AnimeCon Harem 9: 9 pt 6 (Patreon)

“That’s—is that—is that me?!” Stephanie clutched at Brian in shock.

Through the scuffed glass of the newspaper stand, an issue of the Sunday Morning Gazette tucked into the display front featured an enormous cover picture of a young woman with brilliant pink hair and an all-too-familiar gijinka dress crouched down in front of the adorable little Cassie in her little Embrin getup. Cosplayers Flock to AnimeCon, the title read in bold lettering. It had been startling enough for Stephanie to see herself in the mirror with her bright new hair color the past two mornings—seeing herself from behind and featured in a newspaper of all things was jarring and surreal.

I can’t believe it, Stephanie thought, more than slightly stunned. That’s me. That’s ME, on the front page!

“It really came out great,” Brian praised, wrapping his arms around her. “Proud of you. Just look at that little girl’s expression—s’like she thought you were an angel that swooped in just to save her day.”

“Oh my God,” Stephane sighed in breathless excitement. “I can’t believe it. Cassie! Her name was Cassie. Look at how cute she is! Just look at her!”

“Look at how cute you are,” Brian chuckled. “The Stephanie that saved AnimeCon! My Sunshine. The angel of conscience that sits on my one shoulder and helps balance out all of Kell’s terrible wickedness.”

“I-I’m not,” Stephanie blushed. “I’m not really much of an angel…”

“That’s okay, too,” Brian said, gently taking her by the cheek and pulling her in for a kiss.

Bright pink sparks flew and metaphysical embers tumbled through the air as their lips met, because Stephanie could feel how proud of her Brian was, and it was one of the more heady concoctions of emotional accelerants he could pour into her fire. Stephanie let out a low hum of satisfaction and flicked her tongue inside his mouth to tease against his. Her body all but wriggled at the sensations he was fueling, and she rose up on her tiptoes to press in hungrily for more.

They were both grinning at each other as they disengaged, and they simply smiled, studying each other’s eyes for a few moments before Brian let out a slow sigh.

“We need to head inside—you’re making me want to do... unspeakable things to you, and I didn’t think to wear my dancer’s belt with these gym shorts.”

“You’re… oh!” Stephanie looked down between them. “S-sorry, I…”

While he wasn’t fully erect, she could definitely discern a rather telltale bulge had begun to grow there, and she couldn’t help but blink at it in fascination. The shape wasn’t standing out quite enough to be protruding, but it was definitely there, deforming the cloth outwards like he’d stepped out for the morning run with something weighty there in a front pocket. Her interest became so palpable that her hand tingled with anticipation, and she only managed to restrain her compulsion to reach out and touch it with some difficulty.

“I’ll, uh,” Brian seemed to notice her distracted gaze, “I’ll see if I can get some cash back on whatever we order so I can get a couple copies of the Gazette.

“Um,” Stephanie spoke up quickly. “You, you make me so wet. It-it’s not just you that gets um, it, it—this really gets to me, too. I just wanted to know…”

“Hey, hey, it’s not a contest,” Brian chuckled, planting another quick kiss on her. And then another.

“I-I know!” Stephanie sputtered, trying to chase after his retreating lips for more both times. “But, if it was... what would losing mean? Exactly?”

“What would winning mean?” Brian countered playfully.

“Um…” Stephanie murmured, wetting her lips.

The small enclosure between the diner’s two sets of double-doors where they stood seemed to heat up substantially, and Stephanie’s thoughts were blistering with pink. Through the scarcely-explored mysteries of her charm power, she could feel Brian’s attraction for her coloring with something more vibrant—he was getting really, really turned on. Having already been feeling incredibly horny herself, experiencing the additional feedback was enough to drive her absolutely crazy, it was making the temperature of her internalized fire spike in dangerous ways. All at once, the air between them became so thick with sexual tension that it was difficult for Stephanie to breath, and she realized it would soon become a serious battle for them to maintain any pretense of propriety while they were in public like this.

We’re so ready, Stephanie decided, squirming from one foot to the other as she felt herself continue to lubricate with desire. It’s time. When we get back—when we get back to the room, it’s time. Sex. We’re doing it. We’re having sex.

Thoughts of them frantically undressing each other while caught up in the throes of a passionate french-kiss licked through her mind. Stephanie longed to open her naked thighs to reveal a glistening welcome of arousal for him, she ached to have Brian push inside of her, to experience the untold pleasure of finally joining together with him. The romance of the experience beckoned to her, she wanted him to take her, to claim her, to make sweet, luxuriant love to her. But, at the same time she was also feverish for more—she wanted fucked, they needed to fuck like rabbits, her legs were shaking with the sheer need to celebrate the arrival of their long-awaited big moment. Breathing heavily but not quite panting yet, Stephanie bit her lip and fought the urge to start fanning herself. Yes, she decided she needed fucked with the sort of wanton physical enthusiasm that blazed well past naive, intimate affection and exploded all the way into lustful abandon.

“Let’s... order our food and hurry back,” Brian proposed with difficulty, unable to tear his eyes away from her hungry gaze.

“Yes!” Stephanie agreed, nodding furiously. “Yes, yes. Yes. Yes, please!”

Clasping hands once again, they pushed through the doors into the diner in a rush, filled with excitement that Stephanie felt came from a mutual understanding of unexpectedly stimulating nature.

“Hi!” A bubbly blonde hostess greeted them with a smile. “Will you two be dining in, or—”

“Order for takeout, please,” Brian said, already pulling out his debit card. “Four breakfast platters, three coffees, two hot cocoas. If you could make one of the coffees...”

* * *

“That is not okay,” Chloe growled as she angrily thrashed a borrowed brush through her hair. “It’s actually completely unacceptable, and I don’t see how you of all people would ever think that that is okay.”

“I disagree, Chloe!” Rebecca chimed in her sing-song voice, pulling her own tangle of auburn hair up out of the neck of her garment as she donned her outer tunic again.

Morning had arrived, and after sleeping in several luxuriant hours longer than normal, the three young women in Sheriott hotel’s room 502 were all up and about to enjoy the new day with varying degrees of optimism. After her first enormous yawn and stretch of her arms and a good morning, everyone, Rebecca climbed up off the floor and immediately started tidying up her little sleeping area. Unfortunately for her, Chloe seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed and was still in one of her moods.

“You disagree,” Chloe repeated in disbelief, tossing the brush back towards Rebecca’s things and crossing her arms. “Rebecca. There is no room to disagree here. Fur? Fur that was torn from the back of a living, breathing animal? It’s fucking barbaric, it immediately tells me that obviously must have no respect for—”

“Chloe silly, we as a civilization are responsible for white-tailed deer now having a lack of natural predators!” Rebecca explained as she carefully rolled her fur camping pad as tightly as possible so that the leather buckle would close. “That makes us responsible for managing their populations, so that—”

“Oh, managing their populations, is that what you call murder, now?” Chloe mocked. “That just justifies it all up for you? That justifies murdering innocent creatures?”

“—so that they don’t completely strip the foliage from their environments, which directly harms other species who rely on that undergrowth for food or protection from their predators!” Rebecca continued without pausing at the rude interruption.

“I think I’ve lost all respect for you, Rebecca,” Chloe scowled. “Parading around with the fur of harmless animals. You should honestly be ashamed of yourself. You know that hunters killing them for sport is wrong—that wearing fur is murder.”

“I don’t think it’s wrong at all!” Rebecca said in her sleepy voice, more than a hint of Mara creeping into her smile as she gave the neatly tucked fur that made up part of her bedroll a friendly pat. “Killing is also the natural way of things.”

“...You’re joking.” Chloe’s expression faltered. “You have to be joking.”

“I took this one bow hunting with my Uncle when I was sixteen,” Rebecca remembered. “I drank a cup of its blood! My Uncle did most of the skinning—because we wanted it in its best shape—but I fleshed the hide, salted, tanned, and stretched the buckskin myself. I’m proud of how this turned out. We ate all the meat, of course.”

“I… I think I’m going to be sick,” Chloe stared at the bedroll with revulsion. “Rebecca. You slept on that. You slept on a fur made out of dead animal. I’m going to puke.”

“I slept on the linens, silly-willy,” Rebecca crinkled her nose in a cute way at how overdramatic her friend was being. “But, there’s some tummy medicine down in the car if you need it.”

“I think it’s really cool, actually,” Megan spoke up, regarding Rebecca’s medieval camping kit with amazement.

The overweight girl hadn’t budged from her spot sitting up on the bed nearest the window all morning, content to watch the two newcomers as they went about their business.

“Oh, shut up,” Chloe retorted, shooting Megan a look of disgust. “You don’t—”

“Chloe!” Rebecca admonished in the stern voice she learned from her grandmother. “Be nice! I’m sorry, Miss Megan—Chloe’s feeling a little grouchy, this morning!”

“Uh, no—it’s okay,” Megan blinked. “I totally see both sides, and all. I get it. Like, I don’t think I could ever go hunting myself, but it’s obvious you actually respect—”

“There is no both sides,” Chloe snapped. “And there is no respect. Killing things for fun isn’t fucking open for debate, okay? It’s murder.”

“Language, Chloe, oh my goodness!” Rebecca put her hands on her hips. “What’s gotten into you, today?”

“I’m so fucking done with you,” Chloe hissed, gathering up the last of her things and making a beeline for the room’s already open door. “With all of you. With everyone.”

“Chloe—”

With one last dismissive look, Chloe made a face and then whirled on her slender dancer’s legs. The young woman stormed out of the hotel room and yanked the heavy door to slam closed loudly behind her. The awkward silence she left behind was frustrating, and Rebecca could only sigh for a moment and then shoot an apologetic look back towards Megan.

“Megan—I’m so sorry!” Rebecca lowered her head. “She’s... going through a lot right now, and I’m sure she’s just feeling a little sensitive about certain things. I’m sure she didn’t mean to be rude to you, and I know we’ve been just the worst guests, but—”

“No, no!” Megan quickly stood up. “It’s—you guys are totally fine, it’s been cool. Some of the things she said last night. Um. I probably... did smell really bad. Was it bad? Now I’m, like, worried that when Stephie—”

“Stephanie’s your friend, and she loves you no matter what,” Rebecca insisted, pulling on her sword belt and adjusting it to cinch properly around the waist of her tunic. “Please also just... make sure to wash up as often as you can, we all want you to take good care of yourself!”

“Was I gross?” Megan looked mortified. “Ohmigod, I want to die. You even got in the shower with me… was I totally gross? Oh my God…”

“You’re not gross,” Rebecca reassured the girl, crossing the room to give her what seemed like a much-needed hug. Megan was a bigger girl, but Rebecca didn’t find anything off-putting about that, it just meant she had a big plush body to squeeze. “You’re a lovely young woman with a huge heart who took total strangers into your care when you didn’t have to. Even when we made a big fuss in the hall last night, and Chloe was being a big meanie to you the whole time! Megan, I couldn’t ask for a better friend than you. I’m very glad to have met you.”

“You’re, um, you’re the coolest person I’ve ever met ever,” Megan said in a breathless voice.

“That’s sweet of you to say,” Rebecca said, releasing Megan from the tight embrace. “I need to go try to catch up to Chloe and make sure she’s okay. I’ll see you at the convention, maybe?”

“Actually, would it be cool if I tagged along?” Megan asked. “Since we’re going the same way, and everything…”

“Of course you can!” Rebecca smiled. “Is it okay if we stop by to check on Emily and Stephanie on the way?”

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/// We're about halfway through Part 9 with this! Love that we're finally getting a somewhat even distribution of POVs, hopefully it's not too annoying for readers to be switching so often.