The Book of Firsts

Fifty-Nine

"Thallium," Kyou told me Friday, nudging green tea in my direction.

"Damn. I wondered if it was possible when I was looking up contact poison, but I could hardly believe he would go so overboard."

"He’s claiming it was supposed to be a light dose, just enough to make our hair fall out. The concentration in the jar we found doesn’t make that very likely."

"Is there any proof other than whatever he said while panicking?"

Kyou waved a dismissive hand. "The police will work on that. But there’s no stepping back from him telling Meggan she’d been poisoned. Even possession of Thallium is illegal, and smearing it on chairs people are going to use is more than enough for a conviction."

"Will they find traces of your spy work?"

"Bran thinks he’s managed to remove everything remotely." Kyou shrugged. "If traces are found, it’s likely to go unremarked, and even if it’s linked to us, we’re likely to be forgiven thanks to the provocation."

"That looked like a satisfying punch."

He laughed. "One of us had to get one in. I only wish he’d tried to come at us again, so I could have a turn."

I poked at my phone, and handed it to him as the video I’d recorded Wednesday started playing. Kyou watched it fixedly, not restraining his grin.

"You are the gift that keeps on giving, Cheshire." He transferred the video to his own phone, and then forwarded it to Bran and Rin. "And now we can concentrate on the next important item for the year—getting you through the exams."

"I endorse this set of priorities."

"If we turn the bonus round into a final challenge, then we can arrange ourselves before your critical exams. Perhaps in the afternoons, rather than lunch hours, to better match up whatever it does for you and the hours when you need to sleep."

"Falling asleep in the exam would probably be a bad idea," I agreed. "I really can’t decide if it’s purely psychological, or chemical. Something I’m usually missing that stays in my system for at least half a day would explain a lot."

"Always happy to experiment in the name of science," Kyou said. He glanced down at his phone, then added: "Rin wants to know how many people have asked you to the Seniors' Ball."

"Just one," I said, smiling.

"Carr?" Kyou asked, eyes widening.

"No, Carr is convinced by Christophe."

"Macy?"

I shook my head.

He narrowed his eyes, then rolled them. "Lania."

I laughed, and nodded.

"Never would have thought Lania would end up as competition. You like them busty, hm?"

"Well, I admit to a little jealousy there. I am really confused as to why Lania’s not madly pursued. A gamer girl with big breasts and a cute face, but no boyfriend."

"She keeps the gamer girl part quiet, you know. But the main problem is she completely doesn’t realise when people are hitting on her. I’ve watched a few attempts—it’s quite funny."

"Oh, so she ended up dating Rick because he’s so straightforward?"

"There’s a good chance."

"How’s Meggan taking the downfall of her most ardent admirer?"

"Unnerved. Furious at us for not warning her."

"Are you two still as angry at her?"

Kyou sighed. "We might get to the point of polite acquaintances one day. Using her to catch Tomas eased Rin’s temper a little, but there’s no going back."

While his expression was regretful, the tone was firm. Meggan was no longer their friend. It was ironic that, since no detailed explanation had been given, the student body had taken exactly the opposite view of Wednesday’s showdown.

"Some of the forum theories must be annoying Rin a lot right now."

"Love quadrangles." Kyou shook his head. "Meggan is so completely not a good match for Rin. Not for any of us, as it turned out, but Rin is far too layered for Meggan to cope with." His smile turned meaningful. "She’d never agree to being chased around a garden until her clothes were in shreds."

"Do you prefer green or white for your shreddable clothing?" I asked.

"What shade of green?"

"Mint."

"Show them to me."

I pulled the two dresses out of my backpack and tossed them to him.

"Is this cloth or tissue paper?" he asked, holding up the white dress in amazement. "People actually wear this?"

"Best I can guess is that it was enthusiastically bleached by someone. The fabric seems to be breaking down, and it wasn’t that strong in the first place. Cheapest dress I’ve ever bought."

"And the other one has all these buttons. This is a hard choice, Cheshire."

"Pick the one you think Bran would like most, and I’ll wear the other."

"Am I that generous?"

"Probably," I said. "All else being equal."

He made a face, then tossed me the white dress. "Tissue paper it is, then."

"Bran likes buttons, huh? Wonder if he could bite them all off?"

"Stop making me regret my choices."

"I’ll go change," I said, collecting the mint dress as well, and taking everything into the summer house. I had to concentrate to get the white dress on without tearing it, and wondered if it was as transparent as it seemed. Kyou’s fixed gaze suggested probably.

"Do I get to chase you around the garden now?" he asked, standing up.

"No, today I want to play a different game. How about Ten Minutes of Torture?"

"Sounds appalling. What are the rules?"

"For ten minutes, I do anything I please to you, and you’re not allowed to lift a finger unbidden. Next ten minutes, our roles reverse."

His eyes widened, and then he said: "Cheshire, you spoil me."

I’d brought several blankets out, and first spread them over a wide area of grass, since I was tired of ending up itchy. Then I set a timer on my phone, put it on the table, and grabbed Kyou by the collar, hooking a foot behind his ankle then pushing.

He fell, landing heavily enough to be lightly winded. Before he could catch his breath, I knelt, trapping his throat with one knee, though being careful to not put any weight on him.

"Good to know you’ve not neglected some self-defence courses," Kyou said, a little thinly.

"Advantage of surprise there," I said. "I don’t have enough of a foundation to bring you down when you’re actively trying to defend yourself."

Easing out of the pin, I straddled his waist and surveyed him, making sure I hadn’t actually hurt him.

"Are you going to voice any of the characters in your games?" I asked, loosening his tie.

"Probably. I know what I sound like." His tone was matter-of-fact, not shaded by either modesty or pride.

"Are you interested in acting?"

"Not as a career. Long hours, big loss of privacy. Voice acting’s a little more tempting, but there’s far too many other things that come higher on my list of ambitions. Tissue paper dresses currently coming close to first."

"What’s first then?"

"What’s inside the dress."

I smiled at him, then bent and bit off his collar button, which was more difficult than I expected, but gave me a sense of achievement when the threads finally parted. I straightened, turned my head and spat it out, then sensibly worked on the rest by more traditional methods.

"I’m learning things about myself I never imagined," Kyou said. He seemed completely unable to hold back his grin.

"Would you like this if you didn’t know that an epic turning of tables was coming up?"

"Maybe. Not nearly as much. Were there any more of those tissue-paper dresses available? I’ve changed my views for the fantasy costume challenge."

"This is one of a kind. Enjoy it while you can."

I began working his clothes off, methodically moving him as needed, and finally rolled him on his stomach, watching him hastily adjust position to factor in being highly aroused. Then I cruelly sat on his toned but untanned ass. Kyou let out his breath, and tensed his muscles to save himself some pain, but didn’t otherwise react, so I leaned forward and scraped my fingernails the whole length of his back—not so firmly it would break the skin, but certainly enough to make him tingle. Then, even as he caught his breath, I leaned all the way down so I was lying on him, and nipped sharply at one of his earlobes.

Ten minutes is far too short a time, and I hadn’t nearly begun to exhaust the things I wanted to do to Kyou when my phone began a subdued chime. I was sitting on his thighs at the time, giving his stomach the same treatment I’d given his back. He’d been clenching his hands and controlling his breathing ever since I’d turned him over, his eyes narrowed to slits. The instant the alarm sounded, he surged upward, took two handfuls of dress, and wrenched.

"Tissue paper," I said, or started to, but my breath whooshed out of me as Kyou adeptly reversed our positions, and proceeded to make me pay.

A long afternoon of torturing each other left both of us sore and exhausted, but similarly pleased with the experience.

"I think I’ll skip Club," I said, lounging half-dressed on the couch while Kyou made us some recovery tea. "Lania would probably send me to the nurse’s office for my tendency to lean limply on the nearest support."

"If you walk down to the bus shelter, I’ll drive around and give you a lift home," Kyou said, filling the teapot.

"Too risky. Though I’ll dip into the taxi fund to celebrate end of term. Are you three heading to another internship over the break?"

"First up is a trip down to Sunderry for stage one of Rin’s blind audition. And then a week or two of breath-holding, in hopes that no-one who knows the family happened to wander by in the process."

"Rin is someone you could recognise from across a football field, just by the way he carries himself. But how much chance is there that someone who knows him will be there?"

"We think it’s around eighty percent safe. If we hit the twenty percent, well, we have a spare bed at the rental. All Rin’s doing with the blind auditions is postponing a separation that’s inevitable."

"How’s your office renovation going?"

He smiled, handing me a cup. "It’s officially ours, and we’re on revision three of the design plans. Highly self-indulgent. But we’ll be living there a long time, so it’s good to be able to get it close to our ideal. Do you think you’ll live in Helios after you get your degree?"

"If I can get into the Marden Institute through the graduate program, then yes. There’s nowhere in the world that doesn’t need engineers, but Marden’s ideal for giving me the chance to explore what’s possible and push the boundaries. They have countless fascinating projects under their belt. Glory Stadium. Four-ways Towers. The Adderson Dam. And Professor Tremaine was lead for both the Sunseeker Bridge and the new HSR bridge. Brilliant solutions."

"Now if only someone talked about me the way you talk about edifices of steel and concrete."

I laughed. "I’m willing to bet I could find a dozen or so candidates in an afternoon, if you really want to listen to them."

"A dim chorus," he said, dismissive. Putting down his cup, he extracted the torn pieces of my dress from the pile of clothing I’d placed on the coffee table, folded them neatly, and tucked them into his backpack.

"This trophy collecting habit…"

"No, no, I’m going to put it to practical use, don’t worry."

I looked at him doubtfully, but didn’t argue, so finished putting on my uniform, and summoned the energy to go find a taxi.

"Wish Rin luck in his audition for me—for his performance, or for avoiding discovery, whichever he prefers."

"Luck isn’t something Rin needs where music is concerned. But I’ll pass on the sentiment."