Hide and Seek

Frein mulled over how to approach his current task while on their way to whatever fine dining restaurant Kristel led them. It didn’t matter where they would eat for dinner. Fulfilling Katherine’s desires mattered more.

Question was…how?

It didn’t help—or it probably did—that Elizzel was asleep. She would’ve had a bunch of ideas given that they both wore them, or she would’ve nagged on him nonstop on how perverted this entire circus was. He hoped she would be into it at least, given the target of said perversion.

Never mind, Frein sighed, remembering that the faunel’s clothes were actually made of meiyal and she wore a sundress, not short shorts. Alas, no amount of training or Meiyal Arts would help him solve this conundrum. They failed him when it mattered most. And the fact that Katherine was enjoying his dilemma urged him even more.

“You guys are awfully quiet,” Kristel said, craning backwards from atop Enza’s saddle. “You didn’t have a fight, did you?”

“No, just…” Frein began, acting interested in some building far away to his right. “Admiring the view.”

The building was indeed interesting. It was a massive dome surrounded by a number of floating, spherical infrastructures large enough to be considered their own buildings. If he considered the combination as one entity, the clearance it had from the next closest structure was about a town away.

At that point, Frein stopped to ask. “What’s that place for?”

Kristel followed his gaze. “Ah, that’s the Research and Applied Meiyal Department. They’re isolated so that when an experiment or any other dangerous research gets out of hand, Atlas Sid can simply detach the area after evacuating everyone.”

“Excuse me?” Frein blinked. He saw realization dawn on Kristel. Even Katherine tempered down her aroused anticipations, realizing exactly where this conversation was heading. “Did you just say ‘Research Department?’”

“You want to check it out before we eat?” the Lady asked.

“Oh!” Kristel beamed. “That’s like, the best place for you to go.”

“Can I, though?” Frein asked. “Don’t I need special permits for it? I know I’m with you guys, but even so. Just by the name of that department, there’re probably some things in there I’m not allowed to see.”

“Well…” Katherine turned to Kristel, telegraphing something that Frein couldn’t quite catch. “Is she still working there?”

“Yeah, I think so. As far as I remember,” the Princess replied. She grinned at him.

“Who’s she?”

“I’ll introduce you formally when we get there. I bet she’ll be more than interested in studying you rather than caring for confidentiality. It’s not like we don’t trust you or anything.”

“Ah.” Frein grasped the situation. He had leveraged his title as the Visitor multiple times already, and gaining access to a research facility would be leagues better than any of the deals he had made in the past.

“There’s still time. Dinner can wait,” Katherine urged, as if Frein needed more convincing. “I’m not hungry yet anyway.” She made sure to send him a subtle message of her hidden expectations.

“Not that hungry yet either,” Kristel joined in, oblivious to the situation.

“Alright, if it’s fine with you guys. Let’s go check it out.” Since the building was in the middle of an open area, Frein headed off-road. Katherine stopped him right away.

“There’s a proper path to get there,” she explained. “It just looks empty, but there are defenses and securities in place.”

Frein Drew Mesiffera in response and found the whole place surrounded by layers of shimmering barriers. Now that he knew where to look, he realized they weren’t exactly invisible to the naked eye; just creatively hidden. He decided not to find out exactly how they operated and returned to the group.

Kristel led them, continuing on the same path and eventually taking a right turn when they were at a crossroads. Along the way, they met a number of people who gave them respectful gestures and greetings, but no one dared to stop them or invade their personal spaces. Frein noticed that the closer they got to the research center, the less people they met.

They eventually reached a guardhouse. It was empty, but a terminal for their M.O.B.I.L.E.s was available. Kristel and Katherine deposited both their devices to register, causing a screen to appear. It reflected their names, titles, and unsealed meiyal marks. Nothing profound.

Frein followed suit. He hoped for nothing weird to happen and was thankful when the screen showed him the same things as the others’. However, he found it odd that the terminal also recognized him as the Visitor.

“I registered you under that name, remember?” Kristel reminded him. “It’s not like the meiyal-craft devices know about it intuitively. It just reads from your M.O.B.I.L.E. and sends the information to the department’s registry for their records.”

“Ah.” Frein felt slightly embarrassed for reading too much into it. But only slightly.

As soon as they made it out of the guardhouse, Frein caught sight of something he honestly did not expect. It was an open-framed vehicle, hovering off the ground and, based on the absence of a driver’s compartment, seemed to operate remotely or automatically. He glanced at Katherine who purposefully leaned on its frame, gesturing to one of the seats.

“After you,” she said proudly.

“Is this seriously a hover craft?”

“It’s called a C.A.R.,” Kristel said, entering the vehicle with a smooth, practiced motion. Frein realized she had no idea what was going through his head.

“Are you being serious right now, Princess?” he asked sarcastically.

“What?” the Princess frowned. “It’s a Close-Air Relocator. C.A.R.”

Frein turned to Katherine for an explanation, knowing that she could relate to this ridiculous naming scheme. First it was the M.O.B.I.L.E., the Meiyal-Operated Bio-Integrated Life Enhancer. He couldn’t explain to Kristel how funny that was the first time. Now the devices’ name felt so natural for him.

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But C.A.R. was something else. How could it be so close, yet so far? Relocator made some sense somewhat, but what did Close-Air mean anyway? He wasn’t even sure which was funnier—or lamer; the relation between the items and their names compared to Earth, or how the names felt forced to his ears.

Ultimately, he decided to wave it off, focusing on the fact that a hovering vehicle was in front of him. Kristel took the front row seat, purposefully trying not to get in their way. Enza, of course, didn’t need a ride. Her eyes were looking everywhere, intent to run around.

“Follow the C.A.R., Enza,” Frein began before anything else. “We don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Fine, fine,” replied the yuma, whining her disappointment.

“Don’t worry, Enza,” Katherine said, inferring from the yuma’s behavior while petting her head. “It goes pretty fast.”

She wagged her tail at that.

“Get up there, time’s wasting,” Frein commanded and pushed Katherine’s butt while giving it a squeeze, examining what sort of prize he was working on. The coat and her short shorts didn’t exactly give him any detail, except for the fullness of her bottom translating through in his hand despite the layers of fabric. He was rewarded by a surprised yelp and a mild slap on his arm for his troubles.

“You two better behave in there,” Kristel warned them. She gave Frein an especially suspicious stare. “No funny business.”

“Not even a bit?” he asked, trying to negotiate. “There are probably a lot of things I want to check and touch in there.” He looked around his seat, not waiting for the Princess’s reply. “So what’s the deal here? Do I have something to strap myself in or what?”

“No straps,” Katherine replied, understanding the hidden message behind his question. “It’s just a plain old C.A.R. Just use your hands and hold on to something.”

“We can take it slow if you want,” Kristel asked, showing him a panel on the front row with a few buttons.

“It’s fine,” he and Katherine replied at the same time. He continued, “Enza wants to sprint anyway, and we don’t want to take too much time. I’ll just hold on, but I’ll probably rip it apart.”

“Don’t,” said the Princess.

The three-minute ride lasted ten times longer in Frein’s perspective. He spent the first few seconds mesmerized by the mechanics in which the C.A.R. hovered, silently speeding on a designated road. Of course, it ran on meiyal. Whose meiyal, whether it was Milled or harvested straight from Brymeia, he wasn’t exactly sure.

Then he turned to Enza who was having a blast chasing their vehicle. She was experimenting with wing-assisted running, gliding ever so often to allow for maintained speed as if mimicking the C.A.R.

All the while he was keeping an eye on Kristel, making sure she was unaware of what was going on behind her. She was busy with her M.O.B.I.L.E., probably to inform the personnel inside the research facility about their unexpected visit. Frein was thankful she was such a thoughtful Princess.

Content of their privacy, he explored Katherine’s waist with one hand. He slipped inside her short shorts and confirmed her underwear was indeed just a normal pair of panties, none of the fancy ones that were tied or strapped. It made his objective clear but confusing.

While he thought of a way, Katherine leaned close to his ear and whispered, “You think I should stop wearing bras from now on?” She took his other hand and guided it to her breasts.

The firmness of her flesh snuggly filled the grasp of his palm, and her aroused nipples called his attention. He desperately wanted to suck on them, but he had to make do with teasing those stiff nubs with his fingers.

Katherine bit her lower lip while her legs squirmed in agonizing ecstasy. Her eyes pleaded him, asking him to go all the way, as if she didn’t care if anyone saw them. Not even the Princess. She kept challenging his sanity, urging him to go further while she barely kept herself under control.

Instead, Frein decided to explore a bit further around his main target. It was an impossible task, given how thin he had to spread himself between feeling up Katherine and monitoring Kristel’s continued obliviousness.

His hand found its way between her legs, feeling something stiff and moist. He played around it, teasing it, before pushing in a finger. She reacted as expected, gasping for air and trying her best not to make too much noise. He pulled it out, then pushed in two before she could even recover.

Desperate to keep her voice down, Katherine bit his shoulder as she was incessantly assaulted and teased on both sides. Her hands went all around him as well, grasping at whatever muscle she could cling on to.

Frein decided to quickly give her release, serving her with his fingers until she reached her climax. He was satisfied to see Katherine hold her voice. But her insides desperately clung to his fingers as he pulled them away. He fiddled with the mucus on his fingertips, still thinking of a way of how to get her underwear.

An idea formed in his head while he showed the stringy line of liquid in front of Katherine, asking her to clean his finger. He considered the idea barbaric at best, too simple, but it would get the job done. He wanted a more proper way, so to speak.

Like a hypnotized victim, Katherine cleaned his fingers with her mouth.

He was still at a loss by the time they arrived at the main office building of the Research and Applied Meiyal Department. By then, he had completely taken his hands off Katherine, leaving her still craving despite having one climax. She desperately distracted herself by immersing their hands in Imbelia, using sanitation as an excuse. She even made one for Kristel, who was busy speaking with a receptionist. But really it was all just a ruse to get her scent off Frein’s fingers.

It was a treat observing her try to temper herself back down.

Not to worry, I have time. Frein smiled, content for the time being but eager to continue his work at the first opportunity.

He focused his attention to the main building—or at least, he tried to. Katherine weakly alighted the C.A.R., causing a tinge of worry. But her smile quickly dispelled any uncertainty in the air.

“You didn’t put them back right,” she whispered, asking him to cover her from prying eyes while she fixed her underwear.

“Act cool,” Frein said. “It’s not like we’ve never done this before.”

“You’ve never taken my panties out in public, yet,” Katherine replied with a suspecting tone.

“Everything else aside from that, dumdum.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Get your head in the game.”

“Yeah.”

Katherine finished fixing herself just before Kristel emerged from the building. “I just reserved a rest area for Enza. You lovebirds coming in, or what?”

“Yeah, we’ll be right there,” Frein replied while he presented Katherine his freshly cleaned hand.

The Lady of the Void automatically took his gentlemanly offer while she mumbled to herself about getting her head in the game like it was a mantra she held on to for dear life. She was adorable. Beautiful. And downright helpless. Not once did she complain about his sexual torture, enjoying every minute of it instead.

Frein didn’t mind being torn apart for his attention. There was the kid side of him, excited and anxious for this impromptu field trip at what could be the most informative destination he had ever been in yet. And then there was the maniac who wanted to strip his lover of her clothes down to the last fabric and just ravage her senseless.

Together, in this hide-and-seek, both of them entered the stage with clear goals in mind. First, Frein wanted to learn everything he could from this place, and quite possibly make connections so that he could come back to here whenever he wanted. Second, and quite possibly the more important part, leave this place with Katherine’s underwear in his hand or his Spatiera.

He could tell Katherine was right there with him, finally able to bring herself back together. She could read his excitement.

“Remember,” she started with a whisper. “Let’s try not to get caught.”

“Get caught doing what?” Kristel intervened, whispering as well.

The two weren’t even fazed and smiled at her.

“Get caught stealing,” Frein whispered.

“You’re not stealing anything!” the Princess hissed.

“But Your Highness,” Sam intervened out of nowhere, appearing from Katherine’s pocket as if he was waiting for this moment right from the beginning. “I need upgrades.”

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Kristel didn’t know what to do. Acting like she couldn’t hear anything or see anything was either the safest choice, or the dumbest one.

She had never seen Katherine’s face like that before. So twisted, so desperate.

So in love.

Kristel was thankful when the Lady of the Void suddenly offered her Imbelia to clean her hands. Whatever her reasons were—though they were already obvious in the first place—the Princess still appreciated the convenience.

This way, no one would know that she got herself off from sneakily watching the other two pleasuring each other.

As soon as she got Enza a place to stay and play, she mentally prepared herself, burying the experience in the depths of her memory before going out to fetch the two.

Katherine’s weak and satisfied face was the hardest one to hide.

But Kristel made sure it was well hidden. For if the Lady so much as caught a hint, no doubt she would dig it out of her using Heart’s Will. Maybe she wouldn’t mind. Maybe she would.

Kristel didn’t intend to find out.

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