Chapter 31: Pair of Hearts

   While they’d only met the day before, Stephanie already felt incredibly attached to Kelly. The dark-haired girl with the alluring smile always bolstered her confidence, encouraged her, provoked her, even—gently urged her on towards these things she wouldn’t have been able to imagine a few short days ago. In her very most vulnerable intimate moment with Brian, Kelly had been right there with her, holding her steady with comfort and support. Kelly had been there for her, been there for both of them, and her presence with them meant something to Stephanie.

   And, now she has to go? Just like that? Stephanie worried her lip, feeling terribly unresigned at her friend’s abrupt departure.

   “So…” Brian began, shifting awkwardly.

   “Yeah, um,” Stephanie began, not knowing what to say, either.

   “Hah,” Brian chuckled, shaking his head. “I was afraid this would happen—that things’d get... you know, weird between us, soon as Kelly wasn’t here.”

   “No, it’s, just… well,” Stephanie blustered.

   “Here—let’s go this way,” Brian suggested, steering Stephanie in a different direction than the one Kelly had gone. “We’ll give Kelly her space to go do her own thing. You wanted a pic of that Solar Bear cosplayer, right?”

   “Um... yes!” Stephanie gave him a sheepish smile. She’d honestly already forgotten about it, and she instead sent a last glance in Kelly’s direction before they were worming their way through the throng of attendees again.

   The Solar Bear was huge, a cosplayer wearing a hulking white fursuit nearly seven feet tall, patiently picking his way along the convention hall. With as often as he was stopped by others for photos, especially people with children, it wasn’t hard at all for them to catch up to him, and when they were standing in front of the big fluffy bear Stephanie couldn’t suppress a giddy smile.

   “H-he’s so cute!” She exclaimed under her breath, shyly wringing her phone in her hands. Rather than a mascot-style costume that resembled human form, this one really had the figure of a bear—it had a realistic shaped head defined by the shape of its snout rather than an anthropomorphized face, and the girth of its neck seemed to form a natural slope all the way down to where it’s foreclaws began rather than forming angular humanoid shoulders. A pair of teenage girls had been posing for a photo with the Solar Bear and just trotted away, but Stephanie found herself hesitating, too timid to ask to do the same.

   “‘Scuse me, can she get her picture with you?” Brian spoke up, gently pushing Stephanie forward by her shoulders.

   The giant bear from Monster Battlers turned towards her in a lumbering motion and then spread his giant white paws, inviting a hug. Excitedly stumbling forward, Stephanie couldn’t help but giggle as she was enveloped by the cuddly creature’s arms.

   “One more, please—Steph, look this way for a picture!” Brian chuckled, and Stephanie turned to see him holding up his phone for them.

   I should have given him my phone! Stephanie flushed with embarrassment all over again as she realized she was still clutching her own phone in her gloved hands. Though she wanted to hide her face, she turned her smile towards Brian.

   “Got it! Thanks, Solar Bear,” Brian gave the cosplayer a thumbs-up. “You look incredible.”

   “Thanks you,” Stephanie blurted out, feeling her face go beet-red. Thanks you? “I mean, uh, th-thank you!” She was released from the fluffy white embrace, and she hurriedly skipped back over to Brian.

   “Second one came out good. Take a look,” Brian offered, turning his phone towards her.

   She blinked at the screen for a moment, almost failing to recognize herself with the unfamiliar bright pink hair.

   “Thank you! It’s—it’s a good picture.”

   Getting her picture taken with the Solar Bear hadn’t been an ordeal at all. Her anxiety usually meant interaction with a stranger required mustering up a certain amount of nerve, a level of tension. It was something she was used to having to work herself up for, while she mentally prepared the words she planned to say. All so that she hopefully wouldn’t make a fool of herself.

   Instead, Brian had read her hesitation and acted on it right away, facilitating everything so that the situation played out smoothly, naturally. While it may have been a simple small gesture on his part, the relief and assurance she felt from it had those crackling pink flames warming her inside.

   It’s different, Stephanie bit her lip, trying to keep from latching onto him in a random hug. Everything’s different.

   “What is it?” He asked.

   “L-let me fix your collar,” Stephanie stuttered out, averting her eyes to the task of re-straightening the neck of his Darkmask bodysuit. She wasn’t able to stifle her slight smile as she pretended to focus on righting the already neat lines of his cosplay.

   “Was it messed up?” Brian chuckled.

   “...No,” Stephanie answered honestly, her smile breaking into a grin before she could help herself. “I just, I… just wanted to.”

   The honest admission probably wasn’t what Kelly intended, but Stephanie continued fidgeting with his collar for a moment anyways, feeling her cheeks glow. Standing right in his personal space, almost too close to him, should have been awkward and discomforting. Instead, it was somehow everywhere she ever wanted to be.

   “Well, thanks.” Although he was holding his helmet and had his Komari-mart bag hanging from his wrist next to it, Brian still managed to put an arm around her, and the flames burning within her leapt up higher and brighter. “What do you wanna do now?”

   “Um,” Finally daring to look up at his face again, Stephanie’s mouth opened as if to answer, but she really had no idea what they should do next—it felt like she was barely keeping up with everything. I don’t know what to do—this feeling, it just keeps growing!

   “Can I be completely honest?” Brian asked.

   “Please,” Stephanie nodded quickly, turning her full attention to him and preparing to hang on his every word.

   “There’s this part of me that feels like I’m wasting your time with us just wandering around like this. Like, I should be showing you around the panels, or taking you to events you want to see, or something. But, at the same time…”

   “At the same time?” Stephanie prompted.

   “...At the same time, it’s also like I just want to spend time with you, without any those distractions.” There was an individual intensity in the way he was looking at her, an undivided focus that made her feel like she was standing with him alone in an empty lobby, rather than boxed in by hundreds of AnimeCon attendees.

   “Y-yeah?” The innocent honesty in Stephanie’s sweet expression became heated at the attention, her face flushing with raw, almost palpable desire. The self-control she was so certain of after all of these years nearly gave way beneath the heady weight of his gaze, and for a few brief moments all she could think in response was how badly she wanted him.

   Although the words shocked her speechless, those searching green eyes of his seemed to see it all, to know, and so her hesitant, yearning look slowly blossomed into a smile as bright as a sunrise. I keep thinking about last night. I’m thinking of you. Of us. Us taking this, whatever this is between us, and going further and further…

   Blushing furiously, she was unable to say any of that out loud. Instead, she simply nodded.

   The two walked on together below the atrium, where the smacking noises of boffer weapons and occasional yells were still sounding out, and then slowly picked their way through the crowds across one of lower promenades. This concourse was lined on both sides with long planters of tiled brick, filled with large decorative plants. Here and there along its length, attendees were using the planter edge as a bench.

   “This morning, you said…” Stephanie began, embarrassed, “that I—um, this, th-the, us meeting, was like, um. That, that I was like… an anime dream girl?”

   “Yes?” Brian nodded, still waiting for her question.

   “What did you mean?!” Stephanie asked with an exasperated smile.

   “Hmm… in anime, it’s the genre cliche, that a beautiful girl will fall out of the sky—sometimes literally—and into the protagonist’s lap, into his life. She’s really, like, magic. Mysterious and fascinating things happen around her, you know, draw the ordinary, average guy into some big adventure that changes everything.”

   “W-well yes, I know all of that,” Stephanie flustered. “I watch anime! But, but, what does any of that have to do with me?”

   “Stephanie—” Brian quirked an eyebrow at her, “how did we meet?”

   “Th-that, uh, was…”

   “And, there’s also how beautiful you are, how cool you are, and this… whatever’s happening with your hair. Turning a different color when you get kissed? That’s like, right out of an anime story,” Brian decided, grinning at her.

   “I’m—I’m not, though, I’m just… me. Th-there’s nothing cool about me, at all.”

   “That’s not true.”

   “Yeah?” She asked shyly. “Then, wh-what’s so cool about me, huh?”

   “I think what makes you so cool is how brave you are.”

   “N-no, no,” Stephanie stammered out quickly, and her face fell. “No. I’m not brave though, at—at all. I’m, like, I’m terrified, al-almost all of the time.”

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   “Well, yeah,” he nodded. “Wouldn’t think you were brave, if you weren’t. Take Kelly, for example. She really doesn’t care what anyone thinks—so she’s bold, but not really brave. When I see you fighting with your fear all the time... it really makes me proud of you when you win out.”

   “I’m-I’m definitely not beautiful, though!” Stephanie argued, blushing fiercely. “And, uh, y-you’re not average or ordinary, like you were saying, at all! You don’t get to say that, then.”

   “How about we compromise, have ourselves a truce,” Brian offered, letting go of her hand and turning to face her, letting his fingers fall to her side. Her eyes went wide. “How about... you don’t doubt me when I tell you you’re beautiful, and in return, I’ll never call myself average or ordinary. Deal?”

   “...Deal,” Stephanie agreed, unable to look away from him.

   “Stephanie,” Brian wet his lips and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You’re beautiful.”

   “Ohh?” she quietly breathed, her eyes dazed and her pink lips parting. Before she could even dream of denying his words, he’d pulled her into a hug.

   Blinking with surprise and smiling despite herself, she hugged him back. She’d never felt quite so safe and satisfied as right here in his arms—but there was also a pink flash of adrenal excitement that spiked through her. She’d lived for years with social anxiety, but she was realizing that the suffocating, directionless, and uncomfortable pressure she was so accustomed to was now building up instead into a very different kind of tension.

   It was a subtle, supple tension, an intimate and sometimes sexual tension. It was attraction and anticipation, a thrumming readiness, an eager urge for physicality; to touch him, to put her hands on him and never let go. That habitual stiff, anxious rise of her shoulders was already beginning to melt beneath the blazing pink heat she felt rolling through her.

   Can’t stop getting all... turned on around him! Stephanie blushed furiously, unable to deny it to herself. She was warm and wet with arousal simply by being in his proximity, and whenever he flirted with her—th-this is flirting, right?—little pink explosions were set off in her brain, making it impossible for her to think straight.

   All of the sudden, she wanted to attack him. There was something going on between them, and she wanted to explore what it was. Kelly’s notions about what to do with Brian didn’t seem as absurd anymore—she really did want to be all over him, in an immediate and bodily way that she’d never dared to consider with the opposite sex. The boundaries that had boxed her in were gone, around Brian at least. She wanted to play around, to grab him by his shoulders and grapple him, wrestle with him. To strain her muscles with exertion, test the sexy solid-ness of his masculine frame.

   Oh, no. I really DO want to attack him. Oh, whoa. Stephanie wanted to fight Brian... and she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to win. Frantic pink flames fluttered dangerously through her mind as she explored this strange new compulsion she felt.

   Maybe she would let out a giggle as he grabbed her by the wrists, but she would fail to twist out of his grasp. First she imagined she’d try to pull away from him—a futile exercise, against his strength. She would valiantly push against him a few times, struggling against him as he pinned her down, before laughing and kissing him in a sloppy way. With him holding her in place, there was no desire or reason to imagine escaping.

   A smile would blossom across her face, her lips parting with lust, and she would start kissing him and never stop, spreading her slender legs to wrap around him. Then, they would fight it out all over again, pressing their bodies against one another in fervent abandon as they each vied for a superior position. It wouldn’t matter who won, so long as they drew each other into the soft tangle bodies, flushed with heat and skin sliding slick down there as he—

   W-wait wait wait! Stephanie blithely realized, turning away from Brian as blood rushed to her face. Isn’t that basically just… sex? Am I actually just wanting to… go the whole way, to do that with him?! It was as if an instinctive need had been woken up from deep within her, and her body, very obviously lubricating with excitement, was able to tell her exactly what she wanted.

   “You—you know,” Stephanie swallowed nervously. “You never showed me, what you thought of m-my... my butt…”

   “I didn’t,” Brian warned, exhaling slowly in an uneasy breath. “Yet. You should, uh. Be careful what you ask for?”

   “...I will,” she promised, and she gave him a serious nod that shook her fluffy pink tufts of hair. “Is it—would it be, um, bothersome? For me to ask things…?”

   “No, no,” he said quickly. “Ask me anything you want.”

   “Okay,” she smiled, and her mind was already racing through what felt like a billion topics all at once. “Let me, um, think how to phrase... what I want to ask.”

   Behind one of these big groupings of people, in some secluded alcove, he could show her what he thought of her butt. Her heart pounding with excitement at the thought. How would he show her? Direct her to stand, gloved hands splayed out against the wall, like he was frisking her? Maybe he would just crouch down to ‘fix’ her costume for her, make sure those tall red boots were tugged up properly to pinch the soft, plush shapes of her pale thighs. His brushing lips could follow the gentle curve of her hamstring up to the round globes of her bottom, so that she could tremble when he nibbled, or even wriggle, as his thumbs drew up on either side—just beneath the crescents of her cheeks—and slightly spread them?

   He could take me somewhere private and just... bend me over, Stephanie thought, an intimate longing trapped deep within her eyes. Spank me. Play with me. Whatever he wants, I want. Want to forget all of these pointless little worries, disregard everything else and just…

   In her imagination, Brian took a mouthful of luscious thigh, gently pinching her pale skin between his teeth. He’d squeeze her trembling ass and watch the ample flesh bulge between his fingers. Pull her panties all the way down to around her ankles and then kiss her, tongue and lick her from behind until her knees were knocking together and she was soaked sloppy with his saliva. Longing for his every touch, reacting to his tiniest movement. I want him to just take me however he wants and never ever stop. If Kelly hadn’t—

   Stephanie’s expression fell, and her pace faltered a step.

   “I’m… worried about Kelly,” she admitted. “A little.”

   “About Kelly?” Brian arched an eyebrow.

   “Yeah. What do you think about her?” Stephanie asked, curious.

   “Kelly? I didn’t like her at all, at first,” he answered candidly. “She seemed—I don’t know. Full of herself? Like, she was a little too quick to just… kinda dismiss us as geeks. I didn’t like her.”

   “Really?” Stephanie didn’t necessarily disagree with his perspective, but still found herself surprised. “Wh-why did, um, then, but—you invited her to stay with you anyway?”

   “Because of you,” he said. “I thought, you know, you’d feel safer if she was there, too. Since it’s like, you barely know me—I didn’t want you thinking you were going to be alone in a situation, or in a position where I was gonna take advantage of you, or anything. She seemed like she was looking out for you, so I figured you’d be more comfortable with me offering you a room if she was there too, to keep me honest.

   “Hah. Instead, things went, like, the opposite way?” He winced. “I guess?”

   “No, no,” Stephanie patted her gloved hands on his chest. “I’m glad she was there with us. I really am. I feel like… maybe she did keep you honest? She um, she kept both of us honest, i-is what I mean to say.”

   “Oh?” Brian laughed.

   “Yeah, it’s—um, the things that happened, the last night, it, um, I don’t think things would have gone so perfectly, if she hadn’t—if she hadn’t been there too,” Stephanie mumbled, tracing a small circle on her own arm with her opposite fingertip. “If that makes sense?”

   “You really think so?”

   “I—I do,” Stephanie confirmed. “Do you still not like her?”

   “She’s grown on me,” Brian said. “Wouldn’t have kissed her last night—not even on a dare—if I didn’t like her.”

   “...Good,” Stephanie decided with a nod.

   “Of course, I was still pretty surprised walking in on you two kissing this morning,” Brian said.

   “Y-yeah,” Stephanie giggled, looking away in embarrassment. “Me too.”

   The thing between Kelly and I—it isn’t attraction. Well, not exactly. Instead, I simply feel… curiosity? Some kind of interest? Stephanie wondered, a little conflicted on the nature of her strange relationship with Kelly.

   She’d never entertained thoughts about kissing another girl before, yet... when confronted with things earlier this morning, the same-sex aversion Stephanie expected wasn’t really there, either. Not with Kelly. She’d become unexpectedly, maybe even inexplicably comfortable with her. I don’t think I desire her—not necessarily—but appreciating her, admiring her with kisses or even... exploring touches doesn’t sound so bad. Is that... weird? I think I might be turning weird?

   “Am I just…” Brian began, giving her a half-grin, “you know, gettin’ in the way between you two?”

   “Y-you’re, um, you can’t say that, th-that’s not fair!” She squeaked out. When he smiled at her with those mottled green eyes of his, his very presence seemed to demand her full attention, light her body up, igniting errant wildfires for miles across the jumbled terrain of her thoughts.

   “What?” He asked with a grin. “What’s not fair about that?”

   “Because… um…” She felt her face frozen in a stupid smile as she gazed at him, speechless, her heartbeat coursing through her. Because I…

   “Well, not gonna press you, if you don’t want to talk about it,” Brian assured her with an amused smile. “Honestly, maybe it’s better if instead of telling me, you could show me, instead?”

   Show you… ? While she wasn’t sure if that made much sense, it seemed incredibly appealing all the same, and as they strode along hand-in-hand among the crowds of AnimeCon attendees, Stephanie couldn’t help but giddily think about how they must seem like a couple to everyone.

   Which is silly… isn’t it? We’re not a couple. Are we? We HAVE kissed a few times, though… and then, um. Last night was… that was something. Does that kind of make us like a couple? Even if we’re not officially dating? Right? Does this count as a date? Something like a date? What am I, to him? Am I… his girl, kinda? A little bit?

   “Y-you’re teasing me,” She finally accused, realizing she’d been in a bit of a daze. She was almost too embarrassed to meet his eyes. “How would I… how would I show you?”

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