All the Waters Under Heaven to One Place (3)
"If we're doing this... we really ought to look around properly, shouldn't we? It would only be polite."
"Well... they've gone to all this trouble for us. We can hardly do otherwise."
In all honesty, the two of them had meant to browse just enough to settle on something they liked and leave it at that. But with a private appointment laid out for them on this scale, finishing their business in thirty minutes and sweeping straight out the door would have felt a little shabby. It hadn't been in the plan, yet now that things had come to this, there was nothing for it but to try on a small mountain of swimsuits, as if they were shooting a lookbook. If they failed to look properly pleased, the staff would be left distinctly uneasy, wondering whether they had done something wrong and soured the mood of the VIP their young lady had so fervently entrusted to them.
"...Does it look strange?"
The fitting-room curtain drew back, and Seoyeon stepped out wearing an awkward expression. It was a black bikini with nothing particularly unusual about it, and yet across every stretch of skin the black cloth left bare, the clean lines of muscle stood out in sharp relief. The outfit was hardly so different from underwear, but Seoyeon felt a peculiar flush of embarrassment all the same.
If she had to name the cause, it was probably that underwear had grown too familiar. Ever since the weather turned hot, it was no rare thing for the two of them to tumble around the bedroom in nothing but their underthings. So this, she decided, was something like stepping out before your lover in a special set of lingerie you didn't ordinarily wear. That was how she chose to define the restless, unsettled feeling.
"You're beautiful, Shion! Truly!"
"I don't think it warrants quite that strong a reaction..."
Hitomi was lavishing her with praise, practically puffing with excitement. At the sight of it, Seoyeon scratched her cheek and offered a sheepish, awkward smile.
"There you go again. I really think you could stand to have a little more confidence."
"This isn't a matter of my confidence so much as a matter of your tastes being unusual, wouldn't you say?"
Han Seoyeon was the sort of person who stirred a primal fear in Homo sapiens sapiens simply by entering their field of view. Her very soul was sodden, down to the root, with blood and death, so while someone might grow used to her through long exposure, letting that familiarity ripen into romantic feeling was anything but easy. It followed the same logic as the hair rising on your arms near a ghost thick with yin — not a sensation willpower could simply press down.
"Maybe I developed an immunity when I became a vampire?"
"Have you forgotten who my adoptive father is?"
"Ah..."
Fair enough. Even if not to the same degree as a human's, a vampire's blood was bound to be smeared all over her as well. She had been half human to begin with, and even after she gained vampiric traits, the feeling Seoyeon gave off didn't seem to have changed in any great way.
"It's rather late to be asking, I know... but are you all right with it, Hitomi?"
Hitomi considered that for a moment before she answered.
"I suppose it's because I've come to think of even this sensation as a part of you, Shion. I can feel you in it. There's no way I could dislike it."
"...As I thought. Your tastes really are quite strange, Hitomi."
Seoyeon murmured it as Hitomi came in and pressed herself softly against her chest. The smile at the corner of her mouth was faint to the point of vanishing, but it made plain enough that she was thoroughly pleased.
As a side note, the reason Seoyeon's expression stayed perfectly readable even in the middle of that embrace was that Hitomi was, by the simple architecture of her body, incapable of burying her face in someone's chest when she hugged them from the front. A full head's worth of space sat between their torsos — her own chest saw to that — so she had no need to tip her chin up. A slight lift of the eyes was enough to take in the other woman's face in full.
Presently Hitomi traced a finger lightly along the valley of Seoyeon's chest, then spoke again.
"Besides, in photos and on video you come across as a perfectly ordinary beauty, you know? Well... the eyes might split opinion a little, depending on who you ask. But we aren't even talking about your face. We're talking about your figure, and not being able to own it is a plain lack of confidence! Have you forgotten the time you wore that dress and I asked if I could lick your back muscles just once? Shall I put it into practice right here?"
"No, what I mean is... I trained hard for this body, and I'm aware it earns a reasonably favorable assessment on aesthetic grounds. But that's a separate matter from feminine charm, isn't it?"
"Oh... is that so?"
At the explanation that followed, Hitomi smiled brightly, then took a couple of steps back and opened some distance between them. Fortunately, she seemed to have understood what Han Seoyeon was trying to say. Thinking so, Seoyeon turned to face her and began to smile—
"Pink."
"...Pardon?"
A word with no connection whatsoever to the conversation had just appeared, and Han Seoyeon echoed it back before she could stop herself, in a thoroughly vacant voice. Hitomi, however, went on smiling as gently as ever.
"Your outfit for the day is decided. A pink bikini."
"No, wait a moment. Hitomi? You can't just suddenly say—"
"A bikini with frills."
"H-Hitomi?!"
"Every time you object, I'm adding one more detail."
A cold sweat trickled down the nape of Han Seoyeon's neck. Hitomi could endure being insulted herself, but she could not endure Seoyeon taking an insult — Seoyeon knew that perfectly well. She simply had not expected the rule to hold even when the one doing the insulting was Han Seoyeon herself.
"So, what will it be? I'll let you choose the next addition from one of two options: a cute little cat print, or tying your hair up in twin tails."
"......"
"From a glance, it looks like Lady Yuri stocked an entire floor with swimsuits. At that rate, no matter how many conditions pile on, there's bound to be at least one that qualifies, don't you think?"
"I-I'll wear it..."
And so, in the end, Han Seoyeon purchased a pale-pink frilled bikini with her own two hands.
Choosing Han Seoyeon's swimsuit had ended far sooner than either of them first expected — one party having picked it unilaterally, with no consultation at all — and so most of the shopping went to choosing Hitomi's.
"All the better..."
For Han Seoyeon, it was nothing short of a thoroughly satisfying stretch of time. The humiliation waiting in the not-so-distant future? Who cared. Right now her lovely wife was putting on a swimsuit fashion show just for her. She resolved to foist that problem on the Han Seoyeon of tomorrow and enjoy the present, and because Seoyeon was enjoying herself so openly, Hitomi seemed to catch the spirit of it as well, changing from one suit to the next and having a wonderful time.
Hitomi tried on all sorts of swimsuits, but under the terms of her contract with the demon anything that wasn't a bikini was meaningless, so the rest was purely for Seoyeon's eyes. Having tried on so many, buying a single one and leaving felt a little thin — perhaps she ought to take a few? She privately entertained the thought. This trip would, of course, be her first and last time at the sea this year, and who knew when they might next have the chance to go somewhere like it... Still, there was no reason she couldn't wear them for play, in the bathroom or somewhere of the sort. Hitomi blushed faintly as she indulged that particular fantasy where Seoyeon couldn't see. Come to think of it, they had already acquired a wedding dress reserved exclusively for nighttime activities. There was no rule against doing a thing like that twice.
"Shion. Come over here for a moment..."
"Yes? Ah — yes. Of course."
Which is to say, the thought had simply slipped into her head, and she had grown a little impulsive.
Hitomi drew a light breath, then parted the curtain only far enough that someone standing directly in front of it could see. What she had smuggled in and changed into behind Seoyeon's back was a swimsuit no one of ordinary nerve would even consider parading in front of other people — the sort commonly called a slingshot.
"..."
"..."
If there was any mercy in it, it was this: the top was daring enough on its own, but the bottom's degree of exposure was no joke, and looking down from this close, the chest hid most of it from view. Of course, whether the number was one hundred or two hundred hardly mattered. The dizziness was already well within the margin of error.
Neither could have said who fell silent first. A delicate atmosphere settled between them, and Hitomi awkwardly looked away. At last, unable to bear it any longer, Seoyeon yanked the fitting-room curtain shut again.
"Sh-Shion? Why are you coming in...?"
"Shh. Let's keep our voices down."
...Because she had stepped inside the fitting room.
While Hitomi flustered, Seoyeon fixed her with a gaze so intense it carried a faint edge of killing intent. Then she closed the distance in a few long strides and seized both of Hitomi's shoulders — no. What she took, one in each hand, were the straps resting over those shoulders.
"S-Shion?!"
"They're meant to be pulled aside, aren't they? And you were the one who started the tempting, Hitomi."
"No, but here of all— nngh?!"
...Needless to say, both of them were later summoned by Hyakurenno Yuri and given a thorough scolding. Strictly speaking Hitomi was the victim, so being dressed down alongside her might have been a little unfair — but partway through she had quite clearly gone on the offensive herself, and a finding of mutual fault would have been perfectly reasonable.