> Kaguya: Come join me for breakfast?

Samantha woke up on Monday to a wonderful text and hurriedly got ready for the day, taking a little extra care with her appearance. Once she was ready, she went across the hall to wake up Thea and tell her what she was doing.

“I’m going to go eat breakfast with Kaguya,” Samantha said after Thea was up and starting to get ready. “Which means I’m not going to be eating with you and Emmett.”

Thea frowned but shook away whatever she was thinking about Samantha’s news, instead saying, “That’s fine.”

She quickly made her way outside, and then started to run towards the gazebo while making sure she went the back way to avoid being seen. When she arrived, she saw Kaguya sitting there with a small basket and grinned before she jumped into the gazebo. Kaguya turned and smiled broadly.

“Hey, you,” Samantha said, lowering her voice a little and watching Kaguya’s smile widen further. “I was kinda surprised when I saw your text.” She watched as Kaguya’s cheeks took on a little color.

“I felt like repaying you for our outing on Saturday,” Kaguya mumbled a little shyly.

Samantha hummed and sat next to her. “Our outing, huh,” she chuckled. “Alright, I guess I’ll refrain from calling it a date, even though I’m pretty sure that if you kiss at the end that it definitely constitutes a date.”

Kaguya’s face flushed with even more color before she cleared her throat and offered the basket to Samantha. “Stop that, let’s eat.”

Samantha laughed as she opened the basket, humming as she took out a few containers including bacon, eggs, sausage and some freshly cut strawberries. She divvied up the food evenly onto some plates she pulled from the basket and handed the first plate to Kaguya, who gathered a napkin and plastic fork from inside the basket.The girls ate in silence until their food was gone, and then packed up the remains before the basket was set aside. Samantha stretched out her legs, and put an arm around Kaguya’s back, letting it sit on the chipped railing that surrounded the gazebo.

After several more moments of silence, Kaguya whispered, “So if there’s a kiss at the end, that means it was a date, right?”

“Huh?” Samantha looked over at her, just as Kaguya moved in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. They separated, and saw that both of their faces had gone really red. Samantha was faster on the recovery, clearing her throat even though her face stayed red, and said, “So I guess this was a date, huh?”

Kaguya just nodded and leaned into her for another kiss. They stayed entangled for a moment, just enjoying the feel of each other as their lips moved gently together. After a few blissful minutes, Kaguya snuggled into Samantha’s side with a delicate sigh.

“What did you do yesterday?” Samantha asked quietly after a moment. “I didn’t want to bother you, but I was a little surprised I didn’t hear from you at all until this morning.”

Kaguya wrinkled her nose cutely, and sighed. “I had to go to one of my father’s events yesterday, which meant I couldn’t really pay any attention to my phone at all,” she grumbled as she ran her fingers over Samantha’s thigh softly. “Apparently it was the night all the old guys decided to bring their young proteges so I had to entertain a bunch of young men who couldn’t keep their eyes above my shoulders.” she explained with an added eye roll.

That was annoying, and Samantha frowned deeply as she fought with her feelings of jealousy. The strong signs of it in her aura made Kaguya sorry to cause it yet happy to see. After a moment of searching for the right words, Samantha smirked, “I guess I can’t fault them. It’s a nice view when the eyes wander downwards.” Her hungry eyes traveling down Kaguya’s body and back up again.

Kaguya blushed, though she couldn’t help but feel pleased by the statement. Feeling a little emboldened, she teased, “I don’t mind when you do it,” and looked up to watch the other girl’s face turn bright red and look away. She could feel her heart pounding, and leaned up to place a few gentle kisses along the unguarded neck exposed to her which led to Samantha making a high pitched noise before turning back and, after a little hesitation, capturing her lips for a short kiss.

“What kinds of things did you talk about with them?” Samantha asked, her voice a little lower. And Kaguya smirked at the overwhelming amount of jealousy in her aura before closing off her ability.

She laid her head on Samantha’s shoulder and hummed as though thinking. “We mostly talked about them, with each of them competing about who has done more with their family’s money and who has the best lineup of good deeds. I just had to say a few flattering words, like ‘that’s amazing’ and ‘I’m impressed,’ It wasn’t hard to keep them talking, but it was hard to pay attention to what they were saying.”

“I suppose you’d have some experience if you’ve had to go to quite a few of these events.”

“Yes, I do, unfortunately.” With a small smile, Samantha dropped down and then laid out with her arms crossed behind her head so that she could get comfortable. “What did you do yesterday?” Kaguya asked as she laid down next to her and snuggled into her side, humming with approval when one of Samantha’s arms moved to wrap around her.

“Let’s see… I had to fend off Thea’s questioning for most of the day,” Samantha admitted with a sigh. “I did pretty good until she dragged Emmett into my room so they could double up on the questioning and keep me from lying about anything.”

“How does having both of them keep you from lying?”

After a moment of hesitation, Samantha admitted, “Emmett’s ability tells him when people are lying. I’ve grown up with it, so it’s harder for me to tell a lie. Which means dodging the questions can get difficult too, because it limits what I can say to get out of answering.”

“It must be hard on Emmett to know when people are lying,” Kaguya said softly.

“It is hard, yeah. He struggles to make friends, especially after they find out he can tell when they’re lying. If they tell white lies he can usually ignore it enough that he won’t say something, but when someone tells a really big lie it can hurt him to hear it and he can’t help but say something.”

They stayed quiet for a long time after that, Kaguya reaching out to playfully run her fingers over Samantha’s abdomen over the shirt. It was starting to ride up, and she considered helping it along its journey so she could touch the skin that was beginning to expose itself. Before she could though, she realized that she could hear soft and even snores, and looked up to see that Samantha had dozed off.

“I wonder how late they kept her up talking about the date,” Kaguya mumbled, then had another thought. “I hope she didn’t stay up late to wait for me to contact her, or trying to decide if she should go ahead and contact me.” She reached up to run a finger over the slightly gapped lips, and smiled. “Next time I’ll have to make sure she knows when I’m at an event, and when I get back.”

With Samantha sleeping beside her, she snuggled into her and continued rubbing her fingers along her body. She couldn’t stop eyeing the exposed skin on her stomach and finally she couldn’t stop the curiosity. She started with one finger, then two, rubbing softly along the smooth skin just below her belly button. Samantha’s bare skin was so soft and Kaguya’s mind started to wonder.

Suddenly, a voice from the shadows startled her from her less than pure thoughts, “So this is what you have been doing.” Kaguya sat up quickly, careful to not wake Samantha. She placed her finger to her lips to quiet her brother. She composed herself as she stood and walked outside of the gazebo.

“Will you please be quiet!” she chastised in a hushed tone.

Souma rose a brow and dropped down, somehow not making a sound as his feet hit the floor, before walking out of the gazebo with her. “You seem pretty serious about her,” he said, sounding almost nonchalant.

“I think I am,” she answered, a little uneasy but quickly shaking it off. “No, I definitely am serious.”

“If dear ol’ dad finds out, what will you do? He’s not going to approve of you being with a woman, and especially not a Thomas.”

“I know, and I haven’t quite figured out what I’m going to do about it yet.”

“He’ll kill her somehow, Kags.”

She shook her head. “Maybe he will, and maybe he’ll just try to convince me to change my ways and see a man. I don’t think he’d go straight to killing though.”

Souma sighed but shrugged. “I guess, if you really think that’s all he’d do.”

“Of course. I have a duty as his daughter and heir. I’ve known him a lot longer than you. I can’t imagine he’d kill her just because I have an interest in her,” she told him. She was watching Samantha carefully with a small smile.

Souma knew that their father would react a lot worse than Kaguya thought, but she wouldn’t hear what he was telling her at this point. She was loyal to her father, almost too loyal. While it was obvious how much she cared for Samantha, she was still on her father’s leash. He wouldn’t be able to convince her otherwise until she saw him as he did.

They stood there for a moment longer in silence before she offered Souma a small smile and started back towards the gazebo. He watched as she laid back down next to Samantha, and the latter woke up confused for a moment before she smiled at Kaguya and gave her a tender kiss. After a moment, he turned and walked away before disappearing into a shadow.