Upside Down

It is right at 5:30 when Honoka taps on the door, asking if she can come in and talk for a few minutes. After Honoka comes in, she sits down in the desk chair. She"s blushing slightly and is fidgety. Plus, she doesn"t seem to notice that she"s showing us her panties.

"Honoka, the panties you"re wearing are really cute, but you really should work on your awareness. Ankles crossed and knees together please." Chinatsu tells her with a smile.

She blushes a deep red, crosses her ankles, and closes her knees, while muttering, "Sorry."

"Honoka, it"ll just take time. I"d probably still be doing the same thing if not for Airi." I tell her gently.

I have to say, I"m proud of Honoka. She"s still dressed in what we chose for her this morning. Stockings and all. Hair neatly brushed and pinned in place. I believe this might be the right hairstyle for her. Although, now that I think about it, when we go Sunday morning to get ours done for the party, it wouldn"t hurt to ask a stylist about it as well. Being even cuter never hurts, does it?

Which reminds me, I need to take her shopping. She doesn"t have a dress for the party.

"Honoka, remind me we need to buy you a dress for Sunday. Also I need to talk to Dad about you." When she looks startled. I smile and shake my head. "No, it"s nothing bad, but I was thinking that you being merely our friend won"t play well since you live with us. How would you feel about being our cousin? Kind of feels as if you"re more like our family anyway. I"d like to get that settled soon, so we can introduce you properly when we"re out."

"If you think it"s a good idea to do so, I have no objection."

"Good I"ll bring it up with Dad later. We can look online later for dress ideas for you before we go shopping."

Hmm… Maybe we can ask Mitty to join us as an escort then, even if I have to buy him a tuxedo it"ll be worth it as far as I"m concerned. I"ll have to remember to ask Dad if it would be alright for me to ask Mitty.

Now, don"t ask me why because you should be able to guess well enough, but Mitty and Honoka together in the same thought made two other connections in my overactive little mind.

"Honoka, I know you said you were sterile the other day, but do you want children?"

"I"ve never given it any thought since I was twelve, when they told me I was sterile. Why?"

"You heard what Mitty said yesterday. My parents found a solution. Do me a favor and think about if you want children. If you decide you do, let me know. I"ll do everything I can to help you so you can have them. I would have to ask Dad to be sure, but since Akiyama"s in jail he can"t run the company, which should make me, the next largest shareholder, the acting CEO. I think. That means we could see if their solution would help you."

"Sora, thank you, but I"d never be able to afford that."

I look at Chinatsu. "Chinatsu, did I mention money?" She responds by shaking her head while grinning and I look back at Honoka. "Money isn"t an issue, I already have far more than I need. What I have is a good friend of mine that I might be able to help and I"d love to do it for her if she"ll let me. So, think about it please."

She nods in reply. It also brings up Mayumi and I know for a fact she wants children. If Dad tells me what I think he will, I"ll definitely be asking her. I"m quite hopeful I"ll be having a conversation with her about it soon.

"Anyway, you wanted to talk about something Honoka?" I ask.

"More of a question than a talk, but are you taking a walk this evening?" She asks with a hopeful expression. I"m not sure I"m really up for it, but with that look, how can I say no?

"You want to take a walk with Mitty again?"

She simply nods with a bashful smile.

Sighing quietly, I then whisper to Chinatsu, "You"ll have to help me."

She nods and whispers back, "I don"t mind at all."

Shifting my attention to Honoka, I tell her, "Sure, why don"t we do that. We"ll have to take it slow and easy though. I"m still tired, even if I"m no longer sore. Do you want me to call Mitty to invite him?"

"Please, I would be too nervous to ask him to come, but I want to see him." Someone has it bad, don"t they? Not that I am complaining, if it were Chinatsu and I, I"d feel the same about wanting to see her.

"Alright, I don"t mind at all. Would you hand me my phone please?"

She nods and hands my phone to me. Unlocking it, I dial Mitty and wait for him to answer.

"Hey, Sora. To what do I owe the honor of this call?" He asks.

"Nothing all that important. Umm, are you busy this evening?"

"There"s nothing I can"t put off if I need to do it, why?" He asks curiously.

"Well, the thing is, you know I have to build back up my strength. I started PT today which is great, but I still want to do more. I was thinking of taking walks in the evenings when it"s cooler, but you know how Dad is. He would say Honoka isn"t enough to watch the both of us while we did that. Dad is still playing catch up with his work after everything that happened to me. So, I thought, if you don"t mind…"

Notice it? I never lied once. I do want to do more so I get stronger faster. I had already mentioned about evening walks, different reason, but still not a lie. Dad did say that Honoka wasn"t enough and he is playing catch up at work. Not one real lie. If I had tried to do so, I would have stumbled all over myself when talking. I believe I mentioned that I"m a horrible liar.

He doesn"t even let me finish what I was saying before he jumps in and tells me, "I"d be happy to. I can"t very well let anything happen to my nieces, now can I?"

"Nieces?" I ask because as far as I know, we aren"t related.

"Of course, Eiji is like my brother, so that makes you my nieces."

I giggle and say, "Thank you Uncle Mitty." Chinatsu looks at me with a confused expression and mouths "Uncle?" I shrug in reply. "You brought this on yourself then. We"ll see you at 8 Uncle Mitty. Bye."

Ending the call, I hand my phone back to Honoka. "There. That was easy enough."

She gives me a beatific smile and says, "Thank you." I"m quite sure I told you about her smile.

Mama pokes her head into the open door. "Oh, good, you"re up already. Do you feel up to helping me with dinner? I need to talk to you and Chinatsu as well."

"Sure Mama, I"d be happy to help. Let me get dressed and we"ll be right down." Mama nods and disappears as quickly as she appeared.

"I"ll excuse myself then." Honoka says as she gets up to leave, closing the door behind her.

◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

After we eat and clean everything up, Mama asks us to come over to her.

"Girls, I hate to say this, but Chinatsu has to go back to school tomorrow."

Her statement shocks me, so it took a few moments for me to reply, "Why? You said you wouldn"t separate us."

"Sora, I know I did, but that was before. You"re doing so much better now. If Chinatsu keeps missing school they"ll make her retake the year. She"s not like you where you can simply test out of the year."

"Chinatsu"s smart, she just doesn"t put all of her effort into her grades. I can tutor her."

"Sorry, Sora, but no. I could justify keeping her out for you up to now. It would have been too hard on you otherwise, but as I said, you"re doing so much better now sweetheart."

"Mama, please don"t do this." I plead with her.

"Look, I know you two would spend every second with each other if you could. I"d do the same with your father, but life doesn"t work that way. I want you both to be happy, but there will be times where you have to be apart. This is one of those things you are going to have to learn to deal with."

She lifts my chin. "It won"t be too long before you"re strong enough to go back to school with your sister. Your father has already talked to the school and they agreed that they would place you two in the same cla.s.s. Until that time, it"ll only be a few hours a day that you"re apart. It wasn"t that long ago this happened every night and you two weren"t in the same cla.s.s either."

No matter how much I want to deny it, she"s right and I know that. I"m obstinate, not stupid. There aren"t many parents that would take their daughter out of school for their newly adopted daughter"s sake. Also, I can see they went farther than they had to for us when it came to me going back to school. Suck it up Sora, you"ve survived a h.e.l.l of a lot worse. Think of this as a step toward becoming a stronger person.

"I know Mama, it doesn"t mean I have to like it though. I"ve gotten used to Chinatsu being here for me. I don"t even know if I can sleep alone anymore. I suppose I"ll find out tomorrow when I try to take a nap."

"Well, there"s one small bit of good news. Watching you today in PT told me you"re not as fragile as I thought. Don"t go overboard, but I"m lifting your ban on s.e.x."

Yes, I think we all know this is a bribe. She"s probably hoping this will make Chinatsu"s going back to school a lot easier for me to accept. Even so, in my head, I see a huge stadium crowd, standing and cheering. Glancing at Chinatsu tells me she"s pretty much having the reaction as I am. I know who I"m having for dessert.

Sorry Honoka, this walk will be a bit shorter than yesterday.

"Thank you." Chinatsu and I tell her.

Now for the next item on the checklist. Talking to Dad about Honoka. On the way by the table, I grab Honoka"s hand and drag her along with us into the living room where Dad is.

After we seat ourselves, I turn to Dad, "Dad, we need to talk to you about something for a minute."

He mutes the TV and looks at me. "What can I do for you girls?"

"It"s about Honoka. I don"t think she should be introduced as our friend since she lives with us. I think she should be family from outside Tokyo. A cousin or something. It seems more believable."

"I hadn"t thought of that aspect, but yes, it does make sense." He grins as he looks at Honoka. "How about it? Would you like to be a cousin?"

"Now that it"s been said it does make sense. People generally don"t take in friends of their children. Of course, a cousin is a different matter, so yes, why don"t we go with that."

"Good. Now that that"s settled. I need to take Honoka shopping tomorrow. She"ll be attending the party with us Sunday and I need to get a dress for her to wear."

"No problem. Have fun." He tells us.

"Umm, Dad. Would it be okay if I invite Mitty to the party as well?" I glance at Honoka, whose eyes widen in surprise, then back to Dad. Thankfully, he catches on to why I"m asking without me having to explain.

The grin he gives me could rival the Cheshire cats. "Sure, it"ll be a lot more enjoyable that way."

Standing, I hug him and whisper. "Thanks Daddy. Oh, by the way, he"ll be here shortly to watch over us with Honoka again when we take a walk. I told him you"re playing catch-up with work."

"No problem, but don"t over do it. I know you had PT today. I don"t want you to hurt yourself."

"Okay, promise. Not that my nanites wouldn"t fix whatever was wrong." I look at Honoka and tell her, "We"ll be down when Mitty arrives."

We walk for about half an hour. I feel bad for doing it to her and I promise myself I"ll make it up to her, because I do wind up cutting it short. I manage to make up for it at least a little bit, though, by getting "Uncle Mitty" to agree to come every evening for a walk with us, duty and weather permitting, of course.

I also ask our Uncle Mitty if he is free Sunday evening, which he is, so I invite him along, which he readily accepts. I make sure he has a tuxedo to wear and then leave them alone. I"ll have to make sure I pick out an enticing little dress for her to wear on Sunday.

Back in my room, Chinatsu locks the door, then she states, "Get undressed, now, or I"ll do it for you, your choice." That leaves me so tickled, all I can do is laugh. When she makes good on her threat and undresses me, it only makes me laugh that much harder. Tonight is wonderful. Slow, gentle, sweet and oh so satisfying. Last time was like being thrown off of a cliff into an o.r.g.a.s.m. Tonight is all about small steps while being gently led toward an o.r.g.a.s.m. It might take a while to get there, but when you do… Wow!