After AnimeCon 2: Coming Out (Patreon)

    “Moooom!” Emily hollered from her bedroom door. “Are you going shopping today?”

    “...What do you need?” Mrs. Rivera answered from across the house with a voice full of grievance.

    “Nothing!” Emily yelled. “I just—yeah, just wanted to know if you were goin’ out, today. So that you’re not like all hovering over us all weird.”

    “Katie and I are going up and down the outlet mall, since it’s nice out,” Mrs. Rivera said. “Soon as she’s home from class. You and your… ‘friends’ are welcome to join us? How did that party last night go—”

    “Mom. It’s not like that. They’re friends, not ‘friends,’ okay?!” Emily called. “I mean, except K-dawg. Obviously. Girlfriend. And anyways, Chr—Chloe, she’s Brian’s ex, I mean geez! We can just be like, normal platonic young people that hang out with each other without it being more than that! Okay? We’re not a bunch of horny teenagers.”

    “Brian, honey?” Mrs. Rivera called over. “Don’t use the cheapo rubbers Emily has hidden in her dresser, those old things are probably expired. There’s nice lubricated ones in the left-hand-side drawer in their bathroom, you just—”

    “Mom stoooop,” Emily complained. “Stahp.”

    “Or fine, do whatever, I don’t care!” Mrs. Rivera teased. “Give me grandbabies. Then you’ll see what all I put up with. Just don’t come crying to me when—”

    “We’re on our best behavior!” Brian yelled. “We’re helping clean up Emily’s room a bit.”

    “That’s… good lord, that’s somehow even worse!” Mrs. Rivera laughed. “Emily? I’ve told you time and time again you need to—”

    “Mom, just GO!” Emily shouted. “Take my stupid sister and just—go!”

    “Well, isn’t this convenient?” Kelly remarked in a sardonic voice. “It’s almost as if—”

    “C’mon, c’mon,” Emily took Kelly by the wrist. “Omigosh this is perfect! Y’all, I didn’t spend the whole past month bein’ a horny sex gremlin for nothing. I’ve got, I’ve got plans.”

    “Hah, okay?” Brian chuckled, resting his hands back behind him on the bed. “Well, if—”

    Emily kicked one last errant sock out of the way and then swung her closet door open, flicking on the light and tugging Kelly along after her into the walk-in enclosure.

    “Wait, wait,” Kelly paused in the threshold to point at Christine. “You. Maid. Finish tidying up the room here, and then take a seat there at Brian’s feet when you’re done.”

    “Yes,” Christine acknowledged.

    “You don’t have to—” Brian started to say.

    “Brian, let the maid do what she’s supposed to,” Kelly growled. “It’s for her own good!”

    “Come on!” Emily finally pulled Kelly the rest of the way inside. “Bri, just give us like—give us a couple minutes. Don’t go anywhere!”

    The door was pulled shut behind them, and to Kelly’s amusement she discovered that the closet was more neat and organized than Emily’s room itself had been, perhaps because it remained out of sight most of the time. As a mid-sized walk-in closet it had enough standing room for two and maybe a third if everyone was cozy, with a single lightbulb overhead. One longer wall was bare, while the opposite had an overhead shelf and a clothes hanging rod beneath, upon which winter coats, punkish jackets, and brightly colored cosplays were hung up. The back wall of the space Kelly caught a glimpse of past Emily seemed to be shelves cram-packed full of boxes and books.

    “Strip,” Emily demanded in a whisper. “Clothes; off. C’mon, c’mon. Hurry!”

    “Okay?” Kelly unbuttoned her work slacks. “Is this—is this supposed to be symbolic?”

    “What?” Emily asked, already rummaging through the clothes hangers. “Symbolic of what?”

    “Is today the day you really embrace the gay?” Kelly teased. “Come out of the closet for real, right in front of Brian?”

    Once the pants were loose enough, Kelly leaned in close to Emily so that she could ease the garment down her hips with a sensual side to side waggle. The pinpricks of red suffused throughout Kelly’s mind glimmered with anticipation. Each burning red star was perched in the sky just above that lovely winding river of blue, and eagerly waiting to drop. Rather than appear flustered at Kelly’s provocations, the petite Latina let out a huff of a laugh and then yanked out a familiar red outfit. It was Emily’s iconic Akane Kurokawa ninja yukata, the one that the girl had worn back when they met during AnimeCon.

    “We’re… dressing up?” Kelly asked.

    “You are,” Emily pushed the cosplay towards Kelly. “Not me.”

    “Emmie—there’s no way this is gonna fit me?” Kelly laughed. “Kitten, get real.”

    “That’s where you’re wrong, bimbo!” Emily declared in a hushed voice. “In the first place Akane in Shinobi Souls has your kind of figure, not mine. So, it actually always never looked right on me, but it’ll be perfect on you! I’m a fuckin’ genius!”

    “Uhhh, okay?” Kelly quirked her lip in amusement. “Is there the fishnet, too?”

    “Nah, Brian ripped my new one to shreds, and the old body stocking I used to have was shitty, anyways,” Emily shrugged. “C’mon, c’mon! We gotta get you all changed. My wig’s up here. Get this shirt off!”

    “Emily… for real, though,” Kelly gave the girl a serious look. “What’s going on between us? We’ve kissed, we’ve made out. You’ve fondled, nibbled, and suckled on my tatas. You put my toes in your mouth. Is—”

    “Ssshhh!” Emily swatted her. “Uggh shut uppp. Shirt! Off.”

    “Is anything ‘tween us ever gonna happen like, below the belt?” Kelly refused to remove her shirt until Emily answered her. “I’ve fingerbanged you several times. Without any reciprocation. So, is this all just you putting on a show for Brian’s sake? For your guyses other friends? And so you’ll never go ‘all the way’ gay? Is it still too weird for you?”

    “Y-you said you were chill with like, waiting so I can adjust, taking things slow!” Emily gave an exasperated sigh. “You fucken sloot, you just want me to muff dive on you! Is that what this is all about? You’re all tryin’ to pull the is this relationship even going anywhere card, when really you just want your clam cleaned?! For shame!”

    “I mean~!” Kelly smirked, sticking out her tongue. “It can be both? Bitch, c’mon. Afraid you might like it? If you think my tiddies are great, Kitten you are gonna love my pussy.”

    “It’s—” Emily clamped a hand over Kelly’s mouth. “Keep it down! It’s, I don’t fucking know. It’s still weird, okay? Going down unda. That’s like, the big step. Titties, everyone loves titties, that’s nothing, no big deal. Beaver is like. Big. I don’t know, what if I don’t like it? What if it’s weird?!”

    “What if it’s not?” Kelly countered, taking the obstructing hand and kissing Emily’s palm. “What if it’s fucking amazing? Afraid you’ll like it?”

    “You really want me to?” Emily groaned. “Is it even that big of a deal?”

    “I don’t know?” Kelly gave her a shrug and a silly smile because she hated feeling shy. “It just. It kind of feels like you’ve been putting on a show of me being your girl for everyone, but it’s just a show. Emmie babe, I think of you as my girlfriend for real. Like, I really care about you. So, yeah I want you to go down on me. I wanna go down on you. I want us to be tight.”

    “It’s—it’s not that simple,” Emily protested.

    “I want to tongue-fuck you,” Kelly murmured. “I want you to go to town on me in turn, want that to be just something we can do together. Want us to be a moaning and panting sixty-nine while Brian and Steph watch. Want to just like—get naked, get all slick and lubed up on each other mashin’ muffs together, and try out that real sensual scissoring shit. You know, I’d been with a girl before, but we never even scissored? So, it feels like I was just playing around at bein’ bi, experimenting. But Emmie, I want to do some legit lesbo stuff with you, you stupid bitch.”

    “You, ah,” Emily looked up into Kelly’s eyes. “You don’t want to do that stuff with Stephie, first? You like her way more than you like me. She’s like, your—”

    “Don’t even do that,” Kelly gave Emily a light shove. “Don’t.”

    “What? I mean, it’s always been like—”

    “It’s not,” Kelly insisted in a harsh whisper. “Do I love Steph? Yes. Fuck yes. Do I love her more than you, more than Brian, do I love her most? It’s not a competition, there isn’t like some stupid fucking ranking. Steph is ice cream. You’re pizza. Brian is… Brian is USDA prime beef, like a premium cut. I don’t love any one of you more than the other! You’re all best in your own ways, you’re all my favorite. It’s a fucking harem, Emily. A buffet. I don’t have to choose. I get to have all of you, all of my favorites. We all do!”

    “Y-you really think I’m pizza?” Emily asked with a sarcastic smile. “Wowzers. I mean… that’s just about the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me. Ever.”

    “Should I have said tacos?” Kelly laughed. “Is that racist? You’re my little Latina taco I want to eat out?”

    “Tacos is… no, tacos is super gay,” Emily scoffed. “Let’s say I’m your burrito? Your cute little bi burrito? Because I mean, at best I’m just a teensy bit bisexual. I’m not like legit gay. Not the whole way gay. I’m like—I’m still super into Brian. No homo!”

    “What was your plan here, anyways?” Kelly grumbled. “Squeeze me into your tiny ninja costume so I’m all spilling out of it, parade me around for Brian? Was it because you wanted him to see me like that, or because you want to see me like that?”

    “Why not both?” Emily gave her an expressive shrug. “Fuck. I am kinda gay, huh? Damnit.”

    “Emily,” Kelly said. “I’ll put on your stupid costume. I’ll do your kinky cosplay dress-up thing. But—can you come out of the closet with me? Can we… can we hold hands? Can we not just be a pretend couple? Can we do all that lovey dovey puppy love affectionate stuff just for the hell of it, whenever we please?”

    “I won’t fall for your wiles,” Emily teased. “You just want me to go down on you! You just want me slurping at your snatch!”

    “I mean… yeah, no duh?” Kelly admitted. “Is that so wrong? Wanting a bit more intimacy? Is that such a crime?! After all we’ve been through together? Kitten, we swapped a mouthful of cum back and forth like, how many dozen times? And, that was in public. Asking you to lick my envelope and maaaybe stuff my mailbox isn’t that big of a deal, if you—”

    “Fine!” Emily said.

    “Really?” Kelly broke out into an enormous smile. “Really really?”

    “Yeah, really!” Emily threw her hands up in exasperation. “Fuckin’ bimbo slut. Damnit. Like, I kinda knew I’d wind up smoochin’ cooch eventually. I guess. With you around, ugh. I just. I dunno! Didn’t think it’d be today?”

    “You’ll come out of the closet with me?” Kelly bounced in place in excitement. “You’ll finally gnash gash?! You’ll lap my—”

    “Kell!” Emily stopped her. “Shut up, you big-tiddy bimbo liner! Keep your dumb voice down. Gnash gash—what the actual fuck, who says that? Yes, I’ll stop uhhh chickening out and pretending to be squeamish and go all slurpy burpy sapphic with you. Alright? Is that what you—”

    “Oh, so gnash gash is too much, but fucking slurpy burpy is fine? Kitten, you—”

    “—Is that what you want?! I’m sorry I was so, uh. So hesitant. But, I—you know what? I really do love you. I do. Annnd, I guess when I just remember to look at things through that lens? It stops seeming like such a big deal. So, yes, fine. Whatever. Let’s do this. Let’s… come out of the closet with all that bullshit.”

    “We can have Brian start me off, if that helps?” Kelly offered. “That way it’s less weird and gay for you. You can just think of it as lapping up Brian’s sloppy seconds, and—”

    “Okay, well, but get changed! Emily demanded in a whisper. “Come on come come on! I’ve been dying to see how you look in this getup, s’gonna be sexy as fuck.”

    “You’re stalling.”

    “No, YOU’RE stalling.”

    “No, you’re—”

    “Shut your bimbo mouth and get changing!” Emily hissed. “Listen—I’m the brains, sweetheart. Yeah, so why don’t you just let me do all the thinking?”

    “Oh dur-hur-hur, right, so I can see your two brain cells fighting it out for third place again? Puh-lease. If—”

    “Shut uppp!” Emily grabbed Kelly’s at nipple and started twisting.

    “Ow! Hey—” Kelly yelped. “Ow, stop that! You’re so fuckin’ juvenile. You better kiss that better right now.”

    “Yeah? Why don’t you make me?!”

* * *

    “I can help,” Brian said, starting to get up off the bed.

    “No,” Christine shook her head in refusal.

    The silver-haired girl continued her way around the edge of the room, picking things up and finding places to neatly arrange them. It was strange and surreal to see her working to clean up Emily’s near pigsty of a room, and Brian had to subconsciously swallow back several sudden misgivings he had about the situation. Because, Christine wasn’t Chloe, she wasn’t doing this to prove some kind of point about how useless and incapable he was. After all, this wasn’t even his room. Normally her going about to do any kind of domestic labor at all was a way of manipulating him into a guilt trap or leveraging herself for some sort of angry lecture later on.

    This wasn’t that.

    Instead Christine now seemed serene and at peace with herself as she bent down to grab a coffee mug off the carpet, check it for contents, and then place it on the edge of the desk. Those long, luscious legs of hers stepped over towards where hastily crammed manga volumes weren’t quite fitting onto a lower shelf, and Christine lowered herself into a crouch so that she could fit them all in properly. It wasn’t hard right now to imagine this girl instead dressed up in a frilly maid uniform.

    No, something else was getting hard right now.

    Fuck me, Brian thought to himself with a wry smile as he adjusted his growing boner. Am I THAT fucked in the head? When my turbo-feminist hateful ex-girlfriend starts acting all servile and obedient, it really gets my motor going? Gonna tell myself it’s not that. That instead it’s just that she seems happier now. At least, I think she is?

    “Chloe, I—” Brian started.

    “No,” Christine said again, sounding amused.

    “No, I was gonna say—are you happy?” Brian asked. “I mean. Happier? Like this? Better off?”

    “I’m fine,” Christine answered.

    “That’s not really—”

    “I’m fine,” Christine repeated. “Things are better. It was, well. It’s been a very long, stressful day, but. Things are more and more in balance. With how they should be, how they need to be. We’re getting there. There’s a way forward.”

    “What can I do to make you happier?” Brian asked.

    “Facefuck me?” Christine shrugged with indifference, still focusing on her task. “Fuck my face.”

    “You’re really set on that, huh?” Brian said.

    “Yeah,” Christine agreed.

    Emily’s bedroom fell into awkward silence after that, with Christine sweeping about the room to fix things—although Brian could have sworn he heard someone exclaim the word  ‘pussy’ from within the closet there. He wasn’t sure what to do here. All of their decisions about what to do next seemed to hinge on what was going on with the Masters who might be after them, and whether or not hiring other Masters to help wipe their trail clean had worked. Brian half expected the secret phalanx anti-missile system to go online and start blasting away at invaders any moment now. Trying to decide whether or not to ask for a memory wipe for himself just put him even more on edge.

    How does someone even decide something absurd like that?

* * *

    A strange manic feeling was slowly beginning to build within Christine. Whatever image or illusion Actress had planted on the surface of her mirror, it was muting her ability to self reflect. Rather than revert directly back into becoming Chloe, however, it was a numbing, hollow, nothingness. The silvery surface of her mind had a big strange uncanny swathe across it where something wasn’t quite right, it was reflecting some false stretch of reality rather than where she was actually supposed to be standing.

    If I focus on the feeling for too long, I feel more and more… untethered? Christine thought as she straightened items on the shelves. Disconnected somehow, unplugged? Or, maybe—incorrectly plugged? My power is still here. The device is ON, I can feel the static snow of silver all around me. What should be plugged in is plugged in, but it’s like I’m mentally switching between HDMI 1, HDMI 2, HDMI 3 and so on and still not really getting picture. It’s very… disorienting.

    She didn’t want to think about her father or the Masters right now. After placing the clothes she had folded into Emily’s dresser drawers however, there were no more things to do here. The room looked pretty nice and neat. Orderly. It was vaguely interesting poking around another girl’s room, especially a weeaboo like Emily, but with her directions fulfilled Christine had nothing left to do except quietly take a seat on the floor at Brian’s feet. That felt good—submissive in all of the right ways, euphemistic, even, and it was hard for her to meet Brian’s eyes.

    The room went still and quiet, with neither of them knowing what to say.

    “Alright—you guys ready for this?!” Emily peeked her head out from the closet door. “We’re. Oh, holy shit. The room looks nice? Thanks, uh, Christine? Ahem. Anyways~!”

    The closet door was flung wide open, and Emily led Kelly back out into the bedroom.

    Kelly was dressed up as Akane Kurokawa, and she looked absolutely stellar. The costume when worn by Emily back then had been recognizable but by no means accurate; when donned instead by Kelly it was as though the bodacious anime character stepped out of 2D and into real life. The short-sleeved red yukata was open at the chest and barely managing to cover Kelly’s tits at all—the amount of cleavage on display was absolutely obscene, enough that the pale pink halos that were the edge of Kelly’s nipples were a bit visible.

    The belt sash was cinched so tight at the waist that it gave her already amazing figure an exaggerated hourglass shape, drawing even more emphasis to her freely jiggling bust and her outrageous hips. The bottom hem of the yukata barely covered Kelly’s privates at all, and the lower hemisphere of her butt was on clear display as she twisted and turned so that they could see. A part of her wanted to stubbornly insist that the getup was too small on Kelly’s taller figure, that there was too much leg on display, an exaggerated amount of bobbing boob visible—but at a glance, it was simply a dead match for the already titillating anime character Akane.

    “Holy shit,” Brian remarked in open-mouthed wonder.

    Yeah exactly, Christine agreed in silent amazement. Holy shit.

    “Right? Right?!” Emily gestured at Kelly in excitement. “Like, I always thought it’d work, but like dayum, actually seeing it?!”

    “Feels a bit breezy?” Kelly chuckled, preening and picking at the bangs of the brown Akane Kurokawa wig to help arrange them correctly across her brow. “Like—wow, Emmie. It’s one thing to know you wore this to cons, and another thing to really know that you wore THIS to cons? Like everything is just—hanging in the breeze. You fucking exhibitionist!”

    “Babe—it covered a lot more on me, than it does you,” Emily scoffed, reaching over to help adjust the cosplay sash. “If you wore this to conventions, we’d have to tape some bits down. Well—tape some o’ those tits down. Look it ‘em go, they bounce around like crazy, damn. Boing, boingg, boi-oi-oinggg—!”

    “Emily!” A voice too young to be Mrs. Rivera called from down the hallway. “Mom said Brian and them are here? Are you all going with us to the Northside mall?”

    To her credit Katie knocked before entering, although it was just a quick informal rapping of knuckles as she shouldered open the bedroom door—the lanky teenage girl’s jaw fell and her eyes bulged at discovering Kelly standing in the middle of the room.

    “Uhh ohmigod, hi?” Katie squeaked out. “Like. Whoa. You’re doing that one girl from Shinobi Souls? You cosplay, too? You look amazing! Is this, uh, is this one of your sister’s—uhh, Sarah Star’s outfits? Like you guys said last night? It looks… wow? Wow. Are you guys like, taking photos for InstaReel? Or, your socials? Can you add me? KTCakes. I have almost a thousand followe—”

    “Katie fucking buzz off,” Emily scoffed. “This one’s my Akane cosplay. Doesn’t it look fucking familiar?”

    “Uhh, no?” Katie blinked in surprise. “Not on Kelly? Wait, is it because it actually looks good on Kelly?”

    “I will cunt punt you, cat-head,” Emily raised a foot to throw a half-hearted kick in her younger sister’s direction. “Go choke and die.”

    “Calm down, Gawd,” Katie made a face. “I was saying Kelly looks really nice, sooo—chill out. Wow.”

    “You’re saying I don’t look nice, when I wear it?” Emily scoffed. “Like you think I don’t—”

    “Whoa, whoa, she didn’t say that,” Brian tried to intervene. “She probably just—”

    “I mean I didn’t say it, but yeah I was sure thinking it, hah,” Katie made a face at Emily. “But, whatever? So, I guess you guys are staying here? We’re going to the mall.”

    “Katelyn,” Kelly said. “I get that you’re sisters, and have your sibling rivalry or whatever. But, when you act like that to my Emily… it really makes me start to despise you.”

    “Hey, I was just like kidding,” Katie held up her hands. “Geez. Just giving her a hard time. Emily, you know it looks fine on you. We literally watched you work and work on it every year for that con you go to. We just mess around. Did you… empty out everything in your room? Where’d all your stuff go?”

    “Kelly—Emily does tend to treat Katie like shit, too,” Brian sighed. “It’s not exactly like a one-sided—”

    “She’s my girlfriend, she’s allowed to be mean to everyone!” Kelly sniffed. “But, no one’s allowed to be mean to her. That’s how it is.”

    “Thank you,” Emily rolled her eyes. “Now if only that also applied to yourself as well, you boob.”

    “You’re my girlfriend, I’m supposed to bully you,” Kelly grinned. “But—no one else can.”

    “...Gross,” Katie groaned. “So uh—Emily why don’t you spend time here with your girlfriend, and uh, and Chloe, too? Then Brian can come with us to the mall. Brian? Northside mall with us? The outlets, across town. It’ll be fun? We can check out the—”

    “No can do,” Brian shook his head. “I’m deputy body inspector, today. They need some male input on uhh, on how things look for the cosplay and everything. Proper frame of reference.”

    “Ooh, input, huh?” Kelly turned and threw him a coy smile. “Brian—I’ll take all the input you can give me…”

    “Yeah, well,” Katie sighed. “Fine, whatever. Emily? You better keep a close eye on your girlfriend, before she uh, slips right outta your fingers? Later, I guess.”

    “Ooh, who has slippery fingers?” Kelly asked with interest. “Because—”

    “Ew, okay, bye!” Katie made another face before retreating back into the hall and slamming the bedroom door on them. “Ewwww, ew ew. Ew.”

( Previous, Lost the Plot | After AnimeCon 2 | Next, Nothing but Nonsense )

/// Okay the banter here took more words than I thought so I split chapters. NEXT chapter should be the final chapter of book 5 and a mild nsfw warning. Sorry this took so long to get out, had to delete a bunch and backtrack because things weren't framing right.

The plan is to have some spicy time, juice up Kelly a teensy bit so they can see if there's any early warning broadcasts. Will fix links and update guide page tonight sometime.