AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
_____________________
Kurumu sighed, having worked with Moka and Tsukune to make a shell of newspapers to put between themselves and the ice covering the room. It didn't help much, but it was better than nothing. Still, as she shivered miserably and watched her two closest friends do the same, the succubus couldn't help but revisit what Yukari had yelled just minutes before.
'Even though you were brave enough to gamble on your feelings during summer break, now that everyone's dealing with consequences of that you've turned into a coward!'
"Tch," the bluenette grumbled. "I hate it when she's right..."
"Did you say something, Kurumu?"
Rather than answer the question, Kurumu let out a sigh, before arching her back and taking in a huge breath of air to prepare herself! ...and then almost immediately regretting having done so for how damn cold the air was, but whatever!
"Okay!" she called out, pumping her fist into the air! Directly addressing the other prisoners in the room, Kurumu put her foot down! Literally and emphatically, to make sure the frost on the floor wouldn't make her slip and fall! "All three of us know that we need to talk about this," she began, "and none of us have been ready to start it, so it's being started for us. And since Yukari was right about the both of you being weak on initiative --"
"I'm right about way more than just that, you big cow!"
Kurumu almost slipped from surprise at the interruption, and needed a moment to visibly talk herself down from rewarding the annoying under-developed witchling with a comeback. Oh, the time for vengeance would indeed come some day, but only after the current situation were resolved.
Once the vein in her forehead had stopped throbbing, Kurumu took advantage of neither Moka nor Tsukune having been brave enough to speak up. "Then I guess I'm going to have to get this ball rolling," she finished.
Seeing her comrades in suffering nod in agreement, Kurumu put a hand to her chin in thought. "So here's what we're going to do," she said. "First, we're going to consolidate our newspapers and cuddle together to conserve body heat, because my knees are starting to shake uncontrollably and Moka doesn't even have long, heavy socks like I do.
"Second," the bluenette continued before anyone could have a chance to interrupt, "after we've done that, I'm going to spill my guts to you two about my feelings, what I want, and what I don't want. Then, Tsukune will go next, and finally it will be Moka's turn to be honest. Are there any questions?"
Two raised hands answered her, and after a moment's shared hesitation, Moka deferred to Tsukune. "You're not going to let us have any input in how we do this, are you?"
"Damn right I'm not," came the effortlessly reply. "Because if I give either of you half a chance, we'll be stuck right back in indecision hell where we've been since we got back from school, and I don't think there's a single soul in the audience who actually wants that."
"Audience?" Moka asked.
Tsukune could only shrug. "My best guess is she's talking about Mizore and Yukari outside."
Finding no fault with her friend/dinner/crush's reasoning, Moka turned back to Kurumu. "I'm not comfortable about the c-c-cuddling thing," she said even as the cold was beginning to make her jaws twitch, forcing her to stammer.
Kurumu considered this for about three seconds, gazing up and down Moka's increasingly visibly uncomfortable form. "Yeeeeah, I don't care right now. It's for your own good, so quit stalling!"
Human and Vampire yelped together as their buxom cohort grabbed each of them by the arm and dragged them into the corner, before re-arranging their newspapers into a Heat Conservation Nest.
When all was said and done, Kurumu and Tsukune were sitting in the corner, their backs to the wall. Kurumu had intertwined her legs with Tsukune's, and then a tense and fidgety Moka had been forcibly sat in their collective laps and pulled close against the pair, and another few layers of newspapers put over them all like a blanket.
There was an awkward adjustment period of several seconds, as the more reserved of the trio tried to get used to the abrupt decrease in personal space.... but Kurumu's plan to share body heat was working, and the shivers had died down between of them in short order.
"Well, at least I'm not freezing any more," Moka admitted.
The Succubus smiled smugly. "And since the first part of my plan worked perfectly, you have to trust me and follow the second part of it without fail!"
"That logic doesn't really -"
Tsukune was promptly ignored. "So," Kurumu began... and then stopped for a few seconds, the words dying in her throat. The idea of having to open up first was nerve-wracking. But if I don't break the ice, she realized, it'll be even harder for these two.
The stress one voluntarily shoulders for love; Kurumu could only wonder how Mizore managed to do it and still look so calm all the time.
________________
Outside, Mizore suppressed a twitch, waging an internal war between how badly she wanted to be making out with Jotaro and feeling him up for cumulative hours every day, and how badly he needed his personal boundaries respected. Not for the first time, Mizore violently and vehemently cursed the floozies and skanks that had led the object of her affection to put up an emotional wall around himself; a wall topped with barbed wire, and lined with laser defense turrets, and surrounded by a moat of burning pitch, forcing Mizore to negotiate her way in through the front door.
It wouldn't be the last time Mizore swore bloody vengeance upon the nameless masses of groupies in Jotaro's past that were even now making life hard for her.... but just the thought of seeing his face with one less crease of worry, when she and Yukari got their friends out of this idiot phase they were stuck in, calmed the raging blizzard of her heart and returned its state to that of a peaceful snowfield.
Mizore's face betrayed none of this, save for the barest ghost of a smile.
"Mizore," Yukari complained, "I think they've moved into a corner or something, I can't hear what they're saying anymore!"
The Snow Woman shrugged. "This is a private moment," she said after a moment's thought. "I feel bad enough about eavesdropping on them as it is."
The witchling's gaze gained a mischievous glint. "So what you're saying is that you can feel the vibrations through the ice and frost to more-or-less decipher what they're saying, right?"
Mizore considered the question, although truthfully no-one inside was saying anything at the moment. She wanted to respect her friends' privacy, and it was already a grievous intrusion to have forced the issue like this in the first place, no matter how justifiable her and Yukari's actions were.
"If you nag me about it," she slowly began, "I'll turn you into a popsicle."
"Oh, you wouldn't do that," Yukari drawled. "I'm too cute to freeze!"
Mizore pulled out and unwrapped a sucker, before popping it into her mouth as she turned to her co-conspirator. Folding her arms over her chest and leaning against the frozen door to the Newspaper Club office, one question fell from her lips.
"You wanna test that?"
_____________________
"So I'm utterly convinced that you're my Man of Destiny, Tsukune. You're almost certainly the only one who will ever be able to give me kids, but even if we look past the pressure I feel to continue my species' existence, I still want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Turning the fraction of an inch to be facing Moka instead of Tsukune, Kurumu continued. "Having said that? After everything we've been through together, Moka, you're my best friend and I don't want to hurt you -- when I see you looking miserable, it makes me miserable too. So even though I want to be together with Tsukune forever, I want you to be happy too. I'm just frustrated that you waited so long to long to be honest with yourself about your feelings with Tsukune. Now, I'll let you chew on that for a minute, it's Tsukune's turn to talk now."
[TO BE CONTINUED --->]
