The Book of Firsts

Thirty-Four

After the snow of Québec City, Helios in January felt quite temperate. I added a pullover, scarf and gloves to my morning prep, but by the middle of the day felt free to tuck gloves and scarf into my bag. Monday was a constant stream of catch-up and gossip, with a visit to the faculty office for me to check the arrangements for students who had missed the exams. I would not have any free afternoons for the rest of the week.

Tuesday brought me Kyou, posture particularly upright as he poured me a steaming mug of tea, his expression cool and distant. I sat down, considering him curiously, then spotted the pair of white underpants with blue embroidered flowers neatly folded beside the teapot. Picking them up, I tucked them into my backpack.

"Rin enjoyed himself?"

"Far too much. Bran ended up hunting down Lania’s Instagram to confirm you weren’t in Banff."

I grinned, and saw from Kyou’s narrowed eyes that I would pay for it, but that only made me smile even more.

"Did Sirocco show up to share the fireside rug?"

That distracted Kyou from his plans to roast me. "You saw the forum discussions of where we were?"

"To my confusion. People were posting that they’d seen you in Saint Moritz."

"Our family rented us a chalet. And we obligingly headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Switzerland, but met up with some actors Rin had found. They took our flights and we took theirs."

"You hired doubles?" I snorted into laughter, and covered my mouth. After a calming breath and a sip of tea, I went on: "You actually found three people who look the same as you?"

"A rough resemblance, no more. They left bags at the chalet, booked in at three separate hotels under their own names, and only met up occasionally. Enough to convince those who saw them at a distance that we were there, but whenever anyone came close they’d find a stranger. It helped that this is a season with a lot of head gear. Sirocco still managed to track down Rin’s double multiple times, and had a very frustrating time of it. The third time, the double delivered a lovely little I promise you I am so not interested speech to her in front of a small but entertained audience. That hasn’t shown up on the forums yet, but the fake Bran was there and recorded it, so it will."

"A neat revenge," I said, approvingly. "Not actually harmful, but endlessly annoying to someone with an agenda, a strong sense of entitlement, and a lot of pride."

"It doesn’t quite balance years of trying to put Lania in some imaginary place, but it was well worth doing. Meanwhile, Lania seems to have thoroughly enjoyed visiting every bar in Québec City with you."

"I was teaching her how to not get drunk in social situations," I said cheerfully. "I think I’ll go back there one day, if only for the poutine and maple taffy. And the epic sledding."

"How ill were you, exam week? Are you going to switch to the school residences now?"

I grimaced. "I was ill enough that I would probably have called someone next time I woke up. And I am now avoiding the school counsellor, who wants to sit down with me and no doubt tell me to be sensible."

"You’re so very against living at the school?"

"The forums are full of the fun hijinks to be had at the residences. Some of which sound entertaining enough, but not if I can’t get away from it. I can be social, but I really value quiet time. It’s given me a lot to think about for next year’s accommodation, since I was considering the residences at Helios U, but if anything, they sound even more distracting."

He nodded. "We passed on the idea for any number of reasons. If you’re thinking of renting in the area, you’d better start looking early, because it’s highly competitive."

"I’ll probably find somewhere further out, but along the tramline. Though even there, I gather there’s a fairly brisk market. Not being certain I’ll get into the course means I have to postpone signing a lease anyway, but, if necessary, I’ll just keep my current place and take several buses until something better frees up."

He drained his cup, frowning slightly, then said: "Let me show you our winter preparations."

He took the teapot and cups inside, and I followed to discover that the desk and wall cabinet had been replaced with a somewhat wider bench featuring a deep sink.

"Hot and cold," Kyou said, rinsing the cups. "And we found a column oil heater that doesn’t take up too much room. Today is deceptively nice, but on any windy or rainy day this time of year, this is going to be very necessary."

"How did you convince the school to do this?"

"By covering the cost," Kyou said, shrugging. "Under the guise of wanting to thank the school for the privilege of its use, and to pay forward to future student councils. We’ll also more regularly have council meetings out here, but Rin retains official custody of the key, so there shouldn’t be an issue with other council members thinking they can wander in as they please."

"Any chance the broken key was discovered over the break?"

Kyou shook his head. "We checked yesterday." He put the tea service away, and then picked up two folded blankets and headed back outside. "This is not a challenge I want to do on a coffee table," he said.

"Oh? Surely there’s some possibilities."

He placed the blankets neatly on top of the café table. "Possibilities, perhaps, but I think this is far more suitable."

I touched the blankets, and decided their purpose was to save me from chilly metal—or perhaps the decorative pattern of the table being imprinted on my ass. Kyou didn’t seem to be in a hurry to use it anyway, sitting back down on his chair and beckoning me over.

"Seems like forever since we last did this," I said, straddling him.

"It’s been a long month," he said, moving me against him even more snugly, and then contemplating my tunic and undershirt. "For all I like the tights, I prefer being able to unbutton you. But I have thought of a compensatory point."

"What’s that?"

"It’s unlikely any marks on your skin will show through all this cloth."

"Kyou…"

"You should have thought a little more before giving Rin those very unmistakeable panties." He pulled me forward, bending his head to my throat, but only nipped me lightly, and straightened up. "Not that I’m silly enough to go against a firm no, but the scene New Year’s morning was truly something, Cheshire."

"Sheer logic had to have told you that the chances of me leaving my parents—and Lania—in Québec…"

"I know. But Rin managed a momentary flash of dismay that was more convincing than anything he said afterwards. It quite overwhelmed common sense."

"You three have such a fun relationship," I said, laughing. "Do you ever get annoyed with each other?"

"Sometimes. I have felt like strangling Bran a few times this last year. Particularly on the school trip. We all have faults, and we snap at each other occasionally. Bran—well, you’ve had a taste of Bran’s bad points. Rin is the opposite of moody, but he could also be outright raging yet never show it on the surface. Sometimes I want to yell at him to just say something."

"He works it out in his music, right?"

Kyou nodded, though his attention had moved to easing my pullover and tunic over my head.

"He only snaps if someone interrupts him when he’s composing, and has managed to get a reputation for temper purely because of that. You heard the song he was working on end of last year, right? Did he show you the lyrics?"

I shook my head.

"It’s called You are not my friend, and I hope they sell it to someone big enough that Meggan will hear it everywhere for decades to come."

"It’s very pointed?"

"It leaves out the names, but not much more. It’ll definitely sell: a very strong song."

"Does—do the lyrics bother Bran?"

"Well…he can’t argue with them. He’s accepted that Meggan really isn’t his friend, either, or at least not a good one. That doesn’t mean he’s any better able to put down the years of feelings he had for her, but he’s made a lot of progress." Kyou paused, lightly stroking my breasts through the heavy cloth of my undershirt. "This game is being as successful as we hoped in distracting him. Doubly so now that he and I are doing our utmost to keep Rin away from you for reasons that Rin entirely deserves."

I smiled, but reverted back to an earlier topic: "So what do you consider your faults?"

He’d shifted to sliding his hands around beneath my shirt, slow and sensual.

"Do I admit to any? Ego, I suppose. Sometimes I think I’m far cleverer than I actually am, and that’s caught me out a few times. And occasionally I provoke people for entertainment." He squeezed my breasts, quite hard. "I like best the people who see it as a game, and return fire."

Instead of rising to provocation, I slipped a hand behind his head and pulled him closer for a kiss. It had been a long month for me, too. He immediately shifted his hands to my back, pressing me firmly against him, and we tasted each other for a while before I began working on removing some of his winter layers.

While it was a sunny day, it was still more than cool enough for our skin to be goose pimpled once we’d succeeded in shedding. Kyou’s mood had shifted, and he touched my skin lightly, then lifted me just enough to park me on the table. His mouth and hands roved, his breath feeling delightfully warm, but he was impatient too, and wasted no more time before pushing into me.

"I hope you don’t need use of your legs for the rest of the day," he murmured.

"Big talk," I said.

I knew how he’d react. It had been a very long month.

"I don’t know about walking, but I’m going to have trouble keeping awake for my next class," I said, a long time later.

"Your sleep issues continue to be a mystery to me, Cheshire," Kyou said, nuzzling my now-sweaty throat. "I know sex is supposed to help, but does it really help several hours later? And why can’t you just…take care of yourself?"

"I was fourteen when a sleep therapist suggested I try masturbation as a way to get to sleep. He was in his fifties, and looked far too much like Santa Claus. There was no way I was going to explain to him that masturbation doesn’t really seem to work for me. Or, I can, but it takes an enormously long time for me to get anywhere."

Kyou helped me off the table, and picked up the blankets. "A vibrator’s no use?"

"I did try one of those at my last school," I said, following him back to the summer house. "Millie—my roommate at the performance school—bought me one, halfway as a joke, and halfway in an effort to be helpful. It felt extraordinarily uncomfortable."

"Being given it as a gift, or actually using it?"

"Using it. Millie was very nice and tactful giving it to me. I’m trying to keep in touch with her: she was a great roommate."

"Have you had many?"

"Roommates? Mostly I live with my parents, but I’ve stayed at five different boarding schools. They never seem to give you a room to yourself. One of the early ones had six of us in one room, which I found excessive."

The sink made a big difference to cleaning up, and Kyou running a warm wet handtowel over me was not only preferable to a hose in winter, but so enjoyable that it was lucky I had remembered to set my alarm.