her damp hair was almost done drying out from her recent shower, and the setting sun streamed in from the window, lighting up the place in an array of dull oranges and yellows.

She blinked as she took it all in. The aircon was gently billowing cool air in her direction, and the sound of running water softly droned in the background. Under normal circumstances, it might’ve been enough to lull her to sleep.

However, this wasn’t normal circumstances to her—at least not yet.

Her heart thundered in her chest despite her attempts to calm herself. Deep breaths, looking at her phone, counting the number of planks that made up the ceiling—none of it had worked to bring her back down. Nope. All she could think about was what had happened not too long ago and how a cute man was currently using her bath—the cute man that had poured out his feelings for her, that she had kissed, and that was now her boyfriend.

Tachibana.

She hugged her pillow to her chest and squirmed around on the bed as she dumbly smiled. Honestly? She still wasn’t sure how to process all of this.

After the confession, the rest of the shopping day had gone mostly as planned. They had dropped by the grocery store, rounded up whatever they needed, and then took the train back once they had found a way to somehow carry the mountain of stuff they’d gotten—basically everything besides new plushies.

But the entire time they had done all that, there had been a nervous, happy energy in the air. It was strange, very strange. She could look at Tachibana and stare at him without feeling guilty about it, or she could brush his hand when walking next to him and just feel like it was the most natural thing to do. It was weird—so wonderful. She had never felt so… free.

She kicked her legs in the air as she remembered the way he had awkwardly held her hand on the escalator, or the way he had hugged her when they had gotten back to her place. They had even kissed a bit more, all while still talking about random things and just genuinely enjoying each other’s presence over a jointly cooked dinner.

Her stomach did several somersaults as she grinned at the absurdity of it all.

“Ahaha~” A giddy, happy noise that she would’ve normally never let out just spilled out of her, and she didn’t care.

Tachibana liked her. TACHIBANA LIKED HER!

She buried her face in her pillow to muffle a squeal. The strong, kind, earnest, and stupidly happy Tachibana was hers. And she was his!

After a moment of roiling around in those thoughts, she popped out and took a deep, calming breath. This was going to take some getting used to.

Was this how people in love felt? Like they were walking on clouds?

Damn lucky bastards! She had missed out on this for years. Years!

Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. It was just too nice. Somehow, she had transformed from the girl who wanted to die, to the girl that had a boyfriend that loved her and kissed her and hugged her and everything else in like… what? Two to three days?

Was this really her life?

A part of her wondered if she had died and gone to some sort of heaven. Everything was just so unreal. It felt too good to be true. But, the fact that it was true was what was making her the most ecstatic. This wasn't a fantasy. It was real.

How was this real?!

She stopped and looked back at the ceiling. Was this why Daimon had been so damn persistent? Was this why he had refused to let her glimpse at the grocery trip before? Because if he did… That damn voyeuristic, meddling old man~

She’d have to thank him later. Maybe. If she was feeling generous enough.

The sound of running water stopped in the bathroom, and she immediately tensed. Oh God, he was getting out.

Her heartbeat increased a little more as her thoughts began to race. Should she stay here in her bedroom, should she go greet him, should she do something stupid like try to jump him—no, that’d be a terrible idea. Probably. Damn, was her stupid monkey brain always this bad? She was pretty sure she'd been at least somewhat decent at keeping her thoughts in check before.

Well… did she even want to keep her thoughts in check any more?

She bit her lip and fidgeted with the edge of her pillow. What was the protocol for these sorts of situations? She was a virgin when it came to relationships in every single sense of the word. Did Tachibana want to do something after his bath? Night was about to fall, but there was still a fair amount of time before a normal bedtime.

Nitsuki's face burned at the possibilities. There were so many of them, and it was so new and exhilarating and exciting and… just everything.

She had never, ever thought that she would be in a situation like this. It had always been some distant, unobtainable dream that would've only been available had she been born a girl. Her entire life before this, she had been too busy fighting tooth and claw just to survive—to be recognized as woman. She had never had the time, luxury, or self-image to remotely consider love, romance, or anything else like that.

Yet now? Now that she had the chance to have it, her heart was pounding like a taiko drum at bon festival. There were so many things that she'd never tried, and there were so many things that she'd always wanted. She'd never cuddled with someone. She'd never romantically slept next to someone. Heck, she'd barely even been hugged, much less something more.

Her body felt hot, and blood was starting to flow to the wrong areas.

"…"

Okay, no. She had to take it slow. She didn't want to scare him off by getting ahead of herself. Plus, he was just about as inexperienced as her when it came to this sort of stuff. He'd said that it had been his first time kissing, right?

Yeah, she definitely had to take it slow. As much as her stupid brain, maidenly heart, and not-so-maidenly downstairs neighbor wanted to do all sorts of things, she didn't want to make him uncomfortable—at all. She'd have to be very careful about what she did.

The sound of a quiet knock on her door startled her. She quickly sat up, crossed her legs, and fumbled to cover herself with one of the new pillows they had bought.

"Erm, come in!" Nitsuki squeaked, her voice a bit high-pitched.

The door slowly opened, and in walked the man that had been non-stop occupying her headspace since the park. His damp hair was ruffled and clumped together, and a few stray strands of it were stuck to the side of his head. He wore an old, oversized shirt that he'd brought from his place and a pair of shorts that were just a tiny bit too small—

Nitsuki blushed and directed her gaze up. She hadn't been looking at anything—nope, nope, definitely not.

"Hey, Nia. Just finished washing." He gave his usual dumb smile that now made her heart beat erratically despite the many times she'd seen it.

She nodded, still covering herself with the pillow, and patted the space next to her. He didn't hesitate to sit down.

"So, Tachibana. Erm… bath good?"

Bath good? Really? You couldn't come up with anything better to say than that?

“Shut up, brain! I thought we were on the same page already! Go back to being quiet.”

"Yup," he said. "You have a great bath, honestly. Don't think I mentioned it the other day, but the pressure's really nice. Better than mine, I think."

She blinked. Oh. That worked?

He continued and leaned back. "It's a small detail. But yeah. It's not like you ever have the chance to compare unless you're at another person's place. I never thought much of it until I used yours."

"I'll… keep that in mind."

They sat in silence for a moment, the two of them trying to find something to say.

"I think we already got a lot of the usual small talk out of the way earlier. What now?" Tachibana mused.

She shrugged, not entirely sure how to answer. There were so many things they could do, but there was a lot of other stuff that they should do. It was a Sunday night, which meant that they would have work in the morning if the old man didn't decide to suddenly close the store or something. She had to be functional enough to actually do her job.

At the same time though, the night hadn't even really begun yet. They could probably afford to do some things. Maybe watch a movie or show on one of their phones? Or maybe they could try some more of that kissing stuff? She'd probably have to figure out a way to prevent her stupid downstairs neighbor from doing anything weird though. Maybe she could—

Tachibana suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into a hug from the side. He was warm, and his scent was wonderful.

"Hmm, what to do," he murmured as Nitsuki's mind blanked. He leaned back further, pulling her down with him. The two of them ended up sprawled on the bed, staring at the ceiling in a half-embrace.

"T-Tachibana? What are you doing?" Despite how unexpected the sudden hug was, Nitsuki's thoughts immediately began to drift. It was so comfy, so right. Natural.

"What does it look like? Thinking of course."

"Thinking?"

"Yup, thinking," he said, his voice trailing off. "I'm not used to thinking so far ahead in the future, but there's at least a handful of things I'd like to eventually get around to. For example, we should probably tell Gramps and everyone else about us at some point."

Nitsuki froze. "Tell them?" she asked, a bit worried. That's right, it was one of the things she'd debated about. Would people accept the fact that they were in a relationship? Maybe, just maybe Koji would understand, given how much he cared for his grandson and how he was arguably the second closest person to her now. But everyone else?

She shivered. The town would hate it. There were some that were barely okay tolerating her, and even fewer that she somewhat got along with, but the majority of the people in Hoshimura still viewed her as a freak.

Tachibana's arm tensed around her as the two of them lay on her bed. He was rather warm now.

"Well, yeah. I mean, we don't have to right away. It'd be fine if it was just between you, me, and Gramps, but I think at some point, it'd be nice if we could just not have to worry about hiding it, you know?"

Nitsuki frowned. There it was: his naive side. She still needed to have a real talk with him about that. But… not right now. Not yet.

She slowly nodded. "I suppose."

He took a deep breath and sighed. “Sorry. I'm being weird, aren't I? I'm… I'm still trying to process all of this, too."

Nitsuki laughed. "No worries, I can relate." She shifted her body to face him. "We've both got no idea what the hell we're doing, don't we?"

He chuckled, and his warm, kind smile made her heart ache. "Yeah."

They stayed like that for a minute, simply taking in the moment.

Judging by what they had just talked about, Nitsuki could already see that they'd have some differences in how they saw this relationship playing out, but that was fine. They had time to figure things out together.

She snuggled up closer to him, resting her head on his chest.

"So, are we just cuddling now?"

"Yup. That okay with you?"

She grinned at his response. "Of course it's okay. More than okay."

"Awesome." His voice was gentle as he pulled her in a bit more.

She closed her eyes, listening to his heart as she rested her head on his chest. Her hand found its way to his, and they intertwined their fingers.

Indeed it was.