Chapter Thirty One - Pervert

"Mio!" I called, racing from the living room and down the hall toward her room. I burst through the closed door to find my little sister in her underwear holding a bent selfie stick and breathing heavily and peering at the open window. "What happened? Are you ok?"

"There was a pervert at the window!" Mio pointed a shaking hand. "I killed it with my selfie stick!" She turned to stare at me wide-eyed. "Oh my god! I'm a murderer!" She dropped the stick to the floor and put her face in her hands and walked around in slow circles. "I'm too fragile to survive in prison!"

I crept closer to the window and peered over the edge. With only one working arm I was definitely at a disadvantage but confident enough I could do enough damage if I had to. A figure was rolling on the ground, holding its blonde head in pain.

"Aria?" I scowled.

"I'm sorry!" Aria gasped. "I thought it was your window!" How in the hell did that make it any better?

"I'm going to be someone's bitch!" Mio moaned into her hands, still walking around and around the same spot.

"Don't worry, you didn't kill anyone. You won't be anyone's bitch," I reassured her. Mio's tear-stained face peered over her hands at me.

"Really?" I nodded. "Oh, thank god! Wait! Call the police! It's a pervert! Moooom! Pervert!" Mio raced from the room and down the hall in her underwear.

"For fuck's sake," I shook my head with a sigh. I turned back to the window to find Aria had pulled herself into a seated position in my mom's lavender bush but was still holding her head.

"I'm calling the police!" My mom declared, rushing into the room holding the phone like a weapon, followed by a wild-eyed Mio. "Why didn't you protect your sister?"

"It's not a pervert," I scowled. "She's a friend from school. Don't call the police."

"Is it Emi-senpai?" Mio demanded.

"No, she's my friend Aria."

"Is she a pervert?" Mio demanded, covering her modest chest with her hands.

"No, no one's a pervert," I sighed. "Don't call the police, mom. I'm going to bring her into the kitchen and check her head." I leaned my head out the window. "Wait there. I'm coming to get you." My mom was alternately clutching her phone meaningfully and hugging Mio while Mio searched for her nightgown. In thirty seconds, I had gone from getting ready for bed to herding cats. Typhoon Aria had made landfall once again.

"I-I'm sorry!" Aria cried as I took a look at the cut on her scalp. Selfie stick damage could not be disregarded, that's for sure. I dabbed at the cut with a towel soaked in hydrogen peroxide and Aria hissed in pain.

"Not a problem at all, young lady," my mom fawned, desperate to not appear discourteous. "Mio was just surprised is all! Would you like some tea, young lady?"

"Oh, there's no need for tea, thank you, ma'am," Aria held her hands up.

"What were you doing staring in my window?" Mio glared at Aria suspiciously.

"I thought your room might be you sister's."

"Why were you going to stare in her window?" Mio demanded.

"I just wanted to talk is all!" Aria insisted.

"This one is devious," Mio mumbled, rubbing her chin. "We need to interrogate her."

"Whoa," I put my hands on Mio's small shoulders to calm her down. "Slide out of the saddle, chief. You sound like a movie villain."

"But we have to find out what she knows!" Mio insisted. "We have to know if she saw me naked and if she took pictures, and if she did, we have to turn her into the pervert division at the police! I'm a child for God's sake! Have you no shame?"

"I didn't take any pictures! I swear!" Aria appeared somewhat distraught at the suggestion.

"It's fine," I patted Mio's shoulders sympathetically. "I'll handle this, you get ready for bed."

"Hmm," Mio hesitated. "Do you promise you'll look through her phone for nude photos of me?" I was fairly sure there were some nude photos on Aria's phone, but I doubted they were of my little sister. The thought nearly made me gag.

"Sure, sure," I soothed, guiding her toward the doorway. "Go get some sleep. I'll forward any nudes of you I find. Ok?"

"All right, I guess, but you can't look at them or show them to Emi-senpai!" Mio allowed herself to be escorted out of the kitchen. She stopped for a brief moment to glare back at Aria before continuing into the living room. "Use the rack if you have to, Kasumi onee-chan. That one is sus af."

"Ok, I'll use the rack if I have to," I nodded, giving her one final push toward her room. I leaned heavily against the wall and sighed before returning to Aria sitting at the kitchen table. I stopped a meter or so from the table and folded my arms across my chest, careful to cover the air cast with my uninjured arm. "What are you doing, Aria?" My mom had retreated with her phone to her room and, aside from the strange gurgling sound our refrigerator had begun making recently there was silence in the gulf separating us.

"I needed to talk to you," Aria said, not meeting my eyes.

"I have a phone," I pointed out.

"Please," Aria pleaded, finally looking at me directly, her blue eyes moist with tears. "Just hear me out!" I sighed. I really was a sucker for a pretty face.

"Fine, but not inside," I replied. "Mio already thinks you're a pervert and my mom can sense a scandal from ten kilometers away."

"Ok," Aria smiled. "The weather's kind of cold. I think a storm's coming."

"Let me find something warm and put away my…er…drawings. I'll be right back." Once again, I thought as I picked up my art things, I was carried along on Aria's current.

Lightning flashed across the sky as we walked toward a hill north of my house. Some of the residents a few years ago had build a playground with some benches, swings, and stuff. As far as I was aware the place was seldom used since most of the children had grown up and no longer cared much for teeter totters and spring riders. We stopped near the plastic dome that looked vaguely like a tangerine and I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets, the cast making it somewhat awkward and stared into the darkness beyond the pool of light at the far end of the playground.

"You got hurt because of me," Aria began, her voice was quiet but with no wind carried to me easily. "I'm a terrible person." I said nothing. I had no intention of making her feel better.

"I know what Daishi posted and it's not true," Aria continued, coming to stand in front of me. I shifted my eyes reluctantly from the black of the night sky to her face. "After our argument I needed to talk to someone. I tried calling Mizuki and Emi but neither of them answered my calls. I was walking around, and Daishi called out to me. I needed someone to talk to is all."

"You told Daishi about us?" I asked in horror.

"What? No! No! I just said I'd had an argument with a friend is all," Aria waved her hands. I eyed her suspiciously. "I swear! He was nice enough to listen to me and when I was getting ready to leave, he took a picture. I wasn't happy and he said he'd delete it but, obviously, that never happened." Aria chuckled mirthlessly.

"'Nice enough'," I sniffed. "Sure, he was. Well, regardless of what you claim happened, by this point in time the entire school thinks you're dating him and he's fucking you every night." Once again, I winced. It really did hurt to think about it, doubly so to say it.

"I figured that out, yeah," Aria nodded glumly. "I know what everyone thinks of me. You have the right to think I'm a slut, too, and I'm sure you do. But even still you came and saved me. No one had ever saved me before. You've saved me twice and all I do is hurt you.

"I'm sorry for the things I said, Kasumi. I never should have made fun of you for being afraid when I'm terrified, too," Aria shivered slightly in the cold October air, her breath puffed out and hung around her head like a wreath. "I'm scared because I love you. I'm scared because I don't want to lose you and I'm terrified I already did."

"I don't know what to tell you," I muttered, looking at my feet as I shifted them in the dirt.

"Tell me it's not too late!" Aria pleaded, lowering her head into my field of vision, her long blonde hair cascading down like a golden waterfall. "Tell me you love me. Tell me you forgive me and it's going to be ok. Tell me I can make it up to you and you'll go out with me!" I scowled, my jaw aching slightly from clenching my teeth. I wanted to. God how I wanted to.

"What does it even mean?" I asked. Aria cocked her head slightly in confusion. "What does going out even mean? It's not like it matters. We can't do any of the things a couple are supposed to do. We can't hug or kiss or hold hands or go on dates. What the hell difference does it even make?"

"Of course, we can!" Aria insisted. "We can do all of that and more! We can't kiss in public, but girls always are hugging and holding hands and stuff, and no one thinks anything of it! It's one of the perks of being a girl, K-chan! And we can wait until we're alone to kiss and stuff, it's no big deal. We can do all of the same stuff a couple can do if we're careful! I know you're scared! So am I! But I'm more afraid of losing you. We can find ways to be a couple and still not lose everything else if we want it badly enough and, K-chan, I want it more than I've ever wanted anything in my life! I know you want it, too, Kasumi. Please!" My scowl deepened. Once more I felt myself caught in Aria's current, my hold on the shore loosening as I was slowly being swept out to sea.

"Besides," Aria grinned. "I think I know a way we can protect ourselves, have everything we want, and use Daishi's arrogance to our advantage!" I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What do you mean?"