Her Anxieties

The screening-party-turned-revelation celebration wrapped up around nine in the evening. Chihiro, Miyako, Haruto, Toki, and Ashley left the apartment, leaving Itsuki alone with Nayuta Kani. She sat next to Itsuki, sidling up to him.

“What a surprise, huh?”

“Yeah, it was,” Itsuki replied.

“I’ve got one scary new rival to compete against now, huh?”

She tried to make it sound like a matter-of-fact observation, but on the inside, she was nervous. She stole glances at Itsuki’s face, but he just looked blankly back at her.

“Rival?” he asked.

“Well, Chi’s your little sister! Don’t you want to marry her or something? …And not me?”

She had acted serene about it all evening, but ever since Chihiro made her revelation, Nayuta’s heart had been full of anxieties.

Itsuki gave her a wry grin. “Didn’t we cover all this when Aoba came around? My sister’s one thing, but my girlfriend’s another.”

He had indeed said this, back when the high school novelist Aoba Kasamatsu came over and buttered him up by calling him “Big Bro” repeatedly. Nayuta promptly came in to play defense, and Itsuki had assuaged her by describing how lovers and sisters occupied different parts of his brain.

“But if Ao’s a little-sister character to you, then what about Chi? She’s a real little sister, so…”

“That’s all the more reason why,” Itsuki declared to the still-anxious Nayuta. “Chihiro’s not just a character—she’s real family, so I could never look at her from a lover’s standpoint. That’s where I draw the line. Real life is different from novels. And the main heroine in my real-life story is you and you alone.”

“Itsuki…!” Nayuta’s eyes grew glossy as she hugged him, her emotions surging.

“Wh-whoa, Kanikou—”

She silenced Itsuki by inserting her tongue into his mouth. Itsuki, answering the call, entwined his own around it. And once the deep kiss had left both of them gasping for breath, Nayuta looked at Itsuki, lust melting into her eyes, and whispered sweetly to him.

“I love you, Itsuki…so let’s do lots of stuff you can’t do with your sister, okay?”