58 and a Half Hours/September 4, 2016

Yuu abruptly woke up to his bed bouncing. It took only a half second of confusion before he realized Minako was riding him. Immediately he was torn between worrying about being caught and wanting to continue. He seriously considered just closing his eyes and trying to will himself back to sleep.

“Minako, we can't let Miku find out what's going on! This is too risky!” Yuu said urgently. “Oh, are you saying you want. Me. To. Stop?” She punctuated each word with a twist of her body. Yuu couldn't bring himself to say yes. “I thought you said you weren't in the mood?” “That was last night, this is this morning,” Minako said, smiling. A minute later they both climaxed. Minako climbed off and quickly pulled up her pants, as Yuu pulled up his.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. “May I come in?” Miku asked from the far side. Panic flashed across Yuu's face – which intensified when Minako shouted, “Go ahead!”

The door opened and Miku stepped in. “What're you doing in here Minako? Is everything alright, I thought I heard noises,” Miku said. Right at that moment, Natsu suddenly appeared in the doorway; she had clearly run there as quickly as possible, with a look of panic on her face.

“Everything's fine,” Minako said nonchalantly. “I just came in to talk last night and we dozed off. What you heard was just me trying to wake Yuu up. He loves to sleep in on the weekends.” Natsu shot a cross look at Minako.

“Alright then. I was the same way when I was that age. I'll see you downstairs then,” Miku said, turning to leave. After she was gone, Natsu stepped into the room. “Did I or did I not say to be on your best behavior?” “Hey, everything I said was, in the strictest sense, true. I came in here last night to try and get away from the sound of you two fighting. And those sounds did indeed involve waking Yuu up,” Minako objected.

Natsu let out a deep breath to calm down. “Ok. I'm sorry about last night, I really am. I'll be better about it for the rest of the time Miku's here. But you absolutely have to lay off the PDA, and – I'm serious – no more sex until she's gone. The chance she'll see something inappropriate is too high.”

---

Yuu and Minako got into the kitchen, where Faye and Miku were already chatting. Once she spotted the two, Miku said, “I want to apologize to all of you for last night. I know how awkward that must have made everyone feel. I want to make it up to you guys; how about I take you to the water park and then Boondocks today? My treat.”

As everyone left to get ready to go, Miku stopped Yuu. “If you want to invite Valen to come with us today, I'd be fine with that. I know it's not my place, but I kind of got some vibes off of you two yesterday... am I right?” Yuu smiled. “Yeah. We've been together since the start of the summer,” he answered. Miku got a broad smile on her face. “I'm so happy for you two, I always had a feeling you'd get together someday!” She gave Yuu a hug, before sending him on his way to call Valen and get ready.

---

When the small group arrived at the water park, there was already a moderate crowd there due to the upcoming holiday. Everyone changed into their swimsuits and, to an extent, split up to do their own things. Yuu pointedly attempted to stay away from the kids area that Miku was basically stuck at, watching Rika and Natsumi; it became clear very early that Minako had decided she was going to make a mission out of pantsing him in the water. He finally decided to stick to the water slides to try and prevent the attacks, though that only led her to change her plan to doing the slides in tandem.

After a couple hours, Miku hunted everybody down so they could have lunch. As they sat, Miku checked her phone and saw there was a missed call from Natsu. “Hey, Mom, what's up?” Miku asked, returning the call. “Do you remember Emily Wheeler, that girl Natsumi used to play with when she was younger?” Natsu asked over the phone. “I'm not sure Natsumi does, but I do,” Miku answered. “Well, her parents heard you were in town and invited Rika and Natsumi over there for a sleepover tonight.” “Hold on a sec,” Miku said before moving the phone away. “Natsumi, your old friend Emily wanted to invite you over for a sleepover tonight. She's also invited you, Rika. Do you guys want to go?” Miku asked.

Natsumi brightened up and shook her head yes. “I want to play with Natsumi more, so I want to go too!” Rika answered. Miku put the phone back up to her head. “They both want to. Here's what we'll do; we're just about to leave the water park anyway, if you get their bags together I can just make a quick stop at home on the way before taking them over,” Miku said.

“Alright, I'll see you guys soon. Bye!” Natsu said, hanging up the phone.

Miku turned to the teenagers that were there with her. “I'm going to drop you guys off at Boondocks while I run the girls over to their sleepover. Let's all set each other up on the Find My Friends app so I'll be able to find you when I get there.”

---

Yuu, Miku, Minako, Valen, and Faye all exited the laser tag arena to get their scores. After Miku had dropped them off, they had played in the arcade until she got back. After that they continued to play there for a few hours, before moving on to laser tag.

Several times during the game, Minako had cornered Yuu in the maze to sneak in a few short make-out sessions. Fortunately they had been interrupted by strangers each time rather than by Miku. On the last of these he'd actually shot her as she walked away, saying, “You gave me the chance to score; I took it!” as he bolted.

After everyone gathered their scorecards, Miku asked, “So what should we do next?”

“How about miniature golf?” Minako suggested. “Alright then, let's go,” Miku responded as they turned to leave. Valen took Yuu's hand as they walked over to the counter to get their putters and balls.

More than once as the game progressed, Minako asked Yuu to help her with her form. After the second time he rolled his eyes at the request, and tried to keep as much distance between himself and Minako as he could. At one point he looked up and could briefly see Miku giving Minako a strange look.

After the last hole, it was starting to get dark. The group decided to do the go-karts before calling it a night. “Could I ride with you?” Valen asked. “Err, could you ride with someone else? I just remember you white-knuckling it last time you rode with me...” Yuu said. “Ooh, I'll ride with you then!” Faye said to Yuu. “Guess you're riding with me,” Minako said to Valen. Valen pouted a little, but chose not to argue.

As the karts raced around the track, Faye cheered as Yuu tried to cut the corners as tight as he could. After the second time Yuu managed to lap Minako and Valen, the kart hit one of the track's straightaways. Caught up in the excitement, coupled with two days now of having to watch her actions, Faye decided to try something risky. She didn't see the kart coming up in their blind spot.

As she tried passing Yuu's kart, Miku lost control of her own when she spotted Faye's illegal maneuver.

It was just supposed to be a quick kiss, short enough that it would be over by the time Yuu had to pay attention to the track again and turn, but it was still even shorter than she intended, as their faces were ripped from each other by the centrifugal force of the kart spinning out. As they regained their bearings, they realized that Miku had crashed into them. Miku glared at them for a second, before the attendant announced over the megaphone, “Okay, everybody back to the start, on the double!”

Miku turned her kart back in the right direction and drove off. Yuu and Faye looked at each other uneasily for a moment before Yuu started driving back as well. As they got past the gate, Miku approached Yuu and Faye. “Care to explain yourselves?!” she asked angrily. Before they got the chance to say anything, however, Valen and Minako made it past the gate. “Are you alright? I saw that crash!” Minako asked.

“Did you happen to see why they crashed?” Miku fumed. “All I could see was the back of your karts, since you guys kept passing me,” Minako said, slightly annoyed. “It was innocent, just a sisterly show of affection!” Faye tried. Miku didn't buy it for a second. “Innocent kisses don't involve tongue!”

“Oh, wow,” Minako said, completely devoid of surprise or alarm. “If I was a gambler, I would have put money on myself being the one to get caught. Glad I didn't get that from Dad,”

A renewed sense of shock blew through Miku. “What the hell do you mean by that?” she demanded. “I mean, there's been several times today that you could have caught me doing stuff with Yuu, but the closest you came was right after our quickie this morning,” Minako answered calmly.

Miku took a step back in shock, before moving forward and grabbing Minako and Faye's shirts by their collars, then starting to march them towards the park's exit. “That is it, I am taking you two home and letting Mom deal with this!”

As she started to walk away, Yuu started to follow. Miku quickly whipped her head and shoulders around to glare at him. “No! I am not taking you with me, I'm too mad to let you sit in the front, and there's no way I'm letting you be in the back with either one of them.”

“Well what do I do then?” Yuu asked. “Figure it out.” Miku said angrily as she frogmarched Minako and Faye out of the park.

After shoving Faye and Minako into the back of her rental car, Miku climbed in herself. “This is ridiculous,” Faye shouted. “I am an adult, and it's my decision who I date!” “Have you had sex with him too?” Miku demanded. Faye was quiet for a moment, prompting Miku to shout again, “Have you had sex with him?!” This time Faye quietly answered, “Yes...”

Minako simply folded her arms defiantly. “I am absolutely fine with letting Mom sort this out,” she said firmly.

As they drove home, Faye cried while Miku and Minako both seethed. Once they got there, Miku pulled both girls out of the car and led them into the house. As soon as she was past the doorway, Miku yelled, “Mom? Your daughters have a serious problem!”

Natsu hurried towards the entryway. “What is it, what happened?” she asked, worried as she got there. “Where's Yuu?” she asked when she realized he wasn't with them. “Yuu is finding his own way back, although really you shouldn't let him in the door when he gets here,” Miku growled.

“What happened?” Natsu asked, before gasping in realization. Miku carried on, not realizing what the gasp meant. “I caught Faye kissing Yuu. And on top of that, both Faye and Minako admitted that they've been having sex with him!”

Natsu sighed and looked at her girls. “Didn't I ask you two to be on your best behavior?”

Confusion filled Miku's thoughts as she tried to sort them out. “Are... you saying that you knew about this?” she asked, incredulously. “Well, um...” Natsu started, before Minako interrupted her.

“Knows about it? I'm the main one that got her involved!” Minako retorted. “So all of you are...?” Miku started, incredulous. “Look,” Minako said, trembling. “Blame it all on me, this is all my fault. I started it. And I wanted to try to gauge your reaction. I'm trying to control how angry I am at how you've reacted right now. But I couldn't stand keeping it a secret from you. Because I want you to feel...”

Everything Minako had said had passed Miku without her hearing, as she interrupted. “Is Rika a part of this?” she asked Natsu, darkly. “What?” Natsu asked, dumbfounded. “IS RIKA A PART OF THIS?!” Miku shouted. “No, of course not, she doesn't even know!” Natsu answered hastily. “How could you ever accuse me of letting something like that happen to her?” she continued, as she started to get defensive.

“... I'll be back to pick up Natsumi tomorrow,” Miku said, coldly, before turning around and leaving, slamming the front door behind her.

---

Yuu and Valen walked in the front door. When they made it to the living room, they found Natsu, Faye, and Minako all sitting in there, dejected. Natsu looked up. “How'd you get home, honey?” “We called Mark for a ride,” he answered. “Where's Miku?”

“She stormed off when she found out Mom was sleeping with you too,” Minako said. “We have no idea where.”

“That's it, I'm probably never going to Miku or Natsumi again...” Natsu muttered. “It's a miracle they even came to visit at all. I really have been a terrible mother.”

Yuu's chest ached as he heard this. As the despair in the room began to consume him, his mind suddenly hit on an idea. “Mom, I'm taking your car. I'll go find Miku and make things right,” he said before running to the garage. As he opened the door and started up the car, he unlocked his phone and opened the Find My Friends app.

---

Yuu was able to use his phone to track Miku down to a hotel just outside of the downtown area. Luckily for him, this part of the building had only two floors, so once he was as close as he could get to Miku's phone, he had a fifty-fifty chance of getting the right door.

Yuu cautiously knocked on the bottom floor hotel door. Several seconds later he heard Miku shout from the other side, “Go away!” “Miku, could we please just talk? I don't want to shout through this door. I'm... tired of all the shouting,” Yuu yelled, losing energy with each word in the last sentence. There was no answer.

Yuu turned his back to the wall next to the door and sunk to the floor. “Is everything just too broken to fix?” he asked no one in particular. Yuu didn't keep track of how long he sat there before the door opened. He looked up at Miku in the doorway. Her face was stoic and angry, but he could see from her eyes that she had been crying. He pulled himself off the floor as she disappeared back into the room, catching the door and letting himself in before the door clicked shut. Miku silently sat down on one corner of foot of the bed, refusing to look directly at Yuu, who sat down on the opposite corner at the foot.

Yuu took a deep breath. “I want to explain... I want to explain everything that's happened recently. I want you to understand. I... don't want you to hate me. But if I'm going to open up to you, I also need you to open up to me. I can't... I can't do anything to help if you keep burying everything.”

“You remember how clingy Minako used to be with me, back when we were younger. As she grew up, that behavior developed into... well, I guess it could be described as flirting, though that really doesn't drive home just how un-subtle it was. Everyone, including me, just kind of saw it as a younger sister teasing her brother, and discovering she has something new to tease him with.”

“I wasn't lying about myself and Valen; back at the beginning of summer, she reminded me that I had promised to marry her when we grew up, and she was going to hold me to it. When Minako found out about it... she was devastated.”

“At some point after this all started, Minako confessed to me that she's been in love with me since Mom and Dad got divorced. And when Faye told Minako that she wanted to be happy for me and Valen, but just felt empty inside; whatever it is Minako told Faye, she realized she was in love with me too. Confronted by their feelings, I couldn't not reciprocate. Deep in my heart, my feelings answered theirs. They went and begged Valen to share, and she relented.”

“Minako described the feeling of finally having her feelings returned to be like having fireworks going off in her heart, and she wanted to share them with everybody she cared about. When she found out that, prior to all this, I had a longstanding crush on our cousin Naomi, she decided to share my feelings with her. They ended up being returned.”

“So it goes further than I thought,” Miku said blankly.

Yuu looked briefly at Miku with hurt in his eyes, before continuing.

“I'm sure you remember how Mom started getting drunk each year on her birthday. Since you've left, it's been getting steadily worse. After everything that had happened, Minako had the idea of bringing Mom in on this. She probably reasoned that if Mom could just feel the same way she did, then everything would get better. It seems like she was right. Minako planted the idea in Mom's head, and eventually convinced her. Since then, Mom's depressive episodes have essentially vanished.”

“Then finally, you know how Aunt Ayaka is, you can't keep secrets from her and she refused to be left out of something so kinky. She doesn't seem to have any emotional attachment, though I wish she would.”

There was a long pause. “Now it's your turn. I need you to talk to me. Please.”

After another long pause, Miku started with a sad half-laugh. “I wonder if you crave these relationships as a coping mechanism for dealing with our family breaking up. Even if it was just Dad who went away. Clearly we all had our own coping mechanisms. Rika might be the only one of us who wasn't traumatized by it.”

"You went away too," Yuu said, sadly.

"Yeah, I guess so. My coping mechanism was to try to and make my own family. There was this cute boy I went to school with, about two years older. I thought it was love. Mom and Dad had been too busy to give me more than just a cursory version of 'the talk', and they hadn't been a healthy example of a loving relationship for a couple of years. When I think about it, I'm kind of surprised Rika was even born. But I digress.”

“When he found out I was pregnant, the boy vanished. He avoided me at school, he wouldn't return my calls; his parents finally blocked our number. So there I was, a kid with a kid on the way, and the father was long gone. To say Mom was upset would be an understatement.”

“Still, I muddled through as best I could. When I first held Natsumi in my arms, I couldn't bring myself to regret the way things had turned out.”

“Grandma Meg is the one who suggested I try to graduate early. She told me that was the reason she had decided to graduate early; she had Mom and Ayaka to care for, and that a university curriculum is much more manageable for single mothers than a high school one. She also mentioned that she'd given that advice to Mom, but Mom didn't take it since Dad was still in the picture, and she didn't want to leave him behind.”

“So, I busted my ass off studying, and managed to test out of high school three years early. The party grandma threw in celebration... It might have just been me, but Mom seemed to be the only one there who wasn't happy. After things wrapped up and everyone had gone home... I honestly don't remember who made the first snide comment, we had already fought so many times already. What I do remember is when Mom called Natsumi...” Miku started to choke up. “... my precious little girl... a mistake.” Yuu felt sick in the pit of his stomach. “She quickly corrected herself, but the damage was done. Especially with the realization that came with it. Mom was the same age when she had me. More than what it said about Natsumi, that statement told me what Mom thinks about me. I was a mistake.” With this, Miku broke down crying. Yuu reached over and held her as she cried herself out, not for the first time in the night.

When Miku finished, Yuu searched for what he could say to help. “I don't believe Mom thinks you were a mistake. I know I'm glad to have you as a sister. I get that there's nothing I can say that will help with Mom, but I can speak for the rest of us.”

“Please don't be angry with Minako or Faye over the way their relationship with me has changed. Or Mom. This is just... where our hearts ended up going. It's certainly not something I ever expected. You don't have to be my lover for me to want you to still be my sister.”

Miku straightened up and looked at Yuu. “What if... that's what I want?” Yuu looked surprised. “I've... always been kind of jealous of Faye's relationship with you. When you were born, she didn't want to play with me as much anymore; she always wanted to dote on you. When I found out what was going on, obviously I was shocked, and there's all the years of social conditioning to see it as wrong. But the real reason I was as upset as I was is because it seemed like you'd all found a way to... shut me out or something. I admit that I thought you were using Valen as a cover. And finding out Mom was a part of it... it just felt like everyone had decided to move on and start a new family without me.”

“Of course not, we never...” “I know, I know. Now that you've explained it, it's impossible not to notice the roots of how Faye and Minako feel about you now. Like I said, I've always been jealous of Faye's relationship with you. I... I want to feel the same way she does.” Miku hesitated for a moment before leaning over to kiss Yuu. “If you're sure,” Yuu said when the kiss ended. “I don't want you to regret this and then lose you forever.”

Miku nodded and gently said, “I'm sure,” before moving in for another kiss.

Next Entry: Monday, September 5^th, 2016
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