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“Move over, you skank! And quit hogging the blankets!”
“Shut up, pig! God chose me for my beauty, and therefore I need my beauty sleep!”
Momo groaned. She never should have invited Aira over to stay with her. The icy wind from outside was blowing through the makeshift cardboard wall of the living room where the mattress was set up, and while Aira seemed comfortable, Momo, due to her lack of blankets, was freezing her ass off.
“You didn’t even come with us to Jiji’s house—you don’t deserve any blankets!”
“Fugly!”
“Pig!”
“Fugly!”
“Pig!”
“Fugly!”
Momo rose from the bed and grabbed her pillow. “I’m finding somewhere else to sleep, skank.” She put on her slippers, which she had left at the foot of the mattress, then approached the door to the hallway. “And I’m stealing more of your toner, too!”
“Don’t you dare, Ayase!”
“See ya, skank!”
Momo left the room, slamming the door behind her. She walked to the linen closet down the hall and pulled a sleeping bag from the top shelf. Then, she left through the—still intact—back door and started towards the main shrine outside. She clutched the pillow against her chest, shivering in her green sweatshirt and shorts.
“I’ll sleep outside if it means getting away from that fugly bitch,” muttered Momo. When she slid open the door to the barrier room, she jumped, dropping the pillow and sleeping bag to the ground with a yelp.
Where Momo was expecting an empty room—instead, was Okarun. He was mid-squat, a confused expression peeking through his slightly foggy glasses.
“Okarun!” yelled Momo. “You scared the crap out of me!”
Okarun immediately removed himself from his squatting position and stood up straight to meet her eyes. He undid the Velcro on his training gloves and wiped a bead of sweat off his brow. “Miss Ayase… I’m sorry, I didn’t realize anyone would come out here.” He grabbed the items she had dropped and gingerly handed them to her.
She took her items; her face twisting into a smirk. “Whatcha doing?” Momo asked—almost teasingly—because she was fully aware of what he was doing. She enjoyed seeing him all embarrassed.
“I was… working out,” he mumbled, turning his face away from her so his voice was barely audible.
“Huh? I didn’t hear you.”
“I was working out!” exclaimed Okarun, blushing furiously. “Which I do out here because I didn’t want you to see!”
“Damn, you're still on the ‘get strong without me knowing’ grind? I thought we were over that!”
Okarun blushed even deeper, scratching the back of his neck. “I’m sorry…”
“It’s nothing to be sorry about, you dork.” Momo closed the door behind her, removed her slippers, and walked closer to him. Okarun took a step back, shrinking against the wall behind him.
“After the Evil Eye attacked you last night, I realized how weak I really am,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything to save you. It was luck that you made it out alive.”
“Hey, don’t minimize my super awesome sneak attack!”
“I’m not! I’m just saying that next time you might not have hot water in your mouth… And I need to get strong in case something happens.”
Momo rolled her eyes. “But you’re totally strong, Okarun,” said Momo, crossing her arms.
“Not strong enough…”
Momo frowned and put her sleeping bag and pillow down on the ground, kneeling to set it up.
“I’ll get it,” Okarun said. He ran back towards her and unrolled her sleeping bag.
“I’ve got it, Okarun.”
Okarun didn’t listen; instead, he unzipped the sleeping bag, smoothed it out, and gently put her pillow down. “All done,” he said.
“Thanks.” Momo crawled into the wrinkled cocoon and curled up with her pillow. Okarun zipped her up. “Mmm. Nice and cozy.”
Okarun grinned as he adjusted his glasses once more, then he sat down against the wall.
“Who’s looking after Jiji if you’re out here?” asked Momo into her pillow.
“Turbo Granny. She’s making sure he doesn’t transform and come after you again.”
“At least she’s good at something other than being a pain in my ass.”
Okarun smiled softly. “Why are you sleeping out here, Miss Ayase, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Momo rolled her eyes with a scoff. “That skank Aira was being a bitch and hogging all the blankets. Something about beauty sleep. I didn’t want to bother Grandma, so I came out here.”
“That sounds like Miss Shiratori all right,” said Okarun, standing up and walking towards the door. “I’ll get going… finish my reps in the morning.”
Something tugged at Momo’s heartstrings, and she realized with a start that she really didn’t want him to leave. “Hey!” Momo said, just as Okarun was reaching for the door. He whipped his head around, looking at her with concern in his eyes. “Stay here. I… don’t want to be alone if Evil Eye were to get out.”
“But… we’re in the barrier room. No yokai can get in.”
“What if a Serpoian comes? Don’t want them stealing anything from us… Those guys freak me the hell out.”
“We defeated them at school, remember? I really think we scared them away for good.”
Momo rolled her eyes at Okarun’s inability to take the hint. “Damn it, Okarun. I want you to stay here—with me.”
Okarun let out a small yelp, meeting Momo’s eyes intensely, his cheeks impossibly flushed. “Oh! Um, alright,” he said. “I’ll stay here—with you. If that’s what you want.”
Momo nodded with a smile, patting the floor next to the sleeping bag. Okarun gingerly sat down, pulling his knees up to his chest.
“If I’d known you’d have been out here, I would have grabbed another sleeping bag.”
“I’m not tired, Miss Ayase. I’ll stay awake… to protect you.”
“But I thought you said there was nothing to worry about,” she said with a yawn, closing her eyes.
“Well… I suppose we can never know for sure. I mean, there are hundreds of cryptids out there—even just in Japan. I always get scared that something will come after you. Nessie almost killed us… I always want to be there to save you from Evil Eye, or the Serpos, or any other yokai or cryptids that come for us. No matter what happens, I want to be strong… for you.”
Momo opened her eyes, suddenly hot in her sleeping bag. He was being surprisingly sweet. “I’m tough. I can handle them.” She cursed herself for being so defensive.
“I know you can,” said Okarun. “I just… really care about you. I couldn’t live with myself if something were to happen to you.”
Momo was surprised by his candor. She unzipped herself about halfway out of her sleeping bag so she could slide out and sit next to him against the wall. “I care about you too, Okarun,” she said, matching his sincerity. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you either.”
When their eyes met, Momo noticed how close their faces were. Her heart was beating so fast—she prayed Okarun couldn’t hear it thumping away in her chest. However, she noticed Okarun’s brown eyes flickering between her lips and eyes, and Momo got a funny feeling in her stomach—nerves, she guessed. But it wasn’t like the nerves she got before battles, when she didn’t know what could happen to them, or if they would even survive the day. This was different. Okarun was right there—as real as can be. And yet, she was so overcome with trepidation that she couldn’t even think.
“Okarun…” started Momo, but she didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she found his hand and rested hers on top of it.
“Miss Ayase—” started Okarun, but Momo shushed him. She began drawing patterns on his hand, tracing his knuckles, and rubbing them with her fingers—the same as in the car just a few days ago. “Miss Ayase, I still don’t know the rules—”
“Okarun, shut up. I’m trying to be romantic here.” Momo shifted her eyes away from him, embarrassed at the words so impulsively leaving her mouth.
“Romantic?” Okarun froze, stiffening his hand.
Momo continued rubbing his hand, trying to play it cool. “Yeah, romantic.”
“W-What do you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean, Okarun.”
“I really don’t, Miss Ayase. I—I don’t know for sure what intentions you have—doing this.”
Momo let go of his hand, and he looked up at her, curious. “Okarun, remember a few nights ago when you walked me home from my work?”
Okarun nodded quickly.
“You reached out your hand, and then you pulled it away.”
“You grabbed it anyway,” Okarun said, then he closed his mouth and adjusted his glasses.
“It’s because I wanted to… hold your hand.”
Okarun gasped. “I thought you were just cold.”
“I was cold,” admitted Momo. “But if I were just cold, I would have put my hand in my pocket, or curled it up in my sleeve. I held your hand for another reason.”
“Then what’s the other reason?”
“Damn it, why do you have to make me say it?”
“Because I have no idea and you won’t say anything that isn’t completely vague!”
“But it’s so obvious!” whined Momo, covering her face with her hands.
“Just say it, Miss Ayase!”
“No!”
“How about—” Okarun said, reaching up to her cheeks and pulling her hands away so he could grasp her hand fully. “You write it down, or you could whisper it to me.”
Momo looked down at their intertwined hands, the fluttery feeling in her stomach growing stronger. “Fine. I’ll say it. But don’t laugh at me.”
“I would never,” he said seriously.
She silently prayed to any gods out there that whatever words were about to leave her mouth wouldn’t ruin this friendship—a friendship that had been so unexpected yet meant more to her than anything else in the world. Okarun looked at her in anticipation.
Shoving away all the potential scenarios that could arise from a confession of this magnitude, she finally admitted what she had pushed away so foolishly. “Okarun, I like you.”
“You… like me?”
“Yeah, a lot.”
“A lot?”
“Stop repeating everything I’m saying!”
“I’m trying to process!” Okarun exclaimed. He was squinting behind his glasses, focused on something else in the room, as if he were deep in thought. He appeared to be doing some sort of calculation in his head.
“So… what do you think?” she asked shakily, her heart racing so fast she thought it might give out under the duress.
Okarun’s gaze shot back to hers. “You’re my best friend.”
Momo’s heart lurched, and she sucked in a breath. “Mmm-hmm.”
“My first friend.”
Momo nodded, suddenly remembering the first day she had met him—how dorky and shy he was.
“And you like me… a lot.”
“Yep.”
“So, you want to be something that’s… more than friends.”
“Bingo!” Momo said with finger guns, finally exhaling.
“Miss Ayase, I… I’ve never had a friend before you, let alone—” he struggled to find the right words. “—anything more. I’m worried I might mess things up, or not be good at it.”
“My last boyfriend was a douchebag. Anything you do would be infinitely better.”
Okarun’s eyes seemed to light up at the word boyfriend. “You mean, you want me to be your boyfriend?”
“Duh? Isn’t that what ‘more than friends’ means?”
“It could mean a lot of things!”
Momo blushed, praying he wasn’t thinking what she was thinking.
Okarun continued. “But I would be your boyfriend… if you really wanted.”
“I do,” she said, squeezing his hand. “I would really like that. But… if you wanted to stay friends, we could. I could leave and we could forget all this happened, like it was just some really weird dream—”
“No,” said Okarun firmly. “I don’t want that.”
Momo looked at him, scanning for any trace of sarcasm in his words or regret in his eyes.
There was none.
“I have so many friends now, Jiji, Mr. Mantis, Taro… even Miss Shiratori and Turbo Granny,” he explained. “But… with you it feels different. You're my best friend, but… there could be more, too.”
“Okay… okay.”
Suddenly, Okarun shifted closer to her, so their shoulders were touching. He was looking at her—almost as if he expected her to back away. Instead, she leaned closer.
“I… like you too, Miss Ayase. A lot.”
She’d never seen him be as open or genuine as he was now. He also never made the first move. But for the first time, Okarun was the one to initiate. He gently closed the gap between their lips, even moving his free hand to rest on her cheek. The kiss didn’t last long—it was just a quick press of the lips, then he leaned away, his hand moving down to her shoulder. They both opened their eyes.
“Miss Ayase… was that alright?”
“More than alright,” she said with a smile. Okarun’s eyes lit up, and he gently squeezed her shoulder. “So alright, that we could… keep going?” Her hand reached for the neckline of his t-shirt, playing with it.
Okarun grinned shyly and nodded. He leaned in and kissed her again, this time with less restraint. His hand slid back to her cheek, but Momo grabbed it and brought it down to her waist. They continued to kiss, each one quick—a make-up for all the times she had wanted to do this, but had never had the courage to make a move. Eventually, he was so close to her that his glasses bumped into her nose, and they both giggled. Momo reached to take them off, and she placed them on the floor beside them.
“But I can’t see you now,” said Okarun, frowning.
Momo grabbed his cheeks and pulled him closer. “Now, can you?”
“Better, yeah,” he shrugged.
“Well, ‘better’ isn’t good enough.” Momo moved from where she was sitting against the wall, and swung a leg over him, so she was sitting on his lap, their chests pressed together. She wrapped her arms around his neck so their faces were only centimetres apart.
“Miss Ayase—”
“Can you see me well now?”
“Yes, but… is this really what you want?”
“Yeah,” she said, blushing at their closeness. She kissed him before he could see the red spreading down her neck, pulling him in tightly against her. His hands returned to her waist, his thumbs gingerly rubbing her hip bones. She tangled a hand in his hair, the other pressing against his chest.
He kissed her passionately, but she could still feel him holding back, as if he was giving her space to pull away from him at any second. She gently pressed her tongue against his lips, coaxing them open and pushing it inside, deepening their kiss.
Okarun gasped against her mouth, and she laughed into him. They continued just like that, Momo savoring each press of his lips and touch of his hands.
Eventually, Momo grabbed his hands and brought them to the hem of her sweatshirt. Okarun pulled away from her mouth, tilting his head in confusion.
“Take it off,” she said, smirking slightly at his disbelief.
“R-Really?”
“Yeah.”
After a few moments of contemplation, he slowly slid it up her torso and off her head; only her flimsy bralette remained. He stared for a second, then quickly shifted his gaze back to her face. “Sorry,” he murmured.
Momo looked down at him, ignoring his apology. “I want to do things with you, Okarun. Like a lot of things. But you should start by touching me.” She supposed that giving him direct instructions was a good way to avoid her so-called ‘vagueness.’
“Miss Ayase—are you sure?”
“Yes, ya big dummy! Just do it.”
Okarun was staring at her, his eyes shifting from her chest, then back to her face. He looked puzzled, as if he were trying to decide how he was supposed to do this. He moved his hand up from her hip to her ribcage, then suddenly, he froze and moved both his hands off her body. “Miss Ayase—you’ve told me about your last boyfriend. How he… wanted things from you. I don’t want to do that to you.”
Momo rolled her eyes. “Okarun—I’m telling you face to face that I want this.”
Okarun hesitated. “I’m just worried that we’re taking this… too fast. We could… I could take you out to dinner or something, or to a movie—have a nice night out and then we could—do that.”
Momo frowned, suddenly self-conscious of being on top of him without her sweater. “I just thought… that’s what you wanted.” She climbed off him, sitting against the wall as they were before. She turned away, crossing her arms over her chest and avoiding his eyes.
“I want to—so much—but not now, not in some shed in your backyard. I don’t want you to waste your first time on a whim—I want it to be really special for you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
"I understand," she said flatly, a strange feeling churning within her.
Momo wasn’t used to this—the guys she had dated in the past had never even wanted to take her out on a date… She always knew she deserved better—deserved someone who wanted her for more than just cash or sex. But she never actually thought that a guy like that existed, at least not in real life. Momo felt tears well up in her eyes, and a quiet sniffle escaped her nose.
Okarun grabbed his glasses from the floor beside him and quickly put them on. “Miss Ayase, why are you crying?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, crying into her hands. “I feel like an ass, trying to force you… I’m no better than my shitty exes—”
Okarun pulled her hands away so he could look her in the eyes. “Hey, don’t say that. It’s not your fault. You just… have the wrong idea about relationships, that’s all.”
“Like you know any better!” she scoffed. Momo looked up, more guilt pooling in her stomach. “Sorry, that was mean. What I'm trying to say is that you haven’t even been in a relationship, and you still know so much more than me.” She cried on his shoulder.
Okarun was silent for a moment. Momo felt him wrap an arm around her and pull her in close. “I guess we are both pretty dumb about this kind of thing,” he whispered. “I was so stupid not acting on my feelings—and not reciprocating yours, even when you made it so obvious. I just never wanted to pressure you into anything you didn’t want. And now I’ve made you feel like you owe this to me…”
“Hey, don’t try to make this your fault!” Momo said, jerking her head off his shoulder so she could look him in the eyes. “It isn’t. And I know that you would never in a million years try to make me do anything. It was completely my fault for being weird about it.”
“You’re not weird, Momo. Well—maybe a little. But that’s what I like about you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And even if we’re weird about… all this,” Okarun gestured at the two of them, “we can figure it all out together. And… maybe… have a do-over of tonight some other day? Maybe… in a bed?” Okarun blushed, turning his face away.
Momo moved his chin so he could look at her once more. She giggled softly, her heartbeat slowing. “I would like that, Okarun.”
They stayed pressed together against the wall for a while, leaning their heads together. Momo shivered under his touch, more from nerves than from the cold.
“Here, Miss Ayase.” Okarun grabbed her sweater, holding it out above her head. Momo followed his lead, lifting her arms so he could pull it down over her, and slipped her hands through the sleeves. He adjusted the hem at the bottom, then met her eyes once more.
“Thanks, Okarun,” said Momo. “And I’m sorry. Really sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.” The look in his eyes told her he meant it.
She smiled gratefully. “You must be cold, too.”
“A little,” he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.
“Well, I’ve got an idea.” Momo got up and returned to her sleeping bag, which was still rolled out on the ground. She unzipped it all the way. “We could go in here together, and it would be warm.”
“But don’t you want to go to sleep?”
“Yeah, you dork. I’m tired A-F. But I need you to protect me while I sleep, ya know? From all the aliens?” She gave him her phoniest smile.
“You’re such a faker!”
Momo groaned. “Fine! Maybe I just want to be close to you while I sleep, all right!”
Okarun grinned. “You could have just said so, Miss Ayase.”
She rolled her eyes at him, but she smiled and blushed and hoped this night would never end. Momo slid into the sleeping bag, grabbing Okarun’s hand so she could pull him down next to her. He zipped them up, then awkwardly shuffled so they were facing each other. It was a tight fit, but they both squeezed their heads onto the pillow.
Momo found herself growing sleepy as they lay in silence. However, a final thought lingered in her mind before she drifted off, and she was desperate for closure.
“I guess you’re my boyfriend now,” she whispered, shifting so she could rest her head in the crook of his arm.
He pulled her close, brushing his lips against her hair. “I guess you’re my girlfriend now.”
For the first time since her house had been destroyed, Momo slept peacefully.