[PP-F1] Virtual Days (Koumori)

[Starrine 0]

Starrine watched as Koumori stepped on the ice, skating over to her with ease and helping pull her up. "Thank you," she giggled as she tried to keep her footing on the slippery lake's surface. He'd obviously been skating before, with the way he moved easily across the ice. Wasn't this kind of like rollerblading, in a way? She'd done that a few times. Just then, he skated behind her, saying he'd try to teach her. She sucked in a gulp of air as he grabbed her waist, trying to keep herself calm. He was just trying to help her learn, it wasn't a big deal! Stop freaking out, she thought to herself desperately, taking deep breaths to calm herself. Alright..

Starrine nodded stiffly as he instructed her to lift her arms for balance, and she did so willingly, practically holding her breath at this point. She slowly moved her right foot forwards, and then her left foot, feeling like she wouldn't be able to do this with his body so close. Her thoughts swirled, and she couldn't focus. On her fourth movement, she slid, barely able to catch herself from falling back onto him. "W-woops.. I think I've almost got it," she mumbled, her voice determined, her face red and her movements quick, flustered. Swallowing thickly, the long haired girl lost her concentration for a split second, her legs slid forward, and her dress flew up as she fell down again. She turned her face up desperately as he fell, her hands automatically reaching for his, and she pulled him down as well.

[[ Looking forward to Kou's reaction. c; ]]

[Koumori 0]

Starrine immediately tensed up when I touched her waist. She was definitely shocked by what was going on, but she didn't resist. She complied with my request and raised up her arms and began moving. At first it was going well. She was moving slowly and steadily and she only slipped once. Then everything went down hill. I felt something off when Starrine went for he fourth movement and then she lost her balance and slipped. At least that's what I thought happened. All I saw was her, her underwear. Her legs flew into the air and her dress flopped out of the way, revealing what was rightfully hidden. I didn't process what was happening as my face shot bright red and my fever reached the peak of human capacity. I simply couldn't believe what I was seeing. They were white, a pristine white. Then the situation took another turn for the worst. Starrine spun around and grabbed me as she was bracing for her fall. We quickly tumbled backwards onto the ice. My head was spinning, and everything was cold. Everything except my left hand. What was that? I opened my eyes but my vision was still so dizzy that I couldn't see a thing. I tried moving my hand and felt something...squishy? What was that? My vision came into focus and I saw what it was that I was touching: Starrine's chest. Ahh ahh ahh. Holy crap! Holy crap! I was grabbing her, her breast! What was I doing? I was being a pervert, she was going to totally hate me. But..I didn't want to move my hand. No, I had too. I shifted my position, moving my head up, and only made things worse. As I tried to reposition myself, I came into contact with something else. I hadn't realized it, but her head was right above mine. As I moved slightly, I moved right into her lips. We were kissing! My eyes shot open like they were being pulled out. I could feel all of the blood in my body rushing into my face. My heart was pounding so hard it could burst out of my chest! I wanted to move, I desperately wanted to get out, but I couldn't summon the strength. I just lay there. My hand on her chest and my lips on hers. I felt warm. But I also felt like I was going to die. Eventually I choked on nothing and moved my head so I wouldn't cough into her mouth. But when I did that I could only think about her lips. But then I thought about what I had seen, what I had touched. What was I going to do. That's when I realized the last thing. I was still holding her hand as well. I felt like I was going to throw up. 

(Boom. How's that?)

Edited August 13, 2015 by Koumori

[Starrine 0]

Starrine took a moment to comprehend that she had fallen, and then another to realize where her friend's hand had landed. With her eyes wide and face bright red, she attempted to pull herself away, accidentally moving her head down at the same time as Koumori brought his up. And then.. they kissed. Practically screaming internally, she pushed herself away, digging her skates into the ice to push herself across it, and while doing that, tucked her dress underneath her, hands gripped into fists. Lifting one hand to her mouth, the other guarding her chest, she stared at Koumori, trying to comprehend what just happened. She felt violated. Extremely violated. She sniffled, and with tears forming at the corners of her eyes, she looked around to see everyone completely fixated on the two; even the younger players snowball fighting had dropped the snow and stared with gaping jaws.

She didn't hate Koumori, because it was mostly her fault that she fell, and she knew it; but she was so.. so, embarrassed, and began awkwardly trying to skitter herself off of the ice, while still holding her dress down in one hand. Most of all, she just wanted to get out of sight of all the people. As soon as she stepped onto land, the skates disappeared from her feet, and she sprinted towards a patch of trees, not stopping until she was behind one of them. With a great big exhale, she wiped away her tears and dropped to the ground, pulling her knees towards her body and sniffling. Starrine finally allowed herself to sort through what had just happened.. She covered her eyes and shook her head, making a tiny squealing noise out of frustration. What had just happened?! She remembered falling, and then.. Embarrassment blocked her thoughts, and she refused to think about it any longer. The one thing that stuck in her mind was his face, though.. He looked sick after it happened, and she wondered.. "Am I that bad..?" She mumbled quietly, lifting her fingers to her lips. That should've been the least of her concerns, and then-- oh. Right. She'd left Koumori out there by himself. She slammed the back of her head against the tree trunk, obviously frustrated, angry, violated, and completely unsure of what to do now. The disappointing thing was that she couldn't get the kiss off her mind; it was her first one, after all, even if it was in a virtual world.

[Koumori 0]

My heart skipped a beat when I saw her face, she was petrified. I had never seen such a scared and disgusted look on a girls face in my entire life. And it was my fault. I completely violated her. In that split second I did so many things to her that I shouldn't have done, and I felt so awful. She shuffled off of me and landed back in the ice. All I could do was watch as she fumbled of the ice and ran into the forest. Sitting there, propped up on my shoulders, I watched her cry. I couldn't call out to her, my throat wouldn't listen. I just watched. All the time we spent together that day, ruined. She hated me. I stayed in my position for what seemed like an eternity, until I finally felt the eyes that had been trained on me. Oh no. Everyone had seen. All the people there saw what I did to her. I didn't care what they thought of me, but she must've been devastated. As much as she probably hated me, I couldn't let it end like that. I had to apologize to her somehow. I summoned whatever strength I had left and got to my feet. I began to make my way to the edge of the ice when I felt a hand grab me from behind. I turned to see another player who was slightly older than me harboring an extremely hateful expression, I girl clinging on to his back. "Do you know what you just did to that girl, you sick b******?!" he screamed as he spit into my face. I was too depressed to think of a response, so I just looked to the ground. In the blink of an eye he wound up and sucker punched me right in the left cheek. The force of his blow was so strong that I ended up sprawled out on the ground, by head throbbing from both the punch and the impact on the ice. If there was blood in this game, it surely would have been leaking from my mouth. I slowly brought myself up to my knees as I heard the guy and the girl skate off, I probably deserved more I thought. I finished getting up and slowly skated to the edge of the ice, blades disappearing as my feet touched the snow. I stood there for a minute to collect my thoughts, to think about what I'd say to her, but I couldn't think of anything to make it better. At that exact moment my mind drifted back to the kiss, and I felt warm inside. Oh no, I was happy about it? I just humiliated her and groped her and I was maybe happy about it? I really was the worst. I slumped my head down and began slowly walking to the woods where she had entered. As I approached I heard footsteps approaching fast from my right, great, here comes more I thought. I turned to see the group of younger players who had been having a snowball fight earlier running towards me. When the reached the one in the front spoke up "That was totally awesome, mister! The way you grabbed that girl, you even kissed her too! Man I wish I could do stuff like that" he said in an enthusiastic voice. When he finished gushing, he and his friends ran back, waving to me over their shoulders. I felt like I just had a dagger rammed through my chest. They just praised me for assaulting Starrine. That hurt 1000 more than the punches. I was completely destroyed, physically and mentally. Screw kids I thought to myself as I returned to my trek. I slowly made my way through the trees until I found the one Starrine had curled up behind. Of course, she was crying. This was it. I swallowed deeply and walked over to the tree and, after resting my arm in it, said the only thing I could, "I'm sorry" It hurt to say it, but mostly because of my sore jaw. 

(Ouch) 

[Starrine 0]

Starrine took a deep breath, trying to recompose herself as she sat there. She wasn't sure what to think about everything that happened, especially the kiss. Thinking about it now, maybe she'd overreacted.. But, still, being her first ever kiss, it was still shocking, to say the least. She was glad it was with Koumori, rather than some random guy on the street, though.. Wait.. But he kind of.. was? No, no, no! Stop thinking about it! She pressed her face into her hands and groaned, unsure of her conflicting feelings. Whenever she thought back to the kiss, though, she did feel.. somewhat warm and flustered on the inside, and she wondered.. if she liked Koumori?

Just then, she heard an 'i'm sorry' from next to her, and she jumped, so enveloped in her thoughts that she hadn't heard him coming. She looked up slowly, her face still pink. Starrine stood up quietly, and turned to Koumori, staring at her feet. "You don't need to be sorry, I was the one who--" she stopped midsentence, gaze fixated on his jaw, which was pixelated with a red mark. Without thinking, she gingerly reached up to touch it. As if realizing what she was doing, her hand quickly retreated to her side, and she stared in silence at her feet again for a few moments. "I'm sorry," she whispered, referring to the red mark on his face. "W-was.." She stuttered, avoiding his gaze as she spoke. "Was it bad?" She mumbled, lifting her hand to cover her lips as she stared at the ground. That was obviously not the right question to be asking, but being Starrine, she asked the dumbest question possible.

[Koumori 0]

She jumped when I spoke, obviously too consumed by her thoughts to hear me approach. Slowly she turned around to face me once more, but kept her face hidden from me. Okay her it comes. I was surely about to lose one of my two only friends in SAO. I braced myself, but the worst never came. I was shocked when Starrine began apologizing to me instead. She said it was her fault. So she didn't hate me. At that moment I regained all my clarity. Somehow, hearing those words from her pulled me out of my slump. I new she was sincere, so I was so happy that I hadn't hurt her. But she wasn't done there, she looked up and saw the mark on my face and reached out to touch it but quickly retracted her hand. Did she care that I got hurt? Man I felt stupid now. Now that I thought about it, how could an accident like that totally ruin everything. Rather, why did I feel like it would ruin everything? As I was thinking Starrine asking if "it" was that bad. Since she just tried to feel my wound I assumed that's what she meant so I was about to tell her I was fine...but then I saw her bring her hand to her lips. She wasn't talking about the punch, she was talking about the kiss. That's what she was thinking about right now? Wait a second, she liked me. That had to be what was going on. That's why she was acting like this, but...did I like her too? The warm feeling and fast beating in my heart seemed to signal yes, but I still didn't know. If I did this would be the moment to kiss her again. I didn't know if that was the right thing to do. How did I end up like this? How did I end up with two girls to think about? Well I couldn't worry about that now. Right now I had to worry about Starrine. So, I did the only thing I could do. I reached out to her and wrapped her in my arms. I brought her to my chest and hugged her tightly, "No, you weren't"

[Starrine 0]

Starrine kept her gaze locked on something oh-so-important on the ground, awkwardly shifting her feet. He sure was taking his time to respond, to anything she said in general. Gulping nervously, the girl gripped the brim of her dress, her heart pulsating. Why had she even asked? I'm so stupid! She thought miserably, wishing she could just leave, and run away. It felt like nothing would be the same after this, just because of her one, simple mistake. Here she was, about to loose one of her very few friends, embarrassed and humiliated, standing like an idiot with nothing else to say.

She felt herself being pulled forward, and as soon as she was enveloped in the hug, she felt her heart bursting; now she was sure he could feel it. Starrine didn't know what to do, so she just kind of stood there, face flushed red, her mouth a straight line. Was.. this what she wanted? It felt.. kind of one-sided. She sensed the hesitance in his motion, and slowly pushed herself away from him, amber eyes finally looking up to lock with him. For the first time since they met, she was entirely serious. She slowly reached forward, grabbed his hand with both of her own, and took a deep breath. Lowering her head, she gripped his hand for a moment, a bittersweet feeling filling her chest at the warmth in her hands. It wouldn't last. Starrine gently put down his hand, and finally looked back up at him, smiling in a hesitant way. ".. I'm sorry you got hurt," she whispered, intertwining her now empty hands into eachother, ".. I don't want this to be uncomfortable.. I think.. I think we should think for awhile.."

Starrine glanced up at him, obviously exhausted. There was a tired, unsure look in her eyes, and she seemed to slightly drift back and forth on her feet. For how childish she usually acted, she was being.. quite mature about this. She wanted to sort out her feelings, and it looked like Koumori had unsolved ones as well.

[Koumori 0]

I could feel Starrine's heart beating as I hugged her. After a few seconds thought I could sense that she was becoming uneasy about something and she pulled herself away. Looking down at the ground, she grabbed my hand in hers and took a deep breath as she finally looked up to my eyes. I could feel a pain coming from her, but a different one than from earlier. She seemed to be battling some desire inside. She let go of my hand and told me that we needed to think about things. I think I needed that to help me clear my head and escape the moment. I was riding a thin line. No matter what I did, someone was going to get hurt. At this point I knew the Starrine had some sort of feelings about me, so I had to be very careful. If we took a step back and thought about things, maybe we could both come to a decision on what we really wanted. Although, what I had to think about was a bit more complicated. "I'm okay don't worry about that. Yeah. After what's been going on, I think you're right" I said to her. I stretched my shoulders a bit and turned my head to the clearing, "Come on let's go back out"

[Starrine 0]

Koumori seemed to wait for a moment, thinking on something, and then agreed, say they should both go back out. Starrine let out the breath she'd been holding, and nodded, her hands still tightly gripping each other. Gathering up her courage once more, the black haired girl stepped out into the clearing, and glanced back at Koumori through the trees, and then shyly back at her feet. It seemed everyone had continued what they had been doing before, and the number of people had diminished quite a bit as the night grew on. 

Starrine was tired. Really, really tired. Mostly mentally, but even with her HP bar at full, she felt like she could collapse. However, she wasn't sure what to do, and sort of did an awkward shuffle forwards, only to turn around and look at Koumori. "Um.. I'm kind of tired, I think I might head back to my inn soon." Starrine mumbled quietly to him, gaze scanning his face for any unknown emotions, and then back to the diminished crowd, whom she really didn't want to go back into again.

[Koumori 0]

Starrine agreed to go back out so we slowly walked back towards the lake. She periodically glanced back at me only to shoot her head back forward, something that left me feeling a little sad. I had really messed up this one. It was undeniable at this point that she had some kind of feelings towards me. I didn't know if I could say the same for myself. I think I was just caught up in the moment. I had never experienced any of those things before, and I was a guy after all. But I did really like her. It was really fun being around Starrine, relaxing too. The one thing I was positive on was that I didn't want her to leave and not come back. If nothing else I wanted to be her friend. Maybe if she was just a little bit sooner things would be different... When we reached the clearing I could see that the lake had calmed down, not too many people were left. As I approached Starrine she told me she wanted to go to an inn. Now that she mentioned it, I was feeling tired too. All that had gone on really left me feeling drained. I probably didn't notice sooner thanks to that punch to the face. "Now that you mention it, me too. We might as well get going now then"

(sorry I took so long)

[Starrine 0]

[[ Want to end this thread as soon as it hits 4 pages? ]]

Holding her breath as she stood there, fingers entwined as she rocked on her feet. She liked Koumori, she knew that. Despite his many reactions, she knew it was one-sided. Lifting her head to the sky, snowflakes fell gently, kissing her pale skin on contact. Her amber gaze lingered on the clouded moon for a moment, and her grip on her own hands tightened for a moment. Exhaling the breath she'd been holding in, Starrine spun around, a bittersweet smile spread across her cheeks. She didn't want the last few moments to be dull and uncomfortable because of her.

"Yeah.. Let's go," she agreed, the core of her eyes softening as she turned back around, pulling her hands behind her back and continuing to walk forward, towards the teleporter. As soon as she stepped onto it, she paused midstep, wondering if she regretted the day's events. It was a somewhat bitter birthday, but.. at least she'd also had fun. Shaking the thoughts away, she waited, standing on the teleporter, the spot next to her open as she waited.

[Koumori 0]

I watched as Starrine stared up at the sky. Something was bothering her, that much was certain. I couldn't see her face from where I was standing but I knew that the expression that it bore was one of anguish. It hurt me to see that. It wasn't that I didn't like Starrine, because I did, I just had other things, or another person, to think about. I wished that all those things hadn't happened tonight. That way she probably wouldn't feel so strongly for me and there would be less pain for her. But I knew this wasn't the end. This was only the beginning of our relationship, our story. We had a long way to go from here, I wondered where she'd take it. Eventually we made our way over to the teleport gate. She hesitated before she got it, but still reached it before I did. This time I could see her face and I was right about the sadness on it. I stepped up to the teleporter and took my place at her side. I looked over at her, trying to find her amber eyes and said, "I'm sorry if I ruined your birthday" Then I commanded the teleport gate to return us to the first floor. After the animation had completed I stepped out and waited for my friend. 

[Starrine 0]

[[ Sorry for the late reply! Been busy since school is starting soon, haha. ]]

Starrine pulled her hands close to her sides, sleepy gaze drifting upwards as she stood, waiting for her friend. As he stepped on, face looking somber, he mumbled something about being sorry if he ruined her birthday. She opened her mouth, but was interrupted as they were teleported back to the first floor. Starrine shifted her feet awkwardly, fists grabbing at her dress awkwardly. Opening her mouth, she glanced upwards, looking a bit flustered; she honestly didn't want Koumori to feel like it was his fault that the night had ended so weirdly.

"Y-you didn't ruin my birthday! I was clumsy, and.. and I had a lot of fun today!" Starrine spluttered, trying to get the correct words out of her mouth. She just wanted everything to be okay; Koumori was a really nice, great guy. He'd comforted her, helped her, and been so, so generous. He deserved better. For some reason, her heart shook for a moment. Her gaze faltered, and she looked up, trying her best to smile big for him. "I'm really happy that you came with me today, Koumori.. Just, keep your promises to me, okay? And remember, I still owe you one!"

[Koumori 0]

We stepped out of the teleporter and took a pause. Starrine reassured me that I hadn't ruined her birthday, in fact, she was still glad that I was there. This made me feel much better. I couldn't bear knowing that I was only making things worse. She was looking up at me, doing her best to smile, but despite what she said I knew something was still wrong. That night both of our hearts were played, and she got the much worse end of the deal. I gave her the warmest smile I could to show her that everything was okay between us. I dreaded if I'd ever have to tell her we could only be friends. I still wasn't absolutely certain I would, but it seemed likely. I mean, I was pretty sure I had a thing for Glory. Argh why is the heart so difficult to understand. She was still looking at me, waiting for me to respond. "I'm glad. I had a really great time with you and I'd hate it knowing I made you sad. But, umm, I really am sorry about the stuff I accidentally saw...and touched" I said that last part pretty uncomfortably, rubbing my nose with my finger. "Anyway, why don't you lead the way to the inn, I'll stay there too." I stepped forward and spun around to face her, ready to go.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Koumori