Chapter 2: Questions

I hear that life is nothing but a series of unexpected events and turns, that you really do nothing but sit back for the ride and delude yourself with a sense of control by occasionally reacting... well I'd certainly like to know how exactly I'm supposed to react to this. As I stare into her blank eyes I feel so many conflicting emotions course through my veins, the most prevalent being fear. Yeah I know, manly Hachiman being scared of a girl, what a virg...former virgin, but something about the way she lifelessly stares into me while staking her claim is beyond unnerving. I'll defend myself and say that fear is a absolutely justified emotional reaction to this situation, I'm a perfectly normal loner no screws loose here...or at least that would be the case if that was the only emotion.

Happiness

Yeah, this is where things get really muddled for me. I have a girl laying right next to me that has shown that she's not quite all together upstairs and that she is absolutely obsessed with me, hell I'm pretty sure she just referred to me as a possession. So why do I feel warmth mixed in with the coldness of fear swelling inside of me...could all these years of my loner lifestyle really rendered me so weak, so desperate for affection? No, not affection something...genuine. It's not exactly what I had in mind but does anyone really know what genuine is? Who's to say this isn't genuine but then again who's to say it is? Yes she seems a bit enamored with me but is that enough? No, something genuine isn't just love, it's mutual love which brings me to my next question...Do I love Ishikki?

"Of course you do!" I hear her cheer out as she closes her eyes and nuzzles into me.

"I-..wha-" I'm no expert on the thing but I'm fairly certain that love, no matter how much, doesn't allow you to read each others minds. So how exactly could she answer a question that was purely in my head someth-

"Because your inner monologue isn't exactly inner all of the time...Idiot." I feel her grip tighten on me as she brings her eyes to look up to mine again. "But Hachiman..." she pauses after saying my name this time, and she looks like she contemplates something before continuing. "That's a really stupid question to ask, right? Obviously you love me, right? No doubt in your mind that we belong together, right?" I feel her grip tighten further with every question, it starts to feel less affectionate and more crushing after her last question.

I'm sure most men would speak their mind at this point, telling her that "yeah, no I'm not too sure about that and you're being far too pushy for my liking." or something along those lines. Most men don't seem to have a ounce of survival instinct in their mind then because the way I see it there's only one way out of this tangle for now, appeasement.

"O-Of course I do Ishikki, I'm just a bit overwhelmed and still processing things, yeah?" I chuckle nervously waiting for her grip to loosen, to my shock it tightens even further and I hear her growl.

"Do not call me that." Her eyes shoot open in fury and she bares her teeth with a angered snarl before she gasps and seems to reel it back in. "I mean we're a couple now, it's only natural that we use each others first names." She thinks for a bit with some cutesy face. "Pet names would be okay too."

"R-right, my bad Iroha." I once again appease and thankfully her grip loosens a bit, but not back into the levels of comfort I was shooting for.

"Hey..." She pauses for a bit, her face scrunching slightly in thought before she smiles. "Senpai, lets try to figure out what pet names we like best!" She beams and waits for my response.

A million thoughts are running through my head, none of them involving "pet names", as I stare blankly back at her. Going off of her tone of voice, or rather how much it fluctuates, I can tell that she's putting on her cutesy act, or at least it's an act to a certain degree. It's barely masked and there have been cracks in her performance but there's no mistaking that she is undeniably impatient, eager to receive any form of attention or affection from me. Maybe I'd even be flattered if she wasn't also so demanding for said attention...I'm just really not sure how I'm supposed to handle this type of thing.

"Seeeenpai." She cutely pouts and wriggles about "You're not gonna keep your lovely girlfriend waiting are you?" Huh? Oh right pet names, I'm supposed to come up with some over the top ridiculously sweet thing to call her like she did...oi wait a minute.

"Last I checked Senpai isn't a pet name." Seriously I'm supposed to come up with something but she can just default back to what she's been calling me this whole time? Talk about double standards.

"Does anyone else call you Senpai?" She asks, I notice a faint trace of sincere interrogating behind the otherwise rhetorical question.

"Well...no, not really."

"Then it works for me!" She gives a full smile brimming with cheer. "It's my own trademark name for you!"

"Seems like you're just being lazy to me." I mumble out, she catches it however.

Her face scrunches up a bit to her cutesy pout before something flashes in her eyes and she grins devilishly. "Oh? I suppose I should come up with something better, right..." She leans in with her mouth just next to my ear as she whispers. "Hubby?"

I pull back as my heartbeat skyrockets and my face burns up. "S-Senpai is just fine."

"Thought so." She grins, smugly satisfied with her victory. "Although given that reaction..." I see that dangerous glint of mischief fill her eyes again. Yeah gonna have to put a stop to this, my heart wouldn't last a day.

"P-Please let's just stick with Senpai for now..." I gulp as I brace myself for what I'm about to say. "Darling." Yep cheesy and I feel a part of me wither away and die listening to it come out of my mouth but what else is there? Babe? Yeah sounds like some popular boy slang so I'll just settle with darling and hope she doesn't find it as repulsive as I do. She just sits there completely still staring at me, no real reaction...at least there wasn't at first.

And then she torpedoes into me with a squeal of delight. She continues to make a couple more incomprehensible sounds of approval and happiness before she pulls back. "Now that wasn't so bad was it?"

In all honesty? "No...no it wasn't." Seeing her reaction was worth the discomfort of coming up with some ridiculous name. However we've spent far too much time dealing with the (admittedly fun) distraction of pet names, there's plenty of more pressing matters I need to clear up with her, the first one to come to mind actually surprises me that it took me long this to realize.

"Hey...Iroha." I notice that she doesn't seem to mind the lack of the pet name which is a relief. "We should probably get dressed right?"

"Oh?" She slowly drawls as she slides against me. "Should we?" She asks but I can see in her half lidded eyes she's already come up with a answer.

I feel my blood flow to...lower areas of my body and I briefly consider agreeing with her but the ever prevalent logical part of my mind wins out (after it suffered from a earlier losing streak). "Yes, yes we should" I force myself to scoot away from her a bit.

She huffs and pouts again before sliding away from me to start gathering her clothes. I hear her grumble things like "Numbskull" and "Idiot" as she gathers her clothes, though she probably wasn't really trying to hide it. After finishing picking up all of her clothes she turns towards me. "I'll need to shower first...wanna join me Senpai?" She offers with another lidded stare.

My heart. My poor heart.

"I...uhhhh I think I'll just wait my turn." I do everything to command my little soldier to retreat.

She huffs and does her cute little pout before heading out. "Hmph, fine have it your way."

I briefly ponder on how she knows where my bathroom is without even asking me for directions but I decide it's best to just chalk it up to luck and not look into it too much. I instead focus on at least putting on some underwear before she gets back, I'll worry about showering later. Before that I still have questions that need answering. After 10 minutes she enters my room again and I spring the first question at her immediantly.

"Iroha…you're not planning on becoming pregnant are you?" I tensely ask, afraid of her response as I'm nowhere near ready to be a father.

A startled yelp and flabbergasted sputtering seems to answer my question. "W-what? We're still in school! We can't think about things like that...yet!" Yep, looks like she isn't quite ready to be a mother yet, this is great news but still there's a bit of a fallacy with her claim.

"So why did you make me..." I hope I don't actually have to finish the sentence.

Thankfully she cuts me off before I actually have to say it. "Because...I wanted you to?" She offers with a voice as if it were the most obvious thing.

"...right, and you understand how the reproductive system works yeah?"

"And you understand how the menstruation cycle works yeah?" She mocks in a tone mimicking mine. The truth of the matter is however...

"I actually don't"

She gives a tired sigh. "Trust me then, it'll be fine."

I'll have to look more into that whole "cycle" thing later but I do trust her, something I let her know with a slight nod before flopping on to my bed. It's not long before she flops down next to and begins to snuggle into me. Now that the arguably most important issue is dealt with I can address some of the other questions raging in my mind, and there's a lot of them.

"Iroha..." I mull over in my mind trying to figure out where and how to start, there's just so much to process. "What exactly are we now?"

She brings a finger to her chin as she thinks. "So many options huh? Boyfriend/Girlfriend? Lovers? Soulmates?" She stops her little thinking pose and stares into my eyes with a smile full of warmth. "It doesn't really matter what we call it right? It all boils down to the same thing, we're together" Her smile remains warm but her eyes loss a little luster as she continues. "and nothing is going to change that."

See? That's just the thing that makes all of this so confusing, one second she's nothing but warmth and fluff and then the next something...sinister. I'm not even entirely sure if her feelings for me are genuine or rather some infatuation gone wild with mental issues. Does she truly love me, or is she just obsessed with the idea of me? That's just a question that only time can answer right? I'd be lying to myself if I said I was against the idea of being romantically involved with Iroha, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for, if it is genuine however...then it's exactly what I'm looking for. Another thought that plays into all of this however is we did just take each others first time, that's not just something I can just toss aside. As I steal a glance towards her while mulling I catch on that she knows full well that I'm practically trapped with her because of that...damn sly fox. She really planned all of this from the start didn't she? Used my warped sense of responsibility and, ahem, eagerness to help to trap me figuratively speaking. Funny how I'm not even mad about that, really just respectful of her crafty nature.

"You know when a girl says something romantic like that you're supposed to say something back instead of ranting in your head right? Minus one thousand points." She scolds me and interrupts my thoughts.

"Didn't realize we were keeping score still." I vaguely recall the scoring system from our first practice date.

"Hmmmm you're right it's kinda pointless now right?" She quickly pecks me on the cheek. "I mean you've already won."

"Oh? So what's my prize?" I drawl out humoring her.

You'd think by now I'd be used to that look of vexation and immune to it's effects but somehow it still makes me feel like a failure every time she hits me with it.

"Idiot. Read the mood. Worthless." Each hit does critical damage.

Can't even defend myself, that really was a stupid thing to say. "Yeah...I agree." I sigh and try to appease her by quickly kissing her forehead. "I'll work on it okay?"

Luckily enough for me it seems to work as her face lights up and she sputters out her agreement. "Y-yeah, you better."

It's a rare thing but I grin a little before regaining myself. I take a glance at the alarm clock near my bed and realization hits me. They may be wage slaves but despite how much I exaggerate it they do make time to come home, and time sure did have a way of flying by. "Iroha it's getting late...you should probably head home."

She glances at the clock quickly before turning back to me. "Eager for me to go?"

"Y-You know that's not what I meant."

She giggles. "I know...it is getting late." She says with a hint of sadness, it's obvious that she knows she has to leave but really doesn't want to. Suddenly her mood brightens as if she remembers something and she rises from my bed. "Yeah can't be staying up too late right? We do have school tomorrow" I see her smile slightly as she clutches her phone.

"And I'm really looking forward to it."