All Right! Fine! I’ll Take You! – Yui’s Lily Garden – Chapter 6

Meat and potatoes, and a salad.

Mama has never been that good of a cook, other than a few select dishes she likes enough to have perfected over the years, but [nobody] can screw up meat and potatoes.

Yukinon seems to agree, going by how she's systematically and silently demolishing her own plate.

That, or she's still too embarrassed to talk, which would explain why she isn't meeting anyone's eyes. Not even Sable, and he's tried to pull his usual 'beg the guest for scraps; they are unlikely to know the rules.'

It should be noted that Sable's 'begging' could more accurately be described as 'bullying,' what with him standing on his hind legs and pawing at Yukino's arm while insistently whining.

"Sable, no," I tell him for the… big number of times I don't care to remember.

He shoots me a betrayed look and then rests a gentle paw on Yukinon's elbow.

I look at him harshly, and he makes big eyes at me, orange eyebrows drooping in sadness and—

"You don't play fair, dog," I grumble as I snap my fingers so he darts to my side, tail wagging before I pet his head as he stands to rest it on my lap.

"You've spoiled him rotten. It's all your fault, really," Mama points out.

"It's not! He's just… He has a strong personality…"

"Yui, dear, honey, sweetheart… I know what it's like to spoil a child rotten."

"Hey!"

I shoot Mama an indignant glare, and she sighs resignedly before half-standing from her chair to pat my head.

…

I resent the implication.

But at least Yukinon is now doing that quiet, muffled laugh she does when she's afraid to burst out into outright guffaws, so I guess I'll tolerate this for a bit longer.

And tilt my head a bit to my left so Mama can reach better the top of my head. For… no particular reason.

…

And now I'm blushing. Great.

I finally manage to react in a sane, healthy way, and bat Mama's soothing headpat away—wait, no, that's not what I—

"Ah, they grow up so fast." She sighs as she cradles her hand to her chest.

And I glare at her as she shoots me a smug smile.

And Yukinon's still holding back her laughter.

…

At least Sable's on my side. His loyalty deserves a reward!

"Yui! What have I told you about feeding Sable while eating!"

"Only to do it when he deserves it for not turning on me like everybody else?"

"… I am pretty sure I never said—"

"I have seen what you cook for him on his birthday, Mama."

She freezes up, and her eyes dart to the dog happily munching on a piece of meat that some people who don't have dogs would have thought too large for him to swallow. Really, it's kinda scary how he snaps his teeth when there's meat involved—oh, right, I was turning this around on Mama.

Who's now looking aside and coughing into her fist as Yukinon's shoulders keep shaking.

"So…" Mama starts to say, first guiltily looking at me and then at Yukinon with dawning glee, "what are your intentions toward my daughter?"

Ah, yes. The suffering's been spread.

Except for Sable, he's enjoying every single second of this.

…

I shall allow it.

"Ex—excuse me?" Yukinon croaks out, her shoulders no longer shaking, even if her lips are slightly trembling.

"Well, you didn't seem that averse to marriage prospects before…" Mama goads her on with baseless teasing.

I think.

…

I [hope].

Yukinon, going by her pale face, shares my hopes and dreams—ugh. Gross. I blame Hikki.

Which, at least for what's going on right now, seems plenty fair. That's right, Hikki! I can blame you and not feel guilty at all! You deserve all the blame for me bringing my girlfriend to have dinner at home!

… I feel like 'blame' isn't quite the right word.

"I—I appreciate Yui and, maybe, in the future, with international pressure—"

"Yukinon, no planning to overthrow the current constitutional rule just so we can get married, please."

Yukinon's eyes widen. I guess she doesn't appreciate my newly set boundaries regarding social revolution.

That, or she keeps choking on the whole 'marriage' thing that I'm pretending not to freak out at, because Mama smells fear. Seriously, it's like Yukinon never learned how to banter without sarcasm, snark, and other things that allow her to layer meaning and emotions in plausible deniability.

Such a mystery.

… I'm gonna need to talk to Haruno, aren't I?

"That wasn't what I—Yui, are you really—" the younger bundle of trauma to come out of the Yukinoshitas says.

"We're teasing you, dear," Mama says. "It's a show of affection and trust, nothing serious."

"I—"

"Mama's right. Get used to it: affection is no longer negotiable. I have a Sable, and I'm not afraid to use it."

"Your dog is not a weapon—"

"You clearly haven't tried to oversleep in this house, dear," Mama tells her, patting her hand with sorrow that's, I'm pretty sure, at least about thirty percent genuine.

Mama doesn't enjoy getting night shifts, and the main culprit is still methodically licking his snout for any traces of meat juices that may remain.

Yukinon, on her side of the table (in front of me and to the left of Mama), is looking at the two of us like she's trying to guess whether we're still just teasing her or we really share some furry alarm clock-related trauma.

"I don't think I'm liable to oversleep, no," she finally adds.

"Good for you," Mama comments, "but my daughter may not give you much of a choice in the matter."

"What does that mean—" Yukinon asks for the both of us.

"I already told you that I raised no prude and that you'd appreciate it, didn't I?" Mama says, daintily cleaning her lips with the corner of her napkin.

…

"Mama!"

"What? I'm trying to warn her about her virtue being in danger—"

"Yukinon's virtue isn't in any kind of danger! My sanity is!"

"But if your sanity fails—"

"Then I'm going to tie her to the bed and make her squirm until she begs me to—I mean, that's not gonna happen!"

"It sure seems like—"

"You're making my girlfriend uncomfortable!"

Mama stops, and we both turn toward Yukinon.

Who's not breathing, keeps staring at us with eyes so wide it looks like she's about to sprain her eyelids, and has a blush so thorough the red doesn't fade to pink until halfway past her neck.

Mama stares at her for a moment, and then her lips quirk that tiny bit that makes me dread what will come up next—

"I don't know if 'uncomfortable' is the right word…"

"Mama!"

"And I'm pretty sure it's not me that made her blush like this."

"I…" I remember me just blurting out my fantasy about a tied-up Yukinon, helpless before my touch, squirming and moaning at every—aaaaaaaahhhhhh! "That was your fault! You made me say it!"

"I made you be honest!"

"I don't want to be honest! I want to be patient!"

"And now she knows," Mama says, settling back down with a placid smile.

…

Damn it.

"Yukinon, I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

She looks straight into my eyes.

"Did you… mean it?" she says.

My brain crashes.

Yes, I'm used to it. Shut up, Hikki.

"I…" I trail off, unsure about what to tell her I meant first of all. And Mama lays a gentle, soothing hand on top of mine, her warmth making me unclench the apricot orange tablecloth I'd been tightly holding in a white-knuckled fist.

I look at her, and I'm… kinda afraid? And Mama nods, and, as always, makes it all better.

Even if this is all her fault. All of it. Except the parts that are Hikki's fault, because I'm not letting him get away with this.

"Yukino…" Mama says, her hand still on mine, but her eyes on my girlfriend, "My daughter… She's always been an honest kind of girl, except for the one thing she tends to lie about. Her feelings. So, please, try to understand that, yes, she's likely to hide things from you, especially things she thinks may upset you, and…"

Mama closes her eyes, a brief flash of sadness going through her face before she opens them and continues.

"I'm guessing your mother was the kind to always buy you what you wanted for your birthday, wasn't she? Well, I tried, but… We're not that well-off. So there was this one time when Yui wouldn't shut up about a dollhouse she wanted. She was nine, and two of her friends had the doll that went with it, so she wanted to have it to play with them. They had these little dresses that they could exchange, and the house came with a lot of them… But it was expensive. So I saved for it, thinking I could indulge her. Except I couldn't, because the water heater broke, and I found myself having not enough money for anything other than a few spare dresses and a doll.

"And Yui spent the whole party gorging herself on the cake I had baked because I couldn't buy one, bragging to her friends about how her mom had made it all for her, and it was the best cake ever. And she unwrapped the dresses and hugged my knees, burying her face in my skirt as she thanked me."

Mama shuts up, her eyes looking through the window on the other side of our green sofa, and now I'm clutching the tablecloth yet again as Mama clings to me.

And she speaks again, and I know how the story goes even if I never knew Mama did.

"The guests left. Some of them had brought Yui some other gifts, one of them the car that went into the dollhouse's garage.

"Yui helped pull down the decorations, but then she asked me if she could go play with her gifts, and of course I let her. I finished cleaning up, washed the dishes, and thought the party hadn't gone that bad, given the circumstances. That I had managed, somehow, not to let the lack of money spoil things for my daughter.

"And then I went by Yui's room, and I saw her, sitting on the floor, the doll's dresses spread in front of her as she ran the car side to side below them.

"And she cried."

Mama turns to me, looking into my eyes with… Something warm and a bit fierce.

"Any other day, I would've rushed into that room and hugged her, tried to console her, apologized for ruining her day. But… But at that moment? Seeing how far she'd gone to make me feel good about myself? I… I had never been more ashamed of myself, and prouder of my daughter."

Mama stands up, and hugs me to her belly, Sable briefly trapped between us before he scurries away.

"So, Yukino… now you know. Now you know my little Yui is a liar and will do her best to lie for you. Please, be better than I was, and don't let her."

***

We are in my room.

My room, full of little decorations. All of them cheap, all of them girlish, and plastic, and…

And precious.

Because they are cheap, but there are many, so each of them is from when Mama went a bit further than she could afford to just to make me a bit happier, a bit more comfortable.

We are sitting on my bed.

"I am jealous," Yukinon says, her eyes on her lap.

"I… I'm sorry," I tell her.

"No. Please, don't be, but let me say this." She grabs my right hand and pulls it between us, her own skin maybe colder than it should be.

"I…" I turn to the side, facing her, trying to see something other than her harsh profile.

"I never had any story like that. I never had Mother or Father trying to do… Trying to be anything other than an example to follow, one I never managed to live up to. Haruno may… Haruno was Haruno, and always was, for longer than I can remember. So my birthday parties were perfect, the gifts just what I expected to get."

She pauses, her grip tightens, and my bed creaks as she shuffles into an even more rigid posture.

She still isn't looking at me.

"They were what I expected to get, because I asked for what I thought they wanted me to want. I had to guess what the right gift would be. Maybe this year a calligraphy set would be fitting. Maybe I should want a new party dress, as the old one was getting a bit shorter. Maybe a set of classical literature, now that I had won the school's writing contest. Each year, guessing what I should want, what they would want me to want.

"And they gave it to me.

"And they still looked oh so disappointed."

Her jaw clenches and her eyes shut.

"I would have… I would have… For a mother who was proud of me lying and crying? I… Yui, I…"

I hug her.

I hug Yukinon to me, my hands on her back and her head, cradling her to me, hoping she will relax against my body, that I can give her even a tiny bit of the warmth she always missed, that I can live up to what Hikki expects of me, to what Yukinon needs.

And I fall.

Yukinon's above me, her hair falling around us like a piece of night all her own, and her eyes tremble in shards of ice as she holds herself above me after having pushed me down.

"Don't lie to me, Yui. Please, don't ever lie to me."

"I love you," I say, the words unstoppable before those eyes of hers.

"I just—"

"I love you. And you're beautiful. And I want you. And I want all of you. The pain, the tears, the broken pieces. I want to hold all of you, and I don' want to ever let go. Because I'm a greedy, selfish girl, Yukinon. I'm not a good girl. I don't care for what's genuine, or what's supposed to happen, or what's good and proper. I just… I just want you. That's what I care about."

Her arms bend, and her body lies on mine, her face close enough I can smell her, the warm clouds of Yukinon drifting around her and going inside me.

"I want you," she says.

My heart beats.

"I want all of you," she continues, something shining in her eyes, "I want to hold you and for you to hold me. I want you to be greedy and selfish. I want to let you do to me whatever you want. I want to… I don't even want to heal, Yui. Not really. Not if I can have you caress and hold all that's broken. I just…" Her eyes widen, and something that's almost a smile crosses her lips. "I love you," she finishes, as if that sums up the mess of words and emotion she just poured out at me.

Maybe it does.

But I don't want it to.

So I pull her down into a kiss, but it's not the one burning with need I felt a moment ago. It's soft, and tender, and her lips open against mine, her tongue peeking out to entice me.

And I refuse her, gently pushing her up.

"I… I want all of you, Yukinon. I want to see you complete."

Her eyes widen, and she falls on top of me.

So I hug her, and lie. Not to her, not to the girl who just asked me not to, but to myself.

I lie to myself, and pretend I'm all right with making my girlfriend cry yet again.

***

"This is… soothing," Yukinon says, as if unsure whether it really is.

I hold her long hair, feeling the silky strands lying over my palm as I gently run a hairbrush through it and try very hard not to think about how Yukinon is freshly showered and wearing a spare set of my pajamas that are adorably baggy on her slender frame yet still leave an uncovered strip of naked, pale, smooth skin that shifts whenever she breathes, and she's sitting on my lap, and—aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

"Yes," I say, lying through my teeth, "it is soothing."

…

Damn it, I already broke my promise.

New mental, unspoken rule: white lies don't count. Yup, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Yukinon, not exercising her Yukinon powers to ferret out what I hide from her, lets out a satisfied sigh as I run the hairbrush yet again, marveling at how few knots I encounter.

Seriously, is this what expensive haircare does? Because if so, I changed my mind, Mama: Sable can eat the cheap dog food. This is worth all the sad, waggling, orange eyebrows in the world.

…

All right, maybe not, but it's a near thing.

Also, speaking of near things: Yukinon, I'd rather you stop wiggling your soft, pert, small, round butt on top of me, because I'm [this] close to tearing off your powder blue pajamas, pushing you to my bed, and diving between your legs until I run out of breath—

"Yui?"

"Yes! Yui here! I'm absolutely focused on your gorgeous, silky, beautiful hair, and—no, seriously, this isn't fair. How do you do it? What's the secret magic potion?"

Yukinon looks at me over her shoulder, a gorgeous Yukinoshita eyebrow rising steadily the closer she is to looking straight at me.

…

Does she practice? I'm pretty sure I've caught Iroha mumbling to herself in front of the bathroom's mirror before running away with a crippling blush, but the thought of Yukinon doing the same is…

…

"[Yui?"]

Ah. Apparently, the thought is cute enough to make me momentarily crash. Weird.

"Yes! Yui here! I'm absolutely focused—"

"You already said that."

"Ah… Did I ask you what your secret is? Because, seriously, if I have to rob a drugstore, I think it may be worth it."

"Yui… I can [share] my hair care products with my girlfriend."

'Yui, can you soap up my back? It's hard to reach between my shoulders… mmm… yes, just like that… Can you do my front now?'

"Yui!"

"Aaaaaahhhhh! You can't just say something like that and expect me to react like a sane, normal person!"

"I just told you I would share—"

"Showers! You wash your hair in the shower! While naked and wet!"

"Wha—you [pervert!]"

"You already knew that!"

"Well, yes, but I didn't think… seriously? In the shower?"

"And I would lather your whole body, even between your toes, just to feel my skin gliding over yours, before washing it away with warm water so I could lick up from the inside of your ankles to your trembling, quivering—what are you making me say!"

"Nothing! You are doing it all yourself! Don't stop!"

I blink.

So does Yukinon.

And then she blushes up to her hair roots.

"I—I—" her stutter is made even more adorable when she raises her fists to cover her mouth. "I didn't—you didn't hear me say that!"

"Yukinon, are you—"

"Stop making me feel like this! You make me soft, and vulnerable, and sad, and happy, and, and, and [horny], and I've never been—"

"You can be—"

"No! Just—just you. Just… you. Please."

I don't understand her.

I don't know what she's saying.

I just know my cute, flustered girlfriend is sitting on top of my lap, fidgeting after confessing to having an actual libido, and she seems to… to only want that libido to center around me.

…

I am getting a bit dizzy.

Also, we are sitting on my bed. The only bed in the room.

Because Mama claimed she sent the spare futon to the laundry, which I know for a fact to be a lie after I caught sight of her rushing from my bedroom to her own while Yukinon was taking her shower.

…

Mama is the best. Really, I don't think it enough.

==================

This work is a repost of the first spin-off of the Cakeverse. The whole verse can be found on QQ (https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/all-right-fine-ill-take-you-oregairu.15676/), or up to date on my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/Agrippa?fan_landing=true)—as an added perk, both those sites have italicized and bolded text… Unless something drastic happens, it will be updated on Tuesdays and Thursdays until it catches up to the currently written chapters.

Also, I'd like to thank my credited supporters on Patreon: aj0413, LearningDiscord, Niklarus, Tinkerware, Varosch, and Xalgeon. If you feel like maybe giving me a hand and help me keep writing snarky, maladjusted teenagers and their cake buffets, consider joining them or buying one of my books on https://www.amazon.com/stores/Terry-Lavere/author/B0BL7LSX2S. Thank you for reading!