While Monica was crying on Ivan, Kaguya was glaring at Samantha in the gazebo. They hadn’t said a word, even after Monica had been gone for quite a few minutes.
“Did you enjoy having her pressed up against you?” Kaguya spat angrily, obviously still livid. “Were you happy to have her attention?”
“No way, no how. I don’t like sluts,” Samantha answered, shaking her head. “I just wasn’t sure how to get out of the situation without making it hard for you later. I mean, I can’t just say I’m dating you and so get off, right?”
“There were probably a lot of things you could say.”
Samantha winced and rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, probably, but all I could think of was you and not making things harder for you.”
“Oh? Your eyes seemed to be rather fascinated by her cleavage though, or am I wrong?”
“I mean, boobs are nice?” Samantha answered sheepishly. And then she quickly said, “But like, it was only because they were right in my face! I didn’t know where to look! If I looked at her face, she was probably going to stick her tongue down my throat, right?”
“You’re not a weak person. You could have pushed her off a lot sooner than you did.”
“Well… Probably. I just didn’t think it’d be right to hurt her, at least physically. Trying to seduce someone who seems single isn’t a crime, so I didn’t feel justified in hurting her.” Kaguya stared her down for several minutes before turning quickly and storming away from the gazebo. “Whoa, wait! We should talk about this a little more, don’t you think?”
“I am so done talking to you right now,” Kaguya told her, still walking away. “I will give you time to decide how important I am to you. I thought I made my feelings perfectly clear, and that we were on the same page with this, but I guess not. I’m going to go clear my head and you are going to leave me the hell alone.” The hurt was visible in her eyes as tears came to the surface, but she refused to let the other girl see her cry.
Not knowing what else to say or do, Samantha paused her advance and just watched Kaguya walk away. “I guess I’ll just wait for you to talk to me then,” she called softly, not even sure if she’d be heard but wanted to say it anyway. She kicked her toes at the stone pathway, and then sighed and headed for her dorm to get her bo staff. “I’ll be early but I’m sure Gianna and Souma are already there anyway.”
Staff in hand, she walked towards the blue arena Gianna had signed out for training, spinning it around at times when she had space where no one was nearby. When she got to the arena, she was surprised to see that she was alone, she moved to the center of the sandy floor, collapsing face down as her own stupidity consumed her.
It wasn’t long before Samantha started stretching to prepare for her training, the recent encounter playing through her mind like a bad movie she couldn’t turn off. Kaguya had been right, with each playback she had come up with other things she could have said or done to remove herself from the situation, if only she’d thought of those things then. “Is something wrong?” Gianna asked, causing Samantha to jump from her thoughts.
“What would make you think something is wrong?” she asked, trying to slow down her now sporadic breathing.
Gianna shrugged as she sat opposite her training partner, “Usually, you hear me coming.” Samantha sighed and fell back onto the ground with a groan as Souma twisted out of a shadow shaking a jar of what looked to be folded up pieces of paper. “What’s with the jar?” Gianna asked, looking away from the clearly distraught Samantha.
Souma smiled, “Well, I figured we should take this opportunity to step outside the box.” Gianna and Samantha glanced at each other. “In this jar, there are different weapons and training styles. It will keep you on your toes and prepared for anything.” He explained as he held the jar out to the girl lying on the ground.
She reached in and pulled out a crumpled piece of notebook paper, her face flushing bright read before she crumpled it and threw it at Souma, managing to hit him with it right between the eyes. “Like hell we’ll do any naked wrestling, you pervert!”
Souma clicked his tongue in disappointment, but shook the jar again. “I was hoping that one would stay hidden a little longer. What kind of luck do you have to pull out the one dud I put in right from the start anyway?”
Ignoring him, she decided to give it one more chance and pulled out a new slip of paper. “Well,” she said to Gianna as she showed her the words hand-to-hand combat written on it, “it looks as though we won’t be needing our weapons today.”
Gianna sighed. “Somehow I feel like Souma is still going to get way too much enjoyment out of this. It’s just like his dud suggestion, just without losing any of our clothes.”
“Yeah, and it rankles me to do it if he’ll like it, but it wouldn’t hurt to give it a go anyway. He’s right, which I hate admitting, that training with different methods would be a good idea.”
They put aside their weapons and moved to the center of the arena to stand as they would if it were a sanctioned match. The girls bowed to each other, ready to hone in on a new set of skills. “And… start!” Souma yelled as he dropped into a shadow to come out of one in the stands. He leaned down to pull out a bowl of popcorn he’d hidden there earlier. He dropped into a seat and started to eat while the two started exchanging blows he recognized from different forms of martial arts. “You hit like a girl, you know!”
“You must hit like a child then!” Samantha called back, making Gianna cackle and agree. They swung at each other again, hands and feet both empty and bare as they attacked again and again.
“If you guys are going to be mean to me, I’m just going to leave!” Souma whined.
“Good riddance!” Gianna called back, diving and managing to knock Samantha to the ground and knocking the wind out of her for a moment. The training soon became a wrestling match as the two started rolling around, trying to be the one to keep the other pinned down.
“Woo, yeah! Take your shirts off while you’re at it!” Souma called from a very safe distance. “Actually, rip each other’s shirts. That would be super erotic, you know?”
“Shut the fuck up, shadow freak!” Gianna yelled, distracted as she tried to get out of a hold that Samantha had put her in. Souma just laughed, and then realized there was someone at the entrance to the arena. He focused his attention there, and gulped before falling into the shadows under the chairs.
After several minutes, Samantha groaned from under a rather complex hold Gianna put her in, and Gianna whooped. “Got ya!”
“What the hell is this?”
Both of the girls in the arena froze and looked towards the voice, seeing a frowning and very angry looking Kaguya. But Samantha could tell that it was more than just anger, Kaguya looked hurt for some reason too.
Gianna let Samantha up when she pushed her off, falling back onto her butt to watch the drama she was sure was going to explode in front of her any moment now. She turned to where Souma had been sitting, only to realize he’d dropped into a shadow and was hiding.
“Coward,” she whispered to him, looking down into her own shadow where he was currently sitting.
“Hey, Kaguya,” Samantha said happily as she jogged tiredly over to the other girl. She went in for a hug, and wasn’t surprised when Kaguya quickly avoided her. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to hug me right now either.”
Kaguya crossed her arms over her chest and snarled, “What were you doing rolling around on the ground with that woman? Earlier you were entangled with Monica, and now it’s with Gianna!"
“Wait, what happened with Monica?” Souma asked, popping his head out next to Gianna and leaving quickly when his sister’s death glare turned to him. Gianna rolled her eyes at him, and then turned back to enjoy the drama unfolding before her.
Samantha blinked a few times, and tilted her head a little. “Yeah I can understand why you’re acting all suspicious after that whole thing with slutface, but this is just training. We were doing hand-to-hand, and it just evolved into grappling after a while.” She looked at Gianna, who was grinning like a cat with a canary, and narrowed her eyes. Then she turned back to Kaguya with a small smile. “Do you and Gianna not get along?”
“It’s not that we don’t get along, it’s just… Was it really just training?” Kaguya asked, her voice a little softer even if her eyes were still hard, looking at something around Samantha and not meeting her eyes directly.
Samantha nodded and pulled the bottom of her shirt up to wipe off her face, not seeing Kaguya's eyes drop and face flush. Gianna didn't miss it, though, and started chuckling. “Yes, we were just training.” Samantha gently touched the other girl’s face, causing her to look up. “I mean, Gianna is cool and all, but she’s really not my type like you are.”
“Whaddya mean, not your type?” Gianna yelled. “I’m Italian, we’re everyone’s type!”
Samantha rolled her eyes and smiled longingly at Kaguya. “See? She’s way too narcissistic for me.” That got a small smile out of Kaguya. “Are you jealous?”
Kaguya narrowed her eyes, smirking just a little “Why would I be jealous?” she asked, pressing against Samantha boldly. “You were just training, right?”
Samantha’s mouth went dry, feeling way more seduced by that one movement from Kaguya than she did the entire time Monica had been within ten feet of her. “I’m just training with her, that’s all. The only person I wanna be intimate with is you, Kaguya,” she whispered, watching as Kaguya’s face got bright red. “Come on. If you don’t mind that I stink a little, we can go get a bite to eat. I’m sure Souma wouldn’t mind bringing us some food to the gazebo.”
Remembering what had just happened at the gazebo made Kaguya frown, and Samantha winced when she saw that. After a moment, Souma jumped up beside them and said, “Why not hang out at the Thomas dorms? You guys can have a secret rendezvous in Samantha’s bedroom. Maybe you can even let me watch?”
Samantha pushed his face aside. “Dude, if you’re that desperate to look at a naked woman, I’m sure Monica would oblige. But I’m not letting you peek in on anything I’m doing naked, alone or with Kaguya.”
“I wanted to watch, not catch a disease.”
“Use a hazmat suit then.” Souma seemed to ponder this idea before getting punched in the arm by Gianna.
“That’s your damn sister, man. I knew you were disturbed, but this takes the cake.” Laughter came from the women in the room.
“If you guys are just gonna abuse me, I’ll just peace out,” Souma told them, pretending to be offended before dropping into a shadow.
“It’s kinda creepy how he just appears and disappears like that,” Samantha said after a moment before turning to Gianna. “We’re out, then. See ya next time, Gi.”
Gianna wrinkled her nose at her. “Why are you shortening my name like that?” Then she waved it off and shook her head. “Forget it, just get out of here. Enjoy your date, you too.”
“Thanks,” Samantha told her, eyes already on Kaguya as she led her out of the arena. “You’re kinda cute when you’re all jealous. Scary, but it’s like a sexy scary.”
“I thought I told you I wasn’t jealous,” Kaguya mumbled, blushing hard as they walked towards the Thomas dorms. No one was in the common room when they arrived since it was dinner time, so Samantha led the way to the kitchen to make food for the two of them.
“It’s nothing fancy, but will a sandwich do?” Kaguya slipped into a chair positioned alongside the counter and nodded, watching Samantha gather the ingredients from the fridge with hooded eyes, enjoying the way her pants curved along her backside.
“A sandwich is fine,” she answered, tilting her head a little to enjoy the view a little longer before Samantha straightened up and put the fixings on the counter space. They were silent for several minutes as she worked, and then Kaguya said, “What made you guys work on hand-to-hand?”
“Your brother had the bright idea of putting some training concepts in a jar, and apparently hid some more… questionable slips of paper in the jar hoping we’d just go along with it, I suppose. While his motivations are questionable, the idea wasn’t a bad one so we decided to give it a shot.”
Kaguya hummed, frowning as she considered the idea of Souma and questionable ideas. “Let me guess, there was at least one involving nudity?”
“Got it in one!”
“I will have to have a talk with him about trying his antics with my-” she paused and blushed, which made Samantha look over at her until she realized why Kaguya stopped her sentence and also began to blush. They hadn’t ever actually defined their relationship.
Samantha cleared her throat. “He’ll have to start fixing that habit of his if he’s actually serious about Thea, since she’ll castrate him if he goes too far.”
“I hadn’t realized he was interested in your stepsister.”
“They went one one date that I’m aware of.” Samantha finished making the sandwiches, and after plating them led Kaguya up the stairs and to her dorm room. She held out the sandwiches, and Kaguya took them, before she could unlock her room and wave her in.
Kaguya took a long moment to look around the room, placing both plates on the desk before running a finger along a bookshelf to look at some of the titles of books and awards that were placed in various locations on the shelves. She smiled wistfully at a few of the titles, recognizing them as ones she had also read.
After circling the room, she turned toward Samantha and saw her sitting on her bed and watching with a faint smile. After considering for a moment, she walked over and straddled her lap to lean against the front of her with her arms laying over Samantha’s shoulders almost lazily as she smirked at Samantha who seemed shocked for a moment before laughing and wrapping her arms around her to hold her close.
“See, now this is what I like,” Samantha mumbled next to her ear as she released the hold to move her hands slightly up under the folds of Kaguya’s black skirt. Her skin of her thigh was velvet underneath her calloused fingers. “I am sorry for upsetting you earlier. That was never my intention.”
“I forgive you, this time.” Kaguya answered as she planted a soft kiss on Samantha’s lips.
“You’re adorable,” she responded, heat rising to her cheeks as Kaguya snuggled into her, lips moving gently over her neck. “Hey, cut it out, that tickles!” Samantha giggled, lifting the other girl’s chin to press her lips against hers. It started off slow, but their pace quickened as Kaguya entangled her fingers into Samantha’s short hair. She inhaled a quick breath, desire rushing through her body. She moved her hands up the other girls thighs and around to her backside, the taste of her kiss was intoxicating.
After a few minutes, Samantha pulled away nearly breathless. “God, as much as I’m enjoying this, I think we need to settle down.”
Kaguya sighed, hesitantly lifting her body off of the other girl. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She replied, standing up to fix her disheveled clothing. Once satisfied, she walked over to the desk to grab the sandwiches and handed one to Samantha. As she ate she couldn’t help but think about the other girl’s body, the way she smelled like cedar, the way she tasted like candy, and the way she belonged to her. The possessive feeling growing inside of her was something new and something she would have to be careful of.