A movie night with Yori-Chan Pt.2

A clot is forming inside of me as Koyori expectantly awaits her treatment. Not only is she so close to me, that I'd hardly have to move a muscle, but she's also directly looking at me from such a short distance which doesn't help my nervousness at all.

Just pat her, c'mon Keiichi. She's just as excited as you are.

My inner voice is prompting me to perform the pat but my embarrassment continues to hold me back. I was just fine with her nestling up with me yesterday but now I have to become proactive and it’s frightening.

If you can't pat her as a human girl, then imagine her as a dog. You know, woof woof.

For once my subconscious has a good idea. Briefly closing my eyes, I imagine Koyori as a Chihuahua before my hand extends toward her head. I have literally no idea how to properly pat her. Awkwardly, I'm touching her head, feeling the strands of freshly washed hair slide through my fingers. Not knowing what to do, I decide to repeat the motion she did on me while trying to keep my jumpiness in check.

Hey, look. She's enjoying this.

Koyori's eyes close and her smile stretches so wide that, even if I were to pull her cheeks right now, I couldn't make it any wider. As long as her eyes remain closed, I can observe her without trouble.

Hey, this isn't nearly as bad as I thought.

The fear of the unknown now mostly gone, I begin to move my hand around, stroking across her hair a little, then some more, and even more. Just like you'd pet a dog, I'm fondling her, eventually even tickling her a little behind her ears and poking her cheeks when she starts giggling.

"Who's the dog now, Yori?" I tease her, no longer able to hide the enjoyment from my expression. The more I get into it, the more natural it feels to stroke the girl. Koyori is enjoying herself to the point of spacing out, humming in pleasure the entire time. I can't help but admit that she's incontestably cute in that state, and I’m unable to take my eyes off her.

Another case of 'Why did I even dread this?!'. Honestly, I could do this for hours if she keeps enjoying it like this…

"Alright, I'm gonna have to stop now or I'll give you an overdose on accident," I tease her again, pulling one of her ribbons playfully before allowing her to recover.

"Keeeeeeiiiii-kuuuuuuuuun," she babbles with a broad smile. "You're the best, let me hog yoooooouuuuuuuuu!"

Wait, we didn't agree on such a term!

Before I can block her attempt, Koyori has already dived below my arms, burying her face in my chest and clinging to me tightly.

"Youwa the best!" she repeats though her words come out muffled, soon followed by content humming. I want to scold her for breaking the rules but, somehow, I just can't. Koyori is showering me with affection and I'm buying it regardless of the price.

"And you're silly," I laugh, even forgetting to mind my bashfulness. There's something about the way she's acting right now that's a massive hard counter against my lingering nervousness. It's probably the fact that, in spite of her clinging to me like a burdock, she's doing so in an innocent way, loving me like a beloved pet rather than someone you're dating. It's the only reason I can act so freely around her right now.

Regardless, I'm digging my hands into her sides eventually, gently pushing her away from me. I'm not doing it because I have a problem with the hug per se but there's a point I'm trying to make.

"Yori-chan, we won't be able to watch a single movie tonight if you keep this up, you know?" I vex her, playfully poking her sides.

"Oh, you're right, I guess, hehehe," she snickers at her own goofiness. Finally, she returns to her sitting position, although I could bet my next allowance that she's inched even closer to me now. I'm reaching for the remote while Yori throws a blanket over both of us.

"Alright, let's alternate in choosing the movies," I suggest while opening an online library of movies. Mom is paying quite some money for them each month. The selection of movies is extremely generous, though. They even have many Western titles in their library, can you imagine?

"The guest goes first."

I hand her the remote, show her how to navigate and before long we're watching one of those famous animated movies from Cisney. By the time it's over, Yori has moved into snuggling range, much to my dismay, but, just like before, I can't find a reason in my heart to deny her the pleasure. Watching a children's movie becomes unusually thrilling when a cute girl is sitting next to you, sheepishly inching closer and closer until her cheeks are touching mine.

Once the movie is done, we're having some drinks and a potty break before it's my turn to pick a movie. I'm going for a children's movie about a group of dinosaurs who get separated from their parents, become friends and, after a huge adventure, finally find their parents again. I loved that movie as a kid as I used to be quite nerdy about dinosaurs before the world of anime replaced them. Koyori, apparently, hasn't seen the movie yet.

Let's see if she cries once the main character loses his mother.

I'm already looking forward to the experience, fishing for the bags of potato chips before turning the movie on.

This time, we're keeping some distance because of our snacks sitting between the two of us. Absent-mindedly, we're both extending our arms towards the snacks and, every once in a while, our hands touch. Koyori sends me the sweetest smiles whenever it happens though I cannot bring myself to hold her hand yet as that's clearly a lot more romantic than patting or some mutual coziness.

When the death scene finally flickers across my flat-screen TV, Koyori suddenly gets all teary-eyed. Before I know what I'm doing, my arm starts moving on its own, wrapping around Koyori and tugging her close to me. Even though she sobers up almost immediately, we're remaining like this until the movie is over.

I'm honestly baffled at how easy it is to allow myself to be close to the girl once I've gotten a taste of it. First last night and now this. Koyori clearly loves it and my heart is leaping whenever we're doing it as well. As long as she's not making any weird moves on me, I'll probably be able to handle this without getting embarrassed from now on even if the girl isn’t being sad.

And Yori-chan is going to abuse this. I just know that she will!

"Think we can do another one today?" I prompt her after yet another potty break. The yawn slipping from Koyori's lips answers in her stead, though the girl doesn't quite seem to be ready for bedtime yet.

"Kei-kun, do the thing again," she requests though I have no idea what she could refer to.

"Are you sure you shouldn't go to sleep if you're already referring to everything as a 'thing'?" I verbally poke her.

Koyori snickers at me.

"Well, do the thing you did with your arms when the movie made Yori-chan sad."

I did that for almost an hour, how is she not satisfied yet?!

I roll my eyes at her proposal.

"Oh, I don't know," I vexingly speak to her. "Technically, you didn't behave today."

"Yori-chan couldn't help it after Kei-kun made her so happy," she explains with an adorable pout on her face. "Yori-chan needs lots of it so gimme some more."

"Are you, like, running on hugs and cuddles?" I retort in a deadpan manner.

"Yori-chan is fueled by happiness," she explains while low-key baiting me again with her cutesy expression and talk. "That arm thing you did made her happy so gimme more, Kei-kun."

Seriously, how does she not crack up constantly at the silly stuff she's spewing all the time?

"Kei-kun likes it too so what is he waiting for? Hmpf!"

Shit, she totally figured me out there.

"I'll allow it but I'll pinch your cheek if you're just looking for a pillow," I compromise, my gut feeling telling me that Koyori is just trying to get cozy in my arms in order to fall asleep like that.

"Yaaaaaaayyyyy," she cheers, promptly hopping back onto the sofa in order to book my services again.

For the next 20 minutes or so, she's snuggling up against me while we're sitting together on the sofa. The blanket is tying us both together, my right arm nestling around her back. Occasionally, my hand strokes across her right arm. I feel truly blessed to have finally overcome my awkwardness, allowing me to enjoy our togetherness without a worry, although I'll likely never get used to the tipsy feeling in my gut and my hammering heartbeat.

Constant humming and frequent repositioning of her head against my shoulder give me confidence that Yori is still awake, though she's gradually becoming quieter and less agile over time. For a while, I'm seriously pondering to allow her to snooze off in my arms but I don't really know if I could disentangle myself from her without waking her up. In the end, I'm pinching her cheek after all.

"Meanie."

I chuckle at her sleepy retort. From the look on her face, I likely caught her just shy of dozing off.

"Time to sleep, Yori-chan," I whisper, towing her into a horizontal position, fetching her pillow, and blanketing her carefully. Koyori twinkles at me in blissful joy without a single retort.

"You made Yori-chan very happy today, Kei-kun," Koyori whispers before closing her eyes. "Nighty-Night…"

I twinkle back at her, adoring her and stroking a few strands of hair from her forehead.

"Goodnight, Koyori."

Today, you made me very happy too.